Erlem & Daisy

Daisy opened the door slowly, just an inch at first to get a better look at the people at the door. " i'm sorry you said Blood heim?" She emphasized the word blood, " its named after the architect who designed it, and its pronounced blewd-hime." The woman on the right explained, " out lord wishes you no ill will, we just dont see many travel the titan road and rarely get any news about what goes on outside our swamplands. " Daisy opened the door enough to put her self between the opening and the two women. " really? So you knew your swamp was infested with goblins!"

The two women look unfazed by the news, " yes we were aware, but their numbers proved problem-some for us, we managed to keep them relegated to the western side of the swamp where you in fact just came from. " Daisy invited the two women in to sit down for some tea and learn more about Blu'dheim and the plague swamps, she also wanted to figure out who these people were. They didn't look like any people she's ever seen, slender and beautiful, long silver hair and young faces equipped with ageless solid green eyes like emeralds, there were no whites or pupils. There voices were rhythmic almost as they spoke, almost like a beautiful song. Erlem just stared at the women as Daisy poured them some tea from a green pot she had found in the cupboard and some tea she found in the pantry.

"So ladies who exactly are you and your ..Lord ." The woman who was originally on the left pulled down her hood, she had two opals hanging from each of her ear lobes which were attached to a pair of long pointed ears. " I am Durah and this is Myra, we are servants to the lord of Blu'dheim." " I don't mean to seem ignorant or to have prejudice on my mind but you do not look to be of any race i'v ever seen on this continent. Where do you come from?" The other woman smiled and let out a slight chuckle, " my friend we are of Thre'a herself, we are whats left of the elves of Thre'a. " Erlem immediately wanted to go to the castle and meet more elves, " you're elves! How many more of you are at the castle?" Erlem asked, Daisy wondered if there were more of these elves. From what she remembered all the elves left in the world left the rest of the world and took The Ire as there own, no elves were known to remain.

" Didn't all the elves move to the ire?" Erlem had a knack for asking the right questions, allowing Daisy to just listen and decide how trustworthy their host hopefuls truly were.

"Yes didn't the elves choose to isolate themselves from the world after the population was killed off. Its quite strange that there would be a stronghold full of you without someone knowing."

" you are correct, all the high elves did leave the world after the defeat of the Ancient evils, but some elven lords chose to stay in their ancestral homes, our Lord is truly the last elven Lord left on this continent. His home, Blu'dheim is enchanted so only an elf can find its archegate. To be fair the swamp on its own deters visitors." Myra had been silent through most of the conversation which caught Erlems attention.

He watched her bottom lip quiver as if she were holding back a floodgate of words or possibly she was going to be sick he really wasn't sure. " are you ok, Myra was it?" Erlem asked in a low voice, Myras eyes flashed intensely, then she smiled sweetly at him. It was a false smile, devious in nature with a slight curl at the edges. Erlem felt a chill travel down his spine causing him to shudder, " You'll have to excuse her, she's not used to non elf people. I believe she's afraid to offend you seeing as you're both Autumn witches."

"So you are familiar with autumn witches?" Daisy probed further trying to reveal any hidden intentions this invitation may hold, " of course, the elves were there for the birth of the first autumn witch. The blessing of the Autumn god ushered the age of magic. Many autumn witches aided in the greatest of wars and it was their gifts that led to the imprisonment of the Great Ancients." Durah spoke as if it were common knowledge but all that was taught about the ancient war was that the elves won. They never truly said what the ancients were, they were never given names or even what exactly they were, just that they were beaten by the elves.

"As much as we would like to continue our conversation we must return to the castle, our Lord would be happy to finish this conversation himself." The elves put down there cups and looked at Daisy awaiting an answer. Daisy smiled and had decided that if these were elves they could have just killed them as soon as they entered the hut if they had wanted, they didn't seem interested in harming them. Maybe they could help with Erlems omen, make the trip through the mages pass unnecessary.

"We will accept his invitation. It would be a great honor to meet a great elven lord." Daisy wasn't lying, if their master truly was an elven lord he certainly would be worth meeting. " Erlem wasn't too keen on meeting this elf lord, the two elves he had just met gave him a creepy feeling and he didn't want to be locked in a castle with a whole clan of them. "Daisy I don't think this is a good idea." Erlem whispered " something isn't right about them."

" Elves are a little different Erlem, they're all millions of years old, they've seen all of the history of Thre'a. We are just a second to them, we come and go in a blink of an eye." She put her hand on his worried little shoulder " besides you were just talking about meeting elves so here's your chance." She was right he was just fantasizing about meeting a group of elvish mages and learning some awesome new skills, but still something was wrong with these elves. They had an aura about them Erlem wasn't so eager to trust.

The four travelers left the hut before dark and headed back to the giant break in the road, " hey Durah what happened to this part of the road, i thought titan trees were pretty much indestructible?" Daisy was really curious about what could have done such damage to a titan tree, even uprooted the wood was stronger than forged steel and known to be able to withstand black-fire.

" the ancient titan Borthorus and his brother the great maw tried to attack the castle and the elves inside. Commanding great flocks of black-fire phoenixes and giants, the traitor elves and the plagued horrors that spawned from the mouth of the maw itself. The titan tree was felled to creat a barrier, giving the elves of Blu'dheim the chance to combat the foes but the phoenixes of the maw were able to break through as you can see. "

they followed along at a brisk pace as Durah continued lecturing about the history of the castle and the battle as she directed them down a small hidden path along side the wall of the the broken road.

The bottom of the small stair led path had been broken down and neglected, some of the steps looked like piled of pebbles and at the bottom through a small thicket was a dirt path that curved deep into the swamp before disappearing into more bushes. The path was dark and just added to Erlem's anxiety, he imagined somewhere in the swamp waited a putrid giant stoking a flame underneath a black pot picking his teeth with the bones of some random victim. He grabbed Daisy's hand as they made their way to the path and crossed into the swamp once again. Myrah looked behind herself at the frightened Erlem and sent him a cold smile, " don't worry little Autumn witch this part of the swamp is under the control of our Lord, i can assure you the trip will be uneventful."

For some reason her words didn't make him feel any better about the trip, if anything it worried him more.

The sun set and the path grew dark which made Erlem feel better, the elves glowed illuminating the path as they walked casting plenty of shadows for which he could hop into if he felt like he needed to. They had been walking for two or three hours now and Erlem had begun to get physically tired. This walk was much more strenuous than the titans road, the path wound around the bogs of the swamp and up a small rocky hill that formed the base of a larger stony cliff and up the cliff were large black steel gates shining in the moonlight. The torches it around the gate glowed as the flames danced menacingly in the distance, the flames were very beautiful and Erlem had a hunch it was magical fire as it would occasionally sneeze and shoot lime green and neon pink embers in the air if it wasn't for the creepy feeling he kept getting Erlem would have marveled at the sight of it.

Daisy couldn't help but be impressed as they walked up to the giant black gate, the sheer size of it was lost in the distance but up close it was as tall as the highest point in Autumnveil, its top was fitted with what looked like spear heads more so than spikes all across from end to end the skeleton corpses of those who tried previously to lay siege to the gate and the castle behind it hung from the spikes that were sewn into it. The gates had a red glow about them, against the fire light the shadows took on a red color and as the fires moved so did the shadows giving the illusion of pools of blood flowing across the finely polished black stones and black steel bars.

Durah reached up to a single black steel square hanging magically to the center of the gate and placed her fingertips on its surface. The outline of the square began to glow green, as it did she lifted all but her index finger from the square and began to draw symbols that would glow green and linger before being absorbed into the square. After twenty or so symbols a seal formed in the center of the gate and swung open, even in the night the black fortress was a sight to behold. Erlem forgot he was scared for a moment to be impressed, the fortress glowed against the moon above it as horned nags graze in the fields between the gate and the castle walls below. Erlem suddenly really wanted to go inside and just like his fear his fatigue seemed to go away as well, he let go of Daisy's hand who had also lost herself in the grandeur of the elven stronghold.