Chapter 045 - A Foundation

There was no magic to protect them, what little fabric they’d managed to tear from the ratty beds the undead made them use were all they had to keep themselves warm. The elderly members  of their group struggled through the forced march, but it was some small hope of the tiniest improvement compared to their previous treatment that kept them going. The chill was biting, worse outside of the garden. Beval kept his chin up as they walked, his eyes fixed on the back of the figure marching at the front.

I don’t even know her name, he thought as he fought down the urge to attempt an identify. He’d tried it once, against the overseer, just to see if maybe they as a group could overpower him. The result had been a psychic slap as the contract punished him for his rudeness. He was fortunate enough that the overseer hadn’t noticed, otherwise he’d already be a walking pile of bones. He wrapped his arms around himself as the wind blew harder, nipping against his skin and sending his spine into a brief convulsion that he forced back with a grunt.

They crested a hill and the dark-skinned knight who had spoken for their new ‘liege’ raised a hand to allow them a moment to catch their breath in the ruthless cold. He gasped and rested his hands on his knees, wheezing before turning to check on the others. The one he was most concerned about was the old orc. He’d been tormented constantly by the overseer for some reason or another and had been sent to the storage room to carry those damn crystals twice as much as the others. He hid it well, but his mana sickness was well past the early stages.

I don’t know how much of this we can take, he sighed as the knight raised a hand and pointed to a shape in the distance. A building, partially buried beneath the snow, cast a faint off-green glow out of the front door. That’s it? That’s their home? It’s… he sighed. It’s better than nothing. The snow will at least give us insulation.

The ‘liege’ silently turned from the pack after having observed them in silence. She never spoke, except in hushed whispers with the knight. When he’d met her eyes she’d done something with her aura that had made him feel so small. It was like a hand pressing down on his shoulder while the other clutched at his heart. He’d wanted to bend the knee right then and there but the others had been relying on him, needing him to speak for them. What kind of monster is hiding behind that horned mask? What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?

They arrived at the liege’s lair an hour later, the slow pace weakening the elderly members of their party even more. The old orc nearly succumbed, having to be carried between himself and one of the other hardier young men. There was a slightly cleared path starting at a flag that had been placed out in the snow that led up to the building. The doors were oddly made of glass rather than anything properly secure and he could see inside. It looked like some manner of lobby with a welcome desk set firmly within view. The odd green glow came from a rock sitting on top of the desk and provided basic illumination.

The knight marched forward and opened the doors, pulling them through the accumulated snow before gesturing everyone inside. Their liege stayed at the rear, watching them with crossed arms and those eerie, slightly luminous eyes that made him think of a skeleton’s wraithsight. He swallowed hard as they passed over the threshold and into… a comfortable looking lobby. It was exactly what it looked like on the tin. There were a few chairs and sofas set in a way that implied a waiting room of some kind. A pair of doors to the left of the front desk were the only other exit.

The knight returned her sword to her inventory and turned to everyone. “Check for frostbite,” she said sharply. “After that I will assist in treating those with the worst of it. I will be back with supplies. Remain in this room,” she commanded.

He quickly moved with the others and helped the old man lay down, the orc was coughing, blood dribbling from his lips. He reached up and touched the man’s head. “Fever and he’s bleeding orally, it’s definitely past the first stage,” he said and glanced at the other with him. It’d been so long since they were permitted to address one another by name that he’d forgotten. 

The other man returned his gaze and seemed to know what he was thinking. He was a younger half-orc by the look of him, paler green skin and the tell-tale gray splotches that marked him as having Erbyl blood. “Korat,” he said and nodded to the old man. “We need to get his fever down or the mana won’t process through his body,” he said and pulled on the old man’s boots. Beval helped him and they were relieved to see he hadn’t taken on frostbite anywhere. 

Beval sighed with relief. “Small miracles, blessed be the gods. His overheating body saved his limbs.”

Korat frowned at him but said nothing, looking up at the others who all looked too weary to contribute anything useful. Beval was about to stand as well when a dark shape moved past him. He didn’t even feel her approach, she was just… there. Like she had no presence at all. The woman crouched next to the old man. “You said mana sickness?” she asked. “Something about his fever?”

He blinked. She sounded younger than he expected. Was she some kind of invader noble? Some kin-spawn sent to this world to get training with a personal bodyguard? He scowled and pushed the thoughts aside. The last thing he wanted to do was back talk. How could anyone not know how to treat mana sickness? He thought before letting out a breath, patiently educating the rich kid. “Mana heats up the body,” he said. “It builds up and if you pass your tolerance too often or stay past it for too long you get very sick. It can kill you.”

“I know how to get it,” the woman said evenly, not looking back at him. “You said treating the fever will help?”

He stared at the back of her head. “Yes.”

“I’ll have Catherine get medicine,” she said and got to her feet. She reached up, pulled off her helmet and he took a step back. She was ghostly pale, almost dead looking. Her eyes were sunken deep with dark circles beneath them. She had several tiny scars along her chin and one at her throat. Her hair was a ratty, disjointed mess of black locks that fell down to her shoulders. Yet it was her scowl that arrested him the most, the look in her eyes. The eyes of a killer or a wild animal. She turned to point at Korat. “You, can you help carry him?”

“Y-yes,” Korat grunted, just as nonplussed as Beval was.

“Let’s get him to a bed,” she said, “There’s more than enough in the dorms. Follow me.” The two men looked at one another and she turned back towards them after stepping a few paces away. “That wasn’t a request. Move.”

Beval nodded and with Korat’s help they grabbed the old man and lifted him. He groaned noisily as they went through the double doors into a large open space that looked like it was in the process of being refitted for a purpose he couldn’t immediately divine. They went down an attached hall and the Knight stepped out of a room with a heavy metal door on it. It looked like the lock had been smashed. “My Lady?” the woman-Catherine-asked.

“This one has Mana Sickness. Grab a bottle with ‘acetaminophen’ or ‘ibuprofen’ on it. There’ll be a brand name, look for the actual name in slightly smaller text. Shouldn’t be hard,” the liege said quickly. The knight nodded and went back into the room while they were escorted into a…palace. It was the only word to think of by comparison to the horrific quarters they’d stayed in under the undead. All the beds were clean and well kept bunks and there were at least twenty or thirty mattresses.

She pointed at one of the beds. “That one, pick one for yourselves later,” she grunted.

They quickly laid the old man down and the knight walked in with two bottles in her hands. One was white and the other clear and tall. The liege took one, read the back briefly, before opening it with a twist of the cap and popping two pills into the cap. She handed the lid off to Beval before grabbing the clear bottle and opening it. “It’s clean water, we don’t have a lot of these bottles. I’d give him hot water but it sounds like that’s the last thing we want. Besides, it’s a little mana tainted.”

Beval looked at the bottle and the cap with pills and stared at the woman for a moment. He blinked at her in confusion and she just huffed out a breath. “Give him the pills and all of the water, he needs to be hydrated,” she grumbled and marched past him. “Hurry up.”

He watched her disappear out of the doors to the dormitory with a blank look on his face. He met the knights eyes and she just nodded before disappearing as well. He looked back at Korat and swallowed hard. “I don’t know whether we are incredibly lucky, or doomed. She scares the hell out of me.”

Korat took the pills from his hand with a harried nod. “You and me both.”

–

Oh my god that was so awkward, Anna whined inwardly, running her fingers through her hair. I shouldn’t have jumped in like that. Catherine was gonna be back any minute! She sighed and scratched out some of the knots. Fucking hair, man, not even a shower did a damn thing. I hope I don’t have to chop it all off at some point. I must look like a fuckin’ psycho!

“You handled that well,” Catherine said next to her.

Anna turned a bug-eyed stare on her. “Are you joking? That was so stressful!” she hissed frantically.

Catherine raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. “I think you might have better instincts for this than you realize.” Anna glared at her and she held up her hands. “I will handle the rest, My Lady.”

Anna sighed with relief. “I’m gonna go to my workshop and decompress a little, when do you think we can head back?” she asked.

Catherine crossed her arms thoughtfully. “At least overnight to get them settled and distribute some tasks. I have a few things for them to do already in mind and will fill out a dossier of their skill sets. They may have been slaves but it sounds like most of them were captured, they likely had prior roles or talents before they ended up like this.”

Anna frowned and glanced over her shoulder at the dorm room doors. “That old guy gonna be okay?” she asked. “I kinda… scared the shit out of him during the raid. Probably wasn’t good for his heart.”

Catherine looked back as well. “He’s old and his mana sickness is further along than those boys realize. If he makes it through the night I will call it divine intervention,” she said with a sigh. “Is that medicine of yours strong?”

“No idea if it works for non-humans,” she said. “If he’s got a good metabolism then it’ll reduce his temp though, hopefully.”

Catherine nodded. “Then all we can do is wait.”

Anna sighed again and closed her eyes, soothing herself for a moment before turning to Catherine again. “Are you really sure this is a good idea? We don’t know these people.”

“A kingdom must start somewhere,” Catherine said. “Believe it or not, they may very well be your foundation. It is up to you how to foster it.”

Anna stared at the door for a while and felt something in her stomach twist. She pressed her lips together and rubbed her neck. Damn it, she thought and nodded. “I’m going to my workshop,” she grumbled and stalked away without another word. She hustled down and grabbed her engraving textbook with a grunt. Damn it, damn it! She thought and started flipping through pages. No that puts more mana in the body, that won’t work, she growled and pressed her fingers to her temples. Think! What can I do? Body temperature is the biggest concern, the fever will kill him.

She growled and hopped to her feet, pacing back and forth before snatching up the spellcasting textbook. She flipped to the chapter on mana sickness and planted her hands on the desk. “Potions and medicines that require the use of mana to produce are ill-advised, no duh,” she kept reading. “Reducing the mana levels in the surrounding area, regulating the patient’s body temperature, bed rest, saturating meals of a low temperature, and increased fluid intake of lukewarm water, are the primary treatments for Mana Sickness when anti-mana medicines are unavailable.”

So there is medicine for it but that’s not an option right now, she thought. We’ve got some canned food we can feed him and water’s covered for now. Temperature and ambient mana… she groaned and held her head. How can I do both of those things without touching him directly- oh! She sat up straight and grabbed one of the failed plates she’d made while working on the boiler. What about making the bed regulate body temperature? Pull mana out of the air to power it … it could work. 

She grabbed a blank plate and her notebook and started working. 

It took nearly two hours but fortunately she had her experience with the boiler plate to get her through the difficult parts. The trick was largely taking the heat rune and adjusting the degree modifier down and setting it to examine the bed and everything on it. Heat transfers to the surface of the bed, so it’ll try to cool down hot spots, like where the old man is lying. This time I’ll tune it down a little and get rid of the output. I don’t want it releasing excess into the air. 

She pulled away from her freshly made plate with satisfaction.

Rudimentary Temperature Regulation Plate (Mortal-Common)
This metal token has been engraved with a simple glyph mechanism that regulates the temperature of the object it is affixed to. This enchantment draws a small amount of ambient mana from the environment. The conversion rate is adequate but this plate will degrade over time without an outlet. Temperature regulation speed is: moderate. This enchantment must be physically attached to the object, after it is attached this item can no longer be reassigned.

Anna turned it over in her hand. Hey! I could get the fridge working again with another one of these, she thought excitedly before remembering why she’d made it. Shit! She marched up the stairs and past a pair of the newcomers who stumbled back in shock at her rush. She didn’t mind them and focused on getting to the dorms, throwing the doors open and startling a few of those who were just settling into the beds. She slid to a stop in front of the old man’s bed and stared at him. Still breathing.

She knelt at the foot of the bed and found a good spot to place the plate. I hope this works.

Would you like to affix this enchantment? Yes/No

Yes.