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Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 529-530
🕑 Added 2025-09-25 16:01:48 +0000 UTCThe dwarves were taking longer than Art had expected.
That wasn’t really too big of a problem. The mercenaries were certainly skilled, there was no doubt about that. But the Blacktongues clearly hadn’t expected an enormous amount of resistance. Compared to the teams Art had gone up against in the Proving Grounds… well, the mercenaries weren’t exactly at the same level.
The only reason the fight hadn’t ended already was because of their sheer numbers. Twelve against four was a tough fight in almost any situation. Art could have ended the fight fairly easily. It would have been a simple matter if he called Maeve and Vanessa to join them.
But doing that would also completely ruin the entire plan. If the Dwarves weren’t the ones that dealt with the Blacktongues, the Menagerie would end up taking all the blame for the fall of the mercenaries and tensions between them and the Blacktongues would increase further.
Art wouldn’t have said he was scared of that outcome. It was just annoying. Everything would be far more convenient if the Dwarves just wiped the Blacktongues out for him. There was never a reason to deal with a problem on your own when someone else could be convinced to do it for you.
A hand of black magic stretched out toward him. Art idly flicked a card toward the ground, trapping the magic well before it could get close to reaching him. He could have sent it back nearly instantly, killing the mage that had been bothering him the whole fight, but that would turn the scales too heavily. They needed to keep the numbers advantage on the mercenaries’ side.
Instead, Art sent the hand tearing back out of the card and toward the black-plumed spokesperson, who Elias had just tossed across the ground like a ragdoll. The man was midway through rising back to his feet when his own ally’s magic caught him in the side.
His armor rippled. The man let out a grunt as he was launched off his feet and sent crashing into a nearby building, but the enchantments in his equipment had absorbed the vast majority of the attack’s damage.
Art quickly scanned his surroundings. He couldn’t let himself get complacent. Reya had squared off against two men and had her back to the wall. Vix was dancing circles around four of them. Art had managed to draw the attention of two, though he’d accidentally knocked one of them unconscious by reflecting one of the mage’s attacks into a gap in his armor.
The mage in question was still flinging magic in Art’s direction, trying to figure out how to get past his defenses. They were a fairly powerful caster. Art was pretty sure that their magic would have done some serious damage if it ever managed to touch him… but their training was just insufficient.
So long as the mage was focused on Art, they wouldn’t be a threat. The rest of the merceneries had all surrounded Elias. That wouldn’t help them. His bandages whipped around him in a raging storm as he shifted through their ranks like a tornado.
Not a single one of them had a chance of even cutting him. Elias was a menace. He probably could have dealt with the entire troupe himself if he had to — but that would have defeated the point.
Nobody seemed to be at risk yet. But that could all change in an instant. Art’s grip tightened on his crutch.
Reya and Vix will die to a lucky blow just like anyone else. I’m no different. The moment I get lax and stop paying attention, someone could get killed. I need to be ready. But Godspit, where are the Dwarves? They should have gotten here by now. Are they planning to just sit back and watch, then take the loot off the winner?
One of the men that had been fighting Elias screamed as he sailed through the air. He crashed into the wall a few feet away from Art, sending a spray of debris flying through the air. The man scrambled to his feet, eyes wild beneath his helmet as they locked onto Art.
Then, with a roar, he charged. Crackles of lightning arced across his body as the man accelerated into a yellow-gold streak, bringing his blade carving down toward Art’s shoulder.
Something dark flashed in front of Art. A loud crunch echoed out through the square. The magic-cloaked man spun to the side. He bounced twice against the ground before driving into another wall with such force that his body embedded itself halfway into it.
There was something embedded in his back.
A hammer. Formed of pitch black metal with glimmering silver trimming, the huge weapon had torn through the mercenary’s enchanted armor like it had been made out of tinfoil.
There was a crunch as the hammer tore itself free of his body and hurtled back through the air. It flew to meet a heavily armored figure that emerged from the shadow of the alley at Art’s side, slamming home into their palms with a ringing clang.
The figure’s armor was made out of the same black metal as the hammer, rough and craggy with silver trimming. Not a single inch of their skin was visible. Everything was covered by a complex pattern of interlocking plates that moved as easily as a river as the figure walked soundlessly forward.
Art hid a smile.
Finally.
Another man screamed as Elias hurled him across the square — coincidentally sending him right for the newcomer.
The hammer flashed. There was a wet crunch as it obliterated the mercenary’s skull and sent the rest of his body reeling past the dwarf harmlessly.
“There’s a third party!” one of the mercenaries screamed.
You can’t possibly be surprised about that. You’ve made enough noise to draw down half the damn city. If I hadn’t told my father to make sure our guard stayed far away from this area tonight, there’d be ten different parties here by now.
Another dwarf stepped out from the shadows. They wore identical armor to the first dwarf but bore a wicked looking two-headed glaive rather than a hammer. Art could feel the magic practically pouring out of both dwarves.
These weren’t amateurs.
They also weren’t the kind of troops one sent for a peaceful mission.
The hammer-wielding dwarf blurred. He closed the distance between himself and the mercenaries fighting Vix. One of them managed to raise his sword defensively before himself. He may as well have hid behind a wet tissue.
His sword shattered as the dwarf’s hammer continued right through it, pulping his skull like an orange. The dwarf spun, sending the man spinning to the side and using his momentum to send his hammer crashing right into the second mercenary.
The dwarf with the glaive vanished.
He re-formed beside Reya, the end of his dual-headed weapon impaling one of the mercenaries through the heart. The other one fell an instant later.
But the dwarves were far from done. They bore down on the mercenaries, tearing through the men like starved predators. The mage turned in attempt to run, but the glaive-wielding dwarf carved the man apart before he’d managed to take two steps toward freedom.
Art’s eyes narrowed.
They’re too aggressive. Something is wrong. They should have stalled the fight out to try and bargain with us for help, not immediately started murdering the mercenaries. Not when they’re this much stronger than them.
Shit. Are they planning to just kill all of us? If they think we’re weak enough, they may not care about the consequences and only want the loot from the vault without having to waste money or time getting it.
We need to make sure it never gets there. The moment they attack us, there won’t be any plausible deniability left and they’ll have basically no choice but to keep fighting. I can’t let it get to that point. I have to make the first move.
The last of the mercenaries fell as he tried to run for his life, the dwarf’s dual-headed glaive impaled through his skull.
“Color me surprised,” Art called, walking right toward the hammer-wielding dwarf without letting a flicker of concern enter his voice. “I’m starting to get the feeling that a few too many people got a wind of our recent windfall. You’ve got good timing. The help wasn’t needed, but we appreciate it nonetheless. That’s more than enough to get you the first look during our upcoming auction.”
The dwarves watched Art silently. Not one of them said a word, but he could practically feel their attention slip from him to the bag of trash in Vix’s hands.
Yeah. This definitely isn’t a group sent to negotiate a better deal. They’re executioners.
Art’s lips thinned. The mercenaries had died at the hands of the dwarves. He’d accomplished half of his goal, but if he now had to find a way to kill the dwarves, then he’d need to find a way to make it look like the mercenaries the Blacktongues had hired were far stronger than they had been.
What a huge bother. But I can’t risk anyone getting hurt. I suppose we’ve got no choice. We can’t play with these guys like we did with the mercenaries. They’re too dangerous.
Art was about to draw a card when an elderly woman’s voice cut through the sudden silence hanging over the street.
“Well done.”
Surprise passed through the stance of both armored dwarves. They turned to an alley. Art’s eyes widened as he did the same.
Out from the shadows stepped Indrana. The old dwarf councilwoman had actually made an appearance. Here, of all places. Confusion exploded through Art’s thoughts.
Why would Indrana leave the council? That makes no sense. She’s paranoid.
“Councilwoman,” one of the dwarves said, sounding just as taken aback as Art felt. “What are you—”
“Observing, of course,” Indrana replied. She walked across the square, stepping over the body of a dead mercenary before coming to a stop between Art and the other dwarves. “This is an important task. The Council is particularly interested in making sure everything goes smoothly.”
“Of course, Councilwoman,” the dwarf said. He edged to the side, attention shifting back to the bag Vix had. “We—”
“Are done,” Indrana said. She turned to look back at Art. “I trust we’ll be getting a healthy discount for our work?”
“What?” the second armored dwarf tilted his head to the side. “But… I thought the mission was—”
“Updated,” Indrana said sharply. “It seems the Menagerie was actually able to gather so much loot from the Vault that they had to send two delegations. The first one has already returned, has it not?”
Art stared at her in confusion. He had absolutely no idea what Indrana was talking about. Perhaps someone had struck her over the head. This hadn’t been part of the plan, but it was exactly what he needed.
The dwarves never would have believed such a claim if it came from him. It would have been clear bullshit. But coming from Indrana herself… that was perfect.
“Yes,” Art said. The tone of Indrana’s voice had made it absolutely clear that the Dwarven Council had no plans of settling for just half of the loot. They wanted all of it — and that meant they couldn’t afford to attack the Menagerie and risk losing their access to the rest of it. “I’d ask how you know that, but it doesn’t matter. All of it will be up for sale in our soon to be completed auction house.”
“And the discount?” Indrana pressed. “We don’t work for free, and it seemed your team was struggling.”
“You’ll have it. We treat our allies well,” Art said after a moment. “But we’ll have to discuss terms.”
“Of course,” Indrana said with a wry laugh. “Another time. We’ve drawn too much attention. These men were Blacktongue hired. You two — deal with the cleanup. Quickly.”
The armored dwarves both bowed their heads. Then, without another word, they marched off into an alley.
Art could barely believe their luck. The moment the Menagerie had the loot back on their home soil, there was basically no way the Council could steal it without an enormous fight.
It took everything he had not to bust out laughing. Even with the influence they had over Indrana, he never would have thought that she’d betray the council to this degree.
Indrana turned to look back at Art.
The two of them were silent for a moment. Then a small crease formed in Art’s brow.
Something was off.
“That was impeccable timing. But… why are you here?” Art asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Indrana asked. “Well done, by the way. That was clean. Bit rough at the end, but nothing to complain about. You should be proud.”
Art’s frown deepened. He took a step back. Indrana’s voice was wrong. It was deeper. Rougher than it should have been. That voice didn’t belong to her at all.
The dwarf’s body rippled. What looked like a layer of shadows passed over her. She abruptly bulged, nearly doubling in height as her shoulders widened and features shifted.
Standing before the Menagerie was no dwarf at all.
“Would you look at that?” Rodrick asked, a wry grin sprawling across his lips. “I really do have to thank everyone for this new armor. Who could have guessed it would be so effective?”
Chapter 530
Art stared in stunned disbelief. He’d accounted for a whole host of possibilities in his plan. But, somehow, he’d never considered the option of Rodrick showing up while looking literally identical to a short wrinkly dwarven councilwoman half his height and ten times his age.
“Rodrick!” Reya exclaimed in delight. “You’re back! Did it work? How was it? Are you feeling okay?”
“It was… surprising,” Rodrick replied after a moment. The corner of his lip twitched. “I don’t think I’m meant to say much more than that. Especially not in the open. But it’s good to see everyone again. Even if it’s only been a few days, it feels longer.”
“Your armor let you do that?” Art finally managed, getting a hold of himself once more. “That was the most convincing illusion I’ve ever seen. I could have sworn it was real.”
“It was,” Rodrick replied. “Lillia said that she made it was a major group effort. I didn’t get much time to get updated on it, though. When I heard the plan, I asked Eleven to send me right over here. We really need to find someone with her skillset. That portal magic is incredible.”
“You have great timing,” Vix said. “That was almost really unfortunate. I think the dwarves were about to attack us. Did you actually show up right in time to save us?”
Rodrick’s grin grew wider. “No. I’ve been here for about ten minutes. I wanted to see how Art handled things. It was a great plan. I’m surprised myself. The Dwarven Council is much greedier than I thought.”
“They were going to kill us all to take the loot,” Elias said, his eyes narrowing in anger behind the bandages slithering back to wrap around his body. “Bastards.”
“Strikingly short-sighted as well,” Art muttered. “Arwin is probably one of the best smiths in the kingdom at this point. Maybe the best. The waitlist to hire him is enormous, and most of those people aren’t even getting seen anyways. You’d think the council would want access to that.”
“Or to remove it,” Reya said. “But unless they were trying to bait him into action, attacking us wouldn’t be the way to accomplish anything, is it?”
“It isn’t,” Rodrick agreed. He pursed his lips. “It seems likely there’s a split in the Dwarven Council.”
“Yeah,” Art said. “Those guards were way too uncomfortable with Indrana. They took her orders, but not in the way that would imply they’ve worked together much. It seems likely they’re working for a different member of the Council. They still have to obey any of the Councilmembers, but they weren’t meant to be here. Not officially.”
Rodrick nodded. “That’s my take on it as well. Which means we can’t dawdle here for long. If we’re right, the Dwarven Council’s official delegation should still be headed right toward this location or toward Milten. Given the fact that we no longer have the Blacktongues here…”
“We should leave,” Art said. “Immediately. I don’t suppose you asked Eleven to stick around for a bit longer? The plan was to hightail it back to the Devil’s Den, but it’s still quite the trip. It would be a lot faster if there was a convenient portal waiting for us.”
Rodrick smiled.
***
Lillia drummed her fingers against her thigh as she waited in the shadows of the main room. The clink of utensils and murmur of magically muted conversation filled the building. They were a welcome distraction.
Art’s team had returned several hours ago, teleported back by Eleven. Lillia had sent them all to the basement. Nobody could know they were back. Not until Arwin’s team returned bearing the actual loot.
And so here she stood in wait.
Her kitchen was currently cooking lunch. She’d checked on everything a few times, but her involvement wasn’t needed at this stage. The delivery service had been temporarily paused since everyone was either out or stationed on the street in the case of an attack.
Everything was set up to make sure Art’s plan worked out. Rodrick had somehow managed to show up twice — once after finishing his Sunsetting, then once again when he’d returned with Art’s team several hours ago.
Everything was happening so fast that a small part of Lillia wondered if it had happened at all. There would be a great deal to talk about very soon. But, unfortunately, that soon was not yet now. She had to remain focused on the plan.
And that, unfortunately, meant she had to stand around twiddling her thumbs. The chances of someone attacking the Menagerie right now weren’t very high, but they had a skeleton crew so long as they had to pretend that Art hadn’t yet made it back to the Den. She needed to be prepared.
There was Uriel, of course, but Lillia didn’t want to reveal that particular card in the wrong way. They’d already discussed the best way to use the Devil’s Den’s body. And, if things went to plan, it would involve keeping Uriel largely hidden until the official opening of the Auction House.
And in order for that to happen, we need to awaken the building with the Dungeon Heart we’ve been saving up. Ridley already finished the actual building aspects, but there’s no finalizing it until Arwin comes back.
There’s a chance that the council sends a group straight here rather than to intercept Art. If they do…
Lillia’s senses prickled as somebody stepped onto the doorstep of the Devil’s Den. Her eyes narrowed as their information revealed itself to her mind instantly. With the exception of Eleven, nobody was able to evade her knowledge once they were on her property.
And the newcomer was no different. Lillia swept forward, striding straight for the door.
I guess I called this upon myself by being annoyed about being bored.
The door flew open just in time for the gauntleted hand that had been raising to knock on it to whistle through the air, striking nothing at all.
There was a dwarf standing on her doorstep. She wore golden armor dressed up with red tassels and ribbons that made absolutely no attempt to hide the amount of money or artistry that had gone into the equipment’s creation.
They also did nothing to limit its ability. The armor wasn’t just for show, and the magic infused into it was nothing insignificant. There were enchantments against most forms of damage, resistance to mental effects, and a number of other buffs that would easily let it contend with even some of Arwin’s work.
Two more dwarves stood just behind the one on the Den’s doorstep, clad in similar equipment but outside the range of Lillia’s magic.
“What an unexpected surprise,” Lillia said. “Representatives of the Council. What do we owe the pleasure?”
If the dwarf was surprised, she didn’t let it show. She just gave Lillia thin smile, her rugged features barely changing as her lips pulled up. “There is news of the Menagerie successfully acquiring items from an old vault. Items that we believe you plan to put up for purchase.”
The dwarf’s attention wasn’t on Lillia. She squinted into the darkness, clearly trying to see if she could spot any members of the Menagerie that had been on the mission. Lillia hid a smirk. The dwarf wouldn’t find anything.
Not because her shadows hid them, but because they weren’t there.
Fortunately for her, the dwarf had absolutely no way at all to know that. Telling if someone wasn’t present was just as hard as telling if they were when you couldn’t see anything at all.
“We’d be happy to sell to you when the time comes,” Lillia said. “But through the proper channels. We’ll be establishing an Auction House on the street.”
“I believe you misunderstand me, Lillia,” the dwarf said, her voice going cold. “We have no interest in bidding. We will purchase your items. For a fair price.”
Lillia smiled. She moved to stand directly in front of the dwarf, then leaned down so they were eye level. Shadows gathered at her back, rising over Lillia’s shoulders in a pair of inky wings.
“And you misunderstand me, Haley,” Lillia said. “We allowed word of our acquisitions to reach your ears because we’re willing to welcome you to the opening of our new Auction House as a show of friendship. There are more than enough other wealthy people that would be thrilled to purchase from us. But we prefer to work with allies. If you want access to any of the best items from the Vault, watch your tone.”
A flicker of unease passed through the dwarf’s features at the sound of her name.
“Are you sure taking such a bold stance with—”
“You’re still standing in front of me,” Lillia observed. “This isn’t the council’s meeting hall, Haley. This is my domain. Step back. You don’t make the demands here. We’re offering you an opportunity. What do you say when someone does you a favor?”
Haley stared at Lillia for a short second. Then her smile grew ever so slightly wider.
“Thank you,” Haley said. “Very well. But we’re not delusional. Friendship is not cheaply purchased from either side. We’re going to need proof of these items, and you’re not going to give us access to anything for our word alone.”
“Is that so?” Lillia asked, examining her fingernails. “And what are you suggesting?”
“Show me one of the items from the vault,” Haley said. “If it’s to the standard that interests us, then we’ll do what you’ve called us here for.”
“And what is that?” Lillia asked. “Seems like you’re making a lot of assumptions.”
“We’ll back the auction house through one of our representative guilds,” Haley said simply. “Nobody will ever use a house that isn’t properly supported and insured. And an auction house is only as good as those who sell at it. If the Menagerie wants to make a real profit, you need to show your facility is safe.”
“We’re more than capable of protecting ourselves. What makes you think we need your help?”
“It’s not about if you’re capable or not. It’s about what people think,” Haley countered. “And we both know that the support of a massive guild would be enough to convince people that it’s safe to use your auction house. We’re not asking for much. You don’t have to sell us anything early. We just want proof of quality. It’s a simple request… if you’re telling the truth about having cleared that Vault, of course. It would be a different story if you only announced your plans to use the Council to clean up the Blacktongues for you.”
Lillia kept her expression flat. The Dwarven Council had good information. That wasn’t a surprise. They were a powerful organization — but two things could be true at once. The council wouldn’t care at all about being used so long as they got what they wanted. Dealing with a minor noble family was hardly that big of a deal for them.
It shouldn’t be too long until Arwin makes it back. I need to stall until then.
“Why don’t you come inside?” Lillia asked, stepping to the side. “We’ll see what we can do for each other.”
Comments
Ben Bass
TYFTC! Very interesting that the dwarves sent executioners instead of a 'helping' crew. If that had gone poorly things would be a LOT more messy now for the dwarven council. I think Lilia can do a decent job of stalling, I mean they are guests and it would be poor form for them to turn down her hospitality.
Tom C
TFTC!
MysticallMist
Great Chappies!
