by Tj Dixon
“More shocking than seeing Thor?”
“Yes, much more shocking than that.”
“Come inside.” He says holding his head with his right hand.
“Thank you.” I say and follow him inside his home. On the outside it looks just like any other hole in the wall home. Inside however it is almost as big as the main forge. He just leads me to the first room on the right so I don’t get to see just how big it is this time, but I have been on a tour of the whole place before. This room is just fifty feet by fifty feet with comfy stone chairs and square tables all around the edge. He picks the first table and we both sit facing each other.
“So what else do I need to know?”
“I believe Thor is a traitor and working with the enemy. An elf claimed he was and she seemed to be telling the truth. He also tried to kill my son, with demons.”
“With demons? Are you sure about this?”
“Grunti knows what he’s talking about and he definitely wasn’t lying.”
“If this is true it is beyond bad. Nirvali may already be exposed to the enemy. They may even know of entrances and exits we don’t know about, given it’s Thor we are talking about.” Blake says having reached the same conclusion I did.
“Please don’t mention my name or my son’s to the council.”
“Why not?”
“I am sheltering the elf. Her magic is restrained so she’s not a threat.”
“You’re right. I’d best not tell the council about you. They’d have you executed for sure.” Blake says with a frown. “Anything else I need to know?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” I tell him.
“Well, good luck.”
“Good luck to you too.”
“Thanks. I’m going to need it.” He says sounding very tired indeed.
(Peter)
It seems you can’t just walk in and demand to talk to the Council of Elders. I had expected that. I had thought given the nature of our bounty and news that we would have been seen by now though. We’ve been waiting for hours. It is late and I am almost expecting someone to come and tell me to come back tomorrow.
“You will be seen now.” A dwarven girl tells me. She is wearing a black stone dress and a red stone top just like all the other servants we have seen in here. “Follow me.”
“Thank you.” I say.
“About time too.” Lucy says crossly. She liked the wait even less than I did. Kai, Elucia and Dairon don’t say anything but we all follow the servant. We follow her through winding corridors, up tall staircases and down ladders. It takes a good ten minutes to reach the council chambers and when we do we all have to duck as we walk through the entrance, other than Lucy of course. The servant waits outside the chambers.
Inside the chambers there are three tables. The smallest has three elderly dwarves sitting at it and is at the back of the room, so furthest from us. In front of that there are eleven dwarves sitting at the middle sized table and in front of that there are fifty one dwarves sitting at the largest table. They are all facing us. The dwarf at the centre of the small back table stands and speaks.
“We understand that you fought the bullfrog and rescued the bounty hunters who disturbed its slumbers. A very worthy deed, but why do you feel the need to address us?” He asks and Lucy now on my shoulder answers him.
“The bullfrog was being controlled by a dwarf. It was summoned away before we could kill it.” Lucy answers and there are gasps from all around the room.
“This cannot be possible. No dwarf would or could do such a thing.” He responds angrily.
“No dwarf?” One of the dwarves on the middle bench stands and asks dubiously. “Even after what we discussed earlier?”
The dwarf who is standing at the back goes pale. “You can’t mean to suggest…?”
“His use of demons would certainly lend credence to their story. She also didn’t appear to be lying. We should at least ask for more details.” The dwarf on the middle bench says before sitting down again.
“Very well. What makes you so sure it was being controlled by a dwarf?” He asks and this time it is Kai who answers.
“It was a dwarven primal summoning.” Kai says and the entire front bench is now buzzing with whispered conversations.
“Naturally you will not speak of this to anyone.”
“The job was described as a wild demon, so about our bounty…?” Lucy asks knowingly.
“It will of course be paid. I will have it sent to your home. I trust this will settle matters?”
“Of course.” Lucy says with a grin.
(Nairon)
Even now the wings are gone this outfit is humiliating to say the least, but I’ve not been tortured and the dwarven boy seems to accept that I don’t want to bear his child. I don’t have to obey the Envoy anymore and as long as the dwarves don’t lose I am safe from her. If they do lose I will kill myself before she can do so for me. That way will be much less painful if it comes down to it.
The three dwarves that we captured have all been freed and the dwarves now know about the traitor. I think I am finally on the right side. Either way I no longer have to fight. All I have to do is cook, which is easy. That and wear this outfit. I suppose I will get used to it eventually, but…
“They’re burning.” The boy’s father tells me sounding annoyed.
“Sorry!” I say and quickly move the fungi around the frying pan.
“You’ve got some way to go, but you’re still the best female cook I’ve ever seen. Actually you’re the first female cook I’ve ever seen.” He tells me.
“Did your wife not cook?”
“I’ve never had a wife. Never had time for one and never met one that interested me. At my age I’ll never have one. You’ve got to be young to get a wife. Either that or on the Council of Elders. I’m good but I’m not that good. Grunti could do it if he stopped wasting time on girls, but the sea would be dry if it had no water in it.”
“So is Grunti not your child?” I ask confused.
“Of course he’s my child! I made him with my own two hands! That, and a bit of my left shoulder. See here where there’s a bit missing?” He says and there is a small bit of his shoulder missing. The uneven hole is probably about an inch wide and deep.
“You make children like that? You don’t have a child with a woman?”
“Well dwarves used to do it that way, but the law doesn’t allow you to do that now. It’s considered dirty and impure. Every dwarven boy has one father and every dwarven girl has two mothers.”
“But you seemed to know what a wife was?”
“It’s burning again!”
“Sorry!” I say and move it about again.
“Actually it looks ready now. Serve it and then call Grunti.”
“Yes!” I respond and quickly serve the fungi onto three plates.
“Your portion seems a bit small. Have a couple more fungi.”
“Thank you!” I say and gladly add two more fungi to my plate. One from each of the other two plates. Mine is still the smallest portion, but I can’t eat as much as a dwarf can anyway. This is as much if not more than what I’d eat before I came here.
“Now call Grunti. I’ll put these on the table.” He tells me and floats the three plates through the air to the table. I go to Grunti’s door and knock on it.
“Grunti! Food’s ready!” I call to him.
“Coming!” He calls back and throws the door open knocking me down to the floor. “Sorry, are you alright?”
“Yes. I’m ok.” I say picking myself up.
“I’m always telling him to open the door more gently.” His father says with a laugh.
“I said sorry!”
“I know, but you need to be more careful now we have an elf staying with us.” His father says sounding serious. Then he grins and says. “Anyway Grunti and Nairon, don’t let the food get cold.”
So we sit down and eat, and it really is delicious. It tastes just as good to me as the fungi we had at lunch time.
“So Nairon here was asking about wives and children. I don’t suppose you got any ideas in her head, did you Grunti?”
“No. She refused to have a child with me.” Grunti says regretfully and his father chokes.
“Only you would ask an elf you just met to have your child…” His father laughs, shaking his head in disbelief and then looks at me. “I hope you weren’t too offended. Grunti has always been like this, but he doesn’t mean any harm by it. He’s a good boy really. Just a bit weird.”
“No, I wasn’t too offended. A bit shocked, but he did at least accept when I told him no.”
“It seems she was offended.” His father laughs.
“It was worth a try.” Grunti says with a shrug. “It’s not like I could ask a dwarven girl to have my child. I bet Grimji will have a child with his wife though.”
“What?! Grimji?!” His father almost falls off his chair in shock.
“Oh, sorry, forget I said anything. Just jealous.” Grunti says but then he smile and looks at me. “But I bet his wife doesn’t cook for him.”
“I’m surprised you weren’t watching the whole time.” His father laughs.
“Oh, I was. I was recording the whole thing.” Grunti say with a smile.
“What do you mean by recording?” I ask rather confused.
“I invented a new device specially. It records images and sound. I call it draw, draw, talk, talk kun.”
“My son is a genius, but he always comes up with weird names for his weird inventions.”
“So can we see this recording?” I ask.
“Sure.” Grunti says proudly. Then he looks at me seriously. “One thing I noticed was that you seemed unsure what to call my dad. How about you just call him dad?”
“Grunti…” His dad says shaking his head. “You’re perceptive, but also an idiot. Nairon, you can just call me Odin.”
“Thank you Odin.” I say relieved that I don’t have to call him dad. That would just be too weird. I suppose no weirder than my outfit, but even so…
“By the way Grunti, you’d better not be planning on showing anyone else that recording. Nobody can find out about Nairon, or we’ll all be in real trouble. The three of us would be executed for sure.” Odin warns.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to show anyone.” Grunti says seriously. “I’m also starting to wonder whether tall might not be such a bad thing. Nairon looks really cute despite her height.”
“That’s partly because of the weird clothes you’re making her wear. Not that I’m complaining.” Odin laughs. I blush. Then there is a knock on the door. “Grunti, take her into your room and take your plates too! Stay there and stay silent.”
“Yes dad.” Grunti says and floats the plates ahead of us into his room. We quickly follow them and I close the door behind us. It is very heavy. Grunti sits on his bed and patting the bed beside him he tells me quietly. “Sit and eat.”
I obey him without daring to say anything. It sounds like Odin is talking to someone outside. The fungi still tastes nice but it is weird eating together in silence on his bed. This is the weirdest meal I have ever eaten. No, actually not as weird as that time we had to eat goblin flesh. That was both weird and sickening in more ways than one. This is just weird not sickening.
Suddenly Grunti’s door opens and I look up to see another elf standing there. A male elf who looks vaguely familiar, but that may just be my imagination. He takes one look at me and his face goes bright red. Almost as red as mine.
“Hello.” He says sounding like he is still recovering from the shock of my appearance.
“Hello.” I answer weakly.
“I’m Dairon. Are you Nairon?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want with my elf?” Grunti asks suspiciously.
“Actually it’s you we want something from, but I was a bit shocked to find another elf here.” Dairon says. “We want you to make Peter two new arms.”
“That will cost two thousand white then.” Grunti responds firmly.
“Lucy says she’d think better of you if you did it for one thousand five hundred.” Dairon tells him.
“Hmm. Very well, one thousand five hundred it is. How did the boy lose the other arm?” Grunti asks.
“It was incinerated when we fought a dwarf possessed by a bullfrog.”
“Have Lucy and the boy come here with the money and I’ll start designing the new arms. It will take a couple of days, but they’ll be much better than squishy human arms.” Grunti tells Dairon.
“Thank you. They’ll be here in the morning.”
“Did you kill the bullfrog?” Grunti asks.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t really talk about that. We promised not to.” Dairon says sounding very apologetic.
“Oh well. I suppose that’s fine. You can’t tell anyone about my elf. I’m surprised dad let you see her.”
“I could tell as soon as I entered the house.” Dairon says with a wry smile. So he must be a song elf. I blush even deeper red as I realise a song elf has seen me like this. “I’m not going to tell anyone about Nairon. Oh, and now I remember where I sensed you. You were riding one of those flying spiders, weren’t you?”
“Yes.” I admit and after a moment realise where I have seen him before. “You were with the humans who fought us off in the forest! I’m really sorry! I never imagined you were a song elf!”
“Don’t worry. We were enemies. Since you’re here now though, would I be right in thinking you have also abandoned your tribe?”
“Yes.” I admit and lower my head in shame. I truly believe this is better than fighting for the Envoy, but the fact remains that I am a traitor to the tribe.
“If my master meets my expectations, I truly believe that elves may one day be free again. Probably not for tens of thousands of years, but one day. It is the Fallen Angels and not the elves that I have betrayed. Perhaps when that time comes you may be able to join your people again.” He says and I look up in surprise at his words.
“No way.” Grunti says. “I’ve just got a girl and I’m not having her abandon me like that.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that.” Dairon says with a wince.
“Well go away then. I want to spend time alone with my girl.” Grunti says and Dairon goes even redder, and so do I.
“Sorry, I’ll leave you two alone then.” Dairon says and backs away before making a hasty retreat. I can’t think of anything to say to lessen the embarrassment.
Living with Grunti, my dignity seems to have gone completely down the drain. To make such an impression on a song elf though. Song elves are like princes and princesses. They are the last of the old nobility, and the purest of elves. They are also the most likely to be used by the Envoy. I can’t blame a song elf for abandoning his people to escape such a fate, especially if his words were true.
Might elves really be free one day? I dare not hope it, but I can’t extinguish the flames of hope that his words have lit in my heart. I on the other hand have abandoned my tribe for nothing more than my own personal survival. It is true I am glad I don’t have to commit or even watch evil deeds, but I didn’t have the courage to abandon my people for the sake of such good intentions. I can’t curse the loss of my dignity knowing this. The shame is much less than the shame of my own actions.