Chapter 87: Echoes of Deception

The heavy wooden door of the Ranger station slammed open. Reidar stormed out; the conversation was over anyway. Martin had confirmed it all.

The quarry job wasn’t just about getting resources; it was about getting the token, about finding out if he was a spy, it was to make him join Havenwood’s cause.

It wasn’t like Reidar didn’t understand, but asking for help, lying, putting him in the middle of a war with other people, not trusting him despite Martin having been the one who asked for help.

Reidar would have left the town the same day he arrived if it wasn’t for that request. But in a sense it was also his fault, because Reidar agreed, because his humanity simply didn’t allow him to turn the other way.

That happened again. When Reidar remembered the kids in Havenwood, he simply couldn’t. What if Marcus, his son, was in the same situation? Reidar would have liked someone like him to help. So he said yes.

Reidar summoned his primal pack. He wasn’t going to stay here without the creatures protecting him. However, it was also true that he felt their presence not as a comfort but as a reminder of what Martin wanted from him: an army. His army.

<I am not a weapon,> he thought.

The survival points he had gained from those people’s deaths felt like blood money staining his soul.

<The audacity to admit so calmly he really did all of that, as if it was a simple matter of battlefield logistics!>

Those thoughts were making Reidar’s blood boil.

He was done. Really, after the second quest, he would restock at the vendor, take what he needed, and walk out of this cursed settlement without a backward glance. Martin and his war could rot for all he cared. The journey to Creamont had already been delayed long enough.

“Your anger is a beacon in this place.”

The voice cut through the silence. Reidar turned around, his summons shifting into aggressive stances. Caleb stood a dozen meters away.

<What the fuck?> The young zealot hadn’t approached loudly; he had simply… appeared, his hands clasped peacefully over the book he always carried. There was no fire-and-brimstone fervor in his eyes now, only a disconcerting, placid intensity.

“What do you want, Caleb?” Reidar’s voice was a low growl, matching the ones coming from his wolves. He had no patience for sermons or prophecies, especially considering this guy belonged to the organization that likely attacked him.

Caleb took two steps forward, stopping when Reidar’s Primal Pack tensed. “I came to tell you something important,” he said. “The men who attacked you in the forest. It was not the Church of Unbinding.”

Reidar stared, his fury suddenly washed away by a creeping confusion. He had told no one else about the attack; only Martin’s inner circle knew, or so he thought.

“How would you even know about an attack?” he asked. “We just returned.”

A faint, knowing smile touched Caleb’s lips. It wasn’t a smile of warmth, but of confidence, of a man who held cards others didn’t know were in the deck.

“Mr. Miller, you understand that Martin Vance is not the only one who can move people in Havenwood. Words travel fast when you have ears willing to listen.”

The realization hit Reidar like a punch to the gut. Words travel fast. Caleb knew because someone told him. Someone who’d been there or heard it straight from the source. The Church didn’t just have followers listening in the square; it had spies. A cold shiver ran down his spine, because it meant that either Lena, Torren, Jorik or Lysa were with the church.

Besides, that ambush wasn’t random. They’d known exactly where his group would be, the route to the quarry. Someone within Martin’s circle was leaking info. Lena, with her cold stare? Torren, all muscle and attitude? Jorik, the friendly mage? There were others, of course, but not that many, who knew about the situation, so it might not have been someone from the group.

<Maybe the guards… They saw us leave, after all…>

But not where they were going.

“Someone from Lena’s team is one of your flock,” Reidar stated, the words flat and cold.

Caleb’s smile didn’t waver. “The Progenitor welcomes all who seek true freedom from the System’s shackles.” He took another step closer, lowering his voice.

“Which is why I must warn you. Do not trust Martin Vance. You believe you have uncovered his secrets, but the roots of his deception run far deeper than you can imagine.”

Reidar let out a bitter laugh. “You think I’m an idiot? I already know he’s a liar and a manipulator. I just finished a very enlightening conversation with him.” He brought the Shepherd’s Crook to Caleb’s face. “I’m tired of being played. So, cut the games. What do you really want from me?”

“I told you,” Caleb said, his sincerity feeling both genuine and expertly feigned. “We did not attack you. We have no quarrel with you. Antagonizing a man of your power would be… unwise. Our fight is with the System, not with a traveler trying to find his family.” He looked Reidar directly in the eye. “I came only to make that clear.”

“Then who attacked us? Why was I the target?”

Caleb kept smiling. “I wonder… who might have been? Who has reason to attack you? Maybe someone who got the wrong idea about you?” He paused. “I don’t know; maybe someone who suspects you of being a spy?”

“Martin?”

Caleb said nothing.

“It wouldn’t make sense. Now I’m leaving, and he was the one asking me to help.”

“Maybe he started suspecting that after he asked for your help. Or maybe, he has other reasons to suspect or attack you. Didn’t they blame the attack on our church?”

<Ah, shit.>

Caleb was implying that Martin wanted Reidar to think the church attacked him to give him a reason to fight them.

<Shrewd bastard.>

But of course, it could also be that wasn’t the case, that the church really attacked him and was now trying to blame Martin.

Reidar studied him, trying to find a crack in the calm face. If the Church hadn’t attacked him, then who had? And why? Were they trying to frame the Church? Or was this all a lie, a double-bluff to make him lower his guard? His mind was a tangled mess of paranoia and doubt.

Reidar had seen this kind of scheming back when he ran his own company, but those games never ended in murder or fights. Adding death into the mix changed everything.

Caleb seemed to sense his anxiety. “You seek answers. I cannot give you all of them, but I can point you toward a crack in the wall.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you are not the only one who senses that something is wrong in this settlement,” Caleb said. “Go and speak with Aaron, the engineer. And Mara, the healer. Ask them. Ask them if they have noticed anything weird going on in Havenwood since the attacks began.”

Reidar frowned, caught off guard by the names. “Aaron and Mara? Why them? What could they possibly know?” He remembered them from his first day, the practical engineer and the tired healer.

“Are you connected to them?”

Caleb shook his head.

“Havenwood is a small place, Mr. Miller. Everyone knows everyone. And some people see things that others, in their rush to fight and lead, overlook.”

Without another word, Caleb gave a slight bow and turned, melting back into the growing shadows of the settlement. Reidar was left standing alone in the gravel, his rage now cooled into a disturbing confusion.

Caleb’s visit had destabilized him even further. Two factions were playing here, and they were both trying to make him think the other couldn’t be trusted. However, the alarming thing was that the one that should have reasonably been the better one was showing itself to be the worst.

<I can’t believe the church here is playing it better than Martin.>

And now, he had been pointed toward the settlement’s healer and its engineer as potential sources of information. He dismissed the thought that they could be involved, but then he considered it from Caleb’s perspective.

It was a small, tight-knit community. Aaron was responsible for the forges and the physical repairs of the settlement, while Mara healed its people. They were the ones who literally held Havenwood together, dealing with the consequences of every monster attack and every failed expedition.

If anyone had a ground-level view of the settlement’s true state, of patterns others might miss, it would be them. They saw the broken gear, and the dead bodies. They’d know if the wounds told a different story than the official reports.

In any case, Reidar wasn’t going to trust either of the factions. It was just that, at that point, he was starting to get curious about the situation.

The church… It was something he would have to keep an eye on.

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