The Silent Breach
"I really don't know what to do, though. It's a
mine, with a foreman, and I'm somehow in charge of
it, even though I've never been trained for this sort of thing."
"Oh, and you think that
I somehow know better?"
"No- Well,
yes, but- Oh, you know what I mean, mother."
She did, actually, but if a mother can't tease her children a little bit, what fun is there for having them? Let us explain the situation, at his time: Arden Goldswith is the head of the House of Alamar, Magistrate to the Terrin Mountain Mines, and an unofficial knight to an ancient oath sworn by Draken Alamar. He is currently at his wit's end, seated in a room with his mother, Elena Goldswith. The elder lady is gray of hair, but still retains much life about her. She and her husband are now the caretakers of the house, it being their honor to support and council the head of the house as need-be, where possible. The trouble is...because Elena had been the head lady of a seamstress union and not of a group of men with shovels, she had no practical knowledge about mining. What Arden wanted was the advice of someone who knows how to organize, but what he
needed was to be prepared to make tough decisions, and 'What color does that best go with?' just wasn't going to cut it.
"Well, when you know less about something than those around you, the best way to approach it is to either learn more about it or do something practical. These are a proud people, experts at their trade. Some will respect that you are your father's son, but others you must prove yourself."
"And since my knowledge of mines is a teacup to their wine barrel, the best way to get on their good side is...?"
"I suggest you pick up a shovel and
dig."
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The idea should have occurred to him from the start, really. It was the best way to the heart of a man whose soul was in the parting and excavating of dirt and stone. Just dig. Trust that they know what they're doing and help them dig. Because one thing that Arden
had was a good swinging arm, and as he really got into it, he found he actually kind of enjoyed it. You picked the right tools, you got into the job, you did a day's work, and you looked out for one another. Along the way, he picked up on the nuances. You had your actual miners, the men doing the digging and moving the earth with either force or precision. Then, you had the runners, taking in food and water, removing the mountain stone. There were the supporters, building and maintaining the tunnel supports, making sure the mountain doesn't fall on their heads. And then, lastly, you had the appraisers.
They were special, you see. Well-read and heavily studying the nature of artifacts and ore, these men and women practically worked over every surface of the mine with a fine-toothed comb, determining if there was even the
smallest sign of a rich new ore deposit - magical or not - and to authenticate artifacts found in the process of digging. This was especially important in the case of coming across a vein of iron ore. Serenians were rather sensitive to pure iron, so finding a deposit of the stuff would be rather like finding poison gas. Did we mention the poison gas? There were dedicated poison wards hung by the supporters to alleviate that, but once glowing, the wards would need to be replaced, having reached their limits. It was in this way - with hands-on experience - that Arden began to learn the trade, and would be better for it. He actually didn't want to give it up, what with the ease he had with it. Sadly, he was in charge, and that meant he had to manage the many tunnels that have gone into the mountains. One day in particular, he was studying the maps made by the appraisers, talking with the local foreman...
"It's so complicated... I mean, I see you've tried to organize the tunnels so they can cut across and support one another in a crisis, but really it's like a
web."
"Many years, working in this place, you have to get really inventive, or when the trouble
starts...it never stops."
A moment later, one of the runners burst into the foreman's cabin. Another of their responsibilities was to deliver orders and information, especially in the case of emergencies, like now. There'd been...well, it looked like an accident, but it was a damn peculiar one. He led Arden and the foreman to Tunnel Three, where a few men were gathered around a breach that appeared to have collapsed on a miner.
"We found him like this, in that hole."
Arden found this a bit suspect. Something was wrong here.
"Why haven't you removed the body? Who made this breach? It's not how we do things around here. Where's the supports?"
"That's just it. This isn't a tunnel. We didn't make it. It was just here with Gerid in it, dead."
"Pull him out of there."
They did so with care, since the breach was nothing more than an unstable hole in the wall, waiting to collapse. Mercifully, he hadn't been deeply buried and could be dragged out by his feet. However, examining the body, they realized that he was not killed by the collapse. The appraiser noticed immediately.
"His neck has been broken. It was twisted thus, with great strength. Death was immediate."
Unsettling murmurs followed, as well as accusing glares from person to person. This man had been murdered, and the only ones present to do so were his fellow miners. Questions were raised and shouted, but before it could turn to violence, Arden shouted out.
"The murderer is
not here!"
That got everyone's attention.
"Think about it. Think about where we found him. It doesn't make sense. You found Gerid in a tunnel breach, covered in rocks, and with his neck broken. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything, and
nobody knows how this hole got here."
He turned to look at it, now.
"It doesn't really look dug out, does it?"
Because...what they had here was a hole that was a few feet in, big enough to fit a large man, that abruptly ends at a collapse of stone and dirt. A man would have to dig here for a while and - with no runners or supporters ever coming by - break the neck of the intended target, and then try to cover it up...except it couldn't be, because the look of it was all wrong. every miner here dug their tunnels wide enough for the carts, and for a man to sneak on by with care. This was sloppy, amatuer-ish. It just looked...
"Looks as though the ground was just pushed aside, doesn't it?"
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Well, he'd ended
one bad rumor and started up another one, but this one he couldn't quell because it'd been of his own doing. He'd reasoned with them, gotten the miners to stop turning on each other, but now they had a new concern. What he'd proposed was that the hole had been either created by magic, or by some sort of burrowing monster. There'd been no sign of these things, but the evidence seemed to conclude that it wasn't done by human hands, or not by them alone. Earth magic was the easiest to investigate, but anyone within the area with such power was known to the localsalready, due to the fact that they called upon such people during times of mining complications, as in dealing heavy iron deposits and the like. Results came back negative. Nobody had seen anyone of that ability OR anyone of suspicion near the area, and there were no signs of any forced burrowing into the earth with magic from outside of the mine near ANY of the entrances. That ruled out magic, as the kind of person with access to the power or skill to gain entrance from further off or do so with greater subtlety...would be wasting their talents on simply killing a man in a mine.
That left monsters, which was frankly something Arden had hoped to avoid. Monsters in mines were bad enough, wild animals and unusual creatures just wandering in and creating havoc. That alone was problematic. This wasn't that, though. This was something that maybe
lived in stone. Its home was down there, in the rocky depths, living an unknowable life that never saw the light of day. Some sort of creature that could naturally force aside walls of solid rock with ease, that-
"No no
no! It just doesn't make any sense!"
He'd been in his bedroom, pacing up a storm. He felt he thought better when working up a good steam. He couldn't sleep, anyhow. In the dim light of Flint's amber glow, Arden had stayed up, trying to figure it all out. Yesterday, out of the blue, a man had been killed, and there'd been no reason for it. It wasn't as though they hit something
new, or found anything to bring the attentions of a creature. And it
couldn't be a creature! What sort of monster just snaps a man's neck and leaves him like that? There was no biting, no tearing, no venom - Nothing, except for the bruising from where he'd been gripped and the damage where the neck had been twisted broken. He'd gotten the miners to believe it wasn't a man who did this, and further investigations stated it was no mage either. But what
beast could it be? An undead warrior lost to the ages who just so happens to have earth magic?
Arden paused.
Wait a moment... Wait just a moment there!Taking Flint for light in the now-dark household, Arden practically leapt downstairs and found the way to the basement, to the deep-dry recesses where they keep the wine...and where they house the vault. The vault itself was pure mythril. It'd cost a fortune for Draken Alamar to make, for it housed things even more precious than that. On the back wall, there were seven slots to hold seven swords. Two of them were removed: Flint, which Arden held, and Dusk, which was in his father's room. The other five were Swift, Flood, Quake, Flash, and Spark. Arden approached Quake, running his fingers down the flat of the blade. In the same way that Flint looked volcanic, Quake looked craggy, like rock. Think of a sliver of mountain, pressed into metal form, with jagged serrations out the sides and a single point up top. This blade... This was the answer. This was the key.
Pulling it out, Arden couldn't help but notice how
heavy it was. It wouldn't respond to him - bond to him - as Flint would. He didn't quite fit the profile of the man who would wield it, of a man who felt lineage and eternity as Draken Alamar, the first owner of this blade. Once out of the vault, he'd hoped the reaction would be immediate, but it was not. To test the theory out, he would have to get alot closer... That meant suiting up for combat. Well, no matter. The family armor had been recast for his use soon after his father decreed him head of the household. Speaking of which. Guess who awaited him in the main hall, still in his robes but wielding his own ancient sword?
"Arden, what the devil are you doing at this hour, and with that sword? You can't wield its power."
"I know that, father, but I remembered something you taught me and Zan when we were young. You said that some of these blades were found and some were made, and that Quake was Drakn Alamar's blade, because it was the first, right?"
"Yes, I did. What of it?"
"Where did he get it?"
"Well, the
mines, of course. It was an artifact found in the rock, as had Flash and Dusk. He..."
Elric Goldswith gave him a careful look.
"You're not suggesting the death in the mines is related to this, are you?"
"It's just a theory and I want to test it out. You're welcome to join me."
"If you'll give me a chance to find the
proper attire, I shall."
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"...and if by some chance it
was, then this would be the way to bring it out of there."
"A splendid line of reasoning, my boy, with the possible exception that you could be dead wrong."
"Well, if I
am wrong, then I'm carrying extra-heavy sword for no reason and we'll just be wearing ourselves out for nothing."
"Hardly seems fair, doesn't it?"
"You could say that, IF I'm wrong."
"Yes, yes. Let's just see then, shall we?"
What you have here is essentially two men and three heavy swords making their way into the mines from Tunnel Three. Along the way, the foreman had said that two more bodies were found, and that the resulting bodies were similarly found in smaller tunnel breaches, with either the face crushed or the neck broken, as before. It made him suspect that the monster in question had to be human-sized, or human-
like, and smart enough to
want to kill quietly. Both Goldswiths agreed, and they told him to evacuate the mines. Now, you have Arden in the family mythril armor, a bronze-brass-colored plate armor with beak-like formation on the helmet to protect the point between the eyes. And next to him, you have Elric in ordinary plate that was of similar configuration. Both men had their heirloom swords in hand. Quake rested on Arden's back. It
hummed slightly.
"I was right. It's already started."
"Do we proceed or wait for it to come to us?"
"Back away. If it's calling, then I don't want it to surpr- AGH!!"
Of course, they hadn't known
exactly what to expect, but the dark and statuesque hand from the flood of the tunnel not exactly on the list! It just reached
right out of the stone without any effort and grabbed him by the ankle! Arden slashed and stabbed down - flames whipping and spewing from his sword - until he'd forced the hand to let go. The hand went back into the hole it came from, and all was silent once more. Well, almost.
"Did you see that? Did you
see that?! Right from the ground, like it was nothing!"
"I saw, yes. Perhaps we should retreat as you proposed?"
"Definitely."
Understand, fleeing from battle was not in either of their natures, and really...this wasn't even that. The whole
point of this exercise was to lure the thing
out of the mines and make it safe again. Of course, what they did after that...would be the problem. Drawing Quake and putting away Flint, Arden struck the floors, the walls, and the ceiling as they left, then continued to do so to the ground as they left the mine. As the sword continued to hum steadily, they knew that whatever it was had to be following them...and at speed.
"The power of the thing is
incredible. It must
swim through the earth! Alright, that's far enough."
With them far enough from the mines or any of the people, he cast aside the blade in his hand and drew the one on his back.
"Arden, you know if it takes hold of that blade-"
"I know, I know! Just watch."
There was a low rumble as something beneath where the sword lay finally broke the surface. It was tall, at least seven-foot, and built strong. They whole of it appeared to be constructed of the same directly-embued elemental material as Quake itself, all in the vague impression of a man. It was...
"A golem!"
"No, a guardian! Draken Alamar's sword was found in a set of three, with Flash representing the heavens, Dusk to the darker realms, and Quake to the earth in between. It must have been built to wield it originally!"
Yes, because it also had a shield arm, a buckler attached at the wrist, same material. Now, it held the sword which was once bonded to it up into the air and...nothing happened.
"What happened?"
"Well, dad, the sword
was his, but as you know...Draken Alamar changed them to suit him and his family instead. He was a decent man, but he always had his personal needs. Binding it to our blood, this thing cannot unlock its power as long as our family survives."
"Arden... As long as our family
survives."
"Oh, right."
Because the very next moment, the two of them jumped aside as the golem slammed down Quake with the force of a collapsing building! It couldn't use the
power of the blade, but it was still a solid weapon. They now had one choice: Destroy it before it
crushed them! Easier said than done, though. In all the time of their use, none of the swords had ever chipped or cracked. Even as Elric vanished into darkness and cut across the thing's legs, he felt a great deal of resistance, and it was very hard to avoid a reprisal blow even while invisible.
"I don't think it sees with eyes, dad! I think it sees with magic!"
"Ah, well then I'm wasing my time, aren't I?"
"You
could try hitting it harder! I can only keep it occupied so long!"
"Watch and learn, boy."
He did...by leaping to a safe distance as Elric slashed down with his blade from some ten feet away...and instantly brought a shadow slice at the extended sword arm of the golem. The arm actually parted there, cleanly, with the end of Quake still embedded in the ground.
"I'm honestly surprised that worked."
"You
what?"
"Well, it's an echanted earthen metal body. I thought perhaps it would be as resilient as the sword in its hand, but it seems to be not the case."
Or so he thought as...the golem jammed its stump onto the rest of the arm and appeared to re-attach it quite easily. This was a problem. Arden decided to test the extent of their dilemma now by swinging wide and creating a
wave a fire that instantly burnt the grass and consumed the golem in fire too great for that shield to block alone. The result was a conflagration so great that Elric had to run full-tilt to avoid it. The old man now came up to Arden and smacked him in the helmet.
"
Warn me when you're gonna do that, boy! I've no want of an early grave!"
"Nor me, but I knew you could avoid it, or block it. He's lacking in power, or his usual power. So, I figured-"
"You figured wrong."
He pointed at the dying flames of his attack. A great blaze, that was. Hot enough to melt steel or rock, eve strong enough to
harm the thing...but not in any permanent fashion. It was reforming, repairing itself. Of course, once the fire died down, they could see the glow from where its body contacted the ground.
"Oh, no
wonder. It's actually fed by the earth!"
"Good thing we lured it from its lair. What's to stop it from submerging and popping out when it feels inclined to stab us from behind?"
"Nothing, unless... Can your sword spoil the land? Make it barren?"
"Yes, it can, but you'd better be right about this. Once done, it can never be
undone."
As the golem got to its feet, it had decided to engage in the very tactic they were thinking it would, sinking into the ground. It'd only reached knee-depth when it stopped and pulled out again, looking down at the black and now deadened land, then to the old man who'd stuck his sword in the ground to basically kill it in this general area. No sooner had it taken a step towards Elric than Arden swung a full-powered Flint at its leg, parting it and causing the stone-metal creation to fall to its knees. From there, he wasted no time in cleaving the other leg, tearing through the waste, chopping the chest, cutting the arms, and crushing the head. It was an exhausting process, and he could not stop until he used enough of his sword's ability to melt each and every piece of the golem. Only Quake remained in the end, and only when the humming ceased did they declare the job was done. Father and son now sat watching the embers die down, still in their armor.
"Will it really never recover? The land, I mean."
"Not for a long time, not on its own. Perhaps if a true wielder of Quake comes along, he'll sort it out. 'Till then, this will be a mark of the thing's grave."
"It's a real shame, though. That was a living artifact. We found and destroyed a piece of
history. I know we had no choice, but even still...it's a terrible waste."
"Well, look on the bright side. There's likely to be
more."
"What?"
"Heaven and darkness, and the earth in between."
It was at this point that Arden hit himself with the flat of his own sword, muttering "Gods all the
dammit...".