4

Vitras was a hard, surly gremlin, and T’Keva never enjoyed having to speak to him. She certainly wasn’t looking forward to it now, having to bring a Spiralian into Emberlight proper in order to report what could possibly end in a big mess.

Nevertheless, she followed Usumas through the noisy passages. It seemed they were never not noisy, really, which was why she frequently left the city for some relative peace and quiet. Not that this particularly trip had been peaceful, relative or otherwise.

T’Keva could hear Patrenka trotting along beside her, the knight’s footsteps closer than the rest of the echoing clamor. She had the feeling that Patrenka wanted to ask questions, but was either too polite not to do so, too overwhelmed, or was under the impression that they were trying to be stealthy. The latter was unlikely; while the mender wanted to avoid any big scenes, stealth was not at the top of her list of talents and there was really no point to being sneaky. Besides, while she could hear fragments of whispered conversation, confused about the presence of the Spiralian, as various people passed, most people sounded more curious than perturbed.

Patrenka, for her part, was looking at everything they passed in an impressed sort of way. She had never seen so many gremlins, including children and families, just going about their own business before. When she thought of gremlins, she usually thought of pesky little monsters with wrenches and bombs rather than normal (albeit furry) people leading normal lives. It was a bit strange to consider. Never mind that they were staring at her and probably wondering what on Cradle she was doing there. She couldn’t blame them for that.

After some time, T’Keva’s staff end butted against a ledge, which she assumed to be the steps that led to Vitras’ office. Usumas was still flapping in that direction, so there was little else she could think of for it to be.

“Um … do you need help with the stairs?” Patrenka ventured, turning her attention away from their surroundings.

The blind gremlin chuckled a bit. “Thank you, but no. I’m quite used to them.”

There were only five steps, and it didn’t take long for the three of them to reach the door of Vitras’ office, which T’Keva rapped on with the back of her wrench.

“Enter,” called a voice from within, gruff and scratchy, and the mender opened the door.

“Greetings, Foreman Vitras.”

“T’Keva. What do you- why is there a Spiralian in my office?” Vitras interrupted himself. Besides being hard and surly, he was also heavily scarred. The sources of the scars were things he never spoke of.

“Her presence is related to what I have to report to you, sir,” T’Keva answered, unperturbed. “One of the main pathways out of the southeast portion of this borough was completely destroyed by a large-scale explosion not long ago, and I’m wondering if the bombing wasn’t related to an explosion that knocked a Deconstruction Zone out of its usual rotation a short time before.”

“Yes, yes, but that doesn’t explain why there is a knight in my office,” Vitras countered, sounding thoroughly irritated.

“Patrenka witnessed both explosions,” T’Keva returned, beginning to feel rather cross herself. “She says that a group of about a dozen gremlins set the first, and I had assumed that you would want to ask her some questions.”

There was a scrape of a chair across the floor that told the blind mender that the Foreman had stood.

“Listen to me,” he growled. “You know as well as I do that gremlins blow things up. It’s what we do. There is no conspiracy here, no related incidents, no anything that should concern you, and certainly nothing you should be bothering me about, let alone dragging Spiralians into my office over. Is that clear? Now get that knight out of here!”

Vitras’ voice had risen steadily until, by the end of the short tirade, he was nearly yelling and the mender could feel his hot breath on her face. “Terribly sorry to have disturbed you for something so trivial as the demolition of a major pathway,” she said coldly. “We’ll leave you to your important work.”

T’Keva turned on her heel and clicked to Usumas, who relinquished his perch on her shoulder. The door creaked, and she followed the tug on the silkwing’s tether outside. There was a violent slamming behind her, although she couldn’t tell whether Vitras or Patrenka had been responsible.

“Well, he was an ugly little furball,” Patrenka observed as they descended the steps, dusting her hands off as though trying to brush away whatever contamination she had picked up slamming the door.

“I can assure you that that is a wholly accurate estimate of his character, at least,” T’Keva replied ruefully. She sighed. “Something seems strange about the whole thing, though … like he was trying to convince me of things I hadn’t even brought up.”

“Now what?” the knight asked.

The mender contemplated for a moment. “Go see if Zetkit is more interested, I suppose. He may be indolent and self-serving, but he’s better tempered than Vitras, unless you catch him at a bad time.”

“That sounds promising.” Patrenka’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

T’Keva shrugged. “It’s what we’ve got.” Even she didn’t have a great deal of faith in this plan, but she wanted to avoid having to push this on Kexed, and one never knew what would actually stir Zetkit off of his rump.

This trip was shorter than the last, and the three only made a few turns before Usumas chirred and landed on T’Keva’s shoulder to indicate that they had arrived. She stepped forward to knock on the door. Several moments passed with no response and she knocked again. The door finally cracked opened and the mender heard a snort of suppressed laughter from Patrenka, who was standing behind her. One sniff told her what was so funny, and she had to hide a smirk of her own.

“What?” Zetkit grumped from somewhere behind the door.

“Well, I had a report to ma-”

“Then tell Vitras,” Zetkit interrupted, and started to close the door.

T’Keva frowned. “I just did. He wasn’t-”

“Then neither am I!” The other gremlin slammed the door in the mender’s face.

“I think we caught him at a bad time,” the knight commented, still trying not to laugh and mostly failing as T’Keva turned to face her.

The blind gremlin sighed. “That only leaves Kexed, then. I had really hoped not to have to bother him: he’s really got a great deal of work already, compensating for Zetkit. Unless something he already has to do is low enough priority that he can shove it back on Zetkit and hope it gets done, I doubt he’ll be able to pick this up, too, without Vitras breathing down his neck.”

“Hmm,” mused Patrenka noncommittally, just before it became apparent how sound-proof Zetkit’s office wasn’t. The three of them headed back down the passage. “We should at least try,” she finally pointed out. “If he can’t look into it, then he can’t look into it.”

“You’re right.” T’Keva ground her teeth a little in frustration. “I just hope he has an unusually light workload, because if not, I’m not sure where to go from here.”

* * * * *

Kexed did not have an unusually light workload.

“I’m sorry, T’Keva,” he said with a tired sigh once the mender had explained the situation fully. “I really wish I could get on that for you, but if Vitras isn’t worried about it and I don’t have any tangible proof that this is more than just some overenthusiastic gremlinites that I can show his superiors, I can’t go over his head.”

“Well, thank you for listening, at least. I know you’re busy.” T’Keva heard Kexed’s chair scrape across the floor before she felt him take her free hand in both of his and squeeze it warmly.

“I always have time for you. Even if I can’t actually launch an investigation into the bombing itself, I’ll at least get someone to go look at that passage to see about repairs,” he promised. “It’s always nice to see you. I hope you’ll drop by more often … and perhaps we can sit down for a nice chat once things clear up again.”

“I will once we get this sorted out.” The mender smiled at him fondly. “It was nice to hear you. Do try not to overwork yourself.”

Kedex laughed humorlessly as he showed T’Keva and Patrenka out. “And you be careful. It was interesting meeting you, Patrenka.”

The ladies and Usumas were perhaps halfway down that section of passage when T’Keva realized that Patrenka had fallen silent.

“What, no sardonic comment?” she asked.

“Nah,” came the answer. “He was actually nice, and seemed to really like you. Really.” The knight sounded like she was about to add something but changed her mind. “And I’m thinking about where to go next.”

T’Keva chose to ignore the first portion of the statement for the time being.

“We could try the Foreman in another borough, but I don’t know them and Usumas doesn’t know the passages. We would probably spend most of our time lost before finally finding someone who still wouldn’t help.”

“Yeah. Let’s not.” Patrenka fell silent again and T’Keva realized that they were wandering aimlessly. As far as she knew, anyway. It was possible that Usumas had somewhere in mind.

Several thoughtful minutes later, they came to a stop.

“Why did your silkwing bring us to an elevator?”

“I have no idea,” the mender answered, genuinely surprised. “Which is it?”

Patrenka investigated. “Table says it’s the express to Moorcro- oh.”

“What?” T’Keva was obviously missing something.

“It seems that Usumas is smarter than both of us today,” the knight answered. “What we need to do now is head up to see the Warden.”

6

The Deconstruction Zone that Patrenka had been thrown from was once more filled with gremlins, but all of them seemed to be gathered around a single wall.

The knights couldn’t tell what they were doing from their vantage point next to the elevator, and while Gendan was all for plowing into the group to capture the wall, Sacha kicked him in the shin to discourage that notion.

After entertaining a short debate, mostly between Patrenka and the siblings as Gendan nursed his injured pride, T’Keva told the knights in no uncertain terms that she would handle reconnaissance, which seemed to settle it. There was really no arguing with the mender when she had put her mind to something.

Strolling out of the elevator enclosure, T’Keva followed Usumas towards the knot of arguing gremlins. She stood among them for several moments without any of them taking particular notice of her, which was more or less what she had expected would happen. It didn’t take her long to gather that something had been written on the wall, and that no two in the group were of the same mind as to the meaning of whatever had been written. Some didn’t much care about the word itself, and were mostly impressed with the apparent size of the explosion that had crippled the Deconstruction Zone, while a few others were little more than disgruntled at the work it would take to fix.

“What does it say?” T’Keva finally asked someone next to her, who she assumed was a demolitions expert after listening to his long description of the sorts of explosives it would have taken to do the extent of damage they had found.

“Huh? Can’t you – oh,” he interrupted himself lamely as the mender tapped the black lenses over her eyes. “Someone scorched ‘Revolt’ on the wall with a flamethrower or something. I’ll bet it’s some stupid gremlinites with nothing better to do.”

“Sounds like an awful lot of explosives for ‘gremlinites with nothing better to do’,” she commented.

T’Keva couldn’t see the other gremlin shrug, but she could hear the sentiment in his voice. “Heard all that, huh? You’d be surprised what gremlinites can do with junk these days.” He made a barking laugh and turned back to the other gremlin he had been debating demolitions with.

The mender heard the other gremlin comment that he had recently seen the same thing written on a wall in another Deconstruction Zone nearer the Core, and he had heard that there were others, which sparked a hot debate between the demo and his friend. She listened for a moment more, then detached herself from the group and followed Usumas back to the elevator.

“So what is it?” all of the knights asked, practically in unison.

“Somone wrote ‘Revolt’ on the wall with a flamethrower,” T’Keva answered flatly. “By the sounds of it, this isn’t the first time.”

Gendan scratched his head. “That doesn’t sound helpful. Or like it makes much sense.”

“Actually, it is,” the gremlin corrected. “Helpful, that is. I can’t say that it makes sense, but they seem to be specifically targeting Deconstruction Zones.”

“I wonder why,” Derrit mused aloud as they piled back onto the elevator.

“I don’t know,” Patrenka answered. “But it looks like we’re going to be visiting as many as it takes to find one they haven’t hit yet, and we’re going to wait for them.”

7

It had been a long, frustrating trip.

Getting to the first Zone took eight elevator rides more than it normally would have, as explosions had decommissioned several elevators and T’Keva and the knights were forced to backtrack. When the group finally reached their destination, they found a puzzled work crew starting repairs and left immediately to find another.

The same scenario played out before the group found their second Deconstruction Zone, and their third, all the way up to the tenth, with the only differences being how many broken elevators they came across on the way and how long the gremlin work crews had been on the scene.

“I’m starting to think that these guys have already hit every Deconstruction Zone in the Clockworks,” Patrenka vented as they tried getting into their eleventh Zone.

“I doubt it,” T’Keva replied. “The Clockworks are full of them, and as they’re constantly being created by disassembling other areas or being reassembled into something new, they’re always changing. There are bound to be several that this group doesn’t even know about.”

“That doesn’t actually help us,” Derrit pointed out, to which the healer shrugged.

“Either way, I’m getting bored with this,” complained Gendan.

“Because you have the attention span of a child,” Sacha quipped, causing Patrenka to laugh as she fiddled with the buttons of the elevator they had just come to.

It worked, and they all crossed their fingers as they ascended into what was hopefully a Zone that was still intact.

Luck was with them this time, as they didn’t see any real damage to the area once they stepped out of the elevator. It contained the usual group of hostile Colony gremlins pounding away at some project or another, but they were easily taken care of and the knights settled down to wait with T’Keva and Usumas.

And wait they did. The Zone was a quiet one, and seemed to be off the current path that the knights were taking on their forays towards the Core. The group, Spiralians, gremlin, and silkwing alike, dozed in shifts and spent a good portion of their waking hours wracking their brains for ways to keep themselves (or, rather, Gendan) from getting too bored.

Eventually, though, he had had enough.

“We had to have been here for at least two days now,” the red-clad knight complained. “I don’t think they’re even – ”

“Shhhhh,” all three of the women interrupted him at the same time as they heard the elevator activate, and the knights watched keenly from behind a low wall as the platform rose into place with half a dozen gremlins aboard.

The group of them disembarked, and the platform disappeared again. Rather than moving off, though, the six gremlins loitered near the elevator, a few of them dropping large packs of explosives from their backs. One began rummaging through his. All six of them were males, and looked like fairly young adults, although the knights couldn’t tell much of anything else about them.

Gendan looked inclined to go running at them, but Sacha put her hand on his arm and shook her head ‘no’ to discourage such ideas.

“It looks like they’re waiting for the rest of their team,” she whispered.

The gremlins proved her right a few minutes later, when the elevator platform rose back into place with another six explosive-laden gremlins aboard. The two groups moved off together, dropping all the bags in a pile. Three of them debated among themselves, pointing to various supports as the others started unpacking.

“What are they saying?” Patrenka asked T’Keva quietly.

The mender listened hard. “They’re just deciding where to place their charges,” she answered with a shrug.

“Well, let’s go get ‘em then!” answered Gendan, launching himself out from behind the wall. The gremlins scattered as the other three knights exchanged glances and followed suit.

These particular gremlins didn’t seem to be combatants, and the skirmish was brief; half of the demolition crew was killed before they managed to get to the elevator. Gendan ran straight into the path of a bomb that one of them had managed to set off, while Sacha took a wrench to the face from one gremlin, who used the distraction to make a run for it.

“How did it go?” T’Keva asked as she tended the knights’ wounds.

“Derrit and Patrenka are checking pockets for plans,” Gendan replied with a wince; gremlin and silkwing healing methods were unfamiliar to him, and felt a bit strange. No stranger than being tended by a gremlin in the first place, however.

By the time the mender finished her work, Derrit and Patrenka had come back with some papers.

“We found a printed elevator table with some areas circled,” Patrenka announced. “And some pages of writing that could be plans or orders or something, but they’re written in Gremlin and we can’t read them.”

“They could be lunch menus for all we can tell,” Derrit added, sounding a bit discouraged.

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you there,” T’Keva commented. “We’ll just have to take a look at the places marked on the table, unless you all want to troop back to Emberlight and have to explain to whoever we get to read it what we’re up to.”

The knights didn’t.

9

The unfinished graveyard was less difficult to find than it was to get into, primarily because the group of infiltrators had been hoping to enter secretly; with gremlins milling about everywhere, this proved to be nearly impossible. In the end, the small group of knights and gremlins (and the silkwing), who weren’t stealthy in the least, entered in the least secret way possible: they were discovered skulking about and were marched into the graveyard as prisoners by about two dozen of the residents.

“Hey, didn’t Broxen’s team already kill you guys?” one of the young gremlins asked suspiciously, eyeing Kotir and Velt as he locked the gate of the mostly-finished crypt the prisoners were being stored in.

“Couldn’t have been us,” Kotir answered nonchalantly. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“Oh, okay.” The other gremlin seemed to be a bit confused by that logic and wandered off scratching his head.

“What just happened?” Patrenka asked when he had gone. T’Keva quietly translated.

“Wow,” the knight commented. “I thought they were stupid when they didn’t take our weapons, but this guy … just wow.”

“Don’t remind them,” Sacha pointed out. “I like our odds of escaping after we’ve found what we need better this way.”

There was a bit of a wait while a knot of about six gremlins seemed to be deciding what to do with them. To Kotir and Velt, they looked extremely disorganized. To the knights, they looked like typical gremlins behaving typically. T’Keva was straining to listen.

“Their leader isn’t here, and while they’ve contacted him, they can’t expect a response soon. They haven’t mentioned a name,” she whispered for the benefit of those who either didn’t hear particularly well or didn’t understand the language. “Ugh, they’re planning to split us up,” she added shortly thereafter.

It wasn’t long before the six that had been discussing the prisoners gathered another small group and opened the crypt gate, pulling the three gremlins out before closing it once more on the knights. They went peaceably, although Kotir had to fight the urge to take his wrench off his back and smash all of their smug little faces in; they didn’t want to ruin their chances of learning anything about the operation by causing a fuss now and didn’t really feel that they were any actual danger at the moment. Still, the burly gremlin kept a close eye on how the others handled T’Keva – he could only imagine the fit his brother would have if anything happened to her.

Unfortunately, the healer was placed behind a separate gate from he and Velt, and a few of the young gremlins were eyeing Usumas hungrily. Kotir glared at the three worst offenders, and they slouched off like naughty children.

“These guys are pushovers,” he muttered to Velt.

“Just young punks,” the other replied. “Don’t know what they’re about.”

Meanwhile, the knights were cut off from anyone who could translate for them, and it was making Gendan angry. He wasn’t shy about letting them know, either, heaping abuse and threats upon whoever was in earshot.

Patrenka watched the nearby gremlins closely; most of them seemed fairly amused by Gendan’s haranguing, and a few looked as though they found it downright hilarious. Patrenka got the distinct impression that they understood everything the other knight said.

“I’m going to have to find someone willing to teach me Gremlin after this,” Derrit commented.

One of the gremlins that had been laughing at Gendan wandered over. “Too bad you’re just Spiralian,” he said so that the knights could understand. “You’re funny when you’re mad. You would be good here.”

Gendan looked as though he was going to start in again, but Sacha kicked him in the shin to shut him up after exchanging glances with Patrenka.

“So what do you do here?” the latter asked curiously.

“Eh, blow things up mostly,” the gremlin answered nonchalantly, leaning against the wall as he fiddled with some sort of small, half-built bit of gadgetry. “We got a big plan in the works, but ‘til then, we’re just making sure everyone knows we’re mad.”

“Mad about what?” Funny, they didn’t really seem that mad. About much of anything.

The gremlin actually shrugged, as though he didn’t really know himself. “Everything, mostly.”

Patrenka just stared at him.

Derrit glanced back and forth from the bewildered knight to the bored-looking gremlin and stepped in. “So, what’s the big plan? It sounds exciting.”

The gremlin shrugged again. “Boss won’t tell us ‘til it’s time.” He had lost interest in the prisoners now that Gendan was no longer throwing a tantrum, and poked the knight a few times trying to get a rise out of him. Gendan remained quiet after Sacha glared at him, and the disappointed gremlin wandered off.

“They’re .. I don't really even know what to call them,” Derrit marveled quietly when he had gone. “Good old-fashioned we-don’t-know-why-we’re-angry-or-what-we-want-anyone-to-do-about-it ... insurgents, I guess. I didn’t think those existed outside of books.”

“Well, I’m glad we’ve diagnosed the problem,” Patrenka answered caustically. “Now what’s the solution?”

* * * * *

T’Keva could hear Gendan railing in his enclosure several yards away, and the noise was making it difficult for her to tell what was going on. After several minutes he finally stopped, and she caught a bit of the conversation between the gremlin and Patrenka before someone approached her gate.

“So,” the someone started in the sort of way that implied he thought he was being suave.

“Is that guy bothering you?” Kotir called from across the pathway, cutting off whatever the other gremlin had been intending to say next.

“He may have been planning to, but you haven’t really given him a chance,” T’Keva returned good-naturedly.

“That’s good.” Kotir sounded as though he may be joking, but he must have looked very serious indeed. “Because if he was bothering you, I’d have to snap his scrawny neck.”

T’Keva could hear the other gremlin scooting away and laughed. She had to admit, knowing how much bulk muscle Kotir carried, that he probably looked fairly intimidating … even if he were locked behind a gate.

By that time, things had gone quiet over where the knights were being kept and there was little for her to listen to.

* * * * *

Velt was tired of waiting for a good reason to break out of here; he had been watching everything in his usual, quiet way, and at this point, he didn’t think that they were going to learn much more. The problem was, he wasn’t sure just what they had learned, as he was a bit hard of hearing from years of working with explosives.

Despite being unsure of where they stood in relation to information gathering, Velt’s main concern was that these young punks’ elusive leader would either get back to them with an execution order or actually show up and get them to behave intelligently. Either would be problematic for escape attempts.

All of the gremlins nearby were eyeing Kotir, who was eyeing them back. Well, almost all of them, anyway. One was inching towards T’Keva’s gate, although Velt couldn’t tell whether the guy intended to chat up the pretty lady gremlin or make a snack of the silkwing. He didn’t much care, either, as his mere presence would work in Velt’s favor.

The demolition expert slid a few things out of his backpack and fiddled with them for a bit before sticking his handiwork to the far wall. He stowed his hands, one of them holding a small detonator, in his pockets before strolling over to lean on the gate next to his friend.

“Hey,” he said after a moment, nodding in T’Keva’s direction. “That guy is trying to mack on your brother’s girl again.”

As Kotir bared his teeth with a growl and whipped the oversized wrench off of his back, Velt smiled smugly to himself and pressed the button in his pocket.

* * * * *

Patrenka’s thoughts were interrupted by an explosion, and she and the other knights crowded their gate to see what their captors were up to. Rather than the demolition testing or normal explosive antics they expected, they saw sheer pandemonium over by the area their gremlin friends had been taken to. It looked as though Kotir had already broken one guy’s neck, and he was slamming through the others like a wrecking ball.

“I’ve seen seasoned veterans with sharp blades do less damage,” Sacha said, awestruck.

“His wrench is as big as you are,” Derrit observed as Gendan rattled the bars of the gate, upset that he was missing out on the action.

“You’ll want to move to the other corner for a minute,” Velt commented as he casually strolled up to the gate and stuck something to the side of the wall, then just as casually walked off to stand a short ways away.

When the knights had moved, Velt drew a small device from his pocket, pressed a button on it, and sauntered off while the wall exploded, leaving a large hole in the stone and a partially mangled gate. Gendan immediately slithered through the opening and ran for the fray as fast as his armored legs could carry him, shooting at gremlins nearly indiscriminately until he was close enough to use his sword.

Patrenka and Sacha could see some of the insurgents handing out explosives, and Patrenka sighed as they crawled out after Gendan. “We should probably go get those two,” she muttered, to which the other woman nodded.

“I’ll go find T’Keva,” Derrit volunteered; he didn’t enjoy combat the way his friends did.

It didn’t take long for Derrit to find the blind healer; she was still in the crypt she had been locked into despite the fact that Velt had apparently opened it for her. With a bomb. Usumas was flapping maniacally on the end of his tether, changing direction every few seconds.

“Are you alright?” Derrit asked, climbing in through the jagged hole in the wall and taking her by the elbow. “What’s wrong with Usumas?” he added, perplexed, after T’Keva nodded in affirmation.

“Silkwings have an instinctual need to heal things, and he’s confused because he’s being kept from doing so, I think,” the mender answered as Derrit helped her climb out of the crypt. “I didn’t want to move from here and get in the way, what with being unable to tell where I’m going. As well trained as Usumas is, I don’t think the training can override his instincts when there are as many injuries occurring as nearby as they are.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you until we get out of here and Usumas calms down,” the knight told her, kicking a chunk of debris out of the path and drawing his gun to fend off any combatants that may blunder into them. Usumas was squeaking wildly now, his frantic flapping becoming increasingly erratic as they moved nearer the fray. Derrit and T’Keva could tell that he was indiscriminately healing whoever was closest to him, but couldn’t do anything about it aside from trying to make it through the area and away from the fight as quickly as possible.

As the knight, gremlin and silkwing headed out of the battle ground, Derrit caught his sister’s attention. Sacha nodded and in turn caught Patrenka’s attention, and the two ladies moved to attempt to steer Gendan and Kotir toward the elevator.

This fight was more difficult than the last had been; the gremlins here had numbers on their side and the confidence that came with it. Kotir and the three knights were being heavily battered by wrenches, burned by flamethrowers and explosives, and cut by flying shrapnel. Kotir, not wearing armor, seemed to be both taking the brunt of the beating and having the most fun, although Gendan was trying his best not to be outdone in either respect. Patrenka and Sacha were being more careful, but were having a difficult time getting the other two to retreat along the path of destruction that Velt had left.

Finally, the more enthusiastic combatants took stock of both their own injuries and the number of opponents still arriving from somewhere or another, and allowed themselves to be herded away, still swinging sword and wrench as they walked backward.

Kotir and the three knights caught up with Derrit, T’Keva, and Usumas in sight of the elevator, but didn’t see Velt until he called out to them.

“Hurry and get up those steps!” the demolition expert shouted, waving another detonator in the air. The others broke off from the battle, fending off gremlin frontrunners with the heaviest of their guns, and quickly complied; there was an impressive explison behind them as Gendan and Kotir reached the top step, cutting the insurgents off from the elevator and catching several of them in the blaze.

“Let’s get out of here,” Patrenka said, ushering everyone into the elevator as they caught their breath. When the whole group was inside, she set it to descend.

“So how many did you get?” Gendan asked Kotir, his good humor returned. The gremlin shrugged.

“Are we including the guy whose neck I wrung before things really got started?” he returned noncommittally – he hadn’t been counting.

Usumas was just happy he could start properly tending to injuries. He was going to be busy for awhile.

11

Derrit had awakened, but barely, when Velt, Usumas and the knights reached Haven. Velt was the subject of a few strange looks as they traversed the city, but as he was accompanied by four Spiralians, no one actually said anything about his presence there.

The group limped to Gendan’s place – he had the most roommates, and therefore the largest common room. Mercifully, none of those roommates were actually home at the moment.

Once they had settled in, Sacha filled her brother in on all that had happened while he was unconscious: it was a fairly short story. Usumas flitted from one person to another, having fully healed himself, mending leftover wounds as he triaged in his own unknowable way.

“So now we’re just waiting for Kotir and T’Keva to get back?” Derrit asked.

“Yup,” Gendan answered. “May as well sit tight and take a snooze.” He flopped backward into the chair he was sitting in, his favorite, and looked as though he intended to fall asleep immediately.

The only sounds for the next few minutes was the rustle of furniture as the knights and Velt made themselves comfortable, and the quiet flapping of Usumas’ wings. Eventually, even those faded as everyone drifted off to sleep and the silkwing, satisfied with his work, landed on Derrit’s head to get some rest of his own.

The other knights had already fallen asleep when a thought struck Derrit. “Where and when are we meeting the others?” he asked aloud.

“Here and don’t know,” Velt answered sleepily.

“How are they going to get into Haven?”

“Well, damn.” Velt opened his eyes, not sure how to address that question.

“Do you think one of us should go down and try to find them now?”

“Nah,” the gremlin said after a moment. “They’re probably at Kex’s place getting some rest. He works for Vitras – the gremlin ordering the others to kill us. Kotir probably figured he’d be able to find out something.”

“Can we trust him?” Derrit sounded almost fretful.

Velt just yawned. “He’s Kotir’s younger brother and so stupid in love with T’Keva that the whole borough knows it.”

Derrit wanted to ask more questions, since he had never heard Velt speak so much, but the gremlin was already asleep.

* * * * *

Kotir awoke feeling very much refreshed, his injuries having been healed. He sat bolt upright as soon as he realized this, worried that Kexed had actually gotten another mender to come, but instead found a strange silkwing sitting on a footstool.

“He’s not as smart as Usumas, but he gets the job done and won’t talk,” Kexed said as he walked into the room, carrying a tray of food. His eyes were red-rimmed as though he had not returned to sleep after visiting the office, and Kotir wondered whether he had also privately vented his feelings a bit while he and T’Keva slept.

The elder brother helped himself to some food as soon as Kex had set the tray down. T’Keva was not yet awake.

“So where’d you get him?”

“I stopped and bought him from Durst after I finished up at Vitras’ office. I’m pretty sure that gremlin never sleeps,” Kex answered, pouring hot drinks.

Kotir had to admit that it had been a pretty ingenious move on his brother’s part – Durst usually sold live silkwings and other small creatures to those who wanted a particularly fresh meal and didn’t mind killing it themselves. He wondered why it never occurred to most gremlins, particularly those who were especially accident prone, to just buy a ready healer to keep around the house.

“T’Keva was still awake when I got home,” Kexed continued after a moment. “I think her shoulder was keeping her from sleep; it was pretty badly crushed. You didn’t have to throw her at me,” he added with a scowl.

“I apologized in advanced,” Kotir defended himself around a mouthful of food. “I just didn’t tell her what for.”

Kexed didn’t relinquish the scowl. “Anyway, she fell asleep almost as soon as the silkwing went to work, but that was only a few hours ago and she’ll probably be out for awhile yet.”

“Find anything?” Kotir asked, changing the subject.

The scowl turned grim as Kex stared into his cup. “It’s bad. Really bad.”

“Hit me,” his brother said as he took another bit. What Kexed considered ‘really bad’ would not necessarily be that awful to him.

“Vitras is planning to take all of his demolition crew at once – that’s about 150 gremlins, minus what you killed – up to Haven, set charges, and cause as much damage as possible so that the Spiralians will blame it on the Colony and come down into the Clockworks en masse,” Kexed answered flatly. “He means to start a genuine war.”

Kotir actually choked on the bite he had just taken at that news, and spent the next several minutes coughing. The sound woke T’Keva, who groggily pushed herself upright.

“What’s going on?” she asked, rubbing her eyes. Kexed repeated what he had just told his brother, and the healer gasped, her milky grey eyes wide.

“Did it say when?” Kotir asked, finally getting control of himself.

“Here,” Kex answered, handing Kotir a few pieces of paper. “I copied down the details and the projected elevator tables for the day, although those may obviously change between now and then.”

Kotir studied the tables, brow furrowed, while Kexed filled a plate and cup for T’Keva and took them to her in her chair.

“We don’t have very long,” the elder brother commented after some time. “It’s good we didn’t wait – we’ll have to get up to Haven to meet up with Velt and the others quick.”

“I wish you wouldn’t go back out there,” Kexed told T’Keva as he perched on the arm of her chair. “Please,” he pleaded. “Stay here. I’ll make sure Vitras doesn’t find you.”

The mender sighed and set down her drink. “I have to,” she said, finding his hand with her own.

“Why? You’re not a combatant. I don’t even know what you all are going to do against this.”

“Because the way your brother fights, he needs medical attention every twenty minutes or so,” T’Keva teased, trying to lighten the atmosphere. It didn’t work.

Kexed fell silent for a moment, bringing T’Keva’s hand to his cheek. He looked to Kotir as though he were on the verge of tears.

“Both of you. Promise me you’ll come back safe,” he demanded.

“Yes, sir!” Kotir answered with a laugh.

“I promise,” T’Keva murmured at the same time.

“I’m holding you both to that,” Kexed said moodily, only partially appeased.

When the three of them had finished eating and Kexed had fetched T’Keva a new batch of medical supplies (complete with the silkwing he had just purchased stowed in the hood of Velt’s coat between the mender’s ears), Kex gave Kotir a brotherly hug goodbye, following it with a tender embrace for T’Keva. It was difficult to watch them go.

He had offered, at one point, to accompany them, but T’Keva had known that he didn’t really want to and had told him that they needed him here. Thinking about what she had said, Kex’s jaw tightened. He didn’t want to be ‘needed here’ as a kind way of saying she knew he was scared to do anything else; he wanted to do something genuinely useful to help.

Then it hit him – he was going to be taking the day off, today. It was a good thing he was already up and about, because while he had all day to make the trip out to Central Gear Borough to see Vitras’ superiors, he had only a short time to steal those papers out of the office before the Foreman arrived at work.

14

Vitras’ forces had been cut down to ninety six, partially due to meddling from the nosy mender’s friends and partly from the usual accidents that happened when you gave a lot of young gremlins as many explosives as they could carry.

He had outlined the plan for them yesterday, but had not shown up to lead them this afternoon. This concerned the handful of gremlins that usually led the teams, but everyone was so excited about the mission that they didn’t hesitate much before deciding to go on with it, with or without Vitras.

Eight dozen gremlins, each one fitted with an oversized pack of explosives and wiring, marched out of the unfinished graveyard, each one looking forward to what would probably be the biggest explosion they would witness in their lives.

* * * * *

Goulk was worried, at first, that he had read the elevator tables wrong, but a quick detour or two got them back on track. Some of the elevators they had tried to use had been blasted, and while he didn’t remember having sent anyone to do it, he had to admit that communication between teams had never been their strong suit. Just yesterday, one of the other team leaders had managed to blow himself up rather permanently, so even if no one else owned up to it, he could have been the one responsible.

Some of the gremlins he had with him, usually the ones with the heaviest packs, were grumbling that the travel was taking too long. The team leader had to agree, but once they passed through the next few areas, it should be a straight shot up to Haven.

The elevator rose, and Goulk stepped out onto a Deconstruction Zone that one of the teams had hit a few days ago. It was listing a little, as the usual work crews had probably gotten tired of responding every time an area was damaged, but the list shouldn’t affect the elevator much.

After waiting for three more crews to reach the area, Goulk started moving towards the next elevator: it would take a little while for the whole force to get up here, and he wanted to keep them spread out a bit so they didn’t bottleneck every time there was a passage. Besides that, the next level was a Treasure Vault, and if someone hadn’t emptied it recently there would be a bit of pandemonium as whoever got there first squabbled with each group of newcomers over what they found there.

If it was pandemonium Goulk was expecting, he was not disappointed: the Vault was completely untouched. He slapped his forehead as his team scattered, then just shook his head and scooped up whatever was in easy reach as he headed for a good place to take a break and count the other teams as they arrived. It would probably be awhile before they were able to continue.

* * * * *

Arux flopped down next to Goulk as things quieted somewhat.

“Elevator’s broken,” he said without any preamble.

Goulk groaned. “How badly?” he asked.

“Dunno,” answered the other gremlin. “Looks like the problem is on the other side.”

Things were going to be ugly if they had to go all the way back to the graveyard to find a whole new path. “Can we fix it?”

Arux shrugged. “Maybe. If we can, it’ll take awhile.”

Goulk thought for a moment. “Go get Hetler and Muxx on it.” With that, he stood up and walked to meet the last team, who were just getting up to the Vault.

He didn’t get a chance to say anything before a muffled explosion came from the elevator shaft.

“We didn’t do it!” most of the team that had just emerged claimed at once as Goulk shot them a dirty look. He didn’t believe it for a moment.

“Fix it,” he growled.

The six of them scrambled ineffectually, wondering how they were going to get down the shaft to repair the damage at its source.

* * * * *

An hour later, neither of the repairs had gotten very far.

“We can’t even reach the problem,” Muxx told Goulk as the latter stood there glowering at him and Hetler.

“Everyone is getting antsy,” Goulk replied, but didn’t get any further before an immense explosion rocked the Vault from somewhere beneath it, causing the gremlins to scramble for handholds as it tipped dangerously. The air was rent by the sound of metal stressing and finally breaking, and the whole Treasure Vault hung in the air for an instant before plunging into the depths.

* * * * *

Kotir, Velt, and the knights watched the explosion from afar as T’Keva appreciated the distant echo of the Vault’s demolition. Velt looked particularly pleased with his handiwork. It had been a spectacular ball of fire, and the chunk of land had trailed flames until it was out of sight.

“Well,” said Patrenka when the last echo had died and the smoke had started to clear. “I suppose we had better go check where it landed.”

* * * * *

It took some time, but the group finally found the crashed Treasure Vault partially embedded in a Wolver Den several levels below Emberlight. Stones and other debris from the two pieces of land mingled together in great piles of rubble, scattered with the bodies of the gremlin insurgents.

“It smells like that acid again,” T’Keva commented as she picked her way over the uneven ground. “But it’s old. I don’t think it will hurt us.”

Usumas and the other silkwing were both calm, which indicated that it was unlikely there was anything living in the area that suffered from injuries. In fact, it seemed like aside from the knights, silkwings, and the three Stone Field Borough gremlins, there was nothing alive here at all.

“I don’t see Vitras,” Kotir said after an extensive search. “Either he’s buried in rubble or he’s not here.”

Some of the knights groaned, and T’Keva heaved a frustrated sigh.

“Maybe we should head back to Emberlight,” she said. “He can’t do much to us if he doesn’t have anyone backing him, and maybe Kex can tell us if he’s been acting strangely.”

15

“What are you doing in my brother’s office?” Kotir demanded of the gremlin who opened the door. Kexed had not been at home, which was to be expected, so they had gone to find him at work.

“This is my office,” the other gremlin said, perplexed. “Wait … are you looking for Kexed?”

“Yeah,” Kotir answered, drawing the word out suspiciously.

“Oh, you want the Foreman’s office, then. I’m Palt,” he answered obligingly. “He hired me for this position when he got promoted. Can I help you with anything else?”

“What? Oh, um, no. Thanks.” Kotir turned away, looking far more confused than Palt had been.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” he told the puzzled group of knights and gremlins.

“Well, let’s go find out,” T’Keva answered sensibly, turning to head toward the Foreman’s office.

That office was on the next block, so it didn’t take long to get there. Kexed was standing in the doorway, having just shown someone out. His face lit up as he saw his brother, the mender, and the rest of the group, and he bounded down the steps with a wordless exclamation to greet them, throwing his arms around Kotir and T’Keva.

“Hey there,” Kotir laughed, slapping his brother on the back before extricating himself. “What happened here?”

“Come in and sit down,” Kex answered, not having let go of T’Keva when Kotir slithered away. “I’m so glad to see you back.”

The gremlin was absolutely beaming when he led everyone inside. “So,” he said, perching on the edge of the desk as everyone found chairs. There were barely enough. “Tell me what happened with you, first. Everyone looks unhurt,” he observed

“Velt gave them a taste of their own medicine,” Kotir answered before elaborating, everyone interjecting details from time to time as he told the whole story.

“We didn’t find Vitras’ body though,” he finished up. “So we were hoping you knew if he had been around or not.”

“Oh, he’s probably in prison in Central Gear or something,” Kex answered, looking a bit smug. The expression appeared out of place on the generally mild-mannered office worker. “After you left, it occurred to me that whatever you did, Vitras was the sort to squirm out of it, and I wanted to see what I could do to help. So I came back to the office, actually stole the plans, and took the day off to travel out to see his superiors. The Regionals were pretty upset about the whole thing, and he was arrested late yesterday.”

“That was smart,” Derrit said first, even though he knew nothing about gremlin government.

Kotir got up and gave his brother another hearty slap on the back. “So you got the post?”

“Well, they weren’t going to promote Zetkit.”

Everyone who had actually met Zetkit laughed.

“Going to whip him into shape?” Patrenka asked.

“No,” Kex answered. “I fired him.”

* * * * *

It had been a few days, and most of the abused elevators were back in commission.

“I think I’m going to hit the Core with these guys,” Patrenka told T’Keva over drinks, jerking her thumb in the direction of the other knights. Derrit was timidly trying roasted silkwing with Velt’s encouragement (although the gremlin fully intended to eat the knight’s share if it turned out he didn’t like it) as Sacha looked on in apparent disgust, while Gendan was stuffing his face with something he hadn’t bothered to identify. “I think I’d like a nice, normal Clockworks delve before taking a bit of a vacation.”

The mender smiled indulgently and leaned back into the arm that Kexed had draped around her shoulders. Usumas was sitting on the table, wearing a disapproving look in light of what was on some of the plates. The other silkwing was sitting on Derrit's head, not apparently having noticed, and would be going with the knight: Usumas was not willing to share his territory.

“Have fun,” T'Keva answered her friend. “I’ve had enough travel for awhile. A long while.”

“Not me,” Kotir commented, slamming his fifth drink. “I’m going to eat well on Kex’s tab for a few days and then hit the ‘Works some more.” Kexed rolled his eyes at this but didn’t protest as his brother chucked something leafy he had no intention of putting in his mouth at Velt. “This one wants to see if any of the explosives those guys were carrying survived the fall, since we didn’t look when we were there earlier.”

There was some more chattering over the rest of their supper before the group dispersed for the last time. T’Keva wasn’t quite sad, but almost. She may never see her knight friends again, and may actually never leave the city of Emberlight again either, but it had been a memorable – if sometimes harrowing – trip.

She was just glad it was over.

Thank you! I'm almost done getting the whole thing up.

EDIT: All done!

Another edit: Thanks so much! There's also a very silly sequel that focuses on Kex and T'Keva that I've already finished and am just doing the typing and editing on. I'm going to do a series of gremlin slice-of-life stories set in their home borough and see if people want to request stories to be written about specific background characters that are mentioned (there are a lot of them in the second story, which is a little less than a third of the length of this one) or certain kinds of stories, since I don't have anything specific in mind at the moment.

Hmmm. Let me know when you're done with the forum and I'll take another look at it. I'd probably add Tales from Stone Field Borough, too.

I know it's long ... did you get a chance to read the whole thing?

I literally laughed aloud at that. At least you're honest.

Hmmm ... think it's too long and no one (aside from Isis, who apparently already has) will read it?

A space for what?

... and the length is kinda' why I linked each section. I figured if someone didn't want to read it all at once, it was easy to immediately find where they left off.

Oh, yes then. It's two words.

I used to cram "alot" together as one word rather than writing it properly as "a lot" when I was in high school. It annoyed my journalism teacher to no end.

Ebilbuny: Thanks lots! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story as much. I have sold my writing in the past, but find that I don't enjoy the process of creating as much when I'm worrying whether it's marketable.

Azure: That means a lot coming from you, and I really appreciate your pointing out specific features of the story that you liked; thank you. I don't know how fast I'm going to get many of the illustrations done, but I have roughs for the first few section intro images, at least.

It was 4 a.m., my husband had just come home from work, we were settling into bed, and suddenly I was all "Oh my god! Baby gremlins must be ADORABLE!"

But he wouldn't let me get up and draw them then, so I had to wait until after I got some actual, useful things done after our own baby woke up.

Just in case anyone is interested, I thought I would share some of the differences between my original outline and the finished piece; a lot of things actually underwent drastic changes.

Kexed was supposed to be in only one scene: He was originally going to just be that one guy who's nice enough, but has too much work and too little authority to help. Section four wrote itself, however ... the scene in his office, anyway. Some characters demand to have a bigger role; Kex wrote an addendum to my project notes and quietly slipped it into the pile. T'Keva was a bit iffy about his amorous intentions at first, but she eventually came to appreciate them and additional dialogue was added to the scene.

Kotir and Velt started as very different characters: Originally, I had Kotir listed as "pragmatic gremlin demo" and Velt as "overenthusiastic thwacker." Their only role was to laugh at Patrenka and T'Keva when they were looking for support in Emberlight, then apologize when T'Keva saved their butts later and go along to do any reading of gremlin plans. You can tell how that didn't happen. I'm not sure why I switched their personalities or made Kexed and Kotir brothers, but it seemed to fit.

There were originally only twelve bombers: I was actually keeping a tally of how many I killed off in the notes ... until I realized that eventually, fighting with them would be little challenge and I had no climax. They became more of a small army after that, and there were a lot more deaths. I had also planned for them to be more ruthless and dedicated to their cause (even though they didn't really have one), but I had actually re-read some Brian Jacques books lately (they were my favorites back in middle school, when the first of the series were coming out), and if anyone has ever read Brian Jacques, you know that minions and lackeys rarely get to be particularly intelligent. I didn't write them that way on purpose ... it just happened.

Vitras was going to have more of a presence: I had planned for him to be on the field more, and he was actually going to try to put the sword to T'Keva himself in scene ten. After his forces got a size upgrade, though, he became an armchair villain fairly quickly.

Gerend was going to be less ... Gerend-ish: He was supposed to be more of a ladies' man, less of a man-child, and was going to extract information about the master plan from a spy he caught before killing him. Kexed upgrading himself from "extra" to "supporting character" status killed that last plan, which was out-of-character for Gendan by the time I would have gotten around to writing it anyway.

Aside from that was mostly just organization issues, but if I had gone with all of my original plans, I would have ended up with a very different story.

Someone asked me in-game today why the gremlin protagonists react so casually to killing other gremlins, even though the others are hostile and violent. I thought it was a really good question, and thought I would answer it here, as well.

In the various things that are mentioned about Emberlight, it's made obvious that Emberlight and Colony gremlins are at odds, and one of the things I read (I think it was part of the mission system text) was that Colony gremlins tended to kill those gremlins identified as from Emberlight on sight. This got me to thinking that there was some form of "rival gang" mentality between the two groups, and in an "us vs. them" situation like that, there would be unlikely to be a lot of remorse. Especially considering that Kotir and Velt probably have to deal with this stuff a lot, and T'Keva honestly can't see what's going on, so the absolute extent of the killing would be a little lost on her.

I'm not really sure ... I've got a lot of other things going on right now, so it may be slow. I did draw a picture of T'Keva somewhat before I wrote the story though.

Thanks bunches! Actually, Knock,Knock,Boom was the sequel ... I'm just doing light, short stories for now. I may pick up some more adventure later- my husband and I have a could of ideas we're throwing around.

The picture of T'Keva is a few months old, and was actually only the second gremlin I had ever drawn. I'm going to be doing additional work later, now that I've got a set style for gremlins. I would probably have some done already .... but it still takes me forever to draw a decent Knight (and I really dislike drawing armor.) So she'll get an update.

... I just did post in the rp. For most things, I'm having to wait on other people, and I don't have full access to this forum right now; I have to use my husband's computer. Honestly, I wish a few more people would post because I'm getting a bit itchy having nothing to do, but I know at least a couple people are also having trouble accessing the forum because I've spoken to them in-game.

Thanks much for the kudos on the story, though.