Chapter XXIV#
Crosseye Citadel#
*an inconspicuous villain lair! they left the door open!
Warning
Chapter illustrations currently WIP.
I drove the dagger into the monster’s necks once, twice, thrice. Again and again. A different cut each time, trying to sever as much as I could before it all grew back again.
The manifestation radar had successfully detected a pack of arctosauris nearby, but had failed to mention a bloody minor hydra creeping in on them same as I was. Minor meant less powerful, but a million times sneakier and generally just kind of an asshole sort of monster. Catching it before it kited me to death had been a nightmare.
Eventually, the thing finally lay dead on the ground, necks splintered everywhere, other parts in a million pieces finally stopping their regeneration. It almost looked like that wing was going to grow a new hydra off it.
You have defeated: [Minor Forest Hydra]
Loot 1x [Minor Forest Hydra Tier XVI]?
I mentally assented, collapsing back onto a rock and dismissing my dagger. I popped a healing potion. It’s a good thing monster hunting pays well. Potions are expensive, especially for someone with my power set.
I went over the loot. Nothing too good. The arctosauris had left some nice meat. The hydra, for all I did taking it down, was pretty much worthless. Couple spines and scales – good for gear, but I was no blacksmith. Perhaps Bia’s friend back in Roriodo would like them?
I began back to camp. We would have to decide the plan for today. We needed a lead on Lloyd, we needed to get to Avertine, we needed information, we needed – hells, we just need a single win.
I came back to Bia and Arodorros making breakfast.
“You should really leave a note or something,” she murmured. “Glad he was here, said he could sense you over there. Or I would have gone looking.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” I scoffed. “You couldn’t care less.”
“I could not,” she chuckled. “How are you feeling?”
“Wait, once we fix this. What of the plan for today?”
“Well, we figure we should just continue on to Avertine. Telegate and all.”
“Why?” I said sharply, eyes snapped to Arodorros. “What happened to getting Lloyd first?”
He leaned forward with a sigh. “It’s where they want us to go,” he said.
I shook my head. “Are you on something?”
“Do some logic, Aryon. If the Haelborne plan to use Lloyd as a hostage, they’d draw us to the place they want us to be. That would be wherever they’re based in Avertine.”
“Since when were they based in Avertine?”
“I thought I mentioned,” he raised an eyebrow. “They don’t just come to worlds and begin wreaking havoc. You saw Troltano. That city was paved flat from the inside long before the first Haelborne arrived.”
“What?”
“They’ve snuck the cult into, well, every major institution on the planet. How do you think there’s so many cultists around that are just fae? They spread their message before they came. Dawne has it on good word that they have massive bases in several capital cities, all of them waiting for the time to strike. ”
“Right,” I crossed my arms. “Stupid fae, then. That’s good for us, we’re fighting them. What’s for them if we come to Avertine, then?”
“They control the variables there. Less unpredictability in their home ground, and they must’ve set a trap, or a challenge we could not beat. Something that would ensure Aryon relinquishes the hourglass. Metaphysical manipulation technology, even. Soul trauma. It would be the perfect place to do whatever they plan to do with the hourglass.”
“We were going for the telegate anyway,” I sighed. “So Dan was right then. Grim’s chasing us there. Maybe even chased us to you – and now they know for sure we’re coming. How would we sidestep…”
“We can’t,” Arodorros sniffed. “We know nothing. Our best bet is to walk into the trap and hope we can get back out.”
“Sounds stupid,” Bia commented through the toast in her mouth.
“Which is why we should just take the telegate,” Arodorros prompted.
“We had a deal,” I warned.
“The world is at stake, Aryon,” Arodorros stood. “Which is more important, I ask? The wellbeing of all of faevinity or one man barely advanced into the Governance?”
“Lloyd,” I was dead as any pan.
“Oh boy,” Bia said comically.
“You’re going to get us killed,” Arodorros snapped.
“Recompense for your instance,” I shrugged. “And simply the correct decision. At least the plan is simple. We go to Avertine, find this hideout of theirs, bust our way, win, grab Lloyd, and sprint to the telegate.”
“The schedules won’t line up, though,” Bia said.
“Then we can bust our way into the telegate too,” I said.
“And send all of us through in the chamber while nobody is at the console,” Arodorros said incredulously.
“We could just run.”
“You lost your friend trying to get out of Troltano. What makes you think you can escape Avertine so easily?”
“Well, I don’t think they’ve turned Avertine upside down yet, have they? There’s a world of difference between overtaking Troltano and overtaking Avertine.”
“Is there really,” Arodorros scoffed. “All the cities in this country are so very weak.”
“Surely they can’t amass enough cultists to take out all resistance like they did Troltano. I bet the Troltano operation was a massive amount of their forces. It doesn’t matter if they flip Avertine in a night. We just need to get out.”
“Here we go again,” said Bia, comically.
“Oh, stop. No argument,” I assured her. “Because it’s already settled. Right, Arodorros?”
He glared for a second. “If we want to get to Avertine before dark, we pack now.”
“Then let’s get to it. We will figure this out. We will win. Some-fucking-how.”
Avertine was only some fifty kilometres south-southwest from our spot. Only a few ours for t-seven legs. As we headed closer to the Sammememnon border, the terrain morphed. Haequar’s golden fields and yellowed forests slipped and bled into frozen marshes and iced tundra.
We eventually came across roads with a semblance of actual maintenance – paved bluish stones and lit lampposts along the backs of snakes, arteries circling the heart of Haelcrien. Towns and villages alighted across the flat horizon.
The slope was so gradual you couldn’t tell until you looked back and saw the little hamlets outside had disappeared. Avertine’s towers only stretched higher into the sky, seated in the basin yet taller than anything else around. Numerous streams and ponds formed on the steps down, the water a sort of orange. Some kind of sediment or mineral, perhaps. I bet Lloyd would know.
At the border of the city, the streams converged so that every path in was a bridge. Water puddled together into canals encircling the city, funnelling it underground into Avertine’s famous hydroaura generators and then looped away somewhere where it wouldn’t flood the streets. Playwrights long ago wrote this miracle – a majestic scene, if not for the misshapen hunks of stone wood metal sat in the centre.
We passed through a pair of gates. There were enough carriages here for need to use the sidewalks. The streets were filled with people, busying about. The perfect picture of a capital city – but it all felt tense. Perhaps news of Troltano’s subjugation was beginning to spread. I wonder if the Haelborne had done that to any other city – we were out of the loop, but I wouldn’t put it past them.
I heard whispers as we walked towards the centre of the city. I heard cultists, and demons and invaders and conspiracies wilder than dreams. I wondered if they’d even bothered to assemble a force to retake Troltano. It would likely only expose Avertine.
I joined the dim chattering. “How are we planning to find their place?”
“I imagine they’ll lead us straight to it,” Arodorros said. “Speed up the process.”
“Right, yeah,” Bia narrowed her eyes. “I don’t suppose either of you have noticed any big red arrows?”
I rolled my eyes. “Probably something more subtle, or the crowds would see it too. Maybe we can – right, Arodorros. Can you sense any cultists?”
“It would be rude to spread my senses over the city. We’d get detected and someone would come questioning.”
“I don’t think we need to be worrying about the police or whatever in our situation,” I scoffed.
“It would be easier to make this work if we don’t wake the whole city,” he hissed.
“Just do it.”
“No. It’s illogical. You don’t – ” He stopped abruptly.
“What?” my eyes sharpened, scanning around. I conjured my dagger, concealing it between myself and the wall.
“It appears the cultists are indeed leading us to them,” he said, eyes ablaze. “I sense one in my perception right now. They’re moving.”
“Follow, then.”
Arodorros led the way. We traced the lone cultist through several streets, closer and closer to the centre of town until the turns stopped happening and a straight road shot straight towards a massive domed building, surrounded by gardens. A hedge-lined path led up to its front door. A teardrop shaped wing extended from either side, and a sharp spire skewered the sky above the dome.
The cultist skirted the edge of the gardens, and we finally got a clear look. Odd, sickle-like ears, long hair. Dressed in red – the same as all the other reds we’d seen them wear, but this time not blatantly evil. Casually clothed.
They turned onto the side of the big building’s property and ducked into an alley, and we lost sight. A few minutes later we arrived.
On the left side, one of the building’s doors was left conspicuously opened. On the corner of it was carved their symbol – the eyes perpendicularly layered across each other. They stared at me and beckoned.
“That’s not suspicious at all,” Bia said. “What if someone else went in there before us? What’d they do then?”
“Probably just kill them,” I said. “I bet there’s good soundproofing in their secret lair.”
“But that – they can’t just cover those up.”
“Probably can,” Arodorros interjected. “Hooks in the government and whatnot.”
“Right,” Bia said.
“Do we just go in?”
“What else is there to do?”
“I will probe it first with my aura,” Arodorros said. “Perhaps it will flush out some of the immediate traps.”
“Anything, then?”
“Can’t tell,” he said morosely, and sighed. “Keep your guard up.”
He pushed open the door.
Inside was a staircase. It seemed to go back underneath the street – towards the large building. It was lit with fancy old lanterns that spewed yellow – yet somehow, their artisanry didn’t make the place feel ancient or whatever. Just, sterile. Something fake. Something built only for a purpose – no whimsy, no mortal hand.
The stairs led endlessly down, steps compounding together, perspective warping until they simple dissipated into light. Our eyes were too primitive to make out the individual steps past some point away. We should’ve been able to see that cultist that came down here, but they were nowhere to be found. Maybe it’d been an illusion or something.
Eventually, the steps hit a landing. A small corridor seemed endless as the staircase. The door stood there at the end, this one prominently displaying the Haelborne’s symbol.
“Does anyone actually know what that means?” Bia asked as I ripped at the door.
Locked. I gestured at Arodorros for Bia and broke out an axe. Modern locking spells make it much more worthwhile to go through the door itself than try to pick the security.
“I do not,” Arodorros said. “Dawne does not know much beyond the basics of the Haelborne. They did not come into our attention until they started making moves.”
I swung at the door. The blade stopped at the surface. Scowling, I handed it to Arodorros and his tier-sixty-something strength.
“You’re telling me you crazy powerful weirdos never noticed them infiltrating countries at all?”
“We wear many hats,” Arodorros swung and made a little headway. “This planet is not strong enough to protect itself from the things outside. We do much to streamline its development. The Haelborne were very low priority on the list. The people who spread the cult here must have told them never to reveal who they were – or the Matriarch would have recognized it.”
“Really now,” I scoffed.
“What is your Matriarch?” Bia raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t seem like regular fae if she’s supposedly so amazing.”
“She is unique,” Arodorros said, and this next swing shattered the door backwards.
Inside was a massive, grand atrium. Completely, utterly, empty.
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