T Lain - City of Fire

Krusk’s jaw jutted out as he turned to face the big innkeeper, but he didn’t answer immediately. He looked at Alhandra, but she made no move. Naull watched as the half-orc’s jaw worked and she felt she saw him come to a decision.

They locked gazes for a moment. Krusk’s bulging eyes blinked, and he nodded.

“The City of Fire,” he said in a low, rough tone. “The key.”

Only those standing immediately around Krusk—Alhandra, Naull, Ian, Regdar, and Eoghan—heard what the half-orc said. The rest of the inn’s occupants, only a few feet away, heard the howling of the gnolls outside and their own frightened voices.

Even Early didn’t hear Krusk continue in a low voice, “The captain gave this to me to protect. He wanted me to find help and go to the City of Fire before…”

Krusk’s voice rasped to a halt, and he looked at their faces again. Trust came hard to the rough outcast, Naull could see. Here he was trying to make a leap of faith with people who, only hours earlier, had nearly lynched him. Naull couldn’t imagine what he was experiencing, but she found herself respecting him, and Alhandra as well. Clearly the paladin had connected with the half-orc on some level during their time in the cellar.

“Before she gets it,” Krusk finished.

“She?” Regdar asked. “Who is she?”

“A blackguard,” Alhandra answered. “He told me. A blackguard of Hextor seeks the key. The gnolls are her creatures.”

Eoghan blanched and turned away. It was too much information for the innkeeper to handle. Ian let out a light whistle, but Regdar frowned.

“The City of Fire?” he asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”

Naull reached out and stroked the packet and the flaming symbol. There was something there, she thought, in the back of her mind. Then it clicked. Ancient texts from her apprentice studies came back in a rush and she remembered.

“The City of Fire… I know about this. Krusk, did your friend the captain tell you any other names? Did you hear him say, ‘Secrustia Nar,’ or did he call it ‘the Flamestar of the Desert’?”

The half-orc’s eyes widened, and he nodded.

“Se-Secrustia Nar,” he pronounced haltingly. “City of Fire’s ancient name.”

Naull looked around the small group in surprise at the half-orc’s pronouncement.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Secrustia Nar?” The name had Draconic origins, and the stories and legends flooded back. “Don’t any of you ever read?”

Alhandra appeared concerned, Ian annoyed, and Regdar amused. Naull looked back at Krusk last and she sobered at his expression.

No, I don’t suppose you do, she thought.

Amusement waned quickly for Regdar, however. “Okay, Naull—you’re smarter than all of us,” he said. “How about letting us in on the joke before the gnolls get impatient.”

The gnoll commander, if that’s what it was, was shouting again for Krusk to be sent out. More threats and flaming arrows would not be far behind.

“Oh, it’s no joke,” Naull replied. “It’s a legend, and one I don’t have time to go into. Do you know the story, Krusk?”

The half-orc gave something of a nodding shrug.

“I only know enough to understand why Krusk doesn’t want to give up that packet,” Naull continued, “and why we shouldn’t, either. Regdar, the City of Fire is ancient. I’ve heard the earliest settlements around Kalpesh were just traders’ way-stations when Secrustia Nar disappeared. It is, or was, one of the oldest cities in this part of the world. It makes sense, I guess, that the key would come to Kalpesh, though,” she mused, but then she shook her head. This was no time for history lessons.

“The City of Fire was supposedly a link to another plane. You’ve heard me talk about other planes, right?”

“Sure,” Regdar said. “The Outlands, the Big Ring—”

“The Great Ring,” she corrected.

“Right. The elemental planes—”

“Yes!” Naull exclaimed. “The City of Fire, according to everything I’ve read about it, had a link to the Elemental Plane of Fire. A permanent one, not something like the temporary ones powerful wizards or clerics sometimes set up.”

Alhandra looked grim, but Regdar still needed further explanation.

“According to legend,” Naull continued, “Secrustia Nar stood between the Elemental Plane of Fire and our plane. Some people call these sorts of places ‘pocket dimensions,’ but it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the people who lived there were able to command and control incredible elemental forces. They had servants and even armies of fiery beings, and they supposedly dominated this whole part of the world. There are even legends that say Secrustia Nar is why we have a great desert here instead of fertile lands.” Her voice grew ominous. “When the City of Fire’s rulers couldn’t control their servants anymore, the Elemental Plane of Fire swallowed it up, burning the lands around it.”

Regdar whistled. “And this key?”

Naull nodded to Krusk, who was listening intently to her story. He added nothing, but she thought she saw him nod once or twice.

“Supposedly,” she said, catching Krusk’s glance and holding it, “a few of Secrustia Nar’s people escaped the disaster. They made a map that told the way back to where the city’s primary planar gate once stood, and they kept a key to safely open that gate. Most of the stories say wise clerics of Pelor and Heironeous destroyed the map and hid the key, but I guess that’s not the case, is it, Krusk?”

Shaking his head, the half-orc slowly opened the packet. He fumbled inside for a moment, then drew out a strange-looking golden disk. It was shaped like a ball of fire, but flat. As he held it in his gray palm, it glowed slightly, and the carved flames on its outer edge flickered in different colors, from gold to red, then orange and other colors of fire.

“My captain made me memorize the directions to the city. I can find it. I can open the gate with this key, and I can close it forever,” he said, finally. The half-orc closed his fist over the flaming disk and looked at each person in the group in turn. “I will do this. I have sworn it.”

“I think that’s a pretty good idea,” Naull agreed.

“No,” Regdar disagreed. “Why not just destroy it? Burn the papers and smash the key?”

Naull shook her head. “All the legends—all the stories that talk about destroying the key—say that it isn’t easy. Some say the key has been destroyed, several times, but it keeps reforming. Like fire that you put out in one place, only to have it rekindle in another.”

“I must close the gate,” Krusk said simply.

Something struck the inn’s door. This time it was not an arrow, but something heavy. They heard running footsteps retreating down the stairs and away into the courtyard.

“Open your doors!” the gnoll leader howled. “We won’t attack, yet! See what is in store for you!”

At Regdar’s direction, Early and Alhandra moved to either side of the door. Regdar took up a position directly in front of the door, holding Alhandra’s shield before him. At his nod, they opened the door. Something propped against it fell inside. Regdar looked down and saw a burned and bloody corpse.

“Take him in! Look at him! It’s what we will do to every villager we find unless you send out the half-orc!” bayed the gnolls’ leader. “Send him out! Or look upon your own deaths!”

The pack howled in unison at the threat.

Regdar glared into the darkness, then used his heavy boot to push the corpse out of the door. For a brief moment the jeers of the gnolls stopped. The corpse turned over and rolled down the porch stairs. The gnolls howled again, this time in anger that their taunts hadn’t succeeded.