Chapter Five Hundred and Five — Sympathy for the Monster
Chapter Five Hundred and Five — Sympathy for the Monster "You can unhand me, now," Amaryllis said."I'm not quite done yet," I said as I gave her a cheek rub for good measure."Is this normal?" Laine asked."Awa, I think so?" Awen tried.I decided that two minutes was long enough for a hug, at least this kind of 'I'm happy you're alive' hug. Obviously, I could have gone on for longer, but I didn't want to annoy Amaryllis too much."Sorry," I said. "I was just really worried."Amaryllis huffed a weird huff that was hard to translate, then she reluctantly wrapped her wings around me. "Fine," she said. "I was worried about you too. For nothing, obviously."I grinned. "I think everyone's made it here, then?" I glanced around and counted heads. Obviously Awen and Calamity and Desiree were fine. Orange was snoozing. Miss Laine was here, as was Sir Aberrforth, and they seemed to be standing closer to each other than I would have expected from the witch's previous behaviour towards him. The explorer we'd found earlier was patting the shoulders of two others who'd been with Amaryllis.It looked like the one we'd found in the mines was here too, he looked happiest of all to see his friends."Is everyone safe, then?" I asked."Safe?" Miss Laine asked. "Hardly. After being scattered through these blighted tunnels by that blackness, I no longer have any conception of where we are. We're easy prey for the monster that stalks these halls."I glanced at Laine. "Would this ... monster ... happen to be a shadowy figure hidden in an aura of near-impenetrable darkness?"Laine whirled to face me. "So you've seen it!" she breathed out."Yeah, I've talked to him. We shouldn't have any problems getting out.""You what," she said so flatly that I wasn't even sure it was a question."I spoke to him for a while. He's... not that bad?"She stared at me for a long moment, her mouth working soundlessly. "... The monster living here is evil," Laine said. "My predecessors have been guarding this area for generations, fearful of the day he'd emerge from this accursed maze to destroy what's left of the Darkwoods and the world beyond that.""Well, he's had a long time to reflect, you know? Centuries, it sounds like. He really ... the way he talked, he really hates his past self. He said that it was good for the World that he'd been sealed away." I wrung my fingers together. "I think he's a better person, now."Laine shook her head. "You are mistaken. A monster cannot simply cease to be evil. Those kinds of stains don't wash out.""I mean, maybe not instantly, but I'd like to think that evil doesn't really exist as like... a tangible thing. It's meanness done for the joy of being mean with no regard for how it hurts people, but that's not something solid. It's more like... a sliding scale of nice to mean, and sure, he was pretty deep into the mean at one point, but the fun thing with sliding scales is that you can slide back sometimes, with some effort. Am I making sense?"Miss Laine didn't seem to believe that was likely. "You're claiming that the creature in this space is what... kind and friendly now?""Uh, well, maybe he hasn't slid back that far yet," I said. "But he didn't hurt me, did he? He was maybe a little rude, and socially awkward, but those are a far cry from being evil right? He's been buried underground for hundreds of years, so ... that makes sense! Not a lot of opportunities to socialise! And anyway, being rude and awkward isn't evil, right?""The legends say that he destroyed multiple towns and stole a precious artefact," Miss Laine said. Her hands found themselves on her hips and she looked less than amused.My friends were watching the confrontation, which made it a smidge awkward."Well... okay, that is a rather mean thing to do, but it was a long, long time ago, right?" I winced even as I said it. Time was only so much of an excuse for bad things. "A-anyway. I reasoned with him, tried to make friends, and one thing led to another and he left. I don't know if it's to sulk or meditate or if he just turned shy, but he at least let the lights come back on. Sorta." I gestured to the magical lights we were all using to push away the dark."We can discuss morality and the like once we're back under the open sky," Amaryllis said. "I'm not fond of enclosed spaces at the best of times, and this one I like less than most."That seemed reasonable. We asked around to see if anyone had a good idea on how to leave the cave, and it turned out that one of the Exploration Guild grenoil had a skill that helped them navigate dungeons and the like.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.That reminded me that I had to tell my friends the full story of what happened below, but... I wasn't sure if I should say it in hearing range of the others. I liked to think of myself as the trusting sort, but there was a difference between being trusting and being willing to spill dangerous secrets in front of people I'd known for less than a day.The faded memory of being executed for dungeon murder still lingered in my mind. Even if I had a good reason to ... break ... the vision-core, I wasn't sure that Laine and Aberrforth and his companions would be understanding.The grenoil led us up, then around a bend, and finally back down a rather heavily sloped room. I was worried that maybe his skill was on the fritz, but the passage soon levelled off and brought us into an area where the walls turned more natural and where a large steel door barred the way out.It was made of metal thicker than a finger joint and even with the rust covering it, the door seemed strong. Which is why it was so worrisome that it was bent and dented as if it was made of cardboard and someone really angry let off some steam against it.The door was technically still closed, but the bottom was bent up enough to squeak through without any trouble.So we did, filing out into what looked like a more natural cave without any of the signs that someone had worked on the walls or built anything other than that doorway. One of the grenoil recognized the area, though. "There's a part of the mines that leads here," he said. "We walked right past this place, I think. But we didn't see the... oh."Turning, I looked at the door and... it wasn't there. There was just solid stone. Calamity was closer, and he reached out to touch the stone only to pull his hand back covered in red rust. "The door's there," he said. "Just illusioned away.""And in a darkened tunnel, without strong mana-sensing, you'd never think to look," Amaryllis said. "Clever.""My ancestors built this trap, this prison, very carefully," Miss Laine said."Not carefully enough to keep whatever was in there in, clearly," Amaryllis said. "That door's not keeping anything determined away, and I can't sense any magical traps in the air here. If there were any, they're worn out."Miss Laine didn't seem happy to have her ancestor's work poked at by Amaryllis' rather critical opinions. I patted Amaryllis on the wing to tell her to calm down a little."Let's just get out of here?" I asked."Before that, we should return to where we were before we got pulled down," Calamity said. "I dropped some gear when I got yoinked."There were a few more nods all around, so he wasn't the only one who'd lost some equipment. I hadn't even thought about it, but it was true that I'd had Weedbane with me earlier and now it was gone. Oops?The grenoil led us up and through the mines, taking their time as we came to areas where the supports had fallen apart or where parts of the mine had started to collapse. It looked like time was wearing out the mines in a bad way. There was even a small stream of water running down the side of one tunnel we walked through. I figured there were good odds that parts of the mine were flooded.Eventually, we were back in the sections we'd come down earlier, and then it wasn't hard to retrace our steps to where a lot of our gear was just... laying on the ground in random heaps.Once we all had our stuff gathered, we felt a bit more secure, even if the mines still held an ominous air and were definitely still spooky. I hefted Weedbane onto my shoulder with a grunt of relief.As we continued down the mines, always heading up and towards the surface, I couldn't help but feel like something was watching me from behind. Whenever I looked back, though, there was nothing."We should, ah, hurry," Awen said."Yeah, daylight's burning and all that," Calamity said with a nod.Miss Laine sniffed, then sighed. "You may stay at my place for the night. No, not you Aberrforth. You're sleeping outside. But the rest of you deserve at least that much hospitality.""Thank you!" I said.Miss Laine nodded stiffly, her eyes scanning the rocky path ahead. "Let's make sure we all make it out of here first," she added, a hint of urgency creeping into her voice.We made it to the room where the explorers had camped and they were quick to gather up their own things.Then it was time to squeeze our way out of the mines. I insisted on going last, since I could make myself smaller and leave in a hurry if it came to it.I glanced back before leaving, expecting ... something.But there was only darkness behind me as I left.
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Chapter Five Hundred and Six — That's So Metal
Chapter Five Hundred and Six — That's So Metal I had a lot to tell my friends, and I really couldn't wait, but that didn't mean that I was silly.Well, I was maybe a little silly, sometimes, but I could be subtle too, when I wanted to. I trusted my friends with my life and more. Amaryllis and Awen were like my sisters, and Calamity like a cooler older brother. Orange was trustworthy too, of course, as much as a cat could be, and I was growing to love Desiree like another new friend too!It was the others that I wasn't sure about.The three grenoil members of the Exploration Guild didn't seem keen on giving us their names or even talking to us much. They were also all giving Aberrforth the stinkeye, probably for good reason.Aberrforth himself was... a nice-enough kind of man, but I wasn't sure if I could trust him yet, and Miss Laine was very clearly not interested in being trusted. She was willing to extend some hospitality to us because she was nice and polite, but I had the impression she would be happy to see the back of us.So I kept my actions to myself. Destroying a dungeon core was a big deal and discovering that there was a modified dungeon core around was probably also pretty dangerous news."H-hey, Sir Aberrforth?" I asked as we were walking.We still had a ways to go before reaching Miss Laine's place, but I suspected we'd get there before the sun set."Hmm, yes?" he asked as he finally stopped trying to tempt Miss Laine into a conversation."What's going to happen with the mine now?""Hmm, well, discovering that it was a mine to begin with is a rather fortunate piece of news," he said."Why's that?" Calamity asked.Sir Aberrforth glanced over us, then nodded as if to himself. "Right, you were sent to rescue us first and foremost. Let me explain, then! I have a fair amount of expertise when it comes to geology and discovering the mineral composition of soils. At the moment, Port Royal is shipping in raw materials from Deepmarsh, but these are of... questionable quality.""Every raw material?" Awen asked."Not wood, of course. There are logging camps on the edge of the Darkwoods, though Port Royal doesn't need much so we're tempering our rate of cutting so that we can have tree farms growing in the future."I supposed that people with the right growing skill could probably make a plant grow faster, and that might include trees. It would be nice to see the forest left intact. Or somewhat intact, in any case."Food is provided by the farms blanketing the foothills, though not nearly enough to feed all of Port Royal. The rest is imported. Some from the south, any fish and the like, and some from the west." He cleared his throat. "In any case, I'm not entirely well-versed in the economy of a city like Port Royal. My field of study is metals.""Metals?" I asked."Indeed. Deepmarsh had long collected iron from the bogs that are... pretty much omnipresent throughout the country. As far as iron goes, it's good enough, once handed over to a bloomery and smelted into something usable. Other metals, however, are harder to come by, and Deepmarsh has had to import them from elsewhere.""Uh, okay," I said. I was kind of out of my depth here, and wasn't expecting such a big tangent on the man's part from my simple question.He rubbed at his chin. "Where was I? Oh, yes, the mine." He fished a hand into his pocket, then removed a small rock which he gave me.It was brown and, uh ... rocky? ... I guess I don't know much about rocks. It did have some yellow streaks in it. I turned it over and gasped. "Is this gold?" I asked. On the bottom was a patch of shiny yellow.Aberrforth laughed. "If you think that's gold, I've got a bridge to sell you," he said. "No, that's chalcopyrite. It's pretty enough, I suppose. But if you smelt it, you can get some decent copper and a bit of iron.""Oh, that's cool," I said. "Is copper expensive here?""Not as much as aluminium, nowhere near gold," he said. "But it's not a resource that Deepmarsh has in abundance. Any copper you see in Port Royal is imported. A local source would be invaluable in that sense.""Neat," I said. "I guess that answers my question, if in a roundabout way.""Ah, yes... what was that question?I giggled. "I asked what's going to happen with the mine now," I repeated.He shrugged. "We'll let the guild know that there's copper here. It's a little ways from the city, so it'll take some investing to get anything set up, and we don't know at a glance how much copper is here, just that there is some. It'll be years before anything is done about it, I think. Miss Laine here might have neighbours soon!"Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.Laine scoffed. "If they want to throw themselves directly into the maw of that monster, then they're welcome to do that."I gasped.The woman turned and gave me a sharp look. "Don't you start."I bit my tongue. As much as I wanted to defend the old riftwalker, she probably wasn't going to be convinced he'd turned over a new leaf.Instead, I said, "We already had to go save these guys." I gestured toward Aberrforth's companions.They gave me an affronted look. I winced, but rallied myself and pressed on, "If it's really dangerous, shouldn't you try to stop them from coming? Otherwise, you'll have to save a lot more of them."Laine rolled her eyes. "This time, I've warned them. If they ignore me, that'll be on their heads, not mine. They're not getting anything more out of me."Aberrforth chuckled, a bit uncertain. "Aheh, I ... I do reckon we have better chances than you suppose. Just think! Neighbours!"She glared at him. "What makes you think I want any neighbours? Do you think I live out here for the thriving social life?"Well... ah, you'd have a good claim on the terrain around your home, at least. Maybe even the mine itself, you might be able to stake it for yourself?"Now it was the grenoil who were glaring at him.I felt like I was missing something, but I didn't press. If it took a long time for people to come, then that was... well, maybe it was a bit selfish, but that was great for me. It was more time before anyone discovered the broken core, and the more time passed, the less likely anyone would be to blame me specifically for the core's breaking. Not that I had done anything bad, or ... or at least, I didn't think I'd done anything bad ... right? But... I still had a lingering memory of being executed for breaking one core in a past that never was, so I wasn't keen on reliving that.Calamity asked Aberrforth another question about rocks and... I liked to think that I was a good listener-I had the ears for it, after all-but even I could only listen to someone talking about rocks for so long before I started to tune it out a little.Fortunately, we weren't very far from Miss Laine's place by then, and after dipping into the forest we found a deer trail that led us right into her backyard."Ladies," Laine said. "Care to help me within? I'm used to cooking for myself, not for this many, and I suspect I could use the help. I'm assuming you all have cooking-related skills?""Uh, I don't," I said.Awen shook her head, Amaryllis scoffed, and Desiree blinked. "You must forgive me, but no, why would I invest in a skill such as that?"Orange meowed and gave a slow, affirmative blink, but I don't think Miss Laine spoke cat and so she didn't understand.I also doubted that any cooking-related skill Orange had would actually help...Miss Laine stared at us all, then shook her own head. "Youngsters these days," she muttered. "Well, regardless. Come and give me a hand. Aberrforth... you and your friends can set up tents and the like in the backyard. Don't ruin my garden.""Yes, Lady Laine," he replied with a short bow.Miss Laine's kitchen was quite compact, but it smelled like freshly plucked herbs and was very tidy. There was garlic hanging from the rafters and a few small potted plants pressed up against the windows where they were catching the light.Stew was the meal of the evening, mostly because it was easy to make in large enough quantities for everyone, and because Miss Laine had some tubers ready to harvest in her garden.We got to chopping veggies and boiling water while I chatted with the witch about her garden. I was gaining valuable Gardening experience just talking to her about all of the tricks she'd discovered over the years spent cultivating enough food to keep herself fed year-round without anyone else's support.She had a few neat brews too, something almost like a potion but a little less formal. Amaryllis scoffed at it, saying it wasn't nearly as scientific as alchemy, but Miss Laine retorted by saying it tasted better, and I believed her.Soon enough, food was ready, and we let the stew simmer while we set up a couple of small tables just behind her house.It was nice, but I was looking forward to having a few minutes to chat with my friends. That, and I was really curious to see how Booksie was doing.
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