B4 Chapter 505: Unwanted Gold, pt. 2

Yellow wardlights flickered in the Plucked Hen’s common room. They were well made — mimicked the soft luminance of candle fire in their tone, and a gentle waver. But even quality struggled to hold up to a week of hell.

Kaius sat at the makeshift round table that had been arranged in the centre of the common room, with his team at his left. The meeting with the city’s leadership seemed unending — half an hour and they had yet to come to a consensus about if they should hole up and wait for something to change, or make a break for it.

He thought it a bit asinine — fleeing was suicide.

As the governor went through an exhaustive account of the state of their supplies, Kaius eyed the lights. That momentary flicker suggested a failure in the circuits that controlled them. Most likely something had loosened in the constant barrage of shudders that occurred during the Tyrants nightly bombardment. If the formation had been laid into the foundation of the building, it wouldn’t have taken all that much.

It would have been an easy fix — even lacking direct knowledge of the script, he would have been able to simply copy the work of whoever had initially laid them.

Not that he had the time. At least the thought of it was a good distraction.

A sudden flash of movement across the table ripped him from his peace. Madra, standing up with a sudden start. The man’s eyes were distant, almost like he was checking his notifications.

His status wouldn’t have left his eyes so wide, nor his face so pale.

Kaius’s stomach dropped. Something unexpected had happened — he doubted the gods would be so kind for it to be something pleasant.

Everyone stared at the earth mage — even his fellow member of Stonespire, Isaac. The other earthmage frowned, concentrating for a moment before his face twisted into an expression of horror.

Gods’ scorn, that wasn’t good.

“Madra, what’s happening?” Ro said calmly. Her voice was still iron hard, accepting no rebuke.

“A breach,” the man gasped. “Deep beneath the walls — barely on the edge of my senses. I would have missed them if I wasn’t scanning to distract myself. They’ve dug a tunnel.”

Pandemonium erupted. Kaius leapt to his feet, reaching for the comforting presence of his blade. They’d gotten into the catacombs? They were doomed. The structures beneath the city were a warren of overlapping paths — it would be almost impossible to hem the creatures in. They would be everywhere.

“Be ready,” He urged Porkchop through their bond — someone was going to have to seal that tunnel, and they were the only full team.

“Always.”

“Focus, mage!” Rieker barked, making Madra blink in shock. “Numbers, movements — anything you can tell us.”

Madra gave the man a shaky nod, before he turned to his fellow stone mage. “Boost me, I need better sight.”

Mana swirled around the pair, quickly racing into Madra’s eyes — causing them to burn a vivid brown. He gasped for a second time.

“It’s hard to get a picture of strength, but three larger creatures have tunneled their way in. They must have some sort of natural earth magic — I have almost no influence surrounding them. Beasts are flooding in — movements are consistent with standard forces, though there could be Silvers hidden amongst them.”

The rest of the inn was dead silent. Kaius swallowed thickly. They’d waited for a change, now they had one. He only hoped they were strong enough to survive. If the beasts moved down, towards the ruin…

It would be a slaughter. The noncombatants hiding in those tunnels may as well be trussed up bits of meat even if they fought back. The Castellan could help, but that was a problem all on its own.

An active ruin, friendly to the common man? It would draw the attention of every major power on the continent. Deadacre wouldn’t survive that attention — wars had been fought over less.

And if his command over the automata was discovered, he doubted even being a Platinum delver would help him. He’d immediately become the most wanted man on Vaastivar.

“What are they doing!” Ro hissed. Her eyes flicked to Kaius for a bare moment, dread on her face. She must have come to the same realisation.

“They’re spreading out, and moving up. They must be planning to flood the city.”

“Gods’ scorn,” Rieker whispered.

The guildmaster snapped to the captain of the guard, jerking his head to say the man should join him. “We need to mobilise — get your men on the wall, I’ll get my delvers to cover the sewer entrances large enough for major excursions.”

He switched back to the stone mages. “Can the two of you collapse the tunnel they made — and maybe funnel the creatures to a specific exit?”

Isaac hesitated for a moment before he nodded, “Working over that distance will be tough — Half an hour for the entrance, another half to collapse key routes through the sewers.”

The captain of the guard leaned over the table, inspecting the large map they had been using to plan the battle. It was more than just the streets — with the help of the earthmages, a second page showed the tangled network of sewers beneath the city.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What about there?” he said, pointing to an open square in the south-west of the city. It had two large sluicegates leading to major conduits in the tunnels below.

“It’ll work. It’s close enough to the breach, we might be able to shave off a quarter hour or so. We’ll still need teams posted up through the city — no way we catch all of them in our net.”

Rieker nodded, before he stepped away — already barking orders into a communication artefact.

“We’ve got a problem,” Madra hissed. “The creatures that bored their way in have stopped, but I’m picking up movement. Some sort of swarm, and they’re moving down. I think it’s a hive queen.”

Rotten roots. What in all of the hells was a hive queen doing with the Tyrant’s forces? Such beasts never left their territories, existing under constant guard. Plus, Kaius had heard that they were mostly useless in combat — most of their abilities were geared to being hardy and pumping out as many young as possible.

Where the hell had the Tyrant even found one? Insectile beasts that could proliferate like that were priority targets — they were far too dangerous to be left alone.