The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [60]
Aleisa howled as she threw herself forward, catching the giant’s leg in a lethal embrace. The creature shattered in her grasp, and chunks of obsidian rained down around and upon her. “Talin!” she howled into the darkness.
“I am here.” Pain filled Talin’s voice, but he kept his composure. Cold fire filled the room, surrounding Talin’s fist. His left arm hung limp at his side and blood flowed from a corner of his mouth. His armor was unbroken; clearly there was magic at work, and it had likely saved his life. “And behold, my love. We have found the treasure that was promised.” The glow surrounding his fist grew even more intense, filling the room with the light of day.
Corpses were scattered around the chamber, armored bodies affixed to the walls and spread across the floor. There were bodies of all sizes, from halflings to a few that must be ogres. Some were intact, while others had been dismembered. Lei drew closer to one of the corpses, her vision adjusted to the light, and she realized that these weren’t the corpses of men.
They were warforged.
She could see the fibrous roots emerging from the stump of a wounded soldier, the cold fire reflected in crystal eyes. There could be no question what these were, but the designs were unfamiliar. As Lei tried to examine the bodies, a terrible vertigo swept through her. Her vision blurred, and the light faded to darkness.
Mother! Lei tried to speak, but she had no body and no voice. She tried to resist the force that was pulling her into the shadows, but she couldn’t. As the world dissolved around her, her father’s words echoed in her ears.
“Our work can begin at last.”
Darkness.
No. Stone. Black marble. She was staring at a stone wall. The air was cool, but far fresher than that of the giant tomb. She was in a hallway, and she could see the cold fire lanterns embedded along the walls. There was no dust in this place, no cobwebs. This was no ruin.
What is this place?
Disembodied as she was, Lei couldn’t judge the scale. She didn’t know if the hall was built for giants, gnomes, or humans. She studied the bare walls, searching for any clue, some hint as to the purpose or inhabitants of the building. There was something very familiar about the barren hallway, something she just couldn’t quite grasp. Then she looked at the lantern, and a shock ran through her. The ball of cold fire was held with a cage of mirrored glass and steel, designed to intensify the magical light. It was a common Cannith design, and such lanterns could be found anywhere in the Five Nations. What caught her eye was the decorative point of the lantern—a lion cast in black steel.
Blacklion!
Lei spent her childhood in the Cannith forgehold of Blacklion, a center for warforged research and production hidden in the wilderness of Cyre. It was a lonely place for her. The Cannith artificers stationed at Blacklion, Lei’s parents among them, were absorbed in their duties and had little time for a child. Lei spent most of her time among the warforged. When the soldiers emerged from the creation forges, they underwent training before being sent out to the battlefield. Warforged learned quickly. Much of the knowledge they needed to perform their functions was carried on an instinctive level, and within a few months of training a warforged might prove a match for a veteran human soldier. During this time of instruction the warforged were much like children themselves, and Lei enjoyed the company of her metal companions. She even came to envy them. The warforged had a purpose, a place in the world, while Lei was just the little girl lost in the shadows of Blacklion.
A door opened, and a figure came into view. She was small and slender, a pale girl with coppery hair and wearing a long, blue dress. Her feet were bare, and she made no sound against the stone floor. Lei hadn’t seen this girl’s face in almost twenty years,