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"Leon, leon..... yeah, that's fine, we'll come with you that far, but who is this friend?" Dietrich said.
Rufus looked at Dietrich with a strange expression. He didn't quite understand what his friend was on about.
"You'll find out when we get there lad."
Morangul heard the voices.
Oh yes, he heard the voices; and no, he didn't see anyone.
Too bad Morangul wasn't in the mood for mind games.
"I've had enough surprises for now! First it was nature-loving elves, and now its disembodied voices!
You will reveal yourself, whether you like it or not!"
And with that, Morangul brought forth another fireball into his hand, which he tossed straight up in the air.
It detonated 20 feet above them, bathing the nearest trees in flames, and lighting the whole area.
Morangul was quite shocked at what he saw.....
Alaria quickly shouted out in an incomprehensible language, and the horses skidded to a halt, surprising both the man and the woman.
"You haven't told me what a dwagon is yet," Alaria mumbled.
"It doesn't matter, no-one's seen one in a hundred years!" Alyssa shot back, angrily. She gave a short wail which shocked both the fey and Guantano, and before they had blinked, an arrow was pointing at Alaria and Alyssa was again in control of her horse, spurs at the ready. "If you want companions, you need to treat them better than this." She nodded towards her horse. "And if you're looking for a horse to steal you've walked into the wrong couple. We could chop you to mutton before you could object. Now get out of my way or explain yourself, properly. Then, I might answer your questions!"
The arrival of the elf-like creature had thrown their plans for a quick get-away, and Guantano had to grip the reins tightly to avoid losing his balance. Well aware of the fire balls flying through the air behind them, and suspicious of the whole situation, Guantano followed suit and drew his sword. "Be quick about this elf, if you wish to distract us for an ambush you would be sorely mistaken." With an arrow at her throat, and a sword ready to dice her up, Alaria looked distinctly uncomfortable.
...because Morangul saw nothing at first. That is, nothing but trees and that the fire spell, although it did light the area, wasn't quite as bright as the Lich remembered it to be. While he was still wondering about that he heard the voice right behind him.
"I'm right here."
Both Morangul and the Borian spun around and saw the red clothed figure that rode past them on the giant's shoulder a few hours back, standing right next to their campfire. His sharp eyes narrowed on Morangul again and again the Lich felt as if they were piercing right into his soul. "I know who you are, Lich, and soon Lord Vayne will know too."
Tawariell remained sceptical as the druid explained his desire, his wish to truly become one with nature in all her beauty; she knew what he meant, her own life having been devoted to such pursuits since her departure from Aeglerona, but she couldn't find a way to explain the bond that she and Raina had formed over the years without frustrating him further.
"I'm afraid that I cannot give you what you seek, taur'amandil," she responded softly, "I believe that the bond Raina and I share is unique."
She turned her attention northwards, her gaze falling upon Leon once more; the town's walls had since been surrounded by the army and were buckling under the strain of the assault, and yet Tah momentarily found herself admiring the tenacity of the town's defenders, before reminded herself that they were humans and had probably earned themselves whatever hardship they were currently facing. She shook her head solemnly.
"It would appear that there was some truth in the abomination's words."
And still the Lord of Leon was standing atop the gatehouse, immovable and unmoved. The defeat was certain. Leon had no means to answer such an attack, there were no siege engines or weapons that could retaliate at this range. After all, the army that was supposed to protect the lands of Lassara was facing them out there. The ones whose aid they would seek in the case of an attack were the attackers. Perhaps it would have gone different if they had dared to sally. Perhaps they could have surprised the enemy, taking out their long range weaponry and forcing them into a siege. Perhaps they could have waited for help to come in this event but Nias made no such move. He stared at the enemy lines right until the end, right until suddenly he felt a stinging pain in his side and reached down, only to see his hand covered in blood, his own blood. He looked to his side and saw his captain, the commander of his forces had turned on him. There were no last words as the lifeless body hit the floor and right away the captain gave orders to wave the white flag and offer surrender. Moments later the attack had stopped and two satisfied demons were leading the Lassaran army into the broken city of Leon. And so ended the short reign of Lord Nias, ruler of Leon.
This was it. This was the moment Frijyk had been waiting for. He was now face to face with one of the demons who he had seen before, the same demons who had driven his people into hiding. He had not expected it to come so soon. He was not ready yet. But he could not shirk the opportunity. He kept his sword raised, but he extinguished the flame in his left hand and spoke to the demon, who had its attention turned to Morangul at the moment.
"Demon! Tell me, how long have you served this Vayne?"
Alaria looked confused for a moment, and then a hint of annoyance began to creep into her eyes. "Fine then," Alaria muttered. "I'll find out some other way."
Alaria waved her hand towards the two people in front of her... and then vanished.
Annoyed the demon turned his gaze towards the Borian and shook his head, like an elderly man who had to correct a young child.
"I was not talking to you, youngling, and you should be thankful that I do not see you as a threat. Now stay out of this and let us more experienced talk. You cannot even imagine the time I have spent serving Lord Vayne and I would assume you judge the one you're travelling with as a much younger being than what he is. He's actually much older than he looks, even though that's hard to believe." A loud chuckle escaped the demon's throat and he returned his attention to Morangul. "Now listen, Lich. I would suggest you stay out of our affairs as even you do not understand what you are facing. Find a place to live, outside of our sphere of interest, I hear northern Tarania is a nice place for someone who doesn't really feel the cold."
Alyssa lowered her bow. "We should continue, I don't want to linger here in case what it said about huge creatures turns out to be true." They spurred their horses and continued south. Alyssa shook her head, "this really is the strangest of times," she said.
Sheathing his sword, Guantano nodded, and the pair made their way with added haste south, eager to move away from where the elf might be. The afternoon sun shone brightly in the sky, and Guantano raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his brow. They would take a breather once they had gotten some distance on the army at Leon.
"Oh, I know very well what I am facing, dog of Vayne! Run home to your master,
tell him that Morangul has returned, and to expect the bite of a Shard Weapon upon his neck!"
And with that, Morangul cast a bolt of lightning at Irigo, which was easily dodged by the demon.
"Fool!" The demon snarled, "You could have been spared destruction, but now you will be crushed like everyone else!"
Morangul laughingly replied, "I'd like to see you try! Now begone!"
And with that, the demon vanished, making the area much brighter, as if a
shade had been removed from the burning trees. In the distance, Morangul and Frijyk
hear the crashes of the demon's giant companion begin to move again.
Morangul quickly put the fires out, turned to Frijyk, and said, "We shall stay here for the night;
we can easily follow their trail in the morning."
Alain nodded at Dietrich and while he got up he replied: "Rufus is right, you'll see when we get there. Now I think you should try to get some sleep. We will be riding all day tomorrow and Rufus, you're up holding watch after midnight."
Most of the camp lay in silent talk, the two guardsmen were eyeing the stranger and Rufus, probably discussing what danger came from them and Alain just got up and walked over to them and Drax. Only Glungurd was sitting next to the fire with no one to talk to until the princess sat down next to him.
"Thank you for your company today, Glungurd. I know it must have been a hard day for you, riding for the first time." She smiled and looked at the Odglok, "I haven't answered your question before but to be honest, it's hard to explain. I have to care for my people. As princess it is my place to lead them and make sure they are doing well. Now someone else wants to take that place and I fear he will try to harm them more than help them and since I am still the princess, he wants to kill me, because only then he will be able to really take my place."
***
In the middle of the night one of the sailors entered the cabin they had brought Thomas in to rest and woke up Gilford. "Master knight! You'll want to see this." With that he ran out again and Gilford slowly got up from his seat, next to Thomas' bed and went out. The night was red and in the distance they saw the flames where once was Tar Cantun. Only few ships were crossing the bay to the mainland, one had already reached the coast and Gilford went down to talk to one of the survivors.
"It was terrible. They are razing the city, not conquering it. They are burning everything to the ground, killing all they can reach, very few have reached the harbour before it was destroyed and I don't think anyone who is still on the island will survive this attack..." He went on, describing the whole attack. It seemed the demons' flying fortress had hovered over the city while magical lighting and fire poured down onto it, arrows were shot and demons entered the streets. The pagic projectiles had destroyed most of the building and set on fire what was inflammable. Tar Cantun was no more.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Glungurd nodded to the princess, pretending to fully comprehend her significance. He wasn't sure why a person, who was supposedly able to take care of many others, needed to be taken care of by Glungurd and the rest of the company. But he had become used to not understanding things lately and was content to trust the princess's words. Gazing into the warm fire brought him thoughts of the warmth and comfort of his cave dwelling back home. But he shook these thoughts away, determined to forget such longings until his current task was completed. "So we are going to kill the other person? The one who wants to take your place?" Glungurd asked.
The princess sighed and stared into the fire, along with the Odglok for a moment and then returned her gaze to him. "I think we have to, yes. But he has brought even more dangerous people to help him. They are the ones we really need to fight and we are on our way to find out how we can accomplish that." After a few moments her smile had returned to her face. "And with a might warrior like yourself on our side, what could possibly stand in our way?"
Though the princess's question was rhetorical, Glungurd became quite nervous as he thought of all the things that might seriously threaten their lives. He had only witnessed a few demons, having been imprisoned during most of Lassara's invasion, but he found them terrifying. They reminded him of his own race's legends. Stories told of horrible creatures encountered deep underground by Odgloks who had mined into veins of mysterious ore, or tunneled their way into spaces already inhabited. But again he stopped his mind from focusing on anything other than his new commitment. He forced a reassuring smile and nodded to the princess.
But the question had given him some serious doubt. He looked around at the other men in their company. They all carried bladed weapons of steel and were adorned in varying degrees of armor. He had an over-sized hammer and a sack of stones. It was becoming glaringly obvious that what constituted a warrior in his own society was vastly distant from the standards of Men. Again, Glungurd countered his fear. He knew he was brave, he knew he was tough, and he knew he was stronger than the others in their company, despite his inferior stature. He figured he would have to rely on those qualities if he was going to defend the party (or himself for that matter).
"What do you think about the other folks who are protecting you?" Glungurd asked the princess. Alain was obviously capable of handling himself, but Indax seemed more nervous than the Odglok. Rufus and Dietrich were also big question marks to Glungrud at this point.
The princess thought about that question herself for a moment. Obviously she knew, she could trust Alain and she had no doubt about the other guardsmen either. But what about the mercenaries, bandits and the young boy who was wanted for murder? She felt something about Drax. Something insides of him was haunting him yet he was hiding a strength that would break free at some point. She had also heard the story of Rufus and this new mercenary, Dietrich, seemed to be involved too. The princess felt genuinely sorry for what had happened to these scouts and deep inside she had already started to make plans for reforms, that would avoid such things in the future but that would have to wait until she was restored to her throne.
"Well, a merry group we have thrown together here", she smirked and looked around, "they are all strong, each in their own way. Some carry a strength they themselves do not know yet. Some are seeking vengeance for a past and seem to forget the future over it but I trust Lassa, she is one of your gods, to lead us. We are all here for a reason, or at least that is what us clerics are taught."
It was now almost evening, the midday sun's glare had faded into a dull glow by now, and the parting rays of sunlight illuminated their path. Riding onwards, Guantano glanced at his side. Alyssa remained focused, and had not called for a stop yet. He shrugged, unwilling and too tired to bother attempting to convince her of the need of a break like the other occasion. Raising a hand to wipe away the sweat on his brow, he gazed into the distance and beheld a strange sight. Two elves stood by the roadside conversing, a feline of some sorts by one of their sides. Alyssa mirrored his curiosity, and they both spurred their tired mounts on, anxious to discover what was going on. Magical bombardment, annoying elf-like creature talking of dragons, and now two elves and a large feline by the roadside, not in the forest! It looked like Lassara had changed a lot since he had last went on a journey, mused Guantano.
Riding closer, it appeared that a male elf was conversing to a female elf, speaking in common no less! Oddities abound indeed. Slowing his horse, Guantano was the first to shift himself off the horse, boots impacting the ground with a dull thud. Alyssa followed suit shortly thereafter, and the duo approached the pair, one of whom was leaning on the tree. The feline bared its fangs towards them, a dull growl echoing forth from it. The two elves ceased their conversation and turned to face them. Apprehensive of the feline's action and what seemed to be a tense situation, Guantano made the effort despite his weariness to sound welcoming and polite.
"Greetings, what brings two elves such as yourselves out of the northern forestland?" He asked, his palms faced outwards to indicate that he meant no harm.
Thomas woke to the sound of scratching, an incessant rhythm that gnawed at him, nagged at him, pulling his mind out of sleep as roughly as a crone pulling string from wool, bits at a time, those wits told him he was lying on a hard bed with a headache like a poker in his brain, he wasn’t likely to be going anywhere soon. As he pulled his senses together he opened his eyes and saw a grey moon with a black jagged edge and seven white stars rested on its dark edge as it danced on a sky of black and brown. After a few seconds he had regained enough wits to notice it was a particularly dusty chandelier hanging from a set of rafters that housed a prodigious amount of spiders. And it wasn’t dancing, that was the room spinning.
He tried to pull his hands to his head but found he couldn’t budge and the attempt left his mind reeling and sent the room into a spin that would make a gymnast blush. After a few seconds the room returned to a slower spin from sickening to merely disorienting. Unable to move even his head Thomas lay in his bed brooding on the events of the last few days and trying to ignore the headache and unbearable amount of itching in his arms and nose until after closing his eyes for a few seconds falling asleep.
Thomas woke again an unknown time later to the same scratching this time the moon wasn’t dancing and his headache had gone enough for him to think straight and even turn his head, which was something.
He was in some sort of room, the walls were of old looking wood and there wasn’t a ceiling just rafters and the underside of a thatch roof, the seven stars had extinguished leaving a great amount of wax caked on points on the rim of the moon. Looking to his left he could see a tall wall of shelves with a large amount of bottles and jars of coloured glass, some containing innocent looking liquid but the majority had a number of beans, eggs and powders. Or at least he hoped they were beans and eggs as on second glance there were a number of jars containing pickled snakes, frogs, insects, eels, and several other creatures he couldn’t identify.
To his right was a wooden chest of drawers. There was nothing odd about that. If only he could say the same for the things sitting on top of the drawers. On the drawers someone had decided to mount a sword, a helmet, a skeletal hand that was covered with scratches and one of the fingers were missing.
And a severed head.
Attachment 1586
With that he pissed himself and fainted.
After the demon had left, Frijyk looked back at Morangul. He was nearly fuming from the demon's taunting words, and now turned his worsened attitude on his ally.
"Why did you let him escape? We should have fought him right there! The next time we see him, he'll probably have that other giant one with him... that might've been our only chance to fight them alone, split apart!"
"Don't be foolish, Frijyk! I may be powerful, but that demon
was as well. We would not have left that battle unscathed.
Besides, that "giant" was actually a golem, and they are notorious
for being extremely resistant , if not immune, to magic. Calm yourself down, and listen to me!
It would be unwise to keep following them."
Seeing Frijyks anger rise again, Morangul quickly added, "We must find a weapon of Neril if we are to fight them."
The wizard's words made sense to Frijyk. He reasoned that the old mage probably had some prior experience with them. He felt his anger cooling, and he was slipping back into his normal temperament.
"I suppose you're right... still, resistant to magic or not, I do hope you can teach me some new tricks and technique. Who is this 'Neril' you speak of, and why do we need his weapons?"
The second time was somewhat easier, since the last time the sheets had been replaced and a now stable vision helped. More of Thomas’ strength had returned and the itching had eased off. Even the head had become easier to view though it still gave him a chill as he looked at it.
The skeletal hand had lost another finger. The scratching was still there through.
After a few minutes of brooding Thomas sat up in the bed and backed up to sit against the headboard. His right arm was wrapped in bandages, he couldn’t feel his hand. He looked to the other side of the room to a desk up against the far wall under the window where a small figure sat on a tall chair his presence betrayed only by the sheen from a bald head just visible over the back rest.
“Where am I?” said Thomas.
The scratching paused for a second then resumed as a rough voice answered.
“In my bloody bed.”
“Oh, and you are?”
“Almost finished, stop bothering me.”
Thomas swallowed the next question and started to examine his bandages. His elbow bended easily but for some reason he couldn’t twist his forearm. The forearm was thinner than he remembered and seemed shorter. A wave of dizziness washed over him. The hand seemed to be missing altogether. Thomas’ heart started to pound as he started to rip at the cloth wrapped around his arm.
“Just noticed did yer?” The man asked not turning from the desk “Do yerself a favour and take yer medicine before doing that.”
Thomas paused and looked around. A stool had been pulled up to the left of the bed. A tray had been placed on top, its contents; 2 pieces of bread and a yellow bottle.
Thomas made a small prayer that the bottle wasn’t like the ones on the wall, pulled it to his lips and drank. A familiar feeling of wellness spread through his body as all the aches faded and his head cleared. It was a restoration potion like the ones on The Silver Maiden.
His head cleared Thomas returned to the bandages and unwrapped down to the elbow. The bandages became loose and with a flick the sheets of linen fell off.
Underneath two white bones sprouted from his elbow.
Thomas stared at what remained of his forearm for what felt like days, transfixed, unable to move or speak just stare in bile fascination.
“Hey lad” The rough voice snapped Thomas out of his fixation “think of a hand and say ‘le’”
“W-what?”
“Think of a hand and say ‘le’”
“What happened to my arm?”
“A curse took the flesh of the bone. Now think of a hand and say ‘le’”.
“...”
“Come on lad say ‘le’”
“...le”
He heard a clicking sound
“Right. Now say think of a hand and say ‘tm’ ‘en’ and ‘tr’”
“...Tm” another click “En, Tr.”
He heard a whooshing sound and then two clack sounds to his right. Looking at the draws he saw the hand had regained two fingers.
“What was that?”
“Progress” The man hopped off the chair and walked over to the bed.
Now Thomas had a clear look the man deemed to be a rather ordinary dwarf, about 4 foot tall the man stood in breeches, a white tunic, leather boots and a brown waist jacket. His head was bald but he had a white beard that stretched down his chest, on a large nose sat a pair of golden spectacles magnified two chestnut eyes and his face and hands were wrinkled. He was quite portly yet he looked like he had some muscle underneath the girth and he didn’t seem to have problems manoeuvring.
“OK lad, this will be quite a jolt but try not to piss yerself. Think of a hand and say ‘Redghast’”
“Uh... OK, Redghast-Gah!”
The entire skeleton hand shot from its stand and flew at Thomas, he scrabbled backwards to avoid it but the hand planted itself on the end of the bony end of his forearm.
“Heh, say hello to your new hand lad.”
Thomas held up the bone limb and tried moving it. The hand clenched into a hollow fist.
“Wh-what happened?”
“Well yer big friend said to include all the bells and whistles so I gave you the ability to detach and reattach each bone at will, wait I got a chart” The dwarf produced a piece of parchment, on it was a diagram of a skeletal hand. Each bone had a different letter written on them. “See each letter correspond to each bone if you want to attach or detach a different joint just say the two letters in one word, the letters in alphabetical order, and they will either zoom to eachother or drop to the floor. And Redghast is the reset word, say it and they'll all either fall off or reatach.”
Thomas took the sheet
“Thanks but I was talking about how I got here”
“Oh. Well yer were hit by a nasty curse that made your arm rot, by the time yer friend carried you to my shop the only thing keeping yer hand together was a few pieces of sinew. Standard procedure was to cut it off and cast regenerate, but for some reason only the bones grew back. After a few tries nothing could be done so yer friend decided to at least give you back use of your hand. So some runes on each bone and a set on your temple to make a connection between your brain and the arm and we were in business.”
‘Big friend?’ That would be Gilford he guessed.
Thomas turned his hand around examining the gaps between the bones. The bones didn’t seem to be held together by anything. There was a gap between the hand and the arm bones yet his hand didn’t fall off but hovered in place.
He reached over to the pieces of bread and picked one up with his bone hand. The bread fell almost instantly back to the plate. He frowned and tried picking up the bottle, this time trying to keep a better grip of the glass. The bottle fractured between his finger and thumb.
“Yer going to have to get used to that, without skin to feel with yer have no senses to tell you how to maintain pressure without crushing things. I’d suggest a padded glove and learning to use yer left hand.”
Kyran paced southwards. The elven woman was still obstinate about his proposal. Now, these humans had the gall to intervene on their conversation. Pulling back up, he decided on a new approach. Perhaps "resetting" the conversation was in order. In lieu of a 'yes' to his demand, perhaps a name would get things on track. Ignoring the humans, Kyran chose to converse in his own elven, if for no other reason to keep them clueless.
"Mani naa essa en lle?" he posed to the woman. "Amin naa Kyran."
He turned back to the humans. He gave just the slightest of nods to indicate he had heard the male. "Curiosity, one might say," he responded, turning his head slightly to indicate the human city in the distance, which appeared to have succumbed quickly to the invaders. "Do you know what happened to the city?"
Alyssa's courser trotted slowly forward, and she appeared next to Guantano. She was still holding her axe in one hand, hanging down passively but at the ready at a moment's notice.
"It was attacked by a host of demons led by the ancient enemies of Lassara and is at the moment, I suspect, succumbing to fiery death and destruction."
She had made her voice flat on purpose and sounded as if she was carelessly conversing about the weather. She turned her head to Guantano.
"Don't you think we should get going? These elves are not a problem unless they have half a mind to squeal about our passing by, and I can't see who'd be interested in knowing that anyway. Not enough to try and question an elf, at least."
She turned back to the elf who had spoken.
"You speak with a strange accent. It is so far from the High Elven I recall from my school days. From where do you hail?"
When the dwarf had finished detailing the new features of the new hand and left the room to fetch some cleric Thomas sat in bed staring at his bony appendage.
The runes scratched over the surface of each finger were magically strengthening the hand to the point where it could stand a mountain landing on it. Also the strength the runes that moved the fingers with were limitless, so when he squeezed hard on an object the pressure would build and build until the either the bone shattered or the object broke; as the tray his medicine had arrived on found out.
He made a note to make sure he didn’t step on the splinters still littered the floor when he would leave.
Thomas looked to the right and stared at the head, ignoring the shivers crawling down his back.
“Enego” he mumbled to himself, the voice had called the demon that, a scrawny devil that enjoyed pain. Even its features seemed animalistic. He looked to the helmet lying next to the head. How had he fit his head into that?
“Ugly little blighter isn’t he?” A voice asked
Thomas turned his head, the door at the end of the left wall was opened and another dwarf was standing under the frame. He looked alot like the runesmith but had a head of faded red hair, a patchy beard and was wearing long (for a dwarf) blue linen robes.
“Still, not as ugly as his choice of curses, would have taken your entire body if it had been any quicker acting.”
“Who are you?”
“Rorek SoftChisel at your service, you’ve met my Brother; Kaz. Please don’t be offended by his manner he’s a bit impatient.” The dwarf walked to the end of the bed.
“Softchisel? I know dwarf names are weird but that seems odd by even your standards, no wonder he seemed annoyed.”
The dwarf frowned.” Your name’s not exactly up to snuff itself. Targryn, why you would want to be called a sticky tunnel worm is not any of my business.”
Thomas turned his nose at the dwarf, “Huh, the Targryn name is the second most coveted name in the realm, any lord would marry even the ugliest of cousins for the smallest chance to get into my family.”
Rorek grinned “Well it’s none of my business what you people would do for a silly name though why you would want one that is so obviously a mangling of the name of gnome hero Tar-Grin is beyond my comprehension.”
Thomas’ face went red “I’ll have you know The Targryn Name is as old as Lassara.”
“The Gnome’s tale is over a thousand years old. You humans ripped it off.”
“Why you- Gah!” Thomas vaulted off the bed. He then jumped back onto it clutching his foot. The dwarf burst out giggling as Thomas gingerly pried a wooden tray splinter from his foot.
“Ha ha! Next time you might want to refrain from criticising your healer’s name. Heh, oh, you must have gotten along famously with Kaz, wish I had been there to see it. Still you seem to be fine, your friend will be relieved, he’s been pacing at my front desk for hours. “
The dwarf helped Thomas get dressed and after a few minutes found a bag to carry the sword, helmet and head.
“Whose idea was it to leave the head of the thing that took my arm by my bed? It nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Oh, I was using him to try and reverse the curse and I needed some place to put it.” Rorek handed the sack to Thomas who flinched.
“Ok fine, but right beside me? And why do you think I want to have the head?”
“I’m sure you can find a use for it,” Rorek moved towards the door. “Now come on, someone else might need to use this room.”
The stepped out into a long hallway, the room Thomas had been in was at the end of a row of 7 doors and there were windows on the opposite wall. At one end was another door, the other an open doorway gave Thomas a glimpse of a workshop but the Dwarf walked towards the nearest one and opened it to reveal a store front room.
They stepped through into the back of the store, it was an apothecary shop reminiscent of the one Gilford had looted in Lassara, along the walls were more shelves of bottles jars and tins, all labelled, and across the floor were several tables laden with more jars. On the far wall were two large windows separated by a door, beyond a crowded street bustling with townsmen and women going around their business, it was light but rather sullen the sky was overcast. To the right was a till, a wooden desk with a large book and a raised platform behind it. On the platform was the Dwarf Kaz pouring over the book and opposite him was Gilford leaning over the desk with a rather stiff expression on his face.
Gilford looked up and seeing Thomas his face lightened for a second before darkening again.
“You had better sit down” said Gilford “Something has happened.”
The conversations in the princess' camp went on for a while until, one by one, the members of the party were seeking sleep. It had been a long day, mostly spent on horseback and they all craved rest for their weary bodies. Guards were posted but nothing happened through the course of the night. With the first light of the sun coming up over the horizon Alain was already on his feet, getting the camp ready. "Alright, wake up!", he shouted while prodding some of those still lying on the ground with his feet.
The princess was already up as well, readying her things for the ride when the captain approached her. "Are you alright, your Majesty?"
"I thought we talked about this, my captain", the princess giggled softly and waited for him to help her into the saddle, "I am Liana, not 'your Majesty'. You're going to blow my cover, Alain."
He smiled and nodded before replying: "Are you sure about Leon? We have not succeeded in reaching the city before the army and by now the town will be under siege or already occuppied. I fear you will put yourself in a lot of danger there."
"I am more worried about what would happen if we delay our visit of Leon. We need to figure out a way to stop this. There is no telling what this flying fortress will do to the east of our country but I fear the worst and I believe the army will march further south as soon as they can arrange that. By the time we reach Leon they should be gone."
"The army will be gone, yes, but Boreale will surely leave a garrison to keep order in this newly occupied region. They will be looking for us, especially for you."
She smiled again and looked over the camp, mostly ready for the day's journey. "That's why you mustn't blow my cover", she finally replied, almost jokingly and the captain retreated, shaking his head, to mount his horse. "Alright everyone, off to Leon!"
The male elf grew silent for a moment, his jaw tensing, perhaps unwilling to divulge the information so freely.
Meanwhile, Guantano inclined his head towards Alyssa, and with a very nonchalant expression, he replied, "Never underestimate the value of casual conversation, perhaps they might know some information which a typical human may not."
Reverting back to a clearer and warmer tone, Guantano repeated Alyssa's query. "Indeed, your accent escapes the recognition of even one who has passed the borders of Tarania."
Thomas sat on a chair by the window Rorek had produced and stared out the window silently. He was watching the southern sky as the furthest clouds were lit by the fires raging on his home.
The dwarves had moved to the till and were talking to Gilford.
“I’ve given him the regular strengthening runes” Kaz said ”Right now the bones should be as strong as a titan’s skull and it’s proof of pretty much everything; acid, fire and it won’t turn off if he gets hit with dispel magic; magic. His fingers are as strong as his brain tells it to be but he doesn’t have any feeling so unless he’s paying attention he could end up dropping things, or worse yet crushing them. Right now he could crush a steel helmet by squeezing too hard.”
“He also can’t maintain much of a grip with bone” Added Rorek “so we took the liberty to have a glove made with Varim sand silk, the fabric is soft on one side and rough like sand on the others so it should replicate skin.”A black glove was laid out on the desk; its palm was a yellowish brown colour and a simple iron buckle adorned the wrist. “It’s a bit rough as it was made on short notice but it should do and with a bit of padding it’ll fit the bones without being loose. For the time being he should just tighten the buckle around his wrist to keep it falling off.”
Gilford nodded. “Well, at least he won’t be scaring people with that on. How how much will this cost?”
“Not much” Replied Rorek “apparently you lot saved the entire dockyard from burning down so the basic prosthetic has been paid for by the dockmaster, the extra bits; strength, dispel proofing and element resistance, is all that’s left to be paid.”
“50 Gold.” Said Kaz
“Oh dear” Gilford rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t suppose you accept trade ins?”
“Hmm... That horn you have there, yer blew that in the street last night before running and getting the kid, what were yer expecting it to do.”
“This thing?” Gilford un-slung his horn and held it up “we got it a while ago, after we got separated in Faylen one time, it teleports Thomas to me if I lose him.” He grimaced “We could have saved more of his arm if it had worked.”
Kaz stared at him, stunned. “How the Hell did ye get something like... Give me that!”
Gilford handed the horn to the dwarf and he disappeared into the back. After a few minutes of clangs and muffled curses Kaz re-emerged with the horn red of face and panting.
“I never knew they made things like this. Do yer have any idea how much I could make with... err, never mind, this should cover it.”
“Thirty percent.”
“Eh?”
Kaz and Gilford turned to the window, Thomas was looking over his shoulder at them.
“It’s worth ten times the arm but from what you said it’s especially valuable to you, I want thirty percent of whatever profits you make out of it.”
Kaz grit his teeth. “Damn... ten percent.”
“On second thought, Gilford” Thomas unclipped and held out a yellow object to Gilford, ”take my crest to the nearest pawn shop you can find, we can pay from the money they give us for it.”
The dwarf gaped “W-wait a minute, let’s be reasonable, I’ll give yer Twenty.”
“Gilford, get going”
“Fine! Twenty five no higher!”
Thomas nodded, ”I want it in writing, signature, seal and I want the bank to witness it.”
Kaz slumped and waved his hands “Fine, fine” he sighed “Seventy five percent of Teleport runes sales will have to be enough for me”
“Don’t you mean thirty seven point five percent, Brother” The other dwarf asked.
“Damn it Rorek, don’t yer start. Bloody money grubbing kids.”
Gilford looked away from the sulking Kaz to Thomas “You’re taking this well.”
“My family didn’t get rich by being slow”
“That’s not what I meant”
Thomas shrugged “Not much I can do, homes can be rebuilt and my ‘dear’ siblings are probably on one of the ships fleeing the city, mum is with father, wherever he is. Besides,” Thomas smiled “you’d be strangling me within a week if I got mopey on you”
Gilford nodded, grabbed his things and left for the bank with the dwarf and the squire. On reflection Gilford noted that his charge’s smile was different, it was as if his eyes weren’t in it.
Kyran crouched to his knees. He stroked the grass. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, focusing on the gentle breeze across his face. The demon army. The human city, destroyed, perhaps enslaved. He thought back to his kin, far to the south. What goal did this demon army have? Do they simply want the human settlements, the concentrated pockets of wealth and property? Or did they truly want, as the lich claimed, to put everything under thumb? If the latter, his people needed to be warned. And... perhaps it was time to acknowledge his shame. If he didn't warn them, if they didn't know the army marched upon them until it was too late, if he was responsible for even more deaths....
He opened his eyes and stood straight again. He spoke to the male human. "I hail from the far south. My clan originated from near the human city of Yonal. I must ask of you. Do you know the purpose for which the army has come? Demons do not participate in ordinary human wars, do they?"
"The demons I know of are more interested in bringing eternal torment and killing anything that screams when you hurt it", Alyssa snapped. "We do not know specifics, but they appear to have struck with immaculate timing and coordination, when all the nobles of the capital were gathered. That suggests to me that they either have been waiting for this a long time, or that they have been let to our world by ssomeone trying to control them." Guantano raised his brow; in her sour mood, he had forgotten the intellect she hid behind her venomous tongue. "Whichever it is, they are going to deal with the human cities first, but that is no guarantee that they will not come south for your kin if given the time and opportunity.
Also, it looks like many of the Lassaran soldiers have joined them. It would be in your interest to stop them, the sooner the better, before the tide of their army becomes inexorable."
The army was streaming into Leon, marching in well-dressed formations that were exposed to attacks from all directions. Clearly the city had already fallen, and quickly, despite the slim lead the Lassaran army had on their party and the stout, if damaged, walls that stood before them. Nias must have been more of a fool than I thought… He probably surrendered the city to save his miserable hide - no doubt he is now feasting with whoever is commanding the turncoat host and toasting his new overlord. Who is the traitor now? Drax thought bitterly, the memories of his last meeting with Nias still fresh in his mind.
But such thoughts were useless right now and Drax dismissed them. They had ridden hard and fast to get here, and despite the new obstacle facing them, the Princess would no doubt insist on trying to get into the city somehow to meet her mentor as soon as possible. As the only person trained in the magical arts in their little party, Drax would most likely also be dragged into whatever scheme the others cooked up.
He sighed again and guided his horse towards where the Captain was busy conferring with the Princess – whatever they are planning, Drax was determined to make sure that it at least had a small chance of success, if only to make sure he lived to see another day.
"What, have you forgotten already? Neril was the name of the blade that felled Darganta;
it is said that it was blessed by Lassa herself." At this point Morangul rolled his (illusionary) eyes and snorted.
"Anyways, after the demonic horde was sent back to their own realm, it was broken down into seven fragments,
each of which was re-forged into new weapons and spread out across the lands, to prevent great evils from
arising."
Morangul looked at Frijyk, who was staring at the trail the golem left behind.
Eventually, he looked back at Morangul, and asked; "If we were-to go find one of the
weapons, where would-we start?"
Morangul just smiled and said,"Have you ever heard of Paladins?"
Paladins?
The word did not ring a bell to Frijyk. He was unfamiliar with Lassaran culture as a whole, and would have had no way of knowing what these Paladins were. But he had been traveling the country long enough to have heard about various aspects of the culture of Lassara, even if only a few words. That he had never so much as heard the word hinted to him that Morangul's knowledge of the subject was probably reaching back centuries, and that there weren't too many people alive today with that same information. Before Frijyk responded, he considered the possibility that "Paladin" was yet another Lassaran word for "magician", just like "sorcerer", "enchanter", "lich", and the rest. He hoped it wasn't.
"I have not. These Paladins... they have one of the Shard Weapons?"
Frijyk also noticed his own speech was flowing a lot more naturally as he conversed, without many of the awkward breaks and rhythms that didn't translate well from his Borian language. While he still had the accent, he figured he was probably more understandable than he had been before. Perhaps he was just picking it up naturally now- before meeting Morangul and the others, he had not done a whole lot of talking besides what was necessary.
Kyran pointedly addressed the male, twisting his head to indicate his annoyance.
"You would be wise to tame your woman's tongue. It might get you into unneeded trouble. Now, I must ask, what is your relation to this invasion? Do you have an objective?"
Alyssa let out an ugly snort of laughter. "You assume too much, stranger. I'm not anyone's woman. But since you seem to think so highly of my esteemed companion, why don't you two exchange pleasentries while I warn the fair lady with the beast over here?"
With those words, she cut off from the discussion with Kyran and Guantano and turned towards the female elf. "Greetings, milady. I do not believe we have been introduced to each other." Her discontent with Kyran was in every word she said; It was clear that it was very much his lack of etiquette that had meant they were not introduced. "My name is Alyssa Fangstrike. Be kind and tell me yours."
At her characteristic un-ladylike reaction, Guantano's lips lifted upwards at the elf's surprised expression.
Just as Alyssa broke off the conversation, he strolled over and angled his left hand, whispering into the elf's ear. "You, my friend, would want to watch your words around her." Glancing around briefly to make sure she wasn't in earshot, he continued softly, "this one has fangs, if you get my meaning."
Turning to face the two women, Guantano could not help but smirk, Lady Fangstrike had struck again.
Alain and the princess were talking about the situation in Leon when Drax was approaching. The captain stopped in the middle of a sentence and looked over at the young guy, raising an eyebrow: "What's up?"
"I wanted to see if I can help. I know this town quite well."
"Listen, your help is appreciated, but..." He was interrupted by the sound of loud horns coming from the city as they heard the shouts from the towers. The southern gate was opening and the army was moving out, southwards. "They haven't even rested here", the princess exclaimed, looking at the walls of Leon, the town still emanating smoke from the attack although the fires had been put out by now. Alain nodded and shrugged. "It seems some our problems have just solved themselves. We will wait for them to be out and attempt to get into the city once it isn't so full any more.
Alaria fluttered over the still smoking city. Mortal world was a strange one indeed. There were firstly that strange bony man who was too young to be looking that old, a slightly less strange blue person, pointy eared folks, a brown haired annoyed woman who had a beautiful singing voice (and a strange blunt and hollow instrument), and a random guy.
And now this. Mortals...uhh... didn't really screw around when they wanted to kill each other, did they?
Alaria fluttered down towards the side of a city that looked particularly well blown-apart. The red spider that she was holding on to hissed.
"Oh come on," Alaria said. "What about your sense of adventure?"
Hiss. Creeaaaaak.
"What about your friends? We might find some of them down there."
Hiss? The spider eyed the rubble down below suspisciously. Body parts were sticking out of it all over the place.
"...Okay, you got me there."
Creak. The spider nodded triumphantly. Alaria fluttered awkwardly for a few more seconds.
"You know, I wonder how many times this happened before."
Hissssssss.
"Not that many times? I guess that makes sense than. Just my luck," Alaria sighed. "Why do things start dying wherever I go?"
Spider suddenly looked slightly nervous. Hiss? It asked.
"Oh, uh, nothing," Alaria said hurriedly.
Hiss.
"Oh hey look!" Alaria said cheerfully. "Somebody's still down there!"
Spider looked at where Alaria was pointing. She was pointing to somewhere beyong the burning city... in the forest towards the North.
Creak? The spider asked dubiously.
"Of course I am sure. I can hear them in the forest."
Spider dug into her chest. "OW!" Alaria cried out. "What's wrong?"
HISS! The spider said angrily. "Oh fine. I'll do what they are doing."
Hiss, the spider nodded.
..........................................................
Alaria quietly materialized behind the princess, disguised as an peasant girl.
"So... uh..." she said, whispering as quietly as possible as more and more people noticed her. "Umm...hello?"
The spider did an equivalent of a facepalm, which was rather difficult to do so since it was disguised as a flower box.
"That's... rather convenient." muttered Drax as he followed Alain's gaze. "Maybe it's a trap? They must know that resistance won't disappear with only a show of force."
A look at the Princess and the Captain's faces however told him that both were determined to get into the city tonight, regardless of any potential threats they might still face within the city walls. ".... But obviously we still have to get into Leon, we lost enough time already, right? In that case, could I suggest that we bring along the two mercenaries with us? I wouldn't trust them to keep our secret. If I were you that is."
The two would also serve as excellent catapult fodder for their dangerous escapade, but that needn't to be said in front of Alain, Drax thought to himself - the Captain probably has a very dim view of him already and Drax could do with less people being suspicious about his motives for almost everything he does.
With contract in hand Thomas and Gilford bid farewell to the dwarf and made their way to Birun’s dockyards and the Silver maiden. What they arrived to see wasn’t promising, the forecastle had collapsed into blackened rubble, the aftcastle had been half smashed and the main deck was littered with broken wood, though the crew had removed the bodies from the day before. They found Essa where it had been left; discarded by the rail, anyone who had touched it found themselves waking up an hour afterwards so the men had just worked around it. Thomas had stowed the blade in its sheath when the captain emerged from the lower decks, saying he was pissed would be an understatement.
“I thought you were dead.” Said Gilford
“I was!” he replied “Those demons you pulled in killed me! Worse; I lost a 5000 gold diamond to the church getting back. You’ve got 5 seconds to explain why they were after us and why I shouldn’t throw you and your damn alchemist overboard!”
Thomas looked around but couldn’t see the man “Oh, what did he do?”
“He’s cowering in the hold throwing exploding powder at anyone that goes near him, answer the question!”
“Because I have something they want.”
“What?”
Thomas drew Essa “This.”
“They wanted that? An enchanted sword’s not exactly hard to come by. Adventurers sell them every time they get a new one.”
Gilford flinched. “This is not exactly your usual magic sword it’s-“
“Wanted” Thomas interrupted “by the people in that flying castle that just flew over.” He lied, sheathing the sword.
The captain stared for a few seconds “get off my ship.”
“I paid you-”
“And you got my ship, my livelihood, smashed and burned!” The captain yelled “If there’s even a chance that there’s going to be more where the last lot came from I’m not going to have you on my ship when that happens. Get off and take your potions, alchemists and magic swords with you!”
“Huh, well seeing as your ship is unusable your services will not be needed anyway, you won’t mind giving me my money back then.”
“Piss on that! You should be glad I’m not making you pay for the repairs.”
“...”
The yelling had drawn the remains of the crew from the lower decks and they stood staring at the scene, Cedrick the wizard among them bearing another smile
“Get off my ship!”
“... Gilford strip him of all his valuables.”
“You can’t do that! This is my ship!” The captain spluttered in outrage as Gilford moved forward, pushed the captain over and started rooting through his pockets.
“You’re refusing to repay me and I don’t have the time to go through the local law, so I’m seizing your property.” Thomas frowned as Gilford handed him the captain’s purse “You seem to be short 30 gold, well then your ship’s useless and you can’t pay up I think I’ll take your crew, I assume you have contracts.”
“I’ll call the guards!”
“My father is the Lord of the man that Birun’s lord answers to so I don’t think they will help much.
“You bastard!”
“For that I’m taking the ship too. Gilford, please throw the good captain off my property.”
Gilford dragged the captain to his feet, manhandled him to the rail and threw him overboard to hit the water with a splash.
“Actually on second thought you can have the ship.” Thomas called as he leant over the rail at the struggling man, he turned to the crew who were staring dumbfounded. “Well then, as you heard I am your new employer, Ced get the alchemist out of the hold the rest of you start unloading the cargo, I've got a ship to find.”
"Paladins are, put simply, holy warriors. There was quite a large sect of them in Lassara,
in years past, but they have dwindled down to almost nothing now."
Probably due to me decimating them, Morangul thought with a grin on his face.
"However, I do know for a fact that the Paladin Order here in Lassara was in possession of
one of the shard weapons. I'm not sure where their main base of operations are currently,
but I do know for a fact that their ancient stronghold still stands."
"Surely such a structure would be nothing but rubble, or inhabited by
creatures, right?" Frijyk asked.
"The stronghold was built-and enchanted- to resist major damage, even from time itself.
There were also a great many holy wards placed to prevent intruders."
"But I wouldn't worry about that!" Morangul added, noting Frijyks dubious face.
"And why is that?"
Ever since I assaulted the stronghold and corrupted the land, the wards have allowed me to pass through,
the enchantment still holds strong for everything else, but what about a demon and a golem? Morangul thought to himself.
"Don't worry, I can 'rewrite' the wards to allow us to pass through; but for whats inside the stronghold, well,
you have a weapon for a reason!"
Frijyk considered his options at the moment. A weapon forged to kill demons would be incredibly useful for what he was trying to accomplish. If he could acquire one of them, possibly from this ancient Paladin stronghold, it would be well worth the risk involved. The problem was that even Morangul had no idea where this fortress was supposed to be. And it wouldn't make sense to wander all over Lassara looking for it; by the time they found it the demons would have already conquered the entire contitent. And the longer he waited, the longer he risked them discovering his people.
"This is good to know, but unless we can find out the location of the stronghold, it doesn't matter whether or not you can get us inside."
But from what Morangul had said about the spying demon and the golem, Frijyk was starting to think that perhaps the two demons were more than he could handle at this point. One was able to completely disorient him with a surprise arrival, while the other looked incredibly resilient and was supposedly resistant to magical attacks as well. Perhaps it was not the greatest idea to continue chasing them... at least for now.
"Morangul, we need a plan. I want to kill these demons. All of them. But it will be easier to do that if I have one of these weapons... and I must improve my magic as well before I can face them effectively. We should stop following these demons for now. Let's try to find more information about these shard weapons instead... perhaps we could go to one of the cities to the east? I have no desire to return to Leon."
Alain was about to answer to Drax' suggestions when the little girl behind the princess spoke and quickly they spun around, both the other guardsmen drawing their swords as well until they realised that they were trying to protect the princess from a child. While they were still looking confused the princess looked at Alaria with pity and knelt down before the kid, taking her hands.
"Hey", she looked over the girl as if to scan her for injuries, "have you ran away from the city? Are you alright?"
"No," Alaria said, suddenly feeling rather helpful. "I was looking for some friends that went to Leon before me. But there were people having some... Territorial disputes? I guess? And I went past them."
"My mom told me to stay clear of violent people because it messes up my head," Alaria said after there was a period of silence. "By the way, have you seen my friend? She's very tall, have black hair...rather large face, beady eyes, 8 legs... You couldn't have missed her."
Stranger and stranger... Somehow, Drax doubted that this girl got this close to them due to the incompetence of the guards or through her adeptness at stealth - he had heard of tribes to the west that raised children as silent assassins, each skilful to the extent that no-one but their victims would ever see them; this child however appears clumsy and oddly distracted, so unless the tribes' reputation is thoroughly inflated to push up their price, he doubted that the girl would prove to be any threat. But the mystery of her sudden appearance still troubled him, more so once the girl started to describe an eight-legged monster. After all, the two guardsmen weren't slouches either, as he had seen them deal with the two mercenaries and that noble-born idiot as well.
Could it be magic? Surely not... Drax did feel the tiniest perturbation in the auras around him when he was conversing, but that is natural when a great amount of life (and death for that matter) gathers around a certain area. At least, that's what the books told him. Even a minor cantrip should have created a bigger disturbance than that, unless it invol-
Watch her, she is dangerous.
That comment came out of the blue and for a moment Drax let down his guard, almost laughing at the Voice's suggestion. But he caught himself in time and in the end only a painful-looking grimace showed on his face. Embarrassing, but much less embarrassing than being seen as a crazy man who converses with himself and who laughs at nothing in particular.
"Erm... is that a giant spider you are describing? Or is it a Tukoreth, a spider-man?" Drax asked the girl, trying to cover-up his misstep. But even as he asked his question, he realised how stupid he sounded, attempting to talk facts with a peasant girl who was probably only suffering from shock. Just for that moment, all his thoughts about the girl's mysterious appearance was forgotten - after all, how likely is it that the girl is anything more than just a bog-standard peasant?
"Why ye-" Alaria blinked. She was sure that there suddenly were more people than one sharing the same spot as the young man who burst out laughing. She frowned. The second presence was...weird.... to say the least. But now the presence was gone.
"Why yes," Alaria said sweetly. "She's a big spidew. She said she was looking for her babies in the city of Leon! The people there have been trying to gather spidersilk..."
"Spidersilk?" one of the guards said.
"The material used in spider's web! Don't you know?" Alaria said, suddenly proud that there was something that she knew that others didn't. "It's tougher than steel and is soft to the touch. Some tailors were trying to create cloths for the noblemen out of them... Failed, of course."
"Huh," one of the guards muttered. They felt somehow...relaxed... around the strange little girl. "Don't know what those people were doing...trying to make clothes out of spidersilk. They would've never succeeded."
"Well, actually, my robe is made of spidersilk, and..."
"...Your robe?"
"Hmm?" Alaria said.
"You're not wearing a robe."
Alaria looked down. "Are you crazy? Of course I'm..." She gulped as she realized that she was in a disguise, and that nobody could see the robe. "Uh, eheheh..." The guards all put a hand on their weapons.
"Don't hurt me?" Alaria suggested.
Rufus and Dietrich looked at each other.
"Like hell!"
Grinning, they drew their swords and pointed them at the little... thing.
"Something you'd like to share?"
"Halt!" the captain exclaimed and his guards instantly retreated their weapons. Still ready to wield them but not pointed at the little girl. He shot a look at the two mercenaries. "We are not going to kill a little girl here, no matter what she may hide."
He approached Alaria and stood next to the princess who was still kneeling down, at eye level with the girl. She spoke first. "Tell us, what robe are you speaking of and what is it you're hiding, girl? We won't harm you, so don't be afraid."
"Kill a little girl? Never." Rufus shook his head, "But threaten, to get information? I got no qualms with that my friend. Children are not always innocent."
Alaria shifted her feet, avoiding eye contact. Today was not her day.
"...this..." she finally admitted. She removed her disguise, showing herself as a silvery-robed figure with a hood covering her face and holding a red giant spider in her hands.
"Lower your hood. Now, or... or those two will gut you where you stand!" Drax attempted a threatening tone, but it quickly faded into doubt - could he really condone the death of someone who hasn't hurt them?
Yet.
Somewhat recluctantly, a spell formed in his mind. Just in case...
After an hour of scanning the horizon for a ship fleeing Tar cantun that conveniently flew Targryn banners with no success they had found a familiar sight. A large carrack flying the Targryn banner; a golden lion on a black field holding a coin in its front paws, was moored at dock on the other side of the port from the silver maiden. The ship’s hull shone with plated brass so on a good day it hurt the eyes to look directly at it and gave the impression that it was made of gold, today with grey skies and red clouds it looked like blood stained mud.
Its name was The White Scale, the personal ship of the Targryn family, was left here when the head of the family travelled to Lassara awaiting the lord’s return, now crawled with sailors and soldiers loading cargo and readying to leave under orders of the Lord’s son Thomas Targryn. The son was now sitting at a desk in the vacant guest’s cabin attempting to write a letter in candlelight. His knight was sitting on a stool looking out the cabin window.
“I wish we could have done this yesterday.” said Gilford
“We didn’t have half a crew yesterday.”
His father had left a skeleton crew to tend the boat as he had taken the ship’s soldiers with him to Lassara, they had found barely twenty sailors left and without the fifty men of the Silver maiden’s crew and about twenty marines they had hired the group would have been sitting for four hours just to cast off, not to mention the time it would have taken to get the countless boxes of potions on board.
Gilford looked away from the window.
“What are you writing?”
“A letter, hopefully I can pay off that captain you threw in the dock, this should entitle him to 50 gold next week.”
“I thought you didn’t like him“
“I don’t, but I don’t want to get mobbed next time I come here because I lost my temper.”
Gilford stared at Thomas. “You’re feeling guilty.”
Thomas looked at him with a scowl.“No I’m not.”
“Yes you are.”
Thomas glared. “Father told me; if I don’t respect the lower classes I am inviting assassins, rebellion and adventurers. I’m following his guidance that’s all.”
Gilford continued staring, Thomas tried to avoid his gaze and bent back over the note.
This continued for a minute until Thomas sighed and slumped in his seat. “Fine, I’m guilty, I mugged and humiliated a man and I’m guilty.” He sighed then gave a weak grin “Heh what does it say about me that I can’t even feel guilty without an excuse? Gods, the second I take over I’ll have an army of adventurers bashing down my door on behalf of some repressed rabble.”
Before Gilford could respond an old man’s voice sounded through the ship and the room lurched as the world started to move.
“I am never going to get used to this.”“Relax Gil, It’s only half a day to Leon”
Gilford gave him a quizzical look “I thought we were going home?”
“With that great Castle still floating over its ruins? Princess Udine’s going to Leon and these daemons are going after her, there’s no way she’s going to last long hiding in the mainland. Don’t worry Gil we’re going home but we’re just going to take some extra passengers first.” Thomas frowned “Damn, I still have the letter. Oh well, the good deed will have to wait until next time I’m here”
Alaria frowned once more at the man. There it was again, that little disturbing feeling... but then she smiled at the man's stammerings.
"You're funny," she muttered.
She eyed the swords of the mercenaries wearily. "People have been waving that a lot in my face latel. And yelling. I don't really know what that is, but I don't like it. Could you put tha-hmm? Really?" Alaria seemed to be talking to nobody inparticular. "Oh alright."
She pulled down the hood...for just a second, letting people see the green hair and horns underneath, before hiding it once more. "People kept on staring at them. I don't like it when people stare."
Most of the people nearby took a step back when they saw the girl's real form, horns and all, only the princess stayed where she was as she looked at Alaria, still smiling and then waving to the guards and mercenaries to retract their swords. Alain stepped over and made sure Rufus and Dietrich didn't threaten the girl anymore before the princess spoke.
"Alright, we won't stare. What's your name and how did you end up looking for spiders in Leon?"
"Alaria," Alaria said. "Mr. Bones..."
"The spider?"
"No, he's a really thin guy I met south of here. He kept calling me a little devil so I called him Mr.Bones, because he doesn't have anything other than that. I kept trying to feed him but he won't eat anything, instead trying to hide that he has no fat by using magic. He was looking for something... A sword of some kind... I think... But then we met a giant monster!
I ran and the big spider took me away. I promised her that I would help her after I found out that a man named Frijyk killed her babies... He's my friend... And besides, I thought Mr. Bones and Frijyk needed some help. They were trying to take down the giant monster.
But we got separated along the way because of two people with a bird-like voice...
What is a dragon by the way?"
"A dragon?" It was all the princess managed to get out before laughing after the story the little girl was telling and the others around, even the mercenaries, couldn't help but giggle after this little speech.
"Well, a dragon is a very big and dangerous monster.", Alain had regained his posture and this girl clearly knew more than she was wanting, or able, to tell. "Was the monster your friends wanted to take down a dragon? Where are your friends now?"
Alaria seemed slightly startled by the princess's behavior...
"Ah, uh... Well... I guess it was really big... It walked on two legs and was taller than the trees... Way taller... And then there was a man sitting on its shoulde- HEY!" Alaria suddenly shouted. "You were feeling just like the like the time when my mother felt when I told her that I saw a giant golden ostrich fly across the forest. How was I supposed to be able to distinguish between an eagle and an ostrich when I was 52 years old?"
One of the guards coughed. "How old are you again?"
Alaria blinked. "90 something, why?"
"..."
"It's not fair. You can't run from home, the great eagle told me. You're only 96 or so years old. Well I say that's old enough! By the way... Oh?"
Alaria muttered some seemingly unintelligible words.
"Alaria's been a naughty girl again. She eavesdropped. I heard that you wanted to get into the city... I can help you avoid the people there if you want me to. They are not nice."
Morangul pondered the question for a while, until he finally answered,
"No, not east."
"But-"
"Do you happen to have a map on you?"
Frijyk nodded and handed over a map.
"I, uh, acquired it in Leon while many of the people were distracted by....something.
Probably the flying citadel, now that I think about it." Frijyk smiled sheepishly at Morangul,
who only had a sly smile on his face.
"Its nothing to worry about; the way I see it, your only borrowing it for an undisclosed amount of time.
Now lets see....."
Morangul slowly searched the map, pointing first toon the marker for Leon.
"Leon is probably either a ruin or overrun with demons, so there was no chance we were going back there
anyways," Morangul said as he heard an audible sigh of relief come from Frijyk.
Morangul then pointed to the marker on the road south of Leon: Vintom.
"And chances are that whatever forces attacked Leon are headed here.
So, that leaves..."
And Morangul pointed to yet another Marker, on the southern tip of Ayal Royad Hyo.
"Yonal. As I recall, it was a small mining settlement. But, that was a long time ago.
It is either abandoned, or a thriving town."
Morangul looked over a Frijyk, and noticed his eyes still roaming over the eastern part of the map,
and the many towns and cities there.
"Look, I know you want to go east, but if it makes you feel better, I believe the
Paladin Stronghold was in the southern end of the country. And if I'm
wrong, well, we have a few choices."
He looked at the map again, and said, "After Yonal, we can make our way to
Epayl Nir, one of the major ports, and either sail to either of the two southern islands,
Ai and Quin," and he pointed to the islands, "or sail to Avin, the easternmost city." and then he pointed to
a marker on the tip of the eastern peninsula. "And after that, we could go full circle if you want,
heading up to Null," Morangul stated, pointing to the northwestern part of the map.
"But for now, to Yonal, agreed?"
Frijyk considered Morangul's advice carefully. The old mage did indeed have the most logical route in mind. Yonal looked as if it were a stop on the way to anywhere else they might travel to on the southern half of this map. And a mining town...
"If Yonal has mines in it, then I assume they will also have a skilled metalsmith, yes? Where there is a forge, there are bound to be weapon merchants... so we may as well begin the search for the Shard weapons there! And if we can't find any, we may find something else just as good."
Frijyk looked up at Morangul, who nodded in approval.
"Yonal it is, then. If we're going to get there any time soon, we should head back to the royal road tomorrow. And we may need..."
Frijyk's mind lapsed. What were they called again? Those large, four-legged beasts he had seen the Lassarans riding on in Leon. He was certain that riding them would be faster than going on foot, but admittedly he had no idea how to ride one. Horses! That's what they were called. Horses. How hard could it be?"
"We may need to borrow some horses as well."
Alain shook his head and the guards were obviously trying to make sense of what was going on before there eyes. THis girl was talking about big monsters and claimed to be 96 years of age, obviously she was not human but she seemed to behave like a child.
The princess stopped laughing though. The giant thing the girl had seen could have been with their enemies and then the girl talked about helping them.
"Wait. You said you could help us? How?"
Alaria Placed a hand over her face, turning it into the one similar to the princess. "Like this," she muttered, in a voice similiar to the princess's, albeit more childish. She placed a hand over it again and it soon turned to normal:
"Or this," she snapped her fingers and disappeared from view. Few seconds later, she appeared on top of a tree.
"And this," she waved her hands at Alain, causing him to turn invisible for a few seconds. She giggled as Alain and the other guards tried to make sense of things. She looked almost proud to be able to do it.
"Could you... disguise us?" Such magicks were possible by human hands, but only the fey was said to be able to master it completely - if so, this would help them to achieve their goals, not to mention raising the chances of Drax's personal survival.
If she really is a fey.
Legends speak of mighty sorcerers that could decieve whole kingdoms at their whims, but this girl demonstrates preciously little of that strength and certainly none of their otherworldly grace. "And.... if you could help us, could you be a little, um, more circumspect about your, fey-ness?"
You can silence her forever.
Then again, she does appear to worry the Voice, which is always a good thing in Drax's book.
The guards were staring where there captain had been standing until they heard his voice our of nowhere. "Why's everyone staring at me? Did she turn my face green or something?"
"You are quite... invisible", Rufus replied, clearly amused just as was the princess who could hardly hide her laughter.
"So", she finally said, looking up into the tree where Alaria was sitting, "you can disguise things. This would indeed be very helpful but could you bring my captain back, before he gets angry?"
Alain appeared again after another snipping of the fey's fingers and he shook his head, not really amused. He was interrupted by the princess before he could even start to say something though. "These are really impressive skills. Could you disguise a whole group of people at the same time?"
"Yes," Alaria said, hopping down from the tree. "Or at least I think so. As long as people don't bump into anyone or stray too far away from me." she gazed at every member of the group assembled. Then she started walking off towards the city.
"Wait!" one of the guards said. "What about our disguises?"
Alaria frowned. "You already have one."
"Oh."
Alaria waited there until everyone had catched up with her, and ran up to the funny young man named Drax. "Do the trick again!" she said.
"What trick?"
"The one in which you made yourself feel like two people," Alaria whispered. "Even I can't do that. I promise I won't give it away to anyone else."
"Horses? Bah! We don't need no stinkin' horses! Filthy things,
and they always need to be looked after!," Morangul replied.
Frijyk only stared curiously for a moment at Morangul, before replying
quite slowly, "But...how are we...to travel there quickly...?"
This time, it was Morangul's turn to stare curiously at Frijyk,
before he said simply, "Magic."
And without another word, Morangul began to chant in an ancient tongue.
The shadows that surrounded them seemed, to Frijyk, to sway with
the chant. It took him some time to realize, to his shock, that the shadows
were in fact moving. He watched, entranced, as the shadows of the forest all
moved to one location, slowly coalescing into a large mass that continuously fluctuated.
Eventually, it came to a form Frijyk recognized: that of a chariot, pulled by two powerful horses with
glowing red eyes and manes of shadow.
Morangul turned Frijyk, flashed a big grin at him, and hopped on the chariot.
"Well," Morangul said, looking expectantly at the shocked Borian, "Are we going to Yonal or not?"
The guard that had asked took a look the the others and suddenly started laughing. Where Alain had been standing a young teenage girl could be seen, the other guardsmen had been replaced by a short, bald man, almost two times wider than he was tall. The princess, Drax and Dietrich looked like your average farmer from the surrounding areas of Leon and Alaria had taken back to her appearance of the girl they had first seen her as. What really got everyone laughing though was Rufus, who appearead as an old woman, walking on a crutch, a grotesquely proportioned nose in the middle of her face and the most ugly robe, stitched together from the remains of plenty of other garments, making it a mess of colours and patterns, almost physically hard to look at.
"What!?", Rufus exclaimed when he noticed everyone laughing and staring at him but Alain just shrugged and turned around. "Alright, as far as anyone asking is concerened, we are a group from a farm south of here. We were on our way to the market when we noticed the attack on the city and have waited for everything to settle down before approaching Leon. Let's go."
To avoid unwanted attention from the mainland The White Scale had sailed out to sea out of sight of the main continent before heading to Leon. The natural winds had been kind enough to drive then southwards but when they turned west the wind had not obliged and the weather wizard Cedrick had to make up the slack. He was now standing on the aft castle coaxing wind into the ships sails, every few minutes one of the men on duty took a vial from a crate by his feet and upended it over his head.
Thomas sat in the main guest cabin peering over a set of maps he had laid on the deck as a portly man was pouring vials of liquid into a wide, shallow silver bowl that was suspended at waist height from the ceiling by a white cord. The man was the alchemist that Thomas had hired the day before and went by the name Xandrax. He was clad in scorched black and brown robes, his eyes were blue, his features were rough, his skin was waxy and scarred and his entire head was hairless including the eyebrows. All these were marks of the alchemist guild, but Thomas suspected they were not due to any sort of dress code.
The man shuffled around the bowl chanting as it swayed in opposition of the rocking of the ship not spilling a drop. He had been at it for several minutes and the smell had been unbearable to Gilford who had left quickly but not before opening the large window that adorned the rear wall to retch into the sea. Thomas’ tolerance was somewhat stronger, his only recollection of what happened to his hand was the smell of quickly rotting flesh, in comparison the sharp fumes were practically perfume.
That hadn’t stopped him from opening the rest of the windows.
After an hour the man stopped chanting and stared into the bowl for a few seconds. Nothing happened. He cursed and struck the side of the bowl several times. Surprisingly the bowl’s contents didn’t spill out but actually started to glow with its own light.
“There we go,” said the man “Leon.”
Thomas got up from the desk, walked to the bowl and gasped. Looking into the water he saw bird’s eye view of a sprawling town and a large dock. Outside of the walls was a litter of wooden tents and siege engines as small as toys. Inside of the walls; small dots travelled down streets of thatched roofs, at the top left of the town were two grey squares one inside the other and in the middle was a brown block, a lord’s hall.
“Wow.”
“You can move the position by pulling a finger across the surface, zoom by pushing two fingers over it in opposite directions and-“
“Zoom?” Thomas asked, puzzled.
“Oh, uh, it changes how close the things look.”
“Oh.”
“You can change the pitch by tilting the bowl. When you’re finished you can turn it on and off by wiping your palm across the surface.”
Thomas barely took his eyes off the bowl “So this will show me the entire world?”
“Well up to 3000 miles then they start losing connection, if you wanted more you should have asked a wizard. Oh and there are a few spells that will disrupt the scrying but they are pretty rare outside of mage guilds.”
“What about illusions?”
“Unless the caster’s more skilled than the average mage this should see right through them.”
“Good, now go to Gilford and see if you can make something that will help defeat ten men of his skill, make him faster or something.”
The alchemist shrugged, “I’ll see what I can do though I’m not sure he will let me near him.”
“Tell him he’ll cooperate if he doesn’t want a repeat of yesterday, dismissed.”
Xandrax frowned then nodded and walked out leaving Thomas staring into the bowl.
“Well at least I have an idea of where to start.”
Frijyk's heart dropped into his stomach as soon as he saw the chariot with its two horses. These horses that Morangul had conjured... they were black as pitch, and their eyes burned red. They looked, for all the world, what Frijyk imagined the mounts of a demon would look like. Morangul was a powerful magician... could he be a demon in disguise? Frijyk's mind raced in circles, a thousand possibilities flashing before him as he tried to explain to himself his own circumstances.
Had he been traveling with a demon all this time? It would explain why the other demon they found seemed to know Morangul personally... and why Morangul refused to attack him. He thought back to the elves he had met, who regarded the wizard with disdain. Had they seen something he had not? Perhaps they were wise to get away from him when they could, for now Frijyk was nearly totally at his mercy. He reached to his side and grasped his dagger firmly with his left hand...
Wait. There must be another explanation for this. But those horses...
Morangul had begun to regard him curiously. He risked betraying his suspicion, but he also could not ask Morangul for an explanation... a devious demon would have one right at hand. Frijyk had to make sure on his own... he put on the most neutral face he could manage.
"Pardon me a moment, Morangul, but I'm just curious about these horses..."
Frijyk walked up to the horse closest to him. He held out his hand and touched its side. The creature did not make any indication that it even felt the young man's presence. Then, fast as his reflexes could manage, he reached for his dagger and plunged it into the horse's side. The creature's body gave way around the knife blade and a shadowy gas seeped out. Still it did not seem as if it had even felt the wound. Nearly as soon as Frijyk pulled out the blade, the dark fluid flowed right back into place and reformed itself onto the creature's body, as if it had never been stabbed. Their wispy manes, likewise, were not solid but fluid, made of the same shadowy substance their bodies were.
Frijyk came to his own conclusion... that this was not a living being at all. It was a manifestation of the wizard's magic. And now it seemed logical to him that, in order to create something with magic, one would have to build it with something else. Morangul had built his chariot and its steeds out of shadows - a choice that made practical sense, since they were already malleable and easy to manipulate. Frijyk thought himself a fool to have thought Morangul to be some being of evil. He was just being practical. Frijyk was glad he had thought before he acted.
Satisfied, Frijyk climbed up into the chariot next to Morangul, who seemed to be smirking at him.
"You know, if you kill my steeds, we won't be going anywhere fast!"
"My apologies. But I think I'm learning new things about your magic every day. I think we should pass over the main road on our way, though. We might be able to catch up with those elves that left us."
"Erm... what do you mean? 'Feeling' like two people? I feel fine to me, especially now I'm taller and looks brawnier." Drax laughed nervously. By the Gods.... I'm not even convincing myself...
The illusions cast by the fey girl did not placate Drax, and her little trick with that detestable mercenary was not even amusing now that he had realised the true ramifications of her being here. She can read minds. That in itself is not so bad, since Drax has long learnt that the Voice was good at keeping quiet when diviners and telepaths are about, but the tiniest tremours she could feel could, no, would lead to very bad things to happen to Drax should she ever tell anyone, which is not unlikely given how quickly she divulged everything she knew within seconds of meeting them.
No... he has to keep away from her... but how? The Princess' party wouldn't let him out of their sights now, but maybe in the city... perhaps he could escape then. A wild plan bloomed into shape. Yes... Yes...
Alaria was about to ask Drax another question but she would have to postpone further inquiry until later as the group approached the once mighty gates of Leon. Now they were scorched, a few guards standing where the thick, wooden gate had once barred entry from anyone who meant harm to the city, others were working on removing the rubble from the area. It was obvious that the town could not rest from the attack they had suffered. Boreale had given orders to return to normal state as soon as possible and had sent one of his magistrates to oversee the town for now.
As Alain approached the gate, one of the guards broke away from the rest and stopped right in front of the disguised captain, hindering him from walking any further. Alain noted that the guardsman was not wearing the colors of Leon but was armored in the fashion of the Lassaran military, bearing the insignias of a corporal. The captain had no time to think about it though, as the guy addressed him in a rather rough manner: "Names, origin and business in town?"
"We are from two different families of farmers, out on the eastern plains, the Linons and the Mattais. We were on our way to the market when we noticed the smoke and fire in the distance", he looked past the guaradsmans shoulder and into the town, busy with cleaning up, "but it is too late in the day for us to turn back now. We need to spend the night in the city and will return to our farms tomorrow."
The guard corporal nodded and slowly walked past Alain, checking the faces of these newcomers, examining them closely but Alarias disguise seemed to be sufficient. After a few more moments of checking them out he nodded again and stepped back towards his guard post. "Alright, welcome to Leon, or what's left of it. Sorry for the inconvenience but orders from Governor Mathis are to check everyone until the rule of Emperor Boreale has been firmly established."
Amalia flinched at this comment but Alain quickly stepped in, nodding in approval: "No worries, Sir, you are only doing your duty for the kingdom." He began to lead the group through the gate, but turned around one last time to ask another question: "You are an army officer, right? Where is the town guard? Were they all killed in the assault?"
"No", the corporal shook his head, "the assault was far less bloody than expected, the bombardment did a lot of damage but there was no fighting after the town surrendered. The town guard has been incorporated into the army and moved south. Governor Mathis wanted more trustworthy men to keep order here."
Alain nodded and they all entered the town, quickly leaving the gate behind as they stepped through dusty streets, full of collapsed walls, dust and broken bars from the houses of Leon. There was still smoke coming from some of the buildings but mostly the fires had been put out and the bodies of dead and injured people had been moved off the streets. They looked at miserable faces, some crying for those they had lost, some angry at the invading force, some simply in despair with the current situation but all working. It seemed like the whole town was up to clean this mess away, under the supervision of army officers, obviously there to make sure the townspeople were doing a good job.
"Come on! Do it faster, this town has to look presentable when the emperor comes to pay our new Governor his visit!", one of the guards yelled at a group of peasants who tried to heave a large boulder onto a cart to be taken away. Amalia had to hold herself back from stepping in but she knew she held no authority here at the moment. Clenching her fists she continued on through the streets, looking for a particular house, near the southern gate of the town and suddenly Amalia stopped in shock, only to run moments later, towards a collapsed heap of stones and other building material that had once been a proud house obviously. Alain was quickly to follow her, approaching the princess who knelt in front of the building, weeping uncontrollably, making clear that this was the house they had been looking for.
"Should... should we try to look in there? We could find books, or notes or something that would...." Somehow saying more did not seem appropriate at this moment, so Drax stepped aside and instead looked upon the ruined streets he once knew so well. So much for my fear of being arrested for kinslaying then.
"Oi there!" A brutish voice shouted from behind them, "No lazing about 'ere, get those rocks and... and pile 'em up!" Drax turned around and saw a dozen soldiers walking towards, drunk most likely. The one who looked most like the leader reached for his scabbard in an attempt to threaten their group, but found only air. His friends however were more clear-headed and walked towards menacingly, each carrying a sword or a whip. A few even made japes at the expense of the women of the group, towards the disguised Rufus most of all.
This could end badly, Drax thought as he reached into his satchel to quietly pull out his jar of flashbang powders, just in case. Unfortunately his fingers fumbled and despite a desperate attempt to catch the dropping jar, the glass shattered and the powders did exactly what Drax had made them to do - blinding everyone in his immediate vicinity with a white light as bright as the sun.
Idiot.
"AHhhhhhhhhh!" Alaria screamed, clutching at her eyes. Surprisingly the disguise of the group didn't even flicker. "What did you do that for you big jerk!"
Her Fey eyes adjusted to the light faster than the humans did. She noticed the armed group of men rolling around on the floor. They did not look friendly.
"Oh," she said. She clapped her hands together and the everyone around the princess disappeared, replaced with illusionary copies of themselves that ran somewhere into the maze of buildings.
"Hey! Stop right there!" one of the soldiers yelled, recovering from his blindness. The rest of the soldiers recovered as well and ran out of sight.
In the guest cabin of the White Scale Thomas mind was drifting as he stared into the bowl, he had combed leon's streets looking for someone, anyone he had seen at the camp. He was nearly about to take a break when he spotted a large flash in the Noble's Quarter.
What the hell?
Pulling at the pool's surface he zoomed into the street to see a group of people crowded around the remains of some building, he moved the view to get a better look at the group's faces, it was them.
Oh you have got to be kidding, they're not going to last a minute
He looked over the group, Alain and his guards, Rufus and Glungard, the alchemist, princess and somebody else. Thomas squinted at the last person trying to make out any features behind some sort of grey mist covering it's body.
Some sort of illusion? When did they get a wizar-
His thought was interupted when he noticed the figure's mist had wained enough to see through to the face, it was a green haired girl with horns and a red eye.
That eye was staring right back at him.
The soldiers were confused and distracted by the flash of light and the illusions while Alain quickly recovered from the blinding magic, grabbed Amalia and made for a narrow road to the side of the collapsed building. The other guardsmen reached for Alaria and Drax, pulling them away as well and followed their captain, figuring that the mercenaries would be able to follow themselves. The whole group ran into the alley, looking for a place to hide when suddenly a door to their left openead and an arm reached out, stopping Alain in his tracks.
"Come in, quick."
The captain looked back at the commotion they had cause and decided that whatever was in there couldn't be worse than facing all the soldiers that would soon be coming thisn way and so he stepped inside, beckoning the others to follow. The man who had called them in closed the door after Rufus, who stepped in last and looked at the group who had just stumbled over his doorstep. They were all still catching their breath, most of them rubbing their eyes as they leaned against walls or sat down on the signle bench in this rather poor living quarter.
"Sorry for the surprise", their host finally said, looking at Amalia, "I take it you were looking for the professor?"
The group stared at the man, Alain wondering how he could have known why they came to the town, especially since they were all supposed to still wear their disguise. Realising their bewilderment, the man in a servant's garments explained: "I saw you approaching Gunther's house and then you", he pointed at the princess, "looked pretty desperate, when you found it demolished." He sighed and seemed to investigate them with his gaze. "Ma name's Harkin, I am... was the professor's servant. But before I go on, what business could a bunch of farmers have with the old man?"
They looked at each other, until Amalia nodded at Alain and the captain faced the little girl that was actually the fey. "It's alright, Alaria, drop the illusion."
A moment later they all returned to normal, including the big spider that the fey held in hands, the mercenaries armed to their teeth and the princess, fair as ever, even thought eh dust of the road and the town had perfected her disguise as a travelling cleric by now. It was quite a shock to good Harkin when suddenly he was staring at the changed group and some of them had a hard time not to laugh.
"Now that's more like it", the servant muttered, when the princess spoke up.
"Listen, Harkin, I am princess Amalia Undine and I am the rightful ruler of this kingdom. I was a student of Professor Gunther when I was a child, you should remember me, actually."
Harkin raised an eyebrow and closely inspected the princess' face when suddenly his eyes lit up and he nodded. "Oh, yes! Little Amy, yes, I remember. I never knew you were a princess back then, more of a little brat... no disrespect meant, of course, your Majesty."
The princess smiled and shook her head: "Don't worry, I'm not in a position to demand coureous behaviour right now. But tell me, what happened to the Professor?"
"I am afraid, Milady, that he didn't survive the bombardment. He was in his house when it was struck by these fireballs and he never came out again", he walked over to a window and looked outside, "it's a shame really. Never had a better master than him."
"This is... disheartening news", the princess muttered and sank back onto one of the benches.
Alain stepped up to the servant and asked: "So, are any of his books safe? We came for knowledge. I am sorry for your loss but we need to know what your professor knew and if you are loyal to the royal house you will have to help us."
"I would", Harkin nodded, "but all his books were burned in the ruin of Professor Gunther's home. He had no... Wait!", he suddenly jumped up and looked at Alain: "There were these two... travellers. They visited the professor and asked all kinds of questions about important history things. I never bothered with this kind of knowledge but they seemed very interested. I think the professor even gave them some of his books."
"Who were they? Did you hear names and what were they like?", Alain quickly inquired.
"And where were they headed?", the princess added.
"Let me think", Harkin replied, his face taking the pained expression of someone who was going through a severe case of occlusion, "One of them Gunther called Guantano. I remember him, it was not his first visit, seems he is a mercenary of sorts, dark hair, broody type, looks more dangerous than he is, definitely one of the fighting folk but not undeucated", he kept thinking hard, "and then there was this woman, they left together. I don't think I heard her name, if I did, I don't remember but she was a young woman, armed as well and there was a sense of danger or ferociousness about her." He sighed: "I am sorry but I don't remember more, it's never been my strong side."
Alain wanted to reply when one of the royal guards, looking out of a window cried out "Danger! They're searching the houses!"
"Rufus, Dietrich, Drax, man the windows, tell me when they approach", the captain reacted quickly, "Alaria, maybe you could go ahead and mask us again?"
"Somebody saw me," Alaria hissed. "He tried to hide his gaze, but I am sure he saw through me."
Alaria clapped her hands, together, making everyone around her invisible.
Outside, the guards began running away in terror.
"...What did you do to them?"
A homicidal armored beetle with sharp claws charging at them whilst ululating, Alaria thought. "Just something my uncle said frightens humans," Alaria said. "Does anyone know where the spiders were kept in the city, by the way?"
"This would just attract more attention to us now, especially if they have any mages." Drax said, ignoring the keening sound of the illusionary beetle and the fey's question regarding spiders.. "We have to move, now."