101 Chapter One Hundred and One – It Wasn’t a Dream… (1/2)
My kingdom was expanding.
I had two thoughtstreams going full bore, the benefits of a 30 Intellect (28, actually). One did all my normal stuff, and the other was managing the information stream from all those Marks.
In particular, I had asked for and was monitoring the visual input from all the scouts, moving in all directions. In doing so, I was synthesizing their lifelines into my own.
I had a map below me, a track and chart of where I had been since I woke up on that cold, lonely mountainside. It laid out with great precision exactly where I had been and traveled, every inch and step accounted for, a map of marvelous precision that couldn't be rivaled by a cartographer.
Unfortunately, it only tracked where I had been, what I had seen. I had very good estimates on distances, and so I could place mountains and hills, rivers and valleys, forests and clearings, all relative to where I had been.
But, for all the fact that I was such a lethal being, I hadn't actually BEEN anywhere of note. My ersatz progress through the forest after the Valley of the Hags was meticulous, to be sure, but it had a lot of hollow areas around it where I hadn't been, and the area to the North was just a big expanse of nothing.
So, it was time to start pooling our knowledge.
-This is Sama talking. We're going to hold a group meeting here in the morning in just a minute. If you can arrange to take a break from whatever you are doing at that time, we'll get started then. It will only take a few minutes, telepathy goes much, much faster than jaw-jabbering.-
The omni-cast went out, and everyone that was Marked heard it.
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Creeping through the light of dawn, the hunter hissed despite himself, dropping the bow he was holding onto as he clutched his hand, while those words, that voice, echoed in his head. The rabbit he was stalking bounded away, but he didn't care, as something hissed on the back of his hand, a symbol from a distant, dream-like memory congealed and sank into his skin.
A Mark that had been carved upon his soul.
”Sage Sama!” he blurted out in shock.
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Captain Anton Markov had had an illustrious career. He had purchased his officer's ranking young, and proven himself time and again on the borders with the orcs and other feral races.
His brilliance with a spear was unmatched, he commanded his men with the air and experience of a warrior who'd seen a thousand battles, and his tactics were both inspired and instinctive. He demanded utmost discipline from his men, and paid it back with victory after victory, standing firm where other officers fell, having an ability to read and respond to the battlefield that officers decades his senior could not grasp.
The cup of water fell from his hand as that voice from his dreams stole through his mind, as calm and fearless as he had ever imagined.
It had been a long time since he dreamt of that voice and its owner, of doing battle against countless foes, of valiant death in battle. Those endless dreams had driven him to where he was today, none of the horrors he had faced ever matching what he had done battle against before.
”S-Sage Sama?!” he called out in shock, tearing off the gauntlet he'd put on his right hand a moment ago.
Three Marks, harsh black figures limned and centered with white, waited on his strong right arm.
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Knight-Captain Boryars slowly lifted the edge of the stiff leather undergarment on his chess, pulling it back up over his head as his squire watched in disbelief. The grim Captain strode over to the mirror in his tent, and stared at the Marks emblazoned up the center of his torso.
”Gut, gullet, and heart,” he whispered, remembering those words as these things had been emblazoned on him in a distant dream. ”Sage Sama!”
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-Sage Sama!-
-Sage Sama!!-
-Sage Sama!!!-
My mindscape thundered as literally thousands of voices all rang out at once.
And I recognized all of them. How could I not?
I had Marked every one of them. I had fought beside them in thousands of battles. I had watched them die, and watched them come back over and over again, to fight once more.
Of course I knew them all...