DAY 24

I lay with my head on my pack, watching the night sky. I hadn't been able to sleep. When I had eaten the core out of the Barghest it stoked a fire in me. Like a hot coal it had burrowed into my core and had been sending sparks through my whole body. There was a real temptation to suggest crossing the river and hunting more, if it kept this feeling going. Laying still was almost painful. I ached to move, to run, to hunt. Doing that seemed like a very bad idea given the fact that there were angry, potentially drunk, men in these woods all hopped up on glory and gold. So I lay here, with my mysterious book, and idly traced a finger over the letters on the first page. Or they could be characters like some languages did. I still didn't even know. Maybe when we got back I could ask Graroch about them. I still had the Barghest paw in my pack. The arm had been eaten, but it was a bit weird to eat fingers so I had left it alone. Maybe I could trade it to him for some more information.

Jordan grunted and twisted, and then crawled out of his bedroll. He yawned and then stretched, , jumping when he spotted me laying by the fire.

"Gods. You'd scare the beard off a goat. Eyes just like that thing." Mumbling something else, he stumbled away to piss on a bush. When he came back he crawled back in his bedroll and groaned. I thought he had fallen back asleep by the time he spoke again.

"You did good. It would have had me without your help."

"I almost pissed myself. It was never like that before, it felt so...this isn't a game, is it? We all could have died. We still could." I rubbed my hands together with nervous energy.

He was yawning and mumbling again.

"You did damn fine. I'm proud of you. So glad you came back, James."

Then he was asleep again. A painful ache high in my chest competed with the one deeper in my core.

Shortly before dawn it started to rain lightly. In pretty quick order the hung over and soggy men packed up their camp and we all headed back to the town. Word spread quick once we got to the gate. One of the uninjured guards ran ahead to inform Lord Wolsey. As we trudged through I realized I still didn't know what this town was even called. It's not like they had a sign.

A few of the men peeled off. One quite literally when his wife grabbed him and physically hauled him away, screaming the whole time about how he was a damned fool for running off into the forest on a monster hunt. Jordan, Leu, three of the others, and I, continued on to the House. The Barghest head on Jordan's pack was drawing a bit of a crowd. Denan was just hurrying out the door as we arrived. He did a half bow half salute thing as we approached.

"Good day. Please come with me, Lord Wolsey wishes to see you."

He lead us to the inner courtyard and seated us at the tables. A few servants came out of the kitchen with platters and pots enough to make a feast, and several large bottles and cups. Lord Wolsey emerged, grabbing a cup and toasting our group.

"Hunters! Welcome. Look at that monstrosity." He raised his cup and the men cheered. A few others of the House were lingering by doorways and windows to get a look. Wolsey sat and Jordan started another retelling of the hunt.

I had a feeling in short order the beast would be ten feet high and breathe fire. To his credit Jordan was open about how important I had been, and how he and the boy probably would have died without me. Wolsey didn't seem happy about that, I think it was plain he would have preferred to have never heard my name again, but it did seem to shift his opinion more towards guarded neutrality rather than thinly veiled hostility. Maybe now I'd be able to have a conversation with people without feeling like a piece of shit.

Shortly after Denan and Dolan entered, carrying a rather nice leather pouch, and a small scroll. They presented these to Wolsey who handed them to Jordan with a roaring cheer. Another cheer went up when Jordan gave ten coins each from the reward to the three injured men and Leu, and then a rather quieter and more confused cheer when he handed the sack of sixty gold coins to me. Wolsey coughed out a bit of his wine, but put on an appropriately gracious expression. The coins were smaller than I expected, about the size of dimes, but I was pretty shocked and almost spilled the pouch when he handed it to me. I had really expected a line about how friendship was the real reward.

Dolan sat with us, though Wolsey and Denan both left shortly after. He had his papers out and was taking many notes, trying to get as many details as he could about the beast and whether there had been any signs of others or a continued danger. As they were chatting I got out the book to keep looking through it.

After Dolan was satisfied he had heard enough Jordan went off with a group of men to find more ale. None of the others were paying us much attention anymore, most of them leaning on the table for support by this point. Dolan glanced over at me and got very quiet and still.

"Where did you get that? Was it with the Barghest?"

"I found it in one of the goblin caves on the other side of the river. It was abandoned. Do you know what it is?" I put the book on the table.

He tried to be casual as he slid his satchel to cover it, and leaned close to talk quietly.

"It is a codex of dark magic. I have only seen them in the hands of followers of such gods." He turned to look me in the eyes. "If it were yours, the words would glow when you touched it and it would be proof you were their follower. If the words were glowing I would kill you right now despite the service you have done for the realm. Put it away, and don't show anyone else on this side of the river. Best if you throw it back where you found it and pray you have not angered a god by stealing from them. I have seen wars started for less."

I slowly slid it off the table and into my pack, wrapping it back up.

"Oh. I had no idea."

"Did you read it?"

"I can't understand any of it. I don't even know what language it is."

"Good. That's good. I suggest you go now, and take it back across the river. Throw it in the water, or bury it. If anyone else sees it…" He gathered his papers back together, and then walked into the hall.

More than a little disturbed, I finished my food and stood up. It took a few nudges to get Jordan's attention.

"Hey. Thanks for the gold. It really does mean a lot to me."

"Are you going, we just got here?"

"There's something important I need to do, but I'll come back to your house in a few days."

He stood up and pulled me into a tight hug.

"You're welcome any time."

With a pat on the back I went back out to the town square. Graroch was at his stall again, so I headed over there.

"Hey, big Gob walking. Heard you took down the beast and saved the princess."

"Something like that. How about this?" I pulled the Barghest paw out of my pack. He clicked his tongue a few times.

"You really did." He picked it up and sniffed it. "Oh that's fresh, and only a bit of Gob spit on it. How much you want for it?"

"How about another trade? I need some more information."

"Sure thing." He was already sliding it into a bag.

"What do you know about something called a Codex?"

"Magic books written by gods for their followers. Read one and you learn right good. Anything they want. Teach you how to knit, cook a horse, ride a meal, whatever they want, in a snap."

"Can anyone read them?"

"Well, like anything else you need to read it first. If you can't do that it's no good to you. They are pretty though, words written on leaves, scrolls of human skin, pages of metal, that kind of thing. You looking to buy one? They're not cheap. Need a whole wagon of paws for the least of them. They don't let them go easy, lots of work to make, and they're junk after someone reads it once so that keeps the prices high."

"How about this, know the language? I think this is how it's written but I don't know what it means." I did my best to lightly scratch the word I had seen carved in the goblin cave a few weeks before.

Graroch squinted at it, and then tilted his head

"It's familiar. I've seen a bit of it from other traders over the years. That first one means it's a request, something, something, meeting? Together? That's all I got. Is it important?"

"Just curious. It's nothing important. Thanks." I started to head out, but stopped "Oh, one more thing, what's this town called anyways?"

He gave me a funny look, and then pointed up. I glanced up, seeing nothing.

"Thanks, put that one on my tab."

I left town and headed back towards the cabin I had started making. It was a little more than two hours walk to Jordan's cabin, and then about an hour walk past that to the clearing with my cabin. Nothing had gone missing, but the berry bush I had tried to plant had died. Some foxes had been living in the cabin, so I left them alone. The goblin caves were about another hour walk away. I wanted to visit them anyways, but I was unsure about if I actually wanted to abandon the codex, or if I wanted to risk holding onto it, even though people would apparently kill me for having it, and it was no good to me since I couldn't read it. When I crossed the river it felt like a weight had lifted off my mind, I felt better.

As I approached the cave my tribe was in, though it did feel a bit weird to think of them that way, I heard several hoots that could have been birdcall. I stopped and looked around. Knowing what to look for now, it didn't take long to spot them. Mossy green and brown lumps among the trees, with only beady eyes peeking at me. The tree goblins had become even more plantlike.

I waved.

"Hey guys." They didn't respond, so I continued on. By the time I reached the cave goblins were spilling out of it. They had grown. Several were practically hulking brutes, easily twice the size they had been. They'd give a grown human a hard fight. Others were still small and slender. Maybe they weren't getting enough to eat. Almost every one of them had a wooden spear or club, belts with pouches or small bags. A few had crude bows. Their painted markings had gotten even more intricate, with accents of green and red. Many had started to grow out beards or hair.

One of the brutes approached me, slapping a club idly in his hands. I got a bit of a surprise when I realized it was Abe, and that we were practically the same height. I certainly didn't feel like a brute after having spent days with people head and shoulder taller than me. Abe had filled out quite a bit. Not lanky anymore, and with a bit of a beard growing in. He had what appeared to be bird skulls braided into it.

"Karl!"

"Abe. You look good."

"Strong." He clapped me on the shoulder, hard.

The rest of the tribe was crowding around, gawking at me. They seemed much more well adjusted now, not quite so ready to fly into a cannibalistic frenzy. Some were wearing crude clothing of rabbit fur or deer hide. A few were carrying woven baskets.

"Have you seen a beast in the forest?"

"What beast?"

"A bear thing. Barghest." I squatted down to sketch a rough picture of it in the dirt, and then realized the best I could do was an oval with pointy ears and big teeth. "I hunted one across the river. Did you see it when it was on this side?"

"No. Saw white deer. Ate it."

"Okay. Well if you do see one, be careful. It is very strong and smart." I sketched out a Barghest pawprint. My artistic skills allowed for that at least. Maybe they'd be able to remember it.

"Come. See."

Abe waved for me to follow as he ducked into the cave. The interior was much better furnished than I had last seen it. Much of it was woven of what might have been bark, or carved of wood. Several totems of wood and bone flanked Grob's throne, which had been upgraded into a giant section of tree trunk. Beside it sat two rather emaciated looking goblins, hunched over and twisted weirdly as they rocked back and forth.

Several of the walls had crude paintings on them, scenes of hunting or what might be worship.

"It looks...different."

Abe lead me up to Grob's throne. The big guy was positively massive now, towering over Abe and I. I couldn't imagine what he must be eating, but I would call him an ogre rather than a goblin. I doubted he could even stand up straight in here. He was wearing a striking bit of white deerskin across his chest like a vest. Bearskins draped across the throne and floor around it. Two goblins lurked behind his throne, oddly shadowy despite my nightvision.

Grob didn't even try to stand, he just gestured vaguely at us and grunted. He looked bored.

"You're looking good. Who are they?" I couldn't help but stare at the skeletal figures beside him.

"Witches." As Grob's deep voice rumbled out the two looked up simultaneously, their eyes glimmered like the night sky. I felt a whisper across my mind. It was almost like what had happened with the priest back in the town. Something else was looking out through their eyes. Something old, alien, and hungry. I tried, and failed, to avoid shuddering when one reached out to grab my hand. It lightly ran its claws over my palms, and then too quick to stop it darted in to run a tongue over them.

"You taste of humans." It said in a hissing and raspy voice.

"You taste of the hunt." The other one continued.

"We taste your fears."

"We taste your anger."

"We see…" Its eyes slowly shifted to look at my pack.

"We see…" Abruptly both the witches shuddered and convulsed, and the alien presence vanished. Reactively something in my mind lurched after it as I tried to understand what they were doing. I needed to know more. A concept wriggled through my mind, slipping away, like a distant radio station. I focused on the sensation and it grew stronger. It was the same as those parasitic worms, the same slithering presence. Something flashed across the bottom of my vision,

“Skill [Mentalism: Rank 1] discovered. +1 bonus to Conviction, Intellect, and Perception”

"What the hell did you do?" I yanked my hand out of their grasp now that I had the presence of mind to move again.

"What do we see?" The one in front of me asked, no longer looking sinister but just scared and confused.

"Take it away. It is ruin, it is death!" The other one curled up as if in pain.

"What did you do?" I rubbed my hand on my tunic. I might have to amputate and burn it.

"We serve the old ones." One sneered.

"Who do you serve? Whose power do you carry? You stink of it, Manling." The other was circling behind me.

"I...need to leave now." Somehow they or whatever they served could sense the codex. Maybe keeping it really wasn't a good choice. Another knot of panic was tightening in my chest. Even as I retreated from the cave, I could still feel the smallest glimmer of that alien attention in my mind. I was horrifyingly not alone anymore. Then like a shadow with too many eyes and teeth it settled down and went to sleep.

"Bye bye." Grob grumbled. I couldn't imagine spending all day next to those two. Maybe he wasn't bored. Maybe he had snapped.

I stumbled out into the open air and took a few deep breaths. Abe followed me.

"Human things." he lightly poked at my tunic.

"I made a friend, a human. He's nice. You two would...well you'd probably try to kill each other."

"I'm nice." Abe grinned viciously.

"How do you put up withl with those two creeps in there?"

"I hunt. They tell secrets. Find food."

"Ugh. I need to go now. Take care of yourself. Weird stuff is happening."

I stumbled away, far enough that I couldn't see any of them anymore. Then I collapsed onto the ground. I could still feel the taint of that thing's touch on my mind. It had done something to me, left something in my mind. Or perhaps woken up something that had already been there. Was that why I could do what other goblins could not? Was I a follower of these Old Ones and not even aware of it?

Surely I wasn't. I knew who I was, I had a life to get back to. I had a cat that might be eating my comatose body right now while I lived out this fantasy nightmare in my last few moments alive. I had to get back to…what was her name? The cat's name escaped me. I had to get back to my apartment. Or my roommate, I had to get back because I'd never live it down if Ryan found my naked ass on the bathroom floor.

Was that even real? Or had those aliens mindfucked me until I broke enough to think I wasn't the same as the rest of the goblins and they were using me like a puppet to cross boundaries they couldn't?

They wanted me to get rid of the codex. They seemed to be afraid of it. Was that a trick? Should I keep it so they would stay away from me? I pulled the codex out of my pack and unwrapped it. The words still made no sense to me, but I ran my claw over them as I tried to breathe deeply and relax.

I had made it all the way to the last page when my heart jumped, my claw skittering across the sheet without a trace. On the inside of the back cover there was a small inscription I could read.

"Excellent Codex of Skill [Ritualism]. Crafted by Teefies."

I remembered that name. One of the gods that had ruled these lands before the alliance had taken over. Nobody had said she was an evil god who practiced dark magic. The thought trailed off. Dolan's word was all I had to go on that this was even dark magic to begin with. Would he really be impartial about something created by one of the gods his masters had kicked out? Oh, shit, what if he had left to go tell the alliance gods that an old rival might have come back to try to get her territory back? The Old Ones might be afraid of it simply because it was created by a rival. They certainly seemed evil, as things went, so why would they avoid dark magic, if anything they were likely to be the ones using it.

"It was right in front of me this whole time." I moaned, feeling like such an idiot. It had been written here all along and I hadn't even really noticed it because I was so focused on the pages. That was why something had seemed familiar when Jordan had been explaining the history of the region. Rubbing my face, trying to squish the stupidity out of my head, I flopped backwards and looked up.

"What else have I been missing?" I asked the sky. After a minute I sat back up.

I folded the goblin leather over the book, my eye catching on a light spot.

"Excellent hide(Goblinoid). Durability 95/100. Crafted by Teefies."

"Fuck!" I dropped the bundle and jumped to my feet, claws digging into the sides of my head. I couldn't be this stupid. There was no way I was this dense. I snatched the bundle back up and turned it over. The words were on that side as well. I rotated the bundle all around, the words stayed hovering over it.

"Fuck?" I slid my hand over the leather, the letters floated around it. Taking a deep breath I slowly exhaled. Maybe I wasn't clueless. Lots of stuff had happened in the last few days. There had been that blackout. I had eaten the magic core of a Barghest. Aliens had hentacled my brain. Had one of them changed something? Any one of them, or a combination of all of them, could have done something. The trees didn't have floating labels, or the people I had been with. I hadn't noticed them on anything else.

I looked down at my chest.

"Rough Tunic(wool). Durability 25/50". Desperate I started grabbing things out of my pack. They all had floating labels that popped up when I looked at them and vanished when I looked away. I wasn't clueless, something had unlocked my ability to identify things, or at least my ability to consciously process the information.

I felt marginally better. Dropping my handful of belongings I looked up, raising my arms and doing a series of gestures.

"Menu. Options. Escape. Log out. Inventory. Shit." My arms fell in defeat. Nothing had happened.

I shoved my things back into my pack, feeling a little bit of pride when I saw that some of the things I had crafted were Fine quality. At least I had done something right. My hand lingered on the codex, and then I shoved it back in as well. I was going to keep the thing. By all signs Teefies had left decades ago and showed no signs of coming back, she hadn't even fought to keep this land. She abandoned this, there was no reason to throw it away now.

As I swung my pack on I wondered what other things were currently invisible to me. Although I was feeling better now, I really didn't want to go back to the goblins. I turned around and headed towards my cabin, I was tired, and this had been one hell of a week.