She woke from something that wasn't sleeping. She could hear before she could see because that is the nature of dwarves. The rough voice of the orc was saying, "There should be three more where that came from and my folk need one of them."

A man said, "Which one y'all need cause they ain't all the same."

Daraway said, "How do you know?"

"You yourself saw the queen's shortcomins," said the man. "Reckon hers don't work quite like this one, or maybe it just ain't workin right after puttin a hundred thousand stiffs back together. All of them who didn't get burnt in the king's war'll be wantin fixin."

The orc said, "And I've got a hundred thousand acres that need restoring. This one was made for orcs. I'm taking it for orcs."

Mym opened her eyes and saw Daraway smile down at her and heard her say, "There she is." Over them stood the tall orc and the dead man who wasn't dead anymore.

She felt da's [alpenstock] in her hand and a cold wetness soaking her coat and trousers. She touched the holes in her coat then reached under her shirt and felt the smooth skin. She reached to her shoulder and felt the lead shotball still inside it. She sat up and the [orcstone] fell off of her chest and came to rest between her thighs. She picked it up and turned it over in her hands.

"How do you feel?" said Daraway.

Mym looked at the tall orc and pressed the [orcstone] against his mutilated hand and watched it mend.

His eyes met hers. She saw the pain go out of them. He nodded at her and he did not try to take the [orcstone].

"Can you stand?" said Daraway.

She rolled onto her hands and knees and got up. "I need te get this te Khaz and da."

"What's Khaz?" said the tall orc.

"No concern of yers, orc."

Daraway laid a perfectly smooth hand on her shoulder. "We may need their help with the doomstone."

Mym checked the breech of her [longarm] and bit a cartridge and charged it. She reached its stock into the flume and fished the lump of metal over to the side. She bent down and grabbed it. The water was warm and the lump was hot against her skin. She set it on the anvil and the water on its manifold surfaces sizzled off.

"Alright then," she said. "Come on if ye want."

They returned to the [sentinel]. The drunk woman saw them at the doorway. "Get on in here. It won't hurt ya. It let all them soldiers by without so much as tickling their toes. Hell Ogre tweaked its nose and it just watched them run past no matter how I hollered. Now I get to spend the next twenny years wandering these tunnels shaking his can of oats and by my good god's bleeding pearly heart did y'all dig up my old pardner there? Hey Orc!"

Mym swept past the blabbing drunk and stopped up where Khaz lay. She knelt over his twisted ruin. The bend in the neck and the purple line across the forehead where the shaft of his [alpenstock] had been forced down upon him. [Thayne's longarm] lay just out of reach. Its barrel bent. Its mechanism broken. She kissed the [orcstone] for luck and pressed it into his outstretched hand.

"I see y'all got that magic rock off of that goddamn bastard," said the drunk. "Y'all bust him up?"

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"He's dead," she heard the orc say.

"That's my Orc! Ya stick him yourself? And who's this handsome gent? Shit on a spindle Orc is that not the boatswain ya pulled apart? Man alive I do think I've had too much ta drink."

Air rattled into Khaz's lungs. Mym closed her eyes and tried not to sob. Not in front of the others.

"Lookit that," said the drunk. "Ya think it'd fix up my leg?"

Mym handed the [orcstone] to Daraway who pressed it against the woman's leg. The woman watched it with a certain hunger in her eyes. "Damn. Just think if we had one of them back at the pit. Ya coulda done more than rough up them greenskins. We coulda sold a body every night. Done two a nights. Set up a matinee. Damn. Ya think folks back home are ready ta pay ta watch ya again?"

"Your pit's in pieces," said the orc.

"Ah so ya been to see it? I knew ya'd miss it. Sure they whacked it good but it ain't nothing a little spit and sweat can't fix. I'd love ta have ya come on home. True partner this time. Fifty fifty."

"I've got a new home now."

"Ain't what the armiger says."

The drunk looked from one person to the next as if afraid they'd remember she'd come to that place with the [armiger].

"Well. Probably ain't a good idea anyway. After what happened with them busting outta them camps I reckon folks round the pit would rather see ya get got than ya getting others. Might be best if ya don't come. Damn that itches."

Khaz sat up and wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands. He blinked about and saw Mym there.

"Did I get him?" he said.

Then he looked around and saw the standing [sentinel] and the broken longarm.

"Oy. What happened?"

The drunk laughed. "Ya died stone dead." She looked at the orc. "Guess that means somethin different for dwarf folk."

Mym took Khaz's chin in her hand. "Aye but yer livin now and it's too late te change any minds bout it cause we've got te get up te the delvin. I got te get te da."

"Alright then." He rolled his head in a circle then his shoulders and slapped his thighs and stood on them with a wobble. "Let's go."

"Dara?"

Daraway handed back the [orcstone]. "I'll come after. I have business with this orc."

"Ye be careful. And don't make any promises."

Daraway smiled and kissed her forehead. "Go to da. I'll be there soon."

As Mym ran out of the chamber she heard the drunk woman say, "Y'all know a way outta here?"

***

Their home was dark. The sling still strung across the porch. Her stonecut daughter half emerged from the slab. Thayne's little three legged stool stood empty.

"Ye should go," she said.

"Ye don't need to face this alone," said Khaz.

She turned to him and hesitated. She nodded.

She leaned her weapons against the stool. She walked through to their great room. She hoped the stones were mistaken but when were they ever? She walked into her da's room and looked at his bed. Khaz put his hand on her shoulder. She stood that way for a long time. He lay on his back on his bed. Her grandda's [longarm] was already there with him. On the floor around him lay gifts of woodcraft and stonecraft and gifts of stone growlers and the holiest of dwarven runes carved in nakhorn and little boxes of wood holding fragranced ashes and the hard sweet candies he liked. In the corner opposite one of the [hornkeeper]'s candles burned low with its white wax dripping down onto the table and off the side. There was no other light. She saw how his face had grayed and speckled like quartz in granite. She reached for something to hold and Khaz's hand found hers. He helped her forward. His skin was stone. She pressed the [orcstone] into it. She pressed it for a long time. She didn't say anything. She thought of all the things she didn't know about him. She realized everything she knew was all she would ever know. She would never know what was missing from that account. She turned her back to her da and sat among the gifts and sobbed into Khaz's shoulder.

----------------------------------------

> +1 [Belonging]: ...Lady Daraway told me kids are the flesh and bones of parents' dreams. It helped me to hear it. I hope she told Mym too. Point is life's mostly just about who's next to ya... (7/10).

> -1 [Vengefulness]: What then is next for the crucible but to cool? (9/10).

> Gained Item: [Orcstone] Imbued adamantine

> [Orcstone] Gained Attribute [Lifegiver] But at what cost?