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First, you need to understand the arrogance of the ancients. You might consider it a goal both laudable and generous…

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The shocked silence stretched out. Matt blinked, mouth open, as he looked up. Like a night sky, thousands of points of magical light shone down from a ceiling impossibly high above them, softly illuminating the silhouettes of hundreds of dark buildings that stretched inwards into an ominous gloom as far as they could see. Dim light welcomed them into a city that had been lost to history for hundreds of years.

Matt was struggling to understand the scale of what he was seeing, his eyes darting up and down and to the sides. The dome of the ceiling ended somewhere far above and beyond the dark buildings and the slowly curving cavern walls disappeared into the blackness to either side.

They had arrived into the city in a large, open space filled with small and large market stalls, spread haphazardly out across a square ringed with the shadows of looming structures. The stall’s awnings hinted of a kaleidoscope of colours if seen in full light, and although they were all empty of goods, the trays and shelves looked ready for merchants to arrive in the morning.

Vic was the first to break the silence. “It is so… so large. The buildings… My village could fit into this square twice over,” he said, and pointed to a nearby building. “That building there… we, my family, the entire village, could have lived there.”

“And this… this is just a small part,” Matt said, taking a step forward and looking around. “This city, it… Look at the ceiling, how big it is, how far away it goes before it disappears.” he gulped, “How big is this place?”

“I have been to Gamut,” Thor said, and Matt and Mia looked at him with raised eyebrows. “I thought it was impossibly large. The city walls were as tall as three men, and it took me nearly an hour to walk across it. It even had some stone buildings, and… I remember marvelling at their scale.” He took a step forward and pointed to a nearby building. “That structure is, what, three stories high? And it has not collapsed. In Gamut, most of the stone buildings were at least partly worn down, stones having cracked or fallen and exposing parts of the houses.”

“Shall we check it out?” Pete nodded for Matt to ready his weapon, and they approached the building. Smooth cobblestones covered the square, and the surface was strangely even. Getting closer, Matt saw solid wooden beams set into a solid wall built from finely cut stone slabs. Above, each floor held several small windows that looked down into the square.

Peering closer at the perfect stonework, Matt wondered aloud. “How are all these buildings still standing? How are they so… Perfect. There’s no damage, no signs of decay.”

“I do not know,” Thor said. “And it frustrates me. I have seen old noble estates, supposed to be the finest structures humans can build, and they were nothing like this. Mostly wood, and what little stone is used, has been picked apart to maintain the rest.”

Mia nodded at Thor before adding, “Just to be safe, let’s be careful when we go in. The inside may not be as well preserved.”

Moving into the building, they quickly determined that, if anything, the condition of the interior was even better than the outside. They found themselves in a large room with a low timber ceiling, with several crystals hanging from pegs. Tables filled the room, chairs neatly arranged around each one. A corner of the room held a raised, square platform, and one side of the room was taken up by a long, high table.

“Are those lights?” Vic asked and walked over to one of the hanging crystals in the centre of the room. A spark of essence connected as he touched the crystal, and a familiar soft light flooded the room.

“Nice!” Pete said and grinned at Vic, walking over to another crystal. “I wonder if all the buildings have these lights?” With a touch, he lit another crystal.

“I also noticed some outside,” Mia added. In the square, they were held up by metal poles.

Curious at the strangely high table, which was unlike any table he had seen before, Matt walked over to it. “What’s up with this table?” Matt wondered, putting his hand on it, giving the wood a knock. “Why is it so tall? Is it for standing around?”

“It’s a bar,” Thor said, walking over to join Matt. “For serving. The owners of the place would stand behind it and prepare food and drinks.” Peering around the corner of the bar, he smiled back at them. “It even has plates and mugs and cutlery.”

“Yeah,” Vic continued. “This looks like some kind of tavern or inn, only it’s way nicer than any tavern I’ve ever been to. I can’t remember the last time I was in one where the wind didn’t cut straight through the walls.”

“Let’s check up the stairs,” Pete said.

After testing that the stairs were still solid, they moved up together in a single line, Pete taking point and Matt following directly behind. They arrived at a landing that led into a corridor with rooms spaced out at regular intervals as it turned around the white building. Their search continued on the top floor, where they found two large rooms covering the whole floor.

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“This is getting too crazy,” Vic said as they stepped into one of the large rooms. “I don’t understand. Everything is just too… Nice. When we found the rooms with the tapestries, where Matt found the guandao, I thought those were some kind of special rooms. Reserved for whoever ruled this place. But this…” He gestured to the room in front of them, with its ornately carved wooden beams supporting a high ceiling, walls adorned with richly woven tapestries. A large, wooden table in the centre was surrounded by high-backed chairs, and a polished metal sconce held a crystal that shone with a soft light. “It’s all like this. Everything we see. How can people build structures like this? Craft this furniture?”

Matt was as awestruck as Vic, but had the answer ready. “More time,” he said and walked over to a cupboard. Its doors opened smoothly on fine metal hinges to reveal shelves in a red, polished wood. “Your village probably had a carpenter, right?”

Vic nodded.

“They were, what… Nineteen, perhaps twenty years old?”

“Twenty-two when I left,” Vic said.

Matt nodded. “Ok, so twenty-two. And he had an apprentice?” Vic nodded as Matt continued. “That apprentice was probably ten years old, or perhaps eight. So, ten or fifteen years to master a craft. Except, they probably had to spend most of their time helping in the fields, right?”

Again, Vic nodded.

Matt touched the locking mechanism on the cupboard, tracing the fine metal with a finger. “It’s all like that, everywhere. Whoever made this might have had twice as long to learn their trade, or even longer. And that was time they could dedicate to just one thing. Perfecting their craft.” Since they discovered this cave, his mind had constantly worked on its implications. Not just on them, but on their society. “Everyone here,” he gestured to the others, “has worked in the fields.” They all nodded. “From when we were little. From we could walk. It was necessary, or we would starve. Now…” He gulped as his voice trailed off.

Thor grinned at him. “Now we will change that. Just imagine…”

Mia smiled at them as she said, “First things first, though. Let’s head downstairs and eat.”

As they were pulling out their food and sharing it around, Matt leaned back in this chair. A strange restlessness emanated from the guandao propped against a nearby table, and he had a sudden urge to stand back up and go outside, to challenge any monsters he could find. To fight, to kill, to reach for the future he had imagined, to drive forward without rest. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, looking inwards to draw strength from his core. It’s as if the guandao has its own thoughts and emotions.

At first, he’d thought he had just imagined the sparks of intent that flowed through their bond, but it was becoming clear that it was more than just his overactive imagination. The messages were brief; simple bursts of pure meaning, and even as the guandao felt like a part of him, the messages were so alien to his personality. Like an unknown part of himself that pushed for him to act, when his instinct called for caution; to attack when he wanted to defend; to advance when he should retreat.

Concern filled him as he worried that the weapon’s intent might override his own will, and he looked inwards, focusing on the bond connecting him to the guandao. His thoughts found a stream of intent wrapped in red filaments of energy, and he latched onto the stream with his mind. For a moment, he simply listened to the message, returning a mental image of acknowledgment. I understand. The future will not change on its own, and we need to act. When the stream eventually stopped sending its intent, he sent back his own message. And we will act, but if we act too soon, we will fail. We need to find a balance. He felt a momentary resistance, before he sensed something that felt uncannily like a reluctant acceptance cross between them.

“–and this,” Mia gestured, “we have what we need. What we were looking for.”

“Yes. It is a pretty good snowball,” Thor smiled at Matt. “If we get this rolling right, I think we can get it big enough to flatten some nobles.”

“Ok,” Mia said as they got ready to continue. “Let’s keep moving. We need to clear buildings as we move to make sure there’s nothing behind us. Pete, how do you want to do this?”

“Let’s start with the buildings around this square and clear them. Matt, you and Thor start on the buildings from that side,” he said, and pointed across the square. “Work your way around until you reach over there.” He pointed at a break in the buildings at the end of the square, where it looked like a street was heading inwards further into the city. “Vic and Mia, we'll take this side.”

Matt and Thor nodded, and made their way across the square to the first building on that side. Looking up the row of structures, Matt saw tables and benches lining buildings, with signs extending over their doors.

“A city inside the Dagger Mountains,” Thor mused, his head turning as they approached the first structure. “I thought this place was just a few rooms and corridors. The home of a small group that sought seclusion. Perhaps a few dozen people at most. I was hoping we could carve out a small settlement, perhaps rotate people through to cure them of the wasting. With this… We can build something permanent.”

“Yes,” Matt said, thinking. “With the farming cave and this city… this space…” His voice trailed off as they stepped into a building, moving quickly to inspect the two floors before returning and heading to the next.

Their next target was a large and imposing stone building with a second story wider than the first, causing the second story to extend over the entrance door. A sign above the door named it as The Oxtail, and inside they found another inn.

“It will take days or even weeks to explore everything,” Thor said when Matt’s attention caught on a painting of a large-scale battle hanging on the wall. “Let us check out these last houses and rejoin the others.”

Talking excitedly in low voices, Matt and Thor continued to search the other buildings that ringed the market square. Most buildings were more restaurants or inns, but they also found various shops, some of which even still held items on display. Matt tried to keep a mental list of any useful items that they found as they worked their way through the various shops.

Coming to the end of their row of houses, they saw Mia, Vic and Pete enter the last building on their side, and walked over to join them, following them into a large squat building at the corner of the square. The sign above the door displayed a simple shield and hammer, and on entering the shop, there was a collective intake of excited breaths as they saw rows and rows of weapons lining the walls. Further back in the shop, gleaming armour was displayed on mannequins.