“You have disappointed me, this is unacceptable!” Trinette shouted at the water facsimile in front of her.
Although her cousin in the far north was the same rank as her and she was the head of her own family branch Beatrix was subservient in the hierarchy.
“Your incompetence has made our position much more untenable in calling their incompetence.”
Beatrix bit her tongue. The story she had been told about an incompetent bunch of buffoons forcing their way onto the contract and undercutting the families was obviously a lie, she had underestimated just the one blonde adventurer who was only bronze rank and was put on her ass. It made more sense how they got away from Greenstone and away from Trinette in the first instance.
“Cousin, we underestimated their resolve. We couldn’t track them coming from any obvious approach path and so fell back to wait for them at the destination.”
“Well by then it was obviously too late! I will be hard pressed to have the contract handed over to you for the onwards leg now. Where are the team? Do you have them?”
Beatrix winced. “No. They went below.”
“What do you mean they went below?” Trinette huffed.
“They went below with the Stonewallers, the team and an extra, they took their vehicle with them. There’s nothing and no one to grab.”
Beatrix watched as the water facsimile of Trinette started thrashing and breaking things until the water plopped back into the pool, the connection cut off. She sighed and headed out into the sunshine. Their town was less than a days journey from the Stonewallers and looked like it belonged in a western, complete with swinging saloon doors she pushed through into the sunshine.
“Thems city cousins ain’t happy then?” A voice said from next to her.
She looked down and saw one of her families most trusted servants sitting on the floor caving a block of wood with a little knife.
“Sebastian, how much did you hear?”
“Oh not much of any interest, I don’t know why you put up with some far flung family branch that don’t have a lot to do with y’all.”
“Because they have more influence than we do, they can make things uncomfortable for us, so we play their game. Sebastian, I’m going to need your help.”
“Aye I’m on it miss.” He drawled, getting up and grabbing his saddle bags that he was sat on.
He walked over to a large lizard, like a bearded dragon but big enough to ride, with a coloured frill around its head that shone red as he approached until he swatted it on the nose and it went green again.
“I’ll go keep an eye and see what I can find out.”
“Thankyou Sebastian, I will wait on your word. Bring something or someone back quickly, she has access to other waterlink chambers than the one she broke.
……..
The canyon was several hundred meters deep. They had started at the edge by the arch, a large natural bend in the canyon and they were standing on the inside edge. Looking down they had seen the floor down below had been carved even deeper, as far as the eye could see the walls were carved. Fantastic towers of the same colour stone of the wall had been hewn. Bridges of the same stone spanned the gap, crisscrossing here and there and they could see streets disappearing back into the wall. Everyone on the bridges either wore the long brown robes of carried large umbrellas so the team couldn’t make out any details. The towers and buildings carved into the stone were immense, literal castles bristled the side of the canyon.
“Please follow us.” Orcnig had said before he and his fellows had dropped off the edge.
“Should he be jumping around with that case now we’ve taken all the protective measures off?” James asked.
“Maybe we wait a few Mississippi’s before following… Ragnar, are you going to be able to follow?”
“I have no power to stop my fall if we descend this way.”
“Seems like a big gap in a power set! You know you can get items to help with that? Stay close to either me or James and we’ll make sure you don’t turn into a pancake.”
“Speaking of items,” Lucy said. “Maybe we take off anything magical and put it in storage, we’re about to descend into a natural array, we don’t know what fluctuations there are down there, Ragnar have you got magical storage?”
“I have a dimensional satchel I keep my wares in.”
“hmm, if you trust us maybe its best for us to hold on to that, our storage is racial power based and less likely to be influenced.”
“Ha, my god trusts you with his divine purpose, who am I to not trust him.” He said while handing over a plain looking draw string bag.
They took off all their magical armour and weapons, placing them into storage. The vambraces, satchel, hair beads and wand holster from Hero. Teddy’s magical boots, the iron rank mana ring that Lucy still wore and James’s vambrace which Lucy argued would probably be fine as it was soul-bound.
They all looked over the edge, as there was no explosion coming back at them so they all stepped off. They had time as they fell to marvel at the design of the cliffs, a lot of work had gone into them to make them a work of art as well as a functional city. As they descended maybe a third of the the way down their interface snapped off.
“TEDDY!” Kyra shouted in a mild panic. “THERE’S NO POWER SHARING!”
Teddy kicked off thin air to catch his wife. They were approaching the floor of the canyon and he started taking steps to slow their fall. James reached out and grabbed Ragnar and tucked the mans head between his legs so it looked like he was riding the vikings shoulders, he then transformed his arms into huge wings and slowed their fall. Lucy pointed her arm down and a stream of runes came out, she had used this ritual before and it caught whatever entered in it at whatever speed for a moment before dropping it on the floor, however this time the ritual failed.
“Crap.” Was all she managed to say before Lechuza swept down out of nowhere and caught her, talons digging into the shoulders of her jacket.
Everyone was safely down on the floor and the five Stonewallers that had been on the surface looked at them quizzically.
“Sorry, that was a bit more exciting than it had to be.” Teddy apologised.
“This way please.” Orcnig said, they only knew it was him because he was the only one who had spoken to them.
They followed the robed figures down one of the streets into the rock wall. It looked like any other city with shops and stalls and traffic but it got significantly busier the deeper they went, at a point where the natural light couldn’t reach their hosts pulled back their hoods. Their heads were completely round, hairless and pale. When they turned to the team they had huge eyes and almost no nose in keeping with the round heads. The team showed no outwards shock and Ragnar kept his mouth shut. They carried on to a large building carved into the rock with huge ornate pillars marking it as a grandiose location, the pillars were intricate and at least a hundred meters tall.
“You must meet our town council here, we do not have many visitors.”
They went through the large opening, huge steel doors thrown wide. On the doors facing inwards were huge engraved rhino heads, each head had two horns in a row, the long horns curved back with the front horn longer than the inside horn. The faces of the rhinos had what looked like armour plates all over them, covering the cheeks, chin, lips, eyebrows and ears. They saw many of the Stonewallers around the large entrance hall chatting and comparing notes, many wore the long brown robes that they wore outside on the street but they saw some who weren’t, wearing basic roughspun clothes they got a much better idea of the Stonewallers, they were on average seven to eight feet tall, and most of it was leg, their bodies were shockingly short and pill shaped. Their arms were incredibly long and reached down past their knees. They kept going until they were told to wait for a short while outside some more steel doors. When they were let in they saw a panel of five Stonewallers sat behind a high, long table. They wore caps and stole to mark them as the council members.
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“Honoured council.” Orcnig rumbled, the only one of their escort left with them. “I have brought outsiders. They have delivered the material for the Honshuraskil weapon.”
“And why have you brought them below. We do not normally play host. This environment is not compatible with outsiders.” A female sounding member of the council asked.
“Your honour, there is only one who is incompatible down below and he is brave.”
The council member that had spoken looked over the team until her eyes rested on Ragnar who was looking a little peaky.
“Essence user, remember your aura training if you have had it, pull it in tight and it will shield you for a time.”
Ragnar redoubled his efforts and looked strained but slightly relieved. Kyra had an idea and extended her aura to encompass him as the outworlders were not suffering in the same way. As soon as she extended her aura to him he relaxed even more, looking at her gratefully. As she extended it over the others as well the interface snapped back on.
[Well this would have been handy five minutes ago.] she wrote on the team chat.
“Council.” Teddy started. “I am Theodore Mitchell, this is my family and our friend Ragnar. It is an honour to be welcomed down below, we understand that not many receive invitation but we are ignorant to why, no one has explained much of anything about your town along the way which we can now see is a gross oversight.”
“It is something that many people find uncomfortable to talk about.” A different council member spoke. “We were once an independent city-state and had been for generations. As such we were isolationist and hostile by nature, we have always been weapons masters and no one has ever been successful in combat against us. The change came upon us slowly, over generations into what you see before you. We were once human but now something else, the natural magic of this place enhanced what we were and what we do but has damned us to remain in this place.”
Another of he council picked up the explanation. “Where once we chose not to leave for pride of where we came from now we are unable to survive outside this city. The same way that outsiders get sick on entering we get sick on leaving.”
“The few magic society members who came to study the phenomenon in person concluded that the change is irreversible. We are who we are. We can no longer absorb essences but every one of us is inherently magical.”
Their explanation didn’t seem rehearsed but they seemed keen to explain. They wanted to be understood.
“Because of the hostile environment, our inability to leave, our history of being isolationist and aggressive has caused people to shun and fear us even now. Our appearance is also alien to many even in a world with many different races.”
“Good old fashioned racism, fear the people who look different to you.” James muttered.
“Well we harbour no resentment and have no need to fear you until you give us cause.” Teddy said smiling up at the table. “We would like to stay and explore your city some if you will have us, our friend will need to leave every now and then to make sure he will not get ill but we will manage that. The reputation that came through the most of any information we were told about you was your expertise with weapons and armour, I have taken an interest in smithing and would be keen to apprentice during my time here if you would have me.”
There was an excited mumbling amongst them and Orcnig shuffled slightly where he was.
“We shall see, it would be interesting to see what an outsider could do in our forges.”
“Council.” James said stepping forward. We travelled with Baboa to get to you and he gave me a gift, a favour from your people to him that he has passed on. I have a unique item that requires an upgrade. He said the master armourer owes him a favour and has told me to ask for it in this case.”
The council had all been looking intently at James as he spoke but now all turned to Orcnig.
“Well, master armourer, what say you?”
The team all turned to Orcnig, he had removed his hood outside but it was only now they saw his face in the closeness of the council chamber, it was pitted and scarred and had burn marks up one side.
“Show me the item if it is worthy.”
“Kyra?” James asked, not wanting to draw it from his own storage as they were deep in a building and it would be mildly inconvenient and unsettling for anyone that the random creature passed on its delivery.
Kyra pulled out a hand mirror and looked at James’ outstretched hand with it. His vambrace appeared in his hand and he grabbed it with his other before it unbalanced. He walked it over to Orcnig. The big Stonewaller looked it over, he didn’t yet touch it but held his hands over it, his hands were human-ish, they had the same number of fingers but the first two were twice as long and bulbous at the end, the smaller two fingers were slightly spaced apart from the first two and looked more ‘normal’.
“This is soul-bound to you.” He stated matter of factly. “It is iron rank and you are beyond, it needs to be bronze, it must be.” He grabbed the item and looked at the council. “It is decided, my debt to the gold ranker will be repaid, I will remake this.” He turned to Teddy. “Come with me outsider and let us see what you can learn.”
[Oh dang, looks like this is happening, stay in touch! Don’t do anything stupid.] Teddy said as the big Stonewaller almost marched him out.
“For the rest of you we shall provide an escort, there are accommodations further up the wall that we have long since abandoned as they are outside the effect. They were used not long ago by an expedition and should be habitable. We will send someone up to sort them.”
“Please don’t make anyone ill on our account.” Kyra said. “We are able to make the space liveable for now. How long will we be here for?”
“The item Orcnig has taken will take a few days, he will work on nothing else until it is complete from the look on his face. He is the only one who can oversee the Honshuraskil weapon construction so it will be weeks after that.” The Stonewaller council member on the end rang a bell and a clerk-looking Stonewaller came in. “Please take these guests to Auster, she will look after them.”
“Thankyou.” Said Lucy and started heading out, she had to shove James who was halfway making some kind of bow at the council to herd him out. Outside they took a longer look at the street around them.
The sun had set across the canyon, and while there may still be light at the very top, down where they were at the bottom the day had set early. The Stonewallers that had been wearing the robes with hoods pulled up had taken them off and folded them away showing the true nature of the Stonewallers. The shops seemed to be closing up for the night but there was a preponderance of carts selling food and drink along with nick-nacks.
“I cannot wait.” Kyra said, going on her tiptoes and clapping her hands together.
“Champion Kyra, what are you in anticipation of?” Ragnar asked.
“Shopping Ragnar, she wants to go shopping.” Lucy said rolling her eyes.
A harried looking Stonewaller was hurrying towards them on its long legs.
“You are the outsiders!” She said when she stopped, they could only tell gender by the sound of her voice.
“It sure looks like we are.” Kyra said smiling. “I’m Kyra, this is Lucy, James and Ragnar.”
“I’m Auster, I was sent for to come and guide you through the city. The messenger said you are staying in the expedition lodgings? They have not been made ready for you and a team will not be able to until tomorrow at the earliest.”
“Not a problem, we will take it as it comes tonight and you may not need to send anyone anywhere uncomfortable for our account.” Kyra replied.
“We were hoping that you may have a water-link chamber? We should update the society to say we got here.”
“Ooh, we have, It’s rarely used but always maintained. When would you like to use it?”
“Now works if that work for you?”
They made their way through the city. They happened to be in the right district as this was the civic affairs area. They still had to go into several identical buildings which happened to be the stair wells that lead up and down, the team found it strange that the steps were human sized but the Stonewallers took them three or four steps at a time. A short while later they had explained to a nervous stonewaller that they wanted to connect to the directors private office in Greenstone and assured them that it was ok. The setup was fairly unique for what they had seen from similar facilities, they had obviously had to generate a work-around to get out of the natural array.
It took the director a while but she eventually came to the all. The connection was just about as bad as it had been in Yorsh, they could recognise it was the director but not much more detail than that. What they could tell was she was very dressed up.
“Evening Director, hope we haven’t pulled you away from a nice night.”
“The people were nice, the venue was nice, the performance was… lacking. I was not sorry to be called away and told them by all means to carry on in my absence. I’m much happier to hear that you have all made it to Stonewall.”
“We have, we had some help from some interesting people we met along the way.” Lucy said.
“Oh really, I’m glad, when we didn’t hear from you after Yorsh we were worried you had been attacked.”
“We were attacked, a scouting party found us not long after we fled the town when we realised that we may be compromised.”
“You were? We have been finding these strange monster hybrids flying around the City, the magic society has identified them as Crebain but no ones ever heard of them.”
“I wouldn’t worry about not hearing of them before, Teddy named them. And thats surprising, the Confederacy moving out in the open more it seems.”
There was a pair of beats and they wondered about the connection for a second before the Director reacted.
“Teddy did what? How in the sweet gods did you hear of that name?”
“A friend of ours Baboa told us all about it.”
“That silly fat man is still causing trouble… I’ll need to get back to you in due course but get ready to receive a lot of information now that you’ve been read in, by an outsider no less. Do not speak to anyone of this, not even people you think you can trust until we can read you in properly to the Adventure Society stance on the Confederacy.”
“Sure thing director. It’ll be nice to understand some of what was going on.”
“Have they said how long you’ll be there this time before moving on?”
“They said weeks so I’d anticipate two to three weeks. We can try and get them to be more specific?”
“Nono, don’t worry, what they do is often more of an art than anything and can vary in length. Are you going to have enough to entertain you in the area?”
“Plenty, we’ve all god projects to work on and the Stonewallers have been very friendly.”
Again there was a pause on the other end.
“That’s, surprising. But I’m glad to hear. There are a few calls for you that need to be organised. There are some people back here who are very keen to get hold of you as soon as possible.”
“Oh?” Kyra asked, inquisitively.
“The head of the merchants guild for instance is about ready to ask me black mark you, the families have been backing him in this endeavour.”
“What?! I didn’t even know we had anything to do with the merchants guild?”
“It can wait for tomorrow, now we know we can get hold of you here for a while we’ll arrange some times to talk.”
“Well I guess we’ll look forward to that all night then!” James said.
They made some more pleasantries and the Director cut the connection. They stepped out of the room to be met by Auster who shyly lead them up through the city. They stopped in an empty building. It was built like a Manor House but completely empty save for a few empty wrappers in one corner. They finished their day without Teddy gathered at the ‘front’ of the house, looking out over the drop into the Canyon and the very last of the light over the top.