B3 C67: Rocks for When You're Back (Epilogue)

AN: One more chapter after this until B3 is done!

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“A rather dreadful turn of events, is it not?” Barb sat close to the fire, heating up a lentil stew to share among him and the others. The ingredients had been one of the few things he’d managed to buy from the trading post before the untimely damages from the war.

“Mm. Bad. Her eyes looked bad.” Kex stared through him, the vertical slit of her one lizard-like eye narrowing as her human eye remained disconcertingly unfocused. Under other circumstances and had it been polite to do so, Barb might have chuckled at those words coming from her. It had been two days since Tess had disappeared, though, and with no sign of her return, he wasn’t quite in a laughing mood.

“I think it’s okay,” Jason replied with an unusual level of resolve. Both Barb and Kex turned their attention to him, the prior raising a single brow in an unspoken request for elaboration.

“I don’t like it when my friends are gone or when they’re hurt,” he began, “but sometimes when we’re at our lowest, life has a way of throwing us unexpected opportunities to climb back up. With Tess’s strength, I am confident she will return eventually, better than she was before. As her friends, all we can do now is believe in her.”

Kex and Barb traded looks, slightly baffled at the rock-thrower’s words. As quick as he’d shifted into the unusual tone, however, so too did he shift back.

“And besides! The longer a friend is gone, the more new rocks you will have in your rock collection to show them when they get back.”

Despite himself, this time Barb did laugh, ladling out some stew for the three of them as he did so. Naturally, he prepared some tea as well.

“Quite right, Jason! Though, as I lack your particular geological predilection, I suppose I’ll have to have something else prepared for her, won’t I?” Perhaps he’d work a bit harder in his training sessions with Elphaea. It would be nice to have some new class skills to show off to Tess when she returned.

Because, just as Jason had said, she would be returning.

He hoped.

Barb drowned the more negative of his thoughts in tea as he took another sip, doing his best to enjoy the company of his companions. Still, his mind wandered.

No word from father. Certainly he’s heard by now.

It wasn’t quite time for Barb to end his self-imposed exile from Sylum, but still. He hoped the man was doing okay.

~~~~~~~

“GODS DAMMIT!” Drops of water exploded out from the chamber head, impacting against the furniture of his office harder than he’d intended.

Having witnessed the literal outburst, Markus eyed the wet office with a frown as he patted a few beads of water from his clothing. “I would advise you to refrain from destroying your office at present. We are, as you will recall, still not finished with the repairs from the battle the other day.”

Because of course we aren’t. It was just one thing after another lately.

It would have been a blessing if all he had to worry about was the house. Here in Sylum, however, everything had devolved into a proper mess. The city was ablaze with gossip about the fight between the chamber heads, and despite not having participated, he was caught up in all sorts of ridiculous rumors now.

Of course, that was the least of it all. Given their positions, no one was clamoring to arrest the two, but both Tyrin and Goss had received official censures from the rest of the assembly. In Tyrin’s case, the man couldn’t have cared less. Confidentially, though, the man had admitted it might be time for him to step down. Even with all the treatment he could muster up, his niece hadn’t woken up yet, and even those with the lowest of Perceptions could tell it was weighing heavily on him.

For Goss, things were a tad more complicated. In addition to the censure, the steely woman was now at the center of an official investigation. The case of her son’s death and the circumstances surrounding it had gone far past the point of being able to quietly cover everything up.

The number of hearings and private questionings he’d had to go through in the past few days alone made him want to tear his hair out. The most frequent questions pertained to Tess, but he’d worked out his lies there long ago. After the attempt on her life, she was too afraid to stay in Sylum. He’d sent her back to her Yekkish relatives. They’d yet to demand he undergo any sort of truth spell, so for now, the lies stood.

Regrettably, Suds knew the entire investigation was all a sham in any case. Without any remaining first-hand witnesses to what had happened, nothing was likely to stick. In any case, even if they had found anything, Goss would simply claim her son had acted without her knowledge. And that was even if Goss didn’t have some of the investigation task force in her pocket.

Still, power came in many forms. Especially when it came to politics, optics were quite the powerful thing.

Every one of the remaining chamber heads had started to distance themselves from Goss, with Lady Victa seeming to be the coldest towards her out of the bunch. He wouldn’t be surprised if Goss found it far harder to secure the votes for future motions.

More than that, that boy of hers had been a large part of her political leverage. She’d been angling for years to get approval to assemble a number of strike-breaking guard units that specialized in the boy’s unique brand of “non-violence,” and he’d been the proof of concept. With him gone, those plans were dead in the water. That was to say nothing of the resources she’d dumped into him or how often she used him as her favored pawn.

Indeed, the writing was on the wall. Even if Goss wouldn’t be spending any time in a jail cell, the blow was fairly crippling. Suds expected her to try to hang on to her position with a death grip, but there were rumors that she, too, might be stepping down.

He’d be happy if she did, provided she didn’t use her extra free time to hunt down Tess. He was explicitly not visiting Emer’Thalis right now, just in case she had eyes on him somehow.

Fat lot of good it would do her in any case. Even as he had that thought, he could feel his blood start to boil, another explosion only barely held in.

“What does that damned archmage mean that he ‘lost her?’ How do you just lose someone like that? He’s an archmage!” If Suds hadn’t seen the man barely struggle to stop two of the stronger chamber heads, he likely would have lashed out at the man.

None of his tracing spells worked? Not a single locator or divination spell? It was bullshit, was what it was!

He felt a bit guilty to admit, but in a twisted way, he was glad the Sylus girl had been caught up in the mishap. Influential though he was, he lacked the resources to find her if the archmage couldn’t. That was slightly less true of the Sylus family, though. Provided they could do anything to the powerful mage, Suds wasn’t entirely sure what they would do to Xander’Callis for losing Verin, but it wasn’t bound to be pretty.

Suds buried his face in his hands, his elbows digging into the hard wood of his desk. Wearier than he’d been in quite a long time, the chamber head sighed.

“I just… I hope the brat is okay.” He hadn’t known her for all that long, and it was true she wasn’t really his granddaughter, but sue him, okay? He cared about the damned girl.

Markus moved beside the chamber head, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Me as well, Suds. Me as well. Who wouldn’t be?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rock wasn’t worried about that infuriating girl. Why would he be?

So she was missing. Big deal. They were talking about a girl who’d killed an ancient Protagonist. She’d be fine. On top of that, even if he hated to admit it, she’d likely grown even stronger than he had. And he knew he would be fine in whatever situation she’d ended up in, so she would manage too.

And besides. He didn’t really care, either.

How could he? He was too busy feeling incredible!

He tensed every muscle, exhilarating in the feeling of being healthy again. Whole.

Or mostly whole, I suppose. There’s that whole business with my class. Just as Hartha had warned him, his class seemed to be malfunctioning, and he was starting to feel it more and more. Skills would flicker or sputter out completely, and even with all the class points he’d earned from the battle, he wasn’t able to enter his class space to spend them.

A problem, but one for another day. In most cases, he liked to confront his issues as soon as they arose, but he thought he’d earned a few days to relax, all things considered. He was likewise putting off figuring out exactly what being a “Consecrated Vampire” entailed.

More importantly, though, it was finally the day!

Making use of his newly restored musculature, Rock sprinted through the forest feeling twenty years younger than he had only a week before. In no time at all, the familiar sight of the bar came into view, largely untouched from the previous forest fires. By now, everyone inside should have left, save for one.

Rock barged in, his usual scowl replaced by a wide grin. “Girl!”

“Boy!” Nadja shouted back cheekily as she cleaned behind the bar. “Still feeling good about your recovery, or what’s got you looking so happy? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before one of our training sessions.”

If possible, Rock’s smile grew even wider.

“Well, noble Baroness, I happen to be fully recovered now.” He looked down at his healthy body both in lingering awe and for dramatic effect. “And since you apparently believe you’re strong enough to run into the middle of armies now…” He didn’t miss the small spike of panic on the girl’s face as his smile subtly shifted into a less friendly variety. “I can only imagine you’re equally as excited as I am to make your training tougher now, right?”

Never one to let him have the last word, Nadja quickly recovered and pushed past him to exit the bar, mumbling as she left.

“Think I liked you better when you only had enough energy to grunt.”

All the way to their training area, Rock roared with laughter.

Hours later on the way back, he laughed even harder as he was forced to carry her sore body back to the bar. She hadn’t quit, even as hard as he’d pushed her, but the entire time, she muttered curses at him.

“You don’t want me to carry you home instead of the bar, honored baroness?”

Had Nadja had the energy, he was confident she would have flipped him off.

“Fuck you. And also, no. The house I was living in burned down, so I’m staying in the bar right now. And also, fuck you.”

Ah, right. Rock didn’t envy the foreman right now. Then again, he didn’t envy the girl right now, either. Another look at her sore form and grumpy expression was all he needed to set himself off again, both the laughter and the curses returning in full force.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All that work just to have to do it all over again. Foreman Tuk eyed a plot of blackened land that had once had a house atop it.

He shrugged. Not like he wasn’t getting experience for it one way or the other. If anything, he’d probably level faster this way, especially once he had the help of the new builders the king had been coaxed into sending. Once they arrived, he’d get to build an embassy structure as well, which would be a first for him.

It wasn’t exactly ideal, of course. They’d been so close to getting that fancy church set up in the forest, to the point that he was of half a mind to go finish it before starting anything else. Alas, housing and repairs took priority, but filled with dreams of whatever class quests the church’s completion would bring him, his eyes wandered to the forest.

Because of that, he happened to catch a rather strange sight. There, right where the trees met the rest of the city, a man appeared out of nowhere.

As best as Tuk could tell, they were about the same age. Same level of graying. He couldn’t deny, though, that the man was considerably more of a looker than he was, radiating a certain sense of poise even from this distance. In one hand, he held a particularly elaborate cane. In the other, he held a blue gem which he quickly stashed away.

Catching sight of Tuk staring at him, the man waved before casually strolling over.

“A foreman! What good fortune on my part to have found you so quickly. Just to be certain, this is Emer’Thalis, is it not? It appears… more burnt than I was made to understand.”

Thrown off guard, Tuk confirmed. “Sure is. And you are?”

Seeming to remember himself, the man bowed his head in introduction. “Chamberlain Thompson, though I suppose if I’m this far from the city, Tom will suffice. More importantly, I happen to be the one who helped your settlement owner dictate her terms for this city’s trading post. A trading post which I’ve recently received a notification stating it’s out of order. Would you be willing to show me?”

Before Tuk could even question how the man had gotten here, he found himself swept up into the man’s pace, leading the way to the damaged trading post. All the while, he nodded as the chamberlain continued to talk.

“Ah! And while I’m here, you wouldn’t be able to connect me with the interim leaders of the city, would you? I’m afraid I don’t have much time, but I did make a promise to the young mistress that I would make this city profitable. Her absence is hardly a reason to shirk my duties, now is it?”

Young mistress? Tuk was somehow growing less and less sure who this man was, but he wasn’t against the idea of making him someone else’s problem. Amak, at the very least, would likely know what to do. As the trading post came into view, he agreed readily.

“Wonderful!” the chamberlain replied. “I think you’ll find I have quite a few ideas on how to grow this city.” As he took in the burnt state of the building before him, however, a fragment of his enthusiasm fled him.

“Now, pray tell. What -- or who -- exactly caused all this?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

King Antaiu was in a foul mood, tempered only by the fact that he was en route home. Even that, however, was something of a sore point, though. If he’d truly wished it, he was certain he could have convinced those damnable people to grant him their monthly Diplomatic Visit usage. He could have been home right at that very moment.

But it would not do. It would not do to leave his men to the long journey alone. It would not do to be sleeping in pillowy beds and eating freshly cooked meals while they slept on the ground and ate travel rations. That was only doubly true when he was returning with fewer than he came with, and triply true if one believed those laughable rumors that he’d brought them here “by mistake.”

Which, of course, he hadn’t.

Definitely not.

In the end though, that was why he had to be seen by his men and endure the long horse ride back. If nothing else, it gave him quite a lot of time to think.

In small part, those thoughts drifted towards Emer’Thalis. The concessions they’d wrung from him. That horrifying ice mage. The girl who was in charge of it all, who viewed him as so beneath her notice, she hadn’t even seen him. They were all matters he’d be thinking on for the months to come, if not longer.

Invariably, however, his thoughts quickly slid back to his daughter.

An Infiltrator.

A thief.

His vision swam red at the thought of her using the class token he’d secured for her to take such a class, and only redder still at the fact that it was she who had stolen the scepter from the palace a year prior.

Even so, she was his daughter. The only one, at that. So she’d veered slightly off the proper path. She’d made a few mistakes. That was fixable. Even if she wasn’t the devout daughter he’d thought she was, she wasn’t a bad girl.

To fix things, however, she needed to be present. To be home, where she belonged.

He’d have dragged her back himself if he could have. Literally. He’d tried half a dozen skills on her to keep her from going, and all of them slid off in a way that defied logic. Never mind that he couldn’t even see her if she didn’t want him to.

No, for better or for worse, he would have to wait for her to come back herself.

Despite himself, the king smiled. After all, as awful as things were, she was safe, wasn’t she? And more than that, he could finally keep tabs on her again.

King Antaiu pulled out a small trinket from his pocket, a sense of peace filling him up now that it was working once more. A small dot appeared on its surface, letting him know that Calilah was, as expected, back in Emer’Thalis.

Until, quite abruptly, the dot vanished.

He shook it. Threw more mana into it.

Nothing.

No. NO! Not again.

Unable to contain himself, the king shouted for all to hear.

“WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the high and holy (and recently very nearly disowned) princess of Ftheran rematerialized, she had a vague understanding that something had gone rather wrong. Both Tess and Verin were on the ground, out cold, and the cranky old mage was nowhere to be seen.

And if that weren’t enough…

Cal scanned her surroundings, each sight making less sense than the last.

She knew, in her heart, that no answer would be forthcoming, especially with her currently comatose companions, but she had to ask it even so.

“So. Where the hells are we?”