192 Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Two – Seeing Them Off (1/2)
The carnage and destruction wreaked upon Hardhelm Forging the next night was the talk of the capital.
Unlike earlier liberations of the dwarves, there was nothing subtle or mysterious about this. Overseers, slavemasters, and guards died in great numbers, many of them without any idea of what was happening as they did so. The facilities came crashing down, sublevels collapsed, and the whole area became a fiery hell of crushed stone, wrecked machinery, and dead strewn everywhere.
Up on the Sixth Circle, the great palatial estate of the Helmreich Family burned to the ground, taking with it centuries of their history and accumulated artworks. Most of the people got out alive, although the flames that enveloped the servant's quarters were so intense that only the finest ash was left behind, to say nothing of their indentured hyn and gnome servants. Even the deepest family vaults cracked, burned, charred, and collapsed under the inferno, and if a whole lot of the family treasury ended up missing, it was quite hard to tell amid all the destruction.
Of course, Grym, Feist, and Hazé could not be responsible for all of this, as they'd been seen riding the Wagon away from Zynozure early that morning, totally obvious and watched by many interested parties who'd had their suspicions.
Certain members of the temples of Sylune and Harse got drunk together on moonwine. It was also a scandal of sorts. And if the Tiirithar spread all sorts of rumors about what really went on in that burned manor and some of the things found there, well, it was really no surprise given all the other stuff that had been going on, was it?, nod, wink, nudge...
Errant waved his sister goodbye, knowing he'd be seeing them soon, and if her sisters were a bit depressed that they hadn't been able to discuss certain things with him more intimately, they sort of glanced at Hazé and the looks she sent after the silver-eyed young noble, and decided that holding their tongues might be rather wise.
The road to the North was thousands of miles long, their trip was not going to be completed shortly... and then there might... no, most certainly would be excitement along the way. But the Rift wouldn't be closing any time soon, so they had time... and if not, well, wasn't there a ruined city up there full of things to get excited about? Who better then they to delve old cursed ruins?
Errant returned to the city. There were millions of people here, and the corruption had come in very deeply, very secretly. The number of inhuman and supernatural forces that were working out of here was simply beyond what one person could handle... but that was fine. Given his skill, he was being led to the most challenging of assignments, and that would keep him busy in the interim.
And, of course, the assassination attempts every day or two were sources of constant amusement...
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Grym and Feist stepped off the Greater Seal Focus with Hazé, two Rockborn Priests moving immediately forward to receive them. Naturally, such elders of Dauerhamar recognized a returning Clanhammer, and if they were briefly surprised at the strength of his aura, they said nothing.
Seeing a hyn arriving, especially one with such a subtle and dangerous aura, was also a rarity, as the hyn weren't noted as an ambitious, power-seeking people, even here in the North. Their gardens fed a good portion of the dwarven kingdom, protected by the spears of the armies of Dauerhamar, but their own martial tradition was largely limited to skilled hunters and trappers. A native of the Hove like Feist was truly surprising.
Hazé, of course, was welcomed as the honored Starsister and Archtheurge of Sylune that she was. She had brought many dwarves, gnomes, and hyn to freedom here, many of whom chose to stay in the kingdom, and the others were slowly and carefully making their ways back to their native realms, where doubtless her name would be spread further... as would all sorts of foul opinions of the Rosencrux Empire.
Alas, she could not stay long, nor could Feist and Grym. The news of a Rift to the Warp rippled through Dauerhamar, and the most adventurous of young Rockborn and Hyn signed up with the Shadow Stalker and Clanhammer of their people who had signaled their intent to bring the battle to the coming enemy, afore the battle came to them. Given the reputations they'd made by freeing so many of their races from servitude and slavery, this was not unexpected, and their words were taken seriously.
Hazé waited until midnight to go through Renewal and regain her magic, as Valence V's were required to Teleport, and it took two of them to reach the Kalden lands, even with a Great Seal there to receive her.
She had not completed any running of her lived-line to the north or east of the Sidhete, or through the Giantback Mountains that bordered Kaldenheim to the east, something she promised herself to do in the future. Running around the great forest to link up with the Wagon would require weeks, given the distance, and with the length of the trek to the North, she was unwilling to leave the girls on their own for so long, especially given their proclivity for finding trouble.
Grym and Feist saw her off as she disappeared in a swirl of silver, watched also by hundreds of those she had rescued from bondage. While her grace had not wiped away the hatred for those of the Empire in their eyes, it had at least softened their stances on all humans being devils.
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Honus Hardhelm was the patriarch of a Ducal family, a cold and hard man whose clan had supplied the Empire and its many legions with arms and armor for centuries. The war against the dwarves of the Kahlete Mountains had been partly instigated by his family, at once getting rid of a major competitor for his wares, and the slavery rules for prisoners of war ensuring that he could get a skilled workforce to increase his production.
He had sponsored slaving raids into the mountains for decades, always interested in acquiring more dwarven slaves, and if that meant kidnapping and enslaving dwarven travelers and merchants from clans not in the Kahletes, well, that was business.
The burning down of his business and home, and the vanishing of his slaves enraged him... moreso when his vaults were finally dug out and the wealth within them was gone, or melted or crushed into unusable slag and dust.
Still, the coffers of the family were deep and immense after so many centuries, and he had other foundries and smithworks that were unaffected by this debacle. Rebuilding his family's manor would also allow him to put his personal stamp on their home for centuries, and he was actually looking forward to it, as the architecture had been centuries out of style.
He was certainly not expecting to be beheaded in the night by a glowing sword that sent him off to Hell, where he would learn what it meant to be the lowest thing on the totem pole personally. With him went every adult male member of the lineage in the city, and several of the women. No one saw the silver eyes of the Warlock who saw them all off to their final lack of a reward. In the power struggles within the family that rapidly erupted for control of their enterprises and the controlling seat, who actually killed them all was a minor detail that ended up being blamed on several of the ambitious heirs who tried repeats of the deed on one another, to varying degrees of success.
After all, being tenth in line to the Ducal title suddenly becoming top three was not something they could pass up on...
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Several days later...
Hazé opened her eyes in some shock as she came out of Renewal.