Chapter 357: Nameless

Thin yet sturdy ropes coiled around Tauri’s immobile body in a tight grip. Several ropes were wrapped around her throat, slowly choking her to death. She wanted to move, she wanted to scream and burn the ropes away, but the voice of the goblin chieftain gave her a fearful pause.

“An orc, I should have guessed,” Jahn glared at her. “Don’t try to resist. My hunters will snap your neck with a single tug if you do.”

“Let her go,” Stryg said coldly.

Jahn finally glanced at him, “And who might you be, drow…? Wait. No. You’re not a drow.”

“I am Stryg, son of Blood Fang and if you don’t let my friend go I will kill everyone on that rooftop.”

Jahn pulled his lips back in a snarl, “Friend…?”

A shiver ran down Stryg’s back at the sight of the angered chief. How he had feared the chieftain’s ire as a child. None save First Mother had ever been able to calm the chieftain when he fell into a rage. Many goblins had died for defying a Sylvan chieftain, far more had died for much less.

But Stryg was no longer a child. He planted his feet on the ground and stared at the chieftain in his bright yellow eyes. “Yes, she is my friend. As is the drow behind me.”

At his words, Plum lowered her hood. The sunset reflected off her glasses, though it did little to hide the fear in her blue eyes.

Jahn shook his head, “After all these years we thought you dead, Stryg, you come back with an untrustworthy drow and our mortal enemy? And now you have the gall to call them your friends? What is wrong with you, boy!?”

“I am not a boy, not anymore,” Stryg said solemnly. “Let my friend go.”

Jahn bared his teeth, “You never passed our rites to adulthood. You failed the Night Challenge. You are a boy, nothing more.”

Stryg reached behind his back and grasped the hilt of the relic sword. As if knowing what he wanted, Blossom’s petals shifted around his shoulder and out of the way of the sword. He drew the chipped blade without hesitation and pointed it at the chieftain.

“Let my friend go. I will not say it again.”

“Remember your place!” Jahn slammed his steel spear into the ground. “Stand down, boy!”

“Kill him!” “Kill the orc bitch!” “Kill them all!”

The voices of the crowd of goblins behind the chieftain echoed loudly, their bloodthirsty expressions plain to see.

Stryg narrowed his eyes. He had hoped to avoid using magic, he had wanted to prove himself to the tribe with his own martial skills like every other Sylvan in the tribe. But if they were going to try and kill Tauri and Plum then he would show them the full might of a prime mage.

The bloodthirsty shouts of the goblin crowd grew louder and louder. Even the silent hunters standing on the Moon Hall’s rooftop began to join the chant for death.

“Put the sword down, boy. You don’t need to die with the outsiders,” Jahn said quietly. His irate expression softened for a moment and he looked more like a tired old man than the terrifying chieftain of the Blood Fang.

Stryg kept his eyes on Jahn, but he spoke in a whisper to Plum beside him, “When I give the signal I want you to take Tauri and run to the left.”

“Huh? Uh, I mean, okay, understood,” Plum nodded anxiously.

“Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill!” the goblins chanted.

“SILENCE!” First Mother screamed from the doorway.

The goblin crowd suddenly stiffened in terror and their voices fell utterly silent.

First Mother looked over them with an angry expression, “IMBECILES, THE WHOLE LOT OF YOU!”

The other Mothers filed out from the Moon Hall and stood silently behind First.

Jahn lowered his spear and smiled in relief, “Mothers, you’re alright!”

First turned to Jahn with an icy expression. She stomped towards him and slapped him hard across the cheek, “Of course, we’re alright, you stupid idiot! I clearly can’t say the same about you though! What the fuck were you thinking, hm!?”

Blood trickled down Jahn’s cheek and beard from where First’s claws had torn his skin, but he said nothing and looked down guiltily.

First nodded with a satisfied ‘hmph’ then glanced at the crowd, “As for all of you. What are you doing, huh? Just standing there like a pack of wild dogs, too hungry to think straight for a single moment! Have you all forgotten!? It is not your place to pass judgment on outsiders! It is the chieftain’s and mine!”

First turned to the hunters on the roof. “Loosen the ropes on the orc’s neck before she suffocates to death! If she dies it will be a much slower death than this!”

The hunters immediately loosened their grip, fear in their eyes. Tauri coughed and fell to the ground. She rubbed her neck and sucked in deep breaths of precious air.

First glanced at Stryg and hissed quietly, “We will talk about your incredibly stupid decision to bring an orc into our lands later.”

Stryg withdrew his blade and nodded sheepishly.

“If the orc dies?” Jahn frowned. “Mother, she must die. By sacred Sylvan law, an orc is not permitted to be left alive in Sylvan lands.”

“I know the laws, I’m the one who taught them to you, little brother. You would do well to remember your place,” First snapped.

Jahn sighed, but nodded nonetheless.

“The chieftain is right, Mother!” came a voice from the crowd.

“Who said that!? Step forward and say that to my face, you cowardly shit!” First roared.

The goblins in the crowd looked at each other anxiously, but none stepped forward.

“Forgive us for the impertinence, but it's true,” came another voice, a hunter on the rooftop. “Orcs are our mortal enemies. Drows are prohibited from entering our forest. And Stryg is a Nameless. None of them should be allowed to live.”

First ripped the steel spear out of Jahn’s hand and hurled it at the outspoken hunter. The spear flew true and pierced the hunter between her breasts. She gasped a shallow painful moan and toppled over the roof’s edge. Her body hit the ground with a wet crunch. The crowd stared in silent shock at the mangled corpse before slowly turning to First Mother.

“Anyone else wish to defy my sacred duties as the high priestess and matriarch of this tribe, hm?” First said with wide cold eyes. “Anyone? No? Then I shall be the one to cast judgment on these three.”

First crossed her arms and looked Stryg up and down, “Three years ago you disappeared during your quest for redemption after your failure in the Night Challenge. However, Second Sister told us that the disgraced shaman, whose name is not worthy to be spoken of, had lied about the vision the Mother Moon gave him. Which means the quest was a lie to begin with.”

First clicked her tongue, “However, the fact that you disappeared after your tribemates were attacked by lamias and have only returned after 3 long years leads me to believe that you abandoned your tribemates and have therefore abandoned this tribe. Is that true?”

Stryg frowned, “…Yes, but—”

“—Then from this day on, as high priestess of Blood Fang, I name you Nameless, a child of none,” First declared.

“Do I get a chance to explain myself?” he asked quietly.

“You are Nameless, an outcast of the Sylvan tribes, you have no rights,” First said.

Stryg clenched his jaw in frustration and stared at his feet. He had hoped his coming home would have been different, but he should have expected this. He was a fool to hope for anything more.

Tauri and Plum stared at him with a mixture of pity and sympathy.

Plum had always wondered why Stryg had called his sword Nameless. He had never given her an answer. But now it seemed painfully obvious. A warrior’s sword was part of their identity, its name held great meaning to its wielder. Plum realized Stryg had never let go of his past, he had carried a reminder of it on his hip for the last year.

Tauri saw it differently. She knew the sword had been gifted to him after the events of Widow’s Crag, after his best friend had died and Stryg had been ostracized by most of the academy. She wondered if Stryg thought of himself as being alone in Hollow Shade. Worse, did he still think he was alone? Tribeless, without anyone to truly count on, a Nameless.

Tauri bit her lip and glared at the goblin crowd who had so easily called for the death of one of their own. Orange mana poured into her veins.

“First Mother has passed her judgment, as is her right as our high priestess!” Jahn announced.

The crowd nodded in agreement and cheered. Stryg looked away dejectedly.

Jahn turned to Stryg and he suddenly smirked, “…However, as chieftain, it is my right to decide whether a Nameless is allowed to join our tribe or not.”

Stryg looked up in surprise, “What?”

“Yes, what are you saying?” First raised her eyebrow.

“Once in a while a Nameless comes by who is found worthy of rejoining the ranks of the Sylvan tribes if they prove themselves,” Jahn said. “Fifth Mother herself was once a Nameless after her tribe was destroyed by the Mother Moon. Yet look at her now, a Mother of our tribe. I believe this one might also be worthy of a second chance.”

First’s lips curled into a small smile, “Is that so?”

“Nameless, do you wish to prove yourself to the people at the risk of losing your life?” Jahn asked in a stoic voice.

Stryg straightened his back and nodded, “I do.”

“Very well.”

The crowd grumbled in dissatisfaction and anger.

“I have spoken!” Jahn raised his hands, “Who shall be our tribe’s champion? Who shall test the Nameless’ mettle in deadly combat?”

“I will!” shouted a familiar voice from above. The hunter pulled down her hood to reveal a youthful beauty with a vicious smirk.

Stryg’s eyes widened in recognition. The greatest hunter of his generation, the woman every boy feared…

She survived the cave, Stryg thought. He supposed it made sense. If anyone would have survived, it was her.

The crowd cheered in agreement, happy with their champion.

Jahn nodded, “Let the Mother Moon witness the Nameless’ trial from the dark skies above. Let our champion fight with the blessing of our goddess behind her! Let our champion defend our honor to her very last drop of blood. Srixa, daughter of Blood Fang, do you accept this sacred task?”

Srixa smiled, “I do.”