Private High March Apathy and Avarice

[Alice]

The longer that Nai talked, the more Alice felt an unfamiliar expression form on her face. Her brows furrowed together. Then her nose scrunched itself up. Lastly, her lips curved downwards, completing the well and true frown on her face, unlike the slight, partial expressions she had exhibited earlier. Nai's words truly had an effect on the Magia, unused to such talks of 'feelings.'

Emotions were unreliable. Volatile. There was no purpose to a journey if there was not a satisfactory conclusion. Children were meant to grow out of their juvenile tendencies, cease their play, and become contributing members of society, to make the company money. All else was folly and futility. That was what Alice had been taught, and yet, her first steps into this virtual world had already turned everything that Alice understood to be facts on their heads.

Feelings were purposeless, and yet, every player sought them anyways. And yet, Alice sought them. This was an absolute truth, at least, according to what Alice had experienced this far. Nai's piercing gaze confirmed that she knew this truth, and that that was why she'd shared it with Alice.

"There's a chance there," the beastfolk suddenly said, drawing Alice's attention to the Stronghold, now empty of Earth Elementals. "And a risk too."

Alice paused as she held another grey stone in her hand. There was no value in this stone, Alice was certain, but as she stared at it, she suddenly was certain that it held immeasurable value. She deposited it into her inventory before turning towards the stronghold. "The journey," the Magia said, as if her decision hinged entirely upon that singular word. "I suppose, if I am to learn, I should seek out the journey, and the adventure," she resolved. "If you would, I would like for you to join me on this 'adventure'."

@Nai

 

[Nai]

"As long as you don't expect me to fight those elementals."

It wasn't as if it was a result Nai had been aiming for, in truth, but what of it? For many, this was a game, and ought to be enjoyed as such, whether for sheer, mindless entertainment or for an environment of play that allowed one to reflect on themselves. Cracking her knuckles and rotating her wrists once more, the beastwoman checked her surroundings over, ascertained that all her tools were where they needed to be, and nodded.

As synchronized duos, they ran through the shadows, footsteps masked by thunderclaps. Closer, ever closer, the heaven-intruding spiral loomed, promising, revealing...

...a darkness fathomless.

Every sound echoed within the pitch-black of the Godrose Stronghold, a construction that was made solely and wholly for the purpose of growing ever-higher. No amenities were needed, every bit of material served to reinforce the foundations and contribute to the eternal ascent. In shadow, Nai waited, listening for the sound of anything that would indicate a monster, a guard, whether of stone or earth.

Seconds passed. A minute did. The fighting never seemed to stop, and yet felt infinitely distant here. She gulped, then pulled out a lantern. Oil was fed, a striker granted a spark, and incandescent warmth spread out to chase away shadows and reveal the dizzying amount of rudimentary scaffolding around them. It climbed up against the patchwork walls without care for balance or security; indeed, many places were broken off and loosened, sandstone slabs crumbling at parts. A deathtrap to even walk upon! And yet, those Stone Dwarves must have continued to climb at the behest of their gargantuan masters, raising this spiraling spear up higher.

Nai turned, and sucked in a breath.

Faces, eroded by the passage of time, were embedded in the walls.

Of course.

Stone Dwarves too were stone.

 

[Alice]

"Ideally, we will avoid combat all together."

Alice had no desire to come across anything that might pose danger to either of them. She herself was not well-versed in the many arts of war, and though Nai might be, Alice knew what a hinderance she might become for the beastfolk. 'Dead weight,' her father had once called a rather lazy worker. Someone who dragged down others by merit of their uselessness.

Alicce would endeavor to not be one of these dead weights. And so, carefully, she followed close behind Nai as they ran through the dark shadows of the stronghold, silent behind the veils of battle and nature. They paused, and waited, listening, watching, waiting for any sign that it was no longer safe for them here. So still were they that someone might have passed them by, and they would've remained completely unnoticed, of this Alice was certain.

Finally, Nai lit a lamp, illuminating them both in a flicker orange glow. The woman looked around at their environment and drew in a sharp breath. Alice's own mechanical eyes fell on the stone carvings, her face an unreadable mask as she stared at them. "I did not know the Dwarves had any traditions like this."

@Nai

 

[Nai]

"No."

Nai approached one of death-locked faces, placing her hand upon its head. Within the conventions of reality, it would be unthinkable to dismiss a subservient race as possessing no culture or traditions of their own, but within the conventions of a video game, it was perhaps even advantageous to create these sorts of narrative shortcuts. The Dwarves were elementals possessing no will of their own. The Dwarves, thus, could be considered a magical machine that followed the commands of the Earth Elementals, who they themselves were also 'magical machines'. That was, to say...

"Stone Dwarves destroyed beyond repair are repurposed as building materials." She tapped her knuckles against the face, then gestured to the parts of the wall above, where any other designs were non-existent. There were certain implications, perhaps, about it was the foundations of the tower that was made out of the parts and pieces of the Dwarves, but the history of a fantasy world wasn't something Nai thought meaningful to dwell upon.

Instead, she swept her lamp around once more, hoping to catch a glint of something precious in the firelight.

"Do you believe, Alice, that we'll find something of value lower down, or higher up?"

 

[Alice]

"Stone Dwarves destroyed beyond repair are repurposed as building materials."

"Efficient..." Cold and calculatingly so. Alice thought she should've applauded their devotion to logistics and efficacy, and yet, she couldn't help but find herself disturbed. Every culture in the world had their own rituals surrounding death. Burial, cremation, even ritual consumption in some pre-modern tribes. Barbaric, perhaps, but aimed at honoring their dead. The concept of honor was foreign to the magia, yes, but she understood it was something that not only should, but needed to be observed.

Where was the honor in this?

She could pick and prod at death rituals for days on end and never understand why they were performed, but here there was nothing but cold efficiency, and for once, Alice could not abide by it.

She turned away from the stone faces, unable to look at them. Her eyes drifted to the floor as she tried to consider Nai's question. "Below. Storing resources higher up would create immense strain on the structure, compromising it's integrity. Neither the dwarves, not the elementals show an interest beyond raw resources to be used for building, we should travel downwards."

@Nai

 

[Nai]

"Then below we go."

Reaching behind her back, Nai opened her hand and then closed it, shadows congealing into her grasp as she retrieved a pickaxe. It was cheap and weighty, but it was affordable and disposable. She thrust it into Alice's hands and further dimmed the light of her lantern. Firelight no longer cast stark shadows upon their surroundings, no longer illuminated the frozen faces that had been embedded into the base of the building. The Magia's tone had been emotionless, but her actions were not. Perhaps Nai had spoken one phrase too many.

A matter to apologize at a latter time. For now, she could still hear the sound of battle, feel the trembling of the earth, and that meant they had time too to explore the depths of the Godrose Stronghold. It had been a stronghold once, and thus, there was without a doubt a lower floor. Even if the upper floors may have been demolished by the ascendant construction of the Stone Dwarves and the Earth Elementals. Even if all the upholstery must have been removed and repurposed.

Indeed, it did not take much longer, for the two thieves to come across it.

Nothing so fanciful as a crypt, nor anything so wondrous as a secret chamber. What stretched before them was simply a hole. Wide, as if entirely collapsed. A cellar perhaps, before the fist of an elemental collapsed the floor and buried it. Now, however? Neither crypt, nor chamber, nor cellar. Nothing more but a pit. Filled with earth and sand, mixed with gravel and sediment, as well as...

Nai sniffed the air. There was a strong dampness, a scent sharpened by the cracked thirst of the Hylands.

"Mixing concrete?"

Since when such single-minded creatures know of this?

 

[Alice]

Agreeing with the Magia, Nai reached behind her back and pulled out a pickaxe from somewhere that defied every law of physics that Alice knew of. Before she even had a chance to ask how she had procured this mysterious, size-augmenting pickaxe, which was most certainly a technological marvel even by real world standards, Nai was already beginning to move them along. Further down.

Of course, what they came upon was nothing like Alice had been expecting. It had seemed upon first inspection that the majority of the damage to the structure had been relegated to the upper floors of the stronghold. The likelihood of the floor having caved in in this manner had been exceedingly low. Yet, it was still a non-zero.

Peering into the oversized, well-like cavity, the magia struggled to make out any defined shapes, the rubble having broken down over the years. The air over the hole seemed a few degrees cooler though. And some scent hung over the pit as well, something familiar...

"Is that-?"
"Mixing concrete?"
"I believe so..."

Did the Stone Dwarves have the knowledge to create concrete? Or any composite building material for that matter? Nothing Alice had seen this far would have suggested as much. "This warrants investigation," Alice said, looking over at Nai. "Unless, of course, you object."

@Nai