The gears of the lift continue to churn, clicking away as they slip in and out of their interlocks. I look around, walking across the intricate stone platform as artistic chains continue to pull away. Certainly is something to see chains like them. Gilded and pretty to the point they don't look suited for such heavy labour.
Yet... These quarries would be determined to prove all of us wrong. It wasn't that long ago when Sister Cetrepe just couldn't control herself. We came out of the main shaft tunnel and were exposed to perhaps the most needlessly fancy quarry in the world. Dusty, but gaudy in all its aspects. Ceremony is as common as coins are to a full treasury and I'm admittedly unsure about any of it.
Whatever the reasoning... It all leads to a tunnel guarded by Valkinvar-Ammimpaurst, so powerful they almost seem to be emerald gemstones themselves. Nothing gets past them without their approval and no one dares approach them other than up the precious metal brick road.
"Sister Osses, you seem familiar enough with here...?" I dare to ask, not entirely sure if she was honest about it before. Some brother Ammimpaurst get an opening on the lift and fly off. Their actions enough for us four to justify our own flight. We head off, minding the others and making our way to the ground ahead of the lift. A fairly useless thing, all things considered with how all Valkinvar can fly. Not like we need it for hauling heavy loads, either.
Though, I suppose it's not there for us. It's here for all of our brothers. Them and the sisters of the Valkinvar-Ammimpaurst, the hammer-wielders. Chipping away, mining away with a song in their throats and a back-load of sweat and glistening muscles. Boys will be boys in some spots, though... Oaths be damned.
"Brother Lavauroas should be somewhere here." Sister Osses tells me, her answer still not ready if she heard me at all. Or even remembers in such an embarrassingly short time.
"Seems like the entire Ordoar is down here." Sister Bsess breathes, her hand waving away at the dust as much as it does the smell of hard labour. If it weren't for the wind tunnels, though, showering us with fresh breeze and scented air. It would be a lot worse.
"That's because it is. Well, might as well be." Brother Lavauroas answers, catching our attention and coming into view with a whole keg in his up-curled arm. I cross my arms, narrowing my eyes as he looks my way innocently. He shakes it about, proving its emptiness. Though that certainly doesn't explain the mug in his other hand...
Sister Cetrepe sneaks around, knocking it up and swigging away at the spilling contents, "It's not alcoholic!"
"Damn right it's not!" Brother Lavauroas complains, a collection of laughs from around the quarry making him bark. The laughter dies down and people get back to work. He tosses the keg at the nearest opportunity and sets the empty mug down. His inner gentleman graces us with his visit and he pulls us all out a chair.
I take mine last, passing the favour onto him, "So... This is what the Ordoar Ammimpaurst are up to these cycles?"
"Yep... Just like I told you the other cycle. We're all miners now." Brother Lavauroas huffs as I lean back on the rear legs of my chair. My magic settles in, reinforcing the strained, ornate limbs, and I try to catch a peak into the mystical chamber down the quarry's centre.
"Artefact." Sister Osses answers quite laconically.
"Ah..." I go, not too sure what that really entails. The Zaphadren-Valkinvar was acting much the same before I watched that war plan meeting play out. Only, the artefact turned out to be one of the pieces of gear of our very husband-to-be himself! The God of War has relics here... That's a fact.
Guess it would explain how they're able to even mine the redstone here. All these Valkinvar of all things, Valkinvar. Some of the greatest witches in All-That-Remains, let alone the continent of Jherikra. Foul-tasting as that word has become of late. All that land and world and here we are, watching barely any redstone get mined because it's that powerful of a rock. Blessed by the strikes of the Thunder God himself when Thurn's Forge really was that.
Thurnmourer's Forge.
"So how come no one else but the Ordoar Ammimpaurst are down here?" Sister Cetrepe asks, the obvious joke getting a pre-emptive gesture from her. The other two snicker between themselves, and I look at our male friend.
"She's got quite a good question. It's all just you lot down here. Like you were punished the same way to keep you down here." I say, not sure how to feel about the uncomfortable paranoia that comes with my observation. The Ordoar Staguiffmani retreating to solitude after the Cycle of Screaming Witches is one thing. The Zaphadren-Valkinvar trying to isolate the Ordoars to be independent of one another is something else.
If Sister Dannatili really was speaking the truth when last we spoke, then the Valkinvar need to be working together. We cannot assemble Waionr's Emerald Awakening if we're breaking up into Hurricanes. We cannot win back our home doing that, either. Four of the greatest armies in Jherikra's history might seem impressive, but, with what we're fighting... We don't need or want some of the greatest. We need *the* greatest.
A problem the four Points of the Compass are all more than stressed out enough about already. Sister Pymonsia swore on her own blood that she was trying whatever she could. She couldn't be open with me, even with her favour and this medallion. But she's trying. Whatever the problem is specifically, the other Points of the Compass are clearly feeling it, too.
There are better ways to go about all of this, so I have to wonder what the purpose of all this mining is. It made sense back during the siege. We were having to spontaneously repair the walls and other battlements across the fortresses. We needed to prepare for the storming of Thurn's Forge itself. But now is not the time for any of that.
Even just looking around, one can easily see that the Ordoar Ammimpaurst are reaching their limits. Mining for redstone is exhausting work, and it sees little return. The walls might've needed the stone once upon a time, but now they don't. So unless there are plans to upgrade our gear with ground down, redstone powder, then I'm not sure.
"-Vapooliar!" calls one of my sister Valkinvar.
"Oh?" I go, finding myself back in the conversation as I stop looking away into my thoughts.