Pacian was already quietly moving up and Sayana kept close behind him, hovering with equal silence over the worn metal stairs. She snuffed out the tiny flicker of flame in her palm and relied on her vision to see the way. The air here seemed less stale, yet still carried an odd scent the likes of which Sayana had rarely encountered before. It was an acrid smell she sometimes detected after an electrical discharge, such as a bolt of lightning.
A faint source of light lay just ahead, coming through a gap in a door which was apparently not completely shut. It was as large and heavy as the doors below, fashioned from the same odd combination of stone and metal as everything else in this complex. More rumbling impacts could be heard from somewhere nearby. Pacian crept towards the gap and peered through, checking to see if it was safe before pulling the door open.
“Clear,” he whispered as he slipped through to the other side, with Sayana right behind him. The corridor here was as unremarkable as the ones they had already traversed, but for tiny globes of hovering incandescence providing light at regular intervals. It was becoming clear that the entire facility was suffering from considerable neglect, built up over decades or centuries, or perhaps even longer if Terinus was to be believed.
Sayana and Pacian moved silently along the corridor, stopping at various intervals to investigate doorways, when one of the doors opened and a dark figure emerged. It came face-to-face with Sayana and both of them froze in place, unsure what they were looking at. The figure was seven feet tall and clothed in a weathered black robe similar to the kind Terinus wore.
Metal gauntlets, the same as Aiden had recently used, capped its hands. Four glowing blue eyes glared from under the rim of its hood, one pair set above the other and much like Sayana's, there were no visible pupils. Beyond its eyes, there were no discernable details at all, as if all light was being absorbed by its skin.
Their mutual pause of surprise, along with a moment of scrutiny happened within a span of two heartbeats. They both raised their hands at the same time, having recognised the other as a threat. Sayana's sight noticed the summoning of energies from her counterpart and instinctively sent a barrage of her own energies into the mix. Her opponent's invocation became a disjointed cacophony without direction, dissipating into the surrounding air without effect.
Before she could recover, the sa'quaarin raised a hand and grabbed her by the throat, slamming her bodily against the wall and attempting to squeeze the life from her. Its strength was immense, augmented by the gauntlet upon its right hand. Sayana struggled against it, using as much power as she could summon to telekinetically push it away. Unable to breathe, she flailed ineffectually against the creature’s grip until Pacian's scythe sliced through its body.
The alien monster slumped to the floor in silence and a growing pool of blood. Pacian stepped back and withdrew his blade, staring down in disdain at their fallen adversary.
“That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen,” he remarked softly as Sayana gasped for breath. Looking closely at their fallen enemy, she saw the skin was in fact a fine, prickly fur which reminded her of a spider's. This, combined with the noseless face, was unsettling to say the least.
“Sorry I took so long,” Pacian continued. “I was certain you were going to take it down with a flick of your wrist. I... why can I see skin on your arms?”
“Don't tell the others,” Sayana hissed, using her voice to conserve energy. “The conduits are unravelling. I don't think I have—”
Her words were interrupted by a shrill sound echoing through her mind. She reeled in pain, clutching her head as she attempted to block out the noise. Pacian watched on with concern, oblivious to the cause of her distress. The sound of Aiden's thudding footsteps rushing up the stairs nearby drew their attention as the others joined them.
“There is an alarm sounding off,” Aiden explained, though the others were clearly in the dark as much as Pacian.
“I hear it,” Sayana responded with a strained voice. “I think the one we just killed may have warned others.”
“The noise you are experiencing is mental in origin,” Terinus advised. “Aiden's armour is also attuned to receive such alerts. They know we are here.”
“Damn, there goes the element of surprise,” Robert growled, drawing his weapon and shield, then slamming the visor of his vythiric helm into place. “Enough sneaking about. Where do we go?”
“The area is familiar to me,” Terinus answered. “This way.” Moving with purpose, they headed down the corridor towards the origin of the impact noises they had been hearing for some time now. Another sound joined the background rumble as they ran, a dull humming noise that slowly increased with pitch and intensity, permeating the surrounding walls.
“What is that?” Nellise asked.
“They are preparing to activate the orbital lance,” Terinus rasped grimly. “The opportunity for us to intervene is measured in minutes. We cannot hope to make the control centre in time — we must head directly to the firing chamber and destroy it there.”
“Where?” Robert barked. Terinus gestured to the left with his staff and they sped off along the hallway towards a set of large doors ahead. All pretence at remaining unnoticed had vanished, replaced with a lingering urgency that all their efforts were about to be rendered futile. When they reached the oversized doors, Nellise nudged Pacian to get them open.
“I haven't had time to figure out these mechanisms,” he said. Aiden took this as a cue to act. He stepped forward and placed his armoured hands along the vertical line between the doors. The ancient armour let out a grind of protest as he heaved against the massive doors. At first, nothing happened, but then ever so slowly they started to separate. Aiden quickly shoved his heavy metal hands into the breach and pulled them apart with greater leverage, slowly revealing what lay beyond.
A towering dreadnaught construct, very similar to the one Veronique had sent against them in Lanfall, stomped across the doorway obscuring their view, oblivious to their presence as it followed the orders of its masters.
In its wake, they were treated to an unobstructed view of the rest of the chamber, which was twice the size of the cavernous storage area they'd found earlier. The ceiling was much higher, and in stark contrast to the rest of the complex, the floor within was a hive of activity. Sayana's budding confidence vanished as she looked upon over a dozen dreadnaughts standing along the edges of the room, with twice that number of robed sa'quaarin scurrying about activating them.
One by one, the inert constructs began to come alive, stomping their feet and moving their arms in a very specific manner, as if testing their body to make sure it was working properly. So busy was the foundry floor, that no one had noticed the opened doors and the group of interlopers in their midst. Aiden had the presence of mind to shove them to one side of the corridor and hide behind the partially open doors, giving them a moment to appraise the situation.
“I counted thirteen,” Nellise noted with a flat voice, “and another twenty-five sa'quaarin, all of whom stand between us and the door on the other side. How are we to face such numbers?”
“We can't get through all of them in time,” Robert responded in dismay, stifling a cough with one hand. “Can we find a way around?”
“There are no other ways around,” Terinus rasped firmly. “The workshop is in the middle of the entire fortress, and it contains the only route between the lower and upper levels.”
“Then we attack with everything we have and catch them off guard,” Aiden rumbled from within his suit. “Our objective is to get Terinus to the firing chamber so he can disable the weapon. Nel, you and Pace escort him while Robert, Sayana and I distract this lot. Once you’re through, keep going and we will catch up to you. Pace, try to leave a trail of bodies for us to follow.”
“I won't have to try, Aiden,” Pacian reminded him with subtle humour.
“Someone switch this damned gauntlet on for me,” Robert grunted. Terinus obliged, quickly touching the glyphs which activated the powerful
relic. “Aiden and I will focus on the dreadnaughts. Sy, see what you can do to keep the robed blokes busy.”
“They are likely simple technicians,” Terinus advised as Sayana's heart began to race. “There will be supervisors, however — they are the ones you need to neutralise. I will do what I can to assist on the way through.”
“Can someone turn off that bloody alarm?” Aiden added as he drew the hilt of his new weapon. “It's really starting to annoy me.”
“I will do what I can,” Sayana replied, attempting to trace the sound within her mind to its source. Their conversation continued while her mind drifted away from the present moment. Although sight had no meaning here, she did interpret what she experienced as a kind of visual stimuli.
It wasn’t difficult to locate the origin of the alarm — it was a psychic projection from a sa'quaarin located within the room ahead. From what she could discern, it was an adjutant to the overseer for the dreadnaught foundry. The signal went out from its mind and touched upon all of its kind, including it seemed, Sayana and Aiden.
The background noise of sa'quaarin minds flowed through this place, a faint murmuring of whispered voices she couldn't understand. There was a degree of serenity present, a sense of belonging and welcome, as if the entire population of these strange people were interconnected through their minds.
Sayana felt like an outsider looking through the window of a cottage on a cold winter's night, viewing a family enjoying the comforts of home. Excluded. Shunned. Never to know the feeling of being part of the group. It was a disconcerting sensation but one she was not unfamiliar with.
Sayana followed the trail of energy until it reached one of the many sa'quaarin minds present. She visualised a sphere of iron and placed it around the creature, silencing the noise instantly. In the same instance Sayana felt the minds of a dozen others turn toward her.
The comforting interplay of energy from the other minds abruptly changed to anger and a sensation of immense pressure, like a wave of malevolence, surged towards her with such intensity it overwhelmed her senses. Although somewhat disconnected from her body, Sayana heard her own scream as if from a great distance.
Sayana quickly visualised a wall of energy in front of her to shield against the oncoming assault. The combined mental energy of two dozen sa'quaarin struck it dead-on, vaporising the outer edges as the stream of destructive force flowed around. Sayana summoned all of her strength and channeled it into the wall, fashioning buttresses and reinforcements to maintain its structure against the onslaught.
The flowing energy coalesced into dozens of bat-like creatures, with claws dripping with acid. As one, they dove towards her and clawed at the mental manifestation of her mind. She brought up a shield to surround her, attempting to ward off the shrieking nightmares with limited success.
Through the searing mental pain, she knew she could never win against so many simply by remaining on the defensive. It was taking everything she had simply to avoid being vaporised on the spot, yet every moment she fought diverted their attention away from the others, giving them a chance at victory.
Despite the slow decay of her power over the last few hours, she was still the most powerful sorceress to have ever lived. Although outnumbered, she single-handedly held her own against the might of the sa'quaarin, and that alone told her she had a chance to win this fight.
Dismissing the protective wall, she transformed the energy into a storm of electricity around her. The nightmarish bats shrieked, disintegrating almost instantly. Nearby sa'quaarin clutched at their heads and vanished from the scene, undoubtedly the weaker ones unable to sustain the fight.
The remaining bats vanished and the area around Sayana cleared briefly, until she felt a building pressure in her mind. She cried out as her opponents dispensed with finesse and simply attempted to crush her will. The sorceress struggled to hold them off, feeling the pressure increase with each passing moment until she thought she would implode.
With tremendous effort, Sayana managed to push back against the onslaught. With her strength flagging, Sayana noticed first one, then another sa'quaarin vanish from the mental battlefield with a shriek.
A faint light appeared on the battlefield ahead, a figure who could only be Nellise. In this strange place, she appeared as little more than a cloud of pure white light vaguely resembling her physical form. While this was remarkable in and of itself, the sword she held in her hand seemed to be the most real thing there.
A cloud of angry spirits swirled around the blade, assailing the minds of the sa'quaarin as it cut into their physical bodies. Sayana wasn't alone at all — operating on a separate plane of existence perhaps, but still very much connected to her friends.
Reaching out with her will, she gave one of her enemies a taste of its own medicine. Sacrificing some of her defence, she clenched her mind and slowly crushed one of the sa'quaarin to death. More of the others continued to drop out of sight, making her job that much easier. From amongst their remaining number, a more prominent mind came to the fore. It had been hiding amongst the group, directing their energies but remaining out of sight until now. Sayana felt its attention directed solely at her, and braced herself against the impending assault.
Darkness suddenly blanketed the mental realm, blocking Sayana's inner sight well enough to give the impression of standing in a cave. Sharp whispers permeated the black around her, their words lying just beyond comprehension. The temperature dropped below freezing and she shivered involuntarily, clutching her clothes for a modicum of warmth.
A faint flicker of moonlight appeared just ahead, and although Sayana knew this was some sort of illusion, she crept forward to investigate anyway. It all seemed quite familiar, but it wasn't until she emerged from the cave she recalled where she had seen this before.
It was the cave she had lived in for years after being abandoned in the wilderness by her people. The scene was absolutely perfect in every detail, right down to the mist emerging from her mouth with every exhalation. A chill wind blew across the landscape, stirring up snow on the ground which obscured a nearby forest.
She had come home, and it was not a pleasant experience. Logically, she knew this to be fake, but everything felt so real. The cold snap in the air, the frozen ground underfoot and the all too real sense of isolation permeated her thoughts. How she had survived out here for so long was beyond her now, and the buried feelings of hopelessness she had endured were thrust upon her with full force.
Sayana fell to her knees in despair, clutching her head as she tried to ward off the terrible emotions welling up within her. A small spark within her tried to hold on to the idea this was simply an illusion, and as such, couldn't really hurt her. But it was more than that. The feelings were real, and having finally left this place in the past, she had forgotten how to cope with them.
And then the wolves came.
The howl of the distant beasts sent a shiver up her spine, and Sayana knew at that point she was being hunted. Her instincts taking over, she scrambled to her feet and began to run through the frozen landscape. No matter how hard she tried to disbelieve what she was experiencing, nothing could shake the reality of her situation. It then occurred to her that maybe this was real, and the sa'quaarin had actually transported her through time and space to the moment of her greatest vulnerability.
This scared her more than the wolves pursuing her through the night, and left her with the thin hope that out there, somewhere, Robert and the others were still in the fight.
Chapter Nineteen
“Can someone turn off that bloody alarm?” Aiden said as he drew the hilt of his new weapon. “It's really starting to annoy me.”
“I will do what I can,” Sayana replied, falling silent as she did her thing.
“They're all made of auldsteel,” Aiden breathed in awe as he looked upon the army of constructs, unable to fathom the engineering required to create so many from the metal once-thought-of as rare. His vision from within the armour was near-perfect, marred
only by warnings from the bewildering array of images and words vying for his attention, hovering in front of him no matter where he looked. He readily understood the symbol for auldsteel being displayed next to each construct in his field of view and realised the one they had faced in Lanfall's dungeons was only one of many.
To avoid becoming overwhelmed with information, Aiden was ignoring anything coloured blue, which seemed the colour to denote unimportant information about either his suit or the environment. A red sigil hovering in the corner of his eye represented the alarm, which halted abruptly after Sayana attempted to do something about it, only to be replaced with her scream.
“Sy, what is it?” Robert shouted, trying to gain her attention. Her cry subsided, yet she remained frozen in place, her mouth agape at horrors only she could see. The stomping footsteps of approaching dreadnaughts forced a reassessment of their priorities, however.
“Stick to the plan,” Aiden growled as he activated the huge energy sword and charged towards the nearest foe, attempting to buy time for his companions. With his head filled with the strange effects of the armour, he felt invincible even as he closed on the towering constructs. Still getting a feel for how his armour moved, Aiden mistimed his planned sidestep as the foremost dreadnaught sent its oversized fist towards him, catching him on the shoulder with a deafening clang that echoed throughout the foundry.
Pivoting with the blow, Aiden swept around in a circle with the edge of his glowing blade cutting through the air until it encountered the auldsteel skin of his opponent. It left a sizzling line of angry red across the leg of the dreadnaught, but failed to sever it as Aiden had hoped.
Heaving his weapon in powerful sweeps, Aiden slashed at the construct again and again, his speed and agility evidently greater than the dreadnaught, and an advantage he sought to exploit. If it was a one-on-one contest, Aiden knew he could beat it, unfortunately the other constructs moved in to assist. Thankfully, he wasn't alone either.
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