Chapter One Hundred Thirty Nine - 139Unfettered Volition is level 19!
Less than a minute later, they arrived at a tangled intersection of tunnels, at least thirteen by Felix's count. Most were not large enough for a Human to walk down, but there were at least five that were. Water spilled into the intersection from some of the southern passages, pooling just long enough to stink before they sluggishly shifted to the north. The sound was like thick mud splatting into a bog, loud and intermittent, but was not enough to cover the distinct clatter of metal on metal.
Of pained cries.
Felix shared a cautious glance with the others as he and Harn both leaned outward, attempting to stay flush with the tunnel wall. They had lucked out and were about twenty feet up from the ground, out of direct line of sight from those below. Magelights had been tossed about the room, steady orbs that lent an even lighting to most of the area. The floor of the intersection was uneven stone and dark sediment, segmented by several streams of thick sludge, and atop it all was rank upon rank of redcloaks. Felix counted thirty of them, three Initiates leading squads of nine Acolytes each. He passed that onto Harn with the only handsign he'd picked up.
he signed. Harn smirked but nodded.
Apart from the intimidating number of Inquisition members, there was the source of the whimpering cries. Sixty-five men and women were chained up together in the center of the redcloaks. Felix picked out their faces, quickly matching them against his memories of the crowds at the gathering.
"Next group!"
A squat Initiate hollered from the far end of the chamber, the same direction Felix was feeling the greatest concentration of that pulsing heat. The Nym's eyes were drawn toward the man, and like iron to a magnet, snapped onto what stood beyond him. There was an enormous fissure in the stonework, a gaping crevasse that exuded a sense of foul power. It was a familiar dissonance that chewed on the ends of his nerves. It looked solid, but quivering, like rock turned to flesh turned to jello. As he watched, what was clearly the Domain entrance rippled and...breathed. Felix could see a steady exhalation of dark fumes, Mana vapor that was fouled with a familiar stain.
The Maw's corrupted touch, he grimaced. Now that they were so close, Felix could feel his core flare in tempo with the Domain, almost like it was syncing up. What have you done now, monster?
There was only silence from his unwilling passenger.
Now that he was looking at it, Felix noticed that the area closest to the Domain was tinged a slight red and covered in a creeping moss. Small plants sprouted here and there, each rigid stalk permeated by the same twisted sense of power in miniature. It was as if the Domain was...spreading.
Is that normal? Or is the shell failing already? Felix clenched his jaw.
People began moving. The Acolytes, faces covered by their sallet helms, yanked on the heavy chains. Several Haarwatch citizens were pulled off their feet with startled yelps.
"Stand up, dogs!" snarled an Acolyte. "Time to answer for your sins."
"No!" wailed a rotund Dwarf, his shoulders thick with muscle. "Ye'll not be doin' this!"
The Dwarf yanked back against the chains, but couldn't best the Acolyte's Strength. The redcloak simply hauled on the chain, towing the Dwarf (and the four others connected to him) forward. With a grunt, the Acolyte punched the struggling Dwarf across the jaw, the sound cracking through the tunnels. A meaty crunch. The Dwarf fell limp.
"Any else got something to say?" A nearby Initiate demanded, and his body briefly lit up with an orange glow.
Only whimpering and heavy breathing could be heard.
Felix clenched his jaw, trying to figure out how to do this. The redcloaks were clearly already throwing people into the Domain. The Haarwatchers were chained up in groups of five, their shackles linked by heavy chains that an Untempered Human would likely have trouble moving alone. A few even had metal collars, for some reason. Three Acolytes moved forward, lifting the unconscious Dwarf and pulling the rest along. Up toward the Domain.
Felix pulled back from the opening and whispered at Harn. "We gotta do something. Fast."
"The Domain. There is another entrance." Harn muttered.
"You weren't sure?" Felix gaped at the man, but he only shrugged.
"Language is tricky. I ain't built for it. Coulda swung either way, ya know?" Harn tilted his head back. "C'mon."
Felix gave a frustrated glance back at the opening, before they both crept backward toward the others. Felix gave them a quick rundown of what he had seen.
"They're relaxed, not expectin' resistance," Harn pointed out. He cracked his own neck. "We could take em out."
"You think?" Evie asked, startled. "Thirty redcloaks against four of us?"
"They're not waiting," Felix hissed. "They're gonna try and burst the Domain as soon as possible. And who knows what is happening to the people thrown in."
"Monsters'll kill em soon enough," Harn said softly. "Haarwatch's Domain's too much for anyone below Apprentice Tier. We wanna save em? We move now."
"We barely handled one Initiate before," Vess pointed out. "What's different now?"
"I got my full Formation, Vess. And we got Harn and Felix. We can take em," Evie stated, giving them a shaky smile. Felix could feel her emotions wobble between confidence and fear, an echo of his own. "We gotta, right?"
Felix looked at them, meeting each of their eyes. Fear was there, yes, but so was conviction. They were all in.
"I've...got a plan," Felix said, and started etching a diagram in the muck of the tunnel.
As the next group was pulled up the slight incline toward the Domain, Rafny tried to fight off another wave of hopeless dread. She had been struggling against it all day, escalating from panic when the redcloaks burst into the gathering to darkest fear as they'd been rounded up and forced into armored wagons. They'd been left in those stifling boxes for hours, ringed by Acolytes with enchanted pikes. Then they moved again, and this time when Rafny saw light it was morning and she was being dragged back into the sewers.
Burn you Elle, Rafny thought without heat. Why're you always right?
Eldrunna hadn't wanted Rafny to attend the gathering, but with Heva so dead-set the weaponsmith couldn't bear to let her go alone. The Hobgoblin was younger than Rafny by a decade, despite looking older, and the gruff Dwarf always had a soft spot for her. Not to mention that if something happened, her daughter Mahria would never let Rafny hear the end of it. Oveh, she...well, she needed looking after ever since the attack. She hadn't handled the loss of her husband and home very well.
Someone yanked on the chains, and Rafny winced. Her arms and wrists were bruised where the manacles cut into her, so heavy that even though she had above average Strength it was still difficult to move. She watched with horror as another group was dragged above, the dread shifting toward sparking hate as an Acolyte casually slapped of them. Rafny had figured they were being led down here to die, but she hadn't imagined this.
"They're taking them, oh gods, they're taking them too," Oveh whispered. Her face was covered in muck, just as all of them were, her hands over her mouth merely spreading more of the sewer's filth over herself.
Heva gently put an arm against Oveh's, the nearest she could manage to a hug with their chains. Rafny could almost see the weight bowing her shoulders. "Rafny, what can we do? We won't survive the Domain!"
"Hold fast, I'll--I'll think of something," the Dwarf promised. "We just need an opportunity."
Yet the weaponsmith had no ideas. The Domain was entirely too strong for the Untempered, and she might only survive a few moments longer, chained as she was. If she could access her Skills then...but the collars cut her off from her powers. Rafny was the highest leveled person it the room, save for the Initiates, though there were perhaps one or two other fighters mixed in. All of them had been collared though. If she could get the key from one of the Initiates, then perhaps they'd have a chance, but their group was firmly in the center of the prisoners. She had no clear shot.
Blighted redcloaks! Siva, please, if you still look down upon us. Send us your aid. Rafny wasn't much for praying, but she'd been raised on the old gods by her traditionalist parents. In the face of greatest adversity, she knew of only two solutions they'd approve. Fight or pray. Someone ahead moved up, and she grimaced as the manacles ground against her wrists again.
For now, praying was all she could do.
A sound to her left drew Rafny from her dark thoughts. It was metallic and resonant, echoing from the darkness of one of the several tunnels that fed into the intersection. Shorter than most present, she could only see it throught he gaps in the crowd. Three Acolytes, the nearest to the passage, turned and drew their weapons.
"Sirs! We have contact to the south!" An Acolyte reported to the Initiates. Rafny saw two of them straighten up from across the chamber.
"Who walks before the Inviolate Order?" Another Acolyte barked. "Name yourself!"
No words. Just steady steps in the darkness, coming ever closer. The Acolytes huddled nearer one another, perhaps instinctively as the sound grew louder.
And then there was light.
Two pale, silver flames appeared, each wrapped around the length of twin metallic axes. The fire cast upon a figure wearing a set of full plate armor, complete with boots and full helm. It was the frog's mouth helm, in fact, that Rafny recognized. That and the axes.
Onslaught? Here? She nearly gasped at the hope that bloomed in her breast. Why?
"Come no further, or you will be held accountable for crimes against the legal authority of the Inviolate Order!" The lead Acolytes spat, his short sword coming to his grip even as his shoulders quaked with obvious fear. The man did not stop, and instead swirled his twin axes like a Kivatii fire dancer. "Halt!"