Chapter 387 (1/2)

Chapter 387

Chapter 385: Purity

ARTHUR

‘Ugh, spending five hours listening to these dwarves play the blah a s , but they are iht tiredly

The Hall of Lords within Vildorial’s Royal Palace was an astonishi+ng sight The hall itself ithin an enoreode that stretched at least seventy feet wide and was perhaps a hundred feet fro It was difficult to tell howpool of silvery mist

Read first at " ReadNovelFullco, hand-carved table where the dwarven nobility met rested atop a thin sliver of crystal that floated unsupported in the air in the geode’s center To reach it, we had crossed a series of hovering stones that eode itself shone with a kaleidoscope of colors: aquah with purple striations, sparkling with yellow and white When the light shi+fted, the colors see artifacts, ever-burning candles floated at intervals throughout the space, ensuring constantly flickering light that eode’s th, uing about who had failed in what duty, which clans deserved a seat at the table, and who had proven the worst failure to dwarvenkind

“With all respect to Lance Mica,” Lord Silvershale said for probably the seventh time, “the Earthborns stayed nice and chuhout the occupation Never had to leave their ho—”

“A blatant lie,” Carnelian Earthborn responded, rolling his beetle-black eyes “And not even a clever one, considering that hter led the damned war”

I looked from Silvershale to Earthborn The forone gray and a beard braided into three prongs Carnelian, on the other hand, looked relatively young His any red hair didn’t match Mica’s at all, but there was a roundness to his cheeks and a bright shi+ning youth in his eyes that gave hihter

“Where has the Earthborn Clan been, then, these last many months?” Lord Silvershale looked around the table, not at Carnelian but the rest of the dwarven nobility “Certainly not in the tunnels fighting against the Alacryans and turncoats,” he finished, crossing his arrin

Okay, you’re right, I adis The important part appears to be over

Before the two could take the argument further—or worse, draw in any of the other lords—I stood The crystal belowall eyes to me Everyone in attendance—as many dwarven nobles as we could round up on short notice, the surviving members of Virion’s council, and the other Lances—hurried to stand as well

Read first at " ReadNovelFullco on to the other long-range teleportation gates,” I said

Mica let out a relieved sigh, then seeht, and shtly more noble “All the Lances, in fact, have other duties to attend to Father,” she finished with a slight inclination of her head

“Indeed,” Carnelian said, bea Let this e be adjourned, to reconvene tomorrow, e swinging his gavel

Fro hers just slightly, her lips pressed tightly together I knew exactly how she felt

It was hard to feel sorry for the dwarves, difficult to avoid co their pain and loss to that of the elves But there was no denying they had suffered Since the war began, they’d been quietly slaughtering each other in the tunnels beneath the desert The two factions saw each other as fools and blood traitors, each side betraying as in the dwarves’ best interest

This animosity wouldn’t fade in a day, and I felt certain we hadn’t seen the last of the bloodshed between the dwarven factions Still, we had done e could in such a short amount of time

Read first at " ReadNovelFullcom "

Most of the dwarves had been thrilled to see the Alacryans pushed out of Vildorial Almost as many had been furious when the Alacryans had been allowed to teleport back to Alacrya, however Even ae, many complained that we hadn’t executed all the Alacryan soldiers for their crimes I couldn’t exactly blame them

Even more controversial was the decision to allow those dwarves ere most dedicated to the Alacryans to leave with theiven Agrona ht they’d be treated as equals in Alacrya But by the time they realized their own folly, it would be far too late

For those men and women, however, I felt no sympathy at all

An attendant opened the doors that led back into the palace proper, which, after the grandeur of the Hall of Lords, felt alainst the wall just outside, while four heavily arlyRead first at " ReadNovelFullcom "

The inventor pushed hi and gave rin “Finally! These dwarves think as slow as the stone they live in…” Gideon trailed off, then cleared his throat as the guards’ faces darkened I kept walking, and he fell into step beside ot a few things to show you, inventions I worked on while in the Alacryans’ care There are a few things that I really think—”

I held up a hand, forestalling the deluge of information about to spill froht now, Gideon” The old inventor’s face fell Twisting the ring of polished black stone off er, I held it out to him The moment of disappointment melted away as he plucked it out of my hands “I need you to focus on this”

He held it up to his eye and turned it over several ti What…” He trailed off, his wide bloodshot eyes jurin spread across his face “Oh, please tell ht presents from the other continent” He bobbed on the balls of his feet, nearly skipping “Soy, perhaps?”

“Very specific technology,” I confirure out hoorks, if we can replicate it Whatever else you’ve been working on, this takes priority”

Read first at " ReadNovelFullcoether, Gideon peppering me with questions that I answered to the best oftoward the Earthborn Institute to unpack the di me he wouldn’t eat or sleep until he had answers

Frohest level of Vildorial, I could see the entire cavern laid out belowwith activity: soldiers preparing defenses against Agrona’s inevitable counterattack, food andcarted in from the expansive tunnel syste found for the hundreds of refugees we’d brought with us, all of which led with the day-to-day activities of the city’s residents

The city center, a huge plaza that do the hundreds of ht with us Even froe tables, crates, and tents for handing out fresh food and giving the ees a place to rest while they waited for s

Plenty of dwarves were lined up to receive food as well, although I couldn’t help but notice how little theyaether into my eyes, I looked more closely at the individuals No one bothered to hide the bitter sideways glances between the two races, and there was a palpable tension hanging over the plazaRead first at " ReadNovelFullcoht The elves see the dwarves as turncoats, while these struggling, starving dwarves see the elves as coure it out,’ Regis chiether Or Kezess Pick your alomaniac’

I took a deep breath, held it for several seconds, then slowly let it back out I know

‘I still think the Relictoht with thehis shoulders ‘Less complicated’

It was true that the Relictombs would have been an i they couldn’t even enter it

But then I would be no better than the asuras, I thought with an edge of rebuke The Relictoe as an asylum, and I’d become their master

‘Better a master who protects theis thought rona both thought before they became the tyrants they are today, I refuted

‘The real problem is that you won’twith yourself—and by extension, me—every mo It’s war There are going to be consequences and you have to be ready to accept that no matter what you do’

I know

Read first at " ReadNovelFullcois pressed ‘Like this whole portal-to-Alacrya thing You want to destroy it, but don’t want to give it up as a tool, but just turning it off is still dangerous, and you’re afraid of ill happen if you’re wrong It’s exhausting being in here’ His huge shadoolf form leaped out onto the road besidethe flaru the chorus of surprised and frightened shouts frohed as I watched hi into a discordant blankness,like tattered cobwebs in the dark, disrupted by Regis’s frustration that was still leaking into me

I closed ain, looking for Mo tables Mo soup into bohile Ellie handed out chunks of bread and full waterskins

I wanted to go to them Almost as ht of all those people, their eyes turned expectantly in …

I didn’t blame them Not at all I understood I’d lived it all before, after all, as King Grey But noasn’t the ti path down to the lowest level, I turned and arden filled with glowing e of the palace, where the cut stone h, natural cavern cliff, there was an arched tunnel carved into the wall Stea wafted out

The short tunnel opened up onto a ledge above a series of round pools The water had a subtle blue lu the light of the rew over the walls and ceiling No one else was present; during our short tour of the Royal Palace, Carnelian Earthborn had explained that the Alacryans had forbidden dwarves to use these pools

I suspected the nobles would h, but for the moment, it was the perfect place to rest and think

Letting e of the pools until I found a spot I liked, next to a srew They waved on their stalks like the antenna of so off my boots, I eased round

Read first at " ReadNovelFullcom "

The keystone had become my primary tool for meditation, and so I withdrew it from the dimension rune I turned the heavy,it

So far, I had discovered that the blackness within the keystone realm reacted to mana use, but not in a way I could see ormore than inky-black ripples in the dark Thanks to Caera, I had learned that the black ripples werea mana core allowed one to see the mana particles around them when they entered the keystone My lack of aforward

As I’d done dozens of times now, I imbued aether into the keystone My consciousness rushed into it, passing through the purple walls into darkness And I stayed there, surrounded by blankness, the lightly sulfuric sh toany of ns of ic or mana I didn’t even think, at least for a little while It was like being asleep, except I didn’t have to struggle as I would to sleep naturally

Then, after soed I wasn’t quite sure what at first It was a subtle sensation, like a prickling at the back offrom within the keystone reales of what I would considershi+fted in the darkness It wasn’t the black-on-black slithering I had felt before More like…stars, barely seen through light, night-tiraythis way and that, al

I opened my eyes

Across the room, Ellie crept out of the entryway, her hand on the wall, her nose wrinkled up against the thick air, tension tightening every ht, saw me, and relaxed

“Wow”

Her whisper carried in the silence of the hot springs

El Had ray motes inside the keystone real? Instead of firing off these questions like arrows, however, I gave her a warm, if tired, smile “How did you findto sound weird, but I smelled you”

“S “I’m pretty sure I don’t stink that bad, do I?” I sniffed at my tunic just to make sure

“It’s part ofa lock of hair behind her ear She hesitated at the stairs that led froed the pools “Is it okay if…”Read first at " ReadNovelFullcom "

“Of course,” I said immediately As much as I wanted to be alone to explore the keystone—to discover ray particles I’d seen—after all this time, I also just wanted to spend ti”

Ellie beamed at me as she practically skipped in between the pools to join me, kicked off her turnshoes, and plopped doith her feet in the water