Prospero: "Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself upon thy wicked dam, come forth!"
Caliban: "As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed with raven's feather from unwholesome fen drop on you both! A southwest wind blow on you and blister you all o'er!"
Prospero: "Remember, for thou art so insolent of speech, tonight thou shalt have cramps, side-stitches that shall make thee breathless; all the hedgehogs shall, for a long night, torment thee, and thou shalt be pricked like a beehive, each prick worse than a bee's sting."
Lion, soaking in the bath, frowned. "What is this?"
Caelan replied, "Shakespeare's play, The Tempest."
"I thought it was a story you made up on the spot using the name Caliban."
"The Tempest was written in the M2 era, over twenty thousand years before humans colonized Caliban. It's more likely that the colonists got the names Prospero and Caliban from the play."
The story of The Tempest is quite bizarre.
Prospero, the Duke of Milan, obsessed with magic, is usurped by his brother Antonio, aided by Alonso, the King of Naples. He escapes to a deserted island with his infant daughter, Miranda, and uses magic to subdue the island's spirit, Ariel, and its only native inhabitant, Caliban.
Twelve years later, Alonso, his son Ferdinand, Antonio, and others sail past the island. Prospero has Ariel create a tempest to shipwreck them.
The ending, of course, is a happy reunion. Prospero forgives them, regains his dukedom, and marries his daughter Miranda to Ferdinand.
Prospero the sorcerer is not a good man, and neither is Caliban.
Caliban is the half-breed son of a witch and a demon. When Prospero and Miranda are stranded on the island, he even tries to rape Miranda.
Lion frowned deeply. "I don't see the point of this story."
"Don't just look at the surface. Learn to understand the metaphors behind the story."
"Prospero in The Tempest is a sorcerer who was persecuted and exiled to a desert island. Prospero in the galaxy is a world founded by persecuted sorcerers. In the Golden Age, it was like a desert island. So what about Caliban?"
Lion murmured to himself, "Caliban in The Tempest is the half-breed son of a witch and a demon."
And what about Caliban in the galaxy?
Lion looked out of the village. The monsters in the forest were the half-breeds. Chaos corruption had turned them into what they were.
There were the demons. Where was the witch?
If the monsters were the half-breed children of a witch and a demon, 'Caliban'...
Then what were the Calibanites?
The King of Naples and Prince Ferdinand, shipwrecked on a desert island by the tempest?
But Prospero wasn't on Caliban. Who had summoned the tempest?
What was the metaphor here?
Lion asked, "Why does an M2-era play have anything to do with our world?"
"You need to find the answer yourself."
"Can't you tell me?"
"I'd like to, but I don't know the exact reason either."
Lion frowned, confused. He stood up from the bath, spread his arms, and looked at Caelan, like a cat waiting for its owner to dry it.
Caelan tossed him a dry towel. "You've grown up. You need to learn to be independent."
Lion let out a dissatisfied grunt from his nose but took the towel anyway.
When Lion, dressed in clean clothes, left the room, Nina was staring blankly at the set of bloodstained old clothes he had changed out of.
Their style was very similar to the ones his mother had painstakingly sewn for his father recently, which had mysteriously disappeared.
His mother hadn't been upset; she'd been quite happy, thinking it was the work of spirits.
Though the clothes had vanished, a piece of gold had appeared in the house, worth far more than a set of clothes.
Caelan said, "Don't bother washing them. Burn them directly."
Nina looked down helplessly. "I... yes, my lord."
Outside the village of Chisano, the knights had already lit a campfire and were sitting in a circle.
Militiamen stood guard on the walls, in case of more night-time monster attacks.
The breach in the wall had been hastily patched; certainly not sturdy, but better than nothing.
Sarrientus asked, "What are the casualties?"
Luther lowered his head, his expression heavy. "Thirty-two civilians dead. Two knight-brothers. And three squires."
Sarrientus sighed. "Our losses are not small. The other squads likely fared poorly too."
"I hope Amadis can quickly find the source of the monsters' strange behaviour. Otherwise, the Order may not hold out at this rate."
The Order was one of Caliban's most powerful knight orders. But due to strict selection criteria and scarce equipment, they still only had a few hundred knights.
Yet they needed to protect hundreds of thousands of people around Aldurukh. The difficulty was immense.
Though they had many militia, no amount of militia could truly resist monsters. Only knights could hunt them.
Luther asked, "Master, are the other squads in dire straits too?"
Though the knights had power armour, only the squad leaders' armour had communicators.
But limited by distance, Sarrientus could only contact the other squads intermittently.
Sarrientus answered, "The other squads have also encountered monsters, but they're in much better shape than us. Only three squads had casualties."
"But this monster activity is very abnormal. We can't let our guard down."
"If the monsters don't attack again tonight, we'll go deeper into the forest tomorrow morning. If we still find no sign of them, it proves the local monsters are all cleared."
"Mason, you'll stay behind to protect the village. Tomorrow afternoon, the rest of you will set out with me to reinforce the other squads."
The other knights nodded in agreement. But Luther hesitated, then lowered his voice. "What about the two strangers?"
Sarrientus hoped Caelan would accompany them. Lion's combat ability was plain for all to see. He alone was worth an entire knight squad.
But he needed to ask Caelan first.
Sarrientus looked towards the village. Caelan and Lion were walking towards them.
In response to Sarrientus's question, Caelan looked at Lion. "Lion, you decide."
Sarrientus was taken aback. He had thought Caelan was the one in charge.
From the way the two interacted, Caelan did indeed seem more like a father.
Lion said, "Why not evacuate the people to Aldurukh?"
Luther said, "Though the monster attacks are more frequent than usual, it's still not a true beast-tide."
"The severity of the attacks varies by village. Our situation here is the most severe, definitely meeting the threshold for a beast-tide, so evacuation would be justified."
"But by the time we arrived, the monsters had already surrounded the village. There wasn't enough time."
"Breaking out forcefully would have been too risky, with even worse casualties. We had to hold."
"Later, the situation worsened, and we had to risk organizing a breakout."
"But then you arrived and eliminated the attacking monsters."
"With the risk gone, there's no need to evacuate the villagers now."
"The other squads faced smaller groups; our knights can handle them. No need for evacuation there either."
Lion now had a good understanding of the Order. At least they were genuinely willing to sacrifice themselves to protect civilians.
He could also understand their reluctance to lightly evacuate. Human settlements on Caliban were rarer than oases in a desert.
Evacuating all the villagers to Aldurukh would effectively cede the hard-won villages and farmlands to the monsters.
Their walls would be torn down, the fields trampled, the entire village reduced to rubble.
The cost of rebuilding was greater than the risk of death. They preferred to fight to the death here, rather than face utter devastation.
The current situation was actually more welcome to the villagers. Though many had died, at least the village and fields were saved.
Lion said, "As long as you protect the people, I will accompany you."
"Excellent! A true hero from a young age!"
Sarrientus was overjoyed. He grabbed a clay jug of mead offered by a villager, ready to drink deeply with Lion, but Caelan stopped him.
"Minors cannot drink alcohol."
Lion, holding a bowl of wine, about to drink, immediately handed the wooden bowl to Luther, who was closest.
Luther, caught off guard, hesitated for a moment. But he didn't mind. He raised the bowl and downed it.
Sarrientus raised his eyebrows in surprise. "He's still a child? How old?"
"Eight."
Sarrientus was even more surprised. Luther found it hard to believe. 'Eight?'
Lion frowned.
He had lived in the forest for ten years. He was ten. Why did Caelan say he was eight?
Luther felt depressed. When he was eight, he had been depressed after witnessing his parents being killed by monsters. Eight-year-old Lion slaughtered monsters like dogs.
'Was this even human?'
Luther's eyes were full of envy. 'If only I had such power.'
Caelan looked at him, "You're not jealous of Lion, are you?"
Luther gave a wry, helpless laugh. "How could I be jealous of a child?"
Lion was indeed gifted, but honour had to be won by one's own sword. Jealousy wouldn't buy honour.
Caelan asked, "What if he surpasses you?"
Luther admitted frankly, "He's already surpassed me. I'm not as good as him. But there's nothing to be jealous about."
He just envied Lion's talent. Who wouldn't?
But it wasn't jealousy.
Lion had saved his life. If he were jealous of his own saviour, he'd be less than human.
Luther asked, "Lord Octavian, that prophecy you mentioned earlier... what was it? Does it concern me?"
His voice held barely concealed curiosity and unease. Intuition told him it wasn't a good prophecy.
"Your wife's name is Fiona?"
"Yes." Luther was certain he had never mentioned his wife's name to Caelan. How did Caelan know?
"What are you planning to name your child?"
"If it's a boy, Lion. If it's a girl, Leona."
Luther glanced involuntarily at Lion. This coincidence wasn't actually that rare.
On Caliban, children named after lions were a dime a dozen.
The monster called the Lion was Caliban's apex predator.
Many parents who hoped their children would become knights would name them after the lion.
"What's the due date?"
"This week."
Caelan said, "I suggest you return to Aldurukh as soon as possible. Your wife is likely to have complications in childbirth."
Luther's pupils contracted. On Caliban, complications meant death.
Calibanites had never truly colonised Caliban.
Though Caliban's forests were dense and its land rich, the presence of monsters meant it could only be classified as a Death World.
Calibanites had never built a proper city. They could only huddle in their fortresses, surviving as best they could.
The Dark Age colonisation of Caliban was incomplete. The early colonists had been too hasty; they hadn't had time to establish a complete industrial system.
Though Caliban had a few STC fragments from the Dark Age, the overall technology level was only medieval.
Moreover, the STCs were mostly in the military field: boltguns, chainswords, power armour, power swords, these could be produced. But they couldn't produce vehicles; they had to fight on horseback.
Medical technology was a complete blank.
The mortality rate for women with childbirth complications exceeded 30%, worse than the Order's mortality rate!
Luther's lips trembled. He wanted to ask if Caelan was lying to him.
But there was no point in Caelan lying to him. If he were going to lie, he would lie to Sarrientus, not to a newly knighted knight like him.
Even if Caelan was lying, would he dare disbelieve him?
But even if he went back, what could he do?
He wasn't a doctor; he couldn't deliver a baby. To see his wife one last time?
He couldn't go back. He was a knight. He had his duty.
His voice was hoarse. "Who will die?"
Caelan remained silent.
But Luther understood. He couldn't protect anyone.
Sarrientus was silent too.
Though he had always scoffed at fortune-tellers and such, now he had to believe.
Because it was Caelan who said it, and Caelan had already demonstrated some genuine 'magic', like that invisible barrier.
He claimed to be able to prophesy and had accurately predicted Luther and his wife's names.
Anyone would believe at least half of it.
Luther's eyes held a pleading look. "Since you can see the future, can you save Fiona?"
Going back wouldn't help. He could only plead with Caelan.
"There is a way."
He was a psyker. If he personally helped deliver the baby, he could naturally ensure the mother's and child's safety.
But he didn't have time.
He was Lion's father, not Luther's.
Caelan looked into the darkness. "You. Go help Fiona with the delivery."
The small green-robed figure in the darkness visibly hesitated. He pointed uncertainly at himself.
Caelan said, "Yes, I'm talking to you. Go, and come back quickly."
The green-robed dwarf lowered his head dejectedly, his wide robe and hood swaying slightly with the movement.
He bowed to Caelan and disappeared into the darkness.
"A Watcher!" Luther exclaimed, his eyes filled with surprise and joy.
In Caliban's ancient legends, the Watchers were protectors of the world. Mortals considered them spirits, fairy folk.
Throughout Caliban's history, the Watchers had helped the Calibanites out of many predicaments.
If they were willing to help, his wife would surely be safe.
But Caelan had a connection with the Watchers. What was he?
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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