Beyond Chaos – A DiceRPG

[758] – Y03.058 – Ever Green I

Omen: 3, 9

Lady Marcia watched as the group began to leave, having packed up everything quickly. She had kept her eyes on Adam, who, along with several of the others, managed the process of packing up, also getting hands on with packing.

‘Adam is my brother.’ The young woman recalled the words Jurot had spoken. She couldn’t help but feel there was more to the group than what was let on, but what they had let on was quite a lot. The Iyrmen had been so free with their words, but when it came to Adam, there were very few things they said, but one of the statements was something which replayed constantly within her mind.

Adam is Adam.

She had learnt he was strong. She had learnt that he was a father, and quite the fool of a father at that. She had even learnt the name of his children, all six of them, and that one of them had been born earlier that year. There was, however, no mother. Any further prompting was awkward, so they hadn’t asked for more in casual conversation.

The relationship between Adam and the others seemed rather awkward. Adam was considered a Nephew of the Iyr, so he was no stranger to them. However, he was also a brother to Jurot, and not just in a friendly sense, but in the sense the Iyrmen viewed Adam as Jurot’s brother, in the same way Nirot was their cousin. The Aswadians also viewed him favourably, though it seemed Dunes was the closest to him. The farmers and porters also seemed to speak quite highly of the young half elf, almost in an awkward reverence.

It was Dunes who had been the key for Marcia to understand the situation, however.

‘Is that why he came to speak with me?’ Marcia thought. It was Dunes, after all, who had come to speak with her. ‘Manager Dunes.’ That was the title of the young Aswadian, who was a member of an order and yet seemed to hold such a title. ‘Manager Vonda…’

Lady Marcia retreated back to her office. She sat in deep thought for a long while. She tried to recall all she had learnt about Fate’s Golden, as well as Adam. She wrote down the list, and as she kept writing, she could feel a sense of ridiculousness within the situation.

The information was preposterous, improbable, bordering impossible.

Marcia dipped her quill within the ink, before beginning to write a letter. She, as a Commander of perhaps the most important minor fort in the land, should have been able to send word to the Lord Marshal. The letter explained the situation, the reason as to why she was sending word to the Lord Marshal, and finally, a question to confirm something. The moment it could be confirmed, they would need to view the written words not as rumours, but as fact.

‘Oh,’ Marcia thought, realising she had forgot to mention the pair of demons, before adding it in as a footnote, and the promise Jurot had stated to her, hoping it was enough to deal with the ramifications of allowing the demons to rest at the fort. Marcia wondered if she should have mentioned it earlier, considering one of the bits of information the young woman had written about Adam.

Adam remained silent as they made their way along. The others could feel it, an aura of darkness coming from the half elf. Adam’s eyes met Lucy’s, and the pair nodded between one another, before they continued onward silently.

When it was time for lunch, Adam inhaled deeply. “I’m going to do it.” His eyes fell to Jurot, who looked to Kitool. When she didn’t, Adam stepped aside.

Mana: 25 -> 22

There were several contenders for Adam’s favourite Third Gate spell. One was Fireball, a spell which made battles trivial. Another was Sending, which allowed Adam to send short messages to others. He hadn’t yet sent any messages back to his children, the children too young to understand what would be happening, which pained him so.

However, while journeying out across the land, all of Adam’s companions would say this was his favourite spell, and they had to one of the soldiers.

Mage’s Tower.

Adam sighed after washing his face with soap, before sinking deeper into the bath. ‘Why the hell do they have two forts so close to one another? How can they be as stupid as the Aldish too?’

Thankfully, Adam was able to have another bath that evening, and the next morning too. Though he was a half elf, and could go a week without bathing, he refused such a life.

The journey to Ever Green was uneventful, the group marching through the forested hills.

“What the…”

The walls of Ever Green greeted them. Adam, who was getting sick of trekking up hills, sighed. The walls of Ever Green were built upon raised ground, with a gate set under the walls. The road towards the town swerved, but instead of being annoyed at the winding road, Adam was too busy staring at the land around them.

Where once there was plush green, the lands around Ever Green were now dark and full of death, as though as storm of fire had rushed across it. Once, the greenery around Ever Green surpassed the greenery within the town walls, but that was no more.

Fred stared at Ever Green in shock. As a Florian, there was no one who wasn’t proud of Ever Green, the one town which caused even northerners to begrudgingly accept the south wasn’t too bad after all. ‘What have they done?’ His Florian heart burned hot.

As the group approached the walls, noting the various archers on the walls, a guard blew a whistle, holding up their hand to stop them.

“State your business,” the guard called.

‘I remember it being so easy to pass through last time,’ Adam thought. “We’re just passing through.”

The guard noted the appearance of the group, the number of Iyrmen, the number of Aswadians, and finally the member of Life’s Rose. The guard was an older fellow, with a face that appeared as though he had bit into a lemon, with a freshly shaven face that was almost shiny.

“What happened here?” Adam asked, unable to contain himself.

The guard narrowed his eyes at the fellow in puthral, who was not an Iyrman, since he had not removed his helmet. However, the young man was steel rank, meaning he wasn’t a nobody. “The army tried to siege our town, but the bas-,” the guard cleared his throat, recalling the member of Life’s Rose, “they weren’t able. When they retreated, they burnt the fields on the way out. Thankfully, Lord Asa managed to stop it before it got too bad. What you see is the worst of it.”

“Damn.” Adam shook his head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“We’re thankful it was not worse.” The guard let out a soft sigh, before his eyes returned back to the rest of the party, before his eyes fell to Jurot. “No trouble?”

“No trouble,” Jurot replied.

“Alright. Thirty gold’s the fee for your group.”

“Okay,” Jurot said.

As they stepped inside, Adam whispered. “Don’t we have the plaque?”

“The plaque is for Aldland,” Jurot said.

“Oh…” Adam blinked. “Right.”

Ever Green was as beautiful as ever. The roads were wide and small clusters of wooden buildings dotted around the area. The buildings were fairly small, though they were stacked quite high, three to five stories tall.

However, no matter where Adam looked, all he could see was greenery. There were as many parks as there were roads, some which became dirt paths through the greenery which people could walk through from one area to the next.

The town had a grid layout, as any other town, but there were many sections of the town which gave to a more natural layout, where buildings of old had been preserved, some curving and winding this way or that way. The town was also layered, with steps leading upwards to the next layer, though there were a few large roads on either end of the town which were slightly steeper, but allowed carriages and carts to be pulled through.

As they trekked through the town, which bustled with life, Adam noted how similar, yet different it felt to Red Oak, a vaguely familiar sensation.

The Adventurer’s Guild in Ever Green was huge. It was fairly similar to the Adventurer’s Guild in Red Oak, made of stone for the first floor, and the next three floors were made of wood, getting slightly smaller towards the top. However, there were so many flowers and vines growing all around the guild, and there were even small sections where a bunch of old people were currently relaxing on the roof top garden. To one side was a training field, and the other a small field, more like a garden, full of herbs. The building proper was also slightly larger than the guild in Red Oak.

“We’ll be able to find an alchemist for the business here,” Jaygak joked.

“Why are you thinking about that when we should be thinking about the most important thing,” Adam said. “No, the second most important thing.”

Jaygak guessed what the most important thing was. “What is the second most important thing?”

“Tea,” Adam stated.

“Ah.” Jaygak’s head bounced, for of course it was that. “They have moon tea, which assists with sleep.”

“Mnnn…” Adam’s sleep, though slightly troubled, seemed to be getting better. “Good idea.” ‘I should be careful, since I’m a half elf in the south.’ Adam glanced around, noting the large number of people glancing their way. ‘Do they know?’

The younger Iyrmen led the awakened wolves and dire wolves towards the stables.

Why are they looking at us?

Said the half elf who wore puthral armour, surrounded by Aswadians, Iyrmen, a member of Life's Rose, demons, awakened wolves, and dire wolves.