"So Maelcrux is the one you wish to fight," the dragon deduced. "He is the dragon who took your ancestral hall."
Rory simply nodded at him.
"If that is the case, good dwarf," Ommanth said and paused for a few moments, "there is nothing I would like more than to assist you in felling him."
"Assist me?" Rory asked.
"How would you help us from in there?" Louie echoed Rory's confusion.
"Dragons like him are not fought with blades and magic," the disembodied voice replied. "They can only be destroyed with knowledge. Never was the saying 'knowledge is power' more true than when facing a dragon."
"I've already got that part covered," Rory said, dismissing the dragon's suggestion. "I know everything there is to know about silver dragons and the army that's going to fight this war is well-versed in subduing his kind."
"I do not wish to rain on your dwarven parade but since you're going to fight Maelcrux, I have to inform you. If you think a trained army of mercenaries will help you bring him down, you are sorely mistaken. It would be the end of your line."
"What do ye know about it?"
"A dragon as powerful as Maelcrux can't be defeated with an army. Not in his lair." The dragon sighed when Rory's brow twitched with anger. "You think that you'll be fighting a dragon intruder in the grand halls of your ancestral home, but what you will actually be doing is bringing a host of fighters into a silver dragon's lair. You may not like it, but that place is his now. And dragons are strongest in their lairs."
"Bullshit," Rory bellowed and threw his hands in the air. "I can walk down each and every corridor of that place with my eyes shut."
"And you will probably have to," Ommanth retorted. "Because the dragon doesn't need light in those corridors. What about the places that have since been destroyed? The holes that were opened and the ice walls that have been created?"
"And I suppose ye know of them?" Rory snorted.
"I don't. But I know enough of Maelcrux to tell you that an army can't bring him down. What you can do without an army, however, is weaken him."
"What would be the point of weakening him?" Leo asked.
"If you manage to do it..." The dragon paused for a second. "You'll be able to put him in the orb. With me."
"There it is!" Rory shouted, pointing angrily at the orb. "Took you long enough, ye slimy lizard, but you finally made your intentions known."
"Hold up, Rory," I said and tried to calm him down. "Let's see what he means by that."
"What he means?" Rory asked incredulously. "He means to trick us and get out of his orb."
"That is not possible, dwarf," Ommanth said, sounding exasperated.
"Why should we trust you?" I asked.
"While I can't leave the orb, there is a way I can be free," Ommanth said, and then hurried to continue before Rory exploded again. "Death would be my freedom."
The words lingered in the air as we all considered what the dragon had just said.
"This is the only freedom my morals would allow," he added after a couple of seconds. "If an evil dragon is locked with me in the orb and kills me, my soul will finally be free to travel to the realm of Bahamut."
"Why does it have to be an evil dragon?" Louie asked.
"This orb is only able to imprison dragons," Ommanth explained. "That means only a dragon can come in and set me free from these mortal shackles. And I would rather spend an eternity of solitude rather than have a good dragon deprived of their freedom in such a vile way. Believe me when I say this, good dwarf. I want to help you so that I may be free. I beg of you, let me help you and don't try to kill the dragon yourself. An eternity in this orb is a far worse punishment for his deeds than any death, no matter how excruciating."
"Damn ye, dragon," Rory said, looking like he was honestly considering it.
"We don't need to decide now," I suggested, looking between the orb and Rory, "but it won't hurt to hear what he has to say."
"Yeah, Rory," Louie agreed. "Let's get all the information so we... so you can make an educated decision."
"Fine," Rory said finally. "What do ye have to suggest, dragon?"
"An army would only serve to alert him to your presence," Ommanth said. "What you need is to be covert, so a small group would be best."
"A small group against a dragon that normally requires an army?" I blurted before Rory had the chance to do so. "How in the hell is that going to work?"
"Remember that you don't have to kill him. Only weaken him," the dragon replied. "Now tell me, good dwarf. Isn't it true that most dwarven clans build their halls in the bowels of mountains for a reason?"
"Of course," Rory replied with pride. "We've got everything we need in there. Minerals. Metals. Gems. And great fires to work them into anything we put our minds to."
"You still don't see where I'm going with this, do you?" Ommanth teased. "These great fires come from the heart of the mountain. But what lies there?"
"A greater magma elemental," Rory said, starting to understand the dragon's logic.
"And like most of these elementals, this one also yearns to break free every so often. But you kept it in place, didn't you? You sated its hunger."
"You mean your hall is inside an active volcano?" I asked. "And the elemental wants to erupt?"
"Yes, but our furnaces and forges always burned," Rory agreed. "We used its power to create things."
"You had an unspoken agreement," Ommanth said. "One that Maelcrux has no doubt abandoned."
"Then why is it not erupting?" I followed up.
"He is a dragon of frost," Ommanth explained. "My guess is that he has trapped the elemental in magical ice. And as long
