“We need the most assistance the most urgently.” Lavajaw announces.
“I understand why you feel that way, but I just don’t understand how we can be of help.” Earlgor shakes his head.
“We take back Mildarihm from the dragons!” the dwarf slams his fists. “We change in and kill them! What’s so hard to understand?”
“Your king sold the city to the dragons. We don’t have the right." The cyclops speaks up.
“That is not our king!” the dwarf stands, though I can barely tell. “Ever since he left with the Paragon,” he puts some stank on my title and points at me. “He has not been himself. He scarcely leaves his tent, and when he does, he refuses to speak with us. He even threw out his wife!”
My blood runs cold when he mentions the king’s doomed voyage with me. The last I saw him, I made the decision to save Mournthing from the Monitor instead of the dwarven king. He’s obviously been released, but with an entirely different mind. Who knows what the machine did to him in the void.
“We’re tired of being second-class citizens!” the halflings declares.
“How are the halflings being mistreated?” The statue inquires.
“The halfings require more rations.” he crosses his arms.
“The halfings are receiving twice the rations as any other already!” The demoness outbursts.
“We eat four times as much as any of you!” he retorts.
“You certainly do, but do you need to?” Thath’tuzath accuses. “This is why giving food away is always a bad idea. They just take, and take, and take.”
“How dare you!” now it’s the halfings turn to stand, I actually think he was taller while seated.
“Let’s take a step back and try to understand this from all perspectives.” Sizouze raises his stony hands.
“Life isn’t rainbows and butterflies, angel.” The demoness glares. “Somtime horrible things happen, like going on a diet.”
“Our metabolism…” Smenkivec begins.
“Enough.” Rosalie demands. “I am no longer your princess, but as your equal I expect a certain amount of decorum.”
“Of course.” The halfling hangs his head, seated.
“We’ve always been a last thought.” Lavajaw remains standing. “When humanity discovers and exploitable resource, they exploit it. Material or people. In the dwarves, you found both.”
“Let’s not rehash old grievances." Khilseith comments.
“The elves were just pretty things that the king kept as trophies. He put the dwarves to work. Real work.” the dwarf retorts.
“It seems we’ve reached the point where this meeting is unproductive.” Earlgor sighs.
“Coulda been an email.” Jack snickers to himself.
“I call for a vote. The labyrinth and the kingdom of man are still under assault from the dragons. Who do we prioritize?”
“I object!” The dwarf yells.
“The third option is prioritizing Mildarihm.” Earlgor adds.
“All in favor of the Labyrinth?” Earlgor, Tunrox, Khilseith, and I raise our hands.
“He doesn’t get a vote!” Lavajaw points at me aggressively.
“All in favor of man?” Rosalie, Thath'tuzath, Smenkivec, and Shahuo raise their hands.
Lavajaw glares at Smenkivec, a sense of betrayal obvious on his face.
“Mildarihm.” Lavajaw raises his hand.
“Jack, Sizouze?” Earlgor raises an eyebrow at the two who abstained.
“I’ve got no interest in moving resources outside of Masstaoir until we’re back up and running. As far as I know, there’s still a fat-ass dragon parked in the training district.” Jack responds with practicality.
“I do not believe in prioritizing one people’s salvation over another's." Sizouze responds.
The demoness grumbles and rolls her eyes.
“Then the kingdom has it. We’ll begin mobilizing immediately.” Earlgor finializes.
Lavajaw’s chair clatters to the floor as he leaves. He gives me one last look, and I don’t know what to say or do. I should go help the dwarves, it seems like whatever they’re going through is at least partially my fault.
Earl says: Hey Peter, if I do something else while the dragons occupy the cities, will they burn down without me?
Peter says: Nope. Quests pause while you’re not doing them.
That settles that.
“Junior, I’m going to go sort out the dwarves, then I’ll join you in liberating the human city.” I tell Earlgor.
“Understood. We will hold off from entering the city proper until you arrive to support us.” he acknowledges.
“See you there.” I smile. More confirmation that the world will wait for me.
While waving at my new daughter-in-law and grandson, I’m suddenly sorrowful to not have time for them. Then I realize I don’t have time for the dwarves either if they’re not part of the main story quest.
I can’t save everyone.
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Clear Masstaoir of Fire Drakes 1/1
“Can I give you a hug?” I ask Earlblod. He turns to his father, who nods, and the boy runs into my arms.
“Come on, you can do it!” I tell Millie. She’s just brave enough to stand while holding onto the couch for support, but her mother has her in the middle of the living room with nothing to grab onto.
She takes one wobbly step, then another. She freezes there, both arms out to keep her balance.
“Go on.” Talindra tells her.
I’m snapped out of the memory in an instant. Talindra? That doesn’t make any sense. Millie’s mother is…
“Grandpa’s gotta go.” I stand a briskly walk away. It’s all I can do to keep from exploding in front of them.
I make it outside before I fall to my knees, holding my head.
“What the fuck.” I hiss at the ground. I slowly curl until my forehead rests in the dirt. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck.”
“Father?” Halanaestra puts a hand on my shoulder.
Hallie rises from the water, sending a cascade onto the pool’s edge.
“You did it!” I tell her. She managed to swim from one end to the other all by herself.
I pull her from the pool and wrap her in a hug. She’s soaked, and it’s cold as hell, but I don't care. I’m so proud of her.
Talindra comes and wraps us both in a towel, then her arms.
I punch the dirt, then punch it again, over and over until it sticks to my bloody knuckles.
“He’s hurting himself!” I hear someone say, trying to hold my arm.
“Dad, stop!” another voice screams.
“Don’t stop, beliiiiiiieve-ing!” I belt at the top of my lungs. Talindra and Hallie sing along with me as we drive to the Canadian border.
“Hold on to the feeliheialing!” Hallie takes the line solo, butchering it, making us all laugh.
The mood shifts instantly as red-and-blue lights illuminate the cabin. We’re being pulled over.
“Just stay calm. Everything is ok.” I reassure them. I pull to the side, and cut the engine.
The honorguard takes his sweet time strolling up to my window, I have it down and my license and registration in my hand ready for him.
“Good evening, Sir.” I say.
“Papers.” he responds bruskly.
I hand him what I've got, but he doesn’t take it.
“Their papers.” he stares coldly at my wife and daughter.
“Right. Sorry.” I wait for Talindra to retrieve their documents from her purse. The forms proving their legal residence are crisp, still in the original envelope as I hand them over.
He scans them, then looks up at me.
“Are they yours?” he asks.
“Yes sir.” I tell him, without offering any additional information.
“It says here you’re married. You know that’s not legal anymore, right?” he asks, hand resting on his axe handle.
“I have my documents as well, sir.” I don’t move to get them, waiting for him to ask.
“Well, guessing by your Virginia license plate, they’re out-of-state documents. And in that case, they are null and void in the great state of New York.” the guard taps his axe twice. “Step out of your vehicle.”
“I’m a government employee.” I spit out.
“Excuse me?” he says, still waiting.
“If you let me get my id, I can prove it to you.” I tell him.
He stares at me for a second. “Well?”
I open the center console and retrieve my I.D.. This won’t be the first time those two blue stripes save me. I show him, he takes it and turns it over. Without a moment's delay, he hands it and my wife’s papers back, and wishes us a good day.
“What was that?” Talindra asks.
“We’ll talk about it later.” I tell her, starting the car and taking the next exit south.
I blink awake somewhere unfamiliar. Even without focusing on it, I can feel several sources of willpower pressing down on me. One from the bookshelf. Another from the preserved specimens shelf. But most of all, the staff in Köln’s hand.
“Finally out of it.” the Master of Spells observes.
“What’s happening to my memories?” I skip over the obvious questions, ‘how did I get here?’ and ‘what the fuck is in that jar? Is it alive?’
“Your synapses are repairing.” he explains poorly.
“Why would that mix up my memories?” I ask.
He strokes his beard, stimming while he thinks.
“Earl, you’re not from here, are you?” He asks.
I squint at him, unsure if he means what I think he means.
“No.” I finally tell him.
“While I was pulling the Machine God out of your head, I saw what it had constructed for you. False memories.” he pauses dramatically. “Memories of a human life, but not any I know. Strange machines and stranger artifacts.” he moves to a table and lifts a thin black rectangle. “I attempted to recreate the device you were so fond of when you spent time on the white thrones. It does not work, sadly.”
“Wait.” I hold up a hand to stop him, and take a deep breath. “False memories?”
“Yes. There's no explanation for how you could have them otherwise. I saw your true memories, disturbing as they were, and saw your spontaneous arrival in this world. From nothing.” he stares at me like a novelty.
“Can you bring them back?” I almost beg.
“No. The ones you still have are echoes from the parts of your mind I took out.” he tells me.
“Will I forget everything?” I almost choke on the question.
He strokes his beard again, considering.
“You will.” he delivers the news like a cancer diagnosis.
I just stare at him.
Earl says: is millie still with you
Peter says: Yes why?
Earl says: invite me to the group I need to talk to her
Peter says: are you sure?
Earl says: yes
“What’s up, pervert?” she asks as soon as I join.
“Peter explained to you that I have memory problems right?” I ask, ignoring her.
“Yeah.” she responds, sounding confused.
“I went through a… procedure recently, they thought it would make it better but it’s making it worse.” I explain in terms that make the most sense.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” she tells me with genuine sympathy.
I take a long, deep breath outside of chat.
“I wanted to say, if your father could meet you now he’d be very proud of you. So very proud. You’re a strong young woman, it’s obvious that nobody could fuck with you or your friends without getting hell in return. You’re everything he wanted.. Would have wanted you to be. Kind to those who deserve it and a terror who deserve that.” I ramble.
The line is quiet for a few moments.
“Thank you.” she says, clearly crying.
“You’re welcome.” I say, fighting back my own tears.
I leave the group so I can scream. I cry loud and long, hurting myself all the way from my lungs to my esophagus. When I finally get a hold of myself, Köln is just standing there, watching me.
“Millie,” he says. “She’s real?”
I nod, unable to speak.
“The memories are fake… but she’s real.” he seems genuinely perturbed by this.
“I’m a ghost, Köln. I died in another life, a whole other world, and the Machine God brought me here. You ripped my past life out of me. Everything that kept me moving forward, gave me the will to go on.” I stare back at him, feeling my body slowly freeze up.
“How many offspring do you have, Pup?” he asks.
“Ninteen…” I tell him.
“And that elf you’re so fond of. The one with breasts like you’re looking into the night sky.” he adds.
I blink.
“What?” I say, suddenly very present in the moment.
“The elf, she could feed a whole village with those things.” he tries to jog my memory, as if I don’t already know who he’s talking about.
“How many memories did you see?” I ask.
He shrugs.
“Okay. You're right. My kids need me.” I get to my feet and wipe my face with an old cloak.
“Good.” he nods, opening a portal. “The giants need to speak with you, then you’ll return to your children.”
I accept this course of action, entering the rift. Stepping out into the bracing cold, I find The Black Blade near the middle of the citadel.
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