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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ghostknight" data-source="post: 3380687" data-attributes="member: 15338">Chapter 8Five days.  It had been five days of sweat, of running non-stop with stolen, quick snatches of rest between hours of movement.  Jeria stopped and wiped sweat from his forehead, sweat that flowed down his face and stung his eyes even in the cool weather.  The trees loomed large around him, their tops shrouded in the early morning mist.  He moved forward, stumbling in exhaustion, five days of travel taking their toll.  He was exhausted when he stumbled out of the forest, and looked up at the mountain before him.  He sank to his knees, home and the protection of the deep caverns, almost within reach.Jeria walked through the maze; dazed, his parched mouth dry from having only a few sips of water when he could find some on his journey.  The path down to the city gate passed in a blur, he didn't know how long it took, he just felt himself sinking, falling into the arms of a guard, whispering "Delire, get Delire."Jeria awoke in a simple room.  The light from the floaters shone through the window whose lace curtains were open to the outside.  At his bed sat Delire, her face stoic, eyes sunken deep and surrounded by black rings.  She looked at Jeria and noted the time he moved from asleep to awake.  She leaned forward, her small childlike hands coming to cover his."Gruzz is dead, isn't he?"  Her voice was soft, lifeless.  "Tell me what happened, how it happened."  Her face turned to look at Jeria with dull eyes, an expression on her face that froze Jeria's blood.Gruzz and Delire?  How?!!  She is a halfling; he was a half-ogre.  Jeria stared at the halfling, fearing her expression, recalling the stories of her legendary martial prowess, lethality hidden in a body whose childlike appearance disarmed a foe who did not know better.  "They're coming Delire.  The devils are coming."  His voice was low, intense.  He tried to keep it unemotional; he did not want to start a spiral into depression that would prevent both of them from being effective."Gyv.  She was controlled, they saw through her eyes, heard as we spoke.  We led them straight to the House of Souls safe house from which Gyv had operated."  He stopped, seeing the look of horror in Delire's eyes."How did they do it?  Mekior examined her, declared her clean, free of taint".  She stood up, pacing, "How long, how long before they get here?"  She came to an abrupt halt, looking straight at Jeria, "and how did you get away?"Jeria closed his eyes, knowing that he was going to have to tell her all of it, tell her of his father.  "General Gerion was the mastermind behind the whole thing.  It was he that controlled Gyv, set us up."  He stopped, looked at Delire, took a deep breathe, blurting the last bit out.  "He's my father, Delire.  In the end it was how we got away.  It seems he had plans for his son.  He was grooming me, trying to get me to defect to their side.  My whole life I always wondered what fiend, what monster, was my father.  Now I know, and the truth is far worse than I could have imagined.  The monster that is renowned for his genocidal rampages, his excesses, the one who started the slave farms for meat, the..." Unexpectedly, his head exploded in pain; he had not seen the fist coming, could not believe the power, and speed in that small fist."Shut up!"  Delire's face was almost as red as his, her mouth bent into a snarl.  "More than any the halflings have suffered at Gerion’s accursed hand!  You don't know much about me, I wasn't born into this city.  I was one of those rescued from the farms by the House of Souls.  I have seen brothers, sisters, cousins, gutted and treated like cattle and placed on the table to satisfy the accursed hunger of the fiends and their minions.  I have never seen Gerion, many of the powerful fiends have copied his camps of meat slaves, seen his ways as being worthy of emulation."She walked away, her back turned.  "Come to my office as soon as you can.  I have to go tell the others, tell the powers-that-be to start evacuating.  Maybe we can save some of our people, who knows how far away they are?"  She walked out, not seeing how Jeria sank back into the cushions, covered his face with an arm, hiding his face from the world around him.***Gyv woke to sunlight streaming down onto her face.  She looked around and saw the forest edge behind and the cliff, with waves crashing below, in front.  She sat up, pulling the ravaged edges of her shirt together.  She stopped, her hand exploring her shoulder.  It bit me, I felt it eating me! Is Mekior a healer as well as warrior?  He has never hinted at such powers.  She looked to her other side, to the sleeping form of Mekior.  What are you hiding, Mekior? What are you?  Who are you? They moved on, sticking to the ocean's edge and staying near to the eaves of the forest.  They travelled on, Gyv taking the lead, her knowledge of the outdoors, of how to move through the wilds essential.  Slowly they turned to the north, their travels a massive arc that would slowly take them back towards the city.They sat together at night, huddled next to each other, trying to warm each other in clothing inadequate for the weather that was turning, from the cool freshness of autumn, to the true cold of the winter winds.  Gyv seemed to feel the bite of the cold worse than Mekior and shuffled her body closer to Mekior, feeling the heat of his body against hers."Why are we heading to Weald Hall?  We have no hope of reaching there before Gerion's army."  She turned; her face against his where they huddled under a tree.  "It will be gone; abandoned if Jeria got their in time, a charnel house if he did not.  We can continue along the coast.  It will take time but we could make our way to Fort Livian, seek refuge with the dwarfs.""I must know, Gyv.  I need to know if Jeria was successful, if the people I loved are still living, enslaved, dead or worse.  And there is a promise to be filled, a duty I cannot deny or abandon."  His fingers reached out, stroking her cheeks, pulling her face towards his.  They came together, two lone humans beneath a tree seeking comfort; the tension, the stress, the close proximity of the last few weeks enough to dissolve the barriers between the two.  The kiss was sweet, the actions afterwards frenetic, almost desperate; they slept soundly, the night passing peaceably around them.  It was a moment of idyllic peace, the world seemed to stop let nothing come to destroy the perfect moment, a momentary pause in the pain of existence for those caught in the world created by Jelial.The morning sun woke them, and they moved forward.  The silence between them a connection as meaningful as a full conversation could have been.  The days of travel had created a familiarity, an understanding, between the two.  It took them close to a month to get home, to traverse the long, indirect route they followed.  To get to the entrance beneath the mountain from which they had emerged so long ago.Mekior stood before the entrance.  The ground showed sides of battle, stained with blood soaked deeply into the loose soil.  Skeletons, pecked clean by the vultures and other scavengers lay scattered about.  He wandered through the remains and identified the remains of both human and devil littered the ground."What do you make of it Gyv?  To me it seems that a battle must have been fought, and if so the city must have had time to prepare, the number of dead here is too many for a rushed deployment."Gyv wandered through the area, up the sides of the mountain, finding bodies, burnt and blackened, behind any shred of cover.  The remains of a massive catapult, its remnants charcoal from the fierce blaze that had engulfed it.  A short distance away its operators lay dead next to a large pile of massive rocks, made her mind up. "They knew the devils were coming.  This ambush was exceptionally well planned and organized.  I would say they lost anyway, the bodies go all the way to the entrance, and only a few fiendish bones are mixed in with the human ones."  She clambered down, coming to stand by Mekior.  "I think the battle is still raging inside.  They didn't come out to clear away their dead since they obviously cannot spare the manpower."  She looked at Mekior, her face triumphant.  "The city is fighting, they must be!"  Gyv headed for the entrance.  "Come on, maybe we can do something from behind them to aid the city.The two entered the cavern, which would lead them back to the city, the stalactite and stalagmite maze destroyed before them.  Piles of bodies lay before them, rats and other cave dwellers scurrying for cover as they entered.  They walked through, holding their noses, the smell of decaying flesh still strong within the cavern though the bodies had been stripped clean by the cavern scavengers.  They started down the pathway to the city, picking their way carefully, until they came to a dead end.  Overhead the roof had collapsed; piles of rock lay across their path, cutting off any travel."This is why they did not come back this way.  The city must have activated this trap as their last defence.  Come, I know another way in, though it is not a route I would have chosen, or used."  Mekior laughed at the end, attracting a curious glance from Gyv.  "It is nothing, really.  I was just thinking of my initial fear, the way the outdoors seemed so much worse than many of the enemies I have faced.  It seems I forgot my fear, and I wonder if this is the reason the other entrance is abandoned, too open, the outside too close and painful for many."Mekior turned, headed back up the passage, leaving the massive pile of rocks and the bodies of uncounted devils and their minions to rot behind them.  He wondered how many, if any of the more powerful devils lay within, trapped and destroyed beneath tons of rubble.  He grieved for those who had defended the city; fighting, falling slowly back, making the trap look too good to resist, giving their lives to make sure the bait would be taken.  Behind, Gyv followed, her thoughts in the same pattern as Mekior's, her guilt gnawing at her, almost a physical pain as she looked at the effects her betrayal had wrought.  She knew that the General was not there.  Somehow, she felt connected to him, that if he were to die she would know it.  One day there would be a reckoning.  I will face you again you slimy, fiendish bastard.  Face you and kill you.  But not yet!  That day will only come when destroying you will be eternal, not just an empty act rectified by some coddled mageling who can summon you back.***Deep under the ground, Delire and Jeria huddled together.  They watched the march of the people through the underground tunnels, massive wagons pulled by cave beasts that bellowed their protest at the load.  The wagons were loaded down with food; enough to feed every refugee for another week.  Around the refugees, pairs of guards and scouts kept a lookout for danger.Two weeks had passed since the city had been abandoned, Delire still mourned for the many Outwalkers and soldiers that had stayed behind to fight the devils, to lure them into the trap that would destroy their army and block them from following the column of refugees.  She spoke little these days.  She gave orders, taking command and ignoring the city leaders who now walked below amongst the commoners.  All had been brought low.  All were now equal in their poverty and destitution.  When the city was abandoned, so was everything else, each person carried only their clothes and two blankets."Jeria, go out wide, find the next guard pair and bring them back here.  You and I are going forward.  The next lake should be coming up soon and I want to see who is in possession."Jeria scurried forward; eager to follow her orders and prove himself worthy of the badge of the Outwalkers he had been given.  He still remembered the ceremony, taking place as the first of the refugees stepped out of the back gate, herded in the direction they hoped refuge would lie: Gunder's Hall. Five Outwalkers stood before him, each in full regalia.  Delire stood up, pulling his head down to her level, affixing the badge to his cloak with a pin.  She stepped back, turned to the other five present.  "In the absence of his Master, Gruzz, killed mercilessly in action by a devil, I stand and present the apprentice Jeria.  I recognize he has passed the solitary vigil, survived three days on his own on the outside and passed the test of necessity, returning with information essential to us all.  Does anyone challenge my right to recognize him as an Outwalker?"  One by one each of the masters stepped forward, proclaimed him acceptable; each affixed their own mark to the badge he wore.  Then they left, the city needed them and there was no time available for celebration.  Delire simply looked at him; nodded and walked away.***Delire and Jeria lay hidden behind a pillar, peering down at the lake before them.  The entrance in would be large enough for the food and water wagons, just.  What worried them was the checkpoint set across it.  They looked, Delire cursing the distance to see them better."We're going to have to go forward, and they WILL see us approaching.  It doesn't look like devils or their stooges, but this deep there are plenty of others to worry about.  Best case it will be some of the blasted dark dwarves, worst case we will have to deal with the slaves of those ruddy grey faced, blood sucking crabs."  She saw Jeria's look and added, "Right, they're not crabs, but those mouths always remind me of a crab.  I'm talking about the Aeliogh.  You've probably never met one; we didn't allow them in the city for all the peace that prevails down here.  Nobody trusts them, who can trust a brain eating creature that uses the rest of the body like a zombie when it has finished?"The two stood up, heading down the passage, sticking to the sides to try to avoid being seen for as long as possible.  Uselessly, as it turned out.  As they passed a black crystal globe set in the wall it flared up, bathing them in a strange purple light, Jeria's skin shining oddly beneath it.  From the barricade, a man stepped forward, coming into the light himself.  He looked at them, and at this distance his black skin, grey eyes and pointy ears gave some comfort, that and the badge of the trading house of Serlius."I am Keral, commander of this post and watcher of the gate.  What brings you two here?"  He examined them, noting the badges they wore.  "You are from Weald hall, or so your insignia mark you?  Have you heard what has happened?  Rumours have come down but not much more."Delire stood where she was, looking the Dark Paeon in the eyes, "I am Delire, Chief of the Outwalkers of the by now destroyed Weald Hall.  I lead the refugees.  They follow behind me.  Three thousand people will be coming through here within eight hours.  Is the lake area clear?"Keral stared at her, taking in her face, her badge and her claim.  "Your reputation is known.  My men will move the barrier and make the path easier for those behind you.  No doubt, many of them will be tired, worn out from their journey.  I will send word ahead.  The lake has a trading post but they will need to send out for a lot more provisions than they normally have."***Gerion stood within the encampment, fuming.  Gibbets stood in lines, the bodies of his pathetic officers strung up by their arms.  He walked down the line, disembowelling some of them; his choice at random, seeming a chaotic pattern, known only to him and not to those forced to observe..  He came to the end of the line and looked back at the gibbets, at those pathetic ones that screamed, staring down at the loops of their intestines hanging the ground."Release those I spared; bring Khiss to me."Soldiers hurried to carry out his bidding, knowing that those officers freed would look kindly on them and reward them, if they did the job quickly and efficiently.  One of them went running into the camp, into the centre where a small tent sat surrounded by pickets and the tents of the most powerful devils.  The creature that emerged from the tent was no devil though.  It was small, its features those of a bipedal lizard, arms in place of the upper set of legs.  Khiss approached Gerion and bowed."Summon Ber'lia back.  I want to know what happened to him and his hounds."  Gerion's voice was soft, but everyone nearby recognised the muted fury it contained.  Khiss wasted no time, thankful that Ber'lia was but a minor devil and the toll exacted on his power would leave him bedridden and in pain for no more than a few days.Those around Gerion and Khiss watched as Khiss started his summoning; dancing and chanting in the sibilant language his kind used.  Faster he spun, his feet falling in a set pattern, the ground slowly brightening, the summoning pattern burning into the rock.  Eventually he dropped, his feet worn raw, his blood imparting power to the pattern.  The brightness rose and heat washed across those that stood nearby.  The devil slain by Mekior stood within the circle.Gerion turned to two devils who stood ready, their forms the same as the unlucky Ber'lia.  "Strap him up and get the torturers to work on him, I will be there shortly."  He turned to Ber'lia"You lost me my prisoners and my son.  You will pay."  The smile on Gerion's face was cold, bringing fear into the eyes of a devil that had never before contemplated such an emotion, "For a very long time."</blockquote>

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