Michael
Michael’s head swung from left to right, watching the fields as they rode toward the closest mountain. He couldn’t see much else but fields and a couple of farmhouses. The dwarves working on the fields gave them curious looks as they rode past, but Michael could also see hostility from some but mostly curiosity.
“Why are there so many farms everywhere? Every meter is used,” he asked Solon.
“Well, most of the dwarven kingdom is underground in the mountains. The surface estates have been ravaged by the last cataclysm and a sentiment of isolationism has grasped the heart of most of my people, so they don’t tend to leave the land they have once claimed. That also means though that the space for agricultural work is limited. That is why wood and agricultural products are much more expensive in Garekha,” Solon explained. “I never really cared for the sedentary lifestyle of my people.”
“That is probably good for us because if the dwarves can make stuff like this wall, we would stand no chance,” Michael said with a dry chuckle.
“You humans aren’t the only ones that have devolved since the cataclysm.”
Michael looked at his mentor but saw that the subject was souring his mood, so he stayed silent.
As they traveled further, they came closer to the mountain and suddenly Michael noticed that the mountainside was a straight vertical wall with some parts being moved a little bit inward. He didn't know how he didn't notice before but a good part of what was ahead of him was one large gatehouse with three walls stacked on the wall like a staircase for giants. In the middle was an open ginormous gate, at least thirty meters tall.
Michael's jaw dropped and he stared at it. He had never seen something this large. He didn't even think that it was possible to build something like this.
“We need dwarven builders,” Kiran said with a dreamlike tone and Michael nodded weakly. “This reminds me of the stories of the great magic academies and wizards towers of old. Towers of marble that scraped the clouds and wonders beyond comprehension. Now only rubble and dust.”
“Maybe you can meet with some dwarven mages, they are probably better off than the ones in the kingdom,” Michael suggested but Solon shot him down quickly. “Unlikely, the rune mages are even more seclusive than most other dwarves.”
Michael frowned and grumbled, “This is going to be a fun visit, isn't it.”
They had to show identification at the gate again which was quickly solved by the minister's token, after riding through a tunnel for a while they entered the city.
What waited for them was a gigantic cavern filled with stone. The streets were carved from stone, all buildings were built out of rock, and even the lantern posts were stone pillars. Michael looked around and could see no building that was not made out of stone.
I guess when you build a city underground you will have nothing if not stone, Michael thought as he inspected the different buildings. This whole day had been a string of amazing sights and the wonder had grabbed everyone.
“Amazing, to be able to see the great halls of Garekha,” Grur mumbled and looked at the stalls that lined the streets. Michael followed his example and saw mostly small run-down street vendors selling junk. Further down the alleys, he could also see a large number of beggars.
“Humans or dwarfs some things remain the same,” he commented, and the trader nodded in agreement.
“Come on, we can explore the city later, we should first get to our destination and get your identifications in order,” Solon said strictly.
So, they made their way through the city. It was at least twice as large as Lionsgate and Michael was especially impressed by its leveled design. He stopped multiple times looking down a bridge to see a whole different level of the city or peered up to see bridges crossing each other on different elevations. Huge pillars were everywhere and even passed through buildings as if they had been there first.
The citizens looked at them like humans would at a group of dwarves that suddenly wandered through their city, it was interesting to be on the opposing side for once, but Michael didn’t especially like the feeling.
“What city is this by the way? I think you never told me the name,” Michael asked Solon while still looking around.
“This is the capital, Oranthos. The second largest city in the underground kingdom and seat of the twin monarchs.”
Michael remembered from his lessons that two rulers of different clans ruled Garekha, and they had to work together to rule effectively.
“This is not the largest city?”
“No, that is Kerath, it is built far underground and designed to be a last shelter for our people and to harbor as many as possible in the most dire of times, it is a vast city, but Oranthos is large nonetheless,” Solon explained.
“And why is Kerath not the capital if it is bigger and the last line of defense?”
“The logistics would be difficult as it is deep underground and even though it is larger it does have a much smaller population than Oranthos, mostly to maintain it and for mining. If the court would move there then it would be much more expensive to supply them and everyone who follows so deep down. If our people, go down there for shelter then expenses are irrelevant and most of our supply is cut anyway, they would have to make do with what they can carry.”
“Hm, I understand but with walls like these and sheltered in the mountains I can't imagine anyone threatening you anyway,” Michael said.
“It might seem so but digging deep has its own dangers and being stuck with those dangers in a box of stone is not a nice way to die,” the dwarf said while still looking into the distance.
“That is a dramatic way to describe it, friend, but what kind of dangers are you talking about,” Grur inquired obviously interested in the conversation.
“Mana comes from the earth,” Kiran explained, “The concentrations are higher the lower you go underground, generally speaking of course, for example in the Ereic Mountains to the south of Reen it is inverted with the more dangerous beasts being found further up the mountain for some unexplained reason. That means that you can find more dangerous monsters down there. Also, many magical races fled underground when the mana plummeted at the end of the cataclysm and randomly stumbling upon a hibernating major fire spirit in an enclosed space, well, I think you can guess the rest.”
They traversed the rest of their way with only light conversations and pointing at interesting things. They pathed through one district after another, having to stop at every gate to identify themselves all over again until they ended in the fanciest district that Michael had seen until now. The manors that were built here would probably serve a king in their luxury and size and there were dozens of them here.
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They had stopped at one of the impressive estates and Solon demounted to talk with the guards. They were talking in dwarfish, and it was too fast for Michael to understand but it sounded quite hectic as one of the guards hurried away with the token that had brought them this far. The gate opened and they were signaled in by the guard with whom Solon had spoken, he looked very displeased.
“Is there a problem,” Michael asked but Solon just shrugged and followed the guard.
Michael frowned and followed him into the courtyard which was easily large enough for all their horses and the wagons. The courtyard was one large plaza surrounded by water channels filled with fish and glowing stones embedded into the channel bed. There were also statues of different animals scattered in the channels and on the little stone islands between them.
The building they stopped in front of was similarly impressive with large glass windows, gargoyle statues, and other decorations covering the entire front. It was a little much for Michael’s taste but impressive, nonetheless.
Only a few moments later the door swung open, and a man who looked to be around Solon’s age and with an ice-cold expression appeared together with the guard that had hurried off earlier. He wore a black tunic with gold details which fitted perfectly to his graying black hair and the golden jewelry in his beard.
He stopped only a meter out of the door and took in the whole scenery; looking at the humans and carts that now inhabited his courtyard and then fixated on Solon with any emotions suppressed from his face.
“Solon,” he said while still holding eye contact with the other dwarf.
“Valmick. Good to see you,” Solon answered in remurian and held eye contact.
The minister pointed vaguely in the direction of the humans and said, “This is not what I meant when I asked you to come back. You used my name and sigil to get a group of humans into the heart of the kingdom. Do you have any idea how this looks?” His voice was steady and even though he was criticizing Solon’s decisions his face was neutral as if it was struck straight from granite.
“I won’t apologize for it. You gave me the sigil to help me in my travel and so I used it,” Solon retorted similarly controlled. “This is my ward, Michael Rowan; he is the count of Reen and Emall and Cedric’s son.”
For the first time, Valmick’s expression changed when a frown came over it, “Cedric is dead? Hm, I am sorry for your loss but that doesn’t explain why you brought a group of humans to my doorstep.”
“If you would let us in, we could have this conversation like civilized people,” Solon said with a smirk which seemed to agitate the other dwarf more than everything else.
“Alright,” he then quickly said a couple of sentences in dwarfish and Michael could pick out the meaning that he was ordering his guards to take care of the horses and show everyone else to the servant quarters.
“You and your ward may enter and explain yourself; the rest will be shown to their quarters for now,” he then said in remurian again.
Eydis began signing at Michael, but he shut her down, “We are safe here and guests so we will follow their rules. I will be fine.”
Michael noticed that Valmick was inspecting him with eyes that were filled with experience, but he tried to ignore it. He followed Solon up the stairs and into the lobby of the mansion.
The lobby was as luxurious as the whole building and Michael was starting to get whiplash from all the gold and other riches wasted on such extravagance. In front of him was a wide staircase that led into the second level and down came a female dwarf.
He would guess that she was younger than Solon because her hair still had a strong hazelnut color but he had never seen a dwarven woman before today so he couldn’t know. He tried not to stare too much but he still was interested. He had heard stories that even the women had beards in the dwarven race, but that rumor appeared to be false. She had a stronger build than human women and a round face, but Michael would still describe her as beautiful.
“Brother you are home,” she exclaimed and quickly rushed down the stairs and hurried to Solon who embraced her and put his forehead against hers.
“Hello, Sigrid,” Solon answered with love in his voice.
“We didn’t know you were coming. How long are you going to stay?”
Valmick cut in here, “That is still to be determined, my gem. I am sorry to cut the reunion short, but Solon and I have some things to discuss.”
“Come on Solon, you know that he hates it when you just barge in here without notice,” Sigrid reprimanded her brother with a wide smile. Her eyes then met Michael’s and it seemed like she just noticed that he wasn’t a dwarf. “Oh, hello there. Who might you be?”
Michael had only caught glimpses of the conversation before, but the last question was switched into perfect remurian. Can every dwarf speak remurian, he wondered before he replied.
“My name is Count Michael Rowan of the Kingdom of Telios and Solon’s student. It is an honor to meet you.” Michael bowed respectfully and that brought a huge smile on the woman’s face.
“You took a student again, brother. That is so nice. And it even is a noble from the human kingdoms.”
“My gem,” Valmick interjected again and took her hand, “Could we please postpone the introductions and conversations for later?”
“Oh yes, I am sorry, dear. I got carried away a little bit and it isn’t proper to let our guests stand around here after a long journey. I will talk to the servants to get a nice dinner set up and you can have your discussion but don’t take too long or I will have to grab a ladle from the kitchen.” The threat was obviously playful, and a tiny smile came onto the stern expression of Valmick as his wife gave him a kiss and then hurried away.
“Follow me, please,” he then said and led them into a small office. Michael was surprised at the lack of decoration in this room in comparison to the rest of the house he had seen. The room was efficiently built with bookshelves covering the walls and an intricately carved but not overly decorated wooden desk. A simple single-colored carpet covered the floor and a small, closed metal oven stood in the corner of the room.
As if he had guessed Michael’s thoughts, Valmick explained, “Most of the house is to keep up appearances but this room is for work.”
“How did you know that I thought that?”
“When you are in politics and trade as long as I have you learn to read people, and you humans tend to be an open book,” the dwarf replied and sat down behind the table; Michael and Solon took the seats in front of it.
“Now let me introduce myself properly for now,” Valmick started. “I am Valmick Uthson of Clan Foulder, Minister of Coin for the dual crown and right-hand man of King Prezzim Thromson of Clan Foulder. It is a pleasure meeting you, I didn’t know your father very well, but he was a good man.” Michael nodded respectfully and introduced himself as well.
“Now can you explain to me why you brought a good three dozen humans into the kingdom without any notice or permission,” Valmick looked at Solon.
Solon smiled at his brother-in-law while replying, “Well, it is rather difficult to get a message through the beastwoods and so I decided to just come myself. Lord Michael would like to establish a trade route to the mountain kingdom, so I brought him along.”
“You know fully well that the kings will never agree to a trade route. They want nothing to do with the humans,” Valmick as with a deep frown.
“Valmick you of all people must know that this won’t work anymore. Have you seen the prices that wood and bread go by in the market? We just traveled through the city and a loaf of bread is more expensive than feeding a whole family for a week on mushroom stew. This table we are sitting at is more expensive than a family home. I saw the beggars in the lower city, if I didn’t know any better, I would say you're close to a famine with one bad harvest in the mushroom caves. Something must change and a trade route would be the first step to get the people out of the isolationist mindset and have a way to recover if anything happens.”
“Don’t act like you care, Solon,” the other dwarf growled visibly upset. “I asked you multiple times to come home and work with me, but you would rather run away and see the world, leaving your family and people behind.”
“You know why I left. I couldn’t be imprisoned here. I can’t be stuck in a city where everyone just thinks of themselves. I did what I thought was right and now I have found something that can help if you let me.”
The room was silent for a while as Solon and Valmick stared at each other, and Michael kept out of it.
“What do you expect me to do? The court is bickering about what angle the sword of a statue should have and you want to drop a fundamental change in trade politics in there? If you want to grind the proceedings of the government to a halt, then that would be a good way to do it.” Michael could see that Valmick wasn’t strictly against the idea, Solon wouldn’t have come to him for help otherwise but he still seemed unconvinced.
“And this is exactly why I didn’t come back. Those who want to keep things as they are will dig in their heels when you even suggest a change of course and those who would support it are too afraid to rock the cart. How long are you going to wait to push the changes you are always talking about? I am presenting you with an opportunity on the silver plate. Are you going to take it or not?”
Valmick leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “We are not young dwarves anymore, Solon. I have grown up over the years.”
Solon leaned forward and put his thick hands on the table. “Have you been this poisoned by the greed and complacency that curses our people? Are we not Clan Foulder? Are we not the descendants of the wild king of fire, Thorm? Are you giving up the fight before you have even fought it?”
Valmick stared at Solon with narrow eyes and then relaxed. Then a sound came out of his mouth that Michael hadn’t expected, a low chuckle. “Well, I can at least listen to your plan, I presume.”