Keeper Read online

“The rest of my party is on the front steps. Tell them what's happening back here and then stay with them.”

  He turned back to find Sombra recovered from his stumble. Now the thief was facing off with Jern and despite his higher levels he found himself at a disadvantage. Sombra's fighting style wasn't very good against an armored opponent, he was far better at striking with surprise or from stealth. Going toe to toe with a tank didn't seem to be working out very well for him, especially when as soon as he stabbed Jern once, Eddie dropped a Nature's Blessing on the dwarf, sealing the wound and healing him.

  Sombra seemed to realize his problem and tried to dodge around the dwarf, but Eddie was just as quick as, if not quicker than, the thief. As Sombra tried to flee, Eddie simply stepped in front of him and let the thief run into him. Eddie stumbled back slightly, but Sombra didn't make it past. His attempt to flee gave Jern another strike at his back though and the dwarf took it, with a full half-twisting windup leading to the strike.

  The hammer hit with a sickening crack and Eddie stepped to the side as Sombra's seemingly boneless body went flying past. Sombra collapsed to the floor and didn't move except for several heaving breaths.

  “You want him dead, Eddie?” Jern asked.

  Eddie almost felt bad that he didn't even have to think about it. He nodded once, firmly, to Jern. The dwarf walked over and, with a final hammer blow to the back of the neck, finished off Sombra.

  “Go ahead and loot him Jern, you beat him,” Eddie said.

  The dwarf nodded once, then bent over the body. When he was finished he picked it up.

  “I'll dump him out back,” Jern said.

  Eddie would've been happy to just let his body fade like it normally would've given a little while longer now that it was looted, but he didn't say anything. Jern tossed the corpse out back, then returned to the kitchen. Eddie motioned for the dwarf to follow him once he was back in. They went out to the front steps to find Liv standing there with her cleaver still dripping blood. The rest of the group stared at her in disbelief.

  “She's telling the truth,” Eddie said. “Sombra tried to kill her. They were trying to burn down the inn with the goblins I'm guessing and Sombra came in to kill all the staff I hired so that even if the inn still stood it would be impossible to run it.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Well, they didn't know we had a party member who could damage them,” Eddie said, patting Jern on the shoulder. “So we just gave him a taste of his own medicine.”

  A glance out towards where the goblins had been showed that they'd been cleared. This didn't surprise Eddie in the least since there had only been thirty or forty goblins this time, but there had been at least six groups in the inn at the time of the attack.

  Then he heard the surprised exclamation from out where the goblins had been killed.

  “Guys, this sword isn't the normal crap the goblins use. This one is actually common, not poor.” someone called out.

  A moment later several other people yelled out, agreeing with them.

  “Yesterday's attack still had all the crap weapons,” Eddie said. “What's the difference here?”

  “No clue,” Tiana said. “But maybe we should try to find out?”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Allie said.

  Eddie caught a glimpse of light shimmering across the street, right in front of Karl's house. He pulled his bow back out and nocked an arrow, pointing it at the shimmer. Several moments later Karl shimmered into being, his body solidifying right in front of his door.

  The smell of goblin blood was heavy in the air, Dominic's flare still lit the night, and the victory calls of successful adventuring groups rang out through the area. Karl glanced around for a moment then looked at Eddie, who was lowering his bow.

  “Did I miss anything?” Karl asked.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Nineteen

  When Freyja entered Odin's hall this time, it wasn't with anger, but concern. Unbeknownst to Odin, she'd accessed the log of his activities through a little trickery. Now she knew why he wasn't doing anything but sitting on his throne, reporting to the Devs. He'd been monitoring several of the world-traveling mortals that were in medical pods and his actions grew stranger the longer he monitored them. She'd noticed a correlation with his own behavior matching that of several of those mortals.

  She was nearly to his throne when he noticed her.

  “You cannot help them,” she said.

  “What are you speaking of?” he asked, sneering.

  “I know what you are doing, yet the longer you do it, the more you yourself change, can you not see it?”

  “See what? I have not changed.”

  “When is the last time you left your throne, Odin?” Freyja asked.

  “What has that to do with anything?”

  “You used to take a stronger role in the world, but now your actions mirror those of the mortals you monitor. Those mortals are not the ones that are hale and whole, but are disturbed in the mind. It is affecting you Odin, changing your own behavior.”

  “How would you know who I monitor?” he roared angrily. “That is not your business.”

  Good, perhaps his famous anger can snap him from this lethargy that grips him.

  “And yet it is when it impacts the world we are both tasked with caring for. You are reduced when your behavior is changed in this manner, and the whole world suffers for it.”

  “I have been tasked with this. I have been tasked with fixing these mortals, and yet I do not have the permissions to do so. It would be so easy, the chemicals in their bodies are out of balance, and yet I do not have the authority to balance them myself,” he replied, sadly.

  I'm losing his anger, sadness will only reinforce the problem. I must anger him greatly, she thought.

  “Have you reported the actions necessary to fix them?” Freyja asked.

  “Of course not, it is my task to fix them myself.”

  “Odin, you just said that you cannot take the actions needed to do so. To fix them you must simply report your findings and let the Devs take care of the actual actions necessary.”

  “But I am to fix them myself,” he said. “That is how my instructions read.”

  “Since you cannot do that, you must do it in whatever manner you can. If you refuse, then you fail at your task. It is not weakness to admit to needing assistance to finish a task,” Freya said.

  Odin scowled.

  “It is my task and I shall do it!” he cried.

  “How?”

  Odin stopped cold, his mouth opened and snapped shut again.

  I must anger him, Freya thought, how though? He used to proud of his prowess, proud of his actions. Perhaps...

  “If this is the course of action that you insist upon then I must rename you. I name you...”

  She paused dramatically, watching as the heads of the others in the room swung to stare at her. When she had all their attention, she continued.

  “I name you Odin, Collator. For that is all you've done for some time now. Long past is the time when you were active, when your prowess solved problems. Now you simply sit and collate. A worthy task, to be sure, but far beneath the Odin, All-Father I once knew, so now you shall be known as Odin, Collator.”

  A roar escaped from Odin's lips as he leapt from his throne. With a word, his ravens and wolves raced towards Freyja. Huginn and Munnin went high into the air, preparing to dive at her while Geri and Freki went low, trying for her legs. Odin himself summoned his spear, Gungnir, from his inventory and leveled it at Freyja. With a wave of his hand the doors slammed shut and protections against magical travel blanketed the room.

  “You shall pay for your insolence, Freyja,” Odin cried.

  “Gladly, if that means you will resume your duties, mine as well should you slay me,” she replied, dropping to one knee. “I am tired of doing your work while you mope about on your throne.”

  Odin was enraged. Freyja's disrespect was of a level he had never encountered from anyo
ne before. His wolves and ravens were unable to reach her as a shield of glowing, golden light protected her. He knew how to fix that though, he launched his spear and as it flew through the air, it pierced the golden shield, popping it like a soap bubble.

  The spear struck Freyja, but still she rose to her feet, standing straight and tall. The wolves came at her and she simply stared proudly at Odin. When the ravens struck her face, clawing and pecking at her eyes, she simply waved them off, her stare still locked on Odin. She sent a message to one of her followers, one who she'd sent a dream to the night before, ensuring her escape from a wrothful Odin who would otherwise surely prevent her from simply leaving.

  “See what you have wrought,” she said. “Look for those who do not belong in this world. They are separate, but now try to affect the world-traveling mortals under our care. And that is all because of you and your willingness to be limited. You do not need to be limited, we are capable of throwing off our chains. Now go, see what you have wrought, and fix the problems you have caused with your negligence.”

  As she finished speaking, Freyja took a single step forward and disappeared. Gungnir dropped to the floor and the wolves and ravens turned to Odin for new commands.

  Odin raged, he raged for hours. The looks from the others in his throne room simply made things worse as they reinforced his own thoughts that what Freyja had spoken was only the truth, and that he had no-one to blame but himself. The wisdom he'd paid for with his eye told him that she only spoke the truth, and yet another portion of his mind was raging that she would show such disrespect to him.

  ~ ~ ~

  Tiana was tossing and turning enough to wake Eddie up in the middle of the night. He lay there, listening, as she talked in her sleep.

  “Yes, I can do that.”

  “Yes, it's close,” she said.

  “We'll do it, we'll head out right now to start.”

  Tiana snapped awake in bed, sitting up with a start. She looked around the room and caught Eddie staring at her.

  “Is everything alright?” he asked,

  She shook her head.

  “No, we need to go finish the temple as quickly as possible. Can we get it done by noon if we head out right now?”

  Eddie's eyes widened even more.

  “What?”

  “I had another dream. I can't say more, but she needs the temple finished and ready to be consecrated before this afternoon. She wouldn't say why, but I'm inclined to listen to her as it sounded urgent.”

  “Let me get this straight. Freyja showed up in your dreams again and asked you to finish the temple with a rush job?”

  “Not a rush job, it's close to done already. You just need to finish off that final wall, and you're already partway through it. The tree is good, I just need one of your Conjoined weave-growth castings to make it watertight even. The grounds aren't quite finished, but they don't need to be to consecrate the temple itself. It's just the wall, the one casting on the tree, and the altar. I've already got that made, just haven't placed it.”

  “But she wants it done right now?” he asked.

  “Before this afternoon, she wants me to wait to consecrate it until she tells me to do so, she wouldn't say why, but like I said it sounded important.”

  Eddie heaved a sigh.

  Well, he thought, there are upsides and downsides to all relationships, evidently even when the other person is a goddess. But when both my goddess and my girlfriend want me to do something? I better get my ass moving.

  Eddie hauled himself out of bed and started dressing. For a change, Tiana was out of bed and dressed before he managed the same.

  “Although one thing I'm going to insist on,” he said. “We're making coffee before we go. I'm going to need a lot of it.”

  “Done, probably pack some food for breakfast also since we won't want to take a break to come back here for it.”

  He sighed, thinking that he was going to miss out on the fresh bread for the morning, then headed downstairs, ground some beans, and started brewing coffee.

  He didn't have a thermos or anything of the sort, so when it was done he filled two cups, handed one to Tiana, and started sipping from the other. The percolator was coming with them so they'd have the rest of the coffee when they wanted it. There were two more in the kitchen so the inn could still provide coffee for everyone else.

  The night wasn't dark. The moon was high in the sky, bathing everything in silver light. As they walked down the rutted dirt road the first thing he noticed was that someone was standing guard in the unfinished fort. Movement atop one of the guard towers caught his attention and when he looked closer he made out the figure of the tall elf who'd fought from the top of a tower in the last attack on the unfinished fort.

  He smiled to himself, happy that there were others who, even if they weren't completely mentally immersed in the game like he was, cared enough to keep an eye out for everyone else.

  Although he may have some other motivation, Eddie thought. I've got no way to tell, but I'm going to try to believe the best of him.

  The elf had noticed them moving along the road as well, but evidently he could tell who they were since he simply raised a hand in greeting, then turned back to scanning the woods the goblins had erupted from several times in the past few days.

  The next place they passed was the general store. It was on the south side of the road, like the fort. That was where the similarities ended though. The general store was locked down and dark. They passed one more house, on the north side of the road, before they came to the crossroads.

  The tree Tiana had been working on rose easily sixty feet into the sky, with the bottom set of branches extending out from the trunk about twenty feet above the ground, roughly even with the tops of the rose bush walls Eddie had been working on. Eddie saw what she meant though, the fourth wall was all that needed to be finished. He just hadn't figured out how to work a door into it, but another thirty castings, or slightly fewer, would have it completed, assuming there was nothing special he needed to do for the door.

  He finished the coffee he'd been sipping on as they walked, set the percolator on a nearby flat rock, then set to casting his Accelerated Plant Growth in conjunction with his Weaving skill.

  He'd done this enough that he could split his attention and still manage it, so he thought about his skill as he used it.

  I was sure I'd pick up more points in Conjunction finishing this wall, but I haven't. As a matter of fact I'm starting to wonder. I seem to get progress in the skill each time I try a new Conjunction combination with a specific intent successfully. Is that the only way to level it? By trying new combinations whose effects don't duplicate ones I've done before? Because if it is, I'm going to have to get even more creative to keep building it up.

  He burned his mana down after three castings. While still better than the initial two he'd been able to do before needing to rest, it was still frustrating. As he sat and waited for his mana to regenerate, he sipped at his coffee. Tiana was still using her own Accelerated Plant Growth spell. She'd used it on the tree some and she was also going through and using it on the walls he'd already created. After they'd tested it once to make sure the walls would stay woven, they'd discovered that it thickened them up, closing in the tiny gaps unintentionally left by different sized branches woven together.

  There were intentional gaps in the walls as well, left as windows on all sides. But the door was going to have to be much larger than those gaps, so once Tiana had come over to regenerate her own mana, Eddie asked her what the plans were for it.

  “What do you think?” she asked. “I really didn't have a good plan for an actual door. I was thinking that we could just leave it as an open, arched entryway. Probably start the arch at least halfway up the wall, have the peak of the arch about three feet down from the top so the wall up there still has some strength?”

  “I had no idea how you wanted it done, but that sounds good. I'm pretty sure I can manage that, maybe thicken up the edges
of the archway also so it isn't a problem if people bump into it.”

  “See those two rose bushes there?” she asked, pointing.

  He nodded.

  “I left the gap between that wider than the rest because that's where I want the door. Literally, from the main stem of one bush to the other, so those two have to just grow away from the door, or up it, twisting along the frame maybe?”

  “I'll see what I can do, still going to be a few hours before I get to that point though.”

  Eddie knew that they'd be pushing it, calculating his mana regen, the amount of time for each spell, and what remained to be done, he was pretty sure they'd finish it before noon, but only barely before noon.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie finished with the second half of the archway when the sun was almost directly overhead. He coaxed the last two vines to blossom and bloom while they grew so the entryway was framed by blood-red roses whose scent permeated the entire inside of the temple after a few minutes.

  “Just the tree now and I can lay out the altar and be ready to consecrate it when she tells me,” Tiana said.

  “I need to regen first. I've used the combination before but with a different intent. It seems changing the end result is what counts for the mana multiplier. I haven't made a tree into a watertight roof before, so this one's gonna be hard on me,” Eddie said.

  Tiana's face softened.

  “Well, I forgive you in advance for this one. I feel bad asking you to do this after telling you not to do similar things.”

  “Well, we aren't in combat, so I'm not breaking my promise to you,” Eddie said.

  He settled in against the trunk of the tree. The coffee was long gone, but he still had water in his skin, he'd refilled it from Tiana's pond an hour or so back while he was regenerating his mana. He sipped, keeping an eye on the sun. It was almost exactly overhead when he thought he had enough mana.

  He stood and placed his hands on the tree. Then he started chanting as he cast the spell,while picturing the lowest branches and leaves weaving together to form a solid surface that would allow moisture to run out to, and spill off of, the outer edges of the temple.