Chapter Thirty-Five

“Aye so lemme get this strait, lassy,” Dwarguy grumbled, “what ye went’n pulled for us is nae just a crazy half mad sorceress who cannae even control her own spells… she built the dem thing we’re goin to fix?!” Dwarguy flung his arms out at his sides and leaned back in his chair.

“An if’n we’re ta do this, what ye want me to do is go off to a mountain of some kinda infestation… that she probably caused… an risk me dwarven hide to get some kinda bleed’n ‘tainted magitite’ with properties ah don’t know nothin’ aboot? Is that about the size of it, eh?” Dwarguy leaned forward and looked me square in the eye, he fairly demanded an answer, and I couldn’t really deny any of it.

I wrung my hands and curled my tails under my seat. “Yeah… yeah, that’s right.”

His eyes became hard as the metal of the mech he piloted.

“And ye want me to put that ass ah mine into the hands of the woman who’s last screw up cost mah legs an… and you, an untried, untested, toothless adventurer whose biggest accomplishment ended up putt’n her in the hands of Yorgim Schnee?” Dwarguy asked, and I was feeling a whole lot worse than before…

“Yes.” I answered. “Do you want out? I guess I can’t really ask you to risk your life.”

“Nah,” Dwarguy said all of a sudden and straightened up, “but if’n ye want me to do all that, ah need to start mah day with a flagon!”

My growing doubt about the absurdity of it all melted away and I shot my hand up in the air, my tails danced around as I shouted, “One! No, two flaggons of your best ale!”

We finished two of them each before Loysa and Tess returned. If truth be told, it was a good thing they came back when they did. This ‘easy quest’ was turning out to be not so much. I figured we’d just dig out some magitite from any old mountain and lickity split we’d head out and be done.

Now it turns out there’s a mountain with an infestation of some sort and the only one who knows how this thing we’re going to fix actually works, is someone who calls ‘herself’ mad?!

If this was an easy starter quest, what did they count a hard one to be? Demon Lord invasions?!

At least the ale was good, frothy and flavorful, it had earthy tones that I couldn’t quite place, as well as a little ‘bite’ at the end and was much darker than usual, almost the color of molasses. I finally had to ask, “What is this stuff anyway? It’s really, really good!” I licked my lips and the dwarf across from me perked up.

“It’s made from acorns. They grow all over the place out this way, lass, an ther’s no better stuff in any direction short of a mountain!” He licked his lips the same as I did and slapped his flagon down on the table with a crack just as Loysa approached and clapped her hand on my shoulder.

“Alright, time to get going. Oh, and about the ‘infestation’. Tell them.” She said and turned her attention toward Tess.

“Yes ah, well, it went like this.” She paused and cleared her throat.

All great stories start with some variation of that. “Yes?” I asked warily and noticed that Loysa did not sit down.

“Um, well… I wanted to find a more efficient way of getting more magitite for my experiments, and nobody lives on that mountain anymore. They haven’t since a tunnel broke through a methane pocket and it killed everybody who lived there.” Tess cracked her knuckles and then notably raised her voice to add, “I had nothing to do with that! I wasn’t even there!”

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“Alright, I believe you.” I reassured her. “Go on.”

“So, anyway, I ah, you see, Dwarves don’t keep maps of their tunnels or anything. That’s kind of a problem, nobody knows where their ore finds are except the ones who work them.” She said and I paused to look at Dwarguy.

“Is that true?” I asked, it seemed so inefficient.

“Aye lass, would ye give away the location of yer buried gold to just anyone what asks for it?” He asked, and though my lower lip pouted a little, I had to shake my head.

“I guess not.”

As he gave a sharp nod of cocky affirmation, Tess continued.

“So, I wanted to raise up some spirits, I figured I could maybe trade something to them, bring out their bodies for a priest to consecrate and bury, and in return they tell me where the good veins of magitite are.” She frowned and fiddled with the little circle necklace where the blue stone sat.

“Alright, that’s fair. So far so good.” I was starting to grow uneasy and shifted on my seat.

“Well… I did cast the spell, the one I meant to, but that’s not what happened. Even though it absolutely should have.” Tess was now just stalling.

“What did happen? And why didn’t anyone just, ‘go get the bodies’ themselves?” I asked.

Dwarguy chimed in for part of it, “When somethin like that happens, lass, people get scared. A whole mountain just ‘dyin’ thas a bad’n. Nobody wants to be next, better ta just leave the dead there for a hundred years or so, only someone utterly mad would go there so soon. Right sad it was, too.” He added.

“Mad genius.” Tess said with a shrug as if repeating her self-identification was an answer, which I suppose it was in a way. “And, as for what happened, I wanted to just raise a spirit, the one who ruled that city. Just get some information, that’s all… I swear.” She swallowed, “But… I ended up raising the dead.”

“Back to life? Isn’t that good?” I asked incredulously.

“Not back to life.” Tess answered. “To unlife.”

“One zombie isn’t that bad. We should be able to handle just one dumb corpse.” I may have sounded a little cocky there, but I had reason to, I think. I mean in any game you look at, zombies are just really shit versions of normal people. All they have going for them is their numbers and their inability to feel pain.

“Ah, yes… one would be no problem.” Tess rubbed the back of her head, “But ah… I sort of did it for the whole population… everybody in the Undercity.”

She actually looked sheepish.

Somehow sheepish did not seem the proper emotion to feel right then.

“Why hasn’t the army been mustered to put them down? Are we in danger?!” I raised my voice a little, but Tess immediately shushed me.

“No, no, nothing like that. They’re all rotted corpses, but um, they have their intelligence. It’s a city of the undead now. The only one of its kind in the world.” Tess actually smiled at that, like she was proud of it.

Dwarguy gasped and Loysa groaned.

“The thing is… they don’t really like me…” Tess was still rubbing the back of her head, “Apparently they were enjoying some kind of an afterlife, like, a lot. And having their souls yanked back into fetid rotten flesh made them mad something awful… so I’m kind of banished.”

“But we can go there and make a trade, right? Just bring you some magitite or…” She shook her head and Dwarguy spoke up.

“Lass, ye do nae understand. They cannae mine. The expedition that went an found em would’a taken all their tools to bury in their honor, since get’n their bodies out would’a been nigh impossible. An likely emptied any mined ore out too if they had any.”

“So, no ore and no way to get more and a pissed off city of undead.” I summed it up and Tess had the decency to say…

“Sorry.”