Book 3: Chapter 22

Book 3: Chapter 22

Kay stared at Ahthia for a moment before sighing deeply. “So I’m right.”

“What exactly are you right about?” She asked, looking at him oddly. “I think I get it, but I’d like confirmation.”

Kay sighed again and stared up at the ceiling. He was tired, from the trip he’d just come back from, to the incredibly detailed account of it the Adventurer’s Guild people had wrung from him to this now. Thankfully Gemglass had agreed to look up some groups that could deal with the dinosaur monsters, not that they were dinosaurs, and then they’d send a team to check out the Dungeon.The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

None of that helped with the thoughts running through his head at that exact moment. Some of those thoughts were probably just paranoia or just anxiety creeping into his daydreams about what could be. But not all of it.

“Life is going to get interesting. In the Chinese sense.”

Everyone but Cindy looked confused.

“What do you mean?” Cindy asked with a small frown. She’d been roped into this leadership council because of how her vision had affected the expedition. Without Kay, she’d predicted, things would have been even worse. As bad as they’d been, Kay didn’t even want to know what the other possibility would look like. He wanted Cindy in as many meetings as possible at this point, just in case. He’d agreed not to turn her into some kind of tool and let her live her own life, but he wasn’t going to completely ignore the benefits of her rare Class either.

“From what Ahthia just told me, plus some things I’ve talked about with Eleniah, Torotia has been in a dark age for a while now. I’m pretty sure we’re in the upswing coming out of it at this point. So...” He shrugged, “Chinese interesting.”

“Oh.” Cindy nodded slowly. “I get it. An increased level of advancement and power that causes the kind of things that become historical events.”

“Exactly. And in a world like this, with Classes and everything that come with them...”

Ahthia leaned forward and tapped at the table, “You’re talking about what came before. People in ages past were more powerful and had magic, Skills, Classes, and pathways that have been lost.”

“Like less expensive ways of growing limbs back.” Eleniah added, “Or that there used to be a lot more people at the higher tiers running around.”

“Right,” Kay sat forward in his chair as he fixed his posture, “And if I’m correct, we’re starting to come out of that and head back upward. Like a sine wave,” He drew one in the air with his finger, “Things are great, then they get worse for whatever reason, then they start to get better as people recover.”

“The Necromancer Wars,” Ahthia grimaced as she started listing disasters that had happened, “The Fall of Ghisr, The Unknown Calamity.”

“I don’t know those last two, but yes. Those happened, people lived through it, there was a recovery period, and now people are starting to recover and get strong again.” He looked around the room pointedly. “I’m probably going to be a big contributing figure with that, and Avalon is going to get dragged along with me. And all of you as well.”

“We’re starting a new city with a Dungeon right next to us that’s perfect for training new adventurers and soldiers,” Meten commented softly.

“And we’re going to eventually wipe out a pirate haven that’s been plaguing the northern shipping routes. Probably make it into our own port.” Eleniah added.

Ahthia stared at the table while everyone took that in. She slowly looked up with an expression that mixed seriousness with wonder. “And Kay went out and found a Dungeon that was used by one of the civilizations lost in the Unknown Calamity. If we keep expanding into the peninsula, who knows what we’re going to find?”

Kay leaned in again. “Explain.”

Ahthia walked over to the shelves against one of the walls of Kay’s office and grabbed a rolled map of the continent. “We’re here,” She said, pointed at their approximate location on the peninsula, “But this whole area used to have multiple nations in it; some of them were pretty advanced civilizations from the legends. Then there was some kind of disaster that happened, and they were all wiped out. There were some survivors from most of them that escaped the area and formed new places after they left or joined ones that already existed.” She tapped the area marked as belonging to the Weathered Clans. “The Clans were one of them. The legends say that one of the smaller countries in this area started experimenting with something they shouldn’t, and that’s what led to the Calamity. One of my theories about why the Clans are so against new things is because of that. The refugees who survived were so afraid of what happened they retreated into the protection of tradition, and that shaped the culture they made.” She stared at the map some more. “Can I... Can I invite some people to come to Avalon?” She asked after a moment.

Kay opened his mouth to answer, then paused. “Why are you asking? I’m pretty sure a lot of people have already sent messages to people they think should join us.” He shot a look at Eleniah.

She shrugged unrepentantly. “If any of the people I asked decide to come here, it’ll help us a lot. Some of them even fit the openings we have for government positions.”

“They’ll get interviewed and tested like anyone else who wants to be an official.”

“I know.”

“I want to invite the group that encouraged me to leave the Clans with the others,” Ahthia answered him when he looked back at her. “They might bring a lot of people with them.”

“Explain that, please.”

“Could be. How was your trip? Your sister still alright?”

“Melody is fine, although she complained about you not coming to visit too.”

“As soon as Maurice gets back and can cover for me, I’ll head down.”

“Better take mom.”

“Of course, I’m going to take your mother.” He mock-shuddered. “Just the thought of what she’d do to me if I didn’t is terrifying.”

Alice laughed at the old joke and started telling him what happened on her visit to her sister.

She was forced to pause in the middle of a story about his eldest grandchild getting into the kitchen of a restaurant and eating all the sweets he could find when someone else knocked on the door.

“Come in.” He called out.

Alice straightened into a sitting position of attention as one of Edric’s assistants stepped inside.

“A message, sir, Senior Hunter Tibult said it was important.” He handed over a sheaf of papers.

“Thank you.” Edric started to read over the message as the assistant stepped outside. Alice started to stand, but her father waved at her to sit back down. “Stay; I want to hear about the rest of your trip.”

She sat down quietly.

Eventually, Edric grunted.

Alice recognized the grunt. “What is it, dad?”

“This is actually two messages. The first one is pretty standard, if annoying. Probably Vampyr sighting coming from somewhere in the Concord and heading east. The other is more interesting.” He started to read that portion of the message again.

Alice waited patiently, quite used to her father’s need to read and reread things to suss out details.

“There’s a new town up in the northeastern peninsula that’s just been founded apparently. The noble that founded it is claiming that he’s a Class Line Progenitor. People are already flocking that way according to the information our people gathered.”

“That’s interesting, but why are they sending it to us in a priority message?” Alice recognized the deep red color of the paper as the one used for more important messages sent within the Shatterplate Order.

Edric looked up at his daughter with a contemplative look on his face. “He’s claiming he’s the Class Line Progenitor of Blood Shaping.”

Alice stiffened in her seat. “That’s...”

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Edric rubbed at his mustache, “And there’s a reported Vampyr headed in that general direction. I might just send a hunting team that way to check things out and see if they can find that Vampyr too. Anything with blood-related classes might mean Vampyr involvement, so it might be connected...”

“I can take my team, sir.”

“Uh?” He blinked at her, then shrugged, “Maybe. I’ll have to talk to some of the Senior Hunters and see who’s available and all that, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be your team. It’d give you some good experience and let you travel some, so I don’t see why not. We’d definitely have to send some Inquisitors, too, though.”

Alice sighed in an unhappy way.

“Yes, I know, everyone dislikes the name because it makes our people sound all evil and tourturey when they’re just another kind of investigator. I didn’t name the class.”

“I know, it just makes people uncomfortable, and then it’s such a pain to get them to talk to us.”

“Yes, well, that’s for later. Tell me about the rest of your trip. What did little Edric do when the sous chef found him?”