Gog went ahead, looking for the right path at every turn, but it didn''t seem to have any problems as it seemed to know that natural labyrinth like the back of its stony paw.


    Behind them were our regular dwarves, still shaken by the recent revelations about their origin. They had been walking in silence for a while, after the scene at the Obsidian Pillar, but now the atmosphere was warming up again. After all, that information was relevant to the whole fortress.


    “When we return we will say it, and we will explain that there is a path in the Council down where they can see the evidence, we cannot leave them in the shadows” exposed Beleg.


    “No way Beleg, this will stay here for ever and ever. At best you and I will return to destroy those drawings and those runes. The Council did well to make the fortress forget that aberrant past” made Mim clear, and it seemed like no one could change his mind.


    As the two discussed, Gog approached a fork in the road; dark and sinister but no different from the many others they had passed on their descent.


    At this one, however, something unprecedented happened: Gog stopped short before proceeding down one of the two paths and seemed unsure of something.


    “Demon, I can’t believe that your kind forgets the old roads, why don''t you go and ask one of your dear stones? If not, why have we stopped?” spoke Mim, taunting the demon.


    “Very easy, dear Mim, because the road to the right didn''t exist the last time I passed this way.”


    Mim decided give up on the next joke, knowing they could be in trouble. If his brothers had not descended to these depths for many decades and the onyx demon had not opened this hole, who else lurked in the depths?


    “Indeed, I feel the voice of a large, ancient quartz crystal, I remember we are near the Wall. But this crystal seems restless, as if the rock near it had been stirred not long ago.”


    Mim did not doubt the demon this time, for, taking a better look with the light of the torches it was obvious that one of the paths was natural, while the other had been dug, probably with brute force and not too much technology.


    To the left the old road, where a trickle of water ran down. To the right the newer road where... wait.


    As the three travelers stood quietly and watched both subway tracks in detail, they heard a distinct peeling of gravel. There was someone lurking in the hole on the right. Nothing could be seen but a darker spot than its surroundings deep in the right hole, perhaps the shape of a being.


    “Let me, I''m going for that thing, I can''t resist trying out the hammer” Mim was saying as he took the lead and set out to take the first step into the right path.


    As he got closer the shadow took on a more concrete form. Soon its small stature and large ear like protrusions to the right and left were revealed. Although it was still a totally dark form, it was clear from the shape of the head that he was hooded and perhaps a cloak surrounded his entire body.


    “Wait genius, is it that you want us to be set up and killed here, in the dark!” shouted Mim to his dwarf companion, already unconcerned if he was heard by the figure, who had clearly noticed them already.


    Gog simply looked pleased with the development of the situation, it was as if he already knew what was going to happen.


    “Come here, long ears, come let me remind you of the might of my ancestors!” It was clear that Mim had not changed his mind.


    However, as he approached, he slowed down. He carried the hammer with two hands, ready to share his justice, but now Mim''s mind was preoccupied with another matter.


    He, like every brother in the fortress, had studied something of the history of the relationship between his own and the enemies. Moreover, he imagined from the descriptions what one of the dreaded greenskins of the caverns must have looked like.


    But the creature revealed strange features at every turn. He could not yet see the color of the skin, for darkness still enveloped the figure, but, where Mim expected to see a long hooked nose, he saw a shapely one. Where he expected a bare green chin, he saw emerging a long beard that reached to where its hip surely was.


    Each step Mim took slowed him down, making an increasing effort with his eyes to decipher the being and regretting having left the torch behind to wield the hammer. Seeing his hesitation, the figure took advantage. It took not two steps back, but ahead.


    “Brother, why do you hate me, why do you raise your hammer to me?”


    There was absolute silence in the cavern, for it had the voice of any dwarf.


    “Is that still the way of our brothers, above, do you still want to finish off your kin, finish off the job?”


    After silence fell for a minute, Beleg began to cast forward until he was level with Mim, who now stood motionless with hammer held high.


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    Beleg did carry his torch, revealing the figure in front of both dwarves: he indeed had a long white beard and a nose worthy of any dwarven male. Almost his entire body was surrounded by a brown coat clearly made of patches of fur.


    Although he wore a hood, it had holes in both sides to let the creature''s ears come out and better hear the cavernous reverberations. The pigmentation of the creature was now also clear: a very light green, which was distributed unevenly across its face, and a very pale whitish tone, which filled in the areas where the green did not dominate.


    The face in general was that of an ordinary brother, but the eyebrows and cheekbones were more prominent than usual. Perhaps most striking was the blackness of his eyes, for he appeared to have neither iris nor sclera, only a huge black pupil.


    “What and who are you?” asked Beleg bluntly, seeing that Mim was now refusing to share the justice of his hammer.


    “Clearly I am your brother,” replied the creature simply. “No more, no less.”


    “Prove it,” Mim said dryly, letting it slip that he didn''t believe it for a second.


    “Do you have to prove it to each other? Do you have to prove it every day? I am your brother, and down here there are many others like me. I have seen some like you. Brothers from above, those who do not love us.”


    “They come down here and read and reread the black obelisk. I think they still don''t believe it or maybe they don''t want to think they need to hide it. Tell me, brother, did you know you had kin down here?”


    “I am the son of the dwarf and the son of his enemies. You, put down your hammer, and you, put out your torch, and I will tell you our story, if only to relieve me of the burden of my ancestors, those already dead.”


    Both dwarves were rather petrified. Beleg seemed more willing to accept the request, but for Mim it was already a matter of pride. And needless to say, such matters do not sit well with a dwarf.


    At the dead stare of the -false- dwarf and the doubts of the -true- dwarves, Gog intervened by silently approaching Mim''s back. Gog grabbed his hammer, which he still held aloft with both hands, but did not move.


    “Beloveds, this traveler is one of those thinking beings of whom I spoke, those whom I have sometimes encountered and who populate these deep caverns. I doubt that such brute manners need be used on him, please relax, for I watch over your safety down here.”


    Gog slowly guided Mim to lower his hammer. Beleg did not need to be told to put out the torch. There they were left with only the blue light of the opals Gog had for eyes and the faint glow of Mim''s torch, abandoned several feet behind them.


    “Thank you,” said the strange dwarf without emotion.


    “I am the son of two cursed races and thus doubly cursed. I see well in the dark, for one of the two lineages that bequeathed me. The other made me crafty with stones and tools. I am the son of dwarves and greenskins, their enemies.”


    “I am not the son of those greenskins who came in few centuries ago, I am not the son of dwarves who came down in that time, for it is long since almost no one descended the shafts and crevices.”


    “Yes, I am the son of ages past, of the days when yet few houses surrounded the black obelisk. Yes, I am the son of the era of survival and miscegenation. I have been walking the stone corridors for a long time.”


    “I am the impure son. I am not the second-born or the crippled. I am the unwanted one.”


    “The first ones who were born as I was born lived good times, shared their lives with others and for others. But that era is long gone and for a long, long time.”


    “Then the pure families, those who had preserved their lineages with great care moved their pieces on the board. When they were done the dwarves like you two were left with the great cavern and the black obelisk. The green-skinned ones who remained pure left and went to the surface, the one my eyes will never see.”


    “We stayed, but we could not live with the brothers who did not want us. They invited us to go down into the deep and never return. Here we remain.”


    “Wait!” cried Mim, but the creature did not even flinch, though it ceased speaking. “You say that interbreeding between us and the enemy is the right thing to do, that we should unite so that you could live above?”


    When a brief silence had passed the creature sensed that Mim would let him answer and said, “No. I say nothing. I tell the story. I tell what happened. I narrate why I live where the Sun is never seen. Nothing more, nothing less.”


    “Now, please go where you must go. But one thing I can ask of you is this: do not forget me, do not forget us. We live very close brothers, very close, every day I feel the fainter and fainter bustle of your city, I wonder if we will ever live together again?”


    Seeing that silence reigned again, Gog gave both dwarves a light touch on their backs and proceeded to the fork start to take the right path, waiting for Mim and Beleg to follow.


    In the end Beleg grabbed his companion by the shoulder, for Mim never failed to keep his eyes fixed on the black eyes of his -brother- from the depths.


    They both marched on, now with their backs to the creature. When they reached the beginning of the fork, and saw that Gog was already beginning to walk on the other side, Mim suddenly turned his head to look over his right shoulder.


    He could no longer see anything clearly; he did not know if in the darkness his strange brother was still waiting for him.


    Beleg picked up Mim''s torch and used it to light his own, but never made any sign of wanting to return to the creature. He indicated to Mim one last time that they should continue on their way hand in hand with Gog if they wanted to see her again.


    When they had spent half an hour walking in silence behind the stony stakes that Gog had for legs, Beleg dared to address a few words to his increasingly faint-hearted companion:


    “Friend, if only we had known... There are too many things down here that we should never have observed. I wanted to tell you that I wouldn''t have the courage to go on if you weren''t by my side now and that I''m glad I didn''t...”


    “What?”


    “Nothing.”