Chapter 14 Wulf
There are no faces more familiar than your family
There’s no food like your mother’s cooking
There’s no better comfort than your own bed
Alas, there’s no place like home.
Lokamesh, Father of Mortal Kind.
I leave everything and run toward Wulf's room, I have to make sure he's ok. The stomping behind me tells me that Kolag is following suit, and I assume Lezere does the same.
I don’t need to reach Wulf’s room, I find him in the hallway. He’s armed with a rapier, desperately defending himself from three armored assailants. He escapes their swings and keeps distancing himself in order not to let himself get surrounded from three sides.
“Wulf!” I call out in panic as I run toward him.
Lezere's arrow wheezes past me and hits one of the assailant's heads, the arrow bounces off the gleaming metal helmet.
“Ritsa!”
I know that if their iron touches me, I'd be incapable of magic. In other words, I can’t get any closer. I stop and rack my brain, what kind of spell would be effective here?! ‘Kinetic Burst’? I can't touch them. ‘Repulse’ is useless… I'm useless here!
Kolag runs past me charging at the armored group. He waves his bronze sword that might as well be a toothpick against the iron or steel plate armors all three of them wear. One of them separates from the group and meets Kolag head-on, the two are engaged in a violent spar that leaves dents on Kolag’s sword with each blow and parry.
Both of them manage to land hits on one another, but neither causes any damage to the other, they cannot penetrate each other's armor. At least the pressure on my brother is relieved.
“Lak no la’aoko! Ti-a’ark!” Lezere lets out an orcish battle cry as she charges ahead. The second armored man turns to engage her, leaving a single one to fight my brother. Unlike Kolag, Lezere is extremely careful not to get hit and mostly fights defensively.
As for my brother, he only keeps parrying and deflecting his assailant's sword with his rapier over and over.
I have to do something! “Latsa”
Kolag, who sees it coming from his angle, uses the distraction to disarm the man and wrestle the steel sword from his grip. The armored assailant backs off in an attempt to stay out of Kolag's reach.
Kolag charges right at him moving his newly acquired sword behind his back for a horizontal swing. But the swing never comes, instead, Kolag sends a powerful kick to the man's knee.
“Latsa”
“Choke on your fangs!” Lezere retreats with a limp, blood trickling down her leathery pants as she barely parries another hit from her assailant. Her chipped bronze axe isn't the best weapon for such an encounter, even though I can see a few elongated dents in the man's armor, he doesn’t seem to be harmed.
“I don't have fangs you fucking pig!” The man's reply echoes through his helmet.
Lezere is enraged, she charges the armored man, swinging her axe violently causing him to retreat in fright.
Kolag circles Lezere's opponent giving her a chance to retreat and treat her wound, but the half-orc doesn’t retreat, making their fight a two versus one. My brother is still walking backward parrying his assailant's sword again and again in circular motions.
I crash a potted plant at Kolag's and Lezere's opponent, I aim at his visor. While he does manage to block Kolag's newly acquired sword, he think he can ignore Lezere and let her freely strike his back. He pays dearly for that mistake, as the half-orc slashes the tendons behind his knee.
The armored man falls to his knee, his sword clatters on the ground when Kolag stabs his inner wrist. Lezere pulls the man’s helmet off and slices his throat open with her axe biting the air near his ear.
The last of the assailants turns and runs. I move a chair with my mind to block his path of retreat. He stumbles and falls forward lying face down on the bloodied carpet. When he attempts to get up he finds my brother's boot on his back and a rapier near his ear. “Talk! Who sent you?”
“Our dear new stepmother, she's already dead, you can kill him,” I answer in his stead.
My brother heaves a heavy sigh. “Figures…”
A loud crowd of stomping boots and creaking metal approaches. Now the hallway houses a group of armored men, similar to the three men we just fought. They all have our house's crest on their cloaks, a black horse in a red field. Lezere and Kolag lift their weapons ready to fight for their lives.
“My lady…” I recognize the familiar voice and the man leading them. He does not wear a helmet, and his cloak drags on the ground behind him as he sheaths his sword with his left hand.
“Knight Kenrith!” I am surprised the man is still alive, I saw him go down under a pile of soldiers who hacked at him with their axes and spears.
“It's good to see you're alive milady, the lord will be pleased, may I ask what happened to the lord's wife?” He didn’t call her the lady… that’s nice… His face holds confusion. Only now I notice he didn't get out unscathed. Aside from the numerous new scars on his slightly wrinkled face, his right sleeve hangs empty. This man will never swing a sword again, I knew all too well that the sword was his life.
“I killed her, that vile woman had killed my father. I thought about killing the infant too, but the child shouldn't bear the crime of his parent… I don't care what his name was, his name from now on is Vorid zor Vodit. He should bear the name of my dead father.”
The trick with the knights and all the men under my father is to keep giving them orders and act regal. They gladly followed any order I gave them. But if I showed uncertainty they'd fill up the gaps by themselves, and the results would be different than what I wanted.
“These men had tried to assassinate my brother! I want to know where they came from, how did they get that armor, and if there's anyone else standing behind them.” The armless knight gives a questioning look to my brother who nods in return.
Right… I wasn't here for five springs, they no longer take orders from me… and he is the heir…
The realization hurts me more than it should.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Why do I care? I won't be staying here anyway! I only have a week or two...
“Just take this man to the cells for now,” My brother adds in a tired voice. Our small knight order quickly obeys and drags the assailant away, while Kenrith takes his place behind my brother's shoulder.
“It’s good to see you survived shorty.” My brother pats my head ruffling my hair. He’s very different now, he’s a full-grown man. He only had fifteen springs behind him the last time I saw him, and he was only a little taller than me. He used to call me shorty because he hated me for being older, back then it wasn’t a nickname, it was an insult. But right now… right now there’s so much warmth to that little word.
He’s also tall, very tall. It’s odd, I remember him as a baby, seeing him as a full-grown man is a little unsettling. We share the same gray eyes, but his hair is sandy brown like his mother's, not auburn like mine.
“Yeah…” I answer letting out a relieved sigh. “I’m glad you survived too…” He’s alive, now the only one left is… “What about Ariena?”
“I don't know.” my brother admits with a dejected look in his gray eyes. “Father… only ransomed me, I'm sorry.”
Of course, he only ransomed him, he’s the heir… Ariena is less important. From the start she’s only a chess piece, served to be married off to another noble. As for me… I am even less important than Ariena, my blood is tainted, I’m the mistake my lord's father made in his younger days… I was only groomed to manage the fief in the lord’s absence... Did my father love me at all?!
Numerous childhood memories of my father surface. He always cared for me, made sure I had everything, he wasn't a neglecting parent. But in the end, he wasn't willing to pay for me, only for Wulf.
He probably only had the money for one of us… and the decision ate him from the inside… according to Adeline, he spent most of his time in a drunk stupor… that does speak volumes of what he went through…
Why am I protecting him?! He left me out there to be used as… NO! That didn't happen! That time wasn't real! I'm over that time! It’s been a while since someone touched me that way! I'm here now! I'm powerful! It won't happen again!
I shake my head in a desperate attempt to ignore my thoughts.
It doesn’t matter if my father cared for me, he’s dead, and I won't see him again! It doesn’t matter!
The tears in my eyes seem to disagree.
“I'm sorry” my brother repeats awkwardly.
“It's not your fault,” I keep my voice as stable as I can. “I'm just happy you're alive, that someone is alive. I have no idea why father married that stupid woman, but she killed him, and she's dead now at least…”
“And that's another headache to deal with.” My brother’s voice is solemn.
“What do you mean?”
He sheaths his rapier and paces forward placing his hands behind his back after gesturing me to join him. “Father could only afford to pay for my ransom due to her family's money. Although she's a daughter of a merchant, that particular merchant is backed by duke Leonhart…”
“I see… I imagine he won’t be pleased…”
My brother walks us to the dining hall as we speak, the maids had already fixed the table for dinner. “I'm afraid so…”
“Wait! We have to eliminate all of his eyes and ears before they report to him what happened!” I call out when I realize what's going to happen next.
My brother shakes his head silently. “I don't think we know all of them, and even if we did, it won't help us. It'd only buy us some time, a month at most, we can't raise an army that fast. We'll have to run away and hope we can escape the kingdom.”
“You can't raise an army, but you could hire mercenaries. Besides, it's winter, we won't see an army until spring. Plenty of time to prepare a solid defense.” I object.
“In case you've missed something dear sister, we're currently broke.” My brother doesn’t hide the bitter sarcasm in his voice.
I throw a small pouch at the table as my answer. It contains all of my remaining magical gems, along with the used ones which are still diamonds of some worth. They spill out on the table letting out their magical glow. We’ll be paid for the task when we reach the tower… I don’t have to worry about money or gems for mana…
If what I’ve read about these magical gems in the tower is right; each of these magical gems is worth a hundred gold coins and a single gold coin is enough to take care of a month's living expenses for a whole family. It’s more than enough to hire a few mercenary companies.
I also know that a single diamond sells for at least twenty-five gold coins, possibly more if the price is haggled right.
“Where by Kilako’s goldy cock did you get so many magic diamonds?!” My brother is in awe in front of so much money. I’m surprised he recognized what they are, I didn’t know that myself back when I ruled this place.
Things must’ve changed around here… is this some mage meddling with the kingdom? Or something else? “How do you know what these gems are?” I ask raising an eyebrow.
“Duke Leonhart gave five of these to father, four were used to ransom me. We sold the last one… A single one can sell for two hundred gold coins! Where in Lokamesh’ vast kingdom did you find them?”
Interesting… did the Sapphire tower only begin meddling here after the war? Or did we simply not encounter them because we were young and inexperienced?
Also, they did have some money… I doubt the ransom for me was so high… Stop that! It doesn’t matter now!
“That's my business! Yours is raising an army and avenging our father, I can't stay here and help.”
“Why not?”
“I'll have to leave within two weeks, I'm not exactly a free woman yet,” I explain.
“Who's your owner? How much is the ransom? Is there any chance to reason with them?”
I shake my head. “Ransom? Wulf, I just handed you a small fortune, money isn’t the issue. I currently belong to the Sapphire tower, I learn magic there at least…”
He frowns. “The Sapphire tower? Where is that?”
So he never heard of the tower despite recognizing these gems… interesting… I shrug. “I'm not sure where it's located. We got here through a magical door, and we'll leave the same way. I'm poisoned, if I won't return in time I'll die.”
He nods quietly then catches himself. “Wait magic?! The flying flower pots back then were your magic?!”
I smile, being acknowledged always feels nice.
We have food and small talk. I introduce my friends to my brother, and we spend a few joyful hours together sharing what we went through in our lives in the past seven years of separation.
*
{26} Mayan (December) the 12th
“…May his soul find its path at the Great silver river. May his body nourish all life in its death. May his offsprings live a bountiful life, may they enjoy his fruit on this day…”
I stop listening to the religious crap. My father never worshiped the gods, he wouldn’t care for this ceremony. The only reason I’m not chasing the priest of Tiyadi off the plantation is Wulf. He needs a proper way to say goodbye, and unlike me or father, he worships Tiyadi and Kilako.
I watch silently as they lower my father’s body down. I watch silently as Wulf plants the sapling, and I keep my silence as the priest of Tiyadi piles the dirt over the corpse. In a few years, an apple tree will grow here, and we’ll eat its fruit. The cycle of life.
Reality hits me. My father is gone, dead, I didn't even get to talk to him. My brother might die in the upcoming spring, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Why did my father have to die right before I got to him?! Why?! This is a sick joke, isn't it?! Some cruel gods are laughing at my expense! They're watching me like some caged animal! I'm nothing more than entertainment for them! A good drama! Or maybe they just don't care… gods… they can do whatever they want… I will not follow any of them!
I'll become a goddess myself! That way I won't have to fear anything… and I won't have to worry about losing people. I'll become so powerful that people would be terrified of harming the people I care about! And until then I shouldn't care for anyone, I'm not allowed to care when I'm powerless…
“My condolences…” Kolag offers.
I nod in thanks and turn. There’s nothing to be done here anymore, and apathy is my only shield against the pain.
*~*~*
Power level: 1st stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Neck-Bridge: formed max amount of gems drained per day: 66
Fire: open. 4 gems
Gravity: formed. 41 gems
Cantrip known:
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light body. Alino’s Heavy body.
Focus capability: 8 patterns
Social status: A neophyte evoker.
Wealth: X
Items: 2 healing potions. 1 tent, a cooking pot, a frying pan.
Companions:
Kolag of house Befar
Lezere of the black fang tribe
Injuries and scars: Missing two thirds of the right middle finger.