Book 3: Chapter 11

Book 3: Chapter 11

Brin wondered why it had never occurred to him that Tawna might actually want to kill him. That she hated him was clear, but if she’d actually wanted him dead, she would’ve made her move before now, right? Or maybe she was waiting for the opportunity. This was the perfect one.

He thought about the sword of speed at his side, priming himself to grab it and then run away. As much as he loved the idea of cutting her through right here and now, he was under no illusions that he could win. He had no idea how high a level she was, but it had to be high. No, he couldn’t fight. He wouldn’t even try.

He stopped fifteen paces away from her. “You’ve never had a problem telling me what you think in town. Why follow me all the way out here? Unless you had something else in mind.”

“Tempting. But no. You are in no danger from me,” said Tawna.

Brin put his hand on his sword, where he could get to the trigger mechanism quickly. “You don’t seem worried about being in danger from me.” It was a bluff, and probably a stupid one, but if she did mean to kill him he’d rather she make her move now while he was ready.

“Fool boy,” she said quietly. Then she raised her voice. “I do not leave the village often, and when I do I am never unprepared.”

She raised a hand, and a breeze went through the forest. The grass stirred, the leaves on the trees shook, and the trees themselves bent slightly. The wind started a hundred yards behind her and passed down the road, past her, and then past him so he could really feel what was going on.

There was no wind. She was moving the world with her Skills. Maybe she could bend anything even vaguely thread-like, or maybe she’d covered the area in tiny little threads that she used to move everything else. Either way, the message was clear.

“Never fear, if I wanted to, I could twist your pretty little head clean off,” said Tawna.

“You think I’m pretty?” asked Brin.

“Ah, you seek to test my patience. I have practice with this; you test my patience with every breath you breathe.”

“You’ve hated me from before you ever met me. Why?” asked Brin.

“This is what we must speak of, is it not?”

“Then tell me. What did I ever do to you?” asked Brin.

“You exist. You live and grow and with every heartbeat bring death closer to my home. Before you came, disaster was on the horizon, but it was also clear that we’d find a way to avoid it. Now, everything is in chaos. Every path leads to our doom. If that were all, it could be managed. We could evacuate the town, or I could hide away with Myra. But every path also leads to our salvation, and the threads are ever in flux. If you die, we die. Or not. If you live, we die. Or maybe not. Every path is clouded. There is no way forward.”

He thought back to the pictures he’d seen on her tapestry. In one, the town had been destroyed, but in the other only the four highest level people. “No way forward for the town, or just for you?”

“If I knew that, I could make plans. The patterns are unstable.”

“You can’t tell the future? How sad. I’m sorry you have to live like, oh, every single other person in the world. But why is this my fault?”

“Because it started with you!” Tawna barked. “It started the day you arrived in Hammon’s Bog.”

“But if changing my life doesn’t change the fate of the town, that suggests something rather obvious, doesn’t it?”

Tawna stared at him, visibly trying to put her face back into a mask of cool indifference. She didn’t answer his rhetorical question.

“It means I’m not the chosen one! I’m not the one with a Class and levels and the ability to change things. I’m also not the only one who came to town that day! You should be talking to Hogg about this,” said Brin.

Tawna snorted in derision. “Hogg. He will do what best suits you. Your choices drive our fate, like it or not.”

That made Brin feel surprisingly warm. Until recently, the old [Illusionist] had seemed very distant and distracted, but he really did care. But that didn’t make what Tawna was saying any less stupid.

Brin raised his hand to rub his eyes, but then stopped himself. Better not to block his own vision. He still didn’t trust her. “Have you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy?”

“Please. Why does everyone think that I don’t watch the same movies from Gustaff and hear the same epics from Jeffrey that the rest of you do? We aren’t fools, child. The first thing a [Weaver] learns is how to tell when her actions are causing that which she wishes to avoid.”

“Is that so?” asked Brin. “If that’s the case, then why have you treated me like garbage since day one? If you’re so against me picking an evil Class, you’d think you’d be nicer to me, instead of going out of your way to sabotage my life at every turn.”

Tawna smiled, a real smile, something he’d never seen on her face. With her straight black hair framing her face, her perfect white teeth, the slightly manic gleam in her eyes, he had to admit, she was actually kind of cute in a I-hope-she-dies kind of way.

“What makes you think...” Tawna breathed out heavily, as if stifling a laugh. “What makes you think I don’t want you to take an evil Class?”

“Oh,” said Brin.

His heart pounded. His stomach churned. The edges of his vision seemed to turn black, a dark tunnel with Tawna at the end.

Obviously. It was so obvious Tawna wanted him to turn evil. He should’ve seen this. All that time, when he let resentment build and he entertained dark fantasies, it had seemed like a rebellion, but it was playing right into her hands. She wanted him to fail. She wanted him to turn dark. Why? What could she possibly gain from that? There had to be something more here; he needed to think it through. He couldn’t, though. All he could think about was flipping the switch on the sword and seeing if her threads were faster than his magic sword.

“Don’t worry too much about that,” said Tawna. “Here’s a prediction that you can count on: if you don’t focus on your hunt today, you will certainly perish.”

His vision snapped back into focus. “You’re not going to stop me?”

“Why would I come all the way out here to stop you, when a single whisper in the right ear would do? No, I’m here for something else. I came to give you a choice.”

She glided towards him, floating above the ground like a ghost. He could faintly see threads, like a million tiny insect legs. She moved unnervingly fast, and stopped inches away from him.

She put her hand on his chin. Her fingers were soft, and surprisingly warm and he wanted to slap her hand away. She pointed his face to the south-west.

“Go there, to the thick brush. Something small and weak awaits you. You will return home unscathed.”

Brin tried to pull back, but her grip was firm. “Did you just screw up my achievement by helping me?”

“Soon you’ll see that there is no definition of ‘help’ among gods or men that describes what I’m doing right now. I’m simply giving you a choice.” She pointed his face to the north. “Go this way instead. Something deadly has moved into the spinewolf den. I cannot tell you much, as I do not know much, only that if you choose this path, you will face extreme danger. You will also receive extreme benefits from the System, more than you expect. Most importantly, you will find an answer. Information, some flavor of knowledge that you desperately want, and that we desperately need. If you survive. Most likely, you will find your death. Choose wisely.”

Tawna patted him on the back with a knowing smile, and then her feet touched the ground. She walked away, down the road towards town. He watched her until she was out of sight.

She was right. That wasn’t helpful at all. If she hadn’t told him anything, he might’ve went south-west first, planning on hitting every area on the [Hunter’s] map until he found a monster, which would’ve been the first place he tried. Then he would’ve gone home happy.

Or maybe he would’ve gone north first, and died the way he was going to die now, because he already knew what he was going to decide.

He wasn’t going to live a small and careful life. He’d tried that, and still ended up dead on the road. In this life, he was going to try for greatness.

There was no choice at all. Or maybe there was. After all, he had the whole day ahead of him. Why not choose both? Killing the weak monster would give him an achievement that would make him stronger for the next one. Now that he knew where they both were, it wouldn’t even take that much time.

He went south first, towards the easy monster. His newfound determination and the fact that he knew exactly where to go made him want to run, but he took it easy. It was important to conserve his energy.

The weather grew more chilly, although it failed to penetrate his warm leathers. The sky darkened a bit as he walked. It started to rain, twice, but only for a few seconds each time.

Normally the forest would be alive with the sounds of birds and insects, but for now they were subdued in the chilly weather. It was quiet enough that he could hear everything; his own breathing, and the occasional drip of water onto a stone or tree trunk.

He tried to focus on the hunt as he walked, but he couldn’t get her words out of his mind. She wanted him to take an evil Class? That had to be reverse psychology. By saying that, she made him want to take the most good, perfect peaceful Class he could. [Child], if he didn’t get offered anything else.

Unless that was what she wanted him to think. It could be reverse reverse psychology. He could go round and round like this all day.

And that wasn’t even the most baffling part. If something that he’d done or would do was causing the town’s destruction, why would his death make the town’s destruction more likely? The fact that the town was in danger wasn’t hard to believe. There was an undead army out there somewhere. The fact that he might have a key in saving the town made sense, too. He wasn’t important, but he knew some important people. The rest of it? He didn’t know. He could guess all day, but he didn’t have enough information.

Information was exactly what the [Weaver] had promised him for risking his life. She sure knew how to bait a trap.

After an hour of walking, he found what must be the landmark from the map, so he chased all thoughts of [Weavers] and visions out of his head.

He’d wondered what “thick brush” would mean; after all, in this forest there were all sorts of places where bushes and saplings would grow so thick you couldn’t get through them, so he wasn’t sure if he’d recognize it until he saw it.

Four giant trees formed a square, and between them was the biggest mess of tall bushes, tangled vines, and intergrown tree branches that he’d ever seen in his life. It was like a solid block of greenery, surrounded by a wrap of rose-like vines that were as thick as his arm and had six-inch thorns.

Where was his monster?

He made a ring around the thick underbrush, and about jumped out of his skin when the back of it was covered in spiderwebs. Giant spiderwebs. The thread of the web was as thick as kite string, and it was all mushed together in a mass, like someone had been tidying up out here and put it in a pile for disposal.

Looking around, he didn’t see any sign of them. The web also looked old. Spiderweb had a certain kind of look when it was fresh versus abandoned, and somehow that was even more obvious when it was a giant spider web.

Child of Travin's Bog

Level

1

Attributes

Strength

40

Dexterity

31

Vitality

30

Magic

15

Mental Control

26

Will

30

Titles

Survivor of Travin's Bog

Locked

Traveler

Locked

Otherworlder

Locked

Achievements

Warbound (Epic)

You are born for war. You thirst for violence.

You defeated at least 10 enemy soldiers before unlocking your System. Without aid from an adult, you have defeated at least 10 monsters before unlocking your System.

+20% Strength. +10% Vitality. +10% Will. +50% experience from melee combat.

Monster Hunter II (Common)

You have defeated more than 10 monsters.

+10% attribute growth rate for all attributes.

Blessing of the Hidden Guardian (Rare)

You have been seen and accepted by the one who lays beneath.

Strong II (Common)

You have reached 39 Strength.

+20% speed with Strength-intensive activities. +20% Strength attribute growth.

Dextrous I (Common)

You have reached 26 Dexterity.

+10% speed with Dexterity-intensive activities. +10% Dexterity attribute growth. +10% Dexterity

Lively I (Common)

You have reached 26 Vitality.

+10% recovery from wounds. +10% stamina. +10% Vitality attribute growth.

Controlled I (Common)

You have reached 26 Mental Control.

+10% focus and concentration +10% Mental Control attribute growth

Disciplined I (Common)

You have reached 26 Will

+10% spell power. +10% skill power. +10% Will attribute growth.

Workhorse (Rare)

You work like a horse. You have earned many attribute achievements before unlocking your System.

+2 Strength per level, +1 Dexterity per level, +1 Will per level, +1 Vitality per level, +1 Mental Control per level

Skills

Know What’s Real

You have the ability to understand when something you experience or remember is real, and when it is an illusion or dream. Hearing increased. Vision in darkness increased. You know the approximate value of things.

Monster Sense

You have a moderate ability to sense monsters in the area. You can sense the difference between monsters and natural animals.

Oaths

Oath of the Quest Survivor

You have sworn never to speak of how you became the beneficiary of a Quest