Elfborn

Pressure

Misha frowned as he leaned back in his chair. He, Nona, and three of the Tsigani Elders had met in his toka to listen to what the Hybernian Max had to say about taking the mithril sword. And about what he had learned from the sigil stone. As it stood now, the taking of the sword had abruptly become secondary.

"So you say this construct ..." Misha began.

"Taolin, my ancestor," Max confirmed with a nod.

"Yes, Taolin. This Taolin has instructed you to go to the northeast? And to enlist our aide in doing so?"

"That is exactly what I am telling you," Max replied flatly, arms crossed over his chest. The sword now sat on Misha's table, occupying the same spot it had when Max and Ollie first examined it.

"And that we need to be leaving as soon as possible. There is a good possibility that Astor is planning to retake as many of the Elfborn as possible. The attack on the Cignet is confirmation of this." He looked over at Ollie. "We, as yet, don't understand the part we are to play in this whole affair. And so we need to go to the source of the sigil stones that were delivered to us to find that out. It was their delivery that triggered the chain of events that has brought me, Ollie and Naneen here, to this place, at this time."

He looked directly into Misha's face.

"In time to meet the Ruthin clan, who carried the one clue we needed to begin on the true path to our purpose!" Max's eyes narrowed. "You said it yourself, Misha: it wasn't by mere chance that we were brought together! Fate has brought us to the same place in space and time and now we will go together to the north east, to the home of the elves, in order to determine why we have been sought out by both sides in a conflict that is older than time itself."

The Elders muttered uneasily as they looked between a determined Max and an uncertain Misha. When the lean historian had made the covenant, he hadn't guessed that it would come to fruition so quickly. Then again, Max hadn't expected that he would uncover a hidden talent to speak with the spirit of an object's owner long after they were dead. Or that the spirit that he discovered would answer so many of his questions before telling him what he needed to do next!

Misha too looked uncomfortable as he pondered what Max had just said, as well as the implications a journey north would carry for the Ruthin clan. It wasn't much past Northern Gaul that they would enter the lands of the Nordmen, hardened warriors whose barbaric armies assisted in the fall of the Romis Empire. The Nordmen were ruthless with their enemies and not much kinder to their allies. And there was definitely a love-hate relationship between the Nordmen and the Tsigani: the Nordmen loved to hate them! Whatever reception they got in their lands would be a chilly one, guaranteed.

But one look at a determined Max and Misha knew that the decision was already made. He had made a covenant, in good name and, by the will of the Maker, the Tsigani were going to keep it! Especially this clan of the Tsigani, the Ruthin. They were honor bound by their own traditions and laws to make it so.

With a gesture he waved the three muttering Elders into silence as he stepped towards Max.

"Very well," he said softly. "The Ruthin clan will take you to the north east." Almost immediately the Elders and Nona began to protest. Misha just as quickly silenced them with a dark look.

"We are honor bound by the covenant that I made with Max and Olli earlier today," he growled. "If it will aid our new allies to bear them to the north east, by the bones of my fathers, I will do it! And so will you. Call a council of the Elders. We will discuss the manner in which we will proceed from this point." He threw a quick look at Max. "Fear not, Hybernian. You will get to the northlands, one way or another. Even if I have to bear you there in my own toka alone!"