It didn’t occur to me all the ways that Dorian’s conversation could go wrong until I had stored the first sample. I then rushed to store the rest of the samples, leaving cleanup of the rest of the kit for later. Despite it taking less than a minute, I caught no sight of him in our site’s entrance cavern. He moved fast despite his short legs, and I had to move faster.

  I ran across the stone floor, only to hear that I was too late.

  The Verndari stood in front of Dorian, staring down at him with an undisguised look of annoyance. “What do you want, Oresian?“

  Dorian bristled at the Verndari’s words, but he somehow smothered his irritation to respond congenially. “If you’re going to open that seam, I wanna make sure you do it right.”

  Or not.

  Upon hearing Dorian’s statement, the massive frame of the Verndari stiffened, his nostrils flared.

  Could you have phrased that any worse?

  Off the top of my head, I could list three reasons for the Verndari to take offense: Dorian’s condescending tone, the presumption that Oresian mining operations were superior to ?ttarsk, and the fact that Dorian had, in many ways, been holding out on the team.

  None of these guaranteed problems, but delivered that way…worse, Dorian probably didn’t even realize how he had come off. If I didn’t do something, my idea of some conciliation between the two would go up in flames. The team needed Dorian’s skills, which meant the Human needed to step in and smooth things over.

  This won’t go poorly. Nope, no chance with me as the mediator.

  “Verndari, what he means is that he wants to offer some techniques and strategies that might help protect your men.” I hurried up to stand near the two, ignoring glares that could kill. Was there a skill for that? Better to never find out. “I am sure that they wouldn’t have made sense when opening smaller seams with plenty of potions on hand because the time and Energy needed to enact them wouldn’t be worth it. However, this is a different case.”

  Dorian had hidden his disbelief at what I had pulled out my ass by the time the Verndari’s angry face swiveled back toward him. “Yes, Verndari.” He actually bowed his head in deference. “I would be happy to explain it to you. I think you will find it worthwhile.”

  He may be tactless, but at least Dorian can take a hint.

  The ?ttar stared at us for some time, and I broke first. “We have all started off on the wrong foot here, but we want what’s best for the team. Dorian has a way that might reduce the casualties and,” I paused before playing the only card I really had, “avoid taxing the [Healers].”

  The Verndari’s eyes narrowed. Even a few other ?ttir that had been pretending not to listen froze. I had struck a nerve. I may not know the details of the underlying issue, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use it. With all the people here, I may have put the Verndari in a bind, but if it saved lives, I would live with the consequences. If it also showed we cared about the ?ttir, more power to us.

  The Verndari growled, “Fine, but this better be worth my time.”

  Dorian proceeded to outline a way of creating defensive walls and pit traps. They weren’t complicated, but at the same time, they were quite functional. Both relied heavily on his ability to harden rock, and both complemented each other. The stone and dirt dug to make the traps were used to form walls. The walls then extended the tunnel’s distance, allowing a few more traps to be laid down.

  It should have taken a long time to set up, but that was a belief stemming from a life in a land without magic. After only a quick examination of the tunnel, Dorian had planned out the construction in minutes. The actual construction proceeded quickly as well. With directions laid out, the teams constructed the pits in hours. Dorian turned out to be the bottleneck. Only he could shape and harden the rock into firm walls and deadly spikes that would line the floor of the pits.

  What had been flat terrain now became pitted with death traps. I could tell more than a few ?ttir came away impressed. Dorian may have even started to develop a friendship with an ?ttar familiar with fortifications, which surprised me until I remembered that my company started out as a military unit of sorts. Together, the two tweaked the design of the walls. Dorian had left out “murder holes” because of our lack of bows, crossbows, swords, or spears, but even when using picks, ?ttir could make horizontal and vertical slashes and their subsequent Energy projections with great accuracy. Studding the walls with crude cross-shaped gaps had not added too much time.

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  Throughout all this, I helped where I could. I found the two people who trusted me and tried to enhance their potions. They wouldn’t have the same effect as when I applied the potion, but any boost should help, assuming it didn’t wear off before they used it. It didn’t tax me too much mentally, and down here, Energy regeneration came easily. However, no other ?ttir took me up on my offer. Apparently, whatever goodwill my earlier efforts had earned didn’t trump the shame of getting a Human’s help.

  We were ready by lunchtime, and I walked over to Dorian as he inspected the work. “It looks deadly.”

  Spikes of various heights and widths jutted up from the bottom of the pit. They all reflected glints of light when the uniform and smooth surfaces caught the light. If I hadn’t known, I would have imagined them made of steel or some other metal. He just nodded with appreciation.

  I eyed a pit trap visible through a murder hole in a completed tunnel. “But how are you going to cover the pits?” Their length had to exceed ten, maybe even fifteen, feet. “And how will you get past them?”

  He sighed. “That is the tricky part. For small veins, we don’t typically cover them. When terrorvoles frenzy, they will just push each other into the pit. Some will jump it. Some will run along the walls. But crowded in that tunnel, most will fail. The trap’s effectiveness will drop in half, but that should still be enough if the vein isn’t that big.”

  “If it is?“

  “Then too many will get through for this whole thing to be worth it.”

  “Covering it makes that much of a difference?”

  “It does.”

  “Huh.” I mulled it over. “A side exit then?”

  “No. Too risky. With the numbers we could be expecting, we can’t guarantee sealing it or keeping it sealed if the terrorvoles see it is an exit. Since even I am too big to make a jump in that tunnel, I will have to cover it with a layer of stone. It is going to be the trickiest part of the whole thing. Too thin, I won’t be able to strengthen it enough to prevent a collapse will we run over it. Too thick, the rubble will blunt the effectiveness of the spikes.”

  “Terrorvoles, even a group of them, have to weigh less than a group of miners, especially ?ttir.” My gaze bounced between the various ?ttir. I couldn’t have been the only one who saw the literal holes in the plan. Yet, none showed any reticence in finishing the project. “How are you going to make that work?”

  “Yeah…any hardening I do to hold us will render the trap useless for terrorvoles. Even if we didn’t have to cross the pits, I don’t think I can guess the balance between the layer’s thickness and strength, not without trying it a few times.”

  “So what is the solution?”

  “I will have to weaken them after we cross.”

  “Not ideal, but you have a skill for that.” If he had a skill to shape stone, that skill probably also allowed him to both strengthen and weaken it.

  He shook his head, frowning. “Not exactly. The people who typically do this are [Earthen Trapsmiths]. They are just a type of [Earthshaper] heavily focused on traps. They have the necessary Projection to remotely influence stone at a distance. They can activate traps or even take down unprepared walls on monsters from a distance.”

  “And you don’t?” He nodded in confirmation. “Then how are you going to trigger the pits?”

  His silence was revealing, and my chest tightened at the unspoken implications.

  “Dorian, there has got to be a better way.”

  “Unfortunately not. I will have to be near them. My Projection isn’t great, but it will suffice for this task as long as I am close enough.“

  I gave him a confused look. “Can’t just do it through the tunnel’s wall?”

  “Not without weakening the wall at the same time as the false floor.”

  “Make a hole then.”

  “To get this right, I need to see the monsters’ numbers and get a feel for their effect on the stone, at least for the first few times.”

  “First few?” He just shrugged. “That means, at the minimum, you have to be in the group that opens the vein.”

  “Comes with the job. No one else can make this work. Also,” his gaze shifted, landing on the Verndari, “I doubt they would trust this setup if I wasn’t putting myself on the line.”

  I…didn’t have a rebuttal for that. I swallowed. I had pushed Dorian to compromise, but that cut both ways.

  “We don’t by any chance have any explosives?” At least then, he could wait closer to the main body.

  “Like the Volki would allow that. Also, chain reaction, remember?”

  “So you are going to be at the front?” The last time the company opened a vein, they dragged out a critically injured ?ttar. And that had been a small vein.

  “I think I have to.”

  I had said those same words to my mother in the heart of the Pandemic. She had wanted me to quit, find another path. She had picked up on my frustrations long before I had. Yet, would I have done anything differently?

  How many people had I helped back then? How many people could I help now? Just, what about the costs…?

  I pushed down the sick feeling in my stomach. “That’s…” I trailed off. I couldn’t change the past—not his, not mine. This was his plan, and he, and by extension me, had a lot riding on this going well. It had issues, but I trusted he knew what he was doing. He was also right. He had to lead, especially with ?ttir involved.

  “Then at least let me work on your potion.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “That’s probably a good idea.”