Oh, what a joyous Mammoth Monday!
...except for me actually. My Monday sucks, but at least yours will now become a tad better. Enjoy!
Answered with questions
Loivissa POV(late spring of 642 ADG)
Loivissa had never tried sneaking through the streets of Ilirea at night before. She had chased a few through them in her time, but she had never been in a position, where it was required of her to actually sneak through them.
It was a new experience for her, and one that she was not sure whether to like or dislike. On one hand, she got to see a completely different side of Ilirea by doing this, but on the other hand, it was not a side that she found all that pleasant to see.
Objectively, she had always known that there had been slums in Ilirea, and that the people that had lived in them were quite a lot less fortunate than even the lowliest farmer, but to see them like this was eerie. They were completely deserted, like no one had even lived in them for a lifetime.
From what she had been able to gather, all the people that had previously lived in the slums, which had not died during the battle nearly a year ago, had moved out shortly after Ilirea had surrendered. Most of them had supposedly stolen the houses and farms of those that had perished in the short but brutal war, and Mercury's regime had done nothing to stop this blatant mass theft.
Then again, with things the way that they had been back then, Loivissa could hardly blame Mercury for not knowing who was actually moving back into their own houses and who was just moving in, especially not since no deeds, except for the major estates, even existed.
But none of that changed how eerie it was to move through the ghost town that this part of the city had become. Here and there, she would come upon the dried out corpse of someone that had died, probably of starvation from the looks of most of them. They had been completely forgotten by anyone and everyone.
Loivissa felt something run over her left foot and let out an eep, before clamping down upon the reaction. It had only been a rat, and rats could not hurt her. Not these rats anyway.
"Why in the world would she choose such a deserted place for such a thing?", Loivissa grumbled as she kept on moving through the shadows in her dark cloak with the hood up.
If what Dweyrn had reported was accurate, and Loivissa had no reason to suspect otherwise, despite her initial surprise at the dwarven dragon rider only needing a single week to figure out how to get to Ilumëo, then she should be able to find the aide here, in the deserted slums, tonight, but only for a short period, so she had to hurry.
Dweyrn had said that there did not seem to be a specific pattern to the woman's movements, except for her consistency in first going around in the castle gardens, before then moving out to the highborn estates outside Ilirea Castle.
After that, she might move on to slums that Loivissa was in, and if she did, then she would eventually either move on to the market district or go back to Ilirea Castle. It all really depended on the mood of the person that she was carrying with her through it all.
That person was apparently her newborn child, which had come as a surprise to Loivissa, as she had not even known that the woman had been pregnant, let alone already given birth. According to what Dweyrn had told her, the baby oftentimes had trouble going to sleep at night, so the mother had to talk long walks with it to get it to go to sleep.
The Varangian guards were apparently not allowed to escort her during these walks, as they usually did everywhere else that she went. This was because their armour and weaponry supposedly clanked too much for the baby to ever get some rest, but Loivissa was sure that she was not completely without protection during these walks.
She still remembered the drunken soldiers that had first told her of Mercury's trip to the Beor Mountains, and how he had also told her that his aide never went anywhere without a hidden layer of leather armour and some weaponry, and she was sure that there was another hidden security measure following the aide as well. It would not be like Mercury to allow her to go anywhere without protection.
The sound of a wailing baby suddenly echoed through the street that Loivissa was in, and in lack of a better option, she drew the shortsword that she had managed to sneak past the guard at the gate, and retreated into the shadows of the nearest alleyway.
The sound got louder as Ilumëo and her child moved in Loivissa's direction, but just before she would have jumped out and held the pair at swordpoint, a shadow overhead stopped her movement. As she looked up, she saw the form of what looked to be a giant cat sneaking around on the rooftops.
So that is his extra protection, huh, Loivissa mused as she observed how the beast sniffed here and there and constantly looked around for threats, I have to admit that it is well trained, but I am no feeble human bandit trying to rob the first person that comes by.
Loivissa allowed the mother and child to pass her alleyway, before she jumped out from behind them with the sword's tip firmly planted between the shoulders of Ilumëo. If she wanted to, she could have pierced the woman's heart and gone straight through the child as well, but despite who the mother was working for, Loivissa still considered the child an innocent in all of this.
Besides, she had never wanted to hurt any child before, and she certainly did not wish to start now, but the mere threat of her doing so would be enough to get the woman to be very compliant.
"Turn around, slowly", Loivissa said, while keeping an eye on the black form that soundlessly moved from rooftop to rooftop to get into a position where it could strike, "and tell the cat to come down".
If possible, Ilumëo looked even more horrified at having her silent guardian exposed than she had been before, but she eventually complied with both of Loivissa's demands and turned around while calling down the beast. She said its name, Mushu, like one might say the name of a dear childhood pet.
"Good, now, I will not harm either of you if I do not have to", Loivissa assured the mother, as she knew that mothers were prone to doing wondrous things if they felt that their children were sufficiently threatened, "do not make any noise and we will all get to walk away from here without anything missing".
Only after the woman visibly gulped and nodded her understand did Loivissa lower her hood down with the hand not holding the sword.
"You!", Ilumëo said in an accusing voice, "what do you want?!"
"Information", Loivissa answered calmly.
"For the elven rebellion, I wager", the woman snorted, "you can forget about getting anything out of me about that".
"No, I do not hold any interest in that", Loivissa denied.
The elven rebellion was doomed already, before it had ever really even gotten started. Luckily, it had only been regular Alliance forces that had fought against the elves and not the provincial guards as well. It would truly have been a sad day if elves had begun killing other elves in the name of a traitorous murderous backstabbing tyrant.
The former elf lord Tahu of Kirtan and his companions, the green dragon Ziruvit and his elven rider Lifael, had arrived in Carvahall not two days ago. All three of them had been badly bruised and weary from the long journey, and after expressing their wish to join Aiedail, Loivissa had ordered them to stay hidden in the part of the Spine that bordered on Carvahall, so that they could rebuild their strength before continuing on to their headquarters.
They had argued and told her that they were ready to make the trip now, but Loivissa had bluntly told them that they would need nothing more than their full strength if they were to attempt the journey down the Spine, as it might very well become necessary to outrun Knight-Wing patrols on the way, and so, they had caved and done as she had ordered.
Another full dragon rider pair and another elf would be highly prized replacements for those that they had lost already.
"Then why come here and threaten me and my child with a sword?", Ilumëo demanded to know and tore Loivissa out of her thoughts, "I went out of my way to help you back in Teirm, and this is how you repay me?!"
Loivissa could do nothing but admire the strength and dignity that the woman's gaze still held, even when held at swordpoint, but she did not let it influence her as she smirked and said, "but that is exactly what I want to talk about. I doubt that you told your master of what really happened back then".
The woman blanched at Loivissa's words, but Loivissa did not allow her time to recover before she continued, "if I do not make it back from this, word will be spread of what really happened back then, and if you do not give me what I want, the same will happen".
"And why should I fear a rumour? You have no proof", she tried to sound haughty, and though she did a good job of it, Loivissa knew better than to believe it.
"Because your master will not need any proof", Loivissa smirked and said, "it will only be a story, but he will no doubt hear of it, and when he does, how long do you think that it will take for him to figure out exactly what happened?"
"I have his absolute trust, and he would never do anything to harm me, even if he found out", Ilumëo tried to say convincingly, and if Loivissa had not known Mercury quite well, she would have believed the woman, but she did know him, so she did not believe the woman's words.
"He has never taken well to betrayal, and I doubt that that has changed during the past four centuries, and as you yourself mentioned back then; he never ordered you to set me free, so I would definitely categorize that as a betrayal", Loivissa argued, before adding the final touch, "I doubt that he would stop with just you".
Ilumëo let her jaw work for a while, while sending fleeting glances down at the child covered in blankets in her arms and towards Mushu, who was still lurking around at the edge of Loivissa's peripheral vision.
Eventually though, she recognized defeat and sighed, "if I help you know, you must promise me to never use my participation in your escape against me ever again, and neither can any of your compatriots".
"I promise that if you give me the answers that I want, neither I nor my friends will ever use your assistance in freeing me against you ever again", Loivissa swore, but refrained from adding how she was still free to use this new betrayal against the aide in the future.
"Fine, then what do you want?", Ilumëo asked sourly.
"I want to know how to get past Mercury's wards", Loivissa quickly answered.
"Use one of the Magilicks", Ilumëo shrugged.
"The what?", Loivissa asked confused.
"The enchanted amethysts", Ilumëo explained.
"I already thought of that, and your master has no doubt taken precautions against such an approach. I want to know how to get past THOSE precautions", Loivissa said, "a way to take them down or just how they were constructed in the first place would be enough".
"I do not know the answer to taking them down or how they were created", Ilumëo said, and in the Ancient language too, so that Loivissa knew that it was the truth, "the construction and spectrum of his wards never came up, and I never asked".
"Barzûl, but oh well, then I suppose that a new rumour will soon be found to be spreading in Ilirea", Loivissa cursed and moved to leave.
"Wait!", the woman said frantically, "I do not know the answer to what you were searching for, but I know of something else, something important!"
"What?", Loivissa said and turned back to face the aide, glad that her bluff had worked so well.
"Mercury has used a lot of resources on getting something from Ellesméra, and he is having it transported out from there in just five weeks", the woman said in a strained voice, like she hated what she was saying, which she probably did.
"What is it?", Loivissa asked suspicious.
"I do not know, as he began doing it while I was on leave to deliver my baby", Ilumëo answered, "but he has taken every precaution to make sure that no one hears of the wagon train transporting it, so it must be something very important".
"How will I know the wagon from others?", Loivissa asked.
"Will you give me your word that if I tell you, you will find this to fulfil our original bargain?", Ilumëo demanded to know.
"I will", Loivissa promised.
"It will be the only one that leaves Ellesméra that week with barrels full of wheat grains. Whatever else that he is transporting is hidden between the barrels", Ilumëo answered hesitantly, "now, will you let me go?"
"If what you have told me turns out to be true, I will keep my word", Loivissa said as she disappeared back into the shadows of the alleyway that she had jumped out from, before hurrying down the streets to get as far away from there as possible.
She had much work to do if she was to convince the other members to attempt to stage another ambush, but this was an opportunity that they could not risk passing by. If only she could get confirmation that neither Mercury, nor his Varangian Guard would be there, then she was sure that she could convince the rest.
Elladan POV
Elladan was anxiously walking through the halls of Ilirea Castle, having just returned to the city from the campaign in the province of Bedegraine, where he had been leading his lord's troops into battle. It had not been the place that he had wanted to be, as that place was by his lord's side during that wretched execution show four weeks ago, but he had done as he had been told. As always.
As he walked through the halls to get to his lord's office, he made sure to nod to and take a good look at each of the soldiers standing guard in the hallways. It was always a good practice to memorize the faces of those assigned to guard you and your liege, as it would hardly be the first time that he had had to defend his lord from assassins posing as regular guards.
They would never dare to pose as one of his Varangian guards though, of that he was sure, and if they tried, then they would die the moment that they did. Everyone in the Varangian Guard was required to know the names and faces of at least 50 of their fellows, preferably 100, so as to make sure that even if one got replaced by a slit throat, the likelihood of the assassin successfully masquerading would be extremely slim at best.
And Elladan knew them all. He could not put names on them all, and he only knew some of them by his own nicknames, like Blue Onion, whom Elladan had given the nickname to due to a mistake during a hunt some fifteen years ago…but he was able to recognize and distinguish between the faces of any one of his subordinates, and he was certainly capable of recognizing someone that only pretended to be one.
It was not just because of his unwavering loyalty to his lord that he had been appointed as the commander of the Varangian Guard. If that had been the sole reason for his promotion, then any and all of his other Varangian guards would have been just as applicable.
The members of the Varangian Guard had never been questioned on whom their loyalties lay with. Not even once during their entire history had a single member ever turned on their lord. It was not just because their lord was such an awe-inspiring character, though he truly was, but the training that each of them went through to even hope to join the ranks of the Varangian Guard made sure that their loyalties were firmly tethered in one place only.
Besides, even if the entire Varangian Guard should one day choose to betray their lord and try to kill him, which would be over Elladan's cold dead body, then he firmly believed that their lord would not only already know of the plot in advance, but already have taken appropriate measures to defend against it.
The lord commander…knew things, often years or decades before they actually happened. Just in the short two decades that Elladan had served directly under him, he had seen his lord do many things and ask to have many things done for him, which had previously been said to be impossible.
Many times, Elladan had felt that his lord was pushing, shoving even, the Alliance towards a certain destination, but where that destination was, he had no idea. Only the lord commander knew precisely what the lord commander planned.
It was no secret that he was old, very old, and to Elladan, it had always seemed like he was immortal too, even though the lord commander would always scold anyone caught uttering that.
'Anyone can be killed', might as well have been the saying of House Iridium. Though if you asked one of the commoners of the Alliance, the saying might have been; 'Bring me my sword'.
Elladan always chuckled when he thought about that. The commoners may think that his lord always needed someone to fetch his sword in order to win the countless upon countless of battles that he had fought in, but Elladan knew that more often than not, his lord had won them with the stroke of a pen.
Still, even though he kept saying that anyone could be killed, Elladan had long since come to terms with the simple fact that his lord would outlive him, his children and his children's children, just as he had outlived his father, his father's father and the countless generations before him.
And this was why the recent reports from his subordinates had unnerved him to such a degree that he was impatient to see his lord again, but still afraid of what he might see when he did. According to the reports, his lord had begun eating less and less each day for the past couple of weeks, and he had not even touched wine or other intoxicating drinks since even before the execution.
He had begun to move less and less outside the confines of his office, and visitors were sometimes told to leave in the midst of an appointment for no good reason. Harold Half-beard had written that even Supreme Commander Rowannon had been suddenly and abruptly shoved out of the door by his aide, and had not been allowed in for another half an hour without any explanation given.
As Elladan approached the door to his lord's office, with its two Varangian guards stationed outside of it, he became aware that the clothes that he wore was also the clothes that he had ridden in for the past week, and much of it was still soaked through from the heavy downpour outside.
His clothes dripped and slopped when he moved, and his boots left small cakes of mud in his wake. His trusty sword would probably need to be dried off and oiled to avoid rust, not to mention that he would have to have the dents and cuts in it fixed by a blacksmith, but all of that could wait until after this meeting.
The lord commander had always liked to have his reports as soon as possible, and that meant that unless you had a good reason for needing to change to a fresh set of clothes first, you should give it to him in the clothes that you had arrived in.
Just as he was about to open the door, he heard voices through it. The two voices belonged to his lord and his aide, and were too quiet to be heard by the two guards on either side of him.
"You should rest", the aide sounded concerned, "I will call off today's meetings".
"No", his lord answered her in a strained voice, "I can rest afterwards".
"..How long?", she asked in a fearful voice.
"As long as it takes for me to see this stage through first", his lord said in the strong confident voice that he always used when he promised something; be it death or salvation.
One of the guards coughed a little and Elladan became aware that it was not his place to listen in on secret conversations that were not meant for his ears. If his lord wanted him to know, then he would tell him, and if not, then Elladan would keep out of his lord's business.
A short series of knocks on the door, which were quickly followed by an, "enter", and Elladan was through the door. His lord sat in his chair with gloved hands folded on the desk before him, which was odd to Elladan, as it was nearly summer and therefore way too hot for gloves of any kind.
To further add to the strangeness, a goblet of a thickly flowing milky liquid that was cooled with lots of ice was placed next to his lord's folded hands. Why would someone, and especially the lord commander, whom was said to actually enjoy the temperature of his 'summer home' in The Northern Wastes, wear gloves to keep their hands warm and drink iced liquids at the same time?
Meanwhile, his aide stood off to the side and looked like she had been reading from a report since way before he knocked. She looked far more tired and sleep-deprived than Elladan had ever remembered seeing her, but he supposed that it did make sense, since she had recently had to send her newborn child away to be fostered with her parents.
Elladan had lost a dozen guards to act as an escort to the child, with the child's father among them, but they would all return as soon as they had dropped the kid off. He would get his boys back in a few months, but she would not be able to see her little boy, other than in an enchanted mirror, for possible more than a few years.
The thought of that left a bad taste in his mouth, but it was the way that the family had always done things, and who was he to object? He had voluntarily made a similar sacrifice back when he had joined the Varangian Guard, so he really had no right to object.
"My lord, I come to announce that the last vestiges of the elven rebellion have been quelled", Elladan told his lord.
"Good work, Elladan, I trust that they were not too hard to deal with?", his lord asked in a normal tone of voice, so unlike the one that he had overheard through the door.
"Nothing to speak of, my lord. Though many of them were fearsome warriors on their own, none of them seemed to have sufficient grasp on tactics and strategy to actually lead them", Elladan answered dutifully.
It had certainly not hurt either that Elladan's forces had been poised to strike from even before the executions had begun. It was another testament to Elladan that his lord knew things that no one else did, because how else would you explain how he had known that a great number of small rebellions would form across the Bedegraine province months in advance of them actually doing so?
"Good, and how many dragon riders were killed during the battles?", his lord inquired.
"Nine, my lord", Elladan answered with a cringe. One of the dragons had been inches away from impaling him on its spikes, and he doubted very much that his wards would have protected him from that without sucking him dry first.
"Excellent, that only leaves another two unaccounted for", his lord actually smirked at the news, though it seemed strained.
"But according to the Estildirin records, there should still be five that are neither captured nor killed, my lord?", Elladan said confused.
"I already know what three of them are doing, so that only leaves two", his lord waved the concern away.
"Forgive me for inquiring, but do you intend to completely wipe out all of the dragon riders, my lord?", Elladan inquired. It was something that had been on his mind lately.
"Not at all", his lord denied, "if I had wanted to do that, I would not have bothered with capturing so many of them and their dragons alive, and I would certainly not have spent so much time negotiating with these prisoners. You see, I have plans for their role in the future, and those plans cannot be manned by skeletons".
The mentioning of skeletons made Elladan think back on the time that they had had to destroy a small army of skeletons that had burned and pillaged everything in their wake. In the end, they had uncovered the band of rogue mages that had been secretly controlling the skeletons' movements by the most simple of spells, and had promptly made sure that the skeleton horde would not disturb the peace of the land ever again.
"You see, though many of the seasoned veterans loath my name and everything that I tell them, many of their younger counterparts are far more malleable and easy to convince that they should accept the changes instead of futilely fighting them", his lord continued unperturbed, "in reality, all I wish of them is to keep working on securing the peace and safety of the rest of the Alliance as well, but they will no longer be their own guardians, and they WILL bend the knee to the Tribunal.
They will have no say over military or political matters, and are to only concern themselves with the wellbeing of the populace. In fact, you could say that once I am done moulding them, they will be the Shields to my Swords. The Shield protects the Alliance from all harm, while the Sword strikes out and defeats any and all threats to it".
"Whom do you intend to choose to make sure that they never waver in their duties or outstep their authority?", Elladan inquired. He doubted that there were many that would dare to look a dragon and its rider into the eye and still try and command respect from both.
"The Knight-Wings will take care of investigating all concerns in regards to the dragon rider order", Mercury said and shrugged, "and the dragon rider order will in turn be responsible for investigating all concerns in regards to the dragon rider order".
"But will that not make the two despise each other?", Elladan inquired. It was fairly well known that soldiers always despised the ones responsible for checking whether they acted within the confines of their orders, as these people could literally end your career then and there. It was also why soldiers from the army and the navy could not be in the same bar without hurling insults at each other, though most of the insults were harmless and oftentimes quite amusing.
"Exactly", Mercury confirmed, "and as long as both despise each other, they will constantly check the other's movements and prevent the other from ever instigating a coup. Give it a generation or two, and the very idea, that together they might be powerful enough to topple the Tribunal, will be completely outlandish to the both of them".
And here was the lord commander that Elladan had sworn himself to. He would not think in years, or even in decades, but generations. It was no wonder that many of the common folk of the Alliance called him the Father of the Alliance, as he really had been the one to guide it to where it was today, and he would also be the one that guided it towards where it would be 100 years from now. Of that, Elladan was certain.
"..And the fates of the ones that will not partake in this?", Elladan inquired, though he already thought that he knew the answer.
"Death", his lord answered bluntly, before adding, "or an unbreakable contract to never go against the wishes of the Tribunal or otherwise be a threat to the Alliance. I do not really care which, as long as they keep to themselves and do not disturb the peace".
"I see", Elladan said and felt far less concerned with whether he had done the right thing when he had ordered those nine dragon riders to be killed on sight instead of tried to be captured alive.
At the time, he had been concerned whether his lord wanted them alive, but he had received no specific instructions to take them alive, and taking anyone alive always took more lives, especially with beasts such as dragons, so he had made the call as the commander in the field to kill them all.
"Speaking of your trip", his lord suddenly said, "did you make sure that it was hidden properly before leaving?"
"Yes, they will not find it unless they look past the other cargo", Elladan answered, "but why not just let me bring it back to you when I was already there, instead of this long slow trip? I could have easily carried it with me on my person".
"I do not want people to know that I have anything to do with it", his lord answered, before his eyes took on a mischievous glint, "besides, whoever said that it was for me? Once it reaches the village, another unassuming driver will buy the wagon, load it with pine logs and he will then take it to Gilead, where he will sell the wood and suddenly find his wagon stolen, but he will not report the theft".
Throughout his years of service, Elladan had quickly learned when it was best to simply stop wondering what his lord was planning and nod in obeisance, and now was such a time, even though he still found it odd that he had had to go to such trouble for such an insignificant thing.
Before he could further elaborate on whatever other news that he brought, which among others included a plea from Archduke Däthedr to not let the common innocent elven population suffer any reprisals for the acts of their dead brethren, Elladan's lord's right hand suddenly clenched together into a tightly held fist.
His lord's face had become as hard as stone, and before Elladan knew what was happening, he found himself facing the closed and locked door of his lord's office. As he confusedly looked upon the guards at the door, they merely sighed and motioned to a chair that had been set up, where he was left waiting with only more questions on his mind than when he had went in.
I like to think of this as Loivissa finally beginning to realize just what levels she is forced to sink to in order to win over Mercury, as well it being a chance for Mercury to be seen from an outside POV. One that works directly for him, but does not have his absolute trust, like Ilumëo has...