Investigation

Former Watchers Deborah, Khord and Sophia search the royal library of the former kingdom of Northmarch to find clues to Muld and Syndi's disappearance.

4.

Investigation

 

“This is absolutely hopeless, Sophia!”  Deborah said from behind a pile of ancient books that was one of perhaps a hundred piles scattered all over the huge royal library of the former kingdom of Northmarch.

“I have to agree, child,”   Alleania spoke up from where she sat with four tomes open, “At the rate we are going, this will take months.”

“I know, but what option do we have?”   The Drow Sorceress said with a frown, glancing up at her husband Khord who was carrying another stack over to the three ladies for them to examine.

“If only we had the computers,”   Deborah said with a sigh which caused Khord and Sophia to murmur their agreement.    Alleania looked puzzled.

“What is a computer?”

Sophia smiled, “Something we had back in Flux when it was the headquarters of the Watchers.    We had machines that were from different places before the Great Gathering which we had modified to run with magic.   But when Yesh dissolved the Watchers and put Flux in this world, all of the technology we had was taken so it couldn’t be used to change the course of history here.”

Alleania nodded, not really understanding, but knowing that further questions would not clear it up for her.

“They certainly would speed things up,”   Deborah said, “I know we had Northmarch’s entire library on file on the computers.   We could simply do a search for terms and within minutes we’d have the information we need.”

“Was there any sort of printed up index to the books indexed on the computers?”   Khord asked.

Sophia shook her head, “We had it backed up on several servers, but we never dreamed that we’d not have some sort of computer to use.     Technology is a tough thing to give up.”

“Hey!”  Deborah exclaimed, “I have a book here on the Great Gathering, written about a hundred years afterwards by a wizard that has a map of his travels.”

The others jumped up and joined Deborah as she carefully unfolded the map.

“I only wish I had paid attention to the maps during orientation when I was brought to Flux to be a Watcher,” Deborah said as she finished straightening out the large fragile map.

Alleania looked at her with surprise, “Are you saying that you were brought to Flux when it was first established?   Wasn’t that at the time of the Great Gathering?    Then you’d be…”

“Over four thousand years old?   Yes, I was one of the originals.   In fact, there were only a handful of Watchers that were added later.   Your niece and Khord were some of the last.”

“Then you should know a lot about Mórálach!   Wasn’t he active right around the time of the Great Gathering?”   Alleania asked Deborah.

“Well, yes, he was, but I and the other Watchers were not brought into Flux until shortly after the Great Gathering and we were briefed by Lady Kinzer and Archmage Drake, not by God himself.     They didn’t mention anything about a magic pool that he had created.   All they said about Mórálach dealt with The Lord’s concerns over the Faesidhe Tree and the Inion Sidhe guardians.”

Alleania sighed, “How frustrating - Drake is still with us, but now he’s wearing the form of a Drow and does not have any of his previous memories from that time.    I’ve grilled him for anything he might know, but his memories were stripped when Yesh let him return here.   He only has a very limited knowledge of who he was before, but he has absolutely no memories of anything from his time as leader of the Watchers.”

“There were a lot of records and he kept extensive notes,”   Sophia said, leaning back to ease her spine as she subconsciously rubbed her swollen pregnant belly, “He never said much about Mórálach, and even when I took over as head of the Watchers, we didn’t hear much about him.”

“What about your times meeting with Yesh?”

Sophia shook her head, “He mentioned him several times, but it was always in context to the Faesidhe Tree.”

“Well maybe there isn’t actually a magic pool.   It could just be a legend,” Khord suggested.

“Yes, but what happened to Muld and Syndi?   If they had simply died, they would have not disappeared without their clothing or Autocaster rings.”

“Look at this,”  Deborah gestured at the map, “Whoever made this map made a note at the bottom.   It reads:   An exact copy of Ueris the Scholar’s map of Synomenia at the beginning of the great Elven Wars, shortly after the Great Gathering."

“When would that be?”   Alleania asked Deborah.

“Well, the Elven races started fighting each other less than fifty years after the Great Gathering, so this map has to be old.”

“I’ve heard of Ueris the Scholar,”  Sophia said, “He was a human wizard who was obsessed with charting things.    Maps and historical accounts of events.”

Deborah smiled, “I never met him, but the Watchers back then were very impressed with him.   He had a group of apprentices that he trained in Cartography and he sent them all over the world.   Teleportation spells worked perfectly back then.”

“I wish they worked perfectly now,”   Sophia murmured, “Aeropolis has an Imperial library with most of Ueris’ charts and books.    If only we could look through them.”

“King Haroldris had quite a collection of copies of those books,”  Khord replied, pointing to a stack of old books across the room, “I was looking through them a while ago.   If they’re copies of the originals, maybe they’d have something useful.”

“Well, this map is too generalized to be useful to us,”   Deborah announced, “I found a notation on the side that mentions Mórálach, but it doesn’t give a location.”

“What does it say?”  Sophia asked.

“It reads:   Mórálach the Sidhe Lord tainted the Great Tree of Life and placed a race of witches there to guard it.    Then he travelled throughout the land, going to every kingdom and island where elves were found, enticing them.”

“That isn’t actually true though, is it?”   Sophia asked her.

“No, he didn’t cause the great Elven War.     The Sidhe were judged before the Watchers were established.    We were told that Mórálach made the Inion Sidhe and altered the Great Tree slightly, then fled to ‘the other side of the world’ trying to escape judgment.”

“So is there some place on the other side of the world where elves dominate?  Perhaps he went there”   Alleania asked.

“The problem is that Elves were not dispersed across the world at that point in time.    In fact, when Mórálach did his evil, none of the races had been brought here yet.    Aside from the Inion Sidhe that he created, there were no races of people in Synomenia when Mórálach roamed the world.”

“So he couldn’t have met any Elven race and enticed them,”   Khord replied, “Then what about places where there are predominately elves now that are located far away from the site of the Great Gathering?   Maybe that is a clue.”

Sophia and Deborah looked at each other, both contemplating the various locations in the world.

“Well, there is the Faesidhe Forest, but it is not exactly on the opposite side of the world.    The Drow in the Underdark is another place, but as I said, Mórálach didn’t go there.   There used to be an Elven kingdom to the west of Aeropolis, but that would be even closer than the Faesidhe Forest.  The Hutcaiah Empire is far too recent, so it can’t be that one.”

“What about Albyia?”   Deborah asked.

“Where is that?”  Alleania replied, “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s an island to the northeast of Aeropolis - it would be due east of Marksylvania, across the ocean several thousand miles.    It is west of the Hutcaiah Empire but east of the island that Yesh created to bring Flux into this world.”

“Yesh created a new island when he brought Flux here?”   Alleania said, learning of this for the first time.

“Yes, but it isn’t common knowledge here,”  Sophia explained, “It isn’t anything spectacular now that all the technology has been neutralized and the Watchers disbanded.    It’s not a big island and not nearly as large as Albyia.”

“So how large is this Albyia?”   The Drow lady asked Deborah and her niece.

“Albyia is 280,500 square miles in size.    It’s about 600 miles from north to south and roughly 475 miles wide.”

“This island has elves inhabiting it?”  

“Yes, it is a thickly wooded island and not much is known about it.   There were a handful of Elven groups -they call themselves clans- that lives there and they fight with each other over possession of the island.    They’re all rather primitive compared to most elves and they hate outsiders - even other elves.   The island only has three harbors that are safe for ships.   The clans are led by Druids and they fiercely protect the harbors to prevent ships from landing there.    All of the elves there are extremely xenophobic and their aggressiveness has prevented any missionary work by the Church of Yesh.   In fact, they worship nature.”

“So have any of the Watchers visited this island?”  Alleania questioned.

“Not that I know of - there were no followers of Yesh there and aside from monitoring the island every few months by scrying device, there was no contact.”

“Surely Yesh would want the elves converted!”

“Yes, but He left that up to the church and they haven’t been able to do anything yet.    The last I heard was that the Southern Empire was charting out the island --- without going ashore-- by ship.    This usually means a future military campaign.”   Deborah looked contemplative for a few moments, and then added, “You know, perhaps Albyia would be worth checking.    There had to be some reason they worship nature as a force.    That is rare amongst elves here.   If there is a magic pool in the middle of the island, perhaps that is the source of the religion.”

Sophia arched her eyebrows, “You might have something, Deborah.   I’ve heard that the Imperial legions have already launched a campaign against the island a few years ago and established a foothold in the southern part of the island.    They haven’t succeeded in moving further inland, but there are already Albyian slaves being shipped to Aeropolis.”

Deborah looked surprised, “I hadn’t heard about this development.   Albyia wasn’t my area to monitor as a Watcher, but the Southern Empire was, and I don’t remember hearing about an invasion.”

“It was done in secret, during the mess with Torrin.   I didn’t hear about it myself until a few weeks ago when somebody was telling me about some of the elven slaves being brought into Aeropolis.”

Deborah shook her head, “Still, you’d think I would have heard something about it.   Do you know the name of the general leading the campaign against them?”

“I didn’t get that information, but I do know that there was only one regular legion and the rest were auxiliary legions.”

“That was probably all they could spare.    I’ll have to learn more about that.    Lord have mercy, but I wish we had access to our computers!   They would come in quite handy now.    But back to the issue at hand - it seems to me that Albyia would be a worthy search site for Muld and Syndi.”

“We’ll wait and see what Queen Mathlyn and her sisters can tell us - if they know anything-  and we’ll go from there.    Why don’t we just load up the books by Ueris the Scholar and head back to Westmark so we can be there and hear Mathlyn and her sisters.    We’re just wasting time here.”

The others agreed with Sophia’s suggestion and worked to tidy up (as best that they could) the chaotic library before heading back to the airship to take them to Westmark.

 

***

 

“Are you still here?”   Mutt called out from the doorway of the Practical Magician’s Guild.   Tadd looked up wearily from his seat.    Books were opened up all around him and the Halfling seemed frustrated.

“Of course I’m still here!    I’ll be here all night, the rate I’m going!”

“What are you doing?”   Mutt asked, entering the building.   He led his Halfling girlfriend, Vellie Umberburn by the hand.   The pretty girl nodded at Tadd as she entered.

“I’m trying to find a spell that reverses the flow of a liquid temporarily.    Mr. Kanstyix the leather merchant wants us to modify the hot water pipes we put in a few weeks ago.”

“Modify them?”

“He wants one tap to act as a vacuum, to suck out the water in the sink basin when he turns the facet the opposite direction.”

“Why?”

“How should I know?   All I do know is that he is a cranky old man that acts as if we should have known that was what he wanted all along.”

“Well that’s crazy, Tadd!   There would have to be some sort of hose going down into the water to suck the water out.”

“Oh I know that!   He wants an enchantment that would suck the water out without a hose sticking into the water.   I told him that I didn’t think we could do it, but he insisted that we research it and find out before I say that we can’t do it.”

“Just lie to him.”

“I don’t want it to come back and bite us later if we find out that it can be done after all.   Oh, how I wish Muld was here!”

“Well relax, buddy.   Just close up all those books and go home - I’ll go meet with Mr. Kanstyix tomorrow and tell him that it can’t be done.”

Tadd looked greatly relieved, “Really?   That would be a load off my mind.  I was swamped all day with customers.    He won’t like hearing it from you.   He isn’t fond of Goblins.”

“He told you that?”

“Several times.  He doesn’t like Orcs or Hobgoblins either, and I’m not sure what he thinks of Halflings, to be honest with you.”

Mutt shrugged, “I’ll take Vellie with me.    I’ll bet if she wears a dress that shows enough cleavage, he’ll take the news better.   He’s always ogling the barmaids at the Muddy Boot, so lovely girls are one thing he does like.”

Tadd grinned, “You should ask Vellie first; she might not want to be ogled by a grumpy old man.”

Mutt turned to his girlfriend and the girl just blushed slightly and shrugged, “I don’t mind - if it helps the guild, I can show a bit of skin.”

“Thanks, Vellie,”  Tadd thanked her as he closed up some of Muld’s spellbooks, “King Eleazar invited all of us to hear what Queen Mathlyn says tomorrow afternoon.   I’ve blocked out the afternoon for all of us to attend.”

“It’ll be nice to have a free afternoon.   When will she arrive?”

“Tomorrow morning, the royal page told me.”

“Well then we’d all better get some rest.”

“So what are you two doing?”  Tadd asked.

“We were going to get something to eat and saw the lights shining through the windows.    Do you want to join us?”

“Three is a crowd, Mutt.   Thanks, though, but I just want to go take a bath, have a light supper and go to bed.   I’m exhausted!”   The Halfling emphasized the comment with a deep yawn.

“Well then we’ll let you do that very thing.   We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here - if I don’t oversleep!”

“Don’t do that - you are our leader until Muld gets back.” 

“No I’m not!   That is one job I don’t want!”

“Well, you are our customer relations expert, so you’d best not be late.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be here.”

“Alright-  don’t worry about Kanstyix - I’ll take care of him.”

“Okay then, thanks.   See you tomorrow.”

Mutt and Vellie waved and slipped out into the street, leaving the tired Halfling to lock up and rush home to bed.