Deafening silence.
Everyone was staring at the man with various levels of ‘what’ written on their faces. The leader, apparently not understanding exactly what the looks meant, continued his little speech. “I know that you all must be quite shocked, this is naturally a very sudden development, and I apologize for the fright we must have given you by jumping out of the woods the way we did.”
Kala recovered enough to attempt to speak. “Wait, wha-”
“I must ask that you save the questions for another time,” he interjected, cutting her off. “We may have resolved this situation quickly, but there is no telling when another might pass down this road and we must be gone by that time.”
Kala tried again. “But we--”
“Everyone, pick up the wounded and take what you can carry, let us be quit of this place.” He turned towards me now. “I must extend to you an apology, sir, for this situation. Know that I hold respect for you for the way you faced down my men while injured and I admire your skills to win against two of them in such a situation. You are simply on the wrong side of this conflict and your exploitation of those less fortunate than you cannot stand. Someone should be along to help you back to the nearest town. Find a healer, have a drink, and tell all whom you see that there are those who are fighting against such abuses as-”
“By the infernal pits, shut up!” Kala finally snapped at him. Everyone was now looking at her with some form of shock, be it from the sudden shout or the contents of said shout. She let out an exasperated huff before continuing. “Look, before I say anything else, I want to confirm that you are not aligned with Alathos and his ideals and are actively resisting him?”
“Yes, ma’am. I apologize if I didn’t make that clear.”
Jorn chimed in, apparently sensing what she was about to do. “Kala, I'm not sure we should say anything.”
The leader of the bandits, or rebels, looked between the two of them. “My Ulgrish is a little rusty, what is your companion saying?”
My mind went for a loop when he said that before I remembered that everything was just translated for me. Everyone was still speaking their own language, I just heard it as English. I was brought out of my introspection when Kala started talking again.
“He is simply cautioning me.” She turned towards him, pausing a moment as she switched languages. “What would you have us do then? Let them take us away, steal the supplies and separate us, all so we would just end up right back where we started?” Jorn failed to come up with any reply to that, not for a lack of trying, though, as he seemed to be wracking his mind for something. “We take this risk, or we fail this mission. They do seem to be telling the truth.” Jorn simply deflated a little, apparently giving in to her plan.
She now readdressed the leader. “This is quite an unfortunate coincidence, but we aren’t slaves.”
Now he appeared confused. “I’m afraid you must elaborate, my lady.”
“We’re from the coalition, sent out on a mission of great importance and us meeting you here is a terrible misunderstanding of circumstances.”
He raised an eyebrow at her before looking around at all of us. “This is true? What about the collars, and him?” He made an offhanded gesture at me.
“Fakes, and he is assisting us in this mission,” Kala answered. I could tell that she was nervous; this was indeed a great risk to be taking in telling them all this.
He looked at her questioningly for a moment before his gaze fell on me. It was a probing stare, scanning me up and down as if he was looking for something deeper than the skin. Eventually, he closed his eyes and shook his head.
“I’m not sure what to make of this situation, and I know far too little to make a decision right now. You will all come with us to our temporary camp where I will attempt to make sense of this madness.” He stood up straight and called out to all his troops. “Change of plans, load everything and everyone up, we’re taking it all back.”
It was a flurry of movement, the people putting things they had taken back into the cart and directing us there as well. I had to be supported by a pair of them as they helped me get seated in the back with everyone else. There were plenty of groans and hisses coming from me as any little bit of movement seemed to aggravate my wounds all the more.
Kala was sitting across from me and looked over the arrows sticking out of my body with concern. “Are you going to be alright?” she asked.
“I’ll live, for now. I’m not bleeding a lot thanks to these things plugging me up.” I gestured with my uninjured side to the arrows with a slight chuckle. “Still, they do hurt like hell, and I would very much like to have them removed as soon as possible.”
“We’ll get those out of you when we get back to the camp.” The rebel leader said as he climbed onto the passenger side of the cart with another of his men who took up the reigns. “For now, I have to ask you to bear with it until then. Let’s get moving.” He nodded towards the driver who spurred the horses onwards with the rest of the rebels walking in formation around the cart.
We continued for about ten minutes down the road until the driver tugged on the reigns for the horses to turn down a trail that shot out into the wilderness. It looked like it was used by animals and hunters that might come through here, and more than once we had to duck and dodge low hanging branches that threatened to smack us in the heads for riding through here. After a fair distance was covered down this path, they pulled offroad and into a small break in the foliage where the cart was stopped. It wouldn’t be immediately visible from the path now, but a passerby might still see it, if one did happen to be in the area.
The leader pointed to a couple of the rebels before giving orders. “You, you and you, watch the cart. The rest of you, we’re walking from here.”
Great, just what I wanted, some hiking on an injured leg. I started down the painful trail using nearby trees to move myself. Kala came up beside me after seeing me struggle and threw my arm over her shoulder so I could lean on her. I shot her a quick appreciative smile before focusing more on the path ahead of us. The leader caught my attention though as he was giving me another probing look, eyes darting between myself and Kala before turning back to the path.
We walked for a while; our small group surrounded by the rebels in an almost herded manner as we pressed further into the forest. Jorn and Otar were on edge, eyes darting around the armed insurgents as if they would jump us at any moment. Holdrem was also alert, though he did not give off the same sense of distress that the brothers did. Kala for her part seemed to be focusing on keeping the both of us moving without falling on our faces.
After what seemed like way too long of a trip, we arrived at their little hideout. It was a sparse collection of tents and lean-tos that’s location was seemingly chosen at random, as it was not ideal at all for a set-up. I suppose it was a temporary camp according to the leader, but it still looked like an uncomfortable place to stay with all the rocks and undergrowth in the way.
A few more of the rebels were here as well, seemingly interested in the new arrivals to their camp. I was slightly surprised to find an Ulgor counted amongst their members, uncollared, and lending credence to their claims of being rebels. In total, I counted around thirty members of this little group, more than enough to cause problems for the local governments and merchants, but not really much of a threat to any armed forces of Alathos.
We were seated around a tree, either on the roots of it or the dirt. The rebel leader stood before us to announce what would happen next. “I will be having an in-depth conversation with each of you individually.” He looked at me specifically next. “While I am doing that, we will get those arrows out of you and patch you up as much as we can.”
I gave a half shrug in response. “If you have any charged crystals, all I need is you to get them out of me.”
This caused him to raise a brow at me. “You’re a healer then?”
“Yeah, though still learning about treating other races.”
He nodded. “Good, that makes it much simpler then. We will provide you with a crystal to treat yourself, in the meantime, I would speak with you first.” He pointed at Holdrem to indicate who he was talking about. Holdrem seemed a little hesitant about leaving the relative safety of the group, but he relented and stood to follow the leader towards a tent a couple meters away, just out of earshot.
A couple minutes after the pair disappeared into the tent another of the rebels returned to me holding a decently sized crystal. They set it down on the ground beside me before squatting and talking to me. “I’m going to remove the arrows now, and it’s probably going to hurt.”
“Figured it would. Do what you need to do.”
He nodded and reached up to grip the shaft of the arrow near where it was embedded within me. With a quick yank and a loud growl of pain from me, the arrow was pulled free from my body. I took deep breaths to try and power through the lingering pain as he reached down for the one in my leg. This one he pushed out rather than pulled out, sliding the shaft through the hole it had already made. It was less painful at the very least, though still stung like a bitch.
My wounds were now bleeding in full since they were no longer being plugged up. The rebel quickly put the crystal into my hand, and I placed my other over my heart, beginning the process of healing. My skin crawled as I felt the magic flow from the crystal into my body, tracing an itching path towards the wounded areas. Once the flow was where it was needed, it immediately got to work on stitching my body back together. I watched with a little morbid curiosity as the holes in my body closed themselves and the flesh under them rippled like it wasn’t made of solid meat before falling completely still. With an experimental flex of my limb coupled with a few stretches, I was once again in perfect physical health.
The rebel who had been helping to treat me added some commentary. “It is bizarre to watch a healer at work. Such wounds would have taken a month at least to heal, yet it was mere moments for you to undo the damage. You truly have a blessed skill.”
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Maybe, but I doubt you would want it if you knew the cost of obtaining it. I bit my tongue to keep me from saying anything that didn’t need to be said. With the medical situation taken care of, it was back to waiting with the others while they were pulled away one at a time to talk with the leader. It seemed I was being saved for last as everyone else had their chance to speak before I was pulled away to have a conversation as well.
The interview, or interrogation, tent was only just barely big enough to hold two people within. The only seats available were a couple of tree stumps placed inside. The rebel leader was already sitting upon one, so I took the other and situated myself as well as I could.
I was being given an appraising look from the leader, though I did not feel like it was openly hostile in any way. “So, let us get the formalities out of the way. You may call me Norwik.”
I decided to be as cordial as possible. “A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, I'm--”
“James, correct?”
The sudden use of my real name shocked me, and I had to fight to keep my face neutral. How does he know that? Did someone slip up? “Where, pray tell, did you hear that was my name?”
“Your lady friend shouted it after you were first shot.”
Damn, so that’s what she yelled. I didn’t think it would be Kala who made the mistake out of everyone. I suppose it was just a knee-jerk reaction from her during a shocking situation. Still, this was a problem, though how much of one has yet to be seen. “So, how will this situation play out? Will this be treated as an interrogation?”
He leaned back a little a waved off the notion. “Nothing so serious as that. I was already mostly convinced that you were from the coalition before we even got here.” He must have noticed my quizzical look because he elaborated. “The way your companions huddle around you as well as the lady moving to assist you unbidden, and with such a look of familiarity, was quite the convincing bit of evidence. Most slaves, when presented the opportunity, cannot wait to create as much distance as they can between themselves and their former masters. That is to say nothing about their own testimony, in which they were very clear that you were, in fact, not a slave owner, but their friend.”
I furrowed my brow a little at him. “So, why are we having this conversation if not to confirm that our story is true?”
Now he leaned forwards and supported his upper half by resting his elbows on his knees. “I simply have a question for you, and while I already have a feeling that it is the case, I wish to confirm it. Are you the James? The one who burned Alathos’ castle in an attempted regicide?”
“Why do you want to know?” He could very well wish to turn me in for the reward to fund his own forces, so I needed to find his intention with this knowledge.
“There’s no need to be coy about it. Frankly, I have never heard of another with a name like yours, so that is a pretty dead giveaway. You should be relieved to know that your companions did try hide your name, ‘Mr. Sothalis’, I was simply paying attention when they slipped up in the heat of the moment. As for why, I must profess that I am an admirer of your work.” He chuckled and adopted a wide grin. “Oh, how I wish I could have been there to see Alathos rage in his charred gilded castle.”
“You truly have no love for the, I hesitate to say, man, do you?”
“No, I do not, and I agree that he is more monster than man. Despot, if you're feeling kind. My family knew what it was like before all the fighting began. We were merchants for generations, though never really made much of a name for ourselves outside of being a reliable supplier of goods. We had connections to the other races of the continent, my grandfather would regularly buy supplies from them, particularly the Trelnval who made a living selling off their fresh catches from the rivers and lakes.”
“My father was a young lad when the war started, and at first, they could not help but wonder why. There must have been some insult too grave or action too severe to be ignored that led to such an abrupt shedding of blood, is what they thought. Though, it quickly became clear that wasn’t the case. The propaganda that flowed from the capital was venomous. Claims of rape, murder, and a general plot to invade by the other races spread like a wildfire across the land. Yet everywhere we looked, everywhere my family stopped to ask, we could find no signs of these tales being true.”
“It did not matter though, the people believed their king, for most did not ask enough questions to see the lies being spat in their faces. The war became increasingly ugly over the years, especially when slavery of the other races began. I still do not know what possessed Alathos to commit to such a path, but my father and grandfather would not stand by and do nothing. My family started to buy slaves only to release them in secret wherever we could, though it did not last.”
“Alathos’ dogs eventually found out what my family was doing, and his retribution was swift. They were tried and hanged as traitors, publicly condemned as my family name was slandered. I was only spared because my aunt took me in as one of hers, hiding me under her husband's name as her own child. I was all of nine years old at the time, it all seems like so long ago.” His gaze became somewhat distant for a moment as he was caught up in his memories. He snapped out of it quickly and continued.
“As you can imagine, such an event can leave a rather bitter taste in one's mouth. I decided long before I came of age that I would undermine his efforts and exploitations at every opportunity that I would get. Which leads me all the way to now and this merry band of miscreants who are as insane as I. You have nothing to fear from us, for we are all brothers and sisters in arms, fighting against tyranny.”
I relaxed a little, but I was still trying to wrap my head around the whole situation. “I have to say, I did not expect to run into sympathetic Thrainians out here, what are the odds anyway.” I said with a little huff of amusement.
Norwik chuckled a little but had a rather forlorn expression hiding beneath a thin smile. “Not likely, I'm afraid. Most care not about what happens so long as it isn’t happening to them, and the others are fair-weather supporters at best, and the weather does indeed favor Alathos at this point.”
“Well, maybe I might be able to rain on his parade a little.”
“Yes, the ever-enigmatic mission you all seem to be on. What are you trying to do?”
“For the sake of security, I'd rather not give any specifics about it.”
“Understandable, the others were hesitant to speak of it as well. Is there at least something I could do to help?”
I took a moment to consider if there was something he could do. “You wouldn’t happen to have any more crystals, would you? I need them in bulk quantity.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have that many available right now.” I clicked my tongue a in disappointment, but it seemed he wasn’t done. “However, we got word recently of a shipment of military supplies that will be heading to the front line, and that means crystals are almost guaranteed to be there. We are going to attack it tomorrow, and if you would care to assist us in ‘liberating’ these supplies, you can have your pick of however many crystals you need.”
I thought about it for a second. Assaulting a military convoy would probably be dangerous, but it would also help the coalition by denying the enemy their supplies and save me a trip. The benefits felt like they outweighed the risk, and if Norwik felt like they could pull it off without our help, then the risk should be manageable with some smart tactics.
“I trust that you have a plan for taking these supplies that leaves minimal risk to everyone involved?”
He chuckled a little. “I wouldn’t call it a strategy exactly, but ambush attacks in their own territory generally come as a shock to them and allow us to take them down quickly.”
“Well, I think we could help you then, but I want to make it clear that the safety of my team is paramount here. If this is more dangerous than you have led me to believe, then we will leave without a second thought.”
He dipped his head a little. “Of course, I can appreciate looking after your people. In fact, might I ask you a favor?”
“What’s the favor?”
“Some of my men have a few debilitating injuries. If you would use your talents to heal them, I'll consider it a personal debt owed to you.”
I gave him a slight smile. “Seems like a reasonable favor, especially since we will be working with each other.”
He extended a hand to me. “I appreciate it.”
I clasped his hand and gave a firm shake. “Think nothing of it.”
“Is there anything else we can do for you? I must say it is a rare opportunity for this band of misfits to do something so significant as help the coalition.”
I thought of one other thing, but it might be too much to share about our intended target. The man did seem to be genuine about his opposition to Alathos, so I decided to take the risk just to give myself an edge. “Are you familiar with Yol’vastume?”
“Who isn’t? All the large towns are aware that most of their produce comes from it. Doesn’t stop it from being a damnable place though.”
“Well, if you’re looking to help, could you direct your attention to stopping any incoming merchants from delivering their goods there? I need them to experience a shortage of trade goods.”
“That sounds like something that would fall under our skill set. Consider it done. It will definitely help with moral to have an official mission now.”
I gave a firm nod. “Good hunting to you then.”
With all the business now done, I was free to rejoin my group. They asked about what was going to happen next, and I gave them a brief rundown of the situation. Everyone seemed to be relieved that we were now in the clear, perplexed by our unexpected allies, and mixed about us raiding a military convoy. Jorn and Otar seemed a little excited about the raid, apparently itching to crack some heads. Kala and Holdrem on the other hand were more reserved and contemplative, not yet having fully come to terms with working with the rebels for this mission. I could agree that the situation itself was bizarre, but war makes for unlikely allies.
With the alleviation of the tense atmosphere that had been in place, the rebels began to talk with everyone, asking them questions about their people, if they thought that the war was going well for them, general questions on what we were doing out here, and a couple other odd conversation points. Kala and the others looked a little awkward conversing with Thrainians, but I didn’t think they would get into trouble, so I went to uphold the promise I had made with Norwik.
I had Norwik help me find where the wounded were while he arranged for some charged crystals to be brought over for me to use. There were four individuals who were sitting around a smoldering fire pit. One had what appeared to be a broken arm in a sling, and another had blood-soaked bandages wrapped around his thigh. The other two I recognized as the pair that I had beaten in the ambush.
I did some initial observations of the wounds before the crystals arrived. With a source of energy now available, I went around and healed the rebels. The broken arm was pretty weird to heal, what with all the popping and grinding sounds as the bones were reset and melded together again. The leg wound seemed to have been made by a stab from a bladed weapon and was a simple fix.
It was slightly awkward to be treating the people that I had injured. The man whose jaw I had not only dislocated but broke seemed to be at least relieved that he no longer had to have his mouth tied shut. The one I kicked had some intense bruising and a fractured rib, but he was in good humor about it after I finished the process of healing him.
“You kick like a horse. Honestly thought I'd be vomiting my own guts out after taking that blow,” he said with a laugh.
I chuckled a little, joining him in that bit of levity. With the rebels now back in fighting shape, Norwik thanked me for my assistance and promised to pay me back in the future should I ever need anything. I appreciated the sentiment and told him as much, but he was very adamant about making good on his promise of repaying me.
They were kind enough to help repair the clothes that they had damaged and replace my white undershirt with a fresh one. We would be staying here for the night until the raid tomorrow, and they brought our tents from the cart so we could have a place to sleep. We kept close to one another, a healthy bit of paranoia when in unfamiliar company. I didn’t imagine anything would happen as they had all the opportunities in the world to try something before this, but instincts are a hard thing to fight.
It was an awkward few hours filled with hesitant conversation with any rebel who felt bold enough to approach us before night fell. We ate a simple dinner with our new acquaintances and tried to gain some level of familiarity with them to varying degrees of success. At the end of the night though, we all retired to our tents to get some rest. Tomorrow would certainly require us to be alert and focused.