Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 55: Dawnharbour 8

 The pressure in the Land Core chamber was building, with all eyes focused on Benzhi. Huineng had no inkling of what he would request, if anything, and he was the closest to Benzhi. 

 Grandmaster Huan waited with baited breath. He had become more nervous daily, around what he considered to be an upstart. At first, he expected that Benzhi was a tool to be used, a savant idiot who could heal, going on the reports and his looks. But then he was granted use of the Land Core, which was a major threat. Only to be followed by the surprise achievement of becoming an Enlightened rank. For someone who places an emphasis on ranks, this development was certainly aggravating to Grandmaster Huan.

 Seneschal Cain found Benzhi interesting. He was almost as powerful as the rogues who had left the organisation and in such a short time. He had been cooperative and was proving an invaluable asset. The initial report which came out of the Academy yesterday was troubling, but when subsequent reports came in it seemed that Benzhi was merely pruning his class of the fat, including the Chancellor.

 Benzhi himself was at another crossroad. Due to the time dilation, a day in Dawnharbour was less than an hour on Basal, so he had no issue with spending a few more days getting to the bottom of things. However, the time dilation was going to bring this place down, before the next healing even started. He was not afraid of the QWP anymore, yes they could hurt him, maybe, but there were ways for him to protect the Alpine Forest and its people from them. He was more concerned with the Myrkalfar and any other possible capable enemies the QWP could anger or allies they could purchase.

  Benzhi could help the QWP here, his meeting with the Myrkalfar had opened his eyes and if anything emboldened him. But he could not stomach the deal that was spoken of. Sacrifices. He had no idea what they were, but he was certain that whatever it was, it was not benign. That was aside from the Elf tailor he had met. He wanted time to investigate what was going on there, if they were merely AI lumps, he could possibly just leave. But if they were more, there was no way in hell Benzhi would just open a portal to his antechamber and leave them to their fate.

 "I have no request for a favour at this time," Benzhi stated.

 The Grandmaster sighed in relief, Huineng merely looked on quizzical. The Seneschal smiled and nodded.

 "However," Benzhi said, "I would like to earn a second favour."

 "Ho, ho," the Seneschal said fascinated, "tell me how you are going to earn this second favour? I am fairly certain I do not have another life-threatening illness."

  "Have you ever met the Daughter of the Myrkalfar?" Benzhi asked the Seneschal.

 His eyes widened, the implications of that statement ran through the Seneschal's mind. The Grandmaster gasped and stood. 

 "No, I have not," the Seneschal said tersely, "and I can only assume that question has something to do with the second favour?"

 "Yes, yes it does," Benzhi replied calmly, "when I was tasked to heal you, I needed access to the Land Core here in order to provide the required qi energy. And I was granted access much to the Grandmaster's dismay and now I know why."

 "Don't believe a thing he says, he has sabotaged the Land Core somehow and now is trying to use me as a scapegoat, very clever outsider, but it will not work," the Grandmaster stated vehemently, he was about to continue when the Senechal held up a hand silencing the Grandmaster.  The Grandmaster spluttered and jostled but he went quiet.

 "I was not interested in the many tables and workings of the Land Core until I arrived at the last room on the third level of the Tower, where I received an ultimatum and warning from the Daughter of the Myrkalfar herself," Benzhi stated simply.

 "You actually met her in the tower?" the Seneschal was visibly surprised.

 Benzhi nodded, "her message was simple, save the shield from going down or she would intervene. And by intervene she meant to kill everyone here and take over. After our meeting, I do not doubt that is well within her capability."

 "What did she mean by saving the shield?" the Seneschal asked.

 Benzhi explained the current burn rate of qi due to the time dilation would cause the shield to fail in a matter of days in all its details and how he worked it out finishing with, "the Grandmaster is either incompetent or he is trying to sabotage the shield. I do not know which, both seem plausible," Benzhi concluded in a pragmatic manner.

 Everyone turned to face the Grandmaster who was going red in the face. "I have it completely under control! Do not believe this ingrate. We are increasing the yield and the deficit will soon be reversed. He is an amateur and has no idea what he is looking at, he probably made up the meeting with the Myrkalfar," the Grandmaster spluttered out quickly and then he thought of something else, albeit probably too late, "and he has been draining the Core with his healing, it was not in trouble until that started."

 The last was definitely the wrong thing to say to the Seneschal, "You had one task Huan and we cannot risk failure. You are removed from this office until an audit of the Land Core is completed."

 "I recommend the time dilation is set to be inline with Earth at least to rectify the issue, this will cause less burn and more harvesting of qi," Benzhi added.

 The Seneschal looked troubled, "that is one of the key advantages of this place. It is not something we would want to relinquish unless there is no other choice."

  "What's beyond the shield?" Benzhi asked.

 The Seneschal considered his answer for a minute before stating, "tortured souls, demons and lesser devils, this city is a beachhead in the first level of Hel."

 Benzhi looked at Huineng who looked surprised, aghast and extremely nervous, no telepathy was necessary.

 Benzhi lost it.

 "Are you people fucking crazy?" He shouted.

 The Seneschal bristled, "I do not answer to you boy, you have no understanding of what we are achieving here."

  Benzhi shook his head, "I think we're done," he then walked out of the room to sounds of shouting, pleading and arguing emanating mainly from the Grandmaster.

 Benzhi headed east instead of southwest, towards the Academy, when they left the Temple grounds.

 "Where are we going?" Huineng asked.

 "The Elven District, I have a few questions for them," Benzhi answered,

 As the pair walked through the outskirts of the Elven district for the first time they noticed that while it was clean and the buildings were in good repair the atmosphere was not pleasant. The buildings certainly did not fit the race of elves they were closely packed two and three-story dwellings, there were no parks and almost no trees or greenery.

  Benzhi had only visited the Temple, Academy and Tower, there were parts of the city, including the market, old town and the elven district he had never seen. Although he had only been here a few days, it felt like a long time since he left the Alpine Forest.

  Benzhi stopped looking for a sign showing Tailor and asked a passerby, who was walking quickly with their head bent low, "excuse me, do you know where can I find the Tailor?"

 The Elf was dressed in tight pants and a white blouse, with a leather apron that stretched from her chest to her knees. She had the same skin colouring as the Tailor, it was light grey and she too was extremely thin.

 She lifted her chin and looked at Benzhi for the first time, "he lives and works near the centre of town," noticing the colour and make of his robes she said, "I can lead you there sir."

 Benzhi smiled, "thank you. Only if it's not too much trouble."

 "It is not far, I can lead you in less time than it takes to explain where it is," she said and with that she departed, walking rapidly through laneways twisting left and right. She was right it only took a few minutes before they were standing under the swinging sign depicting a thread and needle.

  "Thank you," Benzhi said, he had no money to give all he could do was thank her.

 She nodded and scampered off back to her business.

 "You are a charmer," Huineng said.

 "Manners never killed anyone," Benzhi stated.

 "You didn't have many manners during your last meeting or yesterday," Huineng shot back.

 Benzhi just laughed.

 They made their way into the foyer of the tailor's workshop where a counter separated the small area at the front with the large workshop at the rear where about twenty elves worked at different stations predominantly sewing or weaving.

 Within a minute the Tailor was standing across the counter.

 "It is unusual for a client to come and visit us here," he said, "I hope everything is in order." He did not look worried.

 "Who are the leaders of the Elves here in Dawnharbour. I have something to discuss with them." Benzhi said.

 The Tailor looked happy and nervous at the same time.

 "You did say you hoped I would bring change," Benzhi continued.

 "There are the master artisans, strictly speaking, we do not have leaders, we are here to serve," the Tailor replied.

 "Let me put it this way. I have questions and depending on your answers I may have a proposal. It will be a sensitive conversation, so discretion may be best," Benzhi said.

 "Oh, now you are worried about discretion," Huineng scoffed. Benzhi shot him a glare, wait until he heard what Benzhi would propose.

  The Tailor sent off workers with messages, while Benzhi and Huineng waited in the foyer of the Tailor.

 "We shall meet with the Master Artisans upstairs, the floor is unused now we are well past the initial rush of outfits," the Tailor informed them.

 Benzhi, Huineng and the Tailor waited for the Master Artisans to arrive. The Tailor set up chairs for Benzhi, Huineng and an additional seven for the Masters. They arrived one after the other before twenty minutes had passed.

  There was what appeared to be a smith, a couple of carpenters judging by their outfits. Benzhi was intrigued that there was an elven smith. The Tailor introduced them in turn, there was also a tinker, jeweller and painter.

 "We are missing the master cooks as they are not working in the District," the Tailor asked, "will this suffice?"

 "Yes," Benzhi answered. "I have a couple of questions, well one really," Benzhi paused, "where are you from or how did you come to be?"

 Huineng shook his head, not in disappointment, but he could tell where this was headed and was worried.

 "What do you mean?" asked the Master Smith, "how we came to be? Do you not have a mother and father?"

 Benzhi nodded. "This city is new, is it not?"

 The Masters nodded.

 "Where did you live before here?" Benzhi asked.

 The masters looked nervous and sad, "we are not supposed to talk about that, especially to guests," the tinker said.

 "Huineng would you leave please," Benzhi asked. Huineng nodded, stood and went down the stairs without saying a word.

 "Now it is just us. You need to answer my questions or I cannot help you," Benzhi said, "look, let me cut to the chase. I have been told that you are creations, you were all made less than six months ago, that you were not born. I want to know if that is true or have you been captured and put into slavery against your will, or whatever. I want to know if you are alive if you are sentient."

 They nodded, looking at one another nervously.

  The tinker spoke, "it is better here than the last place. We were traded by the Myrkalfar to ones such as you. I have been a slave all of my life, my parents were slaves of the Myrkalfar. Originally we were Dokkalfar or light elves, but over the years we have turned grey. Now we call ourselves grey elves and we are born to serve."

 "Does this answer your question?" asked the Tailor.

  "Yes, yes it does," Benzhi said. It was as he suspected there were not AI lumps but slaves. The QWP had much less capability than they pretended to possess and purchased most of what they did have from the Myrkalfar. What they traded the Myrkalfar, what the sacrifices were, he did not know. But he did know, it wasn't good.

  "Is there any of you brave enough to follow me to another plane where you can be free?" Benzhi asked.

 "They would follow us, they would find us and not only torture us, they would kill or capture any who harbour us," the Smith said.

 "You are afraid," Benzhi said, "that is understandable. I am willing to risk protecting you if you are willing to risk the escaping."

 "You have much more to lose than we do," observed the tinker.

 "There is one condition. You all must come or none of you," Benzhi stated.

 "Why?" several asked.

 "I cannot disclose the reasons," Benzhi answered. He could not divulge his plans, "if you do not take this chance now, I may be gone forever. I will be back here before Dawn. Either stay in your beds, or everyone packed with some food, and what you can carry wearing your warmest clothing."

 "We have been changed," the tinker said anxiously.

 "I saw. Your qi core has been contained and is being syphoned. I can fix this given time," Benzhi said.

 The masters nodded.

 "We cannot answer now, we will talk to our people. But I for one will be saying we take this chance," the tinker responded.

 Benzhi found it slightly amusing that the craft with the lowest prestige, the tinker, seemed to be the defacto leader.

  "I will see you at dawn's early light if you decide on freedom," Benzhi said. He stood, bowed and departed.

Chapter end