“We’d also be able to provide training in the use of primitive arms and armor, I watched your Challenge, girl. It was rather invigorating, you did well, though you could have done better.” Freya’s eyes lingered on Alyssa with the last comment. I leaned back curious about the exchange. I knew Alyssa’s new title was important in the system, I just didn’t know how important.
Alyssa tensed under the scrutiny and suddenly looked like she wanted to be anywhere but by the fire.
“Ah yes, this is Alyssa. Alyssa, this is Freya, Queen of the Valkyr.” I introduced them and Freya stood and gave Alyssa a short bow that she wasn’t sure how to respond to.
“Uh… thanks?”
Freya laughed again and waved her hands in a placating gesture, “Relax, Challenger. I am merely honored to be in the presence of one who has both lost,” her eyes flickered to Alyssa's black arm, “And gained so much so quickly. You don’t know it yet, but Challengers are rare, and often become the greatest leaders of their people.”
“Oh!” Alyssa blushed and Junipher and Choox’il both nodded in confirmation.
“Before the negotiations begin in earnest, I wish to give you a gift, Challenger. Something more suited to your style of fighting.”
She produced a linen wrapped bundle, a pair of silvery grips with runes of obvious power etched across them stuck out of the linen. When the linen bundle was unfolded it revealed a pair of absolutely beautiful falcatas that were made of the same silver metal that her armor was made of. More runes adorned the back edge of the blades and seemed to shimmer in the fire light. Alyssa accepted the weapons wordlessly along with a pair of ornate sheaths.
“I.. really can’t accept this.. It’s too much… I…” Alyssa began to stutter her refusal as she analyzed the weapons and her eyes shot wide, Freya gently placed a hand over Alyssa’s good hand and pushed the weapons back to her.
In a quiet voice only those with meteoric perception could hear, the tall Valkyr Queen leaned in and whispered in Alyssa’s ear, “Hush, child. You are the First Challenger, I have measured your worth and find you more than acceptable for a gift as paltry as this. I will see that one of my people is available to train you in their proper usage. And I can offer other guidance when you are ready. The path of the Challenger is a difficult one and many will come to take that title for themselves. The only way to lose that title is to also lose your life.”
Tears welled up in Alyssa’s eyes as she stared up at the woman with a look bordering on reverence. Then she nodded and stored her dark iron falchions she had used since the Kobold dungeon and equipped the new pair of falcata. Freya returned with a smile to her seat in front of me and Eli moved to speak with Alyssa, eager to get a look at the gift she had earned from the Valkyr Queen.
If I hadn’t already decided to grant their request of sanctuary, how she handled the young woman would have been all the convincing I needed. As it was, that sealed the deal in my eyes.
“She’s a handful.” I smirked.
“She’s a Challenger.” Freya returned with a grim smile.
I shrugged deciding I could dig into that later, “So, you mentioned someone named Gregor?”
“Ah, yes, Gregor. Another leader of Refugees. His people approached us on our third day here having appeared, apparently, inside the mountain. The humans called them Dwarves. All muscle and hair, but not particularly tall. They were craftsmen, and they offered their services to the Mayor and weren’t entirely rebuffed as we were. Though they were also not offered a Contract.”
“Ok, so… Daemons, Valkyries, and now Dwarves. Who else should I expect?”
“I understand there are analogs to our species in your popular culture and myths, it is rather interesting to say the least.”
“Yeah, even some of the skill descriptions are suspiciously plagiarized from the same sources. So, what happened to Gregor and his people?”
“Well, we don’t know, it’s been a couple days since we heard from him. He said he had someone on the inside that was going to attempt to overthrow the Mayor. Someone he said was more amenable to our presence. I told him he shouldn’t bother. Though to his credit, he seemed like a determined fellow. And his people weren’t exactly fighters. They were mostly women and children with crafting classes.”
I mulled that over as Eli moved to get my attention, “Sir, I think you should see this.”
“What do you got?”
Eli flicked his hand and his AI projected a video in the air between us. It took me a moment to recognize what I was looking at before Eli interjected.
“This is the scene outside the walls of Flagstaff”
“That is a big wall.” I remarked at the nearly 20 meter tall structure that stretched up the side of the mountain and into the forest.
“Indeed, zoom the video in here.” He directed his AI and the image resolved to focus on a group of people who had been seemingly crucified to the wall, naked and exposed for the world to see. A banner hung beneath each of the condemned. Treason. Insurrection. Sedition. Presumably an exclamation of their crimes against the city.
My eyes drifted to a gathering of figures on the wall. The native inmate I had released from Coronado, the one who spoke of family here in Winslow, had an arm around a young blonde haired college kid. They were pointing and laughing at an auburn haired girl that hung from the wall below them. Then the young man opened his pants and proceeded to further abuse the girl below him. The former inmates followed suit once the blonde haired fucker had finished emptying himself.
“I know that man.” I said flatly as rage blossomed in my chest. I’m going to have to fix this! Mother fucker! I felt the Reaper chiding me for my thoughts. Not for wanting to correct the baseless foolishness displayed before me, but for thinking I’m the one solely responsible for the actions of others. I could have killed them. I should have let Kaia feast!
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“That wicked boy?” Freya asked.
“No, that evil bastard behind him, the instigator. He was the inmate that made a fuss about having family here in Winslow. Didn’t like that I told him in no uncertain words to fuck off or die.”
“Karl, I’m sure you’re Reaper is communicating in its own way what you and I both know. You aren’t directly responsible for the actions of these men. If you kill everyone because you think they will do bad things, no one will remain.”
“You’re right." I sighed irritably, "Eli, who’s our best team at keeping out of sight? I want them headed to Flagstaff to get our own eyes on the city there. Once Winslow is sorted I think Flagstaff will be our first conquest, til then I want them watched like a hawk.”
“My thoughts exactly, I’d also like to make a suggestion.”
“Go ahead.”
“While I don’t think we should reveal our forces, I do think if any of those Red Bands come near our scout team they should be made priority targets. ‘Thin the herd’ so to speak.”
“Do it. Let’s start softening them up as soon as we can for a larger campaign. When our teams have completed their current tasks, direct them to clear a path to Flag, issue quests to claim any dungeon and settlement cores. I think by tomorrow we should have the majority of Winslow under control.” I turned back to Freya who was staring intently at the girl that was on the receiving end of the men’s abuse. “Recognize someone?”
“Aye, I think that’s the girl that Gregor was going to meet with. An assassin type class. If it is, I just hope Gregor and his people got out unscathed.”
“If he makes it here, I’m sure we can accommodate them. Now, let’s focus on you. What specifically can you offer my meager settlement and inversely, what can we offer you?”
She looked at me with renewed hope in her eyes and took a deep breath. Her advisors straightened and all conversation died down as they realized we were about to get down to the nitty gritty.
“As I stated before, our people are warriors. Every man and woman is raised to fight. We need a Contract of Sanctuary because it provides us with citizenship, recognized by the system, and removes our refugee status. We essentially become vassals of the sponsoring settlement or city.”
“Ok, now it’s starting to make sense. Veep, how many contracts can we sign to?”
“You are currently only considered a settlement, as you know, so you are only allowed four contracted refugee camps. Each camp is allowed to take up position at each of the four cardinal directions. Lord Shubin and his people currently hold the southern position. Each camp is placed roughly ten kilometers from the main settlement. When the settlement expands, so may the camps. If your settlement manages to grow into a city, the camps will grow to be towns, or even eventually be absorbed by the larger city into districts.”
“Alright, so, you already indicated you’d be willing to provide fighters. And honestly, that’s what I really need at the moment. My people are stretched thin, Lord Shubin has been cultivating a dungeon for us, but I can’t break anyone free to level in it. And after the battle this morning I know my people are eager for some downtime. How long would it take for you to get settled?”
Freya turned to her advisors for the answer. Troels shrugged and looked to Hilga. “Depending on the location, and depending on your requirements, we can start supporting you within 72 hours. Probably sooner if we’re allowed Kiosk access.”
I thought about the situation and decided that they’d make a good buffer against the unknown eastern region of our settlement. I didn’t have anywhere particularly cold to accommodate their nature, though the Little Colorado was now flowing strong and fast and if they set up around ten kilometers in that direction they could watch both the river and the I-40 for aggressors.
I had Veep display a map of the area I had in mind. Everyone leaned in as I began to speak. “So this is what I’m thinking. A mutual defense pact for sanctuary. I like to keep shit simple. You move your people out here between the Little Colorado River and the I-40. Do whatever you want out there as long as you do two things. Keep the area between your camp and the settlement clear of monsters, and provide additional manpower as requested by whoever my current Guard Captain is. Now, I also picked this area because it provides you easy access to the river. And it’s going to get fucking hot! A nice relaxing dip in the river will help you deal with the heat.”
Freya and her people laughed at the last bit, then leaned in to each other and began a quiet discussion. When they finished she turned back to me and smiled, “I think these terms are acceptable, though, I’d like to offer an amendment to your requirements. It is customary for contracts such as these to also require the party seeking refuge to clear any dungeons to the Settlement leaders satisfaction. Any dungeons we come across will be cleared in your name and we will make every effort to capture them. Any dungeon we capture will be managed by us and profits from the dungeon are negotiable.One thing we would ask is a 50/50 split on Settlement Points from the pilfered cores.”
I looked at Choox’il and Junipher for their thoughts.
“This is considered fairly standard on most worlds, Karl.” Junipher said after brief consideration.
“It is so, Master Karl, additionally, I have allowed Lord Shubin to follow the proceedings from my view, he asked me to convey to you that he is open to discussing any amendments to our peoples original contract you may wish to make.” Choox’il shifted uncomfortably as she revealed herself to me.
I just chuckled, realizing I didn’t really give a shit, but the offer to get some more benefits out of our arrangement was something I didn’t plan to pass up. “Indeed, we may need to do that. Thank you for your candor.”
I returned my attention to the beautiful Valkyr Queen, “I’m good with that, let’s split the managed dungeon profits 50/50 as well and be done with it.”
As one the jaws on the trio of Valkyr hit the ground in shock. All were speechless. I started to worry I fucked up again and looked around sheepishly.
Junipher leaned in and whispered pleasantly in my ear, “50/50 was their starting point. You have all the power here and you could have easily talked them down to 80/20 in your favor, maybe even 90/10. You essentially made them equal partners.”
Before the Valkyr could gather their jaws from the ground Choox’il stepped forward with a slight bow, “Master Karl, Lord Shubin would like me to tell you that if you would like to make the same amendments to our current contract he would be very happy to seal that deal.”
“Christ! Is he a warrior or a lawyer!?!?”
“He says he is what he needs to be for his people, and that if you are just giving.. Ahem… shit away, why not jump on it.”
“Yeah, yeah, tell him this isn’t about him right now. Queen Freya, do you accept?” I rose from my seated position and extended my hand to her.
She looked up at me with a tear of joy beginning to roll down her cheek, “Are you serious?” Then she yelped when Hilga swatted her across her lovely shaped ass and stood to take my forearm in her hand “I mean, yes, on behalf of the Valkyr, I accept your offer of Sanctuary and all the terms and conditions that come with it.”
Congratulations! SooHoo Settlement has entered into a Contract of Sanctuary with the Valkyr Refugees. Details of said contract can be viewed on the Universal Mana System Data Net when it comes online, or at the SooHoo Settlement Administrators Building.
“Thank you, Karl. After our first sampling of humanity I wondered if we were going to survive. Now, I suppose I should return to where my people are and get them ready for the morning.”
“I understand, if they are close, you can bring them into camp within reach of the walls, the East side of the settlement is rather empty.”
“Thank you again, Karl. I’ll have Troels get with Eli as soon as we are settled to coordinate the guard rotations.”
“Sounds good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s late and I want to love on my sexy plant lady before I go kill that fucking Gnoll leader.”
“As you wish, Warrior” She beamed and then her wings unfurled from seemingly nowhere and she launched into the air with the rest of her party in tow. Junipher came up to snuggle against my arm and I didn’t give her a chance. I snatched her off her feet and threw her over my shoulder with a firm pat on the ass and carried her squealing body up to my room to have my way with her. It was with no small amount of amusement that I noticed my people seemingly scatter, leaving the new arrivals staring bewildered. Fuck it! They’ll learn soon enough.