The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (50 page)

“I see that,” she responded wryly. “Just how did you get infected with cankerous rot?”

“Well there was a crypt mistress and-”

“Say no more,” she said holding up here hand. “Just remember in the future, that if you lay down with dogs, then you get up with fleas.”

“What,” Richter asked in a surprised tone. “No, no, it was nothing like tha-”

She cut him off again, raising her hand up to stop him. She closed her eyes, pursed her lips, and gently shook her head side to side, “Tut tut. I’m not one to judge. Let’s just fix you.”

Richter looked at Sion incredulously. Sion just stared back as if to say, ‘what do you want me to do?’

Hisako arranged the four adventurers around her. Then she began chanting. The air began to glow with a diffuse golden light which infused the space around her for five feet. A disc of solid gold light then appeared at their feet and began moving upward. Once it had risen above all of their heads she stopped casting. Richter rechecked his status page and smiled.

He felt stronger as soon as the light finished scanning him. A quick check of Sion’s page showed he had been cured as well.

Sumiko walked up, “I have checked everyone else. They are disease free. It is safe to return to the village.

“It is good that you have come back,” Hisako said. “There is much to discuss. We have found one of the bugbear’s camps. We need to get ready to move
against them
. There have also been more monsters seen in the vicinity of your village. I take that to mean you were successful in unlocking another of your powers?”

“I was,” Richter said, “but what does that have to do with monsters?”

“I told you before, your growing power will not go unnoticed. Your Place of Power is awakening. You will find the lands surrounding your village to be more dangerous than before. Though you can directly access your power, all of the surrounding lands will be impacted by the reawakening of your Place of Power. Stronger monsters will be drawn to your settlement, and even existing creatures may grow more powerful. That is why we need to remove the danger of the bugbears as soon as possible. You may be facing enemies on different fronts soon.”

“But your settlement is a much higher level than mine,” Richter protested. “Why aren’t there
high-level
monsters near the Hearth Tree?” He didn’t need more enemies to fight at the moment. Leveling opportunities were great and all, but enough was enough!

She laughed without any real humor, “Oh, there are! We just constantly patrol to keep the lands around us relatively safe. If you remember, that is how you met Sion. From what you have told me, you were brought to The Land very close to the Hearth Tree. If you had started farther away… well, then you would have had a very different experience.”

Richter thought again about his fortuitous starting point. It was becoming clear to him that the advantages he had been provided; the safe haven of the glade, Xuetrix’s advice, the Pool of Clarity, none of them had been small things. Put all together, well, he just might owe a large debt to someone out there. What would he do when they came to collect?

“The situation is worse than you know, Hearth Mother,” Yoshi said. “We were attacked by eaters.”

A colorful sequence of profanity spewed from Hisako’s mouth. Richter stared at her. Not just in shock, you understand, but also because he was thoroughly impressed. When the bile stopped flowing, she just stood there for a few moments. When she spoke again, there was no uncertainty in her voice.

“If the scourge has indeed returned, then it must take precedence.” She started walking, and they all fell in step with her. She looked at Richter, “I had hoped that our two peoples could deal with the threat of the bugbears, but if eaters are now involved we will need more allies. I will send an emissary to reach out to the wood elves of the northern Forest. We
have a long relationship of mutual protection. I need you to try and broker aid from some of the dwarf tribes of the Serrated Mountains. Can you do that?”

Richter nodded. It was
time
he got to know the neighbors anyway.

“Good,” she said a serious expression on her face. “The dwarves have never been enemies of my people, but neither have they been friends. They will not often involve themselves in the affairs of others unless there is a direct benefit to them.”

“Do you mean I will need to bribe them,” he asked.

She just arched an eyebrow at him, and then turned forward and kept walking.

Richter shook his head. Why did it always come down to money? No that’s not the real problem, he thought. It was that it always seemed to come down to
his
money!

Alma flew off as they got closer, no doubt in search of game. She had hunted constantly since they had been back above ground. Richter was sure that a squirrel hole or birds nest would have a vacancy soon.

When they crossed into
the boundaries of the village, Hisako spoke to Yoshi, “You need further healing. Sumiko! Go with Yoshi and heal him. He has internal injuries.” Forestalling any argument, Hisako also said, “I won’t hear any argument. We have many enemies. I need you to be
at
top form. Now go.”

Yoshi bowed slightly and walked off with Sumiko.

“Richter, I am going to send some of my warriors to the site where you found the eaters.
Hopefully,
the nest hasn’t grown too large yet. Sion. Daniella. Are you ready to travel?”

“Yes, Hearth Mother,” she said

“Yes, Hearth Mother,” Sion repeated.

“Then restock and be ready to leave in an hour. I need you to lead us back,” she said. “Randolphus would like you to see him as soon as you can,” she said to Richter. “I have preparations to make, please excuse me.” She walked away then, with the stride of a determined woman who planned to do serious things. The other sprites walked on in
tow.

Richter sent Futen along to check in with the various craftsmen. He was sure the lack of Mist Workers had slowed things down. It sounded like they there was no time to waste. The progress on the wall that initially had so pleased Richter, now just seemed like too little too late. He walked through the
village
and saw that work on the new longhouse was progressing well.
Like
he had requested, the basic structure of the smithy was done as well. It had four walls and a roof anyway, and Richter took that as a good sign. Work had been started on several other buildings as well.
Like
he requested, they were being made out of stone. These would not be so easy to burn, and worse comes to worst, they could hold off attackers much more effectively than wood. Curiously, there were two small wooden shacks set in the center of the village, and there appeared to be guards outside of them. Richter would have walked over to figure out what was happening, but it was in the opposite direction of the Great Seal. He was fairly certain that was where he would find his chamberlain, and Hisako had implied there was some urgency.

He walked into the Great Seal, and just stood for a moment with a smile on his face. When he had first claimed Mastery of the Mist Village, the Great Seal had only been a chipped
and faded mosaic. After claiming his first power, the clear tiles representing Air had changed to a solid disc of crystal. Looking into that clear circle was like looking down in to a swirling maelstrom. Now a second change had occurred.

The spiral of yellow tile had been replaced. In its place was a work of art. Laid into the floor was a shining representation of a tree created from pure gold. Each leaf was detailed showing the smallest veins. The tree was a backlit by an unseen sun and moved in an unfelt wind. There was no glaring light when he stared down at the newly awakened section of the Great Seal, but when he looked up at the ceiling he could see dapples of light that shifted with the limbs of the tree.

After a time, he walked past the Great Seal into one of the side rooms. Sure enough, Randolphus was in his office hunched over a stack of papers.

“You need to get more sun, Randy.”

“My Lord!” He stood up quickly and bowed, “No one told me that you were back.”

“Sit down, sit down,” Richter said. “That’s certainly what I plan to do.” He plopped into one of the chairs in front of the desk. “There is a lot that I need to tell you. It looks like we are at war. In addition, Hisako tells me we can start expecting more monster attacks. And last but not least, there is a plague of giant insects called the scourge that we need to eliminate ASAP. Before we get into ALL of
that though, Hisako said there are some things you needed to tell me.”