Bound by Truth

by Ian Rodgers

  Their gazes quickly averted when they saw her approach an extravagant black and purple carriage bearing Lord Krave’s mark, and Dora muttered thanks for minor mercies under her breath.

  The door to the carriage was opened as she grew nearer, and inside the Healer spotted Kari as well as the pudgy Lord of the West Tower sitting across from each other.

  “Ah, so glad to see you came quickly when called,” Krave said as he nodded in approval like she was a pet who’d pleased him with a trick. “I approve of punctuality. Please, come inside. I wish to get going sooner rather than later.”

  “Of course, Lord Krave,” Dora muttered, getting into the vehicle. A few moments later it set off, and she took a moment to examine Kari.

  The raven-haired woman was no longer clad in shoddy clothes; instead, she wore a long purple dress that hugged her body and showed off her curves. A red shawl was around her neck, obscuring a portion of Kari’s cleavage, but there was enough peeking out to tantalize.

  Dora felt a flash of petty jealousy towards the outfit. It was beautiful, but would never work with her own skin tone or appearance.

  Of course, a discreet Detect Magic showed that the dress was covered in magic to control the wearer’s every movement. It was alluring, but a prison nonetheless.

  Kari no longer wore the blindfold but kept her eyes shut all the same. Her hands were still bound, however.

  She was sitting stiffly, and Dora quickly cast a spell to check on her. After finding nothing wrong, she wondered why Kari had specifically asked for her. She could ask later, though. For the moment, she thought it would be best to address her boss’s boss about what was going on.

  “May I ask where we are headed?” Dora asked hesitantly. To her relief the rotund man seemed fine with the question.

  “We are headed to an excavation site just a mile or so north-west of Annod Bol. You see, I was clearing some of the land over there for cultivation when my men stumbled across some very interesting archeological finds. I need Lady Kari to use her Bloodline Traits to identify and control them.”

  “Control them? Does that mean you’ve unearthed Golems of some sort?” Kari inquired, looking intrigued in spite of herself.

  “Something like that,” Krave said mysteriously. He smirked when Kari frowned in annoyance.

  “I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, my dears. If you want to know, you’ll have to wait. After all, it will change everything.”

  Dora and Kari settled in to wait. At first, they were worried about having to converse with Krave or entertain him in some way, but the obese lord seemed content to look out of the carriage’s window and observe the city.

  At first the half-orc thought it was because he liked the view. But when she looked out as well and saw people on the roads all but throw themselves out of the carriage’s way or kowtow in naked terror as one of their overlords passed by, and then glanced over and saw the sick grin on Krave’s face, Dora knew why the view pleased him so much.

  The crowds, which had only a day earlier so impeded Dora’s movement through Annod Bol, parted easily before the carriage. After only a couple of minutes they and the accompanying wagons and escorts passed the gate and made their way into the burgeoning green of the fields beyond.

  Once more Dora worried that this stretch of land might cause Krave’s attention to fall on them, but again he ignored them in favor of observing the territories they passed through. This time a greedy expression dominated his face. No doubt dreaming of the wealth he envisioned would come from whatever it was he had unearthed.

  The ride through the dry and dusty landscape only took ten minutes, but it felt so much longer to the pair of female occupants. Kari had been shifting uneasily throughout, with Dora’s nerves on the fray being so close to a man with the kind of power Krave possessed.

  An unusual amount of dust and activity caught the half-orc’s attention during the ride, and what appeared to be a deep pit swarming with workers. Some laborers wielded pickaxes and shovels and others swarmed over wooden scaffolds, checking and repairing them.

  Eventually they came to a halt near that bustling spot. As Krave emerged from the carriage overseers in the dig site called for the assorted slaves to cease their work and abase themselves before their master.

  Stepping out, Dora watched in shameful awe as hundreds of men and women fell to their knees and bowed their heads toward the Lord of the West Tower. Forced to by their collars or not, it was still an impressive sight and show of the authority Krave commanded.

  “It is an honor to greet you, Lord Krave,” one of the overseers profusely exclaimed.

  “Quite. Come, lead me and my companions to the site. I wish to show them what I have managed to claim.”

  “You mean what we have managed to claim,” another voice called out, and Krave’s expression darkened before he slapped a false smile onto his face.

  “Naturally, Lord Tiegan. I merely was trying to impress upon my assets that they are working for something far greater than they. And it was my wealth that obtained what was needed,” Krave replied.

  The elderly green -gentleman from yesterday strode forward, his own retinue forming up behind him. Tension filled the early morning as the two Lords confronted each other.

  “True, true, yet whose knowledge was it that allowed you to find what would be needed? And whose contacts beyond the Dreadlands managed to locate what was required?”

  The standoff would likely have continued for a while had Kari not coughed demurely to get their attention.

  “We are in this together, Lord Krave. Let us show a united front when in public,” Tiegan suggested and the obese lord nodded, albeit reluctantly. The two moved off towards the interior of the dig site neck in neck, neither willing to give the other even a single footstep ahead, leaving Dora and Kari to bring up the rear.

  “Are you alright, Kari? You look pale,” the Healer mentioned as she fussed over the dark-haired woman.

  “It’s my monthly issue,” Kari explained in a low voice so none of the men would overhear. “It started up earlier in the morning and I refused to be around that pig while it was going on. So, I demanded that you accompany me around for now. At least with someone I trust nearby I can endure it for now.”

  “Got it,” Dora said with a sympathetic nod. “I can’t really do anything for that problem aside from a soothing spell or two. Maybe a quick casting of the Calm spell. It’ll only make it more bearable, I’m afraid.”

  “Such a shame,” Kari muttered in reluctance. “What is it you Healers say? Magic can’t solve everything?”

  “Pretty much,” Dora admitted. They picked up the pace to catch up with the pair of slave owning lords and were soon gawking at the archeological site.

  Kari had opened her eyes to avoid any missteps while she walked, and was mumbling to herself as she stared at the handful of ancient artifacts excavated so far. None of them were that impressive, mostly shards of masonry and a few weathered household items.

  But what was eye catching was their size. Even the basic tools removed from the earth were several feet long. Clearly, this had belonged to the giant’s themselves, or some other enormous race.

  “What can you see?” Dora whispered to Kari as she looked at the artifacts, her eyes glittering with magic.

  “Not much. They’re either too old or too broken for me to observe properly. What I can see is that they were all uniformly made, as if manufactured on an industrial level.”

  The half-orc bobbed her head. “How about who owned them?”

  “I think I can see something like that, but it’s blurred and I can’t really tell. But if the makers are who I think they are, then whatever artifact that’s got them in a tizzy is going to be bad news.” The merchant’s daughter bit her lip and refused to say anything more.

  By now the group from Annod Bol had entered the excavation zone and was descending into the pit via ramps of packed earth and a few wooden platforms.

  Peering down, the bottom of the pit was
covered in a tile mosaic of sorts, and looked to be part of a floor. Much of it was still buried by soil and stone, but a trapdoor had been uncovered, and led even deeper into the submerged ruins.

  “Hurry up, if you would? I have lunch with an important customer and would hate to keep him waiting,” Krave called back to the two women.

  Dora and Kari hastily rejoined the two Tower Lords and accompanied the group into the surprisingly intact remains of the building.

  Lamps had been brought in and lit along the interior of the trapdoor, which led to a long corridor. There was a faint luminous glow coming from the end of the corridor which drew their attention. The path was crumbled and pitted in some places, but still traversable. Elegant patterns had been carved into the walls, as well as pictograms and other images that were mostly unintelligible beneath the grime and dust of eons.

  A squelching sound shook Dora out of her inspection of the corridor, and peering ahead, she saw a small, round, gelatinous blob of light blue slime with a darker colored spherical core inching along the floor towards them.

  Krave wrinkled his nose in disgust and stomped forward, bringing his boot down on the Ooze and crushing it in a swift action.

  Dora winced as the Ooze perished with a wet, meaty pop and a squeal, its remains already starting to melt away into raw magical essence.

  “Urgh, these wretched creatures have been spawning non-stop since we uncovered this place,” Krave complained as one of his escorts wiped the sludge off of his footwear.

  “Indeed, they’ve impeded us a few times, what with them sneaking into the supplies and eating everything in sight,” Tiegan agreed. “Not just food, either. Rope, the wood, even some of the rusted and worn metal pieces. I’ll be glad once the artifact is removed and we can leave this place and the Oozes behind.”

  “Oozes would only spawn in such numbers if there was an extraordinary amount of Ambient Mana, or an exceptionally dense quantity of wards and magical energy hanging around,” Kari spoke up. “What in the Hells did you find down here?”

  “Why don’t you see for yourself, miss?” Tiegan offered with a leer, waving her forward. Without a pause, the tall beauty did so, striding down the hallway with Dora in tow a step or two behind her.

  Kari’s frown, which had been perpetual since Dora had met her in the morning, only grew deeper, and a thin hint of fear danced through her eyes as she stared ahead. The raven-haired woman froze mid step as she exited the long passageway and stared in shock up at the object dominating the center of the room. Dora wasn’t far behind.

  “What is that thing?” Dora gasped, staring at the chamber they’d entered.

  Before them lay a gargantuan mirrored orb. It was easily ten times her height and perfectly smooth, not a blemish or stain to be seen. She could see her face in the surface, but distorted and warped. As she gazed into the mirror-like material, she saw a vast field of silver lilies sprout beneath her feet, and a bulbous golden moon shining down upon it.

  Dora tore her gaze away from the image and clenched her eyes shut, panting for breath as if she’d just run a marathon. Her head throbbed and it took a few moments to calm herself.

  When she dared to look back, the reflective orb no longer gave her visions, and she could give it a closer look.

  But to be honest, there wasn’t much else to observe. The only major point was that the artifact was embedded in the floor, as if it had sunk into the tiles and become stuck. Maybe a third of the sphere remained out of sight.

  The room itself was bland and uninteresting. Blank walls made of the same dull grey substance the rest of the ruined structure was composed of stretched away before her. And the ceiling itself was shrouded by distance and gloom.

  “Kari? Are you alright?” the half-orc inquired, glancing over at her companion. She nodded dumbly, eyes still glued to the mirrored orb before them.

  “What is this thing?” Dora asked, nudging the woman’s shoulder slightly.

  “I-it’s an Aegis Sphere,” Kari said, voice trembling with shock. She swallowed a lump in her throat before speaking again.

  “These things are transportation devices used by the Titans themselves when the first ones descended from the Aether,” the slave explained slowly. “They also acted as mobile homes for the Titans, and contained a separate dimension within. Not unlike a Bag or Chest of Holding, but on a greater scale, and capable of allowing living things to dwell within it.”

  “As for defenses, even a full-grown dragon could not scratch the surface of one of these things. Magic, too, just bounces off, diffused before it can do any harm. In fact, not even my Divine Eyes of Appraisal can tell what the Aegis Sphere is made of, or how it was constructed. I-I can’t even…”

  “Yes, it’s a magnificent device, is it not?” Krave praised.

  Dora jumped a bit in fright. She’d been so engrossed in the scene before her she hadn’t noticed anyone enter.

  “An intact Aegis Sphere. A miracle of miracles. To find something like this, why, you’d have better odds killing a Living Mountain with a spoon than recovering any legacy of the Titans in such pristine condition.”

  “Why is something like this here?” Kari demanded, spinning around to face the Tower Lords.

  “Why do you think? Annod Bol was built from the ruins of one of the Titan’s settlements, so it makes sense that some of their relics would still exist,” Krave snorted.

  “But if I must be honest, we, too, were amazed when we found this prize so close. For the longest time we believed that the Water Purification System was the only piece of magi-tech left behind by the Titans.”

  Krave threw his arms wide as he stared up at the Aegis Sphere. “To think a magnificent tool like this would all but fall into our laps! Master Naliot must truly be proud of our achievements. With this, Annod Bol’s place is secured!”

  “I don’t understand. What makes this thing so special?” Dora inquired. It was Lord Tiegan who deigned to answer her.

  “Nigh impenetrable armor, with the ability to move between the Aether and its myriad planes of existence and the mortal realm in an instant with impunity? That alone is worth more than you can imagine, girl,” the Lord of the East Tower said with a condescending tone. “It could transport luxury goods anywhere in an instant, or move armies anywhere in the world without a country noticing. With the Aegis Sphere, it would be possible to become a true kingdom.”

  “And if we could replicate its functions on our own, why the possibilities are limitless!”

  “That’s why you wanted me,” Kari said, realization washing over her. “With my eyes, I can observe almost anything and understand it. And with my Godhands of Artifacts I can operate the Aegis Sphere and teach others to do so as well!”

  “Excellent deduction, miss,” Tiegan said with a slow, mocking clap. “So why don’t we get started on that, yes? You, orc, unseal her hands!”

  “I don’t have the key,” Dora said haltingly. The grey-haired man’s face started to turn red before someone decided to step in.

  “Calm down before you give yourself a heart attack,” Krave admonished his older peer. “I have the key to her manacles.”

  He then tossed them over to Dora who began to fiddle with the lock covering Kari’s hands.

  Once the older woman’s appendages were free, she spent a few seconds rubbing her wrists, trying to massage feeling back into them.

  “Touch the Aegis Sphere,” Krave ordered, and Kari gritted her teeth as runes along her collar lit up with a faint glow.

  She obeyed, turning on her heels and planted both palms flat against the mirror-like surface. A gasp of pain escaped her lips as soon as she did, and her eyes began to flicker with magical energy.

  Dora forced herself to watch as the person she’d become somewhat close to convulsed while standing up. It only lasted for a short while before Kari fell backwards and the half-orc darted forward, catching the lithe young woman before she hit the floor.

  “Kari, can you hear me?” she asked worriedly, running
a diagnostic spell over the black-haired woman.

  “Dora?” Kari whimpered before descending into a coughing fit.

  “Lie still! I think you’re experiencing sensory overload. Just stay like this for a bit and let your body and mind work itself back together,” the Healer instructed. Kari nodded feebly and went limp in her arms.

  “When will she be able to tell us about what she knows?” Krave probed, a noticeable lack of concern in his tone as he questioned the half-orc.

  “An hour or so,” Dora declared. Her answer was more of a guess than anything. Nothing seemed overly damaged or in critical danger. Kari’s brain had just absorbed too much information in too small a time frame. She was fine, at least physically. Mentally? That was something Dora didn’t know.

  “Another useless delay,” Tiegan muttered with a growl. Krave nodded in annoyance.

  “Wake up!” the fat, purple clad man shouted, and the collar flickered for a moment before Kari shot bolt upright and let out a scream.

  “Kari!” Dora cried. “Into the soft embrace you shall fall. Drenched in dreams, awash in tranquility. Sleep!”

  The woman let out a gurgle before collapsing into her arms once more.

  “It’s not her body that’s the problem, it’s her mind!” Dora seethed, shooting a dark look at the two men. “If she doesn’t sort out of the problems herself, all that excess information could render her comatose. Maybe even braindead!”

  “So, you think we should just wait for her to wake up?” Krave sneered.

  “Unless you have a mind reader who can probe her thoughts while she sleeps, then yes, you will,” Dora shot back.

  A thrill of horror and disgust ran down her spine at the looks the two slaver lords exchanged. They were honestly considering it!

  “As tempting an offer as it is, I don’t have anyone skilled enough in the mental arts to do so,” Tiegan said with a sigh.

  “And she does still have value. Better to keep her alive and intact for now. Ah well, I’m sure we can find something to entertain ourselves with for the next hour,” Krave acquiesced.