All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 230: Heart of the Mountain

Bee nodded in return at Arthur's suggestion, "I think we can do better than having the Nighty Knights run messages. But yes, I agree. Something along those lines would be great. It should help to get them involved, but keep them safe. I don't know if you're aware, but their commander, Felix, has the ability to talk to anyone in his command over a large distance. I think we can use them to send almost instantaneous messages across the castle and maybe even the whole valley."

Arthur's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What is the skill's name?"

Bee frowned. "I'm not sure. It seemed unique, like many of them. It's not something I've ever read about."

Arthur nodded emphatically. "I've never even heard of anything of the sort."

"It seems insanely useful, though." Bee said with a shrug. "So far, we haven't really been able to explore it much aside from calling them together for dinner and such. But I imagine when it comes to coordinating battlefield tactics, it will be invaluable."

Arthur leaned back in his chair, thinking. "Well, I'll get one of my more experienced captains to debrief them. We'll see if we can learn anything about their talents that we can use in a more nontraditional role. I want to put some with the engineers, some as messengers, some with the archers. And if the commander… you said Felix was his name? If his messaging skill is as powerful as you said. I'll definitely want him with me. In fact, I might make him my squire or something if he's going to be commanding the Nighty Knights into the future.

"Between him and Bradley, I imagine we'll be able to help wrangle them into shape." The older man nodded to himself. "Perhaps I might be able to help set him on a path that would make him a better commander than someone simply trying to keep the men in line."

" I would like that," Bee said. "I'll make sure they're where they need to be. Let's assume we start this sometime tomorrow, since they'll have to finish reuniting with their families. But I need to go make sure that they don't try to sneak off again."

"All right then." As Bee got up to leave, the commander stopped her. "Oh, one more thing. Do you have any idea when Void might return?"

Bee shook her head. "None. Should we be worried?"

Arthur shrugged noncommittally. "You can never tell what surprises the enemy might have. We shouldn't need any backup by a long shot. But I'd be a fool not to know exactly what I have in store."

—-

I soared over the rock golems that were now wandering around the mountain aimlessly. I had considered going to find Daedalus, but I couldn't locate him anywhere on the mountain, and I was hesitant to leave the snowman undefended as they were for too long. But I found if I stayed high enough out of range, the rock golems would ignore me, and I could just observe.

Even at this distance, I was still ready to zip down in a second if the snowman appeared to be in danger. While I soared through the air, I took a moment to study the creatures as they rumbled along. After significant studying, I could kind of see a pattern in their movements. It wasn't a fixed pattern or anything like that. But, after observing enough. I saw that their pathing had them completely covering the mountain after an hour and a half or so of searching.

I could have devised a much more efficient route for them, especially with how many there were. But what they were doing worked well enough, assuming that was their job. It was almost as if they were on patrol. At least there weren't any redundancies in their routing.

However, from the snowman's village and their reaction, I could almost guarantee that this was a recent development. There were beds and everything in the huts that the snowman had, so presumably, they were used to sleeping inside. Unless they truly did not understand what beds were used for. I couldn't entirely rule out the possibility. But the presence of this threat was a much better explanation for why they weren't seeing use.

For one, it was quite dangerous. The rock men definitely had damaged some of the scrubby trees that grew up at this altitude by simply walking. They would likely have no problem stomping their way through a hut completely without malice. And if they were trying to attack? The village would be in shambles within minutes. Not to mention that if the snowmen were anything like humans, they needed quiet to sleep. The level of noise the rock men gave off while moving wouldn't make that an easy criterion to meet.

I again attempted to follow the strands of the energy fueling the rock monsters. Again, I found it led nowhere, just into the mountain. I couldn't see anything else leading away from the mountain, either. This led me to a frightening conclusion.

If there was no other energy source in the mountain, the only possibility was that the mountain itself was the source of the energy. What's more, this wasn't like the still energy that suffused Daedalus's artifacts or Beatrice's alchemy experiments. No, it was more like the energy that one might find in a living being. Did that mean the mountain itself was alive?

I hadn't even noticed this signature when I first approached. How many other things were alive right under my chassis? How many such instances had I missed? As my sensors gained more and more capabilities, it just made me realize how much I was missing.

—

Daedalus watched as Thucydides flapped frantically ahead of him. It wasn't that Thucydides was a poor flier, per se. His struggles stemmed more from Daedalus having a significant advantage when it came to size, levels, and even practical experience.

It had taken them a little bit of work and Thucydides scratching symbols in the dirt for a bit, but they had narrowed down the position of the anomaly that had drawn him here. Now, it was time to check it out. It wasn't too far away but buried significantly underground.

Right now, they were searching the area for some sort of underground cave entrance. He had little hope that even if they found one, they'd be able to fit through it. So he expected to spend some time burning his way through the rock to reach the location. Thucydides, though, wanted to exhaust every other option before he had to do hard manual labor. It meant that Daedalus was just about ready to drop to the ground and start digging if it meant finally doing something.

Thucydides made one final larger circle, trying to scan for openings. Daedalus just rolled his eyes. The red dragon banked and headed toward the spot they had located.

From here, they needed to go only about 50 feet down. It wouldn't take more than half an hour if they worked together or 45 minutes if he did it by himself. As he took a deep breath and felt the fire build in his chest, he watched as his little brother started to take another lap despite their agreement. Daedalus just shrugged his massive shoulders and focused, losing himself in the fire.

He modulated his magic output so that he wasn't expending too much power, just enough that his natural regeneration would offset his efforts to burn through the rock. It was the most efficient way of doing things. Especially if he was worried about something at the bottom being dangerous. Besides, it still resulted in a quite respectable stream of fire. The mountainside glowed with molten orange-yellow light as Daedalus exhaled. Clouds of vaporized snow obscured the streams of liquid rock that began to flow downward.

By the time Thucydides had given up searching for another easier entrance, Daedalus had already made it 95% of the way through to the source, at least by his estimations. Where there had once been a sheer mountain now, bore a glassy tunnel of molten rock reaching deep into its heart. He had started to have a little bit of trouble when the melted rock had blocked his fire from reaching new material, but a little bit of magic had taken care of it. Now, there was an obsidian tunnel wide enough for him to glide down as well as fly back out when he was done.

The two dragons slipped down into the cavern, Daedalus leading the way, and they found themselves in the circular center of a massive hemisphere. Across the floor, concentric circles of tiny intricate runes spread out in all directions. The runes were carved deep into the rock, showing little sign of erosion over time. As Daedalus read them, he started to understand what was going on.

The runes spoke of containment of a deep and ancient evil, one stuck here forever till the end of time. On and on they went. But he could feel that they were quite powerful. Surprisingly so. For something not made by a dragon.

"Huh. I didn't realize that they had moved the other Lieutenants after we bound them." Daedalus told his little brother.

"I hadn't heard about it, either." Thucydides said casually, shrugging.

"It appears they couldn't move him far," Daedalus snorted. "This wasn't that far away from where we had captured him. This one was the Death of Hope, I think? Anyway, it looks like they took the binding Archimedes made and reinforced it a lot and then hid them so that they wouldn't be tampered with. That was smart. I should find out who did that and thank them."

"It didn't appear to be enough, though." Thucydides remarked as they looked at the empty pedestal in the center of the circle.

"No. No, it did not." Daedalus said, rather disappointed. "It appears that everything is falling apart."

"Yeah, that's not good." Thucydides echoed. "Do you think we need to go track down Archimedes? I really have no idea where he's resting nowadays, but from what I heard, he was the only one who managed to do anything about this. With your help, of course."

"Of course. He wasn't the only one. And also, I wasn't involved with all their captures." Daedalus felt a surge of pride at how humble he sounded. "But it would be nice to find him again. I, unfortunately, also have really no idea where to look though. After we had rid the world of the last one, I mostly just stuck around and waited for Archibald to awaken."

Thucydides just rolled his eyes. Daedalus ignored the gesture and continued, "But, I don't think we really need to find him urgently. Well, it would be a nice backup. But we don't really have to worry. We have Spot, after all."

"Spot? The little guy you came with?" Thucydides asked with obvious skepticism. "Are you sure about that? I mean, he seemed nice and polite and all, but he's not even a dragon. What can he possibly do?"

Daedalus let out a deep belly laugh that shook the walls around them. "Oh, little bro. You have no idea. Spot may not be a dragon, but he's the next best thing. No, no. He's a godling."

"A– a what?" Thucydides asked.

"Ah, I forgot. Before your time, probably. I think the last godling died when you were but a hatchling. Suffice it to say, he's stronger than you. By a lot. A lot, a lot." Daedalus didn't add that Spot was likely stronger than him, too. It was close, but he wouldn't want to risk a one-on-one fight with the nascent deity. It's a good thing that the little terror was friendly.

Thucydides blinked, stunned. "Really? You're going to have to explain this whole godling thing to me. They sound interesting."

"That's one way of putting it. Anyway, we should probably head back and go see if we can find the little guy. It would be good to have him around if a Lieutenant makes an appearance." Thucydides shrugged, and without further ado, they beat their wings and rose from the cavern. It was time to go talk to a god.