"Drachis Kiss" Sea of Claws
Hauclir was a Dark Elf resigned to his death, but he started to wonder what form it would take. When his Witch realized that the Battle was lost he decided to leave for home. He had the last imperial seamen killed and decided to sink the Galleons rather than fire at them.
They would take hours to sink that way, but that was better than to give a signal for any onlooker by firing them and causing a smoke column.
He had hoped that his fast Dark Elf ships would be able to outrun the Germans easily and then hide in the vastness of the oceans, but no such luck. Within a few hours a plane had over flown his small fleet, and ever since then a plane had flown lazy orbits around their ships.
Later that day a ship had also joined the surveillance, but nobody had ever attacked him or the other ships but kept a couple of 100 meters distance. He would have set a course to ram and board them, but he only had skeleton crews on board whose job it was to guard the ships until the raiding party was back.
Having rigged Nets across the ships sides and covered the deck with sand he had done what he could to prepare the ships for the fight.
Better to await the boarders and to sell their lives as well as possible. The waiting was really fraying his nerves and keeping up a stone-faced façade was getting more and more dangerous. The Galley slaves were getting restless, but they would die soon enough and new ones taken in.
Now a different fleet had joined the flock as could be seen from the different colour and these ships were now coming closer for an obvious boarding, but where the boarder hid he could not see.
The bolts he shot did not seem to do any appreciable harm, especially as he could not see any enemy except for some who hid behind a movable shield.
Nothing could have surprised Hauclir more than the stream of water which hid him squarely on the chest and forced him straight over the deck. He hesitated a little bit too long to release his crossbow so he did not get to grab a handrail on the ships far side before he was washed overboard. His Coat and armor prevented swimming effectively, damning him to the death by drowning that he feared most.
Fireship "Bremen 1", Sea of Claws
A normal truck mounted Water Cannon is able to throw 2200 litres of water a minute-usually more than enough to subdue demonstrators and similar. The Water cannons on the Fireship easily managed 14000, allowing two cannons to "cleanse" the decks of the Druchii galleys without endangering the rowing slaves the Elves kept.
The Fireman manning one of them had seen pictures from Papenburg and was just too eager to help storming the ships before they escaped. He kept a watchful eye on the enemies deck, but from the edges of his vision he saw the Boats approaching with the assault teams.
Nevertheless he kept the stream of water on the Reaper Bolt thrower which was the only weapon on the ship with any real potential to cause damage to him or his ship.
GSG9 Assault Boat, Sea of Claws
Mark Weber clutched the handles of his boat while at the same time covering his Nose as much as possible. He already dreaded the boarding-not so much because of the dangers but because he would no longer be able to hold his nose. The stink emitted by the Galley was ferocious; how the Elves could stand it was beyond his reckoning.
Normally the GSG9 would have preferred to assault by helicopter, but the masts of the Ships made that impossible. He was unhappy with the lack of intelligence, and the fact that his enemies belonged to a well-trained military. That the Spitzohren mostly using swords was counting for less in the close confines of a ship.
Boarding was mostly easy as they had a marksman in over watch who shot the guys trying to stab them through a hole. The main problem was that the ship had started to go in lazy circles as the helm was no longer manned.
Once up on the main deck they found only a few Corsairs badly disabled and quickly reconnoitred the lower deck by lowering endoscopes through the gratings covering the rowers deck. Seeing no armed men a quick huddle gave a very basic plan.
Mark waited for the flashbangs to go off and the grating to be ripped off by his comrades, then dropped directly into the hold. Turning to "his" side of the walkway he was immediately attacked by a thin whip-wielding elf, who looked distracted by the Sound and Light overload. The whip wrapped itself about his Torso, but the Armoured Vest kept it from doing any damage, whereas his 3-round burst went into the enemies breast and neck.
Scanning for additional enemies he found another Elf which had fallen between the rowers. To his amazement the slaves did not move to harm the slaver but slowly stopped rowing as they were no longer issued commands.
The more he looked around the worse the sight became.
The stink and fear of the Galley slaves was horrible, as was the sight of the slaves. How these poor creatures could have endured for so long in such a state was beyond him, but even a cursory look showed lesions and inflammations from bad sanitary conditions and the chains.
The backs of all slaves showed many badly healed welts from whips, but the real problem he could see was the blank look in the eyes of the slaves, which together with the small pupils in the slaves eyes spoke of even bigger problems.
The "all clears" came in and now the more difficult part of the job began-saving all the victims of the Spitzohren-but this was for other people, his job was done.
Close to Papenburg, Late at night, 3 days later
Jasla was not sure if she should consider herself lucky. When she had awoken after blacking out from the pain on the battlefield the battle was obviously over and even more obviously her side had lost.
She saw some Germans picking up the Druchii dead, of which there seemed to be many, and managed to crawl to a ditch where she managed to pull herself into a big concrete pipe. Shivering in the cold water she had to wait for many hours for the Germans to leave the Battlefield alone. When she finally left her hiding place her good night vision allowed her to avoid the few German patrols which were left.
Now she had slowly traversed the strange German landscape, mostly at night.
She did not find much to eat and drinking water from a clear looking spring had promptly given here "the runs". This did not improve her condition any which was already bad enough due to bad headaches, hunger and near total loss of all magic capabilities due to this.
She still had her dagger, her abilities and had decided to rob a local farm or house to take what food and local clothing there was. During the last hour she caught herself approaching a large house where her instinct seemed to pull her.
She was not sure what to make of this, but was pretty sure that her magical senses had detected something useful but could presently only show it in a roundabout way.
The house seemed to be quite full of people but all windows were shuttered and she could see nothing. She was about to leave because of the many people when some of the sounds made her think differently.
Pulling herself up to one window and plying her dagger to some paint showed her an amazing sight: Lots of people in an obvious orgy with some rather interesting permutations. She could also see evidence of handcuffs and at one wall a naked woman was whipped.
"Thank you Lord Slanesh" Hag Graef always harboured a Slaneshee cult, and while forbidden she always found the connections and action useful and amusing.
Feeling quite enthused at this good fortune she barged in through the door and shouted the greeting that should give her sanctuary within the cult. She was still registering the totally amazed faces when a powerful kick who`s origin she never saw to her chin send her into oblivion.
Police Car Peter 9, close to Papenburg
"Say again, Center we are to go to the Swingers Club in Helm Road to check for WHAT…."
Faculty of Magic, Kaiserslautern University, Germany
The two magicians from the Bright and Gold Orders were still amazed by the technological sophistication of Germany. And they knew that their colleagues from the other Orders present here were so too.
Even the provisory rooms they had gotten for now were always heated, with flowing water and a firewoodless kitchen! The city was lit brightly at night, the clothes of the people...
It was culture shock of the first order the 8 men and women experienced. What was equally baffling were the questions the German pupils and researchers asked.
After Journeyman Heidbrand, the Bright (or Fire) Order mage had shown some of the things one could do if you were a student of the bright flame, the first question was not how to learn it to smite the Chaos menace! No, one engineer sitting there wanted to know, if he and the other learners of fire magic could produce steam for some arcane thing he called a "turbine".
Heidbrand, a bit perplexed, but eager to show his learning, agreed that it was possible to produce steam, but would like to know what this turbine thing was. He had had feared to be laughed at for his non-knowledge, but all he heard was the shout: "Cool Idea!"
Germans...
NDR Documentary, some weeks after the battle:
Hospital setting, showing a recovering Slave rescued from a Druchii Galley:
"I was brought to the "Kiss" 5 months ago with 20 others. Me and Drogo over there, we are the last survivors of that them. The chains were riveted to the benches-we could not get up for anything. They were only loosened when we were at harbour.
No, you cannot ask Drogo, they cut his tongue out when he….."
Interrogation room at undisclosed location, showing Jasla in Chains which are liberally festooned with Charms and seals which look strange against the stark modern setting. Video is grainy and jumpy as it has been smuggled out of the Prison:
"We take from the lesser races what we want. Khaine has given them to us for this purpose. It is obvious: They are weak, so they are ours for the taking. If this were wrong they would be stronger and we could not use them so…..
...Torture serves many purposes: It subdues the slaves by instilling terror in their hearts, it provides information when we need it, it serves to make underlings know their place, but most of all, it shows Khaine our devotion to him in his many forms.
But also, it is such FUN. Little man, if I had just one hour with you I could….."
Nuremberg Museum, talking to the curator:
"As you can see here, this spearhead is serrated in several places. The way it is made is not to kill as effectively as possible, but to inflict heavy bloodletting in combination with crippling pain. This seems to be to the point where it lowers the tactical usefulness in order to satisfy some sadistic urge…."
Street at night, showing an exhausted looking Landwehr medic:
"This is what we do-we can no longer ask others to do it for us. We used to have allies who did the dirty work for us and whom we could despise for that-we no longer can. Our Big Brother is gone. If we do not defend ourselves, Nobody will and many more will die. Nobody of us asks for the risks, but we have to take them."
Same night in a well-protected Berlin Living room:
"Scheiße,it is Fukushima again!"
The German chancellor refrained from throwing down the remote control, instead forcefully switching off the NDR documentary which just finished. "Why dear, I did not see any exploding Nuclear Power Stations?"
"Don`t play the fool Achim, it does not amuse at present. It is just that something just happened and was blown up by the media to the point where I have to do something radical I would rather not do, or we look foolish and weak. Not good, not good at all. Pass me the phone, will ya…"
"Thomas, yes it is me Angela. We have to have a meeting early tomorrow. Yes, about this Spitzohrenproblem. We have to…"
Altdorf, Imperial Palace
"So tell me, what is so important about this battle? It was more of a skirmish, less than 800 fighters on both sides. We know from the Swinemünde Battle already that the Germans can kill in carload lots if they think that is necessary?"
"What we think is important, your Majesty, is that the battle was mostly done by the lowly Landwehr, the City soldiers, with what the Germans consider simple weaponry, and mostly won by the time reinforcements arrived.
If that is true, then we should do our utmost to acquire these weapons, especially these…machine guns. They seem to be easy to maintain and transport and we might be able to do some repairs, whereas we have problems with the guns the Germans gifted us. Our engineers are bright-eyed for these new cannons and we used them to counter a Chaos incursion into the Ostermark with unbelievable effect already, but..."
"But? Speak openly."
"Yes, your Majesty. The cannons the Germans gave us are far beyond even Dwarf handiwork in power and reliability. But we have only a handful of master engineers capable to do even small repairs. Until we have more of them knowledgeable about these cannons, we have to be careful when and where we use them. It will get better with time, sure, but the machineguns I heard about are supposedly so simple to maintain, we can get them spread wider to our armies and faster then we will the cannons. The German Ambassador has asked for more Mages to be send to Germany, maybe we can arrange something here..."
ThyssenKrupp Steelworks, Duisburg, Germany
Rotach Roogson, chief advisor to the High King of all Dwarfs, did not need to look around to know the other Dwarfs in the group were as impressed as he was. Dwarvenkind rightly prided itself on their industrial prowess. When it came to the products of the Smith, their race was the top of the World. While there were a handful of master artisans in a few other lands like the Empire or Ulthuan able to compete with the Dwarfs, as a whole no one could compare.
Until now.
Rotach had problems grasping the scale of what he saw. The equivalent of a large city was solely dedicated to produce steel and other foundry products. But at the same time he looked forward to work with these Germans. Just the image of what wonders now lay in reach of all Dwarfs made him uncharacteristically giddy. Urging the King to come here and looking for himself would be a pleasure.
Rotach actually had been very reluctant to believe the reports he had gotten from the Empire about the strange newcomers. But he deemed himself man enough to recognize the challenge these Germans were. If the Karaks wanted to stay on top, it would do no good to stick the head into the sand like posing Elves!
Beach of Büsingen, Lake Constance, Germany
Uta Zuralmen and her husband Urs sat on the small, sandy beach outside of Büsingen, with a view on the lake and the Ponton bridge connecting the village with Germany. They were doing a little picnic to relax from their harrowing experience back in Reichenau and Tamins.
The 32 years old woman was very happy that they survived the Orc attacks. After Kurt Crüwell and his helicopters saved them from certain death or slavery, there had been a painful decision to make. The German Colonel had told Uta that it had been a pleasure to help them, but Tamins now was positioned too far away or too difficult to reach from either Germany, the Empire, not to speak of the major Border Principalities.
"Frau Zuralmen, we can give all survivors a lift to another place and then destroy everything here, to keep it out of the hands of murderous barbarians. Alternatively, if to leave is too much to stomach for you, we can give Tamins some rations and ammunition, but then you´d be on your own. We will tell the Empire officials in the Mootland where you are, but don´t be foolish to count on fast help.
The World´s Edge Mountains where we are standing now, are far more vast than the Himalaya back home on Earth and the Empire of Mankind, which is one of the most advanced nations here, is around 400 years in development behind us."
"Are there others of us two here on this planet?"
"A good question. Germany, and some nibbles of neighbouring countries, were transported to this world in one piece and you are the first group of other Earth people we found. This planet is larger than our home planet and it was shaken too, so it might be that there are other people stranded here. If that is the case, they do not have access to advanced communication, since we still monitor the wireless and radio frequencies and the channels are empty except for our own. Or they are too far away to connect without enhancers."
"Oberst Crüwell, I will talk with the others."
It was with a heavy heart for most, but there was too much danger to consider staying in Tamins. So the survivors packed what they could and were evacuated with helicopters. To feel a bit more at home, the Swiss opted for settling in Büsingen. The German enclave-turned-island had a decidedly Swiss feel to it.
Chancellery, Berlin, Germany
"Unemployment levels are sinking, slow but steady. We are lucky thatBundeswehrand Landwehr take in a lot of the unemployed, but the biggest influx are Farming, Magic and most of all the rebuilding of industries Germany lost over time due to international competition."
"Very well. An example please, just for records, we have enough imagination for that."
"No problem, Herr Minister. Barrels are a wonderful example. Before the Weltensprung we imported practically all our barrels, except some special types, from Romania and other nations."
"What about the food front, Hans?"
"Frau Bundeskanzlerin, our farmers, as ordered, have begun to reactivate fallow fields. Bio fuel production has been lowered and we will be able to fill our food demands on essentials on our own. Problems are only 'colonial goods' like oranges, things we could never produce en masse in the cool climate of Europe.
We are still hampered by our lack of an accurate World map. Our researchers add to a new map every day and we have at least some useable local maps from the start, but we have not found several resources to this day. Take Mangos, wherever we went until now, our expeditions have not found them. We have contacted the imperial Far-Traders-Guild on that matter and wait for a reply. I think it will get faster when the telephone lines to Altdorf are ready.
On the positive side, some farmers have brought out the first seeds of local grains, turnips and berries. I heard from the experts that some of the Empire´s and Nipponese crops are finely cultured. The rice examples we got from Kagoshima beat our Earth variants and one barley sort we got from the Empire is a big step in making our own crops even more winter-hard.
But both the Imperials and the Nipponese are really thankful for our high yield crops. On agriculture, I think, no matter what time will bring, we will work closely together with the Imperials and the Nipponese. We can learn from each other. Alone the things the Jade Order mages can do when not being in the order of Battle - We have to re- and newly learn some things.
I eagerly await the return of our delegation to Bretonnia. From what I read on that land, they might have the largest per capita agricultural power in the Old-"
"I am afraid, Hans, you and Ilse will wait longer for cooperation with the Bretons. It is one of the reasons I called in the extraordinary government session. There are Bretonnian troops on Nipponese and our new soil and from what our delegation in Couronne heard, they will not go back. According to some Duke Arnaud de Montfort, the custodian for the King there,
...the Lady herself approves of the taking of the Wasteland for the premier culture nation on the Globe and anyway, there has been a sign that shows that his Highness King Lioncour has now the right to rule this part of the Old World.
I doubt that they will be persuaded by talking, not when their goddess-"
"Sorry, Angela, but that Lady of the Lake is an Elven scam!"
"Yes, but God has seen to it that some things function differently on this planet. Fervent belief can produce interesting results. Anyway, we now have choice to make. We might stop a conflict, if we give Bretonnia that part of the former Wasteland and build a partnership with what seems to be the second most important nation in several thousand kilometers. On the Grand Scale, the Nipponese splinter has less potential than Bretonnia, esp. if we help the Bretons too.
Or we do what we already begun and bring that part of Nippon fully into our orbit. While more limited in potential compared to France 2.0 and obvious differences in culture, we already made a successful First Contact with these Nipponese. And with Earth evidence available, on general outlook on life, we are or will be closer to the Nipponese than the Bretons.
Additionally, when our expeditions and trade will reach Nippon proper, then our help for their compatriots will bring us a relationship bonus too."
Biel-Tan´s Breath, Southern Sea
"Master Teclis, I am sorry I do not understand your reasoning correctly, but why did we save this Irglier guy? We were on the way to meet the Germans, now we saved a half-dead Corsair of our misguided cousins, risking the wrath of the newcomers after what he did and we are now on the way to Araby?"
"Have more trust in the vision of Elvenkind, young scholar. After what happened, the Germans would have greeted us with too much distrust and Irglier can be useful. Besides, he is an Elf like us."
"I do not doubt your wisdom, but it might cloud the impression these new humans will get of us."
"They are humans and short-sighted like all of their kind. This new course we have will lay the foundation for a better first talk with them."
Oval Office, Washington, USA
"Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, what is the verdict?"
"Mr. President, the global situation is really bad, but it could have been worse for us."
"Worse?"
"Yes, the States lucked out compared to some of our competition. China, from what we can estimate, is hit as hard as we are, but since they were not at our level before the Event, we still have the upper hand, should it come to more tensions."
"I beg your pardon, but this is a very optimistic outlook! Mr. President, when it comes to the military, then yes, we still hold the upper hand anywhere. But my colleague´s abstract is too narrow.
Economically, not only we, but the whole globe marches into a depression never seen before. The devastations of the new landscapes across the northern hemisphere did not only destroy several key industry sites, but interdicted a lot of important transport routes.
Not only in Africa, parts of Asia or Europe, even here in the States we have the first famines! Denver has been totally cut off from all land routes and at the moment, as you know Mr. President, we supply them as good as possible under the circumstances from the air. But we have to conserve fuel until further notice and the weather does not always help. When the winter fully hits Colorado, Denver will starve even more. We have to make a decision. Do we evacuate Denver or do we keep up the insufficient air drops until Denver can be reached by new roads?
And that is only the tip of thee iceberg. Despite the Wall Street´s critic of Germany´s economic model, which was in concert with some of our foreign agendas, Germany was one of the few true active posts in the crisis.
Germany accounted for nearly 11% of all trade worldwide. This cannot be compensated for overnight. What hurts even more, is the loss of German products. It is not clear to the public, how many things are from Germany or have components from there. A whole range of German products are unsexy compared to the glamour of an iPod. But an iPod is not vital, unlike those products. Germany produces...produced 80% of all pumps in water purification equipment! There are scores of products not from Germany, that rely on parts or tools from Germany to be made.
Earth lost it´s two largest chemical factory complexes in this Event. We had the second-largest, which now resides on the bottom of a new lake, the BASF complex went missing with Germany and their other chemical factories were nothing to sneeze at. In addition with the damages caused by the Event in the other chemical world leaders, global chemical production fell 50%.
I have prepared a thorough paper, you can read the conclusions in detail, so to be blunt: If, whatever spirited Germany away, does not return her, we will have a deep recession globally until roughly the forties or longer, if mistakes are made. The world economy was shaky already and then losing one of the top 4 powerhouses overnight cannot be compensated earlier.
Even if Germany somehow returns, with her industry and infrastructure intact, the damages on the northern hemisphere and by extension to the global transportation network are so heavy, that we would have a recession until the early 20s."
The silence greeting that statement was telling.
"I...see. What about other regions hit by this strange event?"
"Mr. President, southern Europe is in chaos. Germany was the only thing keeping them afloat. With the exception of Italy, they all are bankrupt, but even the Italians have big problems. Old divisions broke out and South Tyrol unilaterally declared itself independent and then directly reunified with Austria. There is the real possibility that the Lombardy follows the Tyrolians and declares itself independent. Hardly surprising, since both had long feuds with Rome and now with North and South Italy fully severed from each other...
Eastern Europe copes relatively well, since they have a long tradition of improvising, but they feel the loss of Germany very keen, a lot of their progress was linked with the Germans.
Many fear a return of the Russians, which led Hungary to renew old contacts with the Austrians.
France and the Benelux came off relatively unscarred, but Belgium has a serious problem with the... Orcs in the East, coming in from the strange land which changed place with Germany.
Scandinavia came off lightly as well, most of the landscape changes happened in lightly populated regions and it might be the only European region with pre-Event stability.
Our friends the British, lost nearly no industry, but here the landscape changes made the roads a disaster and transportation is very limited even months after IT.
On the Arabian peninsular there is a water shortage of biblical proportions. The shifts in water reserves, ground water level, etc. led to a situation everyone against the other. I fear we lost control there fully.
Russia and China are silent on what happened to them, but their subdued international operations economically and politically for months despite opportunities, hint that they were hit as hard as we were.
If some nations can be called lucky, it is Ethiopia, Japan and the Senegal. While they have damages as well, in the case of Japan the epic changes sealed off 3 major fault lines around the Home Islands. This means Japan will have a sharply falling number of earthquakes and Tsunamis in the future.
Ethiopia and the Senegal are now two big forests with corresponding rainfall. This even helps direct neighbours in their fight against the desertification of Northern Africa.
Canada and Mexico, our direct neighbours report a mixed bag of changes. Tlaxcala, once a region with inferior soil, has now fields with breadbasket level fertility. On the other hand, Ciudad Juarez, one of Mexico´s largest, but an infamous, cities suddenly found itself transported from the Rio Grande into Baja California.
In Canada, the whole Hudson Bay region and quite a bit of further inland areas have now a more moderate climate, comparable to Europe´s on the same latitudes, but the St. Lawrence River is now a lake..."
Two weeks later, late at night the German Navy Headquarters
Captain Werner usually did not like to work too long at the desk, his wife was dead against it. But these days headquarters was busy as hell - the Navy was expanding, many bottlenecks and shortcomings due to a lack of suppliers had to be rectified.
On top of that the Papenburg raid had really kicked the anthill as the Berlin Government screamed for a response, but given the distance to Hag Graef it was very hard to mount something beyond something symbolic.
The German navy had ships for fighting submarines, but there no really dangerous ones around. Actually, sub warfare was now only for keeping sea monsters at bay.
The German navy had ships to defend against airplanes, but there was no creditable threat in numbers. For a good old-fashioned surface bombardment the 76 mm guns on the active German ships were much too small and he had nothing to ship soldiers over big distances.
To think about something for air support was out of the question.
The Class 125 Frigates would be about right for the shore bombardment part but they were not due for 2-3 more years and critical parts, like their Italian guns, were not delivered before the Weltensprung. Rheinmetall and Thyssen-Krupp were working on that problem, having enough old blueprints and prototypes in all classes.
As long as he was on the staff of the Navy it was his job to propose how to make bricks without straw. Being lost for a creative answer he was idly scanning old projects that had been rejected before. He had already found a partial answer that he had noted down and that had motivated him to look deeper into his files.
He was about to skip the next one which was very old, very Cold War and a suggestion for Anti-Submarine Warfare when something caught the eye.
Now that could be interesting, very interesting…
He started writing a recommendation for further study while the File was still open on the Computer in the background.
"Project Aparaho"
2 Months later, Hamburg, Blohm & Voss Shipyards, Dock Elbe 17
The Blohm & Voss yard was one of the oldest and most experienced yards in Germany and had built some very famous ships, like the "Europa" Passenger liner or the "Bismark", but the Project they took now was unusual even for them.
Everybody was ultra-careful when manoeuvring the ship into the dock. While it was B&V`s largest there was few space left, in some cases just a handspan. Already teams were working on the ship, one of them removing the old name. When one looked loosely one could still read the name "Marco Polo".
At another dock two Frigates were modified with a crew joking about putting it in before-and then pulling it out-and then putting it in again…..
Several months later, Papenburg
Ralf Winkler and his wife came back home from the unveiling of the newest part of the Veteran memorial in Papenburg. It now showed a new face with the Dead of the "Battle of Papenburg" besides the names of the fallen from two world wars.
While his wife put out some afternoon cake on the Balcony table, Ralf came back in and sorted the mail he just retrieved from the mailbox. "Did you see Lt. Fredriksen dear? He looked like an old man, did you not say you treated him?"
"Yes honey, but Atropine is no miracle cure, his nerves will probably never regenerate right. But at least he is alive, that has to do. Now let's see, what do we have here.. advertising, advertising... I always wonder how they still have paper for that…no, I will not throw it away dear…Federal ministry of Defence?...WHAT?
Ulthuan, Tower of Hoeth
The old Elf set cross-legged in a circle of arcane symbols and candles. Some of the Symbols seemed to glow by themselves, while seemingly shifting from one shape to another. Would there have been an observer, he could not have said when such a shift started or end, now how they had shifted, if at all.
The eyes of the elf were open, but there focus would have shown the hypothetical observer clearly that they were not looking at anything within their field of view.
Finally he ended his meditation and started breathing more deeply. It was good that no observer was present as the dry coughing caused by the deep breath and the stale air would strongly detract from the unflappable facade the elf always tries to project.
Standing up slowly and making sure that all limbs had circulation again he left for the anteroom of his meditation chamber before summoning his aide. "Aeolus, assemble our gear, we have a long trip to take."
"Master, you never did that in living memory, what is it?"
"I have seen a vision of a great undertaking that I must take part in."
"Where do we go master?"
"To Germany, where Teclis should have gone to. He simply is too young to understand that what voyage he and his pupils are on, could have been done later. There are dark clouds over humans and Elves."
