Chapter 15

We didn’t talk much about the letter I had received as we made our way home to the Pact House. The fact that whoever this was knew about the choosing, and that I had been asked, was slightly disconcerting. From what I had gathered from my earlier talk with Tyr, the picking of the contestants was closely held and known only to the Pact Houses chosen until a few days prior to the event. Even the Pact Houses that were chosen to participate were to be kept in the dark of who the other Pact Houses were. When we got back to the Pact House my first stop was right back to Tyr’s quarters and we showed him the letter I had received. He was as worried as we were by its contents since he had told no one of his plans to ask me. Though he agreed that one would assume if his house were chosen, I might be called to serve, the issue came from how they would know Tyr was one of the chosen houses. Still, the timing of the threat had him worried, though what shocked him was the promise to return me to Earth and the life I once had.

“As far as I know it can’t be done,” Tyr said, with a confused look on his face. “If the gods could really control time like that, we would have gone back and prevented the loss of our followers and religions. Even if it were possible, why not just send you back now and be done with it? Why the ultimatum? Wouldn’t it be in their best interests to have you gone, since they obviously see you as a threat? Something about this seems off. If they had really done their homework, they would know that you aren’t gullible enough to believe this is genuine. Not only that, but they would also know that you have no desire to return to your previous world and life. Still, I will look into this and see about finding out who could have sent this. In the meantime, don’t dwell on this too much and try to concentrate on resting. I will reach out to some of my friends and see if I can quietly look into this.”

I nodded and we thanked him for his time before leaving his personal quarters. With that done, we headed for Brot’k’s shop, to see about the status of our gear. I had gotten a sense of foreboding from Cassandra’s comments during our brief conversation on the subject, and it led me to believe that what I would hear wouldn’t be good news. After navigating various corridors, we entered the shop to find that there weren’t many people in there looking for anything. It looked like there had been some purchasing of their new wares due to the fact some shelves were empty while others held new stock we hadn’t seen before. It warmed my heart to know that Brot’k was finding some measure of success in this endeavor, as were the others. Brot’k noticed us approaching and I saw a brief note of a frown before his usual smile stretched across his face.

“Ahh, Pathios, it is good to see you, my friend,” he said, clasping my outstretched hand. “I was saddened to hear of your defeat on the fifth floor. It has been known to happen to many adventurers, but I have never before heard of swarms of that size attacking. You were lucky to last as long as you did, but it did come at a cost, I am afraid. Even Darius said that he would have been lucky to have gotten out of that encounter in one piece with his usual travelling party.”

I winced at the description and asked, “So, just how bad is our armor, Brot’k? Based on the cryptic way Cassandra was talking at lunch, and the momentary frown you had when you saw us enter the shop, I can assume that it isn’t too good?”

“I am afraid that it’s not, Pathios,” he sighed, shaking his head with a soft sigh. “The dragon scales stood up to the attacks of those creatures pretty well, getting away from the scuffle with only a few scrapes and gashes. None of them have been damaged enough to be rendered completely useless, though I may have to rework a few. The main damage was done to the hide under suit that they were on, which is the base of the set of armor. Not only that, but due to how we designed your armor, the healers had to cut parts of it off of you in order to treat you. Since I used most of the material you gave us to make them in the first place, I don’t have enough left to repair it. I am not totally sure what I could do to repair it with what leftovers I have on hand now. You would not get much by way of your original level of protection. Amenthia’s armor was slightly less damaged and her wounds were slightly less severe, so I was able to salvage most of it. Entivala’s robes were damaged, but Fra’tilia is confident that she will have them repaired as good as new in a day or two.”

I sighed in frustration, “I knew that there was always a chance of this happening during one of our Dungeon runs, but I hoped that we would be able to get more hide and scales to repair it before the time came that they needed serious repairs.”

“Well, you did collect some more drake scales since we made the armor,” Brot’k said with a slight nod, “but they don’t give the same level of fire protection as the dragon scales do.”

My mind started going through what was on hand or what we might have available. The problem was, I needed more protection, and leather or hide just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. The dragon scales were tough enough to match some metal armor, but the hide was like any other leather. Unless it was made thick enough it could be pierced by a weapon or creature. Metal was also able to yield to damage, but it could withstand more.

Without breaking my train of thought I asked, “What if you took what is left of my hide and use that to repair and possibly reinforce Amenthia’s armor?”

Enti and Amenthia both got shocked looks on their faces at my suggestion, while Brot’k simply became curious as to where my mind was taking me.

“I should be able to repair it easily with a mix of the hide and scales I have on hand,” he replied with a nod and started to smirk. “I should be able to make her armor a bit more protective for her, without Amenthia losing her agility or mobility. Why so you ask Pathios? Shouldn’t you be worried about your own armor instead of using it to repair and enhance Amenthia’s?”

“Couldn’t you take the dragon scales from my armor and fashion sections that I could put over a chain mail vest?” I asked, still lost in thought. “I would want leather pants with reinforced protection as well. That will increase my leg protection, while maintaining most of my mobility and agility. You could use some straps, or hooks of some kind, to connect the sections of dragon scale together. You could make the chest and back their own sections, using whatever material you think will still allow them to move freely as my body twists and bends. The shoulders and upper arm protections would be slid up the arms, then the chest and back would connect to that. Maybe we can add a neck section, too, that could further connect the pieces. The sides could either A) meet in the middle and be two halves on the front and back that join or their own pieces. Or B) you could make a small section of scales that would protect the obliques that the front and back would connect to. I want less space between the plates this time, but still as much flexibility as we can muster. I want to make sure that it is much harder to get around the scales, allowing me to survive longer in battle.

“As for the chain mail, it will be the section that protects the exposed parts between the sections of scales. I want my arms free of the extra weight, so that is why it will be a vest instead of a shirt. My scallops will, of course, be the go-to for my bracers, along with the dragon bone knuckle gloves. My boots should stay the same and then the reinforced pants. We do need to look into ways to reinforce all our armor in the future as we delve deeper into the Dungeon. So, please let us know of materials you need us to be on the lookout for in our travels. Metal, hide, silk you name it, and we will do our best to collect what we can and send it to you. Shit! We should have collected some of the spider silk from the Arachni queen after we killed her. Since she had been unnaturally enhanced, her silk would have been that much stronger.”

“Couldn’t you just go back and collect some for us to use?” Fra’tilia asked excitedly, at the thought of the material we could obtain. “I mean, with the Arachni vermin gone, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get back to her nest and collect some.”

I shook my head and replied, “Sadly, there is none to collect. Even if some of it survived the fire that we set to destroy the nest, the Council removed the tunnels from the entire floor. I don’t think I could find any even if I wanted to, but I would suggest talking to Tyr. Perhaps he could talk to the Council and see if there is any you may be able to procure with their assistance.”

Her eyes lit up excitedly with a nod and she darted quickly from the room. Brot’k laughed as he watched her leave in a hurry, and then turned back to me.

“You always come up with the most unique ideas,” he said with a smile. “I will give a list of materials to Cassandra for you to keep an eye out for in your travels. As for the new armor design, it could be done but it will take me a few days to complete. I have a bit of an idea of how to set up the armor plates as you’re suggesting, but I will need Cassandra’s help with making the chainmail vest.”

“Take all the time you need; I won’t return to the Dungeon until it is ready,” I said as I shook Brot’k’s hand. “I don’t want a repeat of our last few encounters if I can help it. Too many people have been hurt on my watch lately and I cannot allow it to continue.”

Brot’k nodded as our handshake ended and said, “I hear you, lad. I will get permission from Tyr to access your armory so that I can collect your armor and I will let you know when I am done. Since we took such detailed measurements last time, I should be able to get this ready without your assistance this time.”

“I could also make you an undershirt to wear that will make the chain mail more comfortable,” Fra’tilia added quickly, having just returned to the shop. “It will have some extra padding that your linen shirt doesn’t have but won’t be too bulky. If we can get some of the queen’s silk, then I could make something even better when I make updated garments for Entivala. Both will have comfort and protection in mind.”

“Brot’k, I have another request,” I said, casting a glance at my friend. “I want you to devise an adjustment to our scallops. I want the one that is not on our bracer arm to be designed to hold our escape crystals. That way, we only need to place a hand on the bracer to escape if necessary. I would suggest that you incorporate that into any bracers you make moving forward. I plan to mention this to Tyr, so that maybe it can be incorporated into armor and bracer designs worldwide.”

We thanked Brot’k and Fra’tilia before we left the shop to head back to our rooms. I had expected something like this would have happened much further down the road, but that was my overconfidence and arrogance talking. I needed to be more aware of possible outcomes like what happened on the fifth floor in the future, or else we would find ourselves having more and more down time.

When we entered our room, we were shocked to see a sleeping Kat’ilth’ana laying in the small bed that had replaced our mannequins and lockboxes. She looked slightly haggard, with a slight sheen of sweat on her brow.

“She is out of danger,” Tyr said softly, appearing in the room behind us. “Sorry for not warning you of her return, but she only recently became stable enough to move. She is in the final stages of her fever and should be fine in the next few hours. We are hoping that by tomorrow morning she will be awake, and we can see how she is doing. For now, I have disabled her collar’s need to be near you, preventing the punishment system from activating. However, the door to your room will not open for her until we sort things out. I will place a guard outside your door so that should she wake before you arrive, I will personally bring her food.”

I nodded in understanding and asked “What about afterwards? Will she be freed of her tie to me or does her penance continue? After all that has happened recently, I don’t want her to be any more at risk because of me.”

“We will decide that, once she has regained consciousness,” Tyr replied softly, lost in thought. “While I may have been abrupt in my response to her attempts to harm you, I don’t feel as though it was wrong. What was wrong was the intensity of her punishment, how I bound her to you, that was a bit more extreme than needed. I am surprised at myself in regard to how I acted, as it is Thor who is usually the hot headed one.”

Not sure how it would be received, I placed my hand on Tyr’s shoulder, “We all have those moments from time to time. You were under a lot of stress at the time, since there had been multiple attempts to break into my room and kill me, so your anger was justified. You have had a lot fall on your lap in a short time and most of it has been connected to me in one form or another. I apologize for causing you the unneeded stress that led to this encounter.”

He nodded, as I took my hand away, “Thank you, Pathios. It has indeed been a trying time for all of us, but I am beginning to think it was needed. Had you not shown up when you did, things might have gotten far worse before anything was noticed. Still, I do hope you will refrain from getting in the middle of any more plots for the time being. I have far too much to deal with right now as it is, so I don’t have time to constantly be involving in your circumstances.”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied with a quick laugh, “but this stuff seems to find me whether I go looking for it or not. Still, I will do my best not to get into any unnecessary trouble.”

Tyr nodded with a smile and said, “Should the Dryad not wake as expected, Eir will contact you via a raven when she will need to check on Kat’ilth’ana. Expect to hear from her soon, but if Kat’ilth’ana wakes up before she does reach out, send her a raven to let her know of the Dryad waking.”

A second later, he disappeared in a flash of light, and we were left alone in the room. Kat’ilth’ana was still asleep on the bed and the only movement on the bed was that of her shallow breaths. I saw a bowl full of water, with a cloth inside on an end table next to the bed. I moved over to check on her, making sure she was comfortable and dabbing a damp cloth on her brow.

“So what do you want to do, Pathios?” Entivala asked, as she took a seat on the edge of our bed. “We have a day or two at least before the armor you asked for will be ready to wear.”

I returned the cloth to the bowl and replied. “I am not sure, but until she wakes, I think one of us should stay with her. We can work out how and who later, but I think this will ensure there is someone here for her when she wakes up. I worry if she wakes up alone, that whatever little progress we made in changing her mind about us before her injury would end up destroyed.”

“That is a good idea, Pathios,” Amenthia said as she placed a hand on my shoulder. “I just hope that there aren’t going to be any lasting effects from this injury for her. She has already gone through a lot before running into us and I would feel bad if she ended up even worse off after this.”