Before he could turn around, a silver dagger passed beside his face and embedded itself in the door, barely a finger's width from his cheek.
Edmund did not even flinch. He merely glanced at the weapon for a moment before slowly turning around.
A woman stood beside the window.
Her light brown hair, streaked with golden highlights, fell over her shoulders. She had delicate features and the green eyes typical of elves, although her expression was anything but delicate. She wore traveling clothes made of dark leather and green fabric, and a crossbow Edmund recognized rested on her back.
Her pointed ears protruded through her hair.
"You still have a habit of entering other people's rooms without knocking," Edmund said as he walked toward a bottle of wine on his bedside table.
The elf tilted her head, pretending to think about it.
"That's how we met. I don't see why you would dislike it now."
Edmund let out a brief laugh and handed her a glass of wine while taking the other for himself. It had been years since he had last seen her, and he felt that was reason enough to celebrate privately.
"Ellaria'sandrael-thaelor-vanya."
The elf smiled upon hearing her full name. Wood elves who left their forests and mingled with humans only revealed part of their names; knowing someone's full name was a privilege they granted to very few, and only those people were allowed to speak it.
"Edmund Lusignan."
For a moment, neither of them said anything. The last time they had seen each other had been years ago, when Edmund decided to become a lone adventurer and separated from the group that had accompanied him for several years.
She looked around the room before turning her attention back to him.
"So it's true. You've become a baron," Ellaria said with a mocking smile. "Your guards need more training. It barely took any effort to wander around the place, and getting in here was even easier."
"You could probably enter the chambers of the Emperor himself." Edmund smiled. That voice, that attitude, and the way she looked at him had not changed much. "What are you doing here?"
Ellaria's smile faded slightly.
"I came looking for you." She leaned back against his bed and took a sip from her glass.
"I can guess that much. You wouldn't have come if it weren't important." Edmund rubbed his forehead, trying to think of the reasons behind her sudden visit, before taking a seat in the armchair opposite the bed. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
"We originally planned to come for other reasons, but…" Ellaria seemed hesitant to explain, as though she had lost the courage to do so.
Edmund studied her expression. He knew her well enough to recognize when something serious was wrong, and her most serious problems usually involved the people close to her.
"Then you didn't come alone. Are the others here too?"
Ellaria approached the table, pulled the dagger from the door, and tucked it into her belt.
"First, you'll have to offer me something to eat. I've been traveling for several days, and your city doesn't exactly have a wide selection of inns," Ellaria said with a smile, trying to recover some of the joy of their reunion.
"I hope you're not still as demanding as you used to be. We barely have any variety in our food," Edmund replied, knowing he would get nothing out of her by pressuring her for answers.
"I just hope you're not as stingy as you were in the past when it came to paying for meals."
"I was the one paying for the entire group's provisions."
"It wasn't our fault you were the only one who knew how to count coins."
Edmund shook his head, still smiling as he called for a servant.
A guard soon arrived, looking somewhat confused by the sudden appearance of an elf in the mansion.
"Prepare dinner for two. And have something to drink brought as well." Edmund waved the wine bottle, showing that it was nearly empty.
"Anything in particular, my lord?" the servant asked from the doorway.
"Whatever is available. But make sure there's more than enough for two people."
Ellaria raised an eyebrow.
"I'm glad to know you still remember how much I can eat."
The guard left the room, and Ellaria sat down on the edge of the bed again. For several minutes, they talked about unimportant matters. She commented that Graymont's streets were worse than she had expected, that the mud made traveling difficult, and that the guards seemed more interested in watching time pass than keeping an eye on the rooftops. This chapter was taken from NovelPing without permission.
When the food arrived, the servant placed several dishes on the table: roasted meat, freshly baked bread, cooked vegetables, cheese, and a pot of stew. It was not a banquet, but it was more than enough for an improvised dinner.
Ellaria looked at the food with an expression far more satisfied than the one she had shown when discussing the inns.
"I have to admit, living as a baron has a few advantages."
"It's little compared to what I have planned for this city. If everything goes well, entering through that door in a few months will get you a banquet."
"Then I'd better find something with which to pay for those future feasts."
For a while, their conversation was limited to the food. Ellaria seemed genuinely hungry, and Edmund did not want to interrupt her with questions while she devoured the stew and cut the meat into small pieces.
However, when she finished her first serving, Edmund placed his glass on the table.
"All right, now. What's going on?"
Ellaria continued eating for a few seconds, though some of the lightness had faded from her expression.
"We originally planned to visit you for other reasons. Victoria wanted to see whether you had really become a respectable noble and whether you had improved with the rapier. But the problem is Brogur."
"Is he still getting into trouble?"
"More than before, if that's even possible." Ellaria placed her spoon on the plate. "A few days ago, the Greybeard clan contacted him. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who had been searching for them for decades."
Edmund frowned slightly.
"His family?"
"Apparently, one of the clan's dwarfs left the village because he needed to make an emergency delivery. By chance, he reached the Empire, where he heard people talking about our group."
The group of adventurers was famous for their abilities, but that was not the only reason for their fame. Their composition was something no one had ever seen before, despite how strange adventuring parties could be: a dwarf, an elf, a paladin of the Lady, and a princess of Estalia, all gathered together. The Misfits was the name people had given them.
"And now they know where they are?"
"They're in the Vaults." Ellaria picked up her glass and slowly turned it between her fingers. "The problem is that it's north of here, in a dwarven village called Khazid Nekewukas."
Edmund finally understood the root of the problem, because he was dealing with the same headache himself. Graymont was a mountainous territory, but it lay at the foothills of the mountain range, with the Vaults directly to the north. He had heard that there were dwarven villages there, but they were completely isolated settlements, and only one dwarven fortress was still standing: Karak Izor.