The dwarven special forces made their way to the gate and explained their situation to the goblin guards, speaking in fluent Goblin. The guards clearly hadn’t been expecting to see dwarves of all things, and their eyes went wide with surprise. But to their credit, they didn’t nock arrows or raise weapons. Instead, one of them told the group to wait, then ran off, presumably to inform whoever was in charge.
Watching the exchange unfold, Linden felt a cautious sense of relief. Not bad. If they meant to treat us as enemies, they wouldn’t bother reporting anything; they’d just attack.
Minutes passed. Then, with a deep creak, the gates began to open.
“Come in!” a voice called out. “We’ll treat the wounded!”
Yes! Linden clenched a fist at his side in a subtly triumphant gesture. Looks like we’re in.
With Rumalus, still injured but stable, supported between two teammates, the unit filed into the settlement. From the outside, the high stone walls had offered no hint of what lay within. But as Linden stepped past the threshold and caught his first glimpse of the interior, he stopped in his tracks.
This… was no mere goblin camp.
The buildings were cleanly constructed, well-maintained, and surprisingly sophisticated. The streets were orderly, and the goblins themselves, whom he had expected to be filthy, primitive creatures, were dressed neatly and moved with purpose. Their civilization might not have rivaled dwarven craftsmanship, but it was far beyond what he’d imagined. Not savage monsters, but people. A functioning society.
The surprises didn’t end there. As they followed their goblin guide deeper into the town, Linden began noticing other races, ones that had no business coexisting peacefully with goblins. A towering orc lumbered past, exchanging nods with a group of passing Imps. An Alraune woman tended to a flowerbed outside what looked like a communal hall. Even stranger, a hulking insectoid creature—some sort of humanoid ant—walked casually among them, completely unbothered by its neighbors.
Linden couldn’t help himself. He turned to their goblin escort and asked the question that had begun to burn in his chest: “What… is this place?”
The goblin glanced back with a grin. “Used to be just a goblin village. Then a human showed up. Thanks to him, the place grew, welcomed other races, and now it’s a real town. Bustling, peaceful… not bad, right?”
A human did this? Built a community where goblins, orcs, and Imps live side by side?
Linden’s mind raced. He’d never heard of anything like it. Dwarves rarely involved themselves with the outside world, but as part of a special operations unit, he had access to intelligence most of his kind never saw. And this was new. Unprecedented.
If we ignore places like this… we might not be prepared when the world changes around us. No… it has already changed.
Even for Linden, one of the most well-informed dwarves in the kingdom, a man trusted with knowledge of the outside world, what he was seeing here defied belief. He had heard rumors, read reports, even studied ancient outpost records, but not once had he come across anything like this: a thriving, multi-species settlement born from a goblin village.
Still, awe wouldn’t help him find who he was looking for. As he moved through the streets, his sharp eyes scanned the crowd, searching for any sign of Mimi. But no matter how closely he looked, she was nowhere to be found.
Eventually, the group was guided into a large building, where Rumalus was promptly laid out and treated. A goblin healer worked swiftly, applying salves and bandages with practiced efficiency.
“Looks like the wound wasn’t as deep as we feared,” the goblin muttered in Goblin. “He’ll pull through.”
The special forces bowed their heads in gratitude. Whatever they’d expected from this strange town, kindness hadn’t been high on the list.
Then, just as the atmosphere began to relax, a calm, graceful voice spoke from the side. An Alraune had entered the chamber, her expression curious but not hostile.
“You appear to be dwarves,” she said. “May I ask why you were found collapsed outside the gates of Beresdral?”
Linden’s gaze sharpened. There it is. A chance to learn what they know.
“We were actually searching for a certain dwarf woman…” he began carefully.
“Mimi, you mean?” the Alraune asked, tilting her head as though the answer had been obvious from the start.
The name came from the Alraune’s mouth before Linden could finish his sentence. His composure cracked.
“You know her?!” he blurted, unable to hold back the rush of relief and disbelief. His voice came out louder than intended, raw with urgency. After all the uncertainty, all the searching, this was confirmation. She’d been here. They’d found the right place.
Then it’s true. Lady Mimi made it to this town alive. And judging by their reaction to us, they must have helped her as well.
Linden quickly gathered himself, choosing his next words with the utmost care. If he played this right, they might learn where she’d gone and whether she was safe.
“The Mimi you helped is no ordinary dwarf. She’s our princess. We are knights sworn to her service, and we’ve been scouring the forest ever since she went missing.”
The Alraune tilted her head slightly, as if pondering the weight of that revelation. But to Linden’s surprise, she didn’t seem suspicious. If anything, she accepted the story without resistance.
“I see… that explains a great deal,” the Alraune murmured, her leafy lashes lowering as she considered his words with quiet understanding.
“Then, where is she now?” Linden asked, trying to keep the edge of urgency out of his voice.
“She’s not here,” the Alraune replied evenly. “But I can tell you she’s safe.”
“She’s not here?” Linden repeated, his voice catching as if the weight of those words had knocked the air from his lungs. The words had struck like a hammer, and Linden felt the ground shift beneath his feet. Not here? But where else could she have gone? He had imagined a joyful reunion, answers, clarity. Instead, uncertainty returned, harsher now for having been momentarily lifted.
“Do you know where she went?” Linden asked, his voice quiet but insistent.
“I wasn’t told the exact destination,” the Alraune replied, gently but without leaving room for doubt. “I understand you’re worried about not being able to see her, but the people traveling with her… they’re very strong. There’s no chance Mimi will come to harm. You don’t need to be concerned.”
That was hardly reassuring. Strength alone didn’t guarantee her safety; in fact, it complicated things. If her escorts were truly that powerful, it meant Mimi’s survival was more certain… but if they did find her, it would also be much harder to eliminate her.
Linden felt the walls closing in around him. This wasn’t going to be easy.
He pressed forward, hoping to glean something, anything, useful. “Why did she leave in the first place?”
“I believe it was to… break a curse? No, wait… not break it. Prove that it wasn’t a curse at all. That it was actually a blessing.”
“A blessing?” Linden echoed, struggling to keep his voice neutral. “You’re saying she left to prove that what we’ve called a curse… was really a blessing?”
The Alraune nodded, not unkindly. “That’s right. From what I heard, she was nearly executed because of it. If the curse was a lie, that’s an injustice. Surely you believe she wasn’t cursed either; after all, you’ve come this far to find her.”
“Y-Yes,” Linden replied, forcing emotion into his voice. “It’s unforgivable, what the kingdom did…”
He delivered the line with a carefully measured tremor, enough to sound heartfelt without giving himself away. If the Alraune suspected him of lying, it didn’t show.
Once the conversation ended, Linden turned back to his team, none of whom understood Goblin, and relayed everything in low, clipped Dwarvish. One by one, their expressions hardened.
“Is it possible she’s lying?” one of them asked, frowning.
“It’s not impossible…” Linden replied cautiously. “But if she is, that would mean she doesn’t trust us. And if that’s the case, getting the truth from her, or anyone here, won’t be easy. Still, she offered quite a bit of detail. My gut tells me she was being honest.”
Another dwarf leaned forward. “This whole ‘blessing-not-a-curse’ angle… Could that help us figure out where she went?”
“It might, but it’s thin,” Linden muttered, crossing his arms. “If her goal is to prove it’s a blessing, she’ll eventually return to Crystia; that’s unavoidable. But the evidence she needs? She could be searching for it anywhere. There’s no guarantee she stayed in the kingdom to find it.”
The group fell silent, the weight of the situation sinking in.
After a long pause, Linden straightened and spoke with quiet resolve.
“For now, there’s only one path forward. We leave the town, pick up her trail, and track her down. It’s the only option we have.”
They thanked the Alraune one last time before taking their leave, Linden assuring her that he would place his trust, at least for now, in the news that Lady Mimi was safe. When she offered to let them stay in town a while longer, just in case Mimi returned, Linden politely declined. There were no guarantees she would ever come back here. If she succeeded in gathering proof, there was every chance she would head straight to Crystia to clear her name.
There was no time to wait.
The gates closed behind them with a low rumble of stone and iron. Outside, a silence settled over the group. Then, from behind Linden, Rumalus spoke hesitantly, his voice low and troubled.
“Captain… if it’s really true that Lady Mimi left town to prove her curse is a blessing… then doesn’t that mean she was never cursed to begin with?”
Linden didn’t turn around. His voice, when it came, was cold steel.
“Don’t finish that thought,” Linden said sharply, not even turning to face him. His voice was clipped, authoritative, and unyielding. “It’s not our place to ask questions.”
“But—” Rumalus started, his voice catching, uncertainty and guilt warring behind his eyes.
“Our duty isn’t to decide what’s right or wrong,” Linden cut in, each word deliberate, final. “We were given a mission. We see it through. Nothing more.”
The words cut off any argument before it could form. Rumalus lowered his gaze, his jaw clenched tight as he bit down on whatever doubts remained. He knew better than to push back.
Without another word, the team spread out along the perimeter of the gate. Before long, they discovered traces: faint scuffs in the dirt, broken grass stalks, the telltale imprint of recent travel. The trail was old but not lost. Without looking back, Linden motioned forward.
“Let’s move. We follow her path, wherever it leads.”
And so, the dwarven special forces disappeared into the forest, their mission far from over.