Chương 51: 50. Aegis of Tavirost

Tavian stood in the strange chamber, and scanned the room once more, marveling at how much miasma they had drained from this place. But the shield overshadowed it all. To Tavian's Darksight, it seemed forged of midnight sky. He knelt and touched the Aegis, feeling the storm of dark power that they'd managed to infuse it with. The miasma imbedded in his side sang in unison with the shield. Griffins cried, storms surged, and a phantom chill sucked warmth from Tavian's fingers.

He started to lift the mighty shield, and was stunned when it rose easily in his grasp. It weighed almost nothing in his hands. ⬣ New UNCLASSIFIED Item Acquired: Aegis of Tavirost ⬣ ⬣ Traits: Hardened Structure, Lightweight ⬣ ⬣ Abilities: Shockwave, Ability Unknown: Ability Locked ⬣ Tavian couldn't wait to find out what Shockwave could do. And he wondered what it meant to have an ability that was locked. The journey back to the surface was quiet.

The empty halls of the dungeon were lighter, now that they'd been drained of miasma. The dark mists, and oppressive atmosphere had been replaced with a sense of age. Cormath walked along in silence, his ghouls carrying Calli. Tavian led the way out, climbing up from the pit where they'd descended. Something buoyed Tavian, something more than the Influence of his kingdom aiding him. He tried to comprehend what they'd just accomplished. This… this was the real solution to all the kingdom's problems.

The overflowing miasma that had been causing so much trouble… gone. It was a temporary fix, to be sure, but Tavian felt confident that now they'd be able to do something about the entire problem. Without miasmic surges threatening the core, they could boost their Influence without fear of losing it. They could grow the kingdom to Tier IV As they neared the surface, Cormath spoke.

"What should I do, my lord? I may not be well received by the still living."

"Fools fear what they do not understand," Tavian said.

"What would you like to do?"

"I suggest concealing my condition," Cormath said.

"The priests might frown upon a lich in their midst." Tavian considered Valliroth's accusations, and agreed.

"I think you're right. Try to stay out of sight."

"I'll wear long garments to hide my flesh," Cormath said.

"But it will continue to degrade, and become harder to hide over time."

"A tomorrow problem," Tavian said, glancing to his unconscious sister as he borrowed her words. Shortly before they reached the exit through the larders, Cormath took Calli in his arms and dismissed his ghouls. The bodies fell to the ground. They hurried out of the dungeon, and Tavian worried about how he'd explain the bodies of his men when they recovered them. Maybe he wouldn't. Alisa was summoned, and Calli was carted off to be treated somewhere private. Tavian met Braun in the Core Courtyard.

The sun was now setting. Somehow they'd spent the entire day below ground. That left them perhaps forty-eight hours before the Karath Amon mercenaries would be arriving. The Core Courtyard was abuzz with enthusiasm and excitement. When Calli had drained the miasma from the dungeon, everyone had felt something. A damp blanket had been removed from the fortress. Vanal and his assistants were still frantically [Extracting]. Whatever Lea had done had made an impression on him.

"I told him to wait for you to come back," Braun explained.

"He's been running on and on about burn rates, and Influence levels, and so on." Apparently there'd been a huge surge of miasma, which had cost them a dozen tiles and even more essence, before everything faded, and tiles stopped flipping.

"Did you really drain all the miasma out of the dungeon, into that thing?" Braun asked, eying the shield on Tavian's back. It still pulsated with a dark aura, even in the sunlight.

"Probably not all of it," Tavian said.

"But enough."" A significant amount,"Lea said in his mind." It must have taken generations to accumulate that much miasma down there. I don't think that dungeon is going to be a problem for quite a while. But I'm nervous about that shield. Please don't get too close to the core with it. If even one—" The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident." I know,"Tavian said." Miasma will taint all the essence in the core, and everyone will die."" Everyone won't die,"Lea said."

But it will be bad."" Actually I have one question,"Tavian said." Why doesn't miasma taint things that it's infused into? I mean, when we sifted the tainted treasure, there were other, untainted essences that only got tainted after we sifted them and the miasma touched them." Miasma spreads far more slowly through materials. It only corrupts pure essences instantly. But most of what's inside your kingdom core is constructed of pure essence, so please, keep that stuff away!"" And Lea,"Tavian said."

What did you say to Vanal?" She chuckled." It was nearly impossible, at such a low level of Influence,"she said." I eventually settled on making the Core glow, and vibrate with the sound of your voice, ordering him to start extracting." Tavian grinned. That would have put the fear into anyone. Tavian had stopped walking while carrying on the unseen conversation, and Braun was staring at him. When Tavian looked his direction, he spoke.

"Talking to your Core?" he asked.

"You kinda just glazed over."

"I was talking to the administrator," Tavian said. Was there a hint of jealousy in Braun's voice? Before Braun could respond, Vanal was on them. His main [Extractor] was ecstatic.

"My lord, I can't believe it! You did it! When Braun told me what you were attempting to do, I must confess, I had my doubts, but it seems as though whatever you did worked!" The man was peering at the Aegis as he spoke. Before Tavian could get a word in, Vanal continued.

"My lord," he said, his voice conspiratorial.

"The Core spoke to me. In all my years serving under your father, I've never experienced anything like it. It was like it was singing to my soul. It delivered your message, to me!"

"Thank you for your faith, Vanal," Tavian said.

"There's no need to withhold anything for sifting, now that we've dealt with the dungeon. Sift it all, and let us feel the effects of Influence across the fortress." Vanal nodded excitedly and moved off to work.

"Braun," Tavian said.

"The men I brought with me didn't make it. Will you collect them from the dungeon? They're near the larder entrance."

"All dead?" Braun asked. Tavian nodded grimly, suddenly questioning his decision to bring them. Maybe they'd still be alive if he'd listened to the warning that he should come alone.

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you later," Tavian said.

"Give them honors. Sift their bodies."

"I'll see to it," Braun said, but he hesitated before he moved off.

"What is it?"

"There are many who have fallen, and their bodies sifted," Braun said.

"Perhaps we should honor them all?" Tavian pressed a palm to his forehead.

"Yes," he said.

"We should. Add their names to the list; Toral's fist." He glanced toward the setting sun.

"If we survive long enough, we'll honor all those we lost." Braun saluted and set off to his task. Tavian found Calli in her quarters. Cormath sat just inside her door while Alisa tended to her. He'd found a cloak, which he pinned high under his chin, obscuring the wound on his neck. He was wearing the hood in doors, and long leather gloves covered his hands. The man looked menacing, but at least he didn't look undead.

"No, Alisa, We don't have any time for that," Calli was insisting. When she saw Tavian, she turned her attention to him. Calli's bed chamber had been cleaned, scrubbed of blood at some point. Who had found the time for that? It had also been stripped of ornamentation. The bedframe was missing, the down-stuffed mattress lying on the ground, covered in simple fabrics. Calli sat in the bed. Her hair made her look strange to Tavian. Ethereal. Where it had been dark, black, before, it was now silver.

Not the weak, silvery gray of old age, but a strong, shimmering mass of loose, metallic curls. Her green eyes glimmered like emeralds set in a silver carving.

"Tavian!" Calli exclaimed.

"What does the Aegis do?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, taking it off of his shoulders. It was so weightless there, he'd nearly forgotten it.

"When infusing it, the miasma is channeled in a way that grants it power," Calli said.

"Like the black daggers are hard and sharp and negate Influence, or the Witherstone grants control over undead. I had no idea what I was doing, but I tried to imitate the daggers. We condensed and infused a hundred years worth of miasma into that thing, it should do something." Tavian hefted the shield, raising an eyebrow. He felt that what Calli was true, about the shield being harder and stronger than the raw materials that made it.

"It's nearly weightless, now," Tavian said.

"Is that it?" Calli seemed disappointed.

"No," Tavian said.

"It also has this ability…" He held it up, like he was defending himself from the blank wall alongside Calli's bed, and cautiously triggered Shockwave. A blast of dark energy smashed into the wall of the keep. Calli's window shattered, and mortar exploded in a cloud of dust. The stones in the wall shifted, bulging outwards slightly. Tavian's mouth hung open. He hadn't even used its full power. If he'd have opened it up all the way…

"Yes!" Calli exclaimed.

"That was cool!"

"That is quite the trick," Cormath said, approvingly.

"It would be hard to fight someone who can do that." A pair of guards entered.

"My lord," one of them said.

"We heard an explosion, and the ground shook… Are you alright?" The man peered around Tavian's shield into the room. Tavian glanced at the blown out window.

"We're fine," Tavian said, flushing.

"Everything's good. Thank you for checking on us, though." Calli tried to stand.

"You need to rest, Calli" Alisa insisted, setting a cup of something steaming down on the ground and waving dust away from her face.

"Your wounds won't heal if you don't rest. Save the room reorganization for later."

"Calm down," Calli said, dismissively.

"Can it do anything else?" Tavian searched in his mind, in his dark connection with the shield.

"There are more abilities," he said.

"But they're locked."

"Locked?

"I don't know," Tavian said.

"I guess we'll have to experiment more."

"Tavian, thank Ishtoran," Calli said.

"That's what I'm saying. Tell my jailer—she glared at Alisa—that we don't have time to lay around resting! We should have stayed down there!"

"No," Alisa countered, "Tell my patient—she glared back at Calli—that she needs to take these sleeping herbs and rest!" Tavian crossed his arms, not sure he wanted to participate in a spat. Calli looked offended.

"Tavian!" she snapped.

"You're just going to leave the infuser down there? And I thought the whole point of this was to drain the miasma so we could investigate the leaking mana well! We can't do that from here."

"The mana well is below the temple of Ishtoran," Tavian said.

"Anarvia claimed it after we cleared the dungeon."

"So? Claim it back. Tavian, we neeeeeed to go back down there!"