IDWTBTHQ Chapter 77 - Quarrel in the Quarry

Stonebarrow was a rather small village, consisting only of about a dozen houses all facing on the main road with a small square in the middle. The only noteworthy thing about it was that all the buildings were mostly made out of stone, which made sense since this was a mining town.

The quarry was a few hundreds meters from the village, dug into the side of a wood-covered hill like a huge bite mark left by a colossal creature.

After leaving Klara and Felix at the village with the rest of the caravan, Marcus went straight for the quarry, accompanied by Hoggs and a small host of drones to serve as his bodyguards. In addition he also sent his Flyers out to scout the surrounding area, in order to make sure that he wasn’t walking straight into a trap. But after taking a good look through the eyes of his drones, it seemed that the surrounding countryside was devoid of any goblin, save for the one waiting for him in the middle of the quarry who was surrounded by four human knights, Belinda included. Judging from that the humanoid didn’t seem to pose a serious threat, but Marcus still decided to err on the side of caution and keep his distance while talking. 

As he proceeded towards the meeting, he mentally rehearsed what he was going to say.

“I've got to talk as little as possible, that's for sure.” He thought. “The less things I say, the smaller the chance that I accidentally reveal something that could be used against me. So I'm gonna let the goblin do the talking and no matter what he'll say, I'm still gonna keep a cool head. Yep. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be an immovable wall of stoicism.”

“Is everything all right, lady Marcus?” Hoggs suddenly asked, interrupting his thoughts. “You look kind of nervous.”

“I'm fine.” Marcus replied. “Just trying to think of what to say to the goblin. And just call me Marcus, please.”

“Very well, Marcus.” The old man nodded. “If you wish, though, I could do the talking for you.”

“Do not worry.” the Vex Queen said. “I can do it. Just stay with me and correct me if I say anything wrong, ok?”

“Ok.” The telemancer replied. “I'll support you as much as I can, then.”

“Thank you, Hoggs.” Marcus said with a smirk. But even then, a hint of anxiety kept showing on his face.

The two kept walking and in a few minutes they finally reached the quarry, finding themselves face to face with the goblin and the knights that accompanied him.

The Vex Queen immediately recognized the rest of the knights. Apart from Belinda, the others were a young, blond girl wearing a chainmail, a tall woman in full plate who carried an halberd and finally the lean woman with short, black hair that had noticed Marcus' resemblance to Sarah. They formed a square around the goblin, with their hands on their weapons and carefully scanning the surrounding area in search of any possible danger, and they didn’t say a word when Hoggs and Marcus approached, remaining as quiet and still as they could.

Since the women seemed to be content acting as silent bodyguards, Marcus focused on the goblin they were guarding. It was a rather tall human-hob and was wearing a simple but clean tunic, and at first sight there was nothing outstanding about it. However, the more he stared at the humanoid the more he picked up details that set him apart from his kin. His posture was straight, his mannerism calm and controlled, and his eyes gleamed in equal measure with intelligence and confidence.

Marcus and Hoggs stopped at about ten meters from the knights, and the drones spread out, forming a protecting semicircle around their Queen. Only then Marcus took a step ahead, putting himself right in front of the goblin, and waiting for him to talk.

“Greetings!” The humanoid said, bowing politely. His voice was rich and charismatic, the voice of a leader. “My name is Trakk, General of the United Goblin Tribes. Are you the one called Marcus, the Queen of the Vex?”

“I am.” Marcus replied coldly, without adding anything else and remaining stubbornly silent while giving Trakk an hostile gaze. After a few seconds, the Goblin General nodded slightly and resumed talking.

“It recently came to my knowledge that you and your subjects have been given territories adjacent to our own.” The General continued, choosing to ignore the hostility of its host. “And since we are to be neighbours I came to greet you as good manners demands.”

“In that case he could have at least brought a pie, or a bottle of wine.” Marcus thought sarcastically.

“Good. You have greeted me now.” He replied with an icy voice. “Do you have anything else to say or are we done?”

The goblin general paused for a second and stared at him for a moment.

“Actually, I'd like to converse a bit with you before returning to my territories.” The humanoid finally said, his voice no less polite than before despite his host's open rudeness. “Just to set up the basis for a peaceful coexistence. There are many things we do not know about each other, and it'd be ideal to make things clear before we each go our way.”

“Just stay away from my lands, and I'll stay away from yours. Is that clear enough?” The Vex Queen said with an adamant voice.

“Crystal.” Trakk replied. “But still, there are a few other questions I'd like to ask you. First of all, are you the same creature that has attacked one of our outposts about seven months ago? The reports I've received described someone that looked very much like you.”

Marcus hesitated, thinking of his first contact with the goblins. Hard to believe it had only been seven months. It felt like a lifetime.

“No, I am not the one that attacked your outpost.” He then replied sarcastically. “I am the one that tried to approach peacefully and was attacked without any provocation.”

Nemi, the knight with the short, black hair, snickered at this remark, earning a reproaching stare from Belinda, but Trakk didn't answer immediately. For the first time since the start of their conversation he was clearly taken by surprise, but he recovered almost immediately.

“I am truly sorry to hear that.” He said, apparently accepting the Vex Queen's declaration as true. “But I fear that was inevitable. As you surely know by now the Caligare Forest is a very dangerous place, as almost all of the creatures that inhabit it are far from friendly, so our guards were justifiably wary of any possible threat. They probably misunderstood your intentions when you approached them, and attacked you in the spur of the moment.”

“That is understandable.” Marcus nodded, his voice growing cold. “But what is less understandable is that you hunted me afterwards. Even though I was not approaching you anymore.”

“Well, by that point you had already killed a few of our people, so we considered you a threat.” Trakk explained. “When we discovered your nest we tried to destroy it, that's true, but we would have done the same with any colony of hostile creatures found near our city. It was nothing personal, I assure you. We were merely doing what we could to survive.”

“Well, it was personal to me!” The Vex Queen snarled with clear outrage in his voice, and Hoggs cautiously cleared his throat to catch his attention. Marcus turned towards the telemancer, who gestured to him to calm down, and after a second he got the hint and took a deep breath, forcing himself to rein in his anger.

“I understand your point of view.” The goblin replied meanwhile. “But sadly, this is a harsh world. We are forced to be ruthless in order to survive, as unpleasant as that is.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I'm not here to make excuses. It's a shame that we got off on the wrong foot, but right now we are allies, and it's in everyone's best interest if we put our hostilities behind us for the time being.” He stared Marcus right in the eyes. “The orcs are coming. We didn't lie about that, and we need to collaborate with each other if we want to survive.” He smiled sardonically and then added: “And afterwards, when we won't be constantly struggling for our survival in a savage land, maybe we goblins will be able to afford being more merciful and civilized. Personally, nothing would please me more.”

Marcus remained silent, since he didn't know how to reply to these words. He hated to admit it, but he couldn't find any fault in Trakk's logic, at least so far.

He'd be damned if he openly agreed with the little gray bastard though. Not after he'd seen so many people die during the siege of Brettholz. And to make things worse, the reason the goblins had attacked to begin with, at least according to what Eisen had told him, was just because they wanted an advantage during the negotiations!

And just like that, he found a flaw in the goblin general's reasoning. Something he could exploit to bring the smug humanoid down a notch.

“Those seem to be nice words.” He said in a bitter tone. “But your actions tell a different story. You are only interested in your own gain, and you have clearly shown it by attacking Brettholz. So, if betraying us would be more convenient than keeping your word, you would do it. That means that you can’t be trusted.”

“You don't need to worry about that.” Trakk said while making a sad smirk. “It's unlikely that the orcs would offer us anything better than promising to chew before they swallow us.”

“But what if they do?” Marcus insisted. “What if they do make you a better offer?”

Trakk didn’t answer right away, seemingly taking his time to seriously think about the matter. Meanwhile Marcus stared at him right in the eyes, focusing as much as he could on the goblin's presence, trying to discern any falsehood in the goblin's next words using his telepathy. 

Then, the general finally spoke.

“Even in that case, I wouldn't betray you.”

To the Vex Queen’s instinct, those words ringed completely true.

“Why?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Because I trust the humans to keep their word more than I trust the orcs.” Trakk replied. “For all their faults, as a rule of thumb the human rulers usually honor their agreements, as long as they put them on paper and sign them first.” He smirked. “They may be always ready to take advantage of any loophole, but outright breaking a contract is not something they would normally do. It would be dishonorable, and human nobles greatly value their honor, or at least they value appearing honorable.”

“So... you wouldn't betray us because you consider us more trustworthy than the orcs, is that what you are saying?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I consider the humans more trustworthy than the orcs at least.” The goblin general replied with a smile. “I still don't know enough about you Vex to have an opinion. In fact one of the reasons for my visit is to ascertain whether or not we can trust you.”

The Vex Queen flinched at that remark. Sure, by now he had kind of gotten used to the fact that he wasn't human anymore, but being reminded of it so casually somehow felt like a slap in the face.

And like a spark falling on a barrel of gunpowder, that little shock somehow caused all of Marcus's pent up anger to blow up. How dared the little gray bastard be so goddamn preachy!?! It was him and his god-forsaken kin that had started the conflict, bringing death and suffering both for him and for the people of Brettholz! And instead of paying for their misdeeds, they were given some lands and a general pardon! Sure, there had been many practical reasons for that leniency, but that absolutely didn't give the goblin any right to act as if he had the moral high ground!

Marcus couldn't contain his anger any longer. Like steam blowing out of a kettle, he started venting his fury with his words.

“Trust me?” He snarled. “Trust me?” He repeated, his voice getting higher, and a flock of birds suddenly flew away from the surrounding woods, as if something had scared them. “You and your people have tried to kill me! You have invaded Brettholz! You have killed innocent people that were just trying to defend their homes!” He narrowed his eyes, gazing at the goblin with fury. “And after all that, you still dare question my trustworthiness?”

As he spoke, the Vex Queen noticed with some grim satisfaction that Trakk seemed to be quite intimidated, having gotten pale and taking a few steps back. But then he realized that the humans were also looking very alarmed. All of the knights had put their hands on their weapons and were staring at him as if he was a growling, dangerous beast.

The one that had it worse, however, was Hoggs. The telemancer had gotten even more pale than the goblin and was shaking like a leaf, with his eyes wide open and his mouth gaping. He seemed to be trying to say something, but no sound came out of his throat.

A suspicion started to form inside Marcus's head.

“Wait! Am I causing all this?” He thought. “Shitshitshit! Calm down Marcus! Calm down! Stop broadcasting your anger like some sort of pissed off radio station!”

He took a deep breath, forcing all of his anger back inside, and all the other people present relaxed visibly. Hoggs stopped trembling, although he still looked shaken, and the alarm slowly faded from the goblin's and the knights' eyes.

“Seems like it really was me.” Marcus thought, feeling rather ashamed. “A case of frigging telepathic incontinence! Wonderful! That's just what I needed: another embarrassing thing to worry about!”

“Uhm... sorry about that.” He muttered. “I think I... uh... lost control of myself for a moment.”

No one replied, and what followed were a few seconds of incredibly deep, awkward and uncomfortable silence.

Unsurprisingly, the first one to recover was the Goblin General.

“Well… To be fair, we didn’t actually betray anyone’s trust.” He corrected Marcus, trying to act as if nothing had happened. “After all, we didn’t have any previous agreement with Medelan.” He paused for a moment, noticing that the Vex Queen was getting angry again, and quickly added: “But I think I can understand how you feel. My kind did try to kill you and we did attack your allies. Your hostility towards us is completely justified, I won’t deny it. But I’m not asking you to like us, I’m merely asking you to collaborate with us to fight a common enemy. And as for trusting us… if you can’t trust us personally, you can at least trust our self-interest. I’ve already listed to you all the reasons why we benefit more from honoring our alliance with the humans than betraying it.”

Marcus didn’t reply right away, as he was feeling deeply conflicted. Rationally, he knew that the goblin was probably right, but right now he felt too angry to actually listen to reason. He just wanted to deck the smarmy little bastard in the face. 

Then, Hoggs, who had recovered in the meanwhile, got closer and put his hand on the Vex Queen’s shoulder, and somehow that gesture greatly calmed him down, allowing him to think with a clear head once again.

“Very well.” He replied. “I will try to collaborate with you against the orcs, but in exchange you must stay away from my territory. If you do not cause trouble for long enough, maybe I will trust you a bit.”

“Especially because by then, I won't need to fear you anymore!” He thought.

Trakk, hearing this answer, just nodded grimly.

“That, we can do.” he said. “Try not to take too long in deciding to trust us though. It's vital that we learn to work together before the orcs arrive, otherwise we might be taking our grievances in the grave.”

“I think we should be able to deal with the orcs by then.” Marcus said with confidence. “After all, we have time to prepare for their arrival, and we'll have the support of Medelan too.”

The general let out a small, patronizing chuckle.

“I'd highly advise you not to underestimate the threat posed by the orcs, Lady Marcus.” He said with a sardonic smirk. “If we are not careful, we could easily be defeated.” The smirk vanished from his face, as he became suddenly very serious. “In fact, even with the entirety of Medelan's army on our side, right now I'd say that the odds would be slightly in the orcs' favor.”

“What!?!” Marcus cried in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

Judging from the skeptical faces the other humans were making, he wasn't the only one who found it hard to believe the goblin's word either. Only Belinda seemed to take it seriously, as she suddenly became even more attentive.

“I'm completely serious.” Trakk confirmed. “If the orcs are allowed to win the first engagements, they could gain so much power and momentum that not only Medelan, but the Empire and maybe even the whole world would be in danger.”

“Wait, what do you mean with gain power?” The Vex Queen asked, still trying to make sense of what the general had said.

“Well, in case you didn't know, orcs grow stronger by eating creatures who possess a strong aura.” Trakk explained. “And humans have a rather powerful aura on average, especially their casters and aura users. By feasting on a human army, the orcs would get significantly stronger, and some of them may even transform into ogres, or even worse, onis. And if that happens, then they would truly be nigh unstoppable.”

“If the orcs are so strong, why haven't they taken over the world by now?” Marcus asked, still feeling skeptical. 

“An intelligent question.” The general nodded approvingly. “There are a few reasons for that. First, the ocs are usually too stupid and impulsive to make long-term plans. Second, they are instinctively aggressive and unruly, and forcing them to collaborate in large numbers would require an overwhelming power, in order to scare them into behaving. And third, in the Caligare Forest there are other races that can actually hold their own against them, especially the Rantul and the Piraca.” He paused and his expression turned even more sour. “Sadly, all three of these points have been rendered moot by the appearance of the Blue Terror.”

“The... Blue Terror?” Marcus asked.

“That's what my people call the blue-skinned Oni that has unified the orc tribes under his rule.” The goblin explained. “Not only he's strong and powerful enough to force all other orcs and ogres of the Caligare Forest into submission, but he's also smart enough to organize them into an effective fighting force. And due to the previous two points, it's only a matter of time before he defeats the opposition he faces in the forest and turns his attention to the north.” He suddenly smiled with grim satisfaction. “Luckily, the Rantul and the Piraca have also recently become much stronger, as they too had each been unified under powerful leaders, so the orcs are stuck in a long and bloody campaign instead of a quick and easy one. They are still definitely going to win in the end, since they are significantly more powerful, but this unexpected development has given us goblins the time to flee to the north. Now that I've informed Medelan about him, the humans will have enough time to prepare for his arrival, instead of being caught by surprise as it would have happened otherwise.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow in surprise. In this story there was something that didn't add up, and for once it wasn't the self-congratulatory note at the end.

“Wait a second.” He said. “There is something I do not understand. All these races —the orcs, the Rantul, the Piraca and even you goblins— are usually tribal and divided, yes?”

“Yes, usually.”

“And now they have all united under a single leader, all at the same time?”

“Yes.” Trakk nodded. “Even if that happened in a different way for each race. The Blue Terror has subdued all orc tribes through violence. Meanwhile, the red-skinned Piraca called the Crimson King was naturally chosen as a ruler for his race from birth —I think this has something to do with the Piraca’s religion or something, as they can be very superstitious— and the Rantul seem to have instinctively flocked under the Pale Matriarch’s rule. Oh, and obviously I’ve been working on trying to unite the goblins through diplomacy for years.” He finally added with a smirk.

Those names didn’t mean much to Marcus, but he got the gist of what had happened anyway. Which made him even more suspicious.

“Isn't that... weird?” Marcus asked. “I mean, from what I understand, you goblins and the others have never been united before. And now all of you are.”

“It's very weird indeed.” Trakk concurred. “And what’s even more disconcerting is the fact that the Blue Terror, the Crimson King and the Pale Matriarch all came out of nowhere basically at the same time. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I could about them, but sadly gathering information is not easy in the Caligare Forest, and besides I had more pressing concerns, so I wasn't able to discover much. All I know is that they all seem to be rather unique anomalies among their races, and that they became active more or less at the same time.”

“What about you?” The Vex Queen inquired. “From what I know, you have also appeared out of nowhere, and you also seem different from the rest of the goblins.”

Trakk let out an amused chuckle at that observation.

“Yeah, it certainly seems that way.” The goblin said. “But I've actually been around much longer than the others. I've been trying to unify the goblins for years and I've only succeeded recently, mostly thanks to the threat of the orcs and the other races, quite ironically.”

“You did not answer my question, though.” Marcus insisted. “Where did you come from? And why are you so different from the other goblins?”

“Why, I come from the Caligare Forest of course!” Trakk replied with a sardonic, cheshire-cat smile. “I've been born as a perfectly normal, average goblin whelp about... I don't know, I think about thirty or so years ago in a tribe that lived on the Ashwood Hills. And as for why I'm so different from the others, that's probably because I was captured by some humans when I was young and then I spent most of my life in the Empire as a slave... or rather, as a pet.”

This time, it was Marcus’s turn to be taken by surprise. He certainly hadn't expected such an answer, and slavery was almost completely unknown in his old world, or at least in the civilized countries, where it was generally considered an unforgivable crime... though some minimal wage jobs weren't that far from slavery, to be fair. It really said something that Marcus's last boss, Ol' Heinz, wasn't even in the top five of the worst employers that he had in his life. He almost shuddered when memories of his most horrific worplaces surfaced in his mind.

Despite himself, he felt a hint of sympathy for the goblin.

“I'm sorry to hear that...” He started to say.

“Don't be.” Trakk interrupted him, with an amused smirk on his face. “The years I've spent as a slave in the Empire have been rather pleasant, all things considered. It was certainly an improvement over my life in the forest, since I was well fed, I didn't have to struggle simply to survive another day and I wasn't even abused too much. Besides, I learned many things in the Empire that I wouldn't even dreamt of had I remained in the forest, and it's probably thanks to it that I managed to become a Goblin General to begin with!”

Again, this took Marcus by surprise. He wouldn't have expected a slave to enjoy being a slave. But then again, this was literally a whole different world, so probably things were different.

Still, that didn't add up.

“If you were a slave in the Empire, how did you become the leader of the goblins then?” He asked.

“It's quite a long story.” The goblin general said with a smirk. “So maybe I'll tell you another time, possibly in a more comfortable place than the middle of an abandoned quarry. Right now, I'm actually here to discuss business with you, starting with making sure to properly impress on you the magnitude of the threat we're facing.” The smirk vanished from his face, and he turned completely serious. “According to what info I managed to gather, there were about fifteen thousands orcs under the Blue Terror's command when my people left the depth of the Caligare Forest, and both their numbers and individual strength will only increase by the time they get here. So we can expect an invasion of at least twenty thousands orcs, if not more.”

Those numbers didn't seem so threatening to Marcus. After all, the goblins themselves were more than that. But judging from the shocked and worried faces that everyone else was making, he thought that probably the orcs were probably more of a threat than he had thought.

“I have never met an orc before, so I do not know just how strong they are.” He admitted. “Are they so strong that twenty thousands of them are such a threat?”

“Yes.” Trakk nodded. “You have seen my orc-hobs in action, haven't you? Well, the strongest and biggest ones among them still couldn't hold a candle to the average orc. As for the ogres, a single one of them could easily hold its own against ten aura users, and there will be at least a few dozens of them. Finally, the Oni himself is even stronger still, probably capable of taking on multiple ogres on his own and winning.”

The Vex Queen nodded as he listened, silently processing the information he received. If what the goblin was saying was true, his initial estimate of the number of drones he needed to defeat the orcs needed some major adjustments. He had thought that he could just make do with about ten thousands drones, but he would probably need three or five times that amount to defeat an enemy as strong as the one that had been described to him.

That was a major pain in the ass, quite literally since he would have to personally lay a lot of eggs to meet that quota. He would also need at least a dozen Broodmothers, which had to be laid as soon as possible since they would take time to fully mature. Thinking of all the days of literal labor that awaited him, Marcus had to struggle to contain a groan of exasperation.

But at the same time he also realized that he had just dodged a very nasty bullet. He didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if he had been caught by surprise by the orcs' strength, but now that he knew about it he could prepare accordingly. He hated to admit it, but Trakk had done him a huge favor by making him realize just how inadequate his previous plans were.

And now that he thought about it, he wondered if that hadn't been the goblin's true motivation —or at least one of his true motivations— behind the visit to begin with. After all, he was aware of the fact that the maquis had given him his current land in order to use him and his drones as a literal meat shield against the goblins, and it made sense that Trakk would want to use him in the same way against the orcs. 

And what was worse was that he couldn’t blame either of them for doing that. After all, his drones were expendable, and though he didn’t like being manipulated like that, he saw no other option but to comply. The only silver lining was that if the goblins really intended to make use of him, the chances that they would attack him would be greatly diminished.

So, he sighed and decided to go along with Trakk’s plan. 

“Well, thank you for the information.” He said, trying not to sound too resigned. “I will make sure to not underestimate the orcs, and I will try to prepare for their arrival as best as I can.”

“Good.” Trakk replied with a satisfied, approving grin. “That's music to my ears, Lady Marcus. I'm glad that I could be of help, and I hope that this will be the beginning of a mutually beneficial collaboration.”

“Maybe.” Marcus said, but then he started staring the goblin in the eyes. “I still do not trust you, keep that in mind. But I think I can work with you for now... as long as you stay out of my territories and do not try anything bad, that is.”

“I couldn't ask for more.” The goblin nodded, and then bowed gallantly towards the Vex Queen. “Well, I feel that we've told each other everything we had to say, at least for now. I'd love to stay and chat a bit longer, but I have to get back to my territories as soon as possible to supervise the colonization. I’ve left my attendants to take care of things while I was talking with you, but it’s really better for me to be there personally. And of course, I wouldn’t want to steal any more of your time, as you’re certainly going to be busy yourself with organizing your new home.” He made a very mischievous grin. “Of course, you're always welcome in my own lands, should you want to drop by for a visit.”

“That's highly unlikely.” Marcus thought, but he didn’t actually say that out loud.

“We will see.” He replied instead. “Do not expect me too soon though.”

“I won't.” The goblin replied, and then he mounted on Belinda's horse, while the squad of knights prepared to depart. “Goodbye, lady Marcus.”

“Goodbye.” The Vex Queen replied, standing still and watching the knights ride away. Only after they had disappeared behind the hill did he finally move as well, returning to the village together with Hoggs and the drones that had accompanied him.

“Hoggs?” He said along the way.

“Yes, Marcus?” the old telemancer replied.

“Sorry for my outburst earlier. And thanks for helping me to calm down.”

“Don’t worry about that, Marcus. And you’re welcome.”

The Vex Queen nodded, and then asked: “So, how did you think I did? I hope that my outbursts didn’t completely ruin everything.”

“Well, you certainly let your emotions slip a couple of times. Violently so.” Hoggs shrugged. “But that’s to be expected. After all, you’re not a trained diplomat. All things considered, I think you did pretty well. At least you didn’t reveal anything about your powers. Besides I believe that that goblin was telling the truth, or at least part of it, so I don’t think that they are planning to attack you, at least for the time being.” He made a small pause and then added: “Still, it’d be better to not lower our guard with them. As you pointed out, they are only out for themselves, and our own wellbeing couldn’t be further away from the top of their priorities.”

“Thanks for the tips.” The Vex Queen said. “I will try to follow it.” 

Then, he let out a tired sigh and remained silent for the rest of the walk. 

He felt completely exhausted. Somehow, that little discussion with the goblin general had been more tiring than an actual physical fight, and now all he wanted was to have a snack and take a long nap. 

After a few seconds, he decided that having a snack and taking a nap was exactly what he was going to do. Screw the goblins, the orcs and everything else, they all could wait for now. He was going to take the rest of the day off. 

With this resolution, his mood improved considerably, and he started to look forward to finally settling in his new home.