"I recognize one of them, Calla," Bruendor says quietly, his eyes fixated upon the dead elf's body, her face silently mocking them with a grinning rictus. "Villastir. The elf lord that brought us here in the first place. We've been watched by this damned Council ever since we walked through the aiudara."
"Eh? We have?" Anklebiter asks, startled.
The alchemist looked at you and then turned to the Captain. "Captain, you know why you alone were allowed in this room during the interrogation. None will know of this from your lips, agreed."
"Yes, Kayleen, I know, and I agree."
Turning to you, the woman said, "You, on the other hand, have served your original purpose admirably, both by alerting us of the danger from Allevrah and her dark-skinned cousins and by helping us force the Winter Council's hand. Long have they been a thorn in the side of the Queen, and this may be the first open mistake they have made in their maneuvering. I apologize on behalf of the Queen for the behavior you were subjected to when you first came to Iadara. Unfortunately, it was necessary if the Queen was to maneuver past the Winter Council and get the nobles in the proper frame of mind for a proper response to the twisted ones."
"You see, the Winter Council is a sort of opposition government within the elven nation. They have...different views on how we as the elven people should interact with the wider world and other races than my Queen does. They are mired in isolationist ideals and racial purity is of prime concern. Thus, their minon's hatred towards other races and the half-elven. Queen Telandia has clashed with the Winter Council many times the last century, and they have all too often come out on top. Worse, their influence and ability to manipulate popular opinion means that even when innocents suffer to maintain their dreadful status quo, oftentimes it is the Queen that the people blame. The Winter Council isn't openly recognized as a real entity - in fact, many believe it to be a convenient scapegoat for conspiracy theorists - and thus, you cannot even address the problem directly. My Queen is sick of this group of the old guard who punish the people for daring to look forward to progress. When you appeared, speaking of the Fallen to the Court at large, she knew that the time had come to force the Council into the open."
"... You want us to draw them out so all the Elves can see them for what they are, and then your Queen can help us with our mission to Orv?" Anklebiter suggests. "Because if they stay in power, they'll block us in our efforts just because we're not theirs and do not follow their orders?"
"Not to put to fine a point on it, yes. But, before we can enact that, we need to ensure your safety. The queen would like to move you into the palace, to a more protected area."
"I'm down with that if my friends are," Anklebiter says. "But could we possibly winkle them out by moving ahead with preparations for the Orv-dive? I do not wish to belittle the importance of dealing with these zsjerbaiat* Winter Council people, but the Drow are tunneling down as we speak, with a mind to dropping rocks from space on your kingdom and who knows what else.
Time is blowing in our teeth."
A cruel smile twists Calla's mouth.
"So we go from unwitting bait to witting? We are, still, I suppose expendable, after all," she says. "That said, Calistria would hardly forgive me if I let their errors go unmarked. So, yes, I'll agree to that. But don't think this means that you or your queen have suddenly earned anymore of my trust."
"So be it", Kel agrees, "let the Winter Council be dealt with so that we may move forward to address the global threat."
"The apology would mean more to me if it were as public as the scorn was," Lefrik says, he wipes his hands "And it's official. I want statues of us, all of us, saving elf kind. I want it some place of honor, so for the next few centuries the Winter Council and those who think like them have to deal with the reminder that they needed two half elves, a dwarf, a 'barbarian and a goblin to help save their asses. Call it petty of me. But Anklebiter is right, a giant damn rock landing on whole populations seems the priority to me. We'll help you against this Winter Council...but I really want statues of us after all this for reasons mentioned. I want to rub their noses in it"
Bruendor's gaze remains fixed on Kayleen as she speaks, and when he does speak, it's in an even voice. "I dislike that we were used as pawns in a game between your Queen and this Council. I understand it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. But we don't have time to argue - the drow delve towards Orv, and the Council loyalists who fought us and escaped are likely reporting their failure to their superiors. We have them off-balance, but every moment that passes allows them to find their footing again. So...what's the next move? Do we go after Villastir immediately?
Or do we need to gather testimony against him?"
"First, we must move you to a place of safety, a place where the Queen controls and can situate her most loyal around you."
"Let's be going, then."
Bruendor nods in agreement, ready to follow where the elven alchemist leads.
Calla growls.
It's her "I'm annoyed, but fine" growl, however, not "I'm annoyed, I'm going to kill you" growl.
Lefrik follows, but has his gear with him, "i'm keeping my weapons."
"Of course you are. And the rest of your equipment,as well. I have had some of the captain's men sent to your previous quarters to retrieve anything that may have been left behind, including your wizard's laboratory equipment and work. It has all been forwarded to your new quarters. Now, if you will all follow me."
"Captain, I require a squad of your best men to escort us. And make sure they are loyal to the Queen."
The captain saluted and left the room, returning momentarily to nod at the the alchemist. "We are ready when you are, Lady."
Good. please, follow me."
As you set off behind the elven Lady, a squad of guards fell in around you. From their attitudes and continual alertness, it was obvious that they intended that nothing else should befall you this night.
The procession led from the guard barracks to the main doors of the palace, then turned to the right, following an opulent hallway. As you walked, the alchemist - Lady Kayleen - spoke.
"This is the Ambassador Wing, where visiting dignitaries are housed. To be honest, you should be - should have been - housed in the Visitor Wing, but there are security measures here that are apparently necessary for your safety. Where we are going is a small pocket dimension reserved for our most prestigious guests. I think you will find it spacious enough."
As she spoke the last, she turned down a short hallway and motioned for a pair of guards to open the double doors at the end. She led you into an antechamber almost as big as the quarters you had just left. A pair of domed chambers connect to form a single larger room here. A towering pair of double doors stands in one wall, the ones you had just walked through, opposite a shimmering golden curtain. The floor is of polished marble, matching the plain but spotless walls rising to the domed ceiling above. To either side, an equally well-polished stone statue of a crouching wasp with crystal wings stands sentinel.
"Beyond that curtain lies your quarters, complete with furnishing befitting a visiting royal. Food and drink have been provided, as well as your magical laboratory. Please take your ease for this night, and I will be with you again come the morning, hopefully armed with a visit request from Her Majesty. Before I go though, I wish to give you the key phrase for your first line of security. Each of you should repeat after me, [b]"I am a friend to Iadara, and none shall enter this place without my permission."
As you speak the words, the wasps' wings buzzed and their mandibled heads turned to look at you, then nod.
"Good, now that that is taken care of, get what rest you may while I speak with the Queen."
With that, Lady Kayleen left the antechamber, followed by the guards. The enormous double doors closed behind her with only the faintest of clicks.
Calla looks around, scanning for any sign of evil before investigating the area, bow drawn.
"Pocket dimension, huh?" she growls. "The queen's authority is clearly far less secure than she wishes."
"I'll worry about it tomorrow," Anklebiter says, then yawns hugely. "Good night, everybody."
The Goblin shuffles off towards the relocated lab and his thin mattress stuffed full of horsehair.
In contrast, Duchess starts to flutter around, full of curiosity and enthusiasm.
"We're sleeping like royalty!" she chimes. "Moving up in the world, our excellence is being recognized! Not before time, but this is nice, very nice! Don't you agree, gargantuan friend Lefrik Olegson?"
Duchess flies over to Lefrik as she asks the question -- and she is still in a state of deshabille, as it were.
Duchess flutters over to one of the stone wasps -- taking care to stay out of reach.
"Hello?" she chirps. "Are you like me? Can you talk?"
Kel tends to the remaining wounds the party suffered in the attack. "Guests and prisoners could be one and the same here. We may as get rest while we can, but I suggest we set a watch this evening."
"I'm in no mood for sleep," Bruendor says in reply to Kelendra. "I'll keep watch while the rest of you sleep, and then grab a few winks when you're done. And then, after we meet with the Queen, we figure out what we need to do to undermine this Winter Council, and get the Queen of Kyonin to outfit us into Orv." He makes his way to the table of food, picks at some bread and cheese, and pours himself a cup of tea to invigorate him for the next few horus.
"Best be careful around those, Maggie," he says to the homunculus. "After everything we've been through, I'd rather not have to fight magic wasp guardian statues tonight."
Beyond the golden curtain is an enormous circular room, easily 60 feet across with a domed ceiling rising almost as high. Trees grow to brush the marble ceiling withe their leaves, and the quiet sounds of birdsong can be heard. In the center of the room is a pool of water, with brightly colored fish swimming along around a sandy island in the center. Along one wall is a table with food and drink - even roasted meats! Another holds bookshelves, and a third is arrayed with games and instruments, finer than any you have ever seen before.
Off the main chamber are four circular room enclosed by smaller rooms, each about 20 feet in diameter. Inside three of these are two double-sized down-filled beds, rich furnishings. These bedrooms certainly look fit for visiting royalty. The fourth dome room contains a wizardry and alchemy workshop, complete with all of the items Anklebiter left behind in their old quarters, plus much more.
Guests or prisoners, as Kelendra wondered, your quarters certainly were nicer than anything you had ever seen before.
Magpie flies over to Bruendor and perches on his shoulder.
"I was just curious," she chirps. "I haven't seen big constructs yet; Master hasn't made any. His memory says they're asposeta stoopid, but me and sis are smart. So I wondered.
I'll keep watch with you. Or instead of you? I don't need any sleep at all. I'm handy that way."
"This is more like it, finally. If it's a cage, at least this one is gilded."
Once she's assured the place is no threat, Calla finds a bed and prepares to resume her sleep -- this time removing her breastplate but otherwise keeping her gear all close at hand.
Once finished tending the party's wounds, Kel searches the chambers slowly, looking for more guardians and methods of eavesdropping on their conversations.
Duchess flutters after Kelendra self-importantly, checking alongside the Half-Elven Oracle.
You did not find any signs of guardians or eavesdropping, and eventually felt comfortable enough to continue your night's rest.
Magpie and Duchess keep Bruendor company, chattering at the angry Dwarf -- and more than once engaging in bickering with each other.
From time to time, though, they break away to patrol the premises, be it solo or together. Bruendor may notice that when they go patrolling, the homunculi are admirably quiet and focused, all signs of strife gone.
Lefrik looks at Bruendor, "I'll stay up with you for at least a shift. The elves have gone a bit too quickly from bitter to sweet for me to be trusting them yet." He admits.
Bruendor and Lefrik stay up for a bit, chatting. As they did, they noticed that the food and drink they consumed magically restocked itself every hour or so.
Kel rests soundly as the others chat and eat. If no interruptions disturb their rest, she rises in the morning and spends her first hour in prayer before enjoying breakfast.
Calla also wakes in the morning, refreshed.
Gearing up, she looks at her companions.
"Well, now what? We just wait for them to come fetch us?"
When Anklebiter wakes up, he does not look all that refreshed. There are still bags under his beady, red eyes.
"I've been overdoing it, I think," the Goblin says as he comes slouching out of the laboratory, spellbooks tucked under his arm.
With a grunt and a groan, the little Wizard hoists himself into a chair at the breakfast table and opens his collection for studying purposes; the one he brought to Riddleport, bound in brown bull's hide leather branded with magic runes; Angvar's spellbook, bound in cheap fabric; Nolveniss' spellbook, bound in black velvet and marked with spidery Drow writing in leaf-of-silver; and the blessed book the group found during their travels, and into which Anklebiter has been writing some of his new, more potent spells.
Magpie and Duchess start flying to and fro, ferrying bits of food and cups of drink to their creator, who barely seems to notice as he leafs through his books, muttering to himself and frowning to the point that the furrow stays in place for a few moments after the Wizard's face has relaxed. He eats and drinks mechanically, eyes glued to the incantations marching across the parchment and vellum in front of him, whispering fragments of Words of Power while fixing them in his memory.
Finally, Anklebiter finishes his morning ritual and knuckles his eyes before closing up the books. "I think I've gotten the best spells down," he says. "At least one of which, I'd like to cast when we're ready to leave this suite."
"I want to use the rod I received as a gift to boost the duration of my spell of Protection from arrows," Anklebiter explains. "Lefrik, you would become the recipient; you'd be protected for the next eighteen hours or until it's expended or dispelled. Bruendor, Calla, Kelendra; I could also boost the duration of Communal protection from arrows and give you all six hours of protection. The timing would be tricky, of course, so maybe I'd better keep it in reserve. If a fight does break out, either Lefrik or Bruendor has to come stand near me at the breakout, so I can cast Stoneskin on them.
Any objections?"
Calla grunt in acknowledgement.
Well past the time when you would have expected to hear from the outside world, nothing had changed. Birdsong filled the air as the small creatures swirled around in the tree canopy surrounding the center pool. the fish swam lazily, and it seemed that your hurry and concerns were out of place here. This was paradise. If all visiting dignitaries were housed like this, it was a wonder any ever left.
Calla grinds her teeth.
"Wonderful. We're not dead, but feels like we're in heaven ... except it's a prison."
Calla begins stalking around the area, trying to find a way out.
Kel assists Calla with the search. "Royalty are always having affairs and I doubt the elves are an exception. I bet there is a secret passage from this chamber to somewhere private where visiting dignitaries do things that are undignified."
Bruendor's brow furrows with further frustration at Calla's statement. "I sincerely hope you're wrong, Calla," he says, lending his own eyes to the problem. "After all, it doesn't make much tactical sense for the Winter Council to bring us here and then not kill us. They had their shot once they brought us to this place - fill it up with invisible assassins, close us in their gilded prison, and then kill us at their leisure. We were vulnerable then. Less so now. So, why not finish us off, if that were Kayleen's plan?"
"I think we're probably safe here, but the Elves are having an argy-bargy about what to do," Anklebiter says.
"Well. If we're going to be cooling our heels in here, I might as well do something useful. I can scribe a scroll, or maybe craft something, if the laboratory here is sufficiently stocked."
"Honestly, AB, at this point? I say we pretend we're under the employ of Saul Vancaskerkin again, and act accordingly."
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Anklebiter pauses on his way to the laboratory, then walks back and takes Bruendor's hand in both of his.
"At some point, my friend, you do have to trust people, even if they're wrongheaded," he says, earnestly. "If nothing else, trust this: the Queen's Elves could have put that Winter soldier from yester eve to the torture. She was in a magic-free zone, she was shackled to a chair; they could have peeled off her skin and made her eat it until she talked. Instead, they used alchemy to loosen her tongue, and the only harm she suffered was at her own hands. Well, teeth. That suggests some morals on their part, at least.
I don't like that we were used without asking, either. But we have a chance to forge an alliance here, one we need to save the world from the Drow plan. Let go of this anger; it will not serve you. It can only impede you."
Bruendor never breaks his eye contact with AB during their exchange. "I want to trust them, AB. But there are things that aren't adding up, and I don't want to be caught unawares again. What's the worst case scenario? That Calla and I do our searches and find nothing untoward? If so, then we wait a bit longer for our patron to return. But what if we're right?"
"Maybe I should try to seduce the Queen or another high ranking elf maid?" He muses aloud, "true, it's a bit rakish, but we might learn more." A glance around, "of course, it would help if one would show up for me to try that. I wonder if one is watching now?"
He looks to a far wall as if it were a window and flashes his most manly smile, "How you doing?"
As magnificent a man as he is, if an elf maiden is scrying, they're probably not exactly besmitten at his attempt at a 'Smolder'.
Despite Calla's careful searching - that took hours - she found no exits from this chamber of paradise. None at all.