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Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine Anne climbed aboard the carriage, then adjusted her apron and cloak as she sat down. Elain’e followed her in, then Newt stuck her head into the compartment and looked around. There was a small slit open on her head, and a small antenna dish stuck out of it while spinning. “Interior secure. I will sit at the front of the carriage to observe and protect,” she said before moving back and shutting the door with a heavy click.“Where are we going, exactly?” Anne asked.“There are five clans that make up the leadership of Not Evilia,” Elain’e said. “The necromancers are one of those. They’re the newest of the five major clans. A bit brash, but I think that’s just part of their nature.”“Necromancers,” Anne repeated. “As in, scary people with skeletons and ghouls and such?”Elain’e shrugged. “I never found them scary. A bit socially awkward, if anything. And yes, they do like their ghouls and zombies and the like. Skeletons are more of a M’ango clan thing, actually. As well as vampiric thralls.”“Um,” Anne said.Elain’e reached over the gap between them and patted Anne on the knee. “Don’t worry. We just need to warn them. I don’t know what kind of army the Dark Lord sent here, but it can’t be all that numerous. With the necromancers and the warewolves alerted, they’ll find it a lot harder to take the city that they think.”“I hope so,” Anne said.She leaned back and then raised up her chat to read it. There really wasn’t much else to do in a cramped little carriage, even as it started to rumble out of the castle with a small squad of lantern-carrying undead around it.
Twinge Chat!
Gabriel Minoru says: join the m.i.l.f. initiative!
Phantomxz says: I can’t believe people spent money on an apron
Xxcoder says: yeah, try to herd the cats to get something useful
Haduka dakokty says: Mommy poggers
Jake Mania says: Hey mom! I’m still watching you.
Anne smiled. Her little Jake was still looking out for her. “Oh, poor thing. I wish I was back home with you,” she muttered. “But I’ll be back, one day. You take care of yourself now, okay? You should be heading to bed soon, it’s getting late, I imagine.”
Twinge Chat!
Jake Mania says: Mom!
He who travels the stories says: I was a fool to expect anything decent in this chat.
DieOfSanity says: Mom looks good in that apron
Jagartha says: lol mom’s boy is talking
Bradyman50 says: next time we should buy her chocolate chips
Jake Mania says: don’t worry about my sleep schedule when you’re going to this whole war thing. Stay safe.
Anne nodded. “I’ll do my best,” she said.“Talk to your... otherworldly watchers again?” Elain’e asked.“Yes. They seem like a very unruly bunch, but I think they’re mostly nice kids. The apron was a nice gift, and Newt seems very kind too. I... won’t pretend to really understand how all of this is working though.”“Magic is often like that. The more esoteric kinds moreso.” She smiled at Anne who smiled back. “Get some sleep, Anne. We won’t arrive anywhere until morning.”“Alright,” Anne said. But she couldn’t just fall asleep.She was certainly tired. Nearly exhausted even. She hadn’t had a day this exciting in years. But still, for all that she felt safe in the carriage with Newt and Elain’e, her heart was still thumping along as if the next great adventure was right around the corner.Anne shifted on her seat, legs folding up before her and cloak wrapped around like a big blanket. She stared at the chat, moving up in starts and fits. The numbers had dipped just a little bit. Probably the late hour, she imagined. Or people losing interest in her strange little adventure.
Twinge Chat!
Kotekj says: Mom has a good sense of humour
The God-Emperor says: Hi mom. I’m a naughty boy.
Daystar1998 says: I don’t know what to say to help. This is interactive, right?
ChristopherCraven says: Yeah
Phantom says: The world avoided death by mountain because someone bought a flying android. The graphics are too good for it to be a game. What is this?
MC of my World says: Mom got cockblocked by the dark lord!
Zilfallion says: We should get some AA guns
Legal Ruler says: lol
hoduka dakokty says: lol
Xxcoder says: lol
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Anne sighed. The chat was moving along, but it wasn’t being terribly helpful.“Boys,” she said. The chat started to move a little faster, though they were mostly saying that ‘mom’ was paying attention to them. “Boys, we need something to take care of that fleet.”That sparked an argument, one that she saw Jake valiantly trying to moderate with mild success. At least he was trying, even if he should have been in bed already.“Do you think they’ll find a solution?” Elain’e asked.“I hope so,” Anne said as she leaned back. “I can’t for the life of me think of a way to deal with a whole fleet. It’s just... so much. Too much, even. And at this kind of hour.”“We’ll figure it out,” Elain’e said. “The people of Not Evilia have faced plenty of challenges in the past. We’re a tough sort of people.”“You certainly are,” Anne said.Elain’e reached over to one of the books in the middle of a bookstack, turned it into a card, then cast the card the moment it was clear of the stack. She opened the book up and flipped through it. “Right, a small primer on local history then. Not Evilia was founded with the backing of five clans.”“Yours was one of them,” Anne filled in. It had been a long time since she had a history lesson, let alone one taught to her by someone who had a hard time holding up a tome.“Yes. The M’ango family was part of those five. The others are the Necromancer’s association. They’re more of a guild, really. The warewolves, a mercantile group of werewolves who were exiled from Generica. The kobold clan, who serve under the great Pear, and the under-mountain minotaur clan, who escaped from the Drylands. Five groups, five very different backgrounds. They came together here and founded a new city, a new civilization.”“Why did they leave their old homes?” Anne asked. She glanced up as she heard a tap against the wooden roof, then another and another. Soon there was a light drizzle coming down atop them.Elain’e snorted. “Religions, and humanity in general, tend to not be tolerant of anyone that isn’t just like them. The elves are, if anything, worse.”“Oh,” Anne said. There was something uncomfortable about having someone so young be so nihilistic. “Should we get a cloak for Newt? She’s going to be cold out there.”“If she’s truly a golem of one sort or another, then she’ll be fine,” Elain’e said. “Though I wouldn’t begrudge her staying in here with us. I’ve never seen an automaton quite so well articulated, and while it’s not my area of expertise, I wouldn’t mind see how she works.”“We’ll see how she feels,” Anne said. She made a note not to leave the two girls in the same room together while alone. She could vividly remember a smaller Jake taking apart her alarm clock.The air before her twisted, and Anne gasped as a card appeared out of thin air. She caught it in both hands, then squinted at it. “The Weatherator,” she said.“The what?” Elain’e asked.“It looks like something from a cartoon,” Anne said. The image was of a large, boxy device with a handlebar on the side covered in whirly thingamajigs. It reminded her of some of the ‘mad science’ things from Jake’s cartoons. The front of it had a screen next to some dials.“May I see it?” Elain’e asked.“It looks pretty small,” Anne said. She frowned, then cast the card.The weatherator landed on her lap, and she picked it up before a bounce on the road could send it tumbling to the floor. The machine had a few lights on it that started to flicker, and a the vacuum tubes jutting out of its side started to glow.“What is it?” Elain’e asked.“I think,” Anne said as she turned it this way and that. The screen read ‘currently cloudy with a chance of rain.’ “I think it’s a machine to control the weather?”“Truly?” Elain’e asked.Anne grabbed the biggest knob on the device, then twisted it a little. The screen clicked through a few options before she settled on ‘cloudless.’It took all of twenty seconds for the rain to stop and for the world outside of the carriage-which was turning darker as night approached-to brighten. “Oh my. This would have been very handy back home. What with putting the laundry out to hang.”
* * *
The audience has: 127 Points!
Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten “We’re here,” Elain’e said before flicking the curtain over the windows closed. She hopped off her seat, then grabbed onto it as the carriage rumbled to a stop.“Alright, best foot forwards,” Anne said. “We don’t want to make a poor impression. Even if it’s a little late.”“Oh, don’t worry, the necromancers here don’t have any concept of when it is or isn’t appropriate to do anything,” Elain’e said. She opened the door and hopped out, Anne following her at a more sedate and careful pace. Elain’e might have been able to bounce and jump around all day, but Anne wasn’t a teenager anymore. It had been a long time since she’d been able to just casually move around without worrying about twisting an ankle or pulling something.“Oh, this is a... nice place,” Anne said.When Elain’e had told her they were going to visit some necromancers, Anne had built a certain mental image about what their place would look like. Perhaps it had been affected by the M’ango estate.She expected a castle, dark and foreboding, or perhaps an ancient temple or even a large cavern stuck into the side of some large mountain.She was not expecting what was essentially three boxy buildings set in a sort of semi-circle. They looked more like college dorms than foreboding, brooding places where the dead were raised.“It’s the middle one,” Elain’e said with a gesture to said building. “The other two are their living spaces. The middle building’s where they do all their experimenting and their... playing.”A thump by Anne’s side announced Newt’s arrival. “I’m by your side, Mistress,” the gynoid said.“Thanks, Newt,” Anne said.They left the carriage behind and headed towards the middlemost building. Some of the windows had lights on within, and Anne noticed some forms shambling by. It might have been spooky, but the experior was well-lit by streetlamps, and the lawns around the area were well-trimmed and cared for.Elain’e walked right up to the door, then pulled a cord next to it. A bell tolled within. Not an ominous, deep toll, but rather a lacklustre clanking that told people that they had guests.Anne was increasingly underwhelmed by the necromancer’s compound.“Yes, hello?” The door opened and a young man stuck his head out. He was in his late teens, with greasy hair and a slight acne problem. He was also wearing office clothes, though his tie was crooked. He stared first at Anne, then at her chest, then at Newt, and finally at a very unamused Elain’e. “Uh.”“Hello, Joshua,” Elain’e said. “I need to talk to everyone.”“Oh, hey, it’s Elain’e,” the young man said. He smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “What are you doing here at this hour?”“Joshua,” Elain’e said. “I need to talk to everyone. Now.”“Uh, come on in?” he said before stepping back from the doorway. “I’ll go get, um, everyone.”Anne watched the boy run off then glanced down at Elain’e. “He was a little strange.”“Everyone here is more than a little strange. Joshua once tried to... woo me. I put him in his place in as memorable a way as I could manage. I don’t think he’ll ever forget.”“Oh,” Anne said. The boy was... far too old to be trying anything of the sort with Elain’e, no matter how old she claimed to be. Anne’s impression of him decreased quite a bit.They stepped into a lobby space, then pushed through into a large open room with couches arranged in a circle in the middle and two fireplaces on opposite ends. A staircase at the rear led up to a floor above, and a blackboard on wheels sat in the middle of the room with all sorts of doodles on its surface.Anne jumped as someone shambled into the room. A zombie, she guessed from the way they moved and the fact that part of their head was missing. They were wearing a maid’s outfit, and someone had tied a duster to their hand which they waved around at the shelves hanging off the walls.Said shelves were covered in small statuettes of mythical creatures and women in intricately designed armour.It reminded her a little of a richer, classier version of her Jake-i-poo’s bedroom.The sounds of people coming down the stairs had Anne paying a bit more attention. There were four of them, and Anne had to wonder if all the clans and factions were that small. The four were dressed in button-up shirts and slacks, with ties hanging before them. It looked a little out of place, but Anne wasn’t going to comment.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.“Where’s the rest of you?” Elain’e asked.Joshua rubbed at the back of his neck. “Ah, well, we’re the ones who are awake. Higgins is in his lab. Marie’s asleep. A few of the others are in the city. You know, you didn’t exactly send a letter telling me you’d come.”“Fine,” Elain’e said. “Why are you all dressed like that?”“Oh! We’re doing a live-action role play session upstairs. Offices and Organizers. It’s where we-”He stopped as Elain’e raised a hand. “No. No, forget I asked,” Elain’e said.“Yeah, okay,” Joshua said.Anne felt a little bad for him. It was strange for someone who was an adult to be playing pretend, but as long as they weren’t hurting anyone, she didn’t really mind it. He seemed rather shy, and his friends were no better.“Well, the four of you will have to do,” Elain’e said.“Do what, exactly?” One of the other boys asked. “And who are your pretty friends, Elain’e?” The other boys chuckled in that way boys did.“This is the Hero Anne,” Elain’e said. “She’s a summon from another world, called here by ancient magics to defeat the Dark Lord. And that’s an automaton she... made after arriving here. It’s name is Newt.”“Salutation!” Newt said.“Hello,” Anne said. “I’m hardly all that much of a hero, really. Just a single mom, doing her best.”One of the boys walked over to Anne and tried to tower over her, but he was a few centimetres too short to pull it off. “A hero, Elain’e, really?” he asked.Anne reached up, licked the pad of her tongue, then carefully grabbed the boy’s face with her other hand and rubbed a spot off his cheek. “Ink stains. And all over your shirt too. You shouldn’t chew your pens young man. It’s bad for your teeth.”The others snickered and Elain’e sighed. “I don’t have time to explain everything to you morons.”“Hey!” Joshua said. “We’re not morons. We’re the proud members of the necromancer’s guild, one of the five leading organizations that run the equally proud nation of Not Evilia.”“Newt,” Elain’e said. “Can you show us what you saw?”“Certainly, pseudo-daughter Elain’e,” Newt said. She turned towards the wall with the fewest things on it and projected the same footage of ships in the distance.The necromancers seemed suitably impressed. “Whoa! That illusion is incredible.”“Imagine the potential!”“You could set something like that up over a game board, have changing landscapes. Or projects like... why are you looking at me ly that, Elain’e?”Elain’e glared, then pointed to the projection. “That’s what Newt saw near the border into Not Evilia a few hours ago. Airships. Airships with the Dark Lord’s mark on their bows and flags who are heading right for Not Evilia as we speak.”“Oh,” Joshua said.The boys all froze for a long moment before one of them spoke up. “That’s not good.”“Of course it’s not good, you morons!” Elain’e snapped. “We’re about to be invaded. Probably tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest, and no one is expecting it. We need to mobilize, to prepare for war!”“That’s why you’re here?” Joshua asked. “To warn us. Because you want our troops! ““Yes,” Elain’e said.“What about your clan, what are you bringing to the table?” One of the boys asked.Elain’e glare grew even more fierce, and some cards appeared in her hands. “I’m bringing you advance warning, and a hero with powerful magic. All you guys can bring are a few rotten corpses to slow them down while we do all the work. Don’t start playing that game with me, boy. You’re a hundred years too young to play politics on my level.”Anne folded her hands together. “Um, it really would be nice if all of your boys helped us. We could use a few strong, strapping lads to, ah, hold the line and show us how tough they are.”The boys looked between each other, then elected Joshua as spokesperson.“Okay,” he said. “We’ll wake up the dead. Show that Dark Lord what we can do. Just you wait, we’re sure to impress!”
* * *
The audience has: 156 Points!
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