Book 1: Chapter 6


    “Ah, he’s up,” said Gn.


    Brin squinted into the light. It was well into the morning, and the sun was bright. He wasying on a bedroll, and someone had ced a nket over him at some point.


    “Told you,” said Hogg. “Nary’s the growing boy who can sleep through the sound of sizzling bacon.”


    He was right. From the campfire came the most wonderful aroma in the world. He burst out of bed, and Lurn handed him a te with sliced bread, fried with the grease, and two fat slices of bacon, still sizzling from the pan.


    He ate so quickly he burned his tongue, but he didn’t care. This was the life.


    The others chuckled at him, but couldn’t hide the fact that they enjoyed the breakfast at least as much as he did.


    “You know, I was wondering,” said Brin. “I was wondering… well, it sounded like when you got the Quest, you all just dropped everything and came straight away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m d you did, but…”


    “But little boys get eaten by scary monsters every day, and no onees to save them. So why did we bother for you? Is that what you’re getting at?” Hogg said. Gn and Lumina frowned at him, but Brin nodded.


    “Frankly,” said Lumina, “we were honored to be asked. Quests from the System aren’t at allmon.”


    “Even for you?” asked Brin.


    Lumina giggled. “Is this what my reputation has be? Yes. Even for me. This is my first time.”


    “Let me put it this way,” said Hogg. “I was an adventurer for twenty-five years before I retired. A good one, too. And this is <em>my</em> first one. Which leads to something we were going to ask. Why you? Why did the System choose to save you?”


    He didn’t want to say it was because he was an Otherworlder. That would just lead to more questions, and there was no reason for them to believe him in the first ce. And besides, for all he knew, his Otherworlder status wasn’t even the deciding factor.


    “I got a notification saying the goddess Solia had taken notice of me, and that my experience was confiscated, but it wasn’t because I was in trouble. It was right after I killed a few of the undead soldiers.”


    “After you did what?” Hogg asked. The ck-d man seemed disinterested, half-turned away, but [Know What’s Real] told Brin that was a lie. The man wasn’t really even there at all; the entire figure was an illusion, even the sound of his voice.


    Brin carefully turned his head to the side, to look at Lumina. He carefully didn’t look back behind himself, but out of the corner of his eye he saw nothing there. That was an illusion as well; someone was standing directly behind him. So [Know What’s Real] <em>could</em> tell him if something invisible was there, as long as he was looking for it.


    That seemed academic, now. More important was figuring out what he’d done to set Hogg off. From the looks of things, none of the others could tell that Hogg was using illusions. He needed to y this carefully.


    Lumina wrinkled her brow in concern. “What’s wrong?”


    The ghostly figure retreated, quickly stepped around the campfire, and merged with Hogg again.


    “Nothing,” said Brin. “It’s gone now. I just had a strange feeling there for a second. Like someone was holding a knife to my throat.”


    Hogg became an illusion again.


    Brin broke out in a cold sweat. “I can exin!”


    “Brin. I think I speak for everyone present when I say that we only have your best interest at heart,” Gn said carefully. “Why don’t you tell us how you killed those soldiers?”


    “Traps! Iid traps. I watched them every night, staring at them through the cracks of the cer doors. Eventually I figured out that the fire wasn’t real. It didn’t act like fire. It was an illusion. They wanted people to think they were strong against fire, since that''s actually their weakness. So I dug a pit trap, put all sorts of burnable stuff inside and… look, I could just <em>show</em> you.”


    “I would love to see it,” said Lurn.


    The [Hunter] was a man of few words, but not the rough-looking sort that Brin imagined a lone wolf forester would be like. He was clean shaven with short hairbed in a part, and his green clothes were elegant and spotless. He had a genteel air, and a cultured voice. Brin had to wonder what his story was; he probably would already know if he hadn’t fallen asleep so earlyst night.


    Gn and Lumina stayed at the camp, starting to pack up their supplies. To all appearances, Hogg stayed behind as well, but Brin knew that wasn’t true.


    Brin had set the Rogue off when he’d mentioned killing the undead soldiers. He’d snuck up on him, and none of the rest of the Heroes had even noticed. It wouldn’t be a far stretch to assume that Hogg would be able to take him out and escape without any of the others catching him. He needed to assuage the Hogg’s fears, prove that he wasn’t hiding anything, that he was harmless. Mostly he needed to stop freaking out and act normal. A normal twelve-year-old boy of this world would still be star-struck from meeting these Heroes. None of this cloak and dagger stuff would’ve even urred to him.


    He focused on keeping his breathing under control as they walked back into town, and Brin showed Lurn the first pitfall trap he had made. The three undead soldiersy in the pit, right where he’d left them. He couldn’t help but feel a little proud, seeing his handiwork.


    “Sawdust? An odd choice. Where did you find it?” asked Lurn.


    “I ground it myself at the mill. I don’t know how much it helped, though. The torches they held lit the stuff I left down there, but the splinters I carved worked just as well as the sawdust.”


    “Clever,” said Lurn. “It’s an awfully deep pit. How long would you say it took you to dig?”


    “There was already a cer here, so I mostly just had to dig through the roof so it would copse when the soldiers stood on it. It still took me three days, though.”


    “Here, take this,” said Lurn, and gave Brin a gray iron coin. It was featureless, heavier than it looked, and cold. He held it in his hands, turning it over, confused, until Lurn took it back.


    “Well, are you satisfied? He’s not a changeling.”


    Brin didn’t know how to answer that, which was fine since the question apparently wasn’t directed at him. Hogg stepped up, seeming to emerge from a small patch of shadow on the ground.


    Hogg said, “I knew he wasn’t a changeling. There isn’t a changeling alive or dead that can fool my [Inspect].”


    Lurn didn’t seem surprised to see Hogg there. Did that mean that all the Heroes had seen Hogg sneak behind him earlier, and they didn’t care? More likely Lurn had just expected Hogg to tag along, knowing that the Rogue had rogue abilities from seeing him fight. Either way, it seemed that Brin was spared for now.


    Now that the danger had passed, Brin started to tremble with the panic he’d been shoving down. “How much trouble was I in?”


    “Gn had it right when he said that we have your best interests at heart,” said Hogg. “Because for now, your best interests are our best interests. The danger wouldn’t have been to you, but to whatever gave you the power to kill those undead. There are many methods or monsters that can grant a child the strength you would’ve needed to fight those soldiers, and none of them are worth it in the long run. Except technology, I guess.”


    “So… I’m ok?”


    “You’re ok.”


    With Lurn’s back turned, Brin gave Hogg onest questioning nce. Hogg nodded, and mouthed the word <em>we’ll talk.</em>


    Back at camp, Lurn gave the word. “There is no trace of corruption or persuasion on him. He has not eaten corpses or made Oaths. He really did kill them with pitfall traps.”


    The news was met with obvious relief from the other two Heroes, though Lumina especially tried to hide it. “Well, of course not! I knew as soon as I saw him that he was a good egg. How could the System send us to rescue a demon summoner or the like? Preposterous. I could have told you.”


    “That’s as may be,” said Hogg. “Now that we have that out of the way, we should decide what to do next.”


    Lurn nodded. “On that end, I have a question for Brin. While you watched and waited, night after night, did you ever see any undead soldiers that were different? Smaller orrger perhaps? Anything that could be called their leader?”


    Brin didn’t have to think long. “There may have been something like that. Five days ago, the undead suddenly got <em>really</em> smart. They went from wandering around aimlessly to marching in ranks. They searched the town that night, really searched it, house by house, cer by cer. They almost found me. The next night, they were stupid again.”


    Lurn, normally reserved, began to pace in excitement. “Only five days ago? Then–”


    “Wait. Should we not take our charge to safety first?” said Gn.


    “If we do that, we might lose our chance to find the one who started all this,” said Lurn.


    Brin asked, “How do you know the leader isn’t with all the ones you killed?”


    Lurn shook his head. “I’ve been looking over my kill notifications, and I saw nothing to suggest that any of the undead I killed were capable of casting illusions. Neither do I believe any necromancers were among them.”


    “He’s right,” said Hogg. “We would’ve had a harder fight if the army were being directed. The leader is elsewhere. Question is, do you think you can find him?”


    “I wouldn’t bring it up if I couldn’t. A trail only five days old? That’s positively fresh trackspared to the sort of quarry I normally hunt. I feel like this must be why I am here. Why else would the System send for me, who is so far beneath the rest of you in level?” said Lurn.


    This was a revtion to Brin. He hadn’t really thought about how the Heroespared to each other. They all seemed absurdly powerful to him.


    “Our quest is to rescue this boy and bring him to safety,” said Gn.


    “And where is that? Shall we take this boy to a new vige, only to see it destroyed in three years or five, by the very same mastermind?”


    “Gods forbid,” said Gn.


    “What if one of us takes him away, then the other three of us track down the mastermind?” asked Lumina.


    All eyes turned to Hogg, who shook his head. “That would have to be me, right? You couldn’t spare Gn or Lumina, not when for all we know the mastermind has a second army terrorizing some other poor vige. Besides, where would I take him? The safest ce within a hundred miles is right here with the four of us.”


    The four of them waited, seeming deep in thought. What were they waiting for? Oh. Him. They wanted his permission.


    Arge part of Brin wanted to leave this town, to leave this whole country, to never see another undead again in his whole life.


    Arger part of him, though, wanted revenge. Not just for the dead vigers and this boy’s dead family, though that was certainly part of it. More than that though, he wanted payback for himself. For all those cold nights. The terrible, lonely nights shivering in the dark. The hungry, coldly ambitious side of him wanted to see the one responsible dead.


    It helped that this was also the right thing to do. He shouldn’t force the Heroes to leave a necromancer running loose just to prioritize his own safety.


    “I want toe. I want to see the mastermind dead. It was hard, hiding from those undead soldiers every night. It was scary. I don’t think I’ll ever sleep peacefully again, not until I know they’ve been stopped. Please.”


    “Hear, hear!” said Lurn.


    Lumina rubbed her eyes. “Oh, very well. But our first priority must remain. We protect the boy at all costs. If this foe really does have a second army roving the countryside, we will retreat immediately ande back with an army of our own. How long do you think it will take you to pick up the trail?”


    “I anticipated this question, during my patrolst night. The trail leads to the North.”