All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 186: Better Judgment

They were a few hundred paces outside of the Lieutenant’s prison when Harold and Amy stopped to catch their breath. Amazingly, nothing had happened. The two of them locked eyes as they panted, adrenaline spiked.

"What was that?" Amy demanded as she pulled hair from her face.

Harold frowned as he looked down at his fingers. He touched a small knife at his hip. "The cage held no power."

The blood drained from Amy's face. "You mean…"

"Yes, I imagine we will find the rest of the bindings inoperable as well." Harold said in a grim voice. They weren't dead yet, so he hadn't yet given into despair. But with a realization like that… Well, he couldn’t be blamed for being cautious. Steeling himself, Harold began to turn around before he was stopped by a tight grip on his sleeve.

"What are you doing?" Amy hissed at him.

"Wait here," Harold said, reading the fear on her face. She wasn’t ready. Not for something like this. He couldn’t force her to confront an ancient evil, this kind of danger. He wasn't happy about going back in, either, though. If the Warden hadn’t made it perfectly clear that he wouldn’t be permitted back without a full and exhaustive report, he would have already been far down the road to the next down, drafting a missive for the man. "If I'm not back soon… send the findings back home."

"You can't be serious. Why do you need to go back there? It could get out at any moment!" Amy said, ignoring his words.

"We need to know how long we have. Besides, with its power suppressed, there might be something I can find that will give us the nature of its power." Harold paused, not wanting to voice this part out loud lest the gods curse him. "And if Deus Vault is with us... maybe we can rebind it."

Amy nodded slowly, but didn't let go of his sleeve as she started walking back to the hidden entrance. This time, it was him holding her back. "I’m serious. We need to get the word back."

"No report from this stop will tell them as much as we know now. It's worth getting the extra information instead of sending two separate messages." She looked back at him. "Besides, I'm not going to let you face this alone."

Harold sighed and supposed that she sorta had a point. He didn’t want to face it alone either and they weren’t dead yet. Together they hurried back into the chamber, not wanting to stretch this out any more than they had to. Inside, nothing had changed, neither to the eye nor to any magic detection abilities either had.

Examining the rings of ritual wards around the cage showed that they, too, were inactive. Eventually, Harold started to mutter incantations over handfuls of ingredients. After a few minutes, the powder started to glow. With a gentle yet steady breath, he blew into his cupped hands. With swirls and eddies, the dust moved through the unnaturally still air of the cavern.

The two of them watched in silence until the glow suffused the entire room. Nothing happened for nine heartbeats. Then, without warning, the scene changed all around them. Amy and Harold started slack-jawed, spinning in a circle as they tried to comprehend their new surroundings.

The walls and ceiling were the same, but that was where the similarities ended. The cage that had seemed intact was revealed to be shattered and torn, only the barest of pieces still standing; most of it was scattered around the room haphazardly. The runic circles were broken in places, and as Harold looked closer, each individual rune was cracked as well. He squatted down and ran a finger over the engraved surfaces; the rough texture rasped against his skin, so different from the smooth continuity he had felt before.

"How?" Amy whispered as she walked up to the broken cage. Laying a finger on it, she jerked her hand back with a hiss. "It's blazing hot! How did you touch it before?"

"Does the cage radiate heat?" He asked. She held her hand near the metal that burned her.

"No, it doesn't." She mused, "If the heat’s stuck inside, then who knows how long ago it was broken. But my question still stands. How did you touch it?"

"Illusions. It was all an illusion." Harold muttered, still examining the shattered runes. Mindlessly he rubbed the finger he had used to check the cage before on his robe.

"But what kind of illusion can confound touch?"

"Maraj'ain." Harold whispered "It must be. The mistress of mirrors."

—

Bee and Mary shared a cup of tea in the older woman's office. Each of them was exhausted, and both had deep bags under their eyes. It had been a long couple of days, but everyone was finally settled in. And they both were about to pass out. Yet there were a few more things they needed to talk about.

"Are you sure we don't need more space? I really think we can tidy up some of the old side passage rooms in the catacombs and maybe set people up there."

For what must have been the umpteenth time, Mary simply sipped her tea and closed her eyes. Then she responded. "Yeah, for now. We should be good. If anyone does complain again, though, I won't hesitate to tell them about your offer and let them have that choice. I doubt anyone would want to go sleep in the catacombs if they didn't have to."

"Well, it's not exactly the catacombs part. It's below the catacombs. And there is a large system of rooms where it appears people used to live. I bet it was some shelter or something from ages long past." Bee repeated, hashing out the same old argument. Mary stared at her levelly, and Bee gave up, shrugging.

As long as she didn't have to share her bed and everyone else was happy, she was fine with it. Now she just needed to figure out how to get everyone off her back.

The number of people who needed her attention was insane. It was even worse than when they were in the caravan. Even though, from her estimation, their needs didn't require her input at all.

Perhaps it was because everyone had more energy now, but they constantly wanted her thoughts on everything. She was doing her best to pawn them off on Tony, Trent, Susan, Captain Major, and Mary. But that still took time.

Susan suggested that she set up a span of time to hear people's troubles and give audiences. Something similar to office hours, like some of the mages had done for their apprentices. But Bee wasn't really comfortable with that yet, especially since Susan had originally called it holding court. The idea just felt wrong. Perhaps Bee would figure out some better version of sectioning off her time.

There were still so many other demands vying for every minute of her day. She was still giving her daily lessons in the library to those who wished to come, though that was starting to overflow. People had to stand by the door just to hear her speak, as many of the newcomers had wanted to hear about the tales of her and Void or the lessons she had begun to disseminate on their journey.

On top of that, the Nighty Knights wanted attention, training, and advice with their skills too. That was high up on the list. And then Miranda needed more training. Well, she had been effective so far, but she needed another big project to keep growing. There was still so much for her to learn, and her reading was not nearly as good as Bee would've liked it to be. Especially not good enough for her to read some of the more dense tomes herself.

Bee groaned, rubbing her face. "Where do you find the time for everything you do, Mary?"

The woman smiled. "I don't. You get used to it. Once you're a mother, you'll understand."

***

Bee walked down the grand hall of the castle, doing her best to ignore the stares of all the people assembled. As she walked, her thoughts churned, frantically going over everything she had written down last night.

Stage fright wasn't something she had ever really encountered before. The audiences in the library were small, by the necessity of space constants. Even when they had grown, most had to sit outside and listen to her from out of her sight. That meant she hadn’t really been more intimidated by a larger crowd. But this? This time it was different. Nearly a thousand people had gathered in the grand hall this morning. Even as densely packed as they were, they barely fit.

Fiddling with the vial that Maranda had given her a few minutes earlier, Bee debated if she should take it. While it was certainly a thoughtful gift, she wasn't sure how much she trusted it. Maranda was still learning, after all, and Bee hadn't been there to supervise her apprentice while she was making a new concoction.

That wasn't to say that Bee didn't think it would be valuable. The potion of voice enhancement would be very useful, and she wished that she had thought of it herself. It should be safe too. The recipe was rather simple, and none of the ingredients were particularly dangerous. Even if Marnada had messed something up, Bee should be fine, if a little embarrassed.

Before she could second guess her apprentice any more, she tipped the vial back and swiftly swallowed the potion. When she reached the front of the hall, Bee ascended the small ramp to the dais that had been set up earlier this morning. Stepping up to the podium, she set a few of her notes down and shuffled them around. With a count to three, she forced herself to look up and stare out over the crowd. She could only hope that they couldn't sense her nervousness.

"Children of Void." Bee called out into the hall, wincing slightly at the volume. Her words echoed with such force that even those in the back had no problem hearing, though those at the front seemed a bit shocked. The potion was working just fine. Lowering her volume a touch, she repeated herself. "Children of Void, welcome."

A murmuring response filled the hall. Bee swallowed before launching into the lecture. Since this was the first time many of these people had attended one of her lessons, she stuck to the basics. To start off, she did a small reading from the sermon on the mound, making sure to stop and give context when she felt it was necessary.

To many, this was all completely new, and she saw many faces don considering looks as she spoke. After the reading, Bee launched into the story of her first encounter with Void. They wouldn't have much more time for anything else today, but that was okay. She had several more lectures planned to tell the rest of the stories and reiterate the lessons Void had given her about the system and about life in general.

Bee almost stumbled in her speech as the system sent her a message. One she had been waiting for for a very long time.

CONGRATULATIONS, LEVEL 50 REACHED! YOU HAVE UNLOCKED YOUR THIRD CLASS. MAKE A CHOICE: HERETIC, HIGH PRIESTESS OF SPOT, COMPANION OF SPOT

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