Page 131 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
Bell placed a hand on her shoulder. “We don’t have to stay here.”
Minerva shook her head. “Best place for us. Easy to defend. Caer, Dillon, Diana—see if you can barricade the gates. Flora—check the other exits. Luna—inn. See if there’s anything left. Young highnesses—stable the wargis.”
Everyone split up whilst the remaining few did a quick patrol to ensure they weren’t shutting anything in with them. They met back at the inn: a bare, broken room composed of rounded edges and a hundred shades of brown.
Luna was already cooking in the kitchen while Minerva and Bell righted tables and chairs, making the room as presentable as possible.
“Good news!” Minerva declared. “Most of the beds upstairs are still very functional. Proper mattresses tonight, folks!”
This was met with a resounding, if slightly forced, cheer.
“And there’s ale in the cellar!” Luna called from the kitchen.
This cheer was considerably louder.
They split once again, some going to relieve the wargis of the remaining loads, others to set up the beds, Minerva to double-check the barricade, some to assist in the kitchen. No one seemed in the mood to continue the Wyverns & Wastelands campaign, but Diana started up a game of cards. Dillon cleaned out tankards and poured out ale, chatting to Luna as she cooked. Beau drew in the corner. Everyone was doing something.
Everyone, thought Aislinn, except Minerva.
As soon as she returned from her patrol, she took a seat by the hearth, saying little as she stared into the flames. Her metal fingers tapped against her armrest.
Her mood continued much through dinner—a sweet stew of cave frabbit and fire-lilies that Luna received much praise for, from everyone apart from Minerva, who only murmured a half-hearted thanks. She drank more than she usually did, and laughed less.
Eventually, Aislinn could stand it no longer.
“What happened here?” she asked.
The room fell quiet. Beau looked up from his book. Caer met Aislinn’s gaze, but shrugged, just as confused as she was.
Minerva sighed—a sigh of years, of a tale she knew she had to tell, but had been putting off for far, far too long. “Decades ago—almost a century now—I came across this place when it was a small but thriving town, full of good, hearty dwarves,” she began, her eyes still foggy and far away. “I met a man named Clay Goldsbane. He was rough and rude, coarse as nails and tough as old boots… and he was the greatest friend I ever had—save this one, of course.” She gestured briefly to Bell, a weak smile passing between them.
The others stilled their game of cards, listening in. Beau folded away his sketchbook. Dillon, cleaning in the kitchen, finally rejoined the rest of the group.
“Clay and I were friends for years,” Minerva went on. “He’d accompany me on expeditions into the Deep, and we’d drink ourselves silly whenever we returned. One day, he announced that he’d like to go to Avalinth and see it with his own eyes—even if it was only the once. I was all too happy to take him there, although I suspected he would hate it—hate the noise and the endless hubbub and the great gears and the constant movement.
“But he didn’t. Clay fell in love with the place almost the moment he saw it… and he fell for Venus, too, just as quickly, just as surely. I’d never seen two people less alike or more in love. They married, and a few years later, there was Tiberius. Our mother was still queen, then, and we were free to live pretty much entirely as we pleased. We raised the boy together, the four of us. He felt almost as much our son as he was theirs.
“Then, a few years ago, our mother died. Not entirely unexpectedly, but quicker than we thought. I was poised to be her successor. Venus had never shown any interest in the throne, nor did she then. But I knew after I took it, that there would be no gallivanting off into the Deep, that I would be expected to remain in Avalinth. I was ready to do it—but I wanted one last hurrah. I set off with a small party to deal with a rogue golem. Bell and Clay accompanied me.
“But the golem was too wild and unpredictable—bigger than we could ever have imagined. It caused a cave-in, killing most of our party… and setting off a pack of beasts. One slashed Bell’s throat straight through before the golem lifted me off the ground by the arm.”
Her shoulder twitched at the confession, and Aislinn sucked in a breath.
“I watched her bleeding on the ground, and knew, if someone didn’t get to her soon, she was going to die. And behind her… Clay lay crushed by rubble.
“There’s no cutting into a golem. You can smash it, but my axe wasn’t doing the job. So I took it to my arm instead, tied the end off with my belt, and pressed my remaining hand to Bell’s wound. We both held on just long enough for the relief party to arrive.
“Clay didn’t. If I’d been able to get to him, to free him from the rubble before it crushed him entirely, perhaps he would have lived, but I didn’t. I had an opportunity to save him, or my wife. I chose her, as most would have done. I cannot regret that. That does not mean it was an easy choice. People forget that I loved Clay, too. He had been my friend for centuries. And I had to watch him die.”
She paused in her story, the firelight flickering in her eyes.
“Returning to Avalinth without him was the hardest thing I have ever done. Venus’ screams nearly shattered the stones. Telling Tibe his father wasn’t coming back… I would have traded another limb to have avoided it.
“After I recovered, I was fitted with a metal arm. I was still prepared to take the throne and was resolved to never fight again. I was shocked when Venus decided to challenge me. Shocked, and hurt. She wanted to punish me, see—like I wasn’t already doing that myself.
“There are three trials one needs to best to win the dwarven throne; a test of logic, a test of diplomacy, and a test of combat. I beat Venus in the test of logic, but when the combat came… Ordinarily, I would have bested her with ease, but I’d barely recovered from the loss of the arm and was still getting used to the metal one… I wasn’t at my best. When she beat me in that…” She swallowed, pausing in her tale. “I don’t think I wanted to win. I’d never coveted the throne, and suddenly, here was something Venusdidwant. If it gave her any kind of satisfaction at all… I’d give it.
“There’s no rule that says the loser of the trials has to leave Avalinth, but I could not stay there. I couldn’t stay and watch my sister freeze into a former version of herself. I could not stay and let her hate me more.”
