Three days had passed since they’d first arrived in Mireholm, and so far, everything had been very uneventful. They had barely even seen Umbra. Every time they would run across him in the hall or at meals, he seemed distracted and too busy to talk. He would quickly greet them, and then make up an excuse to quickly leave. Faro was enjoying the leisurely stay in the keep, but it was a bit frustrating that they kept being brushed off.
Even Lena wasn’t around her father. She barely spoke to anyone, and all they could gather from her was that she was still dealing with the surreal feeling of being in her childhood home without actually being there. The fact that Mireholm was an exact copy of Zelira gave her a weird feeling that she just couldn’t describe to them.
As the first few days were spent resting, the third day brought a bit more excitement. The elves invited them all to a private arena at the back of the keep. They were told it was where the elven soldiers sparred and ran training drills. It was also where elves could earn their stripes by fighting a bog troll.
“A bog troll?” asked Faro, searching his memory. “What in all of Evania is a bog troll?”
He, Tobi, and Mathias were standing on the perimeter of the arena, leaning on a low stone wall that served as the out of bounds for any sparring that took place in the arena. They were accompanied by a young-looking elf named Skye who had summoned them from their rooms for some excitement. Lena and Thora had declined the invite, telling them that they didn’t need to see more fighting anytime soon.
“A bog troll is a big, fearsome beast. Not fat and dumb like a normal troll, but tall, muscular, a beast unlike any other. The best part is, though, you can’t kill this beast. He has regenerative powers. We’ve been fighting this one for decades. Umbra retrieved him from the swamp south of Dracaryn,” Skye told them happily.
Faro looked at him oddly, and Skye realized that Faro didn’t know the lay of the land. “Dracaryn? Way up north? Land of dragons? No? Well, anyways, this old boy is the best practice we have in training. Not many who can best him!”
At the other end of the arena there was a large, iron gate that led to a small stone room. An elf pulled on a lever that wound up a chain, and the gate began to open. “They’re letting him out now?” Faro asked, a bit concerned.
“Well yeah,” said Skye, “how else are you going to fight him?”
Faro and the others were taken aback. “Fight the bog troll?” asked Mathias. “Why would we want to do that?”
Skye just smiled his wide elf smile at them. “Why do males do anything we do? We’ve got time to kill, and we want to make a sport of it!”
“Ay!” yelled Tobi. The dwarf always seemed to relish any chance he got to fight. Faro felt the need to only fight when necessary. Looking over at Mathias, he saw he was the other extreme and seemed extremely timid. All the color had gone from his face, and he clutched his sword with bare white knuckles.
“Looks like we have our first volunteer!” smiled Skye happily. He slapped Tobi on the back and the dwarf grinned ear to ear.
“Snakes, bog trolls, what's the difference?” Tobi boomed as he went around and walked through the gate to the arena. He pulled his axe from his back strap and waited. The troll’s gate was now all the way open, but it wasn't coming out. Tobi looked over at Skye expectantly, but the elf just shrugged.
“Give him a minute,” he said. “Maybe he’s fixing his hair.”
This made Tobi laugh out loud, until the ground began to shake. He got into a fighting stance with one leg back, planted firmly on the ground, both hands gripping his axe. Out of the gate a figure emerged. It was a tall beast, nine or ten feet tall. Standing in front of Tobi, it looked like an absolute giant. Its greenish-gray skin stretched over gigantic muscles. Metal bracers were on its arms, as well as a metal belt around his waist with a skull engraved where a buckle would normally be, holding up a giant pair of brown leather pants. Huge tusks protruded up out of its bottom jaw, up and outward giving the troll a permanent, menacing scowl.
The large teeth weren’t its only weapon though. In its right hand was a giant, curved club that came to a point on the end. The point wasn’t sharp enough to pierce, but sharp enough to do damage. As menacing as the creature looked, Tobi still managed to let out a laugh.
“You weren’t kidding about the hair!” he called over to Skye. Faro had to stifle a laugh too. As big and ferocious as the beast was, its long, black mane of hair was tied up on top of his head with some kind of rope. Apparently it was meant to keep its hair out of its face during the fight, but juxtaposed against the wild fanged look, it was a comical sight.
The bog troll let out a roar, its mouth opening wide, and spittle flying through the air. It smashed its club into the ground, and as it hunched over it lunged forward like an ape, ready to smash Tobi into the ground.
Tobi’s laugh quickly left him, and he found himself jumping out of the way to avoid the beast’s charge.
“Woah!” yelled Tobi, regaining his feet to swing around and meet his opponent. His axe smashed hard against the club of the troll, and the clang reverberated throughout the arena.
Skye whooped and slapped his hand of the boundary wall. “Now it’s getting good!” he yelled as the troll pulled the club back with both hands over his head and brought it down hard on the dwarf.
Tobi blocked the blow again, but the force of the swing knocked him backwards and off balance. He went tumbling and landed sprawled out on the ground. The troll pursued and repeated the move, trying to bring the club down on Tobi and smash him into the ground. The dwarf evaded by rolling back and forth on the ground to avoid each blow.
“He needs help!” Mathias exclaimed as he hopped the wall and pulled his sword in one movement. Faro was shocked at Mathias’ sudden boost of bravery. So far on their journey the healer had been hesitant to fight. Apparently, deep down, there was more bravery than was let on so far.
Faro turned to Skye and raised his own warhammer, gesturing towards the fight inside the ring. “So I guess we’re… uh…”
Skye just smiled and gestured for him to go and join his friends in the fight. Faro didn’t even wait for the elf’s hand to fall back down before he lunged over the wall with cat-like agility.
Mathias knew that his little sword wouldn’t do much against the big club and the force of the hulking bog troll, so he ran his sword into the beast’s leg, slicing up and creating a big gash.
The troll reeled back, roaring in pain, and in its fury tried to swing the club to bat Mathias away. Faro came in swiftly and blocked the blow with his war hammer. The force behind the swing was unsurprisingly strong, but the shock waves that ran up his arm weren’t something he was prepared for. Neither was the kick that the troll aimed his way, catching him in the chest and sending him flying backwards.
As Faro regained his stance and quickly helped Tobi to his feet, Mathias joined them, all of them squaring off and waiting for the troll's next move.
Faro stared in awe at the large gash that was bleeding on the troll’s leg where Mathias had stabbed it. One second blood was flowing freely from the wound, the next it abruptly stopped. They all watched in amazement as the gash glowed a bright red, and closed back up before their eyes.
“You weren't fucking kidding!” Faro yelled over at Skye on the side of the arena who looked like he was having the time of his life.
“I told you!” he called back. “King Umbra brought us this boy a long time ago! We’ve been sparring with him for ages! Not a scratch on him!”
Fully healed again, the bog troll turned it’s attention back to its three assailants. He appeared to grin at the fear on their faces as he took a few taunting steps forward, tossing his club from hand to hand. “You die!” the troll roared at them.
“Fuck! It talks!” Tobi yelled at his friends.
“We need a new strategy!” called Mathias as he took a step back to stand behind Faro and Tobi.
“Open to suggestions!” Faro yelled as he stepped forward to meet a wide, sweeping blow the troll had made to try and knock all three of them down at once. Faro braced himself and stopped the club mid-swing.
Tobi took the opportunity to swing his axe at the club, trying to cleave it in half. Instead the axe stuck into the club, but didn’t break through. “Fuck!” Tobi yelled as the troll pulled his club back towards him, Tobi and his axe flying up in the air with it.
Faro watched as Tobi was flung around like he weighed nothing. “Let go!” he yelled at the dwarf who was holding onto his axe for dear life.
Faro was surprised Tobi heard him over his own screams as he was being flung around. Tobi let go and went rolling across the field back towards Mathias and Faro. Mathias apparently hadn't even been paying attention to Tobi’s plight, as he seemed to have a plan concocted and ready to go.
“We can’t kill this thing!” Mathias told them, eying the troll as he was moving to advance again. “We have to beat it back and close the gate.”
“How the fuck do we do that? This thing is as strong as ten oxen!” Tobi yelled at Mathias. They watched as the troll pulled Tobi’s axe out of his club and tossed it back towards the dwarf. Apparently he had been trained to keep the combat going for training purposes and to fight fair.
“Take the attack to him!” Mathias snapped back. “I’ll move around him while he’s distracted and get to the gate control.”
Faro nodded and sized up their opponent. “Right. Tobi, I’ll go high, you go low,” Faro said.
Tobi picked up his axe and looked at Faro, his head tilted, eyebrow raised. “You really think I could go high?” he asked the lion sarcastically.
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Faro smiled. “Right,” he answered, stepping forward to block a swing from the bog troll. Tobi took the opportunity to come in low and bury his axe in the beast’s foot. It roared in pain and staggered backwards. Faro pushed in harder, bringing the blunt end of his war hammer in hard on the beast’s chest. He felt bone crack under the weight of his swing, and knew he’d broken some ribs on the poor troll.
A look of pain and terror crossed the troll’s face, and it brought it’s club around in a fury to try and beat back the onslaught. The club caught Tobi in the face, sending him sprawling backward and crumpling to the ground in a heap.
Faro didn’t have time to see if his friend was okay. Instead he took the opening to drive the spike end of his hammer into the troll’s leg. This was met with a spurt of blood and a loud roar and Faro pulled it back out and brought the blunt end around again in one swift movement, catching the troll across the face.
This caused it to stagger the last few steps backwards into the cage where the beast was kept, and Mathias was on cue with quickly dropping the gate back into place. The beast roared in pain as they watched the red lights flashing in the semi-darkness of the cage as the wounds of the bog troll automatically healed themselves.
When the lights blinked out, they all heard applause behind them. Looking back at the perimeter wall, Faro saw Umbra had joined Skye on the sidelines, and was now applauding their efforts against the troll, Skye next to him whooping and hollering loudly.
Mathias and Faro rushed over and helped Tobi to his feet. His face appeared to be instantly bruised from the impact, his jaw slightly out of line, broken. The dwarf grunted in pain as they all made their way over to Skye and Umbra.
“An excellent show, men! Good job!” Umbra exclaimed with joy. He took one look at Tobi and waved his hand, muttering a quick incantation. Tobi screamed as his jaw audibly snapped back into place. Faro winced in sympathy pain, imaging what it would feel like to have your jaw magically snapped back into place. “Good to go,” Umbra said, “though you’ll have the bruising for a while, unfortunately. All good though! It adds character!” he exclaimed, laughing.
“Yeah. Great. Character,” Tobi grunted back, feeling his jaw with his hand.
Umbra just kept smiling. “Not many can go up against my bog troll with such ferocity! I truly commend you all for such a good show of strength and teamwork! Now if you all would like, I’ll have the kitchens prepare a celebration for the occasion. A feast! Two days from today. I suggest you all go and clean up and try to recover before then.”
The trio didn’t argue. They hadn’t been expecting to be in a fight today, and the bog troll had certainly taken the energy out of them. They all gave a small bow to King Umbra, and headed back to their rooms in the keep.
Umbra and Skye were left alone, looking at the empty pitch, Umbra eying the bog troll through its gate. It was sitting slumped over, elbows on its knees, resting. “Thank you for the demonstration, Captain,” said Umbra with a small smile to Skye. “Now we really know what they can do.”
***
True to his word, Umbra held a feast in their honor a few days later. It was in the great hall where they’d had their first dinner in Mireholm, only this time the room was filled with tables and more elves than they’d seen since they arrived, combined.
Faro and the party were seated at the raised head table above all the others. It was surreal to be in such a place of honor. Faro was sure that he was used to it in his old life, being a prince of Incarta, but he had no memories of such extravagances.
Much to Faro’s chagrin, Umbra had allowed Jarl to sit at the head table with them. The little wolverine was seated right next to him, but was currently ignoring him and the festivities, slurping wine and wolfing down a prime cut of steak that was served to them. Faro ignored his annoyingly loud eating and scanned the room again, hoping to see the one person he couldn’t seem to find.
“Have you seen Veronica since the courtyard dance?” Faro asked Lena who was sitting on his other side.
The old elf looked concerned, her eyes scanning the room. “I was just about to ask you the same thing,” she said.
While it was a fairly big keep, it felt odd that they hadn’t seen a trace of Veronica since the dance. So far Umbra had been stonewalling them on any information about their vision visitor, but as soon as they got the information they wanted, Faro wanted to be able to grab Veronica and get out of this place. He still wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something unnerving about it.
“My father says she’s taken up studying the materials he has on Solana. Apparently he kept the old texts from the old temple that was here,” said Lena, though she didn’t sound convinced.
Jarl’s ears perked up at the sound of old texts, and he swallowed the food that was in his mouth and leaned forward to talk around Faro.
“Old texts, you say? Where’s that at?” he said, barely masking his longing.
Lena looked at him suspiciously, sipping some wine to give her time to decide if she should answer him or not. She set down her goblet and said “In Zelira, the library of texts was on the lower levels, down by the dungeons. Given that Mireholm is a mirror image of my old home, I would wager it would be down there. Why?” she added, narrowing her eyes at him.
Jarl shrugged. “Always open to a good read, you know?” he said.
“Yeah, the dwarf from war-hungry Underoth loves to read,” said Lena, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Jarl just shrugged again and went back to his food. Faro hated that people kept mentioning all of these places and kingdoms and he still had know idea what they were, though he was sure he’d been to most of them before. The frustration was biting at him enough that he decided it was time to talk to Jarl.
“So,” he started, slowly. “You and I… we both traveled with Eli, then?”
Jarl didn’t seem like he was going to answer, but then spoke after a pause. “Yeah. You both came to Underoth straight from Incarta. I was the third to join your little posse on its world tour. I didn’t really want to go, but my father decided that it was a worthy cause.” After another beat, he finished, “We fought a lot of Dark Humans together. You were sure a force to be reckoned with.”
Faro felt his face go flush. He was glad that the fighting instinct was something he kept, even after losing his memory. “Do you know what went wrong on Mt. Fluore?” he asked, hesitantly. Did he really want to know that answer?
“Nope,” said Jarl simply. “We were all given orders that we were to defeat Cosimir so that your father could rule Evania in his stead. My old man was sure pissed,” he added with a chuckle. “He still agreed to sharing his forces and getting the job done, none-the-less.”
The mystery as to why Eli had betrayed them all was gnawing at him. No one seemed to know what had happened on the mountain that night. No one knew why Eli had gone from reluctant savior to new dark king.
Jarl leaned forward and called past Faro again. “Hey! Down there! Dwarf! Mind passing me the bowl of salt? Steak needs a little flavor.”
Tobi set down his goblet and wiped red wine from his mustache. “You burnt down my bar and my home, you little fucker. Get your own damn salt!”
Faro backed his chair up a little bit. He wasn’t sure if there was about to be a fight between the dwarf and former dwarf. Jarl backed his chair up as if he was about to get up, but instead Lena grabbed the salt bowl and handed it down. “Not right now, boys. You can have it out later. This is a fancy occasion after all. Can’t be spilling blood across the fine dishes.” Faro could tell by her continued sarcastic tone that she was not enjoying their stay here with her father at all.
Faro looked down the table at Tobi, who appeared to be fuming, but Thora and Mathias were sitting by him, appearing to try and talk with him to calm him down. They all went quiet and dug back into their food. A short time later, King Umbra stood from the center of the head table to address the room.
“Thank you! Thank you all for coming!” his voice boomed, deep and regal. An instant hush fell over the room. Umbra smiled and continued. “I know it doesn’t seem like such a grand occasion for such a feast, but I wanted to honor our guests for their ferocity in their fight against Rork, the bog troll!”
Applause erupted around the room. “And,” Umbra continued, “an official welcome feast for my daughter Lena, who has graced me with her presence after all these years.” A tear ran down Umbra’s cheek as he looked sadly at his daughter. Lena just looked straight ahead, stone-faced.
“Lena has been missed more than she could ever know, and I wish her mother were here with us for an even more grand reunion.” Umbra was looking over at Lena, but she was still trying to ignore him.
“Our visitors have brought sad news of the new dark regime on the mountain,” Umbra continued, “but I have faith in the future of Evania. Our great country is in the best hands with our brave warriors here,” he said, gesturing at Faro, Mathias, and Tobi. “Bravery such as theirs will be almost as vital, as using whatever means necessary to combat the dark magic that still envelopes this land.”
At this, Lena finally turned to look at her father. She was glaring at him, and if looks could kill, Faro believed that Umbra would be dead on the spot.
Umbra stared back at her with a fierce intensity. “I’ve done what I must to get this far. Together we can finish what I started and use the means necessary to defeat evil once and for all.”
It seemed that the celebration had taken an awkward turn. Either that, or this was Umbra's plan all along. Faro wasn't sure what the elf king’s angle was. Call out and embarrass Lena in front of a crowd of people? Was that supposed to get her to agree to help him?
“Virmorphia cannot beat Virmorphia, Father,” Lena said coolly. “Only the light can beat the dark. You will see.”
With that Lena stood up and walked out of the room. The absolute silence was painful as her footsteps were the only noise in the room. Every one of the guests stared after her, varying degrees of shock on their face. Umbra didn't look phased in the least. He kept up his grand smile and addressed the room again.
“Everyone finish with your food and drink, for soon we dance to celebrate our heroes!” said Umbra thunderously.
There was some clapping, and then the noise picked back up as the elves began eating and conversing again.
Umbra left his place and moved over to Faro. “You will talk to her for me? I know you of all people do not trust dark magic, given your current…uh… state,” said Umbra, gesturing in a circle at Faro’s mane that surrounded his lion face. “The fact is, I tried everything using Solana’s magic to stop the scourge and the Virmorphia magic. Only dark has worked against dark.”
“What was it that pulled the darkness from my mind, then?” Jarl, who’d been eavesdropping, asked.
“Virmorphia,” said Umbra simply. “Only the dark can destroy. Only the light can create. I’ve studied this for centuries. That’s how it works.”
Faro wasn’t sure what to think. Lena obviously wanted nothing to do with her father and his dark ways, and he sure wasn’t a fan as Umbra had said. Virmorphia had done him no favors so far. “I can talk to her, but I’m not going to press her,” he said, looking up at the tall elf king from his sitting position in the chair.
Umbra nodded. “That’s all I ask. No one else here is powerful enough to take on the new High King with me. Lena has centuries of experience, and with a little study of Virmorphia, we can combine our powers in such a way that will be formidable to all.”
The sound of a new, formidable dark magic entity didn’t sound very appealing to Faro, but he also didn’t know anything about magic. All he did know is that something was off balance and causing havoc across the land. Eli had betrayed all of Evania for some unknown reason, and if Faro could, he would put an end to Virmorphia magic for good.
When Faro didn’t answer, Umbra placed a bony hand on his shoulder and said, “It really was an honor seeing you fight today. Reminds me of the ferocity of your father, James.”
Faro stood from his chair to look Umbra in the eyes. The quick move made the table buck a little, and Tobi grumbled as his wine spilled. “You know my father?” Faro asked.
Umbra nodded. We fought a few times as allies against Cosimir’s forces. He was young and ambitious then. We left the second war to you who were young at that time.”
“Were you at the council for the Dungeon Lords, then?” asked Faro, recalling his vision in the apple grove.
“Yes,” said Umbra. “I gave quite the speech to convince people to elect James as the new High King. Cosimir started it all from the mines of Incarta, it only made sense that a proper king from Incarta rise and do the job right. You would have made the perfect king of Incarta, and heir to the throne of Evania. Definitely much better than your friend,” Umbra added, grabbing Faro’s paw and clapping his other hand on top in an affectionate pat.
Faro wasn’t sure he understood the king’s logic, but there were a lot of things about Umbra that remained an enigma. Instead of arguing the point that he didn’t feel like he would be the right ruler for the country, he simply smiled at the old elf king, putting his other paw on top of Umbra’s hand to politely remove it from his grasp.
“Thank you,” said Faro, a bit put off. “I’ll be sure to talk to Lena for you. See what I can do.”
Umbra took the hint that he’d made Faro uncomfortable, smiled, and said “I will go and meditate and see if I can find out anything about this mysterious man from everyone’s visions. Please, sit and enjoy the feast.” At that he motioned for Faro to sit back down, and left the room.
Faro sat back down and picked up his steak, biting half of it off in one bite chewing it with his big, sharp teeth. It seemed like the air had been let out of the party. He hoped that Umbra had answers for them soon, because he knew the talk with Lena wouldn’t go well, and he wasn’t sure what it was, but his sense of unease about Mireholm was growing by the day.