B4 Ch25: Secrets Underground (Patreon)

"I'm sorry, sir, your bill is not entirely settled," the hospital billing lady said, sounding contrite yet painfully professional.

Word had apparently spread that Arthur was getting up to leave because while the hospital billing lady who stood in the doorway was a diminutive woman, the two beefy guards at her side certainly were not.

Either they had chosen their moment well, or were suspiciously lucky that Brixaby had taken himself to the rooftop to wait for Arthur's arrival.

Arthur scowled at her. "I was told that my earnings for helping the adventurers had already been confiscated and turned over to the hospital. That was two Rare card shards for myself, and two for my dragon. Now you're telling me that you want more?"

"Yes, sir," she glanced down at her clipboard. "Your account indicates that you owe at least one more Rare card shard to settle the bill."

Arthur did have one more Rare card shard in his Personal Space, but he wasn't about to reveal that.

He considered for a moment. "What's the current rate for Uncommon Shards to a Rare?"

The woman nodded and quickly consulted a tablet that was etched with runes on the corner. Arthur saw that the numbers were constantly updating.

"It seems that 20 Uncommon shards equal 1 Rare at today's value."

Internally, he winced. Back home, it was about 9 Uncommon shards to a Rare, depending on the shard. Corner pieces were much more valuable.

Things were getting more expensive in the city, and he suspected it had everything to do with the influx of visitors, all eyeing the dark heart.

Thcity set the prices of coins to shards and the value of the rank of shards to one another. Unlike his home kingdom, those values changed day-to-day. Now it seemed they were getting greedy, knowing that the people inside the city had no choice but to pay.

But, if he was being honest with himself, he knew he was getting off lightly. Sheriff Lopez had his private revenge by directing Arthur's pay straight to the hospital. But on the other hand, nobody had come to him for his official report, or implied that he was in trouble with the authorities. Sometime after the heart deck specialist had left, a healer had even come in – very politely – to ask about the other adventurers that had been stored in Arthur's personal space. It felt to Arthur that they were waiting for the heart deck specialist to clear him before he was good to use his Personal Space card.

Arthur obliged and unstored them once there were healers standing by to take over.

Those poor men and women would have their own bills, and he did not envy them for it. They hadn’t gotten to participate in the silent auction.

So Lopez had his petty revenge, but it seemed to Arthur that they knew also to tread lightly around him and Brixaby. They were assets, and the city administration was also smart enough to know that both of them would make a formidable enemy.

Last night, he and Brixaby had put shards together enough for two Commons and one Uncommon card. All were currently with Brixaby. None of the cards had been spectacular, and one had been a flat out trash Common, but Arthur could probably use any of them to pay for his bill because full cards were certainly worth more than separate shards – with the exception of corner pieces. Arthur would much rather sell them to a card shop, or even a black market.

"Fine," he said shortly. "And Commons to Uncommons?"

"11 to one," she replied.

Arthur's jaw almost dropped. That was insane. It usually took around 12 shards to make a Common. It was almost as if the city was trying to force people to pay with full cards.

And there were still a few weeks to go before the Dark Heart opened. Things would only get more expensive from here.

He ended up paying in Uncommon shards which pretty much cleared out the rest of his supply. But that was fine. He and Brixaby had a plan.

The lady counted them out, and the guards moved aside. Arthur rolled his eyes, but left the room. Honestly, the presence of the guards was insulting, as if he would have tried to intimidate the woman.

In a foul mood, he stomped up the stairs a few levels until he got to the roof access. Brixaby was waiting out there, wings spread to take in the sunshine.

Arthur emerged, Brixaby gave him a knowing look. "What delayed you?"

Arthur sighed. "It's a good thing we're going to refill our coffers."

"I don't know why you humored them. You are a dragon rider, and should be able to come and go as you please."

"Yes, but they might not heal me again, or you, if we snub them and then get hurt. Plus..." Arthur sighed and gave his real reason. "Brixaby, I'm tired of making enemies wherever we go. I am willing to play nice with this city's administration, at least until the Dark Heart opens again."

"Yes, well, if you were playing nice," Brixaby said, giving him a significant look. "You would let them know about the bounty in the nests."

"I'm not that nice," Arthur said, and climbed onto Brixaby's neck.

They took off into the cloudless sky, and almost immediately, Arthur felt much better.

He'd been able to use his cards from his heart deck, just like the heart deck specialist said he could, but he hadn't fully been able to shake that odd feeling of soreness and discomfort. It was like an unreachable itch.

The specialist had mentioned that his soul itself had taken some damage, and Arthur hoped it was mostly superficial. How long would it take for something like that to heal?

Well, until he was certain, he probably shouldn't add any new cards to his deck.

And a year for another card anchor, he thought with a sigh.

Brixaby had flown so high up that the city itself looked like a round bowl with a dark pit in the middle. Was it his imagination or was the pit… pulsing?

He blinked and shook his head. No, his eyes were playing tricks.

Reaching down, he touched his dragon's neck. Brixaby came to a stop mid-air and hovered.

Arthur then focused through their link and accessed the Call of the Heart, narrowing his desire to find more scourging nests.

He and Brixaby had talked about this briefly. Brixaby had more experience with this sort of thing – and it was his card which sat in his core, paired with his Call of the Void.

But, he had never canceled his previous query, which was to find something that they needed.

Cressida and Horatio were headed this way, guided by a map based on Brixaby's last search that led them here.

He and Arthur worried that if Brixaby searched out the nests themselves, it might interfere with that map.

So, it was up to Arthur.

The response from the card was muddled at first, and the ache on his side and arm grew sharp with magical strain. Arthur refocused. It wasn't that his first question was too general, it was just that there were multiple nests dotted here and there. He could feel them through the Seeker card.

That wasn't good.

Narrowing his focus even more to a needle, Arthur concentrated everything he had on finding the closest scourgeling nest.

Instantly, information flowed to him. "It's directly west," he told Brixaby. "Not too far away – still in the dead lands, but within reach."

Brixaby took off with a buzz of wings, moving fast.

Arthur kept an eye on the ground, just in case someone had the bright idea to follow them. But Brixaby was moving so quickly that if anybody tried, they'd be very obvious matching them from the ground. Especially once they reached the dead lands where there was nowhere to hide.

As they drew closer to the nest, Arthur saw there wasn't much to it. It was simply a hole in the ground with some tracks running to and from it.

Brixaby landed a little way off and Arthur carefully dismounted, bending to get a better look at the tracks. They were weirdly star-shaped, but small, barely the length of his spread hand.

"Common scourgelings, you think?" he asked.

"A minor nest," Brixaby agreed.

“Yeah, but there shouldn't be any nests at all.” He stood with a sigh.

Brixaby rumbled in agreement. Together, the two of them approached the nest. Not a single scourgeling peeked its head out of the hole.

"Do you think it's abandoned?" Arthur asked.

"No. They must sense the strength of our cards and are afraid," Brixaby said. "Allow me to demonstrate why they should be."

Then, he stepped to the nest and inhaled deeply, his sides expanding. Then he stuck his head down the hole and unleashed the full force of his stunning shout.

Despite the fact that his head was underground, and his voice was muffled, the shout's vibration resonated through the earth. Pebbles jumped and dust drifted upward, as if the area was experiencing a minor earthquake.

Suddenly, the ground forty feet to their left collapsed, creating a deep ditch.

Finishing his shout, Brixaby lifted his head, glanced at the newly formed ditch, and gave a swing of his tail that resembled a shrug.

They waited to see if anything would emerge, or if the rest of the ground would collapse out from under them. Commons weren't known to be smart enough to set traps, but Arthur didn't trust anything at this point.

But after a few minutes, there was no movement from the hole, and nothing further collapsed.

Arthur took out his shovel from his Personal Space and started to widen the entrance big enough for both of them. Brixaby helped as best he could with a trowel and his claws.

"Too bad none of those Common cards were earth cards," Arthur muttered.

"You could not use them right now anyway," Brixaby said.

"I'm not waiting a year to get a new card anchor,” he grumbled.

Eventually, the hole was large enough for both he and Brixaby to enter, if Brixaby kept his wings tucked tight to his sides.

Grabbing his sharpest kitchen knives and focusing on his butchering skill, Arthur jumped into the hole. It was only about a ten foot drop, and at the bottom, he found the bodies of several dead scourgelings.

These weren't the bird-shaped ones they had encountered before. Instead, they resembled a type of disgusting mole, but hairless, with visible weeping sores and sharply pointed front teeth. They were visibly dead, with blood leaking from their ears, eyes, and mouths.

Arthur bent to harvest them and collected two Common card shards from the first two, and one from the third.

Brixaby had described the nest he'd encountered before, and this looked very much the same. It was a tunnel tall enough for Arthur to walk in without ducking, if he kept an eye out for low areas. Along the sides and top were lines of the glowing blue luminescent mold which provided just enough light to see by.

It also smelled even worse than Brixaby had warned him.

Arthur grabbed a rag from his Personal Space, soaked it in a bottle of vinegar he kept for basic supplies and disinfectant, then tied the wet rag over his nose. Vinegar wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was better than this.

"It might not be a good idea to stay here for very long," he said to Brixaby.

His dragon was busy wiggling down through the hole and snorted as he took in both the tunnel and Arthur's solution to the terrible smell. "I suffered no ill effects last time. We won't stay here for months."

Not like those poor dragon mothers, Arthur thought, remembering the Mind Singer's hive.

Together, the two of them walked further into the tunnel. Brixaby's stunning shout had shattered many of the egg-like sacks that clustered in bunches against the wall. Arthur busied himself with harvesting them, and tried not to look at the dead infant scourgelings too hard. All of the shards he collected were Commons.

There were a couple of adult scourgeling bodies lying here and there, but to Arthur's eye, they didn't look particularly different from one another. There were a lot of eggs, but none of the scourgeling looked pregnant.

How did scourgeling even breed?

"What do you think?" Arthur asked. "Is there a mother scourge? Or maybe a queen scourge, like ants?"

"Who cares," Brixaby said. "If there is a queen, I have killed it with my shout, or I will shout at it again and then kill it."

"Well, it's interesting," Arthur said. "No one really explores old scourgeling eruption cones. Dragon hives are ancient. They've been cleaned out for centuries, maybe thousands of years."

"No one explores eruption cones because they are cursed places," Brixaby said, with the logic of a dragon.

But he was right. Anywhere scourgelings had concentrated would make people sick if they weren't carded. And if they were carded, they would be the first to be attacked if any scourgelings were left. So exploring a more recent eruption cone would be exceptionally risky.

Frowning, Arthur continued deeper into the tunnel. He passed more intact bunches of scourgeling spawn, though none of the scourgeling inside appeared to be alive. Nothing wiggled, and they all floated dead to the tops of their individual sacks. Brixaby's stunning shout had packed quite the wallop down here.

Was the mold growing brighter? It felt like it, though it might be that his eyes were just growing more used to the dim light. Nevertheless, Arthur continued down the tunnel, deeper and deeper. No, the light was definitely growing brighter here.

"Arthur, you passed some without harvesting them," Brixaby said.

"I'll be back in a moment," Arthur called back.

He kept going. It felt like something was pulling him forward. No, that was too strong of a word. He felt like he was moving toward some larger core of power. The light was definitely getting brighter.

And, at the very end of the long tunnel, he found a bundle of scourgeling spawn that was significantly larger. It looked like half of the eggs were alive, as several creatures inside were twitching and wiggling, just visible within the thin coating.

Arthur pierced one with the tip of his knife, and a half-formed mole-thing fell out, hitting the ground with a splat and dying immediately.

Bending, Arthur harvested it and came up with an Uncommon Shard.

Around this bunch of spawn, the mold glowed brighter than ever. It covered the back wall entirely.

Frowning at the mold, Arthur muttered, "I don't understand…"

"What's that?" Brixaby asked, coming up right behind him and causing Arthur to jump. The dragon didn't notice and looked past him. "Understand what? That you found an excellent source of Uncommons here?"

"No," Arthur replied in frustration. "I don't understand why the nests are here at all. The sheriffs say that new nests are an indication that the Dark Heart is ripening, so why aren't we seeing these nests in the regular land? Nothing grows in the dead land, not even scourgelings. But that's where these nests are."

Brixaby opened his mouth as if to reply, but then seemed to realize he didn't have an answer. "Does it matter? If these nests are indeed linked to the Dark Heart, it's good to plunder them while we can. Why are you overthinking it?"

"I just want to know why," Arthur said.

Brixaby looked at him for a moment, then shrugged, then started the grim work of harvesting the scourgeling spawn.

Soon, the bunch yielded them 35 Uncommon Shards, which wasn't a bad haul. It was nearly enough for a full card.

Brixaby looked back toward the way they came. "We should harvest the rest."

But Arthur was still staring at the mold splashed against the wall. "I wonder why it's brighter here," he muttered, and swapped out his knives for a pickaxe. He swung, using his proficiency, and it bit in deeply. The soil crumbled away well when he withdrew the spike. The mold was a little brighter beyond.

Arthur swung again.

The soil crumbled away with each swing. He glanced back at Brixaby. "Keep harvesting, I'm going to see what's beyond this wall.

“More mold?” Brixaby asked.

Arthur ignored his sarcasm and swung again. This soil crumbled away with each swing. After about a minute, Brixaby grew bored and went on to harvest the rest of the bunches that they had passed.

Arthur dug further, alternating between using the pickaxe and the shovel. He found that the mold actually went downward, and he followed it. After a while, he consulted a map he had stuffed in his personal space. Sure enough, this end of the tunnel pointed away from the city and the Dark Heart. So, where was this line of brighter mold going? Maybe it led to another nest?

Arthur dug deeper. He felt like he was following a hidden path.

About five feet down and in, it occurred to him that maybe he should reinforce this tunnel to prevent a collapse. After all, the tunnel was already a good ten feet down by itself. That was a lot of soil that could come crashing down on him.

Just then, his next swing of his pickaxe struck something... different. Not as hard as a rock, but not soft, either.

Curious, he set the pickaxe aside and began to search around by hand. The tips of his fingers touched something different – something that should not be here..

"Brixaby, do you have a lit torch or something?" he called out.

"I'm surprised you don't, in your horde of things," Brixaby called back, but nevertheless returned with a lit torch in his claws.

Taking it, Arthur brought the torch close to the soil, brushing away more. Maybe he had struck a root? It seemed bigger than that, and what would a root be doing growing through the dead lands?

He brushed away more soil, then took in a sharp breath. "That's a scale," he said, shocked. "A dragon's scale."

"What?" Abruptly, Brixaby was there, and Arthur had to shove his head back to get a closer look. He brought the torch down closer and brushed even more dirt away.

There were more scales, and each was large and well-developed. The sign of an adult.

"There’s a brown dragon buried under here."