FMH: Everything ~ Eleven

Taylor looked at the city walls that loomed in the distance, even from here her eyes could notice the improvements, upgrades, enchantments, and sheer wealth that had been poured into enhancing them to a degree this kingdom had never been able to achieve before. Part of her was pleased that the kingdom had been using the materials they retrieved for defense—ensuring the safety of their population—but a larger part of her winced internally, forcing her not to make eye contact with her friends.

If she would have told them that they were entitled to the spoils of their combat, they would have been wealthy beyond the entire treasury of this whole kingdom. Instead, she allowed them to operate under the mistaken belief that it was required to turn over the vast majority of it. Each of them had benefited from that portion immensely, gaining Noble titles, lands, and businesses. Luke, more than the others, had made surprisingly sound investments, using his wealth to outright purchase banks instead of other, smaller businesses.

Zed interrupted her reverie by taking a deep, noisy inhalation through his nose and letting it out with a *smack* of his lips. “Ahh, the city. Home to thousands of people that have never heard my words, the largest population center in the entire kingdom. I can practically taste the Potentia.”

“I have been ordered to escort you directly to the Grand Hall of the palace, with no stops or diversions.” Sir stated carefully, intentionally not looking over at the Bard, who deflated heavily. “All I could say, perhaps in passing, is that there isn't anything stopping you from speaking to the people that we pass on the way?”

That reinvigorated the Bard, and Taylor shook her head in amusement at how easy it was for people around the young man to influence his thought processes. It highlighted the difference between them, and the fact that he had not spent decades in exclusion, on another world learning to harness his powers. His Masteries were almost exclusively increased by speaking with people on this base world, meaning that leveling up or increasing those Masteries was a real-world decades-long venture. For those that were able to step into another world, their bodies didn't age even a day until they returned to this lower-energy plane of existence. Even then, returning to that higher world would rapidly rejuvenate them to their peak physical age.

The fact of the matter was, there had never been a Bard that had successfully reached the level cap, and been able to Ascend. All of them died, one way or another. It was common knowledge, and something that the group intentionally didn't speak on. Zed was able to go into other worlds without bursting into flames, which gave Taylor hope that he could find a way to Ascend, as no other Bard ever had, before he was too old to enjoy the greatest benefits.

Then she remembered that Zed would never be allowed to Ascend, as it was just far too dangerous. If the legends were true-

“It’s The Four!” someone screamed practically right in her face, causing Taylor to flinch, cursing at herself for getting lost in thought while surrounded by unknown people. “Look, it’s the Terraformer! He’s real!”

All too soon, they were passing through the city gates, met by the cheers and excitement of the common folk. Other, more wealthy people looked at them from elevated positions; contentment and happiness radiating off of them as they nodded politely or even waved at the filthy Ascenders that had finally returned. Something that Sir had mentioned stuck in Taylor's mind, and she realized at that moment what it was.

The fact that they were not allowed to stop, rest, or recover from their journey here was a petty plan meant to humiliate them in front of the peerage. They would arrive in front of the stuffiest-of-stuffy nobility, whilst filthy and reeking of sweat and grime from not only the road, but their capture in the forest.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” She expanded her powers, lightly brushing against her friends and actively casting Cleanse, as well as Purify. In the next moment, their clothes were as clean as the day they had been purchased, their skin was clear and unblemished, and the stink of the road vanished. Each of them were also likely more comfortable, although she had no way to prove that other than a slight relaxing of their faces.

No one said a word, but she didn't need them to do so. She understood that they, as a unit, didn't need to call out the fact that the people around them were doing their jobs well. That was the expectation, and it actually made her feel more like part of the group that they didn't feel the need to comment positively on every minuscule thing that she did for them. One of their group took the relaxing feeling and used it to his advantage, the Bard swinging into his element like a salmon breaching the surface of a river and smoothly splashing back in.

“Good people! Hear me, hear me! My name is Zed, and I have been cataloging the great deeds of… The Four!” Throughout the rest of the entire forced march to the castle proper, Zed dictated his life at the top of his voice, proclaiming their adventures from start to finish. Everything from their initial defeat of the Chimera in the mountain pass, to the reclamation and restoration of the desert.

Taylor could not help but slightly sourly note how he brushed past anything that made their group look bad, painting everything that they did in the best possible light. She couldn't help but appreciate how effective his propaganda was, but it was propaganda nonetheless. The Mage wanted them to know how much they had struggled; how the Bard was taking a snapshot of their greatest victories, and shuffling the hardships that had allowed them to achieve those goals under the rug. “They are going to want what we have, to earn the renown that we have earned, but they don't realize the cost. Do they truly want what I have? Would they suffer as I have suffered to get it?”

“Taylor…” Andre needed to place a hand on her shoulder and gently squeeze. “There is no need to be so down about it. Most of these people are already where they are going to stay for their entire life, don't begrudge them the dream of more. That is all Zed is trying to do here: give them some hope, which may someday come back to benefit us in some way. Perhaps it will even be spread among our enemies, and demoralize them if we need to face them in combat. Who knows what harvest this crop he is planting will bring in the future.”

“You don't plant date trees and plan to eat dates.” Luke agreed in his own monotone way.

Taylor could see the delight that spring up in Andres' eyes at that reference. The redhead leaned closer to the Murderhobo, “I knew that you listened when I talked! That's right, unless someone is an Ascender, they typically will not live to see dates! Taylor, sorry, date trees take about ninety years to produce fruit-”

“Ah, yeah, Andre. I listen to you, too.” She tried not to be affronted by his dismissal, but the fact of the matter was that over the last half decade of this world's time, most of them had shared all of the experiences and knowledge that they had accumulated during their own time and trials. She had heard his reference to date trees at least a dozen times at this point. “Maybe you should go date a tree.”

Then she remembered that Andre had successfully created a human-tree hybrid, and that sort of insult wouldn't work anymore. “Abyssal Dryads. Ruining all my good comebacks.”

“Don’t worry, Taylor.” Zed paused his grandstanding to commiserate with her, “We’re in polite society again. You can learn some new material.”

Their honor guard went ahead of them, clearing the path. Their pace increased, and soon they were at the gates of the castle proper, then ushered into the throne room without hesitation. Taylor was proud of how tall her companions stood. Their posture was strong, their expressions fearless. Her eyes swept over the crowd, seeing both familiar as well as unfamiliar faces among them, stopping in consternation as her eyes came to the throne itself. To her great shock, King Alexander was not sitting there.

Instead, the smirking visage of Prince Vir greeted them, and the dower expression on Archmage Don’s face lent credence to the fact that he was not there by accident.

A hush fell over the hall, and Taylor turned to clap a hand over Luke's mouth as he opened it to say something. He caught her palm before it could get near his face, of course, but it still generated the intended effect. The Mage stepped forward, the only one amongst them that had all of the training and knowledge necessary to navigate the political turbulence that the peerage would generate in the stream of politics. “It is with great pleasure that we, the Ascender bounty hunting team known as The Four, greet King Vir of the Hollow Kingdom.”

She swept into a formal curtsy, as most of the remainder of her team also attempted their own version of a courtly bow. Zed did it perfectly, of course, his overly dramatic showing drawing plenty of his attention his way. This helped to cover for Andre’s fumbling half-bow, but didn't do a thing to hide the fact that Luke didn't move; instead he was staring at the new King with eyes that looked as if they didn't have eyelids.

Taylor hoped that he hadn’t forgotten how to blink. Again.

They held their position until courtly manners dictated that the King should have done something to allow them to regain their standard postures. At that point, Taylor gave up being polite and stood, knowing that she was technically in breach of protocol. Still, her own political power was not insignificant, nor was Andre’s. There was also a good argument to be made that Luke's sheer financial capabilities granted him a certain level of protection and clemency, even though Zed had nothing of the sort. He seemed to realize this, and maintained his position until the king finally spoke.

“Took you long enough.” Vir sneered as he spoke to only Sir directly. “I'm cutting your reward by twenty percent for requisitioning more people, and using a longer time than was allotted.”

“As my king desires.” Sir replied without a single hint of animosity in his voice. Yet, Taylor could read his physicality like a book, and he had become incredibly tense at that proclamation.

“I'm unhappy that I had rogue Ascenders living within my borders, causing issues for me over the last several years.” Vir spoke nonchalantly, as though he didn't particularly care about the situation at hand. The fact that his hands were clenched so tight on his lap that his fingernails were drawing blood gave away the true depth of his fury at Taylor’s team. “Your latest escapades have created a continent-wide incident, and a full-fledged invasion is now imminent.”

The nobility in the room gasped. This exact news had been circulating in the rumor mill for the last several weeks, but hearing it from the lips of the king himself gave it a weight greater than any whispers in a dark room could compare with. Vir continued after a long pause to compose himself. “If you had been reading your Tome of Transposition, following the orders that had been sent to you, this outcome might have been avoided. For months, my people have been seeking you out, sending along decrees, orders, pleas… for you not to reconnect the desert with the rest of the kingdom.”

Taylor could see out of the corner of her eye that Andre had flinched back, his puzzled expression shifting into hardened resolve. Once again, she was glad that she had ‘accidentally’ allowed the book to be destroyed. All it had taken was a tiny hint that the book was the true reason that Luke had been forced away from his own world more frequently than he wanted, then stepping away to look at the impressive, yet simple growth of the trees in the area. When she had returned, all that remained of the book was a pile of pulp roughly the same shape as the book had once been, but with all of the enchantments destroyed by direct application of percussive maintenance.

“Now the Dynasty of Dogs is sniffing around our territory, attempting to determine what caused a wave of mana to spread out to our borders and rebound back inward.” The king took a long, steadying breath, and painted a smile on his face. “If we are going to survive over the next few years, to reap whatever few benefits that your actions have allowed us, we are going to have to survive the consequences that they caused. I know that my father is the one who ordered you to fix all of these issues, and I will, of course, honor the spirit of the quest that he had put in place.”

All Taylor heard when the king mentioned the rewards was that he was not going to honor the reality of the quest reward, but instead attempt to twist it into something it was never meant to be. If it weren’t for the goodwill they had created among the population, their reputation among other Ascenders, and the sheer wealth they had generated for the nobility, the King clearly would have been attempting to have their heads on a platter. Instead, he needed to give in to the pressure of the peerage and ‘reward’ them for their service so far. Taylor had a sneaking suspicion that their next assignment wouldn't be a pleasant one.

“Before we go any further,” King Vir looked directly at Andre, “I have received a report in advance of your return. I'm told that you have multiple artifacts of immense power that could be used for the benefit of the kingdom. By my authority, for the good of the people, I order you to hand them over.”