M.D.Syl
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Chapter 119 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-11-27 12:07:18 +0000 UTCChapter 119 Jerro's Plight
An unrequited love is a thirst that can’t be quenched.
A hunger that can’t be sated.
A flavor that can never be tasted.
It is a harsh and cruel thing.
But Lukam is a cruel world,
so keep on dreaming my lovelies!
Koshavi, the Princess of Dreams.
As the sun sets over the horizon. I lead Ovin's men toward the city gates. I notice that there are only three hundred men under Ovin, meaning he wouldn't commit all of them, but I don't mind it one bit, it should be enough.
I'm a bit worried that I do not hear any fighting, only the sound of a group of men working and laughing. When we get closer I notice that the city gates are no longer under the gang's control. My men and the orcs are in the midst of constructing a new camp in the open square inside the gate, using the city walls as protection from the outside.
I find Salik helping with the tents despite his missing arm. "Salik? What happened to the gang who controlled the gates?"
"Good to see you alive and well, kid." He smiles with a shrug. "They moved away about an hour ago. Sharla got back with your orders a little after they did, and I just moved our camp here to prevent them from cutting us off again."
"I see... good thinking, Salik. Where is Jerro, I need his opinion on something."
"He didn't want to enter the city, he's also sick. I had my men construct a tent for him just outside the walls."
"Ovin, this is Salik, my General. Treats his commands like they are mine. Salik, this is the head of the Red Spears gang, he commands around five hundred men give or take." I introduce the two.
"Wait, you knew?!" Ovin asks, startled.
I raise an eyebrow. "Knew what?"
"How many men I have... How?"
"I had Sharla checking your camp earlier."
He glances around my camp with a frown. "Why y'oll have so little men?"
"Because I was assured by my imbecile spymaster that there won't be any fighting in this city." And I'm going to kick him around until he tells me how he missed this when I'm back! "Speaking of, it might be best if you bring the prisoner here. We do need the information he can give."
Ovin frowns at me for a few long seconds, then nods and orders a few of his men to bring the prisoner. He turns to Zoe. "Y'oll teach me magic now?"
She looks at me, pleading silently for me to refuse it. "Teach him, Zoe. I'll take over it when I can, but for now teach him the basics. Salik? Take me to Jerro."
Salik nods and order Lepp Strongarm to lead the way for me, staying back with his men and helping with the tent.
*
Jerro's tent looks lonely alone outside the walls. I lift the flap a little and peek. “Jerro?”
Jerro’s chest spasms in a hearty cough. I can hear the force behind it and suspect he may not be as ill as I feared. "Good, you’re alive and you came back here.” He gives me a faint smile from his bed.
“I did. I needed to hear your opinion on a certain matter. What’s wrong? Why are you sick?”
He smiles reassuringly. “It’s nothing serious, I just caught a flu…”
I raise an eyebrow. “In the middle of the summer?”
“It can happen, the nights are pretty cold.”
He’s lying… “Really? I can barely fall asleep at night with this heat and I’m using a cooling spell to do so. This island is much warmer than Axero…” It’s his business… whatever it is… “...if there’s anything I can do for you, let me know.”
There’s a long silence, he looks me for a little while then scowls as if I’ve done something bad to him. “You can convince Sharlafyn to give me her fruit.”
“Her fruit?”
He sits up in bed. “Yes, it’s her token of friendship…”
“I’m getting the feeling that this fruit is way more important than just a ‘token of friendship’. Is it a token of her friendship? Or her love?” So this is about Sharla again… of course…
“It’s the same to her, that fruit can heal me. Just make her give it up,” he replies with clear impatience in his voice.
I cross my hands on my chest. “Are you acting sick so she’ll look at you?”
He wipe the sweat off his forehead. “No. I’m sick, and I might die if I won’t eat that fruit.”
“Why? I thought you have the flu?”
“Flu can kill you,” he says, deadpan.
“Huh huh… Sharla is a master at getting other people to pity her, she feeds on it. What makes you think she’ll go with your ploy?”
His brown eyes look directly into mine. “This is how her kind courts one another. She trusts you, she loves you, and she believes in you. She’s also your servant, she’ll do it if you command her to.”
“So, you want me to feel sorry for you. Jerro, don’t you think Sharla will hate you if you force her to give you a token without any meaning behind it?”
“She will hate me at first, but then she’ll grow to love me. She was forced to serve you, but now she loves you, why can’t it be the same? I see it is going to be the same!” He's desperate and frustrated he's trying to convince himself that this is what he saw.
He wouldn’t say he saw something if he didn’t… but I’m guessing he sees possibilities? And there are possibilities of things going wrong with this route… “I’m guessing there is a very small chance of this happening in your vision…” I finish my thoughts aloud.
“How did you know? Can you see timeflow too?” He jumps from his bed in alarm, forgetting that he’s supposed to be sick.
I can’t help but laugh. “No, but I can read simple human behavior. Jerro, stop plotting around. All you can do is tell her how you feel, be there for her when she needs you, and wait for her to feel the same.”
“And what if she’ll never feel the same?” He frowns at me.
“Then you can’t force her to. Feelings are not something we control, and trying to force feelings usually have the opposite results.”
“But she’s my soul mate! She’s the only person who can love me without asking me all the questions they don’t want to know… She… I tried to impress her, I tried to woo her.” His eyes tear up. “She doesn’t even look at me, like I don’t exist. I exist! And I love her!” For Jerro who’s always cold and indifferent, this show of raw emotion feels odd.
“You should tell her that.” My voice sounds meek in the face of his tears.
“I can’t!”
“Why not?”
He sniffs, wiping his tears. “She’ll say she doesn’t want me… and no, don’t tell me that I don’t know that, because I know that she’ll say that. I can see the future, remember?”
“Even what people are going to say next?”
He hesitates. “Sometimes… if it has a significant meaning…”
“Wait a minute, you still haven’t told her that you love her?”
He shakes his head.
He won’t get anywhere like this! “Ok, it’s time we fix that. First let’s get you cleaned up, you need to shave or decide if you want to keep a beard. You need cleaner clothes. Tomorrow morning you’re going to the forest to get flowers, do you know what flowers she likes?”
He lowers his head, frustration in his voice. “Aridons, you can only find them high in the north… Last Oak Forest, the Empire of Tsurianer, around the Opal Tower too I guess… They’re not growing on the Gray Islands.”
“Anything else?”
He shakes his head. “Daphne flowers, but we can’t find them here…”
Stop saying what you can't do already... “Ok whatever, get her any flowers you can find and think she’ll like, ok?”
He moves his hand on his stubbles. “Ok, then what?”
“Give it to her and tell her that you love her.”
“But she’ll say no.”
I cross my hands. “If she says no, you’ll have to accept it. Jerro, you need to be more confident in yourself. You see some future, you see some realities that didn’t happen yet, and it makes you afraid and hesitant to act. Stop living in the future, live in the here and now, she didn’t say no yet, correct?”
He nods quietly.
“Then she never said no! I don’t care what you saw, I don’t care what might happen tomorrow, you don’t know what might happen tomorrow, you…”
“But I do,” he interrupts me.
“And how many times what you've seen changed? You don’t know what will happen tomorrow, period! What you do know is that tomorrow you’re going to get yourself cleaned up. Then, you’ll get some flowers for Sharla, and then tell her that you love her. Anything else doesn’t matter, you will do your part and…”
“And she’ll say no,” he finishes my sentence for me. "She wants to lay with the hunter. She will break his heart soon, and then she'll lay with the rogue for a time. She does not want me."
“Fine!” I get up angrily. “Don’t do anything! Pretend to be sick in bed and get me to force her to give you her fruit or whatever, because that’ll get her to love you for sure!”
“Really?” He looks at me with a pair of brown puppy eyes.
“No!” I leave his tent angrily. Why does it bother me so much? I was just trying to help… Yes, but he keeps predicting the potential future and it blocks his present reality… Face it, Sharla will most likely say no, Jerro can be creepy… So how do I turn him into someone attractive? Why do I even care?
He saved me more than once, I owe him this… and I’ll do whatever I can to get them together… As long as it’s within reason… There's also Berthold's feelings to consider... The only times I think of him as attractive was when he saved me… he’s amazing when he saves the day. But even then… it’s more as if he saw it happen already… the guy lives in his chosen prediction…
Let’s start with the basics, looks, fix him some clothes that don’t look like baggy rags, fix his hair, make him his own men before he even approach her and get him to look right… it’s like the guy never looked in a mirror… Maybe he didn’t… mirrors are expansive…
I should at least ask Sharla what she thinks of it... Not that I have high hopes for that...
I head for Sharla's tent. Once I draw close enough I can hear the strained breaths from inside. She's clearly sharing her time with a man in there. From what I've noticed around camp, it's most likely Berthold, or possibly Ryon or one of the soldiers, it's impossible to tell with her. Everyone gets to have their fun except for me and Kolag... because of course I have to fall in love with the only man who can't sleep with me...
Only when I get to my own bed with the hopes of at least pleasuring myself a bit, I remember that I wanted to pique Jerro’s mind about the mysterious Fae in the city.
*
{28} Brigit (August) the 3rd
The next day I get out of my tent, planning to head to Jerro’s. Instead, I find the tired looking man right outside my tent, his clothes are stained as ever. Sharla is alongside him, but she acts like if he isn't there. “The creature in the city is used to schemes and manipulations. The more aggressive you are, the less he or she can react in time, and he’ll be forced to fight you directly… I can’t see which one of you is going to win this fight, I can't even see him clearly. I can tell you this: The more you play his games of cloak and dagger, the higher his chances get to win the struggles over this city.”
“Can you tell me where he is? I have no idea where to attack?”
Jerro shakes his head. “All I know is that he’s underground, that’s beyond my Lord’s reach.”
“Your Lord?”
“Tiyadi, the God of Time and Death. I’m… I guess you can say I’m his cleric, not by choice. My gift or my curse—whatever you wish to call it—comes from him. His sight of time flow is partially blocked underground, above the high skies and the mirage cloud, or under the deep sea's surface, it means my vision is flawed there.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Does time not flow underground? And what's the mirage cloud?”
“The mirage cloud... you'll see it for yourself in time. And time does flow underground and in the high skies, but it flows differently. Different gods have made these places their domains, they block some of my lord’s sight. My visions about what happens in these places are very inaccurate. If you ever need to hide from someone who has similar talents to my own, go underground or above the mirage cloud, there’s a whole world below and above.”
“Below this city?”
He shakes his head. “No, not under this city, underground in general. Under this city should be a small cavern system? Tunnels maybe? It’s not sewers. I can’t see clearly, go and attack it with everything you have! Kill everyone and everything you see in those tunnels”
Makes sense… “Can you tell me where the entrance to the tunnels is at least?”
“Under the palace.” There is no hint of doubt in the reply, he knows exactly where the entrance is. Having him around is extremely advantageous, I wonder how long I’ll have such luxury…
“That means we’re looking for the Flayers gang, what about Marvu’s raiders? The prisoner we took said he communicates with them telepathically…”
“If he communicates with them telepathically, whoever communicates with him can claims to be whatever he wants.” Sharla chimes in from the side. She currently wears her true fae form. Her blue starry eyes mesmerize me for a brief moment, and her autumn leaves dress flutters in the summer wind. “It’s easy to lie through telepathy, especially when dealing with your average mortal who has never experienced telepathy in their lives.”
I nod, that makes sense. “That Fae, it should be a strong opponent, right?”
“Yes.” The response comes from both Jerro and Sharla who look at each other right after. Jerro with a smile that looks a bit creepy, and Sharla with a confused look on her sharp fae-like face.
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
I head for the orcs’ section of the camp with Sharla and Jerro in tow. Jerro keeps leering at the fairy who acts like she doesn't notice. At some point he just stops and his face turns stone cold again. He's using apathy to protect himself... I know what that's like... I'm not going to force Sharla to be with him... But I will help him become less creepy that she might consider it...
I find the group of orcs all passed out on the ground, stinking from alcohol. Their chief in the middle, knocked out cold. With the orcs sprawled around on the earthy ground I have to navigate my way between their large bodies who are packed together like an odd mass of dark flesh and stinking furs. The stench of sweat and alcohol makes me hold my breath. Loud snores come out from a few of them, along with murmurs in orcish that I can't make sense of. Agilla turns in her sleep and grabs my ankle, murmuring something in Orcish. I tug my leg sharply and she lets it go, trying to grab a male orc who sleeps besides her.
I reach Balgrum and kick him. “Balgrum. Balgrum!”
He doesn’t wake up.
I don’t want to waste mana before a fight… “Lepp. Throw me your water skin.” I order the familiar soldier who chatting with a group of his friends near the sleeping orcs. He looks at me dumbfounded for a brief moment then throw me his waterskin. I smile at him apologetically and spill the content on Balgrum’s face. “Balgrum!”
“Wha wa whaa’aat?!”
“Wake up. We have a strong prey to hunt!”
“Wah? Prey? Prey! Krek! <Prey!> AAARGH!!!” He and the group of orcs wake up from their stupor. They draw their axes, and spread out as if we’re under attack. Their bloodshot eyes looking everywhere for an enemy.
“Where’s the prey?” Balgrum finally asks, rubbing his eyes.
“Deeper In the city.”
Agilla steps forward angrily. “We say shaman! We wolfes won’t hunt sick puppies in their den unless we make them all sheep!”
“Yeah! Puppies!” Another orc echoes, followed by growls of agreement and snickers. “Ti-a’ark!” <We wolves!> Another shouts, “Ti-a’ark!” <We wolves!> The others repeat, punching each other’s muscular arms. One of the female orcs punches too hard and the guy she punched decides it’s a good idea to punch her back in the face. The two drop to the ground in a violent brawl or a weird mating ritual.
I raise my voice, doing my best to make sure they can all hear me. “I’m not talking about the humans, there’s a strong fae creature hiding under the city, he can pose a threat to me…” I can’t help but compare the high pitch of my voice to their low rumblings and growling voices.
“Kra’alusa, shaman afraid?” Agilla asks with a grin full of sharp teeth.
“A little,” I admit, “but I’m going to hunt it whether you’re coming or not. I just thought I’ll give you an invitation since you love hunting strong prey so much…”
Balgrum slaps Agilla’s nape, the hit makes her fall down on all four. “We’ll come. Gife us an hour,” he says with a gruff voice. He turns to Lepp who stands between the human and orc sections of the camp, seemingly abandoned by his friends who found something better to do around the camp. “You there! Get us more booze!”
“There’s no more booze. You drank everything we had last night!” Lepp sounds like a cornered animal. I can imagine this group of almost twenty orcs forcing the poor human guard to hand them all of the alcohol.
The orcs seem awkward, they start a serious-looking discussion amongst themselves in their language. Although I can only understand a few words, the content of their discussion isn’t too hard to guess: ‘no booze, what are we going to do now?’
“I can make you a potion to deal with your headaches?” I suggest.
“Bah! No need. We go hunt!” comes the gruff reply from Balgrum.
“I want to come too!” The voice comes from Marvu’s spy. I am surprised to see the man is walking free. I’ve handed him over to Salik to be guarded, and the spy being here means he got past his guards somehow.
"What exactly are you doing here?!" I shove my hand into my rose pouch, ready to cast a spell. "Lepp! Get me Salik, this man is supposed to be under guard, not walk free. Did Ryon not interrogate him? Where's Ryon?!"
"Ryon is eating the meat from..." Lepp doesn't finish his sentence. The former prisoner runs toward me at full speed, swinging a dagger in his one healthy arm. “Myrsha samir” <Gravity protect> I purposely use the weaker red version, and the stab toward my chest slows. I place my hand on his face and: “Myrsha ritsa!” <Gravity repulse!>
The blast is bigger than I expect, his whole body explodes, covering me and the surrounding with a huge amount of blood. I cough and spit the blood that got into my mouth. Are my powers getting stronger? No… this is something else… There was another man that exploded earlier when I just hit him with an arrowhead...
What’s left of the body is a headless human skin. There is too much blood spilled around, yet no sign of bones or flesh. Almost as if this spy was only a sack of skin filled with blood. What kind of fae can do that?!
*~*~*
Interlude 119.1
Moriz
Moriz stares wide-eyed as his little girl wakes up with rosy cheeks. The metal-clad paladin—still covered in bloodstains from battling eight savage orcs on his own—pulls his hand back with an echoing sigh. “Your daughter will live, my good man. Cherish your life and follow Noxi’s light.”
“Milord. Thank you, milord!” Moriz shouts thankfully holding his healed daughter in his arms. “I renounce Jalier. I will now walk in Noxi’s light!”
A few people in the crowd gasp, but Moriz doesn’t care. Yes, tomorrow a bunch of fanatics will probably draw a sun on his door. Yes, he’ll be shunned by everyone else in the city. But following Jalier had lost him his family, while Noxi’s paladin had saved him and the only family he has left.
“Milord, can I ask a question, milord?” James, Moriz’ childhood friend asks. The knight nods silently. “You be a paladin of Noxi, milord, why tolerate the queen? The church of Noxi had led crusades against them sorcerers as long as I remember meself. And we all be worshiping Jalier an enemy of Noxi.”
“Against arbitrary evil sorcerers, yes. The queen isn’t evil, I would’ve killed her long ago if she was…”
“Yes, milord!”
The queen isn’t evil. Moriz can’t tell, but coming out from the holy man who saved him and his daughter, Moriz has to accept it as the truth.
“Sir Kolag!” A peace-keeper knight barges into the already crowded room. “The orcs are attacking the city!”
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 79
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 16 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 26 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 19/20 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 39 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 6 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: connected: 84/95 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream. Aria's Increased Voice.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors. Hot Water Conjuration. Boiling Waterjet.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield II. Imari’s Minor Telekinesism. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Spells known:
Light: Rika's Electric Channelb1
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb1x2. Tukado's Pushb1x3. Tukado’s defense IIIb1x4. Imari’s Lesser Flightb2.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison. Brigit’s Skin Restoration.
Focus capability: 18 patterns.
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Shaman of the Twin Moon Tribe. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Personal Wealth: 1465 Magic Gems. 1420 Golden Peas, 45 Silver Scales, 32 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
4 potions of Lesser Healing.
4 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
Glitter ingredients. (1 bag)
Fresh rose petals, 30g
Fresh lavender petals, 7g
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 30/100. Locked.
Present Companions:
Zoe
Ovin Bloodspear
Berthold
Ryon
Sharlafyn Nettledew
Jerro
Salik
Loyal
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> Fluent
Myrsha <Gravity> 8/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
Nim <Water> 1/10
A'arkalu <Wolf Tongue> 3/10
Injuries and scars:
Curses:
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 3836 gold coins. 123 magical gems.
Kingdom’s citizen: Red Cedar City: 3,881 humans, 1,836 human children.
Apricot City: approximate 800+ humans.
Twin Moon Tribe: 1,158 orcs. 293 orc children. 529 sheep-slaves.
Kingdom's army: 1,1156 Orc Warriors. 324 Footmen. 49 Peacekeeper Knights. 500 Blood Spears.
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder.
Jolla SilverQuill.
Talbot Bookkeeper.
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom.
Balgrum Orc Chieftain.
