Chapter 73: You Have a What?

“Of course Your Majesty,” Lord Haldax replied, shuffling through sheets of paper before bringing one up.

“The battle for Bizmati Keep was fought over two engagements, an aerial intercept to assist the free trader Vulzan Hanori and the dragon Archeon who had been attacked while on route. Followed by a second battle to defend the keep against a renewed enemy assault.”

“During the first engagement, the enemy was routed into the night leading to no casualties on behalf of the keep, though the trader's escorts suffered heavy casualties.”

“The second engagement was initiated when the confirmed traitor Dashu Flaxen unbarred the entrance door, letting the enemy inside unchallenged.” Sapphire did notice weight being placed on the “confirmed” part of that. “Darkling forces then proceeded to invade the keep, taking hostages. Due to the heroic actions of Lady Bizmati alongside her daughter, Dakota, the enemy was denied the ability to withdraw from the keep. The enemy forces were then destroyed utterly by a vicious counter-assault led by the warrior Tom.” The speaker sounded slightly confused at that last part and appeared to go over it again, before continuing.

“The reports stated that Bizmati Keep suffered only one casualty, that being the young child Anastasi, who was killed as a hostage.” The speaker gave a respectful pause before continuing “The enemy forces present numbered at least 25 darklings commanded by a dark knight. 15 of which, including the Dark Knight, fell to Tom’s hand over the course of the two battles.”

Well, that certainly got the council riled up, Sapphire couldn’t even hear what was being said down by the proper seats as most of the frontier people were busy, questioning what Tom was, or giving their condolences on the loss of Anastasi. Others begging them that something so dangerous should not be let inside the walls.

The speaker tried in vain to restore order for nearly a minute before the king got to his feet.

“Silence!” The booming voice echoing throughout the room. That order was obeyed by all. “Speaker, you have a report on this individual, do you not?”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

“Let’s hear it,” The king stated, returning to his seat. The speaker ruffled through some more papers before producing a document.

“Report on the warrior known as Tom, full name Tomas Hansen. By Colonel Victoria Hashaw of the royal guard.”

“Visually Tom is soft-skinned and pale of colour, though he sports brown hair of considerable length on his head and face. His face appears squashed in with teeth much like those of a deer. He walks on two legs, has two arms much like our own, but is lacking wings of any kind. He is thus flightless.” That did lead to some surprised expressions around the council.

“Tom claims to have arrived from the far off northern country by means of teleportation, likely the result of an accident. Though such magics are rare in the extreme, I do personally believe his statement.”

“Tom is a former warrior of a far northern country known as Denmark, no records of this place are known. It is believed, due to Tom’s exceptional resistance to cold, that this nation may well lie beyond where we are capable of safely traveling, hence the lack of information. Tom also possesses incredible physical endurance allowing him to work or fight for extended periods without tiring.”

“Tom is an exceptionally talented firemage who employs concentrated blast of fire to pierce enemy armor with seemingly little effort. These attacks have proven effective even against Lich plate armor. He has sworn multiple oaths of loyalty to Lady Bizmati, forgoing his previous master, Lord Joakim. When questioned, Tom stated that he could not return even if he wanted to and as such believes himself released from his former oath.”

“Tom’s warrior prowess is surpassed only by his compassion. It is clear to me that he does not wish for conflict and in fact despises it. As such I do not believe he poses a threat to our kingdom or its peoples. He seemingly only fights to defend what he has come to treasure. Mainly, the people and especially children of Bizmati Keep to whom he has quickly grown attached and is treating as family.”

“Recommendation. Leave to his own devices, if necessary handle with utmost care, as a friend.”

“ ‘Teeth like a deer,’ that’s a little rough, isn’t it?” Balethon questioned, not receiving a reply. Sapphire was busy gauging the response of the council.

They were certainly rather quiet following that. It was clear to Sapphire that the majority of them had not heard of Tom before today, at least not in detail. There were a lot of confused faces, looking around and especially up at her. Sapphire got the feeling she was gonna be answering a lot of questions in the near future.

Right on cue, a tall woman wearing robes, with what Sapphire recognized as the sigil of the Arcane Academy, raised her hand very politely.

“Lady Ishani, you have the word,” The speaker politely went, gesturing towards her.

“I wish to address Dakota Bizmati if that would be possible,” Sapphire looked to Dakota, who was still deep in trance likely conversing with Nunuk.

‘Oh fuck me,’ she thought to herself before standing up. “Dakota is currently still conversing with our keep. Perhaps I can answer your questions.”

“To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”

“Sapphire Rayland, silvered huntress of Bizmati Keep ma’am. I have spent a fair amount of time with Tom on account of previous injuries.''

“Very good. Tell me Sapphire, has Tom ever shown signs of either corruption or magics outside his usual purview of fire?”

“No ma’am, the opposite in fact, He and I encountered the Unicorn Kalestine not too long ago, not even she could find fault with him.” That led to some surprised faces around the crowd, much to Sapphire's delight. She doubted many of them could claim that, dwelling in a big city like this. “He also seems unable to perform magic rituals of any kind nor even understand them fully.” That did seem to stump the lady for a bit, clearly pondering how to continue.

“What outward aggression? Has he perhaps attacked you, or snarled at you showing his teeth, things like that?”

“Not against anyone who didn’t well deserve it ma’am, in fact he routinely watches over the children.”

“You let some strange beast watch your kids!?” A voice sounded from somewhere in the crowd. Lady Ishani just flatly ignored the interruption.

“Reassuring news, I would request you visit the academy to discuss further. I would like more details of him to be placed on record. I do also have more questions, those may wait for your visit. I trust the earring in your possession could be used for a chat?”

“Its use is draining and I do not know if it works on Tom. We would be happy to oblige you though,” Sapphire replied, bowing respectfully. She was fairly sure rejecting that offer was not a possibility anyway.

“I would like the results of your labor as well, Lady Ishani” The king went as soon as Sapphire had finished.

“Certainly your majesty, back to you speaker.” Ishani replied sitting down. Sapphire sat back down aswell, with a strained sigh, she really hoped she hadn't just agreed to something stupid.

There was quite a lot of murmuring going on, though no one appeared to want to share their thoughts with the chamber as a whole.

“Thank you, Lady Ishani. The next point of proceedings are the skirmishes conducted by several of our frontier keeps of which three are represented here today. I request that you interrupt me should any of the information be inapplicable to your encounters.” The speaker went, holding up a fresh piece of paper to read of “Forces numbering between 5 to 10 Darklings, spotted observing keep at distance for a period of one to two weeks. Enemy forces refused to engage and instead fled when challenged. Only to return continuing observation, even if casualties were inflicted. One keep reports attempting to lure the enemy out using an unarmed guard as a decoy, to no effect.” The speaker looked up expectantly at where they were all sitting yet no one spoke up. ”General Josu, you have the word.”

“Thank you, speaker,” The general went, getting up. “Lords and Ladies of the council, it is clear our keeps are being scouted by the enemy. And whatever they are looking for they found it at least twice. As you are all well aware, the guard has thus far been unable to catch any of these darkling raids. This is in spite of sightings of said raiding parties coming in more frequently than ever. As of yet, we have been unable to determine the means by which they are avoiding us, yet they clearly are.”

“To attempt to combat this situation, it has been decided that royal guard deployment orders are no longer subject to review, fearing information is being leaked to the enemy.” That sparked a considerable amount of outrage as people got up to start protesting.

“Are you claiming there are traitors among us?!” “How dare you make such an insinuation!” “But how will we know where it’s safe to travel?” were cried out in protest amongst many other demands and protests from the council. The king remained seated watching with what Sapphire would best describe as contempt for what was before him.

“Order… order!” The speaker cried out, eventually getting the people to quiet down. “General, you may continue.”

“Thank you, Haldax. This is by royal decree and thus not up for debate. Furthermore, by my order, the capital’s defenses are to be reduced by 3 squadrons, who will instead be moved to patrol duty of the middle and outer keeps. One squadron will also be taken from Bartelion and one from Cartahega, for the same purpose.”

“They are stripping the cities?” Dakota questioned seemingly to herself. Sapphire hadn’t even noticed she had finished sending the message.

“Is that bad?” Sapphire asked. It sounded bad, but surely it was good for the keeps?

“I don’t know. If they aren’t expecting the city to come under attack then I guess not. Might be a risk though.”

“I thought the king was supposed to be paranoid,” Balethon got out before Dakota managed to snap his mouth shut. Sapphire didn’t comment, she agreed with him though. She had heard those rumors too during her time in the city.

The notion of having their defenses stripped also resulted in a period of noise before the speaker managed to get the crowd back in line, with the assistance of the general trying to assure them that they were all perfectly safe.

The speaker finally regained order and gestured for the general to continue. “On the matter of Bizmati Keep. Based on the report you all heard, we have been unable to determine whether they were an isolated incident or not. Two distinct enemy units appear to have been involved, one being led by a Dark Knight. It is unknown at this time if one of these units was indeed a scouting party, though their numbers seem too high to suggest this.

Based on the testimony of the free trader Archeon and his partner Vulzan Hanori, we believe they were the original target for at least one of these parties, specifically the dark artifact unknowingly in his possession. To ensure the survival of Bizmati Keep should the enemy return, a single young dragon with a minimal crew has been deployed to the keep to ward off further attacks.

Once again the noise began as protests were made and defended against. No one seemed to agree on whether their keep had been the first target of the attacks that were currently plaguing the keeps, or whether this was an entirely isolated incident. There were accusations of exaggerated numbers, as well as just making this all up to secure a dragon for their keep.

That did make Sapphire's blood boil. They had lost a child and very nearly much more. These people were more concerned with whether Jarix was better spent guarding their sorry asses, here in the safest place she could imagine. Not to mention accusing her and the others of lying to the king and the royal guard.

There were some supporters in the crowd though, much to her relief. A few were even calling for medals to be awarded for their actions, and the king had made his position very clear already. So she could hardly feel downtrodden right now.

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“God that hurts.”

Tom knew that if Jackalope was complaining then it was likely rather bad. He almost considered giving her a painkiller from the little medic bag he had packed for trips like this. Her system had already been through a lot though, so he guessed that wasn’t smart.

“Can you fly?” Zarko just questioned, going over the lashing holding the Tirox in place.

“Sure… Uhm I’m sorry but…” She looked at Tom with the most genuinely sorry expression he had yet seen on her. She looked rather miserable in fact.

“No worries, you aren’t my personal jet after all.”

“Jet?... Ohh, no I guess not.”

“You want him?” Fengi questioned, looking at Zarko.

“Sure, but if he tells me he loves me, I’ll hurl him at the ground like an iIxankull.”

“A what?” Tom had to ask. That was a new one.

“A metal ball you throw that goes boom. Honestly, I thought you were supposed to be good at that kind of thing,” Zarko replied, sounding distinctly unimpressed.

“Oh, a grenade! Yeah, we have those… I should make some actually.” Predictably that made Jackalope perk up, ears going skywards from their previous slack position.

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Fengi went with a pained smile, looking at Jackalope.

With some complaining from Jarix, they eventually all got airborne, forming up in a wedge behind the dragon for the last leg home. It shouldn’t be more than 20 minutes. Though it was 20 rather awkward minutes as he now laid on Zarko’s back.

There wasn’t anything wrong with her. She just wasn’t what you would call a conversationalist. Eventually, the silence became too much for him though.

“Did Radexi tell you about the degrees yet?”

“Yup. Seems like a lot of numbers to keep track of,” Tom waited a bit expecting a bit more than that, but he didn’t get it.

“It's very good for fine course corrections though.”

“I’m sure it is. I prefer just going where I need to go.”

“But how would you tell Jarix, what would that be… one-fiftieth left or something.”

“I use my feet. Push with right foot we go right, push with left foot we go left, nice and simple”

“Huh,” Tom hadn’t even thought of that option.

Following that, the silence had reigned once more as they made for home. Jackalope was flying right behind Jarix, she looked almost like she was limping through the sky. Seeing her like this did give him a twinge of guilt. Thinking back to what Fengi had said, Tom really hoped she didn’t feel like she had failed to impress him. She certainly didn’t deserve that on top of the pain and losing. He would need to make sure that was the case. As they came into land, though, they were greeted by Rachuck, who was looking rather impatient.