Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave pushed into the red crescent moon on the front of the metal door, and it clicked a few times. Once enough of it had been pushed in, it made space enough to get a grip. Argrave fit his fingers into and pulled. He was rather pleased with himself when the door shifted—he’d half-thought that he’d need Galamon’s help to yank this thing open. The door itself was four inches thick, and quite heavy. Still, it shifted well enough.

Beyond, pure darkness awaited them. Argrave knelt down, getting a better look. “I am only now reminded how much this is going to hurt my back.”

“We’re entering, Your Majesty? Should we not get people to… scout this place out?” one of the royal guards asked innocently.

“Nonsense,” Argrave waved his hand behind his back, and not wishing to have their presence kill his fun, he quickly ordered, “Come on, then.”

As Argrave awkwardly shambled in a half-crouch through the door, he heard some of the royal guard call out in protest. Soon enough, everyone was pressed into the hallway. Argrave cast a simple spell to light the path, holding it below his face. It was a long and uncomfortable hallway, and his feet felt like they were walking on concrete once again. Yet soon enough, the hallway opened into a room, and Argrave cast the light away with abandon to illuminate the place.

The vast room ahead reminded Argrave somewhat of old architecture Rome and Greece, both from the symmetry of it all and the strange antiquity to the style. The room was round and tall, and rather than stairs, the balcony they stood on wound around the walls, slowly sloping downwards in a spiral towards the bottom floor. The railings were intricately carved white marble with statues on them—statues of bugs, faces, bats, each and all facing towards the center. There were many rooms along the winding spiral ramp downwards.

The ceiling was high and round and painted so elaborately as to put the Sistine Chapel to shame. They were portraits, each divided from each other by winding patterns that served as frames. The people depicted on the paintings were unusual—short of stature, brawny, and dressed in unorthodox clothing. They had curly, dark hair, and wreaths of gold atop their heads. And on the bottom floor, there was a marble statue dimly lit by Argrave’s spell. He couldn’t help but smile looking upon it. The statue depicted a dwarf.

“Knight-commander, should we be…?” one of the knights questioned, before trailing off when he entered the room.

“His Majesty has survived enough trips of similar nature,” Galamon confirmed, perhaps the least impressed of everyone. “Our duty is only to protect, not to decide.”

Argrave walked to the marble railing. It barely came up to his knees, and it felt more a hazard than anything. He sat upon it, keeping one hand firmly grasped in case he teetered, then declared, “Welcome to one of the abandoned nexuses of dwarven civilization.”

Anneliese’s eyes jumped about quickly enough it seemed they were malfunctioning. The pure, almost child-like wonder in her expression made Argrave glad he had been somewhat reticent regarding what they would be dealing with here. Argrave was not divorced from the wonder, either—it felt like he walked in the Athens of old in the height of its power, suspended in time and devoid of life.

“In time, we’ll come to occupy this place in greater numbers. Today, though, we’re here for one thing alone before we seal it up again.” Argrave stood up. “We’re not the first non-dwarf to come here. Come along.”

Argrave started to walk down the winding ramp along the wall, staying close to the walls, yet Galamon and his royal guards insistently took their place ahead of Argrave. He let them do their duty, despite knowing danger was not to come quite yet.

tables, and chairs within each of them, and before long she was curiously asking, “What is this

entrance to a fortress. Considering the paranoia of the dwarves, they thought the two weren’t mutually exclusive,” Argrave explained. “That’s why I’ll make something very clear—under

overwhelmed, then rephrased, “I mean,

the dwarves,” Argrave said simply. “And worse

at those words. “You

swayed. A group by the name of the Ebon Cult had been responsible for turning his brother into a vampire, and after, turning him into one. Argrave couldn’t say for sure that this Ebon Cult in the old dwarven cities was the

future. They were a religious state persisting underground headed by a man named Mozzahr, the Castellan of the Empty. Comprised of elves, dwarves, subterranean humanoids, and regular humanoids, they worshipped Mozzahr as though he

nodded, stopping. “This is the staging grounds for the war to come against them. And though I can’t promise anything, we may get answers for you, Galamon. But for

lost. Argrave gave them a pleasant smile

Or maybe Galamon will loop them in. I

#####

changes here,” Anneliese noted, looking down at the light gray floor. Things were as she said—the stone held the faintest hints of black streaks, each emerging from

on the door behind them. It was a fortified door, with the same sort of mechanism locking the first door they’d entered—a red crescent moon, plus two suns opposite it. It was bigger, though, and there was something ominous about it. Maybe it was that the suns seemed to make a smile when next to the moon. Or maybe it was because Argrave knew what lurked

gradient across the ground. Argrave cast a spell of light and sent it into the corridor ahead. It illuminated a different sort of

“Why is the soil above nonarable? Why are these mountains black, and easy to work with earth magic? The

just beside him.

“It is,” Argrave nodded.

had scrawling on every inch of them. There were statues and tables in this room too, but the stone had become so

with particular interest. Ever so slowly, her eyes roamed it,

“I cannot make sense of it, because I’ve been placed in the middle…” she stepped

text is incomplete. It was a frantic effort to inscribe a method of A-rank ascension as its creator slowly succumbed to death because of it.” Argrave shook his head. “He found a better method to convey the information before he

quickly, “I know it might discomfort you knowing the one who wrote this method of ascension died… but trust

you,” Anneliese