Lying still on the ground, eyes still closed as he counted to one hundred, waiting to see if someone would come in and check his body. All the items were already removed from his body, so they must have thought he was in the clear.
Changing his vision to magic, Norbert slowly sat up, shaking his head, acting as if he had just woken from a forced slumber as he checked around the cell he was in. Along the walls, sigils and runes that he didn’t know shone in colours of red, blue and brown. Not wanting to test what any of them did, he turned his vision back to normal; with darkness surrounding him as, he realised there wasn’t a single torch within the cell they currently threw him in, nor any windows at all. Just the single metal door with a small hole in it, a flap on the outside covering it, so he was effectively sealed underneath earth while being sealed underneath thousands of tons of stone above his head.
He closed his eyes and rolled his head as he felt the moisture wrap around him, his eyes stinging from the water that was slowly evaporating off him. He lay still, hoping it would go away, but instead, it just got worse and worse, his irritation growing as it was the only thing he could focus on in the empty room.
“AH!” Norbert half screamed out, before realising his situation pretending to be half unconscious. Stopping his scream halfway, he felt around his helmet, taking the two pieces off, catching them before they hit the ground and made a clang.
Sitting cross-legged, his back against one of the walls opposite the door, both helmet pieces were sitting in his lap. Leaning forward, brushing the water off his hair that still clung to him, reaching into his shirt, and pulls out the necklace that he received, which felt like a lifetime ago.
Staring at the translator rune on it, not a bit of light shone in the room. He could not even remember the last time it was used. As he stared at it, watching it spin one way and then the other, Norbert was unsure what to make of the current realisation.
He patted himself down, and nothing at all left, as he was reminded of the letter that he still needed to deliver and the fact he was meant to be a diplomat to Grimm. The memory caused him to shoot to his feet, realising that after the trip was over, he didn’t even know where he started. Not that going back to Earth and asking for a map would provide any details, as he didn’t even know what mountain he started outside of.
Looking up at the ceiling, wondering who was watching him as other pieces of their game moved in more interesting directions than he was sitting in a cell. “Know where I am, Luck?” He asked, watching and waiting to see if there was a reaction.
A single mote of light in the confirmation of his thought.
“Going to tell me where you are?” Norbert asked, watching as the single mote of light pulled apart, becoming two, shaking his two. He shaking as the two danced and played together. Brushing his hand through his hair once more, the water having mostly dried face he clicked his helmet, back in place.
***
His back becoming sore from sitting for so long, Norbert watched the two motes of light continues dance around as he waited for something, anything, to happen around him. The motes of golden light reflected the talisman he still held in his hands, watching as it spun around.
As Norbert spun it back the other way, the two motes of light extinguishing itself without a reason, spinning the talisman around, hearing several footsteps coming closer to him, not caring for the. He didn’t care to be discovered, it currently being; it was useless to him now, with it being empty. Eyes, scrunching his face as he looked away, staring at the other side of the wall for several seconds until his eyes stopped watering.
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Hearing voices in front of them, a conversation that he could not grasp, the words seemingly sliding from his mind the more he focused on them.
Annoyed with the lack of knowledge and their persistent conversation, showing the translator talisman in front of himself again, the metal shaking, a pendulum conserving his movement “Can one of you please charge this up?”
Two of them look at each other, the one to the left mulling over the words, a seed of fear growing in his stomach that they were going to refuse his request and end up staying here for who knows how long against his will.
Plastering on his face the least he plastered smile that Norbert could muster in the situation in an attempt to further situation in case.
Watching as the one on the side moved closer, she flicked the talisman right where she flicked it gently in her hand. A blue light slightly glowing from the crystal within the translator device. With a nod of his head, Norbert slipped the talisman over, the slipped theirs looking at him in silence.
“Well don’t just stand there in silence, what was it that you were saying before?” Norbert asked them, waiving his hands in annoyance as he stood up, looked slightly down at them as he dusted his backside, and waited for a response.
“Where have you come from?” The one on the left asked him.
Turned his head to the side as he wondered how to answer the question without being attacked again, pointing up with his finger “Up”
“You’re too tall?” The one in the middle asked.
Norbert moved his attention to the latest speaker, internally hoping this wouldn’t be a constant round-robin. “Yes, I am not one of the dwarves, or whatever you call the people above working inside this mountain. I come from above the mountain, on the surface.”
A sword appeared by his exposed throat. “And where from the surface do you originate from?”
Norbert mulled the question over in his head, trying to see what their deal would be and how their alliances would come by. “Morenas”
“And your allegiance with those above ground?”
“Not the worst; I haven’t called them names or made enemies with them. At least not myself personally.” Norbert provided, thinking over having the Kreevss after him from the multiple stunts that happened to him.
“Why hide your face under your helmet?”
“It wouldn’t be that protective if nobody could take it off me.” Norbert taps his helmet with his hand. “Now, are you going to put that silly sword away? It isn’t going to do much for you.” Norbert added half minded as he stepped forward, the sword cutting into his neck, blood dripping down it.
Leaning backwards to remove himself from it, sending a spark of energy around his body, the wound instantly healing itself. “Now, I think I’ve spent enough time in this cell,” Norbert suggested to them, moving past them as he looked both ways at the end of the cell. Turning deeper,, his body twisted around by itself, heading towards the exit.
“Well, at least that’s more encouraging.”
“Stop!” voice boomed out from in front of Norbert, his feet rooting to the ground he was standing on. Looking down, Norbert saw the very stone itself had come up out of the ground and was clutching onto his feet.
Changing his vision to magic, a brown trail connected with whoever was anastrophe staircase. The energy waiting to be free, flexing his toes, ripping his feet out of the stone that tried to entrap them. Stepping to the side, looking at the two craters he had formed in the ground with his extraction he looked up at the newcomer “I’ve stopped?”
“You didn’t faint when falling into the water?” The newcomer questioned him.
“That I didn’t; I thought it to be best since you were shooting at me. Not that I blame you, having both the insects on your doorstep and the little men higher above.” Norbert tried to remain calm, not wanting to be chased around the entire city.
“What are you doing in our lands?”
“Just passing through. On my way to Grimm to get a portal back to Morenas, then back to Grimm again.”
At the mention of the word Grimm, Norbert sees everyone stand a bit straighter, the air a bit thicker with intensity as Norbert continues to stand there, waiting for the outcome.
“And what is your relations with Grimm?”
“I'm just a diplomat trying to get a deal between them and Morenas. I think there's a war going on up there. So just as a fair warning, I think you should pick your sides.”
The one up there nodded his head in affirmative, “Yes, you are right. We, what you call the Hidden Elves, would like to form a partnership with Morenas.”
Norbert just stood there, the words echoing in his head as he was brought up and shown to a different section. Before he knew it, he was sitting down at a table with a piece of paper in front of him a , quill in his hand, as he was pointed at the paper to sign it.