The meeting turned out to be far larger than Ted had expected. Dozens of Rangers from all over the Forest sat in three concentric circles within the forty-foot-wide meeting hall. The outer ring, made up of Lookouts like Ted and Cara, was the largest and held most of the rangers. A dozen Prowlers, including Jeremy, made up the middle ring.
The inner circle, literally and figuratively, was the five Keepers. The highest-ranking members of the Rangers, each represented one of the five villages. Of those, Ted recognized only Elivala without the aid of Identify.
The meeting was held in very formal Wood Elvish. Ted struggled to keep up with the array of different emphases on timing and certainty that the language encouraged in such settings.
Lookouts and Prowlers stood to give report after report of dungeon spawn attacks and sightings across the Forest. After Jeremy provided his report on the gorilla attack, the room fell silent.
Was that the last report? They had nothing—nothing—to go on.
Ted’s gut twisted in knots. So far, the rangers had managed to keep casualties to a minimum, but the attacks were clearly increasing in frequency. This problem wasn’t going away by itself.
Elivala was the first to speak again, her tone flat and to the point. “It is essential that we act imminently.”
“It is essential that we act soon,” boomed another of the Keepers, Laotan. “It is essential that we act correctly.”
“We need to know more now.” Another Keeper, Pankar. He was the most wrinkled elf Ted had seen yet, and the only one with signs of frailty. His hand trembled as he raised his staff, gesturing emphatically with it. “I have never known anything like it.”
The room fell silent again. Whatever was causing this, they had no clues to follow up on.
No clues except Ted, and he was keeping his mouth shut. He had enough problems, without giving more ammunition to use against him.
Elivala looked around the room, her gaze briefly locking on Ted. “Does anyone have any evidence to bring forth?”
Was this why Jeremy had pushed so hard for Ted to join? Because he thought Ted had useful information connected to the dungeon spawn threat?
Pankar spoke again, his quiet voice dominating the room. “We can increase patrols from now until the end of time. We can fight dungeon spawn from now until the end of time. None of that will ever solve the problem.”
Except they couldn’t fight from now until the end of time, could they?
Ted’s stomach churned with the knowledge that the Rangers didn’t have the manpower to take sustained losses. The wood elves were simply too few in number and too long-lived to provide more than a handful of recruits each year across the entire forest, if any at all.
A shame, but not his problem.
The Keepers argued amongst themselves—all except the one facing away from Ted, anyway. She continued the silence she had held all meeting while the other four went around and around in circles, dancing around the reality that they were utterly helpless to stop the dungeon spawn threat.
Ted half listened, half indulged a little longer in the fantasy that he could choose to stay silent and let things play out without him. That he’d find a way home and escape this madness. That this wasn’t his fight.
It wasn’t like they’d believe him, anyway. He never would in their position. So why bother sticking his neck out?
Besides, this world didn’t deserve to be saved. First it took his father, and then it had abducted him. Demanding he save it after that was some grade-A bullshit.
He glanced at Cara, and his throat closed tight. The barely suppressed trembling of her lips, the tightness in her shoulders, the way she gripped her legs like she was holding on for dear life—she was afraid.
They were all afraid, even if some of them hid it better. Afraid for their lives, afraid for their loved ones. Afraid of a reality where the dungeon spawn no longer stuck to the Deep-Forest as they had for thousands of years.
This was uncharted territory for them. It was almost as if they’d been ripped from their own world and shoved into a far more dangerous one with no clue how to survive.
Ted swallowed and bit at his lip. Cara had saved him when he’d been helpless. Could he really just walk away and abandon her to fate, knowing that he might have been able to save her?
Shit.
Maybe one day he’d finally learn his lesson about keeping his nose out of trouble, but today wasn’t that day. His chest tightened, and he spoke up as calmly as his pounding heart would allow. “I believe I have some information currently.”
All eyes turned on Ted.
He swallowed hard, knowing all too well that the next few moments might make him public enemy number one. “As some of you might know, I arrived here recently—against my will—from a world without levels. When I arrived, I received a quest. ‘Save your father, save the world.’”
Stunned silence filled the room for a moment, swiftly followed by a dozen voices speaking over each other.
Pankar slammed his staff against the ground, returning the room to silence.
Laotan’s voice rang out, filling the void. “The human risked his life for Tolabar recently. We shall hear him now.” He turned to Ted, his piercing gaze demanding answers.
Ted gulped. No way he could hide it forever, and Jeremy had already worked it out. Had he told the Keepers already?
Maybe. The Prowler’s expression was just as inscrutable as ever.
Not that it really mattered. Whatever Jeremy’s plans, the Keepers would find out one way or another. It was better that they heard the truth directly, and their opinion of him wasn’t going to be higher than right after helping to save Tolabar.
Maybe, just maybe, they might even believe he wasn’t planning to kill them all.
“I risked my life for Tolabar recently, yes, but there is something else you should know now.” Butterflies fluttered in Ted’s chest. There would be no taking this back. “On my character sheet, under status, it says I’m a Hero.”
A thunderous din of shouting erupted, including many Wood Elvish words Ted had never heard before. Half the rangers rose to their feet, their hands on their weapons.
Pankar’s staff slammed against the ground three times, louder than could possibly be natural. His voice filled the room, drowning out every other noise, simultaneously a whisper and impossible not to hear. “Do you know what that means, boy?”
Pushing aside the adrenaline pounding through his veins, Ted bit back a sarcastic reply. Think twice, speak once. “Somewhat. I know the Age of Heroes was bad. I knew when I risked my life for Tolabar that I might come back after death. I also knew that anyone else the dungeon spawn killed would not.”
The room hung on Pankar’s response. The keeper stared with an uncomfortably intense focus, studying Ted for what felt like an eternity.
Was he in charge? The books Ted had read about the Rangers said that there was no singular leader beyond the Keepers, but Ted knew there was always someone whose voice counted for more.
“Why should we trust you, Edwin Williams?” Pankar asked, his tone not unkind, yet laden with unwelcome implications.
The upside looking a lot more appealing given the stakes, Ted shoved his Oratory perk point into Persuasion and went with his gut. “I trusted you with this information now. And, right now, I’m the only lead you have.”
The silence came back, its weight more suffocating than ever.
Pankar gestured with his fingers, twirling translucent purple threads in the air. Five ethereal tendrils broke off from the spell, each connecting to the forehead of a Keeper before disappearing into the ether.
The five Keepers looked between each other, sharing glances, nods, and occasionally shaking their heads. Were they talking to each other?
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Elivala was amongst them, and her small gestures were the most animated of all. No doubt hanging Ted out to dry again.
Laotan was the first to speak again. “You mentioned your father. Who is he?”
“My father…” A tidal wave of emotion roared, shattering whatever Ted had planned to say. He bit at his lip, the words to explain it refusing to come together. “… I don’t know. He vanished fourteen years ago from my world, around a year before the new Divine Emperor came to power.”
Another Keeper, Alatar, scoffed. “The human speaks in riddles and ignorance. The Divine Emperor has been in power as long as anyone can remember.”
Fiery anger desperate for an outlet found one, and Ted shot back, “So when did he take the Divine Throne?”
More silence. There were confused—yet still very much angry—faces all around, interspersed with a few flickers of torment seemingly unnoticed and immediately forgotten.
Alatar took a long, deep breath. Eventually, his nostrils flared and he responded forcefully, “The Divine Emperor has been on the Throne as long as anyone can remember.”
Ted shook his head, his pulse racing in demand of a response. Logic demanded that he shut up, but anger had the wheel now and wasn’t letting go. “He’s human, right? How far back can you remember? How long do humans live? You can’t even see how it makes no sense, can you?”
Alatar’s fists balled up but, before he could speak, the Keeper facing away from Ted—Yantara—rose from her seat and turned. Her face was wrinkled like Pankar’s but she lacked any of his frailty. Until now, she had been silent, saying nothing and watching everything.
“He speaks of a Contradiction,” she said. “Who granted the quest, and what is the reward?”
No matter how Ted turned the quest over in his mind, probing it in every way he could think of, he found nothing but the title. “It doesn’t say. It appeared when I arrived here. There’s no reward listed, either.”
Yantara nodded. “This is no ordinary quest. Jeremy, does this not accord with the tales your father told of that traveler from another world, Sigurd?”
Jeremy’s voice filled with a respectful tone Ted hadn’t known the ranger could manage. “It does, Keeper. I have spoken of Sigurd with Ted recently, but I did not share those details with him.”
Alatar theatrically threw up his hands and drew his gaze around the room, daring anyone to contradict him. “You are talking of myths and absurdities now.” More than a few of the assembled rangers nodded along with his words. “We are at our darkest hour now, beset by dungeon spawn acting as never before. At the same time, a Hero appears. The connection is clear. The threat is clear. The resolution—” he paused and stared at Ted with cold, dead eyes “—is clear.”
Pankar’s staff fell once more and the room waited with bated breath for his words. “It is clear that there is a connection. It is not clear what the threat is.” His brow furled, though Ted could not tell whether it was from thought or regret. “We have all heard of Contradictions—impossibilities that can only be seen in the corner of one’s mind. It is… implausible, yet not impossible.” His gaze focused squarely on Ted once again. “Do you want to save this world?”
Ted stiffened up and locked down his reactions, or tried to, anyway. Despite his best efforts, his Adam’s apple continued to bob defiantly. Would they know if he lied? The elderly wood elf clearly had magic, including mental magic.
What was he capable of? Would he even need magic to tell?
Lying would be dangerous, but the truth wasn’t pretty, and the longer he delayed, the more guilty he’d look. Screw my father, screw the world. “No,” Ted said. His stomach clenched the moment he said it. No one had been there for him—why the hell should he be there for them?
Pankar frowned and leaned back in his chair, pondering, while Alatar looked around triumphantly. If Ted’s survival came to a vote, that was at least one against.
Laotan’s lips pursed, his expression more intently curious than ever. Hopefully, that was a good sign.
Ted didn’t dare look to the side. Just imagining Cara’s doubtless horrified expression was bad enough. Why had he ever thought telling the truth was a good idea?
A smug smile snuck across Elivala’s lips. Time for her to bury the knife. “Ted,” she said, “will you complete your quest to save your father and our world?”
What if his father had been kidnapped? What if he wasn’t to blame?
It didn’t matter. It was too late now.
White-hot anger demanded that Ted say to hell with it all, but the words died in his throat.
He stole a glance at Cara. Her face was scrunched up in a poorly disguised expression of anxiety and terror. The perfect reflection of what everyone in the room was surely feeling.
I could make a difference.
The thought stood tall, repelling wave after wave of attack. It wasn’t his job. It’d be dangerous. He shouldn’t have to, and he sure as hell didn’t want to.
But they needed him. That truth struck like a dagger to the chest. The unfairness of it all, not just for him, but for everyone. Whether he liked it or not, they needed him, and he couldn’t simply abandon them.
“Not for my father,” Ted said, wishing he had a choice in the matter. “But yes, I will do what needs to be done. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Alatar’s lips spread into a sneer. “And what, exactly, is it that you will do? You claim to be a fifth-level Hero. What is it that you can do that our Prowlers cannot?”
“I don’t know,” Ted said, bridling against the question all the more for the truth in it. “There’s a Contradiction around the Divine Emperor’s ascension. I can see that clearly, not just in the corner of my mind—perhaps precisely because I’m a Hero.”
“And we’re just supposed to trust you—a Hero? One who, until today, lived amongst us as a serpent in greklin skin?”
The way he said it made Ted’s blood boil, but he couldn’t let it get to him. Not when the stakes were this high. “No. My father disappeared from my world shortly before the Divine Emperor took the Throne. That is where I will start.”
“We must not pin our hopes now on this Hero,” Alatar said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “If he wishes to leave the Great Forest imminently, let him go. We will certainly protect the Forest from now until the end of time.”
The Keepers shared looks once more, silently communicating amongst themselves. Ted bit his lip. Whatever messages were darting between their minds, they were deciding his fate without even letting him hear the arguments. It left a sour taste in his mouth.
Alatar’s position was obvious. Elivala had been against him from the beginning. Yantara seemed to believe him, and Laotan was at least open to the idea. Best case, it would come down to Pankar, and he hadn’t seemed pleased when told that Ted didn’t want to save this world.
Oratory prodded at Ted’s mind. The Keepers’ decision teetered on a knife edge—if he didn’t want a quick trip to the forest floor, now was the time to speak.
“I know you’re afraid of me, of what I represent, of what I might do.”
Ted paused, trying to find the words to convey his horror at what must have been, but no words came. He never had been one for speeches. Instead of fumbling along by himself, he trusted in the Persuasion skill to translate his thoughts into marginally better words.
“I can’t even begin to understand what brutalities the Heroes must have carried out in the past, but I swear to you, I’m not like them. I didn’t choose to be kidnapped, or to have this quest, or to be a Hero.”
The anger softened in some of the wood elves’ expressions. Was he getting through to them? Not that it mattered. The Keepers were the ones he had to convince, and aside from Alatar, they were keeping their cards close to their chest.
“Yeah, I might only be level 5, but that’s why I need your help. Let Jeremy come with me with a squad of Rangers. I can see the Contradictions you can’t. Whatever this quest is, wherever it leads, it’s the only lead we have on how to solve this problem for all time.”
There it was again, that snide sneer from Alatar. “Drawing away a whole squad of Rangers, led by one of our best Prowlers, when we’re at our most vulnerable? Now I see your game. You seek to weaken us before your brethren strike home.”
Ted’s hands twitched half-way into fists before he could stop them. “I’m not the enemy here. I would love to work together on this, but, with or without you, I’m doing this. Not because I want to, but because someone bloody well has to, and it might be my only way home.”
Alatar made like he was about to speak, only to be silenced by a glance from Pankar. Or, perhaps, by a silent message between them.
The Keepers turned to each other again, falling deep into their silent conversation. Would they send help with him? Even if they didn’t, there was so much more he could learn from the Rangers now that he was one of them.
A bitter sweet thought tugged at his heart. What if Cara wanted to come? It would be nice to have her along, but her awareness wasn’t always on point. And what if she died? He’d be snatching 900 years of life away from her on a fool’s quest.
Seconds dragged out into minutes that felt like hours.
Was that good? Bad?
The growing pit in his stomach certainly didn’t think it was good.
At long last, Elivala turned toward Ted. She pulled herself up to her full stature and her tone became even more official than usual. “Ted Tolabar So’aroaska, you are charged as a Ranger of the Great Forest with the duty of traveling to the Divine Empire, investigating any connection to the dungeon spawn threat, and, if possible, resolving it. Do you accept the quest?”
A warm, tingling glow spread through Ted at hearing his wood elven name said in full, and all it meant. That joy refused to budge, even in the face of an impossible quest he had no idea how to complete. “I do.”
Quest received: Resolve dungeon spawn threat.
Quest giver: Keeper Elivala Tolabar So’aroaska
Quest description: Dungeon spawn are leaving the Deep-Forest and threatening wood elven villages. Investigate and end the crisis before the villages are destroyed. Multi-stage quest.
Quest reward (completion): 50,000 XP, eligible for promotion to Prowler
Stage description: Travel to the Divine Empire.
Stage reward: 1,000 XP
Ted blinked, double-checked the quest XP, and ran some numbers in his head. 50,000 XP by itself would take him to level 11, assuming he lived that long.
Elivala nodded. “You leave at dawn.”
Dawn? Ted nearly choked. That didn’t give him long. Even after saving their village, they still wanted rid of him asap. No good deed goes unpunished, does it? Not that he was surprised, or able to blame them for it.
Nevertheless, he needed training, doubly so in magic. A single training spell for starting campfires wasn’t going to cut it in the wild, and it wasn’t a good sign that she had assigned the quest solely to him. “My training is still far from complete. Who will accompany me?”
“I’ll go with him,” Cara said. Her voice started off strong before wavering beneath Alatar’s gaze, dribbling down into a whisper as she shrank back inside herself. “If… if that’s okay?”
The response from Alatar was swift and decisive—far too swift to have allowed discussion with the other Keepers. “We cannot afford to lose a valuable Lookout currently.”
“I will accompany them as well,” Jeremy said, seemingly unfazed by the Keeper’s objection. “I am training them both. They will need experienced support.”
Another silent conversation passed between the Keepers. Ted’s jaw clenched. What was there to discuss? The speed with which Cara and Jeremy had spoken up to accompany him was heartwarming, but the delay in the approval of their requests did not bode well. Surely, the Keepers wouldn’t make him go by himself?
Why not? Alone was par for the course. Maybe it would be better that way. The thought of getting Cara—or Jeremy, for that matter—killed made him sick to the core.
After a while, Elivala winced, the break in her composure as tiny as it was fleeting. “Cara will accompany Ted on this quest. Jeremy, you will accompany them to the edge of the Forest and then return to us with all haste. We cannot afford to be without your skills at such a crucial time. All other Prowlers, provide a list of prospective recruits to your village’s Keeper before nightfall. Whatever is coming, we must be prepared.”