To my king, my sword

To my Sword, my life

To my life, my blood

To my blood, my promise

Until the sword is broken within my grasp

And my head cleaved from my heart 

My existence is for loyalty

- The Oath of Virenheim

The rain fell down in a gentle murky shower upon the marsh at the north-eastern boarder of Virenheim. Here the Foandig Swamps fed the mighty Viren River after its Blood Reed and poisonous pond plants purified the liquid dribbling in from the wounded lands of the Orcreich. Here there was an open pathway to the forest and wild game of the Deep Elves, making it a risky place for any of the poorest individuals foolish enough to want to live close by cheaply. But it was not pleasant for the guards and fighters to be near either; hence the quarrelsome Anouk was crouching amongst the long reed beds at the foot of the marsh in drab fleece robes and cloaks. Her sharp green eyes had narrowed around a possible threat… a Mud Lurch, causing her to hop into a nearby tree for a closer inspection.

Slimy and blob-like in structure, the Mud Lurch was in characteristic lurching downward pose as it feasted on some poor Marsh Stag that had tried to eat from the golden frond of grass upon the blob’s head. Although brainless in action and hardly the servants of the Fallen Ones, the Mud Lurch were considered blasphemous and should be executed. Normally Anouk would not care for the religious superstitions of her kind, but Mud Lurch were insatiable and a clear threat to the livestock up here grazing over the summer. She would have to kill it and thankfully there was a very simple method to it.

The beast had no ears to hear and no nose or really any eyes, it blundered into food and so it did not hear the slick whoosh in the air behind it. The next moment the Lurch was cleaved in two with its primitive little brain chopped finely in half as it slipped off the smooth blackened edge of a blade that was suddenly tugged back with a screech. The kill was clean and quiet enough to be ignored by the marsh life but a new sound howled and clattered through the air. The various carnivorous life forms of the marsh darted alongside their rambunctious prey as the myriad of fowl launched into the air with hideous screeches and cackles, all of them panicked by the trembling noise from below.

Pulling up the line of silvery links that had sent the blade so swiftly into its target, Anouk ignored the noise with a snort of irritation. Any being in Virenheim would learn to dread that low, moaning bellow of the horn but Anouk did not care for it anymore. If there was danger then the other warriors could deal with it and then apologise for ignoring her warnings. After-all, she’d know if Damara or Talon were in danger and right now they were perfectly alive, as was Loteg. Without a need to rush in and pull her sister or her dearest friends from the jaws of death, she was quite content for the Watchers and the Council to stew away in whatever trouble they’d led to the underground city. Her ignorance to the noise as she shook the fine blade clean was noted by her crouching companion and grinned at.

“It sounded only once – someone or something has infiltrated the Underground City Master, shouldn’t we go to assist?” The low deep voice of the tall, human-like being was oddly calm despite his concern. Being in such a dangerous swamp there was always the fear of more parasitic menaces to kill off the terrified, so concern and fear had to be masked from any probing proboscis that could locate it. The last thing someone like Anouk would want to deal with right now would be the womb-rotting Boodoo, though they were always slithering along the waterways in search of a resting spot. Yet, despite it all Anouk’s nonchalant and seeming ignorant actions spoke volumes of her current contempt and it was the vibrant Blood elf of their crew who spoke out in response from the company’s barge on the edge of the waterway.

“No way Alard! Those bastards ignored our warning about Harpy tracks near the mountain passage and refused to follow them! If one of those bitches gets into the city it’ll only be upsetting for the liars – we don’t need to give a shit! Plus they put Loteg in a Death Cell and Talon in prison… why should we care for their rules now?” After being forced into silence whilst on patrol in the first place, Ling was one creature that loved to get her point across and a nightmare to shut up. A former mercenary from North City to the far east of Virenheim, she was not used to such languid responses from authorities or restrictive laws – heck none had even tried arresting her yet on the surface and she always caused hell! But that was just it, as a migrant for the sake of work she was only allowed in the Underground City once a month… so she was only causing trouble for the poor and the non-Deep Elves!

Ling’s exuberance made the bronze-skinned man mountain beside her sneer in frustration before turning to Anouk again, hoping for a reaction. Both looked up at the Deep Elf in the tree and their eyes widened in confusion. Ignoring the miserable rain and the squelching mud, they stepped to the broken old bark of the lonesome plant to figure out what their master was seeing or thinking. To their great concern Anouk’s right hand was caressing her chest whilst her whip-blade lay limp in her left arm. Experience had taught them to watch out for this fatal gesture, a sign that someone close to Anouk or at least of relevance was going to die. But just as they were about to yank her from the tree themselves, Anouk shuffled slightly and breathed a pained sigh of concern.

“It’s not the harpy – it’s something more single-minded. We’d better make sure that idiot Gahlvrod doesn’t do something ridiculous and call Higatso down to bellow at his damn Core.” With that Anouk straightened her slightly muscular, perhaps even masculine frame and launched out of the tree. Despite the usual grace she offered in such moments, her landing was messy with a thick squelch as she dove into the mud and sprayed it upward onto herself, Ling and Alard. Her balance was nearly lost and she almost fell flat into the muck but Alard grasped her muggy looking robes and anchored her back until she could straighten. Once straight she ambled through the mud with her companions to hop back onto the barge with their thirteen other companions and grasped an oar each. It would take them a good ten minutes to push themselves onto the river but then an instant to get through to the First Dam and then into the Kadigak or ‘Foreigner’s’ quarters and then the Second Dam and its entrance into the kingdom… time enough to rinse the mud from their boots.

The journey along the Viren River was swifter then had been expected as the current was filled from melt water off the peaks of the Giroff Mountains and pushed them straight on to the edge of the First Dam, named Olbeck after the very first of their kings. Once here the barge was hooked up by a series of lines to a special pulley system that took a few moments to arrange but was quick to move. The dangers of the demons and monsters from Orcreich meant that Olbeck Dam had to be super-enforced with magic maintained by the power of the Royal Watchers in the highest point of the king’s tower, the only structure of equal height and depth within the kingdom. To look up to its neatly carved pencil-like pinnacle, one could see the thin ray of techni-coloured light like a rainbow filtering out over the glass roof and down over the city. Normally it was not clear in the rain so there was no urge to look up on this occasion, only forward as the first door of the barge entrance was opened.

Once inside the underground channel the company stood up and straight onto a nearby platform where they then gently tapped their knuckles against the wall. A doorway slipped open and everyone squeezed through before the doors were sealed up and the chamber flooded. If there were a situation of an imposter amongst any patrol coming in, no one was to get off the barge and instead all would be flooded, one of the many sacrifices expected of all those sent into the patrols and one of the ways in which one of Anouk’s great-uncles had perished. Once in the tunnel system beneath the dam, Anouk and her company marched along the unmanaged pathway towards the magic curtain maintained by the power of the dam mages, then up into the bustling Kadigak Quarters, the above ground dwellings for farmers, the poor and foreigners alike.

Here everyone spotted the patrol and casually waved their hands or bowed their heads, untraditional and even disrespectful gestures below ground but Anouk paid them no heed. The patrol would have to remain above ground and she would have to pass them over to her Secondary Commander if she was to go underground and indeed that was the plan. But as Anouk looked about the collection of muddy stone houses and across the lone path of buildings and town toward the wide fields protected only by the river boarding them, she realised that everyone was calm. There was no sign of any fear or upset and with a grimace she hurried onward towards the Second Dam, Kraskord, named for the First One that perished against it thanks to her ancestor. Ling and Alard encouraged the rest of the company to break off for their evening free time as they padded after Anouk’s fast legs as she stormed toward the massive set of stone walls and the great dam.

“Commander… uh… commander you’ve got to cover your hair remember!” Ling bleated as she was forced to leap over a stray sheep to catch up with her companions. Like all Blood Elves she was more monkey like in her attitude then the more refine variety, prone to violence and short with skin that was practically golden and insane orange hair that she’d sliced into a box shape upon her head, rather then let it grow long. She always appeared rather ridiculous for it and hardly the war mad creature she was supposed to represent, but Anouk did not seem interested in listening to her today and so she swiftly launched up onto the six-foot-seven giant walking ahead of her. “Alard… what do you think’s happened? Everyone up here is calm and ignorant… do you think it was something like a Tunnel Worm or Dregg-eater?”

“No idea Ling… but Anouk’s already on the bridge to the tower, we should get over there quickly before she gets annoyed.” The Aeron stated as he bunched up his multitude of muscles and went for a quick sprint across the muddy track to the narrow stone bridge in front of the dam. He ignored Ling’s little shriek of concern as she hooked her legs around his waist and listened in fear to the rumbling roar of the Viren Rapids below. The Kraskord Dam was insanely deep, filling the whole gorge cut into the stone by the river centuries ago and protecting the whole of the Underground City from the world above. It looked more like a stone wall the any kind of dam as the mechanics of the thing were beneath the eye line and deeper into the earth where the river was harnessed at its most powerful. Even as the pair got across to the narrow walkway to the lonely turret, they were greeted with a vicious growl from a figure who popped open a wooden window in the side of the tower and barked at them to return to their residence whilst Anouk dealt with the issue.

As much as Anouk was displeased by the thought of her companions being sent away, she waited patiently to be addressed properly and for the Captain of the Turret to step to the window. It took a few minutes but after meeting up with Captain Oratanigon, Anouk and her squad found themselves at a loss. Not only had the alarm been false but it was hinted that a challenge had occurred below. The posse were eager to know the details, but with only Anouk having fulfilled the required amount of time on patrol for her kind, the others were passed into the hands of Anouk’s Second, Uljan, as she was commanded inside. With her kind’s skin used to darkness, too much exposure to the light of Nabuto could be fatal and with twenty-four hours straight above ground, Anouk was at risk and therefore she obediently did as told. Oddly though Oratanigon was grinning menacingly over the matter, as if something very juicy had been whispered up the ladder to this gatehouse, but Anouk ignored it.

Women were not supposed to hold titles, land or commands so a lot of the captains tended to find her honours and privileges vexing. Not to mention this particular captain had been handed out countless beatings by this Benaga lady for his rather lecherous habits during their magic study in their teenage years.

Anouk stepped through the great wall coloured door on the outside edge of the turret, ignorant to the Viren River’s foaming waters beneath her as she stepped precipitously close of the edge of the narrow shelf-like path. Once she had hooked her hand into the barely visible gap and jilted the lock from the inside, she pushed forward into a circular room with two sets of staircases. The room appeared askew, slightly tilted as the first staircase was directly straight and led out to a shooting position on the lower wall whereas the other one was coiled around and appeared to go nowhere. Beside this one was one large black slab on the ground and patiently Anouk stepped onto the hollow piece of rock and gently tapped the stairs case three times. A metallic sound echoed about her and then slowly the staircase uncoiled itself and twisted downward continuously through the floor, letting Anouk drop downward for eternity into darkness, the only sound the gushing torrent of the river and the clicking of the metal gears.

As much as it was a disorientating experience for those not born in the dark, Anouk remained patient and motionless upon the slab in case she might lean over the edge too far and fall. About thirteen steps below her slab was the next slab and so forth as the stairs coiled downward for her, filing up the gaps in the turret and making sure that someone recalled to coil them back up when they wanted to leave the gatehouse rooms. Once the black slab hit a gentle cushioning wooden platform at the bottom of the long coiling form it froze for thirty seconds as Anouk stepped cleanly off. Once there she swiftly grasped the hood of her cloak and then strolled a little way down the hollow, deep cave toward a narrow passageway and a collection of mangled bridges leading this way and that designed to confuse everything that got this far, even if some creature were foolish enough to go through the Dregg filled caverns!

Most of the bridges led somewhere unpleasant but six of them; one to this gatehouse, one to the healers, one to the farm stock area, one to the emergency flood gates, one into the city and the final one through a criss-cross of dangerous tunnels near Dregg kennels to the Benaga Household and the Pitch Forest for hunting. All these tunnels went under the ground but only the Benaga Passage had to go through an area that was usually flooded and needed a guide; it kept annoyances out of Anouk’s way but it had also been used to their disadvantage when only Damara and Loteg had escaped the events of a decade ago.

Anouk shook her blood red mane vigorously beneath the hood to wake herself from such unsafe thoughts and quickly sought about her person for a veil to cover her face. As the Lord of the Benaga and therefore Head Executioner, rules were strict about the need for her eyes to be shaded from the public and as the veil was the best counter to the frustrating rule, Anouk had to dig about her satchel for the dark fabric. Once covered she proceeded down a sloping grit covered bridge that looked to fall right down into the raging waters of the river below; of course it was an illusion created by one of the two remaining sacred stones that not only caused the river to flow around the kingdom but also shielded the entrances and people crossing them. In older days it had been quite a shock for cunning goblin battalions to quarry under the gatehouses, run at the bridges and then fall off the moment they couldn’t see themselves any longer; but these days the dirt from shoes tended to reveal the truth and laws for soldiers meant they could not remove their footwear unless in a house!

After walking over the roaring, rolling waters Anouk followed a wind filled (by trickery of course) passage out and up onto the high platform attic of the main citadel where air was filtered in from above along with rain and snow. It was a freezing room and with a scowl Anouk crossed the great rotating blades with a red glow about her person before she stepped onto another set of stairs leading nowhere. With another steady unscrewing motion the stairs here clicked out of the floor and along a circular path towards the Greeting Corridor which led to the iron gatehouse, the Above World Entrance and the marble library. From here the walk was routine as Anouk passed by statues commemorating heroes from the past, including several of her ancestors. As always though she paused beside the most recently built with a grimace of frustration to know that this was all that remained of their physical form.

One was to Barbanos Benaga and showed a towering behemoth of an elf, unusual for having visible musculature and an angry face as he seemed to be smashing down a sword into a hammer! The other was for Irophand Benaga and showed a youthful, angelic figure in peaceful robes holding a baby Dregg like a lamb upon is lap and a book of the Virenheim Oaths in his left hand, a symbol of religious piety. To Anouk those two were her grandfather and her father, beloved and sorely missed; the time since their deaths had not cured the pain of their passing for her but instead developed a bitterness she could not wholly explain. As she stopped by the statues she checked about for anyone foolish enough to watch her before pressing her flat hand to her chest and forehead before touching the arm of each statue; a common gesture to state they were unforgettable. But then she moved on down the corridor, down the steps through the iron gate and as her hefty boots slammed into the stone of the plaza square, they tapped the edge of a familiar head.

“By the Sacred Stones… Higatso you old fart, you should have been more careful in your boasting. Just be pleased you won’t have to witness me pissing on your grave as I promised.” Anouk cackled evilly as she bent down to grasp the bloating head before her. There were only a few people out on the street at that time to notice her; most had gone down to the lower level plaza and market place to allow the cleaners and undertakers to deal with the body. Currently the undertakers appeared busy prepping a suitable box for the body and with head in hand Anouk felt it only correct to step to them. She strolled over with a swagger and casually tossed the head of the old chauvinistic drunkard into the box with a haughty ‘swing’ sound and chuckle to make all the men blanch. “Don’t forget the head… he’ll need to offer his eyes to Nabuto after all.”

The oldest of the undertaker crew, a near albino figure with harsh pink eyes and a vulture like face, just gave a soft chuckle at her manner. His name was Gorammi and as the Head Undertaker and a member of the Council of Elders, he knew Anouk very well. He was also one of the few to appreciate her variety of amusement and so with a soft cough he called her over to him. Anouk froze and stared at the white robed figure with a soft smile; one should always be kind to the undertakers for they alone would guide eyes back to the light of Nabuto, therefore their faces were the only ones never to be covered.

“Lord Benaga, it pleases me greatly to see you taking death lightly, it is almost as if you knew that Higatso had attempted to cheat in a fight watched by the king himself!” Gorammi grinned but oddly it was a kind of sweet thing to see, like an old man smiling with grandchildren playing around him. He watched for the flexing of Anouk’s pointed ears to guarantee he’d caught her interest, after-all he was pleased to be a gossiper and working with the dead you learnt some intriguing secrets. As Anouk turned with a vivid grin visible past her veil she swung out a stick from a nearby wall, located a hole to position it in and then gently balanced her weight upon the top. Gorammi seemed to wheeze delight through his curiously crooked and sharp teeth. “It’s true; our beloved Monarch made the rules strictly non-magical and Higatso tried to bury his challenger. But this opponent launched straight out of the earth and practically popped the fool’s head off! Ah… justice works quickly these days.”

“Intriguing… but tell me Gorammi, oh wise friend who can read the crystals by the flame… who was the challenger to be so powerful? And what Household in their right mind would have risked utter humiliation in sponsoring a being against Higatso?” As much as Anouk was pleased at the death, she was also very concerned by it and recalled the itching at her old scar earlier. In her youth Higatso had been forced into tutoring her with a blade but he’d been so aggressive and so cruel in his manner of teaching that Anouk could barely fight with a sword thanks to it and he’d given up. No one could be bothered to improve where he’d left it and so a later sword fight had given her a scar across her body to prove the training had been poorly. But her question was met by giggles from a few of the cleaners around the plaza and from the other white robes about her. Slowly it began to click into place and Anouk’s grin turned into a stony expression as red fire danced at her feet.

“Don’t get upset about it; Damara chose very wisely and it startled us all. In fact she was very brave to approach the stranger and… oops…” Gorammi was almost pleased to let that one slip out, although he had meant no harm to come to little Damara through it. But Anouk turned into a living green and black flame with her rage and magic before he spoke again, timidly in fear of this power. “If she had not figured out he was a Zhajti warrior and shown the correct response, Virenheim would have been a blood bath. Plus she’s a Benaga; your blood is encouraged to face dangers to protect others.”

“That’s what Higatso’s little helmets are supposed to do, not my infant sister!” Anouk snapped, the fire suddenly gone as she marched toward the library. Whatever had happened for Higatso to loose was no longer in her interests as much as scolding her sister. However, the phrasing bothered Gorammi greatly and he hollered out after her with genuine insistence.

“But she’s not a child anymore Anouk; she’s a grown woman!”

“Master Gorammi?” One of the younger apprentices with salt-and-pepper hair questioned sweetly, attracting his master’s attention. “Why is Lord Benaga…?”

“Generally I would say don’t ask; I have known Anouk since her early years and feel responsible for her friendship to the blasphemer Loteg. She raised Damara alone when their parents died, Anouk already grown and Damara was barely eight. She is more daughter then sister and that is why Anouk fears greatly that the wrong man may become involved in the girl’s life. Especially after so many mutterings over Anouk’s choice of friends.”

Damara and Karani sat in the quiet of the great marble library with expressions of pure confusion. A lot had happened very quickly and the reality of it all had just sunk in with a morbidity Damara quite feared. Karani had also begun to understand the consequences for Damara’s words as other nobles strolled past giggling and stating quite simply that Damara was going to get killed. Of course they all knew it was not the new figure, Karayan, who would remove her head but Anouk! Damara did not know how she was going to explain herself or how she would get out of a violent beating as was to be expected. Her mind echoed with witnessing the violent punishments metered out to Anouk by their dominating uncle Scaropan. She wondered if even one such stomp against her spine would leave her dead rather then just helpless and her grimacing continued until Karani gently stroked her head.

“We’d better cover ourselves up some more if you want to avoid a beating; its best we both show humility. The moment we’re home, we’d better cook too whilst she cools her skin in the Clay Pit. Hopefully she’ll feel more comfortable then and less likely to string us up on the surface for the night!” Karani grimaced, swiftly finding a scarf to wrap about her mouth as she tucked her hair back into place, pulling on gloves as well for added humility. Damara nodded swiftly in agreement, knowing that she could receive another beating for stepping out of the kingdom without being fully covered on their way home. Even if they were never going to visit a foreign place, such disrespect to the Great Eye was inconceivable when they were still in academy and Damara wanted to be seen doing the right thing.

After shuffling the scarves over their mouths and looking a little more relaxed for it, they had attempted to study the oaths of the land again when their ears twitched. Damara yanked her slender points in fear, sinking down her seat as she tried to fight the paranoia that said Anouk was barking outside. Many other people had stood up when they’d spotted the flame through the windows and already a good deal were scampering off. Karani felt dreadfully exposed and stood herself up to check before slamming herself back down on a seat behind Damara. She feared that it might all be blamed upon her and that Damara would be denied permission to ever see Karani again… after-all Anouk could be damn nasty when she was riled up.

Strolling amongst the great arches of the temple-like structure with books up to the rafters, Anouk’s slow and steady movements garnered much attention and much fear. People could see the anger as her hand seemed to spark black flames and swiftly those closest to the exits put their books away and snuck off. Fighting may not be allowed but it had not prevented a Benaga mauling from taking place! As much as everyone was eager to watch the confrontation, they did not appreciate the thought of Anouk desecrating the sacred space… again. But Anouk tried to keep her rage bottled as she stepped over to the pair covered in brown scarves and looking repentant. Time seemed to hang as both made audible gulps of terror and Anouk sucked in air through her grinding teeth.

“What is the name and species of the warrior you chose to sponsor on my behalf?” There was so much venom in the words squeezing past her grinding jaw that Damara could have fainted. Dread sucked into her very marrow as she tried hard to think of what in Organthra their champion was and all she could do was shudder at the memory of Higatso’s death, although she could barely put her words together to explain to her big sister what it was caused by.

“His eyes and head had appeared Imperial, he was the size of an Aeron, his hands were more the claws of a Drakada and his blood was like tar. I don’t really know what he was but…”

“But he told us he was suffering an affliction and could not uncover his body. I think it’s a curse linked to the downfall of his old master. But the king approved of him straightaway!” Karani blurted like a startled sheep as she sought to protect her friend. Anouk’s face turned to her and she grimaced at the sensation of the burning eyes as Damara stepped in again. Karani was not sure if Anouk could tell she’d been making an assumption and lying, but it would not have matter when the being was so steamed.

“He is called Karayan… he says he’d heard of our father and because we give loyalty only unto the king… he wished to do the same?” Damara lifted her hands up to her sister in a soothing gesture but her sister seemed oddly distracted. Damara would have asked a question of it but Anouk seemed very confused for a moment, her expression changing bizarrely to one of shock before she shook her head roughly. Perhaps some flash of recognition for the name or perhaps not, Damara knew Anouk’s memories were quite damaged these days regarding the time father was still alive… in fact Anouk only ever seemed completely certain of the time their grandfather had been alive and that always left Damara in awe of a man she had never known. “Uh… sister?”

“Come, we’ll discuss it all at home.”

Anouk wiped the white clay from her body and rinsed the salt off her cooling hair, her mind buzzing with questions over what was going on in Virenheim. She was so used to having to defend the rights of foreigners to join the farming gangs, guard and trading posts on the way up to North City or the Eterik Kingdom that a foreigner in the fourth highest position of authority was unusual! Yes, Higatso had been useless and lost his vigour to work decades ago, but the laws had always been so unkind to non-Deep elves that she could not understand this change of heart from the king.

But then again, maybe the combat rules predated King Otzell’s ancient rule on foreigners? It was more similar to a Benaga rule on respecting all opponents anyway and weren’t their families distant kin?

Anouk had only removed herself from the shower in time to throw a robe on before the Dreggs spotted her. The great mastiff-sized reptiles with tiny pig-like eyes on their oval-shaped heads, slimy long striped tongues and skin like armour lunged into her lap with a strange whistling screech of delight to see their master again. Their great nostrils twitched at her playfully as they bowled her to the ground to lick up left-over clay and get some well earned attention. With teeth like a shark and a scissor bite, an angry Dregg could easily chop a limb off but the Deep Elves had tamed them like dogs and found them all the more emotional and loving for that. They were also at home in darkness and ideal for running the tunnel perimeters and dealing with the worms.

“Catos! Miros! Jube! The three of you hop off and check on Damara! Yes I know she’s scared I’ll loose my temper and you don’t want me upset… I get it! But go fuss her and let me think about it.” Anouk chuckled at the three yellow beasts. She was very pleased to have kept the line of her grandfather’s strong enough to produce this shade; Dreggs came in five colours that were linked to their abilities and strength and the yellow were pure protection and loyalty. Anouk owned three other colour varieties that the family had bred, pine green hunters, black trackers and her old favourites the red-brown coloured fighters, twice the size of most Dregg and trained to wrestle. She had never indulged in the fifth colour, little pink-white things that were bred to sit on laps and act as surrogate babies!

Currently those other Dreggs in her ownership were not allowed from the kennels due to the rainy season. When rain came down from the Giroff Mountains the Dreggs were always kennelled up in case they fell into the river, as they had no idea in their heads how to swim! The yellow were the only kind permitted to roam all year round, although they barely left their chosen territories. Anouk was hoping the rain would have cleared before any big party came along and yet now she would have to host the first party of the season thanks to her sister. It also meant she would have to show her best Brown Dreggs’ fighting ability, worse still she’d have to pick a good Dreggling to offer as a gift to the ‘Karayan’ so he could enter his household into the bloodless wrestling matches.

But that was something else entirely; she was sure she’d heard that name before. Every time she thought of it though a dark cloud descended in her mind as if she was not supposed to remember it anymore. It was not the first time that had happened of course, but she hated the frequency of it and her dark dreams were increasing alongside it. Perhaps she should stop trying to remember, what she did recall was always dark and her body did not assist in keeping such thoughts at bay as her Dregg companions cantered off to the door. If only the great scar across her body that had slashed one nipple in half and left near death did not keep reminding her how her father had begged for the healers to look after her instead of him, then he would be in her position right now.

As Anouk had slumped against her wardrobe she’d caught a glimpse of the ragged line about her body, how it made her look like a stitched up doll rather then an elf and she nearly broke another mirror! But wriggly Jube bashed her way back into the room to grip her teeth on the robe and give it a tug to keep it closed. Pulled from the bad memories Anouk chuckled and then followed the beast out of the cleaning room and up the stone steps to the house within. When there were only other women around the house Anouk could be as naked as she wanted to be, but if and when Talon returned she’d have to keep herself covered again. Anouk guessed though that it was dinner time and the smell of meat made her remember her hunger as she sat upon the floor of the dining room in front of the large flat stone that was their dining table.

Damara approached the unaltered slab with bread and a surprising pot of stew with Karani following and the two male Dregg scrabbling behind in an attempt to help out. As the table was furnished and bowls brought forth the Dreggs lay in the gaps between the women and waited patiently with their tongues probing the air in excitement. The bowls were lifted as the women sat and thanks was given to Nabuto for providing for them and then reminding themselves that the table was of the darkness as they were; too humble to be permitted to dwell in the sunlight. Yet after their prayers and thanks, Damara remained pensive and Anouk was confused. Even if their laws stated Damara should be punished severely for representing the house sans Anouk’s agreement, she couldn’t care. Damara had rebelled and Anouk appreciated it, but she was still shocked by Karani’s sudden question that broke the calm of the meal as they’d begun to eat.

“I know it’s rude to ask… but you aren’t godless are you Anouk?”

“I believe in Nabuto, but I do not believe in the idea that everything wondrous in this life is down to magic or cannot be explained. I also do not believe in the banning of literature or the burning of pamphlets… or for that matter the suppression of knowledge regarding the nature of our being. If we’re allowed to heal wounds and cure poisons, why can’t we cure diseases and stop women dying in their attempts to give birth when there are complications? Why is it we can help a sheep through breech birth but not an elf!” Anouk growled as she ate, reminding the Dreggs of their place and the hatred she’d felt when her only female friend had died during the winter alongside her baby. She knew the question would have come soon enough from Karani, especially when she had learnt all copies of Loteg’s father’s pamphlet, which questioned the king, had been burnt when she’d been on patrol. She had of course managed to keep a foreign copy safe by using it as a bookmark in the Guide to Virenheim book. Of course foreign books were permitted in the home but not public so her dear friend had been jailed for obeying his father’s dying wish and publishing it. Oddly to obey the last wish of a father was one of the very laws of their kingdom!

“Why is your friend in prison Anouk?” Damara questioned nervously and Anouk just shrugged her shoulders over the matter. Damara had been rescued from great danger by Loteg but his dip into the wide world had meant she’d blanked him as soon as he’d tried to pass around the leaflets and in truth she felt very unhappy about it. She did not ask about Talon, despite his importance to the household, if only because she knew he’d been jailed for trying to cut his wife’s stomach open to save her and the baby but had done so in the presence of the Head Healer, who’d stopped him and allowed the woman to die.

“I don’t know.” Anouk stated with a sigh, and then she smiled wistfully. “He would say it was for the sins of the father.”

Next Chapter: Three