Margaret Graystone

  I stood over my unresponsive daughter and, without any hesitation, picked her up and ran as fast as my non magically enhanced legs could carry me to the only man i could think of who could possibly help her.

  But the price I would need to pay for his assistance would ruin everything I had built in Elizabeth Harbour. I ran down the streets and along the harbour walls just to save seconds. As the end of my run came to a close, I jumped down off the harbour wall and began sprinting the last hundred or so metres towards the gates of Eleanor Palace and its master healer locked up inside.

  “Miss Graystone, turn back now. You know the rules; you're not allowed here,” one of the guards shouted. I didn’t heed the man’s advice, continuing without missing a beat.

  “Iar, your daughter needs your help.”

  “You two, stop her!” said the lead guard commanded as I got closer. The two guards grabbed hold of my arms, forcing them backwards and sending my badly hurt daughter, tumbling to the ground. “Erin,” I cried as the weak form of my daughter rolled out of her blanket.

  “What are you doing? She might be of the servant race, but her daughter does still have the lord's blood you idiots,” the lead guard said as he reached down to pick up my daughter. “Holy hell, what happened to you?” he said in a soft voice.

  “Miss Graystone, you know the rules, but I can see why you brought her here. there are other options but you're here now even though I don't think it will work; the lady won't allow it.” he said dejectedly.

  “Tell her if she helps Erin, I will leave her territory and never return.” I said with my face still pressed into the dirt.

  “That won't be enough, she wants you dead. but I will give it a try for the little one.” The guard handed Erin over to the only female guard there was in Elizabeth Harbour.

  “Sir, what is this?” the flustered guard said as she held Erin in her arms.

  “Come on, Elizabeth, she's a child. Something you should be well aware of by your age, don't you think?” the lead guard said before heading deeper into the compound, hopefully to return with the help Erin needed.

  “Zac, you fucken asshole, I will get you for that, when we get home im going to ring your neck,” Elizabeth said before looking back at the men still forcefully holding me down. “What are you two doing? Let her up already.”

  “But…” one of the guards started before Elizabeth stopped him. “Don't give me that bullshit. I know what you two did to that old lady the other day. If I ever hear reports like that from either of you, I will personally hang you both out to dry. Now let her up before she dies under your brutish feet.”

  One of the guards had me pinned to the ground while the other planted his foot in the center of my back. He had activated one of his runes, the rune of gravitational transfer. All he needed to do to activate his sub-rune of the gravity was to place a part of his body on his target. This would activate the skill. Then It would triple the weight of the target at this skill would only open by chance at a second awakening, so this guard had managed to afford the payment needed to advance a rune in one of the churches above the free ten-year awakening offered by the churches in hopes of finding new members for their clergy. I thought as I tried to find a way out from under his foot.

  Iar Eleanor

  In the innermost compound, the guard commander stood outside my martial arts pagoda, while inside, I knelt beside my idiotic son's injured body after he challenged me to a duel.

  “I told you before boy, you're nowhere near my level. Just because you have your four internal runes doesn't mean you know how to use them in a fight. Fuck I'm a healer and i still kicked your ass. Your mother should have given you to me long ago, boy. Now get the hell out of here and go learn something useful at the academy like a good boy,” i said softly as I activated healing energy and washed it over his wounds and pushed it deep inside his body.

  “I should have left this backwater duchy long ago. Imagine your house falling so far that they would hire the services of a washed-up adventurer whose only positive aspect is the fact he was awarded a healing rune early enough in his career so that he didn't need to worry about fighting. Fuck, I would have been better off if I was born a blue-haired demon spawn like that bitch I fucked up the other day.”

  “What blue-haired person are you talking about, boy?” l snapped at him as I focused my healing energy into a wound that ran the length of the boys back. The energies coursed around the wound, leaving a hideous scar running from his left shoulder down to his right buttocks, two inches in width and no matter how much healing the boy received it would never heal.

  “You fucking piece of trash, how could you do this to me? You're supposed to be the best healer in this fucking duchy, but you can't even heal a simple wound like that without fucking up.” The boy said, running out of the pagoda before bumping into the guard commander sending him hurtling to the ground.

  “Watch where you're walking, brute, or I will have you executed along with your bitch,” the kid said, the commander slowly moved his hand down to his sword. I dashed forward to stand between the two.

  “Captain, what news is there?” I asked as I looked Behind myself at Albert as he ran off in the direction of the main building, shouting for his mother. I couldn't help but shake my head.

  Runs off to his mother the moment things get difficult. The kids never going to live up to his name that way. I thought.

  “My lord.” Zac said bringing my attention back to him I thought of berating the man for daring to raze a sword to the lord but the look on his face made me think again.

  “Oh, enough of that, Zac. I'm not a real lord; you know that. And what's more, you and your rune lord's party were always the leading party of our generation.” I said as I thought back to the happer times when I was an adventurer. “I was sorry to hear about what happened to you all down in that goblin cave. Who would have thought it had a damn troll in there? You were all lucky to get out alive,” i said before regretting my words.

  “Yeah, you could say that, but among the five of us, only Elizabeth and I got out of there with our runic paths intact enough to go on.” He said long coming to terms with that fact.

  “I heard there was a problem, but I couldn't believe it—at least not—” I said before seeing the stress on Zac's face. “What brings you here, Zac?”

  “It's your daughter. She's at the front gate and she needs your help.”

  “Is she injured?” I asked as worry spread across my face.

  “Badly. She might die if she doesn't receive help soon.”

  “I—I can't help her.” My head slumped as I said it.

  “Sir, you said you looked up to my party. Well, we would have never let a little girl die just because we were told no.” I thought about his words for a minute and why they even entered that cave. before saying with confidence

  “Let's go.”

  But as we began to move, the lady of the house—my wife and personal chain stopped me once again, something that really bugs me about this family they use everthing and everyone to get their way. After all, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the fact I owed them for my training back then.

  “Where do you think you're going? You hurt my son, then try to run.”

  “Your son has beaten a three-year-old almost to the point of death, and you’re bitching about a scar the lord left on his back,” Zac said, the irritation of the situation seeming to eat at him way more than I thought.

  “The impudence of you speaking to me like that. Who do you think you are? You're just a guard.”

  I tried to step between the two but was unable to move due to that bitches chain rune. “Maybe I should have you executed for your negligence in protecting my son.” She was going to continue her tirade, but an unyielding pressure descended over the courtyard. I looked up to see a man I hadn't seen in years. Ever since the day I got married.

  “What is this? You want to kill a member of my daughter's party in my presence?” the booming voice of a thin-faced, gray-haired old man said.

  “Lord Michael.”

  “Don't lord me. I work for a living. Now, Zac, my friend, what is happening here?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Lord Michael was the last hero to descend and had been holding the realms in a perpetual state of peace through sheer willpower alone. Everyone was afraid of what would happen if he died.

  “It’s been too long. How is Helen? Has she recovered from that day?” Zac asked.

  “Do you mean little Hellie? The last I heard, she had taken up a position as the vice guild master in one of the branch adventuring halls in the demon forest. Not a well-loved position, but as you know, there are no idle hands in my family. Now, what’s all this about some brat hurting a little darling?” Lord Michael asked as he descended the last few feet, his majestic white wings wrapping around himself and turning into a pure white tuxedo.

  “Sir, the little lord beat a defenseless child, and I have come to request Lord Ian's assistance in healing her. We were on our way when the lady stopped us.”

  “Good, good. Continue on your way; I will take care of things here for you.” The hero said gesturing for the two to move.

  “You might be a hero, but you have no right to demand us to do anything.” My wife said only for the hero to send her a scalding look. “However for you, I will allow my husband to heal his little bastard, but rules are rules; they must leave this town by nightfall,” Lady Eleanor said, determination present in her voice at the end as she regained some of her power.The ex-hero looked down at her for a second before he said.

  “Good, some backbone, that’s what I need. Fine, I don’t care, as long as the girl is safe from you and your boys’ abuse.” I left with Zac, heading for the gate at full speed while the ex-hero talked things out with my wife and ruler of this land alone.

  Margaret Graystone

  Zac and my love and father of my beautiful daughter exited the gates. Elizabeth noticed this before I did as we were in the midst of an intriguing conversation about a family recipe that Elizabeth wished for me to cook for her.

  “Sorry it took me so long.” A wave of energy rushed over my daughter, and I. I felt every bit of my body being healed to the point it was before my pregnancy. I felt like a young teen again, my mind and body reverting by years.

  I could just leave everything behind. My mind thought of the possibility of just leaving Erin with her farther and run into the sunset but As the green energy exited my body my focus jumped back to the reason I was even here. Erin's body was rapidly changing the fever she once had vanished and the bruising she suffered had healed but she still didn't awaken I looked over at Iar he looked worn and physically aged by as many years as I felt younger.

  “Come on, little one. Your mother and father need you. Please wake up soon," Iar said to himself. He continued for a long time only when his mana flicked did he stop healing Erin's wounds. He looked up at me and, with a smile, said, “She will be fine; all she needs now is some rest.” but then whispered to himself in an unsure voice “I think.”

  He then reached out his hand and gave her a ring looped on a leather string and tied it around her wrist. Then handed me a simple money bag filled with gold and silver coins.

  “That should be enough to get you set up in a new town, I've heard the elven forest is very beautiful this time of year. The ring is my gift to little Erin for when she awakens. I hope one day she will forgive me. I just can’t stand up against the family yet.”

  “It’s okay; I knew what would happen the moment I came here. We will be gone by tonight, as per your wife’s rules.” I said turning my back on the man and leaving without saying a word. I just couldn't listen to the man. I may have known what would happen but to dangle a spatial ring in my daughter's face knowing full well she wouldn't awaken and would never be able to open that ring. It wasn’t long before i had returned to my cabin and grabbed my travel bag. Then headed straight to the main gate not wanting to wait a second longer.

  On my back was a bag full of everything I would ever need for this journey to the next town, where the caravan of merchants had left for. My hopes are to travel with them until I reach the central kingdom leaving behind my previous life for good, and never to return to this place again. It wasn’t until I left the main gate that it all hit me hard, and I realized I was being used by that man. He knew from the beginning we could never be together. So why did I continue to believe him, and why can I only think clearly now that I’ve left? As if a cloud had been shifted and I could now see the sky.

  I looked down at my daughter and smiled. “At least I've got you, my smiling pile of joy.” I said only to think a moment later I should have listened to Martin and his late wife and left with them years ago. It was just for some reason I was under the belief he would come back to us in the end so I stayed.

  “At least I can spend more time with you now, my darling.”

  “The track to the next town was deader than ever, not a soul in sight for miles, and all of the guards and adventurers were held up in fortress towns, resting from the five-year-long beast tide.

  “Beast tides just so happen to be the most dangerous time to be one of the non magical races like us or the unlucky few.” I said to Erin as we both travelled along the path. I continued talking to help calm my frayed nerves.

  “The only good thing about the end of a beast tide is that most of the dangerous beasts are gone, allowing non-magical people like me to travel alone… Traveling to a neighboring territory would require crossing through the beast lands, which, as the name suggests, little lady, is full of dangerous beasts. But just remember one should not confuse beasts with beast folk. I suppose i should tell you about Beast folk, they are humanoid in appearance but still maintain a portion of their ancestry in their looks and magical abilities. But they are not beastly in their actions, or at least not as bad; they won’t just destroy towns and villages for no reason. But to be honest I haven't seen to many beast folk in my life.”

  “Seeing people other than humans is something I will need to get used to, as the merchants I wish to join include individuals from all four major races: Humans, Demons, Beast folk, and Elves. There are the minor races, the Blight-born, are a race once aligned with the demon king himself. But now they are scattered now, either enslaved or left to rot alone until the end of their days, living off the kindness of others, unable to use magic and stuck with the highest charisma stat for any non-magical creature and It’s all due to the actions of some distant ancestor. If only I was not born one.” I mumbled.

  I followed the winding track to Mayor Town, also known by the locals as Arnom, a backwater town within the duchy of Eleanor. This fortress town is slightly bigger than a village and has only two things going for it: one, it is situated relatively close to the beast lands separating the Eleanor duchy from the central kingdoms; and two, it has an adventurous branch that provides services for those wishing to cross the beast lands.

  While walking, I kept one hand on a magical dagger i receved as a gift from that man while also carrying Erin in the other. It wasn't long before I would need to use that dagger in a real fight. Climbing over a hill, I looked down on what seemed to be a group of juvenile slimes—at least that’s what I hoped, as without the ability to use magic, I couldn't estimate their level of power from the feeling everyone else gets as mana accumulates around them. Looking to my right, there was nothing but forest, and to my left, sheer cliffs, leaving me with one choice: to enter the valley and hope I don't get found by the slime monsters as I pass them by.

  “It's a good thing slimes are dumb. Because there is no way I would try this with anything else.” I said as I took the first step into the valley.

  Walking into the short valley, my dagger grasped tightly, I slowly stepped over broken branches from the earlier storm and down the rocky track, trying not to make a sound as quivering slimes moved around me. At least I hoped it was the slimes quivering and not me, as that would be the last thing I need right now—going through withdrawal from caffeine at a time like this would be maddening.

  I kept this up for two hours when it all came to a head as the mother of all slimes quivered onto the track and stayed there, eating all the smaller slimes around it as its tendrils lashed out grabing anything in its site growing bigger with every bite.

  Well, fuck. I thought as I looked desperately for a way out. I couldn't go back, as the track was now blocked, and I couldn't go forward for obvious reasons, leaving the cliff face and the forest. The cliff face was clearly out, as I didn't have the strength to climb it, leaving the dark forest as my only escape. That was to say, it was only from this one slime; there might just be more of them within the forest. That being said, it was a good thing to see so many slimes; this meant there were no stronger monsters in the area, as slimes are prey creatures, only there to be eaten as nourishment and to be harvested for alchemy potions. I moved toward the forest bypassing the gigantic slime but encountered slimes dripping from the tree canopies around me and then to my horror on me. Struggling as i tried to keep erin safe as the slimesbegan to desolve my clothing, I pulled out my out blade, killing many with the inbuilt lightning magic with each strike lightning shot out of the blade frying the slimes to a crisp, but the mana in the blade wouldn't last forever, as the crystals that charged it would run low soon, and I had no way to recharge it until I reached the next town.

  Gods

  two gods sat atop a white table with gold trim, one in a chair watching the scene unfolding.

  “So how long till she dies, and why did you put that soul in a female body? It was clearly a male,” the god in black said as he moved the female god's dress to the side to get a better view of what was happening.

  “Oh, you're no fun,” the female god said, putting her leg down before continuing. “I don't really know; I didn't have any plans for this one. Who would have guessed he would be saved by that old coot my predecessor sent and then he had the gall to set her free into the world? If he gets through this alive, the show could get interesting, and as for the female thing, it seemed like fun at the time, what man dosent wish to have access to a beautiful female body ” the female god said before closing the viewing screen.

  “Shall we play another round of cards? If you win, you can do what you like to me,” she said, pulling down the center of her collar just enough to show a bit of skin.

  “How about this: if I win, I get to intervene once with this one in the future.”

  With a dejected sigh, thinking back at what happened from there last bet the female god replied, “Fine, but within limitations. You can't alter his path to serve your goals down there.”

  “I wouldn't dare. Plus, my lord's plans are all set in motion. I just want to have some fun.”

  “Have some fun, he says. A ferryman like yourself there is only one thing you will do. So who will it be this time?” the female god asked.

  “Just wait and see,” the god said as he pulled out a deck of black cards.

  Margaret Graystone

  Back down in the slime forest, I had managed to get to the opposite edge with only minor injuries and the complete destruction of my clothing. It was a good thing my bag was enchanted against these kinds of things. running out of the forest, my white body glistening in the sun. I only stopped running to change once the slimes were well and truly behind me and the next town was about to come into sight.