Chapter 15: Reasons and Consequences

Ghost. I demand you answer me! I need you, I need to know you are still with me. Why won't you speak to me, you stand before me and say nothing! You only ever have that sad look on your face now. Please, just talk to me again.

Year of Wrath 1232, Season of life D.2

   Ilgor swirled the drink in her hand, as her eyes absently wandered the various correspondence littering the desk. Something that I would have taken offense to, despite the fact that Ilgor needed to know much of what was on that desk eventually. I knew she didn't like that I was keeping quite a bit from her, on edge from having to deal with humanity with her increased sensitivity to sound. An effect from the training I was giving her, though not something I was going to tell her at the moment. 

   Since the Skirmish, Odeza and I had been putting plans together to raise her people to a greater height; she had already been taking the knowledge I was giving her and teaching her own pseudo-sisterhood of priestesses. Having been thoroughly done with the one Priestess mentality, her faith recommended, as she put it. She saw no need to burden her shoulders alone with those tasks; her own priestesses were skilled herbalists and medics, which lifted quite a work load for her as it were. 

   Now that she was teaching them the basics of healing magic, they were becoming far more skilled in their own right, their own voices awakening to a higher degree. I set the glass down as Ilgor's eyes shot up at me in the uncomfortable silence. Seems we would need to show her that she could still trust us. Alnya only cared at the moment that Vilorlith was attached to her. But I had grown to like the girl. 

   Daring, ambitious, clever, and a song that was a damn measure stronger than my own, she only needed a good teacher. She opened her mouth to speak, and I rolled my eyes at the wrong time as I felt Odeza tense up. Ilgor wasn't hiding her voice. "Who is this Queen? What is your actual loyalty to her, and why does it seem that she has an interest in us goblins through you? I am not naive enough to think that the Dwarves would willingly make things hot for the sake of us." 

   She also noticed Odeza tense up, but she didn't seem to care at the moment. The look on her face just screamed that she wanted this to be over with so she could return to the village sooner. I took a deep breath as I silenced the room with a far more powerful spell, as if I was preparing to Branch Walk to the Elsewhere. "Let us start somewhere that isn't an existential risk to us all," I said. 

"We are part of a group that does not exist on the branches of the Great Tree. Though this guild, the Wayfares, are an extension of this group. The God's Eye's are a fitting title for what we actually do. I am not one of the God's Eye's, as I am not from the place that Odeza calls home." I began, expecting the next question. 

   "The guild functions as some kind of observation center, or are you all scouts?" Illy asked, some interest in the conversation sparking in her eyes. 

   "Odeza, would you please tell her your official title?" I asked her, knowing Illy would point that out again. 

   "I am Odeza, Scout: Realm." She said dutifully.

   "Scout: Realm. Well, that answers one question, though that terminology would suggest that you are part of a military operation." She questioned. 

   Odeza looked over to me, and I nodded, making it obvious for Ilgor. "I am one of the vanguard soldiers for the Legion of Syn. Our objective in the Shattered Lands is to bring as much information back to... home. Our enemies are ever present, far more developed and ready to engage us than we had reason to believe until recently." 

   That was a good call on Odeza's part. Leave out as much as possible while wetting Ilgor's curiosity and soothing her annoyance at being kept in the dark. Looking at Odeza, I knew her pride as one of Syn's children would be making her skin itch at having to obey me while on the Branches, a fact that wouldn't be true back on the Cathedral. 

   Ilgor was quiet for a few minutes as she watched the two, peeling them apart as she watched Odeza's discomfort. "What does the guild actually do?" She asked finally.

   Well, she can't know too much, yet. With a look that told Odeza to keep her mouth shut, much of what this was, that stubborn pride of her race would make her want to correct me. "The Guild offers many services. We established the Portal Nexus' and enabled the mass transit systems between all the nations inside the Federation." 

   "Reactivated." Odeza corrected, I closed my eyes as Illy sat up a little straighter at that. Taking a deep breath, with a soft sound, I sent a jolt of magic at her. Feeling her flinch as if she had been struck on the back of the head with a slap. 

Opening my eyes again, Illy was looking at me, though no questions left her lips. "We seek knowledge across the world to further the Guild's understanding of how the world is structured. You see, this world, the world you see and know, isn't the only reality. Millions of parallel realities swirl in conjunction with our own, like many flowing streams breaking apart and coming back together. Moments in time, you could consider, to be like leaves on that water." 

   "Shards, broken shards." Odeza corrected again.

   Turning to look up at the insubordinate little brat, I turned my own question to her. "Do we need to have a separate discussion?" This damned Faerie was going to tell her too much; her species pride would damage the mission, and for what?

   "Alright," Illy's much stronger voice washed over both of us, snapping my attention to her involuntarily. I was always in awe of the sheer might of it, but right now, it acted somewhat differently to Odeza. Feeling her spark grow brighter as Illy's song was going to force it to tell no lies. Quickly humming a song to undo that hymn, hoping she wouldn't notice. "Clearly you, Odeza, are a high enough rank in whatever this Legion of Syn is, to be comfortable correcting him like that, despite looking to him for permission to speak."

Odeza stood up, her pride being challenged. But Illy's voice forced her to sit back down as she rolled over her protests. "Gjorn said as much. I do not believe that you are just a soldier. You said, Vanguard Soldier as if it held a different type of weight. So, even back home, you hold a higher or equal rank to Gjorn. Odd." 

   I started to laugh at Illy's level of observation; she really had hit the nail on the head. "Well, I'm glad you are focusing on that," I told her as the mirth seeped from me. Looking back at the Faerie, her face told both of us more than she was saying. Having gone pale, a worried look in her eyes, with how wide they were. 

   "Odeza, how much do you know about the Children of the Great Mother?" My mouth didn't vanish from the curse, which told Odeza right there that all of us in the room knew that amount of information. 

   She turned to me as I watched the memories flash through her head. Her thoughts were plain as day to me, at least. Seeing the light go off in her eyes. Knowing that she had never seen a Brownie in person, the genuine article, not what they are now today. She flicked her eyes back to Ilgor, giving her a much more in-depth look now. 

   She noted all the similarities; I could see it on her face. "I should have paid more attention during my training. She really does look like..." And with that, Odeza's mouth vanished. She just tried to speak of something that Illy didn't know about yet, the curse afflicting her until she let go of that train of thought.

"My apologies, Governor Ilgor. Yes, I am your friend. There is much that we cannot speak of, here in particular. Though I hope you can understand that we truly only mean to assist you," She emphasized her words a bit more than I would have liked, "and the Family."

***

   There was that shift in attitude again; this woman was baffling. I just couldn't get a read on her, letting that mask fall away too much, letting me see the face behind the actor. Odeza's next question had me wondering about far more. "Majestet Gjorn has told you that his magic was a gift from someone, yes? You and he share a power that is," She paused for a moment, as if she were looking for the right word. "Rare, mythically so, back home." 

   "He's mentioned something of the sort, though he has been very shifty about what that means." Bringing the glass up to my lips again, feeling just a bit more comfortable after this odd exchange. They were telling me what I wanted to hear, but that was the problem; it was what I wanted to hear, not the whole truth. 

   "Do you really have a set of three vocal cords?" She asked plainly.

   "How did you know that? The only other person who should know that is Gjorn." I spat, glaring at Gjorn, the Caster only looked in any direction except me. 

   "You simply are very similar to something else that we know about," Odeza answered without a hint of dishonesty. Shrugging, as she didn't even bother to look to Gjorn for approval. Seemed that since I called the two on it, Odeza felt more at ease speaking more freely. 

   "And just what the fuck is that? I'm getting tired of this run around. This is getting old." Hearing the annoyance in my own voice. I just wanted to be done with all these secrets; I was already dealing with too much. I had too many things to think about now that the Dwarves showed up and decided to hand me a proverbial crown. I had my own people to think about, how I would navigate this human nonsense. 

   I wondered how the rest of the village was faring; surely, in the turmoil of my proclamation, something would have happened that they needed me for. It had been hours since the council, and now these two were playing keep away from me.

   "We cannot answer that," Odeza said, a worried look crossing her face.

   Making them uncomfortable by staring at them, feeling a fire in my eyes. "Who do you actually work for?" I wanted to see if they would stay consistent. At least if I could catch them in a lie, I'd have more credence to distrust them. 

   "The Queen." They both answered at once.

   "Who is that?" I asked, only growing more annoyed at the vagueness of that comment.

   "We cannot answer that." Both said again, eyeing each other.

   "Why do you need to seek Gjorn's permission to speak, but now you don't seem to care?" I probed, trying to find something to pick apart.

   "I do not need his permission for anything." Odeza steamed, crossing her arms with indignation. "It simply stands this way for the sake of the objective." 

   "Which is me," I said, taking a gamble that this hot-head would let something slip.

   "Not exactly." She said, but with a horrified look from Gjorn. It told me enough that they had some kind of motive that wasn't me, but was tied to me in some way. 

   "Oh? In what way is that exactly? It surely isn't my charming voice." I said, pouring on a certain layer of intent to my voice that made the woman blush, the effect of my magic amplifying enough that even Gjorn snapped his attention to me. "So why don't you tell me what you're hiding from me?" 

   While it wasn't a trick that I thought would work, tipping my voice in opposite directions, putting my other voices to good use as they sang songs that affected their minds. Trying to copy the low humming the Gjorn had done inside the village that made people forget we were right in front of them. It was worth a shot; at worst, I'd get a scolding from Gjorn, at best, I'd slake my curiosity. 

   But, to my surprise, the words that fell out of Odeza's mouth were something that I had heard far too many times. "There are some things in this world that shouldn't be talked about." Gjorn eyed her with an approving look. Though I heard an odd chiming sound surrounding her that I was sure she wasn't producing. 

   I stared at them both for a long while, watching as Gjorn was immovable as a stone, Odeza fidgeted constantly, though even to me it wasn't a nervous habit. It seemed more like she didn't enjoy the position she was in, like something she was wearing was pinching badly. Thinking back to the various conversations I've had with the man these last few weeks, that phrase wasn't a coincidence. 

   I tried my luck, repeating a phrase back to them from a source that might just get a reaction from them. Silencing my songs, speaking with only my own voice. "Like someone you have always known, yet have never met." 

That got my intended effect as they both looked at my square in the eyes with recognition. "So they had both heard that before, huh." I thought to myself while I smiled. 

"I heard that phrase only two times in my life, once while I was in the middle of my nightmares during my ceremony into the sisterhood, and by a certain individual during the Skirmish." A gut feeling made me speak again, "Is that source part of your mission?" 

   Odeza spoke again, slightly breathlessly, "Let's bring this back to why I wanted to speak with you in private. Your magic, how did you silence my song?" She appeared to be trying to compose herself, like she wanted nothing to do with the previous question.

    I didn't need to be told that trying to continue down that path would do nothing; the look on Gjorn's face told me that much. He, apparently, didn't appreciate my attempt to copy his odd magic that fuddled with the mind. I knew it took effect, but something wasn't taking effect the way I wanted it to. 

   Maybe with a bit more practice, I could figure out how to tune the notes to catch and force instead of suggest. Still, Gjorn was teaching me these things, so it would make sense that he would immediately pick up on that attempt and put a hand over the sheet music I was writing. Odeza, on the other hand, seemed like she wasn't used to this. Well, not to the same degree that Gjorn was. 

   "I would need to hear it again. I hated the silence so much that I did that on instinct." I told her, curious about how this would go. 

   Her song filled the room with that sickening silence again. The notes were quiet, not silent, as I had first thought. The effect eating the music as quickly as she made it, like a snake eating its own tail. Closing my eyes, I leaned back and lifted open my ears to hear it better. 

   Without all the other voices distracting me, it was so much easier to endure that nausea inducing noise. That was it, it wasn't silence, it was negation. What notes was she using? Cocking my head to one side, then to the other, hearing how it left her. Listening even closer, expanding out my awareness as if I were a raider again, I could faintly hear the voices throughout the tower, the voices walking the courtyard. 

   But, bringing myself back to the room, it wasn't that. It wasn't blocking sound from entering; it was stopping sound from leaving. Making an odd sphere that drowned out the ambient noise of the world. It reminded me of what the Sorcerer had done on more than one occasion. Thinking back to it, I didn't even remember him singing any of the magic he used. Ever. 

   Using all three voices, I started trying to match the notes as I did in the council earlier. There wasn't a beat, there wasn't a rhythm, there wasn't any structure to it, the more I listened. I synchronized my voice to hers, harmonizing with it. It sounded wrong from what I remembered the Sorcerer doing. I couldn't remember the notes he used, if he did at all. 

   Reaching out with my voice, I took that song she sang and listened to it more deeply. Resting into that meditative state, we did when we wanted to clear our minds. I realized what I had done when I broke her spell the first time. 

   Flipping each note around, an octave opposite to hers. Not yet singing it, with my other two vocal cords, I sang those opposite songs. There was a loud snap, the same kind that had happened during the council. Opening my eyes again, I saw that she was still staring intently at me. Her song had not been interrupted. 

   I sang her own song back to her, note for note. Perfectly. Her eyes went wide, smiling at that, I sang it louder than hers until the sickening feeling was starting to show on her face now. 

   Flipping the notes around, with an opposite tune. I sang it again, with all my voices this time, her song instantly shattering as she was flung back a ways as if struck by some force. Something strange happened. 

   A flash of color around her, something covering her face, an innumerable series of wards sparking to life around her. Something like glasses covering her face, and wings?

***

   Nearly every single sensor went off in Odeza's rebreather, several distress signals being sent back to the Elsewhere as almost all the layers of the thing's defenses had been compromised. As if she were struck by one of the Shadows themselves, a feat that had so few surviving records of. 

   She hadn't thought that would happen as she skidded to a halt on the floor. Keeping just enough of her composure to reapply the illusion to herself, though she did let it slip for a moment. The force of the blow was so much more powerful than what Ilgor had done before; the previous time she did it was like a flick on the cheek compared to this sucker punch. 

   She had only ever learned Alnya's song; that was the only magic she knew. The magic that the Wayfares used. Ilgor had just used something she had never heard before, something with far more weight. Alnya and nearly all of Odeza's instructors had told her that their magic was a pale comparison to the songs that used to be sung. Now, she understood the meaning behind that. 

   She stared at Ilgor, she had raw talent as she had never seen before, experienced before. It wasn't even like enduring Alnya's might as her initiation trial at the end of her training; this was an entirely different song. Ilgor was predominantly untrained, had yet to reach the level of control that Odeza or Gjorn had. And yet, she had nearly destroyed the protections meant to withstand the full might of the Shadows. 

   Gjorn turned to look at Ilgor next, as Odeza's visor filled with warning lights. Warnings of Shadows, Miasma, and alerts from the Core requesting status. Red flags that needed putting down, distress beacons that needed to be withdrawn. Gjorn saw Ilgor in a new light, one that finally acknowledged that her voice was not exactly the same as his.

   It rang with the discordant energy of the Shadows, yet it also flowed with the rhythm of the Quartet. A new mix, a new energy. Odeza looked through the illusion cloaking herself, seeing nearly every runic structure glowing with an intense light as it began sapping her own Spark to fuel the protections instead of the onboard stores of it. A quick check saw that those batteries were dead. 

   "Neither dusk nor dawn," Odeza said quietly. Stunned into speechlessness.

   "I'm sorry, I didn't think that it would do that. I never knew that collapsing magic like that would react so violently," llgor said, jumping off the chair to walk up to Odeza. "Are you injured?"

   Odeza backed away from her slowly, "Neither day nor night." She said as some amount of worry slipped into her voice. 

   "Odeza, are you alright?" Gjorn asked, joining Ilgor. His face was just as concerned, reaching a hand out to the God's Eye's. "You should let Illy heal you if you are hurt; she really is quite the healer." 

   "Don't touch me with that magic again. It's foul," She knew she had spoken wrong as Gjorn clenched his teeth, and Ilgor looked hurt. "Just what did you do to me!" She yelled. 

   "You need to calm down, lieutenant," Gjorn commanded, forcing an enormous amount of power into his words. "That is an order!" 

   Like a dog responding to its master's angry command, her face went blank as she obeyed. Illy turned to Gjorn, confusion plain as day. Like years of training kicking in all at once, she was the cautious soldier again. "Yes, Commander."

   "Now, what did Ilgor's magic do that frightened you like that?" Gjorn asked slowly, putting himself between Odeza and Ilgor. With a motion of his hand, indicating that Ilgor should go sit back down. She did, though, also wanting to hear what they were going to speak about, lifting her ears wide to listen. 

   "It wasn't a cancellation. It wasn't even Shadow, it was just." Odeza sank to a knee, as whatever illusion holding it all together faltered again. Ilgor saw a brief glimpse of some kind of gas mask-looking apparatus appear again with a brilliant set of wings. 

   "It was what, soldier?" Gjorn said, resting a hand on her shoulder. 

   "It felt like an annihilation, it wasn't the creation I know in the songs, it wasn't the destruction from the Shadows. It was absolute." She said breathlessly. 

   "Is your rebreather damaged?" Gjorn whispered, a certain caution in his voice, like he knew something horrible. Like a doctor desperately hoping to hear that their patient wasn't bitten by a viper.  

   "Maybe it is going haywire right now. Every sensor going off, every distress signal, every protection worn thin. That spell did far more than just shatter my silencing; it attacked anything with a hint of a song." Odeza whispered back as she adjusted something Ilgor couldn't see on her face. 

   Gjorn looked back at her as he stood. Realizing now that Illy had heard that entire conversation, despite their hushed voices. Having forgotten for just a moment that the goblin's hearing was by far and away superior to anything else on the Great Tree. 

   Sighing, he dispelled the illusion around Odeza with a flick of his wrist, causing her to gasp in surprise. Gjorn realized that Illy would need some answers given to her in full for her to cooperate. Dispelling another illusion around himself, he too wore a headset over his ear. 

   What struck Illy, though, was Odeza, her eyes growing as wide as dinner plates. First, she noticed her wings, which took up most of the room. Like butterfly wings in shape, but Illy noted that they shared quite a few features with moths as well, like a fuzz near the base of them, where they connected to her back. 

   The longer she looked, the more she realized that she had guessed wrong. Her wings were like molten glass, streaked with emerald and cerulean. Like a stained glass window in a cathedral in the low evening light, her wings glowed with an ephemeral fire. Gjorn was humming a far stronger song that Ilgor didn't recognize, omnipotent, multilayered, and complex. The world around them went quiet as his voice filled the space. 

   Yet, Illy didn't peel her eyes away from Odeza. Small antlers framed her face, accented by pointed ears that were far longer than the human ones that were there just a moment ago. Quiet fire licked up the skin on her arms where her odd suit didn't cover her, colorless, she realized. 

   Where her eyes were deep pools of emerald before, they were something else entirely. Odeza had thought they looked like gemstones before; now, they looked like far more perfect versions. Liquid green fire swirling where her eyes should have been, shifting phases between solid and not. Her wings were like a second sunrise in the room. 

   "Well, ask your questions." He said to Illy, his back to Odeza, a hand out to let her regain her composure as he sang the wards on her rebreather back to life again. 

   "What is she wearing?" Illy asked from the chair that she reoccupied.

   "It is called a rebreather. It lets her safely be here on the Branches of the Great Tree." He answered. This rebreather reminded her quite a bit of the gas masks and suits she had seen a few of the soldiers of Galus in recently. Though hers was far more complex, a large tank of some kind of metal was on her back. A small reactor at the top, where Illy could see it drawing in the ambient magic around her and purifying it in some way. 

   A series of tubes connected her half mask to the tank. She was clearly wearing some kind of armor, but it wasn't like any armor she had ever seen before. It was lithe, fit to her like a second skin, dark in color, and glowed dully from the incomprehensible amount of runes that covered every inch of the thing. The runes even bled off the armor and twisted lazily across where it touched her skin. 

   The helmet on her head was the oddest thing about her, notched to let her antlers hang freely, a small antenna set springing up from the back. A glass, no, it wasn't glass, but some kind of clear material that had geometric patterns etched into its surface. The visor covered her eyes, though it did nothing to hide her facial features. 

   Illy flicked her eyes on Gjorn; he had the same type of antenna array over his ear, though in miniature. A clip hanging from his ear to keep it in place. "What do you mean by 'safely be here'?"

   "I will be honest with you to a degree. Suffice it to say that this world is poisonous to her kind. Well, poisonous is the wrong word; infectious is better. If her suit is compromised in any way, she will become like you and me." Gjorn answered carefully. 

   Illy had the good sense to know that any questions about anything more specific would only get her nowhere. But, asked another in that same train of thought. "Like you and me?"

   Odeza shot him a warning look as the fire in her wings burned brighter. But Gjorn barely turned to look at her before answering. "They call us Shadow Touched Children. I won't tell you more than that, again, suffice it to say for now, that our world would corrupt her and change her." 

   Illy searched his hardening eyes for any amount of deceit in them. "Will I get these answers eventually?" She asked, finally. 

Both Odeza and Gjorn nodded, waiting for her next question. "What are you?" She asked the thoroughly alien woman. 

   "That is a more delicate answer than I would prefer to give." Seeing the look on Ilgor's face, she flapped her wings as an odd sensation filled Illy's chest. 

   An out of place sense of hope, camaraderie. A misplaced trust that she couldn't identify. "Why are you helping my people?" She paused before shaking her head and asking again. "Fuck it, why are you helping me?" She said with just a bit more heat.

   Gjorn and Odeza shared a look, as Illy heard something go through those antennas and into their ears, too indistinct to make out. But, both of them nodded quickly as something flashed across the visor over Odeza's face, a language that looked vaguely familiar, but unintelligible otherwise. 

   "That Ghost that follows you around." Illy perked her head up at the mention of the corpse woman. "She isn't a Ghost for one. But, currently, she is the source of our interest. Though the choice she made to attach herself to you led our," Odeza paused before continuing her answer, "Organization to take an extreme interest in you and your people." 

   "Why?" Ilgor asked, pressing them both for as much as she could possibly get out of them. 

   "You and your people are something we haven't seen in Eons," Odeza answered. Though the term Eons left her wondering, thinking that twelve hundred years shouldn't be considered that long compared to the current year. Then immediately felt foolish as a few things clicked into place. Even their own holy books hinted at that. Ghet, Caleb had pointed that out during their drunken night around Caleb's forge all those months ago. 

Odeza's words cut into her thoughts, "You, specifically, use a power we thought was lost. With the Great Mother Tethered to you, you cannot be ignored." 

   A warning look from Gjorn told her that trying to follow up on that would only lead them nowhere right now, another brick wall. "What is this feeling in my chest? I didn't put it there, Gjorn's song is the wrong tune to inspire this feeling."

   "I'm sorry, that is an effect of what I am. My Mother was," Odeza stopped herself, turning away as that odd noise filled both their ears again. She turned back to Illy and responded. "Much like how your voice snaps anything's attention to you, the light from my wings inspires hope and positive feelings of closeness, so to speak." 

   "What are you?" Illy tried again, a bit more forceful this time. 

   With another flick of Gjorn's wrist, the illusion reappeared around Odeza, as his own headset disappeared from sight. "For another time." He said with the heavy weight of finality. "Now, when I release this magic, we will not be alone. Do not, let me emphasize this, do not acknowledge them." 

   "What are you on about?" Illy said as he released his magic, the silence around them melted away. As a chill ran down Illy's spine, the room was filled with eyes, floating, watching them. As eight pairs of eyes, larger than the rest, encircled them. Connected together by wispy black threads of power. Averting her gaze away from them, she got out of the chair and walked up to the God's Eye's. 

   Holding a hand out, she took Odeza’s, shaking it as if this were nothing more than the end of a pleasant conversation. "This was wonderful!” She spoke with a false positivity, “I appreciate you explaining how the guild worked to me. I didn't know you had so much on your shoulders." With her words, several dozen of the eyes blinked and disappeared, though she only saw that from the periphery of her vision as the black ring remained watching them. 

   Odeza returned her gesture, "Oh, it was my pleasure. You were a fascinating conversation yourself!" More of the eyes blinked and faded away. 

   Gjorn interjected, "Well, I'm sure that Halgier will be sick of entertaining nobles by now. Shall we head back?" With his words, the black ring blinked and faded as well. Leaving them alone in the room. 

   "What?" Was all Illy got out of her mouth before Odeza covered it with her hand. 

   "Not yet," Gjorn answered softly.

   It was hours later by the time the War Boars trundled into the clearing around the village. Gjorn adamantly refused to answer any more of her questions, only telling her over and over that she would learn in due time. Though she did earn more than a few sympathetic looks from Halgier. She knew he had done this song and dance before, with very much similar results. 

   She was angry and annoyed, feeling like she was being used now. They were only interested in her because of some fucking ghost, not that they legitimately cared about her or her people. To her, they didn't care about the horrors that had just happened to them; they couldn't have given less of a shit. 

   The mood in the procession shifted as her mood did; even the vanguard was giving her a wider berth as they spotted the look on her face. Halgier moved up closer to Gjorn to speak slightly away from Ilgor, though experience told him that she was likely going to hear it anyway. "What did you do to her in that tower?" He asked in a hushed tone, just barely audible enough to hear over the boar's cloven hooves trotting on the hard-packed earth. 

   Gjorn looked over to his fellow King, but didn't answer. Only turning his gaze back to the road ahead. He knew that had been dicey; he knew that she wasn't going to be satisfied being shown just the faintest glimpse of the truth. Without being able to fully vet her and her allegiances to the Shadows, he couldn't risk it yet. Tell her just enough to put her at risk, and let her know it. 

   A messenger from the Dwarven encampment came running up to the two Kings and breathlessly told them about the Sages being at the gate and the situation that had happened while they were away. Ilgor was a significant distance from them now, as they watched with growing concern the closer they got to the gate. Even the Boar she rode on dared not provoke her ire, lest she vent her anger in any direction. 

   She slowed as she got close enough to the gate to see Cori, Ghet, Knoll, and Hob waiting for her. Confused, she cocked her head as she spotted two oddly dressed humans sitting off to one side of the gatehouse. One of them being an elderly man confined to a wheelchair, though both of them wore ridiculously large brimmed hats that reminded her of Azorez's own, with that skull attached to it. 

   Ghet stepped up to her and filled her in on what had happened while she was away as the War Boar knelt down to let her dismount more easily. The moment she was off it, the beast squealed and trotted back to the other Boars alongside the Vanguard, approaching quickly. When Ghet had finished his report to her, the Vanguard and the two Kings were within earshot to hear her next words. 

   Glaring at the two humans, she walked past them and sauntered back inside the walls as she made her voice audible enough to ring out throughout the village. "I've had enough of Humans today. These disrespectful outsiders can wait outside the walls until I deem it worth my time to let them in." 

   Both the Sages' mouths fell open, as even the Kings looked surprised at her statement. Though Gjorn caught a look back at him from Ilgor that dripped with enough acid to dissolve iron. "What did you fuck up, Gjorn?" Halgier asked with a hand over his face. 

   The Sages looked over to them, somewhat hopeful that they could overrule her decision. But Halgier had subdued that quickly enough with his words to both Gjorn and the two sages. "They have the right to govern their city as they please. I won't strip them of that just because we are their patrons, or Emily's and Atrimir's stations. We are simply going to have to wait for her to change her mind." 

   Illy shot a glance back at Halgier despite the distance between her and the gate, as she and the rest of the goblins heard what he said just fine. A new respect for him formed in her chest, as she was sure he knew she was looking back at him.

   "Thank you all for taking care of that. I appreciate it, knowing you all are by my side." Was all she said to the group as they descended the stairs to the caves.