Disposable Hero Ch. 05

Before she can inquire she hears Zilvra say, "Is it like the last time? Why didn't you do as Rikton said? I don't trust him or this sunkissed but they know what we don't, show her already."

Henri replies before Zyvin can get a word in, "What am I just supposed to strip in front of her and say do you know what this says?"

Zilvra not caring for the light or having a man question her fires back, "If it gets answers then run around naked for all I care. You are a pain in the ass, just show her and get it over with, so I can go back in the cave and away from this light, you could have done this in the cave and had Rikton watch or even consult with her. BUT NO you have to be a pain in the fucking ass, or is it you are still crying like a useless male about the beating you took yesterday?"

Henri losing his patience says, "You want me to take the fucking fatigues off?" removes his shirt and continues ranting, "Are you fucking happy now, you sadistic bitch? What was I going to do drag her into a cave filled with her mortal enemy, introduce her to everyone and it would all be fine? The last thing I need is you and yours fighting with her, she is part of our group and if that means inconveniencing your royal bitchiness then so be it."

Zyvin studied the runes on Henri, she saw the mark of the Guardian on his left pectoral with a planet she had been told was his and runes she didn't know around this planet. On the back of his left shoulder was a spell for black lightning written in Draconian. His right pectoral was again in Draconian the spell magic missile. She could still see the Draconian spell of armor forming on his right forearm. On his left arm she saw a very strange rune it was written in a strange language and had a picture of his homeworld with what she had been told was an anchor going through it and a bird that looked like an eagle standing on the top of this world with its wings stretched out, on the right on his shoulder joint was a picture of what looked like a dead man and more of that strange writing.

She asked glad to finally get a word in, "Who is this Rikton? And what does he have to do with your Draconian runes? Does the rune on your left arm have anything to do with you being the guardian?"

Henri looked at the tattoo he got while in boot and said, "My father loved music and wanted me to be a musician, I saw an old poster with this guy and this saying so I changed it a little and now it says, 'Killings my business and I'm fucking employee of the year.' Or are you talking about my corps tattoo that I got when I finished boot, this one says, 'USMC we fight what you fear.'

Rikton is the archmage in the city that Zilvra came from if your mother is right then Rikton's wife is another part of our group."

Zyvin's jaw drops and she says in complete disbelief, "You have a Drow archmage traveling with you next you will tell me his wife is a high priestess of Lloth."

Henri looks at Zilvra and says sounding unsure, "No, I think she said she was an inquisitor."

Zyvin sat down lost she was working with a man who had a Drow archmage and an inquisitor in his camp, how strong was he that they didn't try to drag him back to the Foreverdark or were they so powerful of an enemy that it took people of such power to keep him safe? If that were true then they could make powerful allies providing they could be trusted and every elf had been taught trusting any Drow was a really bad idea, let alone one who served Lloth.

Henri said that the inquisitor would be part of his group going to his home world does this mean Lloth was part of the solution? Why would she let such a powerful priestess go if not to interfere in things? Everybody knew that renewal would be a reckoning where the gods would settle old scores, her and her ancestors have been preparing for this. She knew Lloth would have to fight her gods and goddesses let alone Lloth's own daughter Eilistraee, how could a follower of Lloth get on with a follower of Eilistraee?

One thing was certain if anybody could help her figure out what was going on it would be an archmage.

Zyvin sighed at the thought and said, "If this Rikton can give me answers then I must speak with him, we need to know more and he would be able to answer things I couldn't without locking myself in the tree of knowledge for weeks if not months and we don't have that kind of time. Now let's get back to business and then worry about this Rikton." With that said they got back to trying to get him to levitate things. She asks Zilvra to explain how she can levitate.

Zilvra says, "I just picture myself getting lighter and lighter and then up I go."

That doesn't sound so hard and Henri tries to do just that and has no luck.

Zilvra tries to find another way to get this to work and says, "How do you get your legs to make you jump?"

Henri stands confused he had never thought about how he jumps he just does it. Henri tries picturing himself jumping into the air and how it feels when his feet leave the ground. Henri opens his eyes and sees that Zilvra and Zyvin look smaller, at first he thinks 'oh great I screwed up the spell and made myself taller just what I don't need.' However, he soon sees that his feet aren't on the ground and that he's still climbing, Henri looks up and sees a tree branch above him and grabs on to it for dear life. Henri realizes one thing and that is he forgot to ask, how to get down?

Zilvra sees him stuck in the tree and floats up to him and explains, "Picture yourself getting heavier and you will float down, she demonstrates as she descends slowly and gracefully to the ground. Henri tries picturing himself weighing 250 and he lets go of the tree branch and starts to go up, he pictures 260 to which he is now slowly going up, Henri thinks 275 will do the trick as he stops climbing and start falling slowly at first but getting faster as he rushes past the tree branch, he thinks of himself at 270 he slows a little and sees the ground rushing up on him. Henri thinks about how bad of an idea this was and starts to free fall the last 3 meters to the ground with a resounding thunk and look to see Zilvra trying hard not to laugh and Zyvin failing to hold back her huge smile. Henri is certain in the same situation he would have done the same and probably point and laugh as well.

After Henri's magic lessons he looks at his ring and tells them it is time for English since that is the closest thing to a common language. Zilvra asks him what language he was speaking in the elven village, he tells her that was his native French, she asks if he could teach her it. Henri tells her that if he does then very few people will understand her and none of his fellow Marines would, they only speak English. The first thing he needed to teach them was the names of the things on them, armor, sword, longbow, robe and a few phrases that they would need to know, so that if they hear "hands where I can see them" to put their hands over their heads. Henri tells them that they must practice these things and if they want to practice with him the symbol for remove you ring is to point to his ring finger on their hand and he will remove it.

With lessons over they all agree that now would be as good a time as any to speak with Rikton, although it was clear that both Henri and Zyvin were less than thrilled for different reasons of course. As they approached the cave it was agreed that Zilvra would go in and get Rikton and only Rikton while Zyvin waited behind a tree next to Henri. As Zilvra headed in Zyvin got in position and cast a spell that allowed her to understand what Rikton was saying, as Rikton came out of the cave Henri could see Dirzune looking out at him this worried Henri as it should have, Dirzune was proving to be a wild card just by being herself.

Walking up Rikton asked, "What is so important that I must leave the cave? We could have done this in there or is there a reason for us to be here?" As he looked at Henri and then to the tree he was standing next to saying in the trade tongue, "I have been dying to speak the trade tongue with a surfacer."

Henri replied, "Then I guess we wasted the spell to understand Drow. I'm not taking any chances, she is one of my people like your wife is and I 'm not going to tolerate in fighting we need to work together if we are going to survive."

Rikton moved his hands behind him and in silent speak told Dirzune everything would be fine, Henri saw Dirzune disappear into the cave. Henri began saying, "Thank you for that, we have some questions and Zyvin thinks you might have some answers. I'll let her tell you herself."

Zyvin asks, "Do you have any theories as to why Henri's runes are in Draconian? Or why when I taught him the armor spell it appeared in Draconian? I thought maybe your kind still used Draconian in your spell casting, we don't use dragon speak for spells that is why we have semantics as well as verbal. That doesn't explain why the spell I taught him wasn't in my language or Common."

Rikton liked her, she spoke in a direct manner like a teacher, she had answered one question with his runes being Draconian, but he wanted to know more and replied, "I will answer your question if you answer mine, deal?" Zyvin couldn't see the harm and agreed as Rikton continued, "What color is a humans magic aura?"

Zyvin knew where he was going with this question but couldn't see the advantage he would gain and answered, "You are talking about Henri and Zilvra's auras aren't you?"

Rikton replied, "Yes, it will answer a lot of questions."

Zyvin didn't see the connection and explained, "Humans, unlike natural magic users, have varied auras, a human mage has a light blue hue to their naturally yellowish-white aura a priest has a gray aura and a paladin will have a normal aura with a little gray in it. I think the reason Henri has such a large area of black that hasn't mixed is because of him being the guardian, my best guess on the blue would be for his runes. Why the greater gods would use a dragons aura for his magic I don't know."

Rikton had a lot to think about but Zyvin had fed him enough to form a hypotheses and said, "We both know that is was dragon that formed the weave and taught magic to the older races, if a deal was made between these greater gods and dragons about magic then it would stand to reason that their champion would use Draconian and not any other language. The runes may be a way for him to use magic without knowing such a difficult language, it would also make it impossible for him to overreach. I would if we can cover his body in those runes and then he wouldn't have to learn magic just how to activate it. If we could harness this new magic think of what a runic fight could do, or a mage you would only memorize offensive spells using the runes for defensive spells.

That still doesn't answer why Zilvra has some of his aurae? I would like to watch you train him, I will stay out of site and not interfere unless you have a question, does that meet with your approval?"

Zyvin didn't like having Rikton watch, but couldn't overlook his knowledge and experience. She hung her head and agreed to Rikton's request.

She asked, "He has the power to use both types of magic, so why give him runes?"

Rikton thought for a moment before saying, "What if the magic in him is to open the gate? Could he cast and open the gate? If not then rune magic could be stored magic that could be used in any situation."

Henri knew Zyvin was uncomfortable and said, "If this becomes a problem you're going back with the others. I'll ask the angel to relieve the pain as long as you two get on well. Remember your wife is part of my group you aren't and that is where my loyalty ends, understand?"

Rikton knew if push came to shove he could take the sunkissed but what would Henri do if he had a messenger of the greater goddesses answering to him? Even worse how to explain to Dirzune that Henri had something more powerful than an avatar, true she was an inquisitor and was used to hearing heretical things, it was also true she had been very accepting of Henri in charge. This was something different, Rikton remembered how she reacted when they found out that Henri was the Guardian of Renewal or when they found the prophecy that predicted Lloth's death. He knew she was holding on to her faith by her fingertips, the only reason she accepted all this heresy was that she had been chosen how would she react if Henri told her that being with more power that Lloth served him? Rikton wondered how she would react if such news came from him? One thing was certain she had to know if she lashed out at Henri when he told her how would this angel respond, even worse how would Henri. Henri had told Rikton that his people killed those who betrayed them he called them traitors, would Henri accept that Dirzune was just being a Drowess.

They walked Zyvin back to the farm and checked in with Mrs. Rancho and she told Henri that Valkirya had practiced what He had set up and is so tired that she was already asleep. They swept the farmland and headed back to camp, everything was very quiet. When they got there Zilvra wants to practice her martial arts that they had been working on, they did that for an hour and ate ravenously having more than worked up an appetite. Henri noticed that she hadn't worn his goggles all day, Henri asked if she could see better, she told him that she could see a little better and without so much pain.

Henri headed off to a small waterfall that came from a small stream about a km from their campsite and he needed a shower. Zilvra was getting ready to sleep while Henri showered, as Henri walked back it dawned on him that he had forgotten how tiring being in the sun could be. He saw her passed out next to the fire, and being exhausted was looking for a comfortable spot to sleep and could tell the next few days were going to be very hot he could feel it getting sticky and decided that sleeping on one of the wagons would be the best use of the light breeze. Henri was about to climb up on one of the wagons, when Belar called him over to her bed he had made and asked him to curl up with her, how could he tell her no, so he tells her to and get comfortable on a wagon and that she would be more comfortable there in the next few days. He could feel the wind blowing just past the wagons making it a better place to sleep, he kissed Belar with a passion he had been saving, breaking the kiss he sees her eyes smiling as she cuddles with him, Henri fell into a deep sleep as soon as his head hit the bedding.

The next morning as Henri was getting ready to go, when Zilvra told him that she would go hunting he told her what kind of animals were around they all appeared to be very similar to what they had on Earth with a slight change either taller, fatter or even different colors, while she was getting ready to go she walked into the cave to get the equipment. When she walked out of the cave she was cussing, as Henri looked at her weapons he saw that they are starting to rust or at least that was the best he could describe it. Henri asked what was wrong and she told him that the sun was destroying her weapons and soon they would be dust, because of the sunlight. She went back into the cave and came out with her new weapons, Zilvra knowing that they must eat more than the others and asks what kind of animals would be good for them. Henri told her that she would have to bring back a deer and explained what one should look like, he was amazed how different her diet was now as compared to when they were underground, let alone the differences between her and her fellow Drow they seemed to be more into vegetables than meat or at least lean meats like chicken and fish in a strange way like an Asian diet as compared to what Henri had grown up on. With that they headed off Henri to his practice and Zilvra to hunt, Henri spent the morning practicing and learning how to control his spells and magic more. In the afternoon he saw that Zilvra was back and it looked like they caught some rabbits, well if rabbits were twice their normal size. Henri and Zilvra head off for English and after bringing Zyvin back to the farm the spare and grab some shuteye.

***********

Lady Silver Flail was talking with Aidan and looking for the map maker they had heard of. They were pointed to an old man who looked like he hadn't been sober in a few hours at least.

They sat down they were hit by his stench and Lady Silver Flail asked thinking this was no map maker for a king unless the king of fools, "Are you the map maker to the king?"

He looked up from his rum, eyed her lecherously and said, "Ai lassie, who wants to know?"

Helen was trying to think of a good name to hide her true name, Aidan always thinking ahead said, "People with gold who don't like questions. Is that a problem for you if so we will be on our way?"

He snorted as though he had nearly fallen asleep and said, "Nay, show me the gold you speak of and where ya be goin. I have many a map and I nye think you be watin all of them, do ya?"

Damn if he didn't reek of rum and very bad body odor he hadn't washed in days, most likely had been drinking all that time.

Helen said, "We seek charts to Belyre. Do you have such charts? If so, how much will they be?"

He looked her up and down in a way very similar to how Aidan always did.

He smiled a filthy smile and said, "Well lassie that depends on if ye are part of this or nye?"

She looked at him in disgust, nearly walked out as he continued, "I take that for a nye. In that case, I offer ye a deal ye pay my tab and I'll give ye the charts ye seek."

She smiled thinking she would get maps for a few gold pieces and said, "Deal"

As she walked to the barkeep, Loki smiled to himself he had been buying rounds for the bar and some of the finest ale and what not he knew all too well his bill was huge, he thanked Tyr for this favor. Aidan watched this man closely he knew charts were worth a 1000 gold at least, so why would he agree for so little. When from the bar he heard a shocked Helen saying how much? He looked at the old man and asked how much his tab was and he said I don't know, but I have been here for three days drinking.

She came back to the table and looked at the man and said, "Your tab is paid and you can leave now the barman said."

As they left the Sloop's Landing Aidan asked her how much his tab was she said that it was 2500 gold. Aidan exploded with laughter, he couldn't help but like the old drunkard for getting his bar tab paid and one-upping Helen. When they got to his shop for the maps they saw maps everywhere and drawings of the entire world of Alirota as well as detailed maps of every major city.

They saw maps written in a strange language and odd looking cities without walls or towers and strange lines all over it. He looked through his mess of an office and pulled out a book and a map rolled into a map case. He explained that the map had a general chart and the book had depth reading, day, and sextant settings for those days, plus he said the log book would cut two weeks of the trip. When they left the old mapmaker transformed into the Norse god Loki and walked to the back of the shop and disappeared laughing.

They checked back with the captain and he was impressed with the chart and log book and said this will be added to the Star Isles charts when they came back to Deep Water. After getting what few provisions they needed, they set off with the evening tide and set sail for Belyre. One week later they came to the end of the log book and saw an island, Helen saw no onion domes like in her dream and wondered what was wrong. They set off in a dingy and when they got to land they knew they had been had by the old man.

Lady Silver Flail was irate at what she saw and said, "A leper colony, he gave us a map to a leper colony."