Theo trudged back to the Newt and Demon. While the golems didn’t drain his willpower, his stamina had been reduced to a sliver after the long day. Of course, there was always a wrinkle to help set the day right. Twist waited for him by the gate, joining with the procession as he entered the town once again.
“Do you have a moment?” Twist asked.
“What’s up?” Theo asked, not breaking his stride. “I thought we settled the thing about Qavell. The place where Qavell used to be, anyway.”
“I told you I have news about the underground,” Twist said.
Theo stopped, letting his ever-increasing Wisdom shoot him some thoughts. Bug army, deep elf army, bug-elf hybrid army… Something was coming from the underground, and the alchemist certainly wasn’t happy to hear about it. “How big is the army, and are they immune to fire?”
“Big, but—How did you know?”
“It’s always an army or some evil someone.”
Twist cleared his throat. He put his hand to where his mouth should be, but the mask covered his face. “I’m not the most studied elf on rock-people politics, but there has been a development. They said something about a planned migration and then they were gone. When I wanted to tell you the first time, there were only rumblings about leaving. Now, they’re gone.”
Theo’s brows knit. His Wisdom of the Soul spat out reasons, but it was floundering. “Let’s go.”
The alchemist flicked through his administration interface. An ability of the Governance Core allowed him to access the military side of things. Aarok had organized the screen to be easy to use, assigning buttons and shortcuts for rally points. It was a neat feature that would be even neater if Theo’s heart wasn’t trying to jump out of his chest. A heartbeat after he signaled the call to arms, a clatter of bells rang through the town. Sarisa and Rowan didn’t need instruction. They had already taken the lead on the approach to the mines.
“Everything okay, Theo?” Gridgen asked.
“Clear the mine,” Theo said, already prepared to forestall problems related to workers being paid. “Broken Tusk will pay wages to anyone who needs it. Just clear the mine.”
Gridgen was a guy who had survived a lot. He didn’t need to be told twice to do something in such a serious tone twice. He dashed into the mine, ringing a bell, which caused someone deeper to ring a bell. A minute later, miners were fleeing from the mine.
“When did you discover the rock people were gone?” Theo asked, turning to Twist.
“Moments before I found you,” the pale elf said. “But I’m afraid it will get worse for you.”
“Of course it will. It always does,” Theo said, redirecting as many golems as he could spare for the effort. But the adventuring army in Broken Tusk would arrive first. Aarok and Luras were the first to show up. A horse sized-goose alighted the ground, and Tresk dove into the cave. She needed less instructions than the others, and Alex couldn’t fit. “Clear it level-by-level.”
Aarok looked confused at first, but saw the serious look on the alchemist’s face. He barked orders at the adventurers, and they went in. Theo downed a Potion of Limited Foresight and spread his aura wide. Twist joined him as each level was cleared. By the time they reached the bottom floor, where the entrance to the underground was, twenty metal golems had shown up. He ordered them down first, which they did without question.
“So, how does it get worse?” Theo asked.
“The dragon is gone.”
Theo closed his eyes. His tactical screen was still in the top-left of his vision. He watched troops disembarking from the tram, arriving from Rivers and Daub. When had Aarok created such a well-oiled machine, and when had the local system interfaced with the national one? With Pogo gone, the underground was undefended. Broken Tuskers didn’t go down there. There was almost no point, since the Russian rock-folk didn’t care for them. But the dragon claimed it had an oath to protect the cavern.
“How does an entire dragon disappear?” Theo asked, making his way down into the underground.
“I can’t say. But without the dragon, you’re open to the elves in the deep.”
Which was Theo’s fear from the start. The troops fanned out, searching the immediate area before moving into the abandoned town. Sure enough, the dragon was gone. Aarok was cursing as loud as he could, sending his voice echoing through the area. The alchemist’s mind was desperate to find a silver lining to this problem.
“Where the hell does a giant dragon go?” he asked. “Seriously, I’m not even mad about being abandoned.”
Aarok stomped over to Theo, glaring at anything that moved. “This place isn’t defensible, Theo. Maybe if there was a giant gods damned dragon in the middle, but look. Tunnels shooting off in every direction. A man almost fell down through a hole he didn’t see a second ago. This place is screwed.”
Theo sighed before shrugging. “Give me five minutes.”
“Got it,” Aarok nodded. “We’ll do a count of the tunnels and come up with something. Maybe.”
“Tresk,” Theo said, nodding to a particularly menacing bit of gloom behind a rock. “Wanna come?”
“Sure thing,” Tresk said, breaking out of the shadows and jumping on his back. “Let’s go!”
Theo and Tresk fell through reality. He covered them in Zaul’s shadows as they fell, passing over the bridge and approaching the ribbon of realms. He isolated the one belonging to Glantheir and approached the Realm of Healing. They landed in an expansive elven estate, where the stately lord of the realm waited.
“Where did my dragon go?” Theo asked.
“Nice to see you, Theo,” Glantheir said. He tried to sound annoyed, but it didn’t work for him. “Oh, I’d love a cup of tea. Thanks for asking.”
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Theo signed. “Come on. It was either you or Ulvuqor. And I like you more.”
“Ah, that’s better,” Glantheir chuckled. “Come. Have a seat.”
Theo shook Tresk from his back. She hissed, but scampered over to find an uncomfortable wooden chair. The alchemist found his own seat, looking out over Glantheir’s world. It was a world almost like the one he had created. Of all the gods, Glantheir had created a world that was almost Earth-like. He added nothing weird to it, but it still felt constructed. It was almost the real thing, but not quite.
“My dragon?” Theo asked.
“That’s your first mistake. Perhaps that was Khahar’s mistake,” Glantheir laughed. “The first rule of dragons is to never trust a dragon.”
“This is information I could have used before my dragon ran away.”
“Second rule. No one owns them. They’ll enter pacts and break them, like you just saw.”
Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh as he thought. Broken Tusk wouldn’t be right without a crisis, though. It had been a week and a bit since a city came crashing down, so an army of pissed off elves approaching through the underground section of the town only made sense.
“How many bad guys are we talking about, Glanthy?” Tresk asked.
“Thousands. Oh, Theo… they have magic that can drill through rock. Just so you know,” Glantheir said with a wink. “Ah, look! Khahar can’t see through Zaul’s magic, can he?”
“No one can.”
“You’ll need to find the shards soon,” Glantheir said. “But I’m afraid you won’t enjoy the Deep Void.”
“Why not?” Theo asked. “I’ve lingered in the void for a while. Doesn’t seem that bad.”
“If you thought time was weird in the heavens, the Deep Void is far worse. The Bara’thier have been isolated for untold time. Their worlds are strange, and you’ll need to seize every advantage you have if you want to get the shards back. We never figured out why, but there are five primal aspects of this world.”
“I thought there were four,” Theo said.
“Oh, had you figured that out? Khahar and I discovered it before the First Ascension War. The fifth aspect is the void aspect, which was the hardest to understand.”
Theo had linked primal aspects of the world to the four thrones a while ago. He segmented them in his mind. The Arbiter was the aspect of law, or justice. The Herald represented the aspect of continuity. As the Dreamer, Tresk was a bridge for the Herald, and the Dreamwalker was the bridge for the Arbiter. He hadn’t decided what those two thrones represented.
Glantheir cleared his throat, summoning a magical array. It was the most simple one Theo had ever seen. Four circles on the edge with symbols and one in the middle. “The center is Void. Notice the lines between the aspects. At their core, they are Heaven, Earth, Mortality, and Dimensionality. Arbiter, Herald, Dreamer, Dreamwalker.”
Theo felt himself drawn in by the diagram. While it was simple, it made sense. Like a fundamental law of the world.
“Yet they represent something else. The system is Heaven while the Shards are Earth. Mortality and Dimensionality, though? I couldn’t figure that out before I ascended. But I think Khahar has.”
“Why is this so important?” Theo asked. “What does it have to do with Pogo?”
“If it is connected to Khahar, I would guess it is connected with this concept. I also suspected that Emperor Kuzan knows more than he’s letting on. He was there during the First Ascension war.”
“What?!” Tresk blurted out. “That’s unpossible!”
So, Kuzan had been around since the start. Theo knew he was old, but never assumed that the Emperor of Tarantham would have been an original from Earth. That meant he found a way to stop himself from going nuts. The only reason Khahar needed to ascend was so he could keep his sanity.
“You’re wrong,” Glantheir said, smiling at Theo. “He wasn’t from Earth. And he wasn’t born here.”
“Again. Unpossible,” Tresk said, inclining her head to the god.
“Back in the early days, we tried to get back to Earth,” Glantheir said. “Earth is gone, by the way. Forever. But we figured out how the system puts outworlder souls on the planet. That’s how Khahar figured out you were coming.”
“Stalker behavior,” Tresk said.
“When Kuzan came, he didn’t have the same signature as an Earthling. It was similar, but we never figured it out. He showed up with a realm and knew how to use it. Back then, I was the Emperor of Tarantham, and I didn’t trust him. But the years went on, and he proved capable. We didn’t care about his origins and he had some good ideas. Too brutal for my taste, but it worked.”
“He had a realm?” Theo asked, pinching his eyes closed. He had rewritten what he thought was possible a few times today. What was a few more times?
“Droth Ker Teral Set,” Glantheir said. “Aligned with aspects of Death and Eternity. He was ready-made to live forever on the mortal plane.”
Everything linked back to the decisions these people made sixty-thousand-years ago. “But Khahar only held a proto-realm, right?”
“Yet Kuzan holds a realized one. Not unlike your own.” Glantheir took a moment to smile to himself. “The fates say you’re going to fight with Khahar one day. But that fate has been twisted so much already. The Burning Eye was meant to have you first before Khahar rescued you. I didn’t know about the Tara’hek plan.”
“I’m not thinking about that right now,” Theo said. “Any advice for handling the underground elves.”
“Kill them all,” Glantheir said.
Theo’s mouth fell open. “What? God of peace and love? Did you just say that?”
“They won’t stop,” Glantheir said with a shrug. “They’ll attack Broken Tusk, if only to loot it. Try to reason with them if you want this experiment to end.”
Visits to the heavens that ended in this many questions were always annoying. Since Theo could shield himself from the Arbiter’s gaze, he could get more information out of the gods who would share stuff. But if there wasn’t a solution to the underground elf problem, and war was the only option, then war it would be.
“You’ve given me a lot to think about,” Theo said.
“I bet I have,” Glantheir said, smiling that gentle smile. “Are you headed to your realm for tea?”
“We’re heading back to the mortal realm,” Theo said. “Preparing our defenses.”
“Good idea. Every minute counts when they’re coming down on you!” Glantheir said, winking. “Good luck.”
Theo and Tresk fell back through the void. Some tea would be nice right about now, but he couldn’t get his mind off the problem waiting for him in Broken Tusk. Aarok was still moving off when they arrived, going to issue the first commands to his people. The alchemist equipped his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and got to work. Glantheir said the elves could drill through rock, but causing a few strategic cave-ins would give them time. He worked with the adventurers to collapse caverns while the others established battlements in the most logical location.
Since the rock people rudely departed, taking their dragon with them, the town was demolished. Theo ordered his golems to destroy it, even recalling half his new work force to defend the area. Night fell outside and a camp kitchen was established, feeding all those workers and adventurers that were stuck down below. During a meal break, the alchemist assembled enough components to bolster his little golem army. Fifty more metal golems joined their ranks.
Midnight was fast approaching before they heard the first sound of raiding parties on the other side of the collapsed tunnels. The metal golems formed the first line of defense with the stone golems behind. Any underground elf that wanted to assault the defenders would need to go through a wall of angry metal and stone before touching mortal flesh. The alchemist would have a chance to test his theory about trapping souls on the mortal plane. Perhaps he could enact his plan to add more spirits to his realm. No matter how angry they were about being removed from their vessels.