Chapter 24

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Azog brought Tifre and Selencia with him to Tuma. This city had many of the modern marvels of Darokin, a colliseum, fine art, even a public bath house. But it did seem like it was brought to people who didn't neccessarily want it, at first. It was important for Darokin to show it's power, and reward the Goffs for how they betrayed the other tribes and allied with Darokin. The Goffs were clearly in charge, but the other Ork tribes, they seemed to mingle fairly well. The Frostwolf Clan, the Blackrock Clan, the Shadowmoon Clan, all mingled together in the marketplace. Tifre could hear some talking about the good old days, before the invasion. These individuals still called this place Draenor. Azog told Tifre and Selencia to stay close to him. They hurried into an alley, but soon found themselves surrounded by twelve other men. To the women's surprise, Azog greeted their leader favorably. Tifre didn't catch his name, but his dress and accent suggested he was from the Warsong Clan. From what Tifre had heard, this clan fought against Darokin's invasion, they were the last to surrender. The few who were spared execution now survived by kidnapping people from enemy tribes and selling them into slavery here in Tuma. It seemed these ones were willing to kidnap two strangers for the same fate. Azog had betrayed them.

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Tifre: Why would you betray us?

Azog: Why do you think, I don't trust either of you.

Tifre: It was Ogthrak who stole the gold.

Azog: Maybe it was. But Selencia here betrayed me once. And you Tifre are very new, and you have an honest streak that could cause me problems. I don't trust either of you to not betray me once I get the Gorgostone.

Selencia: I get out of here I will kill you.

Azog: I'm not that worried about you getting out of here.

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The Warsong leader gave Azog his gold, and whispered to him how to find the king of thieves. Azog then left, and the Warsong bandits attacked Tifre and Selencia. The women were outnumbered six to one, but they had two advantages. One was that the bandits didn't want to kill them, dead slaves were of no use to them. The women had no such problem killing the men trying to kidnap them. Their other advantage was Tifre's piece of the Gorgostone. With it's strength they were able to slay most of these bandits, including their leader, the rest fled in terror. The women were relieved, but they then had to take account of their situation.

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Azog had betrayed his last allies, his only hope now was to get what treasure he could from the king of thieves. Selencia still wanted this treasure, and Tifre still wanted to make certain that the Gorgostone didn't fall into the wrong hands. But Selencia and Tifre had no idea where this "Kingdom" was. But Tifre had an idea. After Ogthrak's alleged betrayel, there were small pieces of gold laying around, they convinced Azog that Oghtrak must have dropped some in his haste to flee. The three of them divided up this small amount of gold. Tifre and Selencia still had their shares of this. If they could make it look like they had a lot of money, the thieves of Tuma would show up, and they could follow them back to the Kingdom. Tifre had an idea how they could make it seem that they had more gold. They would go to the slave market, the very market where they would have been sold, and buy a slave, whom they would then set free. Hopefully two foreignors who seemed like they had a lot of gold would make them appear as easy targets.

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When they got to the market they saw the auctioneer was beginning to sell a woman, his guards had to hold back her children. She begged him to at least let her keep her family together. But the auctioneer merely addressed the audience and shouted "Your choice ladies and gentlemen. To buy just her, or the whole set. There is a discount if you buy all three." Tifre could hear two locals, arguing about whether they should buy just the mother. One seemed to think they should use their money to buy a plough for their farm. The other felt they should pool their money for just her, then they could "Rent her out" and make more money. Tifre was impulsive, she decided that she coudn't et this woman be taken from her children and be raped repeatedly. She bid, for all three of them. Tifre was soon in a bidding war with the two farmers. Tifre won, but she bid more gold than she had. Her mentor had taught her not to use the power of the stone impulsively, but since his death she used it's power more. She handed the man what gold she had, and told him it was the right amount. This man was very used to counting gold, he could not be fooled, and he certainly wouldn't let this family go out of kindness. Yet he was convinced that Tifre had given him the right amount of gold. Tifre brought the woman and her children away, and freed them.

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Mother: I don't understand.

Tifre: I bought you and now I'm giving you your freedom. Go back to your tribe.

Mother: But we live here in Tuma. We are Warsong Clan yes, but we are free. Or we were. Some dishonorable traitors kidnap members of their own clan.

Tifre: Have you considered leaving Tuma?

Mother: Sometimes, but it is our home. Thank you for what you did for us.

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As the mother went home with her children, Tifre heard the auctioneer yell. He realized that the gold he had was less than he was suppossed to have. He was angry at his guards, he assumed they had somehow failed to protect him from being robbed. Tifre wondered what a slave trader did to his men who failed him. At any rate, at least this time he was going to do it to someone who deserved it. Selencia soon found Tifre. Her pocket had been picked, and she followed the thief back to his king. Selencia ed the way to where the king of thieves held court. This was known to some as the Court of Miracles. It was called this because here cripples could walk, and the blind could see. In reality these people faked being blind or crippled in order to gain sympathetic donations, or at least put their victims in a false sense of security before robbing them. But perhaps there was another reason it was called the Court of Miracles. The closer they got to it, the more Tifre could sense the other stone's power. There was no denying it, the king of thieves really did have a piece of the Gorgostone. Tifre and Selencia just walked right into this underground place and greeted the king. He did not seem particularly surprised to see them.

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King: I take it you two are Tifre and Selencia.

Selencia: Yes. Azog told you about us?

King: Indeed he did. Told us how he'd betrayed you, and feared your retaliation. He went into the maze, that was a few hours ago, and he hasn't come back since. I assume the maze killed him before either of you could get the chance.

Tifre: And he was allowed to just walk into the maze?

King: Ofcourse, any thief is welcome to try their luck. It's just that noone has ever come back. Others, who held the title of king before myself, they found ways to put some of their own treasure inside the maze for safekeeping, but then they could never get to it again. Legend has it, that if someone makes it to the center, the gates will open and they can walk right out with the treasure. Should that ever happen, that thief would be expected to share their new treasure with any thieves who might witness it.

Selencia: Ofcourse. How does this thing work?

King: You just walk in, and try to avoid whatever traps are there? Keep in mind we can only see a little bit of the inside.

Selencia: What I mean is, traps can typically only be sprung once. So how is it that these keep being used many times over the last 6000 years? Souldn't they have risted a long time ago?

King: That's a good question. Perhaps the man who built this maze used the stone's magick to keep the stone safe. Perhaps he made some deals with certain spirits, ones who understood the neccessity of keeping it protected. One theory is as good as the next.

Selencia: Fair enough. At any rate, I'll go first. If I don't come back, it was nice knowing you Tifre.

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Selencia went inside the maze, and quickly figured out the safest way to avoid booby traps. When she was out of sight of the other thieves, she found Azog's body, it had an arrow shot through his head. Selencia made her way to a narrow bridge, in the dark she couldn't see how far down the fall was, and didn't particularly want to find out. Finally Selencia found herself before two doors, each had a talking head above it. She saw an inscription between the two doors. It read "One door leads to the treasure, the other to instant death. You may ask the heads one question. One can only speak the truth, the other can only lie. Choose wisely." Selencia thought about this for a moment. The inscription did not say which head would speak the truth. Asking which door led to the treasure wouldn't work, no way to know whether they were lying or not. Then Selencia thought of a good question. She asked the heads "Which door would the other one say leads to the treasure?" Both said "He would say that the one on the right leads to the treasure." One head was lying, the other one was merely telling her what the other's lie would be. Since the both said it was the one on the right, Selencia went to the one on her left. And sure enough the treasure was there. Whatever magick had previously kept these gates closed was now over, and the gates opened. The thieves were surprised, but happy. They also began helping themselves to this treasure. Selencia grabbed what she could, including the strange stone. She felt a certain power upon grabbing this, and it felt oddly familiar. As she went near Tifre, she felt it even more. None of the thieves seemed to be looking fpr the Gorgostone, they seemed more interested in the other monetary treasures. Tifre was looking frantically for the legendary Gorgostone, but Selencia soon understood, she already had one piece. And now, both women had a piece of the Gorgostone.