Sunder: Part 5

Keran left only four men behind to guard the entrance to the court house. Two of those remained inside. The others returned to their duties. When Trinius felt confident they weren’t paying too much attention to him he hastily ran his hands along his hips, trying to find the dagger. To his surprise he found it right where he’d left it: on his hip, though covered by his shirt. How could the guard have missed it? Felana gave him a questioning look. No doubt she’d been worrying that he’d lost the dagger as well. Trinius gave her a quick, reassuring nod. Felana mimicked a sigh of relief while giving him a look that told him he'd been in a lot of trouble if he had no longer had the dagger.

Trinius relaxed, somewhat. He was initially worried the Keepers were going to try and find a way to break out of the courtroom sooner, but luckily neither of them made a move. The two guards were caught up in their own conversation, meaning that maybe now, finally, Trinius had the opportunity to ask the Keepers a few things.

Trinius leaned closer to Felana. “Now can I ask you what happened to Mishaado?” he asked, anticipating another smack in the ribs.

“Yes… Something strange happened to her,” Felana said. “Shortly after we’d entered the city, she said she was feeling nauseous. A while later, she’d lost her sight.”

“It wasn’t because of what she did in the forest, is it?” Trinius asked, remembering how Mishaado had removed the Setani corruption from two creatures, and how it had affected her.

“We don’t think so. She didn’t show any signs of corruption,” Felana said.

Trinius breathed a sigh of relief. He was very curious about Mishaado’s strange nature, and he’d hate for something to happen to her. If she died, he'd never find out what she even was, where she had come from, or how her strange powers worked.

“So did you find out what was wrong with her?” he asked.

“We could only guess, but we thought it might have been because she’d never been to a city before, so we took her to the park, hoping she’d feel more at home there,” Wolf explained.

“Did it work?” Trinius asked.

“There wasn’t enough time to find out, we had to move,” Felana said.

“So you just… left her there?” Trinius asked, looking in between them.

Felana nodded. “Yes,” she sighed. “She was okay with it. Still, I didn’t intend to leave her on her own for such a long time. We should probably go check on her as soon as possible. No doubt she’s already wondering where we are, or worse, thinking we ditched her.”

“None of us could have expected we'd find Alana this quickly, Felana, don’t beat yourself up over it,” Wolf said.

Felana folded her hands in her lap. “That’s right, I suppose we have other things to worry about. We had a stroke of good luck just now, because this could have turned out far worse, but you can probably tell I’m not feeling too enthusiastic about giving Alana a week’s head start.”

So we are still going to hunt her down, Trinius thought. He’d hoped that maybe the Keepers would give up their hunt for now and take him to their stronghold to separate his bond to the Everdawn dagger instead. He now realized that had been far too optimistic, even by his standards. As far as he understood, the Keepers couldn’t allow Alana to run amok for too long, or they would risk her growing too powerful.

“Well, the trial went better than expected, so maybe tracking down Alana will too,” Trinius said with forced cheer, hoping it would lighten the mood. He imagined losing track of her prey made Felana feel similar to how he had felt when the stag he’d been hunting for weeks had escaped right from under his nose. For her it was probably a hundred times worse, though. Trinius had no personal score to settle with the stag, and as far as he knew it hadn’t killed any of his friends, either.

“I somehow don’t think we’re going to get this lucky again, Trinius,” Felana said.

“It wasn’t just luck,” Wolf said quietly. “Having an inside man certainly helped as well."

Trinius wondered what Wolf meant. Then it dawned on him. Brandon! Trinius thought. Of course. How could he have been so thick? The young guard he’d met at the gate had also been present at the trial. He was doubtless the same Brandon Trinius had been told to find. It all made sense now. Everything Brandon had said during the trial had supported their case. Trinius hadn’t expected the spy to be a member of the city guard though, and that he was raised a buttload of other questions, but he figured those would have to wait until they got out of the court house. Even though the guards weren’t really paying attention to them, discussing the special role one of them had played during the trial still didn’t seem like the best idea. His gaze drifted along the room, taking in the serene atmosphere of the court house.

“You’re probably going to think I’m crazy for saying this, but… I think something in this place also worked to our favour. I can’t really put my finger on why I feel this way, but there’s something about it,” Trinius said.

“You may be right,” Wolf said, somewhat surprisingly. “The captain’s resistance to Alana’s influence was remarkable, perhaps too much so to be mere coincidence… Though I maintain that Alana was most likely exhausted from wasting too much energy already throughout the day. That must have been the main reason.”

“It is a rather peculiar place,” Felana said, looking at the ceiling. “The only one of its kind, as far as I know at least. I’ve not seen this kind of architecture anywhere on my travels.”

“… and I take it you’ve been to many different places, considering the kind of… work you do?” Trinius asked.

“Not as many as you might think,” Felana said.

“Those Keepers who belong to the hunters are split into small units and appointed to certain areas," Wolf explained. "This way we try to cover as much ground as possible, and make sure our units become familiar with their hunting grounds. Our unit was assigned to the triangle between the Everwood, Denneg and Direkeep.”

“So how many Keeper units are assigned to this particular ‘triangle’?” Trinius asked. He wondered if they could call in help from other Keepers.

“Just us,” Wolf said.

“Oh,” Trinius said, disappointed, but not entirely surprised.

“We have one group of hunters assigned to every major region, which tends to be enough to deal with local problems, but it also means these regions don't have anyone to spare... and pulling a unit out of a region could do more damage than good. We have people in reserve at Highcrest, but since it's so far north, calling in help is a slow process. Keepers aren't expected to call for reinforcements at the slightest setback."

Trinius raised his eyebrows. "This is a slight setback? One of your companions, um, died, you know."

Wolf nodded. "I grieve for Hegan, but that is an emotional judgment. Despite the severity of our current situation, this would not yet be considered a crisis. Regardless, I really think we should be recruiting more people. Sadly, many think expanding our numbers is risky, as recruiting people means exposing them to our secrets, and may draw attention from others as well,” Wolf said.

“Nice going, Wolf, telling him all that. Why don’t you give him a map that shows him how to get to Highcrest too, while you’re at it?” Felana said irritably.

“It can’t hurt for him to know. Besides…”

A sharp look from Felana cut Wolf off.

“Besides, what?” Trinius asked, once again getting the feeling they were keeping something from him.

“Look, we should really be focusing on our plan here,” Felana said, ignoring Trinius’ question. “You want us to break your connection to the dagger so you can go your own way again, right? The sooner we kill Alana, the sooner we can go about that, which means that the sooner we have a plan...”

“… the sooner we no longer have to suffer each other’s company. Right,” Trinius said, not making much effort to hide his disappointment at how little trust she put in him. The way he reacted was surprising even to Trinius himself, considering a minute ago he’d wished for nothing more than to be rid of this nonsense, just as much as Felana seemed to want to get rid of him. When it came from her, however, it was somehow more difficult to accept.

Wolf didn’t hide his displeasure with Felana’s attitude, but he restricted himself to giving her a chiding look.

“Brandon is probably keeping an eye on Alana as we speak,” Wolf said. “He won’t be able to follow her out of the city though. We should meet with him at the Three Swords Inn as soon as we get out of here and find out what he’s learned. Then we can coordinate and come up with a plan.”

“We need to pick up Mishaado, then we need to meet up with Brandon, we also need to figure out where Alana’s headed, we need weapons and mounts and we need a plan to get out of this city…” Felana reiterated, her eyes widening as if she wondered how they were going to pull this off in time to give chase.

“… and we need to make sure the creepy merchant lord doesn’t get us in the meantime,” Trinius added.

“I’ll avoid any dark alleys,” Felana said, raising her hands sarcastically.

“Trinius, you said this building seemed familiar to you. Have you ever seen anything like it?” Wolf suddenly asked.

“No,” Trinius admitted, “and I’ve been pretty much all over this side of the continent. Mind you, most cities tend to keep dark elves away from the ‘better’ or ‘more civilized’ areas, so it’s possible this isn’t the only one of its kind, and that I just haven’t seen the others.”

“Your people were once the most dominant race in the world... How do you go from that to being so despised?” Felana wondered out loud, shaking her head a little.

“I'm sure a lot of humans could give you some very colourful answers to that question,” Trinius said.

“I’m a bit out of the loop these days,” Felana explained. “When you spend all of your time hunting Setani, you don’t stop to chat with the locals all too often. Besides, I don’t think I’m too interested in hearing their opinions. I’d rather hear it from you.”

Trinius smiled despite the uncomfortable nature of the topic.

“Would you believe I've been looking for an answer to that for years, and that it's what made me become an adventurer in the first place?”

“No,” Felana said flatly. "You don't seem to me like the type that would spend a lot of time buried in books."

“Well in that case, I couldn’t possibly know anything, could I? And perhaps you should look for an answer yourself,” Trinius said coyly. “I thought you two were supposed to be the experts on ancient lore here.”

“Only where it concerns Setani,” Felana said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Besides, our library stretches back thousands of years. We might have something on dark elves tucked away somewhere, but you can’t expect every Keeper to have the entire library memorized. We have specialists for that kind of work.”

“A library that stretches back thousands of years?” Trinius said. “You know, if it'd allow me to take a peek at that library, I might actually be a little bit more enthusiastic about working with you.”

“You’re a scholar?” Wolf asked.

“Ha! Do I look like one?” Trinius smiled, blushing a little. “No, but I’m interested in learning more about the past, especially where it concerns my people.”

Felana frowned. “What is there to know? You controlled the empire of old, well, mostly, and when the empire came crashing down your reign ended, and you haven’t recovered since.”

“Who is this 'you' you keep mentioning? Me? I didn't live through any of that... I'm sure I would've remembered if I did,” Trinius said. He seemed to have lost Felana with that remark, so he quickly clarified: “I may be a dark elf, but I don’t equate myself to the dark elves of ages past.”

“An interesting attitude, considering the dark elves’ reverence for their ancestors,” Wolf remarked.

“Oh, I respect the ancestors, but I don’t try to be them. I'm not responsible for anything they did, and what happened to them didn't happen to me. In fact, I believe it’s that kind of thinking that causes distrust between different races. Many don't even dare to discuss history with someone of another race because they feel compelled to pick a side. It'd be much better if we simply realized no one alive today had a hand in what happened in the past.”

Felana weighed his words. “I see your point,” she finally said. “I’m sorry. I should have picked my words more carefully.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Trinius said. He didn't want to appear too touchy, because he didn’t want to scare Felana and Wolf into avoiding the subject of his people’s past altogether either. “You weren’t wrong, after all. The past is the past. Even if it is painful, there’s no point in denying what happened.”

He looked at Wolf. “You were right, too. The dark elves revere their ancestors, but if you ask me, perhaps they’ve been looking at the past a little bit too much, when they should be looking at the future.”

“But that’s exactly what you are doing. You’re looking to find out more about the past,” Wolf said, not in a demeaning way, but in a way that suggested he was genuinely doing his best to try and understand Trinius’ motivations.

“Guilty as charged,” Trinius smiled. “The thing is, however, many dark elves like to look back and think about the glory days as if they’re a distant memory that they once experienced themselves, when none of them did… They also have a bad tendency of avoiding the parts of the past they don’t like. No one ever seems to wonder why everything changed so suddenly. No one wants to point at where it all went wrong.”

“Some of the dark elves I’ve met seemed more than eager to point at my people, or humans as the guilty party… often using long, sharp objects,” Felana said.

“I can’t deny that,” Trinius admitted with a sigh, all too aware that many of his people had become dangerous rogues. “It’s clear from the way you said it you’re not too convinced by that argument yourself, though. The dark elves ruled supreme. How did the inferior elves and humans – no offense - suddenly gain the upper hand? Clearly the dark elves must have played some kind of role in their own downfall. But what, exactly? That’s what I’ve been trying to find out.”

“Remarkable,” Wolf said. “Yours is a noble quest, Trinius. It takes courage to admit something like that about your own people, and even more courage to look for the truth even though you know it will likely be painful.”

“I do fear it'll be something that will make the ancestors look really stupid, can't argue with that,” Trinius said, smiling wryly.

“But you are doing this for their sake? To help your people, I mean?” Felana asked with a look that made Trinius feel like she suspected he was a dark elf supremacist who wanted to return ‘his’ people to power.

“Nothing quite that noble, I’m afraid,” he said. “Everyone has to find their own way, and I prefer mine to lead forward. Whatever the dark elves may have lost, we still have long lifespans, and I didn’t want to spend all of that time reminiscing about the past while the present was going to the void all around me,” Trinius said, shaking his head. “I’ve seen many of my kinsmen who had done nothing else but look back for centuries, getting caught up in a past they never even experienced… and I can tell you, it wasn’t pretty.”

“I may have killed some of those guys who were stuck in the past, or should I say, trying to bring it back? That wasn’t too pretty, either,” Felana said.

Trinius wasn’t sure if she was trying to provoke him. “Don’t think I have any sympathy for those dark elves who have become murderous bandits, Felana. In fact, I despise them for confirming the prejudices people such as the humans of this city have.”

Felana smiled, but only slightly. “You know Trinius, there might actually be more to you than I thought. I took you for just another nobody, but you have strong convictions, and that’s the first and foremost thing anyone needs to achieve something in this world. If you survive you’re more than welcome to go digging through our library at Highcrest as far as I’m concerned. She seemed to hesitate, but then added: "Highcrest is the castle where most of the Keepers reside. You've probably never heard of it... At least, I hope so. We never mention its existence to outsiders..." she said, rolling her eyes when she realized she had in fact been telling an outsider about the Keeper castle right when she was saying she shouldn't. "Um, not usually, anyway. Either way, it's not like it would matter much if you went out looking for it on your own. Powerful spells hide the castle from anyone who isn't a Keeper."

"I'd figured as much," Trinius said with a clever wink. "I suppose a giant-ass castle would be difficult to miss otherwise."

"I prefer ‘field work’ to studying manuscripts, myself, but I can see your interest is genuine,” she grinned.

“Thanks… I think,” Trinius said. Though her smile looked more like a bloodthirsty grin when she mentioned ‘field work’, it was good to see at least some form of joy on the elf’s face for once.

“Just don’t let it get to your head,” Felana said.

“Trinius, I’m interested in hearing about what facts about your people's past you've already dug up,” Wolf inquired.

And now for the embarrassing part, Trinius thought. His passionate explanation on why he’d become an adventurer had clearly impressed Wolf and surprisingly even Felana, but now that they knew what he was all about he unfortunately didn’t really have much to show for it.

“Not much, I’m afraid,” he sighed. “It’s one thing to envision yourself raiding old tombs, going to libraries and meeting sages, but actually doing it is another. I left home with little more than the clothes on my back and a few weapons, so most of the time I’ve been more concerned with finding food and shelter and, you know, not dying, than actually pursuing my quest.”

“Where do you come from?” Wolf asked.

“Rivis, I left there about ten years ago,” Trinius said. At least the ancient city of Rivis was far enough from Denneg so it didn’t seem to the Keepers like he’d been loitering around the same area without making any progress. That he’d been able to make that difficult journey on his own would certainly earn him some respect from them, even though they may have expected more from his studies.

“Rivis. Of course,” Felana, who was no doubt aware it'd been the dark elves' main seat of power in the time of the old empire, said knowingly. “But you said you didn’t have any money? Was it that bad?”

“We didn’t have much, but we got by. I can’t really complain. My father was a blacksmith, so at least I had some quality weapons to take with me. The last time I was in Denneg I sold my family sword, though. Looking back I kind of wish I hadn’t done that now… I especially regret it when there’s angry elves with longswords coming at me,” he said, looking at Felana.

“I assure you, that sword would have done you little good against me,” Felana said, stifling a laugh.

“Does your family still live in Rivis?” Wolf asked.

“My father died shortly before I left, but my mother should still be alive. I also have a younger brother and a little sister, Akini,” Trinius said, smiling as he pictured her little face staring up at him as he hugged her. Would they even recognize each other if they met now? He doubted it. She would've gone from being just a child to becoming a youth in the period he'd been gone. Trinius didn’t want to discuss his family any further, so he changed the topic.

“Don’t get me wrong, I have occasionally gotten my hands on valuable artifacts or books about the dark elves’ past and downfall, but it’s so difficult to find relevant information! It’s almost as if someone came and erased all the clues about what really happened…” he said.

Silence lingered in between him and the Keepers for a short while. Then it suddenly dawned on him he’d sounded like he was accusing the Keepers, whose job description pretty much read 'the hoarding or destroying of ancient knowledge, with the occasional killing thrown in between.'

“You don’t have look at us like that, Trinius,” Felana said. “The Keepers fight Setani, not dark elves. Besides, this all happened so long ago none of the current Keepers could have had anything to do with it.”

“I know, I know, I wasn’t trying to accuse you of anything. It’s just a strange coincidence, that’s all. By the way, there is one thing I’ve found out about my people that I’d like to share with you, if you’re interested,” Trinius said. He’d always been hesitant about sharing his findings with others, but after everything the Keepers had told him, they could hardly call him crazy for presenting one of his theories.

“Oh? Let’s hear it,” Felana said.

“The reverence of the ancestors isn’t simply a random cultural or religious thing. I believe it was actually very relevant to the way the dark elves were able to gain and maintain their power. You see, there’s some very good reasons to believe that- now what?”

The doors had suddenly swung open, and a mass of people was pushing their way into the court house. Whatever had caused this gathering, it seemed to have attracted even more people than the case against Lord Falkner had. Dozens of people were entering and hurrying to get a place on the comfy chairs on the left side of the room. One of the guards Keran had posted by the door approached them hurriedly.

“The next trial is starting, time to leave!” he said.