An Hour earlier
Emile walked Elise and her entourage back outside. There waiting for them was the carriage that Elise had arrived and a few knights left behind to guard it. Also waiting for them were some gargoyles playing a bat and ball game.
A gargoyle holding a metal bat stood in the middle of a triangle and was faced by 3 gargoyles at each point on the triangle. Those 3 gargoyles were hiding one hand behind the other as if concealing something and were waiting for the signal from one of the knights.
After ensuring that everyone was ready, the knight blew a whistle. At the sound of the whistle, the gargoyles at the points of the triangle kicked up one leg and drew their hands back. The gargoyle in the centre kept swivelling his hands, trying to keep the other three in his sight.
Then as if based on a hidden signal, the 3 gargoyles swung their back arm forward and hurled balls at the gargoyle with the bat. The gargoyle in the centre looked at the balls closely just before they hit, and swung at one of them. He swung mightily at one of the balls praying that he got the right now.
Unfortunately, when his bat hit the ball, the ball exploded into a cloud of bright blue powder. Worse was that one of the balls he dismissed smashed into his shoulder, sending him flying. He hit the ground hard and slid out of the triangle to the laughter of the other gargoyles and the knights.
That laughter however died when they noticed that Queen Elise and Lord Emile had arrived. The knights in particular looked ashamed as they scrambled into positions near the carriage and their horses. The head knight had a dark expression on his face and looked like he was about to a have fit. But Queen Elise raised her hand to calm him down, so he kept his silence but the knights knew that this wasn’t over. The grand mage looked at the chastised knights with a smile but his expression dropped as he noticed an incoming call on his scrying ball.
Elise looked at the scene in front with a wry smile and looked at Emile with raised eyebrows. Emile for his part looked unbothered as if this a normal occurrence. Shrugging his shoulder, he said “Not much happens here, so I allow them to have some hobbies. They usually don’t use three pitchers, so someone wanted to show off.”
The batter was still on his knees coughing off the blue, while all the rest of the gargoyles were throwing feathers on him. While Elise was looking at the clown show in front of her, the grand mage approached her to whisper something.
Elise’s gentle smile slipped off and her expression hardened as she digested the information. She turned to Emile and said “Sorry to cut this short Emile, but I’ve just received some unfortunate news. It seems that one of the debtors has moved the timetable up.”
Back to the present
Emile leaned back on his chair and started to peel an apple. “I’ve just been informed that a debtor has called to collect their favour.” He took his time cutting some slices off the apple as everyone else took this in.
Sanzinel sighed and was the first to speak, “Well, this is much earlier than I expected. Renard had mentioned there would be a process and I thought that would take some time. What could possibly have happened to skip that process.”
Emile threw the slices of apple towards the goblins and they jumped to catch it with their mouths. He started to throw them higher and higher, and they had to use their blinking skill to catch the slices.
He turned towards Seline and Toma and said “Can you two do me a favour and give a tour to Amaya? She will be staying at your quarters, so show her the empty rooms and Amaya, you can put the one you want. Oh, also get a sandwich from the kitchen since you’re still in a deficit.”
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The disciples realised that they were being asked to leave so that an important discussion could be had. Seline and Toma however didn’t mind, since this seemed boring adult stuff, so they dragged Amaya away to show her the coolest parts of the castle. The goblins followed them but when Mia got up to leave as well she was told to sit down by Emile.
Emile waited until they left and dismissed the servants. He then looked at Mia and said, “Elise told me that you already had dossiers on the some of debtors. So you are probably the best-informed person here. The person calling in the debt is Midarian, the high elven sword sage from Fallonar.”
Galorin and Lizenna groaned at the mention of the sword sage and Sanzinel began to massage his skull. “That’s not good, while he is not the biggest problem to deal with, the issue is his exalted status amongst the high elves. He usually keeps to himself and keeps out of politics but he still has the ear of the High Elven Queen.”
Emile nodded and started to carve the remaining into an intricate pattern. “Yes, the Elves of Fallonar are one of Avalyn’s most important allies. Avalyn might have the greatest crafters in the world but without Fallonar’s special magic wood, many of the foci, tools and vehicles would lose their world-class quality.”
The apple he was carving began to take shape, displaying the rough shape of a flower. “That doesn’t even touch on the fact the alliance is keeping The Armalia Empire at bay. Emperor Ramuras has always been jealous of Avalyn’s magic superiority but with the high elves between us, the cost of war would be too great.”
Lizenna agreed “You’re correct, if the xenophobic faction of the high elves gains his support, it might be enough to sway Fallonar’s alliance with Avalyn. At best, they might change some trade agreements to profit from Avalyn’s reliance on their goods. At worst, they might break off the alliance and take an isolationist approach.”
Galorin countered Lizenna's point “It’s unlikely that they would break the agreement, The Armalia Empire isn’t a fan of them either. Breaking ties with us might make The Empire’s attention turn towards them.”
“Either way, this is not a request that I can ignore. Well, I can’t say that since I don’t even know the request.” Emile said as he turned to look at Mia.
While they had been discussing the potential ramifications of pissing off the sword sage, Mia was reading over the new data dump on her magitech tablet, she had received just before Emile arrived. She hadn’t wanted to open it while getting to know everyone but Emile's news was probably connected to it.
Noticing that everyone was waiting for her, she cleared her throat and stood up. From her dimensional satchel, she bought a large board of magitech glass. With a swipe of her finger on the tablet, the board was filled with information.
On it was a picture of a handsome, middle-aged elven with the brightest green eyes. Contrary to the normal perfect faces that elves are known for, a large scar ran across his left eye. With the scar and the cold expression in his eyes, the elf emitted the aura of a warrior.
“This is a bit redundant but I prefer to cover all the bases. This is Midarian Dreadbane, and he is the High Elven Sword Sage. He is one of Fallonar’s most powerful warriors and is one of the greatest swordsmen in the world.”
“His famous for being able to cut any material, neither dragon scale nor adamantine armour can stop his sword. There are also accounts of him being able to cut abstract concepts, but most of those records are above my clearance.”
Sanzinel nodded “It is true, one of the reasons we invited him here to deal with the horrors under the mountain was his ability to cut through eldritch powers. There were some tricky eldritch beings that could manipulate time and space, and it was a headache to deal with them. Midarian was able to cut past those abilities and attack the heart of the problem.”
Mia filed that information away to investigate later, and continued “Erm, okay. Thank you Lord Sanzinel, I would like to hear about that more. So anyway, Midarian has served the Fallonarian royal family for millennia. His current position is the Protector of the Mother Tree, so he does not leave the capital often.”
“That is actually why he decided to call in this favour. While Midarian has taught a great number of elves throughout the year, and many of his students have become great swordsmen in their own right, he doesn’t have any true disciples.”
“Midarian’s dream is to have an heir that can inherit all his skills and be able to maybe even improve them. Many of his techniques are not passed on to his normal students, and Midarian refused to teach unless they met his high standards.”
“No one truly knows about those standards, but recently he contacted the council to inform them that their oracle had found a suitable candidate. He would like for you to collect and deliver this potential disciple to him.”