Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 21 Wait And See.

Days passed in a slow blur as Lenna and Isaac went about their tasks and duties. Lenna was soon equipped with a freshly fixed and painted set of V’Nova Patriarch Armor. After the armor adjusted to her form its name changed to one more fitting though still not quite accurate: V’Nova Matriarch Armor. Lenna was no clan matriarch but the armor had no way of knowing that. The name wasn’t what mattered either. No, what mattered was that Lenna was now wrapped in padded steel that was capable of withstanding almost any physical attack on the planet. Nothing short of getting hit by a building would even slightly warp her armor. An ancient dragon or a mad dark mage juiced up on a Ten Men potion would be able to bend the armor but little else. In those cases she was more likely to die from the whiplash of getting thrown around before the armor gave out. That wasn’t even considering the near immunity to mental attacks granted by the Crown of Unassailability. The Crown had been fused into the inside of the helmet and reflected any mental attacks back to the sender with extreme prejudice. The helmet cared little for things like distance or line of sight as it simply tracked the attack back to the sender by virtue of the attack’s mana trail.

Lenna’s armor was painted royal purple with silver trim. The paint was magically treated to be more durable and self-repair to a degree. That did not mean that it would never need repainting however, it just meant that hopefully it would last a while. Aside from collecting Lenna’s new armor, they had sold Jallen’s sword to Izen for a decent price and the Duke now had it hanging behind his throne in his main hall. That money had almost entirely gone to pay for the painting of Lenna’s armor, refilling their coffers after paying for the immensely powerful poisons Isaac had gotten from Marie, and replacing their used consumables from the great battle.

—

Isaac had made the hike alone, much to Lenna’s chagrin, to the gate of the dwarven fortress. Solid gray stone had been cut into blocks, stacked and arranged into a wall, and then fused in place with magic to help ensure stability. The gate was framed in a bulky stone arch that was covered in runes and glyphs filled with all manner of magic. Isaac appeared fifty feet from the gate and its guards to keep from spooking them too badly. He looked up at the raised gate and could only marvel at the massive iron teeth that could be dropped at a moment’s notice to seal the passageway out of the Innerworld and into the Outerworld. Isaac could see through the opening and his breath caught at the glimpse of the surface that he could see.

A dwarf called out to him but he hadn’t noticed. The noonday sunlight framed a million verdant trees in radiance and life. The stone and dirt path was hot and the heat haze mirrored the dense grove across the small clearing that persisted beyond the second gate. A dwarf had stopped a dozen feet from Isaac before he seemed to recognize the look in Isaac’s face and where he was staring. “First time seein’ the surface kid?” The dwarf questioned, this time the dwarf was close enough that he jerked Isaac’s thoughts back to his task and the reason he was there in the first place.

“Yes, and no, it’s the first time I have seen the surface on this plane.” Isaac explained and looked over and slightly down at the dwarf. “I might have to go on a stroll out there at some point. It looks much better than the random transitions between gray and red stone down here.”

The dwarf laughed and shook his head. “Ifin ya don’t mind the heat.” The dwarf countered.

It was then that Isaac truly noticed how much hotter it was. The closer he had gotten to the gate, and the surface, the hotter it had become. And it was indeed hot. It had gone from a pleasant cool to a scorching summer heat just slowly enough that Isaac hadn’t noticed. Now though, he was sweating, heavily, in his multiple layers and cloak. “It is pretty oppressive, yeah.” Isaac replied. He shook his head to get it back on track. “But that is not why I am here. I was instructed to inform you of a signal when we will be requiring your assistance.”

The dwarf looked to his companion in question but the other dwarf shook his head. “ ‘ose instruction?” The dwarf asked.

“Your captain’s.” Isaac answered. “He and the Court Wizard, who was acting as a go-between for me, were talking and decided that it would be best if I just told you what the signal would be directly.”

The dwarf’s eyes went wide. “I-I see.” The dwarf replied. “So’s that make ya the Legend Slayer?”

Isaac chuckled with a grin. “Yes. Though I do have a real title.” He explained. “I am Isaac Wexler, the Lord of all that is Dark, the Lord and Demigod of Darkness.” Isaac introduced himself casually.

The dwarf swallowed hard. “Aye sir, we’ll be lettin’ who’s on station know the signal. Wh-what might it be then?” He asked.

“A lighting bolt towards the heavens. You won’t be able to miss it.” Isaac explained. “Any caravans that come through without such a signal should still be checked extra thoroughly, but the one that is accompanied by a lightning bolt is the one that I will need you to surround, with at least a dozen, hopefully two, men.”

The dwarf nodded. “Aye sir, ‘e’ll be ready.” He assured Isaac.

Isaac grinned. “Thanks.” He replied. “And if all goes well, let your captain know that I’ll be thanking him personally. It always pays to have good relations with your neighbors.”

The guard nodded but before he could reply Isaac was gone as if he had never been there. The guard flinched back at the sudden departure. “Sven?” The guard asked.

“I didn’t see him go neither.” The second guard replied. “Go on an’ tell the Cap’m ‘bout this. I’ll ‘ait here.”

Isaac watched the guards’ reactions and shrugged. “Pretty normal guys, I don’t know what I was expecting but, aside from their strong accents, they are pretty indistinguishable from the human guards.” Isaac shook his head. “Guards are guards I guess.”

—

Once Isaac was done with his short excursion to the dwarven fortress the pair returned to the rest of their tasks. Isaac and Lenna visited Macken a few more times. Each time they had stayed a bit longer and talked a bit more with the imprisoned knight-paladin until the day of the festival arrived. Meanwhile, Isaac had noticed that Lenny had picked up an interesting, if relatively plain, mask which the rogue-warrior had refused to comment on beyond: “I picked it up because I liked it, is all.” Isaac was fully aware that there was more of a story there but since the mask wasn’t magical, and therefore couldn’t have been used to spy on them, he didn’t bother pressing the young man. Soon it was the day of the festival and people were out in droves. Not only were the people of Safeharbor out and about for the festivities but also people from Sapphirestone had come to sell pastries and other festival foods. There were even some dwarves from the nearby fortress who made the walk to engage in the merriment, caused by the death of one of their oldest surviving enemies.

Michael had also finished handling the prisoners from Ben’s End. They had all been shipped out the morning before the festival so they wouldn’t interfere or put a damper on anyone’s festive moods. In fact, there was even more celebration to be had. A handful of the deaths and dismemberments on the human side of the conflict had been reversed with the help of the gold from Sapphirestone and the pope, that still hadn’t left with Fable. The joy and festive spirit were palpable as Isaac and Lenna casually made their way through town.

Lenny was already waiting for them at an impression three quarters of the way to the fortress from Safeharbor’s closest gate. Duncan had fallen for the trap and it was loaded and ready to be sprung. While they waited for Duncan’s men and their wagons to be ready to leave, the pair waded through the festival goers and purchased pastries and other festival snacks from the myriad of stands and carts set up along the main thoroughfares. “This is amazing.” Isaac commented as he took another bite of the fried dough that was twisted into something akin to a net and covered with sugar.

“Mhhm.” Was Lenna’s reply through a mouthful of the stuff.

“We should have festivals more often.” Isaac commented.

Lenna chuckled. The air from her nose sent sugar into the air and Isaac started laughing as Lenna’s face reddened. “Shut up.” She told him once she had swallowed her food.

“There aren’t really any attractions though and I know that Izen isn’t making any money off of this one.” Isaac continued after a moment. “He had to ensure that there would be no taxes for goods sold during the festival and waive the entry fee for wagons just to get sellers from Sapphirestone to come down here for it.”

Lenna nodded. “Maybe if there were some attractions, something worth coming down here for, more people would come and we could have more festivals.” She replied.

“Like what?” Isaac asked.

Lenna shrugged. “You are the idea guy.”

Isaac sighed. “Maybe the drider silk gear would make some adventurers make the trek down here more often.” He offered. “It would only be high level adventurers, but there would still be more people coming in than before.”

Lenna nodded in agreement. “We’ll have to wait and see.” She replied and the pair continued to enjoy their festival food while they neared the gate to leave the city. Soon enough their trap would be sprung and the slaves would all be freed without crushing a pillar of the less fortunate. That was the real issue with messing with Duncan’s businesses. There was plenty of evidence to show exactly how much help he was providing to the less fortunate in the slums of Safeharbor. There were a lot of people there that would suffer if anything happened to Duncan so Isaac and Lenna could only hope that their plan would pressure Duncan into shifting his business practices without bankrupting the man. Only time would tell.