All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 109: Children of the Void

As our caravan trundled along, I watched over the small humans from my merch on the cart. Beatrice pulled us along as the other women trudged along beside. Meanwhile, Tony made good progress clearing the path behind us.

He wasn’t very high level, was he? Based on his interactions with Beatrice, at least. So it stood to reason that he wouldn't need as much experience to level up. He just needed something to fight or clean. And looking around, I saw nothing but dirt.

A couple of exchanges with Beatrice later, she understood my plan and lent him her broom. After setting me back up in the cart, all the children and I watched as Tony swept the road clear behind us. Well, he tried. The ground itself was mostly made of dirt, but he was able to at least move a lot of the small rocks out of the road. That had to count for something, right?

Sure enough, he soon stopped, smiled, and gave me a thumbs-up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to return the gesture, but I waved excitedly in return. This was good news!

For a moment, he slung the broom across his shoulders with a thoughtful expression on his face. Then he jogged over to Beatrice, taking the yoke from her. He wasn't able to move nearly as fast as she was, but it was better than before. Either way, it was worth doing and gave her a bit of a break. She rested for a few minutes before she took half the yoke, and they started working together. Now we were moving at a much faster pace, but still one the women could maintain.

***

The first two days of travel were relatively peaceful. The group just walked for hours at a slow pace, taking breaks often to let the two mules rest. Beatrice and Tony were good sports about the whole thing and even got the children to mostly stay focused on them, greatly diminishing the escape attempts. I only had to stop a kid from climbing over the side of the cart 3.2 times an hour on average.

We were about halfway to the castle when we reached our first real obstacle. A massive tree had fallen across the road, blocking our progress. Beatrice and Tony both tried to move it together, but it would barely move as it was wedged between what looked like tall cedars on either side of the road. After it was clear that neither of them could move the trunk more than a foot without it rolling back into place, I decided to help.

Clearly, I wouldn't be able to move it, either. But I had other options. First, I would need to free the tree. Activating my sanitation lamp, I started cutting into the trunks of the cedars on either side of the path. It only took me a few minutes before the first one began to creak and tilt dangerously. Thankfully, I used my models to find the best angle to cut and predict the tall trunk’s trajectory on the way down. As it crashed harmlessly into the forest, the earth shook, causing everyone to jump.

After the first tree fell, I realized there might be an issue. That cedar hadn't been the only one trapping the blockage. The tree extended far into the forest, and I would need to cut down dozens of trees before the one ahead of us was free. I was thinking about this wrong. Trees had to fall on roads all the time. If humans needed to do this to clear them every time, nothing would ever get done.

I reconsidered my approach a bit. The tree fell in our way, and we needed to move it. To do that, we needed to cut down the other trees. Oh. I paused. I'm an idiot.

We didn't need to move the whole tree blocking our way, just the part we needed to go through. I could just remove the part in the middle of the road. Still, it kind of felt like leaving the job about half done. This wasn't something that I was really fond of, but it seemed necessary to take the shortcut right now as we were in a bit of a time crunch. I wasn’t sure how much longer the kids would stay still for, and I didn’t want them climbing the trees to be felled.

I started to cut the tree into 1 foot thick cylinders that would be easy to roll out of the way. It was a simple and fairly straightforward process, and I was done in just a few minutes. As I let my sanitation lamp rest and surveyed the charred pieces of wood, I realized that everyone was staring at me. Huh. What did all that look like from an outside perspective, I wonder?

---

Bee watched her master vent its fury on a tree in the forest, feeling it with ease. She had no idea that it was so impatient. What great task were they delaying with their slow progress home?

She considered her recent massive experience gain. It finally got her to level 35 and even all the way to level 36. All that just from moving the cart of children. Actually, now that she thought of it, Void had been spending a lot of its precious time with the children, specifically the children without their mothers. It had also spent a lot of time with Tony's younger siblings, and she had often found her master watching over them. When it wasn't cleaning, the most likely place she could find her master was rescuing one of the children from their antics.

Could Void be the patron of lost children also? It was possible. Marnina was customarily considered the god of children, but her actual domain was family. The direction her thoughts were taking sent chills down her spine. Was it really as she and Tony had discussed? Were they witnessing the ascension of a new god?

There were legends of how the current pantheon had made themselves known. Terthamile had come in a comet and wandered the world slaying demons for centuries before he had begun to gain followers. Of course, finding the Lieutenant had thrown them all in doubt. But if that were the case, it would make a lot of sense. Void was upset because they were trying to rescue all the children, and each day they spent on the road was another day they were still in danger.

Cleanliness, Lost Children, and a Hatred of Stairs. That was… quite the collection of domains. It seemed that one tree was enough to satisfy her master's frustrations though, as it calmly started cutting the tree in the way with its terrifying beam attack. Once it made the first couple of cuts, she and Tony started to roll away the pieces and push them out of the road. By the time they had the wooden disks off to the side of the road, the other half of the blockage was ready for them to move.

The whole delay had only taken fifteen minutes, but it had impressed on her how important this trip was to her master. She should warn her fellow devotee about her findings. "Tony, I think there is one more thing to Void's ideals, other than cleaning and hating stairs."

Tony grunted as he strained against the cart. Sweat was starting to run down his temples as he strained, making his hair glisten black into the sun. Taking that for an acknowledgment, she continued. "I know you have been getting a lot of experience recently, and I think I know why."

"Because I'm doing hard jobs Void asked of me, of course," Tony grunted out through clenched teeth as he braced his muscles. She checked that. Indeed he had just made level 22. No wonder the load felt a bit lighter.

"See, you might think that, but that's not how the Devotee class works." Bee explained as she worked, but unlike Tony, she was barely breathing hard. "You see, the object of your devotion can tell you to do anything but that doesn’t mean you’ll just get experience from it. If Void told you to throw dirt all over the floor, for example, you wouldn't get anything."

"Instead, you get experience for doing things in line with your patron's highest ideals.” Bee searched for an example. “Say you were devoted to the king and he stood for justice, fairness, and other such things. But one day, he had a sudden change of heart and turned into a tyrant instead. His Devotees wouldn't get experience for following his orders - just for doing things related to justice and fairness still. For them to level from following the king’s new orders… Well, we’re not entirely sure on that part. It seems like he would first have to embody being a tyrant fully. Even then, it isn't clear what happens to the existing Devotees, the books have conflicting reports." Bee said.

"Ok. Why do I care?"

"I'm getting to the point. See, Void is always caring for the children but it seems especially attentive of the ones without a mother. I think it might be the patron of lost children." Bee said, glancing around at the women all around them.

"Uh huh?"

"Don't you see? We get experience caring for the children. At least, from trying to protect them. And since this cart is headed towards a safer place, that's why moving it gives us experience!" Bee exclaimed excitedly.

Tony glared at her, and we wiped the sweat from his eyes. "You have entirely too much energy."

Bee was too excited to calm down. "But don't you understand! We can get endless experience! You can only clean things so much, and there are only so many ramps to build. But kids? Kids will always need caring for, so we will have no trouble finding experience points without having to go and fight dangerous monsters. Or cleaning!"

"If you are so concerned with levels, why don't you summon some demons yourself." Tony grumped. Looking over, he saw a gleam in Bee's eyes, "No! Don't actually do that!"

"Hmm, but if Void is around to back us up... Surely that would be safe, right?" Bee mused with a pensive expression.

"I should have kept my cursed mouth shut." Tony mumbled.

----

I sat on the last hill before the caravan reached the castle, watching out for danger. They were almost there, but I wasn't going to let up yet. There had been trouble at the entrance to the castle too many times.

As my two disciples struggled with their burden, the rest of the caravan stumbled alongside them. It had been a hard 5 days for everyone. No one got enough charging time. Not even the kids, even though they were able to sleep somewhat in the cart. Still, they had more energy than the large humans running on chronically low batteries. I wished there was a better option than this, as I knew that low charge wasn't good for long-term battery health.

However, there wasn't any other option. We had been attacked twice on the last day, as we got closer to the castle. Sure they had only been a couple of zombies each time, but that was no guarantee for future attacks. The only time I would feel comfortable was when we were all behind the castle walls.

As the group crested the last hill, I started surveying the treeline behind them. I already checked, and there were no more enemies hiding under the ground like when we left the castle almost two weeks ago. As the gate opened, I sensed movement behind a particularly thick bush. My senses weren't quite strong enough to reach out and tell precisely what it was, but it couldn't be good news.

I launched myself forward with my thrusters, taking advantage of the space between us and the retreating figures to fly across the ground. As I moved, I called out to Beatrice and Tony, telling them to hurry and get everyone inside. Hearing my call, they redoubled their efforts and managed to increase the pace for the last stretch between them and the safety of the walls.

Spinning, I turned to face the approaching threat. I watched nearly a dozen different signatures hiding in the bushes slowly reposition themselves. I would wait until their intentions were clear, but still. Things that hid from us had always been quite aggressive in the past.