18.1 Your People

General Summary

Day 212

Inside Torrick’s keep we pass the rest of the rainy day discussing the Valley of Storms and the dwarven city where he comes from.   The founders of the Valley of Storms were dwarves who originally escaped the bondage of the dwarven people. Dwarves are not bound to the Empress; the three lower castes (Dretir, Amerri, Gondali) are bound to the Ventarri and the Ventarri are bound to the Empress. The Ventarri are the ones who wear collars and are uncomfortable without them, and their voice commands magical obedience from the lower castes. This bond is hereditary and the child of a bound and unbound dwarf will still be bound.   The Valley is largely accepting of low-caste refugees, which the Ventarri think is because the population is dwindling. I know from Lyssa that this isn’t true. The Valley only has a few remaining unbound dwarves who would not be subject to the commands of a Ventarri. If they were to fight a true, hot war against an army with even a single Ventarri present, they could simply be commanded to stand down with the exception of their few unbound dwarves.   The Ventarri and the dwarves of the Valley have been in a cold war for nearly 500 years. The Ventarri fear the magical engineers of the Valley and rumours of animated armour that will fight for the.   Torrick tells me he’s interested in an alliance between the Armed Nation and the Valley but it’s too far for him to travel. Someone who is not a king cannot just send an ambassador, he tells me. I respect his conviction but he’s wrong. He just needs an ambassador as capable as my Lady of Storms.   And then conversation turns to more local problems. The rumours I’ve heard of Warlord Krosht (purely in the last day or so, but still…) are impressive - enslaved dragons, an army of beasts, magical unbreakable binding...Torrick assures me that this is overblown.   Still though, the Armed Nation has been playing a strong defensive game, as they should. The walls are strong and Torrick has hired adventurers who will travel to their aid when the beacons are lit. Comparatively though, their offensive powers are weak. They have very few mages and what few they have are all elementalists.   We construct a small plan involving a raid to capture Krosht and try to evade whatever slaves he has around him (mostly ‘lesser’ races and beasts). Surprisingly though, Torrick has one of these enchanted collars for me to examine. He tells me it once collared a young fae who died from being kept from the Grove. As I hold the crude iron collar and examine it I can feel the Shard of the Empress stir, letting me read the rough Osyr runes. It’s not archaic or complicated...it’s sloppy. It’s incomplete, and it’s frustrating.   Just like the metal is roughly hinged and then welded shut, the magic present here is messy. It compels obedience to the person who closed the collar (not the person who made the magic - the person who physically placed the collar). There is no inscribed consequence for disobedience, but I imagine it wouldn’t be pleasant. I wonder how many died simply testing their bond. And the magic isn’t permanent. It’s like the metal simply absorbed some of the environmental magic of Afan, which guided it into usefulness in a way that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.   We could simply kill the person who placed the collar (Krosht), we could destroy the anvil it was made on, we could destroy the collars themselves...technically I could probably just unravel the enchantment itself. If I felt like taking out a red pen and grading a beginner’s work. Not that marking homework is unpleasant, nor that it’s bad to be a beginner...just...a cruel beginner who doesn’t even care enough to try beyond getting the marks.   Torrick seems sort of amused at my muttering over this crude piece of cruel magic.   We close out our visit with a simple plan: Torrick and Puddle (a troll friend of his who knows the land) will travel with us to Afan. Torrick, Puddle, Alder, Bran, Kadia, and I will form a small team to enter Krosht’s fortress and put him to sleep. If we can, we’ll also destroy whatever anvil we find in there. Using the pearl on the collar showed me only the young spring fae perishing, and not the circumstances of its creation.   With the rest of the day Bran and I create two charm necklaces that we can use to put the wearer to sleep. One for Krosht and one for whoever else we meet who needs to be killed-but-at-a-later-date or just...peacefully transported.  

Day 214

A few days after our first meeting, Spindle does indeed throw a party for all the elves in the city. And his gift to me is that he doesn’t tell anyone at all who I am. The food, music, and atmosphere is entirely elvish and I watch our people smiling, dancing, and laughing together. I reach for the Shard within me so that this Empress can see her people like this.   My human family is in attendance, and my Osyr family as well. Over the last few days Kadia has been more present as she and Hella are finding a better balance for themselves (though Kadia’s elvish is...a little antiquated). Bran, of course, is charming and well-liked amongst the elvese. There is a bubble of space around Rina and I make a point of bringing her into my circle. She tells me that some people have called her a pretender so she’s not sure how to interact. Bran, bless his heart, wanders over to a group of young elves and returns with Ethir, a man in his late 100’s, early 200’s.   As we make some forcible conversation he mentions that he’s a water and air wizard but has never really got a handle on earth and fire. He and Rina chat for a bit about the strategy of elemental magic and it seems to be going well until she suggests casting in a circle with him the way she used to with her mother. Bran and I somewhat skillfully convince Ethir and Rina to try casting together with only a little bit of the Empress’ ice creeping into my voice. I accompany them, idly playing the part of a tipsy and curious old wizard. Might be fun practice for my eventual retirement, where I will inevitably be eccentric and overly invested in my students’ experiments.   I make myself comfortable while they join forces and Rina puts up a protective earth dome for them. The casting goes fine and I leave them eagerly discussing incantations and magical strategy together. Ethir apologizes for not having respected Rina’s connection to elvish magic and how she, too, has lost elvish family.