by A F Kay
Uru walked over to Slib and Juva. Both had kept their heads bowed and seemed overwhelmed at meeting their goddess. She looked up at the pair. “You have each learned much about yourselves while traveling with Ruwen, and I don’t want to take that growth from you. But, some of the details of your trip could destroy us all if accidentally over‐heard by the wrong people. With your permission, I’d like to make those details fuzzy in your memories. In time, I will restore them.”
Ruwen refocused on the present. “Niall, would you have given Uru permission to cloud memories of your family?”
Niall looked desperate. “Why would I do that?”
“To make leaving them easier maybe?” Ruwen asked. “Do you think you would have given the goddess permission to alter your memory?”
“How can I know that?” Niall asked.
Hamma had stopped struggling as she listened to Ruwen.
Lir, Ruwen asked. Is there a way to recognize if a person’s memory has been altered?
Yes, Architect Starfield.
Has Niall’s memory been altered?
I am not permitted, without express—
I grant you permission.
Yes, Niall Blakrock’s memory has been altered.
A terrible thought occurred to Ruwen. Has anyone else in this room, including me, had their memories altered.
After a pause, Lir responded. No.
Can you return Niall’s memories to their natural state?
Yes.
Can you do it without killing him?
Of course.
“Uru did this,” Ruwen said.
“Did what?” Niall asked.
“She took your family from you,” Ruwen said softly.
Lir, fix Niall.
Complete.
Niall’s eyes glazed over, and he began trembling. Clarysa and Colyn grabbed the Priest and held him up. Ruwen let go of Hamma as Niall stopped shaking. He rubbed his temples and then looked up.
Tears covered Niall’s cheeks, and the single word he uttered no longer had the tone of a stranger but contained sixteen years of loss. “Hamma?”
Chapter 64
Clarysa and Colyn let go of Niall, and the Priest took an unsteady step toward Hamma. She moved backward and into Ruwen.
“Hamma?” Niall said again.
Hamma moved around Ruwen and took another step backward. “What is going on?”
What happened to Niall made Ruwen’s stomach turn. “Uru altered his memories so he wouldn’t remember you or your mom.”
Hamma shook her head as another sob escaped Niall. “Why would she do something like that?”
Niall’s face twisted in anger, and he slammed a fist down on the table. “Because of this stupid temple!”
“What?” Hamma asked.
“I should have known better,” Niall said. His tears stopped as rage consumed him. “I felt so special. So proud. The only Priest to know so many Temple secrets. An expert at fixing revival baths.” His voice softened, and he looked at Hamma. “I might have been prideful, but I didn’t deserve this. You and your mom didn’t either.” He looked up and screamed. “Curse you, Uru!”
Ruwen knew his parent’s task had been to provide critical resources for the Temple, and Niall’s it seemed centered on fixing revival baths and other Temple components. If Uru had gone to such lengths to force him here, he likely was the only one with those skills. Even if true, it didn’t justify what Niall had endured. Or did it? Ruwen immediately pushed the thought away. It bothered him that thoughts like that occurred to him. Had he changed so much?
Niall refocused on Hamma and raised his arms. “I’m so sorry, Hamma. What you and your mom went through turns my stomach. The terrible questions you must have lived with. I love you both so much.”
“Don’t say that,” Hamma said.
Niall took a small step forward and Hamma tensed. “It’s true,” Niall said softly. “I love you more than my own life. It gave me the strength to defy a goddess. I told her I wouldn’t leave you.”
“Stop it,” Hamma whispered.
Niall took another step. “You were the best thing that ever happened to me. Your birth is still the happiest day of my life. Except, maybe today, when I finally get to see you again.”
Hamma shook her head, but no words came out.
Niall took a final step and wrapped his arms around Hamma. She remained rigid, but after a few seconds, relaxed.
“Dad?” Hamma asked, her voice quavering.
Niall pulled Hamma close and placed a hand on the back of her head. “I’m here. I’ll become an Apostate before abandoning you again. I swear it on my eternal soul.”
Hamma sobbed, and Niall held her tightly as tears covered his cheeks.
“Let’s go catch up,” Niall said.
Ruwen? Hamma asked in Chat.
Go. Ruwen responded immediately. I’ll fill you in later.
Hamma and Niall left, followed by Ruwen’s parents, Bliz, and Tremine. They still needed to load the terium into the temple.
Ruwen spoke to Lylan in Chat. We all just discovered Niall had his memories altered by Uru. He’s talking with Hamma now and she seems okay, but can you check on her in a bit?
Of course.
Knowing Hamma would have a friend to talk to, Ruwen focused on the Elders around the table. “Let’s start with Revival totals.”
The Priestess Elder Gabryel spoke. “We ran out of terium six hours ago. Until then, we managed to revive almost twenty-two thousand.”
Warlord Elder Vachyl leaned forward. “The city only contains a few hundred combatants, as the City Council didn’t want us under foot. We deployed most of our forces south and east, toward the enemy.”
“The Shattered Sun dungeon and its inhabitants will protect our northern flank,” Ruwen said. “I’ve just made an agreement with the Cultivators and they’re moving into the mountains, protecting our western boundary.”
Elder Vachyl snorted. “Convenient choices, as the enemy comes from the south and east. Your diplomacy is useless.”
“Useless, and at an unacceptable cost,” Elder Gabryel said. “How much more land did you rob from our citizens.”
“There is room for all of us,” Ruwen said. “How are the city walls?”
Ruwen knew that their only hope might be defending the city while they revived more combatants. Holding the city and keeping the temple safe were paramount.
The Worker Elder Yana spoke. “With the help of the Stone Mages we’ve made substantial progress. Another day and we’ll pass seventy-five percent effectiveness.”
Ruwen faced the Merchant Elder Zahara, forcing himself to keep his eyes on her face, and not the silk shirt that provided no protection and seemed far too tight for comfort. “And the Merchants?”
Elder Zahara sighed. “Our share of the quota was ridiculously small. We are under-represented by half.”
The Mage Elder Odalys shook his head. “You saw the logic of the council’s choices and agreed to them. It is poor taste to complain now.”
Elder Zahara pouted. “Well, that doesn’t explain the lack of Mage and Worker support in constructing our shops. How can you expect quality goods when we work in such terrible conditions?”
Elder Yana turned to Zahara. “As soon as the fortification effectiveness passes seventy-five percent, we’ll move additional resources off the wall and to your shops.”
Elder Zahara shrugged. “It will likely be too late by then. Armor, alchemy, and weapons don’t appear out of thin air.”
Ruwen turned to his right and found the red balloons, and a second later the man attached to them. “Elder Drivyd, what have your Observers discovered? I’ve just learned some distressing news from the Cultivators.”
Elder Drivyd frowned, probably frustrated that Ruwen had found him. “The enemy is now directly east of us, moving at twice the normal pace. In addition, it appears they’ve been doing this for days. If they do the same tonight, they’ll be within sight of the city tomorrow afternoon.”
Everyone looked shocked but Elder Vachyl. Which probably meant Elder Drivyd had already updated him. Ruwen locked eyes with the Observer Elder. “Such important information should be shared with everyone in a timely fashion.”
Elder Drivyd bowed his head. “I updated the Warlord immediately but have waited to inform the City Council. They are already working at full capacity, so worrying them seemed unnecessary.”
“Typical,” Elder Gabryel muttered.
Ruwen turned to Elder Vachyl. “How does this change your original plan?”
“The outer security rings no longer make sense, and I suggest we proceed toward a siege scenario.”
Ruwen had originally thought he had two weeks. But either the Temple Guardian had misinterpreted what it had seen, or the army had increased its pace immediately after being observed. Had the enemy army detected the Temple Guardians? Could he have accidentally alerted the enemy to an increased threat from the city and caused them to change their behavior so drastically?
Ruwen nodded at Elder Vachyl. “Bring your Fighters back.” He looked around the table and continued. “Just over an hour ago my team discovered an ether filled cavern forty miles south of here.”
“Ether,” Elder Drivyd said. “A coma prison.”
“Almost certainly,” Elder Vachyl said.
Ruwen left out the details. “Our party investigated and discovered a deep tunnel leading straight down and evidence of tunneling.”
“Yana?” Elder Vachyl asked.
The Worker Elder nodded. “Workers have been hardening the ground around the clock. We have a few Workers with maxed Stone Echo, and there are no tunnels under the city. We couldn’t check the northern flank because of the dungeon, but the east, south, and west are all confirmed safe in a ten-mile radius. We found nothing.”
A maxed Stone Echo meant they’d verified down to a depth of two thousand five hundred feet. An immense distance.
“Could they be tunneling deeper than you can see?” Ruwen asked.
“It is possible,” Yana said. She turned to Elder Drivyd. “How fast are the Naktos tunnelers?”
Elder Drivyd tapped his chin. “It depends on the volume of the tunnel and the material they’re removing. New Eiru sits on granite, and to move a decent amount of troops you’d want a width of at least fifteen feet. A tunnel like that would take a day for every thousand feet.”
Elder Yana turned back to Ruwen. “So, we’d have over two days of warning.”
Ruwen bit his lip. “That intelligence is ten thousand years old, right? Could they have improved in that time? I encountered a Mage with two Void Bands.”
Elder Yana gasped. “Two?”
Ruwen nodded but didn’t provide any other details.
Elder Drivyd shrugged. “Your point is valid. But even with two Void Bands, you still have a vast amount of waste to dispose of. The logistics are difficult. I can’t imagine them moving faster than two thousand feet a day.”
Elder Vachyl sat up straight. “And that is dependent on the unlikely scenario they are over twenty-five hundred feet deep to begin with. That poses its own risks and is no way to move an army.”
“In fact,” Elder Drivyd said. “It is likely the increased speed of the army is because they’re leaving the tunneling behind. If they knew we are reviving an army, it would explain their sudden rush toward us. I think the current behavior suggests they’ve abandoned their tunneling efforts.”
“What about their revival tubs?” Ruwen asked.
The Observer Elder nodded. “Three Scouts have gotten close enough to see inside the heavily guarded wagons, and they all contain revival tubs.”
“What about an aerial attack on the wagons?” Elder Vachyl asked.
“Mage Shields,” Elder Drivyd responded.
“Did your Scouts confirm the troop numbers?” Ruwen asked.
“Yes, they agreed with the ten thousand value the Temple Guardian provided you,” Elder Drivyd said.
Ruwen turned to Elder Vachyl. “You thought they were hiding three times that underground. But if they are moving day and night at a double pace, either they didn’t have those additional troops, or they left them behind.”
“That is true,” Elder Vachyl said. “They likely didn’t exist since they would have come to the surface and marched with the rest.”
“You said the restoration of this temple surprised everyone,” Elder Odalys said, his black Mage robe glinting with tiny stones. “So, it is possible ten thousand is all Naktos committed to this war. We know how cautious he is. Couple this with the fact our revival process is unprecedented in its speed as we consume an unthinkable amount of terium. They likely expected little to no resistance.”
“We already have double their number,” Elder Zahara said.
“And more terium has arrived,” Ruwen said.
Elder Vachyl leaned forward. “If we shift the revivals to straight combat troops, we could add seven to ten thousand more warriors before the enemy arrives. That would give us a two-to-one warrior advantage, a fortified location, and ten thousand support troops. The temple, with our new resources, can revive the fallen within thirty minutes. We don’t need to risk an attack on their revival baths. When they arrive, we will crush them.”
The Elders all smiled, and Ruwen wondered if it might be that easy. Maybe he had finally caught a break.
“Shift to combat revivals,” Ruwen said. “Let’s discuss tomorrow’s attack plan.”
Chapter 65
While not happy, Ruwen left the meeting with the Elders feeling more positive than he’d been since this all started. Hamma remained with her dad, and Ruwen didn’t want to interrupt that. Instead, he caught up with Yana as she walked toward the makeshift Worker’s Lodge.
Ruwen left the Overseer’s Cowl in his Inventory, not wanting to hide his face inside the city. “Well met, Elder Yana.”
Yana turned to him and held out her arm. “Well met, Ruwen. Yana is fine. Titles are for people with soft hands and weak backs.”
Ruwen gripped Yana’s arm and smiled. “I don’t know how many Void Bands we have, but I wanted to offer my help if you could use it. I’ve also leveled Harden to level five if you need help with the ground.”
Yana raised her eyebrows. “Level five Harden? Did you work in a mine?”
Ruwen had advanced the ability because he’d discovered it compressed the Spirit in his Core. And technically, Spirit and terium were the same thing, so he had worked on a mine in his own body. “Kind of.”
“You don’t have Mend Tool and Melt, do you?” Yana asked jokingly.
“I do actually, but both are only level one.”
Yana stopped and studied him. “You are my new favorite Worker. And yes, we can put those talents to good use.”
Yana strode forward again and Ruwen hurried to keep up. He felt proud that his skills were so useful to the Worker’s Lodge.
“I hope you like heights,” Yana said. “The wall is where we need the most help.”
Ruwen’s good mood dissolved. “Heights? Like how high? Twenty feet?”
Yana laughed. “A joker, too. You’ll fit right in with the crew. It will do morale good to see the Overlord helping.”
“Overlord?” Ruwen asked.
“That’s what they’ve been calling you. Nobody knows your real title, but everyone knows you’re in charge, so they created their own.”
“I’m no lord.”
Yana shrugged. “Titles, in spite of my distaste for them, are useful. It gives people a sense of structure which makes work easier, especially with so much uncertainty. Everyone’s families are still in queue, and the world they left no longer exists. Providing organization and purpose is valuable when the rest of your life is chaos.”
Ruwen contemplated Yana’s words. “Yes, I see the wisdom in that.”
Yana laughed. “That’s a first for such a young Band. You’re usually all brains and no sense.”
“I’ve made Wisdom a priority lately.”
Yana patted him
on the back. “You are full of surprises.”
Ruwen smiled at Yana’s comment. She had no idea. “How many Bands did you revive?”
“One hundred sixty-eight, which is all of them,” Yana said. She held up her own Void Band. “We are too valuable to leave in the queue. Even if everyone thinks we’re hard to work with, these Void Bands make us worth the price.”
Ruwen thought back to Big D’s affectionate frustration with Bliz. It seemed Bands caused management the same problems regardless of time.
Yana showed Ruwen the process for fortifying the walls. Stone Mages carved three-foot blocks of granite from the mountains behind New Eiru. Ruwen loaded his Void Band with a few hundred and noticed they didn’t stack nearly as well as the blocks in Valora’s Dark Portal. The Stone Mages here weren’t using the same care in their carving that the Naktos Mage had.
Next, Yana took Ruwen to the south-east wall. A Worker stood on top of the wall, eighty feet above them. A rope dangled down, and Yana grabbed it. She looked up and whistled. The Worker above whistled back and then Yana quickly moved up the rope.
Ruwen had used the spell Climb to create the rope that pulled the Worker Wagon behind Whiskers, but had never seen the movement portion of the spell in action. The Worker who had summoned the magical rope had used Energy to propel Yana along it.
Ruwen glanced around but didn’t see any stairs nearby. The idea of dangling from this rope made his stomach turn, but he couldn’t just walk away. He grabbed the rope with both hands, praying it held and didn’t send him falling to his death.
Immediately Ruwen rose, his hands moving over the rope without any friction. Before he had time for a panic attack, he’d reached the top and Yana pulled him onto the battlements.
Yana pointed down at the outside wall. “Your team will lower you down. You’ll Melt the damaged rock away, drop a new block in place from your Void Band using Mend Tool to hold it in place, and then use Melt again to seal the seams, locking it in place.”
