Chapter 4

Daelyn wanted to scream.

The six expressionless faces loomed over him, scrutinizing every little part of him, before one of the faces stepped out of the light.

“Daelyn, you can read?! I don’t know anyone that can read! Well, not anyone that isn’t an adult, but that doesn’t count.”

Her eyes lit up, her smile widened, and she took a step forward, putting her face only centimetres away from Daelyn’s.

“Can you read the story to us? We would love to hear it!”

Ayda was joined by the other children, standing around Daelyn in a crescent moon, staring at him with anticipation. Yet Daelyn didn’t see this, as his panic took over, reacting to the four children standing around him, looming over him with their dark complexion and grey hair. They looked like beasts, eager to pounce, and he could only scramble back in fear as the small group converged on him, locking their gazes on the book in his hands.

“Guys, calm down. Step back a little, okay? Give him a breather.”

A girl slightly larger than Ayda stepped into the circle, spreading out her arms before lightly pushing the others back, giving Daelyn some room. She squatted down, coming to eye level with Daelyn.

“Are you okay now?”

The girl’s voice soothed him, calming him and allowing him to recollect himself.

He stood up, processing what just happened, and turned towards the small group of children. His smile grew, and with a loud voice, he said:

“Are you ready for the tale of Alberecht, the hero who was promised a kingdom, but got the world. The hero who became the first guild master!”, Daelyn eagerly said, mimicking the synopsis that had been hammered into his head through repetition.

The eyes of the children lit up, shouting in excitement, and crowding around Daelyn, forming a small circle around him as they rushed to get closest, intent on enjoying the reading sessions to its fullest. They didn’t know anything about the hero Alberecht, nor about what being a ‘guild master’ means, but Daelyn had raised their spirits, promising them a heroic tale with only a few lines. So, they eagerly awaited the story to commence, revelling in the unknown heroism that was to come.

Daelyn sat down, leaning back against the wall with the book on his lap. He slowly opened it, enjoying the suspension in the air for several more seconds, before turning the first page.

“We start in a small village on the outskirts of an old human kingdom. The village was poor, without much merit, a small population and an even smaller guard. This is where the story of Alberecht starts, with a small boy who wanted nothing more than to become strong enough to protect his family, look cool in front of the ladies, and become the strongest man in the village.”

Daelyn started with a calm voice, slowly narrating the youth of the hero, before his story amped up with repeated attacks from gnolls, the devastation of the village at the hands of their furred leader, and the exodus towards the nearest town.

His voice raised at the fights, detailing the hectic close-quarter struggles of the apprentice fighter, narrating the difficulties he went through before finally being able to venture out as part of a mercenary group.

The story trotted along, skipping over some of the more boring parts and leaving only the valiant struggles of the protagonist, detailing his battles against goblin hordes, duels against bestial warlords and the massacre of the undead at the hands of his newly found mercenary troupe.

The climax quickly closed in, coming to fruition as one of the major events in the past millennia, the devastation of the western aristocracy and the spread of the dark plague, resulting in the deadlands we know today.

Alberecht stood against the putrescent horrors coming from the wasted kingdom, holding his ground against the oncoming horde, but quickly realising that they weren’t enough to stop the horde. Countless of villages would be overrun, even more innocent people would be slaughtered, and all they could do was stand there, fighting the horde and trying to hold on for their life.

Yet, what transpired was far beyond his expectations. In countless villages, towns and cities, the populace rose up and defended their homes with life and limb, giving everything to drive back the hordes and live for another day.

It worked, making Alberecht see the importance of power in both individuals and groups, and making the people themselves see their own power, resulting in the creation of the adventurer’s guild alongside the mercenary guild, with Alberecht at its head.

Daelyn looked up from the book, finding the children meeting his gaze with wonder, lost in the story and in his vocalisation of it.

There was a silence of several seconds, allowing Daelyn to look at each of them, before they burst up from the floor, bustling with action. Daelyn rebounded at this, slamming against the wall behind him as the hyperactive children had taken him by surprise.

“That was so cool!”

“I want to be just as strong as Alberecht!”

“If you become as strong as him, I will become even stronger!”

“Jane was so cool! She helped everyone while the rest were just killing monsters, she is the best!”

The children’s conversations quickly turned into incoherent ramblings as none would listen to another, only banging on about which character they thought was the coolest, strongest, or as one little girl was eagerly shouting, ‘bestest’.

Daelyn settled in against the wall, enjoying the excited children, while he thought of which character was the best. He could hardly decide between the sentient dryad or Alberecht, but that wasn’t the most interesting part of the book, at least for him.

The reason why Alberecht won out was because of the epilogue, where his work as a guildmaster was detailed. It consisted of guiding new recruits, setting up treaties with countries, expanding influence and doing all kinds of stuff to help new adventurer’s, and Daelyn loved this part. He didn’t really love the tedious bits, as he was more content watching others and interacting with them, he loved the chances Alberecht presented, the hope he gave to every soul in the world to become a famed mercenary, a legendary warrior, or an infamous warlord.

It was a small passage, but it revealed so much to Daelyn.

‘To those who see the work I do now as unimportant, I wish to concur. The adventurers I had were grand and hearty, yet they were filled with loss, anguish and a general sense of weakness. Everything that I had achieved as a mercenary proved to be useless against overwhelming odds. The weapons and armour that I wielded, the training that I received, the fellow mercenaries that fought only for gold and glory, all useless against the true horrors of this world. The only people who ensured our survival, were the weakest and most pitiful of them all. They defended their homes with every last will to fight, losing their lives in an attempt to slay as many fiends as possible.

Their bravery was both inspiring and embarrassing, their zealousness both frightening and breathtaking, and their will to protect indomitable. They made me realise that giving the weak a chance to grow in a world of endless possibilities was the only way to proceed. So, I did.

It was my goal to become influential, wealthy, and powerful above all, yet my purpose turned out to be giving others chances at such influence, wealth, and might.’

He hadn’t even been interested in the message at the end, but Elyvia had told it regardless. There were a lot of difficult words, but a few days of deciphering the meaning behind the relatively simple sentences left him baffled.

Since then, he had spent days dreaming about adventuring, picturing himself as a heroic paladin, a gifted sorcerer, or a powerful warrior fighting off hordes of green skinned, battling dragons or pulverizing undead. They all contained the usual power fantasy protagonist fighting against evil, only differentiating in the role the hero would play in a party.

He revelled in another one of his fantasies, yet he was quickly pulled out of with force.

He looked up, finding the aggressor to be Ania, looking at him with sparkling eyes.

“Daelyn, we decided that we’re going to play your story out!”

The little girl shouted in excitement, jumping 20 centimetres into the air with raised arms, before falling back to the ground.

The children standing around her were in a similar mood, invigorated by the energy flowing through the story and restless from its pace. Well, all but one.

“Ania! You can’t push it on him, we need to ask!”

He was once again saved by the older girl, her age allowing her to scold the others, and save Daelyn. He looked up at her once again, meeting her gaze with soft eyes.

“Thank you.”

The words rolled off his lips, feeling as natural as breathing, yet they had more effect than releasing the stale air in his lungs.

The older girl smiled back, grinning from ear to ear as her cheeks slightly reddened. Her expression turned into one of pure bliss, causing Daelyn to grin back, looking into the girl’s eyes.

They stood there for moment, staring at each other uninhibited, enjoying the others gaze.

“Caeda! Are you going to ask or not?”

The two were quickly broken from their trance, turning their face towards the small girl pouting. Het puffed cheeks were slightly coloured, indicating her irritation as emotions took over her expression once more.

Caeda laughed, showing her snow white teeth before turning to face the agitated Ania.

“I never said I would ask, did I? Small girls should learn to ask, because if they don’t, small boys will be mean to them.”

Her smiled was filled with glee as he innocuously glanced at one of the twins standing next to Ania, earning her a confused look from both and a glare from Ania. The smaller Dynn Doráin was on the verge of continuing, before she heard a sigh behind her.

“If you really want, we can play it out. I will tell the story while you pick someone and play them. Just make sure to stick to a character, okay? It isn’t really fun if a mage suddenly decides they’re a warrior.”

The children around him burst into mayhem once more, excitedly shouting which character they wanted to play, displaying vigour that rivalled the bestial warlords. The Ulindil twins were arguing who would be the shield and who would be the sword, Ania couldn’t stop screaming that she wanted to be a female paladin, while the small Ayda quietly claimed the priest.

The only ones that seemed to be content with sitting on the side-lines were the narrator, Daelyn, and the soon to be lighting sage, Caeda.

“Are you sure you want to be the lightning sage? The only thing he does is send the heroes on a quest without any preparation. Besides that, he is just an old man that never leaves his tower. He really doesn’t seem the most enjoyable role to play.”

She chuckled.

“It’s a quieter role, I like that. I don’t like having to watch over a bunch of hyperactive adults. Hyperactive children are more than enough, thank you very much.”

Daelyn was dumbfounded by her reply. Not understanding why she didn’t want to look cool like the heroes, he stared at her with glossy eyes.

“But don’t you want to be a hero? Don’t you want to be cool and strong?”

Caeda’s smile faded, she looked past the children arguing in front of them, past the wooden interior of the spacious room.

“Why would you want to be a hero? You don’t become strong because you become one, you are a hero because you are strong, you aren’t cool because you’re a hero, you might be popular but that might have little to do with being a hero. I don’t want to be a hero, because people will expect certain things of you, things you might not like at all.

So, I would rather be the old man sitting comfortably in his tower than the child that wants to be a ‘hero’.”

Caeda lightly grinned at her own reasoning, believing herself to have passed on valuable knowledge to her minor, yet he wasn’t done.

“But what do you want to be then? I guess you can become an old man in a tower, but it still doesn’t seem like much fun.”

She stayed silent for several seconds, maintaining her gaze into the beyond.

“I don’t know. I guess I could stay here and learn blacksmithing from dad, but that is about as much fun as staying in a tower. Maybe I could become a famous adventurer, exploring the deepest of ruins and looking for long lost artefacts and treasure, or an infamous mercenary, collecting contract after contract under influential employers.”

“Contracts?”

“You will learn when you’re older, now where was I? Oh right, the…”

Sadly Caeda couldn’t finish her sentence, as the children once again grouped up before them, with Ania taking the lead.

“Caeda! Stop hogging Daelyn to yourself, we wanna play!”

The high-pitched shout from little Ania quickly put a stop to the conversation, making both Daelyn and Caeda realize that they weren’t alone on the world, and that they had been talking for a little too long, at least in the children’s view. They jeered at Caeda, calling her a ‘meanie’ and ‘hogger’, some shouts were less coherent than others, but the general consensus was clear.

Those remarks didn’t really bother Caeda, yet the accompanying realization did.

‘Did I just, basically pour my heart out in front of a three year old? Did I just tell him I want to become a ‘famous adventurer’?! By Eleanor, why did I do that? I’m more than a decade older than him!’

The surprised Caeda quickly fazed the surroundings out, while Daelyn turned to face them with a smile. He quickly organized everyone into roles, with Ania being in the lead role as a female version of Alberrecht, the Ulindil twins wielding both sword and shield, and Ayda having surprisingly changed her profession from a priest to a warlock. While there were some perplexed responses, they started regardless, quickly forgetting about their surroundings and relishing in the world their combined imagination created, playing their roles as if the characters were alive.

All of this was under Daelyn’s guidance, as he orchestrated them, narrating their actions, elevating the tension to new heights, making the cliché plot twist seem like something slightly new, and even filling in the occasional gap left by either the story or the actors.

His voice was the red line of the story, guiding the actors past the challenges they faced, the duels they fought, the giants they felled and the hordes they slayed. He was the puppet master, controlling the warrior that pierced through with his spear, the mage that bent the very universe around him, the paladin that fought for her righteous cause, and the rogue that sought nothing more than wealth. He guided all of them, controlling their actions to the point that they even their actors didn’t notice the changes.

When all was said and done, with the final foe slain and the guild finally established, the story ended.

One by one the children sat down, exhausted from their crazed fights and the fast pace of the story, captivated by the tale they just played through, only now processing the deeds of their characters and the heroism each of them displayed. They looked at each other with gleeful smiles, satisfied after such an enjoyable workout.

“And so, the story of Alberrecht ends here. His dreams came true in a way he couldn’t have predicted, and now it is our turn. He made the adventurer’s guild not only for Dinol, but for everyone, for every race that exists on this planet, for every individual that wishes to strive beyond what they are. The guild welcomes all.”

Daelyn closed the book, ending the story, and, accidentally, giving the sign for the audience to applause.

The previously bored and bloodshot parents were on the edge of their seat, vigorously clapping with large smiles plastered on their faces as they couldn’t help their enjoyment.

The recipients of this applause weren’t as active, the children were stunned by the sudden pull from their fantasy world and the loud clapping of the grown-ups in the room. Not knowing what to do, they simply froze, staring at the enthusiastic audience with wide eyes.

Lyvia and Grey had hurried out of the lounge next door when they heard Daelyn was putting on a play, and they were shocked by the little boy’s achievement. They applauded along with the rest of the parents, before walking up to Daelyn and enveloping him in their embrace, revelling in their son’s achievement and praising him for it.

While most of the actors were being praised by their parents, one was still recovering from the theatrical play.

‘Well, that wasn’t as boring as usual. I guess if he does more things like this I can remain, helping him bit by bit. I might even be able to switch places once, experience the true world, I might be able to do more than just look through those damned holes!’

He was recovering from the intense mental workout the play provided, as He had guided Daelyn through the story, giving it the subtle nuance the three year old would have most definitively missed. For the first time, He had enjoyed himself, and He hoped that It would allow him to feel such joy again.

‘Well, it might not even take that long. It wasn’t hard to miss the glares, so maybe I will get to enjoy myself some more, while getting rid of them. How did they call it again, ‘two necks with one stone’?’