Spellheart 9: Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Sava had been terribly worried from the moment she heard Segolas went all alone, but Mac had informed her I was keeping an eye on things. That was the only thing that kept her from tearing her way through the dungeon herself.

She gave Segolas quite a talking to when we finally got to the surface, and I knew he would be in trouble for a while. But true to his word, he promised to rest and recover and not do anything too strenuous.

“To think, I’d been working all day and night to craft the perfect potion for your death zeal, and you went off trying to get yourself killed collecting a few petty trinkets!” Sava fumed.

“I’m sorry, mother. I’m just sick of lying around like a useless lump. I’ve done enough of that for a lifetime already,” Segolas shrugged.

“I’m just glad you’re safe. But if you still want my potion, you’re spending the rest of the week resting and recovering!” Sava said.

Segolas hung his head and walked off. As soon as she was out of sight, Sava’s scowl brightened into a smile.

“You were watching him the whole time, right? Did he fight well?”

“He did. He pulled some rather impressive moves for a mage acolyte. I’ll take him for a real dungeon run in a few weeks. Maybe it’ll help prepare him for true mage.”

“Ha! I knew it. Now, unlike our son, you have no need for bed rest at all. And neither do I...” Sava smiled coyly at me as she tugged at my shirt.

Before long, the two of us were back in my personal chambers. As nice as my quarters in Castle Mac were, I missed some of the comforts of technology. Elven beds tended to be hard, sturdy things. They worked well enough for sleeping on them, but they didn’t have the rhythmic bounciness I needed. The Wanderer knew just what I was going to be using this bed most of the time, so its spring exactly matched my natural frequency during certain intimate activities.

After I was satisfied and Sava was well and truly exhausted, the two of us shared a shower. That, in particular, was something I’d missed. A bath here or there was fine, but they got old when that was all you could get.

I spent more time with Sava, and she filled me in on everything she’d been doing. A lot had been going on right under my nose over the past few weeks, and I realized I’d have to bring each of my women into my chambers for a little personal time if I wanted to stay up to date on everything that was happening in the Hearthwood.

Thankfully, I had plenty of time for all of that between my usual slow and steady cultivation. For once, things were looking calm in the Hearthwood.

The days passed smoothly for me, and once again, I was feeling like I was on vacation. Compared to my hectic life when I first arrived on this world, long moments of calm like this one seemed unnatural, and each time they happened, it took me days to overcome the stress of not doing something.

I’d been getting better at that lately, though. It helped to have my women close at hand to keep me company. Not just Sava and Tivana, but Assyrus, Eltiana, Melise, Yorik, Illiel, and Nela as well. All of them were as important to me personally as they were to our clan. Thankfully, now that things were calming down, I could pull one or two of them away from their duties on any day to keep me company for a while longer.

Still, just like before, the endless relaxation was wearing on me. Perhaps those days of intense stress had changed something within me because the longer I relaxed, the more I felt like there was something I needed to do. Cultivate? Surely, but I was already as on top of that as I could be. Destroy the clan’s enemies? The Cult of the Unblinking Eye was keeping to themselves for now, and all the minor enemies throughout Deania had either been destroyed or bent their knees and acknowledged our supremacy.

I even got to see the small scattered remnants of the Demon Star Clan come together again. Tivana kept me apprised of the situation as one of the surviving mage acolytes reached true mage and tried to reform her broken clan. I’d slain their matriarch in battle, which had ended their clan’s rise to power as they attempted to fill the vacuum left behind by the Songstone Clan.

I hadn’t expected the survivors to make anything of themselves. It wasn’t like there was room for another great clan in Deania now that the Hearthwood Clan had gobbled up all the Songstone Clan’s old territory and then the Sakaku clan’s territory as well. A year ago, they had made good foes, but now they couldn’t hope to oppose us even if every one of their mage acolytes became true mages.

Still, I’d been prepared for a big fight as their true mage challenged my clan and me for what was ours. Comela rode out to meet them on her wyvern, and I followed in secret just in case she needed support.

But no fight happened. It turned out the true mage, and the survivors of the Demon Star Clan were only heading our way to grovel at my daughter’s feet and beg her to let bygones be bygones, offering everything her clan had left, including herself and all six of her daughters as a gift to make sure there was no lingering resentment between her family and the Hearthwood Clan.

I almost chuckled to myself when I heard her begging. To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about their clan. They were such an insignificant problem to me that even if they’d declared themselves my sworn enemies, I probably wouldn’t have bothered taking care of them.

It was disappointing that my daughter got to deal with them instead of me, but seeing how scared the newly minted true mage was in Comela’s presence, she might have a heart attack if I showed my face.

“Alright, alright. We accept your heartfelt apologies. Another elder from your clan already said something similar. I’ll take two of your prettiest daughters to be raised in the Hearthwood Clan to ensure the Demon Star Clan’s next generation is more amicably disposed to us. You can keep all the other stuff,” Comela declared, much to the heartfelt pleas and thanks of the new Demon Star Clan matriarch.

“Thank you, honored Lady Comela of the Hearthwood Clan! And please tell your father that I and any other woman of the Demon Star Clan are at his disposal. I hear how he likes to assert his dominance over conquered women like us by stripping us naked and having us cr--“ the true mage was cut off by a raised hand from Comela.

“Some rumors about my father are greatly exaggerated. I don’t think he’ll require that service of you,” Comela said.

I shook my head. Had the whole Chief of the Blackgorge Tribe thing really done that much to shape my reputation into that of an insatiable despot?

Comela leaned forward conspiratorially. “But just to be safe, make sure your two daughters make themselves presentable for him.”

Sure enough, I returned to my room to find two mage acolytes from the Demon Star Clan bound in ribbons, sitting on top of a chest of gold coins and waiting for my arrival. A man of lesser moral fiber would have taken the gifts for what they were, but I ended up just taking the gold. I’d just spent the entire day with Eltiana and Assyrus, so I was feeling rather satiated already. The pair of mage acolytes went to the Whitewood Clan, who would give them jobs as castle maids until they found their feet in the city.

I’d have thought spending time with my women and my children would eventually relax me, but things hadn’t quite worked out that way. I suppose I was used to needing to protect them. The thing that really fixed the endless tension between my brows was resuming game nights with my friends.

Back on earth, Sam and Dean used to come over every weekend. Sometimes we would go out, but other times we would just hang out at my place and play board games or watch a movie. It was a fun, relaxing pastime from days gone by.

“Ouch, looks like a bad roll for you, Sam,” I chuckled as Sam rolled a natural one. “Your archer trips and falls on his face. The arrow he was holding cuts his fingers, and now he can’t hold his bow properly.”

“Ha, don’t worry, I’ll save the day!” Dean promised as he rolled his own dice. “Ha! A three!”

“Your barbarian hits the wild boar with a glancing blow and does three damage.”

“Awe, come on! You saw me cut the top of that mountain top off with my axe! Surely my character can kill a stupid boar...” Dean grumbled.

“The rules are the rules, Dean. You’ve got a level two barbarian.”

“I forgot how lame being low level is,” Dean grumbled. “Can’t we just resume one of our old games with our old characters?”

“The character sheets are back on earth, Dean. Besides, it’s been over four hundred years since we last played that session. I’m not sure I remember the plot anymore,” Sam replied.

It had been considerably less time for me than it had been for the two of them, but it had been a rather hectic year, and I wasn’t sure I could pick the game back up again, either. So we’d started fresh with new characters.

“I think there are a few inaccuracies with your game, father,” Comela said as she stared at the figurines and the map I had Mac print up for our gaming session. “The monster names are all wrong. And why do people get stronger by leveling up instead of cultivating? It strikes me as wisest for these characters of ours to focus on collecting herbs to barter for early cultivation supplies. Once we reach mage acolyte, adventuring will become both safer and easier.”

“There’s no cultivation in this game, I’m afraid.”

Comela grumbled again. I suppose the game was a bit confusing for her without the background Sam, Dean, and I had. But with me acting as Dungeon Master, we really needed at least one more player to have fun. Tivana, in contrast, had taken to the game much quicker.

“My cleric shall use her healing spell to cure Honored Fateweaver Samuel’s archer,” Tivana announced.

“You cast your spell, and Sam’s archer’s fingers are healed. He can fire his bow again.”

“Princess, how are you so good at father’s game? It doesn’t make much sense to me. The way the spells work is all wrong,” Comela protested.

“I have studied my grandfather’s ancient manuscripts. They talked at length about this game, and as a newly manifested elf, I was convinced that there were profound secrets to great power hidden within the stories he wrote there.”

Dean, meanwhile, was trying to balance his axe on his nose. It made quite a comical sight.

“I have since reconsidered that position.”

We eventually made it through the encounters I had in mind, which proved to be stressful on the group, mainly because they’d lost badly against a group of giant rats.

“In real life, I could crush them all with one stomp,” Dean said as his barbarian fled the battlefield with a single hit point left.

“There’s still one rat clinging to your barbarian’s loincloth. You need to make a saving throw before it bites something vital,” I said.

“Crap!” Dean swore and threw his dice. In the end, the last rat took him down, but Tivana’s cleric could save him. I thought it was a good gaming session.

We were just getting ready to set things aside to continue the game at a later date when Sam sat bolt-upright.

“Sam?” I asked curiously.

Dean must have recognized the expression on Sam’s face because he groaned. “Oh no, not again.”

“What?” I turned to Dean.

“Sam gets like this whenever his fate magic warns him that something bad is going to happen soon. Let me guess, it’s either an interplanetary monster attack or a demigod meeting. Please tell me it’s an interplanetary monster attack...” Dean pleaded.

Sam blinked, and a moment later, his eyes returned to focus again.

“Looks like you’re going to get your wish. There’s a dragonswarm due in on one of the other continents. They’re being led by a pair of early demigod-level space dragons. I detected them before and thought they’d just fly over, with only a few of their clutch at the wizard realm or below swooping down to pick fights or grab lunch, but something’s changed. Apparently, the demigods have decided the World of Sanctuary and Serenity is a good place to roost for a few weeks.”

“Does a dragonswarm mean what I think it does?” I asked. “As in, a swarm of dragons?” It reminded me an awful lot of something I’d heard about on Yorik’s world. Her father had died trying to fight off a dragonswarm, and it had been the ruin of the Blackgorge Tribe before my arrival.

A smile had replaced Dean’s groan. “Oh boy, you’re in for a treat, Theo! Yep, it’s exactly what it sounds like. There’ll be thousands of hungry elf-eating dragons descending on this planet at any moment! Looks like we’re going to fight them off!”

PREV | NEXT

ACTUAL LINK:
PREV | NEXT