Delvers LLL - Book 2, Chapter 1

Jason was nervous.  He gaped at the ornate hallway of the Mirana Government Building, thinking it resembled a palace more than anything.  His friend
Henry was walking next to him and they both followed their friend Bezzi-ibbi,
his mother Henna-ibbi, and his birth mother Banna-ibbi.  Jason had no idea why two of Bezzi-ibbi’s mothers came with them and his father, Hajim-ibbi stayed behind.

Mo’hali customs and leadership roles were weird.  Every time Jason thought he had them figured out, he was proven wrong.

Everyone in their group was wearing fancy clothing.  Since Jason and Henry were adopted members of the Jaguar Clan, they wore the same fine robes of black and green that Bezi-ibbi and his mothers wore.  They all wore weapons if they wanted to as well.  Jason figured on a world where people could use magic, trying to control weapons would be fairly silly.

Of course, Mo’hali Heroes could suppress magic in an area, but only if
they were near the same strength as a mage or stronger, and Jason was beginning
to realize just how rare Heroes were. Jason snapped himself out of his wandering thoughts and began studying his opulent surroundings again.  His group was silent as they followed their guide. They were all still reeling from tragedy.

It had been two weeks since Henry discovered George Jacobs killed and the entire farming village slaughtered.  Since then,Since then, Mareen threw herself into providing the villagers proper burial,paying off their debts, and hiring investigators to discover who killed her grandfather and friends.  

So far they hadn’t gotten any new information back.  In fact, one highly recommended investigator had disappeared altogether.

Mareen even called in a favor at the Adventurers Guild, putting out a
notice that her grandfather, the late adventurer Thato Jacobs’ father had been
murdered.  A large number of adventurers were shocked and tried to help,
especially because it happened so close to the city.  The fact the murder
was actually part of a full-fledged massacre was not advertised, but some
adventurers found out anyway.

Truth be told, Jason was actually expecting to be summoned somewhere for
questioning.  He wasn’t entirely sure how law enforcement worked on Ludus
or in the country of Tolstey in particular, but a massacre right outside the
city definitely had to be of interest to somebody.  The night Henry and
Mareen discovered the carnage in Mareen’s old farming community, Aodh’s nearby
family, the O’Breen’s alerted the Guard.  Jason thought he would have to
answer questions with the Guard, not be summoned by Mirana’s governor.

Aodh and Mareen both were invited to the audience as well, attendance optional,
but neither of them chose to attend.  Mareen was buried in responsibility
but the way her eyes were puffy every morning made it obvious she cried each
night.  Henry looked haggard too, probably doing his best to comfort his
girlfriend while working through his own grief.  Jason felt heartbroken,
but at least he hadn’t seen George’s remains.

He could go without that memory in his head for the rest of his life.

Aodh hadn’t come out of his room much for the past week.  The boy
was listless.  Jason honestly didn’t know what to do to raise morale for
the members of their company, Delvers LLC.

After walking down multiple corridors that all looked the same to
Jason, they came to a heavy, metal bound door flanked by masked, spear-wielding
guards.  The guards were Mo’hali and Jason wondered if at least one was a
Hero.  Celine, their guide through the Government Building pushed open the
doors and ushered them inside before vanishing down the hall.

The room was not as opulent as the rest of the building, it was
actually fairly plain.  It looked like a generic family room on Earth with
the addition of a large desk in the corner and a solid looking table against
one wall.

Two people in cloaks were sitting on the vintage-looking Earth-style
couch to one side.  Two Guards in red uniforms stood at the end of the
room.  One, a young Terran man stood stiffly, eyes darting around.
 The other Guard, an Areva woman with dusky skin looked bored and picked
at her fingernails.

The last person in the room, a human woman with blond hair in her late
30’s sat at the head of the table.  She had sheathes of paperwork before
her and muttered as she flipped through a document.  She wore a white
halter dress with embroidered red flowers.  Her red fingernails tapped on
the table as she read.

It didn’t take Jason long to figure out the woman at the table was probably the
Governor of Mirana.  She was thin, with pale skin, an upturned nose, low
cheekbones, freckles, and a well-defined chin.  Her hair was gathered in a
bun on top of her head with two thin knives stuck through to keep it in place.
 An ornate staff leaned against the wall.  The fact it was white and
decorated with flowers declared who its owner was.

Jason decided the Governor looked like an irritated librarian wearing
knives as accessories.  The thought didn’t help his nerves.

Without looking up, the Governor said, “Right on time.  I appreciate
that, especially since nobody in this God-forsaken place has wristwatches.
 Do you know how hard it is to schedule anything around here when nobody
ever knows what time it is?

“The two Mirana Guards are Captain Haili and Lieutenant Boone.
 They have my full trust, and I believe one of you has met them already.”

Henry cleared his throat and waved, “Nice to see you again.”

Lieutenant Boone nodded.  Captain Haili continued to pick at her
fingernails.  Jason watched the scene with interest, especially the way
Bezzi-ibbi’s mothers said and did nothing.  In Mo’hali culture, the guards
were acting very rude.  This behavior would not be tolerated at the Jaguar
Clan house.  Jason was fascinated by how the Mo’hali women adapted to the
situation.  Of course, he realized Mo’hali merchant Families would have to
be skilled in multiple social settings or they would not be so influential and
successful.

The next exchange proved Jason still had a lot to learn.  The
Governor briefly glanced up before shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
 Her voice cracked out, “Henna-ibbi, you put those claws away right now!
 This is my house, and you are not allowed to go rampaging around because
someone hurt your feelings or insulted someone’s honor.  You want to show
honor?  Calm down.  

“Besides, Captain Haili is probably older than all of us in this room
put together so even by your own culture, she can act how she wants.  Not
only that, I had to beat her at chess on a bet just to get her to come here.
 You are not allowed to kill her.  Besides, she can probably kick
your ass.”

Jason was aghast but the Governor didn’t stop there.  “You there—boy,
Jason right?  Close your mouth or you might catch flies.  You just
came from Earth?  The US?  How much does gas cost now?
 Actually, never mind, I don’t want to know.

“You know, it actually makes it worse being stuck on Ludus when that
charlatan Dolos abducts new people.  Every time I hear about home it’s
like I just got trapped here all over again.  But you know the worst part?
  I had a husband once on this planet, and before he died, every
other woman was angry at me.  They thought I was selfish, that I was ‘hoarding’ him for myself.  I’m afraid to get married again or I might get run out of office.  This world is a hell hole.”

Captain Haili sighed and said, “You know, this is one reason I hate
coming to these things with you, Maryanne.  All you ever do is complain
about Ludus like somehow we’re not all stuck here too.  You moan about
missing electricity and ‘television’ like your primitive, awkward technology
can even compare to the Empire I left behind.  You should quit whining
before I stick my boot up your butt.”

“I could have you arrested.”

“I’m one of the people who does your arresting.  Act like a grownup
or I’ll douse you with water.”  Lieutenant Boone looked incredibly
uncomfortable as he stood next to his superior.

 “I’ll call you an elf,” the Governor’s nose twitched.

Captain Haili narrowed her eyes, “You.  Wouldn’t. Dare.”

Suddenly, the Governor grinned and stood up, putting her work
down.  “You’re right, I wouldn’t.  I suppose I should introduce myself.”

The Governor met the gaze of each member of Jason’s group, slowly placing
her hands on her hips as she faced them.  She effortlessly exuded self-confidence
and authority.  “My name is Governor Maryanne Holtz.  For now, you
may refer to me as Governor Holtz or ‘Madam.’

“I have been the Governor, the ruler of Mirana for over ten years local
time.  I came to Ludus in my mid 30s in 1965.  I was an art teacher.
 Now I’ve probably killed more people than the Boston Strangler.

“You probably noticed I’m looking pretty damn good for an old lady.
 Well, that’s because I’m an orb-Bonded.  True, I’m not wearing a
mask like the rest of you,” she gestured at the masked Jason, Henry, and
Bezzi-ibbi, “but you aren’t picking up my name or orb information over your
left eye.  This is because I know things you don’t.

“And this brings us to why I sent for you to come today.  You’ve
been conscripted.  Congratulations!  You just joined the Tolstey
Intelligence Agency.  I’ve taken the liberty of submitting a discreet
request to the Adventurers Guild and already let them know you took the
contract.  It’s quite lucrative, but unfortunately this means the Guild
will not be able to give you any more work or buy any dungeon treasure from you
so long as the contract is open.”

Henry managed to get a word in edgewise, “What are you--”

Governor Holtz talked right over him, “Hold your horses, young
man.  This will be easier for all of us
if you shut up and listen until I’m done.

“Where was I?  Ah, yes.  You’ve just been conscripted.  While I am the bearer of bad news, I was not the one who came up with this decision. That would be Queen Smrithi and she—“

“Is that her first name?” asked Henry. Jason mentally face palmed.

“Yes,” Governor Holtz answered slowly, not trying to hide her
irritation.

“If she goes by her first name, why did you tell us to call you by your
last name?  She’s your boss, right?”

“Young man, I sincerely hope I’m mistaken, but I have the feeling we
might not get along.  Your name is Henry, right?”  Henry nodded.  “Let me make this clear.  I am a terribly petty person with slow, but very potent temper.  If you interrupt me one more time, bad things will happen to you. Am I making myself clear?”  Henry nodded and Jason sincerely hoped his stony faced friend would shut the hell up.

From the back of the room, Captain Haili was chuckling softly and the
Governor ignored her.  “Okay, I’m going to skip some of the other things I was planning to say and get right to the heart of the matter since you seem like simple, I mean blunt folks.

“Tolstey is not a powerful country. In fact, we might be the least powerful country on this whole planet.  We have the weakest dungeons, the weakest
adventurers, the weakest army, and we just don’t have that many people.  However, most of the country is run by humans, Terrans, and we have a good relationship with Berber to the north.  They’re another Terran-run country. 

“The mountain range between our countries makes it unlikely they’ll
ever invade and we don’t have much for them to bother with here anyway.  It wouldn’t be worth the trouble.  The fact Berber keeps a nasty groups of
monsters from growing out of control and running amok in their country makes us
appreciate them staying right where they are too.

“Recently, someone has trying to attack our countries from within.  He have a suspicion who it could be, but we don’t know for sure.  And not knowing
things is bad.

“See, Tolstey may possibly be the weakest country on Ludus, but we have
an excellent Intelligence network.  We know about the war coming between Dolos and his rival.  We know all about your exploits and about Delvers
LLC, which I think is kind of a stupid name, by the way.  Then again, our adventuring group called ourselves, “Bedrock Stone Age Family.”

Captain Haili snorted, “I still don’t understand that reference.”

“That’s fine dear, you don’t have to. Don’t try thinking too hard, I’m sure there will be something for you to break sooner or later.”  The Governor
cleared her throat, “Anyway, the point is that we know most of what happens in
Tolstey and on Ludus in general.

“This means we know all about the massacre at Georgetown farm two weeks
ago and the murder of George Jacobs, one of our retired Intelligence agents.”

Jason was shocked.  George was a spy?  If that was the case, what was he
doing out in the middle of nowhere when they met him?  Then again, this explained the man’s uncommon knack for learning languages and writing everything down.  Mareen had all of George’s old books.  Maybe they could find some more clues about the man’s past life in them.

Governor Holtz rolled her eyes, “I can already see what you’re all
thinking.  You obviously didn’t hear me say, ‘retired.’  George served faithfully
and was no longer activated, in fact he quit when his son was murdered and he
began caring for his granddaughter. However, we keep tabs on our past operatives.  They tend to retire with secrets and we want to keep it that way.  You know, he actually sent me a note endorsing Delvers LLC, which was why I largely left you alone until now.

“Things change.  George was murdered and we have reason to believe it’s linked to the bandits you wiped out, the warehouse you burned down, and a few other things that have happened in Mirana and the capital of Tolstey, Taretha.

“Your exploits have proven that you’re fairly capable and more
importantly, you have history with these insurgents now.  Our friend from Berber,” she gestured at the larger cloaked figure sitting on the couch, “has asked for reinforcements.  Berber has its own problems.

“In fact, all of this is happening at the worst possible time.  There are three continents on Ludus, which is about half the size of Earth.  Right now,
our continent is experiencing a huge surge in monster activity within
Berber.  Another continent is at war, and the third and most dangerous we barely hear anything from.  Now we have a war of the gods in a few years
to prepare for, and on top of all that, we have this new problem.

“See, at first glance, all the assassination attempts, organized crime,
manufacturing of gunpowder, all these things seem like ham handed attempts by a
country across the ocean to weaken us. However, we may have bigger problems on our hands.

“You see, some of our best people have been gathering information on
the insurgents for a while.  Quite a few of them have disappeared.  However, we
learned something disturbing recently.  Some of these people were holding dark, religious ceremonies, some even involving human sacrifice. 

“We think they might be a cult worshipping a dark god.  What’s more, we’re not sure why they’re doing what they’re doing yet, but they could be trying to involve their god, a third player into Dolos’ pissing contest.

Henna-ibbi’s fur bristled, “Dark magic.”  She growled, the sound so low it made Jason’s eyeballs vibrate.  “Which god?  What does it look like?”

Captain Haili answered, “Asag.  A really nasty one.  His symbol is a
diagram-looking thing with crosses up top and circles on the bottom.  So far we just have confessions, though.  There’s nothing to actually verify that we’re
dealing with cultists and not insurgents.”

Governor Holtz nodded.  “Yes, but the symbol was drawn on the wall of George’s house in blood.  We still don’t have anything to tie the Georgetown massacre to any of the other occurrences, but someone drawing the symbol after the name was mentioned during an interrogation is concerning.

Suddenly, Henry stepped forward and placed a large coin on the
Governor’s desk.  When she saw it, she gasped.  “It looks like you have
verification now,” grated Henry.  “I found this on the body of a man we killed while escaping the gunpowder warehouse.  If these are the people who
killed George, tell me where they are and get out of my way.”

***

Hey all, sorry for any formatting issues here.  This is my first post like this and I need to figure out how to save my Word documents so the text doesn't go all over the place.

-BC