After defeating the previous Courtlounger I had to decide how best to use the privileges that comes with the position, at first the obvious choice of abusing the situation to fulfill my every whish and completely surrender myself to dwarven greed seemed tempting. However the voices saw the potential consequences of such a choice, if I wanted to remain in the city I probably had to attempt to make allies in a city that preemptively hated me simply based on my racial origin. Others suggested that I should put in an effort to strengthen myself to the point where I could defend the title by force. That in the end the voices chose to go for the more diplomatic solution surprised me greatly considering their past concerns, however this decision was not me against as I might finally have chance to relax without any fighting, running or…putting cities aflame…
In the beginning it was very difficult to preserve my good will when my bad reputation led to excessive amounts of slander as well as exclusion from most communities. Even though I had the power to avoid this mistreatment due to my position I chose not to use it as a token of humbleness. In the end I was able still able to see it from their viewpoint as well, an enemy arrives at the gates and kills one of their kin and then they’re supposed to treat him as royalty? What a bloody mess…
At least I knew a few people around which was bit of a saving grace when it all just became too much. I spent a lot of time over at Amathspar’s place where he’d give me advice as to how I should handle the situation at hand. He started looking a bit healthier just a few days after he returned and he became more talkative, a bit too talkative…On the contrary Sehdul wouldn’t even speak to me after the death of her brother and I did not see her too often, once again understandable but somewhat unfair.
I was expected to represent my title in various social posts, however my diplomatic career was severely hurt by the fact that all noble families seemed to resent me, well I guess the same goes for the regular citizens as well. Somehow I still managed to get on talking terms with the house of Heasinddare which had slightly more tolerant disposition towards the dwarves, turns out they reached their position in society many centuries ago due to the dwarven wood trade. Most of the time I was only allowed to join them for garden gatherings, informal lunches and such but occasionally I was given the honor of sitting at their table during feasts, to the obvious dismay of the other guests of course.
Early on during my time at Seraté I went to check out the Timeless archives which was astonishingly huge, book cases reaching far up into the air and long halls all filled with countless books from different times and writers.
The Loremasters helped me greatly, of course because it was their duty to do so but they were contrastingly polite compared to most other elves. There were only two of them to care for the gigantic library and they felt strangely distanced from the rest of society. I got the feeling that they were somehow living in the past rather than the present. One of them even took his time to help me learn how to read and he was quite impressed with my advances, mostly due to the voices cheating and reading for me. But what surprised me the most wasn’t the size of the library nor the elves polite approach but their incredible knowledge, I could ask them literarily anything and they’d always have an adequate answer. Somehow I took a liking to the place, perhaps due to the dim lighting that reminded me of a cavern or perhaps the smell of the place. Anyway I began spending a lot of time there every time I was bothered by the large open bazaars or the bright sun.
But no matter how much headway I made on the other fronts the day when the next challenger would step up was inevitable, I was actually fairly lucky to be given almost two weeks without a single contestant. The reason behind this was a lengthy quarrel between a multitude of people attempting to decide upon who would be worthy of taking the title. In the end a girl from one of the lesser families was chosen due to her impeccable archery skills and her family’s current affairs. I was very hesitant to join the duel considering my fighting record and not having the gauntlet to rely on, at first I tried to talk her out of it but she seemed adamant that this would be her day of glory… As soon as the battle begun I realized how greatly outmatched I was, not only was she fast enough to keep a sufficient distance between the two of us but she was also incredibly quick and precise when it came to shooting. In just a few moments I was covered in arrows and blood began dribbling down my clothes, I almost wanted to surrender right then and there to avoid any more pain and humiliation but the voices had other plans. Scratch that, they had no plan. They were simply slightly more optimistic.
After what felt like a short vacation in hell the woman had suddenly stopped in her tracks and started looking around at the audience with a lost expression.
All outta arrows, huh? A while later the match ended in a draw as she was too afraid to move in to my reach while I was far too sluggish to catch up to her, I guess a combination of dwarven sturdiness and the unbending resolve of the voices saved the day. At first I was ecstatic over the results but then I got a lingering feeling that perhaps the next time they won’t send a noble girl with no previous combat experience which brought down the mood.
At this point the Heasinddare began speaking for my cause; it was viewed as controversial not only because of me being a dwarf but also because recruiting the Courtlounger as a permanent ally would in all normal cases allow them to further their political position. I don’t know if they had any underlying motifs but I couldn’t be happier.
Wilfred seemed to like it in Seraté, the warm climate meant that he wasn’t sick as often anymore and the lush vegetation was a goat’s dream coming true. While Wilfred had been completely incompetent at navigating and finding food out in the wild it took a complete turn as soon as we had reached the city, somehow he seemed to sniff out every nock and cranny where food was to be had.
Things was going fairly well until one evening when I was walking back from the library I suddenly heard a noise behind be on an otherwise empty street. As I turned around I saw three elves walking up towards me at an increasing pace, it was hard to tell but I identified them as part of the band that captured me at my arrival. Their ill intent became obvious when one of them drew a wooden shiv while one of the others pulled out some kind of snare. I tried to run but there’s no chance in hell that I’d ever outrun an elf. The voices told me to bring out the gauntlet and that it was a life and death situation, but still I could break my promise and give up all that I had worked for. I couldn’t abandon my honor even as the first strike brought me down to the ground, the voices were screaming at this point but all I could see was the glimmering night sky above me. Somehow I was quite content with this, to go out while standing up for my beliefs. It felt almost peaceful after all the insanities that had occurred after my plunge into madness. However something had suddenly obscured my view and it wasn’t one of the vicious perpetrators; it was someone else far up on one of the walls.
In a swift motion the shadow dove down from above and fell towards the attackers, I didn’t manage to react in time since in the timespan of me heaving myself off the rough ground the battle was already over. Two of the other elves had fallen to their knees and were holding their faces, obviously in pain, and amongst them stood none other than one of the Loremasters.
I recognized him immediately as I knew him quite well from our earlier reading sessions, the whole situation felt quite absurd and I could not utter a single word. The remaining ruffian seemed as confused as me but managed to shout out threats mixed with a few elven profanities. In the end they had left the scene and only my savior and I were left. He apologized on behalf of his people but tried to make me aware of their reasoning and how the long lifespan of elves can lead to a lot of hatred over the years. I made sure that I understood that we were at war but I still thought that the hate shouldn’t be directed at me. Before leaving he promised to sort out the problem, after the incident I didn’t see him for quite a while but his departing words still had me puzzled. It was not until about a week later that word reached me of a grand announcement by one of the Loremasters, the preposition that he had put forward was unheard of not only because of the Loremasters secluded way of living but also due to the contents of his report. He had not only vouched for my position but he was prepared to accept any challenges made by those that still doubted the current Courtlounger. I never got a good explanation from the cryptic bastard as to why he did it but he probably saved my life for the second time in the span of a week.
After that point life got a lot less hectic as I no longer had to worry about what new challenges were hiding around the corner and I got a chance to enjoy the elven culture as well as the grandeur nature surrounding the city. Their culture differed greatly from what I was used to, especially how their social structure was handled without coins ever exchanging hands and the distinct lack of fights or arguments. The atmosphere was so peaceful that you could never had guessed that this was a nation at war, the only hint that was ever given was the empty houses left due to the gradually declining population. And this was even beyond the great immigration of fugitives from the west; no matter how ridiculously long lives the elves led it was constantly counteracted by their gradual population growth and other factors. The climate was hotter than what I was used to but I quickly got used to it and began enjoying the warmth. Sometimes I would even follow the elven habit of meditating out in the wilderness to become more in tune with nature, it would perhaps not have been quite as much of an effort if it wasn’t for the voices inability to shut up…
But as time went on my outside status began fading slightly, perhaps because of the elves slowly getting used to my presence, perhaps because I acted out the role of Courtlounger in a less strenuous way compared to my predecessors. Within the halls of Heasinddare where I spent more and more time I began indulging myself in discussing politics, while some met me with a firmly critical standpoint others showed great interest in my ideals and propositions.
Especially interested was a distant relative to duke Heasinddare, a young girl whom had a strange fascination with other cultures in general. While I was not able to account for much when it came to the ways of the humans we spoke of the dwarves and I recounted my earlier escapades with various greenskins.
After merely a few months not only had I managed to gain various friends throughout the city but the general consensus was also slowly shifting in my favor. While I still got a lot of harsh looks from the seemingly inconvincible military it seemed as if I was beginning to gain some trust from the council, occasionally I was even allowed to fulfill my duties as the Courtlounger by being the spokesperson at select events, needlessly to say I was not very good at it though…
My hard work at the archives was paying off and before I knew it I could read without the help of my inner benefactors, at this point I moved on to reading more advanced literature. Before I knew it I had become quite knowledgeable, especially for a dwarf. I couldn’t help but consider a more academic career as I seemed more suited for this than the adventuring life or hard labor. I’d make a great bookkeeper…or an administrator…hmmm….
The voices had become quite bored with my daily routine at this point and were anxious to do something else; in the end they decided on attempting to set up a business of some kind. In a city without an economical system this seemed quite counterproductive but the voices were sufficiently confident in their ability to succeed. The plan was to delve into various enterprises where being a dwarf might act as a beneficial factor. To start off we tried to start a farming business which turned out to be a complete fiasco due to my poor farming skills as well as the fact that the elves got all their natural products seemingly out of nowhere. I tried to investigate but never managed to figure out how it worked tough. Well if they don’t need food then what do they need? Rocks! We followed up the previous failure with attempting to set up a stone importing business. Sadly we came off to a slow start firstly due to my lack of contacts outside of the city and secondly because of my inability to leave myself. But we did not give up there! Instead we set up a system where a few elven lackeys would move the stone from a rocky area just a few weeks march away. Unfortunately this met no commercial success either as the food that was traded for the transferred rocks equaled that of the provisions used to make the trip, and thus ended our attempts at conquering the elven market for good.
Instead I began spending more and more time with the Heasinddare girl whom shared many of my beliefs and still held a great interest for the world outside of the Seraté. She was fairly unlike the other members of high society in her carefree nature and even though she had the finesse of a noble woman she was comparatively a bit rough around the edges. While she was generally very easy to hold a conversation with she was also very moody and stubborn, leaving me feeling a bit lost sometimes. While she enjoyed hearing of my travels I was got to see many wonderful sights within the city walls, the view from one of the soaring messaging towers, the grand Heasinddare gardens bathed in silvery moonlight and even the majestic interior of the towering oak.
As time went on however I couldn’t stop wondering about the order and their mysterious ways, around the city you’d catch a glimpse of their white and golden robes but even though they walked amongst the normal people no one seemed to know anything about them. It finally reached a point where my curiosity had grown too strong so I decided to investigate.
Getting in turned out to be surprisingly easy, well, for the Courtlounger at least. As I sat with them during various sessions of preaching I found it all fairly convincing, how the Sun was the source of all energy and how it was absorbed into plants and later consumed by animals. They appeared to have thought of everything except for one little detail, there is no sun in caves yet there lives a lot of different creature. Nevertheless I was very impressed by their teachings and some dormant religious feelings had awoken within me.
Meanwhile I still continued to increase my academic knowledge by further expanding my range of chosen books now including more practical types as well as lesser known pieces, unfortunately this involved a quick dip into the mind of the kobolds with the book “There is a dead bird in this bush”. It was a horrific experience and led to many questions such as; why do they keep stuff like this and who would call their autobiography “There is a dead bird in this bush”.
Time passed like this and the seasons changed, or rather they would have but for some reason the forest was as lush as ever…there must be some elven trickery at work here…
Anyway Nimzy’Heasinddare and I moved in to a humble apartment right above a bakery, it had a great view and a small canal on the hillside right above which flowed past the window. This was a strategic choice for the canal served multiple purposes firstly it formed a miniature waterfall with a bit of imagination which I for some inexplicable reason found very calming and secondly I knew that it might come in handy in case of an accident related to Gili’s hobby. As we were both nobles neither of us had to work so we spent a lot of time at the house, often accompanied by Amathspar and his mellow tunes.
Another strange event that occurred during this time was how some of the voices seemed to be regaining memories of past lives seemingly at random…
With time life just seems to gradually improve, as the first year passes I’m perhaps not popular but certainly accepted by the community. I even kept attending the order’s meetings and before I knew it I had become an initiate of the order and they even gave me a set of their characteristic robes. I was then let in on a great secret unknown to the outside world, that magic was still alive in this age. I was not as baffled by this as they perhaps they were expecting due to my fair share of weird stuff happening to me in the past. The first time I was shown it in action I was still unconvinced and a bit sceptic to the whole thing as the priest somehow produced a bright light with a stick.
While the trick itself might’ve been a bit underwhelming it had a strange effect on the voices, they all went quiet immediately as if they had simply disappeared. They returned eventually but the whole event was very unusual. While I wasn’t completely sold on the trick with the stick I later witnessed a true miracle as one of the patriarchs returned a fallen bird back to life. I also got a bit more insight in the organization as a whole. Apparently the organization is led by five patriarchs, the three that I’d already met as well as one from Celedome and one from Sliverslaa. Their purpose seemed to be to act as sort of a countermeasure to the work of lost souls delving into the dark arts of necromancy; while my experience with those beings was very limited some of the voices seemed to be quite familiar with the phenomena.
Another year passed this way when the council suddenly arrived with a strange request.
Most peculiar indeed… The council had not needed my services for a few months and now they asked me to join the order on a long journey to Blackheart grounds, a dark forest where no one ever went. Why that is no one really knows but people have speculated that it’s related to the towering spire which outline can be distinguished as the sun shines from behind it. The message also noted that I was need for the journey due to my familiarity with the dark arts and that I could prove most useful. Of course I could decline, there was no inclination that I would be forced to oblige however a mission like that was widely considered a great honor. When I spoke to Nimzy about she had no useful input to give me, just to follow my gut feeling.
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Topic: Cloudsprite(the peasant dwarf II?) -interactive story- (Read 176620 times)