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Court of Thorns

By C.J. Carella

Prologue

Aristobulus Highgarden raised his head when he heard the door to his cell begin to clink open. He wasn’t hungry, so it was too early for chow. Unexpected visitors could mean only one thing.

This is it, he thought, too tired and miserable to care very much.

He didn’t know how long it had been since he had respawned back at the Nerf Herder’s compound and found himself manacled with Witch-Hunter Chains, which drained the wearer of Mana and prevented spell-casting. Weeks, at least. Maybe months. It felt like he had been in the damp dark cell for ages. The discomfort had been bad, but what had driven him nearly insane had been the boredom. All he could do was lay on the straw-covered ground with nothing to do but smell his own crap and wonder how everything could go so wrong.

The door creaked open and light from a lamp shone down on Aristobulus, who blinked dumbly at its painful brightness. Someone was entering the cell, but he couldn’t make out who it was in the glare of the lamp; he heard footsteps getting closer.

“Hello, Aristobulus,” someone said in English. “What was your name on Earth?”

“Sean. Sean Rickard,” he said hoarsely, and felt his parched lips crack painfully when he spoke. His jailors gave him food and water, but never enough of either. “Are you here to kill me?”

“No. I wouldn’t bother talking to you in that case. My name is Jake Duchamp. You know me as Archmage Jacobus of the Council of the Wise.”

“Yes, of course. We didn’t know you were from Earth.”

“Would it have made any difference if you did?”

“Maybe. We would have tried to recruit you, I think. At least, I would have suggested it. Kaiser made the final decisions, though.”

Kaiser Wrecker was dead, or so he had been told. Struck down by Hawke Lightseeker in single combat, supposedly. Aristobulus had been elated. He didn’t think he’d ever hated anybody more than he’d hated the leader of the Nerf Herders.

“Kaiser made a lot of mistakes. But you helped him do a lot of damage.”

“I had no choice. We all had to follow his orders.”

Jacobus didn’t sound very sympathetic when he replied. “You know, just before I was dragged to the Realms, I heard that excuse a lot: ‘I was following orders.’ Germans loved to use that line after they lost the war. You went along and helped Kaiser murder thirty-three people in the Council’s Tower. I didn’t like many of them, but they deserved better than having their throats cut in their sleep, or getting shot in the head when they tried to defend themselves.”

Aristobulus shrugged. “I got shot in the head, or that’s what they tell me. I don’t remember much of it, but at least it was quick.”

“You Reincarnated. My colleagues didn’t have the luxury, except for the handful who invested in a Soul Jar.”

Aristobulus felt too tired to beg for his life, but he gave it a half-hearted try. “We all swore oaths to obey Kaiser. Final Death if we broke them. By the time we realized he was a power-hungry bastard, we were stuck.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Nobody made you swear to behave like a barbarian, though. Your little band of brothers has ninety-six counts of rape to their name, just to mention one kind of crime. And those are the victims willing to testify to that.”

“I never raped anyone.”

All he’d been interested in had been magic. Mastering the Elements, feeling his Mana pool become stronger, those had been his drugs, sex, and rock and roll. He’d seen what some of his guild mates were doing, had even complained to Kaiser once or twice, but eventually the reality had sunk in; as long as they were useful, the ‘active duty’ Nerf Herders could do whatever the hell they wanted in their private lives. Aristobulus had learned to withdraw to his study and ignore the screams and the ugly laughter. And he had known what Kaiser did to Rowena regularly and looked the other way.

“I didn’t do those things,” he added. “But I did let them happen. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it, but it’s a start. That’s why I’m here. There might be some hope for you yet.”

“What do you want?”

After getting used to the idea that there was no way out of this mess, the mere possibility that he might return to his magic nearly brought tears to his eyes. What if Jacobus was lying? That would be the cruelest torture anyone could inflict on him, to give him hope only to take it away.

“The Council will secure your release. You will have to pay hefty fines for your crimes, of course. Hope you kept some expensive loot in your Bonded Vault, because all property you held outside it has already been seized.”

“I can pay. I have over a dozen platinum coins and a thousand gold denars, plus lots of items.”

As soon as he spoke, Aristobulus wondered if the whole thing had been a ruse to get him to reveal how much stuff he had in his Vault, the personal pocket dimension only he could reach. Now that they knew, they could torture him until he coughed up all the cash and items he’d mentioned.

“That will do, for a start,” the Archmage said. “You will also have to swear an oath of servitude to the Council of the Wise.”

“More oaths.”

“They will be far less restrictive than what Kaiser made you swear. We aren’t monsters, but we can’t take the chance that you will betray us or try to make a break for it.”

“Yes, of course.” It was a better deal than his current predicament. “I’ll do it.”

“I’m not done yet. You will have to accept a pretty dangerous Quest as well. That’s the main reason I persuaded the Council to give you a second chance.”

“I’m listening. Could I have a little water while you tell me?”

“Here you go,” Jake said, handing him a bottle he magically produced from his Vault. It was chilled water with a dash of lime and even a bit of sugar mixed in, and was the best drink Aristobulus had ever tasted in his life.

“Something is happening to the Malleus Mallum,” Jacobus went on, and Aristobulus started coughing as he choked on the lemonade.

“That hell-hole! I hate that place!” he yelled when he got the cough under control.

“Well, it’s getting worse, and you are one of the few who has reached the Deepest Pits and lived to tell about it.”

“That’s how I hit level twenty,” he admitted, and shivered when the bad memories came to the surface. “The things down there, they don’t just kill you, you know. They like to make it last. I’ve blocked out most of what happened, but what little I remember is enough to give me nightmares for the rest of my life.”

“I can sympathize, buddy, but that’s the deal if you want out of here. You’ll need to guide a party into the Labyrinth.”

“Why? What is happening to it?”

“For starters, its monsters have been getting loose and tearing up the countryside.”

“That’s not supposed to happen. Other than Events, once every month or so.”

“Not Events. Those come with warnings beforehand so the civilians can go to shelter and Adventurers can show up and collect valuable prizes. These are just appearing without warning. Elite monsters. Started happening last week, and it’s getting worse. The City Prefect had to mobilize the Ninth Legion, which he didn’t do even when the Trogg Undercity was discovered. Things are getting serious here.”

“And you want me to help.”

“It’s the price of your release. The alternative is pretty bad. They executed your pal Naruto yesterday.”

“He wasn’t my pal. How bad was it?”

“Bad. The Imperials like to put up a show. Drawn and quartered. Then, after he Reincarnated, they dragged him out and did it again. When he came back from that, they burned him to death. The rest were simple beheadings. The last couple of times he didn’t even know who he was or why people were doing that to him.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“It’s a rough way to go, all right.”

“I’ll do it. Who else is coming?”

“I’m talking to a couple other Herders. Maybe Amelia Blueflame.”

“She wasn’t that bad. I mean, she’s a bitch, but she didn’t like the stuff Kaiser was into.”

“She and Zippo are the most likely candidates.”

“Zippo is crazy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Two or three mage types can’t go into a Labyrinth alone.”

“Of course not. We’ll send a few City Watchmen along. Elite Cohort. And, if I can get him, someone from outside the city.”

Aristobulus could think of only one person that Jacobus might be interested in.

“Oh, no.”

“Yeah. I want to wrangle Hawke Lightseeker for this expedition.”

“Oh, no,” Aristobulus repeated.

One

“Dammit! I’m getting married in two days, in case you haven’t noticed!”

Saturnyx’s stern but calm voice acted like a bucket of cold water. Hawke Lightseeker began to protest, thought better of it, and nodded.

“Okay, you are right. I was thinking of downing a couple of glasses of that new brandy the Dwarves brought to town. I guess doing an hour of Mana Channeling is better for my health.”

Hawke sighed as he sat down in the lotus position, which was a little hard in the leather pants he was currently wearing. Normally he did his Channeling naked, but that wouldn’t work in the Domain Lord’s office in Orom, where a councilor could walk in at any moment. Flashing town officials wouldn’t be proper, or good for morale. Well, Mistress of Coin Antana might appreciate the view, but not the rest.

Yeah, yeah.

It took a few moments to settle down, activate Tranquil Mind, and let go of everything except the flow of Mana through his body. He still didn’t understand the mysterious energy that allowed the use of magic and a whole bunch of abilities one might as well call superpowers. In the Realms, it permeated everything, living or inert. Matter and energy were interchangeable; he had learned that in high school and thought that Mana was a way to tap the energy bound in matter. Or maybe the Makers had simply infused everything in the Realms with the stuff for some reason. To make their inhabitants stronger, perhaps, or, if his new acquaintance Jake the Wizard was right, to breed super-soldiers to use in an endless war.

Whatever it was, Mana could make you stronger, faster, and more durable than humans or anything that lived on Earth. It came in a variety of colors or flavors, based on the Element, Force, or School of Magic it empowered. And it flowed inside living bodies through a complex network similar to the circulatory system, except that instead of one heart, it had seven. They were called Chakras, energy gateways that needed to be opened to reach one’s full potential.

Hawke had one Chakra left to open. After awakening the Crown Chakra, opening the next two (Heart and Throat) had been shockingly easy. It had taken about six hours of meditation for each of them, and his main problem had been making time in between the dozens of things he had to get done every day. As a result of the two open gateways, his Mana had increased by another twenty percent, and his Mana regain was up by another two points per minute. More importantly, he’d gained some special abilities from them. The Throat Chakra let him communicate telepathically through Mana pulses, and granted him a Shout attack that unleashed sonic shockwave on everything around him. The Heart Chakra had raised his Health by ten percent and improved his Advanced Mana Sight’s ability to identify emotions in others.

All that remained was his Third Eye.

The Crown Chakra had given him a ton of insight about his energy network and its connections. He could feel every node pulsing with power, and see concentrations of all the diverse ‘flavors’ of magic he had unlocked. The Elements were the simplest: Fire was bright orange, Death a deep purple, Life a warm, refreshing green-yellow, Light a brighter, sharper shade of yellow, and Darkness inky black. Then there were the Forces: Celestial shone in intense golden hues, Order came as an unblinking whiteness, Mind a pastel pink, and Chaos appeared as a swirl of many colors, speckled with black motes. He also knew two Schools of Magic that combined different Elements and Forces to produce unique results. Twilight was a swirl of yellow and black and Undeath a sickly green with purple hues. Each concentration of colorized Mana used its own sub-channel, staying away from the others.

Pure Mana was a pale blue that thrummed with potential. It could become anything. Hawke suspected that at higher levels he would be using it more often than the rest, or perhaps exclusively. Now that he was a Mana Mystic, he could do some amazing stuff with Pure Mana. He followed its flow through his body until it reached his Third Eye. Unfurling the previous six Chakras had involved a lot of finesse, except for the Root Chakra, which he had blown open, with painful and near-fatal results.

From the looks of it, unlocking the last one was going to be like solving a puzzle, or beating a Rubik’s Cube. The energy ‘veins’ that led to the Third Eye were thin and tangled together. Forcing them open would damage them and send uncontrolled bursts of Mana into his body. After what happened to his Root Chakra, he had no intention of risking doing that to his brain. He’d probably die or lose what passed for his mind.

Instead, he gently coaxed Mana through the network until it found the blocked pathways, and tried to carefully twist them open. Even the slightest miscalculation sent spikes of misery right through his brain like the mother of all migraines. He’d been making progress, however, and…

“Lord Hawke!”

“Son of a bitch!” Hawke shouted, his concentration gone. His head began to throb painfully and he leaped to his feet, grabbing at his temples.

Centurion Marko Clades of the Sunset Legion stared wide-eyed at Hawke. “Lord Hawke! Are you all right?”

“I’m just peachy,” he said through clenched teeth. “Bad timing, Marko, but it’s not your fault. I probably should have hung a tie over the doorknob, or something.”

“I don’t understand, lord.”

“My bad. Carry on. What can I do for you?”

“A patrol just returned, my lord. They met a stranger on the road who demanded to see the ruler of the Domain. He struck down several men, none of them fatally, but showed that he was far too powerful for a fourth level Warrior and ten regulars to handle. His level was too high for Sergeant Dekimo to identify.”

“Dammit.”

Adventurers could only see the level of people or creatures no more than fifteen levels above theirs. That made the newcomer level nineteen at a minimum.

“All right,” Hawke said. “Assemble another mounted troop, and put half the Adventurers on duty on it. Alert the Guild and have them send a balanced six-man party to join it. Where did the patrol find the stranger?”

“Twelve miles to the west, along Traders’ Rut.”

That was one of Orom’s main roads, leading to mountain pass that connected the Sunset Valley with the western Imperial road network. It was heavily traveled and was linked to dozens of villages along the way. The guy hadn’t killed anybody yet, but that might change. He’d better attend to this personally.

Sorry, honey, but I’ve got a headache and a dangerous Adventurer to deal with.

“As soon as the troop and Guild attachment are ready, send them there. I’m sure Kinto has already alerted the Town Guard.”

“Yes, my lord,” Marko said, looking a bit awkward.

There had been some friction ever since Hawke had peeled off about half of the Town Guard to build the Sunset Legion – a ‘legion’ with fewer than fifty effectives, but you had to start somewhere – and Marko had become its commander. Kinto had remained in charge of the Town Guard, saying that it was as large a force as he felt comfortable commanding. There was already a rising sense of competitiveness among the two military branches that might turn nasty as time went on.

“I’ll be on my way, then,” Hawke told Marko.

“My lord?”

“I’ll be flying Blaze to go meet the invader. If he turns out to be more than I can handle, I will fall back and join up with you.”

“Very well, my lord.”

Hawke returned Marko’s parting salute and headed out. Time to see who had decided to interrupt his meditation and give him a headache.

Guess we’ll find out just how dangerous we all are, Hawke told his sword as the sleek shape of Blaze descended onto the town square.

Two

<I see him!> Blaze announced.

Blaze’s vision could make an eagle look near-sighted. It took Hawke a moment to spot the lone figure walking down the middle of the road as if he owned the place. As the Drakofox flew closer, he was able to make more details. The stranger was wearing a weird straw contraption over his head that covered it completely, as if the guy had decided to wear a bucket for a hat, with a small openings on the front to let the wearer see. Considering it was near the end of June (or Juno in the local language), it must be pretty hot in there.

The rest of the outfit had a vaguely Asian motif to it, something he’d only seen a couple of times in Akila, which had visitors from all over the local continent and beyond. The man’s deep purple tunic reached all the way to his knees; it had wide sleeves and a cloth belt tied off on the side with an intricate knot. Inscriptions of the magical kind were embroidered over the tunic and the belt, along with what Hawke thought were Chinese or Japanese characters. His footgear consisted of foot wrappings under simple sandals. He was armed with a pair of scabbarded swords thrust through the belt, and Hawke would bet money they were katana-type weapons, one longer, one shorter. Samurai style.

Did my life just turn into an anime story?

<The stranger’s clothing suggests he comes from the land of Zhongon, a vast continent across the Sea of Pearls,> Saturnyx info-dumped. <It lies east of Terra Nostra, where we are located.>

You could even say the Far East, Hawke thought as Blaze flew over the stranger, who stopped walking and craned his basketed head to watch the circling Drakofox.

Well, he’s come a long way just to piss me off.

<Burn?> Blaze asked eagerly.

Not yet. Let’s see what he wants first.

Hawke instructed Blaze to land about a hundred feet ahead of basket-head and got off the magical saddle, which obligingly released all the straps that kept him from doing a header at two thousand feet. He walked towards the waiting man, his black armor clinking with each step. The stranger was about the same height as Hawke, but looked smaller, since he wasn’t wrapped in metal from head to toes with oversized shoulder protectors and evil-looking helmet.

Horosha (Half-Yosei)

Level ??(20) ?? Tier 1 Entity

Health 4,567 Mana 4,955 Endurance 3,166

Ok, I’m a little impressed, Hawke thought before turning on his Advanced Mana Sight.

The man had Sidhe blood, so the Yosei must be a Fae species like Elves or Dryads. His Mana Channels flowed with torrents of energy, and all his Chakra were open. Not only that, but there was something else about his Heart and Root Chakras; they seemed denser somehow, acting not only as gateways but as places where power was condensed into something greater than ordinary Mana.

<Those are Mana Cores,> Saturnyx told him. <He is a formidable opponent. And he is a Tier 1 entity. Fighting him even with Blaze’s help will be extremely risky.>

More Cores. I didn’t even know that you could have a personal Core! Hawke protested.

So far, he’d encountered Dwelling, Fortification and Proving Ground Cores. All of those applied to places, not people, although he had fought a Demon who had a Dungeon Core inside its guts. But now that he’d heard of Mana Cores, he wanted one. He also had no idea what a Tier was, but he figured that people who didn’t have a Tier were probably weaker than those who did. A diplomatic solution seemed like the best option. Hawke stopped when he was thirty feet away, and the two armed men silently eyed each other for a moment.

“Greetings,” Hawke said, carefully weighing his words. “You have entered the Sunset Valley Domain.”

He didn’t extend a welcome to the guy, since anyone with Fae blood might take advantage of an offer of hospitality. You had to be cagey when dealing with the Sidhe.

“So they tell me,” the stranger – Horosha – replied. His Vulgate had a slight accent. “You are the one I seek. Hawke Lightseeker. I have heard a great deal about you.”

“People like to tell stories, I guess. Hope you didn’t take them too seriously.”

“By the contrary, I do. I was asked to test your mettle. To find out if the stories had a kernel of truth within them, or if they were so much hot air.”

“I don’t like taking tests.”

“Refusing this test is not an option,” Horosah said.

The stranger in the basket hat didn’t make any gestures or go through the motions of a spell, but by the time he was done speaking, a glowing dome of energy appeared out of nowhere. It was over a hundred feet wide – and it surrounded him and the Stranger while leaving Blaze outside. The Drakofox roared and cut loose with a stream of Mind-Fire, which washed over the dome without any apparent effect.

“A Dueling Dome is impervious to most forms of damage,” Horosah informed Hawke. “It will not release those inside until one of them is defeated.”

“Okay, then,” Hawke said, and cast Death Stare at the Half-Yosei. If basket-head wanted a fight, he got a fight.

The spell he threw at Horoshah was the deadliest one in his roster. Enhanced with Chaos and dual-casting, as well as the bonuses of his Mana Mystic class and Thanatos armor, plus an additional +300% damage increase for a mere 30 extra Mana, the spell inflicted a massive 4,080-6,800 Death damage and 1,200-2,000 Chaos damage, for a base cost of 2,650 Mana, which his bonuses to Death magic reduced to a mere 132. His Spell Penetration Perk further reduced the target’s Resistance to either type of magic by 20%. It probably wouldn’t kill the stranger, but it was a good way to start the fight.

Horosha didn’t move or say anything but Hawke’s spell fizzled. Hawke didn’t hesitate and went for his other go-to trick, Twilight Step – and it fizzled as well. The bastard was negating his spells!

<He’s using Overwhelm Magic,> Saturnyx said. <And his mastery of the ability is far greater than yours.>

“Not bad,” the stranger said reaching for the pair of swords at his belt. “You are a powerful spellcaster. But perhaps you can show me how well you fight with that fancy sword you’re speaking with.”

“Sure thing.”

Hawke and the stranger drew their blades. Hawke also readied his shield, which gave him added protection; he had a feeling he was going to need every advantage he could get. As soon as Saturnyx cleared, Hawke fired off an Elemental Strike for a thousand Mana, aiming the energy beam at the stranger’s center of mass. Horosha did a little sidestep and the massive Light blast missed him clean and spent itself against the magical dome isolating the two combatants. Hawke was on the move right after he fired the blast, his shield in front him as he sidled forward until he was in range to deliver sweeping cut.

Horosha didn’t bother parrying the blow. He simply ducked away. The guy was fast as hell, and Hawke was still suffering from a 1% temporal slowdown, although it might not have made much difference even if he wasn’t. For several seconds, Hawke chased the Half-Yosei around the circular area, unable to land a single hit. He tried every trick that Saturnyx had taught him. His Sword skill was level 9, increased to 24 by the magic in the sword’s handle, but he still couldn’t keep up with the guy. Horosha dodged most attacks, and used his two blades to deal with Hawke’s best blows, using the weapons to deflect hits with minimum effort. Most of the time, he didn’t even seem to be looking at Hawke directly, just letting his body anticipate every move and reacting accordingly.

He's way better than me, Hawke realized after basket-head ignored a feint and danced away from the real thrust, a maneuver that left Hawke exposed to attack. Horosha didn’t take advantage of it, though. He hadn’t attacked once. He was toying with his prey. Hawke couldn’t see the man’s face under the woven straw helmet, but he was sure that the guy was smiling.

Well, time to surprise him a little.

When Horosha parried a swing, which brought the two combatants close together, Hawke fired off a torrent of Mind-Fire right at his face. He’d picked up that trick from his Greater Bond with Blaze, allowing him to spit psychic flames like a dragon. He spent 500 Mana to deliver 400-8,000 points of damage. The straw helmet Horosha was wearing wasn’t destroyed, but it blackened at the point of impact and Horosha staggered, taking over fifteen hundred points of damage despite his resistance values and other defenses. Hawke pressed on but, even injured and in pain, the stranger’s swordsmanship was good enough to keep his other attacks from hitting.

Hawke unleashed another breath attack; Horosha dodged away but couldn’t completely avoid the flames. That slowed the bastard down. Just enough that when Hawke extended a Tulpa Weapon from his shield hand, he managed to stab the guy. The Pure Mana attack didn’t do a lot of damage, but Hawke used the connection to fire off a 2,000-Mana Elemental Blast that should have ended the fight right then and there.

Would have, if Horosha hadn’t teleported away a split second before Hawke could activate the attack.

Hawke spun around and found basket-head at the other end of the circle. Horosha’s Health was back to full. He’d used a potion or a damned good healing spell. Hawke used a Major Mana Potion, delivered directly into his bloodstream by his magical Dispensary. He needed his Mana back. That had been his best shot, and it hadn’t been good enough.

“Ready to admit defeat, Hawke Lightseeker?”

“I’m not going to grovel and beg for my life, if that’s what you mean.”

Hawke racked his brain looking for a new tactic. His spells were useless; the guy could overwhelm them. Maybe if he pumped too much energy into them for Horosha to neutralize? He’d never given much thought to doing that; dual-casting already cost a huge chunk of energy and when using magic you wanted to reduce costs rather than spend more power. He hoped Saturnyx could give him a helpful hint, but the sword stayed quiet. He decided to use his breath attack and hope he could keep the guy at a distance while he came up with something.

“As you wish,” Horosha said.

One moment, he was fifty feet away. On the next, he had teleported past Hawke, who looked down and saw blood begin to spurt from his neck. There was no pain, just numbing shock. His Health was down to a hundred or so, and he was stunned, unable to act in any way. He had time to wonder if he couldn’t move because of a magical debuff or due to the massive trauma he’d just endured. He felt two hits on his back, each enough to kill him, but his emergency spells kicked in to keep him alive, barely. He still ended on his hands and knees, stunned and unable to do anything.

“This fight is over,” Horosha told Hawke before delivering a hacking blow to the back of his neck.

Hawke’s Health dropped to zero.

Three

Duel Completed: Horosha has defeated Hawke Lightseeker.

Hawke saw his Health rebound back to full. He wasn’t dead after all.

“What the hell?”

“You cannot be compelled to enter a Dueling Circle unless the fight is a harmless simulation,” Horosha said in a slightly pedantic ‘you should know this already’ tone that reminded Hawke of Saturnyx at her worst.

“Well, that’s great,” Hawke replied, noticing the energy dome was still surrounding them. “Mind letting me out?”

“I would have already, but your kitsune is prowling around the circle like an angry cat. Wouldn’t want to have a misunderstanding.”

<BURN!> Blaze shouted and exhaled another torrent of Mind-Fire.

Easy, fur-face, Hawke told the Drakofox. It was just an exhibition match.

“You may be wondering why I did all of this,” Horosha went on while Blaze growled but finally stopped spitting flames.

“Yeah, seems like you went through a lot of trouble just to humiliate me. Although I’m told I could use a little more humility. Maybe I should thank you before kicking you out of my Domain.”

Hawke had fought necromancers, demon nobles and Undead queens, but none of them had beaten them as easily as the stranger had. Saturnyx’s bonus to his swordsmanship made him the match of any fighter he’d encountered. Until now. The level disparity probably helped a lot, but Hawke suspected sheer skill had a lot more to do with it. He needed to spend more time on training.

You were right. I was wrong, Hawke said, uttering the magic words every woman longs to hear, even Furies trapped inside a sword.

Horosha gave him a bow before speaking. “Of course. I apologize for giving offense, but I was charged to ensure that you were worthy.”

“Worthy of what?”

“Of marrying my beloved’s darling daughter, of course.”

Oh, crap. “Wait. Your ‘beloved’ is…”

“Kassia Tones. Formerly Kintes. Mother of Tava Kintes.”

* * *

“When should I expect her?” Hawke asked Horosha before leaving him at the Copper Kettle.

“She will arrive the day before your wedding. Unfortunately, she had some business to conduct in Crystal City and she missed today’s last Gate Transit.”

Hawke didn’t know what a Gate Transit was or where Crystal City was located, but he figured he’d ask Saturnyx when he had a chance. For now, the important thing was that the high-level swordsman was no longer a threat. He had fined Horosha two hundred gold denars for assaulting the patrol, which basket-head had paid without complaint. After that, he’d gotten him a room at the best hostel-tavern in town. Dorrham Stern’s establishment had once been a third-rate inn on a bad part in town, but ever since Hawke had made it famous, it had grown in size and repute. The fact that it had the only pizza oven in town had made it popular with the other Eternals in the Domain, and now you needed to make reservations if you didn’t want to spend an hour in the barroom waiting to be seated.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Hawke asked Horosha. “I assume there won’t be any more trouble.”

The swordsman gave Hawke a light bow and removed his woven straw hat, revealing black hair, brown eyes and a mix of Asian and European features, on his wide face. When he spoke, his tone was more diffident than before:

“No, of course not. If you require any further fines or punishment, I will accept them without complaint. This is not my first hourney through a land ruled by descendants of the Romanes, and I know enough about their laws to avoid breaking them.”

“Very well. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for an appointment.”

Hawke wasn’t leaving the stranger completely unsupervised, of course. Alba Bastardes, Hawke’s spymaster, had several members of Dorrham’s staff on her payroll, and they would keep an eye on Horosha. That would have to do. He worried about leaving a high-level Adventurer to his own devices, but he figured it would be safe enough.

Of course, if he decides to act up, he’ll just kick my ass all over again.

The sword had a point. If Blaze had been able to join in the fight, it wouldn’t have been a cakewalk for basket-head. And if either him or his girlfriend tried anything in Orom, he could raise everyone in town by five levels, even the non-Adventurers, and throw in quite a few surprises. The town’s garrison currently included fifty Clockwork Defenders and six Mechanical Golems, all sixteenth level Elites, for example, and if necessary he could summon many more. It didn’t matter how high-level you were, you could be swamped by sheer numbers. He didn’t expect things would deteriorate to that point, but it always paid to prepare for the worst. The Realms were full of nasty twists and turns.

Hawke walked back up the hill toward the Prefect’s Keep. He replaced his body armor with a tunic and leather pants, his work clothes. Couldn’t hold meetings looking like a death knight; it made people antsy. His clock app showed that he was five minutes late, but most people in Orom didn’t have clocks and their idea of being on time was measured in half hour increments. Nobody was going to complain, especially not when the meeting involved people who wanted something from him. In any case, he needed to have a word with someone before showing up.

Captain of the Watch Kinto Primes looked up from his desk, where he’d been laboring over some report or another. He still looked decades younger than he had when Hawke had met the man, although his time in charge of Orom’s defending forces was beginning to leave its mark on him. Being a lone hunter and retired Adventurer was a far cry from managing a company-strength military force as well as running the law-enforcement arm of the town. But he did both jobs with the same unflinching dedication that he had shown fighting alongside Hawke.

“Glad to hear the stranger wasn’t interested in causing more mischief,” Kinto said.

“Well, he’s promised he won’t start anything, but he brought news I thought you should hear first.” Kinto’s eyes narrowed but he remained quiet until Hawke told him the news.

“Kassia,” the Hunter said with a sigh. “Never thought I would see her again.”

“I figured you should know.”

“Some years ago, I would have been wroth. Foaming at the mouth and cursing her name, most likely. Many a time I did just that, while learning how to support a family and raise two children, one barely past his toddling years.”

“I don’t blame you one bit.”

Kinto shrugged. “But time has a way to soothe even the worst tempers. I have seen those children grow up and do me proud, which Kassia did not, and consider myself the better off in that bargain. I know them, which she never will, except for names, vague memories, and perhaps the adults they now are, if she cares enough to try.”

“You have always done right for Tava and Gosto.”

“I still fear for them, but at least they’ll never shirk their duties of abandon their own to follow the Path to Power. I taught them better than that.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“So no, Hawke. I will not quarrel with my former wife. I divorced her publicly after she left, and no longer mourn that marriage, or the woman she once was. Whoever she may be now, she is a stranger to me, to be treated in accordance with her current deeds and not my fading memories, for good or ill.”

That’s a pretty nice way of saying ‘she’s dead to me,’ Hawke mused. It was also one of the longest speeches he had heard Kinto give.

<Why is Grampa Kinto so sad?> Blaze said. The Drakofox was flying over the town, but was close enough to pick up the thoughts and emotions of those he cared about.

Grown-up stuff, Hawke told him. Don’t go bothering him about it.

<I’m bigger than you! I think that’s grown-up enough.>

In some ways, sure. But not all. Now go off and chase some sparrows or something.

“Does Tava know?” Kinto asked, unaware of the mental conversation.

“She’s off in the Foothills with her apprentices. I was going to fly over and tell her in person. I have business to conduct there as well.”

Arranging a conclave with the Evergreen Circle had taken some finagling to arrange, and if he didn’t see them that evening, arranging another time would conflict with all the wedding preparations. Life got complicated when you were running a small kingdom while trying to have a personal life.

“And speaking of meetings, I think I’ve kept the Merchants’ Association waiting for long enough,” Hawke said. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“Of course.”

Hawke headed to the former audience chamber, now partitioned into offices, with the largest one used as a meeting room.

Oh, well. At least a boring, uneventful meeting will be a change of pace.

As it turned out, he was wrong.

Four

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hawke said, trying hard not to yell. People got upset when he lost his temper.

“I do not jest, Lord Hawke,” Ovido replied nervously. “The city authorities were clear on the matter, and I bear letters with Akila’s official seal saying as much.”

Ovido had been part of the big caravan Hawke had led to Akila back in May, but had stayed behind after it returned, helping put together a follow-up group of traders and immigrants. But there had been a snag just before they left: the travelers had been detained and extorted. The official version was that a new tariff on goods and people leaving for Orom had been decreed.

“I was there last week, and nobody mentioned a tariff to me.”

Traveling back and forth between his domain and the neighboring city had become a lot easier now that Blaze had been exempted from Akila’s anti-dragon wards. A two-day trip on a tireless horse – a week for wagons or ordinary mounts – was now a forty-five minute commute for him. He had been to the city fairly often, and nobody had bothered to tell him the city was imposing taxes on trade between Akila and his Domain. That was either a purposeful insult, or a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Maybe some mid-level bureaucrat had decided to line his own pockets. Or maybe the honeymoon between Akila and the guy who had saved the entire miserable burgh from a zombie apocalypse was over.

“I’ll have to fly over there and demand an explanation. And a refund. Meanwhile, how much did they squeeze you for?”

“I personally paid six hundred silver for my goods, which will erase any profit from my journey, unless I raise my prices far more than I normally charge. The other merchants and travelers paid a great deal more. And over thirty crafters and their families had to stay behind, unable or unwilling to meet the tax. The guardsmen who collected it treated it as more of a fine, as if bringing wealth and prosperity to Orom and the Domain at large was some kind of criminal activity.”

“Okay. Give me names. The guardsmen involved, whoever signed off on the new tariffs, and everyone affected.”

“I have already begun a list,” Mistress of Coin Antana Setes told him. The scarily efficient woman would no doubt give him all the information Hawke needed and more. “My initial assessment is that an additional thousand silver denars were collected in tolls and tariffs, or close to it. I will have the exact number by the end of the day.”

There goes my honeymoon.

“I’ll go pay them a visit the day after the wedding. Tava will probably forgive me for that. But I won’t forgive them, whoever they are. Meanwhile, we’ll reimburse everyone for the fines.”

“I will make sure to secure receipts from everyone and compare them with the city’s actual excises,” Antana noted, and Hawke nodded appreciatively. The Mistress of Coin would ensure nobody tried to rip off the town. He might be flush with gold, and the town’s income had increased a great deal, but if you didn’t treat money with respect, it would leave you for the pockets of those who did.

The rest of the meeting was uneventful, mainly concerning things like fixing a couple of country roads linking small villages to the main highways crossing the Sunset Valley, or allowing a second trading post to be built in Serenity. Hawke agreed to both proposals. The current owners of the Serenity trading post wouldn’t be happy, but competition would help ensure that the Arachnoids wouldn’t get gouged, which was important, since their goods were becoming a major factor in trade. A new tribe had begun to offer silk fabric for trade, made from a domesticated giant spider, and that had the potential to bring in as much taxable revenue as the gold mines the Stern Company was exploiting. But only if the Arachnoids felt they were getting a fair deal.

After the meeting was over, Hawke walked over the Domain Interface. Time to spend some extra Structural Mana and make some improvements. Before he started, he activated his Title ‘Lord of the Sunset Valley,’ which not only made him look important but also gave him a 5% discount on improvements purchased with Structural Mana.

Sunset Valley (Level 5 Domain)

Current Population/Maximum Pop.: 6,809/30,000

Population Required for Level 6: 10,000.

Warning: If its population decreases below 6,000, the Domain’s Level will be reduced to 4.

Available Mana/Mana Pool: 15,000/18,000

Mana Recharge/Day: 3,347. Net Recharge: 947

Mana Sources:

Big Web (Arachnoid Town): Level 1 Meeting House: 50. Level 2 Temple of Tenebra: 200. Total: 250

Orom (Human Town): Level 2 Keep: 497. Level 3 Temple of Shining Father: 300. Level 1 Mana Node (Life, Temple of Shining Father): 20. Total: 567

Serenity (Stronghold): Level 5 Mage’s Tower: 500. Level 10 Mana Node (Death): 200. Level 3 Death Temple: 300. Level 2 Darkness Temple: 200. Total: 1,200

Stern Mining Settlement (Dwarven Village): Level 1 Meeting Hall (100). Level 1 Temple of Gaon (100). Total: 200

Other: Level 10 Mana Node (Darkness): 200. Level 10 Celestial Node: 200. Level 5 Mana Node (Nature): 100. Level 4 Grove of Cerunnos: 400. Level 2 Temple of Triune Goddesses: 200. 3 Level 1 Life Mana Node: 60. Total: 1,160

Current Mana Expenditures: 2,650/day. Minions (Serenity): 1,450. Processes: Light Runes (Serenity, Orom, Big Web, Tunnels): 650. Ley Line Portals (6): 150. Enchantments: 300 (Serenity: Undead, Demonic and Fae Wards. Orom: Undead, Demonic and Fae Wards). Projects: 0.

Enchantments Available: Arcane Appointment, Call to Arms, Demonic Ward, Empower Champions, Empower Defenders, Fae Ward, Undead Ward.

Ongoing Projects: None.

Hawke smiled. Thanks to the Mana Lens he had built in Orom’s Keep, he could use his personal pool for structural projects at a 10-to-1 ratio; his level five Steward improved that to 5-to-1, which had allowed him to keep the town’s Mana up to full while he used his own Mana to improve the Domain. Orom and Big Web now enjoyed public lighting fixtures set up along all their main streets and a few magic runes on every street corner, a luxury few locales ever enjoyed; even in wealthy Akila, nighttime lighting was available only on the wealthiest districts. While the Arachnoids didn’t need light as much as humans, the inhabitants of Big Web appreciated the gesture. And travelers using the tunnels linking those communities did so even more.

That wasn’t all. There were now two Ley Line Portals linking Serenity to Orom, allowing fifty people and ten tons of cargo to travel through them every day. Another portal linked Orom to the Guild Headquarters, a fourth one led from the town to Gosto’s Grove, and two recent additions connected Serenity to a brand-new fort built on the western edge of the territory, overlooking Trader’s Rut as it crossed the mountains toward the Imperial highway network and half a dozen cities. While using the portal was useful for trade, their main purpose was military. If necessary, he could send fifty soldiers or minions to the western border on a few minutes’ notice, for example.

He’d improved most of the temples, had a standing army of over a hundred Elite clockwork automatons, and gotten all the main roads repaired, as well as built a beautiful arched bridge over the Auric, turning the trip between the Stronghold and the Town into a two-day journey for those who couldn’t afford or didn’t want to pay the portal fees. All in all, he’d gotten a lot done in the past few days. Time to do a little more.

Mana flowed from him through the crystalline oval incorporated into the Domain Interface. The Mana Lens converted the five thousand points he delivered into one thousand Structural Mana points. He used them to fix and improve ten rural roads, turning them into wide two-wagon lanes with good ditches on both sides and nicely graded foundations. In his mind’s eye he saw the land changing. Magic did in a matter of seconds what would have taken hundreds of thousands of man-hours of regular labor, not to mention massive amounts of materials and logistical support. The process never failed to leave Hawke in awe. It might not be as flashy as dropping fireballs, but the effects were much longer-lasting. He imagined that being a god probably felt a lot like he did during the process.

He drank a Master Mana Potion which restored his pool to fifty percent immediately and by the remaining fifty percent over thirty seconds. Burning all of it added another five hundred Structural Mana to play with. He decided to put them into the new Triune Goddesses’ Temple:

Temple of the Triune Goddesses (Level II)

A temple provides a link between mortals and the pantheons they worship. The gods gain the devotion of their worshipers, which they can return in the way of Mana and even miraculous gifts. Temples provide the settlement with 100 Mana per level each day. To raise the Temple to the next level, you need to add four Upgrades. Note: The Arcane Official in charge of the settlement must have no worse than a Neutral Reputation with the deity or pantheon in question.

Current Upgrades (8): Divine Presence I, Monument II, Power Focus I, Priest Investiture, Priesthood School I, Reliquary, Sacred Architecture I.

Upgrades Needed for Next Level: 8/12.

Available Upgrades: Divine Presence II (250 Mana), Monument III (300 Mana), Power Focus II (200 Mana), Sacred Architecture II (200), Sacred Vessel (250 Mana).

The temple had grown in size from a small chamber at the end of a narrow tunnel to a structure with a nice marble façade, rooms for the resident Priest (a fifth-level Eternal by the name of Sister Mary Elephant) and her three students, and an expanded central chamber where the statues of the three goddesses replaced the rest of the gods that had been there when the place had been a simple shrine to the Olympians. The other gods were probably miffed at that but he owed his patronesses that much, if not more. He selected two new improvements:

Monument III (300): A work of art depicting or celebrating the deity’s likeness or aspects.

Power Focus II (300): While fighting or casting spells inside the Temple, worshipers of its deity can raise their effective level by the Power Focus level.

The Domain Interface generated a floating screen that showed him the changes take effect in real time. Sister Mary gave out a shriek when the three statues in the worship area grew larger while the roof above them rose to accommodate their new size. Maybe he should have warned her of the upcoming modifications, but he knew that magical structure modifications never harmed the people inside them. Still, it must have been an unnerving surprise. He would have to apologize to her next time he saw her.

The five percent discount he got from his Title amounted to a hundred Mana all told; he ‘deposited’ it into the Domain’s Mana Pool. He could add energy directly to the Pool at the same rate as when he purchased Improvements, but with a limit equal to his total Mana Pool per day, well over a thousand Structural Mana in his case.

That would have to do for today. He had to fly over to Gosto’s Grove and tell him and Tava about their mother.

And, shortly after that, he would speak in front of the Evergreen Circle.

cjcarella@cjcarella.com