Chapter 34: Chapter 110 – An Unexpected Connection

The port was in much more turmoil than when they had left it around late noon. And that was quite an achievement with those hours being the busiest ones, with many crews taking care of their cargo, loading and unloading the docked giants. 

All that commotion should have slowly calmed down the later the hour became, but even with the sun almost finishing its travel behind the horizon, slowly causing the clear blue sky to darken with its gradual disappearance, countless people were running around in a hurry.

The party quickly noticed the presence of armed guards belonging to the Damascu Clan, stationed by almost every ship. Many of them were clearly arguing with the crew or the captain. That included Moreso, who was lively gesturing at one of the leaders of the town's sentinels.

Asterios and the girls picked up the pace and quickly arrived behind the three guards standing shortly after their boss, who was engaged in a discussion with their sailor friend.

“—ur men leave even a scratch on a single barrel or crate, I’m going to squeeze your pathetic militia dry! Those are sealed with the best preservation enchantments and there is no way for anyone to tamper with them without my crew noticing!”

“Even so, we still have to make sure that you are not hiding—”

“You’ve been snooping all over my ship for almost an hour now and found nothing! You are either utterly incompetent, or maybe, WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. IS. NOT. ON. MY. SHIP! Stop wasting my damn time! My men can’t even go fucking drink before you won’t let them pick up their damn wallets from their cabins!”

Moreso’s remark clearly irritated the leader of the guards but he kept himself in check and continued with the same official tone.

“The temporary quarantine is necessary to prevent anyone from further aiding the criminal—”

“What’s going on here?” 

Asterios passed the three dwarves blocking the whole path to the captain by walking on blue translucent spiritual platforms created by Selene on the side of the wooden dock, surprising them with that maneuver. 

The girls followed after him and they all stopped in front of the arguing duo.

“These dimwits keep going through everyone’s cargo and whole ships for hours already, looking for some crook that has supposedly escaped into the docks!” Moreso explained with an annoyed expression.

“Not supposedly. We know he is here. Stop raising an unnecessary fuss and be cooperative. Obstructing the duty of the town’s officials is a serious offense if you didn’t know,” the leader of the dwarves barked back at him.

“I’ve been cooperative for almost an hour! You have made three full laps on every single deck! NOTHING. IS. THERE!”

Asterios left the two men to their argument and connected to his companions a little deeper, diving into his thoughts.

~Umbra, Selene, have you noticed anything unusual?~

~I could try to scan the ship for any new mana signatures but that would most likely catch the eyes of the guards, my Lord~

~There’s no need to do that, Selene. I can confirm that there’s a person inside that didn’t accompany us during the voyage, Master.~

While acting like he was listening to the bickering, Asterios made a mental nod at them. ~Anything else that you could tell us about them?~

~It’s a young dwarf, a boy, hiding in a sizable chest filled with preserved meat. He somehow managed to remain unseen during the search, but it’s only a matter of time before he is found. I can tell that one of the dwarves is going to check that place again soon,~ Umbra answered.

~Hmmm… This is a tough situation… If we inform the guards about it, they might very well accuse us of aiding that boy. At the same time, they can come to the same conclusion anyway, finding him after so long. Do we somehow know how dangerous that person is?~ 

~The child is definitely scared, if not terrified. The intensity of these emotions doesn’t match the image of a petty thief or skilled criminal. Neither would be this shaken by the thought of being found out. I am almost certain the boy is… just a boy. A little weak at that. Possibly poisoned.~

Asterios frowned. For what reason would the town’s guard pursue a sick kid? And with this much intensity? The whole operation looked more like they were after a psychopath or some other high-risk fugitive.

~What’s the position of the people checking the ship?~

~There are six of them. Only one is on the same deck as the boy, currently closing on his location.~

~Can you do anything to prevent them from finding him? And getting me in there without getting noticed?~

A deep chuckle resounded in his head. ~Is trapping every single one of them in an endless illusion good enough to be anything?~

Asterios smiled wryly. He then exchanged faint nods with Miria and Selene and stepped closer to the still arguing Moreso.

“Alright. Let’s stop this back and forth before they lock you up for obstructing the investigation or something. I don’t want to end up without a captain and would like to depart on schedule. Or slightly delayed at most.”

“But—”

He threw his arm over the demon’s shoulder. “We clearly can’t do anything here. It’s a waste of time, as you have said. Drinks on me tonight. Come on, gather your men. Would you rather keep running your mouth dry here or dip your lips in some delicious mead?”

After a few seconds of staring into Ast’s eyes, Moreso sighed and nodded.

“Aye. This is just stupid. If you offer, we’ll oblige.” He waved his hand to the side. “Corinth! Go gather up the boys at the Sunkissed Tit! We’ll join you in a moment!”

One of the sailors standing behind the short wall of armed dwarves saluted and ran off towards the exit from the docks, followed by the other crew members a moment later. Moreso glanced at the leader of the guards one more time.

“I’m going to file a fucking complaint! Just you watch!”

Asterios then walked with Moreso towards the men blocking the path to the ship and they stepped aside with some grumbling after their boss nodded at them. They were clearly looking forward to arresting a person or two for misbehavior.

The four of them reached the city’s grey walls and disappeared from the sight of anyone standing at the port’s pathwalks. Miria and Selene knew what was coming and stepped into an empty alleyway. Asterios dragged the slightly confused Moreso into it shortly after.

“What are we doing here?” the captain asked, glancing at all three of them.

Planting the Alcove of Serenity sigil on the nearby stone bricks, Asterios turned to face him.

“It seems that someone truly is hiding on our ship.”

“What? When would they sneak in? We were working on it all the time. And every piece of cargo has been checked thoroughly. We are not some amateurs. How can you be sure if even they couldn’t find anything for almost an hour?”

“My companions checked. It’s just a matter of time before one of the dwarves stumbles on the stowaway.”

Moreso groaned while rubbing his temples. “They will definitely ground us for more than a week if that happens.”

“I can prevent them from finding him if you allow it. Personally, I would like to speak with that person as it all seems fishy. It’s your ship and your decision. But, better make it quick.”

Moreso thought about their options for a brief moment and sighed. “Do whatever you want if it will prevent us from being chained here for months.”

~Umbra?~

~Already done.~

“Alright. I’ll be going then. Here’s the money for the drinks. Have fun.”

Asterios threw a small sack at the man and his body got swallowed by darkness that plunged into the ground in a blink. Moreso caught the money into his hands and looked around in confusion, realizing that he was left completely alone. Miria and Selene had stepped through the crimson gate leading to the latter’s home somewhere near the end of their talk.

The same black shadow materialized on one of the ship’s decks and Asterios stepped out of it. The first thing he noticed was the presence of a single dwarf standing still a few meters from him, with a heavily unfocused gaze and cloudy eyes.

“How strong is it?” Asterios asked the black misty raven that popped out of his shadow and perched on the dwarf’s shoulder.

~As long as we don’t cause them any pain, the illusion should remain unbroken. We can freely move them if necessary.~

“Useful. Let me know if anything goes wrong.”

Umbra nodded his beak and dissipated into the darkness. 

Asterios had already asked his companion about the hiding place of the boy and quickly approached the wide and deep chest at the back of the deck. He deactivated the preserving formations and lifted the lid, revealing plenty of supplies.

At first sight, nothing seemed out of place, but knowing that something definitely was down there allowed him to notice the slightly raised middle of the meat pile. It could easily be disregarded as the placement of individual pieces, but the longer he looked at it, the clearer the outline became.

To not startle the boy buried under all this meat, Asterios decided to speak to him first.

“I know you are there. I’m not with the guards that are looking for you. I’m just an adventurer. My companion noticed you hiding on our ship. If you show yourself and explain why they are after you, I promise that we won’t hand you to them.”

As expected, no reply came immediately. But, Asterios knew it could take a moment for the distressed boy to wage his final decision that would decide the further course of action. His exclamation could have very well been taken as a trap. He decided to wait for a moment.

Fortunately, only around half a minute passed before the pink-red mass of flesh began shifting and a figure of a person surfaced. Asterios immediately squinted his eyes and cursed under his breath. The dwarf boy in front of him had plenty of scars from cuts and punctures, and his skin was much different from the other members of the Damascu Clan they had met, being of a much darker, clearly sickly shade.

Asterios crouched by the chest and helped the boy step out of it. He was much skinnier than the average dwarf of his subrace at this age. Everything was pointing at an obvious lack of proper nutrition. Or even starvation.

“Are you well enough to speak?”

The boy nodded but immediately started trembling. Sitting inside a box with a really low temperature had chilled his body substantially.

Selene and Miria stepped out of the crimson portal and walked closer. The former put a thick blanket over the teenage dwarf and the latter handed him a cup of hot water, not wanting to upset his stomach with tea since they didn’t know when was the last time the boy had eaten an actual meal.

They all sat down around him and waited for the boy to get a little better. It didn’t take long and he glanced at Asterios from above the mug that was being constantly refilled by the slightly gloomy panthergirl. Miria didn’t understand why someone would hurt a child so much and all the evidence proved that he had gone through a lot.

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“Okay. Let’s start with something simple. I’m Asterios. What’s your name?”

“Risvi, sir.”

“You don’t need to address me like that. Speak freely. We are just simple adventurers.” 

The boy nodded.

“So, could you tell me why everyone is looking for you? Did you do something bad?”

“I escaped.”

“I see. Where did you escape from?”

Risvi hesitated for a brief moment, which didn’t escape their attention.

“I… I shouldn’t say… You seem like a good person…”

“Assuming that I am a good person, why shouldn’t you tell me? I’m not going to scold you right now or anything.”

“They… always said that everyone who learns will end up dead… and all of their family… and friends… I don’t want them to kill your family, mister. Not if you are a good person.”

“My Lord.”

Asterios glanced at Selene. She had been sitting behind the boy, gently rubbing his back through the blanket as they were talking. Part of it was pulled away and revealed some of the young dwarf’s grey skin. He accepted her mental request to share their vision and his brows furrowed the moment he looked through her eyes.

For a few short seconds, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at until a few images he had seen in the past resurfaced from his memories. The unexpected connection, something Asterios wouldn’t have thought they would stumble on again by chance, shocked him greatly, and at the same time, disgusted him.

A black mark in the form of a dagger with a drop of some liquid dripping from its tip was visible over Risvi’s shoulder blade. One that Asterios and his companions were already familiar with. 

They had stumbled on this symbol back when they were looking for the missing boys in the town near the forest dungeon. Dane’s logs—the supposed overseer of that jail-like place that had been murdered and turned into a Phantasmal Horror—and some other documents, had the same thing drawn on the bottom of some pages. It was instantly obvious to them that both the location that Risvi had escaped from and the one they had visited in the past were connected.

Asterios recalled one more detail—Dane’s poison. He had studied it sometime after they had dealt with the Phantasmal Horror and still remembered some of its effects. And if he wasn’t mistaken, the boy was showing some of the symptoms associated with it. 

He canceled the sharing and returned his gaze to Risvi. “If you are afraid of telling me, then that’s okay, don’t force yourself. But, you look a little unwell. Could you let me check your throat and eyes to see if you didn’t catch a cold in that box?”

The boy stared at him for a moment and nodded faintly, letting Asterios examine him. He was a bit confused by the unusual requests of showing the bottom and upper side of his eyeballs to check for a cold but didn’t speak a word about it.

Asterios sighed internally after finding faint regular stripes on the whites of Risvi’s eyes. He was right. While the boy wasn’t strictly dosed with the poison at its full strength and concentration, he had come in contact with it to some extent, perhaps during its testing if the facility he had run away from functioned in a similar way to the one in the Human Continent.

Fortunately, Asterios was in possession of an antidote he had created from the actual poison. He mentally asked Miria to bring it to him and the panthergirl soon handed him a tiny vial with a clear liquid.

“It looks like you are only a little bit sick. This should make you feel better. It has a very bitter taste, but please, drink all of it.”

He waited for the boy to nod before he helped Risvi drink the contents. Not without struggle, but the medicine had been administered in full. Its effects should start showing in a few minutes if Ast’s assumptions were correct.

“Okay. Now, about that place you have escaped. What if I told you that you can tell us about it without having to tell us about it?” Asterios asked with a cryptic smile.

Risvi furrowed his brows at him. “How can I tell you without telling? Wouldn’t that still be telling?”

Asterios chuckled. “I know some fun magic. If you allow me, I can take just a quick peek into your head and see it for myself. What do you think? You won’t be telling me that way.”

The boy visibly pondered, looking between him and Miria, both having warm smiles on their faces.

“Will it hurt?”

“Not in the slightest. It might feel funny or even silly. Maybe a little ticklish. So?”

“If you say so… Alright.”

Umbra materialized himself behind Risvi to not spook the boy and connected to his shadow, reaching for Ast’s, Miria’s, and Selene’s too. A moment later, their vision shifted and all four of them entered the boy’s mind.

Since Risvi was just a teenager without any experience in magic or combat, Umbra was able to easily guide them through his memories, starting from the most recent ones. They watched in reverse how Risvi hid in their ship, kept avoiding the town’s guards, ran through some forest, and finally, how he escaped from some warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

Then, things turned dark. Just like under the watchtower they had visited in the past, this structure had a hidden underground section too. Contrary to that one, this facility was clearly an active one.

While watching Risvi take a god-sent opportunity to slip away from the two people that had been intending to take him somewhere, they saw many of the cells and cages have at least one person in them. Pretty much everyone belonged to the Damascu Clan. Those were people of various genders and ages, in different conditions.

Since Asterios didn’t want the boy to relive whatever he had gone through before that point in time, they stopped reading his memories and withdrew from Risvi’s mind, leaving just Umbra to skilfully scan through all of them while remaining unnoticed.

Sensing Miria growing angry, furious even, Asterios quickly placed his hand on the panthergirl's hair and ruffled through it affectionately, calming his partner down a little. He understood the reason behind her rising emotions. He wasn’t any different in regard to the boy’s situation. But, they were still on the ship with the town’s guard present on all decks.

“And? Did it hurt?” he asked Risvi with a smile.

“No.” The boy shook his head. “It was… weird… but the good weird.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Now, as I promised you, we are not going to hand you out, but we are pretty much surrounded and the leader of the guards is still present outside. I might be able to sneak us out of here but we have to test that first. It might be a little scary. You will see only darkness for a moment. Are you brave enough to try?”

“I’m not scared of darkness. Please, if I can run away from them, I will do anything!”

“Alright. Let’s try it out then. A black shadow will surround your body, you will feel a little tug, and then you will disappear. A moment later, you will pop back out near that box.” He pointed at a crate near the middle section of the deck. “You might feel a little dizzy. Ready?”

Risvi stood up and nodded with a determined expression; his skin slowly regaining its rightful silvery color.

“Try not to raise your voice. Here we go.”

At Ast’s command, Umbra slowly swallowed Risvi’s body with his shadow and the boy plunged into the ground, reappearing in the previously pointed spot almost immediately after.

To everyone’s surprise, Risvi’s reaction to the transfer was very tame. After the darkness retreated, he stood there while glancing at his hands in awe. 

Noticing them staring at him, Risvi turned to Asterios with the corners of his mouth slightly lifted.

“Cool.”

Asterios shook his head and smiled wryly. 

「He has either gone through much worse stuff or kids just see things differently.」

With Risvi’s mental well-being assured, Asterios moved with him outside of the city while Miria and Selene used their portals. Umbra stopped the illusion cast on the minds of the searching dwarves, making sure that the transition was as seamless as possible.

“What are we going to do now, Master?” Miria asked after returning to his side.

“First, we need to find a safe place for Risvi. Then we can think about this. It’s definitely much bigger than we had thought, possibly even reaching the scale of an intercontinental cult or organization. I don’t think you girls would be willing to ignore this, right?”

Both Selene and Miria stepped closer to him and the former answered first.

“I understand that our goal was to reach the Demon Continent as soon as possible, but if I were to give an honest opinion, I would have a hard time leaving things here as they are. In the end, I will follow your decision, whatever it may be, but it’s my selfish desire to help those people, who are treated in such an inhumane way.”

Miria gave a faint nod. “I agree with Selene, Master. I do not intend to play a hero, and you already know that your safety and happiness are my utmost priority, but if we are strong enough to help them, I would like for us to try. But, the same as Selene, I won’t think of you badly if you decide to not involve us in these matters. I can see how this can potentially be very dangerous. I will always follow you, wherever these choices lead us.”

Asterios nodded back at her and placed his hand on Miria’s cheek. He leaned forward and pulled her into a gentle kiss, showering her soft lips in pure affection. Miria left herself in his hands and lips and started purring quietly, enjoying this warmth spreading through her whole body.

After breaking off and slowly pulling back, Asterios moved his other hand to Selene’s cheek and she was the one to lean her face towards him with her iconic ladylike smile. She didn’t join their lips herself but let Asterios initiate the loving kiss on his own. She gladly took her turn in receiving his feelings.

A brief moment later, both of them were staring at Ast’s face with a tinge of rosiness showing on their cheeks. He smiled at them warmly while brushing Miria’s and Selene’s hands he held in his own.

“My past might be something that I really want to discover, but you girls are much more important to me. And just as you want to keep me happy, so do I want for you to not be haunted by my decisions. Let’s try to figure this out together as much as we can. Go and find Svertaniel. I will transport Risvi to Tyrienheim. Then we will talk.”

They both nodded with dazzling smiles and left a peck on Ast’s cheeks at the same time, running back to the city a moment later.

Asterios turned to the young dwarf and chuckled at his scrunched face and squinted eyes.

“Come on. We have a much longer trip to make this time.”

 

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