Chapter Twenty-Three: Reunion

Chapter Twenty-Three: Reunion

Rosa slumped in her seat, arms crossed, trying her hardest to manifest the Ideal of Scowling.

“Oh, Rooosiee, you didn’t!” her sister Talia screeched.

Tom was regaling them with a story about Rosa. She had gotten overly cross with him at one point while they were fighting the guerilla war. In a temper, she had sent a bar of fire into the woods that broke loose a branch -which then promptly bonked her on the head.

Tom had, by using some superhuman reserve of strength and wisdom he did not know he possessed, managed not to laugh. At the time. Now that all of her family were laughing uproariously with him, it was not so bad. He had a feeling he might pay for it later though.

Rosa tried to interject, “Well one time Tom set up his bedroll on a dried boar turd!”

Her family went quiet. “Rosa!” her mother chided. “This is uncharitable! He rescued you from orcs! That is no way to talk about your handsome saviour!”

Rosa threw her hands up in exasperation, her cheeks colouring. Although, to be fair, they were already fairly red from all the wine.

They had gone straight to the Raventos’ Horizon property from the market. They had sat down and discussed events at Wayrest since the Raventos’ had left. The Raventos’ were astounded at the changes, listening with rapt attention.

They could have talked for hours and hours more, but hunger asserted itself. They had an enormous dinner, which the travellers were all very grateful for, and then Lord Raventos disappeared to the cellar and returned with an armful of wine.

Then the real talk began.

Initially, Tom had been grilled by the four women, which caused Rosa to bristle, which caused her sisters and mother to jump in on her, which in turn caused Tom to defend Rosa.

It had been a lengthy battle, which Tanya watched with great amusement, her head swivelling back and forth at the repartee and laughing uproariously as she drank more wine. Markus watched, seemingly vaguely bewildered that Tom was not being torn to pieces.

After several exhausting rounds of this, the women seemed to come to collectively decide that they liked Tom, and began to leverage all their combined efforts towards hassling Rosa goodnaturedly. Mostly.

Tom had to admit that the atmosphere felt nice. Family dinners, or any kind of social occasion with his family, were tense, to say the least. The easy enjoyment of each other’s company the Raventos’ had was not something Tom was familiar with.

The Raventos’ made him feel welcome in the same way the Deep did. They tested him, but once they found him worthy, he was accepted wholeheartedly. Further testing was a guarantee, but none of it was malicious. They were simply trying to show him their shared family culture.

Eventually, Tanya fell asleep on the couch and Markus carried her to her bed. Soon after, he begged off to sleep himself, citing tiredness from the journey.

Rosa was swaying in her seat, but was keen to keep going, and she would have, if her three sisters had not dragged her off to bed. Conveniently, that left Tom awake with Lord and Lady Raventos.

The sitting room emptied, and the sounds of Rosa’s drunken protesting and her sisters’ drunken shrieks echoed down the hallway. Lord and Lady Raventos, heads of one of the most powerful families in Wayrest, turned their attention to him.

“Rosa has done well for herself,” Lady Raventos said. She let the statement hang.

“She’s come a long way as a person and an Idealist since the Academy,” Tom replied. “She has been through a lot.”

Lady Raventos favoured him with a smile. “She has. And you have been there for her to support her.”

“It’s nothing,” Tom said, with feeling. “I would do it all again a hundred times over. It would have been unfair of me to ask her to sit out safely when I risk myself. All I can do is have her back every step of the way.”

Lady Raventos stared deep into his eyes for what felt like an eternity. Then her mouth widened into a broad smile. The corners of her eyes crinkled. “Oh, he is a good one, Rocco.” She patted her husband on the knee. “I am tired, and I am sure we will be hiking up to the Monastery tomorrow. Good night, you two.”

Lord Raventos smiled at his wife. “Good night, Lady Raventos,” Tom said.

“Please, that is Camila to you, Tom.” She swept away up the hallway.

Lord Raventos chuckled. “You can call me Rocco also, Tom.” He thumbed his chin for a moment. “You acquitted yourself well tonight. None of Rosa’s sisters have yet found anyone who will make it through such a gauntlet.”

Tom’s answer came without thought. “I would do anything for her.”

Rocco’s smile deepened. “I can see that. You two are good for each other, I am thinking.” He grew serious.

“I am not sure how to put this…” he began. “I knew Lord Cutter for many years in my time at Wayrest. We worked together on several projects for the Council, and we attended countless sessions together. I did not find him to be a …pleasant man.” He paused. “I admit, I was wary upon seeing you with Rosa. But you are seeming to me to be a good man, Tom Cutter, in spite of him. Know this- you will always have a place with us. We may live in Wayrest, but we are Horizon-blooded. We do not care if you carry Suffering. Raventos welcomes you with open arms.”

Tom felt his throat grow close. He tried to smile at Rocco and felt tears threaten him. Rocco noticed, and graciously moved the conversation onwards.

“Now, we do have much to discuss. In the morning, we will receive a summons to the Monastery.”

Tom frowned. “The Monastery? The guards at the gate passed our message to the king. I wouldn’t want to offend him by making him wait.”

Rocco waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, the king will be there also.” Tom’s brow creased in confusion. Seeing this, Rocco explained. “The king is not the true power here. The king runs Horizon, but he is a bureaucrat with a title to keep him happy. The abbot and abbess of the Bloody Dawn are the true power.”

Tom nodded. “Okay. Do you know why they decided not to send aid to Wayrest? Did they not believe the news?”

“Yes. But no, this is not the reason why. The monks are not stupid, and they are more than happy to be killing beasts like orcs. No, their infestation here had already started. They need to put their own house in order first.”

Tom frowned again, doing the maths in his head. “But, that would mean their infection started at nearly the same time ours did. How are they not under siege already?”

Rocco shrugged. “I do not know. The monks are keeping news of this all close to their chests. I do know that they have sent several forces out. Much smaller ones have returned. Much smaller.”

Tom grunted. Thoughts raced through his head. The orcs at Wayrest had been prolific, and even worse, they were insidious. They had used Pride as a weapon, lulling Wayrest into a sense of false security until it was too late.

Here, it seemed the orcs were baiting the Monastery into overconfidence. Tom could imagine the likely result of a battalion of warrior-monks stumbling onto a proper army of orcs with their strange auras. They would quickly become pinned down and unable to defend themselves properly, let alone escape, unless they had niche skills or equipment.

Did they not try to scout the enemy? Surely they must have. Why were they waiting so long to mount a response? And why were the orcs not already at the gates? If they bred anywhere near as fast as the ones at Wayrest, there must be an enormous army in the Grounds.

He shook his head. He was clearly missing information, but he could do nothing for the moment. Tomorrow he would have his chance.

“What advice can you give me for treating with the abbot and abbess?” he asked.

“Come to them as a warrior,” Rocco answered simply. “It is the only way they will respect you. Be direct. Be strong. Remember, they are not like the Council back home. Not at all.”

Tom nodded slowly. The monks sounded much more pragmatic than the Council. Perhaps this would be easier than he thought.

General Steel and the council had sent them with two objectives. First, they were to find out the situation in Horizon. That included finding out why they had not sent aid to Wayrest. It was critical for their own defence to know whether or not the orcs had spread this far already, whether the Wayrest infestation had potentially started here originally, and a number of other reasons.

The second objective was to find out whether Horizon required any aid. Many in the Council had balked at this, but General Steel refused to be so petty. Horizon could have any number of reasons for not responding to Wayrest’s call, and he refused to rule out helping them regardless.

They had broken the siege at Wayrest and scattered the orc army into the Deep. The majority of the orcs had been killed. Now, they needed to hunt down and kill every last orc remaining lest the infection flare up once again.

It was not a situation they could simply throw an army at, not in the Deep. They needed small, mobile, flexible parties of Idealists to track down and exterminate the scattered bands of orcs. It was the perfect job for the newly reformed Hunters.

Overall, they needed to reestablish some sort of defensive pact. They had not known there would be a second infection in the Proving Grounds, but they had expected the worst when they heard no word from their neighbours.

Knowing there was a second infestation here, it would be the perfect place to send the Guards. The large, open spaces in the Grounds would be well-suited to their large-unit tactics, and they were already seasoned at fighting orcs. They just had to convince the monks to let them help. They could apparently be prickly when it came to destroying mana-beasts.

If they could help them, they could hopefully gain their aid in return. Chasing down stragglers in the Grounds would be far easier. Given the terrain, Idealists with flying familiars or familiar mounts would make short work of them. It would then free the monks to help exterminate the orcs in the Deep. The warrior-monks trained almost exclusively in groups of four or less and were well used to fighting various mana-beasts. They would be perfect for hunting orcs through the Deep.

If they could get them to agree to help each other.

Tom and Rocco talked quietly for a while longer. They discussed the Monastery, and Horizon at large, and Wayrest, and Tom’s time in the Hunters. They talked about Rosa, and Camila, and the women’s shared fiery dispositions.

Tom discovered Rocco had a bear familiar too, under his Ideal of Sacrifice. The Ideal had been his third, manifested when he and Camila had their eldest daughter, Lora. It apparently encapsulated the concepts of sacrificing for his family, and the great brown bear had a ridiculously sturdy constitution, and could allocate damage to itself for Rocco or any of his party members.

He promised to summon him in the morning to let him meet Sesame. Tom agreed that it was a wise idea. Sesame was liable to get rambunctious meeting another bear familiar, and everyone was sleeping just down the hall.

Eventually, their conversation trailed off, and Rocco led him to his room before bidding him goodnight. There he found a very drunk Rosa completely naked and tangled in her bedsheets.

She stirred as he climbed into bed. “Fuck you, Tom Cutter. Of course my family loves you,” she slurred at him. Then, more quietly, she said, “I am glad, though. I knew they would. Goodnight, my love.”

“And you, my love. Sweet dreams.”

And Tom fell into a deep, blissful sleep, feeling not just safe, but whole.