Re: Aquae Grannis
Caution: this became quite a long post. Most of it is Haldred's story.
Liloo is still traveling with the group. Though the battle at Aquae Grannis is done, the Water Sprite does not feel the old sacred place is free, yet. It is not over. Liloo has decided to see this through to the end.
The water sprite has been talking to the water, of course, but otherwise, tends to be around Karel, and listen to tales of Fey. Adding in his own, of course.
It has Cirrus fascinated- the fact that Karel, a human, knows so much more about the subject than she does impresses her. She didn't know there was so much to learn.
Liloo adds some insight. The Fey are magical beings of nature, but they are a very diverse group, and they have sub-categories most people don't think about. The main split is between the "Fey folk" and the "Nature spirits". The first group includes the sprites, like Liloo. They are magical beings infused with some aspect of nature. The second group, to which Cirrus is apparently a member, has a much deeper relationship with nature.
"Souls of nature," Liloo says.
"What does that mean?" Cirrus asks.
"I have a soul. Karel has a soul," the water sprite says. "If you are a Sylph, then you do not have a soul. You ARE a soul, a soul made solid."
"Whose soul?" Cirrus asks.
"Geula is the soul of her water. A Sylph is the soul of her air."
* * * *
But meanwhile, Haldred, the boy Petra rescued, is speaking to Heolstor…
“After they Elves tried to escape, the Blackguards talked to Orreg,” Haldred says. Three of them. Humans. Men, all in black. One we’ve seen here before, because he came around Aquae Grannis now and then. He’d talk to the Orcs, and Silok. Never us. But I saw him there. And another, who was older, and ran the wagon that carried the slaves. Right up to then I thought he was just another servant, but he’s more. The others called him Korvig and they respected him. And then there was a third they called Adlud, and he was younger and he looked like a fighter. They told him how he might be with them one day if he was smart, because that’s where all the rewards were. ‘Everything you like’, they said. But then they took me away with the Elves, because we were going to be slaves, and I didn’t see what happened to Orreg after that.”
By this time there are a few others listening to Haldred’s tale, among them Theoderic, who prods the boy with a few questions. Haldred continues with his story.
“They brought us into the town, across the bridge. And it was lined with old shops and now it was full of Orcs… like Orc shops, they were making armor and weapons and things. Orcs were everywhere, and the Elves kept their heads down and hidden. And they turned and we went into a gate, into the Blackguard Court.
“That was a pretty nice street. It had a few shops, there was a tailor and a barber and a little store and a minstrel with a lute singing, and in the middle of it, they unloaded all the Elves. And that’s when the Elves tried to escape. They had magic. A little, not enough. One was making fire appear, and set one of the Blackguards on fire. One turned into a big white eagle, but Korvig did something, and it turned the Elf back into an Elf, and things all went wrong. They wanted to get to the river, but they couldn’t make it. There was this other creature, like a big tall red troll with horns on its head. It could jump really far, and it wasn’t hurt by the fire, and it could make things… rocks, wood, dirt… swirl up and attack. So all the Elves were caught again. Then the Blackguards thanked Orreg for giving them warning. And then they started talking to him, and they took the rest of us away. They told us, we picked the wrong side and now we were prisoners like the Elves.
“So Orreg stayed in the Blackguard Court. We went down some stairs in the inn and through a tunnel, a long line, I don’t know how far.”
“How long did you walk in the tunnel?” Theoderic asks.
“A few minutes… I don’t know.” The boy says.
“Many old forts had secret tunnels,” Theoderic says. “But likely not under a river. It sounds like you went to the fort Heolstor described at the northeast.”
“Well, it was a big stone chamber when we came out. And on the other side, there were others. A few Orcs. One was a shaman, like the one we had here. I could tell. There was the red troll thing. And another thing, like a huge Ogre that was part frog or toad, with green gray knotty skin and it smelled bad. Really bad. And it looked all the Elves over and claimed a few, including the ones that had used magic. And most of the time they were speaking a language I don’t know, but then the thing told the Blackguards, in our language, “These might be enough. We shall see.” The put iron collars on those Elves, and they got taken to the dungeon. Then it gave a lady Elf, to the Blackguards, and one Elf man to the Orc shaman, and the rest, and us, were taken to the dungeon too.
“After that, we were all in separate cells. And some cells had Humans, too, and I think some had Fey creatures. They were hurting some of us, I could tell. I was there for a long time. Prisoners came and went. I don’t know how long. But they made me work, and so I worked, and then one day I was taking firewood to the Orcs, and I was crossing the bridge, and there was a loud noise and suddenly one of the shops on the side of the bridge had fallen down. And there was a man, like he was made of light, standing there but only I could see him. And he said jump, and she will catch you. So I jumped down into the river. And that is how I got away.”