Grand Game 261: The Offering of a Hag (Patreon)

“Stop!”

The command rang across the grove, harsh and demanding, and in response, the hag I was charging lowered her hands.

For a split second, I contemplated following through with my attack anyway. But then curiosity and common sense caught up. Pulling back my swords, I altered my trajectory to dive past the hag and back into the marsh.

Surging up from the water again, I whipped around. Both bodyguards were watching me impassively. I eyed them suspiciously, but even under my stare, neither made any move to attack.

I inched my head to the side, not willing to let either bodyguard go unobserved for any length of time, and studied the other hags out of the corner of my eye. There were fourteen in total, approaching from all sides and with their hands conspicuously lowered.

Damnation. Was this a trap?

If I didn’t move soon, I would be surrounded. Instinct was urging me to flee, but I sensed nothing false in the sea witches’ sudden passiveness. They truly seemed to have given up the fight.

I can’t take the chance, I decided. Hefting my blades, I prepared to dive back into the marsh.

“Wait, wolf,” a hag called out. “We wish to parley.”

I turned in the direction of the speaker, this time recognizing the voice. It was the witch the hag mother had addressed as Caulis.

“Get back then!” I snarled and pointedly raised my bloodied blades. “Or I will resume my slaughter.”

Rage suffused many of the hags’ faces, but Caulis herself appeared unperturbed by the threat. “As you wish.” Raising her right hand, she called out, “Pull back, sisters.”

Obediently, the sea witches retreated.

Pivoting in a slow circle, I observed them through narrowed eyes but again sensed no deception in their movements.

“We only want to talk,” Caulis repeated.

My gaze jerked back to the hag. “You said that, but I don’t believe you. Why would you after I killed your leader?”

For the first time, emotion flickered across Caulis’ face. “That misbegotten fool?” she spat. “She deserved to die. You’ve done our coven a service by ridding us of her.”

The former bodyguards’ hands twitched at this, but Caulis threw them a hard stare, and the pair subsided. After giving them a warning glance of my own, I turned back to the hags’ spokeswoman. “And so, you are what? The coven’s new hag mother?”

“I am,” Caulis confirmed.

No one gainsaid her.

“What about the others I killed?” I asked, moving the conversation on. “Do their deaths mean nothing to you too?”

For a moment, the coven’s new leader remained silent. “Ever since we came to this blighted city, we’ve all been marked for death. That my sisters died hurts, but that fourteen of us remain alive? That gives me cause for hope.”

I frowned. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“We are not the first coven to enter Nexus,” Caulis said. “But none who came before ever returned to the sea, and I and my sisters fully expected to die on this bedeviled shore. Gretna was arrogant to think she could establish a foothold here, in the very heart of you players’ domain.”

Gretna must’ve been the former hag mother. “So, what do you want from me?”

“A cessation of hostilities, nothing more,” Caulis answered.

“I thought your kind hated all landbound life?” I scoffed.

“We do,” Caulis replied equably. “But survival matters more.”

I grunted, finding no cause to object to that. “What do I get in return?”

“Your life.”

I snorted derisively. “That’s not yours to give.”

“The life of another then.”

I blinked. “Who?”

“The wolf we hold prisoner.”

I raised a questioning eyebrow. “What makes you think I can’t take him from you if I wanted to?”

“You may have slain some of us, but the outcome is by no means assured if we resume battle.”

“I’ve been doing well enough so far,” I said mildly.

Caulis shook her head in frustration and tried another angle. “The worms have your companion. You will not free him of their jaws without our aid.”

The new hag mother seemed to be under the mistaken impression that I knew her prisoner, but I didn’t enlighten her. And besides, Caulis was right about the battle’s outcome being uncertain, if not for the reasons she thought.

I’d used all my traps. More importantly, though, I was running out of time and couldn’t afford another protracted engagement. The first disease protection crystal was nearly spent, which meant I had less than four hours to finish matters in the grove and leave the saltmarsh.

“How can I trust you?” I asked at last.

“You players can see the true nature of objects, yes?”

I nodded.

Caulis drew something out of her robe and threw it to me. I made no move to catch the item, and it plopped into the marsh to float on the surface. “That is all you need to free your friend.”

Glancing down, I analyzed the small object.

The target is a basic commune rod. This item has been crafted from the very coral that gave birth to seaworm colony 12,402. The hags have imprinted it with all the mental commands necessary to control the colony. Available orders: eat, withdraw, sleep. This item has no prerequisites to use.

“Do you see?” Caulis asked.

I nodded. “Where is the prisoner?”

“In a hollow carved out of the largest tree in the grove.” She studied me. “Do we have a deal?”

I chewed over Caulis’ words a second longer. “We do. Go.”

Silently, the new hag mother turned around and headed south. The other sea witches followed, gliding across the marsh in her wake.

✵ ✵ ✵

After verifying that the sea witches had indeed departed, I pocketed the commune rod, then returned to the spot of the hag mother’s demise and dived to the marsh floor.

A moment later, I resurfaced with my prizes.

Holding the corpse in one hand and the head in the other, I pursed my lips as I considered the grove. I needed somewhere secure to search the body. I couldn’t do that in the water, which left only the trees.

Dropping the head momentarily, I pulled out the commune rod. Let’s see if this works.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the seaworms industriously eating away at the nearest tree. “Sleep,” I breathed, projecting my thoughts through the crystal.

For a wonder, the worms’ responded. In a matter of moments, their mindglows dulled, and their frantic movements slowed to a crawl.

“Huh,” I grunted. “What do you know, it works.”

I’d half expected the commune rod to be defective, some trick of Caulis’ to push through her deal. But it seemed the sea hags had wanted to leave the city as much as I’d wanted them gone, and she’d negotiated in good faith.

Picking up the hag’s head, I dragged it and the corpse into the tree’s lower branches. The worms remained quiescent throughout, and I turned my attention to the waiting Game messages.

Once again, many of my skills had advanced. Ignoring the usual skill level increase messages, I focused on the skills that had ranked up.

You have reached level 133!

Your dodging has increased to level 111 and reached rank 11.

Your elemental absorption has increased to level 23 and reached rank 2, increasing your chance to resist harmful elemental effects by 5% and decreasing the damage you suffer from them by 10%.

I smiled, pleased by my player progress. Without having to think about it, I invested my new attribute points.

Your Dexterity has increased to rank 38. Other modifiers: +8 from items.

Next, I considered the hag mother’s body. She wore no jewelry and only had two items of note: a pair of soft-scaled boots and a sealskin robe.

Yanking off the boots, I inspected them first.

You have acquired the rank 3 item: boots of the flying fish. This item allows the wearer to walk over water as if it were solid ground and requires a minimum Magic of 12 to equip.

The boots were interesting but not worthy of replacing my wayfarer’s boots. Storing them in my backpack, I considered the sealskin robe. I had to peel it off the corpse and, to my surprise, found the inside bone dry.

Thoughtfully, I analyzed the garment.

You have acquired a rank 2 sealskin robe. This item has been enchanted to keep the wearer dry and warm in even the coldest seas. Additionally, it increases your water magic by +10. This item requires a minimum Magic of 8 to equip.

“Too bad I didn’t find this earlier,” I muttered, glancing down at my water-logged clothes. It would’ve saved me a soaking.

Inspecting the inside of the robe more closely, I found it was lined with pockets. All the pockets, but one was empty. Rifling through it, I pulled out a fistful of items.

You have acquired 3 x coral flowers, 1 x toad tongue, 4 x yellow-spotted frog feet, 20 x marsh weed, and 1 x yellow-spotted frog tongue.

“Well, that’s handy,” I remarked, studying the cache of reagents in surprise, especially the frog feet and tongue. They were the exact items I required to complete bounty job two hundred and seventy-one.

Turning about, I stared out into the grove. There were at least eight other hag corpses resting at the bottom of the marsh somewhere, and  I needed to loot them too.

But first, time to recuperate.

You have replenished 100% of your psi and mana through meditation and channeling.

You have activated a rank 6 disease protection crystal.

You have acquired 8 x sealskin robes, 27 x coral flowers, 4 x toad tongues, 8 x yellow-spotted frog feet, 80 x marsh weed, and 6 x yellow-spotted frog tongues.

You have acquired a hag mother’s scalp.

Job 1015 update: Task complete. Visit knight-captain Orlon to collect your reward.

Job 271 update: Task complete. Visit the guild office to collect your reward.

✵ ✵ ✵

A little later, I was finally done with my chores and ready to move on. Rising to my feet, I equipped my cat claws and scaled up the tree’s broad trunk, not stopping until I reached the topmost branches. From there, I surveyed the grove.

Most of the trees were the same height as the one I was perched on, but one tree, in particular, loomed over the others.

That must be the one Caulis spoke of.

Taking up the commune rod in my hand again, I ordered all the seaworms infesting the grove to slumber. I had no idea if the worms would ever wake on their own again but judged putting the nasty little creatures to sleep safer than commanding them to retreat—that would leave the worms in the marsh, and that I did not want.

When mindsight confirmed the coast was clear, I leaped off the branch and glided along a windslide to the neighboring tree, and from there, to the next.

Reaching my destination—the grove’s tallest tree—I dropped back into the marsh. Immediately, I saw that Caulis had not led me false.

That has to be the mysterious wolf.

And if I was reading his—her?—mindglow correctly, the wolf was stirring.