ã€ŠECLIPSE: A Complete Fantasy Noveletteã€‹


 Part One: The Only Price Hell Accept

    Rubines Highfait knocked firmly on the door of the man whose ambitions would destroy the world, pushing away the last of his shame at sinking to such an underhanded course of action. He was out of options. Now was the time for desperate measures.

    And he knew of no measure more desperate than knocking on the door of Delarin Shadowcalled.

    Delarin Shadowcalled did not come to the door.

    Rubines pounded his fist against the door, louder and more insistent. ¡°DELARIN! Come out, your people need you.¡±

    A gruff snort of laughter was his only response.

    ¡°Alright, your people don¡¯t know I¡¯m here, and they¡¯d probably execute us both if they found out. But¡­ even if they don¡¯t know it, they need you.¡±

    The door slammed open, revealing a grinning Delarin Shadowcalled in all his glory and madness. Intricate lines of red adorned his long ears, like he¡¯d tattooed them with blood magic - which, knowing him, he probably had. His translucent golden hair hung loose and tangled, framing the silver interlocking circles of dimensional power branded into his bare chest, and his eyes shone with the deep amethyst of those who¡¯d long since surpassed the peak of magical power, even as they glinted with manic delight at the obvious discomfort of his visitor.

    ¡°And how many years have you enjoyed your seat on that damn council at my expense, Rubines Highfait?¡± His voice held the same resonant strength Rubines remembered so well. ¡°How many times have you spoken up for my return?¡± He cackled gleefully. ¡°If it¡¯s even once, I swear I¡¯ll do whatever it is you¡¯re about to ask without question.¡±

    Rubines wilted inwardly at the reproof. Once, centuries ago, they would have considered each other friends, before their paths diverged beyond any reconciliation. But now was not the time to dwell on the failings of the past.

    Rubines squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. ¡°The dungeons are encroaching on the capitol. They¡¯re carrying away the citizens of Enroheit and Riverdwell as we speak. Thousands more refugees are fleeing from the outer districts. At this rate we won¡¯t last more than a few months.¡±

    Delarin¡¯s smile shifted, his face going flatly neutral. ¡°You want my lab.¡±

    ¡°The Council is willing to consider evacuating the last remnants of our people to the Undercaverns.¡± Rubines swallowed, unable to keep his gaze on the unsettling purple nebula of Delarin¡¯s eyes. ¡°If I can prove there¡¯s a safe path.¡±

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    ¡°Damn you and damn your entire council. I won¡¯t have thousands of fools tromping through my lab just because you lot can¡¯t control a little pest infestation.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s far more than a little infestation. You haven¡¯t left your seclusion in decades, you haven¡¯t seen what they¡¯ve done.¡± Rubines¡¯ eyes slid down to the spirals embossed into Delarin¡¯s chest, their complexity whole orders of magnitude beyond anyone else he¡¯d ever seen. ¡°You¡¯re the strongest dimensionalist left in the world. If you can¡¯t do it, no one can.¡±

    ¡°Of course I can do it. But I won¡¯t. Not for you, not for anyone or anything.¡± Delarin¡¯s grin returned, a hint of mischief in its slight twist.

    ¡°You don¡¯t mean that.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°You would lock your doors and sit by while the last of your people are wiped out?¡±

    ¡°My people? I seem to recall my name being stripped from me, my heritage denied me, my future torn down around me as you stood by and watched.¡± Delarin laughed, deep and mirthless. ¡°Where were my people when I wandered the land as an outcast, with naught but despair and pain for company? Who stood by me to proclaim the truth of my innocence against the chorus of your council¡¯s lies? No one. Not one damn elf would stand against you. And now you say these are my people? No, Councilor, I am not one of you. That has been made abundantly clear.¡±

    Yet Rubines knew there was one price Delarin would accept. There always had been. But now that he''d arrived at the true purpose of his visit, he found he could not speak it. His voice stuck in his throat, bile rising as he imagined the consequences of what he was about to say.

    He forced down the revulsion and settled his aura with a mithril will. The rest of the council need never know.

    ¡°Then¡­ I¡­ I will swear myself to your cause.¡± The alternative would be worse. Rubines knew the cost of failure would be even higher than the price of success.

    "What?" Delarin¡¯s laughter cut short. His brow furrowed, eyes narrowing in confusion. ¡°You¡­ will?¡± Of anything he had expected out of a surprise visit from his nemesis, it clearly wasn¡¯t this.

    ¡°I will.¡± Rubines¡¯ voice wavered before he brought it back under control. ¡°I swear on the moons and the stars and the eternal night beyond, if you will help our people escape this coming destruction, my life is yours forever.¡±

    ¡°You forgot to swear on the sun. Don¡¯t think I missed that detail.¡±

    Rubines shook his head, mouth dry. ¡°The sun is no more. The dungeon queen has devoured it, as her children devour us. It would do neither of us any good to swear upon its corpse.¡±

    ¡°STAY HERE.¡± Delarin¡¯s voice snapped out with the force of an army, freezing Rubines in place. He couldn¡¯t even breathe, the command was so strong and overpowering, his mental defences torn apart and left in tatters. It would be the work of decades to repair the damage done in that one instant.

    Delarin shoved past him and up the passage toward the surface. A minute later he returned, subdued. ¡°You speak truth,¡± he said, and the pressure upon Rubines vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. ¡°Have our people truly fallen so far?¡±

    Rubines finally allowed himself to relax. ¡®Our¡¯ people. Delarin had finished with his denials and, at least in his own mind, accepted the arrangement. Now all that remained was to weave out the details.

    His soul was the least of the concessions he¡¯d be making today, Rubines felt sure, but it would all be worth it.

    Their world would be lost one way or the other. At least with the help of Delarin Shadowcalled, there was a chance they could end it on their own terms.

    <hr>

 Part Two: A Price That Is Yet To Be Seen

    "Your proposal is rejected, Councilor Highfait. Next order of business is--"

    Rubines couldn''t believe this was happening. "Wait, please, you have to reconsider."

    "We need do no such thing," barked Aragos Nelaragos, representative for the city nobility. He had opposed Rubines for months, every step of the way, and now was no exception.

    "But I have found a safe passage." Rubines gripped the arms of his chair, struggling against the urge to jump to his feet. "The evacuation can move forward--"

    "We don''t need to evacuate, we need to prepare to fight!" Aragos was not the only one who believed in taking a more active stand against the incursion, but he was certainly the loudest. "Every single elf who turns and runs leaves us with one fewer defender to stand on the walls."

    "Those walls won''t save you," Rubines protested. He''d said it a hundred times, and still they didn''t listen. "We''ve seen how well walls fare against dungeon swarms, they cross them as easily as you or I can cross a stream. Thrinedel didn''t even last a week, and its fortifications are no less--"

    "Councilor Nelaragos, Councilor Hightfait, please," interrupted Poro Aetherwilde wearily. He''d been one of Rubines'' few allies in the discussion, but as acting arbiter for today it was his place to make the decrees. "The time for debate is over. I am sorry, Rubines, but this matter is done. The proposal has been rejected. Next order of business."

    Rubines leaned back in his chair, breathing heavily as he struggled to hold in days of pent up frustration. Delarin had agreed to open a single escape passage, provided Rubines could provide the necessary ingredients. But that was the extent of the help Delarin promised. Once the spell was enacted and the passage stable, they''d have a very brief, very specific window of time - no more than a day, perhaps as little as half that - before the spell framework burned itself out and their opportunity was lost.

    It was up to Rubines to ensure that the rest of the elven people were best poised to take advantage of that day.

    Admitting that he¡¯d brought Delarin on as an active participant would get him exiled or killed, banished from the council as a laughingstock if he was very, very lucky. But as things stood, unless he found a way to convince the rest of the council to agree to his evacuation plans, he''d have sold his soul for nothing.

    The council had agreed to his initial proposal to search for an escape route a month previously, but now that he claimed to have discovered one they voted him down. It seemed they had only been humoring him to shut him up, without any intention of following through.

    Rubines tuned out their voices as the next proposals were discussed, argued over, and voted on. When the moment called for it, he cast his vote with Othrelos Darholden, the representative of the merchant districts. From what little he heard it seemed to be an economic matter, and he''d need as much of Othrelos''s goodwill as he could manage. The proposal was passed, and the council moved on.

    Rubines only grew angrier as the discussions went on, the same as if the world were going to go on the way it always had been. As if the price of bread flour and the taxes on toll roads were of any significance whatsoever when they were soon to become the last remaining city of their people. As if the sun hadn''t been eaten.

    Perhaps Delarin''s straightforwardness and cynical outlook were rubbing off on him. He usually didn''t come this close to losing his temper.

    "I fear that is all the time we have for the day," said Poro at long last, bringing the meeting to its blessed close. "A reminder of the agenda for tomorrow will be sent to you in the morning."

    Rubines didn''t wait around to dally in pleasantries, but bolted from the council chambers the moment the doors were opened. He ran down four flights of beautifully curved stairs, only slowing when he reached the ground floor. Even in these dire times, the open chamber was bustling with elves coming or going from the lower meeting chambers, and as much as he''d thrown away his instincts for dignity forced him not to run through the crowd like a madman.

    The gardens beside the outer wall of the courtyard provided a relatively private spot to pace as he tried to decide on his next move.

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    He needed to think, to formulate a plan of attack that wouldn''t result in a literal assault on his fellow councilors, and he needed to figure out where to get the necessary ingredients for the passage spell.

    The evacuation passage would require many exotic ingredients for its construction, and to have a hope of completing it before the dungeons advanced too near for safe evacuation they''d have to work fast.

    Othrelos crossed the courtyard and Rubines fell into his wake, lingering far enough away not to intrude as the councilor''s many sycophants brought him their questions and proposals. Once the merchant representative became available he would make his own approach. He may have to make some personal concessions, but he no longer felt any guilt over whatever he had to do.

    He''d gone past the point of no return, he had no way back or out. The only way to make his gamble worth it was to go all the way.

    It wouldn''t be hard to procure a few of the more commonplace requirements himself, but even as a councilor his reach and means were not so great. If an Archaen like Delarin couldn''t find a way, then he''d have to resort to less traditional means to obtain the items in question.

    A half ton of silver wasn''t the kind of thing you could simply walk to the market and purchase, unless you were Othrelos Darholden. Three bricks of incendite would be simple enough to obtain, if expensive, but where on earth was he to find a thousand dragonscales, let alone afford them all? Again, Othrelos would be his best chance.

    Perhaps if he''d known more about dimensionalist practices, he could have proposed alternative ingredients to obtain the same effect. But while it was... well, not exactly easy, but at least possible to imagine standing up to Delarin Shadowcalled and having a serious debate about the merits of maidenwhisper versus nightbloom, Rubines wasn''t fool enough to try. Assuming either of those had any use in dimensional passages whatsoever.

    The extent of his knowledge on the subject was limited to the half-forgotten warnings of its danger in his long-ago education. Rubines had embraced those warnings, while Delarin flouted them. At the time he''d admired the man''s strength of will. He later ended up cursing that same trait, when it led Delarin down a shadowy path of madness which Rubines didn''t dare so much as approach.

    Until now.

    Now he''d sworn himself to Delarin''s service, to pursue his aims as though his own, and he had yet to learn what that oath would truly demand of him.

    "Good day, Councilor Highfait," greeted Othrelos as Rubines finally approached. "How may I help you?"

    "Half a ton of silver and a thousand dragon scales would be a good start."

    Othrelos raised an eyebrow at the quantities. "A thousand? What, do you plan to build a house with them?"

    "Do you know where I can get them, or not?"

    "Dispensing with the pleasantries, I see. I''ll see what I can find. Give me three days."

    "Two. I need it before the end of the week."

    "Impossible. You know how shipment has been these days. Nothing''s come in for weeks, and what goes out doesn''t return."

    "There has to be some way."

    "Like I said, give me a few days and I''ll look into it, but you''re probably going to be disappointed. A hundred, sure, it''ll be pricey but I can do it. A thousand? That''s the kind of order you only see when an Archaen feels like showing off." Othrelos''s voice trailed away, and Rubines could all but see the suspicion cementing itself in his mind. "Where did you say that miracle passage is located?" he asked, slowly.

    "In the forest, south of Medhart Glen."

    Othrelos paled. "Shadowdell." He took a step away from Rubines, hands coming up seemingly involuntarily, the word spoken in a bare whisper laced with fear. "You''ve either convinced The Shadowcalled not to interfere somehow, or you''re planning to hijack something of his for our use. Either way, you''re utterly mad, and I want no part of it."

    Rubines slumped in resignation. Deception would be of no use, Othrelos was too canny. "He agreed to open a passage in return for exotic ingredients he can''t get for himself. I didn''t want to tell the council, because... well..." he gestured to Othrelos.

    Othrelos''s expression changed to one of pure shock. "You convinced him to help? This isn''t a naturally-occurring passage?"

    "He agreed to open it for one day. I have to get the components he demanded, but as long--"

    Othrelos held up a hand. "I want no part of it. And you''re fortunate I''m the only one to put the pieces together, because if anyone else finds out you''ve been to Shadowdell, it will not go well for you."

    "You won''t tell anyone, I trust?"

    "Moons, no. I keep out of this sort of thing for a reason."

    "The silver, the dragonscales..."

    Othrelos stood silent for a long minute, considering his options carefully before speaking.

    They were both in incredibly precarious positions, Rubines knew. If Othrelos took his side and it came out, the consequences could be dire. But one did not lightly cross Delarin Shadowcalled, and by acting as his agent Rubines was now someone worth thinking twice before refusing.

    "I will see what I can find," Othrelos conceded, "but if you do anything to attract the wrong sort of attention, I will throw you under the carriage so fast and hard you''ll leave a crater. And don''t expect any sort of discount. Even getting market rates in this kind of circumstance is going to be a challenge, and that''s without it being a rush order."

    Rubines exhaled gratefully. "I''ll find a way to repay you," he promised.

    "I don''t need to be repaid, just paid in full." Othrelos turned to leave.

    "Thank you."

    Othrelos turned back one last time, a faint smile on his lips. "Don''t thank me before you see the bill."

    <hr>

 Part Three: Though Nothing Is Without Cost

    "Poro, I need your help."

    Poro Aetherwilde, Councilor of the Outer North, had been one of the two people who voted for moving forward with the evacuation, and the only one Rubines could turn to. The other, Councilor of Sea, would have neither the means nor connections necessary to assist in his increasingly desperate gamble.

    "How can I help you, Rubines?" A wiry forest elf, Poro always looked half like he belonged in a hunt rather than a town. His outfit today maintained his dignity as a councilor while also nonconventional enough to show off his heritage. More ostentatiously than usual, Rubines thought, almost as though the textured brown jacket and slitted trousers were making up for the fact that his people were refugees and his land destroyed. A last cry of loyalty to a heritage whose very survival was no longer a certainty.

    "I want to move forward with the evacuation."

    Poro''s silver eyebrows rose, arching in consternation. "You want me to defy the edicts of the council?"

    "I know when and where a safe passage will be open, but if we don''t take advantage of it we''re going to end up dead. You know as well as I do that the dungeons won''t be stopped by any effort we put forth. Our best chance is to retreat and hide until they destroy themselves."

    "That''s assuming they can''t reach the Undercaverns on their own. I would not put my faith in such an eventuality."

    Rubines'' heart sank. "You don''t know that, though?"

    "They came from the direction of our passage. Whether they came through it or simply happened to approach from that exact angle, I can''t say. No one survived to tell from where they originated."

    Despair assailed Rubines like a physical wave. He put a hand on the nearest wall to support himself. He''d been through too much lately, and yet the pressure continued to build relentlessly. "So we may be leading them to a doom as certain as if they remain," he murmured.

    "No other passage remains open. All have been sealed now, save this new one you''ve uncovered. If you heed my warning, you''ll seal it before it has a chance to reopen. It may be destruction which it heralds, rather than salvation."

    "I will not accept this. I will go through myself and see that the way is clear. If there is no safe haven, then we will return."

    "We?"

    Rubines bowed his head. "You must bring as many of your people as you can. I beg you. Anyone who is willing. I swear to you, I will personally stand between your people and any threat before I allow them to be lost. I will seal the passage with my own blood if need arises. But if there is any way to save any of our people from this disaster, I will find it."

    Poro nodded slowly. "I believe you. I had hoped you would prove as good as your word, and now I acknowledge your passion. But while I am willing to support a Council effort to evacuate safely, I am not confident in the ability of my people to fight should it come to that. They are weary, many weak and hungry, few with any experience fighting anything but wild beasts. The dungeons'' spawn are aggressive, cunning, and relentless in a way no other creature is. If my fears prove correct, and the Undercaverns have been overtaken as well, there will be no one to stand between us and death. Not to cast doubt on your own skills, but merely that no one elf can withstand the hordes for more than moments."

    "I don''t suppose anyone can."

    Delarin Shadowcalled could withstand anything. But as Rubines imagined asking him to stand between refugees and death, he could not even envision a future in which Delarin agreed to do so.

    "What would it take to convince you?"

    Poro shook his head. "I would follow you, but I have to think of my people. Right now, the choice seems between uncertainty and uncertainty. If you can prove there is refuge and not death, I will go against the council''s wishes and aid you in this. But it must be proven, not words and wishes."

    "Then I will find a way," Rubines promised.

    "I pray that you do. Else I fear there is no future in which we survive."

    "Do what you can to ready your people. I will find proof. I swear it. The passage will be secured."

    "If you can do that, you''ll have my undying gratitude. I will prepare what I can. For anything more than that, we will wait upon your return."

    <hr>

    For the second time in less than a week, Rubines Highfait slammed his palm against the door of the most feared elf in the world.

    "Delarin, open the door!"

    Delarin Shadowcalled opened the door. He sat hunched over his worktable, one hand half raised from the casting he''d used to unlock the entry, the other holding two delicate needles threaded with silver. He did not look up as Rubines stepped inside.

    "What is it?" Delarin grumbled. "Did you bring my dragonscales?"

    "Not yet. I have someone looking." Rubines still needed to find a way to pay Othrelos; his personal savings of just over ten thousand buen would cover less than half the cost of what Delarin needed, without considering the current economy. But that was another problem for another time. "Can you open a window?"

    "No."

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    "Have you looked at the Undercaverns at all in the past month?"

    "No."

    "Can you guarantee they aren''t another dungeon-infested trap?"

    Delarin carefully set the needles aside, turning to look Rubines over. His eyes, unsettlingly nebulous, the dark purple irises too large, bored into Rubines'' own. It was a struggle not to look away. "I wonder, have you finally abandoned your idealistic ideas about honor and truth?"

    Rubines bristled at the implication. "Of course not."

    "Yet you again come to me, and not your precious council, though to open a window to the Undercaverns is a trivial matter for any archaen worth the title. Have you, perhaps, finally realized what a useless blight they are? How incapable of doing anything but meddling in the lives of those best left to themselves?"

    "Delarin, please. Now is not the time. Every day, every minute, the dungeons are coming closer. We have already lost so much. Three cities are all that remain between us and the hordes. Another month and it''ll be too late."

    "If you get me my dragonscales I can have a passage open in five days."

    "Yes, I know, I know, I''m working on it." Rubines struggled to keep his temper in check. "But there''s no use opening a passage if no one is there to pass through it."

    Delarin cackled. "Ah, truly? After you abandoned all dignity and self-respect, prostrating yourself to The Shadowcalled on their behalf, they turn you away? That is beautiful."

    Rubines'' anger flared up. "Beautiful? You mock me! How do you expect us to work together like this?"

    Delarin''s laughter faded. "We are not working together, Rubines. You are working for me. I offered you the chance to work together." His voice turned cold. "Five times, I offered, and you turned away more vehemently every time. No, this is no partnership. If you wish to again be counted as a friend, you must do more than give a grudging oath on behalf of those who deserve neither of our time."

    "So that''s how it is." Rubines felt an odd sense of loss, a deep disappointment that their renewed partnership could mean so little to his once-friend.

    "You cannot expect that after turning your back on me for so long I would welcome you back with open arms, as though none of the decades between had occurred, did you? I will accept your service for the same reason I always sought your partnership - your potential is wasted on the Council. They would stifle your passion and your gifts and leave you empty. I will fan your soul into a flame that could burn the world, but I will not be betrayed again."

    "I suppose I cannot ask for more than that. I had hoped some affection remained between us. I... I have always admired you, even when I thought your path one of madness." In truth, he still considered Delarin to be mad. But mad in the way a genius ought to be, mad with higher purpose and deeper understanding than one such as himself could comprehend.

    "You pitied me as you would a rabid dog." Delarin''s lip twisted in a mocking smile. "You could retain affection for me, as I had done nothing to harm you. But I? I lived with the knowledge that my best friend was willing to choose the idiots on the Council over me. That he would rather turn his back on me than give up any scrap of power. That he would gladly spread lies rather than believe in me. No, Rubines, you gave up any claim to friendship the moment you sold my future to purchase your own."

    "It wasn''t like that," Rubines protested. He''d agreed to avoid contact with Delarin, sworn to uphold the sanctity of the ban on interactions with The Shadowcalled, and to avoid trespass in Shadowdell, yes. But... "I never betrayed you."

    "Your silence makes you complicit. You never once spoke up for me, you left me to be cast out without so much as a single word of warning. You knew I would wait for you, and you let them exploit that knowledge to trap me here. Even if you did not give them the information yourself, you were the sole reason it succeeded. If you could have spared a single hour from your self-congratulation to send me a message, you could have retained some measure of my respect."

    "I did not realize they would move so quickly. I had a great many things on my mind. I was young and overwhelmed. You cannot--"

    "Do not tell me what I can and cannot do." Delarin raised a hand, and Rubines felt his oath constrict around him, vision blurring as pressure assaulted him from every side. "Do not forget, you came to me. I did not seek you out. I still can use you, but I do not need you. I know your weaknesses. In time, I will burn them out of you. In time, you may be worthy to stand at my side as I had always intended. But not now. Now, you have one task, and that is to assemble the ingredients I require before it is too late."

    "Please," Rubines gasped out. He''d fallen to his knees at some point, the pressure too much and his balance unsteady as his vision wavered and spun. "I have to know. I swear, this isn''t some plot, I just need to know. Is it safe?"

    "Still you give everything to them. What have they done to earn your loyalty? What have they ever done to deserve your sacrifice?"

    "It''s not about that. It doesn''t matter what they''ve done. No one deserves to die like that. I only want to save them."

    Delarin sighed, but he lowered his hand and the oath pressure dissipated, allowing Rubines to shakily get to his feet again and brush himself off before the answer came. "I''ll need four ruby buttons," Delarin warned. "Pure."

    "I will find them."

    "Then come. I will show you that our people''s new home is secure."

    Rubines followed Delarin down into the depths of the workshop. The walls were hewn stone, unsmoothed and uneven, except for the sections where they''d been polished smooth and flat and inlaid with silver tracings of castings. Rubines recognized almost none of the symbols involved and couldn''t begin to grasp their meaning.

    The passage split several times, but Delarin led them unerringly to a single door set in granite. Within lay a silver-wrought casting embedded into the floor, an advanced design of which Rubines recognized only the base form: a viewing window. Four points surrounded its tracings like a diamond, and into each of these Delarin placed a thin ruby disc formed for just such a purpose. He fished them out of his pockets as though it were normal to carry such wealth.

    The Archaen all had their quirks.

    "Stand here."

    Delarin pointed, and Rubines stood where he was instructed.

    Delarin began to activate the casting. Rubines could hardly follow the workings of it, the ingredients and formulas vaguely familiar but long forgotten. Everyone learned basic and advanced castings in school, but he''d never seen a use for exotic things like windows until it was too late to regret his lapses.

    Delarin Shadowcalled never forgot a single casting formula. He drew the casting together unerringly, and then the space within the diamond filled with clear blue light.

    Rubines frowned uncertainly. "What am I looking at?"

    "The future of our people." Delarin held his hands up, a wide grin splitting his face and gleaming in his eyes. "The Undercaverns, pah, no. This world is lost. But this..." he gestured to the window, "this world is pure, unsullied by the touch of the Dungeon Queen or her spawn. Here, the land is clean and the sky is open. Here, we can truly begin anew."

    Rubines stared down at the pristine crystal blue sky beneath him, at the distant sun whose glow was clean and bright and not tainted with crimson death.

    "What is this madness?" he whispered. "This cannot be possible. There is no other world that we can inhabit. The seers have searched. There is nowhere we can go."

    "Correction: There was no other world."

    Rubines tore his eyes away from the pure, clean sky to Delarin. "What have you done?" he whispered hoarsely.

    "There was no world to which we could relocate, no safe haven upon this one." Delarin laughed exultantly. "So I''m building a new one."

    <hr>

 Part Four: Some Costs Cannot Be Known

    "Eighty thousand buen."

    It was more than Rubines had expected. A lot more. "I have thirty seven, and three hundred." After begging and borrowing as much as he could, he''d reached the limits of financial assistance available even to a Councilor.

    Othrelos laughed in his face. "Less than half? You understand the difficulty involved in obtaining this quantity of those particular resources, yes? I cannot possibly sell it any cheaper. Not even considering your... connections."

    "I will have the money," Rubines promised. "The thirty seven is a down payment. I''ll have the rest in a week, but the materials must be delivered immediately."

    "I know what you''ve been doing, Rubines Highfait. Do not think my eyes are blind. You have nothing left to sell, no one left to borrow from. Where will the remaining forty three come from?" Othrelos shook his head. "I am sorry, but until I have the money in my hand, I will not send anything anywhere."

    There was one resource Rubines hadn''t tapped. One bridge he''d not crossed. If he couldn''t borrow any more, or sell anything more, he did still have one recourse. "Bring the materials to the northern rim in three days. I will have everything you ask."

    "If this is a trap, if you expect to assassinate me and escape unpunished..."

    Rubines held his hand to his chest in genuine shock. "Never! I have not fallen so far as you imagine."

    He had no intention of killing anyone on the council. But... he did plan to rob them. He had no other choice.

    <hr>

    It cost him nearly three thousand buen to have the papers drawn up, signatures forged, and emergency allowances arranged. He had the arrangements credited and billed to Aragos Nelaragos, with the entirely fictional persona of Delis Rufait as executor. It cost another thousand to hire an illicit actress to play the part of Delis Rufait and actually collect the money, and a promised cut of eight thousand more to prevent her running off with the lot.

    He''d expected it to cost more. When all was said and done, he''d drained the Council coffers of over a hundred thousand buen, nearly 80% of their entire collected budget for the next decade.

    They wouldn''t be needing it in ten weeks, let alone ten years. Rubines repeated it to himself over and over as he hurried to the meeting place with the stolen purse burning a hole in his soul.

    Othrelos was there to meet him, with eight armed guards. Rubines counted out the thousand-buen chits with hands he held steady by only the greatest effort of will. Othrelos'' eyebrows rose higher and higher as the number approached his demanded eighty thousand. Rubines added one more, with a nod of respect, then gestured for the goods to be brought forward.

    "I honestly didn''t believe you''d do it." Othrelos'' hand closed over the bag of money, then he tucked it securely into his jacket''s inner pocket. "I''d have wagered my life that this was some sort of trap." He sighed. "I am sorry."

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    Rubines felt a chill. "What do you have to be sorry for?"

    Othrelos shook his head and backed toward his personal carriage. "The materials you''ve asked for, it''s impossible to obtain. You would know that if you paid any attention to the world at all. But instead you gad about with The Shadowcalled?"

    "What are you saying?" Rubines demanded coldly.

    Othrelos leapt lightly to his carriage door, hanging on with one hand and one foot, as the driver immediately flicked it into motion. "Our ways part here, Rubines Highfait. I do thank you for the donation. It will be used well."

    Rubines took three furious steps toward the turning carriage, confident he could catch it before it could gain speed, then slammed into an unseen barrier that split the clearing in half. The telltale glint of silver shone on the ground, the foliage beside it disturbed by the collision, the barrier casting itself unmoved.

    Othrelos Darholden rode away, leaving Rubines to his fate.

    The eight soldiers closed in.

    Rubines drew his sword, but from the stances of the three at the back, they were at least magen, if not archaen. He knew he would not try to assassinate a fellow councilor with anything less. He could deflect lesser castings, but archaen castings could often not be seen. And his mental defences were already gravely weakened from Delarin''s recent careless assault, far from their usual strength.

    "DELARIN! HELP!"

    Then they were upon him. With blows exchanged at a rapid flurry, Rubines did his best to hold his own, but five warriors were more than sufficient to wear him down. With the barrier at his back he couldn''t hope to escape.

    "DELARIN!!"

    They were close to his realm, no more than a stone''s throw from Shadowdell. Rubines knew Delarin could hear him. He did not know if he would be willing to come.

    If he did not, Rubines knew he would die.

    Castings sparked off his blade, or sizzled against the barrier, the silence of the magen proof they were highly skilled experts at the very least. Rubines was bleeding now, from a dozen cuts, his councilor''s robe shredded and ruined.

    Still he fought, desperately, with every ounce of his strength.

    "Stop." The word resonated, not loudly, but unmistakably. Everyone present, Rubines and his eight assailants alike, all fell still and turned as one to the source of the voice.

    Delarin Shadowcalled, wearing his usual loose black shirt with an open front, hands extended and silver glinting on his chest, stood at the very edge of his prison. His eyes glowed with purple light that cast silver shadows, so bright that they seemed to outshine the bloody moon that feebly strove to light the sky.

    "Come."

    Rubines started walking without meaning to, and by the time he realized what he was doing he was already halfway to the border. He broke into a run, then, hurrying to Delarin''s side, ignoring the sting and burn of his many injuries.

    "No," whispered one of the magen, stuttering to a stop before he''d taken eight steps. "No! You will not suborn me, vile sorcerer."

    He turned and fled, but forgot the barrier still splitting the clearing and slammed into it face first. He staggered back, clasping a hand to his face, blood seeping between his fingers.

    "Come," Delarin repeated, voice echoing more deeply with power, and the magen dropped his hand and followed his fellows. Delarin stepped back and allowed them to cross the border, one by one.

    "You may go, Rubines," he said, then turned to follow the final magen.

    Rubines swallowed. "What will you do with them?"

    Delarin smiled coldly. "You''re not ready to know that. And you have your own concerns. Let me deal with mine."

    Rubines shivered. No matter how many times he tried to convince himself that Delarin Shadowcalled was anything but truly mad, the truth would not stay hidden for long.

    He was throwing the fate of their people on a power-drunk lunatic who thought he could become a god. Moons help him, but he almost believed Delarin would succeed.

    One way or another, in triumph or destruction, Rubines Highfait would be at his side.

    Steeling himself against the dread, he turned and began the long walk back to the city. They were running out of time, and he still needed those ingredients.

    <hr>

 Part Five: With Values Cast Aside

    "This is no longer a request. You will get me the ingredients we require and you will do so immediately."

    Rubines Highfait wasn''t normally one to go around slamming people into walls and threatening them to their face, but this was not a normal week. He''d already stretched the limits of his morals trying to do things the way they should be done, only to be betrayed and backstabbed.

    It took a lot to push him this far over the edge, but even if he could tolerate a lot, Rubines was through playing nice.

    Delarin may be a bit crazy, but at least when he talked people listened instead of trying to undermine him at every turn. Sure, they locked him away and did their level best to forget about him, but he still held weight. When you mentioned Delarin Shadowcalled, people went quiet and respectful.

    What did they do when you mentioned Rubines Highfait? Laugh? Dismiss it as unimportant? Make conciliatory gestures until they could stab him in the back?

    This made twice now the Council had made promises only to break them when it suited them. Rubines began to wonder if the only reason he''d ever believed them to be innocent was because he''d never been in a position to see how corrupt and self-serving they truly were.

    So now it came to this.

    Rubines had attended the morning''s council meeting as though nothing were amiss, smiling at the obviously-unsettled Othrelos Darholden across the chamber. He was pleased to see that no one had mentioned the withdrawal from the Council coffers yet - it would come up in the month-end finance review, but by then it would be too late. One way or another.

    Once the meeting was over, Othrelos tried to slip away, but Rubines followed him to his carriage. And when Othrelos jumped in and shouted for the driver to go, Rubines leapt in after him.

    He knelt on Othrelos''s chest, one hand pressed against his throat, the other covering his mouth. Othrelos stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes, his ears tight with strain.

    "Your assassination attempt failed," Rubines said softly. "If I come forward to accuse you, your career will be over."

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    Othrelos''s eyes narrowed and he tried to say something, his words muffled by Rubines''s hand.

    "I know it will be the end for me as well. We both know secrets that could destroy each other. But I have much less to lose from such an inquisition than you. You know how this will look to the others. A conspiracy falling apart, infighting... and who stands to gain more?"

    Othrelos grunted.

    "Delarin Shadowcalled will be opening a passage with the ingredients you gather. I will be leaving through that passage with him. This won''t be one of those eternal blackmail schemes that never stops. I have told you exactly what I need, and then I''ll be gone. You can keep the money, I''ve no need for it where I''m going. I''ll give you the rest of what Delarin provided as well, another eleven thousand and eight, upon receipt of the goods. You understand?"

    He very slowly released Othrelos''s mouth, ready to smother him if he tried to scream, but Othrelos nodded, glaring hatred at him the whole time. "I understand," he spat, but kept his voice low. "I will see you destroyed for this, Rubines Highfait. You will be remembered as a traitor and a fiend."

    Rubines shrugged. "Perhaps I am a traitor and a fiend. Get me the ingredients we require, and you won''t have to find out just how far I''m willing to go."

    "I''d never have expected you to go this far. I don''t know what happened to you."

    Me neither.

    "You have two days." Rubines released Othrelos''s throat and leapt back from the carriage. He rolled to absorb momentum as he hit the ground, coming to a stop as Othrelos continued on his way.

    <hr>

    "I''ve seen the other end of the passage," Rubines told Poro Aetherwilde. "There are no dungeon creatures anywhere to be seen. It''s a different place than most of our passages connect to, so even if they''ve infested all known parts of the Undercaverns, this passage will be secure."

    Poro searched Rubines''s face for a long moment. "You truly believe it to be safe?"

    "I''ll be the first through if it would reassure you."

    "No need for that. I''ve already begun preparing the refugees for action at a moment''s notice. When will the passage be opening?"

    Rubines hesitated. "My initial calculations may have been off," he hedged. "I''m going to trek out tomorrow and try to discern the exact window we''ll have. Not less than three days from now, not more than two weeks." Assuming Othrelos came through this time. If he failed to obtain the needed ingredients, there would be no passage. Delarin''s new world would float forever in the void, forgotten and alone.

    "Will you be back for the meeting the next day?"

    "Unlikely. If you could make my excuses, I''d appreciate it. I know the Council doesn''t believe in my plan, but right now it''s the only hope I see."

    Word had arrived that very morning of the destruction of Moyetarsh, no more than a day''s ride to the east. Another town fallen to the dungeons. Another fragile line of defence shattered.

    Beyond two weeks, there may not be anyone left to evacuate.

    <hr>

 Part Six: What Value Yet Remains

    Rubines didn''t have to knock this time. Delarin''s door opened at his approach.

    He found the man himself again hunched over his worktable, delicate silver threads twisted together with precision beneath his fingers, weaving a casting the likes of which Rubines had never seen.

    The casting trailed away off the edge of the table, coils and chains and flat sections like leaves, intricate and unfathomable. Rubines recognized only a few sections here and there. An eight-loop circle that looked like it belonged in an enchanter''s web to be placed on an item. A thread he remembered from his long-ago studies, to encourage growth in a plant. More, far more, that he had no knowledge of.

    "What now?" grumbled Delarin, when Rubines didn''t immediately speak.

    Rubines paced the room. "I blackmailed Othrelos Darholden. I threatened him with ruin and violence to force him to capitulate."

    "Good."

    "Good? What if he betrays us? What if he thinks he can outplay me? I don''t know how to do any of this underhanded nonsense. I bet the whole city knows it was me who robbed the council by the end of the week."

    Delarin finished a new loop, then set his tools aside. When he turned to Rubines, he was smiling. "You are finally beginning to see."

    "See? See what!"

    "Past your damn naive perceptions of how the world should be to what it is. What you are seeing, Rubines, is truth."

    "It doesn''t feel that way."

    Was his life a lie? Was there any purpose at all to his decades of faithful service to his people, to their Council? Or had he always been a blind fool dancing at the whims of heartless manipulators?

    Was Delarin Shadowcalled right after all?

    "So why have you come to me?" demanded Delarin. "If you want someone to reassure you about your morals, it won''t be me."

    Rubines drew himself from his recriminations and stopped pacing, reminded of his purpose. "I need you to come with me to the border. Othrelos should be arriving soon and I think you should inspect the ingredients to be sure they''re sufficient."

    Delarin rummaged in his workdesk, then tossed Rubines an intricate silver casting in the shape of a four-point star, set with a single pearl crescent. "Signal me when he arrives. I''ve much to do."

    <hr>

    Othrelos did not arrive.

    Rubines waited all afternoon as the faint bloody light of the first moon waned and well into the night and rising of the second before finally admitting that his one-time ally had betrayed him once again.

    And that left him with no recourse. How could he possibly obtain all the ingredients for the passage? He had called in everything he could possibly borrow, he''d stolen as much as he could possibly get away with from the Council, and what little he had left wouldn''t buy a quarter of what Delarin needed. Othrelos was his only option.

    Rubines turned from pacing the border and returned once again to Delarin''s subterranean home. Othrelos had disregarded his bark. Now he had to bite.

    "Othrelos never showed up."

    "He must have realized what would happen to him if he did."

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    Rubines looked at Delarin sharply, but as usual the man remained focused on his crafting. "What are you making?" he asked, to put off what he knew he had to ask, delaying the inevitable as long as possible.

    "I''ve showed you. A new world."

    Rubines stared at the casting, spilling over the edges of the worktable like a delicate lace curtain. Silver links and glowing crystals combined in an unknowable pattern of impossible complexity. "This? This is the world?"

    Delarin grunted irritably. "No. This is a tiny portion of the world. You think it''s trivial to recreate a whole damn planet? We can count ourselves lucky if it''s a tenth as hospitable as this one, and that''s assuming you get everything I need to power the damn thing."

    "How does it work?"

    "Do you have something to say, or are you just trying to waste my time?"

    Rubines wilted. "I need a way to force Othrelos into cooperating. He''s defied us, and needs to learn the consequences."

    Delarin''s hands finally slowed, and Rubines could see his smile even though he was facing away. "That, I can do."

    <hr>

    Breaking into the private lodgings of a Councilor should be harder than this, Rubines thought as he slid the window open. Othrelos Darholden, though officially the representative of Lower Aelenhiegt, was in practice the representative of the merchant faction as a whole, and Aelenhiegt in particular. His home, appropriately humble for his official standing, sat unobtrusively nestled between that of a banker on the left and a tailor on the right.

    No sign announced his presence, but everyone knew where he lived. Councilor Darholden regularly received visitors of every economic strata at all hours of the day and night, though of late he''d spent more time in emergency Council meetings than at his place of residence.

    Tonight, Rubines watched and waited as Othrelos dealt with the steady stream of supplicants, then finally sent the last away before retiring upstairs to his bedroom.

    Rubines waited until the lamp had gone dark, then slipped around back of the block and climbed to the adjoining roof. Swinging around to the front window proved a trivial task for an elf in the prime of his life, and Rubines slipped the window open with silent dexterity.

    He nearly activated the casting then and there, but crept forward instead to ensure Othrelos hadn''t left his bed for any reason. It would be a problem if he wasted it while the merchant was downstairs fetching a midnight snack.

    Othrelos lay on his side, curled beside an elf woman who showed traces of age, much the same as Othrelos himself. They looked peaceful and content, untroubled by the approach of death.

    Part of Rubines wanted to creep back out the window and find another way. But the larger part felt only disgust. How dare he sleep so peacefully, so comfortably, while refusing aid to thousands of helpless refugees? How dare he defy the only people trying to actually make a difference here?

    Who did Othrelos think he was, living in comfort and denying help to the world?

    Rubines dropped the casting and crushed it beneath his foot, the stored power rushing out in a wave. Its inner core flowed up and enveloped Rubines completely, while its outer edges spread away to fill the room.

    "You dare defy me." Rubines spoke, and Delarin''s voice echoed through the room. Othrelos startled awake, staring around wildly as, to his eyes, Rubines appeared to be The Shadowcalled himself. "I told you what I needed, and you have defied me. Thrice now. There will be no more second chances."

    "Othy, what--" the woman hid herself behind Othrelos, holding him close. Rubines flicked out a second casting from the dozens he held in his sleeves, this one striking her unerringly on the forehead. With barely a twitch, she fell limp and slid backwards, flopping onto the bed.

    "Ria, no! What have you done?" Othrelos leapt to his feet, but the barrier now protecting Rubines was as solid as that which had been left behind to aid in his assassination.

    "She will live, so long as you do as you were instructed," Rubines snarled, letting his anger tint Delarin''s voice. "If you didn''t have to make things difficult this could have all been avoided. Now, you have a choice. Bring me the ingredients I require within three hours, or suffer the consequences of my displeasure."

    "No, please, it''s impossible. Like I told Rubines, it can''t be done. There simply is no way to gather so much--"

    "I DO NOT CARE!" Rubines thundered. If not for the barrier holding sound to within the room, he''d have wakened half the city. "You have had time, you have had grace, and you have been given all the resources necessary. What I am going to do, that is what''s truly impossible. Gathering items is merely difficult. You have three hours. Do not fail me again."

    Othrelos grabbed his jacket and ran for the stairs.

    Rubines let him leave, releasing the casting holding the illusion in place once he was well away. The tracing of silver fragments on the ground dissipated, its energy spent, drifting away through the open window to return to the moonlight from whence it originated.

    The third moon gleamed crimson as it rose over the city, and Rubines knew that this particular quantity of silver would not have time to be reborn.

    <hr>

 Part Seven: Denying No Toll

    Othrelos did not show himself. The demanded supplies did.

    Not all together, not all within the specified window, but silver, dragonscales, and the other exotic ingredients Delarin required for building a passage to his new world arrived in a steady stream. By messenger, by cart, or by confused foreigner, and Rubines was there to receive them all.

    Delarin abandoned work on his world casting as soon as the first scales arrived and moved to the passage site, a cavern with a twisty tunnel leading up to the nearby grove just north of the Shadowdell''s border. The tunnel was necessarily convoluted to fulfill their primary requirement:  allowing outsiders to cross into Delarin''s domain without realizing it.

    No one, even the most desperate, would knowingly enter the Shadowdell. Too many stories about The Shadowcalled and his propensity for consuming souls and dark rituals. No one would trust any passage created by Delarin Shadowcalled to be anything but a trap.

    Rubines had to trust that their precautions would be sufficient. Time was running out.

    It took most of the day for the supplies to arrive, and they still fell short of the original quantities demanded, but it was enough to get started with.

    When the last delivery had been received and he saw no sign of more, Rubines descended to the passage site. Delarin had been busy, as evidenced by the stones melted and reformed beneath a perfect ring of dragonscales. They lined the floor, walls, and ceiling in a cylinder of crimson fire that extended unbroken for nearly three strides.

    It was the largest and most perfect passage casting he''d ever seen, but Delarin was still hard at work. Silver tracings connected each scale to the last, with distinct sets of lines and loops and patterns. Rubines saw a hundred threads of silver running off back further into the cavern, each connected to one or more of the faintly-glowing scales that formed the passage.

    Delarin muttered to himself as he moved between scales, moving with quick precision that put the greatest show archaens to shame. He linked another thread in, looped it to another scale, then tied it into a quick arrowhead and tossed it behind him. It sailed further than Rubines would have expected, vanishing into the distance until its line was as taut as the rest.

    "Is there anything I can do to help?"

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    "We need more dragonscales."

    "That''s all they have. If Councilor Darholden can''t find more, there are none to be found."

    "It''s not nearly enough. If I try to tie this directly to the new world, it''ll pull ten times the power it should and burn out in less than an hour." Delarin kept working as he spoke, his hands moving with deft speed, looping more and more lines of silver in, finishing each with an arrowhead before tossing it behind him to join those already trailing off into the dimness.

    "No... we''ve come so close. There must be some way!"

    "I need a dungeon."

    Rubines stared in shock. "What?"

    "I thought something like this might happen. If I could leave this damn trap I''d fetch one myself, but I can''t. So it''s up to you. Get me a dungeon." He paused to toy with a shorter length of silver thread, then tossed it to Rubines. It had one end twisted into a jagged nail. "Find its heart and stick it with that, then bring it here."

    Rubines dropped the thread and backed away. "I can''t. I''m a councilor, not a warrior. I''ll be killed in minutes."

    "Then get me more dragonscales."

    Rubines stood for a moment, heart hammering, but he knew it was impossible.

    Two impossible options.

    For a long minute he stood, trying to find some third option, but there was none. He was already far beyond the pale, allying himself with Delarin, blackmailing and threatening Othrelos, deceiving Poro. He''d burned every bridge, and would probably be attacked or arrested on sight if he tried to return to the city. Othrelos had plenty of time to turn the rest of the Council against him.

    He finally stooped and picked up the silver thread. "I''m going to die either way." He closed his hand over the twisted nail. "I need to speak to Poro before I go, ensure his people are ready to move. How soon can the passage open?"

    "Four days, assuming you get me that link to the dungeon heart." Delarin looped the other end of the thread around Rubines''s wrist, sealing it with a deft twist. For a moment a phantom line connected the two of them, the silver circles on Delarin''s chest glowing with moonlight. Then he turned away and the ghostly thread vanished.

    "Don''t wait for me." Rubines felt hollow and empty, his stomach roiling with dread. He tucked the nail into the circlet around his wrist and it stayed secure. He''d known his life was over the moment he swore his future to Delarin Shadowcalled, he just hadn''t expected its end to come quite so soon. "Once Poro gets here with his people, just open it and send them through."

    "No."

    Rubines turned back. "Please, Delarin, this is why I came to you. To save them."

    "I''ll save them when you''re back and not a minute before."

    "But... your world..."

    "I can build a private passage for myself easily enough, if it comes to that. Or I may end up keeping this world once the dungeons kill everyone else."

    "But... why?"

    "You know our agreement. You''ll work for me, I''ll save them for you. If I don''t get my payment, you''re not getting yours. Now go get me that dungeon."

    <hr>

    Rubines covertly relayed instructions to Poro for evacuation to begin in four days, then stole the first fast horse he found and headed straight for the latest town to have fallen to the dungeons.

    He''d come too far to stop now.

    <hr>

 Part Eight: The Toll Demanded

    The dungeons were still in the market for elves. Rubines did not find it difficult to get himself captured.

    He came upon the monsters as they searched the remnants of the town, dragging limp bodies from the wreckage.

    There was no pattern to the beasts, no sanity.

    Some resembled forest creatures, twisted and wrong in a way that pained Rubines to the soul: a bear with a rat''s tail and a stag''s head, a wolf with red-glowing gashes along its side leaking purple liquid.

    Most were utterly foreign, creatures with disjointed parts or things that shouldn''t be mobile at all. A heap of stones that oozed with blood, something like a bat-winged elf but made entirely of gleaming black shadow and too many teeth, a serpent with nine heads and eight legs. Everywhere he looked, he saw a new monstrosity.

    It didn''t take them long to see him in turn. Before he''d even recovered from the shock of seeing an army of horrors tearing apart a town he no longer recognized, they were upon him.

    A spider with snakes for legs slithered suddenly from the shadow of a fallen building, fangs gleaming with venom and its many eyes all focused greedily on Rubines. Each of the snakes opened its mouth and spat strands of web, converging in the path before Rubines in a tangle he was unable to avoid.

    His horse screamed in terror as it collided with the web, sticky strands binding it tighter as it thrashed and reared, the weight of it bouncing the web around but unable to break free. Rubines himself was thrown free of the horse, face-first into another strand. He tried to pull himself free, but the strand was so sticky it threatened to tear his flesh free of his face, bringing tears to his eyes and forcing him to relent and lie still, trembling.

    He''d come here to be captured, he reminded himself. The mental admonishment did nothing to calm the wild panic rushing through his body, the certainty that he needed to run, to be anywhere but here.

    The horse shrieked, shrill and tremulous as the snake-spider surged forward and nine pairs of fangs clamped down on the terrified beast.

    The monster watched Rubines as it feasted, the horse slowly shriveling as its blood was rapidly drained by the unnatural monstrosity, yet its eyes never left the captive elf.

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    Rubines could not still his shaking. He was no warrior. This degree of violence and horror was beyond his experience, utterly foreign to him.

    The spider finally released the drained carcass, slithering up and over the horse''s body toward Rubines. His breath came fast and unsteady, the monstrous beast bearing down on him.

    He hadn''t thought it was possible to be any more afraid.

    Then the snakes reared up, and struck out. Rubines jerked desperately, trying to tug himself free. To raise a hand, or to twist away. Anything to escape the death coming for him. But he was stuck fast. All he accomplished was to scream himself hoarse as he struggled in utter futility.

    But the snakes didn''t strike his flesh, instead targeting the strands of web binding him. Each head bit a single thread, their tongues parting the sturdy silk like acid poured over a snowflake.

    Then he was dragged down, claws digging through his tunic and teeth clamped around his leg as something from behind him picked him up and carried him away.

    The next amount of time was a blur of pain, one which he only partly escaped in unconsciousness. His city life never prepared him for the brutality of the dungeons. But he survived. They were careful, in all their rough handling as they carried him off, never to damage him beyond what he could recover.

    He was carried through the forests, away from the town, then down into darkness, relayed from monster to monster by unspoken command. Then, in the end, he was dropped in a cold stone chamber lit only by the red gleam of mock moonlight.

    He lay unmoving for a time, waiting while his connection slowly restored his strength and healed his injuries, though his heart counted out the moments wasted.

    Step one was the easy part. Now he had to find the dungeon''s heart.

    He let out a shaky breath and raised his head, and only then saw that he was not alone. A dozen other elves lay about, some injured, others stirring. Survivors from the destruction of the town. Prisoners like himself.

    "Where are we?" Rubines asked, his voice coming out a hoarse croak. "This is the dungeon?"

    "Yes, it is," answered a young woman with pearl-pale hair reminiscent of Delarin''s. She was the least injured of those gathered here, sitting slumped against the wall in a posture of defeat, but her eyes were clear and focused. "I am Urimae. I regret that we meet in this manner."

    "Rubines."

    "I thought we were all from Moyetarsh, I don''t recognize you. Scout?"

    "Yes," Rubines mumbled, struggling to hide his embarrassment at the lie. "I came from Aelenhiegt. I saw what happened to your home. I''m so sorry."

    "The Council is sending aid?" Urimae''s voice lifted with hope, her eyes glistening, and Rubines couldn''t bring himself to tell the truth.

    "There is an extraction plan underway," he said, carefully avoiding any outright lies. He didn''t trust himself to speak untruth right now. To admit that his plan would do nothing for these poor souls would be of no use to anyone. "But before anyone can go anywhere, I must locate the dungeon''s heart."

    "That is simple." Urimae got to her feet, stretching her shoulders as though she had not moved in days, limping with injuries healed slightly askew. "I can show you."

    <hr>

 Part Nine: This Charge A Soul Must Bear

    "They do nothing to bind us?" Rubines asked, as Urimae led him through the dungeon''s crimson-lit passages. "Don''t they fear you escaping?"

    "There is no escape." Urimae spoke softly, almost a whisper, as though afraid of being overheard. "This is the deepest layer of the dungeon. Though most of its monsters are away at the moment, it would take but a thought for it to bring one back and slaughter us all."

    Rubines lowered his voice to match. "Why hasn''t it? Why is it taking prisoners?"

    Urimae shook her head. "It wants us for something, wants us alive and at least nominally healthy. It speaks to us, sometimes." She shivered, and her voice nearly broke. "I think it is using us to learn our people''s secrets."

    Rubines suddenly understood the haunted look, the emptiness of so many of the prisoners back in the first room. They knew they shouldn''t permit this to happen, and yet they chose to live on in the vain hope that someone would rescue them.

    "At first, it spoke in nonsense," Urimae continued. "Words that didn''t go together. Sounds that held no meaning at all. But more and more, it--"

    Her voice cut off abruptly as she fell to the floor, shaking all over, her eyes rolling up in her head.

    Rubines watched, unable to think of what to do, then she fell still. Her head lolled and her eyes gradually refocused, meeting Rubines'' concerned gaze with a vacant one that gradually sharpened.

    "She says you''re the one she was waiting for," Urimae whispered hoarsely. "We should hurry."

    Rubines felt a chill down his spine, but there was nothing else to do but continue to follow.

    Urimae led him through several more rooms and halls, then pointed to a pale grey door lit up from within in jagged lines of crimson light. "She waits for you there." She hung back, her eyes pleading.

    "I will do whatever I can," Rubines promised, knowing the words were empty even as he spoke them.

    Urimae nodded, then sat down against the wall opposite the door. "I''ll wait for you."

    Rubines pushed the door open and stepped into the dungeon''s core.

    Join me.

    The words slammed through Rubines''s mind like thunder on a clear day. He staggered with the force of it, the mental voice tearing through his shredded mental defences as he was assaulted for the third time in less than a week. He felt the presence withdraw a moment later just as he felt he would break from the strain. Instinctively he knew that it had taken something from him in the brief exchange, though he could not guess what.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Who are you?" His voice sounded weak and uncertain even to himself.

    I am Ninate Forseven. Serve me and you will live.

    Rubines looked up, his vision blurred by the force of the words echoing and resounding within him. This time, instead of taking from him, it pushed something into him. Memories, knowledge, information. Scraps of a foreign language.

    And beneath it all, a burning hunger, a drive to consume and grow and conquer and fight and prove once and for all who was the strongest daughter and deserved to rule this new world.

    He felt that same desire echoing in himself. It would be so easy to forget the stupid council and their lies, forget Delarin and his unreasonable demands.

    I can give you power like nothing you''d imagine.

    This being was more like a god than like an elf. A god offering Rubines power and safety and guidance.

    He didn''t need to go through all this.

    What were the chances Delarin''s scheme would even work? No one created a whole new planet. Delarin had always been ambitious, always overestimated himself. Rubines let himself get swept up in yet another of his schemes, too desperate to even stop and think whether it was even possible.

    Join me and live.

    Rubines felt his resolve crumbling. The visions that accompanied the words promised life and a future. To become part of something greater than himself, to follow someone whose goals he understood intimately and perfectly.

    Not freedom, but everyone ultimately served someone. He wouldn''t be free whatever he chose. His only choice was which master he wanted.

    Something tugged at his wrist, but the sensations and impressions pouring into him were overpowering.

    COME.

    Rubines crawled forward to the center of the room where a single tile lay slightly off center. He shoved it out of the way, revealing the pulsing crystal dungeon heart beneath. Wide like a plate but as thick as his fist, the faceted gem glowed crimson in bloody reflection of its mother the Dungeon Queen far above.

    Become mine...

    Rubines reached out a hand, hovering above the crystal. All he needed to do was assent, and he could leave his troubles behind. Forget the world that rejected him.

    He very nearly agreed.

    But...

    "I already have a master," Rubines spoke softly, yet the dungeon''s whispers of promise broke apart and fled before the deep surety in his quiet voice. "My soul is spoken for."

    In a single quick motion, he drew the silver nail free and stabbed it into the dungeon''s heart.

    The ground screamed and shuddered, the very stone twisting and warping around them as the pulsing beat of the crystal heart flickered frantically.

    Rubines grabbed the crystal, tugging with both hands to drag it from where it rested. For a moment it shifted, but then it settled, bound to the stone and he could not pull it free.

    He slammed his fist on the nail, driving it further in, and as the crystal shuddered he yanked it free of the stone before it could regain its grip.

    The earth bucked and twisted. Rubines clutched the dungeon heart to his chest and ran blindly as the dungeon collapsed around him.

    Following the flickering echo of a phantom silver thread, he ran.

    Ignoring the screams of panic and the roars of beasts, he ran.

    Leaving Urimae and the other prisoners behind, he ran.

    <hr>

 Part Ten: Risking These Charges

    Poro Aetherwilde led three thousand refugees through the forest toward the passage Rubines Highfait had described. He felt the nearness of the Shadowdell as an almost physical weight, a pressure he knew was only his imagination. But the nearness of The Shadowcalled was the greatest argument for this passage''s security.

    Even dungeons feared The Shadowcalled.

    It made perfect sense for the only secure and previously unknown passage to be hidden in the lee of Shadowdell. And it made Poro''s skin crawl.

    He found the entrance, marked as Rubines had indicated.

    "Wait here," he told his escort. "I will return if the passage is safe."

    They nodded and began organizing the first arrivals, many of whom would be grateful for a rest after their trek. Most carried their possessions on their backs or dragged simple carts. A few nobles had golems or thralls with them to carry more, but most had no such aid.

    Poro advanced alone, following the single thread of gleaming silver that showed the way.

    When he reached the passage, he knew at once that they''d been deceived.

    This was no naturally occurring passage. Dragonfire and moonsilver glowed in intricate patterns, a swirling vortex of power shaped and guided by elven hands. Above, the stone had been rent asunder to provide clear access to the sky. The Dungeon Queen gleamed distantly as she passed across the sky like a crimson diamond, eclipsing the moon.

    "What is this?" Poro asked, and his voice trembled.

    Beyond the active passage a thousand tendrils of silver, thin as threads, stretched out from the passage and dove into the earth. Looking deeper, Poro saw that they reached out beyond the limits of his sight in all directions, but they also stretched down far beneath their feet, binding their way through the heart of the planet.

    "Oh, Rubines, this is not your work." Poro whispered. ¡°What have you done?¡±

    It was not hard to put together the pieces. Now that he saw the construction, it could be no one else.

    ¡°Your plan was too limited in scope." The Shadowcalled stepped out from the shadow, tainted moonlight glinting from the spirals on his chest, blackness wrapped around him like a cloak. "There is no future for our people here. The Undercaverns? The dungeons love the darkness and the earth as much as they love to consume all in their path. You would be only leading your people into a trap.¡±

    Poro trembled with dread that went beyond anything he¡¯d felt before. ¡°What have you done?¡± he asked again. ¡°And where is Councilor Highfait?¡±

    "Rubines is being transformed. He won''t be coming until the end." The Shadowcalled raised a hand, dropping a single silver link into the swirling vortex, and the passage settled and snapped into place, a flat silver mirror that reflected nothing. "You have eight hours to evacuate as many as you can. That is the best I can do."

    "Where will you send them?" Poro asked hoarsely. "If not the Undercaverns, where?"

    ¡°Someplace beyond the reach of even the Dungeon Queen.¡± The madman raised his head and shook his fist at the crimson orb in the sky as he raised his voice to a roar of challenge. ¡°You hear that, your majesty? We will go where you cannot reach! Your children have consumed all they can, and you will watch as they are torn down to dust in our wake!¡±

    Poro flinched as the world itself trembled. Stone shifted, rocks clattered, dust vibrated into the air. In the distance, trees cracked and crashed to the ground.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± he hissed. ¡°You mustn¡¯t provoke her, she¡¯ll destroy us all!¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± The Shadowcalled cackled madly. ¡°That is the point! Don¡¯t you see? Up there, she¡¯s immune. She watches us, content to leave our subjugation to her children. Content to let them bind and enslave and consume us until we are her thralls forever. But not I!¡±

    He turned to Poro, his grin unsettling. "If you plan to evacuate, get going. If you''re not coming, I don''t care. I promised Rubines I''d save as many as I can. If that''s just him and me, I won''t be troubled by it."

    Poro turned and sprinted back to where he''d left his people. He had a choice to make.

    The Shadowcalled might be doing this all to trick them. But Rubines had been right in his arguments. Resistance would be no use against the dungeons.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    He reached the entrance, and realized his choice had already been made. When it came right down to it, he trusted Rubines''s judgment more than he trusted the Dungeon Queen to be merciful.

    "The passage is clear," Poro announced, "but it won''t hold stable for long. We need to start moving people through now."

    Those resting nearby grabbed their possessions and began filing into the tunnel. Eight hours. It wouldn''t be enough.

    "Hurry!"

    <hr>

    Rubines woke slowly, the past day a haze of uncertainty and frantic movement as he ran blindly across the unfamiliar terrain, cutting straight back to Delarin from wherever the dungeon had been, the dungeon''s heart clutched to his chest.

    It was still there, pulsing red with his heartbeat. He tried to shove it off, but it stuck, tugging at his chest. The pulse skipped, racing with his heart as he staggered to his feet. The crystal remained, fused to his chest, half embedded. A silver thread led from the dungeon heart and down a side tunnel.

    Following the line of silver, Rubines made his way down the tunnel. Thousands of silver threads trailed away in every direction. Some dove into the ground, others ran along the walls toward the ceiling; all pulsed with moonlight glow tainted by streaks of bloodred light. Much like the pulses of light coming from the crystal that had somehow fused with him, racing away down the silver thread.

    When he reached the passage, he saw it had activated fully, blocking the tunnel completely. He couldn''t see past it, but heard the quiet murmur of voices and the hasty footsteps of the refugees.

    Rubines sagged against the wall in relief. Delarin had kept his side of the agreement.

    "Thank you," he murmured.

    "I couldn''t have done it without you."

    Rubines jumped and spun, startled.

    Delarin stood in the darkness, wearing an intricate black armor that blended almost seamlessly with the dark stone around them. He gestured beside him. "I have one for you."

    "What is it?" Rubines approached.

    "Protection. The new world isn''t done, so it won''t be like here. This will keep us safe so we can breathe the air, survive the temperatures, and all the rest."

    "Do you have them for everyone?"

    "No. I''ve built in some shields for the passage, but I bet only one in ten will survive the trip. It''s the best I could do with the time and materials we had."

    "One in ten." Rubines put a hand to his chest, then felt the foreign crystal embedded into it and remembered his other reason for coming. "What happened to me?"

    Delarin frowned. "I don''t know. We''ll figure it out. But it worked." He gestured to the silver thread connecting Rubines to the passage, and the countless others spreading out from it in all directions.

    ¡°What does it do?¡±

    ¡°The same thing they are trying to do to us.¡± Delarin grinned and gestured to the silver lines running through the world. ¡°These threads are bound with a greater casting of seeking. They are not simply drawing power from moonlight, or from the heart of the world. They draw it from the cores of our invaders." He tapped the dungeon heart on Rubines''s chest. "This shows them what to search out. It took three days, but now each thread is connected to a dungeon¡¯s heart, and draws on their power to fuel our escape. Every dungeon on the planet.¡±

    The earth trembled and shook. Rubines looked up.

    "Is the Dungeon Queen... coming closer?" The crimson crystal circling their sky ever since it consumed the sun had always been distant, nearer and smaller than the moons, but now it loomed vast and gleaming, filling the visible sky beyond the crevice.

    Stones rumbled and dust fell. Rubin heard the sounds of evacuation turn to shouts of panic.

    The red glow of the Dungeon Queen shone brighter and more concentrated, the unthinkably massive orb in the sky descending toward them like the glowing fist of an angry god.

    ¡°She¡¯s coming for vengeance,¡± Delarin said gleefully. ¡°She''s not happy that I''m eating her children.¡±

    "You''ve doomed us all?"

    ¡°No, I haven¡¯t! That¡¯s the beauty of it. You were all doomed already. The moment her first accursed seed touched our earth, this world was lost. But I!¡± Delarin laughed, mirthful and vengeful. ¡°I have found a way out. The only way out. And I¡¯m going to give her a parting gift like no one ever has dared to.¡±

    "What are you planning?"

    ¡°To build a new world is not easy. The power required would drain a planet dry and burn it to ashes before the task was accomplished. Even I would not go so far without dire need. Your Council may think I have no conscience, that I¡¯m lost to madness, but you know not the true brink from which I dragged myself back. If I sought vengeance, this world would have burned long ago. The only vengeance I seek now is against her.¡± Delarin held out a hand. "Come, I will show you what we have wrought."

    They climbed up a staircase of silver light that built itself before Delarin''s feet, the sheer mastery of the archaen humbling Rubines yet again at his old friend''s genius. Then they stood above the ravine that had formed when the tunnel collapsed at some point in the hours before Rubines awoke.

    Refugees hurried through the cleft toward the passage, a passage they didn''t know would kill 90% of them. But to remain was an even more certain doom and so Rubines set his heart and said nothing.

    Above, the Dungeon Queen loomed nearer still, blotting out half the sky, the gleam of her faceted form visible from where the two elves stood. The tremors in the earth grew ever more tumultuous. Refugees below screamed as chunks of stone fell among them, but still they ran for the passage that glowed open and inviting.

    ¡°If the new world isn''t ready, where are you sending them?¡±

    ¡°To the new world. They will be changed, of necessity. We will no longer be children of the sun and the moons and the stars, but children of the void. Right now, they enter a small fragment of that new world. But soon...¡± Delarin raised his hands, and silver threads twisted upward from the ground like trees unfurling leaves in spring, extending straight up from every patch of earth within sight. Thousands, millions, the threads so thin they could barely be seen but for the moonlight gleam as they sucked in its light to fuel the passage still glowing below. ¡°To create the new world, the old will be consumed. But even that is not enough. We need more.¡±

    ¡°The Dungeon Queen,¡± Rubines realized, putting the pieces together. ¡°You¡¯re planning to drain the Dungeon Queen herself.¡±

    Delarin grinned. "And it''s too late for her to stop herself from falling right into my trap."

    <hr>

 Part Eleven: What Future We Have Bought

    ¡°She comes to avenge her children. Do you feel their screams?"

    The world trembled, and Rubines felt the fear resonating through the dungeon heart in his chest.

    "She cannot help it. She knows I am killing them. Every thread you see reaching here has drawn on a dungeon¡¯s heart until it beats no more.¡±

    The ground shook. More threads rose up to join the reaching host. They were taller than the tallest trees now, extending ever upward. The Dungeon Queen descended, washing the land in a crimson light that promised death.

    ¡°And you''re sure she won''t realize it¡¯s a trap?¡±

    ¡°None knows the true depths of magic like me. She could devour the world whole and still my knowledge would surpass hers. Would you ever have conceived of this? If I described this scene to you, would you imagine it to be capable of snaring one as ancient and powerful as her?¡±

    ¡°If it were so easy to destroy the dungeons, why didn¡¯t you do so sooner? Why not simply drain them all and let us remain? Why go so far as to destroy the world?¡±

    ¡°Easy? You think what I have done is easy?¡± Delarin laughed, and now Rubines could hear the madness in it clearly, the mania that lurked beneath the surface finally unleashed to the fullest. ¡°I have labored for weeks unceasing. The souls of a thousand elves wouldn''t scratch the surface of what I''ve built here."

    The crimson gem descended, and uncountable silver threads rose up to meet it.

    Then they touched. Power met power and fused together. Rubines felt the impact in his chest, the gem he carried flickering and fading before it shattered apart and fell away. The shockwave of the impact above flattened the trees, slamming refugees to the ground and rustling Delarin''s hair even through the layers of protective barriers.

    "It is done!" Delarin exulted, raising both hands to the sky, his face alight with the clash of blue and crimson light. "Now, my world will be born! Come!"

    He took Rubines by the hand, then jumped from the edge of the ravine, dragging them both down and into the passage. A moment of disorientation, then Rubines stood in clear sunlight, a stark contrast to the grim view through the passage, where the world''s finale burned in crimson light.

    The dungeon queen''s steady glow flickered as pulses of light raced into the passage, her power drawn away through a thousand tiny threads. Then it was too much.

    Cracks began to run along the flawless gemstone surface. For a moment she hovered there, her pulse dimming as she strained against the silver light that sought to consume her.

    Then the Dungeon Queen shattered, raining fragments of crystal across the flattened forest, each trailing an inert silver thread.

    Beneath, the world trembled and cracked. Rifts ran along the line of each silver line as, suddenly unbound, they tore the planet apart. The remaining refugees were crushed or fell into the abyss that opened beneath them, the passage shrinking and twisting as the world around it crumbled.

    The landscape of their old world split asunder.

    Fragments of the shattered Dungeon Queen fell from the sky and fire rose from the ground. Moonlight power crackled across the planet¡¯s surface as the passage drifted away, trailing the fading threads that had fueled it as they drew what little power remained in the corpse of a dying world.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    For a few minutes longer the passage lingered, drifting in the void as the planet receded from it. Two elves stood and watched the world of their birth burn in silver fire until it splintered too far, stone and flame finally quenched in the cold of the void, shattering its remnants to dust.

    Then the last lingering power in the passage faded completely, cutting off Rubines¡¯ view of the thick ashen cloud that was the only remnant of his homeworld.

    That image would never leave him.

    Their world was gone.

    But it had taken the Dungeon Queen and her wretched offspring with it.

    Delarin Shadowcalled had been as good as his word. One day of evacuation, as many elves saved as could be convinced to take the passage and managed to survive the transition. The rest sacrificed to necessity.

    Of the tens of thousands of elves in the city, only Poro''s three thousand forest elves had even attempted to escape; of those thousands, hundreds were gasping for breath, unable to adapt to the alien world Delarin had created for them. Hundreds more were already gone, unmoving and blank-eyed.

    Rubines could do nothing for them. He was no healer, and he¡¯d sworn to stand by Delarin¡¯s side. The price would weigh long on his soul, Rubines knew, as he tried to convince himself there had been no other choice.

    But hundreds also stood, blinking in sunlight untainted by death, staring at their new home with uncertainty and hope. His sacrifices had not been in vain. He tried to force himself to believe it.

    ¡°Ours was not the first world she has seeded with her vile spawn,¡± Delarin said, his voice low and serious. ¡°The source of the plague may be gone, but there are more worlds where her children consume all they touch. If left to themselves, another Queen will rise and the destruction will spread anew.¡±

    Rubines turned to him, too weary and heartsick to reply. He¡¯d made his promises and would not break them. Whatever Delarin commanded, he would do. That was all that remained to him. A promise to fulfill, a price to be paid.

    He could do nothing for his people now, what fragile few remained. It would be up to them to build their new lives. Rubines had other obligations.

    Delarin¡¯s eyes burned with passionate amethyst flame. ¡°If I¡¯m to protect my new world, there must be no remnant of her kind. We will find them all, wherever they hide, until none remains. Together, we will wipe the heavens clean of her legacy, and build a new future for our people from the ashes of their destruction.¡±

    Something stirred in Rubines¡¯ dead and ashen heart, a tiny spark to offset the despair and grief.

    A flicker of purpose.

    And a promise of vengeance.

    ¡°Together¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes. Together.¡±

    ¡°Why? After everything I did?¡±

    ¡°You denied me to my face, rejected me on the council, and stood by as the entire world turned against me. But through it all, your heart knew the truth. When you had nowhere else to turn you finally swallowed your damn pride and came back to me. Can I say as much of any other? You were the only one willing to do what needed doing and get me the tools to do all this. If not for you, my new world would be a tiny, lonely thing, not a new beginning for me but a slower end. If that¡¯s not worth forgiving someone over then what is?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I should never have doubted you. If you¡¯ll truly still have me, I will continue to stand at your side.¡± Rubines spoke haltingly at first, voice gaining strength as his heart sang to a new rhythm. ¡°In leaving our world, I have left behind who I was. I thought my life would end, but now I see it is only beginning. As token of my rebirth, I take the name Rubines Voidheart.¡±

    Delarin snorted. ¡°A bit dramatic, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt, this will be the first oath taken in our new world, I think it deserves some gravitas. And you took the name Shadowcalled so who are you to complain?¡±

    Delarin waved it away. ¡°I don¡¯t need your oath. You can consider yourself released. You''ve proven yourself well enough. I¡¯ll have you as my friend, not my slave.¡±

    For the first time in a very long time, Rubines smiled with genuine warmth, despite the deep sorrow that still burned his heart. ¡°That is why I give it.¡±

    He stood tall, facing across their strange new world, and raised his voice until it echoed from the sky.

    ¡°By the ashes of sun and moon and homeland, by the void with which I am reborn, I, Rubines Voidheart, swear my life to your purpose. Not of necessity, but in unity and hope.¡±

    Delarin waited for the echoes to fade before snorting a laugh. "I did say I''d teach you to burn the world. You done being dramatic yet?¡±

    Rubines sighed. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m done being dramatic.¡±

    ¡°Good. Then you can get to work.¡± Delarin Shadowcalled strode away from the empty arrival site and across the alien land of their new home.

    His friend followed.

    <hr>

    THE END

    <hr>

 Expansion Update

    I have expanded the original part 8 into two parts, parts 8 and 9.

    The content is largely the same, but it''s a bit less rushed and more detailed. If anyone''s interested. :) I know a few people were commenting on the original version, wanting it to be longer, so now it is.

    I think this''ll be the last update, anything else I could add would only take away from the clarity of the story rather than add to it.

    <hr>

    (Yes, I know this means I need to change the cover, but I''m way too tired to do it tonight. I''ve stayed up about five hours longer than I should have working on this already. Threw something random up, will adjust the proper one another day.)

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    <hr>

    Edit: COVERS! But now I can''t make up my mind.

    I do still feel attached to the old one, though. I might end up tweaking that one instead.

    <hr>

    Edit2: OLD COVER, adjusted, muahaha!

    <hr>

    Thanks for reading! If you like my writing, don''t forget to check out Re: System // Summoner! It''s a slow burn, very different from the frenetic pacing of Eclipse, so if you''d like more time to get to know characters and worlds, go check it out!