"Tradfast!" I roared. "You killed him! You killed Airon!"

I drew my blade and stood up. That scum. He'd pretended to care about the miners but all along never given a damn about us. Rage boiled from my heart into my sword arm. He'd killed my friend, and now I was going to kill him.

"Stony, no!" said Lorsson. "Tradfast didn't kill him. No one killed him but the priests. All our dwarves are like Airon." He held up a palmful of emerald shards. "They've been falling apart and dying all the way here. The fight must have been the final strain for them."

"No," I said. "That's not possible. Buro--"

"Is a liar," said Tradfast, standing up and towering over Lorsson, his eyes dark as two storms. "There never was any hope for the priests, and Buro knows it, even if they themselves didn't."

"No!" I shouted. "Buro is still alive and fine, even with the gem in him. Why shouldn't Airon be? You killed your own dwarf, you scumbag, same as you condemned us all when you took on that stupid contract to dig out the fucking gems. You’re just too miserable to admit it."

"Stony, listen," pleaded Lorsson. "Tradfast's right. The priests were weak, Airon struck at my face and was barely able to hurt me. I don’t even have a bruise to show for it! Buro must be different somehow. Maybe its to do with the size of the gem in him or the compatibility of his soul or something but--"

"No buts, Lorsson! Not from you nor Tradfast!" I stamped on the ground as hard as I could, and the smack echoed through the corridor. "You'll pay for your crimes later, both of you will. Sacrificing Airon's life for nothing but destruction."

Tradfast and Lorsson stared at me, cowed into silence by my outburst. I must have been quite a sight, standing there with the last dregs of soul-rain flaking from me, clear paths of tears cut down my face.

“Well?” I said. “Not going to say anything? Good. I’ll finish this myself.” I turned and stalked back down the corridor.

“Wait!” cried Lorsson. I turned to glare at him. Bathed in the red glow from his sword, he looked like the murderer he was. “Stony, it’s too dangerous to go on your own. Some of the priests might still be alive. I want to end this too, and I’ll help you do it.” He made to walk after me.

“Piss off!” I shouted back. “I don’t need your help. I don’t need to see either of you again. Stay away!”

“No, Stony,” Lorsson’s eyes were wide and his expression desperate. “I’ll--”

Tradfast clamped a big hand on his shoulder and dragged him back. “Don’t bother. If Stony wants to go off on his own, I won’t stop him. In fact, I’ll encourage the little idiot. I’m leaving. I don’t care what’s out there, I’ll make it back to the dwarfholds and continue my life, Gods or no Gods.”

“Tradfast,” said Lorsson, brushing the overseer’s hand away. “We cannot do that! If there’s even a chance that Buro is telling the truth, we should...”

I reached the end of the corridor and tuned their argument out of my head. Lorsson disgusted me just as much as Tradfast. He’d promised to help save Airon, and all the rest, and utterly failed. And now he claimed he still wanted to help me! I saw now I’d been right from the very start. The Captain was as stupid as Tradfast was brutish.

After a few twists down the stairs, I reached the fourth doorway. Through it was another straight corridor, painted with more Gods and harbingers.

“I just go through here, right Buro?” There was no reply, then I heard a body flop to the floor, a head cracking on stone in the darkness somewhere ahead of me. “Buro?” My hands shook as I drew my sword.

Its light shone down the passageway, illuminating not Buro, but a different dwarf, clad in dented armour. I tiptoed forwards, expecting his arms to twitch and grab at me. But there was no movement, even when I poked the corpse's face. It was Yor, the soldier I'd been paired with back before my trial. Before, he'd worn a look suggesting resilience and competence. Now his visage showed nothing but resignation. Blood bubbled from his mouth, despite there being no external injuries.

Suppressing an urge to vomit, I stepped over him and called for Buro again.

"Buro? Where are you? I'm in the fourth passageway! Answer me!"

"I'm with the weapon, Stony. Keep walking forwards." The reply was fainter and more distant than ever, and I wondered how his voice was carrying so far, and how he was even hearing me. Already Tradfast and Lorsson’s argument was a muffled echo. I shook my head; as long as Buro’s directions were accurate it didn't really matter how he was talking.

"OK," I replied. Sword held as a steel torch, I marched forwards. The passage was straight, but uncomfortably narrow. It was as if the two stone walls were closing in on me, ready to crush me. Despite the cold air, I grew sweaty. The journey down here was really taking its toll on my body. Although, my legs did feel a fair bit stronger than they had before. The one good thing about all this. I stumbled slightly, and a cramp shot through my foot. I grunted, and stopped to massage it.

My mind strayed back to the ravaged corpses of Airon and the rest of the possessed dwarves. Perhaps they hadn’t been killed by Tradfast and Lorsson’s overzealousness, judging by how Yor had lain with no obvious wounds. Had my friend been a walking corpse for days before I saw him? But that didn't excuse how Tradfast had thrown him down the corridor like a sack of trash. I got up and continued walking.

The clank of armour reached my ears from the corridor entrance. "Stony?" came Captain Lorsson's voice. “Tradfast’s agreed to come down to Buro.” The pair walked along with their runed steel held up like my own.

"Go away!” I called back. “The priests are all dead anyway, I don’t need you two. I can manage whatever weapon Buro has myself."

"Don't be stupid!" shouted Tradfast. "We don't even know that there is a weapon! If Buro turns on you, we better be there."

"And if there is a weapon, who knows how hard it is to operate, or how heavy it is?" said Lorsson.

“I told you, go back! I don’t need your bloody help! Is that so hard to understand?"

I covered my ears against any further protests and redoubled my pace. Every word they spoke reminded me of Airon's body sailing down the corridor and his skull cracking on the stone tiles.

Tears streaming down my face and a hard lump forming in my throat, I walked for what seemed like another age. The corridor twisted and bent down, just like the tunnels from the hall of pillars had done. The frescoes on the wall became brighter and more vivid. They showed great hails of boulders from the sky, lightning stabbing down and mountains collapsing. But unlike in the city, these walls held an additional figure aside from Gods, harbingers, and dying dwarves. A great King with a shining blue crown stood above each section of the painting. I smiled at the rebellion. The King hadn’t given in to all the priests’ desires.

"Buro?" I called, "How far now?"

"Nearly there, Stony." His voice was definitely closer now.

I glanced over my shoulder to see if Tradfast and Lorsson still followed, but they had disappeared, hidden away by the curvature of the tunnel. Or perhaps they'd gone back after all? I shivered, and not just because of the rapidly dropping temperature. Could I really do this alone?

Out of the blackness ahead of me, two gates loomed. They were made of thick bands of steel webbing a thinner plate, scribbled all over with blue runes, the icy chill from them so cold my snot and tears froze solid.

"Why’s it so cold?" I whispered to myself, teeth chattering.

"Cold preserves things, did you not know?" replied the King, sapphire flashing blue and illuminating etchings between the rows of pale runes. "I could not risk my final project coming apart, not ever."

I nodded, and stepped right up to the door to touch it.

"Ow!" I jerked my hand back; the steel was as colder than ice. Breathing warm air and life back into my palm, I used my other hand to manipulate my blade into the crack in the ancient doorway. With a hiss, an orange spark, and the snap of some kind of mechanism, the doors creaked open at my sword’s twist. Behind them was more blackness.

"Buro?" I called, stepping into the dark. "Are you in here?"

"Yes," he said, voice cutting through the cold air cleanly. "You can walk forward."

In the glow from my sword only a small circle of stone was visible around me, aside from that the room was totally black.

"Buro, I can't see anything. Where are you? Can you hold your sword up?"

"Sorry Stony, I wiped all the blood off earlier. It won't glow anymore."

“Damn it. King?" I pulled the sapphire from my pocket. Uncertainty crystalised in my voice. "Can you light the way? Where exactly am I?"

"Buro,” said the King, “You can turn on the lights. We can trust him."

"All right. Stay there, Stony."

I stopped still and stared at my breath as it clouded white in the air. Then with a series of flashes that bit into my eyeballs light flooded the room from huge gemlights above. I shielded my eyes, tears streaming down my face.

"Look up!" came the King's voice, filling my brain. "Gaze upon my greatest accomplishment!"

Blinking the tears from my eyes, I tilted my head up and gasped. An immense machine in the shape of a pregnant dwarfess squatted at the end of the room a hundred metres away. It consisted of lengths of iron covered in icy runes, criss crossed diagonally to leave diamond shaped gaps between them. Gems were studded along the struts at regular intervals, glowing like multicoloured stars. In its belly were five chambers swathed in darkness like little caves, arranged pentagonally. I gazed up to the head, disproportionately small compared to the body. Its face was cut out to reveal a small room in which Buro sat, a metal funnel thing hanging on a chain next to his head - perhaps some kind of sound amplifier. He looked at me from over a metal panel on which I could see the heads of levers.

For a few moments I could do nothing but stare in awe at the thing. This was dwarven engineering, far above anything those of my generation could create. And so beautiful! It was expertly crafted, each length of metal precisely dimensioned, each embedded gemstone perfectly faceted and flawless. Would it be mine once we drove away the Gods?

Guilt washed over me; I was not here for riches.

"How does it work?" I asked, feeling stupid even as I asked it.

Buro stroked his beard slowly, and didn't answer. Did he not know? No, it was probably just too complicated for me to understand. I tried another question.

"How is it going to kill the Gods? Will it stand and fight them? And what do you need me to do?"

Buro frowned heavily and ran his finger through his beard. "It's difficult to explain exactly how," he said. "But it will kill the Gods. Instantly, in fact."

I frowned. That seemed almost too convenient, but I wasn’t going to complain. "Well, what do I need to do?"

“You need to climb into one of the chambers, and help work the machine from there.”

“All right,” I said, glad of the clarification, and started walking. I put my sword away, no longer needing the light nor protection. From the looks of it, if any priests did still live, this monster of a weapon would obliterate them.

As I came closer, I spotted new details on the machine. Each rune was a complex, repeating chain, two waving lines crossing each others. As I grew closer, I noticed the writing consisted of four irregularly repeating symbols with gems between each one. Twenty or so metres closer, I could see inside the machine from between the crossed struts. A great deal of curious blades, hooks, needles and clear tanks of liquid hung there.

Were those tanks full of poison? I imagined the struts loosening, allowing the hooks

and blades to wave out and whip at the hides of the Gods. I bit my lip. Perhaps I would soon be amongst the fury I’d been so glad to avoid before. Then again, perhaps I’d end up relishing my chance to destroy the monsters with as close to my own hands as possible.

I came right to the front of the machine, and was greeted by a two metre wide pit between metal and floor. The rest of the machine extended far below into the blackness.

I looked up at Buro, who stared down at me impatiently.

“Come on,” he said. “We don’t have much time left.”

“But how do I get across?” I asked.

“You’ll have to jump. There was originally a bridge system, but it’s broken now. I managed, and you should too.”

“It broke? How do you even know the rest of this thing still works then? What if it doesn’t still work, and we can’t kill the Gods?”

Buro gave a quick shake of his head. “I think it will work well enough. And once you deposit the gem, the machine will have more energy. It might be able to start fixing any parts that aren’t working. But Stony, we don’t have time to worry about that now. You have to jump.”

I looked down at the chasm between machine and floor. It seemed to go on forever, the metal struts and bands disappearing into the blackness below, where even the light from above couldn’t reach.

“If I fall, we all die,” I whispered to myself. I paced back a few metres, crouched, then exploded out with my legs, rushing towards the chasm as fast as I could. I felt the corner of the stone dig into my foot and I pushed off, flailing my hands at the approaching struts. The wind rushed past my ears then I clamped my fingers around the chilled metal, palms sting with the slapping impact. Half a moment later the rest of my body collided with a clang.

“Ah!” I cried. I felt a dozen lumps form where my flesh had impacted the metal. For a moment, I didn't think of anything, just hung there. Then my eyes focused on the struts in front of me. I’d made it across.

“Come on!” shouted Buro. ‘Climb up!”

I gritted my teeth and pulled up with my arms and pushed with my legs, finding purchase in the diamond-shaped gaps. It was a painful and awkward climb, but thankfully the great belly was curved slightly, so my ascent was not totally vertical. Even so, my hands and feet ached badly.

“Nearly there,” said Buro.

I nodded, and smacked my forehead against a steel bar. Stars spun in front of me for a few seconds, and when I refocused, I noticed a bag inside the structure leaking orange liquid. A smell drifted from it, pungent and acidic, burning the inside of my nose. It was like the liquid doctors sometimes splashed on bad cuts and scrapes.

But there was no point dwelling on it. I just had to hope the weapon still worked properly. If it was poison, like I’d guessed, there was still plenty of it left.

My hand curled around the final strut, a thick circle marking the entrance to the topmost chamber. I peered in; it seemed smaller than before. Big enough for me to fit in comfortably, but not big enough for me to move my arms around much.

“What is this?” I asked. “What do I do here?”

“There should be a hole at the back big enough for the sapphire.”

I clambered into the chamber and found the hole Buro described. It was octagonal in shape. Putting my eye up next to it, I noticed it led to a long chute down, bordered by many more lines of runes. I took out the sapphire and looked at it for a second. This was goodbye, I supposed. Once my ticket to freedom, it was now the only thing between the dwarves and the Gods. I’d considered myself lucky to pick it up - and honestly, it had been a stroke of luck. If my pick hadn’t uncovered those brilliant blue facets, I’d be dead like Airon now.

The socket gaped like an open mouth. It was time to say goodbye. I reached out.

“Stony!” came a shout, Lorsson’s voice. “Get out of there!” I twisted around to look, awkwardly jostling my knees out from a hard leather strap they’d got tangled in. Lorsson and Tradfast were running across the stone floor, shielding their eyes from the machine’s runic glare.

“Climb out of there!” roared Tradfast. “We’ve figured out what’s happening. Buro’s trying to trick you.”

“The King never planned to kill the Gods, Stony,” shouted Lorsson. “He’s been the same as the priests all along. He wanted the Gods to come here! You must have seen the pictures in the corridor here, with the King standing over the ruins. Ruling over what was left.”

Anger and confusion boiled up within me, and I kicked one of the metal struts. It rang out across the chamber like a bell. “What are you fucking talking about? This is a weapon, I’ve seen how it works. It’s got blades and poison inside of it, it’s going to use those to kill the Gods. Buro hates the priests, and so does the King! Perhaps if you’d spent more time with them you’d understand. They’ve been helping fight against priest and God since before you started this! And you killed Airon, too.” I did not shout the last sentence, but snarled it at them. “I’m going to kill these Gods, for Airon.”

“Stony, you idiot!” screamed Tradfast. “Make the fucking connection!”

I turned away from their running figures, and shoved the sapphire into the socket.