Valkyrie's Shadow

Stone and Blood: Act 1, Chapter 8

Stone and Blood: Act 1, Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Florine shivered, and it wasn’t because of the chill. She always chided herself for doing so, yet it happened anyway.

Several Orcs scrutinised her as they made their way deeper into the forest. She steeled her nerves, resisting the urge to shrink away. Her thoughts turned to Ludmila’s lectures on the subject.

Beastmen were carnivores. Florine used to believe it depended on their appearance, but that wasn’t true. It seemed like a given that Beastmen who looked like tigers, bears, wolves and such would do so, but even ones who looked like deer, goats and cows did.

Florine had a nightmare about it after Ludmila had told her the truth of things. She woke up in her barony and went outside to find that all of the cows that they raised had become Cow Beastmen. An endless horde of them chased her around the familiar farmlands of her demesne, which had been twisted into a grim hellscape littered with corpses stripped to the bone. Even though they were, she could recognise every one of them.

While she screamed and cried and fought for breath, the content of Ludmila's lecture drifted over the hills as if consigning Florine to her fate.

Though all Beastmen were carnivores, they preyed on different things and it was those feeding habits that dictated one’s reaction to them. As far as Humans went, fearful reactions conveniently tended to involve the Beastmen found around places where Humans lived. Or perhaps it made perfect sense since Humans were one of their prey species so of course they would live there too.

In short, it was instinct. Before she had ever even seen one, the mere thought of a Beastman sent primal terror trickling through her being. Her nightmare had come before they had even set foot in the Draconic Kingdom, yet she had experienced the exact same reaction as she did when finally seeing them in the flesh. It even happened with the Nar cub, and she had to force herself to see it as a helpless child. After the reports from the orphanage, however, maybe it wasn’t as helpless as she thought it was.

Florine hated feeling that way, but Ludmila said that instincts kept one alive, to an extent.

The feeling didn’t happen with all Beastmen, however. Supposedly, the Quagoa didn’t invoke that reaction because they were a subterranean species that Humans would usually never come into contact with. By the same token, Quagoa didn’t naturally see Humans as food. The same couldn’t be said for Dwarves, as both races saw one another as competitors.

When Lady Shalltear transported Zu Chiru’s tribe and told Florine to do something about them, Florine didn’t think them any more special than the other new residents of the Demihuman Quarter. They had needs specific to their race, of course, but the fact that they didn’t evoke any strong instinctive reactions out of her and the Humans that they interacted with went unnoticed.

In hindsight, they had probably been purposely chosen for settlement. If it had been something like Nar or Urmah that had been selected instead, the minds of the citizens would have likely been flooded by their instinctual fear. Operating under those conditions would have been difficult, to say the least.

It was an undeniably wise move by their new government. The city was able to see what Beastmen were like without the storied horrors that were associated with them getting in the way.

The Orcs, however, were every bit as terrifying as the Beastmen in the Draconic Kingdom. Florine couldn’t even figure out why. They were Pig Beastmen, meaning that they didn’t have the same set of natural weapons as their felid counterparts. Yet, a sense of danger emanated from them even as they simply stood there and watched.

Ludmila had briefed Florine on proper conduct around predatory Demihumans before she started working in the Great Forest of Tob. It was that briefing that Florine now actively drew upon.

If you do not wish to be prey, then don’t be.

It sounded disingenuous, at first, but Florine found it to be invariably true. After working with non-Humans for over a year, she was of the mind that doing so was a critical component of common courtesy in interracial relations.

Just as Humans had instincts, so did any other race. If one ran, then there was the instinctual compulsion to chase. Every Human instinct concerning other races was characteristic of their basic relationship with those races, and so that behaviour acted as a set of cues that invoked instinctual responses in turn. By not invoking a cascade of instinctual responses, one created a more neutral situation where rational communication was possible.

Ludmila also mentioned that Humans were predators as well, but Liane just couldn’t see her that way. Maybe that was why her friend carried herself the way that she did and why people tended to be wary of her.

Florine held herself tall and gave off a relaxed air. She didn’t flinch away from any gazes that she met, instead holding them for a time before turning her attention elsewhere. The Orcs didn’t give any indication that they recognised what she was doing and they didn’t do anything beyond looking from their places between the trees.

It wasn’t long until they started passing the dwellings of the Orcs. They were crude, at best, but the refugees had also recently arrived. Each one appeared to be formed out of a basic form of wattle and daub and each ‘panel’ was arranged against frames made out of different lengths of wood. Any gaps in the walls were sealed with a mix of mud and grass. The lack of uniformity gave each group of homes a haphazard feeling.

Ludmila also seemed to be casually examining them as they passed. Dyel kept giving her furtive looks.

“We didn’t fell any trees,” he said, “just in case you’re wondering. It’s all deadwood.”

“Thank you for your consideration,” Ludmila replied. “It’s a custom for Human Lords to offer shelter and basic provision for any guests that come to them, so I’m more than a bit embarrassed over my lack of hospitality. It’s hard to organise such things from a distance, but you have my apologies.”

“I didn’t know Humans had such a custom,” Dyel said. “The Human country near the sea – Roble, I believe it’s called? – is far from our tribe’s territory. Only those who wished to test their mettle against them ever made the journey.”

“Well, I will say that it’s usually between Humans,” Ludmila said, “even if there’s no custom against hosting others. The Sorcerous Kingdom is a place where many races dwell, however, so that hospitality naturally extends to everyone. I take it that you don’t usually live in these conditions?”

“Your territory is one of great beauty and bounty,” Dyel replied. “Far lusher than the Abelion Hills. If you speak of these dwellings, we normally live in permanent structures.”

“Will the humidity be a problem for your race?”

“Not at all,” Dyel said. “Even if we hadn’t gone through everything that we did, we would still see it as a paradise.”

“I’m glad that it pleases you,” Ludmila replied. “Did His Majesty or any of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s officials mention how long your stay would be?”

Dyel’s steps ceased.

“That’s…I mean no offence, but the arrangements were vague. At least they seemed vague to me.”

“Maybe something was lost in translation,” Ludmila said. “Do you remember what was said?”

“It didn’t seem complicated,” Dyel replied, “maybe that’s why we didn’t think much of it. We…we were imprisoned in a Human city when the Sorcerer King found us. He offered to take us to his country after a brief discussion. We outright refused at first – all we wanted was to get as far away from everything that was going on as possible. His Majesty eventually convinced us and sent our tribe here. Many others came later, freed from Jaldabaoth’s demonic tortures when the Abelion Hills was wrested from the grip of his minions.”

“I see…but what about your arrangements?”

“That’s the thing,” Dyel said. “I don’t think there were any specific arrangements. He convinced us to come to his realm and we were sent here through a hole in the air after we agreed. It left us with a great deal of uncertainty, but we weren’t sure what the customs of this land are. Not long after our arrival, we were told by someone that we would stay here until someone came to deal with us.”

Florine exchanged a look with Ludmila.

?Is it just me, or does everything seem to start out this way??

?No, I think you’re right. There’s always a vague sense of direction at first and then we find that we’ve actually been left to figure things out on our own. Even those materials that Lady Albedo prepared last year were like that. I suppose I can see why, though. The administration requires data and they don’t have much in the way of data on these Orcs.?

Ludmila probably had the gist of it. People at the top relied on the organisations under them to provide the information required to make effective decisions. Those that led the front-line efforts – namely the nobility and their staff – did most of the legwork.

“I suppose I’m that person,” Ludmila said wryly. “Since it’s like this, did the Gan Zu Tribe have any plans?”

“Honestly, we don’t know enough about this country,” Dyel said. “Until we do, it would be nice if we could stay here or someplace like it.”

“I don’t mind,” Ludmila told him. “I’m reasonably certain that this place was chosen precisely because no tribes live here. How is your leadership structured? Are you the sole leader or is there something like a council of elders?”

“Our elders oversee day-to-day things. The strongest warriors in each village act as the leader, though they usually defer to the elders in all matters other than raiding and the defence of our territories.”

Are we the ones that are actually backwards?

It was a question that often came to the forefront of her thoughts whenever she dealt with other races. Aside from the Dwarves, no other race she had encountered relied on lineage to determine leadership. The strong ruled, and the existence of the tribe depended on that strength. Yet, even if the strong could do whatever they wanted to, they usually only came to the forefront in situations that demanded that strength.

Why were their societies so different? Was it because of Job Classes? As Humans were never just ‘Human’, Human society reflected that. Every adult Human was one thing or the other, but every Demihuman started out as the same thing. Maybe that helped to create a sense of recognition in Demihuman societies that didn’t exist in Human ones. An Orc would forever be an Orc until they went out of their way to become a Fighter, Ranger, or Druid.

Dyel led them past several more circles of dwellings before the understory opened into a grove. There, the stream that ran through the forest filled a large pond at the grove’s centre before continuing on its way. He stopped at one circle of homes, where two Orc children stopped what they were doing to look up at them.

“I’m back,” Dyel said. “Where’s mother?”

The two kids looked into the shadowed entrance of a nearby hut. One of them got up and went in.

“Those are my sisters, by the way,” Dyel showed a sharp-toothed grin. “Leeda and Deeda.”

They were certainly cute names, but…

“I know,” Dyel snorted. “My father wasn’t very imaginative, so he named them all after himself.”

“…your father’s name is Qrs, isn’t it?” Florine asked.

“Yes?”

The Orc seemed uncertain as to what the problem was. Maybe they heard things differently. After a minute or so, an Orc female poked her head out of the nearby hut.

“Dyel?” She said, “Who are these people?”

“Baroness Ludmila Zahradnik,” Ludmila introduced herself, “the Lord of this territory. This is Baroness Florine Gagnier, a friend of mine.”

“Name’s Rholh,” the Orc came out of the hut and rose to her full height. “Did my Dyel do something to displease you?”

“Mother!”

Florine smiled at the strangely Human interaction. While there were many differences between Humans and Beastmen, it seemed that some things carried over racial boundaries.

“I just returned from my campaign in the southeast,” Ludmila replied. “Now that I’m not indisposed, I’ve come to see what arrangements I can make for your tribe.”

“Oh, and get this, mother,” Dyel said. “She knows father!”

Rholh furrowed her brow at her son’s declaration.

“How is that possible?” She said, “The only Humans that he’s ever told me about are the ones from that country on the sea.”

“Well, the thing is…”

Dyel went on to excitedly relate Ludmila’s account. Ludmila occasionally corrected him on one thing or another. Rholh sat down as his son spoke, her expression a complex mix of emotions that Florine couldn’t untangle. If the Abelion Wilderness was filled with unfamiliar races, how in the world would she sort stuff like that out?

“I…I thought he was gone,” Rholh breathed. “Dyel said that he was captured. Where is he now?”

“Did the administration get back to you, Nonna?” Ludmila asked.

“They have,” the Elder Lich answered. “The individual in question was returned to his previous situation after being captured.”

As one, the Orc family’s elated expressions faltered.

“You mean he was returned to the village?” Rholh said, “But…but we didn’t see him anywhere after our old home was liberated. Qrs would have done anything to see his family safe!”

“You may file a missing person report with the administration, if you wish,” Nonna told her.

Dyel turned his attention to Ludmila.

“How long ago was this?” He asked.

“Close to the end of last summer,” Ludmila said.

“But we were rescued just a couple of months ago,” Dyel leaned his arm against a nearby tree. “We were all imprisoned by Jaldabaoth’s minions, so does that mean he went and tried to save us again? In that case…”

The Orc swallowed. Florine’s heart twisted in her chest.

“I’m sorry,” Ludmila said. “At the point that he was captured, he was part of an invading force. Since Qrs and his people were being pursued by Jaldabaoth, I figured the administration would simply return him to wherever he came from since we drove the Fiends away.”

“It’s as lenient as one can hope to expect,” Dyel sighed. “I can even imagine my father making a fuss about coming back to rescue us, so he would have even been grateful to be released.”

“What about Leela?” Rholh asked, “We were separated from both Qrs and Leela at the river…”

“Nonna,” Ludmila said, “can you ask about Leela?”

The Elder Lich raised a hand to her temple. After a minute, she put it down again.

“The individual in question was released along with their parent.”

“Does that mean he fled with Leela?” Dyel said, “We were like that after being freed as well. All we wanted to do was escape as far away as possible. But where would he go?”

“The only option left would be south,” Rholh said. “To Evasha. We should go look for him.”

“Is there some obvious place to look?” Ludmila asked.

“Evasha is a huge forest,” Rholh said. “A sea of trees. There are a dozen or so Demihuman kingdoms there, plus the Elves. I don’t know if Qrs would stop in any of those countries, but we could at least ask if anyone had seen him and Leela.”

“I’m afraid that the Sorcerous Kingdom doesn’t have any diplomatic missions in Evasha yet,” Ludmila said, “Else, I would have made the request personally.”

“There’s nothing that you need to apologise for,” Dyel said. “If anything, I can only thank you for not killing my father for intruding in your territory. We can go and ask ourselves once we recover our strength.”

Recover? Florine eyed the Orc family. They were nothing if not robust. What would they look like when they were healthy again?

“Maybe the Sorcerous Kingdom will have some contacts there by the time you’re ready,” Ludmila said. “For now, we should see to the needs of your tribe.”

They went to the pond’s southern shore where an assortment of adult Orcs awaited them. Florine couldn’t tell what they were as they didn’t bear the telltale trappings of mystics or other vocations, but it couldn’t be helped considering that they had been rescued from a prison.

?It looks like he called ahead for them.?

?How do you know??

?I didn’t notice any runners being sent out to retrieve the elders. These Orcs might be more advanced than the Beastmen of Rol’en’gorek.?

Unlike Liane, who saw technology as a measure of advancement, Ludmila primarily gauged the state of a society through the depth of its culture and institutions. Florine was of the mind that Ludmila was correct in this, as it was impossible to hide the nature of any given group of people by measuring them in those terms. Technology, however, was adopted quickly so long as it was useful, and how it was used was dictated by the nature of a people.

“Dyel,” a female in the centre of the gathering said, “who is this?”

“This is, erm…”

“Baroness Ludmila Zahradnik, the Lord presiding over this territory. I apologise for my delay in meeting with you, but, now that I’m here, I’d like to work out what your people require for the time being.”

Several moments passed as the elders discussed her opening statement between themselves.

?Ludmila, are you sure these people are all the same tribe??

?I was just thinking the same thing.?

Florine couldn’t be certain, but Ludmila probably had a better sense for it. In any organisation that had sorted out its hierarchy, there wouldn’t be so much discussion over a straightforward opening.

“I hope you don’t mind my asking,” Ludmila said, “but is this how you always do things?”

“The elders are members of different villages,” Dyel explained. “They’re what’s left of our leadership after the end of Jaldabaoth’s reign. You’re also correct that there are other tribes represented here. Jaldabaoth’s minions just threw us all together, and with so few of us left when everything was over, we decided to merge into a single tribe.”

“That’s understandable enough,” Ludmila said. “I’ll be keeping things simple for now, so there’s no need to worry about the long-term consequences of anything we discuss this evening. First, I’d like to ask whether the food we’ve been providing you with is suitable for your species. I wasn’t familiar with your dietary needs, so I ordered provisions that should be edible to people on both sides of the mountains.”

“Both sides?” One of the elders asked, “Do you mean to say that we’re on the other side of the great northern range?”

“It’s the southern border ranges to us,” Ludmila smirked. “There are races common to both sides, as well as the game animals that they hunt.”

“And here I thought that we were whisked away to some other part of the world…”

“There were no problems with food,” the first elder said. “Thank you. If the meat is procured locally, however, we could save you the trouble by sending out our own hunters.”

Florine quietly listened as the discussion progressed. She knew that Ludmila’s way of doing things was very different from that of her friends, but she marvelled at the results it produced. Florine would spend days or even weeks trying to explain things to the tribes that she worked with, but the Orcs seemed to require no explanations. Within minutes of meeting with the elders, the entire Gan Zu Tribe had become a willing workforce.

How much of it was strategised in advance? Or was it simply because they spoke the same ‘language’?

“The reports from my adjutant state that there are slightly over five thousand of your people here,” Ludmila said. “Has that changed in any significant way?”

“No,” Dyel said. “More Orcs stopped arriving after a week or so.”

Ludmila reached into the Infinite Haversack on her right hip, producing a folder filled with documents.

“Since the density of game is much higher on this side of the mountains…” She flipped through to stop at a certain page with a slight frown, “Why is the amount of meat that each individual eats in a week measured in Goblins?”

“Because everyone knows what a Goblin is.”

“That feels like an unflattering way of achieving status as a unit of measurement. Anyhow, your rates of consumption aside, how is the balance of your population? Do you have enough hunters and mystics to support your communities?”

The elders turned again to discuss amongst themselves. Dyel scratched his ear.

“This is going differently from what I expected,” he said.

“How so?” Ludmila asked.

“I’ve always heard that Humans may as well be from a different world,” the Orc answered. “So different that they would build a wall in some crazy effort to keep the neighbours out.”

“Unfortunately,” Ludmila said, “that’s probably not wrong for most Humans living in the countries around here. In the Sorcerous Kingdom, however, the resident Humans are slowly learning that the world doesn’t work in the ways that they’ve been led to believe.”

It took a good fifteen minutes for the elders to sort themselves out. Some of the conversation drifting their way sounded like it was spilling over into how to redistribute the population.

“Sorry for the wait,” the first elder said once they returned. “Our numbers are indeed imbalanced, as you’ve hinted at. Jaldabaoth’s Fiends didn’t care for that sort of thing when they came to torment us. It’s not unsalvageable, but it might be particularly bad while our hunters are getting a lay of the land.”

“In that case,” Ludmila said, “I can continue supplementing your needs until your hunters can fully take over.”

“Where will we be allowed to hunt?” An elderly male to the rear asked.

In response, Ludmila pulled out a small pile of papers from the folder in her hand, holding it out to Dyel.

“Please divide these maps amongst yourselves for reference,” Ludmila said. “I believe that your hunters should have no problems making sense of it. The marked-out area represents the one thousand square kilometre hunting range that you can use.”

Just like that, Ludmila threw four times the amount of territory that Florine had at the Orcs. Dyel went over and presented the maps to the elderly male, who peered down at them before nodding.

“I can understand this,” he said. “But is it really alright? You have no reason to do this for us…”

“His Majesty the Sorcerer King promised your people sanctuary,” Ludmila said. “That matter has been placed into my hands, and as a Noble of the Sorcerous Kingdom, I will do my utmost to see that His Majesty’s will is carried out. This is all the reason that I need.”

Ah, she’s pulling a Ludwig…

The Orcs all took several steps back. Some of them fell to their knees. Once in a while, Ludmila got a certain way and her sheer force of will could squish everyone to the ground. Florine wrote Ludwig to do the same thing once in a while – which she at first thought was cringeworthy – but those scenes ended up being favourites amongst his fans. Then again, Florine couldn’t help but be swept away when the real thing happened.

“Now,” Ludmila said, “there are some things that your people should be aware of while ranging in this area.”

Everyone gave Ludmila a blank stare. Florine sighed inwardly. She always had to go and ruin her own moment.

“What ‘things’ might that be?” Dyel asked.

“First of all,” Ludmila answered. “While this territory is unoccupied, the ones all around it are. In particular, the forests to the west of the marked-out area belong to other tribes. They do not poach in my territory and the borders are enforced by patrols. North of here is Völkchenheim County, which is a Human territory. If you ever find yourself there, it should be obvious that you’re hunting in the wrong place because there’s no forest.”

“What about the valley in the west?”

“That’s the administrative centre of my territory,” Ludmila replied. “Warden’s Vale.”

The Orcs’ ears all turned forward at her response.

“Did you say ‘Warden’?” Dyel asked.

“I did,” Ludmila answered. “Warden’s Vale is my domain, so I suppose that makes me the Warden of the Vale.”

Dyel exchanged a look with the first elder. Was there some special meaning to it? Now that she thought about it, Florine wasn’t sure why it was called that. The name existed before Ludmila was born, however, and no one made any note of it.

“One other, major thing that you should be aware of,” Ludmila continued, “is that patrols of Rangers and Druids occasionally come through the area. They work for me, so if they say anything to you, you had better listen. They’re mostly patrolling to monitor the health of the area and correct any anomalous weather coming from the north. Also, they’re not Humans. The Rangers are large felid Beastmen while the Druids look like small three-eyed sheep with antlers. Dragons have mistaken the latter for prey and regretted it severely.”

“…there are Dragons here?”

“Yes. That snow-capped mountain you see over Warden’s Vale is home to one. Others fly through on occasion.”

“Will we be attacked?”

“The one living nearby is my vassal,” Ludmila told them. “The ones flying overhead work for the postal service. The only reason one will come here is to deliver a parcel. Let’s see…next, we need to cover anything else you might need.”

Ludmila scanned the dwellings along the south side of the pond.

“Since you’ll be here for a while,” she said, “we should address the matter of housing. What kind of dwellings do you usually live in?”

“Our old homes were built out of sod and half underground,” an elder near the front said. “They were cool in the summer and warm in the winter, but I’m not sure how they’ll do here. We’ve seen rain almost every evening.”

“I agree,” Ludmila nodded. “That’s probably not a good idea here.”

“They’re already familiar with wattle panels,” Florine noted. “Why not go with that?”

Strangely enough, the Demihumans that Florine encountered all seemed to use them for one thing or another. Not that wattle and daub construction was sophisticated or anything, but the tribes never seemed to go beyond making lean-tos or windbreaks. The Orcs here, however, appeared to be familiar with more advanced techniques.

Ludmila looked at the elders.

“What you see is improvised…”

“If you’re offered better materials,” Ludmila said, “could you ‘improvise’ with those?”

“Of course. It’s not complicated.”

“Then I’ll have some delivered and see what you end up with. We can figure things out from there. Were there any pressing matters anyone would like to bring up?”

A dozen seconds passed in silence before another elder came forward with a tentative voice.

“Is there something we can do if we need special equipment?” She asked, “We were told that slavery was illegal in the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

“Does that mean you traded slaves for equipment before now?”

“That’s right. Sometimes, we took slaves during raids to trade to the Dwarves for equipment.”

?They have Dwarves??

?I don’t know! I was going to study all of those materials that Lady Albedo gave me over the next week.?

?That would at least explain all of the masterwork equipment those Hobgoblins from last summer had.?

“You’re not prohibited from coming into Warden’s Vale to trade,” Ludmila said. “Or anywhere else in the Sorcerous Kingdom, for that matter. Since you’re already open to the idea, you can put together a group and…by the way, are Orcs diurnal or nocturnal?”

“We’re usually active during the day,” Dyel replied.

“Then have a group ready at dawn tomorrow,” Ludmila told them. “I’ll be more than happy to show them around the place.”