I stood in front of the fortress, a large blocky stone building that was somewhat similar in shape, color, and material as the giant cube where the Guide resided, but the construction methods were so different that I couldn’t imagine that they were actually related.
Where the Guide’s cube had seemingly been made of a single seamless block of stone, the fortress in front of me definitely had not been. The two front corners looked to have been carved out of natural rock formations, but the rest of the building was made from large stone blocks. There was one large doorway in the front, with numerous narrow windows higher up.
Off to the side, I could see a quarry where the stone blocks had come from, and where they’d probably gained the material for all those stone walls I’d seen. These people were good at cutting out stone, which suggested that the fortress might have been dug downward as well as havig being built up. It could be much larger inside than it appeared.
Scattered about in front of the fortress were the remains of more of those grey dwarf people. There were seven of them, four women and three men. All had been armed, the women with those khopesh style short swords, while the men had all carried long braided chords with metal weights on the ends.
“These swords,” Ace started to say. He was crouched down beside two of the bodies, looking over their swords with a look of fascination on his face. “They’re artifacts…but they’re not.”
“What do you mean?” I asked Bunny asked him.
“Artifacts are made by the Labyrinth,” Ace explained. “The same way it makes the monsters. That’s what makes them artifacts. But these swords…” He tapped one. “The descriptions for them are…odd. It looks like they were partly made by people, then the Labyrinth just finished them off. Either that, or someone created the first one, then the Labyrinth just made artifact copies of it. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting. The descriptions aren’t very clear about that.”
“That does sound weird,” Turtle said.
“They’re not very powerful,” Ace continued, still staring intently at the swords…or more likely, at the descriptions he saw for them. “About the same as the weapons we’re given at the respawn pools. No special abilities.”
“Mad Mike,” I said in understanding. “The Guide said that he was after knowledge about how to create artifacts. Well…” I gestured at the swords, then at the fortress in front of us. “That would explain why they came here.”
“Indeed, it would,” Olivia agreed.
I turned my attention to the doorway and the solid wooden door that still blocked the entrance. I knew that Raze and the other rogue players could have gone right through that door if they’d wanted to, but instead, they’d made their own door, melting a hole through the stone right beside it. Had they done this as a demonstration of power, or just because they wanted to do something unexpected? I could only guess at their reasons.
“Definitely a shaper,” Olivia said as she looked over the melted hole. “That Godiva woman.”
“Be careful,” I warned the others. “We don’t know what we’ll find inside.”
Bunny looked at the bodies and grimy said, “I can guess.”
Maya blended into the shadows to become harder to see, then she slipped in through the hole first. She gestured for the rest of us to follow a few seconds later. Turtle nodded and went in after her with the rest of us following close behind.
Inside the fortress, there was a large open room, which I would have called a courtyard if it hadn’t had a ceiling. It might have been more accurate to call it a giant foyer, but that didn’t feel right either.
There were even more bodies present, though most of them were carefully lined up in the middle of the room. Someone was in the process of collecting the bodies and cleaning up after this massacre, which was clear evidence that at least one person had survived.
“How many people did those bastards kill?” Turtle demanded.
“Far too many,” Maya answered, though we all nodded agreement.
“They’re going to pay,” I said, stating it as a simple face. “And they’re going to pay with interest.”
I gripped my hammer tightly, trying hard not to think about similar scenes that I’d seen in the past, some of which had contained bodies of Wardens. Of people I’d trained with and fought alongside. Of friends. This was what happened when players went rogue, and it was far too familiar a sight.
A moment later, I heard the sudden sound of footsteps echoing through the room. Then people began to emerge from several doorways, each and every one of them armed. In mere seconds, there were nearly two dozen grey dwarves standing in front of us.
“We’re surrounded,” Bunny said, unnecessarily. Sir Fluff immediately stepped in front of her while her four horned rabbits surrounded.
“No shit,” Ace responded sharply.
I looked at the dwarves, if that was what they were. Each and every one of them looked terrified, furious, or determined. Most seemed to be a mix of all three of those as they shouted at us in some language I didn’t know.
Then, I noticed something. These people didn’t come across as competent fighters…or even confident. Some of them were hunched over, leaning on crutches and canes. Others looked as though they were about to piss themselves, yet still they stood there with weapons drawn.
“Wait,” I told my friends. “I think… They must think we’re with the rogues.”
I continued looking at the locals, noticing several more details. Some of them were wrinkled and frail looking, immediately coming across as being too old to fight. Their skin was a darker grey than any of the bodies that we’d seen so far. On the other hand, some of these dwarves were obviously young. They looked like scared children and teenagers, waving around weapons that they barely knew how to use. Those ones were all a lighter grey. Did these people’s skin color get darker as they aged?
“I think these ones are mostly the children and elderly,” Maya said, echoing my own thoughts.
“Oh shit,” Bunny gasped. “They’re the only ones who are left.”
“WE DIDN’T DO THIS,” I loudly called out. “WE’RE ENEMIES OF THE ONES WHO DID.”
The grey people didn’t seem to understand a word that I’d said, no more than I understood their language. I frowned at that, wondering how we could de-escalate this. I didn’t want to fight these people. They’re lost far too much as it was.
“We mean you no harm,” Bunny announced, holding her good hand out so that they could see she wasn’t holding a weapon.
One of the grey people stepped forward. She looked old and frail, hunched over and using a cane to stand. Her dark grey skin was leathery and covered with deep wrinkles. She was noticeably darker than any of the others. But in spite of her obvious age, she radiated a sense of defiance and fierce determination.
The old woman called out something in her strange language, but none of us understood. Then something changed, though I couldn’t quite say what it was. There was a tingling in the air and faint shimmering around her. Then she spoke again.
“Why have you come back, invaders?” the old woman demanded. “Have you not already taken enough from us?”
“So, she does speak English,” Turtle said.
“No,” Olivia corrected him. “That’s some kind of translation ability.”
“We didn’t do this,” I called back to the woman. “We’re enemies of the ones who did. We’re following them because they did the same thing to our home.”
I hadn’t lived in Gideon Heights for very long. In fact, ever since my respawn, I’d spent a lot more time in the Labyrinth than I had in town. However, those were details that this woman didn’t need.
The old woman slowly moved towards us, giving us each a suspicious look before her attention locked onto Olivia. She frowned a little, then nodded.
“You are the elder,” the old woman said to Olivia. “Is what the young one said true?”
Olivia blinked in confusion. “Elder?”
“I think they get darker as they get older,” Bunny said, echoing my own thoughts. “And since you are darker than the rest of us…”
“She thinks I’m the oldest,” Olivia finished.
“That seems to be the case,” I agreed.
Olivia stepped forward and told the old woman, “It is true. We have been hunting the people who did this…to make them pay for what they’ve done.”
For a moment, the old woman just stared at Olivia, then she nodded. She called out something to her own people in their language, and they all began to relax and lower their weapons.
“Come,” the old woman told Olivia. “Let us rest our old bones and talk. I would know more of these invaders.”
----------
I stood in what seemed to be a cross between a throne room and a living room. The old woman, who was named Elder Kraa, was sitting in a comfortable looking chair that seemed more cushion than throne, while Olivia occupied a similar chair. It seemed that among these people, elders were allowed to sit while everyone else had to stand.
Many of her own people surrounded us, with several of the older ones being seated while the rest stood. Since Elder Kraa had announced that we were not a threat, and that we shared enemies, her own people had been ogling us and our strangeness. Many of those oglers were children, tiny dwarves with light grey skin.
Olivia had taken the role of spokesperson and was telling Elder Kraa about the rogue players and what they’d done before. The old woman nodded along, sympathetic to our own losses even though they were nothing compared to what she and her people had suffered. At least, she was good at appearing sympathetic.
“Yes,” Elder Kraa told Olivia. “I saw them following a shard.”
“You know of those things?” Olivia asked. She gestured to the metal sphere which I held out for them to see.
“Indeed,” the old dwarf responded. “We know of the shards…and of the All Seeing Reflection whence they came.”
“What can you tell us of the Guide?” Olivia asked. “Of the All Seeing Reflection.”
Elder Kraa scoffed at that. “You carry a shard, but you know not the source?”
“We found it while tracking our enemies,” Olivia explained. “It was helping them with their goals, and it said that it could help us find them.”
“Oh, it was not lying,” Elder Kraa responded with a faint smile. “The All Seeing Reflection is a spirit of knowledge. It has long been sought for what it knows…and for what it might share. This is why it was captured.”
“Captured?” I asked.
Elder Kraa ignored me, so Olivia asked. “What do you mean by captured?”
“The All Seeing Reflection was imprisoned by those who sought to keep its knowledge for themselves,” Elder Kraa answered. “However, the spirit fought back and was shattered in the process. It is said that its knowledge is now as fragmented as its body.”
“And what about the people who captured it?” Olivia asked.
Elder Kraa shrugged. “Time has long since dealt with them. The only legacy that still remains, is in the prison that yet contains the Broken Mirror.”
“What about the rogues?” Bunny asked impatiently. “Where did they go?”
Once again, Elder Kraa ignored anyone who wasn’t Olivia. It seemed that their culture valued the wisdom of the elders, and ignored those who were considered young. This both frustrated and amused me at the same time.
Olivia repeated the question and Elder Kraa finally answered. “They stole our greatest treasure, an ancient record from our old world.” She snorted at that, rage flashing through her eyes. “But they slew Elder Rakla and her apprentice in the process, the only ones who knew secret of how to read it. Now, the knowledge is lost to us for all time. Even if we were to recover the treasure, none remain who can read it.”
“I am sorry for your loss,” Olivia told the old woman with a bowed head. “We will do everything possible to make those invaders pay, for all of the crimes they have committed.”
The rest of us echoed the sentiments, both the sympathy and the desire for revenge. Elder Kraa thanked Olivia while ignoring the rest of us, just as I’d come to expect from the woman.
“After the invaders murdered our people and stole our treasure,” Elder Kraa said, “they departed through…” Then she paused and let out a long sigh. “It is best I show you.”
Elder Kraa slowly got to her feet while a couple of her people helped her. Once she was up and stable on her cane, she began to slowly walk down one of the corridors. Olivia immediately followed her while the rest of us trailed behind.
Bunny leaned towards me and whispered, “Children should be seen and not heard.”
“Apparently,” I responded with a wry chuckle. “I just wonder what she would have said if she knew how damn old I really am. Or was.”
Bunny snickered at that. “Now, you’re just another one of the children. Just like the rest of us.”
“The disadvantages of becoming younger,” Maya commented with faintly amused look.
“And I lost my senior citizen discounts,” I responded, earning a chuckle from Turtle. “But it’s a small price to pay.”
Elder Kraa led us down the corridor, then out a door and into what appeared to be a walled in courtyard. I looked up, seeing open sky above me. It was Labyrinth sky, probably more illusion than reality, but it was sky nonetheless. Then she came to a stop and gestured.
“The invaders departed through this,” Elder Kraa stated.
She was pointing to the middle of the courtyard where a stairway descended down into the ground. However, one look was enough to tell me that this wasn’t a stairway that they’d build. This was one that had been created by the Labyrinth, one that led even further down into its mysterious depths.
“Interesting,” I mused aloud. Maya gave me a curious look, so I explained, “It looks like they built their fortress right on top of the thing, so they can control access.”
“Smart move,” Maya responded.
“Or dangerous,” Turtle added. “Anyone who wants to go through, has no choice but to go through them first.”
I glanced back the way we’d come, thinking of all the bodies that had been left behind. I doubted that there would have been any fewer of those if the fortress hadn’t been sitting on top of the stairs, but I couldn’t help but wondering.
“When you find the invaders,” Elder Kraa told Olivia. “When you find our shared enemies…” She stared intently at Olivia, then slowly looked around at the rest of us, the cold rage burning behind her eyes, “I want you to crush them without mercy or hesitation. Such filth does not deserve kindness nor pity. All they deserve is the swift resolve of Lady Avexis.”
“And that is exactly what they’re going to get,” I said, activating ‘Invocation of Spite’. Primal magic tore through my body, though I’d gotten used to it enough to avoid showing any outward indications of how much it hurt. A ball of red and black energy formed in my hand, drawing the attention of everyone within sight. “They’re going to get a good taste of Avexis’ power.”
Elder Kraa stared at me for a long second before a cold smile formed on her lips. “Good,” she told me directly. “Ensure you deliver every drop of our collective spite, for they deserve nothing less.”