Elsewhere

The Legion had continued marching, and Duke found himself emerging close to the end of the ranks. After the tenth Legionnaire warned him about the creature following him, he decided to wait for Nornsyl to catch up to him and have it walk beside him. This still got looks, but at least there were no more warnings about being followed.

When Duke made it to the front of the Legion and met up with Aurelia, he saw that Baslin had made his way back up to the front of the Legion as well. The Archmage was floating alongside Aurelia on an overstuffed chair, one that looked remarkably like a chair from the library in the now destroyed tower. He gave Duke an interested look as the pair approached.

“A new friend, Duke?” Baslin asked.

Duke smiled. “Perhaps. Baslin, Aurelia, this is Nornsyl, the Spirit of the Forest. Nornsyl was rather upset about the destruction of the forest from the undead infestation and decided to take it out on me.”

Aurelia gave Duke an odd look and greeted Nornsyl. “Hello Nornsyl. Nice to meet you.” Baslin merely gave the spirit a nod, seemingly disinterested. Aurelia continued. “So, you attacked Duke, and you still are here. Either you are extremely powerful, or Duke has finally learned some restraint.”

Nornsyl looked from Aurelia to Duke and back, its emerald eyes searching for something unknowable between the two. “I sense the energy of creation between you two. May your mating be blessed.”

Aurelia gaped and stared at the newcomer before crimson took over her face entirely. Duke suppressed a laugh and responded, “Thank you Nornsyl. But I really don’t think that is what the goddess had in mind for amends. I do have a question for you though. I have met a Guardian Spirit in the past, but they did not interact with the physical world like you do. Why is that?”

"Youngling. In time the spirit will grow to manifest in the world if it is nurtured.” Nornsyl explained briefly.

Duke acknowledged the answer with a sagely nod. “I guess that makes sense. How long does it take to get to the point where it could interact with the material world?”

“That is difficult to answer. If it is a Guardian Spirit over sentients, it will be faster. If not, it will take centuries. I was not able to manifest in the material world for at least six or seven centuries after my formation.”

Baslin entered the conversation. “What is your intention. Do you plan to travel with us? Are you simply monitoring us as we pass through your forest?”

The Spirit glared at Baslin for longer than seemed comfortable. It responded, “I have made a miscalculation and followed Duke here to make amends for attacking him and his people, but I do not know how to make amends. My hope is that someone amongst you well show me the proper way for me to make amends.”

Duke looked between Aurelia and Baslin, hoping they would have a suggestion. By their blank looks they did not and once again it was all up to him. He turned back to Nornsyl and asked a question of his own, “What is it that you can do that could possibly be amends for your actions?”

Nornsyl seemed to ponder the question for several moments before answering. “I can watch over this gathering of humans and prevent any of the invading monsters from reaching them.”

Aurelia once again gave Nornsyl her full attention. “What invading monsters? What are you talking about?”

“There are all sorts of monsters above, below, and throughout the forest now. For instance, when the forest was destroyed, all the creatures who dwelt here were either chased away or killed. The monsters from the mountains and caves have come out hunting for food, but they have not found any forest creatures near their home. So, they are venturing further and further away to find them. In time, they will find you all. I can divert them away for you.”

Baslin asked, “Where would you divert them?”

Aurelia added, “Do we even want them diverted? That could be some easy experience for the Legion.”

Nornsyl responded. “I could divert them to the city you are marching towards.”

“How do you know where we are going?” Duke asked.

“They sent an army towards you, now you send an army towards them. That is how humans act. That is what you do.” Nornsyl responded smugly.

“And you ambush random people in the woods. Put your smugness away, Spirit. You really suck at contrition.” Duke responded.

Nornsyl turned back to Duke, emerald eyes flashing hotly before fading to a more reasonable intensity. “That was intended to infuriate me. Was it not?”

“Not entirely.” Duke responded. “Do not group an entire individually intelligent race together as a whole and say that they do ‘x’ or they always do ‘y’. It only displays your ignorance and lack of understanding. Do you have any idea why we march on Chopie’s capital?”

“Why would I care about such things?” Nornsyl responded.

“Not the point. You may not care why but you really just do not know why. You can head back into your forest and stay there. Stay out of our way and we’re all good. I don’t have any more time for you.” Duke responded hotly. He received several concerned looks, but no one contradicted him.

Nornsyl stared intensely at Duke for a few long seconds and the turned and wordlessly walked back into the forest, blending into the trees as he vanished from sight.

“Do you think that maybe that was a mistake?” Aurelia asked Duke.

“I don’t think so. Let the forest spirit be concerned with the forest. We have our own business to be about. I’m just thankful that this didn’t slow down the Legion at all. We are making solid progress towards our destination.”

“That much is true. Have you heard from Grat or Elaine about how things are going back at home with all the civilians?” Aurelia asked.

“Nothing yet. We’ll check in on them tonight.” Duke responded.

“Speaking of which, it would seem that we have about four hours left on the march before we should break and camp. If you don’t mind, I’m going to focus on training my INSPIRATION Ability and see if I can push it up a level or two.” Aurelia smiled as she spoke. Duke could see that she was entirely enamored with the Ability.

“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll be pushing some Abilities as well. Particularly, I’ll be pushing TELEPORTATION. It’s going to take some herculean efforts to get it to rank up, but I really want to see what I can do at a Master rank with it.”

Baslin returned to the conversation. “What is your range limit on TELEPORTATION? Or do you not even know at this point?”

“Well, from what my stats tell me, my limit is somewhere around 400 kilometers right now. That’s well outside the range of anywhere I have been on the whole planet.” Duke answered.

“And that will increase when your Ability ranks up, naturally. So, what is it about the next rank that entices you so much?” Baslin continued his questioning.

“I have picked up the ability to TELEPORT people and objects that are held by others, and even in one case, inside another individual as long as they are within my line of sight. I am hoping that I will be able to do the same to things that are outside of my line of sight, or at least, things that I can see with my CLAIRVOYANCE. I really need to push that Ability as well.” Duke responded with heightening excitement.

“Ambitious. But what purpose would that serve?” Aurelia asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Let me set the scene for you. The Twice Blessed Legion marches on an enemy fortress. They are dug in tight and have all manners of defensive layers. They have mages and archers as well as siege engines to strike at the approaching Legion. The fortress is built with five-meter-thick walls and is considered impregnable. They prepare for us like no one else has ever before. Swords are sharpened. Arrows are dipped in deadly poison. Massive balls of contained spells are piled next to trebuchets and catapults, ready to rain death down upon our heads.”

“That sounds like the Ansky Empire.” Baslin responded.

“Ansky? What the hell is Ansky?” Aurelia asked.

Baslin nodded solemnly. “Some call it the Evil Empire, but I think that is just because they are so hard to defeat. They are known for hiring the most experienced mercenaries that they can find and inducting them into their ranks of striped soldiers. They have some strange sympathetic magic that makes their bludgeoning weapons strike like the bombs I made for Duke to drop on the undead horde. They are to the northeast and they are feared and hated by many.”

Duke picked back up. “That sounds familiar for some reason, but whatever. For the sake of this argument, we are attacking this Ansky Empire. They are all bunkered down and waiting for us and before they can launch the first arrow, before the first trebuchet fires, all their arrows and ammunition disappears because I TELEPORTED it somewhere else. That would make attacking them a whole lot easier, wouldn’t it?”

Aurelia looked at him in shock. “You mean to do that to Chopie’s army, don’t you?”

“If I can, you bet I will. I trust in the strength of the Legion but if I can end Chopie’s army’s threat before we lose a single soldier, why wouldn’t I do that? Why waste lives? If I have it in my power to win the conflict before it begins, then I sure as hell am going to do so.” Duke answered. “And if someone else, this Ansky Empire, some upstart from the next block, whoever it is, comes looking for trouble, I’ll take away their ability to cause us harm just as fast.”

“Don’t you have to overcome their personal resistance to take something from them?” Baslin asked.

“Yes, but if I have the Ability at Master level, how much stronger will my pull be against their resistance. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but it’s something to work towards. Worst case, I can TELEPORT boulders down on them. I don’t really know what war has been like on Teldin, but on my world, it got to be absolutely horrible. We had weapons that could wipe out an entire city with one strike, making the land uninhabitable for thousands of years. I have seen things I would spare all of you – my friends, my soldiers, my followers, from ever having to endure because…let me tell you, it changes you. It changes you in ways that you will not understand nor be able to deal with.”

The pair looked at Duke with concern as the intensity with which his Psyche was burning was palpable. Aurelia reached over and gave him a small hug. “Go train, Duke. We’ll talk more about this tonight.”

He simply nodded and TELPORTED off into the forest a few hundred meters to train. He worked on his precision, TELEPORTING trees out of the ground, pulling their entire root systems with them. He then TELEPORTED them back into place, trying to move the soil to create voids in the shape of the roots. If not for his DUNGEON SENSE, such a move would likely be impossible. He even tried to incorporate his CLARIVOYANCE into the mix. Even with all these advantages, his rate of success was minimal at best. Most every tree he attempted to replant in this manner fell over or leaned in an odd direction. Hours later, he RESTORED the entire area and returned to the Legion to find that camp was largely established.

Duke joined Aurelia and Baslin in the command tent and, as promised, TELEPORTED them all back to the Inn for the night.