A Soldier's Life - 289 - She Looks Familiar (final edit 6-26-25)

Chapter 289: She Looks Familiar

Glasha didn’t object and gently took the dungeon blade as I softly placed it in her hands. Like all the weapons my companions and I carried, the ornate hilt and guard were obscured with tarnish and wrappings to hide their obvious artificed origins. Based on what I had seen, among adventurers, this wasn’t an uncommon practice.

“Dungeon forged,” she said, inspecting the silvery length of the blade, running her finger down it. I watched the orc intently under the moss’s light. Her efforts had also drawn the attention of the others. I was sure Mateo would be interested in getting the Primus’ blade evaluated. She closed her eyes, and I didn’t see any spell forms traced in the air, so the ability must be an inscribed on her core as a spell form.

She didn’t speak for long moments, and Mateo asked, “Did she start? Is she finished?”

Glasha smirked, her tusks protruding, “Unlike some people, I don’t feel the need to rush things.” Mateo backed away, flushing. Glasha opened her eyes, blinking them rapidly to adjust to the light. As she handed it back to me, she explained, “It is a young blade, about one hundred years old. Found in a reward chest after slaying a monstrous black dungeon troll. The blade is artificed to be nearly indestructible and never lose its edge.”

I frowned, as that seemed pretty typical of all blades forged in dungeons. As I sheathed it, Glasha added slyly, “It also imbues the wearer with additional strength when he attacks. It is a minor effect, but you may have noticed your strikes land harder than normal. The blade has tasted the blood of many victims during its existence, some very recently. You killed the previous owner with malice in your heart to claim it.”

She was clearly trying to demonstrate her skill. I nodded but didn't notice any increased strength when I used it. Still, I might have missed the effect and just believed it was the adrenaline of combat. “Thank you,” I said, nodding.

“My fee is two gold,” she said seriously, her grin gone and her hand extended.

The stunned look on my face had the orc cackle a raucous laugh, her benign feminine appearance disappearing as she now looked like a suitable villain. “I jest with you, human. No charge for a friend.” We were friends now?

Maveith shuffled forward uncertainly, ready to ask a question, but the orc woman beat him to it. “Yes, it is free for you, too, Maveith.” She extended her hand, expecting the goliath to hand her his large hammer. Instead, he pulled the skinning knife from his belt and handed it to her.

Her eyebrow raised in surprise as she took the small blade. The grip was tightly wrapped in leather, and the length was slightly tarnished to hide runic relief work. She didn’t need to take as much time with this artifact. Her eyes flashed open, surprise clearly showing. “Where did you get this? The dungeon that forged this is ancient.”

Maveith looked to me to answer, not wanting to say the wrong thing. “The Shimmering Labyrinth in the ruins of Caelora.” I didn’t see any reason to lie and the Esenhem elves and Bartiradians already knew of the dungeon’s discovery.

“The artificing is immaculate. Much cleaner than younger dungeons.” She handed it back to Maveith. “You have already harvested some interesting creatures with it. The blade responds to your will, cutting easier or dulling as needed. It is not indestructible, though, so treat it with care.” She looked over the group, eyebro raised, “Anyone else?”

I stopped the session, unsure if we were revealing too much. “I think we are done for now. Let’s execute the ghost spider and harvest it,” I said, standing. I checked my aether shield amulet, making sure it was recharged. Everyone gathered their things, and we walked to the final room.

As we passed through the ogre’s room, people held their breath and covered their noses, but curiosity still took them close to the body. I had added a few wounds to the body to make it look like it had put up fight. An experienced scout examining the body should think I had sliced the ogre’s Achilles and then pierced its throat when it fell to its knees. There were other, less severe wounds I added to the body as well.

Glasha paused and walked around the corpse, causing us to wait for her. “Not a lot of blood,” she finally commented.

“It was a quick fight,” I replied neutrally. She just grunted and joined us for the final chamber. 

The forest chamber, with its massive spider webs draped in the trees, had a haunted feeling. It was also completely still and silent. The dark blue ceiling of glowing moss gave it a late-night feel, but shadows dominated under the leafy canopies. “I can just burn down the trees,” Raelia stated after we had all been staring up into the canopy from the safety of the corridor for a few minutes.

“The dungeon wouldn’t let your fire spread,” Glasha said dismissively.

Maveith voiced from the back, “Do you want me to enter and lure it out?”

“Are you volunteering to be the bait?” Mateo asked incredulously. Then, he muttered more to himself. “As long as it isn’t me.”

“No one needs to be bait,” I stated, stepping into the chamber. “Raelia, fireball it when you can.” The others followed me inside the room. I had channeled aether to my eyes, and the grayscale of my aether sight made it much easier to discern movement in the leaves above. Without wind, the only way the branches were moving was under the weight of the spider guardian.

“I don’t see anything,” Mateo hissed nervously.

I tossed three common smoke pellets on the ground in front of me. The rapidly expanding clouds quickly thinned in the chamber, but there was enough remaining smoke to see movement in the disturbed air. “That was kind of clever,” Raelia whispered.

I ignored her and pointed to the canopy. “There. It is still invisible but is descending from that tree. Giant spiders are like eight-legged tables. You just have to remove most of the legs to topple them.” A line of webbing spewed from where I indicated. The spider was apparently intelligent enough to understand it had been found. The webbing enlarged into a huge cloud of netting as it passed through the smoke. “Behind me!” I ordered, and the group scrambled behind me for cover. I could feel the heat on my back from Raelia forming a fireball.

The webbing reached us and completely encapsulated my air shield. I was sure Glasha had an epiphany moment by her grunt of surprise. With its attack thwarted, the spider dropped the last thirty feet to the ground, and the earth churned into small fountains where it stepped as it raced forward.

Raelia’s fireball raced over my shoulder and splashed into the path of the spider. The nearby webbing in the trees went up with the brilliant flash, and the spider was briefly outlined in the flash inferno. Slowly burning tendrils of webs now lit the room. This chamber was much larger than the lurker room, and Raelia’s fireball was smaller, so only a wave of heat passed over us this time, with no concussive blast.

I could make out the spider, but it seemed dazed. “Sweep the legs!” I yelled to the others as I moved to engage. The spider’s outline was barely visible after Raelia’s fireball had charred its body, ruining its invisibility. I was the first to hack into a leg, getting a satisfying cracking feedback as Boris’ blade significantly shortened one leg. Maveith’s hammer cracked a second, throwing the dazed monstrosity off balance.

It gave up its invisibility, revealing a massive arachnid towering over ten feet in the air. It tucked its abdomen under itself and spewed more webbing. I dodged clear, but a rushing Mateo was caught in the blast, quickly becoming entangled and tripping. As he rolled on the ground, he unfortunately cocooned himself.

“Raelia, free Mateo!” I yelled as I dodged a descending leg. After it penetrated deep into the ground where I had stood, I hacked at it, trying to focus on the sword’s strength enhancement. I still could not detect a difference, but the blade severed the limb easily enough. Overcoming the fireball effects but unsteady on its five remaining legs, the spider attacked Maveith with a lunging bite. The goliath stood defensively, using his hammer to hold the creature at bay.

With its attention away from me, I took out another leg, bringing the main body to the ground. I thrust my blade into the side of its lowered head and twisted, causing it to spasm in its death throes. I wrenched the blade out, widening the wound, and backed away, letting the creature perish from the loss of its blue ichor. I thought it had been an inefficient fight, and more importantly, no one got injured.

Glasha looked impressed as she approached the spider. “You work well together. I felt kind of useless but enjoyed the ride.” She cast a side glance at Mateo. “If you have any other artifacts you wish me to read, I would be happy to.”

Mateo was peeling webbing off his armor, only for it to stick to his arms and hands in a mess, but he asked, “Can you do my sword?”

“Good, Mateo, take Glasha back to the entry room. We will wait a few hours there before exiting. You can have your sword identified.” Glasha looked suspiciously at me, clearly trying to get rid of her again.

“My aether has fully recovered. I can do it here.” Glasha offered in a friendly tone. Mateo, not understanding my reasoning, was trying to clean the spider webbing from the blade to hand to her.

“No, wait for us in the entry room,” I ordered sharply. It was a little out of character for me, but I was anxious to harvest the spider’s essence quickly. I was almost positive it would be the illusion affinity. Mateo realized why I wanted Glasha out of the way and started to usher her away. I added, “Take the reward chest with you and divide up the coin.”

The chests in this dungeon had all been simple oak chests. Maveith located it among the trees, and I pretended to work on harvesting the spinnerets. After Mateo and Glasha left, I relaxed. “She has probably already figured it out,” Raelia said, checking to make sure they were gone.

The collector appeared in my hand, “She hasn’t seen me use it, and she can’t use her spying spell in the dungeon.” The collector finally didn’t struggle to condense the aetheric smoke into a sphere. Disappointedly, it was still a minor essence, but it was of the illusion affinity. It would improve my aether sight slightly.

Raelia looked bored. Maveith was exploring the flora in the chamber, looking for something useful among the maze of webs. “Do you think we should take the job to escort Glasha’s acquaintance?”

Raelia was indifferent, answering with a shrug, “I don’t like that she used Mateo. He may be a Telhian, but I kind of like him.” That comment surprised me. “We should also be wary of becoming involved in orc politics. They don’t like outsiders meddling, even if it is on behalf of one of their own.”

Maveith had an opinion, “It would make it a lot easier leaving the Caliphate with Zorana if she was freed.”

“We have other ways,” I reminded him. “Can we trust the word of a cleric?” I asked Raelia.

“No,” she said, shocking me. “The word of a Warlord is their honor, and they will follow it as long as you are honorable yourself. The clerics are less constrained. They won’t lie or cheat you, though. But words can be interpreted many different ways, especially in their language.” Having just started to learn their language, I could see the truth of that statement.

“We will hear them out then. If we tell them no, without listening, they may make our mission more difficult.” I cracked open the spider and worked out the spinneret before we left to join Mateo and Glasha in the entry room.

Glasha offered to sell the spinneret for us, so I handed her the slimy capsule. Mateo handed everyone seven silver coins and proudly displayed a silver mirror he had found in the chest.

Glasha explained what the artifact was. “It is a simple messaging device. You channel aether into it, and the device will hold your image and sound indefinitely, playing over and over inside the reflection. It can be used again by channeling aether. They are popular heirlooms for parents to give their children and grandchildren advice long after they have died. It can hold one message, about an hour long if used properly.”

It was a magical recording device. Mateo handed it to me, and I kept it safe, not wanting seven years of bad luck right now. Mateo was also proud of his weapon, as Glasha revealed it was a spell blade capable of deflecting aether constructs, and he was eager to test it. Raelia offered to help him by targeting him with fireballs, but he suddenly became less excited about testing its abilities.

According to Maveith, we exited the dungeon after half a day inside. I went first, half expecting to be assaulted by the guards or a group of irate orcs. Six new guards in plate stood watch. A wrinkly, white-haired orc asked, “Is your delve complete, adventurer?”

“It is,” I said as the others joined me. He just grunted as another guard recorded our exit in a logbook. Seeing we would not be detained or attacked, I led us back to the city.

We celebrated our delve in the Adventurer’s Hall. The spinneret served as proof of completing the dungeon. The orc adventurers suddenly accepted us and we didn’t need to pay for drinks that night. Glasha seemed to think Mynasha would arrive late this evening, so we waited and drank, and waited and drank.

The cleric who eventually entered the Adventurers Hall well after midnight was struggling to walk. She was clearly an inexperienced rider and had just spent too much time in the saddle rushing to get here. She scanned the room and quickly settled her eyes on Glasha, who had already raised a hand unsteadily.

As she approached our table, something clicked: a familiarity. I recognized this cleric, although I might be mistaken, since orcs tend to look quite similar. However, I was nearly certain I had seen this one mostly nude on the bow of the lead ship of the orc fleet that attacked Varvao.

Mynasha ignored us and sat heavily in an open seat next to Glasha. She let a pained grunt and then a relieved sigh as she settled. Her eyes stared defiantly at those in the common room who had been judging her appearance and saddle worn state. The orc adventurers quickly found their game, food, or drink more interesting, averting their eyes. An elf and a dwarf eyes lingered a little longer on her before turning away.

“Heal me,” she said quietly to Glasha. Glasha’s hand went under the table to rest on Mynasha’s thigh. A look of relief and bliss flooded the road-weary orc woman. She appeared younger than Glasha, but I was not the best person to discern the age of an orc. I caught a snicker from the dwarf as he misinterpreted the action.

“Thank you, and I see you were able to keep them here. They don’t look that special. I hope my efforts in getting here were not wasted.” She was speaking Orcish and probably assumed we could not understand her. Glasha couldn’t contain her grin. This was going to be an interesting conversation. Still, it was Mynasha who would have to convince us to help her, and so far, the answer was no.

© Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No Permission is given to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon it has been stolen without my permission and is a violation of DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.