Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 12

He looked over at the dead tree and the seed in his hand. Another noise caught their attention as the gate disintegrated into dust. Brycen shook his head, "That was pure adamantine." He walked over and looked down and the vein they connected into was mithril now instead of adamantium.

Vittra asked him, "From what we could tell it is 3 women to every male."

Brycen nodded, "Is that a hint?"

She smiled, "A firm request."

Brycen laughed at her, "We have to find out what the Gods want us to do yet. They may send us off again."

She sighed, "If they do, no humans this time."

Brycen laughed, "Because of their large tits?"

She groaned, "No, I like the large tits. They think we are flighty but their views switch so rapidly. There were another 2,000 or so humans that came through. What is going on with the sword?"

Brycen smiled, "Fusion. That was what happened to the last champion and this seed. They fused aspects of my new blade in with my destroyed Moon Blade."

He looked at the hilt and there was no moonstone. It was a swirled cage like before but it is wrapped around a solid lump of mithril. Brycen looked closer and it was shaped like a Silvertree seed.

He smiled, "It is not tied to a house but can inflict damage on those she has an issue with. Nolla'Vasi's spirit transferred."

He thought, "The pommel is a swirling cage around a mithril Silvertree seed. Do you still judge people and kill them if they fail?"

Brycen heard, "No you could pass me to your wife to use if you wanted. Also, the King. Does not matter as long as they are elven, or elf-blooded. I am also locked. Those are the only abilities I will have. I am bound to you unless you die or give me away as a gift. The same goes for future blade wielders. I lost my ability to see through your eyes as I am no longer the spirit of a Moon Blade. Still, a relic just barely though in comparison."

He looked at the control room and laughed, "I guess they are telling us we are going nowhere."

She looked around, "The energy from the gate?"

Brycen shrugged, "Hard to say. Could have been the vessels. Could be a message to find out for ourselves. No dragon shields. Freed two spirits that way. They earned that. No Gods' Eyes. No portal. It means we are done jumping worlds and we will have to find things out on our own."

Brycen walked back and checked the forges. All were operational.

He nodded, "We have forges, mountains of metal, a city to plan, A government to work on reforming, A broken banking system, and yet it is not the biggest issue. Food and shelter."

The King looked at Brycen, "We are no longer an 'Elven Kingdom.' We are simply elven, the elven people. Mostly Moon Elves. Over 80%. We are back to elders. We have nothing to bind them together. Some will have tolerance. Some will break off and move into other parts of this world. I have no right to try and lead us as one anymore. You made this happen, you let your faith guide you."

Brycen walked off and went to his room and grabbed his tack and personal gear. There were storage compartments but none tied to the blade as he figured it would get destroyed. Vittra followed suit as did most of his children.

They had talked about this day. He opened all of the shelters and set them to lock open and respond only to him from now. All except the forge area, He set it to be accessible only as long as he lived.

He looked over at the thousands of elven warhorses that made it through the gate. He looked at one nearby, "Tell the herd I need one as my mount. I am the champion of Corellon Larethian. I have a place to visit."

The message was passed. He got a silvery gray stallion who strolled up.

Brycen smiled at him, "Luniassa (Full Moon)"

He heard, "Thank you for bringing us to this world. I am the leader of the combined herd. There are not enough to go around. Not yet, but I will work to change that. For now, only a few will be allocated. The other stallions mostly."

Brycen thought back, "Good plan. What if they run off?"

He heard, "They will eventually waste away to be normal horses away from the people."

He thought, "Send 5 stallions with 20 mares in each of the 8 directions. We cannot assume that there are other horses here. A viable horse population will be needed by the dwarves and humans as they spread out and away from here. To reintroduce into the herd years from now.

Let them find them on their own. I want 12 stallions for the humans who are here. To help them scout and plan for villages of their own. With 24 mares. A gift for seeing this through to the end; not like the ones who left before we got the gate up. Same for the dwarves but the shorter and stockier of the herd."

Brycen heard, "Being done now. I see your logic."

Brycen looked out at the crowd who had gathered around. He got the horse saddled up. Vittra walked up with her gear. He thought, "One for my beautiful wife here."

Brycen looked across at them. "I have a few announcements to make. First, welcome to the new world. We appear to only have the one moon so the Gods will have to share."

They chuckled at that. "Young Moon Blade needs to pack up his forge and smelter and move it out of the forge room as well as the Keep Forge. Outside in the Keep for now. This is a precaution. The Gods gave us the magic to get here but certain spells from the dragons have started to fade away. One of those is God's lock.

That means for the foreseeable future every arcane who can prepare the secure shelter spell needs to do so for all spells of that level and if they can quicken it and get them into the next tier do that as well. We are not planning on any wizard duels to occur. The eternal forge is to be used in 8-hour shifts until the other 2 forges are back in operation.

The definition of an hour is slightly longer than an hour from where we came from. There are 30 hours a day here. We may have to redefine an hour to make it a 24-hour clock. I will leave that to the Council to decide. Our King has said we are no longer a Kingdom and there is truth to that.

We no longer have that infrastructure to support a Kingdom. We will end up spreading out as well, becoming something more distinctive to our environments. As such this is our crossroads. Quantarsia, where tolerance has to be accepted; else you move away from this location.

The Eternal Forge is operational and will only be used during those hours by those races to create tools, other forges, and building supplies. No weapons. No other forges will be set up here. This world is massive. By comparison; this continent alone is the same land we had on our original world by a factor of 10. It was one of 16 and not even the largest.

On the other side of these mountains are more forests and an ocean. Head east and you will find three ranges of mountains before you find the ocean to the Far East. There is no land bridge to this continent. That means sailing vessels for those who wish to try and get to another continent. To the gnomes, halflings, and other races who made it here.

You can use elven time on the eternal forge for creating what you need for tools and forges. Elves can divide out the time on Moon Blades forge and the Keeps Forge until we take it to a new home. Gnomes 4 weeks south of here on foot you will find a large valley with mineral deposits that your people will like.

To our dwarven friends and comrades. This range 5 weeks north of here you will find impressive deposits of adamantium, mithril, iron, nickel, and gold. Halflings, 6 weeks northeast of here you will find trickling streams, rolling hills, and trees. We focused mostly on the mountains but you will find fertile farmland there and rolling hills.

This is not me telling you where to go. It is letting you know if you are looking for something similar to what you had before then that is where you need to go. You will need to be here for a while to get the materials together to start your societies. This is not me playing dictator with the forge either. It is Eternal. The shelter it is in is not.

When I pass at some point in the hopefully distant future. That shelter will become inaccessible. Shelters were tied to my Moon Blade which was destroyed getting us here. I set all of the shelters to respond to me and to Sword years ago.

After a mutiny aboard allowed them into my own shelter on the ship. I am the only one who had full control over the forge area and it cannot be changed now. It is set to cut off access when I die to everyone.

This new sword was created in a spirit of cooperation. Created on the eternal forge and is tied to the Silvertree. Created in case a sword was missing for the gate, which occurred on the other end of the bridge. Traveling through the plain of shadows is nothing I would recommend to anyone.

The sword is associated not with the family, or the house...only the tree. The tree we traveled with died in the process of getting the gate working. Anyone who says I am of 'House whatever' will be sent on their way if it persists. That tree was tied to House Silvertree. As long as that house existed the tree was eternal.

It is dead and elves of the Silvertree family are still here. That means the Gods have struck down elven houses in getting us here. Those who traveled with gold; keep it. Eventually gold will become a commodity, maybe. You manage for yourselves, your communities, and barter services.

As long as the forge is accessible gold will not be used here or I will shut down the access. Gold leads to greed and that leads to corruption. A position of power gets you nothing here other than working to keep your communities peaceful. Within and without. For the foreseeable future, every race will have one representative on the Council out of here.

I am not on this council. I do hold the title over this fort and the shelters in it. It will pass to the Moon-elf elders when I pass. Whatever government we form. I have locked open them all except for the forge room. I have done my time with interspecies politics. I am simply a Moon-elf who will be working to build a village three days south on foot.

I keep saying on foot. The reason being is you will be traveling by foot for the foreseeable future until the herd grows. There are Elven War Horses. Now I have asked the new head of the heard, who I am sitting upon, that a number of them are being sent off to the 8 directions. To start wild horse herds.

To my human and dwarven counterpart on our journey. Thirty-six horses, 12 stallions and the rest mares will be given to each of you to help you on your journeys. A thank you as we could not have done this alone; though the thought crossed my mind."

That got a few chuckles. Brycen saw a Snow-elf with a hand up. He looked at him, "You want to know about a place for your people. The answer is it is 12 weeks north of here. You do not have a sustainable population without breeding with other species of elves to increase your numbers. We expect up to a 50% loss in these early years depending on how well everyone planned for this day.

The choice though is yours. Now I will not be looking to do this for the others as they will have to have roads here if they wish to trade. I will teleport you 10 weeks north of here and let you gather what supplies you need before you go. You will have to send word to me in the new village I will be building to let me know when you reach a decision.

To all of the elven people. Plural marriages are expected; we have more females than males and we need to build a strong base for our people no matter where they go. The centaurs ran off after the first hour. The wood elves have moved north of here with a small group still here. Gold elves, I do not know what your plans are.

You have lived in cities and looked down at those with the skills to survive. You will adapt, learn, and survive in the wilds. Else you will die unless you have worked to expand them in my absence.

You will find no servants to run to the market and get what you need. The shelters will provide for you for a while. My recommendation would be to go west to the other side of these mountains. There are mountains, forests, and the ocean.

Before anyone asks, we did not have time to search for other species except to say we did not find any on this content; the only one we scanned. Correction, we found something, I would call them being intelligent a loose description. That does not make them any less deadly.

They appeared to use stone and wood weapons. They are not in this location but southeast of here by 12-16 weeks was the largest population close to us. Gods' Eyes, the system we used to evaluate worlds, was destroyed after or during the collapse of the bridge.

Same for the Dragon Shields. I have imparted what we have learned with it. I hope the Council will take this final direction from me. Living in a confined space with 3 other races and we knew money was useless. It was skills that mattered.

Goldeagle you are the default elven member of this council. I have saws, axes, nails, hinges, a few enchanted forges, and hammers all ready to go. I even have plans for sawmills, houses, and the like. I have enough bars and raw ore to get it built. Most of it was bought hundreds of years ago by me for this day. I planned ahead to build a new town that will one day be a city."

He had a hand go up from the dwarven Paragon; the one who rose to it on the ship. Brycen nodded to him, "Why are you not locking the eternal forge open?"

Brycen nodded and smiled, "Long ago it was created and crafted by 4 races in a spirit of cooperation because of a massive world war. Good vs evil. One left before us and we were lucky enough to find them again. Our races will divide and one race will try to control it; like the dwarves did when I took it to bring it here.

It belongs to all of us or none of us. The only way to ensure that; secure it when I go. That does not prevent the Gods from opening it at some point in the future but I would hope that it was against a foe that threatened all remaining member races.

I leave the control of that to the Gods. I have faith they will lead us to what we need when we need it. I would hope that you have faith that will be the case."

Brycen looked across, "Any other questions feel free to talk with your representatives."

He looked at his son, "You have the spells, now you can use them. Lead the others straight south from here and find me. I am going to fly there. Your mother is going to find 6 candidates for wives; I might even take them all. Lay back and fuck off for a week or two. Wait for her to be ready to depart. I am overdue on a vacation."

He laughed as she took off through the crowd. Brycen took to the air before any hero-worship started. It was close to midnight when we landed by the large pool and thunderous waterfall located here. Brycen thought of Eldar and his plans for the town of tolerance.

Here they would start with tolerance and divide as it was in their very nature. Brycen landed on the far side in a clearing. He pulled out his dagger and took the 36 seeds he still had and spread them around the area. Brycen stopped 70 feet from the falls and pulled the one seed.

He dug a small hole six inches down and placed the seed. Brycen covered it up and pulled a bowl made from silver wood. He filled it up. He blessed the water and poured it over the planting site. He rolled out a bedroll and looked at Luniassa, "Alert me if anything dangerous approaches."

He laid back when the voice startled him, "You did extremely well champion."

She was sitting on the edge of the water with her feet dangling in it. He smiled, "Not Silent Falls but it is beautiful nonetheless."

She nodded, "I pulled our magic from there before the undead reached it. I am leaving it here. This is a very good location you chose."

Brycen smiled, as he moved over and sat next to her, "Any surprises I threw at you?"

She nodded, "Yes. Your task for Charlus we are still talking about. We figured that if and when what occurred at the gate happened you would call on him to take the sword to the other side. Then connect the tree directly by putting it in the sword's seventh position.

We destroyed the other two blades right as the gate fell; pulling the energy and spirits with us. Also, the spirits of the few who remained fighting. All but one, and she lives on in Nolla'Vasi.

Then there was summoning your blade from the far side; what was left of it. She is a strong one; a weapon unto herself. Your discussion with the Gold Dragon had us leave a small amount of power behind. He frees them then they can connect to us. The time shifts you encountered were problematic for you but not us. He has freed some but not all of them yet. We were glad you stayed on task."

Brycen nodded, "I had no way of knowing if Charlus could handle the sword without dying by trying that. To high risk. No divine guidance that that given solution would work. I built it for this side and learned so much more during the enchanting time to allow me to take one to the other side if needed. My Moon Blade.

As to the Dragons, I remember those words from the journals and Nolla'Vasi directly. I think the new blade should simply be called Nolla. When did you know why the dragons left? About the Nova?"

She smiled, "True, we did not give you guidance and you took a safer option it seems. It gave you the means to rescue those stubborn dwarves from the other shelter as well.

We knew the Nova would happen eventually, hence the prophecy that was open-ended. Bahamut gave us a warning when he started giving us access to draconic magic, a more definitive timeline anyway. He had known for millennia before that.

I liked your solution for corruption here. Eliminate currency and make power a headache to deal with. I am also very sorry about the loss of your wives and the unborn during your travels.

Your resolution for the killer also has a lot of discussion going on, even still but it was understandable and inventive. My husband said he thought you might have made a good paladin for him, but then you would not have been able to do what you did."

Brycen smiled, "Gratin was the dwarven champion; the vessel for his God's power."

She smiled and nodded, "That is true he put it all with you. The dwarves will never admit they lost all access to major spells when you left. We took care of the minor ones for him. He did not have the magic to move his people. He did not have our population to work with and we agreed to his request. He entrusted them to make the right move. Gratin was his vessel to make the journey. When did you know?"

Brycen smiled, "I have suspected for a long time. His sharp mind and spry body for his age gave me clues. The smile on his face told me he had completed his mission. He said, 'This felt like home' and 'Good to actually get back to dirt and stone.' He was an infant when he came aboard.

He worked within my bridge crew and was the best to identify metals with Gods' Eyes. He never really had a chance to dig in the earth aboard the ship as he was not on ground survey crews. I felt he was too important to my bride crew efforts. What of the human Gods?"

She sighed, "They faded from that world and did not come here; they had other worlds they watched over. There are Gods here who are looking forward to gaining new followers. Human Gods were actually blocked in part by the Gods here. Given the failures caused by them in the world we left.

In Mystra's case, she only had a few followers and some of them escaped via a gate to another world...we believe. She may have guided the few faithful centuries ago. She was a god of magic, something the gods here did not want with humans here to have, given their failings.