Gula POV

____________________________

The rain began to fall all over my body as we made our way towards the pond that we originally came through. As the sky darkened, the light in my chest felt like it could more than makeup for the sun's retreat. Looking up to the sky with a smile on my face I let the rain fall down my cheeks and clothes as a smile I couldn’t put down mocked the dreary scenery.

The boys were also quite pleased as well, as they damned well should be. We helped take down a fort. By the bastard’s beard, a whole fort! It still didn’t feel real, like I was just waiting to pull up from my bed and go back to reality. The reality where I spent month after month listening to the gossip and orders where we pulled back again and again. The reality where we just tried to not lose too much as opposed to trying to win.

Going back into the water tunnels, the traffic was still pretty light. Of course, news didn’t travel instantly, and I made it clear to Baloo that I wanted to make it home as quickly as possible. It was going to be my report that provided the first bit of intelligence the higher-ups got that anything had changed.

Coming out of the tunnel I quickly threw off the helmet and waved goodbye as I sprinted through the cattails and mucky swampland in the mid to late afternoon. Getting home, I saw mother, dressed in her typical white shirt and brown dress, skinning some fish. She looked up at me with a nod and went back to working on the fish she was cutting in half. Going into the rough wooden house I took out a piece of crude paper and a string from a chest in the back-right side of my home's main room. Picking out a piece of charcoal from the extinguished cookfire, I wrote out the report detailing the day’s events and the plan for tomorrow. My task finished; I began proofreading the report.

‘I helped take down the underground fort. Urog was wrong when she tried to fail me from the wayfarers regiment. Accomplishing more than any of those miserable cunts who shunned me I-‘

Apparently, I was still bitter.

Scrunching up the paper and starting over, I made sure to pay special attention to what I was actually writing down this time and finally put together a dry, proper report. Taking a whistle off the wall of hooks to the right of my houses entrance, I made my way outside. I gave a good blow into the piece of wood and as the soft whine of the whistle carried off into the distance, I reflected on everything that had happened today. It still seemed surreal, that not only had we pushed back the humans stone monsters, I actually had a role in it.

Finally, a hawk came out over the treetops and landed on my shoulder. Tying the report around its right leg with the string, I went back inside and changed into my typical casual attire; a white shirt and brown pants with boots.

I went back into our main room and sat on a stool near mom as she began a fish stew.

“So, how did it go?” She asked casually as she worked a big spoon in the red spicy broth.

“Eh, it was okay. Got through the tunnels fast enough after we took out the underground fort, but the rain helped washing the blood off me, so the tunnel water wasn’t dirty.” I said lightly like it was all no big deal as I leaned back on the stool.

Moms long twin braids of brown hair stopped as the muscular woman sat still for a moment before they whipped around as she turned to me. Her red irises looked at me with disbelief.

“You… How?” She demanded.

“The leather was treated to be water proof and since the blood-“

“Not that, you insolent spawn of my womb! How did you take out the fort?” she demanded as her thick green lips puckered in irritation around her nose ring of bone.

I couldn’t keep the smug expression off my face, so I decided to not tease her anymore.

“The mage and two of his friends, we’re going with the story that they’re Pandegos when we start working with the other orcs, used some odd weapons and a charge to drive the troops under ground, with us pushing in on an entire section ourselves. As the soldiers waited for the messenger to save them, we used some crafts the quad element mage made to suck all the air out. Once that was done, the guy who I assume to be their leader summoned a huge solid block of stone to crush the tower. It bent the large metal core of the central tower but the fort underneath was still solid. Then he did it again, turning the whole thing into a pit of rubble.” I finished.

Mother clapped excitedly as she got up and hugged me.

“That’s my girl! Did what no one else could do.” She said as I felt her tears soaking into my shoulder. Blood started rushing to my face as I struggled to deal with this sudden wave of emotions. But then my mother moved back and went back to the pot, her eyes still having a shimmer of tears around them.

“Well, I’d say that’s good enough for a promotion.” She said after going back to stirring the pot.

“That all depends on how the next raid goes. The mage wants to hit the old breeding pen mid-day tomorrow.” I responded.

She looked at me dumbstruck for a few moments before collecting her thoughts.

“What’s his goal, exactly? “she asked.

“Apparently, he needs something or some information from the commander at the Viper base and he’s willing to work with us orcs to take it. This is all setting up for us to help him when that time comes.” I said. Mother just looked into the stew with a blank expression before she said anything.

“You know, I almost feel bad for the humans. Decades of work going up in smoke because of one of their own.” She finally said.

“We’ll be doing most of the work. He’s just going to be giving us an edge in the few places we need.” I said in a defensive tone.

She just laughed as she put some more herbs in the pot.

“That ‘edge’ sounded like a mountain being dropped on the Coalitions head. But if that’s how you want to see it, then fine.” She said before focusing on her stew again as she poured some of the spicy liquid into a bowl.

I accepted my portion of dinner with a grumble. The rest of the afternoon passed in its typical motions. Although I was surprised to see no hawk came back with a response.

Waking up in the morning, I got a breakfast of porridge and headed out in my regular black armor. Still, no hawk had come by. Annoyed as I was to see how long it takes for any of my reports to be looked at by the people running the intel gathering and dissemination, it at least provided me a means of getting away from any long questioning sessions.

Making my way to the typical tunnel entrance, I saw my group of Frojan standing on one of the patches of dirt off to the side of the entrance to the underwater tunnels. They sat there waiting as an unusual number of other, more well dressed, Frojan started moving in and out of the water with their orcs dressed in black. My boys were off to the side of the more well-dressed Frojan who made a clear effort to not mix with my Frojan pack

Coming up to Baloo, the dark green Frogman with a slightly tattered blue robe, I motioned towards the commotion as large numbers of Frojan and orcs moved in and out of what should have been a low traffic area. He merely nodded as he sat on the ground and idly paddled his feet in the churned water.

“They’re sending out every available scout to find out what has the humans all abuzz. A buddy of mine in the more…. respectable squads said the humans have been launching attacks all day and have been burning trees around all the roads that they move supplies through. Can’t imagine what has them so irritated.” He said in a light tone as his large amber eyes shimmered in mirth.

“Yes, quite a mystery indeed.” I responded in a serious tone, but I’m sure my eyes gave me away. I still couldn’t suppress that bit of happiness that showed up in my face whenever the subject came up.

Eventually, the crowd of scouts got through and we were allowed to go to our destination. As we traveled through the dark tunnels, I mentally went over everything we knew of our next target as the cold water pressed on the parts of my body not under the helmet.

The mine had been abandoned when its vein of copper ran dry and had been converted into a base for the bandits, only later becoming an official station for the Coalitions operations and all the fortifications that come with that. It was more well-fortified on the outside, but it was also more well-known than the underground fort from the few times we got into it.

As we came up out of a pond and silently went through the bright, sunny forest I mentally went over everything I remembered about the base. It was still a good ways off and there was no evidence the humans were still traveling on these roads, but we still stuck to the woods less travelled paths as we slid and moved around large rocks and trees as the occasional hill obstructed our travel.

Coming up a hill with a large boulder to the right, my ears barely registered the soft twang of an archer’s bow letting loose an arrow. I was in the middle of the 12 plus group, so I moved behind the water shield a big red Frojan was already getting up with his wooden staff and sure enough a small volley of arrows rattled off against the water the now covered most of the group.

Sadly, a younger Frojan with blue skin didn’t react fast enough and got pin cushioned, falling down the hill with barely a word as he dropped his wooden club. Our little group quickly huddled together as the grey cloaked mages slowly moved out behind the trees, with swords, spears, and daggers. With no preamble, the near dozen women charged us. The water shields held up fine, at least long enough to get the shield spells up when an air mage gusted a wind spell over us and some of the shields disappeared as their crafts failed.

But something was odd about them this time. They were typically a lot smarter than this and would have disabled our crafts first. When the melee fighters moved in, I noticed hard sweat running down their faces and the sheer exhaustion that their eyes screamed. The previous figures of impossible power and unyielding confidence that I had seen at the Crypt and on a few other occasions were now mostly gone, with only one or two of the women beating on the shields looking like they had slept well.

They pushed against us now and occasionally got a good stab with a spear or arrow in. Nothing lethal but it started to add up. As I stabbed between the holes in our defenses even as mages farther off lobbed fire and stone balls at us, I heard a crack over the den and saw one of the mages on the trees drop from her branch as her head got blown in half. She was the farthest back and I quickly saw another one in the trees meet a similar fate.

“Defense!” I screamed.

The Frojan then packed in more tightly. While the holes in the shields gradually shrunk and disappeared as the layers of water gradually overlapped, the mages started beating against the shields more intensely since we couldn’t hit them back. Typically, that would be a disaster, but we typically didn’t have a quad element mage and two other unknown mages helping us either, so we just had to hold out.

Through the slightly distorted liquid, I saw some of the mages in the back of the mob looking around in fear as some began to move off. But the shower of blood and stone blades that showed to the left just out of my view said they hadn’t gotten away. One of the women turned to run only to get skewered by the ‘pandego’ with an orb for an eye and four arms.

Tossing her to the side, it charged into the melee with abandon as I saw another woman go down from what must have been that strange weapon, although the sound was now too distorted for me to hear the crack of them using it. Our ally bore through the women with brute strength, displaying no real martial skill but the blades and fireballs didn’t seem to hurt it as it tore apart the enemy while the vines of its flesh regrew from physical and magical blows.

The images were too distorted to make out the fine details and as it barreled over the poor souls who couldn’t get away, a curtain of blood gradually moved from the right to the left as the thing charged through with four bladed arms. We kept still for a bit, standing there in total silence for a few moments as the muffled cries and sounds of crushing bones outside gradually died down to pure silence with nothing to do but watch the gruesome liquid gradually trickle down and off the water shields. I looked around and saw the shimmering water reflecting the mid-day sun over our bodies with the red being mixed among the shimmering lights.

A knocking sound was heard to the right.

Baloo looked at me and I nodded.

“Drop the shields.” He called as the one he was sustaining a few feet in front of him shimmered into nothingness.

Standing there among the blood and severed bits was the other mage that had a pure wooden mask for a face.

“We need help with the younger one” It’s harsh voice had an odd wobble to it and seemed distorted, almost like it was talking in a cave.

I followed him down to where I saw the quad element mage leaning over the young Frojan, Krell, if I remember correctly. Some of the arrows had been taken out and it seemed like some of the holes in him were closing. The mage just kept his eyes on the blue Frojan as he rand his hands up and down the belly and shoulders of the half dead frogman.

“Do you have any potions or medicinal herbs? Anything to help him.” He said with a strained voice. His voice also had the odd warble that the previous mage had but without the harsh undertone.

A few of the older Frojan rushed forward and started applying bandages and some of those herbs we got instead of healing draughts but after a few seconds the arrow holes stopped knitting themselves closed and the blue Frojans chest stopped moving. The deer head of the mage had been looking down and his head dipped down further before he retracted his hand and stopped what I assume had been a healing spell.

“I’m sorry to say he has passed on.” He said as he got up and walked towards us.

“Thank you, for trying.” Baloo said, a sentiment that seemed to be reflected by the other Frojan.

“We need to be quick. Are there any rights or ceremonies that need to be performed?” The quad element mage said.

I raised an eyebrow at the question but an older Frojan who had been administering the bandages simply shook his head.

“No, a simple farewell consisting of a prayer for his soul and a burial is all when we have the time. When we don’t, a simple prayer is enough” Is what he said.

“Do we have time for that?” I asked honestly.

The deer head turned to me and nodded.

“Sacred rights need to be observed” He said, before turning towards the two mages higher up the hill and I assume sent out a spirit connection because they both took off towards the base after a few seconds.

The quad element mage used a magical spell to dig into the earth a good five or six feet. While two of the Frojan placed the body of the younger one in the grave, the others stood around the body with a lowered head and eyes closed, as did I. The mage then covered the top of the grave with dirt and used some plant spells to make it look like any other patch of dirt in the woods.

Our task complete, we all headed towards our main destination while a few of the Frojan stayed behind to quickly look over the dead mages for any potions or other goods we might need. After a few minutes, I heard the Frojan who stayed behind run back up towards our group. The metal weapons would rust to uselessness in short order for us, but the few bottles with bright red sloshing liquid and pouches of sliver were of immense value and was gradually shared amongst our members.

We didn’t have to use the healing potions immediately since the mage healed us on the way. But as much as we gained, I still felt like something was wrong as I scanned through the woods that had the mid-day sun flowing around them.

“What’s wrong?” The warbled voice to my left asked. I turned to see the mage looking at me with the holes in the deer head only barely letting me see the odd purple eyes within.

“They were very stupid. Attacking us without disabling our crafts first, trying to mob us instead of whittling us down from a distance. I’ve never seen them so careless.” I said idly.

“I think they must have done a straight march from the Bulwark to get here judging from how tired they were. More than that, they were desperate and scared, two of the most well-known antidotes to clear thinking.” He said idly as we started making our way up the hill to look towards the base.

That thought should have been a happy one. I couldn’t count the number of times those mages laughed as they casually slaughtered us from the trees or walls, or delighted mowing us down like grass whenever we tried to face those who were so much more than us in every way. But seeing them brought so low only made me more fearful of what was now stalking their nightmares. He might be on my side now, but that wasn’t guaranteed to always be the case and if it ever came to blows… well, the obliterated chunks of the mages did not speak well of our chances.

Putting aside the ominous puzzle that was my new ally, I made my way up a slight hill as the Frojan fanned out to look around the surrounding wood as we came up to the field of stumps that announced the presence of a fort. The other two mages covered in vines and bones dropped down beside us. The male quad mage and the one with a wooden face mask started at each other for a few seconds before the deer head turned back towards the fort.

We orcs had gotten inside a few times, so I knew the general placement of the internal rooms and layouts, at least in the mine itself. Right now all I could see was the tall walls of grey square stones, each the size of a man, with the whole wall running around the flat plain and the surrounding mountain side as the ring encased the entire base in a wall five times the size of a man. Coming out of the big wooden doors was a winding road with the door idly swung open.

“Apparently, it’s abandoned.” He said in a simple, almost indifferent voice. “We did a lot of scouting earlier. The roads have no one on them. I was concerned they would throw a bunch of mages at us to try and get information on our abilities. The only group we found wasn’t in the typical four person squads and over the course of keeping an eye on them they ran into you.

Hmmm. All right, what do you know about this place?” The deer skull turned towards me.

“There’s only one entrance, the big gaping hole in the mountainside. In the mine itself, there is a long spine of wooden beams that serve as the spine for the whole base. The staircase between floors runs on two sides of the main entrance. The floors below used to be breeding pens, but I assume they’re used to store goods and house soldiers on the way to better places.” I finished.

“Breeding pens?” He seemed to ask.

“A while back the Coalition had a scheme where the humans turned in orc ears for silver to try and make hunting us more desirable for the local guilds. The problem is that they made the bounties so big that the gangs subverted the scheme by capturing and mating some of us. The bounty was generous enough that they could wait for the kids to get a deeper green skin before killing them for the ears.” I said with a sour note that just refused stay out of my voice.

He looked at me for a moment then turned back towards the fort.

“They killed their own children… for money? To think we’re the same species” He said in a cold tone. “That the Coalition would even consider working with such people is just… At least that makes my decision to undo their plans more palpable.”

I felt my lips curling as my stomach clenched but I before I could stop myself, I asked the question I knew shouldn’t ask. But I did manage to somewhat veil it in some dismissive sarcasm.

“Pffft. Oh really? If you had mated with an orc, you would consider the results your daughters?” I said in an off-handed manner like the question meant nothing even as my eyes looked at him from the side with what I knew was obvious desperation.

“Of course. They came out of my loins, didn’t they?” He responded in a casual manner before looking away towards the ‘pandego’ with a sphere in the head, who took off towards the fort after a few seconds and was summoning gusts of wind all over the plain of stumps leading up to the wall.

But I barely paid any attention to that as I just stared at the quad mage who went back to looking at the fort. A rising sense of bitterness came up in my stomach, aggravated by the gnawing voice in the back of my mind.

Damn him! Coming out of nowhere and casually punching every orcs deepest insecurity right in the gut! That quiet, gnawing question of my father’s acceptance had been in the back of my mind since my earliest days and it was now loudly blasting at full force. I wanted to cry or stab him but my discipline kept my emotions from overtaking me and instead I gripped my sword handle in frustration. The mage who went through the door eventually came back out and put a hand up with a wave to get the others to come over.

“All clear. Let’s go.” The deer skull said.

Coming up to the road leading in and out of the fort I saw various items strewn along the road. Some broken clay bowls, utensils, shirts, socks and pants. It looked like the bandits who had been guarding this base had lost their nerve and taken everything that wasn’t nailed down. The trail of items lost in the groups haste seemed to go northward.

I went through the door as the small crowd of Frojan and the other two mages came in just behind me. Coming into the fort proper, I saw a wooden stable covering almost the entire left side of the forts inner wall and to the right I saw an outdoor cooking area, with rows of benches with a large array of pots in the back under a simple roof of ramshackle wood.

Across the empty field lay more items left behind, and the ground was churned from all the carriages leaving at once. This pattern of debris and abused dirt continued all the way up to the entrance of the mine. I tried to drown out my thoughts with the surrounding noise, but I heard nothing aside from the pall of utter silence hanging over the whole place. Then the footsteps of my fellow party members came up behind me. Baloo stepped forward while his grey robe swayed in the breeze.

“If memory serves me well, the main support beam is the central wooden skeleton running along the top like a spine with the whole thing resembling the canvas supports in a carriage. But I don’t know how we’d bring it down safely.” The deep throated rumble of Baloo’s voice cut in through the silence.

It was the quad mage who stepped forward and went closer to the mine. He looked over the hole in the mountain side briefly before calling to us.

“All right, even if this place is abandoned, we need to watch for traps.” He said before a huge gust of wind shot out from him and blew into the mine with a loud whoosh.

“Magical crafts maybe disabled but that doesn’t mean any physical one are. Summon a wave of water and send it as far down the hall as you can. Send two Frojan on the walls to keep an eye out for anyone else coming.” He called with clear authority that still showed through the odd warble that was now in his voice. Two large Frojan went back towards the wall and up a staircase to the parapet while the rest went towards the mine entrance and started coordinating for a large magic working.

After a few minutes, a huge wave of water materialized from several smaller ones that merged to go shooting down the tunnel. I watched the water roll down the sides of the corridor and even flow through some doors on the side until it stopped about halfway to the end of the hallway and seemingly evaporated into the air.

“Keep your eyes and ears open, but let’s assume it’s safe to go as far as the wave did.” The quad element mage called as he reached into his vine suit. “Stay in the entranceway but do as much demolition work on the lower floors stonework that brace against the wood skeleton as you can. If the setup you described is correct, then they put all the load-bearing on the rounded top of the wooden frame.” He pulled out a bag and proceeded to hand out wooden blocks about the size of my head. The proportion of the first one was so large I figured he only brought one, but he kept pulling them out until we had six of them stacked on top of each other on the floor.

I stared in confusion for a moment but the Frojan’s eyes were wide disks of greens, ambers, and blues.

“A bag of holding.” An older blue one said almost breathlessly.

“You are a lucky man indeed.” Baloo said enviously.

I didn’t know what exactly what that was, but from what I was seeing I couldn’t help but share Baloo’s feelings. The mage just chuckled.

“In some ways I suppose I am.” He said dryly as he took the topmost block of the stack.

“I need to attach two to each section of the top of the wood frame using earth magic to press them against it. Once I’ve done that, I will activate them which will cause them to explode roughly after one minute of absorbing the ambient mana. I don’t expect to take the whole thing down but making the entrance unusable for even a few weeks will be enough. While I’m doing this, I want those walls coming down” He explained as he started walking into the mine entrance.

My talents weren’t any use here and apparently neither were the other two mages because the three of us went about scouring the camp for any useful items. After the Frojan did their bit in the tunnel, with the odd creak reporting their efforts, they all left to go to the wall and start taking that down as the two who had been on top of it came down to assist. It took nearly half an hour but eventually the Frojan summoned a giant battering ram of water and knocked a huge hole in the left side of the wall that covered the field. As the Frojan started working on the right side of the wall, I heard the footsteps of the mage coming out of the tunnel.

He looked at the three of us as we pulled back a few more yards and waited. I was by the mage with the molded wooden mask while the one with a sphere in its wooden face stood between me and the deer skull. It took a few seconds but finally I heard the rumble in the back of the tunnel and saw the top of the entrance collapse in on itself.

But before I could cheer, I felt the ground give out beneath me. My vision whirled as I fell into the collapsing floor and around me, I saw a brief vision of the sky as it was getting overtaken by dirt and stone while I desperately clawed at anything that could support my weight as the deafening cacophony of fall rock and dirt drowned out all other noise.

A giant beam of wood started falling towards me. But as it moved towards my face, I suddenly jerked to the left. I felt something pressing against my shoulder and saw the mage with a wooden mask had pushed me out of the path of the falling beam. That was all I had time to register as blackness and the rumble of dirt consumed everything as I fell.

The hard earth finally stopped my fall with a painful thud but as the dirt started to fall on me, it stopped. It was black as death and I couldn’t hear anything but then I felt my leg as adrenaline coursed through my veins. I looked down instinctively but there wasn’t anything for me to see. Just as well, considering the sensations from my leg told me it was broken.

Then I heard something shifting in the dirt and a soft moan to my left. Ah, the other mage. He must have fallen in here with me. I didn’t know how I had survived or what had caused this, but there was nothing to do now but wait for rescue. It felt like minutes but after what was probably a few seconds I felt a warmth flow through me and wash away the pain in my leg. Then a soft rumble to my… up? Started registering. A second later I heard the soft falling of dirt as a light burst out of the ground above my head.

“Ah you must be miss Gula.” A deep voice said as I scrunched my eyes at the blazing sun. When my vision finally adjusted to the light, I saw a dwarf peeking out of a hole with a light fixed on his steel helmet. His sapphire eyes looked at me with a smile that peeked around his wild black hair as he wormed out of the hole. His attire was black boots with more of that red armor with a small cape, which now flowed behind him as he got out of the hole and stood to his feet.

“You’re quite lucky this stone wall just happened- By the Stone! What in the world is that?!” He said as he suddenly jerked against the wall and got the axe from behind his back as the light from his helmet beamed closer to my feet. I looked down and saw the sphere from that one mage laying at my feet. Only it was surrounded in black liquid that seemed to have odd shapes running across it. The liquid was hovering around my left leg and was also by the other mages head as the sphere bobbed about nervously. That mage was left relatively unhurt, but the mask was broken and with a trickle of blood running down the forehead of the…goat? No, I’ve heard of them. They’re some kind of human goat things from the central continent. Only this one had been passing herself off as a human mage. While her goatish features were feminine, her chest that showed a steady breathing rate left no doubt as to her designated sex now that the vines were no longer covering her leather armor beneath.

I looked around and found that the stone around me seemed oddly straight. The realization that it hadn’t been a natural barrier, a barrier the dwarf apparently hadn’t made, that had saved us left me trusting this odd monster, at least for a lack of options to do otherwise.

“Wait!. I think it’s friendly.” I said with a hand to hold the dwarf back. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he didn’t have his axe in a throwing position anymore. I turned towards the beast.

“Thank you for saving us” I said with as much gratitude as I could muster. “where are you from?”

The sphere of what seemed to be an almost metallic substance held a faint color that constantly shifted and seemed to move like an eye. This light looked down briefly before looking back at us, and as it did an electric sensation came over me and I knew it was using spirit magic. But instead of words I got an odd sense of something. Finally, my mind recognized what it was trying to impress upon me. The deer skulled mage.

“He’s your home?” I asked, not getting it. But apparently the dwarf did as he stumbled back against the wall with a look of pure disbelief on his hefty features.

“The kings beard. He’s a scion. That quad element caster is a scion and this is his familiar.” He said breathlessly.

A scion.

Fuck.

Now I just felt angry. Angry and ashamed as I got up.

“Is she all right?” I asked the familiar. It sent a sense of agreement. The dwarf huffed and sat against the wall.

“Well, nothing to do but wait now. The cas- the scion was trying to get you guys out with magic but I guess cracking that fortress yesterday pushed even his abilities to the limit. We should have some-“He was interrupted by a crack and the sudden sunlight that showered down over us.

Looking up I saw the deer skull with black wood over it peeking behind the ledge as well as some of the Frojan.

“Are you both all right?” He asked with the warble in his voice not hiding his concern. Dropping down a good dozen feet, he came up to the goat woman who was now stirring awake as her white eyes slowly opened. All the Frojan were looking at the black thing by my foot as I got up, and they all promptly pulled back when the familiar shot up into the air with a burst of wind and off somewhere over the ledge.

Getting up, I motioned towards the Frojan above me. After a few seconds, two rope-like tendrils of water slithered down towards me and encircled themselves around me before pulling me to the surface. After climbing up the ledge, I turned around as I dusted myself off. To my left was the familiar working his way back into what I now knew to be a glorified doll while further ahead of me was a team of dwarves.

They all had the same red armor with gold inlays as before but this time they were busy pulling the last bits of stone and dirt out of the entrance with magic. Among the crowd, I saw a familiar face, Gashton. He was looking at the doll body that was slowly re-animating as the quad scions familiar slowly fixed itself inside the hole in the mask.

I heard a thump to my right and saw the quad element mage carrying the goat woman as he landed on the ground outside of what I now assumed had been a new addition to the mine, a mine that now looked like a depression in the earth as a mini landslide had covered the hall that was previously there. She was now on her feet proper, as the black thing was now back in its suit and walked over. But I ignored everything aside from the quad element mage, who was now setting the goat woman down on her feet.

“You’re a scion” I said as I stood off to the side while keeping completely still.

It was a simple statement, but it landed like a troll’s fist on everyone. The Frojan’s heads all jerked up while the dwarf’s eyes all went wide as some of them got defensive. The mage stood in silence for a moment before responding.

“Yes.”

An electric sensation came over me as a spirit connection was established and the mages voice resounded in my head.

‘It’s going to get hectic with the Coalition now. We need to start meeting up every day to keep informed of what happening. Maybe meeting around mid-day at the old crypt base if it’s- ‘

“Yes?!” I demanded.” Why… how long have you been a scion?” I asked, flummoxed at his own indifference, my anger now blossoming in full as I felt the black neck choker squeezing me despite not being any tighter than normal.

He pulled back, seemingly surprised at my outburst. But he recovered and slightly tilted his head before asking the dumbest question he could in a relaxed casual tone.

“What does it matter?” He said.

I felt blood rush to my face as my hands clenched. Not being able to respond to such a ridiculous statement, I simply turned around and left the base. Heading back towards the pond we came to this neck of the woods in, I waited for my team to come back and go home so this emotional storm of a day could just come to its end.