A Soldier's Life - 476 - Hearseeker's Legacy (edited 10-30-25 +150 words)

Chapter 476: Hearseeker's Heir

“You are not going to help?” Alhar asked, his eyes focused on the struggling hill giant. We had been sure it was dead, as it wasn’t breathing when we viewed it through Evie’s spell form.

“I already killed six, and besides, it’s barely able to walk,” I said as the next essence started to form. The giant had some time to reach us, and I would help the elf if he needed it.

Alhar’s eyes passed over the bisected hill giant and the other corpses I had created. A major strength essence formed from the first giant I had killed. Maybe the lone female would give something different. I moved to harvest it, but realized Alhar had disappeared, leaving me the only target for the approaching giant.

It was taller and wider than any of the others, and I judged I might not have the few seconds I needed to collect the essence. The collector disappeared as I stood to confront the last giant, planning to layer air shields to trip it. As it lumbered toward me, roaring in rage, Alhar appeared on the back of the creature, quickly climbing up to the head. A dagger in each hand, he stabbed into the neck on either side. I could tell he was trying to find the veins but lacked penetration through the fat layers. Alhar was forced to kick away, doing a decent backflip, but leaving his daggers behind as the hill giant slammed his back into a structure, collapsing the building around himself.

Alhar seemed capable enough on his own. I knelt again and recalled the collector, gathering the essence from the female. The hill was tossing away timbers and stone as it tried to free itself from the rubble. Alhar looked at me from forty feet away, incredulous as an essence formed on the collector. “You got this!” I shouted encouragement.

It was a major power essence. The dark orange sphere disappeared into my belt pouch. I stood and paused my work to watch Alhar. Hill giants had strong resistance to poisons, so anything he had coated his blades in was not likely to work. The giant stumbled out of the rubble and swayed on his feet. Maybe Alhar had a strong poison, and injecting the poison in the neck helped circulate it.

The giant ripped a timber from the wrecked homestead and helicoptered it toward Alhar, and he ducked just in time to avoid losing his head. More debris fell around he giant, giving him more ammunition. I heard Maveith’s war cry from a distance, likely trying to attract the attention of the giant away from the elf. I paused my work once again. If Maveith was going to become involved, then I should probably help too. The collector disappeared, and Heartseeker was in my hands once again. I could probably hamstring the giant while it was focused on Alhar.

Alhar kept his distance from the enraged giant as it grabbed stone after stone and hurled them at the elf, who easily dodged them. I could tell the elf was letting the behemoth tire itself out since the wounds had all reopened and were bleeding freely. I think the poison was having an effect as well as the giant struggled.

Maveith's armored form appeared from around the corner, and the hill giant finally shifted his focus from Alhar to the new threat. Maveith was leading with his shield and didn’t notice the small boulder heading for his head. His momentum was immediately stopped as the shield deflected the stone upward with a loud clank. I charged forward, not letting Maveith face the giant alone, while Alhar stayed back.

The hill giant didn’t see me as I swept Heartseeker through the back of its thigh, parting flesh and cutting through some muscle. The giant’s leg failed, and it went to one knee, giving Maveith an ideal target as his hammer came down on the skull of the brute. The runic hammer landed between the eyes, and the skull caved inward in a crunch of bone and squelch of brain. It slowly fell forward as Maveith extracted his hammer, covered in brain matter. Maveith turned, looking for the next foe, as I calmly approached the hill giant, and the collector appeared once again.

“There are people alive in those two buildings,” I indicated with the spear. The thickness of the aetheric blue wisps had me giddy as I knew this was another apex essence. Kyrenic came running into the town, unable to keep up with Maveith’s longer legs and enhanced speed from his boots.

Once the danger was confirmed over, Maveith's armor vanished and the gore that had stuck to it fell to the ground, leaving his lighter armor clean. I looked at myself and sighed. I would probably use the cleanliness shield before we made camp tonight. While Maveith and Kyrenic went to get the survivors, I continued harvesting the hill giants.

The massive brute had yielded an apex constitution essence, and the other four giants yielded three major strength essences and a second major power essence. This return made the loss of the invisibility potion worth it. I guess I should also search the large belt sacks on these beings. Although dumb, they were known for liking shiny things like ettins.

“Where did you get that?” Alhar asked with a seriousness that made me pause. I was using Heartseeker to cut away a satchel so I wouldn’t have to approach the foul-smelling creature too closely.

I looked at Heartseeker and then at Alhar. “Found it. It’s mine,” I replied.

“Do you know what that is?” he pressed, clearly recognizing the weapon.

I sighed. “It is a replica of Heartseeker, the spear wielded by the Caelorian King during the second and third epochs of the Caelorian Kingdom.” I had done some research on the weapon in Sanctuary, but there wasn't much on the Caelorian Kingdom because they were secretive.

“Replica?” Alhar questioned, more confused than demanding an answer.

I considered whether telling what I knew and theorized was worth divulging. So far, Alhar had kept to his word, but he did try to kill me when we first met. He already knew I had the spear, so I decided there was no harm. “An orc loremaster told me the original still exists, and the owner of it is aware I carry the replica. I believe the King of Caelora is alive and made a pact with the Shimmering Labyrinth and is now trapped there for all eternity to serve as one of the room’s guardians. He was your dad or something?”

“My great uncle,” Alhar said absently. “And you think he still lives?”

“Possibly.” I stood and cut open the large pouch to find dozens of small white stones—all useless. “Look, I am just guessing. The lore master said the owner of the original can feel the replica’s presence when it is outside my space. I know the elves of Caelora all sought sanctuary in the Shimmering Labyrinth when the Telhian Empire surrounded the city and filled it with poison gas. I suppose the Caelorian King could have been in the city and is now one of the undead guardians—legend has it he was the one who cursed his people.”

“Not how it happened,” Alhar grunted unhappily. “The origional has slain horrors you could never imagine, and united the Caelorian people behind the banner of a king for the first time. It was a symbol of both power and protection.”

“And now it’s mine,” I said, making it vanish.

As Alhar was processing my words, Baelira and Evie rode into town, leading the horses. They probably watched the fight through Evie’s spelled window. By the admiration on Baelira’s face and the adoration on Evie’s toward me, I guessed they had indeed watched. Ginger came straight to me and seemed to check me for injuries, or maybe was looking for an apple.

“Evie says there are Nashasari in the mountains,” Baelira said urgently.

“How many?” I asked, extremely concerned. The others were still coaxing the dwarves out of hiding, and we had no defensive perimeter or scouts.

“I only saw six. I think they were watching the fight from up there. Maybe three miles away,” Evie replied, pointing.

“What did they look like? Were they large Nashasari, somewhat frail-looking, or something in between? What weapons did they have?” I questioned. “Alhar, get the others out here!” Alhar looked a little upset about taking orders from me, but obeyed and went into the nearest building.

Evie’s face was scrunched in thought. “They were not as big as the warriors that attacked Sanctuary. Shorter. Thinner. Dressed in heavy furs, but no weapons that I could see.”

“Excellent job, Evie.” She preened at the praise as I nodded to her. “If you have enough aether, try to find them again and scout further into the mountains. They are likely scouts, or somehow responsible for this mess,” I indicated the dead giants. If they were Nashasari summoners, they would be a pain to deal with.

By the time the others had joined us with four ancient-looking dwarves and five youths, Evie had given up. She had only been able to find some tracks where she had first spotted them, but they were now gone. “The Nashasari are here,” I said without preamble. I am not sure whether it is a third army, but we need to leave.

“Are we headed west then?” Kyrenic asked, looking pointedly at the refugees.

“There is no time. They can accompany us to the next mining town, and they can evacuate west with that town. If we escorted them west, it would add another week to our journey.” Maveith nodded in acceptance, while Kyrenic looked torn but didn’t argue.

Fortunately, all the bodies were in the gulley to the north, so the young dwarves only got to see the dead hill giants. We gave them minutes to collect what they could carry. I confirmed there were no survivors in the still-burning town hall, but there were dozens of bodies in the basement who had died from the heat and smoke. I was not certain if the dwarves or hill giants had started the fire, but it didn’t matter now.

Kyrenic asked Maveith to help bury the members of his order. Dwarven burial customs for the Brightmantle Kingdom involved building a pyre, and it took time to gather the forty-plus corpses and set them aflame. Two of the older dwarves said a prayer and shed tears, but they didn’t feel the need to let the younger ones see the desecration of their families.

The older dwarves sat on the horses as we headed north toward the next dwarven town. When we paused to water the horses, Evie scouted the mountains but only discovered a small hobgoblin camp and a griffin's nest. Her range was impressive at nearly ten miles if she avoided creating the mirror window.

“Did you know them?” I asked Kyrenic as we walked together. The knight had been uncharacteristically quiet since he buried the bodies of his companions. We were leading our mounts with two old dwarves struggling to stay in the saddle.

He nodded somberly. “Knight Josep and Squire Tanith. Tanith was close to becoming a knight, maybe in another year. Both were good men, and I recognized the leader of the dwarven cavalry as well. I fought with Gorim Kargan many years ago. As brave a man you would want to know. All of them are great losses, and I fear this is only the beginning,” Kyrenic said while looking straight ahead.

The town we reached in the late evening was in the process of being abandoned. Predators from the mountains had decimated their flocks, and the copper mine they worked was now infested with kobolds. Kobolds were small reptilian humanoids with a modicum of cleverness. They were a nuisance in small numbers and a blight in large numbers. They rarely left the Endless Dark, so this was another concerning sign.

The people took in our dwarven refugees, freeing us from the need to escort them to safety. This town would be abandoned entirely the following day. We set up for the night in one of the abandoned houses. I didn’t like the looks Alhar was casting my way, but he left to sleep outside. I dispensed the essences from the hill giants, giving Evie, Baelira, and Maveith a major strength essence. For killing the largest hill giant, I gave Maveith the two major essences of power. This left me the apex strength essence and the apex constitution essence.

I had consumed the constitution essence when we left the town after briefly considering giving Ginger a second essence. I would take the strength essence in the morning. With the mountains nearby and Alhar outside, I did not use the amulet this evening and let Maveith use it.

Evie’s bedroll was near mine, and she was having trouble sleeping. “Get some rest Evie, we are going to push hard the next few days.”

She was quiet for a time before she whispered a question. “Are you mad at me?”

I tried to figure out why she thought that and quickly worked through her reasoning. I hadn’t talked to her since she revealed her flawless window spell form. “Why did you hide it from me? I knew you were working on it.”

“And you never asked if I imprinted it. I wanted to surprise you,” she said morosely.

“Please, Evie. I know you well enough to tell when you're lying. Please, just be honest with me,” I said, a bit exasperated. She was a teenager now, but she had seen more horror than most adults.

“Fine,” she said and hesitated. “I did want to surprise you. But I was also making sure you wouldn’t leave me.” She inhaled. “I intended to watch you in secret,” she admitted. Evie knew I could detect scrying, so I knew she hadn’t been spying on me yet, at least.

“So you don’t trust me,” I said, processing.

Evie sat up abruptly. “No! I do!” she voiced louder than she meant, waking Maveith and Baelira. “I just don’t want to be left behind.” Her insecurities as a teenager were on full display, no matter how many times I proved them wrong.

“Have I ever once left you behind since I found you all?” I asked.

Evie settled back down in her bedroll. “No,” she said softly and was soon asleep.

I didn’t sleep much, tracking Alhar with earth pulses as he stood watch over the house all night, changing positions every hour. I probably should have given him one of the essences. Maybe next time, if he helps in a fight.

For breakfast, I shared hot spinach and potato pies with thick gravy and meaty bits from my dimensional space. It was a bit too greasy for my taste, but the others thought it was marvelous fare for the road. When we set out, the procession of dwarves heading west had already begun. A few hours into the ride, I slipped the strength essence into my mouth. The essence permeated my muscles, making them burn with energy as it worked. The sensation faded too quickly, leaving me wanting. I was certain this journey would provide more essence opportunities.

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