Sullivan Peyton

“~♪” The man currently whistling a jaunty tune next to Sullivan was a very strange specimen of the Dökk Álfar race. To begin with he was sitting next to the driver of his own carriage instead of being inside it, and his son, a fine young man named Marcus, was running next to the carriage as the horses lazily trotted down the road they were traveling.

On top of the carriage in what this Felix Aesir called the lotus position sat his daughter, Aurabella, meditating after a method Felix had taught her.

Despite being a nobleman this Felix didn’t come off as those high and mighty nobles that Sullivan was used to. In fact he seemed a rather happy and easy going fellow to all appearances that is if Sullivan hadn’t seen the other side of him in the last town they had visited. The cold almost unfeeling man that he had seen there still sent shivers down Sullivan’s spine, but then again the circumstances had been rather horrid.

It had been a small town of maybe twenty or thirty families with a few youngsters of marrying age with a low ranked noble as the mayor. A baron much like Felix himself but he had been using the fact that the town was isolated in a small valley to lord over the people. Putting on taxes of both gold and food proclaiming that there was a drought in the empire and thus these overt taxes were required.

His son Marcus had taken it upon himself to investigate and find that the baron was also responsible for kidnapping some of the younger generations to sell as slaves and had brought undeniable proof to the people after apprehending the baron.

As is typical in such heated circumstances the people rioted, they had been made poor, some even destitute and all were starving in one way or another due to the lords actions. They had burned the man at the stake and then raided his estate, pillaging the entire thing and burning it down to the ground. As Marcus had watched on in horror his father had walked up next to him and in so cold a voice that even now it sent shivers down Sullivan’s spine thinking about it, said.

“This is humanity, weak and ruthless when they smell weakness of any kind from others. They use their minds to shackle one another with laws that only benefit the rich and those already in power. They do not care for their fellow man as they should and some would sacrifice their own neighbor in a heartbeat if it meant they’d get ahead in life. They are a cancer that only holds power due their prolific numbers, they aren’t stronger than other races, in fact I’d say physically they are among the weaker ones. Now why do you think they hold so much dominion over this continent?” He had asked with an emotionless tone and cold eyes as he looked at his distraught son.

His son had been crying at the sight before him as the people then turned on themselves after dealing with the baron and his estate. All in an effort to gain more for themselves. Marcus had simply looked up at his father and recoiled as Felix continued. “Some among them have souls with a hole that can never be filled and a hunger that will never be satisfied. They are cunning and use their short little lives to the fullest of their abilities, breeding like rats and descending on others lands like a plaque of locust. Even if this empire ruled the entire continent of Imerith it wouldn’t be enough and would soon either crumble due to it’s own decadence or from strife within. Take my word for it Marcus, Humans should only be looked upon as tools, tools that have already served their purposes and only dance to the tune of their own desires and the desires of their so called gods.”

Felix had then looked from the burning estate at the end of the town to his son. “You know my story and it isn’t even what I’d call a unique one, Marcus. Do not be swayed by humanity when it is at it’s lowest because more often than not it was humanity that got itself into the mess it is in. It isn’t your job or purpose in life to jump to the rescue of beings that would sooner slit your throat for the gold in your pocket than to accept the bread in your hand.”

“B-but how do you then live among them? If you hate them so much?” Marcus had asked his throat getting caught as he looked up at his fathers cold eyes.

“Hate them? Oh, no,no,no,no,no, I pity them instead, they never look at anything but the superficial and never try to understand a situation from every side. Simply going with the path of least resistance and with no care for others nor their circumstances. You ask me how I’d live with them? Then here’s my answer. You give them a chance, just one, nothing more and nothing less. Much as the chance life gives you, you only get one after all…. Normally at least. If they can’t show themselves to be decent and good with that chance then you aren’t obligated to help them in anyway, I would encourage you to end any human that so much as tries to harm you. No matter their lauded intentions of either good or ill it matters not. They often hide behind their beliefs or gods to be exempt from responsibility for their own actions.” Felix said as he looked at his son with a tired and sad smile before taking his shoulder in a tight grip as he leaned down.

“You do not allow those that covet what you rightfully have take it away from you. If they cheat and lie to take from you then there is only one thing you should do to them in turn.”

“W-what?” Marcus had asked with an almost lifeless tone.

“You end them or any chance that they could ever become a threat to you in the future. Repay kindness with kindness but don’t tolerate deception or backstabbing. If they harm you either kill them or cripple them beyond salvation. Once we reach Veta I’ll show you what happens if you give such humans too many chances. I’ll give any noble we encounter three chances but at the end of those chances you will watch how I deal with them and you will learn the true face of humanity for the unrepentant scum that they can be. Well that is if their actions are directed at me, if any of them act against you or Aurabella.” Felix’s voice was now hard and almost heated as if the conversation was reminding him about something in his past and the rage in his voice as he continued was so visceral that despite the calm tone Sullivan wouldn’t forget it.

“I would burn this world to the ground to get the one that had harmed either of you.”

They had then left the town after a few of the peasants had decided to tear the carriage apart for any goods they could get in their frenzied greed and hatred for nobles. Felix had butchered the lot and left them impaled on spikes as a warning to the others in the town.

He had been silent for a long time after that not even speaking to his children for a full day afterwards.

Sullivan looked over at Felix, no he guessed he should call him Baron Aesir as his tittle demanded, and wondered why he had hired a human despite his rather… bleak view of his race. After the last town he could understand such a view if that was the side of humanity he had been exposed to the most but he couldn’t believe the elf was so callous towards an entire race.

His train of thought stopped when Felix opened one of his gray eyes and looked at Sullivan. “Mister Peyton, Is the road so clear you can look around yourself?” He asked with a playful smile before he gently took hold of Sullivan’s hands and tugged on the reigns to stop the two horses pulling the carriage.

Sullivan had thought he was about to be hit or something as many nobles did tend to be very short tempered but was more confused at being stopped in the middle of the road like this.

A raven, black as sin if not for the strange white markings at the end of it’s wing feathers and along its face that made it look like it’s skull was exposed came flapping down and landed on Felix’s knee. Sullivan was wide eyed as he had never seen such an animal before.

“Master Aesir.” The raven said as it dipped it’s head in a birds form of a bow. “It is as you suspected, they saw you stop and are now advancing.” The raven said in a smooth baritone reminiscent of those old warriors who became servants of nobility as butlers or the like though with a hoarse quality to it.

Felix smiled. “Excellent, thank you Dust. Tell me how many would you say there are?” He asked as he allowed the bird to hop onto his hand and walk up to his shoulder while he dismounted the carriage gracefully.

“Around twelve I’d say… though there might be a leader as I saw another two holding up a….” The raven began but stopped as it looked for the right word. Sullivan was flabbergasted that such a bird existed at all but what it was talking about made the carriage driver think of bandits up ahead.

“A chair of some sort but it had a roof over it so I couldn’t see who or what was inside it.” The raven then finished.

“Children! come here.” Felix said almost in a bark as Marcus came jogging up the path having lagged behind the carriage while Sullivan was lost in thought. “Aurabella, could you please go into the carriage for a few minutes for your father.” Felix said looking to all the world like an adoring and doting father as the girl pouted a little but then hugged him and went inside to safety.

“Fe… Father, what is it?” Marcus said as he caught his breath and had taken a swig of his waterskin, the youth was drenched in sweat after training under the guidance of his father. He was surprised as a sword appeared in Felix’s hands and was handed it.

“Bandits or… potential, we’ll see.” Felix said with a mysterious smile before he took out a spear and handed it to Sullivan. “Mister Peyton, guard the carriage and make sure no harm comes to my daughter.” The steel in Felix’s eyes made Sullivan swallow and nod. That and the declaration Felix had made about protecting his children was all the reason he needed to guard the girl with his life.

He then watched as the two men walked a bit forward, talking among themselves before standing before the carriage and looking in the direction ahead of them and to the sides. The winding road they traveled was a minor trade route that cut through a small forest that wasn’t fit to have a lumber yard near it. They had been forced upon this detour a few days ago because a river had flooded and taken the bridge over it with it causing them to take the obscure and long way around.

The two stood stoically and silently once in position and they didn’t have to wait very long before the gruff men and women came out of the woods on either side of the road. All looked a little pensive that their mark had known of them beforehand and had stopped before entering their trap.

Sullivan could see six male humans, two female humans, a Felinid male and two females and a burly mountain orc. Sullivan looked the orc over and noted the gray stony skin but as he noted the small bumps of thicker flesh along his shoulders he realized that the orc might be troll blooded as well.

The carriage driver swallowed at the force arrayed against them and gripped his spear tighter.

“Well aren’t you perceptive.” A sultry tone came as two more came carrying a large roofed chair with two poles on either side for the two to hold on to. Sullivan noted the burly orc woman at the back portion and the Anubian male at the front but couldn’t see the owner of the voice which he suspected was the occupant of the chair. There was a soft silk like material covering the front portion of the chair which hid it’s occupant from view but would allow the occupant to look out.

“So should I take your stance as you might be willing to negotiate?” The sultry voice asked then as the chair was placed down in the middle with the rest of the bandits ready with their weapons on either side of it.

“That does depend on what we are negotiating about.” Felix said in an almost jovial tone. “Why don’t you show me who I’m talking to and we might talk this out like… eeehhh, civilized people hm?” Felix’s tone made it seem as if he was simply joking around while he waved his hand in circles in the air with the bandits but some of the bandits faces scrunched up in confusion.

“Oh? You are a bold one~” The sultry tone said before a slender and elegant hand moved the silk covering aside and stood up from the chair. It was a Satyr. The horns and tail along with the patches of short fur along the exposed arms and up along her neck made that clear, along with her rather distinctly human features and face with legs much like any of her kind.

“I am named Nekzih Goldgnaw and I guard this road. So will you pay the toll for this road or are we going to have to.” She paused to chuckle as she licked her lips a little looking at Felix. “Negotiate a compromise?~” Her sultry tone had taken on an air of danger and a very real promise of violence if not a wild night in bed.

Felix seemed to lazily look over the assembled highwaymen before he looked back at the Satyr leader of the lot. He looked like he was about to speak opening his mouth and as sound was just emerging from his throat he paused. He seemed to be startled then visibly looked like he was quelling his anger. Then after a slow inhale and exhale to calm himself he spoke.

“That is a rather peculiar accent you have there. Where might you be from?” He asked with such civility that Sullivan felt a shiver run up his spine and gripped the spear in his hand tighter.

“Hm? My accent? What you loose your mind out of fear? Well it doesn’t matter, I’m from London, not that you’d kno-” Nekzih spoke in a haughty manner before a single word uttered from Felix shut her up.

“Kneel.” That single word caused the robbers legs to looked to have had their knees kicked from under them as they all knelt down on their knees and looked bewildered and Nekzih looked afraid.

“Tisk, tisk I’d have thought you’d be smarter than that.” Felix said, his voice devoid of any emotion as he slowly strode up to Nekzih and looked down on her, all the bandits frozen in place, though Sullivan could see two of them strain against invisible bonds. As if their clothes themselves held them in place.

“Now I know that Nekzih is no British name. Who brought you here and why aren’t you human?” He then asked and while Sullivan couldn’t see Felix’s face as he was almost twelve or so meters away but he could clearly see Nekzih’s face. She looked terrified beyond belief.

“I-I’m Skyla Scott… s-sir.” She stammered out and flinched as Felix’s slender fingers moved up and gripped her jaw.

“And how did you get to Imerith? No sorry, how did you get here to Astarune?” Felix spoke and only due to the otherwise deafening silence did Sullivan even hear him speaking in that even and severely calm tone.

“I-Imerith? Astar-rune? OH. You mean here?” Nekzih no Skyla said as she shook before swallowing hard and seemed about to continue after Felix nodded before stopping. Felix had said something that Sullivan didn’t understand before he let go of Skyla and the woman began to babble in an unfamiliar language at length. As if she was speaking to save her life, which to all Sullivan knew she was.

Felix Aesir (Vlad von Carstein)

“I got here be-because I died and this uhh… man, asked if I wished to be reborn. The whole… uh Isekai shtick you know. I got a menu and character creation the whole rpg starter thing. Then I got to choose were I’d start and I even get quests and stuff.” Skyla said in her near rambling tone as I glared down at her.

I could feel the strain on my stamina and mana as I continued to keep shadow manifestation going to hold only three of them in place. I had to keep my emotions in check because I knew that Skyla wasn’t who she said she was when I had inspected her and gotten a surprising notification.

Reincarnatior only status.

Name: Skyla Scott Assumed Alias: Nekzih Goldgnaw

Race: Satyr (Demi)

Class: Rogue (15) Dancer (10)

Professions: Bard (3)

Titles: Beloved of “#%$#!%&%”, Questing Dame, Reincarnatior.

“And that’s sort of how I came to this road with a quest to rob the heartless baron blind but your the one that came instead so now I don’t know what to say. Are you a god? A reincarnatior like me?” Skyla then said when I tuned back in after going through my thoughts. She had just begun rambling about how she had followed several quests to gain a class of her choice and then another to gain ownership of a tavern in Veta along with a small gang for her. It sounded all rather… to put it bluntly? It all sounded just a little too baby’s first quest line-esqe for my tastes. Then again I’d been thrown into the deep end, she’d been given the language right off the bat.

“So you tried to rob me blind because a quest told you I was heartless?” I asked almost letting out the growl of annoyance in my tone as I looked at her.

Skyla bit her lower lip a bit before asking. “C-considering you are s-somehow restraining all of us with little effort I’d say you’d have to be… for this kind of power as far as I know. Did you make a deal with a demon or something?” She asked sheepishly though I still noted the fear in her voice, and a part me reveled in it.

“Who was it that invited you here?” I asked and this time I let the growl in my voice be heard. She flinched as she saw my brow’s slowly lean down as I looked at her.

“H-his name was Thesimus… That’s what he said his name was.” Skyla almost cried as she answered before she grew confused as I placed my hands up against my face and groaned, very loudly.

“Please don’t tell me, do you have an icon on your map?” At Skyla’s confused nod I let all three I held of the bandit group go from my shadowy grasp, I was just glad the others had been too scared by the first display of power when I made them kneel to move. I tossed a small knife at Skyla’s feet.“Draw it.” I growled low at her and I saw her bandit group take slow wary steps away from me and to stand behind or around Skyla. I almost smiled a little to myself at the display of loyalty despite the situation and considering the type of people they appeared to be.

Then I had to ruin it by looking down and seeing a familiar icon. An Icon I had seen many a time for an entire month when Thesimus, the god of mischief and games had decided to play with my life. My entire class load out was changed and I became a level sixty jester of the gods as well as a level ten Fate’s Dupe with skills more along the lines of a jester type bard and dancer. My weapon had even turned into a puppet on strings which I had to use like a messed up wizards staff, though I had beaten a goblin to death with it when it startled me when I went to the bathroom alone that one night.

Now in hindsight I think he was warning me about Aona and her nature but at the time I hated his guts and down there drawn in the dirt was the icon he had put at the head of my status screen as a sort of class Icon. Something this world’s usual statuses don’t have.

It looked quite a bit like those heartless from that game kingdom hearts, except it has a pointy hat and a sneaky grin with x’s for eyes. What wasn’t spelled on the pointed hat was the word dunce as it had been on my status page though. I groaned a defeated groan and then looked at Skyla with all of my annoyance showing for the first time.

“Unless you want me to leave you as a stain or better yet not even a smear on this road I suggest only.one.single.thing. Leave me and mine out of anything you do, especially if that icon is showing on your map or anything so much as relates to me with your quests got it?! I had to deal with his shit for a month and I’m not doing it again!” I said glaring at the poor girl with no idea in who’s service she was in.

“I’ll give you just a hint of how badly I’ll fuck up your day if I so much as see you looking in my direction in any way other than seeing which way not to go. I will take out your still beating heart and force you to eat it if I’m caught up in his schemes again.” I said as the growl in my voice grew slightly as time went on. My nails also slowly grew out into claws which made her even more confused and scared than before.

Once I had finished I looked at the terrified bandits and one thoroughly terrified and miserable emissary of a god between them I snorted and turned from speaking English to another language they’d all understand. “Get out of my sight and stay out of my sight or reach for as long as you wish to breathe. Do I make myself clear.” I growled at them and all nodded vigorously before I made a shooing motion with my hand and watched them run away.

“Was that really necessary?” Morice or rather Marcus asked me from behind and I turned to grin at him.

“You mean terrifying a play thing of a god into staying as far away from me as she can possibly be? And not killing her in the first place?” I asked chuckling a little at the dawning of a horrific realization came upon Morice’s face.

“Wh-who?” He asked shakily.

“Thesimus.” I answered curtly and Morice gulped.

“Many people have been laid low due to his meddling in his stories, still can’t believe that what you told me is true. I’ll have to rethink many of our histories heroes if many of them were like you or something like her.” Morice then said after I had taken him to the side and explained what Skyla had been and how that related to my own story and about the hypothesis I had about the gods bringing in people from earth for either fun or as some sort of disposable mercenary force to do their bidding.

However at that point my strength abandoned me and I almost fell to the ground if not for Morice’s assistance to hold me up. “What happened?” He asked with a worried expression and got bewildered when I chuckled a little at his response.

“You think I’m capable of such display’s of power without any feedback? I’m not that strong just yet, I simply have better control than others at similar positions in power to me.” I responded as the cost of holding those bandits and a herald of a god, who are notoriously resistant to magic by the by, came to bite me in the ass. I felt so weak, like my limbs had turned to soggy noodles or jelly even.

Mister Peyton still stood in the driver’s seat with a spear in his hand. Looking for all the world to see he was guarding the hell out of his charge. I smiled at the sight, it made me think that perhaps I wouldn’t kill him once we reached Veta to keep any trail from truly forming in my wake. I’d have to make sure to test him later to make sure he wasn’t a waste of a single chance.

I still remembered the lecture I had given Morice that day when he had asked me to help that town and the subsequent aftermath. I would practice what I preached and give any human in Veta a single chance to prove their worth in keeping around.

The nobles were a lesson all of it’s own, with three chances he would be able to see and learn which nobility wasn’t to be trusted at all and how no matter how benevolent you’d be towards them they would always try to get what was yours or pay back a slight. Even if only a perceived one.

I smiled a little at the unexpected gain from that day. “Mister Peyton, I must thank you for your diligence in protecting my daughter in such a situation.” I said with a warm smile, I had to narrow my eyes in a happy manner so he couldn’t see that the smile most definitely didn’t reach my eyes.

“Ar-Are you all right, Baron Aesir?!” He said with an almost panicked face as he jumped down and rushed to our side, taking care of my other side to help Morice drag me along.

“Just the price for power is all.” I said simply, I disliked lying ever since I had seen that Deciver skill come up in my choices it had been simmering in the back of my mind. It had made me reevaluate how I’d present myself in this new life and the past I had lived. I was a good liar, I could lie with a straight face effortlessly but I didn’t like it. Hmm perhaps I’d need to work on telling the truth but in such an obscure way that others will most likely fill in parts with their own imagination.

After all there are quite a few truth spells, both arcane and divine in nature. Maybe I’ll get a manipulation skill or something. I chuckled at the thought, then again that might also backfire on me.

I was glad I hadn’t had to say much else and had been put into the carriage right before I had chuckled as I simply asked mister Peyton to get on the way once more while I and my children stayed in the carriage. I saw how Akasha was pouting at me for being left in the helpless position but truthfully she was. Right now I was simply having her work on her mana control for now. I wanted to see if she had the makings of a mage to begin with before I’d even try to teach her anything else.

“Aurabella.” I spoke calmly though I had a small smile on my lips. “You aren’t ready for combat of any kind. Yet. That is why I’m going to see if I can’t enroll you into one of the magical academies in Veta while we are there.” That shut her up and she stared at me with wide eyes, a bit of fear in them as well.

“B-but aren’t those schools for nobles and the like?” She asked in a whisper which made me chuckle.

“Isn’t your father nobility?” I asked with a slightly cocky grin on my face.

Then something dawned on her and the other lessons on etiquette and posture I had forwarded from my short time in Wolfsguards court. How to stand, move, speak and act. They had drilled it in quite mercilessly and most of it had faded before I had died but after getting the Vampire Baron class. It felt like it all came back and much more naturally with this sort of ease of movement that made it easy to pick up again. Morice had even commented that I had begun to have this sort of grace in my movements of late which I attribute again to the class and the Dark Majesty passive skill I had gotten.

This hadn’t been the only run in with bandits we had come across but it was the only noticed one. During our travels I had Dust scout the areas around us and during the night to watch over the camp while I dealt with them. That had given me enough levels and skill points to get out of my deficit of skill points and gain a few extra skill points to upgrade this other skill I had gotten with the class that was something I loved I had gotten.

A skill called Mortal Disguise, at it’s basic level it allows me to change the small blurb notification about me that others get if they use something like a basic or medium identify skills or their equivalent. So to all that do so will get this little notification instead.

Status.

Name: Felix Aesir of House Aesir

Race: Dökk Alfar (Highborn)

Class: Apprentice (lvl. 9), Baron (lvl. 3), Swordsman (lvl. 19), Squire (lvl. 16)

Professions: N/A

Titles: The Heartless Baron, Beloved of Mana.

Wait? What? Those titles weren’t there before. I scowled as I began to try and use the disguise skill to change the titles to having none. I tried for a full ten minutes, ending up pretending to go to sleep so I wouldn’t scowl at those two for no reason. I looked at the two titles again, staring at the notification in my mind for almost half an hour.

Then I decided to spend another hour on trying to change the titles as I didn’t get any explanation for them when I tried to analyze them. The Disguise skill even got to the point I could spend a point to upgrade. I did so and even then it didn’t allow me to change them so I gave up on it.

I opened my eyes and saw two strange expressions on my “children” and frowned. “Is that any way to look at your father?” I asked almost tersely though I had an amused smile on my lips.

“When you look like you just smelled something foul then I’d say, yes.” Morice answered and I grumbled a little under my breath.

“Well it seems I have titles and I was trying to get rid of them.” I mumbled which made Morice shut up and stare at me with wide open eyes. Akasha seemed to just have gotten over looking at my face and grew bored enough to look out the window at her side.

“Titles?” Morice asked with disbelief on his face.

“Yes titles. Apparently I’m beloved of Mana and the heartless baron. I think Thesimus has something to do with that. Ornery bastard probably getting one last jab in for his herald or something.” I groaned as I leaned back into my seat and then I noticed the sheer wonder on Morice’s face.

“You have the title beloved of mana?” Morice asked with a giddy expression, even his butt was at the edge of his seat. This made Akasha take note again.

“Yessss…..?” I slowly answered questioningly as I felt a little weird at this sort of attention from Morice.

Morice’s face fell at my answer as he looked at me and with a deadpan voice spoke. “You have no idea what that even means do you?”

“Not even the faintest clue.” I answered equally deadpan though now my amused smile was back.

“It means that mana will work with you instead of against you. It’s a very rare title to the point that almost every single individual that has received it has become the equivalent to an Arch Wizard or Arch priest. Many even surpassed that by some margins. It is just like the title says. V-… Felix you are loved by mana itself.” Morice spoke with a sort of awed reverence.

Ok so only one of my titles was a jab at me from Thesimus it seems. Did I get it because I’ve been infusing my body with so much mana to saturate my veins with it? I had been using that and cycling according to the easiest way in some of those cultivation manuals I had gotten from O’Malley.

I still wasn’t anywhere near getting ready to build a core, hell I wasn’t even sure I was doing it correctly not to mention that I felt that if I did try making a core something horrible would happen to me at this stage.

Of course I didn’t get much time to really ruminate on what to do to further my cultivation of mana instead of chi or spirit energy, whatever the correct name would work for this world. Neither would I get an answer to what my title would really have in store for my future as a knock at the roof of the carriage was our notice that we had come upon the capital itself.

Leaning out the window with Akasha’s head right next to mine we saw the hint of the massive outer walls that Veta sported. It was huge, I saw it just there, sitting on the horizon as I noted we still had quite a bit of time left until we came to the walls proper.

Seeing them I also saw the huge rise behind them that I suspected was the farther inner walls that circled the inner parts of the city proper along with it’s most affluent and wealthy inhabitants. And as cliché as it was, there on a raised earthworks of some sort was the castle with the third layer of walls around it.

It was definitely a very cinematic view, even what I perceived as three large towers came up out of the city around the castle. Two were very tall and seemed to have scaffolding around the tops while another was just about two thirds the size of the other two. This one even had three more much smaller towers almost hovering around next to it connected with small arching bridges that connected the three to the large tower without any of them going down to the ground. I suspected this was a mages tower as without magic I didn’t think that tower with the others connected would be possible even with godly architectural skills.

Then I saw something that actually made me mirror the excited look on Akasha’s face. Flying.Fucking.Ships. A huge schooner, with two humps on the wood under it’s aft end along with a large sail at the back which I assumed was acting as a rudder, came gliding through an embankment of clouds. It came out like so many action movies of cars going through walls but the way it emerged from the wall of clouds was just majestic. As if it was born to cut through clouds like calm sea waves.

Morice and mr. Payton looked like they had already seen this a few times but still enjoyed looking at it. I simply marveled that this world had something wondrous like that and my mind began to think of things to use such technology for. That soured my mood a little but the schooner went on to bank hard into another small cloud and had it plow out around it, that made my smile come back.

“Imagine owning one of those.” I said to myself but the sudden jerk at my stomach made me look down at a puppy eyed Akasha staring up at me. I smiled and gently petted her head. Our relationship had grown a little over the last few days, we weren’t father and daughter yet but we were at least out of the distrusted adult phase for her. “I doubt I’d ever get enough money to buy one of those but I’ll at least try to get my hands on one.” I said with a smile as she squealed in joy.

With that done she began to speak in rapid sentences that barely made any sense as we continued to watch the schooner coast along the sky. I then saw it move in and dock at the two larger towers. I felt again that wonder I had felt when I first came to this world, well after the existential dread and language barrier had been overcome at least.

I looked down once more and smiled at seeing Akasha excitedly look towards the city now. I had begun to think on why I had adopted her on something like a whim. Perhaps something in me wanted to improve her life but then I’d have to wonder about why I hadn’t freed all the other slaves in that black market. Did I free and adopt her so that I had something holding my actions back? Subconsciously giving me something that would limit the sheer fucking horror I wished to inflict upon Wolfsgard and the so called pantheon of light? I then got a slightly strange idea into my head.

Were had this body come from? I did wake up inside a coffin after all. Was this body created and just stored somewhere before I got put into it? I hoped I’d be able to know that along with a few more choice pieces of information in the future. Such as what the hell was someone doing in the deep, Deepwoods driving a cart like a madman with a coffin in said cart?

I sighed a little and rubbed the back of my neck. I’d have to ask the council tonight when I went to sleep. Though a break and a good nights sleep wouldn’t hurt either. After all, I had spent around a year “awake” now.