Chapter Forty Four

When the Deepfolk in the distance first came into sight, Lilia initially assumed they’d just made some kind of barricade across the road and were defending it against attacking cold ones. As they approached and she began using her soul sight, however, she realized something peculiar—the attacking force seemed oddly low by comparison to the defenders. This came in spite of the fact that the Warm Roads weren’t built on the surface, so they didn’t have to conform to any sort of terrain like normal roads did.

“You built a fortress into the road…not ahead of time, but when the attacks began,” Cinna surmised once they’d grown close enough for her to get a good look.

“Exactly! When the attacks started we lowered a section of the road into the magma and built ramparts across the road. We extended the road to either side for barracks and such, too,” Klicksun explained.

“Why don’t they just dig around?” Lilia wondered. Klicksun had mentioned there being Deepfolk liches earlier, so it seemed odd to her that this was working at all.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Klicksun replied, sounding as if the thought had never occurred to them before.

“Perhaps this “aggregate” of theirs can answer that question for us,” Cinna suggested. “Knowing would not affect our purpose here, though, so please allow me a moment to address that with them first.”

“That’s okay. I don’t care that much anyway,” Lilia responded honestly.

Soon the trio came up to the rear of the Deepfolk fortress. There was no gate or even any walls—whether the road ever truly transitioned into a fortress at all was rather vague. It just continued on, looking exactly the same as always, until suddenly it became many times as wide and terminated in a series of pillars that the Deepfolk were using to funnel their attackers and reduce the number of their own that needed to fight at any given time.

…or so Cinna explained while Klicksun asked where to find the leader.

They were directed to a chamber on the far left side of the fortress. Passing through, Lilia took around at the Deepfolk defending the place. Most seemed to be taking things more casually than she would have expected. The ones that weren’t fighting were standing around and talking, eating bowls of crystals and rocks, playing games she didn’t recognize, and more. Nearly all of them were wearing their cloaks even here; Klicksun seemed to be the odd one out. Those that weren’t wearing cloaks were wearing armor, a difference even Lilia could notice.

“Interesting. Their armor isn’t buckled on; it appears to be forged onto their bare skin,” Cinna noted when she caught sight of one of the armored Deepfolk. Lilia didn’t take much more notice than that.

Arriving at the aggregate’s office, the three proceeded inside without waiting to be invited in. Gratht had already gone inside; Lilia recognized them by their blue cloak. They were in the middle of a long complaint about Surfacefolk that Lilia didn’t find interesting enough to listen to. Neither did the crimson-cloaked Deepfolk sitting across a stone table from them, it seemed, as they looked up when the others arrived, then reached a hand out to physically shut Gratht’s mouth.

“Enough, you gibbering fool. Return to your post. I’ve heard enough of your blithering to last a lifetime,” the aggregate ordered. Gratht tried to protest, but the aggregate’s grip proved too strong. “Try to speak again and I’m promoting you to a hammer-wielder, effective immediately.”

“I thought the fortress wasn’t equipped to armor anyone,” Klicksun commented.

“Immediately,” the aggregate replied to that, staring directly at Gratht as they spoke. Apparently getting the point, Gratht fell silent. The aggregate released their grip on Gratht’s mouth, and the latter waited only long enough to glare at Cinna and Lilia before hurrying out of the chamber.

“Facet Klicksun reporting! I’ve brought Crown Princess Cinna of Selkarc and…friend,” Klicksun announced.

“Tell me something, facet. Did you confirm this Surfacefolk’s identity before bringing it here?” the aggregate questioned.

“Uh…no,” Klicksun admitted, surprised by the question. “But she knew about the agreement I was briefed on when I was given my post.”

“Anyone could…never mind, there’s a reason you were assigned to that post,” the other Deepfolk said, quickly giving up on reasoning with them. They turned their attention to Cinna and Lilia. “I am Aggregate Commander Nium. Aggregate Nium for short. Which of you claims to be the crown princess of Selkarc?”

“I am she,” Cinna replied confidently.

“Are you, now. Last I recall the heir of Selkarc bore the title of crown prince. So who, precisely, are you, who does not know that?” Nium demanded. Cinna shook her head calmly, unperturbed by Nium’s aggression.

“I apologize, but it would seem your information on Selkarc is out of date. Crown Prince Dalton, my brother, was declared missing many months ago. I am his younger sister, and until his return, have assumed the position of next in line to the throne,” Cinna explained calmly.

“What proof can you offer of this claim?”

“None. I never intended to make this trip in the first place, so I was unprepared to do so. The most I have with me is my royal pendant, but I am unsure if your people would recognize that symbol of my family,” Cinna replied, drawing out the aforementioned pendant as she spoke. Nium examined it for a moment before shaking their head.

“As you say, it’s not something I’m familiar with. But our treaty does permit the Selkarcian royal family passage in an emergency, and I have no reason to deny it. That being the case, why bring them here instead of to the other end of their country, Facet Klicksun?” Nium asked.

“Gratht didn’t tell you?” Klicksun asked in turn.

“That fool did nothing but complain about their presence here and demand I expel you to the surface along with them,” Nium replied. “If they weren’t one of the few that speaks their language I’d throw them to the cold ones.”

“Oh. Well. On the way down to the Warm Roads they mentioned that the other one is a necromancer and can see souls. I thought you might want to know about that,” Klicksun explained.

“In other words, she can identify lingering souls,” Nium surmised, shifting their gaze to Lilia for the first time.

“As I told Klicksun, we would be happy to assist your people in learning this ability as soon as we know how to teach it ourselves,” Cinna said for Lilia. “Currently, though, we have no time to spare.”

“We don’t have food you can eat down here anyway. But it’s certainly a relief to hear. We’ve had to commit many of our elder speakers to the deep flows prematurely solely to ensure none return as cold ones,” Nium replied. “I’ll arrange a magma sled to take you to your destination. I hope you’ll keep your promise, though. If you do not, I can’t be certain how long we will be able to hold the cold ones back. When they are done with us, I’m certain they will come for you next.”

“Thank you, Aggregate Nium. Your people have long been reliable trade partners for mine, and even if we currently lack the resources to uphold our end of that relationship, I will see to it that we stand together against the undead. To that end, the first thing I do on my return will be to arrange for you to be sent several farspeaking beacons,” Cinna promised.

“I’m not familiar with that term.”

“Farspeaking? Do you have no air mages?”

“No. The applications would be limited down here,” Nium replied, quickly seeming to grasp what Cinna meant despite the difference in terms.

“Perhaps that’s something else we can help you with, then. But in any event I’ll need to return to Selkarc first,” Cinna said.

“Much appreciated. Wait by the Warm Roads; it should only take a few minutes,” Nium said, dismissing them.

“What should I do?” Klicksun asked.

“You’ve guided them this far. Take them the rest of the way.”

With that, the trio left the aggregate’s office and returned to the fortress’s entrance to wait. Lilia, having been uninterested in anything they’d just talked about, was glad to have a chance to observe the cold ones a bit more closely. Even with at least a hundred meters between herself and the area where the Deepfolk were fighting their undead kin Lilia could see well enough to learn something.

“Don’t get too close. It could be dangerous,” Cinna warned. But Lilia thought she was already close enough anyway.

Lilia activated her soul sight again and peered at the cold ones. The first thing she noticed was that none of them seemed to have spells carved into their souls. That likely meant even other Deepfolk clusters hadn’t had many necromancers to begin with. She didn’t see any with enough mana to be liches, either.

That wasn’t to say that there was nothing to see, though. Deepfolk seemed to have more mana than humans. At first Lilia thought that made them natural mages, but after a short time examining both the cold ones and the living Deepfolk fighting them, she realized she’d been mistaken. Their bodies just needed more mana to function.

She recognized the way their mana flowed, in fact. It looked just like how Mr. Bearbones unconsciously used his mana to operate his skeletal body. The similarities between Deepfolk and dolls were more than superficial; they practically had to puppet their own bodies just to move. Mana infused their joints, flexing and pulling like tendons with every motion.

Before Lilia could figure out how the cold ones were overcoming the rigidity of their hardened bodies, though, a scraping sound approached from the right side of the fortress. She turned to find a brown-cloaked Deepfolk dragging a sled with two rails on the bottom and a large, broad back towards them.

“Are they going to run in front of it?” Lilia wondered, tilting her head to the side. The sled looked big enough to comfortably seat three times their number, but she didn’t see any animals to pull it.

“No, that would be far too slow. It would be faster to show you, though. Everyone climb on,” the Deepfolk pulling the sled replied. They climbed on as well, taking a seat at the back. “I’m Earthspeaker Clast, and I’ve been asked to take you south.”

“Ah, I understand now,” Cinna said as she stepped onto the sled. Lilia followed her and sat down in the seat next to her. The bare metal looked uncomfortable, but she couldn’t really feel it through her cloak anyway.

“What do you mean?” Lilia asked. Clast started speaking again but Lilia couldn’t understand any of the words.

“Give it a moment.”

Lilia waited impatiently as the Deepfolk continued to chant for several moments. Then magma began to flow up from the channels to either side of the road. She eyed the liquid stone nervously, remembering the warning she’d gotten about her cloak not protecting her from direct contact with magma.

“That looks dangerous,” she pointed out.

Then the magma pooling behind the sled gathered into a wave and flowed into the back of the sled, propelling it forward with so much force that Lilia was pressed into her seat.