The balcony of the king’s quarters gave a splendid view of the city. From there he could see small figures strolling through the land, going about their lives, lit by the blue stone in the air he knew represented a sun, if only from stories. Through the centuries the massive walls that surrounded the entire land were stripped naked of the giant vines that could be seen growing on trees and pillars if you ventured a bit further down the realm. They had been used to build the smaller buildings that his people lived in. He could see the grey wooden buildings stretching till what you could argue was a horizon. It had a serenity to it, looking after the Lizard folk.
The king’s quarters were his favourite place of the castle, mainly because, just how these quarters did not belong to the actual ruler, he was not the actual king. They were both put in a position where their titles were not truly what they meant. Valen still thought so after all these years, not that he minded it. He used to, but not anymore. Time had taken that feeling away.
He enjoyed the luxury. Being a soldier, he never truly learned how to properly cook or clean and his love life had a bad reputation, making it difficult to find a wife after the war. He could have hired someone after his return, if it all hadn’t gone so quickly. Some days he wondered if his king planned it all, though he was awfully aware his liege was kind of an oaf and could have never Orchestrated this. It was probably on a whim after seeing Valen in command of his army.
Yes, He, the king that only stayed a year in his kingdom through all his “reign”, which has been long and is suspected to last another hundred years or so, at least. In the Labyrinth he reigned supreme, or so his people believed. It probably wasn’t far from the truth, since there were old tales of him fighting with the ancestor dragon.
Valen knew better than to refuse his orders, even if he was “The Unbreakable Wall”, he was still a soldier. And he was still his king.
Perhaps that was the reason he was chosen. Few people had the courage, or foolishness to move against him. Running into a wall would often have more merit than to argue with someone that could wrestle a golem to submission. Especially given the temper he was known for in his younger years as a captain. This too had faded with the years, but his command didn’t seem to notice, or were reluctant to test the limits.
And so, after a small forty years, it was common knowledge to not mess with the current stand-in of the king. And all lived by this knowledge. Except for a small few.
A younger, bronze lizard looked up at him, a scowl deep on his face void of eyebrows, as all lizardmen. He was not nearly as imposing as the wall of a man he approached, but still tall and muscled for his kind. He wore a slim sword by his waist and a vest that was obviously from superior quality, with golden wires forming a big snake that crawled horizontally through the black leather. In his hand, he held a bunch of papers.
‘I have the report you asked for.’ He held up the papers without even attempting to hide his annoyance at having been made to run errands. It was a task far beneath his qualities. ‘I’ll have you know I am still not content with this arrangement.’
‘Dear nephew, glad you still made it here this day. I was worrying you’d tripped and hurt yourself. It took you so long. I was on the verge of sending a squad of elites to retrieve you.’
The by far taller Lizardfolk, or Drake, which was the correct term in his case, had a soft spot for family. His niece had asked him to keep her son away from the frontlines and Valen saw this as a chance to spend more time with his nephew. But he did not care for the attitude his nephew had been giving him for the last month. If another man acted this way towards him he would have put him in his place, but he did enjoy pestering his young relative.
‘Now tell me, Xass, how fares my Labyrinth?’ Valen left the bronze, paper filled claw hanging in the air, clearly wanting the report to be read to him. He would review them in person later, but for now, vexing his personal assistant was a much more prudent matter. And vexed he was.
‘Your labyrinth is fine. And it would be even better if you found a better way for me to spend my time. I’m sure the whites wouldn’t waste a highly skilled adventurer in a position like… like a personal paperboy.’ Xass exclaimed in exasperation. He was actually one of the more skilled individuals around, but Valen agreed with his niece that his place was not on the battlefield. Not yet.
But his outburst made the stoic façade of the stand-in king break as the old drake grinned toothily and the golden lines that covered the deep bronze scales around his hazel eyes, formed to something aching to wrinkles.
‘And I will not stoop so low as to read you the whole report.’
‘Skip to the interesting parts then’ The king’s stand-in commanded while tugging at his deep red, leather tunic. He couldn’t handle soft fabrics, they made him uncomfortable.
Valen suspected that his nephew was actually late due to reading the report with great interest, probably losing himself in his own speculations. He also knew that the young man longed to talk about it, even if he pretended otherwise, possibly out of principle. Probably out of principle.
‘Well, alright then.’ Xass coughed as he began organising the forms as if he hadn’t already memorized what he was going to say and cleared his throat. ‘I suppose I’ll start with the most pressing matters.’
‘You do whatever you want.’ He would be reading all of it later anyway.
‘Several groups of newer soldiers and adventurers have been getting rid of the orc pit infestation in the fourth and fifth layers. We assume that the other tribes and colonies are doing the same. Cordifolius may want his children to be properly buried, but he did make it profitable to kill them in the first place. Which is good for us, because we can hardly spare our trained soldiers when the true battlefield lies on the third layer and several of our commanders have sighted an Orc covered in tribal tattoos, cutting his way through our forces.’
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‘Tribal tattoos huh, what is your theory on this?’
His assistant nodded in agreement before replying.
‘I have several. It’s possible that there’s simply been a cultural revolution, finding a new way to worship Cordifolius by inking their strongest warriors, but it’s also quite possible that he is the mud king’s favoured child, though the officers haven’t noticed a blessing yet.’
‘It would be troublesome if Cordifolius found a favoured child. We can only hope his blessing won’t be helpful in commanding their armies. Though it might have something to do with the mud pit infestation we’re facing. If so it might become very, very troubling if we don’t stop colonies from forming.’
‘I’ll have an envoy message them to keep reporting back whatever they find out on the matter and to prioritize the killing of mages until we find out more.’
‘Very well, that will at least keep them from relaying information and troops to the new pits a little bit, if we’re right at least. Continue.’ Valen waved a claw at his nephew who continued to read aloud.
‘The suspicion of Rat folk having infested the fifth layer has been confirmed. Evidence to at least two tribes was found and one group of scouts was nearly eradicated by what the lone survivor claimed to have been High-rats, which is ridiculous of course. Of the three group squad only one returned, heavily wounded.’
‘Disgusting pests. There everywhere nowadays. You turn your attention elsewhere for a few weeks and they find the opportunity and time to establish an entire community. With such logistics, you would suspect them to be somewhat sophisticated.’
The Drake was clearly moody to hear this. In his opinion, this might be more pressing than the appearance of a lesser god’s favoured child commanding armies. At least that could be fixed with enough time, but the rats would never disappear. There’ll always be some of them left and then it starts with two tribes, but the fifth layer was bigger than the other four and within months the tunnels could be infested with the things.
‘They are quite ravenous, yes. Perhaps we can push them into the whites their territory. Have them deal with it.’
The younger Lizard folk seemed quite pleased with his comment to the dissatisfaction of his uncle.
‘Again with this, Xass? We’re at peace.’
Xass just shrugged as he avoided Valen’s infuriated glare.
‘A lot of people agree with me.’ He muttered. ‘They don’t even speak the noble tongue like we do.’
‘Of course they do, you idiot. It’s just the lower classes that don’t use it as their common tongue, because it’s hard to speak. Have you truly not noticed that my subjects don't speak it either, or are just so spoiled in your upbringing that you only venture out of the golden district for adventure?’
The younger lizard felt like it was getting warmer as he looked at the ground and for a moment it was silent except for an upset grunt coming from the stand-in king. Then he spoke, annoyance still in his voice, but less.
‘Continue the report.’
Xass shuffled the papers again and cleared up a bit as he reached the exciting part of the report.
‘Two adventurer teams have made it into the third layer of the labyrinth. Both at different entrances and probably unaware of each other, but they’ll probably meet sooner than later. One is a very classical five-man band with good gear and maybe some veteran soldiers mixed in. the other is… weird, apparently. Four beings with unusual characteristics. Not much more is known about them.’
‘Everyone owns a map of the first layer these days. How bothersome. Well they’ll be the fifth and sixth to reach the third layer. Then they could help flank the Orcs. They’ll definitely want the chance to bury an orc hero.’
‘Not that they’ll make it out. I wonder what they’re like though.’ Xass visibly lit up at the thought of meeting a group from outside the Labyrinth, adventurers no less.
‘They’ll be annoying. Like any other adventurer.’
Was what Valen said, but even he wondered what lied out there and together with his nephew he wondered as he looked over the underground city of the Lizard folk.
‘Anyway, you can leave the papers on my desk. I’ll read them later.’
‘Are you sure? There’s more.’
‘It’s fine. Tell your mother I want to speak with her.’
The younger lizard winced at the command and made for the exit, leaving the older man to himself again.
He sighed, took in his kingdom one more time and moved inside. His room was quite lavishly decorated. Not that he particularly cared for that, but people kept giving him stuff. When he just moved in he only had some expensive leather furniture, a desk and a big mirror.
And his eyes were on that same mirror, standing beside his desk, tall enough to capture his massive frame.
He spoke some words that a non-mage would say were incomprehensible, but meant something along the lines of light up. And that’s what happened. The mirror glowed red and for a few minutes Valen waited, staring at his reflection until the light became a cold blue.
He let out a satisfied sigh before he moved towards the glass surface and then passed right through, entering another room where an old, white lizard man dressed in a blue robe was waiting for him.
‘I hope you didn’t wait in front of it again. I might as well not be inside my room.’
‘It’s good to see you king Aslandi. You too Raxan.’ He nodded at the other blue lizard, fully donning a formal white suit.
‘Always a pleasure king Valen.’ Raxan replied with a bow. He was a lot bigger than the white lizardman and more around his age. His face had several scars from his army days making his appearance quite a sight when he wore his formal clothes.
‘Come sit with me Valen.’ The white lizard beckoned him towards a small round table where Ragan helped him with his chair. ‘I wish you would stop doing that.’ He sneered at the younger man.
‘Like I’ve told you before, my liege, when you appointed me I read up on the proper ways of a king’s assistant and this was written to be customary to my job.’ Raxan smiled at his king and Valen laughed.
‘I see we both have difficult assistants, though I would love to trade.’ He stated.
‘You don’t know the half of it. I’m sure he only does all that because it makes me nervous.’
‘Well, that’s what happens when you call back officers from the frontlines. They get creative in ways to get to their foes.’ Valen laughed, the older man winced and the veteran butler smiled his polite smile, content with the amount of misery he'd evoked. The complains were a nice retribution.
‘But what is it you’re here for? It must be important if you’re using our mirror to come all the way here instead of sending me a letter.’ Aslandi claimed, waving Raxan away.
‘I just fancied your company.’
‘Oh goody, shall I have Raxan bring us some wine? Light up some candles?’ The older king asked with silver wrinkles of agitation.
‘No need, no need. I’ve had some upsetting news, though my nephew claims my labyrinth is doing fine.’
Aslandi’s eyes widened as he rose his non-existential eyebrows.
‘Really Valan? Do you also have a labyrinth these days?’
‘Certainly, and my sympathies lie with your assistant as I imagine what kind of verbal abuse he has to endure when you speak like this to a king.’ The bronze giant replied with an unfaltering smile.
‘You have my thanks, king Valen.’
‘Oh shush, you poet king. Now tell me what you’re here for.’
Valen nodded, his face becoming slightly more grim.
‘I suspect Cordifolius has chosen a favoured child who is leading the orc armies into my lands.’
‘Hmm, that would explain the sudden orc pits appearing out of nowhere. This could be a very troubling ability. I’ll keep up my guard.’
‘But what troubles me more is an entirely different infestation. Ratmen have been spotted on the fifth layer.’
‘Oh, for the sake of Ragon’s open eyes.’ Aslandi gasped, visibly exasperated. ‘Valen, you must agree with me on this.’ The drake nodded, looking at the butler who'd lost his composure.
‘They must be eradicated.’