Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 02 Pt. 01

My father killed the man who hired the assassin because he was another Blade Singer. An elven version of a paladin, arcane magic, and not divine. I do not know why we do not have divine paladins. The man was responsible for having 21 of his order killed over money and pride. My father killed him in under 30 seconds in a trial by combat. He cut off both of the man's hands.

Then he used the blade and burned through the center of the man's head right below the eyes. From my father's journal. He wanted the man to know who was killing him, why and to see it coming. He delivered that ladies ring back to her house personally and let them know where they could find her remains."

She shook her head, "If we had a rogue such as that we would take longer than 30 seconds just to finish him."

Brannar smiled, "He kept a promise to one of his wives to make it quick. Someone told me it went on for exactly 21 seconds. A second for every death. To him, it was about justice, not vengeance. He was symbolic in a lot of what he did."

They pulled up in front of the enchanter's shop and the sales lady came forward, "Sir Silvertree how are you!"

He smiled, "I am good. I need two bags of holding a large and a medium. They are gifts. I need a ring of poison detection, how many of those do you have?"

She smiled, "Two there is not a lot of call for them."

He looked at her, "I want the two. A set of elven full plate best enchantments you have for my lady here. I need a shield with the same thing. I need the House Silvertree crest on the armor and the holy symbol for Tyr on the shield. Protected. A set of rings of returning two if you have them.

She nodded, "Armor and weapon?"

He smiled, "Yes that is what they are for, we are fighting on ships on the ocean. This brings me to my next request, on the armor, an amulet, or boots she can wear inside her armored feet that will allow her to fly so if she goes overboard, she can fly back onto the ship."

She nodded, "We have a set of boots that would serve that purpose, five times a day even."

He asked, "Amulet of resistance."

She nodded to him, "Best version? I will apply the Duke's discount may the Gods bless his service. I heard you carry his sword."

Brannar nodded, "Best version. I need the graphics done in an hour."

She looked at him, "In a hurry?"

Brannar smiled. "Yes, for our wedding. We are headed to the Palace next to see the Queen."

She smiled and handed him a slip of paper with the total and he gave her his account number.

He put one ring in a belt pocket. He gave her the boots, the rings to wear, and the amulet. He looked at the sales lady, "Let us attach the ring to the armor while we are at it."

She smiled, "Alright." She puts the ring onto the armor.

They headed out and mounted up, "The Queen is rarely a five-minute visit, which is why I gave them an hour. They hit you with a big fee for a quick turnaround on the graphics. They put an enchantment over it to keep the graphics from being scratched up from any battle damage."

She smiled, "You spent a fortune in there!"

He nodded, "About ten times what I spent on the wedding rings."

He looked at her, "My account has several million gold pieces in it. Most came to me before I was born. Some came to me when my parents died. My mother gave me all of her accounts and holdings."

She shook her head, "Why have you not shared it with others?"

He smiled, "We have. The businesses are just so profitable and sometimes reward and fines applied to others came to our father and he split it off to his children. He converted all the stoves and forges to fuel-less for both villages and the town. He employed the existing security forces of the villages into his protection detail.

They got paid for the stuff they already did. He also paid to build most of that town we came in. Helped to build the Arcane Academy AND worked a program so all children got tested for magical and martial aptitudes to become some of the best warriors, Battle Mages, arcane archers in the history of the Elven Kingdom. But because he was helping everyone to thrive the businesses keep thriving.

The profits are split across all of the family members, hundreds of them. When we get the ships, I will pay for those myself and the pay for all of the crew. Including hazard pay in case of death. A family would receive money to help them out. My father did that with the blades and I believe my sister continued it."

She sighed, "So what do you envision doing?"

He smiled, "If I could find a place, set up a colony out where we are working. Use it to transfer goods back and forth between the groups and start testing the human and elf-blooded children to attend the Academy. A new one, on the other side of the world. A new place for the new Knights to operate out of in this region. Able to deploy assets to any of the provinces in the region."

Silver looked at him, "I thought you did not like the Knights?"

Brannar smiled, "I do not like the dragons invading involvement in the group. We should call upon them when we find any dragon business. Like the black dragon, I captured or the half blue dragon."

She nodded, "I get what you are saying but why?"

He sighed, "Do you really want to know?"

She nodded and he groaned, "The stuff I got from that ship painted a damming story. What they have let happen or covered up for over 3 millennia. We can talk about that when we see the Queen. She is likely doing open court at the moment."

They arrived at the Palace and walked inside. They were fortunate as only two people were waiting to see the Queen. Brannar got them in line. It moved quickly and there were two more behind them now. they were called forward.

He told her, "Follow my lead and either begin or end any statement with 'Your Majesty.' Preferably at the end."

He walked forward, "Good afternoon. I brought my bride to meet you. This is Silver Rose, a Paladin of Tyr, Order of the Rose. She is the leader of her squad on this expedition I am currently undertaking on your behalf, Your Majesty."

The Queen looked at her, "Your name and order are the same for a reason?"

She nodded, "Yes. I was abandoned at the church and had no last name so I adopted the name of the order that raised me, Your Majesty."

The Queen looked shocked at her being abandoned. She looked at her, "You are a very pretty woman with sapphire eyes. His father and his family are very dear to me. I am happy you found your way back to your heritage and I hope it helps you grow. No matter who you worship. Tyr is supposed to be an honorable and good god. Like Our Blade Singers and Moon Blade holders, there is a dedication to the elven people and a code of honor.

You seem like a very good match for him. I believe we need to take a short break to go over some diplomatic papers. Also, a mid-day meal."

Brannar nodded, "Yes, Your Majesty."

They stood and waited for her to leave. They followed behind her until they got to her audience chamber. He moved forward and opened the door for the Queen, "You are such a gentleman."

She walked into her office, "She is with the Knights?"

He nodded, "She works for Jarron and now us. They decided to stay on and work this mission until the issue with the Knights is resolved."

She sealed the room and looked at him, "You were right that is quite a shit storm of damning data against the Dragons. Going back several millennia. She is aware of the content?"

He sighed, "She needs to be but does not need every gruesome detail, Your Majesty."

The Queen looked at her, "The documents go into the complete obliteration of the Deep-Sea Elves as they were hunted to extinction by dragons. That 14 dragons work on getting food stores for their growing population. Four of them are into slavery in order to use humans, dwarves, elves, orc, ogres, whatever they can get to feed the population.

Some are used for breeding like cattle. There is even a book on recipes for different species and which one do not go well together in a dish. They are also involved in a lot of the pirate activity in that ocean and other locations."

Brannar looked at the Queen, "That new spell father created worked well, it is enchanted into these glasses and a set of earrings. He planned on more but then Staria died. Staria did the enchanting using the new spell. That was how I was able to notice the dragon. I would like a drawing of horn configurations for each species. I know which ones are likely to be hostile. Instead of nearly getting me poisoned or attacked in the future.

I also picked up a couple of gifts for our Warlord host, a medium bag of holding, and a ring of poison detection. I grabbed a ring for myself as I seem to be a poison magnet, Your Majesty."

She nodded, "Those are useful items without being overly powerful and you can tell him you simply walked into a store and bought them like a sword or armor."

He nodded, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Brannar turned to Silver, "You understand why I want to change the Dragon's role in the Knights?"

She nodded, "That is what kept you up for 3 days is reading through that junk. Why you wanted me to just lie with you and hug you for a few hours of sleep."

Brannar nodded. "I could not bring myself to do that to you or the others. Not yet. Never to the level of detail I went through. There will be a conference here in a few days. I would like a conference with our allies before then if we can get them to come. Explain the restructure of the Knights, where we call dragons in when we need them.

If they know of something we need to address, they let us know. Then they step back and stay out. Until we tell them what assistance we need after we have assessed the issue and determine the best course of action for our people. Humans, Dwarves, and Elves. Your Majesty, that is my recommendation."

She nodded, "Jarron is looking at this stuff with a heavy heart, I do not know if he will continue under this new structure. You may have to step in for him."

Brannar looked at her, "I am not the right person to handle the global aspects of this. I have a Lich to kill. Then we can talk about what ideas I have, Your Majesty."

She smiled, "What ideas?"

He sighed, "For expanding the reach of the Elven empire in terms of trade and maybe a colony if we can find a location. As we have no territorial waters, we are an independent force set to find, capture, or exterminate pirates. With this Lich being our primary goal as he has my family, Your Majesty."

She looked at Silver Rose. She got up and kissed her on the cheek. She unsecured the room.

"His father was a very dear friend and he would have liked you. You remind me of Charlemagne and Annette to a lesser extent. They helped to anchor him. This young elf is like his father in he has these ideas if he can figure out how to make them work."

The door opened and lunch was brought in for all of them.

He looked at Silver, "I told you seeing the Queen would never be a five-minute affair."

She laughed. The Queen looked at him, "Have a seat and speak plainly. I did this with your father and your mothers on occasion."

They grabbed a seat as Brannar looked at her, "I did not set out to dishearten Jarron. He has been a friend of the family for years."

She nodded, "This job was weighing on him before you, and even before your father. Your father breathed new life by increasing the number of Knights. Explain this idea some more."

She secured the room again. He looked at her, "I have no idea of the terrain or feasibility of doing this but if we capture that Island and establish a Colony using teleportation circles to transport goods from our location back and using ships to take goods to other markets. We discussed training apprentices at our Academy but what if we establish one on this Colony?

Our casters can set up wards and other spells to dissuade the Sahuagin from attacking. With a larger pool of magical users forward to the region. Dwarves could potentially help to ensure the strength of the facility and sappers could open sections of that massive reef for us to establish shipping routes and proper ports. Then they could send goods through us to this part of the world.

A win-win-win-win. Knights, Elves, dwarves, and humans. We could potentially repeat this model in other parts of the world. In other oceans."

She nodded, "You could eventually replace Jarron, The Dragon's would hate that which is all the more reason to do it."

Brannar looked at the Queen with all seriousness, "The next question and the one that really scares the shit out me. At what point do the needs of the dragons' food supply become an issue? When their only means of maintaining their growing population is to take us. Breed up like horses and sheep. Because we are unable to stop them from doing it?

We need to have that discussion with our allies sooner rather than later. Elven magic will be key. Along with dwarven weaponsmiths, and human siege weapons. We may hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I have heard nothing about any effort on the dragons controlling their population growth."

The Queen looked a bit white and then angry, "You will be back in 3 days and expect to be here for 5. Silver Moon is lovely and a gifted fighter. You are an arsenal and a thinker and I want you both here for 2 days after this conference. I will also say, you have a sack on you to capture a Dragon solo!"

Brannar looked at her, "My father had a theory concerning these new rings that cannot be picked up by regular true seeing. The dragon's strength, health, hearing, vision, innate abilities, and just about everything else is restricted to the new form. He had at least one other of these rings and Staria and he examined them closely. They found out that it had a necromancy element to it.

The new body is a real human, elf, dwarf, or whatever. The wearer's mind goes into the new form which is pulled from the ring. While the wearer's body is stored in the ring. That is why regular true seeing does not work. The body is real. The new version, which is in these glasses. I gave earrings to Silver Moon which affects not just that but has a detect lie ability on them.

The earrings have crystals with eyes etched into them that dangle down and face forward. That is really limited because they have to be lying directly to her. Not to an audience or overhearing but talking directly to them. We get a few more sets of these glasses made and I would see those earrings go to you. Great for court except you cannot hear the lie just see their lips moving."

She laughed, "It might come in handy at that, but we would need the new spell to make those items."

He nodded, "Or I get the raw material and enchant them myself. If you ask, I will give you a scroll of this new spell to give to your most trusted enchanter. Who under penalty of death will not share it even with their apprentices? It must be kept with at least a three-level encryption in a spellbook that is warded with the highest levels of protection. It can only be used to craft items you specify for you alone. You can give the items to whomever you deem needs them.

Your royal guard Captain, the King, your ambassadors, and diplomats who all have to be dragon aware. That is the sticking point."

She nodded. "I would like a scroll of that."

He reached in and pulled one out and handed it to her. "I only made 3 of these. I am storing one away for safekeeping in case the spell book I have gets destroyed. The other I want to give to Silver Moon to add to her spellbook the same rules apply."

She nodded, "Agreed."

He sighed, "Your Majesty, we do have to get going or we will be late for our own wedding."

She laughed, "Well here is the diplomatic protocol book, I gave you and Silver Moon a copy that includes the language for both men and women. I am making it mandatory for all diplomats. To avoid them getting compromised by affairs of the heart. The page is marked.

I also wanted to comment on your vendetta as I called it. I see now it is not your vendetta, it was a part of your mission. During the sword ceremony that Jarron and I attended for the Moon Blades, Corellon Larethian told Jarron flat out to deliver a message to Lord Regal. 'If everyone fails to play by the rules? Then it is time to create new rules.' That time is upon us."

She unsecured the room again. Brannar nodded, "Thank you, Your Majesty. It has been a pleasure talking with you as always. When the dragons ask me again about sharing that spell. I will inform them I have taken reasonable precautions after the assassination attempt made against me by a dragon to ensure the spell is secured. It will not be lost if I am lost. That will scare the shit out of them."

She laughed and nodded as they left.

---

Queen Gold Eagle secured her room and pulled crystals to the Dwarves and the humans of Grand Falls."

She sighed, "I am secure, I have both King Fireaxe and Queen Thornlord on crystals. I needed to ensure you are both secure."

King Fireaxe grumbled out, "I am secure Where is the Knights representative?"

The Human Queen sighed, "I am secure and I have a feeling we are about to find out more."

Queen Goldeagle sighed, "In 4 days there will be a meeting with the ruling body of the Council of Nine to go over the trove of data pulled from a pirate ship out in the Deep Sea. Brannar Silvertree, Storm Wraith as you would know him as King Fireaxe, is the one who captured the ship and it brings the Dragon Treaties under serious scrutiny in blatant failures.

I don't want to go over this over crystals. I figured we could get you in here early 3 days from now and go over this data with you. I will say it deals with the Draco-lich from the past and a lich that nearly destroyed the human Royal court. We have more information on what this lich is up to and none of it is good."

King Fireaxe asked, "What is going on with the Council of Nine?"

She sighed, "I can tell you we had 4 representatives from them here a few days ago and Brannar got them to clear out after the arguments broke out by stating for them to contemplate the 14. These are the 14 involved in collecting food stores for their population. They agreed to reconvene in a week's time to allow Brannar to be here and for us to have a chance to go over this data.

We would like both of you to be here in 3 days for a few days of meetings and conferences to go over this data. It is extensive and it affects everyone. I have recalled Jarron and had all missions and assets he controls rerouted to the elven Palace until these issues can be resolved. This is an alliance notification for 72 hours as called out by the treaties we have."

King Fireaxe grumbled, "Fine." He ended comms.

Queen Thornlord sighed, "Until then." She ended comms.

King Fireaxe contacted Queen Thornlord, "You still secure?"

She chuckled, "Yes I am. Before you ask this threat goes back to the age of your great uncle and his nephew who was a traitor in your court. In case you did not read your great uncle's journal."

The King sighed, "He did not leave an intelligible Journal. He was too drunk at the end and I think he burned the real ones. How serious is this threat?"

She sighed, "End of the Dragon War Treaties serious. I have a knight on that mission and I told him to continue to support. 72 hours is the formality of the treaty. Nothing says we cannot go sooner to look over this data."

He chuckled, "You have your wizard take us both and we can surprise Queen Goldeagle and see if she has enough for us to be truly concerned."

She chuckled, "Very well. I will contact you before we decide to depart."

---

Silver and Brannar got outside to the horses, "Today, the rest of it is happy thoughts."

She smiled, "Agreed, I will be more careful about asking if I really want to know."