164, 2/2

The Northern Tribulations were a land of ice and snow, with mountain peaks that rose to within ten kilometers of the Edge of the Script, and valleys that were so deep that the larger rocks floated among the ever present shadows. With a height and depth of well over a hundred and fifty vertical kilometers in some places, it was easy to get lost in this land. Civilization was barely present, and the lights in some of the deeper shadows were not from people, braving the depths, but from monsters pretending to be people, to lure in other beasts for food and for the pleasure of a kill.

It was easy to tell where the people actually were, though. They were in the only valley that was filled with light, like someone had taken a sliver of the sun and shoved it into the grey depths, and then deeper, cracking open the world below. Light poured out from that crack in the ground like a true welcome mat; far brighter than the false lights in the mountains.

And now our sight dips down, into that bright space. Turning back briefly, looking up from that space below, is like gazing at a twilight rent in the sky. That entrance is well guarded with spells and people aplenty, but a well-guided [Scry] eye can get through most screening.

And down here, in this bright space, mountains floated.

Upon floating kilometers-wide platforms of stone and black metal rested the city of Enduring Forge; the home of the Adamantine Smiths. Civilization thrived upon those stabilized platforms, that themselves floated above monster-filled lands that were choked in shadows and riddled with tunnels and unknown depths.

The majority of the tenants of this place lived upon the second-to-lowest platform; the largest platform. It was three kilometers wide and mostly circular and chock full of buildings of all kinds.

A middling-sized platform floated below that one; it was the brightest land, and the lowest land, where the main defenses of the city actively pushed back the dark that lurked even further below. The soldiers emplaced there worked in tandem with miners based out of that same platform, where the two forces together pulled metals out from the Underworld.

Above that protected space, above the main land, existed three smaller lands, chained in place above the rest. The Smithy was one of three smaller platforms. It shared ‘airspace’ with the noble district, and with city hall, both of which had their own floating platforms.

All together, Enduring Forge was a city of a good hundred and thirty thousand people, and though they had experienced hardships like everyone on Veird, the Adamantine Smiths protected this land from all forces, including the occasional thieving archmage, and dragon fight, and Underworld monster surge. Their powers could not be discounted, for they had a way with metal unlike any other people on Veird, save for possibly the wrought.

Their power was on clear display, too, for the entire city stayed in place in the center of that cavern due to dozens of massive chains of sparkling black metal, extending out from the edges of each platform to anchor each landmass into the cavern walls and to each other. Even more dark metal held the cavern itself stable, ensuring that the walls remained where they were. Each chain link was as big as a small house, at least ten meters from one side of the oval to the other, and they had to be adamantium. No other metal was that dark and that strong.

Erick was almost 100% positive that someone used [Duplicate] at the city’s founding for them to have that much adamantium.

He and his people were a good three mountains away from the actual city, having arrived in an [Obscuring Redoubt] that Erick had prepared ahead of time. They were deep under the snow and frozen stone, while all around them hung Screens, showing their destination from several different angles. [Heating Ward]s kept the place warm, but there was no furniture. From what Erick had already seen, they probably wouldn’t be staying here for long. They’d probably just go to the city, itself.

Erick said, “So as you can see, that’s Enduring Forge, the home of the Adamantine Smiths.”

Jane rubbed her arms together, looking around. She went to study the Viewing Screens. Teressa breathed out a huff of fog as her eyes glazed over as she looked to the future. Erick recast the [Heating Ward], banishing the cold. Nirzir took a moment to eye the Screens, to study them alongside Jane. Tendrils of thought peeled away from Poi as he reconnected to the collective, or collected thoughts; Erick wasn’t quite sure.

Erick continued, “I doubt we’ll be staying in this specific location long. But it’ll be long enough for a discussion of everything that had just happened with Ordoonarati, now that we’re probably outside of the dragon’s range.”

Jane whipped around to face her father. “You met him when I wasn’t looking? Is that why you told us to go on alert?”

Teressa came back, saying, “Seems like we’re in a safe spot— Oh. You met the dragon?”

Nirzir waited with bated breath.

“I did.” Erick said, “Through an intermediary, anyway. Apparently…”

Erick conjured some chairs as he spoke, telling everyone most of what went down with Ordoonarati. He didn’t speak much of Wizardry, though, except to say that he had set that lure of ‘possibly finding some future Wizard for trade’, and Ordoonarati had gone for it pretty hard.

When he was done, Teressa scowled, saying, “I don’t like this Wizardry business.”

“But Goldie said that dragons only truly care about Wizards, and this explains that rather well.” Jane said, “I don’t believe Ordoonarati was a hundred percent truthful, but a lot of stuff you said lines up with other stuff. It explains Wyrm Season better than how the Dragon Stalkers explain Wyrm Season. I’d like to know why they can’t just birth the dragons in the Vision, though.”

Erick guessed, “Maybe that would disrupt the place.”

“Likely,” Nirzir said.

As Jane said, “Seems like; yeah.”

Teressa looked to Poi, saying, “Last I heard, Treehome was prepared for Wyrm Season. They’re still prepared, right?”

Poi said, “There’s another two months before Wyrm Season truly begins. I’m sure Erick could return and annihilate them all if we need to.”

“I agree, but that gives us an end-date for this vacation of mine.” Erick said, “Or at least another stopover. Which means I want to be done with the Adamantine Smiths rather fast. I’ve noticed posters in the city which say the tournament that Nirzir spoke of is fifteen days away, so I won’t be staying for that, but if you want to, Jane, you can.”

Jane waved him off. “I don’t really care about that.”

“You might care about it when you see the prizes.” Erick shrugged. “Or maybe they can make some custom stuff for us, which brings me to the next news: they’re ready for me. There are people at the Teleport Square checking out all [Familiar]s.”

Ophiel cooed.

Erick added, “They’re doing more than the usual Underworld city protocols, too. Truthstones in abundance and Sin Seekers at every official entrance and exit of the city, but also people in high-ranking military garb, each of which carries papers with Ophiel’s image on them.”

Ophiel cooed again, this time a bit sad.

Erick patted him.

Teressa frowned. “Danger?”

“Don’t think so.” Erick said, “More like a welcoming committee of the ‘actually welcoming’ kind, if what I’m seeing is what is actually happening.”

Teressa smirked. “Would be nice.”

Nirzir said, “The Adamantine Smiths are usually very welcoming for an Underworld city, but they are an Underworld city, with all that entails. We could try to sneak in but there’s a high chance they would find us, and they won’t appreciate the attempt at subterfuge.”

“I agree.” Erick said, “I had planned on going incognito, but that seems impossible.”

Jane studied the Screens hanging up around the room, as she said, “They are rather militaristic, aren’t they. I see people in armor everywhere.”

“That’s pretty normal for Underworld cities. Some of them survive through military prowess. Others through prognostication. Some through Beastmasters. Anti-magic runes. Looks like Enduring Forge does a lot of runework in addition to everything else.” Teressa looked to Nirzir, and then to Poi, asking, “That’s what Adamantine Smiths do, right? I think it’s runes?”

Nirzir said, “I think there’s a split in their clan. But every Adamantine Smith learns to do runework, too, or else they aren’t certified by their people. Or something like that.”

“That coincides with what I see,” Erick said.

Poi looked to an empty spot of the room, his thought tendrils multiplying from ten to twenty four, as he said, “They know we’re somewhere nearby, but not exactly where. They’re sending out a politely worded request for an audience. We can come into the city in the normal way at the main platform, or we can [Teleport] in at city hall.”

Teressa looked away, her eyes glazing over again with grey light.

Erick frowned. “Did they see Ophiel?”

Poi said, “I believe they have prognostication capabilities, too. Or perhaps the runework on the buildings allows them an easier time seeing various types of spells.” He added, “I don’t know, and I can still speculate while I don’t know, so there’s my speculation.”

Erick nodded. “I bet it’s the runework.”

Nirzir nodded.

Jane studied one of the Viewing Screens closely, saying, “There is… quite a lot of runework on those black buildings, isn’t there?”

Teressa came back, saying, “My [Future Sight] hasn’t revealed anything too dangerous. No big events, anyway. I say we go?”

“Right! Well then.” Erick said, “We’re going to city hall. Let them know, Poi.”

– – – –

Light unfurled as Erick stepped down onto a large square of white stone. His people appeared behind him.

The black city hall of Enduring Forge rose before them, seeming, in that moment, like something out of a fevered dream shared by an art deco enthusiast and a military commander. It was thick and imposing, with a great many wide and flat surfaces, but also a ton of geometric carvings at the base of the buildings, and at the top of every wall and tower, and absolutely covering the domes. The building had to be adamantium, like the chains that connected the city to the walls of the surrounding cavern.

Though Erick couldn’t see them from here, there were two more adamantium buildings similar to the city hall, down below. The building on the main platform was ten times the size of this one, and it was visible from almost anywhere in the main city. From Erick’s reconnaissance, he suspected that the monolithic structure was an evacuation point, for though it had room for a hundred thousand people, it was kept empty and well patrolled.

Further down than that, upon the lowest platform of the city, was the main military compound. That building actually punched through the entirety of that platform, forming identical castles on both the top and the underside. On the bottom side, there were quite a few defensible locations which allowed the army to shoot spells at the cavern floor with impunity.

All the other buildings were normal enough affairs of wood and stone, though the great majority of them were built tougher than most any random building you would find on the surface of Veird. A great many of them even had metal walls, or at least metal skeletons. But it was only these three massive buildings that actually looked like they belonged in this brightly lit, dark place, under the surface of the world.

Quite a bit of magic had been imbued into those buildings, all around, anchored to runic inscriptions running along the base of every single structure. None of that spellwork looked too worrisome, for it was almost all defensive. In Ancient Script, all of the stuff Erick read said ‘[Ward] [Mend] Light no-Shadow’; this repeated all around the base of every solid structure.

The protective measures that the Adamantine Smiths had were quite extensive, but Erick suspected that this spellwork was only a quarter of the true powers hidden in this bright, dark city. He was mostly surprised that the runic inscriptions worked so well, for that stuff usually decayed after a while. The people here either kept renewing the spellwork as needed, or they had some other ways to ensure that the spells stayed active.

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Whatever the case, the people here were very skilled against fighting the monsters and dangers of the deeper Underworld.

Three of those people stood before Erick right now, alongside several of their guards, though the guards were positioned far back from the Teleport Square, emplaced more as a show of respect and strength, than as an actual danger. No one had crowded Erick as he had brought himself and his people to this Teleport Square, and that boded well for future relations.

The main person to greet Erick was a tall, yet stern, beautiful human woman with brown skin and a shaved head, who wore a warrior’s cut robe, with pants. Her eyes were dark as midnight; the same color as the adamantium all around. To her left, stood a man in his 60s who was probably the woman’s father, or uncle. To her right stood an ancient woman, shrunken with age, but with a fierce expression upon her face.

Erick had only been present for the last four seconds, but with [Hunter’s Instincts] active, those four seconds were more than enough to see that he wasn’t in any danger, at all.

At once, the guards behind the welcoming committee bowed. On the parapets, more warriors bowed. On the street where the public stood, many people tried to see what was happening, trying to look beyond the walls of guards lined up across the road. It took them a while to understand, but once they did, they went silent, then they bowed, too. And then the three people in charge bowed, though the older woman only nodded her head. About twenty seconds had passed at that point.

Erick was now wholly sure that nothing immediately bad was going to happen.

The lead woman rose, and the rest of her people followed her lead.

The woman said, “Welcome to Enduring Forge, Archmage Erick Flatt. I am Arakag Adama. With me are General Barir Adama, and the Old Smith, Grosgrena. We had heard you were coming, and we are thankful for the opportunity to host your self, and your people. In return, we have a few requests.” She reached into a fold of her robes and pulled out one of Erick’s applications. “Would you join us for tea in our city hall to discuss this further?”

Erick smiled slightly. “I would be honored.”