Chapter Thirty Seven

The tent Shuka and her friends were brought to was… less than ideal. The normally brown leather it was made from was covered in dull gray ash. You could argue it was another attempt at camouflage, except for the fact that it was the only tent in the whole camp that was like that. A quick peek inside revealed there was several inches of ash on the ground on the inside as well. At least Lor’gan had the decency to look guilty about it.

“Right, so uh… I sort of forgot that our guest tent was still covered in ash. Sorry.”

“Why is it covered in ash?” Maryam asked.

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, we live on a volcano. Now, lava hasn’t come out of it in centuries, but it still spouts out ash every once in a while. When that happens we just pack up all our stuff and take it into the mountain for a bit. But who wants to pack up a whole tent that nobody is even using? And then who wants to clean it up afterwards? The answer is nobody, and if I’m being perfectly honest, the whole tribe was putting it off until we needed to do it. Turns out, we needed to do it yesterday and we just didn’t know.”

“And how long has the tent been like this?”

“Around two months or so.”

“And you didn’t bother cleaning it up that entire time?”

“Well… no. Alright, alright I get it, here how about this? I’ll get some of my buddies and get rid of all the ash and in the meantime, you can look around the camp.”

Maryam finally relented, not happy, but this was better than sleeping in ash. Besides, Shuka at least appreciated a little time to explore. From what she saw, the gnolls lived a lifestyle similar to hers, at least from before the curse. It almost seemed like every other person in the camp had a bow slung over their back. Even if they didn’t, they still looked a lot more at home in the wilds than even a more rural villager, like the ones from Rainsburg. Even the kids were involved, with one elderly gnoll overseeing a group of them fletching arrows. It all felt so welcoming to the young hunter, but Maryam was interested in something else.

“Look at the magic that shaman is using. It looks like a healing spell, but it’s suffused with fire essence. I’ve never heard of fire magic doing anything like that before. That really old shaman from earlier also did the same thing with the spell that let him see your curse. I wonder how it works?”

Shuka looked over to where her friend was looking and saw a shaman, healing the injured leg of another gnoll, with a yellow-orange glow.

“Well shaman magic works a bit differently than ours. They get their mana from an external source instead of an internal one, so maybe instead of turning unattuned mana into fire-attuned mana to create a fire spell like we would, they are getting already fire-attuned mana from somewhere else and using that for all of their magic, fire based or not.

“Could that be why they live on a volcano? To siphon mana from it? Still, that can’t be very efficient, fire wants to burn stuff, and the more you make it not do that, the harder it’s going to fight you.”

Xorvos didn’t know much about magic, so he usually left himself out of such conversations, but something Shuka said piqued his interest.

“Shamans get their magic externally? Does that mean they don’t need any mana themselves? Maryam, you could have become a shaman to learn magic.”

“Err… no. I looked into it and shamans still need to use their own mana to gather and control the mana of whatever source they are using. It’s not like a volcano is just going to light things on fire for you because you asked nicely, you still need magic to get it to do that. And why are you saying I could be a shaman, I already have my magic, it’s you who’s lacking it. Hell, I got this information from books written by quanso trying to figure out a way to cast magic themselves.”

“Oh. Could they? Use magic the shaman way I mean.”

“Kinda? Basically, they had to be touching the source to get its mana, but since so many of the mana sources shamans get their mana from are vague or immaterial, that’s not always easy to do. It’s not just the forest you’re getting mana from, it’s the spirit of the forest which is a little harder to touch. Even with this volcano, you would probably have to stick your hand in the lava to get any results.”

“I see. Well, I’m not really interested in using magic anyway, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

Maryam had the most profound look of mock pity and disgust on her face. The expression disappeared in an instant though, when she smelled something good in the air.

“Hey, smells like somebody’s cooking something good. Let’s go get some food, I’m starving.”

Shuka was also starving so she had no complaints as she followed Maryam to wherever the food was being made. The smell of a hearty meal eventually led them to a large clearing with all sorts of campfires, cooking pots, and racks of food. While there were multiple fires currently being used, the one that drew the most attention was the large cauldron in the middle filled with a stew. It was currently being stirred by an older gnoll lady and there was a small crowd of hungry gnolls lining up to get a bowl of the stuff. Xorvos walked up to one of the people lining up to ask them a question.

“Excuse me, but me and my friends are quite hungry and we were wondering if this food was available for us to eat? We are guests, but we are only staying one night, and I’m not sure if this food is for the tribe only.”

“Hmm? Ah, do not worry so much. If you are hungry, then eat. You are as welcome to a bowl as the rest of us.”

“Thank you.”

And with that, the three friends found some bowls and got in line. It didn’t take long for them to make their way to the front and get their food.

“How much do we owe you?” Maryam asked the cook upon getting her food.

“Hmm? Owe? What do you mean?”

The cook cocked her head to the side, looking genuinely confused at the question, which only led to Maryam getting confused.

“Err… like how much money do you want for the stew.”

“I have no need for money.”

“Oh, is this a barter system then? Uh, let me see what I have to give you.”

Maryam started looking through her things for something suitable when the old woman held up her hand for her to stop.

“I have no need for your things either. Food is a necessity, I would not ask for anything for it. If I want something I will ask for it. Ah, but not from you, you are a guest.”

“But… isn’t that a really bad deal? For you I mean. I could eat all the food I want for free and I won’t lose anything.”

“It’s called generosity. Now move along, I have many gnolls to feed tonight.”

Maryam realized that there was indeed a line behind her, so she took her bowl and got out of the way. Odd encounter aside, she really was starving so the moment she found somewhere to sit she started digging in.

“Oh damn, this is actually delicious.”

“Did you expect it not to be?”

Shuka had gotten her own bowl and had just sat down next to Maryam. Xorvos was right behind her too.

“Well, no I expected it to be good, just not this good. Like, I would pay gold for this stew.”

“You would pay gold for a single meat skewer,” Xorvos replied, “so I’m not sure how much that means coming from you.”

“Hey, that was a good skewer! Not as good as this though.”

Instead of talking more Maryam just continued energetically eating her meal. Shuka and Xorvos followed suit. It really was a good meal despite all of the ingredients that went into it being rather basic. After scarfing down the stew in record speed, Maryam started to speak again.

“You know, I still can’t believe they’re giving food like this away for free.”

“It’s not that surprising.” Shuka answered. “Gnoll tribes are basically like giant families. You wouldn’t charge a sibling for a home cooked meal, so why would you charge a tribemate? That’s the kind of sentiment they have.”

“You seem to know your quite a bit about gnolls, what’s up with that?”

“I don’t know too much, and there’s a lot of variance between tribes, but my archery teacher from the orphanage taught me a lot about this stuff. Well, it was more like a history of hunters in general, but gnolls were definitely included. Really though, I just think they’re interesting.”

“Huh. Well alright then.”

There was a moment of silence. A moment of relaxation.

I wish we could stay.

*

By the time they got back to their tent, it was clean. Or at least clean enough. Lor’gan was waiting for them along with a few other gnolls, all covered in ash.

“Hey, perfect timing, we just finished up here. Hey, is that granny Shishko’s famous stew I smell on you? Aw man, don’t tell me you were stuffing your face with the best food in the tribe while we were working. She better have some left for us.”

It didn’t take long for the various gnolls to leave in pursuit of stew, some of them giving Shuka dirty looks of envy and resentment. Once they were all gone, the three friends found themselves inside their new tent. It was comfy, spacious, and already had bedrolls set up for them to sleep in. It wasn’t the best accommodations they had had, but it was pretty good.

“So…” Maryam started. “what’s the plan?”

The answer seemed obvious to Shuka.

“We go with them. Running seems like a bad idea, and we have nowhere to go even if we did. Going to Sidus is dangerous, but we have survived in cities without getting caught before, and it will be easier to learn anything about your mother there.”

“Sure, but how much can we trust this Asheli person? The fact that she wants to meet us is a pretty bad sign since the only reputation we have so far is a bad one. That means she is either working for the church or law enforcement, and wants to hand us in, or she’s looking for some evil help for her own evil deeds.”

“That… seems like an overreaction.” Xorvos said. “She might just be looking out for her family, but once the people from her tribe tell her about the misunderstanding it will all be cleared up.”

Maryam was less than convinced.

“Xorvos, buddy, that is incredibly optimistic. Judging by how the chieftain was talking about her, I’m not sure she even has a good relationship with the tribe. We need to be prepared for the worst, which means we need to be prepared to escape.”

“I agree.” Shuka said. “I think we should wait until we are in Sidus though. Out on the road, gnolls would be able to track us wherever we might go, but it would be a lot harder to pick up our scent in a crowded city, and we would need somewhere better to hide than an inn. They could just visit each inn in the city and give them a quick sniff to see if we were there.”

“True. Maybe we could head to the Vondoom Orphanage? Me and you are both Children of Vondoom, and I doubt they would kick out Xorvos if he was with us.”

“Yeah, and since Not Margaret is a golem, she would probably be immune to my curse too. I’m a bit worried about how well they would be able to protect us though. We don’t know how important Asheli is, and I would hate to get the orphanage involved if Validus found out we were hiding there.”

“Uhh… are you serious?” Maryam asked incredulously. “The orphanage is gonna be fine. Asheli could be the Grand Priestess and she still wouldn’t be able to touch us. Validus probably can’t even walk through the door.”

“Wait, really? I know Vondoom is a demi-god, but that seems a bit extreme. Unless Vondoom himself intervenes, I don’t see how they are going to stop someone like Validus, or even Asheli if she ends up being someone important.”

“Wait… do you not know?”

“Know what?”

Is she talking about the rumours about the orphanage being a front for something shady? She was an orphan there herself, she should know they aren’t true.

Maryam had a brief look of shock on her face before it turned into a slight panic.

“Uhh… forget I said anything. If you don’t know then I can’t tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“I just said I can’t tell you. I’m not even supposed to know, I can’t be spreading the secret around willy-nilly.”

“But if I already know there is a secret then it’s already too late, isn’t it?”

“That is not how it works, everyone knows they’ve got a secret, what that secret is on the other hand, is a different matter entirely.”

“Alright fine, I’ll drop it, but are you sure we will be fine if we go to them for protection?”

“Yes. As long as they actually decide to protect us. Frankly, neither of us have too strong of a connection to the orphanage anymore. Vondoom is all about making the lives of orphans better, but that’s more of a preventing undeserved misery thing than a nothing bad can ever happen thing. If, as far as the people at the orphanage can tell, us getting chased by guards and gnolls is just the consequences of our own actions, they might not help.”

“Hmm… my curse is going to complicate things then. If I tell them ‘I’m innocent, it’s all a misunderstanding’ and they think I’m lying then they’re not going to protect us until they learn the truth. In the best-case scenario, we would only have to convince Not Margret who shouldn’t be affected by the curse, but the moment we have to talk to a human we would be in trouble.”

“Right. It might be better to leave them as a last resort.”

“Speaking of which,” Xorvos interrupted. “I still think we should at least give Asheli a chance before we do all of this. If we run away from her before we even meet her then we will be making her an enemy when she might not normally be one. I say we meet her, and then if she seems like bad news, we escape and head to the orphanage, or wherever else we might be able to hide.”

“But” Maryam replied. “It might be too late to run by the time we meet her. We might walk into the office and find Validus and two dozen guards waiting inside. That’s a huge risk.”

“True. But it seems that everything we do is a huge risk. Escaping from our escort is a risk too, and so is seeking refuge in the orphanage. If we have to take a risk no matter what we do, then I would rather take the risk that believes in the best in people. Besides, we will have Lor’gan to help us convince her.”

Shuka found herself agreeing with Xorvos. She had too many enemies to be adding another out of paranoia. And besides, she didn’t want to betray the kindness the Ashfire tribe had already given her.

“I say we go to meet her, but be prepared to run if it looks like a death trap. We don’t even know where the orphanage in Sidus is, so if we run prematurely, we could end up wandering around the city lost until we get caught.”

“Gah, fine. It’s not like we have any better options anyway.”

Maryam conceded to the group sentiment, much to her own displeasure. Her own plan wasn’t much better though, so she didn’t see much point in arguing about it. Now all there was left to do was sleep, and hope. It was about all they could do.

*

Shuka was woken up bright and early by an energetic young gnoll girl jumping on her while screaming at the top of her lungs.

“HURRY UP, HURRY UP, HURRY UP! You’re taking too long, let’s go already!”

Lor’gan walked in afterwards, looking about as tired as Shuka felt.

“Ashal, please try to restrain your energy this early. The sun is barely up, we have plenty of time before we need to depart.”

“But I wanna go now! And you said we had to wait until they woke up, and now they are awake so we can go right?”

“Yes, but we were meant to wait until they woke up, not wake them up ourselves.”

Shuka was still groggy, even through her rude awakening, but she could just about get what was going on. Xorvos and Maryam were also waking up from all of the high-pitched screaming.

“Uhg. Can you give us, maybe… ten minutes? No, half an hour. Yeah, we will be ready in half an hour, alright?”

“Aww, but I don’t want to wait that long. Is this because I woke you up? That’s so mean!”

“What? No, we just need some time to properly wake up and get ready.”

“Fine, but I still think you’re mean.”

Ashal was pouting as she angrily stomped out of the tent in an incredibly cute way. Not wanting to make the little gnoll any angrier, Shuka fought through her fatigue and started her morning routine. When she turned though, she saw her two companions were already fully awake and were partway through their chores.

“You know,” Xorvos commented. “We probably only need ten minutes. You didn’t have to say half an hour.”

“Yeah,” Maryam agreed. “I bet we could probably do it in five if we rush. What, were you planning on falling back asleep? How cruel to keep the poor girl waiting.”

Fucking morning people.

Twenty minutes later Xorvos and Maryam dragged a still half asleep Shuka out of their tent and into the sunlight. Not that there even was much sunlight this early in the morning, the sun had only just risen above the horizon. Outside the tent was Ashal and Lor’gan, which Shuka expected, but also one more gnoll who Shuka didn’t recognize. He was male, obviously so with his bare chest, and looked like some sort of warrior. There were scars all over his body, some impressively large and some small, and he carried with him a long spear that glowed with fiery orange inscriptions. It was obviously enchanted, but that wasn’t the most striking thing about him. It was his eyes. They were the same as the chieftains, glowing orange and intense. They actually looked a lot like the magical lines that adorned his spear. He walked directly up to Shuka and spoke in such a deep guttural growl that it forced her to wake up out of pure fear.

“Cursed woman. If you so much as think of harming my daughter I will hunt you down. I have your scent, and it is not one I will forget if she comes to harm.”

“Um… noted. Uh, just so I know, which one is your daughter?”

His eyes narrowed and his grip on his spear tightened enough that if it wasn’t enchanted, Shuka was sure it would be cracking right now.

“Ashal.”

“Right, of course, Ashal. You have nothing to worry about, I promise.”

Shuka was worried that her voice was shaking, and it was only because of her encounters with Validus that she could talk at all.

“We shall see. Your actions will speak louder than your words.”

And, much to Shuka’s relief, he turned and walked off. Lor’gan quickly took his place, he had a much more welcoming face.

“Ready to go? You better be, because any longer and Ashal is going to throw another fit, and you don’t want that with her father so close by.”

Shuka would have loved nothing more than to get moving, even if only to get as far away from him as possible, but Maryam had other plans.

“Wait, hold on. I thought Ashal was the chieftain’s daughter, and she’s married to that super old guy. How is he her father?”

“What, did you really think old man Kalfar is having any kids at his age? He’s Asheron’s first husband. That guy you just met is her second. Try not to piss him off by the way, he’s a pretty nice guy once you get to know him, but… he doesn’t usually give people the chance.”

“Right…”

Shuka could see the gears turning in Maryams head on the whole ‘two husbands’ thing. Xorvos, for his part, didn’t seem to care at all. Ashal however seemed to care a lot. Not about the marital status of her parents, but rather the fact that everyone was still talking and not walking.

“Come oooon! What’s taking so long?”

“Right, right, we’re moving Ashal. No more delays.”

And with Lor’gan’s assurances, they started to move. Off to another city full of danger.