I know I said the joke had gotten old before, but this time it really was kinda stale. At least I got to do that cool thing that protagonists do when they let a side character shine. Speaking of, you might be asking ‘But Max! Where is this side character?!’ To which I would say ‘How DARE you! Sanon is a dear friend and not just some character!’
Anyway, I woke up in some kind of holding cell a là dungeon. It was really cold and the floor and walls were made of just what you would expect — stone. There was a bed in one corner, and a chair and table in the other, with some kind of dim lights illuminating the cell and other visible areas of the dungeon. It really was just your bog-standard dungeon holding cell — four walls, a ceiling and a floor. Oh and I guess it’s also important to mention that one of the walls was just gone. It was just… open. Like, no wall or anything. I could walk right out.
Before that, though, I checked my inventory. Weirdly enough, they let me keep all of my possessions, those being Stabby and my coat. Everything else was back at the caravan, so I didn’t have much to have stolen outside of a highly valuable invisibility trench coat that everyone and their brother would want.
Turning my attention back to the lack of an attempt to keep me in the cell or restrain really me at all, I decided that the best course of action would be to walk right through! And as I’m sure you readers can predict, there was indeed a way to keep me in!
Ever walked face-first into an unexpected wall? Yeah. I should have expected that people would use magic in a scenario like this, but can you blame me? I hadn’t seen much magic used outside of the occasional utility and maybe like a party trick. I came to the conclusion that proper magical implements must be rare and/or expensive. Dilanja only had a couple of branded spears, and most people can’t cast while under stress. The logistical and economical issues of magic aside, that fucking hurt.
The wall was something I recognized. It was a shield spell, and not just any old shield spell either. No, this was a hard shield, as opposed to a soft one. That meant that whatever was powering it must’ve had a ton of mana to throw around, since there clearly wouldn’t be a person powering it. If it were a soft shield, I could just overwhelm it with enough speed, as painful as it may have been.
I tested the waters with Stabby by giving the spelled wall a good stab, which did nothing except maybe dull the blade. I tried letting loose a penetration, which caused the luminescent wall to flash, but ultimately nothing came of it. Taking a breath, I ran my hand over the surface of the wall — which illuminated as my hand contacted it. It felt like nothing, and yet my hand was stopped from passing through.
What about the other walls, then? Or the floor?
I channeled a small amount of mana into Stabby’s penetration spell, only for the spell to be completely nullified by a dull green glow that had begun emanating from the impact point of the spell. Absorbed or deflected, I didn’t know. But these spells were very clearly different from other wall’s shield spell.
Before long, I heard the shifting of clothing and steps being taken from somewhere outside my cell. A few moments passed, and I heard a voice. “Max? Are you in here? The Lord’s soldiers captured us… I couldn’t get us away in time… I’m sorry.” Sanon must have been in the cell next to me.
Ah okay. Note to self: Don’t pass out next time.
I leaned against the wall. “Well shit… this could be better, but at least we aren’t dead. Not gonna scold me though?”
“That’s the last thing we should be worrying about… the Lord is probably having us executed.” Sanon said, dejected.
Your honor I would like to retract my previous statement.
I put my foot down in a defiant stomp. “Nuh uh! Sanon, we’re busting out!”
I heard a somewhat annoyed sigh come from the other cell. “This is a hard shield — it isn’t just going to break. And the walls in here are spell resistant, so they’ll just absorb any spells you cast. Not to mention that the cells have a reinforcement spell. How do you expect to break us out?”
“Well you see, Sanon, I have a plan! You could even call it the greatest plan!”
I heard an annoyed sigh from the other cell. “Oh for the love of the forge…”
There was a moment of silence before Sanon spoke again. “Alright fine. Whatever you’ve got planned in that head of yours is probably better than what Oresco’s planning, so have fun I guess.
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With Sanon’s approval (optional), I got to work! And by work I mean stabbing the cracks in the floor and walls for any kind of instability. To be honest, this wasn’t my greatest moment — I never was good at escape rooms.
Nevertheless, I continued failing perception checks until I had a thought. “Hey- Sanon?”
“Yes Max?” came a voice most disappointed in my machinations.
“You said you knew about the other spells in the room aside from the wall shield — how did you know they were there? Did you try to cast on them? I couldn’t even tell there was a shield spell until I walked into it face-first.”
“Mm, dwarves can sense mana. The hairs under our eyes prick up in response to mana and spellcasting. It’s a common misconception that we can only sense mana though. I’m actually quite good at spell detection. Why do you ask?”
“Oh just… curious. Say, is there any chance that you could check for like… a hole or weak point in one of the spells? Any chance you can see past them?” I probed.
“I mean- there is a rune circuit connection point under the floor in my cell. But I don’t see how that helps us — any magus worth their salt would have a failsafe there to prevent tampering.” she explained.
“I think I have an idea of what a rune circuit entails, but could you maybe enlighten me?”
I heard a sigh. “Rune circuits are how mana is fed into complex spells or networks of spells, especially lots of them at once. They’re normally made from materials that you can get from animals — they tend to hold mana better.”
Jasko mentioned something like that too I think.
“So would this connection point you mention normally be exposed? Could I push mana into the circuit through it?” I asked, the aforementioned greatest plan still forming in my mind.
“Hypothetically you could, yeah I guess. It would overload the circuit. Like I said before though, they normally have some kind of anti-tamper failsafe.”
Not a guarantee, but it’s worth a shot. There might be one in my cell… and if so, then I just have to find it.
“Let’s say I wanted to find this connection point you mentioned — how would I go about doing that?” I connived.
“If you were a dwarf, I would say to use your mana-sense, but you aren’t a dwarf. I guess you could try passing mana through different parts of the floor until you stop feeling resistance, which would mean you found it. BUT, if it has a failsafe — which it will — then you’ll regret finding it. Logic tells me that it would be in the back left corner of your cell, like mine. But if you don’t find it there, then you’ll probably have to check each tile. Individually.”
…
Have you ever been in like… a doctor’s office with your parents when you were a kid, and you were bored — so you ended up counting the tiles on the wall or maybe the floor? That is what this process felt like. It was mind-numbingly long. Tile after tile after tile, nothing. Nothing but grinding resistance from the stone as I pushed mana into it, hoping for something. I had already checked every corner too. I guess the designers were too good for standardization.
The seemingly endless tedium was made significantly less tedious when a noise broke the silence that had descended over us. Sanon was the first to notice it, warning me. “Hey- hey! Max! I think someone’s coming!”
And like clockwork, a few moments later, I heard a number of armored footsteps approaching at what sounded like a relatively relaxed pace. I scrambled to get up off the floor, taking note of where I had been before, so I could hopefully continue at a later time. Hopefully this wouldn’t be my only chance.
And like clockwork, Oresco, escorted by three soldiers, entered into view. The lord sported a set of feathers azure with black highlights. His features were admittedly graceful, though I could see a familiar predatory hunger in his gaze, and air of arrogance immersing his being.
Upon noticing me, the lord’s face lit up like a child receiving a new toy. “Oh it is such a pleasure to finally speak with the two of you in a more… controlled environment. You know, you would have gotten off with a warning if you hadn’t run away from me. I was having a bad day you see, so I was a bit flustered.”
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His mouth twisted into a sinister smile. “But instead, you ran away. And then to make things so much more interesting, you blew up my gods damned wall and killed several of my soldiers doing so. Of course, this is all only made worse by the fact that you brought a dwarf into my lands. I thought they had stayed in the south after the Lontish had driven their ilk out! But no! You went ahead and brought this filth here.” he spat.
I refrained from responding a moment, choosing my words carefully.
“So what now then? Are you going to punish us? Kill us?” I asked, somewhat sardonically.
Oresco chuckled, his pompous attitude only making it more infuriating. “I agree, punishments are in order. But FIRST! I simply must know, why are you even here? You’re an outworlder are you not? Shouldn’t you be over in Elion ruining my kin? Shouldn’t you be spreading your infuriating ideals in the places that matter?”
Take a deep breath Max, it’s fine. He’s just a rich asshole. Just humor him.
“What do you mean? What ideals??”
If they’re an absolute monarchy of any kind, then I’d be willing to bet that they’re trying to get some kind of bill of rights established.
Oresco scoffed. “The ideals stating that commoners should govern themselves! Such idiocy! My family has been given power ordained by the gods! And now they talk of conceding some of their gods-given power to mere commoners! It’s despicable!”
Alright yeah sounds like a classic bill of rights scenario.
Sanon spoke up upon hearing this information. “Hang on- you can’t just say that! We might not have had the best relations with them, but after the revolution the Lontish-”
Oresco cut her off, speaking with a toxic, razor sharp cadence. “Silence, dwarf. You are only to speak when spoken to.”
The last straw. That’s what it was.
“Hey Mr. Lord you might wanna show Sanon some fucking respect.”
“Oh? And why would I ever follow advice such as that?” he sneered.
“Because if you don’t then you’ll get to learn about one of us outworlders’ favorite ideals the hard way. So why don’t you go ahead and do whatever it is you fine-feathered fascists do elsewhere.” I threatened.
“Hmm… I’m not really sure you’re in a position to be making demands, especially comparing me to those despotic Occlians. But alas! I must be going, for I have some important matters to be tending to. Farewell!” he announced, turning on his heel and briskly making his exit.
…
“Are you alright Sanon?”
“Yeah. I suppose I should have expected to see some people that still hold on to those old prejudices.”
“Well don’t worry, the next time we see him, I’ll be kicking his teeth in.”
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Shortly after our little confrontation with the lord, I returned to work finding the connection point. The cell itself wasn’t actually very small, something that Sanon had said was rather odd, since the spells they were running would have required a massive amount of mana to upkeep. She said that every magical implement she could sense was hooked up to the same circuit network as the cells, so whatever they were using to store mana must have been positively massive.
“They might be using some kind of animal for it, but there aren’t many that would be easy to use for it. A kvanlos or duhen argen would work, but their temperament would make them next to impossible to capture without killing them.”
Ah right, the elusive dragon thing that I still haven’t seen yet. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to screw with something like that. Maybe a sandworm? Those only live in the desert though, and I imagine that capturing one alive would be a challenge for similar reasons.
Kneeling on the cold floor just pushing mana around was getting tiring. My knees hurt from the hard surface of the stone tiles, and the constant exertion from channeling wasn’t making it any better.
I had checked the majority of the tiles in the room by now, and I only had about ten more to check before I would have to give up, or start checking the walls in desperation. Fortunately, or unfortunately if you factor in what I was about to go through, I did end up finding the connection point.
Bingo! Found it!
“Alright Sanon! I found it. I think it’s time to blow this popci-aaAAaaAAAAHHGHH!!!” I cut myself off as a sudden pain started traveling up my arms.
I heard Sanon chuckle from the other cell. “Ah there it is. Some kind of pain spell? I’d advise you quit, it’ll only get more intense if you keep going.”
I mustered up as much willpower as I could, putting it all into my channeling. I wrangled as much of my internal mana as I could without feeling any kind of depressurization, and sent it. The pain jumped up several degrees, like my skin, muscles, bones, and everything else were all being shredded, put back together, and shredded all over again at the same time.
The pain was somehow dull, yet sharp as a razor. Eventually a burning sensation was added to the menagerie of pain, and soon after that, a cold freezing sensation. The pain didn’t last forever though. Black scorch marks appeared on my arms as though they had just been struck by lightning, and the pain suddenly stopped.
I kept channeling, the mana now flowing through me, through the stone, and into the connection point smooth as butter. What felt like an inordinate amount of time passed, but just before I felt that signature sensation of depressurizing, every light in the dungeon went out, and the shield spells keeping us in flashed briefly before shattering into motes of light.
I had done it. And fortunately I had not sacrificed my sense of touch for it as I had feared.
Sanon’s voice called out. “Woah! I think you did it Max!”
And as soon as I heard her voice, did I hear a low rumble emanate from deep below. It turned into quick, staccato booms, then stopped. Not long after, the rumbling returned in force, now sounding more like a tremor. Consistent. Constant. Determined. Hungry. Angry.
I understood not how I derived such emotions from a rumbling sensation, but I had. I didn’t want to stick around to find out why I had either, so I made way for the exit to the cell… only to stop dead in my tracks as something burst through the wall of my cell.
It was Sanon, who then rushed over to me, grabbed me, and threw me over her shoulder.
“Sanon put me down! I can run!” I protested, feeling somewhat emasculated.
“Not happening! We’re getting out of here now, and fast!” she said as we left the cells, running through the now dark dungeon halls.
Sanon had much worse vision than me though, so she put me down after she bumped into walls full-speed a couple of times. She grabbed my arm and I guided us to a set of stairs. I very quickly noticed something was off. The tremors stopped, only briefly, before starting up again. They continued in an irregular pattern of starting and stopping, the occasional heavy thump being felt through the ground.
But that isn’t what was off. No, that was the massive gaping hole in front of the stairs. There was another hole of similar size just above the first hole too, indicating that something large had passed through here, likely from below.
We ended up having to take a long detour to a different set of stairs leading out of the dungeon, since neither of us wanted to long jump across. That art is reserved for a certain red-capped plumber, and neither Sanon nor I were him.
When we found our second set of stairs, we wasted no time in climbing them. It ended up taking a good few minutes of climbing, though. For some reason, the dungeon had been constructed much further underground than would have been reasonable, which resulted in a very tiresome trek. Upon reaching the ground floor, I could hear screams of a panicking populace outside. The majority of the chateau-like building that the lord apparently resided in had collapsed, leaving much rubble in our way.
Sanon made short work of most rubble in our way, showcasing her rather freakish strength. Though freakish might not be the right word — it was actually very impressive. Eventually we cleared ourselves a path out through a window, since the doorways were either collapsed or blocked off.
As we approached the window, the remainder of the ceiling collapsed down behind us, and it was at this moment that Sanon grabbed me, and sent me sailing through the window. She clambered out of the window herself while I got up off my ass. “Did you have to throw me??”
Sanon crossed her arms. “No, but I thought it would be faster. I was right. Now let’s go — we need to get back to the caravan.
Right. The caravan. Speaking of — how long had we been down there? Probably not long, since the sun had only just begun to rise.
Just as I got to my feet, an ornate wagon pulled by a feathered beast, similar in appearance to the raptor-like therian that I had met in Tokal, rushed by. I had guessed that inside was the lord. This would later be confirmed to be true. He had made his escape, and now it was time for us to make ours.
I scanned the area, assessing the damage that I had unwittingly caused to the town as we ran like hell. Things were not great, to put it simply. Several buildings around the central square had been completely leveled. There were citizens running to and fro, trying to put out fires that had started from what I guessed must have been the tremors or maybe the panic. Every lantern that had been previously lit throughout our day in the town was now devoid of light, and the statue fountain was no longer running.
I spotted a deceased elf that had been the victim of a horrible fate. The unfortunate soul had been cut in two, her lower half completely missing. The sight was grotesque — she had been cut so cleanly, and yet there was so much blood. Had Sanon and I not been immersed in adrenaline at the time, it’s likely I would have vomited on the spot.
Sanon and I locked eyes, nodding. We made a mad dash toward the outskirts of the town where the caravan had left their wagons. We ran past all manner of businesses that were abandoned for one reason or another. Some were collapsed, others were burning, and others still were simply empty, the patrons and owners having left to help their fellows put out the fires.
Even now, the thumping and tremors did not stop. They remained an irregular and constant source of anxiety for the two of us as we frantically ran.
We came to the gate that marked the exit to the slums of the town — the gate I had destroyed earlier. There was a rope ladder on the wall that had probably been placed there for temporary quick access to and transport over the wall. As we climbed, we noticed the sound of many pairs of armored feet on the ground. An explosion. A roar. Screaming. Another explosion. Another roar. A loud, low crushing sound as something impacted part of the wall that hadn’t yet collapsed.
We crested the barely intact wall, and we were greeted with the source of the noises. A sandworm, in all its glory, had held its own against a division of guards and soldiers. They must not have been equipped to handle the thing, because it didn’t have a scratch, aside from some long, winding black scorch marks across the rust colored armor of the creature, similar to the marks left by a lightning strike. Similar to what now adorned my own arms.
The soldiers and guards that had been fighting it had gone strangely silent just before we had reached the top of the wall. We now knew why. The worm was coiled up, surrounded by a number of dead elves. Some had been completely crushed, others had been messily bisected into pieces across one or more points on their bodies, while others yet had been made into a red, feathery paste, reminding me of a certain pair of fledgling hunters.
We stared the worm down from the top of the wall, and it returned the favor. Its maw glistened and dripped with crimson fluid, and I could feel those all-seeing eyes pierce right through me, as though judging my very being like a reaper about to claim his due.