Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 9: Getting Acquainted - part 1

After some questioning left and right, Ambrose and Hedgefield were sent to someone that a surprising amount of the people living in the camp claimed to be an actual member of the Elder Council, Elder Aritz. From the fact that he was one of the few people that had been given a tent of his own, rather than having to share one with more people than could even fit in the tent at once, there seemed to be some truth to it. There were also some pretty strong and well-trained looking Forest Elves guarding his tent, which they assumed to be the Elder Council's guard. When Ambrose and Hedgefield entered, they were greeted by the sight of an old man, even by Elven standards. He was probably well over a hundred years old. Despite his age, the man was still sharp enough to immediately pick up on the rarity of Ambrose's appearance.

"A Human?" The man laughed. "The last time I've seen one of your species was when I was still a young lad, before I had even shot my first arrow. To think I'd meet one again near the end of my life..." The man caught his breath. "How peculiar!"

Ambrose wasn't sure what to reply, but the man continued. "Ah, apologies, I'm being rude. Welcome, strangers, I am Elder Aritz of the Elder Council, legal rulers of the autonomous zone. What can I do for you?"

Ambrose ignored the politics added to that introduction for now, instead introducing himself. "My name is Ambrose Corcoran, and this is Corporal Benton Hedgefield. We're here to investigate what's going on in autonomous zone, in particular the thing that we've come to call an irregularity, and we were hoping you are willing to share whatever you know about it."

The man's face got darker for a bit, suddenly making his old age far more pronounced. "Yes, of course..." He sighed deeply. "Do you have a moment?"

Hedgefield was the one to reply this time around, in a surprisingly respectful manner. "Take whatever time you need."

The elder nodded. "Thank you." He closed his eyes for a bit, before starting. "The first signs that something was wrong were arising around four months ago. For your information, the Liberators were active long before that, and for as much trouble as you may want to fault them for, whatever is happening now is likely not their doing." Aritz looked at Hedgefield in particular.

When Hedgefield remained silent, Aritz continued. "There is an area in the exact middle of the forest that we consider to be sacred. We travel there only for specific ceremonies. However, our priests didn't return after one such ceremony, and when we sent people to investigate what happened, they didn't return either. Us Elders didn't wish to risk getting officials from the High Elves involved in our internal affairs, so we decided to keep quite about it. Instead, we had the surroundings monitored for suspicious activity. Things escalated when a group of Liberators started their own investigation, as they suspected that this was an attempt to destabilize our internal government in preparation of a hostile take-over by the Empire. They suspected the involvement of none other than the General Guard of New Haven himself, so they simultaneously spiked up their activity in the city and started trying to get the support of other high ranking guards there."

Ambrose was worried about one thing in particular. "Those are some pretty drastic measures, did they gain your support in doing so?"

The Elder seemed a little embarrassed, but he still spoke up. "Not officially, but they have been gaining popularity for a long time. If our council would openly oppose them, it would be the same as openly opposing the ideal of being our own nation again. We feared that our power wasn't significant enough to risk making such a move, so we silently allowed them to do as they pleased."

Hedgefield interfered, sounding somewhat annoyed. "So you'd rather trust a random band of rebels over calling in some actual soldiers?"

The Elder reacted surprisingly fierce. "You don't know what it's like! We've been a proud nation through-out all of history, and now we're suddenly forced to play second-class to the High Elves. Older folks like me have somehow learned to cope with it, but there is a new wave of desire to regain our freedom among the youth, and I can't fault them for it."