บท 53: Born A Monster, Chapter 53 - Unknown

Born A Monster

Chapter 53

Unknown

She pulled a map out of her inventory, placed it on the table. We weighted the corners down with cups and mugs on stone coasters.

"Okay, here is the border between our city and the Uruk." She began.

"The Black Fist."

"Right. This area out here between our city and the Holy Peaks mountain range is unclaimed."

[Narrow Valley name for a mountain range discovered. Discover three other names for Exploration XP. 1/4 names discovered.]

"Okay, what is this region out here?"

"The Khanate." She turned her head and spat, then looked horrified. "As a diplomat, I ought not to have done that indoors."

"It's okay, napkin, valet. What makes the Khanate so bad?"

"For one, women don't have the same rights to freedom as they do here. Secondly, they keep slaves. Third, they indulge in sin. More than you do, don't think I haven't heard questions from the kitchens about that."

"Much burp, I admit my guilt."

"How you eat like that and don't put on weight is beyond me."

"I'm still a growing child, just one year old."

"You are surprisingly Erudite for a child of one. Be that as it may, this is our border with Whitehill, this region is fallow per our treaty with Greywood, these plains are claimed by the centaur, which brings us back around to the Black Fist."

I tapped a finger on the map, where a newly inked Montu's Glory resided. "And the city of the Crimson Hand is bordered by the Black Fist and God Hand tribe of Uruk. So if this is about territory, it's about territory for the Red Tide."

"Indeed, though I don't know how any alliance proposes to keep those two tribes together for long."

"Why do they even need territory? I mean, that's over half the map."

"Perhaps we are looking at the wrong map, then."

"I don't think so. I mean, there are larger maps, but why would anyone use them? The bigger the map, the more details you lose."

"Indeed. And Rakkal is not one who cares about details, is he?"

"That seems to be a fair assessment."

"All right, everything on this map is toward the southwestern side of the continent. There's a thin strip of land off to the south; let's presume the Red Tide already has that."

A safe bet, that was Rakkal's homeland. "Okay, if they aren't interested in coming north for us, then it's east along the coast, or over the mountains, or."

"Or west to Seacrest. A forgettable land, save for their new necrostone mine. With the death stone, and, say, the graveyard of Hattan, one could raise an army of the restless dead. Death magic on that scale would draw ghouls from the entire territory."

"They could turn Hattan into a fortress of death in a matter of weeks."

"Few necromancers lead a cult of that size." She said. "Even with a group, avoiding the taint of the living dead would be near impossible."

"What if they didn't care? An amulet that absorbed the Aural Taint, or perhaps they want to become one of the living dead?"

"Aural Taint affects the body, the mind, and the spirit. Even if they care not for the former, the latter two are their intelligence and magic, respectively. What mage would give those up?"

"I know I wouldn't."

"Well, it is late, and this speculation is getting us nowhere."

I attempted to link to Kismet that night, but her dreams totally engaged her. They were colored with emotions I had yet to experience, so at least she wasn't plagued with nightmares.

When, in the Secret Parlor of All Cookies, Adara showed up, I shouldn't have been surprised.

"Rhishisikk."

"Adara, greetings."

"Why are you in chains, have you been a naughty boy?"

"Oh, I think I'm to stand trial for all of the cookies I've eaten." I stood, and the chains remained behind. Because dream logic. "Come, let's discuss this somewhere less judgmental."

Seacrest. We were atop the goblin nest now turned death-stone mine, a plume of foul-smelling black smoke churning from the chimney-hole.

She pointed toward columns of purer white smoke in the south. "That is Seacrest." She said. "Where Gustavian always said he would retire. He is not there."

"The last I saw of him, he was headed north along the Holy Peaks. He mentioned something of Axelford."

Her ears lowered in irritation. "He's not going to Axelford. He's skirting their borders of the Khanate and heading east toward Furdia. The influence of his former dalliance. Hyperia."

"Per Uruk custom, they are now married. He may be trying to get a fresh start with his new family."

"Ugh. We need his skills. And possibly two others, if there were adventurers that accomplished."

"I admit, I haven't kept up with adventures outside of Narrow Valley." Come to think of it, I hadn't kept up with adventures in Narrow Valley, either.

"There is unrest inside the Khanate. Some idiot of a would-be wizard has moved into the Blue Crystal Tower, and now the Duhr of the Blue Mountains are restless again. I would rather do this with people I trust, but it may be that Gustavian has chosen a new life."

"If you are no longer affiliated with him, you have the possibility of repairing your relations with the Guild."

"Your Guild has no presence north of Axelford, and the Khanate is north and east of that. The greatest threat to the stability of your region has been eliminated by the greatest potential threat. Find me Enochian or Akashic writings. Find me records of the First Men, or better yet, of times before. That is where I will find what I seek."

"So you are aware of the Red Tide?"

"A temporary alliance of clans that will fall apart into civil war. Give it a decade."

"And you've heard of Rakkal?"

"Tell me what you know."

I did so.

She waved a hand. "A single hero. He will do great and terrible things during his life, and then he will be gone. He is no danger to the Greywood, and therefore no danger to my quest. Let him form an empire of petty townships and call it a kingdom."

"I think I see. I am sorry, I will find a different way to survive."

She smiled. "You are young, as yet. The world is scary, but not so scary as it seems to children. Be thee well, Rhishisikk."

"And may the spirits guide your path, Adara."

I didn't get good sleep that night.

WAKEN.

Ah, my vengeance upon the realm of cookies-

WAKE UP.

"Beg for mercy, or face the glass of milk!"

"Never, you hideous monster!"

[You have taken three points of Depression damage. After Vanity defense, you have taken two points of Sanity. 28/30 remain.]

I was awake.

What, it wasn't enough that my normal lifestyle did sanity and serenity damage, now I could suffer it while asleep?

"Give me a Might score." Insisted Black Snake.

I tried to tell her I lacked the ten development points, but could not speak. I checked.

"I need an extra development point, I only have nine." I told her.

"I have the other. I want a Might score."

"Why? I thought physical things were stupid."

"Physical things ARE stupid." She said. "Need to hear words to talk. To speak words, need a physical body. Physical body requires Might score."

I didn't know the proper ritual, but I could improve her statistics directly through the System. She put two of her points into my System, and I provided the other eight. We both got to see the ten day timer start.

"No cancelling that." She said.

"I have no reason to cancel that." I said. "I'd only get back half the points I put in. I'd lose far more than you would. Besides, you being able to manifest a form is a good thing."

"Okay, go back to sleep, lazy mortal creature."

Sounded like a plan to me.

Yes, I know you've seen what just happened there. I was still barely awake, and didn't WANT to be more alert. What can I say? How wise were you when you weren't even a full season beyond your first birthday?

I even forgot all about those events by the time I woke up to let Black Snake into her home in the morning.

I'd like to say that the diplomats left as soon as we figured out they were a ruse. But they remained, taking visits from and requesting visits to various town council members. Other than that, they went to inns, from which they later ordered food. They went on extravagant shopping trips. They availed themselves of adult establishments.

But they did nothing SUSPICIOUS, or at least nothing overtly so. Every time the days cycled through the day of Wrath, no fewer than three of them would go to the market in the street of shrines and advocate for the worship of the great Montu.

After a street fight, they learned not to do so too close to the shrine of War, shared by Ares, Athena, Camulus and Macha Morrigan. Starting that fight may have been one of their goals, for other than a few salves and bandages, they asked for nothing regarding the incident.

It took them ten more days of nit-picking, one to read and approve the treaty (which they did not have the authority to sign), and four more days for the town council to kick around the phrasing and voice objections to individual points before the news rolled in.

About four dozen warriors of the Crimson Hand had moved into Seacrest, and annexed it to their town. Formally, it had a treaty of defense with Narrow Valley. In a public show of support, they burned the treaty and all notes associated with it that they could find.

"It seems like such a waste." I said, watching the burning papyrus.

"Don't worry." Said the Hellene. "I have a high degree of faith that Melachea has a complete copy of the treaty before it went to council, for when we desire to re-visit this issue."

"When is the town exiling the diplomats?"

"Exiling? Those diplomats are guests of the town jail. Comfortable spacious cells, to be sure, but they aren't going anywhere in the near future."

"Oh. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"Why do you need to feel anything? The Sun reveals, and their secret is undone. Too late for us to stop Seacrest going through some misery, but I suspect your guild shall want to armor you and prepare you for war soon."

"I don't see the Guild moving out without the town militia. We've not the members to free Seacrest on our own."

"I've learned not to underestimate the Guardsmen of your guild. That incident with the spiders in the west could have been much worse."

I shrugged. "We have disciplined soldiers, but discipline alone isn't enough against superior numbers."

"Courage and discipline can get an army through quite a bit, but I don't see the town letting this go. I think the militia will march, and that they will march with every soldier your guild has to spare."

Nor, in the end, was she wrong. Half the city watch, a full sixty bodies strong, went with the thirty-ish warriors that the Guild could provide. In theory, we wouldn't even have to fight; we'd just show up and march into the village, and the enemy would flee before us.

Such an easy plan, it was clearly doomed from the beginning.

The city had agreed to feed our troops, but provisioned no actual food. Over the passing weeks, I'd built up a reserve of biomass and nutrients, so I could go a day without food. I didn't; we foraged every root, berry, and nut out of those hills.

So we'd set up camp just short of Uruk lands, and waited for the Guild cart to arrive with food for our soldiers.

The Uruk didn't even charge us that much to let us pass; that should have been our first warning.