CHAPTER 29

As Daelyn followed Gob back through the hallways, he was surprised, as they seemed to take a completely different route from where they entered. Instead of going through multiple doors and a few turns, they seemed to make multiple circles through the different hallways, go down a flight of stairs, go up one, and then they finally arrived at an empty wall instead of one of the many doors that permeated the hallways door.

The empty wall was once again a dead end, as it seemed to be a cove between two doors connecting to the adorning rooms. The dead end was just as well lit as most of the other hallways behind the library were.

As Daelyn was about to ask how they were going to proceed, Gob pushed one of the blocks of stone in the wall. The seemed to retract, as when Gob pushed the stone slab back so far that is almost seemed to fall out of the wall, the sound of gears clicking into place could be heard. The stone slab quickly retracted to its former state, as the wall in front of them started moving to the left. The sound of stone scraping against each other could barely be heard, as the underside and upside of the wall seemed to be lined with small conveyer belts that moved the large amount of stone onward.

As the wall was completely moved, there was still something that seemed to block their way out. Daelyn did not know what it was, and was about to ask Gob, until the six armed goblins walked up to it, grabbed the obstruction with his six arms on the lower side, and lifted it up.

The object that obstructed their path, turned out to be a large rug, as the fabric of the obstruction bend as the goblin pulled it upwards.

Gob quickly passed through the hole he had made, and disappeared out of sight. Daelyn quickly followed, as he did not want to be left behind.

As lifted up the rug, and made his way under it, he left the illuminated hallway behind him, and entered another one of the poorly lit library rooms. However, the large rug had gave way to a room Daelyn hadn’t seen yet. It was an odd room, as it was covered with different kinds of furs and skulls from different kinds of animals, there were different chests and weapon racks seemingly holding all kinds of resources and weapons, and a bed with a small desk in the far right corner.

Daelyn was quite surprised at the room, as it seemed to be a room where someone would live, instead of a room that belonged to the library. He had never seen any living quarters belonging to either Orthrus or Gob, and he figured he had finally discovered one of the two.

His astonishment showed on his face, and the six armed goblin puffed his chest with pride, as he addressed the little boy in a haughty tone: “Are you fascinated by Gob’s trophies? I gained everything either from fighting beasts, fighting humans, or they were gifts from master. This is my room, and everything in here belong to Gob! Now, it’s time for you to leave, you should go home. You shouldn’t worry family, they will be sad.”

The goblin ended his plight with a caring tone, as he worried for the young boy, and didn’t want him in his room. He quickly walked over to the corner of the room that was diagonally opposite of the corner where his bed was situated, and grabbed a handle embedded in the floor. He pulled, and the floor opened up beneath him, revealing the top of a bookcase belonging to the familiar and poorly lit library.

Daelyn was quite surprised at Gob’s action, but he quickly followed the goblin, and found the entrance to the library from his room. He was quite surprised at where they were at the moment, as he had not expected there to be rooms above the library, let alone there to be the living quarters of one of its inhabitants.

As Daelyn was about to voice his surprise, Gob grabbed his legs and arms with four of his six arms, held the door open with the other two, and set Daelyn down on the bookcase under the hole. He was gently set down on it, but he could not move a muscle, as the goblin used his overwhelming strength to control Daelyn’s movements, as to make sure that the small boy would not fall off the bookshelf.

As Daelyn was gently set down on the bookshelf, he fell to his knees, as he felt his legs become unsteady from finding a foothold after the goblin took hold of him. He heard the trapdoor above him shut, as the soft thud from the contraption falling into place echoed through the quiet library.

Daelyn wasn’t looking forward to climbing down the shelfs of the bookcase, as he couldn’t even climb a tree without falling one out of three times, let alone climb down something that could fall down. However, he was pleasantly surprised as the bookcase had a ladder standing against it.

Daelyn quickly used the ladder make his way down, and wondered if that ladder had been placed there by Gob, as he had seen several ladders throughout the library adorning the bookcases, but he didn’t really know what purpose they served, as Orthrus could easily reach up to even the highest shelfs with his length, but he figured that it must have been for Gob.

He cut his thoughts short, as he needed to go home. A lot of time had already passed, and he had promised his mother that he would come home directly after the lesson.

He traversed the library, as he tried to make his way towards the only exit and entrance of the building he knew by heart. While he had been amazed by the different hallways, entrances, and exits of the different rooms of this house, he couldn’t remember a single one of them, as the layout of this house seemed as complicated as a maze. He imagined it must be a nightmare to live in, as one wrong turn would lead to being lost in your own home.

As he had traversed the sizeable maze of a library, he finally arrived at the door he had come through this morning. He still couldn’t fathom how much time had passed since this morning, and that feeling was only reinforced as he stepped outside. The sun was slowly going down, as the forest became shrouded in the fading light of the twilight. Daelyn was amazed by the forest around him, as he had never seen such a scene.

The forest was absolutely quiet, there wasn’t any growling, yelping, or chittering from animals. There were no songs from the birds that inhabited the forest, no howling wolfs, no chirping from crickets. There was only silence, as it seemed like the forest had been abandoned by its inhabitants.

As the absence of the natural flora of the forest, and the fading light of the twilight mixed, they created a surreal scene, as if the world was becoming completely silent. As if a new age was dawning, an age that would experience the slow disappearance of the sun as the world was slowly bathed in darkness, and the night and everything that it harboured would come crashing down on it like a calamity. Daelyn felt that he was in the twilight of everything at the moment, the time where you should prepare for the future, as it would be quite dark in a small amount of time.

Daelyn quickly discarded the thoughts, as he needed to get home, and the lighting of a small plain in a very, very large forest in a very large world could never reflect the state of that world.

With a reassuring thought, Daelyn quickly crossed the several hundreds of metres to the closest entrance to the path through the trees, or tree path. Daelyn really didn’t know what to call it, as the long name was irritating, and nobody used something shorter.

As he arrived at the entrance to tree path, he quickly got on the tree path, and sped off towards his home.

It took several minutes for him to arrive at the branching path that led to his house. He ran at full speed the whole way, and was completely out of breath as he finally arrived. The branching path was nicely adorned with a fence that made sure people wouldn’t carelessly plunge a dozen metres to their death. Both the path and the fence seemed to be made from the wood of the trees that the forest consisted of, making it seem like it was more of a part of the forest and the trees than anything else.

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He walked the rest of the way towards his home.

He was once again made aware of the twilight, as the small birds stopped chirping one by one, the small herbivores of the forest made their way towards their homes, and the early predators started waking up.

It was quite the sight to behold all of this from above, as the dozen metres between him and the forest floor allowed him to bask in the natural glory  of the flora and fauna of this forest held.

He noticed that it was unnaturally quiet as he made the last steps towards the front door. Normally, there would be some kind of sound coming from the inside of the house, as someone would be doing something. Cyrus would be playing, Lyvia cleaning or training, and Grey helping with the household chores or playing with either Cyrus or Daelyn.

As Daelyn knocked on the door, and it slowly opened as the force from his knock had pushed the unlocked door back a little.

The house was abandoned, and no one seemed to be present. Daelyn was quite surprised at this, as he had expected everyone to be home. He could understand that Grey wasn’t here, as his work would hold him up from time to time, but he had expected Cyrus and Lyvia to be here, as there wasn’t anything today that would require them to leave the house.

As he strolled through the living room, he became more and more wary, and concerned. The dining table hadn’t been cleared after lunch it seemed, the toy box hadn’t been tidied up, and what concerned Daelyn most was that the door hadn’t been locked.

While the chance of being burglarised was very small, there was a chance that a monster or animal would enter the open door, and mess up the house. It has happened that babies were killed by wild animals or monsters that entered the house through an unlocked door.

As he had finally scanned the whole living room, he turned his attention back to the door, and stared at it with a questioning gaze. He did not know why they had left it unlocked, until he actually looked at the backside of the door, a note was plastered on it.

‘Daelyn, something has arisen, and I’m are going with Cyrus to Elrieden. I’m sorry that we can’t hear about your magic lesson, but there is a serious issue. We will be coming home later in the night, so if you are hungry, just grab something from the kitchen.

Lyvia.’

Daelyn was quite surprised at this note, but he did not fret about it for very long. He was worried for Cyrus, but he knew that worrying about it wouldn’t help him, so he could only await their return, and provide Cyrus with any necessary aid.

As Daelyn settled in and awaited their return, the events that had transpired at Elrieden’s house were quite severe. Daelyn was wise to prepare for their return, as it would bring grave news, and another obstruction for his best friend.

Earlier that morning, Cyrus and Ayda had been happily playing until lunch. They had played house extensively, and had earned some laughs from Lyvia as they tried to imitate another round of ‘sex’ by having an even more violent wrestling match. Surprisingly, Ayda won the wrestling match, and as she left Cyrus in the dust, Lyvia beckoned the two over for lunch.

They had some basic bread supplemented with some fats from the beasts they slaughtered for dinner.

The two children greatly enjoyed the lunch, and almost wanted to continue playing house during the lunch, until a knock on the door could be heard, and another one, and another one. The knocks seemed oddly hurried, as if the person behind the door didn’t have any time to spare.

As Lyvia made her way over, with brisk paces, several more knocks resounded through the room, which were met by irritated mumbling from Lyvia concerning something along the lines of; ‘stop knocking asshole’.

As she finally made her way to the door, and opened it, she was surprised. Nero Elrieden was standing in the doorway, and he had a hurried yet solemn expression on his face. His breathing was ragged, his clothes had a few nicks here and there, and a small branch was sticking out from his pocket. It seemed like he got here in a hurry, and that he had come by traversing the forest floor, which alarmed Lyvia greatly. She did not know why he would come here in such a hurry.

As she was about to ask for his intentions, she was interrupted by Nero who spoke with a heavy tone.

“We need to get to the mayor’s house. There is something urgent going on. I can’t go into details now, but I’m here to escort you and Cyrus there. It is very urgent.”

His message carried a mysterious implication, as the only thing that was made clear is that it was urgent. Lyvia did not like the abscene of details, and she met his gaze with an apprehensive one, and said with a solemn and wary: “I would like to know a little bit more about what could be so urgent.”

Nero sighed, before saying with a quiet voice: “I can only tell the Theandor family and the Tyrrith family about the situation, it can’t be released into the public before you guys know.”

Lyvia understood his intentions, but she replied to him with a stern voice.

“If you can’t tell me now, I can understand that. We will go to Ellith, but you need to take little Ayda home. We can’t take her home, as he we’re going to Elrieden, and she can’t just walk on her own. She is only three years old! Her mother brought her this morning, so I would rather have someone make sure that she is save.”

 Nero’s expression turned quite irritated, but he complied in the end, as he couldn’t just leave a child standing there. He wasn’t going to dishonour the family name, especially if it’s something small like moving a child from one place to another.

Lyvia quickly moved away from the door, and walked over to Cyrus and Ayda who were still sitting at the dining table. She turned her attention towards Ayda, and said with an apologetic and soft tone: “I’m sorry Ayda, but we need to go to the mayor’s house, so Nero here will bring you home. I don’t like ending the playdate early, so you’re welcoming to come back any time, okay?”

She accompanied her sincere apology with a smile, as she tried to bring the message to Ayda with a soft packaging, as she could hardly say ‘fuck off’ to the little girl. She hoped that Ayda would understand the message.

Sadly enough, she took the message the wrong way.

She met Lyvia’s gaze, as said with a confident and defiant tone: “Can’t I come with you? I want to know what is going on, especially if it concerns Cyrus.”

The child seemed quite cute, as she pleaded to the two adults to join them on their journey, and before Lyvia could respond to the girl’s attempt to persuade them, it was quickly shot down by Nero, who wasn’t going to be soft with the child.

“We can’t take you with us. Something urgent has come up, and we want the Tyrrith and Theandor family to know first. You will hear about it later when the information is made public, but we want the concerned parties to be informed with their relatives only, as it the news is quite heavy. It isn’t that you can’t come, but it would be better for everyone involved if you didn’t, as coming wouldn’t help anyone.” Nero said with a grim tone, a tone which made clear that he wouldn’t allow any room for discussion.

Lyvia quickly grabbed Cyrus, and headed off towards the mayor’s house, while Nero picked up Ayda, and took her to her home.

Cyrus had been snatched up from the kitchen chair by Lyvia, and they had quickly left their home. They were speeding along the forest floor, and they were coming closer and closer to the mayor’s mansion.

Lyvia was quite startled by Nero’s sudden arrival, but she did not let it show, as it would only dishearten Cyrus. She knew that if Elrieden would send one of his sons to get someone, it would be because he didn’t have anyone to spare, and there was a very urgent matter at hand.

It would take quite a bit of time to reach the mayor’s house, but they were making good mileage, as they weren’t limited by the paths that were carved into the trees. The forest floor was must faster in this regard, as it allowed one to go into any direction, without any real obstacle such as traffic, or the designated paths of the tree path.

As they came closer and closer to the village centre, they also encountered more and more people. Lyvia shot a bright smile towards most of them, but her smile was only met with a sympathetic and dejected expression, as their expressions seemed to change the moment they saw Cyrus, and they were always the same ones, always filled with sympathy and sorrow for the small boy.

This worried Lyvia greatly, as sympathy never meant anything good. With the gazes of her fellow dark elves spurring her on, she increased her pace, and tried to traverse the remaining distance to the Elrieden household in an as short as possible timespan, as she was both apprehensive and insistent on finding out what happened. She had adopted Cyrus as her son only recently, and she wouldn’t let that Tyrrith family drag him down once again.

It took only several more minutes before they finally arrived at the Elrieden household. It seemed to be quite busy, as both civil servants and shamans were walking around at a jogging speed, trying to accomplish their tasks in a couth yet timely matter.

They were quickly noticed by one of the shamans of the household, and were brought to Elrieden’s office in under a minute.

As they stood in front of the door, they did not know what to expect, but they steeled their resolve, and entered. They would be greatly surprised, and depressed by the news they would receive, as Cyrus would once again find himself torn between his new and old family, as motherly love bound him to both.