To say my presentation to the serfs was well-received would be overstating it. The response was rather underwhelming in fact. I guess they were not used to the carrot, so they did not really believe it. Neither did anyone volunteer when I asked for them to step up to become soldiers. In the end, I ended up selecting the five hundred unskilled serfs I had just selected. They would be used to create 18 platoons. Of those five would stay and protect the Hold, while the rest went with me. The remaining 32 serfs would receive some combat training but would be focusing on other tasks, such as cooking, taking care of horses and first aid.

I had 23 trained soldiers left, having lost 3 in the course of the time I had been on this stupid world. I wondered how many more I would lose. Of those, I gave Caspar and Kiril a choice. Both would be Commanders in name, but only one of them would be in command of the five platoons that would remain at the Hold. The other would be the Commander of my bodyguards, and whoever it was would select three other soldiers to be my bodyguards. They would receive the same compensation as a senior squad leader, but they would still be rankers. The remaining eighteen soldiers would become the senior squad leader of a platoon each.

In the end, Kiril became the commander of my new bodyguards. That I needed bodyguards was a fact I lamented, nevertheless I realized it was probably mostly, but not all, my own fault. If I had been a little smarter, a little more collected, instead of letting my emotion, mostly my anger, get the better of me, I would not have pissed off everyone.

The first order of business was to rotate every one of the five hundred serfs through a turn on the muskets. Each would get five shots. The 52 best ones would form into two different platoons. The best performing of the two platoons would go with me to the front, and the other would remain at the Hold.

Having arranged for training I set off towards the forest to hunt. Bringing only Yathanae, my bodyguards, and of course Emma. We would spend the days until Ethan returned hunting. Though it was only a four hours ride away, I said I did not feel like riding back and forth each day. Which was a small lie, for the comfort of a warm bath, I would gladly ride eight hours each day. However, I needed privacy for a lover’s reunion, so instead, I arranged for a wagon to bring lunch and dinner, and at the same time pick up whatever we had managed to kill.

After having set up camp, I send my bodyguards out to hunt. With bows and arrows. I would join them momentarily, but first I needed to speak with two women. To ensure that we had privacy, I had connected a piece of string to each of the soldiers. I had found out that I could actually gauge the distance between an object I tracked and the string, depending on the draw on my mana pool. I thought that I had gotten pretty good at guestimating the distance.

After I had ensured that they were far enough away, I turned my attention to the elf. Yathanae looked a bit nervous when she saw that it was just the two of us left. I had gotten the feeling that she did not really trust me when I said I would not force her to sleep with me.

“Yathanae, you need to start trusting me,” I said in elvish.

“I do, Milord,” she said. It rang untrue to my ears, and I could only shake my head.

“Emerald, if you please,” I said. Yathanae’s eyes got big as I mentioned her bond mate’s name, almost panicking.

“Hello, Love,” I heard Emma purr from beside me.

“Emerald, he’ll kill you, flee,” Yathanae shouted and looked like she was actively fighting some unseen force that kept her back from flying in my face.

“No, I won’t. I owe her my life,” I said.

“Then set all of us free, so we can leave this place,” she said and stopped fighting what I expected to be the effect of the magic manacles she was wearing.

“Love, you know he can’t do that, not even the Wildmother can do that for us,” Emerald said sadly and walked up to her bond-mate who she enveloped in a hug. “He even broached the subject himself. All he can do is allow us to be together, we need to be careful though.”

“You should leave me, it’s not safe for you to stay here,” Yathanae whispered into Emerald’s shoulder.

“Hush, I’ll be fine,” was Emma’s reply. I took that as my cue to leave.

“I’ve said to my bodyguards that they need to leave the camp alone for two hours,” I said and started walking out.

“They’ll think you’re bedding me,” Yathanae said.

“Sounds fun, however, married man and all that. Now be sure to do all the naughty stuff I can’t do,” I said with a grin as I left.

I was making sure the cloth quiver was fastened to my hip. Sure it would be a bit of a bother to walk around with and did not convey the Robin Hood feel, but it was more practical than a quiver on the back.

A gust of wind allowed me to hear part of the whispered conversation between the two lovers.

“...can’t be trusted… violate you,” the muffled voice of Yathanae drifted out.

“...father of our…” came Emma’s reply.

Yathanae’s reaction was not a whisper, but an emphatic, “No!”.

I shook my head. No matter the world, the discussion about having kids was always one that was fraught with tension between couples. I was still getting used to the idea that I was having a kid with Lily. Would probably end up spoiling the kid, though I would have to be creative, no electronic toys in this place. Books. I’d see if there was something like fairy tales. I then realized it would probably not be called fairy tales since fairies were real.

With that and more on my mind, I left to join my men in hunting.

Over the next two days, we managed to hunt a lot of game. Deer, boar, pheasants, lots of rabbits and even a couple of wolves made their way to our pantry. The great thing about hunting was that it was not taxed, unlike everything else. The number of animals in the forest was crazy. If you found a watering hole it was almost like shooting fish in a barrel. I realized that we could not keep doing it, and I would need to get some game wardens to keep an eye on the situation. So we could know how much we could take out of there, without depleting the resource it was.

Yathanae and Emma had gotten to spend some time together, not a lot, but more than they could have hoped for before Emma saved me. Yathanae started warming up to me and even taught me how to better navigate in a forest. Sure I could be stealthy, but it was nothing compared to the wood elf. She even helped with the hunting, something that at first made the bodyguards uncomfortable, but they got used to it. They even started applauding her skills, when she could not hear them. I even noticed Kiril asking for advice on his shooting position.

It was a couple of nice days. I had gotten word that Ethan was back the day before, but decided to remain on the hunt. We needed the meat for the pantry, and we needed some milking cows. We had gotten some delivered one of the days. Goat milk is just not the same as good old fashioned cow milk. Too sweet was amongst some of the complaints I had.

The trip could be counted as a success. Our pantry had gotten filled a lot, but we were also feeding almost eight hundred people, so the meat would go fast unless we were careful with it. The main purpose of the trip was winning over Yathanae and repaying some of the debt I felt I owed Emma. On both parts I was successful. She had agreed to teach me about elven tactics and provide me with intelligence when asked for it.

When we returned it was late evening and most of the Hold had already gone to bed, so I slipped quietly into my chamber. From the small fire, I could see Lily sleeping in my bed. I wondered about finding elsewhere to sleep, but she had willing gotten into my bed to sleep. It was not an invitation to touch her or anything, but I would be damned if I slept in a chair again.

So I carefully got into bed. It was plenty big that we could both sleep there without me touching her. Emma meowed uncertainly, so I whispered, “Either she’ll freak out, or she’ll start coming around. It was her choice to sleep in my bed.”

Emma voiced her disagreement with a low hiss. I just shrugged and winced a bit when Emma dug her claws into my chest before turning around a few times. Soon the catwoman in her cat form was asleep or at least pretending to be. I smiled and gave her an ear scratch before going to sleep myself.

The next morning I found myself wishing I had just stayed in bed. I awoke to Lily stifling a scream. After she had scrambled out of the bed, in her thin shift together with her unruly hair, it made her look I had just given her a good tumble. A look I found enticing. Red-faced she demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m sleeping. In my bed,” I countered.

“You were supposed to be out hunting,” she countered.

“I was. I said I’d be gone a couple of days. I’ve been gone a couple of days, and came back late last night.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to climb into my bed,” she stated hotly.

“My bed, remember?” I replied.

“You weren’t home, and the freemen have started talking. I thought it would help if I slept in the master bedroom,” she said defiantly.

“Sure I guess that makes sense, but I’m not going to stalk off and find another place to sleep, just because you decided to occupy my bed.”

“Why didn’t you just go sleep with that elven whore you’ve been dragging around with you?” she demanded. I thought I detected a hint of hurt in her voice. Emma hissed a bit at that statement. She must have understood some of what Lily was saying.

“First of all, she’s not a whore. Secondly, I’ve not had sex with anyone but you since we were so rudely married,” I said, starting to get a bit angry. “I might be an arsehole, but I would never cheat on my wife. Sure if you and she gave me permission, I’d fuck her in a heartbeat, but as long as either of you doesn’t give permission, it won’t happen.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you blaspheme and don't hold the Gods sacred,” she said.

“Of course I don’t, they kidnapped me, and I was very close to getting killed as soon as we were summoned. Of course, I’m not going to revere a bunch of lunatics, just because they’re powerful. I might fear them, but fuck if I’m going to pray to them,” I countered, my voice definitely raised from the anger.

“But they gave you power,” she said weakly. It was clear that I was scaring her.

“And made me a slave, sure I might be free, but they’ve attached invisible chains. You want to know who tried to kill me?”

She shook her head, backing away from me, even if I was still just sitting on the bed.

“Well, too fucking bad. I’m going to take the choice away from you, just like they did me. It was the fucking Cardinal who sent his men after me when I nearly got killed. Sent one of his priests after me, and you want to know what happened to him?” I was practically shouting at this point. Again she shook her head.

“I had the fucker killed, had his head and dick cut off. Sent the dick stuffed inside the mouth of the severed head to the Cardinal. That’s how much I fucking revere your Church. They’re nothing but bullies, but so am I. I might have backed down for now, but if they push me again I’m going to kill as many of them as I can.”

At this point, she fled from the room. Emma shook her head at me and demonstratively turned away from me. I looked at her back, then at the door that Lily had fled through. ‘Fuck me, and my anger.’

The morning became worse from there. As I sat down to eat breakfast, Lily shifting her seat as if to get as far away from me as possible, the freemen of the Hold trooped up in front of me. Well, not all of them. I did not see any of the Millers amongst them. Not that I expected them to after they had come to me when I had arrested the Steward. What they had told me made me angry.

A fat man in his late fifties stepped forward and spoke. “We’re here to lodge a complaint against your Lordship’s behaviour.”

I was about to tell the man where to put his complaint when Ethan placed a hand on my arm. The bastard had taken the seat directly to my left. Something which would need to be addressed in private. He might be strong-arming me, but he did not hold a place of honour in my book. If it was up to me, he was not even allowed to eat in the Hall.

“They’re allowed to voice their complaints, and you can’t retaliate against them for it,” he said. Then added, “It’s the law, Milord.”

“Fine, speak so I can get this over with and back to my breakfast,” I grouched.

“We’re not comfortable with you training serfs in the use of weaponry, we demand that you stand down the soldiers,” the man demanded. No reverence at all.

“Is that all?” I asked frostily.

He shot a look at Ethan. Almost as if looking for guidance. I could not see if he got it. “No, furthermore we won’t have our Hold shamed by the Lord sleeping with impure women, much less elven whores. You shame us all with your blasphemous ways.”

“Anything else?”

“No,” he said, clearly taken aback. “That’s plenty of bad. We demand immediate action and the execution of all non-human to show proper deference to the Gods.”

“Oh, there will be executions. We’ll start with you lot and your priests,” I said as I stood up.

“Milord,” Ethan growled.

“Shut up, or I’ll kill you like I did the Cardinal’s lackey. I’ll follow your fucking laws to the letters, and give respect where I’ve been given respect,” I said. “This is not retaliation for your complaints. Since I’m not allowed to do this. So this is just a statement of fact of how you’ve slighted me, engaged in criminal behaviour, and a proclamation of how the future on the Hold will be.”

There were gasps amongst the freemen. The serfs looked uncomfortable and the soldiers looked taken aback. First I looked at the soldiers that had been Unifiers once. Loudly I said, “Yes, the man that came for me a few days ago was a priest, sent by the Cardinal. I’ll even let a fideomancer read the truth of my words. It was the Cardinal’s men who killed Anton.

“Yes, I’ll admit I’m brazen and don’t respect most of your traditions, but I’ve broken no laws. And why would a holy man send men in the night? Clearly the Cardinal is corrupt. His son as the Steward of this place has run up a debt of fifty thousand marks to the Church. Most of it by not paying the tithe. Yet, the Church has each moon received a donation larger than their tithe should be.

“So no, I don’t respect your Church or your Gods, because they’ve not given me the respect I deserve. I was brought here without being asked. I was forcefully enlisted to fight a war and told that if I do not raise a squadron of soldiers, I would become a serf. So the only way to do that is to force others to fight a war alongside me. Not something I enjoy doing, but it’s necessary.”

Ethan looked like he was about to say something, but I interrupted him, “Say a fucking word priest, and I’ll have you killed, even if it cost me my life. You’ve all had your say, so now it’s my turn to fucking tell you how things are.”

He looked like he was about to explode, but the tip of a sabre suddenly rested against his throat. I was surprised that Kiril had drawn a weapon against a priest. He looked at me and said, “Anton was my wife’s little brother. So, former priest, you’ll let the Lord speak.”

I nodded my thanks to him. I had only learned of Anton’s name, but not the particulars. I turned back to the hall. “Now, I said this would be a proclamation of the future of this Hold. So here’s the proclamation. If a freeman is on the Hold in the morning, he or she willingly submits to a reading by a fideomancer. And I’ll ferret out which of you disrespectful curs were part of swindling the Hold. Yes, disrespectful. Except for the Millers, not one of you has come to greet me. You’ve eaten my food, insulted me and my wife, but not one of you came to pay your respect upon our return or since then.

“So, anyone who willingly leaves today will have their possessions checked, and if you under a fideomancer’s power can’t account for it, it’ll be confiscated. Anyone found to be in cahoots with the Steward will be brought in front of the high justice as well.

“Furthermore, if I hear rumours of me bedding elves, which is a lie, but none of your damn concern anyway, I will hunt you down and kill anyone who can’t truthfully say that they did not spread that rumour. Again, I’m willing, to tell the truth regarding my sexual adventurers under a fideomancer’s power. Now get the fuck out of my sight.”

I sat down with a sigh. Looking at the stunned freemen in front of me, I saw that none of them had moved a muscle. “Kiril, remove these people from the Hall. Until they’re cleared, they’re suspected criminals. And you can remove the sabre, Ethan won’t try anything. Will you?”

“Yes, Milord,” Kiril said withdrawing his sabre, though Ethan did not reply. I heard my bodyguards draw weapons, which sent the freemen scampering for the door. Meanwhile, Ethan left the hall at a more steady pace.

As Sigrid was serving me breakfast, Hrothgar stepped into the spot just vacated by the freemen. Groaning, I gave him a sign to go ahead.

“Milord, is it really true that it was a priest who tried to kill you?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ll have a fideomancer verify it if necessary. It was the priest I had a discussion with when we bought the serfs,” I replied tiredly.

He swallowed audibly at that. “Could it have been simple revenge for any insult he might have perceived, Milord?”

“Some of it, sure, however, when he was torturing me, he told me the Cardinal sent his regards,” I said. Skirting the truth carefully. He had really said that, but he had not been there to kill me. I had carefully selected my words during my rant earlier, it was not my fault that they thought he was there to kill me. Even though the anger had spoken for me. That reminded me I had to ask Emma what she did with the collar and manacles, no one had brought that up.

“Outrageous. That’s not how a member of the clergy should act,” Hrothgar spat. Several soldiers agreed loudly with him. Though some looked uncomfortable.

“Listen. I’ve had my differences with the Church, and I’ll probably never be a Gods fearing Lord. However, I’ll treat everyone in my employee fairly. If any of you have a problem with that, I can understand it, so I’ll accept your resignation and see if I can get you transferred back to the Unifiers,” I said. No one seemed to want to step up. Which was good.

During the day all the freemen left. We confiscated close to twenty marks, and when we searched their houses we found another fifty marks. It seems to have been mostly the apiarist and wagon master who had squirrelled away ill-gotten coins. I wondered why a Hold with no beehives would keep an apiarist in the first place.

Later in the day, I summoned Ethan to my chambers. When he entered the room, he scowled at me. “What, more threats?”

“No, we need to find a way to work together. And for that, I need to know why the fuck I’m here and I need to know more about your religion, so tell me about it,” I said. I did indicate he could sit down. He was a snake that would kill me at some point, but as long as I knew where he was, and that I had Emma nearby, there was a good chance he would die and a small one that I could survive.

“To understand the importance of why you were summoned, you need to know where we all come from,” he said in that lecturing tone that every self-important lunatic has. “The Creator created the Nine Worlds. One for each of the sapient races.”

“Wait, I thought there were only eight sapient races,” I interrupted.

“There are indeed eight left, but in the start, there were nine. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, orcs, fairies, giants, and merfolk are the eight remaining races. The ninth was also the first world to be created. The Seraphs were first amongst his creations, and also the first to be targeted by the Destroyer.”

“Angels? The Destroyer?” I asked, thinking this was wearing into Christianity territory.

“Angels is what those of the Seraph that were saved by Creator is called in common parlance. Today they’re messengers of the Gods. Anyway, there must be balance in all things. If there’s a Creation there is Destruction. If there’s a Creator, there’s a Destroyer,” he explained.

“I see, so this Destroyer is undoing the Creators work?”

“Indeed, you’re not as stupid as you look,” he said with a vicious smile. “Not like a child couldn’t follow the logic.”

“Keep insulting me, and I might add another priest to the collection of people I’ve killed.”

“Empty threats, you might have bested a mere priest, but as a high priest, I’m more powerful,” he countered.

“Can we just get to the point, so you can get the fuck out of here?”

He sniffed. “Fine. Anyway, the world of the Seraph fell, but the Creator acted quickly. He managed to create a prison for the Destroyer. Trapping him on the dying world of the Seraph. He created seventy-two worlds that act as the seals of the prison. On each world, he created thirty-one Gods to act as wardens. Camcesa is one of those worlds.”

Those numbers sounded familiar somehow. Something sparked a memory, the name of a book with the word Key and the name of an ancient king was all I could connect it with. Something I had read about once just to pass time or something.

Ethan continued his explanation, “Because, humans are his favourite, he gave us the prophecy and the ability to summon champions from the Origin World to fight the agents of the Destroyer. The elves have been corrupted by the Destroyer and must be stopped. Unfortunately, they have the other Gods fooled.”

“Yes, but why do you need us? We’re not accustomed to magic or your way of fighting,” I asked.

“Because the Prophecy foretells that the agents of the Destroyer cannot possess the champions like they can possess the rest of us, something about the purity of the Origin world,” he said with undertones of envy. I also thought it was pretty clear that he was holding back something. Or maybe a lot.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said.

“Just remember your place, and be more respectful. Otherwise, I’ll have to make an example of your bodyguards,” he said and left.

I shook my head. I could not stand the man. It was clear that it would end with one of us dying, who it would be, time would tell. The rest of the day I spent finding out what the fleeing freemen actually did on the Hold, not a lot, and found someone to do it. The only one not easily replaced was the caravan master, because he was the one who headed to the market each moon and sold our produce.

It was a problem for another day since I would not find a solution in the next four days, which was when the wagons needed to leave to make the biggest market day, which was also when I was needed in the High Hold for the monthly meeting between Lords and the High Lord. So I’d let Hrothgar handle it this month and then look around for another solution.

When night came around, I was both happy and unhappy that Lily slept in one of the guestrooms. Unhappy because I really wanted to at least become friends with her, but I would not debase myself to her religion to do that. On the other hand, I was happy, because it afforded me some cuddle time with the real Emma.

It was a risk with Ethan on the Hold, but I had too many questions. Cuddling I told her what Ethan had told me about everything. She sighed. “He’s right about most of it, up till the part about humans being the Creator’s favourites. The Creator doesn’t care about any of us. He just doesn’t want his toys destroyed.”

“So he lied about that, what about—”

“No, the elves are not agents of the Destroyer. He lied about that, he also lied about the whole summoning thing. Each of the gods can summon one hero each and give them power, I don’t know how the humans summoned so many of you, but you’re also less powerful than I would’ve expected,” she said. “And no, before you ask the Wildmother doesn’t know either. I just know that the Gods are angry about it. Even the dwarves and they remain neutral in everything.”

“Okay, but why summon us if there are no agents of the Destroyer?” I asked

“We don’t know.”

“Who’s we?”

“The other priests and priestesses of the Wildmother, even talked a bit with a few of the Wood Queen’s priestesses that I know,” she said and licked my nose when I frowned.

“You can talk with any priest?”

“Sure, as can your good friend Ethan. You can talk with any priest of your God and to any priest that you know the essence of.”

A new term. “Essence?”

“Everyone’s mana has a special signature to it, something that is uniquely theirs. Yours is strong. It has a feeling of Purity, Justice and Truth.”

“You’ve to be kidding me. I’m a criminal and lie often,” I scoffed. Then huskily added, “And trust me, there are no pure thoughts in my head.”

She purred sensually for a moment, before answering, “Criminals break the law which has nothing to do with justice. Law and justice can be the same but often isn’t. With regards to the truth, there are many forms for truth. And if your thoughts are what I believe they are, then they’re pure.”

She laughed a little, before adding, “Pure animal.”

I groaned at the truth of that statement. She was hard to resist. To change track, I asked, “And how do I feel someone’s mana signature.”

She shook her head at me. “Well, if you were a priest or priestess, you would reach out with a tendril of your own mana and slowly connect with their skin, from there you would work your way into their blood, and flood their entire body with your mana. When that’s done, you’d be able to find your way into their mana pool and find the essence of them there. It usually presents itself in a vision.”

As I listened to her explain, I was stroking her back and just for fun, I tried to do what she said. Not really paying attention to what I did, more absorbed in the feel of her fur and listening to her voice. It came as a shock when suddenly I was standing in a swirling mist, with a black panther stalking back and forth in front of me, growling the entire time. Fierce.

The mist parted for a moment, revealing a bunch of baby panthers. Maternal.

The moment the panther saw that I had spotted her babies, it attacked. Protective.

“Karth, what did you just do?” Emma hissed loudly at me. I was back in bed but felt pretty loopy and exhausted as if I had just emptied my mana pool. Emma was hovering above me and looking down at me with concern.

I reached out and stroked her head. Sleepily I muttered, “Fierce. Maternal. Protective.”

“Impossible,” she whispered, as I drifted off to sleep.