*Before…

“Oh so we’re here?”

“Aye, we be at Roran’s hold.”

“I’m still lost.”

“Tis be a gate fortress Christiana, one meant fer trading and such but every gateway into Asguard be defended and guarded.”

“Why so much?”

“Dwarves have long memories and they have much in goods and lore and after all that has happened throughout time they’ll defend what’s theirs.”

“They can’t have that many enemies right?”

“Aye well right now they’ll have all the forces stacked against ye plus any others that think they would be wanting that of others.”

I nod and well honestly things are dire and he does have a point.

There’s this grating boom sound and I can hear chains, large chains moving and there’s a vibration through the ground itself as the whole section of dead end wall in front of us starts to rise up like a huge stone portcullis being raised.

Lady Tatiana starts leading us through and under the two foot thick door and into the lights they have going inside.

*And Now…

I’m staring as are most of the others except for Wyatt and Jessa both of them have this look of peace on their faces like being just within Dwarven walls makes things better.

Wyatt I’m going to assume spent a good deal of time here from the little I know of him but Jessa has been in these lands and found something here.

I’m just staring though right along with Taylor and Nicole because once we’re inside it’s huge.

And I mean huge.

The hallway roof must be forty or fifty feet and it is double that inside and the stone is so well made. Blocks fitted so well I can’t see the mortar just the joining lines and there are scant decorations here but it’s lit with electric sconces and hanging chandeliers not the fancy ones but the simple wheel ones designed to cast good light.

And for a fortress this wasn’t the keep yard this was the hallway to the keep yard a sort of space that is used for more defense.

Which includes washes for our feet and the hooves of the horses and our wheels.

Lady Tatiana tells us as we’re scrubbing.

“With dwarves it’s considered custom to do this to keep down outside mess and dirt but also to keep some illnesses from coming in. We’ll be inspected as well with our things and asked to bathe a little further in.”

I ask. “Why are they that paranoid?”

“Evil forces even just greedy and malignant forces have used disease as a weapon before.”

“Do they do this with everyone?”

“There are exceptions and there is the trade city of Avalon where people mix far more but that has a buffer like this further into the dwarven kingdom to defend it.”

“Even with their own?”

“Even with their own. Dwarves are hearty folk still but they are careful and cautious with the world through a lot of hard lessons through history.”

And she was right.

They went over everything and we were made to wash.

That was fine. They had us go from the entry hall to the hold’s proper and from there we were inspected and then directed to bathhouses.

Lady Tatiana spoke with several dwarves that looked and dressed like they were officers here and she had the key with her.

They seemed to understand why things were important for us.

She waved us on and we went with our hosts and Jessa translating as the rest of us were trying to keep up in our broken Dwarven.

I learn fast but even with my powers I’m far from fluent.

One thing they are clear on and that is coming in we must be clean.
Spotlessly clean and with hot water and showers we took the time to get good and clean while they had people that did our laundry and scrubbed down everything for us.

The soap was very powerful, not enough to burn your skin but by the time you were done you weren’t anywhere close to being a danger.

We were leaving the wagon here and Nicole’s rig and we were given these two wheeled carts each for our baggage and once cleared we found ourselves going through another hall and then down these huge open steps inside of a cavern.

Cavern is not doing it justice really.

It’s the Hold-town, just like a Keep-town but this was inside the mountains and carved from caverns and caves and all interconnected. All the natural beauty of the columns and other features saved and highlighted literally with electric sometimes all combined with built stone, verandas that served as town squares with buildings and businesses and things carved into the rock so that just the shopfront is showing and a plethora of catwalks and stairs.

Stone and metal and alloys and glass and electric were everywhere here and shining like nothing my head could even grasp. Nothing in any city I’ve been in was like this. Even Haven with Lady Tatiana was only close to this.

We’re close but Roran’s Town has age...there is that loveliness here that comes with age and history of hundreds of years.

It’s strange being in another country that is not ruled by humans.

We get looks, some folks know Lady Tatiana and I think that she might be well known here in this realm but the rest of us get looks even Wyatt who is still with us.

Not that I mind that.

Bathed and shaved and dressed in local custom he cuts a fine figure of a man.

Dark trousers that are court worthy but still not too floofy or foolish to not be practical, his boots look polished and cleaned as does his fighting leathers and under the armor he is wearing a fine linen deep blue shirt. His hair is combed or brushed but not oiled or any of that foolishness and his unshaven scruff has been trimmed and neatened but not shaved.

He still very much looks like himself as he did on the road just cleaner and a little more refined.

And part of me has definitely changed that much that he is very good for my eyes.

Lady Tatiana gave him a once over like a commander and nodded her approval and made sure we were passable for dwarven standards.

Which is clean.

And I am not jesting in the slightest with this.

Despite dwarven looks to some folks and hair and beards and the like. Dwarves are a clean people. Like to where they have public privies but these privies have running water and a foot pump for a liquified soap. I’ve used these as we passed through the Hold here and it’s not rumors at all.

And this clean is cultural.

But with things I have learned it’s smart, it’s truly smart in how to keep your people safe from contagion when you live in secured places like this.

We actually talk about this and medicine as we travel through the Hold and it’s a lecture of sorts on the alchemy of both Elves and Dwarves and the differences but of the knowing and knowledge of the longer lived races who have had their own dire troubles to learn advanced healing.

And that even being different species we are similar in ways enough that lungs and hearts and blood though all different and having specific ailments still has enough crossing over that some of our medicines cross over as well.

The Hold is amazing.

It’s a combination of constructed tunnels and caves with mined out spaces all made with grace and economy of purpose.

Spaces aren’t wasted, they’re wise in space and use and inventive, gods and goddesses and The Light everywhere I looked there was some new wonder of design or gadgetry or invention they all ignored while I was very much stunned by it all.

There are lighted signs with electric, some with stained glass to light up pictures as well as dwarven writings.

It makes my brain hurt in a good way.

There’s so much here invented or kept and survived so much to learn or know.

I can see why some folks hate demi-humans for this, scared and jealousy would be very easy things to settle in amongst a people.

And they know it too, which is why the Dwarves are here and not out in the wider world and The Elves are out on their islands.

Humans are violent tribals that know just enough to be dangerous.

And even with all these thoughts in my head I’m still enchanted by the place.

We walk through halls that are more like open roads and some places there are spots higher up where people cross over us like we’re walking under bridges or something and there are a lot of stairs.

And we are headed down, down deeper into the mountains even though this feels like a massive cave or carved out space it’s several or hundreds it’s a complex that I’m just starting to get is really three dimensional in they can build or tunnel or basically create what they need up, or in any direction they have stone and even down.

Aside from cellars I’m not familiar with down in the idea of actual direction and distance in a place that I’m in.

It’s a little daunting and it’s kind of fascinating all at the same time.

We do a little shopping at a few places that Lady Tatiana knows and others in the area close to them.

“Best spread some custom around, this way they’ll remember us and see us as a bit more welcome than outsider guests passing by.”

It’s a little pricey here in all things but I buy a few very nice woolen socks that look like they will be comfortable for years.

Jessa bought some arrowheads and some fishing hooks. I don’t know a lot about these things but father did and from being around them I think these are very high quality for very reasonable prices.

Actually a lot of hard goods like metal, glass, stoneworks are at very good prices here compared to home in Sanctuary or even back in The Middle Kingdoms, a lot better than back there.

I could buy a lot of useful things here and Lady Tatiana caught me looking.

“Save your coin, we’ll be at the capitol soon and after we talk t’Wayland we’ll have time for the markets afore we head to your sisters.”

I nod but I’m worried. “What’ll she think of me? Angelique is...different, and I’m not her brother anymore what if she wants nothing to do with me?”

Lady Tatiana looks at me. “Then we try and talk her ‘round but sometimes things go past one’s ability to savvy. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

I sigh and she gives me a hug and sends me to get some treats with Jessa and Nicole for the rails.

Rails.

Like in Iron Rhino’s.

I let Jessa do the picking and we get a few boxes of things from a bakery stand that is full of some wonderful smells.

Dwarves are all about the hearty things.

Biscuits with the oatmeal dough folded over and filled with dates or spiced minced meats or this raisin and butter filling or tarts like little hand pies with meat pies like ground beef with spices or pork with spices or my favorite this eggy custard that is blended with some old sharp cheese so you get this creamy eggy richness and then the tang of the cheese.

And the tea, I like the tea, dwarven tea is heavy, black leaf, steeped a long time and as dark as kaffet ot hot sully and they pour this thick ribbon of cream in it that you can stir in or leave it to swirl inside of it.

I will have dwarven treats like this in the winters. These are so good and hearty and when they’re warm and fresh.

If I ever have a say any place I live I’ll bring in a dwarven baker.

If I don’t learn how to do these things myself.

We make utter pigs of ourselves as we wait at the rails for our Rhino.

We’re taking the Rails or more known as the Dwarven Highway to The Capital of Asguard.

That’s just amazing.

Two sets of rails coming and going and with a service road in between them and from what I can tell roadways along each side of the rails as well all built up, measured, engineered and busy as well. We all watch like bumpkins as Rhino’s pass us by sometimes pulling dozens of the cars as they’re called from passengers to what looks like workers to cargo all moving so fast.

There are so many implications of this here like this.

I mean just jobs and skills to keep things in repairs alone would be whole trades and the work that it would make.

And then how fast goods would get to places and messages and people.

I love the engineering of the rails and what it all means.

“This is so amazing, why? Why don’t we have alliances with the Dwarves to have these things in The Middle Kingdoms?”

Lady Tatiana says. “It was there and tried, but mankind would wage war on dwarven interests to take the advantages from others or just plain theft off the rails and the dwarves pulled back. The only reason why King Boen is still allied with Wayland is bloodsworn ties from the war with your grandfather. Boen needed to make concessions to Wayland or he’d lose access to Dwarven smiths and engineers for his armies.”

Jessa nods. “Things were that rough with the greedy lords that the Dwarves were tired of losing their folks to humans and they pulled back.”

I look at Lady Tatiana. “And how does it work in The Free Kingdoms/”

She looks at me and says after a sip of her tea. “My folk.”

“When humans came over the mountains after they had arrived and started warring over resources among themselves my people were still about. And we had some of our own human folks from Titan here as well, just not so many and when the newcomers showed they had to swear oaths towards peace and freedom. There were a few battles over how things formed as our government but in the end we made the Free Kingdom’s and placed ourselves under Dwarven laws and arbitration. They don’t rule us but we adopted the same laws and legal system and coinage and they remained close to trade but also as neutral as they could be.”

I nod. “And Kind Boen?”

“Signed a treaty after the battle with your grandfather’s folly and this boosted relations and trade. Boen’s earned more trust from the old folk than most humans have in generations.”

“Why?”

“Because of the alliance of the promises made after the battle? Boen and I are bloodsworn siblings and if he betrays his oath it’s my duty to come for him and his.”

I’m looking at the others and Taylor and Nicole are nodding like her coming to kill who should be my rightful king is just exactly like the way that things should be.

And there’s this implication.

“Could you?”

She looks at me. “Let’s hope not to find out.”

I get the implication of what she said now too that it’s a conversation better left unsaid.

And I’m not that put out about it.

The world sometimes needs safeguards.

Like Aurora.

My Mother.

She did all of this, knew this stuff, helped people, kept this balance.

And helped people.

And they killed her for it, killed my family for it.

But she did it.

Father did it vs Grandfather.

I will do it.

We’re maybe two hours there before our Rhino arrives for the steamroad and we see the loading dock like area we are at is filling with people. Some look like they’re from The Hold.

Others seem to be from other areas and there are humans mixed in with the dwarves here and some look like country folks and others like workers but in clean sort of work clothes but others are dressed in nice clothing and finery and it’s quite the spectacle.

Some steamroad quartermaster is there taking tokens and giving others back. I read mine when I get it and it’s a brass tag with a seal on it.

Jessa says. “Only railmasters can give out tokens it shows that we’ve paid.”

“Paid?”

She grins. “Like boats, people stow away.”

“Oh.”

“Sometimes while moving.”

“Are they mad?”

Lady Tatiana looked at me and grinned. “Aurora used to use the steamroads to fly herself even faster than her normal flight, something about conductivity. She could do our trip all the way in an hour easily, two hours to your sister.”

We get loaded and looked at because we’re carrying gear and we look even cleaned up like we’re really rough around the edges and there are whispers too all about Lady Tatiana like she’s famous and recognized.

Honestly that’s unsurprising.

She’s nearly seven feet tall and as beautiful as any wondertale princess ever could be with added muscle like a warrior should have and her breasts. A woman should not be known by her breasts but literally hers are huge, like large by her breeding or family but sized with her frame too.

People notice.

Now armor her up and give her weapons and then you get how impressive she is without her fame from her deeds.

There is a reverence about her in those hushed whispers.

I notice the others, Taylor, Nicole, Jessa all straighter, prouder as this goes on, they’ve been with her a long time.

I haven’t and I’m still feeling the pride of being here with her.

But it is so interesting the way that people see her and look at her. I’m a noble I’ve seen the look that commoners give titled folks and this isn’t it.

It’s more than that.

And I watch her.

She is good with people.

Just commonplace small talk but she is good with people and she uses their titles. Mister, Miss, Ma’am, Goodie, Master… all things within a few moments of either hearing their trades or her just picking it up.

There’s a lot I need to learn.

My parents, my regular parents were good with people and I have my magic tricks were I can remember things now.

But this is skill and more.

Just listening to her she doesn’t just like know the crafts and titles and things like that but she knows like histories of things or at least events and the like, she knows the small talk of the area and of the people that she’s talking to.

Though I can’t follow it when she gets really going in Dwarven and really fast dwarven sounds like there’s this underlying hum, bass sound in it that messes with my ear as sounds and burr and rolled consonants all sort of blend together.

But it is pleasant to listen to people talking in another language with such fluency.

I’ve always thought so even when traders would come home from away and spoke to their workers or people in whatever they were speaking I liked it. Some people got offended by people speaking other than what they were speaking, some even get paranoid and think that they’re speaking about them secretly in their language.

Well odds are good they are since if you’re that paranoid and insecure it would show in your behaviors.

And it’s not even the most fascinating parts of the trip.

The car we end up in is fancy with leather benches with padding and enamelled and engraved metal maybe tin, but also shiny fittings everywhere of brass for handles and rails and the glass work in the windows is inlaid in clever ways and then there’s the fact all of the lights are electric too.

It’s so ornate and fancy and we literally have a parlor like room in ours that has a door so we have privacy from passers by and we just fit inside together our things stowed in nearby baggage by porters except the chest with the stone, that’s staying with us.

Then there’s service carts going up and down the middle with food and sweets and tea as well as Kaffet and we’re good from before with our purchases but it is still nice and very fancy to have the options to have the service.

So much to see and take in and at the same time it’s too much because it’s all happening so fast.

Our Iron Rhino is faster than what I’ve been on before.

A lot faster.

And as thrilling as that is it’s scary and thrilling passing other rhino’s on steamroads right beside ours or what feels like right beside ours and seeing all these cars and segments on them and the things that they have on them and we’re so behind out in The Middle Kingdoms and even the Free Kingdoms have a bare handful of steamroads.

I’m seeing these whole trailers or cars or whatever they’re called with ores and coal and salt and logs and whole caged in stacks of barrels and more, like three caravans of things going from one place to another at the speed that’s twice that or any charging horse.

So how many kingdoms, baronies, Fiefs and lands are close enough for trade with these mountains? How many on the northern side? I know next to nothing about what lies in the North.

Well I know two things.

My grandfather's realm is sort of in the North.

My sister’s new home is in Braithehold which is in the North.

I’m thinking on all of that and the ideas of the steamroads and iron rhinos and trade and what that might mean there as we travel a little lost in thought but I’m still struck by the wonders we see or go over and pass by.

Incredible steam road made bridges over vast chasms.

Twice those chasms had lights like settlements down in there.

Caves with Dwarven lights and mirrors set up to shine on something that is of vast natural beauty they thought to literally highlight in these caverns.

A causeway over a large still lake that had shorelights for what looked like a settlement in the distance.

And that’s not even counting the other Steamroad connected Holds and villages and towns. Some are places we go through the middle of. Others are just like a ticket house and a warehouse and dock with stairs and roads leading away from the steamroads either up or down.

And by the gods one of the leading up was so literal….the stairs led up and up and up and then there was a dwarven made road that was like a catwalk and the settlement, fort or whatever that was… was built into the ceiling from massive stalactites that were literally the size of hills back home.

I could see lit windows and doorways and people up there moving.

Alien and stunning and just...breathtaking and scary. I mean I cannot imagine living in such a thing.

But it woke some more wonder in me that it does.

Lady Tatiana has us stretch our legs while we stop at a few of these places and while we’re there she has me earning coin by doing some magic before the people waiting there with tricks of magnetics like moving some of my ball bearings in the air or knives in complex patterns and even lifting myself a little off the ground. Or me making lightning arcs and then doing my light spells magic.

They’re not as scared as people home would be and they do look to Lady Tatiana sometimes but coins are to be had.

Especially when I levitate.

Coppers and silvers and just a decent amount of coins in each place that Lady Tatiana takes a few Silver coins from and tells me to “Stow the rest, you’re going to need coins in the long run Christianna as well as your house.”

I could get used to this, it’s practice drills more or less and getting paid for it.

The most disturbing part of the trip was passing the grey wastes. It’s a subterranean desert, a section of the caverns that are interconnected that make up the underground that are barren, the landscape this combination of soot like dust and ash from what was long, long ago a fire mountain.

Honestly it gave me a bad feeling because with my magic and my powers I can sense people, life, water… this was nothing and as empty feeling as it looked.

And spooky, there were pressure winds that blew clouds of soot and ash like snows and in the empty that was truly eerie.

And Lady Tatiana was feeling it too.

She didn’t say anything but she did keep her hand resting on her pommel and she stayed standing while we were passing through there.

“Are we in danger?”

She shook her head no. “No we’re good this is a rough place though the lonely dark caves such as this often hold brigands and the like and sometimes they will attack the Rhino’s sometimes just to hurt and strike back at folk or sometimes they’ll damage the track seeking to rob a car or two before slinking back into the darkness.”

“But we’re safe now?”

“Aye now, this time around, it just pays t’be guarded in places like this.”

I have a feeling that she’s telling the truth but that there’s likely more.

Alright Chrissy stop sawing with the reins, no need to borrow trouble when we have so much more going on right now.

I stop the go by cart and get a refill on my tea and the others do too and then I try and meditate after a few sips.

Not the easiest thing but not impossible either as I sort of fall into the rhythm of the steam engine and that sound it makes.

I’ll admit I love the sound, all the sounds of this invention, the chug, the squeal of steel on steel, the hiss from steam it just seems to be alright to me and I find myself sleeping into that space where I breathe but with my magic, see and picture that brightness inside of me and then making it expand or letting it expand and then contracting it.

It’s control and it’s supposed to be that when I compress my power and it becomes second nature to be like that I can hold and store more mana. It’s something like working a muscle, the more you work it the better you can use it and for longer.

I even try some tricks like contracting it as we go up a slope. I had hear and feel the shift in the power of the engine, so I try to time each chug sound in the climb with tightening in my light and doing that for as long as I can hopefully as long as the rhino is climbing.

It’s hard but fun or interesting enough that I keep at it and I felt good about making some progress in that while there and slipped out of it when Lady Tatiana said. “Chrissy you might want to wake up, we’re getting close to Asguard and you’re going to want to see this.”

Asguard, the capital city of the Dwarves.

And just approaching it’s breathtaking.

Things around the steamroad are built up like we’re going through all those little villages and almost steadings and towns even but there is so much art. And it’s everywhere from the way that things are constructed and their scale a precision.

Yes, precision stonework is absolutely beautiful and to see things carved into these intricate squares and with such perfect lines and then to that scale...and not just cubes or squares but there are these A-framed like homes that are tall and perfect and fitted with these huge segmented front windows that are either frosted glass or they’re stained glass with these amazing depictions.

And then there’s domes and what might be temples and then bridges and walkways, terraces built like whole streets with each post in the railing amazingly made and detailed.

Then there are the statues everywhere and of everything… Dwarves, Busts, Full Towering warriors and kings thirty forty and hundred feet tall and beasts and animals as well. Some of it stone, most of it is in stone, some of it looks like one piece of stone carved over decades or something like that and then there is all the metal working.

Cast iron lamp posts that had molding and casting so intricate it looks like they inlaid designs… a street lamp so wonderfully designed that you honestly could stare at it for a long time and it would be time well spent.

There is too much to see but it’s that good too much to see as it just weaves together like this feeling, creating this atmosphere that only this place could possibly have.

And it’s getting brighter and brighter and brighter until we hit open air and sunshine.

Sunshine?

We are travelling in this place...And the only way to describe it is a mountain ringed by mountains. And the single mountain in the center isn’t just a mountain but a city, a huge and massive city that is built out of and into the mountain and we’re just coming out from the tunnels in that outer ring of mountains.

And it’s stunning.

All along these mountains all along us is farmland and not like normal farmland but walled in, fenced off farmland where things are growing in this multicolored patchwork quilt of things as far as we could see and up the slopes in these terraces.

In between there are rails and roads and buildings and even like little town like things but it’s just…. And then there’s the thrum of power or electric as I can feel it out there.

There are windmills and they’re doing more than milling, more than pumping water but they’re making electrical power.

Then Lady Tatiana is talking. “Asguard, capital of the dwarven people and home to the most technology and sciences and learning on all of Titan.”

I look at her.

“Why?”

She smiles. “Good old Dwarven prudence. When the wars were being fought in the cosmos and on all of the worlds they knew here at the least that they needed someplace defensible and a place that would have everything that they needed to defend.”

“Outside of these mountains you’ll find ancient walls where they closed off all access to here save for flying and with all of the glaciers here in these mountains for melt and water they started this colony here. Asguard was a storehouse, a safe hold, and as ages past more and more folk came here and then when the Chaos Wars raged here and in the cosmos it became a great garrison. It was here that it got its name and it’s connections to other legends.”

“Other legends?” I ask.

“Hundreds, you’ll learn some of them in due time Chrissy. I was planning on having you come and study here once I had you trained enough at home.”

“Really?”

She smiles. “Really, there is no better University than there is here of all of Titan. The Elves have vast lore and history but the way the teach and study is way more free structured and suited to those that are extremely long lived.”

“Oh, so very free formed?”

“That and very much hands on study in doing things than in having classes and lectures and all the upper schooling ideas we have. All our ways are from us copying the dwarves.”

“And there's a university here, like a great school?”

Lady Tatiana nods. “Aye, and it’s over a thousand years old. It’s practically its own level in the upper city.”

“I don’t know what to say?”

“Say you’ll go when I send you.”

“You’ll send me?”

“Aye, Aurora went but on her own just taking in classes here and there but never really going, never deeply educated and she wanted to be. For her I’ll pay for your schooling.”

I’m blushing but really happy at that and Nicole is grinning and so are the others except Wolf who seems like it’s not something he cares about.

I think it’s not, despite cleaning up quite fine he does seem quite more comfortable and less quiet out in the wilderness.

Word went before us somehow and there were knights and guards waiting for us and I was nervous at first but we ended up taking an iron ox from the steam road to the cable station.

An iron ox is a massive plated wagon that is built around a steam engine and has seating and stairs to get up and down but the entire rig is a steam driven wagon.

And it’s a wagon that would take 4 oxen to pull at least.

This holds twenty with ease and has a dwarven engineer in plain sight that uses levers and locks and valves to make us go or brake and has a ship’s wheel to steer us by.

And of course it being dwarven made it is plated and armored built of wood and metal and looks like this fanciful carriage with six wheels and the head of an oxen with forward curving horns where lamps hang for lighting it’s driving at night.

We take the Ox all the way to the cable station.

And the cable station is this large hub that has cars like on an Iron rhino on this huge wire cable that goes up and down the mountain and the city.

They don’t go to every place but the ten cars that go up and down these cables through the sky are very busy and they’re very impressive looking.

We’re escorted the whole way.

Or met by escorts the whole way.

This time I can feel something.

This radio.

But not like a room but the guard units have a pack, a large heavy looking backpack that has a power core? I can feel the electric in it.

They’re calling ahead.

Oh gods and goddesses that will change everything.

So much here would.

And as amazing as it all is and it really is the most amazing thing in my life.

It’s not lost on me that we are escorted at every turn here.

All that way from arriving to us going to The Palace.

I was not expecting King Wayland’s palace to be a fortress.

But it is a fortress, and one that is built right into the mountain itself and is lacking anything fanciful.

Instead there are dwarven made cast walls of their special mortar and smooth faced like ceramic. A dozen feet thick or better, huge doors, this like wall sections or like drawbridges.

Siege weapons might not ever take it.

Battleknights might not ever take it.

What could?

What made this to be built like this?

And I know that it’s serious as we pass through gates and corridors and walk for quite awhile in this heartbreakingly creative and beautiful place when we hear someone shout out in a dwarven call.

“Close the blast doors!”

Blast doors? What are blast doors?

I’d have asked Lady Tatiana about that but we’re climbing a dozen stairs to this large gallery that is full of well dressed dwarves in their style of finery and in their armors and they’re all looking at us.

Staring at us.

Hundreds of them.

And then we hear it ring out in dwarven and in common as court heralds call out.

“Lady Marshal Tatiana Whitehall… Titan and Free Paladin! Champion and Commander of the White swords! Vassal and commander of the Dwarven king Wayland the tenth over the Fifty Free Realms of the North West Contract and founder and commander of The Free city of Sanctuary!”

There where many deep and loyal bows of respect given to her and I am impressed.

I’m not sure what exactly a paladin is.

But she is likely the highest ranking person here outside of The King’s own family.

Then I hear.

“Princess Christiana Lyonnes of the Middle Kingdoms Alliance and daughter to Aurora Blackhand!”

Oh...oh damn.

They know who I am.

And they are all staring at me too and many straightening out of their bows.

One of the court heralds marches forward. “King Wayland summons you to him, you and your companions, follow me.”

Lady Tatiana nods and gestures for us to follow her and we walk through this great hall and up towards another set of stairs and past more troops and guards and even these twelve foot high battleknights made for dwarven knights.

There’s doors opened for us as we’re escorted all the way into this room.

There’s a great table and chairs all around it and at the head of it is a tall dwarf with wavy silver hair and a beard that is full but trimmed and neat with a long mustache braided into the beard to frame his mouth with his chin that has shimmering silver wire in it.

He has a crown that is electric and magic? A simple shining silvery band with dwarven runes on it talking about wisdom and light.

Other than that he does not look that old.

Taller than most dwarves, a solid four feet high and very well muscled and very little fat that I can see and he carries weapons on him. Knives and a crowbill hammer as well as a broadsword that like his crown feels like electric and magic?

He watches us arrive and servants are waved away and after we set the chest with the key on the great table he grabs lady Tatiana in a warriors arm clasp before pulling her into a hug.

She hugs him back.

“Well met Wayland My King, I wish I was here with better news but it seems we’re looking at possible invasion and war over The Keys.”

He looks at us and then especially at me.

“Aye, things are taking that kind of turn once more it seems. Would you be kind enough to spare the tale so far Princess Lyonnes and how things have come to pass?”

I bow, with my best curtsey in what I’m wearing.

“Of course your majesty, I would be honored as I am honored by the use of you speaking common with us.”

He grins and calls in servants with some food and drinks and makes sure we’re comfortable as we tell...as I start telling about home and what happened and about how Lyonnes fell.

Nicole and Hawke add in as well after we met and we found each other and then everything else even going back to talk about the sickness and our work there at Lady Tatiana’s suggesting and then when it comes to the battle at the fort we tell him that in I’ll admit an embarrassing jumble that really underscores our ages and that Lady Tatiana clears up for us.

And for a while King Wayland is silent save for him sipping at his glass of whisky and then looking at all of us.

“We don’t have the full picture yet but from what it seems unlike in the days of your grandfather when he tried to use the keys to open the way to the darkest worlds we have black forces seeking to wage wars with the realms of man and to gather the keys once again.”

“High King Boen of The Middle Kingdoms has sent word of some of the happenings including the fall of Lyonnes.”

“Your people were attacked by The Gorgon, a Eastern Mountains warlord that was once Duke Auron Kingsland. And he wants the throne at Valhalla and he has gained followers within the nobility to do so as well we are convinced of magical aid as well.”

“Magical aid but there are so few?” Lady Tatiana asked.

“This we don’t know for certain but I fear that someone with power has arisen and we fear that it might be one of Rory’s other apprentices.”

I ask. “Grandfather?”

He nods. “Yes, I had a few suspicions over the years as we looked through the ruins of Thorn mountain that there were survivors. Many evils fled from that place when we one, something might have had power and fled.”

Tatiana frowns. “But he had slaved all of his follower’s power to him. And he burned that out battling us and trying to open the gate.”

I look back and forth more than a little lost.

Lady Tatiana looked at me. “He found other casters, others with power and collected them, taught them, made them all powerful but he slaved them to him, his powers and magic binding them together like wires and cables from one electric station to another. In our battle with him and his forces he fought us off but he was trying to open his gate as well and between the two things many died burning themselves out, those that didn’t they were put down.”

King Wayland frowns. “Whoever is doing this and supporting Auron has knowledge of the war and it’s ending, they are attacking places of those that survived and while some never had the keys we have lost some of these people.”

I look at them. “So someone that was there?”

Lady Tatiana says. “It would have to be, we on purpose broke up the keys so they would be spread out and someone knows who was there in our forces and we made sure that there was no historical telling of that battle, there were key names that could not be helped but…”

I look at her. “But in the scope of things father was known because of him and mother.”

She nods. “He would have been a likely target even though he never had a key with him.”

I look at them. “He didn’t?”

Lady Tatiana shook her head. “No, he had a key but not with him.”

I frown. “Then where?”

Lady Tatiana looks at me. “With your grandfather, with Diedre’s father.”

I frown. “Is that safe? Isn’t that close to this Kingsland bastard?”

Lady Tatiana shrugs. “I don’t know, I have not met the man. But your father said that it would be well protected according to Aurora and she agreed as your grandfather wasn’t at the battle.”

I frown. “So they attacked Lyonnes for nothing?”

Lady Tatiana frowns. “No, they were prepared as you said for Aurora, your family was as much bait as anything to get to her.”

I sigh and shiver and put my face in my hands and breathe.

King Wayland looks at me kindly and quietly asks.

“Princess, if you would could you use the key as well, there are troop movements that we suspect and if they have been making portals with it to move troops perhaps you can find traces of things?”

I look at him. “Of course majesty I will certainly try.”

“Please come with me, all of you. We have a globe, a round map that Aurora made.”

He takes us to another room and a fast walker for his size and the room he takes me too is full of electric and it feels like radio and there’s a lodestone ring five feet wide and a foot tall in the middle of the floor and floating over it is a globe.

A ceramic globe that looks like the world.

A round world that I never imagined ever seeing maps of.

By dark gods curses there are folks that still think the realms are flat.

Most of us know different.

But to see a globe would be inspiring.

To see one floating is awe invoking.

I walk to it and feel it out and close my eyes and I have no idea how she made it or why it floats really but it does and not just that but I can feel it...it mirroring Titan itself.

Touching and feeling Asguard on the map feels like the energy of the city and place here as far as I can tell.

There’s more to it as well but… “I think, I think that I can understand how to use this. But using the key? Won’t it alert whoever has the other one or ones?”

Wayland nods. “Yes but they’d never dare open a portal in here even if they could, they go both ways and we have enough troops to not just make them pay but maybe take them.”

I nod. “Which they’ll never risk.”

Both he and Lady Tatiana nod and I settle in and feel the map and they bring the chest in and open it beside me and I link up to it in a rush of power and energy.

I sink in...to it, the map, feeling for feelings like the keys.

Looking for?

I look for burn marks in the world, leftover key feelings.

I start finding them.

I do a little light magic and I leave a mark for every portal that was.

Some I have no idea of whose lands they are or what these places are.

I commit them to my own memory though.

The King and Lady Tatiana know these places.

I feel, feel one being made...used...right now, burning forming that hole like a wheel of sparks opening up and burning from somewhere… to… Elizabetha.

To the coast, right where the old lighthouse was!
“My sister! My sister is under attack!”

There is a moment of confusion between us and everyone there and the guards.

And one of the guard knights says. “They have a radio, they might hear a warning! This way!”

I can;t get the feeling out of my head, the pressure and visions of bad things happening as we rush to the radio machine and they’re trying it, trying it and nothing just hissing.

No.

No, no, no, no…. “NO!”

I grab the machine and can feel the power the line of power trying to make the connection and I pour my willpower into it, my electric, my magic and it feels like I pulled the high king’s city the six feet the signal needed to connect...six feet just a cable missing on her end.

“Lizzy, Lizzy...Elizabetha Lyonnes this is Christiana Blackhand of Lyonnes please, please hear this, please, raise to arms, raise to arms you’re under attack!”

I feel the strength run out of me as I go as black as the radio I feel burn out on the other side with my sister.