The captive bandit leader was happy to ramble on at length about a ‘sacred cavern’ on the far side of the mountains that held treasures and gifts of the ancestors. Apparently, it had been discovered decades ago, but it was only recently that the inner depths had opened to expose the weapons within.
I dragged every bit of information out of him that I could, but it became very obvious that the man’s strength was failing from his injuries. The fall had done more than just break his leg, and he only grew paler by the second.
When I heard Kassandra calling my name on the road beneath the wall, I knew my time to question the man was done. A quick glance to the wall confirmed that the fight was over and the wounded were being seen to.
“Behave, and you might live to see a healer,” I growled, before turning back to the captured raider. However, in the time that I’d been looking away, his eyes had grown dull. He was still breathing, though it was shallow.
Growling under my breath, I stood and stuck my head out of the alley.
“Kass! Over here, I have a captive but he needs healing!”
My dwarf lamia’s head came up with a start and she immediately curved my way, her scaled tail wriggling furiously as she came. Right behind her was Rieka, Shayla, and Jane.
Kassandra took one look at the captive raider and hissed in sympathy at the amount of blood pooling under him and the bone protruding from his leg. She had her spell-rod out and was quickly casting the limited healing spells she knew. The first jet of icy water washing over the captive brought a yelp of surprise and a sudden deep inhalation from the man, though he stilled when I tightened the arm-tentacle that was still around his throat.
I let my other shifts fade away except for the grip I had on my captive’s throat, instead using Shape-Shifting
“Glad to see you are in one piece this time, Liam. Didn’t have a need to jump in the path of a flamecaster this time?” Rieka asked pointedly, but the rapid beat of her tail back and forth told me she wasn’t upset.
“Yup, and I have some important information too,” I told her with a grin.
Rieka stepped up to me, her ice-blue eyes curious as she rested a hand on my bare chest. The beat of her tail picked up speed as she did so, and my princess leaned into me with a relieved sigh. Apparently, touching me was the only thing that would allay her concerns at the moment.
“What information?” Jane asked, scampering around Rieka’s other side, her long, tuft-tipped tail flicking behind her rapidly.
Jane had a thin cut in one arm that stained her shirt with a bit of blood, but looked to be entirely unharmed otherwise. She saw my eyes lingering on the injury and rolled her eyes.
“Bit of flying rock from a missed arrow,” Jane explained without hesitation. “Seriously, though. What information did you get?”
Shayla loomed behind the other two, her wings spread protectively as the moth woman kept an eye on the wall and the nearby shadows, but I could tell from the way her antennae wiggled in my direction that she would need reassuring as much as Rieka did once we had a minute.
“Rieka, you remember how you and Valda were talking about trying to find the source of these?” I asked with a grin, summoning the fine blade from my Dimensional Pouch
“You didn’t?!” Rieka exclaimed, peering first at the sword then up at me with eyes that glittered with pride.
“It’s not perfect, but I think I know where these are coming from,” I said, wiggling the sword back and forth a moment.
Jane’s wordless whine of annoyance made me laugh, as the little mouse scholar was trying to read the runes engraved on the blade and had to sway back and forth as I wiggled the sword.
“We need to talk to Valda, then,” Rieka said firmly, her eyelids hooding as a proud smile slipped across her lips. “You did good here, Liam. We’ll have to reward you later.”
“I look forward to that,” I replied with a widening grin of my own.
<><><>
It took another hour for calm to return to the wall and the defenses. Valda took reports and ordered a change of the soldiers on the wall to have fresh troops there. Once Kassandra had him stabilized, I turned over my prisoner after stripping away everything of value he had, which wasn’t much.
Besides the elaborate human-era sword the man had, he also was in possession of a matching dagger. I hadn’t noticed it at the time when I took it from him, just seeing the glint of steel during my angry questioning.
There was also a small pouch of rough-cut gemstones that I was able to identify as tourmaline, each of them no bigger than a sunflower seed. Apparently, the precious stones were part of the bandit’s barter system of trade.
Valda was quick to return to the bunk room once things were settled, wanting to hear the information that I’d had for her. While we waited, I let Jane study the sword and dagger to confirm my earlier suspicions.
When Valda came in, I was sitting on the edge of the combined bunk bed with my favorite snake-skin belt wrapped tightly around me. Rieka was sitting on my right while Shayla sat behind me on crossed legs while she quietly combed her fingers through my hair and fussed over me in general.
While the other girls were willing to take my word that I was fine—despite wanting to cling to me for physical reassurance—Shayla was more insistent on needing touch. The gentle brushes of her antennae against my cheeks and shoulders while she worked told me that the moth woman was still worried, and I had to wonder if the risk she saw me taking was the reason for her rather devastating spell choice on the wall.
Rieka had explained while we waited that Shayla’s beam spell had not only cut down more than half of the remaining raiders on the wall, it had blinded anyone fighting up there as well. That combined with a ‘demon’ hitting them like a bomb and dragging their leader off to ‘feast on,’ led many of the survivors to simply surrender.
Valda at least had the forethought to rap on the door to announce her arrival before she came in. The sudden noise in the quiet of the room still made Jane jump almost a foot into the air with a surprised squeak and all four of my girls went for their spell rods until they identified the woman who had come in.
Jane landed on the chair she’d been standing on while studying the sword with a and a wobble, but managed to steady herself a moment later.
“Sorry about that,” Valda huffed, her scaled brows knitted in annoyance.
“What’s wrong, Valda?” Rieka asked, rising from her spot leaning into my side. I noted that my princess’s fluffy tail draped over my lap automatically, the appendage revealing its owner's intent to remain in close contact with me regardless.
“Liam’s captive,” Valda growled, stomping across the room and past the table where Jane remained perched and studying the weapons. “After Kassandra stabilized him, we had him taken to the healers to ensure he would live long enough to be questioned. He attacked one of the healers in a bid to escape using her as a captive, screaming something about ‘consorting with demons’ and got put down.”
“Bastard,” growled Rieka, an actual rumbling snarl emanating from the slim woman. “Healers are to be treated with respect and are not targets in a conflict…”
“I know,” Valda snapped, bending to open a small cabinet along the wall and drawing out a dark, glass bottle full of a thick liquid. She brought a small crystal glass along with it and carried both to the table, flopping down in the chair opposite Jane. “But the fool still tried. And for it, he got the closest shave of his life.”
“I am sorry your healer had to go through that,” I said, shifting to look around Rieka as the scaled woman broke the wax seal on her bottle and tugged out the cork with her clawed fingertips.
“Don’t be. The healer was the one who gave him the shave,” Valda said with a dark smirk. “Just because our healers try to lives doesn’t mean they don’t also know how to take them. And they need exceptionally sharp blades for some procedures.”
I thought with a snort.
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“Well, I should have just saved the mana on fixing the man up then,” grumbled Kassandra in my left ear. “Waste of my time and effort, though it was satisfying to hear the man squeal about how cold it was.”
I gave the dwarf lamia’s butt a gentle pat through her skirt, and felt the soft warmth of Kassandra’s lips on the side of my throat.
My loving-linguine was wrapped tightly around my waist with her chest pressed to mine and her face buried in my neck on one side. The soft mane of bombshell curls she had tickled my nose on occasion when she shifted, but I was just glad that Kassandra was content to simply snuggle with me for the moment. I knew the ‘rewards’ would come later, and I was just as proud of my girls for their rapid response and support as they were of me.
“I still appreciate the attempt. None of us expected him to be moving that much with the bone still sticking out of his leg. He acted like a man possessed,” Valda sighed, pouring a measure of a dark purple liquid into the glass.
The drink looked like wine but had a far thicker texture to it, somewhere between wine and syrup in consistency. The thick scent of cherries filled the air and Valda took a deep breath in through her nose, tension flowing out of her body as she just savored the smell before taking a drink.
“Well it’s good that Liam was able to get more information out of him before we turned up, then,” Rieka said firmly once Valda set her glass down again.
That turned out to be a good thing, because Valda’s hand jerked and scraped the crystal glass over the top of the table as she straightened in surprise.
“Truly? I thought you’d only captured him.” Valda’s eyes darted to the sword and dagger laying bare on the table next to her like she’d just seen them and her eyes widened. “Were these his?”
“Yup,” I answered with a grin. “Trophies claimed in combat. Also, just like the flamecaster, if you want them then you have to ask Jane nicely.”
“Liam!” Jane protested with a scowl, standing up on the chair with both hands on her hips in little fists.
“I came to your aid, thus I’m your summon,” I responded with a wink.
“But I didn’t summon you!” Jane protested, her tail lashing the air behind her. “You did that… thing, and then showed up!”
“Ah… shit, that’s right.” I blinked and then intentionally closed my eyes to check the interface.
Which turned out to be a good thing, as the Tunnel to Contracted
“One second. Ladies, can you let me up?” I asked quickly. Shayla leaned back reluctantly, and it took a kiss along with a promise to let her resume her position immediately before Kassandra unwound me.
Toggling the power again, I felt a tugging sensation and a flash as I was repositioned back where I had been before using Tunnel to Contracted
A brief flare of light around my vision heralded a message from the System.
.
“Okay, gotta remember that part. Especially if I use it to get to one of you while I’m already summoned here,” I murmured before returning to the bed.
This time, Shayla moved first and slid into place at my back, her legs going to either side of me and her arms wrapping around my torso from behind. I was surprised as she pressed her face into the back of my neck, the soft fur ruff at her collar tickling my bare skin, but the moth woman said nothing, just burrowed her face into my hair and took a deep breath while holding me.
Kassandra didn’t complain or even tease her. Instead, my dwarf lamia wrapped herself around us both for one full turn before settling into her spot on my left once more.
“I know I’ve expressed this to you before, but you four are quite close to him,” Valda said, her tone thoughtful as she studied me and the two girls.
Rieka stiffened slightly, but before my princess responded, Valda continued.
“It’s not a complaint, mind you. Simply an observation after spending so much time around you five. Such a strong connection between a summoner and their summon is a good thing. I rather envy it, since my particular style of summoning benefits from such a bond.”
“Oh?” I asked, curious and not wanting to let things be awkward.
“Yes, I am what many would call a ‘spell-blade’ in that I have made a pact with my summoned creature to empower my equipment.”
“That’s right,” I said with a snap of my fingers. “You mentioned back when we did the training spar that you had a bond with a salamander to both shield you from heat and grant it to your equipment, right?”
“Exactly,” Valda replied with a nod and a small smile. “The stronger my bond grows with the salamander, the more of its magic empowers my equipment. My own magic is not nearly as strong as, say, Princess Rieka’s. But my weapons training balances it out and my innate fire magic allows me to further enhance my equipment with the salamander’s help.”
Rieka’s tail gave a brief stir, slapping against my chest again and then draping over my lap once more as Valda talked, but the princess remained standing beside the bed rather than sitting once more next to me.
“Well, that does make quite a bit of sense,” I said when the silence after Valda’s comment stretched on. I was curious how the salamander was able to do what it did, and I spent a moment parsing out if I could do something similar with Grant Power
“Yes,” Valda said, straightening up once more with a shake of her head. “You, of course, are correct in claiming the spoils of defeating him. Did he happen to have anything pertaining to intelligence on his person, though? It would be critical to helping us if he did.”
“No, just some of the little gems they use as money out there,” I answered and Valda slumped. “But like Rieka said, I was able to interrogate him.” Valda perked up again and I had to wonder if there was something wrong with the lizard-folk woman, since she’d been on this subject and just gotten distracted.
, I thought before continuing my previous statements.
“So, apparently they found those weapons and likely other ones in a cave on the far side of the mountains from us,” I explained.
Valda listened intently, holding her crystal glass carefully with her fingertips and swirling the liquid inside around.
Rieka and Jane shifted to take seats finally, leaving this to me to explain to Valda.
I filled Valda in on everything that I’d gotten from the raider leader. How it was a ‘sacred’ place that had revealed deeper secrets, and how his people believed it to be a gift from their ancestors to bring the land under their domination.
“What I don’t get is the idea of a sacred cave,” I repeated after getting the important parts down. “I understand that they would want to control it, and keep it secret. But what makes a particular cave sacred or divine? I could understand it if there was a story associated with the cave, like some of the Native American stories from back home about how we entered this world after fleeing another one by crawling through a cave. But he didn’t mention anything like that.”
“Well, you were in the middle of scaring the literal piss out of him, Liam,” Kassandra teased gently. The dwarf lamia had leaned back from her spot burrowing into my neck partway through the retelling, though she and Shayla still snuggled in tight to me. “Those specific legends might have slipped his mind since you were demanding where the weapons came from.”
“I would like to think I was being persuasive to encourage compliance, rather than just scaring the life out of him.”
“Piss,” Kassandra countered firmly, her slitted brown eyes dancing in amusement. “It was piss. Trust me, I could smell it while trying to heal him.”
“Enough about him pissing himself,” Rieka huffed. “The point is that there is supposedly a cave that has access to these weapons. Jane?”
“They have the same runes as the flamecaster,” Jane said with complete confidence. “Liam was right in that assumption. And you mentioned before Valda that there were sightings of other weapons like these at the other passes and in other territories. And Liam, thank you for not getting cut with this. It is definitely enchanted. Thank you for getting the sheathes too, because they are also enchanted to prevent the blades from cutting right through them.”
“So they are enchanted to be sharp?” I asked curiously. Jane bobbed her head in a mixed yes and no gesture.
“Not precisely. It is a mixture of sharpening, anti-aging, and reinforcement spells. You could probably use one of these as a pry bar and it wouldn’t bend. And I mean even could do that, big guy,” Jane said with raised eyebrows to reinforce her statement. “Mister ‘I’m going to use one man to beat another to death’ berserker.”
I could see the longing look in Valda’s eyes as she stared down at the weapon on the table, and made a note of it. I’d already ceded the weapon to Jane as a study piece, but if I laid hands on a second one, I might pass it along to Valda. Her talk earlier of being a spell-blade and enhancing her weapons with magic had me wondering what more she might be able to do with a powerful one like that.
“The same enchantments are on the dagger too,” Jane continued without pause. “They feed off the ambient mana in the air. It would take quite a bit of punishment before they could consume enough of the stored mana in the metals themselves to have issues. And when I say ‘quite a bit’ I mean Liam using it as a carving tool to make himself a quarry. For all practical purposes, the enchantments on these two will not fade with even regular use. I believe that there is a rod of mana-metal worked into the inside of the grip that is specifically shielded from outside use to fuel the enchantments.”
“How would you be sure?” Shayla asked quietly over my shoulder, the moth woman speaking up for the first time in a while.
“I’d have to partially disassemble it,” Jane said with a sigh. “But it's the only way I can think of to fuel these enchantments as the blade itself isn’t mana-infused metal. But it’s easy to see the effects.”
To demonstrate that statement, Jane grabbed an iron fork off one of the dinner dishes still on the table and dragged it along the exposed blade of the sword. There was some resistance, but the blade cut through the iron fork with as much effort as it would on leather, severing the tines halfway down with a sharp ringing noise.
“I can see why they fight so hard to keep those from being captured,” Rieka murmured, her blue eyes wide in surprise. “Mother would pay a ransom to have a dozen swords like that for her guards… she might pay one for just a single sword, to be honest.”
“I think there is something more important being missed here, though,” I pressed, and the girls turned their attention to me. “Jane, you confirmed that those are the same human-era runes as the flamecaster?”
“Yes,” Jane said with a quick nod. “It’s easy to see in the angularity and the style of the runes, as well as the crafting style. Oh!”
“Exactly,” I said when I saw the mousy woman make the connection. “We have a ‘sacred cave’ that they discovered held secrets, and weapons sent from the ‘ancestors,’ or so they believe. I’d say that confirms our suspicions that these raiders found a human-era ruin and are pillaging it for weapons.”
“But Liam,” Jane protested, tugging on one of her ears in worry. “We’ve been to several of those and haven’t found virtually any weapons besides those on the bodies…”
“Exactly,” I said with a frown. “Which tells me they found a ruin that relates to the ancient human military… and if they are anything like breed of humans. There are far worse things than enchanted swords or a crude flamethrower hiding in there…”
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