Unbound

All of the wards were down, disabled by Archie as he released the vault door. Apparently, opening it from inside was as simple as pulling an ornate lever, for which Felix was immensely grateful.

Within the Vault of Nine Kings was a short corridor lined with fifty-foot statues. Eight Dwarven men and women stood, some in armor, some cloth, others in barely anything at all, but all of them bore crowns upon their heads. These, Tzfell had explained, were the ancient kings that had reigned over the height of Dwarven civilization.

The corridor ended in a split hallway leading into two half-circle staircases around the ninth king that Felix recognized. “The Rockshaper. He was a ruler of the Dwarves?”

“The first, many contend,” Tzfell said.

The hall may have split, but both stairs led to the same place: a chamber that was far larger than anything they’d seen so far. Stretching as far as they could see, the vault seemed to be an endless expanse of orichalcum, mithril, and midnight stone. Supported atop gargantuan pillars, the ceiling was hundreds of feet high and held aloft by beams of metal that crisscrossed in intricate, almost dizzying patterns.

Twenty feet above them, a balcony stretched along every wall, until a second level was formed, with a great many silver-green doors bearing glowing locks. Felix counted at least thirty more before he stopped, each one with doors and supposed riches hid within. The floor was heavily patterned, golden knotwork bordering large slabs of veilstone, but little of it could be seen, due to the literal piles of treasure that filled every inch of the chamber.

“Siva’s Grace,” Vess whispered.

Shelves, cages, boxes, and racks organized all the riches before them, which were tidied into towering stacks. Precious artifacts, reams of books, carts of raw ore, and smelted ingots, and even the tools to work them. And literal piles of silver, gold, and platinum coins that were spread artfully across entire portions of the vault floor.

“Any traps or wards we should be worried about?” Harn asked.

Laur shook his head. “No. All of the constructs I sense are wound through the walls and those far-off windows. The rest is entirely safe.”

“Unless we get more of those secret arrays,” Evie pointed out.

“Then be careful,” Felix said. “We need to find Archie’s banishment array and the Mote of Frenzy. I’ve told you what it looks like, but don’t grab it yourself. We don’t have much time to search. Go.”Evie, Beef, and Harn took off, with Hallow craning her neck from the Minotaur’s shoulder. Tzfell and Laur moved more cautiously, but with the same amount of excitement. Vess and Yintarion leaped over the balustrade and landed among the dark pathway between mounds of gold.

“Mote of Frenzy?” Archie asked. “That’s what you’ve been after all this time?”

Felix shrugged, eyes scanning across the room. He kept his Voracious Eye humming in his chest, letting his eyes skim over the information that popped up. “Not the only reason. I meant what I said before. I want to keep you safe and out of the Hierophant’s hands. Coming here…well, we had to catch you, right?”

Archie snorted. “Well, you did that. What’s this Mote thing for?”

“To heal my friend.”

“Friend? The cute one or the serious one with the spear?”

In a flash of light, Pit appeared next to Felix for the first time since Archie had joined them. “The cute one,” Pit announced.

The Delven jerked in surprise, hands glowing with some sort of Skill before he dismissed it. “Who is—is that a…bird-dog? Where’d you keep it?” He peered closer. “Why didn’t I know you had a bird-dog?”

“You’ve already met him,” Felix said.

“I was smaller before.”

Archie blanched. “The creepy dog.”

Pit looked hurt. “Creepy?”

“Er, sorry. Not used to talking pets.”

“Pet?”

Felix stopped scanning the room for a second, surprised by the change in the Delven’s Spirit. This whole time, the guy had been suspicious, anxious, and more than a little angry. Now though, it was like his entire mood had been smoothed out. Calmed. “Did something happen? You’re very calm all of a sudden.”

Archie laughed. "Can't say I've ever seen altruism in action before, so you going all white knight on me, helping me out? That's suspicious. But if you're here for something, too...I get that. Respect it."

"You don't trust anyone, do you?"

"Not if I can help it."

Felix grunted and returned to scanning the treasure piles. Soon, he narrowed his eyes. “I see something. Hold on.”

“To whaaaaa—!”

Archie screamed as Felix grabbed him and leaped into the air. They hurtled high and fast, describing an arc headed toward the middle of the orderly treasure pile, and he landed with a muted crash. A few precious stacks of gold tumbled to the ground, while a handful of jewel-encrusted swords clattered off their rack.

Archie staggered from Felix’s grip, spreading his arms and legs as his balance returned. “What the hell, man?”

“Faster that way,” Felix said. Pit appeared a second later, landing beside them far more gracefully than Felix had. “Both of you, help me search. I saw something weird over here.”

“Weird how?”

“Looked like metal, but it kept changing colors…and my Eye couldn’t identify it.”

“Little Dragoon! Come here!”

Vess slipped between a block of stacked veilstone and vases so thin that the sourceless light made them almost transparent. On the other side, Yin was swimming in the air like an agitated fish.

“Ah, yes. Perfect. Look at these!” He floated closer to a shelf, which contained a number of jars all sealed with wax and sigils. However, among the jars was a single, battered book.

“A book?”

“Not just a book! A Dragoon book.” Yin swam forward and clutched the tome with his little claws. “Look here! This seal is the mark of the order. I have seen it a thousand times. Rana would sign her letters with it, and it marked the binding of every book they produced.”

Reverently, Vess took the book from Yin and turned it over in her hands. The cover wasn’t nearly as bad as the binding appeared, but there was enough warping and discoloration that she could no longer tell what had been inked onto the front. Within, however, the pages were a rich paper covered in a blocky script.

“This is a shipment manifest,” she said after reading it for a moment.

“Ah, well, hardly exciting. But if there is one, there should be more. Come, come!”

They had wandered through rows and rows of cloth, metal ingots, and crafted leather goods. Many had zero enchantments, but they were made of rare materials, were high Tier, or both. Useful, certainly, but Felix wondered at why it was all there. You’d think with a vault like this, they would only put the best of the best in it.

“I think I found it,” Archie said.

Felix turned from a collection of axe handles—not even full axes, just the wooden handles—and saw Archie waving from across the aisle. “Pit. C’mon.”

“Hm? Oh yeah. Be right there.”

Felix crossed the thin path and found the Delven thief standing in front of a tiny door that was mostly hidden by a large tapestry depicting some ancient battle. As he watched, the door shifted from a steel-gray color to a warmer wood tone, then back to a cooler silver-blue.

“This was hiding here, covered by that tapestry. No wonder we couldn’t find it at first. Thing is warded up like crazy.” Archie knocked on the door, and a ripple of blue, green, and red spiraled out from the impact. “I think it’s trying to make us ignore it.”

Frowning, Felix focused on the door with all of his attention. As if a film had been ripped from his eyes, the door was suddenly three times larger and made of a shimmering, red-gold orichalcum. Pit trilled in surprise.

“Can you open it?” Felix asked.

“Can’t Stoneswim through it, but I got other talents,” Archie said and produced a selection of lockpicks before turning back to the door. Moments later, there was a solid click, and the large orichalcum door swung inward. “Hah! I’m not Adept Tier in Arcane Lockpicking for nothing.”

Felix grinned and clapped the Delven on his back. “Great job.”

Exploration is level 81!

He stepped into the door first and froze. “Pit.”

“Yeah?”

“Go get everyone.”

“Is it—?”

“Go. Quickly.”

His Companion ran off, vanishing swiftly into the hoard. Archie stepped up and around Felix’s legs, however, and stared.

“What the hell is this?” he asked.

“I really don’t know.”

Before them was a large, domed room carved from the rock instead of built from fine materials. It was a cavern, save that its ceiling was cut in facets, almost like looking out from inside a dull gemstone. Pillars held it up in places, covered in typical Dwarven knotwork and patterns, they were the least interesting thing about it.

Chains and hooks and pulleys attached to far more arcane tools were everywhere, each clearly designed to secure and manipulate the gargantuan creature within its midst. Said creature filled the cavern with light, a hot, molten illumination that bled down the walls like oozing waterfalls.

“But I know that,” Felix continued. “That is a Superior Elemental.”

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