Friends in a Foreign Land

"Reyna‽" Regina gasped.

The rest of the party stood in stunned silence. Suddenly peals of laughter sounded from the raised dais where King Daot was doubled over. After a moment he composed himself and stood, "Forgive my laughter but the look on your faces, especially yours Regina, was worth getting upset. Rising from his throne the king motioned for everyone to follow him as he headed for a door behind him.

"Come, let us sit comfortably while we discuss what we each know about this cult and put together the beginnings of a plan. The king and queen lead them into a lavishly apportioned sitting room where finger foods and drinks were waiting on them. Over the next hour, they shared what they had learned and the king and queen filled in the gaps as best they could.

"Now, I am sure you have much to catch up on and are eager to do so. Reyna has already been briefed on how we can best help as well as what help we could use. It is getting late, please go with our gratitude, both for what you have done and what you will do. The carriage that brought you will take you back to your inn." With that, the king and queen exited the room and Ailmon ushered the group back out to the carriage.

The ride back to the inn was full of chatter as everyone was talking over one another trying to ask Reyna questioned. After a few minutes of this Ramiro let out a high-pitched whistle to get everyone’s attention. "Maybe if you let her talk, she could answer your questions."

Reyna smiled at all the chagrined looks. "Thank you, Ramiro. Let’s see, what did y’all ask? I’ve been here the same length of time as you. I woke up in a room in the castle. Ailmon was knocking on the door. He won’t admit it but he let out a scream when I yelled for him to come in. Seems the king had sent him to that room every morning for a week to knock on the door with orders to escort anyone found inside to him. Knowing that no one would break into the castle just to sleep Ailmon never expected anyone to answer.

Yes, I spoke with a god as you all did. Yes, I have a character sheet. My class is currently Druid but I plan to become a Soothsayer in time. And, as you can guess, my abilities mostly revolve around having and interpreting visions and omens from my god. One of the things we need to do is get as many people in the group the items or abilitys to use magic for communication so that we can get word to everyone when I have a premonition."

"Look, you all know I’m not the smartest. But how can your visions help us?" Eric asked.

"One example would be to warn you of a danger that you do not see. Such as the former captive that you freed who means you harm. When we get back to your inn I will point her out."

"Who?" asked Mira

"I do not know her name. But I will know her when I see her."

Most of the group is stunned by this and Ramiro jumped into the silence. "The king said you know what they can do to help us. What’s their plan?"

"They want you to rid the kingdom of this cult. As they said earlier, they don't know who's leading it but they have proof implicating a number of lesser noble families and some merchants. But they want the leader as that's who is working against them. They are willing to train all of us in whatever skills we feel are needed as well as provide equipment. Additionally, they will have royal tutors educate us on the world we now live in so that we are better able to understand and blend in."

"Question," Alexis declared. "If we're all talking to gods and goddesses, why can't one of them just tell us who is leading this cult so we could go get them?"

"Better yet, why can't one of these gods just take care of it for us?" Regina asked.

"Because there are always rules. The gods we have met have… parents for lack of a better term. The supreme deity that created them all. It basically grounded all the gods sometime in the past. Forced them to come to Traum and walk as a mortal for a thousand years. Before he let them back into heaven, or whatever you call the plane where the gods live, he forced all of them to swear an oath to abide by certain rules."

"Did they all take the oath?" asked Ramiro.

"I don't know. I didn't think to ask. That'll be a good question to ask the trainers the king sends," answered Reyna.

"Will the king give us magic weapons and armor?" Alexis asked

"Good question," Regina commented, "I want magic stuff."

"Possibly later but not right now." Reyna answered

"Okay, the gods can't do this but I still don’t understand why the king can't," Mira said. "He has an entire army. Why us?"

"It goes back to the system of government that’s in place. Think of Avallon like the UK. The queen is the queen, but she doesn’t wield absolute authority. It’s the same way here. The royal family does have some authority, but they are kept in check by the elected politicians."

"And some of those politicians are criminals, right?" Regina asked

"The king believes so. But the king only has evidence against some of those at the city level. He doesn't have any evidence against any of the high nobles. Additionally, it’s assumed that some people in the king's employ are spies for the politicians, which is why you were brought in this evening after most everyone had left the castle for the day."

"Are we supposed to just find the evidence and turn it over?" Mira questioned.

"You can and the royal family would appreciate that. However, that would force things into the public eye and the King would rather this all be handled quietly if possible."

"So he wants us to kill his opponents?" Alexis said.

"He wants you to kill all the cultists regardless of station or rank. And to help with that he asked me to pass out these rings to you all." Reyna said as she pulled out a pouch and started handing out rings. Each ring was a simple metal band imprinted with the seal of the king on it. But as they were put on, the ring changed color and size to fit and blend into the finger it was now on. Explaining, Reyna continued "There is a very old law that nearly everyone has forgotten that allows the king to empower a group to do the dark work of protecting the kingdom without fear of being detained or arrested. The king has never invoked this law before because of the trust it requires. With these rings, we have the authority to do anything we deem necessary short of regicide. It was only the promise of a goddess that we would not betray him or the kingdom that allowed him to finally make this decision.

"So, congratulations! You’re all members of a secret organization known as "The Legion of the Owl. Oh, and the rings I just gave you will remain undetected by most spells but you can make them appear by simply willing it to do so. This way they can be shown to any guard as proof of our identity. I was also told it had other magical powers but I wasn’t told what they were."

“Probably gives the king the ability to track us,” muttered Eric.

Regina nodded, “That would make sense. But it’s worth keeping that in mind.”

As Reyna finished speaking the carriage started to slow. "Looks like we’re here."

As the group entered the inn they now owned, they found most of the former slaves sitting around, apparently waiting for them.

"You’ve made it back! We were so worried" Mia said as she rushed toward them.

Mia only made it a few steps before she was surrounded by a silver light, and translucent flames burst from her body. Mia fell to the ground, yelling in pain.

"Reyna, stop! What are you doing?" Alexis yelled.

Regina had been so surprised she didn’t even realize it was Reyna casting the spell. She quickly stepped between her daughters. "Alexis, she warned us. Look."

Gasps were heard from around the room, and everyone looked back to see that Mia wasn’t Mia any longer. She… it… was a pale humanoid figure with white eyes and hair. The figure lay on the floor in pain from Reyna’s spell.

Reyna looked to Ramiro and Eric, "Grab her and take her somewhere private. We need to talk with her."

As the guys did as they were bid, Mira looked back to the crowd, "Sorry y’all. This is Reyna, one of Regina’s daughters. She’s here to help. Seems we had a spy in our midst."

"Thank you all for waiting up for us. But everything is going to be okay. The meeting with the king went well. We’re still going to help you as we promised. Feel free to go get some sleep and we can talk more tomorrow." Alexis added, trying to reassure the crowd while not letting on that she was on the verge of tears a moment ago.

The group headed into the dining room where they had fell victim to the slavers just the day before, and not-Mia was set in a chair with her hands bound behind her back.

Reyna approached her and with steel in her voice asked, "Where is Mia?"

The not-Mia laughed and said, "She is.." Before she can finish, the light and translucent flames appear again forcing her to cry out in pain.

"Let me be very clear,” Reyna stated. “You will die tonight. The only choice you have is how painful you want your last night of life to be. The more you lie or avoid our questioned, the more pain you will feel."

"She’s in room 302, tied up in the closet. I gave her something to knock her out."

Reyna looked to Mira and Alexis, "Can you two go see if that’s true? If so help her out, please?"

Both women nodded and headed for the door.

Turning back to their captive Reyna continued, "Thank you. Now we need the names and locations of everyone you know involved in your cult. And before you protest, remember what I said."

Two hours later, Reyna and Regina reentered the common room, both clearly exhausted. Regina fixed them each a mug of ale and sat next to her daughter.

"You did what needed doing. But this is such a huge change from how you are normally. You’ve never even been mean, much less murderous. Did coming here change you that much?"

Reyna shook her head, "No Mom, coming here didn’t change me. The visions I had of things she has done in the past and what she would have done to you should I not make it here in time… that is what motivated me tonight." Reyna met Regina’s eyes, "I promise she deserved everything I did and more. But I gave her the painless death as I promised once she cooperated. But I doubt I’ll ever sleep again with those visions in my head."

A few minutes later Ramiro and Eric walked into the room and fixed themselves some drinks. Ramiro looked over at Reyna, "I know part of you feels bad but fuck her. She should have cooperated from the start."

“Or not have led the life of a sadistic, murderous bitch,” added Eric.

Wanting to change the topic, Regina spoke up, "We have the information we found here, the information we just got from whatever her name was, and a promise from the king to help us get trained. What's our next step?" Regina asked.

"I think we should share some of the information with our gang. Let them do some digging while we get trained up." Eric suggested

"Yeah. We need to find our way to the top of this and then kill as many of these people as we can at one time so none of them have a chance to run away." Ramiro added

"Then we’ll need more people. We have the names of nearly two dozen people involved in this. And that’s just the ones in this town." Regina said. "Then there’s the other towns we’ll need to travel to. The head of this isn’t here. I bet it’s some rich guy with a bunch of land out away from everyone."

“Missing Arden, are you?” Ramiro asked with a smirk drawing laughs from Eric and Reyna.

“Hey,” fired back Regina with a laugh, “I said rich! Arden just has land that he can’t even afford to do anything with.”

After they all finished chuckling Reyna spoke, "Focus on training and gathering information for now.” The rest of the group noticed her eyes had started glowing golden as she continued to talk, "Then start with the smaller cells first and follow the clues. When it’s time to cut the head off of this, the rest of the family will be with you."

"They’re coming here?" Regina asked

Reyna shook herself, and her eyes returned to normal, "They have other fights first. So do you. But they’ll be with you when it’s time to end this."

"I hope they’re not as scary as you just were," Eric joked.

Ramiro shook his head, "I hope they’re more scary. We’re going to need it."

"A few are," Reyna said in somber tone. "And you're going to see sides of a few of your brothers that you've never seen before, just as you did tonight with me. Remember, we're all still the same people we've always been. But we will be put into situations we've never been in before, and those situations will require us all to do things we've never done before."