Journey Through the Underdark - Eric EarthScorn Book 1 - Chapter 32 (Patreon)

Eric should have been concerned. Stone clad warrior mage blocking the exit of the room, a capable mage in front of him, it should have been anxiety-inducing at the least. But Eric found himself oddly calm. When he brushed up against that sense of peace, his mind trying to pick apart the worry, he could feel a thin film of magic that covered the room.

“I’m not going to cause any problems. If you could stop playing with my mind, I would appreciate it,” Eric said, his voice coming out in a gentle monotone.

Judy’s eyebrows shot up before she could control herself, then schooled her face. She tapped a brass device on the table beside her chair, where she had placed her book, and Eric felt the film of calm slip from his mind.

“Apologies, I was instructed to take this approach by my superiors. I argued against it, for what it’s worth,” the Inspector said, a look of annoyance flashing across her face.

Shrugging, Eric plodded through the room and dropped into the chair situated across from Judy. Ignoring the nature of the betrayal, if he could consider it a betrayal to simply create a sense of calm, he started in on how he made his escape. He left nothing out in his retelling, the act of replaying his actions a welcome relief from the stress.

He expected that Judy would ask questions or request clarification at points, but she silently listened and let him ramble. There were moments where she frowned, or her eyes refused to meet his own, but overall, all that happened was Eric talked, and Judy listened. When Eric came to the point where Mary found him in his hiding space - as well as the death that quickly followed - the Inspector turned to face the stone woman. All she did was shrug, the fluid movement deeply unnerving because of the inhuman nature of the stone form.

When I was done with my tale, Judy turned back to the little brass doodad, flipping it over and checking a small gem on the side of it, then placing it back where it was. Leaning forward, she put her elbows on her knees and rubbed her forehead, the frustration evident in her face.

“I want to apologize to you. I left you in a horrible position in that kingdom, in a place where I knew you would be abused. I want to apologize, but I won’t,’ Judy said, her hands stopping their rubbing as she met Eric’s eyes.

The boy sat in his chair, remarkably non-plussed over how to respond.

“I won’t apologize, because it implies I would have or even could have done anything differently,” she said.

Eric nodded at that, the idea of not saying sorry when it wasn’t real, understandable enough to him. A bit rude to rip back the curtain of social lies, but one he could appreciate none the less.

“The UWC saves lives. Many, many lives. Arguably all of them. But some times, we must take the course of letting an evil thing happen to stop a greater evil. In some cases, even cause that evil. This is one of the times that I wished the UWC was allowed to intervene in politics outside of our remit, but we couldn’t do our job if we did. So, here we are,” she said with an unsteady voice.

“I will be honest with you Eric, the UWC will move on Southern Alskan, there is no other course. We are all Oath-Bound, and we must fulfill our oaths and investigate. But Southern Alskan fits into a very…delicate political situation, and this will not go well for anyone. Most of all, for you,” she said.

Eric straightened in his chair, frowning in anger at the unfairness of it all.

Cutting Judy off before she could continue, Eric said, “How is this my fault? I just didn’t want to be murdered, so some noble could cut his taxes! Why is any of this my fault? I’ve done nothing but help you!”

Nodding, Judy listened calmly to Eric’s anger, only slightly surprised when Sasha appeared from the shadows and sat next to Eric. The appearance of the shadow cat brought Eric out of his rage, and his shouting trailed off. Rubbing his face, only now discovering the tracks of tears that had trailed down his face during the retelling of his journey.

“It’s not fair, and I’m sorry. But you need to understand how things are. Southern Alskan is between Talsomery and Northern Alskan. Talsomery provides some food and resources to the southern kingdom. Mostly they prop-up Southern Alskan’s council to avoid the inevitable flood of refugees across the border if the puppet council fell. In addition, the kingdom acts as a buffer against Northern Alskan. In turn, Northern Alskan allows this because they also wish a buffer, though only while they work to stop the encroach of the eastern dessert into their croplands. Everyone is thrilled that Southern Alskan is poor, impoverished, and very much not their problem,” Judy said.

Eric’s mouth hung open as he tried to rearrange the pieces of the world he knew and how this new information reshaped it. The idea that the kingdom he was born into was not the bastion of civilization the propaganda said it was, that was easy to accept. What little of the places he had seen, even the fortress town, was more affluent than most of Southern Alskan. But to flip everything around, to see the kingdom as nothing more than an impoverished no-man’s land, ignored because it was simply not worth conquering? No, that was too difficult to accept. Yet, Eric could see how it could be true. Little things that made no sense before started to fit together and showed a larger picture.

Shaking his head, the outer motion mimicking the attempt to shake away his internal thoughts, Eric asked, “so…what does this mean for me?”

Leaning back in her chair, Judy bit her lip while she gathered her thoughts. From behind her hair, a tentacle with eye poked around her neck and stared at the boy. Seeing the creature, Sasha hissed and slid behind Eric’s chair, the emotion roiling off her one of utter terror, for her and her Kitten.

Seeing the reaction, Judy smiled slightly and tapped the creature on top of its tentacle. The gestured would be cute, except she had patted the creature directly on its eye. At the gentle pat, it shrunk slightly and then cuddled next to Judy’s neck.

“Don’t worry, Igg won’t be a problem. I swear you and your familiar are safe,” she said.

Sasha noticed Eric’s look of concern and then stopped her low growl, her nose turned up slightly, and she looked away from the humans. Eric wasn’t fooled though, she kept Igg in the corner of her eye, and her tail was continually flicking in agitation. Whatever Igg was, Sasha feared it and given the things she had found only slightly frightening in the Underdark, that made Igg a concern. But a worry for another day.

“As for what this means for you, well. That’s tricky. Once you gave this information to the UWC, we are bound to investigate. But, you have placed yourself in multiple lines of fire by doing so. Northern Alskan would be happy if an investigation found a problem, and the UWC cleared out the south for them…but maybe not at the moment. They have been struggling with the dessert for the last two hundred years, and until that project is handled, they will not be able to turn to the south again. Delaying the UWC, perhaps by killing the informant? That might be useful to them,” Judy said, her voice slipping into a lecturing tone.

Eric’s eyes widened, but before he genuinely became worried, Judy continued.

“Or maybe not, there are at least ten major factions of royals, nobles, merchants, the military, and even guild houses in Northern Alskan. Some will want you dead, some will want you alive - if only to annoy those who will want you dead - some won’t care, and I’m sure everything in between. But they will have an opinion the moment they know the UWC will be moving. You will likely have to deal with both assassins and royal balls before the UWC moves on this,” she said.

Shifting out of the doorway, Mary approached and moved around within the black stone shell as she had each time before she opened the fake head. To Eric’s surprise, the black rock unfolded completely, and Mary stepped out as a wave of pungent sweat rolled off her.

“Oh man, I’m going to go take a bath. He doesn’t seem like he is going to try and kill you, so I’m done for now. Bye, Judy!” Mary said as she walked out, the stone goliath remaining unfolded in front of them, then it curled into a stone ball and rolled after her.

As she stepped out of the doorway, she muttered, “ugg, politics!” and then turned to the left, followed by the dog-sized ball of black stone.

Turning back to Judy, Eric noticed the hint of a smile on her face before she returned to her teaching persona.

“As I was saying. Talsomery will want you dead for some of the same reasons that some Northern Alskan factions will want you dead. Especially the military of both kingdoms. They want war, and they want it now. If not with each other, then they would be glad to flatten Southern Alskan and take it for themselves no matter what the rest of their respective kingdoms have to say about it.”

Eric was trying to stay calm, but he felt trapped liked he had been in the academy. Only, this time it felt like he had no escape where the UWC wouldn’t chase him as well, and given what he had seen of them and how afraid everyone was of them, he had no wish to annoy them as well.

“Relax, Eric. An assassin isn’t going to suddenly appear out of the walls just yet. It’s going to take weeks, if not months before the UWC will mount an investigation into the Underdark of Southern Alskan. I’ll sponsor training for you, which is something you need, and prepare you before we go back. I’ll help you train when I can, and I’ve assigned Mary to guard you while you are here,” Judy said, the words said in as soothing a tone as she could make.

“What if I don’t want to go back? What if I don’t want to lead you back into the Underdark?” Eric asked, his voice rising in concern as he remembered his time in the dark. It had been uncomfortable and frightening, stinky, and dangerous, but it had also been oddly freeing and wonderous. He knew he shouldn’t want to go back, but for some reason, he wanted to. He wanted to go back into the dark where he was free from the dangers of other people and only had to protect himself from the threats of the monsters. Just him and Sasha.

“I’m sorry, Eric, but that’s just how it is. The council is going to demand you go with us. But don’t worry, you will be protected, and we will treat you well for assisting. Since we have been called in, as long as we find something, even a magical trace, we can help you get your family out as well. We might be able to extract some kind of financial penalty from Southern Alskan as well, but I can’t promise that,” Judy said while she placed her hands in her lap and stared at the boy.

Leaning back in his chair, Eric stared at the wooden ceiling as he let the possibilities roll through his mind. Rubbing his hands across his face, he continued to look up while Judy sat silently across from him and waited. Blowing out a breath, Eric reached over and gently ran his hand along the ridges of Sasha’s head, the sense of calm and comfort running through him from the simple touch of his mind to hers.

“Fine, I’ll go back into the Underdark,” Eric said.