Iria rose from her seat, casting her gaze around at all those assembled and willing them to get their godsforsaken heads out of their asses, just this once. Word had gotten around quickly among all those who mattered st night, of course, but she could tell that most of the people here hadn’t e looking to make themselves useful. That it had taken nearly a full day tahis meeting was testament to the fact that no one here nning to do anything to hahe situation.

  General Arice was eyeing the door as if he couldn’t wait to get out of here and make all this someone else’s problem. Now that he could take credit for saving Halfbridge from a major assault, he was ready to retire back to life at court in Teres. In his mind, losing aire city to a simir assault only made his own supposed achievement shine brighter.

  t Narald and Gerold, the magistrate, were focused on Halfbridge’s coffers – trying to work out how to get through the winter ahe thousands ees that would be ing down the road in the week or two. They were already stretched thin iermath of the siege.

  The guilds were still reeling from the battle. They’d suffered losses, and none were eager to put more of their members at risk. It really only left her with oion – the one she’d spent her entire career avoiding.

  “Loamfurth has fallen,” she began, stig to the facts, first. “My scryers have spent hours examining the aftermath, and agree that the forces involved are at least equal in o those seen here in Halfbridge. Duergar and demons were seen sweeping through the streets in rge groups as retly as an ho, rooting out any survivors who didn’t mao escape. They made no attempt to block our sg attempts.”

  “How many Duergar, exactly?” Arice said in a carefully polite tohat still mao suggest that she was exaggerating. Several of the nobles began to whisper amongst themselves, but Iria ignored both them and Arid fed ahead.

  “Judging by the number ees sighted on the roads, we estimate that Nuros, the demon lord we believe to be responsible for this aggression, could have captured and ed as many as thirty thousand souls. The exaumbers would depend oype and pt of the soulstone used, and how quickly they mao set it up.”

  The blunt pronou was met with dead silence.

  “Thirty thousand?!” Arice spluttered. “That’s ridiculous! Impossible!”

  He was right, teically. Even if the soulstone had been at the very ter of the city, and they mao put it up immediately after starting the assault, she doubted that they would have captured evehousand. All magic had limits, and that included the capacity of the soulstohemselves – never mind their range and the speed at which people would run away from a horde of demons p into their streets. Ten thousand was bad enough, in her estimation, but Iria o maximize the shock factor for this meeting. She o provoke a response from the temples.

  “Chief Solicitor Radast warned us a month ago in this very room that the Duergar are attempting to create and instrumentalize a greater demon,” she tinued, not b to reply to the general. “While they mostly failed here, we must assume that they have now succeeded at Loamfurth.”

  Nervous chatter erupted all over the room. Several of the atteried to call out questions, including Arice, but Iria couldn’t make them out. Narald, for his part, was silent. He sat ba his chair, gray-faced and looking as though he’d aged a decade in the space of a few seds.

  Iria, focused her gaze to the right side of the room, where the clergy were assembled. There were six of them, three priests and three padins. She’d expected them to say something at this point, but they remained silent. With a bit of effort and a discreet hand-motion, she cast a trip to amplify her voice.

  “There are some better news as well! As I’m sure General Arice’s own interrogators will corroborate, we are not the only ones who may take issue with our enemy’s as. In fact, these Duergar, and the demons they are w to empower, likely only see us as a resource to help them fuel a rger flict – a civil war against greater powers within their own empire.”

  At that, Narald held up his hand, sileng the room. He’d been shaken by the news, but he was watg her now with sharp eyes.

  “What do you mean?” he asked. “Where are you getting this?”

  “I interrogated one of the Duergar mages,” she expined. “King Grundrik—whose people and demons we’ve been fighting—is just one of many rulers within the rger Duergar Empire. sidering what he’s doing, I would guess that he’s targeting us in hopes of raising a greater demohe rest of the empire won’t notice.”

  Arice scoffed loudly. “e on! You ’t believe everything you hear, archmage. If the Empire were se, the Duergar would have quered the world by now!”

  “Right, of course!” Iria said with false siy. “Because they want our nd. I’m sure they want to take up wheat farming and go sunbathing. Perhaps they’ll bee sailors!”

  There were a few titters. The idiot grew red in the fad spluttered, but then subsided with a thunderous expression. He’d really set himself up for that one. Most dwarves avoided living on the surface if they could ma – especially those who weren’t born there. They avoided spending time outdoors when possible. Their eyes were sensitive tht sunlight and they suffered terrible sunburns if they didn’t take proper precautions. Dwarven nations barely treated the surface as real territory, to the point that the federacy of Dwarven City States didn’t truly enforce their borders as their neighbhem. Gnolls, ord trolls roamed freely through their mountains and forests, so long as they didn’t try to intrude into their halls.

  Before the general could attempt to defend his wounded pride, though, one of the priests finally stepped forward. Iria tried to keep the relief off her face. It had taken them long enough.

  “Friends, hear me and listen!" he said in a sonorous voice. "The archmage speaks wisely, though I would cautioer prudence. In the worst case sario, ying the role of Illuria in a Duergar reenat of the Madurian colpse. Until proven otherwise, this is what we must assume to be the truth.”

  He was an older man in white and red robes – a high priest of Noruk. Iria thought his name might be Jannis, or something like that. She usually went out of her way to avoid anyone from the Temple District. That olicy that would now have to ge, unfortunately. Priests were usually sidered observers in court, but this wasn’t just a purely political issue anymore. Nobody interrupted him when he spoke.

  “Ohe fighting starts, the other fas in their empire will likely attempt to ter using the same methods. If the empire is truly as rge as these captives imply, there’s no telling where they might spring up then. They might appear ueres, in Madzhur or even in Illuria across the Sea. The Duergar wish to spit in the eyes of the gods themselves. And the gods will not remain silent.”

  The t squi him skeptically. “What did you have in mily?”

  “This is a spiritual matter as much as it is political, my lord,” the priest pronouaking his time with the words to lend them additional weight. In Iria’s opinion, he was ying it on a bit too thick.

  “It was only through the gods themselves that we survived the fall of the empire and it will be through them that we defeat the present evil as well. Noruk calls for war. We must build a holy coalition to root out this evil from beh the earth.” The high priest turo fully face the t and offered him a slight bow. “My lord, we are not just oy, or one kingdom, set against this foe. My brethren in Madzhur, Illuria and Kallrix will support us and bring aid from all across the nd. Even the heads of kings must bow before the will of the gods.”

  Iria mao suppress an eyeroll at the priest’s overblown words. Barely. The high priest wao… what? Mobilize the entire former empire – except Miria, for some reason – and march their armies down into the Depths to destroy the Duergar Empire directly? She supposed it was the sort of initiative she should have expected from the Madurian god of war.

  Narald was looking at the high priest with clear exasperation, obviously trying to think of a way to deny him without also disparaging his famously hot-tempered god. Iria looked back toward the other representatives from the Temple District, hoping one of them would step up to fix this.

  None of them moved to speak. She groueeth. Surely, the other temples, never mind the gods themselves, wouldn’t just let Noruk try t half the tio war? Then one of them, an elderly padin, looked up to meet her eyes for a moment and raised his eyebrows just a fra.

  And there it was. Those assholes. They were waiting for her to make a move, t her into their stupid games. As if she didn’t have enough problems.

  But she’d known this was going to happen sooner or ter. Suppressing her irritation and keeping her face calm, Iria cleared her throat.

  “If I may, it seems… premature to attempt t the entire ti into a war in unknowainst a mostly unknown enemy. We are not at war with the entire Duergar Empire – not yet. Moreover, if I remember my history, four of the gods worked together to safeguard humanity the st time we faced such a crisis. Would it not be appropriate for the temples of Barian, Ruzinia and Eyeli to involve themselves in this matter as well? Should they not, at the least, be sulted, lest we raise their ire?”

  “Ah… yes, this is true!” t Narald looked at her like a drowning man who’d just been throe. In a more formal tone, he addressed the priest. “High Priest Hannis, honored representatives of the temples, I hereby request the sel of the gods. Please summon the appropriate representatives to court tomorrow, so that we may find the best way forward.”

  Hannis looked only a little annoyed as he sketched a bow and stepped back. This robably what they’d all been expeg. Except now Iria had taken some sort of side in temple politics, and she didn’t even know what all the current fault lines were.

  ***

  Bernt boiled water in Kustov’s stole as he sorted through Lin’s sele of herbal teas. The old goblin witch had bee a fixture in the Underkeepers’ plex, fielding pints from the public – especially from the Goblin Quarter – and keeping the break room well stocked. In exge, Fiora didn’t send her out on patrol.

  It had been a long day and night had already fallen up on the surface, but he wasn’t ready to go home yet. All that waited for him there was ay house and more spellcasting practice. It felt wrong to waste time, but he couldn’t keep going like this forever. He o rex, even if it was just for a few minutes. Otherwise, he was going to burn himself out.

  At least that was what he tried to tell himself.

  Seleg ohat smelled nice, Bernt dumped a pinto the steaming pot, grabbed three cups and carried it back to the table where Torvald and Nirlig were already sitting. As he approached, though, he noticed someone new had joihem. A white-robed woman eaking with Torvald and throwing unfortable g Nirlig and the oblins in the room. She wore a urel wreath on her head, and a belt made h woven fibers that had been dyed green. He reized the getup – she riestess of Eyeli, the goddess of agriculture.

  “e on, Theona, isn’t this the sort of thing priests usually haorvald asked, looking flustered. “I mean, I’m a padin, and I just barely got my calling!”

  “Right! But Ruzinian pilgrims are notoriously difficult to pin down,” the priestess expined. “There isn't anyone else! It’s a matter of principle. Ruzinia has to be represe the meeting, if only out of pret. Not inviting you would be disrespectful to the goddess, since she’s one of the four.”

  Bernt put the tea doulled another chair over, wordlessly invitio sit as he settled down himself. She deed with a little shake of her head and an embarrassed cough.

  “Wait, wait. The st time?” Nirlig threw in. “You mean three hundred years ago?”

  Theona didn’t look at the goblin, keeping her gaze on Torvald. “Nobody is expeg you to figure it all out yourself. Mostly, we just need you to help us keep the Temple of Noruk in check. Just show up, alright?”

  With that, she backed away a step before turning and leaving the room.

  Bernt watched her leave, trying to make sense of what he’d heard. Shaking his head, he looked from Torvald t and back again.

  “So… what in the hells was that about?”