Hello, Everyone!
Last time, our heroes left Nurvureem’s cave and, carrying her giant sword with the help of a few Pamagosian soldiers, returned to Pamagos to report to Mr. Perres. But just as they were making a toast for their victory, a portal appeared in the middle of the room, and none other but Tesaya came through, dragging behind her the axe that had killed Balaine Endoras.
“Hi,” Tesaya said and waved at them.
Mary’s Eldritch didn't fly off from her hand. It just… wasn't there. She remembered when another of her spells hadn't worked around Tesaya. Hurt and pain made their way into her heart. Tesaya wasn't a friend. She was Trax'rion's puppet.
And the axe…
“This is the weapon that destroyed Balaine Endoras' soul," Mary Messaged Dynatos Perres. "Be careful!”
”You don’t have to tell me twice!” he replied, trying to remain unnoticed in a corner of the room.
"What are you doing here?" Mary asked, frowning at Tesaya.
The woman flashed her a half-draconic smile. Mary remembered liking that smile back when the Paladin hadn’t yet betrayed them.
"I came by Aurum's request," Tesaya said with a voice distorted by the dragon skin growing on her throat. "He has questions about my axe."
"What? Why?"
Mary whipped her head to look at the bard. He was calm. He smiled apologetically and nodded to the elf woman.
"Here, take a look," she said.
She reached out the hand holding the Morgantian axe
(a hand covered with blue scales, with sharp talons instead of fingers)
and they had a better chance to look at it. It was double-headed and heavy. The metal was dark grey in colour and somewhat porous. It looked crude. Some of the pores were oozing a thick reddish liquid.
"How does it work?" Aurum asked. "Does it keep the souls of the people cut with it?"
"No, the souls are torn asunder. Weren't you listening to me back when I told you about Balaine?"
"Yeah, it's not like we were able to trust everything you said," Mary murmured.
"I've rarely lied to you."
"The souls. Can they be brought back?" Aurum insisted.
"Probably. A very powerful spell could do the trick. For example, your dear Francesca might be able to do it. Or, you know, Kloth, if you hadn’t killed him."
The implications of that statement lingered in the air.
"Look, I haven't come here only because of Aurum," Tesaya said. "There's a certain state of affairs I want to discuss with you."
She sat on top of Dynatos Perres' desk, turning her back to its owner as if he wasn’t even there.
"Erathos is about to have a very hard winter," she said. "As a token of good will, we will not attack during that time. We've decided to take Kipsos and continue to gather our army there."
"What about Myth Adofhaer?" Bruno asked.
"Oh, it's pretty much done for. The whole forest burned down. You know, it was more of a show of force than an actual conquest."
(Yeah, Mary thought. It must have been pretty easy to kill all those innocent people.)
"Tiriel is dead," Tesaya continued. "And so are the unicorns." She shook her head, almost showing remorse. "They were a necessary sacrifice."
"There was nothing necessary in their slaughter!" Mary exclaimed.
Tesaya shrugged.
"Oh! There's something you can help out with," she said. "You know, to keep the peace." She leaned forward and looked them one by one. "Stop. Arming. Orswald. Against. Dragons."
Mary's stomach clenched.
"Why?" she exclaimed. "They won't attack you! They’re innocent!"
"It's the principle. Having anti-dragon weapons can send the wrong message."
"You know, there are other dragons beside Trax'rion," Bruno said. "Can't we defend ourselves against them?"
"Sure, Bruno, whatever you say. Nevertheless, we'll still want you to disarm the fortress. If anyone would take care of other dragons, that'll be us."
"How would your dragon take care of anyone?" Mary said. "What would his rule even look like?!"
“The people of Erathos need a strong, competent leader, Mary. And that's us. In the last fifty years, the nations have been prioritizing their own interests above the interests of the whole. When we rule, that won’t be allowed, and the nations’ resources will be divided equally. By force, if need be. Loyal and able people will be appointed to govern the territories.”
"Stop saying 'we', like you don't have a personality anymore!" Mary said.
Tesaya smiled and adjusted her pose on the desk.
“Who do you think rules the land?” she said.
“The strongest?” Agatha guessed. After all, it was in line with Tesaya's main philosophy.
“No. The one who the people deem 'a leader'. There are many incompetent rulers in Erathos.” She glanced over her shoulder to Dynatos Perres and Mary felt his discomfort almost like it was hers. “A competent tyrant is better than any democratic--but incapable--governor.” She sighed. “Look, the land has been managed very unfairly for many generations now. The strong and powerful have all the means to trample the weak. And they do! What a better world it would be if we could take their riches and distribute them to everyone in need? That’s what we are after.”
“Look,” Aurum began, “we’re not saying anything bad about Trax’rion's politics,”
“Speak for yourself!” Mary spat out.
Tesaya shook her head. “How old are you, Meridia?”
Mary pursed her lips and didn’t say anything.
“That’s right. All of you are young, you don’t have the experience to understand us.”
“I’m not young,” Bruno said.
“Yes, indeed. I can see that you’re keeping your thoughts to yourself. I know you can see the truth in my words.”
"Yeah," he said pensively. "But not at all cost."
"We'll make sure to have the people of Erathos learn what happened here, in Pamagos," Tesaya said. "Nurvureem, killing and tirturing the innocent. Their ruler not being able to do anything about it. We'll make sure everybody knows that something like that won't happen while we are in power."
“You two betrayed your own Cult by asking us to kill Racox and being happy about Nurvureem's murder!" Mary exclaimed. "Why would anyone believe you after that?"
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Tesaya sneered sarcastically. "Meridia an Halas is concerned for the ethical relations in the Cult of Tiamat!"
Mary flinched at the new mention of her birth name. It sounded so coarse and rude from the half-draconic mouth!
"All we did was remove a few chaotic elements in the cult," Tesaya explained. "Nurvureem, Racox – they made things difficult to manage, and they are now dead."
"R-racox is not dead," Mary said. She felt blood rushing to her face as the lie escaped her lips. She’d never been too good at lying.
“Nice try, Mary. We both know Racox is gone.”
Mary frowned. A suspicion snuck in her mind. It wasn't that her own lying was any good, but the elven woman seemed sure that the Dry Hand was dead. They had killed him in the middle of nowhere, with no witnesses around. How did she know? Did she have any other sourse of information?
"Why are you doing it now?" Agatha said. She sounded frustrated. "Why not a hundred years from now, or a hundred years back? Why now?"
"Because the stars aligned so well for us. We managed to procure the Artefact. Meltharond died. Morgax managed to find a corrupt enough organisation to supply his army with weapons… We have become strong enough in a very short timespan. And it has been a very good conquest so far. The elves died so magnificently!"
Mary breathed out an angry huff.
"And you think that people would want you as their leaders after that?!"
"We don't know what people would want," Tesaya said. "History is written by the victors. Haven't you read any historical books?"
Mary didn't say anything. She'd read tons of historical books, but somehow it'd never occurred to her that they might be biased or wrong.
"Anyway. I already told you that we won't attack until spring comes. Morgax will stay in the Cedar Woods and he won't make any moves against Belfast. We're expecting," she looked at Bruno, "that Belfast won't make any moves against Morgax as well."
"I can't guarantee that," Bruno said.
"Oh, come on, Bruno, I know you can convince them if you really try!"
Tesaya hopped off from Mr. Perres’ desk, threw the axe over her shoulder and turned to each of them.
“Behave!” she said with her hoarse voice.
Then, in a flash of blue lightning, another shimmering portal appeared, and she walked through.
Oh, my! Isn’t Tesaya scary? What do you think about her ideology? Do you think she and Trax’rion have any right to Erathos and its people after what they’ve dome? What do you think about all her veiled threats?
I hope to see you next time, when we’ll find out how our heroes react to what has just happened.
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossaries (Part 1 and Part 2)
and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: Mary Windfiddle's story is my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum, Bruno and Agatha) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.