Chapter 2:
Desari watched the Consortium’s leader leave the carriage. She started shouting orders at nearly the same moment. People began running to take care of what she directed. She jumped onto a large cart mounted on the rails. Smoke rose from a chimney and the cart picked up speed, heading away.
Others got on carts and followed after her.
Limos’ doors closed and the mounts pulled it forward in the direction of the tracks.
Desari stored her arrow and bow, slipping from her vantage point to the ground, an illusion spread over her, mimicking one of guards she’d spotted hanging around the edges.
Looks like they came to some kind of agreement.
She stretched her hand. She was so close. Limos’ information was right there and the Netherforge Consortium had sold to those attacking them. Just right there. She could run the carriage, but she didn’t trust these people. Wasn’t it always at the end of the race that people get the most careless?
Her siblings had been that way. The last trial. That’s what he called it. Everything was a trial, a test of some kind.
She trailed after the people of Nether forge and Limos’ carriage, the smell of hot air, metals and stone drying out her nose, while she remembered that freezing morning.
Her father’s house was located far from the center of the Empire. A newer house, only four generations old. Their lands humble and harsh.
Mist hung in the air, one might confuse it for a fog if they did not know the mountain’s tendencies. It would be wet and it would chill her all the faster.
She let the shivers run through her, small in her thin bed clothes. She’d taken to wearing pants and a shirt the first month she arrived here. It had taken her a month to realize her grandparents weren’t coming for her. They were scholars and her unknown father a landowner and an armored knight.
The rising sun was burning away the mist.
Some of her siblings had on more clothes, it all depended on how well their sources of information were. Gredus wore thin armor and had his sword and shield. Aramaus had her crossbow. Vessali had his sword.
Gredus was larger, at sixteen he was the oldest. His body was naturally heavier, which he had turned into strength. His head was round, his black eyes, like father’s looked down on everything beneath him, his sneer a near eternal fixture. He was the most vicious and of course the one favored by their father. He hurt his siblings because he could, Desari saw the glee behind those cold eyes.
Aramaus was younger, adept of mind and vicious at heart. The source of endless assaults. Her insecurities turned into tortures upon the others. Adept at using the others against one another, or the staff of the house. She had the black hair of the family, but tan and green eyes from her mother.
Vessali was third in-line, brown hair of his mother, but the same black eyes as their father. Instead of looking down on others, he assessed them, one and all. He was quieter than the first two stuck beneath them and above the others. His scheming ran in another direction. Alliances.
Indra, Mika, both had warmer clothes against the weather. Both standing tall. They were capable, but more than that they were loyal to Vessali. He didn’t treat the others badly which also went in his favor or being left alone.
Indra’s hair was blonde, eyes deep brown. Mika had the black hair and blue eyes.
Bits and pieces of their father and mothers ran through all of them.
The man stepped forward into the clearing. Behind him lay Hakori, a large forested hill, attuned to draw in earth and water elementals. The valley was attuned to increase the mana in the area. Rich in resources, but beyond the protective Tinneld range.
She knew the steep hill well, the place where she had come to know her first elemental. Eira.
Her father, Lord Haker. Defender of the Hakori pass. His hair was midnight black, as were his eyes. The colors of his armor reflected in his eyes, captured elementals infusing every piece. His sword hung from his hip.
He only wore it when doing his own training or heading out to deal with a wild elemental. It marked this as an important event.
His face was impassive looking at the children he’d sired. Many had been on his lands since they were born. Others had to be ‘fetched’. Desari was one of those.
Desari shivered harder, her rage playing into her act. He played the part well. Noble. Clean. Above the trivialities of mortals. Rapist. Murderer.
“House Haker is a young house. We have been give our lands recently. Our deeds speak for themselves and we have brought civility to these outreaches.” He let his words rest with them.
I wonder if he doesn’t like using words, or they’re hard for him to string together into sentences?
“You have learned the ways of the land, the ways to fight. Above all a Haker must know how to defend their home. To defend what we have taken, and know how to take more. The elementals are untamed and our enemies are plenty. The test has already begun.” He looked at those wearing more clothes and standing tall in the chill. “And I see some of you are lacking.” His eyes cut through those that remained.
Desari ducked her head. Soon.
“The mists will obscure the route to the summit. Who reaches the top first will become my heir.”
The eldest bristled, though the younger looked at him eagerly.
Pitted against one another like bears in a cage.
She’d never asked for this fate. She’d never wanted to leave her grandparents store. Filled with books and mysteries.
He’d torn her from them, torn her from her life. Not to give her a better life, but because his honor demanded it. His goons had killed her grandparents when they ripped her from them. An accident, a footnote. Beneath his notice.
Six years, a fight everyday, every hour in every direction.
Two years of despair, a run to this very mountain, to just end it all. A meeting that changed her a bond that turned despair to drive. She felt him at the edge of her senses, flitting about, his normal amusement cutting and focused.
“Begin.” Her father’s words cut through her thoughts.
Gredus turned to look at his siblings.
“Don’t get in my way,” He spat on the ground and took off at a jog, flashing his father a confident grin.
Aramus’ grip tightened and released on her arbalest, following afterwards on a slightly different angle.
Everyone started running.
Desari headed to the left, leaving the clearing and entering the trees.
She grimaced at her foot wear and slowed her shivering, quieting her footsteps as she slipped through trees and bushes, the coating of water seeping through her light clothing.
A rustle followed her, and a snap.
Someone following.
She slowed her pace, picking out stones and hard earth away from what would snap and leave impressions and shifted her path.
The noises fell away as she reached within herself and released the power of her core. The world came alive around her.
Her senses sharpened and her strength surged, Still she took her time moving through the forest to a hidden alcove.
She pushed away a stone, revealing a water proof bundle. She checked the dagger, bow and arrow within. Putting them to the side and within reach.
She pulled on leather pants and boots, tying them hard and fast. The shirt went, it was too wet to warm anymore, and pulled on a fresh one and a gambeson. Leather might look good, but a gambeson protected against the chill, the blade and the blunt. The leather pants would keep the water from soaking in.
It had taken her months of hunting game to buy her supplies. Strengthening her core, purchasing more gear she’d seeded throughout the mountain. Their final trial was a known and she’d prepared for it for years.
A nervous energy filled her as she went through the last ties on the gambeson. Her hands working quickly. She did up her braid and threaded it down the back of her jacket.
She pulled on her belt, secured her quiver and checked the string of her bow a second time.
Desari grabbed fresh mud, smelling it loamy and rich. Trees grew upon this land and so much more. Though all that mattered to her father and his house, to the Empire was the elementals that were drawn to it.
Father my father, what would you think of the friends I’ve made?
She wiped the mud over her face, wiping the remains on her pants. She pulled out a canteen, drinking from it then some jerky and dried fruits and nuts.
“Aerus? Eira.”
A part of the hill pushed away into the form of a woman. The air spun together into a man.
“You are sure your course of action,” Aerus asked.
“There will be no coming back from this,” Eira said softly.
Desari looked at both elementals. They had grown together, they teaching her the powers of earth and air, her sharing the power of her core and knowledge.
Most of all they had shared companionship.
“Gredus and Aramaus will be like father, once they achieve their position, the rest of our lives will be forfeit. Both will seek out power beyond their means. They’ll entrap more elementals and continue the cycle. They are little more than dogs seeking scraps from Lord Haker. We must put them down and take the heirship.”
“So many ploys and plots.” Eira sighed.
If she simply wounded them or took the heirship from them. They would do everything to take it back. The dead had no recourse as her grandparents hadn’t.
“Will you help me?” Desari said.
“Always,” Aerus said.
Eira nodded in agreement.
Desari let out a sigh of relief.
“Eira, where are they?”
“Gredus has made good time up the hill. Aramus has been able to procure a horse and is climbing the weaving trails.”
“One follows you,” Aerus said, his form unravelled and Eira laid back on the ground, her features smoothing out all sign of her disappearing.
Desari called on the wind, listening and feeling the changes in the air.
She shifted away from the alcove and up the hill more, gaining a vantage between mossy rocks.
A curse drifted on the wind, Mika snapping branches as he pushed up the hill.
He scanned the ground, looking for signs of her.
The boy thought himself a great fighter and a soldier. One that would carry out Vessali’s ‘orders’ with an inbuilt pride. She’d seen what following one’s orders could lead to. The blindness and excuses it gave one.
He was decent with a sword. He loved showing others up in fighting. He rarely dealt with the quiet rumors or hidden attacks.
Desari released her arrow and slid it into her quiver. He was much like a dog following his owners bidding.
She moved back into the mists and the darkness. She drew on the power of the elements, lightening her steps with air speeding herself up with the earth pressing against her feet. Her core of white mixed with red did the rest.
She weaved up the mountain, it was more of her home than the stark stone and wood of Haker Hall. Every spare moment she’d spent up here, hunting, learning from Aerus and Eira. Getting stronger, preparing.
Desari slipped her senses through the air and ground, attuning to them. She’d fallen over so many times before. Now she jogged, moving through the trees and undergrowth with ease, splitting her senses.
Gredus had slowed his pace finding a place to lay an ambush.
Risal didn’t know it but he was running right for the dead ground.
Desari kept her pace conservative, tracking her other siblings and moving on a looping path that would take her around Gredus.
The distance dropped quickly and she slowed as she neared the place Gredus had picked. There was a copse of trees on one side, a path between it and rocks that had settled on the other side.
Gredus was talking to Risal down the path, swinging his sword around his body. Risal had nothing but his bed clothes.
Desari focused on her breathing, calming down as she drew and arrow and fitted it to her string, catching their words on the wind.
“-it would be you chasing after me. Think you’d get me with your hands Risal?” Gredus laughed, rolling his shoulders.
“I-I didn’t know you were going this way Gredus. I’ll turn around right now.”
“Alright, head on your way, I your older brother will allow this,” Gredus pursed his lips and pointed down the hill with his sword.
Risal stumbled and backed away, his hands up. He turned.
Gredus’ face lit up with glee as he used his red mixed with red core to surge forward. Flames sprung along the length of the weapon.
Desari released her arrow, the air wrapped around it. She drew her second arrow. Time slowing. Gredus didn’t let his lessons with the sword go to waste. His form was perfect, arm up to slice down and across, it would cut through Risal’s back and kill him easily.
Unlucky for him he was right handed and Desari was in the copse to his right.
Her arrow his with a dull thwoup. Hitting him in the armpit.
Risal screamed, half turned for the noise of Gredus’ attack, he tripped and fell, rolling down the hill.
Gredus’ sword hit the ground and rolled as he lay on his side, the arrow sticking halfway out of his side.
Risal recovered his feet, ducked and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He tripped again, but continued racing away.
Desari checked the area, no footsteps other than Risal’s . No noises.
Gredus hiccupped and coughed.
She checked her grip on her bow, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. She stalked forward. Moving around Gredus.
His eyes wide with shock turned to confusion. She squatted over his sword, storing her arrow and bow.
She picked up his blade and drew her own dagger. It was an ugly heavy sword used to break bones more than stab opponents. Runes ran up its length lit with the red light of a fire elemental.
A gift from her father for winning some fight.
There. She dug her dagger into the blade and dragged it down, through a series of runes, breaking them.
The containment runes failed. The red in the runes leaked a yellow mist that congealed together, the mist in the area evaporating away.
Desari raised an eyebrow as the fire grew a face.
Looks like my father was playing favorites for one as strong as this. The blade was drained, leaving a ball of flickering flame with a face of orange flame.
“A young one, lacking in power and knowledge.” Aerus said.
The ball of fire whipped around and shot towards Aerus.
“Fiesty.”
Eira grew from the ground to catch the fire elemental and hold it.
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It wrenched around before settling in what Desari assumed was a huff.
“It felt your feelings when you cut it free. He is interested in you.”
Desari looked at the fire elemental, a possibility, a thought in the back of her head.
“A bond of equals, my power is yours and yours mine, a breakable bond.” Desari reached out her hand.
Eira released the ball of flame.
Aerus watched as it moved erratically, but in Desari’s direction.
It surged forward and bit her finger.
She grunted as her core was split and a bond reached out, connecting to the elemental.
Its yellow light took on a yellow tinge, its temperature increasing.
Desari pressed her hand to her chest and picked up the sword.
Gredus reached out for her weakly.
His face pale except for the stark red of his own blood.
“Kaito, Demetrius, Yoshiro, Arish.” She named off the boys that Gredus had killed. “You killed them simply because you could. Others might not, but I knew. Kaito liked to weave wildflowers together for his mother. Demetrius wished to be a lumberjack like his father. Yoshiro wanted to sail river boats and on great galleons. Arish was an orphan ward of our house and you used him to ‘hone your skills’.”
Desari squatted down, beyond reach.
“You will never be the heir. You will die without title. A forgotten thing of a forgotten house.”She grabbed his head and shoved the blade through his trap, deep into his chest. One didn’t leave their enemies behind.
He jerked against the blade. She drew it out, essence flowing into her. Her mixed red reaching the limits of her core. He’d boasted about his red core. His ability to empower his weapons.
She wiped the blade off on his body, took his sheathe and belt, tying it to her own waist. A search through his pockets revealed snacks.
Desari looked at him, something gone. She expected him to turn on her with that sneer, a threat or a hit.
Eira and Aerus had dissipated their forms. The fire elemental shifting around.
Desari drew out her fire starting kit, a piece of leather tubing holding tinder and a flint stone.
“The mist will cool you quickly. Get in here.” Desari held out the tubing.
The elemental moved around it, peered inside, compressed and then dove into the tinder, consuming it rapidly.
“Don’t burn the sides.” Desari warned.
She got a lethargic twang through her bond she felt meant Yeah yeah, I’ll be fine.
Desari poked a hole in the fire starter tube, enough to allow air in.
She held onto the hilt of the sword to keep it from hitting the ground, her other hand holding the bow as she used her strength and the help of Eira to speed up the mountain. There was another left on her hunt.
“You are an elemental a creation of sentience and mana. Being a fire elemental you can control the heat and cold around you. Fire needs oxygen, heat and fuel to start take away these things and it will falter. The four elements are fire, earth, water and air. Though they are also known as energy, solid, liquid and gas in later stages. Each elemental is formed of one energy component. They can control their physical medium better than others, you with flames and heat. Earth with stones, plants and dirt.”
She talked in hushed tones to the elemental. It acted disinterested but started shifting around when she stopped.
The faster you learn the stronger you’ll be. Then no one could trap it anymore. I wish I could be an elemental in the planes.
In the empire they trapped them just as she was, turned to a purpose they’d never wanted and used despite their will.
“Aramaus is moving to set up before the clearing,” Eira’s voice ran through her legs.
“The others?” Desari asked.
“Spread over the hill, there have been some fights. Though I taste little of their blood. Most broke off and ran away.”
“All desperately trying to win in this bloody race.” She’d never wanted to be a part of it. Life had other plans.
Desari slowed her pace and settled down.
“Where is Aramaus?”
“In the fog forest. She’s up in the trees facing east,” Aerus said.
“Good position, the winding paths behind her are open and easy to see over. She’ll have a good view of everyone running up.” Going to make it tricky getting the drop on her.
“Unless I don’t.” The hunter never thinks they’re the hunted. And she only has an arabalest and is up a tree. “If she doesn’t get that first hit she’s fucked.”
Aramaus was not one to be underestimated. Perched up in a tree as she was, if she wanted to be the next heir then she had made her choice.
Though I would have never let her live with what she did to Hana.
Desari moved carefully through the trees.
Eira indicated where the rest of her siblings were spread out across the mountain.
The mist was dissipating quickly. A flicker of color revealed the flag at the summit.
Desari drew an arrow on her bow, fixing Aramaus’ location in her mind, wary of her surroundings. Keeping low and slow between the trees.
A flare of air white.
Duck!
Desari dropped to the ground at Aerus’ call, the bolt disappeared off into the brush as she ran for a collection of trees. She drew her arrow off, rolled away to another group and got back up to her knees.
The arbalest was her most prized possession, an air elemental entombed within. Being the second red core Haker heir she had the power to use it.
“Dee Dee is that you out there?” Aramaus’ mocking voice carried through the trees. “Oh you can’t think that y-you w-would e-ever be a heir!” She laughed at the audacity, mimicking the way she’d talked upon arriving at Haker Hall. Broken and through her tears.
“A crybaby like you has no place in this hall. I’ll show you!” Another bolt hit the trees Desari had dropped behind at first.
Desari slunk lower and crawled through the underbrush.
“So scared little Dee Dee. So pathetic.” She laughed, another bolt lazily hitting the trees.
Desari kept moving through the undergrowth, slowly, steadily.
“Eira, anyone close?” She whispered.
“In the clearing, that is all.”
Desari twisted the wind, curling it from her mouth to where Aramaus was hiding. Play the scared little girl.“I-I know you were the one behind Hana’s death!”
“Hana? That wet nurse!” Aramaus cackled. Desari felt her moving around, the wind her own senses as she shifted around in the tree she’d picked as her perch.
She had been another servant, though instead of the cold detachment they all showed towards the young Haker’s she had worked to make sure they all ate something, got proper clothing. Held some of the younger ones overwhelmed with emotion.
“Closest thing you had to someone that cared about your worthless hide,” Aramaus scoffed. “The eastern steps are so slippery in winter.” The notes of gloating rising with her laugh, a twisted thing of a twisted mind.
Desari raised herself up behind a new tree, out of Aramaus’ sight, drawing an arrow from her quiver to place it on her bow.
“At least someone cared for us. Couldn’t have that could you?” Desari said. Her voice becoming more level.
“No one cares for you Dee,” Aramaus shot at the copse again.
Desari glanced around the tree.
Aramaus’ head snapped over.
Desari drew and released.
Aramaus’ eyes widened as she moved to jump. Desari’s arrow tore through the bark of the tree.
Aramaus moved to step off the tree.
Grab her. Desari threw her mana into the command.
The tree’s branch grabbed at her ankle. Aramaus yelled as her ankle twisted and her controlled fall from the tree turned into anything but. Crashing into the undergrowth.
Desari panted, she’d practiced for hours trying to cast spells, the most she could do was alterations and blending her senses seeing the world as Eira and Aerus did. She could empower them in her stead as well.
She drew another arrow and ran from her tree, the ground cushioning her feet, the plants moving away from her to not make a noise.
She slowed near another tree, hearing Aramaus’ grunt as she loaded her arbalest again. Desari breathed through her nose, checking the area. No one else was around, Aramaus got onto her left leg and hopped forward, her other foot dragging behind her. There she touched a tree.
Aerus showed her movements through the air in rough generalities.
Desari drew back on her string and moved around the tree, Aramaus was covered by several. Desari shifted through the woods, letting the string go back to half draw.
Aramaus whirled her head around, spotting her. Her snarl faltered.
Desari had shed her skin, the fiction. No longer was she Dee Dee, the scared girl that hid from the others and ran off to the mountains whenever she could. She was Desari, the hunter that had been born in these mountains, forged with a purpose.
She evaluated Aramaus and moved for a better shot. Aramaus turned and hopped as fast as she could for the summit.
“Broken ankle, not a fun one,” Desari said. “Did you hit your head too?”
Aramaus yelled something back, nearly stumbling and hitting a tree instead, she turned and raised her arbalest.
Desari ran through a group of trees. “One shot Aramaus, just one.”
Her sister pushed off of the tree she was leaning on and hurried on, for the summit, for safety and heirship.
Beyond the trees there was about a hundred meters of open ground and then the summit. Beyond the trees they’d be in view of those around the banner at the top.
Desari checked Aramaus’ path and slipped through the trees.
“I’ll kill you for this.” Aramaus yelled out.
We’ll see. If she let her sister live there was no other option. She knew these woods well, these trees better than most. She worked her way to a position that would give her a clear view over the open ground to the summit.
An opening. Desari drew fully and released. Aramaus threw herself flat, her own red core increasing her senses several times more than Desari’s.
Aramaus turned it into a roll, and got back up.
Desari drew another arrow and kept weaving through the trees.
Aramaus fired, the bolt hitting a tree.
Desari drew her bow fully, Aramaus lowered her Arbalest, checking the effect of her hit. Desari released and kept moving. She drew another arrow and checked on Aramaus.
The arrow punched into her left abdomen, opposite her broken left ankle. Her face pale as she slid to the ground, throwing out her knee with a cry, stopping herself from hitting the ground.
Desari strung another arrow, moving for a better position. Aramaus pushed herself forward, getting behind a tree as Desari’s arrow clipped off the bark behind her.
Desari reached into her senses. Aramaus fell on her back, shoving her boot into the stirrup of the arbalest she forced the metal prods back, locking them into position and put a bolt into the guide.
If she stays there I’ll have to sweep down around the mountain to get a clear shot. Though she knew Aramaus, she was driven to win, to push down all others. Staying there she might survive. Though Desari could loop ahead of her and to the summit. Or someone else could.
She took her knife and cut off the length of arrow.
“Did I get you there?” Desari shifted her voice on the wind.
Aramaus let out a curse, leaving a section of the arrow in her gut.
She used the tree and pushed herself upright.
Desari continued slipping through the forest.
Aramaus turned suddenly. Desari made to move to the side, the bolt slammed into the meat of her leg. Desari threw her arrow and bow ahead of her so she wouldn’t fall on them.
She hit the ground, as Aramaus drew back on her string with a yell.
Desari scrambled for cover with her unwounded leg. She let out a hiss, grabbing her bow she drew an arrow from her quiver. She pushed off from the small tree for a larger one that would cover more than her spine.
She rested against it, looking down at the bolt. Steel and right through the back of her thigh.
The adrenaline was wearing off, bringing pain to the fore.
Aramaus shuffled for the summit, facing her, arbalest lowered but ready.
“How does it feel Dee Dee?” Aramaus laughed.
Shitty. Desari checked the wound, there was some blood leaking, not much. She patted both sides with her hand, checking the blood staining her clothes.
Desari braced herself, drew her bow and turned the corner releasing at Aramaus and jog-hopped forward, drawing another arrow as she went.
Aramaus ducked back, the arrow a distraction instead of meant as an attack.
Aramaus growled and headed for the summit.
“I’ll hunt you down with horses, let them run over your body till your dead!” Aramaus yelled.
Desari kept moving, trying to keep off of her left leg. Aramaus kept moving for the summit, on their angle she was further up the hill.
Not much further to that opening.
Desari kept running. Aramaus left the trees and turned to face Desari, and fired.
Desari lunged forward to the ground, it hit her in the back of her left shoulder and across her back. She hissed as she arched her back and fell on the ground. She reached back and pulled the bolt out of her gambeson, a line of fire on her back, the cloth sticking to the wound.
Her left arm was going to be weak to hold the bow, though she could do it. She had to.
Desari pushed up and on, Aramaus was a third of the way to the summit. She could see the figures up there. Her father and his retinue. She gritted her teeth, reaching the opening between trees.
She set her arm, her shoulder screaming in pain. Desari checked the shot, Aramaus was hustling all out for the flag and their father.
Desari placed an arrow on her string and drew it back, drawing on the strength of the earth that threaded through her muscles.
The air stilled around her as she drew the arrow back, her back a tear through her being. She blinked the dirt away and controlled her breathing.
It was a feeling as she released the arrow.
She was moving too fast.
“Aramaus!” Desari dropped from the perch. Aramaus turned in her direction. She never even got to pull her arbalest’s trigger as the arrow hit and she hit the ground.
Desari drew another arrow, reaching out to the world, blood soaked the ground around Aramaus. A few were shifted forward at the summit to see what was going to happen.
Vessali and Indra were working up through the forest, too far to be seen.
Desari limped out, ready to draw if she needed to.
Aramaus died on her walk. The essence spread through Desari’s core, revitalizing her as she clamped down on her reaction.
There was no balm for the soul, a feeling of wholeness.
She continued to her sister’s body. The arrow had gone through her neck, her glassy eyes looking up at the mists.
A girl that killed a woman that showed kindness, because she had never seen it. Out of jealousy, out of hatred. Desari swore she would kill all that killed those she cared for.
Desari grabbed her arbalest the iron prods a runed elemental prison. She slung her bow over her shoulder and stored the arrow and then moved up to the summit. She reached the top, the retainers silent as she wiped dirt from her face.
Her father’s face was nearly unreadable. The troubled look in his eyes and the pinch between his brows told the truth.
“Hello father,” Desari smiled. A thing as cold as the mountains, as dead as her feelings for this thing.
She touched the flag.
Attendants ran forward.
Desari waved them back.
She stepped forward, looking at the mountain below, the forest that ran into their valley. The Tinneld range beyond, and beyond that the heart of the empire.
Vessali and Indra moved through the trees, she caught their eyes. The beatings, the nicknames. The rumors and attacks. They had lived in fear every moment of everyday, no better than animals.
She raised her crossbow. “Should we clean up the line more?”
The cold aloofness would be burned away. Fear, their old friend would plague all of Lord Haker’s remaining descendants. Their known threats replaced with one they never understood, never paid attention to.
“Mercy is a virtue,” Her father said, his tone reprimanding, there were other houses’ representatives here. He moved forward towards her.
“A blade in the back is a surety.” Desari’s voice was low, so only he would hear it.
“Gredus?” Lord Haker asked.
“Killed him like a deer. Risal lives though. Or should.” Desari shrugged.
“You are now my heir. You will hold the weight of Hall Haker upon your shoulders.” He said firmly.
“I understand.” Desari pulled her eyes from her siblings.
She was an annoyance before. Now she was a threat. A heir. She kept the quirk that threatened to pull at the corner of her mouth.
She would take from them all she could. Then she would drag their name through the mud. Using her position she would claim a position where she could continue suppressing her family till they had to sell off every last weapon and armored greave.
Desari Haker intended to be the last heir of house Haker. She would destroy everything that this creature, the man who called himself her father cared for.
Then I’ll destroy you.
She’d made good on her threats then. She slipped through the Nether Chasm. The tunnel came out into a trunk of others. Getting bigger as they moved.
Miners chatted with one another. The heat greeted her, hotter than she knew it. She would have seen the threads of heat, the changing bands. The outlines of the people, colder than their surroundings. The energy moving around her.
It was like stepping into a tavern she hadn’t visited in a while. There were some changes, the people were mostly the same but a bit different, a bit removed. A disconnection where there had been a solid connection.
A sense of loss filled her. One that she fully expected to fix.
She passed a large gate it was set into the mining shaft, not easily seen from beyond. Fighting guardians and runes arbalests, the size mounted on walls, or used by Valter lay ready and waiting. Watching the way she came as much as the outside.
Her footsteps slowed as she exited the mine, looking around without gawking. The sky above was black, framed by the Nether chasm she was in the bottom of. Rails ran through the chasm to mines cut along its side. Lava flows ran over the sides of the chasm and into the slow moving lava at the center of the chasm.
Several streams met up in the forges that lined the sides of the chasm. Each forge was built like its own city, clinging to the sides of the chasm, spanning multiple paths that cut into it, consuming the metals and lava drawn forth and disgorging stone into the lava lake in the bottom of the chasm.
Desari picked up her pace and started jogging people were less likely to stop a guard running along. She followed the group through a forge. A great metal gate hung above, ready to slam closed at any moment. Roads and rails led into the forge. Miners moved past one another on shift change, heading out on their rail carts.
It was cooler inside, pipes ran through everything—snaking up along the ceiling to the higher levels and through the ground into the lower ones.
Their path took them deeper into the forge.
Elevators hissed and pipes rumbled, taking gear, people and materials up and down.
Desari slipped onto a large elevator. It shuddered and shook before rising.
“Something got the forgemasters all in a mess. Heard that the Netherforge Master herself came down to the lower levels,” One of the smiths on the elevator said to some friends.
“Only reason she’d come down here would be to forge up an epic item. Seeing the mines?” Another spat off to the side.
“I heard it from one of the miners working down on that collapsed mine.” The first said.
“Something happen over there?” The second looked much more interested.
Desari tuned them out, the information lacking.
The elevator stopped at different levels, people getting on and off, several wheeling carts.
She reached into her core, feeling the four threads there. She held onto the one linking her to Petor. He had been sending her mana for so long that she could pick it out easily.
We should figure out a way to use it to send signals.
She traced the direction of the connection, ready when the elevator reached the highest level. She left the forge. A wall ran around the chasm watched by guards. Pillars jutted out along the top of it.
A road ran along the inside of the wall, next to a rail track.
Desari grabbed an engine moving on the track.
Crates filled with finished goods were the main haul as they slowed at each forge.
They’ve got more of those pillars here. Not for direction.
They surrounded the forge and there was an entrance to the wastes beyond.
On the other side of the chasm she could see over the wall. Blackened rock with veins of lava running through it. A volcano erupted in the distance, throwing more black clouds skyward.
That must be Nether Forge. At the end of the chasm it looked like a cylinder covered in pipes had been uncovered by the chasm instead of built into it. Lava flowed out of its base, and into the chasm lake.
Her rail mounted train came to a stop at the forge, doors opening as guardians fitted with lifting arms stepped into the cargo area.
Desari moved around them and through the warehouse district near the rail tracks.
She slowed as guards watched the area, vigilant. Desari picked up her pace, nodding to one and jogging past. They nodded back as she entered the separate warehouse district.
Elevators led down, tracks led in both directions.
Crates were pulled forward on a line, people from the forge watching as Valter, Petor and Mya dropped gear from their storage device to be counted out.
Crates moved down, were sealed and loaded on various transports.
Limos waved his hand and a train was filled with items, neatly organized. A half dozen people with clipboards descended on it.
Desari moved around the edges, helping a group of guards tie down crates to get closer to Petor.
“So, what does Limos think?” Desari asked.
Petor’s head snapped up to her.
“Check the oath link,” Desari said, moving away with a crate.
Petor’s eyes unfocused for a second.
She did her delivery and returned.
“Have the information for you. We’re dropping this all off and then heading to an inn here.”
She stiffened with his words but kept moving.
She continued ferrying materials, warring with throwing it down and getting the information. Time seemed to stretch.
“That seems to be everything. If you excuse us we have some catching up to do,” Limos said, waving the others ahead of him and then mounting the stairs. “Where has the Forgemaster Peck given us liberty to stay?”
“The Steel Wood, it’s the best inn in the city. The guards will take you,” one of the people with a clipboard said.
Desari left them, leaving the area and turning into a facsimile of one of the forgers she’d seen on the elevators.
No one paid her attention as she moved alongside the carriage and the guards, too many people interested in the carriage that came from within the chasm.
They passed through gates, Desari slipping through one for pedestrians and quickly reached the ornately done up Steel Wood. The sign was that of a tree made out of discarded metal parts, weaved together artistically.
Staff were there to greet them, bowing and scraping as Limos and the others stepped out and into the building. Handlers moved cautiously to the beasts that pulled the carriage. They snorted at the handlers, disregarding them and pulling the carriage around to the stables.
She moved around the building, whistling wordlessly, something light and excited, a forger heading off to spend their coin on drink.
That should work.
Desari jumped, catching the third story roof and pulled herself up, laying on the tiles. The inn was laid out with a main building that everyone had gone into, an open courtyard that was styled with various plants that lived in the fire region. Even its own bubbling lava fountain. On the right under Desari was the living quarters for those of the inn. The rear wall had a doorway leading to the next street, left of the main building, separated by the path that the mounts were moving down. They released themselves of their carriage and stepped forward to the stables.
Handlers moved to take off the remaining tackle and got to work with brushes and bringing out various foods.
No normal horses that’s for sure. On the move.
Desari used her illusions to blend in with the roof, picking out one of the stable hands currently running away with a bucket of food Limos’ horses weren’t pleased with.
That’ll do as the next one.
She slunk across the rooftop, feeling them moving underneath her. A door opened.
“This is your suite, rooms for eight people, each with their own bathroom and sauna. There is the main reception room.” A double set of doors opened on the inner-courtyard side. “As well as a balcony where one might have tea or discussions.”
The voice turned away and back into the room. Enough windows open to carry the noise.
“Thank you for showing us around. If you could get us a selection of food. Enough for six I would say. I am famished. As well as some tea and desserts, my sweat tooth has always been my folly,” Limos chuckled.
“I will see to that right away mister Limos. What time would you like that by?”
“Say an hour and a half?”
“Of course sir. Please enjoy your stay.”
The main doors closed. Desari checked her threads.
“Well I will say, they do know how to build a place. This is some luxury,” Mya sighed as she fell into a chair.
“Those forges are powered by the lava flows. Materials come up from the chasm, through the forges to be refined, then turned into items and then sold up here. Smart operation,” Valter said.
Desari checked her surroundings, then swung down from the roof, landing on the balcony and walked into the room. “So, what’s happened?”