Goblin Gameplan

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting the Order to so quickly assign someone to help us. Even with Lord Brighton saying that the few days for us to settle down might be enough time for them to set someone aside, I figured it would be closer to a week before they called,” Teri said as John informed her of Moira’s phone call. She had met them about halfway between the world tree’s clearing and her clan’s territory and now they were slowly walking back to tell the elders and determine who would be accompanying them.

“Same,” John said, the sharp sound of irritation playing through his emotions not quite reaching his voice. “Guess we should be grateful that they did get back to us after only three days.”

“As much as I don’t want to sound insensitive, they do have a lot to deal with,” Vivian remarked, the hesitation in her voice mirroring the pinging of guilt echoing through her aura.

Teri quickly smiled at the redhead to put her at ease. “I get what you’re saying and you’re right. They’re the ones getting ready to square off against whatever Phantom Reach might pull and every other threat out there. Helping us get furniture isn’t really a high priority.”

“Doesn’t exactly paint them as the paragons of good though,” Senka sharply commented.

Teri shook her head, but couldn’t keep a fond smile off her face. As nice as it was that her friends felt bad that they had left her clan with only the promise of further assistance, she knew they had gone far beyond what she had ever hoped anyone would show her and her people.

“I think having them bend over backwards to help us would piss off the elders,” Teri said. “Vrexty would see it as them lording over us and the hit to his pride wouldn’t let him accept it.”

“So he still sounds like a pain,” Beth complained. “He’s not going to pitch a fit when we tell him the quest is a go, right?”

Teri frowned. “He’s been adamant about picking who’s going to go. Bryit and Tjkon are at least on my side since I’m the only one who can translate, but he’s going to insist on choosing my partner if he relents to that.”

“So someone in his pocket,” John muttered. “Like that personal guard guy?”

“K’mels? Yeah, he would probably suggest him,” Teri replied with a grim nod. “He’s not someone to question his orders.”

“Hopefully those orders would be something like, ‘do what you can to win us the most stuff,’” Aeolia said.

“I don’t doubt that would be along the lines of what he would order,” Teri remarked with a light chuckle. “So, any idea what I should tell them to make this as painless as possible?”

“Could tell them it’ll be a good way to show us up,” Beth suggested.

“Playing up his ego could work,” Vivian added. “It's a pity we don’t have those translation potions yet. Being able to listen in would make it easier on you.”

“Um, I m-might be able to help with that,” Kiera spoke up. “V-Verida thinks that I might be able to give o-others Teri’s knowledge of her language, especially with my, um, recent developments. A-and if it works for a long time, w-we won’t have to get those potions.”

Teri could feel Kiera’s nervousness reverberate against her, but under that erratic and fast-paced beat, a rhythm of want drummed constantly, standing out through the nervousness. The goblin knew how hard it was for the bluenette to speak her mind at times and feeling that unwavering desire to help under everything else she was experiencing made Teri smile slightly.

“It couldn’t hurt to give it a try,” Teri said. “If it doesn’t work, or lasts too short, we can buy those potions or another option. Who’s going to adopt my mother tongue?”

“Guess I’ll be the guinea pig,” John replied. “Since I need to be the party face and already am a known factor to the elders.”

Kiera’s face turned slightly more red as she nodded and lifted her hands up. Teri felt her nervousness spike and intertwined with it was a deep longing. Both grew stronger when Kiera actually made contact with John and Teri's ears quivered with realization.

‘Oh, she likes him too,’ she thought as Kiera placed her hand on her arm, grateful that whatever Kiera could pick up from her wasn’t as telling as her own empathic ability. Falling for John just wasn’t something she could do. She had her position in the clan to consider, especially now that they had a new place to call home, one with an actual goddess she could call upon, something the line of shamans hadn’t had in generations. And the elders wouldn’t be keen on it even if John somehow wiped out every enemy they had.

Teri let the sensation of Kiera’s magic reaching into her aura distract her from the longings of her heart and felt the bluenette’s light touch begin to disperse through her. It was an odd feeling, like rivulets of pleasantly cool water flowing through her, rippling as if rain was falling down upon them. Then, the sensation mostly vanished, leaving only the barest hint of Kiera’s magic right as it touched her, like the stream just went away a centimeter into her aura.

Beside her, Teri felt John stiffen, likely due to the feel of Kiera’s magic taking root. His emotions beat out a symphony of wonder, curiosity, appreciation and trepidation, each component easy for her to figure out the cause. Despite her attempts to the contrary, she couldn’t help but let herself get engrossed in his song. Especially as the slight hesitation petered out, letting the positive emotions swell with greater intensity.

The orchestra dimmed as Kiera finished her work, not vanishing but becoming a soothing background tract as the bluenette said, “I, I think it worked.”

“Let’s see if it did,” Teri muttered in English, before saying in her native tongue, “John, do you understand this?”

John blinked then a grin stretched across his face. “Yes, I do. It worked!”

Teri tried to ignore how her heartbeat increased at the sound of John speaking in her birth language. It wasn’t as smooth as Verida had sounded; she spoke as if she had been a native speaker while John had the accent and candece of someone who had learned it as a second language, albeit with a high mastery of it.

“Congrats, you’re bilingual now,” Beth joked before she turned her attention to Kiera. “How long do you think it’ll last?”

“Um, I t-think it should last for about an hour?” Kiera replied in an uncertain tone. “I’m sorry I can’t make him sound a bit more natural. It’s a b-bit harder to do this to someone else.”

Teri smiled softly at Kiera. “No, it’s fine. I think the elders might take issue with someone not a goddess being able to speak our tongue fluidly.”

“It probably is a good idea to make them think I can only do this thanks to Verida,” John said before grinning at Kiera. “Best to not let them know our ace in the hole.”

Kiera’s light blush exploded in intensity and she ducked her head down. Beyond the pulse of embarrassment, Teri could feel a swell of happiness bubbling through the shy bluenette before she shifted her attention away, not wanting to pry anymore.

“With that settled, time to bite the bullet and see what the elders will say,” she proclaimed. “I think it might be best for me to start and save your new familiarity with our language as the kicker.”

“Sounds like a plan,” John said before his eyes began to sweep across some display unseen to Teri. “Got the quest pulled up so I can read out any particulars that need clarifications.”

Teri nodded and the group continued on their way to the Golmerk homestead. Teri still couldn’t keep her happiness contained as they neared home. Home. Being able to really think of that word and put an actual place to it made her happy. Even if they were still limited to tents for housing and the underside of the large trees for community storage. To see her people relaxed, laughing, doing the things they had before the attack. Before they lost so much.

Many of her kin waved at them as they marched towards the large tent the elders had taken as their office. Teri told everyone but John to wait outside and led him inside.

“Honored elders, I have come with our Blood Kin with news of the opportunity to procure more goods for the village,” Teri said, bowing to them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw John do the same.

“Have those human knights decided that we’re worth the effort to aid?” Vrexty snidely asked.

Holding back a wince, Teri nodded. “Yes. One of their leaders spoke to Blood Kin Newman,” she gestured back at John, “and said tomorrow they’ll have a pair of knights available for us to embark on this quest.”

“I suppose then you’ve come to us to get our decision as to who will be going on this expedition, as it were,” Elder Bryjt said. When Teri nodded, she continued, “As you are the only one who speaks their tongue, unless our benevolent host can gift their language to us, then we need to have the best warrior accompany you, as I’m sure the other parties will be bringing strong fighters. Surely, K’mels will be able to cover your weaknesses.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Teri caught John stiffening at the insult to her competence. For a moment, she expected him to come to her defense, and that wouldn’t help either the situation at hand or her emotional connection to him. Thankfully, he held himself back, his posture only slightly relaxing.

“I understand your reasoning, Honored Elders,” Teri calmly said. “The goddess’ blessing of language could allow for K’mels to speak English, but she would only be able to do so once before we embark on this mission. Our Blood Kin are looking into means to bridge the language barrier in a more consistent manner.”

“May their efforts bear fruit,” Elder Tjkon uttered. “But until then we have to balance communication and strength.”

“They know that as well,” Teri said, biting back the irritation. “Would you like to hear more about the endeavor we are to undertake?”

“I believe we have the gist of it,” Vrexty dismissively answered. “That one’s power will produce a barrier that will provide amenities that have to be fought for. We do have one thing we must impress upon you. We must show strength in this task. To show this Order and those that serve our beneficent host that Clan Golmerk is not weak. That we are not going to bend to their whims, and that means doing anything you can to secure victory.”

Teri suppressed a shudder at the intensity of Vrexty’s emotions as he proclaimed how he wanted her and K’mels to approach the quest. She should have expected him to get fired up over this. A chance to take back some control in their lives, to show that his leadership was still something they needed. And from the emotions of the other two elders, they wholly agreed with his sentiment.

“I will do what I can to ensure we are respected,” Teri carefully said, reining in a growing sense of frustration. She had no desire to play dirty and sabotage the other participants, especially the friends who had gone out of their way to help her, to help the whole clan get back on their feet. To sacrifice that on the chance of getting some more loot made her feel sick.

Thankfully, her choice of words didn’t trigger an argument from the elders and they dismissed them with a simple gesture. Teri glanced at John as they exited the tent, unsure which of them would break the silence first or if one of the girls would.

“Well, guess there wasn’t a reason for me to be there,” John took the lead, laughing off the whole incident, though he made no attempt to veil his emotions. It was a bitter melody of betrayal, disappointment, and guilt. That last emotion confused Teri for a moment before she realized it could be over the choice she had before her, to uphold their friendship or do what she had to in the aim to better her people’s lot.

“Senka gave us the play-by-play,” Vivian said as she shook her head. “I suppose I can’t fault them for wanting to maximize their gains but it sounded like they’re not opposed to you sabotaging us and the Order team tomorrow.”

“Yeah, their emotions were giving me that impression too,” Teri grumbled as she led them away from the elder’s tent. “I’m not going to, obviously, but K’mels will be doing whatever he can to win. And he probably won’t have kind words to say about me when we get back.”

“We’ll have to figure out some way to get around that,” John groaned. “Maybe we can only get a hold of really shitty translation potions and it runs out halfway through. Then we can reverse conspire against him.”

“I think that’s a bit ****,” Teri said, though she smiled up at John to convey she found his plan endearing. With a sigh, she continued, “This might just have to be something we play by ear. K’mels might be playing to win, but as stubborn and loyal to Vrexty he is, he’s not stupid. He won’t be too overt with whatever he tries to do.”

“Maybe you could tell him that Gaia isn’t fond of cheaters,” Aeolia suggested. “If I thought she could zap me, I’d hesitate to do anything.”

“That’s a possibility,” John said, his emotions humming with an inquisitive rhythm. “There aren’t any rules listed on the quest sheet, but I’ll most likely get them when we start. But for all we know, Gaia’s going to be cool with that. And that not informing everyone of everything could bite us in the ass.”

“So we’ll just have to be vigilant,” Vivian remarked, optimism ringing in both her voice and aura.

“That we will,” Teri said, before a firm expression settled on her face and her ears pulled close to her head. “And as much as I don’t want to turn this whole thing into some sort of bloodsport competition, it still is one. Whatever that first-place reward is could be more for the winning team’s faction than just extra loot. I can’t just let that opportunity pass.”

John grinned at her, the melody of his aura a soaring song of competitive eagerness. “Then may the best team win. I don't think the Order team’s going to be pushovers. Rowan was pretty intense.”

“A little too intense,” Beth interjected.

“I think part of that was because she was working directly with Moira,” John said. “Between what happened on Thursday, whatever chastisement the Order gave her and the superior coming with her, I think she’ll be a bit more restrained. Doesn’t mean the Order team’s going to have a handicap. They still let her join as one of their two for this.”

“I’m not sure the line about her being familiar with us is entirely truthful,” Vivian mused, putting a finger to her lips, the tense strings of suspicion rippling through her aura. “I have a bad feeling they might be trying to catch her in a trap and cast her out.”

“Bit of a complicated plan for that, isn’t it?” Aeolia asked. “If they wanted her gone, they could have given her the boot after she ignored Moira’s order. Why put in the effort to keep training her if they were going to test her only a few days later?”

“You have a good point,” Vivian muttered. “I just can’t shake the feeling that something more is going on. Why send somebody who already had issues working in a mixed allegiance party?”

Teri glanced around at the small number of her kin moving about their nascent village and her ears dropped slightly. “Maybe they really don’t have the numbers to spare. None of us know what sort of things they’re involved with or how many people they have that can be out in the field. They may not have anyone else, or just other squires available. And at that point, it would be better to deploy someone already familiar with us.”

“Maybe that’s how Phantom Reach was able to sneak around,” Beth mused. “If the Order’s busy with other bullshit…”

She didn’t have to say the rest.

John sighed, a slight melancholy tinging the song of his aura. “Talking about this isn’t going to get us anywhere. Maybe we should pop over to the witches’ place and see if they can hook us up with something to bridge the language gap.”

“W-we don’t have to do that,” Kiera suddenly spoke up. “Verida just told me Estelle came in.”

“Suppose it’s time for me to meet our new friends,” Teri said with a small smile.

“She’s a bit of a character,” John remarked as they began to march towards the world tree’s clearing. “Very upbeat.”

“After everything we just talked about, I think upbeat is just what the doctor ordered,” Teri sagely uttered.

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