Nibilum of the Rabiss Raiders

My head was splitting as I stood on the shore, as close to the destruction that had happened last night as I could get. It was still too hot to go any closer than the distance of a bow shot.

Last night was one of the most amazing nights of my life. The drink that we took from the fort must have been made by a Hand of Malitouma. It was a rich-flavored drink that got me and the other captains drunk faster than anything I had ever tasted. Even the ritual wine of Turabe was not this good. But the other captains and I had been too drunk to be aroused when the sailors claimed they witnessed the Hand of Wrath smite our people on the shore. The men said that they tried everything they could to rouse us, but we only gave incoherent answers and fell back into a stupor. On the other hand, our inability to move saved Warthum's life. He was supposed to return to the fort after the feast.

When I was finally sober enough to hear the report, I was convinced that the fort had only been burned to the ground somehow. However, none of those who were awake to see the destruction from afar were willing to budge on their stance. They said that a fire would not release a sound like thunder.

"This is all a trick," I growled in frustration. Fighting through the pain in my head. "They somehow burnt down the fort without our people knowing it."

My brother, who had been standing on the shore staring out at the cove, shook his head. "Don't let the rage or the alcohol blind you, brother. What they did to the boat was arson, as the sailors who escaped can attest. But this…No fire would throw scraps of wood and surrounding trees into the air so far that they are now floating in the bay along with the shredded bodies of our men. This is the most horrific scene I have ever experienced in my life.

"Look at the reports. The fort was blown away as easily as chaff in the wind. My scout, who was returning to the fort, said the earth heaved like the rolling sea, and he was thrown off his feet by what the Hand did. We found the body of another scout who was even closer. He can no longer hear and a piece of wood when struck through his shoulder. Brother, look at the hole, it is as if the ground were nothing more than clay pressed upon by a giant thumb."

"Then it is some weapon that they have used. We must hunt these people down and claim it for ourselves. It is the only way to return our honor."

"If it is some weapon, do you really think you could claim it for yourself? Even if you did, how many lives would we lose trying to obtain it?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you saying?"

"I am saying I am taking my men, and we are leaving. I will not allow my men to die needless deaths. I will already lose more than I can afford by paying the widows of my men. I will not send my men to be needlessly slaughtered!"

"I need you, brother! We cannot abandon this contract. It is a matter of honor. There will be no place for us in the halls of Malitouma if we retreat now."

"I am sorry, brother. The contract was made with you and your crew. I came along to help and receive the spoils of a raid. Now, I look around and only see the scattered remains of my men. I cannot follow you on this fool's errand. It would be better to return home and disband your crew than pit yourself against the Wrath of Malitouma." he said.

I spat on the ground. "This man is no hand of Malitouma. I will capture him and prove it. I will take all the men who wish to earn glory and repay these people in blood. You can take those who have given up thier honor."

Valik looked down at me, "Goodbye, brother. I hope this is not the last time we meet," he said as he turned and walked back down the shoreline.

***********

It was evening before three of the seven ships I had come with had loaded up their supplies and were ready to head south. One ship had been lost to sabotage; three were leaving with those who wanted no further part in this endeavor, and one we had to sink because we didn't have enough men spread out between the vessels to crew it back home. If the winds were favorable, we might have been able to make it home with a half crew, but the winds would be against us most of the way, and that meant most of the trip would be rowing. A Falmoren ship could easily catch it if they realized it was a raiding ship. Those who were leaving me would sail with tomorrow morning's high tide.

My mind was clearer now, and I was able to evaluate Valik's words. Was I being prideful in my assumption that I could manage to salvage this trip? The answer was yes, but I had also taken a contract, and that meant that I was honor-bound to fulfill it. I had sent out many scouts to search for the best way through this marshland. One group had returned, saying that there was a fort further down the small road leading deeper into the marsh.

This confirmed that I was right. The first fort was a trap. This new fort seemed to be the true fort that the men were defending. It was not very impressive, but they seemed to be prepared for a siege, and with the terrain and the hundred men I had left, a siege did not seem like it would work. That left me hoping that another option would present itself.

As I was standing there near the smoldering wreckage of the fort that had been destroyed, I had one of my scouts return.

"Captain, I found the group that destroyed Natute's ship. They were making their way up the small trail near the canal that was created to dump water into the cove."

We had found a raft along the shore, as well as a blood-soaked shirt and an odd tool that seemed to be used to drill holes. It was fascinating, and Valik and the other captains insisted that I give it to them so that they could go back to Rabiss and recreate it. Maybe the sales of such a device would help to compensate for their losses.

"And what did you discover?"

"It was three boys. They were traveling slowly due to one of them having an injury on his leg. I circled around them and continued up the trail. There is a walled village up there, and I don't think it is heavily fortified. If we sneak through the forest, I think we could possibly take it."

I smiled, finally, the break I needed. "Take a few men and go back up to scout it out for a day. We will camp here and make it look like we are preparing to travel down this other road. Report back when you have an accurate assessment of the strength of the fort. Then, we will prepare a way to capture it.

Amos

I ended up being fortunate that Emily was too worried about me to be upset with me. When we returned to the place where we had been attacked, I found that one of the soldiers had taken a fatal wound and had died while Rick was chasing me down.

We had not taken any prisoners. Two of the men took their own lives rather than be captured. By the time we returned, most people had calmed down, but the gory mess left by the fight was causing a lot of people to become sick to their stomachs. I am glad I wasn't the only one who had trouble with the sight of people being killed by a sword.

Emily clung to me and sobbed for a long time as I stroked her hair and tried to reassure her. Eventually, we decided it would be best to travel on and try to make it to the camp by nightfall. Emily sat on the horse, and I led it by the reins so she didn't have to worry about directing it.

We passed the dead body of the man I had killed, and I tried not to look at it. Some of the soldiers pulled it off the road and tossed it in the woods. We would come back later to grab the saddle from my horse. It was important that we get back to civilization.

Emily only started talking once we reached the camp.

"So, um, Amos. Didn't you say I was the one who couldn't be left alone without getting in trouble?" She said, smiling weakly.

I tried to cheer her up by playing along. "It must be a noble thing."

"I wasn't a noble when I was attacked."

"Oh, yeah." The conversation was strained, but I tried to keep it going. "Well, fair maidens are always in trouble in stories."

"But in your stories, the fair maidens are rescued by handsome princes or knights. How can I be a fair maiden if I haven't had a dashing nobleman rescue me?"

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"Hmm, that's true. I will put out a request to look for dashing noblemen in need of a job rescuing fair maidens."

"Are you-" his mouth clamped shut before she finished blurting out what she was going to say next. Her red face was visible even in the fading light.

I smiled, "Come on, Emily. You know I am on call 24/10 for you."

She latched onto my odd phrase before she could become more embarrassed. "What does that mean?"

I moved closer and lowered my voice. "Where I came from, that meant that a person was available 24 hours a day every week of the year. Remember how I told you about telephones and how you could talk to anybody in the world any time you wanted to? When you talk to someone on the telephone, it is called calling them. So, if you are "on call," it means you are available for a phone call."

"So you're not available on equinoxes or solstices?" She said with a smile.

"Well, our weeks were seven days, and the solstices and equinoxes were not on separate days outside of months."

"I am not good enough to divide that in my head yet, but that doesn't seem like it would divide up evenly," She said, scrunching up her face.

"It doesn't. We had months with 30 days, 31 days, and one that is 28 or 29 days, depending on the year."

"That is really confusing."

"Well, my home planet didn't travel around our sun at the same speed as Marths does." Throwing out random facts was a great distraction, it seemed.

"I don't understand," she said.

I spent the evening trying to distract her from the day's events by talking about astronomy and stories of Earth. We talked by the fire well into the night until she finally grew so tired she unconsciously leaned her head against my shoulder. I couldn't fall asleep because my mind was spinning with everything that happened that day. And now that Emily had fallen asleep, I was still wound up, and I had no one to talk to. So, instead of putting her in her tent and staying up all night alone. I slipped my hand around her waist to make sure she didn't fall over and just stared into the fire.

I don't know how long it was before I noticed that her head had slipped onto my lap, and I was absentmindedly stroking her hair. My hand froze when I realized what I was doing, and I almost jumped up. My guards keeping watch better not tattle on me. In the soft glow of the fading embers, I could see her face. She looked so peaceful. A complete contrast to how I felt. I really should take her to her tent but everything that had happened during the day had put me on edge. I felt bad about my soldier, but what if it had been Emily, Jorb, or one of my other close friends?

I continued to stroke her soft brown hair. Looking down I couldn't help but smile.

"You really are beautiful when you are sleeping," I whispered, hoping she wasn't only pretending to be asleep. "I wish things could work out the way you want them to, but there is only so much I can do. My advisors are right; we have too many enemies and not enough allies. This incident proves that we need to make connections. This is stupid, you're only fifteen. I know that doesn't mean much here, but it kind of does to me. I know things will work out for you. I had like three different crushes by your age and got my heart broken a few times. One of them even made up with me, and we remained friends. I hope that can happen with us."

I knew I was saying this all to convince myself, but it really wasn't possible to take her as a wife. Not without getting us ostracized. My marriage was just as important as any trade good we had.

Eventually, I picked her up in a princess carry and brought her to her tent. I took a moment to look down at her, sleeping peacefully on her bedroll for a moment before turning away to go sit back down by the embers of the fire.

Life is messy.

********

Upon waking up in the morning, I could see smoke on the horizon to the North. Asking the guards, they said they hadn't heard anything, and with how dark it was, they hadn't noticed it until the sun was cresting the mountains. I immediately felt the urge to get to Bicman and see if they had an updated report. If that was the fort, maybe the raid was already over. I ordered the guards to get everyone up so that we could get moving immediately. Emily had not remembered falling asleep on my shoulder or my moment of weakness, which definitely helped to make things less awkward.

Traveling with the non-combatants from Pine Grove slowed us down, but with what happened yesterday, I was not willing to leave them behind. Whether we got there now or at the end of the day, it wouldn't matter.

We arrived in Bicman towards late afternoon. The guards, Emily, and I rode ahead once we arrived in Melnon. It was nice to see the looks of relief and cheers from several people when I arrived at the manor. Everyone had been tense when the news came that Rabiss ships were spotted in the cove.

Initially, we had kept the people in the dark about the raid until each village had a fort. We were trying to prevent panic. The forts helped to put people's minds at ease when we finally told them. Then, we explained everything to the people to help them prepare for a possible siege. I even offered a one-time deal for people who, if they wanted to leave the barony, I would provide an escort once the weather turned.

I couldn't believe the amount of faith people had in me. There were only a handful of people who signed up for the escort and a few more who left on their own, but most just carried on with helping grow the barony. I even heard people saying that, despite the possibility of raiders, they felt like they had a better chance here than in their own home barony.

Benjamin and Marsh came out to meet us when we arrived at the gate. Emily got down off her horse and immediately ran to her grandmother. Where she was wrapped in a firm embrace, then she started blubbering about assassins trying to kill me. Really, she was crying so hard I doubt Marsh understood what she was saying.

"My lord, welcome home," Benjamin said with a bow.

I came over and gave him a hug. It was really awkward with the breastplate. "It is good to be home, Benjamin."

"Your new armor looks good."

"Thank you, and well worth the time it took to craft. It saved my life."

"You should have sent a runner sooner," Benjamin said with a disapproving look.

I did not want to risk anyone in case those were not the only assassins. I could only afford to do so once we were safe in Melnon."

"How many?"

"Six assassins with bows. I got hit twice, at least, and my horse hit once. I will give you more details inside."

"It appears we had more spies and assassins than we thought. We found twenty in the forest southwest of Alfer."

"How did you apprehend them?" This was getting out of hand.

"We didn't. We found them all dead. Strung up in trees like we had seen before."

"Wait, it was those murderers who did it? Then how did you know that they were assassins?"

"We cannot be sure, but eight of them had been on the guard's watch list. When the bells sounded to have everyone gather due to the announcement that the Rabiss were here, all these men went missing. Guards were searching for missing people and came across a camp with these men strung up in trees and weapons lying on the ground."

So we have a bunch of vigilantes running around killing people. This would be very cool if it weren't for the fact that this is reality and they are breaking the law. We aren't in a comic book. We had a lot more spies hidden among my people than I thought. But who sent the vigilantes? Were they a different faction. Maybe they were Baron Sophis's people.

"So what are we going to do about these vigilantes?" I asked. "They are obviously not murdering people at random like we thought they might be."

"They seem to be very proficient at finding spies, and they were obviously watching for these people to make a move. So I would just let them be as long as they are not hurting our citizens. Maybe we could try to integrate them into the organization you were trying to create. Did you decide on a name?

"I think we will go back to the North Cove Internal Security Agency. That way, when I use it in English, I can abbreviate it to NCIS-A. We can even make a TV show about it. Although that isn't what it stood for in English."

"You're letting your nerves make you ramble," Benjamin said.

"Sorry, I have raiders in our cove, there was an attempted assassination, and I have a group of vigilantes who uncovered a whole cell of spies or assassins."

"We will figure out who the people are. There must be some in their organization who are in the NCDF, or they would not be able to move so freely. I'm just glad they're on our side. I have the latest report from up north. The pigeon arrived this morning. The scouts report that the fort has been totally destroyed. From their earlier count, they believe there might have been upwards of three hundred people in it."

The thought of it made me a little sick. Yes, I know it was with them or us and that more ships had arrived than we initially thought, so this may have just angered them rather than caused them to turn back, but at least we weren't up against seven hundred men. War was not something I was involved with in my last life, and the recent experience of killing a man brought everything closer to home. "Do you think a lot of slaves were in the fort?"

"From what I understand, raiders don't usually bring a lot of slaves, if any, on their ships when raiding. Slaves are costly, and there is limited space on the ships, so they want as many men to help in the raiding as possible. So, for all we know, there might not have been any."

That puts my mind at ease as far as the guilt of killing innocence goes. "What other reports do you have?"

"North Point has lost most of its soldiers; they are heading back to their respective baronies. There are some families living there, but not much will be happening until the raid is over. The soldiers from Bicman arrived in Kerisi earlier today and are helping fortify the surrounding villages. Also, I have a letter from Tine."

"Finally, a letter that I actually want to read. I really hope Aaron is settling in well there."

"There is…one more letter," Benjamin said nervously.

My happy expression fell off my face. "What is it?"

"It is strange. The carrier could not tell me where it originated from, except for the fact that it is from the Duchy of Herron, most likely somewhere near West Cove."

We reached my study, well, it was pretty much Benjamin's now. He handed me the two letters. One was written on expensive parchment with the seal of Tine on it. And the second was on Papyrus. It was small, and the edges were worn.

"I feel like I should know this seal, but I can't remember from where."

"It isn't one we went over in our training, but I am not surprised you recognized it. It is the seal of the Temple of the Endless One."

"Well, that can't be good."

Count Bicman,

The mighty wall that guards our breath Will crumble, yielding unto death. Blood shall surge like waters torn, A dam once whole, now wrecked and worn.

It sweeps the land with ruthless might, A crimson flood that drowns the light. The earth itself, with fissures spread, Can bear no more—its bones have bled.

So raise thy bulwark, steel thy hand, For shatter soon shall stone and land. The tide will come, both dark and fast— Prepare, for none shall stand steadfast.

-T

I knew it! Letters suck!

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