Bodyguard Chapter 4 (Patreon)

The outpost was a town of mixed materials. Different woods, red or yellow brick and granite, different buildings had used whatever the builder had available and could afford. Few of the buildings were more than two stories tall, and they favoured a style where the whole front of the first floor could be opened to the street. Nic saw a mix of stores and workshops, and sometimes both in one space, as they walked along. He assumed that the proprietors lived upstairs.

The street that the guard Tar led them along was paved with stone bricks, and while Nic wouldn’t call it heavily trafficked he still saw a number of people moving between the various businesses. The street was completely straight, and ahead he could see a towering black obelisk reaching into the sky.

“What’s that?” He asked Tar. “The big black stone ahead.”

“Hmm? Oh, that’s the Waystone. Never seen one before?” Tar answered. He didn’t sound too surprised, so honesty seemed fine.

“No,” Nic admitted. “I never did.”

“Fair enough. By your level I’m guessing you’ve been pretty sheltered, and far from every city has one. It’s how you get in and out of the splinters. Ours is in the centre of the outpost, but not every outpost is built around their Waystone. Some like to keep it outside of the settlement.”

As they got close to the Waystone the street merged into a large square. In the centre of the square was a platform, and in the centre of that was the Waystone. The thing was at least fifteen yards tall and maybe five wide at the base, and looked pretty much like just an irregular piece of pitch-black rock.

“This way,” Tar said, cutting diagonally across the square. There were a few people here, though the square looked more like a meeting place than a place of business. The few stalls sold drinks and ready food, and nothing else that Nic could see. “The guard house is the big stone building ahead. That’s where we’re headed.”

There was indeed an imposing, three-story building of dark grey stone ahead of them. A man and a woman, each wearing one of the orange armbands, lounged outside and greeted Tar as he approached.

“Who’re these?” the woman asked in a nasal alto before she took a good look at them, then, “And what the hell are they doing here?”

“Accidentals,” Tar said, and the woman gave Nic and Ana a sympathetic look. “Is the Captain in?”

“Sure is. Head on in,” she said and opened the door for them.

There was nothing like a reception inside. Instead there were a few tables at which more rough-looking individuals with or without orange armbands sat, talking, playing cards or other games, and drinking from mugs. Nobody paid them any mind as the entered, and Tar simply led Nic and Ana past the tables and through a door at the back and side of the room. There were stairs leading up and down, and Tar took them up.

“Up are the offices, and then the Captain’s apartment,” Tar explained. “Down are the cells, though we rarely use those. Pretty peaceful place, this outpost.”

Up one flight of stairs a door opened in the same direction as they had entered, leading into a small seating area with a number of doors. Another flight of stairs continued up, but it was blocked by a small gate which Nic could have easily stepped over. A sign on the gate read, ‘Stop! Private domicile!’ in letters that were at once completely unfamiliar and yet completely readable to Nic.

An effect of the Outsider race, perhaps, he thought. Something like that would usually let you understand the local language in isekais.

“Please sit down,” Tar told them, indicating a bench. The room was much longer than it was wide, with three doors on the long side and one on the short side. Tar knocked on the single door.

“Come,” came a strong voice from inside, and Tar opened the door.

“Captain, I’ve brought in two accidentals,” he said without entering the office.

“Accidentals? Bring them in.”

Tar looked at Nic and Ana expectantly. Nic looked to Ana, who nodded, and they got up and entered the office.

Captain Falk was perhaps in his mid forties. He had a long face with olive skin, and dark, close cropped hair which was spattered with grey. His label read Human Peacekeeper (29). He regarded Nic and Ana with serious, light brown eyes for a moment, then turned to Tar.

“Mister Barlo, would you take this young lady to see the midwife, please?” he said.

“Of course, Captain. Miss, if you –”

“I would prefer not to be separated from my friend,” Ana said quickly, just a touch of fear in her voice.

Falk thought for a moment. “In that case, please go see if the midwife has time to come here. You can leave the door open,” he said, addressing Tar. “The two of you, go ahead and sit.” He waved his hand at two chairs, one in front of his desk and the other by the wall. Nic left the first chair to Ana, and moved the other one in front of the desk before sitting.

“Right away, Captain,” Tar said and left.

“So,” Falk said. “Welcome to our splinter. My name is Tober Falk. I’m a captain of the Bluesky Guild, and in charge of the safety of this settlement. If you don’t mind, I’d like to know who you are and what you’re doing here.”

“Well…” Nic began, but Ana cut him off.

“I’m Ana,” she said, her voice strained but trying to be pleasant. “This is Nic. We’re… accidentals, like Tar – Mister Barlo? – said. We woke up in the forest last night.”

Falk sighed. “Mercifully rare, but not unheard of. You’re not the first accidentals we’ve had, though none are still with us. But where are my manners? Marra!” he shouted, and a moment later a door opened outside.

“What is it, Captain?” a mature woman’s voice asked, stressing the rank.

“I have two new arrivals here. Would you be a dear and get us all some tea?”

“Alright, Captain,” the woman answered in a long-suffering voice, and shortly thereafter a heavy-set woman with long, curly hair was briefly visible through the open door, before going down the stairs.

“Thank you!” Falk shouted after her. “Don’t know what I’d do without that woman,” Falk said with a small smile. “Now, I see you’ve had some luck, good and bad,” he continued, indicating their dress and the packs. “I doubt that you arrived with that equipment. I’ve never seen an accidental who was adequately prepared. And you, miss, are clearly injured, but don’t worry. Touanne, the midwife, is an excellent Healer. Would you mind explaining the equipment?”

“There was a camp near where we woke up,” Ana said before Nic had a chance. “It seemed abandoned, so we took what we needed.” She looked down in shame. God, Nic thought. Is she making herself blush? How do you even do that?

Falk regarded them neutrally. “The armour, the weapons strapped to your packs, they were all from that camp?”

“Yes, sir,” Ana said.

“I see. Quite fortunate,” he said. “Ah, here is Marra with the tea!” His face brightened as the short, somewhat round woman arrived with a tray bearing four steaming mugs.

“Will there be anything else, Captain?” she asked with a slight smile.

“No, lo– Marra, that is all for now. Thank you.”

“Well, let me tell you a little about what you’ve gotten yourselves into,” Falk said as they all held their mugs. “This is a young splinter. We’ve only been here a few cycles, barely established as all things go. Now, again, you have some good luck, some bad. Unfortunately for you, this is a low-ambient splinter. That means that the cycles are long, and to make matters worse, we are in the beginning of a cycle.”

“Excuse me,” Nic said, “but I’m afraid I don’t know much about splinters and Waystones and all this. What do you mean about the cycle? Why is that bad for us?”

“Of course. I’m sorry, I should have considered your levels compared to your ages. You must both have been very sheltered, am I right?”

“Right…” Nic said noncommittally.

“Well, the Waystone only opens at the end of the cycle. No one can leave until then. Meaning that you will not be able to leave this splinter for…” He shouted again. “Marra! How long until the end of the cycle?”

“Hundred forty-seven days!” came the reply.

“Thanks!” He turned back to Nic and Ana. “So neither you nor anyone else will be able to leave for one-hundred and forty seven days.”

“Oh,” Nic said. He had no idea how he felt about that.

“But, you have some good luck as well!” Falk said kindly. “This is a low-level shard, meaning easy levels and easy loot! I know that neither of you has a fighting class, but even you should be able to get along if you just practise some combat skills, and perhaps join a casual team of other non-combatants. And while the splinter is low-level it is considered to have high potential for development since it’s an eternal summer splinter. We expect agriculture to boom in the next few cycles. That means high investment and high levels of support from the Bluesky Guild, which keeps prices down!”

There came the sound of more than one set of boots on the stairs, and Falk looked past Nic and Ana, out the door.

“And here comes Tar – Mister Barlo, I mean –  with the midwife,” he said. “Thank you, Barlo. Touanne, thank you for coming. Would you mind taking a look at this young lady, Ana, here?”

Touanne, the midwife, was an Elfin Healer (23), a willowy woman with fair, freckled skin and straight, chestnut hair that hung to her shoulders. Nic would guess that she was in her early thirties, and there was something about her that radiated concern and compassion. After a few seconds he realised that he’d been staring. He’d seen her lips move, but he had no idea what she’d said.

“Alright, gentlemen,” Falk said, “let’s give the ladies the room, shall we? Don’t forget your cup, Nic. There you go. We can continue outside.”

Nic locked eyes with Ana, who nodded. Falk then herded Nic and Tar out of his office, and shut the door behind them, leaving Ana alone with the Healer.

Nic and Tar followed the Captain’s lead and sat down on the bench where Nic and Ana had first waited, with Nic in the middle. Falk wasted no time before leaning in and asking in a low voice, “Now, Nic. I want to ask you some questions about the woman you’re travelling with.”

Nic had been dreading this. No one had said anything so far, but he’d seen them looking at Ana. The bruising on her face was plain to see. “I swear that I haven’t touched her,” he said. “She…”

She what, Nicola? he asked himself. She tripped? She walked into a door? Are you trying to sound like an abuser?

Falk looked at Tar, and then back to Nic. “That, I think, is a safe assumption to make. That is not at all what I wanted to ask about.”

“It’s not?” Nic asked not sure whether he was more relieved or confused.

“No,” Falk said. “Nic, I want you to know that you are in the safest place in this splinter. So I want you to answer me honestly. The woman you’re travelling with, Ana: Are you travelling with her willingly?”

“What?” was all Nic could say to that.

“To be clear: were you in any danger before Tar brought you in here? I can see that you come from money, and if you don’t mind me saying so your class confirms it. The woman, though. Her class says that she’s a Companion, but I know a fighter when I see one. Barlo?”

“I agree, Captain,” Tar said. ”Everything about her except her class screams Fighter. When I brought her into the common room I’d bet she had every way out and the general strength of every person there clocked in two seconds.”

“If I didn’t have the skills I do,” Falk said, “I’d think that she had a hidden class. But as it is I can only assume that her class and low level is deliberate, probably coupled with disproportionately high skills. That would make her, say, an excellent hostage taker. There is also the fact that half of what she said to me clocked as obvious deceptions. So, young Nic. Are you being blackmailed, abducted, or otherwise made to go with this woman against your will?”

“No!” Nic protested. He’d never actually been outraged before, but he was close now! “No, absolutely not! She’s my companion. My… Well, perhaps not ‘friend’, as such, but I am most certainly travelling with her willingly, and I am in no danger from her. She works for my father!”

“That is no guarantee, young man,” Falk said, “but I can tell that you fully believe what you’re saying. Very well. I apologise if I’ve upset you, but I wanted to be sure. We get all sorts of unpleasant types who want to use a young splinter like ours to hide, and we cannot be too careful. Now, how about you tell us the whole story?”