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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4392517" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 75MEANDERINGSThe ground trembled. Corath Dar felt it, and he paused in one of the stone passages deep within Highbluff Castle to place his hand against the nearest wall.  The thrumming was clearly felt through the ancient stone blocks, and the vibration seeped through his hand into his arm, persisting for a good fifteen seconds before fading. “Damn,” the fighter said.“General!” He turned at the shout, and saw Petronia coming down the stairs at the far end of the corridor, a bright lamp held aloft in one hand.  The blade of the knight’s axe gleamed brightly over her left shoulder; few of the Dragon Knights went anywhere unarmed any more.  Dar understood; Justice rode at his own hip, even here, deep in the sanctuary of one of the strongest citadels in Camar.  “What is it?” he asked her, as she stopped in front of him, snapping off a salute. “The others are waiting for you, general,” she said.  He nodded.  “Tell them I’ll be there in a few minutes.  Allera’s not with them?”The momentary hesitation told him all he needed to know, even before she responded.  “No, general.  I believe she went below to speak to the prisoner.”He didn’t respond, and she started to turn away before he forestalled her.  “Wait a moment.  Did they reestablish the link with Jaduran?”“No. Jalla Calestin is still trying to puzzle out the workings of Honoratius’s Orb, I believe.  But with Maricela here, and the Patriarch in Camar using sendings and wind walking messengers back and forth, we’re able to keep in fairly regular contact with the capital.”She hesitated again, and Dar could sense the added question there.  He wasn’t sure of the answer himself, so he said nothing.  Petronia took it as a dismissal, so with another salute she headed back to the stairs, and the more comfortable chambers in the higher levels of the castle.  The others were there, waiting for him. Instead Dar turned and continued on his original course.  He took another staircase at the end of the tunnel, descending several levels, until he was below the level of the castle walls, descending into the foundations of the bluff upon which the fortress and its surrounding town were perched.  Much of the levels above were of recent construction, repaired after an assault from the first of the Ravager spawn years ago that had destroyed a good portion of the castle and town.  But down here, the tunnels were hewn from the rock, and were as they had been when the fortress was first created, centuries ago.  It was cold, too, but Dar was far beyond letting such a minor concern distract him. He reached the level he wanted and headed off down a narrow corridor.  A few lamps burned in niches set high along the wall, almost near the ceiling, but they were far enough apart to leave long expanses of shadow between them.The passage wasn’t very long, and it ended in a heavy wooden door that looked capable of resisting a siege.  Dar reached for the handle, but before he could touch it he heard the sound of a metal latch being drawn, and then the door opened to reveal Allera. She started when she saw him, hopping back in alarm and nearly dropping the small lamp she was carrying before she realized who it was.  “Damn it, you scared me,” she said. “I thought you weren’t going to come down here any more,” he replied, unclenching his fist from the hilt of Justice. “The bond between Duke Aerim and Rappan Athuk remains dormant, but it is still there.  I need to check on him periodically.”“He’s a dangerous man.”“I can take care of myself.  And in any case, there is more to him than that.  I have encouraged you to meet him; his story is... complex.”“I heard enough of his story from Jaduran to confirm that he be kept down here until this is all over.”“That is not all that Jaduran said.  His divination refers to Aerim playing a significant role in the outcome of... of all this.”  Like Dar, she seemed reluctant to refer to the Ravager specifically, as if mentioning its name could somehow draw it, like a fiend from the hells. “Bah, the gods are as cryptic as ever.  That verse could be read in a dozen different ways.  And ‘the fallen champion of yesteryore’ could refer to more individuals than our captive Duke.”She looked up at him.  “I had considered that as well.  But having spoke to him...”“I did not try to stop you when you restored his leg and arm, but we don’t have more time to waste on Aerim.  Did you learn anything more from the wizard?”Allera shook her head.  “No.  His mind is... broken, beyond my ability to repair.  I do not think he knows more than what he told us, certainly nothing that would help us fight the creature.”  Her frown deepened; she seemed to take any failure of her healing abilities as a personal challenge.  But the Seer had been forthcoming in their interrogations; it was just that what had been done was done, and there was little more that he could give them that could help with their current problem. “A pity we did not find any more of those stones of holy power that he spoke of,” Dar said.  “Did you feel the tremor earlier?”“I did.  They have been getting stronger, of late.”  “Yes.  And with our magic proving useless in tracking the creature, we have no way of knowing when or where it will choose to make an appearance.”“We’ve been doing all that we can to get ready...”“You were there, Allera.  You know that whatever we do, it will probably not be enough.”“We drove it away.  All we need to do is find a way to trap it, and kill it.”“To do that,” a third voice interjected, “you must draw the Ravager to you... you must give it what it wants.”Dar and Allera spun together to face the speaker, who stood in the shadows a short distance down the corridor.  Allera lifted her lamp, driving back the darkness enough to reveal the intruder. “Where in the hells have you been?” Dar asked.  “We tried to get in touch with you after the battle at Rappan Athuk, but you did not respond to our sendings.”“My power wanes,” Amurru said, and as the lich shifted, they could see that it was only partially there; the light of Allera’s lamp shone through its body, the outline of which only barely clung together, like a wisp of smoke on a breeze.  “My existence is tied to the Ravager’s prison, and like it, is now broken and crumbling into nothingness.”“We failed to destroy the creature,” Allera said. “I know.  I sensed the outcome of your confrontation with the Ravager.  You drove it away, but it has regained what it has lost, and has grown even more powerful.  But while it has fed in the dark underways beneath the earth, its hunger grows stronger with each passing day.”“We beat it once,” Dar said.  “How can we force it to fight us again, on our own terms?”The lich wavered, and for a moment it looked as though it would vanish entirely.  But then the outline of the creature became more solid, the red pinpricks of light within the sockets of its eyes brightening like tiny torches.  “The Ravager is drawn to two things.  Magic, and life.  Its current diet is richer in the former than the latter, as the underworld realms it pillages are not as heavily populated as the world above.  Its meanderings you have felt as the shaking of the world, as its claws tear into the fundament, and it opens breaches in the planet’s mantle.  Eventually this damage will cause earthquakes, or open passages that allow molten fluid from the world’s core to reach up to the surface.  Or it will return to the surface, likely emerging under one of the more populated cities of your world.”Allera shook with the force of the lich’s words, but she held her head up, and she put a hand on Dar’s arm, to forestall him.  The fighter’s face had darkened as the undead guardian had spoken, and had drawn a few inches of Justice from its scabbard, as though he could stop the fate predicted by Amurru through the sheer force of his anger. “You would not have come to us if you had no answer to Corath’s question,” the healer said.  “You said we had to give it what it wanted, and that it wants magic and life.  That would suggest it will go to Camar, the strongest source of both on this continent.  Is there any way we can divert it from that path?”The lich regarded them for a long moment, its red eyes blazing with power even despite the tenuous nature of its presence.  Finally, it said, “There may be a chance, one chance.  But if you fail this time, then it is almost certain that nothing will be able to stop it.”“We’ve heard that before,” Dar said, grunting as he slammed his sword back into its scabbard.</blockquote>

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