Hey, since there has been some unexpected interest in the fishing trip mentioned by Mercury in the previous chapter, I felt that I needed to clarify. It was just a simple ordinary fishing trip, where he went out and fished regular fish. To him, it was quite boring instead of relaxing(hence why he had such disdain for it) and not something that he ever did again...with ordinary fish and bait, that is.
Vacation's end
Mercury POV
It had been a month since he had started his vacation here, and in that time, they had managed to flush out and hunt down an additional six ice-beings, or snow-golems, as the men had begun calling them. All of them had been smaller and less complexly built than the first one had been, and by comparing them to one another, a chain of evolution could be found.
The chain was immensely helpful in determining whether there was an increased possibility of there being more creatures running wild, though it was by no means a guarantee of there not being any links that they had either not considered or assumed would have happened in one leap.
The one thing that they could be sure of was that there would not be made any more snow-golems. By following the first snow-golem's tracks, they had been able to locate where it had been made. It had been a small rundown keep with broken outer walls, but a fresh interior, and in there, they had found the battered and frozen corpses of more than three dozen humans.
The scene had confirmed Mercury's suspicion that the mages had at some point lost control over the first creature that he had encountered, though whether they had ever had control over it in the first place was anyone's guess.
Whenever you worked with spirits, you took a risk of something going horribly wrong, no matter how prepared you thought yourself to be. That was part of the reason why Mercury had banned sorcery back during his time as king of Damocles, and why he had later made sure to keep the ban intact when the Alliance had been formed.
There had been other reasons as well; darker and more personal ones, but Mercury seldom thought of those, as they were things best left in the dark, where they belonged.
Currently though, Mercury had to get back to camp while there was still some light left. The darkness did not actually bother his vision terribly, but his companions and their horses' vision was another matter entirely.
The group of seven travelled through a small creek that flowed quite strongly, before they had to slow down as they went between the trees of the forest. The snow was stamped from the many patrols that had gone this route, which made it almost certain that there were no more hidden holes left in it.
Before long though, they broke through the treeline and came face to face with a row of sharpened spikes. They had to go halfway around the base of the hill before they reached one of the two openings in the outer ring.
"Good hunt?", one of the guards at the opening that had previously kept close to the burning fire, asked them as they passed through.
"Not really, only got the stag back there", Mercury shrugged and said, as he pointed back to the stag that had been laid across the back of his horse, "though Ivar also caught two rabbits".
"That seems like a pretty good catch", the guard commented, "should I get someone to take care of it for you?"
It is a mediocre catch at best when you were hunting for snow-golems, Mercury thought but kept his tongue. As he dismounted his horse, he gave the reins to the guard and said, "you can leave the carcass in my tent. I will see to it later".
The guard nodded and left with the horse in tow. When Mercury turned around, most of his hunting party had already disappeared to wherever they wanted to be after a long and fruitless day of searching for signs of more snow-golems.
Before he could retire to his tent as well, Mercury firstly had to get a status update from the one in charge of the camp. He learned that none of the other search parties had spotted any signs of snow-golems either, and that nothing other than them returning to camp had really happened since he had left early that morning.
After that, he talked a little with some of the members from the other search parties, before he eventually retired to his tent. By then, the sun had set and the only light inside the tent came from the noflam and the dancing rays of light from the crackling fires outside.
All in all, a dull day, Mercury mused as he picked up a butcher's knife and started the process of skinning and dismembering the stag, which had been placed on a table in the middle of the tent.
It had never been necessary for Mercury to do the work himself, as there were plenty of men assigned to kitchen duty that could have done it for him, but he liked doing it. Catching and preparing your own food made him feel far less like the usual buzz of everyday life, where he never had the time to make his own meals, and after all, this was still his vacation, even if he only had a few days left of it.
As he cut out the intestines and threw them into a bucket next to the table, he noted that far from all of the blood had managed to bleed out during his trip, even though he had made sure to cut open its throat and its back legs before he had thrown it up on his horse's back.
Still, there was far less blood than there would have been if he had tried skinning it shortly after it had been caught, and though the blood trail perhaps would attract wild wolves, they would know better than to venture near the camp when it was surrounded by bonfires, sharpened stakes and guards.
He was halfway done with cutting off the hide when a knock sounded and a knight by the name of Sir Earan requested to speak with him. Mercury quickly allowed him to enter, but never put down the butcher's knife and nor did he wipe his hands clean of blood for that matter.
Sir Earan was a dökkálfar in his late sixties with green eyes, short black hair and he wore the heavy black cloak of the Knight-Wings, the ends of which resembled the wings of the lethrblaka that he rode.
"So, what can I do for you, sir Earan?", Mercury asked after looking him up and down once, before returning to his work.
"I have come regarding the bandit situation in Utgard", Sir Earan explained, "upon routing their main force, we chased them until they found refuge in an old derelict fort, where we have since surrounded them. I would like your permission to storm the fort".
Even when he was on vacation, there were still matters that required his attention, though to be fair, Mercury had ordered them to seek him out before they made any risky moves that had not been discussed beforehand in the meeting.
Technically, these bandits were the last remnants of the Grey Organization, which Datia had not been able to fully dismantle before they had caught wind of what was happening, though she had managed to do away with most of it.
"How many are left?", Mercury asked as he tore off the hide of deer.
"Us or them?", Sir Earan asked.
"Both", Mercury answered and waved carelessly with the knife, before stopping the action and instead starting on cutting off the front leg.
"My men managed to rout them with very few casualties, so we are virtually intact, whereas I suspect that they have no more than a hundred left", Sir Earan described, "I feel confident that if you allowed me to send for reinforcements, we could storm the fort".
"Have you ever been besieged before, Sir Earan?", Mercury asked as he let the blade cut into the flesh.
"No, I cannot say that I ever have", Sir Earan answered.
It was no surprise that the knight had never tried being besieged, considering that his role was to be a fast and deadly auxiliary unit that could appear and disappear on his lethrblaka partner within a few moments.
"I have. Quite a few times, actually", Mercury grunted as he finished with the leg and dropped it on the inside of its hide, "you want to know the key behind any siege? Food and morale. If you at any point lose either of them as the one being besieged, then you have lost.
Take your case for instance. You say that they were routed and fled into the fort, so it is doubtful that they would have any meaningful amount of supplies with them in there. Even if you waited for reinforcements to arrive, there would still be an awful large amount of dead before the men had even reached the walls.
I will give you an additional eight Knight-Wings, but no more. Once they arrive, you are to take shifts in riding the skies. Remember to screech at least once every hour or so. Continue with this for four days, and on the fifth evening, you send in an unmanned cart with just enough loaves of bread for the leaders to gorge themselves".
"But would it not defeat the purpose by giving them more food?", Sir Earan questioned.
"That is why there can only be enough for the leaders", Mercury explained, while absentmindedly waving the bloodied knife to emphasize his points, "as is the nature of the leaders of bandits, they will take the food for themselves, and considering the irritable mood that will have been built up at that point because of the lack of food and the constant screeches, the men will soon turn on them to get the food.
Once you hear the first signs of battle, send your remaining 150 men in to scale the walls. If they do not create too much noise, the bandits will not even know what has happened before they are already over the walls. After that, I believe that a surrender will quickly ensue".
"And what should we do with the prisoners?", Sir Earan asked with a careful eye locked on the path of the knife.
"There will be no prisoners", Mercury calmly said and plunged the knife back into the carcass once again.
"…I understand. Thank you for your time, my lord", Sir Earan nodded and bowed before he left, to which Mercury rolled his eyes when the knight looked away, before he continued the dismemberment of the stag.
"I think that I will have a dagger's handle crafted from one of these antlers", Mercury noted as he studied the impressive size of the antlers, "and perhaps a sword hilt from the other. They could be a set".
Loivissa POV(late fall of 643 ADG)
Loivissa knew that she had to rescue Rhunön if they were to have any chance of fixing the broken dauthdaert, but she also knew that every time that she had let Aiedail clash with Mercury's men, or his proxies, they had lost someone.
That was why, after the raid that gotten them the dauthdaert, she had forbidden everyone from engaging in any hostile actions. They could not afford to continue losing core members at the rate that they had been during the first year.
For the most part, everyone had agreed that it was the right course of action, and those that had still thirsted after undermining Mercury's efforts further had been assigned to tale Rhunön and figure out who her watchers were, how many of them there were and where they were.
It had been far from easy, but eventually, Loivissa had managed to gather a clearer picture of the situation. The first group of watchers was a group of traitor dwarves that officially came to Rhunön to get her help with a project or another.
Loivissa could not believe that they had agreed to spy for Mercury, but then again, considering what she knew of the rest of the watchers and Mercury's personality, it was not certain whether they even knew that they were working for their conqueror.
The second group of watchers stood for watching and communicating with the first group, and that group was a mixture of both dwarves and Alagaësian humans. After that, there was a third group, which was mostly a group of foreign commoners that watched both the second and the first group, but only had contact with the second one.
They had not been able to determine whether a fourth group was present as well, but Loivissa suspected that there might be, as Mercury would have never trusted such an important task to a group of commoners outside of his direct sphere of influence.
It did not matter though, as just there being a second group of watchers made it impossible for Aiedail in its current state to even attempt to remove them before rescuing Rhunön. Though initially a setback, Loivissa had learned to look at it as an advantage, as it meant that she could confidently argue that it would be suicide to try any direct course of action.
That was why Loivissa was currently walking in the streets of Bregan Hold with no one from Aiedail at her side. There was someone at her side though; an old human woman that was quite tall for her age, though she was always hunched over and people therefore did not notice it particular often.
As they walked, Loivissa held the arm of the old lady like a daughter would have, as that was what she was pretending to be at the moment. It had been part of why she had argued that it had to be her that carried out the operation, as she was the only member of Aiedail that could pass for a human's daughter.
"Are we there soon, my dear?", the old woman, which was actually named Lisa, asked sweetly. They both knew that they might be under watch at this very moment, so they had to act the part.
"Soon, mother, and then we will see if the elven smith can help us", Loivissa answered with a smile.
Soon enough, they came to the alley where Rhunön had set up shop, but though they both knew that they had to be under watch by now, they were never stopped or questioned on their way. Not even after reaching and stopping before the front door of the smithy did anyone come out to ask them what they were doing and why they were here.
Here goes, Loivissa thought while sinking a lump in her throat, before she knocked on the front door.
For a while, no one answered, and then another while passed with still no answer. Loivissa thought that perhaps Rhunön had not heard them the first time, so she knocked again; harder, this time. They waited for yet another while, during which Loivissa began to suspect a trap, before she experimentally tried simply pushing the door open.
It was unlocked, and from somewhere within the house, Loivissa heard the sound of a hammer striking against metal. She could have slapped herself for forgetting about Rhunön's eccentricity during their planning of this rescue. Not even once had anyone from Aiedail thought about the fact that when she had lived in Ellesméra, her door had never been locked either, and she had only received guests if they had come directly into her smithy.
Cursing at her own stupidity, Loivissa dragged Lisa with her towards where the sounds were coming from. Once there, she found Rhunön benched over a plate of some kind, which had chains made of the rings used in a chainmail, hanging from each of its five corners.
Loivissa had no idea what the smith was making, and neither did she care to be honest. She knew that no one was spying on the smith while she was inside the house, as their investigation had revealed that only the house's exterior was monitored.
It had presumably been decided because Rhunön was infamous for never leaving her forge, so all the watchers really had to do was to monitor those that entered and left the house to make sure that the elven smith did not escape.
"Rhunön-elda, atra estemí ono thelduin", Loivissa said respectfully, touched her lips and made the elven gesture at her sternum.
"Did not think that I would find you here", Rhunön grunted and kept hammering on the hot plate.
"I have urgent need of your services, and so, I have come to ask for your help", Loivissa answered, "it is regarding an old masterpiece of yours, which I need you to repair".
Rhunön stopped hammering and looked at Loivissa suspiciously, before she shrugged and said, "not much point in even trying, considering that I have guard-dogs that watch over me like a bunch of hawks. Ha, if they think that I would not notice all the dwarves wandering about my shop, then they were fools".
"We have a way around their watchful eyes", Loivissa said and gestured to Lisa, who until then had remained oblivious to what was being said.
"You want her to try and distract them. Ha, then you might as well try just taking me out through the front door", Rhunön snorted.
"Actually, that was exactly what we had in mind", Loivissa said with a smirk, "the two of you are almost the same height, so all I really have to do is to cast a spell that creates an illusion of her upon you. The guards saw an old and a young woman enter the house, and they will see the same two people leaving".
"What happens to her in the meantime then?", Rhunön wanted to know.
"She will activate a special totem designed to create a mirage of you over her, and by the time that anyone realizes that she is not the real thing, we will have already arrived at our hidden headquarters", Loivissa explained.
"And she is alright with knowing that she might very well die after this?", Rhunön asked.
"I am, my lady", Lisa spoke for the first time, "all of my sons and grandsons died in the invasion by the usurper. I have no more reasons for living, but if my death can in any way help bring justice, then I will do what I can".
There had initially been some malcontent when Loivissa had suggested this course of action a month ago, as it would involve sacrificing another of their members in the process of getting Rhunön, but everything had worked out after Earl Karl had mentioned that he knew of an old woman that would be completely okay with playing the sacrifice.
"…I still have not agreed to come with you", Rhunön pointed out, "if I stay here, I get to keep working in my forge without being bothered by anyone but the guard-dogs, and if I tell them that I said no to eloping with you, they would probably leave me alone as well".
"But Mercury slaughtered our people in droves!", Loivissa pointed out, "will you do nothing to bring justice to those souls?"
"Will more killing bring them back?", Rhunön asked, but did not wait for an answer, "once you get to be as old as I am, you begin to realize that people killing other people for revenge is an endless cycle that never stops".
"But he will not stop killing!", Loivissa pointed out, "within the span of two years, he has killed more than a quarter of a million people in one go, exterminated every eldunarí in existence, culled our race until it tethers on the brink of collapse and killed or captured almost every dragon rider. Who is to say what he will do next? He has to be stopped".
"He killed all of the eldunarya?", Rhunön asked surprised.
"He completely banned them by official law", Loivissa answered confused, "how did you not know of this? It was the reason behind the elven rebellion last year".
"Hmm, so that was what the fuss was about", Rhunön mused, "that puts it an entirely different light then. Until now, I just thought that all the lives lost had been in battles".
"You will help us then?", Loivissa asked hopeful.
"Aye, I will", Rhunön promised.
After that, Lisa and Rhunön switched clothes, before Loivissa spent a while constructing the mirage over Rhunön's face, while Lisa activated the totem, which was then checked for errors. When it was all done, Rhunön hunched over like Lisa had done, and the two of them walked out of the house arm in arm, just like Loivissa had entered.
They could feel unfriendly eyes upon them for a good half an hour after they left, but there was sure to be others that they did not feel, so they kept up the act all the way until they had a day's ride between themselves and Bregan Hold.
The trip back to Aiedail's headquarters was delightfully uneventful, and when they arrived there, they received a warm welcome by everyone. Rhunön would have none of it though, as she simply wanted to cast her eyes upon the dauthdaert that Loivissa had told her about on the road.
After examining it for three days, and perhaps three nights, Rhunön one day cornered Loivissa and told her that they had to talk. Loivissa led the way to her office, where she barred the door and then asked what progress the elven smith had made.
"I remember having to destroy that blade", Rhunön said instead of the answer that Loivissa had expected, "never have I loathed having to do a job more than then. The dauthdaertya were perfect weapons, beautiful and powerful in equal measure, yet elegant and easy to use. Everything that I have ever made after them, even the riders' swords, has been a cheap imitation at best".
Loivissa knew that Rhunön did not think that stopping Du Fyrn Skullblaka had been a bad thing, but merely that she regretted the loss of her finest work, just like any other craftsman would have. She did not however see where this was going.
"Simply crafting the materials to forge them was a task worthy of a master smith", she went on, "and the spells that had to be engraved in them. Never before or since have I heard such ingenious words uttered".
"Are you telling me that you cannot repair it?", Loivissa cut through. She dearly hoped that that was not what the elven smith was trying to say.
"If I had had to start from scratch or the weapon had been physically damaged in any way, then no, I would not have been able to repair it", Rhunön answered, "as it is now though, I might be able to repair it, though it is by no means certain. Under any circumstances, the work will take a very long time to finish, perhaps even years, and the materials that I will need are by no means abundant or easy to gain".
"I thought that you said that the weapon was physically alright?", Loivissa commented.
"It is, but I need them for the enchantments", Rhunön grunted, but before she left Loivissa's office, she turned around and said, "leave the smithing and enchanting to me, little girl, and I shall leave the rebelling and dying to you".
Loivissa did not know what to make of that last bit, but the important point of their conversation was that Rhunön believed that she might be able to repair Loivissa's namesake. Any and all materials that she would need to do it would become Aiedail's highest priority, because until the weapon had been remade, there was nothing that they could do but sit and wait for it to be done.
Well, they also had to figure out a way to get close enough to Mercury to use it. That problem could become their pet project in the timeframes between getting the materials that Rhunön required.
So, for once a win without a loss(if you do not count Lisa).