The sound of shredding steel brought Tali back to consciousness in an instant. All around was fire and smoke, the steady hum of an artifice beneath her feet replaced by a deafening cacophony. Vents and air channels belched flames above the semi-molten metal of the lower half of the artifice. She shoved herself up to her feet despite the quaking. Whatever hell she was in, sudden panic seized her.

Dhuldarim was dying.

She spun around as the crashing sounds of plunging gears disrupted her senses. Screams surrounded her as figures plunged on either side of her bridge towards the fire beneath. She ran to catch one, to pull the dwarf onto the walkway, but her steps were too slow. There was only a brush of fabric against her fingertips as she seized for an arm and caught nothing but a sleeve.

She thought she heard a familiar voice through the chaos. “Vadr!” Tali shouted.

The dwarven figure ahead was visible as a silhouette, wreathed in fire and exhaling smoke. Her frantic clicks told her that the apparition was not her father. Its face was smooth like stone and untroubled by the flames that sought to consume it. Why have you come, child of Dhuldarim?

The words were resonant and clear as they could be heard in a thousand voices at once, vibrating in every fiber of the universe around her. The world slowed to the point of almost stillness. Tali could see every tongue of flame undulating slowly, licking at the hopes and dreams of the dwarves dying all around.

“To save you!”

You are already too late to save what is here. The figure turned cold eyes from her, inspecting the damage as a colossal gear was wrenched free by another out of control mechanism. The dwarven figure before her flickered and then looked back. You see the final days of Varh Kharsa, the agony wrought by the Evil One.

“You mean this isn’t Dhuldarim?” Tali said. She was somehow both still horrified at the devastation that she saw and desperately relieved.

No.

“What happened here?” Tali whispered.

The Evil One polluted the very stone with his footsteps, ground the bodies of the stoneborn into wretched dust, and turned his vile sorcery against the gift of Tek itself. His demons claimed the lives of every dwarf in Varh Kharsa and bled dry our Spark in the name of the Defiler. Only we remain, and with us all the memories of every name, every face, every torment.

Tali’s heart wrenched at the sound of that. “I’m sorry,” she said, approaching the apparition. “Were you the heartforge?”

The figure’s eyes flashed. Once. Now, this image is the last gasp of a conception that you will understand.

She pulled in a deep breath. “How am I able to see you? The last thing I remember…”

When your blood touched our shards beneath the water, we were able to reach you. You are the first dwarf that has come to Varh Kharsa in a thousand years. Without waiting for a reaction, the spirit of the place beckoned for her to follow along the twisted walkway surrounded by flames.

“Am I alive?” Tali asked softly as she followed, nose stung by smoke that was likely toxic. Whatever the case and smell, she managed not to choke. Even the heat seemed somehow suppressed, though it was still agonizing to be struck with droplets of hot metal. Fortunately, time and motion had not returned to flowing as normal.

Your heart beats still. The siren and the lost one dove into the lake to save you. They were able to flush the water from your lungs, though you may yet be claimed by poison, cold, and injury.

This would probably be her only chance to speak with the Heartforge of Varh Kharsa. “I need to find Thuumdolahr. Something is wrong with Dhuldarim’s spark.”

The ghostly dwarf nodded solemnly. We had wondered what brought you into our suffering. Thuumdolahr is lost, beyond even our reach.

“Your artifice was in the Deep, beyond the Lands of Tek,” Tali said softly. “Surely something remains.”

Perhaps, if you are brave. Bring the band stolen by Haurus to us and perhaps we can glean you a passage towards the Golden City. Awaken now, child of Dhuldarim, and know that if you die, so dies your artifice.

Agony crushed Tali’s ribs as she woke up shivering and drenched. There was no light to be seen anywhere in the vicinity and her jaw tightened too much for her to click as she clenched in answer to pain. Cold rivulets dripped down her fevered face. Someone had wrapped her in a blanket, one of the few things of hers still remaining.

“She wakes,” Lekt rumbled. He sounded more relieved than she was expecting. “Death-price paid in full.”

Tali knew without having to click that Rhesis was glaring at him. “Fine. No one’s keeping you around, monster,” the siren snapped. She refocused her attention on the injured dwarf. “We need to get out of here. You will die without medicine.”

In an instant, with a few clicks, the young dwarf realized there was a golem-shaped absence. “Where’s Eiv?” Tali demanded, punctuating the question with a fierce snap of her teeth.

“I don’t know,” Rhesis said. She sounded something between relieved and exasperated. “We went into the water after you and when we surfaced, that maddening thing was gone. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Tali softened slightly. “Thank you, Rhesis.” She looked over at the forsaken, who seemed to be listening still. “Thank you, Lekt. I’d have died without you both.”

“You may yet. We need to leave,” the siren said firmly.

“No,” Tali said, trying to force together her resolve. She was hurting, but there was no way she could abandon Eiv and any hope of completing her task. If she didn’t have long to live, at least she could get some kind of sign for the next dwarf to attempt. Of course, that would be contingent on slaying a demon, something she’d never heard of a dwarf attempting or succeeding at.

Rhesis sighed. “You were more cooperative when you were unconscious.”

Before Tali could respond, Lekt leaned towards her. “The elder one will kill you, kinslayer,” he said, tone as harsh as ever. “Or the waters will.”

“He likely thinks you’re dead already,” Rhesis said.

Tali grimaced as she stood up, swaying slightly in pain. “Good. That means he won’t expect me. We’re getting Eiv and my armband.”

Rhesis frowned. “How did you know the demon has the armband?”

“I spoke to the Heartforge of what was once Varh Kharsa,” Tali said. She covered her side with one hand. Apparently they’d managed to stop the bleeding and bandage her a little. She had a feeling that the blessing of Tek had kept her still and sedate while they worked. She owed it to Varh Kharsa to stop the demon. “There’s a lot we need to talk about, but later.”

Lekt tapped his knife against his scarred palm. “I cannot kill.” He held up his knife meaningfully.

“If it was a dwarven blade, it could probably pierce infernal hides,” Rhesis said by way of agreement. “The abomination is correct. He won’t be able to inflict a serious wound with that. We only have yours right now.”

Tali drew the knife from the back of her belt and held it out to Lekt. “Trade,” she said.

Lekt cocked his head, startled, as he considered the knife and sniffed the air to get a sense for her level of nerves. “Why?”

“I’m not a fighter,” Tali said patiently, trying to ignore the pain in her ribs. Dwarves were durable with a strong constitution, but this was a lot of damage to work through. “It makes the most sense to give the best weapon to the person who can use it best.”

It was an acceptable answer to Lekt, because he carefully took her gleaming dwarf-steel blade and gave her his wicked iron cutter. It was heavier than her weapon and a good deal less effective, but she wasn’t worried about being stabbed right now even if that was a likely danger. Lekt would either run off with it, stab her, or help. She was trusting too much, like Rhesis had warned her, but she couldn’t do this alone.

Alone was suicide.

“That still leaves us ill-equipped to face a demon,” Rhesis murmured.

“There’s a solution to every problem if you’re clever enough,” Tali said. She tilted her head up and clicked, catching the edges of hanging stone and metal still precariously poised above. “Gravity will be ours.”

“He’ll have to hold still,” Rhesis said. Tali heard a new note of appreciation in the siren’s voice. “I suppose we’ll need a distraction. Thoughts?”

“If I show up in his face, he’ll kill me right off the bat. If he’s not distracted fighting Eiv, could you delay him, Rhesis?” Tali asked hopefully. “One of those stones should crush even demon-hard hide. If it doesn’t kill him, it’ll crush him.”

“What about the band?” Lekt said.

Tali steadied herself with a breath that made her broken ribs throb again. “If stopping the demon means losing the armband, fine. With it or without it, the heartforge here is still alive and could have answers.”

Rhesis hesitated for a moment before dipping her head in a nod. “I think I can divert his attention while the two of you climb,” she said. “Be careful, Tali. One fall will kill you.”

“No falling,” Tali promised. “Thank you, Rhesis. We’ll make it count.”

Lekt bobbed his head in a nod and tied the dwarven knife securely with a length of cord to his wrist, so he could drop it to use his hands for climbing while still keeping it with him. “I follow,” he said, ear cocked towards Tali intently.

“The demon is to the west, towards the center of the artifice, no doubt contending with the cinderblock. I will see you soon,” Rhesis said, rising to her feet. The siren made her way towards the demon with featherlight steps, audible only to dwarves. For all her skyborn nature, she moved with effortless grace that marked her fey ancestry as much as the magic she had once wielded.

The forsaken placed a clawed hand on Tali’s shoulder. “We will,” he promised. “You fall, I catch.”

Tali smiled despite herself. She didn’t know why the forsaken had decided to help, but it made her feel far less alone. “Thank you, Lekt. Let’s go.”

It took more than two hours to reach the apex of the artifice. Many of the walkways had become steep ramps Tali had to try and pull herself up with Lekt’s help, putting horrible tension on her sides. Every hand over hand on loose cables and railings were pure torture. The soft creaks of the wreckage and her own paranoid clicking felt destined to conjure up Haurus again in their midst, but apparently he still felt secure in his domain without responding to every sound amidst the stones.

By the time they reached the top, sweat beaded across her forehead. Trying to wipe it away only smeared blood from her hands across her face. Tali was shaking violently between the pain and the burning poison now coursing through her blood. Exertion had effectively sped it in its work, or so it felt. She slumped against a beam and tried to pull herself together.

Lekt crouched beside her to catch his own breath. Even for him, this much climbing after swimming to retrieve her was a serious expenditure of energy. “How do we crush?” the forsaken asked.

Tali tried to focus and get up again, but every movement made her feel like her ribs were made of broken glass with every breath.“Do you hear Rhesis or Eiv?” she asked finally.

Lekt clicked hard, listening intently. “She speaks to the demon below,” he muttered.

“We want to be right on top of the demon,” Tali said. “This section of artifice is only held up by guidewires, and even those are straining.”

“Drop us?” Lekt asked carefully, ear still cocked towards below.

Tali clicked softly to cement her orientation to their current position. “There’s a second section we can either drop or move to depending on where the demon is.” She started to move, crawling along the twisted walkway. Hard clicks expanded her perception even if they risked discovery. She could barely detect the moving shapes below. Rhesis was there, delicate figure pressed up against a stone as she faced the demon. The more Tali, clicked, the more certain she was that the stone was a motionless golem. There was only a short distance between the two below and the menacing form of the demon.

If she was wrong, it could kill her companions.

Tali fished out a small file out of a sealed pocket, one of the few items she still had. Using the tip of the file, she sketched out equations on the walkway. She was guesstimating mass of the stone, but she could calculate a rough trajectory based on angles using her own awareness.

It would be dangerously close, but she was as certain as she could be that it wouldn’t strike Rhesis or the golem. At least, that was the hope. She swallowed hard at the thought of failure.

“Alright,” she said after a nerve-wracking minute. “We need to weaken or cut the westernmost cable. That should be enough to drop it, judging by the current strain.”

Lekt nodded and led the way across the narrow walkway with confidence. The cable in question was taut, barely holding. “Thick,” Lekt commented.

“But rusted,” Tali said, stopping in front of the cable. She clicked even as she grimaced, hand resting over her broken ribs. “Together we should be able to weaken it enough for gravity to take its course.” She looked around and found a piece of broken railing that was about two inches in diameter and made of hardened steel. She pointed to it. “Lekt, we can use that as a lever to break the eyelet connecting the line to this anchor point.”

Lekt made a harsh sound of approval in his throat. “Clever,” the forsaken said before sheathing the knife and picking up the length of pipe. He wedged it into the eyelit and pulled hard, using his bodyweight and leverage to strain at the joint. Metal creaked and groaned as the pipe grated against the rust and bit in deep. The lever began to move, but not quite far enough. Lekt flexed his whole body, pulling more. He was a lot stronger than Tali had anticipated, and she didn’t see him as weak. Lekt bared his fangs in frustration. “Need more.”

Tali grabbed a fragment of cable and tied it as securely as possible to the end of the lever with deft fingers before snapping the other half to a chunk of metal that had to weigh several hundred pounds. It was more than she could shift in her weakened state.

Lekt eased off his grip on the pipe after making certain it was deeply lodged. He crouched and shifted the weight towards the edge using his legs and arms alike to generate power. Pushing it over the edge would leave the entire weight of the metal fragment hanging from the end of the lever, enough to break things free if it was sudden.

“Get ready to duck and then run,” Tali panted. “When the cable snaps, it’ll fly off. We don’t want to get hit.”

The forsaken nodded, shoving the metal weight with a grunt. It plunged off the side of the walkway. The lever snapped the corroded linkage in answer and, in doing so, ripped the cable free of its mooring. Other wires and cords creaked alarmingly before snapping, whipping past overhead now that the strain had set them free.

Tali and Lekt scrambled to get free of the chunk of artifice about to come raining down. Together, they jumped onto a platform that was more stable, though it shuddered under the resonant vibrations caused by the plunging gears. Tali held her sides as much as she could and sank down to her knees. The weakness from the poison was becoming more and more difficult to escape.

Below there was a titanic crash on impact. The aftershocks could be felt throughout every piece of the artifice remaining as rippling tremors, heard too as the creaks and groans of other sections of metal and stone.

“We need to get down there,” Tali panted, wiping sweat from her eyes. “They could still be in danger.”

Lekt clicked in agreement, motioning for her to lead the way. Her position in front would allow him to grab her and steady her if she slipped. It was a definite danger.

They made their way down as quickly as possible given Tali’s condition. As soon as they were on base ground, they broke into a lope to cover the distance faster, heading towards the plume of dust still settling.

“Rhesis!” Tali called as they approached the twisted nightmare that was the fallen wreckage. Much of it had broken into sharp shards and crushing chunks, with a solid central piece that had to weigh at least a dozen metric tons.

Silence stretched for a long moment, enough that Tali felt her heart sink. Then there was a sputter from behind a low outcropping of stone that was studded with shrapnel. It sounded mortal and distinctly displeased. “Next time, little dwarf, I drop the rocks,” Rhesis said as she crawled out from behind the rock formation.

Tali grinned despite her pain. “I’m glad it didn’t hit you.”

“Barely,” Rhesis muttered. “I do not know if the demon is dead, but he was most assuredly hit.”

Tali nodded, approaching the wreckage. It took her a few moments to find him, but the demon’s horrifying head looked out from beneath the twisted metal, most of his body crushed. The dark, obsidian eyes seemed dull, but the great mandibles tried to click at her approach.

“YOUR VICTORY IS NOTHING, DWARF,” the demon hissed, voice rough and uneven. “A POWER FAR GREATER THAN I WILL PUNISH YOUR INSOLENCE.”

“Where is my golem?” Tali said fiercely.

“That I can assist with,” Rhesis said. “I sent the cinderblock to the Heartforge. If it is still intact enough, I may be able to use the dormant power to heal you. While I have no power of my own, I know how to use a different source.”

“PROLONG YOUR PRECIOUS FEW MOMENTS IF YOU WISH. VOID WILL DEVOUR YOU AND ALL YOUR FOOLISH DELUSIONS.”

Lekt snarled at the demon, bestial fangs exposed.

Haurus hissed, straining to move. The rocks on him didn’t even shift, far too large. Black ichor oozed from the demon’s mouth, harsh and acidic in smell. Their gamble had worked. The demon tensed and then slowly slumped, a final hiss slipping out of the creature before it died.

“Did we…?” Tali was surprised despite knowing how much weight and force they’d just brought down on the demon.

“Haurus will terrorize no one else,” Rhesis confirmed, putting a hand on Tali’s shoulder. “You and the abomination did well.”

“He has a name,” Tali muttered as she started to sway.

Lekt stepped in. He caught her just as her legs gave out and glared at Rhesis. “You heal now.”

“To the Heartforge,” the siren agreed. “Or what’s left of it, anyway.”