Benjamin Vryce

He was trapped somewhere between his void space and the space his core slowly spun in. He had made it to the bottom of the tower before passing out. Instead of unconsciousness however, he ended up here. After trying, and failing, to wake up. He decided to work on the damage he had inadvertently caused to his soul.

There was plenty of damage to work on too; raw and open wounds where chunks had been ripped away, burned and overloaded channels, and a core that wasn’t quite stabilized correctly. Just to name a few of the many problems he had inside himself. He worked on stabilizing his core first, once that was spinning true once more, he moved on.

He nearly ran his core dry, trying to repair the damage inside himself. He wasn’t sure what to do after that, deciding at last that all he could do was draw in what he could and fix things as it came in. Around that time was when the first rush of essence entered his core. Not understanding at first, he investigated its source.

It had come from Grace; she must have killed something out there. He worried for her safety, but the five of his remaining people were still alive and together. He compressed the essence into his core. Before channeling it to his wounds. Compressing it down seemed to help it flow easier, for some reason. He had nearly spent all the new essence when another influx entered his core, from the blue king this time.

His summons must be trying to help him recover, or were in a bad fight out there. Either way, his best course of action at the moment was to heal himself and wake back up into reality. First, he wanted to send Ice out if he could, he would feel better knowing that his people were all together. So, he channeled the new essence into her pattern and pushed. It worked, her form became an outline and he knew that she was in the outside world. After that he focused on healing himself, over the span of who knows how long, that’s exactly what he did. Taking the essence flows that randomly entered his core and using it to heal his soul.

There were long gaps between essence surges, he used that time to think. About how patterns affected him, how he could change them, what the consequences of prolonged contact with his soul were. He watched the patterns, slowly sinking into his soul. Should he remove them from himself? Would that help or hurt him going forward.

Looking over the six that he still had, he had to admit it was an even grouping. There were three pairs; a male and female goblin, Hive, and wolf. They weren’t necessarily breeding pairs though. Grace and Stomper weren’t an item. He wasn’t sure but he thought that Honor was Ice’s son. That left the two Hive monarchs. The blue king was crippled, and Benjamin didn’t know if he could even reproduce.

In the end, practicality won out. While the patterns were bound to his soul, they were functionally immortal. As long as he wasn’t dead, he would never be without his companions. With the battles he would be facing going forward, he wanted to have strong support. So, as long as the Erlking or the Arbiter didn’t tell him bonding was bad, and they hadn’t yet, then he would keep things as they were.

Decision made; he turned his thoughts towards the goblin patterns he had yet to absorb. He couldn’t absorb them now, but the Erlking had made over a hundred of them and bound them to creation cores. How had he done that, and could Benjamin repeat the feat? He had plenty of creation cores, he had held onto them just in case.

If he could put the patterns and the creation cores directly into a body, could he summon the goblins now to help with the fighting? That raised another question, if he did that, he risked them being killed forever if the pattern was damaged. Was he willing to do that? If things got bad enough, he might not have a choice.

This trend continued, for an indeterminate amount of time. He also added a few extra partitions to his mind, to improve his senses and overall physical health. Eventually, he felt like he could try to leave again. This time, when he tried to open his eyes, it worked.

Benjamin opened his eyes, and blinked a few times to remove the film that had gathered on them. When he could finally see clearly, he looked around. He was in a pill bug constructed building, and Ice was curled up around him protectively. It was day time; he could see the light streaming in through the windows.

“Ice, were you watching over me this whole time? Thank you, but I’m awake now.” He said, voice coming out hoarse with disuse.

At his voice the she wolf leapt to her feet, and whirled around to lick his face. It always surprised him how quickly and quietly she could move, for a wolf the size of a draft horse she was nimble. He laughed weakly as her course tongue stroked his face again, raising a hand to scratch at her thick fur.

“I missed you too Ice,” he said, slowly getting his body back under his control.

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As he spoke the she wolf raised her head and let out a deafening howl. Benjamin winced, he had essence cycling to his ears now, his hearing was almost too good. His regeneration was already fixing the damage caused by the noise to his sensitive ear drums, but he would need to fine tune that going forward.

The howl must have been a signal, it wasn’t too long after her cry than he was surrounded by the rest of his team. They were all here, Grace, Stomper, the Hive monarchs, Honor and Jade. He could even see the hulking forms of Tik and Tok looking at him, through the windows from outside. Seeing the worry and relief on their faces made his heart ache.

“Thanks guys, I got the essence. I don’t think I could have woken up, at least not for a long time, without it.” He said, letting them know how much it meant to him as best he could.

“Damn right, best we can figure you were basically dead. Remember the horny dude when he said he couldn’t pay the essence cost to bring us back if we died out here? Well, we think that’s what we had to do for you Vice.” Jade said, from her place near the door.

“I was so worried about you,” Grace added, from her place on his lap.

“You all did wonderfully, thank you.” He said again, stroking Grace’s hair with the balls of his fingers. “Where are we now? I need an update on the current situation, how long was I out, how many Hive do we have.” He continued, not wanting to, but knowing they had work that was overdue.

“Chief. We currently have fourteen battle worthy blues, and sixty-three battle worthy reds. An additional handful of females from each faction and several dozen hatchlings. You were out for approximately 8 of the local days, and our teamwork has improved greatly. Other than that, no major Hive sightings. They seem to be steering clear of us.” Stomper reported.

Benjamin looked to the goblin fighter. Everyone had looked to him when he had asked the room the question, it was clear that Stomper had taken the leadership role with him down. he was a little surprised but glad someone had stepped up.

“Thank you, Stomper. I don’t see the monarchs however, where are they? Anything of import going on there?” he asked, worried about his Hive king and queen. He caught the smiles on all the surrounding faces and relaxed a little.

“No problems chief. They are getting along quite well, I left them in charge of cleaning up our last kill, so that we could come see you.” Stomper answered with a straight face.

He narrowed his eyes at that, there was something else going on but no one was telling him what it was. Should he press for answers or let it go? He had barely woken up but if there was a problem he needed to know.

“Don’t worry about it, chief.” Jade said with a giggle, “What the big man meant to say is that they’re getting along so well, that it will be a shock if there aren’t purple eggs in the nest soon.” She finished, laughing out loud.

The rest of the rooms two legged occupants blushed slightly, but otherwise didn’t comment. Purple eggs, it took Benjamin a moment to piece that one together. Oh right, because red and blue mixed together made purple. Wow, he must still be out of it.

“Alright, well…good.” He said lamely. They talked a while longer, bringing him up to speed on everything that had been happening.

It seemed like the small modification he had made to both monarchs had worked after all. The reds and blues were both nocturnal factions, and when the sun rose, they returned to their hives. He had tried altering the monarchs’ patterns enough, to allow them to be active day or night. Thankfully it worked, and he wouldn’t need to take the time of day into consideration with them at least.

When he was all caught up, and ready to leave the building he rose to his feet. Ice, who was still on her belly growled at him slightly and shuffled forward. He didn’t understand right away, but he laughed when he caught on.

“Thanks, Ice. But I think I want to walk after being down for so long.” He tried to politely refuse. There was little room for argument in her eyes however.

A few minutes later he ducked as Ice exited the building. He was sitting securely in the saddle on her back. The others had grinned, and Jade had even started laughing. Until the she wolf raised her hackles, and let out a low growl. That shut everyone up and sent them scurrying out the door.

The Hive had been busy, the make shift tower they had established for the remaining blues was now much larger. It looked like with all the new reds around, they were able to add on a hodge podge of rooms for them all. Fourteen blues and sixty-three reds. He ran the numbers in his mind, it was hardly worth bringing them honestly. They would most likely get massacred within the first five minutes. Grace, the ogres and then the blue king had wiped several dozen away in no time.

When he spoke his concerns aloud however, Stomper had an interesting point.

“That’s true chief, but you also have to take into account the circumstances. The blues are weaker than they should be, and the reds came in expecting an easy fight. On top of that, there are no ranged fighters among the Hive, and the only units that can compete with an ogre are the monarchs. They were weak to unfamiliar units and tactics. However, in a hive vs hive fight, they should perform much better.”

The speech had surprised him for initially, he hadn’t thought of Stomper as that much of a thinker. Then again, it explained how he had been able to get so much done while Benjamin had been dead to the world. He would have to remember this, and make use of the tactical brain hiding behind that skull cap helmet.

As Ice walked him around the encampment, they found that there were indeed purple eggs in the nest. They were all small though, too small to have come from the red queen. It still gave him hope, hope that there was a future for these people. He had worried taking their leaders would destroy them. It still might, but at least they were still moving forward. Perhaps, blending the bloodlines would bring back some of what was lost to the blues, when their monarchs had either died or lost their ability to reproduce.

Things were looking up; he was awake and he had capable companions. He had been hurt, and it had set them back, but it wasn’t all bad. The Hive had been given time to bolster their numbers, and Stomper had been given time to shine without Benjamin’s oversight. Even Jade seemed better adjusted to the group. They would regroup, make new plans, and move forward, stronger then ever.