Chapter 12

An earth shattering kaboom

As we walked away from the site of the diamond mine, Malachite and Snarly looking over the uncut diamond and saying how it didn't look like much yet, I turned my attentions to Hanz.

"Did I hear you correctly in saying your weapon was out of power?" I asked them.

"Yes, it's convenient enough against single targets, but sadly my internal batteries have degraded over my long years of service to the point I can only activate it at full strength a handful of times. That's why I am forced to carry this primitive projectile launcher around with me."

"The… what?"

"This bow and arrow."

"Ah! I wondered about that." They had once again put the bow on their back, so they didn't have to carry it. "I suppose getting replacement parts is quite tricky these days."

"You have no idea. Sadly even my self repair systems can only do so much. Especially for internal components of such complexity as batteries."

"I imagine." And my magic wouldn't be able to help because I have no understanding of 'batteries' or how exactly they're damaged. Plus it's probably some kind of sealed box I can't see into.

"Why do you ask?"

"Humm? Oh, right. With your permission, I'd like to try something."

"You have generated a hypothesis you wish to prove or disprove?"

"No, I want to try something and see if it works!"

They seemed to sigh electronically. "Proceed."

"Thank you." I focused on magic, willing my spell to provide power for devices of that long lost age to provide it for their beam weapon. Given their size I took no chances and used the second longest casting of the spell, which seemed to take. (This spell was fairly unique in that it had multiple formulas, each taking more time to cast but in exchange powering a significantly larger device) I'm glad I picked up this magic now. I've used it only sparingly in my travels, I had hoped to encounter more devices and using this spell, alongside my spell to understand how to use them, unlock some of the secrets of the past. No such luck yet though. "Okay, go ahead and fire it."

"Very well." They raised their hand and the weapon emerged. They started shooting at rocks on the path, and expressed surprise after a few shots.

"I kept the power low, but that last shot was at full strength. My internal indicators show no loss of power for any of those firings!"

"So I can help power you," I decided. "Good to know."

"But this interferes with your own effectiveness, does it not? Like with the shield? I noticed you were 40% less effective in your spell-casting with it going."

"Yes, it drags me down to an extent, maintaining a spell. That's why the necklace to maintain Athame." I tapped it. "But if you needed to scout ahead or we were facing a lot of enemies that couldn't hurt you but could hurt me, I could cast on you and retreat."

"Indeed, the spell could have its uses. I'm glad you thought to try it, and that it worked to our benefit in this way."

"Me too."

"So where to next?" Malachite asked, seeing our conversation was over.

"We are near the caldera, and our plan was to travel there and see if the bandit cache still existed, yes?" Hanz asked.

"I 'hought we were near a volcano?" Snarly asked them. "What's a caldera?"

"The most accurate description of the local geographical feature," they answered. "To put it simply, a hole in the ground where magma came from. What we are heading towards is not, strictly speaking, a volcano which is a mountain that has hot rock inside it."

"So it's an inny not an outy?"

"Your analogy does not compute. Can you rephrase?"

Malachite laughed. "Yes, that's what they mean."

"Okay! Caldera time!"

Sadly it was not that simple. Despite being only two leagues, more or less from whatever you wanted to call the hole that had been blasted in the ground during the time of the mage war and never closed up, it wasn't a flat grassy plain. It was somewhat mountainous, with a lot of loose stone that even my magically conjured horse had trouble with. Finally I gave up on it, hopped off, and dismissed her. But I didn't want to hold everyone back, and honestly the others were having enough trouble as it was so I turned my Mercury magic inward, grabbing myself with my telekinetic spell and simply floating myself around. It wasn't exactly a flight spell, and it took some concentration, but so had staying on my house so I wasn't losing anything that way. I had nothing better to do but concentrate on it, so it worked out. We made our way to a body of water we saw in the distance, finally stopping for the night after the sun had gone down on the second day. We were at the shore, starlight and the light of the double moons ahead reflecting off the water.

"Leth start setting up the capth!" Snarly announced, throwing off his pack.

"A good a place as any," Malachite agreed. "Nice to be back on the road again, isn't it Orchid?"

"I guess?" I hedged. "It took way too long to go such a short distance though. Give me a nice road any day."

"I was a bit bored, flying around waiting for you to actually get somewhere. I still think you could have used your magic to make me grow to a huge size and I could have just carried everyone."

"Pass!" Hanz announced, making double slashing motions with their hands. "You know what falling from any height would do to me? I'm heavy!"

"I wouldn't have dropped you."

I too would shatter if dropped. But then I trust Malachite more than Hanz does I believe.

"Not on purpose I'm sure, but the fact remains gravity would accelerate me at nearly ten meters per second towards an untimely demise-"

"What's a meter?"

"Quiet, all of you!" Snarly hissed. "Don't you hear that?" He was looking around wildly.

"Obviously not," Malachite replied. "What is it?"

"'here!" he pointed with a dagger, and from the nearby bushes sprang a hideous beast the likes of which we had never seen before!

"AW, look at the cute puppy!" Hanz announced, clapping their hands together. "He's totes adorb!"

"I think someone has a gear loose," Malachite told us, lowering his claws but tapping the side of his head. "Are you speaking Ancient again? It is a dog though. How did it get way out here?"

And it was a dog, a young dog, looking dirty and hungry, but with a tail that wouldn't quit wagging. Unless this is some shape-shifting creature putting us off our guard, I think he's harmless enough. He was yipping and trying to decide who to sniff first by the looks of it, not dangerous at all.

"It drove?"

"What's drove?" Snarly asked. "Come 'ere boy! That's it! Who wants some… Uh, what 'ave we got? Jerky? Do we 'ave jerky? Who wanths some jerky? Oh who doeth? Ith is you? Ish is? Yeth it is!" He dug some dried meat out of his pack and the dog started wrestling with it. He took the opportunity to give the dog a good sniffing and announced "I don't smell any others dogs on him. Probably not part of a pack."

"I guess we have a dog now?" I asked.

"We 'ure do!"

"He will need more than a little dried meat," Hanz announced. "I'll go see if I can't catch a rabbit or something in the area." They put their pack down and grabbed their bow. "I'll return soon."

"I'll scout the area, see if there's another group nearby that may have lost him." Malachite took to the air.

Guess that leaves me to set up camp, I noted, as Snarly was now engrossed in playing with the dog, teasing him with more strips of meat. What a shock. Leave the woman to do the hard work. Probably want me to cook the rabbits too, even though I don't eat. I suppose the dog would have it raw…

Some time later the dog was snuggled in against Snarly (how can he stand the smell?) and the others were in their tents. Well, Malachite was, Hanz was again standing guard as they didn't sleep. I was looking out over the water, sitting near the edge and thinking.

How long has it been since I went swimming? But the question is… Will I be safe swimming here? My magic soon answered me.

"Yes."

Great. No strange creatures in the water ready to pull me down and have their way with me. The other consideration of course… I looked back over my shoulder towards the camp. Hanz is mechanical, he doesn't care. And Snarly doesn't tend to leave his tent. Malachite… Eh, he's impossible to wake up. And even if he wasn't asleep yet, would it be so terrible for him to catch a glimpse? I decided no, it wouldn't be that terrible, and stood. Carefully removing my clothes so they didn't catch on any of my sharp bits, I folded them and set them aside. The breeze felt wonderful against my skin, and I wasted no time wading into the water and diving under when it was deep enough. Ah, now that's the perfect end to a hard day's travel. I wasn't that strong a swimmer but I knew my way around, so I splashed around and floated on my back, looking up at the twin moons. The Chaos Moon swirling with light and magic as usual, as the immense magic of the place caused who knows what to be happening there. I needed this.

The next day my swimming had gone unremarked so after we cleaned up the camp I summoned my horse and we were on our way. The dog was being dragged along by Snarly, who had tied a rope around him so he didn't run off. The little guy didn't seem all that happy about it, but was walking along side him. It was late afternoon by the time we made it to the site we believed would hold the cache, and I was feeling a bit disappointed. I had been keeping my eyes open for any obsidian or other interesting looking rocks but nothing had caught my eye. I was thinking maybe it was time to branch out, (if you'll forgive the pun) and look into a spell for shaping wood as that really could be found anywhere. The principal should be the same. Take a chunk of wood or stone and take bits away until it looks like what you want. It should carry over to wood, my experience shaping stone that is. Ah, Malachite is back.

He landed near us and held up a hand, making us stop. "We're in the right place," he announced.

"You found the 'reasure?" Snarly asked him.

"Not exactly. I found some things guarding the area."

"Things?" Hanz prompted.

"Hard to tell from the air, but probably more orcs and goblins. Some strange looking things too, like creatures made of fire."

"Made of-" I started to say.

"Can you explode them?"

"The… What?"

"If something is made of fire, can you explode it? You know, with that really great spell of yours?"

"You know that was a one time thing, right? A desperation move to kill that rock creature. I don't like doing that, it's too dangerous! I didn't like using it on the bug people, and I sure as heck don't want to do it in an old eruption site!"

"So is fighting a dozen armed guards. Dangerous, I mean."

"A dozen!"

"I counted that many at least. We go any further up this path and we'll see them. They're milling around the hole-"

"Caldera," Hanz corrected.

"The inny," Malachite growled. "So you better think of something unless you want a real fight on your hands."

"Perhaps just asking them why they're here?" I suggested. "Remember the diamond mine? It happened like two days ago? The goblins were just following the orders of the orcs. If we promise to help free them, they may fight on our side."

"That is one probable outcome," Hanz agreed. "They must be here for some reason. It can't be to look for a cultists' coin cache."

"Right. Let's go up and there and ask them."

"But fire!"

"I'll 'ecure the puppy," Snarly told us, finding a big enough rock to tie the rope to. We waited and then crept forward. Looking over the ridge into the hole I noticed a few things. Malachite was right, there were both orc and goblin forces below us. Plus strange creatures that seemed to be made of fire. They were all just milling around down there seemingly without purpose. Heat was rising out of the place, I wondered how they could stand it, and saw pools of melted rock down there that must be the cause. I cast the spell on myself to be understood by any creature with language and stood up.

"Hello there!" I called to them. "Goblins, your day of liberation has come! Help us defeat your orcish masters and you can go free!" Yes, that sounded about right. Wait what are they doing? The nearest goblins had drawn swords and were scrambling up the slopes of the caldera. "Did you not hear me? You can be free, this very day! Turn on your masters and with our help-" Oh no. They were getting close enough that I could see details about them, and I didn't like what I saw. That strange, purple energy swirled around them, the same as I had seen the cultists using. Their eyes seemed dead, and they moved unnaturally enough I felt around for magic. This told me what I already knew, magic swirled around this area. But how? We killed the cultists, heck I turned some of them into zombies myself. No magic could survive their death. Right? What?

"There!" Malachite was screaming at me. "The fire spell, put it there!"

I looked where he was pointing, and it was right at the melted rock furthest from us.

"Oh no, bad idea! Very, very bad idea!"

"You have a better one? I'm good but I can't take three orcs and a dozen goblins plus whatever those fire creatures are."

My eyes darted over the scene. Hanz had their laser out, Snarly his daggers. Several goblins were scrambling up the slope, the orcs were barking orders to the others and pointing at us. There were a lot of them, I had to admit. And it was possible they were already dead, or somehow taken over by this "Gloom" which was a bad sign. But without any to study, how can I tell if this is something the cultists did, or that happened to them somewhere out in the wilds, or what? But how will I study them if I'm dead?

"Do it!"

"Against my better judgment, fine," I told him, readying my spell with magic pulled from the area. I think I can cast it boosted and still be okay, as I'm up here and it's down there. My magic should reach. I tensed, throwing my fire spell into the area. As I expected my efforts had a dramatic effect, blowing the place up and even causing the ground to start shaking. Rock and melted rock flew in the sky, and the things down there (the living things anyway) started to scream as the heat and magma swept over them. The fire things didn't seem to care, and started floating towards us. I only saw this at the last second as I fell over from the ground shaking.

"Oh yeah!" Malachite exclaimed. "That's what I'm talking about!"

You've got a problem.

The goblins recovered as one came over the edge, I hadn't gotten all of them it seemed. Probably too high up. Hanz lasered him, and he fell backwards into the hole again. "There's a few that survived," they called to us.

"Get up," Malachite told me, hauling me up. "Here they come." He struck out at a goblin that was pulling themselves up, and it screamed and tumbled back.

So are they undead or not? Zombies don't feel pain. Two orcs were charging us, and there were still a handful of goblins too. I figured the orc was the bigger threat, so I focused on it. I thrust my palm out, focusing my Mercury magic and they lost their grip, tumbling back down.

Hanz took out another goblin, as Malachite pushed off with his wings. I noticed he had drawn his sword, which surprised me a little. He had always worn one, but preferred his claws in most cases so hardly ever drew it. He must be unsure of those fire creatures. He may be immune to fire but they could be magic, not fire at all. With that in mind I put my newest spell on him as he went feet first towards the nearest orc. Or not. I thought he was going to use his sword? He smashed into the orc, trying to drive him back as well. No luck, the orc didn't go anywhere and Malachite bounced off him. That gave Hanz a chance to act, lasering him but only grazing his leg.

"There's another!" Snarly shouted, drawing my attention back there. Another goblin was emerging, so I put the same spell on his dagger. He darted forward, driving it into the goblin's chest and causing him to stagger back and fall. "Gotcha! 'hanks, Orchid."

"Sure thing." I looked back at Malachite to find him slashing the Orc across the chest. Magic burst from the blade, that and the force of the strike nearly cut the thing in two and it fell, dead. I quickly put the elemental spell back on the blade as the fire creatures were getting closer. He dodged a strike by one, and I saw the orc I had cast on first make their way back up the ridge and pop their head up. So Hanz lasered it, making it explode.

"Just the fire creatures left," they announced. "One moment please." They went to rummage in their bag, couldn't imagine what they were thinking at the moment but I turned back to Malachite. Need to support him. I cast two spells on each before they could react, I was really that good. One to dazzle their senses and the other to balk their next defensive action. Malachite had been gearing up for a strike, I guess letting them get close so he could do one mighty swing and slash both of them at once, which he did. They went out like candle flames, leaving only one.

"Take care of that one!" he shouted up at me, and headed across the caldera.

What in the world? Where do you think you're going?I cast my elemental spell of air at it, hoping it was vulnerable to more than just magical damage, and it seemed to be hurt so I did it again. That took it out and Malachite was back carrying an iron chest of all things.

"Noticed this in the rubble, think it's what we're here for?"

"I believe this area is becoming unstable," Hanz announced, as the rumbling and spewing of magma hadn't stopped. "I suggest retreat and accepting that as our only spoils for the moment."

"Won't get an argument from me," Snarly agreed, heading down to untie the dog and hustle them out of there.

We booked it out of there ourselves, though there wasn't any sort of real eruption we had to worry about, thank the Allfather. When the chest was cool enough Snarly looked it over and went to work getting it open. When he did some kind of gas spewed out of it, making us call out his name, but he just stood there.

"'mells like almonds?" he remarked, and looked the chest over.

Er, what just happened?

Snarly pulled out a pair of boots of all things, sniffed them, and pulled out a coin pouch as he tossed the boots aside. "Now this is promithing." He let the coins spill out into his hand and it looked like there might be the equivalent of 60 moons all right.

"We can divide them up later," Hanz told us. "Let us return to the camp. Someone came to investigate the last time we used that spell, and it was fine because it was to take out the encampment. If you happened to trigger a new eruption around here, I'm sure you don't wish to be blamed for it."

Magic could tell someone who did it though… "I suppose you're right. Let's get out of here."

But why the boots though? Seems an odd guardian for the coin pouch.