It had been a while since Evaluator Quincy felt this tired. Getting a few hours of sleep here or there was usually enough to stave off any symptoms of fatigue. Yet, over the past few days, he’d been too busy to spare even an hour for rest. There was simply too much for him to oversee.
Since he and the other evaluators submitted their final reports to the Royal Academy and put in their termination papers, they’d been focusing all of their energies on ensuring their new lord’s path was wide and clear. And as the team leader, he was at the center of everything they were doing.
He had to keep awake to maintain the connections they’d set up as the team bounced around Dorchester like invisible hands of fate, subtly guiding things toward a beneficial outcome. Having honed their craft in cities like the capital, what they were doing here in Dorchester was practically child’s play.
After working together with the grandmaster and the archmage to ensure the charges of war crimes against Lord Walker were thoroughly debunked, he’d split up his team for individual missions that would prove invaluable in the coming days. Having sussed out that the archmage had a personal interest in Lord Walker beyond simply studying him, he and his team felt it was in their best interests to work as quickly and quietly as possible.
He’d dispatched Idrius and Vaxas to collect information on the nobles while focusing on developing intermediaries who could influence the council of leadership. They’d already made inroads into Houses Newling, York, and Voltan. While money wasn’t as much use for gaining a spy's allegiance in a small city like this, the people here valued relationships much more than he and his team were used to. All it took to bring people around was a little advice, some information, and a few promised favors.
Idrius even managed to quietly discover one of the noble house’s involvement with a planar cult. She’d passed on the information discreetly to the Tower of Law, ensuring the elimination of that future threat.
Mortem had been sent to develop contacts within the local Tower of Magic. They needed to know what the archmage was up to, and if his plans were of any danger to their new lord. Mortem had already discovered that the archmage’s personal aide, the defacto court mage, Mage-Adept Newbanks, was pursuing her own agenda… possibly at the behest of someone outside Dorchester.
Quincy had made sure to have Mortem keep a close eye on her. She was a relatively experienced mage, one who was too high level for a place like Dorchester, which made the man’s task extremely challenging.
Lastly, there was Yarborrow, who had been given the most difficult duty. Quincy had sent her to scout the kobalds. She was particularly skilled in visual and ethereal deception and had been working her way through the first several floors of the mountain city, reporting every hour on what she’d discovered. So far, she’d not found anything that the local army and his new lord couldn’t handle, but he still felt like they were missing something.
He and his team already knew the true scale of what Dorchester was facing, but considering how woefully unprepared the local Tower of Magic was, he didn’t want to rely on the information he’d acquired while in the capital.
While reminding her to be careful, he’d asked her to push deeper… at least getting close enough to verify that the scry-piercing technique they were using to counteract the kobalds illusions was working as intended. He really didn’t like the fact that what Lord Walker had described from his sleep delving wasn’t at all like what they were seeing.
Meanwhile, while they were all out performing their tasks, he’d been attempting to keep a close eye on Lord Walker. It had become particularly difficult to maintain his stealth around the young lord. He found it both impressive and infuriating how quickly Lord Walker had picked up the trick of detecting abnormalities in the ether. He’d ended up having to resort to short-distance scrying to remain undetected.
Which was why he was now hiding in a closet, wrapped in every essence shielding technique he knew. Lord Walker’s talent was becoming increasingly difficult to compensate for.
It wasn’t just Lord Walker’s ability to sense essence flows that was improving, it was also his ability to manipulate his own presence in the ether. He’d seen the young man pick up voice amplification on the fly, and unconsciously manipulate his aura like he’d been doing it for decades. During his little speech at the oath-giving ceremony, Lord Walker infused his essence field with his emotions with skill and precision, performing the aura technique at a level he doubted anyone in attendance even noticed.
Rubbing his palms over his eyes, he waited patiently for Lord Walker to arrive at the breakfast table. There was no point wasting his time thinking about any of his observations right now. If everything went according to plan, he’d be able to get some meditation in tonight, allowing him to review everything he’d learned. For now, he just had to keep his attention focused and make sure nothing went wrong.
He’d already spent all of last night coordinating with Idrius and Vaxas to mitigate the issue with the dwarves and the nobles. Despite their successes, he was still worried that the nobles might end up trying to influence House Walker’s deployment against the kobalds. He needed to ensure that the plans they’d set in motion weren’t interfered with.
Perking up at the arrival of Lord Walker, he listened closely as the expected issue of the conflict with the nobles was brought up. Once again he marveled at the fact that this little city had someone like Lady Verena here. Someone of her pedigree should be in one of the larger cities, building a house that matters. He could only wonder if fate had put her here to rise during the current crises.
In twenty years, if Dorchester survives the density shift intact, it very well may no longer be considered a low-level city. At one point in time, it was a city on the rise, and with people like Lady Verena here, it may end up being one again.
Watching closely, he was shocked to see that Lord Walker was already so skilled in the emotional manipulation of his essence field. If he hadn’t been paying such close attention, he would have actually believed that the young lord felt guilty for having rudely ejected the nobles from his property. Even a relatively skilled mage like Lord Verena fell for the young man’s subtle trick.
In actuality, he could tell that Lord Walker found the situation humorous. Instead of feeling guilty, he was feeling proud of himself for taking advantage of the situation so he could kick everyone out and end the party early.
Standing alone in the closet he was using to hide, he muttered, “You really are something special, aren’t you, little lord…”
—--
The exterior of the Walker estate was just as imposing and garish as Nero remembered it to be. From the impeccably landscaped grounds to the sheer size of the interconnected structures, it all came together to give off a feeling of being in a fantasy palace that could only exist in a world with magic.
Looking over his shoulder at the retreating front doors, he thought to himself, ‘I really need to wrap my head around the fact that I own this place. Although, I’ll probably end up moving out before I get to that point.’
Turning his back on the sight, he returned his attention to the conversation going on around him. They were currently discussing the upcoming meeting and what each of them should be on the lookout for.
As they were meeting with army command for the purposes of defining House Walker’s role in the upcoming assault on the mountain city, Cathleen would be taking the lead. Knight Angleton would be there to offer any support or explanations if she needed them, while Vera and Nick were coming along due to the fact that they’d be lending some of House Verena’s troops to the assault force.
It was Nero’s understanding that many people who had initially wanted to join House Walker had instead joined House Verena when they heard that he had no intention of staying long-term in Dorchester. For those interested in aligning themselves with him, but not ‘following’ him, it was seen as a perfect compromise. They’ll be able to head into battle with him, but not give up their lives to follow him around on his future adventures.
As the group stepped up to the gazebo housing the estate's astra-teleportation platform, Nero idly wondered how many essence crystals it cost to use this as the primary method of ingress and egress to his estate. To him, it seemed wasteful on the level of rich assholes using private planes to have dinner at their favorite restaurant.
Keeping his mouth shut, he let them continue to natter on about their plans and what kind of deployment conditions they’d likely be offered. He understood everything they were saying, but honestly couldn’t fathom what they were so worried about.
By the time they were in a large carriage on the way to the command building, he’d reached the end of his patience.
“Enough! There is no point guessing what’s going to happen. It doesn’t matter where they want us to deploy, or who they want us to deploy with. Whether it's the 143rd or the 207th, or if it’s toward the upper levels or the lower, it’s all the same. We’re going to be fighting kobalds in tunnels. Who cares who we’re fighting alongside? What does it matter?” he interjected harshly, fed up with their incessant obsession with the details.
Cathleen was the first one to recover from her surprise at Nero’s outburst. “It matters because many of the noble houses still hold influence over the army’s commanders. We don’t want to be used as shock troops, incurring losses, and weakening our position without any gain. Battles aren’t just about winning, they are about completing objectives with the minimal amount of effort we can manage,” she replied harshly.
Rolling his eyes, Nero replied, “Yes, I get it. Preparation now will save lives and whatnot. That’s not what I mean. What I’m saying is that we can’t know anything until we sit down and talk with them. We’re on a quest to help out with the threat, and we’re getting paid based on how big of an impact we make, right? Just like when we fought out by the kobald tunnel, we’ll take what they say into consideration, but we won’t be strictly following their commands. So, if in the moment it feels like we’re going to be getting sacrificed for the greater good, then we’ll obviously not be going along with it. Worrying about it now is pointless.”
Knight Angleton leaned forward on his seat and said, “We can still do what can to reduce the likelihood of that happening. We have a great deal of intelligence on which divisions have connections to the noble houses, and if we head off any plans before we make our way into the mountain, it will be easier when the time comes to handle whatever problems arise.”
Sighing, Nero replied, “Fine. Keep spinning your wheels. All I’m saying is that arguing about it now is a waste of time.”
No one seemed to agree with him, and they resumed their discussion as if he hadn’t said anything. Vera continued to provide information on what her sources had found out about each division’s ties, and Knight Angleton contributed by informing them of what likely methods they might use to control House Walker’s forces. All the while, Cathleen maintained an air of command as she kept the conversation focused on House Walker’s upcoming role in the assault.
By the time they finally arrived at army command, Nero felt like they had all worked themselves up into a tizzy, utterly sure in their conclusions that they were going to have to fight tooth and nail to survive whatever dark plans the army and the nobles had for them. He on the other hand thought they were just being overly dramatic.
The army command center was huge, just like every other building of significance in Dorchester. It couldn’t even be described as a building, it was more like a compound. Multiple rectangular buildings filled a stone courtyard the size of a football stadium, each looking like it could survive heavy bombardment from some of those essence cannons he’d seen.
They were all made of rough grey stone, had minimal windows, and flat roofs. Instead of the usual trees and shrubs for decoration, there was just stone. Everything was stone. It made the entire area look like someone had bled the color out of the world. Or it would have if it weren’t for all the soldiers wearing bright tabards and combat robes walking briskly all over the place as if they all had places to be.
The outer walls of the compound weren’t as high as he thought they’d be, but unlike others, they were manned. All along the perimeter, there were guard houses on the wall with soldiers standing at attention looking down imperiously at the citizens outside. Everything about the place screamed, ‘Go away!’
Nero couldn’t help muttering under his breath as he got out of the cab, “Well this place is cheery. I wonder if they offer to host birthday parties here when there isn’t a war on.”
Knight Angleton replied seriously, “There is always a war on. From here, all of Dorchester’s forces are controlled. Army central command coordinates our hunting teams, road crews, town and village defense forces, and every troop deployment throughout Dorchester’s area of control. This is the center of humanity’s defense against the world, and the reason Dorchester’s citizens can survive the threats outside our walls.”
Nero, still not understanding why they couldn’t at least set up a couple of picnic tables, replied, “Uh-huh. It’s all very serious, I’m sure.”
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Their little group was quickly led along the stone paths between the buildings toward the imposing central structure. While everything maintained the blocky, utilitarian appearance, the building in front of them stood out with its disproportionate height and breadth. Walking through the front gate was like stepping into a giant stone beast. Even the ether seemed to be pressing down on them.
Eventually, they made it through the various checkpoints and arrived in the conference room they would be using to meet with the command staff. Inside, the dwarves Nero had met at the oath-giving ceremony were already there. Sitting there in their armor, looking like miniature bearded warriors, they fit in with the decor like chocolate chips on a cookie.
The room they were using was as bland as could be. No artwork hung on the walls, and the floor along with the table was made of the same stone as the walls. The only thing not stone were the chairs, which were plain wood, completely lacking in any ornamentation or even cushions. The essence lights hanging from the ceiling weren’t even adorned with anything. They just hung there.
Whistling softly, Nero muttered, “This place makes the other army compounds look like hotels in comparison. Did they want people to hate working here? This place looks like a prison.”
Cathleen, practical as ever, replied to his mutterings, “This is a place with a singular purpose. There is no place for vanity or distraction here.”
Shrugging off her statement, Nero stepped forward to greet Mavros. “Hey man, fancy seeing you here. I heard the paperwork for your mountain has been handled. Congrats. When are you guys planning on moving in?”
Not bothering to get up from his chair, Mavros replied, “I’ve already dispatched the rune workers along with several guards to watch over them. They should be opening a temporary portal to Glimmer Mountain within a week if they aren’t interrupted by anything on their journey.”
Taking his seat along with the rest of his party, he could see that between the dwarves and House Walker, they were already filling up half the table.
“That’s good news, I think. So you guys aren’t going to be teleporting people here? How’s that going to work?” Nero asked, interested in how they were planning to get their clan here.
Mavros’ lip twitched in a slight smile, making his entire beard move like a tugged rug. “Rune work ain’t something humans can understand. It requires knowledge of the earth and an understanding of the flows.”
Eager to be included in the conversation, Nick leaned over the table and added, “Dwarven magic primarily relies on runic interpretation of the ethereal balance and connection within the ground. They are unparalleled in their ability to interpret essence flows throughout what they call the ‘earth’.”
Hearing the distinct difference in the dwarven word, ‘earth’, Nero figured he was in for another long and boring lecture. All he wanted to know was why dwarves used portals rather than transportation like the humans, he wasn’t interested in suffering through another cultural explanation.
Luckily, he was saved by the room’s doors opening, showing that Commander Dahl and the command staff had arrived.
Looking around, Nero noticed that no one bothered to get up to greet them. As he’d come to expect, nobody in this culture wasted time with what he’d consider common courtesies.
Without any preamble, Commander Dahl began speaking. “We’re here today to coordinate House Walker’s deployment alongside our forces as we continue our push into the mountain city.”
Interrupting him, Mavros said, “What do ya mean continue? Have ya already begun the assault?”
Nodding as he took his seat, Commander Dahl replied, “Yes, we have. While we’ve been ready for a while, our former general preferred to wait until the mages figured out how to break through the kobald’s scry defenses. I didn’t and still don’t see a reason to give them time to further reinforce their defenses. Last night we began our assault, and our forces have already cut off the lower levels from the upper mountain city. What we need to determine now is where House Walker is going to be joining the fight.”
Nero noticed that Cathleen and Knight Angleton both looked surprised, while Vera and Nick’s expressions remained calm. The dwarves on the other hand seemed outraged for some reason.
Mavros leaned forward over the table, looking rather comical as he didn’t fit the height requirement for a human-sized chair. “Why weren’t we informed? I made it clear that I wanted to be kept up to date with your plans for the assault!”
Commander Dahl and his sub-commanders all looked over at the dwarf with blank expressions on their faces, clearly not caring about his opinion.
“We didn’t tell you because you didn’t need to know. If you’d like to join the fight, I would be happy to allow you to coordinate yourself under the same stipulations that I’ll be giving House Walker. However, overall command and control will remain with me. I haven’t worked with dwarves before, and I don’t know what you are capable of. Fitting you into our plans will be at best, an afterthought,” Commander Dahl said firmly, as if there wasn’t a chance in hell of him changing his mind.
Mavros, grinning like a crazy person replied, “That’s right, ya don’t know what we’re capable of. When my clan arrives, you’ll learn why dwarven warriors are feared in the dark depths ya humans are too scared to go poking around in.”
Raising an eyebrow, Commander Dahl replied, “I’m looking forward to it. Do you plan on deploying a significant force in aid of Dorchester?”
The dwarves all chuckled around the table as if they were in on a secret joke.
Still grinning, Mavros replied, “Oh, no. We just wanted to be informed as to where you humans will be fighting. We’ll be attacking the lizards from our mountain.”
Confused, Commander Dahl asked, “How? The mountain city has no connection to the outlying mountains?”
Mavros, now chuckling, replied, “You humans have no idea what you’re dealing with. Haven’t ya even looked at what the kobalds have done to the city you abandoned? They’ve spread out over half the mountain range.” Gesturing with an armored hand toward one of the dwarves next to him, he waited for the dwarf to pull up a hologram.
Over the center of the table, an intricate and highly detailed map of the mountain range beside Dorchester appeared. Nero noticed right away that the dwarves' method of projecting the hologram was different than what he was used to seeing. It wasn’t coming from the table, or any of the human technology hidden around the room. Instead, it was being projected from the dwarf’s gauntlet. He could see what he guessed were runes floating in the ether in a circular pattern around the dwarf’s hand, pulling and twisting the essence flows into their center and changing them. It was like a spell-form, but functionally very different.
Leaning forward in his chair, Nero’s eyes widened in appreciation of the spectacle he was witnessing. On the other hand, the rest of the room was focused on the projection itself. While Dorchester’s mages may have had trouble piercing the kobald’s illusions, the dwarves apparently did not.
Considering the scale, the mountain city which butted up next to Dorchester and filled the mountain was rather small. Throughout the rest of the mountain range, there were other cities that had been built by the kobalds, all of them connected by multiple tunnels in a grand web. Considering how tiny Dorchester itself looked in comparison to them, Commander Dahl and the others couldn’t fathom how many kobalds might be living there.
“How is this possible?” he muttered. “They haven’t had time to spread out that far. If they did, then why haven’t they already run over us? With these kinds of numbers, why would they only send probing attacks?”
Mavros, now no longer chuckling, replied, “Because they’re suffering from the same problems you are. The density shift you’re experiencing isn’t just happening above ground. It’s happening to them as well. The lizards aren’t interested in you. At least they weren’t, not until ya made yourself a problem.”
Joining the conversation, Cathleen asked, “So, their assault on the surface? What was that? Just a response to us discovering them?”
Most of the dwarves were nodding. Crusher, a dwarf Nero recognized from before, replied, “Yes, that’s exactly what it was. You disturbed one of their routes to the surface they were using to keep an eye on ya. They sent out a force to deal with ya but didn’t particularly care if it worked. The mountain city, as ye call it, is just one small part of their greater whole. When they realized that there were humans up here, they just stopped expanding in that direction and sealed themselves up. Getting them out of the area is going to be requiring a lot more than ya thought it would.”
Mavros nodded in agreement and added, “That’s why we wanted to be involved with the planning. Our two cities will need to work together to clear out their infestation. I’ll not be having an entire civilization of kobalds polluting the earth with their planar invasion.”
Nick, his voice trembling, asked, “Is that what they’re doing? Is this an invasion?”
Mavros replied, “More or less. As far as we can tell, they haven’t begun to pull away any of our essence or delivered any of their own, but I think they’ve reached the point where they’re capable of it. As it stands, there’s still plenty of planar leakage that we’ll have to be cleaning up at some point.”
Fists tight in a clench on the table, Commander Dahl asked, “Did the capital know about this when they offered you the mountain here?”
Mavros immediately replied, “Of course they did! Why do you think we wanted it? The cursed to the hells lizards have already done half the work for us. All we have to do is take it from them.”
Before anyone could say anything, the doors to the meeting room were swept open, forcing everyone to turn away from the disturbing hologram they were all staring at.
In walked Grandmaster Lancel along with two other knights. Nero was immediately reminded how large the man was, even making a giant like Knight Angleton look rather normal. The two large knights behind him looked tiny in comparison.
“I apologize for my tardiness. I was held up dealing with a few things at the order,” he declared loudly before pausing in place… staring hard at the hologram. Roaring loudly, he demanded, “Is this map accurate?”
Mavros and the dwarves were not intimidated at all by the man’s presence, immediately beginning to chuckle again.
“Aye, it’s true. It seems that you humans’ desire to keep each other in the dark has caught up with ya again. I’ve never understood how you can be so callous with each other. Have you no shame in letting the weaker of your species die in ignorance of the threats they face?” he asked with a hint of mockery.
Just then, the room filled with a golden light, Archmage Jennings appeared in a flash on the other side of the table, already seated in one of the free chairs.
“There is no great conspiracy King Mithrilstrike. Each human city is given the resources it needs to build itself. They are expected to face their challenges on their own, to grow and succeed by their own merit. The kingdom only interferes when the laws and binding that hold society together are violated. Kobalds and the like are natural threats, meant to be handled locally,” he said as if he were some type of sage, kindly gifting the room with his wisdom.
All of the humans seemed to take a moment to ponder his words, even the grandmaster who was still standing in shock at the realization of how severely they’d been underestimating the kobalds.
Nero and the dwarves however looked as if the archmage had just tried to sell them a dumpster dressed up as a cybertruck.
“Well, that’s just bullshit. You knew the kobalds were eventually going to wipe out the city, and were probably even planning on it. Real leaders of men and pinnacles of society you are!” shouted Nero sarcastically.
Muttering under his breath, Nero added, “Sons of bitches couldn’t even give the locals a heads up.”
To Nero, this was a perfect example of the upper classes convincing themselves that not getting involved was ‘for the benefit’ of the masses. He’d heard it all before, ‘They need to learn how to take care of themselves’, and ‘Our role is to ensure everyone starts with the same opportunities. Anything beyond that is just hurting their potential.’
Shrugging uncaringly, Archmage Jennings replied, “It’s not all bad. Due to the density shift and some of the recent changes in leadership, you have a good chance of surviving their challenge. In fact, with the addition of the dwarves, I’d say your success is almost assured. Although I think you really need to work on the quality of the mages you are developing locally.”
Laughing outright at Jennings’ statement, Nero caused the entire room, even the dwarves, to stare at him in confusion.
“Aren’t you supposed to be the guy in charge of the Mage Tower here? So isn’t the fact that they couldn’t find out where the kobalds were YOUR fault?” Nero asked with a mocking finger pointed accusingly at the old mage.
Archmage Jennings frowned, but replied calmly, “The mages here were of poor quality long before I arrived.”
Nero shook his head and continued, “Even then. Aren’t you the head of the whole mage guild thing? Isn’t it on you to make sure that the people here are up to snuff?”
All of the humans at this point were staring at the archmage, interested in what he had to say for himself.
“Well, as an organization, we try and allow each mage tower to develop on its own. Just like the cities in which they reside, they are limited in what they have access to in order to promote growth and progress,” he said firmly.
Nero pointed at the hologram still hanging like a threat over the table. “And how’s that working out for you? Still feeling like you're a successful society gardener? A lot of people are going to die because you and those like you let things get this far. You could have stuck to your principles and let the locals handle it, but you could at least have given them a heads-up. Now, the city the kingdom was supposed to foster is undergoing a density shift while at war with a civilization that outnumbers it by thousands to one. It’s like you assholes wanted the city to fail!” he finished in a shout.
Suddenly going quiet, Nero felt several pieces of information that he’d heard over the past few weeks and months click together in his mind. “Holy shit! You did! That’s what the whole Fate Tower thing was about. Someone predicted that the city would fail, and you morons just went along with it. Rather than try and stop the problem before it became one, you just agreed with the likely outcome and planned around it. You ‘logicked’ yourselves into killing off one of your cities! How often do you high and mighty types do this? How many people have you casually sacrificed because you agreed to let things take their natural course? I get wanting to let people learn from their mistakes due to the way leveling works… but Christ-on-a-cracker don’t you think you’re taking it a little too far? You don’t teach a kid to look both ways before crossing a street by letting him get hit by a bus!” He shouted while hopping to his feet and leaning over the table, furious at the thought of the people in charge letting their people die for some arbitrary principles.
Archmage Jennings, having always been careful about how much he’d told Nero, paled in his seat. The thought of Nero actually figuring out the larger picture from all the small but insignificant hints he’d given him had never actually occurred to him. At most, he’d hoped the young man might realize that a larger game was afoot. He never would have predicted that Nero would piece it all together.
Coughing into his hand to clear his throat, Jennings replied to the room. “The laws that govern our society are there for a reason. And so am I. I came here to guide and help this city in its time of need. While I can’t outright aid you all in your fight, and neither can the kingdom, we can help you discover how to help yourselves,” he said compassionately.
While the humans all sat frozen in their chairs, each trying to come to terms with what they’d heard, the dwarves sat quietly, not interfering with their business.
Nero, however, once again filled the silence by sarcastically muttering louder than necessary, “Like I said, real quality leadership you guys have here. I wonder if there is a skill for ‘douchebaggery’.”
