[TLQ-B2] 21. Chamber of Despair (Patreon)

XXI

Chamber of Despair

I flicked a glance over the words passing in front of my face.

Chamber of Genesis completed!

Skill points awarded for successfully completing challenge.

Awarded skill points: 5.

‘Not bad.’ Especially not if the other two chambers would be more difficult and give me more points.

I turned to the northern chamber. After finishing the chamber of genesis, the powerlines crawling from the first to the second chamber had lit up.

I hummed. Were the chambers feeding each other? What could that be for…

“Billy!”

Grandmother’s scream drew my gaze away from the entrance. Her child-like, spectral form was standing on the throne. She’d ordered Billy to sit on his knees and lower his head, but of course, the undead yet loomed over her.

The height difference didn’t keep Grandmother from sticking her finger in his face. “You dared lay a hand on my granddaughter?! Are you looking to die?!”

“Mother, she is not—”

“Don’t talk back to me, you loaf!” Her arm swiped the air like a blade.

I shook my head. ‘Am I glad I never had a mother.’ Their wrath was fearsome.

She was not the undead’s true mother, unless one considered raising corpses as turning them into your children. However, she’d been very close with her servants.

Durand leaned down and whispered in my ear: “At the very start of our service, she refused to send us into battle.”

He and Meridyth were standing on either side of me. The latter had her hands linked in prayer and lightly shook her head. “Poor fool,” she mumbled as Grandmother continued to lay into her comrade.

I raised my brow at Durand. “Refused to send you into battle?”

He nodded and opened his mouth—

“It was before I’d learned how to heal our soldiers,” Meridyth said.

Durand huffed. “It seems you have not shaken your habit of speaking over people.”

Meridyth didn’t deign him with a glance. “Are you that worried about serving our new master? How quick the faithless change ship.”

There was a flash of light, and a heavy hammer appeared in Durand’s hand. “What are you insinuating?”

“That you’re—”

A shivering exhale slipped past my nostrils as the two began to bicker. Memories ran into my mind. For an instant, the image of Diane and Khaine overlaid that of Durand and Meridyth, and Lucian and Elias traded placed with Grandmother and Billy. When I blinked, I found myself sitting in a small room at the end of a long table. I was reading a book and occasionally glanced up when one of my children called me to aid them in their very important familial squabbles.

The beat of my heart thundered through me. ‘How long has it been, I wonder…’

…since I’d been in a room of dead this lively?

Slowly, the room morphed back into reality. Grandmother was still berating Billy, but Durand and Meridyth had stopped. Both were staring at me.

None of my undead had been intelligent until now, so I had let go of the habit of shielding my thoughts. Then again, I suppose it didn’t matter much. These undead were bound to me, even if they weren’t yet as loyal as could be.

Before Durand could comment on the thoughts and emotions I’d passed down our connection, I approached Grandmother and cut her off before she could launch into her next flurry of insult and warnings. “Do you think he’s learned his lesson, Grandmother?”

She snarled while keeping her finger in the undead’s face, then snorted. “He better.”

I allowed my lips to stretch. In her current form, she couldn’t lift a single finger against Billy. Neither did she have any control over him. That he listened to her at all showed how fond her previous servants really were of her.

‘Had Grandmother’s personality been any different, that would’ve been an issue.’ Inheriting undead from your ancestors was great…until those same undead stabbed you in the back. There were plenty of ways to leave trace amounts of your influence inside your servants that would survive your passing.

“Then I suggest we move onto the next chamber,” I said.

Grandmother eyed the staircase leading out the dungeon. “You said there was a war going on.”

I nodded. “I should leave this place in a timely fashion.”

A single day had passed since I entered the Chamber of Genesis. However, nations had been destroyed in less.

Black heels clanged on the floor as Grandmother jumped from the throne. Her white hair tumbled. “How much do you know about dreadworking?”

I blinked but kept my face passive. The entirety of Necron had been a piece of dreadworking.

“A little,” I said. “It’s the practise of forging machinations that benefit undead.”

“Essentially,” Grandmother said. She began to make her way toward the next chamber. When Billy tried to rise, she said: “You stay kneeling. You’re not needed for this part.”

The poor undead fell back to his knees, to the giggles of both Durand and Meridyth, who did follow us.

“Dreadworking has many uses,” Grandmother said. “Enhancing undead and creating debilitating effects for the living are but a few of them. There are also many branching disciplines related to it.”

Machinery capable of levelling cities, flying towers that sowed clouds of death wherever they crossed, beacons that tightened the connection between undead and strengthened them…those were but a few of the possibilities. However, to achieve any of this, I’d first need to find ways to forge the required minerals and materials. That in itself would be a process if it was even possible at all with this world’s resources.

Grandmother continued. “With the addition of Durand and Meridyth to your army, you’ll have taken the first step into this broad field.”

I glanced at the two undead behind us. Durand to forge and process materials, Meridyth to magically enchant our dreadworks…right. I could see it. At these lower level tiers, the undead wouldn’t be making anything insane, but it was indeed a start.

“I suppose my task will be related to activating the column?” I said.

We’d already passed the pillar standing dominant in the centre of the dungeon. Its dark colours seemed to deepen because of the topic of conversation.

Grandmother reached out to pat me on the hip. “I love children who catch on quickly!”

“Your praise enlivens me.”

We reached the entrance.

“As you mentioned,” Grandmother said, “activating the column is your first order of business. Once you do…well, you’ll see.”

I already knew what was going to happen, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise of the doting grandmother.

Master is kind, Durand said.

I huffed and placed my hand on the entrance. The double doors sucked in a breath as they displaced. Frozen orbs fastened to the walls parted the shadows, and mist fled out of the widening gap.

I peered through the smoke. Chains hung low from the ceiling, so the giants would have to duck and weave between them. Massive skulls, suits of armour, weapons of varying sizes, and more were strewn throughout the chamber.

“I made sure to leave you enough materials,” Grandmother said and headed inside.

She pointed to the left corner of the room. “The cauldron. You can use it to smelt materials.”

More than a cauldron, the item resembled an anvil. It was big enough that I wouldn’t be able to look over the edge with a footstool. Looking through Durand’s eyes, I saw that the top was a sink with a pipe leading down the interior of the piece. This mouthed into a gutter that fed into large vat. From there, the materials could be further processed.

“Would that remain functional after so long?” Meridyth asked. “The enchantments are faded.”

Durand scoffed. “Metal isn’t as brittle as your prayers. They just need some renewing.”

A glance from Grandmother was enough to stop their quarrel before it continued. Once satisfied that the two children would shut up, she pointed to the right, where a worktable big enough for three giants to use at the same time sat. Chains hanging over the table held up lenses, thick tomes, glass orbs yet pulsing with sparks of power, and more.

“That’s where you’ll be doing most of your enchanting,” Grandmother said.

Linking these two spaces was a small chamber made of the same material as the rest of the dungeon. It was more prison than room, with how it only had a single entrance and a tiny window frame in the front door. A dark coursing through the interior suppressed the light coming from within.

“A testing chamber?” I said.

Grandmother rapped her knuckles on the wall beside the entrance. “Dreadworking is part science, luck and innovation. You don’t want to get caught in the middle of those three if you can help it.”

Every reveal increased the warm, fuzzy feeling rising in my stomach. Whatever happened in the future, I could never say my ancestor had not done me well. Though small and preliminary, setting up a forging chamber like this would still take years with my current influence and power.

Perhaps sensing what I was thinking, Grandmother chuckled. “What grandmother wouldn’t set their descendant up for success?”

‘Too many.’

Smothering a chuckle, I undid the clasps of my cloak. “The column needs a core to activate. Are there any specifics I need to be aware of?”

“If there are,” she said, “they’re yours to figure out. I’m not helping you.”

Right. Guess that would be too easy.

I looked over my shoulder. As far as sophistication went, the column was quite simple. With its position at the centre of the entire dungeon, it was the nexus of the powerlines. However, since it was inactive, it wasn’t doing anything but facilitating the transit of energy. A good nexus didn’t just transport but also enhanced the power flowing through it.

“The schematics are in the room?” I asked.

Grandmother directed me to the worktable. Only now did I notice that there was an entire shelf beyond the desk near the walls, also lined with books, though these were smaller and not giant-sized.

A sigh escaped my lips.

Thin fingers slapped the metal covering my buttocks. “I made sure to include a room for you,” Grandmother said.

The room in question was a small recess in the back wall behind the testing chamber. A sliding door barricaded the room from the rest of the chamber. It was equipped with a bed, a tiny desk, and even a toilet (though it wasn’t more than a hole). There was even a closet and a fountain that apparently tapped into a deep, underground water vein. The spurt was enough to drink from, but I’d need to fill up a bucket if I wanted to shower.

Grandmother stood in the entrance. She watched with a smile as I summoned the queen’s guard to help me out of my armour.

“There’s a rack in the closet,” she said.

Along with a change of clothes, I noticed after having the undead check. “You really though of everything, Grandmother.”

She crossed her arms. “You are speaking to the woman who united the Giant Tribes, child.”

‘The giant tribes…’

Meridyth and Durand were already nosing about their respective workstations, so they weren’t here to hear.

“That sound like another story I’d love to hear,” I said.

Her smile grew. “You’ll—”

A growl echoing from my stomach interrupted her.

“My apologies.” I coughed. Then I swivelled around the room. “Where is our food storage, Grandmother? I don’t see it anywhere.”

She didn’t answer. I turned around as the Queen’s Guard unclasped my greaves.

Grandmother’s smile had frozen.

I blinked. Truly?