Chương 88: Chapter 87 - Bargains.

"Alright fine, that'll do, we will consider your offer, but I want three ships filled to the brim with lumber, delivered in a week" Desmond sighed.

"And three full of geldgrain" Corryn piped up.

"Look here, I get the core and you become subjects, but you know that gives a huge yield boost to your mines as well, right? One ship of each, and the return ships better be chock full of stone and enough stonemancer to begin building docks in every city on Myrraval" Nythera pushed back. She fought to keep the smile inside. Don't let them know you're ecstatic or they will start demanding anything and everything not stitched to the soil.

"Two ships of each, we will load them with stone and three stonemancers. No authority contracts levied on any people of Karaveth, and a seat on the council in Grandport." Corryn replied. Corryn leaned in "you stay the Hel out of our affairs and we'll trade, but we ain't Myrraval, and we want it to stay that way.

""Fine, but you only get one vote, if you want more, you'll need to accept basic authority contracts, same as all the other governors." Nythera gave in.

"That works" Corryn walked around the table and held out his hand, Nythera stood up and they shook. Nythera and Desmond were guided to city accommodations, with food brought to their rooms and guards posted at the doors. Nearly all the furniture was grey stone.

"This place is so dull, why did they have to make it all out of the same material? That meeting was also awful, they tried to bleed us dry despite the yield benefits they get." Nythera walked around the shitty three-room accommodations. Rowen chuckled "You did… acceptable for a first go, your etiquette needs some work still. Desmond said he will personally lead us to the core in the morning, somewhere in a giant pit." Nythera's sleep was terrible, the bed nearly as hard as the rocks it lay against. …

"This place is miserable, an utter lack of avians, but full of resources your kingdom will need" Talvik's voice came in like shitty birdsong, waking her.

"Talvik! You're back!" Nythera tried to wrap her arms around him but he squeezed through and flew up to the windowsill.

"Now look, I am only here to make sure you don't get yourself killed on this dump. Can you believe it? Nothing here has feathers, it's all huddled on the rock, filthy creatures."

"How did you get in here though? The window is shut." Nythera asked. Talvik did not deign to answer. The duo set out in the morning, with not so much as a word about Talvik's sudden appearance.

"Funny looking bird you got there." Desmond remarked. Hours upon hours of walking, up through barren mountain passes, slick with mist, and down into deep, flux-hewn stone tunnels. For a giant mountain range with spires of stone scraping the skies, the path was remarkably straight. I can't believe they actually have a cart track all the way from Grand Karaveth this deep into the mountains, just how much spare metal do they have?

The tracks ran wide, and were well maintained without a single break for miles upon miles.

"You know, I appreciate what you are offering our island. Timber and food, exactly what we don't have. Gunther is a hardass, but as long as it benefits the island, both him and Corryn will let it through. We didn't want a war, we never wanted a war" Desmond said, a glum look on his face. Neither of them responded. No one really wants war, not the common people at least. It always seems to be pride or a lust for power. I hope these lands can rest for a while, at the least.

A cart rolled down from the front, pushed by two workers with ridiculous muscles, coated in grey dust. The stone loaded in nearly scraped the ceiling of the tunnel.

"Sorry, we don't have enough carts to waste on people, the city won't build itself and Gunther is trying to wall off a new district" Desmond said sheepishly. For a mountain path, its remarkably well maintained, we don't even have stairs or slopes like these in the middle of Grandport. I wonder, maybe we can get them to make the Rustreach pass? She was not prepared for the valley, nothing could have prepared her.

One moment they were in a dark tunnel, with only the light ahead to guide their steps, the next, in the world's biggest bowl. And the bowl went deep. Down and down the land sloped until it fell off a sheer cliff. In the center of the valley lay a giant pit, judging from what she could see beyond the blasted stoney lands, it was bigger than all the towns of Myrraval put together. She and Rowen stood mouth agape, transfixed by the scene. They could put an ocean in here.

Desmond laughed "yup, that's what everyone does when they see The Pit for the first time. Never fails."

"Aptly named" Rowen nodded, collecting himself. After nearly two hours of following the remarkably flat path, gently sloping down, they arrived at the edge of The Pit. With the sun overhead, the rocky bottom was illuminated, a flat, surface that slowed down even further, ending in a lake. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Besides them, not even two yards away sat a platform, attached to a wood crane. A snapped chain left it dangling crooked over the abyss.

"We used to use it, but we don't have the lumber to run the platforms anymore. Can't make good lifts with stone, we already tried that" Desmond stopped in thought for a moment and then laughed "You need a surprising amount of lumber just to quarry rock."

"Now for the stairs, mind the gap. Keep your eyes on the stairs, look into the The Pit too long and soon you'll be tumbling into it" Desmond laughed again. I hate stairs. Even Rowen grit his teeth after they had gone down more than a hundred flights. Her knees threatened to snap in protest, she was losing control of her descent, stumbling forward into the walls at the bottom of each staircase. Hours later, when they reached the bottom and stepped out from the cliff, the sun had dimmed, the pit had darkened.

"Say Desmond, what about fluxspawn, we haven't seen even one. Where are they?" Desmond's gaze sharpened "Gunther does one thing right, which is key the mine routes clear, but make no mistake missy, they are down here." his serious facade broke into laughter "Karavethian fluxspawn are huge, mostly so unless a rockhunter finds you, you should see em coming from a few miles away." That is not reassuring whatsoever. Desmond led them through the blasted craglands, dull, weather stone as far as they could see.

A monument stood by the lake, part of it tipping into the water.

"Here we are, I believe this is what you need? Can't believe it was here the whole time, if I had known I would have gotten more pickaxes on this thing" Desmond looked over it like a construction project.

"I must ask you to leave now, this is a private affair. We will meet you back at the stairs in an hour" Nythera said.

"Fine, go at it then" he strode off into the waste back to the cliff.

"You too, Rowen. This is an Aurendorian affair" Nythera shooed him away. He walked around the huge monument, towards the lake. As she placed her hand on the door, the black orb of flux appeared behind her"Oh, you're back already? That took less time than I anticipated." energy pulsed with every word Nythera waited expectantly. Let's get this over, I don't have time to play games, a whole new world is literally waiting for me after this.

"Let's see now, Karaveth is it? This rock, contrary to its appearance, is actually worth quite a bit, more than those punks with cannons ever realized at least." She continued to wait in silence.

"I ain't giving it to you easy girl, I'm half-tempted to deny you right here. You're still strata one and while you have a… barely passable flux pool, you're skills are underleveled and underdeveloped. Not even one fusion combo in your entire list. If I wasn't forced to give you a test I would turn you away right now." it sighed, deflating. I am going to crush this test. When I find where they keep you, I'll crush you too.

"Alright, one question only, here is the test: Give me one reason I should give you the core of Karaveth" the pulses contained a certain smugness. What the fuck, that's it? This is definitely a trap, but perhaps that itself is a trap, looking for some kind of trick and answering in a stupid way, to a direct question? Let's answer it straight.

"I am the only living heir to Aurendor, which you are duty bound to serve, and I am rebuilding the empire." She said with as much bravado as she could muster.

"Ok question asked, answer given. Sorry, you are not worthy. Bye" the dark flux began to dissipate. She grit her teeth. Guess we do it my way then. This stupid thing has always been a pain in the ass anyways. This is going to be fun. Nythera pulled Aether Cannon within her soul, and merged its output with Flux-Condenser. Flowing like tar, the flux slowly began to form the frame of the cannon. Flux reacted violently, twisting, jolting, and fleeing the surroundings.

"This is fun, I should do this more often" she giggled. I wonder what the result of a blast when the cannon itself is made of hyper-flux will be? The dark energy stopped dissipating "Put that thing away before you hurt yourself" it chided. Nythera allowed the skill to pull on her Hyper-flux pool, creating an equally powerful shell to match the cannon.

"One or two of those won't do much to these walls, they were made to withstand a strata six or seven" the dark orb tried to shoo her off.

"Well, I've killed a strata three or four beast with this thing before, and anything breaks if you hit it hard enough" Nythera giggled again and pulled out Boxy. I bet I can crack this nut right open. With a glimmer in her eye "I've got about twenty more shells left in storage." she said to herself, ensuring the dark orb could clearly hear it.

"You should reconsider, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself. Well not too badly anyways. Besides, how many shells can you even launch? It won't be enough" The dark orb had fully reassembled. It twitched.

"Don't worry, I have heat resistance and some rocks to hide behind. I also have this." Nythera's left arm began to heat up.

"I can fire twenty shells from the main cannon, and nearly a thousand from my arm cannon. All at the same spot, it should stand a good chance of breaking through. If not, well there is always tomorrow."

"Just wait a moment, you know this is dangerous right? You could break the core!" the energy pulsed frantically, lances of energy shot off the sides, but came several feet short of touching her. I don't think it's allowed to hurt me. She shrugged "That's fine, I'll just get it when it reforms or kill whoever does. Now lets get to cracking this thing open""Wait Wait! Just a moment please, let's talk a little bit more before you decide to resort to such barbaric methods."

"I don't see much of a need to talk, I failed didn't I? No choice but to open it with force." She aimed her arm straight at the doors.

"OK FINE FINE, you can take this core, but I warn you not all the core vaults are as easy to crack as this one. Some of the islands are far harder to even find the vault on. Why do you even want the damn things so bad?" The energy pulsed rapidly.

"Well, I need power to take revenge. I watched my father die, my family die, Will die, everyone I knew died for reasons I am only now beginning to comprehend. I don't give a shit about Aurendor or its empire. I am rebuilding my heritage so I can mount head after head on bloody spikes" Nythera's voice had become cold. The orb slowly pulsed, as if considering every word carefully "I did not expect that reason, so Aurendor was truly purged from the world. I did not realize Tianshiang had gone that far after The Fall."

the orb stopped for a moment. She could feel it watching her, calculating.

"Let's strike a deal."