Chapter 32: Isekai Life & Quiet Moment

When I awoke, it was by bright red rays of dawn sunlight angling into the treasure room from an arrow slit. It just so happened, my face was lying directly in the path of the beam. I shielded myself with my hands as I blinked the sleep from my eyes, and rolled over to face the darker half of the room. Awareness gradually came back to me, and I realized I could hear the soft sounds of snoring. Raszil was still sitting in place across from me, now with his chin resting on his chest as he slept.

I also noticed that someone had thoughtfully dropped off our packs just inside the doorway. As quietly as I could, I scrambled across the floor and carefully withdrew my spellbook. If I wasn’t dead, and it was dawn, that meant we had all survived the first night of the siege, and if I was to be any use going forward I’d have to memorize a new host of spells. And with seventy minutes’ worth of spell memorization ahead of me, there was no time to waste.

I mainly kept to what were quickly becoming my “classics”, spells that would let me control the battlefield or deliver lots of damage. Magic Missile in case I needed to damage a worg without hurting my allies, also Knock because one spell slot per level was exclusively for my school, so I had no choice in that regard.

As I studied, my thoughts drifted to what Raszil had said the night previous, about me not knowing what my followers really wanted ... and to Calliope’s spellbook. Once I had my spells for the day memorized, I lifted the more slender tome gently out of my pack, and flipped through until the beginning of the ESP spell. Would it be okay, to go around sensing the thoughts of my own followers, as a way to better lead them? Could I manage to keep my knowledge of that spell secret, if I did? I didn’t have pen and ink ready at the moment, but with a bit of privacy it’d be easy to transcribe the spell and just never mention it.

I slipped both books away. The issue would have to wait, for now. We were in a siege, and there wouldn’t be any point to worrying about this if we all died horribly.

In the time that I was concentrating on spellbooks, Raszil had slipped out, probably to do his own prayers and ask for his spells the day. Hopefully, healing spells- we needed them, badly, with Voss, Yua, and Raszil himself almost out of action. But even before we allocated our small amount of magical healing, I needed to know what the situation was, so I headed downstairs to figure out what the situation was.

Now that they were no longer boxed up in the one room, it seems that the former slaves of the goblins were taking the time to enjoy stretching their legs- Not only were there packs of farmers murmuring quietly to one another hanging out in the hall when I left the treasure room, the stairs were busy with people going up, down, or even just sitting on the steps.

I almost tripped over one of the latter, an old woman helping herself to some kind of soup or stew, and had to dance quickly down a few steps to keep my balance. Behind me, I heard the old woman given a throaty chuckle. “Didn’t know you were the acrobatic type, boy.”

“I’m not,” I replied, turning to face Moruca. “You know it’s dangerous to get in people’s way when they’re climbing stairs.”

Although it occurred to me that, as a bunch of country folk, these people weren’t particularly practised in stairway etiquette.

The old woman grunted at me in turn, having another spoonful of soup. “These slaves have been eating better’n we have. I would die if I had to have another slice of sawdust bread.”

“I don’t know if many of them would agree with you,” I replied, thinking of the mystery meat that was in the kitchen yesterday.

The old woman shrugged. “Being driven to rat once in your lifetime is good for you. Builds character. Makes you appreciate what hunger really feels like.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. Sorry I didn’t check on you before I fell asleep last night.”

Moruca chuckled. “Somehow I’ve made it over sixty years without being tucked in by you, pretty sure I don’t need it.”

“Fair enough. Do you know if the goblins attacked last night?”

“Aye,” she replied, around another mouthful of stew, “They charged us a couple times, but couldn’t get ‘‘round the barricade. Managed to spear a half-dozen or so through the murder holes. Got a few more when they retreated, but we had no light to see by when they retreated.”

“Retreated?” I asked, “You mean, back downstairs?”

The old woman shook her head. “In wee hours, there was a baying of wolves from the tree line. Their raiders comin’ back, and somehow they figgered out what was going on in here. So they set their wolf buddies to howling, and all the goblins came streaming out of the tower. Those of us on guard at the battlements chucked some rocks and boiling water down on ‘em. Only about twenty or so bodies left out in the mornin’.”

I rubbed my chin, and then had to dodge a cluster of laughing children going running down the stairs. “Where did they go?”

“Coins to cabbages that they’re waiting inside the treeline, making ready to push on us tonight,” Moruca replied, toying with her spoon idly. “Find out real fast if we go huntin’.”

“We’re not in a great position to sortie, while our best fighters almost on their knees,” I said thoughtfully, “We need to conserve our strength.”

“Aye, that tall dark elf-man Haseth told me your plan,” Moruca replied, “It’s a good plan. Needs more dead goblins, though. Not sure about running off just because their wolves are dead.”

“Well, ideally, I’d like to nail the chieftain, too.”

The old woman chuckled again. “Nail him. I like that word. Nail him to the side of the tower and let the wind and rain and hunger do for him.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” I replied, suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m, uh, going to check on the others.”

I backed carefully away from Moruca and heading down the stairs still further, while the old woman chuckled at my sudden departure. “Hope you can get be some nails, Theodore, some good long ones!” she teased as I fled.

By then my stomach realized exactly what time it was. I slipped through the bent bars into the kitchen area, and got in queue for the vegetable stew that some of the ex-slaves were handing out. Once I had the hot bowl steaming in my hand, feeling a little like being in high school all over again, I glanced around for someone to sit with. I spotted Nievan and a few of the Ravenswatch sitting with Princess Kythaela at the far end of the room, and headed over there.

“Ah, Sir Theodore,” Nievan said with a nod as I sat cross-legged across from the princess, “We were just discussing you and your, ah...”

“Team,” I suggested, with a shrug, “Team is fine. Only good things I hope?”