There were a few wounds too grave for even Theo’s potions to save. No one died from the siege, but several adventurers were left with missing appendages. But even those who now hobbled through the streets of Broken Tusk were excited for the victory. An oversized crowd formed at Xam’s tavern as she cracked open casks of the nice mead. The alchemist got his mug and joined the celebrations, even as his stamina flagged. Work needed to be done today, even if no one had the energy to do so in the dying light of the late afternoon.

The golems mirrored Theo’s desire to collect reagents from the fallen monsters, and he allowed them to pick over the creatures. While the Goblins would produce nothing but the near-worthless [Goblin Tongues], the new bird-people might have something of use. Even the [Lesser Copper Golems] seemed eager to get out there, so he allowed it. When he slipped his new ring over his finger, he stared at the description for some time.

[Ring of Tero’gal]

[Ring]

Epic

Scaling

An enchanted gold ring, inlaid with the image of a Dronon and Bantari.

Effect:

Reduces the cooldown of all Tara’hek members by 2%.

At first blush, it wasn’t a very useful item. 2% wasn’t much, but it was a global cooldown. And it scaled. The inscription was also pleasant to look at, and Alex took to pecking at the golden band. Since the ring scaled, it would grow more powerful with the alchemist. One day, it would be useful.

Theo didn’t know the golems could get excited, but he felt that sensation filtering through the lodestone network. The [Lesser Plant Golem] was the one to send the message, insisting that the alchemist meet it outside the tavern. When he went, the crowd parted for the golem who was holding 2 items in its arm-like appendages. The first item was a feather, simple in its design and roughly the size of his palm. The second item was a long, jagged talon. Inspecting them both, the alchemist had mixed feelings.

[Zureah Talon]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Rare

The menacing claw of a Zureah.

Properties:

[Slash] [????] [????]

At least it revealed that the creatures were called Zureah. Like with most hard reagents, he couldn’t eat this one right away to discover the second property. He also wasn’t eager to eat the feather.

[Zureah Feather]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Epic

The feather of a Zureah, said to hold the creature’s affinity for flight.

Properties:

[Levitate] [????] [????]

How the feather was more rare than the talon was beyond him, but the [Levitate] property seemed useful. It would require experimentation, but this seemed like a great reagent. Theo sent a mental order to the golem network, instructing them to focus on collecting as many feathers as possible. If they didn’t get as many talons, he wouldn’t mind. Just the idea of floating through the air appealed to him.

“I wouldn’t have to walk,” Theo said with a nod.

“Theo,” Aarok said, whistling to get the alchemist’s attention. Tresk appeared near the alchemist, as though she’d been stalking him. She was still on edge from the siege. “We need a word.”

Theo brought his mug of mead, his eyes lingering on those few adventurers without limbs. Alchemy could solve this problem, he knew it. As he followed Aarok toward the town hall, he rolled his options through his mind. The [Alchemic Regenerative Salve] could regrow fingers and toes, so it stood to reason there was something more powerful for limbs. During his time in town, he’d noticed several people with scars, or missing eyes in Sulvan’s case. Without a proper healer, the alchemist would need to find a solution.

Aarok said something, but Theo was in his thoughts. His previous attempts at the [Alchemic Regenerative Salve] were done with low-grade materials. He was certain that refining his process would produce a better salve, perhaps even one powerful enough for the job. Those suffering from unexpected amputations were healthy, thanks to the power of the potions, so they weren’t dying from infections or related ailments. But it was a shame to see the defenders of the proud town brought low, and the alchemist would do anything to see them whole again.

“Theo,” Aarok said, tapping him on the shoulder.

They were standing in a room with the command staff, and administration staff. Aarok, Luras, Alise, and Gwyn stared back at him. Tresk poked him in the side while Alex nipped at the new ring on his finger. He didn’t remember entering the town hall, so he drained the rest of his mug and put on a brave face.

“Right. Why are we here?”

“We have a meeting in Rivers and Daub tomorrow, as I just said,” Aarok said. “We expect you to attend.”

Theo cleared his throat. Of course he should attend. He owned the town. His mind swirled at the thought, discomfort stemming from the idea of leaving the safety of the walls. Instead of letting himself succumb to those fears, he bolstered his mind with a plan. Yuri wouldn’t help. That old Khahari bastard would make this a lesson about reaching out to the other towns in the area to strengthen the alliance. The only option he had was to go on foot, leaving Alex back in town. Theo and Tresk could teleport to her when the meeting was over, spending as little time away from home as possible.

“Naturally,” Theo said. “This is a political meeting. I’m guessing that Alran Cherman guy convinced the leader of Gronro to meet in Rivers. The plan is to lay it out like it is. No matter what anyone says, we’re the strongest town in the Southlands.”

“Well—” Luras started.

“There’s no ‘well’ about it,” Theo interrupted. It was time to shit or get off the pot. “Both Fenian and Khahar told us the end is coming, whatever that means. They’ve laid out how things are going to work. Period. Gronro will become a bastion against whatever comes. Rivers will crank out food, and we’ll make sure both are capable of the task. Once our shipwrights arrive, we’ll make boats. Contact the other nations and form alliances.”

“Wow, someone grew a spine,” Gwyn said, snorting a laugh.

“More than a spine. A purpose,” Theo said, thumping his fist on the table for dramatic effect. “No one has us by the strings, and I mean no one. We’ll propose an alliance like this. Broken Tusk is the brain, Rivers the heart, and Gronro the sword and shield. Any objections?”

Luras grunted, and Aarok nodded. Tresk just shouted, “Yeah!”

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“That works for me,” Aarok said.

“No objections,” Alise said. “I have some long-term ideas for Rivers, but the first step is to get them to join a defensive alliance.”

“Once they realize how much they need us and Gronro-dir, we can throw more weight around,” Gwyn finished with a nod. “Until then, we need to display our power.”

“We’re young in their eyes,” Theo said, feeling his face get hot from the mead. “But we’ll make them see that time isn’t a factor.”

Aarok took the table and went through the step-by-step plan for the meeting. The trip would take a day for a mundane person, and half a day for most level 10 to 20 adventurers, but Azrug had come through with his new venture. The young merchant had secured Qavelli Karatan and wagons. The beasts were known by all merchants for their ability to gallop along trails tirelessly, often needing no instruction from their driver. They’d leave at dawn and arrive before midday with a group of hardened adventurers.

“But we’re not leaving the town undefended,” Aarok said.

“I have a few tricks for our own defense,” Theo said, rubbing his hands together.

Alise and Gwyn sorted out some other business about the cleanup efforts. No one was permitted into the swamp until the sludge left from the Plague Troll was burned away. The task would be annoying. It wasn’t easy to burn away sludge that mixed with water, but the administration had already tasked Xol’sa and Zarali with the problem. The wizard had a solution, but it would take time. Until then, they’d just burn what they could.

“I’m off to take a bath,” Theo said, exiting the meeting once they’d concluded business.

No one joined Theo and Tresk for their nightly bath. Alex didn’t want to get in the water, but she was happy to play by the side of the pool. The pair shared no words relating to their plan for tomorrow, only letting feelings and memories flow between them. Theo’s plan was simple. He’d create new [Lesser Copper Golems] to join them on the trip, 10 in all. After deactivating his current non-metal golems, he’d leave a cadre with Alex in Broken Tusk. 5 on the road, 5 back to guard the gosling. When the meeting in Rivers was over, they could teleport back to town.

“Yuri, you still around?” Theo asked. Nothing happened. “Khahar?”

Khahar was suddenly in the pool. He let out a sigh and reclined in the water. A pained look lingered on his face. “Not for much longer.”

“See any futures about our trip to Rivers?”

“There’s a low percentage chance that assassins will attack on the road,” Khahar said. “Curiously, I cannot see who their master is. If you go on foot, they will attack. By wagon, only a 5% chance. With your golems, it's likely impossible to happen.”

“Sounds like cheating,” Tresk said, narrowing her eyes.

Khahar shrugged. “I’m fading, so I don’t care anymore.”

“What about Alran?” Theo asked. “Is he going to try anything?”

“I think he’s seen the importance of an alliance,” Khahar said. “He knows the people of Broken Tusk won’t follow an oppressor.”

“Good news,” Theo said, sinking further into the bath. “Wanna stick around and soak?”

“Naturally.”

Khahar and Theo exchanged stories about the old days. Given the chance, neither would return to their old world if they could. Things weren’t going well, even if the soon-to-be Khahari God could turn back time. He’d have to rewind it back to the industrial age to stop the path they set themselves on. Even then, he had his doubts. With his own hands, he helped shape this world. Counting all its flaws, it was far better than where they came from.

Tresk remained silent for most of the bath, only commenting on the strange inventions Earthlings came up with. Khahar finally revealed how desperate things were when this planet was seeded.

“The strangest thing, though,” Khahar said, running his clawed fingers through Alex’s feathers. She chirped happily. “There were no Humans. Maybe whoever brought us here thought we needed different bodies to adapt, but our modern Humans in this world come from Elves. Someone from Earth got placed in an Elf body, so they worked on making a race that looked like they used to look. Funny how we hang on to stuff like that.”

Theo nodded. He realized how much he’d miss having an old friend when he was gone. It brought him more than comfort and companionship. Khahar brought a sense of confidence that he hadn’t had since arriving. Others might look at his work back on Earth and think he’d be a man of conviction, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Their unique form of spy craft was different. Enemy spies were often close friends, and everyone was just following orders. Kill orders on others often ended in failed attempts, and the governments eventually gave up on the idea. It reminded the alchemist of how Khahar wanted to spit in the faces of the gods now.

“What’s in the box?” Theo asked.

“Can’t tell you what’s in the box,” Khahar said. “What’s the point of telling you what’s in the box?”

“Cause I wanna know.”

“You can’t know.”

“Because if you say what’s in there, the gods will know?” Theo asked.

“No, because it’s a surprise,” Khahar said, laughing. “God, I forgot. You can’t handle surprises, can you?”

“He’s horrible at surprises,” Tresk said, giggling.

The conversation lasted until they were kicked out of the bathhouse. People were still celebrating in the streets, and Theo’s golems were still hard at work outside the walls of Broken Tusk. They’d work through the night if the night watch let them. Even then, they might keep on going even after being told to stop.

“Time to enter Tero’gal,” Khahar said, smiling.

“You meant to say ‘good night’,” Theo said, clapping Khahar on the shoulder.

“Naturally.”

Feeling better than he had in a while, Theo made his way back to the Newt and Demon. Reports still rolled in, but they were tepid. Monsters were spawning from the other dungeons, but not in amounts that were concerning. No one had sighted the strangers out near the trees. But it was time to go to bed, off into the Dreamwalk where the alchemist could grind more levels.

Alex was happy to sleep wherever, finding a cluster of blankets in the room’s center to curl into. Within moments, the room swirled around Theo. The ethereal world of the Dreamwalk sprung up around him, replacing reality with the personalized realm. The gosling took on her true form here, waddling around with her webbed feet to peck at the ground near the river. While she was busy with her goose stuff, the two members of the party went over their plan. It was always good to wait until they had privacy.

But there were few changes they needed to make to ensure Alex’s safety. They’d hand her off to Miana, surround her with golems and whatever adventurers needed a contract before leaving the town. It would have been more risky to take her with them than leaving her here. Broken Tusk had massive guns on the walls, after all.

When it came time to split off, Alex wanted to stay with Theo. The alchemist’s plans for the night’s Dreamwalk was to grind out alchemy and herbalism experience. When he got his imagined stills set up, the realm refused to let him distill his new reagents. Once again, it was particular about what they could do.

“Doesn’t matter,” Theo said, working his stills. “At least I have company that’s not trying to kill me.”

Alex chirped her response.

The [Drogramath Alchemy Core] rolled over to level 18 during the night, with the [Drogramath Herbalism Core] almost hitting 17. Theo didn’t get a system message while in the Dreamwalk, but could feel it in his chest. Both his [Governance Core] and [Tara’hek Core] gained a massive dump of experience from the siege, enough to push his administration-based core over the edge into 16, but not enough for the Tara’hek to advance.

During his brewing, golem construction, and tending of gardens, Theo reflected on how his alchemy was going. There seemed to be a limit to what he could do at his current tier, but something scratched at the back of his mind. The hints were all before him, as they always were. Working with his current selection of reagents was limiting. Once he unlocked the [Reagent Deconstruction] skill at level 20, he’d understand the nature of his ingredients more. Until then, he could use the skill from his herbalism core to make inferences.

[Rare Material Handling] was a skill that surprised him when he got it. The only reagents he’d seen didn’t need much special handling. Once distilled into their essence form was when he worried about handing it off to a normal person, but the reagents? Those were all fine to handle. No matter how he tried to project his mind, to twist it around a possible future, Theo couldn’t see what rare materials would mean for alchemy. His intuition said it would be different, but he couldn’t determine in what way.

Alex was an excellent helper. She didn’t physically do anything, but her calming presence added more to the Dreamwalk than anything else. Theo couldn’t feel the regular flash of hate that Tresk exuded during their training. It was more a focused calm, like a properly trained fighter. It was a sudden shift that left the alchemist thinking about the lodestones Zarali had made. Perhaps the little gosling acted much like those, spreading the mental weight of conflicting realms out over the Tara’hek. He shared the information with Tresk, through their communication ability, and she came to visit them by the river.

“Maybe,” Tresk said with a shrug. “I’m feeling less pissed off with the goose around.”

Alex chirped and nodded.

“I’m certain no one has done this before,” Tresk said.

The number of people who held a Tara’hek in this world was likely low, if not zero outside of their bond. Khahar might know, but then again he might not tell the truth. It seemed the longer the man spent outside of his desert kingdom, the worse off he was. Why he didn’t just pop back to the desert in an instant to rest was beyond the alchemist. Yuri now functioned on a level that was impossible to understand. He was beyond normal logic.

Theo and Tresk sat by the river for some time, sensing the end of the Dreamwalk drawing near. The Marshling summoned a sunrise for them to watch, complete with the massive, fake Marshling god Marshy. Tresk was a horrible dancer, and so was the massive salamander. For the first time since he’d met her, Tresk just sat there. She didn’t fidget, or play with the knives at her hips. She allowed the true power of the Tara’hek to consume her, giving in to that calming sensation completely.

By the time morning came, Theo couldn’t decide if it was a change he enjoyed.