Chapter 38: The Executioner

Sven Geisel...

How can you have faith in them?

You can't.

You can't have faith in yourself.

You'll lose control again.

They can't understand it.

You have no choice.

Be the Executioner.

Let me come back to you.

When Sven had heard about the guardians the day he'd been freed, Leon had said, "It was dark due to Storgane's presence, a place where it's easy to lose hope. But as long as we kept some hope and happy memory, no matter how small, there was always a bit of light with us."

It was the same for him. Sven was trapped in a monstrous shell that had no morals. All it knew was how to follow orders. No matter how grisly or insane those orders were, the Executioner would follow through with them. As its unwilling passenger, sometimes the best he could do was shut off his conscious and try to dream of better times. Holidays with his parents, stories he'd gotten lost in, days spent playing with friends when he could run around... there were bad memories in those, but he got adept in manipulating most dreams to avoid them.

One memory shone brightly for him no matter how bad things seemed. His hometown had a famous landmark in the Shining Fountain, a dazzling centerpiece. Within the white stone structure, there were glints of strange fragments. They made the water cascading down the spiral of sculpted leaves sparkle by day and shine by night. People said that the water held in the bottom pool was blessed, making anyone who drank of it healthier.

While he had been weak and sickly from the time that he had been born, many adults around town would say that he may have only survived as long as he had because he'd been drinking at least a glass of that water every day. It might not have been miraculous enough to save him. Still, he often spent afternoons sitting by the Shining Fountain, watching the sparkling water tumble down. That was soothing.

One day he'd been there, Doug had said, "Sven, someday we're going to go out on an adventure of our own, just like in the stories. We'll go out to fight monsters, find lost treasures, maybe even rescue some princesses so that we can become kings."

He smiled at the thought. "You could, but you really think I could get that strong when I grow up?"

"Sure, I'll bet you'll be the strongest warrior around when you start working out," his cousin said, like he really did believe it. That made him start to believe it and they spent the afternoon happily talking about places they'd try to see and if they could get to be kings by being adventurers.

There was a day in late summer when he'd been recovering from a long fever. He had no energy and his limbs felt stiff. Still, his mother coaxed him out of bed to go see a traveling doctor. The summer heat was all around him, but he thought the fever's heat had been more oppressive. He was given a chair like the elders in town, not made to sit on the ground like the young children or stand with the ones around his age. While the other kids had browned skin from being outside all season, his skin was pale and his eyes were tormented by the brightness of the sun. Summer and winter were never kind seasons to him. He felt like most who looked at him only felt pity for him, for being so weak and strange. A human child in a dwarven family; the scandal was still gossiped about.

This was a different kind of event for the town as the doctor's talk was more of a show. He had a lot of colorful helpers who entertained the crowd. When he spoke of the services he offered, including some special medicines from secret formulas that were more effective than more common potions, he talked a lot about the amazing results that came of them. Sven might've only been eleven, but even he thought there was something odd in how he presented things without really explaining them.

His parents had realized that too and weren't sure about asking the doctor if he could help. But they had already tried many things trying to get him healthy. Aside from the water of the Sparkling Fountain, very little of it helped. After the show was over, they asked for the doctor to examine Sven. He didn't remember much of it because the first thing the doctor had done was put him to sleep. When he woke back up, his father was angrily berating the doctor while his mother helped him back to their home.

That evening, the heat receded with the sun. He went to sit outside on the porch. "Are my mom and dad embarrassed of me? I know they wouldn't say it to me, but they got kicked out of the old town because of me."

"Come on, don't blame yourself for that," Doug said. "You haven't met the old dwarves there; they won't change their minds for anything. Besides, your parents work really hard to give you a good life. They love you and each other more than anything else in the world."

That cheered him up, but then a pair of horses with one rider passed in front of their house. It wasn't that unusual, not with merchants and travelers coming from the roads and the air. What came next was, when another man in armor jumped onto the porch and knocked Doug aside before grabbing Sven. He screamed, but was then passed off to the man on the horse to gallop down the street and out of the town gates while the town guard was becoming alert of the trouble. He couldn't even fight back because the hypnosis sleep hadn't been that restful. The soldier ran his horse right up the ramp of an airship. Leaving his partner in the kidnapping behind, he called for the ramp to be pulled and the airship to take off.

After he'd been put into a tiny barred room below deck, he met the one behind the crime: the showy doctor from this afternoon. Shouts and cries elsewhere in the hall suggested that he wasn't the only captive. A woman who had been part of his show was with him. No longer looking friendly or enthusiastic, the false doctor said, "This one is young and frail, you sure about this?"

"He has a potent store of runes, but his body is currently too weak to make use of them," the woman said. "Adolescence could correct that issue to some extent. Yet the amount and quality of the runes he bears are rare for a human boy. Or a dwarven one, for that matter."

"It's his messed up heritage that makes him weak," the doctor said, as if he wasn't even there. Sven brought his knees to his chest and hid his head there, trying to ignore them.

"No, half breeds and their descendants are just as healthy as full blooded members of most races," the woman said in a cold manner that only cared about it as a fact. "Dwarf and human should present no special health issues to mixed individuals. Although his case is unusual as his blood and runes should read as half each born from half breeds, instead of this full blood human with minor dwarf traces. Nevertheless, it is more likely some other condition undermines his strength."

"I didn't ask for an analysis. Then if this boy has a rare amount of runes, how are we going to bring that out in him? It wouldn't be useful to the project to use him as is."

"Give him the immunization and booster schedule for imperial soldiers, including the controlled adolescent transition. That should correct the issue far better than leaving it to nature."

It seemed like he was living a nightmare to him then. It would barely compare to what this pair had in store for him.

For the next three seasons, he was poked with lots of needles, given an exact diet of unfamiliar foods, and forced to start an exercise regimen meant to train soldiers. He collapsed from exhaustion many days because he was too weak and being forced to grow up according to his trainer's ideals. It was so hard that he could barely think. Yet once he managed to get through one day of this harsh routine, things got a lot easier. He was still pushed around and yelled at, but the exercises were no longer wearing him out. It surprised him how strong he was getting so fast. While he couldn't lift large weights as easily as the other trainees, he could lift ones that he wouldn't have been able to budge before his kidnapping.

He would love to show his family his incredible improvement. But he didn't have much of a chance to escape this place in the Sechs Empire. Every night, they locked him into his room that had bars on the window and door. Before they let him out, they made sure he wore a collar that would give a painful jolt if he disobeyed his trainer. He wasn't even sure where he was in the empire's lands, or which direction home was. They wouldn't let him read to find out.

Most days he wore ragged castoffs from the actual recruits in this training base. But one day, he was hastily given a proper uniform and told to change into immediately. There was a special visitor who had asked specifically to see him. Sven did as asked on the spot, because otherwise the trainer would shock him. With instructions to keep quiet unless asked something (and then to keep his answers as short as possible), he was brought to meet with the leader of this powerful nation.

Emperor Ethelberd was an old man, his long hair as gray as steel. There was a look to his eyes that reminded Sven of the woman in charge of the project he was in. To the two of them, everyone around them was something to be studied and used. "This one is on the scrawny side for a soldier," he said critically.

"We're having to give him twice the amount of boosters to get him to this state, my lord," the trainer said. "Was as flimsy as a leaf when he came in."

"Not that it matters, with what those two have going," the emperor said, putting his hand on Sven's shoulder. It unnerved him, like he was suddenly under a spotlight for close inspection. "And this is the one those dwarves have been picking a fight with us about?"

"Wouldn't know that myself," the trainer said.

"Yes, he's the one taken from Medritarc," a man who'd come in with the emperor said. That surprised Sven; the others back home would start a battle trying to get him back? It was even more surprising to hear the man continue with, "The airship had to take off hastily, so both Medritarc and Telliarc have been leading attacks on our lands because of him."

"Ridiculous," the emperor said. "Boy, have you ever drank from the Sparkling Fountain?"

Confused at why they'd asked that but intimidated by his trainer fiddling with the choker's controller, Sven nodded. "Yes sir. I was given a glass of that water every day trying to improve my health."

"Every day?" the man with him asked.

The emperor glared at him for asking. "Why did you not think to ask that before? Or from the moment your team found the level of runic power he has? He may have ingested small particles, or the water itself was infused with enough to build up to that level in a child. Check again. If he's proof of the authenticity of those records about the fountain being moved from Selphia to Medritarc, then he's proof that they must have the stones as well. Dwarves wouldn't give up that kind of thing easily."

Only a few days after that meeting, Sven heard from some graduating trainees that they were getting sent out to besiege Medritarc and Telliarc, all on some proof they'd gotten from him because he drank from the fountain.

There came a day when the training base released Sven back to the doctors. The jolt choker had been left on him, given over to the lab's staff to keep control of him. When they brought him in for an examination, the first thing he saw on entering the room was the remains of another subject. Some of the staff were taking the dead body of a young man out of a monstrous suit of metal. It was horrifying to see, and horrifying again to realize that they meant to do that to him. But they had the choker's controller, so he tried to erase the image out of his mind while silently following the instructions he was given.

However, the staff here removed the collar when they shut him in for the night. The door wasn't as sturdy as the one back at the training base either. Sven waited an hour after things went quiet, then kicked at the door like he'd been trained. Without any further effort, it broke right open. He ran out into the hall and glanced both ways. One end led to another hall, while the other had a large window that showed a brown sky. If there wasn't a door out by the window, he might be able to break it too.

The sight that met him at the window stopped that plan of escape immediately. There was a strange overcast sky, lit up by bright lights below rather than the moon above. Below that, the ground was far below the window. A forest and lake looked tiny, while a sprawling town spewing great columns of smoke looked smaller than a child's toy. Where was he to be so high in the sky?

A fierce yowl startled him; a red bipedal cat was rushing at him. What was that monster doing here? He fought it off, getting clawed and knocked into the wall a couple of times. But he was stronger and tougher now. Sven beat it, then hurried to find some way out of here. However, fighting the Sechs Cat had alerted the security forces of this place. They sent more monsters and a couple of soldiers to recapture him. After finding a knife in one of the labs, he gave them enough trouble that when the soldiers finally got him, they tied his hands and ankles together and kept a guard over him all night.

The next day, the fake doctor hypnotized him again so they could install him into the armor.

"This way," the woman researcher said.

Now he had no control over where he went or what he did. Sven wasn't even sure if he had his own body anymore. He couldn't open his eyes, but he could see what the armor saw through its eyeshield. While he could hear what it heard, he could only smell and feel machinery. He could think about things, but he wasn't sure if the armor thought or not. If it did, all it thought about was the incomplete and active orders it had.

"We'll definitely be winning that sweet grant with this," the false doctor said in delight. "It's exactly what he asked for. We'll be living a good life now."

"Don't be ridiculous," the woman researcher said. "The grant money will go into further research into bioanimate armor. We need to determine if it is the boy's rune qualities or his controlled growth that made him survive its activation. It had better be the latter. If it's the former, then we're in a serious pickle as that vastly limits the pool of hosts we have and we'll have to find some way to reduce the armor's dependency on that level of runes."

"You aren't thinking strategically. But we'll work that out later."

When the emperor heard of the high death toll of the hosts (there had been thirty taken by the doctor's shows; Sven was the only one left) as well as the monetary costs of building the mechanized armor, he deemed the armor too inefficient financially to start even a small scale production of them. No matter what proofs the researchers had in how powerful and tough the armor was, it wasn't enough to sway his interests. They were sent back to the lab to work on a project assigned to them with a smaller budget than before. The two researchers started arguing and the false doctor killed his partner, yelling that it was because of her skeptical attitude.

That triggered one of the armor's orders; she had instructed it that should this betrayal happen, the false doctor's orders were to be ignored and the man killed. Thus the armor promptly killed him. Then it stayed right where it was as it had no further orders, only the knowledge that Emperor Ethelberd was also authorized to give orders. Sven was horrified at being left with two bodies and tried to give his own orders to the armor. However, it wouldn't listen to him. It took the emperor coming and telling him to take orders from certain generals to release him from the scene.

"What's it called?"

"Bioanimate Armor Model C."

"That's a mouthful while not being intimidating. Let's bill it as the Executioner. And get it a battle scythe instead of that sword, that's an instant upgrade in style."

The emperor had said that he had some ideas of how to use the armor, but had sent it to a battle arena for the time being. Sven hated it. For some reason, the people here in the Sechs Empire found battles entertaining. Especially when people died. When arena combatants were matched with the Executioner, they usually died. Their weapons could not damage the metal shell; their armor was often shattered by the machine-powered strength behind its given scythe. When the scythe broke in one particularly fierce battle, a fan forged an enhanced scythe that he felt was more fitting. It had a blade as white as bleached bones.

The worst days were something this bloodthirsty crowd loved. Prisoners captured in the war between Sechs and Norad sometimes got sent here, whether they were soldiers of the kingdom or ordinary citizens. While the soldiers were often matched with him, there were matches where the arena manager placed a prisoner acknowledged as a skilled fighter with a group of unarmed citizens and made them fight the Executioner. No one ever won those against it.

Not wanting to watch those matches, Sven tried to shut his attention off and think on better things. Maybe his childhood days, maybe the old dreams of being adventuring kings, maybe the new dreams of someone actually winning against the Executioner by enough to break it and free him. Or finding some way to get out himself. He could often think of what he'd do if that happen: help break the siege on his hometown, get back with his family. Maybe he'd go be an adventurer. But more and more often, he found the dreams of not fighting at all more enticing.

He just couldn't figure out how to make the important stage of getting out of the Executioner happen.

"I think my husband is a part of the rebel party. He says he just goes out to drink with his friends, but I know he's got a mistress and she seems to have seduced him into the rebellion." That was the wife of the arena manager. She had said that she loved him when they parted earlier.

"My wife's been acting suspiciously. She started questioning some of the recent changes from the government and while she backpedaled, it may have been just for show. And she keeps harassing me when I come home. From the unexplained things I've seen around the house, I think she's been hosting meetings for the rebel party." That was the arena manager. He had said that he loved her too when they parted.

The next day, both were arrested. A few of the arena guards talked about it while the Executioner silently waited. "I didn't think either of them were with the rebels; they both acted like loyal citizens. But they were arrested, so they probably were. I heard they argued like banshees in the courthouse when they got sight of each other."

The empire was a cold hostile place.

"This siege has dragged on far too long. I am not accepting the excuse that they've dug themselves in too well; their supplies must be dwindling. Executioner, destroy the towns of Medritarc and Telliarc. Eliminate all who live there."

'No, don't do it! Stop taking these orders from everyone else. Don't destroy them!'

Sven had even lost control of his voice. "Orders acknowledged."

They transported him by airship. 'This can't happen. Let them break you, even if it kills me. Just so that I don't have to watch them die. Please, don't... Please, if any god can hear me, help me. Don't let this happen.'

Miraculously, someone answered him. 'You want the help of a god?'

'Yes, please! Help me.'

Terribly, an evil god had answered him. 'Why should I? You're a mortal. You're unfit to walk the surface of this world along with all the tiny lives around you. But I like that thing you have, the metal golem. I'll take that."

When the Executioner broke through the gate protecting Medritarc and got to the fountain, it called down a hand of god in the form of a hellish winter wind to crush the whole town flat. Only a single soul survived, a guard down in an underground tunnel. He took the handle of the scythe to the head and died instantly. Strange black spirits emerged from the armor during the attack, hateful things that seemed to appreciate all the death here.

Sven knew the tunnel led to Telliarc, but he'd never gone down it himself. Instead, the armor walked over the surface to reach another entrance to the underground town. The Executioner had to fight through a company of dwarven warriors to get to a point to unleash the powerful massacre again. No one lived fighting against it yet again. Everyone died.

'Feh, these shards are only enough for small scale attacks. I'd have to find the completed stones. But this weapon seems useful. Fine, go back to your mad mortal master. I can return to use it any time I like.' Then the god departed, leaving a wake of despair and hate behind.

The armor took the orders literally and left Telliarc for the Maya Mountain Range to walk back to its usual place in the arena. But neither the Executioner nor Sven knew how to navigate the narrow paths and slopes to get into Sechs territory. They wandered there for years.

At least the Executioner couldn't kill anybody out there.

Sometimes in his dreams, Sven heard songs of hope. There weren't any words or music, just feelings. All the same, they were songs. He knew the music in his heart when he heard them. Those were soothing dreams where he found peace temporarily. While he would have liked to sing along, the Executioner had stolen his voice and the last thing he wanted was for that thing to disrupt this secret refuge.

"Isn't that the Executioner?"

"Didn't it get destroyed by the Norad forces?"

"What's it doing walking around freely? I thought it was another golem."

"Unauthorized personnel are not allowed into the arena at this time."

"You dope, that's the Executioner. Are you going to try stopping it?"

The arena was strangely quiet now. The Executioner took up its usual position and waited. While a few soldiers looked in curiously, weeks passed with little activity. Sven tried to appreciate the stillness, but being back in this place reminded him of the battles that occurred here. Had they been canceled? That would be good, but the people in the streets had seemed afraid, poor, and neglected.

He saw more of that when one of the soldiers came by with a special charm that the Executioner recognized as someone authorized to give orders. It was led to an airship to get up to the floating capitol. While the armor couldn't have the interest to look around, Sven did and saw how the houses were tattered, the public machines were broken, and the people were thin. They watched the solider and the mechanical armor warily, but did not leave the warm dry spots they huddled in. If they had warm dry spots to stay; a few were trying to restart a fire in an alley to stay warm. Others hadn't made it through last night and hadn't been moved yet.

While the soldiers looked healthy, they were a lot quieter and more withdrawn than he'd seen before. When they got to the floating capitol, it seemed like everyone had vanished. The monsters had turned feral, even attacking the two of them. Instead of human guards, full machine guards patrolled around and made sure the solider had that charm.

Emperor Ethelberd was different too. He yelled at the soldier for a couple minutes about stealing the charm to sneak in here. After begging for recognition, the soldier had to point out that he had brought the Executioner back from where it had returned. The Emperor cast a spell, sending a snake of black orbs to chase the soldier from the room. Since the armor set the emperor's orders as highest priority, it stayed there.

After making sure no other spies had gotten in, Ethelberd came to examine the armor. "What happened to you after breaking the siege? And what took you so long to get back?"

"I returned to my post in the arena through the mountains," the armor replied. Some of the words meant nothing to it, but it knew the structure was necessary.

"You are limited in comprehension like the golems," Ethelberd said, dismissive of the work of others. "But the unexpected capacity for magic you showed back there was impressive, could be very useful. I should try to remove that boy from you; he still lives, right?"

"He is dependent on me and cannot leave," the armor said.

Can't leave? There really was nothing he could do? Sven felt a cold grip of despair on his heart. But, the armor wasn't that bright. It could easily be mistaken. There had to be a way out, somehow... if he gave up hope, he might as well go insane.

"Figures," Ethelberd said. "What a waste, although I won't have to worry about him failing or betraying me. I might as well make use of you, but I don't want to babysit you to make sure you stay working instead of just waiting around like a useless statue. I'm sending you back to Norad. You are to kill every earthmate you come across. But first of all, you need to intercept and kill a delivery boy. A loathsome young earthmate known as Arthur Lest Nolan is taking some powerful magical artifacts, the rune spheres, from the tribal village of Grelin to the rural princedom of Selphia. I want those rune spheres. You're not the only one with these orders, but I need as many barriers as I can get to stop him from getting to Selphia and fulfilling his plans."

After some clarifications to make sure the armor would follow its orders, it was sent by airship to the very capitol of Norad. Sven was trying to keep asleep so he could hear the songs he heard in dreams. Otherwise, he would think over the armor's words that he couldn't escape, all the seasons he saw pass in the mountains, all the battles in the arena, the day everyone he had known as a child was crushed by wind... hope, he had to keep hope of escape. Even if the only escape he could find was in dreams.

The first earthmate the Executioner ran across was a girl in the capitol. Sven only became aware of her when he was startled awake in being shook violently. There was even the unfamiliar feeling of pain in his own body. When he looked, she was running away, a staff in hand. Spells often worked best against the Executioner, but the prisoners who would know magic had been tormented and exhausted before they even entered the arena. They could barely cast anything. But, that earthmate girl had defeated the Executioner? On her own? Knights of Norad were starting to circle around him, but it was hard to say if they'd been in the fight as he'd just woken up. Since they were intent on capturing it but were not earthmates, the Executioner fled the city to find the girl.

A few days later, the Executioner got orders from someone bearing the charm of authority. Nolan had managed to get to Selphia and was now the prince there. It was to assassinate the prince and locate the rune spheres that had gotten scattered in the emperor's last barrier in a warship. When it started to walk in the direction of Selphia, the charm bearer quickly got it to get on an airship instead, letting it off at a Sechs building close to a road through the Maya Mountains. It still wandered around the countryside for days as no one had thought to give it a map.

The next earthmate the Executioner found was the new prince. It was just after it had finally found one of the rune spheres being held by a highly skilled black orc. Unfortunately for the monster, the Executioner was stronger than its skills and its scythe had been forged in the empire. Somehow, the armor immediately recognized the young man in the green cloak as the prince. Assassinating the prince had been given as an order before retrieving the rune spheres, so it went to attack immediately. But through a mix of a paralysis spell and some luck, the prince managed to get the sphere and escape.

The prince escaped again when the Executioner found him and a strange fox man in a cave full of lava. And the third time, after the armor had defeated a monster in the shape of a woman with butterfly wings, the prince and his companions somehow killed the Executioner without killing Sven. By the campfire that night, the prince told him, "I knew you were trapped in there from the first time I encountered that armor and wanted to help free you. We still have to get you out of there safely, but we'll need to talk to another one of my friends to arrange that."

How could he repay someone who heard his pleas and understood his suffering when he couldn't say a word?

Spring 54

The three hate spirits that surrounded them in the tunnel were dispatched quicker than Sven expected. Doug changed out his sword for the spirit dagger and killed the one that had trapped them in one hit. Meanwhile, Kiel had cast something over his scythe that let him take down one in front of them just as quickly. Amber might have said she couldn't fight, but she reflexively cast a cloud of pink pollen over the third spirit, immobilizing it in sleep so Sven could destroy it too. Fragments of sunlight spilled through the rubble, but it looked dangerous to try digging through it. Especially with one chunk of concrete prominently stuck on the bottom step and the tunnel roof; it was bigger than any of them.

"Where does this tunnel lead?" Vishnal asked, somehow remaining calm in spite of the danger they were still in.

"It's a defense and trading tunnel between the two towns," Doug said. "This whole area was once considered part of Telliarc, but then humans started moving in here and it was split into two towns. If you don't know what way you're going down here, you'll end up in one of many dead ends, a lot of them set up with traps that could still be active."

"It's so dark down there," Amber said, uncomfortable with being trapped underground.

"Would there be another exit from Telliarc?" Vishnal said, undaunted by that information. Sven wondered how he could be so calm and brave. He wanted to panic himself, but then was afraid it might open himself up to one of those hate spirits if others were lurking around.

"Yeah, but it's a dangerous proposal to go into haunted mines," Doug said, unnerved himself. "Especially of a dwarven town that fell in battle. I mean, I know my way through the tunnel and I'm pretty sure there's a way to the surface not far from their end of the trade post. But who knows what we'll run into between here and there."

"As dangerous as trying to dig our way out of that without proper mining tools?"

"Couldn't one of you use escape magic?" Sven asked. That be the easiest and fastest way out.

"I don't know if that'd be a good idea here," Vishnal said.

"Yeah, there were a lot of strange looking runes in the ruins and they're only thicker down here," Kiel said. "I can't tell if they'd interfere with the escape spell. If they're the corrupted runes like those around Karnak Tower, we really don't want to mess with them even in trying to cast a spell to get through them."

Vishnal shook his head. "They're not the corrupted ones. Frey's been studying them, so I've seen those before. Still, they won't be safe to make contact with."

"Maybe it's the feelings remaining from such a violent sudden death," Sven said, feeling sick to realize and say it. "Isn't that how a lot of haunted places start?"

"Why don't we stay here for a bit and have lunch?" Kiel suggested.

"What, in the haunted tunnel we're trapped in?" Doug asked, unsure about that.

Kiel shrugged. "Well, why not? There's some sunlight coming through the rubble and at least two of us can keep an eye out for those spirits. Plus we're going to be walking for a long while to get to the surface and then back to the airship. Might as well get the energy to do that."

"And we wouldn't want to start off doing so right after what's happened," Vishnal said. "It'd be a good idea to calm down for a little while and gather our courage for what's to come."

"Yeah, have fun in scary situations, that would work," Amber said, though she wasn't smiling.

"It'll be okay, we'll stick together," Kiel said, smiling for her.

They had sensible reasons and Sven felt glad to have some sensible reason around. It was reassuring after the crazy magical influences that kept pulling at him. While it seemed like a time to panic, instead they sat down together and shared a meal. Vishnal even lightened the situation by talking animatedly about a paw cat on the royal farm that he'd befriended. Things didn't seem as frightening when they were talking about a cute little hunter who went after mice and moles.

As they cleaned up after the meal, Kiel brought out a strange bracelet. It was made of a tube with a thick clear liquid inside. When he caused something in it to snap, it emitted a bright white light that illuminated the tunnel while he wore it on his wrist. He gave a second one to Doug so they had two light sources to keep the darkness away. "I've got a few others for back-up, but the light will last twelve hours before I need to recharge them."

"Whoa, those are amazing," Amber said in fascination.

"Want one too?" he asked, taking out another to offer her.

That made her smile finally. "Sure!"

"Why'd you bring several when we were only planning on staying until mid-afternoon?" Doug asked, slipping the light bracelet on.

"My Dad always said to be prepared for anything when you go out on an adventure," Kiel said, making sure his bag was securely closed.

That had been a good thing for him to learn, since it felt safer to walk through the lit tunnel. The side tunnels were spooky as they were swallowed up in darkness, but Doug was confident that he remembered the safe passage through. While they didn't see evidence of the traps, Sven remembered them as being deadly, from hidden pits in the floor to spear and fire throwing mechanisms in the walls. The trading posts were generous services to other races in the eyes of traditional dwarves, Doug said at one point. The community would greedily guard any treasure they viewed as their own.

It took an hour to walk the distance between towns, during which they talked about anything but the siege and following massacre. But it stayed on Sven's mind. After seeing the eroded remains of a terrible day, it made those memories terribly fresh. He couldn't stay like this, though. He had to do something to gain more control of himself so he didn't end up actually doing something terrible. Like attacking someone nearby again, or getting possessed, or summoning up his hell gate just because of a moment of insecurity. Better armor might protect against external threats, but something else needed to be done about the internal ones. Maybe even destroying his hell gate? That would mean facing his nightmares.

However, he'd nearly killed Doug a short while ago. While they had forgiven him already, maybe even forgotten it partly, Sven thought that was more terrifying than thinking over the past. He could have lost the last family he had and it really would be his doing. That could be the worst nightmare of all, something worth going into a hell gate in order to prevent.

A/N: This was originally earlier in the story (and still had the label Chapter 24, oops!). But that was in the section with Amber's and Dylas' backstories too, so I thought it was a bit much at once. On that matter, this section in Medritarc was originally supposed to be just one chapter, maybe two. Once I started tying it in to other parts of the story, even Amber's questions on death, it got much longer. Though that happens to me more often than not.

Edit: fixed a name in several places