044 - Out of Your League
The cheering of the crowd followed Conrad and Karno as they exited the Arena and returned to the preparation area.
Conrad was bleeding, he had broken bones, his status informed him of something called ‘internal bleeding’ which seemed bad but he figured it was nothing a potion couldn’t cure. And though he was tired, tired beyond anything he had ever experienced, beneath it all he felt a gently spreading sense of peace.
It was over. He had lived.
Mara eased him onto a cot while Troy and Jace did their best to help the hulking Karno onto one of his own and both were plied with potions.
“Mixed a little something else into this one, C” Mara whispered, “Sleep. We’ll be out of here in a jiff.”
And sleep he did. Exhausted, dreamless, sleep.
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He didn’t know how much later it was that he finally woke to sunlight filtering in through the window.
Sunlight? Window? Where was he?
Consciousness still slow, he looked around himself at his new surroundings. It was a well-furnished apartment, with floors all of polished wood, artistic framing of windows, and bookshelves stocked with numerous volumes. The whole space felt somewhat like Barrett’s carved great pine suite.
He was in bed. An honest to Order bed with pillows and a duvet and next to it was a small tray on a stand with a small stack of cookies and what looked to be meat pies.
His stomach growled at the sight of them but before he could grab one the door creaked open and Mara came in. She was wearing a thin dress, form-fitting and bright yellow with stitched flowers. Troy followed close behind her and the two of them pulled up chairs to sit beside Conrad as he sat up in bed.
“How long?” Conrad asked.
“Almost two days,” Mara said.
Conrad whistled and was quiet a moment before asking, “Anybody going to tell me where we are or do I need to keep asking before I learn about what’s going on?”
Troy cleared his throat, “Actually, we’re at your place. Nice little apartment up in one of the Great Pines. Great view of the Arena,” he hesitated a moment and added, “Gift from Barrett.”
Conrad was on alert, “Barrett doesn’t give gifts, he adds leverage. What’s the game?”
Mara and Troy looked at each other again, “None that we know of,” Mara said, “He said we can stay as long as we like and then we’re free to leave. Asked us if we’d like to stay though.”
“Made a sweet offer,” Troy said, “50 gold per month, an apartment like this, and slick red uniform to wear around town while we hustle newcomers about taxes.”
“Not bad…” Conrad said. He straightened out the blankets over his legs, noticing the fine material of the bedclothes he had on, and reached for a meat pie. He took a bite and, trying not to show how much he cared about the answer, asked, “Did you take it?”
Troy gave a half smile, “Nah. Besides, red’s not Mara’s color.”
“Sun, sky, and pastels for me,” Mara said smiling.
That was good news, but Conrad knew that Barrett always had an angle. Everything seemed like a choice until it wasn’t any longer. Not bringing adventurers to Great Pines had been a major point in his policy up to that point - if they came they would bring with them new trade, items, and skills and would dilute the loot offerings of the dungeon, slowing the growth of his town.
“You refused his offer and he still said you can leave?” Conrad asked, thinking out loud, “Something isn’t right.”
Troy stood up and walked to the window, gesturing for Conrad to follow, “I think you need to see this. A lot has changed since your fight.”
What could have changed so drastically over the course of two days? Sure, Conrad had been stuck underground or in the Arena for over a week and he expected the town itself to have grown a bit - the growth stones he had secured, not to mention all the materials and whatever else the other gladiators had been pulling from the dungeon would have seen to that. He knew the population had been growing, and growing fast, but even that wasn’t enough to surprise him.
And yet, what he saw when he pulled himself over to the window, muscles still aching and bones creaking, was a surprise.
It took a moment to pick it out, the scene of Great Pines that spread below them was as Conrad had expected to see it. It had grown, more than he had guessed with dozens upon dozens of windows peeking out of the surrounding great pine trees along with a similar number of new buildings, walled compounds, and buildings that had grown beyond the squat single floor of most of the structures Conrad had seen prior to entering the dungeon.
But it wasn’t the buildings. It wasn’t just the milling masses of people. It was the colors.
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Clothing of most homesteaders, and so most of Great Pines, was drab and functional, but intermixed among the ‘natives’ were men and women with clothing of every color and hue a talented clothier could dye into existence. And with all these colors, the glint of sunlight off of weapons and armor.
“Are those…adventurers?” Conrad asked.
“Yes, and primarily out of Edge,” a voice spoke, Confluence accent crisp.
Conrad turned to see Barrett, lord of Great Pines, standing in the doorway to the bedroom. His bedroom, he reminded himself.
The man nodded to Troy, who nodded back respectfully, and then he gave a slight gentlemanly bow to Mara. She gave a seated version of a curtsy in response and Barrett entered the room to approach Conrad and Troy at the window.
“What do you want?” Conrad asked immediately.
Barrett smiled, “I want to know how you did it.”
“Did what?” Conrad said, trying to keep his cool, “Everything I’ve done for the last couple of weeks has been on display in that Arena,” he pointed to the dungeon, which was at least twice as large as when he had first arrived.
Barrett moved across the room to an armchair near another window and sat himself down comfortably, “I want to know how the dungeon was able to invite all of these adventurers here.”
“The Announcer.. the dungeon invited the adventurers?” Conrad asked, shocked.
“Yes,” Barrett said, “Nearly every single newly arrived adventurer has come as a result of quests issued to challenge the Arena. Quests issued by the Arena itself through the Edge chapter of the Adventurer’s Guild. Its avatar has refused to explain how. It’s more a question of curiosity at this point, I won’t fuss over spent XP, but still, the mystery intrigues me. Troy and Mara say they’re not sure either, so that leaves you.”
“Coulda been somebody else,” Conrad said.
“No,” Barrett said, “I don’t think it was.”
They stared at each other in silence for a few moments before it came to Conrad. The dungeon had been ecstatic over receiving the Guild Pin, and he hadn’t understood why. When it betrayed him and sent Karno in place of Troy, he had thought that that was the reason for its attitude. Conrad had failed to negotiate the strictest possible terms of the trade and the dungeon had taken advantage of that fact.
But then he thought of what the pin could do. It boosted the wearer’s attributes, which had been Conrad’s primary interest in keeping it, but outside of that… it had a spell.
“Clever,” Conrad said out loud. Barrett steepled his hands, patiently waiting.
“The pin,” Conrad said, “The guild pin had an SOS spell that issued a quest with a location for coming to find the user.”
Barrett’s eyebrows twitched upward in understanding.
“It appropriated the spell, modified it, and turned it into a means for it to send its own quests to the Edge Adventurer’s Guild.”
“That is clever,” Barrett mused, “More innovative than I gave it credit for. It’s learning fast.”
Conrad started laughing. He laughed so deep and hard that Troy and Mara started nervously laughing along with him, though Barrett just watched, bemused.
“I beat you!” Conrad said, still laughing, “We beat you!”
Barrett frowned, not seeming to understand and so Conrad laid it out for him, laughing all the while, “Your dream of carefully cultivating the dungeon and using it to give you exactly what you wanted, to build this place into a city to rival Confluence? It’s over! It’s ironic, really, that with Order’s adventurers arriving in Great Pines, they have brought Chaos with them and freed the dungeon from your control.”
Barrett screwed up his face and waived away the comments, bringing a sudden end to Conrad’s laughter, “Over? Far from it. We’ve just begun the next phase.”
Conrad looked confused. Disappointed. “But the adventurers… you didn’t want them to come.”
“No, we could have used another few weeks or months of growth but sooner or later they would have discovered our treasure,” Barrett said nonchalantly, “But as you well know, plans require adaptation. And adapt we have.”
He stood and gestured down at the milling throngs, “Yes, I will no longer get exactly the materials I need to grow this place exponentially. Yes, adventurers have arrived, and although Troy and Mara have refused my generous offer of employment, others have not. Take a look at the number of those armored men and women wearing crimson.”
Conrad did and was startled to see posted at intervals at the border roads to Great Pines many clusters of crimson-garbed men and women, and still more of them milling around the town or stationed at high-traffic areas.
“I told you that I needed a man like you. A man who could demonstrate the potential of this place. Don’t you remember? And you far exceeded my expectations. Perhaps it has been me you’ve been fighting against down in that Arena, but out here I was cheering for you!
“And sure, more adventurers have arrived than I originally anticipated, but on the wings of such a dramatic victory of both The Tower and The Merchant of Death - you should see the statue erected by the dungeon it’s quite flattering - and with my newly imposed taxes on both entrance to the Arena as well as on winnings, well, Great Pines income has increased dramatically since your victory. And we may yet have a few good months of growth stones and material coming from the dungeon before the arriving legions of men and women dilute the loot to the point that we have to resort to,” he said the word in a mockery of disdain, “trade, to get the rest of what we need. But by then it won’t matter.”
“You thought you were a player, Conrad,” he chucked, “But I’m sorry to inform you, in this league, I already own the game. You are not my competition.”
Barrett, lord of Great Pines, held out his hand, “In defeating the twelve tiers of the Arena, and in doing so spectacularly, you’ve done me a great service! So I offer you my hand in gratitude.”
Conrad stared at it. Shake the hand of the man who had sentenced him to the ordeal of the Arena? Twelve fights, living on the edge of death for days on end, twisting what Conrad thought was a final defeat of the man’s plans into a further defeat for Conrad, and Barrett wanted to shake his hand? The victory in the Arena had been something, but he had thought upon leaving, someday he would have victory over this man.
“Shake his damn hand,” Mara snapped, standing, hands on her hips.
Troy put a friendly hand on his shoulder, “Victory doesn’t always feel good, Mate. Shake it. This war’s over.”
When he had been put in shackles and dragged off to the Arena as a prisoner, Conrad had gone over what he had done wrong and wondered how he could have made things better. And chief among his many mistakes was ignoring the advice of his friends. Friends who had come to get him despite even so short a friendship. Friends the likes of which he could live a hundred lives and never encounter again.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but there was nothing else he could do. So Conrad took Barrett’s hand and shook. Barrett squeezed, grip firm, but there was no attempt at dominance in the gesture. Whatever Conrad thought about the situation, Barrett was sincere in his gratitude.
The lord of great pines walked to the door and signaled the room around him, “This place is a gift. We impose a small property tax for ownership but you can speak with one of my accountants on the matter. Good luck to you, Merchant.”
And he left.
Mara came up behind him and gave him a huge, “Don’t look so glum, C,” she said, “You haven’t even seen the loot yet.”
“Should probably warn you that Barrett decided half the winnings should go to Karno for his part in the match,” Troy said.
Karno. How had Conrad neglected to ask about the man?
“He’s all right then? Where is he?” Conrad asked.
“Hiding from his fans,” Mara said, “But I think he’ll open the doors for you.”