A large gathering of knights and extravagantly dressed servants received them outside. More knights in runic armor, a few crossbow-wielding dark-skinned demons, even two robed figures with runic staves—the type Ellinoir Sylva used to shoot projectiles of concentrated ether. Vivi could have probably still defeated the whole convoy if she let her void core run loose, but the amount of opponents would have been impossible for Alda, and especially Cael, even if they were equipped with her runeswords.
Still, Vivi couldn’t be sure. Without their auras active, there was no telling how strong her opponents were. They could have wielded ascension skills, or they could have been fourth elevation hunters. If she had to fight against multiple highly skilled opponents at once, overpowering them with void ether could turn risky. Hopefully nobody here would turn into an opponent later.
The won didn’t seem dangerous. They were almost ceremonial by appearance. Their red silk dresses only partly covered their skin, revealing the sides of their thighs and their shoulders. Their black hair had red strokes, and red lines had been painted on their cheeks, glowing with ether. They held blazing ethereal torches taller than themselves. Vivi saw runes at the lower end, where they constantly added ether to keep the fla thick and misty, with red wisps rising to the sky like tender lines of smoke.
“Welco to Norfolm, the resurgence of the ancient Stormkeep,” the sa knight from earlier said, eyes mainly on Cael with only occasional attention to everyone else. “My na is Frodin, the First Knight of Queen Adalene, who still commands the strongest military force in all of the levels, with legends of the fifth elevation under her command. Archmage Shilman Fried is in the city now.”
Vivi didn’t know that na. Lortel’s head rose ever so slightly at the ntion, though. For soone as calm as her, the reaction was odd. Lortel must have known the na, even though she had said Queen Adalene didn’t command any fifth elevation hunters right now.
Why is Frodin telling us this? Vivi thought. Is he trying to scare us?
“Maybe, or he could be trying to gain integrity for his Queen, so that they have control over the situation,” Lucius said. “If he’s right and Shilman Fried is here, that might be a problem.”
“Queen Adalene accepts an audience with you, ancient legends, whoever you may be, in open arms,” Frodin continued. “The hot springs are ready, and a banquet has been arranged.”
“How grateful we are,” Cael said, confidently at the lead, while Vivi continued talking to Lucius.
So who’s Shilman Fried? she asked.
“The best archmage alive right now,” Lucius said. “He reached the fifth elevation forty years ago. He’s the man who captured my old wielder on the tenth level, and we never escaped. I really don’t like him. Last I knew, he was employed by Ingfried, but that probably expired.”
Vivi kept her physical appearance stoic, but in her thoughts, she raised an eyebrow at Lucius. That was a lot of information about his past. He and his old wielder had been all the way to the tenth level, got caught, and never escaped? That didn’t make sense. How had Lucius made it back to the surface, then?
This wasn’t the ti to ask, though. She knew Lucius would have avoided the question. For now, her own safety and knowledge was far more important. So, a fifth elevation archmage is in this city, and he’s possibly an enemy, Vivi thought. Is he stronger than us?
They began walking, first trotting through the uneven mountainside, toward a path. Vivi, Cael, Alda, and Lortel all walked in the middle with soldiers and the ceremonial torches surrounding them.
“He most definitely is,” Lucius said. “He can blow through Shield Of Nature without a problem, and your sword can’t defend you from fire spells. We don’t want to fight him. Or et him at all.”
It sounds like he’s allied with the city? Vivi thought. So he’ll probably be allied with us as well?
“If he sees , or knows that you’re associated with , we’ll both get captured,” Lucius said. “I might need to stay hidden for the ti being.”
Do you have access to Paradise here?
“No, I still don’t,” Lucius said, frowning. “We probably need to reach the eighth level, at least.”
The convoy made it onto a paved path of black stones, as wide as the highways in Shivenar, that ascended across the mountain, straight to the palace. The edge of the path was marked with a stripe of gold on both sides, glowing with ether.
A few brick buildings were built on the side of the mountain, where the ground was flat enough, but for the most part, the palace was separated from the sprawling city. The mountainside buildings must have been barracks, judging from the weapon racks, and from the soldiers taking practice swings outside.
Every demon here had much harsher features than on the upper levels, with larger jaws and more imposing horns. They were still humanoid, but they looked much more like the demons Vivi imagined before visiting the lower levels—the blood hungry beasts Ythar’s priests cursed as unholy creations. Those curses were most likely completely wrong. If Vivi talked to these demons, they’d probably be completely sensible beings.
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The soldiers did look scary, though, much scarier than Lortel, who already drew gasps when she visited human cities. Forming peace with the humans and these demons would be difficult. Assuming they were friendly at all.
Despite all of their preparations, neither the draw-bridge nor the portcullis had been left open. Everyone waited for the giant slab-like bridge to lower down. When it finally did, more torches lit their path, heat radiating from underneath. The portcullis felt larger and larger the closer they got, as if they were truly entering the mouth of hell. Just the sound of the portcullis grinding open was loud enough to overpower any conversation.
A garden welcod them inside—if the courtyard could be called that. The color the of red and black continued with the flower choices, with large blooming leaves Vivi couldn’t have guessed to recognize. Calm streams of lava bubbled within. The streams didn’t seem to be flowing anywhere, though.
Knights stood with spears all over the place, all with runic armor. This wasn’t at all like Shivenar’s palace, where Coshi hung upside down on railings while her servants shrugged. Shivenar’s palace had a safe and secure air around it, making the citizens feel like they were ruled fairly.
Behind her, the portcullis grinded shut. This castle genuinely felt oppressive. That wasn’t unexpected from a militaristic city, Vivi supposed, but admittedly, she was apprehensive stepping in, and she hoped her step didn’t radiate that.
Cael looked like he knew what he was doing. He was by far the weakest mber of the group, but he smiled with the most confidence. Clearly, he had practiced his own advice of not giving a damn. It was impressive how much respect he gained just for that, despite being one of the weakest people in the courtyard right now.
I’ll need to watch that he doesn’t get attacked… she thought. Eyeing the guards for signs of hostility was probably not good either. Cael wanted everyone to act like nothing was wrong in the world. They were supposed to form friendly ties, after all.
They stepped up a wide set of stairs, into the palace itself. The interior finally resembled sothing familiar with a foyer akin to Shivenar’s, though much larger, and with darker colors. The furniture was dark with adamantite engravings. The surgeways were hidden, if there were any, though the mosaic artwork of runeswords on the walls was far more grand than even the most beautiful surgeways.
Atop the stairs, a potted plant had fallen, and a servant was cleaning dirt and picking up shards of ceramic from the cracked pot. The vine-like plant itself was alive, though the shapes of its intersecting stalks had been ruined.
“An earthquake just hit the palace,” Frodin said. “We suspect it is due to the levelstone receiving an impact directly underneath.”
Cael laughed. “Our fault. We apologize.”
“We are glad the earthquake was not the result of a brewing storm, that is all.”
They entered a hallway, and a few more after that, until they entered another courtyard within, one that resembled a cloister from a church, except instead of examination platforms or Ythar’s statues, this courtyard had a hot spring in it. The ground was stone from the mountain, though it had been smoothed and flattened, with stairs leading to the large circular hot spring.
The demons led everyone to the changing rooms for won and n. Vivi placed her clothes into spatial storage, since even though her raincoat wasn’t perfectly clean, she didn’t want anyone other than Lortel treating it. She felt uneasy having it out of sight. Everyone covered their privates with bathing sheets that were apparently designed to be worn underwater without getting sticky and gross.
Knights remained at the edges of the courtyard, standing like statues. An uneasy air hung around, despite the hot spring being one of the calst places Vivi had visited, with dim lighting and pleasantly warm odors. The warm water of a good bath was ever so refreshing after being locked in the dungeon for a week, but Vivi struggled to let herself relax.
“Why did we request a bath in the first place?” Vivi asked quietly in Ythar Standard. “Are we in a position to make demands?”
“You’d be surprised,” Cael said with a grin. “If you’re on bad terms with a noble house, they’ll take offense at any requests you make, sure. But if soone is looking to get onto your good side, they’ll take the opportunity to offer small courtesies, like providing a bath. Asking for one directly not only offers them that opportunity, it also makes us appear strong.”
“I struggle to see how asking for a bath makes us appear anything other than needy,” Vivi said.
“Needy people need things, and many people like to be needed,” Cael said. He leaned back, resting the back of his head on his hands. “Not to ntion, we’re currently bathing on the tenth level. I don’t know a single human who can say they’ve bathed so low in the levels. I’ll be sure to savor this mory.”
“Cael, you better make sure we don’t die in this palace,” Alda said, loudly enough that if soone spoke the language, they would have probably heard her.
“I’m personally looking forward to returning ho,” Vivi said. Hopefully Essi had survived the attack on the surface. And seeing Eem wouldn’t be bad either. She couldn’t wait to return to Shivenar.
“That’s the goal,” Cael said. “But I would lie if I said I wasn’t looking forward to dining with the Queen of the Stormkeep.”
“We’ll need to ask her if she has any teleportation skills,” Vivi said. “I can offer to trade a runesword for that. But if I say I’m a runesmith, they might just want to keep
here.”
“They’ll most likely want to keep us until we reveal all the information we have,” Cael said. “At which point, they will learn that we weren’t actually all that important. We have to leave on good terms while they still believe we have more to offer them once we return.”
“Lortel?” Vivi asked. “How long would it take to get back to the fifth level on foot?”
“Through common, well-guarded routes through Ingfriend’s level changes, a year and change,” Lortel said. “Through lawless smuggler routes, around two years.”
“So we’ll need to sohow find a teleportation skill regardless,” Vivi said. “How much do those cost?”
“The cost is not an issue,” Lortel said. “Most people can afford a teleportation skill. The training required is the problem, the knowledge to use teleportation without sending the target straight into levelstone. We call them, like you, teleporters—except we refer to the professionals who have spent their entire careers practicing the use of teleportation.”
“So, our options are to convince Adalene to let us use her teleporters, or to find one on our own and buy their service.”
Lortel thought for a second. “The only man down here skilled enough to reasonably send six people straight to the fifth level is Shilman Fried.” A scowl appeared as she said the na.
Ah, great… Vivi thought.
She dipped her hair into the hot spring and enjoyed the warmth for perhaps longer than she should have, until a servant ca to inform them that the feast was ready.
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