Country of Champions 27

For the remaining time left, Orison went shopping. He also collected evidence and testimony from The Weird when it was very close to the ten o' clock meeting time.

Once Garret, Gan and the young mage were on a water transport, Orison turned to the scout and said, "The time for all the secrets and weirdness is almost over. Well, the weirdness will never be completely over but we're climbers. It's just part of the package deal."

Gan gave an iconic chuckle and replied, "I can face my own death calmly but this has me nervous for some reason... Meh, it is what it is."

"There's one more thing I need you to do for me before then," Orison said with a mischievous smile.

By the time the young mage was done explaining, the Northlander's smile slipped a few notches. While Orison split up the group that was waiting on them, Gan played buddy-buddy with Gravat to keep the blue skinned man occupied. When Gravat saw Orison's destination, he immediately wanted to follow but Gan distracted him by asking about his exploits. And as much as he wanted to see what the young mage was up to on HIS island, he couldn't resist the temptation to brag about himself.

While Orison's group headed towards Brutal Truth, two of the three young women and the young man that were with him pestered Orison for answers. He shut them up with a few platitudes and a round of super alcohol whose only feature was being able to affect people with high resistance more keenly. While the woman who quietly stood at the edge of the transport looking towards the island with one part fear and three parts excitement, the young mage gave her a gentle look of compassion before squaring his face into a stern one.

As soon as the other three were incapacitated, Orison gave El the signal and the dolphin girl zip tied them. When the man started complaining, the young mage told him to be patient. That it was just part of the fun. All three of them were sub-elites with well connected families and didn't believe anything could happen to them that was too horrible anyway. It was that air of entitlement that had empowered them to do many a dark deed that was swept under rugs or cowed their victims into silence.

Those victims spilled their guts the moment they learned about others as numbers provided courage. And as it stood, Orison knew their worst secrets from the get go. It wasn't hard to reverse trace a way through an middling difficult maze when a person stood at the end of it.

Greeting the Orcish looking grayish-green skinned shaman at the supply doc, Orison said in the Amoril common tongue, "I bring tidings from the land of your great mothers and fathers. I know of your journey over 600 moon cycles ago to the twisted lands."

The shaman held up a letter. "I have been prepared for your coming. Not for long but I have had time to make peace in my heart."

Orison blankly stared at the letter and wondered why he'd never been told of it in the other timeline.

Shaking himself out of personal thoughts, Orison trudged on, although not quite as confident internally as he had been moments before. "These three that are tied, they are my offering to be added as an outlier of your clan."

The shaman nodded. "You were a brother to the clan before we ever met but what you ask is to be subject to our laws?"

Orison smiled and said, "For two moons of time, I do."

The shaman laughed in a booming voice. "You have made an oath to obey a law but did not declare the father of it. So be it. Prepare yourself for the five lashes. Speak your other matters along the way."

Orison begged to be indulged for a moment.

Switching back to English, he listed off the three people's crimes and said, "By the code of conduct while on foreign soil, as duty leader of this away team I offer two choices. Face life in the irregulars without possibility of parole or submit yourself to this clan. If you learn from your mistakes and serve well, they will raise you from the mud and let you sit beside them. All that awaits you in the irregulars is a short life filled with despair."

Underneath their bully exteriors they were cowards who had never tasted pain. Between dulled senses and offered a chance to escape facing judgment of peers, they accepted. Wrongly, they assumed their time with the Orcs would be short. No one would save them in the short term. The families that had sheltered them did so more for face than love. Now that they were safely stuck somewhere they could do no more damage to reputation, the rescue would be slow indeed.

As they were taken away, the remaining woman said, "A-am I not going with them?"

Trying hard to keep a smile from creeping up his face, Orison said, "Oh, no. Your cri-sins, your SINS are so heinous, how could their fates be cruel enough for you!?"

She gave a weak cry and walked onward with them, jellied knees wobbling along.

The shaman sniffed the air and with a knowing look said in his native tongue, "You brought a daughter of the Chained Lady with you? Which son of the Lord of Thorns is she intended for?"

The young mage said, "Grum at Garrosh. It would be a kindness for her heart should the claiming be done by quick ritual combat. Just a little blood for show. I'll help with the healing."

In less than three minutes it would be done and the woman who had helped him and Gan escape from a demon encampment by sacrificing herself in that grim future that would never happen, would receive a much better life of fantasy fulfillment.

While preparations were under way, the shaman said, "This is a good match. There is too much love in his lash to be a sin cleanser. A father of the tribe is a better path... I hope that is not the end of our dealings, Brother of the Tribe."

Orison shook his head. "Once I have received the cleansing lash, I need to meet with Gurrut. The young man who stands beside me is his brother in blood. If he accepts, I have a gift for him and a mission for him to carry out on behalf of the tribe."

"Then let us not waste precious time. The blue skinned one may return and he is the most terrible season chief we have ever needed to endure," the shaman said with an impressive scowl.

Orison deactivated his teaser suit and stoically received his five lashes while Grum fought a disturbingly real battle against two other men to claim his 'prize'. As was custom, the winner needed to do his claiming before he could be healed. But as far as Orison could see through slightly wet eyes, he didn't need any. And as for the woman, if anyone tried to 'rescue' her from what was coming, she might have killed them.

It looked like scary possessive love at first sight. Orison reasoned that he didn't have to understand. It was good enough that each was getting something they desperately wanted and the only thing that held her there was her desire to stay. She had a little over a week to change her mind before she would be given another type of choice entirely.

Gathering his pain scattered thoughts back to the matter at hand, the young mage met Gurrut and introduced Garret to him. "This is your father's first son, Garret. It wouldn't be a surprise if even Aurora didn't know. He kind of sneaked in for a peak and got caught for a night before escaping."

Gurrut snorted. "Mother let him go."

Orison said, "We have time for more catching up later. Will you leave the island and come with us? I need someone with blood ties to the tribe, a bridge to open the way home for them."

When he pulled out one of the two remaining artifacts that the Keystone snagged for him, it weakly protested before going silent. After having lived through another timeline, he knew what they did but didn't exactly agree with his conduit how they should be used. The knowledge he possessed already showed him that his spiritual daughter and the Keystone were far from infallible.

"After cutting them, only slightly, press your thumbs to either side of this concave glass part. If Your Wisdom and Gurrut agree, of course," Orison coaxed.

With less than a split second of hesitation, they did as instructed. The intricate ring that surrounded the concave lens split in two. The 'glass' part stretched over and sunk into their thumbs as the rings changed size to fit their fingers.

"When should I expect the forming of the bridge you speak of?" the shaman asked.

The young mage replied, "Between one half to two-thirds a full cycle of the moon. Nothing in life is assured. If this seed bears no fruit by full cycle, then this hope is lost and return to your original plans. Should there be an unexpected delay that can be made up for, I'll send word as best I can."

The shaman gripped Orison's forearm with bruising force. "Wear the ancestor's false sin with pride, outer tribesman. The heart and soul of our people dim with each generation. I well understand the cruelty of Fate, the first daughter of the Lord of Thorns. Do not fail us.

Orison kissed the ash hand mark on his arm and intoned, "All promises are false because nothing is certain. Strength and action are the truth."

Leaving a great deal lighter than they came, Orison let the brothers size each other up after he tossed the last shot of Demon D*ck to Gurrut.

Garret said, "Aren't you going to give him some Ice and Fire? I thought you said-"

"He doesn't need it... Gurrut, the only thing what I gave you will do is extend your fertile seasons to what all other men in your tribe can expect. The Rogers curse is lifted from your, er, loins. The mark of your father upon your features will become stronger but that will only last until you are back in Amoril, should we succeed," Orison explained.

Gurrut said, "Don't let the old man fool you. If you pull it off, don't expect that the whole tribe will want to go back."

"I don't but the ones who do, will and the ones who don't won't be stuck living a crappy in between life on an artificial island under an artificial sun. Your lives and heritage have been reduced to an Avalon recreational attraction... To be fair, it's the best Aurora could do when she brought your tribe back from the Plague Barrens," Orison said.

Once they got back to the other group, the young mage was met with a belly full of complaints, aside from a certain High School teacher who had better manners and was enjoying the experience for what it was. He cut them short with a request for El and Em to take them 'down'. Gravat, who had gotten bored of bragging about himself had begun flirting with the two dolphin siblings, followed as well.

With a twist of aqua-kinetic power a dome of air surrounded the mildly astonished people as they were dragged down to the lake floor. After they were situated, Orison passed out some supernatural refreshments and made introductions to whittle a little more time away. The only thing keeping Gravat from becoming a nuisance to the proceedings being the free suppliments.

As soon as a flash of light went off above them, Orison got Gan's attention and held out a fist. "Pound it and let the games begin."

Grinning widely, Gan reached out his own fist and as soon as they connected, there was a strong flash of light lost in the wash of radiance above the water. While El and Em reeled under the assault of information that sprang into being within their minds, the young mage held onto the bubble with his water elemental impression as he pulled everyone up with the natural desire of the air to be released and the help of the water transport. While recovery commenced, Orison leaned over Gravat and whispered a code word that would untangle a portion of shared memories that pertained to him specifically.

Just like the original mini trainer, Gan's conduit created version only had three partitioned spaces. One was for him, another was for Gan and the third contained nine months worth of Summit basic training along with some important information. Only a small corner had been coded in a scramble for Gravat's mind alone.

Looking over to where Rio had talked El into keeping him hidden in a light refracting 'water cloak', Orison let him drown a little before pulling him in. after making sure Rio was breathing, he turned his attention to the conduit that had switched back over to its maker's control. The mini trainer exterior dusted away, much like it had as the transposition device, leaving a black bead that turned into a 'Bold' teaser suit around Gan.

Once everyone was safely onto the water transport properly, he turned to the already recovered Gravat who was staring daggers at him.

The blue man said, "I want to kill you."

Orison nodded and said, "I know the feeling but others need us too much for our bloodlines to get to dictate our actions. If you show up at my party tomorrow, I'll assume you want what I'm offering enough to give me what's needed from you. If you don't... Well, let's just try to avoid each other as much as possible and spend whatever time you have left here keeping Adena from touching you."

Gravat growled, "No, short stack. I want to flatten your head because you made Adena cry. Even at the end, she wanted you to remember Aiden. She was only Adena to everyone else but you were supposed to remember Aiden. You think she called you big brother because she had a crush on you? You were supposed to be a real friend and not just another guy who wanted her for something. If I could have, I would have ripped your heart out and ate it in front of you while your plan failed, you sorry sack of..."

Trembling in suppressed rage, Gravat left. Orison had no way to rebut, explain or even apologize. There were parts of the future he didn't record and had condensed as much useful information as he could up to the line of what he thought he could handle. He had trusted Adena a lot, as he had let her load the 'public memory slot', but he must have let her down in some fundamental way he had no way of knowing about anymore.

As much as he tried not to trample on people's feelings while getting things done, it was inevitable that some would slip through the cracks. There was too much to do and he really didn't have the luxury of 'checking in' often. Based off his current situation, he could imagine how laser focused he was when people's lives hanged in the balance everyday.

Packing away all the tangled thoughts that needed a good once over, the young mage poured his crew person by person into transportation until Stag came stumbling towards him with a bleary eyed grin a quarter after one. Roy looked pretty relaxed and satisfied himself as he steered the green haired man with an occasional shoulder nudge to correct stagger direction. Having finished his courtesy retrieve, the equipment specialist strolled away whistling.

On the way home, he sent messages to the 'discovery' team he had enlightened ahead of schedule. A particularly long one was delivered to the High School teacher as she would be joining his team for the trial by fire in a little over a week later. Before time elapsed, he made sure to funnel all the unused merits from passes to his account so they wouldn't default back to LeStrange's. The man wasn't greedy but he came close to single-handedly turning stinginess into a cardinal sin.

Once everyone was settled into their rooms, with the brothers temporarily sharing until the back storage room was cleared out, the young mage took some time to unwind before heading off for his well earned four hours of peace. Not too long before he would have been heading off to his bedroom, Gan came walking into the living room with a contrite look on his face.

"I'm sorry for laughing earlier. And I'm sorry for loading more than I should have into the partition. There were some things I didn't want to forget," The scout said.

Feeling his tension ratcheting up, the young mage suppressed it and said in a calm voice, "Sit down and unload, then."

Gan sat across from him and added, "I didn't want to lose my best friend. After everything you've seen me do, I think that I just needed to know I mattered enough, that I didn't sicken you. What I said wasn't a lie but I understand what you meant about that dividing line thing you were talking about."

Since there was no reason not to and that they'd be more busy than able to enjoy the festivities with everyone else, Orison opened a Doc Agave and they made it through as much as was strictly medicinal before Gan launched in again. "If I had heard then what you told me today, I don't think I would have tried to 'cross the line'. Not right away. Knowing that I could would have made me feel less pressured to see if I could... F*ck! None of this is coming out right."