Beyond?

“Dwem is the Dwemer's capital. The city is built into a hollow mountain and despite the cold climate of the north a green paradise. This wonder was accomplished by the third Great Shaman. He was driven by the desire to create something, which his people would thank him for even long after his death. And so he created a ritual without comparison, he poured his very heart and soul into it. The result was a hollowed out mountain with walls of glass, letting the sunlight through. The crystalline structure breaks the light and dives the city into all colours of the rainbow. His people strived to honour his work and built the most beautiful city with large sleek towers made out of green glass inside the mountain. Between the towers grow the largest trees, turning the city into an island of green between the ice of the northern mountain range. The trees were brought there from the tropical paradise across the sea, which was a breathtaking task in itself.”

-The writings of Dwem.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

“Did we get everyone out?” I watch the burning mansion in dismay as people are running left and right around me, trying to put out the fire with spells and water.

Karsen shrugs his shoulders. “No way to tell. The whole upper floor was already on fire when we arrived.” He and a few of Ryland's investigators were the first ones to arrive at the scene. Unfortunately the fight was already settled at that time. The attackers had retreated with two bodies on their shoulders.

Nikita took a lot of my time and after I had done everything I could I tried to follow them, but a few hundred metres from the house they simply vanished. Probably they had a mage waiting for them. Either they used a potent spell to hide themselves and ran, or they had a portal ready.

The outcome of this night doesn't bode well for us. Twenty two of the attackers are confirmed dead, but six of our guards are also dead. They are lined up together with the dead Dwemers a few steps further away. Like I suspected in the first days after their arrival, the so called servants weren't mere servants. They didn't go down without a fight and each of them took at least one enemy to the afterlife with them. We have the bodies of three servants, that means that they took one servant and the old lady Saana. Nikita is currently treated by the healers, though it doesn't look good for her. I patched her up as much as I could, but the poison in her system is beyond me. I even went as far as binding her soul to her body, which left her in a strange state between life and death. In hindsight it might have been kinder to simply let her go.

The healers are currently working on her and Adala, who went catatonic shortly after the enemies retreated. She got scratched and stabbed by one of the poisoned swords. The healers have more hope for her since the poison didn't spread so much inside her body.

That leaves me only with Padma, who is useless because she is currently crying her eyes out. Her grandmother was taken and is probably dead. Eliot is fine too, but he is an idiot... and in a state of shock. I guess this was his first real fight. He did well when there was no time to think, but afterwards he had a breakdown.

I had nine Dwemer to take care of and now I am left with two. What a very bad night this is. I walk over to the dead attackers and summon a light orb, bathing the bodies in light. It's already getting morning, but the sun isn't over the horizon yet.

They are clothed in modern looking black fighting suits, which intrigues me. Their equipment ranges from knives, to throwing daggers and short swords. My mana sight reveals that each of the weapons is imbued with magic. Is there a curse added to the poison? “Karsen, those weapons are enchanted. Bring them to the healers and let them be checked out.”

Karsen nods and instructs a nearby guard with the task, then he returns to my side. He bends down and checks the faces of the corpses. “They seem to be from the southern nations.”

I raise an eyebrow. “How can you tell?” I don't see any identifying marks on them. It even seems like they scratched the insignias from their weapons. Most weapon smiths in this world mark their weapons to spread their name, so the weapons would reveal their identity.

Karsen pulls at the cheek of one corpse and points at the skin. “You can't tell a single southerner from a citizen of Nict for certain, but if you compare two bigger groups with each other you can notice differences. Do you see the freckles? They are a common trait in the southern nations. Most people have them.”

My eyes wander over the bodies. “We have twenty two bodies and eighteen of them have freckles.” It's convenient to have friend who shows interest in such strange details.

He removes a weapon belt from one of the corpses and inspects it. “If we had a group from Nict, then I would expect at most four to five people with freckles. This is too much to be a coincidence. Do you know how these things work? I never heard of triggered spells which can be used by non magicians.” Karsen points at the grenades which are attached to the belt. “I interviewed the guards and they said that the attacker threw those things at them, they exploded shortly afterwards.”

I nod and gesture at the grenades which I already inspected earlier. They are made out of clay and filled with black powder. The fuse is lighted by pulling it with force from the belt and then burns inside it for about seven seconds. “They are filled with an explosive chemical compound. Pull the timed fuse off and throw it at your enemy, boom!”

Karsen pulls at his lower lip. “If they manage to fit out their whole army with these weapons the fights against them will start to hurt us. Do you think they can mass produce them?”

I shrug my shoulders. “There is no way to tell. Depends on their resources and economics. Do they have easy access to coal, potassium nitrate and sulphur?”

Karsen tilts his head. “I'll suggest my superiors to investigate that. Even if it's less effective than a spell, the idea of giving an army of commoners a large amount of these weapons is frightening. Our own commoners will become almost useless in a fight.”

The Dwemer seemed to have something like artillery. Could these grenades come from them? I don't voice the thought to Karsen.

We continue to inspect the corpses but find nothing else which attracts our attention. Since there is nothing more for me to do I decide to head over to the healing institute where Stella and Ivy brought the Dwemer. They aren't hard to find since I simply have to ask my way through the soldiers who are swarming the building. Looks like the remaining Dwemer are under heavy protection from now on.

I find them in a big room with eight beds. There is also a big table with several chairs for the patients who aren't bedridden. Only the four Dwemer, Stella, Sola and Helen are present. Probably they didn't want to accommodate the Dwemer with other patients. Eliot is sitting at Adala's side, she has her eyes open and is staring furiously at the ceiling.

Padma is lying on the bed next to her, curled up into a ball and covered with blankets. Seems like she is still down from her grandmother's fate.

Nikita is lying with closed eyes on the bed in the furthest left corner of the room. An IV drip is hanging above her and a strange, box-like machine is pumping blood out of and back into her body. “How is Nikita doing?”

Stella answers me. “She is alive, for now. She got far more of the poison into her system. The healers even used some ancient artefacts to keep her alive.”

I nod and look at the machine. “I am astounded that our healers aren't performing as well as usual. Aren't there any Eddin available?”

Sola sits down on one of the chairs. “They used manatite. A crystalline powder which can be found in the eastern grasslands. The Nomads use it to render their foes unable to use magic. The powder is dispersing mana formations, if it gets into the body it hinders healing magic and harms the tissue. You become unable to cast spells and die if you aren't treated in time. It took several of the best healers to stabilize her. Now they are trying to get the stuff out of her, but it doesn't look good.”

So that's why she constantly slipped out of my grasp. I poured almost all of my power into the healing spell, yet the effect was marginal. I have to investigate this stuff, it sounds dangerous.

Helen snorts. “This is the greatest diplomatic blunder ever. I'll have some people punished for this. Did you already find out where they came from?”

I nod. “Karsen found a solid clue which hints at the southern nations.”

Eliot's eyes widen. “That can't be! They are our allies!”

“Shut up!” Adala rebukes him, but the damage is done.

Helen turns to the two. “Fascinating, so you are allied with our enemies? Yet they are trying to assassinate you within our borders. That hints at a few interesting possibilities.”

I raise a finger. “Maybe it has something to do with their war!” All of them look at me with big eyes. The Dwemer look outright shocked. Oh, that's right. I found out about it yesterday evening and didn't have the time to inform anybody.

“Which war?” Helen squints her eyes.

Well, it's out anyway, so I point at the Dwemer. “Their war. Dwem's northern border is one big nasty war zone, though I don't know whom they are fighting, yet. I found it out yesterday night.”

The muscles of Adala's jaw start working and Helen's, Sola's and Stella's eyes fix on her. After a few seconds Adala decides that it's useless to hide the situation any longer. “Dwem is in a tight war against the northern barbarians. Two years ago they attacked us with new weapons and strategies, up until then they were nothing more than a bother.”

I take a chair and pull it closer to Adala in order to sit down. “Weapons like the grenades?”

Padma grumbles from under her blanket. “No, those are ours.” Adala glares at Padma. “Don't give away secrets!”

I fold my fingers in front of me. “Adala, isn't this an interesting riddle? You almost get killed by a southern task force, armed with your own weapons and poison from the eastern plains. Yet you seem to be calling them your allies. The question arises... are they really your allies? What does it accomplish to kill you within our borders? And why did they take some bodies as proof?”

Eliot's forehead gained more and more wrinkles while I was speaking. Then he groans. “They are trying to take down Dwem! And they have already succeeded!” Adala's eyes widen, even Padma looks up from her bed.

He closes his eyes. “Don't you see it? All their actions aim at forcing Dwem's army to be stationed at Nict's borders. Now everything fits together. The southerners are working with the barbarians and the Black Magicians. The southerners told us that Nict is preparing a war to force us to deploy a part of our forces at their border. As long as we can't concentrate our troops, the barbarians have it easier to break through our defence. We provided the southerners with our technology in exchange for their supplies and their sparse intelligence. Their ships have been sailing past Nict and further to the North for years. Of course they knew about our war with the barbarians. Then they tried to kill the heir of the Gejene. Probably they planned to redirect the blame for it to us, but Azir crushed their network before they could get the plan in motion. The Black Magicians are surely in some kind of relationship with the southerners and the barbarians.

The barbarians must be preparing a big assault on us. That's why they wanted more of our troops positioned at the border to Nict! Because we didn't report anything of concern to the Great Shaman, he decided to thin our troops at Nict's borders. Just a few days later we get attacked by southerners, who know exactly how our mansion looks like and how many of us there are. The only ones who have that information are the Gejene and the authorities in Dwem because we sent them detailed reports.”

He balls his hands to fists. “They must have a mole inside our government who got them the information. I am sure that they took the bodies of Saana and Triz to prove that Nict silenced us in order to prepare their attack. Nict even started mobilizing and rebuilding their fleet! If they go with Saana's remains to the Great Shaman our government will freak out and redeploy the troops to Nict's borders, opening all doors for the barbarian offensive!”

I scratch my cheek while thinking about what I just heard. “It makes some sense, in a crude way. Those fleeing assassins simply vanished when I followed them. It's a guess, but they could've used a portal to escape. Up until now only the black magicians seemed capable of that.”

Adala's expression turns sour. “Then we are doomed. Even if we travel now from Nict's capital to Mono and take the fastest route to Dwem, the travel time takes at least two weeks. Our opponents had a portal and are probably already talking to the Great Shaman. They surely timed their attack on our mansion with the offensive to ensure that our troops are the furthest out of position. When we reach them it'll be too late to call our soldiers back.”

Helen runs her fingers through her hair. “Are you really saying that in a few months I have to worry not only about the southern nations, but also a horde of conquering barbarians from the North? What's next? Will the Nomads join the fray too? Oh, that would be funny! I can't laugh!”

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