Empire of Light: Book 5 - Ancient City Of Evil

Prologue: Horrific Discovery

 The silver mines of Thaymor, three months ago...

Bhagrim the dwarf mopped the sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his tunic and sighed. He and the other miners had been digging all week, looking desperately for silver ore and finding nothing but a few veins. If there was silver here, it had to be further in. Queen Zephale was counting on him, for silver was Thaymor's chief export. Without a steady supply of the metal, Thaymor's economy would suffer greatly. He took up his mattock and began chipping away again at the seemingly endless rock wall.

Bhagrim cursed while he hammered away with the mattock. With each blow he was becoming more disheartened, and his hope began to diminish. This was one of only three silver mines remaining in Thaymor, and if it was mined out, the other two would have to increase production, and there was no way of knowing when the other two would run short of the precious metal as well.

The dwarven miner felt a sudden burst of cool air hit his face, and frowned. He didn't see even a hint of silver, but he had somehow managed to find a tunnel. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the tunnel walls and floor were too neat to have been made by mining. That meant it could only have been a dwarf tunnel, created for a purpose and fashioned to be comfortable and clean. Bhagrim could tell the tunnel hadn't been used in quite some time, but that didn't necessarily mean anything to a dwarf; if there was one dwarven tunnel here, there were bound to be others, perhaps as many as a dozen or more. Despite the excitement welling up inside him at the thought of meeting others of his kinsfolk, he paused.

If there are others here, then why haven't I heard of this place? We dwarves keep in close contact with each other's clans, and if this... He looked about again to confirm his thoughts. If this city's been here for a while, I've not seen it on any map, even among the dwarf clans'.

Bhagrim entered the tunnel cautiously and headed toward the city. As he approached it, he became more and more convinced that the city was dwarven in nature. Only dwarves could carve stone into such fine detail. He stopped to gaze at the handiwork of his kinsfolk, becoming more and more disturbed at what he saw. Etched into the walls was the carving of some unknown creature, with huge tentacles where its mouth should have been and having six eyes, three on each side of its head. Most disturbing were the depictions of dwarves kneeling before this creature, and surrounding them were hundreds of pikes. On each of them was impaled an elf. Bhagrim had heard of the animosity between elf and dwarf during the Dwarf/Elf War millenia ago, but few of his kin harbored hate for the elves these days. Valladia had since become far more civilized than it was back in those dark days.

What horror does this place contain? Why are the dwarves in the carvings bowing to this... thing? Surely any dwarf knows that Helzvog is the god we serve, and these elves... great detail has been given to their faces, and each appear to be in great agony, Bhagrim thought. He took a few steps more and saw a pile of bones. He couldn't tell what kind of creature they belonged to, for they were old and many of them broken in pieces. He gulped, and decided he'd turn back. He would inform Queen Zephale of his findings, but he wouldn't venture back into this place for all the gold in Valladia.

He started to head back toward the tunnel when there was a blinding flash of light, and Bhagrim fell to the floor. He realized something was wrong when his eyes hadn't adjusted, but he crawled back through the tunnel and into the mines.

"Help me!" He screamed, hoping his fellow miners would hear him. He crawled a few more paces and screamed again. He kept this up until he hit a wall, but by that time, he heard others coming. He lay still, trying to get his eyes to focus, but he still couldn't see anything.

When the other miners came and carried him out of the mines, his eyes were milky and his hair, once bright red, had gone completely white.