Riftside 3 - Chapter 18

After bidding Edwin and Pa goodbye, leaving the commander to negotiate with Ma, the greatest challenge he’d faced since the Hive Mind attacked during our duel with Serona, I headed towards the west side of Dawnwatch. 

On the open plot of land west of the lumberyard, the Central Command caravan had drawn to a halt. It was no longer a train of wagons, but had turned into a sprawling and chaotic gathering. Guardsmen in dusty uniforms walked in pairs. Merchants hawked exotic goods from other Rifts, with some clearly here only for a visit, while others were unloading as if arriving to stay.

I walked through the crowd, looking down at all the new faces. Each new family unloading their belongings was a victory, another sign that Dawnwatch had grown into a town worth living in, not just one people visited. Each new adventurer was another body to stand against the Hive Mind and its monsters, and from the looks of it, there were at least a few full parties worth of newcomers. 

I spotted Eryn near the edge of the organized chaos. She wasn’t watching the soldiers or the merchants, but a young family struggling to unhitch a stubborn mule from a cart piled high with everything they owned. Two small children, a boy and a girl, chased each other around the cart, their laughter a pure, untarnished sound of freedom after long periods stuck on the road. 

I walked to stand beside Eryn, my hand finding hers.

“Look at them,” she murmured, her voice soft. “They have no idea what they’ve come to find.”

“Or maybe they know exactly what they’ve left behind,” I countered, squeezing her hand. “This is their chance for a better life. Just look at what you and I have accomplished here.”

She squeezed my hands and gave me a nod as I led her in among the wagons. 

A merchant with a voice like gravel tried to sell me a vial of shimmering, viscous liquid he claimed was ‘Steel Wyrm’s Tears,’ guaranteed to grant a man vigor for a week. 

“Think I need it with a girl like this?” I asked, making the man laugh and Eryn playfully slapping my shoulder.

Harold and Isadora were both there, talking to adventurers, working to convince them to bring the carcasses to them, and not the other. Most seemed to be alone, having travelled here to find work or simply to get away from wherever they came from. A few looked like they came in pairs. That was always a good sign.

I looked for Mara, but she was nowhere to see. 

“At least one new trio,” Eryn said, nodding to a tank, archer, and healer standing close together. “Can be the core of a solid full party.”

We both remembered the loose coalition of solo adventurers Benedict had cobbled together for the raid on the Metal Grove and how it had cost Marcus his life, and nearly ours too. 

“Lots of new lives to protect,” Eryn continued. 

“And more backs to help carry the weight,” I replied. 

She nodded, a flicker of a smile on her lips. 

“And now,” I said, turning with her to leave the throng behind.” I think it’s time we go celebrate how fifteen backs of Dawnwatche’s best proved too much for the Steel Scrambler!”

The Timberline had recovered from the funeral somber during our previous visit, and we could hear the celebration from two streets away. 

I opened the door for Eryn and the smells of roasting meat and ale spilled out together with a lively, thumping jig. It was the same silver-haired woman from the funeral who played, but this time the tunes were fit for drinking and fighting, not for grieving.

Johan spotted us the moment we walked in. 

“Hah! The heroes of the hour!” he boomed, his voice echoing over the din. He pointed with the four tankards he held in one hand towards our usual corner, where an extra table had been dragged over to accommodate our raid party. 

Fresh, frothing mugs of ale were already waiting for us, together with Knut, Nabeeh, Nina, and Felix. 

“Drinks on the house!” Johan said. “Saviors of my life!”

A while later, nearly our entire raid had assembled, with Shay’s entire crew, the self-styled ‘Council of Earth, Wind, and Fire’, with a recovering Garret, and a cocky Wade in tow. Only Lan was missing. 

I pushed myself to my feet. 

“Johan!” I called out, my voice cutting through the chatter. The innkeeper paused, an eyebrow raised. “A round for my raid, on me!”

“Coming up!” Johan said. 

“And I’m paying for it!” I added. 

“Not on your life!” he called back, but after he and his new help, a blonde woman with arms strong enough to carry a veritable ocean of ale in one go, arrived with the fourteen tankards, I pushed a gold coin into his hand, closing his fist around it. 

“It loses its meaning if I don’t pay,” I said.

“Fine,” he said, slowly nodding and pocketing the coin, “But I’m bringing out a pie for your warhammer. On the house.”

After he left, I looked around at the thirteen faces, and smiled. 

“Thank you for trusting in me when even the guild officials didn’t. Here’s to a successful hunt and to everyone…” I looked at Garret and winked, “Returning in one piece!”

He groaned demonstrably, but joined the others in cheering, ensuring we splash the table with copious amounts of ale. 

Then we drank.

Then Johan brought out a steaming meat pie, but instead of placing it down, he turned to the rest of the tavern. 

“Let’s hear it for Ash and the slayers of the Steel Scrambler!”

A thunderous cheer shook the tavern and its rafters, then he plopped the pie down. 

I expected him to leave, but instead he started a slow chant. 

“War hammer! War hammer! War hammer!” he cheered, clapping and stomping a leg. 

Eryn clapped delightedly and threw her head back, laughing. 

Knut and Nabeeh joined in the chant. 

“War hammer!” they said, and soon the entire tavern cheered. 

“Fine!” I said, standing and swiping Roq out, holding him up above my head. 

“War hammer!” they chanted.

“Uhm…” Roq said. “What exactly is going on?”

“They request the king’s presence. The king of pies, that is.”

“Oh!” Roq said. “Intelligence among the bipeds. About bloody time!”

I turned him upside down, and slowly lowered his head down towards the pie. 

“Me! Me! Me!” Roq chanted in unison with the tavern.

Then I let go, and he crashed through the crust, splattering meat sauce onto the table.

“War! Hammer!” they all cheered, clapping loudly. 

As Roq started munching on the pie, I just shook my head at how weird my life had become. Even worse, people just accepted it wholeheartedly.

Time to spread the weirdness.

“Johan!” I said, walking to the center of the tavern. “We brought you something. A little something to go with that Steel Scuttler you have over the bar.”

He raised his eyebrows. 

“For me?”

I touched my wrist, and paused, waiting for the tavern to quiet. Then I pulled out one of the Scrambler’s massive, severed eye-stalks and smacked its bottom onto the floor with a crack. It was longer than my arm, and the multifaceted eye at its tip looked like the world’s largest jewel. 

A collective gasp went through the room.

“Should see rest of monster!” Knut roared from our table. “Bigger than Northman’s… appetite!”

I handed the grotesque trophy to Johan. 

“We thought it might look good next to its smaller cousin,” I said.

Johan ran a reverent hand over the eye. 

“Ash… this is… By the bells, this is why I bought this place. I simply can’t do what you do, slaying monsters like this. But damned if I’m not grateful you do my job for me!” 

He hefted the eye-stalk like a war trophy and once more the tavern roared its approval.

Then the celebration began in earnest. 

Wade cornered a table of newly-arrived female adventurers, loudly recounting his “heroic bait” maneuver, a tale that now involved him single-handedly slaying about two dozen Scuttlers while running backwards. Garret, though moving gingerly, was laughing with Shay, while the ‘Council of Mages’ debated the finer points of elemental synergy.

I sat by the wall, my party around me. 

Amid the noise, Knut leaned in and squeezed my shoulder. 

“Good hunt,” he rumbled, taking a deep pull of his ale. “Felt good to swing axe. Katherine says she has… new ideas for my shoulder.” 

He gave me a slow, deliberate wink.

I just shook my head and laughed, glad to see my brother so content.

“I love seeing them all like this,” Eryn said, smiling as she watched the celebrating adventurers. “So alive and happy.”

“Give it an hour,” Nabeeh snorted, sipping a glass of wine. “They’ll be arm-wrestling, playing Rift Hunt blindfolded, or trying to get me to light their damn farts on fire. Still,” she conceded with a faint smile, “It beats digging graves.”

“By the bells, yes,” I said. “Hey, Shay. What’s next for you all?”

“We’ll do a few lower-risk hunts to get Nina more comfortable,” Shay said. “Make sure we do more sustained damage next time you call on us.”

“We’ve put in for some guard duty,” Jeff said. “To give our tank some time to fully recover. But we’d appreciate a spot in any future raid.”

“What about you?” Jessica asked. 

“The next step is obvious!” Roq said, his voice sounding slightly… off, as if he was talking around a mouthful of pie. “We must hunt a beast of even greater stature! That crab was but an appetizer! I require a main course worthy of a king! And more pie! The healer’s wife makes an acceptable lemon pie, but I feel culinary exploration is in order!”

“More big beasts,” Knut said, and I nodded.

“So, if any of you see something, let us know,” Nabeeh said, and they all agreed. 

“Why are you not telling them what you found in the Scrambler,” Roq suddenly asked, and my party looked at me. 

“We’ll wait until we’re with the full party,” I said, not wanting to discuss our find without our newest member. Lan was enough of an outsider already without me pushing her away. Knut and Nabeeh shrugged, but Eryn gave me a curious, questioning look. 

I was about to offer her a smile when the tavern door swung open, letting in a gust of cold night air that seemed to silence the room.

Mara Fen stood in the doorway.

Her face was a mask of stone, and her gaze swept the room, dismissive of the others, only to land directly on our table. 

The bard’s music faltered and the lively chatter died to a murmur as she moved, wondering why she was here, looking as she did.

“Are you here to drink or fight?” Roq asked.

She ignored him, just stopping at our table, her shadow falling over us. 

She didn’t speak, her eyes locking with mine in a silent challenge. 

“Kissie kissie? Isn’t she a bit too old for you? Wait, you already have a biped mate so that’s definitely not it.”

I met her gaze and raised my tankard in a mock toast.

She ignored it.

With a slow motion, she touched her spatial storage. The low murmur of the tavern died completely. With sharp clicks, she placed two Class Gems on the table in front of me.

“Oh!” Roq said. “Goodies!”

One was a fiery, blood-red Warrior Gem, The other, a cool, deep forest-green Ranger Gem. 

It was a near impossible treasure. A prince’s ransom on a beer-stained table. 

How the times have changed.

Mara gave me a slow, deliberate wink, a secret shared and a debt paid.

Then, without a single word of explanation, she turned and walked away. The tavern door closed behind her, leaving a wake of stunned, absolute silence.

For a long moment, no one moved. No one breathed. 

Shay, Jeff, Nina, and the others stared at the gems as if they were live Glowcaps, their jaws slack. Even Nabeeh, Knut, and Eryn sat still, as if afraid any movement would make our treasures disappear. 

Then, a wave of whispers and exclamations rippled through the tavern as other adventurers craned their necks, rising from their seats to get a better look.

Jeff was the first to find his voice, his tone a hushed blend of awe and confusion. 

“Ash… What in the name of the shattered Rift was that? An Official of Central Command just… delivered two Class Gems to your table like Johan bringing a round of drinks?”

I let the question hang in the air, a slow, confident grin spreading across my face as I calmly swiped my right glove out of my spatial storage and pulled it on. My fingers, now protected, closed over the warm, pulsing Warrior Gem, and I swiped it into my storage.

For my breakthrough.

Next, I picked up the Ranger Gem, holding it up and letting it catch the flickering firelight. 

For Arclight or Eryn.

Then I looked around at the stunned, incredulous faces of every adventurer in the room, and with all the mystique I could muster, I let my grin widen.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”