Chapter 29: Revelations

Chapter 29: Revelations

With dread heavy in his heart and butterflies swimming in his stomach, Victor approached Captain Lam’s study. They’d been back for an hour and had a meal together as a unit, and then Victor and some others had decided to head to the Contribution Store. He’d barely gotten outside, waiting with Gris for Heng and Edeya, when Sergeant Fath had come out and said, “Victor, I gotta go fill in paperwork for some recruits. The captain wants you to talk to her in her study. Hurry up!”

“Good luck,” Gris had said with a wry grin, probably just glad it wasn’t him.

Victor sighed and knocked on the door. A clipped “come” sounded from within, and he opened the door, stepping into Lam’s study for the second time. She was sitting at a small round table this time, and she motioned to a stool on the other side of the table, “Take a seat.” Victor stepped into the room and squatted down on the stool, feeling kind of silly with his knees poking up under the table. He cleared his throat nervously. “Alright, Victor. I’ve looked over your mess of a contract a dozen times, and nothing makes sense. Tell me about yourself.” She gestured to the paper in front of her written with half a dozen different inks, lines scratched through, and signatures scribbled in odd places.

“Um, what do you want to know?”

“Everything. Let’s start with where you’re from.”

“Originally? From a planet called Earth. I don’t think the names of my country or town would mean anything to you.”

“And how did you end up in my unit?”

“Um, when I got to the mine, the foreman sent me to the tent where...”

“No. I mean, how did you wind up with this contract? Why aren’t you free?”

“Well, I wish I could explain it. One minute I was in my Abuela's house; the next minute, I was standing in a barn with some fucking wackos. They took me to the city and sold me to the guy that runs the pit fights there.”

“This was in Persi Gables? Yund is the man who bought you?” She pointed to Yund's name up near the top of the contract.

“That’s right.”

“Tell me about your time with Yund and how you ended up in the mines with a broken Core.” She sat back and took a sip from her crystal glass, waiting for Victor to speak.

He started slowly, haltingly, unsure of how much detail she wanted, but with her encouragement, he began to tell her about his time at the Wagon Wheel. He told her about Yrella and Vullu, and his eyes welled up with tears for the first time in a long while. He wiped them away and kept talking, telling her about his Core and some of his fights and how Yund had made the contract with him. He told her about being the “justice” for the Lady, and then he told her about how Yund sold him out to the nobleman that had tried to destroy his Core. Finally, he told her about waking up in the wagon and finding out he’d been sold to the Greatbone Mining Consortium and how the foreman had sent him to the tent where he’d been randomly assigned to Lam’s unit.

Lam drummed her fingers on her table as she regarded Victor, then she reached behind her to her bookcase and picked up another crystal glass, setting it on the table. She produced a dark bottle from somewhere and poured an oily amber liquid into both glasses, then the bottle disappeared, and she gestured to the new glass, “Take a drink; you deserve it.”

“Um, thanks.” Victor picked up the heavy glass and took a sip; he’d tasted whiskey before, and this was similar, though it had a faintly sweet aftertaste. “It’s good,” he said, smiling.

“Alright, Victor. You’ve been given a raw deal. What’s happened to you in this world isn’t fair, and it isn’t right, but life isn’t fair. That’s one thing I know about you. Another thing I know about you is that you’re a lot stronger than people think. Your Core either isn’t broken like it seemed, or you’ve figured a way to heal it.” She held up a hand as Victor opened his mouth to object. “As far as I’m concerned, the two facts even out the scales a little.” She paused again to regard Victor, making sure her words sank in. “I don’t care how strong you get. I don’t care if you escape from this shithole someday. I just want you to know that I won’t tolerate any violence to those under my command, and I hope you’ll work with me for a while. I’d like to see what you can become.”

“Seriously?” he asked, completely dumbfounded.

“Seriously. I don’t work for Greatbone Mining Consortium. Sure, I have a contract with them, but I’m not here for them. You understand?”

“Yeah, I understand. Um...” Victor had to look down, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn’t know why he was so overcome with emotion, but he felt like someone had taken a huge weight off his back. He blew out a heavy, shuddering breath, and then he tried again, “Thank you, Captain.”

“Finish your drink, and then go spend some of those contribution points. You need a clean shirt and some boots that fit. Just don’t get jumped again, alright?”

“I won’t,” Victor said, taking another drink, savoring the way the liquid warmed his throat and belly. He smiled and shook his head, “I knew you were cool from the first time I saw you, Captain.”

“Cool?”

“Yeah, like awesome, great. I mean, aside from all this,” he put a finger under his metal collar and gave it a tug.

“Alright, alright. Flattery won’t get you another drink. As far as those collars go, yes, I feel some guilt about associating with the mine operators, but these ruins are a rare opportunity. The world’s cruel, you know? Anyway, go on, get out of here. We’re going deeper tomorrow, and I’m bringing you with this time.” She gestured to the door, smiling, and Victor stood up, almost light-headed with relief, and buzzing slightly from the drink, as he set the glass down. He waved awkwardly, moving to the door and out. When he closed it behind himself, he stood there for a moment, trying to gather his racing thoughts, but all he could do was grin stupidly.

“Congratulations, Victor! It seems you’ve gained a powerful ally!” Gorz’s voice piped into his head, and he jerked in surprise, looking around nervously.

“Thanks, Gorz. You fucking startled me.”

“My apologies, Victor!”This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

“It’s all good, man. It’s all good.” Victor walked briskly through the barracks, noting that most of the delvers were gone, and then out the front door. Of course, his friends were gone; he’d been talking to Lam for a long time. He turned toward the central settlement and broke into a jog, passing by groups of delvers and miners. There was a lot of traffic at that time of day as groups of workers finished their shifts, returned to their camps and visited the Settlement Stone to turn in quests. He was about halfway to the main settlement cavern when he heard Gorz’s tinny voice again.

“Victor! I can sense the Energy aura of one of the thugs that tried to kill you!” Victor stumbled as the words hit home.

“What? You’re sure? Just one of them?”

“Yes, I’m quite sure. He’s just twenty yards away, moving in the same direction as you.” Victor looked ahead and saw the figure that Gorz must have meant. A small, slouched figure was walking briskly toward the tunnel entrance. There were a lot of other people moving about, though, and Victor, no matter how badly he wanted to beat that guy’s ass, wasn’t going to throw away all the progress he’d made. He didn’t need to get flagged by some mine employee and have his collar activated to melt his head off.

He looked around, noting the wooden shanties and occasional larger building, and wondered if whatever delver unit those guys were with was stationed nearby or if he was going to visit the Settlement Stone. “Gorz, keep track of that guy; how close do I have to stay to him?”

“I can’t sense him if you’re much farther away than this, Victor.”

“Alright.” Victor kept moving, careful to stay well behind the guy, and when the crowds grew thicker and he lost track of him visually, Gorz kept him informed of his movements. As they came into sight of the vast settlement area, the guy turned to the left, and Victor followed him.

“Victor! I sense another of the thugs, just ahead of where the first thug is; they’re not thirty yards ahead and to the left.” Victor moved cautiously to a low ramshackle building and looked around the corner. Sure enough, there was Chem, talking to the guy that Victor had been following. He clapped him on the shoulder, and the two of them turned and walked into a large wooden building with a black star painted on the door.

“I think we found their barracks, Gorz. Take a note of it.”

“Done, Victor!”

“Good job,” Victor said softly, then turned and made his way back toward the cavern's center and the tall Settlement Stone. While he walked, he spoke softly to himself, “What a fucking productive day.”

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Captain Lam said, looking up from the journal she’d been studying. She strode away, and they all fell in line behind her. This time, Victor took the lead. Something about the way Lam had spoken to him and, more importantly, listened to him made him feel more enthusiastic about helping her. He felt like having her on his side made his chances in this world a hell of a lot better, and he planned to take advantage of the opportunities she was giving him.

They reached the point where Victor had fought the rat and found Gorz, and, once they’d all shimmied down the rope to the ruined structures, Lam fluttered down and said, “Alright, I have a tunnel I’m going to explore. The rest of you split up and dig around these ruins. Listen, I’ve already been through most of the larger structures, but there are plenty of buildings with lower levels that I haven’t been through. You’ll probably run into hostile creatures, so I want you working with a buddy. On that same note, I am giving you all some trust here. Don’t blow it. If you find something interesting, bring it back here for me to check out. If it’s too big to carry, make a note of it, and show it to me when we meet up here. Speaking of which, we’ll gather back here in two hours. Victor, you’re with Thayla. Heng and Fenlale, you’re a team as usual.”

“Captain?” Thayla asked.

“Yeah?”

“Can we make it interesting? Any reward for the team that finds the most stuff?” Her lips curled in a grin, exposing her sharp canines, and Victor had to admit, he liked her nerve.

“Thayla, Thayla, Thayla,” the captain said, shaking her head with a rueful smile. “Alright, if it will keep you all honest, I’ll let the team with the best finds take a choice from items I don’t want.” Fenlale slapped Heng on the back with a big smile on his face. Thayla whooped, and Lam continued, “Alright, everyone take a light stone; you’ll need it in the ruins.” She produced a handful of leather cords with glowing yellow stones affixed to them, passing them out to each delver. “Now, get going!”

“Let’s go!” Thayla gave Victor a shove, and he followed her into the crumbling ruins, taking the opposite direction from Heng and Fenlale. She ducked into a narrow “street” between ruined buildings and hurried between several others, seemingly heading somewhere in particular.

“Where are you going?”

“I know what buildings they searched yesterday; I’m taking us to a big building we didn’t get to yet.”

“Oh, sweet!” Victor supposed Heng and Fenlale had similar intel, but it didn’t change the excitement he felt at the prospect of exploring old ruins looking for treasure. “How does Lam keep delvers from trying to keep stuff they find?”

“Hah. If you’re dumb enough to try to cheat Lam, then good luck to you.”

“Right. I’m not that dumb, and I don’t want to cheat her, anyway.” Victor meant his words; he respected Lam to a degree—as much as he could respect someone who used indentured servants as fodder to fight monsters while she hunted for treasures. Yes, he wanted to grow stronger and escape, but he didn’t want to make an enemy of her. Thayla paused in front of a large building and looked at him; she had long black hair tightly bound to her red scalp in a bunch of braids. Her eyes were angled in such a way that she seemed angry or ready for a fight all the time, but she regarded him calmly for a moment, then shrugged.

“Yeah, I doubt Captain Lam would’ve brought you along if she thought you were scum. I heard you did a good job protecting the pickers yesterday, too.”

“Hah, pickers.” Victor snorted and followed Thayla as she stepped through the ruined doorway. The structure must once have been at least two stories tall; some of the upper floor was still standing, though the ceiling was falling down in various places. Something stood out among the tumbled stone blocks, though—steel girders with huge bolts with X-shaped heads holding them together. “Wonder who built this place so far underground.”

“Who says it was underground when they built it?”

“Well, we’re pretty fucking deep. Not sure how all these buildings could get down here otherwise.”

“Hmm, well, the System managed to combine four worlds into one, so I don’t think it would be too hard for it to put a town into a cave.” She reached forward and lifted a thin stone slab, peering under it while speaking.

“Good point. So this world used to be four?”

“So they say. C’mon, look around!” She gestured around the ruined building, and Victor moved over to a half-fallen wall and peered over it. Nothing was there but more rubble, so he started sifting through it, looking for anything other than old building materials. He kicked through some dusty, rotted doors and dug through piles of petrified wood, all the while hearing Thayla doing the same in other parts of the building. He was climbing through another old, rotted door when he heard Thayla whoop.

“Victor! Come here!” She called, and Victor turned and hastily retraced his steps. Her excitement was palpable in her tone, and it was hard for Victor not to reciprocate it. He could see the path she’d taken over the dusty stone floor and followed it, wending through broken walls, doors, and around corners. She called twice more, urging him to hurry, and he did, bursting, finally, through another broken doorway into a large, mostly-intact room. That’s when he saw something was wrong.

Thayla sat against the far wall, her legs stretched out, and her chin hung down to her chest. When Victor saw she wasn’t moving, he scanned the rest of the room and saw a dark shadow lurking in the corner to Thayla’s right. Movement caught his eye, and he saw a gray tendril of vine-like material twitch along the floor. He traced its length to see that one end of it was hidden in the shadow cast by Thayla’s light stone, and it seemed to be wrapped around her neck. Then Thayla’s voice came out of the corner where the larger shadow lurked, “Victor! Hurry! I found something!”

Victor stepped back behind the crumbled doorway, his heart racing. What the hell was going on? He peeked around again, staring at Thayla. Was she breathing? He thought he could see her chest moving ever so slightly. “Victor! Hurry!” her voice called from the far corner again. Should he run and try to get Captain Lam or the others? What if Thayla was dying? What if that thing was slowly choking her or draining her life away? His mind began to run away, imagining all sorts of horrifying scenarios.

“Gorz, any idea what’s happening?”

“No, Victor. I’m sorry.” Victor wished he could see better, but neither his little light nor Thayla’s could reach that far corner. Then it hit him—his light spell! He didn’t want to send a rage-attuned light in there, though. He concentrated on his Enraging Orb spell, turning his mind inward so he could focus his will on holding back his red rage Energy. When he saw the spell pattern start to form, he pushed some inspiration-attuned Energy toward it and was pleased when a white-gold orb of brilliant light began to form above his outstretched hand.

***Congratulations! You’ve learned the spell: Globe of Insight - Basic.***

***Globe of Insight - Basic: You create an orb of inspiration-attuned Energy that will help those within its radiance see the potential in their surroundings. Energy cost: 50 Cooldown: minimal.***

Several things happened at once when the globe of warm light finished forming above his palm: motes of Energy formed out of the air and surged into Victor, the light shone brightly into the room where Thayla lay against the wall, and something screamed with rage and indignation from the dark corner. Having never experimented with moving around his orb with just his will, Victor thrust his hand into the room as if to throw it toward the dark corner.

He watched as the orb sailed through the air, banishing the dark shadows and exposing the long, twisted, gray tendril that snaked over the ground and wrapped around Thayla’s neck. Another such tendril was already groping its way over the ground toward Victor, and he lifted his baton in preparation to bat it away when the light uncovered the creature lurking in the corner. It looked like a gray, fleshy tree trunk with stubby limbs and a wide mouth at its center. The gray tendrils or fleshy roots were slithering forth from its base. Unbidden, Victor’s Uncle’s favorite expression slipped from his lips, “Madre de Dios!”

His orb had stopped mid-air near the center of the room, and its bright light revealed Thayla’s purpling flesh and the weak twitching of her limbs. No longer considering fleeing as an option, Victor charged toward her, skirting away from the other probing tentacle-root, and slammed his baton against the one that held Thayla. He smashed it hard against the stone ground, and though he couldn’t cut the thing with this blunt weapon, he felt something give inside it, and the creature screamed again. The screech came from its gaping, gnashing maw. When Victor flinched from the sound and looked toward its source, he saw the mouth was filled with little razor-like teeth and a dozen probing slimy tongues.

Victor shuddered and pounded on the vine, again and again, madly grinning, when he saw the gray flesh start to pulp and break apart. The creature continued to scream, and its other probing tentacle finally caught up to Victor, snaking around his ankle. He tried to yank his foot away, but it tightened like a vise, pressing the leather of his boot into his flesh and grinding his bones together. He hadn’t expected it to be so strong! Victor hesitated for a moment, weighing his options, but then the tentacle jerked, pulling him sideways, and he panicked, activating his Berserk.

Red lust for violence filled his mind and clouded his vision, and Victor stopped resisting the pull of the tentacle-root, charging headlong at the gray, fleshy thing in the corner. He cackled as he brought his baton down onto the broad expanse of pallid, damp flesh, smashing it into the creature as hard as possible. Frustration fuelled his rage when nothing much happened as a result of the mighty smash. The flesh jiggled, the maw screamed, and the tentacle wrapped further around his leg.

The creature’s maw was large enough to snap Victor in half should he fall in, but, even in his madness, he used his left hand to brace against the trunk-like exterior of the monster and continued to pound his baton, to little effect, with his other. All the while, the gray tentacle continued to snake up his leg and around his waist, and that’s when a shiver of panic broke through Victor’s rage, and it began to fade. He felt the creature’s enormous strength as it continued to squeeze, and then he felt a dark, invading Energy start to creep into his pathways through the flesh at his waist, where the tentacle was in direct contact with his skin.

Victor raged against the intrusion, pushing hot red Energy toward the foreign presence, and he managed to shove it back for a few seconds. Then, he began to weaken, his guts squeezed so tightly that he was having trouble taking a breath. His pummeling of the monster degenerated into pathetic slaps, and darkness began to creep around the edges of his vision, and once again, the invading Energy began to push into him. Then, something strange happened in Victor’s mind; he stopped panicking and wondering what to do next. Instead, he thought about Yrella and Vullu, and then he thought about Belsa and wondered what happened to her. He’d never know, he realized.

Something wet and hot hit Victor’s face, and the squeezing lessened slightly. His ears had long been overwhelmed by the creature’s screaming, so he didn’t notice anything different when it continued to shriek, perhaps with a slightly higher pitch. Again, wet, hot fluid splashed him, and again, the tentacles loosened, and Victor felt blood rush up to parts of his body that had been deprived. He managed a gasping breath and opened his eyes. Another splash of hot fluid accompanied by a feminine grunt greeted him as he jerked his head from left to right, trying to see what was happening.

Thayla was swinging a broad-bladed axe against the creature’s trunk, showering herself and Victor with gore with each swing. Her latest chop had severed much of the tentacle, and Victor managed to stumble back, falling onto his butt. Not knowing how else to help, Victor channeled his inspiration Energy into Inspiring Presence, and suddenly Thayla stood up straighter and began to hack in earnest, more precisely placing her strikes. Victor, for his part, felt a surge of well-being and scrambled to his feet, instantly spotting his fallen baton. He scooped it up and was about to lay into the monster, regardless of the ineffective nature of his weapon, when Thayla stepped back, grinning.

“It’s done,” she said, panting. She reached toward her chest, slipping a finger behind her leather vest, and suddenly the axe disappeared.

“Nice job...” Victor panted, rubbing his sore leg and waist.

“If you mention my axe or my dimensional storage, I’ll kill you in your sleep,” Thayla said matter-of-factly. Victor genuinely felt insulted and was about to tell Thayla that he wasn’t a snitch when a massive current of Energy poured forth from the dead monster into them both, and he lost himself in the exhilaration of it.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 16 Spirit Champion. You have gained 7 will, 7 vitality, and have 7 attribute points to allocate.***