Published at 24th of October 2024 5:12 pm

Book 3 Chapter 14: Learn or die

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Dantes and Murk arrived at the Conclave in the center of the Veridian Expanse together. It was already late evening by the time they arrived, and everyone else was already sitting around a fire and eating a meal that smelled like a hearty mix of game and freshly foraged vegetables.

Traizen put down his bowl and approached them with his arms wide, wrapping both of them into an embrace. Jacopo had to quickly adjust where he was sitting in order to avoid the elf’s pale muscular arms.

“Murk, Dantes, it is good to see you. We were beginning to worry, particularly with how our connections were feeling. We were just discussing coming to help you.”

Dantes wiggled his way out of the embrace. “Murk was just having a bit of trouble. It happened to be something I could help him with on my way here, so I intervened.” Traizen didn’t need to know that Dantes was given little choice in the matter, but Traizen's knowing gaze seemed to indicate that he was already aware.

“He saved the life of my sister, as well as my own. I consider him a blood brother, and hope he would consider taking a mate from my pack,” said Murk.

Dantes blinked a bit at that. He’d seen many times how often enemies could become allies, but this seemed a bit extreme.

Traizen smiled more widely than Dantes had ever seen before, his eyes glistening slightly with tears. “I am so grateful that you have moved past your enmity to see one another as brothers.”

Dantes stood there awkwardly for a few moments, unsure of how to react to so much sincerity when he himself dealt in it so infrequently.

“So, is there any food left?” he asked.

“Yes, there should be plenty of the Mother’s bounty left for you.”

Traizen moved for them to join everyone else around the fire and they were quickly given plates of fresh veggies and recently slain rabbit. It was good, though Dantes missed the spices he’d grown used to having access to in Rendhold. Jacopo didn’t mind much, tearing into a rabbit foot with relish, and having Dantes break it's bones so that he could reach the marrow within.

Everyone gave him and Jacopo a bit of space to eat as Murk gave a quick and curt description of what had happened to him, taking only a few moments here and there to lick some of the small cuts his sister had suffered from during the escape. The bandit group had apparently learned of him and set a trap for his sister using some kind of sleep potion that could suffuse the air. It had been mostly luck that they’d been able to capture her and take advantage of him. From there they’d had an entire forest and all of its life at their disposal. Frankly Dantes was surprised that all they’d managed with that much powers was a shitty bandit camp in the woods where they wore rags. He supposed that they had different standards out in the country.

As he listened half listened to the story and the questions about it, he started to hear and feel something else. A kind of conversation below the one he was having. It was whispers at first, but once he turned his attention to it the voices grew louder. Even when they were loud enough to hear though, it took him a bit more time to actually understand them. They were commands, thousands and thousands of them, all emanating from the massive tree in the center of the grove where he sat. It was Berkilak, managing every small thing in the forest which he’d made himself a part of.

“You’re learning well,” said Berkilak, his voice, even as a whisper, causing him to shudder just a bit under its power.

“It’s learn or die.”

“As it should be in any locus, concrete or forest. Your own abilities are growing very differently than the others.”

“I’ve always been a little unique.”

The leaves around him seemed to rustle just a bit. Laughter?

“Your attention. You can divide it among far more creatures than any of the others. Any aside from our lost sister.”

“Serpica?”

“Yes. Her.” There was a note of sadness in Berkilak’s voice that made a tear involuntarily form in the corner of Dantes’s eye.

“I thought she’d be the next of us to bind herself to a locus as I have.”

“A sacrifice, a vow, a binding right?”

“Right. Perhaps it will be you that joins with your locus next.”

Dantes didn’t hide his bemusement. “The pleasures that would be denied to me are far more important than the powers that doing that ritual might grant me.”

“We shall see how you feel in a few hundred years.”

Dantes was about to ask what he meant by that, but decided on a different question instead.

“I’m having difficulty connecting to the life in my locus that was there before I became a druid. Is there some advice you can give me?”

The tree was silent for a moment. “I never had such a problem. The others did not either. All I can suggest, is being open to oneness with whatever is around you.”

That was easy to say when what was around you was beautiful forest He was interrupted before he could ask more though.

“It’s rude to have side conversations at the dinner table,” said Traizen with a smile.

Dantes smiled back. “I don’t see a table? And if there was one then I’d say more than half of us aren’t allowed at it.”

Jacopo changed into his two-legged form. “I’d be allowed like this though, yes?”

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All of the other druids and their companions stared at him in disbelief for a few moments.

He ignored them, digging onto Dantes’s plate with his bare hands to eat more in a few seconds than Dantes had since they'd sat at the fire.

Dantes pinched the bridge of his nose and clenched his jaw. There were a lot of better ways to reveal his new ability to their fellows. Unfortunately, Jacopo’s growing sense of humor had outweighed any more rational thoughts he may have had on the subject. Not that Dantes hadn’t done the same to his own detriment in the past and in Jacopo’s defense it was Dantes’s fault that he had a sense of humor at all.

“What-”

“-The-”

“-Hells,” said the twins in their singsong alternating way of speech.

Thing, Fizz's companion, shifted into a lizard to quickly run up to Jacopo and inspect him.

“How?” it asked.

“We’re not sure exactly." answered Dantes as Jacopo continued to focus on chewing his now very full mouth. "I was in grave danger from an enemy of ours. He saw a vision of the god of thieves unlocking something between us, and then he was able to become a man and save me.”

Traizen frowned. “The god of thieves… You followed him before the Mother brought you into our flock.”

Dantes nodded. “I think he’s the reason I can keep my clothes and items when I shift. I’m guessing this was his doing as well.”

Traizen shrugged. “I’m not a temple priest, but my guess is that Jacopo was granted something the Mother usually keeps locked away.”

“So, you don’t know of anyone else whose partner could do this?”

“No, but we are all capable of different things. We excel in different ways.”

“I would’ve expected him to look more like you,” said Mor-Gan-May as she looked him over.

“He’s much larger and more handsome,” said Lorna, her eyes moving up and down slowly across Jacopo.

Dantes sighed and nodded. “The gods had to give him some advantage to make up for his personality.”

Fizz chuckled at that as he gently patted Thing’s head with a forefinger to comfort him. Thing shifted from a lizard to a feline somewhere between a lion and a housecat to better enjoy it.

Dantes reached for his pack. “I have the items that each of you requested,” he pulled out several small wooden chests. “These are enchanted with single use storage spells. Once opened, all of the items within will begin to fall out, after that the chest will disintegrate. I have the ones with the items you requested, and empty ones for you to put what you owe me into.”

“I don’t know much about magic lad, but couldn’t you have made a chest that can be used more than once?” asked Coal.

Dantes shook his head. “I asked my mage. Items that are meant to store things need to stay still to work that way. Because these move the enchantment is much more complicated. It can be done, but not as cheaply as I’d like.”

He shrugged, taking the chests and slipping them into the pack he kept on the side of his hog as he began removing some of the raw gold he owed Dantes and handing it to him.

“How are things working for you? Have my plans been helpful?”

“Aye, we’ve been making those greedy dwarves miserable every time they try to make it deeper into our caves. The kobolds hate the mites, though they’ve been more persistent.”

Dantes thought for a moment. “Kobolds are strange. They like friction and problems to solve. Things to work at. Maybe instead of just creating deterrents near you we need to also create a puzzle that they need to solve somewhere else. Maybe Mor-Gan-May can help?”

Coal nodded as he gave his hog a strong pat on the back. Mor-Gan-May hadn’t needed any help with deterring others from entering her territory. Her mastery of poisons had made that much simpler for her than it had been for everyone else.

"How about you two?" asked Dantes facing the twins.

"It-"

"-has been-"

"-satisfying-"

"-watching the farmer's plows-"

"-explode-"

Dantes smiled at hearing of their success. They’d even taken some of their own initiative and managed to make the farmer’s livestock uncooperative.

"and you Lorna? How have things progressed for you?"

She smiled, showing almost as many teeth as Beast. "The wands you've given, and the terror I've spread thanks to you have made the people of Chitlan very afraid. Those in the smaller towns around it, and those that live on its edges leave offerrings in the swamp in the hopes of avoiding the wrath of the Witch of the Swamp. It has been nice having a title."

"The Witch of the swamp, eh? I like that. Do tales of her beauty travel far and wide as well?"

"Of course they do," she said, "if they did not, then even more would likely die to her."

Dantes smiled, feeling the weight of his backpack as they spoke. In return for his advice and the goods he'd provided, Dantes was receiving chunks of raw gold from Coal, strange plants that caused all sorts of sensations from Lorna, and ivory from the twins. All goods that had tremendous potential for him, or were simply nice to have.

Along with that all of them had started making trades of their own with one another. Dantes had even given them fine clothes from the city, soap, and other conveniences that they had little access to in their more provincial regions. Having a bit of bartering at their gathering had done a lot to make Dantes more comfortable. There was only so much talk about seeds, winds, soil, and beasts that he could occupy himself with.

After making an unsuccessful pass at Lorna, he sought out Traizen for advice.

“What did you speak of with Berkilak?”

“My progress, binding, Serpica.”

He nodded, his face darkening at Serpica’s name.

“Can you tell me more about her? If she’s made an enemy of me I’d like to know what I can.”

He grimaced, but nodded. “She was one of us for a long time. Very smart. Had a great understanding of those things which are the smallest. She was an incredible healer, and seemed to be able to see the most miniscule parts of things and fix them.”

“How do you heal? Is it differently than how she does it?”

“Yes. Hers was targeted at the smallest level. The rest of us simply push life force toward whatever’s hurt until it’s healed. You need a very strong and flourishing locus to do so. It would be… difficult for someone with a locus like yours.

Dantes nodded, recognizing one of his own abilities among those Traizen had listed as hers. “What was her Locus?”

“A battlefield.”

“What?”

“There’s a thin strip of land between two nations that argued over who owned it." He shook his head, "as if they don't know that it all belongs to the Mother and the Father. I don’t know the details, but it was a place always full of death. Her first blessings were from flies and vultures. Not many have seen so much death and destruction as her.”

Dantes nodded, feeling as if he had learned a lot, but almost nothing helpful.

“How does she fight?”

Traizen shrugged. “I don’t know. She killed a herd of my mammoths at one point, but she left not a single mark on them.”

“How did you know it was her?”

“The last of them told me before it died.”

Dantes wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“If you encounter her, do what you can to tell us. We will all come to help you face her.”

He nodded. "I would be grateful for that. I had another question."

"I will always provide you with whatever answers I can, brother."

"There is disease in my locus. It spreads quickly, and I am beginning to worry about it."

"Disease is natural, I'm afraid. It is usually the work of the Mother, a necessary act of balancing. You can mitigate of course, cull those who are too ill to save, separate those fighting it, even attempt to heal those you can if you feel the illness is balancing things too far in one direction."

"What if it feels... odd? Targeted?"

Traizen shook his head. "I have never felt such a thing brother, but if it is unnatural, then you should seek it's source. Perhaps it is the work of some foul mage or alchemist."

Dantes thought about what they'd discussed. "Do you think it could be Serpica?"

Traizen frowned, his brow furrowing. "I don't believe so. Disease is... not something we can control directly. I believe it is beyond us, but..." He was silent. "I will commune with Berkilak, and think on my own experiences. Whether or not it is her, perhaps we can determine a way to help you by the next commune."

Dantes shook his head. "You're too kind... it feels unnatural to me sometimes."

"That's very sad."

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