After that first foray into the wild with Black I had tried to make it a habit to accompany her on her outings. It didn't usually work out; either Arim kept me busy all the way up until I was so tired I could barely move, or I talked with the old hands around the camp. Sometimes she just didn't go out because it was overcast and she wouldn't have been able to get a good look at the stars anyway.
But when I did accompany her I was always amazed at the spots she managed to find. It was like she had a natural homing instinct to the most scenic locales near the camp. Time and time again I found myself awestruck by the landscape, but what surprised me even more was that Black never seemed to pay the land the slightest bit of attention. Her gaze was fixed ever skyward. I also grew to appreciate the brilliant radiance of those stars in the sky, though I knew her fixation with them was likely something I would never truly be able to understand.
Honestly, I knew I still didn't fully appreciate the words she had said to me before. She spoke of the world as though it was covered in darkness, life an unrelenting struggle to find happiness. I hadn't experienced any of that. The people I had met so far, the places I had seen, they all instilled a feeling in me that was so far removed from my previous life it felt entirely alien.
Though I also knew that would likely change soon.
At the end of our journey was a town by the name of Yord. Situated on the current border between Maulia and Wald, it was a hotly contested area under constant feud by the territorial lords on either side of the border. Basically, the ideal habitat for a mercenary looking for work.
The warmth of summer was starting to fade as the leaves on the trees slowly started to lose their green luster, replaced by amber and gold. Ever since that first night on the cliff with Black, I had been spending more time taking in my surroundings, instead of letting them blur by. So after coming to appreciate the sheer beauty of the wilds over the past month, I was excited to see how the landscape would continue to change as the days grew shorter. Incidentally, word around camp was that the company would be lingering in Yord long enough to be able to attend the fall festival held by the church, which got me excited.
When we were about a league outside of the town, the company split ranks with the caravan. After about a half hour delay of organization, the caravan continued on while the company split off and started looking for a place to set up camp. Albatos led the company away while Zeph instructed me and a few others to remain with him and accompany the caravan into town.
I wasn't quite sure why Zeph was bringing some of us into town with him. It stood to reason Zeph himself still needed to see to the completion of the contract with the guild, but why he wanted an additional retinue was beyond me.
Well, no point pondering things I'll eventually be told anyway.
I wish everyone was as easygoing as I was. Holeria, who had also been brought along, seemed to lack the ability to shut up.
"So why are we going into town? Are we going to get to see the negotiation of a new contract? Will we be staying at an inn? My back has been killing me from sleeping on a cot. Hey, hey, what're we doing?"
"Girl, if you don't shut that mouth of yours in the next second, the only thing you'll be doing in this town is getting left behind." Zeph said.
The rest of the trip to Yord was blissfully quiet.
As the town came into view I saw it was about half the size Hornhaven had been. Despite this, the town was heavily fortified and had a wall larger than one would expect around its perimeter. When we arrived at the gate the caravan was subjected to a lengthy examination by the guards. After about an hour of waiting we were waved through the gate.
"Alright Arim, I'll leave it in your hands from here. Bodelee, I expect you to be a responsible role model this time." Zeph said to the two veterans.
"Aye, no more heroics, I got it already." Bodelee waved off the remark.
With that, our little group broke off from Zeph and the caravan. In total, our members were Arim and Bodelee, Vurt, Holeria, Redina, and Morvin.
After asking directions from some random townsfolk, Arim led us to this town's guild. Unlike the guild at Hornhaven, the tavern and reception area were one and the same here. The reference room was still separate though. I guess it makes sense to keep important documents away from drunken adventurers.
"Alright you lot, we're here to get some real world experience. You'll need it to do your actual job when the time comes." Arim says.
"Shouldn't we be about ready already? We've been training our asses off for three whole months now." Vurt says in protest.
"And you'll use that training to live through this little excursion. Unfortunately, no amount of training can truly prepare you for a life or death situation. We'll be using this opportunity to see how well you perform under pressure, and it'll give you valuable real world experience."
"So what are we doing?"
"Pick a quest. Either a slayer quest or a delving quest, doesn't matter so long as there's things to kill." Arim motions to the quest board.
"We get to pick?" Holeria asks, "Should we go for one with a high reward?"
"Reward doesn't really matter, though you can split it among yourselves once we're done. Just run it by me for approval first."
We began looking over the board as Arim and Bodelee studied the map, muttering to themselves. Holeria latched on to Vurt's arm and they talked about this or that request. I honestly couldn't tell if they were taking this seriously or just flirting.
Looking over the request board, there were several that seemed somewhat interesting. There was a request to take out a giant winged creature plaguing fishermen along the northern shore. Another wanted someone to take care of a roaming pack of feral chimera. One was simply for a Kirin sighting.
Holeria picked one off the board and gleefully brought it over to Arim. She brought it back after she got, "Are you trying to get us all killed?" as a response. Looking over at what she had picked out I saw it was a quest to kill some kind of fire breathing T-rex.
Morvin tugged on my sleeve, "Hey, lad. Would you mind fetching that one near the top for me?"
Grabbing the indicated plaque, I handed it to Morvin. I read its contents over his shoulder as he read it himself. The quest was to clear out a nest of monsters in some old dwarven ruins. It seemed rather simple, yet he seemed drawn to it for some reason. Maybe because of his dwarf heritage? Whatever the case, he brought it to Arim for inspection.
Arim looked it over, then had to find the ruin on the map. While he looked, Vurt, Holeria, and Redina all walked over to see what Morvin had picked out. Arim found the ruin, then pointed out where it was while showing the others the quest. Nobody had any objections so Arim brought it to the desk lady.
"Oh, this one." The desk lady remarked as she read the inscription, "I should inform you that an additional request has been made about this quest."
"Additional request?" Arim asked.
"Yes, there's a scholar who wishes to accompany the party that accepts this quest. I'm sorry, I hadn't gotten around to putting the additional request on the board yet."
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"Hm. That could be good actually. Where is this scholar staying? We'll go talk to them and see."
After receiving directions we head over to an inn down the street. After asking the innkeep about our scholar we're pointed to a table in a corner of the room. Sitting there alone is a man who looks like he's in his thirties reading a large tome.
Arim pulled up a chair and sat across the table from the man. Taking notice of our group he asks, "Yes? Can I help you?"
"We're here about the escort request. I have a few questions before we decide whether to accept it."
"Oh! Wonderful, I hadn't expected to get a response this soon! Sure, go on, ask away."
"Why do you want to visit the ruins yourself?"
"Within that ancient dwarven city I believe there was a small Prisnan settlement living with the dwarves."
"Prisnan?" I ask from behind Arim. I didn't remember seeing a nation by that name on Zak's map.
"That's the name of the nation that was destroyed during The Summoning." An uncertain look crosses his face, "I don't need to explain what that is, do I?"
"No," Arim responds, "I just want to know one other thing. Can you use reinforcement?"
The man frowns, "Well sure, and I can hold my own in a scrap if worst comes to worst. I would rather avoid that though, thus the escort request."
"I'm not expecting you to fight, but we'll be traveling hard and fast, so I need to know if you can keep up."
"Shouldn't be a problem. When do we leave?"
"Right now." Arim stands up and motions us toward the door. The man scrambles to get up and shove his tome into a bag.
As we follow Arim outside Holeria hisses to Arim, "Hey! You said we could pick the quest, yet you went and added this bookworm on without asking us! What gives?"
"Protecting a VIP is sometimes part of the job. It's a good chance to get even more real world experience, so I decided for you. Deal with it."
Holeria pouted as the scholar came stumbling out of the door, still trying to shove his book into his bag. "I'm Talon, by the way! Would you mind telling me your names as well?"
We introduced ourselves as we walked. Returning to the guild, we went through the official process of registering for an escort mission on top of our dungeon delving quest.
When we finally left the guild I asked, "Where to now?"
"Camp. It should be set up by now. We'll stock up on supplies and have Nika fix us something to eat before heading out."
On the way back out of town Arim filled Talon in on the finer details of our little jaunt into the unknown. I was surprised at how well Talon took the news that most of the people who would be protecting him were trainees. Despite being a scholar, he seemed pretty at ease with going on a dangerous expedition like this. I wondered whether it was from experience or ignorance.
Once back in camp, it was a pretty simple matter to gather up and have our supplies ready. We needed an extra set for Talon, he evidently had been intending to buy himself a camping kit before departing, but we left so fast he forgot.
After waiting a while for Nika to whip us up some field rations, Arim gathered the gang and gave a small briefing.
"The ruins are due south along the river, then west. We'll be making the entire trip running reinforced. I expect to be in the area of the ruins by tomorrow night. According to the information provided by the guild, the ruins should be obvious and easy to spot."
"Wait," Holeria interrupted, "Why are we running the entire way when we have horses we could be using?"
"I expect all of you to be able to match a horse's speed running reinforced. We'll also be running through heavily forested areas, and horses would only slow us down. Plus, we would need to have somebody look over the horses while everyone else dungeon delves. No, it's better we run. We'll be covering four or five days of walking distance in a day and a half, so this will be a good test of how your endurance training is going."
Holeria and Redina groan. Vurt scowls, and Talon goes pale.
The logic is simple. Simple and cruel. Using reinforcement allows us to run at a speed comparable to a top olympic runner, and for a much longer amount of time. But the fatigue that builds up as a result of that running is going to be unbelievably brutal. And we won't have our goddess Nika the healer to relieve our fatigue this time.
To say this would be a test of our endurance is an understatement.
"Wait. If it'll take us a day and a half just to get there, and who knows how long clearing the ruins will take, how long do we plan to be gone? The autumn festival is about to happen." Vurt asks, looking towards Holeria. It's easy to tell he had wanted to go on a good old fashioned date.
"We'll be gone a week I'd guess. Sorry to dash your hopes, but you'll be missing the festival this year."
Damn, I kind of wanted to see it too.
After an hour we're all ready, and we set out. First, we head back to Yord. We make it back in about a quarter of the time it took to walk back to camp. Yord is situated right on the river we're following, so instead of entering the city again we wrap around the wall and start our journey southward.
Well, I had wanted to get to see more autumn scenery, and I certainly got that from the several hours we spent following the river the remainder of the day. After about three hours we came across a burnt out husk of a village. It was clear it wasn't very recent, but the fact it was there was a reminder that we were currently on the border between two hostile territories.
When the sun set we made camp in a grove a bit away from the water's edge. Arim, Vurt, and Morvin took first watch as the rest of us sat around the fire and ate our rations.
This seems like a good moment to bring up a question I had been wondering for the entire journey here. "Bodelee, can you tell me why you and the other dwarves seem to have some resentment towards Morvin?"
"You picked up on that, huh?"
"Yeah," Holeria cuts in, "On our second day Annora straight up called him a failure even though he was the only one who didn't need any mentoring on reinforcement. What's up with that?"
Bodelee silently stared into the fire while contemplating his answer. When he spoke, he said, "It has to do with dwarven tradition. We dwarves originate from the nation of Wald, and it's where we are meant to return when we die."
"It's about that stone in your chest, right? My grandfather told me stories of how the heartstone is something like a national treasure to the dwarves." Vurt said.
"You're correct, the heartstone is an invaluable treasure like no other in dwarven society. We're born from it, and when we die it is passed on to the next generation. If the heartstones do not return to the homeland then we dwarves as a species would die out. Therefore, certain things are taboo in our culture. The most serious of which is to be a sailor."
"Oh yeah, I did hear that Morvin was a sailor before. But why is that so wrong?" Redina asks.
"Isn't it obvious?" Vurt says. "If the ship goes down and the crew is lost then there's no chance of retrieving the heartstone."
"Exactly," Bodelee says. "And that is why we will never accept Morvin. He knowingly risked the survival of his people for nothing more than coin. There can be no greater shame." The normally kind and cheerful Bodelee had a dark and serious expression on his face.
Bodelee sighed, "You satisfied now? If so, get some sleep. Tomorrow will be even harder than today was. No point wasting our time here talking." And with that, he stood up and went into his tent.
Slowly the others all followed suit, and I couldn't help noticing that Vurt and Holeria saw fit to share a single tent. I wondered if they saw their relationship as a simple pleasure to distract them from the hard life of a warrior, or if they thought there was something more between them.
With those thoughts in my mind, I got up from the fire and left the glade. Finding a large boulder by the shore of the river, I sat and admired the scenery. The stars reflected their life off the rippling water and helped illuminate the trees along the river's path.
"Do you always seek solace away from others?"
After just about jumping out of my skin I turned and saw Talon standing there behind me. "I guess. Though the wandering off thing is a habit I've picked up from a friend."
"It is certainly a nice view."
With that, the conversation died and we lapsed into an awkward silence. After a while I got tired of him just standing behind me, so I asked, "So, what's with the interest in, what was it called? Prisna?"
"Hm? Oh, it's just always fascinated me. Their culture and civilization was incredible, yet all that power they possessed was completely wasted when they were struck down by a god. I wonder if it was truly the act of summoning that prompted their annihilation, or if Bymos simply destroys whatever he sees fit to."
"Are there other precedents of him destroying things?"
"There is, but that's ancient history. I highly doubt there are many beings of this world that even know that."
"Well yeah, it's hard to pass on any knowledge when a global event resets everybody back to the stone ages. Isn't it forbidden by the church to research The Summoning? You aren't afraid they'll try and hunt you down?"
"Summoning magic is certainly a great taboo, but researching the event itself is only looked down upon."
The conversation lapsed again. This time I couldn't think of anything to say, so I left first.
Laying down on my cot I thought of the things I had learned. In our party we had two members who went against long standing traditions. Both went against the weight of history. I wondered what kind of will one needed to have to brave that current and go against it. Was it simply their nature? Or did something drive them?