Chapter 15
~<(0)>~
It had taken a quick creation of a packaged spell for Ophelia, but soon control was switched between them. Lyrei strode into the village, for that was surely what it had been mere days before. Stone foundations were scattered around in some semblance of order. The wall surrounding the town hadn’t been nearly as impressive as Fairpost’s, more like the kind of wall a farmer might use to keep animals in or out of a space than anything you’d see protecting a town. Huge swaths of it had been reduced to gravel, presumably from where the Abomination had tread. Charred structural beams were left standing like charcoal toothpicks, giving the suggestion of skeletal structures rising from the ash coated stones.
Lyrei put out the fires around the remains of the town and returned, feeling like she was desecrating a grave. “They never stood a chance,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“(What is that over there?)” asked the voice in her head, mentally indicating an odd, shaped mound in the ashen dust. Lyrei walked over and gently nudged it with her foot.
“Oh.” It had, at one point, likely been one of the inhabitants of this town. Now, they lay curled in upon themselves, body scorched and caked with grey, form reduced to little more than a mummified skeleton. Now that she knew what to look for, Lyrei could see them everywhere. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen the dead before, and this time was little different. She set to work, grabbing the bodies she could see in her telekinesis and moving them outside the town. There was little to say, and Ophelia was shedding distress inside her mind, but this didn’t seem the right time to try and comfort her.
She laid them in rows outside town until she was satisfied she had emptied it of corpses. With the town no longer a tomb, Lyrei searched through it more thoroughly, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for. A part of her hoped that she’d find survivors of some sort. She felt little at the sight of the dead she had no connection to, but that didn’t mean she wished it on anyone. Her search led her to the remains of a structure with some oddly disturbed ash piles, ones that she hadn’t made when she was had moved the bodies outside. She shifted the ash away with her foot, revealing not a stone floor, but a scorched though still intact trapdoor. She gripped it and lifted, peering down into the darkness as ash trickled down into what surely had been a cellar of some sort.
The Elf apparent judged the distance and jumped into the hole, bracing as she landed. She cast a simple light spell and looked around, seeing barrels stacked against the walls that likely contained alcohol, or at least had contained alcohol at some point. Her eyes then settled on the still forms of what must have been human children, huddled together. She approached, but they didn’t react. Lyrei reached out with her hand to touch them; they were stone cold. It wasn’t obvious to her how they had died, maybe by starvation, or perhaps asphyxiation, but they hadn’t been burned at all.
She grabbed their small forms in her telekinesis, climbing back up the way she had come, taking them over to the bodies she had gathered before. Compared to the others they looked almost like they would just sit up and start asking what happened. She wasn’t very good with human ages, but they looked young, they had barely lived any life. It almost felt like she could just restart their bodies somehow and they’d be fine. She knew, however, that was a pointless endeavour. Their souls had obviously departed their bodies days ago and there would be no waking of these children unless Kasira herself intervened.
She carried them outside the town to the rest of its inhabitants. There were over three dozen corpses, ranging from children to adults. She could hardly do anything to help any of them, no more than she could help the children she’d found in the cellar. However, there was something she could do for them. She didn’t know whatever rites they might have observed when someone died, but there wasn’t anyone left to perform them now. She used her telekinesis to excavate a large plot of earth from under the ash. She didn’t have the time to dig them individual graves, but she could do a mass grave like this. Each body was laid within carefully, then she piled the excavated soil on top of them. She finished off the grave with a pile of stones from the ruined village wall.
Her obligation finished, she made her way through and beyond the village, continuing to put out the various fires that surrounded the ashen path. She figured it was time to broach the question, though she was positive she knew the answer already. “Are you okay Ophelia?”
“(No…)” The voice that responded sounded thin and small, “(There were so many of them… they didn’t deserve to die.)”
“It’s my experience that most people don’t, and those that do rarely find themselves staring their mortality in the eye.” The elf replied evenly.
“(You didn’t cry. But… this isn’t like… like you didn’t care. You buried them.)” Ophelia’s voice was shaking.
Lyrei could still feel her passenger radiating considerable distress. “I did what needed to be done for them. You would have done the same, would you not?”
“(I-I yes… I would have done that for them. I would… have wanted to do more…)” she trailed off, clearly unable to properly finish her thought.
“There is little more that I could have done for them. Perhaps in time others will come and they will find the grave, and they will know that there were people here once. However, the longer we take, the more of the forest that burns. Even without a massive being radiating intense thaumic flames, a forest fire can and will wipe out any town or village that is unprepared for it. It was clear that no one came to this village’s aid, who will there be to come to anyone else’s aid, who is out here deep in the forest?”
“(I… I think I need some time alone. Please just… let me think.)”
“As you wish,” Lyrei nodded, more for her own benefit than for her passenger, “I will be here should you wish to contact me.”
With that her daughter went silent, and the elf moved on, extinguishing the flames as she went.
~<(0)>~
Aleon Perdan looked at the girl, Cassa something or another, her name hardly mattered to him. She was an academic and had apparently been sourced to spread the search net wide to look for the slime… to look for Lyrei. He shuddered and shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind.
“Is something wrong, Head Monitor?” asked Cassa, apparently having noted his discomfort.
“No, it’s fine. Just a chronic issue, that’s all.” Apparently this girl had been the one to discover the Chimeric Abomination, which had ended up leading them right to Ly- the slime. He hardly envied her being this far out in the middle of nowhere, not to mention how close she would have been to… Her. He didn’t want to be within a thousand kilometers to Her, much less within sensor range.
Right, he was here with a mission. “Did you notice anything weird when your equipment detected that energy surge? Anything leading up to when it started alarming, such as variations or other irregularities?”
Cassa shook her head, “No, I was sleeping. It… hasn’t been the easiest getting to sleep this far away from the Academy, so I was sleeping later than I normally would.”
The lie was written all over her expression, but he wasn’t in any sort of position to care about whether an academic overslept this far from supervision. As long as she got her job done, which honestly, she had, he didn’t have any complaints. Honestly, the question had been a bit of a stretch in the first place. “No, that’s fine. I wouldn’t expect someone to be looking at the readouts at all hours. That’s what the alarms and calibration are for. Did you notice anything in the time after that, until the energy surge ended and levels fell back to normal?”
“Well, there seemed to be a lot of fluctuation in the readings. I’m not sure what I was looking at, but the energy levels seemed absurd. I thought my machines were malfunctioning, but the higher ups back at the Palace seemed to take it seriously.” She looked shocked for a moment and then panicked, “Wait, is this some sort of investigative visit due to me sending in some sort of false report or something? I’m sorry if the machines gave wrong readings, but they were off the ch-“
“No, no, nothing of the sort.” He reassured her, motioning with his hands for her to calm down. It seemed to have the effect he wanted, though he wasn’t sure that what he was going to tell her next would help keep her calm. “Your readings were perfectly accurate. We… found the source of those readings.” How much should he say about it? Would it help for Cassa to know what they were searching for, or would it cause her unnecessary worry and stress that she was essentially the first line of defence against something they had reasonably mistaken a Chimeric Abomination for?
He'd taken too long to answer though, “Oh, I see. It’s something classified isn’t it? All they told me when I came here was that I was supposed to keep an eye on any sort of anomalous energy readings. Specifically thaumic ones, but anything way out of the ordinary was to be reported. Whatever it was… those energy readings were massive. It’s not exactly my field, but I had to use notation I’ve never had to use when recording real energy levels before. Whatever you’re looking for, I’m glad I didn’t meet it.”
“Y-yeah… m-me too.” He stammered out, seeing two titanic forces battling it out before his eyes.
“Are you SURE you’re fine? You’re acting like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
Aleon wiped his forehead with a sleeve and shook his head emphatically, “I’m fine. I… just… I’ve had to deal with a lot recently. I think that I’ve gained what I need from this meeting. Thank you. Keep up the good work.”
With that he made for the door, slamming it shut behind him.
“Something is definitely up,” stated Cassa to the open air. “I don’t know what… and I think I’m better off not knowing.” She shrugged and went back to relaxing. “What a weird elf.”
~<(0)>~
A mountain range rose ahead of Lyrei. She had been approaching it for a while now, slowing as she had to move further right and left along the scorched path as it widened. And now, ahead of her lay not only the mountains, but a massive crater like opening that led into the darkness of the earth. Lyrei examined the connection to Ophelia, but her passenger was as quiet as ever, and she wanted to give her space until she was ready to open back up to the world.
She had put out the fires that surrounded the tunnel, the area above it on the mountain lacking the forests of the valley below, and thus less affected by the forest fire. She dismissed the spell matrix, taking a step toward the massive hole. It was clearly freshly disturbed, in case she was under any misconceptions that this was a natural cavern of some sort. Cresting the edge of the crater she could see deep down into the tunnel, until the light ceased to reveal any further.
Once, she might have been nervous going into a situation such as this. Now though, she really wasn’t worried about what might lie down what was clearly an exit shaft created by a massive monstrosity. The fact that she had killed the monstrosity in question probably helped things. Chimeric Abominations had shown up in different global locations separated by hundreds of years. Whatever forces caused the spontaneous generation of such a dangerous entity clearly didn’t come together often. And, she figured that if there was something at the end of this tunnel she could likely kill it too.
Lyrei could feel a warm breeze wafting from the tunnel, with a sulphurous odor carried by the air, and as she cast a simple light spell and entered the mouth of the excavation, she could feel the warmth increasing as she descended. She examined the walls, mildly concerned about structural stability, but the soil and rock shimmered in her light and felt like glass to her touch, clearly melted by the violent and searing passage of the Abomination. It was hard to tell how much she was descending; underground geology and traversal had never been her strong suit. However deep it actually was though, it felt deep. Looking back revealed that she couldn’t even see the entrance light from where she was, even though she had never realized the tunnel was curving.
After a time she could see an orange glow ahead of her, and as she continued the glassy tunnel opened up into a large cavern, with open pools of magma surrounding the few points of solid rock across the bottom of the space. The tunnel put her close to the cavern floor on one of the patches of land, and she carefully lowered herself to it. It was blisteringly hot in here, and Lyrei was thankful for the temperature spells she had layered on herself. That said, if she fell in the magma, it wouldn’t exactly be fatal, but would be quite the unpleasant experience.
There was little doubt in her mind that this was the origin point for the Chimeric Abomination she had slain. The elf apparent opened up her senses to the energies of the world, sensing the core within her, then Ophelia’s body, then the ambient thaumic energy around her. Lyrei wasn’t sure what to expect, this being the first time she had ever actually discovered the origin point of one of the world ending monsters, but the levels felt quite normal. That said, she could feel a source of stronger thaumic energy seeping into the cavern slowly, causing eddies in the ambient levels.
“This doesn’t make any sense…” she spoke idly into the bubbling and hissing of the cavern.
“(What doesn’t?)” Asked the soft voice of Ophelia in her mind, “(Where are we?)”
“Oh, welcome back, Ophelia. Second question first, we are in what I believe to be the place the Chimeric Abomination we fought came from. It fits what I imagine such a place to be like, at least. Plenty of fire and magma all around. First question, I suppose I’ll explain a bit of context first. I’ve never had the chance to trace an Abomination back to its point of origin like this. The first time I fought one, we didn’t even know what it was, and I didn’t think to try and trace it back to where it came from, I just thought it spawned from the region itself, as some sort of regional monster. The second one is more difficult to trace where it travelled, due to the region it was in being the malleable landscape of the ocean. No trail of fire or ice to follow, just the ever-changing wind and waves. Suffice to say, tracking that down would be even more difficult a task, and at the time I still wasn’t aware that the Chimeric Abominations came from a specific location.” She started making her way across the strip of blackened rock, swinging her tracing spell back and forth to try and pinpoint the source of the thaumic fluctuations in the cavern.
“My point is that I certainly didn’t know what to expect with the place that such an entity was spawned, though I had theories, the main one being that this place would be saturated with thaumic energies. However, I’m detecting ambient levels, with nothing really out of the ordinary, save for one small part. There are strange fluctuations in the ambient levels, which suggests there is a source, or at least influx of thaumic energy from within the cavern itself. It could be some sort of magical artifact, or perhaps even some sort of other creature or entity that might be causing such an influx. However, I don’t know why an artifact would be in what appears to be a natural magma cavern, nor am I immediately aware of anything that might live in such a place that might have this sort of thaumic output.”
“(So where do you think it might be coming from?)” asked the slime.
“Thaumic energy doesn’t just… flow into the world at this kind of rate,” said Lyrei, waving her hand for emphasis. “That was the whole reason the Saturation Project was devised and created, which is why it has to be coming from somewhere specific.” She paused and waved the spell matrix around a bit, “I think I’ve got a direction at least.” Lyrei was pointing at the far wall across several magma lakes, and after a few moments of preparation, she cast a few spells and started running. As her feet hit the magma, it froze in a circle a meter wide, creating a sort of path of solid rock as she went. It cracked and broke apart after more than a second, but that was all she needed for each footstep. Within a few minutes of this she came to the cavern wall and, finding a place for her to stand, she felt at the wall, feeling the spell tug her towards it still. “Odder still. I expected there to be some sort of passage connecting this cavern to whatever is causing this thaumic leakage, but it’s apparently just leaking through solid rock like this.”
“(That doesn’t sound right. Wasn’t that part of the reason you built the Central Leyline Convergence Reserve underground, because the thick rock would help to contain the energy that would be collected there?)”
“That’s right, which means either the rock wall is thin here and there is another cavern nearby, or the influx of thaumic energy is extremely powerful. I wish I knew which it was. We can try and triangulate it, assuming the cavern is large enough to do so effectively. We can tunnel to it, though without knowing how far away it is, or even what it is, I’m hesitant to actively connect a magma chamber to something, and possibly vice versa.”
“(Is there any way you might be able to figure out what it is from a distance? Like, maybe some sort of signature or… wavelength or something, I’m not sure. Sorry, I’m not really sure about what might help here.)” The slime sounded a bit sheepish.
“There aren’t a lot of things I could try to track for. There are innumerable things it could be, especially since it isn’t actually IN the magma cavern as I originally thought it would be. Still, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to try it out, on the off chance it is something I recognize, now that we’re closer.” Lyrei altered the tracing spell and started forming it into something more complex, something to capture the various fluxes and waves the thaumic energy radiated in. “Wait… no, that can’t be right.”
“(What is it? Is something wrong?)”
“No, hold on. I’m going to teleport us.” With that, she cancelled the spell and started focusing her magic into the matrix of a teleport, taking additional care to add in a safeguard, just in case she was wrong. With a flash of light, the pair ended up in a darkened cavern, though thaumic energy could practically be felt in the air.
“(Where is this? What is this? Is this the source of the thaumic energy?)”
“This is one of the Saturation Project reservoirs. Like the Central Leyline Convergence Reservoir, but on a much MUCH smaller scale. When teleportation was developed, I put markers containing special coordinates in all of the parts of the network that would require periodic maintenance or check-ins, including reservoirs. This is almost certainly the source of the thaumic energy, though I wonder why enough energy leaked through into he magma cavern to spawn a Chimeric Abomination. If I had access to my notes on the Project, I could maybe determine the original qualities that made us choose this location, but unfortunately I left that with the Leyline Monitoring team when I turned over responsibility of the network to them. I wish I had some thaumatic analysis equipment, but my equipment probably got destroyed when we first met, and even if it didn’t, that just means the Elven Empire likely has it. What I wouldn’t give for even a loaner set right now… Ugh.”
“(What do you need analysis equipment for?)”
“Properly tuned scanning and analysis equipment can give a far more accurate reading of various energy levels and makeups. Spells can manage this to a certain degree, but the devices were designed to be far more accurate. If we were anywhere reasonably connected and civilized, we could likely buy one, or at least have one made by someone that knows what they’re doing.”
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“(Can you just make one yourself? From what I know of you, I’d be surprised if you didn’t invent them in the first place.)”
“You aren’t wrong, I did invent them. Though I only ever created the first few designs for them. While I certainly benefit from increased accuracy and information in regards to what I’m working with, I cannot be the sole person driving every single discovery on the planet. I don’t exactly remember, but I’m sure I got something I was happy with, shared the research and designs with someone else, and focused my time and attention on whatever I’d designed the device to read in the first place. My Device may have been a few hundred years out of date, with me making various personal modifications to it, but there are far more differences between my original devices and mine than between it and modern devices. I am almost ashamed to admit a gap in my knowledge, but I couldn’t replicate a modern device without already having access to one, in which case we wouldn’t need to replicate on. Not to mention the devices contain several materials which are nontrivial to obtain. I can conjure materials such as gold, that’s always popular, but I’ve never had to devise spells to conjure every single material I’d require to create even my original device. Supply chains exist for a reason, and it seems redundant to ignore the simple ability to source goods from those in the know by paying for them.”
“(So, I suppose you intend to find some place you can get a scanning device from?)”
“That is the general plan, yes. However, I’d like to first get some readings from within the reservoir. There should be a- ah yes here it is.” She tapped on a flat crystalline slab near the wall of the reservoir chamber, “This is the monitoring station for the reservoir, something I also added when I developed this sort of spellcraft. It draws energy from the reservoir itself, and tracks various levels and properties of the reservoir and this part of the network. It’s dreadfully old and quite simple, but I should be able to get an idea of what exactly is being leaked into the Magma Cavern.” She peered at the arcane readouts that flickered and danced across the surface of the plate, her face twisting in an expression of confusion, “Everything seems to be within parameters, at least as far this can track. I swear, what I wouldn’t give for a scanner right now. There has to be some sort of abnormality I’m missing, otherwise surely we’d have Chimeric Abominations popping up everywhere, and far more often. The fact that we don’t means there is something special here.”
“(Well, I suppose that means we’ll be heading back to the surface. The Elven Empire is off the table. I’m not really sure where else we’d go…)”
“Actually,” pondered the elf, “I think I saw something in the magma cavern suggesting we may have civilization quite close. Or at least people, and people can point us to civilization. Hold on, I’ll teleport us back into the magma cavern.” The return coordinates were, if anything, even easier as she’d traversed them so recently. With a flash Lyrei ended up in the sweltering heat of the magma cavern again. “I think I saw them over this way.” She started walking through the space of the cavern, keeping to the land as there was no point in walking across the magma if there was no rush. Soon, she caught a glimpse of sets of mine tracks reaching into the cavern on a larger plateau of rock. They ran back towards the wall and into an area that had completely collapsed. “This is our Civilization, Dwarves.”
“(Do you think they’ll be willing to help us?)” asked Ophelia, remembering what she knew and what Lyrei had told her of the elves’ relations with basically every race on the planet.
“Almost certainly not, but we’ll do our best to convince them to at least be civil with us. News of the Abomination’s destruction will surely help things a bit. I imagine they collapsed the mineshaft defensively when the Chimeric Abomination formed in their mining machine. Maybe clearing the shaft will help things too. Or maybe it will upset them more… I understand Dwarves far less than I understand humans or my own kind. As much as I don’t relish the idea of dealing with dwarves, It’s the only reasonable option to take right now though. You saw how the humans were distrustful of us, the dwarves will be much worse.”
Lyrei started to clear the cave in, levitating the massive chunks of rock to the side. It quickly became clear that the blockage was far more extensive than she had first thought, and she had to stack debris to the side. “I have to give the dwarves credit for something. They know their way around the underground. I could blast this rock using a spell, but I’m sure I’d risk further collapse. Dwarves can just tear through the earth like it’s nothing else. It’s hardly any wonder they built that mining machine. I wonder if they used it to initially excavate this tunnel. It’s a shame really… I’m no expert on dwarven technology, but it looked well built and designed. Then she blinked and smacked herself in the forehead. “I’m a goddess damned idiot. You can fit through anything that your core can fit through, right Ophelia? We’ll just try and make our way through this rubble AS a slime.”
The sound of laughter rang out in her mind, “(You know, I didn’t think of that either. Yeah, the only part of me that I can’t put inside my core is the core itself. Do you want me to take over, as I have more experience moving as a slime?)”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Let me switch over and you can try and find a way through.” She spun up the spell she had used to switch over before and hit herself with it.
~<(0)>~
“Everything alright, Mother?” asked Ophelia, looking around the magma cavern while she waited for an answer.
“{As strange as it ever is being without a body. But yes, I am fine. Feel free to proceed whenever you wish.}”
Ophelia collapsed into a slime, and the world suddenly went dark and silent, absent from their world. “(Woah. I kind of forgot that those are functions of having eyes and ears. It’s not a problem though; I was like this for the beginning of my life after all, nearly a hundred years.)” She flowed forward, seeping between the fallen rocks and working her way through.
“{I forgot how weird it was to have the whole world like this. I can work on some sort of dual clairvoyance spell, that way we at least will know where we are and be able to hear if we’re nearing the end of the cave in and, possibly, people.}” With that, she started to craft such a spell, the runework running through her mind.
Ophelia spread out more of her body, pulling more out of her core to search for a path quicker. She absorbed dust and smaller debris as she went, simply breaking them down as she went. It almost felt strange to her to be doing this again, though in this case it was more because she was going back to something so familiar to her. It hadn’t been all that long since she had been nothing more than a simple slime, consuming gelid thaumic energy and thaumic crystals, but there had been so much more packed into the period of time since then that it felt like so much more of her life. “(Mother, how long has it been since we met?)”
“{Hmmm, probably a couple weeks. Maybe three. It’s hard to keep track of the time with everything that’s gone on.}”
“(That’s fine don’t worry about it too much. It’s just weird to think that it’s been such a short time, comparatively, yet it’s been so filled with… well… everything, that it has so much more meaning to me than when I was a simple slime. I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences, some I’m not sure I’ll be able to come to terms with, to be honest.)”
“{If this is about what happened earlier… I haven’t been good at handling things in a while. I bottled my emotions away, sealed them up, and destroyed them. This is what turned me into who I am today. I have always thought I’ve done what is necessary, and I still think that, but I wonder. Take your time handling things at your own pace. Beyond that, I don’t really have any advice to give. I have heard that time heals all wounds, though I really can’t say.}”
Ophelia pushed deeper. It was hard to tell how far she’d gone, not that the depth would really mean much to her, especially since she didn’t know how far this cave in went, but she felt like it was important information to know. “(Thank you, mother. I suppose I’ll come to terms with things eventually. I never realized this world was so harsh.)”
Lyrei finished crafting the spell and packaged it up for transfer, before pushing it to Ophelia through the connection, “{Here is the spell package. The world is indeed quite the harsh and dangerous place, and it always has been. It was worse before the Saturation Project, much less forgiving, with very little magic to counter anything. New threats have popped up since the activation, such as slimes and, of course, the Chimeric Abominations. But more than that. There have been animals that have adapted to higher thaumic concentrations, some that have changed in other ways due to it. In the end though, I think the world was made better by the Saturation Project.}”
Ophelia pushed power into the spell and the world sprung into view around her again. She could see from the central mass of her body, around or through some of the rocks, able to get a better feel of her position. There was sound too, though not much, just the sounds of rocks shifting slightly as she moved through them, and the sound of the magma cavern behind, muted by all the rubble. And… “(Wait, do you hear that?)” she strained her non-existent ears, trying to focus the spell in the direction of the sound. It was faint, but sounded like voices, coming from the side of the large tunnel. She started pushing towards that direction instead of forward.
“{I don’t suppose we got lucky and found whatever city is based down here sooner rather than later.}”
Any chance of that happening was crushed when the tunnel turned out to be far smaller than the one they were in, clearly a side shaft meant for ore extraction. However, this meant that the rubble quickly petered out and Ophelia was able to, following the template, recreate her elven body. She had to crouch down in the tunnel, as it was obviously meant for dwarves. It was also completely pitch black and, with a little direction from Lyrei, cast a floating light spell. She dismissed the clairvoyance spell and started to make her way down the passageway. Ophelia could hear the voices more clearly now, and could tell there were multiple people conversing, though she couldn’t make out what they were saying from this distance.
After a bit she came to an opening in the side of the tunnel. Everything was hand hewn, but this looked far more… clumsy. She saw another tunnel that led deep into the rock, small and misshapen in places. The voices were coming from down this tunnel, so she crawled into it. Glad she hadn’t tried to pull out her equipment yet. It wasn’t the most comfortable fit, but she didn’t have too much issue fitting through the passageway. It didn’t have supports like the other, mining shaft, though that didn’t seem to be too much of an issue. It felt like it took forever, but her head finally poked through the other end of the tunnel, which was apparently in another mining shaft. She could hear the voices, louder now, though still unseen. She crawled out of the smaller shaft and into the mining tunnel, grateful to have the larger space to be in. Looking toward the larger main tunnel showed the same blockage of rubble. Looking the other direction, she saw something new. It was an alcove carved into the side of the shaft, large enough to fit a large stone box. “(What is that?)”
“{I’d guess some sort of dwarven chest. They use stone for a lot of things we might use wood for. Or at least, they did 2 millennia ago, but I assume that hasn’t changed too much. Go over to it and open it.}”
Ophelia did so and lifted the lid off, setting it to the side. It was mostly empty aside from some rope and what appeared to be some medical supplies, “(It’s nearly empty, do you think some dwarves got trapped in here during the collapse?)”
“{I think it’s a good possibility. If we can convince them to help us, we should be able to clear away the rubble with the assurance that it won’t all come crashing down on our collective heads. With luck, they might be our way to convincing other dwarves to help us. And it sounds like they are down that tunnel there.}”
Ophelia turned a bit and saw the passageway her mother was talking about, a similarly hastily bored tunnel into the wall, small enough she’d have to crawl through it again. She sighed softly and started into the shaft, “(this is quickly becoming one of my least favourite activities. I didn’t really realize how small dwarves are. I know you have memories of them, but this here is making it clear just how small they really are.)”
“{Best not to mention that in front of them. They are pretty sensitive about their height. Or at least, were the last time I met a dwarf. That was quite a long time ago.}”
She reached the end of the tunnel and, like before, fell into another side mining shaft, dusting herself off. A quick check towards the larger tunnel confirmed that it was still blocked off, but looking the other way revealed two dwarves at the entrance to another tunnel, one hauling rock out and into a makeshift bag formed from what had likely been their clothing, from their lack of a shirts. One turned towards her at the movement and his eyes widened in shock, and he shouted in a language she couldn’t understand.
“{Oh Void beyond, I forgot about that. Hold on, let me make some sort of translator spell. I know precious little dwarvish, but we can work from there.}” she hastily through together a spell, drawing up her memories of ancient dwarvish, realizing idly that it had probably changed in the vast amount of time since she’d been anywhere near a dwarf. It would have to do. She hoped that the language hadn’t drifted to the point her knowledge was useless. She pushed the package to Ophelia, “{Here, cast this quickly. It’s old Dwarvish, and barely anything, but it should improve as you continue to converse with them.}”
Ophelia cast the spell and the words of the shouting dwarf, who had ceased shouting at the dwarf with the rocks and had started shouting down the passageway they were digging. The other dwarf was eying her, holding a pickaxe somewhat defensively, but not with open hostility. The words were starting to become translated in places, though it was still mostly unintelligible. A third dwarf crawled out of the tunnel he’d been digging, covered in stone dust and soaked in sweat. He wiped his eyes with his hand and looked at Ophelia. He too, looked defensive, but also had a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“Elf…. Help….?” By the tone, it was obviously a question, even if most of the words were untranslated.
Ophelia replied after a few moments, working her mouth. “I can help you if you help us too. We want the same thing.”
“Trapped… cave in… fire… mine…” the dwarf gestured about. He motioned her closer, and she followed, a bit worried about the others, but they kept close to the other dwarf as he moved. He came to a similar box to the one she’d found earlier and lifted the lid off. “Supplies gone… won’t make it… help please… we repay…”
Ophelia nodded enthusiastically. “If you can tell me how to help us get out of here, I will help you get out alive.”
The dwarf who had been speaking to her turned and started speaking to his companions. From the words she could make out and the tone of voice, it was clear the other two weren’t thrilled with the idea of her helping them out, one worried she’d backstab them or that she was an elven spy. Finally, the one she’d been talking to turned back to her and let out a breath. “Elf Lady… I do not care who you are, or why you are here. I am not convinced you are not a trick of the hunger and thirst… Please help us get out. I do not know how you got in here… if you stab us in the back we, nor the dwarven city of… never know.”
“I want to help you get out as much as I want to reach the city. We can’t really go back the same way we came in. I can help move the rocks or… maybe help blow them up. I don’t want to cause another collapse though.”
“If you can move the rocks… great help. I will tell you which ones to move… can break rocks into smaller pieces and dump down tunnel.” She saw that flicker of hope burn a little brighter.
Ophelia nodded, “I can do that. Tell me where to start.”
~<(0)>~
What followed was slowly breaking and removing the rock that had collapsed. Instead of trying to clear the entire tunnel though, she was forming a far smaller tunnel through the rubble. The dwarf who was directing her, who revealed himself to be the leader of the mine inspection team that went in to investigate the unusual rumblings and had gotten trapped by the Chimeric Abomination. He was happy to hear that it had been dealt with, but also saddened a bit to hear about the destruction it had caused. He and the other two, more reluctant dwarves, made sure that the tunnel was as stable as they could make it. It was dwarf sized too, which helped the stability, even if it meant she had to crouch down.
The spell improved with further conversation too, and Ophelia was able to understand more and more of what he and the other two were saying. The team had made it to one of the side tunnels further down the main shaft when it was clear they weren’t going to be able to outrun the collapse and found one of the emergency supply caches stored within and had started mining towards one of the other side shafts in the hope it was clear. It had proved to be a good decision, as help hadn’t arrived, and they quickly ran low on food and water, even with rationing. When that shaft proved to be just as blocked off, they started mining again. They had just about given up hope of ever escaping, at least in anything other than a coffin, when she’d shown up.
Hours seemed to pass in the cramped tunnel, one of the dwarves remarking about how far the tunnel had collapsed. Another wished for the Wyrm mining machine that had caused the whole issue in the first place. But most of the words were simple directions. ‘Shear this rock here.’, ‘Break this in two.’, ‘Remove this large rock.’, or instructions to the other two dwarves to carry the rubble somewhere further back where it was out of the way. One made idle calculations about how far they’d run into the main shaft before the collapse caught up with them, how far they’d tunnelled through side shafts, and how far they’d tunnelled in the main shaft to try and get an estimate of how far they had to go. The outcome meant nothing to her, being a measurement she wasn’t familiar with.
The dwarves had looked ragged before, but now they somehow looked even worse. Ophelia could tell that the leader was struggling to stay conscious, even on his feet, but the fire of determination burned within his gaze, and she wasn’t about to have any of them stop. She didn’t feel tired, she never did, but she wouldn’t be able to keep working without one of them able to direct her.
It was then that a rock she removed caused the tunnel to shake, the dwarves swore in something the spell didn’t translate and started running away from the working end of the tunnel. Ophelia cast multiple telekinesis spells in quick succession, bracing the ceiling as rocks started coming down. A searing pain shot through her head as she struggled to keep so many spells running at once.
“{Keep it up and start moving back towards the start of the tunnel slowly. Let the furthest spells collapse first and keep going. I can teleport us out if we need, I’ll prepare the coordinates to the Magma cavern. Just keep doing what you’re doing.}”
Ophelia struggled to focus, trying to keep that many spells going at once overtaxing her. It wasn’t an issue with her power, she just needed to keep each matrix stable. She felt the first one falter and destabilize, and the rocks collapsed onto the ground, filling the air with a choking cloud of dust. Her focus wavered again, and she felt the second matrix falter, more rock crashing to the ground. She pushed to try and make another to hold up the wall as it started to crack and shift, and another spike of pain shot through her mind, causing her to drop all the matrices, the tunnel further down shuddering and collapsing in on itself.
After a minute of this, the cave in stopped and Ophelia looked back at the way she’d come. Her legs were crushed, a faint shimmering of her slime visible around and below. “{Oh, I suppose there was no real need to teleport you out.}” said Ophelia’s passenger and the slime laughed and drew in her errant slime before reforming her legs.
One of the dwarves cautiously came into the tunnel, the leader she thought, though it was hard to tell through all the caked-on filth. “You are okay. I do not blame you for collapse. You protected us while we ran.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop the collapse. Do you think we can keep going this way?” Ophelia got up from the spot she was in, crouching in the low tunnel and looking at the collapsed rock.
One of the other dwarves came in, surveying the damage. The expression on his face was unreadable. Then it changed, “Am I hallucinating? I can smell fresh air and the scent of metal being worked.”
The first dwarf sniffed the air and his expression changed too, “If you’re crazy, I’m crazy too. I can smell copper and iron being forged. It’s coming from the collapse.”
Ophelia started to move collapsed rock out of the way at the direction of the dwarf, breaking it into smaller pieces for transportation as before. It was slow going, the leader being extra cautious so as to not cause another cave in, but soon their was a shift in the rocks and they could see light beyond the tunnel. Within minutes, the three dwarves and elf apparent were standing in the open main shaft. The dwarves hugged each other, weeping openly at the sight of their home, something instead of their probable tomb.
Ophelia sat against the cave in off to the side, idly watching their personal celebration. “{The Dwarves had pickaxes and other mining equipment here. They were attempting to excavate the tunnel. I wonder if they knew the inspection team had survived and were trying to reach them.}”
“(Well, whatever the reason, I’m sure they’ll be happy to have them back.)” Ophelia smiled and wiped some of the dirt from her forehead. She would need to either clean herself thoroughly later, or simply absorb all the dirt and dust into herself at some point. Right now though, she was aware that appearing pristine would be bizarre, especially compared to the three mine inspectors.
~<(0)>~
The main shaft had been intact from that point on, extra shoring making sure the risk of further collapse was minimal. It was quiet, no sound of mining or even movement aside from the four of them. Drifting out of the gloom, a massive set of stone doors finally revealed themselves. One of the weary dwarves trundled over to a pull chain to one side of the door, and a bell could be heard faintly ringing on the other side of the stone. After a long few moments, the doors shuddered, shedding dust as they opened. On the other side, lit with lanterns, light glinting off of battleaxes and armour, dwarven guards peered into the gloom. Ophelia stepped back a bit, into the gloom, and watched as the inspection team reunited with their fellow dwarves. After a bit there was frantic gesturing back in her direction, and she stepped forward, into the light. Immediately, weapons were brandished at her, though no move was made.
“What is your reason for being here, Elf?” one of the guards asked, spitting the word for her race like it was a slur. Ophelia realized idly that the spell wasn’t translating, which meant he must have been speaking the language she and Lyrei used.
Ophelia took a deep breath to help calm her nerves, “I was investigating the Chimeric Abomination” at the dwarf’s confusion, she clarified, “The monster that collapsed the tunnel. It controlled your mining machine and dug to the surface, and I followed the path back here. I found them,” she gestured at the dwarves she had saved, “stuck in a tunnel to the side. I helped them get out.”
One of the inspection team, the leader, she thought, came over, speaking in the dwarven language, “She saved our lives. She may be a dirty elf, but she saved our lives.”
The guard turned to him, responding in the same language, “How can you be sure she isn’t a spy sent by the damned Empire, trying to kick us while we are down? How do you know SHE didn’t cause the collapse and blame it on something else?”
“She could have killed us or left us to die. I don’t think she was nearly as trapped down here as we were. And if she’s a spy, who cares? The city allows humans, lamia, anyone who is civil into the public spaces. She is no different. What will she see, information that could be freely gained simply by talking to any merchant? Let her talk to the King, let him decide what to do with her.”
The guard gave a sound of disgruntled acquiescence. “Fine, I’ll allow it since you’re vouching for her. If she causes trouble though, I won’t hesitate to defend my city.” He turned to Ophelia again and switched to her language, “I’m going to take you to the King. He’ll decide what to do with you. You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here.”
Ophelia nodded in response, feeling confused about everything and worried about the apparent and not at all subtle threats. “I won’t cause trouble, I promise.”
“Then Follow me, Elf.” Ordered the guard, turning to walk away. Ophelia followed.