Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 39 Why Does Everyone Hate You

“So why didn’t you just flame cone the first set of soldiers again?” Isaac asked. He hadn’t actually asked previously but he had been thinking about it for a while.

“There are elemental creatures that sometimes find their way down here. One such creature explodes on death.” Lenna explained.

Isaac thought for a moment. “So… because of the fireball the mushroom king would assume the problem sorted itself out instead of a rogue group of mortals scorching his kingdom?”

Lenna nodded. “Yes.”

“Huh. That makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking.” Isaac said mostly to himself.

Lenna raised an eyebrow under her helmet and turned her head to look at him. “What were you thinking?”

“That you just didn’t think about going through them instead of around.” Isaac replied.

“We tried that in the past. It never ends well. I’m surprised we were not followed by any mushroom scouts.” She told him.

Isaac blinked a few times. “How many variations are there?” He asked worriedly.

“No one knows for sure. At least soldier, scout, attacker, defender, mage, life bank, and king.” She explained.

“Why are there so many different types of mushroom people?” Isaac was confused. ‘What’s the point in so many individual types?’ He thought.

“Who knows.” Lenna replied.

—

Another day passed without much incident. Another cave in had to be detoured around but that wasn’t very unusual. The following day they did run into something strange. Webs. Lots and lots of webs. The tunnel they were passing through suddenly opened up into a cavern that was made of tunnels. They couldn’t see any of the far walls as the tunnels just kept turning and winding into each other.

“What made this?” Isaac asked while staring at the web covered tunnels and passageways.

“A dragon fighting an earth elemental. According to legend anyway.” Lenna answered.

Isaac shook his head. “Some monsters really put our power into perspective don’t they?”

“Patience.” Lenna told him.

He looked at her. “You mean we’ll be strong enough to do stuff like this?”

“Maybe. But we will be able to kill what did.” She assured him.

Isaac turned back towards the twisted nest of tunnels and gazed upon them in a new light. ‘Kill a dragon huh? Whatever dragon did this had to be at least ten feet wide. Kahtesh was only like four and his breath one shot Claus.’ He thought and swallowed hard thinking about the power a dragon that size would have.

“Will your flames work on the webs?” Lenna asked, pulling Isaac out of his thoughts.

Isaac reached out and touched one of the webs. He ran his death mana over it. Nothing happened. “No. I guess they either don’t count as alive or are death attuned like the spiders they come from. I can feel them in the walls.”

“How many?” Lenna asked.

“No idea. They are too weak to pinpoint but there’s definitely a lot.” Isaac replied.

Lenna pulled out the map and checked their location. “We need to get to the center path. The humans here keep it clear of spiders. Third tunnel down on the left, then second on the right, then first hole in the ground.” She told him and tucked the map away again.

Isaac nodded. “So what are we going to do about the webs?”

“I’ll have to burn them.” Lenna explained.

“Will you have enough mana?” Isaac asked concerned.

Lenna shrugged. “Probably. Ready?”

“Sure.” Isaac replied and made sure his pack was on correctly.

What followed was seven casts of Lenna’s cone of flame spell and a lot of screeching spiders. The air was thick with burnt web and it was hard for them to breath at one point but the map led them true. They dropped down a hole in the floor and onto a wagon path.

They could hear the spiders crawling in the walls. “Let’s hurry.” Isaac told Lenna and the two of them broke out into a swift jog to cover as much distance as they could before the spiders decided to go look for whatever had torched their webs and some of their brethren.

After half an hour of jogging Isaac was about to say that they should stop for a break when the tunnel abruptly opened up. Isaac’s breath caught at the sight that was laid out before them. A cavern six miles deep and ten miles wide opened up. The ceiling must have been a mile high. The cavern’s scope alone was breathtaking.

Down and to the right from where they were standing was a city. The city was two miles across in each direction and laid out in a perfect circle. There was about a mile of space between the city’s thirty feet high walls and the walls of the cavern. There were three gates and a large building where the fourth gate should have been. The city was alight with magical stones and torches. They could see the different colors of lights from where they were standing.

“Is that?” Isaac eventually whispered.

“Yeah.” Lenna replied. “Safeharbor.”

Isaac’s knees felt weak. He sat down. “Finally.”

Lenna sat next to him. “Finally.” She agreed.

“Spider, Pecurke fighting falling shadows, mushroom kingdom, giant snake, and finally a nest of giant spiders, and three detours.” Isaac listed off their obstacles. “How many days?”

Lenna took a deep breath. “We just started day eight. We should be asleep right now actually.” They’re sleep schedule had been promptly discarded due to the mushroom kingdom’s lack of clear spaces for them to rest.

“Wanna sleep out here and deal with people when we are both rested up?” Isaac asked.

Lenna stared at him for a moment. “I figured you’d be more excited.”

“Oh I am. I’m just also worried after what happened last time.” He explained. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to be incident free. Something is telling me we are only just getting started when it comes to problems.” He said more to himself than to her.

“I’m sorry.” Lenna replied after a moment. “I can wait out here.” She offered.

“What? No.” Isaac looked and sounded offended that she had even said that. “No, you are coming with me and if anybody has a problem with that I’ll fight them.”

“I’m supposed to be protecting you, not putting you in more danger.” Lenna argued.

“This isn’t negotiable.” Isaac declared.

Lenna was silent for a moment. “As… you wish.”

“Let’s rest up out here.” Isaac eventually told her and the two of them moved a bit off to the side of the path. Isaac set up his bedroll and laid on it staring at the ceiling. After a few moments Isaac spoke: “Lenna?”

“Yeah?” She responded.

“Why does everyone hate you immediately?” He asked.

After a pause Lenna replied with: “As I told you. My people are slavers. Cruel ones.”

“Did you own slaves?” He asked her.

Lenna took a deep breath. “Sort of. My family owns a lot of them. There was this girl, she was supposed to be at my beck and call.”

“What did you have her do? How did you treat her?” He continued with his questioning.

“Honestly? I ignored her most of the time. The only thing I really told her to do was keep my stuff clean. I had her help me with my armor a lot. I didn’t have to, but it’s annoying to don by myself.” She explained.

“Were there ever any other drow who were not awful to their slaves?” Isaac asked.

“Maybe. I don’t know. If there were then it was kept quiet. Anything that could shift the power balance was silenced or hidden.” She answered.

“So everyone just assumes you are a horrible person because most of your people are?” He asked almost rhetorically.

She nodded. “Yeah. Stereotypes exist for a reason. I don’t blame them for expecting me to be like my family. I was always the weird one. I like to do things myself and not be fed by some child in chains because I’m too lazy to pick up my own fork.” She said coldly, it was probably the most words she had said in a single breath but despite her running out of air at the end her disdain was palpable.

“That actually happens?” Isaac turned his head to look at her and asked.

“Yeah. Often.” She stated matter of factly. All emotion was gone from her voice.

“Well, on that pleasant note, let’s get some rest. We have an interesting day ahead of us.” Isaac told her.

“Alright.” She agreed and settled into leaning against the wall. It took both of them a while to begin to truly rest after their recent conversation but eventually Isaac drifted off to sleep and Lenna was able to wrestle her mind into meditation.