Okay, closed up Alhur's arc. Since I used the Caelorian king already (he won the POV vote) I will have to use a different POV for the epilougue - thinking a little Clash of the Titans. Got about 90 minutes of writing time left tonight

Chapter 589:

Konstantin started questioning me about the Caelorian king’s fighting style as we entered the dark mining passage. He was using my voice as a reference point to walk directly behind me, so we kept up a conversation. “He had a spell form to enhance his speed, but he didn’t need it. I am not sure if he was just playing with me during our fight, but he was the best spearman I have ever seen,” I said truthfully. I knew he would want to test himself against the elven king in the dreamscape, as I detailed how expertly he manipulated his spear’s shaft.

Konstantin grunted. “That is what the histories say, though they attribute the warrior king’s prowess as much to his weapon as to him,” Konstantin replied.

“I could definitely agree with that, even my replica of Heartseeker was powerful. The original can destroy runic weapons,” I said morosely, telling him about my lost weapons.

After I finished speaking, I pulled the black spear from my place in the darkness and frowned. Even though the king was dead, the spear felt anathema to me. There was no pull on the spear to its bonded owner. Maybe the spear could bond with only one person? Although that didn’t match what I knew from my readings. If an item could only be bonded to one person, it would crumble after that person died, and Heartseeker was very solid at the moment. I returned the spear to my space, disappointed.

I reached the large stone sphere of darkness and reclaimed it. Since my aether sight could penetrate the darkness it emitted, I could see it being useful if I was alone and stuck in the middle of a throng of enemies.

We reached the sight of the fight as the fish smell grew more prevalent. “I am going to pick up some of the glowstones I dropped,” I warned him, forcing Konstantin to wait on me every few steps. There had been hundreds of stones, and they scattered pretty wide. Mateo sold them at a luxury price in his shop, and it was like throwing away gold not snagging the easy ones.

When we reached the king’s body, I alerted Konstantin and felt a little guilty about leaving him like this. “He said his queen was also contracted somewhere in the dungeon. I wonder if the queen would like to see her king?” I questioned aloud. Maybe the dungeon would hear me and answer me somehow. When it didn’t, I pulled one of the weasel pelts from my dimensional space and covered the elf’s body.

“Ancient elves are not our concern at the moment. What are we going to do with Alhur?” Konstantin managed to pick up two glowstones and two rocks. He must have been able to tell by the weight as he kept the glowstones and tossed the rocks.

“Ask him directly?” I offered.

“Do you think he was telling the truth when he said the dungeon stopped talking to him?” Konstantin said insightfully. He was really asking if I could trust the Bartiradian assassin to tell the truth.

“I think he might try to twist the truth to his advantage, but I don’t think he would outright lie. Like me, he has some sort of weird honor when it comes to lying.” In my opinion, it was much better than orc honor, which could be twisted into knots to achieve the desired objective.

“Oh, is that how you rationalize it. I will remember that,” Konstantin said snidely, but his tone was joking.

“Let’s see what he has to say, and then decide,” I said, picking up three more glowstones just before the exit. They had rolled quite the distance.

“Just know I have your back,” was all the old man said as we stepped into the light of passage. No one was here, and our footfalls echoed as we walked to the moss-carpeted room. Konstantin was spinning five different glowstones in his left hand like stress balls. He had picked up more, but currently had one of each color. I had recovered perhaps half of the glowstones I dropped, but there were still hundreds left behind. If I ever wanted more, I knew where to find them.

The moss-covered room only had the bodies of the doppelgangers. “They must still be in the safe room,” Konstantin guessed.

I plucked a few berries and popped the skin in my mouth, savoring the sweet juice, as we headed to the safe room. Castile and Lexi were seated on the floor facing each other. Under my aether sight, I could see Lexi weaving aether in front of her. It was the twisted-strand method Lesna had taught her, and Castile was still struggling to master it. The method made more stable spell forms whose effects were stronger and lasted longer. Lepidus was engrossed in a book.

“Where is Alhur?” I asked, surveying the room.

“He left the dungeon right after Konstantin went to look for you. He said you got what we needed,” Castile responded, looking up. I looked at Konstantin; it went unspoken that fleeing was an act of a guilty man. Not a good look for the elf. He had clearly been told by the dungeon that I had collected the mithril.

“I did,” I confirmed. Lexi let go of the spell form and looked up excited and full of admiration. “I am going to kill the doppelgangers again,” I said.

“Why are we delaying another day?” Castile questioned.

“We are not, just me.” I started producing the mithril ore.

“We can wait,” Konstantin started to say.

“No, get the mithril ore to Hephaestus so he can start on the device. The three of you shouldn’t have any trouble getting to the camp,” I declared.

“Why? Why is it so important?” Castile pressed.

I sighed, “If I am going into the Endless Dark to look for the World Gate, I want my aether sight to be as strong as possible,” I answered. “When I fought in the dark passage, the two apex essences enhanced the clarity of my range by half again. Trust me, I can handle those two. Besides, I will have Lepidus to back me up.” Lepidus coughed.

“He is right. We need to get this ore to the Titan,” Konstantin agreed, nodding to me in support. It took them a few minutes to gather the ore and leave, with a few mild protests under their breath.

“I will be quick,” I said, sliding down the wall to sit. Konstantin patted my shoulder and stepped out first. Lexi was second, and Castile gave me one last look. I couldn’t decide what emotion was on her face: disappointment, worry, or maybe even jealousy at the essences I was about to get.

“Don’t get yourself killed. You are needed,” she said simply and stepped out.

My body ached from the fight with the Caelorian king; even though I had healed myself, I just felt so exhausted. “What do you want me to do?” Lepidus asked after they had left. I was still having trouble processing him being in the attractive, ebony-skinned body.

“Nothing,” I said, and Lepidus vanished. I probably should have had him take off the mask first, but I could get it later. I just wanted some quiet time to myself.

I dozed off for short naps, but didn’t use the dreamscape. Maybe I should have gone with them to make sure the mithril got to Hephaestus, but this was not greed; it was need. This was going to be my last chance to get illusion essences before we sailed from Nausis. The black spear appeared in my lap. It felt awkward, like a stranger. I stood and tried to do some simple forms with it, and it felt clumsy in my grasp, like it wanted me to drop it. That was disappointing because I had wanted to use it against the doppelgangers. Maybe Lepidus would know a way to shift the bond to me.

It looked like I would be wielding the two spiderbane blades. I was almost curious enough to try the boneblight poison on myself to see if my purify self could eliminate it from my body. From what I knew of aetheric poisons, it should work and would be much easier to purge than magebane poison.

Later on, I was sitting at the entrance to the moss room, waiting for the bodies to disappear. I was rolling one of the apex earth essences across the back of my hand. “He comes alone this time,” the elf boy’s voice said.

I didn’t jump and just looked over at him slowly. For some reason, he stepped back, afraid. “I have a question I want the dungeon to answer for me. Since I cannot talk to it, I want you to answer it.”

The elf girl looked up, and I could feel the dungeon’s presence watching us. When she looked back, she shook her head. “You can ask all the questions you want, but you will get no answers.”

“How many Caelorian elves are serving Gaia?” I asked anyway.

“Well, there is me and her,” the boy pointed at themselves with wicked smiles.

“I don’t have time to play games with you two. You jerk me around, I will make your deaths very painful,” I threatened. They hadn’t seen boneblight yet, and I was certain their shapechanging ability couldn't counter the poison.

“You think you are scary?” they chuckled, but the boy did not.

“Three,” he said, causing the girl to look at him in shock. “The king, queen, and the child she carried into the dungeon. Are we going to fight now?” the elf boy said resignedly.

I nodded and stood. The girl was destined to get cut by boneblight, and I would have mercy on the boy and kill him quickly. I stepped into the room and dropped the stone of darkness as my thicken air spell form settled over my enemies…

The boneblight poison worked even faster on the greater doppelganger than the elven king. After I had cut her, she tried to shift into her greater, natural, monstrous form, but it just spread the poison more quickly. She was flopping around on the moss, unable to do anything. Her voice was muffled as her throat was constricted. The boy had fallen first. I quickly took him in the darkness's surprise. I removed the darkness sphere from the moss and could see the doppelganger’s wild eyes lock onto mine as the light returned. Helplessness, distress, and pain were in them. I gave it a mercy beheading.

I collected my two apex illusion essences from the bodies, then shattered the reward chest. Silver coins and a single large white pearl were in the debris. An aether pool essence was very welcome, and maybe the dungeon rewarded me for not using my dimensional space to kill. I would take it. It should only take a moment to get a healing potion from the fire bear room, and maybe restock the apples I had lost.

I started walking toward the orchard room and the fire bear. I briefly looked down the corridor to the room that gave the terrible spiderbane blades. Maybe I would stop on my way back. When I reached the orchard, I was surprised to see the fire bear was already dead and Alhur was sitting on the cave mound.

“Castile thought you left?” I said casually.

“That is what I wanted her to think,” the elf assassin said, not standing. “Are you alone?”

“I am never alone,” I said cryptically. Alhur chuckled, knowing what I meant. “Why are you here? You wanted a spiderbane blade,” I guessed.

He shrugged and lifted a blade out of the grass. Even from this distance, you could see the tiny spider reliefs dancing up the blade. “Already did that. Had to use the healing potion here, though.  I was waiting for you all to leave so I could kill the doppelgangers.”

“You knew the elven king was in the mines,” I accused.

“Yes,” he said simply. “I couldn’t tell you, but knew you could handle him,” he let a grin form and stood and stretched. “I assume the doppelgangers are dead. I thank you for that, as I was struggling with ways to handle two of them.”

I tensed as he started walking toward me with the spider bane blade loosely in his hand. “I am not going to fight you,” he said, amused.

“Then why are you still here?” I asked, not letting my guard down.

“To talk with King Ninleyn Baera Eldarenth,” Alhur said calmly.

“You will be trapped in there. He will kill you, even if you are of his blood,” I said skeptically.

“Perhaps—but perhaps not,” Alhur said.

“Why is it so important to you?” I asked, causing the elf to pause in consideration.

“I don’t think you are bad, as humans go, Eryk Marko. I have explored the city, undercity and the hearth tree of Caelora. The great wealth of my people has never been found and I suspect it is hidden somewhere above.”

“And you think the king will tell you and you will become rich,” I said, disillusioned.

Alhur’s face darkened. “Not me. My people. The descendants of Caelora. We are scattered, but there is pride in what we once were and might be again. I think the king will stay his hand for a chance at that, even if it costs him.”

“He will kill you,” I repeated.

“Perhaps,” Alhur said and kept walking. I watched him leave and knew he was a dead man. It was his choice, though. I filled one sack of apples quickly and made my way to the dungeon exit.

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