Chapter 398: The Lunar Elect
Silver Hall Keep’s pillars loomed over the goblins, so high up that the torchlight did not reach the ceiling. The walls and floor were not built from bricks but carved from the rough-hewn rock of the mountainside itself. Unlike the Celestial Shrine, there were no statues, paintings, or any semblance of art dedicated to Sylvan's history here.
The Keep was built as the greatest line of defense of Evenfall and its final refuge. Even now, 300 years after the fall of Lunis, the grim nature of what was lost and what the people had endured, filled the castle with a bitter gloom that permeated the air.
The Sylvan emissary, Otley, and his small retinue of guards led Stryg, Aurelia, Virella, and Jahn through the vast halls of the castle. Aurelia had at first rejected Stryg’s proposal to join them, but he had insisted, since the whole reason they had come was to petition the Sylvan tribunal for aid and assistance in the defense of Hollow Shade.
Even then Aurelia had refused until Jahn politely added that it would give them a stronger standing if a shaman was with them when they went to meet the Lunar Elect, the tribunal of the Sylvan.
Virella, the Silver Mother, insisted on joining them. Despite Aurelia’s standoffish attitude, she nodded gratefully at her friend’s support. The Silver Mother was still the high priestess of the Sylvan and her voice carried weight, even in the hall of the Lunar Elect.
Tauri and Plum had been left behind in the Celestial Shrine. Everyone had agreed that it would be safer for all parties involved if the drow and orc stayed in the temple instead of coming face-to-face with the most influential and powerful goblins of the realm.
Stryg personally wished they were here, standing by his side. Something about the castle felt off, dangerous even. His droopy ears twitched every few seconds as if searching for something lurking in the shadows.
As a child, Stryg had dreamed of visiting this place, imagining himself a hero returning triumphantly from a great hunt. Now he found himself at the other end of his dream. The guards patrolling the castle kept staring at him and his companions with a wary gaze, almost as if they were the enemy.
After what felt like a short eternity Otley led them through a massive pair of gates and into the throne room. The room was like none Stryg had ever seen. The hall was constructed in an open-air design. While there were walls behind and to the sides of them, there was no wall in front of them, revealing the mountain range sprawled over the horizon, like a giant window into nature. Yet curiously, the howling winds of the mountains did not reach the throne room. In fact, the large chamber was fairly quiet and particularly cold.