Dialysis Book: Part 4: The Elven Dominion

The ancient castle stood tall, built in the ancient style that predated even the legendary Dominion.  It had withstood assaults, from within and without and through it all preserved, like the elven spirit. It would last forever.

King Rogen’tal’Kithold, King Rogen to his supporters, told himself that it must be true.

He turned, surveying his working office.  Not the throne room, with the everliving throne that constantly needed the delicate hands of a druid to keep presentable.  Not his official office, where he brought important nobles for affairs of state.

No, he was in the real heart of his empire.  Where everything important was accomplished.

It was late, and by all standards what he was about to do needed to be done under moonlight.  He sat his cup on the railing and walked back into the room where another elf waited unmoving.

If King Rogen was the apex of elven power, tall for his race, broad shoulders for his race, and possessing so much essence that his eyes glowed.  He had to tamp that down among his people, lest they look to the floor and away from his magnificence.  His visitor appeared to be little more than a servant.  Which was both incredibly correct, and incredibly wrong at the same time.

“Quesatal, what have you found,” said the King.

Quesatal del Avora, Quay to his friends, cleared his throat while giving his liege a moment to sit.  Quay was an entirely unimpressive elf, with features that were so bland they were hard to describe.  Ballads had been written about the king who was the most handsome elf in existence, Quay was simply plain.  Few ever spared him a second look, the fools.

For Quay was the master of spies for the elven kingdom, and had been so for the past three hundred years after the unfortunate events of the previous spymaster, Callo Callo Cascus.

“As you are aware, a celestial concordance will occur next month,” said Quay.

“It's power level,” replied the King, who damn well knew the power level.

Quay responded anyway, “Middling, perhaps lower.  Our Astrologers claim the stars are muddled.  It appears that during the last concordance the efforts of the rebels may have caused an unbalancing of celestial alignments.”

“They actually told you that,” said the King with a snort.

“I believe the term they meant is ‘we have no idea’,” replied Quay thoughtfully.  “After the rebels upended everything fruitlessly, they decided to go for the stars as well.  Their ritual had at least four relics, possibly as many as seven.”

“That’s not enough for anything too potent,” said the King.

“Depending on where you directed that power, seven relics is not enough to create a system lord but it is enough to muck all my schedules up quite nicely,” said Quay.

“Do you think that was their intent,” asked the King.

“At this point no one knows what the rebels intended to do, and given how few of their leaders remain it is unlikely that they do either,” said Quay with a sigh.  “The ones who remain of course still hate you, because you didn’t assist them.”

“And you still think that us staying on the sidelines was a good idea,” asked Rogen.

Quay shrugged, “You are king.  You know I thought we might try to assist them.  If we’d thrown in, they might have even accomplished something.  At minimum it would have offed a few more system lords, which would make your current plan easier.”

Rogen chuckled.  Quay was one of the only elves who would tell him he was wrong to his face without an amazing amount of floral arranging.  The king snorted, the crass human term for it was covering your ass which might have been more appropriate.

“How is that going,” asked the King.

“Relics appear in the dungeons prior to any concordance, the more powerful the concordance the more relics,” said Quay.  “We do not have enough for your plan to be successful, however at this point neither does the witch.”

“And we are certain of that,” said the King.

“Our agents have been battling her agents in the field for months now, ever since the concordance was detected,” said Quay.  “Lady Domagal has a few agents that I have not accounted for, but none of them are looking for relics at the moment as the local supply seems to have been cleared out.”

“You mentioned her sending a recall order to an agent in the human kingdom,” said the King.

Quay nodded, “Yes, one of my operatives in Union caught the messaging spell when it was received.  They were able to track it to a lone operative, a heroic agent.”

Rogen did not care for the modern way of speaking, his agents possessed cores so they should be heroic cores.  However, so did heroic adventurers and they were not aligned with him, so calling your followers with cores agents had come into style centuries ago.

The only difference between an adventure and an agent was who they worked for.  Adventurers worked for the guild, usually, and killed monsters.  Agents worked for a ruler and killed whomever the ruler told them to.

This ruler nodded, “Any idea where they went?”

“He apparently traveled to Darven, overland,” said Quay, considering his next words carefully.  “If a relic was near Darven, one would expect the witch to send a bit more than a single heroic agent.”

“Point, and I doubt your information source in Union city would have kept the details to himself,” said Rogen.  “I bet he sold that information to the local lords the moment our coins blessed his palm.”

“Possibly, sending a few heroic agents to capture whatever he found would be within the abilities of even the weakest human lord,” said Quay.

“Contact our diplomats in the Union, see if they found a relic and what they want for it,” said Rogen.  “We need one more.”

Quay nodded, “Already done, but I’ll warn you it is going to be expensive.”

King Rogen chuckled, if all a relic cost him was coins he would count himself lucky.

The spymaster let his king ponder that a moment before clearing his throat, “She is moving her forces back to the city.”

“As expected, are our forces prepared?” asked the King.

“All of your mythical agents are back in town, and your last legendary will be back soon,” said Quay.

“Can’t be helped, she betrayed us and she has to pay,” said the elven King.  Quay shifted uncomfortably.

“I know you were supposed to be the system lord, and she took that from you,” said Quay carefully.  “But we are at a very weak point.  The goblins are pressing us from all sides, and not just the damn ferals.  After Gol’Nic’s ascension, he might try something if we screw this up.”

The goblin system lord was galling.  There were always a fluctuating number of system lords, for while they were powerful none of the system lords were invincible.  As such, turning over in the position was relatively common if one wasn’t careful.

The Legendary Witch of Dominus, Magus Domagal, had been his right hand when they defeated the last vampire system lord four hundred years ago during a ritual of ascension.  She had stunned her rightful King and assumed the power, which had thrown off all of the elves' plans.

It was her fault that System Lord Pretar, the other elven system lord, had perished less than a decade later.  With the strongest ally of his kingdom dead and his replacement being a vexing evil woman who didn’t care about the elves or her ex-fiance, Rogen was not in a forgiving mood.

The problem is that despite multiple convergences since that ill fated day, no other elf had managed to achieve the power and relics necessary to achieve the status of a system lord.  Worse, the infighting between him and Domagal had weakened the elven frontier and allowed a useless goblin warlord named Gol’Nic to ascend himself.

The goblin, for his many faults, realized his precarious position and used the power of ascension to bless his people instead of himself which is why there were bugbears, and now hobgoblins.  Those creatures were now attacking the Dominion’s borders, and were being successful enough at it that for the first time in centuries Rogen was growing concerned.

Because kings did not panic.

“I cannot trust her, she will betray us,” said Rogen.

“Alright then, you are king.  I’ll start repositioning all of our assets, including your agents, but that’s going to leave some gaps,” said Quay.  “Minor things might slip through and there is the capacity for this to get downright bloody.”

The king nodded.  “We need enough relics to perform the ritual, and if that is going to be bloody, so be it.”