The halls of Ravenscroft were quiet, Graveheart wondered through the corridors as soon, Octavian stepped out to greet him. “Octavian, I am most pleased to have found you on this occasion, it has been much too long since you and I have properly interacted with one another.” Octavian turned his head and smiled.
“Ah, Lord Graveheart, it’s excellent to see you doing so well; indeed, it has been a long time since we have last spoke to one another. I do hope you have been keeping well.” Octavian said, taking a few steps forward, looking into the tinted visors of the plague doctors mask. Graveheart nodded, “Why of course I have, my research has taken me to wonderous discoveries…but say, is Lady Zerinia in through there?” He asked, pointing towards the door Octavian had just left, Octavian merely chuckled before replying.
“No, I was just speaking with Lady Lenore as Lady Zerinia is out at the moment in the Lizardfolk village at the moment and won’t return for a few days.” Graveheart let out a short laugh, placing his hand on his head, slightly embarrassed. “Ahh, my apologies, it seems that I have forgotten so easily, I was given a report from Lord Nanilk to have delivered to Lady Zerinia, and here I am, wasting time trying to look for someone who isn’t even here. I suppose my mind has been most curious as of late due to recent works in the laboratory, I suppose it would be wise to have it sent to the library as for now.” Octavian took a few steps forward, holding out his hand.
“Please, Lord Graveheart, I can have it delivered to her, as Lady Edilia is on her way to meet with Lady Zerinia, so I can have it delivered to her in that regard.” His smile was warm and inviting, Graveheart sighed in relief, “Ah, I don’t know what I would do without you, Octavian…this message is most important and discusses classified information.” He said, holding the document over to the Vampire butler.
Half an hour later, Octavian approached the gates of the estate, watching the armoured woman stand by the game. “Lady Edilia, I was hoping as to speak with you before you leave…I have a message that needs to be brought to Lady Zerinia as soon as can be once you reach her.” He said with a small smile, holding out at the same file to her, she took it and looked at him with a blank expression.
“What is it?” She asked, her voice lacked any kind of emotion one would expect, Octavian gave a small smile before responding, “It is a message meant for the lady, so it is essential that she is to gain it as soon as possible, it contains classified information about the Ravenscroft estate.” She ghoul woman examined it before looking back over to the vampire. “What's inside?” She asked, inspecting the object like it would do something if she looked at it long enough. “I am unsure, it contains information that only Nanilk and Graveheart are aware of so far.” She nodded, putting it away in a hidden compartment in her armour before walking past the gate and into the wilderness.
Hours later, Zerinia and Edilia were standing together in the platforms in the marshlands, the summer swamp air thick with sticky, mirky water heat. Lizardfolk and Orcs working by expanding the village to larger ranges as to help with the larger population, after all, the shelter they had now was less than satisfactory for its current inhabitants. Both the vampire and ghoul looked down at the documents, flicking through the pages, something about ‘creating a new autonomous machine to neutralise the requirements for undead during hard labour’, it seemed efficient and it would remove the need for using unnecessary amounts of magic when controlling for building like Zerinia had suggested many times before hand.
“Well…this can do well in construction in the new kingdom.” Zerinia said before handing it back to Edilia, who placed it back within her armour’s compartment and looked at the hard-working villagers. “We could be doing this a lot faster with Undead…no need for rest, no worry for the risk of incidents.” Zerinia smiled while turning to her, making sure to make direct eye contact with the cold-hearted ghoul.“
Indeed, in fact, all those things are near guaranteed…but, with history of conflict and grudges, what better way to set aside old differences with a common goal, even a small one?” The rhetorical question remained hanging over them both in silence, Edilia could only nod, realising the logic in the words before walking off to wonder this new village while Zerinia remained in place, watching everyone else working as usual.
Maura stood on the outskirts of the village, shooting arrows at small fruits, some she hit and others missed completely. Edilia watched for a few seconds before approaching the dark elf, impressed to a certain extent, not that she could properly show it, “You have the basics right…you’re hesitating when you release and moving it slightly.” Her stone-cold analytical voice was very methodical and detached, Maura could only turn to her and listen.
“Oh…I see.” Maura responded, looking down at her bow like it was more of a hindrance than an aid, silently cursing her own items and skills, “Here…it’s heavier but it should fix that issue, and you should be strong enough to wield it just fine.” She said holding out a bow to Maura, she could only stare at it with wide eyes.
The weapon was large and heavy, the item had red, orange and yellow patterns and a dragon where the arrow would shoot out from, “It was a gift from my own superior, an associate of the Lady herself.” Maura took it, running one of her hands over the item smoothly, feeling the intense patterns like it would tell her its stories it had once experience. “It is called ‘the Dragons Breath’, Mithril…my own gift to you, from one ranger to another.” Maura lifted the bow, placed the arrow in the bow and shot it, a perfect hit on the target she could’ve missed last time.
“Oh…oh wow, thank you…uhh el…edl…e-“
“Edilia…Edilia Frostbite.” The elf ghoul responded, quite unimpressed as that was probably the most emotion she could actively show. “Maybe we should practice hitting longer ranged targets.” Maura smiled nervously, “Oh, right, about that, I’m really not that good at hitting targets further away like that…” Edilia merely turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “If you do not work on your flaws and weaknesses, how can you expect to improve?” Maura nodded, realising how right that is.
“Yeah, I guess that’s good motivation.”
“Motivation is useless, just a sugar rush that keeps you going for a certain amount of time before you come crashing down…self-discipline is the key in which limits are broken, an ally you disguise as an enemy because it doesn’t give you the easy path you want which is what makes it seem too bad to everyone else. Mastering this is the key to mastering any skill.” Maura contemplated for a few moments before looking at Edilia, understanding the words of the creature in front of her. “I see…alright, I don't know what a 'sugar rush' is, but I trust you with this then.”
Zerinia watched with a small smile on her face, “Hmm, I never thought she would make for such a good teacher…but I wonder, I gave that bow to Sylvara Nyxwind, Edilia’s creator…so if Edilia has it now, when did she give it to Edilia? And why would she need it, I mean, I haven’t seen her use it before…maybe to save it from being stolen from another player or something. Sylvara was always unpredictable, as much as she was chaotic, so I'm sure there was some secret reason.”
Zerinia turned, satisfied with the lesson being given to her friend by someone the vampire trusted deeply already. Zerinia’s thought’s drifted as she watched the construction of the new lands, it was going well as far and the land at this point had expanded greatly, but the problem, the tension was still in the air and sooner or later, someone would snap and someone would get themselves hurt, it was a dread she knew that was to come sooner or later until eventually, a translucent figure appeared before her. It was a wraith she had summoned as to survey the surrounding for an intelligence report on anything important, it spoke to her with a hollowed voice that carried an unspoken weight.
“Intelligence report for surveying land outside the forest.” It said, standing directly in front of her with seemingly important information to share. “What did you find?” She questioned.
“An army of perhaps a few thousand, no more than 3 moving west to a small village already about a day away.”
“They’re not coming here? What’s so important about a small village that requires so many soldiers?” The wraith shook its head at the question. “The reason in which is unestablished so far, I attempted to get closer but was weakened and nearly revealed, they had holy people and items that would have revealed my location, perhaps killed me if I were a weaker undead.” Zerinia nodded before looking back up to the wraith. “I suppose we have a battle to prepare for.” She said with a small smile. Already making plans to face this threat now.