"Alright, team, let's get to work." I looked at my party members one by one. "That asshole needs these crystals for the seals, so even if I'd rather tell him to eat dicks, the world comes first." I'd explained the situation to my party members.

  "I agree," Tristan said. "But I don't like the idea that more enemies are roaming around in these woods."

  "Me neither, but it is what it is."

  Ro pointed at the crystals. "If you have all of this covered, I can go out and scout."

  "Yeah, I think that's a good idea. We only have three of those pickaxes anyway." And fourteen of those orbs. "Don't engage anything if you don't have to, though. And come back if you see anything."

  "Done." Ro turned and marched for the trees. "Assuming I don't find anything dangerous, I'll do my best to be back around dusk."

  "Sounds like a plan."

  "I'll go with you," Vral walked to his side.

  "You sure?" Ro asked.

  "Yeah. My hearing is better than yours. You'll need me."

  He nodded. "I'm happy to have you, sister."

  Vral's ears turned red. She shuffled and said, "You should be."

  "Take Frik and Klart, too." Ark pointed at her companions. "They may not look like much, but Frik can track anything, and Klart's sense of smell is the best around."

  Ro shook his head. "This may sound rude, but I don't want to worry about getting stabbed in the back while we're scouting."

  "Yeah, we don't need any of you losers. You can stay and do the grunt work." Vral grabbed Ro's arm. "Let's go, brother."

  I couldn't help but smile. She'd never called him that before.

  "We're not murderers. You all attacked us first, remember?" Grort sighed. "You should take the help. You don't know who might be out there."

  That didn't sound ominous at all. "Explain."

  He looked at me for a long moment before replying. "I don't know much about most of the other crews that the old mage hired, but I know the name of at least one of them, and they're bad news."

  "Who are they?" I asked.

  With a frown, he muttered, "The Black Ear Company."

  Vral's head whipped around. "Those assholes are out here?" She pointed at Klart and Frik. "Hey losers, get your asses up. You're coming with us."

  Klart snapped at her. "You aren't the boss of us!"

  "Excuse you?!" Vral snapped.

  Frik shrugged. "Sorry, kid. We only got one boss, and it ain't you."

  "Tch."

  Looking at me, he asked, "What're the orders, boss?"

  I need to know more. "Why's the Black Ear Company such a big deal?"

  Ark cut in: "The Black Ear Company is a mercenary band that operates out of Brightwater. They're involved in everything: murder, extortion, gambling, prostitution, slavery. The Crimson Kingdom hires them all the time to do the kind of dirty work the Kingdom doesn't want to do itself." She laughed. "I'm sure you know how low that bar is."

  "They work with the Kingdom, huh?" Okay, maybe Kasimir wasn't entirely wrong about us clearing out the riffraff. If they were that bad and we ran into them, we'd have to do what we had to do. "How many people do they have, and what do their forces look like?"

  "I don't know how many people they have, but it's a lot. All I know is that their crew's all goblin, and it's mostly made up of the outcasts that got kicked out of our tribes back when our tribes were still a thing." As she spoke, she played with one of her dreadlocks.

  "Are they as strong as you five?"

  "Stronger," She answered.

  "And they don't fight fair," Grort added.

  "Good to know." An idea came to me. It was as good a time as any to test out this whole vassal thing the Dark Lord granted to me. With as much command as I could muster without sounding like a piece of shit, I said, "Klart, Frik, I want you two to head out with Ro and Vral. While you're out there, listen to their orders." When I finished speaking, I felt a twinge in my arm. At the same time, both of the goblins scratched at their brands.

  That was something.

  "Yep," Frik said as he stood up. "I can do that."

  "Tell Tu'Vigh to be nice, or I'm not going!" Klart whined. Despite his words, it almost looked like he was dragged up onto his feet and pushed toward Vral and Ro.

  "Vral, be nice." Damn woman.

  "Never."

  I quirked an eye at her.

  "Fine! I'll be nice, but I'm taking that bitch with us." She pointed a finger at Ark. "I'm not about to leave her here oggle you while I'm gone."

  Ark rolled her eyes. "If I wanted what was yours, I'd take it."

  A deep growl rumbled in Vral's throat.

  I stepped between them. "Go," I commanded Ark.

  "Okay, boss," Ark said, scratching at her brand as she stood. "See you soon."

  Vral turned and waved for the others to follow. "Come on, chumps."

  My three vassals followed Ro and Vral into the trees and disappeared.

  "Do you think they'll be okay?" Tristan asked.

  "Yeah, I do. I'm more worried about these Black Ear guys than I am our team."

  She laughed. "True." Slowly, her face fell. With a sigh, she said, "I'm worried about you."

  "Why?"

  She reached out and touched my arm with her fingers. Massaging a small amount of light into my skin, she said, "I know it was hard for you. Back when you first woke up after the Pit. I watched you struggle a lot. But I also watched as you pulled yourself out of that funk and came back stronger for it." She smiled. "With a little help from your friends and family, of course." Running her fingers along my arm, she continued, "Since then, you've been okay, right?" Her eyes met mine. "I haven't been missing things, have I?"

  I shook my head. "No, I've been in a great place. These past few months have been some of the best we've had in a long time." I looked down at the black shield etched into my arm. "I'm honestly as surprised that this happened as you are. I didn't even think He could reach up here on the surface and so far from the Seal. He's never done it before. Well, except for in my dreams, but even those have been few and far between." I'd only had one since we'd arrived at the temple, and I wasn't sure if it was him bleeding into my dreams or just a regular nightmare.

  I could see the relief wash over her. "I'm glad." Weaving her fingers through mine, she squeezed and said, "Just remember that I'm always here."

  "What are we doing, boss?" Grort asked. "You gonna put us to hard labor, or what?"

  "I know how this works," Lutz muttered. "You two'll sit back and smooch as we do all the work. Then, when we're done, you'll take all the credit."

  "Heh, that's the way the world works, Lutz." Grort picked up one of the pickaxes. "Sucks for us to be on the bottom."

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  "Yeah, yeah." Lutz picked up another one of the pickaxes.

  "Wait, guys." I reached into my inventory and pulled out a spare pair of pants and a belt. "First, Grort, put these on. I can't have you... like that out here." He was still very nude.

  "Huh?" He looked warily at my clothes. "Why would you give me those?"

  "He's buying you, Grort." Lutz shook his head. "I've seen it a dozen times."

  "No, I'm not." Taking the pickaxe from him, I placed my clothes in his hands. "Tear those up however you need to for them to fit right."

  He looked at me with obvious suspicion.

  "What?" I asked.

  "No one treats slaves nicely. So why you? What's the angle?"

  "First off, you're not my slaves. You're my temporarily requisitioned allies." I laughed at my own joke. "Trust me when I tell you that I didn't want any of this to happen. Yet, since it did, the least I can do is treat you right until we figure out how to fix it." I bounced the pickaxe on my shoulder. "But, if I had to give you a clearer answer, it would be that I wasn't brought to this world to take anyone's choices away or to bring more suffering into the world." I paused. "At least not to the people who are doing their best to live well and not hurt others."

  "Brought to this world?" Lutz asked. "What's that mean?"

  "Are you..." Grort scratched his head. "Are you a traveler?"

  I grinned. "I sure am."

  "Huh." The larger goblin looked me over. "I heard your kind were terrible. Glad to find out the rumors were wrong, even if it's only for my own sake." He nodded to Lutz. "And for the sake of my crew."

  "A traveler?" Lutz looked at me sideways. "Aren't you here to take what you want?"

  "No." I shook my head. "That doesn't sit right with me."

  "What do you want, then?" Lutz asked. "If you're not here to take what you can, what are you even doing?"

  "I..." A vision, one I'd been having more and more since I met Faye, floated into my mind. It was still hazy, indistinct, but it was there. "I don't know how I'm going to do it yet, but I'm going to make this place better. I'm sure that's why I'm here." I thought back to my experiences so far. "When I first woke up in Reial, I thought it was this amazing, magical place filled with peace and plenty. I thought it was heaven." I laughed. "Eventually, I was forced to see the dark side of this world."

  "Oh, I'm sure, human. I'm sure it was so hard for you." Grort cackled. "Give me a break."

  I shrugged. "I'm sure I haven't seen a fraction of it, but what I've seen hasn't been great."

  "What did you see, huh?" He sneered. "A stubbed toe? A mistreated maid?"

  I locked eyes with him. "I fought for nearly a year in the Pit of Khozad'Thar. While there, I was shopped around to all of the terrible nobles who wanted to buy me. I saw the way they treated the common folk. I met Vral and learned about everything that happened to her." I sighed. "I may not know everything, but I've seen enough."

  Faye's face floated into my mind. "There are adventurers and Templars and healers and heroes who defend the world against monsters. But those aren't the big threat." I pointed north, toward where I knew the capital was. "The threat to the people in this world, or at least this country, comes straight from the top." At least, many of the nobles were corrupt, but from everything Elise told me about her father, I had a feeling he was trash, too.

  Grort and Lutz were both staring. After a few moments, the former spoke. "I guess you do see things a little more than most of your kind." He crossed his arms. "But what are you going to do about it? Chosen or not, touched by the Father or not, you're just one human."

  "I don't know exactly, but..." I shrugged. "I need to get stronger, and I need more allies." Tilting my head back, I took in the clear sky above us. "But I'm not about to take anyone's choices along the way" I pointed to my arm, then the brands on their skin. "Once we're done with the quest we were sent out here to do, as long as you five swear to find a new line of work, I'll let you all go." Lowering my voice, I said, "Assuming you haven't lied about your background as poachers?" There was that twinge again in my arm, and my brand started itching.

  Lutz shook his head so hard I thought his head would pop off. "No!" He started waving his hands. "We might be poachers, but we'd never do anything too bad. The worst I've ever done is rob a store."

  Grort covered his mouth with both hands, but before long, they fell away, and he started talking. "I might have done a light kidnapping once with Ark, but that was the line for us, and it was back when we were eating street scraps."

  "Frik stabbed a guy!" Lutz shouted. "But he was robbing us, so..."

  "Ark and I have killed, but always in self-defense. Kind of. Maybe." Grort scratched his chin. "It was at least half in self-defense."

  I sighed. "Maybe I didn't want to know about your pasts."

  "What's a light kidnapping?" Tristan asked.

  Grort frowned. "It's when you kidnap someone, but you don't mean to hurt them. You just rough them up a little and collect a ransom afterward."

  As someone who had been kidnapped when she was a girl, Tristan probably didn't love hearing a story like this. I took her hand and squeezed, channeling as much love and support into her as I could through our skin.

  At my gesture, she turned and smiled at me before turning back to Grort and asking, "So, a light kidnapping is basically a normal kidnapping, then?"

  "You don't have to say it with so much judgment!" He crossed his arms. "We got the boy back safe and sound, and he even had a story to tell afterward. We were really doing him a favor. That face of his isn't about to get him any attention."

  "He looked like a bird!" Lutz shouted.

  Tristan shook her head. "Goddess, grant me the patience..." She squeezed my hand back.

  "Alright, team. Let's do this." I turned toward the crystals. "Tristan, you're on orb duty. Grort and Lutz, you're using those pickaxes with me." I opened the sack and threw it to the ground. "Let's send this stuff over to Kasimir and get out of here." I felt that twinge in my arm again. Was that happening because I was giving them orders?

  The goblins hopped up and grabbed the other two pickaxes. Beside them, Tristan grabbed the orb-filled pouch and made her way to the largest crystal nearby.

  ***

  By the time dusk began, we'd recovered nearly all of the crystals in the clearing. The only ones that remained were tiny and barely had any light in them, so I'd decided to leave them be.

  Grort was still able to work, but he was losing steam. Still, I had to give it to him: the little goblin had been hammering away at the crystals with me for hours.

  Unlike him, Lutz's hands were completely covered in blisters, and Tristan was exhausted after channeling so much light into the little bronze orbs. Apparently, it took some level of magical proficiency to do, and she'd used everything to fill all of the objects. After finishing the last orb, she'd stripped down to her underwear, lay herself out on a nearby rock, and covered herself in my cloak to cool down.

  Just as the sky started turning purple, I heard the others crunch their way back into the clearing.

  Looking up, I watched as Ro and Vral appeared, followed by Klart and Frik. None of them looked too worse for wear, but Klart did have a streak of blood staining the front of his shirt, and Frik's hair was disheveled.

  "How'd it go?" I asked. "Are you all alright?"

  Ro pointed at the goblins. "I'm glad we brought these three. They really helped."

  "Yeah, we helped so much that we walked you straight into an ambush."

  Ark looked confused. "I don't get why you didn't use us as bait."

  Ro shook his head. "We would never do that." When she tried to protest, he added, "Ever."

  Klart looked back at Ro with obvious admiration in his eyes. "The man elf saved me!" He shouted. "I said, 'Phew, it stinks,' and he said, 'Get back!' and I said, 'Why?' and he said, 'Monster!' and, and, and—then he saved me!"

  Frik shook his head. "He sure did. And that priestess patched me up good after the fight." He held up his arm. There were red bite marks running up it. "I nearly lost the damn thing, but after Na-Ya's magic, the arm's nearly as good as new."

  "I'll look it over again in the morning," Na-Ya said. "Until then, just be gentle with it, okay?"

  Frik looked everywhere but at Na-Ya. "Yes, ma'am."

  "Ma'am?" Ark snorted. "I never got called ma'am. Not once!"

  "Well, maybe you should have been more like her," Frik pointed back at Na-Ya. "She's nice."

  Ark kicked a stick across the clearing. "I'll show you nice."

  Grort side-eyed me. "Your underlings are like you, huh? They're big-hearted goodie goodies?"

  "Yeah. They are." I laughed. "And they're not my underlings. They're my..." How would he understand it best? "They're my tribe."

  Lowering his voice, he said, "There aren't that many people out there that are like you and your tribe."

  I smiled. "We do our best."

  As they got nearer, Ro said, "We found tracks. Lots of them."

  "What kind?" I asked. "Were they from monsters, people, or what?"

  Frik cleared his throat. "There were animal tracks. Mostly livestock. Monsters, too. Gloomfangs, skitterslinks, and something with talons." He held his hands up and put them out wide. "The thing that concerns me is the beast Nivan and Nel told us about. I found its tracks. At least, that's what I think made them." He held his arms up, making a space about three feet wide. "Each foot is about this big, and it has a long tail. I made sure to take us the long way around so we didn't risk running into it."

  I still had almost no idea what that could be. My best guess was that it was a dragon. "Any goblin tracks?"

  He shook his head. "None."

  "Good."

  Grort set his pickaxe down. "To tell the truth, I doubt they could beat us out here. It's two weeks to Velmire for the average crew." He wiped his forehead and sat down. "The thing is, we aren't average. Not with Frik's tracking skills and Klart's nose. We made it to Calvareth in a little over a week."

  "You're that fast?" I asked.

  "Sure are." Grort pointed at Lutz. "Frik's a great tracker, and Lutz here is the best damn pathfinder in Istaera."

  "That's impressive, really." I realized that, if I had to get stuck with some unwanted vassals, these ones weren't so bad. "So, I'm guessing that the plan was to get in and out before the other crews could catch up?"

  "Yep," Ark said as she walked toward us. "As you know, it didn't turn out that way, though."

  Before Ark could get close, Vral cut her off, marched up to me, and grabbed my collar.

  "What's up, Vra—"

  Without a word, she yanked me down into a kiss. When our tongues met, she grabbed my jaw with both hands and assaulted me with her tongue.

  "So fiery," Tristan murmured. "I'm a little jealous."

  Breaking away from me, Vral turned, marched up to Tristan, and did the same to her.

  "What brought that on?" I chuckled, knowing how jealous my goblin was of another goblin woman being so close to me.

  "Mine." Vral turned to Ark, crossed her arms, and sat cross-legged in front of us. "Got it?"

  Ark marched up to Grort, sat beside him, and rested her head on his shoulder. With a smirk, she whispered, "Fine by me. I don't do humans."

  Grort looked over at Ark, grinned, and put his hand on her leg.

  "Good." Vral snapped. "More for me."

  "You two actually do like one another, huh?" Tristan asked.

  Ark looked at Grort and shrugged. "He's alright."

  "She's kind of a bitch," Grort curled his nose.

  They looked at one another and laughed.

  "You two are cute," Na-Ya whispered as she wrapped her arm around Ro's.

  The pair pushed away from one another like shy teenagers who just got caught kissing.

  "Well, you all had great timing." Picking up the last of the crystals and throwing them into the sack, I tied the top tight and put the whole sack into my inventory, followed by my pickaxe. Sitting, I asked, "So, is everyone ready to hear my plan for the next step of this quest?"

  Ro sat next to Ark and Grort. Na-Ya sat beside him, Klart and Frik sat next to her, and Tristan shuffled to my side.

  "What's the plan, boss?" Tristan's eyes twinkled as she called me that.

  "So, now that we have a tracker, tracking down this massive beast monster thing should be a lot easier, right?"

  Frik's green face turned white.