Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 11

One of them sighed, "Was Dusk Moon until my son got us disowned."

Nova looked at the other one, "Moon. Same but it was my nephew Moon Ray."

Nova nodded, "They did not get you disowned; not in the eyes of the Gods who now rule. They claimed your family Moon Blades. The King lost the ability to disown. The King is running around like a cockroach."

He looked at Nova, "I did not get your name?"

Nova smiled, "Novella Silvertree, Champion of Corellon Larethian. Varus'Nor Left hand Moon Fire on. Your son and your nephew send their best. I sent them around today with a few hundred thousand in gold to tie your families over until we remove the King and then his head. This is my task. This is Monnius Goldeagle, wielder of the King's Moon Blade and the next King of the Elven Kingdom.

All that will be left of house Goldeagle is him and his children. They looked at her like she was crazy. She rotated her arm so they could see the double crescents on the sword. She sheathed the sword. "You two, tired of having to watch over the Psions in the area who do nothing but keep to themselves? Would you like to see the boys?"

They looked at each other and then back at Nova. Paladin Dusk Moon looked at her, "You are one the King is looking for?"

Nova smiled, "One of them; there are a dozen Moon Blades in wielder's hands. All active. How can a destroyed house have blade unless they are not destroyed in the eyes of the Gods?"

Nova pulled out a crystal, "Nova base is Moon Ray and Dusk Moon around?"

She chuckled, "Yes, they said they got the money dropped off but one of their family was looking to cash in on a reward for the capture if found. Including getting their family name back. Dusk Moon. He said it was an older sister. She was pissed because it ended her chances of getting married."

Nova sighed, "You two wanting to talk with them or see them?"

They nodded Dusk Moon looked at her, "Take me to them."

Nova looked at the crystal, "Where did the kobolds go?"

She laughed, "They are using teleport blockers over that room now. Looks like they brought them in from every gold-elf house in the Captial."

Nova smiled, "Anything in the halls?"

She laughed, "No."

Nova looked at them, "Gather." She teleported them to the fourth floor. She called in the portal and they rode inside as the doors opened. She took them back to the base and opened the door.

They dismounted and walked forward. She brushed down her horse, "Trika show the other horse around. Don't forget to fuck the mare."

Moon Ray groaned, "Really, you had to tell him that?"

Nova smiled and walked over to him and pulled the mane back. To show him the double crescents.

He sighed as Nova walked down the hall, "I have two knight paladins, Dusk Moon and Moon Ray with me."

She sighed, "They are on their way to you."

Dusk Moon had his sword at the ready, "You told my sister to turn us in?!"

Paladin Dusk Moon looked shocked. Nova held up a hand for him to hold up.

Paladin Duck Moon sighed, "I was not aware of what you did to cause our family to be disowned. I told all of the family that not knowing about the blade you are holding. We were told you became a rebel."

Nova looked at him, "Why didn't you say something before?"

He sighed, "I did not know if I was the cause. I wanted to talk with him."

Paladin Dusk Moon looked at Nova, "I can tell you none of us knew what was going on other than you joined the resistance."

Nova smiled, "They joined me and the resistance joined me. To get them to shut down the attacks. Put the sword away. They could have attacked us upon the road, or the Palace when we took them to a different location before calling the portal. Show them the other blade; they were selected by the Gods."

Nova walked forward toward those two, "If it had been your sister or brother that disappeared would you have followed through with his direction? Does that hold true for all of your families?"

He sighed and put the blade away.

Nova walked forward, "Command center gentleman. Lieutenant Silvertree, follow me. What did the arcane casters say?"

She looked at Nova, "Nothing good. They removed the guards from outside the tower and put up the finger of death wards and disintegration wards. Get within a hundred feet and they will go off. Two dozen of each."

Nova nodded, "How many times would they go off?"

She smiled at Nova, "Once. That was the good news."

Nova chuckled, "Good. Easy to bypass."

She glared at her, "How?" She pulled a wand and handed it to her. "Summon monster wand. Alright, that would work for this."

He looked at the display, "They are a hundred feet from the door?"

She shook her head, "No, they are all over the field. Right up to the door."

Nova nodded. "What is on top of the tower?"

She looked at Nova as she finished searching, "Nothing."

Nova thought for just a second, "Our way in."

She asked, "How do we keep from tipping our hand?"

Nova looked at her, "I go with two casters and feather fall. We teleport above the tower 5,000 feet should do it. At night. We feather fall down. We land and they disintegrate a hole inside. Will break the scrying seal. You can tell us what you see. All I have to do is see one and have him turn off the teleport blocker."

She shook her head, "It is too obvious a hole."

Nova walked over, brought up two other displays, and then a third. "You are right. Too obvious."

She looked, "What are you looking at?"

She pointed, "You see that? Gods' Eyes. These smaller ones are going down here, here, and here. They moved the terminals out of the tower. This one set is problematic."

Orea nodded, "You think? It's a damned garrison."

Nova smiled, "Alright, check the two-location scrying and teleportation blocked?"

She looked, "Yes; I am seeing another garrison here of royal guards and one here in the room they just blocked...the war room."

Nova nodded, "Then I need all casters prepared with true seeing and disintegration. We will get the horses saddled."

Jan looked at Nova, "Which location we attacking." Nova changed the elevation on one to reflect the diamonds "Overwatch."

She looked, "That will destroy the system."

Nova sighed, "Alternative?"

She looked at her, "Dispel magic only works for so long."

Nova sighed, "The other option is to make a bunch of bags of holding invisible. Bag them and leave them there." She walked back to the mages. "How long to make a dozen bags of holding invisible?"

They chuckled and saw she was not joking. One looked at Nova, "There are eight of us here who could do it. 2-3 days each."

She nodded, "Prepare the spells."

She followed Nova, "There are more than a dozen here."

Nova nodded, "We take out the 12 around here and the Palace District and a large section of the city will go dark to their vision."

She nodded, "We take down what they want to watch the most!"

---

Six days later they went out at night and bagged 16 covering the city Palace and Moon-elf Districts. They spent this time emptying the trophy room. The reaction was immediate. The garrisons were pulled back to the Palace interior. Three more days and half of the army was moved into the Palace District. The uplinks went dead and reactivated two days later from within the Palace. They stayed quiet during this time.

They confirmed their commander was still in charge of the army. He was made responsible for keeping the Palace District secured, his 'loyalty and injuries contributed to his remaining in charge.' Moon Blade contacted them, They were ready. They pulled them and their families from the shelter and into the base. They were 2 days out from the elven land borders at this point.

They resumed court again once they had the throne room blanketed with teleportation blockers. They had them stacked in there. They did not have enough scrying blockers from the looks of yet or they could not block a room of that size as open as it was. They could only see small gaps in the room.

They hit the edge of elven lands Nova had put them on a direct course For the Capital with Silent Falls right in between them. This made them visible to the remaining army in advance of the arrival given their altitude.

---

Nova got contacted on her crystal, "You need to see this."

She went out to the control room. She looked, "They are sending Elven War Horses at us?!"

She nodded.

She thought, "Trika, Get outside and warn off the Elven War Horse. Tell them that they are grounded until told otherwise by you or Nova." Nova heard Trika chuckle.

They watched the display as the horses went to the ground.

She chuckled, "Now they got casters flying at us."

Nova nodded, "Let them...Wait. Activate external displays. Display the control room."

Nova called out, "This is Novella Silvertree, Champion of Corellon Larethian. I and the other Moon Blade wielders are here to tell you to stand down. Flying into those shields will get you killed. If you are Moon-elves, Snow-elves, or wood-elves you know the King wants you to be bugs on the outer edge of the shields.

If you are gold-elves you know you are too few to make a difference against this base even if you could find a way inside. This is Nova Base. Dark Nova will not be stopped until we are sitting over the Palace District."

---

Overwatch contacted the King, "Your Majesty. We are picking up something massive. The army is reporting that all of the elven warhorses are following the orders of the leader of the herd. They refuse to fly against that target, or at all. Not until given new orders by this head of the herd or Nova.

In short, she controls the elven War Horses. She has claimed to be the champion of Corellon Larethian. She said that flying rock, which is massive, is not stopping until it is over the Palace. It has shields on it like we used to have over our cities. There is no way to get inside until they lower the shields."

The King grabbed a crystal and headed for the War room, "I want the rest of the army in the Palace District now! Leave the fucking horses. I will work to slaughter them all later for failing the Elven Kingdom."

Nova watched the display for the throne room and saw the King scramble to the fourth floor. The Army backed down and began teleporting out without the horses, they were psionic after all and barred from the Palace District. They watched them arrive in the Palace District. Nova pulled up House Silvertree. They had vacated.

Nova groaned, "It is a trap. They will teleport in as soon as I do."

Brena nodded, "What do we do?"

Nova smiled, "Spring the trap. I need one caster with me; one with fire immunity. Monnius do you think the Palace could use some redecorating? How is teleportation looking?"

She chuckled, "The army is going into the capital."

Monnius looked at Nova, "I have fire immunity. What do you want me to do?"

Nova pointed, "Volcano. We drop lava from about 5,000 feet up over the Palace. Another into House Silvertree. Followed by a few more. Meanwhile, we have others here who could teleport down and get their families out of the shelter on the fourth floor of the inn. New Moon can go with them and take them to the forge site. We can regroup there and call out for the portal."

Monnius looked at Nova, "You want to burn the Palace down?"

Nova shook her head, "Please, with that many casters they will contain the damage but as we know they moved all of the Overwatch systems in there it will send them scrambling."

He looked at her, "I cannot do that to the Palace."

Nova nodded, "Then you drop on in the center of House Silvertree and I will drop one over the Palace."

He chuckled, "Why are we going there?"

Nova smiled, "I need to let the Patron know we are at the Palace tomorrow morning."

He looked at her, "Why?"

Nova shook her head, "Where is your family going to be? Where will they need to be by mid-day? As well as mine?"

Brena looked, "I want to go."

Nearon nodded, "Same."

Nova sighed, "Alright I will get the blades down you two in and the portal closed. You can pass the word. Then I will drop lava on the Palace.

I want the Patron at the sword ceremony. I thought you would want to be at it with your husband."

She nodded, "I do. You are right I do."

Nova sighed, "Let me see what kind of havoc I can do on my own."

She walked over and Goldeagle joined her. He asked, "How are you getting out of the lava?"

Nova smiled, "Dimension door. Wand in the bracer."

He nodded, "You hit the Palace and I will drop two on Silvertree when you come in with one."

Nova nodded. She teleported them just inside the top. He fell like a rock. She dropped in and went neck deep. She teleported a circle a thousand feet above the fourth floor. She dimension door up five hundred feet. She teleported into the lava where she left, She teleported over the house portal and dimension doored a hundred feet above it. They had casters teleporting in screaming. As they landed on hot lava or it fell onto them.

"Open portal. blades off."

She stepped in. Goldeagle stepped in. "Close portal. Wall down. She pointed and they went to the training wing and cooled off any excess and let it drop off of them. She walked out to a few shocked faces.

Nova looked at them, "We dropped a few loads of lava outside and one on the fourth floor of the Palace. Patron you and Goldeagle's children are requested to join us. Tomorrow afternoon, evening at the latest, and this will be over. At least for the King of greed."

The Patron looked at Nova, "Where are we going?"

Nova smiled, "Silent Falls via my Nova Base. The Palace knows it is coming now. They have pulled the Army into the Palace District as we expected. The Commander works for us."

He smiled, "Any other surprises?"

Nova laughed, "Several. Like there are no buildings left on the Estate again."

He sighed, "I do not know how we will afford to rebuild."

Nova tried not to laugh, "That is not an issue. Remember what I said about what I captured."

He looked at her, "It will be enough?"

Nova looked at him, "It would be enough if I wanted to buy the bank."

He shook his head, "I have never known you to exaggerate."

Nova smiled, "Wait here, Give me twenty seconds."

She stepped across, "You stay with your kids. Wall up Portal open."

Nova evaded the beam Nova dimension doored behind him and ran both blades up through his back. Nova called down the portal as the next ray destroyed the body she held. Nova dimension doored above him. He turned to fire another where he thought Nova would be when she sent his head flying. Nova saw the house portal close and Nova sent it up.

Nova got hit in the side by a third beam. Nova teleported out to the forge site. Nova called the portal to them and they loaded up. Her Patron was still inside. One of the house clerics started healing the hole in Nova. Nova used her psychometabolism to take care of the rest.

He looked at Nova, "Goldeagle disintegrated the one who entered in this portal. One I killed in the blades."

Nova looked at him, "I killed 2 on the ground not counting the 10 gold-elf guards who burned in the lava. At least one was alive and hit me with a disintegration ray. They have healed up most of the damage from that already."

Nova took them all up, "Take families upstairs. I am headed to the control room. Patron Silvertree, follow me."

Nova walked into the control room. "Lower altitude in half."

---

King Goldeagle looked at the damage to his palace and the roof. One console was destroyed, he asked, "What did that one do?"

The gold-elf woman who worked it looked over, "It was the console for all of the 3-dimensional displays. We have no means of fixing it and the other 2 do not provide 'overwatch' abilities for tracking teleportation. It was built into that one console only. Besides Alliance Overwatch which they claim to control.

We also lost the ability to track the abjuration magic detection for Silvertree saddles and bridles. It was the last one built by Charlus for Overwatch. They lucked into hitting that one console. That also cut out another large section of diamonds that we cannot access now.

Those going into the outer district as those were linked to the diamond north and south of the city as part of the expansion! We do not have enchanters who know how to do this work. No time to try and reverse engineer it in time for what we saw coming at us.

They were headed for the Palace. Coming in from the south. The Palace District and Moon-elf portion of the market district is dark after they took out the diamonds in that nighttime strike. We are effectively blind right now. They knew right where to hit us!"

King Goldeagle roared out, "Get that shit out of here then! Take it back to the tower for now!"

He thought to his Master, "They have blinded our ability to watch them coming in."

Abraxus sent a short response. "The end game is coming. You will achieve victory or die. They are bringing all 12 Moon Blades against you. They see you as a threat and they will attack in force. Hope your army remains loyal to you, if not this could be very bad for you."

The King called out on a crystal to his guards at his shelter, "Report to the War Room. Bring all guards here to be in the War Room Shelter. I want 4 outside to deal with crystal communication with my army outside."

---

The patron looked out at the display.

Nova looked forward, "Two hours until Silent Falls. Follow me, Patron."

Nova walked down as it was just the two of them. "Open all vaults except for relic vault."

He watched portals open up along both sides. She kept walking as he stopped.

She turned back, "Patron, this way. Close vaults after we move past them." They walked to the end and turned the corner.

He looked at her, "More?"

Nova had him walk down to see another 12 vaults. She walked over to one and pulled out a portable hole and flipped it open to show him it was full of gold.

Nova looked at him, "Corruption money. Most of this will never make the Bank, at least not in individual accounts. The King disowned all the blade wielders and stripped our accounts in the bank. You see I am not worried and House Silvertree is still alive and well. The Gods removed that ability from him long ago when he turned from them. Close all vaults."

Nova looked at him as she pulled the one hole up and folded it up. She looked at him, "Since the war ended all military pay was cut in half while they were not allowed to draw down in size. My Cousin Senna told me. I get the feeling if he turned from them, then he turned toward someone else. We will see what I pick up before we strike."

They got back to the control room, "Did they shut down?"

She nodded, "Yes. They did not move very fast. I saw them move two consoled out and half of one. They took them back to the tower, teleporting them inside while still active. That is a stone roof. The diamond to the south and to the north went off-line."

Nova smiled, "I hit the console for the 3-dimensional displays! They are in worse shape than before. Alliance Overwatch will fill in that gap when we take over. No tracking teleportation activity like they did before! Also our Silvertree saddles."

Nova pulled up a display of Silent Falls. Nova thought, "You able to center it right over Silent Falls?"

She heard Varus'Nor, "Yes, we will have to slow to do that."

She thought, "Cut speed in half. Bring us to stop as needed as soon as we are stopped lower bottom dragon shield. Does this shelter give you eyes?"

He chuckled, "In a way yes. I can 'see' the inside of the main Keep short of the extra-dimensional spaces. Also anywhere the Keeps display is being sent. It is a very interesting sensation to see all of that at once."

Nova walked back to the master bedroom and waved him on, "Nearon, join me, please."