Hammer and Steel

Tycho, I have given your story a rating (5 Stars) as a personal endorsement.

Firstly, I hope that it will help you garner more attention for this excellent story
and secondly, it's a personal show of affection and appreciation for the tale you've crafted.
(P.S. I can't help imagining a conversation between a machine gun turret and a human when one of your characters is named Troika :lol:)

EDIT: I can't see the stars on the story that I've given.
Either the internet I'm using right now is bad or the forum needs to take some time to register the rating.
Either way, it's going to happen one way or another!

EDIT: Alright, my rating is up! By the way, the links for your chapters on the first page are broken.
 
:agree"

can't believe I didn't do that yet.......
 
Tycho, I have given your story a rating (5 Stars) as a personal endorsement.

Firstly, I hope that it will help you garner more attention for this excellent story
and secondly, it's a personal show of affection and appreciation for the tale you've crafted.
(P.S. I can't help imagining a conversation between a machine gun turret and a human when one of your characters is named Troika :lol:)

EDIT: I can't see the stars on the story that I've given.
Either the internet I'm using right now is bad or the forum needs to take some time to register the rating.
Either way, it's going to happen one way or another!

EDIT: Alright, my rating is up! By the way, the links for your chapters on the first page are broken.

Thank you Dawn, did the same for your story as well!

On the matter of the links, I'm having a bit of trouble with them but steadily working on fixing them after the new update is out.

On the matter of Troika... someone told me the word meant "three", but it was a machine gun turret? Now I can't picture Troika as anything but that!
 
Troika indeed means three but I was thinking of the machine gun turret from Gears of War.
Anyways, here's to hoping for more attention and continued success for your story!
 
"Oi, you there!"

The fur wrapped man was just turning around with his assualt rifle in hand as Oxford slammed the blunt hammer into his temple.

"Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer, came down upon his head!" Oxford sung to himself as he smashed the hammer repeatedly into the skull of the dead man. "Clang, clang, Maxwell's silver hammer made sure that he was dead!"

Oxford's viciousness made even Epsilon sick, the man wretching as he saw Oxford smash the skull into a bloody ruin and the rest of his body soon following. Yulai gave a shout to his fellow agent. "You bloody fool, he's dead! Stop now!"

Epsilon, Cambridge, and Delta wrenched Oxford back, his bloody sledgehammer slipping from his hands onto the snow as the giant of a man howled with laughter. "I was just getting started Yulai, why did you make me stop!? I love doing my job, and the bloodier the better!"

"You will cut this load of right now unless you want to go back to Washington in a paper bag!"

"So are you going to kill me Yulai?" Silence reigned amongst the group for almost a minute as the snow began to settle on the carnage of the slaughtered men scattered all around, some in cars, others splayed out as if sleeping in the snow. "Didn't think so, because you don't quite have the manhood in order to kill me now do you?"

Yulai was crimson with rage, but he held his tongue in regards to Oxford. "Delta, go set up your equipment on the ridge. Can you fit a silencer or use silent bullets in your gun?"

"If I do I will not have the range to blow their heads off."

"Very well, start sniping targets after a five minute grace period." Yulai marched off down the road to where their van was, his black coat flapping around his ankles and his wiast, the hood drawn up around his head.

"Well that was fun while it lasted," Oxford proclaimed as he jerked his hammer up from the ground. "Now what do we do?"

The others didn't speak to him, merely followed Yulai back to the van.


The assualt started thirty minutes after. The van that they drove up to the front of the compound sat there for thirty seconds while the mercenary soldiers called out for them to step away from their vehicle. Several loud gunshots later, and all seven of them were either in pieces or had dropped to the ground below.

Nova was the first one out of the vehicle, the small, wiry man popping off shots from the semi automatic as he took up a position by the vehicle. Theta and Yulai spilled out as well, providing covering fire while Oxford, Cambridge, and Epsilon staggered out with their weapons in their hands. Oxford was already calling out insults at the others, one of whom landed a bullet in the tall scarecrow of a person on his shoulder, which Oxford laughed at before blowing the man's brains out across the walls.

Six thermal grenades had their pins popped off at the same time, shortly before Epsilon chucked them into the barracks housing. Three buildings went up in flames, burning bodies launched upwards into the air or out of the door. Oily smoke that smelled of cooking flesh rose up into the sky as the fire's burned with an eeire glow that was common only in silver phosphorous.

More gunshots echoed out as Oxford brought out two scythes on a chain, whirling them around before tossing them into the blades of a helicopter. The chopper, a Black Falcon, spun around in the air as it descended, the racks of missiles dropping off and exploding when the impacted the ground. The Falcon smashed into the second wall of the compound with an explosion that tossed men in every direction.

"Go, go, go!" Yulai was screaming out.

Epsilon, Cambridge, and Oxford were the first one's in the breach, Oxford swinging his hammer left and right as he sung out in a deep voice "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", while Epsilon used his crescent bladed knife to gut and stab all that got in his way. Cambridge on the other hand held back and picked off the random person that he could, the ones that usually were not fleeing out of sheer terror and aiming at the agents.

Nova was hit three times in the stomach, but simply shot back, the bullets thumping into his would be killer's body as the man fell from the walls. As he stumbled upwards, Oxford's hammer drove him down in a gout of blood.

Fire lapped against the walls of the entire compound now, more thermal grenades leaving Cambridge's hands as he lit fire to everything around them, purging the world of the bodies, the ashes everywhere now, on his tongue, in his hair, water and mud congealing on the ground with boiling blood. Wild laughter bursted out of his mouth, and Epsilon and Oxford laughed right along as well.

The third wall fell as a grappling hook tore a sharpshooter off of the battlements and allowed Epsilon to scale the stony face with ease, the gate opening. Mercenaries poured out, only to be cut down by the bullets fired from all of the agents, Yulai manning a machine gun on top of the van as he remotely drove the vehicle forward. "We almost have them now fellows, kill them all, and may god sort them out!"

With the third wall fallen, the only thing left was the main fortified area, the castle. The hallways were already filling with smoke as the gas masks were strapped to all of the agents faces, moments before they spilled out into the main area, bullets spraying everywhere and blood splashing and sloshing on the floor as Epsilon and Oxford did their work. Servents had scattered and ran away the best they could, but any that got into the reach of Oxford's hammer met a grisly end. The beastly man kept up his orgy of death and violence as he screamed out that song, the word's beginning to be tattoed on the inside of Cambridge's brain.

Five minutes of unabated slaughter and death, and they reached the main room. The control room, the hub, in which the commander would reside. Yulai motioned for Cambridge to crack the door open. He nodded, slung the rifle over his shoulder and kicked in the door so hard it flew into the area before slamming into a table and stopping.

Cambridge was halfway through the doorway when he was bashed from the side, an arm wrapping around his throat as another drew up a pistol beside his head. The thin, scratchy voice of the Berlinner was right behind him. "Drop your weapons or your friend dies."

Oxford didn't really look like he cared if Cambridge got in the way of his kill or not, but the other agents dropped their collective weaponry to the ground and gave the Deutschlander a look of pure hatred. "Not my fault Amerikans, but I prefer to stay alive. I'm going to leave now. The second I hear you trying to make a move against me, the bomb strapped to my chest will go off and decimate anything within five hundred meters of me."


Delta spied the thin Deutschlander moving up to the rooftop where his private chopper awaited him, and what looked like... Cambridge? "Damnation," he swore to himself as he peered down the scope of the high powered rifle.

He aimed carefully as the Deutschlander shouted at the other agents assembling on the roof as Yulai's comm lines crackled over his ears. "Take the shot."


Cambridge squirmed as the agents stepped out from the staircase in front of him and Thunderfalcon. "You fools, kill him, kill him now! Or more people will die!"

"Shut up you pathetic little Amerikan," shouted the Deutschlander over the raging tempest of the snowstorm and the crackle of fire. "I do not intend to leave you alive if you insist upon keeping this up! But none of you can kill me now, unless you have a sniper laying somewhere-"

A single gunshot from a world away and the grip of the Deutschlander slackened, half of his head blown off as he fell onto the rooftop, blood trickling from his mouth and the remains of his skull. He was clearly dead before he even hit the stone.

"What are you waiting on you fools!" Yulai shouted out to his compatriots. "The whole place is coming down, let's go!"
 
Troika indeed means three but I was thinking of the machine gun turret from Gears of War.
Anyways, here's to hoping for more attention and continued success for your story!

Ah I see now. Thank you Dawn!

If you don't mind me asking, how can I create the links for the individual chapters in the story?
 
If you click on the number in the top right you get to the individual post then copy the web address.
Highlight the text you want to be the hyper-link then press
createlink.gif
Pasting the web address you just copied into the pop up.
 
But none of you can kill me now, unless you have a sniper laying somewhere-"

:lol: how wrong of you :p
 

Schmerz

Qual

Mein Leiden für Deutschland hat sich auf ewig, ab dem Tag der Schöpfung gegangen. Heute werde ich aufstehen und zertrümmern öffnen Sie die Welt der Menschen zu einer neuen Welt neu zu schmieden in das Feuer und Trümmern des alten.

Lassen Sie die Hämmer fallen und die Trommeln zu schlagen, denn jetzt marschieren wir auf der Welt zu Ende und der Erschaffung der Welt noch einmal! März mit mir jetzt und sehen die Welt kopfüber, ließ keines halten uns zurück in unsere heilige Aufgabe!

Lassen Sie die Ritter des Todes fegen über das Land und schaffen die Geißel, die das Schicksal der Menschen entscheidet!

Wenn du mich verrätst, wirst du sterben.

Gehorcht mir und schreien mit der Stimme des Glücks über das, was Sie erreicht haben!

Die Götter sind tot, und ich bin diejenige, die Sie führen müssen! Folgen Sie mir zu Ruhm und Reichtum und alles, was ein Mensch sich wünschen kann! Lassen Sie uns zu schmieden ein neues Reich, ein Reich, das seit Tausenden von Jahren stehen wird, eine, die nicht in obscutiry und Staub fällt, sondern steigt aus der Asche der alten in die neue! Heil Sieg!



"A bloody mess if there was ever a large one."

"Indeed, but there is nothing we can do about it now." The fire glimmered behind them as their chopper left the scene of slaughter. The collective weaponry that they had wielded was in the back with Delta as the chopper spun it's blades and left. Yulai took a drag on a cigarette, muttered a curse in German as he turned it northward. "Message out of Washington. They are holding a captive in the north, one Imran Halyev. Supposedly he's from the Phoenix Strait, but we don't know anything for sure. They are busy questioning him now."

"What do they need us for then," Nova asked. "Do they really need eight agents to question him?"

"Just there for backup. From what we do know of the man, he's part of a shadow group known as the Black Marchers. Not a funny name Epsilon, those guys are ruthless. They've carried out multiple data thefts in the government, taken guys hostage, and bombed plenty of places just because they can. This recent data theft struck to close to the Project, and the folks in Washington are pissing themselves over it."

"Just great," muttered Oxford as he cracked his knuckles. "I'll do the questioning if you don't mind."

"I would prefer that Epsilon did it. Your methods have a habit of not keeping the questioned alive."

"What the business with the coals? Effective as hell, you've got to admit that. Cut open his abdomen, shoved those steaming babies in, and let him scream himself bloody as he spat out the answers. Burned right through the stitching and the skin, so we had to put them back in."

"Precisely the point. Washington prefers this man alive so that the Chekra can have him. Maybe even the Verbenschwa."

They all grew quiet when they heard that. The Verbenschwa was the darkest of the black ops organized by Washington, and because of that they were highly feared. Merely questioning them could have them following you for years or more while they slowly whittled away at your defences, killing you if they suspected that you were an enemy of the state.

"Well he won't last long with the Verbenschwa. He'll be dead in six months, dumped from twenty thousand feet up into the ocean." Epsilon cracked a smile as he mused, stroking his bare chin as he spoke.

"Shut up fellows, we've got a long ride north, and by the looks of it, the snowstorm won't be letting up."


Approximitely seven hours later filled with beer, cold nacho chips, seventy five renditions of one hundred bottles of beer on the wall, two card games, and one helicopter dive after Yulai fell asleep at the wheel, they finally arrived.

The safehouse where the prisoner was being kept was stark and white, matching well with the snow. When the snow melted, it would change color and maybe have plenty of rocks and dirt put over it in order to make sure that it would not be disturbed by hikers, or god forbid the worst spawn dredged up from the bowels of hell: drunken bloggers with video cameras.

Two agents strode out of the bunker as the helicopter dropped down to the snow covered embankmet, two trees being crushed as it did so. The collective men of Yulai's group hopped out of the helicopter, breath frosting into clouds as they bit back insults about the cold.

"Agents Maximus and Augustus." The one named Augustus put out his hand towards Yulia and shook it gingerly. "Thirteenth Division, right?"

"Yes. We have all heard of you no doubt. Second Division?"

"Damn right. Raine is a hard man, but he's a good commander. I imagine you fellows are hungry and thirsty."

"Need to piss more than anything else," grumbled Oxford, the giant cracking his knuckles and sounding very much like steel scraping on stone. "I hope that you have a bathroom."

"We have adequete facilities. Come inside if it pleases all of you." Everyone moved towards the safehouse area as fast as they could, eager to get inside of the warm place.

Oxford strode forth to join the other two agents, muttering to them quietly, exclaiming at one point, moving down into the bunker as the others of Yulai's group were just getting in. Yulia looked over at Augustus and Maximus in disbelief. "You let him go alone somewhere?"

"Yes. Why? Should we be worried?"

"You damn fools," Yulai cursed as he moved down the hall.


It took almost seven minutes to find Oxford, and that was only because he heard the screaming. Bursting into the room, it was more of a bloody mess than that with the man that Epsilon and Cambrdige had dealt with.

Oxford was bringing the crowbar down onto the man's face with a savage force, causing several of the prisoner's teeth to break free and fall to the floor. "What are you doing you stupid fool?!" Yulai shouted as he restrained Oxford from slamming the crowbar back onto the prisoner's face. "We need him alive!"

"Who said I was going to kill him?"

"You arrogant, bloody, pisspoor exucse for an agent, we have orders to make sure he doesn't die, and knowing you, you will kill him before he leaves here!"

"Just making him feel some pain 'is all. What's so bad about that?"

"The ethics of this are not sound-!"

"Do not lecture me on ethics Yulai, you stand aside and let others die under your orders, or have you forgotten that?" The crowbar smashed into the prisoner's face once again, blood trickling between his teeth.

"Stop, please." The man begged now with his face swollen up in many places. "I will tell you anything that you want..."

"Oh we already know everything." Oxford flashed a winning smile at the man. "This is just for fun."

Epsilon and Cambridge had appeared now, and were restraining the bigger man to the best of their ability. "This is going to stop," said Yulai menacingly to his compatriot. "You can not continue doing this, this is against everything we stand for!"

"What we stand for is a dead dream and an ancient warning." Oxford shrugged the other men off of him. "It's ash and dust now. It's worth less than spittle."
 
A minor update until this sunday. Hopefully I can carry out my plans and release seven updates in order, less than five minutes apart each one.

Till then, enjoy!
 
If only I could read German... TO GOOGLE TRANSLATE
 
If only I could read German... TO GOOGLE TRANSLATE

It will be a rough translation at the best. I'm using my friend in the matter, and he is a little... let's say he's a little vague on it and has some problems with it, so don't be surprised if you see something that's rather off about it.
 
Conveinant. Was going to post the english translation of it, but people seem to be figuring it all out on their own. :)
 
The Fifty Bells of Kain the Prophet

Two hundred years after the Mad King, a man in the city of Washington walked down the streets barefooted, praying for the masses of people in the city and outside the borders of Ameirka. This holy man was Kain the Prophet, a man of high piety, and high paranoia. But his paranoia had saved his life when he was preaching one day, and men attempted to stab him. They ended up in bags and the Prophet continued to preach.

The primary reason why many people remember the name of Kain the Prophet was because of what he did. He was the man to set the first version of the Laws of the Gods down on stone, and the first person to organzie the pantheon into a recognizable pattern, also putting down numerous songs and hymns to be sung during services. His most astounding achievement though were the fifty bronze bells that he created for one special purpose. To foretell the end of times as men would know it.

Three years before Kain died, he ordered fifty large bronze bells to be constructed by master smiths, each one depicting a certain scene from Laws of the Gods. Many had to deal with the Epic of Hiron, an ancient hero who was said to have talked and convened with the gods themselves and decided the fates of men. Not only that, but the last ten bells depicted scenes from the Tale of Caparin, who ventured into the Deep Roads. The depictions are far from the lighthearted tales of heroes; violent scenes of death and destruction are on the bells, ones that are not mentioned in the legends themselves.

Before he died, Kain the Prophet decreed that at the time of each tragedy, one bell would ring on it's own to signal that the world was one step closer towards it's time of reckoning. On the exact minute when Kain died, one of the bells depicting Kain being laid to rest struck, with no one in the bell tower.

The bells rang with each major event that happened as the Empire expanded. Wars, plagues, famines, losses of life that were incomprehensible, and civil unrest as well. Modern day scholars and scientists have investigated the bells with highly trained eyes and have discovered nothing out of the ordinary about them. Indeed, the bells ring when no one else is about, and even during earthquakes which have caused skyscrapers to fall and church bells to clang, the Fifty Bells themselves have never struck on a day when a great tragedy has not occured.

But what defines a great tragedy? One death toll from a flood in the east left four thousand people dead and not a single bell rang, but when the castle at Blankenmarsch burned to the ground, a bell rang for it. The striking of the bells seems to be completely random at times and unpredictable, something that has perturbed modern scholars and scientists.

Since it's creation during the Age of Settlement, the bells have had a grand total of twenty five ring during different events. At the rate that it has gone, it will be another four thousand years before the last bell rings. However, scholars have noted that in the Modern Era more than fifteen bells rang, compared to the three in the industrial times, one during the Imperial age, two during the medievel times, and four during the Age of Settlement. There is no set pattern between the strikes of the bell and the events that happen. Until then, people will have to keep guessing as to the matter.


Structure of the Deep Roads

Scholars of all sorts and passions have tried for ages to figure out how the Deep Roads are structure in legend. According to legend, the parts of the road go from the Deep Roads, the Deeper Roads, the Shadow Roads, the Devourer of Light Hollow, the Vault, the Nexus of the Damned, and the Core. Until recently the last two parts were believed to be false and not a part of the canon legend, but a journal uncovered in ruins outside of an ancient known as Ashtai speak differently.

The Diary of Lu Sung III

Today Zhou died on the trek northward. The stings from the Jasamine thorne cat turned gangrenous, with his veins turning black as ink and his water clouded by pus. The wound became extremely infected, and when multiple flies landed and attempted to feast on the dead flesh, they all died in quick succession. The corruption will not be touched by mosquitos or maggots, and the body decays slowly from an unknown source. We will bury him shortly.

In the meanwhile, we found a set of obsidian stones outside the entrance to the cave we had come to investiage. The cave is a long circular tunnel going deep into the earth. We have found evidence of torches and other used material including food scraps. We dare not enter at the moment though.

Several pages later.

We have descended into the Deep Roads and are now entering the Deeper Roads. This area is quite large, and we have seen liquid fire move down long chasms. We estimate the depth of one cavern to be at three miles, but oddly enough we are not feeling any change in pressure whatsoever. It is a curious thing.

Several more pages later.

Basilev died today, unknown causes. At least that's what we can discern from the remains of the body found outside of our camp.



We will update you soon sir on the rest of the diary.

Long live the State.
 
The Diary of Lu Sung III

Today we moved down deeper into the roads. We have found an abundance of wood and coal, enough to make plentiful torches and lanterns to light our way. Since Basilev died, we have been posting more sentries to watch the perimeter of our camp as we make our way down. This place quite honestly has scared many of us, and our Vietemese guide refused to guide us down in here. Pathetic superstisious fool.

Anyways, we have been very careful when going down. The pit as earlier described actually exceeds our measurments, proving itself to be seven miles deep. Liquid fire pours into from many directions, so we have no need for more torches at the moment. A staircase made out of obsidian rests along the inside wall of this place, and we are preparing to make our way down there.

It has been a great trip that we have made so far; since being dispatched from Washington from the Scholars Guild, we have found many varieties of plants, stones, and animals that the Guild has not known about before. It was only on a hunch that we headed here to check and see if the Deep Roads are a true thing after all. If all in the legends is true, than I will have become a legend myself for others to talk about long after my death. My family will be glad, and we desperately need the money that an expedition like this provides.

But back to the Deep Roads. The tunnels themselves are circular, cylindrical and have stones in them. Some contain iron bars, broken and twisted about and highly rusted. I have warned the men to be very careful around them. We can not afford someone being injured and becoming infected with tetanus.

The staircase previously mentions drops away from sight, but air billowing up from the deep parts of the pit is cold and frigid, peculiar for the simple fact that the liquid fire pools down at the bottom and then meanders down farther into the Deep Roads.


The next page was torn out, and another burned and covered in charcoal dust. We could not decipher it easily.

We have descended carefully down into the pit, losing only one man in the process. Torren was not being careful, and was peering over the edge when a pack fell against him, pushing him over the edge. We did not see how far down he fell, but at the least it was two miles onto what I believe to be the sharpest rocks this side of the Guildmaster's pointed skull. No matter; men can be easily replace later on.

I myself am growing perturbed about this place. Just last night, something stole into camp and made off with seven pounds of our food provisions. I am deeply afraid that whatever it was shall return shortly.


At this point, hundreds of pages are ripped out and others burned and scorched so only the last ones remain.

[Sic]Oh gods above and below, I can hear them all crawling around me, gods preserve me, gods keep me alive, I've been a good person, save me gods save me. Why am I the last one left? Why am I the last one left, gods why, why gods why?

May this get back to my family. I love them all, and may the gods keep them in peace.


Blood smears are evident on the last blank pages, obviously from some sort of beast. We are still trying to find my artifacts of the sort.

We will update you soon sir. Long live the State.
 
A Mad King, Part 5

Descent Into Darkness



"Nathanial, come on." Troika stood at the top of the staircase tapping his foot impatiently. "We don't have time for this you know. We actually need to do our profession."

But Nathanial still hesitated. 'You are not the one who had the black dreams last night, a tunnel filled with blood and screams, and bodies.... and something else as well.' At least he wasn't the only one not interested in going in. Havnar looked as if he would claw a man open if they tried to pull him down there, and he would literally do it. Yellow, unwashed fingernails thick and sharp like talons, which had supposedly helped him rip out the throat of a tiger.

"Nathanial come on, this is the fastest way down here."

"To our destination or our deaths?"

"Don't be a fool Nathanial, we've gone through this area countless times. You can go through it just as easily. Come on friend, we will just be in here for a few days."

Nathanail still hesitated, then put one step down on the steps. A cold wind drifted up from the tunnels, causing him to shiver. A whisper on the wind seemingly said something to him... or was that simply the breeze playing tricks on him again?

"There we go Nathanial." Troika smiled at the younger man. "Take a torch and follow us." He turned back to Havnar, who had crept down the steps as wary as a mouse. "You as well, come on now."

The torches were lit, casting a ruddy orange glow against the walls of the tunnel. Moss and ivy grew along the walls, and large amounts of metal were on the floor. It wasn't copper... the color was too dark and silvery for that. It mattered naught though as they trekked deeper into the tunnels.

Many of the men had merrry discusions with one another, laughing and carousing as they went down the hallway. The medic was always standing by should someone get hurt, but that looked to be like a rare exception. Troika laughed along with them, unclasping a flask of whiskey from time to time and taking a swig, often passing it off to Nathanial and Havnar as they walked in the glow of the torches.

Nathanial tried twice to strike up a conversation with Havnar, but was ignored or simply not heard as the rheumy eyed man muttered what sounded like prayers, his bloodshot eyes opening wide from time to time. A spool of rope that he had was wound over and over again, to be unwound so the process would start all over again.

The third time he tried to talk to the man, Troika laughed and said to Nathanial, "You'll get not much talk out of that one. He's a stony man I hear, and not only that he's having hallucinations all the time. Or so they say, they could have just made that up to make fun of me then. But the point is, Havnar is not a talking man most of the time. Indeed, it's a rare occurance if he talks or yells when he stubs his toe. He broke three bones once, awful things sticking out of his arm, and he never stopped praying and talking to himself the entire time."

"I don't doubt that whatsoever."

"You shouldn't, I was there and was supposed to hold him down, but he never moved, never quaked at all. Damndest thing I have ever seen in the world."

They stopped talking for a minute and instead listened to the other men ahead laugh and crack jokes about each other, punch each other lightly on the shoulder after a particularly foul jape.

"So Troika... how long have you been in these tunnels? The entire scouting group I mean."

"Hmmm, must be about four years now. We've never told a soul about this stuff, and we never intend to. Our place to do whatever we want and hear we are freer than we are above. Though it is horribly dark down here, and there a short supply of whiskey and wenches I hear."

"Very funny. So... anything ever attack you fellows before?"

"Some wild animals. Several panthers, a bear, lions, once we had some wolves, but that's about it. Nothing more than that."

"Ah I see." 'Stupid dream.'

They walked in silence for an even longer period of time, Havnar muttering behind them in a liquid tongue as the whisper of rope on rope echoing in their skulls. Men laughed up ahead and some behind them, full of happiness and fun...

Wait.

Only Nathanial, Troika, and Havnar were back here. The column ended with them....

Nathanial cautiously peeked behind him. Nothing was there, save for some golden glowing eyes back there....

The best words to sum this up right now were simply not possible to say. "Troika..." stammered Nathanial. "Ther is something behind us...."

"Nathanial, don't be playing games with me oh holy mother of the Creator." Troika's surprise was writ everywhere upon his face. "In that case Nathanial, you know what to do?"

"What?"

Troika only grabbed his and Havnar's torches and threw them at the eyes... which were revealed to be amber spheres hanging upon threads. Just amber hanging on threads....

"But, but, but...." he muttered. "I heard laughter. Cold laughter, like people were following us..."

"Have you never heard an echo Nathanial? That is what it was." Troika picked up the torches and relit one that had gone out. "Let's just continue moving for right now."

"Cursed place, dead place, halls of the dead, halls of the dead and the dying, and the damned, oh we all die down here we all die down here yes yes yes yes yes...."

"Ignore him Nathanial, he's just having a hallucination at this point." Troika continued to move, but Havnar's lilac eyes quavered and seemed to run with blood. He gripped Nathanial's arm and whispered, "A king of blood and iron falls, a queen of ashes and fire we shall meet, and in the Deep Roads, only a few may survive. Pray tell Nathanial, what will you do?"
 
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