Chapter Forty-seven

Being manipulated or maneuvered into doing someone else’s bidding seemed to have become a rather frequent event in my life as a spirit. Well, it was what it was, and at least this time Krissy and I were in agreement that we wanted to help the elves. Unlike a certain godling, the pretty-pointy-ears had been good to us, even Fenar, in his own, unique way. But I had another reason to be excited about this upcoming confrontation with the so called “barbarian marauders”. No, it wasn’t the fact that they looked like orks, although I couldn’t deny it was a factor. It was the news that they had spiritualists: it meant they’d have those little, Black Essence cubes. I really wanted to get my grabby little tentacles on at least one.

I was sure I could handle a few of the greenskins — a soul was a soul, and I could just yank it out of the body and eat them, ork or not. But Krissy? She had been training hard, becoming a decent fighter at least by my standards, but she was yet to see real combat. Sparring with Timo, or getting the hell beaten out of her by Fenar was one thing, standing up to a creature three times her size and made of muscle, was another. I had every intention to protect Krissy of course, but I had to find a balance between protecting her and letting her handle things herself. For training purposes.

Well, there were a couple of flies in the spiritual ointment, unfortunately, such as the issue of enemy spiritualists. I was nowhere near finished with my new, bulletproof disguise, so I only had the old one to rely on. I had got lucky with Sivera’s spiritualist — they had been fooled, just barely, and they had been looking at me funny. I had been … haphazard in almost everything I’d been doing up to now, improvising most of the time. Things had worked out so far, more or less, but I needed to start thinking ahead, to plan ahead and foresee problems before they arose. Hm. Lucky for me, I had a host who was better than me at this. Actually, no, not a host. A friend, or a partner.

Except, said partner and her team were currently busy, listening to the aide to the master of Fifth Rangers, and I didn’t want to interrupt.

***

The forester’s hut was the first building I’d seen built entirely out of wood. It was strange, now that I thought about it — given how much the elves liked their trees, I would have imagined they’d use wood to build all their dwellings. Instead, every single house I’d seen so far had been made of stone, or large bricks, or something. Except for this hut in the middle of the small clearing. Was it perhaps their love of trees that kept them from using wood as building material? I wasn’t sure, but this wasn’t the time to ask.

The team stood in front of the aide — Sivaren Rols if memory served. He sat on a chair, all his papers and things laid out on a crate in the absence of a table or desk. Three rangers stood behind him, leaning against the wall, hands on the hilts of their swords. They were probably guards, in case the human spiritualist tried something. Well, if they had met Kitala Iwani, she might have given them a reason to expect some misbehaving.

The aide was a bored looking elf, with a hint of mild irritation showing on his handsome face. The way he was looking at the team was the way I would have expected a clerk at the local council, or a bank, or the DVLA, looking at a customer, wondering why the hell they were there in person instead of doing everything online. Was this guy really a high ranking officer?

The man studied our little trainee-troupe for a few moments, then started talking, looking at no-one in particular.

‘So, one more spiritualist, no doubt acquired in a dubious manner. And three trainees,’ he stated rather then asked, looking at his men.

‘This is it, sir,’ one of the rangers behind him replied.

‘I’ll never understand that yob,’ the aide muttered, then looked up and fixed his eyes on Krissy. ‘Misery, correct?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Krissy said.

‘You know, your friend … what was her name …’ the aide said.

‘Kitala Iwani,’ the same ranger offered him the name.

‘Yes. Kitala Iwani. She said we shouldn’t piss off your familiar under any circumstances, but refused to explain why. So … why? Is there going to be problem?’ the aide asked.

‘Uh … no, sir, I don’t know why Kiwa said that,’ Krissy lied. ‘My familiar is as reliable as any. Never had a problem.’

‘Alright then, let’s not waste time,’ he said, then called one of the three, blue caped rangers forward. ‘Dimal, take them to the coast and bring them up to speed on the way, then leave them with Sini’s team.’

‘Yes, sir,’ one of the three rangers said, stepping forward.

The aide looked at Timo and said,

‘Dismissed.’

‘Krissy, this is your chance. Do it!’ I urged her before we had to leave.

‘Sir,’ Krissy addressed the aide before the ranger could lead us out of the hut.

‘What is it?’ the man asked, looking at her with all the irritation in the world suddenly plastered on his face. Krissy rummaged through her bag, pulled a small box from it and put it on the crate before the man. He stared at it and asked, ‘What’s this?’

‘So … Master Fenar asked me to give this to you, sir. It’s a gift,’ Krissy said, putting on a mask of pure innocence.

Hisa nearly flinched, Arde seemed to be fighting a snort back, and Timo just stared wide eyed at the scene. I was simply smiling on the inside. This was a good marketing strategy as far as I was concerned: the man was a high ranking officer, and if he liked the tea I was sure he’d share it with his friends, hopefully also high ranking officers. And why wouldn’t he like it? So far everyone did.

‘A gift, huh? From the old git? That’s a first,’ the man said, eying the box suspiciously. ‘What is it? Smells like … tea of some kind. Is he trying to poison me?’

I hadn’t expected this kind of reaction — it made me wonder just how much the man and Fenar hated each other. But I had faith in Krissy, and she didn’t disappoint.

‘Oh, I don’t think so, sir,’ Krissy said, then stepped forward and leaned closer to the man. ‘Just between you and me, sir, I think Master Fenar wanted to gloat that he drinks better tea than you. Well, human ears aren’t as keen as elves’, but I heard him mumbling something like that. It’s a good tea, though, that much is true.’

‘Is that so?’ the man scoffed. ‘And he got the human spiritualist to deliver it? Oh, the incorrigible bastard!

‘It’s Master Fenar we’re talking about,’ Krissy said, giving the man an intentionally feeble smile. ‘I’m sure you know how he is sir, and I’m just the messenger.’

The man sighed, took the box and said,

‘Fine, whatever. If you make it back in one piece then tell him “thanks for the gift and sod off”.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Krissy said, smiling at the man.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

‘Dismissed,’ the aide said once again, looking happy about seeing us leave this time.

***

‘Listen up, trainees! The situation isn’t good.’ the ranger, Dimal, began the explanation without any preamble as soon as we exited the hut. ‘The barbarians showed up almost two weeks ago, and there’s a lot of them. This might be the largest raid on Solace soil in recent decades. We estimate their numbers to be between a hundred and hundred and fifty on land, and who knows how many more on their ships. The raiding parties aren’t big, six to fifteen each, from what we can tell. We’ve got the greens, humans, even some elves. They aren’t particularly stealthy, but as I said, there’s a lot of them, their area of activity is large and go deeper inland then ever before — they’ve raided a village almost thirty miles from the coast just yesterday. Not easy to track them even with help from Third and Sevenths Rangers.’

‘There are others from Third Rangers?’ Timo asked. ‘We haven’t been told.’

‘Of course you haven’t,’ Dimal scowled. ‘The top doesn’t want the news to spread yet. But yes, at least ten teams from Third Rangers and another fifteen from Seventh.’

‘I see,’ Timo said.

‘Even so, the enemy has us spread too thin,’ Dimal continued. ‘We have teams tracking enemy raiding parties, we have teams evacuating and guarding potential targets, we have teams searching along the coastline to find where the enemy ships are picking up raiders along with our stolen citizens. The navy is also looking for their ships, but haven’t found them yet. Based on past experiences, we think they are out on open sea, and come to the coast at set intervals, to predetermined points, and pick up raiders and captives.’

‘They kidnap people?’ Krissy asked, a dark expression settling on her face.

‘Yes. Elven slaves are their favourites,’ Dimal said, his eyes sparkling with anger. ‘I don’t know if the Hellspawn is a madman or a genius, but spiritualists are what we need for this.’

‘How many spiritualists did the enemy bring?’ Timo asked.

‘Our teams have encountered two. Separate raiding parties. There were casualties,’ the man said. ‘We believe there are more of them, likely on the ships. Ships are crucial to them and need protecting. If we manage to take out their ships, they’ll be stuck here and we’ll hunt them down.’

‘Makes sense,’ Timo agreed.

Dimal looked Krissy in the eyes, scowling, then said,

‘No offence, but you’re human. Can you take a barbarian spiritualist on if it comes to that?’

‘I can,’ Krissy said without hesitation, the same anger I was seeing in the ranger’s eyes lighting up in hers.

I wasn’t surprised — she had almost been sold into slavery once. I myself felt angered by the news of elven civilians being taken. But Krissy? She must have been taking this personally. But that was fine. She — we — could handle a spiritualist or two, I was sure of it.

The thing that surprised me, though, was the mention of a Solace navy. I mean … it made sense: this was an island nation, but this was the first I’d heard of their navy. I wondered what elven ships looked like. I hoped they weren’t anything like the ill fated Island Queen.

‘Good,’ the man said. ‘Because we’re going to the coast to join the teams looking for the enemy’s pickup point or points. If there’s any place where we’ll run into spiritualists, it will be those locations. Any questions?’

No-one said anything, the trainiees just nodded grimly. Dimal adjusted his bag, tapped the hilt of his sword, and said,

'Let’s get going.’

***

Dimal dictated a pace much faster than Timo had on the way here from Gal Themal. There was a sense of urgency now, one that hadn’t been there before.

If the situation was as bad as Dimal had described it, then I didn’t understand Fenar — he should have told us what was going on, and make us ride on horses to get here as soon as possible. I mean, this was kind of serious, wasn’t it? Elven lives were at stake, so secrecy be damned, right? I could be wrong, but my best guess was that he had been worried Krissy and I would refuse to help. She wasn’t an official ranger trainee — more like a personal pet-project of Fenar — and our deal with him didn’t include hunting down ork pirates. He had underestimated us, hadn’t he? On the other hand, he had sent Kiwa ahead, so I wasn’t sure if I could accuse the man of not taking this affair seriously. It also made me wonder what he could have offered Kiwa to take part in “Operation Screw the Ork Marauders”.

Krissy was using quite a bit of my Mana to keep up with the rangers, bringing up the rear as usual. I didn’t mind — my Essence collection was fast enough to keep the pool full.

We were going north-east — according to Timo’s compass — and Dimal assured us we’d leave the forest behind soon. It was time for me to discuss a few things with Krissy.

‘Krissy, listen, there are few issues,’ I said to her.

Of course there are. Her thoughts came to me, exasperated already.

‘Well, the thing is, I do have my old spirit-costume, but it’s not great. I’m making a better one, but it’s not ready, and I don’t have enough space in my Spirit-Room to store it anyway.’

Then just … make the whatever-room larger. Krissy said, shrugging.

‘I can’t. I’d have to level and grow my body. I can’t expand anything at the moment. Not the rooms, not the pools, not anything.’

I have no idea what all this means … except that enemy familiars are going to go into a frenzy when they see you. Is that what you’re saying?

‘There is a chance for that. But that’s not the only problem,’ I said.

Of course not. What else? Krissy sent her thoughts, groaning out loud like like my mother used to when she had to clean up after my teenage self for the hundredths time that day.

Hisa and Arde had heard her — they slowed down and fell in on either sides of her. Timo was further ahead, marching relentlessly, closer to Dimal who was leading the way. The had probably heard her, too, but neither of them deemed it necessary to investigate, and they kept going forward, almost jogging.

‘You alright?’ Arde asked.

‘Yeah, fine, just having a conversation with my familiar. He’s giving me a headache,’ Krissy said.

‘And they are the next problem,’ I said to Krissy as the two elves looked at her with their eyebrows raised.

They are? Krissy asked.

‘Yeah. I don’t want them to see me eating souls and familiars. Well, they won’t see it, but you know, if an ork or an elf just drops dead for no apparent reason, that might look suspicious.’

Hm. That’s a good point. I mean, Arde knows you’re weird, but I don’t think I’m ready to deal with questions like “why your familiar is an evil spirit”.

‘Oi, I’m not that weird. But yes, that’s exactly the problem. So. Suggestions?’

Krissy fell into silent thought, probably pondering my request. Or cursing me.

‘Misery?’ Arde asked, looking … concerned.

‘Oh, nothing. My familiar is just … being an evil spirit again. I swear one day he’ll start eating souls,’ Krissy said, sighing.

Arde and Hisa looked at each other, confused. Or worried. Or both.

‘Krissy? What the hell?’ I asked, feeling uneasy all of a sudden.

What do you mean? You are an evil spirit. Sooner or later they’ll see you do something evil. Might as well start easing them into it. I’d seen my father do this. It works. Krissy said with a mental shrug.

‘Oh. The … uh … hiding in plain sight thing? Is that it?’ I asked, realising this might not be such a bad idea.

Something like that. Krissy said.

‘Your familiar speaks to you?’ Hisa asked. ‘I thought only monks talk to spirits.’

‘Yeah, I’m something like a monk,’ Krissy said. ‘And Kevin isn’t a regular familiar. He’s weird, but more powerful than most.’

‘I’m not that weird,’ I protested, but Krissy just smiled and said,

‘Yes, you are.’

‘Are you talking to the spirit now?’ Arde asked.

‘I am,’ she said, then she paused for a moment, and went ahead and asked, ‘Do you … want to see one of the tricks he does?’

‘Uh … yes?’ Arde said cautiously.

Hisa nodded, too, slowly, probably not knowing what to expect. Hell, I didn’t know what to expect.

‘Can you get me the mask, Kevin?’ Krissy said.

Oh. The mask. I had to admit, that was a harmless enough thing, probably a good way to “ease” the elves into accepting me as not quite an evil spirit, just bordering on one — harmless to them, deadly to enemies.

Even after spending half a year among the elves, I still couldn’t tell for certain if they hated spirits or not. I knew they vehemently opposed the gods establishing shrines on their land, thus avoiding falling under their influence. Based on what I knew about the gods, the elves had a point. On the other hand, they seemed to understand that spirits were … well, people, or individuals beings, and they didn’t seem to outright hate our kind. As evidenced by the fact that Fenar had indeed enlisted Krissy and Kiwa to help. In light of this, Krissy’s plan had a certain appeal, and I hoped she knew what she was doing, and that whatever reaction she was predicting would be the one we’d be getting.

I brought the mask out from Jack’s Room; it appeared in front of Krissy, and she reached out to grab it. I made up a small blob of spirit-glue, slapped the goo onto the mask, and when Krissy put it against her face it stayed there.

‘What do you think?’ Krissy asked, smiling under the mask she was now wearing, no doubt excited about implementing her plan.

‘That’s a creepy mask,’ Arde commented.

‘It’s a … misery mask. For theater actors, isn’t it?' Hisa noted. 'Is this why you’re called … Misery?’

‘It is,’ Krissy said.

‘Nice trick. I didn’t know spirits could do something like this,’ Arde said.

‘Oh, no, regular spirits can’t. Mine can,’ Krissy said, puffing her chest out with pride I hoped was real and not just an act. ‘He can do some useful things, too.’

‘Oi, are you saying this isn’t useful?’ I demanded.

‘How would you like to speak with my familiar?’ Krissy asked, ignoring me completely.

And my metaphorical jaw dropped.