Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 03 Pt. 02

She looked at Travious, "The rest of the elders. Also Elios's widow, your brother's widow, and all of the children who lived here. They killed all the children!"

He looked at Shi'Drakon, "My package has been poisoned?"

Travious heard him sigh, "Yes!"

He moved it away from anything and laid his sword across it. It killed several spiders.

he thought, "What about now."

Travious asked his sword, "Still present?"

Karti'Ros sighed, "Yes."

He jumped up on his horse after sorting through the stuff and pulled the feather fall items he had requested and stored them. He looked around and Travious made out 2 more on the roof.

Travious shot one and the other fired and it went wide. Travious shot the next one and he dropped. Travious looked over and his Aunt was on the ground. He knew he had hit her with a delay poison. He got down and pulled the bolt. She started to move. She looked at Travious, "Paralyzing bolts!"

He looked at her, "Like those weapons Grandfather made except that kept you down until I pulled it. He flew up to the roof and tossed those two down. He thought, "Now?!"

He heard Karti'Ros, "All clear."

He checked those 2 and it was 2 more guards. He looked at her, "Where are the rest of the guards?"

She looked at him, "Inside the main house stacked up, with all of those children."

He pulled out his crystal to the King. "Are you secure, Your Majesty?"

He sighed, "I am in open court, can it not wait?"

Travious sighed, "All of the Elders of House Silvertree are dead, Your Majesty. As are all of the guards and groundskeeper. My Uncle Elios's widow, My Brother Duke Brenner Silvertree's widow, and all of their children were also killed. All children on the estate were killed. The 2 Widows were likely here to deal with the Duke's funeral arrangements and wills."

The King was silent for a few minutes. "How many?"

Travious thought and sighed, "I lost count on the number of assassins. They did not have enough rings for all of the bodies they left. I kill 9 more. Dutchess Zaria who I contacted and her men?"

Dutchess Zaria looked over, "9 as well."

Travious thought as his anger boiled up, "That is the 20 in the city, counting the 2 earlier. I want our dwarven friends to have a care package ready, Your Majesty."

He pulled the pearl while he walked away from the King on the other crystal as he left in his Aunt's hands, "Can you get to me please?"

The Countesstelepored in beside him and he whispered, "The way you track to a crystal is it only yourself or are objects and people possible?

She looked at him, "With either."

He glared at the Countess, "Could you send a circle of stuff without going yourself?"

She looked at him, "Yes, if I needed too."

He looked at the crystal to the King, "Time I sent a message back. I want 20 barrels 10 on 10. With an impact timer. You are going to teleport this in one foot above the ground. I can unlock their crystals the same way I can decipher pages. Are you willing to help put down this threat to all of our security?"

She nodded, "Yes."

He looked at the crystal for the King, "She likes teams of 20 assassins. I say we give her twenty barrels, Your Majesty."

---

King Gold Eagle got into a side room and contacted King Fireaxe at this point, "The Knight Paladin is requesting 20 barrels of Explosives, 10 on top of 10 with an impact timer. How long would it take for that to occur?"

King Fireaxe sighted, 'The men he requested have that at the rendezvous point. What is this for?"

King Goldeagle, "He has a plan for them to deal with the assassins who killed off all of his family. Children, and Elders at the Silvertree Estate." He thought it best to hold back in case this did not work. "I don't have all the details. Just that he needs it."

King Fireaxe sighed, "I will have them work putting together a second shipment to take with them. He can use what is there. I am trusting he knows what he is doing."

---

King Goldeagle finally responded, "They are at the rendezvous point. Waiting."

Travious nodded to the Countess and they were in the dwarven tunnel and the barrels were there as were his sappers.

Travious looked at them and said with a note of disdain, "This is going to a very special lady."

He threw 2 crystals on the ground. "I found 5 of these. I used one and destroyed it. They destroyed the other. But they were already in the capital at that point."

He held the crystal, placed The Countess's hand over her hand and the remaining crystal while he held it in his right hand. He activated the crystal and she channeled her energy and sent the 20 barrels." All three crystals cracked. He looked at her, "If by some fucking miracle she survived that, she will not want to use communication crystals ever again."

He looked at the 4 dwarves, "Did you know what that was about?"

They nodded, "Someone killed off all your elders."

Travious looked at him, "Not someone. A champion of Loth sent teams of assassins. One 10-man team of humans and 2 20-member teams of drow. Not just elders, they killed 2 recent widows, one of whom was pregnant and all of the children at the Estate!"

He looked at them, "You get your supplies ready?"

They laughed and one of them smiled at him, "You mean again?!"

Travious smiled, "Thanks for helping to send a message. Take us to the conference room, Countess"

She took them to the room and Uncle John and his cousin were in place. "I got 40 assassins gear here and have a bag of holding unopened. I had one surprise package of spiders in stuff I ordered so no telling what is in the bag.

He set it all out. He delayed poison on everyone before they did anything with the bag, "Countess and Your Majesty do not need to be in here when we dump this bag."

They stepped out in the hall as he poured it out on the table and there were no spiders. There were books and at least 70-80 rings. He waved them back inside. They looked at the trove of information. He looked at the Countess, "Tell me those are something else?"

The countess shook her head, "No they are what you think they are."

He put the rings back into the bag. The King looked at Travious, "Are you not going to check to see what body it has?"

Travious looked at him, "In an extra-dimensional cave. Can you bring Staria here and see if she can cast one here. If one is a dragon it would not go well with the décor, your Majesty."

He chuckled, "Point taken." She was back but not with Staria. She looked at Travious, "Lady Astria will put a cave up for us."

He nodded, "I need someone to tag each of these. Thank you, Uncle John, for volunteering."

He rolled his eyes. "By the way, I believe you just became the new Elder to our branch."

Dutchess Zaria looked at him and she nodded, "I got the duchy to look over."

Travious looked at her, "You are the new Blade Singer on the board?"

She groaned and nodded, "I have to turn in his ring. That is 4 in a matter of days."

Travious sighed, "I know. They all centered around me."

He looked at the King, "Your Majesty, you might want to check with your generals if there have been any explosions in the area of the Drow War."

He grabbed a crystal and walked away for a few minutes and he nodded, "Yes they heard and felt it. Said it sounded like half of the caves up ahead collapsed."

He thought, "Goddess can you enlighten me on this Champion now?"

He heard a chuckle from Corellon Larethian, "Your solution was unexpected, creative, and very inventive. We are trying to see how it affects everything in the future. It was not a solution we had predicted in any of the future possibilities."

Travious thought, "I did not enter the war or go to the drow, as you instructed. I just made sure the message was loud and clear."

He looked at his Aunt Zaria and gave a smile, "Annihilation of the other champion. The Gods are still going over the impact down the line."

He heard in his head from the Lady of Dreams this time, "The King is hearing this as well. The champions plan killed her and almost 80,000 drow and driders and collapsed some tunnels 10 levels down. Your army pulled back. However, 2 elven scouts were killed when parts of the ceiling fell in and collapsed near that front. For now, anyway. It is highly unstable."

Travious looked at the King, "Time for me to see what kind of damage I can do to a province."

He chuckled. The King announced the numbers and his Aunt hugged Travious. The army had contacted the King. They moved completely out of that tunnel for now and declared that entrance too unstable for operations.

Travious looked at King Goldeagle, "You want to get the Dwarven King on your crystal, your Majesty?"

He pulled it out and activated it. The Dwarven King came on and Travious stood and listened as the dwarven King laughed his ass off and hollered for his military adviser. "Do not charge them for those barrels!" He laughed again.

Travious interjected, "Your Majesty, any impact noticed on your side of that conflict?"

King Fireaxe thought and then spoke, "Let me check on something." He came back laughing. "A few of the tunnels the drow like to use on us also collapsed."

Travious smiled, "Your Majesty, this would not have been possible without the aid of those sappers who put the package together for us. You got some sapper heroes to celebrate I would think. AGAIN."

He laughed at Travious, "Your crazy idea but it was a team effort. I will have to call those 4 back into court. Sappers are a crazy lot. They are looking forward to working with you! They have not bought a drink since they got back! They will love this news."

The crystal went dark. Travious looked at King Goldeagle, "Just dragons and slavers to worry about at the moment."

He went into the cave and sure enough, He found two dragons. Unexpected a silver and a gold Gold Dragon. He looked at the Countess, "You knew them?"

She nodded, "I was looking for them after the war broke out and the departure. Now I know what happened to them. I was hoping he would be a mate for Majisa. But he completely disappeared. That made her available. She seems very happy but wished you had more time together."

Travious nodded, "Same here."

Travious's cousin disturbed them, "These books have the wards removed but the pages are encrypted."

He nodded and stuck his hand on the first page and just waited long after the ink had stopped moving. Ten minutes later he pulled up his hand. She checked it and he decoded the whole book.

He put his hand on the other one. He looked at them, "I figured if I can do this with crystals and multiple layers on a spell, I might be able to do a book all at once."

His cousin Elira yelled, "OH by the gods!"

Travious looked at her, "What?"

She looked at them, "I found out how the drow got into the city! They had help. This lists several members of House Goldbar setting up a teleportation circle in order to embezzle money out. Instead, they turned it into a 'paid access back door' to the Kingdom right into the Palace district!

Something happened a long time ago and they lost most of their senior leadership. The previous champion found out about the embezzling, had them fix all of the accounts, and then executed them all. Silvertree got rewarded for bringing the corruption to light."

Travious looked at the King, "Can you contact the ambassador in the Far East, your Majesty. I am only worried about one Goldbar in this mess and he is halfway around the world to get away from them."

King Goldeagle contacted the Ambassador. Travious looked at the crystal, "This is the King's connection to you. Please do not tell me about the hour. I need you to go get Goldbar for me. Now."

Goldbar called back almost 30 minutes later. He spoke into the crystal, "Something wrong?"

Travious asked him, "Do you have any wife or kids of your own?"

He laughed, "No, I am into men and infertile."

Travious sighed, "How much do you have in your personal account? I am with the King at the moment."

He sighed, "Maybe a 100,000 gold pieces, then that much again on me living out here. My family cut me off years ago. All they left me was the name."

Travious looked at the crystal. "Did you want another name?"

He laughed, "Sure Golden Star."

Travious laughed, "Can we make that happen for him, your Majesty?"

Hing Goldeagle nodded, "A new house. I will expect a symbol at the Palace as soon as possible."

Goldbar sounded nervous, "Why did I need a new house name?"

Travious looked at the crystal, "Because we are unsure of how long house Goldbar will exist and wanted to look after your wellbeing."

He laughed, "If you are bringing them down, I want to see it."

Travious sighed, "They are bringing themselves down."

Travious looked at the King, "What kind of compensation is house Silvertree looking at here?"

He looked at Travious, "Half of their assets. Several billion in gold."

He heard from 'Gold Star' on the crystal, "What in the hell did they do to Silvertree?"

Travious looked at the crystal, "You know about the banking incident years ago. You know my Grandfather uncovered the evidence of it?"

He sighed, "No I did not know that, though I am not surprised."

Travious looked at the crystal, "It gets worse. As part of that scheme, they were sending funds into the DROW of all people. Before they could really get that going, they got hammered by the royal family as many issues were discovered. Well, they used that teleportation circle they set up to transfer in assassins on a pay as you go basis.

They sent 50 assassins after me and killed several people including my cousin's three wives with the Stronk Oak family, my mother-in-law, one of my former apprentices, and all of the Elders and children present at the House Silvertree complex!"

Travious heard, "They are so fucked. Yes, your Majesty, I definitely want to be my own house."

King Goldeagle looked at Travious, "I will sign the blank form with the house name on it. Approve it as of last week. I have royal arrest warrants to issues."

Travious looked at him, "You might want to set it up for after you knighted him. Send arcane casters who have that true seeing spell and neutralize poison just in case they were sending in the fourth strike team, Your Majesty. Then adjust his paperwork."

The King nodded, "True. We can do that so the dates align."

His cousin looked at him, "If you had not decrypted it this would have gotten tossed in the bottom of a chest given the state of the things on the drow front. It was a dated journal and I started with the latest entries. They were paid in rubies and diamonds for portal access. As well as a few contracted assassinations. They did not store this in a bank in case they ever got caught they put it someplace safe."

Travious looked at the King, "Uncle John will find them, Your Majesty."

King Goldeagle nodded, "He can go through them as they are brought in."

Travious smiled, "When was the last time you invited the head of House Goldenbar to dinner? Tell him it is for all of the high-elf houses just him and his wife. Once you have secured their hidden assets you go after the public ones. Just a suggestion, Your Majesty.

Aunt, can you get a caster to take me and my Shi'Drakon back to town? I got a message to deliver and mission to plan and will need transportation to the other side of the world.

Aunt, you got the notifications to make here. And there are only those guarding the estate that you left behind. Cousin, were there any of those contract assassinations to take out Strong Oak?"

She looked at the entries, "Yes."

The Countess looked at Travious, "You left your horse at House Silvertree. I can take you and then take you home. I can be persuaded to take you to the other side of the world if needed."

He nodded, "That will work. I have a cousin to find when I get back. Grand Master Strong Oak needs to know."

They teleported to House Silvertree and he looked at his Aunt's men, "You been holding anyone at bay?"

They nodded, "About 30 elves."

He sighed, "I will be right back, Countess."

---

The Countess stood back by the Great Siilvertree, the first time she had seen it herself was today. She looked it over, "The magic off of this tree is astounding. Like Silent Falls it just radiates from this tree. This champion continues to surprise me, much like Eldar. More so than Brannar, he was on a mission. The mission needed to get us to stop using the Dragon War Treaties and start being the allies we needed to be,

Travious is just less confrontational with my kind. I think Majisa helps with that, as did my change in approaching this champion. His thoughts and approaches to a problem have me baffled at times, but he is working to protect my kind just as much as the others."

She heard from Bahamut, "He has surprised the gods as well in his approach. He is attracting a lot of attention. That tree is a living relic created in a ceremony by Eldar, unknowingly. Over the ashes of his father. I look forward to seeing how Travious does in the chaos of the Far East."

---

Travious rode out to the gate. "I arrived here earlier to find assassins on the grounds and every single one of the house elders dead, also any children present. The groundskeeper, the staff from what I understand, and all of the guards. My Aunt and Uncle John are at the Palace.

They are trying to work with King Goldeagle on getting all of these broken pieces picked up and investigated. The assassins on the grounds were killed, they were Drow. Those that hired them or aided them to get into the city will be punished. Please give it until morning to look for answers.

My Aunt will make formal announcements to each of the new elders and their children. Before anyone asks there were 20 assassins, all Drow, and I did call for reinforcements as you can see. I need to get back to my family and break the news to them. As you should do with your branches of the family that remain."

They nodded and some cried. Someone shouted, "They got any leads on who did this?"

Travious looked back, "Other than they were Drow and continue to investigate. I am not a part of that conversation if they do. I have been tasked to the Far East by the Gods and the King. I have to leave in a few hours."

Travious looked at the troops at the gate, "The enchanters are supposed to be delivering things for me in the morning, can you get someone to take them to the Far East?"

One of the guys he had worked sword training with nodded, "We can make that happen."

Travious rode back to the ladies and they teleported him back to the town. Travious thought, "Find Strong Oak best possible speed."

He heard from Shi'Drakon, "Silent Falls."

He looked back, "I will return soon."

They blew through the village and got to Silent Falls. He looked at his cousin, "I got the Lady of Dreams to try and purify more than one ring. All three of your wives' spirits were released into the pantheon. The news does not end there. I got hit by another 20 assassins in the capital.

Two in the market district and the rest at House Silvertree. All of the guards, staff, Elders, and children were killed. Some are in the rings I collected tonight. Did my father ever talk with you about your father?"

He nodded, "He told me about the embezzling. My children are grown or in our Arcane Academy training, I will have to talk with them."

Travious sighed, "He found the evidence, yet it was worse than he ever knew. They worked to send money to the drow. To hide it or buy something we don't know or I should say I don't know as I am out of the investigation.

When they got that setback, they changed plans or it could have been a part of the plan that continued. They used the portal they created to provide paid access from the Underdark into the city. Namely assassins. I thought it was very strange that the only home that lost more than one was yours. I now know you were also targeted."