Rise Of The Godking

Chalking it up to his willpower that was burning brightly now more than ever before, he stepped to the door… and instantly felt a pang of sadness that he couldn"t ignore when he recalled how Sebastian had shoved his way in just a few days ago, when they had come here with him.

It resulted in a slight leak in the dam against his emotions he had been building until now, resulting in him remembering how distraught the man had been when his wife had died at Daneel"s hands. It was followed by a different memory where he had talked to Reese about something, but just as he was about to replay it, he stepped on the brakes hard by raising his hand and slapping himself.

"No. Success first, great second."

Nodding to himself again as he felt his cheek sting, he walked to the window from where they had observed the house where the Lord stole from the food that was supposed to go to all of them. Sitting there, he studied the place, again, with much more attention than before as what he was going to do would require him to break in to this place, which was definitely a guarded location as it held the secrets of the powerful man above.

For an entire hour, Daneel recorded the movements of each and every individual who came and went from the house. Slowly, it began to dawn on him that a few enforcers who were supposedly on the payroll of the Lord were coming here on their time off, and as a feeling of accomplishment filled him as he had begun to find out exactly all the things he needed to ensure the success of what he was going to do next, he stretched his arms and legs and prepared to resume his watch.

Only… when his hand shot behind him to grant relief to a muscle that had knotted in his shoulder, he hit something soft.

His heart froze and leaped into his mouth. A low grown sounded from beside him, and although he was a moment late, he sprang to his feet and prepared to defend himself.

As he moved as quickly as he could, his vision blurred due to the sudden motion. Hence, when he searched all around with his left hand stretched forward to ward off any incoming attacks, he was surprised to find no one.

"Over here."

A disgruntled voice made him jump around, and find a bald man half his height ma.s.saging his cheek with sullen eyes. Looking accusingly at Daneel, he shouted, "What"s wrong with you? Why would you greet a messenger with a punch?"

Daneel blinked, first, before finally understanding exactly who was in front of him.

Lowering his hands, he said, "What"s wrong with you? Why would you sneak up on someone without making a single sound?"

The dwarf shrugged. "Hey, it"s what I was taught. At least I was successful."

Daneel folded his hands. "What are you here for?" he asked in a brusque tone, in no mood for idle talk.

The dwarf folded his own hands behind his back before answering, "I"m here to take you to his Eminence. He—"

Waving his hand, Daneel interrupted the little man and began to turn back to the window.

"I"m not interested. I have something to do, right now. I"ll only be---"

The draft interrupted him, too, in a self-important tone.

"Ah-ahem. He did say that you might be of this opinion… so he told me to give you a message. Here it is: "Our condolences on the loss of your friend. If you"re hearing this message, then it means that our informer saw you rise to the occasion instead of succ.u.mbing to the weight of failure. You"ve already seen us help you once. In the end, what you"re working for is something that is very important to us, too. Come with the messenger. We must talk. And we believe that you need us. We will be waiting for your arrival."

Daneel had turned around, again, as soon as he had heard the "condolences" part. He pursed his lips as he realized that he had been right; he was being watched, every step of the way.

He couldn"t do anything about it, though, and after the messenger began to wait with a smirk, he really thought about the offer. Going over the plan, again, he saw that in his zeal to fulfil his promise to the depraved father, he had heaped a lot on himself. He still believed that by putting in the effort, he would be able to do it… but suddenly, it didn"t seem smart to take the risk.

In fact, in that rush of clarity that had been brought about by his rage, he had thought about this element in Graiton which might come into play, which seemed very interested in everything that was going on around him. It had stepped in in a timely manner to save him from being mangled by his former friends, and now, it had stepped forward, again, to help him when he needed them.

With a nod, Daneel gave his answer.

"Follow me."

With a businesslike tone, the dwarf lead the way outside, where a different one of his brethren was also waiting. If he wasn"t still reeling from what had just happened, he would have been amused to see the one who had talked to him scramble up on the shoulders of the other before covering both of them in the long robes of the workers of the Refinery. It was still remarkable to see how effortlessly they made it look as if they were one complete human, so thinking idly about how much training it must have required to make it seem so natural, he followed them as they lead the way down the street he had come through before.

He also began to wonder how he would make it to the dwarf city. He had no idea just how much distance was present between each layer, so he couldn"t tell, for sure, whether it was possible to take another tunnel they could slide through to get to that incredible place… but when they finally came upon their means of transport, he ogled at it as he could never have expected in a million years that the dwarves and their king would be capable of something like this.

Together, they had led him to another empty house in the Refinery… inside which stood a clump of crystals that looked exactly like those into which people stepped to teleport between different layers.

The only difference was that they were dim and lifeless, unlike their glowing counterparts. Getting off the other dwarf"s shoulder, the one who had accosted him rummaged in his robes… and drew out an object that made Daneel gawk even more.

It was one of the red crystals that he had seen that old man in the Courtyard make. It had seemed so precious in that basket so it was quite jarring to see it now in the dwarf"s grubby hands.

"I couldn"t believe it, before, when his Eminence called you "brother"… but from the very fact that he is using one of these, now, to call you over, I guess I was wrong. We have so few that the steward makes us count them each and every day as the children like to take them away to play. Well… no use delaying it."

Mumbling half to himself, he walked forward and touched the block to the clump of crystals… which resulted in it turning into a liquid from the point of contact and flowing into the stalact.i.tes, transforming them into an exact replica of the one he had entered on that first, fateful day to get to the Pit.

"What"re you looking at? Come on, quickly! It doesn"t work for long!"

With a nod, Daneel stepped forward. As he drew in a deep breath, the delightful scent of freshly baked bread entered his nostrils.

But when a familiar voice reached his ears, he snapped his eyes open and for an instant, his heart felt like it would burst in his chest.

"Took you long enough. I thought I was done for…but guess who has a secret city, and a scapegoat to take my place in Burrow"s mansion. Oh, Sebastien would have loved to see this place…"