Under the Light of the World at War: Early Chapter 29

All of my skills wrapped up in a little screen. 

And it felt like it wasn’t enough.

Alah’Dorah

High Elf

Level 5 [310/500 XP]

Strength 21 +5

Agility 21 +1

Stamina 22 +2

Intellect 16 +71

Spirit 16 +17

Skills Known:

[Swords Lv 52 35/520] [Master] 

-[Parry Lv 40 65/400]

-[Dual Wielding Lv 2 7/20]

-[Mana Enhancement lv 26 65/260]

-[Weapon Specialization One handed-Sword Lv 16 52/160]

-[Precision Lv 4 25/40]

[Shields Lv. 50 432/500] [Master]

-[Block Lv 45 367/450]

-[Ambidextrous Lv 32 256/320]

-[Mana Block Lv 25 107/250]

-[Shield Bash Lv 16 3/160

-[Spell Reflect 1/10]

[Stealth Lv. 5 15/50]

[Bows Lv. 9 87/90]

[Arcane Meditation Lv 10 Skill Mastered] [Mastery Benefit Evocation Unlocked]

[Spell Refinement Lv 11 124/200] [Apprentice]

-[Arcane Focus Lv 6 12/60]

[Arcane Mind Lv 3 16/30]

Spells Known:

[Holy Light Lv. 8 15/80]

[Conjure Refreshment Lv 10 40/100] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

[Glyph Creation Lv 6 12/60]

[Mage Light Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Sunwell Compass Lv 10 Spell Mastered] +5 Spirit

[Timer Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Float Object Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Hair Styling Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Polishing Spell Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Banish Dust Spell Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Lock Spell Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Unlock Spell lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Generate Icecube Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Spell Steal Lv 6 1/60]

[Mage Hand Lv 4 19/40]

[Slow Poison Lv 2 7/20]

[Heat Water Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Create Tiny Fire Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Strength Surge Lv 10 Spell Mastered] [Mastery Benefit +5 Strength]

[Mage Armor Lv 10 1/100] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]

[Arcane Intellect Lv 10 16/100] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Intellect]

[Inkromancy Lv 7 7/70]

[Mana Bolt Lv 9 56/90]

[Silence 1/10]

[Evocation Lv 5 3/50]

[Arcane Arrow Lv 5 27/50]

Profession Known:
[Enchanting Lv. 29 137/290] [Journeyman]

-[Apprentice Enchanting: Reduce cost of Enchanting] 

-[Journeyman Enchanting: Minor improvement in enchantment power]

[Tailoring Lv. 9 30/90]

[Skinning Lv. 4 3/40]

[Fletching Lv. 2  19/20]

“Something wrong?” Mama asked, as she checked me over.

“No, just thinking.” I said and then brought my hands up with some of the warm water and swashed my face.

Mama patted my head. We were sharing a bathtub as the place only had one, and it wasn’t exactly easy to fill and heat water, even for us.

Back home we had a water heater, and stuff, but that was thanks to Papa and his enchanting. This Ranger tower didn’t carry that sort of amenities. 

Still it was fine. 

Mama’s hands running through my hair washing my hair was soothing, and frankly I could use soothing. 

Even if every time I felt relaxed, I would remember what was coming and itch to start grinding more.

“It’ll be a long walk tomorrow. So we should sleep soon.”

“Hmm? I thought we would take the Hawkstrider?”

“No, we would only use them in emergencies, otherwise they stay at the Ranger posts.”

“Ah… Poor Chocobo.”

“Cho-Co-What?”

“Her name. Chocobo.”

“Don’t get attached, Dorah, the Hawkstrider isn’t ours.”

“I know.” I said, but I didn’t know that. It’s not like anyone would notice!

Either way I rested back as Mama washed my hair, and we enjoyed the warm bath. Things would be getting harder soon.

—--

“Dorah, wake up.”

“Grmbl.” 

“Come on, wake up.” Mama’s voice was amused but insistent, so I opened my eyes. 

“Wha?”

“Come on, breakfast is ready, we’re leaving soon.”

I nodded and rose up yawning widely as I did. I stretched and rose up, taking a few moments to take off the not really warm enough blanket and grabbing my stuff. I blinked as I caught myself in a mirror and realized the entire right half of my hair was sticking straight up. 

Ugh. I hadn’t completely dried my hair before going to sleep and now look at me!

I hit the bathroom and with a bit of struggle used some water and my fingers to order my hair and by then I was awake enough.

Breakfast was a quick affair, and then to my surprise instead of heading out of the tower towards Home, Mama took us to the Stable.

“Mama?”

“I got a response back this morning, we’re going to another ranger station today, before we head home. So we’re taking the Hawkstrider.”

“Chocobo will be grumpy.” I said and Mama just snorted. Soon we had gotten Chocobo to stand up, and put a saddle on her, and we were off once again.

Considering we would be traveling for a while I focused once more on my grinding.

The first cast of Holy Light, nearly knocking me out with how much it drained me before I remembered I needed to be utterly sure of what I was doing, I took a breath reminding myself of just what was at stake. 

The next cast was more reasonable, but still expensive.

I’d work on it.

—--

The journey took most of the day, and I happily used that time to keep grinding. 

Chocobo kept us jogging down the dirt roads deeper into our territory, and as we went I saw more signs of High Elves.

Fences, or sign posts, even a few lamps that would turn on at night to help light the path for travelers. We passed a few smaller private towers, the sort of place a family might keep for retreats and things.

It was all very pretty.

And every time I saw something I trained harder. Because it would be gone soon. Every sight was a reminder that everything was going to be burned down by the Trolls. I had to prepare, to help protect as many people as I could.

Holy Light, Conjure water, Evocation when I could, over and over. Mama kept shooting me glances, as obviously what I was doing was fairly weird, but there really was nothing else to do.

Holy Light was slow to raise, but finally hours after we set off, I got the level up.

[Holy Light Lv. 9 1/90]

I exhaled and slumped against Mama’s back. Okay. Take a break. I felt tired and exhausted, and falling off Chocobo would suck.

I ended up taking a real break for a while. Just resting against Mama, as we traveled along, watching as the forest around us changed, seemingly growing even brighter and brighter.

“There it is.”

Mama called out, and I looked up, seeing not a village but a town.

Instead of a dozen buildings, it was a long road going through the center, which spread out like spider webs to a few dozen additional roads, and buildings of all sorts flowed around them.

“What’s here?”

“A main Ranger station.” Mama said simply, without giving any additional detail which was little odd.

Either way, the roads were more full than I was used to, but there wasn’t any issue for Chocobo to flow through and reach a much nicer Ranger tower than I’d seen before. 

We stabled Chocobo who seemed very happy to eat and rest despite my healing over the course of the day. 

Mama led me into the tower, a runner having stopped us as we arrived and so we didn’t wait long. The moment we were brought in, we were taken up to a high room that looked like a sort of war room. A map of Quel’Thelas was on the table, or should I say the table was the map, and markers and little flags and things were strewn across it.

“Felomin.” The man that stood at the table looking over everything gave Mama a stern look as she entered. “Your message, repeat it.” He demanded, without a moment's wait. 

Mama did just that. Walking over and pointing at the map.

“I was informed of some odd herd movements of the deer population. I started tracking them from Eastern Outpost 4, up and further east. I didn’t catch up to them until around here.” She pointed and the stern Rangers eyebrows which shot off the sides of his face like most High Elves, wiggled as his brow curled into a look of anger.

“Continue.”

“When I finally caught up, the population of the Deer herd was in the hundreds. Two, maybe three.”

“What?” One of the other Rangers in the room, a woman, that had been listening in blurted out shocked. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“It is within expectations.” The first man said and then looked at Mama to continue.

“There was a Wolf pack. They attacked the herd, and… Out of a fog bank that wasn’t there a moment before a stag appeared, dispatching the wolves… A Troll Spirit.”

“Ah, one of those. Not the first time they’ve tried to cause trouble.”

“This one ignored my arrows like they were pin pricks, could tear apart trees in a charge like paper, and shot magic that shattered the tree tops.” Mama said bluntly and the woman who had seemed confident at understanding what was going on, shifted her smile into a frown.

“You’re joking.”

“No. Dorah, come here.” Mama called, and I walked over. And with a bit of work Mama took the Antlers off my back and dropped them onto the table. “Those are the Antlers, I’ve seen Troll Spirits before. I’ve slain them without any problems. This one nearly killed me, and my daughter.” Mama whispered, dropping a hand heavily onto my shoulder.

“That’s impossible! The Trolls' magic doesn’t work here!”

“It matches with other reports… Reports from rangers that did not return.” The man spoke and everyone went quiet.

“How many?”

“Four, perhaps five. Reports of odd movements, or happenings have surged over the last few days. You are the first to return with an actual report.”

“That’s… If… If it had just been me, I’d be dead, and it would have moved on, my arrows did nothing to its hide.” Mama pulled off her own back and with a moment dropped the massive hide folded in her back onto the table.

“You skinned it?”

“I did. It would have been a waste not to.”

“Indeed.” The man said looking pleased as he reached out and checked the hide, and frowning at what he was feeling.

“A knife?”

“Go ahead, it won’t go through.” Mama said instantly, and the man did just that while everyone watched. He brought a knife to it, and could barely get it to go through.

Yeah, skinning the thing had been a pain. If Mama’s knives weren’t super enchanted from Papa, it wouldn’t have worked. My own knife had been mostly useless, so I’d stuck to cutting muscle and tendon to peel the skin back rather than cutting the hide.

“Let me try.” The woman demanded, pushing off and pulling her own knife, and as she tried to cut and stab through it her face shifted to one of serious concern. “This is impossible the Trolls silly little spirits aren’t this strong.”

“They can be. When the Trolls sacrifice enough to them.” The man said and looked around the room. “Do you understand now?”

“We need to gather the Rangers, and hunt these creatures down. We can’t allow something like this to wander our land.”

“Fool, we need more than that. We should inform the Convocation. We can get the Magisters involved to stamp out this Troll nonsense.”

“The Magisters won’t do anything.” Another Ranger spoke up, a man with a shock of red hair. He glared out the window. “They will just tell us to deal with it.”

“Enough.” The man spoke, cutting through the chatter. “We will send a message to the Conclave to inform them about the situation, and we will gather some of the elite Rangers together to hunt these beasts down. I’ll send a message to Windrunner myself.”

“Well I’ve hunted Troll Spirits before, I guess I’ll add another to my list.” The woman finally said, acting confident, and Mama just shook her head. 

“Be careful. Regular arrows did nothing. I had to use Arcane Arrows to do anything to it, and even then it was just luck.”

“Oh? Little Felomin learned Arcane Arrows? When did that happen?” The woman asked, and Mama frowned, obviously irritated at being called little.

“I didn’t. Dorah did, I used hers, at the end, we were out of arrows.”

The room went silent, and looked at me.

The woman Ranger bent down, head tilted sideways to look me over, but it was the main Ranger, the boss I guess who now had his eyes locked on me

“Yeah? You learned Arcane Arrows huh? Felomin’s little girl did that?”

“Are you exaggerating?” the other man called, but it was the first one whose eyes never left mine that finally spoke and cut through the chatter.

“Truly?”

I just shrugged. I didn’t know these people, and everyone looking at me was annoying.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s still what happened. Only someone that can make Arcane Arrows should go, or those with heavily enchanted arrows.”

“I’ll ensure only those are sent.” The man spoke, taking his eyes off me finally. “Anything else?”

“No.”

“Then you are dismissed. We will talk before you leave.”

“Understood.” Mama said, giving him a ranger salute, and then turning and tugging me away… But the Stag loot! We can’t just leave it!

Aww. 

I followed Mama out of the room and down a floor into what looked like a sort of rest area for the Rangers, although it was empty.

Mama walked almost robotically, stopping at a cabinet and grabbing a pair of cups and some plates, and then stopping at a fridge to get some food, pulling it all free as she prepared a meal for us.

I just took a seat as Mama was acting weird.

“Everything okay?” I finally asked, as she sat down and placed a plate of what looked like fancy Elf rations in front of me.

“Yes Dorah, everything is fine. Sorry.” Mama replied, sounding like she was fine, but not really sounding like it.

She was trying too hard.

But instead of grilling her I just ate the meal for a while before finally speaking, deciding to change the subject.

“So… Are we going home?”

“Yeah, probably in the morning we’ll start heading home, shouldn’t take more than a few days if we use the roads.”

“Could be faster if we took Chocobo.” I said idly, as if it was no big deal.

Mama just sent me a look, and I did my best to pretend I didn’t see it. “The Hawkstrider is a Rangers mount, we aren’t keeping it.”

“I didn’t say anything about keeping it Mama, that's weird, you shouldn’t try and take the Chocobo like that.” I countered, pretending to be disappointed in her. “I’m just saying we use it on the way home, to get home sooner.”

“Mhmm.” She hummed flatly, not impressed by my attempts.

The door opened before we could continue and the Ranger guy entered, his face looking over everything in a single sweep before moving with almost predatory grace as he approached the table we’d settled on.

“Felomin.”

Mama rose to her feet although she didn’t salute, just looking the Ranger in the eyes. 

“Captain.”

“I am not here as Ranger Captain. I would speak with you on personal matters.”

“Then we have nothing to speak of.” Was the instant reply.

“Felomin.” He said sternly, but Mama wasn’t listening.

“If that is all Ranger Captain?” Mama said flatly, and I felt my eyes rise, ooookay?

“It is not. Your mother-”

“Has said her words, and I mine.”

“Wishes to speak with you. You will see her.” He continued like Mama hadn’t spoken, and added with a stern demand.

“No.” 

I watched on like this was a tennis match because Ooooh no. Something big was happening.

“You would refuse me in this as well? Have you not caused her enough pain?”

“No more than she deserved for her words. She made her opinion known.”

“Must you always argue?”

“Yes.”

He glared, and turned to me, and I watched Mama restrain herself.

She was half way about to punch him.

“So this is Alah’Dorah.”

“Who you have no business with. What were the words you used?”

“You would speak of my heated words in front of the girl. Look, she doesn’t even understand.”

“She understands I don’t like you and that’s enough.”

“Introduce us.” He demanded, carrying the energy of a man used to getting his way.

“No.”

He glared at Mama for a moment and looked at me again.

“I am La’Lomin Dawnspear. I am your grandfather.”

“Hardly.” Mama snapped, and the man ignored her. The man that was Mama’s father? Was that what I just picked up? Oh man.

I just stared at him for a while and took all of this in. Before nodding. 

“Nice to meet you.” I decided to say, being polite about it and he nodded.

“I’ve heard you earned your Ranger Apprenticeship? Falomin told me about your skill with a sword as well.”

“Oh yeah, heh, she didn’t expect that.”

“And you are capable of Arcane Arrow?” He asked, a bit more intensely than before.

“Yeeeah?” My words came out long, and then he smiled, a smirk more than a smile, but still looking pleased.

“Impressive for one so young, your mother was unable to learn the skill.”

“I was fifteen, when you expected me to learn it. I was a kid.”

“Your daughter-”

“Dorah, is a ge- None of your concern. We’ll be going in the morning, and you won’t be seeing her again. Just like you asked.”

“That is not what I said. Do not speak words I did not.”

“I married him. And I’m happy, and I will always be happy, and you said you would not want me in your life again.”

“Your choices impacted more than just yourself. I warned you.”

“I would do it again. A million times.”

He looked angry at her words as Mama was nearly face to face with him. My Grandfather, glaring into his eyes as if daring him to speak.

“Calm yourself.”

“Don’t tell me what to do. I’m not your child anymore.”

“You will always be my child, and she my child as well.” He spoke pointing at me.

“She isn’t yours.”

“She carries my family name. You chose poorly for your spouse, she will always bear the same shame of what he did, and that has spread to us all! But at least she has shown true.”

“She isn’t yours. We’re leaving.”

“Felomin!”

“Don’t even think about it!” Mama growled, as he looked like he was going to grab her. “I will never forgive the words you told me that day! Don’t think time will ease what you said! You never speak without meaning it, every word is chosen carefully, so I always know the words you speak are what you really mean. So don’t forget, Captain. I know how you truly feel about me.”

“You do me too much credit.” 

“Captain!” The call came from outside the room and both of the adults went silent, I just watched on, the little kid watching an argument awkwardly wishing I was anywhere else.

“I am busy.” He spoke gruffly and loudly enough for his voice to carry, but I could hear running and the Ranger woman from before entered. 

“Captain! Emergency messages! Birds coming from multiple villages! Troll attack!”

“We load up immediately. Gather everyone, Felomin, you as well.” He ordered, and Mama didn’t argue, throwing him a salute.

Oh… Oh no.

My heart dropped in my chest, that could only mean… The Troll Wars had begun.