Chapter 783: Talks (2/2)

“Then we shall welcome you in our Guild Hall. As the first guest in a long time,” Ormont spoke. He gestured towards the entrance, the gathered dwarves splitting to either side of the stairwell to let them through.

“You were certainly busy,” she said as she followed them, noting the Paladin and a few others choosing to walk beside or behind her. She smiled at that. Ilea knew she could wipe them all out in mere seconds. And she knew they knew. Certainly a way to push negotiations forward.

“Io… has changed, from the time of its inception. Yes,” Ormont said.

“It looks like a Centurion manufacturing plant I’ve seen before. Is that a common design?” she asked.

He glanced at her, Ilea noting the various reactions at her mentions. “A good eye. Though it was not a common design, no. Perhaps the One without Form chose to make it one.”

“Maybe. You’ve been around since before all this happened then?” Ilea asked.

The old dwarf nodded ever so slightly, though he averted his eyes as he walked up the stairs.

“I’m sorry,” she sent to his mind, seeing him tense up slightly though he didn’t speak up. “I’m not sorry for some of the things your people have done. And the things your decisions have led to. But I’m sorry for what happened here.”

“Our failures are our own to bear,” the dwarf sent back as they opened the door.

The inside of the building was far more spacious than Ilea had initially thought, her dominion unable to pierce through the walls, pretty much every room heavily enchanted. Lamps of warm yellow light shined on from various strange designs. Enchanted blown glass, some of them resembling animals and monsters. The walls and floor were stone, though there were a few paintings displayed. Dwarfs standing with their Guardians and scenes of war.

Ilea stopped next to a large painting, ignoring the tense murmurs between the dwarves that walked ahead and behind.

The young dwarf that had stood at the front with Ormont and Joori walked over to her. “An alliance, struck between our kind and humans like yourself,” she said with a smile.

Ilea recognized the landscape, recognized the monsters. She saw the Praetorians, in the midst of battle. She saw the blue robes and smiled, a part of the painting depicting someone in close quarters combat. Using their fists. It was quite a piece of art, several meters in length.

“The Azarinth,” she said, noting the reaction in the people that heard her.

The dwarf looked at her. “Yes. Are you familiar with them?”

“A very safe question,” Ilea murmured. “They’re not exactly around anymore. The war in Kohr apparently weakened them enough for other factions to wipe them out. I hear they weren’t exactly liked,” she said with an exaggerated smile.

“I… yes. Indeed, though their power was well known,” the dwarf said. “I’m Hatta, of the Makers. It would have been rude to interrupt with a personal introduction.”

“That is fine,” Ilea said, noting that the entire committee of dwarves had stopped, now waiting. She gave the painting a last glance and moved on, establishing a telepathic connection with the dwarf. “Hatta. I do wonder where the Elves are in that depiction. I believe you were not the only ones to have fought the Ascended. Or am I remembering wrong.”

The dwarf gulped. “I… have heard of telepathy. Lilith, those words. Do not speak them lightly. There are those who would not like these truths to be known. I am… impressed, that you know of Kohr at all, though I do not know what has happened outside of Io since that time has passed.”

“You were there too then?” Ilea asked. She saw the hint of a smile.

“And here I thought I looked my age. No. But there were those who remembered. Some still do, and others choose to believe the lies of our Jailer,” Hatta spoke. Her heartbeat picked up as she spoke. She glanced towards a few of the other dwarves. “Is it true then? Are we free?”

“As far as I know. But it’s all very recent. I came here as soon as the new Guardian informed us about your existence,” Ilea sent.

“Why were you chosen?” Hatta asked. “You do not strike me as a conqueror, or a diplomat. Though you are powerful… beyond anything I have seen. Perhaps you could even face an Executioner.”

Ilea grinned. “Maybe because I’m the kind of person who has telepathic conversations about a painting, instead of whatever a diplomat would do in this scenario.”

Hatta chuckled to herself. “I’m very interested who those allies of yours are. And why they would take such incomprehensible risks.”

Ilea left it at that, following through the corridor and into a rather large circular hall. The ceiling was a painted dome, dozens of enchantments providing lighting to the hall that reminded her of a comfortable summer day. And here I thought they’d prefer the green lamps they used everywhere else. Or did they choose the different colors as some way to rebel?

Everyone took their seats around the circular space, four stairwells leading down to the round space at the center. It looked a little like the Forged Dome, just a lot smaller. Ilea supposed the battlefield in this case was meant to be one for words and not war machines.

Suppose I could be wrong, she thought with a smile, following Ormont.

He gestured for her to join the three Makers at the bottom.

“Don’t think they really got what I meant with more comfortable,” she sent to the Fae, the little creature climbing down from her shoulder and jumping into the hand she held out for it.

“Serious”

“Powerful”

“Civilizations”

Ilea could feel the quotation marks, the Fae’s mockery translated into her mind without trouble. “True. They don’t understand the beauty of popping someone’s eyes. Or being melted.”

Violence, the Fae sent and nodded in a sagely manner.

I guess we can talk here for a while until we move on to food. Maybe I should’ve gotten some take away on the way down. Hmm. Do they still use gold as currency? Oh shit, I basically jump started all of Claire’s investments with their money. Oh well. Not like they were doing anything with it.

“Lilith. First and foremost, I think everyone here would like to learn who exactly you represent,” Ormont spoke.

“Right. Well, most of them you wouldn’t know. Because they didn’t exist in your time. You know of Ravenhall and the Shadow’s Hand?” she asked.

“Ravenhall, yes. The Shadows… of Eregar?” he said.

“Yes. I don’t know what they were thousands of years ago but now they’re just a mercenary organization, dealing with monsters and the like. I formed a Healing organization recently too, based in Ravenhall. The Medic Sentinel Corps. Ravenhall, the Sentinels, and the Shadow’s Hand are part of a larger alliance between a variety of independent cities and peoples. Humans, dwarves, and Dark Ones. What we call the Meadow Accords. I suppose the new Guardian of Iz, is part of those Accords too now,” she explained.

“Can you speak for them?” Ormont asked.

The Paladin squinted.

“No. But I have a vote. And I’ll be the first one to tell them what I learned in Io,” she said.

“Any further questions on representation?” Ormont asked into the hall.

Joori cleared his throat. “Are there any elves in these… Accords?”

Ilea glanced at him and smiled. “Not yet. Diplomacy with elves isn’t exactly easy. And they don’t think too highly of humanity.”

He frowned but gave her a nod.

“You would consider relations with elves however?” another dwarf asked.

“This is not a question in relation to representation,” Ormont interrupted. “Now. Would it be possible for you to recount the events that lead to your… relieving of the One without Form?”

Now this one might be tricky. Oh well. If I withhold too much here, they’ll freak out later. Might as well go and see what happens.

“Sure. I’ll have to expand a bit on that though, if you haven’t learned much about the outside world?” she said.

“We have received reports from the One without Form,” Ormont said, giving her a meaningful look.

“Right. So I suppose it’s my word against its,” she said and shrugged. “The first time I met an elf… they attacked Riverwatch, a western independent city of mostly humans. I just barely escaped a massacre, and learned then that they don’t enter any dungeons for whatever reason. Now… the One without form had the directive to wipe out all of elven kind.”

“That is not what the Holy purpose was. It was to end the war,” the Paladin spoke.

“Well that is what the One without Form told me. I don’t really care,” Ilea said. “What it did essentially is use a shit ton of resources to build machines and hunt elves. Because you didn’t populate your cities anymore, many turned into dungeons. Now as elves can’t enter dungeons, that proved a bit of a problem for those of them that wanted to fight, seeing many of their young die to the machines you left behind. Long story short, I met one of those elves. Not yet fully convinced, but later deciding to join the Cerithil Hunters. A group of exiles, declared as cursed and hunted by their own kind. All in an effort to end the ancient war the One without Form kept on fighting,” she explained, gauging their reactions.

Some annoyance, a few seem angry, but it seems like most of them don’t really care too much about elves. I suppose it’s hard to stay angry for so many centuries. Or the One without Form was just shit at propaganda. Not that that would be a massive surprise.