Promise to the Magic Heart – Chapter 28
Ah, but let us speak more particularly of Kurt Volker, the dwarf whose name scarcely warrants a whisper amongst the tale of the Heroes Journey. A dwarf, seen as nothing more than an oddity—a second-class subject fulfilling his duties. But mark my words, and read the interviews with the Heroes themselves, and you’ll soon discover that it is Hero Volker who stands at the very heart of this band. It was he who, through bonds forged in the fires of loyalty and perseverance, united this motley crew. It was his unyielding spirit and tireless effort that held them together through the fiercest interparty clashes. Listen well to the accounts of the surviving Heroes. They speak of Hero Volker not merely as a comrade, but as a father. Yet the tale does him no justice. Why, you ask? Because the Jeweled Empire, with all its arrogance, could never bear to admit the debt it owes to a people it so ruthlessly subjugated. Regrettably, Hero Volker seems at peace with this reality. For years, he served our great Lord Ranier and risked his life time and again. Who am I to reproach him for choosing the comforts of a quieter life? Perhaps, it is for this reason that we no longer hear of Hero Acciaio. But take heart, for when Hero Volker’s son emerges, perhaps we shall find the rallying figure we need to rekindle the flame of independence for the Dwarven Kingdom. – The Masked One, leader of the Iron God’s Own dwarven independence movement
KURT
Kurt leaned against a jagged wall of a destroyed tenement house. Kurt wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. It didn’t help much. His clothing was soaked with sweat. These long battles were far more physically draining than he remembered. The thick smoke hanging over the city didn’t help. A person couldn’t catch his breath.
The fire started around midday. Kurt wanted to blame it on the Purists, but it could have just been easily a knocked over lantern. In the heat of battle, no one realized how bad the fire was until it burned out the shops and businesses in Low Market. The last Kurt heard it was working its way through the Alsoin and Promenade districts. Pallus was forced to send a couple hundred volunteers as an impromptu fire brigade. Much to Kurt’s surprise, the Purists weren’t attacking anyone busy fighting the fire, even if those fighting the fire were armed. Small favors.
“Two more blocks and we hit the Aponte Wall,” Chief Constable Dalan said, joining Kurt behind the ruined building. With Marteen missing, the chief constable was now the senior officer in the field. Dalan spent the better part of an hour leading a force of constables and some veterans against a probe by Purist heavy infantry. The Purists took heavier losses than Dalan’s men, but they could afford them. Kurt guessed the volunteers were down to maybe a third of their numbers, while the constables were closer to half. Kurt could see the strain in Dalan’s eyes of losing so many of his constables.
“Did you really think it wouldn’t be this bad?” Kurt asked. Dalan shrugged his shoulders. Battle cries echoed a couple streets over from yet another push by the Purists. The Edess Kul didn’t believe in giving the defenders any quarter if she could help it. Kurt heaved himself off the wall and trotted to the growing sounds of battle. Dalan ordered the few constables nearby to follow. By the time Kurt, Dalan, and the half-dozen armored constables reached the fight, the combat was little more than a general melee between Purists and volunteers. Kurt surveyed the scene for a moment and motioned for the constables to form up on his flanks. If they pushed back one corner, they might be able to roll the Purists back.
Kurt raised his shield and charged a Purist. The elf was too focused on trying to kill the volunteer in front of him. He never saw Kurt’s sword as it came down on his collarbone. As the Purist collapsed, the constables flowed into the small hole Kurt made. The hole was forced wider as the constables cut down Purists and the volunteers joined the momentum. Kurt kept himself as close to the front of the line as he could. Much to his chagrin, the volunteers fought harder when a Hero of the Empire was alongside them.
Kurt let his mind dwell on that thought an instant too long and the Purist in front of him took advantage of it. Kurt felt the Purist’s axe ride down along his shield before coming back up and biting deep into his side. The leather and chain kept the axe from opening Kurt’s flesh, but his ribs cracked under the weight of the blow. Kurt stumbled back and the elf pressed his attack. Kurt tried to open the distance by stabbing out with his sword. The Purist pivoted and came down with an overhand strike. Kurt barely managed to catch it on his shield with a ringing block the dwarf felt all the way to his shoulder. The Purist smiled and then screamed in pain as a sword punched through his torso.
Selene wiped the blood off her sword as the Purist collapsed into the street. Her armor was blood-splattered, but at least it looked like none of it was hers. She sheathed her sword and ran her hands over Kurt. He grunted as she touched his side. With a grimace, Selene spoke a prayer under her breath. Warmth spread across Kurt’s body. As it subsided, his pain went from intense to bearable.
“Not that I’m not grateful, Selene, but what are you doing here?” Kurt asked.
“Pallus’s orders. Everyone is to pull back to the Wall before nightfall. The paladins and I were sent out to bring back anyone I could,” Selene answered. She nodded to the fifty men in the green armor of the paladins tearing through the remnants of the Purists.
“I thought you were up at the Liopasto with Robar working at the hospital,” Kurt said as he followed her back to the Aponte Wall.
“My husband ordered me out of the hospital when the runner came looking for paladins,” Selene said in a flat tone. “As he eloquently stated, I’m needed here.” She stopped after a block and looked back at the burning city.
“Kurt, the Gold Gate is open,” Selene said. “Pallus wants you to report in at the Golden Observatory. I need to continue pulling people back to the Wall.”
“I’ll go with you,” Kurt said. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and gave him a sad smile.
“Sorry, but Pallus specifically said when I found Marteen or you, I was to send you along to report to him as soon as possible,” Selene said.
“Be careful out there Selene,” Kurt said. “It’s worse than any of the fights we were in during our last adventure.”
“Don’t worry Kurt, I’ve got plenty of experienced paladins with me. I fully intend on not getting in their way.”
Kurt motioned for the constables and the volunteers to follow him back to the Gold Gate. When the Wall was spun, the artisans left no openings. Instead, eight gateways were etched into the crystal of the wall. Even when the humans sealed away the world’s natural magic, the intricate gateways kept enough of their intrinsic magic to stay open. The Gold Gate was the largest and allowed the Boulevard of Light to continue into the Inner City. Kurt saw the sparkles of yellow energy that gave the gate its name a block before they reached the gate. Ragged and worn volunteers and constables trudged into the Inner City. Keeping order in front of the Golden Gate was a line of twenty musket-armed Crystal Guard. A stern-faced female paladin directed the detachment. Kurt guessed she was this Etan. She certainly looked competent enough. Kurt followed the line of defenders through the gate. Just inside the gate, the Knifehand pulled Kurt and Dalan aside.
“Thank the Goddess I found the two of you,” the Knifehand said, “Follow me.”
“Selene said I needed to go to the Observatory to talk with Pallus,” Kurt said.
“He’s not there. He’s at the Arrival Courtyard,” the Knifehand said.
“What’s he doing there?”
“You need to see for yourself,” the Knifehand answered, looking both relieved and worried at the same time. Kurt and Dalan traded confused looks.
“Mortan, why don’t you stay here for when Marteen shows up?” Kurt suggested. “Assuming Selene doesn’t fillet him when she finds him.” Arrival Courtyard was only a few blocks away from the Gold Gate. The Inner City’s side streets were remarkably clear of pedestrians.
Kurt paused as they neared the Arrival Courtyard. Pallus stood at the entrance with a man in the formal green and black uniform of the Capitol Army. Four gold arrowheads glittered on the man’s epaulets in the setting sun. A major, if Kurt remembered Imperial Army ranks.
“Where’s Marteen?” Pallus asked.
“I don’t know. The last time I saw him, Marteen was leading the firebrands to attack the Purists musketeers on the Boulevard of Light,” Kurt answered.
“Of course he would do that.”
“Who’s your friend?” Kurt motioned to the army officer. The officer braced to attention and saluted.
“Major Tark,” the officer introduced himself, “I am General Lopanes’s aide. He sent me ahead to coordinate the Capitol Army’s return with the Lisandra authorities.” Kurt’s eyes went wide.
“The Army’s returning?” Kurt asked.
“The Capitol Army will be coming through the gates starting at midnight. Every gate in the Inner City,” Pallus answered with a detached tone. “Our forces need to hold the Aponte Wall until morning, to give the Army time to organize.”
“Then we’re going to punch right through these motherless bastards and kill that Edess Kul bitch,” the major said.
“Yes, just so,” Pallus said, as if a child said spoken. “Chief Constable Dalan, would you please work with the major on the logistics of moving the Capitol Army through the Inner City?”
“Of course,” Dalan answered, flatly. “Major, let’s go talk with what’s left of my senior constables at the Imperial Gardens. They’ll have a better idea of the conditions right now.” As the two men walked off, Pallus turned back to Kurt.
“Shortly after the major came through the gate, the Diet declared a state of emergency,” Pallus said, “With that declaration, the Suprema sent the paladins to assist us. Unfortunately, we can’t raise the Barrier while any of the Aponte gates are still open.” Pallus looked back at the Wall and grimaced.
“Kurt, you should head back to the Crystal Palace. Get some food and some sleep. I’ll need you to help the Capitol Army when it pushes out into the Outer City. If there are any of the volunteers or the constables you recommend as scouts, please let me know. After you’ve had a chance to rest.” Kurt studied Pallus for a long moment.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Kurt said. “Something about the convenient return of the Army.”
“Yes,” Pallus said. Kurt didn’t press the issue. First, because it was probably something to do with elven family politics. Kurt made it a point to stay out of those. Secondly, because he suddenly realized exactly how hungry and tired he was the moment Pallus mentioned food and sleep. Kurt hoisted his sword onto his shoulder and walked down the street to the Crystal Palace.
Friday B-Side – Sabaton – Bismarck
Figured this would be a good bookend.
And of course, we need the fleet girls.
Ward Manor Happenings – 04.09.26
Easter Happenings – As has been the case for the last several years, we hosted Easter dinner at Ward Manor. The grandniece and her mom showed up and we participated in the normal easter egg hunt. Which were these pre-filled eggs with little squishy toys. The grandniece was very pleased with this.
For the actual dinner, we kinda took the traditional Easter menu and tossed it out the window. The main courses were a beef stew that The Wife wanted to try and I smoked up some ribs we found in the back of the freezer. Green bean casserole and some very cheesy mac and cheese were the sides. Part of the dessert were some no-bake oatmeal cookies, but The Wife substituted out peanut butter for Biscoff (see below for partial reason). These were good, but you could definitely tell the difference. The rest of the dessert were oreo-stuffed cinnamon rolls from SIL.
We had a lot of fun with everyone, ate too much, had too much leftovers, and was exhausted by the end of it. In other words, a successful holiday.
Biscoff Happenings – The Ward household over the last year has switched from peanut butter to Biscoff cookie butter for a lot of things. My lunch is usually a street taco sized tortilla with Biscoff on it. Why? Hell, the cookie butter has less calories than the standard peanut butter. The downside is Biscoff is at least twice the cost on a per-unit basis and availability can be iffy. On a lark, I checked to see if Amazon had it. Um, yeah. So, now we have this tub coming on subscribe and save.
Yes, that’s 100 ounces of Biscoff. Liquid Death 6-pack for size comparison.
Quilt Happenings – Due to shoulder issues, it’s not unusual for me to sleep for some/most of the night in a recliner we have in our bedroom. I kept an inexpensive blanket on the recliner for when I was sleeping there, but unfortunately we have asshole cats. One in particular has decided to mark my recliner multiple times in the past couple of months. Washing the blanket was no longer effective. Fortunately, The Wife’s BFF decided to gift me a new quilt for helping her with setting up her new laptop a few months back. It was definitely aimed at my interests.
Metal Tuesday – Sabaton – Yamato
I couldn’t figure out why Sabaton wanted to do a song on a battleship that while impressive on an engineering feat, turned out to be obsolete by the time it was sent out during the Pacific War. Then, I saw the ads for World of Warships.
And the joke was that within a week of release, the weebs would have a redone video using Space Battleship Yamato footage. Yeah, less than a week. Less than a day I think.
And of course, there was one for the fleet girls.
Five Years of Ward Manor
It’s weird thinking that we’ve been in Ward Manor for five years. It’s not that I have that dichotomy of feeling like we just moved in and feeling like we’ve lived here for twenty at the same time. It’s more of “it’s only been five years?”
Part of that is because the area around Ward Manor has been sprouting up like unattended weeds. When we moved in, there were just a few places to eat out within a reasonable distance. Now there’s a bunch. All sorts of commerce that we used to need to go into Bradenton for is now within a “close” car ride. I use the quotes because with all of the aforementioned growth, the infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Some of that is just normal growing pains. Some of that is county mismanagement.
I’m not going to talk about all the changes within Ward Manor, as most of them have been chronicled in previous posts. I find it somewhat interesting that the only two major appliances that we’ve had the entire time are the fridge and the outside freezer. Heck, even the cars have changed. The Wife and I are looking at some additional upgrades over the next few years, but we’ll see how all of that shakes out.
What amuses me the most is that for us, this is our “new” house that we bought after we got married. For the grandniece, this is the “old” house that Derek and The Wife have always lived in.
Ward Manor Happenings – 04.02.26
St. Augustine Happenings – Last weekend was The Wife’s and my annual pilgrimage to St. Augustine to celebrate our anniversary.
Of course, the fun started last Wednesday night when we came back from running some errands to find the HVAC wasn’t working. That was the bad news. The good news was that it seemed to be just a clog in the drain line. Annoying, but it’s life in Florida.
Thursday started with The Wife and I getting our annual eye exams. This wouldn’t be worth mentioning except both of us got our eyes dilated. Let’s just say, driving up with dilated eyes, even under my nice sunglasses, was interesting. There were a couple of things we tried out this year. One was bringing our collapsible wagon to help haul our stuff from the parking lot which is about a block or so from the B&B. The second is what we dubbed the “apartment bag.” In our travels, we often found ourselves without some basic necessities. Paper towels, wipes, other types of paper product. Both of these came in quite handy. The B&B we’ve stayed in for the last few years must have changed hands because there were some updates, including the change to keypads for all the rooms. Good, we didn’t have to keep track of a key. We were also in a new room. It was good in that it was on the first floor, but a lot of noise as it was off the main hall. The Wife was impressed with the bathroom faucet because it was one of those that looked like an old water pump. After the trip up, we just walked around near the fort before going to our favorite barbecue place for dinner.
Friday started off with our regular trip to the fort. We always go to the fort, and we got there pretty close to when they opened. They’ve done some updating of their exhibits in the last couple of years. I always recommend it. From there, we went to the “hat store” where I’ve been getting my hats for the last several years. This year, i wanted to get an actual “cowboy hat” instead of the more “fedora-ish” ones I’ve been wearing. I’ve also realized that I’m a Stetson brand-whore. I just prefer them. Fortunately, we found a couple of hats that fit my needs – one sandy-colored felt, and one white-colored straw. I ended up wearing the straw one for most of the trip. I did make the joke that it made me look more like a Texas Ranger.
From there, we walked around and visited our normal shops. Perhaps the most interesting interaction of the morning was when we went to this geek collectible shop. I’ve picked up some figures over the years, but this year, I was being very selective. I’m running out of space in my home office for the various figures I have already. Anywhoo, The Wife has this thing for Loungefly backpacks – particularly those of Hello Kitty, Disney, and most of all, Strawberry Shortcake. She found a Strawberry Shortcake backpack that interested her, and since I wasn’t getting anything, I encouraged her to buy it. It took a lot of encouragement for her to agree. Then when we got to the counter, the clerk helpfully showed off the “mini-backpacks” of the various Strawberry Shortcake characters. Well, damn it. Of course they needed to come home with us. Now The Wife and I have similar problems. She’s not sure where to put all of her backpacks, and I’m not sure where to put all my hats. The other fun anecdote was when we were in this shop that sells reproductions of 17th and 18th century items. We’ve picked up things from there over the years. This year, we were looking for a vase for The Wife. Anywhoo, somehow the clerk and I got into a discussion on the geography of southern accents. After a lunch of fish and chips, The Wife and I decided to have “creative time.” Our original plan was to set up near the fort, but there weren’t any good seating options. Fortunately, the B&B had some Adirondack chairs out front. The Wife crocheted while I worked on Part 2 of my isekai. Next year the plan is to bring this camp couch so we can do the same thing near the fort.
After creative time, we went to a new place for dinner. Okay, not really impressed – except for the PBJ shot that The Wife ordered. Both because she reported that it tasted exactly like a PBJ sandwich and it came in a tiny red solo cup. After dinner, we walked into a Prehistoric shop and came out with a couple of pretty rocks – and a brand-new Cobratech Out-The-Front pocketknife. Which, when I use the “OTF” acronym, The Wife commented it sounded like something that had its own OnlyFans account.
Saturday we decided to go to the Fountain of Youth since we hadn’t been in several years. Since it was less than a mile from the B&B, we decided to walk. It was a pleasant day which made the decision easier. Of course, what we were unaware of was that the local “No Kings” was holding their rally at the fort. As we were walking to the fountain, we were passed by protesters walking to the rally. I swear, most of them looked like AARP sent out a rallying cry. Eh, people have a right to protest.
The trip took a bit longer than expected and reinforced that we needed to get our treadmills and get back to the exercise routine. By the time we got there, the beginnings of a front were coming in. We walked around the grounds, I had to keep a hold of my hat so it wouldn’t blow off into the marshlands. We did get to see the matchlock display as well as explore the efficiencies of block and tackle. And peacocks. Lots of peacocks. Which I’m sure most of the tourists love, but I’ve lived near wild peacocks. Let’s just say that destroyed any illusions about them.
On the way back, we sort of ran into the No Kings protest. Okay, it wasn’t completely old people, but it was at least two-to-one. It was also a rowdy group that neither The Wife nor I wanted to be near. Protests can go sideways way too fast, so we did our best to GTFO. By this time, the front was definitely coming through. We knew it was going to be in the mid-sixties when we were packing. We didn’t expect a ten-degree wind chill as well. Let’s just say what was a pleasant day became uncomfortable. We had lunch at this little pizza / Italian place, and then walked to a nearby Starbucks so The Wife could try out one of their new drinks. We hit one of the chocolate places and went back to the B&B. We were planning on more creative time, but it was just too damn cold out.
As we were sitting in our room, we realized we’d done everything we wanted to do on this trip. We also realized we would rather sleep in our own beds. So, we packed up and headed back home. This gave us Sunday to relax, recoup, and do our various chores.
RIP Ross The Boss
Last week, Ross “The Boss” Friedman passed away from ALS at 72.
I knew him as the guitarist and stage presence of Manowar when I first encountered the band in the late 80’s. He was the talker of the group when The Brother, Rocket Engineer Brother, and I took a road trip up to Chicago to catch them in a rare US show.
I have fond memories of some of Manowar’s albums, but kind of fell away from the band over the last decade or so. I will always remember him on the first song that brought me into Manowar – and power metal.