Chapter 56

The four remaining elders of the Lamia slithered into the cramped room and over their shoulders I saw a half a dozen hunters milling about outside.

Yallia and I shared a quick look. We were probably fucked, but given how we were cornered on top of a mountain there wasn’t too much we could do unless we wanted to fight through the entire remaining tribe killing god could only guess how many of them in the process.

Looking at their expressions I saw that Jax looked upset, Hallice pensive, Annais the elder in charge of agriculture and gathering was looking at us impassively and Falleris the leader of the hunters looked haggard and exhausted. He had bags under his eyes and looked to be barely holding it together.

We stood across from each other for a pregnant pause before the silence got to me.

“So what brings your guys by?”

Their expressions ranged from shock, to anger and surprisingly Hallice simply rolled her eyes.

Hallice took the lead and began speaking “We wanted to thank you personally. Although they came too late for the battle against the outlanders, we have hope that the ingredients you gathered for us will one day help us free our people. Now we must discuss what you will do next.”

Surprised I quickly relayed what Hallice said to Yallia whose eyebrows raised in surprise before responding “Don’t waste time talking to me, figure out what they want.”

“Yallia wants to free her father from the Empire and I’ve agreed to help her, what about you? What have your people decided to do?”

The four elders looked at Hallice who for now at least seemed to have been elected their spokesperson.

“I assume you’ve heard about the battle?”

“Yallia was telling me about it, I gather it went poorly.”

“Poorly? Your friend has a gift for understatement, we lost our leader and two thirds of our hunters. Even our most pessimistic thoughts about fighting the outlanders we never considered that we would lose so many.”

“So what will you do now? Talass seemed to think you would escape into the forest if the first contact went poorly.”

“We put it to a vote, and ultimately decided to stay.”

Jax cut Hallice off and continued. “As Hallice said, we lost so many people we may ever recover, however the outlanders have contacted us.”

“You're talking to them? After what they did? How can you trust them?”

Hallice hesitated before answering and I saw the other elders look upset behind her, after a moment Anais spoke.

“What choice do we have? Most of our hunters are not dead, just injured. Those are our husbands, brothers, sons and our leader down there. How can we just abandon them?” She asked giving a pointed look to Hallice.

“Because trusting the people who attacked you with no reason would be the stupidest thing you could ever do?” I said staring Anais down.

“What can you know? How can you expect us to abandon any chance of rescuing our people, no matter how small?” She shouted at me anguish in her voice.

Deflating I realized how selfish I was being, these people had lost more than I could imagine. By all rights they should be drugging us and handing us over to the Empire with bows wrapped around our heads just for the possibility of a deal, how could I blame them for having hope? Especially since they seemed to be giving us a choice of what to do next.

“So what about us then?”

Hallice spoke again as Anais was still too angry to speak.

“That is up to you, we understand your friend is on a rescue mission for her father and while we are unsure of how she wishes to go about it we have an idea that we think will serve both yourselves and our tribe.”

“I’m listening.”

Jax inched himself forwards slightly and began speaking. “We know the outlanders are here for the city under the mountain and as soon as the stairs to the city are clear they will be sending teams below looking for the secrets. When this happens we would like you to be ready for them.”

“Ready how? The summit will be crawling with soldiers and your entire tribe couldn’t beat them in a fight, I don’t think the two of us could do much better.”

“You are correct we cannot risk another direct confrontation with them, however during communications with the outlanders we have learned that most of our hunters are still alive, if badly injured. Even If they were fully healed we would not be ready for another fight. However our plan hinges on us avoiding a fight. Do you think the Ancients built their entire city from that single stairwell? All that stone removed, supplies brought down a single stone stairwell? There is another larger entrance at the base of the mountain. Given how well the Ancients made their structures it should still be intact and you can use it to secretly enter the mountain.”

“So we enter the mountain? Then what? We still can’t beat them in a fight.”

“When they send a team into the mountain they will certainly need to use overwhelming force to ensure they are not lost to the threats under the mountain. This however risks the summit being under manned on top of the mountain and our people there could escape. Unless they bring hostages with them. This council will volunteer to act as hostages to ensure the people on the surface are on their best behavior. However as soon as we enter the mountain our people will overwhelm the guards on the mountain, collapse the stairwell, and escape.”

“And we help you all slip away from the guards and leave through the secret entrance leaving them trapped under the mountain.”

“Yes, they will be able to escape eventually, but by then our entire tribe will be far enough away from the summit of the Ancients that it will not matter.”

“Well there's a lot that can go wrong and if it does your tribe will be missing its entire leadership.”

“We are prepared for that possibility. Even if all of us die under the mountain it is a small price to pay for our tribe to regain our injured hunters and escape.”

Looking at the four resolute faces in front of me I was impressed. Thinking of my own countries leaders I couldn’t imagine any of them sacrificing themselves in such a way for their people. “The Empire may realize that, and if they do then they may want a larger group of hostages. What will you do if they require most of the tribe to come into the mountain?”

“We are currently making contingency plans with that in mind, but all you need to worry about is ensuring you have that key as quickly as possible and letting us know that you do.”

“Key?”

“Yes, when the Ancients forced our people to leave the mountain and sealed it we were in possession of an object that would act as a key to that door. At that time the various tribes travelled together to an ancient Lamia city and lived in peace for a time. However old grudges soon resurfaced and the Chellack tribe claimed the key. The tribes soon split up, we returned to this area and the Chellack went North, past the old city that you visited recently.”

“I see, and I don’t suppose they’ll just give it to us if we ask them for it nicely?”

Hallice snorted in response but Fallerion was the one to speak next.

“While we haven't had a large war with the Chellack in many years, it is not uncommon for small battles to break out if we pursue an animal into their territory, or they into ours. Usually it doesn’t escalate into deaths, but if it does there are many on both sides who call for one side to wipe out the other. The Chellack would never simply give us the key.”

“So we’ll have to steal it or buy it from them? And given the fact that it’s an ancient priceless relic we have nothing they would accept for it so we’ll have to steal it.” I said irritation slipping into my voice.

“Not necessarily.” Jax continued. “We have two ideas for presents that they think they will accept in exchange for use of the key. The first is a Human blessing for the Chieftains wife and one for his daughter in law.”

“What?”

“Blessing his wife and daughter in law would ensure his bloodline will strong and healthy, it is an attractive proposition that he would be hard pressed to turn away.”

“Seriously?”

“What is he saying?”

“They’re pimping me out in order to get a Magic McGuffin from their neighbors.”

Yallia looked at me with a raised eyebrow for a moment before slowly nodding her head up and down. “That makes a certain amount of sense, we’ll have to be careful that they don’t go back on their part of the deal afterwards though.”

“You think they’d actually go for it?”

“We’ll have to play it by ear when we get there to ensure this is something they would want. But back home I know of at least a dozen noble families that claim to have been blessed by humans hundreds of years ago. It's still seen as a mark of pride and that their bloodlines are superior. If the Lamia have similar ideas then I could see how the Chieftan would be interested, and judging by all the offers you’ve received here they seem to believe it too. Why do we need this Magic McGuffin?”

Sighing I rubbed my temples. I really couldn’t believe these people. Letting Yallia in on the plan she looked pensive for a moment. “It’s a pretty rough plan and a lot could go wrong with it, but most of the risk would be assumed by the Lamia. Would you be able to make sure that they bring my father with them into the mountain?”

I passed on Yallias request to the Jax who nodded his agreement. “If it is possible, and he is willing to come with us then we will ask that they bring him.”

A tightness around Yallias eyes that had been there for so long I had forgotten it was there lessened and she released a deep breath.

“You mentioned two gifts what was the other?”

This time Hallice spoke. “The Chieftan’s eldest son is of an age to marry, you will be escorting my daughter to their tribe to marry him, and it is my daughter who you will be blessing in order to ensure they accept the marriage, of course she will also have a dowery with her. In order for them to be aware of the blessing it will have to be done in the traditional way. In their village with the evidence being seen by the tribe afterwards. Your word that it was done will not be good enough.”

Shocked I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. I just stood there my mouth slightly open trying to think of what to say. After a few moments but felt more like minutes Hallice spoke again.

“You have done something like this before? You are able to bless people yes?” The other elders smiled and even Esther smirked at my discomfort.

Snapping my mouth shut I finally found my voice. “I can and I have, I’m just a little surprised your pimping out me with your daughter.”

I regretted it as soon as the words had left my mouth, Hallice looked stricken for a second before her teeth bared in anger and she literally snarled at me.

“I care more about my daughter than you can ever imagine human.” With that she turned and slithered out of the small room.

“God damn it I am an asshole.” I said to the other elders.

“Yes you are, but you have also been through a lot, and we are asking even more of you. Are you willing to help us with this?” Jax asked.

I quickly discussed the plan with Yallia and then turned back to Jax.

“We’re in but we need somethings from you guys first. First we’ll need potions, healing, stamina, something to see at night, poisons, food, water.”

“Yes of course, we can provide you with all of that.”

“One more thing, I want you to teach me earth magic.”

Jax hesitated for a moment in surprise before nodding yes.

“I will try to teach you but it is up to you to learn. We will be contacting the outlanders soon to formalize our surrender and their entrance onto our summit so you will have to learn quickly and leave.”

I sent Yallia with the other elders as Jax and I settled into the room and he began his lesson.

“Did you manage to learn air magic?”

“I did. I just had to sit in on a lesson an Air Jack was giving and I picked it right up. I’m hoping this will be just as easy.” I said holding my hand out in front of me. I hesitated for a second before drawing on my mana and converting it to air affinity. The results were far less visually impressive than I hoped but I felt a stiff breeze emanate from my hand and ruffle our hair. On the edges of my perception I could still feel it, the affinity I had gained from the monster under the city. It was far weaker than before , but still ever present when I used my magic. Shivering slightly I tried to put the feeling of sludge crawling up my spine out of my mind.

Unaware of my internal struggle Jax continued.

“It’s quite weak.”

“I’ll have to practice with it in order to make it stronger, my water affinity was the same when I got it.”

“Good, then this will hopefully be easy for you to pick up. Few Lamia ever gain any affinity, in all my years I have only seen a few who had the gift.” He paused for a moment and took a breath lost in thought. After a moment he started speaking again. “The earth is all around us.” He said spreading his arms and gesturing to the mountaintop. “All Lamia know that it is the soil underneath us, our food and regents from it, and even the stones and metals we use are from the earth. All things are connected to the earth.”

Jax spoke reverently and passionately, which almost made me feel bad about not caring about what he said, I was able to learn just fine from the Air Jack and they didn’t say a damn thing. Trying to stop my leg from bouncing in excitement as I felt Jax draw upon his own Mana.

Reaching out with my senses I felt the Mana slowly be converted into the earth Affinity.

DING

By finding a teacher you have learned how to channel Earth Affinity!

Continue your lessons and practice to increase your affinity!

Holding my hand up I channeled some of my Mana and turned it into earth affinity. Threading it through the ground I realized that Jax stopped talking behind me as I lifted dirt into a small molehill.

Looking up Jax had a look of shock on his face as he looked at my progress.

“So what can I actually do with this?”