The months tick by, counting down to when I turn ten and can set off for Granite Peeks to attend the Sorcerer's Consociation. I don't really know what it takes to be considered a sorcerer, but I just don't fall into any of the regular slots when it comes to an enchanter. Either way, I hope to learn more about magic in the process, not to mention having the ability to test things whenever I wanted instead of having to put together an entire expedition. Yes, Thavim did most of the heavy lifting in that regard, which was swiftly taken over by Sam, but it's still a delay that I could live without.
Finally the day comes when it's time to set off for Granite Peeks far off in the north. I had been slowly accumulating cold weather gear through the months and now have a full set of fur lined clothes for the trip - all enchanted, of course. Now wearing it I almost look like a barbarian from a movie in my past life. Or maybe a barbarian movie set extra, since most of them would be full grown adults. I even have my very own dagger! Thavim talked the king into letting me keep that one mithril dagger, and honestly? I'm in love with it. I'm not quite to my tenth birthday, but I expect the trip to take long enough for it to pass on the road.
"Tha' abou' does it," Thavim says as he sets my pack down by the door. He'd been packing it full of all kinds of dried meats and preserved foods for the trip.
"I sen' y'er dear ol' dad a letter a month 'r two ago informin' 'im o' this trip," he says, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. "No reply, o' course."
Good old dad. The number of things he's said to me probably wouldn't fit in a two page essay. Two page minimum.
"Don't worry about it," I reply fastening the mithril dagger to my waist. "I might be more concerned if he had."
With that I pick up the pack and put it on and look over at him leaning against the wall next to the door. He's slightly failing at feigning nonchalance. He had given a whole speech last night about how the forge was so far behind that he couldn't afford to escort me himself. I'm pretty sure that I'm the reason his forge is so far behind, but he never cast a single accusation my way.
I'm now almost a head taller than him at almost ten years old. I pull him into a hug and whisper, "Thank you," into his ear.
He returns the hug with gusto for a moment before abruptly pushing me away, "Now now, none of tha.' I'll walk ye t' th' exit, a' least."
"Young master," a monotone voice calls from directly behind making a chill run up my spine, "are you ready to depart?"
I've trained myself not to jump at that, but it's always disconcerting. "Yes, let's," I respond.
As we step into the street, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. It's absolutely quiet. The collection of 'unassuming' dwarves with multitudes of enchanted items are all missing. There would usually be six of them at least.
As Thavim is locking the door behind us, I hear the soft footsteps of someone running and turn around just in time to see them, clad all in black, as they thrust a knife into Thavim's back, directly where his heart would be. Before he has the chance to crumple to the ground, Sam to the side of them puts a rapier through the assailants throat and then rips it out the back of the neck. The force of the maneuver makes the mans body fall backward while the head lolls to the front, still connected by a thin piece of flesh.
"Thavim!" I shout and dive towards his falling body. "No no no no no!" I pull the knife(!) out and try to heal as best I can, but it just doesn't seem to take. I put as much willpower as I can muster into healing him, heedless to the clanging of metal around me, but nothing seems to work. I should've taken some healing classes. I should've spent more time with him. I should've told him thank you more often. I should've-
Pain blossoms in my left bicep. A burning heat that starts radiating outward. I look down to find an arrow stuck in me. I look up to see Sam fighting three more figures in black, all of them wielding dual daggers(!), with two more lying down leaking their blood into the street. There's also two on the rooftop opposite us holding crossbows.
Oh, I guess it's a crossbow bolt in me. It still hurts, but I feel oddly numb to the whole situation now.
"You idiot! We need him alive!" One of the rooftop assailants yells at the other and both proceed to aim at Sam.
I pull out my dagger and activate my shoes, rocketing forward towards the rooftop with the two crossbowmen. I collide with the nearest, the dagger luckily jabbing directly into his side. The collision causes us to roll together a bit on the flat rooftop. He grunts as he grabs my hand with the dagger in it, still alive. I activate the enchantment on the dagger and angle it just a bit while still inside him and his hand on mine goes slack as a spray of blood and stone spew outward.
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I slowly stand up, not bothering to take the dagger out the way it came in, but instead slowly angling it upward towards the his head, splitting the dwarf like a forked tongue. The second crossbowman was not idle during this time and throws a net(!) at me. I don't have time to inspect every enchantment coming my way, but I can at least tell that this one has strengthening on it and remember my experiments where I destroyed things that were actively being fed mana. I deactivate the dagger and the net bowls me over. It's much heavier than it looks. I wait until the dwarf gets close enough to collect his prize and I stick the blade of the knife through the netting before I activate it and sweep it wildly in front of me. The dwarf falls over having his knee on one leg and shin on the other cleanly cut through. This is enough for him to stop channeling mana into the net and I cut my way out of it.
As I get to my feet I see the dwarf attempting to drag himself back over to where he dropped his crossbow. I reach down with my left arm intending to grab the dwarf by the back of the neck. Oh. I can't use that hand. Right, there's a crossbow bolt in it. I pull it out and give it a little bit of healing. The dwarf has finally made it to the crossbow and is struggling to turn around and get it cocked. I swing the activated dagger at him again. It cuts him in half along with part of the roof underneath.
I take another look at how they're dressed and finally notice that they're dressed exactly as Brokdruc had been. I walk over to the edge of the roof to see how Sam is doing. Two of the three she had been fighting now lie on the ground with their brothers, the road starting to turn slick with their blood. She looks to have taken a few cuts here and there but is steadily overpowering the last remaining assassin, severing one of his arms as I finally get to the edge of the house for a good view. He fumbles something in a pocket with his remaining hand as Sam runs him through, directly in the heart. His hand slowly lowers to the ground and a glowing bottle tinkles to the pavement.
I ease myself off the roof as Sam pockets the glowing bottle and turns toward me.
"Young master, are you hurt?" She asks in her monotone voice. She hasn't even broken a sweat.
My voice cracks, " -Thavim...he's...he's.."
She nods. "We can't stay here. Can you run?"
She actually allows me to run at my own pace and she keeps a slow jog as we head towards the palace. The streets in front of me are blurry and I stumble here and there as streams of tears run down my face. Neither of us bothered to sheathe our weapons and the guards at the front of the palace try to raise a panic when we come running up.
"Stop! Drop your weapons and state your purpose!" One of the two shout.
Sam beside me somehow disappears and reappears next to the guard, her rapier tip pressing firm enough against the guards neck to cause a trickle of blood to drip downward.
"You know who I am," she says with cold venom in her voice. It's the first time I'm hearing anything other than monotone from her.
"We're heading to speak with Thrumgar. Should any of your flunkees find their way between us and him, I will slaughter them all. Is that understood?"
He nods, unable to find his voice, and the two of us resume our run toward the meeting chamber.
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Upon our entrance, the four guards that stand amongst the drapes all step forward with shields and axes at the ready. Sam does her weird teleport-y thing and is about to skewer one of them.
"HOLD!" shouts Thrumgar. All four guards stop in place as if playing freeze tag. None of them move a muscle as Sam lowers her sword from the guard closest her.
"The Hand of Living Steel is in your city," is all she says. King Thrumgar looks visibly afraid but says nothing and a silence begins to settle in.
"It's Thavim," my voice croaks again, "they killed him!" Sam pulls me closer and I hug into her side.
Thrumgar lets out a long sigh and slowly closes his eyes. When he finally opens them again, he looks directly at Sam.
"What do you need of me?" he asks her.
"Alvis is my charge. We will use your passage," she pauses for a moment, "clean your house."
He nods and makes a hand signal. All of the guards march out of the room and he opens a door behind his chair that leads to the throne room. He walks over to the throne and does something to the chair and the entire stage the throne is sitting on moves forward revealing a set of stone stairs underneath. We pass through and Sam pulls an unlit torch from the wall, finally sheathing her sword. I follow suit as she lights the torch, the opening behind us slowly closing as the throne slides back into place.
The stairs proceed downward in a straight line, but are wide enough that four armored dwarves could walk side by side. Seems a little extravagant for an emergency escape route, but I guess the King was never going to run without an entourage of dwarves accompanying. We continue in silence save for our echoing footsteps and my sniffles for what seems like an hour. Finally I start to hear some moving water in the distance and can see a bit of a reflection off the water at what appears to be the end of the tunnel.
Once we reach there, I see a boat(!) moored at a dock(!), bobbing lazily in the currents of an underground river. One of the boats you'd expect to see in Venice, with a man at the back with a really long stick guiding it along. Except there is no man, only us two. Sam touches one of the poles of the pier and a symbol on top of it briefly lights up and a gangplank moves itself from the boat to the pier. Once we've both boarded, she sits near the back of the boat and touches there and the boat unties itself and starts navigating itself down the river.
Once we start (unexpectedly) moving, I lose my balance and forcefully sit down. My shoulders feel extra stiff so I try to rub them a bit and notice the backpack that's been on me this whole time. I take it off remembering Thavim shoving his dried meats into it just before we left and the tears start flowing again. The silent tears soon turn into racking sobs as I struggle to get my breath back with each heave, hugging the backpack to my chest.