“We do not want to be here when they fire up that spell,” warned Tenthé.

“What can we do?” George whined. “We should have followed Isabell!”

“Nah, we need to look around some more,” Tenthé responded. “If we get past these guys, let’s see what’s down the other tunnel. The one the lights come from.”

“What?”

“And we have to give Isabell time. But… if they found the scout, then they’ll be pushing ahead as fast as they can,” Tenthé continued.

“And, if they have more of these spell chambers, what we’ve done here won’t matter that much, anyway,” Nik added.

Everyone was quiet as they processed this, until Tenthé said, “Maybe, but... I have an idea. If it doesn’t work, we’ll do things the messy way.”

Another cold statement to drive home that Tenthé had a different view of things than they did. They were coming to suspect that being his friend might not be compatible with a long life.

Tenthé engaged his stealth and slipped through the doors into the cavern. He walked past the workers and approached the old god, who was writhing and squirming, oblivious to everything happening around him.

“Hey Mach-Anot, how’s it going?”

The pile leaped into the air, then thrashed about, searching for the source of the voice.

“What? Who’s there! I’ll eat your spleen if you don’t!”

“If I don’t what?”

The god kept flailing about, spraying ichor which, somehow, never managed to land on Tenthé. The workers shot it some nasty looks and went back to their tasks.

“Okay, you win. I give up.” The god hissed. “Talk to me. You sound different than the usual voices.”

“Well. If there was one person you wouldn’t want to see right here, right now, who would it be?”

“Uh… Oh Hells! Tenthé?”

“Yep. Good guess. What’d they promise you? Followers?”

“Yeah! And they delivered! With them, even you can’t kill me! Ha-ha-ha!”

“Okay. It’ll be easy to find out if that’s true. I’d bet your followers are close by. Probably here.”

“No, no! Let’s not be hasty! What do you want?”

“I could use your help getting through this room.”

“Uhhh… your feet not working?”

“Not me! Something. I need help moving something from the stairs to the tunnel.”

“What? Is that all? No problem. And… don’t kill me. Or my followers. It would hurt.”

The old gods weren’t known for their leniency or forgiveness. They were sticklers for a deal, but if you didn’t spell everything out in detail, or have a decent threat, they would do their best to wriggle out of any promises.

“Oh, I wasn’t going to kill you. I do have a room full of rats I can put you in, though.”

“What?” it screeched as shudders ran over its form. “You wouldn’t! They’d eat my lovely tentacles!”

“Just an idea.”

“Okay. What do you want? Promise you won’t kill me, no matter what!”

“No, but I won’t for, let’s say… today. And only if you do what I ask.”

“All right. But no rats either!”

“For today, too.”

“Deal?”

“Deal!”

“What, then?”

“Start moving through the room. After a while, go up the stairs. I’ll give you some packages. You hide them in your tentacles, get to the tunnel, and I’ll take them back. Easy!”

“They don’t like me to walk around. Say I’m distracting.”

“Well, you are.”

“Yeah! Bloody right I am!” Mach-Anot preened.

Tenthé stepped against the wall to make sure he was out of the way. When the old god began wandering, a few people started yelling, but it ignored them and kept moving. Every so often, the god would shoot out a tentacle, most likely trying to discover where Tenthé was, but, despite that, did what it’d been asked to.

Tenthé waited. If the god was going to betray him, now would be the time.

Fortunately for one of them, Mach-Anot did what it had promised. Reaching the stairs, the god ascended halfway up before stopping. That was good enough. At that point, it’s body blocked the view of the lower half of the doors.

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Tenthé moved closer and whispered, “Expect two packages to run under your tentacles. They’ll stay there until you get to the tunnel.”

“What! Are they rats?” the god screeched, a little too loudly. No-one in the room paid attention.

“Quiet! No, not rats. Just stand still.”

He motioned to George and Nik, who slipped through the door and ran under the old god’s “skirts”.

Whispers of “Yuck!” and “Oh, this is disgusting!” trickled out from under the god. Mach-Anot shrugged himself up and down a few times.

“Hmmm,” it said. “You know? That doesn’t feel so bad. In fact, it’s kind of… nice. Yeah… nice.”

“Uh, okay. I guess that’s good,” Tenthé replied. “Let’s go. Slow and easy.”

They descended the stairs, not smoothly. It took a few attempts to get everyone moving in anything even remotely resembling a coordinated manner. After some jostling, they made it to the floor, where things became easier. Keeping in character, Mach-Anot meandered along.

“So,” Tenthé started, “I never knew what you’re the god of?”

“Oh, small stuff that no-one notices. Like bugs, parts of bigger things, petty emotions, trivial details; the little bits and pieces all around.”

Tenthé thought it over. “You know, that’s kind of cool. I like little things. And I’m little.”

“Ha! Take it from me, you’re definitely not little! Not anymore. And, if you wanted to worship me, you’d have to get rid of that avatar mark. But, even if you did that, you still aren’t small enough.”

The god had warmed up. It continued, “I used to be as powerful as Turtle. Long ago. Now you see old gods like me as jokes, but at one time, we weren’t. Not at all! Tell me, do you think the Turtle is a joke?”

“Um, no, he’s…” Tenthé thought for a moment, “Uh… too big. Serious big.”

“Right! Well, imagine him as a little stupid creature in the house of the old gods, bumping everyone’s feet and yelling about how important he used to be. That’s him when he loses all his followers. It’ll happen, give it time.”

“So, can you tell me what’s going on here?”

“Nope, not in our deal. And I couldn’t, anyway.”

That probably meant that it had made other deals it had to abide by.

Mach-Anot put on a good act of puttering around, eventually finding its way into the tunnel and coming to a halt. Tenthé had to hand it to the old god, it was well done. Everything looked natural.

At that point, George and Nik slid out and ran deeper down the tunnel. After a moment, the god meandered back out into the cavern.

It was a shame, but it was very likely Mach-Anot wouldn’t be around for much longer. Then again, maybe the God of small details could find a way to survive what was coming. When this was all over, and if they were both made it, he might want to have a talk with the old god.

At that moment, a flash came from the room behind them.

“RUN!” Tenthé yelled as he cast a shield over Nik and George. But that wasn’t all he did. Ahead of him he cast a roiling cloud of thunder, lightning, and fire which set off or obliterated the traps.

Everyone chased after, running as fast as they could on the scorched earth left by Tenthé’s cloud. With nothing to slow them down, a few minutes later they burst into the cavern. When Tenthé cut to the side, Nik and George followed. Which was fortunate, because at that moment, the ground shook and a massive cloud of dust, rocks, and small boulders shot out of the tunnel, narrowly missing the group.

Tenthé plopped down against the wall, as did the other two. Everyone was gasping from their run and the shock of the explosion.

Pulling out a flask of water from his endless supply, Tenthé took a drink, then passed it around.

“I guess they hurried things up,” Nik ventured.

“Yeah,” Tenthé responded.

“What next?”

“Don’t know. We should wait and see what happens.”

They sat in the dark cave for about half an hour, eating, making quiet conversation, and watching the dust settle. At this point, everyone looked up as a yellow glow emerged from a new tunnel, followed by a second light, then a third, and more. The number kept growing. The trio climbed onto some boulders to get a better view. A line of warriors was entering the cavern and forming up in an open area. For something named the Horde, their discipline was surprisingly good.

As the last of them entered, a different area began glowing as a second set of warriors filing out of another tunnel.

“I suppose that answers the question of whether there were more sites. What we blew up wasn’t the only one.” Nik observed. “What’d be your guess? How many so far?”

George was silent for a moment, then answered, “Maybe about two-hundred-fifty in the first group? We’ll see about this other one.”

But before the second group had finished entering, a third, and then a fourth tunnel lit up. More warriors filed in and fell into formation, where they stood easy, talking to each other.

“I count about eight-hundred altogether. That is a lot, but not enough to take the city,” said Nik. “And they’re regular Horde. From what we’ve been taught, their magic wielders wear special robes, even in battle. Seems kind of like painting a target on themselves, but supposedly, that’s what they do.

“Hey, wait! I see more lights! These are a different color,” Nik exclaimed. After a moment, he added, “Oh, crap.”

“What?” George barked. After peering at the newcomers for a few moments, he agreed, “You’re right. Oh crap.”

This latest group consisted of human soldiers wearing uniforms.

“Can you make out which House?” George asked.

“No, not yet. I can’t see the badges. Man! There’s a lot of them; maybe a thousand or more.”

A second, and then a third tunnel lit up and more House troops emerged. George and Nik watched while Tenthé ran around, disappearing into the boulders from time to time. They weren’t sure what he was doing, but he’d tell them if they needed to know. Probably.

Eventually, it appeared that everyone who was going to show, had. The Horde and House troops were boisterous, with a fair amount of yelling back and forth between the two groups.

“How many do you think there are?” George asked.

Nik kept counting, then answered, “Maybe four thousand, total.”

“That’s a lot!”

“Yeah. Let’s find out if we can identify the Houses.”

Nik and George tried, but they were simply too far away and the House uniforms were too similar, or they didn’t know them.

“George! That last group coming in now!” Nik exclaimed. “See where I’m looking? I’m not sure, but…”

“What?” asked George. “Wait… steady now. Hey! That can’t be right! Oh crap! That’s the Gledhill colors! Tenthé! Come here. We’ve got a problem!”

Tenthé appeared from nowhere and stood at the base of the boulder the boys were on. They jumped down and Nik blurted out, “The last House to enter was Isabell’s! What should we do?”

“It’s a bit worse than that,” Tenthé responded. “A bunch of House troops went directly to where we left the scout, and more split off, heading this way.”

“Isabell wouldn’t give us up!” George yelled.

Nik broke in, “No, this might be what the troops were going to do anyway, but she could have told them everything before she knew her House was involved.”

“Do you think she figured it out? That her House was involved?”

“Maybe. But… in any case, they probably silenced her.”

“They… killed her?”

“I don’t know. But I bet we’re not getting any help.”

Tenthé spoke up, “Well, more than that. We have to move. There’s a lot of people coming this way. So many that you won’t be able to hide, even with stealth. Plus, she might have told them about me.”

“Great. We’re screwed. There’s nowhere to go!” Nik exclaimed.

“Well… not exactly,” Tenthé responded.