Chapter 5 Part 2:Immortal Cloak and Dagger

“The Lord does raise his chosen instruments up to their roles. I hope your casualties were as light as they looked my friend,” Xavos decided they had best get to their tasks for who knew how long they had before duty called them away from their reunion. The life of command always meant sacrificing those moments staring out over the golden waves edged into the blue and black sails above your head. Not that this was a pleasure cruise by any stretch of the imagination.

“Light? Yes, they could have been much worse given the circumstances, but then given the circumstances no casualties were acceptable,” Grunted Ulen as he spat over the side of the ship.

“I cannot disagree. Our betrayal was great indeed, and dare I say organized and long lived.”

At that the dwarf king’s full attention returned to the Paladin,” You have a marking then of how long we were cast asleep in that cursed field of our own making?”

“Still more of a guess, goblins are never the most credible sources, and our ally flying the ship above is not one to have paid attention to much of the world beyond her circumstances, but amongst the now deceased captain’s affects a few histories were discovered,” Xavos paused as he thought of the bloody cabin and the nightmare in the galley where pieces of man and other creatures were mixed into butchery. There had been at least one goblin thrown in the pot as well which was another reminder of how the apes treated their own kind let alone other races. Goblins even after all this time had not changed at all.

“If histories are just as much riddled with bias and various political machinations as ours were, we surely cannot take these texts as gospel, but given what I read I feel their numbers match the stars and constellations. At the very least we have been held in the Blessed Stasis Field for three thousand years.” Stunned silence came over the small troop of dwarves though the Kierter simply nodded.

“It should’ve taken that long for a worm like Ure to gain so much power, and dominated servants. I knew, but my heart didn’t wish to see,” The High Kierter stared up at the airship who was now being tied up to one of the higher masts where a make shift pulley system had been constructed to quickly move supplies between the ship, and flying vessel without wasting magic for portals. They were going to have to save as much power as possible for the coming struggles whatever they looked like.

“Our interrogations have led to disturbing revelations as well that I’m sure will be confirmed by yours Paladin, but these were hired not by our vampiric fool, but by a human of some riches though they knew not his name. A multi racial and kingdom conspiracy that has lasted thousands of years. For this attack was no coincidence. They knew the stasis field would falter and release us.” Xavos nodded, their interrogations had missed the human conspirator, but indeed other hints had led him to similar understandings.

“Yet, part of the Stasis field remains or surely we would be overrun by the undead, and I can see her shimmering though with less power on the horizon,” The Arch Paladin pointed out to a distant wall of churning light and clouds that allowed nothing to pass as if reality had ended in a perfect barrier stretching to the heavens. Which of course was exactly what had happened. No end of magical power and ingenuity had been necessary to seal the inside of the dome, and still allow the sun, moon, stars, and heavens to shine in. The spell and her generators truly were a wonder.

“That I’m proud to say was a conspiracy of my making. Of which, I’m happy to say my people did not trust the alliance even with Paladins at its head, and will receive an apology and a thanks at any point from your holiness on this matter,” Xavos rolled his eyes but smiled enough to make his scars dance. He had suspected his friend had been up to his old tricks during the alliance, but had not the time nor the energy to spare searching them out while attempting to save the races of light from perpetual living death.

“I might apologize. I may even thank you after you explain the nature of your conspiracy miracle that keeps a portion of the stasis active, and the legions of undead at bay.”

Ulen snickered like an old woman who just revealed her best prank against the gossiping neighbors yet. Eventually he snapped his fingers through his merriment. A wave of water splashed onto the deck and froze into a perfect stair leading into a swirling room of ocean water with an air pocket in the center.

Xavos’ old friend beckoned with his hand, and laboriously climbed up into the chambers constructed with flowing water. His guards did not follow, and neither did the paladin’s acolyte or bodyguard. Their subordinates knew when a clandestine meeting was in the works. The cation was necessary. After all, the enemy had many tools for spying out his foe's plans, and probably had developed new ones in the last three thousand years with these new technologies and machinations.

The swirling bubble of water closed behind them, and then floated down into the waves. Deep below was the swirling dark of the deep that the sea dwarves had mastered and built their cities under. There was not a sign of the sharks and predators of the depths that the Arch Paladin knew lived in the extreme deep waters. Whose kind had flocked to the continent of the living along with more wholesome sea creatures as if their instincts had led them to the last bastion before the stasis field was deployed and cut off the waters and world within. Instead there were the usual assortment of fish and large but not overwhelming carnivorous glowing squids that always followed vessels of significant size. All of the beasts great and small waited for morsels and waist from the kitchens, and other unclean places, to fall into the sea.

“I suspected treachery, but I could not ascertain her source so I took precautions,” The High Kierter started while gazing sightlessly out into the depths.

“You remember the loss of my second chief of engineering, and his staff on the Sea Mount of Bloodtide?” The Arch Paladin pursed his lips, and after a moment nodded. So many had been lost over the years of war, their final desperate retreat, and separating of the final continent from the rest of the world that the loss took some time to recall.

“Zortham was missed and surely would have increased the speed at which we deployed the field,” The Paladin mused absently.

“Would it?” Xavos opened his mouth, and closed it again. The Stasis field had been prepared and initiated right when the kings of old had thought the last Paladin was attempting to save himself. Surely that was no accident.

“You suspect they purposely hid the timing of the stasis field’s completion,” Xavos had the same suspicions, but hadn’t spoken them into reality yet.

“What better way to make a world of their choosing if all the Paladins the stalwarts of moral right and justice to all, no matter if they are king or servant, had died in glorious battle saving all the living from the dead?” The elder dwarf said it as a statement not a question for that’s what it was. The glaring and obvious truth. The Kings and surviving rulers of the living wanted a new world free of the shackles of the Lord’s Morals imposed upon the wicked by the Paladins. Though it didn’t explain everything.

“I can’t deny your words my old friend, but how are the same conspirators still alive after so many ages and why would they lower the field that entrapped us? Surely they did not work with the undead back then, or they would have simply destroyed the field and ensured the death of all that lived. Yet we see them involved with our current predicament.”

A pause in the conversation ran through as one of the commandeered goblin ships passed above their heads with its many spinning paddles now painted a happy red and the horrid trophies given proper burials at sea. Both man and dwarf pondered the wonder and what the new world they were entering had in store for them. The Paladin could tell his friend was churning the same unknowns in his head. So many questions, yet so few answers.

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