Chương 92: Heart of Iron

"Apologies, sir," Róise said as humbly as she could manage.

"I must be too lowly to have been shared this information. Clearly though, you are well trusted by Mr. Séarlait if you know all these secrets! But I do not know what the Heart of Iron is." Donnchadh swelled up even taller - thought it didn't help much.

"Of course, my dear! No reason to keep it secret now. Nothing less than a legendary artifact, from an era that predates the Tír itself!" Róise blinked at him, trying to appear as dumb as he seemed to assume everyone but he was.

"A legendary artifact? Why would something like that be down here?"

"Ahh, that's the secret behind Teilgcheárta's immense power and influence! Centuries mining the same spot - long enough to build an entire city-state on top of! No vein of ore in all the world has ever been so rich. Does that not strike you as… let's just say… suspicious?" Róise shrugged.

"I have to admit my knowledge of ores and geology is frightfully limited. My use to the researcher in question was solely in my physical prowess as a Fourth." Donnchadh nodded.

"It's no wonder - the details of this expedition were kept very quiet. The legends speak of a gem with a horrifying, sinister function." He leaned in conspiratorily.

"They say it makes iron!"

"Makes it?" Róise's brow furrowed.

"I didn't think that was possible. I thought iron was anathema to fórsa - an un-transmuted element that fell from the Realms Above. How could there be a gem that makes it?"

"We have no idea!" Donnchadh said gleefully.

"Only what rumors there have been over thousands of years. Our employer has long had his suspicions about Teilgcheárta, but the events of the last year all but confirmed it."

"I had noticed some odd things about the city," Róise admitted.

"But I don't know what happened."

"Ah, we don't either," Donnchadh said.

"We see the same things I'm sure you and your researcher have seen. Empty streets. Young Crockern. A suddenly appointed new Regent-Elect. Iron output from Teilgcheárta has sunk drastically - a real boon to our own iron businesses, though they are much more far-flung and shallow. Something happened, but we don't have the information on exactly what. We do know that whatever it was, it created these horrific Iron Dead."

"And these gems you have that ward them off - where did those come from?" Róise asked innocently. One of the soldiers coughed politely.

"Scholar Donnchadh. We need to keep moving."

"Of course, of course. We will walk as I enlighten our new companion." They began to walk slowly through the tunnels, checking a sheaf of maps carried by one of the scholars frequently. Donnchadh continued.

"These gems are a marvel of gem engineering themselves! Made by a master craftsman under Mr. Séarlait's employ. They say he apprenticed with the Eoin Daithi!"" The Eoin Daithi?" Róise parroted, amused.

"Indeed, very impressive. I couldn't tell one thing about their construction, but it's said he referenced all the research he could find on the Heart of Iron to attempt mimicking its effects. It cannot create iron… but it seems like the result is that it feels like it can. These Iron Dead seem confused and repelled by them." Róise wished Sol was here. He might be able to puzzle out how these little gems worked.

"Oh, watch yourself," she said, as one of the soldiers slipped on a loose rock and stumbled into the tunnel wall.

"My thanks, my lady," the soldier said. They continued down, always taking the tunnels that dipped lower and lower at every junction. The patrol began to complain of fatigue, the scholars especially having difficulty keeping their footing, careening into each other as the tunnels dropped. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I daresay the fortitude of this crew is not what I thought it would be!" Donnchadh said blearily to Róise, he himself barely keeping his balance.

"Wait? Where did Róisín go?" Róise activated Medley, pairing the Seven Drunken Nights she had been running slowly over the patrol for the last hour with Banks of Red Roses. Her knives found the soldiers' throats first, her Fourth speed so intense that the last one had only grasped at the wound in his neck by the time the first one fell. The scholars were very late on the uptake, staring in drunken confusion about why the soldiers were suddenly lying down.

"Is it time to rest?" One asked, looking dizzy, before a blue fórsa blade buried itself in his heart. When only one Séarlait Consortium representative remained, Róise dropped all three techniques. Donnchadh scrambled backwards in horror at the massacre that had unfolded over the last few seconds.

"I am extraordinarily tempted to let you live, Donnchadh." His mouth worked like a fish's before he found his words.

"I would implore you to give in to such temptation, my lady! Why? Why would you betray Mr. Séarlait in this manner? What could any pixie have to gain by standing in the way of good business?"

"Betrayal is my business, as it turns out," Róise said, kneeling beside him.

"More accurately, vengeance for past betrayals wrought by your Mr. Séarlait."

"I have only known him to be a shrewd entrepreneur and a man of honor!" Donnchadh declared, finding his spine again at the idea he might not indeed die.

"I know of nothing that would cause such devotion to his end!"

"Then all you reveal is that you know nothing," Róise said, raising one knife.

"A poor negotiating tactic from an experienced businessman."

"What do you need to know?" Donnchadh asked, his eyes locked on her blade.

"What does Caolán want with the Heart of Iron? Just make more iron? Or does that iron have a buyer already?" Róise grimaced.

"My instinct tells me that Shorinu has an invoice already written for this metal to our dear Caolán."

"I don't know!" Donnchadh said.

"It's an open market. Shorinu may well be a buyer. I'm not… well, I'm not as highly placed in Mr. Séarlait's service as I let on. It's why I'm down here. Knowledgeable enough to be useful but…"

"Useless enough to be expendable," Róise finished.

"What a peach my brother is." Donnchadh's eyes widened.

"Your brother?"

"Forget I said that. How many patrols are in these tunnels?"

"Five. Well, four, now I suppose." His eyes darted back to the dead pixies strewn around the tunnels.

"I believe there were plans for more if we in the first wave didn't succeed."

"Did you stir up the Iron Dead?" Donnchadh nodded.

"Not me personally. One of the other patrols. They found thousands of them. So many thousands, working." It was Róise's turn to be surprised.

"Working?"

"Indeed. It seems like they can follow rudimentary instructions if given by the right person - or in the right circumstance. We aren't sure about the specifics. They were simply mining the iron. A slave force of workers who never complain. Quite efficient, really," Donnchadh said, visibly envious just thinking of it.

"All we had to do was wade in there with the gems we were given. It seemed to wipe their instructions. They wandered off, seemingly with an ever-increasing urge for violence." Róise nodded.

"I see. Last question." Donnchadh licked his lips.

"Last?"

"Were you with my brother when he sold my family down the river for a few pieces of Shorinu silver?" Donnchadh shook his head in frantic, jerky motions.

"Never! I mean, no, I only joined the Séarlait Consortium ten years ago. Whatever you're talking about is nothing I have heard of during my time there."

"So you weren't by his side when he allowed Shorinu assassins to slaughter my father on a holy day? Or when my aunt was left to die in an alley outside the Shirren slums? When he sent thugs to ransack our family home and murder our mother? When blood was cheaper than the price of a seat in the House of Lords?" Róise stood, advancing on him as he scrambled backwards like a crab.

"No! No! I had nothing to do with it!" Róise was a blur, burying her knife into his chest.

"I had nothing to do with it either," Róise said quietly.

"Even so, I knew which side was the right one. Ignorance will get you no sympathy from me." Donnchadh choked on his own blood, his hands clawing ineffectually at Róise as he died. Róise took a long breath, regarding the fallen troop she had just killed. It had been so easy. Cormac would have been wracked with guilt at something like this. Worrying if this loss of life were necessary. He would have done it, she was sure - he was nothing if not decisive when the dice were finally cast.

But in his heart he would still have mourned the loss and regretted the necessity. As she looked around at her handiwork a crooked grin crept onto her face.

"A victory for the resistance," she said. Máirín would have been proud. She gathered up the maps and as many of the Iron Dead-repelling gems as she could find and began to resume her trek down the tunnels. The object Sailleach had told them to get could be nothing else except this Heart of Iron. Perhaps their stay in Teilgcheárta would be quicker than anticipated.

Though she had to wonder, thinking of the records in the mine office she had read - how could a mine with the ability to just create iron at will have ever been running out?