The Kommend Prohpezeiungen pt.4

Duke Waltz was a fine man, he wasn't crude has some of his subjects were. He was much more civilized, obviously, since he was royalty in his county. The Duke also had a fine stride in his walk, not of pride, but of strength. It was obvious that the Duke was a strong man, possibly fit to be a warrior.

Aliana followed closely through the stone halls past many guards who were all armed with muskets that Aliana had never seen before. These were thinner but longer than the guards had in the fort ruins, these ones had a luster to them and had a different type of trigger; Aliana also noticed that each of the guns didn't use the same method of gunpowder since none of them had packing rods attached to them.

The Duke motioned three of the guards at the castle door and they opened the gates. Aliana wasn't used to these kinds of architecture; she was more accustomed to the Mott & Bailey foundation back in her county. This castle was almost entirely made of stone and some iron and was strong looking. It gave an image of strength and power along with plenty of protection for the town which was nestled behind the large outer walls of the castle.

The doors to the castle entrance opened and a wide long ramp appeared which led down to the outer wall of the castle. A small group of guards paced up and down the ramp armed with the new muskets and two cannons sat on fortifications which were attached to the sides of the ramp midway down. It was quite an impressive sight compared to some of the things Aliana had seen, although not near as impressive as the one castle she had seen while on a mission to a foreign country outside the Highlands.

"So Miss, are you at all curious why it is that I've let you accompany me?" The Duke asked.

"Of course I am, I was sent here to find out of course and you think that I deserve to find out now. Why should I not think this is some kind of trap?" She asked as they headed down the ramp past the cannons.

"Well, I wasn't planning on keeping this secret for long. Oh, and I can assure you that this is not a trap, if it was a trap then why would I go to the trouble of keeping you alive in the first place?"

"I see your point Duke." Aliana responded as she admired the guard towers at the edge of the gate on the outer wall.

"I have transportation waiting for us past the gate and your belongings will be waiting for you there. I will give you some time to change back into them if you please." He said stroking his grey beard.

They reached the gates and one of the large doors slowly moved open as the sound of gears echoed from inside the guard tower. Outside the gates a black windowless carriage waited. The three guards that the Duke ordered with him climbed onto the carriage as the driver opened the door.

"After you miss, I'll allow you to change." He said stepping back motioning towards the carriage. Aliana accepted the gesture once again and stepped in to be greeted by her bow and quivers. She looked them over to find that her quivers had been restocked and her leather armor was cleaned of blood where she had been shot, fresh patch covered the hole that had been in her armor. Pulling on the freshly cleaned armor was welcoming and comforting to her skin. She enjoyed her armor much for she had worn it for many years and it became a second skin to her. It perfectly fit like a fine glove and it seemed to calm her headache a bit. Next she picked up her bow to find it had its string replaced with a fine quality string that had been tightly tuned and near perfectly latched. Finally her quivers were almost all new, freshly carved with iron tips.

"Are you ready?" The Duke questioned outside the carriage.

"Yes, come in." She answered as she sat opposite of the carriage front.

The Duke climbed in and sat opposite from her and smiled. "I presume you've found that your belonging have been well taken care of?"

"Yes, thank you for the hospitality."

"It is only a gesture of my goodwill and an offering for no hard feelings with what happened with my subjects." He reached up to the carriage top and opened a hatch letting light flood in. "Let's have some light in here, so…can I still not know the name of my current guest?" He asked.

Aliana thought on whether or not she could tell him, although he seemed trusting she knew it was possibly an act. But on the other hand, if his words were true, he was going to reveal whatever the secret was to his recent military activities. She decided to answer. "My name is Aliana Talious."

"Aliana, an unusual name for these parts, are you of another country?"

"No, although my parents were, they came to the Highlands from the country of Eigien to the East. They kept a strong tradition though of their homeland and named me after my grandmother."

"And what of your parents?" The Duke quizzed on.

"They are both dead, eight years ago when I was nineteen they were killed by thieves when coming from the orchard they had been working at ever since I was born."

"Oh how terrible, I am sorry for bring sore memories up."

"No need to worry, I know there is no need to mourn death, for death comes for us all eventually, although some sooner than others."

The Duke was silent as he gazed out of the top of the carriage at the blue sky. His eyes full of reminiscent and thought which seemed to cloud out everything around him. Aliana decided to leave him be, possibly something she said triggered a memory of his. For now she would leave it be and wait until this carriage ride was over.
It was about an hours ride and the carriage came to a stop. The Duke ?'nor Aliana exchanged anymore words since earlier in the carriage, only a lingering question seemed to move about but both of them ignored it.

Aliana stepped out of the carriage to see a mining operation in progress which extruded from the bottom of a large cliff. Mounds of rock were piled high near the mine entrance while other rails led farther away around the cliff where the earth was dumped. Aliana noticed a mixture of Goblins quickly moving about in the mine in huddles.

"How did you get these Goblins to cooperate?" Aliana questioned aloud.

"I gave them access to food and land along with one gold piece each." The Duke said approaching the mine entrance. "They may be repulsive, but they are efficient and quick when it comes to mining. They can work for many hours at a time and require little sleep."

"And why do you have them mining under this cliff?" She asked inquisitively.

"My men found some kind of…markings on the cliff wall. We believe it to be possible that some ancient magic lay buried beneath what is possibly hundreds of thousands of years of sediments." He grinned looking up at the cliff side. "Did you know this area used to be under a great sea?"

"The Highlands? The elevation is too high to have been under a sea." Aliana said confused.

"As it would seem, but we have found that this area was once under a sea which was caused by some great magic which destroyed the ice caps millions of years ago which flooded much of the world leaving few inhabitants upon the mountains to the South-East."

"You mean the great flood which God himself created with his fury?"

"Yes, Gods might destroy much of this world in one day." The Duke and Aliana were now moving down the mine past Goblins who were packing dirt into carts to bring back to the surface. "The magic of God is truly a thing that shall never be unsurpassed. After Gods judgment upon this world it is said that God left this world to Hell. He abandoned this world afterwards leaving the few millions of people who did survive stranded in the mountains of the East to rot. But they survived and never gave up and after millions of years the sea slowly receded. Since that time we've colonized these lands in hopes of recreating our great civilization. We hoped to find signs of our long lost world, but all was lost. Gods magic destroyed everything." The Duke stopped at a sharp turn in the mine tunnel and made eye contact with Aliana. "Are you ready for what I am going to show you?" He asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

The faint bit of fear he showed seemed to shaken Aliana. The Duke didn't seem a fearful man, but something struck some into his heart. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Then I'll let you see it yourself." He rubbed his temples. "I'll head to the mine entrance; I never liked it down here." He lied.

Aliana knew the mine didn't bother him one bit, he just had seen enough of what they had found. He headed past her quickly as she took a step around the sharp corner of the mine.

A large object impeded the mining into the cliff, although this is probably what they were searching for. The object was round, at least ten twenty feet wide. It was held in the ground by another metallic object which was rusted after millions of years. The entire object seemed to have some kind of significance that gave a strange feeling to Aliana; not only fear of what it is, but fear of what it could do…of the objects power.

Aliana approached the object and stepped up four stairs in its front which were still covered in earth and she put her hand on the objects smooth surface. It was cold and lifeless as she moved her hand across it. Bits of dirt and rust flaked off onto her hand and she felt another strange feeling. A feeling of moving far away at a quick pace, a feeling of vertigo seemed to come into her mind. She questioned what the object was as these feelings stemmed from within it. She stepped away as a faint humming noise began to whir behind the large metal wall.

The shouts and screeches of the goblins echoed down the mine as they scurried frantically out of the mine as the whir behind inside the object grew louder. Aliana felt paralyzed now, not because of fear but now because of an indescribable feeling that consumed her.

The whirring grew steady and quieter as the object illuminated a bright orange light. Aliana stared into it as noises came through that sounded inhuman, the noises seemed to rush past her as the orange light grew more intense and almost burning. Aliana shut her eyes and turned away as the light grew and grew until it consumed her in its orange bindings.

Then nothing, everything was dark. She opened her eyes to see a red masonry built surface. She stepped back and her hearing seemed to fade in as loud noises surrounded her. Then her vision seemed to spread from a tunnel like vision and everything grew vivid and foreign. She stepped back to see the sky which was blocked by many tall structures, it was bright although dark, and the sky seemed dimmed. Aliana then spun around to see three strange looking people staring at her. They wore loose clothing and vivid colors that confused her. Stepping forward towards them Aliana fell off a small ledge onto a warm black ground which had a yellow stripe stretched down it and a sickly smell reached into her nostrils. The ground smelled warm and another smell invaded her nostrils.

Aliana stood up to see a metallic behemoth rumbling towards her at an incredible pace as it made a monstrous bellowing noise at her. She stepped from it across the black surface to find a smaller metallic thing coming towards her. Without time to react she felt it slam into her as she flew onto its long narrow front. Her back slammed into a glasslike surface on the metal objects front and it slowed to a halt as she felt the pain from the impact throb throughout her body. She heard indistinct voices and what sounded like people yelling then finally she closed her eyes as she rolled off the metal surface.