The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 7

(Updated 4/16)

Chapter 7

The town of Garventon reminded Larek of Barrowford, except that it was missing a river running alongside it. It was more that the size of the town reminded him of the one that where he had seen his first Scission, as the height of the walls and the number of buildings inside was familiar.

Other than those similarities, his first sight of Garventon was much different than when he first encountered Barrowford. For one, it was located just past the forest that they were passing through over the last few hours, instead of down past a rise in the landscape that had afforded him a look of that old town from a distance. It also didn’t have a Scission that suddenly appeared as they approached, so that was certainly different.

The main thing that set the town apart from Barrowford or any other town he’d visited was the fact that they arrived after a Scission had attacked the town, leaving hundreds – if not thousands – of monster corpses scattered along the ground, surrounding the entire length of the walls. It didn’t take long for Larek and the others within the caravan to discover that the monster corpses appeared very similar to what they had encountered the night before.

“I don’t understand what is going on here,” Nedira said as they passed by Bog Goblin corpses that had been burnt, sliced apart, or even had arrows sticking out of them from multiple places. Each one they saw was dressed identically with ragged clothing, and fallen wooden spears with chiseled stone tips attached to them were lying by their sides. The only difference between what had attacked their camp and what they saw here was the quantity; while a count after they were all dead and their bodies were dragged away from the camp revealed that there were just under 150 that attacked the caravan, Larek estimated that there were at least two thousand located around the town. In the light of day, it was almost sickening how many there were, as the SIC defenders of the town had absolutely slaughtered them.

Given that the Bog Goblins couldn’t easily scale the walls in order to get to those attacking them from up above, this wasn’t really a surprise.

“Let’s wait until we get inside and see if we can find out what happened,” Larek mentioned, both curious and worried over this development. Looking around the battlefield, he could see teams of people starting to remove the bodies of the Goblins into a large pile, where he assumed they would be burned, but he was fairly certain it was going to take them more than a day to move all the corpses.

There are just so many!

Arriving through the gates of Garventon, he looked up at the SIC defenders on the wall, whose faces appeared just as sickened as Larek felt after seeing the carnage outside, coupled with exhaustion. He figured that if they were stuck on the wall all night and through the better part of the day after the attack, then they’d likely be dragging by this point.

“What are you all doing here? What are a bunch of students doing traveling with a caravan?”

Larek looked for the source of the voice, finding it in a woman with reddish-silver hair that appeared very similar in general appearance to Nedira and Norde, if much older. She was even dressed in a forest-green robe that indicated that she was likely some sort of Naturalist specialization, if not something similar to Nedira’s own specialization.

“Huh. Didn’t know anyone else from Tyrendel was here,” the fourth-year Mage stated curiously, looking at the woman who was addressing the caravan leader.  The two Martial graduates quickly joined the merchant, but they were too far away from Larek to hear what was being said.

Turning to Nedira, he asked, “Is that where you’re from? I realized that I never actually asked you.”

She nodded. “Yes, and it isn’t very often that those from my land venture here, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see whoever this is. She’s part of the SIC, which is also a rarity of those who come here to study.”

Looking at the woman again, he saw some subtle colors in her wardrobe that didn’t match with her forest-green robe, which he assumed were Noble’s colors, along with the SIC patch on her chest. He didn’t know which Noble oversaw the area, something he realized he should probably learn at some point; all he knew was that it wasn’t the Baron’s colors that he was familiar with near his home in Rushwood.

Larek and Nedira moved closer to the woman and the two Martial graduates, followed by Verne and Norde, and eventually the former Logger was close enough to overhear what was being said.

“…attacked by the same Bog Goblins? That must have been near where they originated, then, because they all suddenly streamed out from the forest a few hours before dawn. Did you feel a Scission open near you? No? We didn’t, either, which makes this entire thing so bizarre. What was even more strange was that we didn’t see anything stronger, which is unheard of even with Category 1s.

“Does anyone in your group need any healing? We have a few good healers here, so we can help any that might have been seriously hurt. No? Are you telling me you killed more than a hundred Bog Goblins without any injury?”

Rheina responded , though Larek couldn’t make out what she said other than seeing her shake her head. The expression on the SIC woman’s face look skeptical, but was quickly erased as she resumed her conversation with the two Martials.

Piecing together what he heard, it seemed as though both the Goblins that attacked the camp and the town of Garventon showed up out of nowhere, or at least out of range where someone could detect a Scission appearing.

“That’s worse than if a Scission opens in the middle of a town,” Norde said in a whisper when Larek told the others what his Listening Skill relayed to him.

“What? Why? I would think that would be preferable to keep the monsters away from the towns.”

Nedira’s brother shook his head. “No, because then the people in the town – and especially the members of the SIC – won’t know to expect an attack and won’t be able to prepare. In addition, you’ll run into the situation we were in last night, where the monsters can roam around and attack anything, threatening travelers, caravans, or farms.”

A brief flash of worry for his family shot through Larek’s mind at the thought of some monsters randomly attacking his old home, but he quickly dismissed it rather than dwell on something he couldn’t change. As much as he wanted to abandon everything here and rush home to protect them, there wasn’t really much he could do against even a small horde of monsters if they wished to attack. All he could hope was that they were far enough north and away from most towns and cities to be ignored.

He turned his attention back to the ongoing conversation being held between the woman and the Martials that had accompanied the caravan.

“…Network? Yes, we have a few carriages due through here tomorrow morning, but with all this craziness in monster attacks going on, who knows if they’ll even show up? You’re welcome to stay in the SIC Headquarters until then, but if they don’t show up by the afternoon, we’ll have to send you on. We don’t have enough supplies to keep everyone you brought with you fed for too long,” the woman said, looking out over the crowd of students, her eyes focusing on Larek for a moment, before dropping to his companions. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she looked at Nedira, before turning back to the pair of Martial graduates and gave them directions on where they could stay for the night. As for the caravan, they had disappeared into what appeared to be an inn near the gates they had passed through to get into the town, not even bothering to check on the students’ wellbeing.

“We could certainly use some help with cleanup outside of the walls if anyone wants to volunteer, but I would understand after such a night that you’ve undoubtedly had,” the woman in charge added. “I also want to hear more about this healing you mentioned, but not right now; there’s too much to be done and little time in which to do it.”

Larek doubted that anyone would want to help right now; he certainly didn’t, as just the memory of all those bodies was still making him squirm a little on the inside. As for speaking about the healing Fusion, he could only hope that she stayed busy enough not to dig into it further; with how the Dean had reacted to it and the comas it had caused, he really didn’t want the healing Fusion’s presence to be actively known. He knew that it wouldn’t be a secret forever, but he’d appreciate being a little further away from the Dean and Crystalview Academy before Larek being the source of the Fusion became known.

As the student Mages followed the Martials as they advanced further into the town, they passed by the woman who just looked at them with a sad expression on her face. When Nedira and Norde passed by, she looked at them and said something in a language that Larek didn’t understand in the least. The four of them stopped as Nedira responded in the same language, and the two of them conversed for a few minutes before the fourth-year turned to the others.

“Gharina’s the one in charge of the SIC members here for Earl Harken,” she explained, glancing at the woman who was already moving away after her conversation with Nedira. Larek saw her giving orders to some of the other SIC defenders on the wall, as well as what appeared to be volunteer crews that were just about to head out to help with the cleanup. “She’s also sorry that she won’t be able to spare any of her people to help escort us south, as she needs everyone here in case something like this happens again. Luckily, if the SIC Transportation Network carriages show up tomorrow morning to drop off some supplies, she thinks that they might be empty enough to take most, if not all, of us.” She paused for a moment. “She also said that we can use some of the reserved rooms on the top floor tonight, as they are a little nicer than the others in the SIC headquarters building.”

“Ha, that’s not what she said,” Norde cut in. “She said that if you’ve tamed a Gergasi, then—”

“Not now, Norde!” she admonished her brother. “Just ignore him, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” For some reason, Larek thought she appeared flustered.

“Fine with me,” Larek responded, shrugging. “I just want to get away from the walls, as I can’t stop thinking about what we saw out there.”

“Me too,” Verne said, the first time he had spoken since they arrived. Larek looked over at him and saw that his usual upbeat attitude was inordinately subdued, which he supposed was due to the sight outside the walls, as well.

“Let’s get settled into the headquarters building, get some food, and then get some much-needed sleep. Come morning, hopefully we’ll have a new ride and be able to leave this hectic journey behind us.”

Book 2 Chapter 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-81622593