(Vol 2) Chapter 4: To Face or Flee

New Quest unlocked: “To Face or Flee” — Resolve the conflict or escape.

● Rewards (Highly variable to end results): +25-50 FE, +1-5 specialized FE to most relevant domain used, 1-3 exp in [Goddess], 1-3 exp credit to most relevant sub-class used during quest, 0-2 exp credit to sub-class of choice.

The first thing Azure did was run back into the room, in a state of panic. She grabbed the half-stuffed pack, grabbed some raw wooden staff she’d found, and carved mostly straight, then made for the shuttered window. With her hand on it, she seemed to recall she could cast spells, if weak ones…

Samantha said nothing through all this, just watched and waited.

As Azure closed her eyes, perhaps to begin the prayer, she stopped and leaned backward on the wall.

“If I go, If I run… they’ll probably be killed.”

“Yes,” Samantha answered simply.

“Even if I manage to escape… I…”

Samantha once more was silent.

Face contorting into a sob briefly, though no tears came, Azure struggled with herself and her fear for a long spell.

Heart racing, almost panting, she pushed up from the wall. Squared her shoulders. Then — having to shove a mountain out of the way to do it — she walked out of the room, and down the steps. Out the front doors. To face him.

Just as I had foreseen she had to.

“Look at her!” Dart gushed. “As brave as any champion. What a gal.”

“Indeed.”

Sammy couldn’t help but eye the staff. It was quite a woodsy thing to have…

A clutch of servants and farm hands — perhaps all of them, men and women — were clustered up near Nestor, a few meters from the front door. Each had a weapon of some kind, some with old, weathered shields, some wearing helmets or hastily-donned leather armor over their torso. A few were wielding readied slings. Nestor himself had a shield and spear brandished.

They faced over three dozen rough-looking mercenaries and bounty hunter types…  lightly-armored, scowling men looking down at their opponents with derision, all from horseback. Many had crossbows — not pointed exactly, but certainly ready to fire in an instant.

Some of the men were carrying torches and seemed somehow itchy, as if they had been fairly close to setting fire to things. One was clearly a flat-out pyromaniac, as he was looking at a pile of hay like it held a cake he was missing out on.

A handful of Andemen’s more trusted veteran soldiers, all in fine steel breastplates, surrounded the lord himself, who was both armored and seemed to glow with some aura of protection. He was also scowling down from his impeccable white horse, in his case directly at Nestor.

“This is not a negotiation!” He practically spat in annoyance. “You can either surrender her-” He cut off immediately when he noticed Azure walking up. His annoyance turned to a bit of relief. “Ah, someone sees reason! And it would be her. Go ahead and thank the woman that saved your idiotic lives, you stubborn bumpkins.”

In dismay, the servants and such turned, though none were more so dismayed than Nestor and Yadmin.

“No!” Yadmin called, then rushed to her. “Don’t — you can’t endanger yourself, please!”

“Miss Laina, you don’t have to do this…” Nestor seemed pained, even as his eyes flashed to his family and friends, who were all one command away from likely being slaughtered.

“You’re a pathetic loser, Yadmin!” called a young woman’s voice. She was behind one of the veteran soldiers of Andemen, perhaps the youngest one, holding on rather tightly to him at that. She was dressed in fine riding wear, which seemed out of place on her — a country girl one mere day up-jumped to finer things.

Yadmin shook his head at her with an angry, hurt look. “Enshaea… how could you do this…”

“Oh, spare me! Really. Everyone does what’s best for them. Of course I’d go for a reward from a charming king! And you thought you had someone beautiful, did you?” She hugged the man in front of her with a dreamy sigh. “Look how things turn on their head in just a day…”

In truth, the man she held had a rather sour expression on his face as he rolled his eyes.

“Traitorous bitch!” one of the other servant girls called.

“Andemen,” Azure intoned loudly as she stopped near Nestor, perhaps trying to avoid further outbursts. She nodded her head to indicate the girl. “What is she even doing here?”

Lord Andemen smiled mildly, with a helpless shrug. “She wanted to see you taken. And to be a part of your punishments. How could I refuse when she was so instrumental?”

The girl grinned in satisfaction at Azure. In truth, she seemed to be on a high from it all. Maybe even was high, knowing Andemen.

“Man, what a piece of work,” Dart said, and blew out a little fireball from his mouth. “Lock her up and throw away the key.”

Sammy shook her head slightly. “Technically I could if I could Maze her. But that would make a Sleeping Ugly.”

“Ugly? Well, I’d hardly- Oh, right, on the inside. Ha!”

Azure had no reaction looking at the girl. Other than perhaps a shred of pity. She turned her eyes back to the lord. “Why did you even come for me, Ande? All this overreaction to someone you’ve ignored for years. You have no reason to care.”

“You are mine.” He could really turn on the smolder. It was truly some romance-novel-level obsession in his eyes. A couple of the servant girls gasped despite themselves. “The rest is between us, but you have my attention. This was all… impressive. Quite a chase, quite a game. But this one is over now. Come.”

He gestured while looking away as if expecting her obedience.

Azure glared at him. A mixture of emotions, but hatred was certainly at the top. She did not quite have words at that moment. Meanwhile, everyone was held spellbound in suspense.

Andemen appeared somewhat surprised, frowning back at her. Then he sighed. “Do I really need to promise the safety of these silly commoners for you? Of course, Azure. They’re irrelevant. They can be their merry, irrelevant selves as soon as we’re away. Now get your perfect ass on my horse and let's get out of this wretched mudh-.”

“I don’t want you anymore.”

It simply bubbled out of her, as she glared him dead in the eyes in defiance. Quiet, calm, but like the hammer of heaven dropping in power, somehow. For a brief spell, there was only the sound of the wind.

Andemen — trying to hide how that smarted — scowled balefully. “I don’t want this day to be bloody when it could be avoided.” He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. “Ballyrus! You and your men calmly dismount, and without weapons, retrieve Madame Azure for me. No bloodshed, hmm? Unless they draw it first and choose to die.”

Ten of the men dismounted and began filtering over. At this point, Azure finally took a deep breath and began walking forward, obviously to surrender before-

Basic Avatar created. 1500 FE deducted. Please address various alerts related to your Avatar…

“Are you ready, Dart?”

“Psh, I was born ready, girly girl! Let’s do this!” He cracked his knuckles, overly loud for such a small creature.

“Follow my lead.” As rapidly as she possibly could, she blasted through all the basic shit needed to get her Avatar’s feet on the ground…

Most of it won’t matter anyway, gotta go All-In on this shit right now!

Avatar linked in-world… First materialization: ‘By Azure’... Samantha Core Avatar is born. Outfit 1, layer 1 added; Outfit 1, layer 2 added.

The quest “Walk Amongst Them” is complete. 150 FE rebated. Free minor magical weapon with [Bound] trait awaiting selection before generation.

Even as she was ‘materializing,’ Samantha was activating her Create Illusion ability to make for a grand, and entirely Not Her sort of entrance.

There was a brief rumble in the ground, a sound from deeper rising up, and the whole of both parties felt it in their bones. Enough to pause, enough to question.

Then a hand like wood and hardened vines burst out from the ground in front of Azure — from almost below the startled Naugite in a shower of earth — seizing her staff on its way to rising up and out. Roots burst everywhere from out of a sinking hole as men backed away and exclaimed, as horses shied and already desired to flee. At the center, coming up out of the ground like the roots were claws digging it out, was an imposing figure.

Staff held high, encased head to toe in thick, living armor and a cloak of dark leaves, a powerfully-framed figure rose level with the rest, nothing ‘human’ in evidence but for a long blonde ponytail peeking out like a crest. All gave him a wide berth in their fear. Dark murmurs shot through the men, especially the mercenaries — words like ‘druid’ and ‘treeman’ and ‘avenger of the goddess.’

Inwardly, Sammy smiled. She knew this would be something to generate awe in Southlanders.

The simple staff blossomed into magnificence with leaves, and at the top, an orb of glowing light pulsed like a will-o-the-wisp.

“This woman,” a powerful, masculine voice uttered from all around, cracking the air with power. “Is under my protection as an Initiate of the Wood. Under the protection of Deidara Von Curst, Archdruid of the goddess whose name is not uttered.”

Insect-like slanted eyes flared with a glowing green light as the figure pointed a dread finger at the dumbfounded lord. “It was I who orchestrated One of Hers to escape you. Her diligence is answered, her prayers granted. And you will not have her. I suggest you all leave. Now.”

Some of the mercs — the smarter ones, perhaps — were already high-tailing it before the command. There wasn’t quite an exodus… There was still hesitation and doubt.

Sammy did not give anyone a chance to respond, though. “Or,” and Deidara spun the staff before slamming it down into the earth with a resonant pulse of intense sound, flaring like a cone at the men and horses as more roots burst up from the ground. They snaked and fashioned themselves into menacing tree forms — great treants and golems of wood.

“We will squeeze the marrow out of your bones and feed the earth with your wretched substance.”

Even without the sheer terror of horses that weren’t really the breed disciplined for war — much less for supernatural forces keen on slaughtering them — the whole band of bounty hunters and mercenaries decided discretion was the better part of valor. They veritably flew away.

Briefly, the leaders seemed to try and rally them, firing crossbows or tossing torches. Sammy — and the summoned Dart running spot support — ensured the illusion showed how little the treants were affected. Dart shapeshifted into a smaller copy of her imposters, and dug root hands into the earth to rip them out and sling actual attacks. Not very damaging, but quite frightening.

Ultimately the leaders thought better of pushing their luck and fled with their men. Sammy did notice the pile of hay was on fire — not that it was of relevance.

That little bitch of a pyro just had to burn something first!

Andemen and his small core of men were not so easily set running. They got control of their mounts as Andemen was screaming for the men to stay, promising gold, making threats… anything he could, but to little avail.

These men don’t like hoodoo, buddy. You might as well forget it.

Finally, the lord’s hateful gaze came to rest on the ‘druid’. “I don’t believe this! I don’t buy it! It’s a trick!” He pulled a dagger and threw it.

Sammy laughed inwardly, because she was not actually where the druid was anymore, and everyone behind the image had already backed waaay up, as she expected (and why she made sure it affected them).

Though the dagger actually passed through the air and ended up on the ground, Sammy made it appear to thunk right into the armored wooden chest of Deidara, without reaction. Then it turned into wood, which then evaporated into ash.

“You bore me, Andemen. Captain, sergeants, I suggest you talk sense into him. I am giving you One. Final. Warning. Go.”

Though Andemen scoffed, his apparent captain did try to grab his arm and whisper something. He ripped his arm away angrily.

This was when Azure stepped forward again. “Andemen, listen to your men! And listen to me. You will never have me. It’s over! You can just accept it. Move on. Even if you think you stand a chance here, it’s a terrible chance to take. For what? For your ego? Think of all the people that depend on you, that will languish with your death. Think of the wealth you’d throw away.”

Shaking her head as the wind caught her hair and dress, she threw her hands up in a great shrug. “Is just one woman really worth it?”

Andemen stared back at her with that smoldering gaze. A man that had everything, that was denied nothing, staring at an exception. An impossibility he didn’t know how to process.

Fate and a choice tumbled within him as well, and it was not clear which way he’d sway in those heavy winds.

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