118: The Duskwall Army
Chapter 118: The Duskwall Army
REYTH
The idea of wearing metal on the body wasn’t new, but the dwarves did it so well.
Reyth was not a great fighter, but in all her travels she had learned a thing or two about defending herself. She could see how well-crafted the iron plates were, how deliberately they interlinked with one another. The dwarves came across as slow and ponderous when they moved, but the armor they wore gave them so much more protection than the elf soldiers they trained with, and didn’t inhibit their movements at all.
Many of the elves had taken to wearing at least a light plate over their chest and back, protecting their vitals, and a few had practiced with metal in shields. From what Reyth had heard, these sorts of innovations had been tried before, but the dwarven mastery of shaping metal had made them far more practical to use in combat. Most still preferred cured and layered leather with enchantments woven into it, but the dwarves had opened up a new opportunity for battle.
Reyth was glad, now, that the Elder hadn’t pushed more aggressively about the missing elf. A conflict between elves and dwarves would have been devastating for the elves. Apparently battles between different dwarven communities were much more bloody and lethal than the occasional war that the elves fought with one another, which usually ended after only handful of casualties. The dwarves were much more prepared for a lengthy conflict against another intelligent species, since they’d fought one another so much more often.
She wasn’t really an expert on battle situations, but Reyth was not so naive as to think a war between elves and dwarves in the dwarven homeland would have gone well.
It still unnerved her to see the cluster of her people with the dwarves, practicing. Even after the road was finished, it would take months to get back to the Homelands, and the dwarves weren’t ready to try setting up colonies underground far away. Instead they had agreed to train the elves in return for enchanted weaponry, in order to help fight the burrowing colonies of the bugs that had been appearing everywhere.
Reyth had also been lucky that some dragon nearby had felt her idea of giving a dwarf a Quest to set that up was a good idea.
“You’re looking much more introspective than you used to.”
The voice was familiar, but it took a moment for Reyth to place it. The name clicked just as she was turning around to see the other elf perched behind her.
“Vasha, it’s been a long time.” Reyth flicked her ears in a greeting to the other Sister.
Vasha clambered over to settle beside Reyth on the rooftop, where she’d been watching the sparring and drills in the distance. Vasha was only a Third Generation, and she’d only started serving as a [Sisterhood Attendant] for this lifetime. Reyth was pretty sure she was a transient, and wouldn’t be brought into the tiny inner circle of multi-lifers like herself.
Though Reyth wasn’t sure she’d go back to being an attendant next life. She wasn’t even sure she’d find anyone to Bond with. The pressure of being one of the Guiding Attendants for seven generations was much less appealing now that she’d seen the world. Even if it had been excellent practice for the subtle guidance of Quests that she’d been doing as a [Dragon Bride].
As Vasha flexed her toe claws, the other Sister twitched an ear again in a light, playful flutter of amusement. “You left us all struggling when you left, you realize. Nobody quite knew how much you’d been doing, so the rest of us had to fill in the gaps. Are you coming back to the Sisterhood?”
“I never left the Sisterhood, I carried it with me.” Reyth waggled her tail at Vasha in a light chiding motion. “As for being an attendant… I’m not sure. I think I’ll be leaving again soon, I’ve already been here longer than I thought I would be. I didn’t know you liked to climb up to the rooftops, did you pick up that habit while I was away?”
With a light chuckle, Vasha tilted an ear downward. Wrong guess. “No, I heard you were back – everyone has – and I remembered how you liked to spend your time up here. At least until we found you groaning on the ground and you had the sudden urge to travel.”
The question behind that comment was obvious, but Reyth didn’t take the bait. She liked Vasha, but explaining her life to this point wasn’t what she wanted to do right now. “It is the best place to watch the training they’re doing.”
Vasha’s glowing green eyes stared at Reyth for a few long moments before she turned toward the view. “It is, at that. We’ve heard so much in the last few hands of years. Dungeons, the Scourge, these rooken creatures… did you ever see any of them in your travels?”
Realizing that the prying questions wouldn’t stop, Reyth sighed and considered how to answer. “I never saw a rooken, they were just starting to migrate to the cities when I headed back here. I only saw a few of the Scourge from far away, and I never entered a dungeon. I did meet an Elder Dragon, though.”
A twitch of her tail showed Vasha was listening, even if she was staring at the soldiers practicing further down the mountain. “Do you think there is something going on with all of these happening at once? Does the Scourge come from the dungeons? That’s what I’ve been hearing. Or that we’re being pushed away, like the gods are rejecting us.”
“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Reyth replied without thinking. “Maybe they’re all related, but I don’t think the gods are against us. I think it’s a kind of test. I’m not sure what the test is for, though. I have a friend who is a lot better at this kind of thing.”
Vasha started to say something more, but a new and enthusiastic voice interrupted the conversation.
“Oh! A friend? Is it me? It’s me, isn’t it?”
A new Aravel slid down the shallow slope of the roof, right into Reyth’s side. Arms wrapped around the girl in a tight hug, and the strange pressed cheek to cheek with Reyth, warm body nestling in close with a familiarity that was… confusing, to say the least.
Vasha jerked her head around to stare at the roof behind her, and Reyth knew why she was confused. Neither had heard or smelled anyone approaching, and the newcomer hardly seemed the sort for stealth. She did have a scent, and the subtle familiarity combined with the appearance out of nowhere immediately told Reyth exactly who the newcomer was.
That, and the distinct lack of a concept of personal space.
“Wry–” Reyth started to say the name, but a finger pressed to her lips and shushed her in an instant.
“My name is Akasha,” the new girl said with a bright, tail-wiggling enthusiasm. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry about the gods hating you! It may get a little rough for a while but you’ll all be fine.”
Vasha stared at the strange new elf uncertainly, and even Reyth couldn’t hide her confusion at first. The new look had thrown her, expectations completely different than this.
Finally, she managed to get her thoughts together enough to react. “Akasha… I guess your um… discussion with your parents went well?”
Akasha let go of the arm and held up two fingers, one from each hand. “I talked to them separately because it was easier, but it turns out mother had kind of known already, and was helping me hide until she could figure out what was going on. She was pretty happy it wasn’t a–” She stopped suddenly and glanced at Vasha. “A dungeon-related problem.”
“That’s good.” Reyth wasn’t sure how to react to all this, but found she was genuinely happy. For all the trouble she caused, Wryna – or Akasha now – seemed more like a curious child than anything else. “You’re um… looking well. Is that because of this?”
The elf’s ears wiggled in the affirmative. “Yes! I hope you like the new look. Father agreed to it, and mother kind of put it together.”
Reyth couldn’t help but notice that Akasha was really bad at hiding she wasn’t a normal elf.
“It’s very nice, but why don’t you tell us about why we shouldn’t worry? I’m sure Vasha here, who hasn’t been away from the Sisterhood much, doesn’t know much about these things.”
Akasha blinked a few times at Reyth, but the enthusiasm held a pretty sharp mind. She caught the meaning and looked over to Vasha thoughtfully.
“The Scourge isn’t that bad, they just have numbers.” Akasha scooted in close again and hugged Reyth’s arm. “The dwarves can make metal things that pierce their shells, and the metal weapons will be useful for the dungeons. It will all work out. The rooken are even working with the elves near them. If the elves teach the rooken things, they’ll grow and join in fighting the dungeons and the Scourge.”
That all sounded like quite the plan, and Reyth hoped Akasha hadn’t put it together herself. Vasha had other thoughts. “But where did the Scourge come from? Where did the dungeons come from? That’s what I can’t figure out. Were they there all this time and we just now started seeing them at the same time?”
“The world is a very big place,” Reyth pointed out. “We’ve known that for a long time. We have the ancestral road to the Homelands, but how much of the world off of that road do we really know? How far Dawnward do we know? Do we even know if there’s a Dawnwall like there’s a Duskwall?”
She knew the answer. No one had yet to reach all the way to the Dawnwall, but it made sense that it existed. When she had been in the Homeland, there had been talk that it might only be a few more lifetimes before someone managed to return from the Dawnwall. But Vasha didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t important right now.
Akasha probably knew, but she seemed disinclined to say one way or the other. Instead, she wiggled one ear in a dismissive gesture. “Things have to happen sometime. There are many things in the world that you’ve never seen, and that applies to all elves, not just you.”
Vasha sighed out a breath and looked at the far-off soldiers. “Yes, I know. I’m just worried about them. We have some of the Scourge here, but I have heard it’s much worse in the Homelands. They’re going to be fighting long, and a lot of elves will die.”
“The world can be a harsh place.” Akasha slid to the edge of the roof. “I think something a lot bigger is coming. Maybe in a few lifetimes. I just want everyone to be prepared.”