Deus Ex Machinarium

Once Olaff left, they returned to the routine from the previous few days, where Brandt would follow the trail left by the Ordo’s expedition through the wilderness. The hoomin focused on this task to an extent, that Trawins was free to do whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t get lost. It was an opportunity that he exploited to the fullest. One evening Nord saw his companion sort through a random cache of dirt, leaves, and plant matter. When asked about it, the tanai uttered something about ‘samples’. Since then, this collection has been precariously growing.

It was late afternoon when Anh emerged from the forest into a tiny glade with a house-sized rock in the middle, lying there seemingly out of place. Although certainly for a long while, as it was at the bottom of a funnel-shaped hole, a third or even half a mer below the ground level of the woods around it.

Brandt was the rock and was setting up a fire where someone had done so not quite long ago. Apart from the heap of ashes and half-burned wood, which the hoomin tried to re-use, the ground around the former-soon-to-be-repurposed fire was all stomped over and grass, whatever there was, crushed into pulp. Somewhat to the side laid a mess of animal remains, bones, skin, and blood, which very likely were on a mound in the morning, but were dragged around by carrion eaters already.

Since morning weather changed from fairly sunny and warm to a growing cover of lead-grey clouds, spelling a promise of rainfall in the upcoming candles.

Brandt was kneeling over the wood pile and a weak metallic scent mixed damp smell of ash and steam was a sign that his repeated attempts at hexergy were being sabotaged by circumstances.

Anh floated in and unceremoniously dropped a collection of trophies nearby.

-” What is that?” - asked Brandt when he finally managed to light a fire. Anh at this time was staring at the pile of leaves, mushrooms, berries and twigs before him.

-” My booty for today”

-” Impressive” - sarcastically commented Brandt

-” I haven't sorted it yet.” - Anh rubbed his forehead - “Some of those things are edible and will be a part of our supper. Some might be edible. Some without a doubt are not. I also think I found some wild saffron and basil. So whatever we’ll eat, it will not be so bland.”

Brandt sat, propping his back over the rock.

-” You are a man of many talents, mr. Trawins.”

Anh immediately turned red in embarrassment.

-” I read a lot.” - he finally answered.

-” Well. So far, you have proven to be a cook, a medic, a cartographer, a navigator and I reckon, you are a botanist as well.”

-” As I said. I read. A lot. As you can imagine, when you own a bookshop, you do.”

Brandt smiled.

-” I’ll go hunt us a rabbit or two. So we get to test your ability to discern poison from food. Exciting!”

He got up and left into the forest, leaving Anh alone to sort through his pickings.

Ever since they began to travel through these woods, Brandt grew to expect to have no real problem with finding prey. The animals abound here apparently had no contact with hunters, as even the more skittish of them weren’t as paranoid as he grew to expect from his travels. Even in the sparsely populated pine woods of Fordel a squirrel or hare would bolt at even the slightest suspect rustle or a weird scent. Even larger animals, such as boar or deer, would avoid hoomin or tehei when possible.

Here? White they weren’t precisely eating from his palm, getting close enough to a hare to ensnare it was trivial. Brandt usually felt a little bite of pity whenever he dazzled an animal solely to kill it for food. For the last few days, he felt like a fraud because of how easy it had become.

Except… today something wasn’t right. Brandt was circling somewhat south to where he left Trawins. Not much away, maybe a quanter on foot, perhaps even less. For the entire time, he failed to find worthy prey. The wilderness around seemed almost devoid of any presence of things worth hunting for. After a while it became unsettling. It was as if the little partition of the forest in the act of spite, or retribution, decided to make itself worthless.

Then, it dawned on him what was happening.

-” WHERE ARE YOU!” - he drew his sword instantly, assumed a combat stance, and began to look around. Due to the weather, it was fairly dim, more so because of the freshly blooming greenery, thus he didn’t notice much - “where are they” - murmured Nord to himself, angry that he allowed his attention to wither away this far, as It should have been obvious what was happening way earlier. He cursed himself for not noticing any warning signs, as there must have been some. Now, he was in the middle of a forest, barely seeing anything and expecting to receive a bullet from a random direction.

Because it was a trap, and he pranced straight into it.

While still not quite caught, he expected the loop to tighten soon. Could he still salvage the situation? Pull off the same trick they did the last time? He would need Trawins for that. Should he try to break out of the encirclement instead? It was very likely that his companion, having much lesser tactical awareness, was either already caught, or worse yet, killed. Then again, maybe not? Trawins did save their butts once, could he do so again?

Brandt shook off the doubts, a decision needed to be made immediately. Thus he decided to back off towards the tanai and see what happens. Regardless of anything, he owned Trawins that much.

With a sword still drawn, and all senses on overdrive, he crept back towards the camp. He was glad that the weather turned grimmer, and the last remains of bivlight were quickly recessing, as it all now worked in his favor, making it more difficult for those after him.

It took a little more than a quarter to come close enough to the camp to see the glow of the fire in it. He gained a clear view of what he was about to either face or avoid a quanter later.

It wasn’t what he expected.

Trawins was floating casually before the fire and talking vividly to three men sitting cross-legged around it. One of them was Olaff, his crutch beside him, who mostly kept silent and gazed at the tanai with utter admiration.

Opposite the tanai was a wiry, skinny, middle-aged man with an orange beard and prominent nose, which was broken several times, judging from its shape. He was wearing a leather jacket, pants, and shoes, held together with leather string. Not dissimilar to Olaff’s attire when they found him. The man had several pieces of armor strapped to this jacket, working as a chest piece and shoulders. The places were of Maargardian origin and quite recent in manufacture.

What caught Brandt’s gaze however was his headdress. He wore a leather cap over which was a banged-up oskol with quite a lot of its mail sheathing torn short or completely off. This helm seemed painted over entirely and was something one would expect from a Maargardian troop five centuries ago.

Next to him sat a man in a bronze fur coat with a linen grey robe poking from underneath and propped on a walking stick he held with both hands. Brandt could not make out his facial features, but he certainly was quite old, as his pale grey beard and balding skull would attest.

Trawins predominantly spoke to the older man, who would later relay to the one in the helm.

Since there didn’t seem to be any hostility apparent, Brandt decided to just come out of the woods and towards the fire. Trawins noticed him immediately.

-” Mr Zerster! Glad you’ve finally returned!” - he shouted - “Meet, I’m sorry if I mispronounce, Tûk Hânne”- Trawins nudged his head towards the man in the colorful helmet, then continued doing the same at the elder -”...and Strêttar Nûmer Fjouwer.”.

-” For how long have you watched us?” - Brandt said without hesitation, albeit calmly.

-” A couple of hourz”- replied the elderly -” Ever zince Olaff returned to uz.” - there was no hint of deception in his voice - “We were curiouz az to who you are two.”

-” Who are ‘we’?” - asked Brandt, while he was taking his place beside the fire. The man said something to the one he called Tûk Hânne and got a quick reply. The exchange between the men ended when “Tûk Hânne” said to “Strêttar Nûmer Fjouwer” something that Brandt roughly understood as ‘be careful, but honest’. The elder nodded, then faced Brandt.

-”Az your tanai friend zaid. I am Ztrettar Number Four. The elder of the Husel ‘folksstam’. Next to me is Hanne, our war chief, known as ‘Zmart’”

-” Pleasure to meet you.” - replied Nord, with a well-crafted, although a little rusty, demeanour of a diplomat -” I am Brandt Zerster, but I’m certain my accomplice, Anh Trawins, already introduced me.”

-” He indeed haz.”

-” So. What do you want from us two? Is there anything?”

Strettar once again exchanged a few quick words with Hanne, but has done so so quickly that Brandt didn’t catch much from it.

-” Mr Trawinz already told uz that you are zearching for zomething called ‘na-no-forge’. Which…” - Strettar hesitated a bit - “... Iz not a concern of uz. We want to know who are the people who murdered Aljon and injured Olaff.”

-” Expedition by the Church”- flatly replied Brandt -” originally they were hunting us for … things.”

-” We killed an Ordo Pro Cvirsi courser and four knights” - stated Trawins, to the dismay of Brandt -” More specifically. He did. I enabled it. There is more story to it.”

There was a moment of awkward silence.

-” Tell me more.” - slowly said Strettar

Brant sighed inaudibly and gave Anh a dirty look, then spoke.

-” We set out from Sheridawn a few weeks ago, in search of these ‘nanoforges’.”- Brandt was explaining as casually as he could -” As we were making discoveries in one place, we were accosted and accused of heresy by Ordos. Which forced me to act. We have been on the run ever since.”

The elder fell silent for a moment, contemplating.

-” Why did you ezcape … here?”

-” A ‘nanoforge’ is nearby.” - replied Brandt -” the men who you seek, up until recently, were chasing us. We had a scrape with them. They overrun our camp and took our things. But we managed to lose them, so we two and them switched places, in a way. Us and they are after the same thing now.”

The elder turned towards the man in the helmet and began to speak to him. As previously, Brandt had problems with following their native tongue. From their mannerisms and the few words, he managed to, at least as he thought, understand, it seemed that the old man was merely relaying what was just said. Mostly at least. What he also noticed was how casually both men spoke to each other. Nord initially assumed that the helmeted man, a warrior of sorts, was the leader of whomever, while the elder was some sort of a spiritual figure. If wildmen were worshipping Vhirs, he would be an actosian. That didn’t seem to be the case. So, who were these people? Father and son? The elder was most likely the only one who spoke Cammona. This also raised a question, why could he, but not the other?

-” We think that the place you are looking for iz not far away.” - Strettar interrupted Brandt’s musings and immediately got his attention.

-” Tell me more, please”

-” There iz a place, a day’z march from here. Which we’ve been trying to get rid of from theze lands for zeveral weekz now. A few buildingz of solid, flat ztone where one haz a demon inzide. We lozt good men there.”

Brandt and Anh exchanged glances.

-” Please, tell us more!” - tanai almost shouted.

-” Our hunterz found thiz … thing when the zpring znowmelt just ended. I demanded that they lead me there. When I arrived … It ztarted to talk to me.”- Strettar was stroking his beard -“I waz zpeaking in Kherrid and demanded thingz. When we denied it, it zent its minions on us.”

-” You can speak Kherrid?” - said Anh, surprised after hearing this.

-” Yes” - replied the elder drily - “I recognized it as a remnant of the Ancientz… what you kall zem… Precurzorz. Thuz, any tracez of it need to be removed.”

-” You are afraid of the Church throwing a Vhirzung your way.” - Brandt said as if he was talking to the air, as his tone didn’t convey any doubts about what he was claiming. Almost immediately, Strettar just nodded, confirming Nords comment.

-” Yes. The church men, the thing. All tracez of it need to dizappear.”

-” There are at least seven combatants, Sorresian mariners. Armed to the teeth, with firearms, and, from the looks of it, very experienced. There is also a seer with them. Tanai. Whether they are battle hexerginst, I don’t know. There are two others, but they don't seem to be soldiers of any kind.”

Strettar nodded, then spoke to Hanne, once again. From the tone and pieces he heard, Brandt concluded that the older wildman was, as before, relaying what was just said. What Strettar heard in response was interesting. There was ‘help’ and ‘friend’ in Hanne’s words and his older companion had reservations about whatever Hanne said. For a few moments, both wildmen were almost arguing with each other.

-” I have been told to, to azk” - said Strettar - “whether both of you would be willing to join uz in our effortz.”

-” What efforts?”

-” Hanne sayz that we have mutual goalz. We all want to get rid of the church people and you both look like you can take care of thingz. Olaff here told us how ‘Slanke Man’... ” - Strettar nodded at Anh - “...waz chopping a tree with hiz bare handz.”

Brandt smirked at Anh, discreetly, but he wanted to at least hint to the tanai, that this might be the ‘opportunity’ they were waiting for. The tanai very likely understood as he raised his eyebrow a touch.

-” It seems. Your leader is very apprehensive.” - said Brandt -” If what you say is true, we indeed have quite some in common…”

Strettar was about to say something to it, but Brandt interrupted him.

-”...BUT, the convergence of our goals ends with the churchmen. You want to raze the place we are after.”

Strettar closed his mouth for a drip, then began to speak to Hanne. From this interaction, Brandt took that the leader was quite … diplomatic. The words used were similar to ‘later’, ‘soldiers’, ’first problem’, and ‘battle’. Which hopefully suggested that Hanne wanted to resolve the issue of accessing the nanoforge after the seemingly inevitable clash with the Ordos. Was he?

-” Hanne sayz, once church people and Dlooa’z minionz are gone. You’ll have all the time you need to poke the place for whatever you want.”

-” Dlooa?” - asked tanai

-” We call it that. It haz it written on the wallz. Dlooa, we think itz the daemon’z name.”

-” Dlooa. Weird name.”- said Brandt -” I don’t know what my associate thinks, but I think this is a great opportunity for all of us.”

Anh didn’t follow right away.

-” I’ll go.” - Anh finally said, anxiously, then turned his head towards Brandt -” I honestly don’t know why you would need me.”

-” As I said before, you are a man of many talents, Mr. Trawins. One of them is bound to be useful.” - said Nord back at him, then addressed Strettar -” So it is settled. Both of us are going to help as much as we can.”

-” I am happy to hear that.” - replied the elder, then began to converse with Hanne. As he expected, Brandt heard them speak about ‘friends’ or ‘partners’ and as their talks continued, Hanne was becoming quite content with what he was hearing. After a while, when the wildmen stopped talking, Strettar turned towards Anh and Brandt.

-” I am glad to invite you to our camp. We’ll discuss details there.” - he said. Brandt nodded. Strettar once again said something to Hanne, who stood up, raised his hand a little, and shook his palm. Not a moment later a rustling could be heard from all around them, followed by several men clad in leather and wielding a bow. Nord counted nine of them.

The aberrants stood up and gathered their things. Once done they put out the fire. All the men went out in a queue, where Hanne, Strettar, Brandt, Olaff, and Anh were somewhat in the middle.