The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 40.1

'You know this will never end...' Nume muttered while they walked through long dark pathways, lit solely by torches carried by dwarves.

There were only very few dwarves still living in the halls and they had hesitated before inviting Nume and Kran in. The other phraio had all returned to the valley of healing, leaving the two without a gseirut but promising to tell Zar'gno to come get them soon. Somehow, Nume was a little worried by being left behind like that, but on the other hand, it made her feel free.

After all this time, it was just her and Kran again, going on something that felt like an adventure. The dwarf who had let them in was a young woman called Usrul. She said she'd never left the halls in her life and she seemed to know every last path by heart. Without a struggle, she'd lead Nume and Kran through to the first bigger hall where other dwarves had joined them. There they learned that large areas of the halls were abandoned and the dwarves weren't even sure whether they were still intact. When they mentioned that, Nume couldn't quite believe it. The halls they walked through were hit into the stone, requiring neither poles nor columns to keep them up.

She didn't know how it worked but somehow the dwarves had managed to carve out huge bits of the stone without the rest of the mountain crushing down on them. Nume knew that Kran didn't feel too well though, she could see that he was nervous. When she asked, he said he felt the weight of the whole mountain on his shoulders. Nume rather thought it was comforting, cool and quiet.

'What will?' Kran asked, ripping Nume from her thoughts. When he saw that she didn't have a clue what he was referring to, he added: 'What will never end?'

'Oh.' Nume said with a smile. 'Our task. We strive for peace and at the moment, we seem to have it, but we'll always have to work on keeping it.'

'Doesn't sound too bad to me. I wouldn't really know what else to do anyway...' Kran admitted with a smile in return.

'Well, I guess now that my family is back I could help my father with his work again... but he had Valdor for that now, so...' Nume said, sadly realising that, much like her, most phraio women didn't have any occupation other than being a wife and mother. 'Anyway, now we have this to take care of.' She forced herself to smile again but stopped soon after because nobody would see it in the dim light anyway. Kran was walking in front of her so when he didn't look around, she felt completely invisible. The thought both scared and comforted her at the same time.

While they walked deeper into the halls, Usrul started to tell them about the ancient statues. She said they'd reminded her of them immediately, even before they asked permission to see them. When she'd been a child, she'd visited them often, but after a path had become blocked, her parents forbid it. When Usrul said that, Nume could see how Kran clenched his fists, trying to stay calm. In an attempt to distract him, she poked him in the side with a smile. When he poked her back, she knew he was still alright and willing to keep going deeper into the mountain.

Even though they had already heard from many sources that the statues looked like them and even though they knew Mersha was responsible for it, it was hard to believe once they stood in front of them. Huge stone versions of themselves stared back at them out of opal eyes.

'Look!' Nume said, pointing up at her statue and grabbing her necklace with her other hand at the same time. 'He even told them about the necklace!' Her excited shouting caught Usrul's attention. The dwarf had previously wandered away from them, touching the statues' feet but now turned around with a frown.

'He?' She asked curiously.

'Oh, I mean the seer.' Nume quickly said, blushing. 'There was a seer, right? The one who knew we were going to be born in these bodies...?' Searching for help, Nume looked over at Kran who was somewhere between worry and laughter.