“But don’t get me wrong. The rise of Senterra is a group effort. We need to work together to build a nation where every individual is free to pursue their passions without fear of oppression or injustice. We will create a society where the needs of the many are just as important as the needs of the few.” They continued to cheer, revving me up. I hadn’t always been a strong orator, but after that bout in Lucyna’s lair where I united life-long foes to work together, I felt like I could tackle anything. This was a call to arms, a rallying cry for change. And the people were listening.
“So I stand here before you today asking for your partnership, so that we may claim the last two shard shields of our goddess, and make Senterra, and all of Thalian, whole again!”
And just like that, the crowd died down.
Crickets.
My riveting speech was answered with collective doubt spread across their faces, Senterrians trading terrified and confused looks among each other.
A middle aged man in the crowd finally spoke up in a raspy voice, asking the question that got everyone bug-eyed, “Ugh, do we have to go out of Senterra to fight those orcs, fae, and dragons?”
“Yes, this is a necessity. The last two pieces are in the fae and dragon territories, and we must capture them.”
He swallowed his next set of words with a shriveled forehead, darting his eyes to his friend to the right of him. The rising doubt and fear of the Senterrian nation was something I expected, but I also thought at least one person would rise up to the challenge. The mission was dangerous, hell it was downright suicidal. But I also knew that we had no choice but to fight if we wanted to restore our goddess and save our people.
I raised my hands, trying to project my voice as I spoke. “I know I am asking too much of you. After all, this society has been torn into pieces and expected to put itself back together over and over again. Humans have been killed for pleasure, slaughtered for gain, and kidnapped for trade and slavery. But we must remember why we fight. Our goddess is broken, and our world is falling apart at the seams. The fae and dragons hold the last two shard shields, and if we do not retrieve them, our entire world will be destroyed.”
“Well they are suffering too now, aren’t they?” an elder lady spoke out. “We aren’t the only ones who are plagued.”
“Yeah,” a short merchantman protested. “I heard even Guedmar, the next nation over, got their share of bad luck.”
Someone sucked their teeth. “Well, it’s about time.”
“Now don’t say that, if they run out of cattle, they’ll turn to us!” a frail female voice cried in the crowd.
“Like they haven’t already?”
“It is better they stay comfortable than hungry. Trust me.”
“Well I don’t care what they are as long as they are dead!”
“Now wait. We should be making an alliance with the orcs to take down the bigger evil, those heartless dragons,” a soft spoken woman suggested.
“And orcs aren’t heartless?!” someone in the crowd retorted.
“Don’t listen to that idiot blabbin’!”
“I say kill those god-forsaken brick heads!”
“Have you ever seen a human child being dragged by the feet and tossed into a wagon for food? No? Then shut up!” someone else barked back.
“All of you are dense.”
“I can’t get why we need to lose more people in this struggle. It is crippling us as a society. I just wish Jezz hadn’t died getting Mama Kar’s piece. She easily has the power of ten of us!”
“That’s enough!” I boomed, instantly quelling everyone around me. They were turning against each other, and it was all because Zach overheard me and his mother talking about the end of the world, and then someone overheard him whispering to himself by the garden sulking about it. Word spread quickly after that, little Miss Sybil not good with keeping anything to herself. I couldn’t blame the six year old, but that night was bad all around, because it was the same night I’d come back without Jezz…
Prism Point was never supposed to know about the countdown. With their morale already low, bringing this on the table was the worst thing that could have happened. I’d admit it brought me down too and didn’t help any when I came back from that shitty fight with Ezmar. I’d given up all hope in freedom, and I could see that same loss of hope spread across their faces.
There was a soft murmur in the crowd, and I took a deep breath, continuing. “Look, I know that many of you are afraid. But we cannot let our fear hold us back. We must be brave, and we must be strong. Together, we can accomplish anything. Times are trying, and it seems like every time we fight back, we get slapped ten times harder. But look, we got one shard down! And how long did that take us? How long did it take them? We’ve been spit on, kicked, shoved, beaten down, and buried under submission that we adopt this mindset that we are the lowest in the food chain. I’d like to remind you all that they were the ones who feared us! We have power, we have will! And hell, they should be afraid, because when we rise up, we do so with stride! They want us to think we are weak! They want us to think we are powerless! The nations united and broke us down. It took all of Thalian to tear down our walls! So before you tell yourself that you can’t, remember that we have before! Their jealousy and pride took our culture away, our prosperity, our way of life! And it’s about damn time we take it back! We can fight for what’s ours, for what was taken from us. And we won’t just get it back, we will make it better. We will make it stronger. We will make it something that they can never take away from us again!”
The crowd cheered, their spirits lifted by my words. My people… they had been beaten down, but they were not defeated. After everything, they were still standing. And with every shard that we collected, we grew stronger.
I saw Madeem leaning against his storefront wall with a proud smile on his face. He knew then and there that I meant business. Silas Bruer, the Senterrian hero was back, and there was nothing that could stop me.
CHAPTER THREE
While the crowd began to taper off into volunteers, there was still the problem of finding a way to get all of us across Guedmar to Mavriel, the country of fae, where the next shard was. I only had one disguise charm and limited funds, so in the next few hours, me and my new team would have to excavate the lands for loot and treasure in hopes of finding useful items. I didn’t want my scouting team out there when they needed to be here, protecting Prism Point, so when a few of them stepped up to the plate, I had to reject their kind offer.
But what I was left with was discouraging…
I expected them to be fighters at the very least, but most of them were either field workers, house maids, kids, or elders.
Not one of them broke past level 3…
I get it, I started off at level one. But I was fortunate enough to have Jezz, and adding her to my party allowed me to level up faster. Not only that, it was a 1:1 ratio of student to teacher. I couldn’t with a peace of mind have them join my party. The responsibility would be too much to handle. And if anything bad happened, and it would, I wouldn’t stop blaming myself for allowing them to follow their chosen one.
“Oh please, Sir Silas!” a little girl no older than nine said, her pigtails bouncing up and down as she sprung her knees and folded her hands at me. “I promise I won’t be a burden! I would earn my keep! I know how to farm! And wrangle, and cook!”
I chuckled. “I’m sorry, but I can’t bring you out there, Kassi.”
She pouted. “But why?”
“You’re too young. It’s nasty out there.”
“I’ve seen everything! I was there!” She fought. “It’s why I don’t have my big brother and mama anymore! Those dirty orcs took them away from me!”
“Kassi…”
