Chapter 21: Lavender Town

  [Time Remaining: 619 Days, 09 Hours, 36 Minutes]

  Wagon wheels bit into gravel and loose stone as the caravan creaked on through the highland road. A mountain range loomed in the distance, the peaks sharp as spear-points, shadowed in the red-gray light of dusk. The day’s travel had passed without much trouble, only a few hungry wolf-drakes and a swarm of ironwing gnats daring to test the wagons’ defenses, both were dispatched quickly. The mood among the mercenaries was almost easy compared to recent days.

  That mood broke when the village appeared.

  It was a small collection of hovels and sparse wood buildings which lay crouched at the base of the mountains, tucked between some tall forest pines. A few wooden houses sat huddled together, their walls crooked, shingles patched with tar and moss. They heard no laughter from the settlement as they approached, no dogs barking, nor did any smell of cooking smoke greet them. There was only the flat, still silence of a place that had all the appearances to be too lived in to be abandoned, but too hollow to be alive.

  When the villagers did appear, they were… strange. They came out smiling, speaking politely, helping the wagon-drivers direct the caravan into the central square. But their eyes didn’t linger on the goods, the mercenaries, or the worldstriders. They didn’t ask about trade, or the journey, or where the caravan had come from. Their only questions were: “How long are you staying?” and “When do you leave?”

  Even Ghrukk was left frustrated, his tusks grinding. “Don’t like this. Too quiet.”

  His squad all agreed, each of them watching the villagers with hands on their weapons. Selka stepped a little closer to Sarson, the man placed himself between the world and her as they walked.

  It was an unsettling feeling, and he felt it as well, something that he couldn’t exactly put words to for the why of it all. But, it was undeniable, something fuckity was going on in this village, Alex felt it.

  That night, the strangeness deepened.

  Alex sat awake by the window of the inn’s room, watching the dark streets. The “guards” the villagers had stationed had some rather peculiar patrol rotations. Just watching them for an hour clued Alex into the fact they weren’t protecting the settlement. In fact, their patrols circled only around the inn itself, as though keeping the outsiders contained. During each guard change, a few would split away, slipping into the treeline, ostensibly heading up the slope toward the mountains.

  What was worse was that across the road, all the way up and down the street, Alex could see faces behind shuttered windows. Pale shapes of villagers standing in silence, watching the inn from the dark. Not moving. Only watching.

  The rest of the team were also still awake, so Alex pointed out what he found. “It fucking creepy right? I’m not just being paranoid?”

  No one disagreed.

  “Feels wrong,” Holly said, her right hand gripping the hilt to her jian blade tightly. “Like they’re waiting for us to do something. Or waiting for something to happen to us?”

  Even Lance, happy enough to usually explain things away, rubbed his arms uneasily. “Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of creepy NPC villages in games, but this is a little too on the nose. Feels like we are going to get the ‘Forest has Eyes’ treatment, you know what I mean?”

  They all simply nodded and did their best not to look out the window, even Alex. The more he watched them watching him, it just felt super off-putting, he had to just focus on something else.

  The next morning, the team moved out into the streets to try buying supplies. The few shopkeeps and stall-owners they found around the village hurried them along, barely bartering, practically throwing bread and dried meat into their hands to make them go away. Every sale ended with the same words: “Safe travels. Don’t stay too long.”

  When Alex pressed one shopkeep, the man wrung his hands, sweat on his brow. “We… we don’t like noise here, you see. Don’t like bug fuss. The village… it does better when it’s quiet.”

  He didn’t get much more out of the man, so Alex accepted that as his only NPC dialogue tree and moved on. Everyone in the village seemed to interact with them the same way.

  By the time the caravan was ready to press on and they prepared to set out again, bags full but stomachs heavier with unease, a hunched elder shuffled past. His eyes were clouded, but his words carried a sharp edge as he leaned close enough for Alex to hear.

  “The mountain whispers,” the old man croaked. “Stay away.” Then he moved on without another word, disappearing behind the side of a house and into the high grass beyond.

  The team looked at each other in shared confusion. And suddenly, the silence of the village seemed to press heavier than ever. The old man’s warning clung to Alex like wood-smoke, whispering around in the back of his skull as they regrouped outside the inn.

  “The mountain whispers? Great. Sounds totally normal. Definitely not the start of a horror questline.” Peter remarked.

  “Could be a curse,” Allie said flatly. She adjusted the strap of her satchel, eyes narrowing at the ridgeline looming above the trees. Alex knew her fidgeting with her bag was simply her nervous ticks returning once more. “In ancient times past back on earth, some villages kept quiet because they’ve struck a bargain with whatever thing owns the land. Or whatever spirit resided on it.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Or it’s a beast,” Zach rumbled. His expression was unreadable, but his gaze lingered on the mountain shadows.

  Kate backed up the hypothesis. She gestured around the village as she spoke. “Possible. Something strong enough they don’t dare provoke it. Strong enough that even speaking of it feels dangerous.”

  Garret, of course, was grinning like an idiot. “Come on, guys. Whispers? Curses? Hidden beasts? That’s not it at all. We’re clearly talking about buried treasure here. You know, like a dragon hoard. Or—oooh—maybe some fancy god-tier artifact locked in a cave.”

  Holly elbowed him in the ribs. “Or maybe they just don’t want adventurers blundering in and waking up something the rest of them have to pay the consequences for.”

  Alex said nothing at first. His [Aether Sight] flickered, catching faint traces of energy flowing down from the mountain in tiny threads, so faint they could’ve been his imagination. They looked too even, too steady, like veins carrying something into the village. He frowned, but didn’t say anything about his ideas out loud. Not yet.

  Instead he gave a sigh and shrugged. “Whatever it is, they don’t want us here. And they really don’t want us looking at the mountain. Which… makes me want to go up there and look around even more.”

  That drew a round of uneasy chuckles, even from Ghurkk’s squad who had been eavesdropping nearby. But the unease didn’t fade.

  By midday, the wagons were creaking back onto the trail. The villagers lined the road, smiling and waving too-wide smiles, thanking them for their stay. Yet even as the caravan rolled away, Alex caught sight of the windows. Curtains twitching. Dozens of eyes peering out, watching until the last wagon vanished around the bend.

  No one relaxed.

  Hours later, when the village had long disappeared behind the trees, Alex finally spoke up to the mercenary captains. “We should go back. Or at least investigate.”

  That earned him a round of skeptical looks.

  “Why?” Beithin asked. “Because some old man mumbled about whispers? Villages are strange all the time. Doesn’t mean it’s our problem.”

  “But what if it’s not just whispers?” Alex pressed. “What if it’s a natural treasure? Or a monster horde? Aether veins run in mountains like that, what if its a mega-rich aether crystal mine? If something’s buried up there, something strong enough to scare an entire village into silence, it might be worth more than every contract this caravan pays out combined.”

  Ghrukk’s deep chuckle rumbled from his chest. “You want to poke the quiet mountain, boy? Dangerous thinking. But…” He glanced at his team, who exchanged interested looks. “Dangerous thinking sometimes pays well.”

  Beithin crossed his arms and studied Alex for a long moment. “If it is a beast, one powerful enough to cow a whole village, then we’d be walking to our graves. But if it’s something else…” He paused a moment in thought. “I’ll not say no without hearing more.”

  The mercenaries muttered among themselves, weighing risk against greed. The wagons rolled on, but the seed had been planted. A promise of riches could never be completely ignored by any mortal species, so as they traveled the mountain still loomed in their thoughts.

  And Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever whispered there… was whispering to him, too.

  By nightfall, the caravan camp was a buzz of muted conversations and firelight, the wagons drawn into a loose ring as the night crept over the plains. The smell of stew and smoke hung in the air, but no one was eating comfortably. Not after the village. Not with the mountain looming behind them like a shadow that grew darker with each passing hour.

  Eric took point, standing beside Alex as the mercenary captains and merchant leaders gathered in the circle. “Alright,” he said firmly, “we need to make a decision before dawn. Either we keep marching east, or we figure out what’s happening in that mountain.”

  Alex didn’t wait for permission. He stepped forward, sweeping his gaze across the gathered men and women. “You all saw it. The villagers weren’t just extra friendly, they were afraid. Afraid of us maybe, sure, but more afraid of us sticking around. Something’s in that mountain, and it’s big enough to put an entire town on edge. That means one of two things: a treasure, or a beast. Either way, it’s worth something.”

  He spread his hands. “You all want coin? You all want loot? Then this is it. You’re not going to find a better payout guarding wagons and scraping through wolf-drake packs.” He looked at the mercenaries. “And you know you’re already making twice what your wagon goods are worth on those basilisk parts, while this could be an even bigger haul than that.”

  A ripple of mutters went around the circle, some considering, others frowning.

  Was Alex talking out of his ass, yes, of course. He really didn’t care what sort of coin they could make, as much as he cared about the chance of coming across a rare natural treasure, or a super rare monster whose carved up parts would mean him being able to form a new enchantment or [Glyphcraft] item.

  Ghrukk rumbled a laugh and slammed a fist into his palm, his tusks glinting in the firelight. “Now that’s the spirit. You don’t win anything in this world playing safe. My team’s with you, Alex. If there’s glory or treasure to be had, we’ll take the risk.” His crew nodded behind him, grim but eager.

  But not everyone was convinced.

  Beithin huffed as he crossed his arms in front of himself “And if it’s not treasure? If it’s a beast we can’t handle? We’ve already lost people. Too many.”

  A merchant on the caravan, red-faced and sweating, shook his head furiously. “No. Absolutely not. We hired you to protect our wagons, not chase glory in some mountains. We can’t afford to waste time. The roads get worse the longer we linger.”

  The leader of the final mercenary squad stepped in smoothly, a human woman in thick plate mail and sporting a set of claw-mark scars running down her jaw. She spoke stiffly, her tone clipped. “He’s right. We’ve already pushed our luck. The Basilisk Mother, the Glassfangs, the Stonehide Gnasher… any one of those could’ve ended us. Taking another risk now? It’s madness.”

  The group split down the middle, dissent rising. Some were tempted by Alex’s pitch, by the thought of rare beast cores, unique natural treasure and thick aether crystal veins waiting to be mined. Others only saw more graves dug into roadside dirt.

  The argument went on for some minutes before it was broken when Eric finally raised his voice. “Enough!”

  The circle quieted. He looked at Alex, then to Ghrukk, then back to the captains. “If we’re split, then we split. Maybe we make it so that the caravan keeps heading east while Alex, our squad, and Ghrukk’s will stay behind. We’ll investigate. If there’s nothing worth staying for, we catch up later. If there is…” he let the pause linger, “then we’ll all be glad someone took the risk.”

  The merchants muttered, reluctant but resigned. The mercenaries gave sharp nods, more likely than not already mentally dividing themselves into who was willing to go and who wasn’t.

  Alex exhaled, tension loosening in his chest as he caught Holly’s quick smirk and Garret’s thumbs-up from further off to the side. Even Ghrukk gave him a tusky grin. “You’d better be right about this, human-demon. Because if we find nothing, I’ll hold you personally responsible for wasting my time.”

  Alex only smiled faintly. “Then let’s make sure we find something.”