Forde Voss: Chapter 2 – Nobody Important (Patreon)

I wasn't going to do anything more with this just yet, but since everyone seemed so enthusiastic about it, I went ahead and wrote another chapter. ~Eric

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The sunlight filtering down through the leaves overhead was enough to wake Voss. He took his time opening his eyes, just because he could. It had been a month since he “lost” his throne, and he’d stayed on the move since then. He was about fifty percent sure that, he thought back, nope, he hadn’t bothered getting anyone’s name. Oh well. He was pretty sure that blonde guy would eventually send people out to hunt for him. It’d be a foolish thing to do. No, it would be a magnificent waste of talented manpower, but young people could be really stupid sometimes. He’d decided not to make it easy for anyone to find him. After all, if they couldn’t find him, he wouldn’t be forced to kill a bunch of people he’d probably known since they were practically children. To that end, he traveled at odd hours and changed directions all the time, frequently through territory that only the most dangerous cultivators alive would brave. After all, it wasn’t like he had a destination. So, it cost him nothing to take bizarre, circuitous routes that led to sheer cliff faces, only to fly for fifty miles and set down somewhere else.

It was refreshing to have nowhere to go and nowhere to be. No appointments. No ceremonies. And, the very best thing in the world, no committee meetings. The mere thought of blonde guy getting stuck in those meetings, trying to mediate between people five times his age, was enough to send Voss off into gales of laughter. Everybody thinks they want to be king, right up until they have the job. Still, for all that Voss was having fun, he’d noticed something bothersome. He’d been surrounded by people for centuries. People who wanted his attention. People who wanted his favor. Mostly, though, it had been people who wanted his time. As much as he had resented all those functionaries and hangers-on, they had served one important function in his life. They’d been company. That first week or two, the absence of other people had been a balm to his soul. He’d been blessed with silence. Now, though, the silence was getting a little oppressive. He supposed that he’d need to go and find some civilization soon. Not quite yet, though.

During the war, all those centuries ago, he’d taken refuge in some mountains when a battle hadn’t gone his way. He’d stumbled onto a little lake, tucked away high up in those mountains. As angry, injured, and distracted as he’d been, he hadn’t fully appreciated the place at the time. It had stuck in his memory as a little jewel of peace and tranquility at a time of terrible, seemingly unended turmoil. He’d decided to go back and find that lake. He’d been up in the mountains for a few days now, coming up empty. While the lake itself stuck out in his memory, the path to and from it was lost to murky fog of war he’d been in at the time. He was going to give it one more day of searching before he moved on to something else. Still, he had a good feeling. He was pretty sure he was close. Voss supposed he could have just flown around the mountains until he found what he was looking for. It would have been more efficient. Still, he liked the feeling of scaling those impossible heights with the strength of his body. It wasn’t like a fall was going to kill him. So, why not?

He was well into the afternoon when, after pushing his way through a narrow crack in the rock, he found it. The lake wasn’t exactly like he remembered it. The trees were much taller now, casting much on the small lake into shadow. Yet, it was close enough to his memory that Voss didn’t care. Most especially, there was a still a large rock jutting out into the water. Voss didn’t waste any time in shedding his clothes and diving into the water. He supposed that it would probably feel like ice on a mortal’s skin, but he just found it mildly bracing. He swam to the opposite shore and back several times, letting the rhythm of the motion and the feeling of the water moving across his body act like a kind of meditation. When he’d had enough swimming, he climbed up onto the rock and sprawled across it, letting the late afternoon sunlight do what it could to dry him. He’d been lying like that for about half an hour before he felt a presence that even he couldn’t ignore.

“Forde Voss.”

Voss cracked an eye open and stared up into the face of dragon. He squinted for a moment, and then snorted.

“Urovax. Fancy meeting you here.”

“I was flying by and noticed you here. I assumed that it must be someone pretending to be you, since you have that whole evil empire to run. Yet, here you are. I find it curious.”

“It’s not my evil empire anymore. I was overthrown,” said Voss in a decidedly smug tone. “The fools.”

“Overthrown?”

“Oh, yes. There was a very heroic square-jawed fellow that told me that my evil reign was over. What else could I do but leave?”

Urovax snorted, sending little puffs of smoke out of his nostrils. “Did you even pretend to fight?”

“I did not.”

“You’re a terrible evil overlord.”

“I was an excellent evil overlord, but the people have spoken.”

“What people?”

“Those ones who showed up in my throne room. I’m sure they were representative sample.”

“So, you just abandoned everyone in the empire to the whims of some random people who showed up?” asked the dragon, sounding more than a little reproachful.

“Of course, not. I left them with Evan.”

“Oh,” said the dragon, immediately relaxing. “Well, then everything should be fine.”

“That’s what I figured. By the time blonde guy figures out that it’s really Evan who runs everything that keeps the empire afloat, he’ll be in way too deep to get out.”

“Blonde guy?”

“Yeah, I really should have found out what his name was. If nothing else, so that I can burn some prayers for him.”

“You could do it anyway.”

“You might be right. I suppose it really is one of those things where it’s the thought that counts.”

The dragon settled down next to the rock and idly splashed some of the water with a claw, sending the fish in the lake on terrified trajectories away from it. “So, now that you’re a former Dark Lord, what will you do with yourself?”

Voss propped himself up an his elbows and looked up at the sky. “I don’t know. Wander for a while. Then, maybe I’ll open a tavern, or buy a farm. Just become nobody important, for once.”

“Do you know anything about running a tavern or farming for that matter?”

“Hey, I ran an empire. I’m pretty sure I can figure them out.”

“No, Evan ran an empire. You sat around looking imposing.”

Voss opened his mouth, thought about it for second, and said, “Yeah, that’s accurate. Still, I can probably figure it out. Or hire people who know what they’re doing to run it for me.”

“And then?”

“Then, I’ll just, you know,” Voss hesitated.

“Sit around and look imposing?”

“Man, when you say it like that you make me sound like a one-trick pony. You know what I could do? I could go off and be a hero.”

“Oh, you should definitely do that,” said the dragon in an amused tone.

“What?” demanded Voss. “I’m stupid powerful. I could do those, you know, hero…things.”

The dragon turned and looked at Voss for a moment. “You have no idea what those things are, do you?”

Voss held the dragon’s gaze for three entire seconds before his whole body slumped a bit. “I really don’t. Averting disasters? I vaguely recall something about princesses. Do heroes ransom them?”

“They usually rescue them from being ransomed.”

“Well, that sounds terribly impractical. How do they make a living?”

The dragon cocked his head to one side and said, “No one knows.”

“Anyway, I’ll figure something out. I mean, it’s not like I was always going to be the Dark Lord. I’m sure I can learn how to do something new.”

“I’m going to have to check in on you a lot more often from here on out. This should be really entertaining.”

Voss rolled his eyes. “I live but to serve your entertainment needs.”

The dragon nodded sagely. “As it should be, Voss. As it should be.”