M48

Morgan turned to his party and motioned for them all to stop. They’d made good time through the forest that morning, even though Ykleedra was unmounted. She had a natural knack for moving through the woods, and her long legs made it easy for her to surmount obstacles that were a bit of a challenge for the roladii. That being the case, it was only mid-morning when Morgan caught a glimpse of the colony wall through some trees in the distance. He knew they were coming in from the southeast and that if they continued in their current course, they’d arrive at the west gate in a matter of minutes. Morgan patted Munch’s shoulder while he waited for the others to pull up close. “Listen,” he said as they gathered, “I’m going to lead Ykleedra through the woods and bring her in through the north gate. There’s less traffic up there, and my tower is close. That way, she won’t have to deal with as many people freaking out about her. I’m assuming you’ll come with me, Issa? Olivia, are you good with that? Or do you wanna head to the west gate here by yourself?”

“I’m fine with that; let’s just go together,” Olivia replied gamely. Issa just nodded, smiling. They changed their course to more of a northerly one and continued. Now and then, Morgan heard the sounds of people. He could hear yells, the sounds of cracking timber, and even the pinging sound a hammer makes when it’s pounding on stone or metal.

“Sounds busy,” he remarked to no one in particular.

“Yeah, lots of activity.” Olivia nodded. Just then, a thunderous bang rang out from the direction of the colony. It sounded like an explosion. “That sounded like an explosive!”

“It sure fucking did. Let’s pick up the pace!” Morgan gave Munch a bit of a kick, and they all rumbled through the light underbrush, moving parallel to the eastern wall of the colony. Soon they were near the edge of the woods, and Morgan could see the northern plains through the trees. He turned west and continued to urge Munch to move quickly through the trees until they burst through the treeline into the meadow about a half-mile from the northeast corner of the wall. They moved quickly over the open area, and as they got nearer the wall, Morgan saw two men rolling a long black barrel affixed to wooden wheels. “Holy shit! Is that a cannon on the top of the wall?”

“It looks like it!” Olivia said with a big smile on her face. “I knew Boris was working on a mold for cannon barrels, and it’s not like black powder is hard to mix. Arthur has had people scouring the foothills for caves with potassium nitrate. They must have found some. Or could they have figured out a way to cause explosions with Energy? Think of the possibilities, Morgan!” They hurried along the northern wall to the gate and were greeted by two guards, leveling flint-lock blunderbusses at them. Behind them stood two more guards with spears pointing their way.

“Woah, don’t shoot! We’re friends!” Morgan pulled up his roladii about thirty feet from the guards, and the others followed suit. Ykleedra hunched behind Morgan and his mount. “Umm, Olivia, can you go forward and talk to them. I don’t want to leave Ykleedra.” Olivia nodded and walked her mount forward toward the guards.

The guards had lowered their guns slightly when Morgan called out, and they relaxed entirely as they got a good look at Olivia. Morgan could hear her speaking to them, but the words were indistinct. After a few moments, the guards backed up and waved for Morgan and the others to advance. They watched warily, eyes wide, as Ykleedra gamboled forward on her spidery legs, but to their credit, they didn’t point their guns or say anything inflammatory. Morgan looked down at them from Munch’s back. “Flint-locks? What’s the story with those?”

“One of the Artifcers that works in the forge got his class - he got some ability that lets him shape simple metals like iron. He’s been making barrels for cannons and guns like this. I’d be scared to shoot a gun with an iron barrel, but some other guy has an ability that hardens the metal. It holds up to the black powder pretty well.”

“Not rifled, I take it?” Morgan asked, gesturing to the blunderbuss the guard held on his shoulder.

“Nah, it isn’t accurate past a couple of dozen paces, but they say they’re working on it!”

“Any action from the Urghat yet?” Olivia asked.

“Lots of encounters in the plains. We don’t send people out there anymore, but we’ve also had some encounters in the woods. Bronwyn returned recently with maps of their camps and even a count on their numbers. She thinks the first real attack is going to be soon.” The guard sniffed loudly, looking to the north with a frown.

“Where’d you get them mounts? Is that one of the Ardeni? We heard you were going to get help from them.” The other guard stepped forward a little as she asked her questions. She was vaguely familiar to Morgan, and he realized he’d spoken to her before by the Colony Stone when he’d been shopping for goods.

“Yeah, this is Issa, and she’s a friend. Her people are sending Hunters to help fight the Urghat. This is Ykleedra,” he said, pointing to the Yovashi. “I need to get her to my tower. She’s uncomfortable out here in the light around so many strangers. I’ll be glad to tell you all about the mounts another time.” The guards all backed up and waved them through the open gate. Issa waved at them as they passed, saying hello, and the guards, giving Morgan a small surge of pride for his people, cheerfully greeted her in turn.

The first thing Morgan noticed was that a gatehouse had been added with a guard station attached. He counted at least five other guards hanging around the gates, all armed with spears. Looking over his shoulder, he saw several guards within sight on top of the wall also, and they had muskets slung over their shoulders. He wondered how effective the weapons would be against the Urghat. They hadn’t seemed to be particularly powerful in the Crucible, and he didn’t remember any of them having especially strong defensive skills. He figured the muskets would probably prove quite helpful in a potential conflict with the creatures. According to Olivia, the System had warned the people here not to become reliant on technology because, in the long run, powerful Energy users would shrug off their tech-based defenses. Still, Morgan didn’t see that being a problem with Urghat. Besides, he felt like it was good to explore all avenues - he didn’t trust the System’s assessment that tech would be useless in the face of an Energy-rich environment.

The party rode their mounts slowly, waving to the guards, up the cobbled road toward Morgan’s tower. The road was new, and it went in a straight line up the gentle slope toward the hill where the Colony Stone was. They could see many more people moving around up there and several new buildings. Morgan’s tower was off to the left, though, so they rode into the grass toward it. Once again, Morgan noticed the large villa that had been constructed near his tower, and he wondered who lived in it. “Hey, Olivia, who lives in that villa?”

“Oh, we bought that as a reward and incentive for the leaderboard. Some guy named Reggie. Kind of a weird guy but very enthusiastic about earning points for the colony. He lives in there with some of his friends.”

“That tower is yours? The one from the Crucible?” Issa asked.

“Yeah, there it is! Unfortunately, we can only access up to the third floor. I still need to deal with the guardians higher than that.”

“Oh? You didn’t tell me about that. What’s the deal with the guardians?”

“I don’t know. I guess the guy who built the tower put a guardian on each floor. I have to fight each guardian by myself to access the rooms on that level. There are eight floors.”

“So we can’t help you?”

“No, the stairs are magical - if you take a couple of steps on them, you arrive at the next floor. They’ll separate me from anyone trying to help me.” Issa huffed at that explanation. Soon they were in front of the short set of steps leading to the tower door, and Morgan and Issa tied their roladii to the railing with long lengths of rope, giving them room to forage for grass. “I guess I’ll need to build a stable.”

“I’m going to go find Bronwyn and Arthur and tell them about our trip,” Olivia said, turning her roladii toward the center of the settlement. “Come find us after you get Ykleedra settled - I’m sure the council will want to hear from Issa.”

“Alright, we will.” Morgan climbed the steps and motioned for Ykleedra and Issa to follow. Olivia watched them for a moment, then nodded and rode off. Morgan put his hand on the door handle, and a loud click reverberated, indicating the lock had disengaged. He pulled open the door and held it open for Issa and Ykleedra. Ykleedra scurried in, happy to move out of the bright sunlight. Issa smiled at him and also walked in, and Morgan followed her. They’d only managed a handful of steps into the foyer when Ykleedra hissed and scurried back, scrunching herself into a ball of angular limbs behind Morgan. A tinkling flashing of lights indicated that Tiladia had made an appearance, and her voice soon followed.

“Morgan, welcome home. I see you’ve brought company!” Ykleedra shivered from behind Morgan, clearly distressed by the appearance and sound of the spirit. Issa just smiled, looking at Morgan with an arched eyebrow.

“Yeah, Tiladia, thank you. This is Issa, and this is Ykleedra,” he said, gesturing to them. “They’re guests and should be allowed to come and go. Can you make it so that they can open the front door?”

“Of course, Morgan. It is done,” Tiladia’s voice replied with a melodic cascade of harmonic tinkling sounds.

“Ykleedra, it’s okay. Tiladia is a friend; she’s a spirit that is bound to this tower.” Slowly, Ykleedra peered out from around Morgan, and then she scurried past the glowing misty form of Tiladia into the central hall of the tower. Tiladia flashed slightly and seemed to rotate, almost as if she watched the Yovashi pass by.

“It’s good to meet you, Mistress Issa,” she said after a brief pause.

“And you, Tiladia. Please just call me Issa.”

“Come on, I’ll show you around,” Morgan said, taking Issa’s hand and walking forward. “The only real problem is that I haven’t cleared the floor where the bedrooms are. What floor is that again, Tiladia? The fifth?”

“Yes, Morgan. I’ve taken the liberty of closely examining you. I think you stand a good chance versus the fourth level guardian now, but it would be quite risky to attempt the fifth.” Morgan frowned at Tiladia.

“Hey, that’s kind of invasive, you know. Also, what if I were trying to be impressive to my guests? It’s not very helpful for my home’s spirit to announce my capabilities.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Issa said, squeezing his hand, “I think you’re impressive!” She had a wicked grin on her face.

“That’s not the point, and besides, I know you’re teasing now.”

“Feeling sensitive?” Issa’s grin only widened.

“I’m sorry, Lord Morgan!” Tiladia’s chime sounded slightly discordant and high-pitched with concern.

“Oh, relax, you two. It’s fine. I have no secrets from Issa, Tiladia, but for future reference, please don’t advertise my strength to anyone who comes into this tower.” Morgan led Issa around the first floor, finding Ykleedra skulking around in the darkened kitchen. They managed to coax her into following them around for the rest of the tour. He explained to them that he’d been sleeping in the library on one of the couches and was about to lead them out to go up the stairs to the second floor when he saw Ykleedra standing near the table where he’d stacked the Yovashi books. “Oh, hey, yeah, those books are from your home, Ykleedra. I’m sorry, but when I took them, I considered your kind to be my enemies.”

“I’m glad they aren’t lost. My mother often spoke to me about how important they are, and I had to study this one,” she pointed at one of the thinner books, “almost every day.”

“So you can read them?”

“Some, but I’ve never been allowed to look in most of them.”

“I was making some progress with the language, Morgan, but knowing that Ykleedra can read some of it will make things much faster.” Morgan jumped slightly. He didn’t realize Tiladia had come up behind him. Ykleedra also cringed, shrinking down, but she didn’t flee this time.

“What do you say, Ykleedra? Can you help Tiladia to learn the language?” Morgan could see Ykleedra visibly steel herself and stand up straighter, then she nodded.

“I will do my best to help your spirit, Morgan. Thank you for bringing me here to your home.”