Behind the marvelous gate leading to the heart of the lonely mountain were some majestic looking guards making a file and awaiting the arrival of Debauchery, at the end of the line there was a female dwarf who had no armor and very casual smile on her face. She scrutinize Debauchery carefully while they approached her. When Balin stood before her he bent forward in a show of respect and reverence. "It was not a waste to grant you my furnace after all, you have made my old bones proud" she said as her eyes never left the bead of the Spirit heart and the Dragon coiled just above it on Yunan"s neck."You flatter me master, i was merely lucky to meet this young man" Balin had nothing of his usual bravado and arrogance before this woman. "You forged it nicely, it took me a moment to find it, now i can brag about you in the council, my talentless disciple returns with a handful of dragon forged items forged inside a dragon flame furnace. That makes you the first in 300 years to light such a furnace, you must be very proud, but how come i do not feel that you carry the items forged in it"
Dustan pa.s.sed his ring to the female dwarf like he knew her for years, " if you are talking about the perfect pie big a.s.s oven he uses to forge, he never lets us bake in it unless he is already working on it, lately only this kid gets him to even take it out" inside the ring were the well worn out arms and armors, the strongest Debauchery had, the Dragon claw axes and a colorful collection of pies".
The dwarf master led the party along with the file of guards deeper inside the mountain with her eyes firmly appraising the craftsmanship of the items inside the ring, she stopped only twice the first to ask about the dragon axes and the second was to ask about the pies. She already had a mouthful of pie when she asked who baked them.
Yunan finally understood where Balin developed his personality, such unfettered master was guaranteed to raise a disciple like Balin although her calling him talentless was a bit of an understatement regarding the man"s talents. "This is my master Mina, she taught me all she knew about craftsmanship, she is so talented she can forge better items in her sleep than what i can do in my best of days" balin introduced his master while she stuffed her face with what she called the "delish" pies in Dustan"s storage ring.
It did not take long before they arrived at a room where there were a bunch of old dwarves waiting for them to arrive, the old dwarves bowed to Mina and her guests then started firing up a mechanism that worked like a portal, walking through it would lead you to a sealed room with so many enchantments on its walls, even Yunan who could barely sense mana felt suffocating from the sheer amount of enchantments in the room.
Inside the room everything was made of stone, there was a large round table with 5 seats around it, 2 of the seats were taken by an elf and a minotaur. Near the walls there were other chairs set up for observers and escorts. Mina led the party in and took a seat while saying "welcome to the heart of the lonely mountain, please let the bearer of the Black Fate come forward and take his seat among us."
While Yunan moved to the seat indicated by Mina he took of the Black Fate ring from his finger and placed it on the table he then sat down and observed this strange meeting. As he was thinking, the Black Fate shined and floated to the center of the table showing a screen that read "greetings to the hearts of Burkan, it is a pleasure to meet you once more".
Out of nowhere a very handsome albino orc stepped into the room and sat on the last empty seat "you always were able to sense me when others could not, how is you mistress doing?". The orc seemed more familiar with Black Fate than the rest. The Black Fate shone once more " Tartarus is almost finished with the preparations, but my mistress is having a bad time with accepting death".
"Let me officially introduce those on this table, our youngest is the current carrier of Black Fate Yunan, he is not the prophesied one, but who cares, if the Black Fate likes him he is more than good enough, the elf is the heart of the forest Yggdrasil, besides her is heart of the beasts Asterion, the albino is the heart of prophecy Helios. And i am mina the heart of the mountain" Mina then looked at Yunan with a piercing stare. "Now that you know who we are, we would like to give you a mission that only Adun has come close to but refused to finish. We would like you to take the heart of Tartarus out of there and use Tartarus to fulfill its intended purpose".
"I think you are being too rash masters and mistresses" answered Yunan "i am but a child that is still learning about the world and life, i still have three more years before i can even step into the dungeon and i may die during that time. All I know is that this ring chose me to meet the heart of Tartarus, and i do not want to be bound by anyone or anything, if it is fate then you don"t need to give me a mission, if it is not fated then even if i accept the mission i could not complete it"
Yunan willed the Black Fate to fly back onto his finger "it is truly an honor to meet you ladies and gentlemen but i fear that this meeting was a wasted one, if the reason you brought me here is to give me a mission. Everyone is always talking about prophecy this and prophecy that, but here i am wearing something that should be in the hands of another. I only believe that my fate is my own and that chaining my fate to anything is wrong, i may take mission now that i am in training, but that is the extent of it, another opportunity to train."
Yunan stood up from his chair " i know that you are dying to fulfill whatever destiny you were made for or something like that, what i don"t understand is that you are eternal, what is the haste for? If you have seen all the wonders of the world, than i can understand that, but i know for sure you have been hiding in your own holes waiting and waiting for the day to end your lives, let me tell you this, if Adun himself refused to finish the mission, it means the chances are all those you might send down there will do the same, so stop holing up and get out to the world, if you are waiting for death, you might as well try living"
With his words still hanging in the air he retreated beside his friends and sat down amongst them, he was home with them, and they were going to truly live, unhindered and unchained, let the world follow their prophecies and destinies and whatever they wanted to follow, this band of kids would not be following the stream.