Chapter 158 – Talking Shop

Aki

‘Here comes the hard part,’ Lilyth muttered when we got back to Mer-Cas around noon on the eighth day of our journey.

‘What’s wrong?’ Bergia asked with concern in her voice.

‘We have to explain everything to Savri,’ Caei answered weakly, and the four of us who knew her shuddered to the perplexed looks from Bergia and Deirdee.

‘Isn’t she your friend?’ my mom asked.

‘Savri is,’ I explained. ‘It is Master Sergeant Adzhenair that's the problem. And I think she will be the one we will be explaining ourselves to.’

‘She can’t be that scary.’

‘Chirpy is afraid of her,’ Ren pointed to the Nesumi sitting on her shoulder and looking terrified at the concept of seeing Sav again.

‘Oh,’ Bergia muttered. ‘Oh, dear.’

While Chirpy mostly stopped pushing his luck in the past few weeks, he still was the same asshole he was, though these days his antics were mostly amusing. For instance, he took a real liking to Bergia's favourite chair. So he would either wait with the patience of a rock for her to get up, so that he could immediately take her place. And on one occasion, he attempted to muscle her out of it. It was a pretty ingenious plan, too. Chirpy joined Bergia on the chair and lay down in a free spot. Then, whenever my mom would slightly shift, he would immediately move into the unoccupied space, slowly pushing her out.

When we finally caught on to what the fuzzy douchebag was doing, Bergia couldn't help but laugh before grabbing Chirpy by the scruff of his neck and putting him down on the floor. Needless to say, the competition for the seat turned vicious after that. On more than one occasion, I saw Veenaya look at the scene and just shake her head. Then she would jump into my lap and start nuzzling against my body, making me wonder whether this wasn't her way of dominating us. Then I looked at her happy face, and all such thoughts went away.

As Ren wanted to introduce Bergia to Elder Baial, we agreed to wait for them at Gerra’s inn. Our return did not go unnoticed, and as we walked, we noticed many people just “happening” to stand along our route. They were particularly interested in Lilyth as they didn't get a chance to see her in the fox form, especially since she figured out how to change the colour of it and it was orange again with black tip on ear and white on another, though Deirdee and my fire markings were also high on the list of “things of interest”.

We will always be a travelling freakshow to some extent.

‘Oh, you are back!’ a familiar male voice said.

It was ser Arcarius, sporting a neatly trimmed beard and wearing a simple doublet and pants.

Shit!

I was hoping he would be busy training the militia, so the opportunities for him to actually meet my mom would be limited. Swallowing a lump, I greeted him, and we introduced Deirdee to him.

‘A pleasure to meet you, miss,’ Arcarius half-bowed. ‘I am Arcarius Arnveyr, formerly of the Temple Dragoons and now a simple bodyguard.’

Bodyguard?

‘Excuse me for asking, ser Arcarius,’ I began,’ but weren't you responsible for the militia?’

‘Lady Ireela deemed that a waste of my talents. She offered me a position as the commander of her household guard. The militia is now under the care of Wylam of Lin-Vyme. He was the man Ladies Caeileera and Ren were supposed to recruit before our meeting caused a change in plans. Wylam is a good man and much better versed in spear and shield fighting than I ever was.’

A lot has changed in those four weeks, it seems.

‘I gather your journey was not uneventful?’ the soldier asked. ‘Though it is a pleasant surprise to see you have regained access to your magic, Lady Lilyth. We feared that Zalikh caused irreversible damage.’

‘I found a… herb that helped me heal from its effects,’ my wife answered carefully. ‘It did have some side-effects though.’

Lilyth pointed to her grassy hair wisps.

‘What herb was that?’ Arcarius asked. ‘Countering Zalikh could be very useful for us.’

‘It was Helrika,’ Lilyth explained. ‘It w- is from the realm of Life. So not something we can rely on.’

‘How did you find it then? If you found one plant, maybe there are others.’

Oh, for fucks sake.

‘This is a subject best discussed in private,’ I stressed.

‘Oh,’ the dragoon blushed slightly. ‘I understand. My professional curiosity got the better of me.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Lilyth gave him a forced smile.

Arcarius turned out to be heading to the inn for a midday meal, so he linked up with us. I was surprised he didn't eat at the estate, but the reason became pretty clear once we saw the person standing behind the counter. It was Anika. It was weird to see her in a white dress and a greenish apron and cleaning mugs, but she explained that before becoming a soldier, she used to work as a waitress, so this seemed like a logical place for her to work. Gerra even let her live in one of the inn rooms as the ghûl moved out of the estate due to feeling like a freeloader there.

As the inn was mostly empty, the innkeeper said she would fix us all some food and let Anika sit with us and catch up.

‘I heard about those Kisamzo,’ Arcarius said after we gave them a very condensed version of our story. ‘They are from the realm called “the Sea of Sorrow”.’

‘The Mourning Queen,’ Lilyth muttered.

‘Hm?’ Arcarius muttered, but we dismissed that with another “In private”.

‘I see that your travels were really eventful,’ the dragoon sighed.

‘You have no idea,’ Caei said.

‘Still, if possible, I would like to go to this “Murdergrove” with you. I was trained to deal with such places, or at least survive in them, so I might be able to help you with your investigation.’

‘Sorry to point this out, ser Arcurius,’ I said carefully, ‘but I am not sure whether this is a good idea. We would be staying in Dan-Hem for a few days, and you might not be… welcome there.’

‘Not a problem,’ he shrugged. ‘I can camp outside the village if need be. If there is a trade deal to be done between Mer-Cas and Dan-Hem, I imagine Lady Ireela would be headed there anyway.’

That didn’t occur to me, but it made sense.

‘We’ll figure something out,’ I conceded.

‘I can keep you company outside the village, Arc,’ Anika smiled. ‘I doubt my kind would be particularly welcome in such a… quaint place, and I want to see that place too.’

Arc?

‘You sure you are up to it, Anika?’ Caeileera asked. ‘Dungeons are pretty dangerous.’

‘You three are doing fine, so I think I’ll manage,’ she replies with a pleasant smile. ‘Allow me to remind you that I was in the same squad as Savri.’

‘They do have a point, Ani,’ Arcarius interjected. ‘Dungeons and battlefields are two different things.’

‘Not the battlefields I was on,’ the ghûl said with dead eyes. ‘I survived a ship filled with rogue machines, I’ll survive some monsters.’

‘The Perimedes?’ Lilyth suddenly asked. ‘I remember Sav mentioning it.’

Anika shook her head.

‘The Perimedes was… a different kind of hell.’

‘Yeah…,’ Lilyth muttered. ‘I can't imagine what it was in your time, Anika, but back in mine, war was already bad enough.’

‘War is always bad,’ Arcarius stressed and took a sip from his tankard of ale.

‘I don’t disagree, ser Arcurius,’ my wife replied, examining the bottom of her glass of water. ‘I was more… referring to the tools of war. You have melee weapons, some guns and magic. We had drones, precision guided munitions and remote mine laying systems.’

I have no idea which one of those was most terrifying. Those guided munitions were bad enough since someone being able to target your exact position from forty kilometres was bad enough, but drones had longer ranges and could be steered. Those mine-laying systems were a category of nightmare of their own.

Being able to set up an entire field of explosive traps from a distance… by the gods.

‘We had that and worse,’ Anika sighed. ‘Gravity weapons were something I really hated to see. Those were basically weaponised artificial gravity generators. GWs were rare due to their high cost, but I’ve seen one turn a city block into a ball of corpses and debris.’

‘I can't believe I am saying that, but wouldn't nukes be more efficient?’

‘I understand your sentiment. And yes. GWs were usually part of tandem anti-ship munitions. First charge would penetrate the hull, and the second would launch a gravity-field generator into the ship, causing an implosion. Even if the hull was too strong to fold in on itself, the insides well…’

‘Foomp,’ Lilyth sighed.

‘Foomp,’ the Ghûl agreed.

Needless to say, Caei and Arcarius ended up apologising to Anika.

‘Still,’ I risked picking up the subject in a less… abrasive way,’ are you sure you’ll manage? We are likely to fight at close distance.’

‘Fair question,’ Anika nodded. ‘I have fairly decent CQC skills from my days in the Fourth. Plus Arc has been giving me sword-fighting lessons. So I should be okayish. Plus… not sure how important that is, but I am level fourteen.’

Fourteen?

‘How?’ Lilyth raised her brow.

‘When I ended up here and the whole ‘system’ thing activated, I received a notification about an “experience equivalent”.’

‘I dread to think how many people you killed to get that high,’ Lilyth shuddered.

‘While that number is probably over three, maybe four hundred, I stopped counting at one-hundred-and-fifty-six,’ Anika’s shoulders sagged. ‘Though this is the one story Savri and I are taking to our graves.’

‘“Just following orders”?’ Lilyth spat.

‘Sometimes that’s the only excuse that lets you sleep at night.’

Excerpt from August 5th, 2849 issue of Arthurian Daily

Early findings from the Royal Civilian Spacecraft Authority suggest that mechanical failure of the life support system was the cause behind the disaster that claimed the lives of seventy-three souls who served aboard Saint Teilmar, a Prince Balthasar class long-range exploration vessel.

While the investigation continues, RCSA experts are ready to rule out external party involvement in the disaster, as ship logs include reports of issues with life support going on for weeks prior to the incident. This is further supported by the final report from the Crown Institute of Forensic Medicine, which states that asphyxiation was the cause of death of every crew member of Saint Teilmar.

‘Hopefully, this will put an end to the careless speculation of sabotage or enemy action coming from various members of the political establishment and prominent members of the media,’ said Johann Ydeskog, the spokesman for RCSA.

Aki

You know… when I imagined being an adventurer, I thought... I don't know... that there would be a lot more heroism involved.

‘Reality rarely matches our expectations, my dear,’ Irmen sighed. ‘I don’t know what Savri and Anika have done, but as far as adventuring parties go, your gang is better than most, though the bar for that is at the bottom of an ocean trench.’

That's hardly reassuring.

‘It wasn't meant to be. All I can say is - keep trying to do your best.’

I will, I thought and turned back to Anika.

‘If you have some Perk Points, hold on to them until level fifteen. Specialisation abilities and traits unlock then.’

‘Not the best of ideas, actually, from what I’ve heard,’ Arcarius muttered. ‘A lot of those are locked and hidden if you don't have the prerequisi… hang on. What level are you guys? Most people have never even heard of these.’

‘Almost fourteen,’ I sighed.

Fifteen hundred experience points needed.

‘Twelve,’ Ren shrugged.

‘Ten,’ Deirdee muttered.

‘Fifteen,’ Caei beamed.

‘Twenty,’ Lilyth said cautiously.

Arcarius was more than a little surprised by that.

‘You have been underselling your adventures if you are that high a level. How long did it take you?’

‘Six weeks,’ Lilyth answered, a bit unsure. ‘I think. I lost the track of days.’

‘Sounds about right,’ Caei confirmed.

‘You have no idea how extraordinary that is, don’t you?’ Arcarius shook his head in disbelief. ‘I have been a temple dragoon for twelve years and have seen combat both against men and monsters. I am “only” level eleven. That's considered to be respectable for someone with my service history. A level growth as quick as yours… that's unheard of.’

‘A lot of that is from the time I threw a grenade into a mass of monsters. Boosted me up to level eighteen.’

‘And then you managed to get to level twenty in what… a week and a half? To give you an idea about how ridiculous that is - it took me eight months to go from level ten to eleven, and that was considered fast.’

‘Stick with us then, mate,’ Lilyth laughed. ‘Given our track record, you will hit level twenty in like two months.’

‘That or die horribly,’ Deirdee added under her breath.

‘Anyway…’ Anika quickly changed the subject. ‘I used up all my perk points almost immediately as I didn't know any better.’

‘Picked up anything fun?’ I asked.

‘Some gun-related abilities like [Power Shot]. That and some survival and tech-based stuff, though I would have skipped those had I known I ended up in such a backwards place. [Analyse Device] is of little use when there are no devices to analyse.’

Lilyth's ears perked up at that. She reached into her bag, took out one of the radios and slid it towards the ghûl.

‘Where did you get that?’ Anika asked as she grabbed it.

‘Undead soldiers in the Corridors,’ Lilyth explained. ‘We managed to salvage three, but we lost one.’

‘Shame,’ Anika muttered, and her eyes flashed. ‘Let’s see what we have here. It just calls it a military-grade portable radio. Was hoping for a brand or something. Set to channel seven, encrypted using a method I don’t recognise; maximum range: twenty kilometres; current charge forty per cent; remaining battery time: three hours and twenty minutes; durability: forty out of fifty.’

To my shock, I actually understood everything Anika was saying. The ghûl looked at the back of the device, pressed a button, and a large black block emerged from the bottom of the radio.

‘Some sort of a lithium-ion battery. Rechargeable. Not that it matters.’

She pushed the block back into the radio with a click.

‘Damn,’ Lilyth said in awe. ‘That ability is awesome. Got anything that can help with it?’

‘Yeah. My other three tech-based abilities are [Find Faults], [Identify Components] and [Salvager]. The first lets me find where the issues are with stuff, the second identifies what… parts are, I guess? This is what I used to look at the battery. The last one marks salvageable items when looking through destroyed stuff. All in all, I spent eight perk points on those.’

‘Those… may be more useful than you think. There is a place I think we need to raid.’

‘NO!’ Caei shouted. ‘I told you! We are not going back to Akh'ret’s Mercy!’

Previously, I have agreed with Caei on that. Now though with the Daughters stuff…’

‘Lilyth is right. We need information. Stuff there is a bonus.’

Caei wasn’t placated, but she would need to get over it.’

‘Is that the haunted hospital?’ Anika asked, starry-eyed.

‘ The one and the same,’ Lilyth said. ‘Listen, Caei. If you want to skip the place, feel free. But I am going.’

My artificial hand itched, but I ignored it.

‘And so am I,’ I said with some trepidation.

‘Together till the end,’ Caei finally conceded with a grumpy expression on her face. ‘Even if that end happens to be me feeding you both to Phosi if anything goes wrong.’

‘Who is Phosi?’ Arcarius asked, but we ignored him.

‘Don’t worry,’ I stressed to Caei. ‘We know what is there now, are far more experienced, and most importantly - we will have Savri with us.’

Caei began to say something, but quickly stopped.

‘Yeah, there is no way she will let us go alone.’

‘We will be lucky if we are able to go to the bathroom without supervision,’ Lilyth sighed, and we all nodded solemnly.