The sprawling building that was Hilde’s home was the same as all the other buildings they’d passed, perhaps a little larger than most and it’s geometric patterns were inlaid with brilliant green and orange stone.

Walking through the wide doors they entered a beautiful interior, panels of some white stone were inset into the black walls and the blue stone floor had a pattern of green and orange stones in the same geometric patterns as outside inset around the edge of the room.

Keilor said, “Someone will be by to show you to the dining hall. Try to keep the Goblin under control, some rooms quite nearby would be bad for his health.”

Raelea said, “Will do.”

He bowed his head then walked back out the door.

She grabbed Pif just as he was about to ran off to explore and told him he had to stay right beside her, grumbling and scowling he did.

She said to Krarrnic, “I don’t feel any threat in this place, do your spirits have anything?”

He shook his head and said, “Other than our guards who are still watching us and they aren’t really a threat as such, they just watch.”

A quiet cultured voice behind them said, “And that is all they do. If you will follow me the Right Honourable Graemonts are waiting for you.”

Turning they saw a very neatly dressed Dwaris with a huge beard braided with dozens of small beads and sections of bronze coloured metal.

Raelea nodded and said, “Lead on.”

The halls they walked through were huge and gleaming with orange and green inlays but they felt empty, lifeless and echoing. Even in the spiritworld it was subdued and dull, this was not a place where people lived.

Opening a door the neatly suited Dwaris bowed to them and said, “The Right Honourable Graemonts await you within.”

As Raelea entered the feel of the spiritworld changed abruptly, this room was alive with good feelings and brilliant with spirit energy and a few small spirits of a type she’d never seen before hovered around the ceiling. They were small blobs or pure darkness with a pair of silvery eyes that flickered around within them, nudging Krarrnic she sent, “What are those?”

She received, “Elementals of the Dark Realm, the same type of spirit as the other elementals we’ve been seeing except they’ve all been Earth realm.”

The room itself was smaller than the halls they'd been walking through but smaller was a relative term, it was still a huge space heated by two large hearths either side of a long low and heavy stone table with room for twenty a side. Hilde and another Dwaris with orange tattoos sat at one end.

Hilde smiled and said, “Come in and seat yourselves. Dinner will be served presently and our custom is to eat, drink, and refresh ourselves and our spirits before any serious talk. By the by this is Fheargus, my husband.”

Walking over to the table they greeted Hilde and Fheargus and seated themselves on the plush overstuffed cushions around it, there was even a lowered section of floor where Krarrnic could sit at the right height for the table.

A few Dwaris brought out steaming platters of meat and potatoes, a tureen of thick gravy, and boards of fresh cut thick crusty bread dripping with herbed butter.

Hilde said, “Help yourselves, we don’t stand on ceremony too much at mealtimes.”

As they dug in Pif was in his element, loading his plate with food and eating until the overstuffed green cushion he sat on looked like it had gained a twin. Even before most of them had finished he was curled up on it and faint snoring could be heard.

When she’d pushed her plate away, Raelea chuckled and said, “I apologise for Pif, he loves his food and isn’t the most interested in anything else but he is a dear friend.”

Fheargus sat back with his hands laced over his slightly bulging belly and said, “Never apologise for someone who loves a good feed, a meal such as this is counted a failure if someone doesn’t fall asleep. Your friend there would likely have plenty of company if we had a few more Dwaris about. There is a reason the cushions are so large. Once our glasses are filled again we’ll start with the talking, Hilde told me your tale but I’d like to hear it from you as well.”

Krarrnic and Raelea recounted their story from their arrival outside the Dwaris tunnels up until now while the level of the dark rich beer in their mugs barely had time to fall before it was refilled.

Fheargus said, “So, you ran afoul of Spaendt and he planned to have you murdered before bein’ dumped in the carrion pits.”

Krarrnic said, “It looks that way but I do not know that for certain, the spirits were entirely mute on the intentions of the Dwaris who were escorting us.”

Hilde said, “Not too unexpected, the Chanter with you would have been suppressing any spirit contact because a Shaman is a known threat. But a Witch is not, I’m certain you must have influenced Spaendt or you’d have been going down the pit.”

Raelea considered for a moment, then said, “Yes I did but he must have resisted at least a little, I told him to free us.”

Scowling Fheargus said, “In Spaendt’s view the only freedom from the mines is in death. Thousands of our people have died in his mine and thousands more will in the future unless something is done to free them. Our source has always said the time wasn’t right, that we would fail with no chance of success so we have waited and built. We were waiting for you.”

Raelea said, “What do you mean?”

“We have waited over two hundred years for you Witch, at least according to Harg-”

Hilde snapped, “Fheargus! Watch your tongue! Do you wish to give away everything?”

With a determined look at his wife he said, “Yes I do, Hargreve has said if we join with this Witch’s efforts we stand a chance. I will not let our people suffer and die under the ‘care’ of that vile piece of crap any longer than I must. I will take any chance no matter how slim to save them, hargreve has never led us astray so far, this city is proof of that.”

Hilde looked surprised, “Really? You’ve always been the cautious one, the one who would not take any action that might draw the slightest attention. What changed?”

“Nothing. I have always fully believed in Hargreve and his predictions. Now he’s saying we might win, in good conscience I must take the chance to stop more of our people dying.”

She nodded and said, “That makes sense, well if we’re going to fill them in want me to do it or you?”

“You’re a better talker than me love and besides I think I hear Schubert coming with the dried meats and fruits I asked for.”

“Hmmph, greedy.” Shaking her head and grinning she turned to Raelea and Krarrnic, “You heard enough of that to know we have some idea of the future. One of our people is a Seer and unlike most who proclaim that he is remarkably accurate, if he states that something will happen, it will. He is much less accurate about things that won’t happen, his predictions there are still little better than a coin flip and the use of his magic leaves him comatose for days. Then for weeks afterwards he is badly weakened and must be cared for like a baby. Even with all those drawbacks without him this city would never have been possible, we wouldn’t have dared.”

Raelea said, “I’ve never seen anything like this city, I grew up in a small tribe in the Human Realm and ever since I’ve been living at a Fae worksite in Valard’s lands.”

“Valard the Necromancer? If so we’ve heard of him, he often buys from Spaendt and is as close as Spaendt has to a friend among his peers.”

“That’s him, he’s a terrible being and his experiments are more like torture. Pif is a result of them and the things he did to that poor little Goblin were monstrous. He will be the trigger that brings them all down not just because another member of our conspiracy is very high up in his service, without his sadistic ways I would have fallen years ago because Pif saved me. His lands under our control will be our haven and our gathering grounds then we branch out into others. But do not look to the Oruc, as we crosssed the plateau we attempted to recruit but they are cautious and will make no move until they are certain the will not lose lives for no good reason.” Raelea shrugged and said, “I can’t really blame them. Their lives are extremely long and they replace themselves only very slowly. Losses the other Fae can absorb would cripple the Oruc. How do you and yours see yourselves acting in this?”

Hilde said, “Our first goal must be to secure our caverns against the Fae Chanar to save our people from them, otherwise they will slaughter us in droves. After that is achieved I would see us acting as a refuge, training ground and headquarters. Our tunnels go very deep and without Spaendt none of his brethren will know exactly how far. We can easily hide several armies in the caverns and probably feed them too, though they’d get heartily sick of mushrooms. We have paths leading from the caverns down to just outside the Winter Court as well, so we can strike from the safety of the tunnels.”

Raelea nodded and said, “I think you’re further advanced than we are, right now.”

“That is only to be expected we’ve had safety, we’ve been building knowledge and preparing for centuries. Waiting for you it seems.”

Raelea and Krarrnic shared a glance, their time together had given them a closeness and a knowledge of each other that meant they could almost read each other’s mind, he nodded and Raelea said, “What do you need from us?”

“Spaendt must die and I’m not sure we can do it without help. I’m a Mage and Chanter but my real talents lie in Occludera, all the wards are of my making. We have no other Mages and only a few Chanters. He can crush anything we might try to do because has the Brandanbarg behind him and in a fight the tattoos mean numbers win. The Brandenbarg are the Dwaris only too happy to enforce his rules and they outnumber us rebels three to one. If we can remove him though probably two-thirds of them would sit on the sidelines to see who came out on top. In that fight we’d stand a good chance because our people would be fighting for freedom while most of the Brandanbarg that would fight would fight out of fear, misguided loyalty to the Fae Chanar, or sadism. Some of our people are not good people.”

Raelea said, “Spaendt is a full High Fae Chanar?”

Nodding Hilde said, “Yes, he is. Focused on Earth, Dark, Order, and he’s an Elementalist.”

“Elementalist?”

“He’s has a much greater command over the Realm spirits known as Elementals than a pure Realm Mage has.”

Krarrnic’s voice rumbled as he said, “They will not be a problem, unless his skills include significant protection against banishment Raelea or I can easily remove any number of them.”

Hilde said, “His will be much stronger, more tightly bound to both him and this realm and more tightly constrained to follow his orders.”

Krarrnic thought for a moment and said, “I still don’t see any great difficulty. As far as spirits go the elementals I’ve seen around here are comparable to my moderately powerful helpers, my strongest would destroy them.”

Looking a little sceptical Hilde said, “We’ve spoken to Shaman before and they were not so certain as you.”

“Either they were very new Shaman or they were reluctant due to fear of the Fae Chanar because any Shaman who has passed the first seeking would be as confident as I am and all do that within their first fifteen winters as a Shaman.”

Hilde inclined her head and said, “I’ll take your word for it, but what about Spaendt himself?”

Raelea said, “Give me a few tendays to prepare and I will take care of him for you. My curses can bypass your tattoos so his guards who are not magically protected in addition to the tattoos will fall easily."

Looking surprised Hilde said, “Are you sure? The tattoos have proven to be proof against everything else so far.”

“Yes, I am absolutely sure, I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t. Right now when I look for it I can feel the connection needed to inflict them and a few other things, but I wouldn’t be too concerned all are the exclusive province of witches and witches only.”

Fheargus said, “Thank you for the warnin’, would have been a problem if we’d run into hostile witches expecting to be safe. Witches are not particularly common but some among the Fae Chanar have the skills.”

Raelea said, "Any particular surprises among Spaendt's regular guards?”

Hilde shakes her head and says, “Nay, he is distrusting of anything he doesn't understand and will not have it near him.”

“Good, that can only be to our benefit. The fewer unknowns the better.”

“What will you need?”

“Brass knuckles or a Gauntlet of materials strong enough to carry the shield breaking charm but other than that I should need nothing, other than his known routes and guard details.”

Fheargus said, “You intend to punch him?!”

“Yes, my body is my weapon. If it happens the way I plan he will never even know what or who hit him.”

Hilde said, “Good. We know he’s able to teleport but it’s Dark Realm and slow, unlike Air Realm teleports. Of course like all Fae Chanar he’s not realm limited but hopefully he never learned the Air Realm teleport, generally even the Fae Chanar are not that great in their opposing elements and Spaendt is very heavily Death aligned.”

Raelea says, “I only need a moment or two with him unshielded, then he’ll die. My curses will see to that.”

Fheargus said, “These curses of yours seem terrifying, why have I never really heard of them?”

“Only a witch in the fullness of her power can make the bargains and strike the deals needed to even access them, and any witch can easily protect themselves and others against them. Not to mention they’re easily blocked by even simple protections almost any Mage or user of Magic will have, so they’re not that strong. But in the hands of a witch who knows what she’s doing and when the opposition has limited protections, yes they can be terrifying."

Hilde said, “You’ll need help with the Chanters and Mages then?”

“Yes, if you want any of them to survive. I can brew up several sorts of potions that will create gases to incapacitate or confuse if that’d be useful?”

Fheargus chuckled and said, “Not particularly, we Dwaris are very hardy folk and there’s some places down the pit where the air is that bad that non-Dwaris fall unconscious immediately that we work in happily. Gases will do little.”

Hilde sadly said, “I was thinking to try to save our people but as much as it pains me, we’ll have to kill any Chanters or Mages who stand with Spaendt. Chanters especially. I don’t have the skill to block magic itself and Chanters know how to bypass the tattoos, they're too dangerous to leave alive. It just will have to be enough that the other Dwaris will live.”

Krarrnic grunted and said, “Oftentimes it is a hard thing that leaders must choose, who dies so others may live as they wish or perhaps live at all. Rebellion is a messy business, both sides are us and not them. I am not glad to see you make this choice but it is needful. Collaborators are an evil that I would have no desire to face but thankfully collaborators are not the problem we Oruc suffer from. Apathy and indifference are our bane instead of active assistance.”

Fheargus said, “They’re our people but the Fae Chanar must spoil everything. Driving wedges into our community at every turn, we know they do it and deliberately. One Dwaris is all Dwaris or it used to be in the days before the Fae Chanar.”

Krarrnic said shocked, “You have records or memories from that long ago?!”

Fheargus said, “Our Chanters hear the stories of the stones and the stones have exceptionally long memories, they know many things long forgotten by even the Fae Chanar.”

Wonderingly Krarrnic said, “That alone is something to lay at the feet of the Fae Chanar, with your Chanters and our Spirit Sages together we could know the truth of the world’s creation itself. But they have kept us isolated and fractured, driving divisions between us all to keep us compliant.”

Fheargus said, “I had not heard of Spirit Sages, I assume they are your people’s historians?”

“Yes, they can plumb the depths of time for as long as spirits have existed. But so much of what they learn is hard to place in context of our time because spirits view time so fluidly, your Chanters and stone memories could give that framework.”

Eyes widening Fheargus said, “Stone Shaper’s balls, the possibilities.”

Hilde snorted and said, “Oh now you’ve done it, he’s going to be completely impossible until he can talk to those Sages. Control yourself husband, there will be time for that after the Fae Chanar are defeated and we have our freedom. I think we’re done talking, we have the measure of each other and an accord. I will have what was requested sent to your rooms and Keilor will remain as your liaison when you are ready, let him know and we will set a date to kill Spaendt. I’m scared and excited once we do that the whole Fae Chanar race will come after us and we will have to protect ourselves. I only hope we can because failure is death for us all.”