Rise of the Living Forge

“Played?” Lillia asked, anger and confusion mixing in her tone. “What are you talking about? Are you saying that everything that you did to my people was just a game to you?”

“What? No. It wasn’t a game. We were the game. The pieces, at least,” Arwin said, speaking faster as pieces started to slot together. He wasn’t sure if they were the right ones, but they began to form a picture he couldn’t remove. “Forget me for a moment. Did your guild – or whoever it was that aided with your army and management – did they ever do anything… off?”

Lillia blinked; the vexation taken from her features as she was forced to think for a moment. “Off? What are you talking about?”

There was a sinking understanding in her words that told Arwin he was on the right track. He just wasn’t sure if that was something to be happy about or not.

“Actions that didn’t line up with what they claimed. The guild told me they wanted me to be the strongest adventurer so I could fight off the monster horde, and yet they didn’t tell me how important getting Achievements early on was,” Arwin said. “Anything like that?”

Lillia swallowed, her eyes drifting as she sifted through memories. Her features went flat. “Yes. They did the same thing. I was Count Tier before I realized that the true power in classes came from Achievements rather than pure Tiers.”

“What about your army? Did they let you vet it?”

“No. They always said I had–”

“Other things that were far more important, such as training to defeat the Hero of Lian?”

Lillia swallowed again, realization starting to set in. “Yes.”

“They told me the same shit,” Arwin said. “Except my line was to defeat the Demon Queen. Everything else was the same. Did they let you use any of the armor or weapons you ever picked up?”

“No. I had to use the stuff they made in the guild. What about your orders? Did you ever speak to anyone outside of the guild for them?”

“No. Everything came from the guild leader or one of his subordinates. I didn’t get any outside information aside from when I was out on missions, and the guild always herded my group straight to the battles without letting me spend too much time in the cities. They were always watching us to make sure we wouldn’t learn too much, weren’t they?”

They stared at each other. There wasn’t a single word that could properly encapsulate the emotions Arwin was feeling, but Lillia gave her best shot at it.

“Fuck.” Lillia leaned closer to squint at his features. “You didn’t kill kids?”

“No more than you did.”

“The villages?”

“Not me.”

Lillia rocked back, her eyes wide with disbelief. “You’re telling the truth – but I saw your men torching villages with my own eyes. I literally watched innocents get cut down in front of me. That was your army!”

“Just like I saw your army doing the same,” Arwin said. “I don’t think either of us are wrong. Your army did destroy human cities, and I suspect mine did the same to monster cities. A portion of the army, at least. I can’t imagine they were all in on it. It was always raids, and we always got the information too late to properly interfere. A few times, that could have been a coincidence. But with the amount it happened? The more I think about it, the more impossible it feels. The only way we could have kept missing the attacks and showing up late is if the other army knew exactly where we were.”

“I never saw you at the attacks, but I heard claims you’d retreated. We only fought when our full armies were clashing, and I never saw you retreat once. The Monster Coalition always sent people to pull me out, claiming they’d shown up just in time to save me. I never thought about it, but it looked like your soldiers reinforced you at the same time. I thought that was just them making sure we didn’t overrun you, but did they tell you–”

“The same thing,” Arwin confirmed. “They’d arrive just as I was running low on energy and pull me out. It seemed like they were trying to keep me safe, but I think the truth was they wanted to make sure neither of us died yet.”

Dread covered Lillia’s features. “Why? Why would anyone do that? And who? You’re telling me the whole war was completely artificial?”

“I don’t know. I don’t understand it at all,” Arwin said, running his hands through his hair and shaking his head. It felt like the floor had collapsed out from under him. Even though he’d already decided that Lillia wasn’t his enemy anymore, this was something more.

She’d never been his enemy in the first place. She’d been fighting for the exact same thing he had.

“I can’t believe this,” Lillia muttered into the palms of her hands. “So many people died. What about your closest group? The ones that were always with you? Were they–”

“Never left my side for long enough to destroy a town.”

Lillia looked like she wanted to throw up. “I killed so many of them. They were just trying to defend their homes?”

Arwin’s stomach sank even further.

“Fuck. Your lieutenants were the same?”

“Always with me. I chose them myself. The only members of my army I was allowed to choose,” Lillia muttered, her eyes boring into the ground.

Were we only allowed to choose our circles because they knew we’d kill each other anyway?

Arwin’s throat constricted and his hands tightened at his sides. He’d always been convinced that his blade had been wielded for justice, but it was completely soaked through with the blood of innocents.

“I’m so sorry,” Arwin said. “I didn’t know. I thought–”

“We both did, didn’t we?” Lillia asked bitterly. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe you. Things line up too well to pull wool over my eyes and even try to believe anything else.”

They sat on either corner of the bed wordlessly for nearly a minute. Arwin stared at the dark wall until it swam before his eyes, but it wasn’t changing anything. His friends were dead, and so were Lillia’s.

Someone had used both of them like puppets and thrown them to the side. Arwin had absolutely no idea why they’d been left alive, but he’d have been willing to bet everything he had that neither he nor Lillia had been meant to survive the explosion.

He glanced over at the former Demon Queen. Her shoulders were hunched, and her face was buried deep into her hands. Arwin had already suspected some degree of betrayal, so as hard as the news had hit him, his subconscious had already been prepared for it to some degree.

To Lillia, it was completely out of the blue, and he didn’t envy her. Having to handle the full revelation at once would have shattered everything he knew. Arwin was far from the best at comforting anyone, though.

He raised a hand, staring at it as if it were a foreign instrument, before slowly reaching out and uncomfortably setting it on Lillia’s shoulder. She stiffened but made no move to remove it.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Do you have any idea who would have done this?” Lillia asked, her voice muffled. “What was the point?”

“I have a theory,” Arwin said. “Two of them, actually.”

Lillia’s head snapped up and she locked eyes with him. Specks of molten fury danced within them. “Tell me. Now.”

“Do you recall the gem that was in my armor?” Arwin asked. “The black one.”

“Yes. It was a backup strategy to kill me, wasn’t it?”

“No. I have no damn idea what it was,” Arwin said with a shake of his head. “But I think it could have been a failsafe. I didn’t put it there, and I oversaw my armor. The Adventurer’s Guild would have been the only ones that could have modified it, but it doesn’t make sense why they didn’t tell me about it. If I knew I had a bomb that could kill you, I’d have worked around that. I already planned to die for the victory, so it just doesn’t line up.”

“You’re telling me you think it was the entire Guild? Not just one or two people?”

“I don’t know, but I know the guild leader was in on it, because he inspected my armor. I just don’t understand why we survived – or what they even stand to gain from this in the first place.” Arwin pressed his lips together. “Which leads me to the other option. I don’t know why we survived the explosion, but I suspect it was due to an achievement I got right before the explosion. There’s a possibility that the achievement, the bomb, or both were put there by someone working against the guild to get us out. The end result is the same either way, though. The guild betrayed us. But what about you? Was there really nobody you knew that might have stood to gain anything from the war?”

“I can’t see what anyone gains from keeping the war going. The Monster Coalition were the ones that outfitted me and handled recruitment and management for the army. They hate humans.”

“And the Guild hates monsters. Their whole purpose is to destroy them,” Arwin said. “Nothing makes sense, and the more I learn, the more confusing it gets. I think I should make it clear that I don’t hold the deaths of my friends against you, though. We were nothing but swords in someone else’s hands.”

Lillia wiped her face with the back of a hand and raised her head, giving Arwin a small nod. “I – the same. It makes me wonder how much of what I believed was a lie, though. What if everything was fake from the start?”

A chilling thought struck Arwin. “You weren’t kidnapped from Earth as well, were you?”

“Earth? Why would I be from dirt?”

He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed to hear that. Arwin let out a breath and shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Hold on, you can’t just do that. We’re the only ones that know the truth about what’s going on,” Lillia said, her eyes narrowing. “If you have any information, you need to share it.”

“I don’t think it’s particularly relevant.”

“Let me decide that. Don’t deny me this,” Lillia begged. “I need to know. I can’t let things as they are, and every single piece of the puzzle could be vital.”

It was hard to argue with that.

“Fine. I’m telling you that it isn’t going to be useful, though. If anything, I think it’s just going to confuse you even more. I’m not from this world. I’m from a planet called Earth, and I got magically kidnapped and brought here as a child, specifically to fight you.”

Lillia stared at Arwin. “Is that meant to be a joke?”

“I told you,” Arwin said with a sigh. He took his hand off Lillia’s shoulder and made to rise, but she caught him by his wrist before he could stand.

“I’m sorry. Sit back down. Please.”

Arwin glanced back at her, then slowly lowered himself back to the hay.

“There are other worlds?” Lillia asked.

“You believe me?”

“I don’t know what in the Nine Underlands to believe anymore, so I might as well start with you,” Lillia said dryly. Her eyes narrowed and she poked him in the chest. “But if you’re screwing with me, I swear I’ll make you pay.”

“I’m not. There’s not much to say, unfortunately. There’s at least one other world. Maybe it’s a different universe. I don’t know. There wasn’t magic, and I really don’t remember much of it. I was taken away when I was a child. I assume you’re native to this planet?”

“As far as I’m aware, yes.” Lillia scrunched her nose. “Well, shit. You were right. All that did was give me more questions and absolutely nothing useful in terms of what I actually wanted to find out. How long have you suspected that something was awry with the war?”

“I thought I’d just been betrayed, not that the entire thing was a sham,” Arwin said with a disbelieving shake of his head. “I only figured it out just now, together with you.”

“So why did you come here to talk with me?” Lillia asked. “You must have thought I was a bloodthirsty monster.”

“I assumed you’d finally changed your ways, and I was hoping I could ask you about the mating habits of monsters.”

Lillia stared at Arwin, her cheeks tinging slightly red. “Why in the world do you want to know about that?”

Arwin opened his mouth, but he’d butchered his wording so badly that he couldn’t muster up an answer before a snicker slipped out of his lips. Lillia couldn’t keep herself from matching it and they both doubled over in fits of poorly-suppressed, hysterical laughter.

It took Arwin nearly five minutes to fully gather himself. Every time he started to stop laughing, he caught Lillia’s eye and started to laugh again. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed this hard.

It wasn’t like anything had been that funny, but he suspected his body had reached a breaking point and smashed right through it. There was only so much it could handle before emotions started to mix together and break down.

“Seriously, why do you want to know that, though? I assume you meant something by it,” Lillia said, her voice wavering as she tried to compose herself.

Arwin wiped away tears of mirth, forcing himself back under control. “It’s about the Wyrm in the forest. From what I know, Wyrms are ground dwellers that rarely emerge from their tunnel systems, but this one came out and tried to kill us. It was much more aggressive than I think it should have been. The rest of the forest seemed to be in mating season, and I was wondering…”

“If Wyrms get worked up enough to chase people away when they’re in the mood?” Lillia asked, raising an eyebrow. “It’s possible, but I can’t say I’m an expert on it. That’s like me asking you how horny old humans usually get.”

“Very, but I get the point,” Arwin said. He heaved a sigh. “Damn.”

“To be honest, I still can’t believe you managed to survive a Wyrm at your Tier. That should have been impossible. How’d you do it? Did you lie about your class getting changed?”

“No. I’m a smith. I just have some ways to defend myself. And I wasn’t alone. If I was, I’d have died.”

“Well, damn.” Lillia studied the palms of her hands. “They had to be quite some people if they helped you fend off a Wyrm. High Tier?”

“Nope. Apprentice, just like me.”

“And you fought off a Wyrm?”

“I cracked its knee enough to mildly inconvenience it,” Arwin corrected.

“That’s impressive. I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to look on them fondly, but it reminds me a bit of when I still had a party,” Lillia said, a small smile crossing her face as she reminisced.

I guess she’s just been sitting in this inn all day, waiting for people to show up. Sure, she’s gotten a few customers, but I’d already be insane if I were in her shoes. This sounds miserable for someone who was even more excited to be around others than I was.

“You know, that really does sound like mating behavior. And if the Wyrm was mating, we might have a problem,” Lillia said.

Arwin tilted his head to the side, pulled from his thoughts. “What? Why?”

“Well, Wyrmlings are pretty damn destructive,” Lillia said. “And they usually have huge litters. There could be dozens of them, and they’re going to seek out the nearest food source. I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy a miniature horde of Wyrms at my door.”

“Oh, shit,” Arwin muttered. “I did not know that bit. I thought you said you didn’t know much about them.”

“Everyone knows that you don’t want to be near a Wyrm when it mates.”

“Not everyone.”

“Evidently,” Lillia said with a snort. “That’s going to be bad. What do you think the chances are that the Adventurer's Guild does something about it?”

“I don’t know if I trust the Guild,” Arwin said slowly. “I don’t know if I want any attention on this city at all. Not until we’ve learned more about what we’re up against.”

“It’s we, then?”

“Didn’t we just agree on that?” Arwin asked. “We were both used for something, and I’m damn well going to find out what. I’ll do it with or without you, but I imagine it’s going to be really hard to figure anything out on my own. Only by putting together what we know are we going to be able to figure out where the cracks in this shit was.”

Lillia’s jaw set and she nodded. “You’re right. I’m in.”

“Welcome to the guild,” Arwin said, rising to his feet and holding his hand out to Lillia.

“Slow down there.” She raised an eyebrow. “The guild? I didn’t say anything about that. An inn is one thing, but a whole guild? And one I’m not the leader of? Are you really inviting the Demon Queen to a human guild?”

“No. I’m inviting an innkeeper,” Arwin replied. “And it’s my damn guild. I invite who I please.”

Lillia snorted. “A change of topic, then. I’ve got a question.” She averted her gaze as Arwin looked to her.

“Yeah?”

“Do you hate my cooking?”

“What? No. It’s fantastic.”

“Then why do you never eat it? You’ve only come by a few times in recent times.” Lillia crossed her arms and pursed her lips. “I’d rather you just tell me the truth. If there’s something wrong with my cooking, I want to improve it.”

Arwin grimaced. “That’s kind of a long story.”

“Sounds like you just don’t like my cooking.”

“Oh, fine.” Arwin threw his hands up in defeat. “I eat magical items.”

“You what?”