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CHAPTER 15
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Present time
Jon was worried about Shieena. He kept bothering Nioob about the goblin's welfare and she tried her best to convince him nothing in quarantine would happen to her. A goblin was considered property, and to harm someone’s property meant compensation. No dwarf wanted to part with his wallet. But Jon was not comforted. As Nio searched the market for information about Larin, Jon devised plans to free Shieena from dwarven hands. Lara was nowhere in sight.
Five days after arriving in Canestor, Nio had no clue to Larin’s whereabouts. He was sitting in Nioob’s living room, sulking. Jon was on the sofa, devising another plan to free Shieena. Nioob brought tea and sat with them, quiet but curious. Nio was a few years younger than her, but she could not for the life of her see him as some all-powerful terrifying sorcerer. At this point, he looked more like a petulant child. But Lara was never wrong.
She wondered
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Present time"AND? Who was he?”: Jon asked impatiently.Just as Nio was about to answer, the carriage that drove them to the capital stopped. A young dwarf stepped inside informing them that they had arrived. Nio’s story was cut short. Under cover of darkness, they entered the house and quickly hid in the attic. The young dwarf who drove them here told them to be quiet and wait. They did just that. A few hours later Lara arrived and the plan was set in motion.Nio was hidden in an empty barrel of wine, then driven, rolled, carried, and finally deposited in the basement of the palace. He didn't like this part of the plan. The inside of the barrel smelled horribly and he felt dizzy from the intense smell of wine. All the rolling didn't help either. After all the shaking and carrying stopped, a female dwarf knocked twice on the barrel and opened it. The dwarf, who introduced herself as Ia, showed him once again the bluepri
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Present timeShieena sobbed softly. They were sitting in the living room of the safe house and Nio had just finished this part of the story. Shieena tried to imagine life in a dark pit for seven long years, but she couldn't. Her suffering and captivity, it all paled in comparison to Nio’s prison. How he managed to get out of it all without going completely crazy was inconceivable to her. Even Jon had a tear or two rolling down his cheeks. Shieena touched Nio's hand and he smiled at her."It's okay, little Shieena, I'm fine. It was bad, but I'm fine now. I still have my sanity. Most of the time.": he said with a sad smile.Lara was there too. She didn't know the whole story, but the part she had just heard stunned her. This elf was a bomb that could explode at any time. He said he wasn't crazy, but Lara wasn't quite sure. Crazy people don’t always act like crazy. She had to send a message to lady Sif.Meanwhile, i
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Present time"After that, you ran into me and saved me, and soon after we saved Jon, right?": Shieena asked."Yes.": Nio replied."Here's what I don't understand:": Jon said, then continued: "What kind of tornado was that? And how did you recover in the well and in the hospital?”Nio hesitated for a moment, then said: “Mhm, I have no idea how I healed myself. Maybe, while I was unconscious, the body remembered and acted. I'm not sure. As for the tornado, I thought about it a lot. Here's what I think. That light I absorbed; I think it was his spark. Dem’s spark. That's what he wanted to do to me. And when I absorbed his spark, the two sparks reacted to each other and kind of melted together. And in that merger, the elements around me went crazy. That's what I think. I could be right. Or not. But that's the best theory I have. Not to mention that after I absorbed his spark, I felt stronger than ever. I mean m
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Present timeBefore they headed back for their base, Nio healed the wounded. There were a lot of them. He ordered them to be left on the battlefield and healed them all in one fell swoop. Friends and foes alike. He didn’t have much experience with healing and life magic, but he instinctively knew what to do. His exercise in the hidden valley taught him so much about synergy that he felt that the smaller elements were just toys for children. He reached out and established a balance in each of them. It was that simple. Lately, it seemed to him that he was looking more and more with his mind, not his eyes. Everything around him was just energy. Like when you try to make out the trees in the distance from the bottom of a waterfall. Due to the sheer amount of water you can’t actually see the trees, just the shapes. Still, you know they're there. And you know what they look like. The sh
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Velas north hubQueen Nioob paced up and down the room. The first meeting with lady Sif was successful. Not only did she agree to provide safe passage through her lands, but she offered her elves to move food to Mui land. Furthermore, she offered elven supplies and help if needed. Nioob had a strange feeling that if she asked for Sif's dress, she would take it off in front of her and give it to her. She didn't like it. Elves usually did not care about other races. Sif wanted something, something big. No, Nioob didn't like it at all. For a moment she wished Lara was here. Lara always had a flawless nose for lies and deceptions. Nioob was supposed to leave the day after the meeting, but Thea Sif requested another audience. Nioob was sure that Sif would then show her true face. Apprehensive, she waited.The two women met again. After the initial pleasures, lady Sif became direct.Her ton
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Present timeNio met with the war chief of the Mui tribe. There were eleven large lakes and four larger rivers in his lands. His people had by then already received the food from the dwarves and famine had diminished, but those supplies would not last forever. The war chief banned fishing throughout Mui because Nio needed to inspect several live specimens. They reached the first lake surrounded by hundreds of goblins waiting for a miracle. Nio felt a rush of anxiety. He had been very confident in himself until now, but now, as all those goblins watched, his confidence turned to fear. Still, from the outside he remained calm and cool.He approached the shore of the lake and one of the goblins pulled out a fishing net. Within the net were three species of fish and a pair of crabs. He asked the goblin to submerge the net back in the water and ordered everyone around him to move away. Very far a
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Present timeHe started again with just a crumb of magic. A tiny piece of raw energy danced in front of him, waiting. He reached for it and tried to disassemble it into its original parts. It resisted. Once complete it did not want to cease to exist. Nio tried harder and harder. It seemed so easy that night by the campfire, but without the anger that fuelled it, dismantling the synergy proved to be a difficult task. He threw it on a nearby tree, and the tree was gone. Destruction was easy. He tried again.In the meantime, almost everyone returned to the hideout. Only Ia stayed in Canestor to oversee the transportation of the goods and to wait for their signal, but Jon came back, Lara came back, and Ghtraht came and went. It was obvious to everyone that Shieena and the war chief had grown closer. Even Jon admitted to Nio that he was happy for both of them. He was still a little je
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LaraLara was exhausted. After she arrived at the dwarven hub, she rode day and night to reach the elven capital. The horses were prepared in advance, so she would just jump on a fresh horse and ride on. Her arse was killing her. But she was finally in the elven capital, waiting to be summoned by the most powerful elf in Velas.Lady Sif was sitting at her desk. Lara wondered why the unusual ones always strive for power the most. Thea Sif didn't look like an elf. With slightly darker skin, much shorter in stature than any elf Lara knew, and rich dark hair, she could easily pass for a human. Even her eyes were unusual. Instead of the blue or green eyes that most elves had, hers were brown. She had a perky nose, small and dignified. Her only feature that was typically elven were her ears, long and pointed. And a cold determination in those deceitfully warm eyes. Lara was absolutely
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Present timeNight crept towards them. Ghtraht was nowhere in sight so they began to discuss the finer points of his plan. Because Shieena was determined in her decision to marry the war chief, only one problem remained. Nio and the fish.But Jon mentioned another potential problem: “Even if Nio somehow manages to fill their lakes with fish, who says the disease won’t come back? As far as we know, it could still be in the water."Shieena nodded in agreement, but Ia interrupted her: “Actually, I can. And before you cut off my head, let me first say, it all happened during the reign of the old king. Nioob was quite furious when she found out. The king was looking for a way to get rid of the goblins permanently. Nioob told you about the bomb, but that wasn’t the only thing our scientists were developing. Some ten, fifteen years ago, one of our underground la
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Present timeAs they mounted their horses, Jon suggested a replacement plan: “Maybe we could start asexual revolution. Teach goblins about sex. Once they get to know the pleasures of the body,they may be preoccupied with sex and stop fighting the dwarves.”Nio and Shieena laughed, but Ia and Lara looked confused. Getting the green light fromShieena, he set out to explain to the two women about goblins and sex. It could have been alonger conversation, but at that moment a large goblin emerged from the bushes and blockedtheir way.He was big for a goblin. His olive body was mottled with red paint, and half of his face waspainted black. Unlike most goblins, he had a full set of hair, shaved at the sides and tied in athick, long braid. Even his hair had red streaks of paint on top. He held an impressive weaponin his right hand. And a very unusual weapon for a goblin. It looked
