Chapter 355: Unclear Motives
The Sorcerers of Sundered Earth.
Very little was known about the secretive organization that hid themselves away at the bottom of a canyon in a region the Eldritch called the ’Forsaken Lands.’ It was an area of desolation where the sun baked the earth to brick during the day and froze what little water could be found at night. The land was criss-crossed with deep canyons that looked like they had been gouged into the earth by a being of tremendous size.
No Eldritch Lord laid claim to the Forsaken Lands and no one saw any reason to fight for them. However, some groups, like the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth, found the isolation offered by the brutal, unforgiving environment to be worth the heavy toll the climate took on any settlement that established itself there.
"I don’t know much," Ashlynn admitted when Captain Lennart asked about them. "Big sister only told me that, if I ever wanted to study the oldest sorcery in the Eldritch world, I should visit the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth. She said they had libraries that could rival Philosar’s and that even the Gnawing Death coveted some items in their collection."
"It goes a bit beyond just having a vast library," Lennart said. "These sorcerers see themselves as custodians of sorcery and learning. They seek out information about lost and fallen clans, they rescue people from clans on the brink of destruction and they horde relics of fallen nations."
"That sounds... nice?" Heila said, cocking her head to the side as she considered the mission these strange sorcerers seemed to be on. "It’s good that knowledge isn’t lost. But, aren’t the Forsaken Lands far to the west? They shouldn’t have been close enough to respond to Lady Nyrielle’s summit invitation."
"That’s just the thing," Virve said, straightening in her chair. She paused for a moment to delicately work a bit of meat from between her teeth with a claw, earning a disapproving look from Captain Lennart. The bearish woman either didn’t notice or chose to ignore his reaction as she continued, acting almost as if this was a family dinner and not a working meal shared with Lady Nyrielle’s Seneschal and a powerful new witch.
"They weren’t invited, my lady," Virve said as she flicked the piece of gristle onto her plate. "I don’t think Lady Nyrielle intended to exclude them, but the day before the summit, they just... showed up. Creepiest thing. They didn’t seem to know what was happening, but they came for the ’important gathering’ and said they’d been traveling for weeks in order to make it on time."
Lennart’s stern expression softened as he watched Ashlynn hide a smile at Virve’s casual manner. Ever since that desperate battle on the ice in the High Pass, Lady Ashlynn had treated Virve with a particular warmth that went beyond simple appreciation for a capable soldier. While part of him still wanted to enforce discipline, in Virve’s case, he needed to make himself let go. If the Seneschal herself wasn’t bothered by it, then he was in no place to make a fuss.