POV - Grant

  All thoughts of meeting cool, short strangers in awesome techno-magic-steampunk gear went right out the fucking window. As the giants lay dead in front of me and hundreds of shocked and fearful dwarves stared at me and my crew, the earth shook. And this time, it wasn’t me.

  I blinked, over and over again. Anything to get this damn message out of my vision. All I could see were blurs behind the glaring red and black screaming at my brain.

  “The fucking hell?”

  Sandra rubbed at her eyes, squinting and looking all around.

  “I can’t see!”

  We both waved our arms around, shouting different commands until Elvis stumbled on the correct one: Notification Received.

  “That wasn’t just me, right?” I asked, pivoting to see the dwarves looking at us like we were even crazier than they originally expected. “Did they not see that?”

  My wife stared up at the sky, her head back as she gulped in air. That message didn’t just invade our eyes, it imprinted itself on our brains. I could hear it reverberating between my eardrums.

  Elvis fell to his knees. “It’s not over. It’s still here, this is really happening. How is there more?!”

  The world shook as unbeknownst to us, the wave of magical essence rebounded off of the core of the Earth changing it forever. Streams of power lashed out wildly recharging the atmosphere until it turned a foreboding blue so dark that it almost appeared night. All of Earth’s satellites that had been co-opted into the uncaring autonomous System served as a mirror, reflecting back the energy until all of Earth radiated with power that hadn’t been seen in countless eons.

  The very dirt beneath us rebelled, throwing everyone and everything into the air. We crashed down into a sprawling heap. Only Sandra remained unfazed, her telekinetic floating allowing her to remain in the air. She did bob up and down like a bobber in a river.

  “Little help?” I gasped, rolling onto my side. With a gesture, she stood us all up and looked around.

  “I’m going to get the others.”

  “Awesome, we need to get them and get home. Shit just keeps getting weirder.”

  Elvis glanced at Sandra as she took off at a good pace to check in on Thomas and Paul and Eli before doing a side nod in the dwarves’ direction.

  “Hey boss, is it me, or did that System craziness happen exactly seven days after it started? Like, all this happened, and then a week later, we get an update?”

  The earth rumbled again as if it were in complete agreement. We all tensed expecting another upheaval but nothing happened.

  “Definitely weird.” I agreed, leaning back to crack my back and neck. Shaking my head, I could see the crowds of dwarves helping each other back to their feet and mothers checking in on children and elders. “Problem is, we have several hundred dwarves over there and they look like they want answers. And I’m next to gassed out. We all need food, baths, sleep, and I’m guessing that life doesn’t give a shit what we want.”

  A tentative crunch to my left made me pause. Two dwarves stood in front of me, one with a large gear-esque tower shield and a hefty spear and another larger dwarf who was clearly annoyed at his bodyguard being that dwarf. I examined the larger dwarf as he slowly and carefully removed his thick gloves and began taking off his own armor. Beneath the bucket helmet with black lenses was a swarthy face and a thick beard of mostly gray that was trimmed to end just above his breastplate. Brown eyes that used to be kind now held the weight of hundreds of lives and though he was a bit furtive, he was clearly determined to do something.

  His bodyguard barked something to the obvious leader who glared at him and shook his head before turning back to me. Elvis began to step forward but I held up a hand, motioning for him to stay where he was. The dwarven leader was moving very slowly, as if he were trying to not spook a cautious wolf. I watched as a thin gold chain with a silver medallion hanging from it appeared from underneath his beard, the dwarf pulling it out from beneath his shirt so it lay on his breastplate.

  From his waist, he pulled out a bag, opening it and showing us that several more of those medallion necklaces were in there. He laid it on the ground and gently pushed it towards us with his foot, pointing at us and himself and then at his own mouth, motioning with his hands like mouths talking to each other.

  “You don’t think . . .” I muttered, carefully watching this dwarf eye Elvis and myself like we were highly dangerous criminals off our leash. Clearing my throat, I slowly pointed at myself and enunciated clearly, “Grant.” I then slowly pointed to Elvis and said his name slowly and carefully. Then I pointed at the dwarf and shrugged, waiting patiently.

  I did it again after a minute before the dwarves caught on. I heard syllables that were caught somewhere between rocks grinding and a smooth trombone.

  The dwarven leader shook his head and mimed putting on a medallion. He then proceeded to take off most of his armor, push his bodyguard further back, and push the bag of medallions closer to us while pointing to show us that he too was wearing one. I kept one eyebrow arched until the dwarf sighed and forced his bodyguard to put his spear down and put a medallion on.

  “Here goes nothing, man.” I looked at Elvis. “If anything happens to me, rip this thing off me and then kill them all. If you don’t, Sandra will kill them all and probably kill you slowly.”

  Elvis nodded frantically but kept his mouth shut. I slowly walked forward and picked up the bag, calmly keeping my front to the dwarves as I backed up. The metal was cold around my neck as it heated up just a bit before settling back down.

  Both dwarves gave each other a puzzled look before talking to each, their voices a cacophony of alien noise that grew intense as the chain around my neck heated up again.

  “Shit! It’s starting to get hot!” I yelped. “Hey! What the hell?”

  Elvis stood there uselessly, not knowing what to do. Frankly, neither did I. It was hot but not to the point of burning, just damn close to it. Right as my patience was about to run out, something strange happened. That mess of syllables began to make sense. They were arguing with each other, and they didn’t know that the medallion had started to work.

  “If it works on a goblin, it will work on a human! They’re smarter than goblins! Goblins still haven’t discovered brewing?”

  “Who told you that? The elves? They hate the humans just as much as they hate goblins AND minotaurs, which is just barely more than how much they hate us! They probably sold us junk and have been laughing about it in their safe tree tops for years! Curse them, curse their weak-ass wine, and A POX ON THIS PLACE!”

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  “By the Shattered Mountains, why are there hill-giants here? We were supposed to end up in the mountains, not the hills?”

  “What do we do, Tunnel Sergeant? If they can’t understand us, won’t they attack? Humans are temperamentally close to cavern wolves, if it looks like it could be a threat then might as well eat it now. Don’t they eat their young?”

  “Maybe, but they also took out two hill giants and one of them flew! They have magic!”

  Part of me wanted to growl but they were talking about us as if humanity did not have civilization of any kind. Memories of third-world countries and endless wars flashed through my brain and a not-small part of my brain did agree with them HOWEVER! Technically, I wasn’t a part of any of that.

  “We don’t eat kids, have some manners!” I barked, walking up but keeping just out of reach of the spear resting on the ground. “Can you understand me? I sure as hell can understand you.” They both froze as what I said caught up with them. “Let’s try this again.” I over-exaggerated our previous miming. “My name is Grant, that big guy is Elvis. He works for me. What are your names?”

  The larger one cleared his throat and stepped away from his bodyguard. “Name’s Yeldin MacStone, Tunnel Sergeant of the MacStone clan. This here is my guard, Aldin MacStone. We come to Yerth seeking refuge from our home. The Labyrinth was kind enough to send us here but we are not sure where here is.”

  “Welcome to Fredericksburg, a kinda worthless city on a state that most likely doesn’t exist on a continent that used to be the world’s biggest super power.” I said wryly. “And we’re here next to the Rappahannock river thattaway. East-” I pointed downriver, “is yonder and the ocean is about sixty to seventy miles that way. The mountains, I think the Allegheny mountains, or is the Blue Ridge? Not sure, but mountains are the other way about four hours away by car, maybe almost two hundred miles away depending on the roads?”

  Our conversation was interrupted by the earth shaking again, although it was much less violent than before. Loud cracks, like rock cliffs dropping boulders off a sheer cliff face, rang out and we all jumped to look west. Sandra floated up next to me with the wagon in tow.

  “It’s so cool that dwarves are real!” Eli said, leaning forward and looking down. Sandra set the wagon back on the ground and I passed out medallions to everyone on my team except my wife. When I felt a questioning ping through our mental link, I opened our connection a bit more than usual so she could hear and understand all that I did so she wouldn’t need one. I also wanted her to be free of the medallions in case something went wrong with them. Feeling her agreement, she floated at my side but still looked down the road.

  “They’re nice so far.” I explained to everyone, moving quickly as the noises were getting louder and the frequency was picking up. “Yes, they’re dwarves and no, I don’t have any more information yet. The medallions take a minute and WHAT IN THE WORLD!?”

  Just a few blocks away, a smooth white Obelisk grew out of the ground at an unusual rate. It didn’t appear as if it were being pushed out of the ground, it grew like a tree but in a time lapse sort of way. Stone flowed like liquid while maintaining the rough shape that became a fifteen foot square column. With a sudden deep hum, two rings of light appeared around the Obelisk, rotating faster and faster until that hum vanished as quickly as it arrived. But the energy rings flowing around it were still there.

  Sandra tapped me on the shoulder. “Babe, the message! Remember the message!”

  Too many things were happening at the same time. Keeping up with it all was causing me to push things to the side that required actual consideration but part of knew that staying alive was the key priority. The System messages, unless they were directly acting on me, could wait to be pondered until after dealing with the dwarves. That is, until Yelding started slowly walking towards the Obelisk as if he were in a trance.

  My brain caught up with my memory of the messages burned into my brain. First, the dudes who wrote the messages a week ago, Dedi and Ramses, were both dead or have been dead for a while. Second, there’s some kind of infection or contamination called the ‘Abhorrent’. Third, whatever measures were in place to keep them out are now gone or failing and the Obelisks are part of the counter-measures. And fourth, and this is a long shot, but part of me re-read the latest message's second section [Resonance Channels: SEEKING ADMINISTRATION]. That was in the Obelisks Network section.

  I had to get their first. I shot Sandra a message as I took off in a sprint towards the Obelisk not caring about looking crazy. The final dregs of my energy worked with the stone beneath me that pushed my feet forward. It felt like every step was enhanced by a trampoline trying to help me. My attempt at stopping didn’t work, my abilities cutting out as I got within a few inches of the circulating energy ring. Instead, I flexed backward almost into a sliding skid underneath the ring and my feet slammed into it. Both hands came forward to touch the Obelisk, catching myself as my momentum was great.

  A new message appeared in my mind, not blaring like the previous ones.

  “What in the hell?” I cursed under my breath. “It’s scanning my brain, giving quests AND saying the Admins are dead and in need of replacement?

  Without further explanation, an invisible forcefield pushed me back from the Obelisk until I was ten feet away from its base. My powers returned to their full strength as I stood up, bewildered at the lack of clarification.

  “That’s it?! What the hell is ‘Contaminated’ essence?”

  ********

  Every person on my team tried to touch the Obelisk and they all got the same treatment: a five second brain freeze with no powers allowed followed up by a rude shove away. I did notice however that all of our energy levels were slightly restored. I no longer felt like I’d gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson, more like five or six. Eli experienced the biggest change, he had color in his face and was up and walking around with Thomas who was no longer limping.

  “I take it this is new to you humans as well?”

  Yeldin stood facing the Obelisk with his arms across his chest, his brow furrowed as I relayed the message and my team confirmed that they had gotten the same one.

  Elvis made a face. “Magic? Yes. Obelisk with spinning magic circles? Then yes again.”

  My brother groaned in discomfort as he pushed against the invisible forcefield. “The damn thing cuts down on healing related to your powers too!” He leaned back. “See? Now I can feel my bones repairing themselves and Eli’s magic stuff doin’ its thing.” He leaned forward again with his hands. “But now . . . the fractures in my hands are weakening, my power holding them together fading away.”

  Eli yanked him back. “Do NOT undo all my hard work.”

  I spun to face Yeldin. “Run that past me again, you don’t see a message in front of your eyes when you try to touch the Obelisk.” The swarthy dwarf shook his head. “What about if you say the word ‘Status’?” Another negative. Yeldin motioned for Aldi to try. I watched closely as he was unable to approach the stone structure protruding from the ground.

  “Show ‘Status’.” I said, turning it to face the dwarves.

  “Rust on a pick!” Yeldin breathed, his second trying to peek over his shoulder. “We’ve heard tales of humans with glasslike screens and moving pictures but we thought it was elven propaganda. Wait till the missus hears about this?”

  Deciding that I didn’t have anything to lose, I recounted the contents of the strange message from the Obelisk.

  “Do you have any idea what that means?” I asked. “We’ve seen similar ones, something about being at war and this one mentioning some kind of contaminant, the ‘Abhorrent’? Any idea what it’s referring to?”

  Yeldin’s frown deepened as he scratched his beard. “This world shouldn’t have anything to worry about just yet if what you say is true. If they were truly here, you would smell it. Rot, decay, filth, as if the land around you were actively dying. By the forge, we would be turning around now if we had a choice.”

  I noticed the shadows deepening as we talked. Tiny chills ran down my neck and my hindbrain began kicking back in after the insanity of the last few hours. My paranoia almost went into hyperdrive but I felt Sandra’s calming presence through our link. In the span of ten seconds, she let me bounce ideas off of her at hyperspeed and we arrived at a plan. The best thing about our mental connection and Sandra’s mental abilities is that we could communicate on a deeper level complete with pictures, schematics, feelings, and plans almost faster than we could with plain words.

  “Not sure what to tell y’all,” I started, pointing down at the shadow from the Obelisk, “but we hunker down well before dark. No good thing happens after dark, that holds doubly true for the last week. We are going to head home. What are y’alls plans?”

  “Shelter and healing.” A lighter, much more pleasing version of Yeldin’s crumbly voice came from behind him and Aldin. The voice was clearly holding back a ton of pain but her words were clear as a bell. “Then exploration and migration.”

  Both male dwarves turned and almost bowed, their deep respect evident on their faces.

  “Don’t worry,” she said, her smile gentle and her face warm. “I was listening in on my husband’s natterings’. He’d get distracted in an elvish forest if someone told him they were hoarding gold between the oaken roots.”

  “Alas, me lass, none can fool a cleric of the Prime Smith.”

  The two men intoned. “Glory to the Gear Father.”

  Both looked reverently at the large gauntlet covering the lady dwarf’s arm. Dried blood cracked in the creases.

  “Do you need that looked at?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the dwarves' odd behavior.

  “No need, human.” She said delicately. “This is the price for overdrawing His gifts. While the Deep Mother loves all her children, she loves from afar and does not interfere often. The Gear Father is closer to His children but demands a higher price for his involvement. I will bear the cost in honor for the lives I have saved.”

  Her gaze lingered on Aldin’s leg and I saw him adjust his armor to hide the metal where skin should have been.

  “But enough about us.” She said primly, pulling her spine even straighter which highlighted how much shorter than her husband she was. “I will forgive my husband for his poor manners this once but my name is Maelyin MacStone, cleric of the Gear Father and lead advisor on all non-military matters. Our portents and signs show us that you and your team are the best path for our survival, nay, our thriving.”

  Sandra shot me a look that said, ‘fix this’.

  I tugged at my collar. “That’s a lot of responsibility to put on a stranger’s shoulders.”

  Maelyin coughed. “Perhaps, but perhaps not.”

  “Perhaps ‘not’ is closer, I’m afraid.” I pulled my wife close. “Just over a week ago, magic wasn’t real, we had normal jobs, and monsters weren’t trying to eat our faces. Now? We’re facing giants, rescuing dwarves, and finding out that religion is all too real. All I know is that the limit of what I DON’T know just got way bigger. I don’t even know where to start with you all. Why are you here? What do you need? Why Earth? And why now?”

  “Is there a better place we can talk?” She asked, looking weary. “A close mountain perhaps? There are always more hill giants. It’s why dwarves seek shelter in mountains, too dangerous to roam the hills.”

  I almost turned green. “Shit. Virginia is mostly hills. You don’t get mountains unless you go west for four hours by car.” Seeing her confusion, I clarified. “Four hours by car is roughly two hundred and forty miles, or twelve days of hiking up and down hills if you cover twenty miles a day.”

  “Any really large hills?” She asked.

  Sandra tapped on my shoulder, sending me a picture in my head. I had forgotten about it in the madness but the University of Mary Washington on College Avenue sat on a hill, a fairly large one. It was technically less of a hill than it was a semi plateau. Behind the college, the landscape dropped down seventy feet in height between where the main buildings of the college sat and where the suburban neighborhoods behind it were.

  After running that past the dwarves, they said ‘good enough’ and got their entire refugee group up and moving. Elvis hauled Paul’s unconscious body in the wagon while Thomas and Eli walked beside it, and Sandra floated next to me as I chatted with Yeldin. His wife and Aldin didn’t take long to organize the hundreds of dwarves into groups that eventually turned into a marching column. It wasn’t long before I introduced them to their new home.