"Alright, ya can do this." Ranger said to his reflection.
The mirrors in the bathrooms here were uncannily clear, far better than the polished metal he had used for most of his life. The old man staring back at him had all the flaws and marks of his age standing out starkly. Ranger was used to that though, what disturbed him this morning was the clear fear in his own eyes.
"I can do this. It ain't exactly magic." He repeated.
No, it was just convincing the isolationist, xenophobic Dalish that they should listen to a human about hunting. If anything, it was probably harder than magic. At least there was no chance of having his body puppeted by someone else, probably. Ranger shivered, recalling rumours of Dalish blood mages.
The old hunter is deeply tempted to ask the kid for help. Despite the wild stories the young 'noldor', whatever that was, had spun, he had a silver tongue. He got as far as asking where the kid was from one of the 'staff'. It was only when he heard that the kid was talking to the girlie that he decided not to disturb him. The girlie had clearly had something going on last night, and it wouldn't do to interrupt them. Besides, he was supposed to be doing this so the kid was free to do other things. Ranger heaved a great sigh.
"I'm really no good at talkin' to people." He complained.
"Are you going somewhere with this, or can I get back to my work now?" The housekeeper asked irritably.
After he had apologised to the young woman and let her go about her business, Ranger finally set out to actually find the Dalish. He walked along the road that the kid had made, enjoying the summer warmth beneath the shade of the trees. It was easy to be fooled into thinking that the forest was a pleasant place when you were on the road. Ranger's experienced eyes saw the dark shadows moving just beyond the line of the trees. The kid could say whatever he wanted about not being a mage, but this road was magic. Nothing in the forest dared to touch it, at least not for long enough to attack the people on it. Though he wouldn't put it past one of the spiders to have spun a web across it, so he kept his guard up.
Eventually he reached the outskirts of the Dalish camp. Normally Ranger felt that the kid had far too high expectations of people. He would agree in this case, the camp's guards were awful. If Ranger had wanted to, he could have snuck into camp without being seen at all. Since he was only here to talk, he instead walked up and announced himself.
"Hey. I'm here to talk to the hunters about schedulin'." Ranger informed the guards.
"Uh, sure. Ok." One of the guards, a younger looking elf, replied.
The other guard, older and with different tattoos, squinted at Ranger. "Do I know you?"
"I came here with Nelyafinwë." Ranger replied.
The elder guard chewed her lip for a moment, then shrugged. "Ok then. Still think it's weird how many humans we're letting in, but if you don't cause trouble you can visit."
Ranger breathed a sigh of relief and made his way past the guards. He was still a short walk away from the camp proper. Through the entire exchange his palms had been sweating with nerves. Speaking to people, even those he knows well, is not his strong suit. Among the Dalish he always feels that he is only one wrong word away from another attempted murder. Once his racing heart had calmed down, he started to think about who he was going to talk to while he was here.
Ranger is not exactly gifted when it comes to talking to people, but he isn't stupid either. Attempting to talk to the hunters directly sounds like a great way to get himself lynched. Sometimes he can still hear the sound of steel on steel from the last time in his nightmares. He is going to need an intermediary, that much is obvious. The question is who. His first instinct is to find some kind of leader of the hunters. The shared experience would make them easy to talk to, and he would not need to explain the majority of what he needs to say. The only problem is that if the kid is anything to go by, and it is not as though Ranger has a long history with those who raise themselves to leadership through nothing but talent and personality, any such leader would be close to his followers. With a sigh Ranger asks where the Keeper is.
Much as he hates to feel as though he is leaning on his connection to the kid to get this done, he has to admit Lanaya has not acted as he expected.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" The Dalish woman asks him.
Ranger rubs the back of his head. "I have to admit I didn't think I'd get this far."
The Keeper nods. "Yes, it is quite rare among the clans to be so welcoming to humans. I myself hardly am excited to do so, but you are a close friend of the 'Aráto' so I'll hear you out if nothing else."
Ranger shakes his head and scrubs at his ear. "Must be losin' my hearin' in my old age. Or maybe my memory. I don't recall the kid ever goin' by somethin' like Arato."
The Dalish Keeper smirks. "It's not a name. According to that Ophelia girl, it means something like 'champion'. Figured that if I was going to ask him to mediate our disputes I could call him by the title."
The old hunter shrugs. "That's all too complex for me. I'll stick to huntin'."
With a raised eyebrow Lanaya returns the conversation to its original topic. "On that note, why are you here?"
"Oh right, sorry got side-tracked." Ranger apologises shaking his head once more. "I'm here to ask ya to help me organise yar huntin'."
Lanaya's expression falls from lightly teasing to guarded neutrality. "And why should I do that? My people are more than capable of hunting for ourselves."
Ranger almost trips over himself to explain, afraid that he has offended the Dalish woman. "It's not that I don't think ya can feed yaself. It's more that there's too many people in the forest for us all to go huntin' willy nilly. See animals ain't stupid if they keep dyin' in an area they're gonna go elsewhere. But if we're all huntin' in different places they're gonna leave the forest. Worse if we hunt the same areas they might just run out. I've got the most experience and the kid's neutral enough that he figgered people'd listen to me if he backed me."
Lanaya gives him a considering look as the man runs out of things to say.
After several moments awkward silence he tries again. "So yeah. If ya help me I can make sure ya don't need to up sticks and leave when all the animals hoof it."
Lanaya allows another moment of silence to pass and then she speaks. "Tell me what you intend, and I will see what I can do."
"Right, the plan's pretty simple. What I'm goin' to do is draw up a schedule of who's huntin' where when. All ya need to do is get the hunters to follow the schedule. That golden for ya?" Ranger explains to Lanaya.
The Dalish keeper considers his words for a while. "That sounds reasonable, it shouldn't be too hard to sell that to the hunters. What exactly is this schedule? Can I see it?"
Ranger pauses for a long moment. "I don't really know how to say this without being nosey, so I'm just going to go for it. I have no idea what ya are currently doin' in huntin' so I'm gonna need a breakdown of that first."
Lanaya pinched the bridge of her nose. "I see why you came to me now. I suppose I have already agreed."
Ranger is extremely pleased with his choice to approach Lanaya. She has gathered the hunters together into a large assembly in order to address them all. The crowd she has gathered are all glaring at him like he had personally murdered their children. Which is only true in the vast minority of cases. Ranger is glad that he does not need to address them personally.
"…so I am going to need you all to listen to him and answer his questions." Lanaya finishes her speech to the hunters.
"Why do we even care?" One of the hunters yells from near the back of the crowd. "Let the outsiders take care of themselves, it has nothing to do with us."
Lanaya has developed an impressive glare in her time leading this clan. "If you had listened to what I just finished saying, you would know that we need to take care to preserve the animal population if we are to sustain ourselves."
The hunter seems to have more courage than sense, as she continues to argue. "We can do that without outsider support though! Why should we share secrets with outsiders?"
"Where we hunt is not a secret of any import." Lanaya replies, tone growing colder. "It could be determined simply by a sufficiently watchful observer. Do not conflate the secrets of the clan and our people with your pride as a hunter. Coordination will make us more effective and costs us nothing."
Her words quiet the grumbling, and the hunters begrudgingly agree to answer Ranger's questions.
Ranger interrogates the Dalish hunters closely, his comfort in the subject he knows well drowning out his usual nervousness when addressing crowds. The information he gains is very revealing, if he's honest the Dalish know a few tricks even he does not. Through careful questions and his own knowledge of his craft he puts together a picture of Dalish hunting practices in general. From there creating a schedule that aides everyone in the forest is a challenge that he is more than ready to meet. The end product should prevent any loss of game to overhunting and even aid the Dalish in finding prey during the harder months. He presents the finished product to Lanaya. After answering all her questions, she assures him that they will stick to the schedule loyally and thanks him. All in all, it went well.
Your last attempt to investigate the pull on your soul had not ended well. There is likely still a spirit out there who wants nothing but ill for you. You have decided that if you are going to be spending an extended time in a place dedicated to the control of those who visit the Beyond, it might be best to establish what this is before you are there surrounded by their warriors. Unfortunately, you have no concrete leads from your last investigation and must start your investigation anew. You already know that the call originates in the Beyond, and that in order to follow it you will need to pass through the Veil. The logical place to start would be to consider how you might do so.
This would normally be the part where you consult Merrill, but you would rather leave her be to adjust to her new existence. As a result, you are talking to Xandar, who is always more hit and miss than Merrill, but hopefully the right questions may tell you things that he does not know himself.
"How would you describe the feeling of passing through the Veil?" You ask.
Xandar blinks at you in confusion. "I pass through the Veil?"
Every moment you spend in this world makes the 'face palm' gesture seem more appealing. "Yes, mostly when you sleep but whenever you end up in the Beyond, or the Fade I think you call it, you pass through the Veil."
"Oooh." Xandar draws out his reaction, nodding. "It feels like falling asleep."
That was your fault, you walked right into that one.
The sons of Fëanáro do not give up easily, so you attempt another question "How would you describe the sensation of using magic?"
This one causes Xandar to think for a very long time. "It kind of feels like something is leaving me. Kind of like hunger but in my head? That doesn't make much sense sorry. It's hard to describe."
A wave to dismiss his apology and you continue to speak. "It does not matter. I assume that feeling dissipates, does it only happen when you sleep or is it a more constant sensation?"
Xandar nods a few times. "If I wait for a bit, the emptiness goes away slowly. Like someone is pouring more magic into me slowly."
Finally some useful information. "I have more questions about this sensation."
Unfortunately, that was the end of Xandar's useful insights. He tries his best, but it quickly becomes clear that your questions are getting too theoretical for him to be much help with. It does not matter. He has given you a crucial lead. You already know that Fade energy is present around you in the physical world. That Xandar can refill from this pool is not a surprise. What you realised though, is that with two mages using magic semi regularly and a barrier preventing the Beyond from interacting with your base there should be a decrease in ambient energy. There has not. The obvious explanation is that fade energy is like water or air and moves to fill absences. It also means that the energy must have a source. Since fade energy is created in the Beyond then that means there is a way into the physical world. A path through the Veil.
You are frustrated with the complete lack of information you are confronted with at every turn. It is as though people of this land discovered there was a barrier between them and the realm of souls and just decided 'yes that makes sense' and never investigated it. Though you have a momentary idea about investigating the trickle Xandar mentioned, you feel that the time has come to stop skirting around the obvious option. You have created a way out of the Beyond that can be opened many times. There is no reason you cannot use it as a point of ingress as well as egress. It may be a risk, you can practically hear your brothers calling you a hypocrite, but it is a calculated one.
The immediate challenge before you is locating the Veil once more. Your initial examinations have revealed that unlike the Beyond there is no obvious link between the physical world and the Veil. You are certain there is a link, you exited the Veil straight into the physical world after all, but the connection evades your senses. It makes sense, all the circumstantial evidence points to the Veil being intended as a weapon against those who share your nature. Such a weapon would work best if it could not be detected until it was too late, as is true of all weapons really. The end result of all of this is that you are walking around outside, calling on your limited knowledge of this world's magic and extending your senses in a search for the Veil.
Your initial results are promising. You can tell there is something slightly off about this world. There is a lifelessness to this world your non-human senses detect when compared to Arda. You investigate this lead extensively. You examine the leaves and the plants, studying the connections between them to see where this lack might be. You conduct extensive research based on what Merrill has said about magic. You even examine the energy of the Beyond, trying to discern how it might inform you of the Veil. After trying every trick you can think of, from what you have learned of this world's magic, you come up with nothing. You cannot find the Veil.
You are grateful that no one is present to witness your embarrassing loss of control. The fury of your family had burned bright, but thankfully briefly in this small clearing. You breathe a quiet apology to Yavana for what you had done to the poor sapling. She may not be able to hear you, but it is unwise in the extreme to tempt her wrath. Once you have calmed enough to think rationally once more, you sink down to sit beneath a tree. The fundamental problem is that you do not know enough about 'magic' as Thedas understands it. You have managed thus far using your superior sense of the unseen and your pre-existing knowledge of the workings of the world, but this Veil has no easy comparison in Arda.
You are now faced with an awkward situation. Merrill is still recovering, and you do not want to disturb her. Just as it had earlier today, this rules out your usual reaction to the strangeness of this world's magic. You breathe a short huff of air.
"Perhaps it is for the best. The student unchallenged will never grow." You observe to the empty clearing.
It has been some time since you were so totally the student in anything, but perhaps this is the humbling you need to truly grow in this matter. The thought makes you chuckle, it seems rather unlikely. Regardless of the deeper meaning this incident might hold, you have a concrete problem to solve right now. You spring to your feet and set off to take your next step.
You spend an hour debating what to do next internally as you walk. You are tempted by the idea of simply brute forcing the solution, attempting open the veil in many different places until you find one that works. A combination of caution and impatience stays your hand. You do not know what might happen if you open the Veil at random, nor do you know what it might do if you attempt and fail. That is the caution, but the impatience is in many ways more pressing, walking around attempting something will be very boring and take a long time. You would have to make very small movements because you do not know how the Veil interacts with the physical world. You are patient when compared to some of your brothers, but you are not that patient. You should consult the only expert you still have access to.
"You want to know how to find the Veil?" Lanaya asks, shocked.
"It is a little bit more complicated than that." You respond. "But in essence yes."
The Dalish keeper stares at you as though you have lost your mind. "Why?"
"Because I want to enter the Beyond." You are disappointed that you even had to explain that much to her and hope she can tell so from your expression.
Lanaya rubs her face. "I'm just going to assume that you have a good reason and move on. If only because I'm scared what you might say if I asked you why."
"That is acceptable." You reply. "Please answer my question."
Lanaya straightens up and raises a finger. "The first thing you must understand is that the Veil isn't a physical thing, it is a…"
You interrupt her before she can get bogged down in a technical discussion of the Veil. "I am aware of what it is, I have passed through it. I want to know how to find where it intersects with the physical world."
Lanaya is clearly thrown by your interruption but recovers well. "I suppose that makes the conversation simpler in a way. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll be able to explain how to find the Veil, it's natural to mages. It's even natural to non-mages, they can find it in their sleep."
You nod. "That much holds true for me as well, but as I plan to enter physically I need to consciously know how to get to it."
Lanaya shrugs. "I do not know how much I will be able to help then. I can get through the Veil with just a spell and some Lyrium."
"Perhaps you could show it to me, and I might be able to figure it out for myself." You propose.
The elf sees no reason to refuse you and begins to show you how the spell works. You have to get her to explain its function to you several times, but before too long you have a rough idea of how mages enter the Beyond.
As Lanaya had explained the actions taken to access the Beyond you had a niggling feeling that it was familiar. Your thoughts had leapt naturally to the wraith world, particularly when she had mentioned the importance of the soul in in the process. In the end it was an aside that gave you the crucial piece you were missing.
"You do get natural weaknesses or tears in the Veil whenever enough people die in one place." Lanaya commented, you are still not clear on how it had been relevant.
"Why people?" You asked. "What about animals?"
Lanaya shook her head. "It needs to be a significant rush of souls that die violently. I assume anyway, you rarely get people dying naturally in the numbers needed to test."
That comment draws your thoughts away from the wraith world and towards the call to Mandos. From there it is a small jump to the correct answer. You extend your senses far more precisely than before, and you find the Veil. Concealed by the physical presence and the conceptual weight of the objects around it, the Veil hides within everything around you. A complicated net intertwined with reality on a metaphysical level, rather than the wall it appears as in the Beyond.
"Found it." You observe, causing Lanaya to start shrieking about 'how you are doing the impossible' and other irrelevant things.
You are more concerned by the fact that the Veil appears to be foundational to the nature of the physical world.
The last thing you need to do before you leave for this inquest is to recruit some more staff for Endataurëo. You have a pressing need to expand the staff, especially as you go about equipping your warriors and giving them tasks. There is the obvious pressing need for blacksmiths and other craftsmen to maintain their weapons and armour. You would also like to have more warriors, though that may be a longer term project. Related to both the previous options is the possibility of acquiring people who can make that base money somehow. Then there is the potential need of the expanded staff for more housekeepers. That is not even touching on the field that is ready to be planted, which will require more farmers.
Air fills your lungs as you take a deep breath. Long experience and the words of your teachers has shown that any complex task is made up of far simpler tasks. For now, you need to find a place to recruit from and determine how many people are willing to work with you. What they will be doing is something you can address once you know how many people you are working with. Calmer now, you let your friends and guards know where you are going. You spend several minutes assuring Xandar that you will be back in time to leave tomorrow, then Orundómë carries you towards Lannerch.
You stop by at Brynwich to leave another notice on their job board. The man who mans the job board there continues to stare at you. Judging from his expression whatever it is that amazed him on your first meeting has struck him anew after the time since he last saw you.
"I would like to post a job notification." You say slowly and simply, as though you were addressing a child.
"A. A job notice m'lord?" The man stammers out
You nod encouragingly. "Yes, do I need to tell you what it says?"
The man shakes his head mutely, as he takes the notice you wrote on his behalf, again.
Your ride through the summer heat to Lannerch is far less pleasant now that you are beyond the shade of the trees. Your cloak ensures that you do not feel the heat, but the bright light is mildly uncomfortable to your sensitive eyes. Perhaps you have little to complain about, given the way those you pass on the road are sweating and panting. You make Orundómë stop and rest after a few hours, you hardly want him to be hurt by the heat. The horse seems almost offended by the idea that he needs rest. You manage to sway him with an argument that you would not make one of your friends suffer needlessly. You make a mental note to get some water when you reach Lannerch.
Once you have arrived at the village and ensured that Orundómë has all required care, you make your way to the area around the job board where you usually find your workers. As you move through the bustle of the village and its market, you consider who you are going to recruit.
Recruiting and training people yourself has worked well so far, but you think that it may have reached the limit of its utility. You are growing ever busier and your small fiefdom, in practice if not law, is growing beyond your ability to personally manage. Your best chance is to recruit some people who already have the skills you need and let them teach your new recruits. It will save you work in the long run, even if it does mean that the new members will not benefit from the personal attention of a Noldo. You should have put that on the notification back in Brynwich, but such regrets are a waste of time. Brywich will supply the raw recruits to be trained and that will suffice.
You enter the square beneath the harsh noon sun. The square is surprisingly busy for such a hot time of day, and you can see people slowly filtering into the square still. You are grateful, as it means a wide pool of recruits, but you suspect it will be unpleasant for those with less well made cloaks. You walk over to the job board and quickly negotiate to have two sets of fliers put up. One is simply the usual work for board notice, the other is a specific request for those who are willing to teach a group their craft. You would specify what kind of craft, but you suspect it will be easier to find out what teachers are available and then pick the ones you think are useful. Once that is done, you head back into the crowd to personally seek workers.
Almost immediately you are drawn into a conversation with a merchant on food prices and general cost of living. It seems that there is a consortium of merchants who disagree with your policy of pricing items what they cost. One attempted intimidation later, you leave the suitably cowed price gouger and his guards where they fell. Some people should know better than to work themselves up in this heat. Now he has a bruise shaped like your fist on his face from his unfortunate collapse and two fewer guards. The cheers and applause from the crowd were both unseemly and unnecessary. Personal distaste aside, you use the surge of people who want to talk to you as a vehicle for recruitment.
The number of people who are willing to sign on with you surpasses even your lofty expectations. There are concerning rumours of an upcoming levy that has a number of young men and women in a hurry to be anywhere but here. When you mention that you plan to have them taught a trade in addition to paying them, you are almost swamped with applications. Even after weeding out those who were only looking to take advantage of you and those who have responsibilities they should not shirk you have a good fifteen people. You could have gotten even more, but you have other things you need to do, and you inform the crowd you will be taking no one else today.
After dismissing your new recruits to prepare to depart, you begin your search for teachers. At first you have no success. Few are those who are willing to leave their lives to teach a group of people. You meet with far more success when you stumble upon the idea of only asking them to teach your recruits, but otherwise continue their lives. There are more than a few people who are willing to take the time to teach some apprentices for money. The fact they live locally means you will not even need to feed or house them. You manage to secure the services of two of the candidates before returning home. On the way, you pick up five more recruits from Brynwich. Again you could have gotten more, but you are cautious about recruiting more than you can support.
There are more than a few teachers available. Every one of them seems to have a fascinating story of their own. The first one you pick up is a man named John 'the smith', to distinguish him from his friend John 'the carpenter'. You have need of blacksmiths to maintain the armour of your men and to hopefully make you new sets in future. Then you have the far more difficult task of who else to take. The Dalish elf with one eye who had offered to train your men in 'tactical espionage operations' was rejected after some thought on the matter. You have a distaste for guerrilla war in general, and you want soldiers not spies. The potter named Harry and the elf named Ara had both interested you for similar reasons, the chance to diversify the manner in which you make money. You end up instead accepting the offer of a knight named Sir Avon, the forest is still extremely dangerous after all.
"Yeah, send yer boys me way an' I'll see 'em shape up into proper smiths." John squeaked in his comically high voice.
You smile, not asking after what you assume is an old injury or medical condition. "Of course, They will have their lessons how often?"
"Have 'em come round ev'ry day. They can bring their work an' I'll walk 'em through the hows and the wherefores and whatnot." The blacksmith says.
"I see, how long do you expect these apprenticeships to last?" You inquire.
The large man shrugs. "'Bout five weeks to get 'em passable. Jus' the basics and how not to hurt themselves. Yew want more than that, three months mebbee."
You smile again. "Thank you, I will be sure to send them along."
With that matter finished you bid the blacksmith farewell and walk over to Sir Avon. The man is dressed in a surcoat with yellow ducks on in. His impressive moustache is in dire need of a good grooming, and his eyes are bloodshot in a way that suggests exhaustion or a fondness for drink.
You extend your thanks to him, in a manner that befits his station. "Thank you for offering to teach my warriors Ser Avon. Where should I send them to meet you?"
The knight waves his hand. "I'll meet them here. Save your thanks, I've got nothing better to do. Only so long you can sit in your house dreading the future. This'll get me out of the house and get the harpy off my back. What do you want them trained in? I recommend infantry myself; horses are expensive as hell, but it's your call."
You lead your new recruits back to Endataurëo and get them all situated in one of the large sleeping halls. At the rate you are recruiting new members you are going to have to start making use of the guard barracks. You divide them into two groups, one half to become blacksmiths and the others to become warriors. In this time, you make sure to explain their duties and how the base functions. You tell them about mealtimes and warn them about treating the serving staff with disrespect. In all, it is an efficient conversation, and you walk away with the loyalty of your new members as sure as it can ever be with humans.