After splitting up their group into two, Mirgia and his half of the remaining dungeon delvers brought the bodies of Danil and Quint back to the surface. When they exited the dungeon, they found the brothers Lym and Jom standing guard alongside another Sahalid mercenary that they hadn’t met before. The brothers immediately came forward to help the party and cursed at the death of one of their own. The Sahalid were not a monolith, far from it, but there was a mutual respect among them for their fellow mercenaries. Some rivalry existed, but they ultimately were part of the same organization. Lym took Mirgia aside. “You’d better go and check with Captain Arios, things are very hectic right now.”
“Right now?” Mirgia asked. The sky had turned fully black and he estimated it to be the middle of the night, so he was surprised to hear this.
Lym nodded. “Visitors from the capital came earlier this evening and the captain has been in talks with them for the past few hours about what to do next.”
“That sounds complicated. I’ll go report to him and see what he wants us to do next.” He motioned the rest of his group over. “Can you help Sereh and the priests in preparing the bodies?” He asked Lym.
Lym nodded. “We’ll make sure they are made ready for cremation.”
The priests went to follow Lym but Mirgia stopped Karal. “I think it’s best that one of your group comes with me to meet with the captain.”
Karal nodded and after giving a few orders to Masahi and the others he joined Mirgia, Doroly, Roal and Kimi as they made their way towards the captain’s tent. After exchanging a few words with the guard, he went inside to ask for permission to enter. Instead, Captain Arios followed him out after a few moments. “You’re back,” he said.
Mirgia nodded. “Things went very badly and we decided to send part of the group back with the bodies.”
Captain Arios frowned. “Who did we lose?”
“Head Priest Danil killed Quint. I then killed the head priest.”
Arios glanced at Karal who nodded. “Unfortunately we’ve come to believe it as the truth. Without any answers to what motivated our former head priest to do this, we have no real direction on where to go from here.”
“Quickly tell me exactly what happened before we go inside.”
Mirgia recounted the trap they were stuck in, Kimi’s help in the matter and then the confrontation with the insectoid creatures in the underground sand pit. He explained that there was some sort of magical circle that was activated with the blood of the two deceased and they didn’t know what it did. He also gave his suspicion that this dungeon was once part of the flying kingdom of Kanarth. Captain Arios listened intently and although he seemed impatient to go back inside, he let Mirgia finish. He nodded when Mirgia was done explaining the situation. “I’d like two of you to join me inside to meet with our guests. They’re a part of the Sahilid Imperatoris, the part of our organization that works directly for the emperor. They will want to hear this too.”
Mirgia would have loved to bring Kimi with him, but instead he decided it made more sense to bring Karal with him. The priest appreciated it, and together they followed Captain Arios into his tent.
Inside the tent were a little more than a dozen people. Besides the captain himself, two of his own advisors were seated behind the little desk that Captain Arios had been using. Across from him sat three people that were dressed in a well crafted uniform. Where the other members of the Sahalid wore whatever gear they had access to, it seemed like these people wore the symbol of the emperor, a strange looking symbol that reminded him of a sword with a horseshoe at the top. He hadn’t seen it before. Finally, a man stood behind the three seated Sahilid members. The moment Mirgia spotted this man, he was on edge. Every fiber in his body told him that he was in the room with an incredibly dangerous person. Cold eyes looked at him and although the man had a smile on his face, there was nothing behind that smile. Sitting on the rim of his black hat were several gemstones, each of a different color. He wore a black and purple suit with purple gloves and shoes. He was leaning on a cane that Mirgia could see and also held a rapier inside of it. The man turned to Mirgia and bowed politely. “Mirgia of Milinia and Karal of the sect of Owlana, a pleasure to meet you both. I have understood that you two were inside the dungeon until just now?”
Mirgia nodded. It didn’t sneak past him that the man already knew their names. Mirgia was the only elf here, so that information could come from Captain Arios telling the men who were all inside, but Karal’s name being known to this man came as a surprise.
“We have just exited bringing the bodies of two of our companions, so my apologies if I seem a little shaken,” Mirgia said. That was a lie. He didn’t want to be too open with this person so he needed a good excuse to come across a bit more abrasive.
Karal seemed more visibly afraid of the man. “Who are you?” He asked.
“I go by many names, most know me as the wanderer. But if it helps, you may call me Ankh.” He flashed the symbol that the other Sahalid had on their tunics and Mirgia guessed that the symbol had the same name.
“I’ve understood from the good captain that you are here as a direct subordinate of the emperor, are you here to take control of this site?” Mirgia asked.
The man smiled. “Not quite. I would not want to step on the toes of Captain Arios when he has been doing a fine job. No, this particular dungeon has caught the interest of our brilliant emperor and he sent me over to investigate. There are some hints that this place might have something to do with the long lost flying city of Kanarth.”
Mirgia frowned at this. “How do you know that? I mean, I believe you’re correct, considering some of the things we encountered there, but we had no way of knowing before entering the place.”
Ankh’s smile went even wider, almost turning into a mad grin. “Well, the emperor and I have been researching the flying city of Kanarth for a long time now. Their rule over the skies was an incredible period within the history of the continent of Palaria, and there are many pieces of technology and magic that are likely hidden somewhere in the world that come from that time period. We don’t know exactly what happened to the remains of the city after it fell, but it is rumored that most of the city vanished. Some rare times, parts of it show up, although it’s often no more than a building or something, even only a wall or a bit of pavement. So with that in mind, we’ve developed a way to locate the magic signature of the city. Although this still requires the person who searches for it to be within a certain range, it’s a lot better than having no idea.” He paused, his eyes flickering from person to person as if reading them. “Now, if I may ask, what did you encounter in the dungeon? You said your party lost some members?”
Mirgia nodded and proceeded to repeat the story he told Captain Arios once more. Where the captain quietly listened to Mirgia’s story, the man named Ankh kept interrupting him with questions about details he barely remembered. When he got to the room where the fighting went down, the gemstones on the man’s hat started to slightly hum. He put his hand on the hat and they quieted down again. “Did you get a good look at the magic circle?” Ankh asked.
Mirgia shook his head. “I am not very familiar with this type of magic. I’ve seen it once or twice before, but until recently I didn’t even know it existed.”
Ankh nodded. “Magic circles are an ancient art that is mostly lost. This loss of the art is not by coincidence either. The magic can be used in different ways and as you seemingly witnessed, it can be amplified by using the blood of an unsuspecting victim. Normally, this magic requires the caster to pour energy into the circle, either from their own body or from some other source. When someone is bleeding out on top of the magic circle, all of their energy pours into the spell, making it much more powerful than you could normally accomplish. When this little tidbit was found out, the flying city of Kanarth made sure that the knowledge didn’t get out much. They basically monopolized this kind of magic for much of their existence which also meant that much of the knowledge disappeared alongside the city itself. It was only within the last few decades that the magic was rediscovered. What baffles me about this situation is why a priest of Owlana would not only know how this magic works, but also want to activate it. Although Owlana usually prefers to spread knowledge freely as opposed to restricting it, there are definitely things she likes to hide from the world. This type of magic is one of those things, so I can’t really imagine her sharing it with a priest. Especially not to perform an act like this.”
“You sound like you know our lady quite a bit, isn’t that a bit insolent?” Karal looked offended at the man’s comments.Ankh’s expression darkened for a moment before the forced smile returned. “There is no insult intended, dear priest. I’m simply stating some facts from the few times I’ve interacted with the goddess of knowledge. Your mistress and I have a long and checkered history and although I am hesitant to admit that we are not on the best of terms, I’d like to believe we have a mutual respect for each other.” He returned his attention back to Mirgia. “Would you be willing to lead me and my people back into the dungeon?”
Mirgia hesitated. He was tired and still upset about everything that went down inside. Besides that, his shoulder was wounded quite badly, so he wouldn’t be much use if they got to be in a fight. As if he was reading Mirgia’s thoughts, Ankh said, “don’t worry, there is nothing in that dungeon that can kill me, so I will do the fighting.”
The scariest part about this claim was that the man seemed to fully believe it.
Mirgia nodded. “I will accompany you, if I can bring some of my own people as well. There is still a group of Sahilid mercenaries down there as well that I would like to help get out safely with whatever treasure there is to get.”
Ankh nodded. “Very well, get some sleep tonight, we will go into the dungeon in the morning. Bring whoever you want to bring, but try to keep it under half a dozen or I can’t protect everyone.”
Mirgia nodded and excused himself from the tent with Karal in tow.
Opal Kaharis 