The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

healed her, and now, boom! wants to be a healer. Incredibly determined lady, so I suggest not annoying her, unless you want your head bitten off. That being said, all the best doctors and nurses I know have a total lack of patience for fucking about, so she’ll probably make an amazing healer… if she has any aptitude for it. Come on, I’ll introduce you.” I turned to the Golem, speaking slowly and clearly.

“You are to begin strengthening and repairing this floor. You will accept orders from the wisps of this Tower. Oracle here, you already know; the other two are Seneschal and Hephaestus. You are also to accept commands from Cai, Barrett, and Oren, the dwarf from the ship we just left, provided their orders do not contradict my own, or the orders of the wisps. Nod if you understand and accept these commands.” There was a momentary pause, and the Servitor nodded, turning, and walking over to the area where the other Golem was working. The Servitor paused, communing with it somehow, before grabbing stones and starting to work alongside the first, its four arms working in a seamless blur.

“Damn, that thing’s fast!” Barrett said, and I had to agree, nodding along with Cai. I led them back across to the group, seeking out Flux and Ame in particular as I introduced my advisors to the Mer.

“I know I haven’t had the chance to really meet you all before now, so please don’t be upset that I’ve not learned who you are, and your skills and abilities before now. I wanted you to meet two of my advisors first. This is Cai, who deals with people, and the Tower itself, and Barrett, who is in charge of security and our fighting forces. They will be able to help you all with most things as we go on. As you can see, and as I’m sure Flux told you all, the Tower is slowly being repaired and made to be more livable.”

The group all nodded, with a few giving out the strange low frequency hums that I took for a form of sonar.

I noticed that, while it only looked and felt like two on the outer edge of the group were giving the signals off, the tendrils of the entire group were shifting in response. There was a long silence as I processed this, when Ame stepped forward.

“Very well; we understand this and forgive the rudeness. First, I am Ame, Healer and Runecrafter.” She said, introducing herself to Cai and Barrett, while I blinked in shock. “This is Flux, or at least that is the closest your kind is likely to come to his true name, so it will suffice. He is my mate, and a warrior. He patrolled our waters and killed those who threatened the pod. He will do this here as well. With him are Cheena, his second, who is also a warrior, and Fenir, her mate, who is a hunter. Bane is the Lord Jax’s dedicated bodyguard, with Jana to assist until a proper cadre is chosen.” As each was named, they stepped forward, clapping a fist to chest, and stepped back.

Jana was a slender female with a collection of long blades in place of the spears-and-daggers combination that Bane and Flux both favored. Jana nodded to me, then Ame, and finally to Cai and Barrett, before stepping off to one side.

“Uh, you’ve got bodyguards? And where’s Bane?” asked Barrett quietly, only to jump when Bane spoke from behind him.

“It was decided that Jax required protection; as I already owed him my life, I volunteered.” The big Mer said quietly, and I grinned at Barrett, enjoying seeing him jerk in shock.

“Good at that, isn’t he?” I grinned, as Ame continued. If she’d had eyes, I had no doubt they would have held a coolly reproving look.

“Next are Hel and Katerin, both hunters and warriors as well. Byat is a carver of weapons and armor. Lastly, we have brought Amoth and her mate, Esse, Amoth is a farmer, most skilled at establishing new populations of fish, and Esse is an herbalist. We are all the most skilled in our trades in the waters of our homes, it is true, but we will adapt.” Ame said firmly.

I inspected the group, finding that they were clearly separated into two categories, younger and older, many in the older group having obvious infirmities or injuries. The warriors all had injuries, except for the three I’d originally fought with. Hel was missing both arms on the right side, Jana stood with an obviously deformed left foot, and Katerin was twisted and hunched over, her breaths coming in quiet gasps.

“Oracle, are you ready?” I asked, and she nodded, a brilliant smile on her face, growing to her full humanoid size. She reached out and took my hand. Drawing a deep breath in, she spoke to Ame and the others.

“We’re going to heal you all one by one over the next few days, but as you saw earlier, it takes a lot of mana, and we may have to do it several times to heal you as far as we can. Who is the most injured among you?” The group looked at each other and then parted for Amoth, who stood in the middle of the group, leaning heavily on her mate, Esse. She limped forward slowly, her skin a pale grey with dark lines marking her veins. Her tendrils hung mostly limp and flaccid, her steps faltering and obviously pained.

I instantly felt guilty, thinking I should have gone to them as soon as my mana regenerated and healed another then, but I also knew that it was important to do this right. I needed them to accept that I was in charge and associate the Tower with their new lives. As much as I hated playing games like this, I knew it was necessary.

Just like this was, as I held Oracle’s hand in my own, feeling her cool fingers gripping