Gramok’s blood ran cold. He shook his head. This couldn’t be. “I watched you die!”

Karogar stepped closer. “Rebirth is possible. Didn’t your friends tell you that?”

A dull sound flapped in the air. Nothing to worry about.

Rebirth, the elven spell? But that was still locked away. Or at least, one copy was.

“How?” Gramok asked. “How can I make it right?”

Karogar rested his hands on Gramok’s shoulders. “I can forgive you, but I need your help.”

Tingling tendrils spread through Gramok. Redemption could be his. He nodded. “Anything, old friend.”

A smile lit up Karogar’s face. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down again, friend. They’re holding me, not far from here.”

“Who? Where are they keeping you?”

“I can guide you there. Just let me in, and we can set everything exactly how it’s supposed to be.”

Rain splattered across Gramok’s face. He wiped it away. A drip from the rocks above. Nothing to worry about. “Guide me.”

***

Where were they? “Cara? Gramok?” Ted’s words echoed back without a reply.

Shouting was probably a bad idea, but how much worse could it get? Ted gulped. A bad question. The answer was always “so much worse”.

“Cara! Gramok!”

Only echoes came back.

Had they headed back? Gone on? They’d have had to put some distance between them and all that noise, but how much?

Ted once again cursed the caverns for all looking so damned alike, and continued searching, using Farsight to look further down the different tunnels. They’d have stayed close enough, looked for somewhere to take cover.

Still nothing. His fists clenched up and he growled. Maybe they had gone back.

Or maybe they’d been eaten.

“Cara? Gramok?”

More echoes. His heart sank deeper still into that pit.

He’d never find them. They were gone. Probably dead.

“Ted?”

Cara’s voice. Ted let out a trembling chuckle. Of course they were okay. Why wouldn’t they be.

“Ted, come quick!”

Or maybe not. He raced down the tunnel and rounded the corner.

Cara stood in the middle of the small cavern, a smile on her face. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

The stone door behind her was the only other thing in the cavern. Ted tilted his head. “Where’s Gramok?”

“He’ll be back soon.” Her smile grew. “Come, I need your help with something.” She took his arm and pointed at the door. “There’s a wand of healing behind there.”

Skulls and other bones adorned the stone door, along with a litany of runes. It didn’t look like the kind of door to have a healing wand behind it.

He pulled on his mana, focused his thoughts beyond the door, and cast Farsight.

The spell failed. Not the casting of the spell, the spell itself failed, neutralized by some power beyond the door.

Mental intrusion detected.

Ted swallowed. What was going on here?

Cara—was it Cara?—clung to his arm. “Come on, Ted. You can open that.”

He should have known. Finding a wand of healing right after losing the ability to cast it? That’d be good luck.

He cast Farsight again, this time in the room. Through its magic, he couldn’t see Cara, or anyone but himself, for that matter.

The creature hissed and pushed away. “Open it, or she dies!”

“No.” His muscles stiffened. “Even if you could kill her, no.”

It sneered. “We can’t kill her, but Gramok can.”

His blood ran cold. He raced out of the room, yelling at the top of his voice. “Cara! Cara!”

He raced from cavern to cavern, his boots pounding against the stone. Where was she? “Cara! Cara!”

An icy grip tightened around his heart. What if she—? What if he—?

He wiped the sweat from his eyes. “Cara! CARA?”

“Ted! Get in here, Ted!”

Was that really her? “I’m coming!”

“TED!”

His heart raced. Nearly there. He started casting even as he rushed around the corner.

Gramok held her by the throat, pinning her to the wall and snarling.

“Enmokajona!” The second sight confirmed what he was seeing. Shit, this was really them. “Gramok, stop!”

Gramok’s face contorted with… Rage? Fear? Pain? All of them? “I—I can’t.”

His grip tightened. Cara gargled. Her hands tugged at Gramok’s.

Ted darted forward, casting Stunning Touch. He pressed his hand to the orc’s armor and hissed, “Finka!”

White magic flashed. Gramok shuddered and slumped to the floor.

Cara doubled over, shaking and gasping for air. “Thank you. Forest preserve us. He was muttering, saying someone was dead, about how he could make it right, and then…”

“Spirits,” Ted said, taking Gramok’s weapons away. “I had one too.”

“And you’re…?” Her teeth pulled at her bottom lip.

He nodded. “One hundred percent a vengeful spirit.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she punched him on the arm. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks. He’s coming around.”

Gramok’s eyes shot open and his fists clenched. “Foul spirits!”

Ted tilted his head. “It sounds like him.”

“Are you real?” Gramok asked.

Ted shrugged. “Is anything?”

“Close enough.” Gramok staggered to his feet. “You killed the troll?”

“With my dying breath, no thanks to you!”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Gramok snorted and pointed to himself. “Me? I told you it was suicide to use fire!”

“Suicide? You gestured…” That indignant flame dimmed. “Right. Cutting your own throat, suicide.”

“Oh.” Gramok burst out laughing. “You thought I meant it was vulnerable? No, mountain trolls are basically stone. Why would they be vulnerable to fire?”

Cara’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s your pack?”

This was going to be awkward. “My pack. Right.” He forced out a smile. “I killed the troll.”

Her lips twitched. “The pack?”

“You know what a mana vortex is?”

She shook her head at him. “You pushed too hard and blew yourself up. Again. At least this time you had an excuse.”

He laughed. It was that or cry. “Not exactly.” He explained what had happened, dancing around the topic of Death to avoid triggering whatever it was that wiped their memories.

Cara glowered. “So, to sum it up, you can’t heal anymore, your armor’s gone, half our supplies are gone, and all our potions—which you insisted on ‘safekeeping’—are gone?”

Ted looked at the ground and nodded. “We’ve still got the potions you two were carrying. And you can heal, right?”

“Barely.” She growled and muttered under her breath. “At least the rune-key is a quest item. I can patch us up after a fight, but that’s about it.”

Pain stabbed at Ted’s chest. Stupid fear. He should have ditched it when he had the chance. “Come on. Let’s go dig out that tunnel.”

With the new Telekinesis beam, it turned out to be an easier job than he’d expected, but it was still slow work. He had to move the boulders slowly and carefully, so as to avoid making too much noise or, worse, causing another cave in.

That drained a lot of mana, giving him plenty of time to think. Too much time.

Weight crushed around Ted’s chest every time his mind circled back to that damned topic. He’d come this way, or close enough, thirteen years ago. And, given all the dust, he must have found another way around.

What had he found down here? How could he be responsible for all those things the Empire did?

Ted put down the rock and frowned. “How often do people see the Divine Emperor?”

Gramok shrugged. “Most people? Never. Otherwise, rarely, but more than before. Apparently, he used to be a complete recluse.”

Complete recluse. Yeah, so reclusive he didn’t even exist, at least not in this world. “Is he really in charge of the Empire?”

“He’s the Divine Emperor, of course he is!”

“Right. And how long’s he been on the throne?”

“As long as anyone can remember.”

The exact same tone. Was that how he’d become emperor, by making everyone believe he always had been?

Cara scowled over her shoulder. “We’re exposed here. Stop nattering and hurry up.”

Why was she pissy? Ted caught himself, and tried to calm his nerves. She had too many reasons to list, most of them decent. He’d have to make it up to her when they were back on the surface.

With his mana regenerated, he got back to work. Before long, there was a narrow path through which they pushed. Beyond the blockage was a huge, shattered gatehouse. Behind that, a magical glow illuminated a huge, city sized cavern, in which towered the Ruins of Tarkath.

“See?” Ted said. “I told you it wouldn’t take long.”

Gramok snorted. “Magical bullshit. I’d like to see you clear that like a real orc.”

“Which way?” Cara asked.

Gramok checked the map. “That way for the Zelnari ruins below. Further into the city for the portal stone.”

It was too dangerous. “Focus on the job,” Ted said. “The dwarves can get their own portal stone, if they want it so bad.”

Cara shook her head. “No. We sneak into the city, get the stone, and then we move on.”

“I died, Cara. You nearly died.”

“And? Gramok, what do you think?”

“Me? I’m here for you guys, but, if we can help them, I think we should.”

Ted turned away and snorted. “This is insane. A magic bow isn’t worth the risk.”

“A bow?” Her nostrils flared, and she stepped right up to him. “You think this is about a stupid bow?”

“Isn’t it?”

“No! If we could rebuild the portals, we could make the world how it was before you—” She looked away and clenched her fists. “Before Heroes ruined it. Everyone connected, trading, cooperating. Isn’t that worth fighting for?”

Ted bit his lip. That wouldn’t get him home. “You really want to do this? Risk your life for a stupid stone?”

She shook her head. “No. I want to risk my life to make everyone else’s better.”

“Me too,” Gramok said. “It’s the least I can do.”

Ted held up his hands. Who was he to argue with that? “You guys are the ones who might properly die, so, whatever. Lead on.”

They carried on in silence, Gramok taking the lead again.

When they reached the gatehouse, he stopped, sighed, and ran a finger down one of its many cracks. “We destroyed it, and for what?”

Ted stared at the cracks. Some of them were huge, big enough to fit a football in. What kind of magic could have caused this? “Heroes led the charge, didn’t they?”

Gramok grunted and smashed his gauntleted fist against the wall. “We followed them. Can you imagine how beautiful this city once was? Before we destroyed it.”

“Entil bo‘enda-va po ti?” Cara asked, slouched against the wall.

Ted snorted. “We’re fine. You don’t need to do anything with us.”

“Really?” She stood up straight and advanced. “Neither of you is to blame for this, for any of it. You’re his son, not his keeper, and you—you weren’t even born. Your great, great, great, grandfather hadn’t been born!”

“She’s got you there, Gramok.”

He snorted. “But not you, Ted?”

Ted scowled. “You shouldn’t have to suffer because of my father.”

Cara gave him that look, the one she normally reserved for when he said something particularly dumb. “And you should?”

Ted’s fists clenched tight. “Let’s move. Stealthily, if you two can manage that.”

That seemed to kill the conversation, at least for now, even if it did earn a glare from Cara.

They headed into the city itself, sneaking up the wide, desolate streets. Structurally, the towering, multistory buildings were surprisingly intact. Most of the doors were smashed in, and the buildings trashed and ransacked, but they weren’t collapsing.

Cara signaled for a rest. Gramok pointed to a nearby building, its large window front shattered from the outside, and they headed toward it.

Shelves lined the walls. Gramok ran his finger along the counter at the back, kicking up dust. “This had been a store.” He reached behind the counter, pulled out an old tome, and flicked it open to a page filled with dwarven numbers. “A Runesmith’s store. I thought so.”

How did he know? Ted raised an eyebrow. “You’re an Archeologist too?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. I dabble, really. So much else to do.” Gramok shrugged. “All those lessons about the dwarves that Father insisted on have some use, at least. Come, let’s check out back.”

Gramok paused on the threshold of the back room, before stepping aside and gesturing for Ted to take a look.

The room beyond was small, probably part office, part workshop, and not a pretty sight. Dried blood stained everything—the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the forge. Shattered bones lay scattered across the floor, too broken to tell how many bodies they were from.

“There’s an aura of magic back there, some kind of rune magic, I think. What it does is beyond me, it’s not like normal magic.”

“That book on the table. Can you pull it here?”

A pit formed at the base of Ted’s stomach. “Maybe. The entire room might be a trap—what’s so important about that book?”

“So much Runesmithing knowledge was destroyed with the fall of Tarkath. If I could recover some, then…” He shrugged. “It’d be a start.”

“It’s not your fault.” Ted ignored the growing void inside him. At the very least, it would be a hell of a paycheck, and someone had lost a lot of their supplies. “Alright. Step back, you guys.”

He pulled on his mana and cast Farsight. The second sight confirmed it—the book was a lie, it didn’t exist. There was something else, too. Runic letters sprawled across the back wall. Dwarvish.

“Hey, Gramok, come here. You can read Dwarvish, right?”

“Somewhat. Those runes aren’t Dwarvish, though.”

Ted shook his head. “Close your eyes. I’m going to cast Farsight on you. It’ll be a little disorienting, but you’ll get use to it.”

He crafted and cast a Touch variant of Farsight upon Gramok.

Gramok tilted his head. “It’s just like seeing normally. A bit sharper, if anything.”

Like seeing normally? Realization slowly dawned on Ted. “Lucky you. I picked the base segment up from that orc temple, it must have been calibrated to replicate orc vision. Can you read that?”

“Think so. Roughly says, ‘Orcs go boom, book’s in the fire’.”

Fire. The fireplace? Ted swallowed. “Alright. You guys stay back.” He self-cast Absorb and stepped into the room.

Nothing exploded. A good start. He peered into the forge fireplace, but couldn’t see anything but black soot, charcoal, and a few magical runes.

But if the fake book didn’t exist, odds were good that the real book was invisible. He reached down into the soot, and a leather-bound book greeted his fingers. He smiled, and pulled it out.

“An invisible book. Useful. Hope the dwarves know what to do with it.” He went to put it in his pack, and sighed at the lack of one. “Who wants to carry it?”

Cara slung her pack off her back and shoved it at him. “Here, you carry it. And don’t blow this one up or I will kill you. Let’s go find that portal core.”

They followed the road again in silence, and soon approached where the core was supposed to be hidden.

“There,” Ted said. “It’ll be hidden under the center of that plaza. I press that rune-key to the ground, say the password, and it’ll teleport right up.”

Gramok growled. “It’s too quiet, I don’t like it. Where are all the dungeon spawn? They’re supposed to be crawling all over these ruins.”

Ted shrugged. “Attacking the dwarves? Besides”—he pointed out at the tiny monkey-like creatures licking up moss—“those guys are here.”

“Makarots don’t count.”

Cara held her hand out to the side. They both fell silent.

What was that faint tapping sound?

Three giant wolves bounded into the plaza and pounced. Each devoured a makarot in a single bite. The other monkeys scattered, racing for cover.

They didn’t reach it.

What were these things?

Mountain Warg

As one, the wargs turned and leaped in their direction.

Ted readied a firebolt. Gramok charged forward, sword ready.

His first swing decapitated the lead warg. “Kangrat handarn!” His booming voice echoed with power.

The two living wargs pounced him. Claws raked against his armor, a futile gesture of defiance.

“Enkir!” The firebolt struck one, burning its fur, but barely slowing it down.

Gramok slammed his shield into the other warg and drove his sword deep with a sickening squelch. It gnawed at his gauntlet, failing to find purchase.

“Enkir!” Another firebolt engulfed the warg, eliciting a high-pitched howl cut short by death.

One more swing of Gramok’s sword, and the final warg fell dead at his feet. He chuckled and wiped his blade clean on the warg’s fur. “I thought these dungeons were meant to be dangerous.”

1,170 XP received!

Ted nodded slowly. “That was too easy.”

Metal clanked against stone. An icy chill overran the air.

The hairs down Ted’s back rose on end. He froze. His gaze was pulled toward the far end of the plaza, as if by some compulsion.

Two huge red eyes glowed in the shadows. Paws the size of cars plodded forward, dragging broken chains. A wolf, three stories high, with teeth bigger than Gramok, towered over them.

Ted’s heart twisted. No. Not just any wolf.