Round 12.return

As the sun rose across the realm the morning slowly warmed up. The sunlight highlighted things that might otherwise have been forgotten until the morning chill faded away and the last of the dew began to leave.

On the shore was parked a large boat alone on a series of docks, causing it to stick out a lot more than it would otherwise. A few birds could be seen on it pecking at any bugs that might have landed on its wood, but beyond that, there was no sign of life on or around the boat.

The first sign of anyone being awake was from a nearby building as a gnoll left a nearby building that had never really been the focus of anything.

“This has been nice,” she said to herself, “I never really expected to get a break. It’s too bad it was delayed so we could get back to shore to rest and it’s annoying that most of the background characters were gone since they weren’t needed but…”

“Wait…” she said aloud with some hesitancy, “I’m… monologuing to myself? Why would I be doing… Oh, fuck.”

Turning around she looked at some of the buildings and started to knock on them one by one. When asked what this was about she told them to just wait and to go near where the boat was docked and she would explain once she got everyone.

Eventually, everyone who had been in the different buildings, mostly one per building unless they were doing some activities that would likely at most be mentioned or alluded to in some writers’ products, ended up where Kralliyen had told them to go.

The only exception was one of the many people who helped run the boat that she didn’t even know the name of that she had to throw over her shoulder to bring to the meeting.

“So,” the gnoll muttered as she dropped the last person in with the group, “I’m sure you’re all curious why I demanded we all get to talking this morning.”

“It did cross my mind,” Ciak’ra said while taking a bite of some bread, “I hadn’t even had breakfast yet and it’s not like we get vacations often.”

“From what Victor said this is the first one.”

The comment from within the crowd was confirmed, “Well yes and no. I have had weeks that were basically off and surprise weeks off because of things, but this is the first true vacation that we could just rest long term. You all think you’ve had it rough? Try being the main character. It’s a pain.”

“At least you’re allowed to actually speak to everyone, “Alinar said, “Having to pretend not to speak the same language as everyone else is annoying even if we’re finally being allowed to learn it.”

“Just as we’re going to a place where your language is the main language,” one of the sailors countered, “I suspect that will mean it’s sort of a flip on what’s useful and not for conversation.”

“We’re getting off topic,” Kralliyen growled, drawing attention to herself.

“What is the topic?”

“I was starting to monologue.”

The group fell silent for a bit until a few of the people began to ask why that was a big deal.

“The reason it’s a big deal,” Kralliyen started, “Is that it basically means that the writer is actually focusing on us. If sunflower is focusing on us it means that we are probably going to be working again soon and we are so far away from where we were. If we are the first characters written about after the hiatus is over we’re screwed because we’re here.”

“Maybe that’s not going to happen.”

“Can we really afford to think like that?” Ciak’ra said standing up with the last crumbs of his food on his face, “Think about it.”

There was a general murmur before he continued, “We are just characters and the only reason this was a vacation instead of a sort of death was because Sunflower was planning to come back and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to give her a reason to discard us.”

A few people started to argue that Sunflower was a guy, but was shut up quickly because it wasn’t important.

“Do you realize how many web comics, web novels, fan fictions, and who knows what else is created only for the story to never actually finish? The only reason we didn’t just stop and our universe didn’t just freeze never to continue is because she was planning to keep us going. The moment our creator decides we’re not worth continuing our lives are basically over.”

“What about fan fiction?” one of the audience asked, “Isn’t that a way our lives would keep going?”

“Maybe, but probably not.”

After a slight bit of uncertainty lingered, Kralliyen spoke up, “We are us because of our writer. A fan fiction version of us would be what a new writer thinks of us without knowing the shadows of our life that only Sunflower knows about us. Plus all of you random short term people who are only around for us important characters to use to move between plot points would likely not be included. Sure maybe some would be used like say that merchant who hates spears because he was found funny, but most of you will not even be there.”

“On top of that do you really think we are well known and established enough to get fan fiction about us?”

That last comment got even some of the Progonvans to quiet down.

“So what are we going to do?”

“We are going to gather up our stuff, food first as the boat stuff is mostly still in place. We are going to sail as fast and far as possible to try to get where we were.”

“But what if we can’t get there?”

Victor this time stood up, “I’m the main character of this story so I think I know our writer better than anyone else here. I don’t think we’re going to get to Progonva right away. The sea also looks mostly the same so as long as we aren’t expected to be at the island in the first chapter back we should be good. As far as us going there since we weren’t there I don’t think we will be expected to be there and even if we are we will just barely see it at the end of the chapter.”

“But what if it’s not there when we are supposed to see it?”

“We fake it,” Ciak’ra exclaimed, “We’re a word only format and if we say we see it even if it’s not described that should be enough and will buy us until the next chapter for us to sail in order to get there so everyone pack up, we need to go.”

There was a general slightly unsure murmur from the group that ended when Kralliyen let out a roar scattering the crowd to go to the different houses and gather what they needed. The only ones still around were the three who took charge of the situation and a couple of the locals who stuck around just in case, hoping they might be given names if Sunflower needed a chapter about the town between the main story plots.

“Thanks for being here and getting us food and stuff,” Victor said, shaking one of their hands, “It made things a lot easier.”

“No worries. If you get the chance to come back here maybe come see us. I’d love to get a name.”

Victor smiled and assured him he would do his best before going to help fill up the boat, not happy about going back to work but glad that he wasn’t forgotten about by the author. After so long he didn’t want to admit that he was a little worried the vacation might end not because he was returning but because the author had tired of him.

He just wondered how much longer he had until the proper story ended and if things would end when the story did or if he would be allowed to live a life beyond the end as long as it truly ended.

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Round 12.5

Days had passed on the ship, and Victor was feeling a little bit like he wanted to hit some land and just run for a few hours.

While it was true he wasn’t feeling any sort of panic attack, like when he had been trapped in the rock house not too long prior, he still was starting to feel like he wanted to get out and go do some things. As a result, he had started to march, and sometimes run, through different parts of the boat. Something to get his body moving so he wouldn’t feel as trapped.

He had even taken to doing some of the work that the sailors were in charge of as a helping hand since he wasn’t capable enough to do it on his own. He also started to talk more to the Progonva islanders and would start to do more combat training with Kralliyen.

When asked by her why he was actually asking for more training instead of her pushing it on him, he had nothing to say except, “What else can I do? Not like I can go online and watch something or do any chats, or read on my tablet or cell phone. I need something to help pass the time.”

A bit of that text did cause confusion for a bit but was ultimately shrugged off by the slave as something odd her master talks about at times.

As a consequence of the training though some people had noticed what Victor could do with the sudden appearance and disappearance of items while he was training.

Because of this, his cards held three items, with one usually being empty.

The extra boat, the magic spell he got off an item in Sampa Vinulettes house when he was removing magic from items, and a spear it was what he was getting most used to.

Luckily for them, even though the knowledge that Victor could make things vanish and reappear was revealed, Vohdiit had managed to convince the ship that it was a form of passive magic that was simply more complicated than most.

“It’s not like he can just store away anything at any time,” he started to explain when people started to ask questions, “There are a lot of rules about it otherwise he would be a lot more well known.”

“I mean how many of you have met passive magic users before?”

Nearly all of them had indicated that they knew someone who did.

“Really? And what was the magic he was able to do?”

“He,” started one of the human sailors indicating that Vohdiit’s guess on the passive magics user was right, “was able to draw fish to him whenever he whistled.”

“And did it work the same no matter how he whistled?”

“No,” the sailor admitted, “We worked on a ship with him though fishing. It seemed to work better at different times of the day compared to others and if he hadn’t slept well the night before it wouldn’t really work at all.”

“And it only worked when he whistled, not any other sort of sound I bet.”

“Yeah.”

“See Victor may be able to vanish and return stuff, but it’s only stuff that has certain qualifications I guess you could say.”

Grabbing a bird that had gotten tangled in some rope, Vohdiit carried it, despite its struggles, over to Victor.

“Victor?”

Victor was out of breath after a sparring match, clinging to his spear as many of the sailors watched the two talk, trying unsuccessfully not to make it obvious.

“Yeah?” Victor said between breaths, “What do you want?”

“This thing is being a bother to the crew. Would you mind just storing it away?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Victor sighed, “You know I can’t store something like that. I mean come on or is the you right now really that out of it? I thought you knew as much about this as anyone because of all your stupid time spent with me and stuff.”

“Ah. I suppose you’re right,” Vohdiit admitted releasing the bird to fly off into the sky, “I suppose it just slipped my mind. Hopefully, it just won’t return in that case.”

“If you want to be of some help maybe you could get me some water? I don’t know how long until Kralliyen comes back for the next bit of training and I could really use a drink.”

“I’m sure taking care of your own needs is part of your training too.”

With that the man returned to the sailor, placing a hand on one of their shoulders, “See. He can’t just vanish and return anything so don’t treat it like a game and just let him do what he can. He’s adjusting to having a harder life and doesn’t need you all asking him to make this and that vanish.”

“Well… we already did a little.”

“Exactly,” Vohdiit said, squeezing the man’s shoulder, “And I don’t want it to keep happening.”

The man winced but didn’t cry out in pain, “It was just a bit of food and he ate it after. We just wanted to see if he was conjuring things or doing what you said.”

“And he could only do that because you were lucky it fit his qualifications, but he is not here to keep you entertained. He has a job that will be apparent soon so finish your meal and take over for the other members so they can have theirs.”

With that Vohdiit left, once again taking his meal with him to subtly dump off the side of the boat as he didn’t need to eat.

Many of the crew didn’t wish to make him mad, but couldn’t help but watch Victor with more attention while he trained on the deck.

Eventually, Kralliyen returned with the head of a barrel in hand that looked partially broken and adjusted with the metal from a barrel’s hoop.

“I found a broken barrel while I was enjoying my meal,” Kralliyen said with a toothy smile, “I thought it might be good to have you learn to fight with one or against someone using one instead of just the same thing every time. Which do you want to do?”

Seeing the makeshift shield, Victor couldn’t help but imagine the bent metal didn’t have the easiest edges to grab onto. He also felt like he might see some rust on the edges and didn’t want to have any concerns about that right now as he stood up.

“I think I’ll let you use it.”

A couple minutes of preparation were had to set up the rules which didn’t amount to much.

The main rules were that combat would start once Victor made the first attack, combat would cease if a member of the crew called out needing to get into the area, and that combat would stop if either member specifically demanded that combat stop.

Something that so far only Victor had done when he felt beyond his limits.

Taking out his spear, a sight that caused more than a few eyes to peer his way, Victor thought about how to start.

Kralliyen was still bigger, faster, stronger, and far more experienced than he was. She normally trained him completely unarmed and now she had a shield, albeit a makeshift one that would be seen as a toy compared to anything a proper soldier would use.

His main ways of fighting so far were simple melee attacks, throwing the spear, and of course trickery by making the spear vanish and reappear as he liked.

While the last choice would be great against someone who didn’t know what he could do, Kralliyen knew this trick and its uses more than he could imagine putting him at a great disadvantage as a result.

Taking a moment to look at his surroundings, a flat section of the deck that had a rope tied in a way to show the combat area, Victor decided to leave the roped off area.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Kralliyen demanded with a noticeable growl, “We are going to fight.”

“Yes,” Victor agreed, “But the rules say it starts when I attack so I’m going to take a minute… ah a little bit, to check something first. I’ll be right back.”

With spear in hand, Victor had two cards full of items he either couldn’t or wouldn’t use and also couldn’t empty, but he had two more cards that he could use as long as he kept the spear in hand so he looked around for items that might be of use to him.

While Kralliyen might know about his cards and how he uses them to fight with his spear, if he was a bit trickier he might be able to manage something.

Eventually, after asking around, and asking if it was alright to use it for a while, Victor returned to a really annoyed Kralliyen who was sharpening her claw on the wooden shield.

“Are you ready to start,” she bellowed loud enough to make one of the sailors look away, “Or are you wasting more time?”

“I’m almost ready,” Victor said with a smile as he thought about what he had in his two formerly empty cards while gripping his spear, “But you always said let your opponent fight on your terms whenever possible so I was just taking that lesson to heart.”

“He probably just had to take a piss,” one of the sailors yelled out, “So take it easy on him.”

A slight laugh was had by some of the sailors making the gnoll glare in their direction. It was in that moment that Victor ran in, throwing his spear at the same moment that he charged.

It was a tactic that Kralliyen had seen and conquered before many times. She expected the weapon to vanish suddenly and reappear in his hand in the next blink of an eye.

Instead, it got closer than she had seen it get before, but still, she ignored it as she was ready to smack Victor in the side with the blunt part of her shield.

Rather than seeing the spear vanish, she experienced multiple things she hadn’t expected

First, the spear struck and sunk slightly into her thick fur, but not enough to cause her pain. Just enough she felt the fur shifting, proving that he had indeed let the spear go with the full intent of letting it hit her, instead of having it vanish.

Kralliyen wasn’t sure if he knew it wouldn’t get past her fur considering he hadn’t properly been maintaining it, or if he thought it wouldn’t actually hit her or if he thought he might injure her. Regardless of the reason, she didn’t have time to react any further as her attempt to hit him back was met with two different hindrances.

The second surprise was that instead of simply charging in as he would do anytime he threw the spear, he instead jumped to the side at the last moment in the direction that would allow her to miss. She knew he would have been hit if he had tried to jump to the other side instead.

At least that would be the case if not for the third thing that happened.

At the same moment, he jumped to the side a fishing net appeared out of thin air on top of her.

Her focus had been so singularly on Victor and his usual spear tactics that she hadn’t noticed the net until it was already falling over her.

While it wasn’t enough to fully restrain her it was enough to distract her, making her stagger back just enough to fall backward over a broken barrel that had suddenly appeared behind her.

It was the same broken barrel that she had gotten the barrel head from to make the shield out of.

As she fell back the spear vanished and reappeared in Victor’s hand in the blink of an eye.

While not nearly as instant, Victor was soon over Kralliyen with his spear, flat end, at her throat.

“I think I win this time. I claim Victory.”

Kralliyen sighs, feeling the now shattered barrel under her as she starts to stand up while Victor moves his spear away, quickly storing it again.

“I can see why you’d think that.”

She then brings up her knee into his stomach making him lose his breath and hunch over. In the state of pain and breathlessness, he couldn’t put up a fight as the gnoll pulled him close and pressed her lips to his, forcing a kiss onto him as a reward for how well he had done.

“Neither of us demanded combat stop,” Kralliyen said as she broke the kiss, not letting him go, “And I never admitted defeat.”

Victor gasped for a bit more breath, his head spinning over what just happened, “But you’re nearly there. By the time we return from this trip, you will be ready to give me children. At least if you keep improving like this.”

Dropping Victor on the deck, Kralliyen started to untie the ropes from their combat area, the net still on her and barely acknowledged.

The broken barrel, however, left a reminder of the fight that was getting her excited. A single chunk of wood had driven past her thick fur and drawn blood that was slightly staining a patch of fur on her back.

Peering back at her owner, she struggled hard to not do what she wanted because she knew he couldn’t yet handle it.

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Round 12.4

While Victor was easily able to remember the last time he was on a boat, as he was on one shortly before they left to go on this trip, he couldn’t remember the last time he was on a boat while it was moving. Despite this, he was glad for one thing about this boat above all else.

The fact that it was as large as it was.

Looking out at the waters from the side of the boat all he could really see was water, the sky, and a few birds. He was most certainly trapped on this boat, but it was also large enough that it wouldn’t kick in any of his phobias.

Hearing people’s footsteps and murmurings behind him, Victor was aware of the workers that they had hired. A mix of people that worked on this boat before, apparently Vohdiit bought a boat that wasn’t technically for sale, and random people to fill in the gaps by those who didn’t want to work for some unknown person.

There were people of nearly every race that Victor had met so far and, possibly, from at least one that he hadn’t met before. It depended on whether the guy was a different sort of beastkin. He wasn’t confident to just assume that to be the case after he learned about gnolls.

“I got food for you, Victor.”

The voice was one that in the past few days Victor had gotten to be familiar with. Looking over his shoulder he saw the same young beastkin man bringing him food.

Etio was a cabin boy who had been working on the ship for two years and before that, he worked as a cabin boy on a pirate ship when he was kidnapped well before his more prominent reptilian features became noticeable.

“I have some for you too, Miss Kralliyen. Saved you both for last though like you said.”

Putting out three bowls, the young man poured out the three of them their meal from a bucket he had carried with him that the stew had been put in.

“There’s some extra in it this time since you caught a fish yesterday that was really big. The cook never complains if there is more food added to the stock.”

Victor had gotten some fishing supplies and a few other things to help pass the time before they left, which is how he had been able to pass the time, but even with that, he was starting to get a little anxious about wanting to do something more.

The Progonva group had taken to doing various things of their own on this trip.

Grotika’madiel was spending most of the time out of everyone’s way singing some songs or repeating things to himself while wondering how certain people were doing.

Ciakra was doing some of the moving of heavy things for people, mostly communicated through pointing, but never let himself fully relax as he would keep an eye on everyone else around him. Early on Victor heard him muttering about hoping nobody noticed that he took a long knife just in case.

Alinar alternated between helping the cook, mostly doing simple things like stirring and pouring due to the language barrier and cleaning whatever she felt like cleaning.

Gralyin’della would constantly move between the other three and talk to them as well as anyone else around her as she was getting a lot better at speaking the language of everyone else on the boat.

The constant and direct interactions with people unable to talk with them were helping with their studies to different degrees, with Grotika’madiel barely improving as he was the one avoiding the interactions the most.

Meanwhile, Veyonj had taken this as something of a small vacation and done minor things to help with the ship while mostly just relaxing since she was part of the owner’s group.

“Any clue how much longer until we get to Progonva?” Victor asked Etio as they ate, “I don’t mind the boat or anything, but I wouldn’t mind getting there sooner instead of later.”

“Sorry, but it depends on the water and the air. Even if it’s a good pace it will take us some time though. If you’re finished with your food I’ll clean up and get back to work.”

“I see… well… it’s still going to take a while right?” Victor asked as he handed over his empty bowl, “I mean not like we will get there tomorrow or the day after.”

“Oh certainly not,” Etio responded, “At the earliest, I think five days, but even then that’s making so many ideal situation assumptions.”

 

While Victor continued on his path to Progonva Island many others were doing their own activities as one might expect.

Sampa was communicating with various people to keep track of various situations.

Zelathyn and her group were getting more acclimated to their nearly nomadic life as they worked to figure out what they should do.

Elya having, through luck, skill, and excessive violence, escaped with an artifact that she was only beginning to suspect she understood and was hidden within the walls of the kingdom with several people who she had freed along the way.

 

Sitting on a pathway the group of thirteen people, including Elya and Wynd, were looking over their supplies using magical light as they had run out of torches the day prior.

On their escape from the prison, Elya and Wynd freed everyone that they came across regardless of their reason for being imprisoned. Not because they had been generous or kind, but because they needed there to be more chaos in order to escape. The chaos also helped them take various supplies along the way before this group managed to get to an exit that Elya knew about, but didn’t fully understand.

“How much longer are we going to be in here?” a middle aged man asked as he helped organize the supplies, “I trusted that you knew what you were doing when I followed you but we’ve been wandering around down here for days.”

“It could be better that we aren’t getting out right away,” another member of the group said, “The longer it takes the more likely they will think we died or that they missed us.”

“Not always,” the first man countered, “It could mean they are going to be even more aggressive in their defense of the capital or look harder for the escape route. What even is this route?”

With attention at her, Elya picked up the handle that she had put down causing it to form into a dagger that she used to cut into the wall, “This is an emergency exit and entrance that was given to a member of the nobility of the kingdom who is dead. Only the family is given the path in and out of here meaning if a person stumbles upon it they aren’t as likely to be able to get in or out.”

“Then why did you bring us here?”

“Because it was the only path I saw shy of trying to rip the wall apart or going through who knows what in terms of enemy combat. Especially since I’m not sure what members of the guard I could trust and which would stab me in the back. I’m taking the uncertainty that I can control over the uncertainty that I don’t know.”

“Besides,” Elya continued, “It’s not like you guys are that tired or anything. I tell you to keep going and you do. I say be careful of the edge and nobody’s fallen. I say to keep a proper watch to make sure nobody rolls over and falls off in their sleep and every time that nearly happened it was stopped. You’re practically my soldiers at this point so just shut up and listen to me.”

Two of the men in the group, both human with obvious strength to them, approached her.

“Maybe it’s time for a new leader instead of you. Why should we listen to you after we’ve been stuck here for so long?”

“If you don’t want to follow my lead you can go off on your own,” Elya explained, “I’ve been marking the way we’ve taken so if you’re careful you can find the entrance we used in a couple days without issue.”

One of the men moved closer and hit the wall once giving it a small crack, “I think I’ll bring them your corpse as a way to try to get on their good side instead bitch.”

Wynd moved in front of Elya, “Don’t try it.”

“If they move any closer I want you to do whatever it takes to kill them.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh,” one of the meeker members of the group asked from behind them, “They’re just mad they’ll calm down.”

“Oh no I won’t,” the man says as he hits the wall again breaking a chunk off causing rubble to fall and clink off the edge of the path into the unseen abyss, “I’m tired of listening to this bitch. Guards like her were never good and I don’t care if she freed me. I’m tired of her.”

“Try it if you want, but Wynd here is able to empower his body just like you and I told him to stop you if you take one step closer to me.”

Wynd was shaking a little bit. At this point, he wasn’t sure if he was more scared of the man who broke the wall or the woman behind him who was now holding a war hammer and tapping it against the same wall.

Looking between the pair, Wynd noticed the man take a step and deciding that he had to make a choice, went with the one that freed him from his old owner and got him out of the prison cell, and moved to intercept the man.

As before he felt a rush that he didn’t fully understand. Similar to his empowerment magic but even more than he could usually manage.

The large man punched at Wynd, “Fools like you die at the feet of their owners.”

Instead of simply taking the hit, Wynd caught it, unable to hide the surprise in that fact, and gave it a squeeze giving an audible snapping sound.

Barely holding in a scream of pain the man tried to step away, but Wynd refused to let him.

With the same rush he felt when he was escaping the prison with Elya, Wynd ripped the man’s hand off and tossed it off the edge into the abyss

“Wait,” the man cried out, “I didn’t mean anything by it. I…”

The man’s words were cut short as Wynd punched the man in the face, caving in his skull with a splattering of gore coating his body.

Seeing this most of the remaining people went quiet, except for the other man who Wynd had been told to keep an eye on.

“What did you do?”

The man moved closer to the corpse and instead of giving him the chance to do as he liked, Wynd grabbed him by the hair and pulled him quickly to one side, smashing his head into a wall hard enough to leave an indentation, before tossing him off the edge to follow the other man’s hand.

Once the second man’s body was out of sight, Wynd felt his strength fade away as he sat down and looked at the bloody hell that his outfit had become.

“I think I need to rest for a bit miss.”

Elya smiled and kicked the corpse off the edge as well, “Of course. Unless anyone else here wants to argue.”

The silence from the group was nearly audible as they rested and divided up the supplies that were left behind by the two members who would no longer be with them.

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Round 12.3

With most of the rest of the day ahead of them, everyone took to doing different things to pass the time until the sun would begin to set.

The group from Progonva found a place outside far enough away from everyone to work on learning how to speak better. This was with Veyonj as the teacher. While she wasn’t a proper educator, with Gralyin’della having already learned a fair amount of the language to help her there was enough to work on a proper educational lesson for the other three, even if Ciak’ra complained that they shouldn’t bother as they were returning home.

Vohdiit, as he said he would, was going between various shops to supply a boat with food, tools, and any other supplies that they needed for the trip. A few of them had some curious questions that were quickly dissuaded by placing the money on the counter to pay for it and adding a little more to the order.

Victor and Kralliyen went out just past the community border to do some combat training but stopped shortly after they had begun.

“You are doing worse than usual,” Kralliyen noted, “Is there something wrong with your body that requires attention?”

“No, I was just thinking about how that guy wants to meet me tonight after the sun sets.”

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I would meet him like I said but not exactly like he might expect,” Victor stated, “I plan to just be on the coat a bit out of town watching the horizon change colors as the sun sets, and anything else. Maybe do some coastal fishing if I can borrow a pole from someone and have you just outside of view behind some trees or something just in case.”

“What if he asks where I am?”

“If it comes up I’ll say you decided to go hunting,” he answered, “It is something that you would do after all.”

“And what should I do?”

“Watch, listen, and if it seems like he’s going to do something horrible to me feel free to kill him.”

The tone of his own voice surprised him as he told Kralliyen a few physical signals he would give for signals to her. He made extra sure that the signal for killing was something he couldn’t see himself doing by accident, but even with that, he hoped that there was nothing he was overlooking as the day continued.

 

By the time that the sun was starting to set, Victor sat on the beach with a fishing rod, a lot more simplistic than the ones he had been used to admittedly, but still a rode that he had been able to use with some bait to catch a fish with already.

With the sun having started to set and having told Veyonj who would be at their rented home for the night where he was going to be, Victor was sure that Vohdiit would be approaching him soon enough.

Being given the time to do nothing but watch the colors in the sky change he couldn’t help but think of so many different things that a trip to the beach or a sunset could be used for when in a movie or a show that he might have watched before.

A final scene in a romance movie where the couple finally can be alone.

The last bit of peace before a war breaks out, or before the people are sent to fight for their lives.

Of course, there are the generic filler episodes where it was a means to show off the main cast in swimsuits or bait the audience with ship bait interactions.

In this case, the closest he could think of was someone going away from the main party of stupid teenagers doing stupid stuff at a beach party and someone coming to comfort the lone, usually main, character.

Although the conversation wasn’t likely to quite be something like that, it was the closest he could think of by the time he heard footsteps approaching.

A quick half glance towards Kralliyen couldn’t be stopped before he turned his head to the source of the sound and he saw Vohdiit had shown up.

“Did you want a little alone time?”

Victor sighed and turned back to the waters, pulling out the hook from his pole.

“My life has been a lot of rushing and, even though fishing isn’t something I especially enjoy, I just wanted to do something that was basically doing nothing for a while. My life has been pure chaos for a while now so I guess I needed some time to find my center again.”

“I suppose that’s fine,” Vohdiit said as he sat down next to him, “We do have a little time before the sun fully sets. So until we can take care of it feel free to keep at it.”

“Why do we have to wait for sunset? Are we going to do anything illegal?”

“Certainly not.”

“Then what are we doing? And why wait until it’s dark?”

“Just because something’s not illegal doesn’t mean you want people to see it.”

“I agree,” Victor said with a nod, “Sort of like how there’s nothing really wrong with what you’ve been doing to try to trick me.”

Vohdiit paused for a moment, “What do you mean?”

“I know you’re not the same you that picked me up. Or the one who was here in the morning.”

“Wait… let me think about how to reply to your accusation.”

There was some muttering under the man’s breath and eventually, he changed posture, turning to face Victor and putting one hand behind him as the surrounding area went quiet.

“What gave it away?”

Glad that he had communicated visuals for signals instead of words, Victor took a deep breath saying in more detail a few points.

The mannerisms, tone of voice, personal lexicon, and a slight lie where he noticed a minor injury that didn’t bleed.

“It’s obvious that you’re doing some illusion magic like you did when you showed up as Leahla. If you’re going to swap out the people I’d rather you know it ahead of time though. Especially if I’m supposed to trust you.”

“So this is a titanic situation?

“Sure. Tell me the truth of what’s going on if you expect me to cooperate with you.”

“I will tell you just that, but first let’s move onto one of the boats first. We have no staff on them yet so it will allow us to be unseen and unheard.”

Doing a quick motion to indicate to follow but not get too close, Victor followed Vohdiit to one of the boats. While he didn’t really think about how big the boats might be, this one gave him pause before he entered it, noting that supplies had already started to be delivered within the boat.

The moment that he was alone with the man, Victor’s mind stayed focused on the spear in his card and all the training that he had had with Kralliyen.

It was true that he wouldn’t call himself a spear expert, hero, or champion he had gotten to be more capable with it. Especially when he combined the instant appearance and disappearance of his spear as part of his combative repertoire.

His other items didn’t seem to be useful for this situation giving him more ability to focus on the one choice as two cards just had something random he put in without a real reason. The random rock and pouch were only in his cards for the sake of having something in them. The last of the cards had a spell that he got from Sampa’s estate while stripping away magic from some items. A magic that he still hasn’t decided on if he would be better off saving it, using it, or getting rid of it to free up space in his card.

“I’ll be blunt for now,” Vohdiit said, turning to look at Victor, “I’m not alive. In fact I’m not even here.”

Victor paused for a second and then put the stone from his card into his hand, about the size of a marble, and threw it at Vohdiit.

When it hit him it clattered lightly on the ground drawing both of their eyes.

“Why did you throw a rock at me?”

“You… I thought you were an illusion. I said you weren’t here.”

“I’m not here, but that doesn’t mean nothing is here,” Vohdiit reached a hand behind his head while his other hand went into a pouch, “This will look weird and possibly scary, but I got sound blocked off so feel free to scream. It won’t get out of the boat.”

A tearing sound came from Vohdiit. It sounded like ripping multiple layers of paper apart with a wet restraint about it as his face started to twitch and loosen on his head before falling off.

Underneath was a smooth ivory colored object that reminded Victor, superficially, of the head of a wooden art posing doll. It had a few obsidian colored marks on it where one might expect a person’s ears, eyes, nose, and mouth to be. The final of those had a deep indentation that was like a long oval going in deep that seemed to move slightly as a new voice came out from the figure that sounded nothing like Vohdiit had before.

“We didn’t want to risk anyone for this,” the figure said as its indented mouth slightly moved, “So we used something to keep an eye on you, but since we have jobs to do we are keeping shifts on who watches you.”

Taking out something from the side pouch, the figure held out what looked like cheap Halloween masks of various shapes, colors, and textures.

“These determine what the puppet looks like. As you can see, the rest of me right now doesn’t even appear human.”

Victor looked at the figure more.

It still had the same clothing and other coverings, but its hands were visible reflecting the most obvious changes.

The skin was gone, replaced by the same ivory coloring as the head and it had ball joints that reminded him even more of those posable dolls that some artists might use.

Putting away the excess masks, the figure started to put on the mask that it had taken off and a sound almost like a wet zipper was heard and once the face was in place the rest of Vohdiit’s form reappeared in the same way that it had been previously.

“I will say it’s interesting that you could tell,” Vohdiit said in the familiar voice, “Perhaps the fact you seem to automatically translate linguistic information allows you to more easily notice changes in a person’s lexicon.”

“Why not just have someone come with us instead?” Victor asked, forcing himself to ask a question, “Wouldn’t it be easier?”

“Easier? Perhaps, but not as effective.”

“What do you mean by…”

Vohdiit closed the distance before them, getting in his face with a smile.

“We can discuss that later, but for now we need to get to Progonva Island. If you don’t have an empty card, empty one please.”

“I… got one that’s empty.”

Peeking at the small rock he threw earlier briefly he looks at the puppet before him.

“Great, follow me.”

Going out of the boat, the pair sees Kralliyen on the deck.

“I thought as much. Um… I forget your name miss but feel free to come along. The fact that he asked you to join says a lot and I’m assuming everyone your group knows about your cards.”

Giving a not committal grunt, Victor sees his slave go between him and Vohdiit before they go to another boat that’s not quite as big as the other.

“Store it.”

“Wha… what? Is this one you own?”

“Yes, it is. Now store it please.”

“I’ve never stored something this big before… I’ve stored some big things like carts and that wall but this is like…”

“Just. Store. It. Now.”

Taking a deep breath, Victor touches the boat with his hand, “If this is some trick I’m dropping it on your head and then taking everyone and leaving this country and won’t help you, Sampa, or Skies Watch.”

“Good thing I’m not tricking you.”

In the blink of an eye, the boat vanished from sight leaving just a few ropes behind tied to the dock before footsteps came to the three of them.

One of the night dock workers came to the three, a slightly short young man with a beard.

“What happened? You three did you see what happened here?”

Kralliyen and Victor both seemed to hesitate for half a second giving Vohdiit a chance to talk.

“What are you talking about?”

“The boat just vanished,” he exclaimed, “I saw the boat and now it’s.”

“You must have been seeing things,” Vohdiit assured, “My boat left earlier today.”

“Your boat?”

Taking out a paper, the puppet handed it over, “Yeah I bought two today. I sent one out earlier in the day and kept this one here to get even more supplies before catching up. If my boat was here and suddenly vanished I think I would have a reason to panic instead of you.”

After holding up a candle to read the paper the young man let out a long exhale, “I guess I was seeing things. Sometimes the shadows can play tricks on your eyes. Sorry about bothering you, but why are you here if your boat’s gone?”

Vohdiit pointed to the boat on the other side of the dock and tapped the paper, “Because I was looking at my other boat. It’s more convenient to have both your boats on the same dock after all.”

Seemingly satisfied, the dock worker left the three of them alone.

The sound around them quieted to nothing as Vohdiit turned to the other two, “It would have been too hard to convince someone of what just happened wasn’t what just happened in the sunlight and not a single law was broken. Now you two may go and sleep while I stay here and watch the boat.”

Kralliyen growled a bit, “You want to explain anything to me about this?”

“I don’t have anything you need to know,” Vohdiit said returning to the boat as the sound returned to normal, “If your master wants to share what we talked about that’s his personal choice and I won’t think bad of him if everything he knows is shared with you. Especially considering what I didn’t tell him.”

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round 12.2

Even as the rest of the group started to wake up and question what was going on, how they had traveled so far, and various other questions, Victor was mostly ignoring them except to play the part of translator at times when Gralyin’della wasn’t fluent enough for the task. It was obvious that being drugged would cause someone to wake up with a lot of questions, but that didn’t mean that Victor didn’t have questions just because he was the first one to wake up.

“It’s a distinct possibility,” Victor thought to himself repeatedly, “A chance to go home is a distinct possibility? Not for sure, but a possibility. Sure, that’s better than anything I’ve found so far, but it could also easily be a lie to try to manipulate me, but what if it’s not?”

Time passed and eventually, Kralliyen picked him up and pulled him to the rest of the group.

“Food.”

As he didn’t respond she shook in order to get his attention.

“Hey what are you…”

“I said food. That short beast dwarf woman cooked for everyone and she’s putting it in bowls so it’s time to eat then we will get into the place with the boats.”

Victor snapped back to the current place and time and looked around. He could see the water starting to form on the horizon and smell the food that was being made and eventually walked over there to get his own portion of the meal.

“Were you plotting how to sell us off or something all on your own?”

Looking at the elven half orc, Victor rolled his eyes, “I hate slavery and have freed almost every slave I have gotten so far.”

“But you still got slaves,” Ciak’ra smirked, “Doesn’t seem like you hate them that much.”

Seeing him pointing at Kralliyen, Victor glared a bit, “She is an odd case and most of the ones I got were like that. I bought my first ones because if they got to where the delivery site was they were going to be worked to death in some mines and the only reason I didn’t free them then was I couldn’t afford to so I had them work until they earned enough to be freed and…”

“A likely story. I bet they are still working for you out of sight now. Maybe keeping a spare house clean under threats of some sort.”

“No, I freed every slave I ever got except one,” Victor said struggling to not raise his voice glad that only the Progonva people could understand them, “And not that it’s any of your business, but some people are a struggle to free. Some are glad for it and I wish they all were, but the only reason I have my current slave is because of her culture and it seems like if I do free her she might game over herself.”

“Game… over herself?”

Pinching his nose, Victor sighed. The term was something that he had picked up from someone who attempted suicide before and could talk about it but not use the phrase.

“Simply put, if I free her, which I did offer, she basically said it proves she is a worthless being and worthless beings don’t deserve to live. She lost some conflict and was enslaved and the one who did so found her not worth keeping and now I own her and it seems she will…. you know what? Why am I even explaining this to you? Fuck off.”

Kralliyen moved to sit next to Victor as he ate, “You seem to have a bit of aggression in you right now. Do I need to kill the mixed breed that was talking to you?”

“No killing,” Victor said glad that the gnoll couldn’t understand what he had said to the Progonva man, “I just had a bit of an argument on if you were good enough to keep as a slave. He thought I should free you but I said I’d keep you.”

While he wasn’t a liar by default, Victor felt too lazy to think up what to say that was truthful without being a pain to explain, “Something about how he thinks you’d be more useful if you weren’t forced to this or that.”

Finishing her meal, Kralliyen put an arm around Victor and pulled him close to her, “You know me much better than the ones who can’t even speak to me. I will protect you until you can defeat me in combat and then you will be a great father to those who come next.”

Not feeling up to arguing about it with her, Victor chose to ignore the statement even as Veyonj and Vohdiit both couldn’t help but show interest in the statement.

The rest of their travels didn’t take long and eventually, they found themselves in the port town of Olthiiruhm.

Since it was already dusk, the group looked for a place to sleep for the night and found a building that many sailors would sleep in that offered beds in a communal setting that people could rent to sleep in one night at a time. There was no privacy as the beds were all in one room with each other, but it was enough for what they needed.

In the morning they all bought breakfast from the tavern that was part of the same building and when their group sat down at a table with some sailors the conversation suddenly stopped and a few of them moved to another table leaving them with just a dwarf and someone who looked human except with a pair of tusks protruding from his mouth.

“Was it something we said?”

“Something he said?” the dwarf scoffs, “They haven’t said anything yet and don’t realize…”

“Ah sorry if I didn’t realize,” Victor said during what seemed like a lull in the words, “I’m not from a port town so I’m not sure if I was rude.”

The dwarfs’ eyes went large and he grabbed his meal and moved to another table quickly talking to the people at it in a hushed breath.

“What was that about?”

The tusked man was no help as Victor looked at everyone else.

“You’re speaking dwarven,” Veyonj asserted, “I can’t understand you.”

The realization of what had just happened made it make sense. If you don’t expect someone to understand you and they respond perfectly in your native tongue it would throw many people for a loop.

Not thinking more about it, the group finished breakfast and all went to the docks together where Vohdiit took the lead and approached one of the dock workers.

“Morning to you. I won’t waste your time with random talk. Are you the head of the docks here and if you aren’t can you let me know which one is?”

A little bit of talk and then moving to a new location led to a reptilian beastkin man sitting in a small building that was barely more than walls, a roof, and windows on all the sides that could look at the docks.

Almost bouncing around on his feet when he saw the beastkin, Vohdiit quickly started to talk at a pace that could barely be understood by those around him.

“Great to meet you. I’m told that you’re in charge here and if that’s true I have a couple of things to ask.”

“That’s fine.”

“Great so see me and my group want some boats and some people to work on a boat. Do you know of any boats for sale and people willing to work on one? I got money so that’s not a concern… although it will be easier if they are willing to barter some things so I don’t have to liquidate some of the stuff directly.”

“There are plenty of workers not on the job who are willing to work, but not a lot of boats that are for sale. I suppose if you offer enough money any boat could be for sale, but that’s not likely in some cases since it would be paying lots more than it’s worth.”

“Great, great, great, so can you let me know which ones you know are for sale first? After that, I can figure out how many people I need to hire for the job. I’m a cartographer and I want to do some new maps of a miniature island that one of my friends claims to have found.”

“Miniature?”

“Very miniature,” Vohdiit said with a nod, “It’s actually several islands but most of them are smaller than the boats I see out on the docks. Not worth much, but if they can be added to some maps it might prevent crashing on them.”

Writing down some dock numbers on a piece of paper the beastkin handed it to Vohdiit and rushed him away, “Find the ones for sale at these docks now unless it’s important don’t bother me. I need to check all the incoming and outgoing ships scheduled for today.”

“I appreciate it very much, good sir.”

After getting the paper, Vohdiit told the rest of them to wait and he would buy the boats and they would look for sailors tomorrow.

Letting the man leave, Kralliyens ears twitched a bit just as he got out of sight

“There is something very odd about that man.”

“That is true,” Veyonj said, “Probably because he’s not alive.”

Lowering his voice Victor chuckled, “He’s obviously alive. Or are you saying he’s a zombie?”

“Oh nothing like that,” Veyonj assured him, “He’s just not a person. He isn’t alive. He’s never been alive. He doesn’t even have blood in him.”

“How would you know he doesn’t…” Victor paused a second and looked at Veyonjs teeth, “Stupid question. But if he’s not…. what is he?”

“Oh no clue, but he isn’t alive and if he was dead I’d be able to tell that too.”

“No I mean undead,” Victor reiterated, “The dead puppeted back to life.”

“If that was the case there would be other signs,” Kralliyen growled, “I have killed some of those before and they are always off. I was only saying what I said since his voice has changed a few times since we met.”

“I haven’t noticed any change in his voice,” Veyonj said as the Progonva group seemed to have lingering uncertainty about the situation, “Or are you saying that he messed with our sense of hearing?”

“No or I wouldn’t have noticed,” Kralliyen stated, “His voice changes. The one right now is from a woman, probably of elven descent while the one when we first met was a younger beastkin, and the one that helped us find beds last night was probably an older man. You can also tell a difference in what phrases he uses and how he acts.”

“I did find how he talked to that dock guy different,” Victor admitted, “I just assumed he was someone that could adjust how he acts based on who he was with. Like a charlatan or an actor.”

The group went quiet as they all ended up thinking about different things.

Victor eventually explained what was going on, while leaving out the worries about their guest for the time being, to the group from Progonva.

Eventually, Vohdiit did return with some papers in his hand that he said indicated the transfer of ownership of two boats had been completed.

“So what now? We get a bunch of sailors and go off to Progonva?”

“Ultimately yes,” Vohdiit said back to Victor, “But for now we are going to do some shopping. Getting supplies that will be sent to the boat. Food, water, tools, and anything else that could be needed on the trip. We will look for a crew tomorrow.”

Putting a hand on Victor’s shoulder, Vohdiit pulled him close and spoke softly, “Also you and I need to go to the docks after the sun sets.”

Victor swallowed and nodded his head without responding as he thought that he would make sure that Kralliyen, and maybe someone else, would be nearby just in case.

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round 12.1

Time passed as various groups moved forward and started on what they saw as their mission while Skies Watch became more and more under a new rule. One with various rulers in lieu of rule by birth as it had been. A ruling class that was chosen, not by the people but by those who had conquered the capital and had already been ruling the organization that had caused the change to happen as well as a select few who had made their worth known.

Many from the last rule had gone missing, either being imprisoned, or killed, to blackmail others they saw as useful pawns to control the citizenry or other reasons.

At the same time, word spread across the land and would soon stretch to the other lands.

Not that everyone knew all this. In fact, very few people had enough information to have what they could even speculate to be a full picture and to say that Victor was one of them would be a stretch so far that you would do better to connect a rubber band from the earth to the sun.

Despite this, he had been told enough that he knew what could happen and he had one promise from the people that came to the hidden chambers after a meal.

A figure that he hadn’t seen in a long time caused him to erupt from the table knocking plenty of items to the ground, and breaking some as well.

“You,” he bellowed, pointing at the figure that had walked out of Sampa’s office, “What are you doing here?”

Standing before him was an elven woman, barely six feet tall. A woman who he met in Orlyans Wave hadn’t seen for a long time. One that he now threw the closest plate he could find at only to pull it out of the air and store in a card before placing it back.

“Why are you here?”

The figure shimmered and was soon replaced by that of a man probably in his mid twenties, with caramel colored skin, a lithe frame, and barely any hair on his head.

“I only came like this to tell you who I am with and to say that we are going to be helping Mister Vinulette. I know much about you Victor, as well as many of the others here.”

He turned around and tilted his head towards each person as he mentioned their name.

“Victor, Kralliyen, Alinar, Gralyin’della, Ciakra, Grotika’madiel, and Veyonj. My name is Vohdiit and I will be the one helping you to get to the water and travel with you to get to Progonva. I will primarily work to be an observer at this time. I make no promise that I will only stay for observation purposes, but that is my ultimate goal.”

“We had other plans and other people who wished to come with, but in the end I was forc… encouraged to be the one to join you. Now those of you who I just mentioned should hurry and get anything that you need for this trip as we will not be returning.”

Victor started to speak up but found his words cut short as a familiar sort of magic prevented him from speaking.

“I will listen to your concerns after we arrive. I advise you to hurry up and get what you need as you will all be unconscious soon.”

A few people glare at him unsure what to say, “Oh no, not everyone. Just those of you who I mentioned. There is a certain level of secrecy that is required for what we are doing as anyone coming with must not be able to see.”

At this Victor threw the plate again and this time it hit, landing against his chest just under his neck and breaking as a result.

“If that is out of your system I request you hurry up.”

Taking out a timekeeper he placed it on the table, “You have roughly this much time until you are unconscious. Plenty of time to gather anything you might need, take care of any bodily requirements, say any farewells that you want, and even some time to rest before we go. That said the sands won’t stop flowing and you will eventually succumb and then we will be off.”

Snapping, Victor pointed at his throat and found his voice had returned, “Fuck you.”

He then made sure to speak in the Progonva tongue and tell everyone who couldn’t understand the situation what was going on as they all left with many words of complaint.

Once the group was gone and getting ready, Sampa smiled at the new person, “So Vohdiit was it. I do hope I will at least be kept in the loop about how Victor and the rest are doing. I am after all ensuring everything I can to help with our mutual problem.”

Placing a bag on the table, the guest took it and hid it away without a word.

“Ah, yes. I suppose you are trying to keep any promises to a minimum. I do thank you for allowing me to prepare this ahead of time as I think Ruuz would be in a dire strait trying to come to terms with this and not being allowed to go. She will see it’s for the best in the end, of course.”

The figure’s stern visage slipped away as he pulled a broken piece of plate off of himself, “Is Victor always like that? I hope not.”

“So you haven’t been forbidden from talking to me. Good to know.”

“I am not forbidden, but I have no reason to talk more than I want to. I am sure you can relate to that.”

“Do you really think that you can get Victor to cooperate?” Sampa inquired, pointing at the man’s chest while Witbelanc cleaned up the area, “I don’t think people attack those they get along with.”

“He was just having a bit of a relapse considering how many negative emotions he likely has with the form I arrived in. We already talked about this after all.”

Sampa quirked an eyebrow, “The two of us have never spoken before.”

Vohdiit offered half a smile as he heard some footsteps and looked at the timer seeing there was still a fair amount of time left, but that Victor was being carried by Kralliyen as he had already gone unconscious.

Seeing this the man swiftly moved closer to the pair only to see Kralliyens claws at his face, “I am not going to cause him harm I just wonder why he is already unconscious. Even assuming someone who is working on their mana production, which he obviously wasn’t, he shouldn’t have passed out unless….”

The man’s face lit up, “Aaaah right he has no mana production. That explains why it happened so quickly since it fights against one’s mana both stored and being created. It means that…”

Vohdiit started to ramble mostly to himself and mention how he should make note of this, but seemed to be just muttering and barely moving as he did so.

The Progonva group tried to talk, but with Victor passed out they had to rely on Tsuwin, and the delay in writing and translating prevented much information from changing hands until one by one everyone started to pass out.

Turning to the group who remained Vohdiit nodded his head, “I will have them brought to the office then I will be off. Wait until this timer is done before you enter your office to undo your side of the setup.”

After bringing everyone to the office and setting up the timer for Sampa and Witbelanc, Vohdiit started to do the ritual, and once everything was set the transportation happened.

In the time that it took him to stop inhaling and start exhaling he found himself in the predetermined location not too far from the port and many of his people helped move everyone and everything into a carriage before they started off with the sun high in the sky.

It wasn’t long before Victor started to stir and Vohdiit pulled off to the side of the road.

“Should I be saying thank you for not having me locked in a chest or something after you drugged me this time or is that coming later?”

“Oh come on. I have no reason to tie you up or lock you away,” Vohdiit said casually waving his hand around, “Besides you look cute sleeping like that.”

“Fuck you!”

Vohdiit seemed to pause at this, “Maybe later if you want but I was hoping to talk before the other woke up.”

“I didn’t mean that liter… you know what? Never mind. What do you want to talk about and if I don’t like it, remember what I can do.”

Tying the horse to a tree, the pair sat down on a couple of boxes that they took out.

“Do you like it here?” Vohdiit started, “I mean I’m just curious what you think of it here compared to where you’re from. Do you feel like it’s worth trying to help? Do you want to stay? Maybe only stay in specific situations or would you rather just go home no matter what?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’d just like to have my question answered if you don’t mind. I’ll even answer some of yours in return since I’m sure you have some.”

“I can’t say everything about this world is trash, but it’s so confusing, it doesn’t work how I think things should. I mean you got slavery as a common legal thing when it’s horrible and you have some secret community trying to run the world.”

Putting his hand to his chest, Vohdiit let out an exaggerated gasp, “We don’t try to run the world. We actually just try to prevent things that could cause ruin to not be spread out and we try to prevent things from getting too bad if something does happen.”

“Then why are you trying to help Skies Watch and its lands?”

“Oh, that’s simple. Because its fall was caused by something that never should have been. If it was natural like another country invading, or the people assassinating the ruling class or many other things we wouldn’t have cared. There are so many times we could have done something as a group, but we don’t because it’s not our job.”

“It’s not your job to do what you’re doing.”

“We’re getting off topic,” Vohdiit said, “And the only reason we have this time right now is that you went unconscious so fast. Your lack of mana production was a great help since it let you wake up early. Anyway, would you rather go home or does it depend?”

“Of course, I want to go home,” Victor exclaimed, “It’s my home. It’s where everything makes sense and I know what I am thinking is what should be. We may have bad people, but we can also expose it quickly when it matters. Sure we have poor but we also have people who try to take care of them… well maybe you have that here too I haven’t seen enough but the point stands I want to go home.”

“Why are you helping things here if you’re so interested in going home?”

“Because this world is so messed up and such I need something as a realistic life and without a life of experience and connections I’m clinging to whatever I can get. The only reason I’m helping with this is because… I feel like I have no choice. It’s probably not too different from people who volunteer to be slaves except I don’t feel that desperate yet.”

“I may be able to help, but that doesn’t mean I won’t leave and go off on my own if it seems like things are going the way of the Titanic.”

“Titanic,” Vohdiit felt the word on his tongue, “I like the word, but based on the context am I to assume it is some sort of failure?”

“One of the most well known that my world knows.”

“Good to know. That will be our word for when there is something that we need to discuss or when you really need to trust me or me you. I will say this and I am not saying this to try to sway you, but I am saying this because it is a fact. I would take more time to figure out the best way to say it, but we don’t know how long until the rest of the people in the cart will wake up and I don’t wish to be overheard.”

“And that is?”

“We think we have a way to send you home, but we need to get some items to do it. At least some of what we need is held by the same people who brought you here and unlike what they did to bring you here it won’t require barrels of blood to be shed.”

“I… I can go home?”

With a smile the man stood and picked up his box to return it to the carriage, “It’s a distinct possibility.”

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Ante 11.8

It had been days since the group had gotten to the safe house and started their planning and Victor was being brought out in the middle of the night to test something using his cards that Sampa had said was very important to know. Something that, according to him, he thought he knew the answer to, but until he verified it he didn’t want to rely on it.

He was being guided by Veyonj and accompanied by Kralliyen in the dark of night as they moved away from the community and continued for well over two hours causing Victor to get a bit anxious about the trip.

Every time that Victor asked if it was much further he was met with the same sorts of responses from the pair.

Veyonj would respond that they would get there when they got to the right location while Kralliyen would assure him that she would protect him should something dangerous come up.

Eventually, they did come upon what Victor would describe as either a caravan graveyard or a fantasy trailer park as a multitude of carts, wagons and other forms of mobile travel were all around the area. Mostly they were the way you would expect with some being damaged but more than a few had been haphazardly slapped together, had the wheels removed, and even been reinforced to be more like a home than a means of transport.

Sniffing at the air, Kralliyen looks at Veyonj, “There is nobody else here yet these seem like they have had people in them recently. I also smell some animals that may be hiding under or in there.”

“Ah yes that’s very true,” Veyonj said without hesitation, “Sir Vinulette had me buy these while he is getting in contact with some other people and I was able to use communication with some of our other locations to find this. You’re probably smelling the people who delivered it.”

“Sir Vinulette wants to test which of these you can store in your card and which ones you can’t store in your card.”

“Why would that matter?” Victor asked, “I already showed him a lot of what I can do and told him plenty. Although I suppose I am glad to get out of the basement and enjoy some proper fresh air for a while.”

“That is a very good question,” Veyonj stated, “I don’t have an answer for you though. I was just told to take you here once all the items were set up and have you store them and then put them back one by one as needed. We don’t need any of it so if it breaks or is left behind it doesn’t really matter just stay here and when I point to one I want you to store it in your card. Then put it back where I point.”

“I don’t see the point in this.”

“Neither do I but if Sir Vinulette finds it important it is important.”

Having already emptied out all but two of his cards, as he wasn’t sure how to save a spell for later otherwise and he wanted to keep his spear, Victor was ready for this bit of testing.

Moving closer to the targets, Victor went to look inside the first one only for Veyonj to speak up.

“No, we just want you to do it without checking inside. We want to know what gets left behind and such. That’s apparently very important and you can back away from it to do it.”

“Only to a point,” Victor argued, “While there is a range it’s not massive. I think it has gotten bigger as I’ve practiced but I can’t exactly grab something from the other side of a football field.”

“You made a game using the feet of your enemy as a ball?” Kralliyen inquired, “I wish to learn about this game and how it is used to subdue your enemies.”

“No that’s not what… It’s just… It uses a normal ball that’s just the name of it. I’m surprised that the word translated though. Maybe because it was originally just the word foot and ball crammed together it works? Or maybe because I know how it was formed and… ah I can’t get sidetracked. I wanna finish this, get back, and then go to sleep. I’ll tell you about football and soccer and stuff later if you want.”

“Repair?” Kralliyen said quirking an eyebrow, “What does this foot ball have to do with a repair?”

“I didn’t say… wait does soccer in this common tongue mean repair?”

Veyonj has a slightly perplexed look on her face, “I don’t know what this word you said means, but it certainly isn’t repair.”

“It is in my tongue,” Kralliyen said with a fanged smile, “It seems he has started to try to learn my language even without his passive magic.”

“Guys, will you two just be quiet for a moment?” Victor sighed out, “I didn’t mean to get side tracked and this language thing is weird sometimes just… let’s get this silly test thing for Sampa done and over with.”

One at a time Victor started to pull the forms of transport and makeshift housing into a card and then placed it in another location with various results.

In some cases, the target would vanish completely leaving nothing beyond the natural imprint that remained after it was removed and it was placed in the new location just as one might expect.

Others had pieces of it that were left behind, such as a tarp that was put over the cart for protection from rain, sun, and other elements of nature. Sometimes a piece of wood or similar that was obviously put on haphazardly would be left behind as well.

The last thing that would be left behind was anything that was still alive. This included a few animals that Victor was told were in there specifically to test this and some plants that some people might use to grow a bit of fresh produce on long travels.

Victor was curious why there was nothing like a pot or soil to store them, but shrugged it off as something related to magic. Had he not been as sleep deprived and tired from the long march he might have asked some questions, but at this time he didn’t think too deeply of the issue.

When Victor had completed the requested task well over twenty different modes of transport and makeshift homes had been shifted from a line in one location to a line in a location about fifty feet in another direction.

“That’s the last one,” Veyonj said as what amounted to a two story makeshift dwelling was put down, “It looks like it might be breaking since some of the outside support was left behind, but I’m sure that this will be good to know.”

Taking out a bag of food and drink, Veyonj set it down before the other two, “Go ahead and get everything out of there. I’m going to check the inside to see how it managed on everything and then once we all eat and such since I’m sure you’re hungry like me we will get going.”

Once Victor and Kralliyen started to take out the food, Veyonj popped open a vial and drank the contents before taking out a scroll and something to write with as she went from one of the targets to the next in the order that she had Victor move them.

With each one, she wrote about what she saw both inside and out as well as what was left behind in the line where they all used to stand.

Eventually, she got everything written down except for the full details of what Victor transported last as it had collapsed to the ground due to the number of structural components that had been left behind.

“I think we can ignore the last carts specifics,” Veyonj said as she returned grabbing some of the leftovers that Victor and Kralliyen hadn’t eaten while she did her work, “Are you two ready to return?”

“I think that I will need to carry my master,” Kralliyen said, pointing to her side.

Victor had been leaning against her and was struggling to stay awake even as his eyes were closed and he only had a few twitches of his body to indicate that he wasn’t already asleep.

 

By the time the group returned to the base, Victor was placed in a bed and Kralliyen slept on the floor next to him immediately.

Rather than going to sleep herself, Veyonj woke up Sampa Vinulette and once he had readied himself started her report of the situation.

“I believe that Victor will be able to store a fully stocked ship assuming certain criteria are met Sir Vinulette.”

“That is very good news,” Sampa said as he took a bite from a slice of sour fruit to wake himself up, “Although I would like to know about the specifics that you noticed.”

“It seems that while he is able to store anything that he considers one item there are some interesting limitations. The most obvious is that we would not be able to have the masts and ropes set up ahead of time.”

“That could be an issue,” Sampa said with a nod, “Although not one that would be insurmountable. What else did you learn?”

“It seems that if he isn’t aware that there is stuff inside the item it is considered part of the item which means we will be able to store and transport a lot of stuff, but the one where he saw stuff inside of it, the stuff was left behind. This was verified with the cart that had no top on it.”

“He is also unable to store any plants or animals and I would assume people if they are alive, but the corpses of animals and people were able to be stored without issue. Luckily we did have enough other scents and stored it in a way that the gnoll didn’t notice it was there otherwise there might have been an issue.”

“It was an acceptable risk,” Sampa stated, “I had controlled your blood intake just in case. I take it you drank some after you were sure there was no danger?”

“Correct sir.”

“Good. I didn’t want to have to get you some more blood. Now continue with the report.”

“Of course sir,” Veyonj said with a slight tilt of her head, “Interior repairs were ignored but exterior ones that he noticed weren’t. Simply put, if he saw it as a superficial attachment or something it was not part of the storage, but if it was the same level of superficial attachment that he just didn’t see he was able to store it just fine. He was even able to store barrels filled with other things.”

“He also stated that the distance that he could store and expel things had gotten wider over time so it is possible that the rules for his storage have expanded as well.”

“Excellent,” Sampa responded with a smile, “Now please leave the room. I need to signal a contact that I wish to communicate with. Although I think I would like to test him one more time by trying to store a quiver full of arrows just to test if it is growing. If a tool is improved you need to test its limits after all.”

“Of course sir.”

Handing over the scroll that she had written everything on, Veyonj left the room.

Giving the papers a quick look over, Sampa burned it to ash before taking a few deep breaths, “I think that everything will line up. The transport, the backup transport, the potential army, and if I can trust the reports provided by that dwarf I think things are going to work better than I could have hoped.”

“The only question. Will we be allowed to access the travel tools that the others have access to or will they think it a step too far considering how much they try to avoid direct interactions?”

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Ante 11.7

Having gone through so much talking, some parts more argumentative than other parts, the conversation finally got to the part that had somehow been overlooked. The conversation that Victor was expecting to appear at any moment as it had become the proverbial elephant in the room.

Acting as translator Victor allowed the mixed race people at the table to start asking questions of Sampa at a pace that was impossible before. Because of this the conversation flowed with only slight pauses between the speakers.

“What is it that you,” Gralyin’della said with a slight growl, “No for what reason are my people here considering this is your war? Do you really expect me and my friends to put our lives on the line for something that doesn’t matter to us?”

“Right now I have no expectations of you,” Sampa announced, “You and your kin were not part of plans until the guard placed you all at my doorstep.”

“So we are prisoners?” she asked, putting her hands into fists, “You just want to lock us away so we won’t expose you?”

“Oh nothing of the sort. In the time that I have gotten to know you and learn about you as people who exist instead of theoretical people on an island I have some ideas of what we can do to help one another.”

“You want to help us?” the man with orc and elven lineage muttered, “Let me guess so you can exploit us?”

“Ciak’ra I will hand this,” Gralyin’della muttered to him, “After all I’ve known him the longest.”

“Oh no need for you to keep him from talking,” Sampa interjected with a wide smile, “In a sense he is right.”

A moment of stunned silence passed before Sampa continued, “I can see you aren’t as familiar with what I am talking about. See there is one thing I am always looking to obtain. This is for myself personally in my home, in the businesses that I take ownership of, and the country as a whole.”

“People capital.”

“Do you mean human cap…” Victor started before he realized why there would be a difference in this world, “Oh right never mind.”

He then continued to translate without interjecting and didn’t tell the Progonva Island people what he had said.

“You see, people’s capital is the knowledge, skill, and experience that a group or a single person possesses. This can be a great benefit to any organization regardless of if it is a family or a country.”

“I would like to get the mixed race people off of Progonva Island,” Sampa started to explain, “Because even if there is nothing combative needed I am sure they have a great many talents. Plus I am sure they wouldn’t mind living in the rest of the world. Of course, if they wish to stay on the island that would be their prerogative. I would not force it on any of them, but with everything going on power, skill, and surprise are all essential.”

“But how can we trust you?,” the human with elven blood in him quipped, “You could say one thing and do another. This talk has already told us that you are willing to.”

“Fair,” Sampa said and looked at the person who spoke up, “Truth be told you have no reason to fully trust me. I don’t hide the fact that I am willing to do things that others would find to be reprobate in execution. That said, I tend to only do that to people who give me a specific reason to do it. This tends to be in the form of attempted harm to me or anyone who I consider part of my literal or figurative family or is a threat to the same even if they aren’t aware of it.”

Sliding a knife across the table to the young man, Sampa smirks a little bit, “Feel free to be the representative of your people right now and use that knife to decide if you are something I should consider a threat Mr. Grotika’madiel.”

Picking up the knife the half elfs eyes went wide as he heard his name, not remembering providing it as he looked at the rest of his group.

“Ah do not worry. Information is easy to come by in the right situations. I believe this information was obtained under duress by someone who was acquainted with a Mr Quith.”

Regardless of if it was a bluff or the truth, Grotika’madiel felt his blood run cold as he looked at the knife in his hand.

“Now,” Sampa said to get the young man to focus again, “Approach me and decide what relationship you wish for your people to have with me.”

Gralyin’della tried to interject, but the woman with both dwarven and beastkin heritage told her to wait.

“But Alinar, this is a very important situation. What if something happens?”

“I know you like to take charge,” Alinar said as she flexed her arms just a touch, “But let him do as he needs to. He was the one to speak up after all.”

Looking at the knife in his hand he approached Sampa but took as long with a single step as it might take for the whole trip if he was going at a proper pace.

By the time he approached Sampa, he slammed the knife on the table, revealing a hint of blood on the blade that was mirrored by a red line going down his palm.

“If you are going to betray anyone… betray me.”

The young man’s legs were visibly shaking as he spoke, “But if you… If you betray the rest I’m willing to hurt myself to make sure you’re paid back.”

As Victor translated what was said he quickly returned to his chair in less time than it took him to take a single step on the initial journey.

Picking up the knife, Sampa handed it to Skerlet who started to clean off the blade.

“While I will say it is good you didn’t try to attack me, mostly because you would be dead if you had tried, it also wasn’t an act of pure submission either.”

Sampa stares at the half elf until the young man looks away, “That was a good choice. You don’t make your people into an enemy, but you also don’t show that you’re people deserve to be property. I would have done that if it was the right choice of course, but I’ll move on the path I think is best based on the answer you gave me.”

Another moment passed without anyone speaking up until eventually, Alinar cleared her through to garner the attention of everyone there, “How do you plan to… I mean you said you want to get our people off that forsaken island.”

The orcish man started to argue with her but got no response until he was finished talking.

“You know it’s true. It is the island of those who were forsaken! It is home to criminals with no further place to go and people like us who were abandoned there because of how we were born. I want to be able to live without fear of those on the other part of the island. I want to be able to make something of my life beyond what we have been. I want that for the people I care about and it’s why I dared to try to leave the island.”

Standing up to the orcish man and pushing her chair aside she stared at him, “I would do it again if I had the chance even if I knew everything that happened would happen. Do you want to know why?”

She barely waited for enough time to breathe before continuing, “Because I wanted to live in a place where I could live knowing it was by my own choice and not the choice of someone who didn’t think I was worth anything.”

Alinars voice got louder as tears started to flow down her cheeks, “Why didn’t my family protect me? Why did our home think of us as trash that they would banish? I suppose they only didn’t kill us because of some stupid reason.”

“Maybe they didn’t think we were even worth burying in their ground or they were scared our killers would save us. I don’t know and I don’t care.”

Pointing at Sampa, his staff, and Victor she continued, “But these people want us here. They want our people here and…”

The tears flowed stronger than before as her words slowed and softened, “I’ve never felt like anyone would want me. I’ve felt useful but never wanted. Even back home it was just because I was so strong and able to help do the labor. If someone else could have done that then I’m sure they wouldn’t have cared about me at all.”

Victor couldn’t help it and at this point was hugging the shorter woman from behind, “Hey it’s alright. They say the best revenge is living well. It’s proving the people who looked down on you wrong and I’m sure that you will do just that.”

When she hugs him back Victor can’t help but let out a small stifled scream and he pats her on the shoulder until she realizes what’s going on and let go of him.

“I’m sorry,” she said wiping tears from her eyes, “I just needed…”

With a wince, Victor rubs part of his side, “It’s fine. You just forgot your strength. Just… I’m pretty weak is all.”

Wiping her eyes a bit more the woman looks at him, “I wouldn’t say you’re weak.”

Without asking for permission or any hint of restraint she lifted up Victor’s shirt and started to feel his chest and stomach.

“Hey what are you doing?”

“See you’re certainly not strong but you’re not weak. Your body seems to be in an enhancement stage. I can see hints of sloth lingering but it’s leaving you. If I was to say someone is weak I would expect to see bones, fat, and not a hint of muscle. I can’t see your bones and I see some muscle. There is some fat but depending on how the muscle is done that’s good to have some, so long as it’s not all you have of course.”

Using his shirt to wipe away the rest of her tears, Alinar smiled up at him, “You must be active to end up like this.”

“I haven’t exactly been active. Mostly a lot of walking.”

The pair started to talk about Victor’s activities and how much walking, pack carrying, training, and the like could be seen as worth being called strong when Sampa tapped on his cup to draw attention back to him.

“I am unsure what you two are talking about, but I am sure it is off topic. As there was physical activity and then actions of the young lady I am assuming it was a courting ritual from her island but if you would delay doing that sort of activity until after we are done it would be greatly appreciated.”

Victor chose not to tell them what was said as he apologized and explained that there was a slight argument between them.

“Yes, but feeling you up and holding each other tight is something you should continue after the meeting. I would just say try to hide it from Ruuz. While many people of high status make use of their staff or others to help suppress their carnal desires she is technically your fiance and while I only did that for paperwork reasons as a sort of potential trap for a variety of people she is likely to need time to be convinced. Especially considering how long she was cuddling your unconscious body during the trip here while you were getting your new card.”

“She did what?”

“We can leave that for another time. Please get back to translating.”

“Fine… but I wanna talk about this later.”

“Of course.”

The next part of the conversation focused on Sampa’s plan to get some ships that aren’t attributed to any country to go to the island and offer them a ride here. His plan was to have some of them go on the ship as a way to verify this is true when they land on the island.

Sampa said if they wish to stay on the island all four could do so, but he would offer a ride to anyone who wishes to come to the country and start a life here so long as they are willing to help the kingdom against their enemy.

“And once everything is done I will ensure that they are all provided citizenship and that I will use some leverage on the delivery personnel to bring them here instead of the island so they need not have such hardships.”

“How are you going to promise those sorts of things?” the half elf asked in a huff, “If I remember right you said something about how the king is in hiding and you didn’t say that you’re a prince or anything so how can you promise this.”

Sampas’ lip curved into a smile that seemed to barely be physically possible. A smile that almost seemed to be a threat in its own right.

“Do you question my capabilities? There is a saying about how war is the best time to gain power. Those with the mind for it can gain land, money, slaves, and even literal power if they so desire. This is both directly and indirectly. I’ve already done the latter and if our enemy is doing as I expect I will be able to get the former as well.”

“I will easily be able to keep this promise if your people help us out and we win. If you don’t or we fail you could just become nomadic in nature and avoid the lands that found you to be worthless.”

Grotika’madiel tried to speak up but Sampa clapped his hands, “I think we are done for today. I have much to do and I have people capital within arms reach to use so it will be quite troublesome if I am not allowed to get working on it as soon as possible.”

“One last thing,” Gralyin’della said loudly, “There’s one thing I want to say about going on the boat ride home.”

“And what might that be?”

“I’d like to request Victor to come with us.”

Victor needed a moment to translate that.

“Why do you wish for Victor?”

“It doesn’t have to be him,” she explained, “I just thought you were more likely to let us take him as a hostage to guarantee our safety than you were Ruuz.”

Sampa couldn’t help but smile a bit, “I’ll consider your request. Now do as you like while I get to work. These next few days could spell success or failure.”

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Ante 11.6

With other people returning to the table, but Ruuz still not being allowed back, the conversations about war and combat had hit a standstill. The standstill was caused by Victor saying a phrase that he thought of as common knowledge that Sampa had gotten stuck on.

“It is a foolish statement that has no merit in the world, especially when the risks are as high as they are now,” Sampa said with an exasperated tone, “Just because someone is the enemy of your enemy does not automatically create a relationship between you, much less friendship. That is something that is usually grown over time due to various reasons such as connected desires and oftentimes connected dislikes.”

“Sure having the same enemy is a good starting point but there is no reason to think that having the same enemy alone is enough to make you friends. Especially if they are enemies because of different reasons but we disagree on the stuff we are angry at the other person for.”

“What if I said,” Victor interrupted, “That the enemy of our enemy is a useful tool to make use of?”

“Would that fit what you think better? It’s basically what the saying means anyway. I just thought it was worth bringing up since you said what you said.”

Quickly looking at the people from Progonva Island, Victor did a quick translation before going back and listening to Sampa.

“If that is what is meant they did a very poor job of turning it into an idiom,” Sampa muttered, “What Ruuz says about you is certainly true how you are smart but only in specific ways. If not for her and your cards I would have left you in the kingdom when it was attacked without a second thought.”

Rolling his eyes, Victor chose to remain quiet allowing the older man to continue.

“Regardless of the flawed idiom, when you look at the intent I suppose it could fit here. We are fairly certain that the people attacking the capital are basically considered enemies of the state to another kingdom because of some crimes they did in order to raise funds for their attack.”

“Because of that, we could fake some diplomats or something similar to that kingdom, since we are on good enough terms with them, to request they help us take back the capital and while we would have to pay some restitution since they likely to have losses in various ways we can minimize it by giving them some information that they shouldn’t have.”

“The problem with that,” Skerlet reminded from earlier, “Is that if we do that it will cripple both the capital’s defenses in the future and it will hinder us personally.”

“Didn’t you also say that it would likely result in a lot of innocent people dying as the soldiers spread?” Victor asked, “You basically said that you could expect large civilian casualties.”

“Which is why it is an option,” Skerlet reminded him, “Not a plan yet. Although if we have to sacrifice a third of the capital to save the whole kingdom it seems like a fine price to be paid if we can’t find a better potion.”

Sampa nodded his head, “Agreed. Not the ideal situation but better than allowing the people who will likely be trying to announce their rule if they haven’t already continued on their path.”

Kralliyen growled a bit, “I think getting a citizens uprising could be good. Have them fight for their home and have them prove that they can get what they want!”

“That would be possible, but harder to pull off since they have likely felt broken to an extent,” Veyonj started to explain to the gnoll, “When the castle floated away and the chains destroyed parts of the capital it caused a negative emotional state for many. This would be especially true for those who lost property or people that were important to them as a result of that event. Then the last royal seems to be gone and there have been attacks that can’t be ignored.”

“While it is true that we arranged it we knew it would be better to have everything upfront than to be hiding in the shadows so we can’t count on that, but we can’t rule it out. Right now we have open communications with that dwarven woman that Victor went on his trip with. We are going to use her as a means of keeping in touch with the capital for now.”

The beastkin waited for Victor to translate what had been said before continuing, “We also chose her because of her ability to leave the capital easily if she wants. Between the means that we gave her and her own ability, which I think will work regardless, she will be able to leave quickly enough if there is trouble.”

“Sir Vinulette, would you like to inform us on how the information networks are expected to work?”

“The most important information network right now is likely going to be the brothel.”

This caused a slight murmur from those who were not fully in Sampa’s employ.

“I see that you are unsure why that is. The truth is certain things can loosen tongues. Alcohol is one of them, but many people will know their limits or drink at home and various other things that will limit the loose lips and you need to approach them which gives a certain level of risk so while I do have some bartenders I trust, they are less reliable and often get less information than a brothel.”

“This is because when a man is choosing or taking someone to the room to enjoy their paid time there are many things that happen.”

“They like to make themselves seem important and powerful. This can be done via various means. Some of the methods aren’t too useful to us here such as showing off their muscles, their sexual prowess, or their financial status by providing them with various gifts.”

“While the girls will like getting new dresses, necklaces, and anything else that they are offered it doesn’t directly provide us information in the same way as a man bragging.”

“But what if they aren’t anyone important,” Victor said translating for the people from Progonva Island who were both curious but unsure why this mattered to them, “It’s kind of pointless to get a person to brag if they have nothing to brag about.”

“That is where connections and things they have seen or known about come in,” Sampa said with a smile, “See even if they themselves don’t have anything to talk about they likely have some form of connection that will allow them to be able to brag about said connection.”

“Ah,” Victor reacted, “It’s not what you know it’s who you know.”

“While that is true to an extent,” Sampa said, “A much better idiom by the way, it is not completely true. After all no matter who you know if you are incompetent enough you will be unable to get anything just like if you are skilled enough but have no means to get noticed it’s the same as having nothing.”

“That being the case it is basically what I am saying. What and who a person knows can become a point of bragging by showing you have powerful connections or information that can be used to increase status when bragging.”

“It has not been uncommon for people to claim a connection to me when talking to others. Sure it’s not always true, but it happens and that is why we won’t fully trust anything said. Although with enough confirmation we can start to assume that the information gathered has some basis in truth.”

“In fact, we already have some information from that source to assume that many of the troops who came to the capital to help with the festivities have been killed. Not enough to cause the largest panic but enough to be noticed. I just hope it was people who are loyal to the crown that died.”

“What?” Victor asked loudly, “Why would you want that?”

Sampa waved at Skerlet as he started to eat and drink a light snack.

“There is no official standard for when you join the ranks of those of a guard or soldier, but there are different and while not official, the way that people phrase their devotion is often used to see a person’s mindset when they join.”

“Typically it goes one of three ways. First is that people devote themselves to the crown. Then there are those who devote themselves to the country. The last one that is still common is devoting themselves to the people of the country.”

“While there are no official records, Sir Vinulette has gathered a lot of information from various sources and used that to compare their devotion and the way they acted after they made such a declaration.”

“Is there anything you would like me to omit sir?”

“It’s fine,” Sampa said, “You may tell him everything about this topic. As he isn’t from here it is better to tell him the specifics since he hasn’t had the chance to experience it first hand. At least not enough to be worth mentioning.”

“Of course sir,” Skerlet nodded, “First historically speaking those who devoted themselves to the crown have been the ones most likely to do the most horrendous things if the royals asked it. This includes casual murder, rape, torture, and while it might seem less horrible compared to the rest stealing from the citizens. Although when you consider that they stole everything from communities so they slowly starved to death if they were unable to forage or hunt well enough for their immediate needs I would argue it is much worse.”

“Those who devoted themselves to the kingdom were the ones who were somewhere in the middle. They would usually obey the orders, but they would demand reasons and they would help people escape the situation if they thought it was deserved. That is of course only if they thought they could manage it as they wouldn’t risk their own life, status, or much else to help others if they were ordered to do something foul.”

“Lastly those who devoted themselves to the people were the ones most likely to be treasonous. They would prioritize the people over the rule of law or even the royals and the kingdom if the royals put down the horrible activities. There was even a time where they attempted to commit a coup early in the kingdom’s life because of how the kingdom was starting out.”

Skerlet waited for Victor to finish translating before continuing, “Of course, that is not true of everyone in every category, but it is true enough that if we have to sacrifice people who are in the military or guard we would do our best to sacrifice those who pledged loyalty to the crown as they are most likely to betray everyone and march alongside the ones who claim ownership of the kingdom.”

“So you’re saying that we can’t trust them?” Victor asked, “I know at least a couple that I think we could trust.”

Sampa took this moment to speak up, “We are not saying there is not a single soldier or guard that we can’t trust or work with. In fact, we got a few that we do already. Two of which know that I am not dead despite what the general consensus is.”

“That said. There is a difference between trusting a soldier and trusting the military.”

“Think of this as you would a community of people. Start with your direct family. You know them and you, assuming they aren’t reprobates or the like, trust them. When it comes to your neighbors you probably know and trust to a lesser degree. The larger the community the less you have the ability to know, trust, and understand each individual member and eventually if it gets large enough horrible things can happen to a good sized section of it and it might have no direct impact on you and you might not even care that it happened.”

“The same is true in this situation. If you have specific people you think you can trust I’m willing to look into them. That said, The trust that may or may not be given is based on what I can find on them. It will not leak into anyone they are affiliated with, they work with under or who works under them. It is a one to one only analysis. So if you have anyone you think you can trust, tell me their name right now.”

“Ah well, it might take a moment to remem…”

“If it takes you any time to remember their name obviously you truly think they are worth note and trust. I won’t go hunting for someone that might not even exist just because you have a vague recollection of someone who was nice once. Now you have until I count to five to tell me a name and if you can I will let you tell me about them.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Elya,” Victor said, taking a few deep breaths before continuing as Sampa stopped, “She’s the only one I want to mention because she’s the only one I remember the name of. I won’t say she’s a good person, but if I’m being honest she reminds me a lot of you in some ways.”

“A fine bit of praise if ever I heard one. Skerlet, start to look into this Elya woman. I’m curious what she is like if she has that comparison.”

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Ante 11.5

When Victor and everyone else entered the room on the first floor of the building’s underground that they had been told to go to they saw a large table was set up with a large assortment of different choices for breakfast. There were meats, loaves of bread, a thin soup that was nearly a broth, and a bowl of fruit set up that anyone could take one from.

Seated at the table waiting for them were Sampa, his slaves, and Ruuz who looked a bit disheartened until she saw Victor which caused her to smile.

Shortly Veyonj entered the room with plenty of tableware and a few pitches with water that she set out.

“Since I’m sure everyone is hungry, breakfast is going to be served while we talk. Master Vinulette thought it would be the best way to get everyone here and to not have people distracted by the morning hunger.”

“There was no need to explain that,” Sampa said with a slight chuckle, “Victor and his slave aren’t that simple and the ones from Progonva are either deaf or don’t understand enough to fully understand what you said. Unless you have taught Gralyin’della a lot more than I expected you to and she has more skills in her vernacular than I would expect.”

The elven gnoll leaned over the table a bit, as she sat down, baring her teeth just enough to ensure they could be seen.

“I’m not… I understand enough.”

“Excellent,” Sampa mockingly cheered with a slight clap, “I hope your fellow compatriots are starting to pick things up as well so you and Tsuwin don’t need to play translator with each other.”

Victor cleared his throat drawing the eyes of those at the table to him, except for the eyes from the Vinulette family which were all already on him.

“I can take care of the translation between them but I will need to have everyone quiet as I do it.”

Having already told Kralliyen what to do he snapped his fingers at one of the Progonva citizens then spoke to them about nothing specifically before snapping again at his gnoll slave so she could get him back to the language he needed.

“As long as I can make sure those who I am not in communication with aren’t talking I can manage.”

Sampa hid a smile as he took a mental note on this.

“See Uncle Sampa I told you that Victor was great with language. You should have believed me.”

“Oh, it’s not that I didn’t believe you dear, but having not seen it first hand I couldn’t be sure. Remember no matter what the only way to completely confirm anything is to have done or seen it yourself. Otherwise, you aren’t trusting in the proof that it is true, you are trusting in the word of someone else who says the proof exists.”

Victor couldn’t help but think that Sampa would be someone to try to get into politics if he had been brought to earth instead of the other way around.

“First I suppose I should let you know that there is going to be a war. Not the most obvious sort, but a war nonetheless with a possible secondary war depending on how the neighbors act.”

As Sampa talked, Victor would indicate needing time to tell the others about what was going on before letting him continue. This was to make sure as little as possible was lost due to him not having to recall every detail over a longer period of time.

“Thanks to my connections,” Sampa stated, “I have a lot of information that would normally be beyond most people’s reach. The main reason that everything that is happening is happening is because of the fact that long ago the land that the kingdom is on used to be part of another ruling class. Something that is quite common when you look at history.”

“The people that last ended up leaving to other lands or assimilating into the new ways of the ruling class. Let’s be honest. For the most part, as long as there is no dramatic change to the way people live their lives they won’t care about who they pay their taxes to.”

“It is when the taxes are raised to the point they can’t feed themselves of they see everyone that they love and care for, or of course, themselves, are forcefully conscripted because of conflict that they start to care so even if Skies Watch falls those who live beyond its walls and have never seen the castle in the sky are unlikely to care.”

“So you’re saying that the people want to attack because of the fact this used to be their land?” Victor asked after finishing his translation, “How long ago did this happen?”

“I don’t recall exactly,” Sampa admitted, “It was long enough that even the long lived races don’t have anyone who is capable of personally remembering it. There are history books, but both sides likely exaggerated or outright lied about things. Remember if you didn’t personally see, realize, or experience it you have to assume there is a possibility that there is a lie. Even if it’s only a statistically insignificant possibility it still exists.”

“Getting back on topic the current king is out of the kingdom and at a minimum, there are people within its walls that are trying to figure out what is going on, but none of them will be able to find anything unless they share the same connections I have.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kralliyen almost growled, “How can you be so sure that they won’t find anything when you could?”

“That is a very good question,” Sampa smiled, “Now onto more important topics many soldiers in the capital died the night that we left and my house was blown up. There is nothing that survived except for the surrounding walls because it was both far enough away from the core explosion and the enchantments that were put it on gave it what it needed.”

“When they made their first move it is likely that they were hoping that they could get rid of the whole royal family, but that whore royal barely stayed in the castle, and since they had spent so long trying to do other things it was likely a mistake on their part when they realized that there was someone else that could be king.”

From there Sampa went on to explain various political and social connections regarding the transferring of rule as security and various other plans, including one for a new castle that was already in motion before he went onto the next part.

“The only reason that the king is still alive is that the people who did this did it with means that they shouldn’t have access to. Ruuz please leave while I continue. I think it would be safer if you didn’t hear what I have to say next.”

“But you said I could be a part of this,” Ruuz argued, “You said that I have been good and that I could be helpful.”

“Yes I did,” Sampa agreed, “But being a part of something doesn’t mean that you are everything that makes it whole. Veyonj, take her to the main part of this place. If anyone asks say that she is a godchild of yours who is visiting because of whatever excuse you can make up.”

Without a word from the beastkin, but a lot of arguments from Ruuz, the young lady was removed from the meeting.

“Good now I would like everyone who isn’t under my personal employ and Victor to leave as well.”

Kralliyen growled a bit at this but stopped when Victor spoke.

“I can understand Ruuz, but Kralliyen will stay because I will tell her anything anyway because she wants to protect me and will be annoying if I don’t tell her.”

“I don’t think she should know. If she knows it means she can never be outside of our view and she will never truly get her freedom which I know you want for her.”

Victor smiles a bit, “Well I already tried to free her. She is as stubborn as a mule in that regard, but I’ll ask.”

Turning his attention to his slave, Victor took a slight breath, “Kralliyen if you ever want to be freed you have to go downstairs I don’t want to order you to.”

“Is he threatening us? Should I attack him?”

This question put both Skerlet and Witbelanc into a prepared combat state.

“I changed my mind… go downstairs.”

“But master I…”

“That’s an order! Get your furry behind downstairs now!”

Victor’s raised voice gave the gnoll pause, but eventually, she bowed her head, “As you command.”

While she did go downstairs there was the sound of claws on stone that Victor tried to ignore as he asked the Progonva citizens to go downstairs as well.

When the table only had Victor, Sampa, Skerlet, Witbelanc, and Twusin at it there was a slight pause.

“Alright I will be upfront.”

Turning his attention to Victor, Sampa leaned forward and intertwined his fingers, “The people who attacked, and are still attacking the kingdom are the same people who brought you here to this world.”

As Victor went to speak, Sampa raised his voice, “Don’t interrupt me.”

After waiting to confirm that he was quiet Sampa continued, “The people who brought you here should not have been able to. Do you remember a woman you met named Leahla?”

Victor needed about two seconds before he recalled who that name was attached to, “Yes.”

“Great, then I don’t have to explain as much as I would have. The group she belongs to is my information exchange, for want of a better term. I provide them with information, money, and tools and they do the same for me. Although for me I almost exclusively get information since to me knowledge is more useful even if money is the most versatile.”

“Information, tactics, and whatever else you might want to refer to it as, allows you to use everything else to the best result. That trade is how I was able to know what was about to happen and how they got the tools to more easily get the king out of the kingdom.”

“Why would they bother?” Victor asked, “They don’t seem to care about what happens to anyone really.”

“You’re not far off, but you couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“They do care about all the people that are around,” Sampa emphasizes, “But they also don’t want to overstep what they see as their natural right to interfere. They take things that, in their words, shouldn’t belong and keep it to just themselves and use it to work on capturing other things that shouldn’t be. Beyond that they want the people to live and change their own lives.”

“The only reason that they are helping Skies Reach at all is because your family that was killed to get items similar to your cards are the ones attacking it.”

“Not my family… classmates. We were doing a… you know what it doesn’t matter. So the people who brought me here, killed them, and whatever else are the ones who broke the castle off the chains and are causing everything?”

“If my information is correct,” Sampa reiterated, “Even if it isn’t I got enough people and confirmation that I think it is time to decide what we want to do next and where we are going.”

“Then why didn’t you have Zelathyn join our group? She has one of the artifacts that you were talking about!”

Sampa froze at those words, “Don’t leave all your money in one bank.”

“What?”

“It is a saying about how if you leave everything that is useful to you then you will have nothing if it is destroyed. It is why I am so easily and willingly able to destroy my own home. If I lived like I am technically able to, I would have had a home that would rival the castles of royalty, but that would mean people would realize how well I am doing and cause a lot of questions.”

“You see I have an idea for what to do with her. I have plans in the works for her and am giving her tools to work with while in the kingdom along with some escape routes just in case. I use every tool in my reach no matter how good or near destruction it might be.”

“You might think I’m just going to sacrifice her and that is not even close to the truth. Am I willing to if there is no other choice? Of course. Just like I sacrificed my own leg. There is nothing I would not sacrifice if the reward is good enough and there is nothing I wouldn’t save if there is a good enough reason to. It is all about looking at things from many angles.”

Sampa stood and walked up to Victor, “The choice I made to get Ruuz into my home. The choice I made to stay in jail when I could have easily gotten out through legal and illegal means. The choice I made to have you spied on and not killed. The choice I made to not save my parents when I was their only hope.”

“Did I wish for them to die? Of course not, but there was no choice I could make that would allow them to live without causing the destruction of three different communities all so they could live two more seasons.”

Victor went to speak but found the older man had put two fingers over his lips to silence him before returning to his seat.

“I didn’t want the rest to know about my information network and if you tell your slave she will never have a moment she isn’t being watched until the day she dies.”

Suddenly wearing a bit of a smile on his face, Sampa held one of his hands in the other as he continued.

“Now the main questions are how shall we go to war?”

“How obvious will we make our attacks, who will be the focus of our attacks, and how many innocent lives are we willing to sacrifice for it?”

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