Aster Fall, Ch 19: A Warning Premonition (Patreon)

“Let’s see what those bandits thought was good enough to steal,” Jeric agreed, cracking his knuckles as he looked toward the cave.

It was hidden behind the trees and snow now, the entrance invisible, but it was within the range of both Crystal Focus and Earth Sense.

He wiped the wyvern blood that was still on his hands away on the snow, rubbing off the last of it, and then he gave Sam a nod.

Together, the three of them wrapped up their collection of the wyvern materials and headed for the cave where the bandits had been hiding, with Sam leading the way.

They were in good enough condition to fight if they had to, but they weren’t at full strength. Hopefully, there wasn’t another monster inside.

The entrance was narrow, barely wide enough to fit the half-giant, which was reassuring in a certain way. It meant that a wyvern wouldn’t fit.

As they moved through the narrow tunnel, Sam debated what he was going to tell his mother. She was definitely not going to be happy.

They were partly healed now, but their clothing was a mess of blood and tears. The self-repair enchantments would take some time to work, at least a couple of days.

We're supposed to be living a peaceful life here, he grumbled to himself as he tried out different explanations. Perhaps they’d been overeager in chasing down the bandits.

He pushed the thought away, shaking his head. If he'd known about the wyvern, he would have just prepared more for it. The Iceblood Guild was causing trouble and something needed to be done.

As for the essence pill and the wyvern...they had clearly stumbled into a bigger problem with those. It just wasn’t clear what it was yet.

The narrow tunnel opened onto a low cave that was about twenty feet wide and twice that deep. The ceiling was slanted, angling down toward the back in rough ripples of stone.

There were scratches and debris along the sides and the back, signs that someone had tried to expand it, but they hadn’t got very far.

Scattered across the floor in the center, there was a rough campfire with an iron cooking rack around it, three bedrolls, and some scattered bones and logs.

The bandits had been living here for a while. There were old smoke stains along the ceiling and some of the bones were shattered by passing feet.

The most interesting thing was that along the sides and the back of the cave, there were dozens of stacked barrels of all shapes and sizes, as well as some bolts of cloth, bundles of hide and leather, and even some ingots of different metals.

Those stacks took up nearly half of the available space in the cave. Sam frowned as he looked around, taking it all in.

It was...a little too normal. Where was the connection to the pill and the wyvern?

“That is a lot of supplies.” Jeric frowned, his arms folded over his chest as he looked around.

“Too many for just three bandits,” Lesat agreed, nodding at Jeric. “Either they were habitual thieves and stole far more than they needed, or...”

“Or there’s a much bigger organization that they’re a part of,” Sam concluded, as his view of the supplies changed. “The question is what that organization is, how many of them there are, and where they are....”

The sheer amount of the supplies was troubling. They would need to open the barrels to confirm it, but it looked like enough to supply a small bandit group for months.

Had all of this been stolen from merchants in the valley?

Sam frowned, looking around as he identified some marks burned into the barrels. He walked over to them, searching the stacks as he located one type of mark after another. After a moment, his father and Lesat saw what he was doing and joined him.

“Osera, Highfold, Ebonfar, Hisal’s Peak, Norset...” Jeric identified one mark after another as he started to assess the barrels and the materials inside.

“These have come from all over the province, but mostly from the Western Reaches and the Storm Plains,” he said after a minute. “That’s to be expected of merchants coming to Highfold, I suppose.”

“So, these could have been stolen from local merchants or small foreign traders.” Sam nodded, rubbing his chin as he thought.

“There’s also another question,” Lesat declared as he looked around. “Are we going to give it back or keep it?”

Sam paused, looking around the room again as he counted up the barrels. There were well over a hundred of them, of different types. Had the bandits really gathered all of this in the last year?

“If we can identify who it belongs to...then I suppose we could give it back,” Sam said with a shrug. “But I doubt we can find most of the owners, and there’s no good way to verify whose it was besides asking them, and then relying on them to tell the truth.”

It was tempting to keep it all as spoils, since it would make a good collection of supplies to start off their stay here.

“We can ask Henar about it,” Jeric said after a minute. He frowned as he looked around the room. “I’m not sure all of this would be useful to us anyway.”

“The foreign traders are long gone, most likely, which means this is abandoned," Lesat suggested. "We should take what we can. If there are other bandits around, they may take it before we return.”

"Either way, we shouldn't leave it here," Sam said as he looked around, counting the barrels. "That's just helping the bandits."

“Aye...let’s clean it up,” Jeric agreed, his frown deepening. “We can take whatever looks useful or more valuable, and then we can report the rest to Henar and the guards. He can contact any merchant friends he has to come and get the other part, whatever's too much for us to carry.”

With that, the three of them began to pull open barrels and to rummage around in the stacks, looking for useful things as they began to fill their dimensional bags. They had quite a few dimensional bags by this point, but a lot of them were already filled with items from their home.

At best, they might be able to take half of what was here.

Crystal Focus poured through the barrels as Sam sensed what was inside. The supplies were mostly common things, like flour, ale, various grains...and some smaller barrels of whiskey and spirits.

As many of the barrels as he could manage went into his dimensional bags. He focused on the better grains and more expensive things as he sorted through them. It would be a good supply to keep his family fed this year, if everything else fell apart.

When he was done with that, he turned his attention to the crafting materials.

The ingots and stacks of metal bars caught his eye and all of the ones in the room went into his bags. They would be useful for making enchanted items and for practicing smithing.

He ended up with a decent collection of ingots made of common and uncommon ore, including dozens of iron, copper, tin, and others, but those were only a window dressing to the main prize.

At the end of the cave, there was a small, locked chest sitting on top of a barrel. It was about the size of his two hands together and reinforced with steel and mithril bands.

On the lock, there was a small enchantment with runes for lock, durability, and repair. There was no keyhole visible, which was perhaps why the bandits hadn't opened it. Crystal Focus told him clearly what was inside.

Inside, there was a small collection of tools, including three small bars of mithril, a few bars of gold and silver, and some assorted gems. The bandits must have robbed a gemsmith at some point.

Sam flooded the lock with crystal flame, melting the enchantment and the points holding it together until it sprang open. Then, he pulled out the mithril bars.

They looked like blued silver with a rainbow of other shades inside, but the real sign of mithril was that they weighed almost nothing. Each of them was about six inches long and an inch square.

If he were frugal and combined this mithril with the remains of the bracer that the sorcerer had been wearing, he might be able to forge something useful for himself.

A new bracer wasn’t a bad idea, since it would leave his hands free to cast. Ideas for enchantments that he could make began to flit through his mind, including ways to focus his spells and avoid damage.

A few minutes later, the sound of muffled hoofbeats echoed through the cave as riders approached.

He looked toward the entrance with a conflicted expression, thinking about what his mother was going to say.

---

“We can’t keep doing this.” Aemilia said firmly with worry in her eyes as she looked at the healing wounds on Sam and Jeric. "That was a wyvern!”

She was not pleased as she looked between her husband and son. Her Far Sight had given her a clear picture of what had happened.

“If the bandits are somehow working with a wyvern, it’s much too dangerous,” she continued as she examined Jeric’s wounds, rubbing the dried blood off to see what was underneath. “Let the town guards handle it."

“They’ve been ignoring it, love,” Jeric replied helplessly as he raised his hands in the air, letting her continue her examination. “Henar said they’ve been bothering the village for a while. They would have come to find us next.”

“But I doubt they would have brought the wyvern with them!” Aemilia frowned back at him, her words sharp. “This is not just a bandit group, and it’s not something we need to be involved in.”

"We'll do what we have to, to keep our family safe," Jeric said as he pulled Aemilia into a hug, wrapping his arms around her. "We won't go out of our way looking for trouble, I promise."

Aemilia relaxed slightly as she heard his reassurance, but she was still unhappy with the danger here. Monsters and Outsiders were a fact of life, but that didn't mean you had to go looking for them.

“The wyvern is the strange part,” Krana spoke up. “The monster shouldn’t have been here, and there was that pill too.”

Her hands were on her hips as she turned in a circle, examining all of the barrels and supplies.

“This doesn’t make sense for a group of three bandits. There are too many supplies here, and there’s no sign that they were planning to sell it.”

“What do you think it’s for then?” Lesat replied from where he was working on his gear. He was trying to remove some of the dents and nicks from it, so that the self-repair runes would work faster. A lump of steel was in his free hand.

“It looks like a supply depot, or a collection point.” Krana frowned. “There has to be a bigger group behind them, and if they somehow have control of a wyvern...and an alchemist, then there’s only a couple of possibilities that come to mind.”

“How could they control a wyvern?” Sam asked. The question bothered him, since he’d never heard of anything like it. "That shouldn't be possible."

“That might be the worst news, if it’s what I think it is,” Krana replied as she looked toward him. “You're right that the bandits couldn't do it, since monsters can’t be controlled with beast-taming skills...."

Krana paused as she got everyone's attention, and then she announced what she'd been thinking.

"The only possibility is an Outsider.”

Everyone’s head turned toward her.

“What do you mean?” Jeric asked immediately, glancing at Sam and then back at Krana. "How could an Outsider control monsters?"

“When Outsiders come through a Flaw...” Krana said slowly, as she sorted through the explanation in her mind, trying to simplify it. “If they stay too long, something about them attracts monsters, especially if they share an elemental affinity, like ice for the wyverns and the Outsider that Sam felt here.

“It’s one of the reasons the Church tries to hunt down Flaws and close them, as well as kill everything that’s come through. Flaws attract monsters to them. At the same time, those monsters start to obey the Outsiders that have come through, and before long...”

Krana looked around the room as she caught everyone’s attention.

“You have an army of monsters on your hands, led by something even worse.”

“So, this wyvern...” Sam said as he put the new information together. “You think it was under the command of an Outsider? The one I sensed here?”

If Krana’s suggestion was right, they’d just found the connection between the wyvern and that Outsider.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Krana agreed, nodding at him. “I can’t think of any other way that a wyvern would be working with bandits. Something must have commanded it to guard them or this cave.”

“It didn’t care much about that half-giant,” Jeric pointed out as he frowned, rubbing his hand over his beard in thought. He was trying to find a flaw in the idea, but it was a thin one. “It went right through it.”

“It was still a monster,” Krana replied with a shrug. “You said it obeyed the sorcerer, but we don’t really know more than that. Maybe it was only told to protect the sorcerer, or to protect the cave and these supplies.”

“Are wyverns smart enough for that?” Lesat asked. “It’s just a big lizard with wings.”

“Wyverns are extremely clever, like most higher-level monsters,” Krana answered. “When they’re past their First Evolution, they sometimes even speak. They’re also known for being voracious, cunning, and destructive. You shouldn’t underestimate them.”

“So, it might have attacked that giant just because it didn’t care about him,” Jeric said. “It sounds like we’ve got a big problem on our hands then, and more than that...Highfold has a problem on its hands.”

“Do you think the city guard will be interested in this now?” Sam asked, an idea springing up in his mind. “The Festival of Three Crowns is coming up. They’re not going to be happy that there’s an Outsider in the area gathering monsters around it.”

“Hopefully,” Krana agreed with him. “The Flaw might still be somewhere in the mountains here as well.” She frowned again as she looked around at the roof of the cave, her gaze seeming to pierce through the stone above.

“It’s rare for one to be close to a city, but this area is a special case. The energy here is extremely well contained within the confines of the valley, and the mountains around it are a different thing entirely.”

"Wouldn't the World Law sense it?" Sam asked, frowning as he looked down at the Guardian Star on his hand. "And then send people to deal with it?"

He hadn't received a command to go and find a Flaw here.

"It may have been reported a while ago and no one came to deal with it," Krana replied, shaking her head. "It depends on where they are and how many others are opening at the same time, as well as what else is happening. Flaws can be concealed sometimes, if the Outsider has enough time.

"On top of that, these ruins have strange enchantments and it's possible that they're hiding it here."

“What type of Outsider do you think it is?” Aemilia asked, frowning herself as she thought of what to do and how to keep her family away from it. “Surely, the guards won't ignore it now?”

“It has to be at least somewhat intelligent, since it's working in the shadows and has managed to recruit these bandits,” Krana said. "I can try to search for it, but I doubt I will be able to find it. Outsiders are very good at hiding themselves from Seers."

Krana looked toward Sam, before she added another thought.

“We can't tell the city guard what you sensed about the Outsider, since that would raise too many questions about you...but with the wyvern as proof, it might be enough, and that it was here with the bandits."

"Bandits working for an Outsider...” Jeric muttered as he looked around. His arms were crossed on his chest and his fingers tightened as he considered the ramifications, pressing into his biceps.

“Traitors to Aster Fall,” Lesat finished, scowling, as he brought his whetstone down on the edge of his sword.

"The question is what they were doing," Krana agreed, nodding slowly.

The group looked around at each other, taking in the dark expressions, but no one had a good answer.

"Let's finish packing this up and then we'll let the guards know," Jeric said slowly, before he nodded. He turned away, looking at the rest of the barrels in the cave. “I doubt Highfold wants anything interrupting the festival."

“I’ll ask my relatives there about Siwaha and warn them,” Krana said. “They can help get the word to the city council.”

“I’m sure Highfold can handle it,” Aemilia said, trying to be reassuring as she held Altey’s hand, keeping her away from the barrels and other things in the cave.

It was a dangerous situation, but she still let out a sigh of relief as she realized her husband and son weren’t going to run off after monsters and bandits right now.

Sam gave the cave around him a long look as doubt brushed against his mind. Everything told him this was the edge of a much larger problem.

“A year ago...” he muttered to himself. Finally, he shook his head.

Their plans hadn’t changed, but the magnitude of the problem had. While Krana and his father headed to the city, he’d have to see what he could do about fortifying their position.

Whether Highfold knew it or not, the valley was under siege by an Outsider, and perhaps by a Flaw that was hidden in the ruins.

What was worse...it was an enemy that was smart enough to stay out of sight, to recruit bandits, and to stockpile supplies, all while threading its presence through the snow.

The timing was more than suspicious.

Whatever the thing was up to, he had the distinct feeling that it had something to do with the Festival of Three Crowns.

Over the next month, the number of travelers and enchanters in the valley would accumulate, and then they would go into the mountains...searching for enlightenment as they poured into the ruins.

Ruins that were very far from the wards and defenses of Highfold.

In other words, there would be thousands of targets full of experience for the Outsider to consume.

The festival was going to be a bloodbath.

---

As they rode away from the cave, high on the peaks and out of sight, there was a slender, blue and white figure watching them.

In appearance, he was humanoid, but his skin was white with swirling blue patterns across it. His long hair ran down his back in jagged, frozen blue waves and it was tangled with ice crystals as the wind blew through it.

His eyes were a piercing blue like cut crystal sapphires. His body was thin, with evidence of lean muscles, and he had delicate, refined features with high cheekbones and long, diamond-pointed ears.

More than anything, he resembled a spirit of the ice. He was thin enough that from the right angle, he looked like an icicle that had come to life.

He was swathed in a long, white and blue swirled cloak that blended into the stones behind him, making it look like he’d walked out from the stone of the mountains. His hands were on his hips as he studied the party below.

The ice sylph’s eyes narrowed in puzzlement as he saw the woman, the dwarf, and the child arrive, joining the three who were already in the cave.

When they came out a little later and remounted their horses, Siwasir continued to watch.

He kept his eyes carefully off the caster who looked like a demon, making sure that his attention wasn’t noticed.

He could feel the ward around him that was blocking sight, like a cloak radiating outward into the snow, but Siwasir's attention was like the snow itself, diffused everywhere through the land, and he was able to keep track of them all.

He’d felt the disturbance in the local area caused by the wyvern and had come to investigate. He’d arrived in time to see the end of the fight, as well as the caster’s demonic features.

At first, he’d been ready to attack. Only the fact that the caster was with the humans and fighting against one of the old enemies of his tribe had stayed his hand.

The wyverns and the ice sylphs had vied against each other for dominance over the icy peaks here for thousands of years. To see one die was satisfying, even if it was only a young one.

One less wyvern to attack their tribe and those who lived on their lands.

It should not have been down here on the edge of the valley at all. He frowned as he looked toward where the corpse had been, easily sensing the remains of the monster under the snow.

To him, the snow was welcoming, revealing its secrets with a touch.

His people stayed far away from most of those who lived in their lands. In their minds, it was a silent partnership.

The icy sylphs were content to let the guests bring prosperity to the land and grow their crops, while the tribe kept watch over the snow and ice.

Each supported the other, but that didn't require conversation, as long as the old customs were maintained.

His people appreciated the trade in crops, since growing them had never been their greatest strength.

Over the millenia, the small farming community they'd allowed here had become much larger.

With a fluid gesture, the sylph’s form blurred away, fading into the drifting snow as he departed, carrying the news of what he'd seen back to his tribe.