74 Chapter 74 (1/2)

The meeting dragged on for some time as the elves planned how to repair the wall and other damaged buildings within Setrhyn. After it had finished Aerwyn ordered his undead to begin scavenging the dead while he got some rest in Tylin's guest room. He made sure to specify that he wanted the plate armor of the two true orcs that fell in battle along with any scale armor that they could find. The rest of his picks would be from the human corpses as lesser orcs wore armor more akin to pelts than actual armor.

The following morning eight hundred sets of equipment along with several sacks of mana cores were piled up outside of Tylin's home. Transporting it all through the dense forest was going to be a pain but at least he wouldn't need any more steel for a while. The next problem would be repairing the damaged armor or reforging it entirely and for that he needed a blacksmith in Ardin.

As Aerwyn ate breakfast, he began thinking about how he could convince the antisocial Semmy to move to Ardin and work for him. After he finished eating he called for Nyris and the merchant brothers Kers and Inik. Nyris arrived first and he was already looking much better than the day prior.

”The blacksmith Semmy, Master Ynir told me his daughter was one of those taken by Earl Abery's men many months ago.”

”That's correct, her name is Meyana.” Nyris reply came just as the two tanned merchants arrived.

”Perfect timing. Do you two remember selling a Fae'Laran girl by the name of Meyana?” Aerwyn asked.

”Among the four that were sold three were female. Perhaps my lord could be a bit more specific?” Kers hesitantly asked.

”Nyris describe her.” Aerwyn ordered.

”Ah, yes. She was fifteen and had black hair with amber colored eyes.”

”I believe she was the one we brothers sold to Bessos Derii.” Inik chimed in as he looked to his brother for confirmation.

”How much would it cost to buy her back?” Aerwyn asked.

”M-my lord...” Kers hesitated and displayed a helpless expression.

”Speak.”

”Derii is a bessos, it's a title akin to Durani nobility but different. They are more like kings of their own lands and only answer to the sulimon during times of war. They are extraordinarily wealthy and are often a slave to their own whims. Without something to allure him even more than the dark elf child, i'm afraid that if he's taken a liking to her, buying her back would be rather difficult. If he hasn't, perhaps two thousand Durani nekkar's would buy the girls freedom.”

”I don't know the exchange rate of Durani currency, tell me how much in mana cores.”

”Nearly five hundred A Grade cores my lord.”

”...That's all for now. Nyris have the undead begin packing up the equipment, we'll be heading to the ships soon.”

The price nearly stopped Aerwyn's heart. No wonder Earl Abery was capturing elves as slaves, that price would tempt any man. In fact, he was surprised slavers weren't more of a problem for the elves to begin with. If he wanted to evolve his undead he couldn't afford to buy the girl back just yet but perhaps simply the promise of buying her would be enough to sway Semmy to move to Ardin for the moment.

As they merchant brothers and Nyris left him, he decided on stopping by Marik's shop. It had been nearly a month since he put in his order and now was as good a time as any to pick up the spears. Aerwyn called over some zin beetles to carry them and made his way over to the shop. Marik was hard at work when Aerwyn arrived, no doubt making the tools necessary to begin repairing the village.

”I'm here to pickup my order.” Aerwyn said with a friendly smile.

”Ai lad, i still owe ya ten spears, i had only finished a hundred before the attack. There in the back, help yourself. The other ten will take me a while considering the circumstances of the village.” Marik didn't bother to stop pounding his hammer as he spoke.

”That's no problem, i already have more weapons than undead at the moment. I wanted to ask you about crafting two revarium daggers for Erit.”