A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 2103: King of the Land - Part 8

With a confused look on its face, one that came perilously close to fear, the Troll fell down amongst the rocks, and collapsed.

"Eh?"

"Eh?"

The two little men looked at each other.

"That was a Troll, right?"

"A Water Troll, aye..."

"Was?"

"It’s definitely dead."

The two of them came creeping forward with all the curiosity of a pair of cats. They looked down at the Troll corpse from atop their rocks. One of them gave it a light tap with his large boots. "Dead," he pronounced.

"Dead," the other affirmed.

"We didn’t fail our mission. The forest lives on."

"Are we heroes?"

"I don’t reckon so..."

They turned again to Oliver, and this time, both of them jumped in fright.

Oliver shook his head. Their erraticness was beginning to wear on him.

"You!" One of them pointed.

"You’re unwell!" The second said.

"Nay! You’re tainted! You shouldn’t be here!"

"Ingolsol!" The other cried.

Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"...Would the Dark God protect us?" One whispered to the other.

"Nay... There must be some mistake," the other held his nose up and sniffed the air.

"Something off about him... I smell Claudia too."

"So he’s normal?"

"Far from it."

"Can we trust him?"

"Maybe..."

"Ahem..." one cleared his throat, as the two turned back around to Oliver, after their confidential whispering. "Who might you be?"

"Oliver Patrick," Oliver replied mildly.

"Patrick... Patrick..." one said, feeling around for the name. His eyes lit up all of a sudden. "Patrick!" He cried. "The son of Dominus?"

"That’s Dominus’ sword!" The other said, dancing over, and raising up Oliver’s bloodied blade. "Ah, yes yes... It’s his for certain. Though it’s far sadder than what I remember of it. What have you done to this blade?" He said, shooting him an accusing look. "You ought to be ashamed."

"...? I have taken the best care of it that I could," Oliver said. His Professors at the Academy, and all the military men he had ever been close to, including Lombard, had always complimented him on the care that he took of his equipment. It was a surprise to him to hear the reverse.

"Oh, he’s nearly ruined it, hasn’t he?" The other said, shaking his head. "A sad thing, it is. A sad, sad thing."

"I polished it and sharpened it only yesterday," Oliver protested. "I see no faults along its edge. It should still be in fine enough condition once I again clean it."

"Hm? Clean it? No cloth in the world can clean this."

"...It’s certainly not in that bad a condition," Oliver said, beginning to doubt himself.

"Ya don’t see, do you?"

"He doesn’t see."

"When was the last time you swung this blade in pleasure, eh?"

"Dominus treated it well. He swung it, in the end, because he wanted to swing it. That man loved this sword – he loved swordsmanship."

That brought Oliver to a dead stop. It was an accusation that did hit the nail upon the head. When had he last swung it because he enjoyed it?

"Recently... Recently, I sparred a subordinate of mine, and enjoyed it. I trained, and I enjoyed it."

"Perhaps you did," one of the little men said.

"But it doesn’t outweigh how you normally use it, does it?" The other finished.

"The look on his poor face."

"I almost feel sorry for him. He doesn’t have a clue. Humans don’t, do they?"

"That’s definitely Ingolsol in him, though... Up this close, there’s no second guessing it."

"But that’s also our mistress Claudia in him too."

"...But Oliver Patrick? Wouldn’t we know that name, if it were true?"

"We would..."

"You knew Dominus?" Oliver asked.

They both shook their heads. "We didn’t. Not in person."

"But we can feel who he was, see? Just in the way we can put our hand in the river, and take a guess what it’s like downstream."

"I don’t understand."

"He would."

"Wise, he was. He knew our Lady Claudia’s ways. He quietly studied them."

"But you!" They both turned together.

"We don’t know you. We don’t know Oliver Patrick. He doesn’t exist. Did you lie to us, human? Why would you lie? It doesn’t make sense. Don’t you know lies hurt you most of all?"

"That’s true, they really hurt you human. You saved us, so we’ll tell you. The suffering that clings to you, you’re making it worse when you lie."

"...Beam, then?" Oliver offered.

There was a sparkle of recognition then. "Beam... Dominus had an apprentice called that, didn’t he?"

"He did, we heard that..."

"But you’re not Beam."

"No. There’s no honesty in you when you say that name."

"Who are you?"

"What are you?"

"What have you done?"

"What do you want?"

"What made you suffer?"

"What made you smile?"

In a voice quieter than any Oliver had ever spoken in, he gave another name. "...Tempest." And as one, two pairs of eyes lit up in recognition, as if hearing the voice of an old friend.

"You!"

"It’s you!"

They laughed in delight.

"It’s you!" They grabbed each others hands, and did a merry little jig.

"We’ve missed you!"

"Well, not you, and not us! We missed the idea of you – we never met you, but we know you. And we know those who knew you!"

"You used to play with them when you were little, didn’t you?"

"Little, not so little as us!"

"Not nearly so little!" The other laughed.

"Claudia loved you then!"

"And you loved her, didn’t you?"

"You used to play for hours!"

"Whatever happened, Tempest? Who is it you’ve become?"

Oliver lowered his head. "I know not."

A strange guilt in his heart, a sadness. So strange it was that he could accept what they were saying as the truth. In reflection, he might have supposed he’d given up on reality at that point – some part of him seemed to have accepted that this was nothing more than the strangest of all dreams.

"Gah..."

"Well, doesn’t that just break your heart to see..."

"I suppose he did help us, didn’t he?"

"We’d be in terrible trouble..."

"To think that little Tempest would get this strong, who would have known?"

"Well, we sort of knew, didn’t we?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The other giggled. "Of course, we did know, as strongly as we didn’t know. So we’re both surprised..."

"And we’re not at all surprised."