Chapter 7 Part 4: Rumors of Ruin

The Arch Paladin was glad his young bodyguard had not seen the concern and irritation on Xavos’s face as he passed him on the stair. The Dwarf King’s plan was sound, but complications mounted by the day.Their enemies were mounting. Could this vixen be warning her brethren that the Arch Paladin’s honor guard still lived? If she had survived in her undeath this long then surely there were others as ancient who had seen the old war still corrupting the world around them.

Xavos ground his teeth in frustration. He felt blinded and bound in a footrace against opponents given decades, even centuries, to scheme and build his demise. How were they going to out-maneuver these enemies who had planned for their return for so many countless generations?

There in his darkest moment the Arch Paladin felt the calming hand of his creator on his shoulders. The black stress and the unfathomable knots tensing his back released in a rush, and a still small voice in the back of his mind took on the teacher tone he had just taken with his cursed body guard.

“What makes you think they don’t fear you?” Xavos stopped, surprising Misath. The bodyguard scanned the corridors for threats before retreating two steps to allow his Paladin time to contemplate the concepts in his mind. The boy really had learned well from the honor guard before their untimely demise. Their shades would forever haunt the old warrior, but to die in guilt would never honor their sacrifice.

Xavos breathed in, enjoying the calming touch. He ignored the faint smell of rust and sweat that filled the corridors and compartments around him. The air was stale, but the breath of the heavens cleansed it with each inhale. The Paladin silenced his wild mind, and focused on the idea. Why did he think they were ahead? That they weren’t terrified?

After all, thousands of years of planning, and they had fumbled on their moment of triumph. If the original conspirators had simply waited, Xavos, and the Paladin Order would have died that day at the end of the world. Now their best chance to end him by their own hands had failed. His isle fortress had time to recover, and regain her magical stores. His Acolytes were now motivated to enact revenge against those who had attempted to entrap them, and the sea dwarves were alive and able to warn of the secondary stasis field’s danger.

Where could the Arch Paladin strike next? Where would the monster of their nightmares show himself? After all these centuries their planning had failed. Their chance squandered by the petty desires of their minion. It was truly an invigorating thought. His enemies had not seen the wrath of a Paladin, let alone an Arch Paladin, for thousands of years. Surely, they thought their revenge was complete, but now their greatest foe was reborn into this age to frustrate their plans.

The hand of the Almighty left Xavos in a rush making him sigh with contentment even as the stress, worry, and weariness rushed back, threatening to drag him into the bulkhead at his feet. The Arch Paladin shook off their hold, and sprang forward with new energy and resolve.

There was a fair chance this vampiress had hidden her knowledge from her masters. She was now compromised, as Misath could sense her just as readily as she could sense him. The dark ones had cast aside their own servants for less. The Arch Paladin had seen such sacrifices many times in his long road to the eternal Heavens. He was sure he would see more servants unceremoniously given over to the wolves in the hope that not all of their masters would be consumed. There was no honor amongst necromancers let alone the undead.

Xavos clanked his way through the halls to a comfortable little cubby before the bridge. Light from a tiny, but well placed porthole window shone through the enclosed space with the entirety of the wall taken up with the massive machination. A distance communicator with no standard magic involved. There was a device that buzzed out a message through codex that then was translated by the user. Surprisingly, one of their mages who maintained the trebuchets aboard the Isle when not poring over archaeological manuscripts had known a proto version of this code. With a small amount of training and a small book of notes Brother Erieg had rapidly taken on the role as operator.

He sat amongst stacks of papers, beeping lights, and an organized web of wires leading to unfathomable destinations beyond the metal walls and roof of The Lina’s Flight. He was a younger man fresh from his Journeyman's status with tight spectacles, and a serious air as rigid as his posture. Wherever the dark haired youth had put his hands to labor back on the Isle intense order was soon to follow. Sometimes even to the detriment of the projects Brother Erieg had been assigned. Xavos was gratified to see this assignment seemed to suit the obsessive recluse despite the need for constant communication.

Luckily, there had been more than one of these devices amongst the less sullied of the goblin fleet. All the more evidence that the ships were stolen as most had smashed their sets or used them for various other depravities less spoken about. Oddly, the ones using the communicator rooms as latrines were less damaged. Xavos really despised goblins, but at least they had recovered enough equipment to communicate without wasting magic reserves which would also light up both the receiver and the message sender to any being with a modicum of magic in their bones.

“What do you have for me, Brother Erieg?” Xavos said in a boisterous tone as he held out his hand expectantly.

“More chaos my Arch Paladin,” sniffed Brother Erieg who handed over the translated coded paper to his superior without any flair. He was already busying himself with making the spaghetti stringed wires straight and as perfect as his shoulder lengthed midnight hair. A task that would make even Rholde abstain after emptying the lake of the demons with his dropper.

Xavos gazed down on the tight message with perfect line placement and set strokes. It did make the writing very legible which was important given the position Brother Erieg had been drafted too. Hopefully his desire for order and cleanliness wouldn’t lead him breaking and remaking the machine to better suit his sensibilities. More than one trebuchet crew refused to work with the mage after that certain incident.

Bolane sent his regards, and gave a brief report. The fleet was on the move with the now repurposed goblin ships manned by a hodgepodge crew of dwarves, released prisoners from the craft, human mages from the Isle, and acolytes leading the crews. Their scouting had discovered several smaller raiding ships and small convoys ravaging the coast. Unfortunately, it seemed they had found not one but no less than three similar sized goblin pirate fleets on the waves. They seemed to have been raiding, and all making for a rendezvous with more of their kind.

Interrogations had narrowed down the location to, and this made the Paladin suck in a breath, in the wilderness outside of the port town of Irorthwall where the mysterious shadow had sent them. As he suspected. There was far more afoot than the descriptions of a sleepy port town would lead one to believe.

Bolane finished with an update on the magic stores and the repairs of the ark. Things were going well, considering how thin they’d had to stretch their manpower. They would be able to deploy the Isle within a month or two at this rate, and fight a short battle on the other side. Then they would need to recover again. Xavos feared they were going to need to deplete the stores very soon indeed.

After all, what was the likelihood that they had intercepted all of the Goblin clans and pirates summoned to this moot upon the mainland? Yes, the Arch Paladin was quite sure he was going to need resources soon. Goblins only massed when they meant to join a horde, and that could only mean ill for the people of Irorthwall.

Xavos wrote up a quick acknowledgement and message to Bolane telling him to speed the repairs of the battlements and magical weapons while depending on the ark for their sustenance. If the Kierter complained, the Paladin would message him himself. The old warrior further told his Chief Page to gather even the ships they could not man and to tow them behind the ark.

He said much more in the hopes that Bolane could prepare the isle for war. It seems the Almighty had brought his servants back to the land of the living with little time to spare. So with that cheering thought, Xavos gave brother Erieg his message, and went to the bridge to brood and pray. The Paladin could smell blood on the wind. He just hoped the majority spilt would be of the enemies of Heaven.

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