Chapter 18: Perspective.

Turning his attention from the blue-eyed man walking down the aisle toward him, Tobi looked to the man that had told him to go inside.

Seeing the smug look on Cole’s face, Tobi's mind blanked.

“Surprised?” Cole asked still grinning. “If you knew what—”

Cut off by an oversize green foot connecting to his face, Tobi stepped back in surprise.

“Traitor…” The talin growled in Elven as Cole shot across the room.

Replaying the image in his mind, Tobi’s only thoughts were three simple words: This. Is. Sparta!

Almost smiling at his thoughts, Tobi snapped back to reality. The action had come at a surprise to everyone but the Talin had only just begun. Flying across the room faster than Tobi could imagine anyone moving, the Talin caught Cole in mid-flight.

Swinging him around by the foot and throwing him in the direction of Scrim and his men, the Talin seemed to almost teleport after Coles flying body.

Feeling someone grab him from behind, Tobi spun on the spot and reacted almost without thought.

Flipping the man to his back with an easily performed hip-toss, Tobi let himself fall with the man. Sat on top in the mounted position, all of Tobi’s stress since coming to Chadú seemed to reflect back from the man looking up at him in surprise.

That’s right, I can fight. Surprise.. Tobi thought as mana gathered around his fist.

Abandoning all thought and reason, Tobi released an Arcane Strike directly into the mans chest. Feeling as though he and the man below momentarily lifted from the floor, Tobi remembered that the spell was supposed to knock you back a yard.

You have caused 25 Knock-back damage.

Target is stunned.

The secondary action of the spell had nowhere to go and blew up inside the target for double the normal damage.

Cool.

Even though he was impressed with the knock-back notification, Tobi realized he was only circulating low mana around his fist. If he wanted to any more damage, he had to apply himself.

Losing himself to the moment, Tobi gathered more mana around his fist and began pounding on the mans chest.

Seeing stars as he skidded across the floor, Tobi glanced up at a second attacker. He’d been hit and dazed by a club-like weapon.

You have received 120 damage.

Smiling as the taste of iron filled his mouth, Tobi puckered his lips; “Mwah”

Barely having time to frown at Tobi making the sound of giving someone a kiss, the man’s face seemed to crumple in a little as he was blast from his feet.

Seeing shock on a third mans face, Tobi picked himself back up off the floor.

“It’s called Arcane Void, did you not know I was a mage? It works like this…”

Performing the same action and blowing the man a kiss, the man ducked.

Annoyed that he’d just wasted close to 100 mana, Tobi took note to never reveal his spells in future. He didn’t even consider his next spell as mana gathered in his leg and he kicked an invisible ball on the floor.

As arcane strike activated and caused a small popping sound at Tobi’s foot, the man smiled. He obviously thought the spell fail. Tobi smiled too as the second part of the spell activated and hit the man right between the legs.

Rushing forward, he kneed the man in the face before tackling him to the floor. Punching him repeatedly without the use of magic, Tobi was pleased to see that his 74 strength wasn’t anything to scoff at. As long as he was hitting a part of the body lacking armor, the damage was definitely effective.

Spotting the second man that had been hit with Arcane Void come rushing back over, Tobi rolled away and fired off another Arcane Strike.

Wishing he had more spells as the man dodged, Tobi fired off another 100 mana worth of Arcane Void. As he didn’t make any motion with his mouth and only fired it at the same time as breathing out, the spell hit perfectly.

“Enough!”

Pausing and looking in the direction of the shout, Tobi spotted four men holding the Talin down whilst two men held swords pointed at his throat. The man who shouted had been a very battered looking Scrim.

Blood dripping from his nose and covering his teeth, Scrim panted and stared at Tobi.

“If I wanted you both dead, I would have done that. I came here to speak to you. Make a deal with you. But no...you had to go on a rampage and start beating up my men.”

Tobi shrugged as he started picking himself up off the floor.

“Did you really think you could win? Two of you against 15 of us?”

“Not really sure if my friend there cared or not. I didn’t actually join in until one of your men grabbed me.”—”You OK Talin?” Tobi added in Elven.

“I am fine. Sorry that I got myself caught.”

“Don’t worry about it. We—”

“Stop speaking that language.” Scrim shouted cutting off Tobi’s words.

“You don’t speak it?” Tobi asked, “Your man Cole does.”

“Well Cole won’t be waking up from this one, so no...I don’t understand it.”

Looking across the room and spotting a dead Cole folded neatly in half, Tobi wondered how strong the Talin really was. To bend a man in half backward couldn’t be easy. That being the case, the only reason the Talin couldn’t move was due to the two men with swords at his throat.

“I would say I am sorry about your man getting killed,” Tobi mused, “but I would be lying.”

“Be that as it may, I think it is still worth offering you a deal. To be honest, I didn’t think you would dare attack considering you know that I have your White Priestess. What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know.” Tobi shrugged, “Probably that Darien would be able to rescue her if you were dead.”

Snorting, Scrim didn’t seem to agree. Wiping away blood from his face and spitting a fat glob of it on the floor, Scrim walked a few steps closer to Tobi, “If you want your Priestess back, lose the games. If you win, I will kill her.”

“How do I know she isn’t already dead?” Tobi asked heartlessly. Showing any kind of care for Selene would be bad so he’d tried to use a tone that suggested he didn’t care at all.

Before Scrim could answer, another man ran into the room from a back doorway, “Scrim. Darien is in your territory. We just got word. He is heading for…” Hesitating for half a millisecond as he glanced at Tobi, the man finished with the words ‘the nest’. Tobi hadn’t missed the hesitation though and knew exactly what it meant. Darien was close to rescuing Selene.

Thinking of the mob outside the Sanctuary building, Tobi quickly gathered half of his mana. Firing Lions Roar at the chest of one of the men holding a sword to the Talin’s throat, he spun on the spot and fired off another at the Sanctuary doors.

Dropping to the floor as he waited for the sonic boom to explode and send everyone flying, Tobi covered his head with both arms.

Both booms echoed together as the wooden Sanctuary door blew to pieces and the men surrounding the Talin were thrown in all directions.

You have been hit by two consecutive large bangs.

Partially deaf: 1 minute remaining.

Dizzy Effect: 20 Seconds remaining.

Decreased Agility: 30 Seconds.

Depth Perception is off: 1 minute remaining.

Seeing that his plan had worked and the Talin was free, Tobi sighed with relief and looked around the room. Spotting several of Scrim’s men already up and staggering around, Tobi glanced at his mana. He already knew he had none left—half was used to blast away the men with swords, the rest was used to blow up the Sanctuary doors.

Glancing back through the sanctuary doors as he tried to stand up, Tobi spotted the mob rushing forward. The first man to reach him was saying something as he helped Tobi to his feet.

“They attacked us. Save the Talin.” Tobi replied pointing into the room. He had no idea what the man had actually said but he hoped the man at least understood what he was saying.

The man seemed to shout something to the crowd but all Tobi heard was a muffled shout. It was a lot different to when he was completely deaf in the tunnel but not enough to actually make much difference.

Watching as Scrim helped one of his men to his feet before rushing for the back door, Tobi wondered how they’d not been as badly affected as he was. They’d took the full force of the blast and yet he was the only one struggling to stand straight.

The answer was obvious though—they all had good defence as well as leather armour and such. Tobi was wearing a robe and his defence sucked.

Ha. Tobi finally thought as the mob rushed out the back door chasing Scrim. Haha. Hahahaha…

As the laugh escaped his mind and he actually started laughing, the Talin asked him what was so funny.

“Oh. My hearing is back.” Tobi replied smiling, “That was my first fight.”

“So?”

“It was fun.” Tobi answered still smiling. “Flipping that man on his back, surviving a blow to the head from a big-ass club, using magic to cause knock-back damage; it was so...liberating.”

Frowning at Tobi’s words, the Talin asked him if he’d succumbed to blood-lust.

“No. I don’t think so anyway. How would I know if I had? I just feel as though a big weight is gone from my shoulders, ya know? All my stress and anger—it’s gone. If Darien fails in rescuing Selene now though, I am definitely gonna kick his ass.”

“Sure, sure…” The Talin soothed, “Just come and have a sit down. It looks like that blow to your head is actually pretty bad.”

Glancing at his health-bar, Tobi shook his head, “It’s fine. No bleed effect and my health is already regenerating. This is nothing compared to the time I blew myself up.”

Despite Tobi’s words, the Talin managed to guide him to a seat and make him sit down.

“Well, you can tell me how you blew yourself up another time. For now, just sit.”

Rolling his eyes at the Talin and touching the spot on his head where the club had hit him, Tobi tried to compare it to damage he would have sustained in his home world. Would the blow of the club kill him instantly back home? The 100+ damage was definitely enough to kill him when he was new to the world. Hell, if he didn’t have such high HP from cooking, any normal level 8 would have died from that blow in an instant.

Smiling with a new perspective on health, damage, weakness and strength; he turned his thoughts to the knockback damage he had caused. The spell had said ‘currently has a minimum knockback of 1 yard’—did that mean it had a bigger guaranteed knockback if it was a higher level? Was it dependant on the size of the target and the mana used?

Feeling the sun coming through one of the stained-glass windows and wondering what time it was, he realized with surprise how short a time he’d actually been in Chadú. It felt like a week and yet he was only now in his second day. The first wasn’t long for sure and he left the Puddy Muddle in the night. He’d arrived at Darien’s just a few hours after dawn, so probably around 9am. He’d been at the Puddy Muddle by lunch time and walking the streets with the Talin just a few hours later.

So many days pass in the blink of an eye and yet 24 hours in this city feels like a week… Tobi mused. His thoughts were sinking again as his emotions settled down but he was trying to ignore them. He was sure Darien would be successful in getting Selene back. If Darien failed, he was sure Scrim would keep her alive; he’d still need her as a bargaining chip.

“Master Tobi?”

Turning his head from the warm light of the sun, Tobi recognized the man that had led the mob when they rushed into the church.

“The man got away. Do you know who he was by any chance?”

“I do. You don’t? I was led to believe he is quite famous in this city.”

The man fidgeted a little, “I don’t know who he is, but I can guess what people he belongs with. Those damned sewer rats are a plague on this city. I’d love to get my hands on their leader, Darien.”

“Darien isn’t his leader. That man was called Scrim. He is Darien’s rival.”

As two more men came over, one of them asked how Tobi knew of Darien and the sewer men. He also wanted to know what they wanted with Tobi.

“It is a long story.” Tobi sighed, “Thank you for coming to our rescue by the way, Mr…?”

“Captain Malik Horts, at your service. These two men are under my command in the city guard. We were asking the crowd outside what they were doing when the doors blew off. Lucky timing I would think. How did that even happen to the door?”

““I did it.” Tobi replied with a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“How did you do it?” One of the other two men asked before Captain Horts could reply.

“Magic. I have a spell that destroys anything made of wood and causes a loud bang. I did that to blow up the door and let those outside know that I was being attacked.”

“A loud bang?” Horts asked, “Like the one that happened in the sewers yesterday?”

Oops.

“Er...yeah. That was me. That is how all of this began.”

“Could you please tell me everything you know?” Horts asked, “Their nuisance of late has been getting much worse.”

“I don’t really know much, I will just tell you what happened to me since I got here.

One of those sewer men you spoke of is named Kleetz. Like Scrim, he is one of Darien’s rivals. He captured my Talin friend and attempted to lock him up. He planned to use him in some secret arena he is building near the edge of the city somewhere—or so I was told.

I tried to rescue him and that is what caused the loud bang. I failed and we were both captured. The Talin escaped and came to rescue me. It was a success but we were lost under the city somewhere. We came across two of Darien’s men who escorted us out. At that time, I found out that Scrim had kidnapped Selene, the White Priestess.

Darien offered to rescue her and told me about both Kleetz and Scrim. He told me that they were bad people and admitted he isn’t exactly one of the good guys. I don’t know everything that is going on, but Darien is out there somewhere right now trying to rescue Selene.

That is when Scrim attacked us in here. I don’t know why he is after me, but if Darien is successful in rescuing Selene, I will definitely owe him a huge debt.”

When Horts asked why he didn’t ask the city guard for help, Tobi shrugged. He couldn’t exactly say half of it had been a lie and he met the Talin in the sewers. Most people were under the impression they had come to the city together thanks to Bubele and her information network.

“I was new to the city...it looked to me as though the men involved were guards. Even you three now...I see no way of recognizing you as city guards compared to the sewer men. Your armor is similar and I don’t know how I am to differentiate you from any other armored person.”

As Horts gave a simple nod to one of his underlings, the man turned around to display the shield hung on his back. Directly in the center was the picture of a blue flame surrounded by a golden ring.

“That is the mark of the city guard. We have seen how Anderon has defining uniforms and wish to adopt the idea. Unfortunately, the King doesn’t want to copy the Anderon’s or acknowledge them. Hopefully, the man who becomes King next will be more agreeable.”

Tobi nodded but turned the topic back to Darien and the others. He wanted to know how big an influence they were in the city and how powerful they were. As he asked his questions in quick succession, Horts held up a hand to slow him down.

“I don’t really know how much strength or influence they have. I believed a man named Darien was running all of it. That was certainly the case once. We underestimated them a great deal and thought of them as petty thieves. About five years ago it was obvious they were also involved with the occasional murder or assassination.

We truly recognized them based on more recent events. They were able to infiltrate places we believed were safe and killed a man favored to become the next King.”

Tobi nodded as he listened to Horts. Being in Darien’s company and having met Kleetz, it was easy to imagine a city secretly run by an underground organization. Listening to Horts however was like coming back to reality. When mixed up with the wrong people in his home world, it can seem like the entire world was the enemy. When living a normal life though, those things were always happening to someone else.

“Speaking of men who will become King, I have heard about this upcoming competition. Who is it you favor to become King?” Tobi asked out of simple curiosity. He wanted the opinion of someone not tied to the underworld.

“I would like Baylon to win. He is the only noble I know of that tries to live up to the definition of ‘noble’. In the city governed by his father, he established a home that takes care of homeless children, he set up food stalls where volunteers feed people living on the streets, he gives work to beggars such as cleaning the streets...he is an admirable man.

The other three are Linux, Sennu and Rosol. All three are capable leaders but they are arrogant and greedy. They will look after the rich and appease their equals, but they are not so generous to the regular folk.

None of the men are equal to the King we currently have, but those that were capable of replacing him are dead. That is why I wish to capture Darien. He is definitely the one that killed Mahir Yaqoob. With Yaqoob gone, our only hope is Baylon. If he is also killed or leaves from fear of Darien and his sewer men, this country could be in trouble.”

Hearing a man call his name, Horts pardoned himself and left with the two men. No sooner did he leave did the Talin ask for a translation for everything that had been said. Sighing, Tobi asked what level his linguistics was at. When the Talin asked why, Tobi answered that he obviously needed to learn human.

“So teach me human.”

Rummaging through his bag, Tobi found a book he’d bought when he first learned linguistics.

“Here, you can have this. I will give you another when you have finished it. The book is for children but you will need to start—”

“—I don’t know how to read.”

“Then how did you learn Elven?” Tobi asked in surprise.

“The Elves taught me; one word at a time. Whenever I heard a word I didn’t know, I asked them about it.”

“So you haven’t finished learning the language?”

The Talin shrugged, “I haven’t heard a word I don’t know in a long time. I have picked up a few human words but not many.”

Huh? You can learn other languages without finishing the one you are on?

Testing what he assumed the Talin was telling him, Tobi asked what words he knew.

“The. Talin. Yes. No. Good. Bad. Green. Monster.”

Hearing the words said in human, Tobi asked him to say a few words in Talin and give their meanings.

As the Talin thought about it, he grabbed his ear; “Mikyun—Ear.”

“Mikyun.” Tobi replied.

“Nari” He offered next pointing to his eye.

“Nari. Eye.”

The Talin smiled and nodded, “Seyri.”

As the Talin touched his lip, Tobi repeated the word back to him and added ‘Lip’ in Elven. The Talin nodded again and seemed to get a little excited.

“Ontu.”

“Ontu—Nose.”

You have begun learning Talin.

As you are learning Talin through speech only, you will have to start back at the basics if you wish to read the language.

“Cool.” Tobi whispered as he closed the notification. He was now learning two languages at once. He’d much sooner learn Talin than Malanchite anyway—now he just needed a Talin book so he could learn to read it too.

“You can teach me Talin later, let’s teach you human.”

Nodding, the Talin moved to the back of one of the benches and sat down. Lifting his feet onto the seat opposite, Tobi realized why. The Talin was too big to actually sit where he was supposed to.

Using Elven for translations, Tobi began the task of teaching words to the Talin; starting with the most common ones. They got past all the obvious words pretty fast and Tobi was using anything he could see when the Talin suddenly asked why he didn’t seem more concerned about his mate than teaching human.

“I wish you wouldn’t call her my mate. She is my girlfriend, but you should keep that bit secret for now. I don’t know where she is or how to help her and there are people out there who are doing what they can. It’s not that I am not worried about her, but I am trying to focus on things I can do rather than worry about the things I can’t.

I could get the city guard involved and search the city with them. I could have demanded to search for her with Darien. There are many things I could have done and can do, but that doesn’t mean any of it will help.

For example: if I wasn’t walking around the city—Scrim wouldn’t have come to make a deal with me. If Scrim didn’t come out, he and his men may have been with Selene. In that scenario, Darien would have had a harder time reaching her.

Equally, if I get the city guard involved, they will make things more difficult for Darien who is probably better qualified to handle Scrim. I have set up the best scenario I am able to thanks to Darien and Bubele. Now I just have to hope it works and keep myself distracted.

So; back to your lessons?”

As the Talin nodded, Tobi spotted a Priest approaching and realized that he hadn’t once considered where they were from the moment he’d spotted Scrim. Where they had been until now was anyones guess, but the fact he hadn’t thought about it amused him a little.

“Er, I have come to apologize on behalf of the Sanctum.” The Priest explained nervously.

“Why do you need to apologize?” Tobi asked.

“Well, you and your friend were attacked in our Sanctuary. We cannot apologize enough. Of course we hold no ill will about the door either.”

No ill will for the door? Blame me? You cheeky… “Don’t worry about it.” Tobi replied with his best fake smile, “Where were you all by the way? I originally came here to speak with members of the Sanctuary yet none of you were here.”

“We were locked in the basement.” The Priest blushed, “When the men came in through the back door, we told them to leave immediately. Unfortunately we are all healers and were unable to resist as they manhandled us and threw us down the stairs. We did have a Novali with us, but without his weapon and armor, even he—”

“—A Novali?” Tobi interrupted, already bored by the mans droning voice and more curious about the strange word.

“The Novali are...difficult to describe.”

“We are soldiers.” A voice called.

Turning back to see a man approaching in a leathery looking tunic covering a white woolen cloth, Tobi wondered what material it was made from. It dropped almost down to his knees but not quite and had a belt fastened around the waste.

Doubting he could pull off the look, Tobi looked down at the boots. The boots had a bit of a heel on the bottom and rose up past his knees.

Well, Tunic or not, I could never pull off those boots.

“Hello, my name is Saron.”

Nodding at the man as he bowed, Tobi complimented the Tunic.

“Thank you. My mother made this one for me.”

“You are welcome. She did a good job. You said Novali are soldiers?”

“That is the simple way to describe it, yes. I have come to ask if you would be willing to join us for a Listening tomorrow.”

“What is a listening?” Tobi asked having never heard of it before.

“I think describing it would do it an injustice. It would be better if you came to see for yourself.”

“There are other matters I need to attend first. I can’t make any promises. When is this listening?”

“The Listening lasts all day. Prayers begin at dawn and last until noon. The listening goes on for the rest of the day. As long as you are here before nightfall, you will be on time.”

“Then if I can make it, I will come. Is it held here in this Sanctuary?”

Smiling, Saron nodded, “The Prayers and the listening is held in every Sanctuary in the country, but yes, the one we are asking you to attend is here.”

“Then I will come to find you tomorrow if I can get here.” Tobi answered taking a small dislike to the Novali. He didn’t know what he didn’t like about the man but he just got that feeling.

I guess it is time to head to the Puddy Muddle.

***

Back to Main Page

***

Authors Notes:

Spoiler :

First, I would like to apologize for the delay on this one. I wrote a couple of versions of this chapter and couldn't decide on how to get across what needed to be told. I knew what happened but was struggling to get it across.

After speaking with certain individuals about the story, I finally faced something I have been putting off: Fight Scenes.

I have no confidence in fight scenes and I have been avoiding them at almost every opportunity. I will stop doing that now and start facing my fears. I have been trying to improve my writing whilst avoiding fight scenes. I don't think I should do that anymore.

With that in mind, I changed his meeting with Scrim to what has been shared above. Ultimately it doesn't change anything as far as story direction is concerned but it does change a long dialogue into a fight...of a sorts. I know I have a long way to go and need to improve, but I will get there—hopefully.

Anyway, I would like to give a few shout-outs today too.

First to Aheael, again. Thanks for your time talking to me about the story, it was appreciated.

Another to TillyBetty — thanks for the review. It is nice to know that a reader visiting the site decided to sign up just to give comment on this piece. Lots of love

Wildly_Laughing: Thanks for your comments too. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story too as you continue with Tobi along his journey.

Finally; Fleeny13 — I see someone hit dislike on your review, but I agree with your comments on Story. From a readers perspective, it would appear that I digressed from a plot-line I set up and that is my fault for not mentioning it very often. I didn't want to keep ramming it down the readers throats.

Tobi has put the Diary of Ellenestri out of his mind but it isn't really forgotten. He is unable to continue with it at the time being so it has been sidelined (by him—not me...if that makes sense?)

Anyway, your comment is appreciated and I hit the like button. Quick note though: He isn't going to 'save a slave' ... he wants to save Selene. His girlfriend for all intents and purposes. As far as Tobi is concerned, she is more important than any quest. If his choice was to return home or save Selene's life, the hesitation wouldn't last long before he saved Selene.

My description of this story to friends that ask:

MC is trapped in another world and after waiting to go back home for a long time, decided to live his life there. He is dragged into the lives of the people around him and is shuffled, pushed, pulled and even dragged from place to place. He is still confused about his aims and goals though. Will he ever get the chance to get back home? Does he even want to go back home anymore? What is he afraid of? What does he want? Why is he trapped? ... and Ultimately...Tobi's biggest questions: "Who, What and Why...am I?"

Much love to those that have voted on this story and rated it.

Cookies for you all ;)

~Aspirer

P.S. I wrote so many variations of this chapter I confused myself a bit >.I proofed it myself but the chance I missed stuff is a little higher than normal. If you spot anything, please let me know.