Chapter 31: Chapter 31: A Quest to Save Lives

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

A Quest to Save Lives

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It sucked balls that I died at the exact moment we achieved victory over such harrowing odds, which made this death feel kind of like the Norns were messing with me just for the lols.

Even worse, I took my last short rest inside Lugh’s Lament, which meant I had to undergo a third dungeon run at twice the difficulty of the previous excursion. Literally.

On the second floor, we faced off against twin Irish ogres, with me and Liara each securing a final blow without having to steal the other’s kill. However, the number of burn wounds and concussions among our raid members had increased significantly so that it became harder to convince Mistress Lorelai to follow through with my plan to destroy the maenads—even with my lie about using Star-Spangled Sight—because she was concerned our manpower wasn’t strong enough to challenge a horde of frenzied maenads.

Once more, I felt the hand of the Norns at work here. As if they were pointing out how unsatisfied they were with how easy I’d had it last time and they were now determined that I should suffer a bit more in this new life.

Note to future self, take a nap after every dungeon boss encounter and in between drunken revelries because that’s the smart play.

To be fair, this new life wasn’t all bad. For one, I didn’t overshoot the maenad queen’s crown this time, and I even one-shotted one of the crown’s snake heads with a haste-fueled swing of my glaive. The snake’s second head burned to a crisp in a ball of golden flames that lit up the secret garden as if a sun had momentarily descended on the maenad queen’s head.

Yep, Nova Stella was my new favorite move.

Also, Anal ended up getting more injuries in the fight against the queen, and two broken legs were far harder to heal than a single injured shoulder. It felt like justice had finally come for the cowardly bright elf.

As soon as we completed our quest and got back to basecamp, I avoided my fellow novices’ calls to assist in setting up for the upcoming celebration—earning myself more disgruntled looks from both the apprentice and journeymen class—and dashed straight for my tent so I could follow my advice about making new save points at key moments of the day.

Just before I shut my eyes, however, Liara peeked into the tent and caught me lounging on my sleeping bag.

“It’s only half past midnight,” she frowned. “Victory celebrations usually last until the break of dawn.”

“Sheesh, this Academy’s full of party animals,” I chuckled.

“Revelries are how we keep sane,” Liara reasoned. “Don’t sleep. Come join us.”

Now, if it were any other time, Liara inviting me to a party would have made my inner cave boy very happy, and that’s even though she’s the half-blood daughter of a murdering fascist cult member. Sadly, I was on a quest to save lives, and I needed every second to prepare for what was coming.

“Trust me… you want me to take this nap.” I plopped my head onto my fluffy sleeping bag. “Don’t worry though. I’ll be up in thirty.”

I heard the she-elf whisper, “Your loss,” which made me bite my lower lip in restraint, and then she added, “You are such a weird human boy,” just before I heard the sound of the tent flap closing behind her.

Now, one might think I’d blown an opportunity to raise another flag with Liara, but considering that we get into a big fight later, I saw this brush-off as a win. Besides, avoiding a meeting with Lorias freaking Löwenthal tonight meant I had more time to figure out how I could get Liara to turn on her cultist dad because just pushing the she-elf away wasn’t an option. She mattered to me now. Maybe not at the level of Divah, but enough that I didn’t want to just set her aside without trying to make things work. Also, Liara choosing me would be a huge victory over that veslingr cultist, and I was all about having my cake and eating it too.

Wondering how to set Lorias up so that Liara could see him for the monster he truly was had been the last thing on my mind just before sleep finally took me.

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The victory celebration was just getting underway when I woke up.

“What time is it…?” I checked my status bar’s screen. “One-fifteen in the morning… Ugh. Not much time then.”

By my calculations, I had an hour and forty-five minutes to put my plan into action, and I would need every second to make sure I got to save more lives than lose people at the stroke of the witching hour.

I got to my feet and splashed some spring water onto my face so I could wipe the grogginess from my mind. Then I put on my gear—no way I was getting caught in boxers during a night raid ever again—packed up my shit, and then I left the tent with an expression of determination flitting across my face.

“So, where are you going?” asked a honeyed voice I knew all too well now.

I glanced over my shoulder and found Liara leaning on a nearby wooden post. She was balancing a hunting knife between her fingers.

“Have you been waiting there this whole time?”

“Nope.” She sheathed her knife and moved over to stand next to me. “You said you’d be up in thirty minutes so I got here five minutes before time was up.”

“Smart…” I frowned. “…and kind of creepy.”

Liara frowned. “I was being stealthy.”

“Which failed the moment you called out to me,” I reasoned. “So, don’t you have a chili mead contest to win or a warrior’s ballad to sing along to?”

The she-elf’s only response was a raised eyebrow that was nearly as good as my wolf-eyed stare.

“Go back to the party, Liara… there’s someplace I need to be.”

I hated brushing her off for a second time, but if hurting her feelings was enough to keep Liara safe this night then it would be worth it.

Without looking back, I pulled up the hoodie hidden underneath the collar of my jacket and then inched my way toward the rear gate.

“Night Mother, Night Mother, keep your servant hidden against curious eyes and inquiries that come unbidden,” I whispered the prayer Divah had taught me to invoke the goddess of night’s blessing for stealth and secrecy.

Shadows from the ground began to cling to me while I slinked over from one tent to another, keeping me hidden from the revelers who were too busy having a good time to notice my weakened presence.

That’s right… don’t mind me. I’m nothing. I’m no one. I’m just a shadow.

With my stealth settings dialed up to the max, it was very easy to remain hidden. And, as I walked in shadow, I recalled the time Divah had taught me my first lesson in the art of deception.

“Obscure your face with a hood or a cap to make it easier to blend into the shadows,” Divah had whispered into thirteen-year-old me’s ears. “Don’t forget your prayer to the Night Mother. Trust in her, and she will keep you hidden for as long as you stay away from sources of light.”

“What if it’s daytime?” I was such a ginormous smart-ass back then. “The Night Mother can’t help me in the daytime, can she?”

“There are ways to divert attention even in the daytime, kiddo,” she’d answered knowingly. “Blending into a crowd to hide in plain sight or take to the roofs where people rarely look. That’s how you keep hidden during the day.”

Divah raised her fist. A second later, two members of her guild, Dragon Flail, dropped to the floor to flank the dragoness. They’d been hiding in the ceiling the whole time she’d begun her lesson, but I didn’t notice them at all.

“Groovy,” I had whispered in awe. “Teach me how to be a ninja too!”

The memory of Divah cringing at the word ‘ninja’ made me smile. Gods, I missed my master.

“That’s a neat trick,” Someone whispered from right behind me, driving away my reminiscence from my mind. “I didn’t know the Night Mother’s blessing was that easy to claim.”

I’d just ducked behind my fifth tent when I noticed that a shadow unrelated to the Night Mother was tailing me.

“Divah and I have done a few jobs for her before so she’s inclined to do us favors from time to time,” I explained. Then I sighed. “Wouldn’t you rather just join in on the weird dancing than chase after me?”

“You’ve served a god before?”

There was something in the way she said it, like working for a god was dumb, that made me look back at her.

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“What do you have against the gods?”

“Nothing.”

She turned away from my gaze.

The she-elf was clearly lying, although I didn’t push her for an answer now, deciding to keep this little tidbit in my back pocket for later.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re up to?”

“Why do you care so much?”

The she-elf’s short pause made me wonder if there wasn’t something more nefarious in her intentions, but Liara’s reply was so typical of her that whatever suspicion I imagined was quickly wiped away.

“We agreed that we would work together,” she reminded me. “So, whatever secret power or hidden treasure you’re about to claim, I want in.”

Oh, my gods—I’ve created a greedy little treasure hunter, haven’t I?

“Um, look, I’m not going treasure hunting right now.”

“Then why are you heading out the rear gate?”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Vargr, now I sounded guilty.

“The rear gate’s the quickest way back to Lugh’s Lament,” she explained.

“Wait…” My brow creased. “You think I’m going back into a dungeon solo?”

“It’s the only place nearby where you could go to find secret treasure,” Liara reasoned.

Nope, she had it all wrong, because there was no way I was going into a dungeon less than two hours before it pukes all manner of monsters out into the world. That would be suicide, and I don’t do suicide.

“I swear to the gods—”

Poor choice of words as that phrase brought Liara’s frown back.

“Look, I’m not holding out on you. There’s no treasure… I—”

We were hiding pretty close to the rear gate, but, since the she-elf had her back to it, she didn’t see what I saw. Liara didn’t see that her father had just walked into camp. She did notice the flash of anger that flitted across my face, however, prompting her head to turn around—and that’s when I grabbed the she-elf by the shoulder to stop her in her tracks.

“You’re right. I am up to something,” I said quickly.

I didn’t want her to meet him tonight and be tainted by association after I expose whatever it was that he and his guild were up to inside Lugh’s Lament. So, I guess the she-elf was joining me on this self-imposed quest after all.

“I knew it!” she gave me a light jab in the shoulder. “Why would you hide it from me?”

“Because I meant what I said. I’m not going treasure hunting,” I sighed. “If you insist on coming along then you better pull your—”

I just noticed that Liara had replenished her potion and grenade holsters. I bet her backpack was full of supplies too.

“Did you steal the camp’s supplies?” I asked, sounding impressed.

“They won’t miss a tumbler’s worth of blessed oil.” As she said this, Liara passed me two vials of low-tier potions. “You were in such a rush to leave I doubt you packed for the trip.”

“Um, thanks.” To be honest, I was a little conflicted about hawking supplies from the basecamp when I knew they would need them in less than two hours. However, I rationalized this small bout of thievery by reminding myself that I was going to take care of things anyway. “Alright, you can come, but don’t ask questions about where we’re going or what we’re doing.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. “You love explaining things though.”

“Yeah, well, tonight requires silence and stealth…” I hitched my backpack higher up my shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Slipping out of basecamp was easy enough as the two guards manning the rear gate were already half-drunk on elfberry wine and far too focused on their bowls of pork rinds to notice us. Keeping Liara from turning back and seeing the bright elf who had remained close to the gate—possibly searching for his daughter among a crowd of inebriated teens dancing at a nearby bonfire—was the harder challenge.

With basecamp to our backs, Liara and I traveled due west which was in the opposite direction of the tomb entrance of Lugh’s Lament.

From my previous life, I learned that my destination was at least thirty minutes away at a jogger’s pace. But, seeing as I was desperate to get there and back to camp with time to spare, I took those two to three miles at a pace that was more of a sprint so that I barely slowed down even as we passed the hilltop that I chose to die on.

Liara kept up with me throughout the run. She kept to her word too; neither complaining nor asking me questions about the quest. In all honesty, my somber mood may have clued her in on the possibility that we weren’t just out on a moonlight stroll.

Nineteen-and-a-half minutes later, Liara and I took our first long gulp of air on the shoulder of a road that led into a small town that was nestled at the bottom of a group of low-rising hills.

“Wisdom, I know I promised not to ask”—she was staring at the signboard just a few feet away from where we rested—“but why are we in Kells Falls?”

No, it wasn’t at all strange that I was wheezing hard while Liara was only slightly winded. Freaking elves and their high stamina stats.

“Something bad’s… going to happen to basecamp… unless… we get them some help.” I gulped down the contents of my water bottle and steadied my breathing before revealing the crux of my plan to her. “Come on. We’re going to go meet my old buddy Red Beard.”

 

 

Glad tidings, fellow novices!

Sorry for the slight delay. The editing took a while. 

So, I hope this chapter helps to address the debate of Will's plans when it comes to Liara. Next up, we'll get an even bigger glimpse of Will's past with the help of a new character who knew Will during the days he trained with Divah. 

Next chapter's up tomorrow around this time as well. Thanks!

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