Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 02 Pt. 02

Jarron looked at Brannar, "You know what we have to do."

He nodded, "We, the officers here and I need to talk with Lady Silver Hair to find out their intentions. Do you think she would come here alone?"

He shrugged, "Only one way to find out."

He looked at the others, "I want the building cleared including Jarron's sleeping beauty. Use one of the other builds for her and any staff in the building. Then stand guard if you would."

They moved to clear the few bodies in the building, luckily everyone in the group spoke some elven. Jarron pulled out a pearl instead of a crystal, "Lady Silver Hair. Are you free to talk?"

She replied. "Cannot where I am at the moment."

Brannar leaned over, "Lady Silver Hair we really need to talk with just you face-to-face. You will see that we are nowhere near the Elven Capital and the building we are in is secluded and secure. Only five of us talking to you. This call has not been authorized by the Queen if that tells you how much we need to talk with you."

There was a long pause, "I will be there momentarily with the right equipment to secure the room for talking."

---

Lady Silver Hair grabbed some diplomacy crystals and walked out as Lord Regal held up a hand. They had been in a meeting with the Council of Nine. He looked at her, "Why would you talk with him now, we have the meeting days from now to go over the data they collected and we can refute most of it if needed?"

She nodded, "This might give me insight into how much data they have, I work intelligence. We don't have the answer to it so we are unable to answer that question on if we can refute the data. Questioning of the black dragon prisoner in the center of the room will have to occur without me. We collectively need to know what she has been up too and what information she can give us.

Besides the fact, she is the elder daughter of the Black leader of the Council. We had 6 out of 9 votes to interrogate. The psionic dragons can do that and I can see what information I can gain from the elves who pulled this mysterious trove of data.

From a fucking Pirate ship. I have silver, gold, copper, bronze, and brass dragon agents monitoring all communication going into the Deep Sea right now as well as teleportation activity as that area has heated up given the information we have so far. This is a chance to get some answers. To find out if I can save the Knights. In short, to do my fucking job!"

She walked out.

The Emerald dragon looked to the gold King, "We cannot continue on the black dragon prisoner until she returns. She has leveled a charge that she was tailing a rogue member of the silver Dragons who is operating in that province without council knowledge. We need to know from her if that is true."

The Black Dragon King looked over, "We second this motion. One of our chromatic agents following a rogue Silver Dragon would be grounds for her being there."

The Gold King knew he did not have the votes to stop them from halting the interrogation. He adjourned the meeting. The shield went down and the red dragon snapped his head over and bit the woman's head off. The Gold King looked to protest.

The Red King looked over, "I head the chromatic contingent and she operated outside of my knowledge or authorization no matter her reasons. As such, we police our own who do rogue behavior.

Now neither set of charges can be investigated further. I was within my rights! We do not protest when you have rogue elements, the same goes for the gemstone dragons when they get a rogue element, as rare as that is for them. They prefer not to choose sides. If you're concerned you should police your own as she alluded to."

The Black King looked to be putting on a good show at the protesting of the death of his daughter but that lasted only minutes. Before he stormed out of the room. The Gold King knew he had been outplayed again and the Silver Queens departure only provided an opening big enough for them to strike. They would spend months arguing over if he had the authority but nothing would come of it, just like the past.

He stormed back to his quarters feeling even more impudent than he normally did in these matters. Something needed to change.

---

Minutes later and Lady Silver Hair arrived with three stones which she activated. She looked at Brannar, "All the doors are secured, nobody can hear us or see into this room."

He sighed, "Thank you for coming. Would you please sit with us? I want to show you what we learned before this meeting. This can make you prepared for tough questions. Some we are going to ask you to answer for us. It will direct our course of action in these events."

She nodded and sat down, "Our last discussion did not go so well."

He smiled, "That is because we were both being defensive of our own."

She nodded, "We can agree on that."

Brannar smiled, "Let me start with sharing some information, and then we will ask you about our assumptions about the information and you can try and explain it. If you cannot convince the 5 of us then the meeting in a few days will be like our last meeting. Unproductive. Agreed?"

She nodded, "I will listen but I do not know if I will have the answers you seek."

He looked at her, "Some are things you have to know and some are from history. The collection of intelligence we gathered from that ship is damning. The existence of dragons purchasing food is not the issue. The four who do not purchase it is an issue.

They take our races as food and livestock. That is a problem. We have documents on ships taken, counts on races, as well as to 'eat them now or keep for breeding' notes. Then the detailed destruction of the Deep-Sea Elves. Through the eyes of a blue dragon who hunted three millennia ago is damning.

These rings, the ones that avoid detection but will no longer have two major flaws. One is they are based in necromancy and two is they render any caught wearing one unable to break simple magical shackles. In order to preserve the illusion of the Dragon War treaties, they would not remove it. Not even the black I captured.

I secured her hands so she could not remove it. Given your disposition toward necromancy, I can only surmise these rings have been captured. You did not try and duplicate them. Correct?"

She looked a bit sad, "The Deep-Sea Elves was a tragedy during a time when the Knights did not exist. It went undetected. We did not expect it to resurface. Those responsible were dealt with; at least we thought we had dealt with them all. The 'four', as you call them, work in the shadows.

We believe the spy you turned over is one of them or working for one of them. The other ten is actually 10 collectives that work in different parts of the word to gather cattle, and sheep, NOT people. Those are the only authorized points."

He nodded, "You know these questions will be coming at you so we are trying to work with, not the dragons as a whole, with you."

She looked at Brannar, "Why me?"

He smiled, "I only know you and Regal. I would like to just kick him in the ass as look at him. You seem to have your hands tied. You alluded to that at our last meeting. We will tell you things we have surmised."

She nodded, "Go ahead."

He looked at her, "There is a severe division in your ranks on dealing with the Knights, cutting off all contact to us, to conquer us. Safe to assume this is the case?"

She looked around, "There are factions who support those positions but they are in the minority."

He sighed, "Now we come to the tough ones. After several millennia of relative peace, you are reaching a point of an unsustainable population. If not for your 10 you could not support your people's food needs. Correct?"

She looked at him and paused. She thought, 'They have put together more than we could have predicted. I can sense it now. They see war coming...with us.' It took several seconds for her to formulate an answer. It looked as though she was coming to grips about a conflict within herself.

She finally responded, "If we did not have the 10, we could not sustain our population. A key argument in keeping in contact and working with your people."

Brannar looked at her, "Because of this it is not a matter of stopping a Dragon War from happening but delaying it from happening. Correct? Before you answer this the reason so many of your dragons are lining up to be Liches supports this position. I have a list of over 60 dragons who have tried and failed to be turned into Liches."

She sighed, "IF or should I say when you put this before everyone, they would deny it. They refuse to see it. I, myself, believe you are likely correct."

He sighed, "Thank you for being honest with me about that. My father's efforts to remove the relics meant a delay in Draco-liches, not that the research to do it without the relics would not continue. Those notes also include references to dwarven blood and parts being used as well. This 'obscure reference' was not that obscure and dwarves are involved as well correct?

She simply nodded at this, "We do not condone this activity."

He looked at her, "First as to your last statement. Define WE. Silver, Gold, copper, brass, bronze." She nodded, "They are a part of it. Officially none condone the research. I would add more to your list all of the psionic dragons are against it. Most of them are isolationists."

He sighed again and walked around and put his hands on her shoulders, "This is progress. This is trust being built as these revelations destroyed centuries of trust."

He removed his hands and sat next to her. "Now correct me if I am wrong. When the Lich left you knew where he went because you could track the magic. However, because it was outside of your area and this capability is considered 'Dragon Business' you were prohibited from giving us this information. Even though you, yourself, wanted to tell the Knights where to find him."

She sighed, "You would be correct. However, where he went you would not have survived the heat and gasses as it was an active volcano. Nothing to stop an undead creature. The best we can tell he did not stay there more than a day but he teleported to the Far East but it was in a major city and there were boats and other means of travel available to him, including walking on the bottom of the ocean."

He bowed his head, "Today we are on the verge of it biting us in the ass...again."

She nodded, "Your father predicted that I would encounter this problem again. He said maybe another Silvertree would help save our collective asses again. The day he had the blow-out argument with Lord Regal."

Brannar nodded, "I know. He put all of those predictions in his journal, verbatim. When war strikes are the metallics looking to protect us or do we need to start preparing for that day?"

She looked at Brannar, "That is hypothetical I would hope we would protect you but..."

He interjected, "The metallics would look to protect their own first."

She nodded, "It is the nature of all species."

He reached over and held her hand, "But the metallics would not want to be at war with us. You just cannot protect us."

She nodded. He looked at Jarron and back at her, "We know they believe they are close to success. They plan on trying again in the next 3-5 months now based on the dates in the journal, with 3 dragons at once. We know where. We know the elves they plan to use are my siblings. I assume they already have the dwarves they need. We need to know do they kill them before or during the ritual; based on the 'obscure references?'"

Lady Silver Hair looked at him, "According to that vile book it is during, but I do not know how they could do such a thing it requires an extremely powerful artifact to do so."

Brannar looked at her, "You have not detected it?! You do not know where to look?"

She nodded. He looked at her, "Here is where combining our resources we learn what we can do when we work with each other as equals." He rolled out the chart. "This is the island with that section of reef around it. That will be a pain in the ass to get through. She looked at the location and rotated it around. "Could I get a piece of parchment and some ink?"

He pulled it out and gave the quill to her. She traced the island onto the parchment. She dropped the quill after adding a few lines and connecting the dots of the reef.

The shape she drew was distinctive. "I know why this location was chosen. Before the first Dragon War, the Alliance formed. A location was chosen to create some of the greatest weapons of this world. It contains a forge. Not just any forge. Tied directly into the heart of a massive volcano. It created the dragon lances and siege machines to level the field. It created several dwarven artifacts.

Most importantly to you. It was the forge the Moon Blades were crafted upon. A dwarven forge enchanted, by ancient elven arcane magic, ancient draconic arcane magic, and dwarven divine magic. Building human-designed siege weapons and lances as well.

The forge is immovable and designed to be eternal. It was warded and sealed off over 7 millennia ago. To ensure no one race could use master craftsman from each of the three races, humans, elves, and dwarves, who are not compelled to use the forge as designed would be required.

That and the blood, just a few drops, from a Royal leader of the dragons and these masters. They are not using it for that they are using the power and perverting it somehow to perform this ritual."

He paced for a few seconds "Immovable how?"

She looked at him, "The volcano would spill into the area if someone tried to move it. Likely killing those trying. It would not destroy that forge. But it would deactivate it if the forge loses heat and it was active. It was deactivated when it was sealed off."

He sighed, "The first thing I would look at is a non-aggression pact with the metallic and neutral dragons. In which we redefine our relationship. An alliance based under the Alliance treaties that came before the Dragon Wars Treaties. If the Dragon Wars Treaties fail, we work as partners to bring peace back to the world. As part of this pact, we define what we will share. Intelligence is a big part of that.

The Knights will do what we have been doing. NOT under the dragons but working with them as equals. When we share information, we get answers. The allies will also prepare for the inevitable. That means CAPTURING that forge so the crafting can begin again.

We need you to find any and all information you have on this island. How is it shielded, teleportation, and fly blocked? Anything and everything. Wards on every third stone. Whatever you can find. Then bring it here."

Brannar looked at her, "Is our communication compromised? Can your network listen in? Is that why Jarron has a pearl instead of a crystal?"

He knew part of this answer already.

She looked pensive, "The fact that his is a pearl is a personal choice of mine. That holds no significance. Someone could listen in on communication if they knew how and the communication was unencrypted."

He looked at her, "Like the encryption we use on spellbook pages. My father and Staria took time identifying all the magic put into the stone Lord Regal used with my father after it was replaced. The cipher was noted."

Lady Silver Hair thought, "Damned, Eldar left him a map and the questions to bring this about. Just enough to make him doubt us from the beginning. Then we did not help matters. Especially in regards to his own mother and brother. He is filling in all the gaps and this trove gave him everything he needed to make it happen. His warning to Jarron makes sense now."

Brannar looked at her, "In a few days it is going to look like we are raking you over the coals. We need to sell that to the Council of Nine as a whole. We need to backchannel this communication and get the Alliance of old formed with the metallics. You can call out the neutral dragons. List them as not in this fight, non-combatants, and non-participant isolationists or however you want.

We cannot allow the neutrals to sabotage the Alliance by letting the chromatics know about it. This is not a treaty with the Council of Nine, just a sub-set. You have that one to Jarron. Contact us on that pearl only if it is encrypted."

She nodded. "If the Queen has a secure crystal or pearl then contact her as well but give us a day before contacting her. Unless she contacts you. We require some sleep and then we will wake the Queen in person in a secured room. Is this solution workable? Contact Jarron as soon as you have the answer but we are on a time deadline."

She stood, "Those pearls of mine are encrypted. The solution is this; else lose the Knights altogether. You have enough damning evidence of these transgressions to sever the Alliance with the Council of Nine. Which is what would happen if you raked us over the coals as you put it. Then the back-channel Alliance of old could be put into place. I will leave these here to secure this building."

He nodded, "Thank you, Lady Silver Hair."

She turned off one crystal. She nodded and stepped outside and teleported away. He looked at Jarron, "We have what we need to bring the allies together. The forge."

Jarron nodded. "Yes, and the threat!"

Brannar looked at him, "Doesn't it feel great to be dragged out of bed and back into the action?!"

The ladies laughed and Jarron shook his head, "Too much like your father, yet so different. Your father had answers based on books or visions. You have wild ideas and you mix it together to turn a pile of shit into a beef stew."

The ladies laughed. He looked at Jarron, "New crystals all the way around. With the 'fall' of the Alliance, it would not seem unusual."

He nodded, "Good catch."

Brannar smiled, "Thank my father. It was one of his 'paranoid theories.' He left clues. Bread crumbs if you will in his journal. The means to find those rings, the examination of those crystals. He probably saw more of my future than he wanted to see, but he did not want to tell me about it."

Jarron laughed, "Guess that journal was not a complete waste." He thought to himself, 'Damned if his warning to me is not playing out just as he said. Making the Knights stronger. He is doing it by breaking them away from dragon control. Eldar built them up and Brannar is working to separate them off.'

Brannar sighed, "Invite the guys in." Once everyone arrived. "Here is the short version. She confirmed most of my worst fears. Here is the good news; we found a way to get our allies on board and form an alliance. HOPEFULLY, with the Metallic dragons outside of the Council of Nine. We will know more tomorrow. All crystal communication is suspended with anything sensitive. This house is now warded with those three stones.

From being heard, scried, or teleported into because of them. I would like at least one of us guarding those until further notice. We do not need 'the help' walking off with them. Someone, please grab Jarron his consort so she can suck him to sleep."

The guys laughed and Silver Moon slapped him on the back and shook her head.

Jarron looked at Sutter, "This includes the crystals you have to your Queen. Queen Goldeagle got contacted by Queen Thornlord and we will work through secure means to keep her informed. The crystals you have are not secure."

Sutter nodded his understanding.

Brannar smiled and headed to his room with Silver. He got undressed, "Oh what a mind fuck that experience was."

She looked at him, "You were not very nice to Jarron."

He smiled. "You remember when I told you about how different women like different things?"

She nodded. "Jarron does not get motivated when he is like that. Unless you get in his face and give him shit. From my father's book. He challenged him, made bets with him, and all kinds of practical jokes. I do not know what started the anal beads thing but apparently, my father made a big show out of presenting them to Jarron in front of all of his men in the Palace."