“You would think so, Echo. You would certainly think so.” Elder Herrlot seemed to deflate, slumping down in place as she visibly considered her next words. “It’s not as easy as that, however.
“You see, some years ago the Royal family, our dearest King and Queen, were in need for a replacement Chamberlain, someone who could oversee their day-to-day activities while they could deal with other problems. Old Methuin was set to retire, having served the Royal family for over 800 years without complaint; replacing him would be difficult, if not impossible. So, it was with some surprise that one was found in less than a month.
“The new Chamberlain, who was stripped of his given name as soon as he took the position, as it would be a devoted appointment for life (or until retirement), was a young Elf barely 100 years old, which raised a few alarms, but he appeared to fit his new title perfectly. From all that I had heard, since I was no longer running through those Royal circles at that point, the new Chamberlain did an even better job than the one he had replaced, which was high praise, indeed.”
By the bored way that the crowd reacted, they seemed to have heard this before, and so had Echo. Everyone had heard about the Chamberlain, and how he had swooped in and taken control of the position as if he were born to it.
“Yes, I thought the same thing. Perfect placement of the perfect candidate.” Elder Herrlot started to pace back and forth as she spoke. “Flash forward to a month or so ago when a dungeon was found to have created these Energy Orbs, and we started to send them back to the capital, and more importantly to the Royal family, to distribute to our Elites. Except, apart from an initial distribution to a few select groups, most of those I sent along were never distributed.”
That still can’t be true. Why would the King and Queen hold them back when they could do so much good?
“As most of you know from your own experience, it was impossible to get them for your use, even though enough were sent along that nearly every Elite would be able to obtain at least a single one of them. When I got word of this, I started to hold back parts of the shipments, fearing the worst was happening back home…and I was right. Churven? If you will?”
Emerging from the shadows in the room was the same older Elite who had met them up above, the white streaks through his dark-blue hair making him feel even older in her presence that he probably was. Though, I could be wrong.
“Yes,” Churven said, walking forward to address the whole crowd. “Working on scant and contrary information, Herrlot contacted me to do a little investigating. I was never really inclined to spend any time around the Royal family, as I preferred to spend my recent days like I spent my youth: destroying monsters with my bare hands.” As he spoke, he lifted those hands, and a swirl of flame-tinted darkness swirled in between them. “However, the Elder and I used to be good friends back in the day – eradicating monsters by the hundreds, and we even destroyed a good half-dozen dungeons – so I figured it couldn’t hurt to look into it.
“And I was disappointed in what I found. Not that I didn’t find anything; in fact, I found too much.
“Without going into too much detail, I looked into why the King and Queen were keeping the new Energy Orbs away from our people. Alas, I discovered that they didn’t even know about them; all information about the Orbs was kept from their knowledge, stopped before it could reach them – by the Chamberlain.
“Why? Well, that was where I was disappointed – in how we had let things get this way. I can only blame the slowly increasing state of our defenses in the form of Elites over the years that we turned our attention away from such things. As long as our Elite members were being sent out to where they were needed most, with intelligent orders, we didn’t care from whom those order came from – we are here to protect our people, after all.”
The assembled Elites were now enraptured at Churven’s speech; finally, they were hearing something new to them. “What did you find?” Winter asked, politely for once.
“Nothing good, I assure you. Suffice it to say, the Chamberlain is using his elemental energy to cloud the minds of not only the King and Queen, but almost every Royal Guard, as well as some select Elites.”
“What?” Echo blurted out. “How? And how do you know?”
“I’m not going to go into specifics, because such a practice was banned over 2 millennia ago, but it’s a form of mind control. By using Nether and Spirit energy, he has created a self-perpetuating spell that both sucks the innate energy from his targets, as well as weakens their minds enough to be susceptible to strong suggestions. I know this because I was warned against its use over a millennium ago by my parents, who found out that I had access to Nether and Spirit energy.” He shook his head. “Kids these days have no respect.”
“I don’t understand,” Echo cut in again, now thoroughly confused and horrified at the same time. “This sounds like a truly dire situation, but what does that have to do with the Energy Orbs?”
“Wow. Such callousness. I was right about the youth, I guess.” Churven sighed, before continuing. “To answer your question, to those who have been under this spell the longest, any regenerating energy will start to break the hold it has over them. When they sleep, the regenerative abilities that rest provides towards refilling their energy is counteracted by the spell, because the energy restores at a slow enough rate. The Energy Orbs, however, are much faster and would shatter the spell within an hour, at most. My assumption is that the Chamberlain discovered the properties of the Orbs and is keeping their existence a secret, or else making others forget about their existence. Not just the Royal family, but the guards as well; as far as I could tell, even speaking about them anywhere in the Royal Tree can result in you being detained.”
This was all too much for Echo. She had been coming back to the capital to warn them about the dangers from the dungeons near the wasteland, but now it seemed as if there were unexpected dangers back home.
“So…what does that have to do with me?”
That was the confusing part; she could only assume that those assembled here were planning on somehow subverting the Chamberlain and freeing the Royals – from what the Elder had hinted at – but Echo wasn’t important or powerful. I’m not even sure if all of this is true; why would they want me to help?
“Now that is a good question. Why do we need you?” Winter asked with a sneer. I really don’t like him.
“Because, dear Winter, we need her to take the King and Queen back to the dungeon.”
Chapter 17
“Umm…what?”
That seemed to sum up what the rest of the group was thinking, as everyone looked shocked.
“Are you crazy? Why would anyone in their right mind want to bring the King and Queen to a dungeon, let alone that one?” Winter wasn’t as tongue-tied as the others, obviously. It was strange hearing him say “King” and “Queen” in that inflection, because Echo had never heard them spoken of that way. Just like the Chamberlain, whenever one became appointed as the non-hereditary head of their people, their name was lost to the winds of time, and very few knew their given names anymore. Echo certainly didn’t, but it was possible that Churven and Herrlot did, given how old they were – not that they would tell anyone.
The Elder didn’t answer right away; she just looked at Churven as if willing him to speak. Hesitatingly, she began to explain. “There’s…a reason why the spell the Chamberlain is using was forbidden so long ago, besides the obvious. Prolonged affliction can result in a severe reduction of a victim’s usable elemental energy from the constant drain. This could be particularly devastating to the King and Queen, given that they both control 6 elements.”
Wow. That was certainly something that Echo didn’t know. She was aware that their Royalty were selected from among those who had the most potential or were the strongest of them, but being able to control 6 different elements each was, frankly, inconceivable.
“But that isn’t even the worst side effect from the spell,” Churven continued. “Those w
ho have been exposed to it for extensive periods of time – as I suspect is the case with the King and Queen, based on my own clandestine observations – can have their minds completely broken if they manage to be freed from the spell. A broken mind is not something that can be cured or healed through conventional or magical means; after 48 hours, if nothing is done…they will die.”
Silence reigned through the room as everyone took that in, even Winter. Sheelagh finally stirred next to Echo, asking the question everyone was thinking. “You mean to say that if we stop the Chamberlain, the King and Queen will die? I don’t see how this will help anyone, despite that filth controlling them.”
The Elder cleared her throat before speaking. “Very true. The loss of our leadership will cause major repercussions throughout all of our people, and we cannot afford a decade-long mourning period where almost all work stops while a new pair of Royals are chosen. Those traditions are something that can’t be rushed easily, nor would we want to; only the most worthy can be selected for the position, and it usually takes at least that long for the testing, deliberation, and decisions to unfold. Not only that, but we can’t afford to lose some of our most promising candidates from the field; we need to keep them on the front lines, pushing back the ever-encroaching dungeon monsters attacking us from all sides.”
Herrlot was silent for a moment as she looked around the room. “If times were not so desperate right now with what is happening near the wasteland, I would leave the Chamberlain to play his little games; yes, what he is doing is very wrong, but if exposing his actions resulted in the deaths of the King and Queen, then I would feel better leaving them alone. Before this mess with the Energy Orbs, the Chamberlain had actually done an amazingly thorough job of ensuring our people stayed safe, directing the Elites where they needed to go to use them effectively. In fact, if he had been alive during the last Royal Selection Ceremony, he could’ve been a contender for the position of King.”
There was angry mumbling throughout the assembled Elites at that, which was only understandable given what the Chamberlain was doing. The Elder held up her hand for silence.
“I know, I know. Not what you would want to hear, but I promised you the truth when I invited you all here. The fact of the matter is that the times dictate that we can’t allow this to stand, because he is blocking the only salvation for our people that has given me hope in the last few decades. You all have seen what these Orbs can do; just think if everyone had them. All our Elites. That’s precisely why the Chamberlain needs to be removed, the King, Queen, and everyone else affected by his nasty spell freed.”
“But—the King and Queen—”
“Will not die, if things work out the way I hope.” Elder Herrlot turned to Echo, looking her right in the eyes with a heavy stare. “Which finally brings us to Echo.”
The Ranger suddenly remembered why she was there, or at least why she was told she was. “How does my bringing them to the dungeon help? As miraculous as they are, even Sandra’s healing Drones won’t be able to heal their minds – if that was what you were thinking.” Echo remembered how the Elder had nearly been killed inside the dungeon’s upper workshop by accident, and it was only Sandra’s Drone construct and some quick thinking that allowed her to survive the horrendous gut wound.
“That was what I was thinking at first, but you are right. Even magical means such as that Drone aren’t strong enough to fix a broken mind that they are likely to have; it will take something even more powerful and unusual.”
“Like what?” Echo was going through everything she had seen and experienced while at or around the dungeon, and she couldn’t think of what the Elder was hinting at.
“The Bond she can create with them.”
Oh. But….
“How do you know that will work?”
Now it was Herrlot’s turn to hesitate before she answered. “I…wasn’t stationed in Avensglen because I had upset someone in the capital, nor for my retirement. No, I asked to be transferred there for a reason I didn’t tell anyone about, and which I thought I could live with in a relatively low-stress environment. You see—” The Elder started to choke up a little bit. “—I was starting to suffer from some mental problems that would cause me to freeze up under too much pressure, and my mind would shut down; there was nothing I could do to stop it, and I realized that I needed to take myself away from my previous life to live out the rest of my days where my steady degeneration wouldn’t harm anyone.
“Most days, I barely felt it or recognized that it was there, but it was always in the back of my mind. It made me cranky and bad-tempered, which I’m sure you experienced at some point. That all unexpectedly changed when Sandra Bonded with me. Not only could I hear her in my mind, but that mind of mine was newly and completely freed from whatever had ailed it. At first, I thought that it was the healing itself that did it, since the Bonding came so near that painful ordeal, but I didn’t really feel the difference until the Bond took place. It was like I was truly alive for the first time in decades, if not centuries; I’m not even sure how long I had been suffering before that.
“And that, Echo, is precisely what we need to save the King and Queen, get all of Symenora back on track with using these Energy Orbs, and work with Sandra and her dungeon to contain the influx of monsters that are sure to come with the destruction of 4 dungeon hearts so close together.”
“Wait, what?! Why weren’t we told about—” Winter shouted, obviously hearing about the destruction of 4 Dungeon Cores for the first time.
“Shut up, Winter—now is not the time. I’ll explain in a bit, but the short version is that we’re in a spot of trouble if we don’t do something soon.”
That was an understatement. A “spot of trouble” did not quite convey how much they were screwed if they didn’t get a handle on the situation, which was why they needed to get moving. “Then let’s do it. What are we waiting for?” Echo asked impatiently.
“For one, we need to finalize our plan – or are you planning on just walking in and politely asking the Chamberlain to please step aside while you take the Royals back to the dungeon on that massive bird?”
Ah, so that’s why I’m needed – transportation. I remember Sandra hinting that she didn’t quite trust the Elder, so only I was to have control over the large Aerie Roc.
“And two, even with a plan, we need to wait a few days until the hubbub surrounding your rescue dies down; security is much too tight right now to get within a half-mile of the Royal Tree.”
Something about what the Elder said caught her attention. “Speaking of escape…why was I even being held? How did they know that I was coming? Why didn’t the Chamberlain try his spell on me?” A lot of questions still surrounded exactly why she had been held “for her own safety” in the first place.
“That would be my fault, I’m afraid,” Churven said apologetically. “My investigations caused the Chamberlain to become informed of our activities, and information about who you are was already well-known. Once you were captured, he was kept too busy hunting for us to pay you too much attention, but it was our thought that he would eventually prop you up as a figurehead of our faction – whereupon he would then execute you to emphasize his point.”
That didn’t sound good. “What point?”
“That this talk about a dungeon helping out by providing assistance in terms of Energy Orbs was actually a plot to subvert Royal authority and needed to be stopped,” the Elder interjected. “There was no way to hide the presence of the Energy Orbs, especially after Porthel and his Elite group came back with tales, and shipments started flowing in; the Chamberlain simply changed the narrative.”
“That’s also why he didn’t attempt to use his spell on you, because it wouldn’t work,” Churven continued. “I managed to locate Porthel after finding out about the Chamberlain’s deeds, and I could see some remnants of an attempt to control his mind, but his ‘Bond’ with Sandra had prevented it.”
Plots within plots and conspiracy theori
es were too much for Echo, and she wasn’t even sure what to think of it all anymore. All she knew was that she wanted to get back to Sandra’s dungeon, and not only to see Kelerim again. There was a lot of work left to do to make the area safe, and she wanted to be a part of it; that didn’t appear as if it was going to be anytime soon, however, based on the information she was being given. If it was all true, of course.
It was more than a few days of waiting for things to calm down enough for an attempt to eliminate the threat of the Chamberlain and rescue the King and Queen from his harmful influence. More than a week passed while Echo was kept down in the hidden bunker, while the majority of those she had met when she had first arrived – including Sheelagh and Winter – had gone back to their normal culling duties elsewhere. Other than herself, only a core group of 5 remained: Elder Herrlot, Churven, and the three who had participated in Echo’s capture/escape/whatever she wanted to call it.
Echo was left out of the planning for the most part, mainly because she really didn’t have much to contribute and didn’t know enough about the people and location involved to make a difference. She was kept apprised of their progress, however, so it wasn’t a surprise when they finally determined that it was time for action, because their chances of success were the best they were going to be; most of the hubbub around Echo’s departure from the Royal Tree had visibly calmed down, and there wasn’t any better time to strike.
Echo still didn’t know for sure that she was on the right side, because there was no real proof of what she had been told about the Chamberlain. For all she knew, this was all some sort of elaborate ploy by the Elder and Churven to take take control of the Elven government; if that were true, then she would unknowingly be working to instigate the coup of which she had accused Herrlot earlier. If it wasn’t a ploy, then they would be saving their people from the machinations of the vile Chamberlain, and they would be hailed as heroes. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, though, success in their endeavors meant that they could finally supply the help that the area around the wasteland needed. And none too soon, in my opinion.
The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Page 17
