Book 2 Chapter Fifty-Three: Thanks

FIFTY-THREE

Roan watched as Taoya flew through the air. Power was bursting from his body already and he fell like a rock, his momentum cut short. Roan tensed, ready to fight, but Moira was just smiling. Indecision held him in place long enough to see a tiny woman leap on the railing.

She had a gleeful grin on her elfin face. She looked like a maniacal doll standing on the ship with her fists on her hips. She wore a loose pink robe that absolutely hung off of her like a child wearing their parents clothes.

“Finally, someone who can actually take a punch!” Nikki said. She had an unfortunately high pitched voice. Roan set his polearm down as she seemed to be annoying but not actually threatening.

“Nikki! How many times do I have to tell you! Give people a warning before hitting them!” Taoya yelled up at her. Roan felt his eyebrow raise at that, the big man wasn’t one to start yelling at anyone. The tone was similar to how his older siblings had used to talk to him.

“Suprise bitch!” Nikki yelled before leaping at Taoya with her arms outstretched in front of her. She shot across the distance in a blink, slamming into Taoya with a crash like thunder. The two of them rolled, cursing and shoving each other, headed toward the pond.

“Ignore them, they have a punch-punch love relationship,” Moira said. Taoya had gotten to his feet but seemed to be struggling to lift Nikki above his head.

“She affects gravity or something?” Roan asked.

“Density. Before her mana core it was her own, or whatever she was touching. Now though she can do it in a small field around her. Very dangerous woman,” Moira said. She vaulted over the edge of the ship and landed next to him.

“How was your trip?” she asked. Roan pursed his lips wondering how much to tell her, but Moira had saved his life enough times now that he couldn’t imagine disrespecting her by lying. Well, about such an easily found out lie.

“Spawned in next to a prick named Amir,” Roan began. Moira’s easy smile vanished and her body went stiff as a board. Green eyes darted around and her breathing picked up to the point it was borderline panicking.

“Where is he? We can’t stay around him, not yet. Did he talk to you?”

Moira spoke in a rush, the words rolling over each other.

“Yeah he talked to me. Wasn’t a fan of him. I cracked his skull open and left him in the Deadlands,” Roan said. Moira froze, not even breathing. Her green eyes were locked on him, face pale.

“Amir…Amir is dead?” she whispered.

“Yeah. Tried to get in my head and was forcing Taoya to do shit. So I cracked his skull. He, umm, mentioned killing a guy named Gideon by the way. Kind of just confessed it while bragging about how he was going to scramble my brain,” Roan said.

“Amir is dead? You weren’t affected by his command bloodline?” Moira said, slowly starting to relax.

“Yeah, I killed him and took all his shit. Which I need to find somewhere to crack the enchantments on these, I’m sure he has plenty of good stuff. You know where my caravan is?” Roan asked. He looked around the oasis, but he couldn’t see the far side of it, his view blocked by the waterfall.

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“Roan, you don’t understand what you did,” Moira said shakily. Her knees folded and she sat, wrapping her arms around her legs to become an egg.

“He was that bad?” Roan asked. He knew Amir was. The man had all the signs of a classic piece of shit, but he hadn’t realized how badly the man had traumatized his allies.

“Yeah. He was bad, Roan. Rotten to the core from the day we met him. Every tournament, every meet and greet, anything at all and he was there. And we don’t know what he said or did to us. None of us could remember. But we’d shut down in the middle of a fight when he’d wave a hand or say a specific word.”

“And none of you could remember?”

“No. Makes you wonder what else he did. He’d laugh and hint at things, but he loved to play mind games with people.”

“Did none of your families protest?” Roan asked. Moira laughed bitterly.

“Maybe our parents would if they knew. But our sect elders thought it was good training for us. The Khousa family is very famous, but Amir was a prodigy even among their family. I don’t think they understood how strong he was or how twisted,” Moira said.

Taoya and Nikki had gotten close to the edge of the pond but slowed down. Nikki ground her heels into the earth and with a roar lifted Taoya up and over her head before throwing him like a discus. Roan was a little impressed by that feat.

“Well, he’s dead. Didn’t even bury him, left him for the Dreadhawks,” Roan said.

“Thank you. I shouldn’t say that, but thank you. Darren will be…I don’t know. I don’t think Amir really terrorized Darren, he was too weak for Amir to care about.” Moira shook her head a few times.

“No worries. If you have anyone else that needs a whack, let me know,” Roan said, keeping a straight face. Moira paused for a second and looked up at him.

“Did you just make a joke?”

“Was it funny?”

“Kinda?”

“Then yeah.” Roan’s stomach growled and reminded him of the long day. With a thought he brought one of his few remaining steaks out of his ring and began to eat it with his hands.

“This is a market accessible area. I asked around and I think I have this level figured out,” Moira said, changing the subject.

“And?” Roan asked around a mouthful of steak.

“I talked to the druid who runs this place. His order has taken it upon themselves to try to breathe life back into the Deadlands. They brought their greatest sacred treasures out here and built these sanctuaries. They’ve built them in a ring with a six on the outer ring and then three in the inner.”

“Druid? The antler guy?” Roan asked, licking the remnants of the steak from his thumb.

“Yeah. So, we stop at this one and then push into the next set of sanctuaries. Our mobs are dropping off supplies to the druid and his guards before we push to the next set of sanctuaries. Then there’s the fortress in the very center of the Deadlands,” Moira said.

“Fortress? I have a feeling I know where our stairs to the next level will be.”

“Undoubtedly. The fortress sits on top of the entrance into the underworld,” Moira said.

“I’m going to guess that’s where the horde lives?”

“Yeah. This seems to be a direct continuation from the previous level. I don’t know how many years have passed, but I don’t think we moved. I think this is the old forest we were in.” Moira's words slowed Roan down as he started to eat his second steak.

The vibrant forest had been turned into the Deadlands, a bleak, barren wasteland where nothing could grow. Corruption had twisted the few lifeforms that lived in it. He swallowed hard.

“I’m going to go find my ship and sit down. Got enchantments to break,” Roan said, turning and walking away. He didn’t want to think about what the tower was teaching them and the similarities between the Deadlands and his own home.