“The elf King,” The tinny version of the Librarian’s voice continues, “at the advice of the Lords, lied and said the dwarves attacked first. The dwarf King, instead of trying to reason with him or deny his claims, declared that they would fight back. Both raised new armies, paid them in food, and prepared to fight.”

“And fight they did.” Battlefields long forgotten flash through my vision. Faceless corpses with bloody armor, arrows and spears sticking out of them at deadly angles litter the ground. I don’t move, don’t dare take a step in any direction for fear of trampling on the dead. The scenes are so realistic, the smell of rot setting in makes me want to puke. “For the next few hundred years,” The voice continues, undaunted by the gruesomeness of what it is describing, “little changed. That first winter was harsh on both sides, but the winters afterward were better. War thinned the population as a whole. It gave the people a place to direct their anger. There were less farmers, but less mouths to feed as well.

“At one point, the elves discover the secret for immortality. Over the next couple hundred years, all the elves accept immortality. They no longer die from old age, and their population starts slowly growing again.

“Around a thousand years later, the dwarves face internal chaos after the church overthrows the government. Any true history of the war is lost on their side, as the church declares it a holy war, saying there is no way the two races can ever make peace. However, while the new dwarven leadership tries to solidify their hold over the empire, the elves gain ground using the expertise of their generals with hundreds of years of experience.

“Around this time, the dwarven church also eradicates any magic that they don’t control. All knowledge of magic use is restricted to clerics of the church.” I frown, surprised. Dwarves once had magic outside of the church? I think back, and remember the image of the student being kicked out of the school and floating his bags off the property. I suppose it makes sense… But why would the church ban it? The only conclusion I can reach is to further solidify their hold. But that obviously didn’t work that well, since they’re no longer in power. The tinny version of the Librarian’s voice doesn’t comment on the reason why though, just continuing with his tale.

“Eventually, control reverts to a noble house that claimed to be related to the old king, but the war is already enshrined in dwarf history as religious in nature, and magic recoined as sorcery as the church explores its possibilities.” Here the scene settles on a small dark room, with nearly twenty dwarves in habits taking notes as they observe one of their number casting a spell. “Possibly because of the desperation felt by their limited lifespans, the dwarves manage to come up with many more non-magical inventions than the elves during this time period. They advance on the war front, and eventually-” The scene switches to a burning city, the same city that I’d looked out over from a balcony earlier in this vision. Before I can try to figure out anything else though, it blurs into colorful streaks. “-they conquer the capital city in elven territory. The elves are sent into chaos for the next couple hundred years, as all of their Ancients– and with them most of the stockpiled knowledge of history, strategy, and culture for the elves–are killed off. Luckily for the elves, their royalty and a few top commanders had been visiting the warfront, so the chain of command is still intact, if just barely.” The tinny voice says, an emotionless constant amidst all the shifting, spinning colors. “The elves still haven’t fully recovered from this blow, only rebuilding their capital 659 years ago. They lost a lot of land and morale before and during the time spent rebuilding. On top of that, their King also suffered, and later died from an assassination because he was so unpopular for letting the capital burn. His family was voted out, the Mithrandirs came to power, and their dynasty has lasted till the present day.” A picture of the royal family, Faladel’s family, hesitates in my field of vision, and then streaks off to join the mass of color circling me.

“In the meantime,” The tinny version of the Librarian’s voice continues, “The dwarves continued moving their armies forward both physically and technologically. Without magic, they learned to use coal and steam to power devices and heat homes, while elves still used the more traditional wood and magic. With the dwarves new sources of power came new weapons. The elves responded to this by weaponizing their magic, training mages how to fight, and requiring a certain amount to be in the army constantly, even going so far as to pay for the training directly if the mages promised to fight for ten years afterwards.” An image of a row of elves in blue cloaks kneeling before Faladel’s father, flickers into view temporarily, and then fades to become the symbol of the church as the tinny voice continues with its tale.

“Here the dwarven church found a new way to become important again. It was simple enough, just produce battle sorcerers to counteract the elven mages. The church began specially training sorcerers to counteract battle magic, but the process was slow, and made difficult because they shunned any outside influences. This helped them keep their monopoly on magic, but limited how many sorcerers they could train and their ability to keep up with elven innovations in magic use. But after realizing how much power a successful sorcerer veteran could wield politically, dwarven nobility rushed to establish ties between themselves and the church to train their offspring.”

“By this time, however, the dwarven sorcery and elvish magic had changed so much that they weren’t even compatible in most cases.” What looked like a blackboard halted in front of me, and an animated figure sprung to life upon it. “Almost everyone could use the elvish version of magic, its power came from a wellspring within the person, and so was natural to use.” The Librarian continued, and blue lines grew from where the blackboard person's heart would be, spreading to the fingers and materializing as a spell. “The elves focused on improving wellspring efficiency and figuring out new ways to use the wellspring. Dwarven sorcery, however, had developed a more powerful technique, and had abandoned the inner wellspring as they couldn’t figure out ways to improve upon it. Using outside sources of power, typically blood, wasn’t the most ethical method, but it was faster and could easily be scaled to create more powerful spells.” The blue lines erased themselves, and a corpse appeared near the blackboard figure. It shed more of the blue lines, which formed a larger version of the same spell. A bunch of red lines, presumably enemy magic, attempted to attack the drawing of a person, and the blue lines formed a large shield protecting him and the corpse. “One dwarf sorcerer with medium proficiency and ten sacrifices of his size or larger, could easily hold off spells from seven skilled elven mages.” The voice concludes, and the drawings and the blackboard swirl away and join the shifting mass of color.

“Not everybody could control such power, since taking power from outside the body destabilizes many spells and carries a higher risk of power rejection. However, the church didn’t have the resources to train entire battalions of sorcerers, this wasn’t seen as a hindrance at first. The nobles started arranging marriages with sorcery compatibility in mind, and quickly grew to become the singular supplier of sorcerer candidates. Because of this, many major noble houses have close ties with the church.” An image of a dwarf in fancy clothes shaking hands with a dwarf in the robes of a high priest fills my field of vision, and I watch as they sit down to a meal together. My stomach rumbles, and I briefly wonder how long we’ve been in here exactly, watching all these scenes play out.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“As an added bonus, with the sorcerers from the church saving all these lives on the battlefield, more and more common dwarves began to pay attention to the church and its teachings. This, combined with support from the nobility, caused the church to gain significant political power over the masses.” The image of the nobles eating with the high priest fade, and in their place appears the symbols of the different political factions. The Star of Seven for the Church; the Unending Eyes for the House of Yamat, the most powerful of the noble houses; and the Crown over Crossed Spears, the familiar symbol of the Royal family and Army. “This makes the Church, the Nobility, and the dwarven Royalty the factions you will have to work with to create peace. Balderk Ungart can probably give you his own information on the current political status of the different noble houses and members of the royal family.”

The tinny record of the Librarian’s voice fades as it finishes, and so do the symbols. I blink, and suddenly we are seated again. My legs are stiff, and ache when I stand up. “You do know–” I start to say, and then stop as my vision fades to black spots around the corners. “Woah!” I exclaim as the world spins a little and then settles and my vision returns to normal.

“Careful!” The Librarian exclaims, reaching out a hand to steady me. “Coming back from the illusions can be quite disorienting. Your actual body hasn’t moved, eaten or drunk anything in hours. Don’t try to move around too fast, or you might fall over.”

“I’m fine.” I mutter. And I am. Well, I am now. “You do know,” I restart, frowning at the Librarian, “That I was a simple soldier? I know very little about politics.”

“They already know some things, you already know some things.” The Librarian shrugs. “When you put your information together, you’ll have plenty to work with. Besides Balderk Ungart, you probably know more than you think. After all, you were the one who found out about the Scourger.”

“That was simply luck!” I protest.

“Which you’ll definitely need plenty of to finish this quest.” The Librarian replies stubbornly. He turns away from me, helping Briareth and Faladel to their feet. “Now,” He continues, “who’d like refreshments? I have water, tea, juice, maybe a bit of milk left, along with plenty of sandwiches.” I open my mouth to ask for beer, but before a syllable comes out he adds on. “Sorry, no alcohol Balderk Ungart, I’m underage.” I blink, stunned, but Briareth beats me to asking about it.

“How are you underage? You’re over 500 years old right?”

“In game yes, out of game no. I can’t explain any better than that.” The Librarian says and claps his hands together. “So what will it be? Juice? Water?”

After we all choose drinks and sandwiches– I apparently wasn’t the only one who got hungry –the Librarian has us re-roll the dice for another persuasion check. “This one,” He tells us as he calculates our modifiers. “is for bonus information.” I’d rolled a twelve, Briareth and Faladel both got sixteens. I thought we might have to roll again because of the tie, but the Librarian glances at the numbers and declares. “Faladel Mithrindir, the ban on you speaking is temporarily lifted. You have one question. Go.”

Faladel doesn’t even hesitate, like he’d hoped this was coming. “You implied earlier when Briareth interrupted that you had a solution- a way to end this war -in mind when you gave us all the information. What would be your first step in this path to ending this war, besides obviously making your way to the capital?”

The Librarian’s eyebrows lift. “Interesting question. Why not ask directly for the plan I had in mind?” Faladel blinks at him silently, and then acts like he’s answering the question, but doesn’t let any sound out. I snort at his pettiness, and the Librarian rolls his eyes. “You can talk.” He allows.

“I guessed that you wouldn’t answer it if I asked directly, and since I didn’t want to waste my one question, I decided it would be better to beat around the bush and try to figure out what you had in mind from there.”

“Well, it works.” The Librarian shrugs, his cloak rustling against his chair. “I’d first talk to the King, and then to the Prince. The King probably won’t agree to peace, he’s in a position of power with the Scourger after all. The Prince, though, might feel differently depending on what you have on offer. He doesn’t have a good relationship with his father, and he’d make a powerful ally if you can get him on your side.”

“Question!” Briareth breaks in, raising his hand like he’s in school.

“Yes?” The Librarian answers, glancing his direction.

“Do we also get to ask for hints, or will it just be Faladel who gets to ask them?”

“Faladel had the better modifier, so the highest score. He is the only one who gets to ask a question.”

“Drat.” Briareth mutters.

“Why, what were you–” Faladel starts, but the librarian immediately shuts him up.

“Hush, you are back to the no talking rule again.” Faladel’s jaw drops in protest. The Librarian grins, revealing carefully sharpened teeth that I hadn’t noticed earlier. Only the creep factor of those teeth stops me from snorting again at the amount of pettiness in that smile.

“You all can stay as long as you want,” The Librarian continues. “As long as you follow my rules. I’d suggest at least staying the night, as it’s currently dark out.”

“Wait…” Briareth hesitates. “How long exactly were we in that vision of yours?”

“I’d estimate over twelve hours,” The Librarian replies calmly, “but I don’t like clocks, so I can’t tell you exactly how long. Shall I go prepare beds for you three?”

Faladel, Briareth and I exchange glances. “Yes, please!” Briareth accepts for the group. Once the Librarian leaves, Faladel lets out a long breath. “So, what do you guys think?”

“About which part?” I ask him.

“Well, any of it really, but specifically I was looking for suggestions on how to best make peace.”

“I think” Briareth chimes in, “that the librarian will have you keep up the whole no-talking thing the entire time we’re here.”

“Off topic, but apt.” Faladel agrees, sighing. “That will be quite aggravating.”

“Also,” Briareth pipes up again. “I think that if there’s three main powers, we should try to make two join us to overrule the last one.”

“We should also try to follow the Librarian’s suggestion.” I add in, “He was right about the king and prince not being on the best terms. I don’t know what caused it, but the leader of the Prince’s Private Guard is always out of sorts with the army Generals. I overheard some of the Lieutenants gossiping about it.”

“Your Prince has his own guard?” Faladel asks, confused.

“You sure overhear a lot of things.” Briareth comments, “Didn’t you overhear about the Scourger’s existence as well?”

I ignore Briareth, and focus on Faladel. “There was an assassination attempt a while back.” I explain, “It took out the prince’s sister. After that, they upped security. Not quite sure why he got his own guard, or why they didn’t merge the two groups, but he ended up with a very small private army. That’s probably why the Librarian wants him on our side. You know, in case things go sour.”

“Which is rather likely.” Briareth adds on. “We should have a plan for that.”

“Plans in the morning. We can each brainstorm tonight.” Faladel replies, as the Librarian arrives back and proceeds to guide us to our rooms.