The Iron Dragon

Chapter 9. Information

"I see, so it really doesn't look any better here than it does in any other region. The breach is causing chaos and ruin everywhere. Especially the cracks that are appearing everywhere they pose a great threat to everyone." I could only agree with her about the cracks. They appeared randomly and ensured that both weaker and stronger demons could escape the Fade. Anyone who approached them became an easy target for their attacks, and demons usually didn't leave anyone alive. But now that the Inquisitor was here, there was a possibility that things could change for the better, at least I hoped so.

"Now that you are here, however, you could close the cracks again with the help of your mark, and thus at least bring some peace to the Emerald Graves, for which I would be grateful. This place is important to me and I will not allow demons and red lyrium to pollute it." She agreed with me with a nod and let her gaze wander briefly to her left hand, where the anchor shimmered bright green, like the Fade itself.

"That and many other things I plan to do. At the moment I travel from place to place, always where the news of more bad demon raids or red templars reaches me and try to help there as much as possible. My people support me actively in this." She gestured to her companions.

"What do you know about the Red Templars who have settled around here? ". I thought for a moment so as not to leave any of the information unmentioned.

"I don't think it's as bad here as in other areas. Of course, there are large deposits of lyrium here, which I have been able to partially destroy so far, and Templars are always trying to smuggle the lyrium out of the graves in caravans, but I know their routes and their secret paths, so I try to prevent them as much as possible from getting it outside these forests. Other than that, you'll find small groups of red templars trying to mine lyrium or take it out of here just about everywhere, but there are never many of them, and fortunately there are no particularly large lyrium deposits here. Mining here is slow and not very rewarding, which probably explains why the caravans are not very well guarded and you only meet small groups. Of course, in rare cases there are encounters with a red templar colossus, but these creatures only attract the attention of the giants, which are strongly represented here and like to fight with them, and in most cases they win. So, overall, it's quite manageable and not too hard to beat back their numbers here compared to other places. So they can be more easily eradicated here, but I'm not sure they're working on their own yet."

"What do you mean by "not working alone? ". Her eyes narrowed a bit. The news that the red templars were no longer acting alone was certainly disturbing information to her.

"Well, it seems that not only the Templars are interested in Lyrium anymore, because lately more and more elves can be seen near the mining sites and the caravans. Some of them seem to want to take this poison from the Templars by force, others are trading with them and there are already a few who make common cause with them. I have been able to observe this grouping of elves for a while now and many of them have already died at my hands. At first it was other dark dealings that seemed to interest them, they specialized in human trafficking." At these words, I could see the corners of the mouths of all present turn downward, and in their faces was written disgust towards these machinations.

"But apparently they have now looked for another area with which they can get as much profit as possible". If you couldn't read it on my face, you certainly could on my tone of voice. I was too used to these ways of getting gold and power again and that's why I felt better with every killed person from this horde.

"From what I've heard, they seem to have a great leader, but I don't know his name or where he is. He seems to be leading the whole organization from further away. That's all I know." The Inquisitor nodded and seemed to be inwardly taking notes on everything I had just said, before she looked back up at me.