Chapter 74 – Story Time

  Ash sat very still for a few moments, just staring into her mug. Matt was being very clear that he was not going to interrupt. He wanted her to share on her own and he wasn’t blind that this topic had some trauma backing it.

  “I guess it all starts with my race or species. I don’t know.” She huffed. “We are compatible with humans so I would figure it to be a race, but the System isn’t exactly forthcoming on that, and I don’t have anyone to ask. Maybe if I ever get to go back to the exchange or something…” She trailed off at the end.

  Matt broke his little rule and asked a question. “You didn’t get a portal to the exchange after the first event?” Judging by the way her head snapped up, she did not get one.

  “That was a thing! That lying bastard. I swear he… he. ARGH What a fucking cunt!” she hissed to nobody in particular. Her hand clenched and opened several times, thankfully not the one holding the mug.

  “Ok, I touched a nerve. Sorry.” He said, holding his hands palms out to try and placate her.

  After a few more oaths and choice words about the enigmatic ‘him’ she got back on track. “Right. My race. We are, or maybe were, known as Versipellian. Do you know what that is?”

  “No but it sounds very familiar. Its nudging something in my mind but I don’t know what.” Matt freely admitted.

  “Its fine. Probably better if I tell you so you don’t freak out.” She sighed before continuing, making sure to stare right at Matt. “We are shape shifters. Naturally born ones and very powerful compared to a normal human.”

  Matt perked up, not failing to notice she was watching him intently. “That’s it! Its Latin for ‘turns skin’ or something. Oh, this makes much more sense ,the last 2 letters are different, but it would be for a race and not just an individual.”

  Ash was giving him the side eye. “You have heard of us? What planet are you from?”

  Laughing a little, Matt clarified. “I am from outside the system on a planet with no mana. We did get influenced by many things as I’m beginning to learn. There was this game that I played where one of the races or whatever were called Versipellis. I always thought werewolves were super cool.”

  “Wait, werewolves?” She was looking very confused.

  Nodding, Matt explained a little more. “Yeah, that’s what we called them. Tons of our planets ancient cultures had something like a werewolf. There is a lot of fantasy and stuff written around them too. Some can control when they change, some can’t, some are bloodthirsty monsters while others are just slightly more primally minded.”

  “And this doesn’t bother you?” she asked.

  Matt shook his head. “Not at all. Honestly until a few months ago, I had no idea orcs, dwarves, elves and all that were real either. Only race or intelligent species on my planet is humans, as far as I know.”

  Ash was quiet for a few moments, contemplating what he had just said. After a while she smiled and laughed softly. “I guess that I was all paranoid for nothing. I worked myself up into expecting that I would have to convince you that I wasn’t a monster.”

  Smiling wryly, Matt shook his head. “I know how that feels.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, until recently I had a little problem with my trait. Honestly, it feels weird still, with most people being polite but scared. Only a handful of folks in the city treat me like a normal person.” He waved his hand at the bare walls of the cave. “That’s also why I am out here all by myself. I… have an effect on people fighting near me.”

  She frowned. “What kind of effect?” Ash wasn’t about to let that comment slide. If he was dangerous to be near, finding safe passage might be more difficult.

  “I’ll tell you when you are done. Maybe even show you if we have the chance.”

  “Oh, well then.” She fumbled with the dismissal of her question. “What were we talking about?”

  “How your race caused you problems.” Matt said rolling his hand over his wrist in the universal gesture of helping someone remember.

  “Right. So, it started on my home world. Our people first made a name for themselves as mercenaries because of our physical gifts. We actually mostly did guard work and scouting for merchants and explorers. Our bodies could handle the more dangerous monsters and men that preyed upon the caravans.”

  “As the centuries wore on, we developed out own cultural norms and began to settle in some of the more remote places in the mountains on the eastern end of our continent.” She seemed to consider something before continuing. “It seems that people were fine with us as the hired help but not so much as their neighbors.”

  “Sounds familiar.” Matt said, having seen similar situations on Earth.

  “Well, as the story goes, when our ancestors tried to settle the lands in and around the mountains, we ran into another of the races. The dwarves had their own kingdom within those mountains and valleys. Rather than push us out, or otherwise contest us, the dwarven lords decided to treat with us.” Ash had begun to tell the tale like one would recount a story they had memorized as a kid.

  “The king and his lords made a covenant with our ancestors. It was simple as these things went, relying more on the spirit of the agreement than the letter of the law. They would cede the lands to us, and in turn we would nurture and develop it. They would help us with building, with food, and all manner of other societal norms. In return, we would protect them and aid them in their goals.”

  “The covenant stood for hundreds of years. Our peoples flourished and my race eventually spread out again, safe in the knowledge that we had a home. Our scholars think that may have been the beginning of the end.” She said in a sad but curious tone.

  “They betrayed you?” Matt asked. He didn’t think a dwarf would do that based on t…

  “No!” Ash said. Quickly putting an end to his questioning. “No, the covenant still stood. It lasted longer than my people did, at least I suspect so.” She seemed to settle back down again. “The problem came from outside. I suspect deception, greed and hubris played their roles well in the wars.”

  Ash took another moment to collect herself. “Tragedy began to befall our race. The human and elven cities to the south and west began to look unfavorably on us. They made laws against us then they showed open hostility towards us, driving us from our communities.”

  Matt was beginning to get a sinking feeling but didn’t dare interrupt.

  “We didn’t fight, just accepted that times were changing again and withdrew from the other lands. Almost as one, we pulled stakes and migrated back to the holds of our fathers. This left the towns without their favorite guardians, however. Naturally, people did as people do and preyed on each other.”

  “I was once told that they blamed us for it. That they said we caused their kinsmen to rob, murder, rape and enslave each other. Honestly it was all the fuel that was needed for the next fire starters.”

  “The Trevalign family had been waiting in the wings. They swooped in, ‘liberating’ the embroiled towns and cities. After all was said and done, and people realized what they had done, they needed a scapegoat. That scapegoat was conveniently unable to say otherwise.”

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  “The Trevalign family began to spread their ‘religion’.” She spat on the ground at the word. “More like a cult. They spread their ‘holy word’ that we, the Veripellian were the cause of all the evil in the world. They blamed us for everything, using already planted cultural norms to stir the pot and push the people against us.”

  Matt could see her silent snarl as she looked at her hands again.

  “They always say that hindsight sees the furthest. Perhaps if our armies had sallied sooner or if we had assassinated that family sooner, we could have prevented the war. Alas, it was not to be. They rallied an entire continent against us, wrapping up everyone in their madness and indoctrinating them into their religion.”

  “We sat with the dwarven kings and lords. We begged them to flee and let us fight them alone so they wouldn’t implicate themselves. Their king, king Thalreissis, summed up the response by saying ‘That would make us cowards at best and traitors at worst, to abandon a friend in their time of need.’”

  Matt nodded along. “Brave words.”

  Ash agreed. “They were. The dwarves set themselves to work. They put all their industry into helping our people prepare for the coming storm. They churned out arms and armor the likes of which had never been seen.” She summoned her rifle. “This is one of their designs. Guns were common but to make one that fired with such rapidity was… unheard of.” She put it away again before continuing.

  “They sheltered our civilians, the children and infirm especially. I stood with my family in defense of our dutchy. As a noble family, it wouldn’t due to be seen running. In the end, I was forced to. Two of the sons commanded the army that laid siege to our city. The eldest and the youngest of them.

  “In the fighting, they took the walls after throwing their men at the gates for days, eventually using the dead as a ramp. One of our marksmen was able to kill the eldest prince. They captured the gate house and ended up strolling in thinking that after taking the gate, they had won the day. Turns out that just because you took the wall, doesn’t mean a bullet can’t take your head.”

  “We fought for days. Every street, every house, we made them bleed and die for it. Eventually it wasn’t enough, and my father called the retreat. The remaining dwarves were holding the keep and the tunnel below it. After the last of us passed, they would collapse it and we would reinforce another city.”

  After a deep shuddering breath, she continued. “I was separated from the main company, just me and a few scouts that had managed to push through the chaos. We ended up outside the city, on a road leading into the valley below. Night had set and we thought we would be safe to over land, but the Trevalign soldiers found us and gave chase.”

  “We fought and ran, shifting between forms to try and survive. Eventually I found myself curled in the mud below a bridge, half hanging out of a drainpipe. I was wounded, tired, starving and most of all, afraid. We had split at some point, and I was alone. That’s when the System sent the message.”

  Ash was rubbing the back of her hand. “I accepted right away. I didn’t have any hope of making it the full 3 days.” Her eyes were getting misty, and her voice grew thick. “I don’t know what happened to my family. I don’t know what happened to my people. All I know is that my home was razed, and my people killed because of the lies of one family.”

  Matt was slightly confused for a moment. He couldn’t feel her emotion at all in his domain despite such a clear and strong one being present. Still, he reached out a hand over the table, palm up and fingers out. Ash took it and held it, gripping hard while she cried.

  After a few minutes, she calmed enough to continue. “*Sniff*. Thanks, I… It’s the first time I have talked about it, and I got a little overwhelmed.”

  Retrieving his hand, Matt smiled softly. He might not have his aura, but he was still mostly human enough to recognize the behavior he saw. “Take your time. If you don’t want to continue, you don’t have to.”

  Ash shook her head. “Its fine. I think I needed this.”

  “Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger than someone you know.”

  “Ha. Seems so.” She wiped her eyes and sniffed a couple more times before continuing. “When I got to the classroom, I was able to find a few others of my race. They had waited the full 3 days but hadn’t heard anything about our city or its survivors.”

  “Are they also here?” Matt asked, wondering if this little adventure was going to turn into a rescue mission.

  “No, we all decided to split up and find different groups. That way at least one of us would survive.”

  “That’s horribly pragmatic.” Matt commented.

  “They were all civilians and craftsmen back home. I don’t think they would have known how bad the fighting actually got.” She cleared he throat again. “Ahem. I just hope I see them again and it would be nice to know my kinsmen are well.”

  “So, what made you high tail it out of the tower?” Matt asked then smirked. “Pun, maybe intended.”

  Ash stared at him for a moment before suddenly her eyes widened and she smirked. “That one was pretty good. Credit where its due.” Her grin faded after a moment. “Thanks, I kinda needed that. So, remember that other prince?”

  Matt nodded. “The younger one, right?”

  “That’s the one. The System also picked him. And of all the cities and all the worlds, he ended up in our tower.” She was shaking her head with incredulity. “What are the odds that the xenophobic shit head would end up there.” She asked rhetorically.

  Ash shook her head again. “Anyway, he ended up in our city. He thankfully isn’t a pilot, that would have made him a million times worse. Still, I kept tabs on him, borderline stalking sometimes. I was waiting for him to slip and start with the rhetoric that his family and their cult pushed. It turns out he was normal or at least seemed to be.”

  Echo shifted around and ended up sprawling on his back. Ash and Matt both paused and watched while the drake adjusted himself before she continued. “I should have enlisted some help apparently since he was up to his old tricks but in secret. I was never around to catch it though.”

  “What did he end up doing?”

  “Turns out there was a hidden quest from the System. The betrayer quest as some called it. One of the people was actually a saboteur and worked against the city. I have no idea what they stood to gain from all of this but there must be something.”

  Matt thought back and instantly recalled Franklin mentioning something about it and it all came back to him. “Yeah… yeah, we had one of those.”

  Ash winced. “How bad was it?”

  “Hmm? Oh, not bad. The guy challenged me to an honor duel, and I killed him within a couple seconds.” Matt shrugged. “We didn’t even know about the betrayer quest until after the fact.”

  “Well, ours did not end that way, though I wish it did. Ethan waited until a critical moment in our event and ended up killing our tower lord. He even had his own men ready to take care of all the lieutenants that he didn’t already have on his side. We won our event but that was barely a footnote compared to the reign of terror that swept through the city after.

  “Lines were drawn, and factions formed within minutes. Us pilots wanted to stay out of it, but he was forcing us over to his side. I ended up making a plan with Hope to escape. In the dark of night, I retrieved her core and left the construct standing in the marshaling yard. I had hoped that it would delay them discovering me.”

  “Looks like it didn’t work.”

  “No, it partly did. But I was also on foot. He sent some of his hunters after me. They hitched rides on constructs until the machines couldn’t pass any farther. After that, it was a foot chase, and I was not suited for it.” She grimaced. “Traditionally my people did not do well with speed, only endurance.”

  “How long ago was that?” Matt asked.

  Ash thought for a moment. “I made my break for it on the first night, I assumed he would know my identity as soon as he took control of the city. Looks like I wasn’t far off. I estimate they were on to my ruse within a day or day and a half, judging by when I first noticed someone on my trail.”

  “Okay then. What are your plans?” Matt asked after a pause in the conversation.

  “What do you mean? I thought you said I could come to your city?” She asked, panic rising in her voice as she sat bolt upright.

  Matt held up his hand. “Relax, that’s not what I meant. I think I have the authority to extend that offer and even if I didn’t, I would make it happen.” She sat back a little but still looked wary of him. “What I meant was what are your plans to deal with Ethan and your old city?”

  “Oh…” She said in a small voice and her eyes darted around, looking everywhere but at Matt.

  “Do you want to just run away and put it behind you? Want to sneak back in and try to liberate some people? We could try and kill him now, but I don’t think that’s a great idea.” Matt offered some thoughts on the topic.

  “I think I need to get away and lick my wounds for now.” Ash said after a few minutes. “I want my revenge, but I don’t think rushing back into this is the best outcome. Besides, he likely has won full control of the tower and subjugated its people by now.”

  “Fine by me. I sa…” Matt was just about to tell her his plans when Van rumbled in his mind.

  Our vampiric friend is back. So far, it is staying well away from the fire out here.

  “Shit, there goes that idea.” He said out loud.

  “What! What’s happening?”

  “The last few nights we have had a vampiric cloud lurking around. Its honestly annoying more than actually hurtful to us. Turns out it hates fire.” Matt answered with a smirk.

  “That sounds absolutely awful.” Ash said.

  Matt didn’t disagree. He thought the monster was getting rather annoying and would probably deal with it sooner than later. He had a few thoughts on how he would go about that but that was for a later day.

  He told Ash what he knew about the thing and that they would hunker down for the night before leaving in the morning. Matt briefly mentioned that he had an idea on how to kill it but needed to try some things first.

  Ash looked rather relieved that they wouldn’t be traveling, and he told her to go ahead and get some sleep. He would keep watch with Echo and the 2 cores. Without a moment’s hesitation, she moved back to the sleeping pad, laid down and fell asleep.

  Matt noted that she curled into a ball after a little while. While he didn’t hear any crying, he knew the signs of emotional trauma very well after having had his fair share. It never really goes away, but the sharp edges eventually dull.