“My liege, I highly recommend you make your ceremony swift and give the champion to the Deep Dwellers. That way we can minimize Chimera’s impact on the capital city itself. I can’t stress enough how we should have been there already but there is always something insane happening around him. He is calamitously obstinate.” Pleaded the Minister of the Interior into his communication crystal.

“Don’t patronize me Pentecost. He’s one man and doesn’t even have a specialization yet. Chimera is a lesser deity; how bad could it be? Don’t tell me you can’t corral him. By the time you get here we’ll be preparing for the Royal Ball that proceeds the games at the coliseum. I hear there will be a special bout this year. If you want to be in that viewing box with me, you’ll fall in line. Now invite him to the ball, I plan to thank him in person for his efforts during the invasion. Then we will proceed to the rest of my agenda. Now I have other matters of state to deal with. Get it done.” King Edric ordered and closed the connection.

“It’s strange that he won’t listen to your council, sir.” Wotan commented sitting opposite Lord Pentecost pouring him a fresh glass of wine.

“His majesty has an entire kingdom to rule. I serve at his will. Now how do we secure Deacon? Suggestions.” Lord Pentecost said as he took the proffered glass.

“You catch more flies with honey, my lord. Let’s just speak with him. My reports show he was able to work well with Jacob’s guild. He’s even amassed a small fortune with bargains guaranteed by The Bookkeeper. That was a surprise. I looked into leveraging taxes against him, but he has someone keeping his books for him. I looked into it and that bound Fae at the Adventurer’s Guild has reclaimed forty percent of its original power based on his business deals alone. It even refused to open the accounts to me. That guild will grow larger than the one in the Crystal Cascade if my math is correct. Many of the other adventurers have seen the value in their teller. They were poor once and have begun profiting from their quests. They even have repeating quests for resources. That guild now produces some of the purest healing potions I’ve ever seen. That is also because of Deacon’s influence. Based on all this I suggest we make an ally of him before his power grows beyond us and we are looked upon unfavorably.” Wotan suggested. When he finished talking and looked up, he saw Lord Pentecost wide eyed and staring at him mouth agape.

“What level of tax did you attempt?” slowly asked Lord Pentecost.

“I asked for the King’s tax on wages. The Fae just handed me signed letter from the Church of Ryan that guaranteed all kingdom taxes were paid in full and Deacon’s account was clear of any outstanding debts. It even had Ryan’s seal on it in triplicate.” Wotan replied bouncing in his seat as the carriage hit a stone in the road.

“I see. He needs a lesson in respecting his betters. I’m having a hard time moving past that. It will be a death sentence for him if he acts this way in front of the King. Perhaps I can offer him lessons at our next stop, to help him deal with the nobility in the future.” Pentecost mused before the carriage came to an abrupt stop.

“Find out why we have stopped. These delays have become vexing.” Barked Lord Pentecost.

Wotan exited the carriage and could clearly see why the procession had stopped. The stone bridge over Clayton Ravine was completely gone. They had used the bridge several months ago on their way down to Iron Mountain Plateau. It was in perfect condition then. Now it was just gone. Without that bridge they would have to double back to Mobius Lake and try to cross it using Clearfog. Lord Pentecost won’t like this. The town of Clayton is a few hours west of here. Maybe they know what happened to the bridge. With that thought he made his way back to the carriage to tell the Minister the good news.

Deacon sat back on bench cursing himself for not investing in pillows until the caravan came to a halt. He phased his head out of the side of the carriage and peered around. There seemed to be a commotion at the front of the line. Daskus was rushing forward to see what was wrong.

“Hey, get up everyone. Something is wrong.” Deacon said before fully pushing himself through the wall of the carriage. Tantus, Amanda, and Typhus filed out of the carriage while Ralph remained snoring. Deacon made it to the front first to see several knights pointing and looking confused over a great chasm in the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Deacon asked.

“The damn Clayton bridge. Can’t you see its just gone?!” One of the knights said gesturing at the road on the other side of the chasm.

“No need to be rude. I didn’t even know we were going cross a bridge.” Deacon huffed.

“That’s not good. That means all trade from the north is cut off from the south and vice versa. We should get to the bottom of this.” Armand said over Deacon’s shoulder.

“Armand! Good to see you. Typhus is terrible company.” Deacon said before getting kicked in the rear by Typhus.

“He saves one town, and he gets all mouthy.” Typhus said joining the conversation.

“This is nothing a little magic and know how can’t fix. Just needs to last long enough for us all to cross.” Came the voice of Master Mason Earl Tirebrook.

“I’m glad to hear it. Cardinal Unit, please take the Champion and his team to Clayton. I’d like to see if the town knows anything about this. I will work with the Master Tirebrook here to see if we can rebuild the bridge in less time than it would take to go back down to Mobius Lake and add a weeks travel to this journey.” Said an unusually calm and collected Lord Pentecost from behind them.

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll set my people to the task of collecting the necessary materials. This pothole is only about two and half carriage lengths wide. Nothing to Deep Dweller standards. Should be almost done by the time you all get back.” Daskus added as several of the Dwellers went off with Master Tirebrook to get started.

“Good plan.” Was all Armand said as he went to gather those coming with him.

“Get up already.” Deacon said shaking Ralph.

“Um…” Tantus began to say as several of the others turned their heads to look at him.

“What did you do?” Deacon asked very slowly.

“He was having trouble sleeping. So I gave him a vial of sleep potion I had. I told him just to use a little.” Tantus said sheepishly.

“He downed the whole thing, didn’t he?” Amanda asked.

“Yes, yes. I didn’t think it would be a big deal. We’ve been traveling in a carriage for days.” Tantus said.

“Ok so am I carrying him or are we leaving him here?” Deacon asked.

“You’re leaving him.” Armand said with finality.

“Why would you carry a sleeping comrade into an unknown situation if it can’t wake up? That’s just dumb. He’ll be perfectly safe here.” Typhus said.

With that they all headed west down the path toward Clayton. During the trip, Deacon asked what they knew of the town. Elle commented that it was a small town built on top of a hill with one whole side facing the ravine it’s named after. At the very bottom of the ravine was a river. Legend states the Clayton Ravine was the sight of a great battle between two high level denizens of the Earth-bound realm. Why they came down to the Mortal realm is still a mystery, but the results of the clash stretch out for miles in both directions.

“That story is unsatisfying. It lacks details like who won the battle and what did they do to create such a scar on the earth.” Deacon said.

“Well you tell the story next time.” Amanda said.

“Oh don’t say that. He’ll mix in some nonsense about his home world, and no one will know what he’s talking about.” Typhus said.

“Fine, this is the story of an orphan who grew up with his aunt and uncle in a desert that was apparently the center of their whole galaxy…” Deacon began.

A few hours and many in depth answers to questions later they came upon the entrance to Clayton. There were several homes smoldering and no one in sight. They all stood around shocked by the amount of corpses lining the roads. There was something odd though, the number of dead versus the number of homes didn’t make much sense. Sure it was a small city but this many dead bodies means they had to be packed to the gills in each home. Armand drew his weapon immediately commenting that some of these bodies were still warm. Elle changed into her owl form and took off into the air. Typhus and his shadow split up to go skulking about and Amanda was nowhere to be seen. Tantus pulled a stone from his pouch and began channeling into it.

“Maybe once we make it to the capital, you can spend some time putting that shield spell on some of our gear.” Deacon asked kicking himself for not thinking of it before now.

“It’s an expensive enchantment, but I’ll see what I can do.” Tantus replied.

“Shh.” Came from Armand as he focused on each step he took. Almost every door to every house was open. The thing that really bothered him was the lack of sound in the town. The group made it to a cross street when someone came barreling out of one of the doors.

“Help me! They’re trying to kill all of us.” Screamed a peasant woman running straight at Armand he began lowering his sword. Just before she reached Armand, Amanda was there kicking the woman’s legs out from under her. She hit the ground hard hissing in pain.

“What the hell are you doing?” Armand asked.

Amanda just pointed at the woman’s right hand gripping a stiletto. She walked over to the prone woman and punt kicked her right in the face. She stopped moving at that point. Amanda reached down and lifted the unknown woman’s left hand exposing a ring turned inward. the ring was inlaid with a ruby red stone.