Chapter 138: Order

I stared at Hubert. How did I want to proceed? I nodded at the boxes. “Can you guys take all of those with us?”

“Oh yes,” he said. “Of course we can.”

He turned around and clapped his hands. “Teofil, Patryk. Our Lady requests that we take all boxes with us.”

Two men of average height and build stepped up. They both had auburn hair and dark brown eyes. They looked like they could have been brothers. They probably were. They, however, did not look like they would be able to pick up the numerous boxes scattered around the hall with just the two of them.

Teofil—or it could have been Patryk—cracked his neck, then rolled his shoulders. Patryk—or it could have been Teofil—stood on one leg, reached behind himself, grabbed his ankle and pulled it toward his glutes in some kind of stretching motion. Then repeated it for the other leg.

They both did some squats in place, then said, “Yip,” at the same time.

Now I was invested. They were obviously planning on taking all those boxes with just the two of them. Did they have some kind of secret strength? Could they stretch into a cart? Would be difficult to navigate these tunnels as a big cart. Maybe they’d tie them all in one big long box line and kind of drag them over the floor behind them?

There were too many boxes for the two of them to hold in their hands, so I was getting more curious by the second to see just how they were planning to accomplish this feat.

They put out their hands and did a quick round of rock, paper scissors. The loser curled up into a ball on the ground. The winner walked up to the nearest box, grabbed it and moved back to the loser.

“Ready, Teo?” he asked.

“Yip.”

Patryk then tossed the box onto his brother. As soon as the box hit his back it was like it got locked into place. It shrank a little, but stayed in the exact spot it first struck him. The process repeated itself, and Patryk seemed to be able to roll his brother around with a wave of his hand. In the end Teofil looked like a ball of boxes, and was not much larger than he had been when he didn’t have dozens of boxes magically attached to him.

Patryk held up his thumb. “Done. Ready to move when you are.”

“Huh,” I said, turning to Hubert. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Hubert smiled. “They’re brothers who share the same class. Very efficient for hauling large amounts of goods. It’s their family specialty. They have also set up their builds in a way that if they work together both of their abilities are enhanced.”

“Won’t all that rolling around damage the boxes?”

“No.” Hubert shook his head. “As long as the boxes are attached to one of them using [Clump], and they are in [Ballman] form,’ the goods are impervious to damage. Sort of. The damage taken is reflected back to Teofil and Patryk. You don’t have to worry about it. They finetuned their build around this method, and if they ever need anything they will let us know. That rarely happens.”

“So, excessive damage to the boxes might actually kill them?”

“Um… when you put it like that, yes, but that hasn’t happened yet. Like I said, they know what they’re doing. They’re professionals.”

I shrugged. “Alright then. If you say so.”

That all went pretty smoothly. Having a couple of guys that could haul large amounts of goods was convenient. You wouldn’t even need to bring carts or horses or whatever. This had turned out to be a group of very convenient people overall. With Ola I could stay clean forever, and I figured she’d be able to spruce up the cathedral as well.

With Hubert I would never have to count anything ever again. Which was great, not because I was bad at counting, no, I could count a lot. I could count many things. I could even count to a hundred if I felt like it! It just wasn’t the best use of my time.

The best use of my time was shooting stuff and leading my tribe. My clan? What would be a cool word for that? My posse? My flock? My cabal? I snickered to myself. Cabal. Nah.

“Vasil?” I asked. “What would be a good word for this?”

He looked confused. “Boxes?”

I paused. “Boxes? What? What would be a good word for this?” I gestured at myself, then around the hall.

“A hall?”

“By the Goddess, Vasil! Are you dense? What would be a good word for my group of people? Not cabal, because that’s a dumb word. Posse also doesn’t sound cool.”

“Your Ministry?”

I shook my head. “That sounds too political.”

Vasil got a sly smile on his face. “Your Order.”

I slapped my forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Sometimes the most obvious choice is the hardest to see when it is right in front of us. Now would it be the Order of Hecate, or something more…”

“You have something in mind. I can tell.”

“The Order of the Sun-Swallower. The Order of the First Ember. The Order of the Flame-Crowned.”

“The Order of the Blessed Incineration,” Kasia chimed in.

Hubert raised a finger. “Um. If I may interject. What about the Order of the Radiant Dawn?”

I turned to him, surprised.

“It’s just,” he continued. “Y-you are quite radiant, My Lady. And dawn symbolizes a new beginning. Rebirth, if you will. For all of us—” he gestured around him. “—you have given us a new beginning. You did not just save our lives, you have given us a new purpose, so the dawn could be… you know.”

“So the dawn could be a double entendre?” I suggested.

“A double entendre usually implies something… scandalous, My Lady,” Hubert said, cheeks flushing bright red. “I was thinking more along the lines of a double meaning. Multifaceted, if you will. A polysemous metaphor, in essence.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Polysepalous. Exactly what I was thinking. I like it, Hubert. You have a great set of brains.”

“Um… it’s polysemous… I think the other has to do with flowers,” Hubert whispered, looking at his feet, weakly raising his finger again.

Vasil shook his head. “Hubert, best to let it go. Accept the compliment and move on.”

“Yeah!” I said. “I think the Order of the Radiant Dawn is a great name! I have to hand it to you, Hubert, in the short time we’ve known each other you have been very impressive. You’ve pleasantly surprised me multiple times already. I’m glad you didn’t get violently torn apart by those bird-guys.”

“Strzygi,” Hubert said, still looking at his feet.

I shot him a look. “You don’t have to repeat everything I say, you know. That sort of thing could get annoying real quick. Just saying.”

He took a step back, bowed, and put his hands up. “My deepest apologies, Lady Aurelia, I didn’t mean to offend.”

I waved him off. “It’s alright, Hubuś. I know you didn’t. I was just trying to help you help yourself. No one wants to be annoying, right?”

“Of course. Thank you.”

So what if Hubert was a little weird. So what if he repeated things for no reason. So what if he started randomly talking about flowers. Maybe the man was a hobby botanist. Flowers were pretty. They smelled nice. The point is, he meant well, and he tried. And he was useful! I can respect a man who can see the beauty in flowers. I can respect a man who does stuff so I don’t have to. Especially that last part.

“I guess we’re done here,” I said. “Unless either of you have anything to add?” I looked at Hubert and Vasil. They both shook their heads.

I raised my fist. "Then let us leave this place and explore the final tunnel. Who knows what treasure it might hold? Who knows what secrets will be laid bare? What mysteries we will unravel when we get there. Can you smell it?" I gave a couple of good sniffs. “I smell adventure.”

My followers looked scared for some reason.

Kasia frowned.

“Too much?” I asked.

“Ehh… Not great. Not your greatest work. Not very inspirational. I don’t think they want adventure. I think they might be traumatized. They’ve been in a cage for who knows how long, and almost died.”

Oh. Well. I guess I had to say something better then.

“Uhh…” I scratched the back of my head. “I am sure the final tunnel will not be dangerous and no one will die. And I also think we might get more stuff.”

Kasia shook her head. “That was really bad. Maybe even worse than before.”

Yeah that was pretty bad. I tried to think of something cooler to say but drew a blank.

“Look,” I finally said. “If there are any more demons, I will kill them before you guys see them. It will all be fine. You will be fine. We might get some more cool stuff, if we’re lucky.”

That seemed to put them at ease a bit.

“Great!” I clapped my hands. “Let’s go!”

“Everyone form a single file line!” Vasil yelled. “Do not step on our Lady’s shadow!”

That frog sure liked his single file lines…