Locked doors

Ilumëo POV(early summer of 294 AA)
"You will need to go over the tax-collection records as well", Mercury told Ilumëo as they walked through the halls of Ilirea Castle, "there are sure to be some that will try to siphon some of the funds into their own pockets, especially when it will be our first official collection".

"I will make sure to do that", Ilumëo nodded and added it to her list, "how about the reports from the hunters that went up into the far northern parts of the Spine?"

"Do not worry about those. The entire area is unpopulated anyway, so even if there was some truth to the stories, it would be wasteful to send men to investigate", Mercury waved the matter off with his gloved right hand, but cringed a moment later.

"Are you alright?", Ilumëo asked concerned, as she watched how he supported his weight even more on the cane in his left hand.

"Fine", Mercury answered through gritted teeth. He certainly did not look fine.

His shoulders were rising and lowering at constant intervals beneath the black wool coat that reached all the way down to his shoes, which also had a high collar that was tightly knit and prevented people from seeing the angry red cracks that had spread up his throat.

Ilumëo could see how his arms clenched, relaxed, clenched and then relaxed again under the black fabric, which together with the long black leather gloves completely covered his arms from view. The long fabric of the coat likewise kept people from seeing the splints that kept his legs from giving way from under him.

There was nothing that Ilumëo could do but stand there and wait for him to get back in control, and it bothered her greatly. Eventually though, he regained his composure and straightened up again, though she noted that he looked at his right hand with intrigue.

"Interesting, my hand seems to have frozen in place", Mercury said amused, as he turned the hand around to better study it. It did indeed still hold the waving shape that it had held before the seizure. The way that he looked at it was as if it was a fascinating foreign object, and not his own hand that he was looking at.

"Has that never happened before?", Ilumëo questioned curiously.

"No, but it could be because I have pushed it for far longer this time than I have ever done before", Mercury mused, as he tried knocking the stiff hand on the nearby wall, before he shrugged and said, "in any case, it is hardly relevant for what we were talking about".

And with that, he resumed his walk, with Ilumëo hastening to catch up to him after she had overcome her initial shock at his blatant disregard for such things. She should have known better by now, as she knew from her late grandfather that this was hardly the first time that he had had to overcome this ordeal.

Still, she hoped that she would never know what it was like to be in constant excruciating pain every second of every day, and yet still have to keep up a masque in front of everyone but her. Out of curiosity, she had once asked if she could have a short taste of what it was like for him, and when he had granted her it, she had screamed and screamed and screamed until long after he had severed the mental connection.

It had felt like her skin was tearing itself apart piece by piece, and she had had to constantly grab and hold on to each of them to prevent her body from destroying itself, while a raging fire had burned inside of her and seared her flesh from within, and to top it all off, her head had felt like a thousand iron nails had slowly but surely been hammered into it. She had chalked the idea up to one of the three worst ideas of her life.

"As, I was saying before the interruption, if the stories are even true, then it would be best to leave that hornet's nest alone as long as it remains dormant", Mercury continued, "the status of the Swords stationed in Alagaësia on the other hand, is an entirely different situation. Their continued deployment is draining our funds at an alarming rate, so begin preparations to let the Second, Third, Fifth, Ninth, Eleventh Thirteenth through Sixteenth, with the exception of the Fifteenth, and the Twenty-first sail back to their respective provinces".

"Both the Third and the Ninth?", Ilumëo questioned.

"Yes, the elves of Bedegraine will not try something like what happened a few months ago again", Mercury confirmed nonchalantly, "already, their entire race is bordering on collapsing in on itself due to their sustained losses, so Archduke Däthedr will make sure that there will be no need for any extra help to keep the peace".

"I see", Ilumëo nodded and scribbled it down on her list, before she remembered her conversation with Loivissa and hesitantly asked, "and what of the package from Bedegraine?"

"It is still on schedule to leave in a week", Mercury answered, "why, has something gone wrong with my plans for it?"

"No, not that I know of", Ilumëo quickly answered, "I was just wondering whether it really is necessary to make use of that".

"It is if my endgame is to succeed", Mercury confirmed, "though I do hate having to make it happen under such blunt conditions. Too much is still left to chance for how I usually operate, but when they accelerated my schedule, I was left with little choice but to improvise".

Ilumëo nodded as she mentally cursed the people of Aiedail for forcing her lord to endure such excruciating pain and suffering. If he had been left alone, he might have had another year, perhaps even two, before the symptoms had begun showing, and that would have been plenty of time to get everything ready far more elegantly than they had had to do now.

The slow mechanical ringing of the recently added clock, which was located in one the old elven towers of the city, alerted Ilumëo that it was already four o'clock, and with that, it was time for Mercury's last meal for at least another three weeks.

Indeed, it was not long before the sound of running feet reverberated through the hallways, and when they drew closer, she noted how Mercury straightened up and hid the cane from sight behind a fold of his black coat.

A page soon came running with a silver platter that carried a large gilded goblet with red rubies on the sides, which had a thickly flowing white liquid and lots of ice in it. Ilumëo had to watch helplessly and without alerting the page of any trouble, as Mercury had to let go of his cane and grab the goblet with his left hand, before he thanked the page and sent him on his way again with a reassuring smile.

It was only after the page was quite a bit away that Mercury quickly handed her the goblet with clenched teeth, before he grabbed the cane again and tiredly leaned against the wall for support.

"I am afraid that you will have to help me with this", Mercury said and nodded towards his now useless right hand.

With trembling fingers, Ilumëo lifted the goblet to his lips and let him drink from it little by little. It was clear that each gulp took a tremendous effort on his part, which was also why they had had to switch to this liquid to keep his body nourished. It had been more than a month ago since he had been able to swallow any solid food.

This liquid was a mix of all things that should never have been mixed together and then grinded into a paste that was thinned by a fat cream. It tasted completely horrible, but it held all of the major nutrients that the body needed to function.

Once the goblet was empty, Ilumëo set it down on a nearby table and they continued on like before. They talked for quite a while about things that she needed to do while he was indisposed of, as well as things that still needed to happen afterwards.

Eventually though, they reached the thick wooden door to the room that would contain him and only him for the next long while, and as if sensing her unease at the situation, Mercury laid his stiff right hand atop her head, right between her curved horns, in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but he did not smile. He almost never did.

"Make sure that under no circumstances is anyone to enter this room while I am in there. Even if the entire city is burning, you cannot allow anyone to open that door. Also, make sure to take care of my affairs while I am gone", Mercury said and removed the hand, before he added, "oh, and remember to have my bedchambers fixed by the time that I get out".

"I will", Ilumëo promised, "but what excuse should I use to explain why the room now looks as it does?"

Mercury had accidentally unleased quite a bit of magical energy during his sleep three days ago, and to cover it up, they had had to torch the entire bedroom and say that a candle had sparked the fire. It was a shame that the fire had not been able to remove the marks on the stone walls though. Mercury had not slept again since then to avoid a repeat of the incident.

"The same that you are going to use for this one", Mercury chuckled, "consider it a practise run for what they will say when they see what has happened to this room after I am done with it".

"I will look forward to it", Ilumëo laughed. It was a nervous laughter that was meant to cover her deep anxiety about this whole situation, but Mercury saw right through it.

"You are still concerned about this, are you not?", he asked.

"Yes, though I know that I should not be, because you have done it five times already, so you have a lot of experience", she nervously said.

"Actually, the experience counts for very little when compared to how much more difficult it gets each time", Mercury nonchalantly said, "even if I had not pushed myself to last as long as I have, I still would have been in for quite a fight this time around, and I have doubts that I would be able to succeed a seventh time. Eventually It will succeed in doing what Its nature bids It to do".

"Which is why your endgame plan will come to fruition after this round", Ilumëo continued, as she knew of his ultimate goals already.

"Exactly", Mercury confirmed, as he opened the door, "and it is why you must make sure that that package arrives where it is supposed to".

"Yes, but I have one last question before you leave", Ilumëo quickly changed the topics before he closed the door, "when you leave the room, how will I know that you have succeeded?"

"Trust me, you will know", Mercury chuckled grimly.

"And if you fail?", she asked nervously.

He looked at her with a wry smile and his tone was as nonchalant about the matter as ever, "then you are going to need quite a lot more guards", before he closed the door and locked it from within.

Loivissa POV
"But we cannot skip out on this opportunity!", Loivissa argued in the basement underneath Stronghammer Castle.

"The entire elven rebellion was a setup to oust my former group and the dragon riders in hiding, so who is to say that this will not be so as well?", lord Tahu argued.

"He does not know that we know of this", she stated that particular argument for the umpteenth time today.

"And how can we be sure of that?", Lifael, the dragon rider that had technically outranked her before Mercury's invasion, asked.

"Because the only way for him to know would be if one of you told him that we knew!", Loivissa all but shouted.

Though she had initially been glad to finally get some replacements for those that had died, these two had proved to be far from agreeing with her course of action. Lord Tahu simply wanted to remake this group into what the elven one had been, which was something that Loivissa would never allow, and Lifael constantly tried to use his former rank to either refute her decisions or outright try to usurp her leadership.

If they would just stop their scheming and focus on their common enemy, then Loivissa could make far greater use of the two than she could now. It would have been nice to not have to use Vanir every time that she needed a representative of Aiedail.

If she wanted to use the two newcomers, then she had to specifically point out what they could and could not promise each time that she sent them out. Even then, she still had to check up on their work afterwards. She had already found one deal that she had sent Lifael to formulate, where he had severely outstepped his authority and made certain claims that were not in line with Aiedail's policies.

It was tiring to have to micromanage every little bit of the two's actions, and her continued reprimands of them made some of the other members of Aiedail more cautious around her than they had been already. Lately, it felt as if the only people that she could actually talk to were Vanir and Earl Karl, and the former was bound to her by an oath in the Ancient language.

Only Earl Karl really understood the burden of what she was going through. Well, him and Evandar, but her brother and hers relationship had become increasingly strained after the two newcomers had shown up. Why could the two not just get along like the rest of Aiedail did?

"There is also the aide that you blackmailed into giving you this information", Lord Tahu pointed out.

Loivissa would have slapped him then and there, she really would have, if not for the consequences that such an action would bring. It would be unfortunate for morale if she was seen assaulting another member of Aiedail.

Once again, she wished that she did not need to rely on these two, but Aiedail's numbers were limited as it was, and with Dweyrn and Augms specifically asking her in private to be allowed to not be in this next fight, Loivissa really needed Lifael's dragon, Ziruvit, as an exit strategy.

She could certainly understand why Dweyrn and Augms had requested not to be a part of the next mission, as it had to be incredibly hard for the two of them to constantly see their friends die in front of them. It was a sentiment that Loivissa shared, but she could not allow it to show, as everyone looked to her for guidance and support, so she had to remain strong. Always.

"For the last time, if she told him that she had told us, then he would ask her what had convinced her to tell us of the cargo, and she would be unable to hide the source of my blackmail from him", Loivissa slowly and carefully said with measured breaths, "if he finds out that she helped me escape, he will see it as a betrayal, and if he thinks that she has betrayed him, then the repercussions would be so severe that her entire family would be able to feel them for generations. That is, if there is anyone left of them by then".

"Fine then, but even if it is not a trap, there is still the possibility of going up against his Varangian Guard", Lifael said, "I am not going up against those guys again. It was by far enough to watch how just five of them took down Elesweirth and his dragon Lonvus".

"No one needs to be reminded of the capabilities of his Varangian Guard", Loivissa said, as she thought back on how they had decimated her forces last fall, "but she assured me that this operation would be low key, so I doubt that he would use his Varangian Guard to guard it. It would be like proclaiming to the world that it was important to him".

"But there would still be regular guards, and without the support of Dweyrn and Augms, our chances would be lessened", Lord Tahu argued.

Loivissa noted how he did not include that neither Garth nor Earl Karl could aid them in this, as both of them were expected to escort Katrina to her wedding with the son of the duke of Aberon in a few days, which was also why they had had to retreat to the basement of Stronghammer Castle. There were simply too many servants mulling about in the halls above in preparation of the approaching journey and wedding to risk someone overhearing their argument.

"If it looks like our trap will not work, then we will just call it off before starting, but we have to at least TRY to intercept that shipment", Loivissa pointed out, before she added the kicker that she hoped would do the both of them in, "or need I remind you of the last time that he went to such trouble to transport something unseen to Ilirea? This time, we know of it beforehand and have the chance to go on the offensive once again, but without actually confronting his Guard in open battle".

"There is still the possibility that he has disguised members of his Guard as regular sellswords", Lifael pointed out.

"Everything involves risks, and if we never take any, then we might as well disband at once", Loivissa argued, "against this opponent, there are no safe routes".

"That is easy for you to say when you did nothing while my group was slaughtered by his men", Lord Tahu sneered, "where were you when we were dying in droves? You were sitting it out, taking the 'safe route', while we risked it all and failed. Do you even comprehend everything that we have lost or the sorrow that still haunts us to this day?"

"You do NOT get to talk to me about sitting things out!", Loivissa growled predatorily, "when we took heavy losses, your group abandoned us to our own despite the situation being stable. You have no right to speak of us abandoning you, when it was you that abandoned us! And as for not comprehending your sorrow, LOOK AT ME! I am a dragon rider without her other half! Neither of you can even begin to comprehend what I have gone through by being separated from my partner-of-heart-and-mind for more than a year".

Loivissa let them have a moment to let that sink in, and though she had wanted to scream out more of the countless things that saddened and angered her every day, she could not allow them to see so much of her soul. Quite a few of those things left unsaid were things that, if discussed openly, would make people question her ability to lead.

The silence stretched on, as neither party wished to be the first to break it again. It was rare for elves to become as visually emotionally invested as they had become, and that spoke volumes of the tension between the three.

It was at that moment that Garth chose to barge through the door, but upon receiving three murderous glares, he quickly backpedalled and fell on his rump with a thud. Loivissa felt sorry for having participated in the act, and went to help him up. It was not the boy's fault that these two were idiots after all.

"I felt like I was going to die", he said apologetically as Loivissa pulled him up to stand.

"You will not", Loivissa assured him, "but I assume that you had a reason for barging in like that?"

"What? Oh yes, dad just called", Garth shook his head, as if to clear it of any errant thoughts, "he told me that according to the rumours at court, Mercury has not been seen for an entire week now. He said that they think that he is somewhere on the seventh floor of the main building, because his entire Varangian Guard has occupied the entire floor and refused anyone but his aide to enter or leave the floor".

"Wait, is his ENTIRE Varangian Guard occupying the floor, and if no one is allowed to enter or leave it, does that count for them as well?", Loivissa wanted to know.

"Yeah, that is what dad said that it looked like", Garth shrugged, "and according to him, he talked to a guy that saw the Guard march up there with enough dried and seasoned food to last more than a month on it, so I guess that they are taking it pretty seriously".

A slow predatorily grin grew on Loivissa's face as she digested the news. For whatever reason, Mercury and his Guard would be indisposed of for perhaps another three to four weeks, so there would be no chance of them interfering with her planned raid of his shipment.

"Lifael, Lord Tahu", she said and turned to them while still grinning, "your concerns about this being a trap has just gone out the window. Meet me near the borders of Osilon in a week or leave this group forever. The choice is yours".

And with that, she escorted Garth out, and for the first time in a long while, she felt hopeful again.

Move along. Nothing to see here...well, except for those that are looking ;D

Also, seriously, at this point, who are you rooting for(if any)? I am genuinely curious to know whether Mercury still has some supporters after everything that he has done, but I do not expect there to be that many.