Chapter Thirty-Two: Details

Chapter Thirty-Two: Details

The next day, Tom and Rosa hiked back up to the monastery before dawn. In the cool mountain air, they found the expedition, mostly ready to go, waiting only on Abbess Sunrise and some senior monks in a last minute conference with Sunset.

Tom and Rosa joined Darius, who flashed them a handsome grin, and together, the three of them waited, breath pluming in the predawn air. Soon enough, Abbess Sunrise joined them, and a few senior monks dispersed among the rest of the expedition. Sunrise spent a few moments watching them all before she spoke.

“You all know what we are about. Let us be about it.”

Her voice was hard and unyielding, a sentiment that was reflected in the faces of the monks. Not one of them was unaware of the importance of their mission. Nor would any of them abide creatures such as orcs to exist anywhere in the world, let alone so close to home.

With that unceremonious beginning, the expedition made its way down the mountain and through Horizon proper. Even at this early hour, people lined the streets. Their expressions were sombre, but not grim. News of the expedition had spread, and the people of Horizon were just as aware of the importance of the expedition as the monks were.

There was not a single member of any of the sentient races of the World currently alive that was unaware of the scale of threat that orcs posed. Only those too young to communicate could claim ignorance.

The Raventos family had bid them farewell in the dim hours before dawn, but had promised to watch for them in the square before the main gates. As they reached that square, Tom scanned about, looking for them.

Rosa saw them before he did, nudging him and pointing in the direction of the main fountain. There the Raventos’ stood, small smiles on their faces. Worry sat alongside them, but pride, too.

The farewell this morning had not been what Tom had expected, although knowing Rosa, he should not have been surprised.

There were no teary goodbyes, no entreaties to stay, no warnings, or admonitions, or reminders to stay safe.

“Hold each other up,” said Rocco to them quietly.

“Make us proud,” Camila added gently.

Before they left, Camila led them both through the kitchen, forcing each of them to store a small mountain of home cooked food with the gentle inexorability common to all mothers intent on seeing someone fed.

Rocco took Tom aside and offered him a small box, too. Tom had tried to refuse the gift once he had learned its value, but Lord Raventos was just as obstinate as his wife.

The box was filled with alchemical poisons, all custom made by Horizon’s premier alchemist. The cost of such things was usually lesser than a corresponding potion, but no alchemist’s work could be called cheap. Especially not when they were diverted from their usual work and given a short deadline of a week to complete the order.

Tom had asked Rocco earlier in the week if they had any alchemists in residence. They had several, as it happened. He was unsure if there would be much difference between the poisons of one alchemist or another, but he figured he may as well try. He was flush with cash and valuables after his time in the Deep, and the siege.

He and Rocco had spent a long while in conversation about the utility of Sweet Suffering, as well as a few other new ideas Tom had come up with. Tom was disappointed to learn that all the alchemists had been co-opted by the monastery to produce potions for the expedition, and their eventual war of extermination. He tried not to be too put out. He still had plenty of stock from Harvey.

Now, Rocco revealed, he had taken it upon himself to call in some favours on his behalf.

Tom was incredibly touched by the gesture. It took a while before Rocco finally managed to wave off his thanks, assuring him it was nothing. He couldn’t wait to sit down with and go through each of their effects. Rocco told him there were extensive notes from the alchemist inside. He also informed Tom that the alchemist would heavily discount his next purchases if Tom recorded notes on their efficacy and effects.

It seemed alchemists the world over loved a guinea pig.

Before guiding him to the entranceway, he passed Tom another box. This was much larger than the one he had ordered for himself. Rocco passed it to him with a knowing smile.

“The alchemist informed me of the contents,” he admitted. “This was good thinking. Very good, I think. She will be very happy.”

Tom gave him a massive grin, and not long after, he and Rosa had left for the monastery. Now, walking through the square, approaching the main gates, he felt his heart soar as he watched this second family he had somehow found himself. Determination and affection welled in him. He would do them proud.

Rosa gave him a sunny smile when she saw the look on his face. They waved to her family, and then, as the expedition began filing through the main gates, a great cheer went up from the watching crowd.

As they walked through the valley below Horizon, following the rushing river through sweet-scented vineyards, golden light poured down upon them from on high, heralding the dawn. Then they crossed over the valley, up the hillside and over the ridgeline.

Standing atop the ridge, Tom looked back to take a last glance towards Horizon. The city looked like it was cast from brass as the golden light of the dawn melted over the red stone walls. Perched above it all, the Monastery of the Bloody Dawn was haloed by the rising peach disc of the sun.

It was a glorious sight. Tom fixed it all in his mind, the city, its people, Rosa’s family. This was what they were fighting to protect. Orcs were an insatiable menace. All they knew was destruction, and they had to be stopped.

The expedition passed over the ridgeline. The rolling hills swept out before them, blanketed in their vineyards. Tom turned his mind fully to the task ahead of them.

All they knew was that the orcs were situated somewhere in the north of the Proving Grounds. Their goal was simple: to find out where the orcish infestation was situated and gather enough intelligence on them that they could destroy them with confidence.

To that end, there were several things they needed to discover. A solid estimation of their numbers was first and foremost.

Initially, Tom had found it concerning that Horizon had such a small standing army of non-Idealists. The natural defensibility of the fortress city, as well as the monastery situated above them, meant they simply had little need for a large standing force. The army of Horizon was only around five thousand strong.

The missing piece of the puzzle was that, unlike Wayrest, the grand majority of combat Ideals in Horizon trained as monks. And they were, individually, much better trained.

The monks could muster twenty thousand trained Idealist warriors if they turned out the entire monastery. Horizon could add perhaps another thousand that weren’t affiliated directly with the monastery. Wayrest was pledging five thousand Idealists from their Expeditionary Force. All told, they could muster a combined force of around twenty five thousand Idealists and five thousand regular soldiers.

Idealist forces such as this had not been seen since the first extermination wars, centuries ago. Times were changing.

The sheer force being brought to bear made Tom a little jealous. Wayrest had barely ten thousand Idealists to call on, now split between their Defence and Expeditionary Forces. They were simply not as martial as Horizon. The orc army from the Deep had numbered near a hundred thousand. Twenty five thousand Idealists would have had a much easier time dealing with such a number.

They were hoping it would be sufficient to deal with the infestation here, too. But two things constrained them.

The first was that the monks insisted on taking the battle to the orcs. At Wayrest, the siege had worked in their favour. Defending a fortress was always easier than attacking it. The monks could not brook any such solution though. Their faith demanded that they take the battle directly to their enemies where they found them.

Strangely enough, the orcs here hadn’t made any move towards the fortress city. They could still have been building strength to begin the siege, but if that was the case, they should have had more than enough numbers by now.

These orcs were acting much differently to those he was familiar with. It made Tom uneasy.

The second factor constraining them was the monk’s desire to utterly annihilate the infestation in one engagement. They were completely unwilling to risk any substantial amount escaping to start another infestation.

Tom couldn’t begrudge them it, despite it meaning a delay in actually bringing them to battle. If Wayrest had not let their pride get the better of them, and had prepared for their infestation properly, then they would not be in the position they were in currently, needing to spend years to track down and exterminate the remaining orcs in the surrounding terrain.

Once they’d determined the orcs numbers and where they were located they could move onto secondary intelligence gathering. There were still many things that didn’t make sense about the orcs, many things they’d noticed that needed to be confirmed.

They needed to confirm what powers they had, if every single orc in the infestation was an Idealist, if there were any chieftains among them, and most importantly, if there was a Great Smith, or an equivalent of it, leading this infestation.

It was this last question that gave Tom that most anxiety. He, perhaps more than any other human except for Val, understood exactly the scale of the threat such creatures represented. The Great Smith’s twisted Ideals were powerful on a scale never before seen in any human, elf or dwarf Idealist. Just its aura had been strong enough to affect hundreds of miles of area.

It was unprecedented. Unheard of. The Great Smith’s last words kept ringing in his head.

My Brethren, my brothers and sisters, are scattered the length and breadth of this stinking continent. They will continue our work. You cannot defeat all of us.

There were more Smiths out there. Or orcs like it, at very least. It seemed probable that there would be one with each infestation.

And the most worrying thing of all: if there was a Great Chieftain with this infestation, was it just as powerful as the Smith? And if so, were they already being affected by its powers?

The thought made Tom shiver, but ultimately, there was nothing to be done about it. Idealists with specialised skills from the monastery had assured them all that they were not under any external mental or emotional influences once Tom had raised the possibility.

But the Great Smith’s power had reached across a hundred miles or more. What if this Great Chieftain’s power was not as far reaching, but more insidious, more subtle? Or worse, if it was more powerful?

Tom had to admit there was no point worrying about hypotheticals until they could confirm whether or not they were an issue. He was content enough with alerting the monks to the potential issue. They had made sure to include several Idealists that could detect any such issues, and several healers who could cleanse them. It was the best they could do.

By all accounts, their expedition was well-prepared for all eventualities. They were one hundred and fifty strong, all hand picked by Sunrise and Sunset. Most of them had skills that could help them resist the known abilities of the orcs, skills to clear debuffs, to turn them to their advantage, or to resist them. Many more had escape skills or short or long range teleports. There was even one portal specialist along.

Most of the expedition were warriors. It was their role to protect and safeguard the true core of the expedition: their scouts. They had around fifty Idealists, all with different scouting skills, whether they be familiars, sensory skills, movement or stealth skills, or some combination of them. It was the warriors job to ensure they got close enough to the orcs to get the information they needed.

Tom mulled over the specifics of the expedition until they reached the end of the foothills and moved into the endless plains. As they moved into the Proving Grounds, he fully focused on the task at hand.

He had dealt with one infestation, and he would ensure this one was dealt with too.