The Crest of Death
Count Wymar of Nymeria
Count Wymar of Nymeria
Two-thousand Nymerian riders thundered down the Gold Road through the Kingdom of Atlas at dawn, pursuing a target that was of utmost importance. Count Wymar rode on with his men, his shaggy black hair swaying with the gallop his horse, and contemplated what the coming conflict would bring. The attack on the crossing had hampered their progress somewhat, but even that had not been enough to stop the Gardener force from crossing the River Blacktyde into High Rock and beginning to march on the citadel. Nevertheless, for all the damage the raid had caused, Cedric wasn't about to allow a potential threat to gather to the south. Mettius Clement was a threat, an old legion general back during Melkor's days. He had fought several successful battles in the War of the Black Phoenix, so leaving him to join with the Atlean army to the south wasn't an option. Wymar had a great deal of respect for Mettius, he had even gotten to met him when he was still just a young lad. He looked up to the Dark elf, a symbol of Imperial Legion, of the Imperial way, of how the Ashen Empire had so successfully brought people together for so many years. He had been conflicted with these thoughts when they first set out after him, but now as he rode with his men they sat in the back of his mind as all he could think of wife and his five-year-old son back home. Stay safe, Rufila had said the day he left, And stay alive. You won't see me running this County for elven-years. The corners of his mouth widened pleasantly as he thought back to her words.
"Thinking about the Countess, Wymar?" a voice asked beside him between the thundering gallops of the horsemen. It was his Court Mage, Toralt, that had spoken these words, and he approached the Count on his horse wearing the dark indigo robes of the College of Mysteries.
"Her," Wymar laughed heartily, "And littl' Ian. I still can't believe he's so big now! It's almost too much to handle!"
"I know the feeling, Wymar!" Toralt replied as the Regiment entered into a sparse patch of woods,
Wymar raised an eyebrow jovially, "You? Really? I've seen women avoiding you like the plague! Some brand new experiment to scare them away; Toralt the Boogieman! Toralt the Dread Worshiper!"
"Very funny, Count Wymar," Toralt rolled his eyes, "Last time I checked I wasn't the one bending over for old' Cedric there."
"He's my liege lord, Toralt; how many times do we have to go over this?"
"He brought an army to our doorstep in order to get our men! Liege lord my arse! Worse bloody joke since whoever decided it was a good idea to call Azeilian 'Great'."
"Better than to have Nymeria under siege, Toralt. All I want is to get this war over and done with before Midyear; Rufila's expecting then so I want to be there for her. I just hope we catch up to Mettius in time to make it back to High Rock."
"Well I guess we're in luck," Toralt said, "The crest approaches." the column of knights emerged from the forest, revealing before them a small castle just beyond a crest of hills. Masons Crest; they had arrived.
Lhoris Varian of the Wise Council
It was coming down even harder now; the rain just wasn't letting up. As Lhoris exited the Temple of the Divines he couldn't help but tremble. His trembling was not any result of the cold rain that fell onto the stone beneath his feet, however. He clenched his fists, furrowed his brow, and had a scowl across his face; Lhoris was trembling with anger.
"Unless," he growled silently, "Absolutely useless!" he said louder this time. He thanked the gods that most able to witness his outburst of rage had taken shelter from the rain; the only ones there were him and his guards, "I ask her for one thing, one, single thing. A matter whose urgency demands answers… But she says no? Why?!" he put his hand to his face, "WHY?! Why doesn't she understand?" Lhoris figured he was talking to Fergus, who was the member of his guard with which he was most acquainted with. In reality, however, he knew he was truly talking to himself. "I'm not going to go to that assassin for help. I didn't want to bring him into this but… I'm going to have to meet an old friend."
The pouring rain in the capital did the College of Mysteries a disservice; one could barely see it in the torrent. The students and scholars that had once walked to and fro from its many wards and towers had abandoned the courtyard for their dorms, seeking shelter from the rain. Lhoris would soon join them, but he was not looking for shelter nor a dorm. He made his way with his guard towards the central building of the college, the place known officially as the Arcaneum, and entered into it after speaking an old Eldyaar phrase known only to those of the College: Enter to find knowledge, Turn back to keep bliss. There were no truer words for Lhoris. As soon as he spoke the phase before a door of iron-hard grass and vines, the door began to open, allowing him and his guards to enter into the Arcaneum unobstructed and unhampered, presenting a library filled to the brim with magical tomes and books of all shapes, colors, and sizes. The amount of knowledge stored before his eyes was enough to make a scholar cry, but Lhoris was not here to read books. He was here to speak to the Archmage, Selywin Cadmus.
The high elf approached a woman seated in the reception desk of the Arcaneum. His robes, dripping wet from the rain, would have been cause for laughter if nobody within the school knew who he was. "Alyvia," Lhoris greeted the dark elf woman seated before him, "It has been far too long."
"Indeed it has, Master Lhoris. Am I mistaken to believe that you are here to rejoin the College magisters? We could use someone like you, especially in these times."
"Unfortunately," Lhoris sighed, "There is only one of me, and right now, my top priority is to keep this Empire together. Where's Selywin? Isn't he usually in the Arcaneum Library?"
"You mean Archmage Cadmus? Well, on any other day you'd be right, but right now he's performing some alchemy experiments in his quarters that can be quite... un... explosive."
"Same old' Cadmus," Lhoris chuckled, "Fergus, men, wait here for me. I have to go have a chat with an old friend of mine."
The archmage's quarters were located in a large spiral tower that stuck up into the sky from the main base of the Arcaneum. Due to its height, a considerable number of stairs led to the room at its top: the quarters of the Archmage. Lhoris had once lived there himself, back when he was still younger and optimistic about the future. Funny how things have changed for the worse... The spiral staircases and the stone walls eventually led Lhoris before his old room, his old quarters, where his life-long friend stood just feet behind the door. It seemed wrong to Lhoris; it seemed wrong to get him involved in all the messes he had gotten himself into. But he had no other choice. Taking a deep breath in preparation, Lhoris put his hand on the doorknob and turned to enter the Archmage's quarters.
It was a mess. 'Mess' was a nice way of putting it. Herbs, animal parts, and spices were scattered giving the room a peculiar stench, unlike anything he had ever smelled before. The Archmage's bed lay fallow with books and scrolls some open and others closed. Multiple dividers ran short distances across the room, obscuring certain areas of what should have been a largely expansive room. Lhoris glanced around to catch a sight of Cadmus, dismayed momentarily by the thought that he had left in the time he spent making his way up the tower, but a voice from behind one of the dividers immediately allayed his fears.
"Eltzia, is that you?" a clear, cheerful voice said, "I hope you brought Ara with you because daddy's got-" a tall high elf man peered his head from behind the divider, "L-Lhoris is that you?"
The councilor grinned, "The one and only,"
"Hold on just one moment!" Selywin went back behind the divider, then came the crashing and bashing noise of glass and ceramic breaking as Lhoris could understand as Cadmus worked quickly to put away whatever alchemical project he was working on, "Just one more second!" he yelled out, "Lhoris, you aren't going to believe what I have been working on lately!" CRASH! "Oh... dammit." Cadmus reappeared from behind the divider and made his way closer to Lhoris, "Councilor Lhoris Varian, it has been a quite some time. About a decade hasn't it?"
"Indeed it has, Selywin. Far too long, really." Selywin was a bit taller than Lhoris, but kinder of feature and thicker of chin and jaw. His black hair was nicely kept and short with a small piece of hair hanging over his head. Stubble grew on his face as opposed the full beard that Lhoris stoked. The councilor took a look around the haphazard room around them, "I'm surprised really. How do you even live in a place like this? Your bed is literally covered with tomes!"
"The answer is that I don't," Selywin winked as he pulled a locket from his robes revealing a magic image of a woman and young girl, "My wife Eltzia and my daughter Ara aren't they the cutest? We bought a house in the city where we'll be just a walk away from the Nymerian Gardens" He held the locket like his family was there in front of him. Hugging it with all the loving and tenderness of a father to his daughter and a husband to his wife,
"I couldn't stand working like this, especially with how the Emperor been working me to the bone lately..."
"Julek's always been a pain for you, hasn't he? You shouldn't have expected less seeing as he is the Emperor now."
"Yeah..." Lhoris' expression darkened, "I shouldn't have. Listen, Selywin, I wanted to meet you today to talk about something along those lines. Julek specifically."
"Sure, whatever you need, Lhoris," Cadmus pulled up a chair from among the dozen that lay upon the floor, "So what is it that you need to tell me? Some juicy gossip? A tragic affair? Come on Lhoris spill the details." Before the councilor even began to speak, he began to cast the same anti-evesdropping spell that he had used in the Temple of the Divines to make sure that nobody was listening in on their conversation. As he did so, Cadmus' took on a solemn expression and said, "So it's this kind of conversation is it. I'd expect nothing less from the former Grand Inquisitor of the Shadow Legion."
His spell complete, Lhoris picked up a chair from those still on the floor and sat his head down, There's no going back after this, "I think Julek may have something to do with the attack on the Ruby District."
"Lhoris that's a pretty serious accusation," Selywin stroked his chin, "I wouldn't know all the details, but I can see where you can draw the connections, along with the night Princess Asoka was killed. However... you wouldn't just come to this conclusion on your own, would you? While yes there are some things here that would definitely benefit Julek as it happened, it's hard for me to believe that you'd immediately connect these occurrences to Julek. Something must have happened. You talked to someone."
"Resourceful as always, Cadmus," Lhoris chuckled, "You're right, I did meet with someone. A masked woman, sly as a fox and dressed in black." Lhoris clenched his fists, "She held a knife to my daughter's throat."
"Masked woman, huh...?" Selywin pondered for a moment, "How can you be sure that this woman isn't the assassin that's been killing anti-Julek nobles over the past few weeks? She matches the description almost perfectly."
"I not," Lhoris admitted, "Which is why I came to you for help. She said something dark surrounds Julek, something she's never seen before. I bet my life that it has something to do with the attacks on the city, maybe even the attack on the Shadow Legion. I didn't want to get you involved in this, Cadmus but... you're the only one I know who has the skills to help me figure out how Julek fits into all of this. The best place to start, of course, would be his mother. She was always... rumored to be involved in Dread magic."
"Say no more, Lhoris," Selywin smiled, "You have my support."
"Listen, Cadmus, I don't want you to get pulled in too far to my problems. You have a family now and I don't want you-"
"Relax, Lhoris, we've been through worse. Don't tell me sitting in the Wise Council all day has made you soft, has it? Don't worry. I have you-"
A knock came at the door, "Daddy!" came a young girl's voice.
"Hold that thought," Cadmus smiled, "Come in!" the door to the chambers opened revealing a graceful woman with her young daughter at her side beaming with light and joy. "Daddy!" the girl yelled running forward and tackling her father. He pretended to fall over defeated and said, "Oh you got me!" in a melodramatic way. "Eltzia, he turned to his wife, I thought you weren't going to come until later."
"I'm sorry, but Ara wanted to see you so much; its hard to resist her when she makes her sad face,"
"Oh, Ara..." Selywin said in a singsongy way, "What did I tell you about making the pouty face towards your mother? Looks like I have to give you the tickle monster!"
As he began to tickle his daughter much to her delight Lhoris couldn't help but watch the scene with unease. He looked at the family with unmoving eyes. Had he done the right thing involving Selywin in his problems? Part of him seemed to say yes while another part of him seemed to scream no! What was this feeling that was building within him, this feeling of foreboding that would not leave him? Every time he saw another happy smile it only got worse. Lhoris prayed to the Divines to have mercy on them all because he Dreaded what would happen next.
