I am really a bit annoyed by all those discussions. First, I had to convince Bori, who is quite a nice lad. But I still had to talk and talk, just to make him understand my point of view. Then, Thongril appeared, and once again, discussion. Yes, I did this, no, that was not me, ratman destroying Ronta? Never heard of him. I was just an innocent ghost just slaughtering the holy kingdom, nothing else. I managed to fool everyone but that partial truth, but it took a lot to do so. And here, more talking. Do we have to ally with the undead, is it honorable, sorry this, excuse me that? It is a nightmare.
Anyway, now I can see the different noble clans discuss nearly everything. About the king losing his mind, the Iron Beards not defending the kingdom against ghosts. But at the same time, I hear some praise the information gathered by my spirits. After hearing this, I make visible the blue ball following Thongril but making it float in the middle of the room. Of course, as usual, it takes several seconds for anyone to notice it. Seeing this, I order my spirit to talk about the ongoing conflict.
-The western fortress is currently under siege; 13 corpses of rat ogres are laying in front of the door. The walls are continuously under the fire of the machine guns created by the ratmen. A group of 17 magicians is attacking those machine guns. They destroyed them. The sorcerers from the ratmen launch a counter attack. 6 magicians are infected, but they are retreating to the archbishops. The line of defense is holding one. An assassin is attacking the general Borin. He failed and the general beheads him. But he is injured, two priests are …
And he keeps talking. That flow of information is visibly well received by the dwarves nearby. Some are even asking for the news of the eastern fortress of the Deep Mountain. The spirit is switching to that side and keep talking about anything. The number of injured, state of provisions, damages done to the door and the ramparts. After a few minutes were the clans are listening to this, I stop the spirit and makes him float to the ground.
The dwarves are angry about that, and everyone is cursing me for being shameless, not giving the vital information that the Grey Mountain Kingdom needs. But they quickly calm themselves, and one of them walk two steps toward the king.
-The Longbeard clan supports the King of the Mountain!
Finally, the first official support. That means, they are recognizing me as an ally, and therefore, will fight side by side with me. The others are still not as enthusiastic as the Longbeard representative, but the hardest step is already done. Just convincing one to talk openly like that is already a success. I don't know if they are related to Bori, because he told me that he was a Longbeard. Maybe that's just a family name, I should have asked about this. Shortly after, another one does the same thing.
-The Strongfist clan supports the King of the Mountain!
More and more are expressing their support, and in the end, all the clans have approved the action of their king. Is it because they are truly thinking that, or they absolutely don't want any problems or divisions in those dark times? In either case, that allows me to finally show my face to the world as an honest and caring ghost.
(Forget all the honest and stuff that you can think. They are tolerating you only because the ratmen are far more deadly than you. And they particularly hate the ratmen for what they have done to their precious mountains. But, I am certain that by the end of the war, they will recognize your participation and most likely will even have friendly interactions with you. That's the mind of the dwarves, those bastards never forget a grudge, but always remember the help. Especially in dark moments like this one.)
Is it a personal experience, the grudge thing? Because you sounded quite angry when you said it. Well, following all that touching ceremony, I order all the talking spirits that I created to gather here.
-Master dwarves, King of the Mountain. This is all the spirits capable of speech that I created. You can freely distribute them where you think they are needed. I ordered them to only follow the orders of Thongril of the King of the Mountain. You are more knowledgeable of the terrain and where the fight will be located, so the other spirits that Thongril is already using will be of a great help. As for what type of undead you truly need, I can hear your demands.
-We already know that ghost Sleek. Just keep creating your lich and the biggest army of zombies that they can make in such a short time. As for the rest, we will be in touch. Follow Dustag to your new quarter, and don't appear too much outside. You will scare the children.
Thank you Thongril, as expected, you are so nice. Seriously, do you really need to put such a tough front and order me like that? Alright, I will play along. I slowly disappear with my wraiths in the ground and follow Dustag that is led by an Iron Beard. Such a shame that I can't really see the city with all those stones. Even when we were brought to this audience room, we only took back entrances and hidden tunnels. From the moment we entered the capital, I couldn't even see the street filled with dwarves. There is too much stone and rocks everywhere.
And right now, we are taking the same road. I just want to see a bit of the city, I wonder if I should just float above the tunnel and toward the outside. I can still make my wraiths follow Dustag and catch up later. Yeah, I will do that. They can't see me anyway. I quickly escape toward what I think is the outside. At first, I end up in what is looking like a garrison. Not what I wanted. Armory, not what I want, bathhouse, who cares. I finally find the way out; I think that building was constructed for the Iron Beards. Make sense to build it so close to the audience room.
More buildings, more stone. Ah, a street looks like a street. I go through the different buildings separating me and finally I arrive at the street. And yes, it is a real one, where there are many dwarves. Young, old, with long beards, small beards, still a little bit of a beard and no beards. That's the children, the last part. Ah no, I find a female dwarf. Looking like the one that I killed in Ronta. I really need this part of my past to be a secret.
The atmosphere of the street is happy and yet still serious. The adults have all some dark faces, but when children are around, they all play along and smile. They don't want them to be scared. As for the buildings, they are strong and sturdy, all made of stones. I can see a restaurant, with multiple dishes. One is a salt pig, with an apple in his mouth. The two dwarves who ordered this dish are salivating. Enjoy your meal.
I can see that there is a ceiling everywhere. We are really inside a mountain, inside another mountain. I guess that no dwarves sleep with the sky and the stars above them. Right now, I am at the top of the capital, and I can see that the city is constructed on many different levels. In each one, I can see a wall, like in Atria, but while the capital of the human was on a plain, this one is built on a mountain. There are countless stairs everywhere, but most of the streets are on a gentle slope. To allow the different carts and wagons to travel across the city.
In truth, besides the location of the capital, there are not a lot of changes between a human city and a city built by the dwarves. Same types of buildings, the same atmosphere. Right now, I should be in the part close to the top, so, the houses of the clans. I have no idea if their clothes are better than the one from the bottom since I have nothing to compare with. But I should return near Dustag, he should arrive at my new quarter soon.
I reach shortly my wraiths, and apparently, no one noticed my little escape. Well, we are still under the ground, so, that makes sense. And I was early, we floated for more than 10 additional minutes before we attain a weird room. Inside, there are a lot of armors and weapons, I guess that's one of the numerous armories. It shouldn't be the main one since there is a lot of empty space. And a lot of dust too. After that, the Iron Beard quickly left, and Dustag took his leave too. Even if he is used to me, he doesn't look very comfortable near me. And here I am, alone and hidden from the rest.