Chapter 17: Victory, and Punishment

Landar

I woke shortly after sunrise to find Gragon had finished bundling the hides and preparing a temporary carrier for them. It was clear it was meant for me, as it was my size. The carrier itself was made from the bones of the alpha male wolf, which I found were all covered in the strange metal and reinforced with other elements that glowed slightly in random places.

“We agreed. The cores are yours. Everything else is mine.” He grinned from ear to ear, and I nodded. I had, in fact, agreed to that.

“But one thing, Gragon. We agreed on who gets what, but we never agreed on the price of my labor.” Gragon’s grin fell.

“Come on kid, you’re really going to leave a cripple’s only chance at a decent life out here in the woods for vultures and thieves to find it? Have a heart!”

The dwarf was clearly haggling, and it nearly made me laugh. It reminded me of my time among the Japanese fish markets in some of the small villages I had visited. Those old men and salty women haggled even with foreign dignitaries over just a few Yen. If you offered to pay double, they’d have been insulted. The haggling was part of the fun. It was almost a national sport to some.

This felt very much like that.

Me and my labor were a new commodity, the value was unknown. So, we had no choice but to haggle.

“I had a heart when I saved your life. Do you know how much blood and other awful I had to endure just to save you a little pain? When I could have just grabbed you and pulled you out from under that wolf the entire time! That would have been a nightmare, I’m sure.”

“Yes, yes, it’s true. But you ended up pulling one of my legs anyway, you brat! Why, I should bend you over my knee for that.” He smirked, thinking he had me. He was an elder, and I should have respected his wishes.

“True. But, it relocated your dislocated leg, honored elder.” I bowed slightly, and I could feel the annoyed glare of the warrior-rune smith. “Which was another service I provided free of charge. So exhausting was it to me, that I collapsed from the effort. I would appreciate some consideration.”

“Aye, the fact I’m thinking of paying you at all is consideration enough. You’re a skinny, scrawny, half starved scarecrow, not the fault of your saint of a mother of course. But still, you won’t work very fast, despite working hard. Give it a few months more and I’m sure you’ll be worth real gold! But today? I’ll be lucky if I get a copper’s worth of work out of you.” He looked at me piteously. “Nothing against you, boy.”

“You’re no cripple, and I’m not a scarecrow. At least, not anymore.” I patted my stomach where I felt the core resting in my mana pool. “How about my pick of two bones from the stack, and I’ll drag it all back for you. One for my labor, and another for the agony my mother will endure and not having her child in her arms sooner because I’ll be working hard for my dwarf friend’s fortune.”

Gragon blanched nearly pale, and I knew I had him. “Right, your mother’s an honorable woman. Yes, that is more than a fair price. Come now, boy, we have to get going.” I walked over to the pile of water skins to use one as an impromptu bird bath before we left. While I was washing, I heard him mutter “with a temper like a volcano to boot.”

I’d never seen my mother truly mad. Sad, distraught, stern, yes. Angry? Never. I tried to imagine what it would be like, and a trickle of cold sweat trickled down my back. It was a truly terrifying image. I suppose I’ll have to face it soon enough.

***

When we came into view of the main gate, it was nearly noon. A horn as loud as thunder sounded as someone on the wall spotted us. I was dragging a makeshift litter behind me, with Gragon on it. Half way here, he had fallen down a hill and I think dislocated his leg again.

I didn’t want to risk injuring him further, so I had reinforced the litter, and placed him and all the goods on it. Then dragged them and him the rest of the way. The dwarf promised all kinds of additional payment, but I ignored him.

Never take advantage of someone when they’re down. It only leads to burned bridges, and lost favors in the future.

That was something I had learned the hard way during my years as a member of the diplomatic corps. Asking for reasonable accommodation, perhaps even future payment at a fair price later, was acceptable. And sometimes even necessary depending on the culture of the people who needed the help.

But kicking someone when they are down is how you gain enemies. Real enemies. Resentment builds, bridges are burned, and it might take a decade, but eventually when you’re looking for allies and the wolves show up at your door, what will your once slighted ally do?

Walk away smiling.

They were skills so different from those I had learned in the army. But no less true, or important.

Three men on horseback rode out at full gallop to meet us. They took Gragon off the litter, picked me up and had me ride on another horse, and the third man stayed with the litter until a cart could be brought for the goods.

A cleric was the first person waiting for us. Half a heartbeat later, my father appeared with weapons cast aside as he pulled me off the horse and into a crushing hug.

Tomas squeezed the air out of my lounges. I watched over his shoulder as a cleric set Gragon’s leg, then healed him with a simple spell that let out golden light. It was gone as soon as it appeared, and Gragon was walking again a few seconds later.

“Your gods are good for something, I suppose.” The grouchy dwarf said as he shook the cleric’s hand in thanks.

My father was blubbering incomprehensible words the entire time he crushed me. When he let go, he literally held me by the shoulders off the ground as if I weighed nothing and glared. Meeting my eyes with a steely gaze. That his eyes were puffy with emotion and tears ruined the effect.

“Where in the nine hells did you run off to, boy!?” His question boomed over the entire gate house, the courtyard, all the loading docks and a good portion of the small craftsmen’s market just inside the gate. Everyone went silent for a heartbeat before beginning their work again. “I asked where you were?!” He demanded slightly less loudly.

“I—I—” I stammered, only to be rescued as the dwarf who had been trying to talk me down to one bone of my choosing rather than two for my labor cleared his throat and spoke on my behalf.

“I’m sorry his absence troubled you so, Captain Tomas, Friend of the Woodburner clan. My names Gragon. I was taken by the wolves, and from what I gather was unconscious when you and your knights led the attack on their lair. A big beastie fell on me during the fighting, and when I woke up I was pinned, unable to escape. Your son saved me.”

Tomas put me down, a little harder than he had too, as my knees almost buckled with the force of it. When he rounded on the dwarf, his face was red with pent up frustration, fear, and a new emotion I had never seen before on his face.

Rage.

“Did you talk my son into going on an excursion, overnight, in the woods outside of patrol range?” His voice was quiet, deadly sounding. And his hand was on the cudgel looped on his belt.

“No sir. I did not. Did you not hear what I said? That was something your son did on his own.”

My father’s rage subsided slightly, to a healthy, non-murder everyone and leave no witnesses, level of fatherly frustration as the dwarf’s words finally registered with that part of him that wasn’t insane with worry and parental concern. A moment later, he looked back at me. “Explain. In detail.”

And so I did.

Though I didn’t tell him it was because I wanted more power. I left that little goal for myself. Instead, I spun it as if I had wanted the cores because maybe we could have used them to buy more time, or a better outcome for Tabitha.

Which was not entirely untrue. That was one of the options I had thought of, if using them proved impossible.

But I told him everything else. About the map given to me by Oswald, using it to follow his trail, finding the ambush site, then following his tracks to the cave. About finding Gragon under the ice wolf, finding the cores, harvesting the pelts, our injuries and me needing to rest, and then finally about our trip back.

When I was finished, my father sobbed once, pulled me into another embrace where I nearly broke my nose on a buckle on his uniform, and whispered.

“You could have died. Do you know how bad your mother has been?” He let me go, and my heart sank. “Did you even think about her?”

“I—I did, father. But, I thought Tabitha—“ I couldn’t bring myself to say the lies again. I just bowed my head in shame.

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Tomas sighed deeply. “Well, I think I now know what it’s like to raise a boy, just like I was. My mother was right, it’s hard.” He started chuckling as he wiped the tears from his face. “You do that again and I’ll break both your legs so you can’t run off. Understood?”

I nodded, and he accepted my silence as contrition. “Good Landar, good. Now, stay here. Me and the dwarf have more to discuss.”

It didn’t take long for my father to confirm my story with Gargon. Once he did, he returned to me with Gragon in toe. “I believe there is only one matter to settle for now.” Tomas said, his voice exhausted but still filled with the severity of a guard captain on duty. “Payment for my son’s labor.”

“Right.” Gargon grunted and pulled a handful of long bones from out of his pack and placed them on the ground. A few of them were covered in simple steel, but were nearly as tall as I was. But two of them caught my eye. They sparkled differently depending on the light. I picked them up and as I twisted them, they changed color. The effect was subtle, but noticeable. They shifted from metallic purple to pink, then to a slight red. All depending on how the light hit them.

I didn’t yet have any kind of identifying ability. That was one I had been trying to learn for days now, but had no success during my time in the temple. “What can you tell me about them?” I asked, trusting in the dwarf to trade with me fairly.

“They’re chie, I mean life mana enhanced. You can see that the wolf’s mana took various materials and incorporated them into the bones to grant extra reinforcement. In the future, it might also have granted additional abilities as the wolf ate more exotic creatures with magical aspects to them, or ate plants, or licked mineral salt licks that introduced new types of minerals to its blood stream. These,” he tapped the long metal ones. “Are covered in metal, as they needed the greatest protection. They were grown specifically to give the beasts’ spine extra durability.”

“These,” he tapped the two I was looking at. “Are where it was storing its magical elements. It had little yet to work with, but it looks like what it did have available to it were rare forms of rock or gem formations, and a few interesting plants that it ate at some point. I’m not exactly sure what attributes they would have granted the creature, but something to do with the elements of earth or life would be my guess.”

Gragon backed off and nodded at me. “Always a pleasure working with clients who know how to ask the right questions.” He smiled, and my father lifted an eyebrow. I shrugged it off. Then bent, and picked up the two magical ones that had caught my eye.

“These are my payment,” I then grabbed his hand, and placed them both in it. “You will help me use them in that—” I glanced at my father, then back at him. “Special project we discussed. Agreed?”

The dwarf smiled. His beard split oddly when he did. “Agreed. You have some boy here, Captain.”

“I agree. He’s a good boy, and will make an amazing man. If he lives that long.” Tomas patted me on the back, then gently shoved me away towards Oswald. “Go home. Now. Or I’ll make sure you can’t walk for a week.”

This time, I did as I was told.

***

I had never seen my mother angry. And before Gragus had mentioned it, I had never even imagined she could be enraged.

Then I got home.

“What in the nine hells, and seven holy kingdoms above do you think you were doing?!” she demanded, shortly after I explained what had happened. I opened my mouth to respond, but she cut me off. “No, I don’t care. It was reckless! You put your life in danger, just after your fathers was?! This entire family sacrificed so you could live, boy. What don’t you understand about that?”

Her face was red hot with rage, but her eyes brimmed with tears. “And you are selfish enough to risk everything we sacrificed for, and for what? Some stupid magical bones that might earn us a small fortune?”

I just about laughed, but I let it go. She was right, but she was also woefully wrong. I bit my tongue and let her be mad at me.

“Well?!” Elsbeth demanded in a tone that suggested she actually wanted me to answer. I tried, but she ran right over me. “No, I don’t care. If you ever, and I mean ever, do anything like that ever again and you survive, I’ll have your father string you from the rooftop by your toes.” She paused, as if looking for a suitable amount of time for this fictional torture to take place. “For a day!”

My tongue lashing lasted almost until my father got home that night. Every time I would try to speak, she would just glare me into silence, or interrupt me with a tirade about how irresponsible I was, and how much she worried about me.

The tired sigh she gave after every lecture hurt worse than the lectures themselves.

I remember sighing like that, so, so many times as a father myself. It dug deep and placed the barbs right where she wanted them. Right where, if I was being honest with myself, they should be.

Elsbeth was right. Everything she said was exactly true. I had been irresponsible. I had put myself at risk and caused her to sit here for over a day, terrified for my safety, just after she had done the same thing over my father. It was unfair to put her through that. No one should have to endure that much ambiguity about the safety of their loved ones. Let alone their children.

But, if I had to do it again? I would. Just as I would have joined the army again, knowing it would send my father into a depressive spiral. It was, had been, the right thing to do. There’s a reason service like that is called sacrifice.

Just before my father got home, as the sun was setting, Elsbeth calmed enough to let me speak. She and Tabitha sat across the table from me as I first apologized, then explained for the sixth or seventh time. I stopped keeping track after the third failed attempt. I was honest about everything, except for my growing desire for more power.

It is, after all, the only real currency in this world. The knights and how easily they dealt with those wolves, when Tomas and his soldiers would have been slaughters are a perfect example of that.

Before I got to the end, I got up and threw several large pieces of wood on the fire.

“Landar, don’t waste wood,” my mother scolded me as she tried to stop me.

“Mother, trust me. Please? I know you’re mad at me, but trust me. We need the fire.” I tapped my ear with a finger and she realized what I was saying. The fire, when it was going into the baking stove and not just the flat top, was loud and hot. It warmed the place, but it also made it difficult to hear much that wasn’t said directly to you.

She nodded, and I finished stoking the fire. By the time it was done, my father was back. Exhausted.

“I have the next two days off. Oswald agreed to cover the weekend for me. Why is the oven going? It’s blasted hot in here.” My mother shushed him, pointed at the fire, and then her ears. My father’s eyes went wide, and he sat with my family opposite me.

At least they’ve grown to listen to me, even if they’re mad.

I laid it out for them. All of it, even my desire for personal power, so I could protect Tabitha. I whispered it as they leaned in, as the fire roared in the background. I even told them about the core, and how I now had one and was on my way to gaining a level.

“When all is said and done, power is the only actual way to secure your place in this world. And the places of those you love.” I looked into my father’s and mother’s eyes, and I could tell they were both concerned by my words, and that they saw the truth in them, too. “That’s why I did what I did. Taking in that core, learning how to use mana, and why I’ve been reading like mad. To grow stronger so that we, as a family, can be safe. I’m sorry I scared you, mother, father. But that’s the only way we’re ever going to be safe. You two have built something here. A family. You are amazing parents, no one could ask for better. And the only way to ensure no one can take that away from us is to grow strong enough that if they try, it will cost them. Cost them enough to stop them before they even try.”

A silence fell over the room as my family took in my words.

“But wiat son. You gave that dwarf the core, didn’t you? For some special project?” Tomas’s voice was as quiet as he could make it.

“I did. But there was another one.” I told them about the predator's core and how I had absorbed it. I told them about the process, but left out some of the more gruesome bits. There was no need to scare my mother worse than I had already.

“Son,” Tomas broke the silence that had fallen over everyone when I finished. “You’re telling me you know Dodge, and several other abilities? And, that you have a—” He struggled for words. “Core?”

“A Life mana core, yes.” I wasn’t about to explain a concept I had only just learned about, let alone properly studied. But I knew that there were other kinds of cores, and that eventually I’d need them.

“But, but how? Your physical foundation was only moderate last time we had you checked.” Elsbeth said, confused. “The only ones capable of developing Cores are those with perfect foundations and a noble education. How?”

I looked at my father, and slowly he realized. “Oswald. Oswald taught you, didn’t he?”

Maybe he hadn’t realized. Though that was a pretty good explanation.

“No, father. I didn’t form a core, I absorbed one. The predator core I mentioned? Gragon taught me how to take it and make it my own. But I taught myself most of the rest. There are things I am still learning, though. While you all have been at the temple, learning or meeting people? I’ve been in that small room reading and studying as much as I can. Most of the books in there aren’t very helpful. But a few of them are actual manuals on how to do things. I found one on abilities, and I learned the ones it taught me how to do. Though I still haven’t tried Empowered Strike yet.”

My father’s eyes went wide. “How do you even know the name of that ability?”

“He just told us, darling. From reading.” My mother put a calming hand on my father’s shoulder.

“Oh, right. Sorry. So wait. You learned all of this, did all of this, from reading and working at the forge?” I nodded. “Gods above preserve us. We’ve been born a genius.” He turned and hugged my mother, who sighed so familiarly, as if to say ‘so you’ve finally caught onto that fact, have you, darling?’

When they let go and looked back at me, they shared a glance that I couldn’t quite read. Then my mother spoke.

“You’re grounded.”

“What?”

“You heard me. You’re grounded for, “ they looked back at one another and an entire conversation in a language I didn’t quite understand took place as they silently discussed my fate. “Two days. The next two days while your father is home. You’re not to study, or do any magic of any kind. I want you to help with chores here, and leave the grown up responsibilities to us grownups. At least for those two days.”

“Thats right.” Tomas said, backing her up. “You’re grounded. Which means when I leave tomorrow afternoon for the forest, you’re coming with me.”

“What?” Elsbeth demanded. “You said you had the day off.”

He looked chagrined. “Well, I do. But, after the stunt he pulled.” He glared at me. “Me and Oswald agreed. Someone needs to go out with the kids in our sector. Just one adult from the guard. Since it’s my kid who caused the extra duty, I assigned myself as the first volunteer.”

Mother glared at him, but he didn’t budge. “What? What would you have had me do, ask someone else to cover it, after my kid caused the change?”

Mother deflated. “No. Still would have been nice for you to ask me first, though.”

He grinned and pulled her into a hug. “Next time, I’ll run all the way back just to ask you if I can do extra work.”

“Good. You better.” A grin snuck onto her face as she tried to ignore him.

I couldn’t help it. It was a perfect opportunity.

“Get a room.”

Tabitha giggled.

“There’s one right there.”

My parents gave each other the ‘look’ and got up from the table.

“You two go fetch water.” My mother handed me the water bucket. “Don’t come back for at least half an hour.”

“Together.” Tomas said as he pushed us both towards the door. I pretended to gag as Tabitha giggled harder. “Tabitha, tight him up if he tries to run away. Here’s a rope.” Tomas handed her a length of rope and glared down at me balefully as if to say, ‘don’t screw this up for me, kid.’

I guess they’re going to take my advice; I thought as the door firmly shut behind us. Good for them.