The Gemcutter's Daughter

19 - The Cup of Knowledge

"Is this wise?" Rhesis asked as they approached the enormous iron door set into raw, uncut stone. The repository was only a few miles from the crystal forest the deep dwarves called their temporary home away from Lagarra. The siren seemed more cautious than even before, still grieving the loss of her arm. Rhesis would die before admitting she was anything less than her normal self, but Tali had caught the siren running fingers over the gruesome scar on her shoulder where once there had been a joint. Jarek had done his best to tend it, but the necromancer had no way to restore the lost limb. Even with a laboratory and many reagents, he claimed, it would be almost beyond possible.

    Tali reached out, putting a hand on Rhesis's elbow. "I promise it will be worth it. I won't let you down."

    Rhesis picked her words with care. "You are not my concern, little dwarf," she sighed.

    "I am inclined to agree with Tali." Jarek scratched at his chin as they drew to a halt in front of the door. "A repository of dwarven knowledge lost to even dwarves for centuries sounds most intriguing. Who knows what exists on the other side of that door?"

    The siren shook her head, lips twisting. "Trust a mage to see a locked door and insist it be opened, the reason it's locked be damned."

    "My dear siren, are you suggesting I am unwise?"

    "It is your insatiable curiosity or Tali's bumbling trust that will be our death knell, and I have not decided which is more likely. You seem inclined to decide for me," Rhesis said, voice sharp as a dagger.

    Tali didn't take the critique to heart. It was Rhesis's way of being worried about what might happen to them. "I wish we had Lekt with us."

    Jarek shrugged. "Better that he not draw the wrath of the God of Artifice on us. Though it is a shame that they are in his disfavor. Tek is such a fascinating deity. I'd hate to be barred access to his knowledge."

    "He may take umbrage with us as well, given our lack of dwarfness," Rhesis pointed out.

    Tali felt a sudden weight on her back as Prideep scaled her again. The frog-like goblin's throat pulsed as he settled his elbows on her right shoulder, legs wrapped around her waist to support him. He seemed quite comfortable on his strange little perch, his bone spear slung across his back. "Tek likes goblins." 

    Jarek chuckled at that pronouncement. "Are you willing to wager your life on that, my friend?"

    "He'd risk his life for a mealworm," Rhesis muttered.

    Prideep swiveled, bulging eyes focused on the siren. "Meat is meat. Why bitey?"

    "You have been more irritable than usual," Tali said gently as she studied Rhesis's almost slumped posture.

    "Maruk took something out of me," Rhesis admitted, sitting down on a cleft of rock. "More than just my arm."

    "Shall we leave you to talk to Tali?" Jarek's tone was softer now, no longer jousting back and forth with Rhesis in their usual fashion. When the siren inclined her head, he reached over and peeled a limp Prideep off Tali. "Come on, you little rascal. Let's take a closer look at this door."

    Prideep raised no croaking opposition, only a muted cheep of protest when Jarek didn't don him like a backpack. Even the goblin understood Rhesis needed some time without being antagonized.

    Tali waited until their companions had left to sit down beside Rhesis. "What's bothering you?" She tipped her head to the side to hear more closely.

    Rhesis swallowed hard and swiped her fingertips across the lashes of each eye. "I used to think very well of my...independence. In the days before my imprisonment here beneath the earth, I could defend myself against any comer. It took substantial power from many mages to seal my magic and chain me here in the Deep."