Elven Diplomacy, Dwarven Issues IV

"Alright, so it isn't what I thought it would be. At least we have a foundation to work from. Is it still unstable?"

"It… is ma'am. Oddly enough, it becomes more stable with the temporary wild magic zone we created to the north. It lasted all of four hours before dispersing." Selene's eyes flew open as she blinked in surprise.

"Whoa, it dispersed? As in, it's gone right after? Wait, you didn't experiment where we are planning to place the space elevator, did you?"

"Yes and no ma'am. The tear sealed itself up slowly. It was only a one-meter long opening; we were quite careful. The hazard zone was in fact just off the coast on a small holm, if you could even call it that."

"Huh… well… ok then. So… the emissions from a tear zone stabilizes this type of wild magic… wait, hang on, how did you test this? Where did you get the souls?" she asked, worried they had done human testing somehow without her knowledge.

"Animal testing ma'am, we're… sorry if that goes against your ethics, we know we didn't ask you. Wild creatures in the area, one of which was a captured mimic, another was a bear with rabies. Does this… disturb you? We can stop if you want us to."

"No, no… just… that scared the shit out of me. I thought you were doing open experimentation on people. A mimic is fine obviously, the bear… eh… kind of wish we cleansed the disease instead… let's not fuck with the wildlife too much, at least the animal side, alright? Mythical creatures are mostly ok, preferably without screwing with the gryphon nests. What did you test to get this much research done in a day?" There was silence for a moment as Turnie clicked in.

"Ma'am, we didn't actually test a spell per se, given we don't know any; we just… we attempted to rend the soul from the body via necromancy magic using the orb you gained from Silvinholm. It's in a sealed and controlled environment, incapable of taking hold of anyone. Afterwards, we sort of… well, we launched the souls at the tear zone."

"You launched souls? Like… like a potato cannon?"

"Very similar ma'am" Orlo chuckled out. A comic strip played through Selene's mind at the thought of her two automaton researchers aiming a cannon at something and blasting the souls of two creatures out, with the look of the souls seeming to resemble a flaming skull from a very old fps game when they were first created.

"How much damage did they do, if any?"

"Given it was just for testing… we scorched the terrain, then extinguished the flames to keep a tree from burning down. We read through the journal of Erina Crowley at the dragon aerie and noted that it was believed anyone below a dragon lord would have high difficulty casting without repercussions. We didn't cast to be exact, and what we did was in fact just raw ejection of the power we collected. It's… well, we have a theory beyond what we were going to experiment right now."

"That theory would be?" Selene questioned.

"Storing souls in some sort of container, then filtering them into whatever tier magic or dimensional magic we can get it to work with, maybe equipment more advanced than what we just used. If it functions in that way, we believe that Wild Magic itself is simply a primal form of those systems, but without aiming towards a specific goal."

"I'm not sure I follow" the dev said, furrowing her eyebrows while everyone else relaxed in the living room aboard the ship.

"Alright. Say we cast a [Greater Heal] spell on someone. That uses mana, correct? Now, imagine someone using wild magic for the same effect. This system doesn't have a spell like that, it just focuses the energy produced to heal, probably also causing a cleansing of all disease and acting just like [Growth Spurt] for the vegetation in the area. It's the intent that seems to matter, not the specific effect."

"Except this intent uses souls and sacrifices to get the job done. The saying 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' really holds true here. The ends clearly do not justify the means to heal one group of people at the cost of another group." Selene stated.

"Therein lies the issue with this system, at least if our hypothesis involving experience falls short and theory is proven true for the magical connection. There is also the very real issue of never being able to create the same effect as tier magic or dimensional magic, as there is a specific and detailed goal for each spell. This… this just goes off of what you're hoping for and letting it fly" Orlo reported.

"How did you get this done so quickly? I mean, I expected this to take at least a week or so just to tell me what the fuel source was…"

"The initial research on the faith eater helped ma'am, along with the journal, as well as reviewed the log from the recording bot in the throne room when you interrogated Queen Ynshael about the spell she supposedly knew; most of what we've just said was just what we are planning to test; the only things we've nailed down are it uses souls, and it has similarities to the other form of wild magic" Turnie told her. Selene's eyebrows raised in worry.

"Is wild magic connected to faith energy?"

"No ma'am, it isn't, at least initial results show it being completely different. There is a similar diffusion of the energy from both types, though wild magic's fuel source seems to be a one-shot use, with extreme results. We haven't done any experimentation with faith, as… well… we can't produce any of it."

"Oh… because… you're… uh…"

"No ma'am, not because we're mechanical life. The issue is we can't measure how much faith a person creates. We tried by asking someone who, uh… well… worships you. He was all too willing to do whatever we required, so we simply requested he pray. We couldn't tell if what we were measuring was an ounce or an ocean of their faith with the cobbled together sensors we built, it was all over the map. We can't tell if that was because of the sensors or if his faith was fluctuating in you, or any other number of complications. We also don't know how it is used, just that if someone was able to harness it… it doesn't go away without the death of the follower."

So, a god can be incredibly powerful as long as their followers stay safe and secure, never running out of the fuel for their abilities or killing those who worship them. Now I'm seeing how Elesia was barely able to protect those at the abbey… but what the hell is a faith eater then if it hunts down the faithful… this also brings up the question of if one god controlled the whole planet, could they theoretically build a utopia, as well as keep the sun from ever extinguishing?

"Basically ma'am, closest analogy would be souls to gasoline and faith to powerful solar panels. You get the burst of power from igniting the gas, but then it's gone, and you need more. As long as the sun is shining, those solar panels will create energy, at least until the sun goes down" Turnie explained. The report, despite answering at least the basics for wild magic, created even more for faith now. They'd have to double down on experiments once she had all the details for this project. "Are you going to make use of this type of magic, once we get it figured out, ma'am?" The healer bot asked.

"No… it seems by its very nature to be evil, at least from what I can see for someone who doesn't have innate control of it. I might be wrong about that, but I can't accept it as anything but harmful to anyone who uses it, excluding dragons maybe. Even if it is powerful, the fuel source is what worries me." The empress exhaled and leaned with her fingers holding up her forehead. "Besides… I don't like using that necromancy orb artifact for experiments. I don't like using that type of magic either. It shows a mindset against life itself. Do we have defenses to protect against it?" she asked them.

"Given what we've done, there will need to be far more extensive experiments, preferably with someone who can actually cast with it. However, given what we can so far see… I believe Turnie and I are in agreement that our technological defenses should provide ample protection. Fortunately, and here is the good news, we have reason to believe your resistances and immunities will hold against this type of magic, at least with preliminary analysis. You have multilayered immunities now, which would cancel out the effect of any magic with penetration qualities. Someone would need to cast multiples of the spell just to harm you. The rest of us… shields should hold, most defensive systems can tank nuclear blasts…" Orlo replied.

"We got to start somewhere. Ok, at least that answers starter questions. Now… given what you've learned so far, in both of your opinions, is this a threat?" Turnie shared a small mini discussion with Orlo, then returned to the com channel.

"At the moment, given how rare it would be to find anyone who can use it, as well as the fact we have counter measures and quick response weapons to eliminate whoever is casting… not to mention the instability and potential for the caster to kill themselves… not at the moment. It may never become a threat ma'am, and if it did, we have reason to believe whoever casts it would be taken out quite quickly. While it might be beneficial to research new defenses for other uses, this might be making a mountain out of a mole hill" Turnie informed her. Orlo gave her an example that looked, for all intents and purposes, very similar to a sniper unit from a very old RTS game made by a company over one hundred years ago launching a nuke with a laser designator. It had a time before it landed, meaning someone could find the unit and kill it quickly before the WMD landed, which nullified the drop.

Seems like I should agree. The new defenses coming from this research might be useful for others though, maybe diplomats I send to other nations… anti poison barriers or maybe protection against time stop, specific spells potentially…

"Alright, good work you two, glad you found all of this so far. Continue working on it, it could help in other avenues, even if it doesn't look like someone could rampage through the empire on a killing spree. Seems Queen Ynshael was just using it as a scare tactic to keep others from attacking her forest, I doubt she'd really sacrifice most of her people. Now that I look at it… I can't really blame her. Smoke and mirrors keep the wolves at bay."

"Yes ma'am. We'll delve into this a little more and see if we can't get some more detail on runecraft afterwards. Faith energy might be on the back burner for a little bit though. Might I suggest creating a dedicated research team while Bronze Team is out performing our duties?"

"That's fine, these are immediate issues, and we did just take out another faith eater in Eil'Ta Forest. Keep up the good work. I'm already working on getting that issue dealt with, might need to get a group of scientists crafted… and probably spies… and probably a mayor and administration team for Silvinholm to deal with that mess once we take it… thank you, both of you." Orlo ended the call, leaving the empress to her thoughts. It could be possible, if she put some effort into it, to combine multiple abilities together, such as Martial Arts and Runecraft if she could get some more information on both. While not especially powerful by themselves, the combination of those two along with decent training for wizards in tier magic to help not just for combat, but for policing a town or city, even with firefighting, would finally make magic beneficial for everyone. Instead of having a firetruck or hydrants, just lots of people with runecraft armor and wizard barriers running in grabbing survivors, then using something similar to [Unending Flow] to douse flames.

She looked at the time, being almost noon, and checked in with Hrist who was in the middle of watching the recorded play. Her noise cancelling headphones allowed her to ignore the world around the Valkyrja. A quick tap on her shoulder and the raven-haired woman removed what was cutting her off from hearing from the room around, looking up at her. "Hey, lunch in a minute." She nodded and got up, with the group heading to the dining room.

Meanwhile

Alain sat with a cup of wine in his hand and a steak in front of him, watching some dancers on the other end of the table entertain him. A subordinate came in and stood nearby, waiting to be acknowledged.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm eating here."

"I'm sorry, my lord, but urgent information is being brought to you. The envoy heading to Aureos was found dead in an alleyway." The fat nobleman started to slowly laugh as he put the goblet down. "My lord?"

"I guess he doesn't realize there are more than one heading from many directions. Nice try commander, I planned ahead." The fat noble simply laughed as the actions of the Artinian officer seemed to be in vain.

Aureos

Three dead. Three more wizards were dead after attempting to figure out how to use the artifact the king had provided them. The wizard's academy was pouring everything into figuring out this item, however each time they attempted to divine what it could do, their experiments ended in failure, sometimes with disastrous results.

"Damn it, this can't be that difficult to figure out! We've lost how many now, Dragalos?" the head of the academy snapped out.

"This would be up to twelve now, sir." The headmaster slammed his fist against the table, causing an alembic to topple over. Part of their time wasn't even spent on researching this artifact, it was finding new wizards with ideas about what to do, then cleaning up the mess their corpses made from whatever unstable magic it was using to reflect, harshly, back at them. One of the wizards didn't even have a body to clean up, just vaporized.

"This can't be this difficult to figure out! The king is depending on us to understand how it was created, and somehow harness its power!" An apprentice walked in shyly and looked around. Both Dragalos and the headmaster turned around at his approach and looked at him. "What is it apprentice?" he asked.

"They… we… we… we got… he… somehow managed to…"

"Calm your thoughts, boy. You're an apprentice of this academy, act like it!"

"We were able to find a manual with the artifact's symbol on it, sir. It changed hands so often we thought it was all but lost. Somehow a trader managed to get his hands on it. The cost was… exorbitant." He pulled out a scroll case and opened it. Inside was completely filled with almost a tome's worth of papers. The headmaster walked forward and snatched the case from the apprentice, pulled out the parchments inside and placed them on the table. None of the writing made sense. "They… said something about four languages used for it, sir."

"Four? Whoever made this clearly did not want others to decipher the meaning."

"Yes sir, it seems that was the clear intention. One of the languages though, at least what the trader said it was, is… something rumored to be called… Katakana?" the apprentice explained, hoping he got the name of the first language used.

"Katakana? Hmm… we'll get the scribes on this immediately, check through the libraries for anything that matches. We have much work to do. Our king will have access to this device, we swore to make it so."

One Hour Later

A single helibot landed carefully just outside the massive gates to the dwarven fortress installed inside the tallest peak of the Kaldanas Mountain range. No one was outside, not one single guard seen. "Huh, the queen wasn't lying when she said they closed up shop" Selene quipped as they looked around a little, a recon team being brought in with them to survey the area.

"It appears so, your majesty" Elsei replied as she started to walk up to the gates and knocked on it. No response. "Should they not have an opening to look outside and see who is there?"

"You mean a peephole? Probably." The empress cast [Light Orb] and flitted it about the area, hoping to catch the attention of a scout or anyone spying on the front doors. "Maybe they're ignoring us intentionally." They stood around for a few minutes, waiting and watching for signs of life.

"I get the feeling we're wasting time right now" Bryn commented as she sat on the ramp of the helibot. They waited another few minutes before the dev patted Elsei on her shoulder and pointed at the transport.

"Maybe they're eating lunch and we came at a bad time. Let's come back a little later." As the elf and empress walked back to their flying taxi, an explosion blew off a chunk far up the mountain, creating a hole that launched rubble in all different directions. Both of them looked at each other. "I'm a little behind on my dwarven culture. Is that a normal thing to see?"

"I've never seen something like that happen before. This might be-" Elsei didn't get a chance to finish as another explosion tossed stone into the air. "Yes, this is definitely bad." The group ran towards the gates, with Selene and the Valkyrja pushing on the massive doors, the honor guard assisting to the sides. They could hear something cracking and breaking on the other side, not quite sure what it was before both doors were open enough to allow them to enter. The sound was actually the massive wooden bars on multiple levels of the doors snapping like twigs from the strength of the team pushing them in.

The place was chaos with debris strewn around and destruction everywhere. A few bodies of dwarves were lying on the ground, though most were just wounded. There was no sight of anything that could have caused the damage though, no Drow or creature that came from the under dark. The dev ran to a critically wounded dwarf on the ground and cast some healing spells on him, then pulled a few healing potions she always kept in stock for the hospitals, handing them to Donovan. A guard ran over from a pushed open door.

"Hey! What the hell is a human doing in here?!" he snapped, then looked at the gates. "Oh." She helped the now healed dwarf off the ground as smoke flowed through the area, with the others doing what they could for other survivors. "Leave him alone, you shouldn't be here."

"I'm just trying to help, go check on the others."

"No, you need to leave… now!" He tried to put his hand on her shoulder, but she immediately shot her own up, grabbed him by the neck and lifted. His axe tried to slam into her side, without armor. Unfortunately for him, her clothing now was made of Carbyne fibers and a micro foam padding layer underneath, making the imperial regalia she wasn't wearing just a look to intimidate others. She dropped him on the ground and stared at him with a finger pointed.

"Go. Help. Others. I seriously hate repeating myself. The longer you wait, the more die. Now." He got up and ran for another wounded soldier on the ground, with a cord breaking on a cog that held the arm of a crucible in place. Another snapped, then another as survivors were gotten out of the area, until finally the arm started to swing across the massive room. The crucible was supposed to be moved across crude rails above to deeper parts of the fortress, with a massive core seen heading down to the mantle of the planet. There were myriad pathways in all directions, multiple massive hollow pillars with stairs coiling up the sides and even having lit windows along the way, making the whole place look like a labyrinth to the empress. She half expected to see some of the stairways to be upside down.

The honor guard were commanded to run around the room while using simple healing spells, with their very visage nearly scaring the dwarves they were attempting to assist with their size. At the moment, the entire plan was to safely contain the situation, and using all available assets. That included sending the empress's protective detail to save lives away from her.

One of the dwarven women was just getting up, holding her side and bleeding badly. Selene jogged over to her and helped pour a potion into her mouth, healing the wound within a few seconds without a bad taste she was used to; she thanked the dev and ran away. "Look out!" Hrist yelled at her as she looked up and saw the crucible slam into the side of the room and tilt, pouring molten metal all over her. "SELENE!" she screamed as the area was covered, hissing as it cooled… very quickly.

The metal hardened and darkened as the material chipped away little by little, with Hrist watching in horror for a moment, before the entire shell of her empress's bubble cooled and blew off. The auburn-haired woman had created a stone cover with {Molecular Reformation} around herself, looking at her body and clothing just to make sure she really wasn't harmed. Her resistances had kept the heat from incinerating her on the spot, her biomimetic barrier not even touched. The Cryokinesis she had used to fast cool the metal, along with the telekinetic blast wave she used, had caused some of her hair to glow golden as an after effect, as if she had temporary highlights strewn throughout. In Hrist's eyes, she really did start looking like a goddess. "Ok… that was very nearly a brown pants moment there… life was flashing before my eyes… gonna… gonna take a breather for a sec…"

A rail cart fell off a destroyed rail line and slammed down on top of her, filled with raw ore. The empress kicked that off, clearly annoyed now. "Oh, come on! That's two! There better not be a third!" she growled out loudly as she looked around above her with a raised eyebrow and a grimace, waiting for something else to catch her off guard. Even though it seemed like an inconvenience to her, the view of her shrugging off hazards that should have killed her to the dwarves still nearby was shocking. This human did not die to events that should have obliterated her body. A pillar fell over just behind her back, with a quick middle finger flipping up from her hand at the inanimate object.

Military models rushed in behind them and sprayed fire extinguishers on patches of flame, with the dev casting a quick spell to get rid of the smoke. It allowed her to see a lot more of the fortress going straight up and straight down, with homes even lining the edges of the deep core surprisingly.

"Who are you?" a dwarf guard asked, awed by what she just did. She sat down and took out a handkerchief, wiping down her face a little from any soot and smoke, not wanting to use a [Scrub] spell and remove her high-end makeup.

"She is someone who needs to speak with your king immediately. We have provided assistance in your… time of trouble, we request a simple meeting provided" Elsei informed him as Hrist checked Selene over.

"I'm fine Hrist, that was just a… real wake up call to this place…" she said as she tried to wave her off.

Come with me… and you'll be… in a world of OSHA violations…

The guard started to walk off, passing by a troop that had come in to evaluate the situation. They watched the automatons secure the area around their empress, not allowing any of them to go past their perimeter.

"Is it just me, or is it a little hot in here?" Morlan asked, pulling on the collar of his uniform.

"That's how all super forges are kiddo, part of being near dwarves" Brynhildr replied with a chuckle, sitting down next to the dev. "You said you nearly had a brown pants moment?" she asked.

"Nearly."

"But it didn't really hurt you at all."

"Doesn't stop the psychological effect of having molten metal poured on your head, does it?" Bryn chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess that would cause anyone to panic a little." The empress blinked rapidly as her eyes got used to the darkness in the area, bar the massive braziers and the constant glow from the deep core forge. A quick pull of a water bottle from her inventory and she was gulping down ice cold water with a [Frost Finger] cast, the mindset of her somehow still in the searing liquid metal still taking a little hold of her. Her resistances had kept her clothing from being burned away as well, otherwise she would have immediately pulled a cloak as well to cover up.

(Recommended Song: Two Steps From Hell – Moving Mountains)

The guard returned, motioning for them to follow him. Selene got up and walked behind Elsei as they wound through the fortress for what seemed like an hour. Once they stopped, there was a large circular room with geometric shapes carved with runic symbols throughout the area. It looked like a reverse coliseum, with concentric circular seats surrounding a giant pillar in the middle. It didn't seem like the seats were meant to ever look at each other, maybe made for different facets of the government to deal with issues instead.

There were epics etched into the walls of long-ago battles, the history of the dwarves unwinding before them as in each pair of character eyes was a set of glowing gems. Some of the sculptured stone reminded Selene of Scandinavian designs, with interwoven lines and eyes mixed in, though there were surprising hints of another culture with Maori or Polynesian tattoos on a few of the heroes in the art on the walls. "No seats… and I don't see anyone ready to meet us yet" Morlan remarked. The empress raised multiple chairs up out of the ground made out of stone, then pulled some pillows from her inventory and tossed them to each person in her group.

"Then I guess we play the waiting game…" she muttered out as they sat down for what she thought was an hour, taking the whole room in and studying what they could. Her clock in her Hud showed close to an hour and a half just sitting there.

"Why do I get the feeling we are being watched?" Melsia asked.

"Maybe because we are. I wouldn't doubt they are observing us, wondering why we are here and what they need to do with us" Donovan stated. "Given we just assisted them back there, it is possible they are thinking if our intentions are good or ill."

A nearby door opened as a line of dwarven nobles entered and took their seats, with the king walking in right after with his son to sit on top of the pillar, with the younger generation having a much smaller beard. He cleared his throat and looked at the empress, then at the Valkyrja. "You have entered our fortress unannounced, destroyed our gates and assaulted one of our guards. What reason do you have for coming here? Speak quickly, your actions show of ill intent."

Ill intent? We just rescued survivors from that explosion! I swear…

Selene sighed and looked at Elsei, waiting for her to start speaking. The elf stood up and walked forward, looking at each noble sitting in front of her. "Noble dwarves of the Kaldanas Mountains, I speak on behalf of Grand Empress Selene of the Clockwork Empire, sitting before you. We came under the premise of gaining an answer to a question that you have created, that is to say, you have closed your gates to the high elves, now a part of the Clockwork Empire."

"You broke through our gates just to ask us this?!" the king asked in an annoyed tone.

"We broke through your gates after seeing unknown explosions erupt from the top of the mountain, then rushed to aide those who were wounded lying around. That might have been omitted from the report you received, your majesty." The king seemed to calm down and glare at the nobles, some of which were attempting to undermine his authority and cause him to show poor form in the eyes of others.

"I see…" he responded, rubbing his beard and tapping his fingers on his large stone throne. The hair on his face seemed well kempt, not looking in any way like Selene would expect. The entire idea of dwarves being dirty and not taking care of themselves with scraggily beards was a stereotype that clearly did not set for these people. The king's beard looked almost straight and silky smooth.

"We have brought a gift, in hopes of making sure this is an amiable meeting, your majesty" Elsei spoke up quickly, looking towards Selene behind her. The dev pulled out the wooden box with a latch and handed it to her, which caused the nobles to start whispering about how she just shoved her hand into nothing and pulled an item from thin air. The golden highlights had still not worn off yet in her red hair while she did so, making most wonder if she was in fact more than an empress. The elf walked carefully up the steps and handed the box to the king, the guards wary of her actions. Once she was back down the steps, he opened the box to find a bottle of scotch waiting for him nestled in some straw.

"Ha! Well, this may be a fine gift indeed… if it is up to my standards of course… should have probably brought a keg though…" he said as he motioned for a glass to be brought to him. A servant ran in with two cups and he poured a small amount, sniffing the liquid and having the servant taste it from his own, in the event there was poison. The servant nodded to him as he started to drink from his own glass right after, enjoying the rich taste. "Impressive, fit for a king. This flavor makes it worth the small amount provided. It must be highly expensive."

That's the lowest mark made in the past month, buddy. Anything lower gets sold to Moira as piss water for the tavern. The good stuff I'm saving for a future ball or to reward Brynhildr.

"We are happy it is to your satisfaction, your majesty. We also hope for good health to those who were wounded in the forge beyond the gates." The king raised the glass to the empress and nodded. They seemed to come in good will, even if they were a majority of humans. Elsei did inform him that they were from a different government than Artinia, it must be why they were far more professional in their actions while meeting him in his own home.

"Now, to the question you have asked of me. I know… that the high elves believe we have cut our ties with them, to keep them from gaining their precious mithril. This is not the case. The gates were closed to bar a creature of immeasurable power from escaping, to cause unspeakable destruction beyond our mountains." Elsei looked back at the dev, wondering if she should continue speaking for her. Selene just kept her mouth shut, not unless asked to speak. Even if she knew she was a far cry higher on the totem pole than this mountain king, she was in his fortress and would attempt to show some respect. Elsei was already doing a good job anyways.

"Is this creature a… race… or is it only one singular threat, your majesty?" she asked. The king laughed.

"You think that Drow would come for an assault of the surface and go through our stone? What do you take us for? Shalebrains?" he asked, laughing some more. "Drow have never been able to make a tunnel to our homes, we embody the stone, we are of the mountain more so than they are of the under dark. No, we are not fools; if there was a tunnel or cave newly created, we would have known and closed it easily."

That information visibly made Elsei sigh in relief, happy that the evil cousins of her people were not creeping out of the stonework. The elf continued asking questions as to where the explosions came from, that immense damage to the super forge. At that moment, Selene received a message from 9th Brigade.

"Ma'am, we found the cave entrance that Queen Ynshael had mentioned. We've investigated deep below the surface and found nothing to explain there is a presence of Drow here. What we instead found was a giant turtle that had burrowed up from the ocean." A picture was sent to her showing a massive turtle sitting there, just looking at the automatons. Its skin seemed to be made of stone or metal, she couldn't be sure which one due to the lighting. There seemed to be two glowing antennae on its head, along with some glowing blue bulbs on the back of the shell.

It isn't hostile, so this was all just a false alarm. Well, at least we can all calm down now. Guess Operation: My City, No Touchies can go ahead as planned.

"Understood, see if you can close off the cave entrance at least, maybe leave a small hole for air flow. It might have just burrowed up a little too much and realized it screwed up, or maybe just needed air brought in. We don't want anyone disturbing the docile creature's lair." She was still surprised the turtle did that, not just basking on a rock. The size of it was easily fifty meters in all directions. The fact that some sea creatures could tear through stone to just to make a nest was impressive.

"Then I apologize on behalf of my empress, your majesty. We were worried your people were under attack by a foe that lives much further below all of us. We are happy that is not the case."

"No, young elf. We deal with a foe that flies through the skies. We deal… with a dragon." He explained the situation in such a way that he hoped to get surprised gasps from the group. Donovan and Melsia, as well as their son, both were shocked at this new information. Hrist and her sister along with the empress, however, just sat there, unimpressed.

Three red down, what's a fourth? I need to start getting some research done on the bone and scales, see if there is anything that can be used from those exotic reagents.

"Did you not hear what I said, empress? It is a dragon."

"I heard you. We have had dealings with dragons in the past, not necessarily friendly." The king stared at her curiously, stroking his beard slowly with his right hand. It clearly took more than learning of a giant flying lizard to get any sort of rise from the empress.

"Perhaps… it may be possible to provide some advice about the situation to you, your majesty" Elsei said, looking between both of them. "My empress has dealt with a red dragon… personally."

"A dragon slayer? Her?" one of the nobles spat out. The rest of the senate started to talk amongst themselves.

Yes yes, I'm small and fragile looking. Yuck it up at my expense, whatever. It doesn't change the fact I still turned that thing into a purse.

"Enough!" the king snapped, slamming his fist down on the armrest of the throne. "We do not require advice from you, empress. While you may know how to defeat one above ground, fighting in confined tunnels and away from the sun is quite different." Selene looked at Elsei, with the elf averting her eyes.

"I am well aware of that, your majesty. May I ask if you know why the dragon is here to begin with?" the dev said calmly.

"We know not, though it hardly matters. From the reports we received, it struck fast and true from an outside cave entrance, though we have since sealed that opening off from the outside world. Now, it is simply finding its lair and ending the threat once and for all. My apologies to you, Empress Selene, that you came all this way for a fight you won't be a part of, looking for ghosts."

"Better safe than sorry, your majesty. Then we shouldn't bother you anymore." The king nodded, seeming to conclude the meeting. As the nobles stood up, waiting for the dwarf to walk down the steps, Selene stood up and looked at him. "Might I ask… what type of dragon it is?"

"Mmm, yes. From all reports, it seems to be a iron dragon."

A metal dragon?! They aren't normally hostile and don't fight if they can avoid it! Like, they're usually neutral alignment, at least from what I read they are! Something must have pissed it off! Oy, you dwarves did something to make it angry at you. I'm getting the idea those reports are false as all fuck.

"I see. Well then, good day to you, your majesty. We should take our leave. Hopefully this will be addressed soon, and you'll be able to open your doors once again. Thank you for seeing us." The king left the room with his son, the nobles following right after. The empress and her entourage were escorted out of the fortress and watched as the gates closed, damaged as they were from their forced entry before.

"So that's it then" Morlan commented. "No Drow, no real threat. The dwarves will stop the dragon from causing anymore harm, and the gates will be reopened once the threat is neutralized. Everything will be fine it seems." Selene started walking away from the gates and heading down the mountain range, ignoring the helibot waiting for them. "Your majesty?" he asked her. She didn't answer immediately.

"Your majesty, where are you going?" Donovan asked her as they followed.

"To find that tunnel entrance where the iron dragon entered. Something isn't right. If this thing is as I think it is, then the dwarves did something to fuck with them. If it isn't… we take care of the threat and get the dwarves on our side. Win-win regardless." They were going to take a hike along the ridge, looking for this dragon's lair now sealed off. It was a dangerous move, at least for the three humans and elf in the empress's group. The two Valkyrja, on the other hand, wanted to see what the dev had in mind once they had met this massive creature.

A plan was forming in her head, one that she didn't quite yet know how to explain to the others. Morlan looked bewildered that they were heading off to find the lair. "C'mon Morlan, where's your sense of adventure?" Bryn asked with a chuckle as she walked backwards staring at him with her arms outstretched. "We've got this." He sighed and followed. It wasn't as if there was a shortage on people in the group that couldn't handle the dragon with little to no help.