Chapter Forty - A Final Farewell

“You might think the entire Silvershire ordeal was a rather strange and pointless endeavor, but in reality it was quite handy. I learned a few things while there, see. Those Five Fonts the new gods were so fond of. They had to come from somewhere.”

***

Ruoland was the first to react. At least, the first to react in a negative way. The other members of the party were all quite happy when the machines trying to kill them shut off and they were left off the figurative hook.

The party’s leader, though, didn’t calm down.

The woman spun towards me, her slim blade held out with the point aiming towards my throat. “Who, and what, are you?” she demanded.

I patted my chest. “Me? Why, I’m merely a curious mind. And I dabble a bit in the arcane arts.”

Her sword spun and she set herself in a fighter’s stance. “Don’t lie to me,” she said.

“I was being entirely honest,” I said. “Perhaps I was downplaying things a little, but I do try to remain humble.”

“Mah, Ruolan, maybe it’s not the best time to be picking fights with party members,” Wrench said. I found it to be an immensely wise sentiment.

“He’s hardly done anything, and he’s far from what I would call trustworthy,” Ruolan said. “That machine, it called you an undead. I thought you were just some travelling barbarian who dabbled in necromancy, but... are you an undead?” Her grip tightened around the hilt of her sword. “Because if so, it’s my duty as a warrior of the Empire to end you.”

“Now, now, I don’t have any bones to pick with you. Oh hoho!” I chortled. “But amusing wordplay aside, would it be that wrong of you to have worked with an undead? What does your little Empire have against those who challenged the concept of death and won?”

“The undead are a blight,” Ruolan said. “From the very moment of the Empire’s founding we have fought against undead hordes popping up out of every corner of the land. It’s only now that we’re able to live peacefully in most lands.” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you one of the Dread Knights?”

“A Dread Knight?” I asked. That was a familiar name.

“Even if you’re one of the undead lords, I’ll do my best to slay you where you stand,” Ruolan said.

I sighed and gestured for her to calm down. “Let me ask you some questions, then I’ll put my cards on the table, so to speak.”

The woman’s stance didn’t change, and I noted Apprentice Yi preparing himself to fight off to the side.

Further back, Alex was helping the limpet to her feet. She was soaked, of course, and in a bit of a state after being thrown around, but she didn’t seem injured. At least, not past any injuries to her pride.

“If you’re going to be silent, then I’ll begin,” I said. “What do you know about the Five Fonts?”

Ruolan blinked. “The... what do the god’s tools have to do with.. No, I’m not telling you anything. You’re suspicious.”

“I’m much more than that,” I said. “I suppose learning that you know of them is a hint already.”

Hammer shifted and let the head of her namesake splash into the liquid next to her. “What’s that got to do with any of this?”

I fished my phylactery out of my pocket and held it up. “This is what powered the reactor. It’s also what powers the Five Fonts. At least, one of them.” I gestured to the reactor, which was in a worse state now than when we’d arrived. “And it’s what powered this wonderful contraption.”

“The people of this city copied the gods?” Wrench asked.

“No, it’s very much the other way around,” I said.

“Did you steal from the gods?” Ruolan asked.

I shook my head. “Could you please stop jumping to the worst possible interpretation of things? It’s not healthy. For that matter, it’s generally quite unpleasant when those interpretations paint me as some sort of villain.”

“But you are undead,” Ruolan said. She didn’t sound entirely certain of that. “You said you were here when Silvershire was still thriving, and the machine claimed you were undead.”

“Yes, I’m undead. There’s nothing special about that. The undead were quite common back in my day.” Mostly because I was raising them en-masse, but that didn’t change the statistical correctness of saying ‘quite common’ at all.

Ruolan shot forwards, feet skimming just over the surface of the coolant on the ground and sword coming around with a hum to slice at my neck. It was an impressive set of moves. One a movement skill of some sort, the other an ability that, if I was not mistaken, pushed some sort of magic into the blade to increase its cutting power.

There might have been some sort of bodily reinforcement ability at play as well. The sort of thing a warrior might use to improve their physique in a pinch. Three skills deployed at once, without so much as a whisper. She had certainly practiced that for some time.

I caught the end of her blade between forefinger and thumb, careful not to put too much pressure, and to absorb some of the energy in the sword. I didn’t want it snapping apart by the sudden jarring stop.

“Miss Ruolan,” I said as I held her blade in place. “I understand that there is some animosity between yourself and the undead.” My disguise fell away, and she came face to face with my always smiling skull. “Don’t let that animosity hinder your better judgement. There is no way for you to defeat me here.”

Ruolan yanked her sword back, and I allowed her to back off before turning to look at Apprentice Yi. The boy froze up and wisely chose not to carry out whatever no-doubt pointless endeavor he was planning.

“Mah, so you are a skelly then,” Wrench said.

“Is that an issue?”

The dwarf shrugged wide shoulders. “I know a few of the old sorts that would grump a lot about it. But you’ve been fair to us so far, mah.”

I nodded. I could appreciate the reasonable approach. “Thank you. I do prefer remaining undisguised if I can do so while avoiding conflict. Now, why don’t we all return to the surface? I’m certain that talking about things in the sun, or as the case may be moon, light would be far more comforting to everyone involved.”

“Ah, I could use a sit, Master,” the limpet said.

“Mmm, remind me to cast some sort of healing on you later,” I said. “It wouldn’t do for you to slow us down with broken ribs or the like.”

“Ruolan,” Hammer said. “It’s going to be a long trek back; we can put off fighting until then, right?”

Ruolan hesitated, and I could see the emotions warring just under the surface. Some part of her wanted to fight me still. I suspect the brighter, more intelligent part was reminding her that she was utterly outclassed and stuck in a facility some ways underground.

“How can I know that you won’t turn on me?” Ruolan asked. “Turn on us? The undead always want to expand, to grow stronger.”

“Master’s not like that,” the limpet said. “He’s not interested in expanding or whatever. He just likes magic a lot. He’s actually really nice.”

Alex nodded. “Bone Daddy is a good Daddy.”

“If I had a heart, I’m certain it would be quite warm, oh hoh!” I shrugged. “Besides, if I wanted you dead, there’s likely nothing you could do to stop me.”

Ruolan took a moment to consider things, then she carefully slid her sword back into its cane-like sheath and tapped the end onto the ground. “Fine,” she said.

“Brilliant. Does everyone have all the things they intend to carry with them?” I asked.

The three dwarves shared a look, then then nodded. Ruolan and Apprentice Yi weren’t all that heavily equipped to begin with, and Alex and the limpet hardly had anything but the clothes on their back to begin with.

“Let’s go then, shall we?”

“Mass Teleport.”

The lot of us appeared back on solid ground, just a few paces away from the camp we had left just some hours ago. A growl from the shadows soon revealed itself to be Fang, the dog paused, sniffed the air, then ran over to the limpet to beg for attention or whatever it was dogs did.

“Mah! Teleportation. Haven’t seen anything like that before,” Wrench said.

“And yet you’re familiar with it?” I asked.

“Some of the stronger dwarves who dive into old magics can manage it. Uncommon gift though, and not something used on the likes me me.”

I nodded. That was fair. Even in my day where the mages who could cast spells of that tier were more common, teleportation wasn’t something seen every day by the common folk.

“You... you could have teleported us right throug the entire complex,” Ruolan said.

“And if I had you wouldn’t have been able to observe anything, you wouldn’t have been able to map out what you did, discover anything, nor would you have gained some precious experience from it all,” I said.

“I almost got tentacle graped,” Yi said.

“And what an experience that was,” I said. “Now you have a very good reason to train up your reflexes for the next time a semi-sentient plant tries to plant its seed in you.”

Ruolan gestured to the side, and yi subsided before moving over to the tents they’d set up. “What are you going to do now?” the woman asked.

“The reason I came to Silvershire was partially to see what happened to the city since I was last here, and to see if that device that activated the reactor was still here. Or at least, one of them. It seems as if someone removed it. Which means that it’s missing, and judging by the state of things, it might have gone missing just as the city started to fall apart.”

“What are you implying?” she asked.

“That a city as grand as this one wouldn’t just fall. Or perhaps it could, but it was certainly helped along if someone stole the thing feeding the city’s power grid. Is it any wonder that the brightest minds went elsewhere? That’s all conjecture and hypothesis, of course, baseless and without anything more than circumstantial evidence.”

“Was this city that important to you?” Ruolan asked.

The irony of being asked that while standing in its ruins didn’t escape me. “It might have been,” I said. “The thing they used in the Five Fonts, there are more of them. Now I’m wondering how many are missing. I think that’s what I’m going to do next.”

“You lost your marbles and now you want to find them?” the limpet asked.

“Oh hoh! Yes, that’s exactly right,” I said.

Ruolan relaxed. “We still have work to do here. It might be a week or more before I can report that an undead of significant power was rooting around the area.”

“I appreciate it,” I said. “But you don’t need to risk yourself on my account. I can handle myself very well. Report away.”

She nodded. “Very well. Will you be leaving now?”

I looked up. The sky was awash with stars, some flickering faintly behind the partial cover of wispy clouds. “I think we will. The night isn’t that terrible a place for us.” I looked back down to her. “You mentioned Death Knights.”

“You’ve never heard of them?” she asked.

“Perhaps I have. Enlighten me.”

“They’re powerful undead. They speak a strange tongue, and lead bands of zombies and ghouls and skeletal warriors. They’ve attacked sects and temples and cities before, but it had been a century or more since they were wiped away by the Emperor’s might. I think the last of them are to the north, in the land of flames.”

“To the north... yes, I think that is just about where we’ll be heading next.” I bowed my head to Ruolan, then did the same to the dwarves who bowed right back. “It was enjoyable meeting you, and fighting by your side. Perhaps one day we will meet again.”

“Mah, I would hope you, ancient one.”

“Safe travels,” Hammer said.

Tweezers nodded and grinned, his own send off, I supposed.

“Alex, pick up the limpet, she doesn’t look fit for walking. Let’s head out!”

***