Downtown Druid

Dantes took a small seed from his pocket and sent some of his will through it. It grew rapidly, and Dantes had it wrap itself around his midsection to stabilize his fractured ribs while he focused on mending them. He leaned down, and took the fiery sword from Drake’s hand, sliding it through his own belt as he did so. He was certain there were more magical goods he could find in the house, so he sent a number of rats to search for them as he recovered. He spread out his focus across Rendhold. The bombardment of the walls continued, and a number of buildings had again been destroyed by the salvos being launched by the Frasheid soldiers, but overall it seemed to be holding. He turned his attention to the docks, and there he saw that things had changed for the worse.

Viscent steam ships had made it into the harbor, and were beginning to line up to bombard the docks with their cannons. Those sailors that had returned were already firing on the ships with their own salvaged cannons, and even sending forth ships that were lit aflame toward the enemy vessels, but they were having a minimal effect on their impressive ships. As Dantes sent his focus toward them, he could feel something else among them. That same impression of blood and metal that he’d felt before. Godfrey was there, he could feel it.

“They’ve agreed to it. Pacha is insisting on being the one that retrieves you and any others you bring,” sent Jacopo

Dantes smiled. “Thank you Jacopo. It couldn’t have been done without you. I know enduring everything you’ve done there has been awful.”

“The food could be good.”

“Yeah? We’ll talk to Zilly about making your favorites from here on. You can leave Uptown, once I’m out with Pacha we’ll need to meet. It’s time to draw blood and end this.”

Jacopo, sitting in the busy council chambers, watching people yell and whisper about things he no longer cared about, smiled and stood up.

Vampa looked at him. “Are we done?”

Jacopo nodded at him, as he reached into his coat and slipped his fingers through his clawed gloves and flexed his hands.

He stood and began to walk out of the chambers with Vampa close behind him. The room shifted its attention to him.

“There is still important work to be done here, nobleman,” said the old Orc from the War Committee table.

“I’ve done all the work I need to here,” said Jacopo, not stopping. “The rest of the work that needs to be done is where the fighting is happening.”

With that, Jacopo de Fosse walked out of the door with his mysterious elven bodyguard, never to be seen in Uptown again.

…

Dantes stood in the Maw on the stump with several hundred lowlives surrounding him, but keeping a respectable distance, his six loyal gang members closest to him. Gathering them hadn’t been hard, the majority of them had heard of the chance at a pardon and jumped at the opportunity to do so. For the rest, Dantes promised a reward for joining him in the maw, and those he’d already dealt with, knew he was good for it.

He could see the stirring on the lip of the maw above him, as a mage worked to cast a spell that would allow Pacha to send his voice across the Pit. Once it was complete, Pacha stood at the edge and looked down directly at Dantes.

“By decree of Rendhold, Dantes and those assembled with him are to be freed and sent to the docks to defend the city from invaders. If you survive the assault, and comport yourselves honorably, you will be… pardoned,” Pacha almost seemed to be choking on that last word, but he managed to get it out.”

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“The second I’m out of here, I’m just gonna go back to my old hideaway. I think I still have some dust in there.”

“Gods, my first stop is going to be at the pub. The docks? Fuck that. They won’t be able to keep us all. There’ll be plenty of chances to slip out.”

Dantes smiled and looked around. He recognized almost every face as the men he’d fed for their blood and received a feybound agreement from through Celeste. He took a deep breath, and sent his voice throughout the pit.

“I’m calling on my favor with all of you. From now on, you will obey my every command, unconditionally.”

The voices ceased their talking, and all turned their attention to Dantes, blank looks on their faces.

“You will obey the guard in all things to do with the defense of Rendhold, and you will fight those they direct you to fight without fear until I tell you otherwise.”

They answered by turning their attention to the guards above them.

Dantes felt a pang of pity for the men he’d just turned into his unwilling slaves, but one of the first rules of the Pit was to never agree to a favor before knowing what it was. Besides which, they all would’ve died of starvation if he hadn’t intervened anyway. He’d continued feeding them from the first favor of course, a starving army wouldn’t be terribly helpful. He would release any of them that survived, but he didn’t have any expectation that number would be very high.

“We’re going to have to bring you up one by one as we did with mages and others we’ve already brought up, so-.”

Dantes shook his head. “Too long.” He kneeled and placed his hand on the trunk, feeling what sparks of life were left in it. He fanned those sparks, bolstering them with life from the rest of the city, and made it grow.

It started with several thin branches that he extended toward the lip of the maw, and as they grew and thickened they began to intertwine with one another, sprouting leaves as they did so. As the tips of the branches started to reach the edge, the rest of it began to thicken and grow solid, until there was a perfect staircase leading all the way up to the edge.

Dantes began to climb the steps, making his way calmly up them, with the men who’d chosen their loyalty directly behind him, and those that he’d forced to be loyal coming up after. Dantes pressed against the barrier blocking the opening, and coughed, gesturing at the nearest mage that stood open-mouthed, at him.

The mage looked at another of his sort, who looked at Pacha.

Pacha nodded at them with a grim set to his jaw, and they brought the field down, letting Dantes ascend those last dozen steps to stand in front of Pacha.

“Good to see you again,” said Dantes with a smile, taking a deep breath. “I love when the air tastes like freedom.”

Pacha looked at the men behind him. “Take a spear, and move forward. We have wagons ready to move you all to the docks to reinforce us there.”

“No spear for me?” asked Dantes.

“You don’t need one.”

Pacha gave more orders, but seemed confused when the prisoners that reached the top listened without question, and did as he asked.

“They’ll do exactly what you want them to as long as that’s what I want,” said Dantes.

“How?”

“Patriotism, mostly.”

“You’re on the first wagon,” he said to Dantes and started moving away.

“You know, I like you Pacha.”

Pacha stopped and looked at him, with anger on his face.

“If every man in Rendhold were like you, I think the city would be a great place.”

His expression became confused.

“You’re honorable, you believe in rules, and you think trust should be earned. If the mortal plane operated on your ideals, it would be at peace,” Dantes stretched a bit, his ribs had mended, but he was still feeling a bit stiff. “It’s unfortunate that there are more men like me than there are like you.”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Dantes looked out around the large area around the Maw. He could see trees growing, flowers covering everything, birds nesting, and even a stray dog lounging in the sun. His efforts to cultivate life there had gone very well, and further buoyed the power he commanded in his locus.

“Maybe, once I drive these invaders back, we can do some things to balance things out a bit more. I can make a few compromises, you can make a few.”

Pacha stared at him, but said nothing.

“For starters, you can let me head to the front myself. The walls broke an hour ago, and I’ll be able to get there much faster if you don't escort me yourself. I think the one thing you must’ve seen from all that time trying to bring me down, was that I want to keep my people safe. Defending the city will let me do that.”

Dantes looked at Pacha. The stern set of his face looked the same as it always did, but there was something in his eyes, something either broken or softened. He gave a small nod to Dantes.

Dantes nodded back, not wearing a boastful smile, or a rueful grin, or even a prideful smirk at making him compromise. He gave him a genuine thank you, turned into a dove, and flew away, toward the broken wall.