ROTLE- Chapter 201- Jumpy Bunch (Patreon)

“It’s two steps then one,” Melvet said with a sigh. Running a hand down her face, she shook her head. “One two then one for the love of the gods. Slower!”

Zen’s hands were already shaking as he transitioned into an upward diagonal slash. The strain was on his face as the tip of his sword pointed to the sky. Fjord had less of a strain on his face. His eyes were sharp, looking skyward.

Melvet moved over to Fjord and took him by the jaw with two fingers. She lowered his head very slowly. For all her disappointments and exasperations, her expression was completely blank.

Once she was done lowering his face, she looked at him, met his gaze. “Even though your weapon looks to the gods, your enemy is in front of you,” she said, “not above you.”

Fjord nodded cautiously. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Call me Lady Dirtwater,” she said with a caring smile. Then she looked far to the side, eyes carefully glancing over Aiden. “Right, babe?”

Valdan nodded beside Aiden. “Yes, love.”

“Yes, love,” Aiden said in a mocking tone. “You’re just eating this all up, aren’t you?”

Valdan grinned. “Would you like to find love, too, Aiden?”

“Sod off!”

“I’m serious,” Valdan laughed as Melvet returned to tutoring Zen and Fjord. “You’re still young and very handsome. I believe the princess was had an interest in you.”

“I know Elaswit’s mother, Valdan,” Aiden said simply. “Whatever interest she had in me was orchestrated by her mother. As for Elaswit, she was either in on it as a willing participant, in on it as an unwilling participant, or in on it without knowing that she was in on it. Bottom line, it wasn’t genuine.”

“It does not mean that there are no other girls that find you interesting.”

Aiden hung his head. “Why are we talking about girls, Valdan?”

“Because love is a beautiful thing.”

“It’s don jazzy again,” Aiden muttered under his breath.

Valdan looked at him. “What’s that?”

“Nothing important.” Aiden shook his head. “It’s just something a Nigerian I knew used to say. ‘Don’t get it twisted that love is a beautiful thing,’ then he’ll say, ‘it’s don jazzy again.’ Apparently it’s a line from a song.” He shrugged. “I listened to the song once, it’s not all bad.” He looked up at the descending sun. “I’ll be lying if I say I don’t miss home sometimes.”

“You still want to go back?” Valdan asked, as Melvet kicked Zen’s foot to the side very gently, increasing the distance between both feet in his stance.

Aiden didn’t need to think about it. “Yes.”

“This world does not interest you deeply enough?” Valdan asked.

“I find it interesting,” Aiden agreed. “And there are a lot of things here that I will miss.” He looked at his shoulder. A protection enchantment hovered there, waiting to be used. “The magic for sure, but I need to return home. That is where I belong.”

It would take a lot of time for him to reacclimatize to Earth, but what had to be done had to be done. He needed to get Ted back to his parents and his parents’ child back to them. Right now, he was the only one who knew that the king could not send them home no matter how much he tried.

Melvet paused mid tutelage and looked away from Fjord and Zen. Her eyes settled on the only other person in the group. She stood on the sidelines looking at Zen as he struggled through his stances.

Studying Feira for a very brief moment, Melvet turned her attention to Aiden. She paused again, lips twisting in a contemplative pout. She looked at Feira again.

“Is she about to do what I think she’s about to do?” Aiden asked Valdan, not taking his eyes off Melvet.

Valdan chuckled a little. “She’ll come here first.”

True to Valdan’s words, Melvet motioned to Zen and Fjord to continue on without her and started walking over to them.

“I guess there’s a reason she’s your lady,” Aiden said.

Valdan chuckled ever so lightly. “You have no idea.”

When Feira got to them, she gave Valdan a quick kiss on the lips, nothing overly dramatic. Like old lovers. She stood there for a moment, looking up into Valdan’s eyes. Valdan kept his eyes on hers. Aiden realized that anytime Melvet had Valdan’s undivided attention, his own attention sharpened on their surroundings as if he was now paying attention for him and Valdan.

“I take it Lord Lacheart is the one in charge of this rag tag group,” Melvet asked.

Valdan nodded fondly. “Yes, my love.”

Melvet nodded. She released Valdan and sidestepped over to stand in front of Aiden. “Lord Lacheart.”

Aiden couldn’t help but smile at her formality. “It’s Aiden to you, my Lady.”

“Then you can call me Melvet,” she returned. “So, can someone tell me what’s going on with that?” She nodded in the direction of Feira who was still watching Zen practice.

“She’s low level and a woman,” Valdan said. “I assumed Aiden does not know what way works best to train a lady. You may not have realized this but he is not the best with the female gender.”

Melvet laughed politely. “You would think that with the southerner and the [Mage] attached to him at the hip that he would be good with women.”

“I told him women like him, but he has refused to agree,” Valdan replied.

Melvet raised a brow at Aiden. “My love is never wrong on these things, Aiden.”

“Feira stays there because she is watching,” Aiden said. “She has a peculiar class with a peculiar skill that helps her learn through observation.”

Valdan blinked. “I didn’t know that. When did you find out?”

“I’ve always known,” Aiden answered.

Melvet and Valdan looked at him, as if waiting on his every word.

Aiden sighed. He gestured to Feira with a tilt of his head, making them look. “It’s in the way she watches. See how her eyes move?”

With their levels of perception, Aiden was more than certain they could see her eyeballs even from this far out with a little focus. It was the thing with heightened perception. While it increased a person’s perception significantly, it increased it drastically when they decided to actually focus.

Valdan’s brows furrowed as he watched. Zen moved through a motion and Feira’s eyes tracked him from the soles of his feet to the tip of the sword.

“She’s not watching him as a whole,” Valdan said slowly.

Melvet nodded. “She’s watching him like individual parts of a machine, then taking him in as a whole.”

“She’s learning,” Aiden confirmed.

“A lot of [Guide]s don’t usually learn in that way,” Melvet mused.

“A lot of people with the [Guide] class aren’t so patient,” Aiden said absently. “And on Nastild, the class has kind of fizzled out into a total support class.” He shrugged. “Why waste time trying to learn to fight when nobody is looking for a [Guide] that can fight. That’s time wasted on unnecessary things that you can focus on the necessary things.”

“You haven’t been here long, Aiden,” Melvet said, matter-of-factly. “Yet you talk like you have been paying all the attention in the world.”

“An outsider’s perspective is usually refreshing,” Aiden commented as Zen stumbled through a stance, almost losing his footing completely. At the sidelines Feira frowned a little. It was that frown that said that he should not have made the mistake.

“She’s good,” Melvet muttered. “Perhaps you should add her to the training.”

Valdan looked at Aiden.

Aiden shrugged. “I never stopped her from joining.”

“But you never invited her,” Melvet pointed out.

Aiden pressed his lips into a thin line. Yes, he had never invited her, although he had let her know that she could join if she wanted to. In truth, he only taught Fjord because Fjord had asked. His priority had always been on Zen and Ted. And since Ted and Valdan already had their methods of training that worked, it was easy to focus only on Zen.

“Am I free to train her?” Melvet asked.

Again, Valdan looked at Aiden, and Aiden shrugged.

“I don’t see why not,” Aiden answered. “As long as she’s willing to learn. I would advise starting with the Bandiv sword style.”

Melvet was already turning away, but she paused to look back at him upon his suggestion. “I’m sorry, do you know other sword styles?”

Valdan laughed a little. “At this point I’ll be surprised if there is a sword style he has not at least heard of. While in the palace he used the library a lot. As mean as he looks, he’s actually very intelligent when it comes to combat and figuring things out. It’s easy to forget how old he is.”

“That’s interesting.” Melvet focused on his blackened arm. “Has it always been like this or did it start after your arm changed color?”

Valdan looked down at the arm as if he had just forgotten it, then he shook his head. “Before. He’s been like this since day one. Even when I was training him in the beginning the only reason I was better was because of how much I outleveled him.”

Aiden could still remember the early days when he’d met Valdan. He’d never thought they’d be friends now. And it wasn’t because of Valdan, it was because of himself.

“Just out of curiosity, why the Bandiv style?” Melvet asked him. In the distance Aiden saw Feira’s fingers twitching, as if she was trying to stop herself from doing something.

Ignoring it for a moment, he returned his attention to Melvet. “Because Valdan is easily regarded as the strongest of us. It will be unquestioned if someone sees her using the Bandiv style of combat. They will face her fairly.”

“As against?”

“As against her using some technique unrelated to Bandiv.”

“What of where she’s from?” Melvet asked.

“Dentis is closer to Nel Quan but not viewed as a part of Nel Quan,” Aiden answered. “If a lady from Dentis starts fighting in the style of Nel Quan, people will wonder. But that’s for specificity. Why I said Bandiv was so that she is not taught some technique from somewhere I master will know she certainly has no right learning from just a glance.”

Melvet stroked her jaw in thought. “If she displays a sword technique she has no right knowing, then she will be overestimated, which can get her killed very quickly.”

“Exactly.”

Melvet looked at Valdan. “That’s interesting.”

“Yes,” Valdan agreed, smiling like a proud father. “He thinks just like you. Wasn’t you being the lady of a knight of Bandiv the reason you asked me to teach you the Bandiv fighting style, so that people don’t get confused as to why you were using other fighting styles.”

Something crossed her expression at Valdan’s words. Aiden caught it just before it disappeared. He had just been likened to her with an example of doing something with the same reasoning that she had. And what was her reaction?

Suspicion.

As Melvet returned to the sidelines to talk to Feira, Aiden turned his attention to Valdan. “Please tell me it was all in my head,” he said.

Valdan paused. “The suspicious look?” he asked.

“So you saw it, too,” Aiden asked, confused.

“I did.” Valdan chuckled. “Do you know the first thing she told me after we’d gotten to know each other?”

Aiden shook his head.

“She told me,” Valdan continued, “that if I ever meet anyone that thinks the way she does, I should be very suspicious of the person. Sleep with one eye open type of suspicion.”

“Oh.”

Valdan smiled. “Like you, she knows that the problem with being smart is that anyone that’s smart enough is manipulative enough and always has some ulterior motive unless they care truly for you.” He shrugged. “Melvet is terrifyingly smart. Believe me, I’ve seen it first-hand. Trust me, I have nothing to fear from her.”

“And me?” Aiden asked. “Do I have nothing to fear from her?”

Valdan paused to give it some thought. After a while, he shrugged. “I’d say you are protected by virtue of being important to me. Still, it’s a sleep with one eye open type of protected.”

Aiden sighed. “Of course.”

…

By nightfall, they were all back inside their rented rooms in the inn. Between all of them, they had rented four rooms. However, tonight they all had themselves crammed inside one room.

Zen grumbled, lying down on his bed. “Why couldn’t we do this in another room? You all reek. No offense.”

Tanor shrugged. “I would be uncomfortable with so many people in my room too.”

Even now, they still knew him as Alphonset the third. Tanor had done nothing to change the narrative of who he was, so Aiden kept his secret for now. But he did not plan on keeping it for very long.

Oncot stood at the door with his hands on a cleaver that Aiden had bought for him in town. It was nothing compared to what his previous weapon was, considering the town they were in was nothing truly grand, but it was something. The man stood there with eyes fixed on the window that was large enough for someone to come in through.

“So,” Estabel said, the last to enter the room. “Why have you summoned us all here, Lord Lacheart?”

Aiden looked up from this place seated on the ground, legs crossed beneath him. “I have called us all here because we are too many for the group.”

Telma scoffed but said nothing. Oncot grunted.

“We cannot continue to move as a group,” Aiden continued, “not without inevitably drawing attention. Also,” he looked at Estabel, then Tanor, then Telma, “I’m sure a lot of you have places to be and people to do.”

Estabel, Tanor and Telma looked at each other.

They all shook their heads in unison.

“Honestly, I’m more of a freelancer,” Tanor said with a shrug. “I go where I want and please whenever I want and please.”

Aiden nodded, a little bothered by that. “Alright.”

“I’m a [Mage] of a sufficient position among the Radiants,” Estabel said. “It gives me great levels of freedom. I only need to check in every once in a while and justify my absence. And I don’t even need to walk into any of the branches.”

“Oh,” Aiden muttered under his breath, then he looked at Telma.

Telma shrugged. “My king is dead. I am under no one’s command anymore. I do as I please.”

“And it pleases you to remain here, why?” Feira asked.

“For my own personal reasons that are none of your business,” Telma snarled.

Feira did not shy away from it. She did not recoil. She remained defiant, challenging even. Aiden was interested in the sight. Feira backed down from no one. It was as much a good thing as it was a horrible thing. Ultimately, he would have to find himself on the other side of Nastild from the way things were looking. And that side of Nastild was nowhere near as loving as this side.

I’ll have to teach her to pick her battles.

On the other side, just because you were right it did not mean that you were on the right side. Right and wrong worked differently over there.

“Seeing as you all have your freedom,” Aiden said, ignoring the looks between Feira and Telma, “it is a good thing for me. I will now instruct you all on what to do.”

That got raised brows from everyone, and an intrigued look from Melvet. Aiden was more than certain the looks were from his casual assumption that they would listen to him.

“Estabel,” he began, “I will need you to return to the Mage Radiants. As many of your towers as you can manage.”

Her staff absent, Estabel folded her arms over her chest. “And why will I do that?”

“Because I need your help.”

“Oh.” A twinkle lit up in her eyes. “And what does the Saint slayer need?”

Aiden hadn’t liked being called by the title in the beginning, but now that things were all over the place and his name now carried its own weight in gold all over Nastild, there was no point in running from it.

As the Order liked to teach, if there was a narrative that he could not avoid, then it was in his interest to lean into it, to use it to his advantage.

“I would like you to inform the towers, as many as you can, of what happened between Clerent and I,” he said.

Confused looks moved through the crowd. Valdan spared Melvet a very quick very short glance. She did not look the slightest bit bothered. Aiden might as well have said that he wanted to have bread for breakfast.

Tanor raised his hand. “Would it not be in your best interest to keep it a secret?”

“The Radiants are a secretive group,” Estabel pointed out. “Even if all the towers know, it does not mean that others will.”

“I want others to know,” Aiden corrected. “They would trust it more if the news came from the Mage Radiants. Just make sure to keep my name out of it for now.”

“And the story?”

“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but a few embellishments to make me look good, if you can. Make sure they remain as close to the truth as possible.”

Melvet’s brows furrowed in thought, and she nodded slowly in approval.

“I guess I can do that,” Estabel said. “But after that, then what?”

“I’ll tell you where to meet us and when,” Aiden replied, already having plans in mind. “Ta—Alphonset.” He paused, sighed. “You know what? I can’t keep doing this. Tell them your name so that we can move on with this.”

Tanor pursed his lips in disapproval for a moment before sighing. “I’m not Alphonset the third. I’m Tanor.”

Ted looked at Aiden. “Tanor?”

“Tanor,” Aiden confirmed with a nod.

Ted shrugged. “I guess that’s good. Alphonset was kind of a stupid name… no offense.”

“None taken.”

“Now that that’s out of the way,” Aiden said, “What I need from you Tanor, is to spread the word among the [Paladin]s.”

“Are you sure? You will not make any friends among the Paladins,” Tanor said. “They’ll hate you.”

“I’m counting on it.” And he was. They had to hate him for his plans to work. He looked at Oncot. “I have plans for you.”

Oncot frowned.

Aiden sighed. He brought his hands up and signed. This will be to your benefit, Oncot.

For the Blood man, I will go, he sighed, still unhappy. But who will protect Blood man?

I can protect myself.

Oncot let out a low growl of disapproval. What information must I spread?

Aiden shook his head. None. I am sending you East.

What lies East? Oncot asked.

The Undertakers.

No! It was funny how the aggressiveness of his hand movements told Aiden that Oncot was in vehement disapproval. They will reject me. They do not need me.

And yet, they will have you, Aiden signed. I will make sure of it.

How?

You will tell them that you have been sent by the Blood man, the slayer of saints, the conqueror of Nosrath, and the slayer of the Immortal. You will tell them that you are my Blood Baron.

Oncot frowned. Am I?

You are. Aiden nodded. So, will you go?

Oncot nodded. For the blood man.

Aiden nodded, then turned to Telma.

“Am I the only one that was uncomfortable with the silence when they were talking?” Zen said before Aiden could speak. “I mean, I’m not hating on the sign language, but couldn’t we have all been talking while that was going on?” He looked around. “No? Just me? Okay.”

Aiden sat on the ground right next to the window with Feira standing next to him. She tapped him on the shoulder, and he looked up at her.

“Why?” she asked.

Aiden opened his mouth, but it was Melvet who answered.

“The titles,” she said. “It’s very smart, really. “He’s trying to game the system. If he is successful, then he should get at least two titles out of Mage Radiants.”

“One from us,” Estabel confirmed, “and another from the masses who believe us. From the [Paladin]s, even if they hate him, they’ll still end up giving him a title by the very virtue. The same with whoever he is sending the big guy to.”

They were right. In fact, while he hoped to get titles from the others, he was very sure of what title Oncot’s people would give him. The Undertakers were an established vagrant tribe among Oncot’s nomadic people. They were rejects, like Oncot, sent away from their tribes for breaking significant rules for a potentially just cause.

They made themselves, by virtue of their own strength, rulers and governors of the other tribes, showing up when one least expects. They were also something of blood barons for great battles. They were powerful.

As for the title that he would gain, he was almost certain it would be the title of [Blood man]. And, as far as he knew, he had not come across such a title before. He wondered what he would gain from such a title.

“So, Telma,” he resumed, turning to the woman, not sure of what to do with her. “I’ll need you to—”

She shook her head, cutting him off. “I can’t.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Aiden asked.

“I have been set on a greater task by a greater being than you,” she said defiantly.

Ted’s hand went to his hip. Even though there was no weapon there, Aiden raised his hand to stop him.

“And who has sent you on a task?” he asked.

“My god.”

Aiden couldn’t remember which god her people were supposed to be serving. “And what task is that?”

“To lead you,” she answered. “To guide you to the giants.”

The room fell silent.

Aiden and Ted exchanged a look.

Melvet frowned.

“And what would little ol’ Aiden Lacheart need with the giants, child?”

The entire room exploded into attention. Swords were drawn, axes coming alive. Telma had her bow in hand, arrow nocked and aimed at the man squatted at the window just beside where Aiden had been seated.

Melvet had the hero relic that was a spear trained on the intruder.

Aiden was already standing, his hands held out to stop everyone, a single word on his lips. “STOP!”

In their positions of violence, everyone stared frozen by his word.

Aiden was frozen for a completely different reason, though.

How? He thought, horror squeezing his heart, making a puppet of him.

The man gave him a smile and waved at the group. “Jumpy bunch, aren’t you all?” His eyes moved to Melvet. “Someone of your position in the church should be more composed, would you not say?”

Eyes sharpened, hardening. Everyone was wary and alert, ready to cut the man down in a breath.

Aiden swallowed. The man was not supposed to be here. What had brought him?

The answer came to Aiden immediately. The Immortal.

The man leaned forward, peered at Aiden. “Do you recognize me, Lord Lacheart?”

Aiden shook his head very slowly, very carefully.

The man’s eyes narrowed, his face jovial. “Kind of hard to believe you, though. I feel like you should. Maybe we know each other somehow.”

Aiden gritted his teeth. This was not the time even as his mind gave an answer that his tongue dared not speak.

In another life, Master.