"Are we nearly there yet?" Sworgey moaned to Zur as they were being pushed further and further toward by a couple of Dark Elves.
"Another few minutes." Zur was tired, frustrated and felt almost too weak to continue.
"But that's what you've been saying for the past two days, if a few minutes is a couple of days, only Arath knows how long a year would be."
"I mean it this time, we should be at their capital, Veraei, in a few more minutes." The captain, who they had learned was called Jaeorai, turned to them both.
"Do you two ever shut up? For the past two days I've had to listen to your father and son arguments. Now stay silent or else I won't hesitate to force you to keep your mouths shut." Jaeorai looked away in anger. Zur decided it was best to keep his mouth shut. The captain could probably kill him if he kept talking. Unlike the other Dark Elves, his armour was a more darker shade of purple and it also had grey lines going down the sides. He wore no helmet at all, this exposed his flowing black hair. He had the Clan Vereth symbol on the left side of his chest plate. It was a purple line with 3 lines going of to the left from the top to the middle and it had another two diagonal lines parallel to each other at the the top right corner of the main line. His halberd was slightly bigger than the other Dark Elves' but it also was more sharper and had another spear point at the bottom of the hilt.
Zur looked forward and could finally say in satisfaction "Welcome to Veraei Sworgey." Sworgey wasn't impressed, a large cobblestone wall was blocking his view on anything. Jaeorai went forward to the gate and spoke to the guard. The gate gently opened, it's arched doorway split in two and going to the side. As they walked in, Sworgey understood just exactly what Zur meant. The city was like no other, built into the rock face itself it surrounded them, above them, beside them, most probably even below them. Towers stuck out of the rock face along with statues and buildings. In front of them was what seemed to be a city hall, it's gates looked like they were meters and meters in the air but in truth it was only a design that was chiseled onto the wall. In truth, there were a flight a wide steps leading up to a much smaller double door. Two massive statues bordered either side of the doorway. They were both what seemed to be an elf, half of it was hidden with a cloak but the other side showed the head, half the body, an arm holding a knife and a leg. The face was covered by an assassin's mask whilst the rest of the body was covered with tight fitting robes.
As they approached the double doors, to Dark Elves on either side of the door pushed it open allowing then to easily pass inside. There they found themselves looking around a smooth stone hallway with candles built into the walls emitting a bright light to keep the hallway lit. Sworgey could see chiselled designs on the walls, they flowed with the design of the hallway, blending in, but enough for one to see. As they proceeded down the hallway they came upon an area where the hallway split into five parts, they took the third part and kept on walking straight until They reach reached another set of double doors, two heavily armed dark elves guarded the door, clearly someone, or thing of great importance was inside. Jaeorai whispered to one of the guards who whispered something to the other and then the both off them pushed the heavy door with their great might. Sworgey, Zur and Roh were pushed into the room, there was a long stone table with chairs lined up along it and two grand chairs at either side of the table, on the far side was a man, more of a shadow, it was hard to make out what he looked like or anything like that.
"Those won't be necessary." The man looked towards the rope that binded their hands together. The Dark Elves quickly untied the ropes, Zur shook his arms around to get his magical power back to his hand, just in case. "Leave us." The man said quickly the Dark Elves disbanded themselves. "Have a seat." This offer was directed to Sworgey and Zur, the two of them sat at the chairs closest to the man as Roh stood behind cautiously. The man's face was much more viewable now. He had black hair with a few greys going down to his shoulders. He wore black and comfortable looking robes and he wore a necklace with beads of diamonds, rubies and emeralds on his neck. Sworgey could make out a sheathe with an intimidating looking sword inside it.
"Who are you?" Zur asked cautiously as he sat down on the cold stone chair.
"I am The Warlord, Grand Commander of the armies of the Clan, High Guardian of the teachings of Kaere and Clan Lord of Clan Vereth." The Warlord's face was more revealed whilst he talk proudly, everything seemed normal on his face, he had the symbol of the clan marked onto his forehead and had fairly tanned and rough skin. However, his eyes were different. There were red streaks inside the eyes and more red tears around it, it was as if his veins had turned red, replaced themselves around his eyes and ripped out of his skin. Zur took notice of this, but decided not to mention it.
"Tell me, how are you are Clan Lord alone with being Grand Commander and High Guardian, I have heard that you can only hold one of these titles in the clan, no more." Zur found it confusing and was clearly curious, so the Warlord wondered about what to say and then spoke.
"The Clan Lord went... Missing a few weeks ago. And unfortunately, the High Guardian died some time ago too. There have been clashes going on within the clan so I have stepped in as all three roles to, try... Sorting out the problems." The Warlord spoke slowly, Zur knew he was hiding something but did not dare to ask. "So then, why did you roam our caves?" The Warlord directed this question to Sworgey but Zur still answered.
"We're adventurers, we plan to write great books of our adventures after our travels."
"Well then, I would be honoured to show you around this mighty city, come, let us begin now.
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It had been an hour since the tour had begun, it was clearly almost over, Sworgey could bet he had probably seen every corner and edge of the great city, but yet again, he was tired... They were viewing the Clans artifacts and trophies.
"And this, is my most proudest one, scavenged centuries ago by the past generation, I saw this artifact when I was only 84, a young boy, it was beautiful, but yet... Broken." In front of them was something magnificent, Zur couldn't believe his eyes, Sworgey thought his were deceiving him. In front of them on a stone slab with crystal all around and intricate patterns, was a broken half of the chestplate of King Beckworth. The platinum was heavily polished and shone very bright streaks of light. The chestplate looked as if it had split in half, the edge where it had broken was straight and the face that was uncovered when it split had an ever brighter shade of platinum than the other faces, the piece of armour was truly magnificent. Zur could just make out an indent that grew around to become a slot, one half of The Griffins Claw. A bright blue diamond would shaped as the claw would be slotted in there and the chestplate would truly be indestructible. The only problem was, there was no diamond, it must have fallen out during the great battle, so long ago.
"You know, I believe there must've been something that would be slotted into that indent slot, maybe some ruby, emerald or even diamond. I don't know... If only I did, I could recraft this item to its former glory." The Warlord sighed. "No matter. Anyway, I believe its time I show your residence for the next few days. If you would be kind enough to follow me." The Warlord led the way through they dark tunnel out of the vault. They turned left, then right and then left again. They passed many temples full of warlocks and witches. They also passed the military sector of the city. The training rooms were full of haldberdiers, assassins and other troops that neither Sworgey, Zur or Roh had ever seen before. As they neared the end of the sector, Sworgey saw the Lizar Keep. Giant Lizards dressed in black and purple armour with mounted with Lizar Riders who held long, dark lances with blades that would pierce your heart and come out the other side.
Finally, after about 10 minutes of walking, they reached a cave house. They were in quite a residential area with a few dark elves walking past them but non of them saying anything. Now and then, Sworgey would see people looking out of their houses at the foreigners, only to look away as soon as they were suspected.
"This will be your home for however long you stay here, I say you get comfortable and settle in. I would invite you for dinner tonight but I am busy, diplomatic things, all that nonsense. I will send Jaeorai to check on you, otherwise from that, I bid you farewell." And with that, The Warlord left.
The three of them walked into the house, they doors, which were plain and simply rock were wide open. Inside, the house was barely furnished, a few stone chairs and a table was all that was there. There were stairs that led to upstairs which had a single room containing 2 beds. Sworgey could only imagine how different it would feel compared to his beautiful, comforting bed back at Castledawn. Thinking about the bed brought back all the memories of what had happened. The temple, council meeting, exile, Forest Elves, Irisael. He quickly shut the memories out. Not willing to remember them.
They went downstairs when Zur started.
"We need to get that chestplate." Zur said decisively.
"And how do you propose we do that." Sworgey asked.
"We go there, and steal it."
"Care to elaborate?"
"In the dead of the night, we silently walk to the Artifact room, I'll deal with the guards, Roh deals with the door. Then we grab the armour and make our great escape, we then run to the surface, get our horses, and head North East."
"Seems simple, enough, but, we aren't going to get far without our weapons. How are we going to get them?"
"Easy, as we are neutral in matters of state etcetera, etcetera. I can persuade the captain, Jaeorai, to give us them back, maybe even get a bit of information about the Clan's situation. One person holding the three highest powers in the Clan is a highly suspicious person indeed. Of course, that doesn't include Clan High Matriarch. Heh." Sworgey seemed unamused, so Zur stopped laughing.
"So it looks like we know what we're doing."
"Oh yes Sworgey old boy!" Zur said enthusiastically.
"Stop calling me that." Sworgey replied, rather unenthusiastically.