Of course, everyone wanted all sorts of answers and, being dependent on them for help, I had to supply some.
Yes, I knew him.
Yes, I knew he was here.
No, Esott Daniels didn't know about this.
No, they shouldn't tell anyone, because he's technically a fugitive and we don't want news getting out.
Yes, Felicity and Charles knew about him too.
No, I didn't know why a bunch of paladins would have attacked him. (That one wasn't technically a lie; I'd had no idea Terenaþ had paladins to call upon for backup.)
Finally we got back to the task at hand, and got some walls raised. When the walls were up past a height of thirty feet, Brother Smith asked for control of the ritual. He began to shape the wall tops into crenellated battlements, going all old school with the design. By the time sundown came, the work had left us pretty drained, but we had the first two walls raised. We agreed to come back tomorrow to work on the next parts.
A freaking castle. How did I end up in a place in my life where I was building a castle to live in? And would it even do any good?
We sent the wizards off with a plea not to tell anyone about Gareth, then the Ellises and I set out for the tower, assuming that would be the best place to find him. And indeed we found him there, resting under the giant tree that marked the tower's entrance.
He looked between the three of us. "Do you have time to talk now?" he asked, a bit of bitterness in his tone.
"Yes," Felicity said. "We're sorry about earlier, but with the law after you, just knowing about you being here puts them at risk."
"Then why did you bring them without warning me, as you have previously done?"
"There wasn't time," I said. "The war in the Buffer States is going poorly; we need a refuge as quickly as possible and the Esott is calling on the church to redouble its efforts here. I only got here a few minutes ahead of the rest, and there wasn't time to find you. I thought you'd be used to it from earlier and would know to stay away. I didn't know you'd been attacked."
"What happened there?" Charles asked.
"Brad spoke to me once of an angel named Terenaþ, of the court of Meþas, who was seeking to find me. I asked that Brad delay any meeting, and he has honored that request. But it would seem that the angel became impatient and sought me out himself, with a small squad of warriors at his back. They demanded that I come with them, claiming they were here to bring me home, where I could find the help I need.
"When I told them my home is lost to the mists of time, and the help I need lies here on Mundus, they attempted to forcibly detain me. I fought them off, striking them down, but it took a toll on me; I have been recovering from my injuries for the past three days."
Charles' eyes went wide. "You killed a bunch of servants of Meþas?"
"Celestials every one," he said. "They are not dead, simply banished from our realm for the moment."
"What did they mean by help?" I asked. "Did they explain anything?"
He gave me an aggravated look. "Nothing. He seemed to simply want me to go along with him because he said so, and nothing else."
I groaned and nodded to Gareth. "That's definitely Terenaþ."
"Well, if you are not a second attempt, I hope then that I am free of his interference for the next few months at least. What is your plan here?"
"We're trying to build a fortress, or at least a fortified compound of some sort, to take refuge from the goblin invasion."
He nodded. "You are building walls far too near the trees. They can mask an enemy's approach, give them cover, or even give climbers an advantage, particularly small, light beings such as goblin scouts. You'll want to cut a cleared section back as far as you can, ideally up to a quarter-mile or possibly further."
"A quarter mile would reach almost to here," I said.
Gareth gave me a dark smile. "And what a delight it would be to see a horde of pillagers attempt to loot this dungeon."
Huh. Now there's an idea I hadn't thought of: incorporating the Tower itself into our defenses.
"When this place begins to fill up," Felicity said, "you'd be welcome among us. Not everyone agrees with the Archduke; you're a hero to many kith, our congregation included."
"How many of them think I am their god?"
"Honestly, very few. The general consensus seems to be that you're an eccentric man who dresses up to look like Meþas, either to inspire people or because you're full of yourself, depending on who's talking."
Charles butted in. "You can't ignore the facts, though. Stuff you do is one thing, but angels sent directly from Meþas come looking for you, specifically?"
"I did not send them. If Meþas sent them, does that not prove I am someone else?"
"I asked Terenaþ what his intention with you was," I told him. "I asked, did he want to kill you? To imprison you? To get you treatment? To honor you? And do you know what he said?"
"I assume it was not the latter," Gareth remarked drily.
"He said, 'all of those, and at the same time none,' and that there was no good way to express his true intention in our tongue, but that he meant you no harm."
He sighed. "Like the library, then: even when the words are revealed, they remain full of nonsense."
I nodded. "No one really knows where you came from or how you got here, and it seems like anyone who does know won't say."
"Well, it grows wearying," he grumbled. "Particularly when I remain injured."
Felicity's eyes widened when he said that. She stepped up to him. "May I?" Gareth nodded, and she placed her gauntleted hands on his shoulders. "Be healed." A glow enveloped her hands for a moment, then she stepped back, staggering a few steps before her father reached out to steady her with a hand. "What... Gareth, the drain from that was intense and I don't know if I got everything. How are you even walking, let alone fighting?"
"It is an advantage of higher levels. We become... difficult to truly harm. And I did get the distinct impression that my assailants were seeking to incapacitate me rather than kill me. Frankly, that was likely the only reason I won."
"So what do you plan to do now?" I asked.
"Always asking the same questions," he muttered. "To answer you this time, it's difficult to make any sort of plan when the circumstances change around me so rapidly."
Charles nodded at that. "Do you have any pl— any intentions of making another public appearance? No one's seen you since the Archduke put out a warrant for your arrest, and it would help stiffen a lot of spines right now to know you're not giving in."
"Yes, I was going to, but then I was attacked and have needed to spend the subsequent days recuperating. Perhaps tomorrow."
"I still think it's not good for you, being out here all alone."
"I appreciate your concern, Charles. I sincerely do. But I cannot be easily swayed from my course. Almost all my days have been times of hardship and grief. If anything, the recent months have been a welcome respite." He let out a slow sigh. "One that now seems all too brief. Greater forces move us all, and I feel I may soon have no choice but to return to my familiar life." This drew a bitter laugh from his lips. "Your Esott, knowingly or not, is even providing me with a battalion to train."
"Most of us are just civilians," I said. "There are, what, half a dozen actual paladins in the congregation? Less?" I looked to Felicity and she nodded.
"When Evil rises, Mundus brings forth heroes to oppose it," Gareth said, his words eerily similar to Esott Daniels' latest sermon. "This has ever been the way of things, and nothing produces better irregulars than loss, tragedy, and a desire to see the world set aright again."
Why was everyone around me being so fatalistic about this? Even if it was difficult to accept Vansar Chreidor as a legitimate Emperor, or a particularly competent one, he'd at least sent in the Army and it was easy to believe in them. I'd seen the fortifications they were building around the underworld gates. It was almost unimaginable that an undisciplined horde, no matter its numbers, could overrun and break out of these traps.
"Come on," I said. "No one here thinks we'll be able to hold them?"
Felicity gave me a sad look. "One of the gates, even many, probably. But to expect that all fifty-three underworld gates across the Empire, every last one of them, will hold? That's just not realistic. And once there's one breach anywhere..."
Gareth nodded agreement. "As she says. I need to rest, as do you. Go home, friends. Enjoy what peace remains."
"We'll be back tomorrow," Felicity said. "And every day we have left, working on the fortress."
"I thank you for the warning. That would not be the worst use of your time. I will be about my own business tomorrow. I pray to my forgotten gods that I can be of help."
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
* * *
Saturday turned into a major work project, with about seventy kith showing up, everyone with any useful skills looking for something to do. Raising walls, cutting trees, splitting logs and trying to hew them into boards using only hand tools and magic, dowsing out a well site within the enclosed bailey and digging a deep hole, patrolling for monsters, there just seemed to be endless tasks to do. They asked for my input on various high-level questions a few times, but this largely felt like a project that was out of my hands. I was being moved by greater forces, as Gareth had put it. Mostly I just chipped in where I could, trying not to get too overwhelmed by the surreal experience of building a literal castle.
And of course it wasn't just the castle. Wasn't much of a castle at all, really; they just made one of the stone building frames they were raising twice as big as the rest and called it "the keep." What they were really constructing, as hastily as possible, was a small, walled village. It was only the size of a couple city blocks, but that would be enough to house a few hundred people under cramped conditions.
Someone managed to get their hands on some industrial-grade reinforcement schemas, so I spent most of the day working with masons and other stone shaping wizards to carve the runes into the walls. It was long, tiring work, but as the day drew to its close and we made our way back to our homes, there seemed to be a strong sense of accomplishment there, that we'd gotten a lot done.
On my way home I heard the news that Sir Zephyr had put down another dangerous wild magic outbreak. This one occurred in a shopping mall, generating a noxious miasma that sent shoppers fleeing, sickened. He ran into the building, hauling out half a dozen unconscious kith who had been overcome by it before casting some high-level spell, dispelling the magic.
But somehow the story was not that he had saved six lives, but that there had been a big outbreak of wild magic around him again. On the news they kept insinuating that he had been responsible for it, conjuring up a crisis so that he could save its victims and look like a hero. Nevermind that there had been five outbreaks of wild magic throughout the region that day; this was the only one worthy of note apparently.
Sunday went much as Saturday had, a lot of work raising up housing and cutting down trees. Someone brought in a pump and got it installed over the well. Sister Quinn, the civil engineer, pointed out that we would need some form of sanitation as well as sources of water. I'd made sure to bring my rune tablet and my scribe with me, so I sat down with her and a few others and we spent a few hours developing a design for a type of septic tank with a disintegration enchantment attached. I was running low on spare rune plates, so I sent a member off to find an enchanting supplies store and buy as many as they had.
It wasn't glamorous work, but we all understood intuitively just how devastating to morale it would be for our community members to have to live without working bathrooms.
Various members showed up throughout the day, bringing tools and supplies, everything from hammers and drills to lengths of pipe to a few truckloads of gravel. The houses and shops we built were rudimentary, hard, and poorly insulated, but they were at least starting to look livable. Partway through the day, someone arrived with news that the Dwarves were in full retreat beneath Chitothia and various other kingdoms, falling back to the underworld gates to take a stand there. Depending on which estimates you listened to, we had anywhere between three days and a month before any goblins broke through.
Hopefully it would give us enough time to get the village up to standard.
* * *
I really should have known. A lot of kith really should have known, honestly, but it's still personally a bit painful to realize just how completely I missed this possibility.
The Army had been building up massive, impenetrable barriers around the underworld gates. High walls, fortifications, weapon loops, powerful enchantments to reinforce them and antimagic field projectors to weaken or nullify enemy spellcasters, the works. No one should have been able to get through those. And on Monday, we all abruptly discovered the goblins' plan to deal with them.
It was a perfectly ordinary day at work. I gave a presentation to the rest of the Research team about the Tap and Sink runes and the practical application I had found for them. There was a lot of talk going around about how a bunch of cars from the new model year had just arrived at the testing lab on the second floor. Joanna sent me another text saying she'd love to spend some time together this evening.
Then an æmail from the came up, flagged as top priority:
From: Dyralist
To: Sharliya-All Staff
Subj: FLEE!
To all employees,
The goblin horde has broken through, tunneling up through the earth, bypassing the fortified underworld gates entirely. There are goblins to the south of you, spreading in all directions. Some of them are in motor vehicles.
Drop everything and evacuate Sharliya. Flee for your lives, to any safe place that can be found. Your safety is more valuable than any projects or equipment.
Dyralist
Founder and CEO
A quick check on the news online verified that things were as urgent as he said. We'd thought we had a few weeks, or three days at the very least. Now we had minutes, and most of the office had nowhere to go.
I couldn't let that happen. I just couldn't. Without thinking it through particularly long, I made a quick decision.
I hit Reply All.
From: Brad Webb
To: Sharliya-All Staff, Dyralist
Subj: Re: FLEE!
Anyone who has nowhere to flee to, I have a safe haven not far from here, made to shelter a community against the coming invasion. Living quarters are a bit tight but it's better accommodation than you'll find with the goblins. Come to the attached GSP coordinates, north of here on Route 15.
Brad
It wasn't until after I sent this that I wondered if anyone else from church would be inviting guests too. Oh crap, how many residents would we end up with?
A second message came in from the Big Guy while I was typing up the first one, addressed to the Feurdanf Self-Driving team... and me.
From: Dyralist
To: FSD Team, Brad Webb
Subj: Shipment
Team,
I've had those cars shipped here because I feared this day would come sooner than anybody anticipated. It seems my caution was warranted. Take them; they are prototype models built with a new engine design from R&D, some of the fastest and most powerful mana engines ever built. You are my best adventuring squad; you are likely to need the mobility in the days to come.
Dyralist
Founder and CEO
I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. I ran down the stairs to the second floor, where my old team was looking a bit freaked out by everything happening all at once.
"Brad, what's going on?" Torrin called out to me as I approached.
"You see the æmails?"
"Yeah?"
"Then you know everything I do."
"Uhh, guys?" Ampha was looking out the window. There was smoke in the distance, not all that distant really. Flares of magic flashed as spells flew through the air. "I think they're almost here!"
We could hear everyone around us running for the stairs. Out in the parking lot, various kith were rushing for their cars and driving out.
"And suddenly we all have super-cars?" Kayla asked.
"Not all of us," Torrin said. "There are only five of them."
"That's enough to fit all of us," Ampha said.
We saw several battered, rugged vehicles pouring up the road towards us, some of them with tops down, diminutive green-skinned drivers clearly visible. A shadow fell over the parking lot as something the size of a small airship flew by.
No, not something. Someone. There was a distinctive silhouette to it. Broad, organic wings, tipped with spikes, no plumage. A long, serpentine tail trailing behind. The shape alone, without even seeing what cast it, seemed to touch a note of raw, primal fear in the heart of every kith who witnessed it.
Dragon.
A loud, booming roar rattled the windows of the office building.
"I SAID FLEE!"
A gigantic bronze-scaled behemoth dove down towards the oncoming goblin scouts, flames pouring from his mouth as he strafed the invaders, their vehicles going almost instantly from functional to burned out or even exploding wrecks.
I took a deep, steadying breath, fighting back dragon-fear mixed with a tinge of despair at the sense of Thaxil's Tower crumbling around me.
"We need to move!" Kade said.
"One thing," Kayla pointed out, "the cars. They're all up here, on the second floor. Got brought up slowly by an industrial lift, one at a time."
"Then leave them," Irgos said. "Fancy cars aren't worth our lives. Bah, leave it to Corporate to screw up an opportunity like this."
Joanna spoke up. "Wait. Kayla, do you have your guitar with you, in your bag?"
"...yes?"
"Everyone, come to the lab, quick!"
There they were. Five brand new, beautiful cars, sleek, shiny, untouched paint jobs, looking like something straight out of a commercial. "Look," Joanna said, pointing at one of the giant outer windows of the building. "All that's between us and the parking lot is less than half an inch of glass." She looked to Kayla. "Shatter it?"
"Glass and a twelve-foot drop," Irgos said. "I don't care how awesome the cars are, they won't—"
Joanna cut him off. "You know what's the difference between a barrier and a ramp?" she asked, breathing deep, preparing to draw upon her mana. "Not much... other than the orientation."
Kayla's eyes widened as she realized the audacity of Joanna's plan. She got out her guitar and strummed a harsh, dissonant chord, putting some real oomph behind it, her magic channeling the full force of it into the window. It cracked, then erupted into shards flying outward. She quickly opened a car door and tossed her guitar in the back seat. "Everyone follow me. I've been to Brad's hideout before. Brad, you and Joanna take up the rear!" Ampha was closest, so she hopped in the passenger side with Kayla as Kayla started the car.
Joanna's gloved hands were glowing a bright white as she conjured up a strong barrier, sloping precariously down to the parking lot below. I could see sweat beading on her crimson face from the exertion of trying to shape and then sustain such a large spell to hold against the weight of motor vehicles.
Everyone started piling into the remaining cars as Kayla drove out the now-vacant window and down the ramp. Joanna groaned with the effort, but the barrier held. Finally it was just me and her. I got in the last one, painted a deep, iridescent blue, and turned the key. "Get in!"
She panted with exertion. "Quick, Brad! I can't hold this long!"
I stepped on the mana pedal, and we burst through the hole in the side of the building like some crazy scene from an action movie.
The lives of action movie protagonists invariably tend to suck. I never want to be one!
There's a certain sense of connectedness that you tend to take for granted while driving, a subtle but very real feeling of oneness between your hands, the steering wheel, the tires, and the road. Anyone who's ever hit a patch of ice knows exactly what I mean, because you never really notice that until it's suddenly not there, and then you really notice that it's gone!
We were still about three feet in the air when Joanna gave a pained grunt, and that sensation of connectedness disappeared, replaced by the gut-wrenching primal terror of falling. Then we hit the ground with a hard thump a moment later, and a disturbing metallic crunching sound. I didn't know what it was, but the car was still moving. I wasn't about to stop and check on it now.
Joanna pitched forward, jostled in her seat by the hard bump, just barely getting a hand up fast enough to brace against the dash so she wouldn't hit her head. She hadn't had the time, or maybe the concentration, to put a seat belt on when she got in.
"Hey." She looked a bit dazed, so I reached over, grabbing her shoulder and giving her a small but rough shake. "HEY! Focus! Buckle up!"
She blinked, then reached for her belt. "Ow! I hurt my wrist!" she groaned as she clicked the belt.
"We'll have healers on-site when we get there."
"Brad," she whispered as I drove past my car, past hers, abandoned to the encroaching horde. "I'm scared."
"I think we all are."
"This place you told me about. Will we be safe there?"
"Hey. Nothing's certain, but this is about as safe a place as we can find, OK?"
She nodded, going quiet, as I pulled out onto the street.
With Dyralist up in the sky, fighting a valiant rear-guard effort against the encroaching goblins, we made our way to the highway, then out of town.