B4 Ch37: Descend (Patreon)

It was that strange hour past midnight where it was so early it was late, and so late it was early. There was no hint of dawn, or even a fresh morning breeze. But sirens screamed through the city, fed in by giant card anchor horns on top of buildings. Every bell was set to ringing, too. No one could possibly sleep through this, and every living soul who was old enough to have a card in their heart was out of bed and rushing up the steep hill to the middle of the city.

Though no one – not even vendors greedy enough to try to make a final profit – were silly enough to bring carts of beasts of burden with them, the streets were completely choked with people. The crowd became a mob as they got closer to the gates that barred the dark heart. People were shoulder to shoulder, all pushing forward, but with nowhere to go. Finally, the pressure grew so much that even the gates that held them back were starting to groan and strain, even though they were reinforced with card powers.

Of course, Arthur and his retinue didn’t have to worry about any of that. They simply flew over on their dragons. To Arthur, the many carried lamps and lighted portable card anchors weaving their way up the hill looked like a lighted snake. He caught flashes of oval faces turned up towards them to the sound of flapping dragon wings. He could only imagine their feelings as the dragon riders cut in line.

Arthur called to the others. “There’s no way Marion and Soledad can make their way through this. Go to the hospital and get them both – they live at barracks there. I’ll make sure our place in line is secure.” If there was going to be a problem with the city authorities keeping their word, Arthur wanted a first crack at them.

Cressida and Horatio lifted their hands to ensure that they heard, and they peeled off, flapping toward the east-side of the city.

Brixaby buzzed on, and people shouted in anger as he flew over the top gate.

There was a wide strip of empty land large enough for a dragon twice the size of Sams to land.  Brixaby, with his small size and pin-point flying ability, had no issue. He took the opportunity to circle a couple times.

Beyond the land was a sharp drop-off to the pit of the dark heart. The purple-black pulsing heart sat far, far below. Arthur could feel power washing off it in a sensation that rose the hair on his arms and the back of his neck.

“This feels very much like an eruption,” Brixaby growled.

Arthur took a second look, alarmed. He had better night vision than most, thanks to his Night Sight body enhancement, but double checked anyway. “I don’t see any scourgelings coming out. Do you?”

“No.” The word came out through clenched teeth, and Arthur felt Brixaby was tense under his seat. No dragon liked the feeling of a scourgelings power nearby.

The few clusters of officials gathered below didn’t notice Brixaby at first, as his dark scales blended in with the sky. Only the constant buzzing drone of his wings gave him away – and now, those were obscured by the alarms and frustrated people shouting on the other side of the gate.

But they noticed when Brixaby descended vertically into the light and landed a few dozen feet from them.

Oversheriff Walker peeled off from the others and strode up. Wisps of hair escaped from under her wide-brimmed hat, making her look slightly harried. “Arthur, the heart isn’t open yet.”

“I’m just ensuring my place in line,” Arthur said. “Remember our agreement.”

Her scowl deepened. “I wouldn’t go back on that, but this is not the front of the line.” She pointed over to the gate. Through it, Arthur saw arms sticking out of the slats as people literally reached for empty air. “That is.”

“You want my dragon to push his way through there?” Arthur asked dryly. “And the people I have with me?”

 “What other people—” She stopped and rubbed her face. “No, no, I remember now. I suppose those are the other dragon riders I’ve heard about? The yellow and the pink?”

“Yes.”

Walker shook her head and muttered, “I don’t know whether I should be upset about that or not.” Though she seemed to have dropped the idea of Arthur somehow moving Brixaby behind the gate.

“What do you mean?” Arthur asked, then paused to rest a comforting hand on the side of Brixaby’s neck. The dragon had turned his head with his full attention to the pit of the dark heart and was growling low in his throat.

“He senses it, doesn’t he?” Walker asked. “We nearly…” Trailing off, she glanced over her shoulder back toward where other officials were gathered. Then she looked back at Arthur. “I trust you to keep this to yourself and not spread rumors, but the heart has ripened before we thought that it would.”

No kidding, Arthur thought. The last he’d heard, they were to have a half a week left at the very least… and that had already been an accelerated timeline.

She nodded once, sharply. “This is going to be chaotic. It’s very, very close to an eruption.” She licked her bottom lip. “We need the elite adventurers and anyone else worth their salt to delve in and take as much power out of there as possible. The experts say that will release the magical pressure that’s built up. I trust that will be something you’ll be willing to do.”

Walker had always struck him as a hard woman, but now he saw real fear in the back of her eyes. There was a good reason for it. If the dark heart erupted into a full eruption in the middle of the city… instead of collecting treasures, these people outside the gates would be fighting for their lives. There was no dragon hive to call to help, and from what Arthur now understood… no other reachable city-state for back up.

Not to mention that with so much scouregling activity, the dead lands would be encroaching yet again. Perhaps, like with Soledad’s doomed city, it could poison the land here completely.

“Of course I’ll do what I can,” Arthur said. “My retinue – the other dragon riders – will be here soon.”

“I’ll be glad to see them, even if other people won’t be.” She hesitated for a moment. “Word of advice, Arthur: Watch your back. There’s no such thing as murder in the dark heart.”

He nodded grimly and she stepped back to confer with other leaders.  Many had concern etched on their faces. A few, however, looked jubilant. He guessed those were the ones who had the same mindset as Whitaker: More interested in power than the implications of what would happen if it all went sideways.

“I don’t like this,” Arthur said.

Brixaby hadn’t stopped growling all this time, but at Arthur’s words he turned his head to him. “What else?”

Arthur nodded to the leaders. “The dark heart is way, way ahead of schedule. Look at their faces. Most of them were taken by surprise.”

“Yes, it is ripened. I knew that already,” he said impatiently.

“Brix,” Arthur said. “Eruptions are happening more frequently back in our kingdom, too.”

The dragon’s growl cut off and he tilted his head in thought. “Our kingdom is all the way across the world.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” Arthur straightened in his seat. “Though even if it is, it’s not going to change a thing for us. We’re going to take whatever we can from the dark heart and leave nothing behind.”

He didn’t particularly care for Sheriff Walker’s warning about murder in the dark heart – especially as the dragons would be large targets.

Then again, dark deeds were pulled during hive eruptions back home, too. One of Arthur’s first glimpses of a fighting dragon had been during the assassination of a poor Pink and its rider. That was how he got his Return To Start card. Speaking of…

“You got the key point set for Return to Start?”

“It is set at the same location as last time,” Brixaby said. “If the worst happened, I would rather find myself outside of the city rather than appear possibly surrounded by enemies inside the city.”

So, he had caught the sheriff’s warning, too.

Arthur nodded. “If something happens and your life is in true danger, I want you to activate it and get out of there. Even if it’s without me.”

Brixaby was shocked. “I am not leaving you!”

“The Return to Start card is in my heart, so as long as you can activate that, you know I’m safe. But that’s the same reason why you need to escape first. If I die, you’ll be trapped in there.”

Brixaby growled under his breath, but Arthur sensed he would obey. Most likely.

In the next moment, he tilted his head to the sky. “Joy and Sams have arrived.”

Sure enough, Arthur soon heard the sound of flapping wings and alarmed calls from the guards. Brixaby’s appearance had made them pay attention to what was going on above.

“Hold your fire!” Sheriff Walker called.

Sams and Joy came swooping over the tall buildings that made up the barrier to the dark heart. Neither one could hover the way Brixaby could, but they had their own ways to land. Sams, the more seasoned flyer, circled the heart a few times to dump speed and altitude before he came in. Joy, who was smaller, only had to circle once. She had Marion and Cressida on her back. Horatio had Soledad.

The moment Sams landed, Soledad vaulted off the dragon’s neck. Her dark eyes were bright and she was the first to speak. “Did you see that crowd out there?” she shook her head in amazement. “Guess knowing you has already started to pay off.”

Dismounting, Arthur walked up to meet them. Everyone looked tense, but ready to go. His focus was on Marion, though. He looked a bit pale about the lips and on seeing Arthur, reached into his jacket and pulled out several small thumb-sized vials.

“Healing potions, brewed by the hospital’s alchemists,” he said under his breath. “I got enough for everyone to have two.”

Arthur’s eyebrows rose. “You paid for these?”

“Don’t be an idiot.” He sent a worried look over at the cluster of sheriffs nearby as if concerned they would sense his misdeeds and arrest him on the spot. “I think I got away with it, but just in case I didn’t… I’d better come out of here with either something valuable enough to keep me around, or something expensive enough to sell.”

Nodding, Arthur tucked away the vials into his Personal Space. “Well, good news. I’ve been told by the Over Sheriff to take out as much as possible from the heart.”

“No kidding?” Horatio drawled. “I was going to come all this way just to leave some good cards behind. Glad someone cleared that up.”

But Arthur's attention was still on Marion. He seemed different, and it took him a second to figure out why. Ever since becoming a dragon rider, Arthur had been trying to pay attention to how people with different card ranks felt.

Dragons could sense this instinctively, with Brixaby knowing almost immediately at a glance what dragon was a Common, Uncommon, Rare, and so on.

It was more nebulous for Arthur, but now he sensed Marion had a new weight about him. Not physical, but magical.

A Rare power.

"You used the clone illusion card?" Arthur asked.

Marion gave him a sickly smile. "I guess I'm all in now."

"I suppose you are," Arthur said, relieved. The illusion card could not replace the Legendary that Marion had given up, but he wasn't looking for a replacement, just a fresh start.

Clapping him on the back, Arthur moved on to quickly check in with Cressida and Horatio. They had dismounted their dragons and were doing last-minute adjustments to their dragon’s gear. Unlike Arthur, they both had dragon saddles and were making sure everything was in order. Both looked tense about what was waiting for them in the pit, but he didn't see true fear in their eyes. Once they were done, his retinue gathered around Arthur.

Oh no. Were they waiting for a speech?

Brixaby took that moment to shoulder his way into the group. "Now it is time for me to gift you what I have been working on. You may thank me for it profusely."

And then he pulled out... metal ingots that were sewn to bright fabric straps.

For a moment, Arthur wasn't exactly sure what he was looking at. The fabric straps weren't even pretty, which was weird because since receiving his class, Brixaby’s work had taken an artistic slant.

Then he spotted the runes that were inscribed on the ingots… runes that looked familiar to him, as he had read many of the same books that Brixaby had.

"I have been working on my enchanting," Brixaby said with chest-puffing pride. “Here, this is yours. He thrust an ingot that was sewn to a pink square of fabric at Cressida. Arthur assumed that the pink was for Joy as Horatio received a garish yellow one.

“Thanks?” Holding it like it was a dead thing, Horatio seemed uncertain.

Cressida shot him a look and said, more emphatically. “Thank you, Brixaby. Um, what does this do?”

"Tie it to your arms with the ingot side down so that it touches your skin. Arthur, you may help them.” Brixaby told them grandly.

He was in quite a good mood, so Arthur trusted him and did as he was told. He was as professional as possible, but noticed Cressida’s skin was soft under his fingers.

"What does it do?" Cressida asked again, once it was on. “Is it another fire enhancer, like you made in the Mesa’s dungeon?”

"Indeed, though that was only a first attempt! Think of this as an elemental focusing device, as a glass lens can focus light. Yours is a fire enhancer and a water enhancer, for your summons," Brixaby said, then he paused. "Perhaps using them at once may result in more steam, I don't know. But it likely should not be dangerous.”

Before Cressida could reply, he turned to Horatio. "You may find that yours will enhance light even more than your current Rainbow Knight card. Apparently, it may also function with temperature. I'm not quite sure yet."

Arthur expected Horatio to snark something in his typical way. But he just looked interested. "Temperature isn't a type of light, but it may be a type of energy. Sam and I argue about it."

Arthur jumped in. "Brix, how did you connect the enchantment with a card?"

"I have been working with Joy and Sams," Brixaby said, which wasn't a real explanation at all. Translating that into guilty-dragon speak, those two had been up to something. He only hoped Brixaby hadn’t been accosting people, plucking cards out of hearts, and then quickly returning them again.

Arthur waited for a beat, but Brixaby quickly changed the subject. Now, there was definitely a guilty look on his face.

"I attempted to make a stone skin enchantment, much like my new card, but the chances were high that you wouldn't have been able to breathe or move, and possibly your heart would have stopped. Had I had another week, I am almost certain that I would have cracked it."

That was a disappointment, but Arthur didn't let it show on his face.

"I'm glad that you've found a way to protect our retinue," he said, and he was even gladder that Brixaby had at least been able to put the Stone Skin card in his secondary core. The core was still developing as Brixaby was still growing, so it hadn’t been a certain thing.

Instead of dwelling on disappointment, Arthur focused on what he did have. He had the cards still in his heart, and he had his friends, and of course, his dragon.

That had to be enough to face the dark heart, right?

But Brixaby didn’t leave him completely empty-handed. He was, after all, a blacksmith. He pulled a fine metal chainmail shirt out of his Personal Space to present to Arthur. It was a fine silver with gold edging. Best yet, Brixaby had found a way to fashion bits of razor-sharp shrapnel all over the shirt. The threads securing them were brittle enough for Arthur to pluck one free with a sharp tug. With his nice shot card, he barely needed to. He had full control over them – his own arsenal.

Arthur quickly put it on and activated his card to control any jingling so he didn’t sound like ringing bells whenever he moved.

There was movement from the group of leaders.  It seemed that the sheriffs were getting ready to finally open the gate. Everybody scrambled to their dragons.

A man that Arthur didn't recognize, but the sheriffs all treated with deference, stood before the gates and spoke. Even the crowd quieted to hear.

"Welcome all to the 17th opening of New Houston’s dark heart! Now, a couple of quick rules: As soon as these gates open, everybody's to follow that path—” He pointed and the sharp footpath that rounded the interior of the pit blazed to life. No pushing, no shoving. Grab what you can and come back rich for it!”

The crowd roared in approval, and from the sound of it the cheers were taken up by the crowd behind them – back and back through the city as people realized they were about to be admitted.

With that, the gates opened, and people surged in as a mass. They would have crowded around the dragons, but Brixaby, Joy, and Sams had gone to the very edge. From there, Arthur saw the footpath that ran around and around the edge, like the cuttings of a screw. It was large enough for two men to walk shoulder-to-shoulder… though there were no handrails.

But the dragons didn’t have to worry about walking a path.

The crowd rushed forward. At the front, Arthur saw a few people he recognized. Jon and some of his Lightning Cats, Claude the Kludge, and a few others who had survived the Rare nest. He heard Horatio hail some of the others too – acquaintances he’d made while fighting scourgelings over the last few days.

Cressida caught Arthur’s eye and leaned toward him. Arthur did too. Joy's shoulders were wide, and all they could do was brush their fingers together before they had to lean back. But it was enough. A silent good luck.

Before the first of the crowd could reach them, the dragons launched themselves into the pit, back winging to keep from hitting the steep sides. Sams had the worst of it, but he was experienced enough to keep his wings from brushing the edges. Brixaby, of course, had no problem buzzing straight down.

As he did, the sense of power grew stronger and stronger, until it was like they were slowly sinking not through not air, but thick liquid.

But as far as they descended, the pulsing heart still seemed to be the same distance away.

You can't trust your senses down here, Arthur reminded himself.

Screams and shouts came from above. Brixaby looked up and then jinked to the right as someone fell past him from above – the man reached for Arthur’s leg, fingers brushing, but couldn’t get a grip. In a flash of a second, he was below them, still falling.

“Brix!” Arthur yelled, though he wasn’t even sure what he wanted from the dragon. The man had fallen too fast, and even if Brixaby dived now, he would be too late. Arthur looked up and to his horror, saw the man wasn’t the only one.

People had ignored official warnings to descend in an orderly fashion. Of course they had. There were untold riches in the dark heart, not to mention the press of thousands of others behind them. Several adventuring teams were at a full-on sprint around the circling downward path, and those that were slower were being overtaken by those in front.

And the path was only wide enough for two men shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Look out!” Arthur yelled, seeing a woman tip over the edge. She tried to drag the man who had shouldered her off the path down with her, but with a vicious shove, he pushed her away.

Arthur couldn’t ask Brix to save her. He was too small to carry two riders, much less catch someone falling at great speed with the weight of Arthur already on his back.

Joy and Sams, however, could.

With a snort of annoyance, Sams shifted the angle and beat of his wings to catch her on the main sail of his wing on the downstroke. Thankfully, wing membrane was not as delicate as it looked. The woman struck hard and rolled, unresisting, to a lower level of the path on Sams upstroke. She looked stunned.

Arthur saw her sit up, though, cradling her arm and looking dazed.

Joy caught the next with her claws, though she was careful to mainly use her non-venomous, ungloved arm. She easily flipped the still shrieking man to the path at the side. The fallen people now had a lead on the others… if they weren’t too injured to move.

They continued downward and still the dark heart seemed no closer.

Then, without warning, something from the outside seized Arthur's mind.

Instantly, he threw up every mental blocking skill he had, including his area of effect shield to protect the others. The shields and skills shattered in a way that even the Mind Singer had been able to do.

Then again, the Mind Singer was only a Rare power. In the second before Arthur's mind was completely rolled over, he recognized Legendary strength.

A thought shook his mind, coming from everywhere at once, from the outside and the inside too.

What do you need?

Somehow, Arthur was able to gather his scattered thoughts enough to answer.

The Master of Cards, he thought, focusing on that shining image he’d seen while in guided meditation.  

He thought he heard a laugh. We will see.

Suddenly, Arthur was no longer on Brixaby's back. He was standing somewhere else entirely.