Crisis of Faith by Benjamin Medrano (z-lib.org)

by Unknown

  “Have fun, Daniel, and watch your step,” Penelope called out cheerfully, and he couldn’t help rolling his eyes as he turned to leave.

  He wasn’t really all that upset by what the others had said, but it was a pointed reminder that he had things to do. A few moments later Sina trotted up behind him and slipped one arm through his, grinning at him.

  “You really are brave. Dumb, sometimes, but brave. Don’t let it go to your head, hm? I don’t want to lose you,” Sina said, her tone slightly teasing, but her eyes sparkled.

  “I’ll do my best, promise,” Daniel said, relaxing a little more.

  “Still, I have to say I’m looking forward to the next few days. I’ve heard there’s a group of high-ranking adventurers on their way here who transferred from the Southern Adventuring Guild,” Albert said idly to the others, his voice echoing down the tunnel and a note of anticipation in his voice. “They’re always thinking they’re superior to us, so I’m looking forward to seeing their reactions when—”

  Behind Daniel and Sina there was a sudden creaking of metal, and a chorus of cursing from the room. That made Daniel chuckle softly.

  Sistina wished she could hold her breath as the gears of the lift creaked, then began turning, drawing the cables connected to the lift itself up the shaft. The wheels on each rail turned smoothly, to her relief, but she didn’t let her attention waver for even a moment.

  She could see inside the lift for now, but only because she hadn’t retracted her domain from the lift shaft, something she planned to do once she’d decided the lifts could be used safely. That meant she should see Albert and the other adventurers on the platform, which was a motley group on the whole… but that pretty much described all adventurers, in Sistina’s opinion. More importantly, when she retracted her domain, she wasn’t going to abandon the rails and other major supports for the lifts, which would help her avoid rust or corrosion leading to failure. Hopefully.

  The key was to see if there were any flaws, in the end, and Sistina wasn’t happy that Albert had decided to risk a half dozen additional people. Oh, she didn’t like him risking himself, for that matter, but he’d flatly refused to let her have a golem activate the lift instead. That would have been much safer for everyone but the golem, but he’d said something about not wanting a golem to try something so interesting for the first time.

  So instead Sistina was watching the platform with an eagle eye, keeping an eye out for any burrs, weaknesses in the cables, or even bends in the rails. She’d done a lot of work to ensure the rails were straight, but she honestly didn’t trust them to stay that way, with how much of a pain it had been for her to make them to begin with. Oh, it’d been worth the effort, as learning to turn out lengths of metal that size and consistency had helped her refine her control, but it didn’t mean she wanted to do it more than necessary.

  There were a few problems, for that matter, not that she suspected that those on the carriage noticed. One of the wheels was slightly out of alignment, which she fixed, and like she suspected, some of the rail had some burrs that would have increased the amount of wear on the wheels more than she liked. Even more importantly, one of the cables connecting to the platform wasn’t quite secure enough, and that was something she needed to fix quickly. She’d made sure that there were twice as many cables to support the platform as needed, but she preferred that redundancy not be needed.

  Still, in all, the test went even better than Sistina anticipated, as the gearing worked almost flawlessly, the different sections of fences raised and lowered in response to Albert’s manipulation of the handles, and the steam engine at the top of the shaft puffed away, not even seeming to strain at the weight it was dealing with. On the other hand, Albert had said she’d overbuilt the engine.

  It took several minutes for Albert to work the lift up to full speed, though, which wasn’t that fast in all truth. It was still much faster than climbing the mountain by foot, of course, but the platform stopped at each of the tunnels Sistina had dug for exits farther up the mountain, though she hadn’t actually opened them into the city proper yet. She didn’t want people wandering in when it wasn’t ready yet, after all.

  Eventually they reached the top of the shaft, just a few dozen feet from the palace, and Albert stopped the lift, looking up as he spoke softly. “Alright, that worked like a dream. I wish all of my first attempts went that smoothly.”

  Thinking about the numerous problems she’d fixed, Sistina mentally glared at the man, wishing that she could communicate with others more easily in this state. She couldn’t, though, so she settled for impotent fuming instead. She wasn’t going to drop a rock or gear on his head just because he annoyed her, no matter how satisfying it might be.

  “Well, aside from rattling us around a bit, that was impressive,” Darak admitted, patting the wall of the carriage gently, then paused and asked, “So, do we at least get to see the top of the mountain? I don’t see an exit.”

  “It’s almost like Sistina didn’t want someone wandering inside, then tripping over their own feet and falling down the shaft,” Penelope said, her gaze resting on Joseph as she smiled, obviously teasing.

  “Hey, I resemble that remark!” Joseph replied, pretty much on cue, and prompting a chorus of laughter from the others.

  Their reaction did ease Sistina’s annoyance, though, so she decided to be nice to them, and carefully eased open a narrow passage, sized for a single person for now. It had a door, but she left it open so that the light would shine down the tunnel.

  “Ah! It appears that Sistina heard you, at a guess,” Albert said, looking down the passage, then grinned. “Shall we? That was far better than climbing the mountain.”

  “That sounds excellent to me. Maybe I’ll visit the academy while we’re here,” Nirath said, glancing around with the same strange smile on her face that Sistina had seen before, one which made her slightly uncomfortable.

  She’d met the elf a couple of times, and she suspected that if it weren’t for her having married Phynis and the Jewels, the elf might have tried courting her. Even so, she’d heard from Farris that the woman seemed to have an odd fascination with what it was like to be bound to a dungeon.

  Thinking of the Jewels, Sistina decided to pull her attention away once the group started toward the end of the tunnel. She suspected that Albert would come visit soon enough, and that meant it was time to get out of bed.

  Sistina opened her eyes to find that both of her arms were complaining loudly that they lacked blood flow, and she blinked, then looked downward in momentary confusion. The sight of Phynis’s metallic pink hair to her right explained some of it, as did Opal’s glittering orange hair on her left, each of their heads resting on her shoulders where they could obstruct her blood flow.

  “Ow,” Sistina said simply, blinking at them again. When she’d first woken that morning, Opal had been next to her, as it was the priestess’s turn with Sistina, so Phynis’s presence was a bit of a surprise.

  “Oh, you’re back!” Phynis said, looking up and grinning as she adjusted her position, while Sistina noticed she was in a gown for the day already. “What do you mean, ow?”

  “Arms need blood,” Sistina replied calmly, wincing as she tried to move.

  “Oh, sorry! You’re just nice and warm,” Opal said, pulling away and yawning as she sat up, then stretched. The beautiful elf gave Sistina a satisfied smile, then asked, “Mm, is the test going well?”

  “Some problems, fixed them. Minor problems,” Sistina said, letting out a tiny breath of relief as Phynis reluctantly sat up, letting blood painfully tingle back into both arms again. She sat up herself as she continued, resisting the urge to rub her arms. “Albert coming to visit. Need to get ready.”

  “Drat. I’d hoped he’d be busy for a while… but I suppose that was too much to hope for,” Phynis said, letting out a faint sigh, and Sistina arched an eyebrow at her for a moment, then smiled.

  “I do still have to prepare the ritual for Tyria, I feel I need t
o point out. This was a… minor expense where mana was concerned, comparatively,” Sistina said, feeling the need to speak more eloquently on that particular subject.

  “Mm, how much of a drain will it be?” Phynis asked, frowning as she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it out. “You said it takes a lot of power, right?”

  “Yes, it does. However, with the steam engines and mana condensers…” Sistina paused, considering for a few moments, then shrugged. “Perhaps half my reserve. I am doing much better than last year.”

  “Mm, considering what we were up against, is it wrong that I wish you’d had all of that last year instead?” Opal asked, and laughed at Sistina’s wry smile. Then the priestess paused, considering for a moment before she continued. “Speaking of Tyria, do you think she’s going to ask us if—”

  “Please don’t,” Phynis interjected, her eyes widening slightly as the princess sat up quickly. “I really don’t want you tempting fate where she’s concerned. If she decides… well, we’ll figure it out if it comes to that.”

  Sistina kept her mouth shut, not wanting to say the wrong thing. While she liked Tyria well enough and was well aware of the goddess’s feelings where she was concerned, Sistina also wasn’t going to ask her lovers to accept another person into their relationship. They were in charge of that, and she didn’t want to give the impression of pressuring them.

  Opal glanced at Sistina and gave a knowing smile, though, which made Sistina want to sigh. While she could hide her nature from most of them, Opal and Sapphire in particular were… difficult. It was hard, as she had been a succubus once upon a time.

  On the other hand, it was also why she knew how to take advantage of Wenris’s weaknesses, such as they were.

  “Taking bath,” Sistina announced, grabbing a robe and dress from the wardrobe.

  “Ooh, I’ll join you!” Opal said, and Phynis laughed in response.

  “In that case, I suppose I’ll go delay your guests, Sistina,” Phynis said, sounding slightly amused. “Do hurry, though? I have other things to do today.”

  “Yes, love,” Sistina replied, smiling back at her, then paused for a moment to consider before adding, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now go,” Phynis said, and Sistina laughed, then headed for the door.

  Chapter 33

  “Who the hell are you?” Kevin snarled, his dagger practically appearing in his hand, almost as suddenly as the masked man had appeared in the room.

  They’d only reached Westgate the previous night, which was far later than Kevin would have preferred, but it’d been unavoidable with the snows slowing them down. Worse, the snow made it far easier to track Bran’s soldiers, and even Kevin’s people had been forced to split up as well. During that time a few of his people had vanished, Kevin had noticed, and he was grimly certain that they’d decided to cut their losses, which was… aggravating. Not unexpected, but unfortunate in the extreme. He just hoped the ones who were going to distract Slaid Damrung’s soldiers wouldn’t do the same.

  Of course, most of their troops were hidden in a few encampments outside the city. They couldn’t easily smuggle most of them into the city, and only how difficult it was to get guards good descriptions of those wanted in Kelvanis made it possible for any of them to enter.

  On the other hand, anyone simply appearing in the center of their hideout set Kevin’s teeth on edge, as his wards should have stopped them from doing that, or at least warned him that they were coming. Kevin mentally reached for his wards and froze as he realized that they’d been almost completely destroyed without him noticing.

  In that moment, Bran had drawn his sword and a half dozen other assassins had their weapons out as well. The man smiled in response, his mask covering the upper half of his face, and he casually looked around before speaking, his voice lazy. “If you really want to draw the city guard down on yourselves, please, go ahead and attack. I’d enjoy killing a few of you before letting you destroy yourselves.”

  Everyone froze at that, as if unsure of what to do, and the man let out a soft laugh, one that angered Kevin a little. He hated people like that, who took pleasure in flaunting their power over others. It was part of why he’d become an assassin to begin with.

  “Who are you?” Bran asked, his voice surprisingly calm as he watched the intruder warily.

  “Oh, come now. You wouldn’t tell me who you were if you intruded, so why would I tell you?” the intruder scolded, shaking his head. “No, I’m sure you have much better questions than that.”

  Kevin growled despite himself, but paused and let Bran speak, since the man seemed to be calmer than Kevin was.

  “Fine, then. Why are you here?” Bran asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at the man.

  “That’s quite simple! I’m here to offer you a good deal of assistance in your endeavor. You see, the people who contacted you want to be sure of your success, so they decided that other assistance was in order,” the man said, grinning at them, the tinted lenses of his mask glittering in the lamplight. “The question is whether or not you’re willing to accept it.”

  “What sort of help?” Kevin asked, trying to get a read on the man in front of him. He could sense magic around the intruder, but the sensation was oddly muddled, as if something was interfering with his senses. That made a certain amount of sense, and the man was quite confident in a situation that Kevin considered unfavorable.

  “Help blowing open the gates to the city for your allies and dealing with defenders, of course,” the man said, smirking in amusement. “We also can ensure that after the target arrives, no one else will be able to teleport in for at least an hour. It’s just a matter of whether you’re willing to accept our aid or not.”

  “You expect us to simply take your word for that? How do you expect to deal with the defenders?” Bran asked warily.

  “I’m so glad you asked!” the man said, and snapped his fingers, at which point Kevin’s heart almost stopped.

  A creature appeared in the center of the room, and the sight of it struck fear into the heart of anyone, in Kevin’s opinion. Even hunched over, the monster was eight feet tall, almost brushing the rafters, and instead of a single head it had three serpentine necks with enormous fanged maws on them, each with glittering red eyes. Two hulking arms nearly dragged on the floor, with claws that could easily disembowel a horse, and the entire creature was covered in a thick, sickly green exoskeleton that glistened horribly in the light. Even worse, Kevin knew what the creature was, and knew this was it when it was suppressing its strength.

  “What in all—” Bran demanded, taking a step back as a serpentine tongue flicked out of the central mouth, causing a sound almost like a whip cracking which prompted everyone to shrink back slightly.

  “Shh, don’t upset him. I’d hate for him to eat one of your men to soothe his feelings,” the intruder said, grinning even more, now. “This is a ruiner. I have four of them in total, and they can destroy virtually anything, though they aren’t invulnerable. I’d happily pit them against a set of golems, however, which is why I believe they’ll be of use to you.”

  “That…” Kevin began, then swallowed, suddenly understanding why the man was so confident. Even if they outnumbered the monster by a large margin, Kevin’s instincts were finely honed, and even if he didn’t recognize the danger, his instincts were telling him to get the hell out of there. He controlled himself as he forced himself to finish. “You’re the ones who contacted us to come here, aren’t you? They are the only ones who create things like that.”

  He deliberately didn’t say Erethor and Eretha’s names, as he preferred not to draw the attention of the gods of destruction. Beyond that, what bits and pieces he’d heard of their cult made him wary of interacting with them, or at least inclined him to try to avoid upsetting them.

  The man simply laughed, ignoring Kevin as he focused on Bran, smiling as he spoke warmly. “Now, Adjudicator, I believe I’ve answered your question. These give me
the confidence that I require to help you, at a minimum. I’m not going to take care of everything for you, mind, but destroying the gates to let your soldiers in will be effortless for him.”

  Bran glanced at Kevin, still pale, but Kevin could see the man make his decision. Not that Kevin blamed him for it, considering the naked threat standing in the middle of their hideout, and how difficult things were going to be as it was. Any assistance would be incredibly helpful, let alone something as powerful as this ruiner appeared to be.

  “I… will accept your offer, then,” Bran said, his voice betraying a hint of reluctance. “I don’t know why you’re offering, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter why we’re doing this, just that we are,” the man interrupted again, obviously not caring what Bran had to say. “The ruiners will attack at dawn the day after tomorrow. You figure out what you’re doing when they do. The targets will be the temple of Tyria, the western gate, the garrison, and the city market. At least until reinforcements arrive, then they’re going to focus on the teleportation platform.”

  With that the man swirled his cloak, and he and the ruiner vanished in a pop of imploding air, leaving the room mostly empty. For a moment no one moved, then one of the Kelvanis soldiers collapsed, speaking in an unsteady voice. “What in all the gods was that thing?”

  “That’s an excellent question,” Bran said, slowly relaxing and sheathing his sword as he scowled at Kevin. “For that matter, how did they get in here? I thought you said this place was safe!”

  “It was safe, but they ripped my wards apart before they could even warn me they were coming,” Kevin shot back, glowering at Bran in return. “If you think that you’re unhappy, you have no idea just how much that upsets me.”

  “Huh,” Bran said, looking around the room for a moment, then sighed as he spoke to his men. “Come on, clean up already. It isn’t like we have anywhere else to go, and they’re gone now.”