Book 2: Chapter 44 (Patreon)

The barrier came down just as Madi landed a resounding slap on Daniel’s hands.

“You’re getting the hang of it,” he praised her.

Arandir coughed loudly.

Madi scowled at Daniel and bowed her head at the council. “We apologize. Please, go ahead.”

The old elf smirked but didn’t comment more. “The council has agreed to a trade. We will tell you why the leader of Odrana is trying to force his way into our lands. In exchange, a small number of carefully selected elves will receive the Quest from the [Hero]. The council does not and cannot declare the fight is a war but we can accept that Odrana believes it is such. Those we select will be able to leave the forest in an attempt to complete a Quest. They are not fighting a war but will work to end one.”

Orrin grinned. Semantics. They can’t fight a war but they can send some elves to complete a Quest. The new guy gets to make them stick to the rules and the angry chick gets to send her people off to fight.

“I suppose the terms are acceptable?”

Madi gave a half-bow and began to negotiate. First, she asked for a veto power if the [Hero] felt someone wasn’t worthy of the Quest. Orrin thought that might be going a bit too far and the council agreed. They’d hold the power of choosing who got the Quest. Gwynnestri did most of the talking, while Arandir chatted with the other elders.

Madi also wanted a specific number of people that Daniel would have to share with. Gwynnestri wanted twenty. Arandir turned from his conversation and unilaterally reduced their ask to ten. Daniel didn’t want anything more than to help stop the war but Madi told them five was acceptable for the information they were offering. Additional concessions could be given for more sharing.

“You have no bargaining power,” Gwynnestri preened on her high-back chair. “We accept the five.”

Arandir sighed. “The Quest will not be shared further. If you agree to five, that is all that will receive it.”

The female elf stared daggers at him but resumed negotiating. Daniel had given Madi free reign in what she asked for. Mostly, she was requesting trade negotiations with Dey for the future.

Orrin ignored the women talking and watched Arandir. He was laughing at something the elder on the furthest corner was saying. Something about him felt off. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

“Gwynni, let them be for now. You can finish that later. Would you please put the sound barrier around us all? I do not think we need another leak, do you?”

Gwynnestri’s face was stone but Orrin could see the anger bubbling underneath. What was the point of living hundreds of years if you couldn’t learn to control your emotions better? Orrin wasn’t even eighteen and he felt he’d be able to hide it a bit better.

“Could you stop staring at her like that?” Daniel whispered to him.

“What?” Orrin broke his gaze and missed whatever ‘Gwynni’ did but he felt the magic roll over them. All the sounds nearby were being reflected and echoing while the small sounds from outside the tree that he’d been accustomed to were suddenly cut off.

“You’ve been glaring at the mean elf lady like you want to kill her. Quit it.”

Maybe I have a little bit of work to do.

Arandir sat back down in his seat. He glanced around the council once, letting his gaze linger on Devdan before turning to Daniel.

“You are a [Hero] and not from our world, correct?”

Daniel nodded and mumbled something. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Yes, sir.”

Arandir smiled. “I am not interrogating you, son. I simply need to know what your base of knowledge is about certain things. How much do you know about our history? Have you heard of the Calamity?”

“Arandir, what are you doing?” Devdan hissed. “The boy doesn’t need a history lesson. Just tell him and be done with it?”

“And if the boy does not understand what it means? Would you have me backtrack later or do the job that I have been doing since you were born, Devdan?”

The coifed elf waved a hand in surrender and fell back into his chair.

“I’ve done my best to learn about Asmea. Is the Calamity what you call the thing the [Hero] did when he blew up your world?”

Arandir’s smile shifted. While before it was like an old grandfather telling a story to a favorite grandson, Orrin could see hints of a teacher who had found an answer just slightly off.

“It is for our purposes. What you might not know is that before the Calamity, all races lived together. Not in perfect peace or anything unattainable like that, but well enough. Each race had its own power structures. We elves had our monarchy and council. The dwarves had their democracy and voting system. Even the orcs had a chieftain above chieftains. The humans, of course, had many different versions of each type of governance.”

“And the demons?”

Arandir’s smile disappeared. “What do you know of demons?”

“They tried to kill a bunch of people in Dey. When I’m around them, I kind of lose track of myself and go after them. You can get experience from killing one. That’s about it, to be honest.”

“Arandir, this is outside what we agreed on. You do not get to give these children all the secrets of our world,” Devdan drawled from his seat. “Be very careful, oh illustrious one, that you do not break the tenants you keep. It would be a terrible day if we had to—”

Arandir raised a hand and pointed at Devdan. The elf was blasted backward, shattering his chair and smashing against the wall of the tree. Arandir didn’t say a word and not one member of the council jumped to Devdan’s defense.

Daniel, surprisingly, spoke first. “Uhm… you don’t need to kill him. We came to stop Odrana, not demons.”

Arandir dropped his hand and Devdan fell with it. The eldest elder studied his fingernails as the now thoroughly-despoiled elf crawled to his feet and made his way back to his chair-now-stool. Devdan didn’t meet any other elf’s gaze but Orrin felt once again the waves of anger coming from the dais.

“As I was saying, the people of that time had many different ruling powers. Even the elves had a few small sects that did not bend the knee to our king. Of all the races, the humans fought wars over who should rule which plot of land more than anyone else. But for all the differences, each race had one thing in common. One person in each race was born with a gift to help their own. A gift from the System meant to help nurture and grow as many people as that person could help. They were called Administrators.”

Orrin felt the walls of the tree go fuzzy with his vision. The tingling pinpricks behind his ears traveled down to his fingers and his mouth was dry. They were stuck inside a tree with guards outside, not to mention the eight elves sitting in front of them, each centuries old. He readied a [Teleport] and prayed that Daniel wasn’t looking at him.

“There is much history, many secrets, and more unknown questions about Administrators even to us than I have time to go into… or as members of this council would be sure to remind me, would be allowed to share with you. After the Calamity, no more Administrators appeared.”

“My father doesn’t believe they ever existed,” Madi muttered to Orrin, leaning close. “He thinks they’re make-believe stories.”

“Except for one.”

Orrin put his foot up against Daniel’s heel and began to reach for Madi. He was going to [Teleport] them out of here. He’d jump them multiple times, all the way back to Dey. He’d cycle if he had to.

“That elf spent his entire life figuring out a way to give the powers of an Administrator to another. It is why Odrana is at our door. For the first time in millennia, the information this council holds as one of its most secure secrets was discovered. I am an Administrator.”

Wait, what?

Orrin’s stupefied face was saved only by Madi’s snort of laughter.

“I’m sorry. You expect the [Hero] to give you a Quest for the assertion that you are a mythical class that has never been proven to exist?”

Arandir frowned. “You do not believe me and yet the Odrana army has been stationed around our forest for months. They probe and try to enter our forest, the only place that our laws dictate we can protect, and you think they do it for what? Land? Gold? We have not attacked them in force. It is clear we are not the aggressor here. What else could they possibly want?”

Madi waved her hand in the air. “I thought you would tell us. Nobody in Dey knows why Odrana is attacking you. If they have a reason, they aren’t sharing it.”

“Likely because they think they can get my powers for themselves.”

“Your Administrator powers? Where you can strip a man of his class or create a [Hero] with a snap of your fingers?”

“No. I am not sure any Administrator had those powers. What I can do— yes, Devdan, I know what I am saying… What I can do is not up for discussion but as with any other Administrator of the past, I can only use my powers on elves. Something that Sanerris refuses to believe. He came here himself to request I be turned over for the betterment of all Asmea. We sent him away and he returned with his army.”

Madi was about to continue arguing when Daniel gave her their pre-approved signal. He stomped on her foot.

“Mr. Arandir… Let’s say I believed you were an Administrator but that you couldn’t use your powers on anyone other than elves. Let’s say I believed you and gave you the Quest anyways. What would you want to talk more about what you can do?”

“What?” Madi yelped in surprise as she rubbed her toes. “What are you doing?”

“I’m curious and we were always going to help them however we can, Madi,” Daniel stage-whispered to her.

Daniel, don’t you dare do it. Orrin tried to catch his eye.

Gwynnestri exchanged quick and heated words with Devdan. Orrin distinctly heard the words ‘useless’ and ‘pointless’ but couldn’t make out the actual conversation. She turned to Arandir and nodded her head. “Defense and Justice are amenable to a closed-door conversation regarding Administrator powers only in exchange for the full ten shared Quests. No additional topics or history without our express approval and additional compensation.”

The council held a speedy vote, with Orrin finally learning that they didn’t go by names during a vote but what part of elven society they represented. From left to right, Agriculture, Labor, and Health voted with Arandir, who called himself simply Admin. Gwynnestri was Defense and Devdan was Justice. The two on the far right voted as State and Treasury. A unanimous vote for Daniel’s offer was tendered and the motion passed.

Madi was pissed at the lost commerce with Dey but shrugged it off, telling Daniel he better know what he was doing. She still believed that the elf was lying. Gwynnestri dismissed them, telling Daniel he would be expected to come and share the Quest when summoned.

Arandir climbed down the dais and shook Madi’s hand. “I know you do not believe me but I was impressed at your negotiating skills with Gwynni. I have heard good things about your father. Please send him my regards.”

The elf seemed to age as he left the tree, pulling them with him not with words but with his expectation that they would follow. He had a magnetism that Orrin felt irresistible.

“We can go to my apartment in the city here. My home is too far away. Leanthun barely made it to me in time and I am afraid I quite outdid myself traveling down here with such speed.”

“Why would the all-powerful Administrator need to hurry to help a lowly [Hero]?” Madi asked bitterly.

“Not just a lowly [Hero],” Arandir turned his head and smiled at her. “I think there is much more to this young man than meets the eye.”