"I assume you all still remember what I told you about the lost court the last time I came here, but, if you don't mind, I'll explain this all again. With more details this time," Ninleyn cleared his throat, "In ancient times, and I do mean ancient, the MAZE was filled with more races and more civilizations than we have around today. Not to say that those civilizations were weak or frail, but they perished for one reason or another. The biggest issue is that we know incredibly little about why those civilizations perished. Even after studying the most well-conserved ruins, we can't tell what happened with most. However, almost all civilizations from a certain period had one thing in common. Mentions of something called 'the court.'"
"I was an archeologist, searching for these ancient ruins in hopes to understand what happened to them and how to avoid making the same mistakes. And I was the one who first found out about this court. It is an odd thing. Although these civilizations all use the same name to talk about this group, any paintings, sculptures, or members' descriptions vary wildly. The first painting I found was named 'the court in the battle .' It showed an elf of verdant green hair, a blue human with massive tentacles coming from their back, and a man with goat feet instead of humanoid legs. Each of them seemed to be a member of this court and had incredible abilities. The blue human could create tentacles and other appendages to fight, the man with goat feet could control earth and stone, and the elf. Well… he could control plants and small critters to help him fight."
"That elf. Was it the owner of your Woodland Court legacy?" Bonnie asked.
Ninleyn smiled and nodded, "Indeed they were. But it took quite some time before I was able to find it. After that first painting, I spent another 30 years searching other ruins and trying to find more mentions about this court with no success. Then, I finally heard rumors about a massive ancient city on the 14th layer. In there, I found another painting, this one with two tritons and the elf protecting a city from a massive tidal wave. Along with that, some texts depicted their powers and how they would pass them along when they stepped down from the court. This was the first hint that the members of this court had legacies, and I kept following that thread. More time went by as I delved deeper and deeper into what all that meant. After another couple of years passed, and I finally was able to make sense of something. You see, most of what I discovered about that elf showed that he was a wandering mage, always looking to spread his knowledge and help people. Well, to be fair, he wasn't as benevolent as I'm making him out to be. The elf was akin to a good mercenary. He would help people with the crops and deal with monsters and ask for a fee depending on who was making the request."
"I mean, that's still a good guy. He asked people to pay more if they had more to spare, right?" Hera asked.
"I thought so too, but then I found a diary from someone close to him and… well. The elf was a bit of a spiteful asshole. If someone was rude to him or acted in a way that he felt was unfair, he would ask much more for his services, even when there were lives at stake," Ninleyn shook his head.
"And the legacy was ok with that?" Bonnie asked.
"Oh yes. They don't care about what happens to other people, only to nature and animals. I'm perfectly capable of hurting someone else without having to worry about a backlash. Well, at least one from the legacy itself. I don't have any plans to start attacking people, but I can defend myself without a problem," Ninleyn ate another biscuit.
"But how did you figure out he was a part of a bigger organization?" Hera asked after taking another sip of coffee.
"The diary I mentioned was a big part of it. In there, there were some mentions that the elf had a meeting of his team a few times, and after one particular passage stating that 'there would be many people like him in the city for the meeting,' I started getting curious. I looked for the city he mentioned and found a few buildings that were used for large meetings. The city was part of a civilization that we call the Spindlians."
"Spindlians?" Helena asked.
"Yeah, I'm not the one who came up with that name. They can secrete this substance that they can then weave into thread. Don't ask me how they do it or how did that work because we have no idea. Very few records remain about the particular function of that substance. We believe that it was the type of knowledge that was shared through word of mouth. It's odd because we still don't know how they actually expelled that secretion. Some pictures showed them spitting it, others showed the substance coming out of their noses or ears like long strings of black snot," Ninleyn explained.
"Can we not talk about black snot while I'm drinking coffee?" Bonnie asked.
"Of course. This is not important for the explanation either way. Going back to the Court of Heroes. I found mention of it in the city records and started looking for the other people I saw accompanying the green-haired elf in the paintings and poetry and everything else. Together with a friend of mine, who is one of the founding members of the Order of the Lost Court, we started searching for the green-haired elf's final resting place. Our hope was that we could find more answers about this organization and who that man was. It took a while, but we finally found the room where he supposedly was last seen, and in there, we fought a monster that could control the entire forest."
"Like the trees and grass?" Bonnie asked.
"No, not just that. Every monster, every flower, every bug, even the air around the forest seemed to be controlled by the monster. Even more strange was that the monster itself was a small phasmid. One of those insects that look like the branch of a tree. Because it was so easy for it to hide in the forest, it took a long time for us to find it and the fight was… complicated. Still, as you can see, we won, and I was the one who got the legacy. My friend, who you will meet someday in the future, was a bit upset that I was the one who dealt the killing blow. You see, we both wanted the legacy because, well, it's a legacy. With my new powers, I suggested that we go after another one of those people depicted in the painting. The supposed members of this Court of Heroes. Since they all were similar, they all should have a legacy. As you can imagine, we were successful in our search, and my friend got the second court legacy we ever saw," Ninleyn chuckled with that, with a smile of an old man who is reminiscing about the good Ol days.
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"What is his legacy?" Bonnie's eyes were sparkling when she asked that question.
"That is not my place to say. Even if we are all part of the same organization, we do not share the legacy or secrets of others. I hope you can understand that and remember that rule," for the first time since he got here, Ninleyn's expression became solemn. Not in an angry way, but in a way to express the importance of what he was talking about.
"Oh, sure. That makes a lot of sense, actually. I'm sorry," Bonnie held back her excitement.
"Yeah, I understand how telling other people might cause trouble. I won't tell anyone about yours or Shane's," Hera nodded.
"Thank you," Ninleyn opened a big smile, "Anyway. After that, we started recruiting a few people we trusted and found more court legacies. All the while trying to find more about the Court of Heroes, but information about the organization itself is scarce. We can find some mentions here and there about a meeting but nothing else. No explanation about how or why they came together, no talk about any organized defender or anything."
"But… there has to be something, right? Training, quests, something. If not, why would they gather? I doubt it's just a book club," Bonnie was already trying to figure things out.
"Exactly. If it was something only a handful of people participated in, it would be one thing, but the venues used for the meetings are all able to hold hundreds. Not to mention that we already have found at least 25 people who seemed to be part of the Court of Heroes, none of them human."
"Is there a reason for that? Were humans not allowed to be part of the court?" Hera asked.
"It's nothing like that. You see, all the courts seem to be from a time when the humans were still blocked by the walls. Some dwarfs and elves lived on the lower layers, but the civilizations that belong to the court members all predate Khan," Ninleyn explained.
"But… we were just on the 7th layer. Khan broke the wall on the 8th. I'm not getting my history wrong, am I?" Hera asked.
"You are not. This was the first time we found a court legacy that still existed after Khan's era. Although I doubt the naga had any knowledge of humans at the time. The closest entrance to Khan's room was near the area you call Asia if I'm not mistaken," Ninleyn had to stop for a moment to try to remember the right place.
"Yeah, I think it was on China or Laos. I'm not sure. It's like on the southern part of Asia but not that close to the ocean," Hera replied.
"You really know your stuff. Is this all because of that book I got you?" Helena asked.
Hera shook her head, "I always liked the stories about the Heroes. It was pretty handy on trivia nights."
"Anyway. That's the Court of Heroes. A lost organization that formed for an unknown reason and vanished for another unknown reason. And we, as members of the Order of the Lost Court, have been trying to uncover the secrets of that organization for 20 years now."
"And how far have you gotten? I mean, I don't want to be rude, but 20 years is a lot of time, and you don't seem to be much better than when you started," Bonnie asked.
"Bonnie!" Hera gasped.
"Don't worry. It is a fair assessment. However, we have uncovered many things. We have collectively found 7 legacies, including mine, my friend's, and Shane's. We have possible leads for another 15 members of the court and another 5 leads for the court itself. Another discovery was that they were spread around a wide area. We have found traces of that organization in rooms extremely far away from each other. I'm talking about being separated by over 1000 rooms even in the most direct route," Ninelyn explained.
"Holy crap. That is close to a year of travel, isn't it?" Hera asked.
"Well, if you consider the 3 transfer per day limit, yes."
"That means those meetings are not something that happens every year. Maybe it's something that they set up once every decade," Bonnie suggested.
"Correct. Another possibility is that the reason they change locations is to allow the ones who couldn't participate in the meetings due to the distance to join," Ninleyn smiled.
"Do you have any more clues about them?" Hera asked.
"About the organization as a whole, no, but about individuals, yes. Currently, we have 3 leads that are available. The other 12 are already with members of the order."
"12? But I thought we had like 50 members or so," Bonnie asked.
"We have 47, I believe."
Hera was about to put a biscuit in her mouth but stopped, "So why do you still have 3 leads? They didn't pass the test?"
"A couple, yes, but most are just not interested in a legacy."
"What?" Hera and Bonnie gasped at the same time.
"Yes, for some, getting a legacy is too big of a responsibility. For others, the risk is too high. Then, there are those like Helena who rather use the order's resources for their own projects, even if in her case she has her own lead to follow," Ninleyn glanced at Helena who quickly looked away like a student that forgot her homework, "Lastly, we have some members who are more interested in the actual Court of Heroes than in any legacy. That's even why all the 5 leads directly connected to the court are already with someone."
Bonnie scratched her head, "Isn't that counterproductive? Why have people who are not going to help with your goal in the same order?"
"They do help, but more with research. When we need to find a specific room, a spell, or help with a translation, we have a group of people ready to assist."
"I see. So it's kind of like having a support team?" Hera asked.
"Exactly. Now, I believe I have explained the basics. Do you have any more questions about this part?" Hera and Bonnie shook their heads in response to Ninleyn's question, "Then let's talk about the leads, shall we?"