A Soldier's Life - 450 - Desperate Times Call For Desperate Action (edited 9-7-25 +200 words, mostly cleaned up the action)

Chapter 450: Desperate Times Call For Desperate Action

“We need to find out what they both want,” Fenlorian said to those gathered around him.

“It has to be the Relic Vault or the Black Archives,” Torandir speculated. It was good to see the fire mage alive, looking a little worse for wear with most of his hair burned away and his robes burnt and crusty with blood. He was one of the strongest Sentinels and one of Fenlorian’s most trusted advisors.

“What are the Black Archives?” a Sentinel asked. There were some fifty Sentinels nearby and many secrets were apparently not known to all.

“Forbidden magics. Chimera creation and phylactery construction, mostly,” Fenlorian stated dismissively, but you could tell by his words, there was more.

“Why not destroy the knowledge?” I asked. A few eyes looked toward me. The older Sentinels gazed with incredulous stares, judging me for not understanding. While the younger Sentinels, including Baelira, had the same lingering question as I did from the looks on their faces.

“To fight something, you need to understand it,” Fenlorian said, as if that explained it. He looked around the crowd for someone but, not seeing his target, he asked Torandir. “Is Myrrion or Saevrin nearby?”

“Both dead, High Sentinel,” Torandir replied. “Curtis is burnt but Elanwe should be on the plateau and we can call her down,” he added. Fenlorian gave a troubled nod.

While we waited on the scrying mage, everyone was roused to readiness. This was going to be the last assault, and with the undead and Nashasari fighting each other, it was our best chance to break the siege and get a decisive victory.

Sentinel Elanwe arrived and was a young dwarf who only wore the mark of a Watcher on her robes and had no armor. Her reddish dwarven beard was just fuzz at the moment, and she looked uncertain about being called to the fight. “Child, we only need you to scout below. Torandir will guide you,” the High Sentinel said reassuringly.

The dwarf nodded in relief and took a seat on a stone bench. Battle-weary Sentinels crowded around her, but instantly went silent as she sent out her mage eye to scout below. A few times she asked to be directed through the Repository to the correct vault. She reached the Black Vault first since it was closer. “There are dead in front…soulless, I think. The bodies are too badly burned to know for sure.”

“Are the burned bodies wearing metal armor?” Fenlorian asked sternly.

“Yes,” the young dwarf relpied.

“Soulless or ghouls, then. What about the vault door?” Fenlorian pressed the young dwarf.

“The stone is scarred and scorched but looks intact. I can’t get any closer as the wards are repelling me. Do you want me to check the other vault?” She asked the group that had pressed closer as she explored.

“Yes, that is why we summoned you,” an impatient Torandir growled. Fenlorian gave the old a look for patience.

It took the Elanwe ten minutes to reach the Relic Vault with help. She passed a number of Nashasari looting books and items, which angered the assembled Sentinels. “There are lots of bodies outside. Dead bodies. I don’t see anyone alive but one of the doors is open.” Before she finished speaking, Fenlorian was already leading a group toward the stairs. We hadn’t even finished preparing to coordinate the counterattack. There was a risk that if one group got too far ahead, they could be surrounded by the enemy, but that concern was set aside in the rush to see what had been taken.

We descended quickly, following the High Sentinel. The upper levels of the Repository had been ransacked, and a few small fires burned. The sounds of fighting still echoed far below when we reached the Relic Vault. Over a dozen Nashasari warriors, charred and smoldering, littered the floor outside. Some of them had been trampled to ash and dozens of sooty prints could be seen going into and out of the vault. The claw marks from the bone demon still scarred the right side of the door, but more ominous was the fact that the left door to the vault was missing.

Fenlorian numbly walked forward and entered, and I pressed right behind him to see for myself. The smell of burnt wood hung in the air, but it was acidic in nature, and my eyes watered as I passed the corpses. The vault door had been over a foot thick but had been turned to dust by powerful magic. At least, that's what I assumed, by the granular matter coating everything beyond.

Stone shelves lined both sides of the vault. More burnt bodies covered the floor inside, and scorch marks from expended runes were visible on the stone floor. Fenlorian walked the length of the vault, about fifty feet, before turning around. A few books were tossed on the floor along with some exotic oversized weapons. Fenlorian's filthy face looked apoplectic. He walked past me and the others out of the vault. It didn’t take him long to gather his thoughts. “We cannot let them leave with this knowledge.”

“What knowledge?” A resting Sentinel asked, looking up. The Sentinel elf’s right ear was missing, and his right eye was red from blood.

“They took everything Sanctuary had on the world gates and all the demon artifacts collected over the last two thousand years,” Fenlorian said gravely. Most of the Sentinels knew what world gates were, with so many otherworlders living in Sanctuary.

“Why would we keep that knowledge? You told me a gate could never be safely opened to Aphora,” an elven Sentinel said testily. Aphora was the elven home world.

Fenlorian looked at Torandir and two others from the council before responding. “That is true. It cannot be opened safely. But this is Sanctuary. We are the Watchers of the undead scourge, and if Desia were ever overrun, you know we would be the last bastion for life. If Desia was not reclaimable, then we would work to move the survivors to one of the other inhabited worlds the Titans discovered, regardless of the demon threat.”

There was mostly silence, but some mutterings among the gathered warriors. “We cannot let the Brotherhood take the knowledge of the world gates. Only disaster awaits if they try to open one,” Fenlorian said with finality.

I saw Lepidus walking down the stairs. He was choosing an odd moment to make an appearance. I made eye contact with him as he approached. “Is that what the lich emperor and Nashasari are fighting over? Why would the lich emperor need the knowledge of the world gates?” I asked, directing my question at the masked man.

Lepidus, his eyes fixed on me, replied. “His subordinates are the ones who reconstructed the world gates. I am surprised he knew the Relic Vault existed, let alone its contents.” He paused, perhaps insinuating there was a spy in Sanctuary. “He may be a brilliant strategist, but an artificer he is not. I believe he thought he was using the Nashasari to eliminate the Sentinels, and they were using him to steal...” he gestured at the destroyed vault door. “The ghoul bats and wraith descended on one of the Brotherhood ships. The bats were killed, and the wraith has returned across the water to the isle. There is no threat to the plateau at this moment.”

“Where is the Emperor?” Fenlorian asked the masked Lepidus, still showing trust in him by his tone.

“Below. He continues to fight the Nashasari as they load their spoils. Now is the perfect time to destroy his vessel,” Lepidus said flatly.

“It is more important that the Nashasari do not leave with the knowledge of the world gates. If they are already experimenting with the ley lines and dungeons, then they could destroy Desia by creating their own world gate,” Fenlorian pronounced. I was trying to puzzle out why the serpent men wanted to use the world gates. They were a native race to Desia, from what I understood. Something was not adding up in my head.

“There are seven Brotherhood ships we must stop before they sail,” Fenlorian laid out the impossible task.

“We should focus our efforts on the largest ship. The ship carrying their leader, the brood mother,” Torandir advised. “It will likely have the artifacts and tomes from the Relic Vault and will give us the best chance of success.

Another Sentinel agreed. “They are likely to sail in minutes, High Sentinel. We should focus our efforts on the ship most likely to be carrying the dangerous knowledge. If we are wrong, we should be able to use it to intercept another ship on the seas.”

I could see the indecision on Fenlorian’s face. This was another failure of his. He could have destroyed the knowledge, but was too proud and maybe arrogant. “Agreed,” he said through a clenched jaw. “Where is it?”

“It is moored on the bluff by the dungeon entrance,” Lepidus announced. I only glanced at the masked man. He was remarkably well informed.

A flurry of orders was issued as Fenlorian and his council divided everyone into four groups to descend the four stairs. One of the stairs had been collapsed just below the Repository, but was still intact on the lower levels. The expectation was for one group to reach the cavern quickly and delay the ship enough for the others to reinforce and board it together. I noted that Lepidus had disappeared as the groups were being called out. I was not surprised to be assigned to Fenlorian’s command, and that we had the west stairs, which opened closest to the bluff where the ship was supposed to be moored.

Fenlorian may have made many mistakes, but he had no fear of spearheading the charge. It was a reckless rush, and the only reason we advanced so quickly and survived was that they weren’t expecting us. Many of the Nashasari were loaded down with books, scrolls, and artifacts. I noticed these serpent men were smaller than the warriors and probably mages, sailors, or laborers. We didn’t hesitate to cut them down from behind when we caught them.

Our progress slowed on the fourth level as the Nashasari warriors finally started to block our path and defend the retreating looters. Fenlorian was bloodthirsty, repeatedly crashing into groups of Nashasari warriors. At least the Nashasari mages were not supporting them, and the Sentinels who had kept up with us used defensive spells to protect us as best they could.

Being on the attack, I had switched to a shield and magebane as I covered the High Sentinel’s left flank. Every other landing had two or three defenders, but between the two of us, they were slain in seconds. During one sprint, I wondered if Konstantin would be impressed or critical of our recklessness. 

When we reached the bottom and came out in the cavern onto the docks, I observed the chaotic scene. On the far side of the docks, Nashasari and soulless ghouls fought. Bodies were scattered across the stone piers, and many dozens more floated in the water with scores of dead fish. The water itself had green scum on it, and I suspected it was left over from the alchemical acid trap that sunk one of the ships.

We were the first group to reach the docks. The bow of the Mourning After jutted out of the water, with some of its mooring lines straining to prevent it from sinking completely. To our immediate right, a large hole had been torn open in the side of the cavern leading outside. Most of the debris had been cleared, but signs of the destructive act remained as large boulders were scattered everywhere. Nashasari rushed in front of us with arms full of looted goods from the other stairs. The serpent men jumped onto the deck of the massive ship moored outside the gaping hole.

“Do not let them sail!” Fenlorian shouted as he hurried to engage the Nashasari forming defensive lines.

I thought it was already too late because I saw the smaller Nashasari sailors already untying the ship. We would have to get through some fifty warriors in too short a time. I still charged into the Nashasari line with Fenlorian and the others.

Nashasari bowmen on the ship started firing a few arrows at first, but as more joined them at the rails, the situation grew more treacherous. We were engaged with the warriors, while being attacked with arrows, and the Nashasari and soulless ghouls started to press us from behind. Sentinels were dying, but I was doing my best to stay alive.

My aether shield amulet flashed from an arrow, and I could feel the amulet crumble against my chest. Fortuna’s luck had left me. From this point, I was forced to keep an enemy in front of me so I wouldn’t become a target for the bowmen. Only a few minutes passed in the chaos before another group finally broke through on their stairs. It was not the stairs from which the ghouls were coming, but it did offer us relief from our flank and reinforcements.

“They are sailing!” A desperate Fenlorian yelled as he pressed past two opponents, taking two arrows immediately. They barely penetrated his armor and seemed to be more of an annoyance as he raced toward the departing ship. He had no chance to catch it as it was already thirty feet from the rocky cliffs. The archers all targeted him, but Torandir cast a fire shield in his leader’s path that incinerated the arrow storm.

I cursed his stupidity but cut down the Nashasari in front of me and raced after the High Sentinel. There were roughly twenty archers on deck, and another dozen warriors and sailors. One man was unlikely to accomplish much even if the High Sentinel could get on deck.

I reached into my pocket and chucked the vial of twenty sneezing pills. Whether it was Fortuna’s luck or just my immaculate aim, the vials shattered against the mast mid-ship, and a massive cloud erupted from the impact. The wind quickly dispersed the cloud, but it had the effect I hoped for as most of the Nashasari went into violent sneezing fits. I had thought Fenlorian was going to leap off the stone and swim to the ship, but he came up short.

I did one of the dumber things I have done in my life, and I leaped across the forty-foot gap to the ship, adding air shields beneath my feet as I ran. “Follow in my footsteps!” I shouted as I brought the fight to the Brotherhood.

When I reached the deck, magebane took the first archer in the side of the neck, while the edge of my shield slammed into the face of another. I really wish these had been the blindness pellets, but it was all that I had left. I just hoped this was as important as Fenlorian had made it out to be.

Fenlorian’s white blade flashed in the periphery of my vision as I cut down another archer, cutting through his bow and his belly in one arcing swing. Fenlorian was not the only Sentinel who had used my bridge to join me; Torandir, and Baelira were also on the deck as we sailed away.

Baelira had been sent down a different stair, but she must have reached the cavern with her group. I wasn’t complaining, as four versus thirty were much better odds. Two other Sentinels splashed into the water while crossing the bridge, failing to make it across before my air shields expired, and they were struggling to swim back. Hopefully, they didn’t drown.

I got a large spray of snot from the Nashasari I punched in the chest with my shield as I grouped with the others in the stern. Baelira was already thickening the air to protect us from arrows, and this was a very winnable fight for us. Fenlorian even made a joke. “Torandir, don’t set the ship on fire. We are going to need it.” The old elf just grunted at his friend in response.

A few Nashasari were starting to come up from below deck, but they likely wouldn’t turn the tide in their favor. We might not be able to get this ship back to Sanctuary quickly to pursue the others, but it would be ours soon enough. My hope of an easy victory was dashed as the Nashasari mages and the brood mother emerged with them from below decks…

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