Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 01 Ch. 24

Eldar looked at the group and he saw one human, "What is your name?"

He looks at Eldar, "Private Michael Farmer."

Eldar smiled at him, "I am going to call you out as a psionic, do not dispute it. I doubt it is true but I want to scare the shit out of a couple of family members."

He chuckled, "Yes, Sir."

Thirty minutes went by and family elders started rolling in. They saw the room surrounded by his guards.

Heliar kept the seat reserved until our special guests arrive. Eldar looked at his father, "Is this everyone?"

He shook his head, "We are missing 2 but they are out of town on business." Heliar hid it but activated a teleport blocker under the table.

He nodded, "You can address them directly. Everyone, yesterday the Queen made both my wives Dames and appointed me Knight Protector of the Elven people. BLADES! I would like each of you to place your hands on the table please."

He waited for compliance. He called out, "My ladies, secure the prisoners."

He yelled out, "This is the only reminder, your hands leave the table you will find a sword in you and my lieutenant will be watching closely." He waited for the manacles to be secured. He looked at the two of them, "Do you know why you are in manacles?"

They did not respond. Eldar smirked, "Let us start with Gastorma Silvertree for hiring an assassin to kill me. I told you all what would happen if someone tried to assassinate me or my immediate family! I am going to ask if you had any conspirators in your plot. Any others that helped you finance or knew of the upcoming attempt?"

He looks at Eldar and says nothing.

He looked at Ellirona, "I not only have proof in your attempt on my life, the planned attempt on my wives, my brother, Master trainer Yetto, and my father. The successful attempt on my Grandfather. Let me add to it the hiring of an assassin to kill the King and Queen! Any conspirators you wish to add to the list?"

She sneered at him. He nodded, "Staying silent will not help you. Private Michael Farmer, step forward." He stepped forward. "This man is one of a few psionic members of my company. They will be brought in to dig through your minds until they look like 10-day old mush. For every transgression, every conspirator, and all of your hidden assets. Then they will be set loose on your children. Then your children's children.

Before they are stripped of everything but the clothes on their backs. Just so the rest of you do not think I am bluffing." He threw the documents onto the table. "The two sitting next to the prisoners use one hand and pull one document in front of you and tell the others what they are."

One of them looks up, "This is a Royal arrest warrant, these normally are done by Royal Guards."

He nodded, "They will be arriving shortly, I asked for some time to talk with you. Father, what is the status of the 6 disowned family members."

He clears his throat, "They wish to meet with you next week in the town you are building."

Eldar nodded, "I think we can make that happen but I would like for them to be there in the next 5 days. I will be going back into the field shortly after returning. Anyone wishes to claim knowledge, feign ignorance, or do these 2 traitorous members of our house wish to say something to expand the blame. I thought I made it clear that another attempt on my life would result in disowning of the rest of you. Nobody has anything to say?

While you are thinking that over a ritual was held a few days ago. That ritual took the Elven kingdom from 4 active Moon Blades to 10. Corellon Larethian appeared at that ritual, the Moon Blades have all been modified. Correcting the corruption. Of particular note was that 'The acorn has fallen from the tree.' The only family members who can claim this blade now are my descendants. Not even my brother can claim the blade."

That got heads turning. "Ten Houses and four village elders all heard this and saw this event. There were eleven guests invited. One man lost his sight, his eyeballs burned out of his head. He tried to view the ceremony but was not invited."

He sighed, "Any comments yet?" All was still silent. He looked at Charlemagne, "How often have you seen me go back on my word?"

She shook her head "Never, you always work to keep your promises."

He sighed, "It pains me to do this father, please have the three non-coup members stand. My father points them out and they stood. He looked at them, "You all swear that you had no knowledge of either of these attempts on my life?" One by one they swore and nobody contradicts them. Annette confirmed.

He looked at them, "Please join my lieutenant at the end of the table and keep your hands in front of you. My ladies, please strip Ellirona of all her belongings including her clothes. Guards, and father, please strip Gastorma Including clothes. When you get to shirts just cut them off. The rest of you at the table will be brought up one at a time and stripped of all gear.

Your clothes will be returned to you. Father is to take steps to seize all assets of all the seated members and their families' house accounts and private accounts. All rooms searched. All homes, businesses, and land holdings seized. All family members of these people are disowned. Any that are in the academy will be allowed to finish. What are the rules governing the seizure of personal accounts?"

Father shook his head, "Hard to do without showing fraud."

Eldar nodded, "We will bring in the psionics to show every illegal activity these family members have done and face the appropriate prosecution along with seizure or they can give you access to those accounts.

I only have to prove the corruption of the elders of those family branches to go after the funds in every single family member account. In exchange for the cooperation in these matters, I will allow 20,000 gold pieces to remain in the accounts of the children and grandchildren of the disowned and 10,000 in the elders here. Something or nothing.

You must decide this before you leave this room. You will be under house arrest until all assets are seized at which point you will be put on the street with the clothes on your back. The money I am offering, or nothing. He looked at Ellirona, "I am going to show the rest of the family just how serious I am about getting your cooperation.

When I say 3, I want you to piss yourself. 1, 2, 3!" Urine starts flowing down her leg as everyone watched. "Your family branches will have everything stripped from them except the clothes on their back and if I am feeling kind, 1,000 gold pieces in the bank. To allow them to be able to afford to pay rent until they find a job.

Give her the rags of her shirt so she can clean her smelly cunt up. Now you will all be taken to an interior room that is not your own. Teleportation will be blocked. And magic suppressed in those areas. Servant rooms. You will remain there under guard until all assets have been seized. Father, I want those assets split 80-20 across the 4 non-coup members getting the 20%.

The other 80% will be given to the 6 returning families to oversee. I want you to work on that ruling council that I asked for. I did not tell you. I was going to turn house management over to a council of 9. That will still be the case you just will not be included."

At that point, every family member had been stripped and searched, down to hidden pockets in clothes. "Sergeants, take these two out in the hall, have the house guards find a plain cloak for them."

Once those two were out of the room he flipped up and onto the table. He drew his sword. He walked out to the middle. "I will give each of you a chance to save your family branch in this tree."

He slid the sword into the hole from last time. "All you have to do is claim the sword. Succeed or fail makes no difference, your family branch will have a new elder if you die by your own choosing.

Just raise your hand if you wish to kill yourselves to save the rest of your family the embarrassment of being disowned. He gave it a few minutes and none of them raised their hands. He nodded and called the sword and sheathed it. "I should give that chance to each of your eldest children. To kill you to save their family.

Instead, I will let them know of your selfishness to the end and to the detriment of your offspring. Now to the remaining members of the soon to be council please have a seat back down here skip the seat with the urine but leave my father's seat open. Annette, gather up the belongings taken from the others bundle them up, please. We will sort them out as potential rewards for our troops."

He looked across the room, "I just brought down over 99% of House Silverbar. I am now cutting and reestablishing branches. We will have a loss of 60% of House Silvertree due to the elders in this room. Father, you know the drill for the two who are not here. None of these elders are to be employed by House Silvertree.

The offspring can come on as employees of House Silvertree for the various businesses. The offspring can petition every 10 years to be readmitted to the family. This is on a case by case basis. The young have a greater chance than the old. All re-admittance for the next 100 years is my decision based upon the council's justified recommendations. After that, it requires a 6 out of 9 votes to carry.

Father for the 2 would-be assassins, all magical gear is forfeited to the Gray Blades for distribution to the troops. The other family members' magical gear shall be seized and divided against the 7 council members who need the gear most. I excluded myself and my father's branch.

He walked down the table and flipped off at the feet of my lieutenant, "None of the people in this room are to be allowed to leave until my father clears it. Then they are to be taken to the quarters designated by my father that are shielded. All-access to other family is forbidden until all assets have been seized. My father will assign house guards to each area that needs to be covered.

Again, they can choose mental probing or agree to the monetary settlement I am giving them. That is enough money for each family to build a new business somewhere. Working to build a town I know about the cost of building a business."

Eldar looked at his father, "You have this in hand? You know I did not want this but if I take down another house for doing this. I have to do the same in my own house. Make them sign a release or I will have them subjected to complete mental examination by a psionic."

He nodded, "I got this, go deal with your prisoners."

He looked at the lieutenant, "I want the name of every man here this evening in the squads. When gear starts coming in, I want them each to receive something for the effort tonight.

Please follow my father's direction and turn people over to house guards once they are in their new rooms. Keep the blockers on within the home father. Help my father in his search of the rooms. I will spend some time identifying any gear taken this evening and try to designate things to a class where appropriate. Where is Captain Silver Moon?"

She shrugged, "She went to her house when we arrived in the city."

He nodded and headed out to the hall and left the swamp a little lower than last time.

He looked at the two of them, "If you need a chamber pot please speak up. It will be a long walk to the palace dungeon. Yes, I said walk!"

He looked at the ladies, "Tie a rope to the cuffs and give them to the Royal Guards."

He looked over and saw his new favorite Captain.

He nodded, "Congratulations on your marriage, the Queen told me. I have one who hired an assassin to kill me. The other hired one to go after not just me but my whole family and the King and Queen. The King and Queen had two names on that list that were also on my list. The other man will be questioned on possible regicide charges as well. Dungeon no visitors."

The Captain looks at Eldar, "You are getting bossy."

He smiled, "It might have to do with being Sir Eldar Silvertree, I was knighted yesterday."

She nodded, "Will take care of this Sir Silvertree, where are their horses?"

He shook his head, "They are walking and they are naked under those cloaks so it will be easy to do cavity searches. They pissed me off. I gave them a second chance and warned them of the consequences now they are going to face them."

She smirked, "I am glad I listened to you when you gave me my warning. Will take care of this, sir."

Eldar smiled, "She also made both my wives Dames."

She giggled and nodded to both of them, "Dames, have a good evening."

He got back up on his horse and they headed back to the Palace.

---

Patron Silver Moon walked in to see her daughter in the stable, returning the house horses and getting her favorite horse from the Far East. Its wounds had healed nicely. The Patron dismounted her horse, "I was called before the Queen, in regards to the new marriage laws. This new 'champion' had the Queen confirm that disowning over marriages will not be allowed and should be reversed.

I now have 40-50 of those to review. I was asked to help 'set the example' as it is my brother's church to the Lady of Dreams who demanded the changes. I was told you are getting married to someone from the Champion's wedding who was told to get married by the goddess. That he took down a spy in the palace single-handedly. That I would likely not approve of them."

Teresana'Via Silver Moon looked over, "You could not disown me now if you wanted too. The ceremony that cleansed the blades had another effect. The blade can only be claimed by my progeny, children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of mine. I was knighted yesterday as well, the second time that has happened. The first was for my work in the Far East for a War Lord out there.

I saved a lot of people out there and learned new skills, including several languages. I joined the Gray Blades as a Captain advisor. He wants to leverage my combat knowledge from my years of experience traveling abroad. He wanted me at that ceremony for two reasons. One to help with it, the other is his Second Apprentice. He wanted me to begin to heal. I am healing, Moon Ray and I both moved on because of you.

The elf-blooded daughter of my former lover is Eldar's second apprentice. He was killed not long ago and she was all alone. He named her after me. I found his will in his house. After his wife died, he set me as a guardian for his daughter. The daughter he named after me; his wife having died 3 years before. According to the villagers, she killed herself. Her daughter believes she fell and I am not out to shatter her vision of her mother.

She felt she could never measure up to me, the woman who left Altrian Moon Ray behind because you had his brother killed. He regretted ending it but had no way of getting a hold of me as you refused to send a message to me on his behalf. I have his journals. He wrote to me in the last few years of those journals. He called me out by name in the entries, as if he knew I would be the one reading them.

I am going to get married; I am already pregnant. He was at the wedding. I had not seen him in 2 years. His name is Tiger and he will take my family name. He is talented in all forms of martial arts; attacking with or without weapons. His sister Keyno is the gifted archer in his group.

She married the other night to another elven Captain and carries another champion to the elven gods in her. The Gods are embracing this change to increase our population. I am having elf-blooded children mother. Instead of Moon Ray's elven children because you drove me away.

I found my strength to stand up for who I loved because of it. Because I love the man, this human. I sent him ahead with his sister after rescuing them from a brutal War Lord. I told them I would catch up and pointed them toward Elven lands. I made that warlord pay for the things he did to his people; Including killing Tiger and Keyno's entire family. Now I know you won't embrace my marriage or my choices.

Whatever relationship we have, you are going to just have to accept that I, like you, am stubborn on a lot of things. You never married for love and drove my father into an early grave. Find someone to love. Once you do, then drive a knife into his heart and you will know how I felt about what you did to Moon Ray. Else, work to accept what you cannot change. The choice is yours, but I hope you choose happiness and love.

You will know where to find me. In Quatarsia, I love that town's name. They will be building an Academy there and I will become an instructor there after I get my Grand Master status in 10 years. So, I can train one of my own children in the art, I carry twins. One is a son who will be a Blade Singer.

You may not believe Eldar is a champion, but here I am. I'm back reunited with 3 people I love dearly in that village and one of those people, I just met her is that sweet girl Apprentice Moon Ray. I saw Corellon at the ceremony. He sent me a private message letting me know of how proud he was of me for becoming the gifted Blade Singer I had become. For following the call to come home and catch up with Tiger. He actually BLESSED my future wedding and told me to let you know.

I have seen the champion in battle and was shocked when he leaped from the back of a charging horse, 30 feet forward, and 25 feet high in the air and slid his blade through an Ogre Magi's heart by way of his collarbone as he tumbled away. He is a force of nature on the battlefield. He remembers everything he reads to page and paragraph numbers.

He cares so much for our people yet he was shunned by them most of his life! He fights those who work to kill him while protecting those he loves without crushing them. He is building something special down there. I wish you could see it all as it takes shape.

Yes, that was an invitation if you ever decide to come and see me and my family. You can still contact me via crystal as well and continue this relationship as though I am on the other side of the world instead of being 2 days away by horse. An easy teleport once you know the location. I have one now. Eldar has a library, as did Moon Ray. I can get here quickly when needed.

You may use that crystal and I don't answer. I might get back with you because I am in battle, in class, or have a passionate lovemaking session going with my future husband. Or I could just be busy spending time with my children and grandchildren. I am not looking for an answer right now. I want you to think about everything I just told you.

Write it down if you want. Know that given everything you have done; I still love you but I also hate those things you did to mess with my life. Then again, I would not be here as the strong-willed elven woman that Queen called me out to be when she knighted me. If I had not taken that journey of broken hearts.

She hugged her mother, mounted up, and left her in the stable on the verge of tears. Teresana though felt like she had healed a lot of old wounds this day by getting it all off her chest. She hoped her mother would find a point of happiness. Her sword had a telepathic danger sense on it, she now knew as she did not have access to it before. She would be there if any assassin or thugs came, not that Tiger could not handle himself.

---

Eldar got back with the wives and looked at the groom, "Would like a bucket of oats and water for each of these brought around to your stables, the wagon can be taken in back now and those horses stabled and fed. Our plans changed with the assassination attempts. We are still trying to piece some things together for the Royal Family."

The groom nodded. "Let us pull the saddles away first to put in the wagon before finally parking it around back. I can store the barding." He waits until they had the horses good and brushed down, and the saddles in the wagon. He looked at T'suras and then back at the groom, "Add an apple to each bucket of oats." The groom nodded.