Dagger: Chapter Four

Chapter 4

“You’re very stupid,” Obadiah said to the young pirate captain. “You couldn’t just for once, not be yourself, could you? You never think before you do anything, do you? How on earth you are still breathing up this point is simply a spectacle.” All three of the young ones in the gang, Ariam, Raewyn, and Bernard were sitting on a bench in the corridors of Palace Baixo, while Obadiah was standing in front of them giving the pirate captain and the girls a lesson about the law. “Ariam and Raewyn, I’m disappointed with the both of you. Why couldn’t you girls look after him when I was gone?”

            Ariam and Raewyn gave a sad excuse, “He was too fast, he did whatever he pleased,” and it only irritated the senior Dagger. “It wasn’t our fault, really.”

            The Grateful Dead docked the port of Baixo five hours ago in the early morning, and the gang without wasting time got off the ship and went to the city library to find any evidence if there was indeed an ancient city under the great port city of Baixo. Two hours they searched for clues about a passage to the underground city, but to their despair find none. And soon after Obadiah thought best to request the Lord of Baixo, Ned Baxtearth a presence to his palace and see whether his men knew about a municipal under Baixo. While Obadiah went to the palace, he instructed the rest to find other means of getting information about the underground city. However, as soon as Obadiah was out of sight, Benard persuaded the girls to enter a tavern, they had a few drinks and laughs, and they got into a fight with a few handful of patrons, Bernard ran off and caused havoc in the city streets, stole fruits and destroyed stalls in his way, he playfully took a guard’s helm, and then soon afterwards the whole city guard were chasing after him, all in a while Ariam and Raewyn were running about behind Bernard, in an effort to reimbursement and settle the damage the pirate captain had done. Astonishingly, this all happened in about three hours.

            When the guards finally caught up on them, they were sent to the palace, where they were now being lectured by Obadiah instead of rotting in the dungeon.

The palace was big, the corridor they were all in were warm and spacious. This city was one of the thriving cities in the province of Krajinyr, but it was still a northern city, and these northerners loved their stones dull and grey. They love the smell of strong mead, and even stronger women.

            “Yes, well my apologies, I just didn’t find a lot of things agreeable here. Like how pricey the fruits were and how those men in the tavern looked at the girls, and about the guard’s helm, well I thought it be fun to play catch with the whole city watch.”

            “I don’t care if you don’t find things agreeable, you stupid boy. It’s the law not to be a total idiot,” Obadiah pressed on, angry as he was. “How do you think would be now when he enter the Lord’s Hall, we would look like utter fools thanks to you.”

            Bernard’s escapades earned all three of the youths a spoonful of punishment from Obadiah’s mouth. By the time Obadiah was half done, his face was red and out of breath, why, he almost pulled out his large axe and bashed a statue in crumbles to release his anger.

            “We are dealing in serious matters, please, I know that you have your pirate ways, but just take this seriously. Lives are counting on us,” Obadiah released a few more rambles, but this time, he didn’t sound angry, but instead upset and it got to Bernard. The young pirate captain actually felt guilty and sorry.

Bernard then tried his best to apologize, this wasn’t the open sea, or the Pirate City, and he knew he was in a group of respected individuals, and should know better, but it was his nature to be a little rascal. “I hear you sir, good old Dagger sir,” said Bernard sullenly. “I’ll try to control myself.”

            After Obadiah was done, they waited for quite a bit, squashed in the bench together, and it didn’t help how big Obadiah was. Many palace retainers passed through and gave them shots of blatant glances and shy giggles, where Bernard thrived by flirting with them. Eventually, after several minutes, the metal door at the end of the corridor swung open and came out a young man with burned scars on his face, dressed in heavy white Seeker armor with a big Seeker shield strap behind his back, and a long sword around his waist.

            The young man was sturdy and tall, most of the times, young Seekers wearing Seeker armors looked as if the armor wore them instead of the man wearing the armor, but this man not only wore the armor, he dominated it. He had with blue eyes, and short brown hair. He looked frustrated when he got out of the Lord’s Hall, as if he wasn’t pleased what transpired inside the room, a bad meeting perhaps.

            The stalwart young man strode pass the gang, as his massive greaves stomped on the stone floor echoed loud noises of a troubled youth. “Can you please quiet down, we get it you’re angry,” Bernard mocked the man as he passed by, he paid no attention to Bernard’s snarls, and just head out to the end of corridor and walked out.

            Soon after, a skinny man with bright regal clothes came out from the same door and approached the gang, “Lord Ned will now accept your attendance.” The man looked at Bernard’s direction, and knowing what he did in the streets of Baixo few hours ago, gave the young pirate captain a snivel of disgust. “Juveniles,” the man whispered to himself. And Bernard heard it alright, but he did his best not to cause any incident that might upset Obadiah, oh, if no one was there to stop him, he would have pulled down the skinny man’s pants and took his purse away.

            The skinny man led the gang to the room down the end of the corridor. The Lord’s Hall was a big enough to hold a hundred men and then some, while technically not a throne room because a lord of a city wasn’t a king it served the same purpose, where the people or meetings of royalties would come consort the affairs of its municipal. There were portraits of previous lords hanged on the walls around them. The demesne of Baxio had certainly done quite well for itself.

            At the very end of the room was a considerable long table made of the northern deep dark oak finished with fine yellow velvet table cloth to match Krajinyr’s flag color, and sitting behind it were the Lord of Baxio, Ned himself, and sitting beside him were his advisors, old men with balding silver hair.

            “My lord,” Obadiah said civilly when the group finally reached upon the landed gentry, there were no need of physical obeisance, the aristocrats and politicians all gave equal respect to the Daggers as if they were their own, or it used to be. Bernard however, playfully bowed down, it was his nature. He mocked at the idea of monarchy, at this time and age there were no such thing as a functioning mainstream democratic system, but Bernard thought about it alright. He had grown up thinking that just because you were born as a lord’s son, it doesn’t mean you have be a lord’s son, you can be a farmer for all he cared. Just because something is the way it is, doesn’t mean it should be. Bernard had this great big idea of how a world should be, he perceived that people should earn their title with hard work, not because your parents gave it to you, and he practiced it. He got his renowned title by hard work, nobody handed it to him. “It is good to see you are in good health,” finished Obadiah, who had a chance to turn around seeing Bernard goofed off and gave him an intimidating glare that stopped him.

            “Cheers for the compliment Dagger,” Ned Baxtearth answered, who looked quite the opposite of good health. He was in his mid-fifties, but he looked as if he was about to die any second now. He had grey thinning hair and it was shabby, he had him a chubby face, he was dressed in fine clothes to fit a lord, consisting of puffed bright colored top and pants, and boots that never saw the battlefield. “So, I hear one of your men, that boy over there,” Ned pointed at Bernard, sounding very bellicose. “Caused quite a stir in the streets today and you want me to tell you about a secret passage to an underground city, if there is one, and not only that, I heard you came in by the most wanted pirate ship in sea, the Grateful Dead. Why, if I could have known better, you turned to a pirate, Obadiah.” It seemed these two men knew each other.

            Obadiah turned to look at Bernard for a moment, and gave him that nerve-racking look of his to the young captain. “I have reimbursed the boy’s crimes in full…”

            Not giving a chance to let Obadiah finished his sentence, the lord jumped out of his seat, over the table, dragging along the cloth as he did so and hugged Obadiah benevolently, “Good old friend,” Ned laughed. “It’s been a long time since we meet. And what do you mean I’m in good health? I look like utter bird dung, blame it on the wife.” Oh, it seemed not only these two men knew each other it seemed they were also old acquaintances, and if not, good friends indeed by the way the lord squeezed the senior Dagger. Behind Obadiah, the youths dropped their jaw in shocked, especially Ariam who thought she knew her senior and mentor very well. But this just proved her otherwise. Ariam had knew that her senior had traveled quite a lot in his younger life and in his journeys he must have made tons of associates, and apparently a lord was one of them.

            The two men laughed for a while, and then turning towards his group, Obadiah presented them, “This here is Ariam, my apprentice, she is quite the fighter,” as he points out at the young Dagger. “This one here is Raewyn Treewind, she has been very helpful in this quest,” when he pointed at the elf mage. And then finally as he points at Bernard, he gave out a heavy sigh, “And this here is none other than the Dreaded Pirate Bernard, captain to the Grateful Dead.”

            The lord chuckled in joy at their sight as they stood in front of him. The city of Baixo was under the Empire’s rule, and by right Lord Ned should apprehend the pirate and put Bernard to punishment, but he was one of the few that actually knew the secret of Captain Bernard’s legacy. His grandaunt’s, from his mother side ex lover’s sister in law’s cousin was once Captain Bernard, to be quite frank. Obadiah and Bernard himself doesn’t know this of course, and neither does the lord want to let anyone know.

            Obadiah explained to the lord the full of extent of their quest, and how dire and urgent it was to find these relics, one being under the city. The lord frowned by the idea of the Titans returning, and frowned in deeper gloom because he doesn’t truly know how to get to the underground city. “I’m sorry my dear friend. I don’t know where the passage to the underground city might be, for none of my men seem to have the knowledge of it.”

And then right after the gang stepped out the Lord’s Hall, they passed the skinny man who slyly shoved a piece of into Ariam’s hand, it wrote, “Meet me outside the place in a few moment.”

Following the skinny man’s instruction they strode out the door, and out the palace. As Obadiah turned back to watch his old friend standing there, a man who seemed to be swallowed by boredom, he recalled a great time when they were younger. How Obadiah and Ned were good friends, was because Obadiah had not only saved Ned’s life numerous times, but he also saved the lord’s marriage in small little ways.

The gang waited outside for a bit, until eventually the man came rushing out, he wasted no time and said to them, “There might be somebody who knows about this underground city, a young Seeker by the name of Kelvin. You might have seen him as he walked out the Lord’s Hall. Well, this Seeker urged the lord to give him clearance to examine the palace grounds for days, and all the time, the lord denied his plea. The Seeker talked of a secret passage in the palace. If you need any leads on this underground city beneath Baixo you’re searching for, he might help.”

            “How do we find this Kelvin?” asked Ariam.

            “Last I heard he rented a bed in the Wicked Dog,” said the skinny man. “By luck, you might still find him there.”

            They were a lot of question, like why didn’t Lord Ned told Obadiah about this piece of information, and why was this skinny man who was the lord’s servant telling them instead, something fishy was going in the palace, but they didn’t have time for that, their quest was much more dire.

The Lower End, down the back street dark alleys of Baixo was home to the dirtiest tavern in the city, it was also where many gambling activities were held, illegal animal fights, black markets, in short this was Bernard’s type of place, and was also the location of the tavern, Wicked Dog.          

            Ensuing the skinny man’s lead on the location of Kelvin the Seeker, the group head to the Wicked Dog, where they found the young man arguing with the bartender. The tavern looked small from the outside, but from the inside it was slightly impressive, it was spacious as it filled hundreds of patrons, it must have stretched down beneath the ground by the design of it. Instead of having extra floors above, it was downward, beneath the dining hall was where the rooms at. The stairs only lead downstairs. “My type of people,” Bernard remarked at the patrons, who were scary and cutthroat like.

            “Don’t do anything stupid,” warned Obadiah to the pirate captain. “Take care of him, please, girls.”

            The group approached the man, he was young, but he was a giant, almost as big as Obadiah. And there weren’t many who was big like him. When they finally got to the Seeker, he was already done arguing with the bartender, and then turning to the group, “Thieves and robbers, damn people stole the last bit of my gold coins, and the owner won’t even help me. Damn the Gods,” he said as he gulped down his drink.

            “Thieves and robbers, why, those are my people,” Bernard commented, and immediately Obadiah shushed him, and then the group sat next to the Seeker, hovering all around him, Kelvin though these people were going in for a fight, but then he saw Ariam’s and Obadiah’s animal eyes and the armor they were wearing. He was certain, these people were Daggers.

            They introduced themselves to the Seeker one by one, and it was weird how calm the Seeker was that Raewyn, a mage nonetheless roamed around freely without a Seeker. A ‘normal’ Seeker would think she was a dissenter and apprehend her immediately, and if not, kill her on sight. Dissenters were mages who were not part of the Sepulcher, either they ran from the zealous teachings or because they were born out from it. Because people who had a strong connection to the Mana Realm have magic abilities, obviously, the Sepulcher of Ultimate Truth found them too dangerous and because of that, the Sepulcher’s Hand, the Seekers were in charged of taking care of the mages when they are out of the Sepulcher. When the elves lost in the Human and Elven War, a hundred and fifty years or so ago, elven mages were also subjugated by this human religious law.

            Raewyn looked at the fierce looking man with scars on his face. His injuries were no doubt produced from a mage’s spell by the pattern of it, a fireball perhaps, and considering the young man was still alive, he must have won the fight and killed the mage who did this to him because Seekers were known to be brutal fighters, they gave no mercy on those who challenged them, mages especially. Raewyn was trembled by his sight, but the Seeker ignored her, didn’t even ask where her Seeker was.

            However it was also weird that Kelvin had no mage of his own under his care.

            “Kelvin, we’re on a quest,” started Obadiah. “We need to find relics that could open the gate to Oblivion, before our enemies do. One of the relics is here, beneath this city lies another city, and that is where we believe this relic is hidden. And we were told you know how to get there. We need your help, we are Daggers, and our quest is dire and serious.”

            From his purse tied around his satchel, next to his sword, Kelvin pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. He placed it on the counter, and just as Obadiah was about to take it, Kelvin pulled it back, and he said to the group, “This is a map that leads to the secret passage to the underground city, I promise to give it to you… only if you let me follow this group. I have my own mission that brings me to this city, and I have a feeling you guys are going to be useful.”

            The group looked up at the young Seeker. Obadiah was the first to agree, founding the Seeker useful because Seekers had a great ability to sense magic like mages, because of their mana training in the Sepulcher, unlike the Daggers who have to get this ability by drinking a potion, and it is only temporary for them. Bernard scoffed sarcastically, “Great, the more the merrier.” Ariam didn’t mind, she found him, just like the rest of the group, yes that includes Bernard very interesting. Raewyn in the other hand was very suspicious, she wanted to know why the Seeker was here without a mage, and so the words came out from her mouth very crudely, “What are you doing here without your mage? I have never seen a Seeker alone out from the Sepulcher without their mage.”

            “I could ask you the same thing about your absent Seeker,” said Kelvin, and he heaved, a strong one.  “Don’t worry, I don’t care. For all I know, I’m out of the Sepulcher. My mission is a personal one that concerns my mage. I have the map to the secret passage because my mage had it in her notebook that I held. She left me, to this city, to investigate a relic relating about some Titans, something she has been researching half her life. And I can feel her life is in danger, she is under this city. I’m so close. I need to get to her.” The way he talked about his mage, it was different, his mage wasn’t just his job, his mage wasn’t just a mage for him to secure and look out after. His mage meant something important to him.

            Raewyn understood then of the Seeker’s motif, she killed her suspicion of the Seeker, and gave him her trust. They all settled and agreed to work together. Raewyn told Kelvin what happened to her Seeker, and that she was on a quest to avenge him and well, obviously, stopped the Titans from being summoned. “Was your mage special to you?” asked Raewyn.

            Kelvin frowned reticently-uh-that would be such an understatement, for his frown was something difficult to explained. Kelvin was in the pinnacle point of crying but remained to hold it in. He pulled the kind of face you wouldn’t want to have on your husband, on your father, and even on your brothers, and if they ever pulled this face you would do everything in your power to cheer them up, but it wasn’t simple to do so. This was the kind of frown that marked a man who was love lost. “I need her in my life more than I need the air to breathe,” he said boldly. To hear somebody talk of their love was one thing, it shrivels you up and prickles your skin, but to hear it and knew it was honest and genuine, why, that was something else altogether.

            “What is her name?” asked Ariam, who was listening as well, and hopped into the conversation.

            “Jodeline,” Kelvin released.

            An affair between a mage and a Seeker, what a scandal and was without a doubt illegal, if the Sepulcher, knew about this, they would hang both lovers. And thus was the reason why Kelvin came to this city all alone to find his mage without the help of his fellow Seekers.

As they were about to walk out the tavern Kelvin handed the map to Obadiah, and immediately Obadiah discerned the passage was right beneath Palace Baixo. Again questions spiraled in his head. Lord Ned must have known about this, why he would hide this knowledge from Obadiah, was beyond the senior Dagger. The passage was located right under the Lord’s Hall, and they were just there a few hours ago. Something fishy was going on, Obadiah was sure about it. He was then perplexed whether to confront Lord Ned about this or not, when Obadiah asked Kelvin if he should, the young Seeker warned him, “There must be a reason why the Lord is keeping this a secret, he is hiding something in there, maybe Jodeline is one of them. I investigated that there has been numerous cases of missing people going on this city, and nobody, not the lord and his guards are doing anything about it. My best guess, Lord Ned was the cause.”

            Obadiah agreed upon Kelvin’s theory, as wild as they were. The man Obadiah saw in Lord’s Hall of Palace Baixo was not the same man he knew few years ago, Ned was different. Something was consuming him. But then, Obadiah thought because of their past and bond, Ned would voice his reasons on why he hid this big information when he confronted the lord. And so he decided to march back to Palace Baixo with the gang, along with their new companion, Kelvin the Scarred Seeker.

            Outside the tavern, some thugs, no, not thugs, but tens and tens of city guards closing in to thirty in number were aligned armed, lifting their weapons. Crossbows were pointing at the gang. The guards were prepared to shoot down Obadiah’s group in a moment’s notice. “Obadiah, Dagger of Kina Shira, and those under him,” one of the city guards brimmed with heavy armor, set with a sword and shield came forth announced. “We have been ordered by Lord Ned Baxtearth of Baixo to escort you back to your ship and sail off from this city. If you would kindly please follow us, we will lead you there unharmed.”

            “Guards,” Obadiah pleaded. “If this was about my comrade’s behavior before, I have already paid in full of the damages he caused. Lord Ned knows of this,” Obadiah turned for a moment at Bernard and gave him a sour look. He advanced a foot, and the guard commander yelled at Obadiah.

            “Dagger!” he said. “Lord Ned instructed us by his own words, that if you do not follow this order, we have no choice but to use force and take you down.”

            “Sir, good old Dagger sir,” wisped Bernard. “I don’t know if you know this, but these men already made up their minds five minutes ago, they are going to kill us. A fight is imminent.”

            Obadiah ignored Bernard’s advice, and step another foot forward. The guard commander ordered three of his crossbowmen to unleash their bolts, hitting Obadiah’s shoulders and abdomen, only inches away from his vital organs. Obadiah was caught off guard, if he was prepared, he could have dodged the hit, but he didn’t know the seriousness of the guards’ request and so he suffered the consequences. He fell, still alive, but badly wounded.

            A battle flipped immediately, shocked, fully angry with the guards, and tremendously merciless, Ariam pulled her silver retractable sword out and charged at the men who attacked her much-respected mentor like she was possessed by a demon. Her veins were brightly shone, raw mana were coursing through it. Even her eyes were brighten, fully amber were her digits. Before Ariam could get to them, knowing a Dagger’s skill, the guard commander commanded all his crossbowmen to release their bolts, Ariam jumped over the oncoming bolts, doing a backflip as she did so and then once she was close to the enemies, she chopped the arms of the ones who attacked her mentor.

            They scream in pain, and with no mercy she slew them fast like a lightning bolt, she stabbed and sliced their necks, she lunged forward and back, dodging the other guards’ strikes. She was too quick for them. While she was doing her thing, the rest of the group did theirs. Kelvin with his large shield charged the guards’ direction, knocking back a whole heap of them off their feet. While Bernard and Raewyn tagged team together, the elf cast her lightning spells while Bernard guarded her from incoming attacks, they were a great team. Eventually, Obadiah pulled the bolts out, drank his healing potion that scarcely regenerated his injuries, but it was too late, when Obadiah finally got back up to his feet, the battle was almost over, Ariam was so angry, she only left a few of them alive.

             “Stop!” Obadiah demanded. “Ariam, stop!” Alas, it was too late, the damage was done. Lives were already taken.

            When the guards were finally nullified, one of the guards who was still alive, but was left crippled as Ariam sliced off his right foot begged for his life to be spared. “Why did you attack?” Obadiah quickly questions the man before he bleeds to death.

            Frighten as the man was, he answered immediately, “Lord Ned ordered us to kill your whole group, the Seeker, and you. We didn’t want to fight, believe me, the commander’s first plan was just to escort you back to your ship. But then he must have changed his mind, the commander was afraid the lord would put him inside.”

            “Inside where?” demanded Obadiah frantically, pulling the man’s armor as he was lying on the bloody ground.

            “Under the city,” the guard finally used out his last breath.

            The entire group members stared at the destruction they had caused, dumbfounded. “Well, this has been quite the opposite, from saving lives, we are now ending lives. Great, what’s next? We’re going to steal a child’s toy?” Bernard said. Not even Obadiah tried to correct Bernard this time, it was thick with silence. “I’m not saying this is my fault, but I did not start it all.”

            “What happened, Ariam?” asked Obadiah.

            “I don’t know, Obadiah, something in me just reacted.”

            He sighed and tried to pardon her actions, the guards did attack him first. So, even though it was not a totally justifiable reason to take the guards’ lives, she had her reasons, and so was the rest of the gang.  “Next time, please control yourself. That includes all of you.” Obadiah took her chin and raised her head slightly until her eyes that were cowering looked him in the eye. “Cameron and Odlanyar would not be proud.” She was embarrassed when she heard that last bit. Honestly, she didn’t know what had gotten into her, ever since the incident in Kexhill, with the whole relic violently transferring wisdom in her head, her reactions were somewhat different than what she would normally do.

            “We need to hurry our way to the palace,” said Kelvin. “More guards are on the way.” He observed as the whole city watch was marching down the street.

            Wanting to cause the least amount of casualties, the gang used the city’s back alleys to get back to Palace Baixo. They traveled through the cramped and shady road, as they avoid any guards that passed them by. The city was on lock down, all the citizens went back in to their homes, the markets were closed, even the inns and taverns were sealed. City guards were the only ones that roamed the street for they were hunting the group. And it was almost closing in to the evening. A lot can surely happen in one day.