Day ~93~

The first thing Rea noticed when she woke up was that she had been wrong, there were eleven dwarves.  As they passed a few loaves of bread and hunks of meat around, Rea, let out a sigh.  The dwarf that had been watching over her noticed and spoke up, "You were out for most of the day already, how do you feel?"

Rea shook off her daze, "Good... I'm Rea Ainsworth."

One jovial dwarf shouted, "Sound off, Fimri!""

"Tenri!"

"Calim!"

"Almir!"

"Torrin!"

"Kale!"

"Rok!"

"Media!"

"Teala!"

"Kisa!"

The one sitting next to her shouted, "Helga!"

Rea jumped when a final voice sounded from behind of her, "Ymir!"  Rea was wrong again, twelve dwarves.  Four women dwarves, she hadn't noticed the other three were women until seeing the light hit them.  Three dwarves were wearing leather, the rest heavily armored.  Rea had been wrong, half the armored dwarves were not warriors, they were blacksmiths.

"What brings twelve dwarves to Telur'thal'mir?"

Ymir waltzed up and took a seat next to Rea, "You first human.  Alone in this ungodly place, why?"

Rea chuckled and spouted the short version, "I pissed someone off, ended up being transported to the wrong side of the mountain range.  I was on my way back when an angry goat... I'm gonna kill that goat, anyways a pissed off goat decided to drop me down one of the mountain shafts.  I've been down here for nearly...  I think it's been...  I'm not entirely sure how long I've been down here."

All of the dwarves gaped at her as Helga spoke up again, "I'm surprised you're alive."

Rea looked down at her hand as she conjured a few lanterns to warm them all, "That makes two of us, your turn..." Rea decided to not make it obvious she knew all of their names already. "... Kale?"

The dwarven man scoffed as laughter filled the barracks, "Ymir!"  *cough cough* "I'm the leader of a small blacksmith caste," he gazed around the room apologetically. "My foolish brother feared I would usurp the leader position of our caste and sent us here.  An entrance opened up recently thanks to an avalanche... probably your little fall.  He took the opportunity as a sign to kill us," Ymir's visage became filled with wrath, "he even sent my daughter with us."

Helga absently rubbed Ymir's tense shoulder, Rea wasn't sure what to make of the mighty dwarf.  His complexion wasn't indicative of old age but his grey beard said otherwise.  His daughter Helga... Rea was still slightly disappointed that dwarven women don't have beards.  Her blonde bunned hair, sharp blue eyes, and tanned pale skin reminded her more of an elf's complexion than a dwarf's.  "Sorry I caused an avalanche."

Ymir shook it off, "He would have found some other way to try and kill us, at least this way we knew what was coming."

The jovial atmosphere had died down as they all vacantly continued to feast.  Rea took a moment to use her [Psychometry], Ymir, his daughter, and a blacksmith all had runic power.  "Alright!" Rea clapped her hands while standing up, "Ymir, Helga, and... Torrin?"

The dwarf she was looking at smacked his forehead while the others started to chuckle again, "Kale!"

"Right that's what I said."  Kale nearly fell over as laughter echoed through the barracks, "Anyways, you three take a knee, clasp your hands together, and repeat after me." They were skeptical at first but Rea had saved their lives.  "Oh great, immature, pain in the arse, please grant your..." *POW!*  The dwarves gaped again as Rea went sliding across the floor, then stood back up and brushed herself off...  *cough cough* "Oh great benevolent god of the runes, won't you grant these humble servants the honor of using your power?"

"Oh great benevolent god of the runes, won't you grant these humble servants the honor of using your power?" in unison.  Rea watched on gleefully as all three gave her a look of utter disbelief, "What are runes?"

"The heritage of Telur'thal'mir,"  Rea quickly dropped all three of the runesmithing books into the blacksmiths lap, "you look like a blacksmith to me, pay attention when you read those."  Rea absently dumped the solid slab of steel, that made her makeshift anvil up, on the floor.  She then instructed Ymir to pull out his massive hammer and hold it over the anvil.  Rea took a moment to admire the beast, an amalgamation of some of the toughest, rarest, metals she had learned about, no doubt a legendary item.  Rea quickly took out her hammer and engraved uruz stoked for physical strength into it.  As the hammer glowed Kale watched in wonder, with a single powerful, practiced swing she brought down the infused hammer and completed the engraving. "Alright now put your runic power into it and hit a bunk."

Ymir raised an eyebrow, "Runic power?"

"Oh... frick'," she absently twiddled her thumbs, "How well do you trust me?"

"You saved my daughter's life, all of our lives.  We all trust you."

"Good, brace yourself. Helga, Kale, get closer we're forming a hive.  Runic power is like mana for dwarves, I'll show you how to use it."  The dwarves all bickered in disbelief at her statement as she reached out and bonded them.  Kale doubled over as Helga fell flat on a bunk, Ymir just went wide-eyed while looking at Rea.  They hadn't lied, they really did trust her, it had taken almost nothing for her to bond with them.  Rea beamed happily, "I'm a mage so I could feel that you three had the potential within you, now watch what I do.  Pay close attention, Ymir."

The paragon gave a single nod in response as she pulled out her quicksilver xiphos and infused it.  The dwarves weren't sure what to think when Rea went from swinging a blade about vacantly to doing flips and hoping over bunks while cleaving mattresses in two with precise slashes.  "Your turn Ymir."

The man Raised his hammer high, and to Rea's surprise, got it on his first try.  As he brought the hammer down it completely crushed an entire steel bunk into the ground.  Hardened earth cracked in every direction as the entire room shook violently, "Holy hell!"

Rea nodded in agreement, "Show Helga how to do it while I engrave a technical ability rune into a dagger for her, you," she pointed to Kale, "Just pay attention to me and read those books."  Rea could see it on their faces, hope, returning to their tortured expressions.

Ymir gazed at Rea obviously, "Care to explain?"

Rea shrugged absently, "I locked myself in some barracks that had those runesmithing books, I put together a few clues and called out to the greater god of runes... there's something else you should know.  I'm not sure if they're still alive but dwarves sealed themselves in using a powerful rune for ice, abundance, and stagnation.  I was trying to find them when you kicked up a fuss."

Rok quickly ran a hand through his auburn beard, "You mean the dwarves of Telur'thal'mir may yet live?"

Rea shook it off, "I doubt it, but maybe if the spell, the rune worked...  They may yet live, trapped in a frozen tomb.  I don't suppose you lot know the way to a celebration hall?"

The dwarven woman, Kisa, spoke up at that point while finishing off her ale, "I'm a cartographer, I know all about this city... that hall is in the opposite direction of our exit Ymir..."

Rea looked at all the dwarves, one after the other they averted their gaze.  She let out a long drawn sigh, "Point me in the right direction, I'll go alone."

"What!?  Why would you do that for the dwarves?"

Rea absently conjured a block of ice and looked at Kisa through it, "If you were trapped in ice for all of eternity, wouldn't you hope that someone who is possibly the only person that could free you, would do anything save you?"

Kisa gave her an appraising gaze, "What do you have to say Ymir?"

The man quit instructing Helga, "I say we leave, I won't risk my caste's lives on the chance that our ancestors of Telur'thal'mir are alive after all these years."

Rea didn't bother complaining, she couldn't fault him on that, "A warning, runes drain you just as magic drains a mage.  Overuse it and you'll end up like I did last night."  The others nodded in understanding...  Rea took a few more moments to ponder her new goals.  She then faced Kisa again, "Where exactly along the mountain range is the main portion of Telur'thal'mir?"

"Telur'thal'mir's main entryway... no, the one that was uncovered is located just north of Tal'ma'tarn."  Rea perked up at that, "why?"

"You're not from Lumansolice, the blacksmith city?"

This time Ymir interrupted, "We're members of the blacksmith caste sent from Lumansolice to spread trade in Tal'ma'tarn and the surrounding villages."

Rea nodded in understanding, "Well, I'd like to get a move on.  The sooner I make it to the stagnant rune the sooner I'll leave this place."

Helga looked to her father worriedly as he spoke again, "Everybody up, let's get out of these ruins."

"...I almost forgot, you have my case?"

Ymir reluctantly handed it back to Rea, he didn't expect what she did next.  Rea opened the case and passed out all seventeen remaining vials to the dwarves.  Helga looked at her with a perplexed expression, "Surely you'll need the healing potions more than us, you're going deeper in."

Rea didn't feel like explaining in depth, "For certain reasons that [Elixir] doesn't work on me, use it well."

Rea melted her ice after sharing a meal with the dwarves...  she didn't tell them that the delicious duck was lurker.  Anyways, after sharing a meal they left the chamber and Rea listened closely as Kisa directed her.  Before they parted ways Rea was made aware that their numbers had originally been around thirty dwarves... no wonder they were leaving.  Rea had used a few sly pained expressions, she had fed them, she had given them [Elixir], told them about bone horrors, and even showed them runesmithing.  The ophidian was hoping to cash in on a future favor.  As she left alone Rea mentioned in passing that she hopes she'd be able to find the exit herself if the dwarves did turn out to be long dead.  With that, and a few awkward laughs, she was off.

Rea did turn back and reluctantly watch them leave, she smiled absently after noticing Ymir's job change to [Hero-Runic Paragon].  She really would much rather go with them, even at the cost of her runesmithing abilities... but the more time she'd spent down here, the more she'd spent reading the diary.  At some point she had begun to sympathize, and like Rea had told the dwarves...  she had to at least try.  Without putting any more thought into it Rea quickly followed Kisa's directions and bounded into the darkness once more.

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Nearly an hour after parting ways, the small group of surviving dwarves had just faced a bone horror.  If not for the runic infusion Ymir wasn't sure he'd have been able to cripple the beast.  Helga had been mostly silent up until this point, but taking another look back she couldn't shake the feeling.  Waltzing up to Ymir she asked, "Can we live with this?"

He knew what she meant, "... I can't let you die."

Helga looked over her companions, "That human saved our lives, that human is marching into the abyss, hell itself.  She has even faced one of these abominations alone, and still she goes further in, not for humans but for dwarves." Helga gazed back into Ymir's eyes, "I am not so afraid of death that I would forsake such a woman, I'm going back."

As soon as Helga made her intentions clear Ymir got in line.  The others knew damn well they may not survive without Ymir and also fell in line.

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If Kisa wasn't lying it really wasn't very far away.  Rea did still make a point of avoiding most combat, but she had stopped once to turn two lone lurkers into emergency rations.  The closer she got the more her psychometry was picking up anomalies.  Rea wasn't sure what was going on, this was the first time she was seeing so many unidentifiable things.  Small glowing pebbles, odd growths, that sort of thing.  What Rea saw as she came upon the wide open doorways made it clear though.  The ice wasn't normal ice, its magic permeated the surroundings and caused some bizarre growth phenomenon.  At first Rea thought to just torch it... that first fireball nearly got her killed.  Upon contact the giant plant that had been blocking her path shot long speared vines right at her, as she dodged left they came at her from the side.  Making good use of barrel roll again she narrowly escaped.

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Rea watched in wide-eyed shock as the plant took a more humanoid form and pulled itself loose from the ice.  Ignoring the pleasant smell coming from it she realized just how bad this is and turned to run.  Less than thirty seconds later she stopped in her tracks as vines began to reform in front of her, in moments the creature was nearly three times her size again.  Rea let out a telepathic apology to see if it was sentient but got nothing back.  The thing started to waltz towards her while preparing to fire more vines as Rea decided to go for broke and let off an inferno.  Flames blazed in a single spiraling motion at the creature while its vines entwined to block.  The spell had done some damage, but Rea could only cringe at the sight of it regenerating rapidly as roots attached to the ice behind of her began to glow.

Draining a large portion of her mana for nothing wasn't a good feeling.  Rea knew that if she couldn't completely destroy it all at once this was a useless endeavor.  She had to either cut it off from the ice or dispel the rune.  Unsheathing her blade and activating enflame Rea began to dodge and hack vines as they came at her.  Every other severed vine would still cut her because of the momentum.  Knowing that this was quickly becoming worse she tried to think of a solution, she needed time to engrave the ice.  But no matter how she thought of it she couldn't figure out a solution, and with the plant creature blocking her path escape was impossible.

However, just as Rea was getting ready to fire off another inferno she caught sight of salvation, in the form of twelve dwarves charging towards the creature from behind.  Ymir was the first upon it, as his hammer made contact it tore the creature to pieces.  Rea's smile only lasted for a moment as a terrifying screech resounded throughout the chamber as vines began to pour in all around the dwarves.  Rea quickly dashed for the Ice while cutting down any that got in her way. "Protect me, we can't kill it like this!"

All of the dwarves quickly gathered around Rea and made a human... dwarven barricade as she began to engrave the reverse isa, reverse fehu, and pethro runes.  After nearly a minute of fending off massive plant limbs and saving each other from being dragged off, the dwarves were panicking as Rea planted a hand on the ice.  She began the infusion and almost passed out after just a few seconds...  Rea heard screaming as she glanced behind her and saw both Torrin and Almir pinned to a far wall with spear-like vines driven painfully through them.  Ymir nearly got himself impaled trying to rush out after them, but Tenri had pulled their leader back and taken his place.  Ymir howled at the creature as it dragged Tenri across the floor with vines driven through the young dwarf's chest.  His relentless hammer assault with the uruz rune was obviously draining the dwarf and without him Rea was sure they wouldn't last long.  The damn creature seemed to only be growing larger by the second.

Turning back around she could see that in front of her the clouded ice was rapidly becoming clearer.  This was it, this was the place, she could see about twenty dwarves right in front of her.  Feeling like this was do or die Rea went for broke and forced everything she had into the infusion.  The last thing Rea could make out before losing consciousness, for the third time, was Helga heaving her over a shoulder and running past a few dozen armored dwarves as they charged by.

Day ~94~

Rea wasn't happy falling asleep like that twice in a row, she was happy waking up next to someone for a change.  Quickly untangling herself from Helga she got up and gazed at the commotion that had woken her up.  Ymir was arguing with a dwarf in robes, Rea carefully made her way out of the bunk and made her approach.  She had recognized the name and pulled a diary... journal, "Are you Thal?"

The dwarven man faced her with an unpleasant expression, "How does the human know my name?"

She quickly handed him the journal, "I was able to figure things out thanks to this, Kilthala's diary... journal."

The man's eyebrow twitched as she handed him the journal, he fondly ran some fingers over it as his expression softened, "We still have to kill you."

"What!?"  That outburst woke Helga right up, she had been sleeping next to Rea for a reason.  In fact, taking stock of her surroundings Rea could see eight of the dwarves she'd gotten to know still around, "...Calim?"

Ymir shook his head, "It got him too."

Rea bowed her head, "I'm sorry, because of me..."

Helga smacked her aside the noggin, "We already owed you our lives, and you were doing it to save the sons of whores who want to kill you now."

Rea's eyes went wide again, "Oh right that... uhh, why?"

Thal shuffled a bit, "Runesmithing, and runic arts is a secret art only known by the inhabitants of this city.  We can make an exception for our brethren that have saved us, but we cannot excuse a human."

Rea's expression soured... it was worse than that, the man fell off his stool backwards as Rea's visage twisted in pure rage.  The few dozen dwarves standing behind him really hadn't been expecting the pretty human to do that.  A few moments later she reigned it in and spoke, "You do realize that if you hadn't been so secretive in the first place you could have asked for aid from the elves and humans?"

Thal scoffed from his floored position as he rose back up, "I would rather die than see humans and elves running about our glorious city!" He looked back to some of the other survivors, "Kill her now!"

Rea had not been expecting what happened next.  One of the soldiers, wearing some unique armor, waltzed up and drove a blade through Thal.  Rea watched without interfering as the dwarf let out his last breath.  The dwarf then removed his helmet revealing flowing auburn hair and a rugged visage graced with more than a few scars.  He spoke while taking Thal's seat, the dwarves behind him all went about various tasks, "Talos Longinus, from what Ymir has told us you are the reason we live again.  It would also seem that our greater god saw fit to bestow his gift upon a human.  We are not ones to question his judgement, and shall abide.  If runesmithing is to be spread to humans and elves even, then so be it."

Rea smiled fondly at the dwarven man, "How many of you survived?"

Talos was the one with a sour expression now, "Twenty-seve... twenty-six of us are all that is left, originally there should have been hundreds but that coward," he pointed his thumb at Thal's corpse, "activated the rune prematurely.  I hadn't wanted to kill him because there are already so few of us but... well, you saw the zealot."

Ymir scoffed, "I was about to do it if you hadn't."

Rea chuckled a bit before speaking up, "Have you decided what to do?"

Both of them looked at her and started to laugh, "For the past six hours all we've debated about was you."

She was pretty sad that they'd wasted all that time, "May I give a suggestion?"

Ymir and his group eagerly listened as Talos nodded in approval, "This city is... sturdy, but infested.  We should all leave..."

Talos interjected, "We cannot leave our home in this state..."

Rea waved her hand nonchalantly, "I'm not saying leave it like this, I'm saying leave for now.  You number less than thirty and take it from us, there are way too many devolved lurkers around to..." Rea pursed her lips, "what happened?  What caused all of this?"

All of them looked towards the barracks door fearfully, "We accessed a place in our mines, a terrible place that creatures began to flood out of.  By the time we managed to seal it...  A creature that seemed immortal, made of flesh and bone, nearly the size of forty dwarves with scythes for hands had emerged.  It led the lurkers, crawlers, bladefists and biles against us.  We couldn't win so we turned to the runemasters for a solution... it worked but.."  Rea's eyes shifted sadly as she watched the dwarf get up, curse, then kick Thal's corpse. "We called the creatures Kar'soth."

At that point Ymir interjected, "That monster is famous, it was slain by a group of seven heroes long ago after it terrorized the nearby lands.  No one ever knew where it had come from..."  Everybody sighed with relief at that.

Rea spoke up again, "Your numbers are too little, and this place too dangerous.  Come to the outside world, spread runesmithing, gain allies and meet your brethren.  I'm sure there are many who would help you retake this city with the proper preparations.  Also, don't do it just for yourselves, you have something amazing to give to this world.  Runesmithing is a powerful craft that could be used to help everyone, helping everyone would gain allies for your cause.  This city of yours, may yet be restored to an even greater place than it once was."

Ymir sighed as Talos grinned, "How would you have these lost souls go about such a grand task."

Rea looked to Ymir, "I believe you would know better than me... although I would like to point out that the elves to your south seem to be struggling.  Also, I'm not sure what good it would do but I may have some pull in Vestlei."

Helga gasped, "That's it!  I knew I'd hear your name somewhere!  What's your relation to Lark Ainsworth?"

Rea was a little surprised her grandfather was well known outside of Vestlei, "You just saved his granddaughter's life."

Ymir let out a hearty laugh, "Okay, so we've got the noble leader of Vestlei's granddaughter on our side," Rea made a desperate attempt to not let her jaw drop, "An ancient art to spread, elves in need of aid, and my brother to smack around.... which elves exactly?"

Rea cocked her head for a moment, "The tribe in Kelaseran has begun to send out envoys."

Ymir looked back at his seven remaining men, his small family, "We've always been about improving our own lot in life, now that we've been stabbed in the back I was just plotting vengeance.  I do have to admit though that making the world a better place, helping people like you helped us, does sound... nice.  What do you say Fimri, Rok, Media, Teala, Kisa, Kale, Helga?"

Jovial laughter filled their side of the barracks as the dwarves cracked a few jokes about becoming heroes and gracing the other races with their gracious intentions while drinking their ale.  It would seem that the wronged dwarves had started to think about how to do right for others.  Talos was impressed with their display, he had already heard why they were all here.  He was also very interested in Rea, the woman who had tried to rescue them alone even as their fellow dwarves had fled.

Ending all the serious talk for now she broke out a few pots and began to heat up some food.  After everyone had gotten their fair share they dug in.  Getting to know each other a little was making the grim situation of the city's sole survivors a little lighter.  Rea wasn't sure how they would hold up, she knew just how terrible it felt to lose everything.  But they hadn't quite lost everything, they had each other, and thanks to their new friends they had hope.  As Talos finished off his bowl he looked at Rea, "You make a delicious pot of lurker soup mistress Rea!"

*PFFFFTTTT!!!!* *cough cough cough cough cough*  All eight of the dwarves she had fed it to twice now were glaring at Rea, "What?"

"Lurker!?"

Rea twiddled her thumbs, "You know those things that had you trapped on a bridge."

"We know!"

Sensing the tension Rea quickly hobbled away, "Ohhh, I'm so beat... wake me up when we're ready to go."

Ymir gasped in shock as she waltzed away, "Wait a second!  You've been using magic, blades, a bow, and runesmithing!  You still haven't explained that."

Rea just muttered that she could accept any and all jobs because of a special divine protection.  She really was spent from the previous two days and it took her only moments to pass out.

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