Darya dried her ungloved hands with a rag as she sat down on the grass. Her breathing was heavy. She looked at Leo, who was now lying on her stomach, a new bandage around her torso.
“Is she going to be alright?” asked a worried Jesse next to her.
“I don’t know. Tonight will be decisive for her, her infection could be worse than I thought.”
Darya’s emotionless state that she had had during the last twenty minutes was fading away. The young eastern witch brought her knees to her chest and placed her arms around them. Her breathing became shorter as tears appeared in the corners of her big green eyes as reality took hold of her. Jesse hugged her from the back, trying to shove his guilt back into the abyss. Darya let herself go, her cries were ugly, but neither Jesse nor Vagraad cared. Their eyes were stuck on Leo’s sleeping form, who occasionally thrashed around lightly. From time to time, Darya let out a confession of guilt. Jesse shushed them right away and erased them with a tighter hug and a reassurance that Leo would be alright.
“They should be around here!” screamed a voice just behind the trees.
“They can’t be far!” screamed another.
The noise of hooves and metal armours clinking together echoed through the forest.
The surprise made Darya hiccup before she stopped breathing. Jesse and Vagraad shared a glance at each other. The young hlêg swiftly walked to the horses and took their bags off of them before ducking and awkwardly shuffling towards Leo. Jesse kept an arm around Darya as he took out a plain dagger. Vagraad did the same, taking out an ax from a bag and seemed to struggle to keep their stomach’s reflexes at bay. The dampened sound of hooves and boots circled around them, the yells and the orders became clearer by the second, and the yellow glow of the torches closed dangerously around their position. Jesse felt another of Darya’s tears fall on his hand. He instinctively rubbed his thumb against her harm, as if it could brush her anguish away. Vagraad kept their eyes on Jesse. The young demon gently smiled at them and nodded, Vagraad returned his smile in a silent answer.
“They’re here!” yelled a soldier.
Suddenly, as the torches pierced through the trees towards them and the boots and clanking armors made their final approach, the ground split open beneath the four of them. All Jesse could see was the fear on Vagraad’s face before he was plunged into darkness. He heard the earth close back up above him and Darya before a sudden bright light blinded him. After his eyes became accustomed to the bright light, Jesse could finally see who was in front of him. By their size, it was definitely not a human, but not a race he had ever seen in Outer-Alvoort before either. The person was wearing thick brown pants covered in pockets, which had been mended quite often. Their dirty white tank top loosely hung on their torso and most of their face was covered by a mask made of red clay, which had been carved with runes that also covered their arms in long and thick streams, sometimes crossing each other. Jesse’s only hint of what race they could be was their size. They looked to not have to crouch in a tunnel, where, as they sat, his and Darya’s heads were touching the ceiling. Before Jesse could even open his mouth to react, the little person put their finger in front of their mask, signaling him to not say anything. Jesse and Darya didn’t dare to move as the ground above them brought the dulled sound of boots, clanking metal and screams. Once the sounds stopped, the person whistled. Someone else whistled back further into the tunnel and the ground moved under them. Darya let out a yelp of surprise as she gripped Jesse tighter. The young demon glanced at the ground and saw with surprise that it was composed of assembled metal sheets, which seemed to move with a mind of their own. The person with the mask pressed their right hand on the metal sheet and a few of the runes tattooed on their arm turned into stone and fell to the ground in a pile of dust. The wall behind Jesse and Darya pressed against their backs and seemed to follow them just as fast as the metal floor pulled them along the tunnel.
“Where are Vagraad and Leo?! Where are my friends?!” Jesse yelled above the noise of the earth and the metal.
The masked person buckled and the earth behind them stopped for a second, but they found their balance rapidly. Darya softly elbowed Jesse in the stomach. He looked down at her and saw the young witch shaking her head ‘no’. The demon looked back up at the masked person and said nothing more. Worry built up in his stomach as he could see the light at the end of the tunnel get closer by the second. Jesse could feel Darya breaking away from his arms and fumble around her skirt to hide her hands. After a minute or two, the soft yellow light engulfed Jesse and Darya as the metal floor brought them to the end of the tunnel. The room seemed immense, the ceiling was extremely high and the entirety of it was made of dirt reinforced with metal beams. Lanterns peppered the walls and followed bridges which went from one end of the room to another, and stairs which went from one floor to another. Along the walls were arched openings supported by intricately detailed metal beams. In the middle of the room stood two statues. One made of metal, which depicted an orc woman wielding a hammer and a belt around her hips adorned with a blacksmith’s tools. The other, made of stone, depicted a troll woman supporting a boulder on her shoulder and a planet under her other arm. These two statues didn’t seem that tall for Jesse but compared to the small people walking around the room, entering and exiting the tunnel, they were three times their size.
“Don’t touch her!” shouted a familiar voice.
Jesse whipped his head to the right. A smile stretched his lips as he saw Vagraad keeping the little people away from him and Leo with his ax.
“Wow! Calm down there, blue lad!” yelled someone.
The man who had talked didn’t wear a mask like the others in the tunnel did. He had the same type of clothes, and he had put his long brown hair in a braid. His beard was rather well shaped and his stature looked to be stockier than the one in the tunnel. Jesse’s attention was suddenly brought to Darya's standing up. She was not hiding her hands as much. Jesse saw the young eastern witch run to Leo and check on her wound.
“You’re lucky da ol’ hag saw ya in time. I thought ya were ‘bout to get killed out there.” chuckled the man.
Jesse stood up and walked towards his friends. He looked around the room at the people who were half his size and running around everywhere. Some of them were sitting on chairs and getting fanned or drinking water. The man walked up to Jesse and took his hand to shake it.
“Glavas Bonebeard for ya.” He shook Darya’s hand and then Vagraad’s. “Heard ya were wantin’ to save da-”
“It’s a pleasure to meet the dwarves of Karme.” interrupted Darya.
“Pleasure to meet ya, too.” smiled Glavas. “How ‘bout we talk a bit?”
Jesse was about to say something, but the sound of rocks breaking interrupted him. He turned around and saw a dwarven woman and a dwarven man, both with masks and tattoos of runes, make the metal sheets levitate with Leo on top.
“Don’t worry, ou’ healers goin’ ta take care o’ her.”
Leo and the two people making the metal levitate were followed by a dwarven man who had his hands covered in green runes, and had started to cast some of them with the soft golden glow that emanated from his hands.
“Follow me.”
Jesse, Darya, and Vagraad looked at each other, searching for reinsurance for each other.
“I’d rather stay with Leo and your healer. I might have some things to learn.” said Darya.
Vagraad felt torn as their eyes went rapidly from Darya to Jesse and from Jesse to Darya.
“I can show ya how not to wack and wave that thing ‘round.” said a dwarven woman.
Her hair looked to be made of fire and she wore overalls covered in soot and a belt with an ornate ax attached to it. Vagraad glanced at Jesse, who flashed him a smile to assure him that everything would be fine. Vagraad smiled in return and entered a very passionate and complicated conversation with the dwarven lady.
Jesse followed Glavas to a corridor on the other side of the room. Despite his size, Glavas walked as if he was a ship powered by the greatest of winds. He knew his way around the tunnels and corridors, all supported by carved metal beams, and peppered with lanterns. These corridors were tall enough so that Jesse wouldn’t have to kneel, but he still needed to bend down to follow Glavas. After a little while of walking in these tunnels, they finally arrived at a room. The door was made of the same intricately carved metal the beams were, and each door had the same divinities that were represented by the statues. He opened the door to a spacious round room, in the middle was a little pit with burning embers, surrounded by a circle of old pillows.
“Please, take a seat.” said Glavas, gesturing at the pillows.
Jesse sat down and Glavas followed him right after, a bottle of alcohol in his hand. The dwarf held it toward Jesse, inviting him to drink some.
“I don’t drink anymore”
“ Mor for me,” Glavas shrugged and served himself a glass. “Ya prob’ly wonda why we saved ya.” he started, Jesse nodded. “Ya’re the last of yar kind ‘round here.” A heavy silence installed itself as Jesse stayed frozen. It was a thought he had never dared to look at fully, too isolating to think about. “I don’ know if da eastern’ witch o’ yours put a spell on ya or somethin’, but ya’re not s’pose to look like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I remember seein’ yar kind with horns and stuff. Ya’ll never had no need for runes, ya cheeky bastards.”
“But no one can-”
“Those who could wen’ away or died when dat Crow did us dirty.” Glavas drank another glass of bottoms up. “I fought with yar kind, ya know?”
“During the Uprising?”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Aye.” he drank another glass. “We los’ our village for i’, bu’ was worth i’.” Jesse didn’t know what to answer. “Yar runnin’ away from da pigs, we’ll be savin’ yar arses.” Glavas lifted his glass in the air. “Fuck da Emperor.” he solemnly said before drinking his glass in one swig.
The number of glasses he had finished in less than two minutes astounded the demon. The dwarf got very drunk and Jesse could feel all the repressed feelings the alcohol was letting transpire. Jesse’s eyes locked on the bottle. A few years back, he used to get wasted almost every night. Once the morning came, he used to drink more to ease his headache. He forgot when it started exactly, but it must have been when he was around 34 demon years old. He could vaguely remember Cecilia yelling at him for being drunk again or trying to talk to him softly and have a conversation with him. Jesse hadn’t always been aware of the efforts Cecilia had done to understand him and help him get back on his feet, but once he replaced the alcohol with pleasure and sex, he started to. This didn’t mean he got closer to her, on the contrary. He got further and further away from the loving arms he had known all his life.
“Glavas did ya- Oh, I’m sorry.”
A dwarven woman had opened the door and stumbled on Galvas and Jesse. She had blond hair attached in many braids and deep brown eyes which were underlined with purple valleys. She wore an off-white shirt with a rag on her shoulder and her brown skirt stopped above her ankles, letting her brown worn-out boots show. The cooing coming from the bundle of cloth in her arms made the whole situation sadder.
“No!” exclaimed Glavas as he stood up fast and wobbled to the woman and her baby. “Ozza, lemme pre’ent ya da last demon in Dobrin…” Glavas had his arm around her shoulders and seemed to wait for something from Jesse. “Jesse Numen.” he said as he bowed to Ozza.
The woman coughed and adjusted her baby in her arms. “Could ya please excuse us?” she politely said to Jesse.
The young demon nodded and walked out of the room. The woman slammed the door behind Jesse. He could hear yells and bits and pieces of sentences coming through the door. He could hear Ozza yelling at Glavas, asking him if he even cared about Karme’s safety or even his baby’s safety. Jesse’s heart became heavy with a familiar feeling as his eyes focused on the floor.
“Ya alright?”
Jesse lifted his head. He saw a dirty blond dwarf, dressed in thick pants and a shirt with rolled-up sleeves, their arms, chest and hands covered in runes, looking at him with a slight worry.
“Yeah, I’m alright.”
Jesse tried to sniffle silently, but the dwarf seemed to have heard it.
“I’m sorry for ma mom.” they smiled apologetically. “She isn’ da kind o’ lady to go past her fears.” The dwarf sat down against the wall and patted the ground next to them. Jesse sat down next to them, trying to keep his legs from touching the other side of the corridor. “Yar her kid, right?”
Jesse nodded. There was something about that dwarf that made his sarcastic wall unable to stand. Jesse suddenly felt like a child.
“She ain’t too loved ‘round here. Her people did stuff to our kind.” they sighed, “Bad stuff.”
They looked down at their hands, rubbing a spot in between their tattooed runes. In there, in a font much smaller than the rest, a word was tattooed and followed by a misshapen heart that a child could’ve easily drawn.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright.” they answered.
After a few seconds, they looked up at Jesse, a look of determination in their brown eyes.
“Name’s Adaed Bonebeard. Ya can call me Ada.”
They presented their hand to Jesse, who took it and shook it lightly.
“Jesse Numen.”
A confident smile appeared on Ada’s lips.
“Yar blue frien’s got taken hostage by Lulaestr. Wanna go save him and go see yar two other friends?”
“Them. They’re a them.” politely said Jesse.
“First time I see a hlêg as a ‘them’, we’ll have much to talk ‘bout.” they smiled.
Ada stood up and led Jesse back to the circular room with the two statues. Vagraad was sitting down, their legs crossed, trying to focus on Lulaestr who was having a passionate monologue about axes, their uses, and their fabrication. Her explanation was that “to know how to use a weapon, learn how to make it.”. She had gone into what kind of metal and wood was the perfect match according to what kind of person was wielding it and how they wield it. She wasn’t wrong, of course, but despite the flame of passion in her eyes, Vagraad couldn’t help but nod off at some moments. Their eyes lit up with a newfound energy when they set their black eyes on Jesse. Lulaestr was too into what she was saying to notice that Vagraad’s attention had been diverted from her.
“Enjoyin’ da lesson I see.”
Lulaestr turned around, her long fiery hair seemingly floating around her as she stared daggers at Adaed.
“A’ least dey listen when I tell ‘em to.” she squinted at Adaed. “What are ya here fo’?”
“Gettin’ da blue folk der to see their frien’.”
Adaed had a smugness to them, at which Jesse could only ask himself if that was what he looked like when he tried to flirt with someone. Before Lulaestr could say anything more, Vagraad stood up, their ax in hand, thanked the dwarf for her lesson and followed Adaed and Jesse to a corridor on the other side of the room.
“I hope you didn’t suffer when you were away from me, my Liege,” exaggerated Jesse.
“Don’t worry servant, I did not.” they answered with a false air of superiority. Jesse chuckled. His heart’s weight lightened at the smile on Vagraad’s face. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are those tattoos? I thought only chosen people could wear those, but most dwarves I’ve seen here have them.” Vagraad asked Ada.
Jesse was taken aback; Vagraad rarely asked questions like this, often to not take up space, but apparently his discussion with Darya made him confident enough to ask people about things he didn’t know.
“Chosen people?” scoffed Adaed. “Da only thing yar choosin’ is da Goddess ya serve here. Or none if ya don’ want to.” they turned to the left. “Da tattoos are there so dat we don’ have to learn it twice.”
A small silence settled around them, filled with the laughs and conversations of the dwarves present around the corridors and open rooms.
“Who were the statues back there?” asked Vagraad.
If Jesse could have gifted them a notebook so they could take notes on everything, he would have done so.
“Zashi an’ Mor. How do ya no’ know dat?” Adaed stopped in their tracks and turned to Jesse and Vagraad. “Were ya living under a rock?”
Jesse couldn’t say if they thought they were the dumbest people alive or if they were pitying them.
“Something like that…” mumbled Vagraad. Adaed sighed in disbelief. “I know about Zashi, but not Mor.” they interjected.
Adaed lifted an eyebrow, then turned around and resumed their walk.
“Legen’ says Mor came down da mountain to our ancestors up north’ to show dem how to use da metal under der feet.” they swerved right and stopped. “She allowed our people to sell deir goods and survive.” they shook their head toward a door made of wood and decorated with metal hinges and a metal handle. “Yar friens’ are down dere.”
“Thank you Ada.” said Jesse.
He walked down the corridor, Vagraad following him. The young demon was proud to see Vagraad come out of their shell. He hadn’t heard them say anything bad toward Darya or even acting like she was poisonous since their little talk in the barn. Of course, he could still feel a certain awkwardness coming from Vagraad, but the anger and mistrust that emanated from them seemed to have gone away. Without warning, the door flew open and Darya flew out and hit the wall on the other side of the corridor at full force. In a fraction of seconds, her body was stuck to the wall with a layer of rocks covering her limbs. Neither Jesse or Vagraad had the time to say or do anything before two dwarves came out of the room, one with brown runes covering their body, and the other being the one that had gone with Leo to heal her.
“How dare ya call yarself a servan’ o’ Elephtheria wi’ dat monstrosity on yar han’?!”
His yelling had cut through the air like a knife.
“I swear I didn’t-”
“Is dat why ya couldn’ heal dat, girl? ‘Cause ya wanted to kill dem for de Emperor?!”
The man pointed at Jesse and Vagraad. Darya turned her head towards them and heavy tears ran down her cheeks. Jesse was stunned. His thoughts were blank as he tried to digest what was happening, praying for Darya’s next words to be the one to kill the doubt.
“I never wanted it to happen, I swear!” she begged.
“Lia’!” yelled the dwarf. “Yar a mockery of our Goddess’s oath!”
Jesse was taken away from his stunned state by Adaed bumping their shoulder to go past him.
“Nokhus, calm down. Nofaem, get her to the cells.” they ordered.
Nofaem, the dwarf who had imprisoned Darya in the wall, had more of his runes turn into dust as he detached her from it and formed cuffs made of rocks around her wrists.
“Please, Jesse, I’m so sorry! Jesse!”
Jesse watched as they took away Darya to the cells and begged, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Nokhus, don’ tell anythin’ to ma dad.”
He nodded and went back to the room, closing the door.
“I’ll let ya two decide what to do wi’ her. If ma dad knows, he’ll execute her fo’ sure.”
A heavy silence reigned in the corridor.
“Jesse?” weakly asked Vagraad.
The young demon was still stunned, his heart had torn in half. He thought to himself that he was so stupid to believe that anything good could come from anyone. They all left him, hurt him, or wanted to kill him. He walked into Leo’s room while Vagraad was still calling him.
Leo was lying on her stomach on a bed that looked to be very comfortable. The soft glow of the lanterns on the wall mixed with the golden one from Nokhus’ hands. Leo’s back was bare, except for the gashing wound, which seemed to close up slowly under the dwarf’s spell.
“Ya shoul’ be more regardin’ o’ who yar frien’s are.”
“I trusted her.”
“Well, ya shouldn’ have.” Nokhu lifted his head toward Jesse. “Dat sigil was made fo’ ya specifically.” Jesse didn’t reply. His eyes stuck on Leo’s closing wound. “I reckon’ she was pretty bu’ wasn’ worth da risk.” A well of anger uncovered deep inside him. Nokhu sighed. “Yar frien’ here will be fine in a couple o’ hours. She needs to rest a bit, is all.” His hands stopped glowing, and Leo’s wound was closed at last. Nokhu stood up and walked to the door. He stopped at the threshold with his hand on the handle. “Ya should’ve learned from wha’ yar people suffered. “
The noise of the door closing ended their conversation. Jesse stayed in Leo’s room for a while, sitting on the little stool, his legs awkwardly bowing. Leo’s calm breathing rythmed his thoughts. He kept trying to justify why Darya would have such a sigil on her hand. He battled against this little voice in his head that kept telling him she was evil. That she had always wanted to kill him, even the first time they had met. He imagined the little smirk of wickedness on her face every time she thought he wasn’t looking. He imagined her touch was too soft and caring to be real. He imagined her tears at the idea that her mistake might have cost Leo’s life to be false. After what felt like an hour or two, Jesse stood up. His heart had finally hardened and cracked. He walked out of the room and went down the corridor the same way Nofaem had taken Darya. After that, it was only a matter of following the sobbing. A few corridors later, Jesse finally arrived at a room that was darker than the others he had been in before, and full of carved out spaces closed with metal bars.
“Ada tol’ me ya might come here.” Jesse looked down and found himself in front of a dwarf in a plaster and armored pants, his tattoos covering his arms. “She’s right dere.”
He pointed at a cell in the far corner from which the sobbing came from. Jesse took a breath in, his hardened heart becoming soft for a split second. He took a step and forced himself to harden again. Darya was sitting down in a cell where she couldn’t stand up or stretch her legs all the way. She was hiding her head in her knees, her skirt wet with tears. She lifted her head toward Jesse in a second, a look of hope and pain in her green eyes.
“Please Jesse, I swear I never wanted to do it.” she sobbed.
“I’m leaving you 60 seconds to explain yourself.” he said coldly.
The hope in Darya’s eyes faded away at the sound of his voice.
“I had no intentions of following through with it-”
“55 seconds.”
“My Ma had a vision of you. She saw you were going to destroy Dobrin, so she told me to go with you and kill you before we reached Ravenwood. I never wanted to do it. She forced me to bear it.” her breathing was labored and her voice cracked. “I never wanted to hurt you, I swear.”
Jesse’s cold exterior cracked as he recognized the look on her face and the emotion in her voice. She was terrified and alone. He took in a shaky breath.
“Let her out.”
“Wha’?”
“Let her out.” he told the guard, looking at Darya. “I never want to see you again.” he ordered her.
The words had fully cracked his heart, leaving only bits and pieces in its place. Jesse watched as the dwarf used his runes to open the metal bars, gave Darya her cloak and gloves, which Jesse could only assume Vagraad had brought to her earlier. He didn’t give her a last look before she walked out of the room. He was sure she had stopped at the threshold to look back at him, hoping for a smile or a goodbye. But he didn’t. It’s not until they both went down the corridor and disappeared that Jesse let out his pain in a cry. That night, Jesse wandered around the endless corridors of Karme and joined Glavas to his nightly drinking.