11) The die is cast [ And the Cast is ready to die ]

  Alright… Hrmmm… What do I do first?

  “Viola. Please get your pet into the back room. Then come back and give me an update on where the invaders are at.”

  My Faerie's head snapped around from where she had been spying on the enemy with her Gaze ability. Then she nodded with a wide eyed look, before sending me an evil grin. “Awww, Fell, you do care about Missus Goat.”

  Hrumph.

  No, I really, really don’t care one way or the other about the filthy beast. But if it were killed, it would upset Viola... Which would distract her from her duties to me and our Domain.

  …and if I choose to secure my Core in the back room, the goat would be one more body between the invaders and my Core.

  In fact, I should do that now. Putting my Core in the farthest space away from the direction the Tamer and his forces are coming from makes sense. Much more sense than merely hoping they don’t notice a slightly blowing orb tucked away on a shelf, but...

  The last time I moved my Core away from the center of my Domain, I felt uncomfortable the entire time, like I was off balance.

  Plus, all the Chaos I pull on when I mediated goes right to the center of my Domain, my Core only collects what flows past or onto it. The center of my home is the best place for me to be. Even just being up here on my shelf feels a little off.

  But for the moment, my Core was where it was, and I needed to concede that the best place to stop the invaders as being the upright shaft leading up from the drains down below.

  If the Goblin had come up that way the last time he was here, which was a fair assumption, it meant that he knew that the ladder made up of slots cut into the walls of the shaft had been removed up near the top due to the hard work of my Earth Snake.

  Well, he probably didn’t know it was the Earth Snake’s work, but he would have planned on some way of getting up that shaft… or some other way of getting to me.

  There were two other ways of getting into that outer hall… Either of which the Tamer might know of.

  So, I Summoned one Dire Roach each into place in the other entrances to the outer hall at the very limits of my Domain. One, a dozen feet or so down the shallow tunnel, the Mother of Madness had come down, and the other, a dozen feet up the chute that led to the surface.

  Between the two of them, I should have some warning if anyone starts trying to creep up on me from either way. By dying if nothing else.

  “Earth Spider, give me some webbing down that the lower shaft… Earth snake… start pulling up small sharp tipped spikes on all the steps.”

  Viola made a gesture with her thumb pointed upright from her closed fist as she rode by my Core while sitting on top of the head of the Goat, which itself was giving my Core the side eye. It's very creepy, oddly shaped, side eye. “Good idea Fell! Oh, we should have Snaky make those caltrop things later on so we can just toss them out whenever we need them.”

  From the back of my mind, my Instinctive Knowledge gave me the image of a four pointed metal arrangement of spikes. Making those, I admitted to myself, was a sound idea, and would have been an even better idea if the Fairy had suggested it to me ages ago instead of mere moments before my… our home was invaded.

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  But it did inspire another thought. I didn’t have any shaped stone weapons, but I did have unshaped stones, an advantage in height, and both the Goblin and his Ratling had skulls.

  “Undine and Skeleton grab some crates or anything else you can find and fill them with as many rocks as you can carry. Dump them out near the shaft and then report back to me.”

  There. Now I won’t forget to set those two Summons to another task when they get finished, nor would I have them off collecting more rocks when the Tamer’s forces get here instead of throwing the rocks they already had down on the enemy.

  Who do I have left? I sent the Air Hawk I sent to the main hallway outside the library, so that it had enough room to Air Jet down the hall to hit with Magical impact. The Fire Snail I sent to the ceiling above the lower shaft, ready to drop on anyone who looked important. Caesar…

  Should I have my Innate Summons bring the Lexica Anathematica here now… No. I would have to level up to hide it away in the Spirit world again. I could leave the Fire Lizard there in the Tower of Ascension to try to fetch the book ball back if I were captured, but if things went that badly, then I could offer to return to the Tower by leveling up while telling Turd the Tamer I was fetching it as my back up plan.

  “Caesar.” My Salamander, now the size of a small hound, rose from a Summoning circle made of an orangish red light, the same color as my Core.

  Now, where to put him? “Go to the top of the stairs, and guard them.”

  The stairs from the outer hall leading up to the inner hallway were my second choke point, so it seemed a good spot to place the Fire Breathing Salamander.

  With a thump, Viola landed onto the shelf beside my Core. Then she saluted. “Mission accomplished, Commander Core.”

  Then the Fairy laid her hands on my Core and showed me the Tamer issuing orders to his troops who stood facing him just inside of my full Reach of three hundred and three feet. The distance at which I could send my Summons, even if I needed Viola to see that far through the barriers of stone that blocked my sight.

  Although her power was called Gaze, I could still hear the nasally voice of the Goblin as they came out of his mealy mouth. Each of his shrill words urged his Tamed Ratling to capture the yolk colored Core intact.

  “Yolk colored?”

  Viola nodded. “Kind of like a duck’s egg.”

  Hrmmm… Not the most pleasant of comparisons. But the word intact I liked, even if the implications of it meant that the Tamer was planning to force information out of me, or sell me off, or both. But capturing me still sounded better than an order to shatter me.

  Of course, the Goblin could be planning on consuming me like any other Core, but I was under the impression that, as a living Core and a Chosen race, he couldn’t do that.

  In fact, just let that thief try. I go and try to consume him right back. That would settle his hash.

  With everyone in place… Ah, wait. The Air Fish.

  Having it stay right where it was, floating around in the back room, seemed like a good spot for it. The flattish fish bobbing around in the Air was now nearly two feet across, its full size as a Rank one, Level six Summoned creature. I had leveled it up because I am a compleationist and I didn’t want to hear it from the Fairy about neglecting the creature.

  But the fact is that I am happy now that I have leveled it up.

  At two feet across, it made a very good target for anyone as they came in through the open doorway to the back room. And taking a hit is the very least the creature could do for me.

  At some point during all my musing, the Skeleton and the Undine had walked through the library with a load of stone, dumped them out, and had now returned to the library. As they stood there near my hidden away Core, I realized that they would not both have time to refill the box and brazier they held in their hands before my Domain was under attack.

  But… “Undine, drop the brazier and head back to the downward tunnel and fill your hands with stones to throw. Skeleton go fill that brazier with smaller rocks, all the way up to the brim.”

  The brazier was still burning with a constant low flame that was being produced by the Sigil Array engraved into the inside of the wide brass bowl, and it had been doing so since the day of my creation, and who knows how much longer before then.

  Perhaps just generating the flame didn’t drain it of whatever Magic was powering it, unless it heated up something other than the air. Or perhaps it could power itself from the Chaos in the air around it, at least enough to keep burning…

  In either case, getting hit with a brazier full of heated rocks would probably hurt more than room temperature rocks. And littering the floor below the shaft, they would also probably hurt the bare feet of the Ratling.

  Even if they didn’t do much damage, getting a face full of the hot stones could break a Tamer’s concentration on controlling the Tamed boar and the four lizards if a brazier full of the heated rocks suddenly started tumbling down on his head.

  Speaking of which, Bort, the Goblin Tamer himself, suddenly lifted his hand up and then pointed down the walkway of the drainage tunnel below my Domain.

  “Attack! For the Glory of House Tord!”

  I swore. “Pit.” And remarked, “His real name is even more ridiculous than the ones I’ve made up.”

  But regardless of that. My time was up.

  “Ready, or not, here he comes.”