Fritz didn’t waste ti when he returned.
The mont the doors to their chambers closed, he told them everything.
Silence in the lower districts, the bartender’s words, the shortages hidden behind royal statents and threats.
By the ti he finished, the room had gone quiet.
"Then...what was the point of stalling us?" Taylor asked.
Fritz replied quickly.
"Probably to keep us annoyances from getting in their way.
"Or make us bored enough to leave on our own," Jay added.
Alia’s fingers curled against the arm of her chair. "Then we can’t just wait any longer, knowing they want to buy ti."
Everyone in the room nodded.
That settled it.
By the evening, they requested an audience again—this ti formally, invoking their standing as a Hero Party on the Path. A declaration of their rights as participants.
After countless talks with middlen, along with letters upon letters, they were finally escorted to the main hall.
The space was vast and decorated in every precious and shiny mineral and material that existed and was known to mankind. Even the throne was made of pure gold that just made it look...gaudy.
Rows of guards lined the periter, standing at ease yet watching closely.
Even standing in the chamber, the Dwarven Royalty were still not there. They waited for what seed like forever until the doors finally opened.
It wasn’t from the grand doors to the throne’s side, but a smaller one that seemingly led to their bedchambers.
The king and queen erged, unhurried.
They weren’t armored or adorned, hell, they were wearing loose bed gowns, their hair unbound and ssy, expressions slightly annoyed.
The queen yawned openly before she took her seat.
"Alright," she said. "Let’s get this over with."
The king glanced at them briefly, then leaned back in his chair. "You wished to speak."
Fritz stepped forward.
"Yes," he said evenly. "We did."
He t their gaze without flinching.
"We’ve waited days," Fritz continued. "And in that ti, we’ve learned enough to believe Khaz Vordun is facing serious internal strain."
The queen raised an eyebrow.
"Is it?" she asked, unimpressed.
Fritz kept his voice calm. "Manalite shortages. Food stagnation. Increased beast activity."
A pause.
Then the king shrugged.
"Cities endure fluctuations," he said. "Khaz Vordun is no exception."
The queen waved a hand dismissively. "Everything is under control."
Fritz exhaled slowly.
"Allow us to help," he said. "At no cost. The Hero’s Path exists for situations exactly like this."
The queen’s smile was thin.
"We didn’t ask for charity."
Fritz cald himself, but Alia, who was on his right, looked like she was about to throw a right hook at them.
Fritz didn’t rise to the dismissal.
"We’re not offering charity," he said. "We’re offering assistance. Anything we can do to help."
The king sighed, rubbing at his temple as if already bored.
"Manalite veins dry up," he repeated. "Beasts attack. These things happen."
Taylor stepped forward.
"No," she said flatly. "They don’t."
The queen’s eyes flicked toward her, sharp now.
Taylor didn’t back down.
"If manalite truly ran out," she continued, "why haven’t you made a public statent to the rest of the world?
She gestured to the nearby lamps.
"Yet instead, you say nothing while the rest of the world is left in the dark."
For the first ti, the queen sat up straighter.
"That’s enough," she said.
"It’s a simple question," Taylor replied. "Even if this is just a shortage, why are you hoarding what remains?"
The queen stood.
She turned to the guards lining the hall.
"Take them into custody."
Alia stepped forward instantly.
"You realize what you’re doing," she said. "Detaining Hero Parties carries consequences. Gremory will not—"
"Enough of this," she said sharply. "You presu far too much."
The queen cut her off with a dismissive flick of her wrist.
"Gremory is small," she said. "In the face of larger powers."
Fritz’s eye imdiately flicked to the king.
Yet, he didn’t object.
As hands closed around Fritz’s arms, a single thought surfaced. The confrontation was never for change...
It was confirmation for an evil.
They didn’t resist, there was no point really.
The guards moved quickly, steering them toward side passages branching off the main hall. Doors closed behind them one by one, leaving the last echoes of what they thought was a civilized conversation behind.
They were all placed relatively close together, each in an individual cell, that could at least see each other.
Fritz was pushed forward, down a flight of steps cut directly into the bedrock. The air was colder and damper.
The doors slamd shut as keys rattled and guards walked away.
Fritz exhaled slowly and leaned back against the wall.
Did I move too early?
The thought crept in uninvited.
If they’d waited longer... gathered more proof... coordinated differently
Silence went on for a while before Alia spoke up, likely waiting for the guards to leave.
"The queen’s arrogance wasn’t confidence," she said. "Even a child would know not to treat us like this."
"Putting aside that we’re Gremory’s Hero Party," Alia went on "she imprisoned the eldest princess of Gremory and a duke’s heir without hesitation."
"That only makes sense if she isn’t afraid," Taylor said quietly from farther down the corridor.
"Or if she knows soone stronger is standing behind her," Fritz added.
"But...who?" Jay’s voice echoed from the cell right next to him.
Another brief silence passed.
"Ryn and I drifted toward Moran," Alia said at last. "One of the outer dwarven cities."
"They’d been suffering constant beast attacks. Enough that the city had learned to endure rather than resist."
"Ryn managed to kill a few of them, and upon further digging...we found manalite embedded inside them," Alia continued.
"And not just small fragnts either, full chunks, placed there deliberately."
Gasps escaped them in unison as Jay pressed on the bars of his cell.
"How’s that possible?"
"We don’t know..." Alia replied. "But, there was so kind of black substance inside. The manalite was holding it in place."
"Ryn went on alone after that," Alia added, hesitating just a fraction. "To learn what the substance was. And to find the culprit’s motives."
Fritz clocked it imdiately but decided not to press further.
"With all of that in mind," Alia said, steadying again,
"I ca to a conclusion. One I suspect the rest of you already have."
She let the silence answer for her.
"Seeing the crown live lavishly while the city starves," she continued. "Their confidence. Their indifference. And what we found in Moran."
Taylor spoke softly, yet her words weighed.
"They’re selling the manalite."
"Bingo."
For a while, no one spoke. Absolutely useless.
Fritz glanced at the iron bars, then at the narrow corridor beyond them. Guards paced at regular intervals, their footsteps steady.
No one responded.
"And we’re still stuck in a cell," he added.
Taylor exhaled through her nose. "Even if we exposed everything right now, it wouldn’t matter."
"Not from in here," Fritz agreed.
He closed his eyes, and ran through all of their options.
Breaking out would be easy.
None of them were tied up, there were no suppressive seals. If he gave the word, they could tear the bars apart and walk out through the corridors by force.
But then what?
They wouldn’t be heroes. They’d be criminals. Violent outsiders who attacked the seat of power and fled. Everything they’d uncovered would be dismissed as justification after the fact.
They could escape quietly.
Slip through patrol gaps. Vanish into the lower districts before anyone noticed.
But that would be worse.
They’d be fugitives, and that made it infinitely harder to solve problems. Not to ntion that their achievents might not be recognized on the Hero’s Path.
And there was no point, none at all, in speaking to the monarchs again.
Fritz understood that now.
He exhaled slowly.
The imbalance was too great. The crown didn’t need legitimacy, they already had it under control.
His jaw tightened.
There was only one way to force rulers like that to react.
Chaos...loud enough, visible enough, undeniable enough that it shattered the illusion of calm they were clinging to.
Even if it spilled into the streets.
Even if civilians paid the price.
The thought made his stomach churn.
Fritz hated it.
Hated that the clean paths led nowhere. Hated that the only road forward was one that cut through innocent lives.
Fritz stared at the bars, at the stone, then at the rest of his party’s cells.
Is this what he had to choose every ti?
The thought sat in his chest, heavy and uncomfortable.
If that was the burden Ryn carried, again and again, then Fritz finally understood why he never looked relieved after things were done.
Everything in his chest pushed back against the idea that order could only be broken by making things worse first.
It wasn’t the justice that he vowed to convey...but it was the only realistic path left.
Throughout it all, every mber of the Gremory Hero Party only had one thought on their mind.
Nobody said a word, but they already knew—
Sowhere beyond the walls of Khaz Vordun, their Captain was still moving.
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