How a sun could shine so brightly and yet warm nothing was a mystery Kaden didn’t understand, but he accompanied a trading sled with Trella by his side. Garm would run a few miles ahead and sleep, then join them when the sled caught up. Ashi remained with the Resyr, surrounded by a nest of baby mages, working on summoning mana orbs, while Eve and Sara came along.
They traveled northeast, skirting the Skan village, which overlooked the harbor. A single ship sat in the harbor, one Kaden didn’t recognize. “Did we expand and I didn’t know it?”
“I’m near certain it’s a training voyage,” Sara answered. “It’s hard to miss what you don’t know you’re missing, so the Mercari are sending light cargo shipments. Ours are still a week off, but I hope to buy bone tools from the Tun to trade with other clans.”
For someone filled with hatred for the Mercari, Sara used their methods effectively. She didn’t seem ‘recovered’ but perhaps a little less broken. Less broken was good. Eve looked regal atop the trading sled, but she kept her gaze on the horizon and more than once called out warnings when she spotted movement.
In less than four hours, they reached the Tun village, a village protected by a wall of rib bones that arced outward, each taller than Kaden, and carved with runes that glinted purple in the daylight. The Tun themselves sent guards to meet the sled.
Sara let the Resyr sled drivers exchange greetings and explanations, then followed them through the gates and into the Tun Village.
Sevin and the other necromancers would love this place. The Tun carved bones not just for tools or weapons, but as art. They really appreciated a great bone. The village held few groundhouses, but rib-bone stacks formed walls where the snow could build up and shield the village from wind. Everywhere, Tun carved and cleaned and polished.
Soon, the trading sled was the heartbeat of a dozen conversations—and that is when Sara revealed special stock. “Iron carving blades with enchantments. I had them made and shipped here in preparation.”
A dozen conversations became three dozen, and with everyone occupied, Sara and Eve made their way to the clan leaders, while Kaden and Garm played guard for Trella, who wasn’t used to being dismissed. “See, I can use a Winter Essence to craft [Fire Soul] potions. Who has essence for me?”
The conversation died.
“I do!” Kaden gave her all of Garm’s harvest. “Can you make some [Fire Soul] potions for me?”
“You bet I can.” Trella began working and speaking and talking about how [Frost] wasn’t a threat with enough potions. She spoke mostly to herself, as the few clan members watching her had wandered off to marvel at Sara’s knives.
“I’m sorry,” Kaden said quietly.
“I’m not. This gives me a chance to brew ahead. If they don’t face [Frost] much, I can use what I make to persuade someone else, or reward those who have joined the Accord.” Trella worked defltly, surely as she inverted the essence. “It’s essential I keep my hands clean or I’d tell Garm what a good dog he is.”
Kaden looked to Garm and used [Beast Soul]. “He knows. And he’s really happy you’re happy, but also ready to sleep off a belly full of meat. Go on, boy.”
Garm bounded toward a snow mound, burrowing in for warmth.
Hours passed as Eve and Sara spoke, and at last, Sara gave up, joining Kaden. “They’re not quite so cooperative as believed. They refuse to accept any debt and swear before the System they never were paid. I’ve had to ask the Quest Brokers how they want it handled.”
“Who did get paid?”
“I believe it was the Resyr who received the money and distributed it out. Most went to the Fen, Tal, and Urg, who of course have the most warriors. We call them [Beserkers] but they welcome other classses. Ashi’s [Mages], for instance.” Sara stopped to listen to a messenger bird and answer.
“Tell your Mercari assholes that if they want stability, they need to pay twenty thousand gold up front and another four thousand, eight hundred and sixty four over ten years.” Trella didn’t look up as she made her pronouncement. “Tell them that’s the real way to peace.”
A new Accord has been formed.
The Vor Accord now has three clans.
Join this accord to increase your strength.
Sara seemed unbothered. “We knew this was going to happen. Basu even told us. I dislike Kai Fen’s taste for violence, but while we can assist, the clans must have final say.”
If they all melded into an accord—even an accord with Kai Fen as leader, so be it. Kaden was more curious about what could be controlled, not what couldn’t. “That was a very specific number,” he said to Trella. “Almost like you’d already done the math.”
“Because I did. The way to stabilize is to make everyone’s lives better. [Frost] is a constant problem and even with an Accord, it’ll still be a problem. The [Alchemists] aren’t sending another one, I promise. It doesn’t matter how he died, the story they’ll tell is that he was killed.” Trella stopped her potion making to focus on Sara. “So what really needs to happen is that they send their own clan members to learn as [Alchemists]. I got the profession in three months. The Class usually involves paying your teacher and serving as an apprentice for five years. The extra gold is for a shared lab.”
“You seem to misunderstand the Mercari. They are not kindly wizened men who dispense coins and wisdom with a smile.” Sara’s tone was colder than the snow. “They spend where it makes sense to spend and only what will be repaid to them a hundredfold. We’re being paid heavily, true?”
Trella dipped her head. “Sure seems like it.”
“That’s because the cost of paying us is gradual, over weeks. You’re proposing a large scale investment with no return for at least five years, in essence greatly increasing all costs for the chance. I think you’re right about the solution. Do you want to pay for it?” Sara asked gently.
Before Trella could answer, Eve called out. “Kaden, I need some beasting. Someone to beast something. It sound a great deal like a task I’d ask of a [Beast Master].”
“Need help, or am I clear to get a head start?” Trella genuinely stopped her work.
He had to have some pride. “At least let me try.”
Eve stood beside the woman who led the Tun, a thick, strong woman wearing armor of bones with runes carved in them. “Kaden, meet Dotira, Dotira is the temporary leader until the Tun agree. And she had a particular request. The Tun and the Leif have had a disagreement for nearly two centuries, one that has led to skirmishes and thefts—”
“Not by us!” Dotira said. “Our history goes back generations. Once, three thousand years ago, right after a cataclysm, the founding Tun mother was desperate and starving. She ventured into the Ice Domain, risking [Frost], and from it, captured a Beast which would be the foundation of our success. Until the Leif grew jealous and stole it.”
“And then,” Eve said, “The Tun saved it. And the Leif re-stole it. Or saved it, I suspect, depending on who is telling the story. We’re centuries removed—”
“But the Beasts remember!” Dotira said. “Come, meet them. You’ll see.” Then she opened the door to a groundhouse.
Kaden had worked in Beast Control. That was the only think keeping him standing when the stench punched him. Dotira lit a fair lamp and led them downward. Garm stopped at the stairs, choosing to guard against…having to smell that. Eve had apparently stayed to guard Garm.
“They do not do well in the open, but these [Skeledeer] are beasts of the Domain. They reproduce on nothing but Domain Essence.” The groundhouse stairs went down and down and down, ever lower. Her light lit up the darkness.
In the flickering light, skeletal beasts moved. Not dead, these were deer with long, smooth, flat antlers that arced back over their heads, each as wide as Kaden’s hand and easily five feet long. Their skin hung in tatters, revealing skeletons underneath, and a ribcage that bulged with yellow, greasy fat that oozed when they moved.
[Skeledeer]
These beasts aren’t dead, but they’re not far off. Created during a spawning glitch, they can’t die, only reproduce each time the spawn timer counts down. This skeledeer is counting down the moments until it divides and its own agony is reduced for a period. *Beast Knowledge. I couldn’t help myself. I killed it and then regretted not going back and eliminating the rest of them. Damned [Beserkers] chased me for a month.*
Skills: [Perfect Preservation], [Gore]Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Talents: [Near Dead]
Kaden watched the Beasts move back and forth, obviously worried about the light. “You fought a war over these?”
“Speak with them. They’ll tell you the truth. Every seven days, they divide. But the best bones are on those that divide from the first one. And the Leif don’t even [Reap Materials] for the bone. You can only choose, bone or fat, and they render fat for soap and candles, while we carve.”
Kaden had rarely met a beast he didn’t truly want to tame or commune with.
Until now.
“What do you want me to do?”
Dotira motioned. “One of these is the original, but the problem is, the jewelry that marked it was taken off by a [Leif] bastard and now we can only hope we’re not killing our best. Your Oathbinder says you can speak to beasts. Find us the original, mark the original, and the second best, mark that one for us to give the [Leif]. Then we can slaughter without fear. We’ll join your accord then. And one—any one you choose—will be yours.”
With a sigh of regret, Kaden set to work, binding the nearest [Skeledeer]. To his complete shock, the beasts responded with images, memories. Excellent memories, near perfect memories that went back…centuries. When he bound the next beast, the memories were cloudy and incomplete. Another could barely remember yesterday. “How do they reproduce?”
“When the respawn timer elapses at midnight, there will be four hundred instead of two hundred. Each divides, like a reflection, and the System spews warnings.” Dotira backed away. “Do you need a torch?”
Kaden mentally called for Wisp 71. “You smell so much better than the [skeledeer.] Can you just stay with me so I have light?”
Wisp 71 bobbed around his head, as Kaden began in earnest. “Speak!” He shouted through [Beast Command], and the underground cave filled with the wheezing cries of [Skeledeer]. There was so much to do and so little time.
###
Another [Skeledeer] staggered away from Kaden, moving to join a much larger group of its friends. Kaden put away the [Levicon Blade], which he’d used to carve patterns in the bones of each as he classified them. Every inch of him reeked like the yellow fat that bubbled out of [Skeledeer] when they were wounded. Or touched.
“Come,” he said. Two followed, one on the left, one on the right, and a third stumbled, wheezing, behind them. The sky was dark and filled with stars. “Eve. I need the Lief and Tun and a bath and you’d all better stand upwind.”
“Appreciated,” Eve said quietly as she walked north. “I anticipated conflict and had asked Gramsan of the [Leif] here to prevent that.”
Kaden sat down in the snow as Garm approached, sniffed, then moved upwind to stand by Eve. “So, your stories, they’re stories. I’m working with Beasts here, so the best I can do is try to explain what they remember. They are from the Ice Domain, a prey animal that evolved to be safe from other predators.”
Dotira nodded with fierce satisfaction. “As we have often said. And you now know who is the first?”
Kaden held up his hand. “So, they were from the Domain. And a man entered the domain and captured one, that’s true, too. But that’s where your stories—all your stories—don’t match. He was Vurm. I think I’m translating that right. Burm? Vurm. And not long after he escaped the domain, he was challenged by an elder. The [Skeledeer] don’t know which clan, but they were tall and strong and terrifying and dressed in leather with white fur. The elder slew this ‘burm’ warrior and claimed the [Skeledeer] for their clan.”
“I knew it!” said Dotira and Gramsan, then glared at each other.
Kaden pointed to the left and right. “These two are the best remaining. The original, I think it was eaten by an [Ulf] at night while the herd was being either stolen or recovered. Any minute now, they’ll spawn and I’ll prove it.”
Any minute took nearly half an hour
WARNING - ENTITY STATE INCONSISTENT AT RESPAWN
WARNING - ENTITY RESPAW ACTIVATED
WARNING - ENTITY STATE REMAINS INCONSISTENT
Each [Skeledeer] stepped aside, as though they were emerging from a lake. Beside it stood a perfect copy. The limping one fell over, leaving a copy standing.
Kaden struck with Remembrance, splitting one and the other, then [Reap Materials]. “4x Skeledeer bone, 2x Skeledeer fat. Check the quality.”
The Tun and Leif eagerly siezed Kaden’s offered materials, and began to whisper. A few minutes later, Gramsan Leif headed to Eve. “If that one is ours, then I’m ready to join the Accord. It’s a shame the Tun killed the original, but we’re not the type to ignore brotherhood.”
Eve clapped her hands. “Dotria. We’ve done our part. I’m ready to accept your oath. Sara has granted me permission to forgive half your debt if you join the blom accord.”
“Pushy. Impatient,” Dotira said. “But not wrong. We’ll take the better [Skeledeer]. And give half the herd to the Leif, as our way of showing we hold no grudge for them stealing the original.”
Eve gathered them close, administering the oath.
The Tun have joined the blom accord.
The Leif have joined the blom accord.
All accord members have +1 stamina and constitution!
Add clans to the accord to increase in power.
Kaden approved. Five clan members was better than three. The gold bonuses were worth the effort. As an unclassed man, earning a hundred gold in a few hours had been impossible. The stuff of legends. Legends would be the stories about how he smelled.
The crippled [Skeledeer] stumbled along behind Kaden, bubbling yellow fat from damage it inflicted.
“Well done—oh gods, that’s terrible.” Sara covered her nose and breathed through her mouth. “Seriously, well done. Let me guess, they offered you a [Skeledeer?]”
The shadows surged as Trella appeared beside Kaden—then activated [Dark Deception] to appear next to Sara. “Did you have to say yes? It looks like the sort of beast you should let go. I bet it would be happier out on the plains. Please, don’t bring it home.”
“That’s the original,” Kaden said softly. “It’s ancient and crippled and not like the others. It doesn’t need essence to split, but it’ll only split every couple weeks at best. The fat is a Alchemical Reagent.” He handed a chunk to Trella.
She studied it a moment. “We could pen it out in one of the fields, right? Or dig a cellar and keep it there?”
Kaden couldn’t help smiling. “I bet we can. Kiss?”
“Not yet.” Trella stepped away, just a bit. Just enough for the wind to cut between them.
Your Quest has been completed (Mercari Quest Broker).
Your time here is complete.
Please depart to allow new Adventurers to contribute!
Quest Master is Active
You have completed a Quest: Checks and Balances.
You have received 2x: Mercari Faction Bonus.
Your favor with the Mercari has increased by 2 levels.
You have unlocked Mercari discounts x2.
Eve came rushing over, her blond braid flying behind her. “What happened? I’m not done! Five clans is better than none but there are still undecided. Sara, you need to fix this. You’re the Party Leader.”
Sara was busy dispatching messenger birds and pacing. And cursing. After nearly an hour she finally gathered them. Gathered being a loose term. “I did warn you. I did say, the Mercari weren’t benevolent grandparents doling out allowances.”
“How about you back up and explain why a Quest that should have taken months is suddenly done?” Trella asked.
“Sorry. I’m frustrated,” Sara said. “I believe we over-succeeded. The Mercari never expected such success. The goal was to get tribes to begin to agree, but the expectation was that most of the agreement would be done by the tribes themselves.”
“They don’t want to pay for Eve to make agreements with all the tribes?” Kade asked.
One of Sara’s psuedopods went low, the other high. “The rewards ramp up. Anything we accomplish draws the highest level rewards at this point. A new party would only be broking their first, if any at all. It’s just smart business. Five clans are likely to persuade a sixth—and a seventh and eighth.”
It really did all come down to coins. “I wasn’t done hunting in the Ice Domain,” Kaden said. “I have a score to settle with the ice dragon.”
Eve gave a bitter laugh. “Our Quest is done. We can certainly stay, but we won’t be paid to do so.”
Replaced by a lower-cost Adventurer wasn’t what Kaden had expected at all, but part of life was adapting. “I need to go someplace I can take a bath. And have my armor cleaned. And I know where I want to go.”
The trip back to the FarPortal was a long one, made longer by the circumstances. The Resir had stayed to trade, but with an [Ulf Ravager] loping beside them, Kaden wasn’t worried. They took a more direct route through low ridges of ice-covered stone. Kaden had bought a crude sled from the Tun for Eve to ride on, and dragged her, and a smaller sled for his [Skeledeer] which he would have left…except the Tun and the Leif both acted like it would be an afront.
“We’ve got something hiding in the snow up ahead on the right!” Eve called out. She clutched her monacle that led her see heat patterns. “Four close together, not human, a hundred paces off on the right, where the drift rises.”
Trella was already gone, dropping into her version of [Stealth], and the [Ulf Ravager] split wide right to attack from behind, while Kaden headed straight for the ambush.
Sara Scylla has used [Speeding Wind].
Perfect. Kaden broke into a sprint, heading for the bank. The best way to meet an ambush was head on, exposing the ambushers to flank attacks, and keeping Eve behind front lines. Ten paces from the snow drift, the ground shook.
Snow exploded upward as Eve’s four signatures became a single creature. Made of pure ice, it reminded him of Trinity, of hydas in general. Every hot-spot was a head, every head large enough to crush a man’s torso, and the body trailed away into the ground.
[Moment of Speed] let Kaden rocket backwards, putting space between him and the creature, while he foused on [Identify].
[Ice Gorger - Ambush Boss]
The Ice Gorger makes a network of caves and works to expand its reach so it can move silently beneath the surface, striking and retreating when the time is right. When not hunting, it hibernates, leaving only tentacles to detect movement. Beast Knowledge * Fiercely territorial, we once watched on kill another for the cave. Probably for the meat too, but mostly for the cave.
This Ice Gorger is young and impetuous and also frustrated because it was hiding and still got found.
HP: 20,000
Mana: 3,000
Skills: Multitasker, Engorging Strike, Snow-Blind, Entangle
Talents: Ice Born, Immovable, Limber
Part of Kaden marveled at the beast. The other recognized the deadly combination of [Immovable] and [Limber] with a beast that made burrows underground. “Stay back, if it gets a hold, it’s near impossible to remove.”
The [Ulf Ravager] stopped its slink and held position. Kaden trusted Trella to avoid an attack. He studied it, wishing but not receiving more information from [Beast Knowledge]. “It’s a dragger. Either it moves out and we keep it out of the burrow or it stays in and we punish it.”
Kaden drew Thorn Caster and shot it three times in a row, as every head roared in pain and whipped back and forth. This was the type of battle he wanted, the kind where the boss was destroyed before he ever waded into range.
The [Ice Gorger] slammed its heads into the ice and snow bank, throwing up a cloud of snow—and disappeared. As the snow cleared, a clear sheet of ice a foot thick covered the previously hidden cave. Even as Kaden watched, flurries of snow began to stick. Soon the cave would be hidden.
“Thank the gods Eve was watching,” Sara said.
“I suspect I know why the Skan avoid this area,” Eve answered. “Our chances of catching it a second time are low.”
Kaden flinched as Trella dropped out of [Stealth].
“My chances are close to a hundred percent,” Trella said. “I got [Huntress] as an optional class from the Fire Domain, and the second skill [Mark Prey]. I didn’t attack, just marked it. Come back with Ashi and a set of [Agony Cloud] potions and we can kill this thing.”
That was a plan.
Warning: You have been asked to depart so that another Adventurer can participate. Failure to comply will result in favor and token penalties.Further failure to comply will result in penalties in payment.
Killing another boss would be fun, but losing what they’d earned was distinctly un-fun. It really was time to leave.