Elf Empire: A litRPG Kingdom-Building Adventure
Date: 2023-08-17T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Adventure
Description: Leo wanted to make something out of himself—and build dams. However, the world doesn’t want dams. And it mostly doesn’t want civil engineers. It doesn’t want men who do any sort of building or fighting or grand design, it seems. So, when Leo finds his current girlfriend, and boss, being threatened by a brutal loan shark and all three of them get dragged through a portal to another world, it doesn’t take long for him to decide this is the place for him. Plus, everyone has magic, and who wouldn’t want that? Leo appears in the realm of a fallen kingdom, one that desperately needs someone who will
Publisher: MACHILLOCK PUB
Rights: Copyright © 2023 by Capital Station Books

Elf Empire

By

John Stovall

BOOK #1:
EXODUS & ARRIVAL

Published by

CS BOOKS, LLC

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely fictional.

Elf Empire

Copyright © 2023 Capital Station Books

All rights reserved.

This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and where permitted by law.

Cover Design: Darko Paganus

Editors: Amy McNulty, Nia Quinn

IIF YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN JOHN STOVALL’S NEXT BOOK RELEASES, PLEASE VISIT HIS FACEBOOK PAGE OR CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY AT
john.w.stovall@gmail.com

ISBN: xxx-x-xxxxxx-xx-x

Dedication

First, as always, to my wife, Shami Stovall, who has made this career, and many other things besides, possible. You are the most amazing person I know. With—and because—of you, my life has elevated multiple times. Hopefully also my writing :P

Secondly, to Dana Ardis, a wonderful friend who spends a ridiculous amount of time editing my books despite an active writing career of her own, and despite (sadly) moving away from us.

Thirdly, to the other members of my writers’ group. To Mary, Emily, James, Scott, and Ryan thank you for the efforts you put into this as well. You’ve been helping me since the inception of the series and its sub-series as well. Especially to Ryan—if this book succeeds, part of it will be due to a lot of late-night SEO skull sessions.

Fourth, to my parents, John and Gail Stovall. Your support throughout my life has been over the top, and you are the perfect parents everyone else wished they had. And in my “master’s degree in English” mother’s case, one of my editors as well.

Fifth, to my editors Nia Quinn and Amy McNulty. Thanks for doing this, I know I don’t make it easy.

Sixth, I’d like to thank the giants who came before me. I have long read the old staples of Science Fiction and Fantasy, found through my father’s physical library, and played Dungeons & Dragons—which I also found through his library. But when Shami picked up authoring, I picked up Kindle, just to see how her books were doing, and I became addicted to a whole new generation of amazing authors through Kindle Unlimited. A friend recommended the Cradle series by Will Wight. I loved it, and the Also Boughts led to the Chaos Seeds series by Aleron Kong, and I discovered LitRPG. Also Boughts of that led to The Divine Dungeon series by Dakota Krout, which I still consider the premiere example of Dungeon Core in this genre I’ve come to love so much, and which I discovered through him. Every few months, I read that series again. And the Also Boughts of The Divine Dungeon led me finally to The Hapless Dungeon Fairy series by Jonathan Brooks, which had many of the ideas in it that led me to dream about cool things. I dreamed of those things enough to finally write my first novel, Corrupted Core.

In this case specifically this book was the of me dreaming of being a Chaos Seed in Aleron Kong’s world. Obviously, everything diverged wildly, and I set the magic and the world in my own ‘Toth’ universe from the ‘Fall of a Dungeon House’ series, but much of the story is from all that dreaming I did. So an extra thanks on that one.

I’d also like to thank Chris Zinn, who recommended I start a Patreon and has stuck by me from the beginning, when no other Patreon did.

Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

In Which Leo Screws Up the Chosen One Summoning

Chapter Two

Scattered to the Winds

Chapter Three

Magics, Skill Charts, and Stats, Oh My

Chapter Four

The Great Outdoors Should Die in a Fire

Chapter Five

The Meet-Cute

Chapter Six

The Bro Hike

Chapter Seven

Good Guys Are Gorgeous

Chapter Eight

So Many Charts, My Eyes Hurt

Chapter Nine

Of Princesses, Dragons, and Bizarre-Ass Spiders

Chapter Ten

Life Gave Them Lemons

Chapter Eleven

Arguing Over Money is the Cause of Most Divorces

Chapter Twelve

The Really Bad, Horrible, No Good Catacombs, Part I

Chapter Thirteen

An Interlude in Safety

Chapter Fourteen

The Really Bad, Horrible, No Good Catacombs, Second Try

Chapter Fifteen

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Chapter Sixteen

In Which Leo Screws Up a Coronation

Interlude One

The Dark Design

Book Two

Gathering

Chapter Seventeen

Planning Stages for the Settlement

Chapter Eighteen

Glorious Return to Civilization, Place of Baths and Burglars

Chapter Nineteen

The Innocents Abroad

Chapter Twenty

When the Door Is Slammed in Your Face, Use the Window

Chapter Twenty-One

So Many New Friends, I Could Just Die!

Chapter Twenty-Two

First Stage of World Conquest

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mystical Wolf Buddy’s Momma So Fat, She…

Chapter Twenty-Four

Pair Bonding

Chapter Twenty-Five

Death Race

Chapter Twenty-Six

Who’s Your Daddy?

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Power Versus Finesse

Chapter Twenty-Eight

They Will Never (Again) Take Our Freedom!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Roothammer and the First Goddess

Chapter Thirty

Being King—First Baby Steps

Chapter Thirty-One

The Great Averian Barbecue

Chapter Thirty-Two

My Motto is ‘Do It Yourself’

Interlude Two

When Karens Have Power

Chapter Thirty-Three

The Damn Dam (And Even More Stats!)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Holy Feces, Cities Have Stats as Well?!

Chapter Thirty-Five

Dragon Quest, Poorly Performed Quick Time Events Included

Chapter Thirty-Six

By Merdrek’s You-Know, What a Bunch of Pricks

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Negotiating with Ego

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Don’t Drive Angry!”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The Saddest Tale of Dragons

Chapter Forty

The Dragons Who Think They’re Badass

Chapter Forty-One

The Dragons Who Are Actually Badass

Chapter Forty-Two

By Zadrid’s Missing Left Ventricle

Chapter Forty-Three

Home Is Where Trouble Comes Looking For You

Chapter Forty-Four

The Founding War, Part One

Chapter Forty-Five

The Founding War, Part Two

Chapter Forty-Six

The Founding War, Part Three

Chapter Forty-Seven

Victory

Chapter Forty-Eight

Good Tidings

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chapter One:

In Which Leo Screws Up the Chosen One Summoning

Leo—never Leonard, that was his dad—Evans was about to make cheap, plentiful drinking water available to the world. Assuming exhaustion didn’t kill him first.

For the last two years, he’d been working so hard, and at such odd hours, that it surprised him he hadn’t acquired evolutionary adaptations to his new lifestyle. Perhaps low-light vision like a cat, or a hump on his back, camel-esque, where he stored Red Bull instead of water.

Leo stared down at his gut. The actual adaptation I’ve developed is a lump for storing fat where my abs were two years ago.

Most evenings, long after the lab closed, Leo could still be found working at his home office. He had taken his mock-ups and multiple files home from the lab this night and toiled away until two in the morning. He sat at his desk, surrounded by six screens, three desks, a pile of empty energy drink cans, and a book on engineering megaprojects.

But at this stage of the night, eighteen grueling hours after he had woken up that morning, Leo was a candle burned down to its last sad remnant of wax, a tiny flame flickering before it gave up the ghost. He tried to focus on his work, but his head dropped into his hands, his thoughts turning more and more to Audrey, his boss and sometime girlfriend, as he sank toward dreamland.

Leo was tugged back from the edge of sleep with a wrench. He raised his head from his hands, and wiped a small line of drool from his lip with his wrist.

Intuitively, Leo knew the tug had come from below him. He shifted, glancing down at the wheels of his rolling chair. A complete mess of cables and surge protectors snaked across his floor to every available outlet in his otherwise bare, dimly lit one-bedroom apartment.

He saw nothing else.

Until…

Leo’s eyes widened. A circle of sparkling multicolored lights surrounded his chair, like thousands of rainbow-colored fireflies crawling all over each other.

He watched, fascinated. A few seconds later, the floor seemed to fade away, becoming transparent, like looking through a glass pane. Leo stared at the new floor, his mouth imitating a carp. He spotted a beautiful feminine face, pale skinned, with a cute button nose, light gray-brown eyes, and metallic bronze hair, beneath his chair. The woman narrowed her eyes in confusion at him.

Leo yelled as he leapt back out of his chair in a single athletic bound like a cat startled by a dog. He landed just outside the glowing multicolored circle.

Then it disappeared.

No more lights. No more transparent floor.

Leo rubbed his eyes.

He stared down at the place where the glowing circle had been. There was a faint black outline on the cheap tile flooring of his front room.

Not just my imagination, then. Leo marveled at the spot on the floor. He tried to make sense of what he had seen. He felt about intellectual puzzles the same way a kitten felt about red laser dots on the floor—if he failed to grasp it, it certainly wouldn’t be for lack of trying.

If it wasn’t my imagination, then what? If it was just lights, I’d assume it was a discharge from my rig, even though the lights were colored. But operating on the assumption I’m not completely insane, how would I see a face inside the colors? Inside a floor that is obviously still there?

Leo glanced at his desk, hoping it wasn’t his computer giving off electrical discharges. The project was the holy grail of water management—a combination of a retroviral engineered algae that captured salt and then died, but was easily filtered out of the water after that. It allowed for the easy—and cheap—conversion of salt water into fresh water. The filtering part was thanks to a system Leo had designed. They could give clean water to the denizens of Los Angeles and Angola, the farmers of California’s central valley and Australia, and they wouldn’t even need dams like Hetch Hetchy.

Although, ironically, dams and hydroelectric power had been what attracted Leo to engineering in the first place. He wanted to build great works, but he supposed a giant desalination plant to quench the thirst of millions would be almost as amazing as the giant dams his forebears had built.

My three percent share of the company will probably be more than a billion with a capital B. And I’ll be as famous as Einstein. Or, well, at least Elon Musk.

I probably just dreamed the part with the face. Given how many hours I’ve put into this, it wouldn’t surprise me if I was going a touch loopy. I’ve had a ‘maintenance needed’ light on my dashboard for the last hundred thousand miles.

As he mulled everything over, Leo crouched and edged forward, pushing his chair as far under his desk as it would go. He tentatively reached out, one finger extended, to touch the black line.

A buzzing from his hip, accompanied by ringing, caused a panicked adrenaline dump. Already tense, Leo fell sideways into the desk as he tried to stand and grab his phone at the same time.

Leo let out a loud “Damn!” and finished grabbing his phone from his pocket, half-ready to throw it against the wall despite his usual phlegmatic personality. But when he saw who was calling, a different type of panic poured through him.

Audrey.

He stared at the phone for half a second.

Audrey Melendez had been his boss, and sometimes girlfriend, for the last two years of his life. Originally, she had been a hard-charging optimist and dreamer. She had seemed the perfect woman—brilliant, beautiful, vivacious, driven. She was responsible for the genetic engineering of the protista, in fact.

But Audrey had become skittish and scared over the last few months. She had even talked about shutting down the project and moving to the United Arab Emirates, a non-extradition-treaty country—despite the fact she had mortgaged everything she owned to keep the project going for two years.

Leo half suspected, after the fact, that Audrey had hooked up with him partially to keep him around at his current salary, which was ridiculously low despite his degrees in multiple forms of engineering. He had no proof of that, but their hookups and dates had almost disappeared now that he was fully committed to the project.

Of course, the timing matched up with her recent fears, so maybe it was just that.

Leo glanced around at his apartment, the darkness of the night cut by a single lamp and the glow from his six screens. Why is she calling me at two in the morning? Sadly, I seriously doubt it’s a booty call. Is she going to shut us down?

All of it flashed through Leo’s mind and on the third ring, he hit ‘accept call’ and put the phone to his ear.

As he answered, he tried to make his voice seem as groggy and tired as possible. “Hello,” he said before yawning. “Audrey? What’s up?”

Her voice was completely flat, a change from the vivacious and borderline flirty tone she usually had. “Don’t play games with me, Leo. I know you work all hours of the night. Some stuff is missing from the lab. Did you take it home to work on?”

Leo took stuff home to work on all the time, which Audrey well knew. “Yeah, why?”

“I need you to bring me the mock-ups and all the files.”

“What?” Leo asked, his heart sinking. “Why?”

There was a pause, in which Leo heard no sound at all from the phone, before he heard her breathing again, and she answered, “I’m your boss. I don’t have to answer that.”

Something is really wrong, Leo thought. She’s never flat like this. What did she do?

When they had first met, Audrey had seemed wonderful. But as Leo’s time under her had gone on, he had realized she wasn’t just a hellcat in bed. She was driven by demons—and was willing to make bargains with the devil to get what she wanted. She’d probably met someone at her own proverbial crossroads and made a decision Audrey and Leo were both going to regret.

Leo frowned at himself. Wordplay jokes when the going gets rough again, Leo? How about you just do what’s right?

“Well?” Audrey asked. “How soon can you be here?”

I can’t just ignore the CEO and not bring what she asked for… although she sounds really out of sorts now. “Yeah, Audrey, sorry, it’s late. I’ll bring the stuff to you. Meet at the Taco Bell down the street from the lab in thirty?”

There was another pause, during which Leo heard nothing. “Just bring it to the lab, Leo. You have a keycard.”

Leo was already thinking through the angles of the situation, and he absently nodded before catching himself. “Of course. I’ll be there with bells on.”

“Lovely,” Audrey said tersely. “I’ll see you then.”

The call ended.

Leo was torn on how to proceed. He was pretty sure Audrey was in some kind of trouble, probably related to her financing. But he truly didn’t know.

A part of Leo wanted to wait, to avoid the chance of a shutdown of the project. But a larger part of him knew he couldn’t abandon Audrey when she might be in trouble.

He grabbed a baton for safety, and the mock-ups, and headed out to his old beater.

I’m coming, Audrey.

***

Thirty minutes later, Leo turned his beat-up old blue 2020 Civic into the side parking lot of their rented lab, the one for employees.

He glanced around the parking lot, his eyes taking in the details—and lack thereof. Audrey’s Tesla Model Q wasn’t visible anywhere. Instead, there was a large black SUV near the entrance to the lab, outside any designated parking spot.

Why wasn’t Audrey’s car here? And who drove a black SUV? It wasn’t anyone at the lab…

Darker scenarios came to Leo’s mind, and he absentmindedly reached out and touched his baton. Where did she get her financing?

And at the same time, he could tell, from the light emanating from the tiny windows high up on the walls, that the main lab was occupied.

Leo drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He briefly considered trying to look inside, but the windows were fifteen feet up a smooth wall.

Instead, he grabbed his club and stuck it in the back of his jeans. Then Leo opened the door and gathered everything else under his left arm again. He rushed across the parking lot, the cold rain beating down on him as he did. No idea what I’m up against here, if anything. But that black SUV makes me certain something is deeply wrong.

Leo reached the door to the lab. He pulled his keycard out, then hesitated. We’re well past the point where you’re guessing, Leo he thought to himself. There are probably bad men inside. You have no idea how many there are. Or how well armed they are. You’re tough, but this is a job for the police.

Leo pulled his phone out and turned it on, prepared to call 911. As he did, however, he heard yelling from inside and a brief feminine scream.

Audrey!

Leo pushed into the lab in a panic, and raced through it to the main lab near the back and pushed in.

It was large, over fifty feet on a side. It had numerous midsize tank prototypes, complicated hydraulics everywhere except for a twenty-by-twenty-foot space in the center. The sequestering protista breeding and alteration tanks were in other rooms.

Leo’s attention was immediately drawn to Audrey in the middle space, between all the hydraulics. She knelt on the ground, her hands on her head. The side of her tan face looked like one massive bruise, and tears ran down her cheeks from her deep-green eyes. Her black hair was a mess, and she was dressed in just a sleeping shirt.

Around her stood six men—one of whom was holding a gun to Audrey’s temple.

The man holding the gun to Audrey’s head was almost as tall as Leo, but the similarities ended there. He was muscled like a professional bodybuilder and had scars crisscrossing his face and bare arms. His brown eyes had a hint of cruelty, but God must’ve preemptively gotten his revenge—the dude was bald. Ugly bald.

He also wore an extremely expensive black Armani suit. Real mob type.

The man smiled, a half sneer that seemed to exult in the pain of others. He turned his head slightly to Audrey without ever removing his gaze from Leo.

“I’m glad you were right about your employee and his dedication, Ms. Melendez,” the man said. “It pleases me that I don’t have to aerate your brain.”

One of the other men, a short Irish-looking guy with wispy orange hair and a crooked nose, gave an ingratiating laugh. “That’s funny, Kruegar.”

“Liam, please, not now,” Kruegar snapped. “We’ve got business to take care of.”

Then he pointed the gun toward Leo. “All right, bring everything over here. Your CEO here is late on her payments, and so I’m repossessing her business. You guys get this back when I get a very hefty share of the company. Any sudden moves and I shoot you. Don’t do what I tell you, and I shoot your woman. Plain and simple. This is a business transaction between me and your little wannabe CEO here. Got it?”

Leo hesitated. Kruegar held himself like a trained fighter, his body language subtly conveying a deadly grace and confidence in the use of physical violence. Leo knew the signs of someone familiar with violence—Leo himself had been an amateur MMA fighter once, going six-and-two in unpaid but formally sanctioned fights on a local circuit. He had also kept going to the fight gyms until a couple of years ago.

Plus, the other five guys had guns at their hips.

My chances of stopping this man and getting out alive are between a snowball-in-hell’s and absolute zero, unless something radically changes, Leo thought. And if I try, I’ll probably get Audrey hurt. Damn it! This was supposed to be my ticket to fame and fortune and a life that didn’t suck, building things that mattered!

But I can’t let them kill Audrey.

With a heavy heart, Leo carefully put everything down at his side on the ground.

Kruegar’s lips twitched upward in a satisfied smirk.

A tear slid down Audrey’s cheek, and she glanced up at Leo with wide watery eyes. “I’m so, so sorry, Leo. I didn’t mean to get you caught up in all this. I just wanted to make sure—”

“I know,” Leo said, his heart going out to her, even as he saw all his own dreams, and two hard years’ work, disappearing before his eyes. “It’s okay.”

“Quit the waterworks,” Kruegar said. “This went smoothly for once. Liam, go get the goods while I keep an eye on this dude. And, friend, just in case I wasn’t clear, if you make any kind of move against Liam, I’m going to perforate you. He’s my boy, and your corpse would be a mild inconvenience.”

Kruegar’s eyes flickered downward, and his eyes widened. “What the fuck is that?”

A flash of multicolored lights appeared around Leo’s feet. The same circle from before.

Kruegar pointed the gun back at Leo. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m not doing anything, you asshole!” Leo exploded back. “How the fuck would I be doing anything?”

Audrey glanced between the lights and Leo’s face, and he had the sudden thought that she might also think he was somehow responsible.

Although, she no longer looked fearful. An intellectual puzzle could pull her out of nearly any emotional state, same as Leo. She stood up as Kruegar kept his gun moving between Leo and the lights at his feet.

Then the circle became glass-like all over again. Leo saw the same beautiful face as before. It appeared under his feet, the brow furrowed and gray-brown eyes darting between him and something to the side.

This time, Leo waited, and as he did, the circle became more vibrant and filled with images. He now saw the face wasn’t truly looking up at him—it was looking down, as if someone were standing on the opposite side of the glass, upside down from his perspective. And he also saw a stone ceiling with a glowing crystal hanging from it behind her face, and he could make out the top of her body bent over.

The beautiful woman turned and screamed soundlessly at someone, or something, and motioned frantically back toward the circle with her pale hand.

The circle expanded rapidly, until it was about twenty feet across, underneath everyone in the room. One of Kruegar’s goons stepped backward as the circle passed beneath him, but when nothing happened, he stopped moving.

“What’re you doing?” Kruegar yelled.

“It’s not me!” Leo tensed. He hoped Kruegar wouldn’t do something foolish.

A thin, six-foot-tall man with androgynous features and long golden hair rushed onto the circle—itself on a stone slab that Leo could now make out—on the other mirror side. The man lay down, his back pressed upward against the circle below Leo.

The man’s fine clothing was soaked in blood, even the satchel at his belt. He carried a sword but placed it on the ground next to him. And his ears were entirely too long, like Vulcan ears. He didn’t move like he was hurt, in spite of all the blood on his raiment. He had a bow and quiver on his back, which made his pose appear uncomfortable.

Kruegar and his goons exchanged baffled glances. Everyone saw the man in the mirror world, but it made about as much sense as butterflies swimming through the ocean. What was going on?

With a sneer, Kruegar shouted, “That’s it, bastard, you’re going down!”

Something wrenched, and Leo felt as if he were having an intense out-of-body experience. And he was. His soul—he knew it was his soul, somehow, in the depths of his thoughts—lifted out of his body. Leo both saw through his body’s widening eyes as Kruegar raised the gun, and through his soul high above the conflict.

He watched, dumbfounded, as Kruegar shot Leo’s body from a mere five feet away.

Then, as Leo observed his own body slumping to the ground, the souls of Kruegar, Audrey, and all the baffled goons also lifted from their bodies. With silent screams unheard by anyone, Leo was yanked downward, along with the souls of his girlfriend and murderers.

Together, they passed through the mirror on the floor.

Chapter Two

Scattered to the Winds

Leo rolled to the side, pain lancing through him.

His lungs struggled to fill with air. When Leo finally dragged some in, his reward was explosive coughing.

He was lying inside a huge stone room decorated with ornate statues. Abstract geometric patterns were carved into the floor, walls, and ceilings, each beautiful and intricate. Multiple glowing gems hung from iron chains, providing light.

There was a single wooden door leading out of the room.

Two thin individuals, both with strange metallic gold hair, held the door shut. They grunted as they leaned against the thick wood, their thin arms shaking.

The woman Leo had seen in the mirror circle was next to him, and another seven of the individuals were around the room. Everyone was so thin… Especially the woman. Who was she? Were they all elves? Maybe cosplaying as elves? Leo found himself struggling to speak.

He was on the stone slab he had seen before. An altar. At the end of the altar was a purple crystal, floating in the air, threads of energy lancing down from it in glowing lines that defined a fifteen-foot radius around the altar. A single drop of blood had been smeared across the purple crystal’s surface.

Inside the beautiful gemstone were seven tiny souls. One of them was Audrey, her face distorted with pain and confusion.

Audrey!

Leo started to reach out, but caught sight of his hand.

It wasn’t his hand at all.

Right then, he realized he wasn’t in his body at all. He stared at the pale skin of his thin wrist and the long golden hair running down his shoulders. I’m in the body of that elf that lay down on the altar a moment ago. What the…?

The woman leaned over the altar and grabbed Leo, her face breathtaking but speckled with blood, as was her pale bronze hair.

She spoke to him in a melodious language Leo hadn’t heard before. It reminded Leo of a beautiful Ugandan accent or someone speaking something close to Chinese, as near as he could parse it. Somehow, Leo understood it.

“In the religious tone, position of inferior addressing a high superior, most formal: My deepest and most sincere apologies: which is born of necessity regretted: O Star-Guided Champion. The situation is untenable: regret at failure to control: due to the unfortunate presence of our enemy outside this chamber: ancestral, deservedly hated, victorious.”

Her language used sentence prefixes to indicate the context of the conversation—in this case, for some reason, a church conversation. It also used word suffixes to indicate the comparative authority of the speakers, and this woman had indicated she thought Leo was far, far above her. And lastly, it used words to modify the meanings of adjectives and emotions, giving them subtle clarifying alterations.

Leo knew, somehow, that she was speaking something called High Averian, a most complicated but expressive language.

But after a mere heartbeat, his mind translated the words to his English thought patterns.

She had said, basically, “I’m sorry, but we need to run because enemies are outside.”

Leo coughed and spoke—in a language neither English nor what the lady had spoken. “What are you telling me? I need to rescue Audrey!”

There was the sound of something heavy striking wood. Leo rolled to his feet.

“They’re breaking through!” one of the elven men yelled.

The woman spoke again in the same language Leo was using, which Leo realized was Middle Averian, trying to pull him away from the altar. “I’ll explain later! Kravahk Rockbreaker, a demon-orc who is chasing me to finish me off, likely at the bidding of his dark god Ikrahkt, is outside that door. We cannot hold here. Please.”

“I’m not leaving Audrey!” Leo reached for his sword with an instinctual movement he had never possessed before.

The elf woman held her hands up. “Please! If I don’t use Asnandi’s Key”—she pointed to the purple stone—“to open a portal from here, we will all be slaughtered, and your woman lost.”

Before Leo could formulate a response, the door slammed open, pinning the two elves beneath it.

A massive being stepped into the room, his hideous appearance a harsh juxtaposition to the beauty all around them.

The man was nearly ten feet tall and muscled like a Greek god. He had green-gray skin, four small tusks around his mouth, and he carried a massive sword nearly as long as the creature was tall. The weapon radiated dark energy in visible black waves.

Behind him were…

There’s no way around it, Leo. Those are orcs.

Twenty orcs, seven feet tall and with gray-green skin like the big one, but only two upward-facing tusks each, entered the room. A small, four-foot-tall green goblin carrying a staff entered after them.

The tableau held for a moment.

“Kravahk Rockbreaker,” the woman said, her voice filled with terror. “I can’t fight him. We need—”

Kravahk stepped forward, his massive sword held in one hand, and pointed it at the woman. “Bahk do!”

She half turned to Leo and whispered, “There’s no time left. He cannot have the Key, or the whole continent will be bathed in blood.”

The woman ran for the purple crystal, and Kravahk howled.

Everything dissolved into chaos as the orcs charged the outnumbered elves, cutting five more down. The goblin threw his hand forward, and a stream of black insects covered one elf, who died screaming.

One of the orcs charged Leo, and Leo caught the club swing on his arm, which broke.

A translucent box appeared over his view, like a message in a computer game.

System not connected. Attempting to calibrate. Remain still, please.

System not connected. Attempting to calibrate. Remain still, please.

Like hell I’ll remain still! And get out of my face, whatever you are!

The box obliged, disappearing.

Leo dodged the follow-up swing from the orc. Kravahk threw his ridiculous sword at the female elf. She dodged, but the sword slashed into the crystal, black energy flaring. A small crack appeared across the gem.

The souls inside fled the crystal. Audrey’s flew into the elf woman, who gasped and turned toward Leo. “Leo?” she managed.

The remaining souls flew into orcs, or in one case, the goblin. But Kruegar’s flew into Kravahk, who briefly froze.

A wave of purple energy expanded from the gem.

Leo briefly saw worlds, plural.

Alternate Earths, where people wore strange clothing.

A world where dinosaurs roamed.

A hellscape of fire and molten metal.

A vast void filled with unknowable beings that looked like cephalopods large enough to swallow the sun.

Audrey, in the body of the elf woman, reached for him before she spun off into nothingness.

Then everything exploded.

Chapter Three

Magics, Skill Charts, and Stats, Oh My

The crystal ruptured with a burst of purple fire, washing across everything. As the flames reached each item, they disappeared rather than being torn apart or barbecued.

Then, Leo was in a forest.

There had been no sensation of movement, no brief moment of blackness or unconsciousness, nothing. One moment, Leo was in a ceremonial chamber, and the next, he was in a forest.

Leo blinked back the light of the idyllic forest. Light dappled through the leafy canopy, covering trees in a splatter of illumination.

A single bunny, which had been nibbling at some grass, twitched its nose and then lazily hopped away into some nearby bushes.

A babbling brook meandered through the forest, the water crystal clear and mere inches deep over the rocky bottom.

Where…?

Leo struggled to make sense of things. All anchors to reality felt like they had been stripped from him in just a few minutes. His legs gave out. He sank to the forest floor, collapsing onto the detritus of leaves, moss, and sticks. The sword fell to the ground from his nerveless fingers and lay in the dirt next to him.

I’ve lost my girlfriend, my job, my dreams, my world, and my freakin’ body, Leo thought to himself as he grappled with a feeling of absolute disconnection from everything. Not to mention a comfortable notion of the rules governing the universe that I was pretty sure were basically accurate. I’m nothing but a mind that moved to another body as the result of mystical mumbo-jumbo. I really do hope Descartes is right, and that I am because I think—since I’m pretty sure my mind is literally the only thing about me that’s still me.

He briefly thought back to what he had seen of Audrey, Kruegar, and the others. Although, I’m more inclined now, after witnessing that, to suspect I have a soul and it went as well. Still, I’m down nearly everything I thought I once possessed and knew.

He chuckled to himself. And I suspect wherever I am won’t accept my engineering degrees as a basis for employment, either.

The humor somehow grounded Leo, and his strength returned.

He got to his hands and knees, prepared to crawl the few feet to the edge of the brook. A sharp pain in his arm, the one the orc had broken, caused him to gasp in air through his teeth. His arm wasn’t fully healed yet. Leo pulled his arm up to his chest, stood, and walked the few feet before kneeling at the edge of the brook.

He stared at his wavy reflection on the water, examining his new appearance.

Brilliant gold-green eyes stared back at Leo, different than the blue ones he had formerly possessed. A pale face more beautiful than masculine framed them, and a great mane of golden hair framed the face in turn… not blond so much as metallic golden-yellow.

Two overly long ears poked out of the hair. He gently touched his ears. They felt like his old ears—there was just a bit more he could touch.

He briefly stared at his hands. They were fine and delicate, different than his previous hands, which had been practically mitts. His wrist was thin, although thicker proportioned than he would have suspected compared to the rest of his extra-thin frame.

Perhaps from sword practice, Leo thought, looking back at the sword, which was, apparently, his.

The rest of his body moved with grace and agility but seemed almost feminine to him, the proportions subtly different than his old male form.

With a panicked thought, Leo reached down. Yup, still “male.”

His mouth was dry, and Leo scooped water into it, rinsed, and spit. Then he scooped up a bit more and drank. It was cool and refreshing, although he would have preferred a Diet Pepsi.

Leo sat back on his haunches and gave serious thought to his situation.

All right, Leo. Enough screwing around and suffering an existential crisis. So you’ve got a secondhand, donated body. So what?

The key takeaway here is that something was done to open a portal and pull you through. What was done once can be replicated with enough know-how. Ergo, you can get home. You can still reestablish the life you were leading and still show everyone you’re amazing, while changing the world for the better. You just need to find out where the people are who know how to do it, and what you can trade to get them to do it or to teach you to do it yourself.

You should also pick up Audrey first, assuming she made it.

With a busted arm, in the middle of a forest, on a world you’ve never been on and know nothing about, without so much as a Boy Scout badge to your name.

No big deal.

Leo glanced at the forest around him. I know almost nothing, but I do have a brook here. As a general rule, human civilization is found near rivers and other large sources of fresh water. And brooks run toward bigger sources of water, I know that much. So I can just follow it, and eventually, logically, if I follow water downhill long enough…

Although that assumes I don’t starve before then. What are my assets?

Leo took inventory.

He removed his bow and quiver, which was a surprising struggle. At some point, although he had no memory of it, his quiver had emptied of all but two arrows. The bow was quite complex, if a bit smaller than what Leo remembered from movies. It had pulleys at the ends, but Leo didn’t know enough to recognize what that meant regarding the technical knowledge of the civilization he was in.

Or the magical knowledge, he thought, briefly shocked out of his thoughts as he remembered he had been summoned here.

Leo gathered himself again and laid his sword down. The straight, doubled-edged steel sword was roughly eighteen inches long. Nothing fancy or unusual that Leo could identify.

He pulled his satchel off his belt. Inside, was a small glass vial with a tan liquid in it. A label, in High Averian, indicated it was a ‘Least Healing Potion.’

Technically, as with the speech from the bronze-haired elf, it communicated more than what he translated it to in his mind—including that its magic type was ‘Body,’ although his brain didn’t have enough information to parse what that meant.

“Healing potion, huh?” Leo asked the forest rhetorically, his mind churning.

Leo had played video games before, of course, including role-playing games with stat blocks and items. It wasn’t something he had done for a while, but he knew what he probably held in his hand.

And it fascinated him. Could this substance heal cancer? Or would the body’s own cells not be considered an injury, even if they were killing the body?

Of course, the first thing to do was see if it worked. Leo tugged the bronze cap off and stared down at the tan liquid.

“Bottoms up,” he muttered, and drained it in a long gulp.

Least Healing Potion heals 5 damage. All remaining damage is repaired.

Leo gasped, first at the translucent box that had appeared over his vision, and then at the sensation of his bone setting itself slightly and healing. Warmth washed through his body, and he felt restored.

He mentally told the box to leave, and it did. A convenient system.

Leo tested his arm, first gently pushing against the ground, then harder, and finally, he pushed himself to his feet with it. It worked perfectly. All right, so, either magic is real, or I’m in some nanotech-level civilization running a game. Which wouldn’t be the most illogical explanation, given the information box that just appeared, which is gamelike, to put it mildly.

He sat back down next to the brook and absentmindedly gathered his things again. Idly, he half wished the water were deeper, since he was still covered in blood. In the warmth of the day, it was starting to stink a bit.

Should I ditch the clothing? Or should I assume nakedness will be a taboo? One I shouldn’t violate, given that everyone I saw on both sides of the conflict was dressed?

But these thoughts quickly faded before his greater conundrums. Do I have hit points? Am I in a game world? Do I have a status sheet?

As soon as he thought it, another box appeared in front of his vision.

Status chart generated. Being “Leonard Emmanuel Evans” is a composite being, a soul inhabiting a new body, resulting in an impossible number of perks for his species.

Resolved in favor of allowing the excess perks.

13 skills found that are not applicable. Resolved in favor of not displaying them until the prerequisites for their use are present in this world, except to the extent that multiple base skills were merged into the displayed skill “Natural Sciences.”

The Servants of Telos request the being “Leonard Emmanuel Evans” refrain from any other actions or existences that require direct intervention or correction.

Well, that isn’t ominous at all… and it raises an entire host of other questions. This day is going to make my brain explode. I’ll be thinking over the implications of it for years, even once I get home.

After a brief second, the chart disappeared, and a much larger and more complicated chart appeared in front of his eyes.

Leonard Emmanuel Evans

Level One

Body, Mind, Soul, Wyld, Metal

Health

7

Stamina

7

Essence

10

Level Stats

Strength

8

120 base pound-lifting capacity, -10% melee damage, -6% running speed

Agility

20

-50% enemy hit chance, +50% hit chance with all weapons, +18% running speed, +.5 critical modifier

Dexterity

12

+10% base success for crafting and physical skill success rate, 20% chance to raise base weapon damage roll by one step

Endurance

8

-2 base Stamina, -20% Stamina Recovery Rate, -20% base Health Recovery Rate

Toughness

8

-2 base Health, -10% base Health, -10% base Stamina, -1 to resist poison, disease, and physical status effects

Perception

10

Connection

10

Capacity

10

Appearance

14

Handsome

Non-Level Stats

Intelligence

20

+100% skill acquisition rate, may gain rare and difficult skills

Magic

16

+24% Magic Effects. +1 maximum affinity.

Charisma

10

Luck

10

The Fates neither dislike nor care for you

Secondary Stats

Birth Perks

Race: High Elf

-2 to Strength, Endurance, and Toughness stats base

+2 to Agility and Magic stats base

Increased chance for Being magics and Wyld magic. Gain an additional ability at Level 2, 10, and every 10 thereafter from one of those magics if possessed.

Life span average of 400 years. Maximum of 3 perks positive and negative each, with standard chance of inheriting or acquiring at birth.

Rank: Natural

May obtain Level 80 without ascension, access to extremely rare or upgraded magical abilities.

Graceful Body

+4 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +4 Appearance

Predator

+4 Agility, +10% critical chance, +.5 critical modifier

Line of Stardew

+4 Magic. Always start with Wyld, gain 1 additional Wyld ability at Level 2. Auras for Wyld are gained 10 levels earlier, and this can exceed maximum level, and may gain 2 higher maximum Wyld affinity.

Genius

+10 Intelligence, increased magic ability access. May gain +2 maximum Mind affinity.

*Being Arcane

With the appropriate prerequisite abilities and stats, upon obtaining Level 30, may gain any or all of the Arcane abilities: Kinesthetic, Cognitive, or Empathetic.

*Aura Mastery

May gain auras as if 10 levels higher, including access to auras that are beyond maximum level once reached.

Acquired Perks

Low-Self Esteem

-2 check to resist despair effects. Failure, especially significant failure, can lead to further negative perks.

Skills

Level

Effect

Athletics

11

+33% to run speed, +11 to check to climb or avoid obstacles

Level 10 Special Skill: Burst Fighter: For up to 5 minutes, all stamina expenditures are halved.

Business

2

+6% to expected income, and -2% to expected costs, for operating any business

Dodge

7

+21% to dodge incoming attacks

Instruction

4

+2% increase in learning rate of someone learning from you per point of difference in your skills

Mixed Arts Fighting

8

+16% to hit and damage with fists, +8% to dodge, +4% to trip, pin, or incapacitate and avoid the same

Natural Sciences

19

Extremely detailed understanding of the nonmagical components of the world and how they work

Research

8

+16% base rate to discover information in archives, +16% to daily chance to discover something new while researching, modifying Intelligence rate

Seduction

1

People find your attempts to seduce them 2% more favorable than baseline, compared to what they are looking for

Small Blades

2

+8% to hit and parry, +4% to damage, and +4% critical chance with small blades

Sword

4

+12% to hit and parry, +12% damage with swords

Abilities

Effect

Body

Mind

Soul

Wyld

Metal

Combination

Leo sat back down again, beside the brook. The information was overwhelming at a certain level. He could deduce quite a bit from what was here—and guess at more—but it was entirely too much for him to handle all at once.

I need to process it in sections, Leo thought to himself. You’ve already done the existential crisis thing today. Don’t worry about the implications of magic, or your life span, or the Servants of Telos. Just focus on what you can see.

Given the racial modifiers and perks, it’s obvious that ten is the average in this world. I don’t know what that is compared to human, truly, but my gut instinct tells me that ten is the human average. So I’m still really smart, and now I’m exceedingly agile. But, even at thirty-five, I was considerably stronger and tougher than normal, and now I could lose a fistfight to a leaf pile.

Also, I wonder who the Stardew are? Does everyone have a ‘line’ with magical benefits? Is there a reason why that line perk stacks so neatly with the magical perks that I guess my soul brought over?

Also, I’ve never picked up a sword in my life. Like the language, this must be something I inherited from this body, somehow.

If my guesses as to the numbers are anything close to accurate, it would probably take less than seventy percent of the trauma to kill me than a normal person—human—could take. I need to be careful and should probably try to avoid getting hit at all. Not that I wouldn’t anyway, to a degree, but it needs to become even more important.

Leo snorted to himself, remembering a comedy sketch he had seen on YouTube featuring a guy failing his video game quest and dying with every tiny mistake. Difficulty Mode: Asian.

He stood, filled with renewed purpose. Stop spending all your time navel-gazing. Get to some civilization somewhere and ask the people about your status sheet, and what it all means. It’s quite likely you’re guessing at answers someone else has known for centuries. The goal is the same—get to civilization, then get home. All the other stuff is an intellectual puzzle you can pursue later.

Leo adjusted his ragged, bloodstained clothing, put his gear back on, and stared downstream in the direction he meant to head.

An enormous brown-furred wolf stared back at him from roughly a hundred feet away. It was approximately the size of a pony, its back midriff high, and it watched him with red eyes.

“Um, nice doggy?” Leo said, his voice trailing up in an embarrassing squeak. “Let’s not fight, ’kay?”

Leo backed up a few paces, his hand at his belt, where he had pushed the sword.

The wolf stared at him for a few moments, then dipped its head once, almost regally. It turned and raced into the forest, away from the brook, disappearing from sight in seconds.

Did that wolf just nod at me?

Leo let out a short almost-hysterical laugh. “Man, screw the outdoors. Especially the magical outdoors.”

Chapter Four

The Great Outdoors Should Die in a Fire

Leo strolled through the forest, down gently rolling hills. He followed the brook as it meandered onward. The forest seemed picturesque—beautiful green trees with dappled light streaming through their leaves, with berry bushes in the small gaps between the trees.

Occasionally, the gaps were larger, and Leo would encounter a sunlit meadow of grass with a carpet of flowers throughout to provide variety to the scenery. Bees buzzed, squirrels squeaked, and birds chirped as if nature itself were declaring its joy.

Eventually, the brook met a pond at the dip between two small hills. It was a tiny pond that never got more than a few feet deep. A second brook also fed the overambitious puddle, and a small stream left it at the opposite end, about forty feet from where the brook entered. The pond was at the center of a meadow, with the tree line about sixty feet from it in all directions, and flowers and grass were all around the jumped-up pothole.

Although it was barely a body of water, no more than a few feet deep even in the center, Leo took the opportunity to carefully wash his new body and the clothes he wore. He figured he looked like an idiot, lying in the shallow water lengthwise and rolling around, scrubbing himself. But that was preferable to smelling like a sloppy serial killer. Although the stains likely wouldn’t ever go away, Leo still washed his clothes. At least he got the smell out. Mostly.

It was barely into the late afternoon and still relatively warm and sunny.

Once Leo had gotten out and dried himself, his stomach grumbled. He took his bow from his back, nocked an arrow, and hid behind a tree about sixty feet from the pond. Animals head to water, right? Although there are feeder brooks, but still…

After a few minutes’ wait, a fox came nosing out from the trees on the other side of the clearing. It sniffed the air a couple of times, but fortunately, it was upwind of Leo. It cautiously walked down to the pond, glancing around carefully and still sniffing, before it bent down and lapped at the once-again clear waters.

Now’s my chance!

Leo drew back as hard as his weak, noodle-y new arms would allow, and fired his arrow.

It sailed to the farthest end of the pond from the fox and dropped into the water with a barely audible plop.

One of the fox’s ears twitched, but it otherwise remained blissfully ignorant of the attack.

Well, crap.

Leo drew back again, trying to aim as carefully and as on-point as he could. He focused, drawing breath in and out, and then, when he felt he had attained the perfect Zen-archery state, he released again.

The arrow flew on a fairly straight line toward the fox, but it dipped low, hit the ground once at a flat angle, and then plopped into the pond as well.

Although it was at least closer to the fox, which jerked and took a few running steps, before looking around. The fox returned and started lapping at the water again.

Since it’s obviously sensing no danger whatsoever from me… Leo thought, briefly half-disgusted with himself and half-amused.

Eventually, the fox wandered away from its idyllic—and depressingly peaceful—drinking spot.

Leo collected his two arrows from the pond, one from an area a few inches deep, and the other from the center, which was a few feet deep. He then spent a bit of time air-drying himself again.

So, do I try to ambush something with the sword, or practice the archery with two arrows and try for a ranged hunt again? Or just follow the stream, hungry, and hope for the best?

It occurred to Leo that he didn’t really know how to start fires without a match, and that his new status sheet said he had penalties to resist disease. I probably shouldn’t eat raw meat. This is starting to all feel like me being an idiot.

Despite that, a bit of stubbornness possessed Leo. He might be out here a while, he wasn’t sure, and it made sense to learn to hunt and start fires while he wasn’t yet starving.

There are only about five places an animal could remain hidden till it reaches the edge of the tree line around the pond. I’ll hide in a tree, like a jaguar, and strike from above.

Although, I still smell faintly of blood.

Feeling both smart and like a complete jackass, Leo stripped off his shirt and pants, placing one by each of the two trees at the upper and lower ends of the pond, where the brook entered, and the small stream exited. Hopefully, that’ll drive animals away from those points, and toward the tree I’m in, which is farthest from the bloody clothing.

Now just in his underwear—which seemed like they were made of silk—Leo went back to the tree he had been hiding behind and looked up. It was a small tree, like most at the edge of the forest, and its first branches were within jumping height.

First, he leapt up and put his sword onto the lower branch. Then he leapt up again, grabbed a branch, and prepared to power his way up. But his weak new arms weren’t up to the task. After a moment, he figured out that he could essentially run up the side of the tree with his new agility while holding the branch and fling himself over.

Sweaty and irritated at his weakness, Leo found himself on the lower branches of the tree. He picked his sword up and moved to crouch in a clump of leaves.

Nothing appeared right away. Leo spent the time almost involuntarily thinking over the implications of everything that had happened. Most of his thoughts turned to Audrey. He really hoped she wasn’t dead. Since he had seen her soul at the end being pulled into the elf woman, he hoped she was still… alive… somewhere.

Although that creates a lot of moral questions. If she occupied someone’s body, did she push their soul out? This guy seemed to be volunteering his body, at least, what with lying down on the altar and all. And would her soul go nowhere if there wasn’t a volunteer?

Leo had no idea if she was dead, in some body he wouldn’t be able to identify, or a roaming soul, if this world had those.

Either way, though, she’s lost to you, partially through your failure. Just like Lisa was. Because you weren’t good enough.

Leo wrenched his mind back from that depressing line of thought, as he had trained himself to do over the years, and forced himself onto a different tack.

He glanced around, spotting no animals. He adjusted his stance on the branch, as his legs were killing him even after just a short while.

My status sheet was interesting. I wonder what the normal maximum number of perks is? And I wonder how leveling works, since I was clearly listed as Level One, prominently right under my name. I wonder what the magics I possess allow me to do?

I still can’t believe I’m even thinking about magic. I wonder if I’ll still have magic once I get home? Man, that would be crazy. Maybe I could be a superhero.

Leo was pulled from his amusing train of thought by a soft rustling below him.

A small deer cautiously made its way through the sparse detritus below, just barely stirring the leaves. Its fur was a faded brown dappled with white, and it had scars along its flanks. Likely an older one.

Leo gripped his sword tightly, tensing, preparing for when the deer’s careful stride would take the animal beneath him.

Don’t fuck this up, Leo. Hit hard, but make sure to roll on the fall. This body is weaker than your old one, but it’s incredibly agile. Use that.

The deer kept slowly walking forward until it was right underneath Leo.

Leo felt the moment. With a half-meant prayer, he dropped, swinging his sword in an arc onto the neck of the deer.

Leo strikes elderly deer for 12 damage (sword 4, critical x3(base critical x2, +.5 for Predator perk, +.5 for 20 Agility)). Elderly deer is mortally wounded.

Leo’s strike cleaved the neck down to the bone and partway through, despite his weak strength. He rolled as he hit the ground, lightly cutting his arm on his own sword. The ‘elderly deer’ collapsed to the ground and then briefly bleated while looking at Leo from where it lay on the ground, with accusing eyes. Its head dropped, and it expired.

Leo slays elderly deer. 0 experience gained. Only sapient creatures and magical beasts provide experience.

Well, ain’t that just peachy? Leo thought to himself, irritated, even though he hadn’t been trying for experience.

As he stood, his mind went off on a tangent, and he wondered at the morals of a world where you could get experience, and presumably power, by killing sapient beings. Probably a bit on the dark side.

Leo pulled out his sword and looked at it. “Well, I have steel,” he said to no one in particular. “I wonder if I can find a stone that’s similar enough to flint to make sparks?”

***

A few hours later, with a sword that was incredibly dull and chipped except for the point from his efforts, Leo had finally made a fire. He had assembled a circle of stones, filled it with dry leaves and sticks he had found on the ground, and then whacked rocks until he had finally managed to, somehow, start said fire.

He sat beside his work, underneath a small broad-leafed tree.

It had occurred to Leo, late in the process, that this was also probably not practicing fire safety. He had set up on the other side of the pond from where he had butchered the deer, since he didn’t want to attract beasts to him if he was near a still-fresh carcass. He was in the puddle of light cast by the campfire in the semidark around him.

The moon was up, and small glowing blue moths flew around the pond and closed flowers. Leo had to admit that if he weren’t fearful of being eaten, even the night in this forest would have been idyllic and pleasant.

He had managed to roast a chunk of deer meat that was only mildly undercooked, and about ten chunks that could charitably be described as ‘well carbonized.’ He had eaten the first, but for the remaining ones, he had decided he would carry them with him since he was pretty sure that ‘charred’ would count as ‘smoked’ for preservation purposes and last him a day or two.

As Leo stared at the fire, he happened to glance up. A wolf was observing him from about twenty feet deeper into the forest. Leo scrambled to his feet, spilling the meat everywhere, but after a second, it became obvious that the wolf wasn’t attacking him. As Leo gave the canine a once-over, he realized it was the same wolf as earlier: brown-furred, red-eyed, with shoulders that came to Leo’s belly.

“Um… hey,” Leo said in as soothing a voice as he could. “So, um, you still don’t have to attack me.” He pointed toward the deer carcass on the other side of the pond. “I left meat over there so vicious predators like yourself wouldn’t need to get your calories from me.”

The wolf glanced in the direction Leo had pointed and stared at the carcass. After a second, it turned back to face Leo, still unmoving.

“No, bad doggy,” Leo said, grimacing. He reached down and picked up a chunk of overcooked deer, waved it vaguely at the wolf, and then threw it toward the carcass. It didn’t make it quite all the way, but it did clear the pond. The blackened chunk of meat landed with a thunk, just like the rock it was.

“Go get it! Go mangle the meat, my man-murdering mutt!” Leo almost laughed at himself hysterically—he always made jokes, frequently wordplay ones, in his head when he was upset or nervous. Now he was talking to a dog.

The wolf stared at him, then rolled its eyes. Leo was briefly nonplussed, but his next coherent thought was, Cheeky bastard.

The wolf ambled around the pond and over to the carcass, then dug into it.

Leo called out to it, now beginning to suspect it did, at some level, understand him. “That’s a bribe! Eat the carcass, not the poor sap from another world who hates camping!”

Leo watched the wolf for a bit, but it seemed content to gnaw at the carcass.

Leo was bone-tired, despite the wolf eating on the other side of the pond. His initial fear was fading, since the wolf was conducting itself like a particularly large not-very-aggressive dog. Despite everything that had happened today—the new world, the new body--getting shot—and now his trip through the woods with a bizarre giant-ass wolf hanging around, he felt he would sleep well. He lay down on the ground next to his fire, hoping the smoke would keep the bugs off, put his arm under his head, and tried to stop thinking.

For once, it worked.

***

Slowly, reality returned. Leo was well rested and uninjured. He was also warm, with a fuzzy blanket, but it had fallen off, and he tried to pull it over him. It didn’t work.

Fuzzy blanket?

Leo opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground, up against the giant wolf.

He gave a startled yelp, then rolled away from the wolf. He tumbled across his nicked and dulled sword, grabbed it, and then scrambled to his feet.

The wolf opened its eyes and stared at him. Then it looked at Leo’s sword and gave a little huff of exhaled breath. It slowly stood, languidly stretching out by lowering its front.

Then it nodded to him again, turned, and ran into the forest.

It took a moment for Leo to react, but he called out, “Thanks for not eating me!” in the direction the wolf had gone.

I can’t even with this wolf, and this world, Leo thought to himself.

After a moment, the chirping, buzzing, and squeaking of the forest returned. Leo glanced around. Dawn had barely come, the light filtering into the trees at an angle, and there was no sun overhead.

The bees get up early on this world.

As his heart rate slowed, Leo yawned and rubbed his eyes, then gave a disgusted sniff. Despite multiple washings and a smoking, he could still faintly smell the blood on his clothes, which was gross. And he’d added a faint dog smell to the morass.

He hadn’t thought to do this last night, but he looked at the sun, which appeared upriver from him. So I’m following this stream west, currently on the south shore. Not that it really matters, since I have no idea where anything is, but good to know.

Leo collected his busted sword, only the tip still sharp, and then grabbed his meat chunks. He quickly ate three, which were quite gross and tasted like charcoal. Then he stuffed the next four in the now-empty satchel and tried to carry the remaining two in his hands.

It will have to do.

Just before Leo started his trek again, his gaze wandered over to where the deer carcass had been.

It was gone.

Well, crap. Was that a random bear, or did the wolf eat the whole thing? Or maybe it has wolf buddies?

With a shake of his head and a brief shiver, Leo finally followed the water downstream again, continuing through the forest.

As he walked, he took note of all the interesting wildlife around him.

While it was almost all normal wildlife, that ‘almost’ still left room for some fascinating creatures. None had the impact of the wolf, but a few seemed much more obviously abnormal. Leo briefly saw a white-furred weasel with six legs run into a bush, but when he went to investigate, he never found it. Later, he found a small swarm of bees that were almost the size of his fist. Each looked like a normal bumblebee but for the size and a faint green haze around them. Leo didn’t go closer to investigate—they seemed as docile as normal bees, but dealing with a whole swarm if he did tick them off… It didn’t bear thinking about.

And one bush had slightly glowing apples on it—the fact that they were on a bush and not a tree would have been a clue they were unusual even without the glowing part. Leo left them alone.

Leo ate the two chunks of meat he was carrying as the morning stretched into afternoon. He passed two places where small streams connected, and by late afternoon, Leo was following a much larger stream, perhaps even a tiny river, through the forest. There were fish in the water, and once there was what looked like a colorful snake.

He was almost having a good time, in a tired sort of way, as the sun started to set on his second day in this new world, when a sense of unease overtook him. A faint smell of something rank and eldritch hit Leo, like old blood and incense.

But there was something more to it than just the smell. A wrongness he felt in his bones.

Although the smart thing to do would have been to keep going downstream, Leo couldn’t help it—the old monkey reflex had him determined to see what this terrible feeling was, to know and understand it.

Leo glanced southward, away from the river. He couldn’t really see anything different at first, but then he noticed the lack of the ubiquitous birds.

He cautiously made his way in that direction, trying his hardest to move quietly and stealthily. Although he stepped on dry leaves or a twig more than once, he prayed he was quiet enough to avoid attention.

As Leo crept away from the river, the tranquil forest changed to something slightly more sinister. The trees were more skeletal, and the branches had fewer leaves on them. Around a couple of trees were piles of half-gnawed animal bones. The air felt sickly, like the entering a hospital full of ill people.

He stopped between two trees. The forest ahead was bisected by a huge ravine. He couldn’t make out the end of it in either direction. Tt was miles long. But it was only a couple hundred feet across.

Leo carefully made his way closer through the trees and walked up behind one low-branched tree that partially leaned out over the ravine. The edge of the ravine was a harsh drop-off, and parts of it had collapsed. If Leo wasn’t careful, he could easily fall and slide into the ravine.

He stayed away from the edge, fearful it would crumble. The ravine went down miles, at least.

And across the chasm, a few feet below the opposite cliff edge, he saw, well… It’s a bat-harpy, Leo. No way around it.

Sunning herself on a ledge in the dying light of the day, barely below the lip of the opposite side of the chasm, was a woman with bat wings instead of arms, claws at the ends of the wings. Her legs ended in wicked raptor talons. She was naked but so covered in filth and… viscera… that even her human parts were utterly disgusting. As Leo watched, a small whiplike tail reached out past her and picked her nose, then flung a booger into the chasm.

The wrongness was intense in the area—and it all clearly emanated from the chasm. Leo backed away, his curiosity satisfied—he knew what the threat was, and like he had suspected, getting away as soon as possible was the best option. He stood once he was behind the tree at the edge of the cliff and prepared to return.

About forty feet away, slightly deeper in the forest, was a small dragon. It was about eight feet long, with bronze scales and a horned plate on its head, almost like a triceratops plate but with the horns flaring backward for some reason. It had wings tucked down on its back, and its claws were large enough to end Leo with a single swipe. Its tail was closer to that of a fish, with an upward and downward facing fin at the end, but it still looked quite thick and deadly.

And it was staring right at him.

The tableau held for a few seconds, and then the dragon roared and charged.

Chapter Five

The Meet-Cute

Horrified, Leo stared for a quarter of a second.

Then his brain kicked in.

Leo leapt upward in one smooth motion. He grabbed a branch of the nearby tree, ran up the side of the trunk while holding it, and landed on top of the thicker branch it was connected to. The dragon hopped slightly to try to catch him, but it wasn’t enough, as it obviously didn’t jump full force for fear of going over the edge and into the ravine. The beast’s claws whiffed through the air right where Leo had been.

Leo pulled out his sword from the sheath as the dragon circled below him.

The beast was slightly larger than Leo’s wolf buddy from the forest, but the dragon was obviously far deadlier. Its bronze scales were sturdy. It had fearsome claws and teeth, enough to rival any similarly sized dinosaur from a Jurassic Park movie. The dragon also moved with a bit of agility, which surprised Leo. It wasn’t like an alligator. The movements of its body reminded Leo more of a tiger.

The dragon stared up at Leo, its wings fluttering across its back.

It was still quadrupedal, and it couldn’t seem to reach high enough to directly attack Leo on his branch. Instead of trying, the beast lunged for the tree trunk. The whole tree shook as the dragon dug its claws into the bark and yanked itself upward.

Leo stared, fascinated and horrified in equal measure, as the dragon unhooked one claw, and with a huff of effort, managed to hook it a bit higher, pulling itself upward.

Why isn’t it flying?

The beast had leathery wings. They flapped sometimes, to help the dragon keep balance, but they clearly weren’t helping the dragon defy gravity. Leo steadied himself on the branch as the dragon shook the tree again as it continued to climb.

Leo thrust his sword downward, hitting the dragon just below its eye. The sharp point of his sword—the only part not ruined from his fire-making activities the previous night—managed to pierce the scales with the force of the combined upward lunge and downward thrust, and Leo drew blood on the dragon’s cheek.

The dragon dropped off the tree, hit the ground awkwardly, and cried out in Middle Averian, “By Merdrek’s teeth, that hurt!”

Shocked, Leo decided this world would never stop taking him by surprise.

“Wait, you can talk?” Leo asked as the dragon rolled to its feet.

“Of course I can talk, interloper elf!” The dragon growled. “I’m a dragon, a far wiser, and more intelligent, species than any stupid mortal race. Now get down here so I can eat you!”

“Wait, you know I can talk, too, right?”

The dragon glared at Leo with its aquamarine eyes, one eye ridge raised. Despite having never seen a dragon before, Leo knew he had just witnessed the “Are you an idiot?” dragon facial expression.

Leo blushed. “I just mean, we’re both sapient creatures. Why would you eat me? That seems, well, evil. Like Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain evil. Not to mention rude. And cliché.”

The dragon sat on its haunches. “Okay, great, we can both talk. Now stop doing it. I hate it when prey talks. I feel all icky about killing things that try to have conversations with me. I don’t like doing it.”

“Yeah, that icky feeling is your conscience, I’m pretty sure,” Leo quipped. He leaned against the tree trunk for more stability. “And on that note, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you that I’m a great person. Really great. I was working on a project to provide fresh water where there isn’t any. It would’ve helped millions of people, including my girlfriend, who’s lost now and needs me to find her.”

“Stop that!” the dragon shouted. “You’re making this weird.”

“I’m also really kind to children and cats.” Why isn’t it just flying up here? Or using a breath weapon? Can’t dragons breathe fire? I want to ask, but I don’t want to remind it of its options.

“Knock that off!” the dragon bellowed. “Get down here and fight, coward! Face me like a man!”

“I’m gonna pass. This tree is really comfy. I might just live here. Plus, you should be a bit quieter. I saw a harpy over the side of the ravine. I don’t know how things work in this kooky world, but in my mythology, harpies are bad business.”

The bronze-scaled dragon flashed its fangs.

Leo rubbed at his chin. “Also, honest point of clarification—are you challenging me based on my gender, or on the fact I’m human? Because I’m an elf now, apparently.”

“What did I just say about talking?” the dragon yelled. “The less I know about you, the easier this will be for everyone. And of course I know you’re an elf! I just called you an elf! That’s why I’m trying to kill you! You think that just ’cuz my sire is missing that you can walk up and take his hoard back!”

Great, I’ve stumbled into some preexisting Lord of the Rings version of a soap opera. All I need to know now is that his dad was created before the world was but also left his mom for a younger dragon. Fantastic.

Before Leo could respond, the dragon walked to the trunk of the tree and slammed its tail into it as hard as it could. The tree, despite being an unimpressive specimen, hardly moved.

The dragon looked over the rounded edge into the ravine, then started backpedaling.

What the…?

Screeches, half-bird, half-enraged-woman, filled the air, and three harpies came flying over the edge of the ravine.

The dragon turned to run, but the harpies somehow moved like real birds, despite being bat-like and not aerodynamic. They flew past the dragon and then swung back around, swooping down on him.

Two harpies raked their talons along the dragon’s side, but the third headed for his face, claws out. The dragon tried to hop upward, and it caught the harpy with a bite around its midriff. The harpy screamed, but the dragon was bowled over, rolling toward the edge of the ravine. It managed to hook its front claws into the ground as it slid over the edge, arresting its movement, with only its backside hanging over the cliff.

It flung the disemboweled harpy backward into the ravine as it scrabbled ineffectually, trying to get its back claws onto the top of the cliff.

But then the two harpies landed on its back and clawed at it furiously.

Perfect! Leo thought, delighted, as two wrongs made a right.

Leo didn’t want to waste his good fortune. He dropped from the tree and prepared to run back to the forest, where at least the lethal creatures didn’t seem to be actively gunning for him.

The dragon called out in pain, its voice laced with terror. “Help! Someone, please, please help!” It scrabbled its back legs on the wall of the ravine, trying desperately to climb up, but failing to do so.

Leo, feeling incredibly idiotic, hesitated. “Just let go and fly, you stupid jackass!”

“I can’t fly! It’s like a mile down! I’ll die!”

Oh, for the love of Jove…

Leo turned and rushed back, sword in hand. The dragon tried to fend off the two harpies while clinging to the ground with its two front claws, its back claws still off the edge.

But the harpies were still on the dragon’s back, beyond the reach of its head. They were attacking the dragon viciously, ripping scales loose and clawing at the flesh underneath. The dragon yelled and roared, but it sounded more like screaming. Blood was already pouring down its back.

Leo ran over and aimed at the back of the nearest distracted harpy’s head. Then he swung for the fences. His weapon was dull and chipped, but at this range and with a two-handed swing, a perfectly smooth steel pole would have done the job.

His sword hit the harpy in the back of her skull with a sickening crunch, and the harpy pitched forward into the ravine, off the dragon. Leo received a notification about the damage, but he told the info box to go away as soon as it appeared.

The other harpy let out a screech and flew off.

But the force of the swing caused Leo to stumble forward to the edge of the ravine, which collapsed around him. He immediately twisted, agile as a cat, and slammed his sword point down into the cliff edge that hadn’t collapsed. He jerked once, swinging by a single hand over the miles-deep ravine, terrified of the fall as he glanced down.

There was a faint reddish glow at the bottom. Leo also detected a strong scent of old blood and something he couldn’t identify wafting up from it—a more concentrated sense of whatever evil had first alerted Leo to the presence of this ravine.

“Thank you!” the dragon said.

Leo couldn’t ever remember hearing more heartfelt appreciation.

“You’re welcome,” Leo said, barely paying attention as he ran his feet up the side of the cliff and managed to worm back onto the ground at the top.

The dragon wasn’t as agile. It remained half off the edge, still trying to pull itself up.

Leo moved back a few feet. The dragon couldn’t get enough leverage to get its back legs onto the slope.

Leo heard screeching, glanced around, and then yelled himself. He dove away as the harpy narrowly missed him with talons extended as she zoomed past. Leo’s dive hit the claws of the dragon, who yelled out. “You’ll kill us both!”

“Yeah, yeah, trying to save us here,” Leo said distractedly as he managed to stand again.

The harpy wheeled around in the sky, and Leo had mere seconds to think of a plan. He grabbed his sword, almost losing his balance as he yanked it out, then, carefully braced, jammed it into the ground just in front of the dragon.

He ducked behind it as the harpy made another pass.

Then Leo stood and stomped hard on the cross guard of the blade to drive it deeper into the ground. He braced himself gingerly against his sword with his feet and right hand, and held the left out to the dragon. “Use me to pull yourself up enough to get your back feet on the ground. And be careful. Those claws could ginsu an elephant!”

The dragon spastically lunged forward, similar to how it had climbed the tree, and grabbed Leo’s arm. Leo screamed as a claw dug into his flesh despite his warning, and noted the ‘three damage’ notification, then dismissed the box from his sight. But the dragon managed to pull itself about a foot forward with Leo bracing himself, just enough to in fact get a back foot onto the cliff top.

The dragon let go of Leo, whose arm wept blood, and raced away from the ravine, its claws scrabbling at the ground. As the dragon passed, it grabbed Leo with its curved tail. Leo let out an “oof” of exhaled breath.

The harpy shot through the space where he had just been, screeching.

Leo was pulled along for a few feet before the dragon let go of him. He fell to the ground, looked up, and saw the harpy diving again. But as she came in, the dragon turned and roared, and the harpy fluttered her wings, frantically wheeling around.

“Let’s go!” the dragon cried, rushing into the forest they had both come from, north, away from the ravine.

Leo rolled over and stood, gasping at the pain in his arm, and scurried after the dragon.

The harpy flew above them, screeching. And, for some reason, the harpy also grossly defecated and tried to dive-bomb them. She missed and then turned away from them as Leo and the dragon ran deeper into the forest away from her.

They didn’t stop running until they reached the small river Leo had been following since his arrival in this mad land, even though Leo was pretty sure he and the dragon could have taken the harpy out now that they were on solid land. They collapsed to the ground, Leo sitting and the dragon just lying down with a thump.

As they sat there, panting, the dragon turned its head to Leo. “Hugh.”

“What?”

“I’m Hugh,” the dragon—Hugh—said. “Well, technically, I’m Huetilopoctlicae of the Storm Vale, but everyone calls me ‘Hugh.’”

It should be short for Hugh-moungus, Leo thought.

“Leo—never Leonard, that’s my dad—Evans,” Leo responded.

“Leo.” Hugh worked his mouth as if chewing on the name. “Leo’s a good name. Thank you, Leo, for saving me when you didn’t have to.”

“Sure. I had to punch my ‘good deeds’ card, anyway. Insufficient number of cats saved from trees in the last three-sixty-five. You know how it is.”

Hugh tilted his head to the side, and Leo got the distinct impression of confusion. “You shouldn’t save cats.”

Leo didn’t respond. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing to respond to.

Hugh continued. “I can’t not go after my sire’s hoard, but I promise I won’t attack you or anything if you go for it as well, and if you beat me there, I won’t try to take it from you. If I get it first, I’ll give you enough to set you up for life, okay? I mean, how much can a mortal need, anyway? Don’t you guys live for, like, decades at the most or something? Like flies?”

“I have no idea what hoard you’re talking about,” Leo said, too tired to respond with his usual snark. His arm was still leaking blood in rivulets as he sat on the ground, and he took his already completely mistreated shirt off and started tearing it into strips. “I also don’t know where it is. And I don’t care to. I just want to get home so I can get back to my life—I actually had a lot going on, and the longer I’m gone, the greater the chance my old life will be gone forever.”

Hugh perked up at Leo’s denunciation of the treasure. “Where do you live?”

“Earth,” Leo said. “And for the record, I have no idea where that is in relation to this place. I was summoned here.”

“Oh, well, if you were summoned, you probably came from another dimension,” Hugh responded, then he lay down on his side and stared up at the dark sky. “I don’t actually know anything about the other dimensions, or any details about how to get to any, but I’ve heard every dimension is connected to Toth, eventually. We’re the base world. So you should be able to get home, someday.”

Hugh butted his head against Leo, almost knocking him over, despite the fact Hugh was upside down. “Also, sorry about your arm. That was, you know, uncouth of me. I didn’t mean to do it, but I, um, lost control at the last moment.”

“Uncouth, huh?” Leo laughed. “I suppose that’s one way to put it.”

“Hey, be nice.”

Leo finished tightening the strips of his shirt around his arm in a makeshift bandage. “It’s hard. My arm hurts.”

There was a brief pause while Leo formulated his questions.

But ultimately, no matter how fascinating everything else was, only one question really mattered to Leo. “Okay, so, just like with my status sheet, there’s so much to unpack from my brief interaction with you that I’m just going to focus on one thing. How do I get to another dimension? Ultimately mine, but let’s just start with the basic process. I know you said you don’t know much, but tell me what you do know.”

“Well, I mean, there’re a couple of known gates, but only the gods and a few extremely powerful creatures can travel the worlds between without access to the gates. I know you can do it, I’ve heard all the stories. But I just don’t know how, I’m sorry. I don’t have any knowledge beyond that, seriously.”

Well, that wasn’t fruitful.

“Okay,” Leo said. “I guess I’ll go to a second subject after all. Why can’t you fly?”

The dragon hesitated a long time.

Finally, Hugh answered, “I guess you did save my life, and you deserve to know. I was born with an, um… well, a defect. Dragons can fly, but it’s only because of our natural magic. Something as strong and dense as us couldn’t fly unless we were, like, basically all wings. But most dragons have some Air magic inherent to them.”

“Makes sense,” Leo said. “Especially with what I saw those harpies doing, since they acted like fighter jets. No way that bat-human combination was remotely as aerodynamic as what they pulled off.”

Hugh snorted. “No idea what that means, but I get your meaning, friend Leo. Those weren’t harpies, though. They’re technically demons, although I don’t know enough to know what kind. Just that they’re incredibly weak ones. But there are stronger ones deeper inside the ravine, where the magic that leaks in from the shattered gate below can sustain them.”

“Wait, a gate? As in, a portal to another dimension? I thought you just told me you didn’t know where any were.”

“I don’t,” Hugh said. “I just told you, the gate is shattered. But the place where it weakened the, I don’t know, the wall between worlds, I guess, remains. Besides, the gate was connected to the Blood Abyss. Trust me, that wouldn’t get you headed toward home anyway.”

Blood Abyss, huh? Leo remembered the smell, and the sense of something utterly wrong about the place. Yeah, I don’t think I want to go there. In fact, I’m sure of it.

Hugh snorted. “That ravine is called ‘the Demon Scar.’ It’s from where Grakith Demonborn, some orc they called ‘Elf-breaker,’ managed to trigger the gate when you guys and the orcs were fighting, like, maybe fifty or a hundred years ago. I’m not really sure. It was before the dragonflight, when my sire finished off the elven kingdom and claimed its treasures. He also chased the orcs off, though, so it was kinda fair. I know about my sire, of course, but all that stuff from before he got here is kinda fuzzy. I wasn’t the best at history.”

Great. I get the defective exposition to my new world, Leo thought to himself, sardonic to the last.

“Okay, so, you never got the magic to let you fly?” Leo asked, returning to the earlier topic.

“Yeah. I have Earth magic. Most dragons don’t get a magic until much later in life, but I got mine as a baby. But my connection to Earth magic was so strong that I lost access to the natural magic of Air. Which means I can’t fly.”

Hugh laid his head back on the ground and heaved a huge sigh. “And I lost access to my breath weapon, since storm dragons use lightning.”

“And lightning is part of Air magic, I take it?” Leo asked. Not Fire magic, since lightning is plasma? Air and electricity have little to do with each other…

He had a brief moment where he was so overwhelmed by the weirdness of it all that he couldn’t focus. I cannot believe I’m having this conversation, like it’s perfectly normal to be asking a giant sapient lizard about the rules governing magic.

“Wait, sorry, can you repeat that?” Leo asked.

“I said, yeah, Air magic is everything for storm dragons. But I got Earth magic instead.” Hugh, still on his back, waved all four of his clawed feet in the air. “Lucky me!”

Leo laughed at the childish display. “Well, I’ll tell you what, Hugh. How about we make a deal? I’ll help you get the treasure you’re looking for, and you help me get home. Well, first I need to figure out if Audrey is in this world and get her—then get us both home. How does that sound?”

“Who’s Audrey?”

“My girlfriend, kinda.”

Hugh stared at Leo, his whole fearsome-dragon aura ruined by being on his back like an adorable kitten. His clawed feet paddled through the air.

“So, do we have a deal?” Leon repeated.

Chapter Six

The Bro Hike

“Yeah,” Hugh said, “it sounds really fair, actually. For a frail little mortal, you’re pretty resourceful. It’s a deal!” He brought his tail around and then frowned at Leo. With a sigh, he returned his tail to its original position. “You wouldn’t have the tail clasp to seal deals, of course, sorry. All the younger dragons in the Storm Vale use it. Well, the cool ones do.”

He then offered one of his clawed hands, and Leo grasped Hugh’s claw with his uninjured right arm. They solemnly shook.

Hugh laughed. “You look so cute when you get all serious before shaking.”

“Yeah, well, upside-down dragon gives me kitten vibes—maybe tiger kittens, but still.”

“I just said, cats are dumb.” But Hugh laughed and waved his feet in the air again before rolling over. “I can’t actually sleep like that, and it’s getting late, and I’m really tired. Let’s go to bed, my new friend. Tomorrow, we will continue the quest for my sire’s hoard.”

“Yeah,” Leo said. “Sure.”

Before going to sleep, Leo ripped one pant leg off and bound it around the claw wounds.

Leo curled up on the ground, then scooted over closer to Hugh. It was super awkward, but since he was wounded and hadn’t prepared a fire, he would need the warmth.

The dragon didn’t say anything, but he scooted over toward Leo as well.

There was another long pause.

Then Hugh gave a forced cough. “So, um, pretty cold out tonight.”

“Yeah, a bit chilly,” Leo replied.

There was another long pause, then the dragon scooted closer still, until he was up against Leo. His body radiated heat, far more than Leo would have expected. He had known, based on a variety of factors, that Hugh was most likely warm-blooded despite his scales, but the warmth seemed far too high even for that. He was putting out quite a bit of heat.

“So, um, good night, new friend,” Hugh said, his breath disturbingly awkward in Leo’s ear.

“Yeah, um, night, Hugh,” Leo replied.

On that thought, Leo laid his head down on his arm and tried to sleep.

***

Leo woke up for roughly the twenty-third time and decided to give up trying to sleep.

His arm hurt notably, which had kept him sleeping on one side or his back. And Leo had mostly been half-frozen the entire night as well—whichever side was facing away from Hugh, usually his right side.

And I would kill someone—well, at least badly maim—for a cheeseburger right now.

Once during the night, Leo had woken up with the dragon’s arm over him. He would take that little factoid to the grave.

And Hugh snored. Dragon snoring was… impressive.

All in all, he had slept for about five hours and woken every twenty to forty minutes of that limited time. Leo wasn’t in the best of moods.

It was still dark out, with the moon’s light providing a tiny bit of illumination as its beams filtered through the sparse forest around the river’s edge. But each tree was still a patch of shadow Leo couldn’t see into, and after the last couple of days, each felt like potential danger.

Leo rose and walked a couple hundred feet down the boulder-strewn edge of the river carefully, never going into the dark patches. Once away from Hugh, he relieved himself and then walked back.

Just before he returned to Hugh’s side, a familiar wolf poked its head out from the shadows around a tree about twenty feet from Leo.

“Whoa!” Leo half yelled as the giant wolf emerged from the tree line. “You make me glad I already went to the bathroom.”

The wolf rolled its eyes again but just waited patiently.

“So, um, I’m down for this whole elusive and mystical wolf buddy thing we have going, but seriously, what’s your deal? I’m new here, and I don’t really know anything.”

The wolf walked toward Leo.

An earsplitting roar pierced the predawn calm, and Hugh charged over. “Shoo, vile mutt! Back, or I dine on canine! And if you’ve hurt my new friend, I’ll start with your back legs!”

The wolf unhurriedly turned and loped into the forest with a glance back at the dragon’s charging form.

Hugh skidded to a stop next to Leo and then smashed his tail against the nearest tree. “And don’t come back!”

“Whoa, dragon—I said, whoa!” Leo rubbed his head after all the noise. “It’s too early for you.”

As Hugh’s voice faded, Leo heard the flapping of bird wings, and somewhere nearby, an annoyed creature gave a yowl. The whole forest was echoing Leo’s irritation at the dragon’s exuberance.

“I saved your life!” Hugh said, huffing. “That was a ghost wolf. They eat hatchling dragons and mortal people. They’ve been doing it ever since their pact with the elves broke when my sire killed the old king around here.”

“Wait, your dad killed the old elf king and broke a nature pact?” Leo asked. “And now nature is hunting man and dragon?”

“And elves and stuff, yeah,” Hugh replied. He tilted his head slightly. “Why?”

“Well, don’t get all huffy, but I’m getting the vibe that your dad is the villain in this story.”

Hugh tilted his head back and forth. “Well, I mean, he is a dragon. A little bit of mayhem, destruction, and lust for treasure comes with the territory. But it’s not like the elves were the good guys. They nearly took the entire Storm Vale from us, hunting us storm dragons to the edge of extinction.”

“Yikes. That’s a lot to unpack.”

“Right? At least, that’s what Mom said. They got her clutch-mate, Xochikalkcho. Although I suppose he was kind of a bastard from what Mom told me, and he might have provoked someone. Still, the elves made him into armor.”

Leo sang out, “It’s the circle of life!”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Leo muttered, faintly embarrassed. “It just seems there’s a lot of killing going around in these parts. Back and forth.”

“Well, yeah,” Hugh said, seeming surprised at the comment. “When they were on top, the elves killed a bunch of us. And when the dragonflight happened, my sire paid them back.”

Another sign about this world’s morals that bodes poorly. A giant neon sign flashing in my face that says, “Leo, my boy, you probably won’t like it here.” At least my plan is to leave.

Leo sighed. “I’m gonna take a quick dip in the river and wash, and check on the arm wound. You do whatever morning beautification routine dragons do, okay?”

“Heh, you’re a funny one.”

“Thanks.”

The dragon settled down on the rocks as Leo stripped his pants off and waded into the frigid water just as the first lightening of the dawn began. Shivering, Leo gave himself a thorough rubdown to clean everything off, then stood in the waist-deep portion and examined his arm.

It still seemed like a nasty wound, and while it wasn’t pouring blood, even taking the bandage off had caused it to bleed a bit. Idjit dragon here did a number on me.

He gently rubbed the river water along the outside of the wound, trying to clean it. The edges felt warm, and he couldn’t remember if that was a sign it was healing, or that it was infected.

I need to find whatever passes for a doctor on this world. A sudden thought struck Leo. Or just get magic. That potion healed a broken arm in seconds.

“Hey, Hugh, can you heal people?”

“No, of course not,” Hugh said with a snort, knocking a medium-sized rock back and forth between his paws as he talked. “I told you, I only have Earth magic.”

“And Earth isn’t the healing magic, I take it?” Leo asked as he finished cleaning himself in the water.

“What? No, of course not.” Hugh’s voice became a touch condescending. “Only Body and Wyld magic have healing. Sheesh, even I know that!”

“I’m from a different dimension, remember?”

“You guys don’t have magic there?” Hugh asked with a tsk.

“No,” Leo replied. “No, we don’t.”

“Wait, seriously? No magic? Everyone is stuck at Level One their whole life, and you just all grub in the dirt and stuff, like, forever?”

Leo was about to launch into a detailed defense of his home dimension and technology, but then thought better of it. I’m too tired, it won’t help anything, and I need to learn about what’s here. I’ll explain cars and stuff if he follows me home or something.

“Sure, dirt grubbing,” Leo said.

“Huh. Hard life. I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know. No wonder you’re so plucky. Nothing left to lose, right?”

Plucky?

Leo rolled his eyes so hard, he almost sprained something. People around here are too much.

“So, different question,” Leo said. “Why is the hoard so incredibly important to you that you would kill random people to make sure you get it?”

Leo scooped up some water to drink.

“Polly,” Hugh whispered.

“What?” Leo asked before drinking from his cupped hands.

“Tail,” Hugh shouted.

Leo laughed, inhaled some water into his air pipe, and coughed explosively, shooting the water in a spray across the river.

After a moment, Leo recovered. “Tail? Seriously? You mean hooking up with female dragons?” Weird that ‘tail’ has the same slang meaning in both Earth human and Toth dragon culture. Unless it’s an approximate translation my brain came up with.

“I mean mating, you cretin,” Hugh said. “Among other stuff. It’s prestige! The bigger your hoard, the more respect you get. From everyone. When you have prestige, people don’t pick on you anymore. And the more prestige you have, the more you impress the ladies!”

“And that’s it? Biggest hoard equals most tail?”

Hugh sighed. “No. A lot of stuff matters. How old a dragon is—the older the better. But I’m young—I’m only sixteen years out of my egg, which we dragons consider to be practically a baby. Most dragons, if not slain, don’t stop growing until they’re a thousand, give or take depending on subspecies, and can then live forever after that as well.”

“Huh.”

“And power matters,” Hugh continued, swishing his tail. “More power attracts mates. Magical ability as a subcategory matters, even more than raw power. And sometimes it’s just compatibility. People get together for a lot of reasons. For dragons, it usually comes down to power of one sort or another. But it can be anything.”

“What did you say the first time?” Leo asked. “You said something I didn’t understand.”

Hugh shifted his bulk awkwardly, knocking the rock he had been playing with away. “I said ‘Polly.’ Short for ‘Polixocatlicae.’”

“Who’s that?” Leo asked.

“The best dragon ever,” Hugh said. “She’s the dragon next peak, and we both got taught history and stuff at the knee of ol’ Poct, our local long speaker. She was way better than me, supersmart, and I can’t remember her ever getting lashed with Poct’s tail for screwing up an answer.”

“Oh, so there’s a special someone. It’s not just tail.”

“Yeah, okay, I just said ‘tail’ to sound cool,” Hugh said. “I just want Polly to like me. She really is the best. She’s graceful, beautiful, smart, and she can already vivisect a deer with a single claw swipe.”

“Huh,” Leo muttered to himself. “Just like the girls back home.”

Hugh ignored him as he continued. “She’s more wonderful than the stars in the sky! But she won’t talk to me at all. I get made fun of by the other dragons, and I’ve got my defect, so it makes sense. But if I have a hoard, the other dragons will respect me, and Polly will fall for me! I need that hoard to win the dragoness of my dreams!”

“But having a hoard leads to people coming to kill you out of revenge or greed, right?”

“Well, yeah, of course.”

“Huh,” Leo said again.

Hugh snorted. “You keep making that noise. Huh, huh, huh. Why?”

“Well, it just feels like this is close to the peacock tail problem.”

Hugh raised a single eye ridge.

“W-Well, you see, peahens mate with whatever peacock has the largest tail,” Leo said. “But tails don’t help peacocks survive—it wastes resources and slows them down. So, what’s good for the individual peacock—having a great tail to attract mates and make babies—is bad for the species, which gets less able to avoid being food with every generation as they lug around ridiculous tails.”

“Huh,” Hugh said with a goofy grin and crossed eyes, his voice an obvious sarcastic mimic of Leo’s.

“Smartass.” Leo climbed out of the frigid river after he’d finished all his washing, shivering as he put his pants on before going to lie against Hugh’s side. “The point is, dragons are breeding up a species that gets in more and more fights with other species as the lust for treasure grows with each generation. Maybe you’re right, and the hoard proves they can fight better, but at the same time, why get in these fights at all? It still kills dragons, and the only upside is breeding. So it’s just hurting the species, even if it’s good for the dragon himself.”

“Look, Leo, I don’t want to be that dragon—but so what?” Hugh asked, a slight tremor to his voice. “Maybe you’re a freaking genius and have deep insights on dragons. But none of it helps me.”

Leo lay against the dragon’s warm side. He’s way warmer than he should be, even for his size, just like last night. Higher metabolism? “Well, it’s interesting, you know? Food for thought. Maybe you can consider it when trying to find your own special someone someday—perhaps even Polly.”

Hugh continued as if Leo hadn’t spoken. “My problem right now is that I’m a flightless dragon with the wrong magic for his species. To stick with your peacock analogy, I’m like a peacock with a few nub feathers and also three feathers made of flowers tied to my body, and they’re wilting. I’m not exactly attracting Polly without a hoard, buddy. And she’s the most peahen of all the peahens.”

He still seems shaky on this analogy.

“Yeah, sure,” Leo said. “That makes sense. We’ll get you what you need. And I hope I can attend your and Polly’s wedding someday. Despite trying to eat me only about eight hours ago, you seem like a good guy.”

“To Merdrek’s ear.” Hugh snorted. “Have you cuddled enough, by the way? Or should I curl around you again? ’Cuz we should be going. It’ll become apparent to everyone soon—other dragons, the remnants of the elves, the orcs and goblins, the Inner Sea corsairs, Steelport, the Havi Imperium—just all of them—that my sire’s gone. And we can’t fight most of them, trust me.”

Then how do you plan to hold on to the hoard, buddy? Leo thought to himself. But they could address it later.

“Sure,” Leo said as he stood, trying unsuccessfully not to shiver. “Let’s go.”

***

A couple of hours later, under the thankfully blazing noon sun, Leo and Hugh stared at a massive river—far, far larger than anything Leo had ever seen, except for that one time he’d seen the Mississippi. The river was bare of trees on its far side, even though it still had thick forest on this side. Leo saw the outlines of a few stone building foundations near the water’s edge but had no idea what they had been, and the stones looked weathered and half-destroyed.

“How large is the river?” Leo asked, impressed.

The fifty-foot-wide baby river they had followed to get here disappeared as it joined this monstrous river without noticeable impact. The new river had to be at least a mile across.

“I don’t know,” Hugh responded. “Why do you care? It’s a stupid river. And we’re not crossing it anyway. We’re just heading down the east side—this side—to the south.”

“Why is the river stupid, of all things? Did it fail algebra?”

Hugh was silent again for a bit before talking again. “I can’t tell if you have a knack for bringing up subjects I don’t want to talk about, or if there are just a lot of them, but this huge river is where my mother dropped me to prove I could fly. And where we all learned I couldn’t actually fly, including my clutch-mates, who laughed their dumb snouts off.”

“Wait, dropped you?” Leo asked. “What?”

“Well, before she took me to ol’ Poct and we learned I had Earth magic and not Air magic, my clutch-mates were all already flying. She said I could as well. So, I guess ’cuz she loved me and was kinda nice, she flew out to this river before trying to prove it. Trust me, it could have been worse. Someday maybe you’ll meet Zun, the living proof that it can always get worse.”

How could it have been worse?

“Does the river have a name?”

“It’s called the Blue River.”

“Why?”

“No idea, and if I’m gonna tell you my story, I want to tell it without random interruption.”

“I mean, I think I know where this is headed,” Leo said, wincing slightly.

“Yeah, well, you’re right,” Hugh said, staring out across the river with eyes that weren’t moving. “She dropped me over the river, from super high up. I broke several ribs and a foreleg, and everything hurt for weeks after, even though my mom used an actual healing potion from her hoard to partially fix me, which, again, shows how nice she is.”

“At least you didn’t drown,” Leo said. She doesn’t seem like a nice mother.

Hugh turned and glanced at him irritably. “Storm dragons can’t drown. We can breathe underwater. Everyone knows that!”

“Different dimension, remember?”

“Yeah, well, that dimension is almost as dumb as this river. And it’s a huge river, runs nearly five hundred miles from the Inner Sea to the Ten Lakes, connecting two entirely different sets of civilizations, and was the heart of the old Kingdom of Averia. I’m sure we’ll have to see this river the whole time we’re getting the hoard, since the palace that’s my sire’s lair is only about a mile from the riverside near where it empties into the Inner Sea.”

“Do you know why there are far fewer trees on the other side?” Leo asked.

“Sure, and since you don’t know anything about magic, it’ll be cool to explain. But we should walk while we talk. We have to cover a lot of mileage next to this dumb river.”

I wonder how many times he’ll call this a ‘dumb’ river?

Leo turned and walked south along the shore.

Hugh ambled after him. “So, nodes are—”

Something caught Leo’s attention, at the edge of his hearing. Shouting, and metal on metal.

“—the sources of different magical—”

“Shush! Can’t you hear that?”

Hugh stopped talking and cocked his head. “No.”

There was a faint scream.

“Let’s go! Someone is in trouble!”

Leo started running in the direction of the sounds, away from the river. As he ran, the yells and clangs of metal on metal grew louder.

“You don’t have a sword!” Hugh yelled from behind him, then, from the sounds of it, ran after Leo.

As Leo ran into the forest, he passed more foundations, then small partial walls. Ruins of the outskirts of a city? Leo thought as he ran.

His new elven body wasn’t as resilient as his old human one, and despite his insane Agility, he sucked wind. But he could move easily among the dense woods and ruins, even if running was winding him.

And Hugh, who had been keeping up fine at first, fell behind as Leo hurdled logs and tiny dips in the earth, ducked tree branches, rolled over walls, and generally conducted himself like a nature-focused parkour expert. Hugh cussed behind him as the terrain worsened.

It was still a horribly exhausting two minutes—a sad commentary on his current body—before he was close.

Just as Leo was nearing the fighting, only a couple hundred feet out, there was another scream—a masculine scream of agony. He passed into a clearing, rushing toward the far side. As he reached the tree line, a short, extremely thin woman—girl?—ran from the trees full-tilt into him.

Chapter Seven

Good Guys Are Gorgeous

Leo plowed into the small woman running at him, accidentally slamming her down to the ground in an explosion of silver hair. Leo yelped as he caromed off the lady and hit a tree.

He rolled over, figuring whatever was coming was close behind. He grabbed an old square stone from between the roots—it looked almost like a brick—and raised it.

The shouts were almost on top of them.

Leo stared at the girl, who was lying on the ground, moaning and dazedly grasping the back of her head. Crimson tinted her silver hair.

The girl—or woman, he couldn’t tell her age, but she was on the cusp of full adulthood either way—was a mere five foot three, and thin as a rail. He doubted she weighed even a hundred pounds. She had extremely pale skin and soft blue eyes, and she wore a golden tiara and flowing, intricate white silk clothing, which was now smeared with dirt and torn. Somehow, the tiara had remained on her head.

And she had extra-long ears, like his own. Elf ears.

She was very cute, almost beautiful, and for a brief moment, Leo couldn’t take his eyes off her even as she awkwardly lay on the ground.

Then three goblins crashed into the clearing, running from where the girl had come, and Hugh exploded from the vegetation on the other side, trailing ripped vines like kite ribbons.

“I’m coming, Leo!” Hugh roared as he ran full-tilt into the tiny clearing and rushed at the goblins.

As always in moments of stress, Leo coped by joking.

“That’s what she said,” he huffed as he got to his feet and placed himself between the girl and the goblins.

Each goblin was about four foot six, with thick, wrinkly green skin and sparse white hair on its head and body. They also wore poorly made fur armor but carried well-crafted spears with steel heads. One wore an oversized battered iron helm that looked like it might have started life as some cooking pot.

He expected the goblins to run—charging dragon and all—but the three rushed forward brandishing their spears. Leo managed to barely dodge a vicious thrust by slapping the spear to the side with his superior reach and then slammed his stone down on the goblin’s noggin—a perfect hit right to the crown of the goblin’s head.

Leo hits goblin trainee for 5(5.4) damage (1.8 damage(2 base damage -10%(strength)) x3(base +1 +.5 Predator perk +.5 Agility) for critical hit.)

Blunt Critical Hit to head does less than target health damage. Goblin trainee succeeds on Toughness check against brain damage. Goblin trainee fails Toughness check against knockout and is rendered unconscious.

“Get out of my face!” Leo yelled, panicking as the other two goblins tried to spear him, one missing by a hair’s breadth as he nimbly danced between them.

The notification box again obliged, disappearing.

The other two goblins struck again as he tried to dodge and recover enough to strike back. One missed, and the other scored a thin line down his exposed chest. Leo hissed.

Then Hugh ran by like an enraged freight train, and the goblin with the helm disappeared with a squawk, its spear somehow flying up and then landing in the grass of the clearing where the goblin had been a second before.

All right, score one for removing a thorn from the dragon’s paw, Leo thought gleefully as the last goblin paused, its eyes open wide, for the half second it took Leo to recover.

The goblin tried to spear Leo, but he caught the spear behind the spearhead and knocked the wind out of the goblin by shoving the butt end of the spear back into its stomach.

The goblin doubled over, and then tried to turn and run.

Leo slung his rock into the back of its head. The goblin pitched forward from the smack, and hit the ground hard. It didn’t move afterward.

The elf woman rolled to her knees, took the knife in both hands, hesitated briefly, then viciously ended the unconscious goblin’s life with a downward stab to the throat. Blood sprayed out, a Jackson Pollock painting across her intricate white silk dress.

She turned her head, dropped the knife, and fluttered her hands. She spit a few times on the ground.

Allied unknown elf kills trainee goblin. Leo gains 12 experience.

Leo irritably dismissed the notification and glanced over at Hugh.

Hugh raised his head from where he had finished his opponent by ripping what looked like the goblin’s entire digestive tract from its belly. Some of the entrails were still in Hugh’s mouth. The goblin shuddered once and lay still.

Ally Hugh kills trainee goblin. Leo gains 12 experience gained. Level gained!

Level gained? What does that mean, exactly?

Then Leo stared at the disemboweled goblin.

We look like serial killers, Leo’s mind gibbered at him before he turned and puked into the grass of the clearing.

He glanced up as Hugh spoke.

“You all right, buddy?” Tiny flecks of blood spattered from the dragon’s mouth as he talked. “Did one of those goblins get you with a disease or pollution effect?”

Leo spit the acrid taste from his mouth and wiped his hand across it. Get it together, man. You were an amateur MMA fighter! You’ve seen blood.

Leo’s legs were wobbly as he tried not to collapse. You’ve never seen someone damn near eat someone else before this, however.

“Fine,” Leo managed to gasp out. “No long-term debuffs.”

“All right,” Hugh said. “Great.”

“Whoa!” Leo said, reaching out and grabbing the woman’s hand as she prepared to ginsu the other goblin. “What are you doing?”

The lady answered him in High Averian. Once again, as with the elf in the portal cave, her speech gave far more information than just the words—prefixes and suffixes gave information about tone and position and even the relationship between the speaker and the listener. “In the common tone, position of superior addressing, graciously, an inferior, least formal: We are threatened, regrettably, by our enemy: ancestral, deservedly hated, victorious: who still bears down on us. I must eliminate their soldiers, no matter how disgusting this duty is: This last statement is obvious and clearly rightful.”

And once again, Leo’s mind translated both the words and tones to an understanding of what the equivalent would have been in English: “The rest of the goblins are coming,” the elf girl had said. “Don’t leave this one alive, even if it’s icky.”

“Just speak Middle Averian, like the dragon,” Leo said. “And the goblin’s knocked out. Let’s go!”

He yanked her by the arm, and despite his weaker new body, he managed to pull the elf to her feet. She jerked away, however, toward the clearing.

“What are you doing?” Leo asked, his eyes wide. “You just told me the goblins are coming.”

“Our people are back there!” she cried out. “Are you a coward? Help me rescue them!”

Oh, for…

“Listen!” Leo said. “Be still and listen for a moment!”

The girl stilled and listened to the high-pitched shouts, which were moving closer.

“No clash of metal. No screams or yells except those goblin war cries. Your people are dead or have fled. We need to leave now!”

“We have a dragon!” the girl snapped.

“The dragon goes where Leo does,” Hugh quipped, but he was edging back the way they had come, toward the river.

The goblin yells were now obviously getting closer.

“Curse those hideous creatures!” the girl said, her face twisted with loss. “Fine!”

Leo ran back the way he had come, and the girl and the dragon followed, goblin yells hot on their heels.

***

It had taken a hard thirty minutes to finally outrun and evade the goblins, and they’d made it back to the bank of the Blue River.

Gasping for breath and shaky with exhaustion, Leo sat on a rock, trying to will life back into his limbs and clear his lungs. He’d collapsed amid the smooth rocks and the ruined foundations of old buildings, hopefully screened from view. His spittle was pink-tinged. The late afternoon sun was warm against him.

If he hadn’t run himself near to death, Leo would have been quite at peace with the scene.

And that was barely hyperbole—the notifications box had helpfully informed him that he had depleted his stamina, done damage to himself through overstrain, and depleted even his stamina recovery rate temporarily.

I haven’t run that hard since I was training for my MMA bouts back in college. And I don’t think I ran till I tasted blood then, either.

He had seen a few extraordinarily dedicated fighters reach that point once or twice, but still, he’d never done it.

The girl looked even more the worse for wear, still dry-heaving as she tried to relax, her limbs occasionally shaking. She’d puked multiple times, and he was pretty sure she was on the edge of shock from sheer effort. Her beautiful silk clothing was ripped to pieces, and her pale skin was visible through the rents in her attire—although she wore sturdy boots, at least.

She pulled herself to her feet, trembling, and went over to the river. She washed her hands, getting the blood off. Then she tried to arrange her hair and smooth down her dress. Given the blood all over her, her calling her beautification process a partial success was generous. After a few minutes, she returned, and gingerly sat on a large flat rock, facing Leo.

She carefully crossed one leg over the other, adjusted her clothing, and then put her trembling hands in her lap. She lowered her head, but otherwise maintained a proper pose. Leo couldn’t help but admire the dignified poise she projected, even in her ripped, dirty, and bloodstained clothing.

Damn these weak-ass elf bodies! How do they even survive as a species?

Hugh crawled down the side of the riverbank to the place Leo and the girl were sitting. “I think we finally lost the goblins. I can’t see or hear them, anyway.”

Leo nodded his thanks, still too winded to respond.

Hugh looked at Leo with his brow furrowed for a moment, then smiled, baring his fangs. “So, um, I have some good news.”

Leo wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with any news, even the good kind. Dealing with things would hurt too much right now.

Hugh pointed south with one large claw. “I think our flight from the goblins brought us closer to our destination.”

Leo looked where Hugh pointed and could make out a single spire of a fantastical castle, beautifully designed with white marble, over the treetops.

The elf girl managed to raise her head. “Your…” She coughed, dry-heaved, and then tried again. “Your destination?”

“Yup,” Hugh said. “My destination. And Leo’s. We’re going to get my sire’s hoard!”

The elf girl’s eyes narrowed, and her trembling hand strayed to the filigreed dagger at her belt.

You were so set to kill me, Hugh, and now you just announced your goal to this elf?

Although this tiny little hundred-pound escaped beauty queen has moxie, for sure. No grasp on reality, but moxie. What does she think she’s going to do against the two of us when she can’t even keep her hand still?

Leo took a deep breath as his body recovered a touch more. “So, um, I’m Leo—never Leonard, that’s my dad—Evans, and this is Hugh of Storm Vale. Might I ask your name?”

She spoke in High Averian, her face expressionless as she talked. “In the noble tone, High Superior addressing a disappointing inferior: I am Lilianae Kuvella ap Willowynd, second child of Duke Iloran Lazael ap Willowynd: Sorrow at his passing. Why are you here with this dragon?: enemy, ancient, victorious?”

“Pleased to meet you,” Leo said. “I’m helping him to get his dad’s hoard so he can gain prestige within the dragon community, in return for his assistance. Also, I can understand those little inflections in High Averian, for whatever reason. I, again, recommend you stick to Middle Averian so we can all have a little ambiguity as to our apparently negative opinions of each other.”

Hugh snorted laughter, but he had moved into a less relaxed pose and was eyeing Lilianae.

The girl stared at them for a moment, breathing heavily. Her face was hard, and her blue eyes narrowed as she stared at them, but then she suddenly relaxed, a minuscule release of muscle tension that Leo recognized from his time fighting.

“Very well,” she said. She took her hand off her dagger hilt and laced her fingers together in her lap. “I will speak Middle Averian with you, since you seem unusually educated and touchy both. Please call me ‘Lily’ if we are to speak in this vulgar tongue—it’s how the humans address me.”

Leo smiled. “It’s a pretty name. I like it. So, Lily, why are you here? And glaring daggers at me?”

“I’m here to rebuild the Kingdom of Averia, and be its queen!” Lily said, her pronouncement ringing out over the rocks of the riverbed.

Hugh laughed, a mocking sound. “You? How will you pull that off? You couldn’t even beat a few goblin trainees. The Blood Tribes would eat you for breakfast. For a breakfast appetizer. Maybe even a dawn snack, or…”

“We get it, Hugh,” Leo said, trying not to laugh.

Lily flushed, uncrossed her legs, and started to rise before coughing and sinking back to the rock.

“Or even get up,” Hugh helpfully quipped.

“May your magic abandon you, dragon!” Lily said venomously.

Hugh’s eyes narrowed, and he bared his fangs as he stepped forward, his huge, eight-foot-long frame dwarfing Lily while she sat.

She hit harder than she thought she would there, Leo thought. Better defuse this.

“Whoa, guys, whoa!” Leo said. “Everyone, take a chill pill! We just barely escaped the goblins. Let’s not kill ourselves now! C’mon, can you guys try to be the one ray of sanity in this kooky world?”

Hugh relaxed and settled back down on the rocks. “Fine. But don’t think to break our deal, okay, Leo? Not even if you want to breed with this elf.”

Leo facepalmed, then dragged his hand down, distorting his face briefly. Nope, no sanity. I swear I should just swim the river and leave these two behind.

At the same time, Lily spoke in a shocked voice, her cheeks pink. “Why would you suggest that, dragon? I’ve barely met this man, and I would not engage in, in… carnal relations so casually. Or risk bearing a bastard heir to the throne. It wouldn’t be proper for a noble lady of Averia.”

“Huh,” Hugh mocked, his eyes wide and at odd angles again.

Lily’s blush moved toward a deeper red, and her eyes narrowed.

Leo desperately tried to stave off disaster. “So, Lily, why don’t we go back to the basic question. Why do you think you can become the queen of Averia?”

It worked, and both Lily and Hugh were distracted. But Lily didn’t immediately answer. Instead, she stared at them for a long time, shifting a bit and breathing deeply. It started to get awkward.

Finally, her face firmed, and she spoke as calmly as her breathing allowed. “I’ll not reveal the reasons at this time, I’m sorry. Despite you saving me, I have absolutely no reason to trust you two. Hugh, you are going to go steal the treasures of my oppressed people, and you, Leo, are going to help him.”

“Okay,” Leo said. “Good luck, then.”

Leo pushed himself to his feet, his legs like Jell-O but working. The worst seemed to have passed.

“What did you say?” Lily asked. “And where are you going?”

“I said ‘good luck.’ You’ll need it. Between the dragons, the elves, the goblins, and a bunch of other people Hugh named, apparently everyone is after that hoard, or will be once they figure out Hugh’s dad is dead.”

“Merely missing,” Hugh said.

Leo ignored him as he continued. “You already encountered some of them. As to where I’m going, I’m going to go help Hugh here complete his quest. I genuinely hope you reestablish your elf kingdom, but I have things to do.”

Lily fidgeted with her hands and, with heroic effort, managed to stand, swaying slightly as she did. “You can’t leave! I’m the last heir to the Averian throne, all alone out here. My retainers, um, they died for me…”

Her lip quavered for a moment, but her face firmed again.

“I can leave you,” Leo said. “In fact, I intend to. We’re not your retainers. We helped you because you were in danger, and it’s the decent thing to do. But we have our own goals to accomplish.”

Hugh stood back up and stretched. “And Leo needed to punch his good-deeds card.”

“Nice,” Leo said, turning to Hugh and giving him a thumbs-up as he started to climb back up the riverbank. “I’m surprised you remembered that.”

Lily’s hands were making little grasping motions. “Wait! Please, wait.”

Leo stopped and waited.

“Look, I, um… Is this because I didn’t tell you my plans? Because that seems like a very shallow reason to abandon me out here.”

“Among other things,” Leo said, sighing. “I really do have things to do. And I don’t want to travel with someone who distrusts me.”

“But how could I not?” Lily asked. “You’re allied with the son of our kingdom’s killer, from his own mouth.”

“I had no idea of any of this history when I allied with him,” Leo said, exasperated. “I’m not from around here, to put it mildly. I have no vested interest in whatever prior drama you guys have going on.”

“Then why are you here?”

“He’s from another dimension and arrived by accident,” Hugh said.

Lily’s eyes widened at his comment, and she tensed where she stood.

Hugh continued. “It’s some sad dimension without magic, where everyone grubs in the dirt all the time. Everyone there is kinda pathetic.”

I swear on all that is holy to me…

Lily relaxed. Leo didn’t push the explanation of his home world, despite feeling a bit maligned. Personally, and as a society.

“Fine,” Lily said, twirling her finger in her hair. “Fine. You win, since you have me at a disadvantage. I’ll tell you. I’m the legal, and magical, heir to the throne of Averia. By the time the king died, there were no blood descendants of the king left. But my family is a cadet branch of the royal line—I am third cousin to the previous king. My father died defending the kingdom against the Blood Tribes, and my older sister—well, we received notification that she is dead two days ago.”

“Okay,” Leo said. “And I’m sorry to hear about your sister. But why does it matter that you’re related to the old king? I mean, the kingdom was defeated, right?”

“Yes. It’s true the kingdom was defeated. The majority of the elves who survived are enslaved in the camps of the tribes now. Or the kingdoms they were sold to. But a few of us escaped—including my sister and me.”

She sat back down on the rock. Leo went back and took a seat on another rock.

Leo waited, assuming she would reach the relevant information soon. There was a brief pause, and Leo stretched.

“I was still an infant when all this happened, you understand,” Lily finally said. “But my sister was an extremely talented research mage—like I am now, I add. The combination of her position as the duchess, and her natural talent, meant she was close to the king. When the dragon attacked, she and the king hatched a plan to hide the greatest artifacts of the kingdom, the ones that had been built before the Blood Tribes and Chaoliocecatheka came.”

“Wait, the elves hid even more treasure away?” Hugh asked, licking his lips.

“This is why I didn’t want to trust you,” Lily said. “Dragons are always led by greed, just like my instructors in magical fauna told me.”

Leo held up a finger. “My question is, who is this Chowlio guy, and how does he fit in the story?”

“That’s my sire,” Hugh said. “We call him ‘Chao.’”

“Not sure how that never came up, but all right.”

Lily leaned back on the rock she was sitting on. “To answer you, shiny little thief—yes, the king, before he died, hid away some of the kingdom’s most powerful artifacts in a vault. A vault protected so that only the true heir to the king may open it, sealed by ancient magic, deep below ground.”

“And you’re sure my sire didn’t get this treasure?” Hugh asked.

“No, he didn’t,” Lily replied heatedly. “My sister had ways to know, and the wards were never broken.”

“Huh,” Hugh said, this time without accompanying kooky facial expressions.

It weirded Leo out that the dragon was instantly adopting the ‘huh’ mannerism.

“And you can use this treasure to rebuild the kingdom? It’s that powerful?” Leo asked.

“Well… no.” Lily sighed and turned her gaze to Leo. “But I could get a start. With that and the remains of Calasti that, um, Chao seized, anyway. Here in the ruins of the capital, Calasti, I could rebuild. I could make the perfect home for the elves, even grander than before.”

“And you can get this treasure? Or to the vault?”

Lily slumped where she sat on the rock, then straightened, still trembling, her head held proudly. Pride was the only thing sustaining her at this point, Leo figured.

“I doubt that I can, but I will try regardless. But I had a party before. Ranger Lowali Whitecloak and his son, my betrothed, Ilothulin. And Jeralt, a mercenary under our employ. We were ready, I thought. And we had a wagon to haul out the best of the treasure, so we could return to Lakusi and gather the resources and personnel to come back and claim the city for real.”

“They’re dead?” Leo asked. “For sure?”

Lily nodded once. “Almost certainly. Ranger Whitecloak told me that they would die if necessary to give me a chance to escape. They all pulled blades and faced the Blood Tribes raiding party. I wanted to stay with them, but they made the case that I was the only one left…”

Lily gazed at Leo, her blue eyes red-rimmed, her stare distant.

Then she whispered, bereft and hopeless, “And I was a coward who didn’t want to die.”

“You’re one of the most agress—bravest women I’ve met,” Leo said. “I wouldn’t worry about that. But why are you the last one? The last what?”

“I just told you. I’m the last member of the royal line, which is otherwise extinct. Our subbranch is all that’s left with any blood at all. Sis died a couple of days ago. We had a falling-out, over her plan and mine, but she would have been able to enter the vault, I think.”

Leo was pretty sure she hadn’t actually said there was no one else, only that she was next in line, but he let it go.

Lily heaved a sigh before continuing. “Now I’m all who’s left with any connection to the royal line. Since Sis is dead.” Then she paused. “Sorry, I’m repeating myself. It’s been a day, obviously. The point is, I’m all who’s left to recover the greatest treasures of the kingdom and save our people.”

Leo nodded along.

Lily played with her hair again, her eyes downcast. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for it, frankly, but I have to try. I’m better at getting people to do what I want than personally going into danger. I was at university, learning about magic and the flora and fauna of the world.”

“All right.”

Lily glanced up and stared at Leo through her lashes. “I don’t think I can do it alone. But I will try.”

Leo met her gaze. She was obviously—very obviously—trying to manipulate him to help. But beyond that, she was exhausted and probably in shock to some degree. He saw the perfection with which she still tried to hold herself, and the willpower within her.

But she was young. Maybe not even eighteen—or whatever the elf equivalent was. Her face was almost without blemish, and she had no laugh or worry lines. The face of someone who wasn’t who they would become yet.

She should be going to prom, in his mind. Not shouldering the cares of an entire people. But she was.

Leo’s heart went out to her. I can afford a tiny bit more time, and she said she’s a researcher. So helping her is helping myself, most likely.

“Well, how about this?” Leo said. “We’ll all go together. Hugh can have his sire’s hoard, and we’ll get you the vault and its crazy magical things. Then you can rebuild your kingdom. Or at least get a decent start on it.”

“You won’t stay and help me reestablish the greatest elven kingdom in the thirteen continents?” she asked, looking at Leo with a smile as she twirled her hair.

“And how come I don’t get that treasure from the vault as well?” Hugh asked.

Leo ignored Hugh. “You guys have thirteen continents on this world, huh?”

Lily tilted her head at him, and all her artifice fell away. “Thirteen? We have, by popular count, a thousand continents on Toth. Most of the learned scholars put the number closer to eight hundred, however. Thirteen are simply clustered here, with tens of thousands of miles of oceans to cross to reach the next continent in every direction.”

For a brief moment, Leo’s head spun.

“A thousand continents? Like islands?”

“No, continents. Everyone agrees a continent has to be at least a thousand-mile landmass in one direction, absolute minimum.”

That’s not possible, Leo thought. The size that implies… the gravity would crush us. Even if these bodies were stronger, well, substances would behave differently! The surface area would be about a hundred and ten times larger than Earth. Jupiter has a surface area about a hundred and twenty times larger, but Jupiter is mostly gas and still has gravity two point four times higher, and this seems like a rocky world, so—

“Leo, buddy?” Hugh smacked his tail on the rock next to Leo. “Snap out of it.”

Almost by sheer force of will, Leo brought himself back to the present.

“Okay, sorry. That one caught me by surprise.”

“You’ll agree to this, dragon?” Lily asked. “You’ll help me, and in return, I help you get your sire’s hoard?”

Hugh sighed. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

Everyone waited, saying nothing.

Finally, he nodded. “Okay, fine. It’ll still be an amazing hoard, and I’ll finally get respect. And Polly.”

“So, a team?” Leo asked. “All of us together?”

Hugh and Lily eyed each other, but after a moment, everyone nodded. Lily held her hand out, and Leo took it. Hugh covered it with his huge claw. They all shook.

“Excellent. To our own tiny fellowship—let’s do this.”

Chapter Eight

So Many Charts,
My Eyes Hurt

They all lowered their hands, and Lily gave them a tremulous smile. “Well, after all that, I need to use the privy. If you don’t mind, I’m going to step into the trees for a bit.”

Leo nodded. Then Lily awkwardly climbed up the riverbank. Even though her legs were obviously paining her—she walked like an old woman—she said nary a word of complaint.

“So, while Princess Pride is out watering the bushes, can you help me with my leveling up?” Leo asked, turning to Hugh.

Hugh grimaced. “That’s usually a long-term process, carefully thought out and plotted by people to guide their lives. And I don’t really know much about abilities and magics, especially the ones elves get.”

“Can I afford to wait? I mean, what does leveling do, exactly? Because your description of everyone heading for this hoard—including the goblins we just fought—convinces me I need something besides a rock in my arsenal.”

“Ugh, it’s so annoying that you don’t even know the basics.” Hugh huffed as he lay down and then rolled onto his side.

Leo circled his hand, motioning for Hugh to get on with it.

Hugh moved his head so his draconic gaze met Leo’s. “Well, at its most basic, leveling is just getting a lot of magical energy—usually, but not always, energy from dead people’s souls—until you become more powerful. I guess a ‘level’ is just a way to express what happens when the magic within you reaches the point that it permanently improves you. For most of us, it gives us magical abilities, one new ability per level. Some races get more, or have higher starting abilities, as a result of being highly magical. Like dragons. ’Cuz we’re better than you.”

Leo rolled his eyes.

Hugh continued. “Abilities have two basic types, at least at the low levels. You can get other types, like auras, when you’re stronger. But at these levels, the two types are either static boosts or powers you can activate with essence.”

Again, so much to unpack there. Just get the basics down.

“Static boosts?”

“Yeah, like more strength so you’re always stronger. In your case, to help you dirt farm better.”

Leo glared for a moment as he lounged near the river, then laughed. “Sure, plus two dirt farming. But really, I could actually become permanently stronger? Because this body feels like it gets hives whenever a gym is nearby.”

“Well, that body looks like every other elf I’ve ever seen. Maybe you’re using it wrong?”

“Maybe. But my other body, the human one, could have beaten this one within an inch of its life. I was a touch less agile, but far stronger and tougher.”

“Huh,” Hugh replied goofily, his eyes crossed.

Leo laughed again. “I can’t even with you.”

“Can’t even what?”

“Just a dumb expression from back when I was a teenager,” Leo said, waving Hugh off from further questions before wincing and lowering his arm. “Okay, wisest of dragons, how do I level?”

“Just pull your status sheet up, and there’ll be a prompt,” Hugh said, turning to gaze back out over the river in obvious boredom. “Then find and pick your coolest ability.”

Ask stupid questions, win stupid prizes. I probably should have just tried that. It’s like every video game I’ve ever played.

Leo pulled his status sheet up, and overlaying it was a prompt.

You have gained enough experience to level. Do you wish to level and pick your ability(ies) and stats now?

Leo picked ‘yes,’ and a huge list appeared.

Leveling Options, Level Two [Pick Three]

Body

Improved Strength, Rank I

+4 Strength

Improved Agility, Rank I

+4 Agility

Improved Dexterity, Rank I

+4 Dexterity

Bestial Endurance, Rank I

+4 Endurance

Bestial Toughness, Rank I

+4 Toughness

Bestial Senses, Rank I

+4 Perception

Improved Appearance, Rank I

+4 Appearance

Improved Health, Rank I

+8 base Health

Improved Stamina, Rank I

+8 base Stamina

Play Dead

Spend 1 essence, and life functions will drop to the point that they are not detectable to the naked eye for up to 10 minutes.

Heal

Spend 1 essence, and heal 4 health to self or others by touch.

Brutal Reaction

Spend 2 essence and 2 stamina. Gain brief speed, doubling physical movement rates, including attack, for 6 seconds.

Second Wind

Spend 1 essence. Gain 8 stamina.

Subtle Shift

Spend 2 essence and maintain for 1 essence per minute. Features subtly shift to look like a different person—only cosmetic features (skin tone, wrinkles, etc.)

Sleepless, Rank I

Require only 4 hours of sleep per night.

Body Affinity, Rank I

+1 Body affinity

*Kinesthetic Learner

Gain 1 additional Body ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. May only be taken at Level 2, 11, 21, 31, or 41, and it only applies to the 10th level thereafter. Rare ability—result of natural talent and at least 1 perk that adds to Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Toughness, or Endurance. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Mind

Improved Intelligence, Rank I

+2 Intelligence

Illusionist, Rank I

Spend 1 essence. May hold for 1 drawdown (1 less maximum mana so long as power is utilized). Create a cat-sized image with only visual components.

Audible Illusions

All illusions may have audible components as well.

Conceal Self

May radically change your own appearance and clothing at will. This also provides +2 Appearance. This is a mind-affecting ability and may be resisted by anyone with bonuses against mind-affecting abilities.

Mind Blast, Rank I

Spend 1 essence and do 2 (modified by all magic and mind-altering effects) psi damage to any visible target that has a mind within 100 feet per point of occult.

Telekinesis, Rank I

Spend 1 essence and move a single object up to 10 feet away per occult at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. If attacking, does 1 base damage. Damage, speed, and weight modified by magical and telekinesis-altering abilities.

Analyze

Spend 1 essence and gain a basic readout of any creature or item that does not possess antidivination magic. Gain knowledge of basic Health, Stamina, Essence, and rough capabilities and weaknesses.

Telepathy, Rank I

Spend 1 essence, and 1 essence per 10 minutes, to use telepathy with any one person within 10 feet per point of occult.

Tongues

Spend 1 essence, and 1 essence per 10 minutes, to speak any natural language. This is a mind-affecting power and will not work if the target can’t receive telepathy.

Mind Affinity, Rank I

Gain +1 Mind affinity

*Cognitive Learner

Gain 1 additional Mind ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. May only be taken at Level 2, 11, 21, 31, or 41, and it only applies to the 10th level thereafter. Rare ability—result of natural talent and at least 1 perk that adds to Intelligence or Perception. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Soul

Soul of Magic, Rank I

+2 Magic

Natural Leader, Rank I

+2 Charisma

Improved Connection, Rank I

+4 Connection

Improved Capacity, Rank I

+4 Capacity

Shield, Rank I

May spend 1 essence and gain a 4-hit-point shield that lasts for 6 seconds.

Barrier, Rank I

May spend 1 essence and gain a 2-hit-point shield that lasts for 1 minute.

Talk Down

The wielder may spend 2 essence and make a contested Charisma check against the target’s highest Intelligence, Magic, or Charisma score, with the defender getting any bonuses against mind-affecting powers. Success will calm the target so they won’t initiate or continue aggression, unless harmed or witnessing others they care for being harmed.

Soul Affinity, Rank I

+1 Soul affinity

*Empathetic Learner

Gain 1 additional Soul ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. May only be taken at Level 2, 11, 21, 31, or 41, and it only applies to the 10th level thereafter. Rare ability—result of natural talent and at least one perk that adds to Charisma or Magic. +25% occult skill gain rate.

Wyld

Bestial Strength, Rank I

+4 Strength

Bestial Agility, Rank I

+4 Agility

Bestial Endurance, Rank I

+4 Endurance

Bestial Toughness, Rank I

+4 Toughness

Bestial Senses, Rank I

+4 Perception

Were Form, Rank I

May spend 1 essence, and 1 essence per every 6 seconds, to assume a partial were form. Gain +4 to Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Toughness for the duration of the ability.

Resilient, Rank I

Gain back 1 health per 10 minutes at no cost.

Regeneration, Rank I

Spend 2 essence. Gain 1 health till max per 6 seconds for 1 minute.

True Grit

Wound penalties to accuracy, dodge, and Stamina recovery are halved.

Wyld Affinity, Rank I

+1 Wyld affinity

Animal Companion, Rank I

Gain an animal companion. That animal gains +2 to all physical stats. ‘Animals’ include any magical beast less than Level 6 for this power.

Metal

Armored Skin, Rank I

+2 armor score for natural skin. Your skin has a slight metallic sheen.

Light, Rank I

Spend 1 essence, and do 4 (modified by all magic, Metal, and Light-altering effects) light damage to any target hit with a ranged accuracy roll at +60% accuracy.

Coordinator’s Boost

Spend 1 essence. Target ally within 10 feet per occult gains +60% accuracy and +20% critical chance against any target hit by an ally for the next 12 seconds.

Natural Merchant, Rank I

Gain +20% more from selling goods than normal based on Charisma and business score.

Natural Organizer, Rank I

Gain +20% more productivity from any business with less than 100 (+10% per business and leadership skill level) people.

Skilled Fighter, Rank I

+20% bonuses from all weapon, armor, and shield skills

Item Mastery, Rank I

Gain 1 additional nonartifact item use maximum

Soul/Wyld

Familiar, Rank I

May bond with a single familiar. This familiar has half the level of its master and is a sapient magical beast.

By Jove, that’s a huge number of abilities!

Leo examined the top of the list and then scanned down. As he did so, his head dipped about forty-five degrees.

“A lot of magical options?” Hugh asked after a few minutes of silence. He had gotten bored and gone to splash at the edge of the river.

“A ton,” Leo muttered. “I’m a bit overwhelmed. This is all real?”

“Of course it’s real…” Then he stared at Leo. “How many magics do you have?”

“Five,” Leo said. “Bod—”

“Five!” Hugh exclaimed. “By Merdrek’s teeth, five magics?”

“Yeah…”

“Figures,” Hugh said, his eyes wide. “Of course you do. And you don’t even know how rare that is, or how powerful that makes you, you pissant dirt grubber. Everybody gets amazing magic except poor Hugh, who didn’t even get normal storm dragon magic.”

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and just tell me,” Leo said, exasperated. “That’s the easiest way. How rare is it?”

Hugh settled back down, one eye ridge furrowed. “Well, most mortal races have one magic each. Like ninety percent of everyone.”

“Okay…?”

“Almost the entire remaining tenth has two. So, like, nine percent. And then a tenth of that have three, so, like, one in a hundred.”

Leo did the math in his head. “The chance of having five magics is one in ten thousand?”

“No,” Hugh said, staring over Leo’s shoulder. “To get to more than three magics is like one in a thousand each time. Four is one in a hundred thousand. Five is one in a hundred million, like one in a continent. And there has only been one six-magic person ever, Angeline.”

“In other words, there are probably only over eight hundred people with as many magics as I have? One for each of the truly ridiculous number of continents the world has?” Leo asked, fascinated. “That’s why I’m so rare?”

Hugh snorted. “I guess that is one way to look at it—you do have eight hundred or so peers.”

“And it makes me super powerful somehow? Because I haven’t really been feeling my strength, you know? We’ve run—like little girls, I might add—from every single fight we’ve been in at this point.”

Hugh snorted again. “I guess that’s true, kinda. Although we did do a lot of damage first in both cases. Still, you have a way of putting things in perspective, friend Leo. And I guess I was overhyping it. Most people only get one ability per level, like I said, so I guess five magics isn’t that much better than one magic. But a lot of rarer and stronger magical abilities only exist for dual and tri-magic individuals. Although a lot of rarer abilities also exist for people with higher magical qualities and good perks as well.”

“Are there four-magic abilities?”

“No idea,” Hugh said.

“So, really, having five magics doesn’t make me super powerful. It just makes me extremely versatile, and maybe slightly more powerful?” Leo asked. Figures.

“Yeah, I think that’s a better way to put it.”

Leo groaned. “All right, well, what abilities should I take?”

“Abilities?”

“Yeah, I get three.”

“Three?” Hugh parroted.

“Stop repeating what I say and just tell me why that’s weird!” Leo said, exasperated again. “Pretend you’re a workplace safety video and give me the incredibly dry version!”

“What in the…?”

“Never mind,” Leo said. “Just please explain.”

Hugh scratched his scales. “Sure, buddy. Calm down. You get one ability per level, normally. You must have some amazing perks. Three, well… That’s an actual, real increase in power.”

“I only get three abilities for Level Two, I get one for the other levels. So I need to make this good. What should I take?”

“I have no idea. I have Earth magic, not whatever-you-have five magics!” Hugh said, returning the snark. “And, on top of that, I level a lot slower than you, on account of my magical nature. I will most likely just wait till I age to gain more power—it’s easier. I mean, after I get the hoard, of course.”

Huh… That seems like a lazy and terrible decision, considering his goal of keeping said hoard, but get through this first and talk to him about that later.

“Okay, how should I decide how to level up?”

“Well, whatever you select opens up new powers in the future. So, if you take, for example, Earth magic hardening powers, you get more advanced versions, or odder ones, like maybe spikes on your skin or something. Just find things you think are really cool and think about where they might lead so you can get a powerful build.”

Leo examined the list again. “What does ‘occult’ do for me? And what is it?”

“It’s a skill, like sword use, but it’s for using magic powers.”

Interesting…

“And affinity?”

“It’s a focus on a single magic, improving that magic. But your Magic stat sets the maximum affinity you can normally have. And think about your perks. You should always lean into abilities provided by your perks.”

“Thanks.” Leo pulled up said perks.

Birth Perks

Race: High Elf

-2 to base Strength, Endurance, and Toughness stats base

+2 to Agility and Magic stats base

Increased chance for Being magics and Wyld magic. Gain an additional ability at Level 2, 10, and every 10 thereafter from one of those magics if possessed.

Life span average of 400 years. Maximum of 3 perks positive and negative each, with standard chance of inheriting or acquiring at birth.

Rank: Natural

May obtain Level 80 without ascension, access to extremely rare or upgraded magical abilities.

Graceful Body

+4 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +4 Appearance

Predator

+4 Agility, +10% critical chance, +.5 critical modifier

Line of Stardew

+4 Magic. Always start with Wyld, gain 1 additional Wyld ability at Level 2. Auras for Wyld are gained 10 levels earlier, and this can exceed maximum level, and may gain 2 higher maximum Wyld affinity.

*Genius

+10 Intelligence, increased magic ability access. May gain +2 maximum Mind affinity.

*Being Arcane

With the appropriate prerequisite abilities and stats, upon obtaining Level 30, may gain any or all of the Arcane abilities: Kinesthetic, Cognitive, or Empathetic.

*Aura Mastery

May gain auras as if 10 levels higher, including access to auras that are beyond maximum level once reached.

Acquired Perks

Low-Self Esteem

-2 check to resist despair effects. Failure, especially significant failure, can lead to further negative perks.

So, I can clearly gain increased power to Mind magic, and my genius perk would synergize well with rapid gain of occult skill… Perhaps I should focus on either psionic damage or telekinetic damage? I could also get cognitive learner and really work the Mind magic angle… those would also synergize extremely well with the occult skill gain.

But then he examined his Stardew line and elf stats. He would have to pick one of his abilities in Wyld, but he gained Wyld affinity easier on the flip side of the coin. And Soul adds to the Magic stat. And what is ‘arcane’? Each of the arcanes listed—kinesthetic, cognitive, and empathetic—is clearly tied to Body, Mind, and Soul magic, especially with the ‘learner’ abilities.

“What’s arcane, Hugh?”

“What? I have no idea what that means.”

Joy.

This is the basis of my entire power set on this world, and maybe once I get back to Earth, but I’m supposed to just make this choice half-blind?

My gut is telling me the arcane is important, but all it says is ‘prerequisite abilities and stats,’ with no explanation.

And do I want to lean into a magical build and remain kind of pathetic physically forever, or go for hybrid? I mean, if this were a game, I’d go for a min-max build, but since it’s my life, I feel awkward about having a pathetic body forever…

Leo went over his choices and perks again. One ability had to be Wyld, so it was impossible for him to take all three of the ‘learner’ abilities, since each one was in a magic other than Wyld… Perhaps I can split the difference and take a stat gain as well, but… wait a minute.

“Why are they called ‘Level Stats’ and ‘Non-Level Stats,’ Hugh?”

“Because every time you level, you can add two points to one of your Level Stats, dum-dum. Why else would they be called ‘Level Stats’?”

Son of a…

Leo mulled everything over. I want to become a powerful Mind mage. I think I want the telekinetic abilities more than the mind-frying ones. Feels like I’d be a badass Jedi, and moving stuff with my mind has a lot of other applications, like in construction. Maybe I’ll get to use my civil engineering degree after all. And for sure I am going to want ‘analyze.’

Leo was tempted to take those abilities now, to give him more of an edge in this world. But in his heart, he couldn’t pass up the powerful long-run build. In order to be the best I can be, I should take two of the three learner abilities and also take a single Wyld ability. I should take Mind, to focus on it, and Soul so I can get the magic-increasing powers. And in both cases, they do add to the gain of occult skill as well.

But what to take for the Wyld ability…

I would like to bond with Mystical Wolf Buddy, if I see him again. It would be awesome to have a battle dog, both here and back on Earth.

And the breaking of the nature pact is sad, and feels important, somehow.

None of this helps me here and now, but my gut tells me it’ll be key to a powerful build in the long run.

Leo made his selections and pulled his status sheet up again.

Leonard Emmanuel Evans

Level Two

Body, Mind, Soul, Wyld, Metal

Health

10

Stamina

8

Essence

10

Level Stats

Strength

8

120 base pound-lifting capacity, -10% melee damage, -6% running speed

Agility

20

-50% enemy hit chance, +50% hit chance with all weapons, +18% running speed, +.5 critical modifier

Dexterity

12

+10% base success for crafting and physical skill success rate, 20% chance to raise base weapon damage roll by one step

Endurance

8

-2 base Stamina, -20% Stamina Recovery Rate, -20% base Health Recovery Rate

Toughness

10

+0 base Health, +0% base Health, +0% base Stamina

Perception

10

Connection

10

+0% Essence Recovery Rate

Capacity

10

+0 base Essence, +0% base Essence

Appearance

14

Handsome

Non-Level Stats

Intelligence

20

+100% skill acquisition rate, may gain rare and difficult skills.

Magic

16

+24% Magic Effects. +1 maximum affinity.

Charisma

10

Luck

10

The Fates neither dislike nor care for you.

Secondary Stats

Birth Perks

…

…

Skills

Level

Effect

Athletics

12

+36% to run speed, +12 to check to climb or avoid obstacles

Level 10 Special Skill: Burst Fighter: For up to 6 minutes, all stamina expenditures are halved.

Business

2

+6% to expected income, and -2% to expected costs, for operating any business

Dodge

8

+24% to dodge incoming attacks

Instruction

4

+2% increase in learning rate of someone learning from you per point of difference in your skills

Melee Weapons

1

+1% to hit and damage with any handheld weapon

Mixed Arts Fighting

8

+16% to hit and damage with fists, +8% to dodge, +4% to trip, pin, or incapacitate and avoid the same.

Natural Sciences

19

Extremely detailed understanding of the nonmagical components of the world and how they work.

Research

8

+16% base rate to discover information in archives, +16% to daily chance to discover something new while researching, modifying Intelligence rate

Seduction

1

People find your attempts to seduce them 2% more favorable than baseline, compared to what they are looking for

Small Blades

2

+8% to hit and parry, +4% to damage, and +4% critical chance with small blades

Sword

4

+12% to hit and parry, +12% damage with swords

Abilities

Effect

Mind

Cognitive Learner

+1 Mind ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. +25% occult skill gain rate.

Soul

Empathetic Learner

+1 Soul ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. +25% occult skill gain rate.

Wyld

Animal Companion, Rank I

May have 1 animal companion. It gains +2 to all physical stats.

Leo smiled to himself. This is a bigger long-run bet than when I decided to work with Audrey. I hope this one pays off better than that, since I just took no powers that can give me an immediate edge.

I wonder how Audrey is doing, and where she is. Is she okay?

A thought struck Leo.

“Hugh, buddy, how long have I been looking at these charts?”

“I don’t know,” the dragon replied. “Maybe thirty minutes?”

“Shit.”

Thirty minutes is twenty-eight minutes longer than Princess needed to water the bushes. I’m a terrible companion.

“I’m going to go see what Lily is up to, okay? She’s been gone way too long.”

“Sure,” Hugh said, stretching out. “Scream if you need help.”

Chapter Nine

Of Princesses, Dragons, and Bizarre-Ass Spiders

Leo climbed the riverbank and walked slowly into the forest, which, aside from a decent number of ruins, still felt so idyllic that he expected an animated rabbit to come hopping by at any moment.

But Leo had learned there was danger even in this sunlit forest, and so he did his best to carefully sneak eastward from the riverbank where they’d stopped and rested.

He had gone a mere five hundred feet when he heard soft gasps and sniffling—someone was crying.

Leo crept up and peeked around a tree. Lily was sitting on a broken rock wall segment a mere few feet high, with a tree’s roots half collapsing it from below. She had her head in her hands, and her body was shaking. Occasionally, tears would fall into her lap.

Crap. I don’t know what to do here… She was clearly trying to display a stiff upper lip before, but I feel like I should console her… I mean, she just lost her fiancé, her mentor, and some other dude, who all died for her.

In the end, Leo respected the decision she had made—if she didn’t want to be seen having a weak moment, he wouldn’t acknowledge having seen her cry. He backed away quietly and then shouted, “Lily!” before walking heavily and slowly through the undergrowth, making a racket.

Halfway to Lily, he winced, remembering he had been silent in the first place to avoid enemies in the forest.

As he entered the tiny clearing near the broken wall, he saw Lily, still in ripped and bloody apparel, with red eyes, standing to receive him. Besides the red eyes, there was no sign at all that she had been crying.

“Oh, sorry,” Lily said, a cheeriness to her voice that rang false. “I fell asleep after taking care of nature’s call. It’s been a long and exhausting day.”

“No problem,” Leo said. “Glad everything is okay and you got a bit of rest. Shall we head back now?”

Lily nodded regally. “Of course. And again, my apologies for delaying us and possibly worrying you.”

Such a perfect princess when she wants to be. I wish she would let it all out, but I guess I can respect her for not burdening others with her problems.

The two of them headed back to the river’s edge, Leo leading. It was still only the late afternoon somehow, despite everything that had happened, and despite Leo himself being mentally and physically exhausted.

As they arrived, Hugh climbed up the riverbank.

“Where to now, buddy?” Leo asked.

Hugh pointed to a broken cobblestone path along the side of the river. “This road will lead to the palace, which is where my sire kept his lair.”

“The Larae Gimel Azasi,” Lily said, and Leo’s mind translated the High Averian name automatically. The Crystal River Road.

“The elves called this ‘the Crystal River’?” Leo asked, motioning to said body of water.

“No, but a poet named the road,” Lily said, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, the first indication of a sense of humor Leo had seen from her. “Poets named nearly everything in Calasti. It gives everything such a romantic air, which I like, but the reality can disappoint sometimes. The river is just called the Blue River.”

“Why the Blue River?” Leo asked as Hugh started south along the road, heading toward the glistening white spire in the distance that was the top of the royal palace of Calasti, the once-lair of Chao the dragon.

Lily’s voice became a touch lighter and faster as she talked. “Because only the wyrms call it ‘the Storm Vale.’ The elves, and the other proper empires before them, called it ‘the Blue Lands.’ It’s a reference to the magic in that region. It’s shifted so that all the nodes are Water nodes, and moisture gathers there at an unusual rate, creating an interlocking series of small rivers that eventually flows into the lakes of the Havi Imperium… and this river comes from there. It makes for an absolutely fascinating ecology, with numerous unique magical beasts and plants. I’d love to discuss that with you at some point, I’m sure it would fascinate you. But the upshot of what you asked is that’s why we call it the Blue River.”

That was a lot to process. Hope it doesn’t come up on any tests soon. I really will need to learn the geography of the region soon, however.

“So where do you come from? Before now, I mean,” Leo asked.

“Me?” Lily replied.

“Yes, sorry. I already know Hugh’s story.”

“I come from Lakusi, the Lakeside City, most recently,” Lily said. “I was raised there, in the capital of the Havi Imperium, my home in exile. I loved my family and our few retainers, but it was still a very hard place to grow up. It’s a nice city, but it’s far too dirty and frantic for a noble elf with taste, such as myself. And the human nobles were all extremely difficult to get along with, quite frankly. They wouldn’t have accepted us at all but for the generosity and wisdom of King Jason Haviden the Second, who is a sterling ruler. The nobles were uncouth and rude most of the time, and many refused to acknowledge my own noble status, claiming it was lost with the kingdom. Such bores. I suspect since most elves in the Havi Imperium are slaves, that also contributed to the stigma against me, unfortunately. As I said, it was a difficult upbringing.”

“Slaves?” Leo asked. “Most of the elves are slaves?”

She nodded. “Yes, our brethren, the majority of the high elves, are now slaves to either the Blood Tribes, the Havi Imperium, or the various city-states around the Inner Sea, rather than the subjects of Averia as they should be.”

Ouch.

“And people are okay with just enslaving elves?”

“People are okay with enslaving anyone too weak to remain independent, or with too few friends,” Hugh said, tilting his head at Leo—a gesture that reminded Leo of a confused dog. “That’s the way of life—the strong make an easier life for themselves off the sweat of the weak.”

“Others profited incredibly from the pain of our people,” Lily said, her voice rising as she spoke. “The orcs and goblins of the Blood Tribes came through, and then the dragonflight and Chao. They gutted our kingdom and sold the majority of us into slavery! Destroying an ancient and beautiful nation that had brought peace, prosperity, culture, and beauty to these lands for thousands of years! There were none as high as us!”

“Sure, whatever,” Hugh said. “But your people held slaves too, elf. Including dragon slaves. So don’t act all innocent. Everyone does it when they’re on top. You’re just mad that you aren’t on top of us right now.”

That’s what she said, Leo’s traitorous mind inserted.

“Foul dragon, you know nothing!” Lily said, her cheeks reddening. “We were the center of learning and culture on our entire continent of Beldin until you came along. The heart of wisdom and beauty!”

“Hey, the dragons didn’t start the fall. The Blood Tribes were wrecking you—and had mostly done it—long before my sire and the other dragons got involved, exactly like you just said!”

“Perhaps you are right,” Lily said, her voice tight. “I dub thee not ‘storm dragons,’ but rather ‘vulture dragons.’”

“Look here, you little—”

Leo, who had—once again—been desperately searching for something to distract the other two, noticed a giant spider, about half the size of a man, in the trees a few hundred feet from the road. It had thick black fur across its abdomen and most of its face. Two huge fangs, dripping poison, could be seen underneath its face.

The spider was watching them from between two trees, the web behind it glittering with motes of light. All the plants near it were far thicker, and more vibrant, than those in the rest of the forest.

“Guys, danger!” Leo said, grabbing Lily’s shoulder and pointing at the three-foot-wide spider.

She whipped her filigreed dagger from its sheath and held it out, eyes wide. Hugh also immediately turned in that direction, baring his teeth in a gesture that seemed more canine than reptilian.

Then Lily relaxed, pushing her dagger back into the sheath at her belt.

“What are you doing?” Leo asked, wishing he had a dagger or sword of his own.

“That’s a mystic orb spider,” Lily said. “They’re common—well, common for a magical creature—in the Averia forest, although they’ve spread to most nearby realms with powerful nodes. They’re actually magivores—they bear little actual connection to most spiders. Their webs slowly gather some of the magical energy that’s leaving a node and concentrate it into the plants around them, making them more and more magical as time goes on.”

“They aren’t a threat?” Leo asked.

“No, quite the opposite,” Lily said, her voice lighter and slightly higher pitched. “They’re actually fairly pacifist, unless you attack them directly, in which case they brutally swarm whoever hurt them. And if you saw the one, I assure you there are others around.”

“That’s a relief, I guess,” Leo said. “Although a three-foot-wide spider is giving me a complex whether it’s actually dangerous or not.”

Lily laughed, a musical sound, and play-punched Leo’s shoulder. “Ah, you don’t like the cute wittle spider? It’s harmless, I assure you. They have low aggression and fairly high animal intelligence, so you can even pet them.”

She walked toward the web slowly, ignoring Leo’s hissed, “Lily!”

“Well, we might be rid of the elf quite soon,” Hugh said, his voice dry. “A pity. I liked her.”

Glaring at the dragon, Leo followed after Lily.

She went up to the spider. It moved with short, fast, jerking steps as she approached, retreating from her but not as fast as she moved forward. She crouched, holding her hand out, and walked even more slowly, crooning to it in a stylized High Averian song that was hard for Leo to parse.

After a moment, it stopped retreating, and Lily reached out and petted the fur over its face.

Leo shuddered.

The spider didn’t move or make any sounds as she petted it, but shockingly, its fur turned rainbow-colored where she stroked it. After a moment, Lily stepped back and stood. “See? No problem here.”

“How do you know all that?” Leo asked.

“I studied at the Lakeside University. I took classes in flora, fauna, history, magical research, and specialized Wyld magic courses. Plus, my sister taught me a lot. And we do have some of the better books from our library left to us.”

“Huh.”

Lily pointed to a mushroom growing at the foot of a thick bush, about six inches tall with a deep-red cap, almost the color of blood. “This sinister-looking little fella is actually a mild healing mushroom, and with the right tools, any decent apothecary can make a weak healing potion from it—it won’t cure bone or organ damage, but it will heal flesh and replenish blood quite well. Even just eating it will restore one to two health.”

“Can we take it without being eaten?”

“Yes,” Lily said. “The mystic orb spider will literally only attack when directly threatened. Having a nest on a farm, back when the kingdom was at its peak, would usually make the farm about twice as productive as normal in monetary terms. There were attempts to create larger colonies, but past a certain point, the spiders leave, and if forced into close proximity in larger groups, they stop breeding.”

“I wonder why?” Leo asked.

“Not sure, but people think it has to do with magic density near nodes. They were one of the creatures that every village wanted to complete the trifecta of magical beasts and beings—to get a colony of mystic orb spiders, an emerald bee hive, and a dryad. A village with all three tended to be very rich for its size. The dryads have all disappeared, of course, and the Crone of Averia no longer answers. But the mystic orb spiders and emerald bee hives can still be cultivated, I suppose.”

This is fascinating stuff. If Audrey lives, I hope she’s seeing as much wonder in this world as I am. I would love to be able to talk to her about it when we get back.

Leo bent down and carefully extracted the mushroom, digging out the dirt at its base with his hands and slowly removing it. Leo found a few more of the healing mushrooms and picked them. There were also a few with blue caps.

“Don’t touch the blue ones,” Lily said. “Those release poison gas clouds with spores, and they grow on the bodies that die near them.”

“Glad I have a native here,” Leo responded. “I would hate to have tried to fend off a spider that wouldn’t start a fight with me, or died because of a cute little blue mushroom.”

“A native?” Lily asked, frowning. “As in, someone local with knowledge of the area? I’m a cultured and learned noble of this region, so of course I know it well.”

Oops, that had a bit of a pejorative connotation. “Yeah, that.”

“Well, glad I could be of help,” Lily said, beaming at him. “I love this forest, even though I’ve only been able to spend time in its northern reaches before now.”

Then her face fell. “I just wish Ilothulin could have been here with us. He was in most of my Flora and Advanced Wyld classes, and he loved this stuff as well. I mean, he loved swordplay and politics more, but still.”

“I’m sorry,” Leo said.

“It’s not your fault,” Lily replied, staring off into the distance and absently playing with her hair.

“It was a sympathetic ‘sorry.’”

Lily stared for a bit longer, then shook herself. “Well, shall we get back on the road? I think we’ve looted the local mystic orb spiders enough for now. We have a slightly better chance of surviving from here to the vault, so it was time well spent, but we still have distance to cover.”

And on that reassuring note…

***

A couple of hours of walking later, Leo saw a glowing green tree outline in the distance, like someone had doodled a tree across the horizon and then made glowing panes form inside the outline created.

“What’s that?” Leo asked, pointing.

Hugh and Lily, who had been arguing again, stopped and stared over at the glowing tree outline.

“The node?” Hugh asked. “Are you referring to the node?”

“I have no idea,” Leo said. “Nonmagical world, remember? I’m talking about the glowing green thing.”

“That’s what it is,” Lily said. “The famed Calasti Tree Node, one of the sources of power and wealth for the Kingdom of Averia.”

“Elucidate, please,” Leo said, bowing slightly to her. “Remember, I come from a world without magic.”

Let’s see if she can explain things a bit better than Hugh can.

“Of course,” Lily said, blushing slightly as the three of them walked along the broken cobblestone road toward the palace. The trees were becoming less prevalent and the broken buildings more common—and more intact—as they went. He was starting to get a sense of the style of the city. Statues, many intact, showed the art of the elves of Averia as they walked south, and once or twice, he saw a miraculously intact stained glass window with a beautiful design on it. Most of the buildings were built of marble, which surprised him. It didn’t fit with his preconception of elves—Leo would have assumed they were huge fans of wooden buildings, but the concentration of stone ruins made him think he was wrong.

Lucy started talking, her shoulders relaxing. “So, nodes are fundamental upwellings of magic. They usually form on the surface of the earth at a rate of roughly one every fifty to one hundred miles, and below the surface of the earth, in the under-realms, at the rate of one every two to four hundred miles. No one has actually figured out why those distances. Perhaps it’s the will of the gods, or perhaps it’s a natural condition of magic, but our greatest scholars have not solved the enigma.”

“Gods, plural?” Leo asked as they walked.

“Of course,” Lily said. “Merdrek, whom your friend swears by, is the draconic god of battle and victory, and Iluvin Eturia is the goddess of Wyld magic, commonly portrayed as an elf and frequently also treated as the patron goddess of the elves, even though there are weaker deities dedicated to our species in its entirety. Of particular note if you aim to get home, Asnandi is the goddess of the way between worlds and Travel magic.”

Asnandi! That other elf woman told me that she couldn’t let Asnandi’s Key fall into the enemy’s—now Kruegar’s—hands. Was that related to an actual god of dimensional magic?

“Tell me about Asnandi,” Leo said, excited.

Lily laughed, her voice musical. “In time, friend Leo, in time. And I’m glad to have an enthusiastic student. But for now, let us return to the lesson about nodes—we can learn of the gods together another time.”

She seems happier than I’ve seen her over the last couple of hours—like she forgot all the horrible things that just happened. Perhaps she just loves teaching, or maybe magic?

“So, back to the nodes. Each node represents an upwelling of a single magic. Each node forms an aura around it, in one of three strengths. The node’s aura pushes out with the square of its strength, but the effect is reduced by the square of the distance—this is the magical law of the double square. The point between two nodes at which the strength of each node is equal is the point where the auras touch. For reasons we don’t understand yet, the auras never overlap.”

That’s kinda complicated, but it makes sense—I mean, it’s not that different than gravity, I suppose, with the effects increased by mass and decreased by distance, or light received being a divide-by-distance squared formula.

“So, what do auras do?” he asked.

“Well, every node’s power goes to four different things. Some to create magical beasts, some to create familiars, some to create crystals and shards, and some to propogate a magical aura. It appears to be random what percentage goes to each, and sometimes nodes become corrupted as well. I’ll skip corruption effects for now.”

Yeah. I’m extremely bright, but this is a lot of information to process.

Lily was continuing, genuine enthusiasm in her voice. “The effects of the node also seem to be stronger according to the node’s tier, squared. A tier-three node creates roughly nine times the effects of a tier-one node.”

Leo nodded along with her words, communicating to her that he understood and was ready for the next piece of information. “What effects, exactly?”

“Again, it’s different. But it always reflects an aspect of the magic. Take the Calasti node, ahead,” Lily said, gesturing toward the glowing green tree in front of them as they walked. “It’s a Wyld node. It puts out an aura that makes trees far more productive, including magical trees. Making plants stronger is something that can be learned by Wyld magic users—the aura reflects the magic.”

I wonder if a node could put out a static Toughness aura? Leo thought to himself, already calculating how nodes would affect the world he was in. It probably makes the world a lot more random. A death node in a fertile valley might render it worthless, but an agricultural node away from water might make the land livable.

Lily was still talking. “The aura region around this node can support magical trees normally only able to be grown on far more magical worlds, and normal trees grow about twice as fast. The Kingdom of Averia was famous for its orchards and fruit, especially its magical fruit and the potions created from them. Because of the aura.”

“Know your auras, Mom always said,” Hugh chimed in. “They can make some places wonderful, and others hellholes. Woe be to the person who finds themselves in an Entropy node aura!”

Lily gave him an irritated glance. “Don’t interrupt. But your mother is essentially correct. Back to this node, which also produces a decent number of magical beasts in the region. Sometimes, hives become emerald bee hives, and the ghost wolves, sun eagles, and our once-high concentration of dryads were well known throughout the continent of Beldin—those three were the once-allies to the Kingdom of Averia. Also, we sometimes find Wyld crystals growing on trees around the area.”

“So, nodes are generally a sort of uncontrolled magical pollution that alters the environment?” Leo asked. “Like, the magic just leaks from them into the surrounding area?”

Lily’s eyes widened. “I suppose that’s an accurate, if dark, way to look at it.”

“Huh,” Leo said. “So why is the far side of the river so devoid of trees if the main, powerful node is merely miles away?”

“Well, I did say ‘usually,’” Lily responded. “The opposite side of the river has a different node, a Light node that concentrates the sunrays. The Ashti Sun node is only a tier-one node, but it’s located about eleven miles from the Calasti node. The barrier between the two forms between the eight-and-a-quarter and eight-and-a-half-mile point between them, in the middle of the Blue River, and then happens to match the curve of the river for a bit.”

“Convenient,” Leo quipped.

“You’ll see a sudden small grove of trees on the south side as we get closer to the node itself, here where the river empties into the Inner Sea, across from Elgin Isle.”

“We’re about to hit the end of the river?” Leo asked. “And there’s an island in the middle of it?”

“Of course,” Lily said. “One of the things that made Calasti such an important city was that it was the trade hub for most of the continent. It controlled the mouth of the Blue River, which links the empires and city-states around the Ten Lakes—not least my home in exile, the Havi Imperium—with the civilizations of the Inner Sea and the Split Sea beyond. It is also closest to the passes into the middle lands and the dwarven city of Stonehaven. Combine that with its powerful and beneficial aura, and you can see why we elves made it the seat of our kingdom.”

Fascinating. I would love to learn more about this world—heck, even just this continent—but I have to learn how to save Audrey and get home first.

“Boring,” Hugh said, drawing out the word. “So boring. At least talk to us about what you know about what we’re facing ahead!”

Lily frowned. “Speaking of corrupted magic, the wards that kept the woods out of Calasti have obviously failed. We haven’t run into any yet, but I know the magic has been creating horrible and terrible beasts, abominations of normal magical beasts. They’re throughout all twenty-seven districts of Calasti, stronger the farther you get from the palace for reasons I don’t understand yet.”

Lily shuddered. “There might be serious danger ahead.”

“How do you know about the magic failing?” Leo asked, kicking a small marble fragment into the sparse underbrush.

“The same way I knew Chao had left. We had divining magic in place, left during the collapse of our kingdom to aid in our return. Unfortunately, some of those have failed as well, and I can’t see what is happening in the throne room. But there are no dragons present in the city currently, according to the more general divinations that remain.”

“Does magic normally fail?” Leo asked.

“No.” Lily wrapped her arms around herself as they walked, her voice suddenly soft. “It’s normally of infinite duration and effect once created. That, more than anything, scares me. Magic slowly failing across Calasti speaks to something terribly wrong. I checked, and it’s localized to this area, so it’s not a greater disaster. But it still really worries me.”

“Huh,” Hugh said.

“Wait, how did you know your dad was missing, Hugh?” Leo asked. “I thought you barely saw your dad.”

“My sire was supposed to come visit Mom and me. I was really excited, but he didn’t show. Mom used her Air magic to cast windborne words, and the magic couldn’t target my dad. So he’s either more than a thousand miles away, dead, or inside an area that stops magic. Any of those would imply he wasn’t here.”

“Maybe he packed up and left?” Leo asked. “Took his hoard with him?”

“Dragons don’t tend to move once they have a good lair,” Hugh said. “We’re a possessive and territorial people.”

“Well, we’re about to figure it out,” Lily said as they rounded a corner of the riverside road they followed. Leo stared at a ten-foot-tall ornate stone wall running from the river’s edge deep into the forest. The path headed right to a twenty-foot gap in the wall.

“Welcome to the central district of Calasti,” Lily said. “Once inside that gate, we’ll be inside the city proper, and only a half mile from the palace itself, the node—and Chao’s hoard.”

There was a brief pause as everyone stared at the gate.

Leo was tired, physically and mentally. He was sore. And what he really wanted was to find Audrey, find a way home, and rebuild the life they had lost.

But he couldn’t deny the thrill and excitement coursing through him. His three days here in this incredibly strange world had been leading him to this moment, and Leo was excited about what they would find.

Chapter Ten

Life Gave Them Lemons

Leo started forward, but Hugh reached out and put one forepaw on Leo’s arm, stopping him. “Leo, buddy, you’re not the guardian here. Let me go first.”

Leo nodded. That’s fair.

“And you lost your sword.”

Lily snickered, putting her hand in front of her mouth.

“I didn’t ‘lose’ it,” Leo said, feeling maligned as he held his fingers up in air quotes. “I used it up to save you, remember?”

“All I’m saying is you’re about as dangerous as a bird.”

That must be a dragonism.

“I already agreed. You should go first. Once you win the argument, you have to quit arguing. That’s the rule.”

Lily snickered again, and Hugh harrumphed.

Then he walked in front of Leo and headed through the gate. Leo followed him in and gazed upon ruined grandeur.

The scene in front of Leo reminded him of the Coliseum of Rome—the shattered remnants of a once-grand civilization brought low. A massive marble plaza, arranged in great, sweeping tiers, stood before him. It filled a huge depression in the ground with a great statue in the center—a world-famed gathering spot forgotten to time.

The statue, an epic depiction of an elf—perhaps a renowned leader or philosopher—overlooked the plaza from the center. Its arms had been broken off and lay at the feet of the once stunning work, and the plaza it gazed upon was cracked and empty, but for the vines that snaked across it.

“Ten thousand people could have filled this place,” Leo said in awe as he gazed out over the ruins. “What was it used for?”

Lily’s voice was choked with excitement. “This was the Great Marble Forum. It’s so beautiful, so incredibly beautiful. More than I even imagined.”

“But it was used for…?”

“Thousands of people, many from other continents, once sold their wares here every day. The stalls and kiosks of the merchants here had everything, from magical crystals and items to the animals and spices of unknown lands. This place was once the center of the world.”

Lily slowly stepped forward, into the plaza. “Can you imagine this place in its prime, Leo? I read about it on hundreds of occasions—it features in so many stories. The Plot of the Artificers, The Romance of Iluthinae, The Last Stand of Fiolanthi’s Own…”

Lily trailed off and then looked up at the statue. “Can you imagine the things the eyes of the first king have witnessed? This plaza was here for over four thousand years. And now it’s ruins.”

Since the pyramids were built. Okay, yeah, that’s pretty impressive. I’d be depressed if I saw the fall of something that great as well.

“Well, we’re getting close, Lily,” Leo said, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder gently. “Let’s go get the treasure so you can rebuild the empire.”

She nodded, then smiled at him, her teeth a brilliant white, her eyes mischievous. “Sure you don’t want to stay here, in this world? This is a worthy goal, even for a dragon lover.”

I can tell she’s not being insulting, just bantering. And honestly, seeing this makes it a touch tempting. This city is a thing worth rebuilding. Plus, I would love to be able to use my civil engineering degree again.

“So, not to spoil the awe and whatever, but I think I should draw your attention to the wolves across the way,” Hugh said, using one foreclaw to point across the broken market, a slight quaver to his voice.

Two wolves were exiting the ruins of buildings at the edge of the plaza, a thousand feet away, almost dead across from them. Each wolf bore a strong resemblance to Leo’s buddy, but only if that buddy had been turned evil. They had the brown fur, but it was falling out in diseased patches. Their eyes were too large and not quite the same size. And even across the great, open space, Leo heard cackling from the wolves, an insane giggling that clawed at his mind.

I didn’t even know wolves could laugh.

“So, you’d mentioned something about corrupted magic, Princess?” Hugh asked.

“Yes,” Lily said, her voice tight. “The magics that sustained, warded, and improved Calasti have been decaying, and the corrupted magic has been spawning terrible magical beasts.”

She unsheathed her dagger and held it out with one painfully thin arm to Leo. “You fight better than I do, and you never seem to use your bow. How about a trade?”

“I only have the two arrows,” Leo said, but he passed her the bow and took the beautifully filigreed dagger, then shrugged out of the quiver holding the arrows. He was terrified, but having a dagger eased his fear somewhat.

At least I can hurt them back now.

“Why don’t you use it?” Hugh asked as he moved forward over the cracked marble tiles of the plaza to stand in front of Leo. “The bow, I mean. You didn’t use it on the harpies or the goblins.”

“I’m a really bad shot,” Leo said. “Just absolutely abysmal.”

“That’s a good reason,” Hugh quipped. “Also, not to point out the obvious, but do we have to fight these wolves? I mean, sure, we can probably take the two of them, but they’re still far away… Perhaps we could just run?”

Leo hadn’t thought of that for some reason—it wasn’t like he was a great warrior, and this could go badly for him. Fatally bad, and quickly.

But there was another consideration. In this world, soul energy apparently made you stronger. He didn’t really want to kill sapient creatures for it, but insane, corrupted wolves… he was okay with that. In fact, Leo was outright pro culling the evil canids.

Leveling had been amazing. They would probably need the levels to complete their goals. So this fight was a risk, but the payoff was a permanent gain, and a permanent increase in their chances of success.

And I want to be more powerful, Leo thought, recognizing the sliver of greed in him. It could get addictive, making baseline improvements to himself. He might already be hooked on it, if he was being honest. But I need to keep my perspective—if I’m going to level, it needs to be on evil magical beasts, not people.

“We’ll need the experience, Hugh. I just made Level Two, and I’m sure Lily needs to level as well.”

“I’m partway there, from the goblins. It would be very helpful if I leveled.”

“All right, dead doggies it is,” Hugh said nervously.

Leo winced as a third wolf carefully picked its way out over a ruined wall at the far edge of the plaza, and joined the two in stalking forward.

“Wolves tend to fight in carefully coordinated packs,” Leo said, reciting tactics he remembered from a YouTube video. “The species relies on quick attacks to generate bleeding, darting in and out to avoid damage, and almost always attacking from behind. They tend to retreat from any violent response, so be prepared to counter their darting attacks and strike quickly.”

The monstrous wolves broke into a loping run, heading for Leo and his group, still keeping up their insane laughter.

“These aren’t wolves, Leo,” Lily said in a low voice from beside him. “They just vaguely look like them. Be prepared for a lot of possible tactics.”

She had the bow drawn back to her ear, and her arms were trembling.

“Wait for the perfect shot,” Leo said. “You only have two. And one wolf hurt enough to slow it could make an incredible difference.”

The wolves accelerated from a loping run to a full-on charge. They split up, two running around to the left and right, and one charging Hugh.

Hugh roared and lunged, but the first wolf managed to skid and backpedal, dodging the strike, and then accelerated again, running behind Hugh and snapping at his hindquarters.

Leo got to see the error of that. Even though the wolf got a mouthful of Hugh’s calf, it barely drew blood—and dragons weren’t defenseless to the rear. Hugh’s tail smashed down with the same force he’d used to smack trees and rocks. The wolf yelped and leapt back, shaking its head and trying to retreat.

Then Leo had his own problems. He slashed with his dagger to drive back the wolf charging him, then dove sideways at the wolf attacking Lily. Lily waited until the wolf was midleap before releasing her bowstring. The arrow speared it through its open mouth, and Leo’s lunge lodged his dagger in the wolf’s side.

The wolf still hit Lily and bowled her over, and then thrashed, trying to remove the arrow and the dagger at once. Lily screamed as claws raked her. She grabbed her last arrow from the quiver and tried to stick the wolf with it.

The wolf rolled away, pouring blood and hacking, and immediately broke the arrow off by chomping on it. Leo started to stand, then screamed. The first wolf that had attacked him had darted back in and bitten him on the back of his thigh.

Diseased wolf bites Leo for 4 damage. Leo has suffered a crippling wound to his leg. -40% to dodge and -20% to accuracy. Leo fails Toughness check against bleed. Leo is bleeding for 1 damage per minute until 10 damage has occurred or medical attention has been received. Leo fails his Toughness check against Thel’s Rot. Bleed damage does 200% and has 200% the duration.

Leo turned around to see a chunk of his thigh in the wolf’s mouth. He tried to slash with his dagger but missed as the wolf darted away, spitting pieces of Leo on the ground, giggling insanely as its mouth was freed.

Lily came to her feet gracefully. In one fluid movement, she nocked her last arrow, pulled it back, and shot it into the shoulder of the wolf. It howled in agony but still started forward as Leo tried to stand. But it abandoned its charge as Hugh rushed it from the side. The dragon caught it by the spine in his huge mouth. He crunched, and the wolf screamed before Hugh simply lifted the struggling beast by his horrid hold and slammed it to the ground of the plaza. The wolf feebly kicked until Hugh did it a second time.

Three diseased wolves slain. Leo’s share of experience is 72.

Leo looked over. The other wolf had, as the box claimed, died as well.

“That’s two for me and one for you bozos,” Hugh said proudly.

“One and an assist,” Lily replied, her eyes staring out at nothing.

Leo looked at the mangled tissue of his leg and the blood pouring from it. He was instantly queasy. “According to that helpful little stat box, I’ve got about three minutes to live if we don’t fix this. Can I get some of the magic mushrooms, Lily?”

“No,” Lily said absently, her eyes still glazed over.

Is she leaving me to die? “What?” Leo asked, his voice dark and his teeth clenched against the pain.

Lily’s eyes lost their dreamy look at his question, and she turned to him.

She blushed and coughed. “Sorry, Leo, that’s not what I meant. I leveled and decided to take a regeneration power. I’ll use that instead, and we can save the mushrooms until I have time to convert them into a more powerful potion.”

Oh. Leo was a touch embarrassed as well. I shouldn’t jump to the worst conclusion immediately. Although her comment seemed pretty damning.

Lily walked up and put her hand on Leo’s shoulder. A relaxing warmth spread through his body, and Leo stared at his wounded leg, fascinated, as the mangled flesh slowly straightened and began to knit itself back together.

Lily has used Regeneration, Rank I, on Leo. Bleed is removed. Leo will receive 1 health back every 6 seconds for 1 minute.

“We’ve got a healer now!” Hugh said. “Sweet. Healers are pretty rare as adventurers.”

Then he grinned his goofy grin at Leo, his eyes crossed weirdly. “Huh. We’ve got the guardian and the healer, now. Huh. If only we had someone who was spectacular at hurting things, we’d have the three basic adventuring roles filled. Huh.”

“Ass,” Leo said affectionately as his leg continued to regrow in front of his eyes. “I’m sure when I make the next level, I’ll turn into a deadly warrior.”

“So,” Hugh said, turning to Lily, “Can I get a heal as well, please?”

“For the back of your leg?” Lily asked, walking around Hugh’s eight-foot form to stare at his hind leg.

“Yeah.”

Lily reached over and probed it, her brow furrowed. “How much damage did your notification say you took?”

“One,” Hugh said, his voice low.

Lily gave a slight smile. “Don’t be a baby—it takes me two essence to use regeneration, and it would only heal you a point of health. Between myself and Leo I’ve already used four, which is a significant portion of my reserve. Let’s not waste my abilities, ’kay?”

Oh, yeah, she doesn’t seem wounded anymore herself. Not sure how I missed that. Probably because I was staring fascinated at my own leg as it healed.

Also, she picked the magical ability and can use it four seconds later? That seems weird. I wonder how that works.

“But it hurts,” Hugh whined.

“Hurts—or stings?” Lily asked, one eyebrow arched and her hands on her hips.

“… Stings.”

Leo laughed. “Suck it up, buddy.”

Leo’s leg was fully healed. He stood and dusted himself off. Although my pants are basically just blood-soaked rags at this point. They barely even provide modesty.

He glanced over at Lily’s once-beautiful dress, now reduced to bloody strips of silk. And she’s one or two well-aimed hits away from becoming an involuntary nudist herself. We really need to find some clothes or armor soon.

“Spoken like the guy who got a healing. It’s anti-dragon prejudice, I’m telling you,” Hugh groused, but Leo could tell he wasn’t really upset.

“Let’s go get the treasure,” Leo said. “I’m sure that’ll make it feel better.”

“Oh, yeah, that’ll definitely take away the sting… of being unfairly denied a healing.”

“Oh, wordplay, I’m impressed,” Leo said. “I didn’t know you had it in you, bud.”

Hugh chuckled and headbutted him affectionately where he stood, nearly knocking him back to the ground.

“Well, c’mon,” Lily said. “The sooner we get the dragon his dad’s ill-gotten goods, the sooner I can get to rebuilding the kingdom.”

Hugh glared at her for a minute. Leo was pretty sure Lily’s banter had crossed the line into irritating Hugh, but Hugh let the matter drop. Lily walked determinedly around the outside of the huge marble plaza and then started down a broad thoroughfare that headed due east from the great market.

Leo and Hugh hurried after her. As he turned down the large boulevard, he got his first full glimpse of the royal castle, a mile away.

It was everything he imagined a medieval fantasy castle should be, and then some. It had two walls—a huge outer wall and a taller inner one. There were a large number of towers around the outer wall, and multiple interior keeps, connected by bridges made of the same marble as the rest of the castle. It was gleaming white marble, and what had been done with it was impossible, according to Leo’s knowledge of civil engineering. Parts of it seemed to flow, like natural grown wood. And it barely appeared to have deteriorated at all. And the bridges… Did they cut a marble bridge in its entirety and then move the multiton stone to rest in niches? How did they do that?

“That’s an impressive castle,” Leo said. “How, exactly, did the architects manage to do all that with marble? Especially the curved walls? Was it slowly chiseled over time to look like that?”

“What?” Lily asked, confused.

“Magicless dirt-grubbing world, remember?” Hugh said.

“Oh, right,” Lily said. “Sorry, I forgot. No, it wasn’t chiseled. Earth-magic-using masons carved the stone, and in most cases, smaller chunks were taken up and the mages used their power to melt them back together. Then they caused it to flow into the shapes they wanted. Earth magic is less common among elves than many other races, but it’s still an elemental magic and relatively common.”

Hugh told me the Elemental magics are the most common, but I can’t remember them all. Earth makes total sense, though, Leo thought as he gracefully walked down the marble path toward the castle.

Lily was continuing. “We had numerous famous Earth-magic-wielding artists and builders over the generations in our kingdom. And the stone of this entire palace was improved with the hardening magic abilities, as well. So it supports weights it couldn’t normally handle in places, allowing for far more graceful buildings.”

That makes a lot of sense, actually. Magic as a substitute—or accompaniment—for advanced engineering.

A while later, they reached the castle.

The front gate to the castle, through the outer wall, was wide open. The portcullis, a much more normal wood-and-iron affair, partially rotten and rusted, lay on the ground about fifty feet from the gate itself. It appeared to have been ripped from the door and thrown by some angry giant.

“Dad always did believe no problem was so tough, it couldn’t be solved by the judicious application of violence,” Hugh noted.

Ripped and thrown indeed, by an angry dragon. If Chao isn’t gone, we’re royally screwed.

They passed through the massive gate, a marble hall filled with arrow slits and murder holes. They exited into the inner courtyard. A procession of beautifully wrought pillars, each of marble, about ten feet tall, and bearing a small glowing crystal, lined the walkway to the largest of the inner keeps. The entire front wall of that keep had been smashed open, and the central floors and interior walls were ripped out, leaving just three outer walls and a ceiling surrounding an otherwise empty space.

“That’s Dad’s lair!” Hugh exclaimed, laughing, as he left the group, running forward.

Something about the whole thing looked odd, and it took a moment for Leo to get it.

Lily’s gasp came just as Leo asked her, “That place looks entirely bare… Where’s the hoard?”

Chapter Eleven

Arguing Over Money is the Cause of Most Divorces

It took Hugh a bit longer to get it, but he did.

A roar came from inside the keep. “The hoard isn’t here! My sire’s hoard is gone!”

Hugh came racing back across the last of the path until he reached Leo and then danced around him, his tail slapping the cracked marble path angrily. “Leo, where is it? Where’s the hoard?”

Before Leo could answer, Hugh turned to Lily, raising himself and baring his teeth. “Did you trick me, elf? Did you know his hoard wasn’t here?”

“I didn’t know anything!” Lily said. “I had no idea the hoard was gone. I’m an honorable noble lady. I would never lie to you. You have to believe me.”

“You said you had divinations!” Hugh yelled, his fangs still bared.

“I said the ones in the castle had broken down! I told you that!”

She turned to Leo. “You heard me, right? You heard me when I said the divinations in the throne room were gone? Tell Hugh I said it.”

Hugh thumped his tail on the ground. “Maybe you lied about it! You’re a scheming elf!”

Lily looked close to crying. “Then why did you believe me about the divinations in the first place, if you were just going to accuse me of horrible things, wretched wyrm?!”

“Listen here, you little—”

“Guys!” Leo shouted, pointing. Two birds had come to land on walls a slight distance away, each the size of an eagle, but twisted. One had two heads and the other three legs, and the claws on both were even larger than eagle talons—already large—normally were.

“I don’t think we should be attracting the local corrupted beasts. Let’s move inside the keep, get a camp going, and discuss everything—like reasonable people. It’ll be hard for you two to do the reasonable-person thing, but I believe in you. And it’ll be dark soon.”

“The main keep is wide open,” Hugh said, angling his head toward one of the other smaller keeps in the interior. “You’re a dum-dum about certain things, Leo. Let’s go to one of the other keeps, one that isn’t an invitation to snack on us. By Merdrek’s teeth, I don’t need that as well. This day has already been a giant pile of droppings.”

Drama much?

Although Leo could understand. It had been rough when he’d thought he’d been losing his chance to make his mark on the world by providing unlimited fresh water just a couple of days ago… He could sympathize with Hugh.

“The wyrm makes a good point,” Lily said, her brow furrowed. “Now that he’s not accusing me of stuff I didn’t do.”

“Please be kind,” Leo said. “This was hard on Hugh, even if he’s being a bit accusatory. I know you think he had no right to the hoard, but he believed he did, and was sincere and open in the belief. And now the hoard has disappeared. If we go to the vault and it’s empty, I won’t be yanking your chain.”

The three walked toward the smaller nearby keep Hugh had pointed out, away from the hollowed-out main building that had been Chao’s lair. They crossed a large section of dirt with carefully carved stones around it, one bedraggled weed in the center. Leo suspected it had once been a garden.

The birds followed them, but didn’t attack, moving from one ornamental fence to the next to keep pace with them.

Lily, without breaking her stride, pondered for a moment. “You’re right, Leo,” she said. “I apologize, Hugh. I do not accept the validity of your claim, but I accept the sincerity of your belief in your position, and I accept that your disappointment is real. It was unworthy of me to place my own concerns before your pain.”

Hugh cocked his head to the side. “That was her being nice, right, Leo?”

Leo laughed. “It was.”

Hugh heaved a sigh as they walked. “Sorry for yelling at you and calling you names as well. It was beneath a dragon’s dignity. Ol’ Poct always said a dragon should either be polite or set people on fire, everything in between is just pointless.”

Lily dipped her head. “Apology, however odd, accepted.”

They reached the keep. It was mostly intact, but the ornate wooden door had rotted almost entirely off the hinges, and Hugh easily busted in.

The front room was obviously abandoned—a large marble hall with smaller hallways leading off it and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Old furniture that was falling apart was scattered around the room, most of it in a long barricade near the door, but there were no hangings or other adornments, and no dishes or utensils were anywhere to be found.

“This will do,” Hugh said. “Someone pile some of the junk up a bit closer against the door to give us cover.”

“You, Kip—you’re the boy.”

“What?” Hugh asked.

“Just saying, Hugh, you’re our strong guy. You need to pile the junk.”

Hugh grabbed a piece of broken furniture in his mouth and threw it nearer the door.

“By Merdrek’s teeth, you guys are useless,” he said, then he grabbed another.

“We’ll build a campfire spot,” Leo said to him. “Leave the door unblocked till I get back with some of those iron hinges and garden stones.”

Leo sighed. “And then we can hash out how to move forward as a group.”

***

“No!” Hugh said, smashing his tail down onto the marble floor of the building.

Leo examined the blaze of the pseudocampfire he had built and fed another piece of dry, rotting furniture to it.

“It’s not my fault!” Lily said hotly from where she stood, her hands still held primly in front of her. “I honored my agreement. You know that, right? That it’s not my fault there’s no hoard?”

Hugh bared his teeth. “I’m not fighting my way through a bunch of corrupted monsters for nothing! I’m carrying this team. I should get something!”

“Look, can we compromise?” Leo asked.

“How?” Lily asked, narrowing her eyes at Leo. “I was already reasonable once. The last time we compromised, I gave up my claim to the treasure the dragon seized. That seems like it should be enough.”

“I get it, but Hugh’s still got a point about the lack of treasure. We made a deal, but it rested on an inaccuracy. So we need to at least get him something, right?”

“Continue please,” Lily said.

At the same time, Hugh said, “Get to the point.”

“So, first, what’s in the vault?” Leo asked. “We need to know so we can negotiate something.”

“I don’t know what’s in the vault,” Lily said. “My sister knew, but she didn’t tell me.”

“You’re going for a treasure and you don’t know what’s in it?” Hugh lashed his bronze-scaled tail across a rotten wooden table, sending the pieces across the marble-tiled floor in a shower of splinters. “Brilliant.”

“And you had a ledger of what was in your sire’s hoard?” Lily said, her brow furrowed and mouth pursed in obvious irritation.

Hugh stopped his agitated movement. “Well, no, I just knew it was huge.”

“Exactly,” Lily said, and flipped her hair back.

“So, how about we do it this way?” Leo said, bringing the conversation back to the main point. “Lily, you can pull one item out of the vault before we split the rest. Anything left, Hugh gets a third the value.”

“That’s a terrible deal,” Lily said, throwing her hands in the air. Her abandonment of her poise told Leo how frustrated she was. “I already agreed to give up the whole hoard! Why should I give up more?”

Leo waited—Lily knew the arguments.

“Fine, be that way,” Lily said, disgust in her voice. “If we also agree we don’t renegotiate again under any circumstances. Is that fair, dragon?”

“Fair,” Hugh said. “If I’m so unfavored by the gods that this vault is empty as well, or has only a single object, so be it.”

“Okay, that was distasteful, but it’s done now,” Lily said. “Back to the planning. We need weapons. I’d counted on Hugh getting his sire’s hoard to equip us for the undercity beneath the royal palace.”

“You were going to take my hoard?”

“Ask to borrow or rent it,” Lily said, and rolled her eyes. “Please don’t accuse me of trying to steal from you again. I would never do that.”

“Huh,” Hugh said.

“Wait,” Leo interjected. “Why exactly do we need weapons? I thought we were just heading to the royal vault?”

“We are,” Lily said. “But those magic rituals decayed as well. There are probably corrupted monsters down there now as well, and I wouldn’t count on traps not firing—they relied on magic that detected elves who belonged there. I’m not sure we qualify, and I know Hugh doesn’t. Odds are, you’ll have to fight.”

“We’ll have to fight,” Leo said.

“Yes.”

“That’s a bit concerning, but okay,” Leo said.

“The problem is, I have no idea now where to get weapons,” Lily said. “Nonmagical weapons would have rusted or rotted, and magical weapons would have been taken during the exodus.”

“I thought Chao attacked suddenly,” Leo said, tossing another rotted chunk into the fire. His stomach gurgled, but he ignored it for the moment. “How come people would have escaped with magical weapons?”

Lily twirled her hair. “Well, yeah, but even though his power was unmatchable, Chao was still just one dragon. While he attacked the main keep, everyone else ran. Most of the elves escaped, only to be captured by orcs from the Blood Tribes over time. It was a few days before Chao started actually attacking the rest of the city and chasing everyone away. The good stuff was either taken by Chao for his hoard, taken by the elves who escaped, or is hidden in places no one ever found—neither Chao nor thieves over the years. I doubt I can find them.”

“Wait,” Leo said, abandoning his lazy tending of the fire and sitting up. “So, everyone who had a chance to leave took the cool magical stuff, right?”

Lily nodded.

“And Chao attacked the main keep by surprise, right? But nowhere else?”

Lily nodded again, but her eyes started to widen.

“The floor of the main keep was intact! Chao didn’t destroy it!” Leo smacked his fist into his other palm.

“That’s true!” Lily said, raising one hand to her mouth. “There might be equipment remaining in the basement of the grand keep, before the entrance to the undercity!”

“Exactly. I think the route there is actually the place where we can gear up—it’s our best bet,” Leo said. “All right, it’s been the craziest day ever—let’s get some sleep, and tomorrow we can raid the keep.”

“I don’t mean to cause problems, but I’m hungry,” Hugh said.

Leo was starving himself—he had last eaten over a day ago. And, if he was being honest, his ‘campfire-seared deer’ recipe left a lot to be desired in both the taste and calorie department. They needed a food source.

Leo thought for a moment. “Well, we also need experience, and there were two monster birds outside… feel like chicken, Hugh?”

Hugh bared his teeth in a grin.

***

Life is relative, Leo thought to himself as he woke. He stood and stretched, full and rested for the first time in three days. Breakfast would be warmed monster-bird meat—surprisingly tasty cooked over a campfire by Lily—and his sleep had been on a cold stone floor, but warmth and security alone had been a huge improvement.

And Leo no longer had any wounds, which was itself a huge improvement. He sighed contentedly.

Hugh also stood and then did his cat stretch, his front legs out in front of him and his back low. “Things do look better with a belly full of meat.”

“Men,” Lily said with a smile as she stood and stirred the embers of their campfire. She speared a chunk of monster-bird with her dagger, then held it over the fire. Once it had cooked, she passed it over to Leo.

Leo took it and bit in—it was extremely tough, but otherwise tasted like chicken to him. After over seventy hours with only a few chunks of burned deer, and even after last night’s monster-chicken feast, it was still a little slice of heaven. And it took far less food for Leo’s new body to feel full than his old body, an advantage when he was involuntarily roughing it.

Hugh ate far more than the other two put together. After Lily had cut and warmed the chunks for the two of them, Hugh just grabbed the cooked carcass with his forelegs and started ripping huge chunks out of it. The dragon’s dentition was similar to a dog’s, except that the teeth were a touch closer together and he had molars in the back—an odd combination of teeth, but it meant Hugh was probably technically omnivorous and could definitely chew.

Could—but didn’t. He tore chunks off and swallowed them whole, devouring the entire bird in an orgy of pleased grunts and slurps in about the time it took Leo and Lily to eat their singular small pieces.

Just pushing the general vibe, Hugh let out a giant belch afterward. Leo laughed, feeling as content as he had yet on this world.

Even Lily smiled, although Leo suspected she wasn’t as amused by the boyish behavior as Leo was.

“All right,” Leo said, slowly getting to his feet. “Let’s go.”

Hugh went over and dragged the giant pile of broken furniture away from the door, and the three of them walked out into the cold morning air and watery light of the palace courtyard. It was made even colder by Leo’s lack of a shirt, and Leo was suddenly conscious of the goose bumps all across his thin chest. Lily shivered in the shredded remains of her dress.

They crossed and entered the giant shattered central keep.

Leo took a look around, since it was the first time he’d entered. The floor, up against the walls, was covered in random rubble, but the vast majority of the interior was entirely hollowed out. Leo caught a glint of silver from the rubble near the wall. He walked over as Lily and Hugh were looking around and picked a small silver coin out of the pile. One side had a tree and the other a feminine face etched into it.

“What’ve you got?” Hugh asked.

Leo held the coin up as Hugh and Lily walked over.

“A silver coin from the reign of Jynellae ‘Mousemaster,’” Lily said in Middle Averian, and then switched to High Averian before continuing. “In the tone of teaching: Jynellae ‘Mousemaster’: disgraceful, unworthy: ruled prior to the last king. Her reign was over three hundred years: peaceful, decadent, unwise. She bankrupted the kingdom with parties and gifts to her paramours: foolish frivolities.”

Lily switched back to Middle Averian. “The Blood Tribes’ first attacks occurred at the end of her reign, and she let numerous border forts and cities fall before she gave any money to defense—a defense then conducted by nobles she’d favored who had never been in so much as a skirmish, raised to the position of generals. No one considered the attacks important until Kelethain fell.”

Leo nodded, even though he didn’t know what most of those names referred to—he got the gist.

But he also had more immediate concerns. “I see a glint of copper there. I think it’s another coin.”

Hugh pushed some of the rubble aside and pulled the coin out, held carefully between two claws. “Yeah.”

“I know you said dragons abandoning their lairs doesn’t happen, Hugh,” Leo said. “Despite that, I think your dad quickly left with his hoard. This looks like a rush job.”

“We should look for any coins or items he left!” Hugh said.

The three of them did a quick scan of the room. After about a quarter hour, they had collected three gold, seven silver, and eleven copper coins, as well as a bronze knife inlaid with silver and a single bronze dragon scale the size of a tower shield.

Chao is a monster, Leo thought, surreptitiously moving his eyes between that huge scale and the two-inch ones on Hugh. If the size holds standard, he would be almost two hundred feet long! Creatures that large shouldn’t even be a biological possibility.

They had also located the stairs down. The floor above the stairs bore a few claw marks, but it didn’t look like much effort had been made to get below the ground.

Perhaps he didn’t want to tear up his lair?

“Shall we?” Leo said, motioning to the stairs with a bow and a sweep.

Hugh, knowing what was expected, headed over first. When he got close to the stairs, he shivered. “It’s cold here—very cold.”

Leo followed, and then Lily.

A cold wind blew up the stairs as Leo got close, carrying with it a distinctive smell—a rank smell of dried blood and incense. Leo was immediately reminded of the ravine with the demon-harpies where he had first met Hugh.

Lily wrinkled her nose and asked with obvious distaste in her voice, “What is that?”

“Demon, I think,” Leo said. “Hugh and I smelled it at a ravine north of here. The ravine had harpy-demons in it.”

“That ravine was the Demon Scar,” Hugh said. “That smell was at the Demon Scar.”

“You guys were at the Demon Scar?” Lily asked, shivering herself.

Someone say ‘Demon Scar’ one more time, Leo thought to himself, but his attempt at humor didn’t cheer him in the face of the cold and eldritch odor emanating from the stairs, which everyone was staring at like they were the gate to the hells.

Which, in this kooky world, they really might be. Leo shivered again, this time from fear.

Chapter Twelve

The Really Bad, Horrible, No Good Catacombs, Part I

“Well, do you have this, Hugh?” Leo asked.

Hugh also shook. “I’m… I’m not sure, Leo. The last time we encountered demons, it didn’t go that well.”

He fought the goblins just fine and stood against the wolves, even if he didn’t want to. What’s going on?

Leo reached out and ran his hand across Hugh’s scaled back. “You’re the tank, buddy. You’ve got thick scales and sharp teeth. You’ve got this.”

“I don’t think I do ‘have’ this, whatever that means,” Hugh said. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have this, in fact.”

My dragon is broken, Leo thought to himself. I wonder if the warranty is expired or if I can turn him in for another one?

Leo heaved a sigh. “Fine, I’ll go first. Hugh, please follow, and for the love of all that is holy, charge in and save me when something inevitably tries to eat my face, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that, Leo. Thanks.”

“Sure, no problem. Again, please remember—charge in and save me.”

“Yes. I will. Promise.” Hugh’s face firmed, the muscles around his eyes tightening slightly.

Leo was pretty sure Hugh would fight, so long as Leo started the combat. “Okay, then.”

Leo pulled Lily’s knife out, held it in his right hand, and started down the stairs slowly, his every nerve on fire.

The cold intensified as he descended. Leo stepped out into a stone room with frost on the walls and floor, most of it concentrated at the far end, where a stone hall led from the room. Behind him, another passageway led away. The room itself had numerous barrels around it, most broken open, many outright smashed on the floor. The room felt like the cold storage from a horror movie where the axe murderer hung his victims to eat them later.

A scratching of claw on stone or ice came from around him, but as Leo looked around the dimly lit, freezing room, he couldn’t see any animals.

Leo stepped to the side, teeth chattering, as Hugh came down behind him. Lily followed, her own shivering violent.

“W-We need t-to get p-past this p-part fast,” Lily said, almost every word punctuated by her teeth clicking together. “I d-don’t h-handle c-c-cold well.”

“Something’s down here w-with us,” Leo responded.

Lily sounded like she was suffering from the cold more than Leo. He wondered if it was because he had raised his Toughness score when he leveled.

Leo turned slowly in an arc, dagger held out, trying to make sure nothing could jump him.

Skittering came again, near the exit hall at the far end, and turned in that direction. Then he whirled to the side as skittering came from closer, to his left beside the near wall.

There was a blur as multiple creatures rushed from behind or within the broken barrels, small, brown-skinned, and red-eyed.

Just before they hit, Hugh let out a roar, shockingly loud within the confines of the dark and frozen cellar, and the creatures all stopped or dodged to the side. One of the ones charging lost purchase on the frost-covered floor and skidded, scrabbling, to Leo’s foot.

He stabbed down with all his might. His dagger entered the side of the chihuahua-sized creature, and blood spurted, a disgusting red glove over his hand and arm. The creature looked like a hairless rat that had died of some terrible disease while freezing to death in the snow, then gotten up as a zombie to seek vengeance on all life.

A second rat leapt at Leo and sank its teeth into his leg, biting him through his almost nonexistent pants.

Leo gave a grunt of pain and dismissed the notification boxes before he stabbed the creature in the neck, nearly severing its small head.

A third rat leapt and bit the back of his thigh, and Leo screamed this time as his own blood splattered across the frost-covered floor. He whirled to get the rat, but it stayed on him, biting at his leg.

Leo dropped to the ground, sitting on the rat and praying the last three were being handled by his team. The rat managed to let go and squirm away before he hit, rushing Leo again. Leo desperately turned and managed to catch the rat, throwing the gross zombie rodent against the wall as hard as he could.

Despite his weak elven arms, the rat hit with the disgusting squelch of dropped meat and fell to the ground, blackish-red blood oozing from its mouth as it dazedly tried to get to its feet.

Leo lunged over and grabbed the rat, then smashed it against the floor with a shudder. The rat went still, and Leo dismissed the experience notification as well.

Blood was still pouring from the bite on his thigh. Did that rat get the femoral artery or something?

Leo looked back at his notifications and saw the damned rats had a freezing-based slow effect he had resisted, and, like the wolves, had imparted ‘Thel’s Rot,’ which he hadn’t resisted. His bleed effects were accelerated again.

A hand fell on Leo’s shoulder, and he screamed, briefly thinking it was another rat. The healing warmth that spread through him calmed him, however, and the leg wound closed—and the Thel’s Rot debuff disappeared.

“Thank god,” Leo said, carefully climbing to his feet on the frost-and-blood-covered floor.

“Which one?” Hugh asked, trying to use the wall to wipe smooshed rat off his claws.

“I s-spent f-f-four e-essence, L-Leo,” Lily said, then, by sheer willpower, she briefly stopped chattering. “I am going to start taking cold damage soon if we can’t find clothes, and I’ve only got twelve essence right now. We need to move fast.”

Leo nodded as Lily went back to chattering, briefly examining the two passages.

“Hugh, poke your head into the passage near the stairs. Lily, follow me into the next room. Call if you see anything interesting, Hugh, and if you don’t, follow me please as soon as you’re done.”

Hugh rushed into the room behind as Leo moved forward into the stone passageway, and ten seconds later, another rat squealed behind him.

The hall Leo entered was even colder than the room he had just exited. It had two small doors, one on each side, and each with a hole gnawed in the bottom. At the far end, there was a larger open doorway. There were no torches or lanterns down here, and the light went from dim to dark as Leo moved from the first room into the hall.

We are the least-prepared adventurers ever, Leo thought to himself with a grimace. I’ve no shirt, for crying out loud! In fact, Lily and I are both woefully underdressed, underarmored, and underequipped, and we didn’t even bring a light source!

I’ll check the two side rooms, and if we don’t find anything, we need to retreat and find another option. Rooting around in the dark while freezing is a surefire way to die fast.

Leo opened the door to his side and entered. In the tiny rays of light that made it from the outside, he could barely make out a desk.

Leo cupped his ear with his free hand. No skittering. He entered the room slowly, dagger in front, and looked around. The rank blood-and-incense smell was just as strong here, and his fingers and ears were starting to go numb from the cold. He had to be fast.

There were multiple scroll shelves, with a lattice of space to put scrolls on each shelf, but he ignored those. There was a shattered lantern behind the desk, and a quick search of the desk revealed a lot of rotted paper, a small letter opener, ink and quill, and a sack of coins larger than his hand. The sack of coins was all silver, and Leo passed it to Lily, who was again violently shivering.

Leo moved as fast as his numbing legs would allow him and opened the door across from him with a yank.

His heart rose as he gazed inside.

The room was a shambles, and had a few broken boxes strewn about. There were also remains of charred box pieces, surrounded by burn marks and smoke smears, on the marble ground visible beneath the ice in the dim light.

And around those burn marks, there were piles of equipment lying on the ground—armor and weapons, most rotting or rusted. But a few intact items were visible in the dim light filtering into the room.

“G-Get everything you can c-carry in f-five m-minutes,” Leo said, his own teeth chattering nearly as badly as Lily’s had been. “W-We c-can’t stay h-here l-longer. G-Grab the un-d-damaged gear.”

Leo rushed around. He searched through the remains all over the floor, finding an intact suit of leather armor. He gathered the pieces, added an intact long sword with intricate silver etchings on the blade and a half-inch topaz in the hilt, and picked up the pile.

Just before he left, he saw a small ring with a ruby in it and awkwardly picked that up as well.

“R-Retreat,” Leo said, too cold to do more.

The group headed out of the freezing basement and back into the keep that had been Chao’s lair, up the stairs from the dark, freezing hell of the basement and into the welcome light and comparative warmth of the morning sun.

Leo dumped his loot, except the ring, onto the floor about fifty feet from the entrance to the stairs.

Lily came up beside him and gently placed a lantern on the ground, as well as a cloak with a star pattern on the back that was in pristine condition.

Hugh dropped off a massive great sword with five small red crystals in the hilt and an intricate fire-themed etching all up and down the blade.

Lily sat, then lay, in a patch of sunlight, shivering still.

“How did we do?” Hugh asked, gently poking her with his head.

“If these really are magically infused,” she said, her voice tired, “then we did extremely well. I think, based on the size of the magical crystals, that these are technically all least magical items, but one of them, that great sword, is at the advanced end of the spectrum, using multiple tiny—or least—magic crystals for a larger effect. I think we have a good twenty-two gold worth of magical items here.”

“Nice!” Hugh said. “That’ll be a good start to my hoard!”

Leo couldn’t see Lily’s face from the angle she lay at, but he would bet she was glaring at Hugh.

“I have no reference for that,” Leo said. “Is that good?”

Lily spoke from her position on the marble floor. “A peasant farm family, doing basic farming with no magic or advanced tools, would make about half a gold each year. Not as profit, mind you. Gross. They would need forty silver from that—or about eighty percent—just for food and basic replacements for tools. The local baron would usually take ten silver. I want to be clear that most places, the average family makes more. This is just the basic subsistence farmers who make up the poorest of the peasantry in most kingdoms.”

“So, what we have here is the entire output of a poor peasant family for almost fifty years, or the tax revenue for five peasant families for their whole life, basically?” Leo asked with respect. That would be about five million dollars at home, in proportional terms—just sitting in a ruin. I mean, certain shipwrecks recovered were worth way more than that, but that’s still crazy.

Lily lethargically nodded where she lay, still facing away from Leo, on the marble ground.

“Yes. Any place with a good magical aura, either from its node or powerful magic wielders—and many places have a better baseline from tools, irrigation, and other improvements to the land—would make more per family. But what I said is still the upshot.”

“It’s small in dragon hoard terms,” Hugh said, “but it would be a decent start.”

“So what do the items do?” Leo asked, picking up the long sword and staring at it. It was twenty-four inches long, and it glinted, as if sun were reflecting off the blade, despite being out of direct sunlight. The etchings were beautiful and stylized, with wavy and curvy lines resembling a wolf down the length of the blade. The sword felt right in Leo’s hands.

“That’s the sword of an officer in the Ghost Rangers,” Lily said, her voice livening slightly as she talked about the history and culture of Averia. “Elves with martial talent, a decently high magic score, and Wyld magic would frequently take ‘animal companion’ as their first ability when they made Level Two.”

Trust Lily to know the minutiae of this.

Lily continued. “That bond opened up a few new abilities, and the ghost wolves were deadly steeds and companions, especially once empowered by the bond. Officers, who had to be at least Level Four, were given those swords. The sword does additional damage from Light energy gathered on the edge of the blade, making it sharper and hotter both. The weapon is a touch more dangerous than a normal sword.”

“You know a lot,” Leo said, genuinely impressed. “What about the rest of the magical gear?”

Lily coughed. “I’m really sorry, especially coming after your praise, to say I don’t recognize any of the other items offhand.”

Hugh chuckled, then burped so hard that a tiny piece of monster-chicken flew out of his mouth. He looked at everyone guiltily and then licked it back up.

Lily’s shoulders tensed, and she must have glared at him, because Hugh continued. “Hey, c’mon. We all know you’re way smarter than I am, but you still have to admit that was funny timing.”

“I was more concerned with your horribly uncouth eating habits,” Lily said, but her shoulders relaxed again.

“So, do whatever you need to do to figure out whatever the rest of this stuff does,” Hugh said, giving the marble ground a thump with his tail for emphasis.

“Without the analyze ability, or, more expensively, the identify ritual, I have no ability to determine that,” Lily said. “You could risk trying them on and might learn their properties that way.”

Leo put the ring with the ruby in it on his finger. Immediately, he felt warm.

“So, I have some amazing news about the ring,” Leo said. “It seems to provide warmth.”

“What are you doing?!” Lily said, sitting and turning to Leo. “You don’t put strange magic items on! They could be cursed! That’s, like, the first lesson of almost all magic classes.”

“You just said I could risk putting—”

“I was obviously being sarcastic,” Lily said, flicking her hair back.

“Magicless world, remember?” Leo asked.

“Oh, right,” Lily said in a small voice. “Sorry. That was my bad. Please don’t use any more items until you know what they do.”

“Well, the ring that stops cold is useful at least,” Hugh said. “I mean, for weak elves, it’s useful. I’m not cold.”

Leo raised a single eyebrow at Hugh, a ‘Really, buddy?’ gesture.

“Hey, don’t blame me,” Hugh said. “I’m not the one who made dragons wonderful and you guys kinda… not wonderful.”

“How many magical items can a person use, by the way?” Leo asked. “I mean, if I got fifty rings, could I have all the magic abilities?”

“No,” Lily said, rolling back to lie on the ground. “One item per person, plus one for every magic they have access to.”

“So, if a person had five magics, they could have six items?”

“Exactly.” Lily gave a laugh. “And if you find that paragon, let me know. Five magics indeed. I doubt there’s anyone on this continent with five magics.”

Hugh started to open his mouth, but Leo shook his head from behind Lily, and Hugh closed his mouth. I don’t want to upset her at the moment, and playing ‘I’m better than you’ games cannot go over well. Best just to let it lie.

“By the way, I’m only about fifty experience from the next level,” Leo said. “How about we go kill some more of those birds and wolves? We can hopefully make a level. It should be easier than the frozen demon cellar. Once we have the level and some practice, we can brave the hellish undercity again and make another attempt to reach the vault.”

“We never even made it to the undercity,” Lily said, her voice tired.

Hugh said, “Don’t be a downer, Lily. This sounds like an excellent plan. And I could go for some more chicken, frankly.”

Chapter Thirteen

An Interlude in Safety

Four hours, three giant birds, two diseased wolves, and a completely insane five-legged deer that puked blood on them later, Leo and Lily had both made another level.

“I think I should take analyze,” Leo said.

“That’s two levels without a combat ability.” Hugh snorted. “Are you sure you have even the faintest idea what you’re doing?”

Lily lifted an eyebrow. “What did you take for Level Two? Sorry, I should have checked on that earlier.”

Again, Hugh opened his mouth, but Leo beat him to the punch. “I took Animal Companion, Rank I.”

“Why?” Lily asked.

“Well, one of those ghost wolves you keep talking about started hanging around with me early on once I got to this world, at least sort of. But once I met Hugh, and Hugh chased it off, it stopped. I thought it might show up again, and having an empowered wolf buddy would have been amazing.”

Lily stared into his eyes. “A ghost wolf hung out with you, peaceably?”

“Yeah.” Leo scratched the back of his head. “Why?”

“That’s not possible. Ever since Chao came and slew the old king, the pact has been broken. No ghost wolf has allied with any elf since then, and they have viciously hunted all who entered the forest—well, not the dragon.”

“One cuddled me and kept me warm the first night I got here,” Leo said. “He was my mysterious wolf buddy. Until I upgraded to dragon buddy.”

“Aww.” Hugh batted his eyes at Leo.

Leo laughed.

Even Lily smiled.

“Well, you must have been mistaken,” Lily said. “That can’t have been a ghost wolf. The ghost wolves have turned against the elves. All mortals, actually.”

“Hey, I saw it.” Hugh swished his tail back and forth. “It was a ghost wolf! Red eyes, larger than normal… It was totally a ghost wolf!”

“I seriously doubt that,” Lily said, then flicked her silver hair back again. “And I doubt a dragon is qualified to identify it, regardless.”

“Listen here, you little—”

“Guys!” Leo said. “We were doing so well not being ridiculously antagonistic to one another. How about we try for a longer streak this time?”

Both Hugh and Lily appeared mutinous, but neither said anything.

Leo sighed but accepted the lack of insults as good enough. “Back to the question. Should I take analyze or not?”

“You may as well,” Lily said. “But first, what was your second ability at Level Two, the one you got for being a high elf?”

Leo hesitated. He had the distinct feeling Lily wouldn’t like hearing about his abilities—Hugh had been a bit jealous, and Leo figured Lily would be worse. But he didn’t like lying.

“Cognitive learner,” he said.

“What?” Lily asked, her eyes widening. “What’s that?”

“Can I just get an answer on what to pick?”

“All right,” Lily said. “I think you can handle analyze as your next level ability. It’s quite useful. Not only does it provide information, but just using analyze on creatures and items leads to developing your occult skill.”

“You need an ability to do damage!” Hugh cried, holding a foreleg out and rending air with his claws extended.

“I have a magic sword now,” Leo said. “I’ll get the job done.”

“Feh,” Hugh said. “I’ve had my say, and it’s your build. Take your stupid magic-eyes power if you wish.”

“Wait, ‘magic eyes’?” Leo asked.

Lily lifted her chin, managing to capture the perfect poise of a lady despite her ruined dress and their rough surroundings. “He’s just being facetious. He’s withdrawing from the argument concerning analyze with the eloquence and grace we’ve come to expect from him.”

Then she caught Leo’s eye and giggled.

Leo chuckled back and then mentally made his selection.

The power flooded his mind immediately, as did a sense of his own essence.

Leo looked at the cloak. Although there was no visual manifestation, he sensed he could use analyze on it.

Curious, he turned his eyes on Lily and Hugh, receiving the same prompt.

Leo focused, willing his ability to activate. Something within him stirred, and he felt potential and possibility leave his body in the direction of Hugh. In a fraction of a second, he received information regarding Hugh, which formed into a chart.

Huetilopoctlicae, ‘Hugh’ of the Storm Vale, Storm Dragon Juvenile

Level 1(5)

Earth

Health: ~50

Stamina: ~15

Essence: ~10

Physical Attacks:

Bite: Damage ~10

Claw: Damage ~7

Magical Attacks: N/A

Defenses:

Armor: ~4

Lightning: ~10

Special Abilities:

N/A

Strength and Toughness: Very High.

Perk: Earthbound: Earth magic replaces Air magic. Earth magic comes extremely easily to this being.

This is your friend, Hugh. You already know him. Way to waste essence.

Storm dragons normally have Air magic and can fly and use a lightning breath weapon, but Hugh has Earth magic. More importantly, most storm dragons cannot level while young, as their magic is used entirely to fuel their flight and breath weapon and cannot be used to grow from soul energy. Hugh, however, can level and gain Earth magic from any age—an aspect of his Perk, not Flaw, that he is grossly neglecting.

“Uh, Leo, buddy, you’re staring at me,” Hugh said.

Leo barely registered Hugh as he reveled in the flow of information and understanding. He could feel Hugh’s essence, like a sixth sense. He felt as if he had been blind his whole life and had now opened his eyes—he felt the magic around him, and took joy in it.

Hugh smacked his tail on the ground. “Getting creepy, Leo!”

Leo pulled himself back from basking in his new connection to the universe, blinking his eyes. “Whoa. I know Kung Fu.”

“Insanity is a new look for you,” Hugh quipped. “I assume you just used analyze on me since you were staring at me like you wanted half-dragon children and forgot I was a boy. Learn anything interesting?”

“Yeah, I did. Your Earth magic isn’t a flaw, it’s a perk. You can already level, right?”

Hugh nodded. “Yeah, but so what? It takes forever for a dragon to level! Because of my magical nature, I’m considered fifth level, even though I’m actually first level. I need five hundred experience to level!”

“How much have you gotten so far?”

“Almost a hundred.”

That’s way less than I’ve gotten. I wonder…

“When you kill a creature, do you gain less experience if you’re a higher level than it?”

“Yes,” Lily said. “The essence of creatures weaker than you does little to build your magic, just as the energy of creatures stronger does more. Once you’re more than ten levels above a creature, it can’t add to your experience.”

I already saw that to go to Level Two, I needed one hundred experience, and to go to Level Three, I needed two hundred. Following that logic, if Hugh is treated as Level Five, he needs five hundred to go to Level Six. And the lower-level creatures we’ve been fighting aren’t giving him much, so that makes sense. Still…

Leo walked up to Hugh, who was fast becoming his best friend on this world.

“Mind if I go on a tangent about your life for a few moments, Hugh?”

“As long as you promise not to talk about peacock tails, go for it.”

“What?” Lily asked with a laugh. “Peacock tails?”

“It made sense at the time,” Leo groused.

Then he reached out and took Hugh’s scaled head in his hands, hoping that wasn’t too odd a gesture of familiarity. “Among my people, there’s a saying. All paths to greatness start with self-improvement.”

“Huh,” Hugh said, crossing his eyes.

Leo ignored what he thought was an attempt to deflect. “Self-improvement requires work—hard work. I think you’ve been going about your life the wrong way. Getting a hoard from someone else is what we called a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. It always falls apart. Even if the hoard had been here, someone would have come and taken it from you—because you lacked the strength to keep it.”

Hugh swished his tail. “I mean, I had some ideas—”

Leo talked over him. “From what you’ve told me of this world, strength is the key factor. People can become living weapons, living machines to build, and can even generate auras to bring prosperity. One person can truly change the world.”

“All right, touching speech, but—”

“Every time I bring up leveling, you always blow it off. But it’s the path forward for you, if you don’t want to be weak and the butt of jokes forever. That, and education. But for now, you should think about your path forward and how you wish to level.”

“You’re getting more touchy-feely than a Wyld mage, buddy.” Hugh backed out of Leo’s grasp. “Should we start looking for a twofer cave?”

Leo coughed. “Sorry. But please consider what I said.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll give it a good mull over, but I still want to start collecting a hoard, got it? No backing out on that.”

“I’ve got it.” Leo rolled his eyes. “You’ll get your hoard. Promise. Just do me the favor of making sure you can defend it. Try for me. I’d hate to think of you getting turned into armor once I get home.”

Hugh grinned, showing his impressive dentition. “All right, for you, I’ll give it a shot. It’s a deal.”

Lily eyed Leo with what he was pretty sure was an approving smile.

She blushed just a touch and turned away from his gaze. “So, can you identify the other items and see what they do?”

Leo turned, reaching out with essence to become mystically aware of the other items and their properties, his mind filled with wonder at the touch of magic. He received a brief list of powers and the description of each item he’d spent essence on.

Cloak of Recovery

Least item. Body magic. This cloak heals an additional 4 health per day of rest and prevents all nonmagical disease and pollution effects.

For a magic item this is a bit of garbage, really. Think about it—a normal mortal healing forty percent of his health in a day is great and all. It’s a one-day broken leg repair. But for an adventurer? Feh. You need something with a lot more kick when a rabid wolf chews half your leg off and the rest of his pack is coming thirty seconds behind. Tomorrow is too late unless your goal is to be wolf poop. This item was probably crafted for a fat hypochondriac.

Living Leather Armor

Least item. Wyld magic. Armor 3, the armor is self-repairing and maintaining.

This armor provides the protection of chain, at the weight of leather, and you never have to wash your pit stains out or acknowledge all those embarrassing times you failed to dodge. Is it basic? Yes, but so are you, most likely. And unlike you, it’s at least worth something. As a bonus, wearing the hide of a once-living creature is its own kind of badass.

Least Light Blade

Least item. Light magic. +2 Light damage (weapon 3–10 damage.) Provides dim light.

It’s a glowing sword. One might even say it’s a… lightsaber. But seriously, it’s a sword with a bit more ass-kicking built in. The best kind of sword, really.

Ring of Warmth

Least item. Fire magic. Heat fills the body, protecting the wearer from down to -67.3 degrees Fahrenheit and reducing cold damage attacks by 2 per round.

This ring was clearly made for a wife by a husband who was tired of the battle over the thermostat. Seriously, though, what do you want from this description? Everything it does is in its title.

Fiery Sword

Least item, high end. Fire magic. +3 Fire damage (weapon 5–15, ignore 1 armor) and provides 1 point of cold resistance each round.

Compensate much? This sword is really cool and awesome… for a thirteen-year-old boy. So flame, much wow. It used five tiny Fire crystals to make this boondoggle when they could have made five slightly less fiery magic swords for the same price. Plus, you have to be crazy strong to use it.

Leo choked laughter after a couple of the blurbs. “Lily, are these descriptions normal? I mean, they seem super sarcastic and a bit insulting to me personally as well.”

Lily stared for a moment, and then started laughing hard, tears streaming down her face. She sat on the ground as she laughed.

The answer is going to irritate me. I can feel it in my bones.

Finally, Lily stopped laughing and wiped the tears from her face. “Thanks, Leo, I needed that. There’s been a lot of research into the notification boxes. Basic stuff, like status charts, is handled by the Servants of Telos. They’re some mysterious organization, perhaps appointed by the gods, but there is no reference to them anywhere except in the charts themselves, and even then, extremely rarely.”

“Yeah, I found a reference to them in my charts.”

Lily raised a single eyebrow, but Leo waved her on.

“The analyze charts, however, are a reflection of your own personality… It’s your magic that makes them. When the charts insult the person using analyze, it usually means that person has self-esteem issues or a very sardonic sense of humor.”

“Or both,” Leo said.

Lily nodded and smiled. “Or both. I think you just told me a lot about yourself there, but mostly, I just find the idea of your own analyze insulting you to be hilarious.”

“Well, how about this?” Leo said, wanting to leave this part of the conversation. “Lily, take the ring. It’ll keep you completely warm. I’ll take the armor, cloak, and smaller sword so I can be a frontline fighter and not freeze to death. We’ll give Hugh the giant sword, which is worth as much as the rest of it put together, to start his hoard.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, but then her face relaxed and she flicked her silver hair. “That’s best.”

“Can I ask you to carry my sword on your back, Lily?” Hugh said. “Maybe tie it there with a strip of your dress or something? I don’t want to lose it or leave it here, in case someone comes for the treasure.”

Lily sighed a sigh of long-suffering. “Sure, whatever. This outfit, however beautiful it once was, is beyond saving. Help me cut my dress, Hugh, and then let’s get this done. Be gentle, though, I don’t want to be involuntarily exposing anything too titillating.”

Leo started to don his new armor and cloak as Hugh and Lily screwed around with the sword.

But he found himself looking at the stairway down to the freezing demon basement, worried. Hopefully, I can get this done this time.

Chapter Fourteen

The Really Bad, Horrible, No Good Catacombs, Second Try

As Leo descended the stairs, he observed one of the horrible mutated rats on the ground. The light from the lantern Lily carried illuminated the freakish thing. It was the size of a small dog, and its fur was still bloody and covered in rime. As Leo stared at it, the option to trigger analyze appeared. Leo pushed his essence out, molding it to form the Mind magic that told him about the rat.

Averian Demon-Rat

Level 2

Entropy

Health: 4

Stamina: 4

Essence: N/A

Physical Attacks:

Bite: Damage 1–3, bleeding effect per bite (Toughness check +4), Thel’s Rot, A Touch of Frost.

Magical Attacks: N/A

Defenses:

Cold: 10

Entropic: 4

Special Abilities: Thel’s Rot: Any target that takes actual damage must make a +2 Toughness check or suffer Thel’s Rot.

A Touch of Frost: Any target hit must make a +6 Toughness check or suffer -20% to accuracy and dodge for 1 minute.

Riddle: What happens when you take a cold-based preservation spell and mix a little corruption from the Blood Abyss in? These fuckers. These fuckers are what happens.

The Averian demon-rat is a magical beast that resulted from mole rats being exposed to all sorts of nasty magic. They’re one-third mole rat, one-third ice spell, one-third demon, and ugly all day. Somewhere, there’s a queen bitch rat, and you really don’t want to meet her, but even these comparatively minor creatures can ruin any newbie adventurer’s day.

Pro-tip: Avoid letting them draw blood. A good life tip in general, really, but especially noteworthy in this case.

“The creatures can bite to inflict bleeding,” Leo said to the rest of his party. “They can also inflict Thel’s Rot to make the bleeding worse.”

“Does everything here inflict bleeding?” Lily asked. “It sure seems that way.”

“Well, this creature does say it’s the result of corrupting a ‘cold-based preservation spell with the magic of the Blood Abyss.’ What’s the Blood Abyss?”

Lily frowned. “I don’t know, but from the description, it’s likely another dimension separate from this one. I think Grathick Demon-born was from there—I think it’s the dimension he opened the portal to that became the Demon Scar.”

“That makes sense. Does the Blood Abyss actually cause blood-affecting curses? Because that would explain it.”

Lily nodded, smacking her cheeks twice. “Of course! The magical leakage from the Demon Scar must be causing the corruption here! And that explains the unusual pattern—the emanations from outside the town are affecting the outer magics more quickly and have been for longer, which is why the outer edge is more dangerous!”

“Why do you sound excited?” Hugh asked. “You just discovered the magic of your town is becoming evil. I feel like this isn’t a celebrating matter.”

Lily flushed slightly. “I just get excited by discovery, sorry.”

“Fun,” Hugh said. “I get excited by loot. To each their own.”

Leo held his sword out in front of him, wishing he had a shield to go with it. He walked out of the first room and past the two doors that led into the rooms he had explored before. He glanced into each as he went past. In the combined light of the lantern and his sword, Leo recognized an office and a storage space. Both were still covered in frost, but they were far less scary with light, a weapon, and armor.

Leo entered the room at the end of the hall, another obvious storage room, again with a door at the end. He heard skittering again and prepared, motioning Hugh to the side and Lily behind him. His team took their places.

The measly three Averian demon-rats that charged were easy to handle—light and gear made slaying them nearly child’s play. The sword came easily to Leo—perhaps it was this body’s donated skills. And while he still wasn’t strong, exactly, the two leveling stats he had placed in Strength when he made Level Three let him hit a touch harder.

A few experience points—and no damage—later, Leo wiped the blood off his sword and then took a gander at the room.

Numerous odds and ends lay among the wreckage of quite a few barrels, but it was all broken and rotted. There was nothing Leo could use. Gingerly picking his way out of the mess, Leo headed into the next room.

This room was huge, a frosted rectangle filled with broken trash, a single exit at the far side. The cold reached new lows as they entered. Leo and even Hugh began shivering as they stared at a disgusting massive rat, much larger than the ones they had been fighting, among the broken barrels and shattered sundries of the room. The rat was about five hundred pounds—and grossly pregnant.

Leo swept his sword back and forth as skittering came from all around him, and seven other rats emerged from the detritus all around him.

“I’m going to try to get Mama,” Leo said. “Hugh, keep Lily alive. Based on the damage of the rats and the armor you and I possess, they should only be able to hurt us with a critical. Or a hit to a location the armor doesn’t cover in my case. But Lily is vulnerable.”

“Got it,” Hugh said.

The dragon moved to position himself in front of Lily as Leo stalked forward, sword at the ready in his newly strengthened arms.

Leo screamed and charged the momma rat. The rats flinched back for a second, and he closed the twenty feet in a few fast steps. After their initial hesitation, the rats charged him, but Leo saw the move—the space between enemies that would give him his shot. He jinked to the side, letting his sword dip very low to the right as he rushed past the momma rat, and brought it up hard, the angle perfect, and slashed her neck half-open. Leo kept going a few feet past. Momma rat’s body kept half of him free of enemies as he whirled, slamming one leaping rat with a left-handed backfist, then slashing another across its body as his sword followed his arc and came down.

The notification box informed him that he had inflicted a critical hit on the “Averian Demon-Rat Queen” but said it was immune to bleeding effects.

That means it isn’t dead. Shit. Leo turned just as the mother rat bit his side. His armor reduced the attack greatly, but Leo grunted at the slight prick in his side. He swiped aside the notification box that told him he now had a bleeding effect. Damn.

The queen’s blood had frozen on her neck, a gross lump of crimson ice that prevented her from bleeding to death.

And the unexpected attack had cost him. Leo yelped as one rat bit his lower calf causing further bleeding.

Hugh took two great lunging strides and bit a rat in half. Leo stomped the rat behind him and slashed the mother across her face. She screamed at him and stepped back, pawing at the wound as crimson blood crusted across her eyes.

But Leo was off-balance. As he tried to step back, another creature bit his leg. Leo went down, cursing. He kicked the rat in its head as he landed.

Other rats bit him. Fortunately, two came for his side, biting at his magical armor ineffectually, but a third bit his face. Leo screamed and grabbed it with his left hand, hurled it away and stood. Another rat bit his leg, and his vision went a bit blurry.

Then healing warmth poured into him, and the bleeding stopped.

Lily screamed. A rat hung from her thigh.

Leo stabbed downward at a rat on his leg, impaling it, and then kicked the rat on Lily’s thigh as hard as he could. The rat crunched and squealed as it dropped, its back broken, but Lily was also flung to the side with a yelp and landed, rolling.

A single rat made for her, but Hugh slashed it open with his claw, nearly severing it.

Leo stabbed the rat that had originally bitten his leg. He peered around frantically for another enemy, thrusting his sword around erratically, but he couldn’t find another foe.

“We got them,” Hugh said. “Calm down, Leo.”

Leo’s heart rate dropped back down, and his panic faded. The regeneration Lily had used continued its work. Leo’s flesh stitched together, and his strength returned.

Lily used the power on herself as well, then stood and dusted herself off. “That hurt, Leo.”

“Sorry. It got the rat.”

Lily sighed. “I suppose it did. However, I would point out that even with the increase to my Capacity from leveling, I only have four essence left. So between that and the mushrooms in an emergency, we’ve got three heals to get to the vault. Try another day?”

Leo gave it serious, if brief, consideration. “No. We have no idea what kinds of empires and other entities have sent parties to explore this location. Let’s keep moving. If we lose the vault, we’ll likely never get another chance.”

Hugh flexed his foreclaw. “This quest has been pretty disappointing so far. I would hate to lose any other opportunities for treasure.”

“Isn’t the r-real treasure the friends you m-made along the way?” Leo quipped, his teeth chattering slightly in the cold as the adrenaline faded.

Hugh snorted and opened his mouth. Then he closed it, and his brow furrowed.

I think he’s giving it actual thought. Probably since that’s not a quip by this world’s standards. It’s probably closer to blasphemy or deep philosophy.

“Figure it out later, b-buddy,” Leo said. “This place is cold enough that I want to get moving.”

Leo glanced over to ask Lily to follow him, but she was examining markings in the frost on the floor in the center of the room. She shuddered as she traced them carefully with her fingers.

“Lily?” Leo asked, squatting next to her. “What’s going on?”

“I see what’s happened, although I have no idea how or why it’s happening. The leakage from the Demon Scar is entering the magic crystals that power the ritual. The crystals are growing. The excess magical energy is both empowering the ritual and creating leakage that’s making corrupted magical monsters.”

As she talked, Lily pointed to a tiny aquamarine crystal set in the ground, and then to another sky blue one next to it. As Leo stared at them, a faint spiderweb of crimson cracks in the interior of the gems caught his attention.

As to the size they were supposed to be, he wasn’t sure—but each was a touch larger than the comparable gem in his sword’s hilt.

“D-Does that mean the effect will grow over time?” Leo asked.

“I can’t know for sure, but I think it will.”

“That could be a r-real problem for rebuilding your kingdom, then, right?”

“Maybe, but it also opens up possibilities. The one thing the kingdom always lacked was a true dungeon, where—”

“Actually, let’s talk about it later,” Leo said, standing and holding his hand out to her. “We need to get out of the cold and to the vault.”

“Leo’s too nice, and you’re a compulsive scholar,” Hugh grumbled. “One of you is going to get us killed with whatever your particular variety of head-in-the-clouds is.”

Lily sighed, took Leo’s hand, and stood. “Fine. You’re not the first one to accuse me of that, but I just get excited to know, dragon.”

Leo ignored the byplay between his two companions and crossed the frosty floor to reach the far side of the room and passed through the door there.

And into stairs that headed down farther into the darkness, the light from his sword showing him the upper portion of the stairwell.

The stairwell’s architecture was different than the castle’s. It was not crafted of marble. Rather, it was hewn from gray stone that was old and worn and naturally carved.

Hugh came up behind him. “You going down, buddy?”

Leo started to walk carefully down the stairwell—each step was still encrusted in frost from the corrupted ritual in the other room.

As he descended, he called out, “Lily, why does this stairway look so different from the other architecture around here? Is this just a catacomb-specific design choice?”

“No. This is actually the top of a ruin from an older civilization. The Vethlyr Imperium, populated by the Ancient Ones. This location has been occupied for tens of thousands of years, by numerous peoples.”

“What happened to the Ancient Ones?” Leo asked, fearing the answer would be a horrible massacre by the elves.

“They were destroyed, sort of, prior to the rise of the elves,” Lily answered, as if she could read his thoughts. “The Ancient Ones were a magically powerful lizard species, and they preferred very warm climates. During the last great cataclysm of the world, the rise of the dark god Cyl, roughly ten thousand years ago, this location became nearly unsustainable to them. The world was already cooling, and a major ocean current switched direction. Instead of warm ocean water coming north to this region, cold water came south.”

This seems like a lot of specific climate knowledge for a medieval society. Did they learn from gods or magic, or did some crazy scholar legit figure this stuff out?

Lily continued. “The jungles that had once occupied the shores of the Inner Sea were replaced by temperate forests, and most of their local empire fell apart. The Ancient Ones moved their capital to the continent on the other side of the Split Sea and the jungles there. They left a powerful heat ritual here to make their old capital as warm and humid as they preferred in order to keep it as an outpost. When the Susel Plague hit, however, and the Ancient Ones were reduced to lizard-folk, the city was cut off from the rest of their empire and fell. The remaining citizens fled to a natural swamp at the far southern end of the Inner Sea. But there has long been the undercity beneath Calasti.”

“Wow. That’s a long time, and a lot of history,” Leo said as he stepped out of the stairs into a long hallway in the same architectural style.

Lily and Hugh stepped out behind him.

Lily continued. “People have been settling cities and going about their lives for over a hundred thousand years on Toth, but the cataclysms have knocked people back to near-extinction more than once.”

“What causes the cataclysms?” Leo asked as they walked down the hall.

“All kinds of things. Invasions from more magically powerful dimensions, the rise and fall of gods, arcane plagues… Every few thousand to ten thousand years, it seems, we have another one. And that’s just the worldwide or near-worldwide ones. Continents have their own problems as well, usually more frequently.”

This world feels crazier every time I hear about it.

“Why make the royal vault down in the ruins of the Ancient Ones?”

“We actually call it ‘the undercity.’ To answer your question, the old king found it when he was just a talented tribal chieftain. It had an extremely powerful magical enchantment, of artifact level, on it. The vault now protects the contents against all who are not of the royal line. I think even if Chao had managed to get to it, he wouldn’t have been able to get in.”

“Really?” Hugh asked. “I’m impressed.”

“Normally, I figure you’d argue a claim like this,” Leo said.

“Eh, Princess Pride knows her stuff when it comes to magic. If she thinks my sire couldn’t have broken in, she’s probably right.”

“‘Princess Pride’?” Lily asked, raising her eyebrow—at Leo, not Hugh. “Is that term derogatory?”

Leo coughed. “So, on a different subject, I just had a terrible thought. Are there lots of powerful magical rituals down here?”

“Yes. The undercity was truly massive. The Ancient Ones built a multilayered city deep beneath the ground as their capital and filled it with untold magic. Our elven explorers had searched most of it, but not all, and thieves’ guilds and smugglers used the place for their nefarious purposes all the time.”

Leo held his sword forward in his hands, trying to listen as hard as he could. “Well, that could be a problem. Isn’t this just a huge potentially corrupted monster lair, then? Since the leakage from the Demon Scar would affect the rituals here as well?”

“Oh,” Lily said.

“‘Oh’ indeed. And what if the vault’s magic has become corrupted? Will we have to fight a great beast of some sort?”

“That… That might be possible.” Lily shuddered.

“This deal just keeps getting better and better,” Hugh muttered, his tail swishing behind him.

As if to perfectly capstone Leo’s comments, the scritch of claws on stone, subtly different now that they had left the frost-covered marble behind, came from down the hallway.

Chapter Fifteen

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

What came around the curve of the hall wasn’t a lot of rats—it was a disgusting giant rat amalgamation. As if someone had taken hundreds of rats and fused them together in the vague shape of a giant rodent—and since the component rats were all the size of small dogs, the combined monstrosity had to weigh nearly a ton.

Leo used a touch of essence on it, reaching out with his Mind magic ability, analyze.

Blood Amalgarat

Level 7

Entropy

Health: 60

Stamina: 10

Essence: N/A

Physical Attacks:

Bite: Damage 1–8 + 1–2 (1–10 times), bleeding effect per bite (Toughness check +4)

Claw: Damage 1–6 + 1–2 (1–6 times), bleeding effect per wound (Toughness check +4)

Tail: Damage 1–6 +1–2 (1–6 times), bleed effect per individual component rat bite (Toughness check +4)

Magical Attacks: N/A

Defenses:

Cold: 10

Entropic: 4

Special Abilities: Thel’s Rot: Any target that takes actual damage must make a +2 Toughness check or suffer Thel’s Rot.

Awkward Amalgamation: -20% accuracy

The previous demonic rats weren’t enough, so you just had to go find more, huh? This idiocy is why no one likes you.

This is just a lot of said rats squished together, like a conjoined twin if there were a hundred and it had been fed on evil the entire time it’d been in the womb.

Try not to let it sit on you. It would be like that scene in 1984 when they put the cage on the guy’s face and let the rats run at him. Only without the scathing social commentary.

“It’s Level Seven,” Leo said, readying himself. “And it has a ridiculous amount of health.”

“So, we run?” Hugh asked, stepping back.

“We can’t run if we have a chance to win. We’ve covered this. We need to get down there now, before all those other cities and nations and powers arrive. And this thing is occupying the main entrance tunnel—it’s a nonoptional encounter.”

“Leo, this is higher level than us. We could die.” Hugh’s voice quavered. He took another step back.

“I know you’re young, buddy, and I’m sorry you need to deal with this. But it’s time to put your big-boy pants on. We must become reapers of rats.”

“Was that supposed to sound inspiring?” Lily asked as she stepped to his side with a flip of her hair. “I suppose it did do its job of dispelling fear by amusing me.”

Despite her bravado, Lily’s voice was tight.

The rat slowly and ponderously moved forward, its hundreds of jaws all slavering.

Leo motioned Lily back. “I appreciate the bravery and commitment, but this monstrosity’s main attack hits multiple times for low damage. Armor will be unusually effective against it, and without armor, you’ll instantly be toast.”

Leo turned to Hugh and nodded him toward the rat blob. “That also means if you’re completely covered in scales as strong as plate armor, you have a great matchup against the beast. This thing has a very poor matchup against the armored tank types if my analyze is anything close to accurate.”

Hugh stopped backing away and took a step forward. “Thanks, Leo.”

Leo nodded. As for me, I need to avoid getting hit. It’s already slow, and I’m crazy agile, so hopefully, I can use that to my advantage.

The amalgarat continued slowly making its way down the tunnel.

“Go left, Hugh, and I’ll go right.”

Hugh nodded, and then charged as Leo did.

Stay mobile, stay mobile, Leo chanted to himself as he ran. The creature reared back, lifted its paw, and brought it down, hard, at Leo.

But the attack was telegraphed, and Leo moved to the side easily. As he did, he slashed the beast across its flank, nearly gagging as he cut apart the numerous smaller rats that made up its body. Tiny little rat organs and limbs fell from the gash he’d inflicted.

He noted and dismissed the seven damage notification.

He ran with the rat as it circled toward him, striking it again for another six damage. Then tens of little rat mouths all screamed, and it circled in the other direction, away from Leo. Hugh must have hit its other side. We’re going to win!

He’d forgotten the tail, which whipped out and slammed him across his chest, wrapping around. The hit did light damage through the armor as a bash, but the rats managed a bite on his exposed underarm as well. Leo began bleeding again.

Crap! And at this point, I’m nearly a petri dish for Thel’s Rot to boot, which is just gross.

Leo stumbled back, blood pouring from under his left arm. I wonder if it’ll make the same attack again? Leo pricked the rat in the same place, prepared. When the tail came around again, exactly as before, he brought his sword down on the single-rat-thick tail and severed it. That weapon is gone—its rear is defenseless.

That’s what he said? Leo laughed at himself awkwardly, even during combat.

The rat stayed focused on whatever was happening with Hugh, and Leo slashed it across the haunches, cutting apart more of the component rats. His sword rose and fell again and again, the tiny mouths screeching nonstop now in a disturbing chorus of animal screams, his attacks more like butchery than combat.

Finally, the rat blob slumped to the ground.

That was level. Leo dismissed the notifications. The monster being higher level made a pretty big difference—that was a huge chunk of experience.

Hugh was fairly battered, scales cracked in places, and he was favoring his right foreleg. Lily came up and healed first Leo and then Hugh. “I leveled, and I’m going to take Capacity again, so I’ll have one more heal and the mushrooms—then we’re out.”

Leo nodded. “How much farther to the vault?”

With a sigh, Lily motioned away from them. “It’s still a fair distance.”

“Hooray!” Hugh said, his voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm.

Lily crossed her arms. “Well, I made Three, and you guys are about to make Level Four and Six respectively, right?”

“I mean, I’m close,” Hugh said. “Plus, remember, it’s just Level One for me even if I’m treated as Six.”

Leo held up a finger. “Actually, I made Level Four. And I had a thought.”

“Hooray,” Hugh said again sarcastically. “I can’t wait for your thought. I’m sure it’ll save us all.”

“I can take regeneration, rank I. I can use it to heal myself, which eliminates bleeding damage, right?” Leo shot his companions a smile.

Lily nodded.

“So, I avoid the bleeds, and Lily can save her remaining essence for healing Hugh, who doesn’t take as much damage anyway. And I can heal people if there’s an emergency with you two as well.”

“Shouldn’t you take an attack ability or something? Like brutal reaction?” Hugh asked.

“I think the bleed avoidance is more important than me getting a few harder hits in.”

Lily stared at Leo with suspicious eyes. “If you’re going to be focusing on a telekinetic build, this hurts your long-term chances. But I have a more pressing question. You’ve already acknowledged Mind and Wyld magic. Now you’re claiming you could take brutal reaction—a Body magic ability. You also asked about how many items a five-magic person could use. So…”

“So?” Leo asked to buy a tiny bit of time for him to think, even though he knew what Lily wanted.

“So, how many magics do you have? Is it five?”

I need to trust her and have her trust me. Even if it irritates her, I need to tell her the truth.

“Yes, five.”

“Which?” Lily asked, her voice soft.

“Body, Mind, Soul, Metal, and Wyld,” Leo said.

“Not even an Elemental magic among them,” Lily muttered, then, louder, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

That was the question Leo had dreaded. “Well, you never asked, and honestly, I thought it might upset you if I had five magics. You’ve seemed touchy about your status once or twice.”

Lily frowned. “I’m not touchy about my status, just aware of it and the burdens it entails. Also, Hugh said you came from a nonmagical world. Was that a lie?”

“No, absolute truth. There is literally, one hundred percent totally, no magic on my world.” He shrugged afterward.

“So you really are a dirt grubber?”

“No. We have extremely advanced versions of what this world calls the ‘Natural Sciences.’ We have carriages that move themselves through mechanical and”—there’s no word for ‘chemical’ in Middle Averian—“alchemical means. I was an expert in two separate forms of those natural sciences, which is why I am so educated. But not an ounce of magic, I promise. Also, as much as I’d love to discuss all that, we really, really need to complete this quest. I’m going to weaken my build just to pull it off, so let’s get that done, okay?”

Lily hesitated but nodded. “Very well. But afterward, I want to question you about your world and knowledge extensively. I’m sure the reborn Kingdom of Averia could benefit, and I confess a burning scholar’s passion as well.”

“Heh, I knew it,” Hugh said. “Always thinking about breeding.”

“Scholar’s passion, you filthy-minded wyrm.” Lily’s cheeks heated. She glanced at Leo and, when their eyes met, immediately glanced away again.

“I’m just yanking your chain.” Hugh laughed. “Shall we go see how many times Leo has to get cut up and heal to get us to the vault? I mean, he does owe you for not telling you about his magics, right?”

Dammit, Hugh.

***

The answer, it turned out, was nine. Nine fights that wounded Leo, and another eight he emerged unscathed from. They were all with lesser creatures, and Leo was still a touch short of Level Five despite a whole host of things dying by his blade.

Glad the answer wasn’t forty-two, Leo quipped to himself as he lay on the ground a few hours later, resting up from the latest fight and waiting for Hugh to return from a quick scouting run. He had a single essence left, thanks to healing and his earlier uses of analyze—although he had learned the normal essence recovery rate was twelve per day. They were waiting here for him to regain a second essence so he would have a single use of regeneration during the fight.

They had delved quite deep on the path to the vault. Lily knew the routes to take, or claimed she did, but without her, Leo would have been lost forever. The undercity was massive, and the Ancient Ones had used twisting, organic paths, like a huge rabbit’s warren, for their city. There wasn’t any organization that Leo could figure out.

Audrey and I could spend forever trying to figure out the logic of this species, just as a mental exercise. Although I’m starting to sense Lily might have enjoyed the puzzle right beside us.

Leo turned sideways to Lily. “For the record, when you’re the queen, you should build a new vault, even if it has less magical juju. No amount of protection can be worth this trek.”

Lily was exhausted as well. She was almost without essence, despite making Level Four and spending even more points into Capacity. Not to mention she had the weaker Stamina and Toughness of the elves. Her face was lined with exhaustion and covered in sweat and dirt. Her metallic silver hair was caked to her face and shoulders as she sat against a wall beside Leo, and her blue eyes were dull.

Lily sighed. “If you’d have said that a few hours ago, I would have laughed at you, but I’m starting to perceive your plan’s merit.”

“Merit, yes, merit!” Leo said in a deranged voice, then laughed at his own joke.

Lily’s eyes widened, and she stared at him, communicating that he was, in fact, insane.

“Sorry, reference to something from my childhood.”

Hugh came crawling back down a set of stairs into the room.

“So, good news, bad news. I found the vault we want, but there’s a fifteen-foot golem, made of iron, guarding the door.”

“It won’t attack us,” Lily said. “It was put there to guard the royal family’s vault and discourage trespassers.”

“It has a red glow about it, and I smelled incense.”

Lily said something very unladylike, and Leo blinked before chuckling.

“So, anyone know how to fight a golem?” Leo asked. “Because if it’s corrupted, it’ll likely attack us.”

“Most golems have extremely high resistances,” Lily said. “They’re basically just living suits of armor. This one isn’t any different. It’ll be near invulnerable, but it’ll be slow. That’s the only advantage we’ll have.”

Hugh snorted, his scales on end. “Let me guess. We still can’t retreat?”

“You’re learning,” Leo said in a saccharine voice. He stood up just to pat Hugh on his head. Then he glanced down at Lily. “On a more serious note, I got that second essence.”

Lily met his eyes. “Same here. One regeneration each is now available.”

“Joy,” Hugh said.

Lily struggled to her feet beside Leo and dropped the magic sword in the dress-fragment sling over her shoulder again. “Well, shall we?”

Leo nodded. Hugh slowly turned back to the stairs.

They climbed the stairway and passed through a small tunnel. Hugh led the way as they exited into the underground city, like something out of a fantasy. The central plaza was wildly cracked, small fragments of stone over a dirt-filled cavern, and a few mushrooms of bizarre appearance grew in the cracks. A single fifty-foot statue in the center, of a reptilian upper body on top of a giant snake tail, held a glowing orb aloft, providing light to the entire cavern. The tail was fractured and damaged, and the statue teetered dangerously.

The outer ring of the city was clearly comprised of shop fronts, most shattered. The few that remained were impressive in disturbing ways. Skull motifs, lizard-people, and depictions of sacrifices were common, and most of the statues had domineering purposes—lizard-folk towering over or slaying other races.

At the far end, almost dead across the cavern from Leo, stood a large structure of melted black stone, similar to obsidian, flush against the cavern wall. In front of it was the fifteen-foot-tall statue Hugh had seen. It was made of iron, but it glowed red ever so slightly. The color didn’t imply heat—there was something sickly about it. The same glow Leo had seen in the depths of the Demon Scar ravine.

Leo strode forward. “Stick and move, people. I’m going to try to engage its attention, since I think this is the one time Hugh’s armor won’t help much. Rely on speed as much as possible. A hit could finish any one of us.”

Leo picked his way forward across the ruined plaza, sword held at his side. He walked up to the golem, prepared. When he came within about fifty feet of it, the golem lurched to life, heading for him.

“Look alive!” Leo yelled.

“I wasn’t about to play dead,” Hugh muttered, moving to the side as Leo strode forward.

The golem lifted its arm ponderously and swung down at Leo. He leapt to the side, easily dodging. But the blow to the ground was so hard, the ground reverberated from the golems strike, and Leo tripped on a shattered paving stone.

How do I fight this thing?

He rolled, easily getting to his feet as the giant golem raised itself again. He rushed in and smashed his sword against the creature’s shin. His only reward was a sword that vibrated so hard, he hurt his hands and almost dropped it. The leg rose, gears inside the knee joint spinning.

Crap!

The creature shifted its leg sideways, and Leo tried to jump back again. The leg clipped his left arm as he jumped back, spinning Leo around. Leo’s whole arm went numb from the blow, and he rolled across the floor. His notification informed him of his penalties and four damage.

Hugh rushed the statue from behind, slamming into it while it was on one leg. The statue went down with a thundering crash.

But it started to get up again. Hugh bit and clawed at it, obviously going full strength, to no avail.

We are way underleveled for this fight, Leo thought, and unprepared. I should have listened to Hugh.

Leo pushed essence into regeneration, and his arm began healing. He rushed back into the fight, turning his sword straight down and stabbing it into the foot of the massive statue, using every ounce of power his newly strengthened elven body could muster.

The sword skidded out of his hands, shooting off to the side. Technically, he had scratched the golem—a tiny groove, barely more than enough to make the metal shiny again rather than dull with age.

Okay, we’ve moved from ‘underprepared’ to well and truly boned.

Leo leapt aside just as the gears in the knee turned, and the kick missed him.

Hugh charged back toward the golem, but it was prepared. Its fist came down just as the dragon rushed it.

Leo screamed, “No!” as the blow crashed down. It was just a touch slow and caught one of Hugh’s hind legs as he rushed in. Hugh screamed as his hind claw was pulped.

Leo grabbed his sword, his mind rushing, as the gears in the creature’s leg started to turn again.

Wait, gears in the leg—Lily said magic items don’t decay! Maybe they’re damage resistant as well!

Even as the machine pivoted, Leo ran up, praying to whatever gods were listening that his body’s Agility would be enough. He aimed the sword at the golem’s leg joint, altering the speed of his strike just so, and rammed the sword into the knee, sticking it through a hole in one gear.

With a horrible screech of metal, the statue’s leg ground to a halt, unable to bend in any direction, and its attempt to smash Hugh turned into a faltering crash to the ground. Hugh squealed at an octave Leo didn’t think the dragon could reach as he barely dodged to the side, tumbling as the ground shook from the crash.

Lily rushed over and placed her hands on Hugh, whose foot began inflating, a notably gross sight.

But Leo was distracted with the next move in his game against this foe that wildly outmatched him. He rushed over, ripped Hugh’s sword from Lily’s back to her yelp of surprise, and turned, charging to the golem as it tried to rise. As it did, Leo aimed for the other leg and slammed Hugh’s sword through the gears of that one.

The golem’s leg stopped working, and it crashed back to the ground again.

But it swung out with its arm. Leo was off-balance and took the blow. It hit like a Mack Truck on Leo’s left side. He went careening back across the ground, eight health of ten gone. His ribs were broken, his left arm shattered, and his left leg was also twisted in an unnatural way.

Wiping dust and blood from his face, Leo struggled to his feet as the golem tried to struggle to its own. As Leo hobbled backward, away from the golem, it gave up its attempts to stand and yanked itself along the ground after Leo. The horrible screeching as it dragged its metal body across the broken stone was nearly an attack in and of itself. Hugh ran up, grabbed a loose cobblestone, and smashed it down on the creature after winding up the attack from deep in left field, but it still did nothing.

How the hell do I defeat this Tolkien-style terminator? Terrible fear joined the pain to nearly paralyze Leo. The thing is freaking invulnerable, and it won’t stop!

Even as he hobbled backward, his leg screaming in pain, Leo desperately cast his eyes around, seeking salvation. Lily watched with wide eyes, her hands clasped in front of her, silently mouthing “no” over and over. Hugh was desperately, but ineffectually, trying to smash the golem, which now seemed purely focused on Leo. The giant statue, the shattered stone houses, the broken ground…

Leo flared with hope. Physics. It always comes down to physics or chemistry, ultimately, when you want to destroy something. This time, it’s physics.

Leo changed directions slightly as he continued to limp backward. “Leave off it, Hugh, and head to the center of the cavern!”

Leo pointed.

Hugh’s eyes fixated on Leo for a second before he bared his teeth and ran toward where Leo had directed him, his tail swishing violently behind him.

The iron monstrosity continued to haul itself forward, and Leo continued to slowly walk himself backward. Finally, he bumped up against the foot of the giant statue of the snake person.

“Now, Hugh, push it over!”

Leo couldn’t see what happened, but a resounding crash and crack told him that Hugh had done what had been needed. Leo leapt to the side as the giant, fifty-foot-tall statue fell—its outstretched arm, torso, and head on a collision course with the golem.

The world shook as the statue slammed down through the golem, the magical, glowing orb in its hand spearheading its plunge. Dust and rock exploded everywhere, and the cavern plunged into near darkness, only a few beams of dim light emanating from the body of the golem, where the arm of the statue was now buried. Then the arm cracked, and the rest of the statue crashed down on the golem, burying it and the light source entirely.

The experience notification box gave Leo a whopping eight hundred and thirty-two experience, pushing him up two levels.

The world settled into a calmness that seemed unnatural after the thunder of a moment before.

Leo sneezed as the dust swirled around him.

“By Merdrek’s scaly prick!” Hugh screamed from behind Leo. “You’re a freaking avatar of battle! I just made two levels! Two! That thing was so far above us we should’ve been meat paste, and you murdered it like it was nothing!”

Leo just about peed himself at Hugh’s surprise outburst, but he managed to smile. Although his two remaining health—and constant state of agony—told him it hadn’t been ‘nothing.’

“I might just have an affinity for this stuff,” Leo said, absurdly pleased with himself despite the pain radiating from half his body.

A small pool of light approached, and Lily came out of the darkness, her lantern shining.

She smiled at him, her blue eyes shining near to matching the lantern. “It was an impressive victory. I mean, I’m impressed. Just so, extremely, impressed.”

“Are you sure you’re impressed?” Hugh joked. “I couldn’t tell from that little speech.”

Lily ignored him, smiling at Leo. “Shall we go claim our reward?”

“Yes!” Hugh cried out. “Dragon needs a new hoard!”

“I’m going to take Capacity again for my level stat. Shall I use it to heal you?”

Leo nodded so hard, he worried he might cost himself another health.

Chapter Sixteen

In Which Leo Screws Up a Coronation

Leo limped up to the smooth black stone of the vault, his gait straightening as Lily’s regeneration took effect. His two companions followed until they reached the vault as well.

Leo stared at stone wall in front of him. “So, um, how do we get in?”

Lily smiled at him. Her posture was slightly slumped from exhaustion, she wore a near-shredded dress, and every inch of her was covered in dust, even her metallic silver hair faded with its coat of grime. But her blue eyes twinkled at him.

She reached out, putting her hand on his shoulder—his undamaged right shoulder—and spoke to him formally in High Averian. “In the companionable tone, to one’s deepest friend: Thank you for your support: without which I would fall. I can take it from here: burden rightly passed. You have fulfilled your promise: respect, admiration.”

“What did she say?” Hugh asked.

“‘Thanks, I’ve got this now.’”

Lily smiled a small smile and switched back to Middle Averian. “I suppose I did, but far more poetically.”

“Oooh,” Hugh said sarcastically, but it wasn’t accompanied by his usual rambunctious gestures.

They were all tired, drained of stamina and will by the hours’ long fight to get to this place.

“I shouldn’t look like this.” Lily ran her hand across her front.

As her hand passed over her body, everything changed. Her dress became untorn and clean, her hair formed into a beautiful getup, and her face was covered in makeup. No dirt, no smudge, could be seen anywhere.

She was even more beautiful than before.

“What did you do?” Leo asked.

“I took personal dweomer as my ability, an illusion-based Mind ability to change my own appearance and clothes at will. So I may become queen in appropriate style—and not gross and near naked in this shredded dress.”

Lily walked up to the wall, stared at it for a moment, and then pressed her palm against it.

Leo could tell the magic around them had twisted, although the sensation was so new, he wasn’t certain what had happened. But something had.

Lily backed away from the wall, her new dress swishing around her ankles.

After a moment, a gently glowing golden light appeared where she had been standing. The light twisted in the air until it took shape. It took a moment for Leo to really see, as the figure glowed, but he was looking at an elf. The elf was younger, appearing in his early thirties to Leo, although Leo didn’t know how much that was in elf years. He had long hair and a sad face, weathered in worry lines despite his young age.

The ghost spoke in a voice that sounded soft and intelligent. Leo gave eighty percent of his attention to the ghostly elf and twenty percent to the fascinating question of how a light could make sound.

“Who asks to claim the Vault of Kings for themselves?” the voice intoned.

Rapidly heating the air as a laser, maybe? To expand it and create vibrations? Nah, you’re being an idiot, Leo.

Lily stepped forward, once again speaking in High Averian. “In the noble tone, petitioning the highest: I, Lilianae Kuvella ap Willowynd, sole surviving daughter of Duke Iloran Willowynd: may his soul find peace. I ask, as the closest living blood relative of you, the old king: sorrow at his passing: to be permitted entrance to this vault: My claim is rightful.”

Leo laughed that High Averian didn’t have a natural way to tell a ghost, ‘sorrow at your passing,’ and then wondered why he was so scattered all of a sudden. Maybe because it’s all over, and we’ve won?

The ghost—if that was what it was—spoke in a ringing voice. “Denied! Your blood is impure. You are not a relative of the one who created me.”

Okay, more like a recording, then, Leo observed, if it was created by the original, and isn’t a ghost.

The ‘ghost’ winked from existence, plunging them back into the dim light of Lily’s lantern.

She collapsed to her knees on the broken stone floor. She hung her head and stared at the ground.

“After all that, we failed,” Lily whispered. “Sis was right—my plan was stupid. I lost everyone, and at the end, I have nothing to show for it. The blood of Stardew is too watered down, and Averia is truly dead.”

Stardew? What?

“No!” Hugh said. “No, no, no! I need a hoard. Leo stuck my sword inside a golem that’s buried under tons of rubble. I have nothing again. Polly will laugh at me!”

Leo pulled up his status sheet and stared at his perk: Line of Stardew. Stardew!

Lily turned to Hugh and spit out, “Uh, have some perspective! My whole kingdom dies with my failure, and all those Imperium nobles who mocked me are correct in their mockery now. How does your stupid hoard even compare?!”

“What did you say?” Leo asked, still dazed.

The pieces cascaded into his mind in a fraction of a second. It all makes sense! An elf summoned me, two days before I found Lily! And Lily said her sister was following an alternative plan to save the Kingdom of Averia! The body I inherited was from the Stardew line!

Leo winced as the pieces kept falling into place. And she said her sister died the same day I was summoned. Damn, damn, damn. That’s not going to go over well… I wonder if Audrey got the body or if that elf simply died at the orcs’s hands—or from the explosion I kinda set off. Frick!

“I told Hugh here that he shouldn’t compare his loss to the elves’.” Lily sulked.

“Not that part, before.”

“I failed, and the kingdom is going to die?” Some of the loss was leaving Lily’s voice as her brow furrowed and she pursed her lips.

“Because you don’t have enough Stardew blood?”

“Of course. It’s the blood of the royal line.”

Yup. I foresee just thousands of issues… but at least we might still succeed here.

Leo coughed. “So, um, I think this body is of the Stardew line.”

“What?” Lily asked, her voice low and tight. “What do you mean, ‘this body’?”

“The body I inherited when I was summoned here, the one they stuffed me into. Some guy got on an altar, and then my soul was sucked from my old body and placed inside this one.”

Lily’s eyes were so wide that Leo thought she might go full anime. Her hands were hooked into claws and shaking, and her face was as white as a sheet. “Someone… Someone summoned you into a body? They didn’t bring your body through a gate?”

“No, I was brought here against my will—well, kinda—and put into this body. My body died.”

“What did that person look like?” Lily asked quietly as she stood, facing Leo.

“Um, a woman a bit into adulthood, obviously an elf. Uh, slender even for an elf but slightly buxom, metallic bronze hair, pale skin, gray-brown eyes…”

“Wylla,” Lily said, and a tear leaked from her own eye.

“What?”

“Leuwyllan ‘Wylla’ Ivothine ap Willowynd, my elder sister,” Lily said. “You just described her. She said she wanted to summon a champion to be the new king. You. She wanted to summon you to be the new king. How is it we met? How did she summon you?”

“Wait, you’re the elves’ new champion?” Hugh asked, his tail swishing around again. “You’re the one who’s supposed to rebuild this kingdom?”

Leo ignored Hugh and answered Lily. “It was some great temple inside a cave, with these statues of a six-armed human all about. This body lay down on an altar, and my soul was sucked out and into it. When I came to, we were in a fight with a bunch of orcs, including this huge, nine-foot orc with a crazy mouth—he had four pincers surrounding it.”

Lily interjected, her voice tight. “Kravahk Rockbreaker, son of Grakith Demonborn.”

“Sure, great to put a name to an extremely ugly face. The upshot is, the elves were being slaughtered. I helped fight back, accomplishing almost nothing. But the big orc, while fighting me, knocked a crystal onto the ritual lines. The crystal that was supposedly powering the whole ritual. Your sister called it ‘Asnandi’s Key’—”

Lily gasped.

“—and when it hit, the ritual went crazy. The portal expanded, a lot more souls were pulled in from where they had summoned me, and then purple fire washed across everything. I appeared in the forest north of Calasti, east of the Blue River.”

“You were summoned to Asnandi’s high temple on this continent, the heart of her power. The temple at the top of the Kivrelti Mountains, a thousand miles from here,” Lily said.

“All right?” Leo said, half a question, not sure what she was getting at.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Lily cried out, and slammed her fist onto his chest. “Why?”

“I didn’t know! I had no idea what any of that meant. I come from a different dimension, a different body. I knew nothing of magic, or this world’s history. I didn’t know! I remind you we’ve known each other for thirty-six hours. It’s been an intense thirty-six hours, I concede, but still—thirty-six hours. We haven’t exactly had time to exchange stories.”

“Too busy murdering our way through levels,” Hugh interjected. “Besides, does it matter? I mean, he’s here now, and if he has the perk, surely that’ll count to open up the vault? Then we all get what we want.”

Lily hugged herself. “Maybe. I have the feeling Wylla’s plan is about to trump mine. She never confided to me what was in the vault, and she always advocated getting a champion. But she never explained how! She must have always had Asnandi’s Key. It makes so much sense now!”

“What’s Asnandi’s Key?” Leo asked.

“It’s the primary artifact of the god of portals. It lets her do things with summoning that are near impossible otherwise. That’s certainly how she found your soul and fused it with some long-lost heir to the throne, one I didn’t even know about!” Lily’s whole body was shaking now. “I just don’t understand why she did that!”

Leo frowned. “Hey, I’m sorry. But we can likely still win now, right? Like Hugh said? That’s a good thing…”

Lily calmed a bit. “I feel betrayed. Betrayed a bit by you—if you’d even talked to me about your perks, we would have known this before. But betrayed more by my sister! Why didn’t she confide in me?! She was hiding an heir and an artifact. Maybe if she’d shared, I would have supported her plan, even though I thought one of us should be queen instead of some summoned champion ruling.”

Leo wondered about that as well. What had possessed her to keep those secrets?

“What else did you bring to the table, Leo?” Lily asked. “Why were you summoned? What did my sister think she was accomplishing? I want to know!”

“Can we do this after the vault?” Hugh asked. He swished his tail. “Please? I want to know if this whole thing has been worth it.”

Leo glanced over at Hugh and smiled, despite the tense situation. “You’re Level Seven, Hugh. You’ve got three abilities to pick, as well as stats. Things your peers don’t have. It was worth it for you even if we walk out with nothing.”

“Still, c’mon, please?” Hugh whined, stretching his head out and batting his eyes at Leo. “You guys will have a long time to talk this stuff over. I mean, mortal long. You know what I’m saying.”

“Might as well test it,” Lily said, waving her arm at the wall in irritation and then flicking her now impossibly clean silver hair from her equally spotless face.

Leo approached the wall, spreading his fingers like he had seen Lily do, and placed his hand against it.

Magic hummed through the wall, a magic far more intense than anything he had experienced here, even the golem. He was almost shocked—through a sense he didn’t have words for yet—by the power.

He stepped back. He looked forward to learning the name of that new sense.

The elven ghost formed, just as regal as before.

“Who asks to claim the Vault of Kings for themselves?” the ghost asked.

“Um, I, Leo—never Leonard, that’s my dad—Evans.”

Leo heard flesh striking flesh and was pretty sure Lily had just facepalmed, but he didn’t turn around.

All right, I probably shouldn’t have included my disclaimer about my dad. And maybe I should have used my full name… Still, it’s a dead guy!

The ghost, or magical recording or whatever, reached down and touched Leo. “See.”

Leo saw.

***

Leo saw Calasti as it had been before its ruin—somehow, he knew this was almost a thousand years ago. It was a bustling medieval city of millions, its metropolitan port filled with ships and trade. A kingdom that stretched across most of the Inner Sea and up the Blue River almost to the Ten Lakes. Wealth, prosperity, happiness, culture, and a sense of security—this kingdom had provided it all.

It even managed to set up trade and alliances with kingdoms on other dimensions, but without a gate, these were barely more than mere formalities. But powerful beings from more magical dimensions looked on with favor at the kingdom.

Then he saw the ruin, a slow, creeping thing. Decadence first, hollowing out the inventive and industrious culture. Then the goblin raids on allies, whose pleas for help went unanswered. Rich nobles complained as supplies of goods dried up—but never once for the loss of valued sister-states, fighting every effort to rally them to the cause of expelling the Blood Tribes.

Then the first border cities were lost, and the rulers still fiddled. Only near the end, when King Calida Stardew had risen to the throne, did the elves begin to fight back in earnest. And even then, many refused or dithered. At that point, however, generations of orc and goblin warriors had grown strong on war, and their lairs were everywhere, like ticks embedded in the kingdom.

The king desperately searched for a way to save his kingdom. Calida and his greatest imbuers, along with powerful beings from deeper dimensions, worked feverishly to craft an item that would link Toth directly to other dimensions, where the only remaining allies the kingdom had left were.

Leo’s attention was drawn to a seemingly minor event. The king had a bastard child, the result of a single night when he’d been weak from stress and given in with a comely maid, just the one time. A child who was sent out of the city, to live in secret in the city of Lakusi, the Lakeside City, in the Havi Imperium, an indiscretion quickly forgotten in the press of greater matters.

Then came Grakith Demonborn. He was an orc with the lineage of a being from the Blood Abyss, and he was both powerful and able to exist on Toth without suffering decay from the world’s weaker magic. He unified the tribes, turning a diffuse threat into a massive hoard, and invaded the kingdom proper.

Through the use of Asnandi’s Key—the same one that had been used to bring Leo forth—and high-level magic, Grakith ripped open a portal to the Blood Abyss just north of the city and stabilized it with a gate. Beings of immense power—demons—joined the war.

The king, Calida, with his greatest champions and most of the armies, sallied forth to fight him. The king and his armies shattered the gate and took Asnandi’s Key, but it cost them almost their entire army—high elves, ghost wolves, sun eagles, dryads, and a few other mortals and magical beasts dying by the tens of thousands that day.

The king, deeply wounded and infected with abyssal corruption, retreated to the castle in Calasti. He gave Asnandi’s Key to his greatest imbuers, including young Wylla Willowynd, and shortly thereafter they in turn presented him with an item—the Yggdrasil Seed, a living artifact for which there was no compare on this world of Toth. It would become not one gate, but tens and then hundreds of them, if bonded to the right person.

But the king was not the right person. The seed was not completed, not quite. It needed a soul, a soul that was a natural magic soul, to unify with. And when the tree grew, the soul would need to grow as well, becoming arcane. And maybe beyond even that. With a heavy heart, Calida agreed that if they could find such a person, and that person was an ethically decent mortal, he would cede his throne for the sake of his people.

Charts and concepts flooded Leo’s mind—how the seed would be guided as it grew, and how it would provide power to its bonded soul. But also of how rare a natural magic soul was—usually less than one per continent. One that could also become arcane was nearly impossible to find. One that could complete the trifecta of all three of the arcane was literally impossible for an elf with three perks as the maximum. They had to cheat to find such a soul. They began looking through dimensions using Asnandi’s Key, to find a person—or a soul that could be bonded.

If they could find this soul, the kingdom would receive allies to save it from other dimensions. And then grow and thrive beyond anything it had seen before.

But it took time. King Calida stored the Yggdrasil Seed in his line’s greatest vault, safe from anyone not of his family, until they could find their new champion.

Then the magic flared, and a dragonflight was born. The once-oppressed storm dragons of the Blue Lands flew across the kingdom, destroying it in a week of terror. The king himself was caught in his castle, with mere minutes of warning. Knowing Chao was coming for him to avenge slights to his own line and children, the king gave Wylla Asnandi’s Key, and the secret of the king’s bastard child… and a willingly accepted geas to keep her from revealing the plan and details to anyone, even if they tried to magically compel her—a final protection to keep the tree from the dragons or the orcs. Wylla fled into the night as the king challenged Chao, and she watched from outside the city through magics as the dragon killed the king and the kingdom suffered its death knell. Wylla knew her purpose was to find a new king, one worthy to bond with the tree and lead them all to renewed glory.

The king himself faced death, tired and nearly despairing, but with one tiny hope—that Wylla could still complete the plan and save all his people by giving them a stronger new king.

The one tiny upside was that the disunified orcs and goblins of the Blood Tribes were pushed from the lands as well, back to the swamps they had come from. The heart of the Kingdom of Averia quickly became a land exclusively for dragons and beasts, its once proud people dead, fled, or enslaved.

***

Leo snapped back to himself, and to the glowing figure in front of him.

The magical echo of the old king, the last remnant trapped in the vault, spoke. “Did you see? Did you understand?”

The remnant’s voice was raw with desperation and hunger. The old king had desperately wanted to save his kingdom and people.

“I did, and I do,” Leo said.

“Will you accept the quest? Will you plant the seed and rebuild the kingdom?”

“Do I have to in order to enter the vault?” Leo asked.

“No,” the echo of the old king said, his voice a defeated whisper.

“But only I can use the seed?” Leo asked. “If I don’t do it, no one will?”

“The chance of another suited to the seed coming along is infinitesimally small,” the old king’s echo said, the hope in his voice renewed. “You must be the one, Leo-Never-Leonard-Evans. Someone else could, perhaps, rebuild the kingdom, but only you can truly lead it to greatness through the seed! No one else has the chance you do. You must be the next king! I implore you!”

Leo glanced at Lily. She had red spots high on her cheeks. After a moment, however, she turned to him as well. “I wanted to be queen, but I see it’s not in the cards. No wonder Sis didn’t like my plan…”

Lily’s soft blue eyes stared deep into his. “Will you stay, Leo, and rebuild Averia with me, now as its king?”

Leo thought. He had wanted to matter, and more, to show his ex-wife, his parents, Audrey, and the rest of the world that he mattered. It was still mere days from the time he had disappeared, and perhaps he could make it back. But as far as duty went, his only duty, arguably, was to Audrey, and she was either here, in Wylla’s body, or dead.

And if he wanted to make a difference in the world… he’d never have a better chance than the one here. Decision crystalized, a decision he’d been toying with since his first level regardless.

“I will, Lily. I always wanted to build, and this is certainly that. I’ll reforge the kingdom and build it to heights never before seen, however long that takes me. Or die trying. You have my word. Although your kingdom made choices I think ethically questionable, and I will seek to guide it down other paths. Slavery as the easiest ethically questionable choice I will be saying no to. No genocide against sapient species with the capacity for good either.”

Lily smiled. “I can accept those terms. Together, then.”

He nodded and stepped toward the vault. A door formed and let him in, the obsidian surface simply melting away. As he passed into the vault, the ghost of the king disappeared, that magic dissipating. At the same time, magic washed over him, and he became the new owner of the vault.

The entire vault was empty but for four things. Three were scrolls, each inside a crystal case.

The last was the seed. It was the size of Leo’s head, and when he stared at it, it was like looking into Asnandi’s Key. Leo saw other realms, fantastical things, like worlds where it rained fire, and forests of thousand-foot trees, before he tore his eyes away. The power of the seed washed over him—incredible, bizarre magic that warped space at the edges of his vision.

“Well, we’ve a lot to do,” Leo said. “Shall we?”

Interlude One

The Dark Design

Kruegar hated his new body. But it did have its advantages over his old body.

He rubbed at his bizarre new face, feeling his four small tusks. Not the least is the lack of those damnable scars. Although these hideous protrusions are hardly an improvement.

He stood in the middle of an arena, the center battle area filled with nothing but stinking muck. With a sigh, Kruegar splashed forward and dodged the wild swing of his new body’s half brother, Tusk. Then Kruegar grabbed the orc by the throat.

With ease, Kruegar lifted Tusk off the ground. His tight grip cut off Tusk’s squeals. When Tusk attempted to swing his sword, Kruegar grabbed his wrist, stopping the attack. Damn, my new hands are huge.

Kruegar kept raising Tusk, the ridiculous muscles of Kruegar’s arm bunching until the seven-foot-tall orc’s face was mere inches from his own, even though he towered over his opponent at nine feet himself. Kruegar’s four tusks widened like he was the predator, a weird sensation as he now had a hinged and segmented jaw, and he showed his teeth to his opponent.

His skin was the same green gray as his opponent, and they both had bristly, thick black hair—Kruegar’s cut short, and Tusk’s in an ugly braid down his back.

Tusk dropped his sword into the sludge at Kruegar’s feet. The sound of it hitting the mud was lost in the cheering of the orcs in the cheap wooden stands. It was like they were in some demented underground fighting ring, only this was aboveground in a fetid swamp.

Rather than finishing Tusk off, Kruegar slammed him onto the ground. When Tusk tried to rise, Kruegar stomped down hard, heel first, breaking the leg of the now-screaming orc.

Then Kruegar squatted and grabbed his opponent’s head by his stupid black warrior braid, lifting his face off the ground.

“I’m the chief, brother?” Kruegar asked.

Tusk frantically nodded. Normally, the cost of losing these contests was death, Kruegar had learned.

“Then say it, you fucking worm. Scream it to the stands.”

Tusk did, opening his mouth wide and shouting. “My brother, Kravahk, is chief! He’s chief!”

“Good, very good,” Kruegar said as Tusk screamed the name of his new body to the stands.

“I can live?” Tusk whimpered.

Kruegar briefly remembered whimpering beneath the belt of the headmistress at the orphanage, and was tempted—but he knew safety for him and his true brothers would only be achieved through power. He would make it quick.

“Of course not,” Kruegar growled. He slammed his hand down on Tusk’s throat, crushing his windpipe. Then he dropped Tusk into the mire and watched as he struggled to breathe, Tusk grasping at his broken throat as it swelled shut.

Tusk had a lot of Toughness and Endurance, and it took him almost ten minutes to asphyxiate to death—a long, terrible, agonizing process, from the looks of it. A death barbaric and gruesome enough to dissuade anyone else from challenging him in the near future, Kruegar hoped.

Not that they would get a fair fight, either, but best not to take chances.

Liam, his friend from Earth, walked through the mire of the arena to stand at Kruegar’s side. Unlike Kruegar, who had been shoved into an orc body, Liam had become a short green goblin, an Entropy and Eclipse wielder.

Liam was about four-and-a-half-feet tall, which, next to Kruegar’s new nine-foot form, was like a three-foot toddler next to a six-foot adult. It was hard to take him seriously.

With a gnarled staff in both hands, Liam craned his neck back to meet Kruegar’s gaze. “I declare, in the eyes of Ikrahkt the Warlord, god of orcs, that Kravahk Rockbreaker is the chieftain of the Kelz Tribe!”

Liam had needed to research for a bit, but he had figured out how an orc became the new chieftain. A challenge, overseen by the shaman. Who was Kruegar’s minion, Liam, which was extremely convenient.

Liam had poisoned the ex-chief’s meal before the contest, and used his Eclipse magic to conceal the notification from him. Also convenient. Liam wasn’t the brightest, unfortunately, but he had been by Kruegar’s side for years, and he did have a sort of low cunning.

“I take the name Kruegar in light of this victory!” Kruegar bellowed to the silence from the stands. “Kruegar Bloodhands! And this will be but my first victory! We will reap the world together!”

That got cheers.

Kruegar turned to Liam. “When this farce is over, get me a meeting with the Laktur Tribe’s chieftain. They’re weak, and I think we can threaten them into joining us against others.”

Liam nodded—he had seen Kruegar’s work before, on the streets and in the boardrooms along the West Coast of America. Kruegar figured the little bastard knew where this was going, at least in broad outline.

He continued. “We need to gather enough tribes to take that city, Port Yuval, as our new headquarters. It’s insane the orcs don’t rule everything. There are a huge number, and they breed fast, and they’re insanely strong and tough. Port Yuval will give us ships, mobility, access to the slave markets and the black market… everything we need to rebuild our old organization a thousand times better here, on this new world.”

Liam nodded again. “I’ll be sure to look for other opportunities as well.”

“Sure, Liam. Just make sure you get the main mission done—you have to admit you have a tendency to get distracted.”

Liam nodded sheepishly.

Kruegar continued, “Don’t get cute, brother. And have Jeremy bring me the new slave before you go, okay?”

Liam nodded and headed out.

Kruegar stomped back to his yurt, pushing aside the animal-skin flap and entering his musty ‘home.’ A mostly naked elf slave, covered in bruises, stared at him in fear as he walked over, and she scrambled back into the corner of the tent. Still within reach, since his tent was small, but as far away from him as she could get.

He moved over to a wooden chest at the foot of his sleeping furs, pulled out a key on a chain around his neck, and unlocked it.

Inside, he stared at what he was pretty sure was his most prized possession. A purple ball, like a glowing sphere of energy, that showed him flashes of impossible worlds when he gazed upon it. Asnandi’s Key, he had been told. But no one knew how to operate the blasted thing, which had a small crack in it.

The purple fire that had teleported everyone else hundreds of miles, or more, had only teleported Kruegar to the base of the mountain. Fortunately, another orc had appeared with him. His body had retained skill and language memory, but not event memory. Kruegar had needed to ask the orc quite a few questions to understand this world. Afterward, he had beaten the orc to death, to make sure his secret remained safe.

Kruegar and three of his men had made it back from that cursed night to the orc’s camp, after Leo had managed to trigger the explosion of purple fire. The other two were still missing or dead. And Kruegar would never forgive Leo for that.

The six of them had been together since they found each other on the mean streets of LA, and through gun battles, botched jobs, and even a few tours inside after early convictions, before Kruegar had gotten very good at his job. Not one of them lost.

Kruegar, Liam, Jeremy, and Victor had made it. Jason and Hector… hadn’t. He wasn’t sure if they were dead, teleported too far, or their souls were lost. But whatever the situation, Leo was to blame. And Kruegar wasn’t going to let him live that one down.

He wasn’t fond of that dumb bitch, Audrey, either. But she was his secondary goal.

But the orc had told him about the Key—the primary artifact of a god, apparently. And one that might hold the secrets of where his last two men were. So Kruegar had climbed the mountain and gotten it again. As well as looted the temple of a fair amount of other treasure, which he had plans for once he had access to real markets again.

“I’m coming in!” an orc voice called.

Damn. I can never tell these people apart. I’ll just avoid using their names for the time being.

Except Kruegar instantly recognized the orc who entered—it was the one inhabited by Jeremy Forge, his brother from Earth.

Jeremy pulled an elf through the tent flap after him, a female elf with metallic copper hair and large brown eyes. She struggled as she was yanked into the tent, and her eyes briefly flashed to the furs around Kruegar’s waist. She obviously knew the reason most slaves were brought to Kruegar’s chambers.

I have far better uses for you than that, elf.

“Thank you for handling that, Jeremy,” Kruegar said. “Now I need to start the process of finding our lost brothers.”

Jeremy nodded and moved back against the tent wall, still holding the rope around the elf’s wrists. Kruegar pulled a mace off his belt and walked up to the elven woman. She shuddered, pulling as far away from Kruegar as the ropes would allow.

“You’re Melifluer Moontear?” Kruegar asked. “The researcher?”

The elf glanced around, never meeting Kruegar’s eyes, and then nodded.

“You know about Asnandi’s Key?” Kruegar asked.

Melifluer shook her head no.

Kruegar lashed out with the mace, exploding the head of the kneeling elf slave near him. He dismissed the ‘1 XP, rounded up’ notification as Melifluer screamed. Jeremy grimaced, but he didn’t budge. He knew no fantasy bitch was worth his brothers.

“Why?” Melifluer said, tears running down her cheeks as she recovered from the outright shock. “Why would you do that? Celi was a good woman, gentle and kind…”

“A bed slave is replaceable,” Kruegar said, pressing his tusked gray face an inch from hers, watching the tears fall down her face. “But my brothers aren’t. Your knowledge is rare. I have my goal, and now, deep in your soul, you know the penalty for lying to me to prevent me from achieving it.”

Kruegar pulled back and looked at Jeremy. “Bring me another elf.”

Jeremy stared at the blood splatter in the room for a moment. Then he slowly nodded. “Yeah. All right, Chief.” He handed the ropes tied to the elf’s wrists to Kruegar. Then he exited the tent with a shake of his head and a muttered, “Damn, man.”

Once gone, Kruegar returned his glare to the elf.

“Now, little elf, you’ll tell me everything you know about Asnandi’s Key, and if you don’t, whichever elf Jeremy brings me will die. And I promise you, the next one won’t die easy—they’ll die screaming, over hours. And I will keep that up until I make you bathe in their blood every night, the blood of all the elves who died for your rebellion. Shall we start again?”

Melifluer stared at Kruegar in horror.

***

“So, we going home?” Liam asked as Kruegar and his minions feasted at a campfire. They didn’t have proper tables or chairs, which frustrated Kruegar no end, and were simply sitting at one end of a log, eating meat on the ends of their daggers.

“Melifluer will unlock the secrets of the Key for me, but it’ll take months, possibly years, maybe even decades. Depends on how much damage was done by the crack. And I wouldn’t leave without Hector and Jason regardless.”

“The upshot, then, is that we’re stuck here?” Jeremy asked. “At least for a bit?”

“For quite a while, probably,” Kruegar said, but he stared toward the sky as he said it, his mind on his possible futures. “I’ve decided I like it here. I don’t plan to leave. Magic changes… everything. We can murder our way to Level Ten, easily, and then level past that. The elves here have talked to me about how I can become immortal. We were all getting on in years back home—now I have forever to take over everything, and the six of us can live a life where no one can hurt us, and we can do whatever we want.”

“Going to introduce technology to the savages?” Jeremy asked. He pointed at his meal. “Like plates and forks?”

Kruegar laughed. “At some point. Your dad was a farmer, right, Liam?”

Liam nodded. “I don’t know much that’ll help, Boss. Er, I mean Chief. I barely remember anything, just some real basic stuff, like crop rotation and fertilizer. I got the fuck off my dad’s damn farm pretty early, after that one girl accused me and the fucking bastard believed her, and not me.”

Kruegar nodded once. The basics will be enough to get what I want from massive slave labor. What did the Romans call it? ‘Latifundia’?

“Well, Victor was a sergeant before he got kicked out over a sexual harassment charge. And you were a coal miner, right, Jeremy? Before they kicked you out for running fentanyl on the side? Important at some level?”

“Yeah, I was a foreman. Why?” He raised a quizzical eyebrow, which on an orc looked faintly ridiculous.

“Because the orcs here are a simple people and have no concept of how to really organize or how to build. You three hardly have the exact skills I would have chosen to start a neo-Lord-of-the-Rings-style empire, but it’ll do. Especially since we have a criminally underused force of thugs all across this part of the world. And if we can get Hector and Jason, we’ll have even more skills.”

“Maybe we could just build up a part and run it?” Jeremy asked. “I mean, it’s not like we’ll be hurting for booze or chicks in this part of the world, you know? We could even run it nicer and still get everything we wanted.”

“Man, fuck that,” Liam said. “I like being the one no one gets to talk back to for once. That’s why I joined up with you in the first place, all that time ago, Kruegar.”

Kruegar smiled at his men. “It’ll be closer to what you say, Liam. I intend to unify enough of these orcs to take Port Yuval, rename it something scary, and then start rebuilding the great Blood Tribes that my supposed father put together. Only we won’t just be a horde. We’ll run this entire Inner Sea if I have my way, sooner rather than later. I’ll make sure all four of us—and someday six—become immortal so we can enjoy the empire we’ve built for all time. And woe to those who stand in our way.”

Book Two

Gathering

Chapter Seventeen

Planning Stages for
the Settlement

The ocean breeze blew across Leo, whipping his long golden hair around his face as he stared out over the milling sailors on the River Darter, the large galley Leo and his team had managed to book passage on. The docks were bustling as last-minute trades were made between the inhabitants of Veltir—the town they were in—and the crew of the Darter, and supplies were purchased and loaded on the galley.

Leo had asked around. The ‘Inner Sea’ was about half the size of the Mediterranean, but considerably closer to round rather than long. It rarely suffered strong storms, choppy water, or similar problems. Due to the numerous navigable rivers that fed the Inner Sea, and the lack of strong winds, most ships were rowed galleys that made circuits around the Inner Sea and occasionally trading runs up rivers.

Having nothing to do at that exact moment, Leo instead reflected on recent events. Today was the start of his third week in the world of Toth. After the vault, Leo and his team had taken the Yggdrasil Seed and the three scrolls—which had turned out to be extremely valuable ‘bloodline scrolls’—from the vault. The bloodline scrolls gave a permanent bloodline perk to someone and their descendants, much like Leo’s own Stardew line perk—the power of the bloodline based on the power and focus of the one who would establish the new bloodline. Lily had said each scroll could sell for three to four thousand gold, potentially.

It had caused a fight, but Leo had insisted one go to Hugh, based on their agreement. That would give Hugh a hoard larger than any dragon his age whom he had ever heard of. Leo had also talked for a few hours with Hugh about the dragon’s plans. Hugh didn’t have many, beyond ‘show off my hoard and impress Polly.’ Leo had convinced him instead to stay with them and build his new lair right outside the new capital Leo would establish. It hadn’t taken that much work—after saving Hugh’s life, helping him negotiate and renegotiate his deal, gaining Hugh multiple levels, and then making sure he got a fantastic payday, Leo had a lot of credit in the bank with the dragon.

Then had come a boring week and a half of hiking and camping through a forest that, in Leo’s opinion, grew less idyllic and magical the longer he stayed in it. All the while he had felt the magic of the seed in his backpack, pricking the back of his mind with its constant presence. If he was ever too near someone with high ratings in the occult skill, they would easily sense the seed.

At Lily’s suggestion, they had headed southeast along the shore of the Inner Sea, looking for ships or villages as they left Calasti behind. A few days in, when their clothing had been mere ribbons, they had managed to find a small village and buy peasants’ garb to keep them decent, although it had felt superfluous for Lily, given her new powers of illusion.

A week after that, they had arrived at the port town of Veltir, a mixed town of humans, elves, dwarves, and rabbit-kin. Rabbit-kin had been another shock for Leo, who had sort of expected everyone else. Rabbit-kin looked to Leo like smaller, thinner humans with a fine white fur covering their legs and arms to the elbows, unusually large and muscled thighs on digitigrade legs, long bunny ears, and of course a cute little bunny nose. Veltir was where they had found the River Darter and her captain, Captain Laurel Whitewater—herself a rabbit-kin.

Over the course of the trip, they had discussed how they would begin rebuilding the kingdom and settled on a plan. Once they found a ship, they would use the coin they had gotten to buy passage to Steelport.

Steelport was a major city on the southeastern coast of the Inner Sea, protected by a mountain range from everyone else landward. The fact that isolation, fishing, and some iron mines were its only resources had caused it to develop in a different direction from most of the Inner Sea ports. It had a ‘no questions asked’ banking and trading system, a very loose immigration system that only required coin to get residence and protection, regardless of actions elsewhere, and the city trained, equipped, and rented out mercenary companies. From Lily’s description, the city seemed like a cross between Venice at the height of the Venetian Republic and Las Vegas, including the presence of rich families—families that might want to buy a bloodline scroll and have the resources to do so.

In short, they could sell what they had, buy whatever they needed to start a new town, and nobody would ask too many questions about the what, where, and why.

As to the new town itself, Leo and Lily had hashed that out as well, combining Leo’s deep knowledge of history and engineering with Lily’s knowledge of geography and magic. They had decided trying to rebuild inside Calasti proper would be too dangerous, given the numerous corrupted rituals around. Instead, they would build the first part of the city on Elgin Isle, the island in the mouth of the Blue River, where it emptied into the Inner Sea, and try to slowly reclaim the true seat of the old kingdom.

But first, they needed supplies and settlers. And that was where Steelport came in.

Leo had also started an intense regime, to make himself all he could be. He had once been an active amateur MMA cage fighter, and he had gained two doctoral degrees, one in civil engineering and one in electrical engineering. He was used to working hard. Every morning, he got up as early as he could without an alarm, and while everyone else slept a bit later, he pushed himself to the ragged edge with push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, curling rocks or sticks, squats… whatever he could find to push himself. In the evenings, he would use up any spare essence, trying to analyze things and guess what he would learn from his magic, to familiarize himself with the feeling of using his magic. After that, he would ask Lily to use her powers so he could feel those.

If he was going to take this world to glorious new heights, he needed to start with himself. Just like anywhere, hard work and self-improvement comprised the path to success.

Today, he had seen the results of his efforts in the form of an acquired perk and the occult skill.

Lily walked up to the ship’s railing beside him. She ‘wore’—courtesy of her illusions—a long white dress cinched at the waist, with a shawl over her shoulders and upper arms in green, all of it intricate. Her metallic silver hair was bound by the same tiara she had maintained from the day Leo had met her, a thin circlet of gold leaves with a tiny diamond in the front. But she had added emerald jewelry to her outfit: bracelets, anklets, and a necklace. Leo assumed they were also illusions.

She must have noticed his eyes roving because she commented, “We’ll need to get you a crown as well soon.”

“Not really a priority of mine,” Leo said, cringing at the thought of wearing a crown. “Perhaps when we have a real kingdom I can consider a crown. We’re about to build a village, or a town at best. A crown is premature.”

Lily nodded, her own eyes looking out across the Inner Sea in the direction of Steelport.

“Worried?” Leo asked.

Lily gave a tiny shudder that, thanks to her ring, had nothing to do with the wind sweeping over the harbor and turned back to Leo. “This part should go well, I think. But someday, we’ll have to face the Blood Tribes. They destroyed a kingdom of millions. How can we hope to stand against them?”

“Work harder and smarter both?” Leo suggested. “My country was once a tiny colony of farmers, and in a couple hundred years, it rose to become a world-bestriding empire. Harder and better is the answer.”

Hugh spoke out from behind Leo, who hadn’t heard his approach over the bustle of the galley’s sailors. “That’s what she said?”

Leo’s heart rate slowed back to normal as he turned back to face Hugh. “Nice. I think you’re getting the formula.”

Hugh smiled his tooth-filled grin at Leo. “I should hope so. This is new Hugh, who levels and learns and is going to be the most powerful dragon the world has ever seen. Figuring out your jokes is basically beneath me now.”

Leo chuckled, reached out, and scratched Hugh over his eye ridge, something he had learned the dragon liked…

Hugh leaned into it for a second, half closing his eyes, and then pulled back. “Enough of that! I’m not a pet, thank you very much.”

… but Hugh didn’t like to admit he liked it.

“Have you picked abilities yet, Hugh?” Lily asked.

“No,” Hugh said. “I know it’s been two weeks and I should have picked something by now. But at the same time, I never thought about leveling before. I’m not sure what build I should take.”

“Tank,” Leo said. “You have Earth magic and nothing else. Protection is nearly all you can do, magically speaking, until you can get auras. We’ve discussed this to death with Lily already.”

“I could be an agriculture mage, make better dirt. You, of all people, should appreciate better dirt.”

Leo gave a small laugh at that. Even though Leo had explained what his world was like by now, Hugh kept making ‘dirt grubber’ jokes.

Hugh continued. “Or I could have some control aspects in combat, like creating walls and pits and shifting the ground under people.”

Lily nodded along with those ideas, but Leo shook his head. “Not for you, Hugh. You’re a very focused combatant. You tend to just charge maniacally. You need a simple power set, one that relies mostly on static abilities and not on abilities you have to consciously use. Trust me.”

Hugh frowned deeply. “You’re calling me dumb, aren’t you?”

“No,” Leo said firmly. “But there are different kinds of intelligence. Yours is more kinesthetic, and you have great comebacks in repartee. Paying attention to the details of a battlefield would tax you, however. Again, I’ve seen you fight. A hard charge and going tooth and claw with someone is your style.”

“Hmm…” was the only sound from Hugh.

“Plus, you already have high Toughness, Health, and Armor. Lean into those stats and become as hard to kill as that golem was is my best advice.”

Hugh turned and eyed Lily, who shrugged back at him.

“Fine,” Hugh grumbled. “I’ll pick rocklike skin, rank I, and earthen resilience, rank I. That’ll give me an additional Armor and four Toughness. I’ll think on the other one, okay?”

“Sure,” Leo said. “I don’t think you’ll regret it. This build has ‘you’ written all over it.”

“What about leveling stats?”

“There aren’t abilities in Earth magic to raise Strength, right?”

Lily shook her head no.

“Then either all six in Strength or until you hit some major milestone, like Twenty, and then reevaluate.”

Hugh nodded. “Makes sense.”

Hugh’s eyes fuzzed out, a sure sign someone was looking at their own invisible stat chart. After a moment, Leo saw subtle changes in Hugh. His scales gained the slightest hint of a deeper metallic color, and he appeared a touch more solid.

“Well, that’ll make it extra hard for someone to kill me,” Hugh said with satisfaction.

Leo nodded and pulled up his own status chart, noting again with pleasure his occult skill and new athletic perk.

Leonard Emmanuel Evans

Level Six

Body, Mind, Soul, Wyld, Metal

Health

13

Stamina

13

Essence

13

Level Stats

Strength

10(12)

180 base pound-lifting capacity, +10% melee damage, +6% running speed

Agility

20(24)

-70% enemy hit chance, +70% hit chance with all weapons, +28% running speed, +.5 critical modifier

Dexterity

12

+10% base success for crafting and physical skill success rate, 20% chance to raise base weapon damage roll by one step

Endurance

10(12)

+2 base Stamina, +20% Stamina Recovery Rate, +20% base Health Recovery Rate

Toughness

12

+2 base Health, +10% base Health, +10% base Stamina, +1 to resist poison, disease, and physical status effects

Perception

10

Connection

10

Capacity

12

+2 base Essence, +10% base Essence

Appearance

14

Handsome

Non-Level Stats

Intelligence

20

+100% skill acquisition rate, may gain rare and difficult skills

Magic

16

+24% Magic Effects. +1 maximum affinity.

Charisma

10

Luck

10

The Fates neither dislike nor care for you

Secondary Stats

Birth Perks

Race: High Elf

-2 to Strength, Endurance, and Toughness stats base

+2 to Agility and Magic stats base

Increased chance for Being magics and Wyld magic. Gain an additional ability at Level 2, 10, and every 10 thereafter from one of those magics if possessed.

Life span average of 400 years. Maximum of 3 perks positive and negative each, with a standard chance of inheriting or acquiring at birth.

Rank: Natural

May obtain Level 80 without ascension, access to extremely rare or upgraded magical abilities.

Graceful Body

+4 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +4 Appearance.

Predator

+4 Agility, +10% critical chance, +.5 critical modifier.

Line of Stardew

+4 Magic. Always start with Wyld, gain 1 additional Wyld ability at Level 2. Auras for Wyld are gained 10 levels earlier, and this can exceed maximum level, and may gain 2 higher maximum Wyld affinity.

*Genius

+10 Intelligence, increased magic ability access. May gain +2 maximum Mind affinity.

*Being Arcane

With the appropriate prerequisite abilities and stats, upon obtaining Level 30, may gain any or all of the Arcane abilities: Kinesthetic, Cognitive, or Empathetic.

*Aura Mastery

May gain auras as if 10 levels higher, including access to auras that are beyond maximum level once reached.

Acquired Perks

Low-Self Esteem

-2 check to resist despair effects. Failure, especially significant failure, can lead to further negative perks.

Athletic Tier-1

The time you spend working out and training has paid off. +20% effective rank to Strength, Agility, and Endurance, round down.

Skills

Level

Effect

Athletics

13

+39% to run speed, +13 to check to climb or avoid obstacles

Level 10 Special Skill: Burst Fighter: For up to 6 minutes, all stamina expenditures are halved.

Business

2

+6% to expected income, and -2% to expected costs, for operating any business

Dodge

9

+27% to dodge incoming attacks

Instruction

4

+2% increase in learning rate of someone learning from you per point of difference in your skills

Melee Weapons

1

+1% to hit and damage with any handheld weapon

Mixed Arts Fighting

9

+18% to hit and damage with fists, +9% to dodge, +9% to trip, pin, or incapacitate and avoid the same

Natural Sciences

19

Extremely detailed understanding of the nonmagical components of the world and how they work

Occult

1

You can sense magic that is not concealed that is connected to you, whose area of effect you are in, or that is within 1 foot of you. Your magic powers have 2% greater effect. You can vaguely sense the purpose of simple magic.

Research

8

+16% base rate to discover information in archives, +16% to daily chance to discover something new while researching, modifying Intelligence rate

Seduction

1

People find your attempts to seduce them 2% more favorable than baseline, compared to what they are looking for

Small Blades

2

+8% to hit and parry, +4% to damage, and +4% critical chance with small blades

Survival

3

+9% hunting and foraging

Sword

5

+15% to hit and parry, +15% damage with swords

Abilities

Effect

Body

Regeneration, Rank I

Spend 2 essence. Gain 1 health until max per 6 seconds for 1 minute.

Mind

Cognitive Learner

+1 Mind ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Analyze

Spend 1 essence and gain a basic readout of any creature or item that does not possess antidivination magic. Gain knowledge of basic Health, Stamina, Essence, and rough capabilities and weaknesses.

Telekinesis, Rank II

Spend 2 essence and move a single object, up to 10.4 pounds, up to 20 feet away per occult at speeds up to 60 miles per hour, modified for net damage change, controlling it for 6 seconds. If attacking, does 1–3 base damage. Damage, speed, and weight modified by magical and telekinesis-altering abilities. (Current damage 1–4 (1–3 x1.24 (Magic) x1.02 (Occult))

Soul

Empathetic Learner

+1 Soul ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Wyld

Animal Companion, Rank I

May have 1 animal companion. It gains +2 to all physical stats.

Metal

“Checking out your own charts while your friends are around?” Lily asked. “Narcissism wasn’t a component of your personality before. Did being declared a king go to your head?”

When Leo focused on her, she was smiling at him, her eyes twinkling. She was just pulling his chain.

Leo used his telekinesis power to pull a few stones to him, then threw them and grabbed them, pulling them back. He couldn’t really keep them moving in odd patterns, but he could move one from point A in space to point B fairly easily. He hoped with practice—and increased occult skill—that he would get better.

“Sorry, talking to Hugh got me focused on my own build.”

Lily was watching him control the stones with his mind. “It’s an odd one. I don’t think people would have advised you to take that path. I genuinely hope you know what you’re doing. Although recent events have suggested you have a good grasp of combat and war, so perhaps you’ll have an excellent grasp of this build as well.”

“I wanted a few utility abilities first, but I think my build will end up fairly strong.”

“It should,” Lily said. “Telekinesis has a lot of interesting spin-off powers if you get strong enough.”

“Like?” Leo asked.

“Inertial powers, where you do damage with your weapons but increased by telekinesis. Or distance crafting, molding stuff at range. Or the telekinetic sight power, where you can feel objects and people moving within a certain range of you, although that’s an advanced power, comes quite a bit later.”

“Meh, throwing rocks with your mind will never equal my power,” Hugh said, reaching out with one foreclaw and curling it in toward the pad of his forefoot.

Leo chuckled. “Again, I hope so.”

Then he turned to Lily and leaned against the railing. “What did you take for your last power?”

“Harmless,” she said.

At Leo’s questioning look, Lily continued. “Well, you know how I hate getting my clothes wrinkled, and I don’t have armor. Harmless allows me to spend essence so that anyone in the nearby area has to make an Intelligence check to be able to attack me, so long as there’s someone else to fight. It’ll make it a lot easier for me to stay alive.”

Captain Whitewater walked across the deck to them. She was a mere four foot ten, with soft white down across her body, long brilliantly white hair hanging from her head, and rabbit ears. All that wrapped in a buccaneer’s outfit, complete with cutlass and jaunty tricorn hat, modified for the ears.

“Are you ready to push off, landlubbers?” she asked as she walked up. “Supplies are loaded. We’ve got a few stops before we reach Steelport, but we should be there in about a week and a half.”

Leo pointed down at the captain’s cutlass. “Know how to use that?”

She scoffed at him. “Of course. And don’t be getting any funny ideas. I may be small, but I’m Level Five and quite talented. A lot of pirates, and the majority of the goblins’ outpost at Feldyn Marsh, died for that level. I’ll cut you to ribbons if you plan on giving me trouble.”

“Silver, actually, not trouble, if you’ll teach me what you know while we travel…”

Chapter Eighteen

Glorious Return to Civilization, Place of Baths and Burglars

Even before the River Darter pulled alongside the pier in Steelport, the odor of the city came clear to Leo. Fish, with an undertone of rot, mixed with the sewage to create a pungent miasma.

Without a breeze to carry it off, the smell hung like a fog around the city.

A sailor threw ropes to the shirtless, muscled men working the pier, and the dockhands grabbed the ropes and tied the boat off, then took the gangplank and set it.

Leo hefted his backpack, where the Yggdrasil Seed and the bloodline scrolls were stored. Their importance made him hyperaware of his burden as he walked down from the galley beside the regally dressed Lily.

Everyone eyed Hugh as he left the boat.

The dragon was a sight to behold.

From what Leo understood, storm dragons loved to swim, and Hugh had made friends with most of the sailors, who frequently gave him scrub-downs. Now, his scales shone in the afternoon sun. He also had a thick cord around his neck from which his personal coin pouch hung, adding to his distinct appearance.

But Hugh would clearly need to work to make friends in this city—the eyes that followed him were openly hostile, and fishermen on the docks fingered billhooks and scaling knives as the dragon stomped by.

Hugh followed Leo and Lily down the pier onto the slimy cobblestone road that ran along the outside of the city, either not noticing the stares or ignoring them.

Leo was a bit worried, but he had already known Hugh would draw stares, from discussions in which Leo partook with the sailors on the River Darter. The dragonflight had hit more places than just Averia, and while most of those humans attacked were now in their sixties and seventies, cultural memories lingered.

As they all walked the road, checking out all the inns and taverns that looked like the destination for their next mugging, it became apparent it wasn’t only Hugh drawing stares. Leo and Lily got a few as well, and multiple people fingered their necks or surreptitiously pointed at Leo’s and Lily’s necks as well.

“Not exactly what I imagined, but it should still serve our purposes,” Lily said, holding her hem up and stepping around a puddle that probably contained the recent contents of a chamber pot.

“Alms?” a pile of trash called from beside them, and Leo glanced down.

Leo was startled—the ‘trash pile’ was a man. He wore a stained coat, several tattered sails and rugs, and the sores from what might be every disease known to the American College of Physicians. The man was also missing a leg.

Leo tossed a copper at the man’s single foot, wanting to help and defuse the stares they were getting.

“Ooh, let’s stay at this one!” Hugh exclaimed. Hugh was pointing his foreclaw at an inn with the name ‘The Dragon’s Rest’ prominently displayed on a sign hanging crookedly from a single hook. Painted on the sign was a red dragon that, other than its color, looked extremely similar to Hugh when he lay on his back with his legs in the air.

Although Hugh never had a flagon clasped in his two front claws, but still…

Leo shrugged. “Sure, why not?” If they were going to find any place not actively hostile to dragons, this would likely be it.

Hugh ran ahead and butted the door open with his head, startling a man hanging out by the entrance.

The dragon pushed his way inside as Leo and Lily ran up behind him. Leo caught the door and held it for Lily, who moved ahead of him into the inn with a gracious nod of her head.

Leo blinked his eyes in the dim and pungent atmosphere of the inn. He stared at the tables full of sailors, mercenaries, and thugs, to judge by the outfits and weapons. Hugh, unconcerned by his surroundings, pushed his way forward to the inn counter and then reared up, putting his forelegs down on the counter like a dog reaching up to grab scraps off a table.

“A pint of your strongest rotgut, my man!” Hugh said to the stunned bartender. “Dragons love alcohol, but I’ve never been able to try it before! I’m so excited!” He leaned in a bit further and loudly whispered, “‘Strongest rotgut’ is what you say, right? That’s what mortals say?”

A small rat-faced man got up and exited the inn’s front room, bumping into Leo before fleeing out the door.

“Sorry for my friend!” Leo called as he made his way into the room and up to the counter. “We’re all together. Can you make our order two rooms, dinner for three? And I’d like your weakest beer, please.”

The man gave Leo a once-over. “Not wine, slavey? Most elves I know prefer the fruity stuff. And show me your coin before I do this. I doubt you’ve got two coppers to rub together.”

“‘Slavey’?” Lily asked. Her blue eyes were narrowed as she glared at the bartender, spots high on her pale cheeks.

Leo put his hand on her arm. “A wine for my friend here, but I’ll just take the beer. My tongue prefers more human fare. How much for the food, drink, and rooms?”

“A silver for the lot of you—dragon looks like he eats for four. But the strongest rotgut is two silver more.”

“Of course, good sir,” Leo said, reaching for his belt pouch.

Which wasn’t there.

Leo’s mind flashed to the man bumping into him, realizing with a shock he had just been robbed.

I had almost a gold in there! That’s like losing two years’ pay for a fast-food worker! Damn!

He turned to Lily sheepishly. “Mind if I borrow some coin?”

The bartender tsked and shook his head, muttering, “Damned slavies” as he did.

Lily dug into her own coin purse and handed Leo a silver coin with one delicate hand. Hugh forked over his own two silver.

The man widened his eyes a bit, and his attitude improved a touch with silver on the counter. “All right, take that table over there. I’ll have Kemi run your food and drink out. Sorry for my words earlier. It’s just rare to see free elves with coin. You know how it is.”

Leo was more concerned with how easily he’d lost his coin pouch. His hands tightened on the strap of his backpack, determined not to lose that. The coin pouch had contained a gold. The backpack had the equivalent of untold thousands or tens of thousands of gold in it.

The three of them retired to the indicated table. A thin bedraggled elven woman with a silver choker around her neck brought their drinks over. She set down a huge flagon of strong-smelling alcohol, a small cup of white wine, and an even smaller mug of cheap-smelling beer. All the vessels were made of wood, well crafted without apparent seam.

Lily glared at the elf. Leo decided to distract her again.

“Magic?” he asked, holding the cup out.

“Yes.” Lily’s expression cleared as she was presented with a chance to talk about magic and the world. “So long as an object doesn’t retain permanent magical effects, it’s extremely cheap for most leveled mortals to work with the elements of their magic—Earth for stone and gems, Metal for, well, metal, Wyld for wood and hide. You get the picture. A lot of people who make one or two levels decide to just get some ability like that, and they become comparatively rich.”

“Even one level makes that much of a difference, huh?” Leo asked.

Lily nodded, examining the cup in her hands carefully. “Think about it—it opens an entire other resource to use, essence. Or a truly significant change in background abilities. Imagine a farmer who gains no size and needs no more food, who has four more Endurance and two more Strength because he made a single level. Or one who can make a ten-foot-by-ten-foot area grow as if months of time had occurred in seconds, twelve times a day, every day.”

Hugh picked up his mug in his claws and drained it in a single long draught. Then he let out a thunderous burp, which made Leo laugh and Lily wrinkle her nose.

Leo thought about what Lily had said, doing the math in his head. Given the size of an acre, a farmer could use the growth power on an entire acre in thirty-six days, giving him months of growth. So he could give an entire six acres of extra food an entire growing season if he used that power between the start of spring and the middle of autumn. Leo, both from talking with Lily and his own knowledge of history, knew most single-owned farms—as opposed to the more common manorial farms—would usually be about ten to twelve acres, with only about half of that under till at any time.

That one power would double a farm’s output and increase its profit over six hundred percent, since most food is used for subsistence purposes, not selling or conversion to higher-end goods. Fascinating and noteworthy… I need to consider ways to make my farmers Level Two.

Lily nodded as Leo looked up, likely recognizing his expression of understanding.

But Hugh had different priorities. He slammed his tail on the ground. “More rotgut, good sir!” Hugh said, boisterous and loud despite the stares he was drawing. “I feel like a real dragon tonight!”

Hugh was licking the inside of his flagon. I hope he isn’t a belligerent drunk. I have no idea how I would handle that. Although, I suppose he is over five hundred pounds and has an unusually high metabolism. Maybe we’ll get lucky.

Some of the patrons were staring at Hugh and chanting, “Troll spit, troll spit,” over and over.

What the heck?

Leo’s gaze wandered over the crowd. They seemed a hard people, many in leather armor, and with knives at most belts and swords at the rest. Most had scars or were missing appendages, usually a finger or an ear, and all the hands were quite calloused. Some of the women were dressed provocatively, with dresses slit up to the hip or tight bodices that didn’t leave a lot to the imagination—although a few of the women wore the same mercenary’s outfits as the men, but they were a minority.

Sailors and mercenaries, I think, and probably prostitutes. And doubtless a few street toughs. I hope Hugh doesn’t get us in too much trouble. I see a few hard stares for Hugh, but most of them seem… excited? I wonder if that’s a good thing or a bad thing?

As if his thoughts were sent straight to a god of misfortune, Hugh turned around without waiting for his second flagon, knocking their table leg with his tail, spilling Lily’s wine. Hugh muttered, “Sorry,” and then went to one of the nearby tables where mercenaries were drinking. He sat on his haunches and put a foreleg over the shoulder of one of the armed men sitting at the table.

The man’s hand dropped to a knife at his belt, but he stayed himself.

“So, lemme tell ya ’bout this time tha’ my boi, here, broke a gol’m,” Hugh muttered.

Damn this kooky world. Leo prepared for trouble, but the mercenary’s only further action was a bunching of his shoulders.

“Tell me more, dragon,” the man said, his voice tense.

Hugh ignored the merc’s discomfort and launched into a somewhat Hugh-centric version of the golem fight, mostly focused on how important it was that Hugh wasn’t a weak elf and was strong enough to push a statue over.

Hugh was a decent storyteller, however, in his own bro way. As well as a happy, boisterous drunk—who was calling for more rounds for ‘his friends.’ Soon, the entire table was laughing, passing Hugh bits of fish from their soup, and treating him halfway between a dangerous adventurer and a favored puppy. The originally hostile stares of the entire inn had turned, in a few minutes’ time, to laughter and enjoyment of Hugh’s antics.

For someone who opened up by trying to kill me, I guess he is a ‘bro’ dragon. I can see why he’d get along with people.

Although, the free booze isn’t hurting, I’m sure.

Leo sipped his drink, and his face puckered. I didn’t really notice it with the meat, but apparently, as an elf, I do want some sweeter stuff. Damn, I used to really enjoy a good German beer.

He called to a waitress, who came over, and for a copper, replaced his drink, mopped up Lily’s, and got her a new cup as well.

Lily and Leo nursed their sweet wine, looking around. Now that Hugh wasn’t a concern, they needed to begin preparation for their settlement. They needed the necessary tools, and the support of people who could help train them, but had no idea how to go about acquiring them.

But their obvious staring drew attention.

A human woman, tall and athletic, with close-cropped auburn hair, pulled a chair across the floor from another table with a scraping sound, flipped it around, and sat in the spot Hugh had vacated. She stared at Leo across the table, one of her eyes a dull brown, the other a brilliant blue that glowed.

“Can I help you?” Leo asked, nonplussed.

“It’s I who can help you,” the woman said. “I’m Meryl Cavendil. I’m in charge of Cavendil’s Coterie, the finest small merc company that Steelport has to offer. I can see from how you move that you know your way around a fight, and your friend here doesn’t move too poorly herself.” She tapped her face right next to her blue eye. “And this tells me that you have four magics you have powers for, and your friend two—so I know you both have some levels. But from the look of you, you aren’t that wealthy.”

Even though she was headed down the wrong path, Leo was impressed with Meryl’s observations and sheer chutzpah both. And the eye was cool.

She was still going. “Additionally, you guys are glancing around, either worried about something or looking for something. Consequently, I can tell you guys are failed adventurers, or perhaps officers or specialists from a previous military group, and now you need jobs.” She spread her arms out and leaned even further back in her chair. “Hence, it’s what I can do for you.”

“Interesting,” Leo said. He and Lily both leaned in, almost in perfect synchronization. “Actually, I have other needs at the moment. I need to charter an expedition to build a town, and I will have the funds to do so.”

Hugh was singing in the background. We’ve been here for less than ten minutes. Is he getting that drunk? Can alcohol even enter the bloodstream that quickly?

A glance back showed Hugh’s new table was now surrounded by men and women both, one to two people deep even behind the people sitting, as Hugh sang a song about a beautiful female dragon named, unsurprisingly, ‘Polly.’

“You want to hire me to organize the expedition, and my company to guard it?” Meryl asked, dropping the chair fully back onto the ground and leaning forward. “If you’re offering real work, you’ve got my full, undivided attention. Although, I don’t think I’ve seen an elf with coin in these parts my whole life.”

“These parts?” Lily asked.

“The Inner Sea.”

“Well, I don’t exactly know what I need yet,” Leo said, addressing Meryl’s main point.

“Wait,” Meryl said, holding up a hand. “Is this one of those ‘you’ll be paid when we accomplish whatever’ jobs?”

“No,” Leo said, slightly irritated with the way the lady jumped from topic to topic.

“Then let’s see your coin.”

“I don’t even know if I need you,” Leo said. “And I don’t have my coin yet.”

Meryl had remained seated until those last words, but upon hearing them, she started to push herself up from the table. “Well, it’s been nice—”

“Wait,” Lily said, putting her hand on Meryl’s where it was pressed against the table. “Hear us out. I know the mercenary commanders of Steelport make excellent retainers.”

Meryl stared at the hand over hers until Lily flushed and withdrew it, but she didn’t leave after that. Didn’t sit, either, but it was something.

“Lily’s a bit o’ jerk,” came Hugh’s voice, floating into the space between them. “But she gotta har’ life. Hard life. I mean, besides bein’ a mortal, li’ you nice peo’le. People. So I gettit, ya know? My broders, uh, brothers, always makin’ fun o’ me as well, an’ beatin’ me up and stuff. Real mean. So I get a har’ life, ya know? I feel ’er.”

Leo couldn’t help but laugh into his cup, and Lily blushed again.

Two bowls of fish stew showed up, and Leo began shoveling it down despite being tired of fish after his boat ride. After multiple different days without food, he had a newfound respect for keeping his belly full.

Lily spoke. “Look, Steelport mercs take absolute oaths of loyalty for the duration of their contracts, including privy agreements. So—”

Leo interrupted. “‘Privy agreements’? Like, they won’t talk about your business? Nondisclosure agreements?”

“That’s what it means, yes,” Lily said.

Meryl snorted. “Get to the point. I need to find a last few recruits and a job both. And we don’t have a contract yet, so reminding me of my oaths feels premature.”

“Can you wait one day? We’ll have, well, a whole lot of money by then. And then, if you agree, we can hire you personally to assist us, and perhaps your company as well.”

“I make no promises if work is offered before then, but I’ll give you my time again if you can prove it might be worth it to me.” Meryl pushed herself to standing fully again. “That fair?”

“Fair,” Lily said.

Hugh crashed into the table next to them, his huge, tiger-sized bulk pushing it across the floor. Some people stood, yelling and cussing, but Hugh’s mumbled, “Sorry, sorry,” and the continued laughter and cheers of the crowd dissuaded any further action. Hugh then swayed over, reached onto the top of Leo’s table, and pulled himself up so he could see Leo. “So… wanna hear somethin’ fun, uh, fun-ny?”

Leo turned to Lily. “Wanna see how much effort it takes to get a drunk dragon to go to bed? Also, what did he have?”

“So, um, my bro?” Hugh said, staring at Leo with blurred eyes. “He didna hun’ his own deer till he was fer! Four, can you ’lieve it? I killed a deer first year out of m’ egg. He wadn’t so speshill. Beatin’ me up li’ he speshill. Can’ even hunt deer!”

“He had ‘our strongest rotgut,’” the elf waitress said from beside Leo. “Bartender calls it troll spit. It’s magic—and you owe us another two silver for the second one as well, dragon, sorry.”

“Ish fine.” Hugh managed to open the pouch around his neck but then couldn’t get any coins out and fell off the table when he tried. Leo went over, extracted two silver coins, and gave them to the waitress.

“You firsh pershun tre’ me right, Leo. Firsh one evah.”

“How is it you travel with a dragon?” the elf waitress asked. Then her eyes moved over to Lily, staring at the top of her head, and her eyes widened.

“Long story,” Leo replied, then he looked back down at Hugh. “All right, buddy, let’s go to bed.”

That last speech had apparently been too much for Hugh, however, who let out a weird warble and then collapsed to the floor, instantly snoring.

A few patrons gave drunken boos, and everyone went back to their own business. Any hostility seemed to have dissipated.

He reached down to try to lift Hugh, wondering how in the name of however many gods existed on this world he would ever pull that off.

“Wait!” the waitress said, reaching out and grabbing Leo’s arm. “Please… buy me and take me with you. Wherever you’re going.”

“Buy you?” Leo said, his mind grinding to halt. “Did you ask me to buy you?”

“Yes, please,” the elf waitress said, her eyes darting around. “You’re with Lady Wylla Willowynd, right?”

Before Leo could respond, the bartender yelled, “Kemi, get your ass over here!”

“Please!” she whispered, and then scurried back to the counter.

Lily exchanged glances with Leo, then shook her head. “We can rescue her later—for now, let’s get the ‘idjit dragon,’ as you call him, to bed. Tomorrow, we can plan to save her, and every other elf, properly.”

“As long as we do it tomorrow.”

Lily glanced around. “Spend a few more copper for help lifting him? This crowd seems to have become favorably inclined toward our inebriated dragon.”

“Sure, what’s a few more coin at this point?”

Chapter Nineteen

The Innocents Abroad

Leo soaked in the warm water of his tiny bronze tub, his legs hanging awkwardly over the sides. The bathing room was nothing more than a narrow wooden room that seemed to exist only to hold the tub and a rack of towels.

This was their most ‘luxurious’ room. It wouldn’t have passed for a closet on Leo’s home world.

Everything is relative.

It wasn’t the most original thought, or even the first time he had thought that since he arrived on Toth. But lack of originality didn’t make it less true.

In fact, replication is the basis for confirming most scientific theories, so one could argue that lack of originality is what makes things truer, from a certain viewpoint.

Leo remembered a time when he had gone mountain hiking with his ex-wife, Lisa. It had been six hours in the hot sun, and they had climbed over a mile vertically, and probably close to twenty horizontally. Near the end, when he’d been tired, sore, and dehydrated, they had stopped to stare out over a particularly beautiful vista. Leo had taken some grapes from the pack. His hand had been dirty, sweaty, and probably covered in bug spray, but he had shoveled those grapes into his mouth, and he couldn’t remember enjoying food in a more visceral way in his life—until the monster chicken they’d had the other night.

After three weeks of sleeping in the open in a forest, or in the open on the deck of a galley, Leo couldn’t remember enjoying a bed and roof as much, either. And this warm bath, for all that it was becoming tepid, felt like a tiny slice of heaven.

They have the Blood Abyss… I wonder if there are dimensions similar to my concept of heaven? And what kinds of beings might live there?

Leo had things to do today, however—lots of things. He needed to stop soaking and letting his mind wander, as it was wont to do.

With a groan, Leo pulled himself out of the water and onto the mat provided, wiping himself down with the towel that had been laid out on the rack for him. He briefly admired the increasing tone in his legs, arms, and abs from his continued workouts, and then he put on the outfit he’d purchased from the River Darter crew.

A black-dyed doublet and breeches comprised the base of the outfit. According to Lily, that wasn’t appropriate wear for a high elf—who were more of a robe-wearing people—but Leo felt it was the closest thing he had seen to appropriate wear for him.

A belt with a scabbard, his new nonmagical long sword in its sheath, added to the ensemble. He’d also replaced his shoes with a new pair—a leather shoe with a wooden heel. It was far, far inferior to a good tennis shoe, but it was better than the ragged, half-broken shoes that were all Leo’d had left by the time they got here, after his weeks-long hike from the forest.

Overall, the clothing was awkward compared to the easy, comfortable T-shirts and jeans he was used to. He did think he cut a decent picture in it, however. And black worked with his pale skin and metallic golden hair just as much as it had with his old blue-eyed, black-haired self.

I like black. It’s the color that works with everything, so you don’t have to think about it.

He was tempted to put on his magical leather armor but settled for just throwing his magical cloak over his shoulders.

Leo left the bathroom and exited into the narrow second-story hall of the inn, then headed downstairs. Lily, ‘dressed’ in her now ubiquitous illusion of an extremely fancy white dress, green shawl, and emerald jewelry, waved him over.

Hugh was beside her, lying on the floor of the inn, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes.

Sitting at a table in the back and spooning up last night’s fish soup, Meryl gave them the eye as they gathered.

Lily handed the backpack to Leo. “You can guard this thing now.”

Leo shrugged it on, feeling the intense magic once he was close to it. He took a few moments to sort it and the cape out. And there goes any dashingness to the figure I was cutting. Backpacks have zero ‘cool’ factor.

“Ready to go, buddy?” Leo asked Hugh.

“I’m never having alcohol again,” Hugh groaned, his voice a verbal wince. He stared up at Leo with bloodshot eyes. “What in the name of Merdrek’s teeth did I drink?”

“They called it ‘troll spit.’ To be blunt, Lily is the only one of us who didn’t look like a fool on our first day in the, uh, ‘big city,’” Leo said, holding his fingers up in air quotes. “I got my coin pouch stolen, and you spent most of your coin on magical booze. For you and your new acquaintances both. We need to be better.”

“It was a lot of money you both just lost. But I suppose on the scale of what we’re about to do, it wasn’t that much.” Lily giggled, covering her mouth with one delicate hand. “Perhaps a relatively inexpensive and amusing lesson, all things considered. We could have been mugged for the backpack.”

Leo shuddered. “Yeah.”

Lily gave another giggle. “And somewhere, there’s a pickpocket who made enough money to retire from his life of crime, so you could argue, perhaps, that you’ve actually punched your good-deeds card.”

Leo pointed at his own eyes, and then toward Lily in the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture, and she laughed harder, still covering her mouth with her tiny hand.

“It’s too early for you guys,” Hugh grumped.

Pot, kettle much?

“What’s our first stop?” Leo asked.

“The Shield Bank,” Lily said. “We need to establish a deposit before we sell the, uh, I mean, before we sell our goods.”

Leo reached down and patted Hugh’s head. “You need a bank vault as well, slosh-dragon, so make sure to keep up with us.”

Hugh winced and groaned but struggled to his feet. “Sure, I’ll do that.”

They headed out of The Dragon’s Rest Inn, Hugh blinking owlishly in the morning sun. Leo was more concerned with the fact it was already hot, even though the sun wasn’t high in the sky yet. It’s going to be a scorcher.

Lily scanned the cobblestone roads leading deep into the city, and after a moment, pointed at one a couple hundred feet away. “There we are. The barkeep told me the road next to Olga’s Tavern”—she pointed to the side, at a small run-down building with an image of a jolly, overweight woman in an apron on the front, carrying beer—“would take us to the Shield Bank. Since only one side of the tavern has a road, that has to be it!”

“That road looks like a mugging waiting to happen,” Leo said, staring at the broken stone road leading back between close-set buildings.

“We’ve got a dragon.”

“You’ve got, at most, half a dragon this morning,” Hugh groused. “I don’t think I felt this bad in any combat we were in, except with that stupid golem.”

Leo chuckled. “A hungover dragon, sure. And I suppose if we get mugged, we can always make more experience. Weapons loose.”

“Weapons loose?”

“I mean, put them in your hands,” Leo said as they started walking toward the side street.

Lily talked in her slightly higher-pitched voice. “It’s illegal in Steelport, and most of the Inner Sea, really, to display weapons openly unless threatened, or if you’re a noble. That rule came down from the Averian Codex and was kept by most places even when the kingdom fell apart, much like Middle Averian is still spoken by most of the populace here. And even where the kingdom didn’t rule directly, like here, the Codex influenced the laws heavily.”

“Interesting,” Leo said, both meaning it and wanting to move to the main point. “Okay, fine, just be ready to draw steel if it comes to it.”

“You’re the only one who draws steel,” their dragon said, flexing his claws.

“Hugh…”

Lily ignored the byplay of the boys as they walked into the shadowed side street, the cobblestones slimed with various disgusting organic things. She wrinkled her nose as she daintily stepped around anything suspect.

Leo felt like he had crossed from the semibad part of town into the absolute worst part of town almost immediately. People were sleeping in wooden boxes and under awnings, as well as rats and human excrement.

The heat was enough that everything was already starting to stink, the same miasma of odor he had encountered when they arrived yesterday, only far more cloying here.

“How is this place supposedly so wealthy and yet so squalid?” Leo asked as they walked. “I mean, I get that this isn’t a modern world, but still, this seems excessive.”

“Mortals are always squalid,” Hugh said. “And I have no idea what you mean when you say modern.”

“Have you even been to a mortal city before? Or any city?”

“No,” Hugh said. “But it’s common knowledge. I learned it in the caves of my kind from our long speakers.”

Lily daintily stepped over a man passed out on the side of the street, pulling her skirt hem up slightly to avoid it touching anything. “It’s the nature of the city. Food has to be imported, so it’s expensive and makes those who are poor, who eat mostly food—”

Leo laughed, and Hugh cocked his head to the side.

“I mean, who spend money mostly on food,” Lily corrected with a blush, “even poorer. At the same time, the few powerful families with rights to control the merc companies or the iron mines get rich, and the people in the middle aren’t the usual merchants, but rather those with control over the vice trade, since this city acts as a port of ill-repute for most of the Inner Sea.”

Six men stepped out into the street as if they’d sprung full-grown from the shadows, weapons drawn. They were all dressed in mended breeches and the most basic of shirts, and they carried wooden clubs and knives, except for one with a sword. None of them looked like they got enough to eat most days.

One pointed a club at Leo. “Barbaric dragons and their slavey friends don’t need wealth. Hand over your ill-gotten goods.”

“I think they’re violating the law,” Leo quipped, his hand dropping to his own sword. He didn’t really feel the need to engage the thugs in verbal repartee.

Then he recognized one of the men, who was rat-faced but otherwise fairly nondescript. The man with the nice new sword. “You! You’re the ass who stole my coin purse!”

The man’s eyes darted left and then right, but after a second, he focused on Leo. “And now we want the coin purse of the little princess there, and your drunk lizard as well.”

Was one of these other five jerkwads at the inn? Leo didn’t recognize any of them.

“I’m no one’s drunk lizard!” Hugh said. “Except my own!”

“You’re not helping,” Leo said, fighting the temptation to facepalm even in this tense situation. He watched the men.

They’re holding their weapons wrong, and their stances are all off.

Leo withdrew his sword. “I’m as near to certain of anything I have been since I got to this world that this mugging doesn’t end how you think it does,” Leo said. “Back off now, and I’ll pretend I didn’t see you—you can even keep the coin. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Move on me, and I swear by all I hold holy that I’ll leave all your wives as widows.”

“Wow,” Lily said. “That’s… That’s dark for you. What happened to noblesse oblige?”

She didn’t sound worried about the thugs. Leo had seen her worried about battle—her voice always went a touch lower, and her words came faster. This wasn’t worried Lily.

The men hesitated, but the leader must have taken courage in their numbers. Rat-Face yelled, raising his sword over his head in a two-handed grip, and charged.

Hugh started to move, but Leo stepped forward. He held his sword up at an angle, intentionally catching the powerful down-blow. The normal smart move was to dodge such a telegraphed attack, but Leo wanted the weapon lock. His enemy’s blade hit his and ran down it with a metallic scritch, catching on the guard. The man was firmly planted on both feet.

A terrible stance, really, in a fight. For multiple reasons.

Leo pivoted, turning his hips, and threw a powerful kick to his opponent’s side, shin first, just below the man’s ribs. Leo’s elf body wasn’t quite as strong yet as his old MMA-forged human body, but between the level-up stats and the working out, he’d gotten a lot closer. The rat-faced man gasped and half collapsed around the blow, his face a rictus of agony.

Leo leisurely brought his sword down toward the man’s face. Rat-Face gave a yell and started to retreat.

But the face chop had been a feint, and as Rat-Face backpedaled, Leo hooked the thug’s heel, and the jerk went down in a clatter as his sword bounced across the cobblestones.

Leo stepped forward, prepared to end the man’s life with a quick thrust into his neck. The man’s eyes widened, and he put his hands in front of his terrified face, outward, trying to push away the fate he knew was coming. Leo hesitated.

This guy, and likely his more cowardly friends, are jokes. And I really don’t want my levels to be composed of mortal souls if I can help it. If he’d been more competent, and I was fighting for my life, then maybe… but this isn’t self-defense, not really. It’s butchery.

One man must have decided to save his friend, and he rushed forward just as everything was coming to a standstill. He picked up his friend’s sword, but Hugh stepped in the way, and the man’s strike bounced off Hugh’s scaled—and magically hardened—hide, clattering to the street again mere seconds after the man had taken it. Hugh didn’t finish the man off, which pleased Leo—he must have been following Leo’s lead.

Hugh might have spared the man’s life, but he didn’t spare him his mockery. “It’s entirely too early in the morning for you. If you’re going to use that thing, could you at least do it right? I could really use a good back rub right now. I’m all stiff from sleeping weird. And not that pansy stuff you just did, either. I need someone who can really dig in there and loosen some knots.”

That completely took the wind out of the remaining men, who ran off down the street, all except for the rat-faced guy on the ground at Leo’s feet, who stared up at him with wide eyes.

Leo bent down and ripped the coin pouch from the man’s belt, opening it. Well, I’ll be. He actually came back with my coin rather than storing it somewhere. Two wrongs made a right again. Or maybe two idiots made one smart guy… Nah, I’m reaching.

For good measure, Leo grabbed the thug’s sword with his mind and pulled it from where it lay on the cobblestones into his hand. “I’m taking this. You and your friends clearly can’t be trusted with weapons. For your sake, as well as for the sake of others.”

The man scrambled backward across the gross cobblestones and stood. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“Magic Eight Ball says, ‘Outcome Unlikely,’” Leo quipped. “Now get out of here.”

The man’s eyes lingered hungrily on the pouch for a second, but discretion proved the better part of valor, and he ran after his friends.

“Ah, I wanted experience,” Hugh said. “Why’d you decide we weren’t killing them?”

“Those guys were chumps,” Leo said, then he started walking down the street again. “I mean, seriously. They would have given us, like, an experience point each. What were they, Level A-Half?”

“You come up with the most absurd things,” Lily said. “Level A-Half? I can’t even with you.”

Leo chuckled. “Oh, bonus points for remembering that phrase. Maybe if the leading members of the eventual court of the Glorious Empire of Averia Reborn use it enough, it’ll catch on. A demented little slice of home.”

“I thought you were going to kill them, like you threatened,” Lily said. “How come you didn’t?”

“I mean, I feel odd, since I don’t want to get in a habit of threatening things I don’t mean. I guess the best way I can say it is, I morally believe that if you open the door to violence, you can’t complain about what walks in, but—”

“What?” Hugh asked.

“I just mean, if you start a fight, especially with deadly weapons, it’s justified for the people you started the fight with to kill you in retaliation.”

“Of course,” Lily and Hugh said at the same time, and then they looked at each other in surprise. They rarely agreed on things.

“But,” Leo continued, “it just didn’t seem necessary. Again, I’m not philosophically opposed to violence or killing, under the right circumstances, but this just seemed… pointless. I mean, if a four-year-old attacked me in a rage, I wouldn’t cut their head off.”

“Or a gnome!” Hugh supplied, thumping his tail on the cobblestone road, presumably for emphasis.

“Oh, good, you’ve mastered this analogy,” Leo said. “Tomorrow, we’ll work on drinking etiquette. The point is, they just didn’t seem like enough of a threat to justify killing them.”

“I’m honestly torn between thinking you’re badass for calling the guy who just tried to murder you a four-year-old and thinking you’re a freaking cat,” Hugh muttered.

Leo laughed explosively, caught totally by surprise. “A cat? What?”

“Cats are well-known cowards,” Hugh responded in an authoritative voice. “Always running when they might lose and then attacking with stealth and shit. Miserable little bastards, really.”

Lily giggled, holding her hand to her mouth again. “Did a wittle kitty scare you when you were a wee, wittle baby?” she asked in a saccharine voice.

“Listen here, you little—”

“Guys!” Leo shouted. Always something new with these two, he thought. I have to remind myself they’re both, relatively speaking, quite a bit younger than me.

Well, not this body so much, which looks of an age, but still. Younger than I was, at any rate.

They continued down the filthy cobblestone street. After about ten more minutes of walking and occasionally quipping at each other, or about the town, Leo faced a huge stone edifice. It was surrounded by a giant lawn, of all things, with granite statues dotting the area. Guards were clearly visible, walking in pairs, carrying swords and shields and wearing half-plate armor. These weren’t just security guards—it was a small military force.

As Leo stepped onto the path leading to the front stairs, and from there up to the large door in the massive stone building, the gross smells of the place suddenly disappeared, and the air was cool and fresh.

Two of the guards approached. The first, a six-foot-four behemoth who might be able to handle one of Hugh’s charges without being moved, asked, “Who’re you? Do you have an appointment at the Shield Bank?”

“Um, no?” Leo said.

“Then get out of here, ya freakin’ slavey,” the man replied, cracking his knuckles.

“Hey, I’m getting real tired of people calling Leo that,” Hugh said, stepping forward. “Leo’s a great guy! Be nice to him!”

The huge man’s face flushed red. “Don’t make me gut you, wyrm!”

Hugh bared his fangs at the man.

Lily stepped forward, two fingers of one hand raised. “Please, there’s no need for this. I’m Lilianae Kuvella ap Willowynd, the ruling member of House Willowynd, of Lakusi in the Havi Imperium. I have need of an account before I sell, quite possibly literally, thousands of gold worth of merchandise. I would speak with your masters.”

She tapped the tiara still on her head.

The second guard—whose only notable feature was an impressive red mustache—ran his eyes over the group, lingering on Hugh. “This is an odd coterie. I think we need to run it up the chain. Let’s take them in, Kyle, and see what the masters have to say.”

Kyle hesitated but then gave a single nod. “All right. You escort them in, and I’ll go let Sergeant Ivers know what’s happening. I don’t want to be around these wyrm-loving slavies anyway.”

He gave Hugh a wide smile, and Leo reached out and rubbed Hugh’s back.

When nothing further happened despite his wanton contempt, Kyle turned and left.

Mustache stepped forward, holding his hand out. “Sorry about Kyle. We get a lot of riffraff here trying to sleep on the lawn or bum some coin. I’m Nick. Pleased to meet you.”

Leo took his hand and gave it a firm shake, even though he was pretty sure Kyle’s issues went a lot deeper than bums hitting them up on the job.

Nick continued. “We don’t see many elves here anymore, except as slaves—hence the stupid nickname. I’m not sure I can even remember the last time one came in as a customer. Thanks for making my day a touch more interesting.”

Lily’s eyes were a touch narrower and her brow slightly furrowed, the rest of her unnaturally still.

“You should prepare for the day when the elves are your most common and richest customers,” she said. “We have a panache, an elegance, and intelligence not found in other races, and we’ll be on top again soon.”

“Okay, then,” Nick said, his eyes widening slightly. “Touchy subject, I guess. I’m sorry again about Kyle, but I’ll stop talking. Shall we get going?”

Lily gave a regal tilt of her head, and the three of them followed Nick up the stairs to the door of the stone edifice. They entered into a single giant hall, the ceiling held aloft by huge pillars every twenty feet. The middle was bisected by a large counter, and behind it, in wool-covered chairs, sat five humans, all bearing a faint family resemblance. Each was spaced almost fifty feet from the others. A gaggle of staff, many of whom were elves wearing silver collars similar to the one the elf waitress had been wearing at The Dragon’s Rest, surrounded the sitting men and women. A few non-elves also wore the silver collars.

Sign of enslavement?

The side of the building they had entered was covered in upholstered benches. Ornamental bushes, adorned with flowers, also grew in huge planters around the room. Elves and a few humans, all comely females wearing the same silver collars, moved around the room, serving refreshments to a collection of waiting people. The waiting group was mostly human, but a few dwarves, a single orc with bone claws coming from his hands and bone spikes on his back, a three-and-a-half-foot woman in a four-foot-long purple robe, and two… small minotaurs, Leo guessed, rounded out the collection.

Nick pointed to a bench. “Wait here, and I’ll check if one of the masters of the Shield Bank will see you.”

Leo nodded and took a seat.

Nick moved over the huge divider and waited. After a moment, a woman in an extremely fancy tailored dress came over. The two talked for another minute, Nick pointing Leo and his team out. As they were talking, an old man with wispy white hair and a stooped back happened to walk by on the master side. Whatever was being said apparently fascinated him, as he stopped and listened in on the conversation.

Then the lady went and briefly whispered in the ear of an old woman sitting at one of the five front reception spaces. Next to the old woman was a hulking man in leather armor dyed crimson, with black hair and extremely pale skin.

The lady herself had ice blue eyes and a pinched face. She looked over at them, her eyes widening slightly, and she then gave a slight tilt of her head. The first lady came back and whispered to Nick, who walked back to Leo and his group.

“Okay, you’ll be seen, but it’ll most likely take a bit of time. Make yourselves comfortable. Also, I admit I seriously doubt you’ll try anything, but I’ve been told I have to inform you that Hector over there—the pale-skinned guy next to Mavis—is Level Fifteen, the personal guard for Mavis, so don’t try anything.”

“Yeah,” Leo said. “We won’t try anything—we never intended to.”

“I know, but orders are orders.”

Leo nodded—he knew how it was. “Thanks for being one of the only reasonable people in this kooky world.”

Nick raised one eyebrow at that, but obviously, based on his expression, decided not to engage, just nodding and wandering off.

Chapter Twenty

When the Door Is
Slammed in Your Face,
Use the Window

Leo examined the interior decorations, the customers, and the staff of the bank as he waited, taking it all in. Pleasant-smelling air circulated, and he sensed a faint magic from the potted plant he sat next to.

Hugh went to sleep, lying on the floor, and Lily observed along with Leo in companionable silence. People would go to the counter, turn in large amounts of gold, and in some cases, large objects. They would receive a piece of paper in return for smaller things, and a glowing steel amulet in the shape of a small shield for the larger objects or giant piles of coin.

Leo leaned over to Lily and pointed at one of the glowing objects. “Do you know what those are?”

“They’re markers that are tradable proof of ownership anywhere in the Inner Sea, Split Sea, and the Ten Lakes. Each one costs two gold to make, so the chits are only used on the largest transactions. The imbuers use Mind crystals to attune them to the owner and the bank, and the chits can only be traded by will, without coercion, switching the person they’re attuned to, or amounts traded between chits.”

“And that works?”

“There have been rumors of magic that can corrupt them, but no proof. And no major scandals with two people claiming the same vault or money.”

“Huh.”

Leo went back to people-watching. He had felt as if there was anti-elf prejudice in the city, but it didn’t seem to affect any other species here. The dwarf, gnome, and ox-people were all served with what appeared to be the same respect as the humans, who outnumbered them.

He couldn’t help but wonder why.

All the other customers in the bank hall had been helped, and new ones had come in—including a rainbow-colored coatl, whom Lily had confirmed as a sapient magical beast. Three more people who had come in after Leo also got served.

But then an elf walked up to him, leaned down slightly, and whispered, “Mistress Orsini will help you now. If you will follow me, please.”

Why make me wait past my turn, but less than a full rotation? Is one person specifically assigned to help those without appointments?

Lily walked up to the desk. Leo gently kicked Hugh, who woke with a snort. The dragon stretched and then followed Leo as they went to sit next to Lily, grumbling the whole way.

Hector, pale face set in a permanent sneer, glowered at them the whole time they walked up.

Mavis, who was staring at them, was quite a bit older, appearing in her sixties. She had gray hair but also had steel-blue eyes surrounded by wrinkles that looked sharp and hard. They would find no generosity or mercy with this one.

“My name is Mavis Orsini. Welcome. What is it you wished to speak to me about?”

“We wish to open an account, and also—”

“Do you have coin?” Mavis asked. “Anything that you could put into an account, elf?”

“Well, not yet—”

“Then you have no business here. Why have you wasted my time?”

Lily had red spots high on her pale cheeks. “Well, if you’d let me finish, I could—”

“Nick, please come and take these paupers from my hall,” Mavis cried out, waving at the mustached guard.

“What a louse!” Hugh said. “I should bite you!”

Nick hurried over.

“It’ll be the last thing you ever do, wyrm,” Hector said, and black energy gathered around his hands. But he didn’t attack, just waiting with the dark magic gathered.

“Now wait,” Lily said, but Mavis called “Next!” and ignored her.

Lily slumped and allowed herself to be led out by Nick under the wrathful gaze of Hector, who dropped the magic as they left. As Lily was led away, the old man from before, who had listened in to the conversation, hobbled out from behind the huge counter, walking as fast as his cane would allow him, sounding like he was trying to send a message in Morse code on the stone floor. He followed them outside and joined them on the steps.

“I’ll take it from here, Nick,” the man said.

“Of course, Master Orsini, sir,” Nick said, and then he went down the steps to rejoin Kyle in the patrolling.

Leo glanced at Master Orsini.

The man was stooped and spotted and wore a long coat, incongruous in the heat, over a well-made doublet and breeches. Master Orsini’s face had deep lines, both laugh and frown, and his hazel eyes, under caterpillar-imitating white eyebrows, burned with intelligence. His wispy white hair rustled in the tiniest of breezes.

He spoke without any introduction. “So, Duchess Willowynd, I must say I’m surprised to find you here in our particular city. May I ask what your purpose at our fine establishment was?”

Lily’s eyes widened in shock as he used her title, but she rallied and answered. “I sought to open an account, before the ‘mistress’—whose conduct was absolutely unworthy of a noble, even a noble whose rank is based on trading—kicked us out without even listening. The items I have for sale will probably sell for thousands of gold, and I wished to have it held here pending various purchases I will be making.”

The man folded his hands over his cane. “Reminding you that our institution prides itself on the thoroughness with which we keep our clients’ secrets, may I ask you what you aim to sell, and what purchases you plan to make? I concede I am intrigued by the presence of the probable second-in-line to the old Averian throne and a storm dragon in the same group. I will treat your disclosure as if you held an account with us already.” The man bowed over his cane. “I’m George, by the way. George Orsini III.”

Lily exchanged a thoughtful glance with Leo, her eyebrow raised.

“Up to you,” Leo whispered. “I don’t know enough to say if we can trust him or not. Given how this town is treating us, he might be our best bet, unless we want to sail elsewhere.”

Lily hesitated for a moment and then spoke. “I have a bloodline scroll to sell, and our dragon friend has another.”

“Ah…” George said, leaning back in his chair. “A bloodline scroll. A great treasure, indeed. I studied them quite thoroughly in my early years. It’s interesting that the elves of Averia acquired so many. At least four of your noble families had lines once, did they not?”

“And the royal family,” Lily said. “I’m surprised you knew that.”

George smiled a tired smile. “I have an odd personal connection.”

“Now I’m curious.” Lily leaned forward in a pose that almost exactly matched George’s, sans the cane. “What connection could you have?”

“A shameful one,” George said. “But let’s put that aside for a moment. I actually have need of your services, potentially, but I need to know—What is your actual purpose here, besides storing coin?”

Now Leo was also burning with curiosity, but he respected the old man’s wishes and didn’t say anything. He leaned against a pillar in front of the Shield Bank as Lily and George talked.

Lily flicked her hair back. “As to what we wish to buy… We are outfitting an expedition to build a city in the forests of Averia.”

“Excellent, excellent,” George said. “That’s what I thought when I saw Duchess Willowynd in our city, trying to open an account. Nothing else made sense, since you can store money in your home city of Lakusi. But for outfitting an expedition, Steelport is the obvious first choice.”

Leo was impressed with the old man’s insight. Why did he know so much about the elves?

“So, the rumors are true—old Chao isn’t active anymore, huh?” George asked.

Leo hadn’t expected that news to travel so quickly, but he supposed there had been enough time for a trip to and from the Blue River to this city three times, if that was all the ship had done, since Chao had disappeared.

If someone moves first to claim the realm of Averia, we’ll never be able to make this work. Heck, if someone moves at all, even after we’ve built our first settlement, we might have serious trouble. It’s not hard to move military forces across this sea. There’s a reason the Roman Empire occupied everything within a couple hundred miles of the Mediterranean and not much else past that.

Lily twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “Chao isn’t active. We confirmed it when we went to the site of his hoard ourselves. Unfortunately, his hoard disappeared as well.”

George nodded along with her words, his eyes distant. “I see. Well, I think I can help you… That is, if you help me. I have a problem, but it’s one that will present an opportunity for you.”

“What, exactly, would the help you provide be?” Lily asked.

Hugh was obviously growing bored. He slumped to the ground, not unlike a dog in posture, with his head on his claws. He caught Leo staring at him, rolled his eyes, and mouthed ‘boring’ at Leo.

When did I get good at reading a dragon’s lips?

George said, “I can see to it that your account is opened, and your goods sold. But I do have a request first.”

“Well, quit with the hype and just tell us what’s going on.” Leo crossed his arms over his chest—this conversation was starting to go in circles. “We’ve been dancing around this for a while. What do you need, and why should we help?”

“My estranged son decided to try to make levels by fighting the Blood Tribes, to stop their advances across the shores of the Inner Sea. Thank the good gods that orcs and goblins rarely take to the water, right? However, his skill was not the equal of his zeal, and now he is their prisoner and slave.”

“Wait, why hasn’t your family recovered your son? Couldn’t they just buy him back? Lily told me the Blood Tribes sell a lot of slaves.”

George sighed. “My son is half-elf, and not of the House anymore. They won’t pay for him, and neither his mother nor I have the money to do so.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, and her hand clenched. “How did that happen?”

“It happened exactly as you’re imagining, Lady Willowynd, only the tale is sadder even than you might imagine. Fifty years ago, when I was twenty, I was the up-and-coming genius of the House. I was nephew to the House Head, and better at deal-making, politics, and management than anyone else in the family—and not by a small margin. Plans turned to rivers of gold in my hands.”

“And humble,” Hugh muttered with his head still on his folded paws. “So humble.”

George ignored Hugh as he continued. “The family wanted to expand and solidify our place both. We were looking for a bloodline scroll. We wanted our leaders and top family members to all be stronger, more likely to stand the test of the ages.”

“I understand,” Lily said, her voice low.

He sighed. “In my supposed brilliance, I concocted a plan. A plan born of the folly of intelligence over wisdom. Why pay thousands of gold for a bloodline scroll—assuming we could even find one, given they have to be made by ascended mages on other dimensions—when we could buy a slave who already had a bloodline, I asked myself. I proposed the plan to the then-council of House Orsini. They said yes. There were, after all, four perfectly good bloodlines in the dying Kingdom of Averia.”

“That’s… kinda evil,” Leo whispered.

“It was,” George said, his eyes watering. “It was. But it worked. We purchased, for a couple of gold, a slave whom we had learned had a bloodline. They told me that I should be the one to father children with her, although I hadn’t proposed that part of the plan. I did. Two amazing, wonderful, beautiful half-elven children.”

“That’s no way to treat a duchess of the kingdom.” Lily shook, but her voice was steady as she spoke. “What came of it?”

“I… I’m sorry. I don’t wish to talk about it anymore. Suffice it to say that Ola is free, as are our children, and she’s not with me. For these purposes, that’s all you need know. I answered your question.”

“I suppose.”

George pulled a scroll from inside his coat and held it out to Lily. “Here, hold this end.”

Lily took the scroll, and George unfurled it. He held one end while Lily held the other, leaving one of his hands free to point.

Leo stood fully from his resting position, and Hugh came off the ground with a “hunnph” of effort, and all four of them stared at the map.

It took a moment for Leo to piece it together, as he’d never seen it before. But it was a map of the Inner Sea and the surrounding territories—including the Blue River, Elgin Isle, and the ruins of Calasti. It all fit with descriptions Leo had received from Lily, but the visual helped coalesce in his mind everything he had learned.

“So, here”—George gently touched a piece of the map about a day’s walk north of where Leo had reached the Blue River the first time—“is the new base of the Blood Tribes. One of Grakith Demonborn’s many children, Chargath Bone-eater, created it. He took about four hundred, give or take a hundred, elf slaves—including my son—to help him turn it into a permanent outpost.”

Leo winced. Exactly what I’m worried about—people grabbing territory before we can.

“That’s where the famous temple of Iluvin Eturia is,” Lily said, eyes widening. “The temple of the Roothammer.”

George had more immediate concerns. “If they control the river, and you don’t, it’ll be harder to build your city, since trade with the Ten Lakes, up the river, will be raided into oblivion. And you’ll not benefit from being on the only easy path for that trade to occur.”

“And we need to free the elves of the Averian Kingdom.”

George nodded. “You need to do all those things. But I just want my son returned. I’m too old to worry about the greater politics of it. As to advice, there’s a woman in town right now, Meryl Cavendil. She’s personally quite strong, Level Eight, and she established a mercenary company. While I wouldn’t advocate relying on mercenaries for your nascent kingdom, hiring them for a quick strike, to destroy the base and free the slaves, might be extremely advantageous. She needs a job, and soon, since she’s in hock for the costs of establishing her company. I would also recommend you speak to the mother of my children, Ola the seamstress. She would likely join you on the expedition, as would my daughter. They have some small skill at fighting, more at other tasks, and would probably all be happier in a new city you created as well.”

That’s… interesting, thought Leo.

Lily grabbed Leo’s arm, then spoke excitedly to him. “We should find and gather the bloodlines back to the kingdom. You’ve seen your own perk—you know these individuals would be strong if we could bring them back. They belong with us again—they were the best and brightest of the nobles of the realm.”

But Leo wasn’t so sure. Getting some inherently powerful leaders would be advantageous, but I’m not sure how I feel about a magical aristocracy. We’ll deal with that later, Leo thought.

“Where’s the next-nearest base of the Blood Tribes?” Leo asked.

George pointed back at the map. He ran his finger from the mouth of the Blue River west along the northern shore of the Inner Sea, about eighty miles according to the key. He passed two rivers along the way, both coming down off the huge plateau that dominated most of the north side of the Inner Sea. There was a five-mile-wide strip of land along the shore between sea and plateau. He tapped the southern edge of the plateau itself, near the second river, where the map showed a city named ‘Dark Warren.’

“Here. Dark Warren is an underground node, a dual node of Shadow. There’s a thriving goblin city of ten thousand—at least—there.”

Well, shit, Leo thought. I’m going to be in a war soon, likely sooner if I attack that base.

Suddenly, the strangeness of it all hit Leo. I can’t believe less than a month ago, I was working out of my tiny apartment in a normal world and now I’m thinking of ordering and joining a raid on what is, effectively, an enemy people.

I wonder what Audrey would think of all this?

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Leo asked.

George shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. If the Blood Tribes control the Blue River, you’ll be destroyed, sooner or later. Probably sooner.”

“I appreciate the opportunity,” Leo said. “I do need to free more elves and secure the river. But I want to talk to you about your involvement in this.”

“My involvement is done. I intend to push to get you your account and be done with it. I will have done the last thing I can for my children and the woman I love, and then I intend to die in peace, frankly.”

Fatalistic… but it means he’d likely be down for another proposal.

“I want to hire you to help me run this expedition. I’ll pay well in addition to rescuing your son. But since I must plan a military expedition and then go fight in it, I need someone here. Someone to organize everything, and, if we don’t get back in time, someone to start the process of settling Elgin Isle.”

“I can’t do that as a member of House Orsini.”

“Then leave,” Leo said. “You said you’re old and planning to die anyway, so screw it—do one last awesome thing before you go.”

George contemplated for about thirty seconds, then smiled. A smile much more genuine than his earlier ones. “That has a surprising amount of appeal—they won’t let me matter enough here to accomplish anything. Very well, Leo, I will run things. Any details I need to know?”

“We won’t be a slave-holding society, but I want you to buy slaves to set them free, to be our new citizens. Elf slaves mostly—they’ll be very heavily invested in a reborn Averia and remember being free both, given their life spans.”

George nodded, his eyes looking into the distance.

Lily cut in. “We want an Omnieye device, and at least twenty lashes.”

What? Leo thought.

“Masochism is a new look for you,” Hugh quipped.

Lily blushed. “Don’t be ridiculous, you silly dragon. ‘Lashes’ are extensions of the range of the Omnieye item, named after eyelashes.”

“My way’s funnier,” Hugh said with a smile.

Leo ignored the two. “I’ll need about a thousand gold for a couple of things I want specifically for the town, and for gear. How much should I expect to pay for the merc company you recommended?”

“About two hundred gold,” George replied. “It’ll be a quick campaign, but they still risk death and will be outnumbered.”

“Interesting.”

George’s eyes focused again. “Given what you’ve asked to keep, and how much the bloodline scrolls will sell for… I can get a hold of about eight hundred slaves, as well as materials to build farms or shops for roughly twelve hundred, since I’ll assume the mission succeeds.”

“I also want a bow and a spear for every adult,” Leo added.

“I can do that. I’ll also focus heavily on durable and hard-to-build tools, but I’ll have enough food delivered to get us set up and through a bad winter if we have one. And you’ll have a small amount of wealth left over as well.”

“And you’ll go yourself, to oversee the establishment,” Leo continued.

George inclined his head. “I will.”

“Great. Lily can give you the final details of what we need. I, specifically, need you to get two very talented Earth magic architects to build bridges, and one Metal mage who’s talented at crafting. Also, at least one soldier to oversee construction of a fort and training a militia—we’ll need them before this is done.”

George turned and looked out over the city from the top of the bank steps. “I know two Earth wielders who fit your needs from the noble families—Vincent Colonna and Felix de Medici.”

“Excellent.”

And now… Leo thought. To the side quests.

Chapter Twenty-One

So Many New Friends,
I Could Just Die!

Leo and Hugh had been walking for over two hours, trying to find their way through a city of over a hundred thousand. A city they had never been in. Finding one lady’s house, when they didn’t have house numbers or any kind of registry, was quite challenging—the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Lily had stayed with George to be the formal opposing part in the negotiation for the sale of the two bloodline scrolls, with the understanding that Hugh was owed half of whatever the net was, rather than the lesser of the two sales.

Leo had been asking the locals the way to find Ola the seamstress, and he got directions… but mostly, he made it one to two streets over before needing new ones in the winding hell of narrow stone and dirt streets that made up the city. An orderly grid it wasn’t.

But completion of the side quest lay within his grasp. He stared at a decently sized house, two stories, with perhaps a dozen rooms, and a ‘seamstress’ sign hung out front. The windows were all covered in closed shutters, and there was no yard at all. It wasn’t the most inviting place. Leo took a few steps to the stained wooden door and rapped sharply.

A moment later, a feminine voice yelled, “Who calls?”

“I’m Leo,” Leo shouted. “I have a message from George and an offer he requested me to make.”

A moment later, an elf woman opened the door. She had deep-copper hair and bloodshot watery-green eyes, and she was quite thin. Her face was lined with sorrow, however—lines that no amount of makeup would permanently remove.

“What does George want?” the woman asked. Hugh walked up, and she gave the dragon an odd glance before continuing. “Has he found the money with which to buy our son?”

Before Leo could respond, a younger woman walked to the door beside Ola. She had slightly pointed ears but otherwise just looked Irish to Leo—copper-red hair, green eyes, pale skin, lithe frame.

“You’re Ola?” Leo asked of the first woman.

“That’s right,” Ola said, narrowing her eyes at Hugh. “This is my daughter, Valynrae—‘Val’ to the humans.”

“Thank Merdrek,” Hugh muttered. “We finally found her. I swear mortal cities are hives. And you all look alike. Even the elves.”

As Hugh complained, a young boy, who looked about eight or nine, ran up and peeked out the door at Leo. He was a thin child with the clear markings of an elf—long ears and the metallic hair, in this case, copper. Despite his thin body, he seemed a happy kid, smiling bravely at Hugh. The older woman put her hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Again,” Ola said, obviously ignoring Hugh. “Did George find a way to rescue our son?”

“And brother,” Val added.

Leo nodded. “Um, sort of. He convinced me to declare war on the outpost where he’s being held and rescue all the elves.”

Ola rolled her eyes. “That man never could do anything without overdoing it.”

Val put her hand to her throat. “What? Are you serious?”

“Yes. Old Chao has disappeared, and I’m aiming to reestablish the Kingdom of Averia.” Leo motioned to himself and then Hugh. “Lilianae Kuvella ap Willowynd is with us, and George wanted me to offer a spot in the expedition to you.”

“You’re going to settle old Averia again? You? Actually, back up. Who are you?” Ola asked, her brow furrowed.

“I’m Leo—never Leonard, that’s my dad—Evans, like I said. I’ll lead the kingdom, yes.”

“Did he tell you who I am?”

“Ola Something the seamstress?” Leo internally winced when he couldn’t remember her name. I need to get better at that.

“I’m… well, I was, Olanalinae Turventi ap Belmoria. The ducal family. By what right do you claim the Kingdom of Averia?”

“Well, um, I was asked by the ghost of the old king to take the throne.”

The two adult elves’ eyes were getting so wide that they were threatening to declare a coup against the rest of their faces, but Leo didn’t see disbelief in either.

“And I am, magically speaking, of the line of Stardew… and I would remind you again that Duchess Willowynd supports me.”

Leo shuffled from one foot to another, unsure he wanted to continue.

“But the real right isn’t any of those,” Leo said, drawing his sword. “The real right is the oldest argument of kings.”

He expected some sort of pushback, but Ola nodded. “Excellent. I’m glad to see you’ll be able to defend us, Your Majesty. And that you have some wisdom, at least.”

Hugh let out an explosive bark of a laugh. “‘Majesty’? Oh, man, Leo, no matter how cool you are, I don’t think I can do that.”

“How dare you, wyrm? Where do you get the audacity?” Ola cried out.

“Actually, I don’t really have a title yet,” Leo said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head with his free hand as he put the sword away. “I’m just ‘Leo.’ Don’t need any fancy titles.”

“Well then, Not-King Leo,” Val said, smiling at him, “why are you here? You don’t need to tell us to rescue our brother.”

“George said you might want to come, you and your mother.”

Val and Ola exchanged glances, but Ola looked down at her young son. “I think… I think I’ll pass.”

“I would go,” Val said, her eyes shining with excitement. “If you would have me.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Did you want to join the expedition at least, to make the new town?” Leo asked Ola.

She gave a deep sigh. “I was a noble, technically, from one of the greater dukedoms. I miss those days… I have a bloodline, as do my children. All of them. I do feel as if I have a duty to the kingdom and its people. And I would love a chance to return to a society where I am truly free, not called a ‘slavey.’ A society where my children can be free and prosperous…” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “I’ll think about it and talk to my husband. I’ll let you know.”

“Can I ask what George is to you?” Leo asked. “I don’t fully understand the dynamic of what’s happening here, just the dark basics, and he wouldn’t talk about it.”

“He was my master,” Ola said bluntly, her brow furrowing and her eyes narrowing. “I was captured by the orcs in the wars. When George was twenty, I was purchased and given to him to try to bring the bloodline perk into House Orsini… He was the up-and-coming genius of the house, destined to be its leader. He never let anyone forget it. And they wanted the children of the house to have a magical advantage the others didn’t.”

Oof. Ola’s one statement implied an incredible number of terrible things. First the orcs, and then sold to be a breeder, a cheap way to gain a bloodline… I heard all this from George, but still… This world really does have a set of mores I despise. But I’m going to build a new place, one where I can set the rules, and we, as a society, can do better. I can show this world how to be better.

“What happened?” Leo frowned. “You don’t seem to hate him…”

Ola smiled a sad smile. “I don’t, truthfully. He is, at heart, a good man. What happened is he fell in love, and my happiness became a prerequisite for his own. He manumitted me, and my children, against the wishes of his House, knowingly giving up his right to lead as well. Now he’s their most talented banker and dealmaker, but he’ll never be trusted again.”

“I see.”

Ola sighed again. “I can even appreciate his kindness and sacrifice. And he’s certainly suffered enough—he spent most of the last forty years growing old, alone, without any real authority in his house. And he’ll die soon… Plus, he watched the woman he loved leave, marry another man, and have new children.” Ola reached down and patted the boy on the head. “But given how our relationship started, I could never be happy with him, so this isn’t really about him. It’s about me.”

Leo was briefly nonplussed by the blatantly young twentysomething daughter next to Ola, but then he remembered the differing life spans of elves, and assumed half-elves got some of that life span. But still, that makes total sense. Not sure you can come back from what he did to her, even if he didn’t understand it fully. Not sure how I feel about this all, either.

Ola continued. “But he’s bright, very bright. And I think he does have my best interests at heart. If he says this has a chance of success, I’m sure it does… but I still need time to think, and I certainly need to talk to my children and husband.”

“If I wanted him to be the city manager of my new town, the burgeoning new empire, would that make a difference to you? Do you think he could do it and be respected by the elves, even after the evil he inflicted on you?”

Ola blinked, and Val glanced at her sideways.

“It would actually increase my chances of going,” Ola said, her voice a touch surprised. “Being enslaved was horrible. But I had slaves, humans like George, when I was still the young duchess. I had them whipped for mistakes, not even intentional laziness. I thought it right and natural that I rule over others… I give credit to George for concluding it’s wrong to enslave people without having to be enslaved himself. And I would speak on his behalf with any elves who objected if it came to it. I truly harbor him no ill will, intellectually… I could just never willingly be with a man when our relationship started… like that.”

Excellent. I wouldn’t want to start a settlement with that kind of rift, Leo thought. “Thank you, ma’am. And sorry to bother you.”

“Not at all. Good day, Leo Evans. Whether I join or not, may Livesti, goddess of luck, shower her blessings upon you. My people could surely use some luck for once.”

***

Leo pushed his way back through the door of The Dragon’s Rest Inn, and Val followed him closely. She was now dressed in a shiny new chain shirt over padding and a leather skirt, and she carried a short sword. A fancy bow was strapped to her back, alongside a quiver. They walked in to nary a glance from the large evening crowd, a thankful change from the usual disdainful stares elves got.

As Hugh entered behind them, however, a couple of people gave sodden cheers. A lot of people are already in their cups, and I presume they’re hoping the entertainment has arrived.

Hugh raised one forepaw and waved in the general direction of the largest grouping of people.

Leo’s eyes roved the tables. He quickly picked Lily out of the crowd, sitting at an otherwise unoccupied table. She was absolutely beautiful, her long silver hair covered in a fine net of silvered lace and pearls as it hung straight down her back, and the dress she wore was green this time but still intricate and complex and fancy.

Leo made his way over, but as he did, a man stepped up beside Lily, holding a glass of wine out.

“Hey,” the man said. “You’re so beautiful, I wish I were cross-eyed, so that I might see you twice.”

Lily glanced at the man, a muscled, crop-haired brute of medium height, who was dressed in leather armor and carrying a short sword on his hip—obviously a merc or guard. “I thank you for your compliment, but I wish not to be courted at this time.”

“C’mon. A slavey like you isn’t going to find a better option. You should give me a shot.”

Leo sighed. Apparently, even in other dimensions, some guys just don’t know how to handle rejection.

Leo felt for the guy—putting yourself out there for potential rejection was hard. But you still couldn’t be an ass about it, period.

He made his way through the tavern crowd, hoping to intervene before things could go too far, but Lily stared at the man for a moment and then spoke, still in reasonable tones. “I’m willing to take my chances, but I do thank you for your interest. For the now, however, I’d rather just wait for my companions.”

For a wonder, two rejections were enough, and the man wandered off without further trouble.

“Sorry that guy was such a jerk,” Leo said as he took a seat across from Lily, Hugh moving up to the table between them. Val stepped back a few feet, giving them a semblance of privacy.

“He seemed a perfect gentleman,” Lily said. “Not even a third try after I said no twice, and he didn’t try to press himself up against me.”

Leo wasn’t sure how to process that beyond a vague thought, again, that the mores of this world really were darker.

Then Lily flicked her hair back. “Although, he was very obviously unworthy of me, but still, I saw nothing wrong with his conduct besides that delusion.”

Not touching that, right or wrong, with a ten-foot pole, Leo thought. Time for a distraction. Leo pointed back at Val. “This is Val—Val Belmoria, descendant of the ducal family. She’s going to be joining us for her brother’s rescue.”

Lily’s eyes went wide, and Leo knew she was absorbing most of the story’s outline from his few words.

“Pleased to meet you, Val,” Lily said, starting to get up.

“Please,” Val said, waving her down from her position a few feet away. “We can talk more later, Lady Willowynd. For now, let me guard you.”

Lily gave a regal tilt of her head to Val and turned back to face Leo.

“So, how’d we do?” Leo asked.

Lily leaned in close. “Five thousand, seven hundred, sitting in our new account at the Shield Bank.” She smelled of rosewater.

Leo whistled. “About where we suspected, maybe a touch less. But good enough. Means we have almost three thousand to purchase everything to establish our new settlement. We’ll be a bit short, but we can do it. We’ll need to wait on the special projects till later.”

Lily nodded, grimacing a bit. “And the dragon has an amazing hoard.”

“Actually, the dragon, who is right here, has been thinking,” Hugh said. “I feel weird, and my dragon soul is very uncomfortable with what I’m about to do, but, well… I’ll just take a thousand gold for my hoard and leave you with the rest of it. Well, I’ll do it if you promise me I’ll get it back someday when your bright and shiny new city doesn’t need it, and maybe a bit of extra if I’ve earned it.”

Hugh preened a bit.

Leo lifted an eyebrow.

“I mean, I keep dwelling on the fact that most of our victories have been Leo’s, and he did save my life…” Hugh snorted. “And yet he was the one helping everyone for basically nothing. It’s making me feel like an ungrateful jerk.”

“Is that right?” Leo muttered.

Hugh smiled sheepishly. “That icky feeling is my conscience, right?”

Leo chuckled. “Your memory for small details impresses me.”

Hugh’s smile widened, which on a dragon was a threatening baring of teeth. “Point is, it doesn’t feel like I really earned all this… but I plan to stay with you a while, so maybe once I’ve helped you grow and protect the stuff you care about, it’ll feel like I earned it for real.”

Leo reached over and rubbed Hugh’s eye ridge before Hugh batted his hand away.

“Thanks, buddy,” Leo said. “Really.”

“Eh, it’s fine. I know I owe you, and you’ve had my back since I met you. First person who ever did—shame you aren’t a dragon and will die so soon. But I doubt your personality will change now, so I know you’ll at least try to have my back forever, so long as I don’t go villain or something dumb like that.”

“Yeah.”

“And I know you’ll try to get my money back to me someday. I can cackle over my hoard, bone hot dragonesses, and ignore the world when I’m older, and you’re dead and gone.”

Leo smirked. Weirdly morbid for a heartfelt friendship-is-magic speech.

“Still,” Lily said, bowing toward Hugh in her chair. “That’s extremely generous. I thank you as well, friend Hugh. And don’t worry too much about Leo being selfless—he gets to be king now, and it’s good to be king.”

Funny, Leo thought. We have the same saying.

“Don’t you be getting all mushy on me,” Hugh said back to her. “I still need someone to argue with.”

“Fair enough, foul wyrm,” Lily said without any heat at all. “Tomorrow is shopping day, where we need to purchase what we need for the expedition. You joining us?”

Hugh snorted. “Nah. I’m gonna go convert part of my thousand gold into a lot of jewels and gems and art objects and whatever, really spruce up the lair I plan to make near wherever you guys build your mortal hive. For when the lady dragons might come visit.”

“Polly?” Leo asked.

“Yeah.”

“All right, well, fair enough. Although given how much trouble we got into today, I almost wish we were still going to be traveling together while we run errands tomorrow.”

“You’ll be okay, buddy,” Hugh loudly said, pulling himself to half-standing with one claw so he could pat Leo on the head. “I believe in you.”

Lily laughed, and Leo was pretty sure he heard a strangled snort from Val as well.

“Ass.” Leo leaned backward as Hugh dropped to the ground.

“So, what’s the next step?” Lily asked.

“Find Commander Meryl Cavendil, that lady we met last night—the same one who was recommended by George,” Leo said. “We need to hire Cavendil’s Coterie.”

“You’re really gonna hire me?” A voice came from behind him, and Leo turned.

There she was. The captain of the mercenary group, in all her glory.

“Hire me for what, by the way?” Meryl asked, one hand on the hilt of her sword, the other on her hip.

Leo smiled. “So, here’s the plan…”

Chapter Twenty-Two

First Stage of World Conquest

Leo hoped he was cutting an impressive figure as he stood on the foredeck of the galley, wind whipping around his head, and stared at their destination—an unassuming stretch of weedy beach, a few miles north of where he had first reached the Blue River when he’d come to this world.

Behind him, the galley drum beat the time—a fast rowing pace they had been relying on, off and on, to make it upriver. It stirred his blood, reminding him that he was heading to a battle, the first of what would likely be many in a long and bloody war, which he had arguably started.

This round at least.

The ship reached the shore easily, and men jumped off the side, pulling the boat the rest of the way up onto the sand. Hugh also flung himself off the side of the galley—the other side, into the river. A moment later, he came up and spit water onto the rowers on the river side of the galley, screaming “Dragon attack!” as he did.

The eight galleys that had trailed his own Averia Reborn came to land like imprinted ducklings, their movements almost identical but for their sad lack of an idjit dragon mascot.

Leo climbed down from the foredeck and then down onto the beach, Lily following. Each was now dressed as a warrior befitting their level, and more besides.

Leo had gotten a full complement of magical gear, which on him was a lot, thanks to his five magics. His old magical leather armor was joined by a glimmering long sword—made with tier-two magical components and stronger than his lost sword. Leo spent essence to see his sword’s properties more as a matter of his usual training regime, rather than out of any desire to see the irritating messages again per se.

Lesser Light Blade.

Lesser item. Light magic. +2–4 Light damage (weapon 3–12 damage.) Provides light.

So you just went and got yourself a bigger version of your previous sword, huh? Compensate much?

This space will update if you’re such an idiot you need more description than what’s above.

A thin metal shield strengthened by Metal magic, along with golden gems set in the front and a tree symbol etched into it, upstaged the armor and sword. His straight combat gear was complemented by two leather bracers, stitched with silver and a single small tan crystal for one, and a small green crystal in the other. Each added to his Strength, one as a Body magic item, and the other from Wyld. He was now stronger than he had been at the peak of his MMA career. His final item was a magical silver necklace with a gray crystal in it that reduced the cost for using his telekinesis.

Lily had a bow made from a ‘shadow shade’ tree and enchanted for speed and accuracy with a sky blue crystal of Air magic, as well as a pink crystal ring that produced a mild protective field and green robes that added to essence regeneration. Her illusionary overlay, however, made it all seem rich and regal and elegant.

Val Belmoria, Ola and George’s daughter, followed them down onto the beach. An ash bow with a single sky blue crystal in the top was in her hands, and she wore leather armor and a quiver of arrows of multiple different types. After some back and forth, Leo had paid to equip her. The Belmoria family had a family line perk that gave them bonus abilities and affinity for Air magic, and Val had a personal perk that added considerably to her Perception stat. Leo had decided, since they were rescuing her brother, that he would sponsor her to make some levels—secretly hoping she would also become a warrior for the village. He could use everyone he could get.

Hugh exploded out of the river and waded up onto the shore, the water running from his shiny bronze scales. His own two items, leather bracers that matched Leo’s, gleamed on his legs. His Strength was well into the supernatural by now, just shy of thirty.

“Commander Cavendil,” Leo called, and Meryl tromped up to him. “Please prepare your troops for a march once I return, and please make a fortified camp here in case we’re attacked.”

“As you say, my lord, but where are you going?”

“I’m going to take Hugh, Lily, and Val to scout the area—I want to personally figure out what we’re up against.”

“I have scouts,” Meryl said, staring at him with her mismatched eyes, one brown and the other glowing blue. “Trained scouts.”

“I understand, but we have considerably more levels than any of your people, excepting you. If there’s anything in the forest we should be aware of, I think we’ll be better able to handle it. I’d rather not lose soldiers if we don’t need to.”

Commander Meryl reluctantly nodded. “You’re the boss.”

She strode away, shouting orders. Some men ran up from the riverbank with axes and began cutting down trees, and others started unfolding tents and bedrolls. Two started building a fire while others carried an iron pot over.

Leo had seen quite a few documentaries where the modern militaries were far more efficient, but he was comfortable in the belief that Captain Meryl was competent and had her men well in hand.

“You’re also a sucker,” Hugh said. “Let the little guys do some work.”

“We’ll likely need them. Besides, weren’t you complaining to me back in town about not having enough experience?”

Hugh cocked his head slightly at Leo. “A good point.”

One of the other reasons Leo had wanted to start without Meryl’s people was that he wasn’t sure yet if they could be relied upon, whereas he knew his team of three was extremely reliable. He would be better able to judge Cavendil’s Coterie in the days to come.

Leo explained his plan to scout the enemy’s base and then led the way down the timeworn marble cobblestone road north along the river. The forest was thick next to them, the canopy practically a roof over a scary building—not at all the idyllic portion of the forest Leo had arrived in.

“How far does this road go?” Leo asked. “I mean, wasn’t the river used for transport of goods? Why build this giant road next to the whole thing? Just showing off?”

Lily answered, her voice bright. “During the height of the kingdom, they built the road to connect the numerous small farming communities along the river for the fifty or so miles north of Calasti—they called them the ‘orchard communities,’ since most relied on fruit trees because of the node, rather than normal grain farms.”

“Huh,” Hugh said, crossing his eyes. “So fascinating. So riveting, even.”

“You could’ve just let us talk and harassed a squirrel or something,” Lily said. “Leo might need to know this someday.”

Leo, Lily, and Hugh continued to banter back and forth as they walked. They were an estimated four miles south of the fort, so they had a bit of time.

A series of howls from within the forest warned them something was coming.

“Down the riverbank!” Leo yelled.

Everyone jumped off the road onto the decline down to the river. Leo crouched, hiding behind a scraggly bush, watching, and Lily and Hugh peeked their eyes around the side.

Three giant wolves rushed from the undergrowth, full speed. Ghost wolves, Leo thought, his excitement increasing as he recognized one. Mystical wolf buddy!

They were being chased by six goblins riding creatures halfway between a mastiff and a wolf. Leo analyzed them to gather any information before a potential fight.

Adult Warg

Level 3

Entropy

Health: 13

Stamina: 12

Essence: N/A

Physical Attacks:

Bite: Damage 1–6, bonebreaker effect (Toughness check +4)

Claw: Damage 1–3

Magical Attacks: N/A

Defenses:

Disease: Immune

Special Abilities: Predator (+10% critical chance, +.5 critical modifier)

Turns out there is such a thing as a bad doggo. These creatures are giant mastiffs released into a swamp filled with entropic energy thousands of years ago. Now, they are twisted creatures that only bond with beings of cruelty.

They have an interesting evolutionary adaptation, however. The entropic death magic they gather as they grow kills everything else that tries to inhabit their bodies, making them immune to all disease.

They also keep gathering Entropy magic, which lets them grow more powerful with age, becoming elder wargs and then barghests, even though they can’t level in the traditional sense.

Of special note: Natural enemies of a lot of creatures, including ghost wolves, on whose flesh they love to dine.

“Warg riders!” Lily said, fierce but low. Leo was already standing, withdrawing his sword. No one hurts Mystical Wolf Buddy!

One of the goblins nocked an arrow to a bone short bow, pulled, and released. The rearmost ghost wolf let out a yip as the arrow buried itself to the fletching in the haunch of the wolf just as its leg was coming down. The ghost wolf immediately lost balance and rolled across the cobblestone road.

Another goblin drew an arrow back to its ear, and he focused his magic—he’d been practicing nonstop, and the essence flowed easily through him.

Loose cobblestones flew from the ground under Leo’s direction, slamming into the goblin’s chest just as it released its arrow. The goblin’s shot went wild, and it was knocked, squealing, off its warg. It landed with a crunch, its arm flopping about horribly as it rolled up next to the wolf it had injured, screaming.

The injured wolf reached out and ended the goblin’s cries with a single fierce bite.

Allied ghost wolf kills novice goblin warg rider. 1 experience gained (rounded up from .28 experience).

Lily clambered over the side of the riverbank and healed the ghost wolf. Hugh simply charged, roaring, and Val rose and fired an arrow off, hitting a warg in its chest.

Hugh ran for one of the wargs. It cut to the right, and its buddy to the left. But Hugh was playing freight train again—he leapt into the path of the warg that had cut to the right, limbs and claws all extended midair like a kitten in full attack mode. The warg tried to turn at the last moment but slammed into Hugh with a resounding crack. Hugh managed to hook the rider off the saddle and bite the warg before all three hit the ground, although the warg might have broken its neck in the first crash as its trip to the ground seemed boneless.

We’ll need to work on him not giving up the entire fight for one good hit, Leo thought as he jumped to the side of his own charging warg at the very last moment, feeling the breeze from the warg’s teeth and the goblin’s sword as they passed within inches of him. The two went off the riverbank with a howl from the warg and a near-comical scream from the goblin, but it was barely a drop, and Leo knew they’d be back in a minute or two. He let the momentum of his dodge carry him to a warg and rider charging at Val. Before the warg could bite her, Leo stabbed it in its shoulder, and the beast yipped and moved to the side.

Val used her brief moment of safety to shoot the goblin, which dropped its sword and grabbed at the arm pinned to its side.

The two ghost wolves charged back in, distracting two wargs and their riders.

Lily, however, came under attack from the last warg, the one who had gone around Hugh before Hugh had gone ‘fire and forget’ on the other one. She held her arm up to protect her face and then screamed as the warg bit down on it, multiple cracks telling Leo she had failed her Toughness check against its bonebreaker ability.

Did that thing make its intelligence check, or did she not use her harmless ability?

Lily grabbed her dagger from her belt with her other hand. She stabbed it into the warg’s eye even as she screamed, but the goblin rider managed to flay the side of her head open with a sword slash.

Leo’s stomach fell to his boots as the warg and Lily separated, blood pouring from the ruined eye socket and massive scalp wound respectively. The mangled remains of Lily’s arm were also horrifying as she slowly fell to the ground. The blood pouring from her arm and head told Leo he had seconds at best to save her.

As the warg rubbed its face over the ground, pawing at its injured eye socket, Leo stabbed the warg through its neck. He caught the goblin’s sword thrust on his shield and then slammed the side of it into the goblin’s face with a horrific crunch.

He reached out, touched Lily, and used his own ‘regeneration, rank I,’ pushing essence in Body form into Lily. The head wound started to heal, and Lily came back to herself enough to crawl into a bush as Leo turned back to the fray—she would heal fully, given about a minute. Lily didn’t have much health—either she was dead, or one regeneration would do the trick.

One of the ghost wolves was down, multiple slash and bite wounds across its body. Hugh had regained his footing and ended the wounded goblin’s life, and the remaining two ghost wolves had teamed up and ripped apart another warg and rider. Val was rapid-firing arrows at targets mere feet from her.

Leo saw the warg and rider that had gone over the riverbank’s edge rushing up behind Val and reached out with his essence, grabbing paving stones again.

The warg caught them in the face as it came over the lip, its cross-eyed look of surprise almost as comical as its rider’s previous scream. Then Leo was there, stabbing it just behind its ribs. It yipped and pulled back, dropping below the edge again.

“I have the high ground,” Leo muttered, relying on quips and wordplay as always to distract him from dangerous or stressful situations.

The warg turned and started racing away.

Can’t have that, Leo thought. I need the element of surprise in the upcoming battle.

“Val, behind you, finish it off!”

Val turned, her eyes wide and fearful, but then she saw that Leo meant a fleeing enemy. She nocked, drew, aimed, and released. A burst of air around her bow showed its magic.

The goblin pitched forward, the arrow completely through its torso, and then slipped from the warg, hitting the ground and rolling with a limp finality. The warg continued its run.

When Leo looked back, the fight was over. Hugh had reentered, and nothing could stand against him. His Armor was so high that only a critical hit—a strike to eye, mouth, underarm, something like that—could inflict any damage at all.

Six Level One goblins and six Level Three wargs had fallen—it netted Leo, after breaking it out among allies, another eighteen experience. Barely more than one per creature defeated.

“Why is my experience gain so low?” Leo asked.

“Those creatures were way below your level and shared with too many people,” Lily said, coming up behind him. Her robe looked like someone had exploded next to her, and her hair was no longer silver, but a crimson mess. But she, herself, looked whole again.

“How does it work, exactly?” Leo asked.

Lily picked a piece of flesh—her own flesh—off her robe and flicked it into the undergrowth with a shudder as she continued. “It about halves the experience for every level below you an enemy is, divided by number of participants. You need to defeat higher-level creatures and people in order to advance, or kill a lot of weak people. At least mostly. A few things can directly infuse magic into you, increasing your level, but they’re very rare.”

“Are you all right, by the way?” Leo asked, gently touching the side of Lily’s head where she’d been cut.

Lily winced, despite not being wounded anymore. “That was… rough. I worry that the pain and fear of our mission will deaden me to happiness and joy, out of the necessity of not feeling anymore.”

Leo nodded.

Then Lily shimmered, and even her clothing looked brand new and undamaged, and she smelled of rosewater and not blood.

Leo chuckled. “That’s cool, but please don’t hide anything serious from me, okay?”

Lily reached out and touched Leo’s hand, staring into his eyes. “I won’t. Thank you, though, for saving me. I would’ve been dead mere moments later. I got the dreaded ‘death imminent’ notification.”

Leo was torn between pride at the fact he had saved her and the knowledge of how close one of his two best friends in this world had come to death. “How come your harmless power didn’t work?”

“Incredibly bad luck, since the warg should have been affected in almost all scenarios. Let’s not speak of it further, however,” Lily said, the muscles around her eyes and mouth tightening. She flicked her silver hair back. “It lessens me to worry over what must be paid to bring our kingdom back again. Any price shall be paid, any burden will be borne. It is beneath a noble of my stature to worry about the costs that must be paid to save the whole.”

Before Leo could respond to that declaration, his wolf buddy walked up. Hugh bared his teeth.

“Whoa, dragon,” Leo said, laughing. “This is Mystical Wolf Buddy. We spooned one cold night. You can’t attack someone you spooned with, those’re the rules.”

“Ha ha, so funny,” Hugh said. “But ghost wolves are bad business. All the long speakers said so. It’s known, in bone and scale.”

“Once, maybe.” Leo reached out and rubbed the fur of his buddy, who leaned into it.

The other ghost wolf, admittedly, was hanging back and had its teeth slightly bared. After a moment, it stopped, leaned down, and sniffed its fallen companion.

Then it straightened, raised its head, and let out a mournful howl that reverberated throughout the forest and across the water. A few birds took to the sky with squawks, and Leo shivered at the sound, a plaintive wail of loss.

Mystical Wolf Buddy joined in the howl.

After a moment, further howls rose from deeper in the forest. A chorus of loss seemed to fill the world for a moment before everything went eerily silent.

“Well,” Leo said awkwardly. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Why not bond with it now?” Lily asked. “You took the ability.”

Of course, Leo thought. Still not a hundred percent used to magic. I haven’t really been thinking about my powers as I should be. Abilities, whatever.

Leo reached out with his magic, and it wrapped around Mystical Wolf Buddy. But Leo felt a rejection, and the magic dissipated.

Mystic Wolf Buddy gently reached out and took Leo’s sleeve in its mouth. Then it tugged him toward the forest. It let go of his sleeve and headed off in the direction it had been tugging Leo.

When it looked back over its shoulder at Leo, he began to follow the wolf into the forest.

“This is a terrible idea,” Hugh said as he followed. “I mean, aside from the whole it’s a ghost wolf thing. You’re supposed to be scouting, by Merdrek’s eye.”

“They’ll wait for a brief detour,” Leo said.

Lily stared after the wolf. “I… I don’t think it’s a bad idea, Hugh. I think it’s the first sign of the allies of the elves returning now that we have a worthy ruler again. This is a great thing, as if the forest itself were supporting Leo’s coronation as king.”

Leo winced. “I hate that title. For a lot of reasons.”

“I hate your new title as well,” Hugh said, grinning at Leo. “I vote we rescind it.”

Leo was half tempted.

“You hate it for the same reason your analyze ability insults you,” Lily said to Leo. “All the other reasons are secondary.”

“Some reasons aren’t secondary. You must admit that calling the leader of a band of a thousand settlers a ‘king’ is ridiculous.”

“Completely ridiculous,” Hugh agreed. “It’s almost bird logic.”

Leo pondered. I feel like I don’t understand a lot about dragon culture. They think cats are treacherous villains, and birds are silly… but why? Where did it even come from?

Lily’s mouth tugged up on one side, a reluctant smile as she responded. “Well, perhaps. But he did receive the title from the old king. It’s also weird to not use it.”

Val came up, an arrow still nocked on her bow, although it wasn’t drawn. “The old king is alive? Not a ghost? And gave Leo the title? I always wondered why you hadn’t taken the title, Lady Willowynd, but that would explain it.”

“His magical specter, which inherited a fraction of his essence when he died, passed the vault of kings to Leo and declared him his successor,” Lily said. “And Leo is of the Stardew line. A bastard, but the magic held. So he is doubly entitled to the sobriquet. But I suppose we won’t make a deal out of it.”

“He did say he was of the Stardew line… I wasn’t sure I believed.”

Before Leo could respond to that, the ghost wolf ahead gave a slight bark, and the four of them stopped talking and picked up the pace, heading after the wolves.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mystical Wolf Buddy’s Momma So Fat, She…

Leo and team traveled after the ghost wolves for over an hour, miles from the marble road, heading east.

As they traveled, Leo spotted a mystic orb spider in a grove of trees less than a thousand feet from the cobblestone road. The web was far, far larger than the one he had seen before, like it had been designed to catch ostriches. But like Lily had pointed out the last time they had found a mystic orb spider lair, he still only saw the single three-foot-wide creature in the couple hundred feet of webs.

Leo was tempted to stop and try to loot the area around the spider’s lair, but the ghost wolves didn’t halt, so he reluctantly abandoned his avarice and followed them.

After that, however, the forest got dull. It was boring in a brooding kind of way. The canopies were so thick that the light barely squeezed through, and the undergrowth was rather scraggly, desperate bushes that were clinging to life by their bleeding fingernails.

Edgar Allan Poe would have felt inspired.

They talked as they walked, the four of them. Val had managed to make a level, and they talked builds with her as well. She ultimately settled on Animal Companion, Rank I herself, and the other ghost wolf seemed inclined toward her, even allowing her to pet it, despite growling at everyone else.

Does that make a difference? I mean, Mystical Wolf Buddy liked me before I had Animal Companion, but on the other hand, I always had Line of Stardew. I wonder if the ghost wolves can sense magic?

The forest grew thicker as they went along. Undergrowth started to appear in earnest, even though no extra light was getting through the canopy. Soon, Leo followed a narrow path through undergrowth so thick, it felt like he was in a hedge maze.

Then he broke out into a beautiful clearing—a small pond surrounded by trees and bushes, so clean and clear, the water resembled crystal. Said trees and bushes had enough fruit and berries to keep a prosperous Jamba Juice stocked.

But all that went through Leo’s mind quickly, as his attention was drawn to a massive wolf at one edge of the pond. She was lying on her side, but Leo was pretty sure she was a good fifteen feet at her shoulder, the size of an elephant. She had over twenty teats, and little ghost wolf pups clambered over her, suckling at them, each bigger than a normal dog. Another twenty or so played in the glade near her… and she appeared to be gravid and ready to birth again.

A powerful, feral, yet still feminine voice entered Leo’s mind, a voice that did not pass through the air. It was accompanied by soft chuffs from the giant wolf, but no words that weren’t input directly to his brain.

“Welcome, Leonard Evans il Stardew, to the lair of the wolf queen.”

Magic radiated from the mother wolf, powerful magic. Even with his barely trained occult, and being farther away than the chart claimed he could sense magic, Leo felt the Wyld magic radiating from her, similar to when he had encountered the Calasti node.

“I’m, um, pleased to meet you, Your Majesty.” Leo bowed. Better keep this one happy—I know, deep in my being, that she could end me instantly.

“By Merdrek’s missing eye, who the heck are you talking to?” Hugh asked. “The wolf can’t understand!”

Leo turned to Hugh briefly, speaking quickly and quietly. “The wolf can understand and can kill us all. Show respect!”

Lily and Val both curtsied gracefully, and after an awkward moment, Hugh said, “Nice to meet you, Your Majesty.”

“The pleasure is mine, Leo, and worry not about your friends.”

“Thanks.”

“I find it ironic that you think of your name as being related to lions, yet you have come before the Mother of Wolves.”

“Yeah, that’s a thing,” Leo said. “May I ask why you’ve had us brought here, Your Majesty?”

“I thought it obvious, Leo. I wish to be the first to renew their pact with the king of Averia. Ghost wolves have always been pack creatures, and I have dearly missed the alliance of old, as have my children. My son has saved you, and you have saved him in turn.”

Leo rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah, Mystical Wolf Buddy is amazing, legit. I owe him.”

“His true name is Wolten, and he shall be honored as well, as the one whose soul first renewed the pact.”

“I’m, um, glad to hear the will be honored. May he always find the plumpest rabbits.” I sound like an idiot, but I have no idea how to talk to magical wolf royalty! This whole experience is surreal.

The wolf gave a growling chuckle, and a few of the pups around her darted away, confused, before slinking back, clearly wary. The wolf queen shifted a bit, stretching, then lay still again.

Also, since when can wolves chuckle? Between this and the diseased wolves in the ruins of Calasti, it seems magic gives dogs a sense of humor. What’s next, playing poker?

“You need not worry about how to talk to me, Leo. My concerns are not of etiquette.”

“That’s a relief,” Leo said, “since I have no idea of the rules. But as to the pact, what do I need to do to be worthy of the bond?”

Lily gasped and clasped her hand to her heart.

Hugh muttered, “At least it’s not cats.”

Ten bucks says there’s a side quest, Leo thought.

“In your soul, you are already wolf. You hunt in a pack. You crave the approval of your group mates, and you put your pack before yourself. I would not renew the pact with you merely for that, by itself. But you bring two other things to the table. You are a mighty hunter, a predator who brings down prey and feeds on them to grow stronger. And you are the alpha. Only one such as yourself is worthy to be my magical mate.”

She’s making me out to be way cooler than I actually am… and, also, this is getting uncomfortably sexual in tone. Leo chuckled nervously in embarrassment. The others stood around, their eyes flickering back and forth between Leo and the wolf queen.

“I also know you want this bond and have worked to qualify yourself. You took abilities specifically to bond with my son, and you received the old king’s mantle. All this tells me the ancient pact should be reforged, and my children should join your tribe again, bonded for the betterment of both.”

“I would be honored to renew the bond between elf and wolf, Your Majesty. Again, though, what does it entail?”

“The renewal itself is easy, and it brings you power. Strip to your waist and come before me.”

No side quest! Yes! Leo took off his leather armor and shirt.

“Are you…? Um… you can’t be doing what this looks like,” Hugh said with a sneer. “Please tell me this isn’t… that. It would be like throwing a sausage down a street.”

“For the gods’ sake, Hugh, of course not,” Leo said.

Lily just laughed, even though her cheeks also pinked.

Leo stripped to his waist and walked over to the wolf queen, where she lay on the soft ground of the forest clearing. The grass was thick, almost like a lawn, and leaves dotted the ground he walked across. It all looked healthy beyond belief—and since Leo felt the power of the Wyld magic grow the closer he got, he knew why the vegetation was so thick and dense.

When Leo was close, the wolf queen reached out with one massive forepaw and placed it on his chest. “You will become more powerful if you accept this boon, but it will require a slight bit more experience to level, as your essence becomes magical, much like the child of he who broke the pact, here. Did you still wish to accept?”

“Will my maximum level decrease?”

“No.”

Leo thought it over. This will only increase my total power, even if it takes me a touch longer to get there. And I need all the allies I can get at the moment regardless. “Then I accept.”

His chest burned, and Leo grunted in agony, almost screaming, as he looked down at the huge paw across his torso.

Magic pushed into Leo. It wormed deep into his body, a small piece of the Wolf Queen poured into him, bringing agony with it. As the magic coursed through him, Leo came to understand the wolf queen a small bit—she wasn’t a normal magical beast, but something more. An entity that was but part magical beast. She reeked of power, and purpose. She was the telos of ghost wolves distilled, as well as a shepherd to their race. And through their connection, Leo knew she wasn’t yet done with what she would become.

“What are you?” Leo managed to gasp through the pain of the binding. Weakness coursed through him. It felt as if he was held upright only through the magic pouring into him, like a live current shocking someone stiff.

“I am Freyvir, progenitor of the ghost wolves, although I am not literally the first of them,” the wolf queen said. “I am one of the three allied progenitors who claim the forest of Averia as our home. I stand with the patriarch of the sun eagles and the Crone of Averia, the progenitor of the dryads. But I know that isn’t truly what you were asking. Those answers will come when you are stronger and more knowledgeable. For now, all you need to do is accept my aid.”

The pain stopped, and Leo collapsed to his knees.

He gazed down at his chest. High on the right side of his chest was a glowing green tattoo of a wolf curled around itself, sleeping. He reached up gingerly and touched his skin, feeling the slightest tingle of magic but nothing more.

Leo pulled his status sheet up. The alterations were substantial. He focused only on his stats and acquired perks, and the rest faded—he just wanted to see the changes from the new perk.

Leonard Emmanuel Evans

Level Six

Body, Mind, Soul, Wyld, Metal

Health

13

Stamina

13

Essence

17

Level Stats

Strength

14(21)

315 base pound-lifting capacity, +55% melee damage, +33% running speed

Agility

22(26)

-80% enemy hit chance, +80% hit chance with all weapons, +32% running speed, +.5 critical modifier

Dexterity

12

+10% base success for crafting and physical skill success rate, 20% chance to raise base weapon damage roll by one step

Endurance

10(12)

+2 base Stamina, +20% Stamina Recovery Rate, +20% base Health Recovery Rate

Toughness

12

+2 base Health, +10% base Health, +10% base Stamina, +1 to resist poison, disease, and physical status effects

Perception

12

+6% hit, +6% critical chance with ranged weapons. +10% chance to notice stealthed individuals. General increase in discovery rate.

Connection

10

Capacity

14

+4 base Essence, +20% base Essence

Appearance

14

Handsome

Non-Level Stats

Intelligence

20

+100% skill acquisition rate, may gain rare and difficult skills.

Magic

16

+24% Magic Effects. +1 maximum affinity.

Charisma

10

Luck

10

The Fates neither dislike nor care for you.

Secondary Stats

Wyld Affinity

1

-10% essence cost to all Wyld abilities, +10% effect for all Wyld abilities or +1 to the difficulty to resist.

Birth Perks

***

Acquired Perks

Ghost Wolf Pact

All elves who claim allegiance to you may bond with ghost wolves, regardless of ghost wolf level. As the magical repository of this skill, you gain a fraction of the power of Freyvir, Progenitor of the Ghost Wolves, as your own. +1 Wyld affinity. +2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Perception. All bonuses to ghost wolf animal companions are doubled for you. +5% experience total required to level.

Athletic Tier-1

The time you spend working out and training has paid off. +20% effective rank to Strength, Agility, and Endurance, round down.

Interesting, I lost the ‘low self-esteem’ perk—maybe flaw? And it’s a shame I don’t have Mind affinity yet—affinity is powerful from what I’m seeing. But Wyld affinity does almost nothing for me.

Mystical Wolf Buddy—Wolten—came up and nudged Leo with his snout.

Leo reached out as he had before, extending his essence in its Wyld form in order to create a bond with Woten. The wolf’s hair stood on end as he accepted.

Leo felt the power flowing from him into Wolten, then wrapping back around, forming a bond. It was similar, although less intense, to the experience that he had just gone through with Freyvir.

Connection solidified, and Leo gained a wealth of information about Wolten.

Wolten the Ghost Wolf

Level Five*

Eclipse

Health

49

Stamina

33

Essence

10

Level Stats

Strength

20(24)

360 base pound-lifting capacity, +70% melee damage, +42% running speed

Agility

20(24)

-70% enemy hit chance, +70% hit chance with all weapons, +28% running speed, +.5 critical modifier

Dexterity

12(16)

+30% base success for physical skill success rate, 30% chance to raise base melee weapon damage roll by one step

Endurance

20(24)

+14 base Stamina, +140% Stamina Recovery Rate, +140% base Health Recovery Rate. 25% chance to recover from bleeding without aid.

Toughness

20(24)

+14 base Health, +70% base Health, +70% base Stamina, +12 to resist poison, disease, and physical status effects

Perception

18

+40% chance to notice stealthed individuals. General increase in discovery rate.

Connection

10

Capacity

10

Appearance

14

Handsome, if you’re into wolves.

Non-Level Stats

Intelligence

4

-60% skill acquisition rate. May only gain animal skills

Magic

10

Charisma

10

Luck

10

The Fates neither dislike nor care for you

Birth Perks

Ghost Wolf

Magical Beast. +10 to Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Toughness. +8 to Perception. +2 to Dexterity. Large: +20% Health, -20% Stamina, -20% dodge. May not level.

Acquired Perks

Mark of the First

The first to renew the bonds with the high elves of Averia. The Wyld magic that remains gives a natural regeneration of 1 health every 6 seconds, and Wolten will be considered more desirable by the lady ghost wolves.

Natural Weapons & Modifiers

Bite

Damage 1–8 base. (2–14 with strength)

Claws

Damage 1–4 base. (2–7 with strength)

Thick Fur

1 armor

Holy feces, that’s a lot of health. How did the wargs and goblins manage to down that third wolf so fast?

Before Leo could do more than briefly consider the problem, Val called out.

“Why won’t she bond with me?” Val asked, stamping her foot as the wolf that had shown some tolerance for her slunk away. “I took a Level Two power just so I could have this bond!”

Leo coughed. “Um, it said you must be sworn to me for the wolves to accept you. Apologies.”

Val stopped moving. “That makes total sense, sorry. Of course I need to. The wolves only bonded with the chosen soldiers of the king in Old Averia. Well, based on what I’ve seen so far, especially here, I have no problem doing that. You’re clearly worthy of being our new king. Let me be the first to formally acknowledge your sovereign majesty.”

Leo cringed.

Val dropped to one knee and put one hand over her face and the other her heart. Then she bowed.

“Before you make your pledge, know that the pledge to a king, who is of higher rank than a common noble, is usually made on two knees,” Lily said.

“Or no knees,” Leo said, awkward about the whole thing. “No knees works as well.”

“Sorry, Your Majesty,” Val said, as if she hadn’t heard him.

The she lowered her second knee, repeated the bowing, and recited, “Though I possess no formal title, I, Valynrae Ithelri nel Orsini il Belmoria called half-elven, of the Line of Belmoria, declare myself to King Leo Evans il Stardew, the first of his name. I will serve as your knight. My hand, head, and heart are yours should you find me worthy and accept my pledge.”

Lily leaned over to Leo. “The proper response is, ‘I, King Leo Evans il Stardew, accept your pledge and raise you up. May my guidance forever be your star, and may your House prosper in the light of our combined glory.’”

Feeling utterly ridiculous, Leo repeated the phrase.

“Now,” Lily said, “take the hand with which she covered her face and raise her up. Be careful not to scratch her face—it’s a terrible omen.”

Leo gently took her hand and raised it, and Val came to her feet behind it. “Um, thank you, I really appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Val said.

Leo wanted to crawl out of his own skin and slink away. “Look, can we please not say, ‘Your Majesty’? It just feels… off. So very, very off.”

“As you wish, my lord,” Val said, one eyebrow raised quizzically.

Lord. Still a bit pretentious, but I can handle that.

“As my first royal decree, you should all call me ‘lord’ from now on if you must use a formal method of address. I prefer just ‘Leo,’ but if you can’t restrain yourself, please use ‘lord.’”

A giant grin crossed Hugh’s reptilian face. “I’m gonna call you ‘Your Majesty’ now just to get that expression on your face. I’d originally promised myself I’d never say it. But now it’ll be a little nickname between us. Doesn’t that make you excited, Your Majesty?”

“Dammit, Hugh,” Leo muttered, but he couldn’t help but laugh.

Lily frowned. “Once I am confirmed in my noble titles, I will expect all due deference, no matter how cavalierly you wish to treat your own titles.”

Val had turned toward her ghost wolf. Leo felt the magic connecting her and the wolf.

“Yeah, we’ll be sure to show your title proper respect,” Hugh said to Lily, his voice so serious, it reached pompous.

The voice of Freyvir, the wolf queen, entered Leo’s head again. “It pleases me greatly that the first of my children are bonded again. But I must ask you to leave this place. I will close the way here, and you will not see me again.”

Leo glanced at her. He was tempted to ask for further aid but sensed he would come across as ungrateful.

“Yes, Queen,” he said, then he chuckled to himself.

“My wolf’s name is Helwo,” Val said, smiling wide as she patted her own ghost wolf. “Let’s ride from this place, Leo!”

Wolten came up to his side, pressing himself against Leo. Leo felt, more than heard, Wolten’s desire in his mind.

:Ride:

Ah, fuck, Leo thought. I know nothing of riding… Well, I guess I’ll need to learn now. Although I’ll need to investigate wolf saddles soon.

Leo grabbed a thick handful of the fur on the back of Wolten’s neck and hauled himself up.

The six of them—two wolves, three elves, and a dragon—made their way from the glade.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Pair Bonding

“So what now, your Majestic Mighty Majesty?” Hugh asked.

Leo grabbed a pear from a nearby tree and threw it at Hugh, where it squished against the bronze scales of his back.

“Ugh, gross.” Hugh tried to turn himself to get at it. He finally rolled over, rubbed himself against the grass, and then ran to catch up with them.

Leo held on to his wolf mount. “Well, I think what we should do is split up. We have two people who are now mounted, myself and Val—”

“Don’t even think about it,” Hugh said. “I can match speed with that wolf now that I’ve made a few levels, even if I can’t go quite as long. And I can carry Lily the whole way. There’s no way you can convince me to sit this one out.”

Leo was touched but still tried for the logical response. “You’re a gleaming bronze tiger, for crying out loud. Even by our group’s admittedly bad standards, you have all the stealth of a rhinoceros charge. You should go back.”

“Don’t compare me to a cat. And I’m not going back.” Hugh smacked the cobblestone road with his tail, something he tended to do when angry or excited.

“I just meant in size, buddy. I know you’re a mighty lizard.”

Hugh huffed. “I can tell you’re being sarcastic. I’m not dumb. I’m also not leaving.”

Leo sighed in surrender. “Fine. At least stay back a bit.”

“Sure.”

Hugh turned to Lily. “All right, Princess, mount me so we can get going.”

Damn it, Hugh.

Cheeks slightly pink, Lily scrabbled, with help and awkwardly, atop the dragon.

Wolten picked up the pace, going into a loping jog. Leo grabbed two handfuls of neck fur and tried to ignore the jouncing of his coccyx and… other parts. Fortunately, it was a mere few miles to their target.

Hugh, Wolten, and Helwo carried their charges through the forest, and then, once they’d returned to the marble road, picked up their speed to a run.

Which caused Leo a near panic. He clamped on to Wolten with his thighs and held on for dear life. It was one of the more stressful fifteen minutes Leo had ever undertaken, as they flew north up the cobblestone road next to the Blue River.

Soon, the trees became entirely organized but overgrown orchards, and rotting wooden fences and clogged drainage ditches began to appear along the roadside.

“Stop!” Leo called out, yanking on Wolten’s neck fur.

Wolten stopped hard, and Leo went over the front with a yelled, “Whoa!”

Leo hit the ground and rolled expertly, coming up with only a few bruises for his trouble.

The others stopped more slowly, Hugh laughing boisterously and Lily giggling with her hand in front of her face. Even Val had a slight smile.

So much for my royal majesty. Leo rubbed his butt. His end hurt from both the ride and the end of said ride. Always with the word games.

“I think we’re close to our destination,” Leo muttered, pointing toward the ditch and fences. “Lily said most of the little towns here were orchard towns. I can’t be sure, but logic would indicate the orcs would establish themselves in an urban area to avoid having to clear a forest or build a whole new fort. We should continue our journey on foot, through the trees on the side of the road.”

Lily and Val nodded, and all of them moved across a dirt-filled section of drainage ditch and past a completely rotted fence that had collapsed into the orchard on the other side—an orchard filled with apple trees.

Leo snatched one to eat—as opposed to using it as a missile against Hugh—as they walked. Well, he walked. The others were still riding. Leo bit the apple with a loud crunch, reflecting he wasn’t exactly as stealthy as a ninja, but any hope of that had died with Hugh regardless. He moved through the undergrowth like three elephants tap-dancing. Once they saw the enemy base, he’d ask Hugh to wait and try to be a bit stealthier if he needed further information.

A few minutes—and a few orchards traipsed through—later, Leo gazed upon the enemy. They had come through the last set of trees—pear, this time—and looked upon the ruins of a small town. Most of the buildings had shattered walls or roofs, and Leo thought he recognized giant dragon-claw prints still embedded in the ground. A few things looked scorched and even exploded.

Throughout the ruins of the city were the tents of orcs and the orcs themselves. He hadn’t seen one since his brief and disastrous arrival in this world a month ago. Each of the orcs was close to seven feet tall, with gray skin and small tusks around their mouths, and looked like roided-out gym rats. The single large camp had numerous elf slaves, doing menial labor or suffering abuses.

A few orcs rode wargs around the town in small patrols. At least twenty were mounted that Leo saw, with another twenty or so unmounted wargs roaming free.

Based on the total number of tents and the few tents he could clearly see the occupants of, Leo’s quick estimate put the total number at around two hundred enemies. They had a pier of sorts, with two galleys on it, but very few orcs were there.

We only have eighty of our own soldiers, Leo thought. They’re significantly better equipped than these guys—who are in hide, with mostly wood and bone weapons. Still, I’ve fought orcs, and they’re hideously strong and tough. Although nothing compared to the wargs. Without the wargs, and with the advantage of surprise, I’d give us a solid chance at least.

A huge building, just off the center square, remained intact. It was constructed entirely of marble, including a marble fence around the outside. It was long and flat, but for a single tower in the front. The top of the tower had a tree symbol etched into its facing.

Inside the marble fence, cages had been constructed—large ones. Hundreds of people were inside. Most were obviously high elves, with their lithe bodies, pale skin, and metallic hair, but a few had dusky-gray skin and pure-white hair.

“Deep elves,” Lily said from Hugh’s back, her tone complex. “And they’re holding them and the high elves both in a desecrated temple to Iluvin Eturia, the Wyld Goddess.”

Hugh snorted. “What the heck are deep elves? How many varieties do mortals come in? Can I get a spotted river elf to keep around the cave?”

For a brief second, Leo wondered if a spotted river elf was a real thing—he’d seen rabbit and ox people, after all.

“Who are the deep elves?” Leo asked Lily, choosing not to acknowledge Hugh’s questionable humor.

“What are the deep elves,” Lily said, her brow furrowed. “They’re a different subspecies of elf, similar to the high elves, but they gave up the light thousands of years ago. Now they live in the deep places of our world. There was once a colony of them where the goblins of Dark Warren live now. They fell years before the kingdom did.”

“I don’t mean to pry,” Leo started, then he stopped and laughed. “Okay, that’s a lie. I’m totally trying to pry. Why are you weird about the deep elves?”

Lily took a deep breath. “Well, once upon a time, they refused to join the Kingdom of Averia. Multiple times, really. It was an ongoing political scandal, and there were talks under multiple kings and queens of absorbing them by force.”

“And?”

“We made an alliance with them instead. While they certainly weren’t the first people the old kingdom didn’t defend from the orcs of the Blood Tribes, it was the only case of the kingdom not coming to the aid of an explicitly elven ally. Like we abandoned our cousins. The few who escaped had long and bitter memories of what they called our ‘betrayal.’ But at the time, the elves who ruled our kingdom held that it was the deep elves’ prideful lord’s fault for not joining us.”

“Hmm…”

“Also, deep elves don’t tend to do as well as other elves aboveground,” Lily said. “They might be a liability if we rescue them. And I suspect most of them remember the past and will be antagonistic to the return of Averia, not supportive. We might want to leave them, even if it pains me, for the sake of the other elves.”

“You know Leo’s not gonna let so much as one person go unrescued.” Hugh snorted. “Why even bring it up? It’s good-deeds-card time. Those deep elves are already rescued. They just don’t know it yet.”

Leo smiled at Hugh. “Glad to see you know me, buddy. Remind me to teach you the explode-it fist at some point. Of course we’re going to save the deep elves as well.”

“You’re not even going to condition the rescue on them acknowledging your authority?” Lily asked.

Leo shook his head. “Of course not. If they came to me and asked me to use resources on them, perhaps I would put some conditions on it—but trying to turn to my advantage a rescue I’ll be making regardless just seems like a good way to build enmity.”

Lily smiled slightly. “Silly me, bringing up political realities. Let’s go save everyone. I suppose it will at least feel good.”

Yelling came from the direction of the road.

“Why is this scouting trip so insane?” Leo asked, mind-boggled. “Is it too much to ask for a moment to actually scout? Or are the orcs so incompetent that they can’t even keep track of their borders?”

Leo sprinted toward the shouts, through the orchard.

“Wait for us!” Hugh cried, running after Leo. “You need to start giving warnings when you plan an insane charge into danger!”

“I’m coming, my lord!” Val yelled as she hurried after him.

Leo managed to resist the obvious joke this time.

As they approached, Leo saw an eleven- or twelve-year-old deep elf—dusky skin, short, white hair, yellow eyes, and elf ears—running as hard as he could down the cobblestone road. He had a large knife in one hand, one with blood dripping down its oddly curved and segmented blade.

Two orcs, one with a massive club and the other with a steel-headed spear, neither wearing armor, were pounding after the kid and catching up rapidly, their seven-foot bodies’ stride far too long for the four-and-three-quarters-foot child to run from.

“Leo, wait!” Lily cried from Hugh’s back.

Leo ran from the trees of the orchard onto the road without stopping. He drew his sword as he did and hit the spear-carrying orc in his neck before it even knew Leo was there. The hit, backed by Leo’s stat increases and magic bracers, carried enough force that he cut to the bone even with a running one-handed slash. The orc gave a weird grunt, dropped his spear, and fell, grabbing at the gushing wound.

I wasn’t exactly stealthy there—was he that focused on the kid? Leo wondered. Or do orcs have naturally bad perception?

The other orc swung his club just as the kid turned to look behind him, and the kid dropped to the ground with a yell. He rolled to a sitting position, legs out in front of him, slightly spread.

The kid’s eyes widened in fear as the orc raised the club up above his head. “Bahk do, Quiv Elvesti!”

Hugh hit the second orc at full charge, as he was wont to do, bull-rushing into him teeth-first. In an almost-replay of the first time Leo had watched Hugh turn his size and momentum into a deadly attack, the club did a lazy spin before coming down head-first between the kid’s knees.

The kid scrambled back but didn’t yelp or otherwise cry out. He got to his feet, knife carried loosely in his right hand, yellow eyes darting around.

“Are you okay?” Leo asked in Middle Averian. He put his sword back in its sheath as he received the death notification for the orc he’d slashed and walked up to the child.

“Who are you?” the child asked, his voice shaky.

“Leo Evans,” Leo replied, squatting slightly so he could talk to the child on his own level.

The child’s hand tightened on his dagger, the only warning Leo got as the child brought the dagger flashing around, placing the oddly curved blade against Leo’s neck.

“What the—” Leo started to yell, but he quieted as the kid pressed the blade in slightly.

“Don’t move, don’t talk,” the kid hissed. “I’m in charge now.”

It doesn’t work like that, Leo thought.

The kid’s eyes focused over Leo’s shoulder, and he yelled, “No bows!”

That must be Val.

“You’ve got a dragon working with you,” the kid said, turning his eyes back to Leo. “So, uppy elf, this is what you have to do. You’re going to have to send your dragon in to rescue my mom and sister, and when they’re back, you can go free. Okay?”

Uppy? What does that mean?

“Um, I was already going to rescue all the elves in the camp,” Leo muttered. “I’ve got a company of mercenaries, Cavendil’s Coterie, waiting for my scouting report so we can attack the base.”

The boy hardened his glare. “You’re trying to trick me! Everyone knows uppy elves are evil tricksters! You have to send your dragon now.”

“What’s your name?” Leo asked gently. And why are so many of my first meetings antagonistic? It feels like the high elves left a very bad taste in most people’s mouths.

“Zirvyl Xolterra ap Veltear, but everyone calls me ‘Zir,’” the kid—Zir—said.

Lily gasped as she walked up to him.

What now? And how long will I be here before stuff just makes sense to me? Also, when did she get off Hugh?

Hugh, his mouth bloody, also came up next to their little drama, his head tilted to the side.

The kid gritted his teeth. “That’s right! I’m the next Archduke of Veltear.”

In that moment, his attention wasn’t on Leo. Leo grabbed the kid’s wrist in a blur of movement and pushed the knife from his neck.

“No!” Zir yelled, trying to yank his hands free, and then, when that failed, he kicked Leo square in his unmentionables.

Leo managed to hold on to the knife hand even as agony coursed through him, and Zir didn’t try to escape, instead dropping the blade from his captured right hand into his left.

Hugh nudged the kid, hard. Zir face-planted onto the road with an “oof” of exhaled breath and a slight crack. Before Zir could do anything else, Hugh put his giant forepaw on the kid’s lower back, pinning him down.

“That looks like it hurt, buddy,” Hugh said as he gazed at Leo, who was bent over and cupping the family jewels. “This is another reason dragons are better than elves. It’s all on the inside with us. No awkwardly hanging, vulnerable reproductive organs on this dragon, no siree.”

Val and Lily snorted laughter, and Val said, “Only male elves.”

“It’s the empathy I like about you most, pal,” Leo ground out to Hugh, the pain lessening enough that he was able to stand again.

At the same time, Zir said, “Just kill me, then, you uppy elf ass! I hate you!”

“Hugh, let him up, please,” Leo said.

Hugh withdrew his paw.

Zir rolled and then back-hopped to his feet, knife held at the ready.

“I was serious,” Leo said. “I really do have a mercenary force, and I really do plan to save everyone.”

Zir glared at him suspiciously. “What plan?”

“I don’t have a plan, yet, I just plan to save everyone.”

“How?”

Leo ground his teeth and changed the subject. “What does ‘uppy’ mean?”

Lily stepped forward. “It’s a derogatory term that some of the less optimized elves used to describe the high elves. It is a derivation of ‘uppity,’ referring to our supposed arrogance. It gained widespread usage during the time of Queen Jynellae Stardew, when the subject nations were mostly abandoned, and the high elf houses thought their time would last forever.”

Less optimized?

“It means you’re a wine-drinking, good-for-nothing layabout elf who thinks his poop smells like flowers,” Zir said. “Like all the high elves.”

I swear if it doesn’t start antagonistic on this kooky world, it isn’t a real relationship, Leo thought to himself.

Maybe Zir noticed his frustration, because he lowered his knife. “Thanks for killing those orcs. They’re way worse than high elves. Sorry I threatened you.”

“Yeah, no problem, kid,” Leo said. “How old are you, by the way?”

“I’m twelve.”

Leo turned to Lily. “How old is that in elf years?”

Lily smiled and started lecturing. “Elves age at the same rate as humans until they’re just postpubescent, and then they reach full, final growth—twenty-five years of age or so for a human—in about their sixtieth year. After that, elves stay that age, physically, until perhaps three hundred and fifty, and then over the next seventy years or so slowly age until full senescence sets in and they die. Absent magic, of course. A sufficiently strong Body or Wyld user could theoretically become immortal.”

Leo pondered this. Good to know I might be able to become immortal. Way to drop that on a guy.

“Or an Entropy user might be able to become an undead deathlord!” Zir said, his eyes alight.

Welp, this kid is now creepier than the Children of the Corn.

Zir continued. “So, are you going to save my family now? Have you thought of a plan yet?”

“I’m a bit outnumbered at the moment. My soldiers are outnumbered, I mean. I need to even the odds somehow. They have two hundred, including forty warg riders. Any fight I start against those odds will likely result in a slaughter. Of us.”

“Send for more soldiers?” Lily asked. “I mean, we have a ton of gold still. We could hire reinforcements.”

More soldiers… “Actually, I have an idea,” Leo murmured. “I think I can kill the forty warg riders, draw them out and finish them tonight. Then it’ll be a hundred and sixty poorly organized and equipped orcs versus our well-armed and armored eighty.”

As the plan coalesced in his mind, Leo laughed. “Oh, man, Lily, you’re going to love this. We need to scout the main route into the village ahead, and you and Hugh will need to go back to camp and talk to Commander Meryl, but I think I, Val, Wolten, and Helwo can legit even the odds…”

“Oh.” Hugh nudged Zir, who stumbled a few paces to the side. “I used to be skeptical, but I’ve learned that when Leo gets ideas, it can get pretty exciting.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Death Race

Three or so hours later, Leo and Val, riding Wolten and Helwo, respectively, sprinted up the cobblestone path at full gallop.

They’d learned there were two orc guards at the exit from the orchards into the town proper. Leo and Val were inexperienced riders, but each had carefully trained the exact maneuver they were about to try thirty or so times. Now it was time to use it on the orcs.

And we need to pray these orcs are as aggressive as Lily says. Although from what I’ve seen, she’s been totally right so far.

Exhilaration coursed through Leo as he flew down the cobblestone road between the rotted fence posts that separated it from the orchards on either side. It mixed with the adrenaline of fear as he fought to stay on Wolten. His near-supernatural Strength and supernatural Agility compensated for his notable lack of skill, but it was still a challenge to stay mounted.

As they rode, Leo spotted the two orcs guarding the entrance to the village, one on each side of the cobblestone road. Each grabbed a spear and rushed out to meet them. As Helwo carried Val up, Val began firing arrows.

The first arrow hit an orc in the arm. It screamed, “Elvesti Cogthak!” and stumbled back.

Another arrow hit the same orc in the leg, even as it ripped the first arrow from its arm, doing more damage than the arrow had done going in. The orc collapsed to the side, off the road.

Leo waited until he was on top of his opponent, leaning forward and sideways with a death grip on his sword and Wolten’s fur both. Then he pulled with his magic, and telekinetically threw a rotted wooden fence beam at the orc. Snarling, the orc swung its spear around and smacked the beam before it hit it, deflecting it. The orc tried but failed to pull the spear back around as Leo slashed the orc across the head, blood fountaining from the ruinous blow across its temple.

Leo was nearly knocked from his mount by the force of the blow, and Wolten yipped as a bit of his tough fur came loose—it was normally as strong as a good coat and could handle the abuse, but Leo was pushing it.

They rode past, still sprinting. Both wolves were fine, breathing easily. Although, we have a long way to go, so I hope their endurance holds.

They raced into the tiny town, down the streets past the cages. The elves cried out—some in fear, some in excitement, and many to be freed—but Leo ignored them. Instead, he reached out with his mind and grabbed the burning logs in the campfires he ran past, tossing them telekinetically onto the tents of the orcs.

“I’m setting your homes on fire, you slaving jerks. You can’t do anything about it, you weak, pathetic incest-pig bastards! I’d love to see you try!”

A lot, since my plan requires you to follow me. All forty of you and your pretty wargs, too, preferably.

Most of the orcs screamed at him in a language he didn’t know, but one orc threw a cooking pot—it didn’t come close—and screamed in heavily accented Averian, “We take your woman in front of your eyes while we eat you, elf!”

Wow, that escalated quickly, Leo thought to himself, too hyped on adrenaline to really be afraid.

A few arrows shot at them, but none hit. Wolten circled hard, and Leo clung for dear life to avoid being tossed, Val behind him.

He directed Wolten back past the camp, and they headed onto the fenced marble road they had come in on and ran south through the orchards again.

I just need to get to the path toward the queen wolf, a few miles through the orchards.

The howling of the wargs started behind him.

Perfect. Let’s see if they’ll follow us all the way.

Leo glanced back. Most of the warg-rider orcs—and the few remaining goblins—were leaping onto wargs. The twenty on patrol had already dug heel to mount and were in hot pursuit.

Again, perfect.

Wolten and Helwo ran like the wind.

But Leo needed to give the sluggards a chance to join the pack—he needed them all to follow him. This part was going to be the most dangerous. Fortunately, most of his enemies didn’t appear to have ranged weapons. Leo stood no chance at all against a huge, massive group of orcs ganging up on him, but one or two at a time he could handle. He didn’t think more than that could hit him on the road at the same time.

Leo and Val’s mounts were both strengthened by the Animal Companion bond, and ghost wolves were higher level than wargs to start with, with the higher stats that implied. But Wolten’s stats were higher than Helwo’s thanks to the first bond perk. And Leo had a lot more magical weapons and armor than Val.

He urged Wolten back slightly and allowed Helwo to pull ahead. “Just like we planned, Val! Under no circumstances should you fight, no matter what happens!”

Val looked back, her eyes wide, her coppery hair flapping around her head, and a manic grin on her face. She gave one nod and then faced forward, racing down the marble road between the fences and the rows of apple trees ahead of Leo.

Soon, the wargs started to catch up.

Leo judged sizes as they ran. Yeah, this path can allow three at a time—so two could catch me, theoretically. I should be able to handle them in small batches.

As Leo had predicted, a warg tried to ride up to the left, and another to the right. Wind whipped around Leo as they ran at a rate still over twenty miles an hour. It might have been slow for an automobile, but it was breakneck for a giant wolf with no saddle.

Just before the wargs flanked him, Leo telekinetically sent a cobblestone flying back on his left. A warg ran into it, breaking its leg and wiping out. Its insane rolling fall pulped its rider and caused a near-cartoonish pileup behind it as numerous riders and mounts went flying.

Okay, we’re doing this ‘Cloud leaving Midgar’ style.

Leo slashed sideways at the orc coming up on his other side, his sword carried in his right arm—slashing back at the left side of the orc.

But he had briefly forgotten how strong orcs were. Even against Leo’s levels and magic gear, the orc parried the blow with his toothed club. The strike still forced the club back, and the orc growled as the spikes of its weapon gouged its chest, but it wasn’t stopped.

The orc took its club awkwardly in its left hand and swung at Wolten.

Leo winced and held his breath as the club slammed into Wolten’s right shoulder, but the ghost wolf seemed okay, yipping once but continuing.

And the blow had left the orc exposed. Leo slashed at the orc’s neck and hit hard. Arterial blood spurted as Leo nearly cleaved the orc’s head from its shoulders.

The orc pursuit had fallen behind.

Leo touched his mount and used regeneration, rank I, keeping Wolten running fast for a few seconds to give him time to heal. Then he slowed down again and allowed the growing mass of wargs to catch up to him.

The orcs can’t all be this dumb… can they?

Leo glanced back over his shoulder. The orcs were trying new things. A few of the wargs were leaving the road at breaks in the fence. They were obviously trying to run up through the orchards to flank him. Even with neat rows for the trees, Leo didn’t think that tactic would work. The wargs’ stats simply weren’t a match for the magically enhanced Wolten’s.

Then the wargs chasing him parted, and a warg that was a good foot taller at the shoulder raced to the front. Its rider was an orc covered in black scales instead of gray skin—and he carried a great bow and a murderously large great sword. The sword was across his back, and the bow in his hands, arrow nocked.

Damn!

Leo leaned down just as the orc released. The arrow hit Leo’s armor, flat, and bounced up just slightly, slashing across the back of his head.

Leo briefly saw stars and barely managed to hold on. Wolten gave a yowl and jinked side to side, adding to the difficulty Leo had maintaining his balance.

But he kept his wits about him enough to hit himself with a regeneration, and the next arrow missed thanks to Wolten’s hijinks.

I need to put a stop to that!

Leo dropped back again and telekinetically grabbed a likely beam from a rotted fence they were racing past. He simply slid it sideways through the air behind him.

Scaled Orc hit it going twenty miles an hour at chest height. He flew back into the crowd, causing another brief pileup, his fate unknown to Leo.

Leo was just starting to think he’d pulled his plan off when the riderless warg, free of its heavy burden, put on a burst of speed and bit Wolten in his left hind leg.

The ghost wolf’s speed immediately dropped as Leo turned back and slashed his sword across the warg’s face. The giant warg ran to the side and abandoned the chase, leaping over a fence to escape.

But other orcs were to the sides of them almost immediately. A third regeneration gave Wolten healing, and Leo flailed wildly with his sword. One warg rider pulled back with a hiss after receiving a cut on his arm. Leo took a couple of hits with a club, and one spear thrust, none of which did more than mildly wound him—fortunately, no one else targeted his mount.

And the breathing room on one side gave him the chance to use the last of his essence. Another rotted wooden beam flew up at Leo’s telekinetic direction and cleared the other side for him.

Then he cussed as a smaller arrow struck him in his shoulder. It barely penetrated his armor, but that was now a wound he would have to simply live with, along with the bruising from the club blows.

“All right, Wolten. It’s time to blow this joint,” Leo said. “We’ve empirically learned how long I can fight wave after wave of orcs—I’ve got no essence left. Run faster!”

He dug his heels in to Wolten’s sides—although he had no idea why, since he’d never really trained Wolten to that signal—and Wolten shot forward, his sudden speed putting the wargs behind him.

But all Leo had really needed was to give everyone else time and space—and let the sluggards catch up. He kept ahead of the wargs, but not so far that they wouldn’t chase.

After a few more minutes, Leo saw the break in the fence that led to the path toward the wolf queen. He turned off the fenced road they were running down and onto a small forest path. Ahead of him was his ultimate target—a giant web. On the far side of it, Val waited, her bow at the ready, Helwo behind her. The mystic orb spider was next to her.

Wolten ran right to the edge before Leo yanked back on his neck hair and cried, “Stop!”

The baying of the wargs was right behind him.

He leapt from Wolten. Then, nervous about the spiders, Leo led Wolten at a careful fast walk through the webs, never touching any, to the side of the web where the spider was. He quickly petted it—reining his fear in—and its fur turned rainbow.

Predictably, the wargs didn’t slow, and they all ran into the webs, the orcs slashing and cursing. To add injury to insult, one threw an axe at the rainbow-furred spider.

The forest canopy came alive.

Fifty or so of the spiders changed their hair to crimson and then flooded down the webs onto the wargs and orcs or simply leapt at them. The attack was silent and sudden, and numerous orcs screamed as six-inch fangs pierced their hides, injecting venom, before they knew they were under attack.

The melee was hell—wargs and orcs packed into a small space, and under surprise attack by a horde of spiders.

Then a bugle sounded, and Hugh slammed into the back of the enemy, dragging an orc down from its mount and eviscerating it. The soldiers of Cavendil’s Coterie, who had been waiting in cover, hit the rear of the warg riders.

It was a slaughter.

***

“It’s a damn shame we still have to fight tomorrow,” Lily said.

Leo kicked his feet up onto the command table Cavendil’s Coterie had brought along with them. Around the table sat his ‘command team.’ It was composed of Meryl Cavendil, the actual commander, as well as Hugh, Lily, Val, and little Zir. Drinks ringed the edge of the table, and a hastily drawn map of the orcs’ camp and the surrounding area, done in charcoal, sat in the middle.

Zir had apparently murdered an orc somehow during all the confusion and was cleaning blood off his knife, scowling for some reason.

“Well, we got the forty riders, and more importantly, their wargs,” Meryl said. “That means we have about a hundred and sixty orcs left to kill tomorrow. But they’ll be mostly Level One… if we had to fight all that and forty Level Three wargs, we’d have been completely, well… we’d have been totally screwed. So an excellent job defeating them in detail.”

“Thanks,” Leo said.

“I think we’ll be okay tomorrow,” Meryl said, taking a drink of a watery beer next to her. “I mean, these orcs have been unopposed by anything other than their fellow orcs for so long they’re ridiculously cocky. They’ll change their thinking after we kick their teeth in a few times, but I’m really hoping we get a few more battles where they act like idiots out of arrogance. The spiders were inspired, though. Even if we had ambushed them in a normal manner, I’d have lost a lot of men against those wargs.”

Leo had a sudden thought. “The spiders aren’t going to be mad that I looted them, right? I mean, the spiders do have animal intelligence, we’re sure?”

Lily laughed and flicked her silver hair from her face. “The spiders are animals. Think of it like milking cows or something.”

“Then I’m going to consider it a tax to support the military efforts necessary to keep the orcs off the spiders’ home turf.”

“Well, they don’t care what you call it, or that you took some healing mushrooms,” Lily said. “And it will let us help more soldiers, tomorrow.”

“Speaking of the soldiers, how’d we do?” Leo asked Meryl.

She smiled. “We did fantastically. It really is a shame that we have to have another fight at dawn. I’d love to get sloshed to celebrate, instead of drinking this water masquerading as piss.”

Hugh laughed boisterously at the simple joke. Leo gave his own titter just because the dragon was so excitable, not at the quip itself. What a teenager.

Meryl continued. “Making that deal with you might prove to be one of the most pivotal damn decisions I make in building my career.”

The word ‘damn’ had the same general connotation as it did in English, including its use as an intensifier. But Leo absently noted that in Middle Averian, it literally meant ‘to be dropped into a bad dimension,’ as opposed to a more spiritual thing.

“How so?” Leo asked, idly curious. “I take it we didn’t lose anyone?”

“Two dead, both extremely unlucky,” Meryl said. “With Lily there, anything less than a blow that killed within seconds was fixed right up. But the wargs got two of my men before they went down.”

“We lost two? Why do you say it was fantastic?” Leo asked, a bit horrified.

The looks everyone around the table gave him told him he was being an idiot.

Zir held his knife up in one hand, and a piece of ripped clothing in the other. “Levels,” he said as he cleaned his knife.

Did someone let him in on the fighting? Leo wondered. Did he sneak in?

“Exactly right,” Meryl said. “Almost thirty of my people made Level Two, and one living blade”—the phrase translated closer to ‘buzz saw’ in Leo’s mind—“managed to hit Level Three. They’re high off a victory right now as well, and early in their contract with me. Almost four years left to go. So very few of them took powers to help them with a noncombatant career down the road, instead focusing on powers to make them stronger fighters.”

“Amazing!” Lily said.

“That’s almost half my team that’s Level Two now, including, wait for it”—Meryl did a little drumroll on the table with her fingers—“four healers! I can’t believe I had four Body magic types who all made Level Two and qualified to be healers. Four people who can use essence to keep my soldiers alive!”

“Seriously, that really is amazing,” Lily said again, smiling. “I’m so happy for you.”

“So, what’s the plan now, my lord?” Leo asked.

Meryl sighed. “Well, it’s not quite as good as the one you had with the spiders, but since the orcs have proven they can be led around by the nose if you punch them in it, I do have a way I think we can defeat them and save all the slaves. Again, though, it has to wait till tomorrow.”

“Why not hit them tonight?” Lily asked.

Meryl laughed. “A blind brawl in the middle of the night? Are you crazy? We can’t see in the dark. But orcs have some low-light vision. Also, I couldn’t command at all. It would literally just be a brawl against a species with natural bonuses to Strength and Toughness, that can see better. A complex, insane mess on the worst possible terms. No thank you.”

Lily flushed. “Sorry. I guess we wait, then.”

Zir tightened his grip on the knife. “I hope my mom will be okay till then.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Who’s Your Daddy?

The knives slowly chewed away at the wood with each slash.

Leo and Lily watched as Zir practiced in a space between tents, attacking wooden posts left over from the quick construction of the earth-and-stake palisade. He went through obvious stances, practicing quick, darting slashes and the occasional jab, moving rapidly in and out as he struck the wood over and over.

“Isn’t he going to dull his knife like that?” Leo asked.

“He probably has access to a whetstone, or a sharpening strop,” Lily replied. “And with what he’s been through, I suspect he wants to be as deadly as possible. Which requires practice. Unlike the more refined Averian nobles, the local deep elf nobles prided themselves on their combat ability over everything else.”

“What’s he been through?”

“Having his family captured and imprisoned, probably being helpless a lot. A lot of terrible things are involved in being a prisoner of the orcs.”

“Hmm…” Leo thought about what being captured as a slave probably meant for Zir and his family. Nothing good at all, and I really do need to improve the mores of this world.

“Why the knife? Why not a sword?” Leo asked. “Does he not have access to one? We could easily buy some of the wooden training swords from the Coterie here.”

“Well, you could get him some wooden training knives, but that’s not the reason. Deep elves mostly live belowground, in smaller spaces and narrow tunnels. Most of them fight with knives. Even their Eclipse magic, which has powers to make people stronger in close combat, as well as able to move rapidly around small spaces, inclines them toward that form of combat. It’s one of the many reasons they don’t do as well on the surface.”

Lily frowned. “Well, except as assassins.”

“Deep elves engage in a lot of assassination?” Leo asked. “I mean, enough to be known for it?”

Lily lifted an eyebrow. “Yes. Again, their natural proclivity for Eclipse magic lends itself very well to assassination. And since their underground realms are frequently poor, many deep elves specialize in these arts.”

“Huh. And Zir is training in the close-fighting style? Would having a partner help?”

“Probably,” Lily said. “I’m hardly a master of the blade myself—I’m our scholar and healer, not our frontline fighter. But I can’t imagine it would hurt. Why? Feeling like training with him?”

“As you say, it couldn’t hurt.” Leo rubbed at his narrow chin. “And I feel bad for the kid. I almost had children with Lisa—the girl I married about ten years before I came here—before we… parted. But she miscarried. That child would have been just a few years younger than Zir, and him without a father and all…”

“You want to have a brief taste of being a father without the ‘pooping all over you’ phase, huh?” Lily smiled at Leo, her eyes sparkling with humor.

Leo laughed. “Why is everyone I hang with completely ignoring my royal dignity and insulting me all the time?”

“Maybe if you let us use your royal title…”

“I choose the insults.”

“I figured. Now go say hi to your borrowed kid. We leave tomorrow, bright and early, since the orcs are still disorganized and haven’t come after us, according to Meryl’s scouts.” Lily turned and walked off, heading out of the tent.

Hesitantly, Leo approached Zir, who was still knife-fighting wood. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m training in Pakodre, the way of the silent knife,” Zir said. “Like my father told me to do every day.”

“Your father?” I thought he was dead. “Where’s he?”

“He died when the orcs took us. He was tough. Level Four. Also a master of the blade, a title given to him by Cakrellia ‘One-Cut’ herself. But he was outnumbered. He was outnumbered so much! And when I tried to help, Mom just grabbed me and ran, even though I yelled at her to stop and let me help him! She shouldn’t have done that.”

Zir’s eyes shone with tears, but the droplets didn’t fall. He wiped them angrily away and went through another round of the dart-and-slash with the knife and log.

“So, want to train together?” Leo asked.

“I don’t want to learn your dumb sword-and-shield style,” Zir said, breathing hard. “It’s stupid belowground. I’m going to become the world’s greatest assassin, and I don’t need swords for that.”

So many creepy vibes, Leo thought. “Why an assassin?”

“So I can make money and then kill all the people who are holding our ancestral lands.”

Sounds like he’s parroting his dad, even though I’ve never met the guy.

“Well, how about you teach me your style, then?” Leo asked. He motioned to the knife. “I have some small blades skill, and it wouldn’t hurt to learn more.”

“I need to train. I only need one more foul orc’s blood on my knife and I’ll make Level Two. I need to make sure I have the talent to claim that soul. The first one fell to surprise, and the second in the chaos of battle. I need to be able to kill them without tricks.”

“They say you learn a lot by teaching someone.”

“Hmm… Dad did say that,” Zir said, launching another round of strikes against the poor, defenseless log. “Maybe.”

“I could sweeten the deal and get you a second knife and some practice knives,” Leo said.

Zir stopped what he was doing. “A good knife? Not some piece of crap knife?”

“You have my word.”

“Word of an uppy elf ain’t worth the spit it takes to curse them for lying,” Zir growled. “But if you bring me a knife, or even a practice one, I’ll still show you my moves.”

Leo pulled his own almost-never-used knife from its belt sheath and tossed it at Zir’s feet. He’d meant for it to land point down, for the cool factor, but it just landed flat on the ground with a puff of dust.

Zir snatched it up and balanced it in his hand.

Then he held up his weirdly curved and serrated knife. “It’s better than this stupid orc knife I have. Think you can get me a second good knife?”

“How about we train together first? You did say you’d consider that a down payment.”

“I guess I did say that, kinda. Well, if I’m going to be showing you how to blade fight, let me show you how to hold your knife first. Most people want to stab, or go for a killing blow in one hit, but knife fights are won by opening as many bleeds on your enemy as you can.”

As Zir held the knife out and adjusted Leo’s grip, Leo quipped, “Trust me. I’ve seen enough bleeds to know how effective they are.”

“Then you know the first thing Dad taught me about knife fighting. We can move on to his second lesson.”

***

“Why do I have to?” Zir asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the tent pole of Leo’s abode. “It won’t be useful at all.”

Lily and Leo were sitting on cheap wooden chairs to the side of the tent, which was about ten feet by ten feet, with a low, six-foot ceiling. It was made of thick furs, and didn’t feel like a normal tent to Leo. But it kept off what little cold they were getting.

Lily sighed, setting the book on the cheap wooden folding table at the center of the tent. “An education is important to everyone, Zir. Your father got a formal education, in the matters of magic, history, theology, and poetry. He did so just down the road in Calasti, before it fell.”

Zir frowned. “Fat lot of good that did. He still got killed ’cuz he didn’t fight good enough. And your stupid city burned.”

“Well enough. He didn’t fight well enough.”

“What?” Zir furrowed his brow, either in irritation or confusion.

“The point is, you need an education in more things than just the knife!” Lily said, exasperated.

“You still haven’t given me one good reason.”

“How about this?” Leo said as he walked around the tent. “Can you apply poison to your knives?”

“Why are you changing what we’re talking about?” Zir asked, eyeing Leo suspiciously.

“Humor me.”

“Of course I can apply poison to a knife!” Zir held his head high, his pointed ears easy to notice when he was so proud. “I learned that a while ago.”

“Okay, so do so, right now, and I’ll let you go with the ship team. You can’t fight yet, but I’ll let you watch from a galley.”

“Give me the poison, then,” Zir said, uncrossing his arms and holding one out, palm up.

“You have to get it. I’m not giving it to you.”

“Who can I get it from? And can I have coin to get it?” Zir’s eyes were wide, the boy clearly excited.

“You can get it from the forest. I know, for a fact, there’s a deadly poisonous plant here.” Leo took a seat on his cot.

Zir furrowed his brow. “Which plant, then?! Stop playing dumb games!”

Leo couldn’t help a smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth, and Lily was trying not to smile as well. She knew where this was going.

“Well, don’t you know? I mean, you know everything you need to be an assassin, including the skills, right?” Leo asked.

“I mean, I know most of the skills… Why are you doing this?” Zir was frowning and staring at Leo hard.

“Lily knows. She’s mastered the art of flora and knows which plants are poisonous, which are magically poisonous, and which can heal. You were literally within a hundred feet of a deadly plant earlier today. Perhaps you’ll let Lily teach you about it…”

Zir stared at him. “I know you’re tricking me somehow, and I’m not going to study all your stupid stuff… but I’ll listen to the magical plants lesson.”

Lily sighed. “I can also teach you how to identify future magical plants, and their likely properties, if you want.”

“Okay, maybe that lesson as well…”

***

At night, the stars reflected in the water of the Blue River as Leo stared out at the eight galleys that would be pivotal to carrying out his plan tomorrow.

He was facing out from the pier, technically looking at the boats but mostly lost in his own thoughts, still in his combat gear.

Lily, who was staring out with him, said something, but Leo barely registered it.

He was thinking over the details of Meryl’s plan, and some of the alternatives she had laid out. Forty and forty is how we’ll do it. I can’t afford to pry the entire hundred and sixty orcs out of the fort, and I can’t have them kill the slaves, either.

“Leo!” Lily said, reaching over and shaking his shoulder.

“What?”

“Did you hear anything I said?”

Leo sheepishly rubbed the back of his head in the dark. “Ah, no, Lily, I’m sorry. My mind was elsewhere.”

“Elsewhen, most likely,” she replied. “Thinking about tomorrow?”

Leo nodded. “It’s weighing on my mind, no doubt. I know the safe route is to pay more soldiers, but I don’t want to let the orcs get more established, or give them further chances to abuse the slaves… and if we pull this off, it’ll be a decent victory for our cause, and we’ll not use too much of our coin accomplishing it.”

“Well, I hope it’ll be fine, but it’s tomorrow’s problem, and there isn’t much of a chance to change things now.”

Leo nodded again.

“What I asked, however, is if you really like the kid?”

“Zir?” Leo asked. “Yeah. I feel for him—he watched his dad die fighting the orcs, and he failed to keep his mother and sister safe… But despite that, he’s pushing forward, trying to get better. I can respect someone like that. When life gives you nut kicks, hobble across the finish line anyway.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Is that a saying on your world? Because it sounds iffy.”

“It’s multiple sayings mashed together terribly, actually. But the kid has moxie. I respect moxie. And he’s kinda creepy-cute in his Children of the Corn way.”

“You’ve completely lost me with your cultural references, Leo,” Lily said. “Normally, I can piece together what you said from context clues, but why would being a plant child be creepy? Dryads and forest sprites and their ilk are almost always cute. And usually useful. Especially the dryads, who were allied with us for a long time.”

“No, you were right the first time—it was an obscure cultural reference with no context clues. That was my bad. Sorry. I’m very tired. It’s been a ridiculously long day, with not one, not two, but three small battles against the orcs and goblins, wolf bonding, a snarky little kid kicking me in my privates…”

“That’s what moxie gets you—nut kicks.”

Leo chuckled.

“You know he’s the son of the previous archduke, and that your body’s great-aunt is the one who let the goblins destroy his family’s city, right? I mean, you’ve picked up on that?”

Leo chuckled. “That was a mouthful: ‘this body’s great-aunt.’ I wonder how many times removed that is.”

Then he sighed. “And yeah, I understand. It’s an uphill battle. On the other hand, my best buddy is a dragon, and we’re allied—maybe Zir’ll forgive the high elves and have a great life with us. I kind of want to provide that for him. He’s the human face of this endeavor we’re undertaking.”

“Human face?”

“Mortal face, I mean.” Leo turned to Lily. “Why are you prejudiced against the deep elves, anyway?”

“Species are different, in stats and magical proclivities, and it matters. This isn’t like just different-color skin or hair—there are differences reflected in stat sheets.”

“What about the deep elves makes them inferior?”

“They burn in sunlight and have vision penalties. I’m surprised they aren’t mostly dying as slaves. But if that was all it was, I wouldn’t worry about it. But they have a natural proclivity for Eclipse magic—sometimes called Darkness or Shadow magic as well, although those aren’t the proper terms.”

“And that’s bad because…?”

“Eclipse magic is the magic of stealth and treachery, of hiding. It’s also a magic of selfishness, with few powers that help the whole. Those who develop the magic tend to become thieves or tricksters, assassins, things of that nature.”

“Do they have to?” Leo asked, turning his gaze back across the starlit water, his mind starting to drift again.

“No, but the powers lend themselves to it, and a disproportionate number of people who have Eclipse as their magic also have those personality traits.”

“Hmm… is there a best race?” Leo asked, wondering what the answer would be. He paced a bit. He really didn’t want to think about tomorrow.

“No idea, and that can’t really be answered because higher magic races are far stronger but also tend to be magic-locked to further realms from us.”

“What about on this world?”

Lily hesitated a long time. “Again, it’s nearly impossible to answer that because best at what and defined how? But the answer that would always be at the top or close to the top is probably humans. Sadly.”

Leo stopped pacing. That’s interesting. “Why?”

Lily walked in front of him and took a turn staring out over the water. “Don’t get me wrong. Most humans are weak and pathetic. They have a slight bonus to farming and no stat bonuses or penalties and extremely short life spans. Your average human is just sad, really.”

“Still not getting it.”

“They have a unique racial bonus, ‘race of champions.’ It gives them an unlimited number of perks, potentially. And it doubles the chance of starting with solid perks, and of every perk thereafter. Most humans are weaker, one-on-one, than individuals from other species. At least the major species. But they have two advantages—adaptability and a large pool of unusually powerful members. It lets them thrive, utterly, in the oddest of places and ways. And human champions tend to be wildly stronger than normal champions—woe to the individual who challenges them even close to on the same level.”

“Interesting,” Leo said, even though he was losing interest again, his thoughts turning back to tomorrow’s battle.

“It galls me, but I think that’s why you were brought over to lead us.”

“Wait, what?” Leo asked, his focus returning to Lily.

Lily smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. “You have such a high natural magic level, so many advanced perks, so many magics—you’re that rare human who gets unusual advantages. But now it’s combined with the high elf advantages as well, and you’re one of us. It’s why you have the potential to be so great, taking us to another level.”

“Assuming the plan works tomorrow, and I don’t get us all killed.”

“Yes, assuming that.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Power Versus Finesse

Leo glanced left and right as his mercenary soldiers lined up inside the apple orchards, just out of view of the orcs’ camp. They had exited the hasty fortification they’d established—a tiny square palisade inside the orchards. It really wasn’t the best position, and it relied heavily on the orcs substituting strength and rage for any kind of tactics. But so far, they hadn’t disappointed.

As Meryl had said, the orcs would almost certainly get smart soon, but Leo was betting a lot that today wouldn’t be that day.

Leo checked the sun’s position. It was early morning, hopefully before the slaves had been let out of their cages and sent to work the fields. The sun hadn’t chased the darkness from the sky entirely, and the night’s chill had yet to fully dissipate.

We don’t want to fight the orc band for too long, even if we can trick them into giving us a tactical defense advantage. But we also can’t let the second team hit first. We need to move soon.

Leo had decided to rely on Meryl for the tactical implementation of the plan to defeat the orcs. He wanted to reach the point where he understood strategy and tactics well, but he didn’t think his first exposure should be on-the-job training when they were outnumbered and lives depended on his performance.

Leo turned and stared at Hugh. A huge part of this plan would depend on the two of them and Meryl. The dragon was a beast of a combatant, acting a lot like an actual tank—he was so hard to kill, and he moved so fast, that he could singlehandedly disrupt the lines of low-level infantry.

Hugh smiled back at Leo, his usual baring of impressive dentition appropriate for what was happening now.

Leo turned and met Lily’s eyes. She was in the very back, prepared to aid with her healing, looking regal.

Meryl walked up to him. “It’s time, my lord. Are you ready?”

Leo gave her a nod.

She called out, “All right, men, you know the plan. Move out!”

The forty mercenary soldiers jogged forward, leaving the cover of the orchard and heading out into the six hundred or so feet of dew-covered grass and weeds.

The orcs were in the same ruin Leo had seen the day before. They operated around broken buildings, most obviously smashed apart by dragons. Numerous iron cages surrounded the central building, a large marble church with a single tower, upon which was the bas-relief of a tree. Surrounding that were the orc camps, all gross messes, and beyond that, a broken fence.

They don’t even have a defensive line, or entrenchments, or a palisade… All they have is a fence they half fixed and the cages themselves for their slaves! Did they expect no opposition at all?

The outcry from the orcs was almost immediate. They shouted and ran around in shambolic chaos. A few brave but foolhardy orcs charged in two small groups before the soldiers were finished forming a line. Hugh and Meryl charged one group of three, who broke apart, and Leo ran at a pair, finishing them off as the soldiers formed a line.

Then the soldiers fired crossbows into the orcs still in their camp. The distance was only a couple hundred feet, but the soldiers still missed considerably more than they hit. The ranged attacks served their purpose, however—the action enraged the orcs even further.

Leo spotted the black-scaled orc from yesterday’s chase. The orc appeared utterly unharmed. Leo wondered if that was Toughness, Luck, or healing potions. The orc carried a giant sword but not his bow—Leo hoped it had broken in the spill Leo had inflicted on him yesterday.

The black-scaled orc screamed and gesticulated, and soon, the remaining orcs formed a massive, vaguely circular horde. It started forward with an irregular jog, leaving about twenty behind to, presumably, guard the slaves.

“Back slow!” Meryl called, and the soldiers began slowly retreating, the harassing fire from the crossbowmen falling off.

“Spread line!” Meryl called, and half the crossbowmen stowed their ranged weapons and withdrew swords, fading to the sides, extending the line to thirty people. The remaining ten took spears off their backs, prepared to lend stabbing strength wherever they were needed.

“All right, you two, front,” Meryl said.

Leo and Hugh slowed their backward walk, allowing themselves to become the front line.

The soldiers were still about fifty feet from the trees when the milling chaos of the orcs’ charge reached them. Hugh hit the foremost group hard. He raked one orc with his claw from neck to navel, and the orc stumbled back, alive but grievously wounded. The second he bit in the thigh, dragging him back screaming and shaking him like a dog shook a rabbit and then slamming him to the ground.

“For the Massive Majestic Majesty that is Leo!” Hugh screamed as loud as he could, flecks of blood spewing onto the orcs, who didn’t seem deterred at all.

For fuck’s sake, Hugh.

Even over the din, Leo heard a few soldiers laugh.

Well, between the two ‘kills’ and the obvious fun he’s having, I think Hugh just shored up morale quite a bit.

The dragon’s incredible scales made it difficult for the orcs to hurt him, even as eight to ten peeled off and started stabbing and smashing him with spears and clubs.

Difficult, but with the orcs’ natural Strength, not impossible. A few strikes managed to draw blood from Hugh, and Leo winced as the dragon grunted from a particularly well-aimed club blow to his back.

Even with his magical armor, Leo was still considerably less damage-resistant than Hugh—but he was fast now, his Agility stat supernatural. Leo moved at the second group of orcs, his shield angled to deflect a spear strike, then he sidestepped the next orc’s club strike as his sword flickered out in a carefully controlled slash along the inner thigh of the first orc—which was guarded only by tattered cloth breeches. Blood from the femoral artery instantly and explosively stained the orc’s clothing, and it fell back, grabbing its leg and yelling.

Leo’s shield rim caught the overextended club wielder in the side of his head, and that orc went down like he’d had his power cut.

Two more slashes and the group in front of Leo was halted as well, confused by his rapid movement and obviously afraid to be the first ones to make a move toward him.

Meryl hit the third major prong heading toward the mass of soldiers, her blade crackling with lightning.

Leo caught a brief glimpse of her as he fought—she fought better and faster than either him or Hugh. Hugh killed one orc and mauled a couple more before retreating, while Leo put four out of the combat but killed zero. But Meryl left three corpses and three unfit for duty before she joined them. Although Hugh broke out of his group, neither Leo nor Meryl could afford to be surrounded.

The brief surge and retreat had done what it had needed to, however, and the soldiers made it back to the edge of the orchards.

The orcs followed them into the trees. The battle briefly became near-complete chaos on both sides. The orchards, which had hidden Leo’s force from the eyes of the orcs earlier, broke up the lines on both sides. And disorganization favored the numerous and strong orcs. Even though it was a bare hundred feet to the makeshift fortifications, Leo had to save two people who had tripped—or gotten slightly misdirected—from orcs, stabbing one orc in his lower back and knocking the other on his ass with a shield push before being forced to retreat.

Despite his best efforts, Leo still came upon the bleeding corpse of a human soldier, facedown, a huge rent in his back and neck both, as he retreated through the trees.

A minute later, Leo joined the remaining thirty-three soldiers who had made it into the fortification. It was merely three-foot-tall stakes rammed into the ground, facing outward over a two-foot-deep trench, with a small gate, but it would be a huge force multiplier against enemies as poorly led and equipped as the orcs. They’d built this tiny version of the standard encampment in the wee hours of the morning, a small defensive position to fall back to, using materials gathered and prepped at their main camp four miles south down the road.

It had been nerve-racking, trying to quietly set up the surprise fortifications only a thousand or so feet from the orcs, but Meryl’s men had managed it, shielded by the orchards.

“We have to hold, men!” Meryl screamed. “You know the plan!”

The orcs showed their first signs of a survival instinct—they didn’t blindly charge the fortifications. Instead, they milled outside. Eventually, the eight-foot-tall black-scaled orc moved to the front with his huge sword pointed at the fortification. Then he yelled and gesticulated wildly at it, screaming dark-sounding words as he did.

Leo turned to the men.

Lily moved among them, healing the hurt and wounded. An advantage I don’t think the orcs have, Leo thought as a notification told him one of the orcs he’d fought had died of blood loss. I wonder what the range on soul gathering for experience is? I mean, I’m about a hundred and fifty feet and a couple of minutes from where and when I cut him, and that assumes he didn’t try to retreat.

“Anyone know what he’s saying?” Leo asked aloud.

“Uh, not much, sir,” a black-haired soldier said, nervously rubbing his olive-skinned hands together. “I know a bit of Blood Tribes cant, and ‘Huvesti’ is the word for human, and ‘bahk do’ means ‘to make die.’ Those words account for, like, a third of his speech. Pretty standard orc shit, my lord.”

“Call him by his real title, Majestic—” Hugh began.

“Thank you, soldier,” Leo cut in, giving Hugh a glare. “What’s your name?”

“Vito, lord,” the soldier—Vito—replied.

“I appreciate a man who takes the time to learn, Vito.” Leo handed the man a gold coin he’d taken from his pouch—over a year’s salary for a mercenary.

The man’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates, and his friends exclaimed and slapped his back with friendly envy. Leo heard whispering about what had just happened going up and down the line.

And now it’s my turn to contribute to morale.

Meryl caught his eye and then nodded once—he thought in respect.

Leo already understood that on this world, Toth, one powerful individual could make a huge difference. No enemy had stood out to him at all, except for the black-scaled orc. Wanting to gain an edge before the fighting started, Leo used analyze on the enemy leader. His magic reached out, forming into his Mind ability, and information about his enemy flowed back into his brain.

The black-scaled orc…

Chargath Bone-Eater

Level Seven

Earth, Body

Health: ~25

Stamina: ~20

Essence: ~5

Physical Attacks:

By weapon + Strength, ~+75%

Defenses:

Armor 3: Scales, Earth magic

Special Abilities: Earth and Body magic, details unknown

So, in case you were wondering, Grakith Demonborn got into the pants of, like, every orc lady out there. And a few really unlucky and traumatized elves. He left his quarter-demon children all over his short-lived empire, and now most of them are warlords, chieftains, or lieutenants in one of the Blood Tribes or another.

Chargath Bone-Eater is the idiot version of Demon-Daddy’s children, however—dumb as rocks and lacking almost all magical aptitude. Sadly, when you level, you can always just stack attributes and, in the case of Body magic, healing, and that’s what this guy has done. When your only job is killing things, sitting squarely at room temperature in the IQ department isn’t the worst disadvantage.

Well, that wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but it gives me something to work with, I guess. No real weaknesses here, however.

Leo knew how he would try to fight him. He would rely on his own advantages—fast movement and critical hits. A single critical hit did three times the damage of a normal hit for Leo, thanks to his twenty-plus Agility bonus and his Predator perk.

Scale-butt is probably a lot tougher than I am. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent Wolten with the other team, after all.

Chargath finished his speech, and a few axes were handed to some of the largest orcs. The orcs slowly broke apart and then coalesced into three groups. Half the axes went to the right group, and half to the left. Chargath and his group of orcs, the smallest one, walked squarely in front of the gate.

Then Chargath screamed, “Korth!” and pointed with his sword.

“I’m going to stop the breachers on the right,” Meryl said. “Hugh, take the left. Lord Leo, make a name for yourself with Chargath’s head if you can!”

The two moved to their positions, and Leo moved forward.

“We’ve got your back, my lord!” one of the soldiers cried out.

Chargath charged, running straight at the gate. As he got close, he raised his hand, and the earth around the spikes rumbled.

Oh, damn, Leo thought. We’re not the only people with levels. And I’ve only got ten men to defend this charge.

Chargath swung his arm to the side, and the earth around the spikes moved, dumping them, and the gate itself, onto the ground, useless as defensive emplacements.

Leo moved forward almost without thinking. The gate was two men wide, and Chargath had an orc buddy with him. Leo ducked under the swing of the massive sword, but it had been a feint. Chargath’s kick caught him in his side—his armored side, fortunately, but the sheer power of the demon-orc threw Leo back, rolling, into his own men, fouling them.

Two died almost instantly, one from Chargath’s backswing, which the soldier tried to block but which hit so hard, the blocking sword was shoved back and the man’s face cut near in half. The other took a club from the side orc and went down. However, one soldier held his hand out, and fire spurted from it. It barely singed the orcs, but they shied back for a critical half second that allowed them to recover. Thank the gods of this kooky world my soldiers are Level Two.

Leo scrambled to his feet. The normal orc who had hesitated took a spear thrust in the leg, dropping to the ground, and caught a sword on his club, only for a spear to take him in his exposed underarm.

Chargath swung a mighty blow, and one of Leo’s soldiers lost an arm, screaming, and was then kicked in the chest, flying backward. Chargath advanced a few feet.

Leo knew his second-level, well-equipped men could handle the orcs in the narrow, two-man-wide passage if he could drop Chargath—but it had to be fast, or Chargath would clear a path into the heart of the fortifications.

He rushed Chargath, watching for his kicks and punches. He ducked the sword again, but this time leapt sideways, dodging the follow-up kick. As Chargath lowered his leg, Leo saw his moment—the quarter second when Chargath would have both feet planted, before the sword could be brought back.

It was the cheapest of blows, but Leo didn’t want to lose any other men. He darted in and stabbed Chargath dead center in his breeches, then danced away.

As Leo leapt back, Chargath let go of his sword and grabbed his crotch, screaming. It was a terrible sound, bass somehow while still being a scream. Leo had expected him to be treble now, but apparently, that wasn’t a thing with demon-orcs.

His face a rictus of agony, Chargath reached down for his sword. Two spear thrusts from soldiers hit him, doing light damage, and Leo rushed in. He slashed the back tendon of Chargath’s right leg—hard—and Chargath fell to a knee. Leo felt a brief working of magic before he jumped out again to avoid Chargath’s sudden grab.

Then the demon-orc climbed to his feet, his face no longer communicating pain.

What the heck? Leo used analyze again, scanning the sheet quickly as he moved in and out of combat range of Chargath, trying to keep him on his back foot and not clearing more space for the orcs behind him.

He saw the information immediately.

Special Abilities:

Move Earth: Can spend essence to shift earth at up to 5 x occult feet

Resilience, Rank II: Gains a health back every 6 seconds

Leo wouldn’t be able to end the fight with hit-and-run strikes.

Chargath had simply healed—his groin had obviously healed and taken the pain with it, as had the supposed crippling blow to his tendon.

I need a couple of big hits in a row. Please, new and improved elf body, don’t fail me now.

Leo made another hit-and-leap-away attack, waiting and watching for what he hoped would be Chargath’s change of tactics.

Chargath bunched the muscles of his legs—it was time.

Leo leapt forward, flicking his blade out. He dropped partially, dodging the sword swing. But when Chargath started to charge after Leo’s expected leap out of danger, he instead stepped in, thrusting his blade up as hard as he could, into the neck of the giant brute.

His sword half severed Chargath’s head, but Leo knew better. Anything short of dead was a slight delay at best. Even as Chargath grabbed at his grievous wound, Leo stepped under his huge arm, rushed past him—almost into the next orc—turned, and slammed his sword into the other side of Chargath’s neck, while angling the surprised orc’s club swing away with his shield.

The beast’s fingers prevented a lot of the damage, being lost along the way, and Leo stepped back. He saw Chargath’s stance change and moved sideways around him, trying to avoid the other orc’s strikes as he did, causing the orc with the club to stumble forward.

Chargath turned, swinging his sword with his right hand while holding his neck with his left. Leo’s movement away caused the other orc to catch the sword, and he died in a welter of blood.

I need to finish this!

Leo let go of his shield, grabbed his sword in two hands, and swung at the back of Chargath’s knee as hard as he could while the mountain of flesh was facing away from him. The hit was dead on, and the leg was cut to the intersection of the bones. Chargath fell back, and Leo continued his mad movement around.

The spear of another orc took him across the outside of his thigh. Agony shot through Leo’s leg and he tripped at the same time, stumbling forward toward his men and collapsing even as he completed his circuit around Chargath.

He scrambled away, jumping unceremoniously into the line of his men to escape any further attack, and rolled over.

To see the mountain of flesh charging him, spewing blood from multiple wounds he hadn’t healed yet, his eyes wide, dilated, and bloodshot.

I think I pissed him off!

Leo yelled as the mountain raised his sword. His men hit Chargath a couple of times with spear and sword, and a crossbow bolt from someone slammed into his chest, but nothing stopped him as he rushed to Leo. He towered over the otherworlder, pouring blood, and raised his sword. Then it came down at Leo.

Lily and Hugh both screamed his name.

He reached out with his magic and pulled one of the wooden stakes on the ground next to him across his chest as Chargath’s blade fell onto him.

The blow hit the stake, cutting completely through it and partially through Leo’s armor. Leo took five damage from the transferred blunt force, and his ribs cracked. But he survived. He stabbed his sword up, hard, into Chargath’s unmentionables a second time, and Chargath screamed.

More sword slashes and spears hit the demon-orc, and blood rained down on Leo. Then a couple of arrows slammed deeply into the orc. Leo rolled away and stood as Chargath teetered, his insanely high Health, Armor, and regeneration failing him.

The orc raised his sword again, but it was slow and awkward. Another arrow slammed into the giant before Leo could engage. Chargath finally toppled, dead.

Lily was standing, her magical bow in her hands, about ten feet from him. Right, she has a magic bow. Since her illusions hide it underneath her hair and dress, and she almost never uses it, I keep forgetting that’s part of her gear.

Drumming came from the forest’s edge.

His remaining soldiers, delivered by galley to the orcs’ base to secure the slaves hopefully without loss and take the orcs’ stronghold from them, hit the orcs’ rear as planned.

The orcs’ attack failed utterly as they tried to turn to meet a second front.

The battle, although costly, was won.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

They Will Never (Again) Take Our Freedom!

Leo led the procession of Cavendil’s Coterie, and a tiny number of captured orcs, into town, Lily and Hugh by his side. The few orcs who had stayed to guard the prisoners were mostly corpses in various states of obvious death on the side of the road.

Hugh sniffed at one corpse as they entered, and Leo barked out, “Please don’t, Hugh.”

Hugh rolled his eyes, but he headed in without eating the orc. Thank god. Gods. Whatever it is here.

Meryl, from her position about twenty men down, loudly called out, “All right, men, find the keys and get these people out of their cages! You know what to do once they’re free!”

Lily walked next to Leo. “You should probably be prepared to give a speech to the slaves.”

“Ex-slaves,” Leo said.

The destruction of the town had left little standing except the temple, so Leo moved to the front of the building, where marble steps led up to the entrance, forming a slight dais. At the top, he smelled incense and blood—the smell he was coming to associate with demonic magic—emanating from the grounds. He examined the door behind him. Small dark-green vines with red thorns were wrapped around the base of the door, and growing a few feet past the doors on the walls and floor of the steps in a radial manner, like someone had thrown liquid against the door—hard—and then evil plants had grown where the splatter pattern had been.

“What’s this?” Leo asked.

Lily examined it briefly, then shrugged. “I don’t know, Leo. Corrupt magic of some sort, I assume still leakage from the Blood Abyss. But that’s a guess, to be clear. I’ll check into it more and get back to you with a better answer.”

Lily immediately knelt and inspected the vines more thoroughly. Leo trusted her to do the first pass, since she was the expert. She’d give him a more detailed answer later.

The elves were exiting their cages now, occasionally giving awkward cheers or thanks but mostly just waiting. The slumped postures and sullen expressions on most told Leo they expected him to be their new master, and that he was only receiving any cheers at all because he wasn’t an orc.

The outright hateful expressions on the squinting, half-blind faces of the deep elves further convinced Leo of his theory.

Ignoring the interesting magical puzzle behind him, Leo faced the assembled crowd. I’ve never given a public speech before, except at conferences for engineers… Just tell it like it is, and hopefully it’ll be all right.

Leo raised his hand straight above his head, palm out and fingers spread, like he was waving. “Okay, um, fellow elves”—off to a great start—“you’ve all been, um, rescued, and you’re all free now.”

There were mutters from the milling crowd, and one deep elf woman in a ratty gray dress yelled, “We’re free? You’re setting us free?” She held the hand of a young deep elf girl in a gray shift next to her.

Leo lowered his hand, feeling awkward. “Yes. We’ll be preparing manumission papers for everyone who wants them specifically, but everyone is free.”

Before anyone else could respond, someone shouted, “Mom!” from the edge of the crowd.

The woman gasped. “Zir?”

Zir pushed through the elves, shoving and cursing when they didn’t move fast enough. He reached his mom, and they clasped both hands, then bowed, touching foreheads.

The gesture repeated between Zir and the little girl, who Leo presumed was Zir’s sister. Closer inspection showed her to be about ten or eleven.

I thought we would save them, but I’m still extra glad we actually did.

An emaciated elf with a massive bruise on one side of his face in the front of the crowd stepped forward. “You’re setting us free? In the wilderness? Are we to starve or be eaten, then?”

Angry and fearful muttering went through the crowd.

“If you’ll let me finish,” Leo said loudly, holding both hands up.

The crowd quieted.

“I’m actually offering everyone here a position at the new settlement I’m building, on Elgin Isle, next to Calasti. I intend to rebuild the Averian Kingdom. We have thousands of gold of materials coming to establish farms, shops, and homes for any who join. We also have ships to take you there, and a great deal of food arriving—salted, smoked, or dried—to carry us through the time we need to get our footing and build the basics.”

The muttering turned interested.

“For those who don’t want to join, we’ll provide a paid trip back to Steelport, a few days’ rations, and manumission papers.”

“Is this offer just for the uppy elves?” one of the deep elves, toward the back of the crowd where the busted fence and the cages were, cried out.

“No. My kingdom will accept all who contribute and live by the laws, although we are aiming to recover the enslaved citizens of the first Averian kingdom initially. But we will not turn away those who want to work and make new lives for themselves.”

The muttering on that one was mixed.

“Who are you?” one of the elves—he didn’t see which—shouted.

It was hard for Leo to resist, but he managed to avoid his normal disclaimer, and he gave something closer to the speech Lily had asked him to give for this part. “I’m Leo Evans il Stardew, appointed by the old king’s magic legacy at his vault, acknowledged by Lilianae ap Willowynd and Olanalinae ap Belmoria, as well as Hugh of the Storm Vale, a child of old Chao. I am the heir of the Stardew line, the lord of the new settlement, and I someday hope to be worthy of reclaiming the title of king of Averia.”

It was harder to parse the whispers this time, but they appeared at least to not be hostile.

Then a high elf moved to the front of the crowd. “It’s as fair a deal as we’ve been offered in a long time, Lord Evans. Thank you! I don’t rightly know what my fellow slaves—well, ex-slaves—will do, but I aim to join you. Do we pledge now?”

“Not now, my good man,” Leo said. “I’m not requiring personal pledges from anyone unless they take up service in the government. I’d ask, once we have everyone who wishes to stay, and we’ve met the other settlers, who should be on their way soon, that we all pledge ourselves to each other and our new kingdom.”

Leo was met by silence from the crowd, and more than a few blinking eyes.

He hadn’t told Lily about that part, and he’d bet her eyes were glaring daggers at his back, but the modified version of the pledge felt right to him—and he suspected pledging to an ideal, an ideal that by now probably represented lost safety, health, and happiness to most of these people, would motivate them far more than declaring fealty to a stranger.

He didn’t have a psychology degree, of course, but he was pretty sure it’d work that way.

After a moment, when no one else spoke, Leo raised his hands again. “All right. I’ve appointed eight people to be coordinators for you. They should be taking position around you now, and they’ll raise their hands. Each of them knows the plan, will be responsible for getting you on the ship in a couple of hours, and a couple of hours after that, getting you off the ship and into tents. They’ll also be responsible for distributing food. I need you all to break into groups of fifty, one group for each leader. Understand?”

There were a few muttered, “Yeses,” and a smaller number of “Yes, Lord Evans!” and the large group started breaking, blob-like, into eight smaller groups.

Leo left to talk to Commander Meryl—she should have the final casualty and captive report by now.

He walked between the oddly creepy church and a half-shattered house, heading to the pier. As he went by, he couldn’t help but notice the silhouette of a giant Venus flytrap behind the bloodstained, and somehow intact, window of the church.

Commander Meryl waited for him on one of the two piers of the town.

“What were the losses, Commander Meryl?” Leo asked as he walked up and joined her in staring out over the eight Steelport galleys now docked at the pier, or pulled up on the beach nearby. The pier they were standing on was a single-cut marble pier, as if the original inhabitants of this town had decided to be as ostentatious as possible.

Although, perhaps they’d had a local Earth user, and it had been cheap and easy to fuse it all together. Leo wasn’t sure yet how magic affected all things.

Meryl sighed. “Even with healing magic from five people, fifteen of my men have been lost. Two in the warg fight, seven retreating to the strong point, five at the gate with you when Bone-Butt broke through, and one unlucky scout, Maria, who somehow stopped a thrown axe with her neck during the pincer attack that finished the orcs off.”

Leo winced. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Meryl stared into his eyes, her one brown eye and one glowing blue eye her most distinctive feature. But the rest of her was almost as noteworthy—the blood splattered across her chain armor, her military-cut hair. Something about her demeanor and carriage just spoke ‘general’ to Leo.

“It’s what you paid us for,” Meryl said, sighing heavily.

She turned her eyes out over the water of the Blue River, and the ships preparing to load there. “I’ll not deny that seeing every fifth cot empty is taxing. Most of these men, however, made about four years’ salary.”

“What?” Leo asked, surprised both by the amount and the topic change.

“Well, what with their cut of what you paid us and shares of loot from the orcs’ base—although that was meager—they’re each netting about two gold. And I’d be flat-out rich, except I intend to reinvest the coin in my men’s gear.”

The wealth didn’t seem like it was worth men’s lives to Leo. But he didn’t say anything. He might need the services of Cavendil’s Coterie again. Plus, freeing four hundred from slavery at the price of fifteen dead did balance the scales in Leo’s mind.

“You needn’t feel guilty about it, Leo,” Meryl said, putting her hand on Leo’s shoulder. “It was something that needed doing enough to pay the price. So we did it. And the side of good gained greatly today. The men know it, in their hearts. I’m worried a few might choose to serve you after their time with me is up, and I can’t blame them.”

Leo raised an eyebrow, feeling a bit awkward with Meryl’s hand still on his shoulder.

Meryl’s one blue eye was blazing as she looked out from the pier.

“Two hundred orc warriors, or near enough, were put into the ground over two days,” Meryl said with a fierce smile.

Then she rubbed her hands together. “More importantly than dead orcs, or even the giant payday, is that roughly fifty of my people are Level Two now. Which, incidentally, is most of my remaining men. Six made it to Level Three in that fight. I can already tell you’re soft and squeamish, but trust me, the fifteen dead were worth it. Fifteen Level Two people are worth more than thirty Level One, and we’ve got a way better ratio than that.”

That’s a really darkly pragmatic way to look at things, Leo thought.

Meryl removed her hand and turned around to stare at the broken town, away from the pier and the boats. “We aren’t exactly Chosen of Kellen, but still, we’re a lot stronger now, and we’ll almost certainly fight the orcs again. And four hundred slaves were rescued from the orcs, and you plan to set them free. In the grand scheme of empires and cataclysms, it might not mean much, but we did good today, and if we paid a price, that’s what my men signed up to do.”

“Who’s Kellen?” Leo asked.

Meryl’s eyes went wide, making her glowing blue one even more pronounced. “The god of justice, the being most closely associated with ‘good,’ at least on Toth. How can you not know of him?”

“Sorry. I did terribly in theology.”

Meryl gave a forced chuckle. “We also captured nine orcs. The vast majority fought to the death or escaped.”

“Learn anything useful?”

“Not really. It’s pretty much what we already know. Scale-Butt was here to establish his own tribe, and he was trying, in his completely incompetent way, to make this tiny orchard town into his headquarters or yurt or whatever the hell the Blood Tribes do. Primary sacrifice altar, probably. He had the boats so he could pirate the trade he thought would be returning to the Blue River, according to his men.” Meryl smacked her right fist into the palm of her left hand. “Now, thanks to us, he won’t be doing any of that shit.”

“We’ll set the captured orcs free,” Leo said, “after we leave. On the far side of the river, of course.”

“What?!”

“But I won’t give the piratical slave-holding bastards anything else. They can retreat, starve, or feed the monsters around here for all I care.”

Meryl’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious? Why not execute them? Or at least enslave them?”

“If you execute everyone you capture, the next people won’t surrender as easily. It actually costs far more to kill prisoners in the long run, trust me. My people learned the truth of it over thousands of years of conflict. Additionally, I want my society to be free, think free, and to never believe any person can be property. If someone needs to die, so be it, but I want no slaves, ever, in my realm. Not even after I’m gone and dead, and a new king has risen. I need it to be an absolute rule.”

“Foolish as hell,” Meryl proclaimed. “I mean, nine orc slaves will only fetch five to six gold in total, most places, so I suppose it’s not the biggest deal. But it’s better if you either sell them or you work them—seize any tool that comes to hand, and any advantage, my dad used to say.”

“I understand the argument, but trust me, a society will function far better if it only thinks of people as having free will. It’ll produce more and be more successful.”

“Hey, you’re the one paying me, so we’ll do it your way,” Meryl said, rolling her eyes.

Leo chuckled in his own head. That was employee code for ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about,’ in any world, it seemed.

“I suppose you have some equally brilliant reason for paying for the ex-slaves you freed to return to Steelport? Money that would be better spent getting a few more troops, I might add.”

Leo ignored her sarcasm and skepticism as he continued. “Ultimately, if the elves decide to stay, I want it to be a real decision. A real desire to be a part of this. I don’t want people who don’t believe in what I’m doing. Dedicated citizenry, free to pursue their own goals but still believing in the whole, are a true advantage for any nation.”

Meryl grunted but added nothing else.

Leo continued. “A nation has two destinies—geography, and demography. With one, you take what you get. With the other, you can improve it—teach your people, instill in them values that help the whole.”

“And level them,” Meryl said. “A shame you don’t have a dungeon core among your treasures.”

That’s the second time someone has mentioned something like that—I need to remember to ask Lily about it.

Val walked toward him with a red-haired elf beside her—likely, and hopefully, her brother. They were walking up toward him between some of the broken buildings, heading toward the marble pier and the galleys.

“We’ll pick this up later,” Leo said, walking toward the siblings.

Val didn’t wait for him—she ran up, threw her arms around him, and squealed. “We rescued him, Leo! We rescued my brother, just like you said we would! He’s alive! I didn’t believe he really would be!”

Then, embarrassed, she let go and took a knee, although the smile kept playing at the edges of her mouth. “Sorry, my liege. I just meant to thank you for your—”

Leo grabbed her arm and pulled her gently back to her feet. “You’re welcome, Val. I’m truly glad to have helped. Truly. Now, how about you introduce me?”

“Of course, my liege.” Val practically yanked him the ten feet back to her brother.

“Leo, this is my brother, Tywyndyll il Belmoria. Ty, this is my new liege, King Leo Evans il Stardew.”

Ty bowed deeply. When he raised his head, he swayed a bit. He was a near mirror of his sister, with long red hair—his tied in a ponytail—green eyes, and a lithe frame. But he was sweating, his eyes were glassy, and he had a huge wound, diseased around the edges, across the side of his jaw.

Leo reached out, touched Ty, and shaped the essence within him into Body magic in the form of regeneration, rank I.

The wound closed up, but a tiny scar remained… and a pile of pus and goop, which Ty brushed off onto the ground. Because it was diseased? Leo wondered. And is the scar because it had already partially healed?

Ty remained hot to the touch. It can’t be the magical healing, Leo thought. If the heat from all that as a biological process went out all at once, I’m sure it’d fry him, although I’m not a biologist. Still. And the magical healing never produced heat before… He must be feverish still. I wonder if he’s still infected?

“Thank you,” Ty said, deep relief evident in his voice.

“You’re okay now?” Leo asked. “You still appear sick.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ty said. “I apologize if this is presumptuous to explain to you, but when you heal someone with an infection, it usually works out fine. The bacteria once feeding on the wound aren’t slain. Some are still inside me, but they usually die on their own later.”

“You know about bacteria?” Leo asked. They must, as Middle Averian has a word for it.

“Of course,” Ty said, obviously confused.

Probably wondering why I didn’t know about the vagaries of regeneration if I knew about bacteria.

“Well, enough of that. I’m glad you’re safe, and I’m sorry to hear things didn’t work out for you while leveling.”

“Well, I did make Level Two,” Ty said, smiling. “And you’ve saved me from the consequences of my own actions. So all’s well that ends well.”

But even as Ty declared it, he had a haunted look in his eyes—a look that said he had suffered, or seen, things that were with him yet, and would be for some time.

“I took both a minor lightning ability, and a growth ability,” Ty said.

He and his sister stared at Leo expectantly. Leo had no idea what they wanted, or what was going on.

“Interesting,” Leo said. “Well, I’m going to get back to work. We have a lot to do. It was a pleasure meeting you, Ty.”

Ty’s face fell slightly, and he glanced at his sister. But they both bowed and then retreated down the street hastily.

Lily’s voice floated to him from farther inside the town. “Leo! Leo, I have great news! Come with me!”

Leo chuckled to himself. It’s just a never-ending parade out here by the pier.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Roothammer and
the First Goddess

Lily hurried between the same two buildings, following an alleyway to the pier. Leo waved to her, and she stopped and motioned him back toward the town.

Leo quickly reached her side. She grabbed his arm as he hurried up. “Guess what I just discovered!”

“What?” Leo simply smiled, caught up in her excitement.

“Well, I figured out what’s up with the church! Just come look! It’s amazing, truly, and I want you to see!”

“I probably won’t even get why whatever you want to show me is impressive. You know that, right?”

Then Leo laughed as Lily yanked on his arm and tried to drag him down the street. “Come on, come on, just humor me on this one!”

Lily was usually staid and mature and didn’t act her young age. It was cute to see her so exuberant.

Leo allowed himself to be dragged along. It only took a minute to walk past the houses and the empty cages, climb the stairs of the church, and reach the now-open door.

The inside of the church didn’t look like a church at all, more like a thick botanical garden… if gardens were evil. There were oversized Venus flytraps, vines everywhere, and mushrooms that were glaringly poisonous. The air was humid in a suffocating way, and filled with the stench of rot.

And Leo felt the magic of the place, a dark and feral thing that hungered for blood and death.

“Why is this living advertisement for never leaving your house a good thing, exactly?”

“Because they failed!”

Lily pulled him along to the far end of the church, where they found a small wooden altar. It was a work of art, with scenes of idyllic nature on it, as well as carvings of a female elf with vines for hair, whose feet merged with the earth, providing food to elves and animals both. In the center was a tiny dip where water gathered. In the dip was a finger-sized emerald and a similarly sized amethyst bound together in silver filigree, studded with even smaller emeralds and amethysts. All the gems glowed slightly.

The magic here, right up against the altar, felt peaceful. Leo had a sudden strong sense of lying on his back in a field of flowers, the warm, fragrant breeze blowing through his hair as a few clouds floated lazily by overhead.

“What is it?”

“It’s a Temple Stone to Iluvin Eturia,” Lily said. “A fully functional Temple Stone! I can’t believe this wasn’t looted by someone! Maybe the old priest hid the stone, and the orcs just recently found it. But the orcs were trying to corrupt it, probably trying to rededicate it to their dark god, Ikrahkt, and they failed!”

“Is it easy to corrupt one of these?” Leo asked. That sounds like it would require a lot of magic… Whom do the orcs have that can do this?

“Um… no,” Lily said, all excitement gone from her voice. “I think the minimum level needed would be twenty. Actually, if that person had been around, I suspect we would have lost our fight, and most of us would have died.”

“Then let’s take this and get out of here before that person returns,” Leo said.

Lily gave a subdued nod.

Leo reached down and grasped the gem.

***

Leo stood in a grove of trees, and fairies flew around him. A babbling brook that appeared to contain purple wine ran through the trees. Dryads and naiads played with fauns and multitailed foxes.

Leo glanced around, blinking. Had he teleported again?

And lost everyone a second time?

He was no longer in the church.

“No, Leo Evans, you haven’t left my temple on Toth. Whenever you wish, you will return there.”

Leo turned to see the most elegantly beautiful woman he had ever seen before—growing out of the ground. She appeared as an elf, but she was full-figured in a way elves almost never were. Her hair was green, and she was wrapped, just barely enough to be decent, in vines and leaves. Her hair and pale skin were flawless, her face perfectly symmetrical, her every move grace personified. She might as well have been airbrushed. But where her feet touched the ground, she merged with the soil, the grass rising and slowly becoming flesh by midshin.

Leo was about to ask who this lady was, but the answer was obvious. “You’re the goddess? Iloovine Eturnia?”

A deer-centauress ran by, giggling and squealing happily, pursued by three of the multitailed foxes.

The presumed goddess smiled indulgently at Leo. “Iluvin Eturia, my young king. Although the specific names mortals call me aren’t really relevant, in truth, and you may address me as you wish. I am known as Gurv’gik the Mother of Fungus to a race of insect people far below the surface of the continent you are on, and go by the name of Golverdin the Tree Uncle and am thought of as male in the northern third of the nearest continent not of the thirteen you high elves inhabit. But of said thirteen, I am, at least on the surface, known to all by this name.”

“Sorry, Goddess. Iluvin Eturia, I mean.”

Leo couldn’t feel any magic from her, despite the fact she was bare inches from him. Which was weird. He’d felt nearly overwhelming power from the wolf queen…

“Freyvir was physically present, and although she is orders of magnitude lower than I, she could not disguise her power when next to you. But you are communicating to me across dimensional boundaries, and in, essentially, an illusion as well.”

Iluvin swished her hair back, and birds flew from her tresses, their cries an exultation of the life they now possessed.

“I am Wyld,” Iluvin said. “I am both the nature you see around you, as well as Nature Red of Tooth and Claw.”

Wolves rose from the grass, forming almost at once as they lunged at the deer-centauress and the foxes, which all went down, screaming for a few seconds as the wolves ate them.

“I am the growth of plants, the birth of animals,” Iluvin continued, and the grass sprouted flowers, which opened to reveal tiny baby deer-centaurs, which quickly grew into frolicking children of eight or nine.

“The hunt, lands untamed and put to plough both. I am the nurturing of that which came before civilization and that which civilization is built on. Patron of the hunter and the farmer, the rancher and the explorer. And I offer you, Leo, the chance to become a priest.”

Leo had questions, but before he could ask, she collapsed to nothing.

Then Iluvin became a huge tree that ripped itself from the ground. It shot upward, becoming a tower. The bark and trunk of the tree warped itself until it was shaped like Iluvin, but without any of the sexy.

“It’s a pact, much like the one you have with Freyvir, but far stronger,” the new form of Iluvin said, her voice reverberating across the clearing. “You gain power from me, and in turn, serve as my instrument on Toth. Each god can make a few true priests. Even ones of my strength can only have a handful per continent. I would offer you this boon.”

Eyes formed on the Iluvin-tree and blazed green. Then they became wolf eyes, and a mouth formed full of wooden teeth.

She continued. “The power of my boon far exceeds that of the wolf queen.”

Leo wasn’t convinced. “What price, Goddess, do you demand in return?”

“I told you—to serve my interests on your world.”

“Am I magically compelled to do so?”

“Of course, although you’ll find me a lax mistress,” Iluvin said, and the tree rotted before his eyes, collapsing to the ground covered in moss.

A deer-centauress, now adult, bounded next to Leo and put her hand on Leo’s shoulder. This was Iluvin, too. Her eyes stared into Leo, and he marveled at her ability to shape-change. “The link allows me to send more than power through it. If you were to turn against me, there would be… consequences.”

Iluvin’s hand on his shoulder made Leo nervous, but he answered honestly. “I’d pass, then, Goddess, with respect.”

“Are you sure, Leo? Can you afford to pass on power, at this stage of your existence? Power for yourself, and power for your people?”

She dragged her elegant hand from his shoulder down to Leo’s chest, which was suddenly exposed to the wind and sky, his shirt gone. She then grazed her hand along his skin as she trotted around him and leaned her human torso in, her teeth scraping the shell of his ear.

“Can you afford to turn me down, Leo? Now, when the darkness bays for your blood, and there are teeth and claws around every corner?”

Leo grimaced. “Are you threatening me?”

“Not in the least,” she said, pressing herself gently into his back.

Leo was conscious, suddenly, of how long he’d been without physical intimacy… although, the whole centaur thing weirded him out a bit.

“You have my word, Leo,” she breathed into his ear. “If you turn me down, there will be no consequences. My Temple Stone will still work. The benefits of the temple will be yours, assuming, of course, your society doesn’t violate the deepest ethics of my faith—as it is for every nation. My faithful in your land will be rewarded as they always were. I would not have you think I wasn’t playing fair. But I offer you more in return for the agreement, as I stated. And I point out that you need more, more of everything, right now.”

Leo was sorely tempted. He did need more. His position, not even established, was precarious the way a stick of dynamite sweating nitroglycerin was.

But he already knew he didn’t want to be in a position to be compelled from above. It never worked out well for the compelled, sooner or later.

Besides, if he were to have a god, he was pretty sure it would have to be Asnandi. The god who had brought him here, and the god of portals—the god of Yggdrasil.

“You would serve that enigmatic hussy, would you?” Iluvin asked, and she pulled away from Leo, all her playful, flirty movements and noises gone.

Hussy? Leo turned to face her.

“We’re… sisters, of a sort. Not in the sense you think. It’s hard to describe to one not yet ascended. Never mind. She’s hard to work with, for all the gods. I won’t break the faith I had with you, but know, Leo Evans, that I am disappointed in this choice.”

“I doubt I’ll be a priest to any god or goddess, Ms. Eturia, but thank you for your forbearance regardless.” Don’t get smote, don’t get smote.

Iluvin laughed again, her previous demeanor back as if it had never left. “‘Ms. Eturia,’ huh? That’s a new one. Perhaps I’ll try to get it to become my name in some blighted land where they haven’t rediscovered the gods yet.”

“Interesting.”

She smiled benevolently down at Leo. “Now, to return you to your own mind.”

***

“Leo? Leo, can you hear me?”

Lily waved her hands in front of Leo’s face.

He blinked, then focused on her.

“Yeah, sorry,” Leo said, focusing on Lily’s blue eyes. “I was, um, otherwise occupied.”

“Did Iluvin Eturia speak to you?” Lily asked excitedly.

Leo glanced around at the marble walls of the church, and the dark foliage all across the floors. Not a hint of the grove, the sun, the sky, or any flirty centaurs.

“Yeah, she did. She wanted me to be her priest.”

Lily’s eyes got wide. “As in, a formal priest? A cleric of the god with access to her power, not just a ranked worshipper in her church hierarchy?”

“Yes, that.”

“That’s amazing, Leo! I can’t believe we got the formal support of the goddess of the forest and elves! Although I’m a bit jealous, it seems like you’re racking up titles and perks the way a stray dog collects fleas. I had foreseen a bit more of that for myself, given my status, but still—a priest of Iluvin Eturia. This is so wonderful!”

Ah, fuck. “Um, I turned her down.”

“What?” Lily asked, her voice shocked and angry both.

That voice promised at least ten hours of arguing, Leo was certain of it. Probably a good thirty to forty snide comments about his decision-making as well.

Leo hoped, if he was reasonable enough and explained well enough, he could stave off a bit of it.

“So, before I say anything else, she did promise we could still build her church and she wasn’t upset…”

From Lily’s expression, he doubted his placating her would work.

Then there was a crack from the altar, which split apart.

“You’ve doomed us with the goddess of the elves!” Lily exclaimed, her hand in front of her face.

As the two sides fell, however, a massive hammer, made entirely from what appeared to be petrified wood, was revealed. And Lily’s eyes went wide, not with fear, but with wonder.

“I’m sorry, Leo, I stand corrected. You’ve somehow won the favor of the goddess, or at least a peace offering.”

“Why do you think so?” Leo asked, concerned by the splitting altar as well.

“That’s the Roothammer, an artifact of the church. It combines Iluvin Eturia’s blessing and a great deal of advanced imbuing work. It’s said if the hammer’s handle is thrust into the ground, roots will spread from it, destroying whatever it’s placed upon, making way for nature.”

That… sounds like a terrible thing. I’ll be sure to never use it.

Lily was still talking, her voice excited. “When placed upon an altar, it also adds to the power of the altar, and improves the entire realm.”

Now that, Leo thought, is something I can get behind.

“Thank you, Goddess,” Leo said.

Chapter Thirty

Being King—First Baby Steps

Elgin Isle was a mega-engineering project. It had been modified by the Averian elves during the height of the kingdom. They had carved out a huge segment of the land with magic, whisking the earth away to who knew where, in order to make a tiny bay to protect their galleys.

The bay was on the north side of the island, where the river flowed against it. Despite that, the inside was calm, the currents pushed along the outside mostly, by Water magic, according to Lily’s impromptu history lesson.

Inside that bay were old piers and sunken ships. But the basic bay remained, and three marble piers were still useable. Assuming they didn’t have sunken ships right below the surface, ready to poke holes in the hulls of Leo’s new ships.

Especially since they were sailing right toward them.

“All right, buddy, check it out,” Leo said to Hugh.

“I’ll be back in a bit.” Hugh scrambled over the edge of the galley, leaving slight gashes in the wood. As he left the ship and hit the water, the boat bobbed a bit.

The rowers kept the ship where it was, fighting the gentle current of the river with backstrokes. Most of them had extremely impressive arm muscles—Leo assumed they’d been doing this as a career for quite some time.

A few minutes later, Hugh popped up on the other side of the boat and spit water at Leo, trying to scream, “Dragon’s Breath!” as he did, but he garbled his words and just sprayed water everywhere.

“Oh, misfire,” Leo said. “What’d you find?”

“The third pier, closest to the Calasti side of the river, is totally clear. Only one small boat sunk on the next one over, and I can break it up and clear it in an hour. Last pier will take me a day or two. Probably two. It’s got four boats down there, bigger ones. And if I find treasure, I’m keeping it.”

Leo laughed. “Is your greed just weirdly reflexive, like it’s just a dragon thing? I mean, you did just donate most of your hoard to the cause. Why get possessive now?”

“Maybe it is just a dragon thing,” Hugh said. “But I still want the treasure. I feel like most people would want to keep the lost treasure if they did a bunch of work to get it.”

“We’ll need to set some kind of fair tax rate for people looting the remains of Old Calasti,” Leo muttered. “I mean, it’s arguably treasure that belongs to me as the heir to the old kingdom. But mostly because we should get a slight cut as the base of operations and police force and guards for said base of operations—or perhaps just as income tax.”

“Income tax? Is that a thing?” Hugh squinted suspiciously at Leo.

Right, Leo realized. Not usually used until way later in societal development. They had land taxes and duties and other older forms of taxation. I’ll need to use those more archaic means of collecting revenue, most likely.

“A tax of some sort that represents the income paid to the state to offer protection, roads, and governance,” Leo said. “Like what we plan on doing for the people adventuring in Calasti.”

“Sounds like bird logic, but I guess as long as it’s reasonable, I won’t set you on fire.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “For your generous and wise spirit, I thank you.”

Hugh squinted at him again but didn’t say anything.

Leo went and found Captain Whitewater, who’d temporarily assumed ‘commodore’ status over the ten boats of his flotilla, and told her the information.

Then Leo, Lily, the commodore, Commander Meryl Cavendil, and the eight leaders assigned to ex-slaves had a talk about the logistics of offloading the groups. They could have ships take turns offloading, since the number of piers was limited.

In the long run, however, even two days from now, more than six ships could permanently dock until they rebuilt all the piers—and they’d need to clear the space for when the much larger flotilla of ships, under George Orsini, showed up to drop everyone—and everything—off. Rebuilding the piers would take priority once one of the Earth builder mages with the flotilla arrived, since the piers were the weird solid-block stone piers the Averian Kingdom of old used for some reason.

The other Earth mage would be needed for the bridges.

Twenty minutes later, they had their plan, and Leo’s lead ship, the Averia Reborn, rowed next to the pier. The pier led to a fifteen-foot stone wall that ran around the entire bay, with long ramps leading up to the main island. As if the unloading wouldn’t be hard enough without the climb.

“A huge job, isn’t it?” Lily asked, coming up behind him and placing one delicate hand on his shoulder, her voice soothing.

Leo nodded. “Yeah. It is. But it’s worth doing.”

***

It had been a very busy afternoon and evening, one of nonstop unloading, each group of ex-slaves moved onto shore and given tents in the smashed wreckage of the old marine barracks, sailors’ hall, and admiralty office.

The extremely fancy taverns, inns, and brothels were the only other things that had once been on the island, and they’d been smashed to pieces as well. Just clearing the island was going to be a huge hassle. Although, Leo figured they would have plenty of building material they could repurpose, which was a silver lining.

They were going to need a lot of easily acquired building material.

Leo had worked late into the night, his combination of magically enhanced Strength and Agility making him an extremely effective mule. Hugh was an even better one, as long as someone loaded him up. But neither of them had raised their Endurance much, and both were fatiguing, rather badly, as the last light of the dying sun disappeared, claimed by night.

Zir had tried to help, manfully carrying what little he could, over and over until he could barely move. Eventually, he’d sat down during a pause and fallen asleep—his mom had come and gotten him.

How come this world works on a nearly twenty-four-hour day as well, if it’s so large?

Shake it off, Leo. It’s a fascinating question for later.

Leo climbed the ramp leading from the sheltered cove up to the isle proper again and looked upon his people.

They’d established fifty large tents, each with eight people crowded inside. They were set wherever there was space in the collapsed ruins around the isle, and Leo saw at least one group that seemed to have extended their tent with a partially collapsed wall and some half-rotted boards.

They had smaller and fancier tents for the leaders—one each for Leo, Hugh, Lily, Meryl, and Laurel Whitewater, and one to be shared by Val and Ty Belmoria. They were in a cleared space in the old admiral’s office ruins. The tip of Hugh’s tail poked out of his tent—apparently, he’d already given up for the night.

Leo was starving. The soldiers, under Meryl’s direction, had gotten the mess tent set up. They were now cooking porridge. Leo dragged himself over to the tent and took a bowl, waving away a bit of hare meat offered to him by a soldier who recognized him. It didn’t feel right, when his people were eating the meanest of rations. If he’d hunted it himself, or bought it, then sure—but that hare had been caught with government labor, and he didn’t want to profit from his position.

Leo spooned his porridge down as fast as possible, appreciating the warm lump it made in his stomach, and then crawled into bed. He found Wolten already there and curled up next to his wolf buddy. Tomorrow, they’d take the next steps, but for tonight, he needed rest.

“I’ve got it well in hand, my lord,” Meryl said. “I know I’m just a commander, and not a fancy administrator or mayor, but we’re at the bare-bones ‘stay alive and engage in basic organization’ stage. If you need to go take care of some secret quest, that’s fine with me.”

Leo nodded, judging her statement accurate. The chow line was moving fast, and people were being assigned jobs after they ate. Cooking, cleaning, foraging, taking care of kids, clearing and sorting rubble, and a few to initial building work, to establish the first longhouse out of scavenged materials.

Leo pointed at the paper he’d drawn up. “Just make sure the initial settlement looks something like this, okay? There are efficiencies to the way I want this done.”

Leo had mapped a site on the east side of the island, where there was a sharp drop-off to the river. As gross as it sounded, he needed a place for people to defecate where it would rapidly go out to the river, so he’d set up a crap-house and ‘plumbing’ type of situation to one side of the projected longhouses.

In a less gross decision, he’d also made plans for a small fortress to guard the soon-to-be-repaired bridge back to Calasti proper.

It had taken a lot of hard decision-making, but on the advice of Lily, Leo had decided to allow people to ‘adventure’ in Calasti, seeking treasures and levels by pitting themselves against the beasts. Both his own people and professionals, so long as they paid reasonable taxes and such.

The plan was then to get farms established, on the opposite side of Elgin Isle on the other shore of the Blue River. Next, move a decent percentage of the population there quickly. But until that happy point, the temporary base needed at least some basic hygiene and protection.

“Seems like a waste to haul everything another half mile east,” Meryl said. “You sure you’ve thought this through, my lord?”

“Please do it the way I asked. I was a”—no word for ‘civil engineer’—“an experienced architect and building overseer once. Trust me on this.”

Meryl bowed her head in acknowledgement. “Well, like I said, my lord, I’ve got this part well in hand for a day. You can go do whatever it is you intend to do.”

Leo nodded. “Thank you, Commander Meryl.”

Leo went back and found some elves taking care of Wolten—something he hadn’t asked them to do. They were feeding him fish and last night’s porridge, and combing out his coat. As Leo approached, the elves gave quick bows. One, a buxom—for an elf—lady with golden hair, who looked in her late twenties, made obvious eyes at Leo, letting her gaze wander up and down him and then licking her lips.

It is good to be king, Leo thought, despite having no intention of getting into a relationship at the moment. Although, this is a dangerous job. I’ll need an heir at some point.

Leo pulled himself up onto Wolten. Although he had no saddle, he was becoming used to riding his wolf buddy—or perhaps his wolf buddy was getting used to him, and shifting around to help Leo maintain balance.

Val came out riding Helwo, and Hugh came up with Lily on his back.

Before they could ride out, Zir ran over, four daggers at his belt, in slightly improved clothing—tunic and breeches and the leather-and-wooden-heel shoes they had here.

Not sure where he got those, or how.

“Take me with you!” Zir said. “Please. I need to pay you back for saving my mother and sister.”

Leo lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not going to a picnic, Zir. I’m going to go to the old throne room and the node. There are magical beasts along the route. It’s dangerous.”

Hugh scoffed. “Barely. Enemies that are, what, three levels below us? Maybe four? On the main run through town?”

Leo hadn’t technically picked his abilities for Level Seven yet, but Hugh wasn’t wrong.

“Zir’s still a kid, Hugh,” Leo said, trying to put reproach in his voice.

“A Level Two kid.” Zir strode up close to Leo. He stood so the morning sun pushed his shadow toward Leo. The shadow itself… flickered… and there was a flickering darkness around Zir’s skin as well.

“Sentient shadow line of abilities?” Lily asked, her voice cool.

Zir nodded once.

The kid is already picking combat powers? Leo narrowed his eyes. “When, and how, did you make Level Two? I thought I forbade you from combat.”

“I knew where some of the orcs were hiding extra coin, from when I was a slave. I used it to pay some soldiers to let me know if they found any hiding orcs. They gave me a likely site with a single orc. I took care of it, and that made three, the price in souls for Level Two.”

Oof. That’s… dark. This is the kind of thing I don’t want my society devolving into, treating life as a cheap resource to unlock magical power.

Lily leaned over and whispered in Leo’s ear. “Sentient shadow is like permanent magical armor at the lower levels. And the enemies are very weak compared to us. And Zir is a politically important person you’ll want on your side. As your seneschal, I’d advise letting him come. The risk is genuinely low.”

Leo sighed. He didn’t believe in protecting children from every vagary of life, and letting a twelve-year-old go to the park by himself or to the local pizza parlor was fine. But a ruined city with magical beasts seemed beyond the pale.

But as he glanced around, he was clearly outnumbered everyone-to-him. Perhaps he wasn’t understanding how this world worked.

“All right, Zir, I trust you to come with us. If we get in a fight, let the higher-level people go in first.”

Zir whooped, then smoothed his features and bowed. “I won’t disappoint you, Lord Evans.”

“And call me ‘Leo.’”

Lily held her hand out. Zir grabbed it, and pulled himself onto the back of Hugh.

“Well, now that you’ve all browbeaten me into letting a kid fight monsters, like this is a terrible Pokémon game, shall we proceed?”

“Always with the culture-specific comments,” Lily murmured, but her eyes were twinkling and her lip twitched upward.

The four of them made their way down to the docks on the north side. They went down the large marble street that dipped to the bottom of the fifteen-foot cliff that ran along the edge of the North Bay, and from there, walked to the pier that contained the River Darter.

Leo waved at Captain Laurel Whitewater. “Ahoy, or whatever. You ready to ferry us to the other side?”

Hugh turned to Leo. “We’re just going to the piers a fourth of a mile on the other side of the Blue River, right? Back in Calasti?”

“Yeah…”

“Merdrek’s dive!” he screamed, and ran at the pier.

Lily cursed, and she and Zir abandoned dragon, hitting the ground and rolling in Lily’s case, and hitting running and slowing to a walk in Zir’s.

“Childish wyrm!” Lily yelled from the ground, then touched her shoulder, healing, and then used her power to smooth her appearance again.

Hugh wasn’t paying attention to that. He ran down the pier and leapt off, belly flopping with a huge splash.

He surfaced and shot water at Leo, who easily side-stepped.

“I’m just gonna swim it!”

Lily sighed at Hugh’s childish display. “It’s hard to stay annoyed with him when he loves life so much.”

Captain Whitewater reached them. “I am ready, King, if you are.”

“Just Leo… or lord, if you must use a title.”

“Lord.”

As they boarded the boat, Lily turned to Leo. “Make sure you have your Earth mages fix the bridge first. Then you won’t need a ferry. Since the bridge on the other side of Elgin Isle is fixed, it’ll also be transport from one side of the Blue River to another.”

“Of course.”

The companions walked off the boat, meeting Hugh, who had already sunned himself dry. The wharf around the entrance to the first district, with the Grand Plaza, the palace, and the node, was everything Leo could have wanted in the department of ruined grandeur. Hundreds of piers, most of the same ‘single-block marble’ pattern they had seen elsewhere, dotted the shore. A massive collection of shattered warehouses, ruined inns, and grandiose statues overgrown with vines dotted the cityscape. The roads here were occasionally cracked, and in a few places, a tree grew up through the shattered stone, but they were mostly intact.

“How far to the plaza?” Leo asked.

“Not far at all. It was only a few minutes’ walk to the river from the plaza as the stories told it,” Lily responded. She was swiveling her head around constantly, trying to take everything in.

“Why are the piers comparatively empty here?” Leo asked.

“The fleet on Elgin Isle stayed to try to fight and was destroyed, but the merchant ships, which docked here—well, they got out while the getting was good,” Lily responded.

Hugh chuckled. “Good call by the mortals. Chao wasn’t exactly in a forgiving mood.”

Lily started to turn, probably to chastise Hugh.

Leo interrupted her by pulling the Ygg’drasil seed out. “And this needs to be planted at the node? Do you think it’ll cause problems as it grows?”

“What… What is that?” Zir asked, staring at the seed in fascination.

“The Seed of Yggdrasil. The real reason I’m becoming the king, beyond anything else we talked about. Apparently, my soul is somehow necessary for it to grow properly—and it’ll save the Kingdom of Averia.”

“More accurately, it will help the kingdom to grow to unprecedented heights if we do the work to save it first,” Lily said. “No slacking off on our duties to our people, Zir. You’re an elf noble as well, even if you aren’t privileged to be a member of the Averian nobility.”

Zir grimaced. “I know my duties.” Then his face cleared as he stared at the seed. “How will it do all that?”

“It’s actually pretty fun,” Hugh said. “I’m surprised mortals made it, although they supposedly had help from beings from deeper magic worlds.”

“You can tell me.” Zir rolled his eyes. “I’m already excited. Just spill it.”

Lily glanced over at Leo, and he nodded. Val had sworn to him, and it felt like Zir was moving into Leo’s circle as well. But the deciding factor was this wouldn’t be hidden for long anyway. Showing trust now had little downside.

“It will grow a tree that will open stable, permanent gates to other worlds,” Lily said. “It’ll become the tree between worlds, effectively.”

Zir’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

Lily smiled and nodded.

The group moved forward, through the Grand Plaza—where they easily slew another three of the diseased wolves, Zir staying back and throwing knives. Then they reached the giant royal palace of Calasti, passing through its ruined gates. They passed the inner wall as well. But this time, they rode past the multiple keeps of the interior. They followed a large statue-adorned path around the outside of the main keep and then headed another thousand feet or so, through beautiful gardens grown wild.

Their goal was visible the whole time—the glowing green outline of a tree, shooting a hundred feet into the sky.

“So, this is the famous Calasti Tree Node,” Zir said, staring at it.

Lily smiled wider. “It is. One of the sources of prosperity for the kingdom. It’s as magically strong as nodes get on this world, and most of that magic goes to tree growth, creating magical crystals and ‘friendly’ magical beasts. Only a small portion of it goes to things mortals find unamicable.”

“What?”

“Harmful,” Leo said.

“I know all that, then,” Zir said. “Why tell me like I’m an idiot?”

“Just working on your education,” Lily said airily, twirling her finger in her hair.

“Hmph.”

They reached the base of the giant glowing tree to find a very small thick grove of normal, nonilluminating trees. The morning light showcased how green and healthy they looked, and a fragrant breeze from the forest blew into the palace grounds.

“What now?” Leo asked, sliding down from Wolten’s back and holding the backpack in his hands.

“Plant it?” Hugh snorted. “It needs a node, so stick that ball of magic in the soil near the base of the giant green mystic tree up ahead. Obvious.”

“I don’t have a better idea than the dragon’s,” Lily said.

Leo opened the backpack. He could always feel magic from the seed, but as he took it out, the magic intensified. It was about the size of Leo’s head, a seed more purple than any plant had a right to be. When stared at, the surface shifted to show other realms, strange things like a world of boiling skies and another where the atmosphere was so thick that giant gasbag creatures with a few long, thin tentacles floated on the wind.

And it felt magically… bizarre. If Leo focused on it, space didn’t feel right, like things were close that had been far and vice versa, and a straight line… wasn’t.

Leo walked over and plunged the seed into the ground beneath the glowing green tree.

He received a prompt.

You are about to plant, and bond with, a seed of Yggdrasil. This action will call forth magic from the Sea of Chaos between dimensions to germinate the tree. Anyone in the surrounding area will gain substantial magical power, effectively gaining ‘experience.’ Did you wish to proceed?

Yes / No?

No! Leo thought, almost panicked.

Then, when nothing went wrong, he turned back to his group. “So, amazing news…”

Chapter Thirty-One

The Great Averian Barbecue

When Leo returned to Elgin Isle, he was met with a welcome sight—the fleet under George’s guidance had started offloading, apparently hours ago. Twenty ships had arrived, bringing another eight hundred ex-slave elven colonists, as well as a few administrators whom George had convinced to come with. Each had been allowed a single backpack to fill with personal goods, and they’d stretched that definition in most cases.

The ships had also brought some basic tools—hammers, saws, measuring sticks, workbenches, clamps, and, most importantly, fishing rods and nets. Lastly, they had brought food. Not much food—Leo, Lily, and George had decided to take a risk. They had about a week’s worth of food, and were counting on the ships’ next run—already paid for—to bring the huge loads of hardtack, salted meats, and dried fruit to feed people.

In order to pull that off on the galleys, people had slept and managed their goods in rotation, with the ships heavily weighed down. One-third of the people were sleeping, and the remaining two-thirds sitting and standing in shorter rotations, to rest and relieve stiffness respectively. The eight hundred who had come with George had known what to expect and were prepared for it, as part of the price of freedom. But a week under that routine had still been extraordinarily taxing.

The result was that the eight hundred were in nearly as bad condition as the rescued elves. It was twelve hundred bedraggled, exhausted, and extremely low-spirited elves whom Leo found, most of them haphazardly working at a snail’s pace under the direction of George, Meryl, and the soldiers of Cavendil’s Coterie. But they were working.

But Leo had been prepared for this eventuality. You couldn’t just throw a bunch of ex-slaves onto an island, tell them they were free, and then work them like… well, like slaves. At least, Leo was pretty sure that wouldn’t work.

But he knew what should work.

A barbecue, a feast, a huge fiesta. Something to make these people feel like people again, and not cogs in someone else’s machine. Then an evening talking around campfires and making new friends, perhaps making out if people were of the mindset. The ‘bosses’ going around, shaking hands. Then an early night, and all the sleep they could handle in the huge tents that had been brought.

Then, when they were full and rested, he’d wake them up early, the pattern he hoped everyone would keep. Then he’d hit them with the real whammy. He’d let them know they were going to go and get experience from the Yggdrasil Seed.

If freedom, being treated like a real citizen, working for their own land and benefit, and actual experience without killing people didn’t buy him six months of hard work through the end of fall, he wasn’t sure what would.

He gathered with his ever-expanding ‘court,’ which now included George Orsini and two Earth mages, in addition to Lily, Hugh, Meryl, Laurel Whitewater, and the Belmoria siblings.

They all sat down at a table brought over from Steelport, out in the open in front of the damaged admiralty building. A few guards kept the others away, in case they needed to discuss anything sensitive.

One of the new people was human, named Felix de Medici, whom Leo had expected. He was notable for the scar that had taken an eye and left a gouge back to his ear, cut nearly in two. The other, however, was an elf of a type Leo hadn’t seen, with brown skin closer to a tan Hispanic woman’s, dark green hair, and almost topaz eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said, extending his hand to her. “I’m Leo Evans. George told me he was bringing two of the Earth users from the Houses of Steelport. I expected Mr. de Medici, but I don’t know you.”

“I’m Mollynia Greatwillow, my lord,” she said, bowing ever so slightly. “Most of those around the Inner Sea refer to me as ‘Molly.’”

“Pleased to meet you, Molly.”

“My great lady, the goddess Iluvin Eturia, guided me to Steelport and instructed me to lend my services… and swear myself to you, subject of course to my goddess’s command.”

“Are you an actual priest?” Lily asked, clasping her hands in front of her chest.

Molly gazed at her indulgently. “I am.”

George cut in. “The other Earth wielder, Vincent Colonna, is out working on the huge outhouse you ordered—he’s moving the rock away so people will simply, um, defecate fifteen feet down into the river. Molly is a Wyld user primarily.”

Not a bad idea on the drop, if it’s that easy, Leo thought.

Felix de Medici also bowed to Leo. “I am pleased to meet you as well, and I was also pleased to receive your offer. I look forward to helping you establish your town. I studied the maps provided by Freeman Orsini on the way over, and I think I have some excellent ideas for you. If we could have a few moments once more immediate matters are handled, I can’t wait to tell you about the north bank road and the—”

“This guy’s worse than you,” Hugh interjected, bumping Leo. “Talking about pointless stuff we can worry about way later.”

Leo glared down at Hugh—who pointedly wasn’t looking at him—and then gave an apologetic glance to Felix. This guy is an engineer at heart, even if he’s a wielder of magic. We’ll see eye to eye, once we have some time to work out our ideas for projects.

“Well,” Leo said to Felix, “I need you and Vincent to skip the festivities tonight and get the bridge to Calasti reconnected. We’ll need it the very first thing tomorrow morning—I’m taking every single person with me to the palace.”

Felix nodded, one eyebrow raised, but Leo didn’t elucidate.

“We’ll get it done.”

“For everyone else, is the rest of the plan ready?” Leo asked. “The good stuff made it over?”

“‘The good stuff,’” George said, “did indeed make it over, although I had a surprise tiff with my cousin Mavis, who tried to stop me from joining you. She’s always hated me, since I set Ola and my children free.”

George gave a sigh. “But enough of my drama. The setup is already underway. We’ll be finished unloading and setting up the tents by early evening, and we can start then. To really make this work, you’ll need to give a speech, by the way. Most likely at the end of the barbecue.”

“Joy,” Leo muttered. He’d sort of expected the need for the speech. As to the timing, however… “Trust me on this—I’ll give it tomorrow morning.”

“At least give a small one tonight.”

“Fine.”

“What would you assign as my purpose, my lord? I don’t think your plans accounted for me,” Molly finished with an odd stress on the word ‘me.’

“Um… I don’t know what use I would have for you at the moment, but talk to me after the speech tomorrow. I’ll have a lot of use for you then.”

“You should talk to him tonight, when he’d have the most use for you,” Hugh said.

Molly laughed richly, a sound that called for others to join in, and a few did chuckle along with her.

Leo, however, facepalmed. “Always with you.”

Molly’s laughter died to an appreciative chuckle. “The priestesses of Iluvin Eturia shy not from the necessity, and joy, of procreation. It is the most fundamental part of nature, the call of all life. But as well taken as your suggestion is, dragon, I prefer a teensy bit more courting first before I’ll throw my legs in the air.” She paused and gave Leo the eye and then a wink. “Even for a king.”

“All right, enough of this talk,” Lily said, her face red as she glared daggers at Hugh, who rolled his eyes back at her.

Leo had a sudden inspiration.

“Can you call animals?” Leo asked Molly. “I mean, summon them to you across geographical distances, get them to do what you want?”

“Yes, to some degree. At least with agreeable ones.”

“Well, I’ll give you a ship. One of the empty ones, before the flotilla leaves. Also, two locations to visit. I’d like you to start a program of collecting these spiders for me…”

***

The sun hung low in the western sky, giving a reddish, almost bloody tint to the dirty marble ruins all around them. But a large square had been cleared, and around it the twenty-four tents were set up, and the first actual building had been assembled—the huge outhouse, to keep the smells and, hopefully, disease away and make this more like camping.

But in the center of the cleared space, blankets had been set up, and ‘the good stuff’ had been broken out. Apples, lightly cooked, then sugared and spiced to preserve them for the short time of the trip, made up the primary dish—it was elven food, apparently, and didn’t require a second cooking. To that, Leo had added an actual barbecue—bacon cooked on pans over open fires.

And he had two barrels of spiced and lightly alcoholic cider, and another barrel of cheap wine for those so inclined. It came out to about four glasses of something per person, and a little left over.

They had a low enough number of dishes that people had to eat in rotations and share drinking horns.

For the humans, as well as Hugh and Leo, they’d brought steaks of multiple different types. A few elves tried them as well, but elves weren’t really fans of meat—a little bit went a long way with them, and the bacon paired better with the apples, regardless.

And they had managed one tinier project—they’d made Leo a speaking stand.

Leo got up on it, facing the huge crowd of elves in front of him, staring out at a sea of faces he didn’t know. They were all depending on him to rebuild the kingdom and give them a place worth living in. The weight of it was almost crushing.

But Leo could give them a good day at least—and a promise of something more.

“My new citizens!” Leo cried out. “I’ll not pretend we aren’t facing a very trying year ahead of us, and probably a lot longer than that. But tonight, I want you to put that behind you. Tonight is for relaxing, for shaking off the mindset of your enslavement, the stiffness of cages or the boats. Tonight is a night for making friends, for talking about your futures, and for remembering what it is to be a free citizen! Tomorrow will be for work again. Now… Now is for eating, for friends, and if you so desire, for drunkenness.”

Leo got quite a few cheers at that.

“And I promise you, tomorrow, you’ll all receive a gift, a gift greater than any you’ve received before, I’d wager. A gift that will give us all strength.”

The mutters began, people turning to those beside them and conversing.

Before anyone could direct their questions to Leo, he raised his hands. “But ask me not what it is, that is for tomorrow. For now, drink, eat, and be merry! We’ll be a community soon, so please, fulfill your roles. And your leaders will be coming around to speak with you as well, so don’t be alarmed if any of us come up to your campfire. You should have a chance to get to know your leaders, after all, and badger us a bit.”

There were a few more cheers, and a small amount of chuckling.

“Now… let’s feast!”

***

The evening passed quickly. Hugh didn’t manage to get drunk, despite consuming the equivalent of about fifteen glasses of cider, but he got tipsy. Even though he was the son of the enemy of Averia, he managed the same ‘popular bro-dragon’ feat he had in Steelport. Leo didn’t manage to overhear anyone else, but Meryl spoke with giant gesticulations from time to time, George gave explanations accompanied by drawing in the dirt with his cane, and Lily held herself properly while talking to elves.

Leo went from campfire to campfire himself.

Most of the elves were quiet and didn’t ask much. A few had even fallen asleep by the time Leo arrived. But Leo did get quite a few questions about how housing would be handed out, who would get what jobs, and who would be in charge of various things. Including questions about who would be in charge of some things he hadn’t even thought about.

One elf, Corwyllin Darkrye, asked him who would head up the bakers guild. He didn’t even know if he would have guilds in the land—couldn’t the bakers just figure that out individually?

But the weirdest one was the request to be the royal jester, from an elf with bronze hair and a hook-hand named Wylwyn ‘One-Hand’ Riverkyn.

Royal jester was a position Leo swore to himself on the spot he’d never have. He also resolved to ask why George had brought an elf missing a hand to the initial settlement operations, when bare survival was being eked out.

And I’m going to be making all those leadership decisions as little as possible, Leo thought to himself. I have to lead during this period, but my goal is to give it all away and let these people form a real economy, and the government will just take small amounts off the top, for the stuff no one else can do, like defense, and to maintain civil liberties.

Eventually, however, the moon rose, and it got cold. The elves retired—or were dragged in a few cases—to their tents, and Leo went to his, Wolten joining him.

Tomorrow would be the day, the real chance to forge them all into a people. This had just been setting up the stage.

Chapter Thirty-Two

My Motto is ‘Do It Yourself’

Leo was awoken by Lily sticking her head into his tent. “Wake up! I’m going to go roust our dragon friend. Please make sure you actually get up, huh?”

Leo attempted to roll over, got a face full of fur, and rolled back away from Wolten.

Lily giggled.

“Yeah, I’m up, swear.” Leo managed to get out of bed, get dressed, and put his backpack on. Then he went and waited for his turn to use the fancy new outhouse. He joined the ever-growing crowd Meryl was yelling at, trying to get everyone in some semblance of order.

“All right, ya maggots—sorry, not maggots. Citizens,” Meryl said to a few laughs.

‘One-Hand’ yelled out, “After last night, I feel like a maggot.”

Amid the chuckles, another elf Leo didn’t recognize yelled, “This hangover is the first time being free has really felt real to me—couldn’t get enough booze before to get one.”

That got a bit more laughter. Overall, Leo’s new citizens seemed a lot happier and a lot more rested than they had last night. Which, of course, had been the goal.

“Enough chitchat!” Meryl yelled. “Lord Evans has decreed we’re all to be part of a special ritual with him, at the old palace. My men, Cavendil’s Coterie, will make sure nothing bothers you on the walk, but it’s still two miles, starting from here, going over the newly rebuilt bridge to Calasti proper, through the wharves of the central district, and then down the main way past the Grand Plaza and to the royal palace. Follow Vito here, who was recently promoted to commander of ten and made Level Three in the service of Lord Evans.”

Vito, the soldier who knew orcish, gave Leo a quick wave and smile before marching off. The elves and human soldiers all followed, nearly thirteen hundred people. They passed over a beautiful, intricate marble bridge—except for a hundred-foot span in the middle, which had clearly been melded back together hastily by the Earth users. Leo’s mind barely noticed everything else despite its grandeur, although he was aware of the oohing and the aahing of the elves around him.

Although, he did notice when roughly eight wolves attacked the soldiers. Few soldiers were injured, and healing handled them, but it was a stark reminder to Leo’s people of why the main city was currently off-limits.

When they reached the palace, Leo expected a lot of oohing and aahing, but he was reminded that many of the elves had lived here before when they pointed out things they knew, and a few wept at seeing the old grandeur of their lost city. The Grand Plaza, the statue of the first Stardew king, and the first sight of the spires of the main palace all inspired nostalgic commentary.

Finally, they reached the site where Leo intended to place the seed.

He took off the backpack, reached into it, and drew forth the seed. He held it above his head, feet spread, feeling more like a popular Nintendo elf receiving an item than the ruler of a true fantasy empire.

The milling crowd behind him seemed impressed.

Leo projected his voice as much as he could, silently wishing he had a microphone and PA system. “Citizens of Averia! Our people were once the envy of the thirteen continents. But we were brought low. We weren’t brought low by orcs or dragons, no matter what many of you might think.”

There were mutters in the crowd.

“We were brought low by our own failings. Our own moral failings. We failed to make ourselves better, and our families stronger. We failed to protect our allies and uphold our agreements. If our nation was a great tree, this was the rot at the center of it. Blame the pests if you want, but the tree was diseased and hollow before they could even start feasting.”

Leo paused and glanced out over the crowd—his people. He tried to catch a few eyes.

“A nation’s destiny comes from two things—geography and demography.”

Although Leo didn’t have any great experience on Earth being a leader, he had thought long and hard about everything he had ever learned. The words of his speech were chosen carefully.

“We’re gifted in the geography department. A great river, fertile lands, seas, and lakes for access to trade and fish, and multiple powerful magical nodes in the realms that were once ours.”

Their environment was a boon. He would endeavor not to waste it.

“The second element is demography—our people. You. Some of you might think ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I’m not educated’ or ‘I was only a slave before now,’ but none of that can be changed. That’s all in the past. It’s now just fact.”

Silence overtook the crowd.

“But you can change. I can’t change you. Only you can change you. A thousand hardworking people, improving themselves and their families, extending help to their neighbors, and fighting to defend that which they’ve built with their own hands—that is a people who will prosper. A people with a bright future.”

The silence somehow intensified.

“A thousand people who maintain the mindset of slaves, fearful of work, and distrustful of others—that is a people who will fail and be enslaved again. Because if each of you is great, we’ll all be great. And if too many of you are weak, we’ll fall.”

Many of the elves’ brows were furrowed in evident confusion. Leo was pretty sure this wasn’t a speech normal for this timeframe and socioeconomic structure.

“You are the secret to a great nation. Learn. Strive. Innovate. Grow. Aid those around you to do the same. If we have a motto, that motto would be ‘The whole is made better by individual achievement.’ We will make ourselves strong, for our own reasons. We will accept others who wish to join us. And if necessary, we will combine that strength to defend ourselves from everything the world throws at us.”

The elves glanced around, as though evaluating each other.

Leo smiled wide. “As the first step to that improvement, I offer you all the magic of the planting of Yggdrasil—aid from me to everyone else on their individual roads to greatness.”

Leo plunged the seed into the small depression he had created before and accepted the trigger to start the bond.

It was like the bond with Freyvir, only more so.

The seed sprouted, growing rapidly, roots digging into the earth and a single stalk leaping upward. Over a few agonizing minutes, the magic poured outward from the seed, through Leo, and then back into the seed, with the leakage flowing out into the world. Small amethyst crystals grew on a lot of the surfaces around them, and every single person was standing with their hair on end. Leo could sense power entering them.

The tree kept growing, sprouting four massive leaves. Eventually, a thin stalk about a hundred feet high with four giant, almost sixty-foot-long leaves out the top, stood before Leo.

The agony stopped, and Leo pulled his shirt out and stared down at his chest. The image of a purple tree with a door in the trunk was now centered on his chest.

“I’m Level Two!” an elf cried out from the crowd.

“I made Level Six,” Hugh said, walking up to Leo, his eyes wide. “I’m considered a Level Ten being now since my race, the storm dragons, provides four levels.”

Leo dismissed his own notification that he had made Level Eight and held off checking his new perk for a moment to stand and face his people, the Yggdrasil tree behind him.

“What should we take for our level?” someone cried out.

“I won’t tell you that,” Leo said. “I would say to follow your dreams but be wise about it. The ruins here need to be cleared of corrupted beasts, so you might take a combat ability if you want to try to level and are willing to risk death to do so. We will also need lots of farmers if your abilities can go in that direction.”

Leo walked down to the elf who had called out, and the crowds parted, almost reverently. He put his hand on the shoulder of the tall gold-haired elf who had spoken.

“But everyone should take time, talk to neighbors, seek opportunity, and think of their futures. Then make the best choice for you so you can be as strong, in the way you want, as you can be. That’s the whole point. Seek your destiny, work toward it as hard as you can. But make sure it’s your destiny. Your strength is our strength, so long as you join us, no matter what form it takes.”

The man fell to his knees. “I will join you, my lord. I will swear myself to you.”

“No,” Leo said, taking the man gently by his arm and raising him up. “Not to me.”

The man’s face was slack, and his eyes were wet.

Leo had thought about this quite a bit. “You should not swear to me. You should swear to each other, an oath of all to all. You should swear to the country, and your fellow man. Only from those who enter my direct service will I accept an oath.”

The man nodded, his eyes rapt on Leo.

Leo continued. “For everyone else, place your right hand over your heart, your left over your head, and state the words I do now, replacing my name with your own. ‘I, Leo Evans il Stardew, swear by heart, mind, and soul to conform to the laws of Averia. I swear to remain honorable and to hold my fellow citizens’ rights as sacred as my own. I swear, within the bounds of the law, to work to make myself stronger, and to provide for those I take responsibility for. I swear to defend the kingdom and my fellow citizens from external enemies should the need arise. I pledge myself to the great nation of Averia in sight of man and gods.”

Leo let his hands drop and chuckled. “Assuming, of course, that you wish to stay a citizen here… in the new capital city of Averia, Star Port.”

The response was a series of cheers and affirmations, by a people wide-eyed and newly exuberant for the future.

Interlude Two

When Karens Have Power

Kruegar stared out over his hall—a hall with trampled flags across the floor. Nine orc chieftains, and one half-troll chieftain, all waited in places of ‘honor,’ their own shamans next to them. Human and elf slaves, as well as orc warriors, filled his hall with their murmuring at the newest petitioner to come see him.

His three true allies stood behind him—Liam, Jeremy, and Victor.

There were over a hundred others in total, filling the room from one wall to the other in front of them.

Kruegar shifted around in his bone throne. He leaned over onto the armrest, and glanced sideways to his second-in-command, Liam. The little goblin body fit him—Liam was a cunning man, but not exactly brave.

“This is the one who wanted to see me?” Kruegar asked in disgust.

A single orc stood at the head of the processional line.

Liam nodded his tiny green goblin head.

Kruegar eyed the orc again—it was a disturbing sight, but one you couldn’t look away from. Like one of those horrible YouTube videos about gross medical disasters. The orc had a swollen, infected wound across his face, from left ear to the middle of his cheek. One that was leaking… something. Everyone nearby was pulling back from the orc in obvious horror at the odor.

The orc stumbled forward, his eyes glassy, perspiration falling down his forehead. He tried to bow and ended up crashing to the floor. He raised his head, and further pus wept from the freshly reopened wound.

“What brings you here, worm?” Kruegar asked, sitting forward in the bone throne.

“I bear news,” the orc said, surprising Kruegar, who had suspected he’d ask for mercy or healing.

“What news? What could be worth coming here with that across your face?”

“I’ll die soon, no doubt, but I wanted to warn you. I followed Chargath Bone-Eater, who sought to establish a new clanhold now that the great dragon, Chao, is gone. On the Blue River.”

Kruegar vaguely remembered that was on the near-opposite side of the Inner Sea from him, from going over maps in strategy sessions with Liam and Jeremy.

Chow? The dragon Chow? Kruegar almost laughed out loud at that.

“We were destroyed,” the orc muttered. “We were destroyed by humans… Humans led by an elf.”

Jeers and shouts of anger filled the hall, the orcs going crazy with rage. Shouts of “Coward!” and “Weakling,” of “Filth!” and “It’s good you’ll die!” rang out.

“Led by an elf who rode a ghost wolf!” the orc cried, rising to his feet in anger, then swaying and almost collapsing.

The orcs went silent at this.

What the fuck is a ghost wolf? But Kruegar could tell it meant something to the orcs here, and he would reveal himself as an interloper if he asked.

“You lie to purge your failure,” an orc in the crowd shouted.

“I saw it! I saw it when they brought me before him, along with the few other orcs captured. He threatened us all if we returned to Averia. He claimed to be the king of Averia, and he rode a ghost wolf!”

The hall was in chaos, with orcs shouting at each other over this development.

One of the chieftains who served under Kruegar, Gorg Skulltaker of the Burz Clan, stepped forward. He was another of the numerous children of Grakith Demonborn. He was a horror, far worse than Kruegar, with bones sticking out of his flesh at his fingers and toes, forming wicked claws, and jutting from his back as the world’s most punk spines, like the hair of a ridiculous ’80s-style spiked mohawk.

“This cannot be allowed to stand!” Gorg yelled. “Someone should destroy them, or claim their land and take them as slaves!”

And leave the realm of my authority, Kruegar thought. So as to establish a new clanhold for yourself. I think not.

“It’s almost four hundred miles away, and few ships are left here in Red Port,” Kruegar said, cold and collected. “How would you move your armies?”

Gorg held his hand up, and then stared at his fingers, brow furrowed. His confusion was so obvious that Kruegar expected the words ‘fatal error’ to appear over his head. Given the bizarre notification system, it wouldn’t be the most unusual thing about this world.

Before Gorg could answer, the petitioning orc managed to ground out through gritted teeth, “Surely, you’ll not let this new elf king, King Leo Evans, go unpunished for his transgressions against your brother?”

Wait, what?

The name hit him like a slap across the face.

Kruegar stood from his bone throne, his blood running cold. “What?” he asked in a deadly, menacing voice. “Say that name again.” He had to be certain.

The orc quailed before him. “I-I didn’t mean to question your courage, your mightiness. I just—”

“No, what was his name?”

“Um, King Leo Evans, your mightiness.”

The wretch! Kruegar thought, unable to stop himself from smirking. That stupid little fuck who got Hector and Jason killed! He’s here and running a kingdom!

Also, he’s not just the killer of my men—he also represents the only other person with knowledge of advanced technology. A man who could oppose my plans, and ruin me and my brothers.

Kruegar slowly sat down, his gaze unfocused. “I appreciate your work…”

As his words trailed off, the orc spoke. “Marglaz, Your Mightiness.”

“Sure. Marglaz. I appreciate your work, Marglaz. I will have one of my healers see to your face. I would speak with my council tomorrow about how to deal with this fool who opposes us.”

“It’s still four hundred miles!” Kruegar shouted, slamming his fist on the wooden table that occupied the center of the torchlit council hall—much smaller than the massive reception hall he had been in, and less ostentatious. “If every ship we had was dedicated to bringing food, we could feed about a thousand or so to go fight him. I have no idea if that would be enough if he destroyed two hundred already. Would you see the strengths of the clanholds wasted on a futile attack?”

The chieftains, seated around the table, glanced at each other and shrugged. An elorc—half-elf, half-orc—slave brought in a platter of roasted swamp gator and placed it on the table. He tried to leave, but the half-troll chieftain grabbed him by his waist, pulling him closer. The elorc yelped, cowered, and trembled at the chieftain’s touch, but made no attempt to escape.

“Then would you leave this insult to fester?” the troll asked, leaning forward as he reached his bone-clawed hand around, grasping the elorc by the chest. “Would you do nothing, like a coward?”

Never. Leo will die. But this plan is suicide, and I need something better, even if it’s longer term.

“And the other thousand or so chieftains?” Kruegar asked dryly. “Their honor isn’t impugned?”

Bone-Troll looked confused.

“Their honor isn’t insulted?” Kruegar asked again, this time in simpler language.

There was a knock at the door, surprising Kruegar. He’d asked not to be disturbed. Given how Blood Tribe chieftains—especially those who were of the brood of Grakith Demonborn—conducted themselves, he figured the demand would have been honored.

“Yes?” Kruegar asked, holding back his building rage.

The door opened, and Marglaz the orc glanced in. “I’m deeply sorry to disturb you, your mightiness, but there’s someone here… well, kinda here… who I think you should meet. She says she wants to hire us to, um… kill the elf king.”

What? Someone already wants Leo dead? And wants to pay me to do it? It can’t be this easy.

“Who?”

Marglaz must have taken that as permission because he stepped inside. He carried a small glass orb with a gray crystal at top and bottom and silver filigree around it. “The petitioner, Your Mightiness. Lady Mavis Orsini of Steelport.”

Marglaz held the orb out.

Kruegar stared at it, one eyebrow raised. Did the wound go to this asshole’s head?

A voice floated into his mind as the orb pulsed. It was a feminine voice, but it was hard and edged with ice in his mind. A dangerous voice. It reminded him of the head mistress of his old orphanage, and Kruegar fought back his fear. That was decades ago, Kruegar. You have the power now.

“I am pleased to speak with you, Chieftain Kruegar Bloodhands. I am Mavis Orsini, head of the Orsini trading house in Steelport, and holder of a council seat on the Steelport council of houses. Word of your recent exploits, uniting the tribes and taking Port Yuval—”

“Red Port,” Kruegar interrupted out loud.

“Red Port, then, has reached my ears. Your port makes things easy. I want to hire you to destroy someone for me.”

“My minion tells me it’s King Leo Evans,” Kruegar said. How did that pathetic little cretin become important, anyway? I mean, he was obviously flailing around when he killed my men, but this…

“No. Although, I assume he needs to die as well. I want you to kill George Orsini, my cousin, and Leo’s seneschal. Also, George’s son, Ty Belmoria.”

Interesting. A family dispute.

“I also want you to capture and enslave three people for me as well—elves or half-elves, all of them, and all of them located in that city. Val Belmoria, Ola Belmoria, and Lily Willowynd. And I want the site of his city once it’s captured, to make a trading post for my house. They have fewer people, in total, than you have orc warriors. It should be quite easy.”

No idea who all these people are, but if that number is true, I suspect I can manage to capture them. If…

“Now, wait a minute.” Kruegar smiled to himself. “I want three things in return. The first is payment up front. Two thousand gold. Nonnegotiable. My people are my resource, and I won’t expend them without good reason.”

A few of Kruegar’s chieftains nodding along, as if what he said was good sense or even good, as opposed to an admission of his own utilitarianism where their lives were concerned. He also assumed that meant the voice was projecting into everyone’s head… although perhaps they were just hearing him speak out loud.

There was a long pause before Mavis answered. “Done.”

“Secondly, I need transport—transport and provisions. I don’t have any ability to get my orcs to the fight.”

“Well, that’s where a trading house comes in handy—and why the port you just seized is important. I can muster the ships necessary to move your entire army into his ridiculously named new city, Star Port. King Evans has no fleet, and no knowledge we’re coming. Two thousand orcs landing in his city of twelve hundred should make incredibly short work of this upstart kingdom and my cousin.”

It looks like Leo made friends in all the wrong places. Just like on Earth. But he did cause me to lose two people… I’ll make sure my brothers stay here and hold Red Port. I don’t want to risk them in combat. This should be fast and easy, a quick payday, then back to building the empire with them.

There was a pause, and the orb spoke again. “What’s your third demand?”

“I want to know why. Not why you want a trade port. That’s obvious. I want to know why you want revenge.”

“That is a private matter.”

“Maybe for everyone else. But I’ll be neck-deep in the blood of your enemies. It’s personal for me now.” Although, in truth, this was always personal. But she doesn’t need to know that.

There was a longer pause before the orb answered. “I have always hated George, for beating me at everything. He was chosen to be the head of the house at an early age. He was the little genius who could do no wrong. Every time one of my organized ships came back with a twenty percent profit, one of his came back with a fifty percent profit. But it was honest competition, until he betrayed the family and then acted like he had won somehow. When he threw away the slaves we’d purchased, and got rid of the house’s huge potential benefit, then acted all self-righteous… that was the day I began to truly hate him.”

The orb paused, and Kruegar felt her hate, born of frustration and humiliation, emanating from the orb to his mind. That hate I can understand.

Then the orb continued. “But when I have the mother of his children—and his daughter—enslaved in front of him, and seize one of the most valuable trade locations in the world from him at the same time—then, in his heart of hearts, he’ll know I’ve won.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

The Damn Dam
(And Even More Stats!)

Leo rode Wolten beside Felix the Earth architect, who was mounted on Hugh.

The sun blazed overhead, and they hurried across wilted plants. A breeze blew around them, heading west across the river, which brought at least a little relief. Just a smidge of comfort on an uncomfortable trip.

They headed toward a hundred-foot escarpment, a massive plateau that had little justification for existing in normal geological terms. But Lily had expertly informed Leo—at great length—that this plateau was a cluster of three powerful Earth nodes, and was called the Rock Plateau.

There was little vegetation on the top of the plateau, due to a lack of soil. But the moisture that dropped before reaching the Blue Lands to the north of the plateau had formed three rivers. They cut narrow canyons before leaving the plateau and covering the last five miles to the Inner Sea, heading from north to south across the plateau a mere forty or so miles apart from each other.

That canyon river was the focus of one of the projects that Leo—well, really Felix, with guidance from Leo—had been working on. A great dam.

“I can’t wait till you see it, Leo,” Felix said excitedly. “I am fascinated by what you showed me, the charts of water pressures and levels you were able to calculate. And I did everything you asked: four feet thick, magically hardened stone, a hundred feet tall. With what I’ve learned from you, I’ll be the best architect for dam creation. It’s amazing.”

Leo smiled, caught up in Felix’s enthusiasm. “I always love listening to a genuine enthusiast on almost any topic, but when it’s engineering… Well, just know that the Lord of Star Port will always enjoy your company, should you stop by again.”

“And the dragon of Star Port will avoid nerds like the plague,” Hugh said.

“Philistine,” Leo said.

“That didn’t translate.” Hugh frowned. “Also, seriously, can we talk about interesting things? I mean, I’m already acting like a damn horse for nerd-boy here, just out of misplaced affection for your boring bigwig butt. Do you have to punish me with your talk as well?”

“Mirafol petitioned me to spend her resources on a tavern and inn again,” Leo said.

“Mirafol? That elf with illusion powers? I can’t wait, seriously.” Hugh snorted. “That stupid inn at Wheat Town is dumb, and I have to travel, like, four miles to get to it, which is just ridiculous. Why do you keep denying her?”

“She doesn’t want to open it on Elgin Isle, or in Wheat Town, like the Silverleaf family did—or even in Green Apple Grove. She wants to open it at the docks in Star Port proper—old Calasti. We’ve got no one really guarding that place yet. She’ll get eaten by diseased wolves for sure.”

Hugh managed to half shrug as they walked, nearly dislodging Felix. It wasn’t a gesture natural to dragons, but he’d copied it from Leo.

“She knows the risks, and she married that army elf guy, right? Who’s second level and has some fighting skills?”

“One second-level guy isn’t defeating three diseased wolves, which is what came for us.”

“We’re here!” Felix said excitedly, pointing ahead at a small river, maybe thirty feet across and person-deep in the middle. As they walked closer, Leo watched for the giant canyon the stream had come from.

The hundred-foot escarpment quickly showed the forty-foot-wide, hundred-foot-tall gap the river came out of. About five hundred feet behind the escarpment, down the canyon, was the dam. It rose about ninety feet, smooth stone. The last ten feet or so was a collection of holes which the water spilled through.

Leo had hopes, perhaps unrealistic, that those might someday hold turbines for a hydroelectric dam.

On each side, an odd switchback earthen stair, without railings, climbed to the top of the dam.

“Damn, that’s impressive,” Hugh muttered as he stared at it. “I’d be nervous about falling, for sure.”

“Don’t dragons—” Felix began.

Leo cut him off with a laugh. “The Damn Dam. That’s a great name, Hugh. I like it. We’re going with it.”

Hugh gave the dam a raised eyebrow. “Why this boondoggle, though? I mean, Wheat Town is closer to the Blue River, which has unlimited fresh water. You could irrigate everything way cheaper, I assume.”

“Well, this dam did cost me a couple hundred gold, mostly in essence potions to keep Felix here working day and night, but it does something we can’t yet do with the river. It gives me the ability to make water towers.”

“What the heck are water towers, and what bird logic led to them?” Hugh asked, tilting his head.

“You and birds, friend, you and birds. Water towers are just huge towers, probably fifty or sixty feet high in this case, that will create water pressure for us. So that I can put a real plumbing system in for Wheat Town, and a slightly more modern irrigation system. You’ll be able to turn a handle, and water will pour out into sinks, baths, everything. It’ll be amazing.”

“And you’ll have more wheat.”

“And that,” Leo said, chuckling. “Which is a big deal. But wait till you’ve had your first warm shower—although exactly how I’ll manage that, I’m not sure. I can’t believe, after everything, that I got to build a dam. My first love is engineering.”

Hugh lifted one paw and did a credible ‘jazz hand’ with it. “Hooray. Every nerd-boy’s wet dream.”

“Want to take a tour?” Felix asked. “I mean, there isn’t much more to it than you can see, but at the bottom, I haven’t caused the stone to flow across the entrance and start filling. We could do that and see the beginning of your lake created.”

“No,” Hugh said at the same time Leo said, “I’d love to.”

“You guys are seriously killing me,” Hugh groused.

“We’ll stop at the Dragon’s Fall Tavern in Wheat Town on the way back, okay?”

“Fine.” Hugh groaned. “But there’s no way I’m going up there. Me and heights don’t mix. I’ve had too many problems.”

“All right. Wait for us down here, where it’s just as safe as it is up there, and then we’ll go to the Dragon’s Fall. I’ll spring for magic booze, although nothing as potent as troll spit.”

“Yay!” Hugh danced in a circle as Felix held on desperately, and Wolten backed away with a muted woof.

After Hugh had calmed down, Felix sighed.

“Hmm?” Hugh asked.

“I still can’t believe you got a tavern named after your drunken antics,” Felix replied.

***

Leo looked over at Hugh, who was singing—with a fine, if deep voice—drunken snatches of song.

The proprietor, the beautiful bronze-haired elf Janelle Silverleaf, dropped a plate with bread and fish on it in front of Leo. “Here you go, Lord Evans, compliments of my husband.” Rather than leaving, she stared at Hugh. “He’s so good-natured, it’s hard to get upset when he goes on his benders, isn’t it?”

Leo chuckled. “Indeed. Although I’ve seen it fifteen or so times now. It’s lost its charm.”

“Well, he also pays about two days’ worth of the entire inn’s gross every time he gets here, and these days, what with his largesse, he draws a crowd. So I guess I’m not complaining.”

When Leo didn’t respond, the proprietor of the Dragon’s Fall Tavern excused herself and left.

Leo didn’t mean to be rude, but he’d made Level Nine that morning, adventuring in the ruins of old Calasti. He’d made a short trip there, with Lily and Hugh, most days for a few months now, a couple of hours each time. He’d also taken Zir along for most of the excursions, which still left him feeling like he was engaging in child abuse—although even Zir’s mother had praised him for his kindness in helping her son level, so Leo assumed this world was just different. When three dead monsters were worth more to her son’s financial security than four years of college, he supposed he could see why she would support such dangerous activity.

If adventuring was a veritable ocean of experience, however, it was rapidly becoming a desert of loot. They’d only found a very few valuable items, although it still added up to a couple of extra farms, and he and Hugh had even started hauling intact silverware and art pieces out. But according to Lily, their pay rate—compared to most of those at Level Eight and Nine—was quite low for dangerous work.

A few other ‘adventurers’ had set up as well, and negotiations with the adventurers guild for the Inner Sea and Ten Lakes were underway currently to formalize admittance procedures, charge a small entrance fee, and give Leo a few extra coins. Most importantly, however, the guild would help train new adventurers.

Leo had about twenty Level Two, eight or so Level Three, and two Level Four adventurers in his ex-slave elf population. But he also had three fresh graves. He’d been assured, over and over, that it was a good trade-off, but still—losing people really weighed on him. He hadn’t fully adjusted to the ‘fantasy medieval’ perspective of life.

Still vaguely watching Hugh, as well as three drunk buddies, in their singing medley, Leo brought up his character sheet.

Leonard Emmanuel Evans

Level Nine

Body, Mind, Soul, Wyld, Metal

Health

15

Stamina

14

Essence

35

Level Stats

Strength

14(17)

255 pound-lifting base capacity, +35% melee damage, +21% running speed [Items raise to 21, 315 pounds, +55% melee damage, +33% running speed]

Agility

22(26)

-80% enemy hit chance, +80% hit chance with all weapons, +32% running speed, +.5 critical modifier

Dexterity

12(13)

+15% base success for crafting and physical skill success rate, 30% chance to raise base weapon damage roll by one step

Endurance

10(12)

+2 base Stamina, +20% Stamina Recovery Rate, +20% base Health Recovery Rate

Toughness

12(13)

+3 base Health, +15% base Health, +15% base Stamina, +1 to resist poison, disease, and physical status effects

Perception

12

+6% hit, +6% critical chance with ranged weapons. +10% chance to notice stealthed individuals. General increase in discovery rate.

Connection

20

Capacity

22

+12 base Essence, +60% base Essence

Appearance

14(16)

Notably handsome

Non-Level Stats

Intelligence

20

+100% skill acquisition rate, may gain rare and difficult skills.

Magic

22

+48% Magic Effects. +2 maximum affinity.

Charisma

10

Luck

10

The Fates neither dislike nor care for you

Secondary Stats

Mind Affinity

1

-10% essence cost to all Mind abilities, +10% effect for all Mind abilities or +1 to the difficulty to resist.

Wyld Affinity

1

-10% essence cost to all Wyld abilities, +10% effect for all Wyld abilities or +1 to the difficulty to resist.

Birth Perks

Race: High Elf

-2 to Strength, Endurance, and Toughness stats base

+2 to Agility and Magic stats base

Increased chance for Being magics and Wyld magic. Gain an additional ability at Level 2, 10, and every 10 thereafter from one of those magics if possessed.

Life span average of 400 years. Maximum of 3 perks positive and negative each, with standard chance of inheriting or acquiring at birth.

Rank: Natural

May obtain Level 80 without ascension, access to extremely rare or upgraded magical abilities.

Graceful Body

+4 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +4 Appearance

Predator

+4 Agility, +10% critical chance, +.5 critical modifier

Line of Stardew

+4 Magic. Always start with Wyld, gain 1 additional Wyld ability at Level 2. Auras for Wyld are gained 10 levels earlier, and this can exceed maximum level, and may gain 2 higher maximum Wyld affinity.

*Genius

+10 Intelligence, increased magic ability access. May gain +2 maximum Mind affinity.

*Being Arcane

With the appropriate prerequisite abilities and stats, upon obtaining Level 30, may gain any or all of the Arcane abilities: Kinesthetic, Cognitive, or Empathetic.

*Aura Mastery

May gain auras as if 10 levels higher, including access to auras that are beyond maximum level once reached.

Acquired Perks

Bond to Yggdrasil, First Rank

Yggdrasil, the living mythical artifact crafted to connect the Kingdom of Averia directly to numerous dimensions. The magic swirling through you increases your power beyond reason—if you can handle it.

+1 max all affinities. +4 Magic. +4 Capacity. +10 Connection. If Arcane, gain Travel magic. +50% experience required to level.

Ghost Wolf Pact

All elves who claim allegiance to you may bond with ghost wolves, regardless of ghost wolf level. As the magical repository of this skill, you gain a fraction of the power of Freyvir, Progenitor of the Ghost Wolves, power as your own. +1 Wyld affinity. +2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Perception. All bonuses to ghost wolf animal companions are doubled for you. +5% experience total required to level.

Athletic Tier-2

The huge amount of time you spend working out and training has paid off. +20% effective rank to Strength, Agility, and Endurance, round down. +10% to Dexterity and Toughness, round down. +15% to Appearance, round to closest.

Skills

Level

Effect

Administration

4

-2% to realm administration costs, -8% to business costs

Athletics

15

+45% to run speed, +15 to check to climb or avoid obstacles

Level 10 Special Skill: Burst Fighter: For up to 6 minutes, all stamina expenditures are halved.

Business

4

+12% to expected income, and -4% to expected costs, for operating any business

Dodge

11

+33% to dodge incoming attacks.

Level 10 Special Skill: Slip from the Crowd: First additional person attacking you after the first imposes no additional penalties.

Instruction

5

+2.5% increase in learning rate of someone learning from you per point of difference in your skills

Imbuing

2

Formal knowledge of imbuing, may create tier-1 least rituals

Leadership

3

People consider you to have 6% more status than you do, and if they are followers, are willing to accept conditions 3% worse than baseline without complaint

Light Armor

3

+6% defense added from light armor, -9% penalty to accuracy and dodge from light armor

Melee Weapons

1

+1% to hit and damage with any handheld weapon

Mixed Arts Fighting

10

+20% to hit and damage with fists, +10% to dodge, +5% to trip, pin, or incapacitate and avoid the same

Level 10 Special Skill: All the Weapons: In any ‘clinch,’ may deliver an unarmed blow as an additional attack at no penalty.

Natural Sciences

19

Extremely detailed understanding of the nonmagical components of the world and how they work

Occult

8

You can sense magic that is not concealed that is connected to you, whose area of effect you are in, or that is within 8 feet of you. Your magic powers have 16% greater effect. You can sense the purpose of simple magic and vaguely discern more complicated magic.

Research

8

+16% base rate to discover information in archives, +16% to daily chance to discover something new while researching, modifying Intelligence rate

Seduction

1

People find your attempts to seduce them 2% more favorable than baseline, compared to what they are looking for

Shield

3

+9% block with shield, +3% accuracy and damage to shield bash

Small Blades

2

+8% to hit and parry, +4% to damage, and +4% critical chance with small blades

Survival

4

+12% hunting and foraging

Sword

8

+24% to hit and parry, +24% damage with swords

Abilities

Effect

Body

Regeneration, Rank I

Spend 2 essence. Gain 1 health until max per 6 seconds for 1 minute.

Mind

Cognitive Learner

+1 Mind ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Analyze

Spend 1 essence and gain a basic readout of any creature or item that does not possess antidivination magic. Gain knowledge of basic Health, Stamina, Essence, and rough capabilities and weaknesses.

Telekinesis, Rank II

Spend 2 (2 x.9 = 1.8 round) essence and move a single object, up to 10.4 pounds, up to 20 feet away per occult at speeds up to 60 miles per hour, modified for net damage change, controlling it for 6 seconds. If attacking, does 1–3 base damage. Damage, speed, and weight modified by magical and telekinesis-altering abilities. (current damage 2–5 (1–3 x1.4 (Magic) x1.16 (Occult) x 1.1 (affinity))

Mind Affinity, Rank I

+1 Mind affinity

Soul

Empathetic Learner

+1 Soul ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Soul of Magic, Rank I

+2 Magic

Wyld

Animal Companion, Rank I

May have 1 animal companion. It gains +2 to all physical stats.

Metal

I wish I were Level Ten. That level is going to be absolutely amazing. Four abilities, even better than for Level Two. Can’t wait, legit. But for now…

Leo switched to his available abilities chart.

Leveling Options, Level Nine [Pick Two]

Body

Improved Strength, Rank I

+4 Strength

Improved Agility, Rank I

+4 Agility

Improved Dexterity, Rank I

+4 Dexterity

Bestial Endurance, Rank I

+4 Endurance

Bestial Toughness, Rank I

+4 Toughness

Bestial Senses, Rank I

+4 Perception

Improved Appearance, Rank I

+4 Appearance

Improved Health, Rank I

+8 base Health

Improved Stamina, Rank I

+8 base Stamina

Play Dead

Spend 1 essence, and life functions will drop to the point that they are not detectable to the naked eye for up to 10 minutes.

Heal

Spend 1 essence, and heal 4 health to self or others by touch.

Brutal Reaction

Spend 2 essence and 2 stamina. Gain brief speed, doubling physical movement rates, including attack, for 6 seconds.

Regeneration, Rank II

Spend 3 essence. Target gains 2 health until max per 6 seconds for 1 minute.

Regenerating Aura

Spend 3 essence. You and all allies gain 1 health until max per 6 seconds for 1 minute.

Second Wind

Spend 1 essence. Gain 8 stamina.

Subtle Shift

Spend 2 essence and maintain for 1 essence per minute. Features subtly shift to look like a different person—only cosmetic features (skin tone, wrinkles, etc.)

Sleepless, Rank I

Require only 4 hours of sleep per night.

Body Affinity, Rank I

+1 Body affinity

*Kinesthetic Learner

Gain 1 additional Body ability at Level 10, and every 10 levels thereafter. May only be taken at Level 2, 11, 21, 31, or 41, and it only applies to the 10th level thereafter. Rare ability—result of natural talent and at least 1 perk that adds to Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Toughness, or Endurance. +25% to occult skill gain rate.

Mind

Improved Intelligence, Rank I

+2 Intelligence

Illusionist, Rank I

Spend 1 essence. May hold for 1 drawdown (1 less maximum mana so long as power is utilized). Create a cat-sized image with only visual components.

Audible Illusions

All illusions may have audible components as well.

Conceal Self

May radically change your own appearance and clothing at will. This also provides +2 Appearance. This is a mind-affecting ability and may be resisted by anyone with bonuses against mind-affecting abilities.

Mind Blast, Rank I

Spend 1 essence and do 2 (modified by all magic- and mind-altering effects) psi damage to any visible target that has a mind within 100 feet per point of occult.

Telekinesis, Rank III

Spend 3 essence and move a single object up to 10 feet away per occult at speeds up to 90 miles per hour, modified by damage. If attacking, does 6 base damage. Damage, speed, and weight modified by magic- and telekinesis-altering abilities. (Locked, Level 10 required)

Inertial Armor, Rank I*

Based on high Intelligence, Telekinesis ability, and Cognitive Learner, this unusual power pushes physical attacks away. Only working on kinetic damage, this adds 1 armor, modified by Magic score.

Inertial Weapon, Rank I*

Based on high Intelligence, Telekinesis ability, and Cognitive Learner, this unusual power modifies kinetic force. This adds 10% damage to kinetic attacks, modified to higher percentage damage by Magic score.

Telepathy, Rank I

Spend 1 essence, and 1 essence per 10 minutes, to use telepathy with any one person within 10 feet per point of occult.

Tongues

Spend 1 essence, and 1 essence per 10 minutes, to speak any natural language. This is a mind-affecting power and will not work if the target can’t receive telepathy.

Mind Affinity, Rank II

Gain +1 Mind affinity

Soul

Soul of Magic, Rank II

+2 Magic

Natural Leader, Rank I

+2 Charisma

Improved Connection, Rank I

+4 Connection

Improved Capacity, Rank I

+4 Capacity

Shield, Rank I

May spend 1 essence and gain a 4-hit-point shield that lasts for 6 seconds.

Barrier, Rank I

May spend 1 essence and gain a 2-hit-point shield that lasts for 1 minute.

Talk Down

The wielder may spend 2 essence and make a contested Charisma check against the target’s highest Intelligence, Magic, or Charisma score, with the defender getting any bonuses against mind-affecting powers. Success will calm the target so they won’t initiate or continue aggression, unless harmed or witnessing others they care for being harmed.

Soul Affinity, Rank I

+1 Soul affinity

Wyld

Bestial Strength, Rank I

+4 Strength

Bestial Agility, Rank I

+4 Agility

Bestial Endurance, Rank I

+4 Endurance

Bestial Toughness, Rank I

+4 Toughness

Bestial Senses, Rank I

+4 Perception

Were Form, Rank I

May spend 1 essence, and 1 essence per every 6 seconds, to assume a partial were form. Gain +4 to Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Toughness for the duration of the ability.

Resilient, Rank I

Gain back 1 health per 10 minutes at no cost.

True Grit

Wound penalties to accuracy, dodge, and Stamina recovery are halved

Wyld Affinity, Rank I

+1 Wyld affinity

Animal Companion, Rank II

Gain 2 additional animal companions. Each animal gains +2 to all physical stats. ‘Animals’ include any magical beast less than Level 6 for this power.

Powerful Companions

Every animal companion gains an additional +2 to all physical stats. Base animal may be two levels higher.

Metal

Armored Skin, Rank I

+2 armor score for natural skin. Your skin has a slight metallic sheen.

Light, Rank I

Spend 1 essence, and do 4 (modified by all magic, Metal, and Light-altering effects) light damage to any target hit with a ranged accuracy roll at +60% accuracy.

Coordinator’s Boost

Spend 1 essence. Target ally within 10 feet per occult gains +60% accuracy and +20% critical chance against any target hit by an ally for the next 12 seconds.

Natural Merchant, Rank I

Gain +20% more from selling goods than normal based on Charisma and business score.

Natural Organizer, Rank I

Gain +20% more productivity from any business with fewer than 100 (+10% per business and leadership skill level) people.

Skilled Fighter, Rank I

+20% bonuses from all weapon, armor, and shield skills

Item Mastery, Rank I

Gain 1 additional nonartifact item use maximum

Body/Wyld

Resilient Companions

All animal companions gain 1 health every minute unless slain

Mind/Wyld

Intelligent Companions

All animal companions gain +2 Intelligence and may learn language, and speak it if their mouths are capable.

Soul/Wyld

Familiar, Rank I

May bond with a single familiar. This familiar has half the level of its master and is considered a sapient magical beast.

The problem, of course, was that Leo couldn’t do everything he wanted.

He wanted to expand his animal companion skills. He wanted to increase telekinesis, take inertial weapons, increase his magic, increase his healing… He wanted everything, really. But what he was most torn between was increasing his Charisma to lead better, increasing his magic since it affected all his powers potentially, and sleepless, which gave him more time. The extra two to three hours a day was about the same amount of time it took him to maintain his physical regime.

And I think I’ll need a certain number of stats and abilities in all three of the Being magics—Body, Mind, and Soul—for arcane when I’m Level Thirty. If ever. I have to spread these abilities somehow…

Leo was currently quite weak on Soul magic abilities, but he’d focused the hardest on a long-term build, increasing his skill gain rate and potential maximums. At the end of the day, he felt sleepless was best.

He selected the ability and burst of energy and a second wind roared through him—like he had a Red Bull from his old life coursing through his veins again. That’s the good stuff.

Leo watched as Hugh entered his thirteenth, and least coherent, rendition of the ‘The Lady and the Root,’ which was apparently what passed for a lusty tavern song to elves. Frankly, it was so subtle and poetic that anything lusty, besides the clear innuendo in the title itself, was lost on Leo.

And if I didn’t know Middle Averian, I think the song itself would sound like a lament for friends lost, the way this language sounds.

Hugh tried to make his way over to Leo and walked into a support beam for the tavern headfirst, without stopping his singing. Perhaps with my new ‘Red Bull’ power, I can put up with the drunk dragon more easily, Leo thought to himself with a brief chuckle. Then he stood to guide the inebriated lizard to bed.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Holy Feces, Cities Have Stats as Well?!

A couple of days after the visit to the dam, Leo sat in his new house’s bedroom, on a well-made and comfortable wooden chair, studying a copy of Circle Against Sickness: A Body Wielder’s Guide to Imbuing for Health. He needed to make sure his cities didn’t turn into the equivalent of the medieval cesspools of his own world’s Dark Ages.

His door banged open without so much as a knock, and Lily, her silver hair blown out behind her by the force of the door opening, came bounding into his room, her white-and-green dress flowing behind her as she did.

“Leo, it’s finally arrived!”

“The McRib’s back?” Leo asked, widening his eyes to comical proportions.

Lily laughed, her blue eyes sparkling. “You know your colloquialisms aren’t going to amuse anyone, so why, in Eturia’s name, do you spew just so very many when instead you should be giving inspiring oratory?”

“It’s amusing to me.” Leo smiled. “I apologize, though—you wanted to regale me with amazing news before I waxed colloquially sardonic?”

Lily furrowed her brow, then relaxed. “You’re still waxing sarcastic for reasons I’m sure I can’t fathom, beyond ‘you’re male,’ but enough of your inane chitchat!”

She grabbed Leo by the arm and yanked, and he allowed himself to be pulled out of his chair, dropping his book to the seat and laughing as he was dragged out the door.

“This way, most mouthy of rulers,” Lily said, yanking him along through his extremely modest log-cabin-style house. The bright sunlight and pleasant woodland odor that surrounded Elgin Isle greeted him, as well as waves from the few people here.

Elgin Isle had become the temporary seat of his new empire, but Leo could already tell that decision likely wouldn’t last, for multiple reasons. The eventual tree that would connect worlds and the main palace was in Star Port proper—the new capital on the east side of the kingdom in Old Calasti. But most of his people lived in Wheat Town, about four miles up the west side of the Blue River, or in the smaller settlement of Green Apple Grove, also on the west side of the river but nearest Elgin Isle.

Elgin Isle was temporary, and proving to be a bad first landing site. It had no farmland, and its docks were only on the riverside, and small. Leo was going to need to move into the ruins of Star Port in the next few weeks, once he had enough of a military force to clear some of the ruins. It would be an interesting settlement for quite some time. ‘Interesting’ in the Chinese curse sense of the phrase.

Lily pulled Leo toward the government building across the street, past the ghost wolf, Helwo, who was lounging half-asleep and upside down near the wooden door into the magically worked stone building.

He found George, Felix, and Val already there, the two humans and the half-elf waiting for him, surrounding a large wooden table with the outline of a stylized eye etched into its top. Next to it, all lashed together with twine, were seventeen crystal rods.

“Say hello to the Omnieye, which lets you look at your realm’s status sheet!” Lily said, smiling at Leo. “It’s a fascinating tool, really, especially for those researching how mortals live together. But it can be used in my specialty as well, tracking, to a degree, populations of magical beasts, like the reintroduction you’ve been conducting—”

“It gives a status sheet, that’s true,” George said, cutting in. “But what’s important to remember is what it can’t do. It can’t pierce any illusion, invisibility, or defense against divination. Only completely undefended targets can be accounted for. So, if the Omnieye tells you that you have a base-four crime rate, but you have a master Eclipse mage in your realm, you might be losing far more, with no way to even know.”

“And it only tells you the aggregate for each zone it monitors,” Felix said. “If it tells you that you’ve got a fifteen percent modifier to agriculture, it might have averaged the soil and irrigation rates. A third of the town might have only five percent, and two-thirds twenty percent, and the one-third’ll be angry about the two-thirds.”

George smiled. “Exactly. So don’t come to rely on it too much. It’s a very good baseline, but you’ll want talented ministers working and, occasionally, using their own gods-given two eyes.”

“How does it work?” Leo asked.

“Put your hand on it, and it’ll attune to you,” Lily said, cutting back in excitedly. “Then it’ll just show you status sheets.” She suddenly burst into laughter. “It isn’t changed to account for your personality, so you probably won’t get an insulting status sheet, at least.”

The others blinked, and then George and Felix chuckled. Val didn’t, telling Leo she was either very kind or, more likely, hadn’t done enough study to know about status sheets that were created by magic not from the Servants of Telos, and hadn’t gotten the kinda-joke.

“We already dropped the lashes off in Wheat Town, Green Apple Grove, and the center of Star Port, so it should be able to read everything you have interests in,” Lily finished.

Leo had nothing else to say, so he stepped forward, touched the surface of the table, and focused. Almost immediately, a massive amount of information entered his mind.

Star Port Metropolitan Area

Founded year 9973 after the cataclysm of the Dark God Cyl, month of Storms, day 17.

Regional Modifiers

Blue River

+2 Trade Level

This river connects the Inner Sea (and by extension, the continents spanning the Split Sea) with the Ten Lakes region, and by extension the Blue Lands. The city of Star Port sits astride the Blue River, controlling its mouth. Potentially an important trade artery.

Cliff Pass and the Great Marble Road

+1 Trade Level (Currently defunct)

The only pass from the middle lands into the Inner Sea region of Beldin. The elves constructed a massive, thirty-foot-wide marble road about a hundred miles to the pass and over it, as well as great bridges over the few rivers in the way.

Marble Web

+1 Trade Level (Currently defunct)

A massive network of local roads connecting the lesser cities throughout the Forest of Averia with Star Port.

Calasti Tree Node

+100% agriculture for orchards. +15,000 base gold in Wyld crystals annually. +11,250(9000 base) gold in magical plants and animals base rate, unmodified by cultivation or overharvesting.

A tier-3 Wyld node, this famous node is almost entirely beneficial and also allows for truly rare and magical trees in the form of treating the node area as a tier-2 magic world for tree growth purposes only.

Ashti Sun Node

+20% agriculture for all (increased sunlight per square foot). +1000 gold in Light crystals annually. +1000 gold in magical plants and animals base rate, unmodified by cultivation or overharvesting.

A tier-1 Light node, this node is more famous for its riverside beaches than anything else.

Yggdrasil

+1 renown. Rumors of this great wonder of the world, however weak currently, have begun to be whispered around the Inner Sea and Ten Lakes regions.

City Areas

Wheat Town

A small town focused almost entirely on field farming. Node +20% additional agriculture rate locally.

Dam and water tower irrigation system

+20% agriculture locally

Green Apple Grove

A very small town focused on orchard agriculture. +100% additional tree agriculture rate locally.

Elgin Isle

A very small town focused on administration and being a safe staging area for resettlement.

Central District, Star Port

Empty but for an average of 13 transient adventurers every day.

Regional Magical Modifiers

Temple of Iluvin Eturia with a Tier-1 Temple Stone

+10% agriculture rate, +25% magical beast and plant rate in Wyld nodes

Special or Magical Resources

Administrative Modifiers

George Orsini – Genius administrator, trade focus, low level

+10% trade income, +2% to all industry, +2% per capita income

Numerical Representation of the Star Port Metropolitan Area

Population (mortals and allied magical beasts)

City Size 1 (-.1% growth rate)

1309 citizens (next tier at 2000 citizens roughly)

Growth Rate

+2.41%

2% base + modifiers

Domestic Product

173 silver per family (50 silver base)

566 gold / year, +30% accrual rate

Tax Level: Extremely Low (0%)

0 gold / year

+.5% population growth, +20% age accrual

Industry Modifiers Metropolitan and Surrounding

Agriculture

+10% base

Mining & Quarrying

+0% base

Commercial Construction

+4% base

Luxury

+8% base

Entertainment

+0% base

Magical

+0% base

Other Special

Trade Level

2 (port of note)

+.2% population growth, +4% commercial, +8% luxury, +2 happiness, +8% per capita income

Renown

1 (mildly known)

+.01% population growth

Crime

4 (base level)

-.2% population growth, -4% per capita income

Happiness

42 (30 base, 10 temp for levels gained, will fade, 2 miscellaneous)

+.1% population growth, +3% tax tolerance, +1% per capita income

Maintenance

Base

100% cost to maintain all

Effective Age

0 years / +50% accrual

No benefit

Special

Average Level: 2.3

+65% productivity increase average

Leo examined the chart for quite some time, his eyes, he was sure, fuzzed out. A lot of potential here, if I’m seeing this right. This could be a veritable agricultural cornucopia, the breadbasket of this entire greater region. Although I don’t understand some things.

“Why does it tell me I have these huge agriculture rates, but then say my base rate is ten percent?” Leo asked.

“Base rate,” Lily said, obviously excited, “is just the rate affecting your whole region. Since the Ashti Sun Node has a base increase, but it only affects Wheat Town, it doesn’t get included. The temple of Iluvin Eturia gets included in that number because it’s affecting everything.”

Leo nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

George rapped the Omnieye lightly with his cane. “That’s a further reason that you need to pay attention to the details.”

Lily scowled. “Again, it gives you a great overview. I strongly recommend you focus on increasing all the numbers, however.”

Shifting to a different topic, Leo asked, “What’s ‘age’ and ‘age accrual’? How would you accrue age faster? That seems like an oxymoron.”

“Get married,” George said with a chuckle, but no one joined in his laughter.

Lily started walking around the Omnieye, tapping one delicate finger to her chin as she did, her voice contemplative. “‘Age’ represents the effective time the city has grown unmolested, as best I can explain it. Here on Toth, because of the magic, families and businesses slowly accumulate magical items. Maybe some family saved and scrimped for years, carefully, and the patriarch of the family, a hardworking farmer, got a sleepless ring. Now he can work sixteen or so hours a day instead of twelve. So he makes more money, pays more taxes, et cetera. The things you want as the leader of a metropolis.”

Leo rubbed his chin. “Makes sense by itself, but again, why ‘average age’?”

“Well, our researchers have determined that cities seem to gain those magic items at a pretty standard rate. And since magic items don’t break down or decay, cities accumulate basic improvements to the populace over time.”

Felix chuckled. “Or gain rapid one-shot increases from raiding.”

Lily grimaced. “Or that. But the process of gaining magic items occurs faster in extremely rich cities, and in cities with low tax levels. But low-tax cities can’t pay for services needed to grow, frequently, so it’s a bit of a balance.”

“It’s also lost by cities that are sacked, the real reason for taxes,” Val said, her green eyes intense. She lightly smacked her right hand into her left palm. “Defense before affluence.”

Weird, we have the same saying.

“Well, I suppose armies are a good reason for taxes, but I was thinking more of universities and research facilities,” Lily said, frowning at Val.

Leo figured he already knew the arguments for that, so he cut in with, “Why don’t the percentages of the family tax add up?”

George beamed at him like a proud father. “Good eye. It’s because there are deeper levels on that statistic, involving the actual industries people are employed in. Since you have huge agricultural modifiers, and about two-thirds of the population is already growing food or commercial agricultural products, those modify the family’s income. But it can’t be distilled to a single number easily. If you focus, you can break out more detailed numbers by section.”

Leo decided to pass on that for now.

“So, the trade modifier is a huge benefit,” Leo noted. “But it says some of it is ‘defunct.’ Again, why?”

Lily stopped her pacing, hanging her head slightly. “Part of Calasti’s income came from a near monopoly on trade into Stonehaven and the midregions. But Stonehaven has gone silent. And some of the trade value came from the surrounding region, which was filled with smaller cities and towns, which have all been destroyed.”

Note to self: Figure out what happened to Stonehaven soon and get trade with the dwarves going again. That will add considerably to the town, it seems.

“So, what would you all advise as my next moves to increase the town’s progress?” Leo asked his council.

George, Felix, Val, and Lily all exchanged glances with each other. Leo could already guess their preferences to a degree. But they quickly answered, dispelling any question of what they wanted.

George harrumphed. “Agriculture and trade were what made Calasti great, and they’re what will make Star Port great. You should focus on continuing to expand the population, creating farmers with huge productivity rates.”

“I think you should put together a magic school, perhaps on Elgin Isle once you move, and train people,” Lily said.

“We need soldiers to protect against the Blood Tribes,” Val contributed.

“I think you should expand your dam project and build more roads,” from Felix.

Yeah, about what I expected.

“All right, I’ll think about it,” Leo said.

Val held up a finger. “You don’t have any taxes set. How do you plan to get money?”

“We’re small enough that adventuring could theoretically fill that need,” Leo muttered. “Hugh is Level Ten, Lily and are Level Nine, and god help me, Zir is Level Six now. I’m hoping that’ll do the trick.”

“It’ll work for a small amount of time, but that’s it,” Val said. The others nodded sagely along. “Or maybe just with a small amount of people for a long time. But if we grow, you’ll need more.”

Leo shrugged. “I’m also going to be working out deals with the Adventurers Guild, and I’m going to be imposing tariffs on the people using the river. That’ll easily keep us afloat till we’re larger. I’d rather keep low taxes for now, drive growth. We’ll move to a higher tax model when we have to, not a moment before.”

“Hm.”

Leo rubbed the back of his head. “I’m going to go see how our dragon is doing. Anyone need anything else?”

Lily frowned. “Is something wrong with Hugh?”

“No, but I need to think on all this, let my hindbrain mull it over. And Hugh is great for getting the main part of my attention onto stupid things.”

Lily smiled. “I suppose he is.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Dragon Quest, Poorly Performed Quick Time Events Included

Leo ambled the thousand or so feet to the southern end of Elgin Isle. Hugh had been constructing a lair on the coast, and most days, if he wasn’t drinking, that was where he could be found.

Hugh’s home design project was taking place on one of the beaches, a cave he’d been digging into solid rock, very slowly, with his claws. Leo had offered Felix to help, but Hugh had refused.

Leo walked to the southern beach, which had cliffs like those on the northern side, but they weren’t sheer, they were sloped, and some parts had small beaches.

Last time Leo had been here, Hugh’s cave had been tiny, and his treasure crammed into it like a badly packed U-Haul moving truck. Most of the treasure had been furniture as well—though he’d also gotten quite a bit of art and statues.

Leo made his way down the slightly flattened portion of the beach, small boulders sticking up around him despite the sand. As he rounded the corner, he saw that Hugh’s cave was a real cave now—it went back farther than Leo could see, its new depths a mystery. It had also expanded, so it was partially below water—the entire floor of the entrance was now beneath the waves to about ankle height, with a central chasm that was considerably deeper.

“Hugh, buddy?” Leo called into the darkness of the seaside tunnel.

“Leo?” came Hugh’s voice, followed by a splashing and pounding of scales on stone.

“Yeah?”

“Leo!” Hugh shouted as he came bursting out of his entrance. “Check it out, Leo. I got a new power!”

Hugh ran up the sand and then braced himself, managing to spray some of it at Leo in an almost comical manner as he left claw-skids up the beach.

Hugh had been taking nothing but armor, Toughness, and Health powers so far, and putting his stats into Strength… and it showed. He was now almost ten feet long, which was about twenty-five percent longer than he had been—and he was thicker and taller as well. Leo was pretty sure he was almost twice as big, in total, as he had been when they’d first met.

As Leo sized up Hugh, the dragon reached down to one of the boulders sticking up out of the sand. Leo felt magic, somehow stable and simple, wrap itself around Hugh. Then Hugh reached into the rock and pulled it apart like taffy.

“I can use the power like that mortal Felix guy! I can build awesome caves now!”

“Nice!” Leo said. “Why did you take that power?”

“Everyone is building and making… I wanted something to do as well! Now I can carve caves and statues and make my lair awesome. To impress, um, lady dragons… you know.”

“Polly.”

Hugh gave a deep sigh, his scaled jowls flapping as he did. “Yeah, Polly. I hope she thinks I’m cool. I mean, I’m Level Five, which is way stronger than most dragons my age… and I’ve got a cool lair, and a hoard… Well, I’ll have a cool lair soon, anyway.”

“I hope it’ll work, buddy,” Leo said. “And honestly, if Polly can’t see how amazing you are, perhaps she isn’t right for you anyway.”

“Polly’s right for any dragon, let me tell you. She’s naturally bigger, stronger, and faster than almost all the other dragons, and her scales shine so bright…” Hugh coughed, then tilted his head and stared at Leo. “Why’d you come down here, anyway? I didn’t even wait for you to tell me what’s up.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking of what I need to do in order to advance the city and protect it. To be a great lord for my people. Truth is, Star Port and the Kingdom of Averia are small, poor, and sitting on some extremely prime real estate. I just came to see you to stop thinking for a bit, and hopefully my hindbrain can come up with stuff if I don’t think about it.”

Hugh rolled his eyes. “Hindbrain, huh? More like no brain. Thinking up plans while you’re not thinking about plans… That’s just straight-up bird logic.”

Then Hugh scuffed the sand and lowered his head to look at Leo, almost like a dog that didn’t want to do something.

Hugh opened his eyes extra wide. “But now that you mention it… I’ve been thinking, and I wanted to ask you a favor.”

“Yeah?” Leo said, only paying about fifty percent attention.

“Well… you said you need defenders, and again, I was thinking… I wonder if you wanted to maybe, um, go with me and invite some dragons to come live here, and you can pay them like you pay me, to defend the town and help build it and stuff. What do you think? I mean, I know the dragons are, like, elven enemies and stuff, but you and I get along okay, right?”

Leo just stared at Hugh.

“And I could build all the dragons lairs along the beach here, and then they’d all think I’m cool…”

Leo’s own eyes went wide. “Hugh, you’re a genius! That would be perfect! A group of dragons, even just a few, would add a huge military edge to the town, and we could absorb them easily. I mean, you guys eat fish, and this area is filled with them. And they fly, so it wouldn’t be hard to get them here.”

“So, yes?” Hugh asked, his voice raw with desire. “After the dragonflight, a lot of eggs were laid, and there are a bunch of dragons in my age range throughout the Blue Lands we could ask. Most would probably die once they get old enough that the bigger, older dragons consider them enemies. We could punch good-deed cards.”

“Did you have friends?” Leo asked.

Hugh squirmed. “Well, I mean, yeah, kinda. There were a couple of dragons who were kinda, um, defective like me, and we, um, formed a group for, like, mutual protection and stuff. It kinda started when I sorta halfway saved one. But I was gonna just, you know, maybe put those guys on the other side of the island or something. I don’t want to see them get eaten, but… I wanted to ask all the really badass dragons who are up there! They’re sure to like me now!”

“Look, Hugh.” Leo scratched Hugh’s eye ridge. “You aren’t defective. If you were, I wouldn’t hide it from you, I’d just try to work through it with you. I don’t believe in hiding hard truths—I believe in overcoming them. But you aren’t defective.”

“Thanks, Leo.”

“No problem.”

Hugh smiled, showing off his fangs. “We and the other defective dragons were made fun of all the time—”

“You’re not defective,” Leo quietly interjected. “You don’t need to say that.”

“—well, all the other dragons called us that. What I’m trying to say is, I know you won’t make fun of them. And that will mean a lot.”

Leo shook his head. “You’re a very powerful dragon whose supposed defect is a perk. I’m sure these other dragons don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Yeah, well, my perk doesn’t help my cool factor. Like, what if your butt was always on fire and you could shoot fireballs from it? Powerful, yeah, but you’d still look like a doofus.”

Leo laughed. “All right, I’m not gonna try to keep convincing you. Just… trust me, you’re a really badass dragon.”

“Hmph.”

“But I love this plan. We can for sure go recruit some of the dragons of the Blue Lands. Especially your Polly.”

“Thanks, Leo. That time I didn’t eat you was the best decision I’ve ever made.”

“’Cuz that’s how it happened.”

“I’ll be alive for thousands of years after you, and that’s gonna be my story the whole time.”

Leo chuckled. “Touché. Let’s go see if Lily will join us—I really like adventuring with a healer, and I need at least one person to wax nerd with as well.”

“Well, fair’s fair—bring Zir. The little kid has, as you keep saying, moxie, and I need someone who isn’t a doofus with his head in the clouds.”

Leo grimaced. “Zir’s… kinda young.”

“So am I. Zir’s thirteenth birthday’s coming up, and he has multiple levels… more than his father had. And he’s gonna follow us no matter what, so you might as well have some control over the situation.”

Leo grimaced. “Fine, I’ll ask the little ball of anger if he wants to go adventuring. Theoretically, this should be a pretty calm trip.”

“Sure, whatever you need to tell yourself,” Hugh said.

“Dammit, Hugh.”

***

“You’re not fucking with me, right?” Zir asked as he leaned back against the stone wall of the training hall they were in, one leg half crossed over the other. He was flipping a knife into the air and catching it.

Leo tried to hide his concern. You don’t have to freak out, Leo. Lily is right here to heal him if he slices himself.

And no one else seemed in the least concerned—Zir’s mother was downright enthusiastic and his sister jealous. Although perhaps their approval was because a shadow covered Zir, now solid enough to mildly obscure his figure.

“No, and please watch your language,” Lily said.

Leo couldn’t help but wonder about the linguistic similarities—two, really—between English and Middle Averian.

“You’re doing it again, buddy.” Hugh slapped his tail on the floor of the training center. “Snap out of it.”

“Right, sorry,” Leo said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Feel like sparring?” Hugh asked.

Leo groaned internally. He was pretty sure that in the long run, his build would be far stronger than Hugh’s, but he’d taken mostly utility powers at this point—and part of his build was Wolten, besides. But since they sparred directly, Hugh usually won. Leo had been convinced he needed to train against beings other than humanoid mortals, but that had translated mostly into a lot of Hugh kicking his ass.

And with Lily here to keep them alive, it had resulted in a lot of pain as well.

But Leo hadn’t been backing down, and he’d been improving from that training as well.

Today, however, they needed to prep.

“Sorry, Hugh, no kicking my rear today. We need to prepare for the trip. Captain Whitewater’s in town, and she agreed to take us through to Lakusi. We’ll stop there for some official government business, and then we’ll head to the Blue Lands and the caves of your people. No time for combat training this morning.”

Hugh looked slightly skeptical, but he nodded. Lily nodded as well, and Zir whooped, leaping in the air fist-forward, and then his shadow stretched out the door. He dropped into the shadow, and a half second later, he ran down the hall, shouting, “I’m going on an adventure, Mom!”

“Just the four of us?” Lily asked, an eyebrow raised. “No official panoply, no guards, not even a servant?”

Leo shrugged. “This trip will only start as a state visit—it’s mainly an expedition into the lands of the storm dragons. I didn’t want to take noncombatants.”

“How about we just take Kemi, that lady who was the slave back at The Dragon’s Rest Inn in Steelport?” Lily asked. “She practically worships you, and she was a lady-in-waiting before the fall. She knows how to act the part.”

Leo scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Um, yeah… about that. She’s been trying to get into my pants, with quite a bit of fervor, since she got to the isle.”

“You don’t want to?” Lily asked, nonchalantly glancing away from Leo.

“Well, I mean, um, of course I do.” Leo was now scratching so hard, he might lose hair. He coughed to give himself a moment to think of the right words. “Between Audrey, who was distant for the last couple of months of our time together, and this time on Toth, I’m feeling like I could use a partner… But I didn’t want the complications, or, as you said, to have a bastard heir to the throne. And as sappy as this may sound, I’m the kind of guy who likes for it to mean more than just physical pleasure—I’d rather be with someone emotionally, not just be with someone physically, if I’m making sense.”

Lily turned and beamed up at him. “You’re making complete sense, Leo. I couldn’t agree more!”

“By Merdrek’s now-limp prick, you’re not making complete sense—you’re a complete wet blanket!” Hugh exclaimed. “Males should be actively seeking partners to lay eggs. That’s the dragon way.”

“This from the guy carrying a torch for Polly,” Leo said with a roll of his eyes. “I mean, I want to build a family and a life as well. Not just get my rocks off.”

“Get your rocks off?” Lily asked, laughing. “I don’t think that one translated. But I guess I understand the meaning in context.”

“Look, can we leave off on my sex life?” Leo grumbled.

“Or lack thereof.” Hugh straight-up winked at Leo, then did the ‘rim shot’ visual with his tail and made the ‘bump, sshh’ noise.

Leo had to laugh. “I really shouldn’t have taught you so many of Earth’s weird mannerisms. All I’m saying is I’d rather we take someone else besides Kemi. I know if I spend weeks effectively camping with a hot, willing chick who’s constantly throwing herself at me, I’m going to have a weak night and let her into my bedroll. I’d rather pass on that life complication at this point, no matter how good it sounds.”

Hugh snorted. “Eh. Not the dragon way at all.”

Leo walked out of the training room, following Zir. “Yeah, okay. Anyway, I think this’ll be an easy trip, but bring the weapons, just in case.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

By Merdrek’s You-Know, What a Bunch of Pricks

As their galley headed toward a pier, Leo gazed at Lakusi. Its port teemed with activity, a healthy bustle that told a discerning eye it was growing and prospering. Fishermen unloaded, people cried out their wares from stands, and furious bargaining occurred. A few soldiers patrolled the streets, but they were greeted with waves and jokes, signs the city guard was respected and liked, not feared.

Leo had a lot of hope for his time in the city—it seemed a reasonable place at first glance.

Beside him, Lily had a slight hunch to her shoulders which told him she was stressed. She wore beautiful clothing—illusions, Leo suspected. But to his eyes, she was dressed in a leaf-green dress that hugged her torso and flared out around her feet, with a large collection of silver and emerald jewelry, and her usual diadem. The stitching on the dress was different than usual, and when he’d asked, she’d explained the stitching told others in the Havi Imperium that she was noble.

But Lily had grown more and more tense as they approached the city over the last few days. Leo hadn’t been able to figure out exactly why, but he guessed her status as an outcast noble had been awkward for her.

Hugh, by contrast, was carefree and had already jumped over the side. He was swimming alongside the boat, occasionally making jokes to the rowers. Zir was staring, wide-eyed, at the city, his solid shadow giving an even darker cast to his already dark gray adventuring gear.

The city was impressive, about twice as large as Steelport, but it had nothing on the hives of human activity that San Francisco and Los Angeles were. Or anything on the ruins of Calasti, really.

Zir, however, hadn’t seen anything larger than a Blood Tribes war camp, so Leo figured this many people together in one place was blowing his little mind.

Captain Whitewater directed her ship to the dock, where they tied it off. Leo, Lily, Zir, and two elves fulfilling the role of ladies-in-waiting all walked down the plank. Leo paid the shockingly fat dockmaster, who held his hand out at the bottom of the plank, the use fee, a few silver coins.

“So, what’s first?” Leo asked as Hugh lunged out of the water, grabbed the pier, and pulled himself up next to them.

Leo lazily dodged the expected, and almost perfunctory, water-spit from Hugh.

“We need to go apply to see the king of the Havi Imperium, and then we should go see my mother. She’ll have a place for us to stay while we wait for our audience.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Ooh,” Hugh said. “We’ll get to meet a real king. I wonder how he’ll stack up against the discount model we have.”

“Ass,” Leo said affectionately, reaching out and scratching Hugh’s eye ridge.

Hugh batted Leo’s hand away after a moment. “All right, enough of your sentimentality. Let’s go get the dumb political stuff out of the way so we can recruit some awesome new dragons for my new lair complex.”

“They should call you ‘the friendly dragon,’” Lily said. “Dragons don’t normally lair together—it’s rare even for younger ones, although, I admit, not unheard of.”

“They should call him the friendly drunk,” Zir said, reaching over and slapping Hugh hard on his haunch.

As Hugh snorted, Zir shook his hand out.

Leo almost laughed at Zir. Hugh now had an armor rating as high as plate mail, and the Toughness of a small car. Unlike Leo, Zir didn’t regularly spar with Hugh and hadn’t quite experienced what trying to deal with the dragon was like.

The group wandered through the city. It was quite lovely for a medieval city, with window boxes planted with nice flowers, small personal gardens, and people who smiled and waved. Its houses were small and wooden for the most part, which spoke to the general wealth of the area—and the fact it bordered the Forest of Averia to the north.

Leo had been surprised at how small many of the houses in his own realm were, but he’d learned the maintenance and repair costs were high enough that any large dwelling was a huge drain on time and resources. Although the use of magic, including the basic hardening ability that didn’t require crystals, made the situation better than it would have been for a normal medieval peasant. But except for the richest of the farm families, everyone had pretty much adopted a two-room dwelling—one big front room that was a combination kitchen, dining room, and living room, and one large back room that acted as the communal bedroom. And an outhouse designed for the recovery of night soil for, well, soil.

It wasn’t very different here in the Havi Imperium, although the smells told Leo they still used the ‘throw it onto the road and wait for the rain to wash it into the lake’ method here, and not outhouses.

Leo’s idle thoughts were interrupted when Lily laid her hand on his forearm and pointed to the fourth or fifth black banner they’d passed.

“Someone important died,” Lily muttered.

Leo had no idea who it might have been, so he simply nodded at her words and kept walking.

They reached the palace after about twenty minutes walking through the city. It was impressive, with stone walls and towers, and glowing spires on the tops to hold pennants of the realm decorated with a stylized dragon in a lake. But it paled in comparison to the royal castle in the ruins of Calasti.

A second outer wall of the castle was under construction, as was a huge garden and pond combination at the front of the castle. Rituals were being laid out across large parts of it. The rituals were using aquamarine and emerald crystals of magic.

“Water and Wyld crystals,” Lily said, without being prompted. “And those are clearly water movement and purity rituals, and growth rituals for the Wyld magic portion. Fairly expensive ones. This entire garden complex probably cost thousands of gold to create, or will by the time it’s done, and costs tens more every single year to keep it going. This seems a bit rich for the king, but I suppose he’s earned it over his nearly fifty-year reign, one that’s seen the city of Lakusi, and the Havi Imperium in general, carefully shepherded to a decent height after they got hit during the dragonflight as well.”

She sniffed. “Far short of Averia, of course, but still.”

“What if the king is the dead guy?” Leo asked. “What’s his son like?”

“His son, Jason Haviden III, is a good man, although perhaps a bit indolent. He isn’t the worker his father is, nor is he quite as smart, but he’s still a good ruler and has a real knack for finding the best person for the job, whatever job that may be. He’s held quite a few positions under his father, and done well, if not amazingly, at all of them. A solid administrator, if not exactly inspired at anything.”

“Good, I was worried for a moment that this excess was a sign of new management.”

As they were talking, they reached the front of the main keep to the palace. Two guards, both in polished and gleaming half-plate, stood with halberds ready and swords at their belts.

“Who’re you?” the left one asked. His glower was a near match for his fellow guard’s, and through the helm, Leo could only see men in their thirties with brown hair and brown eyes. Lacking anything else to distinguish them, Leo designated them ‘Lefty’ and ‘Righty’ in his own mind—he got the impression they weren’t going to be doing friendly introductions.

Lily held her head up proudly. “I am Lilianae ap Willowynd, Duchess of Willowynd. I am formally requesting a meeting with the king, as is my privilege as a noble.”

Righty took over the sneer-and-smear. “Hardly, slavey. King Damien has decreed that all titles belonging to the lost Kingdom of Averia are forfeit under his reign. You have no standing here, and no right to seek the king’s presence. Begone.”

“King… Damien?” Lily asked, shocked. “What happened to King Jason Haviden the Second? Or his son, the Third? Or his son’s son, the Fourth?”

“The crown prince and his own son disappeared on a hunt, just before King Jason Haviden the Second passed.” The guard paused. “How do you not know this? It was in the mouth of all the town criers for a fortnight.”

Lily flipped her hair back. “I was out restoring the lost Kingdom of Averia, which has risen again.”

Technically true, but boy, is she stretching the definition of ‘rose again,’ Leo thought to himself, choking back his giggle at the degree to which she stretched the facts.

“Horseshit, elf. Now get out of here.”

Before Lily could respond, Zir stepped forward. “I’m Zirvyl Xolterra ap Veltear, Archduke of Veltear now that my father has passed. I demand entry as my noble privilege.”

“What’s the Archduchy of Veltear?” Righty asked.

“Just another lost elven land,” Lefty answered.

Righty chuckled. “Then fuck this slavey as well.”

Zir launched himself at Righty, a steel stiletto, lengthened by hardened shadow, in his hand, aimed at the gaps in the helm that covered the guard’s face.

But Leo had seen it coming. He managed to grab Zir’s arm before he could make contact. He lifted him from the ground and pushed him back before Zir’s other attacks could strike the guard.

“I’ll fucking kill you, you piece of human filth!” Zir raged at the guard, then he turned to Leo. “Put me down!”

“That’s assault on a serving royal guardsman!” Righty bellowed, his face pale. “That’s a capital offense!”

Leo turned, his own free left hand crossing to grasp the hilt of his sword.

“Zir here is Level Six, and he’s the lowest of us by a decent margin. You saw his magic. You’ve made your position clear—we’ll leave. And I’m sorry for my friend. If, however, you try to harm Zir, you’ll both die, and your kingdom will have a war.”

“And I’ll eat one of you,” Hugh said nonchalantly. “You’re still worth a tiny bit of experience to me. And I’ve never actually managed to eat a mortal yet who wasn’t a goblin. I kinda wanna sample you.”

They both went paler.

“Who’re you?” Lefty asked Leo. “How can you make that threat?”

“I’m Leonard Emmanuel ap Evans il Stardew, King of the reborn Kingdom of Averia, and I was here to negotiate trade deals for the use of the Blue River, as well as dockage at my port of currently over a thousand that sits at the mouth of the river on Elgin Isle, now that ‘Old Chao’ is gone. We’re not nobles of a lost kingdom, we’re most of the ruling council of a new one.”

Lefty and Righty exchanged glances, and then Righty raised an eyebrow.

That must have meant something to Lefty, who gave a single jut of his chin to Leo. “Well, where’ll you be staying? I’ll see if the king wants to see you and let you know.”

“We’ll be at the Willowynd Manse.”

***

The trudge back through the city was basically one long rant from Zir. “You should’ve let me stab him. No one would miss one idiot uppy guard. Seriously, I think his own wife woulda been happy to see him go. What an absolute churl.”

“Calm down,” Leo said. “You’re gonna bust a gasket.”

“The hell?”

“Who cares about the guard?” Leo dramatically rolled his eyes. “He’s gonna have to clean out his armor after you nearly removed his eye and then a dragon threatened to eat him. Not an idle threat in this world. That’s enough punishment for denying your title, right? Being a Karen isn’t a death sentence, for fuck’s sake.”

“Being a Karen?” Lily asked, her brow furrowed.

Zir grimaced and made slashing motions through the air with one of his knives, which appeared in his hand as if by magic. “It should be a capital offense to challenge my authority. Especially for a human.”

“Might wanna leave off the humans, Zir,” Lily said, glancing up at Leo before looking away.

Zir snorted. “Why? They’re trash, except for their damnable ridiculous heroes, and everyone knows it.”

“Sshhh!” Lily slapped at the back of Zir’s head—though the younger elf ducked without looking—and then put her finger to her lips like a librarian.

“It’s fine, truly,” Leo said. “My state of being is hyper-complicated, and I learn from people’s prejudices.”

By now, most of Zir’s anger seemed to have been replaced by confusion as he glanced back and forth between Leo and Lily. “What’re you guys going on about?”

Hugh, however, already knew about Leo and wasn’t interested. So he started stuff again. “I’m with the kid. We shoulda sampled them at least, as an experiment, to see how they tasted.”

“Yeah!” Zir did a front flip and then threw his knife into a wooden lamp pole.

Leo grabbed Zir by the back of his shirt. “All right, I draw the line at hurling cutlery around metropolitan areas. A bit less insanity, all right?”

“Sure, whatever you say, killjoy.”

“Sometimes,” Hugh said, glancing up slyly at Leo.

When Leo pointedly didn’t react, Hugh sighed heavily. “So boring.”

“We’re here,” Lily said a few minutes later, pointing ahead to a wooden manse surrounded by a small garden. It looked to have ten to fifteen rooms, a very large amount by the standards of the era and area. But it looked like its owners had disappeared months ago. Weeds had choked out the last struggling flowers in the garden beds, and ivy swarmed up the outer walls—maybe the only thing that held the place together, considering the cracks in the walls.

The art style was clearly Averian, featuring statues of prominent figures in dramatic and powerful poses, including a large marble statue near the entrance that resembled the king Leo had spoken to outside the vault—although it was half-covered in ivy as well.

Leo walked up to the door of the manse, the others beside him, and knocked.

“It’s my home,” Lily said irritably, and she took the huge door handle, pressing down and in.

It didn’t budge.

Lily’s dress had no pockets, but she reached down, and the dress shimmered for a second—the illusion dealing with reality at some level, Leo figured. Lily withdrew her hand and pushed a small key into the door lock. Before she finished, however, the door opened to the inside.

An older elf, appearing to be in his late fifties, stood there in the green and white livery of Averia, carrying a sword in his right hand.

“May I help… Lilianae!” the man said, his voice going from frosty to shocked in a moment. “You live!”

“I live,” she said, smiling. “Hello again, Hythaeran.”

The man sheathed his sword and then, his blue eyes wet, limped forward and hugged Lily tight. “Welcome home, milady. When you didn’t return, we feared the worst.”

“Why didn’t you use magic to locate me or talk to me?”

Hythaeran stepped back and twisted his finger in his golden-gray hair—a gesture quite reminiscent of Lily’s. “You can see for yourself, milady. When King Damien ascended the throne, he declared our titles forfeit, and our protections from taxation similarly forfeit—and he backdated the order to when we showed up, fifty years ago, during his grandfather’s reign. We’re bankrupt. He declared—in his mercy, he said—that he’d exempt the land we live on, and the house we live in, from the tax. But he said we still had to pay the taxes from before going forward as well. Truthfully, we can’t afford to maintain our demesne here and will have to sell it regardless.”

Lily’s face had been going whiter and whiter, with red spots high on her cheeks. “That’s an outrage!”

Hythaeran nodded, sadly. “Damien needed to pay for his new projects, expansions of the palace and his armies both, and didn’t want to upset most of his subjects. The elven refugees have never been popular here, you know that.”

“An outrage! This is beyond all proper usage of nobles between realms.”

She turned to Leo and angrily tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Once we are established, Leo, I demand you act to rectify this situation. The king here has no right to use his nobles, even those who are guests, as he is. It’s an ex post facto law, for the gods’ sake! He basically just seized the goods of unpopular members of his kingdom!”

“I’m so sorry.” Leo placed his arm over Lily’s shoulders. “In truth, however, this works out for us.”

“How?” Lily demanded, her brow furrowed. “How can this mistreatment possibly work for us?”

“It encourages those who fled Averia to return,” Leo said. “I suspect we’ll have an excellent immigration rate, and it’ll be people who already speak Middle Averian and will be sympathetic to our cause over the next few years. We’ll grow long-term as the benefit of King Damien’s short-term greed.”

Lily calmed and nodded thoughtfully. “It still upsets me, greatly, how Damien has treated us. But what you say has merit. I suppose having our own kingdom grow is the only ultimate solution, and this will force even those foolish elves who claimed our kingdom was dead to come back now. Your words have a certain wisdom.”

Then her eyes narrowed again. “Although, we shouldn’t give an inch in any mercantile negotiations, nor should we come to his aid without great concessions.”

“Fair,” Leo said. “We’ll remember who he is—and treat him accordingly.”

“But for now,” Hythaeran said, “let’s get inside, have a bottle of ’22 hard cider, and you can say hello to your mother again, and tell us everything that’s happened.”

Lily’s shoulders bunched again, and Leo suddenly understood what she was upset about—what had been bothering her this whole trip. I forgot, but everyone else who went with Lily to recover the Calasti vault died. All the people she left with, except for herself, are dead now. She has to tell people who knew and cared for them about that, and she isn’t looking forward to it. Including, most likely, people who would have been her future in-laws.

I hope her mother at least is a great woman.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Negotiating with Ego

After a brief discussion, Hugh decided to stay in the front room. It wasn’t a dragon-friendly manse, being clearly built for smaller elves, and they were visiting a woman who’d been displaced by Hugh’s dad. Everyone else followed Hythaeran deeper into the building.

The inside of the manse had obviously been stripped. The only thing left was old wooden furniture that had seen better days. Hythaeran led them to a master bedroom, and gently knocked on the door.

“Is that you, Hy?” a soft feminine voice called out. “Who was at the door?”

“Yes, Lady, it’s me,” Hythaeran said. “You have guests.”

“I’m not fit to receive guests, Hy. Send them away, please.”

“It’s me, Mother!” Lily called out through the door.

“Lily? Wait, my little Lily has returned? You’re alive?”

“Yes, Mother,” Lily called. Then she turned to Leo and raised an eyebrow.

Leo wasn’t sure what she was trying to communicate, so he just raised an eyebrow back.

“Oh, thank Iluvin you’re safe! Come in, come in.” The voice on the other side sounded frail to Leo, but undoubtedly happy.

Zir made puking sounds, and Hythaeran glared at him, whispering furiously, “Show some respect for a great lady!”

Then Hythaeran pushed open the door, and Lily hurried into the room with a swish of clothing.

The master bedroom was bare but for a great four-poster bed with a woman lying in it and a huge painting on the wall, one of a family of four elves. One was clearly Lily, looking younger than she did now, and the other was her sister, Wylla—now Audrey most likely if either was still alive. The other two looked like older versions of the sisters—although one was male—and were almost certainly their parents.

As Lily rushed to the figure lying in the bed, Leo was suddenly struck by Audrey’s absence. In the frantic flurry of activity surrounding setting up Star Port, she’d been out of his mind quite often, but never permanently. One way or another, he intended to find her again, just as soon as he had some breathing room on this world. He’d have to ask Lily about magic that he could use to accomplish that.

Lily bent over the woman in the bed. The woman had thick woolen blankets pulled up to her neck, just a hint of a similarly woolen nightgown poking out from beneath. Her hair was silver verging on white, like Lily’s but less lustrous, and her face, despite appearing to be barely past thirty, still managed to look old and tired from the cast of the features.

“Oh, Lily!” the woman cried again, hugging her. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I thought I’d lost you forever.” The woman smoothed her hand over Lily’s hair. “And I’m glad you took my advice and improved your appearance when you leveled. Doesn’t it feel so much better to be gorgeous now, like a Willowynd should be? Like your sister was?”

Lily’s shoulders tensed. “Why didn’t you use the lifebond clock? It would have told you I was alive.”

“It was only a few days after you left—and after it let us know of poor, beautiful Wylla’s passing—that the king sent his men to confiscate it, to sell to pay for the supposed back taxes our lack of title would cause us to owe. Oh, thank Iluvin you’re okay!”

Lady Willowynd put her hands on Lily’s shoulders and pushed her back a bit. “Could you have done something about your eyes? Or maybe you still can, if you manage to make another level? We’ll never be accepted as nobles here if we aren’t absolutely perfect in our presentation, you know. You need to take pride in your appearance.”

This is absurd, Leo thought to himself. I nicknamed her ‘Princess Pride’ because I thought she fussed over her looks, even though she’s gorgeous… She puts more effort into her appearance than most I’ve seen. What a shrew her mother is. Can’t she just be happy with Lily? Is every flaw something that must be pointed out?

“So, shall we head to the front and let them catch up?” Hy asked.

Leo glanced over at Zir, who gave the slightest of shrugs—but he was fidgeting where he stood.

“Yes,” Leo said. He nodded to the bed. “Thank you, Lady Willowynd, for your hospitality, but I’ll let you catch up with your daughter. I’m sure you have much to talk about.”

“Thank the gods,” Zir whispered.

“This way, sirs,” Hy said, motioning to the door out.

As he left, Lady Willowynd asked Lily why she’d chosen the illusory outfit she wore—it was so last season.

Hy led them down the hall to the front room where Hugh waited. It had a single wooden table and four plain wooden chairs. Hy, Zir, and Leo all took a seat, and Hugh collapsed to the floor.

Leo happened to look up and see there was a second painting, one he had missed on his way in. It showed the temple room where he had been summoned originally, but with priests performing some ritual.

How long was Wylla associated with that place?

Hugh interrupted Leo’s thoughts. “I think I’d rather face wargs again. I could hear from here. Lily’s mom is as bad as mine. I remember when my mom would do her constant little sighs of disappointment every time they had to make allowances for me ’cuz I couldn’t fly. I mean, she tried, but it’s hard when parents are obviously disappointed in you.”

“Yeah, my mom was always trying to hold me back, turn me into some effeminate elf who couldn’t possibly take my kingdom back or avenge my dad,” Zir said. “I’m glad she thinks Leo is so amazing and trusts him to take me adventuring—she never trusted me to do that stuff on my own.”

Everyone looked expectantly at Leo.

Leo shrugged. “My mom was an amazing, wise, and hardworking woman who helped me be all I could be. She watched every one of my amateur MMA fights. Got to the point she could critique me. And she thought well of me, always told me I’d do great things. People are different, I guess.”

Zir rolled his eyes, and Hugh snorted. “Sure, rub it in, five-magic boy. Everything goes your way.”

Except my failed marriage when I was twenty, getting shot to death but for a twist of fate, losing Audrey…

“Some people are just lucky, I guess,” Leo muttered.

“Yeah, although since you were born a mortal and not a dragon, it’s kinda limited, but still, lotta luck there. Glad you’ve always got my back, though—you’re a good guy.”

Leo turned to Hy. “So, are things normally like this?”

Hy gave a deep sigh, his watery blue eyes staring out at nothing as he leaned back in the rickety wooden chair. “Yes. She was distraught after the loss of her husband fifty years ago, but she had reason to carry on. She treasured her two children and her family name. But she’d been nobility, true and respected nobility, in the Kingdom of Averia. For fifty years, it’s been one insult after another, one loss after another… and then she lost Wylla, her pride and joy…”

Leo nodded. “Yeah, that had to be crazy rough.”

“It was, even for me,” Hy said, his eyes watering. “Wylla was a blessing to the world, not that Lily isn’t as well. But a few days after losing Wylla, everything Lady Willowynd owned was taken from us. For a few months now, nothing has been right for her, and she’s on the verge of being a pauper, or perhaps sold as a slave, to pay the imaginary debts King Damien assigned to her. She lives in constant fear, and it’s sapped her. Even though she’s still in the prime years for an elf, she’s been refusing to leave her bed at all.”

Damn, Leo thought. He knew what the right thing to do was, but his village was under constant threat and would be at the edge of collapse for some time. Taking care of someone so broken they couldn’t leave bed would tax him.

But Leo wasn’t the kind of guy to let someone suffer unless it was clearly a self-inflicted problem. And Lily’s mom felt like she’d gotten screwed by life and the king both quite a few times.

“Perhaps… Perhaps she can join Star Port, the village I’m building in the ruins of Calasti?”

Hy slumped slightly in his chair, likely in relief. “You have a village, Lord Leo?”

“Yeah… of about twelve hundred now. But I can afford to house and feed one troubled woman, I think.”

“If she won’t work, you should let her starve.” Zir pulled out a knife from his bandolier, and held it up. “I watched my father die in front of me, and you don’t see me getting all weepy. I have the answer right here.”

“People handle things differently,” Leo said, not willing to explain that constant loss and fear for decades did far more to most people than one traumatic event… and that Lady Willowynd had lost more family, besides. How exactly did you tell someone whose dad had died he was being an ass?

Lily entered the sitting room, her eyes red for a second before everything changed and she was perfectly beautiful and made-up again.

She rolled her eyes slightly, despite the weariness he’d seen, and gave Leo a wry smile. “So, I know this is an ask, but can my mother come live with us? She needs some safety, I think, to get herself back together.”

Hugh chuckled from the ground. “You never learn, Lily. Leo will save everyone. He already made the offer to this elf here.”

“My name is Hy,” Hy said.

“Whatever.”

Hy continued without acknowledging Hugh. “And I, at least, will find some way to earn keep for your mother and me. I’ll not let her be a burden to either of you, I swear.”

“You’re a good man, Hythaeran,” Lily said with a bow. “I’m sorry my mother wouldn’t ever marry you, but thank you for being by her side, and mine, all these years.”

“Of course, Duchess Willowynd.” Hy’s cheeks pinked a bit, and tears came to his eyes again.

“Wait, a question,” Leo said. “Why isn’t your mother Duchess Willowynd?”

“The spouse who was not a direct part of the noble family does not inherit. Instead, the title passes to the children. Although for underage children, the spouse can assume a regency and rule temporarily.”

“Makes sense,” Leo commented. It wasn’t that different back in our times, I guess, although since I haven’t seen the same kind of patriarchal setup here, likely due to the way magic works, I assumed they’d share rulership. But, on the other hand, with magical lines I could see why it’d pass directly, since it would…

Hugh thumped his tail on the ground. “Stay with us, buddy. No matter how boring this conversation about feelings is, no leaving us for the insides of your own mind.”

Leo let out an awkward chuckle. “Sorry. A lot of stuff fascinates me.”

“A likely story.”

There was a knock at the front door, and a voice called, “Open up in the name of King Damien Haviden!”

“Ah, damn,” Leo murmured. “They’ve come for your mother.”

He stood from the chair and pulled his glowing sword from its sheath, his adrenaline spiking as he prepared for combat. Really don’t want to kill mortals.

Lily giggled, covering her mouth with her hand as she did so. “I think they’ve come for us, in fact. This is the address we gave them to come let us know if we got an appointment.”

Leo was caught a bit flat-footed, then put his sword away. “Oh, right. My bad.”

“We could just kill them anyway,” Zir said. He was next to the door to the dining room with daggers drawn—Leo hadn’t even seen him get up from his chair.

“Bad elf!” Leo said.

Hugh snickered.

Leo stepped into the hall and then pulled the door open just as the guards were banging a second time.

“May I help you?”

Each of the guards was dressed in half-plate still, and whatever flaws Leo would assign to the soldiers of this kingdom, he had to admire their stamina—even the half-mile walk in those things had to be next to impossible, even in the cool air of the city.

Although, maybe they had levels and extra powers or stats as well, now that he thought about it.

“You the noble Leonard Evans il Stardew?” one asked, his voice gruff.

“I am.”

The guard stared at him, his eyes straying to the magical topaz in the hilt of Leo’s blade, and the emerald one in the chest piece of his leather armor. His eyes widened, and he straightened a bit. “Thank you for seeing me, Lord. The king has granted your request to talk to him. He expects to see you tomorrow promptly an hour after the break of dawn, in the throne room.”

“I’ll be there with bells on.”

***

The next morning, bright and early—but still a few hours after Leo had gotten up to run, work out, and practice a bit of his swordplay and telekinesis—the group passed back through the gates that had stopped them the day before. Leo couldn’t tell the guards apart very well in their half-plate, but whether they were the same or different ones, they were more respectful this morning.

“This place is… less than perfectly impressive,” Leo said as they walked into the main keep.

Lily gave a subtle nod of her head and fiddled with her hair. “Keep that opinion to yourself please, Leo. It wouldn’t do to offend.”

She was ‘dressed’—in illusion—as she usually dressed. She wore a white dress, tight in the bodice and flowy at the bottom, with elaborate stitching, and a green shawl over her shoulders done in a tree motif. She had her gold circlet on her head, and the rest of her jewelry was silver and emerald.

Leo had gone for a more military look. He wore his leather bracers of least strength on his arms, his magical leather armor, and his magical cloak, and he carried his shield and sword—all over black doublet and breeches, although they were mostly hidden by his gear. If someone examined him, the fact he had six magic items might tell them a bit about him, but he wanted to look impressive and dangerous both for his meeting with the king.

Zir didn’t have any magical items yet, but he was dressed in his usual dark gray clothing and completely implausible number of knives.

Hugh resembled the storm dragon he was—bronze scales, swept-back head plate and horns, all on a vaguely tiger-shaped body with wings—but he was a good hundred percent larger than he’d been when they’d first met, and he had his own paired bracers of strength on.

Fighting the behemoth that was Hugh was a nightmare.

Leo hoped they each cut an impressive figure since they were all Level Nine or Ten, except Zir, who was Level Six.

The guards led them through a rough gatehouse and into a large hall, at the end of which were two huge wooden doors, almost twelve feet from floor to ceiling and four feet wide each, with sea serpents carved in bas-relief.

The two guards at the doors pulled them open together to admit Leo to the throne room.

As Leo entered, a man to his side called out, loudly, “Leonard Evans il Stardew, Lord of Star Port, to see His Royal Majesty, terror to his enemies, the wisdom of his people, the puissant King Damien Haviden, the first of his name! All bow!”

Leo stepped in, and the others followed. Almost without thinking about it, Leo didn’t bow, his American Earth instincts simply telling him the order didn’t apply to him.

Hugh dropped his head. Lily and even Zir went to one knee and bowed.

Leo got the first look at the king and couldn’t help but dislike him.

Damien was an eighteen-year-old kid, and he screamed ‘punk’ to Leo. He lounged indolently on the wooden throne at the top of the small stairs up to a raised dais. The ostentatious gold crown on his head was slightly askew, and he wore rich silk clothing and voluminous robes that made him look even smaller than his lanky—albeit tall—frame already did. He had long silken brown hair that he—or his servants—obviously worked on a lot, and he was perfectly shaved and primped. He looked out with light blue eyes at everyone with an air of faint disinterest.

Appearances, including, I suspect, looking like he came out on top of any negotiation, are going to be important to this kid.

King Damien’s eyes widened as he took in Leo, who was still standing.

Damien stood abruptly from the throne, almost knocking his crown from his head. “Why do you not kneel before me, peasant?”

An older man with white hair and extremely impressive white eyebrows hurried forward, almost tripping on his brown robes, flipping open the huge worn book he was carrying. He pointed to a passage as he held the book before the king. “He does correctly, Your Majesty. It says here that any man adjudged a king need not kneel in the presence of the King of Haviden, Your Majesty. Now, as the king, you may of course change the law at an appropriate hearing, but you can’t fault a man for following the laws you uphold and defend, can you?”

The king glanced sideways at the man. “You know I wouldn’t have wanted that law, Laurence, so why’s it still there? You should have told me about it—you’re the royal chancellor, after all.”

“Of course, Your Majesty, an oversight,” Chancellor Laurence said, stepping back.

The king settled back down as Leo took in the rest of the retinue up on the dais.

A girl who would likely be extremely pretty once she finished growing but was currently barely postpubescent sat on a smaller throne a step below the king’s throne. She seemed bored and sad both, and had a bruise, imperfectly hidden by her long brown hair, on one of her pale cheeks. She appeared barely bigger than Lily—perhaps a few inches over five feet and maybe ninety pounds.

Behind the king, however, was someone who worried Leo. A man, nearly seven feet tall and muscled like a Greek god for the small parts Leo could see, stood easily in golden full plate mail with gold crystals set in it, ones far larger than the ones in Leo’s own shield. Metal magic.

The man was older, likely in his late fifties, his hair salt-and-pepper with the salt dominating, but his blue eyes were as cold as ice and looked not in the least worn down by age despite the lines around them.

As Lily stood, she leaned over. “That’s the realm’s champion, Chester Adamant. He’s supposedly Level Thirty, victor of numerous wars, dungeons, and over a great deal of opponents. Remember what I said about human champions, as well. He’s way beyond us, for the moment. We might be able to cut our way out of this if it were just the guards, but with him here, that’s no longer an option.”

Leo nodded tightly, already regretting stopping to try to negotiate the trade deal. I should have just gone straight for Hugh’s buddies.

Hugh leaned over, too. “That guy is a boogeyman described to scare young dragons—he’s killed quite a few of us, so please be careful. I don’t wanna fight him, Leo, seriously. I’ll run if you start a fight with him. I’m sorry.”

When Lily and Hugh agree, Leo thought, take it seriously.

As the king finished adjusting his robes around him, he called out, “Very well, Lord Evans. What brings you before Our August Majesty today?”

Leo half stepped forward. “I wish to discuss trade, Majesty. I have freed the Blue River from the threat of the Blood Tribes in vicious combat, and old Chao has disappeared. My city, Star Port, guards the way into the Inner Sea. It has piers, warehouses, a drydock, and all the facilities necessary to support trade from the Havi Imperium and the Ten Lakes into the Inner Sea and beyond.”

“Good job,” Damien said, languidly waving his hand.

“Right, well, I wanted to negotiate the tariff for ships traveling through my realm to trade.”

“Why would I do that?” Damien asked. “I mean, good job handling a few stupid orcs, but I see no reason that the merchants of my realm, under my beneficent protection, should suffer simply because you managed to kill a few backward tribals.”

Leo hesitated for a moment. He was a bit floored by this line of argument. “Um, I mean, tolls are pretty normal for people trading through another lord’s realm… to pay for upkeep of facilities. As well as the army to keep it clear of bandits and monsters and such.”

“It seems to me that you’d be better off by serving me in turn, then, since you’re admitting you can’t handle things by yourself. I will be magnanimous and grant you the title of ‘baron,’ directly answering to My Royal Majesty.”

Lily flicked her hair out of her face, hard, and her eyes narrowed in anger. But she didn’t say anything.

Leo tried to think of how to handle this line of reasoning, and everyone waited. His mind was fast but not fast enough to avoid the pregnant pause.

“Well, for the moment, milord, we’re quite far apart. I wouldn’t be able to benefit appropriately from your wisdom and guidance—but perhaps in the future, once we’ve both grown closer, geographically and metaphorically, we can discuss it again.”

Leo had no intention of ever serving this king, but he did want good relations with the pleasant kingdom this king had inherited, and he didn’t want another enemy. This answer was technically honest, and it was as far as he would go—he didn’t want trouble.

“Hmph,” Damien said. “I’m pretty sure I can guide you from here better than any jumped-up elf could handle things locally, but we’ll leave that aside for the moment. I’ll instruct my merchant captains to pay one percent of goods as a measure of pity for your people, out of a sense of noblesse oblige to those lesser than our glorious kingdom.”

You’ll die if you try to paddle him, Leo thought to himself. This king was an absolute chode, but his guards and champion made sure he didn’t pay the normal price for such incredible naïveté.

“Your majesty, rates closer to five percent are far more standard throughout this area.” Lily had told him rates of two to five percent were common in destination ports, but one percent seemed insultingly low.

“Five percent is outrageous!” the king shouted, coming off his throne again and pointing his finger at Leo. “I should have you seized!”

Leo tried his best not to glare. “Majesty, all those ships passing up the Blue River will also stop at your ports, and pay you… funds to help your legions and expand your palace. If you have me seized, you’ll gain none of that. It’s not a fiscally wise policy.”

The king’s face was pinched, his brow furrowed. “Why not just kill you and take the land, then?”

Leo’s body was dumping adrenaline, and he was developing tunnel vision as he focused on the king. If this turns violent, I’m going to kill that royal shit, regardless of whether I live or die.

He heard the whispering around him, but he focused, trying to give the king an easy way out that would assuage his impossible ego. “It’s near five hundred miles from your border, King. Think of me as providing a service to your kingdom, for a small fee, like a merchant would.”

The king sat back down. This kid is a freaking jack-in-the-box—up, down, up, down.

“Very well, Merchant Evans. I will accept a one percent deal, that the kingdom will pay you for maintaining a trading emporium on the shores of the Blue River to assist our subjects. But if you ask for more, I’ll have you killed on the spot.”

You’re going to regret this to an interesting degree, Leo silently promised the king, seething inside. Negotiating with someone under pain of death isn’t negotiating at all, and this deal means nothing. I tried to be reasonable and give you every out.

“I guess I’ll have to accept your terms then, Majesty,” Leo ground out. For now.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Don’t Drive Angry!”

“See?” Zir asked, tossing his knife and catching it by the point as they walked down the street outside the palace. “I told you that we should have just stabbed the guards.”

“Not now, Zir,” Leo said between clenched teeth.

Lily frowned. “I assume you won’t be upholding the deal?”

“Of course not.” Leo sighed. “And trust me, he’ll regret that action for a great deal of time to come. King Damien the Tyrant will fall, sooner or later—I hope sooner. But we need to be away from Chester Adamant before we start to show the king the error of his ways. And now, more than ever, I need to make more levels myself.”

Lily nodded and fidgeted with the hems of her sleeves. “How will you proceed?”

“First ship that comes down, I’m demanding a five percent toll from, and if they try to fight it, I’m going to seize the ship. I’ll keep charging the Havi Imperium five percent. I’ll charge two percent for every other nation.”

“I have a feeling that, one way or another, you’ll have an interesting reign, Your Mighty Majesty,” Hugh said with a snort.

“Dammit, Hugh.” Leo clenched his teeth, his normal humor hard-pressed to rise to the occasion.

“I think that title will either be less ironic than you think, or applied posthumously,” Lily said with a shudder. “We have few allies… I’ll not deny you have a knack for tactics, Leo, but the Havi Imperium has hundreds of thousands of people… I don’t think we can win this.”

“The Blood Tribes have millions,” Leo said.

“Yeah, but they’ve splintered into hundreds or thousands of little tribes. And I was worried about them before King Ass pulled this little stunt. We’re tiny, and we’ve no friends.”

Leo had already given this some thought. “We’ll need to grow fast, and grow well. I hope we can get a bit of a breather to do so… but I can’t let this kind of treatment go on. It’ll never end.”

“I like angry Leo!” Hugh flashed his fangs in a primal smile. “Down with tyrants!”

“Yeah, knife the uppy king,” Zir shouted. He pumped his fist in the air and jumped around the dragon.

Lily swung a slap at Zir’s head, but missed as he danced by her. “Shut your mouth! We’re in the middle of the capital of the Havi Imperium. Don’t give the king a justification to hang us all! We’re leaving quickly, but don’t give him that justification before then, by all the gods!” She whirled on Hugh. “And you—”

Hugh rolled to his side, exposing his scaled belly. Then he kicked his feet through the air, like a dog swimming. “Yeah, okay, sorry, my bad. You’re right. Please don’t yell at me anymore.” His pupils grew large, and his tail curled up over him.

“You’re the worst big sister ever,” Zir groused, and for some reason, that made Lily calm just a bit.

“Best big sister ever.” She crossed her arms. “I’m giving you the gift of life. Now let’s get out of this city, by Merdrek’s tainted whatever, as Hugh would more pungently say.”

As they rounded a corner and found themselves facing the harbor, Leo pointed to where the River Darter waited. “We’re here. Let’s find a messenger to let your mom and Hy know what’s happening, so we don’t have to stay her.”

A fat man was waiting at the edge of the pier—the one who had taken the use fee.

Leo had a bad feeling as he walked toward the boat.

***

“By all the gods of this insane world, I’ll make him pay,” Leo suddenly burst out as he stared at the willow-tree analogs all along the side of the river they were traveling up.

Captain Whitewater, who was staring up at the gathering clouds with a frown on her face, briefly glanced to where Leo and Lily were at the side of her boat, and rolled her eyes.

“It’s been two days.” Lily squeezed Leo’s shoulder before dropping her hand. “Let it rest.”

“The audacity of changing my use fee to five percent of my goods… including the magic items I was wearing. I don’t think anyone we’ve dealt with this entire trip has aggravated me as much as this little shit of a king…”

“Leo…” Lily sighed. “Look, we’re on an adventure to gather a bunch of allies, right? Powerful allies who’ll lead to us being able to fight back against this kind of petty abuse in the future.”

“Right.” Leo tried to shake the two-day rage that had gripped him. “Head in the game, Leo. Head in the game.”

“That’s the spirit.”

He stared at Lily, grinning ferally. “You know what I want? I mean, I don’t normally say this, but I want a fight. I want to find some corrupted magical beast and put the hurt on it.”

As he spoke, Leo pantomimed a fierce elbow strike, which, after the shin kick to the side, was probably his favorite striking attack from when he’d been an amateur MMA fighter.

Lily stepped back. “You’re normally so… phlegmatic. Where’s this hostility coming from?”

Leo stopped and gave it some serious thought. “Helplessness. They were utterly in the wrong, and assholes to boot. But they had power… so they got to do what they wanted. The only times this entire new life I’ve wished more that I was stronger were right before we killed that golem, and when you were almost killed by the wargs. And those situations ended all right—we won, you’re alive. But with the king… His injustice still stands, and it rankles.”

Lily smiled, her eyes shining. “You’ve told me of your world, and its freedoms. I’m not saying I’m not angry at the king as well, but abuse from those in power is just… normal here. I mean, I was furious about what happened to my mother, and about King Damien throwing his weight around. But I guess, to me, it just feels like more to avoid, or more reason for me to be the one with power. But it isn’t staying with me like it is with you.”

Leo sighed. “I suppose I should get over it… for a time. But seriously, Lily, I’m gonna make the little tyrant regret his actions, I swear to you on all I hold holy. That kind of tyranny should be opposed everywhere for its own sake.”

“Great. A project for later. We can dethrone the jerk’s grandkids in a hundred years.”

For a moment, Leo thought Lily was screwing with him, but he could tell she truly meant it to placate him. The difference in life spans, right. She means we’ll win, eventually, when we’re far older and stronger and he’s died of old age.

But I don’t think that way. I’ll make this right, soon and directly. None of this ‘best served cold’ nonsense.

She reached up and put her hand back on him, over the leather armor on his chest. “You and Hugh had a good idea, Leo. Let’s get some dragon allies. Each one, even if just one of Hugh’s friends, is a mobile Level Five combatant. That’s a very heavy hitter, worth a whole bunch of soldiers, I’m sure.”

Leo nodded, although his heart wasn’t in it. “I guess that’s true… Okay, I’ll try to let this go.”

Lily stepped up next to him, and after a moment’s hesitation, she leaned against him. “So you lost a round, kinda sorta, to a jackass you didn’t even know you’d be in a fight with. It’s okay.”

Leo enjoyed the feel of Lily, soft and feminine. “Is it?”

Lily stared up at him through her eyelashes, her eyes shining. “You’re already the leader who found the way to make my dreams come true, and to make Hugh’s come true as well. You saved Hugh’s life after he tried to eat you. You saved my life—twice now. You saved Val’s brother. You saved Zir’s mother. You saved twelve hundred slaves from their captivity, near enough. You’re doing amazingly, Leo. Dwell on that, not the one guy who sucker-punched you before you even knew you were in a fight.”

Leo smiled, still too angry to muster more of his usual cheer. “Yeah, that’s a better way of looking at it than what I’m doing.”

“To the future. The weird dragon future I would never have imagined before I met you or our flightless wonder-dragon.”

“Yeah, that’s a good future.”

***

Leo watched as sailors, stripped to just their breechclouts, pulled the galley up onto the riverside beach. They were hundreds of miles north and west of the riverside beaches Leo was used to on the Blue River, and it was colder and rainier here. This beach was mud, covered in weeds and dang near a carpet of mosquitos.

The village a few hundred feet up the shore wasn’t much better. It was a collection of twenty houses on stilts, surrounded by sad fields of grain he suspected would require rationing every winter.

Still, being the paying customer had its perks, and Leo got to take the gangplank down to a merely moderately muddy portion of the beach while the sailors squelched through the deeper mud. Leo’s shoes also squelched a bit, and gnats flew around, but he didn’t get his black breeches or his leather armor dirty as he walked up to firmer ground.

Hugh, who was far heavier than Leo, sank damn near to his knees in the mud, but being a magically armored dragon seemed to include immunity to bugs for the most part—Hugh hadn’t complained about them but had mocked Leo, Lily, and Zir continuously for being bothered by insects.

“So, from this tiny village, it’s how far till we reach your home?” Leo asked Hugh as the dragon tromped up next to him, kicking mud from between his claws.

“A good forty miles, give or take, through the mountains.”

“And it’ll be rainy and bug-filled the whole time? While we do an alpine cross-country hike?”

“I am a storm dragon. Kinda comes with the territory.” Hugh paused, then smiled his tooth-filled grin. “Literally comes with the territory. It comes with our territory. I crack myself up.”

Leo chuckled, briefly brought out of his dour state by Hugh’s verbal antics. “Nice.”

“Man, I can’t wait!” Hugh walked with high steps, his head held up in the air. “This adventure is gonna be great. I’ll tell Polly about my hoard, and our adventures… and the other dragons will be super stoked as well. It’s going to be hard holding my excitement in the whole time till we get there. I’ll see my other friends as well, and I can help them out. Most of them probably wouldn’t have made it much longer, honestly. They’re getting older, and some dragon or another would have taken offense to them being in their territory and chased them off. Then it’d just be mortal champions hunting them all day, for armor and stuff.”

“Or because they stole a cow,” Lily muttered as she daintily stepped up next to them. “We frown on that, you know. Mortals collectively, I mean.”

“Tomato, tomahto,” Hugh said with a dismissive wave of his claw. “Point is, those guys could really use some of the patented Leo good-card punching. But the guys I wanna get—I’ll just impress them. And having them on your team won’t be good deeds, it’ll be the best decision you ever made, trust me.”

Leo smiled as he scratched Hugh’s eye ridge. “Best decision I ever made was helping you on that cliff, buddy.”

“I’d puke if I’d eaten anything recently,” Zir said as he hurried to catch up with their pace. “Let’s go. Sappy hour is giving me a fatal case of eye sprain.”

When no one said anything or laughed, Zir furrowed his brow. “From rolling my eyes at you. Get it?”

“We got it, buddy,” Leo said. “It just wasn’t that funny.”

“W-Well…” Zir struggled for a moment before giving up. He stared at his feet as they walked.

A drop of rain fell on Leo, and he looked up at the gathering clouds and then pulled his cloak around him tightly. I hope this cloak is enough.

“Not again!” Zir said as a raindrop fell on him, too. He shielded his head with both arms.

Then the water fell in earnest.

It didn’t seem to be affecting Lily. Magic ring of temperature control plus her illusions, right.

“Well, break out your cloaks, boys,” Lily said.

“What’re you talking about?” Hugh snorted. “This is great weather.”

“Does this village have an inn?” Leo asked.

“It has a lady who can cook, with a spare room and a couple of beds,” Captain Whitewater said as she came up beside him, her soft white fur and bunny ears already looking far worse for the weather. “This place only gets trade ships two to four times a year. And the dragons just take what they want if a mortal tries to make an inn that caters to them. So ask ol’ Retty to feed you and house you, because it won’t get much better.”

“We don’t have time,” Lily yelled through the intensifying rain and now wind. “Like I said, bust out your cloaks. We need to be walking until the light fades and then doing it again all day tomorrow. We need to get in, get allies, and get back to Star Port before something goes wrong. It’s just a matter of time, given our situation.”

“Is this magical?” Leo shouted back as the storm continued to pick up implausibly quickly.

“Of course! It’s all the Water nodes, remember? Summoning the moisture here at high rates, making rain and storms! But it won’t change—it’ll just happen again and again. That’s one of the main reasons these are the dragons’ realms. It’s hard for anyone else to settle these storm-plagued lands.”

“Fun.” Leo pulled his cloak tighter around him. Zir shivered, but Hugh was at home in this weather, and Lily had magical protection. Just need to make sure Zir’s okay. Everyone else will be fine.

Leo continued. “Okay, but we stop for twenty minutes, she cooks something, we give her some copper, and we’re on our way. I feel like I’m going to lose any memory of warmth before we reach Hugh’s people—let’s enjoy a tiny bit now.”

Lily nodded.

“My people will wait for you, Lord,” Captain Whitewater said. “But only two weeks—our food stores will run low. So don’t take too long on your trek.”

Again, fun.

***

The Blue Lands, or the Storm Vale, depending on who was doing the talking, was fascinating thanks to all its bizarre flora and fauna. If it hadn’t been trying to murder him with weather and sharp rocks, Leo would really have appreciated it.

According to Hugh and Lily both, the center was a huge, flat river basin with numerous lakes and rivers flowing together. Every large ‘island’ formed by the rivers, or every set of small ones, was owned by a storm dragon. But Hugh’s great, extended clan—about five very large families, but with most of the members dead, as near as Leo could figure—had made their lairs in the mountains around the southeastern edge. Which was relatively close to mortal civilization for a dragon clan.

‘Relatively’ being the key term. Leo had nearly been killed by two flash floods, only his insane stats and the constant presence of unique trees saving him. The tree was visually a weeping willow, but it was even more flexible and aerodynamic, blowing with the wind no matter the direction, and it had a crazy root system that burrowed into even rock to gather purchase and curled around the rocks as well.

No one could tell Leo if the plant was magical, made with magic, or just a result of crazy evolution. But he could grab it to save himself practically everywhere in the storm dragons’ lands.

Leo was also beginning to understand why ‘bird’ was a synonym for ‘crazy’ in storm dragon culture. He saw quite a few obviously magical ones, including a glowing bird of paradise if it’d been done in only blues, greens, and purples with unusually shimmery feathers. Leo had stared until he’d been shaken from his stupor by Hugh, who told him the birds had an effect that caused ‘weak minds’ to become fascinated, even to the point of not considering self-preservation.

Then there was the bird that puked magical acid as its hunting method, and the one that slashed with steel feathers. Leo’s personal ‘favorite’ was the one that could ‘shadowshift’ like Zir did. It would start a dive-bomb toward Leo’s head when they broke for food and then shift through the shadows midflight to snatch his meal when Leo tried to defend against the attack to his noggin.

Hugh, Zir, and even Lily had laughed themselves silly at that incident, which had at least provided some much-needed levity.

It was certainly a fascinating trip. But climbing a mountain path, in the rain, while the cool magical fauna screwed with you was not how Leo had wanted to learn about these new things. He was leaning rather heavily toward the Discovery Channel method—Watch from afar what cool things the specialists had taken pictures of while eating crackers and drinking a beer.

***

“So, are we there yet?” Leo asked Hugh during a brief break in the rain noonish on the third day. They were climbing a mildly sloped section of the mountain, heading toward what Hugh claimed would be a tiny valley.

“Well, we’re about to the first place I thought we’d maybe stop at,” Hugh said. “Then we can go farther.”

“Your old friend group?” Leo asked.

Hugh nodded. “Yeah… I don’t like talking about it, or even thinking about it, but most of them got kinda kicked out earlier than normal for dragons… No one wanted them around. So they built a communal lair down here, at my suggestion. My friend Zun was the impetus. I helped them build it.”

“A communal lair similar to what you’re already making, then?” Leo asked.

Hugh thumped his tail once. “Yeah, it’s where I got the idea. It was a fun place, but in a, like, sad way, you know? I want to make the awesome version of it.”

Zir called out, “Ware, sky sunward!”

Leo glanced up, squinting. A dragon descended toward them out of the sky, the sun behind it. Leo couldn’t get a good grasp of the size or distance in the glare.

Leo whipped out his glowing sword and rapidly tried to shift his shield to his arm, dropping it to clatter a few feet down the gentle slope before it wedged itself between two rocks.

Before any violence could ensue, Hugh called out happily. “Tea!”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The Saddest Tale of Dragons

Tee-ah?

The incoming dragon back-flapped her wings in order to gracefully descend. She landed with a blast of air far larger than her wings would imply. Overall, the landing was rather dainty, the dragon’s claws gently settling over the rocks.

Leo understood why Tea had used the odd landing—the dragon had a tiny, shriveled right foreleg that ended just after her elbow. She landed so she sat on her haunches, her one good forelimb planted to support her slightly hunched form.

Tea resembled old Hugh, from when he and Leo had first met, maybe a touch smaller. She had the same sloped-back plate on her head with the backward-facing horns, the same bronze scales. And to Leo’s eyes, the exact same body shape, except, again a touch smaller—perhaps seven and a half feet long instead of Hugh’s original eight.

“Hugh?” Tea asked, her eyes wide as she stared at Hugh. “Is that you? You got… huge. And muscled. Really muscled.”

“Right?” Hugh laughed as he flexed all his muscles while prancing in place. “My boy, Leo, helped me make levels. Five of them! I got ten stats and five abilities, and I’m crazy strong and tough now. And I can do this!”

Hugh reached into the ground and pulled a bit of stone upward like taffy.

“That’s amazing, Hugh! Your crazy plan worked out somehow. Did you get the hoard?”

“Nah, but I got a hoard. It’s about a thousand gold worth of cool art and jewels and stuff.”

“Did you make sure to get some coins?” Tea asked. “A hundred thousand copper coins to make a glorious bed?” She swished her tail from side to side as she half closed her eyes, obviously imagining it. “So comfy.”

“Well, I wanted the cool stuff…” Hugh muttered.

“To impress Polly?” Tea said, her voice a touch frostier. She stopped moving her tail. “That stupid bird… You deserve better, Hugh.”

Before Hugh could respond, Lily stepped forward, flicking her hair back as she did. “So, since no one here understands basic etiquette, I guess I’ll start. I’m Lilianae ap Willowynd, Duchess of Willowynd. This is Zirvyl ap Veltear, commonly called Zir, Archduke of Veltear, and Hugh’s ‘boy’ here is Leo ap Evans il Stardew, the new king of Averia.”

Hugh coughed. “Sorry. This is Teahuzuma, commonly called ‘Tee-ah.’ Tea, this is Lily, a mortal noble and our adventuring group’s healer, and this is Zir, an annoying kid with a penchant for stabbing stuff from behind and kicking things in their vulnerable parts.”

Zir laughed and then added, “And I’m a noble as well, Hugh.”

“Pleased to meet you, Tea.” Lily bowed formally and then straightened. “Although, it doesn’t help to do the introductions a second time after I did them, Hugh.”

“Right. Anyway, guys, Tea is a friend of mine, one of the dragons I hung with ’cuz we were all broken and stuff.” He motioned to her shriveled arm.

Tea used her good foreclaw to hide her other arm, her whole posture growing stiff as her shoulders bunched at her scaled neck.

“Were?” Tea asked.

“Well, I guess I still am, but Leo showed me that I could level!”

“And you can fly?” Tea’s eyes were wide, her pupils a thin line of excitement.

Hugh forced a cough. “Uh, no. B-But I’m strong and awesome, and I have a hoard now, Tea!”

Tea slowly nodded along with his words. “I’m happy for you.” Nothing about her tone said she was happy.

Hugh didn’t seem to notice. He went up and headbutted Tea, almost knocking her over. She scrabbled a bit to maintain her stance on only two legs. Then Hugh ran around her, full of exuberant energy. “It’s great, Tea! I got us all a place, which I’m carving out and constantly expanding. Wait’ll you see it! It’s a beachside and riverside cave complex, with all kinds of people around, and things to do. And I got us a way to gather hoards!”

“Us?” Tea asked, always playing catch-up.

“R-Right! That’s the extra good news. Leo will pay you to work for his kingdom, so you can start accumulating wealth. And there’s a place to level—well, you can’t level yet, but you know what I mean. That place has treasure, too. And no one will come tell you to get out of their territory!”

Tea smiled, the same baring of teeth that Hugh did. When she responded, her voice was lively—her mirth and genuine excitement returning. “Really, Hugh? That’s great news!”

“You gotta work, though. Leo needs defenders, so from time to time, you’ll probably need to fly through the sky and shock some orcs or something.”

Tea gave a very small, cute roar and bit at the air. “I can do that. I may not be a great fighter on the ground, but I fly well and can hit a bird midflight with my breath weapon.”

“Yeah, it’ll be awesome!”

Then Tea sobered again. “What about Zun? Are we gonna lose her?”

Hugh stopped his romp and reached out with a paw, putting it on Tea’s shoulder—a gesture closer to what Leo used when he wanted to say something heartfelt than a natural gesture for the dragon.

“I haven’t really told Leo about Zun yet, but he’ll save her. It’s what Leo does. Trust me, we’ll find a way to make it work for everyone.”

“Zun?” Leo asked.

Hugh frowned as his gaze fell to the rocks below his claws. “You’ll see.”

“Right…”

Then Hugh perked up again. “Is Cal still around?”

The tip of Tea’s tail swished around again. “Yeah. He was pretty upset after you left, but, well… you know how it is. Not like we had a lot of places we could go.”

“Well, enough of the sadness!” Hugh said. “I saved you all! I got you guys a place where you can be safe. Let’s go have Leo meet the other two, and then you guys can go wait at the boats until I go get all the other dragons now that I’m badass!”

Tea’s eyes tightened, but she nodded. “Okay, Hugh, we’ll do that. And thanks for remembering us.”

“Of course,” Hugh said. “Gotta punch those good-deed cards!”

“Well, enough about your magnanimity,” Leo said. “Let’s go meet your other good friends.”

“Sounds like a plan, Leo. We’ll catch up shortly, Tea.”

Tea spread her wings and took to the sky with just a few powerful flaps of her wings. Then she flew off as Leo picked up his shield, and then they continued their climb.

“I think you should stop referring to yourself as just kindly helping all your sad friends, Hugh,” Leo muttered after a few minutes.

Hugh tilted his head. “What? What do you mean?”

“Not to sound juvenile, but I think Tea likes likes you,” Lily said. “And I think you treating her like a charity case to be saved is really cutting her up inside. These were your good friends before you left, right?”

“Yeah.” Hugh sighed. “’Cuz we were all the losers. And Tea probably likes me just ’cuz there aren’t any other options for her.”

“You’re not a loser,” Leo stated. “Stop saying that. Perhaps these dragons aren’t, either. It remains to be seen. I mean, I guess at some level, they stayed here and seem to be accepting the role everyone else assigned them, but maybe they just need to be shown a different path. But you’re hurting Tea with your words and attitude, Hugh. I know you thought you were one of the losers. But that just means you think they’re losers still.”

“Seemed like I was until I met you and you helped me level,” Hugh said, rubbing a claw over his chin. “And I still can’t fly, so it’s still arguable that I could be a loser.”

“I can’t fly,” Leo said as he did a quick one-two jump, kicking off one rock to land on another as they climbed. This body’s—well, my—Agility is insanely good. “You think I’m pretty cool.”

“Don’t play games, Leo. You’re an elf. You wouldn’t be sad if a dog couldn’t fly, but you’d be sad for a bird that couldn’t take flight. The rules for elves and dragons are just different.”

“I still think it’s a matter of perspective in this case, but I’ll leave you to your misery.”

Hugh heaved himself up on a larger rock and then gave a huff. “C’mon. I’m hardly our group’s wet blanket. I’m the on-fire blanket.”

Zir laughed as he followed Leo, jumping and then jumping again to land on the next rock in their climb.

Lily sort of scrabbled up the rocks, and Leo helped her the last of the way by grasping her wrist and pulling her light frame over the edge.

“Sorry,” Lily said, rubbing her legs. “Caster build. I’ve got most of my stats in Capacity and a bit in Connection, although I did follow your advice on the last level and get some Toughness.”

“Not even slightly a problem,” Leo said. “We all love having our dedicated healer, trust me.”

Lily smiled.

“We’re almost there.” Hugh pointed with a foreclaw at a small waterfall. “That’s the Kashin Stream Falls. C’mon. Let’s get into the valley before it starts raining again.”

A droplet fell on Leo’s nose. “You had to say it, didn’t you?”

About five minutes later, Leo and company were in a very small valley, perhaps a half mile long and a couple hundred feet wide. Multiple brooks fed a small pond, and the Kashin Stream left that. Hugh took them over a clear-watered swamp with cute fish and numerous fascinating plants, to a small cave—more of a deep overhang—at the base of the next mountain heading up.

There, they found three other dragons—Tea and two new ones.

The first dragon was even smaller than Tea, maybe seven feet long, and probably about a third of Hugh’s current mass. The dragon also had a partially missing lower jaw, and drool came out of his mouth as he talked.

“Hel-lo, Hugh,” the dragon mumbled awkwardly, then he dipped his head.

“Hey, Cal!” Hugh said, going up and headbutting him on his side. “Good to see you again, friend.”

But the last dragon…

Leo saw what Hugh had meant, and why everyone was sad. The last dragon was about the same size as Tea, but she was very busted up. Zun had a missing wing, and one leg was twisted at a horrible angle—obviously broken and healed all wrong. But the worst was the eyes, which were a milky white and incapable of sight.

She lifted her head, her expression one of confusion. She sniffed the air and then whispered, “Who all is here, Tea? Is it Hugh and the elves you spoke of?”

“That’s correct,” Leo said. He slowly walked over to Zun and fist-bumped her side, trying to imitate the dragon headbutting ritual. “I’m Leo.”

Zun turned her snout to Leo and inhaled. Leo’s hair shifted back and forth as the dragon took in all his scents. “You don’t smell like normal high elves.”

High elves have a standard smell?

Hugh stomped over. “You remember my story, Leo? About how my mom decided to prove I could fly, right?”

Leo nodded, his mind racing ahead of Hugh’s story to very dark places.

“Well, Zun was like me—born without Air magic. But remember when I said my mom was kind, for dropping me over water? Even though she dropped me at all? You thought I was being a weirdo.”

“I never said that,” Leo muttered.

“I could tell you were thinking it, but I’ve learned to ignore that. The point is, Zun’s mother dropped her over land. Zun hit so hard, she broke multiple limbs and only survived because she hit trees first—which lost her a wing. And when her head hit, she lost her eyesight. And her mom wouldn’t even use a potion from her hoard on Zun, like my mom used on me.”

Zun’s head drooped.

“Zun’s mother just left her to die and called her a worthless, flightless dragon,” Hugh continued. “Well, in the other order, but you get my point.”

“How did she survive?” Leo asked.

“I’m right here,” Zun muttered, her white eyes narrowed. “I can speak for myself. Hugh convinced his friends, Cal and Tea, to help feed me and nurture me back to health… Even when there were days I wished they wouldn’t.”

Leo nodded once. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine. You already know how the story ends, why stop now?” She spread her one wing, and showed off her barely functioning limbs. “I healed—sort of. But without magic, or a good place to stay, I healed permanently broken. Sooner or later, I’ll die, and till then, I’ll only be a burden. And now you know my sad story.”

There was a prolonged moment of silence.

When it became apparent no one would speak, Zun turned her blind eyes to Leo. “So, mortal king, what will you do? Will you try to take a dragon who can’t fly or walk to safety down a treacherous mountain? Tea said you came to give us a better place to live, but I’m not a naïve hatchling. You can leave me.”

“Don’t be silly, Zun,” Hugh said, a forced cheeriness to his voice. “And don’t be so darkly melodramatic. Leo saves everyone, seriously. We’ve got this.”

Leo used analyze on Zun.

For a second, he got a less complete chart, but then Zun allowed his magic, and he saw her unblocked basic status chart.

Zunochcatlicat of the Storm Vale, “Blind Zun,” Storm Dragon Juvenile

Level 1(5)

Mind

Health: ~40

Stamina: ~8

Essence: ~12

Physical Attacks:

Bite: Damage ~10

Claw: Damage ~7

Magical Attacks: N/A

Defenses:

Armor: ~4

Lightning: ~10

Special Abilities:

N/A

Strength and Toughness: Very High.

Perks:

Mindlocked: Mind magic replaces Air magic. Mind magic comes extremely easily to this being, and they may learn Mind magic at ages two and up.

Mentalist: +6 Intelligence, may acquire rare Mind powers as if a quality step higher.

Mind Master: +2 Mind affinity, may acquire rare Mind magic powers as if two quality steps higher.

Shattered: -20% physical accuracy, -50% dodge, -10% Health.

Blind: -85% outside modifier to accuracy.

This dragon is the poster kid for Child Protective Services. Treated like crap, forced into a do-or-die situation as a young child, and finally heartlessly abandoned by her mother to fend for herself when she failed to either do or die, Zun is barely able to function, completely as the result of abuse by her family. She is now utterly dependent on others to survive. She would surely have perished but for Hugh’s soft spot for the only other dragon who couldn’t fly besides him.

You’re probably expecting some kind of joke here, but don’t be a dick, me. The abuse this dragon suffered is the best argument for losing all faith in humanity and becoming a supervillain we’ve ever encountered.

“She’s like you, Hugh,” Leo said. “Her lack of flight wasn’t a flaw. It’s a perk that gives her the ability to level right now.”

“A shame that opportunity has been stolen from me forever,” Zun muttered.

“I’m not so sure,” Leo replied, his mind already working. “I think we might have solutions to that as well. I’m having an idea…”

“Don’t play with me, mortal,” Zun said, her tail twitching and anger in her voice. “I’ll be weak and crippled forever.”

“No, seriously,” Hugh said. “I have to say this to, like, everyone we meet, but I was skeptical of Leo’s ideas at first as well. But they’re exciting, most of the time, and he’s done some amazing things.”

I really hope I don’t disappoint Hugh’s faith in me. I almost feel like I must, someday, given to what unrealistically high standards he holds me. But I really hope I don’t.

“Well, can you chill here for a day or so, Zun?” Leo asked. “We need to go see about getting Polly and whatever other dragons Hugh plans to recruit, but then we’ll swing back and get you to a new and, I hope, far better home and future.”

“An’ me?” Cal asked, his jaw struggling to function. “I ge’ ’ame ’eal?”

“Of course you get the same deal,” Hugh said.

“Yeah,” Leo echoed. “You can fly and breathe lightning on people? And at least claw their faces if you need to, once you run out of essence?”

Cal nodded. “I claw goo’, no ’orry.”

I’m gonna buy this guy a telepathy ring, if it’s even a bit cheap, Leo thought to himself. Maybe I’ll take it out of his first year’s pay, at cost, so it’s a good deal for both of us. He talks weirdly because of his jaw and probably talks less because of that. He should be able to talk to people the way Freyvir did when I formed my pact with the ghost wolves.

“So, on to Polly?” Leo asked, then grimaced as both Tea and Zun tense slightly. Of course Zun would be carrying a torch for the dragon who saved her, and I already knew Tea was into Hugh. Way to be a jackass, Leo.

“Yeah!” Hugh said enthusiastically.

Chapter Forty

The Dragons Who Think They’re Badass

The remaining climb to Hugh’s clan wasn’t bad. The rain let up again, and Leo got to truly enjoy the scenery.

He understood why the dragons loved their mountainsides. The view was stunning. A series of small valleys and ravines led down the sides of the mountain, thick with the maybe-magical aquamarine-leafed willow trees, before they hit a huge river-and-lake-dotted plain that went farther than Leo’s eye could see.

The plain was a veritable carpet of green trees and grasses, except where it had freshwater mangrove-style trees in swamps. He spotted huge animals, reminiscent of hippopotamuses, tiny as ants in the distance—a herd a thousand strong, lounging in a lake. Despite the colder climate, life was everywhere, almost certainly a result of the massive amounts of water and loose material across the huge plain. And perhaps the very high density of magical nodes as well, a resource Leo had to constantly remind himself of when thinking in ecological terms.

As Leo crested the plateau ahead of the others, a few weird furry lizards scampered away from him, and then Leo got his first look at Hugh’s home.

It was a bowl-shaped plateau with a small lake in the center and a large cave opening overlooking the water.

Two adult dragons lounged near the edge of the water, their scales a bronze that appeared to have darkened with age but still glittered in the daylight. They had large leathery wings, and horns that swept back multiple feet past their head. Twenty smaller dragons scampered around the adults, all the same lighter bronze as Hugh, and all between seven and nine feet long, but they stopped and stared as soon as they noticed Leo.

The two adult dragons half stood and flared their scales. One hissed and flashed its fangs. The other growled as it spread its wings.

Leo held a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. That simple movement was enough to agitate the dragons. The juvenile dragons scurried away, and the two adults flapped their wings and leapt. They landed a few feet from Leo with a thump as they hit the stone and dirt of the mountain.

One was about fifty feet long, truly mammoth when Leo was staring down its gullet. The other was about thirty feet, which was still no mean size to have achieved. The scales on the larger of the mighty beasts were each the size of his hand.

Leo knew, from the feeling of the magic surrounding these dragons—as if the size alone wouldn’t have been enough—that they were way beyond his current kill capability. His build would need to be far stronger before he could challenge beings of this power level.

Getting mighty tired of meeting shit where my existence is clearly at their sufferance, on their home territory. I really need to get stronger.

Although, my skills have been going up rather rapidly from this trek, I suppose. Mostly athletics.

Leo was wrenched back to the here and now when the smaller dragon leaned forward.

“Who are you, and why shouldn’t I eat you?” the dragon asked, its voice a threatening snarl.

“Mom!” Hugh cried as he pulled himself over the edge next to Leo. “I can’t believe you’re here! This is great, I don’t have to go back to our original cave to find you!”

“Hugh?” the dragon asked, her voice shocked and slightly higher-pitched, not the threatening growl it had been before. “Why are you here, at the long speaker’s cave?”

Hugh ignored his mom in his excitement, his tail lashing back and forth. He turned to the bigger of the two dragons. “Long Speaker Poct! Man, it’s great to see you again! I’ve told Leo all about you!”

Leo held his breath, not sure if everything was going well.

Hugh bounded over and nudged Poct, the more massive of the two dragons. “Not least about how often you had to whack me for being a bad student, eh? Eh? But I did okay, and I’m back now!”

The two large dragons glanced at each other for a moment, their scales still flared, their bodies becoming tenser with each passing moment. Although Hugh practically danced around them, his excitement was never reciprocated.

Leo didn’t know why, but it seemed that Hugh’s mother and the long speaker weren’t thrilled to see Hugh here.

The younger dragons flew over in groups of three and four. When they landed, they were cautious, but the moment they spotted Hugh, they grew bold and stomped over.

“Chad!” Hugh called out as one of the new dragons sauntered over.

Again, Leo didn’t move much. He just observed.

Hugh hopped up and down. When another dragon approached, he shouted, “Brother! “Oh, man, guys, you won’t believe what I’ve been up to, and what I’ve accomplished! You’ll love it!”

Then another bronze-scaled dragon, one who looked no different or special in any way that Leo could fathom, landed. It was about nine feet long, but when it landed, Hugh shifted posture slightly, and he stopped his jumping.

“Polly, hi,” Hugh said, his voice strained. “Um, it’s really good to see you.”

“How’ve you been, Hugh?” Polly asked, after a bit of staring at him.

“I’ve been great. I made six levels. Check me out!” Hugh tensed, and his muscles bulged.

No one said anything. Some of the dragons sniffed at him, but they mostly just exchanged glances.

Hugh held his head high. “And I’ve got a huge hoard now, too. Not my sire’s hoard, which was gone, but Leo here helped me raid a vault. I’ve got, like, a thousand gold’s worth of stuff in my hoard. And I can do magic!”

Hugh reached down and pulled some of the stone up, quickly adjusting it to be a spike.

“Can you fly?” Hugh’s mom asked.

Hugh chuckled nervously. “No, but I’m way more powerful now. Seriously. I’m a Level Ten creature. And I’ve got a great hoard for a young dragon, right?”

No one said anything.

The persistent silence even grated on Leo. Why weren’t they acknowledging Hugh’s accomplishments?

Hugh’s tail went flat, dropping to the ground. “I mean, that’s badass, right? Um, right?”

“It’s very impressive, Hugh,” Hugh’s mom said. “How did that happen?”

“Well, I almost died on the way to my sire’s lair, funny story how that happened, but I’ll tell it later, and Leo here rescued me! And we became super good friends. We adventured together, and I made a bunch of levels—that’s why I’m so much bigger now!”

“So… a mortal found you, made you his pet, and helped you make a few levels?” one of the younger dragons, only about seven feet long—the one Hugh had identified as his brother—said with a snicker. “You always were kinda pathetic, Hugh.”

Hugh lowered his head. “Why would you say that, brother?”

“Brother?” Leo asked, his mouth running before his brain caught up. “Is this the same brother who couldn’t hunt a deer until he was four?”

“How dare you talk about that in front of my classmates!” the dragon yelled as the other dragons all laughed. “By Merdrek’s teeth, I’ll end you!”

The dragon charged, tooth-filled mouth first. But Leo had been training against Hugh near daily, and this dragon was a sad imitation. As the dragon went to bite Leo—a surely devastating blow if it landed—Leo used telekinesis to pull a rock from the ground in front of him.

The dragon bit the rock, screaming as a tooth broke. Leo whipped his sword out of his sheath and shoved it into the dragon’s mouth from the side, behind the rock. He stabbed him in his throat and pulled his sword out quickly.

Leo dismissed the ‘critical nineteen damage’ notification.

The dragon started to cough blood but also shot lightning. Most was absorbed by the rock, but some hit Leo.

Oh, right. Not exactly like a pathetic version of Hugh. These ones can all fly and shoot lightning bolts.

Leo hit the ground. He rolled to the side, smoking and twitching slightly, then stood as the dragon pawed at his own mouth. But the dragon did so by raising one foreleg, exposing the less armored ‘underarm.’

The dragon collapsed, coughing up even more blood, as Leo stuck his sword deep into the exposed weak point, through to the dragon’s lung.

The whole thing had taken perhaps three seconds.

He stepped back, not prepared to kill Hugh’s sibling.

A lightning bolt from the side hit right in front of Leo, and he shook and twitched as the lightning splashed, then he fell to the ground.

“You die, elf,” Poct said, lunging.

Hugh threw himself in the way. “No! I owe Leo everything. You can’t kill him! And Lily can make this all better!”

Poct hesitated for a moment, but then his face firmed. “Then you die as well, Hugh. No mortal shall be suffered to attack a dragon.”

Poct lunged, and above Leo, Hugh crouched lower, looking down and closing his eyes.

Hugh’s mom slammed into Poct, and pushed him to the side. He crashed into the ground, rumbling the whole mountain.

Zir’s thrown knife hit Poct and bounced to the side, utterly ineffectual and unacknowledged in the fray.

“NO!” Hugh’s mom yelled, her voice agony to Leo’s ears—the thundering voice of an angry god damning the masses to hell. “No. Hugh may be a disappointment, but he’s still my child, and a good boy. If he has, by some miracle, found a place he can be happy, we’ll not take it from him. I, Ancatlitopeca, give Leo and his mortals their life, assuming they can fix my other son as Hugh promised. If he dies, they die.”

Lily went forward and touched Hugh’s brother, whose name Leo still didn’t know. It took three uses of her regeneration ability to restore him—and her regeneration ability was rank II now. That was a lot of health.

The dragon stood, and shuffled a bit closer to Poct, who was again upright and staring stonily at Leo and his friends.

Despite his fear, pain, and frustration, Leo was absurdly pleased with himself. Two critical hits in a row, and devastating damage. Perhaps I won’t need as many levels as I thought to fight some of the powers of this world.

“Can I at least make my pitch before we go?” Hugh asked. “I think it would be a great deal for some of us.”

Hugh’s mom nodded. “Of course, Hugh. And I really am glad you found a place for yourself, my poor lost baby.”

There were snickers from the other dragons, and Poct was staring at Hugh’s mom with a sneer and furrowed brow, like she was pathetic and distasteful.

Hugh tried to rally, but their was a lack of happiness and excitement in his voice. “So, guys, really. I have a great deal for you. Leo will pay people to work with his town, protect it. And I’ve got caves, good caves. I made them with my Earth magic. And a spot to fight monsters and gain treasure, for an even better hoard! We can all get an awesome start on our hoards.”

The dragons were all looking at him, except a few in the back who turned away.

Hugh called to one. “C’mon, Chad, it’s a great deal. You’d love it!”

The larger, eight-foot dragon, whose horns curled at the ends—Chad, Leo supposed—turned back. “Dragons don’t work for, or with, mortals. I’ll not be their slave.”

“It’s not like that. Leo’s a great guy! He won’t even take elves as slaves.”

“If he won’t impose his will on others, he’s just weak. But I’ll not let him put a collar around my neck by trickery if he’s too weak to put it there by force. This is the worst kind of bird thinking, Hugh.”

The other dragons turned and started walking away.

Hugh took a few hesitant steps after one. “Polly?” he said, his voice a bare whisper.

Polly stopped and turned back. She hesitated, glancing around at the other dragons, who were mostly staring at her now.

“Oh, you gonna go be a slave with Hugh?” Chad mocked.

Another dragon snorted and laughed. “Wouldn’t it be funny if she ended up with a flightless lizard? Can you imagine all their pathetic hatchlings?”

Polly’s face firmed. She held her head high. “I’m not going to be with some dragon like Hugh.”

Hugh stepped a little closer, his chest puffed. “Polly, I’m way more amazing now!”

She turned away. “It’s sad you even think that. You’re weak and pathetic and worthless.”

“But—”

“You came all the way back to show off your levels, but you didn’t even fight anyone and win. What kind of dragon are you? I’ll only mate with the best of the best—not some flightless lizard who is far beneath me.”

Polly preened, the scales across her bronze body flaring as she hurried to catch up to all the other ‘normal’ dragons. The long speaker seemed pleased by Polly’s speech. Hugh’s mother said nothing, though she remained tense.

Leo could hardly believe what he’d just witnessed.

He seethed inside, but the presence of Poct, glowering away, and his own sense that this might be a ‘Band-Aid better removed fast’ situation, restrained him from action.

Hugh leapt forward a few feet, trembling. “W-Wait! How… how can you think I’m pathetic? Even though I have a hoard and levels and everything?”

Polly flared her wings and sneered as she turned to him. “Look at everyone around you, Hugh. Everyone is leaving because you’re embarrassing.”

“But I have power now!”

“Not your own power. Your power can be taken away in an instant if your stupid mortal decides he isn’t your buddy anymore. Or dies of old age tomorrow. By Merdrek’s teeth, I would never want a simpering dragon who relies on others to father my hatchlings or help guard my hoard.”

The other dragons chuckled and laughed. A few even swung their tails at the ground, kicking up dirt and rocks and throwing them in Hugh’s direction.

“I deserve a real dragon,” Polly said, turning her back to Hugh once more. “Not a gutless, flightless lizard who answers to others.”

“You tell him, Polly,” Chad said, flashing his fangs.

“Yeah, yeah,” another dragon chimed in, chuckling the whole time.

Leo had to do something, and stabbing the little bitch to death wasn’t currently an option. Instead, he walked over and put his hand on Hugh’s shoulder. “Let’s go, buddy. There’s nothing left to say.”

“Yeah,” Hugh said, his voice a raw wound. “I guess there isn’t anything left to say at all.”

Chapter Forty-One

The Dragons Who Are Actually Badass

Leo kept half an eye on Hugh as they climbed down the mountain, toward the cave of the other dragons. Hugh kept away from any ledges, and Leo was glad that he hadn’t become suicidal, or that his fear of heights was at least keeping him from using that route.

“Merdrek’s weeping eye!” Hugh suddenly shouted, swiping a small boulder from his path, which went crashing down the side of the mountain for a bit before lodging between two much larger boulders.

“Why?!” Hugh cried out again. “Why am I always the loser, always pathetic?! It changed nothing. Everything we did changed nothing!”

Hugh collapsed on the path they’d been following, and tears started to run over the bronze scales of his face. Very quickly, he was sobbing.

Leo rushed to him, kneeling and trying to drape his arm over Hugh’s huge back with limited success. Hugh’s always-tucked wings alone fouled up the attempt, never mind his ridiculous size.

“You’re not pathetic, Hugh, I swear. You are not. They’re wrong.”

“N-No,” Hugh said, talking through his crying. “T-They’re right. I was pa-pa-thetic for th-thinking I could ever be p-popular.”

“Take a breath, buddy,” Leo said. “It’ll be okay.”

Hugh paused for a moment and got himself a bit more under control. Lily came up and rubbed his back. Even Zir came close, although he didn’t touch the dragon.

A tiny bit calmer, Hugh continued. “I was pathetic for thinking I could ever be mighty. For thinking anyone would ever care about me. I suck, Leo. It’s true, what they said. You saved me. You saved me from the harpies. You saved me from the golem. I’d be dead now, Leo. Or I’d have just failed, and been poor, and gone back to live in the loser cave with Tea and Cal and Zun until we grew too old and they came and kicked us out. I’d have died a bit later instead. Big accomplishment.”

“Pretty sure you saved me from those diseased wolves and rats, buddy. That’s two each.”

Hugh hiccupped and laughed. “Well, maybe.”

“Maybe nothing. It’s the peacock problem again.”

Hugh gave another hiccupping laugh. “Don’t bring that up again.”

“You guys have never explained that,” Lily said. “I want to hear about these peacocks now.”

“I’m serious about the peacock thing, Hugh. Those dragons are crazy survivalist types, but their worship of purely individual power is limiting—really limiting. A thousand-year-old dragon is basically unstoppable, right?”

Hugh nodded and wiped his face with his claws. “Yeah.”

“And a baby dragon is still stronger than a human warrior, right?”

“Well, about the same, I guess, right out of the egg. Why?”

“Who controls more territory? Humans or dragons?”

“Humans,” Hugh said, his voice becoming less and less despair-filled as they talked.

“How much more?”

“Way more.”

“Exactly,” Leo said. “Exactly. Now, picture in your mind a world where all the dragons worked together all the time. Where they coordinated strikes on humans and defended their territory with agreements, so that if one dragon was attacked, all the dragons defended or avenged him. Think it through. What does that world look like?”

“A… All the mortal races would be slaves to the dragons, and we would rule everything.”

“Again, exactly. That’s why dragons and their hoards are so dumb. It’s making your entire species stupidly individual warriors, and they’re losing, being pushed back to weird geographical niches, like mountain caves. Places no one really wants. Yeah, your sire, one of the most dangerous dragons in existence, managed to sit on the ruins for fifty years. But sooner or later, a champion would have slain him, and his whole realm would have been claimed. But not if he’d had five hundred buddy dragons with him.”

That was the real glory and strength of a nation. The ability to work together—to build toward a greater goal. One individual could never accomplish what a nation could.

Hugh sniffled and nodded. “All right, I get it, Leo. You make sense. But how does that mean I’m not a pathetic dragon?”

“I don’t get it,” Lily said, flicking her hair. “Where do the peacock tails come in?”

Leo ignored her for the moment, still trying to get through to Hugh. “Hugh, you’re not pathetic. You’re advanced. You have two, well, let’s call them ‘mutations.’”

Hugh rubbed his snout, and another tear fell from his eye. “Oh, joy. Now I’m a mutant.”

“You’re being sad just to be sad now.”

“Fine, continue,” Hugh muttered with a wave of his paw.

“Your first mutation is obvious. You have Earth magic and can level. That’s pretty sweet, but it’s honestly neither here nor there.”

“Okay…”

“The second one, however, is that you’re a team player. You ally and coordinate. It wasn’t I who made those things happen, like you keep thinking. It was you. You were the one who decided to rescue Zun, and you were the one who convinced Tea and Cal to help out.”

“Yeah, I did that,” Hugh said, staring at Leo quizzically. “I wasn’t strong enough to follow my dream of being a badass and help all my friends both. But that’s what makes me weak.”

“No… it makes you strong. No dragon your age could have done both by themselves. But you managed both. And now, you’ll have at least three buddies, and you’ll lead them. You’re stronger for your supposed weakness.”

“Leo, I know you don’t believe this stuff. I’ve listened to your speeches—you’re all about individuals making themselves as strong as possible. You practically worship the idea of people making themselves as cool as they can, for their own purposes.”

“You’re not listening hard enough, Hugh. I specifically mention that the benefits accrue to the whole. Defense against outsiders being the biggest one. But it’s only part of it. I don’t think explanations of economies of scale or division of labor are really relevant to the discussion we’re having, but trust me—I believe deeply in the group. I believe deeply in helping others to excel. I just also believe that every person should try to be all they can be, personally, in the manner they think is most appropriate.”

“I guess you did say stuff about ‘woe to he who strikes at all of us combined’ and stuff.”

“I’ve never said ‘woe’ in my life.”

“You’ve said ‘whoa,’” Hugh said, chuckling slightly and then giving a sniffle. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be weak like this. Let’s go get the rest of the defective brigade.”

Leo wanted to facepalm. “Hugh. Please listen carefully. You. Are. Not. Defective. Additionally, when you say ‘defective,’ I think you mean ‘loser,’ and not the actual word. Defective is just that—something is wrong. What it means is you must work harder to overcome. Your friends are actually defective. One’s missing a foreleg. She needs more effort to fight and walk and probably can’t carry much. One is missing a jaw and loses a bite attack and the ‘D’ sound, apparently. The last one is very defective, made so by others, when she was too young and weak to fight back.”

“I guess… I guess maybe I did mean losers, yeah. But what are you saying? What do you mean by it?”

“Again, they have more work to do to advance their lives. But it’s one more hurdle, it’s not a final judgement. Especially in an immortal species. A loser is one who gives up and accepts their fate. And I talked to those dragons. They’ll all succeed, trust me. I’m going to show them how, but they’ll all be amazing. They all, already, in their own ways, railed against fate and fought to change it.”

“Even Zun?” Hugh asked, his eyes wide.

“Especially Zun. She’ll be stronger than the other two before I’m done. You still think wrong, Hugh. At the risk of sounding like a complete jackass, this entire society does. Greatness is achieved by hard work for yourself, and not over others. And supposed defects are just one more step—especially in this land of leveling. You guys have no excuse for not always being optimistic. You can—literally, concretely, measurably, and permanently—change who you are if you don’t like it.”

“And we’re going to change Zun?”

“We’re going to help Zun change Zun.”

“Let me guess,” Lily said, her hand still on Hugh’s back. “You want to know if there’s a monster lair or a dungeon around, right? So we can make Zun levels in order to make her stronger? That’s your plan?”

“Damn straight,” Zir said before Leo could agree. “Zir needs some new levels as well.”

“Well, then enough pep-talking me. Let’s go kill shit,” Hugh said, his eyes again dry and his teeth bared in that familiar Hugh grin.

Hugh was quiet most of the way down the side of the mountain, carefully picking his way across rocks so he didn’t fall. Leo could see the fear in his eyes.

After a bit, he asked, “How do you know, Leo? How do you know my friends’ll be awesome?”

Leo hopped a few feet down their mountain path to another rock, using a willow branch to slow the fall and landing in a slight crouch. “Because they already overcame so much. They were being picked on, and then Zun was broken by her evil mother. Instead of giving up, they followed you. They managed to get a cave and fend for themselves. They also take care of her. For all of Polly’s bitchy take on you being a baby, she’s the one who hasn’t left the nest. You got out, your friends got out, and you all looked after yourselves. Which is what adults do. Everything else is secondary to the basic moral and mental fortitude to take care of yourself.”

“And how do you know Zun will succeed?” Hugh asked as he carefully lowered himself, scrabbling a bit, down the side until he let go to fall six inches onto the rock next to Leo.

“She didn’t die. At some level, she wants life, badly, and already fought for it.”

“Hmm…” Hugh said.

He went silent again as they continued the descent, his attention seemingly split between his footing and Leo’s words.

“How come we never have these kinds of talks?” Zir asked as they descended.

“You want some good advice, tailored to you?” Leo asked as they dropped off the last large rock and started along the easier, flatter path that would lead them to the cave, sidestepping small boulders but otherwise ignoring the terrain as they walked.

“Yeah, I’d hear what you’d say to me.”

“Stay in school and don’t do drugs.”

“What?”

Leo chuckled. “Sorry, it was a joke. But seriously, you can’t kill everyone who upsets you, and you need reading and writing and numbers to be a good leader, not just stabbing skills.”

“That seems… way less insightful than what you said to Hugh. Am I just not worth your time?” Zir asked.

Leo glanced over at him. “Zir, I spend a lot of time training with you. I take you on adventures to gather experience, all those things. You’re clearly worth my time. But you also aren’t prone to any real errors—yet—except a deep-seated belief that everything comes down to the edge of a knife. You’re angry at your father’s killers. Good. That’s the right response. You already work like a dog. Again, good. You already know the path to greatness is self-improvement. For the third time, good. The only thing I’d currently say to you is—don’t let your anger consume you.”

“Hm.”

Leo hesitated, trying hard to resist, but he couldn’t help himself. “It leads to the dark side.”

“Maybe,” Zir muttered.

“And with that bit of fortune cookie wisdom, we’re at the entrance to the dragons’ lair,” Leo said, gesturing at the small slightly musky-smelling cave entrance as they came around a corner in the path.

Zir started to ask, “What’s a for—”

“Shh,” Lily said. “It’s best not to engage when he waxes obscure.”

Leo laughed, finding himself in a good mood for no reason at all, given how the day had gone.

They all entered the shallow cave, more of a large overhang really, that was the lair of the dragons who had gone to live away from the main dragon lair. It was easy to quickly spot the three dragons.

The moment Hugh entered, Tea lifted her head.

“So, will you and Polly be picking out a cave?” she asked.

“No,” Hugh muttered. “She called me ‘a pathetic, worthless loser that no dragoness would ever want.’”

Tea winced. “I’d bet a pretty big hoard that some dragonesses will want you.”

“I dou…” Hugh started, then trailed off, no doubt remembering Leo’s talk with him about Tea’s feelings.

“Maybe,” Hugh said instead. “Once I get over my deeply sad desire for Polly, I hope that whichever dragoness I’m lucky enough to land, she’s way nicer than her. ’Cuz oof.”

Tea chuckled. “‘Oof,’ huh? It works.”

“So, what is the plan? Did you figure out how to ‘save’ me, Leo?” Zun cut in.

“Yes. Although, a lot of the work will be on your end. But I have a plan. It’s not even a new plan, but it has specific elements for you.”

“Quit chewing. Swallow your words or just spit them out, mortal,” Zun said.

“You’re going to level up until you get the telekinetic field power.”

“What’s that?”

“An ability. Lily, our resident walking library here, knows everything about it.”

“Hey, I resemble that,” Lily said, and Leo chuckled at another person picking up on his joke style.

“How do you know about it?” Zun asked Leo.

“When I was making early levels, way back when I first escaped the Forest of Averia and was taking a boat to Steelport, I asked Lily about builds. She talked to me about all the long-run telekinesis powers. Inertial weapons and armor. Telekinetic flight. But the ability I thought most interesting was the telekinetic field. It lets you ‘see’ everything in a range around you by pushing outward with an extremely subtle telekinetic field and getting feedback from it. Almost like three-hundred-and-sixty-degree bat sonar.”

Leo expended some essence to cause a small rock to float to his hand. “She mentioned it as a very advanced power. But your perk makes it clear you can get advanced Mind magic abilities.”

Zun’s face was obviously becoming hopeful, but just as clearly to Leo, she tried to maintain cynicism. “How would I level? I’m a cripple.”

“That’s where we come in,” Leo replied. “But you’ll have to do some of it. We’ll take you to Zadrid’s Hallow before we go. We’ll fight, and you’ll fight alongside us. When you make levels, take mostly Perception and telekinesis powers.”

“I’m blind, and I have a mangled leg,” Zun said.

Leo walked up and put his hand on her head. “Then stay here and die, if you really are without hope. Or join us at the hollow and fight the undead. We’ll all make levels except for Cal and Tea, and we’ll give them any treasure we manage to find, although I understand it’s pretty picked over. But we’ll also consider it the first day of their employment year for earning their salary from me.”

“That, or I should just give up.” The blind dragon’s face twisted into a sour grin.

“Yeah,” Leo said. “I can’t carry those who won’t at least try to learn to walk. But if you’ll give me the effort, I’ll make you a powerhouse, one who can be a part of something grand. I give you my word.”

“And mine,” Hugh said, lifting his head high.

Zun quirked a smile. “You’re all insane, but what do I have to lose, right? Let’s do it.”

Chapter Forty-Two

By Zadrid’s Missing Left Ventricle

Leo, flanked by four dragons, Lily, and Zir, looked down on a hellish forest in a small valley that looked more crater than true valley. One side of the crater appeared almost melted, with a few rivulets with aspirations to creekhood that dropped over the side and down the mountain.

The trees were all skeletal, with only a few leaves, a sharp contrast to the rest of the Blue Lands Leo had traveled through, which were flush with vibrant life. And between them were the ruins of a small village.

Three of the trees were clearly larger than the rest, towering hundreds of feet into the sky, their topmost branches pointed upward like spears. Hanging from the lower horizontal branches of those massive trees were numerous vines with corpses hanging from them like so much rotting fruit.

And Leo could feel the dark magic of the place, and malevolence that wouldn’t be contained, that felt like insects worming their way into his wood, trying to make him a dark mockery of his former self.

“What… what is this place?” Leo asked, shuddering at the sensation.

Lily shivered as well, and ran her hands down the front of her dress, likely getting sweat off. “This is Zadrid’s Hallow. Most of the sages who have studied this place, for a couple of reasons—including one I’ll show you shortly—think it’s the leftover… presence, really… of a dead progenitor.”

“Like Freyvir?”

“Yes, exactly,” Lily said. “Something that strong, um, died here. And left a permanent presence. It’s dark as all get out, but in its own way it’s a resource, as it acts similar to a dungeon—the monsters come back, over and over, given enough time. And you can gain experience from killing them.”

“It sure doesn’t feel like a resource,” Leo said, again shuddering at the sensation of the magic.

“Well, it barely is, since the dragons really underutilize it.”

Cal spoke. “Well, thith ith on Jal’s lan’, an’ he ith Level ‘wenty, so he oan’t nee’ it.”

“We’re on the land of a Level Twenty dragon?” Leo asked, slightly panicked, visions of Poct dancing through his head.

Hugh snorted. “He’s never made a level in his life. Jal is crazy lazy, and I mean lazy like a cat. But he was born with a huge strength perk and a natural talent for fighting, so he survived to grow old. But that’s like all he did. And he leaves his cave every thirty days or so. And rarely comes this way.”

Zun was facing the hollow, and she shuddered as well. “So, this is where you plan to have me make the levels necessary to fix me?”

Leo wanted to take exception to the derogatory term of ‘fix,’ but he supposed it was accurate enough. “This is where we start the road to making you a god of telekinetic power, yes.”

Zun was silent for a bit, but when she spoke, her voice was raw with hunger. “I know you’ve been engaged in rejecting everything about dragon culture, and to a large degree, I am intellectually convinced. But, by Merdrek’s teeth, I have enough appreciation of their creed left in me that ‘God of Telekinesis’ sounds appealing indeed.”

Leo smiled. “Well, given that every problem you have is the direct result of the abuses of others, I’m sure the idea of a little power is appealing, regardless of your creed.”

“That too.”

“Well, enough of this borderline psychotic talk,” Lily said. “Let’s go make some levels, especially for Zun.”

Everyone started to carefully pick their way down the side of the crater, with Hugh staying by Zun’s side and leading her down. Between her blindness and shattered leg, she was nearly incapable of walking down the cliff, but nearly wasn’t the same as actually. Hugh had proven he could carry Zun if necessary, but he tired very quickly doing that—so occasionally she would walk or climb herself.

Cal stayed near Tea, who could see what she was doing but still had the missing leg.

“Be careful,” Tea said. “Obviously I can’t move fast—but also, the undead here will be considerably less affected by my lightning breath weapon.”

“Is it really that big a concern?” Leo asked. “I mean, I thought you only had enough essence for about two uses.”

Tea snorted. “True. But it’s a very powerful multitarget attack that can save a dragon’s scales in most situations. It even has decent splash damage. We rely on it a lot to open strong or recover a lead in most fights.”

When they came down onto the flatter area, near the trees, Tea and Zun were able to walk considerably better, although still very slow.

Each tree was even more disturbing up close, with swirls in the wood that appeared to be the faint outline of a screaming face, many with slightly surreal features, stretched or pulled as if to become a caricature of the man in Edvard Munch’s The Scream painting. The whole place felt like someone had gone out of their way to make an uncanny-valley nightmare of a situation.

As Leo was being distracted by the trees, the ground suddenly surged upward around the outskirts of their group. Five skeletons climbed out of the ground, two to the left and three on the right, both in small clumps. They carried twisted wood clubs, and their finger bones were sharpened into claws.

Before Leo could issue tactical orders, Hugh ran toward the clump of the right side of their group. Zir ran at the left, slashing and moving, doing little damage but taking absolutely nothing in return.

Leo drew his sword, cursing, and ran after Zir.

As he did, Hugh called out, “Breath weapon toward the sound of my voice, Zun!”

Leo turned, wide-eyed. Hugh was standing behind the skeletons. Zun leaned her head forward and blasted lightning almost perfectly on target, blasting all three to smithereens and also smacking Hugh. Despite his heavy electrical resistance, he let out a strangled grunt, shook, and fell to the ground, obviously not in serious danger, but definitely not happy, either.

“You freaking bird, Hugh!” Tea yelled, her voice a bit panicked. “Are you crazy?!”

Lily ran toward Hugh, but Leo didn’t see the results, as Zir yelled out, “You coming, you blasted uppy elf?”

Leo turned, rushing the skeletons. He slammed his sword into one, the notification box saying he was doing half damage with his edged weapon. But he was still extremely fast and strong, and made rapid work of it while Zir finished off the other. Both collapsed into piles of bones.

Leo got a ‘1 experience’ notification for each of them.

Hugh was standing again, unhurt, with Lily next to him.

Tea hopped up, trying to move fast on her three legs, which was equal parts sad and, Leo admitted to himself with a grimace, hilarious.

She rammed her head into Hugh, who didn’t move. “Stop trying to be tough, Hugh. I get it, you want to impress everyone. Well, we’re already impressed—”

“Speak for yourself,” Zir muttered, and Lily put her hand in front of her mouth, likely to hide giggling.

“—but you can’t just let people shoot you with lightning, by Merdrek’s missing eye! Some of us would miss you!”

Hugh gently butted Tea back. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to help Zun, promise. I’ll be more careful.”

Tea stumbled back despite the gentleness of the bump and huffed again, but didn’t say anything else.

Zun coughed, then spoke dryly. “Well, it didn’t help much, although I really appreciate the assist. Each of those was Level Three, and even though it counted me as the only combatant, they all added up to less than a level. And that was half my breath weapon uses for the day.”

Lily tapped her lip. “Well, the closer we get to the three main trees, the stronger the undead get, although they tap out at about Level Six.”

Leo stepped in. “The tactic wasn’t the worst idea, actually. Let’s wait until we can cluster a couple near each other that are Level Four or Five, hopefully five of them. Then, when we have the chance, we’ll call for the strike, but you shoot to the left—that’s your left—of the voice, okay?”

Zun slowly nodded.

Leo continued. “Since you told me the lightning isn’t as effective on undead, I’m assuming the undead will survive the blast—either Hugh or I will be the one to call for it, and we’ll be the ones to finish them off. That should make you your first level, and you can get telekinesis, rank I—which will give you a new way to make ranged attacks in the directions we call for and gain experience.”

“It still uses essence,” Zun said dryly. “I don’t think that’ll give me a great deal more attacks.”

Crap. “Right. Well, in that case, we’re going to teach Hugh to play a new game—fetch. Hugh, you’ll be in charge of taking skeletons close to Zun so she can bite them.”

“Hurray…” Hugh said, sitting back on his haunches and waggling his front feet in front of him.

Tea laughed. “Hey, you’ve got all that armor now, and they’ve got small claws. It’s not like the lightning. You’ll be fine.”

“I repeat—hurray…”

***

The undead had a lot of nasty tricks, all Entropy magic based. From auras that ate at magic powers to pollution effects to entropic damage that healed at the rate of one a day even with magical healing. That was the minority of them, however. Most of the skeletons, even the higher-level ones, just had sharp claws and enhanced stats, and were essentially physical fighters. Those ones didn’t have a strong counter to Hugh’s defensive abilities. Whenever a fight started, he would grab one in his mouth, usually by a leg, and drag it over to Zun, who would bite it to death. Soon, she made her first level, and picked up telekinesis, rank I.

When they reached the first of the three great trees, they found a huge amalgamation undead, a skeletal dog about six feet in height at the shoulder with an extra-long tail that had a human skull on the end of it. It was sitting patiently, guarding a large piece of black meat that wept a vicious red-black liquid down the side of the tree as it pulsed.

“What… what is that?” Leo asked.

Lily flexed her fingers. “Skeletal amalgamation. Not a huge deal. It’ll be a bit tough, but I think we can handle it without too much trouble. It won’t be much stronger than the rat version we fought in the undercity of the Calasti ruins.”

“I meant the crazy red-black pulsing flesh thing.”

“Oh. Well, that’s one of the reasons researchers believe a progenitor died here. That’s a portion of the heart, one chamber of what is a remarkably mortal heart—human, specifically. Each tree has one.”

“Where’s the last piece?” Leo asked, curious.

“No one knows. All attempts to finally destroy the heart fail—and all attempts to use it for item creation similarly fail. It just loses its magic and reforms here. Some imbuers believe if the fourth piece were found, the entire thing could be used for items or destroyed. It’s also assumed that powerful enough magic could finish it off. Although, why would you want to? If this wasn’t a dragon realm, this would be almost like a little mini dungeon, and quite useful.”

Fascinating.

At the foot of the tree was a small smashed earthenware pot in a style completely unknown to Leo. “What is that?”

“A remnant of whatever builders came before, it’s thought. Nothing grows here outside the current pattern, so a lot of stuff has survived thousands of years. Although, obviously not that.”

“’an I have it?” Cal asked. “Or ’an I get ’tuff ’ike it?”

Leo scratched his head. “You’ve decided to be an amateur archaeologist? Sure.”

“I wan’ a hoar’ that is ’iffe’ent than most ’ragons. If it hath cool ol’ timey ’tuff, it’ll be really neat.”

So getting this guy a telepathy ring. Although he seems to be a bit of an intellectual…

“Mind if I use analyze on you, Cal?”

“’o ahea’.”

Leo reached out with his essence, molded into Mind magic.

Calitehuacan of the Storm Vale, Storm Dragon Juvenile

Level 1(5)

Air

Health: ~34

Stamina: ~8

Essence: ~12

Physical Attacks:

Bite: Damage ~1

Claw: Damage ~7

Magical Attacks: N/A

Defenses:

Armor: ~4

Lightning: ~10

Special Abilities:

N/A

Strength and Toughness: Very High.

Flaw: Missing Jaw. -20% effective Charisma from speech impediment, bite damage set to ‘1’ base. -1 Health.

Flaw: Puny: -2 Strength, -2 Toughness, -2 Endurance

Perk: Organized Mind: +6 Intelligence, +50% additional modifier to intellectual learning skill rate.

Perk: True Storm Dragon: Once he can level, also gains access to Water magic. May gain auras in Water and Air magic ten levels earlier.

Cal’s a nerd. And dragon culture is not friendly to anything but the jocks, and maybe the chads. Clearly, his soul was supposed to be a bookworm somewhere.

Well, maybe he’ll become a dragon archaeologist, but this feels like a pretty generalist build.

“So, we’re going to destroy that amalgamation?” Zun interjected. “I still need to become a telekinetic god. Ever since you uttered those words, Leo, I’ve had a fire in me. It occurs to me—did you know my perks elevate me past natural magical talent for acquiring rare Mind magic abilities?”

Leo had known, or at least guessed, from using analyze on her and reading her chart. “Yes.”

“Well then, I would ask your assistance again along that road. Cal can collect his pots. I want to collect power, and never be helpless or at another’s mercy again.”

While I totally sympathize, she’s sounding a bit like a budding supervillain here. I’ll need to keep an eye on her, try and work through some of her trauma.

Leo hefted his sword. “Sure, let’s do it.”

I can start by really helping her. “In fact, how often does this place reset? I mean, regenerate its monsters?”

“Every day at midnight.”

Leo thought about it. He had a lot to do, but… “Let’s take a week. I think we can all make a level at least if we do that. Then we’ll head back to Star Port. That fair to everyone?”

All his companions, including the dragons, nodded.

Chapter Forty-Three

Home Is Where Trouble Comes Looking For You

“Ah, cave sweet cave!” Hugh cried as he hurled himself off the deck of the River Darter into the river with a huge splash.

He was now heavy and strong enough that his leap slightly altered the course of the ship’s travel. Thankfully, the ship managed to pull into the bay on the north end of Elgin Isle without much issue.

Tea and Cal soared through the sky and then slammed into the river even harder than Hugh, covering the deck of the River Darter, and its cussing oarsmen and captain, in a spray of water.

“Idiots,” Zun, who was in the center of the boat and also subjected to the spray, muttered.

The galley inched to the pier, and Hugh clawed his way out of the water. When the sailors threw the rope, he caught it, and with his huge strength and size, was able to pull the ship close enough for it to drop a gangplank and for its sailors to finish tying it off.

Leo was happy to be home, frankly. It had been a rough trip, and far less fruitful than he would have liked. A terrible ‘deal’ that would certainly lead to trouble in the future, and three dragons, only two of whom could fly, wasn’t a great trade for what had been three weeks of his time and a lot of danger.

But the trip hadn’t been a total waste. In the ruins of Zadrid’s Hollow, Leo had managed, over a week of intensive training and adventuring, to make Level Ten while helping Zun level up—although she wasn’t yet at the point of the telekinetic field.

Auras normally didn’t become available until Level Thirty, but Leo had two stacking modifiers that made Wyld auras available early. He’d gotten two auras as options, a ranching aura and a pure agricultural one. He’d decided to take the agricultural one and leave the ranching one for later, as his realm had few animals yet. And he had taken bestial toughness, rank I, because it added a lot of health, which he desperately needed.

Because of his other, earlier picks, he’d gotten another two options as well—one Mind ability from cognitive learner, which he’d used to take inertial weapon, rank I, and one Soul, which he’d used to raise his Magic stat.

Leo quickly glanced at his new abilities.

Inertial Weapon, Rank I*

Based on high Intelligence, the telekinesis ability, and Cognitive Learner, this unusual power modifies kinetic force. This adds 10% damage to kinetic attacks, modified to higher percentage damage by Magic score.

Soul of Magic, Rank II

+2 Magic

Aura of Growth, Rank I

+10% base agricultural modifier within 5 miles of the mage

Bestial Toughness, Rank I

+4 Toughness

Then Leo pulled up a sub-chart he’d managed to call forth from whatever entities controlled the status charts. It told of his potential damage with his sword.

Leo’s attack with Lesser Light Blade. 3–12 base damage (Damage 1–8 + 2–4 Light damage).

Modified by Strength (x1.55 with items), skill (x1.27), and Inertial Weapon ability (x1.2 ((1.1 base) x1.18 occult x1.56 Magic stat x1.1 Mind affinity))

Damage 7–28, crit rate x3

That is insane damage, Leo thought to himself as he looked at it. I could potentially kill a small dragon with a good critical hit, even past their armor and such. Benefits of now supernatural Strength and Magic, but still. Oof.

Although, concerns about his enemies doing as much damage back had led to Leo putting his Level Ten stat increase into Toughness, which, along with his bestial toughness ability, raised his Health to thirty… but it concerned him that he could still kill himself in a single blow. It implied others likely could as well. I’ll need to give my Health and Toughness even more love soon. Or perhaps take Toughness-increasing items instead of my Strength ones, now that I have inertial weapon… or I could take inertial armor as an ability.

Makes me wonder how strong that Level Thirty hero from the Havi Imperium is.

Leo felt his stats as he moved. He was now stronger, tougher, and far more graceful than he’d been as a human, thanks to his ever-growing magic and body.

Although, it was getting harder and harder to level—it had taken a week of constantly fighting the undead in Zadrid’s Hallow for him, Lily, and Hugh to level, whereas Zun had made three levels despite not getting in on every kill, and Zir had made two.

I wonder what I’ll need to start fighting to keep up the growth.

Leo was brought back to the moment by the presence of a sailor waiting patiently next to him.

“Um…?” Leo managed, blinking his eyes.

“Most everyone has disembarked, milord. I was told to wait here with you.”

Leo laughed to himself. That’s what I get for staring at my charts when I should be dealing with the here and now.

“Thanks, sailor.” Leo tipped the man a copper coin.

The burly human—mildly shocking after all the elves Leo dealt with—put it in his belt pouch and then hoisted Leo’s rucksack. “Shall I take this to the capitol building, milord?”

Thanks to his magic-enhanced muscles, Leo took the bulging pack from him easily. “No, thank you. I need all the training I can get.”

Before Leo took off for the capitol building, however, a man on the edge of the cliff overlooking the north bay called out, “Ship ho!”

A ship was headed down the river, barely visible a mile or two away. Leo struggled to make out a flag flying on it, mostly in blue—likely the Havian national flag, which was a stylized dragon in a lake.

Probably five to fifteen minutes till it gets here. Just enough time to assemble a small force.

Leo rushed off the pier and up the large ramp to the main island, calling for backup.

A bit later, the ship came into port and inched up to the pier with all the maneuverability of a beached whale. It was larger and ‘fatter’ than the River Darter, and absolutely full of crates. Leo wasn’t much of a seaman, but he was pretty sure the ship was overburdened.

By that time, Leo had gathered Val, four of her new ghost wolf soldiers, his own Wolten, Hugh, and Lily. All waited on the pier with the inspector George had appointed—the elf Wylwyn ‘One-Hand’ Riverkyn, the one who had asked Leo about being the court jester on that first night everyone had arrived.

The captain came walking down from the ship. He was about six feet tall and slender, with a cutlass at his hip, dressed in a buccaneer’s outfit complete with the jaunty sailor’s cap over his wavy brown hair. He was also muscled like a model on a romance novel cover. He walked across the pier and planted himself in a wide stance in front of everyone.

He held his hand out to Leo. “Captain Jarl Seahaven. What’s with the huge welcoming committee? It seems a mighty large reception for little ol’ me. What’s going on?”

His eyes briefly flickered to Lily, whose supernatural beauty demanded a second look.

Leo snapped his fingers. “Just making sure the collection of the toll goes well. It’s five percent of goods.”

“What?!” Jarl barked, his face florid with shock, Lily forgotten. “What kind of piracy is this? The toll was clearly set at one percent. Our king promised us.”

Leo saw the numerous oarsmen and sailors on the huge galley fingering knives and other sharp objects as their captain exclaimed. It was a sign of a good captain, Leo figured, that they wanted to back him immediately.

But Leo, and his people, had been wronged by this man’s kingdom. He couldn’t make exceptions just because the captain was a good boss to his crew.

“The petty tyrant Damien the Dullard bade me agree to his terms under threat of death,” Leo responded. “So, that deal is worthless and more than worthless. The price is five percent for members of the Havi Imperium, and two percent for everyone else.”

“I’d heard something like that,” the captain muttered. “Doubted it’d turn out well.” Then Jarl mustered some indignation. “But… I didn’t know. How’s this fair to an honest merchant captain? I came here, in good faith, to trade. I’m being robbed.”

Leo narrowed his eyes. “I was robbed first. You may either turn away and go back to Lakusi or pay me the five percent. If you attempt to pass without paying, however, we’ll board you on dragonback and seize your entire ship.”

Jarl stared at Leo with mute rage, like he wanted to set fire to him with his mind. His hand briefly strayed toward his cutlass. But his eyes flickered toward Hugh and Wolten, and he restrained himself.

“I should leave just to spite you, but I can’t afford to pay my people for a five-hundred-mile river trip for no reason, may all the gods damn you.”

Leo waited.

“Fine!” the captain said, throwing his hands in the air. “You’re damn near stealing the food from my kids’ table, but what can you do against would-be kings, hmm? Try to avoid ’im is all, I figure.”

Then the captain looked shrewdly at Leo. “I’ve got a deck full of Havian silk and Lesoth worm fur, as well as a bit of amber jewelry. Care for some pieces as part of your toll, perhaps for your woman here?”

He motioned to Lily.

Lily blushed and flicked her hair back.

“She’s not my woman,” Leo said.

The captain smiled and took Lily’s hand, raising it to his lips. “Then perhaps, beautiful woman, you’d care to spend the evening at dinner with me?”

This guy, Leo thought to himself, annoyed at his presumptuousness and impressed by how fast he’d tacked in a different direction both.

Lily briefly glanced at Leo, still blushing, before refocusing on the captain. “I, um, I’m not seeking to be courted at the moment.”

Jarl let go of her hand and shook his head. “This place is just kicking me in the unmentionables. I’m gonna go sit on my ship for a bit.”

The weirdly hot captain tromped back up the gangplank to his ship, and Inspector Riverkyn followed him, waving to Leo with his hook hand and calling out, “Don’t worry, milord. My sense of the value of things is barely less than my sense of a good joke.”

“Well, now I’m worried,” Leo called.

Riverkyn laughed.

“A pox on both your houses and senses of humor!” Captain Seahaven called, which made Leo laugh a bit more, despite the likely fallout with the Havi Imperium from the encounter.

A dockworker came down the pier and waved at Leo. Leo motioned him over, and the weathered man came running over. “Milord, Seneschal Orsini is asking for you. He says it’s urgent.”

“I’ll see him, then.”

Leo jumped onto Wolten, and the two of them raced up the incline out of the bay and onto the top of Elgin Isle, and then through the tiny settlement to the old admiralty building that was serving as their temporary capitol.

Hugh, Lily, and Val followed him. Hugh carried the duchess, and Val followed on Helwo.

He entered the large marble building, walked past the currently unmanned front counter, and went into the room they were using for meetings. It had a large stone table and some hastily assembled wood chairs, but no other decorations.

Felix and Molly were already here, which was pretty much his entire council. Additionally, a woman Leo didn’t recognize was here, lounging against the table in weathered leather armor, picking at her fingernails with her dagger.

George had their map of the Inner Sea rolled out in front of him on the table. “Milord, I have terrible news, and nothing to break it with. Meryl Cavendil—the mercenary captain who fought with us last summer?”

Leo nodded.

“Meryl sent one of her people on a trading ship”—the lady lounging against the table briefly raised one thick-wristed hand—“and Rachel, here, let me know House Orsini has allied with the orcs of the Blood Tribes!”

“Why?” Leo asked, dreading the answer.

“In order to conquer Star Port and re-enslave the Belmoria family, and to provide a permanent favorable trading outpost for the Orsini family.”

Of course.

“The Orsini family doesn’t have a lot of soldiers, however?” Leo asked, his mind racing.

“No…” George said. “But they have a pretty big trading fleet, and it’s being assembled as ships come in. Once assembled, they’ll likely come for us, transporting the orcs.”

The old seneschal hung his head. “I think this’s my fault… Mavis hates me. She has ever since I gave up my rank. I beat her at everything, and she knows she’s always second best, even now. And she can’t even rub my demotion in my face. I wear it as a badge of pride.” George shifted uncomfortably, leaning on his cane. “I’ll give myself over to her. Perhaps she’ll leave you alone if I do.”

Lily and Hugh nodded, as did Val.

But Leo glanced up, a small fierce hatred burning in his chest. “What? No. Never.”

Lily furrowed her brow. “We have few defenses, Leo… I mean, one human against the harm a war would cause…”

“No!” Leo said, slamming his hand down on the table, and everyone jumped. Lily’s blue eyes were wide and watery as she stared at him in shock.

Leo took a deep breath and calmed himself. “And again, no. Not if I am king here. We do not surrender our own. Not while I still draw breath.”

“By Merdrek’s thundering roar, tone it down,” Hugh said, baring his teeth slightly at Leo. “C’mon, my friend. I’m down if you choose to hunt. But be, as you say, cool. You’re scaring Big Sis.”

He butted Lily, who frowned and flicked her hair from her face. “I’m fine, guys. Don’t treat me like I can’t handle a loud voice. I handled the death of my fiancé, I’d remind you.”

Leo put his hands down on the map and leaned over, his eyes catching every one of his leaders. “No one threatens us and gets away with it. We must be a porcupine—the cost of messing with us needs to always be higher than the benefit to doing so. House Orsini will choke on this war if they pursue it, and someday I will end them entirely.”

Hugh swished his tail and placed his head on the table. He smiled wide. “Yes. I like this. Porcupines are the exact opposite of birds. But I say we be more like the honey badger.”

“That’s right.” Leo half smiled. “No one messes with a honey badger.”

“I really like this.”

“Damien the Tyrant pushed us around, the dragons pushed us around… I’m tired of it, and it needs to stop. We need time to build, and the only way to get it in this world appears to be to fight.”

“Is conflict the only way?” Lily asked.

Leo frowned. “I wish, truly, that we could simply grow—I’m an architect”—no word for civil engineer—“by trade and mindset, and I’d love to spend my entire time on this world growing a larger and more efficient civilization… but if they choose war, we need to bleed them, leave them desperately wishing they hadn’t chosen to fight us.”

“The gods tend to favor those with the most catapults, Leo,” Lily said, her voice tight.

“But they’re coming by sea?” Leo’s mind spun as his eyes went wide.

Hugh bared his teeth in a feral hunting smile, and Leo met his eyes. Leo felt a kindred sense with the dragon and knew they shared a thought. Those fuckers are going to pay—Leo was having ideas again.

Val nodded and reached down to trace the long, very thin shore from Star Port almost two hundred miles west. “They would almost have to, King,” she said. No one commented on her use of the title. “It’s a thin, almost completely worthless stretch of land here. The powerful Shadow node in the Dark Warren makes this already marginal strip even worse for growing. There isn’t enough forage to come close to handling that number of soldiers on the move. They’ll starve faster than the poor during a famine.”

Val pointed farther along the map, another couple hundred miles, to a city called Port Yuval. “It’s another two hundred, two hundred and fifty miles past that through swamp, which isn’t as bad, but still… It’s boats or nothing for any orc invasion force.”

“What are our forces?” Leo asked.

Val shrugged. “Twenty elite ghost wolf cavalry, which will hit like an apocalypse titan. Forty elite elven archers, all with at least one combat ability or relevant stat boost. Between the two, we’ll have an incredibly dangerous core of soldiers, but that’s sixty people.”

“We’ll have the militia as well, right?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, three hundred more, which is about sixty percent of our remaining adult males, and they’re all Level Two or higher as well… but except for the very small number of adventurers, no one in the militia picked combat-focused powers.”

“Hmm…” Leo thought he had a plan to deal with the situation, but he wanted a backup. No plan survives contact with the enemy. “I assume if Meryl’s giving us warning, we can get Cavendil’s Coterie back?”

Rachel raised her dagger to Leo. “Aye.”

George, still leaning on his cane, nodded. “Through Rachel here, Meryl told us she’d be here in four days if we were willing to pay. But since she’s a Level Two through Four mercenary group now, she’ll be asking six hundred gold.”

Damn, this war will drain us of finances like crazy.

Leo glanced to Lily, who nodded. Technically, the last bloodline scroll was hers—she had been hoping, once she got strong enough, to create a ‘Willowynd’ line.

“Get her here, and have her get me two telepathy rings—one needs to be long-range, maybe a fifty- or a hundred-mile ring. The other just fifty feet or line of sight or whatever. And I want to spend about two hundred gold on essence potions.”

“Will do.”

“And get me every mercenary galley captain you can, especially the eight who helped us before,” Leo said.

George nodded again. “This is going to be a hideously expensive war.”

“I understand. How many enemies, by the way?”

“Two thousand orcs,” George replied in a despairing whisper. “Led by Kruegar Bloodhands, once Kravahk Rockbreaker, son of Grakith Demonborn.”

It was Lily’s turn to meet Leo’s eyes, and he knew they shared a thought.

“He’s coming to finish us off,” Lily whispered, twisting her fingers in her hair. “To kill the chosen one and choke the elven rebirth before it can leave the cradle, just like he was doing when he killed Wylla.”

And if it’s my Kruegar, he’s after me, personally.

“We have a history, George,” Leo said. “I don’t think this is entirely about you. Two sets of history, really.”

Leo waved off the explanation that George’s impressive raised eyebrow asked for.

Then he turned back to his ground commander. “So, no chance they’re coming by land?”

Val shrugged. “Well, it’s entirely possible they choose to march. But they’d have to provision their army by ship the whole way. So, if you hope to defeat them at sea, it’s the same either way—their defeat will just be a matter of whether they drown or starve.”

“I do aim to destroy them at sea… Zun picked up a divination ability called ‘find object.’ If I’m understanding it correctly, she can try to ‘find object’ ships, right?”

Everyone nodded. “But that’s an old trick, milord. They’ll almost certainly have their own Mind mage capable of using divination, so we can’t surprise them.”

“But they’ll be looking for ships, right? Not anything else?” Leo asked.

“Yeah…”

“Perfect. You and your friends will save us, Hugh, just like you told me they could. I don’t think the Blood Tribes could possibly know about your friends yet.”

Leo’s smile went feral. “I aim to introduce both submarine and aircraft carrier tactics to this world…”

Chapter Forty-Four

The Founding War,
Part One

“Captain Seahaven!” Leo called as he walked down the marble pier where the merchant was unloading his ship. “I need to speak to you!”

Jarl came down from the aft deck, crossed the ship, weaving through his men, and then came down the gangplank. “What do you want, ya pirate? Haven’t you done enough to me?”

Leo thumped a coin pouch into Jarl’s hand. “Here’s everything you paid us to land here. You need to leave—my men will help you reload the few items you already off-loaded.”

“What?” Jarl barked. “Why?”

“Because a few orcs, two thousand or so, carried by Orsini warships, are coming here to conquer the town and establish a monopoly on the trade up the Blue River. So I assume that’ll include, if they win, seizing your vessel and every other merchant ship they can.”

“By Riyet, this, too?! How much can one venture be cursed? And do you always make friends like this?”

“I’ve got rather valuable real estate, and they think I’m not too big to pick on yet,” Leo said. “Although I intend to prove them deeply wrong about that.”

“You’re not going to seize my ship and press-gang my boys into service?” Jarl asked, tilting his head in a gesture that looked near identical to Hugh’s, even though they couldn’t have copied it from one another.

“No… I have no moral or ethical basis for that. Why would I?”

“Hmm… wasn’t sure you weren’t just making up your reason for charging me five percent. But you’re saying we can go?”

Leo was getting used to feeling that this world had darker mores, and it took him a moment to realize this conversation was just another example. “Yes, you can go. I won’t take your ship just because it’s convenient to me.”

He turned and started to walk when the captain said in musing tones, “What happens if I stay?”

Leo glanced over his shoulder, wondering why this crazy captain was still bugging him. “Well, if I win, nothing, except you give me back the coin pouch. If I lose, I strongly suspect you get sold into slavery. I personally think you should go, for your sake and your men. But if you’ve a mind to stay, I don’t have the time to dissuade you.”

The captain followed him a bit down the magically hardened marble pier. He was dressed in billowing white pants and an open shirt, which just gave him an even greater—and for Leo, slightly uncomfortable—feeling of being a romance novel cover.

As he followed, he suddenly asked, “If I helped you fight, and me and my boys joined your war… would you give me and my ships a one percent toll rate?”

“You’d fight in my war for four percent? It doesn’t even add up to that much—most of the ships I’m hiring are charging fifty gold each, enough to buy another freaking ship. Sure, done deal.”

“Excellent. I hate the orcs anyway, and I have a feeling you’ll be doing great things if you live. Worth a bit of risk. And like I said, those pig fiskers can burn.”

They do have a knack for making friends and influencing people, Leo mused.

Leo held his hand out to Jarl. “Welcome aboard, Captain Seahaven. We’re putting out calls for other galleys as well, but we’re likely to be outnumbered. You’ll help us even the odds.”

Captain Seahaven tipped his hat to Leo, but Leo was already striding off the pier and back to his preparations. He had evil to vanquish.

***

The Inner Sea was normally a place of calm and sun, but it was gray water and storm clouds that accompanied Leo’s fleet as they sailed across the sea. Eleven ships, with roughly two hundred and fifty sailors manning them. He’d gotten Captain Whitewater, Captain Seahaven, and six of the eight ships that had accompanied him to the slaughter of Chargath Bone-Eater and the destruction of his camp. Two others were random ships that had signed up, and the last was his realm’s personal ship, the Averia Reborn.

But they were operating off Captain Seahaven’s ship, Jarl’s Toy—hardly an inspiring name—since it was playing host to four dragons.

“Have anything, Zun?” Leo asked the dragon.

She was huddled in the center of the boat, her legs folded under her except the broken one, which stuck out awkwardly to the side. Her one remaining wing was tucked in. The only thing that even seemed alive about her was her head, which darted around, blind white eyes open wide. Leo was pretty sure it was a psychosomatic reaction to using divination powers, but he wasn’t positive.

“Yes. Almost forty miles, nearly due west, maybe just a hint north of us closer to the shore.”

A few cheers erupted across the deck of the ship at that. It had been a cold and wet three days, since they didn’t exactly have satellite imaging—finding an enemy ‘fleet,’ which their contacts in Steelport had estimated around thirty badly overburdened galleys, wasn’t the easiest of jobs and involved a lot of chance.

Their fleet was outnumbered, but they were also far leaner—every one of their ships was better suited for war. Each carried four of their elite leveled archers and two of their wolf-riders and were under clear instructions to avoid engaging directly.

On the other hand, the whole fleet was to avoid engaging—the real reason for the ‘leanness’ was to lighten weight and increase speed and maneuverability.

“Okay, do you three remember your orders?” Leo asked Hugh and his two friends, Tea and Cal.

“Of course, Leo,” Hugh said. “I’ve got this.”

“You’re the one they’re most likely to have a counter for, Hugh,” Leo said. “They know about you, and they know you can swim. Pull back if they do have a counter—you’ll be badly outnumbered, potentially, and we can’t come rescue you.”

Hugh nodded, clearly nervous, before giving Leo his feral grin. “No one has a counter for Hugh.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you’re too valuable to go down for one ship, which’ll likely have a mere sixty orcs—you’re Level Ten. Don’t risk yourself unnecessarily.”

Hugh nodded. “And my friends?”

Leo turned to Cal and Tea. “Zun will be in contact with you two. I want you to fly to the enemy fleet and make a pass. Aim your lightning breath weapon at the hulls near the waterline. Stay at extreme range and stay moving! It’ll take them close to a half a day to land in Star Port. You’ll have time for multiple runs. If you hit a ship each time, they’re going to lose most of their forces.”

“We only have essence for about five breath weapons each, Leo,” Tea said.

“So, that’s ten hits to sink stuff on each run. Because I brought essence potions. Fly out, expend your ordnance, and get back. Recover your essence with potions. Then do it again. How strong are those attacks?”

“They hit for about twenty to twenty-five damage on target, and splash damage around it.”

Leo turned to Captain Seahaven. “Will that break a ship?”

“Small hole if it hits,” the captain replied, “but a few of those at waterline will ruin a galley for sure. But you’re going about it wrong anyway. Don’t try any of that fancy nonsense on these ships. Most of these galleys, the floor is the hull. Shoot straight down—any hit will be notably catastrophic, and it’ll probably kill nearby orcs and rowers as well, making it harder to fix the problem.”

Leo nodded. “Okay, don’t listen to me. Do that instead.”

“Let’s do it!” Hugh threw himself off the boat.

The other two dragons launched themselves upward, a magical blast of air carrying them soaring into the sky like a parachute in reverse. They hit a couple hundred feet in elevation and started flying west.

“Now we wait,” Leo said. “We determined they fly about eighty miles an hour, so, with the ships coming this way, they’ll get there in just under half an hour. Then, we need to keep about ten or twenty miles from them and hit them over and over every twenty minutes or so. At that pace, we can sink their entire fleet with ease.”

“You don’t think they’ll counter this?” Lily muttered, her eyes narrowed.

“I doubt they’ll have thought of it. Dragons working together are extremely rare from what you said, and the only allies the elves ever had who were airborne were the sun eagles, right?”

Lily gave a sharp nod of her head. “Yeah. And they haven’t been seen around much.”

“So, I truly think this’ll be unexpected. It’s Hugh I’m most worried about… and unexpected methods they have of countering our fleet, as opposed to our air force… I mean, we’ve used ships in war already, and they’d have had the knowledge and time to plan for this.”

“Well, he’s damn near unkillable, so I’m sure Hugh’ll be fine. On the other hand, yeah, I have little idea about boat counters, or navies, or anything like that.”

Leo reached over and grabbed the railing, looking out over the sea, his gaze distant. “We’ll need to build a navy quickly. Any empire here, on the Inner Sea, will need a fleet. Power will be naval. We’re going to need a massive shipbuilding industry, which should be extremely easy since we have an uber-tree node. But I’ll want to investigate magical methods of building ships, and maybe sources of metal for ironclads…”

“Ironclads?” Lily asked, her eyes wide.

“A thing for the future… but we need to be stronger. This situation with House Orsini can’t be allowed to keep happening. We have to nip it in the bud, whatever the cost.”

“Hey, Leo.” Lily placed her hand on his shoulder.

He turned to her. “Yeah?”

Lily turned and shooed everyone away, and for some reason, they went, giving Leo and Lily a very small bubble of space on the galley.

“Hey,” she whispered. “I know the time probably isn’t right, but I wanted to ask you… Please don’t go down the route of tyranny and violence, okay? Even if you think it means helping to save the elves or our kingdom.”

“What?” Leo asked, shocked, his eyes wide. “What the heck? What gives you the impression I would ever do that?”

Lily’s voice was still low, shivering as she talked despite her warmth ring. “Well… I know I said we needed to bear any burden, but you’ve got this new vibe about you. When you got to this world, you spared and saved everyone, and it worked for you. And you had this wide-eyed innocence and wonder. But since Damien and the dragons, you’ve been harder-edged. Talking about killing to make a point, to make people afraid to attack us. I’ll admit I don’t have any real good counterargument, and your methods seem to work… but in my soul, I believe the Leo who felt wonder at this world, who saved everyone, is the king we need. I know we must fight the orcs. Just like I know, deep in my bones, that some things in this world are evil, but I worry this might lead to bad places.”

Lily trailed off.

Leo waited, not sure how to respond.

Lily put her arm around Leo and hugged him hard, her silver hair falling down his arm. “Just try, okay? Please.”

Leo gave it some consideration. As his power and rank had increased, he supposed he had been getting a bit darker, and telling himself it was for the good of his people. And he didn’t necessarily think he was wrong and certainly didn’t think he’d done anything wrong up until this point… but he understood what Lily was getting at.

The darkness was a slippery slope, and it went bad places.

Leo was afraid of losing people… He’d failed and lost everyone, too many times. He was resorting to increased darkness in his soul because it was easier than constantly being afraid, afraid of his own weakness, afraid of losing more people.

“I’ll try, Lily, truly, to make sure I stay well on the side of good. I do love this world and my people, and I love building and making. I’ll try to hold on to that as hard as I can, and not focus on my anger at the assholes screwing with us. I promise.”

“Thanks, Leo. Really.”

They stood there for a while, her head leaning against his upper arm, her thick hair falling down his side, looking out across the sea in the direction of a fight they couldn’t directly influence. Leo’s thoughts were only half on the war he was conducting.

I need to find Audrey. I think effectively abandoning her is one of the things that might be making me think in ‘darker’ terms. I want to save her. I couldn’t save my first marriage. I never even had another real relationship until Audrey, and I don’t want to lose her as well. Even though bringing back my pseudo-ex in Lily’s sister’s body is gonna be a huge problem. Once this fight is over, no more excuses, no more building until I can accomplish that.

“Lily, do you know where I can find a powerful ‘detect person’ device, similar to what Zun is doing?” Leo asked.

“Well… it’s a ‘detect everything’ device, but the dwarves in Stonehaven once had an artifact they called the ‘Diamond Eye Throne’ that they used to find ore and such. It became their symbol of authority.”

“Why ‘once had’?”

“Well, they might still have it, but it’s been a while since anyone heard from Stonehaven. They went silent at roughly the same time the Kingdom of Averia fell apart, but for far more mysterious reasons.”

I need to get that trade route going as well… Once this war is done, I need to see to Stonehaven. It’ll get me trade, a potential ally, Audrey… heavy infantry…

Leo was pulled from his thoughts when Zun said, “They destroyed an enemy galley.”

“We call that ‘scratching’ them, like ‘scratch one enemy galley,’” Leo said.

“That seems… counterintuitive,” Zun muttered. “‘Scratching’ means ‘destroying’? That’s bird logic.”

“Ah, bird logic, my favorite kind.”

Zun ignored his sarcasm and fingered the ring of telepathy Leo had bought for her. “I also just checked in with Hugh. He’s met something on the way to his target, a sea serpent. He’s engaging it now.”

After a couple of minutes, she said, “Hugh’s won, but they’ve got another serpent, and he’s hurt. It’s wary of him, but he’s retreating.”

Damn. If he’d been able to attack the boats from beneath over and over, this fight would’ve ended already. And thank whatever gods exist on this kooky world that he got his second rank of rocklike skin when he made Level Ten—that pushed him to seven armor, which has to be hard to deal with.

If it weren’t so consequential, this form of combat would be downright boring… sitting here, doing and seeing nothing, while my people report telepathically on fights happening miles from here…

“The ships are turning north, Lord,” Zun said, and Leo looked at her damaged form, his eyes wide.

“What?” he asked, shocked.

“They’re turning north,” Zun repeated. “They’ll reach shore in about thirty minutes, best estimate.”

“They’re still a good forty miles from our border! Why are they turning north? Are they retreating?”

Zun reached out and took an essence potion with her good claw, unstopped it awkwardly, and drank. After a moment, she said, “I don’t think so. They turned north, are heading directly for shore. They’re not turning any farther. And their speed picked up, I think. I assume they’re trying to make landfall before they lose too many ships.”

“But they’re out of food, right?”

“I don’t know that.”

“They’d almost have to be,” Captain Seahaven said. “They’re wildly overburdened with orcs. I don’t think they expected a sea fight.”

“So we’ve won?” Leo asked, bemused. “Just like that?”

Val ran her hand through her metallic copper hair, her cute pixie face marred by a furrowed brow. “I doubt it, milord. You can force march forty miles in a day, especially orcs, if you’re in light armor—which they are. I don’t think we’ve won. But the fight won’t happen till tomorrow, and they’ll be hungry and exhausted when they show up.”

“Crap. I outthought myself on this one.” Leo rubbed the back of his head as he stared across the sea in the direction of the enemy fleet.

“It still worked… somewhat, milord. The fight will happen on more favorable terms for us, and we’re likely to sink another one or two ships before they land. So they’ll lose a hundred to two hundred of their number first. And they can’t just sail right into Star Port.”

“There is that. Where should we try to meet them?” Leo asked.

Val pulled her map out and put it down on the deck, directing Leo to the northern shore of the Inner Sea, about forty miles west of Star Port. “The dragons will force them to land here.”

Then she moved her finger to a point about five miles west of Star Port, right next to Wheat Town. “They’ll march across the plains to here. This is where the fight will happen, near this stream. It’ll happen near the edge of the great plateau because the stream is navigable by galley until the last couple of miles. Which means we’ll control the lower reaches of the stream, since Cal and Tea can keep putting holes in their beached ships. And even then, there is only one easy place to ford the stream, relatively speaking. Again, right here.”

Wow, right near the dam. If the orcs win, they can seize my only real engineering project on this world. I’ll leave it the way I entered—losing my life’s work.

“So, we’ll defend across the stream?” Leo asked.

Hugh lunged out of the water next to them, his face covered in small wounds, and a huge rent in his side. He struggled to pull himself over the side of the galley, then flopped onto the bottom of the boat.

Lily hurried over and used regeneration.

Val stayed focused on his question. “Yeah. We’ll have better troops and a defensive line created by the stream, and maybe even small fortifications if we get there fast and get set up. Against three to four times our numbers of naturally larger and stronger troops… although they’ll be hungry and exhausted. But still…”

Leo glanced up, meeting Val’s green eyes across the map she was rolling up to avoid Hugh’s runoff as they knelt on the bottom of the galley. “It’s still going to be close, isn’t it?”

“Very.”

Chapter Forty-Five

The Founding War,
Part Two

Nearly two thousand orcs clustered in a group on the far side of the stream. It was only about twenty feet from the elves’ shore to the orcs’ shore, and the water never got more than chest deep for a good five-hundred-foot stretch. All along that stretch, the elves had placed what few stakes they could, made from disassembling Leo’s only official ship, the Averia Reborn. While the orcs had marched forty miles across land, Leo’s force had sailed up the river and dropped troops off, giving them time to disassemble the ship and prepare slight defensive positions.

In a somewhat shocking change from just yesterday, the morning was already hot. Leo suspected it was because they’d moved into the radius of the Light node, but it might have been just—or partially—normal weather change as well.

Molly, Felix, and Meryl had joined him, along with Val and Captain Seahaven. The four hundred and fifty soldiers they had were spread out behind him, as well as the fifty sailors Captain Seahaven had ordered to join them as militia.

Cal and Tea had ‘scratched’ two more ships, so everyone was pretty sure it was going to be about eighteen hundred orcs and two hundred of House Orsini’s sailors against a hundred and fifty elite leveled troops of Leo’s and Meryl’s, as well as three hundred and fifty mixed sailors and militia. Felix was raising earth as fast as he could, going through the last of the essence potions at a crazy rate, to make a chest-high wall just behind the stakes. He was nearly half done, and if they got enough time, they had the essence potions for him to finish.

Although Cal and Tea had spent the last few hours attacking the orcs’ positions as they’d assembled from the sky, to keep them from getting any sleep at all and kill just a few more—Leo wished he’d spent even more on essence potions because his dragons were out.

“Why’re you here, by the way?” Leo asked Molly from where he sat astride Wolten.

Molly looked like an anime character at the moment. She was dressed in a very sexy short leather skirt and leather armor, with stylized leaves hanging from the shoulders, and she carried the Roothammer across her back, the massive wooden weapon turned diagonally just so it didn’t drag when she walked. She must have a decent number of levels and a very high Strength score to be carrying that hammer so nonchalantly. She looks like Cloud.

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” the beautiful tan-skinned, green-haired elf asked back without looking at him, a smile playing at the corner of her lips.

“Well, aren’t you a priest of a, um, transnational religion? Isn’t this unfairly taking sides?”

“In two nations where the religion was equally welcome, I would sit out. But against orcs, whose dark god Ikrahkt swore to enslave Eturia, well… My goddess personally ordered me to take the field against these blighters.”

I think she means ‘blighters’ literally, given that they wreck farms and despoil anything not a fetid swamp.

“Well, every high-level person helps, so I’ll make sure to give an extra thanks to Eturia this coming Sunday.”

“Why Sunday?” Molly asked, perplexed. Leo had no idea if the religion of Iluvin Eturia had a specific day that was more commonly used for worship.

“Never mind, sorry. Weird reference.”

A fly buzzed by.

Leo figured they’d have hundreds in a bit, but given the few orcs dead of lightning strikes on the other side, and the lack of a latrine over there, they were already getting quite a few. War wasn’t pretty anywhere, but medieval warfare was unusually gross… just smaller-scale.

He turned to his other side. “How much longer do you think, Meryl?”

She met his eyes, her one glowing blue eye always a bit of a shock. Val had been upset when Leo had picked Meryl as his ground forces commander, but Meryl simply had more experience and training both. Val was acting as Meryl’s lieutenant commander.

“Trying to pick patterns from their sad excuse for soldiers’ shambolic chaos is challenging, but they’ve got eight clear subcommanders, each with their own war band, and they’re positioned as if they’re ready to charge at any moment. The sailors are the only real reserve.”

Leo looked at the sailors. They’d formed two semicoherent lines and were simply waiting.

“Well, I think the cretins have decided on their lead-off team,” Meryl said, spitting to the side.

Val pointed, and Leo followed her finger. One group of milling orcs, which included a few wargs and a small number of huge trolls, was moving forward. An odd troll with bony spines protruding from it was leading them down to the shore.

“That’s probably the closest thing to a shock group they have,” Val said.

Meryl gave a sharp nod but pointed to the side. “That group of buggers is their real heavy hitters. I count fifty wargs, and their riders have actual armor and good weapons. Everyone on their side will be operating significantly below capacity from hunger, physical exhaustion from the march, and sleep deprivation, but still… that group will hit hard.”

Leo followed her finger and saw Kruegar for the first time. The orc was now almost eleven feet tall, which led Leo to assume that the quarter-demon had leveled quite a bit. He carried a massive two-handed sword of black metal, with dark energy around its edge. He was dressed in plate armor painted crimson. But his head was visible, helmetless, the four tusks marking him for who he was.

Damn. He was a monster before, and he’s obviously gotten stronger and better equipped.

There was a yell from the other side, and the troll-led group started to run toward the stream.

“Heavies to the front!” Meryl screamed. That was the cue for Leo, Hugh, Zir—god help them—and other high-level people to move to the very front line. Lily would be just barely behind them, ready to heal.

Leo rode Wolten to the front and dismounted. He wasn’t as good of a mounted fighter yet.

He patted Wolten on the side. :Protect: Leo thought at his mount, envisioning Lily. Wolten ran back and took up station near the tiny elf duchess.

“Cavendil’s Coterie, front and center!” Meryl screamed from behind them.

Her soldiers were going to pay a butcher’s bill—it had been determined that, as the only strong ‘infantry’ they had, they would hold the center.

“First militia, right. Second militia, left! Everyone else, bows loose!”

The elite archers formed a second row, and the militia who weren’t ordered to the front or the wings prepared their own hunting bows to their sides.

“Jarl’s sailors, left reserve!”

The men moved into position.

Meryl lowered her voice. “Val, get to your men and be prepared to charge—if there’s a breakthrough, you’re our only real answer to stem the tide.”

Val nodded, her expression fierce.

The orcs and trolls waded into the stream.

“Fire!” Meryl called. The archers began firing, the elite archers in tight but odd patterns to account for the varied special abilities of some of them, and the militia archers haphazard. Still, against targets wading through water, trying to reach them, it began to take an immediate toll.

But not a perfect one. Orcs had lots of health, and the few trolls had a ton of health and natural regeneration. Arrows were almost pointless against the trolls, in fact—Leo watched as one orc just ripped one from its chest with a bellow, and the brief torrent of blood slowed and then stopped as the wound closed.

Joy. But that was the purpose of the ‘heavies’ being down at the front—to slaughter and disrupt at a level that would make it almost impossible to mount an effective breakthrough of Leo’s lines. That way, the archers could slaughter until they ran out of ammunition.

Cal and Tea flew overhead. They made a pass, a lightning breath attack from each frying an orc and badly hurting another six or seven from the water-dispersed electrocution. No one stopped to help the badly wounded orcs who were swept downstream.

The orcs and trolls made it past the center of the stream, and a second block of orcs, led by a huge one with four arms—likely another quarter-demon orc child of Grakith—waded in. Their advance was almost unmolested as the first group took the brunt of the attack.

Then the fight reached Leo.

A huge troll waded up from the stream, barely onto the shore, carrying an eight-foot-long club.

That one has to die. Leo burst into a run while Hugh bellowed a hundred feet away. He rushed the massive troll, which raised its club, towering over him.

Slowly. From Leo’s perception, the troll was pathetically slow. Leo ran forward, stabbing the troll’s belly and then dodging around it. He slammed his shield’s edge into the face of an orc as he went, and it reeled back, grabbing at its smashed nose and cheekbone. Then Leo slashed again, hamstringing the troll, which fell to the ground. Leo knew it would just heal, but…

Zir rose from the shadows next to the troll, even as the troll pushed itself back to its feet, and jabbed his daggers into the neck, left and right, of the troll as it struggled to its feet. Zir yanked outward, and a crimson fan of blood exploded across the battlefield like someone had set off a sprinkler.

“Move!” Leo screamed, and Zir disappeared back into the shadows.

“Glad the little murder-kin is on our side,” Leo said.

The troll collapsed to the ground. Leo backed away from a charging orc, caught that orc’s club swing, and then kicked him in the leg with an inertial-weapon-empowered kick. When the orc stumbled back, Leo turned and overhead-chopped the struggling troll through the back of its neck.

Its head came free, rolling away. The sprinkler turned into a firehose briefly, and one of the Coterie soldiers behind Leo was absolutely drenched in red, spitting as some got into his mouth.

But Leo and Hugh could only handle so much, and the soldiers of Cavendil’s Coterie also had their hands full. Orc bodies were piling up, but the pig-faced brutes just kept coming.

Zir appeared again, barely dodging another troll swing—with the aid of his thick shadow pushing the club away—and slashed the troll’s femoral artery open. Leo sliced the arm from an orc, stabbed another in the gut, and managed to reach the troll Zir had wounded. Leo dodged the left hook and leapt up and stabbed it in the eye and deep into the brain.

But at the same time, the backhand caught him before the troll went down. Leo rolled, trying to get to his feet. He took a club swing to the shoulder. Something cracked, and Leo bellowed in agony.

Orc tribesman clubs Leo for 6 damage. Leo fails his Toughness check against blunt trauma. Leo has suffered a break to his shoulder. -5% to dodge, -80% to accuracy and damage with right arm weapons.

Damn! I really need to work on my Toughness score!

He redirected a spear thrust with his shield and up-kicked the orc with the club, his supernatural Strength enough that the orc who had hit him dropped backward, out cold, into the stream. Finally managed to knock one out in a single blow.

But the wound to his own arm was taking him out of the fight, and Leo scrambled back. Immediately, the section he had been defending started to bend inward, despite the talented soldiers around him.

“Lily!” Leo screamed, and when he didn’t immediately see her, he touched himself on the arm and used his own, slower, regeneration.

It took a long thirty seconds before he could reenter the fight.

Two orcs died a mere five seconds apart as Leo reentered the fray, trying to hold the front.

Then wargs were coming out of the spray of the water.

Leo rolled away from one snapping warg, yelling, “Bad doggy,” and cut the front foreleg from another entirely, taking a brief workmanlike satisfaction at the chaos that caused in the enemy charge.

Leo telekinetically grabbed stones and threw them into the path of his enemies to cause confusion and managed to down another warg. For a brief second, he held back the charge by himself.

“I don’t know if I’m fast, per se, or just incredibly busy,” Leo commented to no one as he slung rocks with his mind, opened arteries with his sword, and knocked people out with his shield. “I’m like weaponized ADHD.”

Then Kruegar tromped out of the stream, darkness trailing after him. He swung his huge black sword, covered in a dark aura, two-handed. Leo sidestepped and angled his shield just so to provide for a perfect counterattack, but the hit nearly ripped the shield from his arm. Leo was thrown off-balance, changing his attack to a dodge nearly immediately. He almost managed the dodge, but not quite, as the sword continued past Leo’s shield and grazed his side through his magical armor.

“Well, hello,” Leo muttered. “We meet again. Or whatever cheesy line you prefer.”

Kruegar was smiling at him as he walked him down.

Leo dismissed the damage notification without really reading it and took a few steps back, touched himself on the arm, and used regeneration.

All remaining damage on Leo Evans is entropic aggravated damage and cannot be healed by your level of regeneration. Regeneration remains ongoing but is having no effect.

Kruegar laughed in the voice of Kravahk, a heavy, dark tone, and spoke in English. “It doesn’t work that way, simp-boy. Entropy is the magic that stops all that cheating healing and makes you face your mortality. Will you run now? Tell your girlfriend you failed? Because I assure you—you can’t win this.”

Leo’s blood was running beneath his armor, and he was genuinely… concerned, at least. But he was also glad to hear Audrey hadn’t run into Kruegar yet. It gave him hope for the future.

Assuming he still had one, of course. Kruegar came forward again, swinging the massive sword precisely back and forth, keeping Leo at bay.

He’s swinging that thing like a toy and blew through my own supernatural Strength. How strong is he?

Kruegar suddenly sidestepped and slammed his blade into one of Meryl’s soldiers, who was literally cut in half, viscera spraying across his allies.

Fuck!

Leo changed directions and swarmed in while the blade wasn’t protecting Kruegar. But Kruegar knew the same kinds of hand-to-hand combat Leo did and lashed out with his left leg, using the overextended sword as a counterbalance. Leo took a glancing hit to the shoulder from Kruegar’s giant steel sabaton. He rolled away from the hit and healed himself as he rose, but Kruegar had cut another two soldiers down in the moments it had taken Leo to heal.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

An arrow slammed into Kruegar, piercing his armor, but Kruegar pulled a potion off his belt and quaffed it.

“Yeah,” he said in an evil-jolly voice. “It’s totally unfair. I love it. Feel free to surrender anytime, by the way. I’ll sell you rather than kill you. It’s the best deal you’ll get, pansy. But you have to pay for causing me to lose my boys.”

His boys?

Leo watched Kruegar’s movements, trying to analyze them, as Kruegar started forward again. By now, warg riders were spilling left and right through the gap Kruegar had created, a gap that was expanding.

I have to move now! I need to do something insane, something he won’t see coming.

Leo dashed forward, moving as fast as he could. He used telekinesis, pulling a rock forward. But he didn’t try to strike Kruegar—his telekinetic attacks weren’t strong enough yet to do much through the quarter-demon’s armor. Instead, as the sword came at him, he leapt, landed on the rock, and leapt again.

Leap attacks in fighting are stupid, Leo thought to himself as he sailed through the air. He let go of his first rock and grabbed another from the riverbed with his mind, pulling it back toward Kruegar as he hit apogee and came down on the other side. Half a move ahead. He’ll swing around clockwise, since that’ll bring his dominant hand around faster.

Leo landed and crouched as the huge sword swung at him, his rock pushing upward and striking the blade, pushing it higher in turn. Kruegar’s strength and size worked against him with the powerful strike as it took him a moment to recover.

Leo was now a full move ahead.

Leo feinted upward with his sword, and Kruegar shied away, stepping backward toward Leo’s own lines after the strange set of moves. But the attack had been designed to get Kruegar looking away, and Leo kicked his potion belt, hard and precise, shin first.

All Kruegar’s remaining potions shattered, dripping down his side.

“Take that,” Leo muttered as he was fighting. “I’ve struck you where it really hurts—the pocketbook.”

Kruegar let go of his sword, still off-balance, and backhanded Leo. Leo caught the whole blow with his shield and went sailing back, unwounded, but he was now being forced away from his own line and into the stream. And the hit had given Kruegar time to reorient and rearm. The over-tusked orc charged Leo, into the water, swinging his sword.

His next hit forced Leo deeper and damaged his arm through the shield, and the one after managed to nick Leo. Moving in water was slowing them both, but Kruegar was slowed less due to his size and weight—it was removing Leo’s advantage faster.

And Kruegar knew it. He roared, rushing forward for what he obviously hoped would be a killing blow, his sword in mid-swing.

Leo threw his sword at Kruegar’s face and flung himself backward. He grabbed his sword with his mind, steadying it at eye level as Kruegar charged. Leo landed in the stream. Kruegar’s eyes widened as he tried to stop and turn both, but the blade managed to prick his eye even as he did, and then draw a deep furrow along his face as Leo pushed.

A warg came roaring at Leo where he was lying in the shallow edge of the stream, and Leo had no choice but to let go of the mental grip on his sword and pull a rock forward to protect himself from the animal’s jaws. He rolled away and stood, hoping against hope that Kruegar would be briefly disadvantaged as Leo grabbed the orc on top of the warg and threw him, then grabbed the orc’s spear from the saddle and turned.

A bugle sounded, and Val’s ghost wolf riders slammed into the breakthrough Leo had notably failed to prevent. Warg and wolf both started to die, but then the militia wings started to close in on the orcs.

Kruegar stood in the ankle-deep water, holding his hand over his eye. Blood was leaking down past his fingers.

“Well, you survived this round,” Kruegar said in a deeply amused tone, his sword carried carelessly in one of his hands.

He turned and bellowed in Averian, “Cavalry retreat!”

Kruegar looked back at Leo again, that superior smile on his face somehow despite the four predator tusks that moved when he talked. “But you’re wounded, and I’m pretty sure we got the better of this engagement by a wide margin. The next charge will break you. I’m going to go get healed—hope you enjoy that wound in your side.

“And thanks for the magic sword,” Kruegar said, holding Leo’s sword up. “I’ll be sure to gut someone you care about with it.”

Kruegar stomped away, wading back across the stream, as Leo fought back to his own lines, holding his side, wondering how the hell they’d survive this.

Chapter Forty-Six

The Founding War,
Part Three

Leo walked around the makeshift medical tent, numerous men laid out on bedrolls, his command council following him. Most of the wounded were passed out from alcohol, but a few were too far gone even for that and were crying or screaming or calling out for their mothers. It was a piteous series of sounds that clawed at Leo’s soul.

And the smell was indescribably bad.

He’d read somewhere that men who were seriously wounded needed to see that someone cared and believe that it had all been worth it. So Leo walked the tent, occasionally bending down to offer a “Good work, citizen,” or “Thank you, we beat them back,” to his badly wounded soldiers, even as his own side leaked blood.

“We’re out of essence potions?” Leo asked. He had a mere four essence left himself.

Lily nodded, every line of her body proclaiming her exhaustion despite her hair still appearing immaculate and her clothing completely clean. She and Molly had both exhausted every ounce of essence healing people. Molly was currently sitting against the wall of the tent, the Roothammer across her knees, watching Leo as he walked. She was caked in dirt and blood and looked defeated. Leo heard she’d brought down twenty or so orcs by herself, between her command over nature and the hammer itself. But they’d barely held, and everyone knew it.

It was Val who spoke.

“Yes. We lost forty-nine soldiers, including nine of the ghost wolf cavalry in the countercharge, which caused their ghost wolves to leave. Plus twenty of Cavendil’s Coterie, which were higher-level soldiers. Additionally, we have about two hundred wounded, most of whom are unfit to fight, even after we’ve exhausted our few healers and essence potions.”

“Their numbers?” Leo asked.

Val sighed. “I think they must have lost five or six hundred, mostly dead since they didn’t try to evacuate their wounded. And their warg cavalry is all but gone. But they’ve got another thousand, almost fifteen hundred unwounded troops, and we’re down to about three hundred.”

“So, the odds have gotten worse?” Leo asked.

Val nodded. “Yeah. We’ve gone from about three and a half to one to four or five to one, and they have more uncommitted reserves left, although they’re still starving. It’s bad. We won the sea battle, but I think we’ve lost this round, Lord.”

Leo looked out the front tent flap, at where the enemy armies were. They were clustered in front of the river, and Leo didn’t need Meryl to know they were going to try a massed push, larger than the one before.

It would probably work.

“We need to get to the lines, Lord,” Meryl said, taking his arm.

“Gut ’im for us, Lord!” one of the soldiers called out, and Leo held his hand up.

“And our heavy hitters?”

“We did better,” Lily said, coming up and laying her hand on Leo’s arm. “Hugh’s totally fine, and so is Zir. But even there we took losses I’m so sorry, Leo, but Felix didn’t make it.”

Damn. Felix had been the only other ‘engineer’ in their nation, a passionate advocate of public works with the magical and intellectual chops to see projects to completion. He’d been the main person working on the dam.

Leo’s eyes widened.

He ran out and grabbed Commander Meryl by the arm. She turned, her glowing blue eye narrowed until she saw his face.

Then her face relaxed as well. Leo had a reputation, and it was for seeing a way forward, however bizarre.

He began rapidly talking. “I swear to you, Meryl, I’m not running. I have a plan, a plan to win utterly. But I need you to hold them at the river’s edge for twenty minutes. When you hear a sound like continuous thunder, run as fast as you can away from the stream, got it?”

Meryl nodded. “I can give you maybe thirty minutes, Lord, but that’s pushing it. Twenty I can almost certainly give.”

“I don’t think I’ll need quite that long, but close. Hold!”

Leo ran back into the tent, to where Molly was, and grabbed the Roothammer.

“Can I borrow this?”

Molly nodded, her own eyes wide as well, likely at his sudden activity and enthusiasm.

“How does the structure-destroying power work?”

“It takes thirty seconds, holding it in place, from the top of the structure, to destroy something,” she said, and Leo nodded. “It only works once per year.”

“I’m never doing this again.”

Molly gave a single bark of a laugh.

Leo wrenched the wooden hammer up and ran out. He ran to Wolten and leapt onto his back. Lily came up to his side before Leo and Wolten could blow out of camp. “What’re you doing?”

“Winning,” Leo responded.

“Hyah!” Leo kicked Wolten’s side before remembering he didn’t need to. :Ride. Ride like nothing else matters:

Leo projected the destination, and Wolten laid his ears back and exploded out from the edge of the army, running north as fast as he could.

By now, the armies of the orcs had crashed into the stream and were wading across.

Leo could hear Meryl screaming out, “The lord’s going to save us all, men. We just need to hold for thirty minutes. Ready to receive the enemy!”

Leo crouched close to Wolten, who was running over thirty miles an hour heading north. The wind whipped by.

Leo risked a look back, and his heart froze. How did he know?

Kruegar, on his own elder warg, was following. And he was slowly catching up! The elder warg had a much longer stride, and… How powerful is an elder warg? This might go badly.

But then Hugh ran out of the army, full-tilt, heading after them, his own ridiculous supernatural Strength giving him speed that exceeded Wolten’s and the elder warg’s both.

Hugh went around the side of Kruegar, and Kruegar didn’t contest the pass as he raced, likely not wanting to take time to stop Hugh.

It took about four minutes, but Hugh caught up. He was breathing incredibly hard, blood flecking from his mouth. “What… are… we… doing…?”

Right. He has incredible Strength and is faster than Wolten, but he doesn’t have the Stamina.

Leo felt fear and warmth at the same time. He’s doing himself serious damage by staying with me.

“Destroying the Damn Dam, to wash away all the orcs.”

Hugh’s eyes widened. “The… water… can… do… that?”

“You have no idea. It’ll destroy them all.”

Hugh nodded, the motion almost lost in the general bouncing of their wild run across the plains, and didn’t speak. Soon, they were into the crevice that led to the dam, the sheer cliff walls almost a hundred feet above them.

Hugh started glancing up nervously even as he huffed like a bellows.

They all quickly reached the dam, a mere eight minutes away at the speeds they were traveling, with Leo and Hugh a bare ten seconds ahead of Kruegar and his elder warg.

Hugh was trembling as he looked up at the dam. “I can’t, Leo. This is exactly like that time, like every nightmare I’ve ever had. You’re going to destroy the dam over a huge drop into a river…”

“Then just stop one of them!” Leo said as he leapt from Wolten and started running up the switchback path to the top of the dam, carrying the Roothammer. He didn’t have time to argue or convince his occasionally cowardly dragon. “Just get out of the ravine afterward! And run to the side of it as soon as you can, not directly away!”

Kruegar rushed in, and Hugh and Wolten charged him. He did as Leo had expected and leapt off his elder warg. Kruegar dodged Wolten and then kicked Leo’s ghost wolf in the side of the head, knocking it sprawling, just as Hugh slammed into the elder warg, dragging it to the ground in a flurry of claws, teeth, howls, and blood.

Leo ran as hard as he could, racing up the nine switchbacks, each bringing him ten feet closer to the top of the dam, the stream below getting smaller and smaller. The gorge walls looked glassy and smooth, from where poor Felix had pulled stone to build the dam itself.

Leo reached the top and looked out over the lake on the other side, which was yet unnamed. His sardonic side took over. “They’re gonna call this ‘Apocalypse Lake’ by the time I’m done.”

Leo raced out toward the center of the dam, across the ten-foot-wide top, a breeze blowing across him.

Such a beautiful day for how terrible it is.

Kruegar reached the top of the dam behind him just as Leo turned and slammed the hammer down, handle first. It was only a couple hundred feet to reach Leo, but Leo hoped that Kruegar would hesitate long enough for the power to activate.

But, even as the power started to gather at his feet, Kruegar charged. A hawk cried somewhere, like Leo was in a damned anime.

That’s the bell for round three, Leo thought sardonically, pulling his borrowed nonmagical sword from the sheath, his other hand holding the hammer.

Kruegar reached him and dropped, kicking the hammer hard. It skidded from Leo’s hands and almost went over the side. How did he know?

But it put Kruegar in a very bad position for a second, and Leo stutter-stepped forward and back, sticking the sword into Kruegar’s armored leg as hard as he could while he was close. Kruegar hopped, obviously not too badly wounded, but when he reached for his potion belt, nothing was there.

They must have used up their potions as well.

Kruegar smiled as they circled, favoring his right leg very slightly. “Gonna blow the dam, huh? Typical, somehow. I knew you weren’t actually running, no matter what my lieutenants thought. And that you were up to some shenanigan. Can’t figure any other reason for the massive surge of magic you were building.”

“Yeah, well, I’m annoying that way,” Leo said.

“Indeed—that’s all you ever are. Annoying. My army is going to crush yours, and you’ve got no chance of beating me, so you’re just an irritating side note in the story of Emperor Kruegar, Blood Lord of the Inner Sea.”

“Oh, good, you have a thirteen-year-old’s title picked out for yourself already.”

Kruegar was smiling condescendingly.

Right, I’m the one on the timetable. The longer he keeps me monologuing, the better it is for him.

Leo loped forward as Kruegar swung the sword back and forth. The dam’s top was only about ten feet wide, and that giant sword had more than that covered just from Kruegar standing in the middle and swinging it. Although he was standing closer to the lake side than the giant drop-off.

Leo ran in, trying to bat the sword away, but ended up getting knocked back. Then again. And again.

Kruegar wasn’t fighting him like he had before. No charge. No need to do anything except wait until Leo got desperate to end it. Then Kruegar would capitalize on some mistake Leo made in his haste.

How do I win? Leo thought. How do I make this happen?

I don’t need to kill him. I just need thirty seconds… I’ll probably live through this.

Leo charged as he had before, and Kruegar stabbed out almost contemptuously. Leo didn’t dodge, and Kruegar’s eyes widened as he hit. Kruegar’s blade slashed along Leo’s side, doing another ten damage, opening his side deeply as blood spewed out. But at the same time, Leo threw his sword high and grabbed it with his mind, pushing it in from an upper angle.

The sword flew at Kruegar’s face, and Kruegar let go of his own sword with one hand, blocking Leo’s second attack with his hand and ducking his massive frame. His whole body was now leaned forward, its center of gravity notably forward.

Leo grabbed Kruegar by one of his tusks, slid nearly under him, put his foot against Kruegar’s leg, and flipped, as hard as he could.

Kruegar sailed up and toward the lake, fully letting go of his own huge sword. Leo grabbed that sword with his mind and slammed it flat-first into Kruegar, pushing his huge form the rest of the way into the lake, about ten feet below Leo. Ten smooth, hand-holdless, impossible feet for Kruegar to climb back out of a lake in thirty seconds. Especially since he was wearing heavy armor.

Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.

Leo limped over, blood running down his side, and grabbed the hammer. As he did, he stared over the side to the stream far, far below.

I have no essence left to regenerate with, and these wounds can’t benefit from healing magic anyway. I can’t survive the dam collapse. I’m going to die.

Leo, between the two earlier hits with the Entropy sword that had left him unable to heal the wounds, and the massive rent in his side, had a mere five health left. Being on top of the dam when it collapsed would be his final act.

He didn’t want to die. Desperately didn’t want to die. He had so much to do, so much to prove… so much to build.

But his mind went to Hugh, who had saved his three dragon friends. To Lily, who wanted to rebuild a place of safety, culture, and prosperity for a people punished far more than enough for their mistakes. To Zir, who sought to reclaim a place for the deep elves. To George, Val, Meryl, Captain Seahaven, Molly… to the twelve hundred people who were depending on him. He had accepted this job, knowing that they relied on him.

His heart at peace with the end of his life, Leo slammed the hammer down, onto the dam.

The energy built, and roots gathered at the base of the hammer.

Ten seconds. Twenty.

“Leo!” Hugh screamed, running across the top of the dam, his eyes wide with fear, actually peeing in terror as he ran. “I’m coming, Leo! Don’t die and leave me alone, please!”

“Turn back, Hugh!” Leo screamed. “The dam’s going to collapse!”

The thirty seconds hit, and the roots from the hammer exploded downward, a crack like the end of the world as the dam shattered. But Hugh was still running forward. As the dam fell apart around them, Hugh leapt, wrapping his body around Leo. His eyes were squeezed tightly closed.

The water exploded outward, and they fell, chunks of dam around them. Hugh screamed, “You fucking bird!” as they fell and the world roared around them.

They hit, and Leo knew blackness.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Victory

Leo came back to consciousness on the side of the river, spewing water from his lungs with great retching coughs.

He quickly pulled up his status sheet. Two health. I almost wish it was one, just for the dramatic elements.

He was lying on blasted-out plains, the ground stripped down to muddy dirt. He could see the plateau a mile or two away, as well as drag tracks through the mud behind him.

“Oh, thank Merdrek,” Hugh said beside him, his voice still raw with emotion. “I couldn’t have handled it if you’d died after all that.”

Leo looked over. Hugh was lying on the muddy ground. He looked in almost perfect condition except for a mangled left hind claw—the same one the golem had gotten.

“Yeah,” Hugh said, noticing the direction of his eyes. “It’s my unlucky limb, I guess. It got crushed by a stone, but I managed to pull free. It’s cool, though. Lily’ll patch me up as soon as she has two essence.”

“And finds us,” Leo said. “I mean… where are we?”

“Not exactly sure. We washed partway downstream. But they’ll come find us. I mean, we won, right?”

“Almost certainly,” Leo said. “I don’t think we took more than fifteen minutes.”

“Felt like fifteen hours,” Hugh grumped, then winced. “This leg hurts like crazy.”

Leo touched the ragged hole in his side, still slowly leaking blood. “This ain’t a picnic, either.”

“So, you killed that ugly orc guy?”

“No,” Leo said, running his notifications through his mind. No experience notification for the death of Kruegar. He was partway to Level Eleven from the dead trolls and wargs and such, but no big hit for Kruegar.

“Dammit, Leo, kill your enemies,” Hugh said while making a grasping motion with his foreclaw, then he winced again. “I hope Lily gets here soon.”

“Yeah.”

There was silence for a bit, then Leo looked over at Hugh. “Thanks, by the way. For saving my life. I’d made peace with death, but I really wanted to live. I know you think I just save you all the time or something, but I owe you, huge.”

“Well, just keep it in mind for when I get the extra payment back for loaning you my hoard,” Hugh said, waving away the comment. “And ‘peace with death’? What kind of nonsense is that?”

Leo ignored the question. “Congrats on overcoming your fear of heights.”

“Oh, by Merdrek’s giant wings no,” Hugh said. “This little episode has convinced me that I need to be an underground dragon. Just go full wyrm and forget about the sun and shit. Heights are my bane, Leo. That was terrifying and horrible, and I can’t believe you made me go through that again. Screw you, I have rank II fear of heights now, not cured fear of heights.”

“Really?” Leo asked. “Like on your status sheet?”

Hugh gave him an expression like the one he’d offered Leo the very first time they’d met, a raised eye ridge communicating, ‘Are you an idiot?’ “Of course not. Rank II fear. Feh. But I’m still never getting more than three feet off the ground again, you can be damn sure of it. Flying is for idiots and chumps. I can’t believe I ever regretted being unable to leave the perfectly good ground.”

There was another period of brief silence, then Hugh said, “I made Level Seven, by the way. I’m a Level Eleven being now.”

“Nice,” Leo said. “I didn’t.”

“’Cuz you let Kruegar live. The elder warg, on the other hand, isn’t going to be carrying anyone anywhere anymore, I can assure you.”

Say ‘any’ again? “I also have a fifty-five percent penalty to experience gain, remember? From my bonds to the tree and the wolf.”

“Meh.”

“What power did you take?”

“Haven’t yet,” Hugh said. “I’ll give it some thought. On the one hand, just adding Toughness would be a huge help to my build, but on the other, I might want to diversify my abilities.”

“Hmm…”

“You sound bored. C’mon. We’re stuck here till they come get us. Give me something to talk about, sheesh.”

“Sorry, I just want to know what happened,” Leo said. “Did we win? What was the cost?”

“Did we lose anyone?” Hugh asked, somber.

Leo nodded.

“That’s what we need to not think about. We’ll figure it out when we do—no use dwelling on it now. Don’t think about it is how I handle emotions and stuff, and it works.”

Leo gave a tired chuckle. “At least tell me about Wolten.”

“I told him to run away to the east and go to Wheat Town over the top of the plateau—he’d followed me up in case we needed to kill stuff. He ran out at full speed. He’s absolutely okay.”

Suddenly, a voice shouted. “I found them!”

“Oh, thank Merdrek,” Hugh said. “Finally.”

Leo waited as people came down, finding them in their incredibly wounded state.

Including Lily, whose eyes were red-rimmed as she came down. She knelt, touching Leo gently, and then went to Hugh. “You two… Gods, I was so worried.”

“Did we win?” Leo asked. “That’s what really matters here.”

“Completely and utterly,” Lily said, breaking into a smile that threatened to split her face in two. “We started running as soon as we heard the sounds, and the orcs just piled after us. About two hundred made it out the front, and maybe as many out the back, before the wave swept them away like the hand of a very powerful god. And we killed most of the two hundred who’d made it in our direction. Your victory was total.”

Leo sighed and stared up at the sky, and the few wispy clouds. “Beautiful. When we rebuild the dam, we should put a statue to Felix in.”

“Of course,” Lily said, and Hugh snorted.

“How’d we do otherwise?” Leo asked. “What were the losses?”

“We took a few more losses, but nothing like the first day. It was a far briefer fight before you broke the world. And the orcs lost hard. I mean, I think they have over eighty percent casualties.”

“We need to go claim all the House Orsini ships,” Leo said, his mind still racing. “Get them fixed up, to give us a starting fleet.”

Lily smiled and patted him. “Maybe, just maybe, you should rest for a day or two while you heal those wounds.”

“Kruegar said they won’t heal.”

“Won’t heal quickly. Entropic wounds can be healed at a point per day without advanced magic. But you’ll likely scar a bit.”

“Chicks dig scars,” Leo said, quoting an old movie he’d seen. “But glory… glory lasts forever.”

Hugh stared at him. “Too true.”

***

Leo sat on a marble bench that overlooked the northern bay at Elgin Isle, Lily sitting next to him. They had a nearly untouched plate of grapes on Leo’s lap.

The piers on Elgin Isle were once again filled with ships. Leo had sent his navy and army to capture the remaining thirty ships of House Orsini. They’d been patched up and sailed with skeleton crews carefully for the last thirty-five or so miles to Star Port over a couple of days.

But Leo had been delivering the news to families—mostly to wives or girlfriends, really, many newly pregnant. They had lost sixty-eight people, which represented close to five and a half percent, or about one in every eighteen people in his entire tiny kingdom—which was a devastating toll. He was emotionally wrung out after the horrors of the war and its aftermath, which he had been dealing with for days.

Leo knew that as the kingdom grew, he wouldn’t be able to keep personally delivering the news. He hadn’t promised himself that he would remember every fallen soldier or some such. But it was important to him to take personal responsibility for his leadership, at least now, at the beginning, when they were small and he could.

Leo had managed to visit all sixty-three next-of-kin the people had had—five of the dead had been freed male slaves with absolutely no family here. Leo had attended a small ceremony for them, in which Molly had given them back to the soil, the rite that Iluvin Eturia prescribed, and planted the sapling that would grow where they were interred.

But Leo wasn’t just taking responsibility for his failures, and there had been numerous successes as well. The biggest being that they were alive. Levels had risen again, close to an average of a level per surviving person from what everyone was now calling the Founding War. And those thirty ships would give his people a huge edge in both protecting themselves and returning themselves to a mercantile empire. Leo had plans to give the ships to elves with Water or Air magic and appropriate powers, in return for promises of military support in the event of war. He would build merchantmen, ships that were equipped for war but mostly used for trade, similar to how he had created militias for the land.

And a ship had come in bearing replacements. Elven nobles from the Havi Imperium, specifically its capital, Lakusi, had come in with their families and few remaining retainers. Another thirty or so people.

Although Lily’s mother hadn’t shown up yet, which was a bit concerning.

But still, Leo knew more would be coming, including Lily’s family, sooner or later. They would grow and make this place free, prosperous, and safe.

“You’re smiling?” Lily asked, bringing Leo back to reality with a start.

“Yeah, I am,” Leo said. “I’m glad to be here. I’m glad, even with all the costs, that your sister summoned me to this world.”

Lily nodded somberly, likely thinking of what it had cost Wylla to do so.

Leo laid his hand over hers where they sat, offering silent comfort.

“So what’s next?” Lily asked. “What plans do you have to take us forward, Lord Leo Evans?”

“Stonehaven,” Leo said.

“To find your lost ex?” Lily asked with a slight twitch in her hand beneath his.

“Audrey deserves to be found, and possibly rescued. She was killed, and her soul brought to this world, as a direct result of my summoning.”

“It’s been about nine months at this point… Are you sure she isn’t dead?”

“No, she might very well be. But I must know that I can’t do anything more for her. But Stonehaven will be about more than that. I need allies, and I need to establish the trade routes again. I’ve been talking to George—we don’t have any natural ores here in the Forest of Averia. There’re some in the cliffs of the plateau, but not much, unless you go into the Deep Warren, which is held by enemies. And elves make bad defensive infantry. Great skirmishers and archers, but I need to assemble a real Lord of the Rings–style mixed army here, and for that, I need someone or something that can stand and block while the elves kill. The ‘tank’”—Leo held his fingers up in air quotes—“army segment, since the elves are the DPS.”

“No one has any idea what happened to the dwarves,” Lily said. “Stonehaven was once a domain of a hundred thousand, but the gates at Cliff Pass fell, sealing it off, fifty years ago. Not a single dwarf has emerged since. And the pass itself is nearly unused, contact with the various peoples beyond essentially lost. We’re barely established… Are you sure now is the time for this?”

“Yes,” Leo said firmly. “I am. George can handle us being gone a few months. And this will aid us greatly.”

“‘Us’?” Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You, me, Hugh, and Zir,” Leo said. “My core adventuring team, so to speak. We need to go fix whatever is wrong with Stonehaven and rebuild that portion of our kingdom’s wealth. I know the circumstances changed, but at some level, we’re both deeply committed to restoring Averia to greatness. So let’s make it happen.”

Lily nodded, then turned, facing the node and the top of the Yggdrasil tree. “How long?”

“Before it opens a portal?” Leo asked.

Lily nodded. “And everything changes again.”

“No idea. But I do want our kingdom to be as strong as possible before it opens a portal, so I hope it waits a bit. Every portal it opens increases our wealth… but it also increases our danger.”

“Obvious observation, but yeah,” Lily said, shivering slightly. She twisted her finger in her hair.

“I know you signed up to be queen, not to help me,” Leo said. “Do you want out?”

“Never,” Lily said, meeting his eyes from a foot away. “I signed up to save my people and rebuild our nation into something even more glorious than before. And I’ll be by your side till one or both of us die of old age, building, learning, and defending our new land from whatever darkness may come.”

“Wonderful.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Good Tidings

The docks of Star Port, previously known as Calasti, once again swarmed with commerce.

Well, maybe not swarmed, exactly. But four ships were docked at piers on the eastern side of the Blue River, in the ruins of old Calasti. The docks were the only part that Leo had opened to resettlement so far, but his soldiers were busy clearing the grand market and the palace. Soon, all of the first district would be back under elven control and free of monsters. He hadn’t authorized settling anything further than the wharves—he’d forbidden it, in fact—but he would relatively soon.

Most of Lily’s time was spent researching a way to purge the corrupted rituals or fix them so the city would once again be truly safe. But for now, each of the twenty-seven districts would have to be reclaimed, guarded, and patrolled, in order.

Still, Leo smiled at the new inn, as well as the single refurbished warehouse, as he walked to his own transportation—the soon-to-be finished caravan that would take them to Stonehaven. He knew the ship captains were inside the inn, talking over their goods and making trades—captains from the southern shores of the Inner Sea all the way to the Ten Lakes, captains whose home bases were eight hundred miles apart, with very different goods, rare to each other.

A few ships had picked up the meager excess agricultural products from Green Apple Grove and Wheat Town, but for the most part, Leo was still getting the value of his trade in tariffs for captains who exchanged goods on their way into port.

Since Leo charged for each time a ship traveled through, most came and did their dealing here, so they only entered his port once.

Hugh slapped the ground with his tail. “You’re the only guy I know who goes moon-eyed over random people making deals and having an extra ship in port. Back to Toth, please. I have something serious I want to talk to you about.”

Leo chuckled. “Sorry, not sorry. I love, deep in the cockles of my heart, seeing the increased commerce. It means good things for our realm, and our people, and even you. But what did you want to talk about?”

“Well… let me put it in terms I know you’ll understand. I may, in the near future, be contributing to the population growth of your city. Tea and I are together now! In all senses of the word!”

Leo coughed, glad he wasn’t drinking—he swore Hugh usually waited until he was about to swallow to deliver that kind of news. “All the subtlety of a trainwreck, as usual. How did that happen?”

“Well… I’ll be moving Tea into my cave is how that happened. It’s not, um, dragon-normal, as you might say, but we both want to do it.”

Oof. ‘My boi’ is running through the life lessons here… First a rejection by his deep crush, and now… “Are you sure you want to move in that fast? Share hoards and whatever? Or is this a ‘get over Polly’ thing? You’ve never really expressed a lot of interest in Tea before.”

“Well, we’ve been talking a lot, over the last month since you almost killed me in that fall.”

“’Cuz that’s how it happened,” Leo said with a laugh.

“I can’t even with you. The point is, we’ve bonded. And when things got frisky last night—”

“I get the picture. Don’t paint it any further, please.”

“I wanted to do the right thing by her. I wanted to take care of her since she would have a hard time still getting her own hoard and defending it. So I invited her to my cave, to be with me. But, well, even without the dragonflight, there’s a decent chance that at some point we’ll have a clutch, so… you might have some baby Hughs running around the village, soon.”

“And you’re okay with this? With the responsibility of being a parent?”

I swear this time I’ll rescue you, Audrey. And show you my nascent, amazing, under-construction… elf empire.

THE END: BOOK ONE

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Stovall loves Shami, gaming, reading, math, his friends, his family, and his dog, and probably a whole lot of other things he can’t think of right now. He obtained his BA in political science, and then later his JD from Humphrey’s School of Law, but his real passion lies in writing. When he isn’t thinking up number systems for his own homebrew Dungeons & Dragons game, he’s thinking up cool plot lines for his books.

If you’d like to contact John Stovall, you can find him on Facebook and Instagram at: @john.w.stovall (be prepared for questionable photography skills)