Accidental Healer

I stood in stunned silence, eyes fixed to the slab door Trasnik just disappeared behind.

What business did that albino goblin have telling me that I wasn't a leader? How could he say that after the whole reason I was here was to protect my faction?

"Well this is just a giant pile of crap isn't it?" I complained to no one in particular, kicking a stone.

The stone smacked into Corg's shoulder jostling his body so hard that the axe lodged in his head slipped free with a sickening slurp.

I turned away from the gore.

"And you, I thought we were getting along! Then you go and try to stick me in the back."

Avoiding looking at the chasm in his face I leaned down and looted his body. It popped away, replaced by a leather spatial storage, his leather pants and boots lying empty.

I snatched up the items stowing them away. The axe still glistened with blood and bits of gore.

Strange how looting him didn't get rid of all the nasty bits, but that's how it always worked.

Turning the weapon over in my hand I figured it might not be a terrible idea to see what Corg was carrying. Maybe I could find something that would help my situation.

Sitting on the hard ground I opened my status screen and toggled to the items in the bag. Aside from a few UBC's it was mostly various cooked and uncooked meats, some daggers, and a common grade club.

"Not much to look at here, Corg…."

I felt a twinge of guilt. He probably didn't have the easiest life, even if he had tried to kill me. Finding nothing that helped me, I closed the screen.

It was very possible that Corg was bluffing earlier. He likely didn't want me to collaborate with the goblins and that was his way to pull my strings. There really was nothing for it now. Trasnik was tucked away into his mountain, unwilling to talk, Corg was dead, Sadie and Xander were still being held, and I had no earthly clue what I should do now.

Trasnik had chided me, but was he wrong?

The more I considered his words the more I saw how narrow minded I'd been. In the moment, it felt like my options were so limited everything felt like it was happening so fast.

Go with Corg and take the quarry or my people would die. Standing in front of Aggard I'd felt panicked and trapped.

Now that everything was quiet I had an unsettling feeling in my gut.

Was that really the only way? Or even the best way? Even if Aggard could see what I was doing, what I needed was help. It would've been easy to kill Corg, run home and get the help of my faction members.

My stomach twisted at the thought though. It would mean putting Sadie and Xander's life on the line if I took those risks.

Only—their lives were at risk the second they ignored my instructions and followed me.

I just wanted an answer where nothing bad happened. But the more I reasoned it out the more I realized that answer didn't exist.

My response to this situation was childish and shortsighted just like Trasnik had said. Trying to fix this mess on my own was the wrong choice.

A thought forced itself into my mind that had been lurking on the edge this entire time. Should saving Sadie and Xander even be my first priority?

The second I had the thought I immediately tried to shove it away. But now that it was here I was forced to consider it logically. The fact of the matter was I'd chosen their lives over potentially hundreds of strangers. I'd barely even challenged the rightness of it in my mind.

And why? Because they were my faction.

In a second, the right choice split into hundreds of threads each leading in different directions.

What was once righteous indignation now turned to frantic frustration. Part of me wanted to sprint back to the red orcs and just level them to the ground, consequences be damned.

I sucked in a calming breath, making up my mind.

This wasn't a decision I wanted make on my own. I needed help.

At full speed, it would take me a few hours to make it back home. The night was young—the moon bright but just barely peeking over the mountains.

One thing was for sure. If Aggard did hurt my people, she wouldn't get to see much more of our world.

***

A few hours later when the lights of Faction LM came into view. Even in the middle of the night the village was still alive.

I'd sprinted through untamed land dashing and jumping my way through the night and after several hours I was starting to feel it. I'd wondered if there was a limit to my constitution, and I was pushing it.

Sweat beaded on my brow as I slowed thinking of where I might find Jared at this hour. Probably in his cabin planning and plotting new areas for building.

Soon I was wrapping at his door. After a few seconds I was ready to kick it in. Luckily I didn't have to and it cracked open.

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Jared peeked through the opening, light from inside spilling onto the cobbled stone of the town streets.

"Layton?" The door swung open. "What are you doing here? Come inside!"

I slid past him and into the single room cabin. His table was covered in nails and string, small rudimentary wooden models were carefully placed into the intricate webbing. His cleanly made bed and desk were hidden away in the corner, and he had a system interface open against the wall.

"Jared I messed up, I need your help."

He closed the door and ushered me to sit down at the table.

"Ok." He said hesitantly. "Sit down and let's hear it."

I could hear the concern in his voice as he pulled a seat out for me. I pushed the chair away.

"Sadie and Xander were taken by a faction of Orc's, the leader has a weapon that can ignore my shields and block my healing—" I began pacing back and forth relaying the information.

"Whoah, ok slow down. Sadie and Xander were taken? How?"

"They followed me. I told them not to, but they did it anyway and now they are being used as hostages."

Jared grabbed my arm to stop my pacing.

"Layton, take a breath."

I glanced down at his hand. My mind hadn't settled much on my journey here. The fact was, the more I figured it, the worse I felt.

Through it all, I managed to slow down enough to take the next five minutes to sum up all that had happened, including the attempted assassinations, how Aggard knew things she shouldn't about me, and then how I'd left the goblins to come here.

Jared sat, thumbing his beard thoughtfully.

"So Aggard still has Sadie and Xander now…and she is expecting you to return in the morning?"

I shrugged.

"Not really much we can do right now about your fight with Trasnik." Jared grunted pushing himself up, chair scraping the floor. "It was a bad situation that you weren't prepared for. I'll round up Nick and a few others, we'll see what we can do to free Xander and Sadie."

He seemed distant, shoulders slumped and solemn.

"You don't seem very confident."

Jared looked at me and sighed. "I think that it goes without saying this wasn't your fault, you know that right?"

I studied the floor considering the question.

"It's not. You know it and so do I."

"Maybe it's not my fault, but I'm one hundred percent sure I've made everything worse."

"Who's to say?" Jared laughed bitterly. "You've heard how governments don't negotiate with terrorists who use hostages?"

Of course I'd heard it before. Honestly though I thought it was more for movie quotes then anything real.

"I've heard it, yes."

"Have you ever thought about why that might be?"

Of course I had. It was all I'd been thinking about the last few hours.

"If one terrorist gets away with it, others will think the same thing."

Jared nodded, but I didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Thats exactly right. You reinforce criminal behavior—what does that mean for your faction when others catch wind that you can be manipulated if they can get their hands on the right people?

Hearing Jared speak out loud the thoughts I was trying to ignore did little to help my already sour mood.

"But we can't just let them die." I countered.

"That's why we're going to get Nick and the others. But for the sake of everyone in your faction, don't you think it's important to show that this type of manipulation won't be tolerated?"

Jared was right, Trasnik was right.

"Jared. I know you're right—I don't want to be the reason they die."

I focused on Jared's table, imagining his grand plans, trying not to face my feelings. I wanted him to tell me that wouldn't happen, that everything would be ok.

He looked at me, eyes soft, understanding.

"They might die, Layton. That's the deal. But even if they do, it won't be your fault, it will be Aggards."

His words weren't meant to hurt me, but they did. They weighed on my shoulders thick and heavy.

"What did you expect it would be like being a leader in the apocalypse? It's a miracle more situations like this haven't happened already."

I let the words seep in. Jared wasn't a cruel man. I knew that from the way he cared for our faction, how his first goal was to build a safe haven for those around him. This couldn't be easy for him either. How was he being so pragmatic?

"How do you do it Jared?"

He looked at me quizzically.

"How do I do what?"

"How are you so calm right now? I know you care about the people in this faction, you must be scared too?"

He folded his arms.

"Of course I am. But what else can I do but my best?" He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "Come on, let's go find the others."

***

Aggard knew Corg was dead.

Like the others in the tribe the trinkets they carried told her as much—the spirits whispering of his passing beyond the veil.

Corg was dead and that blight of a human was still alive. Just the thought of that walking calamity made her ears twitch.

She knew coming to a new world would have its challenges.

Her people often sang of the great spreading. The red seeds carried upon the winds to distant worlds where tempests would test even the strongest and wisest. To survive the seed needed to be strong, and settle deep in the soil, where it could withstand the tempests and come out strong and well nourished.

Aggard was a strong seed. She knew what it took to bury herself deep, the spirits had told her as much.

Right when her feet touched this earth they spoke of her trial, and whispered of his great feats and powerful honors.

She listened closely, knowing in her heart she could never grow in the shadows. If she was to blossom on this earth—Layton had to die.

What divine providence that the boy had carried a trinket of his own! The heavens and great spirit had chosen Aggard for victory, what else could it mean?

With the spiritual tether in place Aggard had listened, watched, prepared…plotted.

At every step his power grew—but Aggard wasn't afraid, she was faithful. To Aggard, he was the fatted calf preparing for slaughter.

Lovingly she caressed her exposed bulbous belly.

"This world will be yours, my love." She cooed, speaking to her unborn princess.

Corg's death was a setback. He was good for little, but his ability to slink unnoticed was unmatched by any other in her tribe.

She'd bristled at the thought of so great a foe, falling at a black knife in the back. But what loathing she had for such tactics paled in comparison to her hopes for her daughter.

The spirits had laughed at Corg's death. Killed at the hands of his own target's enemy.

Shameful.

Yes…his death was a setback, but she knew Layton.

She looked down at the cowering humans lying prone at her feet—another gift from the great spirit.

He would return, she knew that, but so long as she had these gifts Layton would dance like a puppet on a string.

She toyed with the knife. A simple, even mundane, tool in the grand scale of the universe, but here?

It was exactly what she needed to rid her new garden of noxious weeds.