CHAPTER 6: NOT A DULL PLACE, AT ALL

PART II

Author's note: I'm sorry for not being able to put this update at the time I had previously intended, I was delayed for matters in my work and college; but all that is already been taken care of, it should not cause any more interruptions.

Anyway here's the second part of this chapter, it's been pretty laborious for me to do it, since I want to really make a good description of Dalaran, I hope I haven't missed anything important of the city, and since it will be too much to me to describe every single bit and cranny of Dalaran, I'm just gotta have to make a brief mention of some of them.

Also since this is all parts of the same chapter I'm not going put the narrator opening and ending I'm just going to put one of them per chapter, well enough of that, here's the next part.

Disclaimer: Why do I always have to put this? I mean, it is quite obvious that me, just some average dude cannot possibly be the owner of any of the copyrights of this 2 series.

…..

After showing to their accommodations Rhonin decided to take Geralt and the rest of the leaders in a guided tour through the city, he of course, inform them first of his intended course of action, to make sure all of them were comfortable with the idea.

Although, several of them didn't seen the point for such excursion, they did were reminded that the witcher was a newcomer, so they assumed that it was for that reason that Rhonin wanted to take them in a city tour (it would do no good that Geralt ended up getting lost in a city foreign to him, they assumed; unmindful of the witcher's excellent sense of orientation; decades in the wilds tend to sharp your own skills in certain areas of expertise, one of them in how to avoid getting lost); so they agree, deciding that they could use the occasion to raise questions pertaining their new arrival or answer the ones he may had, depending of the case.

And so the witcher was taken in a trip to get acquainted with the city of Dalaran (although he would have preferred to do that on his own) , it was quite a big city full of magnificent white towers with violet domes, all of them ending in a long needle shape in their tips; all the rest of lesser buildings where too of white colors with violet colored ceilings (The people here really seemed to like that color) this buildings had no edges, they had a dome shape with lesser domes for ceilings (impossible to forget their violet color, Geralt had the impression that he was going to end up getting sick of that color really soon) they all looked quite clean and neat, but for some reason this buildings reminded him (for some odd reason) of mushrooms, nevertheless, it really looked quite ordered the layout of this city.

Anyway, the first stop was the runeweaver square; a plaza roughly in the center of the city, the fountain was a nice touch, although he was not particular fond of its magical staff shape, they even put some cyan crystals in it to make sure that it looked like a real staff.

But nevermind about the odd design in decoration, it was a lovely trip nonetheless, he had the opportunity to walk alongside the charming lady Jaina, and she also proved to be very helpful with advices, while Rhonin was explaining the history behind each sight and of the city itself, Jaina also was giving him a little more wide explanation about them, most of it of how the city and it sights used to be during her days of study under the tutelage of Archmage Antonidas.

The witcher noticed during the trip, that Sylvanas and Veressa were walking at earshot distance of each other, although none of the two were showing any indication that they were doing nothing else than simply following the group, Geralt was sure that there was some kind of silent conversation going on between the sisters; he decided not to dwell in that, that kind of affairs where none of his business or area of expertise.

The witcher was surprised when Rhonin told him that they had moved the entire city from his original location and putt it afloat over the skies of Northerend, wanting to see if it was true, he told Rhonin to prove it to him; So Rhonin lead all the group to a place called Krasus' Landing, a place for arrival in the city through the use of flying mounts (apparently the people of this world had tamed several flying beasts and used them for fast traveling through regions, really clever from their part)

The place was nothing more than a massive circular landing pad, with great pillars in several places of its circumference that had great banners and chains hanging from them; all the circumference of the pad was covered by a small stone fence (probably to avoid getting people from falling out of the edge)

The place was kind of busy, with people of different races arriving and leaving in winged creatures from the like Geralt had never seen, although there were some that he recognized like the griffons.

In any case, this place was being attended by a dwarf flight master and his attendants, who took record of all the incomings and leavings from the city; Rhonin indicated Geralt toward the stone fence at the edge of the landing pad, so he approached it while taking notice that Rhonin and the rest of the group of leaders where solely focusing on him (probably expecting to see what will it be his reaction, he will have to disappoint them from their expectancies of seeing him making any display of emotion)

The witcher rested the weight of his upper body on top of the fence, so he could be able to take a look of what lay at the other side, and what he found; was a breathtaking scenery.

The entire city was suspended above the clouds; from his position, the witcher could only see rows and rows of clouds that covered completely the sight of any land that may laid down there, although there were some open patches in the clouds that allowed him to take a glimpse of an ice covered land; but predominantly it was just a sheet of whiteness that collided in the horizon with the eternal blue of the sky.

Despite the beauty of the scenery, the only visible expression that the witcher made was a small twitch of the muscles of his right eye.

"Typical of mages" was all he said.

Behind him several faint sighs were heard, clearly some of the leaders were disappointed for his lack of emotion (this outcome is not surprising, since is really hard to make a witcher to shown any kind of emotion at all)

Geralt crossed his arms and addressed Rhonin "Any particular reason for you and your crew of mages to do this?"

"It was necessary after the reconstruction of the city, since our previous location had already proved to be unsafe, and our services were required for this war against the Scourge, so is not that surprising that we moved our base of operations here at the frontlines…"

Rhonin look at a side and rubbed the back of his neck before adding

"…... Among other reasons"

"What other reasons?" the witcher pressed

"Dragons"

The witcher raised an eyebrow, did Dalaran was often attacked by dragons during the time were it was on the ground? Geralt need it to know more.

"Care to explain"

Rhonin proved dismissive "Not now, I will prefer not to speak of this in a public space; later, when we get back on the citadel, I will explain you everything; for now, let's just continue with the tour"

Geralt decided to let the issue pass, but he was certainly going to demand explanations, later.

"Fair enough, lead the way"

Rhonin nodded at him and signaled for the rest of the group to follow him.

Geralt made his way toward Jaina's side and gently ask her.

"Any particular piece of information, that you could help me with, about this? My fair lady"

Jaina took a glimpse at Geralt while walking, after briefly collecting her thoughts she answered.

"I don't want to speak at Rhonin's back, but…. Let's just say it is not only the scourge that holds the attention of the Kirin Tor in this region… I.. I'm sorry mister Geralt but I should not be saying anything else at Rhonin's expense, he will tell you all that you want to know, when he fell is right"

The witcher comforted the young sorceress "Is not trouble at all milady; you have proved to be of great help on this matter already, sorry for having disturbed you"

Jaina smiled faintly at the witcher's charm

"It was no trouble at all, mister Geralt"

With that they continued walking alongside the rest of the group, allowing Geralt to ponder in his thoughts; "So; there is something wrong about the dragons in this region" he thought "I will have to keep an eye and ear on this"

The rest of the tour proved uneventful, the next stop was the Eventide district, that's is where he took notice of the bank, the Dalaran Merchant's Bank where he later would open an account and store his money, and found for his delight, that this plaza had a normal looking fountain, something that was of his like, despite that crystal sculpture thing floating at the top of the fountain (Gerald don't really cared much about embellishments, magical or otherwise)

Through all that time, besides Rhonin descriptions of his city, Geralt was able to make questions about the culture and history of the other races; which were answered to him by several of the leaders, whom they too raised questions about his world and his trade.

Some of the questions and answers sometimes caused a little tension and friction among the leaders, but they managed to keep their temperament low; now that was surprising; maybe this was possible because Garrosh was not here, as he had refused to accompany Thrall into Dalaran and instead stayed back in the Kor'kron Vanguard; most probably because he still felt mad towards Geralt and Varok, but it was for this same reason that Dranosh Saurfang was here accompanying his father Varok and the warchief.

But Garrosh was not the only one that stayed behind, because the alliance military camp; Fordragon Hold could not be leaved without a leader in charge, the man whose name bear the encampment, Bolvar Fordragon, stayed too back there to muster the troops.

Geralt had barely exchanged words with him, but the man looked quite capable for the task, the witcher could tell that from the brief moments that he had lay eyes on him, you could see it in his face that lord Fordragon was a veteran of several armed conflicts, the way he moved that told of proud and duty, and the booming voice that would made troops to follow him to whatever end.

Yes, Lord Fordragon looked quite capable, but he also was not the only one who was not present, the last one was the man of the dreary looking armor with horns, Darion Mograine, who had stayed back to keep an eye over the duties of both the Argent Crusade and the Order of Knights of the Ebon Blade; there was something about that man that made Geralt suspicious.

He felt with Mograine the same felling that he had when he was looking at Sylvanas, he suspected him of being undead, his suspicions proved correct when he questioned Lord Fordring about Mograine just before departing to Dalaran.

Lord Fordring told him that Darion was indeed just like Sylvanas, undead, but he also told him that Mograine was someone that can be trusted upon, he had just suffered many tragic events in his life, thus Lord Fordring had spoke to the witcher about Mograine's past.

Apparently he was a Death Knight, the fallen twisted counterpart of the Paladins and as any other Death Knight; he had served the lich king, killing, raping and destroying in his name, that is, until the day that the Lich King ordered the destruction of a Holy Place located in a region called Tyr's Hand; Light's Hope Chapel, a place that served as a base of operations for the Argent Dawn and safe haven and moral support for the alliance troops in the region.

When the Lich king launched a second attempt to destroy the place, Mograine was the man to lead the assault; Surprising was the fact that Darion had died defending that place during the first attempt to raze it, fighting alongside Lord Fordring and making the ultimate sacrifice by using the blessed sword of his father, the Ashbringer on himself; with this act of self-sacrifice out of love for his father and beliefs about the justness of his cause; Mograine unleashed the righteous fury of the thousands spirits of the Knights that had died during the defense of that place, it was both a victory and a defeat for the followers of the Light that day, they had managed to destroy the Scourge troops that were threatening the region, but at cost of losing Darion to the enemy, whom then raised him back as a Death Knight into the service of the Lich King, (Now, that was just wrong)

During the second battle for Light's Hope Chapel, Lord Fordring confronted Darion at the gates of Light's Hope Chapel, destroying completely the scourge minions and overwhelming Mograine and his Death knights, who had no other option but surrender to the Argent Dawn and the remaining knights of the Silver Hand.

Lord Fordring berated Mograine for his actions, trying to make him remember the cause that he once fought for and to making him gaze at the depths of his treason, but that proved ineffective as Mograine acted defiant toward Lord Fordring, but suddenly the soul of Darion's father, Alexandros that was trapped inside the Ashbringer was released, Darion was trapped by the influence of his father soul forcing him to revive with him the memory of an event past.

It was the moment when Alexandros decided to join in the war against the Lich king, leaving his son behind; a young Darion then pledge to his father to took him along, to let him fight at his side against the growing threat of the Scourge, he told him he would not disappoint him that he will fight until his last breath, that he would not let the scourge to lay waste to their home; Alexandros refused saying it was too dangerous, that there was a great possibility for both of them ending up dead, Darion retorted to him that if they should to die, then they should die together; together father and son fighting without showing fear against the tides of the undead.

Alexandros witnessing the courage of his son, remained adamant that Darion should stay, saying that he was to live, for he was destined to become a champion of the light one day, greater than himself, for one day Darion was to wield the Ashbringer.

When the memories displaying in front of the surviving troops of Light's hope chapel reached that moment, The Lich King himself Arthas Menethil made act of presence in the battlefield and used his sword Frostmourne to consume Alexandros's soul, damning him forever as a slave of the Lich King.

Darion getting out of his trance, quickly realized the depth of the Lich king betrayal; this made Mograine to enter in a rage, a rage against the Lich King for lying to him and using him as a pawn, but most importantly a rage against himself for having betrayed his father memory at becoming that which he had sworn to fight against.

Mograine demanded an explanation but the Lich King, dismissed his accusations saying that he didn't care absolutely about the life of one of his pawns, he revealed to Mograine that he was nothing more than a tool for him, a tool that had outlived his usefulness, that's why he send him to lead the Charge into Light's Hope Chapel, expecting that he along the forces under his command would die at the hands of the defenders; as all this was only a ruse to bring Lord Fordring out of hiding, for the Lich King considered him a threat great enough, to be destroyed by any means necessary.

Mograine enraged attacked his former master, but the Lich King beat him easily, the remnants of the forces of the Argent Dawn, Knights of the Silver Hand and Darion's Death Knights launched themselves to attack the Lich King; but the powers of the Lich King could not be bested by them, he rebuke them all as easily as he had do it with Darion, in an act of desperation Darion tossed his sword, the corrupted version of the Ashbringer to lord Fordring who manged to purify the corrupted blade and filled with a righteous fury toward the Lich King, Lord Tirion engaged him in singular combat.

Lord Fordring also had told Geralt during his tale about the Ashbringer, first a crystal of pure dark energy that drew its power completely from the shadows but that was later purified , he told him how when Alexandros first discovered it, the crystal was used as a beacon of darkness, then Mograine's father show it to him and others of the High lords of the Knights of the Silver Hand, who fearful of the immense dark power of the crystal, attempted to destroy it, they attacked the crystal with several holy spells but instead of destroying it, the crystal absorbed them, this action seemed to have purified the crystal from its darkness, for in that moment it started to glow with the warmth of the light, the crystal had become its opposite a source of divine power.

It was decided then that from this crystal a weapon would be forged that would smite the undead with such power that only a cloud of ash would remain in its wake, thus the weapon name would be The Ashbringer.

Alexandros delivered the crystal to King Magni Bronzebeard who forged the Ashbringer using the crystal, with his new weapon Alexandros set himself to the task of waging war to the Scourge wherever he find them, becoming a terrible and dreaded enemy to the scourge, while at the same time becoming a symbol of hope for the people of Lordaeron.

Lord Tirion then informed Geralt that he stopped to receive news about Alexandros after a while, he did not know of his fate until Alexandros son, Darion found him a couple of years later and informed him of Alexandros fate.

Apparently Alexandros was lead into an ambush by his other son, Renault who had betrayed him to the scourge, Alexandros fought with all his might against the tides of the undead who leaved him tired and drained of his strength, Renault took opportunity in that moment to kill Alexandros using his own sword against him, this horrible act of treason corrupted the Ashbringer.

Alexandros then was raised as a Death knight in the service of the Lich King by Kel' Thuzad (Arthas right hand according to Lord Tirion) Darion then leaded by a vision went to the undead controlled city of Naxxramas, there he found his father and tried to reasoned with him, but the hold of the scourge over Alexandros was too great, in the end Darion was forced to reluctantly kill his father in order to release him from the Scourge control.

That was the moment when Alexandros soul was trapped inside the Ashbringer, which passed into Darion's hands, from inside the Ashbringer, Alexandros's soul managed to guide Darion where his brother Renault was dwelling.

Darion confronted his brother about their father's death, but Reanult lashed out and attempted to kill Darion, but before he was able to do so, the soul of Alexandros appeared from the Ashbringer and took physical manifestation, Renault begged to his father for forgiveness, and he indeed forgave his son by cutting his head off.

Despite all this the Ashbringer remained corrupted, not even when Darion sacrificed his own life at Light's Hope Chapel did the Ashbringer get rid of its corruption, it will continue to remain in that state; that this until that moment that Lord Tirion took hold of the weapon during the second battle of Light's Hope Chapel, purifying the blade anew.

Geralt had kept his opinions to himself; truth is he wasn't someone who had much interest in religion, such things as holy artifacts were out of his area of expertise, with that notion in mind, he had thought that this whole tale about holy relics, righteousness, self-sacrifice and redemption was like one of those stories that are depicted in sermons that priests tend to lecture about among the populace.

Yes Geralt could imagine it pretty well; it would sound something like this:

"and in an act of pure faith, trusting his life to the light, he plunged his sword into his own chest, sacrificing his own life in exchange of the destruction of the undead menace, with this act he unleashed the fury of the thousands souls of the righteous champions that had fallen in the preservation of the light, they brought down the divine retribution upon the heads of the enemies of the light for their wickedness, and erased any trace of their existence and evil ways from the face of the earth."

Yep just like that, in reality Geralt never paid much heed to those things; but seeing the sad and hurt expression that was displayed by Lord Fordring for remembering those events; made Geralt to be very delicate with what he said, realizing that this were not the babblings of an old priest, but a true experience that people had endured and lived through it.

Another fact to carry weight in that way of thinking, despite the fact of how far-fetched all of this story sounded, was the fact of how Lord Tirion was telling it, he was not using embellished words or complex sentences to tell his tale, he rater just stated the facts and gave insights that could be easy for understanding, he keep it simple and took his time to remember it when there was something unpleasant to him.

Geralt did not doubt that if Lord Fordring so desired it, he could tell the story the same way the priests tell their sermons; after all Lord Fordring looked like a well versed and literate person; certainly a Paladin must have a great knowledge of culture and religion besides their mastery in the arts of war.

This made Geralt to think about how much truth those sermons really held, perhaps there were really depicting actual events, but they were distorted and exaggerated through the passing of centuries.

In any case, with the now purified Ashbringer in his hands Lord Fordring battled against the Lich King, and because Lord Fordring had the advantage of being in a holy place and carrying a sacred weapon, he managed to repel the Lich King forcing him to leave Light's Hope Chapel.

Lord Tirion then brought back Darion into consciousness; then Tirion lamented the loss of life in both sides of the conflict, as it just seemed that it was an unnecessary waste, Tirion called for a merging of forces between the Argent Dawn and the remnant knights of the Silver Hand, so that together may brought an end to the evil reign of The Lich King, and succeed were so many others had failed; from that moment their combined forces would be known as The Argent Crusade, and their purpose will be to wage war to the Lich King and his Scourge, until the undead menace is completely obliterated.

Then Mograine too made an oath; that he will fight with all his strength and that of the Death knights under his command, against the Lich King and his Scourge and that he will not leave Northerend until the Lich King and every single last of his minions were destroyed, thus separating Mograine and his forces from that of the Scourge with this act of rebellion.

Darion then renamed the forces under his command as the Knights of the Ebon Blade, who became powerful allies of the Argent Crusade in their war efforts against the Scourge; war that still rages on.

Geralt decided not to judge Mograine's actions, he was the last person to ask about matters of redemption and forgiveness, everybody carries his own burdens; he would not pry about how Darion dealt with his own.

How odd for Geralt to be remembering that discussion in this particular moment, well regardless of how Geralt felt about that matter, this was not the time to be dwelling in such memories, so the witcher decided to focus back his attention on the leader's discussions.

Thrall was proving to be quite the diplomat, managing to always act in a civilized manner and taking care of not antagonizing the other leaders, if he was found himself in a tight spot Jaina was quickly at his side to help him.

It would also seem that he had good relationships with some of the alliance leaders, namely lady Tyrande, there seemed to be a kind of mutual respect between her and Thrall, and he also seemed to have a close friendship with Jaina, when Geralt inquired about it, he was told that it was because they had fought alongside each other's side during the final battle of the third war, only through cooperation did they managed to stop the advancing invading forces of both the Burning Legion and The Scourge.

And it seemed that those relationships managed to endure after the war (no doubt that such relationships were strain to its maximum because of the current tensions between factions)

The others leaders were also not particularly ill intended toward their horde counterparts, Varian, King Magni, Tinker Mekkatorque and Prophet Velen even though they were not particularly fond of the horde (no doubt because of their past history), they made no objection of trying to find a diplomatic solution or even work alongside certain horde leaders, like Thrall, Cairne or Vol'Jin (who they seemed to be the most calmed and understanding of all the horde leaders) but were highly wary or despiteful of others like Sylvanas or Lor'themar; Well, except Varian and Velen, that for some reason didn't acted wary at the presence of Lor'themar, unlike Veressa who tended to glare daggers at him (how strange to see elves hating each other) in order to avoid trouble Lor'themar positioned himself in a way were he could use Sylvanas presence as a buff for Veressa's mood, who could not dare to act temperamental in the presence of her sister.

Nevertheless, despite their grudges, that was something that greatly surprised the witcher; to see several members of different races, putting behind their differences (albeit temporary) in order to ensure the safety of their world; such things never happened back in his world, the humans always tended to antagonize the other races, the most civilized interaction that they had with them was; either just a grudgingly tolerance of their presence (in case of the dwarves, and gnomes since they were merchants, artisans and engineers), or openly hate and distrust (in the case of the elves)

And the other races don't do nothing to improve their relationships either; the elves were always raiding and terrorizing villagers, farms and roads, they had such a hate for humanity that their normal way of thinking was to kill any human at first sight, whether be man, woman or children.

That seemed to not be the case in this world, were enemies could work and help each other for the greater good, this city itself was prove of that as Rhonin told him that Dalaran is a neutral town, with both Horde and Alliance forces under a same roof; and of course Rhonin's marriage in itself was another proof, his wife was an elven maiden; such relationships were normally unheard of and highly unlikely in the Northern Kingdoms, not that Geralt has been deprived of the pleasure of been in the company of an elven lady, but that was something really tricky to accomplish, there was more grudge than love in those encounters, although there were exceptions, it's not like half-elves did not existed in his world, they did were around, but normally they were born as result of rapes or forced encounters, which made half-elves to be shun by both races of his parents….. well unless you live in either Nilfgaard or one of his provinces (odd that the greatest enemy of any free kingdom is also a practitioner of tolerance among races)

Obviously, the witcher also suspected that this world had also his own share of racial violence and hate; he was certain that somewhere in this world someone must be suffering because of it, there is never such thing as absolute peace, he could see the racial hate and tensions in the faces of the leaders, they were plain enough in showing their emotions, it's just that here the level of racial hate had not reach the same magnitude as on his world, here at least were people in charge who will not let their personal grudges interfere with their common sense.

The Witcher mentioned this to the leaders and because he said it on such a nice and calm manner, the leaders believed that they were being complimented by him, something that leaved them kinda astonished.

That was because the witcher had seldom made any comment about the sights and places they were seeing, most of the interaction they had with him were just direct questions or answers from different topics, and now he had just coming up saying, practically out of the blue that they had a much better predisposition and tolerance of other races than those of the people of his world.

Rhonin was amused "Well, it's kind of you for noticing it mister Geralt, it raises my hopes for an understanding and peaceful relationship among the factions; to know that it is possible for all races to be able to coexist among themselves, now that is an endearing thought"

Veressa not completely sharing the optimism of his husband raised a question.

"But surely there must be some amount of cordiality among the races of your world, is it not? I doubt that they could be constantly open to hostilities, they clearly had to realize that you cannot always have the resources or man power to afford an open conflict"

The witcher bristled at that "Gathering resources or wealth for the kingdoms of my world is not complicated, most of the rulers tend to amass fortunes by exploiting the citizens out of every single of their belongings, and they simple leave them to fend for themselves after that, not caring whether they live or die, and of course with their wealth they can maintain a respectable military force for their own protection.

It's a common sight to see entire villages and towns choked by poverty, that`s pretty much of what decorates the landscape of my world, only the main seats of power are well maintained, because the rulers tend to show their wealth in blatant displays of luxury, and of course corruption is a constant in those places.

It is easier for the oppressed populace to turn their frustrations over the other races, and it gives the kingdoms a scapegoat for their actions as it keeps the populace attention away from important matters, making them easier to control.

That is why many kingdoms promote the prosecution and harassing of non-humans, although not necessary such edicts need to be approved by the king to be enacted, there are good kings that are wise and just, but not even they are able to stop the corruption of the landlords and fiefs."

King Magni was appealed "What kind of horrible place ye'r world sound to be, lad? I cannot fathom how someone would implement such tyranny on yei'r own subjects by committing atrocities against other races"

Jaina was horrified too "Indeed, such oppression and hostility, how can someone live in a place like that?"

The witcher looked at her impassibly " it depends of the crystal which you see it, in the northern kingdoms hostilities between nordlings and non-humans are common, there are exceptions of course not always do the marginalized peasants believe all the slander against non-humans and sometimes they take pity on them, taking care of their health when they are wounded and close to death or feeding them in their times of need, these actions made the non-humans to reconsider the views they have of humanity in general; there have been sighs of non-humans coming to aid the people that took care of them, normally when authorities discovered they had helped non-humans and for that they charge them with treason (this part made many of the leaders with their mouths agape; helping others races in need is considered as an act of treason) the non-humans then help their former saviors to escape and to find a new home.

But that is just the case in the northern kingdoms, in Nilfgaard things are different, there coexistence among races do exist"

Varian was confused by that "Nilfgaard? Didn't you say that Nilfgaard is a tyrannical empire, who conquers every kingdom that stands in his way? I failed to see how a nation whose sole objective is to conquer everything that's does not belong to them, can be tolerant towards others races"

Geralt still impassive responded to him "I never said that Nilfgaard is tyrannical, it is ruthless, yes, relentless, yes, cunning, yes, and you cannot entirely trust in it, yes, but it is not tyrannical.

Actually Nilfgaard tends to take good care of its subjects, it often rewards those who proved their loyalty to the emperor or if they help the empire even though if they are not citizens of the empire themselves, it does not matter which race you belong to, all that it matters is if you stand with the empire or against it.

Also is really hard for Nilfgaard to be hostile to other races, because most of the citizens of the empire have elven ancestry, most of the ruling nobles, including the emperor, despite being humans have elven blood running through their veins, and is not uncommon to see elves treated with respect in Nilfgaard and its provinces, some of them even have positions of power inside the empire and often citizens of the empire marry with elves, keeping the ties between the two races strong and because Nilfgaard is a proud nation, they take pride of being of elven ancestry, as elves are one of the elder races, practically the first to have walk the land.

So, is not surprising that a great deal of the citizens of the empire are; besides humans, Half-elves and Quadroons."

"Quadroons? Never heard that term used before to refer to someone descendants." Stated Dranosh a little curious.

The witcher continued with his explanation "Yes Quadroons, as the name implies they are ¼ elves, the sons and daughters of humans and half-elves, sometimes even dryads are born as result of interbreeding between humans and elves."

This statement made Lady Tyrande to stop in her tracks bewildered "Dryads? The guardians of nature, born from the union of elf and human, how is that possible?"

The witcher raised an eyebrow at her and with a half-smile he said "You are asking a man who cannot have children himself, how the specifics of hereditary traits in the children of interracial unions work?"

That leaved everybody silent, with several people, especially Tyrande, with a look of puzzlement in their faces; Geralt let them to have some time to allow that to sink and see if they could come up with a counterargument, when none came, he continued.

"I'm sorry, but things like that are beyond me, all that I know is that sometimes, that happens in my world as there have been several confirmations of Dryads born from parents of different races, then again the elves from my world are different from yours, as in their ears are not as long as yours, so that must be something that is exclusive of the races of my world."

The witcher started to walk again, prompting everybody to follow his pace.

"Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, it is because of this reasons and the racial discrimination by the Nordlings that the elves allied themselves with Nilfgaard, when the empire invaded in an attempt to conquer the Northern Kingdoms during the second Nilfgaard-Nordling war.

This lead to the creation of the Scoia'tael, the elven guerrillas known also as the Squirrels, the elves and several members of other non-human races banded together in this groups, they were used primary as a diversion and for support of the main Nilfgaardian army.

When the armies of the Northern kingdoms where busy trying to stop the advance of the imperial army, the Scoia'tael was making sure to weak their resolve, by terrorizing their villages, burning their crops, attacking their supplies lines and caravans, sometimes they even attacked the encampments of the Nordlings armies, or engaged their troops in combat with hit and run tactics.

A very smart and cunning move from Nilfgaard for having help in the creation of the Scoia'tael, the empire attacked the Northern Kingdoms by the front with the bulk of his armies, while the Scoia'tael attacked the Nordlings from the rear and leaved them to be taken by the empire.

This obviously brought even more resentment and discrimination by the Nordlings towards non-humans when the war ended with the defeat of the Nilfgaardian army in the battle of Brenna.

But the empire rewarded the elves for their aid and support during the war, the emperor Emhyr Van Emreis decreed that the land of Dol Blathanna also known as the Valley of Flowers, an ancient kingdom that used to belong to the elves for ages until humans came, laid claim to the land and expelled them, was to be return to them and the elven sorceress Enid an Gleanna was crowned by imperial decree as the queen of Dol Blathana.

Thus the Nilfgaard emperor returned the ancient home of the elves to their rightful owners after the war, helping restoring their ancient kingdom that has become the last nation of free elves in the land."

Many of the leaders were surprised and fascinated by the witcher tale, especially Jaina.

"Didn't Nilfgaard lose the war? And yet they rewarded the elves with a nation of their own for their help even though they lost, that… that was pretty generous from their part"

Varian was impressed too "I never heard of a Kingdom rewarding his allies so generously after suffering a blow that I'm certain had leave them with quite the losses"

The witcher chuckled at that "Believe me when I tell you, that even though Nilfgaard was unable to win the war, that doesn't mean that they came out with their hands empty, as I had explained previously, in the beginning of the war Nilfgaard was all but unstoppable, Kingdom after Kingdom fell at his wake which the emperor claimed as his own, and while the remnant kingdoms of the north managed to stop the imperial advance, that didn't mean that the conquered kingdoms were liberated from Nilfgaard occupation.

Even though it was accorded after the war, that Nilfgaard was to return the conquered lands to their rightful kings and withdraw all their forces from the occupied Kingdoms, Nilfgaard has yet failed to release their holds in the Northern Kingdoms and still has a sizeable occupation force assigned in the conquered lands.

Which have brought an uneasy truce, even though the war is over Nilfgaard still retain a hold and influence over several of the Northern kingdoms, some are even divided because of it, like Cintra with little more than half of its territory under imperial occupation."

"So, why not the Nordlings force Nilfgaard out of their occupied lands? They already defeated them in the war, so they could do so again" asked Dranosh as if it was the obvious thing to do.

Geralt denied that statement with a movement of his head and answered "The kingdoms don't have the strength for another war against Nilfgaard, remember that I told all of you that the victory had come with a great price, one that required the need of my services"

"Peace gave way to times of violence and decay….. Yes we remember" asserted Rhonin with a nod.

"Indeed, most of the stability of the northern kingdoms was at border of collapse by the end of the war, while Nilfgaard even though its armies were defeated, it still had a thriving economy and stable infrastructure, most of the expenses of the war were paid with the riches of the kingdoms that were managed to be conquered during the war, and since then the occupied lands have become an stable source of income to the empire.

And besides it's not like the Northern kingdoms are totally friendly among themselves, they usually are subjects of grudges, disputes, opposition, conflicts, even outright hostility among them, the only reason why they joined into a single cause, was because of the great threat that Nilfgaard represented to them, and even when they managed to fight together that almost wasn't enough to stop Nilfgaard, if Nilfgaard had not invaded, the Northern Kingdoms would likely still be divided and fighting among themselves.

It is for this reason that many kingdoms are not willing to go to war against Nilfgaard once more for the liberation of another kingdom that is not their own and that does not affect them for being under Nilfgaardian occupation, they only care for what happens to themselves.

And Nilfgaard even though still poses a vast army that dwarfs that of many of the Northern kingdoms, is not willing to invade once more, because if it do it so, it will unified all the Northern Kingdoms to stand against him, an unappealing course of action, since the Nordlings have already proved that they are able to defeat the empire if they are united, this has brought a stalemate of both sides, because neither has the strength to prevail against the other."

"That sounds pretty much like the current situation we have between the alliance and the horde" commented Aegwynn.

The witcher smirked "Yes it may seem that way, except that Nilfgaard has not yet still abandoned his attempts in conquering the Northern Kingdoms"

"What do you mean by that" asked Varok

"The Nordglings may have proved that they are able to resist against a military intervention, but that just made Nilfgaard to change his tactics, were before it used armies and soldiers as means of conquest, it now uses secrecy, intrigue and assassination as its weapons."

Varian was starting to figure out where the conversation was heading "You mean spies?" he asked.

The Witcher promptly corrected him "More than just spies, Nilfgaard agents do a very wide and complex list of plots against the Northern Kingdoms, they plant seeds of dissidence and strife deep within the kingdoms seats of power, they try to seduce their way into high places of the kingdoms courts, or bought the favor and allegiances of those in positions of power, or simply kill them and put in place individuals who are loyal to them; or they finance cells of rebels and revolutionaries that are displeased with the kingdoms current way of ruling, these cells then attack the Kingdoms in dangerous and often suicidal ways, causing great damage that cost a lot to the kingdoms to restore.

And they still have the Scoia'tael, whom had taken the labor of terrorizing roads and villages, weakening the infrastructure of the kingdoms, although normally they act in independent and isolated units since their fragmentation at the end of the war, but there are still around and sometimes Nilfgaard agents contact them to recruit their help into one of their plots"

"Damn! dose' Nilfgaardians sound as re'lly nasty people, mon', what ezzactly have dey' done for conquering the northern kingdums? Tell us sumthing in zpecific mon'" asked Vol'Jin

The witcher thought for a moment before answering "well, the boldest plot that Nilfgaard has made as of yet in an attempt of conquering the Northern Kingdoms, is when they had send agents to assassinate every single one of the ruling kings, in an attempt to destabilize the north and let the region fall into conflict, they failed but they were really close to succeed and several kings were assassinated because of it, which resulted in some kingdoms falling into strife"

Vol'Jin was appalled "WOW, Dat's sick ya'"

Lor'themar quite stricken by that revelation finally decided to speak after remaining quiet all this time "What kind of power does a nation hold if it can be able to threat the lives of the rulers of several kingdoms at the same time, all by itself? To have the resources to pull it and the nerves to do so, how surreal!"

Sylvanas on the other hand was intrigued "Yes that sounds as a really complicated thing to do; exactly how much power does the Nilfgaard Empire really holds, you never tell us the specifics of it, for example the real numbers that compromise his army or the extension of his domains, you just tell us that it they are vast"

The witcher took a brief glimpse at her before looking back to where they were walking "All of you saw the map in which was depicted the land where I came from, is it not?"

"Yes; and your point is…." Said Sylvanas a little impatient.

"From where it is marked the location of the Yaruga River a little bith north of the Amell Mountains, all of the land south of that point until it reaches the southern end of the map, belongs to Nilfgaard"

Several of the leaders scoffed and were bewildered by that, they remember the geography of the continent depicted in that map, the witcher had explained to them previously the real length and extension in distance measurement depicted in it, not a small place at all, and by remembering the location of the river that means that Nilfgaard possessed more than 2/3 of the lands depicted in the map, that was a hell of a lot of land under Nilfgaard control including the part of the northern kingdoms under the empire's rule.

Varian was a little shocked by that but he kept himself composed and continued walking on "Okay that's….. Damn that's a lot of territory, at least that answer one of our inquiries, ok! What about the size of its armies?"

"I don't know what the real size of the Nilfgaard military is nowadays, but I know that when they invaded the northern kingdoms 10 years ago, Nilfgaard dispatched an army of at least 300,000 troops, with another 20 or 50, 000 that were left behind to guard the lands of the empire."

When the witcher said those numbers, everybody stopped on their tracks, mouths agape.

Thrall was the first to speak "3? 300,000 troops! And they even had reserves? Spirits protect us; those Northern Kingdoms must have really had it bad during the war. Those numbers dwarf the combined number of our own forces, both alliance and horde, not even during the second war did we have those numbers."

"I agree" said Varian "Such overwhelming number of troops, the only ones that I know in this world that could be numbered in such quantity, are the endless folds of the Burning Legion, I really feel bad for the Nordlings, though they managed to prevail against such odds, they must be really skilled warriors"

Geralt quickly admonished Varian "It was not skill what saved them, they were after all filled with desperation, that was what it drove the northern kingdoms to join in a military effort to stand against Nilfgaard, together they managed to defeat the mighty empire, although barely, for it was not only the overwhelming numbers of the Nilfgaardian army that you must be afraid of, but also the skill and experience of its troops.

The Nilfgaardian soldiers are elite trained units that had spent years of warfare conquering lands in the empire's name and have state of the art weapons and equipment, you already have an idea of how much do the empire really holds, now imagine the wealth that such holdings give to the empire, wealth that they had spent well in the training and equipment of its army, truly having Nilfgaard as an enemy is a frightening notion."

The Witcher took a moment to catch his breath and continued "That is another reason why many of the Northern Kingdoms do not want to engage Nilfgaard in another war, while the Northern Kingdoms were left weakened and destabilized by the war, Nilfgaard despite its defeat still remains strong; I have no doubt that by now the empire has completely recovered from his loses in the war"

Jaina was having a hard time comprehending the idea of such a massive and powerful empire "I…. What? ... Then why does the empire spends so many efforts in its expansion? Why wage war or plotting against any free nation? What are its motives for doing that?"

Geralt shrugged at that, truth is he really not cared much about the motives between nations to attack at each other "I don't know, The aims of the emperor are many and mysterious ones, all I can do is speculate, Nilfgaard is a very proud nation, not entirely evil since they know how to treat its citizens well and rule wisely and fairly and they even manage to live harmoniously among the other races, but it is not foreign to ruthlessness and despicable acts to achieve its goals, which are centered mostly in the expansion of the empire.

I think is because the empire thinks that it's the only source for true civilization in a world full of darkness and strife, they certainly believe that their way of life is better than any other of all the civilizations that they had stumble upon, it's possible that they believe that they are doing a good thing by annexing others into the empire, when the empire conquest a nation every single of the citizens of the newly acquired province, become immediately in citizens of the empire, gaining the rights and protection of the law that such position conveys.

That maybe a reason why rarely do acts of rebellion occur in the empire provinces, since Nilfgaard normally treats them better than their previously ruler and are quickly assimilated into the empire customs, but when rebellions do occur they are quickly and decisively suffocated by the empire's military forces.

So it is possible that Nilfgaard has such ambition of constantly expanding it's borders, because it believes that it's bringing peace and prosperity to the world, a forced peace nonetheless, since nothing will stop Nilfgaard to annex every kingdom that it can find into his territories to fulfill its vision of global order, even if the Kingdoms refused that only means that the empire will invade them and annex them against their will.

So all in all, Nilfgaard may have a noble purpose for doing the things that it does, but the ways that it employs to do so, are not entirely noble, it will stop at nothing and it will do everything that it will be necessary to achieve its goals, the ambitions of Nilfgaard is something that I have never seen anything that can be compare against it."

Varian shuddered a little at that thought; such ambitions of power are quite intimidating.

"You know I'm glad it's only you who ended up here in this world, and there is no way for you to go back, I certainly would not like to find myself in the presence of such a mighty and terrible empire"

The witcher looked at Varian with an amused expression "Yes, I'm glad that I'm trapped here in this world away from everything that I'm familiar with and from the people I care, only for the pleasure of being in the company of such a generous and tactful monarch like you"

Varian silently scowled and shake his head, he was about to retort when king Magni beat him to it.

"Ye' know lad, I withdraw what I had said before; ye' world ain't no horrible place, is awfully complex and makes my poor lil' ol' head to suffer of migraines when trying to understand the notions that ye'r world works upon, and I had thought that trying to reach an arrangement with the horde leaders or dealing with the ambassadors of my fellow allies was bad"

Geralt chuckled at that "True enough" was all he said.

Rhonin cleared his throat to draw attention "Well, best we continue with the tour, as informative as this explanation has been, we still have a little more of a trek to go before we can go back to the Violet Citadel and I wish we could do it before dusk"

And with that the group started moving again.

By the time the sun was starting to set in the horizon, casting its orange tonalities into the walls and streets, Rhonin had lead the group of leaders and the witcher back to the Violet Citadel.

Geralt spoke to him and told him, that he was going to retire back to his assigned quarters, for he needed time to ponder in the events that had transpired during the day; Rhonin made no objection to that and told him that he would assign someone to deliver him the dinner to his quarters.

The witcher spent the rest of the evening and night alone in the accommodations that had been assigned to him; it was a very decent room with a bed, a desk for study, with those glowing crystals that were used at lamps attached to the walls, and a mirror hanging in a wall to look at himself, the place was decorated in the same fashion as the rest of the citadel (that means he had to "enjoy" the violet color scheme).

Geralt, ended his meditations a little after midnight, when his predator nature had become exteriorized, he went out of his room into the corridor, and found it empty, so Geralt started to wander through the halls of the citadel to develop a mental map of the place, sometimes he stumbled upon some mage instructor or apprentice, whom reacted surprised and even scared of his appearance, but he paid them little attention, just some courteous exchange of greetings to assured them that he mean no harm and that was all.

He had not the desire to answer any question that they may ask to him, nor did he wanted to get directions from them, because he was not going to no particular place nor he was in a rush to arrive anywhere.

He eventually found the Library, and was satisfied to see that the mages do had an ample selection of tomes, it was clearly that Rhonin could fulfill his part of the bargain to supply him with information about this world, but now was not the time to be analyzing books, he would have that for that later, so the witcher decided to continue with his explorations.

Finally he arrived back to the main hall and into the front doors, the witcher decided that he was curious to see what the night life of the city of Dalaran was, so he decided to take a late night stroll into the city.

….

NOTE: well here is the second part of this chapter hope you like it, and I'm sorry it took me more time that I had intended, again I had things at work that needed to do, also I have to go to college on weekends, so that took my time away.

Anyway, I think I should not try to predict how much will it take me to upload the next part, since it seems I suck at that, besides writing is not that easy, I have to filter a lot of ideas, do a lot of changes, even include things that I had not previously intended.

Like, the history of the Ashbringer and Nilfgaard I had no intention to put it in here, yet in the last moment it occurred to me to do it, and I had to write all that and they ended up becoming in the main subjects of this chapter.

Anyhow about Nilfgaard there are many things about that empire that I had to write all by myself, the games does not give a detailed glimpse of the empire and its customs, not even the wiki does it, but it sounded to me like an empire akin to that of the Romans, so I put some things of the Romans empire were known to do and implemented in the customs of Nilfgaard.

Like giving citizenship to the conquered provinces, not sure if the Nilfgaard of the books (why of all the books that exist of the witcher just 2 are translated into English?) and the TV series does that, but it seemed to me like a good way to complement things, so I took some writing liberties, and probably I will continue to use the Roman empire as a base for a more in depth description of Nilfgaard, if I decide to mention more about that nation in future chapters.

I don't know why suddenly I have the idea of a Nilfgaard invasion into Azeroth, well I'm certainly not going to do that right now, but it's something to have for later consideration.

Or what do you think? Please give me your opinions in the reviews, if you think this is a good idea or about anything else you think it could be good to improve this fic.