What's Hangin'?

[Seigmand Dezmar]

Seigmand should have expected a snappy retort from Alex. Nothing had caught the kid off before, so despited knowing from experience, the comments he raddled off did put a slight blush on his face. He was glad Alex was facing his back.

With only slow sweeping motions of his arms and legs the mound of earth beneath them both rolled like an ever flowing tidal wave. If Seigmand had bothered to learn what roller-blading or ice skating was on Earth he would have probably thought the two felt very similar to what it felt like to move along the flowing stone.

The trip was relatively short, taking no more than an hour for them to arrive on the cusp of the hollowed out Orsis Quarry. One look at it and it was apparent it was indeed a very old quarry indeed. It looked almost a hundred yards deep and was filled with more tunnels than one could count in an afternoon. The way up and down from it was a series of carved pathways that snaked along the walls.

What was most striking out of the quarry, beyond that of its mere size or measure, was a single giant spire that grew out from its centre and up far above from its entrance. As Alex looked around Seigmand drew his attention to it. "That is our way of protecting this quarry. When disaster of any kind befalls the Orsis Quarry, the Geomancers that man this place manipulate its shape. Back in Silicis City we have people that can see it from there, and alert us if it changes. Right now it merely stands straight and erect, so there's no problem." Seigmand spoke quickly and without misstep as if he'd practised the speech in his mind many times.

"So, now that we're here what would you like to see?" The quarry at the moment was quiet, with most of the workers inside the tunnels hard at work. However there were signs of movement about half way as the Geomancers were busy moving the earth around.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander was very much impressed with the size of the quarry. They never would have been able to do anything quite like this in Santo-Luce...nor would they, he was very big on keeping the land as beautiful as they possibly could without digging up too much of anything. Still, it was entrancing in its own way and Alexander's wide, curiousity-filled eyes heavily showed how genuinely intrigued the young king was.

Also, he was quiet. That usually scored points for being interesting.

As Alexander stood and stared he thought hard of Seigmand's question. This place was so big and amazing it was hard for him to think of what he could possibly want to do or see out here.

After a very long moment of silence Alexander looked up at Seigmand and answered, "I'm curious to see what happens when that thing starts moving!" As he spoke, he pointed out towards the enormous spire.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

Seigmand waved an objecting hand in front of Alexander as he let out a relaxed chuckle. "Oh Alex, that's the absolute last thing I could show you. We'd need an actual emergency to show you what happened with it, and there's absolutely no way I could show you just so you could see it."

A look at his friend after the words left his lips and he could tell there'd be disappointment on his face. He rolled his eyes and sighed slightly. "Well, perhaps I could show you a model version if you really want to see it so badly." Seigmand dropped to one knee and brushed his hands across the ground as he slowly conjured up a miniature version of the quarry's spire.

With a slightly disinterested drone to his voice he continued to speak as he manipulated the model. "As it stands now, it means everything is alright. However if the spire expands at the top like so..." the spire's peak expanded as the earth travelled up it and formed a sphere, "that means that the underground creatures have assaulted our Geomancers or taken over one or more of the tunnels. The larger the sphere, the greater the issue." Another slow set of motions and the spire changed again, this time merely having the top portion bend ninety degrees. "For something like this, we know that a tribe is attempting to plunder the resources of the Quarry, with it's direction showing us where the attack is coming from."

The information was something that would normally be guarded quite closely, but as an ally and a friend he seemed to have no problem discussing it with Alex. It wasn't like the young king would be trying to seize the quarry. Of that he could be sure.

[alexanderthegreat]

More like there'd be no way for him to seize the quarry, even if he wanted to.

Alexander looked like a small child on Christmas morning as Seigmand showed him the little demonstration. He watched in amazement as the little spire changed shape even though Seigmand was very boring when it came to speaking. Alexander felt bad for him for not being able to tell an interesting story, it really was going to hold him back in his social life.

He looked up at Seigmand after he told him of the different types of emergencies that the quarry was prepared for, asking, "So what does it do when a dragon shows up? Or when great burning rocks of hellish fire rain down from the sky? Oh oh oh, and what does it do if the quarry becomes cursed by an evil ghost witch and she starts attacking and locks up all of the exits and when they try to use geomancy to escape she uses her ghost!witch powers to overpower them?"

He wasn't kidding.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

"I...ummmm..." Seigmand was left speechless at the maddening stupidity of Alex's question. Before he could bog his mind down considering the stream of logic that would make any sane man ask about evil ghost witches in a quarry, he decided to just let it go.

"We don't have any signs for such...disasters as those. The signals are broad and are more about telling us what kind of help we need to send. If it's monsters or invaders, we send soldiers. If our Geomancers have fallen ill or are wounded we send aid and transport. After all, you can only do so much with a pillar of rock that size." Seigmand swept his hand vertically upwards towards the spire. "Even the most sagely of our Geomancers does not possess that kind of power. If they did, we might have conquered you all long ago." Seigmand said with a slightly offputting bit of pride in his voice.

"Well Alex, does nothing else of this place entice you? I'd be happy to take you back to the city if you are quite done here. My work does still await me..." He spoke in his usual tone, though he turned away and spoke a bit more mumbly with his last sentence.

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander blinked.

"I never thought you of all people would ever be so unprepared, Seigmand," he said slowly, glancing back out to the quarry. Granted, Alexander himself wasn't fully prepared for a demon ghost witch himself but you could bet he was going to devise a plan on his trip back home. He'd tell Zeke all about it. Afterall, he already had a zombie plan thanks to an off-hand comment made by Zeke something like a month ago.

...And now Alexander had a terrible time sleeping some nights. That was a tale for another time, though.

"What are the insides of the tunnels like, anyway? Are they scary? Are there crazy beasts in there? What happens when it rains heavily? Does the place drown?" Alexander rattled off more questions, rubbing his chin as he spoke. If for some reason Seigmand hadn't guessed it, Alexander really wasn't using much for logic at the moment but rather speaking off of the top of his head. This wasn't a serious business meeting so he wasn't worried.