Chapter Seventeen

Shira was angry. Not the typical, my man did something I didn’t like, therefore I’m upset, type of angry. Shira was angry. Furious, completely consumed in rage, angry. Destroying sections of her divine palace, wrecking priceless artifacts, crumpling the most recent gift that annoying prick, Rividus, sent her, before punting it across the domain of the gods, angry. She had made it so incomparably obvious that she wanted to talk to him, and he completely blew her off! She has one of the most devout members of her church go, almost exclusively, to meet with him, a mortal, and he immediately skips town, completely ignoring the fact that a goddess wanted to talk! Daphenious sat watching the world viewer while sipping a bag of wine as wanton destruction occurred around him.

“You know, little sister, he was already fairly disillusioned with the religions in his previous world. So, blatantly attempting to get in contact with him is most likely what scared him away.” Shira turned her rage filled eyes towards her older brother as he took another sip of wine.

“If you knew this would happen, why did you not say anything!?” Shira hissed. Daphenious sighed, a melancholic look in his eyes as he watched Jay and Katie register and accept their first mission for the guild.

“Little sister, you wouldn’t have listened to me anyway, even if I had tried. At least this way you still maintain majority influence over him. The lion’s share of Vratix’ little minions are stationed in major towns and cities, and with Jay travelling and performing missions out in the rural countryside, he will spend very little time where our eldest brother has opportunities to increase his hold.” Daphenious patiently explained. “On the contrary, you should be ecstatic at this time. His murder of that revolting little prince boosted your influence a significant amount. If he keeps executing acts of justice under your gentle persuasion, your influence will only keep increasing.”

Shira was noticeably less irritable after Daphenious laid out the current status. It was true that Vratix had also gained a small increase in influence due to the method of the prince’s death. However, Shira gained a much greater harvest, as the karma of the prince was quite negative; accompanied by the fact he was in the midst of such an immoral act, it compounded on top of the act of justice, further improving her hold.

She was simply upset that such a good opportunity to explain all of her actions, to finally speak to the man she’d watched for years, sacrificed so much of her power simply to bring him closer to her, and attempted to contact for so long had vanished. She needed his help for what was coming. Only with his growth could she hope for an additional ascended to join her party. She barely held out hope for any of the others she had so painstakingly guided and time was rapidly running out.

Both divinities now sat in silence, surrounded by destruction as they stared at Jay’s helpless expression as Katie twined herself around him in her sleep.

“You do know if Mother finds out you wrecked your home again, she’s going to flay you alive, right?”

Shira instantly paled.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

King Darius sat brooding on his throne. He had been careless, and it cost his son his life. It was true, the boy was an evil little shit, but he was still his son. The worst part is, the Royal Shadows that were supposed to always be in the vicinity of members of the royal family were unable to find any trace of the assassin, and even the magic wards were un-triggered. If it wasn’t for the corpse etched with a bloody grin across its neck, it would almost be impossible to think an assassin even existed.

The dead fool was also his only heir, and while kings were technically selected by a council, bloodline descendants always had a higher priority during the selection period due to years of grooming. If his family was to continue their royal line, he needed a new son, otherwise Elise and whoever became her consort would most likely end up ruling. This wouldn’t be a complete travesty, but it would still no longer truly be the Wintz line on the throne.

Despite there being no evidence, King Darius was almost certain that Jay was the culprit. Elise’s shadows had informed him of what occurred during the ball, which was one of the major reasons the king didn’t immediately dispatch a group to seek retribution. He was stuck between feeling grateful to the man for not attempting to take advantage of his daughter, angry at his son for attempting to drug the man’s girlfriend, and frustrated because, while he wanted revenge for his son, the king completely understood Jay’s actions and would have done the same had he been in his place.

All of these factors accompanied by the lack of actual evidence, and his daughter’s unrequited feelings made a huge emotional mess for the king. For now, he had decided to take a reactionary approach. His spies had informed him Jay was seen heading into the Western Reaches, and, while his network was vast, even he did not have great information coverage in that desolate place. Many inhabitants were nomadic, and those that weren’t barely tolerated outsiders, only interacting with others through trade. It made placing informants incredibly taxing.

Finished organizing his thoughts, the king looked at his wife sitting quietly next to him. Suddenly standing, he swept her up and carried her amidst a mild surprised protest to the royal chambers, waving the royal guards away. Time was of the essence, he needed a male heir and it might take some time for such a thing to occur.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jay was currently laying in his tent, attempting to fall asleep despite the close proximity of a barely clothed Katie. He had purchased two tents back in Vissily, and one of them was completely unused. After a few days, he had given up, not even maintaining the pretense of setting up the second tent, as Katie would always join him not even a quarter of an hour later. He knew what she wanted, and it was only through a massive amount of self-control and willpower had he not broken down and given her everything she could have ever asked for. He was still a man after all, and one would be hard pressed to find any straight male who wouldn’t have a single reaction to a scantily clothed, alluring woman plastered to his side. He had initially tried using the pretense of keeping watch through the night to find some separation, however, Katie caught him when the Drenz sold him out, waking her up as he snoozed by the fire. From then on, the two big cats were the designated sentries as the two humans rested through the night.

The two had arrived in the northwestern hills of the Western Reaches a full week ago, after two weeks of near constant travel, and had spent the entire time hunting down groups of ogres, slowly making their way from the fringes of the affected area in the direction of the reported camp. The companions had slain several parties of raiders, primarily dealing with the larger groups during the night, stealthily assassinating the more numerous and larger opponents as they slept. The smaller bands of ogres were easily dispatched in frontal assaults. While they held vastly superior physical strength to humans, they were ultimately rather clumsy and slow, allowing Jay’s team to deal with the differences in physique through speed, teamwork and nimble application of their weapons to crippling locations.

Their strategy was simple and worked exceedingly well against their thick-skinned, bumbling opponents. Katie’s normal proficiency in daggers had restricted her capabilities in front-line combat against enemies with thick furs on top of a naturally thick defense, so Jay had quickly trained her to a passable level in archery as they travelled, to cover them and distract their enemies while he and the Drenz assaulted the monsters. Jay’s black blade was exceptionally useful during these encounters, allowing him to attack with near impunity against the natural defenses, as it carved through the thick ogre hides like they were butter. The Drenz, of course, had no reservations, as their naturally sharp teeth and claws were perhaps even more deadly than Jay’s unnatural weapon.

After the first two encounters with small parties of raiders, Jay took to developing a more efficient system of slaying their prey. While his exceptional blade made inflicting damage simple, it was still somewhat of a hassle to bring down opponents whose stature towered over the humans simply by relying on stabbing and slashing them to death. Utilizing their speed, Jay and the Drenz began each encounter by dashing around, crippling as many enemies as they could under the cover of Katie’s arrows. Slicing out Achilles tendons, hamstringing legs, or any other viable method they could utilize to bring their opponents down to their level. After crippling the group, it was a simple matter to dash through them once more, slicing throats, gouging eyes and piercing brains to finish off the monsters.

As he thought back over the past few days and planned for the immediate future, Jay slowly faded into blissful unconsciousness. When he next awoke, dawn was just breaking as Jay slid out of both Katie’s embrace and the tent. Bane cracked an eyelid as his human began preparing a small meal of dried rations. They had stopped using fires two days ago as they crept closer to the ogre encampment to avoid unnecessary attention. Jay briefly surveyed the surrounding valley from their hidden hollow. Kara was most likely out hunting in the nearby hills and with the advent of dawn, would be back before they had finished breaking camp.

A short quarter of an hour later, Katie unceremoniously flopped out of the tent entrance, Jay’s thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she shivered lightly in the morning chill. The temperature had steadily declined as the group had travelled north. The onset of winter was imminent, and the further they travelled the more evident the season’s change became.

Jay handed Katie some jerky and dried fruit as she attempted to snuggle in closer to him, absentmindedly rubbing her back through the blanket as he thought through the day’s plans. From what the Drenz had indicated, they would reach the outskirts of the ogre’s base of operations by sunset, leaving a small amount of daylight and most of the night to scout and develop a plan for infiltration and extermination.

Katie nibbled lightly on the dried fruit in her hand, a slight breeze further accentuating her bedhead as she peered at Jay’s faraway expression.

“Hey,” she softly called, bringing him back to the present. “You never told me about the alias names you chose for us.” Jay slowly blinked twice as he processed her statement. A mischievous smirk was painted across his face as he coughed to keep himself from opening laughing as he regained his composure.

“There’s a legend from my home about a young man named Link who goes on a journey to save his land from evil. During his journey, he’s accompanied by a companion who developed a reputation among the people who love the story as an annoying pest.” Jay was openly snickering as Katie gaped at him incredulously before she backhanded him in the chest as he guffawed.

“You ass! If you’re going to be that way, at least tell me the story. The short version for now, we need to leave soon.”

Jay stifled his last giggles as he transitioned back into a faraway look, reminiscing about his old world for a moment before he started speaking as they began to pack their camp.

“The story starts out with the young man, Link, and his partner, Navi, meeting for the first time. Navi, at the beginning, acts much like an older sister for Link, guiding him and instructing him as he initially fumbles his way through a dark and dangerous world, attempting to save the good things before the evil can corrupt or kill them.” Jay paused while he folded and rolled the tent up, packing it away.

“As Link grows up and the two journey through the world together, they end up developing a very close friendship, becoming what Link believes to be an inseparable partnership.” Kara loped back into camp, cocking her head to the side at the loaded and prepared packs, glancing back at the two humans talking and resting against a tree.

“However, after Link stops the great evil and saves his land, Navi leaves him and disappears, as her duty to help stop the darkness is over. After she leaves, Link later abandons his country in search of his friend. It’s believed he never found her and, instead, died in a faraway land, his dissatisfied soul going to purgatory in an attempt to reconcile.” Jay stopped here, glancing over at a crying Katie and furrowing his brows in concern.

“Why are you crying!?”

“You should have told me the story was a tragedy; that was so sad.” Katie mopped her eyes with the ends of her long sleeves. Jay simply frowned.

“Silly woman, that’s not the entire story. That was just a short version of their personal relationship. I’ll tell you the full story later, it’s not nearly as sad as you think.” Jay huffed in mild discontent.

“Let’s get going, we need to get to the ogre’s camp before sundown.” Jay stood up, adjusting a pack on his back as he loaded another onto Bane, quickly retreating, deflecting and avoiding the over-emotional reaction. Glancing around the campsite once more, Jay silently slid into the surrounding shadows of the forest, a still slightly sulking Katie following right behind.