Ash descended the stone steps of the hidden monastery of the monks of the order of the flying sandal. He was headed to see Ryparin, who still lay in rest. He was not dead, but he was not alive either. Whatever spell the cleric had cast on himself as he plummeted to the earth after riding an enemy drake all the way to the ground, it had preserved his body but perhaps not his spirit or mind. He lay in stasis, and Ash visited him from time to time.
On this visit, Ash’s new teacher, Big Shoe, was already in Ryparin’s resting chamber when Ash arrived. Ash wondered if he had become predictable in his visits. But with all the others gone, he felt alone now.
“There is no change in this one,” Big Shoe said, feeling Ryparin’s chi as Ryparin laid on an ornate stone table in the centre of a high-ceilinged, domed room.
Ash merely nodded. He did not know what to say. He had not expected to find Ryparin awake, if that is what Big Shoe meant.
A long silence hung as both monks circled the cleric.
“I am sorry for the state of your friend,” Big Shoe eventually said. “Did the purple witch not warn you that everyone close to her suffers while she does not?”
Ash nodded yes.
“And has this man here not suffered terribly in her service? Possessed by a demon for twenty years? Denied any reward for his service… now like this?”
Ash nods again.
“Does this not make you uncomfortable to have sworn yourself to this spellcaster’s daughter?”
Ash shrugs. “Something about it feels right.”
Big Shoe grunts. “I wonder what Ryparin would say if he could speak”
—————
After the Battle of Tama Yor, as the locals called the local prison and jade mine camps where the battle was fought, and the kumate between the vile Tongueater and the new Lord Ash, things changed quickly.
Tongueater lingered around defeated for a while but eventually requested permission to live in the mountains as a hermit which Lord Ash graciously granted. He was, after all, now a Living Lantern of Light, and Tongueater quickly became a husk of his former self with that magic no longer within him.
Lord Ash ordered the immediate end to all slavery and in particular the use of skins by apes to mine jade. He tasked Kildrak and Zymaan with dismantling Tongueater’s former operations. No more skins mining for jade. No more smelting the jade from the surrounding stone. No more distilling green mana from the jade. No more poisonous vines snaking through the jungle carrying green mana to monkey maker machines.
Lord Ash came to learn that Grandmaster Fu had in fact commissioned the creation of the monkey makers as a means of creating armies of monkeys against which to train in preparation for what later became Meat Grinder Rock. As it was now, however, the mass production of monkeys was no longer required or wanted. And the slavery of skins had to stop. Lord Ash put an end to both.
The freed skins were in unhealthy condition and needed medical attention, organization and much other assistance. Lord Ash tasked Valaria and Nyneve with these responsibilities, who immediately set about settling new human camps (or “skin camps” as the monkeys called them) in the jungle, and they did their best to start new lives for these suddenly freed people.
The ending of the poisonous vines through the jungle was deeply appreciated by the Druid that Janaar and Proxen met in the course of their journey together through the jungle. Their part of the bargain done, Janaar and Proxen had since departed with the Druid to claim as their reward a heartwood tree that would soon form the main mast of the Sea Ghost and imbue the entire ship with new magical abilities!
Everyone missed Grim and worried for his well-being. He had disappeared in a flash of light with Benedict after Benedict had shown impressive martial skill in his attempt to kill Nyneve in dragon form. Nyneve had been pierced by a spear Benedict had thrown and was hurt, but she recovered quickly with Valaria’s help.
Once again the party is split. Lord Ash is with the monks of the order of the flying sandal training under Big Shoe. Ryparin has not woken since his mighty leap in the final combat. Kildrak and Zymaan are out in the jungle dismantling Tongueater’s former operations. Valaria and Nyneve are establishing new human settlements in the name of Lord Ash. Janaar and Proxen are off on an adventure together to procure a magic tree.
This a time of peace. But trouble brews.
DMA
[A light start to get me going again. More to come.]