“I’ve discussed terms with the other leads, and we have agreed upon two representatives from each House.” Kazek addressed the remains of our row before we walked the tunnel to meet the others. “I will speak for us, and plan to call for cooperation between Houses. I call Sallis to join me as representative, while Jozoic and Bomilik hold our position here. I also managed to negotiate a maximum of three witnesses, meaning we will not be short on numbers should the Moot devolve into another clash.”
Jozoic snorted from his position near the narrowed entrance. We had built a sort of airlock chamber inside our new headquarters, roughing in the new entrance at a 90 degree angle to the previous tunnel. The narrow door and angle forcing anyone coming from the tar chamber into our space to turn sideways and squeeze through a gap only two and a half feet wide.
Kazek gave him a hard look as we continued on. “I do not expect there to be more violence, but we should be prepared for it. Our contingency plan is to retreat to our stronghold if fighting does break out. We cannot afford more losses, so I will do everything I can to ensure that such a thing does not come to pass. Is there anything anyone else wants to add?”
He looked around the room, his gaze lingering on Jozoic and Bomilik before passing over the rest of us. The two remained silent, despite their clear annoyance with the situation. Instead, Sallis was the one who spoke up.
“What’re we even seekin’ to accomplish? We blocked off the horde o’ nasties, now we just have to wait out the timer. Right?”
Kazek exchanged a look with Bomilik, then gestured for him to explain. The large dwarv sighed and shook his head. “We must make sure of the water. If the entire network is filled it will be more than the pressure trap can hold. Our wall should keep the stray scolovian out, but would not stand up to the weight of the floodwater.”
Sallis gave him a flat look. “So, the elders really are putting all the pressure on, ay?” She cracked a grin and managed to get a laugh from Kikkelin and Max, but most of the dwarves looked on with stony faces.
I let out a sigh of relief, glad to hear the others had caught on to what Max had been warning me about. I’d been worrying over how to steer the conversation in that direction, when I should have trusted the expertise of my peers to pick up on the situation. I might have access to wall hacks and a cheating AI who could show me things that should otherwise be hidden, but Bomilik’s training and experience was enough to let him see what was happening with a fraction of the information.
“If that is all, it is time.” Kazek interjected into the awkward silence after Sallis’ pun. I caught her eye and gave her a nod and a strained smile, which she answered with a shrug and a grin before we all filed through the exit behind Kazek.
Jozoic stared after us and let out another of his angry snorts before I pushed through the gap and followed after Kazek and Sallis at the front. Lokralda came up to my side, while Kikkelin brought up the rear.
I pulled the unlit lamp from my shoulder and offered it back to Lokra. “Thanks for letting me use this.” I said as I held the tin-can sized lamp out to her.
She shook her head and pushed my hand back. “You should keep it.” Refusing to meet my eyes, she dropped her hands down to her sides and gave off an aura of dejection.
I frowned and looked down at the lamp, then hooked it onto the strap that arched over her shoulder and collarbone. “I should have been more careful with the one you already gave me, I don’t wanna go breaking another one.”
She answered my frown with one of her own, unclipping the lamp and trying to hand it back to me. “You’re a fighter, and you don't have the senses we do. I can feel and smell my way around. You should have it, I… I don’t-”
“It’s okay, Lokra.” Kikkelin interrupted, barging into the conversation. “Don’t say anything hasty now.”
I looked between the two, but did not take the lamp back. On some level, I felt a little bad for both of them. Neither of them were fighters, but they still had to push through this whole ridiculous trial thing. We’d tried to keep them from the front, but with our dwindled numbers they had been forced into the fight. The look Lokra gave me in the forge room had stuck with me. Her terrified and panicked face as she failed to light the grenade on Kazek’s orders spoke to me on a primal level, activating some deeply buried instinct to protect and defend that I’d never managed to fully suppress.
I pushed the lamp back again and gave her a pat on the shoulder, shaking my head. “Your hands built it, you should have it. Hopefully the fighting is over, but if not you can hold the light from the rear where it's less likely to be smashed apart. How many do we even have now?”
She looked down at the lamp, and Kikkelin nodded her agreement from just behind us. After a deep breath, Lokralda responded. “I think four are left. I made seven. Lurbolg had one when he got knocked out and took it with him back to respawn, Selda accidentally blew one up, and the one Jozoic carried had a defective nozzle that melted.” She looked down at the lamp and sparked it to life, adjusting the little dials that controlled the water flow rate until the little flame stopped fluttering or pulsing.
“I was working on a new nozzle to replace the melted one, but then… then everything happened.” She held the lamp up and pointed ahead, keeping the beam low to not blind anyone with the intense white light.
I put on a smile and nudged her shoulder with my elbow. “Well, maybe there will still be a chance for you to fix it up. Plus, we still have, what, four of them? That should be enough now that the scouting is done. Plus, I didn’t see any of the other Houses with lamps like these either. They must not have anyone as good as you to make them.”
“They’re certainly an improvement on the spit-lights we used at the start!” Sallis chimed in from the front of the formation. “Four is plenty, ain't that right Kazek?”
Our leader somehow straightened even more than his normal stance, walking ahead of us in the wide circle of light from the lamp. He did not turn to look back at us, probably because he didn’t want to get blinded by the light shining in his direction. It took him a moment to reply, and his shoulders slumped back slightly as he answered.
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“If we are to pressurize the lower level as Bomilik’s calculations suggest, we must return to the gel lights. If things go according to plan, oxygen will become the most important resource. The carbide lamps are better than sportrell fires or oil lamps, but far hungrier than phosphor.”
Kikkelin frowned, Sallis nodded grimly, and Lokralda gave a more serious nod of agreement and understanding, but no one answered aloud.
He was right, and we all spent a moment kicking ourselves for not having thought of it. Especially me. I’d known about the situation longer than them and had Max whispering and running simulations and calculations to back me up, but still overlooked that little detail.
I needed to be better, and not let crap like that slip my mind again. Not only for the sake of this trial and the dwarves, but the larger looming problem back in reality. I had dragged all of my friends into my bullshit, and they were counting on me. One tiny little flame could be all it takes to suck the oxygen out of a plan. It might not mean certain death here, but it would in the future. I couldn't miss anything like that again. I needed to be better.
“Calm down there with the broody-broody-moody stuff, it's… uncomfortable. Ali says it’s dumb, too.” Max interrupted my spiraling train of thought and self doubt.
We crossed through the old battle sight at the mouth of the tunnel and entered the tar room. The space had changed in the short time since I’d passed through it last, and what used to be a dark and ominous room, was now partially lit with a combination of flickering yellow oil lamps and splattered phosphor spit along the ceiling and walls.
I pushed a thought towards Max. “What do you mean Ali says it's dumb?”
“Um, exactly what I said? She didn’t exactly say it in so many words, but she totally rolled her eyes. Oh, and now she’s mad at me again too, thanks man.”
I followed Kazek and Sallis into the large room and would have finally gotten a good look at the entire room now that it was partially lit, but I was yanked straight out of the moment by Max’s comment. “That’s not what I mean.” I thought back at him. “How and why does she even know? I wasn't even thinking at you.”
“She can’t sleep, and it’s boring as hell just riding along in the back of the van. The roads suck, and nothing is happening. Everyone’s bored and tense so I thought I’d lighten the mood and keep them up to date on what you’re up to, since you're the only one doing anything even halfway interesting at the moment. See, they’re all right here.”
Rin’s voice came through, only in my right ear like I was wearing an earpiece. “We did not ask for this, but his commentary is entertaining and enlightening. Plus it’s interesting getting a look at the underhome through your eyes. Is this what the whole city looks like?”
“That fight with the bugs was intense, like some kind of old pre-Link sci-fi flick. I wish I could have been there for it. The–um, Max is right though, now’s not the time for brooding.” Ali added, speaking into my other ear.
I closed my eyes and clenched both fists at my sides in frustration, before releasing the clench and doing my best to look normal. Luckily, the other groups of dwarves were all quite distant and should have a hard time noticing my distraction. Sallis and Kazek both stepped forward onto a narrow sportrell plank bridge, mimicking the actions of a pair of dwarves from each House as they all moved towards a crude platform that had been constructed atop the cut trunks of the mushroom trees around the center of the tar pit.
It was bad enough having Max in my head and sifting through my thoughts, but the thought of him streaming every thought and experience off like some twisted reality TV show instantly pissed me off. I couldn’t even do anything about it other than think at them. I had to keep my composure for the negotiation, which was getting underway in the middle of the room.
“Clan Theedrite!” One of the dwarves on the platform shouted out across the chamber, his voice ringing out in the surprisingly good acoustics from the center of the domed room. “We call for Moot! Our ancient and esteemed Houses must come together as brothers against the outside. I, Cerrik Hammerting, pledge to peace and cooperation. What say you?”
I glanced over at Lokra and Kikkelin as they stepped up next to me. They were both watching the meeting of the representatives in the middle of the room, and thankfully not paying me much attention. As Kazek and the other row leaders shouted out their agreement, I turned my thoughts inwards and pushed them angrily at my mental resident AI. “Max! You can’t just broadcast my thoughts. I don’t even like that you’re constantly listening in on them, let alone sharing them with everyone else.”
“Better to be pissed off, than pissed on though, ay? Heh-Heh. Plus, I think you mean I ‘shouldn’t’ broadcast your thoughts, because I totally can. Look, I’m doing it right now!”
“He is–technically–correct, Nick. This is useful too, you’re not alone in thi-”
“Quit being such a suckup, Rin!” I clenched my eyes shut for a moment and shook with restrained anger. “Max, you were doing pretty good. You were being nicer, actually helping, not being overwhelmingly annoying and manipulative. You’d nearly earned your way up to ‘jerk’ from ‘asshole’, but this sends you all the way back down to the bottom of the barrel, man. Let me keep my thoughts to myself.”
I took a deep breath and looked out at the dwarven ceremony as each of the row leads pledged their good intentions and loyalty to Clan and House.
The three voices in my direct-to-brain group chat fell silent, so I continued. I formed the thoughts clearly in my inner monolog’s mental voice and held them in focus. “If I could find a way to stop you listening in to my every thought like you do, I would do it. You’re going to drive me insane.”
“Um, actually, you’re handling it really well if you look at the numbers. It might bump your cortisol and blood pressure up a bit, but not enough to cause any lasting harm-”
I shook my head, unable to hold still and contain my mental conversation to myself. Everyone else was too focused on the little ritual playing out in the center of the room to pay me any mind. “It’s not just numbers and readings. I can't live with you prodding and laughing at every damn thought I have. Having you always there is bad enough, having you hopping from car to car down my train of thought makes it worse. Digging up what you find there and blasting it to my friends is a step too fucking far, Max. It’s messed up.”
“We must take readings, and monitor the pressure.” Kazek’s formal voice rose from the central platform. “Our engineer, Bomilik, trained by Master Tunneler Zel Zukar, has discovered a section of tunnel that will hold the water back if everything is…”
While glancing around the room in agitation, I realized both Kikkelin and Lokra were giving me some serious side-eye. Lokralda happened to be standing closer, and she leaned in and quietly asked, “are you okay?”
My teeth creaked against each other, but I managed a nod. I unclenched my jaw and my fists again and tried to pay attention to the action at the center of the room. If Max and the others were smart, they’d back off. Even if only for a little while.
I needed to learn to expect Max’s bullshit. His meddling and annoyingness was a constant in my life, yet I kept letting it surprise me again and again. There was nothing I could do about it, other than steer him in the right direction every time he dragged me into some new and bothersome situation. I reminded myself that he did seem to be trying to be a better person lately, and that he was essentially a very powerful toddler. He had a lot to learn, plus a fair amount to unlearn, and it was up to me to teach him.
I stuffed all that anger and indignation into a box and kicked it to the side, shoving it amongst all the other compartmentalized dilemmas and thoughts that cluttered my mind these days. I’d have to find the time to sort through them eventually, before they all broke free and demanded my attention. For now though, I had more important things to worry about than my own privacy or comfort.
Everything was riding on this meeting of the dwarven Houses. We needed to convince the others of Bomilik and Max’s calculations, and all I could do was watch from the sidelines as the Moot heated up in the center of the room.