Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 09

The King groaned, "Fourth floor in an hour. I will send for our enchanters, the Duke, and the head of my military."

Mercian looked at them, "Meet you there. I have a place to go to first."

They nodded and he made his way all the way back to Left Eye. Mercian looked at the people at the consoles, "I need you to move out of the shelter."

They looked at him like he was crazy. He looked at them, "There are a few things stored here in secret compartments. I cannot show you those locations. Clear out now."

They got up and left. Mercian turned the security walls on and then activated a crystal to block sight along with teleportation.

Mercian emptied out all of the hidden locations. He released the room and pointed, "Back to monitoring."

Mercian opened right-eyes and secured it and stored most of the stuff. Coming out with two bags. Mercian teleported out, "Activate."

Mercian walked into the palace and went to the fourth floor. He opened the war room and left the portal open. He went over to the far corner from the war room. He stacked six chairs in groups of two in a triangle with the upper chairs' feet up. He set a line of repeaters up on the leading chair facing the room. He went into the War room and activated the device.

He pulled out a crystal, "Left Eye station one center over drow at a 100 feet in height or depth if you will while covering all three villages. Now go to display two and give us an image of the underground between the 3 of them.

Station 3 I want a floor to ceiling of the dwarven throne room and surrounding rooms. Be ready to adjust that."

He got one of them chuckling, "You act like you are standing over our shoulder."

He smiled, "Charlus is. He left us a present. 2 really, but we only need 1 for now. I can cycle through a display that is roughly half the size of your 2-dimensional display.

It has no controls and reflects what is being displayed on all 6 workstations. Something he started working on after Base 1 was infiltrated. I cannot control the display but I can see what is there. Leave those there. I will contact you back if I need changes."

Mercian heard a chuckle, "Understood, Commander."

Mercian turned it off for the moment and waited for them to arrive. The King walked in, "What is with stacking my chairs?"

Mercian smiled, "I am not an enchanter to levitate, make invisible, and then make permanent a location for the set of 6 relay crystals on top of the one chair. He looked over. "Those have a purpose?"

Mercian pulled up a crystal in the War room, "Kingdom Overwatch anything exciting to report? I am with the King."

He heard a reply, "No signs of necromancy. Some minor illusion activity. Most are our agents or someone trying to spy on sex."

Mercian smiled. "The King will be happy you cannot monitor his secure shelter."

They chuckled as he let the crystal go dark, "Your Majesty, for starters that is the same kind of repeater we use to get the Alliance Overwatch workstations to work with Dragon's Overwatch. That allows them to communicate with them inside a shelter like this."

He nodded, "I approve, but I want my chairs resolved."

Mercian nodded. "We just need the enchanters to fix that, Your Majesty."

He waited for the dragons and enchanters to arrive. Ten minutes later and everyone was assembled. He looked over, "One of Charlus's final gifts to us."

He turned on the display. The dragons looked at it, "Overwatch display?"

He nodded, "Alliance Overwatch display. In the station crystals that went into the workstation, there is separate encryption on the transmit side for each workstation."

Mercian pressed the crystal and cycled through the three and the three blank ones. He looked at the King as he switched it back, "Those are necromancy signals in the throne room."

Mercian pulled out a crystal, "Station 3 expand out the view to twice the area."

He waited. "Alright bring it up fifty feet and then take it down slowly until I say stop." Two minutes later he called out, "Stop, take it back up about ten feet. Leave that one there."

He shut off the crystal, "That is their new forge location. Looks like10 enchanted forges."

He nodded, "Dwarves are working there but it looks like their leadership is corrupted or captured."

Mercian nodded, "That is a job for a dwarven champion. I will ask the gods about it."

Mercian flipped to the view of the drow villages. "There are some necromancy signals." He flipped to the next display. "The central support. We take that out and it will bring down the three villages, hopefully."

Mercian activated a crystal, "Display two give us a scan of the palace. Fourth floor. Duke Strong Oak, step out of the room for a moment." He did so we watched the image come up showing minor necromancy. Mercian looked at Strong Oak, "Take your blade and slide it to the far end of the table. He did it and they watched it move across the display.

"All stations I want you to divide the Elven kingdom into thirds give us a look underground at one mile across the kingdom." They waited for them to finish up. Mercian cycled through the three displays. "No signs of tunneling under the elven kingdom. "All stations same thing but move location to the plains."

They saw the extensive tunnels. "Take all 3 displays west and keep them even."

They watched them move. Mercian called out, "Stop. Take them up toward the surface."

They took them up, "Stop display one, two, and three continue to the surface. Mercian looked over at their dragon allies. They looked at him, "They are working to tunnel under our shield!"

Mercian nodded, "A very wide tunnel. Watch."

They watched it and saw the movement. They sighed, "They have dragons in that tunnel!"

Mercian nodded. "This we can fix. We disintegrate holes down into the surface and then hit it with a series of earthquake spells. Cause the whole thing to collapse in on itself. Just so you know, I found this just now as you saw it. I followed the tunnels. I had no previous knowledge other than trying to figure out who they were focusing upon from those cities."

She nodded, "The gold dragons monitored both of those areas."

Mercian nodded, "Stands to reason if you are missing one, they went there. Now they are trying to get to an artifact able to make Draco-liches. Using whatever knowledge, the 'gold dragon' believes he has learned as a foundation."

She looked at Mercian, "He was a scholar, spent a lot of time in the restricted section of the old library. He might have found something. We have no way of knowing how close they were to success."

Mercian nodded, "Exactly."

She looked at him, "The council will have to look at this."

Mercian nodded, "Understood, Glimmer."

Mercian looked at the display, "Continue to monitor drow and dwarves. Observation over for the moment."

Mercian let the crystal go dark. He looked at the King, "I have two of those. One for here and one for me to carry. The one I carry can only be activated by the blade wielder. This one would be in your shelter. Your War room, Your Majesty. I have one other thing. Again, another prototype from Charlus. Did your enchanters share the evil dragon bane with Charlus used in the main weapon?"

She shrugged, "I do not know." Mercian pulled out a hand crossbow. He faced it toward him and pressed the crystal on top. Mercian looked at her, "Did not affect me. He tried her and it had no effect. "Did not affect you. Strong Oak over here."

He turned it off. "Stand there. Mercian pointed it at him and it went around him, "Move out of the beam. He did and it pulled his hand along with him. He moved in the other direction and it did it again. "This thing can do this and it can be loaded with a bolt.

The bolt is fired into or onto something. Mercian turned and fired at the shelter wall, "Move now."

Mercian did so but he could get out. "Divine non-detection allowed my sword to pass through. The Duke and King on the other hand were trapped."

It ended a few minutes later. "The notes say it was unpredictable at how long it would last when fired. From a few seconds to ten minutes. If it is stuck in something moveable then it will move.

If it is in something solid like a sturdy wall then it would get anchored. He made 4 handheld shield weapons, there are a hundred bolts each. After that, it is a handheld. The device not only blocks necromancy in is necromancy bane and evil dragon bane. It will mess with undead and those wearing the rings.

He does not say how he knows it just that he confirmed it. They have a shelf life. He died so these will become unenchanted in less than a year. The second enchanter was my mother according to the notes. I think he figured she would be around longer. Divine non-detection, as you saw, is not affected by this."

Mercian sat down as the King looked at him, "I still want my chairs put back. I want the enchanters to set those relay crystals against the far corner.

Have them levitated and invisible at that height. Being able to use communication crystal in here would be great. That display is phenomenal."

Mercian looked over and the dragons were even nodding. Glimmer smiled, "He was gifted."

Mercian looked at them, "This. I can handle. The enchanters need to tell us how long the shields have; if the enchanters are still alive."

Lucian looked at him, "We monitor that with the loss of your mother we lost about ten percent of our shields including the city shield. Not the others. In just under a year's time frame. We have a group of enchanters already working those systems that need to be enchanted again."

Mercian smiled, "If they have lost access to mythic draconic how are they doing that?"

She looked at Mercian, "Good question."

Mercian nodded, "The instructions I got from the will and has not been countered by the Gods. I cannot bring the books out for them to start learning mythic again until the Alliance with the dragons is signed off."

Mercian thought, "Is that still the case? Do we have to wait for the dragons?"

He heard back from the Lady of Dreams, "You can start with the elves now as you have the sword. The dragons have to wait for the Alliance."

Mercian looked over, "They just corrected me. I can start on the elves now. The dragons have to wait on the Alliance. They are possibly in the same boat depending on who crafted your shields."

Glimmer looked at him, "You know I have to say that would be dragon business at this point."

Mercian nodded, "Exactly. Dragon business that needs to come around before you are out of time. You have a lot to talk with your leaders about. When did you want to get together again, Glimmer?"

She looked at Mercian, "I will contact you. Will you be reachable?"

Mercian nodded, "I have all but moved into Left Eye. The repeater will reach me."

She nodded, "Hopefully sooner. With the council, you never know."

---

Glimmer reported back to the council of the new capability that was added to Alliance Overwatch with the portable displays and concerns for the tunneling under their shields and the status of their own shields.

She looked across, "With the King of the Gold Dragon's death we know our shields will fail in a year. The secondary enchanter was one of the last Silvertree Silver Dragons they killed. Their champion suspects we are in the same boat they are in, and he would be correct as I have confirmed that is the case.

They can start working on the elven shields now; those that had failed prior to Charlus's death, and the defensive systems were restored before he stepped down. 10% of their shields will be non-operational, including the ones over their capital, in just under a year. This attack is likely to come sooner.

They have their defensive systems as our system monitored their testing when Charlus put them back into service after the Alliance was dropped and we were incarcerated. I checked the records in our system.

They appear to be in the dark about the upcoming solar eclipse we are predicting. With the drow on the surface and looking to have dragons bypass our shields early, we have a few problems to address, Your Majesties."

The Bronze King looked over, "Leave the eclipse out of it, we don't have an exact date for that event, we just suspect it will be soon and last for several days. We will consider addressing it after we are totally operational again and we have the dwarves and humans in place in the Alliance.

We will debate what to do about these tunnels. It might be time to relocate our capital to gain more space to grow. Moving it a significant distance away is likely. That is still viable as they did not destroy the controls for that to happen. We need time to check our supports in all of the buildings.

We could move away instead of attacking the tunnels if it came down to it, we have options. We need to finish our clean-up and repairs while we work. No talk of what information was taken from the restricted section. That is Dragon Business."

Glimmer sighed and bowed to the new head of the council. While she did not agree with everything it was not her palace to disagree. Just present the problems. Her great Grandfather 5 generations back was the last Silvertree champion. Her opinions would be considered biased in regards to a Silvertree champion with the elves because of that connection.

---

Mercian spent the next several days on the fourth floor or Left Eye. He worked with enchanters on the books and getting them back to work or monitoring the situation. 3 weeks after that meeting, he got contacted when the Metallics were ready to meet. He passed the word to the King and his Diplomatic Service went into full swing.

2 months after that and they had the Alliance completed with the dragons. Alliance Overwatch was at full strength, as was Dragon's Overwatch. He has separate provisions in the Alliance documents acknowledging the ownership of Alliance Overwatch to whomever the elven owner of the Silvertree Moon Blade was going forward.

Also, provisions to get Alliance Overwatch the data types they needed in totality. He had scribes making copies of that book in the war room day and night for another month before they walked out with 2 usable copies of both books they were allowed to access. There was a third book that was restricted away from everyone. He was not even allowed to mention it.

He took the books after they left and returned them to their hiding hole in the War Room for now, though they would get moved to House Silvertree at some point soon.

---

King Goldeagle had used Overwatch assets in the right eye with a 12 elf strike team to try and gain access to the dwarven throne room. He ordered them to keep the commander, Merican, out of the loop as he was working with the Dragons on copying the books they needed. The mission was a complete failure.

---

Mercian was left out of the loop of the first infiltration of the Dwarven lands. Of 12 team members who went in only, 1 elf came back out and he got briefed on the failed mission. Mercian was livid and was not afraid to show it to the King even.

None of the crossbows went and the 1 elf who made it out said the others managed to infiltrate the throne room and were never heard from again. A dwarven agent they managed to recruit told him the room was covered in blood with no explanation.

True seeing of those leaving the area revealed they were killed and dragon wore the rings. Red dragons. It supported Mercian's theory of two different factions. Mercian was annoyed, to say the least. As Alliance Overwatch was used without him being kept in the loop. Mercian looked at the King during this briefing, "I am going in, Your Majesty."

He looked at Mercian, "No."

Mercian glared at him, "Would you tell the Gods that, Your Majesty? Have they told you to keep me from my mission? Did they tell you to hijack my system and keep the mission from me, Your Majesty? Something tells me the answer is no to all of the above. I am not asking for permission."

King Goldeagle sighed, "Not alone."

Mercian shook his head, "Alone. Keep a couple of strike teams on stand-by if I can find a use for them. What Charlus would do, Your Majesty. You messed up with me using Alliance Overwatch and having them keep the activity from me. Now I am going in to get it done right this time and stop wasting your limited resources."

King Goldeagle sighed, "I can set up a rendezvous with that dwarven agent at least."

Mercian nodded. "Location of the Eternal Forge, Your Majesty. That way the first mission is not viewed as a completely wasted effort."

King Goldeagle sighed and thought to his sword, "I appear to be fucking up by the numbers with this champion. He is going to get himself killed going in as an army of one."

His sword responded, "Charlus did that for over 700 years. Longest lived champion. Trust them. Cutting him out of the system was something I advised you not to do. Listening to me would be beneficial at times as well, as Charlus told you. Champions have been known to go rogue and take on matters without consulting Royalty if they fail to listen.

He could still shut down those consoles at any time. Better to work with him. The Gods told you as much. Watch and see what he does. He is used to being in combat, you have never faced what he has faced, or those of his family who have held that sword."

King Goldeagle simply nodded as Mercian teleported out of the city. Mercian used the eyes' underground chamber. He had an acid explosion wand in a bracer and dimension door wand in the other bracer. He switched into dwarf form and went invisible and teleported into the area near the Eternal Forge.

He had a pair of those hand crossbows, one strapped to each hip as well and loaded. He looked around and the force wall and ceiling stood in place still from the great rescue. A lone dwarf snuck down the hall.

He heard, "I sure hope this fool knows what he's doing."

Mercian whispered back, "No fool, but I know."

He stopped. Mercian looked at him, "Very specific questions. Where does the paragon sleep and do any in the throne room wear glasses?"

He nodded, "Glasses. Yes, two do. Either end of the room, opposite corners, they change positions often. Paragon you would never find it unless you are a dwarf."

Mercian stuck a repeater into the far wall. He walked over and opened the door to the forge area and stepped inside. The agent followed. Mercian released forms and took his invisibility off, "Left Eye workstation one, monitor my entry point, at the Eternal Forge outer room. Made contact. Workstation two forge level 50 feet worth of depth. Follow directions." He laid out the display. The dwarf's eyes lit up. He went with it and gave directions. Up, left, and further south.

Then pointed and sighed, "Stop, square building upper left-hand corner."

Mercian called out, "Get me the coordinates." They fed them to Mercian and he walked out with the other Dwarf, "Seal portal."

He put the display away and stored the communication crystal. Mercian changed forms back to a dwarf and went invisible. He whispered, "Crouch and close your eyes."

He nodded. Mercian took them into the corner and another dwarf tripped over his contact. Those two went about arguing about watching where they were going and fixing shoes off to the side. They broke it up. He moved off to the side and messed with his shoe.

Mercian whispered, "Nice work."

He hmphed, "Been better if you had missed him."

Mercian pointed at the door, "Knock." Mercian removed the invisibility.

He knocked on the door, "Is the paragon home?"

The dwarf at the door looked at Mercian, "At the forge for another hour at least."

Mercian pushed the contact into the room and closed the door. She went for a weapon and Mercian called out, "The Paragon is in great danger. You all are."