Callan stood by the altar, watching as another line of lud took their seats on a bench. “Is that everyone?”
“Yes, Avatar,” Paeral said, “I personally walked through the tunnels ringing the summons bell. Anyone not present is either dead or in hiding.”
“Nobody’s dead, I would have gotten an alert if that was the case.” That was at least one benefit of everyone having sworn an oath. Callan turned to Argas. "What’s our headcount?”
The younger lud looked up from the paper he was holding. A number of charcoal scratches showed over its edge. “Including yourself, avatar, there are a total of sixty-seven of us here in the main hall.”
Okay. Callan quickly did the math in his head. He’d received sixty-four faith from the villagers the day of the fire. There were also six babies or kids otherwise too young to swear an oath. Adding Kivi, Shamain, and himself made seventy-three. Kivi had left with one companion, and Shamain with her two grandchildren. That left...
Damn. There really was one missing.
He turned to the crowd. “Which one of you is Racine?”
A woman much younger than Callan would have suspected stood up. She looked no more than twenty, if even that old. Tears streaked down her face. “I am, avatar.”
“Where was the last place you saw your daughter?”
“This morning. She went off to play with the other children. But when they all returned for lunch, she wasn’t with them.”
Next, Callan called the children in question forward. They remembered Racine’s daughter, a girl of about seven named Ziln, but none of them had been particularly close to her. At some point while they had been exploring the tunnels, she had simply disappeared, and no one had noticed.
Callan turned back to the altar and placed his hands upon it. Immediately, the map of the temple appeared in the air above it. He studied the map.
A message appeared in his vision.
Would you like to Scry for follower locations? Cost = 5 Conviction
“What do you think, Xeph?”
I seem to recall you were the one that advised waiting until we had accrued sufficient Conviction, human.
“Yeah, back when you just wanted to track down where your old followers were in the world. Situation is a little different when a child has gone missing.”
Bah, the girl is probably playing in some forgotten corner. A problem I believe I warned you about.
“You and I both know there was no stopping an army of curious kids, Xeph. Now we just need to deal with the fallout. What if she wandered into the room with the haywire golem? Or the vault? Those velak weren’t exactly friendly.”
We sealed the door to the vault, Xeph reminded him.
“Look, all I’m saying is we can spend five Conviction to Scry her location, or ten to use Tintinnabulation and summon her directly here. Which is it going to be?”
Assuming she’s still in the temple. She might have activated the teleporter and gone up to the surface.
Shit. That hadn’t even considered that possibility. He turned back to the crowd. “Who here has tracking experience?”
“I do, avatar,” a woman said, rising from her seat. “I was organizing a hunt before the girl went missing.”
“You’re Lynthia?” Callan asked, recalling what Argas had mentioned to him earlier. The lud nodded. “Then gather anyone else with similar skills and head topside. See if you can find any sign the child might have wandered off that way.”
While Lynthia and several others left to gather equipment, Callan waved Argas over. “Have you finished an accounting of the temple rooms yet?”
“Of course, avatar!” The man looked offended that Callan might think otherwise, then seemed to remember who exactly he was talking to. Much more timidly, he held his papers forward. “There are a total of two hundred rooms in the temple besides the main worship hall. One hundred and twenty-four bedrooms. Thirty-eight are for storage. Four are fountain rooms, and another eight are attached to these providing washing and waste removal areas. Sixteen appear to have once been used for document storage. Three are training halls, six are for purposes we were unable to determine, and one remains sealed to us.”
“That last one would be Xeph’s vault. Trust me, you do not want to open that door on your own.” Callan considered the list. He’d known the temple was big, but he hadn’t realized it was quite that big. Two hundred rooms...
“You didn’t find another teleportation circle anywhere, did you?”
Argas shook his head. “Not that was immediately apparent. Though it could easily be buried somewhere like the one on the surface.”
If it was buried, then it would be nonfunctional, Xeph noted. That is what you were thinking, yes? It is unlikely the child slipped away by that method.
“Just trying to consider every angle.” He rested a hand atop the box of remaining memory shards. After ordaining Argas and Paeral there were only eight left. He hated to waste that, but...
No. Best to search by other methods first.
Callan turned back to the assembled lud. “I want everyone here to pick several rooms from the map and begin going over them. Leave no stone unturned—literal or figurative.”
As the lud began to rise, Callan turned his attention back to the priests. “Paeral, you stay here, mark off locations as people report back in. Argas, you’re with me.”
“Avatar? Where are we bound?”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“You and I are going to check the rooms the others can’t.”
----------------------------------------
“You ready for this?”
Are you asking me?
“No, Xeph, obviously. You don’t get a say in the matter.”
What if I wanted a say? The god grumbled bitterly. He muttered a few other words that Callan couldn’t make out.
“In that case, you shouldn’t have made the mess in the first place.” Callan glanced at Argas. The lud nodded. A bead of sweat trickled down his cheek.
Taking a deep breath, Callan kicked open the door to the training hall.
The large room was silent. And empty, other than three golems standing at the ready near the center.
“Hello?” Callan called. “Anyone? Ziln, are you hiding in here?”
“I do not see anyone, avatar.” Argas said from behind where he peered cautiously into the room. “Nor do I see the mechanical monster you mentioned.”
“Not mechanical. Something else entirely. Xeph said the golem was dveorgan in origin.”
“Dveorgan?”
Callan shrugged. “Beats me. Xeph will tell me when he manages to uncompress that particular memory, or some bullshit like that.”
Human...
“Sorry, sorry. I am fully empathetic to your plight, Xeph. But a guy has to get what humor he can out of life.”
“Avatar, is this one of those conversations I should learn to tune out?” Argas asked.
“If you have to ask, you’ve already failed.” Callan scanned the room again with a frown. He stepped further into the room, checking its far corners. “Xeph, any idea where the rogue golem got to?”
Depending on how much of its programming continues to function, it may have descended back underground. Do you want me to attempt to summon it again?
“No, no. If it’s not going to jump out at anyone who opens this door, then there’s no problem. Besides, we’re here to look for the kid, not beat malfunctioning constructs into submission.”
A valid point. Perhaps during our travels we will encounter the dveorg and petition their services to enact repairs on this facility. I doubt the golem is the only function that requires it.
“Maybe. But considering even the lud haven’t heard of the dveorg—”
“Avatar?” Argas’s voice rang out from the center of the room. “Could we take these swords? They would useful for the guards watching over the cult.”
“Sure, why not.” Callan started for the doors, then paused. “Did you say swords? As in multiples?”
He turned in time to see Argas make a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to pull one of the weapons from a golem’s grasp.
A golem who happened to be holding two blades at the ready.
“Get back!” he yelled. Argas glanced at him, and the golem began to move. Its arm pulled back to swing. The shadow fell over Argas, and his eyes grew wide as he saw the blade descending for his head.
Alert: 6% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is now 6%
Alert: 3% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is now 9%
Callan’s Wurmchain shattered the sword like a piece of breaking glass. The golem leapt back as Argas screamed and fell on his ass, scooting away on all fours as quick as he could move.
“On your feet, priest.” Callan retracted his chain, twirling about three feet of it over his head while the remainder pooled on the floor at his feet. A trickle of blood ran down his arm where the chain had managed to pierce through Mountainform on the center of his palm. The golem watched him warily. “Looks as if we have a perfect training opportunity here.”
“My avatar? What do you mean?”
“Summon your Wurmchain,” Callan instructed. Argas complied, and Callan couldn’t help but notice how much shorter it was than his own. He wasn’t entirely sure the upgrade to this orison had been worth it, considering he could no longer hold it by the handle.
“Now, I want you to take down that golem.”
Argas eyed the training construct. It had been watching them in silence, but now it cast aside its broken weapon and began advancing.
“What do I do???” Argas yelped as the golem swiped at him, almost falling over again. Callan sighed.
Aren’t you going to intervene? Xeph asked.
“I will if he looks like he’s in trouble. But how often does someone get live combat experience like this? Kivi and Shamain got the dvorak, so now Argas gets the golem.”
Need I remind you that we ran from this very same golem when we encountered it?
“Oh shush. I didn’t have Wurmchain then.” Callan cupped hands and shouted, “Swing your chain! Make the golem work for his attacks!”
“Um, alright.” The lud began to swing his chain the same as Callan, and immediately the golem retreated. Callan had suspected the thing was smart enough to recognize the threat of the weapon after the first attack, and this confirmed it.
“Now what?” Argas asked.
“Try and hit it!”
“Right!”
The priest flung his weapon forward like he was hurling a live snake. It missed the golem by a good two or three feet.
Callan pressed his face into his palm. “Again, Argas.”
Once again, the priest swung the weapon and launched it at the construct. This time it flew directly towards its chest, but the golem pivoted out of the way at the last second. It slammed its sword into the chain as it passed.
The sword shattered as it met the stronger force of Wurmchain, but it was enough to jar the weapon and make Argas drop it. He gasped in shock as the weapon puffed away in a cloud of sulphureous smoke.
No sooner had the chain disappeared than the golem launched forward. It still had its broken weapon in its hand, which it jabbed repeatedly in Argas’s direction.
“Avatar, heeeeeeeeelllllllppppp!!!” The lud fell over backwards and the golem followed. Argas managed to latch all of his arms onto the construct’s own, but it seemed even with two against one he was fighting a losing battle.
What are you waiting for, mortal? Save our priest!
“I’m trying!” Callan grimaced. The two were thrashing about on the floor so much he could hardly tell one apart from the other. “I can’t line up the shot!”
Then perhaps an alternative is required.
Argas continued to struggle. His arms were visibly quivering now. Callan pulled back his chain for another throw, hesitated, then sighed and released the weapon. As it puffed away, he pounded across the training hall floor.
“Avatar!!!” The priest’s eyes were wide as the broken sword descended towards his throat. A wet scream slipped past his lips.
Then the golem jerked away. Callan withdrew his stone-encrusted fist from the automaton’s chest, leaving a sizable hole in its wake. Splinters of wood cascaded onto the training hall floor.
Jerking more violently, the golem righted itself, leaned dangerously to the left, then righted itself again. Its movements were erratic, and it was making a buzzing noise like an electric current was flowing through it. Callan punched it again—in the face this time. It toppled over backwards.
“Huh. Finally managed to knock one of these things over.” Callan glanced down at it. “Gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting my fist to actually punch through like that.”
One of many benefits of increased Brawn. Also, the wood has likely weakened over the centuries. That might also account for this particular construct’s erratic behavior.
“I suppose.” Turning, Callan offered Argas a hand. “Sorry about that scare. You injured anywhere?”
“I, ah, do not think so, avatar.” Argas gained his feet and patted himself all over. Other than the haggard look in his eyes, he didn’t appear any the worse for wear. That helped mollify Callan’s guilt, if only a little.
“Well, you performed admirably. Xeph is proud of your performance.” Callan slapped the lud’s back in a friendly manner. Argas gave him a weak smile in return.
“Now, since it’s obvious nobody has been in here, time we got a move on. But first...” Callan walked over to the remaining golems. Finding the one with a sword and shield he ripped them both from the construct’s hands and tossed them to the priest. “Pity about losing the other two swords, but better half a prize than none at all, eh?”
“If you say so, Avatar.”
Callan sighed. He turned towards Argas. “Look. I know me having this god in my head is a bit intimidating, but you don’t have to just agree with everything I say. I’d rather we be honest with each other, like friends usually are. Can we be friends, Argas?”
“I—” Something passed across the lud’s face, and he stood a little straighter. “Yes, of course. I would like that.”
“Good. Now, let’s get a move on. Small odds that Ziln managed to find her way into the vault, but we’d better check, anyway.”
“Is this the vault infested with velak?” Argas asked. Callan flashed him a grin.
“Don’t worry. After dealing with that golem, a couple slug-weasels should be a cakewalk.”