“This is Vic, my cousin.” Val introduced me. Vic had bought one of those expensive flying vehicles. That will save time and may mean we can lose any followers.
We hopped in, and he flew us to the Temple of the Lost and Outcast. Vic stayed with the vehicle, and Val and I went in. We saw Jabari straight away at a table with a drink. We went over and sat with her.
She was silent for a long time. Then she said, “I have been cast out. I am no longer a citizen of Kekie, I am no longer a noble, and I have been disowned by my family. I have been left here with nothing. I have six months to return Nkwe and have the bond broken, or I will be put on the wanted list to be hunted down.”
“Your family disowned you?” Val asked in surprise.
“A lot of pressure will have been put on them, and there are my siblings to consider. They are lucky to keep the nobility.”
“And what does Nkwe have to say about this breaking of the bond?” I asked.
“Iron Rankers have no say,” she replied.
Both Jabari and Nkwe were iron rank.
“How long before you get to bronze?” I asked.
“That won’t stop them hunting me.”
“No, but it will give you more options.”
“My essences are in the seven to eight range. So, it will take three to six months if I work hard. But this is Silver-rank territory, and I am no longer enrolled in the academy, and I don’t have a team,” she said.
“I might be able to get you to a bronze rank area. It won’t be easy for you, but you and Nkwe would be able to take some adventure society jobs there.”
“Nkwe is easy to track. He stands out,” she countered.
“I can get you portaled out privately,” I said. “Once you are there, you will have to be careful, but you are a hunter and comfortable in the wilderness. Davu can apparently get you a new Adventure Society membership that is unconnected to your current one. It surprises me how many lost and outcasts are criminals or ex-criminals. The line is blurry there.”
“I have no coin.”
“You have nine Roo pelts that I am storing for you,” I reminded her.
She looked at me, “Thank you for caring for Nkwe. I will pay you back.”
“How about you pay it forward instead?” she looked at me, puzzled. “We may not meet again, although I hope we do, so pay it forward to someone in need instead of back to me.”
She nodded, “Very well. What about the portal and the identity?” Jabari asked.
“They come from two different goddesses, so work it out with them. The big question is, do you want to do that?”
She thought for a minute and then nodded, “Thank you.”
I looked over to Davu and nodded. He disappeared. I also sent the two Kai’s I had stationed around, one to the High Priest at The Temple of Death and one to Arabelle Remore to set things in motion.
“The thing is, we are pretty sure you are being followed by operatives of the Temple of the Dark Moon—at least one,” I said.
“They work in pairs,” Jabari said.
“We need to deal with them, or you won’t get away, and they have outstayed their welcome in this city,” I said.
“You want to use us as bait,” Jabari said.
“They want Nkwe,” I said.
“That will still be less risky than my plan. What do I do?”
“In a few minutes, we will travel from here to Nkwe. We will then be met by a transport carriage from the Temple of Death. It is big enough to carry Nkwe, just. They carry bodies in it. There is a Priest with a portal ability at the temple, and they will portal you both to the destination temple. You are on your own from there, so their window of opportunity is travelling to the temple.”
“You didn’t say where we are going.”
“This is not private enough.”
Jabari nodded, “OK. They will be Silver Rank.”
“Yes, but they don’t want to kill Nkwe, so that helps.”
Davu came over and handed me some items. I nodded, and he was about to leave when Jabari said, “What do I owe the Goddess?”
Davu looked at her for a minute and then said, “Estimate the value of what you have received and do that for another lost or outcast person or people. Then do a bit extra.” Then he left.
Jabari did not look all that pleased with that response but looked at me expectantly.
“When we are in private,” I said.
“Do you need any equipment or anything?” Val asked, looking at her in nothing but a simple shirt and trousers. It was a big change from her previous finery.
“I conjure a Hunters Blade. It is sufficient for my needs.”
“Can I buy the pelts off you unless you need them?” I asked.
“I don’t know their value. No, I don’t need them.”
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I handed over the Awakening Stone of Speed. “This will cover it.”
She didn’t know which awakening stone it was, but it was worth much more than a few Iron Rank Pelts.
“I can’t take this.” She said, horrified.
“You can give me my change when we meet next time,” I said.
She frowned, “It is too much.”
“I can’t break it down,” I lied. “When we meet again, you can give me the balance.
She growled at me but put it in her pocket.
“Are we ready to go?” I asked Val.
“Not quite,”
Jabari looked at us, puzzled.
“Let me return your dishes and catch up with the kitchen staff.” I went over to the servery and chatted briefly, and soon Val and Jabari came up.
“Time to leave,” Val said.
We went out, and Vic was with the flyer. We got in, and he took the controls, and we lifted them off.
“You can talk now. I have powered the privacy rituals,” Vic said.
“How many were there?” Val asked.
“Only one,” Vic said.
“Shame,” Val said, “we could have finished it here. What took so long?”
“I wanted to make sure it was only a tracker they placed,” Vic responded.
“Vic works in counter-espionage,” Val explained, “He specialises in detecting and shutting down stealth operatives.”
I turned to Jabari, “Here is your new ID. It was easier to use the ID of an existing but deceased person, as the records already exist.” I fought to keep my voice steady, “There are a lot of Leonids that were recently killed in Ironwood. I knew all the details about this person, which was easier.” My voice hitched, “You are now Olivia Narelli, my younger sister.” I handed over the records.
“Theo,” she started, “You don’t…”
“I did,” I interrupted her. “Her dream was to have a bond and many familiars. She would have loved Nkwe.”
“But you barely know me,” she said.
I shrugged, “Maybe we will have a chance to work together in the future. You are going to Stillwater, the place where a lot of refugees went. It is bronze-level magic, as I said. You and Nkwe will grow strong.”
“We will grow strong, Theo Narelli, my Brother. And we will meet and work together in the future. Count on it.”
“Deal,” I said. We shook hands on it.
We landed at the stables' vehicle entrance, and the three of us entered. Jabari, or I should say Olivia, was overjoyed to see Nkwe. Only a few minutes later, a Hearse from the Temple of the Dead arrived and backed up to the stable doors. A silver-rank priest got out and came into the stable.
“Hi all, I am Priest Roberts. Transport for two?”
I nodded. “Jabari, this is your portal. Priest Roberts recently got his portal to gold so he can reach the destination.” Something smelled not quite right, like a Leonid, but also like a human.
Roberts opened a brown block-shaped arch.
Jabari/Olivia looked at it warily, “You know this priest?”
“Since I have been in Vitesse,” I walked up to Roberts and went to pat him on the shoulder, palmed a silver-rank dart with Quick Sharp and stabbed him with it. The portal flickered as he lost control. “And Roberts portal is not from whatever essence that is.” I clawed him with Rend, but even my bronze-level claws only made minor cuts in the silver-ranked person. The Skill he was using to change his appearance faded, revealing a male Leonid.
His Aura flared, and our auras were fully suppressed, leaving us feeling vulnerable. He was unable to take advantage quickly due to the drug in his system. I need to get more tranquiliser in there.
Val reacted first and laid into him with everything she had, but even her most powerful skills were little more than a scratch to the silver ranker. He swiped at me drunkenly as I stabbed him with another silver rank tranquilliser dart. He was not going down, so he probably had some poison resistance skill and silver-ranked recovery. I need to get as many darts into him as possible while we make a dash for it. I could only hold the darts momentarily due to their silver rank, but that was the only reason they penetrated his skin.
I was clipped by the attacker's arm, even though it had been deflected by Jabari’s Hunter's Blade. She was only scratching him as well. I still crashed hard against the stable wall. I saw through the open stable door a portal open that was pitch black and looked like a tear in reality. Roberts stumbled through, followed by Vic.
Roberts went straight for the attacker and laid into him with twin pitch-black obsidian daggers, and Vic was right behind him but hampered by the confined space. He ripped out the wall of the stable, and a silver chain whipped in and wrapped around the attacker and dragged him out of the stable into the open.
The attacker was trying to put up a fight but was still hampered by the tranquiliser I had got into him. I could tell the real Roberts was injured as well, but Vic seemed to specialise in constraint skills. Everything was blown apart at one point when the attacker used a highly destructive skill to break away. It ripped apart the silver chain and threw Roberts across the room. The Chain was replaced by lightning tethers before the attacker could get far or activate his portal, and then Vic did something that blew his chest open.
That didn’t kill the silver ranker. Silver rank resilience is incredible. By the time the attacker recovered enough from the strike, Roberts was back with his daggers. This time, each dagger strike left blackened dead flesh behind. The attacker was desperate to break out and escape. It seems Vic's constraints also stopped teleports and portals. It took another five minutes of fighting at silver-rank speed and three more constraints cast before a blackened corpse was left on the floor.
As soon as Roberts stood up from his last strike, Arabelle Remore walked in and hit us all with a heal-over-time spell. I found the timing very suspicious. I suspect she was watching the perimeter and making sure this one didn’t escape or the other one didn’t arrive and blindside us.
“Thank you, Priestess Remore,” Roberts said.
“You are welcome, Bob, and it is just Arabelle.”
Roberts smiled and nodded.
“Thank you, Lady Remore,” said Vic. “The other one?”
“My husband is chasing him down. This one had the portal, so he won’t get away.”
I went up to Roberts,” Are you OK? I assume you were attacked.”
“Yeah, a short-term disablement on the way here. It still hurts like being rolled by a Drisket, though. You figured it out?”
“Not until he opened a portal. I knew what essence your portal was from, but it wasn’t that one.”
“Quick thinking there, Theo. It is good to see our next generation of Roaming Clerics are as good as the previous ones.”
“You were a Cleric?” I asked.
He nodded, “It became time to settle down. Right, well, my portal cool-down is almost over. Who is going?”
I waved Jabari and Nkwe forward. “These two.”
Jabari approached me and said, “Thank you, my brother. I owe you again.”
“We are family. There is no debt.” We gripped arms. “May my Goddess bring you peace.”
“May your hunt be successful,” she replied.
Nkwe came and nudged me a thank you, and I enticed Kai off his back. Roberts raised a black tear in reality.
“This is the right portal?” Jabari asked. “It looks ominous.”
“Wait a minute.” I popped through the portal. “Oh, hi, Nia! We had a bit of a hiccup. I will pop back and send them through.” I reversed my path and told Jabari, “The High Priestess at Stillwater is waiting for you.”
Roberts winked at me. Jabari and Nkwe stepped through, and Roberts closed the portal.