Echoes of Invasion: Overwintering | Scene 4

Prior to paying Heppa’s father a visit, Tric asks Nasir if he can borrow a piece of the jewelry Cleomithir sent. “I’d like to show it to Uncle Thran, but I’m not sure if that is a good idea. I understand it’s a sensitive topic, and I don’t want to mention anything directly, but I’m curious if he will say anything about it.” His plan is to casually show a piece to Thrandolil without bringing up Anador. Nasir has no particular advice about how to proceed; he does not really understand much about what was magically done to his brother-in-law. At the time it happened, he was preoccupied with caring for the toddler he had inherited. He invites Tric to take whatever pieces of his father’s jewelry he wants. Once Anador’s, those pieces are now Nasir’s, so the description works on many levels, Tric reflects. He slips a bangle on his wrist, picks up his old elvish bow, and heads across the village. Interested in the shiny object, Mate tags along.

First things first, Tric tracks down Heppa. Her own bow was damaged beyond repair in the Heart Mountains, so he gifts her with the one he no longer needs. She is pleased and grateful to receive it, having already abandoned the broken one to the back of her closet next to the rusty fire tongs from Hisanham. 

Together they then head up to Thrandolil’s library. It is in its usual state: completely organized from his perspective and a disorderly mess to everyone else except Heppa. Clearly, he currently has many active projects. One of them is a partially assembled apparatus stuffed in the back corner, a tripod with two long legs and one short one. It leans against other random items to make up for its lack of symmetry. Tric and Heppa exchange a glance, silently acknowledging that they both see it and recognize the pieces. That short leg is the broken necromancer rod that Thrandolil showed them back at the start of spring, before they ever recovered anything for him. The two long ones are the staff they found in the Foul Fen and the one they dug up underneath South Tower. Currently there are no crystals in the apparatus. However, the purple and blue stones originally mounted on the staffs are sitting on a shelf nearby. Given the lay of the papers near them, there is also a third crystal, though it is hidden from view right now. 

Thrandolil greets them cheerfully, happy to discuss their recent travels. “Great, you’re both here! How did the discussion with the Society of Shadow go? Could they potentially be fellow researchers on this project? Did you bring me any tomes of lore? What about Lady Sabine’s ring? Did returning that go fine?”

We didn’t do any of those things, Tric reflects glumly, his own mood dimmed by what sits in the corner of the room. Metal bracing holds each of the legs a particular distance from the others; their tips do not all meet at the top. They are far enough apart that a circlet could sit right at the top.

“We couldn’t get the Book of Rhys, but we do have a copy of the Lay of Gritta from it,” Heppa shares, digging through her own papers to pull out the sheet.

“And have you heard from your human mage friend? He’s had plenty of time to complete the mission that I sent him off on. It is a pity that he is unfortunately not allowed back in our forest, but I understand the reasons why.”

Heppa’s mind is still on the shadow mages, and that is the topic she addresses first. She hands over the ballad she interpreted and tells her father about how the mages in the Grey Woods were accidentally doing necromancy. That leads into her sharing the important finding that elves can do necromancy. Her father has previously said that is impossible, but Heppa has heard otherwise from powerful elves on both the druid track and the sorceress track. In Weldyn, the sylph Lady Ethiliel told Heppa and Tric about her mentor Mebrin succumbing to the pull of dark magics. In Wesmere, the elvish star Soliana similarly shared that elves can fall prey to it and that there have been some who have not turned back from it in time. Heppa does not really think there is any danger of her father getting involved in anything like that. That contraption in the corner is certainly something defensive, she figures, just like he has spoken of in the past. She recalls that Kachen said Anador’s circlet had some sort of command presence about it. Incorporating an artifact like that would make sense for something designed to repulse undead attacks.

While Heppa spews out the load of information they gained from Ethiliel and Soliana, Tric stays uncharacteristically silent. What is going on here? he worries, looking at the necromantic contraption. What am I going to do? The device in the corner of the room is unnerving, and so is the way Thrandolil lightly brushes off Heppa’s points.

“Yes, yes, two elves out of the thousands and thousands on this continent told you something that does not fit with what we all know to be the case, that elves cannot do necromancy. Well, sadly, you cannot believe everything anyone says. I understand that necromancy is a scary topic, and it frightens people, but we can’t live our lives worried about other people’s delusions. What they say is not important. We need to keep at our work.”

Heppa nods slowly, trying to fit her father’s words into Ethiliel’s conviction and Soliana’s wisdom. “We can’t fight what we don’t understand?” she suggests.

“Exactly!”

Tric had never really thought of his uncle as reckless before, but now he is beginning to think that label might fit, given how dismissive he is of this very important and relevant information. Lady Ethiliel saw her mentor in his fallen state. She lived that experience. The only thing that separates us from knowledge is experience. Uncle Thran’s oft-stated sentiment begins to sound sinister to Tric. There could be a rational explanation, Tric acknowledges to himself, but this is not the first time he has felt inklings of concern. He speaks up now. “Let me tell you about the Society of Shadow. They thought they weren’t doing necromancy, but they were. One hundred percent, no doubt about it.” He relates the Corruption and Fall of the Shadow Mages of the Grey Woods. It is not a tale for lighthearted tavern audiences. He tells Thrandolil about the woses and what they sensed, as well as shows the physical evidence on his own neck from the fight with Gaenyn. After the whole story is out, he emphasizes, “They thought they weren’t doing necromancy. They summoned a wraith on accident.

Thrandolil is very alarmed at the extent of injury Tric suffered and expresses relief to have him back in the forest safe again. It would be horrible if anything serious were to happen to his nephew because Thrandolil sent him out to gather information. “The good news is I’ve been doing my own research, as well as getting letters and packages while you were away. You both can stay home quite safe over the upcoming months. I don’t have anything to send you out for again. You can relax and just enjoy time with your families.”

Tric can tell Thrandolil is trying to be reassuring, but the words he employs speak more to his own priorities than to the nature of the tough time Tric and Heppa went through. Just how important is family to him? Tric wonders. Important enough to try to do something about his brother? Kachen was sent to get Anador’s circlet, an item that would fit perfectly at the top of whatever that device behind Thrandolil is. And what other packages and research notes did he acquire while we were away? How many other agents does he have?

Mate notices the direction Tric keeps looking and lands over on Thrandolil’s shelf to poke around. He disturbs some of the papers, and when one slips, Tric gets a brief glance at the third crystal. It is sizable. And red. Oh no. Oh no. No no no no no! Tric knows Thandolil corresponds with Lady Sabine of South Tower, an archmage. And Tric sold a giant ruby to a merchant there, emphasizing the magical nature of the supposed “Heart of the Heart Mountains.” The pieces all fall into place on how it came to be here now. Gah! When will I learn not to meddle! He used his magic to erase its rune and thus negate its power to remove or increase fear, but that was before he had talked with Glammur about the technique. He was just making it up as he went along, like he so often does. What if it wasn’t permanent? 

Though Tric is fretting on the inside, he maintains his composure. Thrandolil remains oblivious to his nephew’s inner turmoil and instead addresses his daughter, trying to reassure her since she seems worried about elves doing necromancy. He thanks her for how much the two cousins have contributed to his research. “All that you have done will help keep the forest safe. Please, enjoy your break over the winter and trust that I have these matters well in hand. I don’t want you to worry about anything. And don’t mind what your mother says; you don’t have to go to any classes or anything like that. Just take a break! Dabble in whatever you like.”

“Oh, thank you, Daddy!” Heppa cheers, reassured. He’s right. And we’re not actually doing necromancy, just talking about it. She looks forward to many pleasant afternoons in the library with him in the months ahead. There are so many little things she worked out from the Lay of Gritta that he would be very interested to hear. “I’m sorry we couldn’t bring you the Book of Rhys. That’s been returned to the House of Light in South Tower.”

Tric meets eyes with Mate and nods his head at the opposite side of the room. The magpie complies, creating a distraction away from the crystals. Tric slips closer to the shelf and sneaks a glance at the ruby, confirming by its shape that it is indeed the one from Mal-Vektor’s staff. That in itself is bad enough, but even worse is the fact that there is a rune etched into it. Either what Tric did to the stone wore off, or the crystal has gotten re-enchanted in some way. Tric does not have time for more than a quick check, though, since Thrandolil steps over to the shelf and starts clearing it off, perhaps concerned that the magpie will try to make off with his “shinies.”

Heppa, meanwhile, continues sharing knowledge gained on their travels. She tells her father what she learned about corruption in the Gray Woods. That reminds her of Gaenyn’s—now Kachen’s—sword. Caution and excitement war in her tone as she shares how some artifacts can be dangerous to use or even make working magic more difficult. “But I’m sure you already know about such risks. Oh! And Kachen located the circlet! He knows where it is, but he couldn’t bring it back at this time.”

“It’s in a dangerous place. It should really wait for spring for us to go get it,” Tric throws in. “There is a large undead army near it, and we’ll have some of our own armies to push that back then. Maybe at that point we can go retrieve it.” Kachen shared a lot of additional details about his circlet retrieval attempt that Tric feels are best omitted at this point.

Thrandolil does express some disappointment, but then he rallies. “That’s quite all right. There’s no rush,” he reassures them. Whatever he is working on related to that will be completed in due time, just like all his other projects. He does not have so many in various stages of completion because he is as distractible as Heppa. No, as an elf who lives hundreds of years, he can afford to wait until someone finds that one piece of missing information he needs to advance a project to the next stage. 

Heppa takes comfort from the reminder that her father is so patient. It is a really useful attribute for conducting such long-term research projects. If he has been working on this necromancy-related topic for years and has not succumbed yet, then she is sure he will be fine. At least, that is how she feels in early autumn. Months later, after many afternoons working alongside her father, she will have enough evidence to realize that something is not quite right about his plans. Then Kachen’s words about physical items leaving an imprint on the aetherium will come back to her, and she will question why her father sent him for that circlet. Is this about controlling undead, or is this really something just about Anador? she will wonder. That all is in the future, though. Right now, she is content to explore new ideas with Daddy.

Tric, on the other hand, is still unnerved. “Oh, we met with Grandma and Grandpa in Wesmere,” he says casually. “They gave Heppa a cool wand—”

“I showed him!” Heppa tells her cousin with a broad smile. “That was Grandmother’s own wand!”

“And they said they thought I might like this.” Tric pushes up his sleeve to reveal a silver bangle with an amethyst and watches his uncle carefully. He did not react in any way to Tric referring to Thrandolil’s parents with familial titles. Now, however, his eyes light up in a manner Tric has seen before, when watching Thrandolil observe Kachen. It is a look of pensive expectation, of wondering about possibilities. Tric has had that expression directed at himself, too, when Thrandolil asked him to try focusing his dowsing skills through the broken necromancer rod during the search for the missing staff. What Tric displays on his arm is not the circlet, not the piece that Thrandolil specifically requested. But Tric imagines his uncle wondering, Could that work in a pinch?

Tric knows better than to mention Anador’s name specifically, but he keeps talking in an effort to elicit information. “Yeah, Grandma and Grandpa gave me a few different pieces, but I thought Nasir would like them.” As usual, he says too much. Now Thrandolil knows where to find more of his brother’s jewelry. He might ask Nasir to borrow some, or even access some on the sly. The danger is there. 

As Tric walks back home after the meeting, he reflects on the conversation he and Heppa had with Kachen about Mal-Ravanal’s lair. Maybe we really should blow it up. If the armies don’t push all the way further east, we might need to do something about that ourselves. Perhaps some networking with dwarves is in order. Underground stays the same temperature all year round, so it’s not a bad place to be in the winter….