by Tj Dixon
“So you’re not going to let the rats eat me then?” I ask jokingly. Thankfully my nerves seem to be gone now.
“Well, I may let them take a bit or two. Rat mules need to eat too.” Kai jokes. I laugh and smile at her joke.
“So are they much further?” I ask more seriously now.
“I have no idea.” Kai says sounding a bit annoyed now. I’d best not ask her again. “This way.” I follow Kai to the left this time as the tunnel splits into three this time.
“Are you going to be able to find the way back ok?” I ask.
“Of course.” Kai says with a grin.
“I think I can smell something now.” I say after another minute or two walking. There is definitely a faint odour in the air. It smells a bit like rotting meat, but it is too faint to be sure.
“That’s good. I’d hate to be the only one who has to smell this foul stench.” Kai says and pats me on the back a bit too enthusiastically. I almost go flying. Kai winces and says quietly. “Sorry. Don’t know my own strength.”
“Don’t worry.” I say looking up at Kai in surprise. She seems a bit shaken.
“Back home at my village…” Kai says sadly but then she shakes her head. “No, never mind.”
“What’s that sound?” I ask as I realise there is a strange clicking noise above us. Kai pauses a moment and then smiles.
“Just a few bugs in the tunnel above us. Nothing to be worried about.” Kai assures me.
“Ok.” I respond still a little anxious. We continue along the tunnel until it splits again. Each time it does so Kai seems to know exactly which way to go. Five splits later the smell is now rather strong.
“Stop.” Kai suddenly whispers to me and holds her hand out to stop me. “I can hear them now, so they aren’t far ahead.”
I listen and realise there is a faint squeaking up ahead. It could be my imagination but I think there is also an even fainter clicking noise up ahead as well. I turn to Kai and whisper. “So how do we capture them?”
“That’s easy. The dwarves made these tunnels large enough for fairly large monsters to use, but more importantly for large machines or cages. I’m going to create a cage around the rat mules and then we’ll drag it back to the city with magic. We can get the whole herd in one go.”
“So what do I do?” I ask wondering whether I’m just going to be useless today.
“You have more magic than me, so you’re going to be doing the dragging.” Kai says with a smile.
“Oh. I suppose that’s simple enough.”
“Just stay a few steps behind me until I’ve captured the rat mules.” Kai says and so I move behind her. “Now there’s no need to be scared. No rat mule is going to get past me.”
Standing behind her Kai seems even taller than normal and her presence is much more powerful. I can easily believe her words, so I’m truly not afraid. She begins to advance silently towards the awful smell and sound of the rat mules. I am careful not to get too close to Kai, because I don’t want to get in her way but I follow her without making a sound.
All of a sudden Kai’s glow flares up blindingly bright and once my eyes have adjusted I can see black stone bars that remind me a little of the jail. There are lots of them now though, and the gaps are very narrow. The smell is no worse but the faint squeaks are replaced by angry hissing. Behind the bars I can see what must be the rat mules. They are about a foot tall and wide, and perhaps two foot long. They each have two long sharp white fangs that I can see. Their black slimy fur is probably the source of the foul stench.
“I think I got them all.” Kai says with a wince. Then she closes her eyes and a quick flood of water drenches the rat mules. The water only lasts a moment and flows away from us down the tunnel. “Water isn’t my strength, but the smell definitely seems weaker now.”
“Let me have a go.” I say and close my eyes. I remember how I wash myself and summon the same cleansing water over a dozen of the rat mules. Then I release the water. Sure enough the rat mules are clean. I repeat the process on the others about a dozen at a time.
“That’s much better.” Kai says as I finish cleaning the last rat mules.
“There must be over a hundred of these things.”
“A hundred and five.” Kai says. “Now I’m going to form a proper cage so you can move it. You’d have a hard time moving the walls I created.”
“Yes, I definitely couldn’t move them.” I agree. Then Kai reforms the stone into a cage with a floor and roof. It is clearly really heavy but at least it is no longer merged with the tunnel. The tunnel floor and roof are both mostly smooth. The cage roof is about three foot above the ground. Kai’s wall, which previously reached the roof of the tunnel now merges perfectly with the roof of the cage and stops there.
“Can you move that?” Kai asks.
“Yes, though it will take a while to get it back, given how heavy it is. Also how will we get them through the final tunnel? There’s no way that cage will fit.”
“The guards will deal with them once we reach the tunnel to Nirvali.” Kai says with a shrug. “You just need to get it to them.”
“Ok.” I say and close my eyes. I focus my earth sense on the cage. It still feels weird to use my magical senses, but to lift that cage I am going to have to. I use earth magic to lift the cage up about half a foot and then open my eyes.
“I’ll lead. Make sure not to squash us with the cage.” Kai says with a smile. I move the cage slowly towards us and then follow Kai. We walk slowly so I can keep the cage close to us.
I don’t know how long it takes but eventually Kai stops, looks around and seems to spot something. She knocks on the wall and it disappears. There are two guards behind it. They are about three foot tall and like all the female dwarves I’ve seen they are really slim. They have pale skin, green eyes and brown hair. They are both armed with a black metal short sword and black stone armour.
“You got the rat mules I see. They’re nice and clean too.” The first guard says with a smile. “We’ll take them from here.”
Then the second guard grins. “That cage must be real heavy. One of you obviously has a ton of power, or you wouldn’t be able to move it.”
“That’s Elucia here.” Kai says patting me on the shoulder. “She’s as powerful as a mountain.”
“And almost as small as a dwarf, both upwards and outwards.” The first guard laughs.
“A large dwarf.” The second guard laughs.
“Well, a large female dwarf.” The first guard says.
“Are you female?” The second guard asks.
“Yes I am!” I protest angrily.
“Ok, ok, no need to get worked up about it.” She laughs.
“We’ll be going now.” Kai says and guides me into the tunnel. I can still hear the guards laughing behind us.
“Is it ok to keep the door open so long?” I ask Kai.
“I doubt the enemy will ever reach the Lower Maze, and those guards can deal with any monsters that turn up.” Kai says with a shrug.
“So how do we get paid?” I ask.
“We pick that up at the first desk we saw on the way. Where she asked our names and bounty. It will take a while before its ready to pick up though, because they need to get the rat mules into the city first. We’ll pick it up on our way to do another job tomorrow.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We go home and rest to get our power back. I doubt you can have any power left and I don’t have much left either.”
“I don’t feel like I used much.” I admit.
“Then you’re the scariest monster I’ve ever seen.” Kai laughs but behind her laugh I sense a dark edge to her expression. As if she isn’t entirely joking.
(Nairon)
If I mess up again there’s going to be no second chances. I have two options. Complete the mission or die a terrible death. I only have myself to count on. Not having to use a spiderfly is a nice change, but I wish Seraph and Ishki were here. I hope they are at least still al
ive.
I thought at first that my mission was impossible. Just a delayed death sentence. Now though there is hope. I’m sitting here waiting for the traitor to arrive. He’ll be well rewarded for his treachery and I’ll get to live too. That is if he doesn’t change his mind of course.
If he does change his mind I may just be sitting here waiting for a dwarven army to come and kill me. That can’t be any worse than the Envoy killing me though. In fact it would probably be a much quicker death than the Envoy would give me. I have heard of executions lasting three or four months. In fact I did hear a rumour that one execution lasted two years, but I think that was just a rumour.
I sense magic approaching. It is powerful enough that it is most likely the traitor. It is still some way from me and is only moving slowly. I suppose dwarves can’t walk very fast on their short legs.
Strangely though the magic goes past me. There is no way that dwarf would miss the spot we arranged to meet at. There can’t be many dwarves with as much power as I can sense. I certainly hope there aren’t. This is definitely the spot we agreed to meet at, but I am curious. My presence still hidden I follow the power I am sensing.
As I get closer I see a sight that almost draws a gasp of shock. That is definitely the body that the spy master was using. Was it just a lie that he was killed? Perhaps an attempt to trick the enemy?
She is wearing strange black stone clothing. They look very heavy and although they are still black shirt and shorts, are very different to the clothes the spy master dressed that body with. These look much less embarrassing as they cover her up properly.
“She almost looks like a proper dwarven girl.” A voice whispers from beside me. I really do gasp this time, but I am far enough away that I doubt they can hear me. I look down and to my relief it is the traitor standing beside me. “So did she agree to my demands?”
“Yes. The Envoy agreed to all your requests.” I tell him.
“Good, good. It seems we have a deal.”
(Peter)
It was a hard day and tomorrow will be just as hard again. Even so I lie here unable to sleep. Images keep entering my mind and disturbing my attempt to sleep. Images of girls. Asuna, Lucy, Hermes, Rin, Aventurine, Chery and Sherry and that is just to name a few. I have no idea why I can’t get them out of my head, but I can’t. It’s not just images I have seen, but images that exist only in my imagination.
It’s not just images but words too. Words like Lucy’s ‘Remember you have the love of a beautiful woman, who would do almost anything for you… or with you.’ For some reason it’s the last words in particular that keep going round my head.
Then there’s Asuna’s words that appalled me at the time, but now seem so tempting. I can’t remember exactly what she said because it was so long ago now, or at least feels like it was. That just makes it worse though, as I try to remember exactly what she said and as I do they seem to get twisted into perhaps what I would like her to have said. One thing I am sure of though, if I gave Asuna an order she would obey it. The scariest thing though, is that I am not sure I can resist the temptation to give her the order that I want to. I am certain however that I must not give that order. That doesn’t make it any easier. Perhaps that is why I seem to see Asuna’s image in my head the most.
When I have finally cleared my head of girls something else always takes their place. It is always the same thing and it always leads me back to thinking about girls again. The image I see is the scariest image I can think of. I see myself staring back at me as if in a mirror. In truth it just looks like me and shouldn’t be scary at all, but I can feel the accusation in my eyes. The accusation of a dead boy whose place I have taken.
Chapter 8 (Multiple)
(Peter)
“You seem distracted, boyo.” Grundle tells me as gruffly as ever, but there is a hint of concern in his eyes.
“Sorry, just tired. I’ve not been sleeping too well lately.” I tell him.
“Something keeping you awake?” He asks with a mix of both gruffness and concern.
“Girls, mostly.” I admit, not wanting to reveal my darker thoughts. Grundle chokes and then laughs heartily with one hand on his stomach.
“And here I was concerned about you. I’ll work you twice as hard if it is girls that are distracting you. They can wait until you’re a master smithy.” Grundle tells me and I wince but his last words catch me off guard.
“Can a human become a master smithy?” I ask.
“Actually I suppose not. Hmm… What are you aiming to be when you’re older?”
“Captain of an independent company, but I need to return to Contractia first to do that. My main goal as a captain will be to reach the stars.” I tell him. He frowns.
“No time for girls if you want to reach the stars in a mere human’s life time. I hear you humans don’t even live two centuries.”
“Most humans don’t live one century.” I admit.
“So how old are you now?”
“Thirteen or so.” I say and then frown. My body is thirteen. I’m pretty sure of that, but how old am I? For that matter what does ‘I’ even mean? Since both my souls merged? When did that even happen?
“You seem unsure.”
“I am unsure. Regardless though, I’m aiming for immortality along with my whole company so I should have plenty of time to reach the stars.”
“Immortality… Most people that aim to become immortal, live very short lives.”
“Even without aiming for immortality my life is going to be constantly in danger if I want to reach the stars, or more importantly protect my friends.”
“I’m glad to see you have your priorities straight. I still remember when dwarves sought to conquer the stars. That was before we got stuck down here.”
“To conquer the star?” I ask in shock.
“We never even reached them, though we did reach both the moons.” He says wishfully. Then he blinks and rubs his eyes. “Back to work, boyo. These light traps aren’t going to make themselves!”
I focus on the task at hand. Specifically I focus on whittling away these weird blue stones with carefully placed wind slices. These stones have to be exactly the right shape or they don’t work. I have no idea why they work but I know exactly what I need to do to make them work. This is the fifteenth today alone. We were working on them all of yesterday as well as all this morning.
“Grundle?” An especially deep voice calls out from the door. I turn to look as Grundle approaches the door.
“Lord Blake!” Grundle calls out as he gets a bit closer to the door. “Come in! Oh, but mind Pebble.”
Too late the large rock has already jumped at Lord Blake’s head. Lord Blake is large for a dwarf, at about four foot tall and almost as wide and deep as he is tall. Even so he deftly grabs Pebble and tickles her all over, before throwing her back to the floor.
“You really should get a new guard stone.” Blake says stroking his long golden beard. If his beard wasn’t wrapped around his neck like a scarf I am sure it would be three times as long as he is tall. Other than his beard though, he is completely bald. He is only wearing black stone shorts and his flabby belly shakes as he walks. There isn’t an ounce of flab in his short little legs that look far too weak to support such a large body, or in his powerful long arms that look like they could break a mountain in two. Or at least a wall of solid stone. His skin like all male dwarves is of course black. “So I hear you have a new apprentice.”