Pathway

"The others are regrouping." 

Orban said as more lights kindled around the cavern, revealing dwarves moving around the battlefield, tending to the wounded and collecting the dead. 

"We need to be on the move, see how bad the tunnels are."

"We'll have a lot of digging ahead of us." 

Abron said, opening his eyes abruptly. His voice was clear and free of pain. 

"Moradin knows we'll need every hand we can spare to get us back to the city."

"This attack was just a decoy, a distraction. Their target is the sphere, not the city itself. By now they must know Gallazza's failed to get it, so they'll attack the city directly."

Ju Feng said, checking his body.

"Then we dig fast. My hands are healed, and heavens tears, I know how to move the earth. Moradin gave me a second chance to do what I do best." 

Abron said. He glanced at Orban. 

"And you—you have my thanks. When you touched me, I saw—"

"So did I." 

Orban interrupted before continuing. 

"Things we didn't mean for the other to see. I won't speak of them, I promise you."

Abron looked puzzled. 

"Or maybe we were meant to speak of them. Whatever's inside you, it touched me, and it wasn't death. You shouldn't be afraid of your power."

Abron started to reply, to dismiss the dwarf's point, but he hesitated under the scrutiny of Abron's gaze. The dwarf had seen inside of him, his memories and fears. Lies and dismissals couldn't hide the truth from him. He looked at Orban who raised his hand to halt to him.

"Everyone I've ever let close has turned from me. You saw it for yourself, in my memories. The spellscar made my bones brittle and brought me so close to death that it became a part of me. I can measure your life force just by touching you, I believe."

"Bah, that doesn't mean you cause death, Orban" 

Abron said. 

"You touched me, and I felt warmth, not ice. You brought me back from the brink, cleared my head, and let me reach out to our ancestral source. That's worth something, Orban."

"What if you were in my place? What if you'd known before it happened that your wife was going to die?"

Orban challenged him. 

"I did know." 

Abron said flatly. Beside him, Urmen, who'd been quietly watching the two, put his hand on his father's arm. 

"You didn't see all the memories. I didn't know it on the day she got sick, but soon after, I saw it. I read it in her eyes. You don't always have to have magic to know when you're looking death in the face." 

Ju Feng looked at Orban, staring into his son's eyes. He realized then that Orban had his mother's eyes. 

"Knowing what I knew didn't taint the time we had left," Abron went on. "I wouldn't let it."

"This isn't the same." 

Orban said softly, and then turned to Ju Feng. 

"I know you don't want me to speak of what I saw in your mind. I won't talk about the girl, but you can't run from yourself. You know what your future holds. The darkness that follows you. The death that comes. Now, the girl."

"Her choice. I trust her." 

Ju Feng said, and this time it was his own body that felt like ice. Ju Feng stared at Orban. The gruff, taciturn dwarf actually smiled at him. It was a faint, tremulous expression, and completely out of place on the warrior's face, but then again, nothing made sense on this battlefield. Ju Feng had never dreamed he'd be sitting with these two dwarves in the middle of a war, talking about his hopes, fears, and loves.

Yes, Chang Chang was special. He actually liked her. Although there was Su Ming, the water cultivator. Still, Orban was right. Ju Feng couldn't lie to himself—or run—anymore. He had to get out of here, back to Myria before the yaomo attack came. He had to get back to Chang Chang. Reality hit Ju Feng then. Several tons of rock lay between him and that lofty goal. Not to mention the fact that Chang Chang was probably furious at him for how he'd vanished. He likely had a lot of digging and then a lot more groveling ahead of him. Ju Feng groaned silently. 

"We should get moving."

Ju Feng assured himself for perhaps the fifth time that day that his arms were on the verge of falling off. Doubtless they'd just be hauled away with the rest of the debris from the tunnel collapse, along with Ju Feng's exhausted body.

They'd been digging for hours, though time, in Ju Feng's mind, had blurred together into an endless series of motions, fitting his hands around a piece of stone, prying it loose from the pile blocking the tunnel, and hauling it away to the Cavern of Lost Souls. The man or woman in front of him and behind him shared those same motions, and at first they'd talked—and even jested a little, once they'd got over the initial horror and shock of the battle's aftermath—as they worked to reopen the tunnel. Exhaustion had gradually set in, and they worked in a silence of lumbering movements and glazed eyes. Ju Feng had a new appreciation for the lot of a beast of burden.

The dwarf behind him tapped him on the shoulder. Ju Feng reached back automatically to accept the waterskin the dwarf held out and nodded his thanks. Not that he needed water to drink, his cultivated body could go many days without water. He took a measured drink and passed it on to Orban, who worked in front of him.

They took brief rests for food and sleep, but the only thing worse than the backbreaking labor was sitting idle in the empty cavern among the wounded and the dead. They'd gathered all the bodies together beneath the carved stone faces and covered them with blankets. Only then did it become clear how costly the battle had been. Seeing the bodies did not bother Ju Feng, he had seen worse, but he felt trapped in the tunnel, the stone pressing in on him from all sides. He was weary, sore, and so damned tired of being underground. Endless darkness and no sky above his head—he couldn't live the dwarf life.

Ahead of him, a commotion erupted. Excited whispers drifted back to Ju Feng, but he was so absorbed in his own world that at first he didn't realize what they were saying.

"They're breaking through the wall!"

"I heard his voice! He came for us—the king!"

The dwarf standing behind Ju Feng began shaking him by the arm. Ju Feng turned and saw the wide grin stretched across the warrior's dirt-streaked face. 

"Did you hear? We're gettin' out."

Ju Feng smiled wearily at the dwarf. 

"The king himself comes to rescue us."

The dwarf patted him roughly on the shoulder. 

"We'll get those yaomo bastards yet. Watch and see."

By the time Ju Feng worked his way to the front of the line of diggers, they'd cleared a path through the debris just large enough for a small man to crawl through it. Orban stood near the opening. He gestured to Ju Feng.

"You're thin enough to go through. The king wants a report on the battle."

Ju Feng crouched down and, with his lean body, had little trouble squeezing through the makeshift tunnel. He came out the other side after a few moments to see a similar digging force assembled at the debris pile. They still had a long way to go before they'd be able to get the dwarves out in numbers.

King Laggarma stood at the front of the gathered diggers, looking as haggard and dirty as the rest of them. An amused smile flickered across his face when he saw Ju Feng poke his head out of the tunnel.

"Should have known they'd send the scarecrow." 

The king said. He held out a hand to help Ju Feng to his feet. 

"Your girl will be glad you're alive. Save me another tongue lashing."

"We suffered heavy losses." 

Ju Feng said, dusting his robe. What was left of it.

The king nodded gravely. He led Ju Feng to one of the smaller tunnels off the main passage so the diggers could continue their work. Ju Feng imagined he also did it so the others wouldn't hear as he enumerated their losses and the strategy used by the yaomo to cripple them.

"They'll hit us on the morrow, the day after at the latest." 

The king said and continued. 

"Doesn't hardly make sense, though. The yaomo threw as much at us as we did at them. They may have sealed us off in our own tunnels, but they paid for it. Or am I wrong?" 

"You're not wrong. We decimated their ranks as well. They have superior numbers, but I can't believe they'd recover soon enough to attack us in two days."

Ju Feng replied.

"They've picked up the pace, hitting us hard and fast. It's a risky strategy."

"Agreed, yaomo scheme and plan their conquests for months—years—before they spring their trap, attacking and retreating like shadows. These strategies have been successful for them. Large-scale, brutal attacks fly in the face of their natures. Unless their target has nothing to do with the city."