NOVEL WEB 74: Urgent Mistakes
My biggest worry after seeing the eternal grudge match that had personified the previously mundane struggle of machine versus stone, was how we were going to sleep. Every time one of the golems died, the very air itself shuddered.
The answer came as a surprise. The moment dusk hit, the fighting stopped and they began to clear the battlefield. Golems dragged their deceased comrades back to the holes they spawned from and tossed them in, all without so much as looking in the direction of a foe. It was downright creepy and I had so many questions.
We watched the clean up from our vantage at the top of the quarry, until suddenly Scotty perked up. “They're going back in the holes! We can go and look around, get some samples!”
Sure enough, the living golems were carefully filing into the holes that had birthed them, until one remained to guard each of the two holes.
The silent sentries didn't say or do anything as we carefully descended the many tiers and earthen ramps to the bottom. Neither of them even so much as turned an eyeless head in our direction.
The battlefield, now that we were standing on it, was littered with small chunks of detritus from the fighting. A few small blocks of stone had even been left abandoned in corners, while pieces of torn metal lay half buried in gravel and dust.
“This is just…” Camollo said, shaking his head as he trailed off, staring around at it all. “There's no way we're going to get enough stone for a smithy any time soon. Can you imagine wading into that battle?”
I was busy pulling a mostly whole block of stone from the sand, so my voice was strained, “We… can… figure that out—” I got the head-sized block out of the gravel. “—Hah! We can figure that problem out later, we still have no way of actually hauling meaningful amounts of stone anyway.”
“True enough,” he said with a shrug.
When we had samples of the two different colours of stone, plus a few scraps of metal, we left for our camp up in the woods.
The woods around the quarry weren’t old and vibrant like the Castle Woods, but rather… dirty with garbage and dumped old furniture. People had been using the decommissioned quarry and its surroundings as a place to dump shit for years, apparently, and the animals had gotten into it all and spread it around.
We’d placed our camp in the crook created by two fallen trees, which gave us some nice cover to build a proper fire. We had stew made from our various ingredients at hand, and it was… nasty. At least it was warm, though. Everyone was pretty tired by then, so barring Chloe and I, our camp got ready for bed.
As soon as we sat down to begin our turn at first watch, Chloe pulled out a geology book and gave it to me.
I stared at it, then at her, “What’s this?”
“I figured you’d want to know what type of stone it was, right?” she asked, sitting down beside me. “Make sure it's actually the type we came here for?”
Staring at the stone blocks at my feet, then at her, I smiled, “Okay.”
Flipping the book open, I began to read through the contents until I found what I was looking for. The light was pretty shit in the camp, but we had a few candles, so I lit two and settled them in the dirt beside me.
Chloe shifted suddenly as I began to read, and I looked up. She was staring out into the night, frowning.
“What is it?” I asked, looking around.
She didn’t answer, and for several long moments we were still and silent. Nothing moved out in the dark, and there wasn’t a single sound. Slowly, she relaxed. “I don’t know what it was, but I thought I heard shuffling. Before, I’d have thought it was too small to be anything dangerous, but these days…”
I snorted softly. “I understand.”
We both made sure we had our weapons properly ready before I continued reading. My crossbow rested beside me on the log, my quiver of bolts was at my hip, and my axe was slung across my back.
Kaia.
I flinched ever so slightly, but Chloe was still thankfully staring out into the night. What is it, Cynath?
Have you noticed anything strange about your angelic form recently? I’ve been gaining in power, albeit only in small increments. I helped a woman find the body of her husband, however, and it allowed me to purchase an upgrade you may be interested in.
I winced. I remembered that woman from a few weeks ago. She’d been so desperate, but I shrugged her off and sent her to Cynath.
Mentally shaking off the what-ifs that were just bubbling up in my mind, I asked, What’s this upgrade?
Well, that’s what I was asking. After the night you gained full angelic power, even if just briefly, there should have been a… a scar left over from it, somewhere in your Storm Sense.
Oh. Yeah. I remember seeing something like that.
It won’t be close to the level you achieved that night, but over time you can use attribute orbs to increase your power, and—
“There!” Chloe blurted, interrupting my mental conversation with Cynath.
Hmph.
I jerked, looking around as adrenaline surged through my veins… but Chloe was pointing to the book. Taking a few deep breaths, I stared at the page. Her finger rested on a picture, and I squinted… huh. Moving the book closer to one of the blocks of stone, we compared the pictures.
“The cream coloured one is limestone. We found limestone!” I said, grinning. Limestone was extremely important in a whole bunch of crafting processes. I mean we knew it should be here, but you never knew these days.
“That’s good, right?” Chloe asked, sharing my smile.
I nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, we wanted it because limestone is used in a whole ton of different industrial processes. For us, we can use it to make mortar, cement, and even fertiliser. It can also be used as a building material, of course— oh! It’s also used to make lime for tanning! I remember seeing that somewhere! Gosh, there’s so many ways this stone can be used to help us.”
Chloe watched me through my excited info dump, then giggled and looked at her feet for several moments. “Sounds useful.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Now the other stone…”
We didn’t have to read far to find the other stone.
“Dolostone…? We looked that up, didn't we?” Chloe murmured, pointing between the new picture and our second, more orange coloured rock. “Oh right, it’s basically just limestone with a different colour.”
“No it’s not,” I said eagerly, tapping the passage that explained what was different about it. “Dolostone isn’t just orange limestone. It has magnesium in it. Let’s see… yeah, it's pretty much always found together with limestone, which is why the old mine sold both, but dolostone or dolomite has some interesting uses that limestone doesn’t. It’s slightly tougher, more resistant to acid— Right! It can be used in refractory bricks! I'm still confused about that, though… the other source I saw said nothing about magnesium or dolomite.”
“We can research it more when we get back,” said Chloe, brushing her hand over the block. “For now, we know they both have a use.”
“Yeah, although—” I stopped, and both Chloe and I whipped our heads around as a small, high, screech filled the night.
It was quiet enough not to wake the others, even as a second cry joined the first. The first was then abruptly cut off, and more sounds could be heard. It sounded almost like fighting…
“I'm going to go look, it sounds like someone is in trouble,” Chloe said, rising to her feet.
Shit! She was already moving when I protested, “We're meant to be keeping watch!”
“You stay,” she said, brushing me off when I reached out to stop her.
Before I could protest further, she was gone.
“Fuck!” I swore viciously.
What did I do? What could I do?
Wake one of the others. Let them know what is happening. Then follow Chloe. You have additional power at your disposal now, should you choose to reveal yourself as Silver. Do not tarry, though, for she is right to rush, there are sparks of intelligence out there that I do not recognise out in the night. They are dim, by most standards, but they cling to life even as it abandons them.
Well, if Cynath wanted me to follow, who was I to say otherwise? Although, I had no intention of letting Chloe know who I was. I'd fix this problem as Kaia.
Rushing to the other girl’s tent, I shook it until I heard a groan. “Hey, Chloe has gone into the woods to help someone. Don't know who, but I can't leave her to fight alone. Keep watch.”
“What?” Immie's tired voice asked from inside the tent. I didn't wait to clarify, I just rushed over to my seat and scooped up my crossbow.
I could still hear the sounds of combat, so I used it as a beacon and set off. My main concern was Chloe, but I was curious who was in trouble. Who was out here in the middle of nowhere, other than us? The builders of the Castle, perhaps?
