Chương 68: 67-Among Friends

Someone put a hood on Billy as a pair of burly hands expertly tied his hands behind his back. He had never missed the Blood Link so much—all their carefully learned hand signs were good for nothing in this situation. He was roughly guided through what looked like an infinite series of twisting corridors. They finally reached their destination, and his unseen captors forced him to kneel. The light blinded him when the hood came off. Jenna and Bob were close to him, also kneeling.

A warrior was standing next to each, holding an axe high. Were they going to behead them? They were inside a holding cell enclosed by bars of golden, rune-covered metal. A regal figure, a Dwarf with golden armor and a grey beard, dominated the scene.

"Do any of you speak my language?" the kingly Dwarf asked, in an unknown, guttural tongue that Billy understood. It is the ring I looted from the Angel. This is the Gift of Tongues in action, he thought. Billy focused on his powers. Around half the Dwarves inside the cell were Experientials. The rest were Mobs, except for the king, who was a level-70 Core.

"I can understand it and make myself understood," Billy answered. Judging from the Dwarves' reactions, the ring's magic also worked on Billy's own words.

"Call the Runespeaker!" the King ordered in dwarvish. A new Dwarf, dressed in the robes of a mystic, his face covered by a veil, entered the room. The king muttered something in his ear. The runespeaker spoke a single word—a gleaming sigil of light the size of a book manifested, hanging in mid-air. The king approached Billy and knelt, bringing his face level with Billy's.

"I am King Dwarin. That is the Rune of Truth. It will flicker and die if any lie is told in its presence," he said to Billy.

"I want you to behead these bastards if the rune vanishes," he ordered his guards.

"Translate for your friends, please," he told Billy, in an oddly courteous tone.

"They will kill us if we tell any lie in front of that rune, Jenna. Surprise Boom." Jenna nodded as her spirit enveloped Bob. She then enhanced their resilience as much as she could. Surprise Boom was an escape maneuver: Billy was going to explode.

"Let's try to play this cool, Billy; maybe we can talk our way out of this one," Bob counseled.

"If I see any of those axes so much as making a move, I am doing it, and to hell with consequences," answered Billy.

"Pay attention, human. I am going to question you, and I do not like to repeat myself." Dwarin told Billy.

"Have you brought these mad winged bastards to my city?" Billy panicked for a moment. Then he decided to tell the truth. It was not as if he had much choice, with that rune floating in the air.

"We are trying to save the universe. Our trip brought us here. We did not even know this city existed." The King slapped Billy across the face, hard. He repeated his question, slowly, as if talking with a child.

"Have you brought these mad winged bastards to my city?" Billy spat blood. The King had loosened one of his teeth with that blow.

"As with anything related to time travel, the answer is yes and no at the same time," Billy answered. Dwarin looked curiously at the Rune of Truth, apparently surprised it was still there.

"Tell your friends my options are to cut their heads off or let them go free. As with anything related to Dwarves, I will probably do both at the same time." The whole citadel shuddered. Something had struck it.

"Let's defend the city. Lock up this scum. We will sort them out when the danger is over," the King said as he left the cell. It was the last thing Billy saw as the hood was placed on him again. He heard the guards leave the cell and lock it. Billy tried to shift his shape so that the ropes would slip off him, but a whistling noise invaded his mind, canceling his concentration. He then tried to discorporate, but the same thing happened again.

No matter how much he tried, each time he used magic to escape, the strange noise would enter his brain and scatter his concentration.

"Are you trying to use your powers to escape and failing to do so?" he heard Bob's muffled voice to his right.

"I think it is because of the Orichalcum bars. They must be enchanted to negate any power that helps a prisoner escape."

"Damn it," swore Billy.

"We are more securely imprisoned now than we were five minutes ago, with axes at our necks. I should have exploded when I had the chance."

"Relax, Billy, I am trying something," Jenna said.

"How?" Billy asked.

"The bars only suppress powers that manifest externally. I am turning my powers within."

"Are you increasing your Mind?" A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"No. I am increasing my Luck." Ten minutes later, he heard the lock turn. Light flooded his vision as someone removed his hood. He recognized the newcomer. It was the runespeaker who had summoned the Rune of Truth. A level-49 Boss. He removed his veil. He was one of the Dwarves they had rescued at the trebuchet. He sat on a stool and looked patiently at them. The Rune of Truth still hung in mid-air. Jenna and Bob were no longer hooded, but they were still tied.

"My name is Balin. I am the Speaker of Runes of this Citadel. Now tell me your story. All of it," the Runespeaker told Billy. Billy took a deep breath.

"The day I got eaten started like any other Friday…" Five Hours Later Aziraphel observed the Dwarven Citadel from his vantage point in the sky. He had expected a fast victory, but the Dwarves had proved resilient and were exploiting their home advantage to the fullest. He watched as another squad of celestial warriors tore itself to shreds, as it struck razor-sharp orichalcum wire cunningly strung between the Citadel's towers. Marphel was nowhere to be seen.

He was sure she had fallen in combat, but her corpse could not be found. Each minute the Icosahedron remained beyond his grasp, paradox gnawed at the foundations of reality—this would not do. He flew majestically until he hovered over the city. Then, he did something he had not done for the last seven thousand years—he spoke.

"I am Aziraphel, the Fist of the Host," he said in a quiet, unassuming voice that was somehow heard throughout the entire citadel.

"You have taken my Voice from me, so I have to use my own words—believe me when I tell you that they are much harsher than hers would have been."

"You have one hour to give me the Icosahedron. If you don't, I will say the Final Word. This will annihilate me, but I will take everything within a three-mile radius with me. Then my army will look for the Artifact in the ashes. Surrender and live, or resist and die. It is the same to me."

"I live to serve." A giant, glowing hourglass appeared beside Aziraphel. The sand began to run. ◇ Billy finally finished his tale, his voice hoarse with the effort of talking non-stop for five hours. Balin sat, his eyes still watching the Rune. It had not flickered once. Only Billy could talk for five straight hours, saying only the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. He had listened impassively till the end, when Billy told him about the creation of Valda and the return of Elariana.

A feverish gleam appeared in the Dwarf's eyes when Billy reached that part of the tale. Bells suddenly sounded all over the citadel. The sound was complex, with many different notes in a staccato effect.

"That sounds like Morse code," said Jenna.

"They use bells for messaging." There was still much to discuss, but they had apparently run out of time. Balin cut their ropes with a dagger.

"Follow me," he said to Billy.

"I will help you escape." The Losers followed Balin through a maze of dark, twisting corridors. The Runespeaker was taking a seldom-used route, trying to avoid encounters. It worked, not surprisingly, as nearly all the Dwarves were on the upper floors, defending the Citadel.

"We are truly sorry about all this, Balin," Billy managed to say as he tried to keep pace with the frantically running Dwarf.

"We did not want to cause the destruction of your people."

"You did not," Balin answered him.

"Dwarin is much too proud to admit it, but we were dead long before you came. The Elves had breached our defenses. We were not going to win this battle. They would have killed the King and all the Thanes save one. They would have enslaved or executed the rest. Not that this would have changed anything—if my people knew I was helping you escape, they would brand me a traitor," the Runespeaker said, his face sad with acceptance of his betrayal.

He stopped for one moment, as if trying to remember the right path among the labyrinthine corridors.

"We had already defeated five previous factions, all trying to steal our Orichalcum. Defeating this faction would not have made any difference. Others would have taken their place."

"They say Orichalcum is a blessing from the gods, but they lie."

"It is a curse, Billy. The worst possible curse. We have no friends in this world, only people who envy what we have." They finally reached an enormous nave, its walls covered with huge metal plates filled with runes.

"Billy, please, tell the Primordial to memorize these plates," Balin told him. Jenna obeyed after Billy asked her, using Retention to memorize a perfect visual reconstruction of the nave, with more than 7, 000 plates.

"Tell her to…" Balin began, but Jenna interrupted him.

"I need no translator," she said in perfect Dwarvish.

"You did not talk much while Billy told his story, but you talked enough."

"Can you decipher the plates?" Balin asked her directly.

"With so much material? Easy enough," she said as her eyes glazed. She gasped.

"What is it, Jenna?" Bob asked her.

"The plates. They are called the Tenets of Law. Each plate tells the story of a Dwarven king and the laws he passed during his reign. It is at once a history lesson and a code of law. It is the moral and legal spine of a whole civilization. Only the Chant rivals its complexity."

"Is it sentient, like the Chant is?" asked Bob.

"No. They are just stories. Beautiful stories, though. Worth keeping alive."

"Can you do for us what you did for the Elves? Create a Repository dungeon with the Tenets as its motif."

"We can, and we will swear an oath to do so if you help us reach the bottom of the Citadel. There lies the next step of our journey," Jenna answered. She turned to Bob.

"You are going to bind us with an Oath—that way, Balin will know we will honor our word."

"An Oath of this type usually carries a penalty, a curse that will strike whoever breaks it. It is only proper that Balin chooses the punishment," Bob answered her.

"Tell him this, and I will design the Oath he wants." Jenna translated this to Balin. Balin thought for a moment.

"No Oath is necessary. You saved my life. You are going to save the history of my people. That makes us friends now and forever."

"Friends do not threaten each other with curses. Respect and affection should be enough." Billy knew that with those simple words, Balin had bound them with a stronger bond than any curse could create.

"Follow me," the Runespeaker told them, as he opened a secret panel in the wall beside them. They followed a passage that seemed to go down forever, finally reaching a small chamber with an inlaid rune in its floor.

"Thoran's shame," Balin explained.

"A secret to most of our people. Only the Runespeaker knows of its existence. He is our first and most famous hero. He built this chamber and hid it, slaying all who had taken part in its construction."

"It can be used only once. It empowers any dimensional travel effect, so that it can pierce even dimensional barriers, much like the ones our foes have built around the citadel."

"Never keep secrets, Billy. Secrets are for cowards."

"Thank you, Balin. We will always remember you," Billy said, as Jenna and Bob opened a portal to the next location in their trip, using one of Exchange's pearls.

"I will also remember all of you, Billy, for the rest of my life. Twelve minutes and counting down, that is," he added, chuckling. Vorians did not have a monopoly on gallows humor. Billy waved goodbye as he entered the rift, leaving the citadel behind. Twelve minutes later, Aziraphel said the Word. He exploded like a new sun, taking the citadel and all its inhabitants with him. The Dwarves were no more, but their stories lived inside Jenna's mind. Stories live forever.