“Why would we give up the forge? Just because we have secured our assets and you have not is no reason to sacrifice the last heat vent.” Cerrik Hammerting’s clear voice rang out through the room.
He had opened up the floor by welcoming all of the houses to join together and wait out the flood and the migration within their territory, betting correctly that not everyone else had thought to secure their heat vents from closing. His brazen invitation caused an immediate uproar and pushback from the angered Brightenjaw leader, who railed against him for collapsing the tunnel between their two territories. Kazek sat back and soaked in the information, before seizing on the opportunity to raise his own concern about the collapse.
“Have you not scoured your own territory? The water is pouring in, and your precious forge will soon be filled with helium. We must equalize the pressure and hold this room here, or we will suffocate.” Kazek answered, his own voice raised to reach those of us witnessing the meeting from the edges of the room.
“You shirk your burden and have pushed it unto us!” Dorne, the representative from House Brightenjaw, shouted hotly. “You hide behind your collapsed tunnel and leave us to face your battle with the scolovian!”
“You should have taken more defensive measures of your own accord, Dorne.” Cerrik answered with a stern expression. “We wish to work together, but I see no sense in casting aside the only working forge on the field. We have already offered to share access.”
“We can all ride out the flood within Hammerting’s forge, there is no need to give it up.” A serious looking dwarv with light brown hair and an unfortunate eyebrow by the name of Fedrick added. Being the representative of House Bassaldourn, his words were met with open scorn from Sallis. I saw Kazek elbow her side before she could do more than open her mouth.
Kazek spoke up before Sallis could recover and say something to pour more fire onto the conversation. “I doubt that is what the elders intend by this trial. Do you not remember the story of Dweirgar’s Pass? We are strongest side by side, not cowering behind the strongest individual. We must see the situation as a whole.”
“Grand words from a clan of chippers and scrapers!” Raktaur, the row leader from House Rocksturdy shot back.
Murmuring around the room picked up as Kazek bristled with anger. Kikkelin whispered just loud enough to hear. “Gah-rah… don’t take the bait.”
Our leader’s shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. “We are here to speak and find a path forward together, not to level insults at each other. We must put aside our petty differences and come together as one, it has to be what the elders intend with such a conflux.”
“And who are you to understand our elders' intentions? The son of a third rate uncle? You’re not even amongst the mainline holds.” Fedrick replied, his voice dripping with hostility.
Everyone broke out into shouting. A few rocks were thrown, as well as handfuls of bright red glowing phosphor spit from some of the witnesses standing around the edges of the room. Most of the representatives ended up lightly splattered with the glowing red goop, and it cast a hellish tint over the room.
Cerrik let out a puff of visible fog, as the mist touched the splotches of glowing red signs of disapproval around him the coloration changed to a deep blue that spread in a slowly growing circle around him. He raised an iron fork above his head and clanged it against an iron rod, causing it to let out a piercing ring that harmonized through the chamber into a deafeningly clear note.
“Calm!” Cerrik shouted, shutting down the sudden chaos. “Nobel House representatives, is this truly how you wish to comport yourself in front of our elders? We all know they are watching, measuring and studying.”
He paused for a moment and looked around the circle of representatives before continuing. “This is not a time for past grievances or bickering. As a show of good faith, House Hammerting will accept all who wish to seek safety within our territory. We can work as one to secure ourselves from the rising tides and trust in stone to keep us safe.”
“House Bassaldourn agrees to those terms, as long as access to the forge is given fairly and evenly according to merit.” Fedrick added with a smug smile.
“Brightenjaw does not. What guarantees do we have of safety in your chambers? We must inspect your work to seal your tunnel against the flood water before agreeing.”
Kazek broke back into the conversation. “And what of the far side of your territory? Have you sealed both entrances? Will we hold the migration back from your stairwell with dwarven blood, or give up access to our own territories entirely once the water blocks the lower tunnels? We cannot hide in your upper chambers free from danger.”
“And what of your plan?” Raktaur, the rep from Rocksturdy countered. “You would have us cower in the underwater depths in some pressure bubble? I trust in stone, not in the great eroder.”
“We should have brought Bomilik to make the case…” Lokralda whispered next to me as the circle of representatives in the center of the room broke out into chaotic shouting again.
The negotiation ground to a stalemate. The two raider clans countering anything Kazek brought to the conversation with insults and dismissal, while Brightenjaw was focused on drawing concessions from the Hammertings and throwing their own insults. The Hams outright refusal to entertain Kazek’s warning about the subtle threat of the rising water drove the argument back to their perceived advantage of having the final working heat vents and what they could leverage out of it.
I turned my attention inward, prodding Max with a question. “How long do you think we have until the water pressure builds up too much?”
“Oh, now you want my insight. Is that question classified too?”
“Don’t try to turn it back on me. If you wanna talk to the others, that's fine. But broadcasting my thoughts is what we call a massive invasion of privacy, even if I trust the people you’re sending them off to.” I sighed as more red globs of displeasure were hurled at the representatives from the small groups of witnesses standing around the outer edge of the room. Kikkelin even threw her own sign of disapproval, aiming it over at the crowd of Bassaldourn witnesses to our left.
“Can you just answer my question, please? Just because I’m mad at you right now does not mean I’m done working with you.”
Max harrumphed, and while I couldn’t see him I got an impression of him crossing his arms. “Well… since you said please, you have roughly three hours, seven minutes, and forty two point six-seventy-nine seconds until the cork goes pop.”
I grimaced and nodded, hoping that would be enough time for the squabbling dwarves to sort their shit out. It wasn't.
Sometimes being an optimist really sucks. Most of two hours later, and we had gotten nowhere. The only thing everyone seemed to agree on was that we should work together, but how that would happen congealed into a circular argument centered around who would get to use the forge.
Kazek was unable to convince the others of Bomilik’s calculations, and was dismissed as a sore loser by the two raiding clans of Rocksturdy and Bassaldourn. Hammerting, supremely confident in their numbers and apparent success, refused to budge on giving up their forge. While Brightenjaw continued to complain about the Hams and demand they accept responsibility for directing the migration onto them and neglecting what they saw as the other group's duty.
I leaned over and asked Lokra, “Is it always this bad between the Houses?”
She snorted and flashed her eyes over at me for a moment without turning to face me. “For the most part. We bicker and argue over the details, but always come together in the end. Although… normally there is a sworn King to keep order and make the final judgement with all in mind”
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“It looks like the Hams have decided they’re the ones who get to make the final judgement.” I added, feeling disheartened by the display of indecisive arguing.
Both of the dwarven girls looked over at me, a hint of mirth touching Lokralda’s generally sour expression while Kikkelin suppressed a giggle. After a second, Lokralda replied. “The Hams? That would be confusing if I didn’t know some of your language. You best hope that does not catch on, or you may have started a rivalry with an entire House before even graduating to maturity.”
Kikkelin laughed again, hiding her mouth behind a raised hand. “I think it’s fitting. They are being greedy. Isn't there an idiom about swine and greed?”
That made me crack a slight grin as well, even if I didn’t think it was actually all that funny anymore. Stress could do goofy things like that, making light of things that could be upsetting or unforgivable in any other circumstance.
“There is–”
“You could say… they’re hogging the limelight.” I lost my train of thought as Max cut me off. “Kazek’s really trying to teach a pig to sing out there, ay?”
“You know… yeah.” I finished lamely, unable to think of anything else to say other than the lines Max had just tried to feed me. It was too soon since Max’s latest bout of bullshit for me to humor him by parroting his jokes.
“Thinks the guy who just got a laugh with one of my jokes. I did call them the Hams first, after all.”
“It’s like… half the syllables. It’s just easier.” I pushed back.
“You realize you’re doing it too, right?” Max said, popping into existence and blocking my view of the debate as he jammed a finger at me. “This is a two way street, you’re getting my thoughts as well. It does kind of suck, but I don’t think there's a way to shut it off so we might as well just get on with it.”
I nodded and glared at his figure, thinking back at him. “Agreed.”
Rin’s voice pressed back in, causing me to miss the latest insult from the Rocksturdy representative as he shouted over Kazek’s repeated plea to not underestimate the water's danger.
“Look, I don’t wanna get between you two, but you two need to get on the same page. Thoughts are like words, they are insubstantial. Focus on actions, intentions, and their results. Also, is there a salt deposit somewhere down there?”
I looked around for Rin for a half a second, still unused to having him speak in my mind alongside Max like that. His disembodied voice reminded me of all of the time’s he had burst into a conversation between Tevin and I back in the apartment, swooping in to settle some debate or striking at the very heart of whatever it was we were talking about as he casually leaned against the doorframe in his customary spot. A pang of nostalgia came with the thought, along with a note of worry over my injured friend who still needed actual medical attention back in the real world.
I grabbed at Rin’s question like a lifeline, seeing it as a way out of the ill-timed argument with Max and my unpleasant thoughts. “Why salt?”
“There is a deposit of salt in the backwaters of Brightenjaw’s territory.” Max added, poofing back out of existence and clearing my view. I silently thanked Max for refocusing with me, and not pressing the argument further.
“Because you can turn the salt into sodium chlorate with that big still, even without the high temp vents. You still have plenty of coal and oil to burn, plus iron ore, right?”
“Oh, ooooooh.” Max answered. “Rin, you just earned your way into first grade. Nick, take notes.”
I frowned in confusion as both Kikkelin and Lokra hissed and booed whatever was being talked about in the middle of the room. They each threw a blob of red glowing goop in the direction of the Rocksturdy representative, and I heard Lokra mutter. “I’m getting Bomilik, maybe he can dig out this cave-in.” before she turned around and hurried back in the direction we had arrived from.
I split my attention and nodded at Lokra, while thinking back at Rin and Max. “Take notes on what? Salt and iron?”
“You’ve been studying up on chemicals lately, what’s the difference between sodium chloride, otherwise known as salt, and sodium chlorate?”
My brain called up bits and pieces of the uploaded skill-book information, giving me just a taste at what an eidetic memory must feel like as the literal text appeared clearly in my mind. “Uh, three oxygen molecules tacked on to… oh!” I thought I made the connection they were leading me to. “There’s a way to retrieve that oxygen?”
“Exactly.” Rin answered. “I am no expert, but all this talk about water pressure, moonpools, and pressure vessels made me think of submarines. They use oxygen candles.”
“Ugh, that's so… primitive, but primitive is exactly what this trial calls for.” Max added. “They also use CO2 scrubbers. Since we’re stuck in the primitive stage here, you could use lye or lime in water to trap it into carbonates. It’s not all that efficient, but you have the materials and it'd be enough to limp through until the trial ends. It’ll be interesting seeing how the translator spins this all too.”
“That’s only useful if you can convince the others of your plan. Is there any way you can make this forge room they’re arguing about safe for everyone to fall back to? That’s the main hang-up.” Ali said.
There was a moment of silence in my internal conversion, and Kazek’s loud voice in the middle of the debate pulled my attention back. “How do you intend to deal with the helium issue? What will keep us all from suffocating? If our territories are fairly laid out, you will discover the surrounding stone porous and permeated. We must pit the problems against each other as solutions. The-”
“Everyone is tired of your defeatist ideas, Kazek. We will not give up useful ground. The helium is no problem, we can self filter thanks to the plentiful water.” said Fedrick.
Kikkelin looked over at me with worry in her eyes.
“Not all of us are able to self filter, Da-Bassaldourn.” Kazek answered, his voice carrying a certain edge to it as he used the ‘initiate’ ranked honorific in place of Fedrick’s first name. “This insular thinking of yours is why you have fallen behind the other houses. We came here to befriend the humans. We should embrace and welcome those who would seek the same of us, not cast them aside at the first inconvenience.”
“We can construct a breathing mask for the human, it would be rather fitting in a way.” Cerrik Hammerting replied as nearly all of the dwarves in the chamber nodded and stole looks and glances in my direction.
“Will nothing convince you?!” Kazek roared in answer, finally breaking from his clear and formal tone. “How are you certain that your hastily collapsed tunnel will hold back the water? We all trust the stone to be what it is, but it is not an unbreakable shield! We all know this. There are better tools for certainty than blind trust. You would have us all risk washing out as surely as the flood will sweep us from your precious forge.”
Cerrik stepped forward before arguing could break out again, replying into the moment of silence following the outburst. “You bring dire warnings and ask for much sacrifice, Kazek. You ask us to trust your own plan, to trust a perfectly balanced equilibrium throughout a vast and complex structure to keep us safe. Where are your own studies and calculations? A simple solution is a strong solution, while complexity invites unforeseen complications. We sealed our tunnel in two by ten head over the second and third days. Two lengths at a time to ensure a strong and consistent bond, running a course a full twenty head in depth. Our work is strong enough to hold back the weight of an ocean.”
Kazek just stared back at him for a second, while other dwarves around the chamber murmured in agreement. After a short moment of silence, the rest of the representatives went back to arguing over the forge schedule and who would get priority access. While the others argued, our leader turned and glanced at us over his shoulder for a second, giving me a hard look tinged with sadness.
I formed a question in my mind for Max. “How likely am I to survive in the forge room with some kind of breather mask?”
“Um, in a world where the water doesn't sweep you all out of there–which it would–I’d give you even odds of making it or not? It depends on how much helium is in the makeup of the air you're surrounded by and the level of pressure it builds up to. If… okay, the sims finished. It looks like… well, you’d probably still pass the trial, soooo… that’s good. The fact that it’s helium is the only thing that would keep you alive, otherwise you’d probably die from nitrogen narcosis.”
Something about the way his thoughts came through warned me that there was more.
“Okay, so there’s a good chance that rapid decompression boils your blood and sends you back to respawn after they crack the seal in any case. That all doesn't matter though, none of the dwarves' methods can seal the tunnel quickly enough to keep the water from rising up and filling the chamber.”
The arguing in the center of the room grew to another crescendo of vying voices and masked Bomilik’s approach. Both Kikkelin and I jumped slightly as he walked between us and moved up to the edge of the rough plank bridge ahead of us.
The large dwarv bellowed over the bickering representatives in the middle of the chamber, his deep voice drawing everyone's attention. “I call to consult! These matters need the eye of an engineer, not a politician or frontliner.”