The next morning, we ate well. Apparently, one of the things that had originally drawn Helman’s grandfather out this way, when he discovered the rift, was the hunting. Wild game was plentiful out here, and the energies of the plane made the meat far more succulent than you’d get in the material realm. Not just that, but everything was just that noticeable measure more when it came to food. Whether it was a result of being on a higher plane, or within a god’s domain, or some combination of the two, however, I couldn’t say.
Either way, the food was the perfect start to the day, seeing as how we would be heading back into the most dangerous part of the plane, at least for us. Others might see it as the safest, and most ordered, part of the plane, but being that close to Torm’s seat and all his angels was anything but a healthy proposition for us. We would need to be careful returning.
As we rose from the table, Helman came to join us, with a young lad by his side. He looked to be barely more than twelve, but the family resemblance was clear. This had to be the innkeeper’s son.
“Ah, good morning to you all. I hope you enjoyed your meals?”
Smile on my face, I nodded. “Aye, good sir. We haven’t had a better breakfast in many a year, I assure you. And who might this lad be? Surely you didn’t just make some clone of yourself and let it out before it was full grown?”
The boy bristled slightly, but the barman just laughed. “Aye, poor boy’s been cursed to look more like his father than his mother, and that’s the truth. But he’s got his mother’s brains to make up for it, so at least there’s that. His name’s Gerold. He’s my youngest, twelve years old last month.”
“Nice to meet you, Gerold. And don’t you listen to your father. He’s a fine-looking man, and if he weren’t married, he’d be beating the ladies off with a stick. I’m sure you’ll be getting plenty of attention in one or two years’ time.”
The boy relaxed a bit, and said, “For all the good it’ll do me, all the way out here. You three are the prettiest ladies to come through here in years. Everyone else is just old men and women working the trade route.”
“Well,” I laughed, “that just means you’ll need to spread your wings a bit. You know, I went on my first adventure when I was not much older than you were. Barely survived, all told, relying on luck and trickery more than anything else, but I made it through.”
Now the boy’s eyes shone like stars as he looked up at me. “Really, miss? You are an adventurer? What kinds of adventures have you gone on?”
“Oh, I could tell you all kinds of stories, but we have to be moving on. The only reason we were out here is because we were on a job that took us to another plane, and the only spells we had to hand to get us back were not the most reliable. Oh, they’ll get you to the plane you’re wanting, but getting to the place on that plane you want to go is another story entirely!”
“Oh, I know about that!” the boy said excitedly. “That’s the reason why traders come through the rift, instead of using magic. The rift might be a long ways off from the Capital, and other places, but it doesn’t move around, making it reliable!”
I nodded with a smile. “Yes, most merchants aren’t willing to gamble with their trade routes, once they have a sure thing established. Plus, portals like this rift allow you to haul a wagon through, which greatly increases how much you can bring to market, whether going or coming. The normal spells for getting from one plane to the other aren’t designed for that.”
“And that’s why we’ve been in business all these years,” Helman nodded. “Now, before you get going, Bazur and Gorgo, Rakash’s minions, have left town. A couple of the local hunters went to keep an eye on them, so they wouldn’t try and sabotage the circle, but they look like they’ve decided to cut their losses.”
I nodded slowly. “Probably going to try and find someone who can break the curse on their friend. If they find someone to break it, Rakash might be back.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem. Without the circle in his control, he’ll find his welcome quite lacking now. Most of the people in the tavern last night were from the area, and they’ll set him to rights if he tries to come back.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Fair enough. Then, I guess we’ll be heading off. Lots to do once we get to the city, after all.”
“Of course. And I’ll be sending Gerold along to the circle to get the crystal, as agreed.”
There really wasn’t anything else to say, so we said our goodbyes, and went to the place where the teleportation circle had been installed. It wasn’t a secret, or anything, since the traders went through whenever they were headed to the Capital. The way to the circle was even paved with stones to ensure that, even in the rain, carts could reach it easily enough, without dealing with getting stuck in the mud. A second circle, carved without any sigils or magic, denoted where arriving travelers would spring up from the other circle in the pair. Whatever else one could say about Rakash, he ran a slick operation.
Once we were all on the platform, I handed the crystal over to Gerold, as promised, and told him the command word. It took him a couple tries to pronounce the unfamiliar word, but he got it in the end. The world flashed white…
…and then we found ourselves upon a stone slab, the mirror of the one we had just been on, but this time the marble walls of Geburatiel were rising up in the distance, just a few hours’ journey by cart from the gates. A solidly built home stood next to the circles, no doubt where the keeper of this side of the route lay.
“I guess the lords of the city didn’t want people just randomly teleporting into the middle of town.”
I chuckled at Vestele’s joke, but there was no doubt that it was the truth. Once we were away from the teleport circles, I looked to her sister. “Siora, if you could use the Sending spell to get in contact with our friend?”
Siora nodded, and set to work contacting Oriel with magic. A few moments later, she looked up. “Oriel responded favorably. She said that she will meet us at the outlet to the sewers, where it meets the river.”
“Lead the way, then.”
It would have taken hours to reach the city gates by cart, but we were all a fair bit faster than that. Taking some care to avoid the gates, or flying high enough to draw attention to ourselves, we quickly made our way down to the shore of a river filled with golden waters, clearly infused with the magic of this place. We avoided drinking, just in case.
Following the river, however, led us to the outlet for the sewers, an opening large enough to drive a cart through. It was supposedly covered by a steel grate with bars an inch across, but that grate swung inward as we approached, moving on hidden hinges. The workings were completely nonmagical, but made so perfectly that one would have had to possess godlike vision to see the lines where the grate separated from the wall. Clearly the work of a master craftsman.
Oriel stood there, smiling widely. “Well, you certainly gave the whole city a scare. Everyone is talking about the Grimhold Repository just up and disappearing in a flash of light! From the lowest-born to the highest, it is the only question on anyone’s lips. Even the archons are concerned, if my information is correct.”
I smiled back at her as I stepped into the sewers, and across the wards that kept the ‘cleaners’ from escaping. “It was just as much a surprise to us, I can assure you! But that was merely one surprise out of many.”
“Oh? I would love to know what happened.”
So, we gave her the full story as we walked through the sewers, making our way to Oriel’s base. She asked to hear the full details of the fight with the Sentinel, and Siora was only too happy to give her the tale, only embellishing it in the best ways. When we were done with the account of the fight, she frowned.
“It sounds like you fought a Paragon in that vault. But I haven’t heard of a construct being a Paragon before. I was under the impression that, barring rare events, it was something that you had to be born with. And constructs, even ‘living’ ones like the Warforged, are not born, but made. Which means that somewhere out there is a crafter who can do the impossible.”
“That might explain why there was only one of them, actually.” We turned to look at Siora, who looked deep in thought. “Whether it is an act of a god, or the ultimate masterwork of a craftsman without peer, there should be a limit to how much one can put into your work. That Sentinel may have been the magnum opus of its creator, a Unique creature in all the planes.”
Fartooth shook his head. “Or it could have been brought over from Mechanus. There is a stable rift between that plane and this, after all. If that rift were there because someone used it to make hiring guards easier, then the Sentinel could have come from there.”
I chuckled. “And if there is anywhere in the planes that could ‘birth’ a Paragon construct, then it would be the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, yes. Even so, I can’t picture them being all that common. And the ones that are created would probably be priced quite highly, even when taking the resources of gods into consideration.”
“So,” Oriel said, “if someone put that much effort into securing the Repository, why did it go flashing off into nowhere?”
“A failsafe,” Fartooth said. “If anyone managed to kill the Sentinel, and more than a critical mass of the Guardians, the combined deaths would be enough to power the failsafe, throwing the entire building, and its contents, into the plane of Shadow.”
“And throwing it violently enough that it caused beings that might not have stirred for countless eons into motion. Not long after the building landed in the plane of shadow, it was attacked by three forces, two of whom were likely looking to raid it, while the third gave the impression of wanting to… consume it. Or at least bring it into its own domain.”
Oriel frowned at my words as we continued walking. “Domain. You mean like a god’s domain? I am not aware of any gods who make the Plane of Shadow their home.”
I shook my head. “Not a god. Something darker, and more primal. It gave the feeling of drawing the building in, and then never letting it go. Hells, it resisted letting us leave, even though it hadn’t actually drawn the Repository fully within its domain yet.”
“Hmm. If that is the case, then maybe that third force is the reason the failsafe acted as it did. With all the security on the building, the creators had to at least consider what would happen if someone managed to break through all of it. Releasing even a fraction of the items that you told me about, out into the world? That would cause untold levels of chaos, and would certainly get other gods involved, on all sides.”
I shook my head. “And no one would like that kind of thing popping up in their back yard. Makes sense to me. So, how did collecting materials for the ritual go?”
Oriel smiled darkly. “Oh, just fine. We have a large selection of ‘volunteers’. With three of the most prominent houses in the city all ‘disappearing’ with all their staff? Right about the same time that the Repository disappeared? Well, it wasn’t too hard to spread rumors that those families were plotting something. Don’t worry, we have them locked away someplace that scrying won’t find them.”
“Excellent. I would love to hear more about the ritual, then.”
“Right, let’s get to the ritual site, and we can go through the process.”