NOVEL FROG Chapter 30: Conversation
The woman was dressed in high quality leather armour. She had a small dagger on her hip. Her white hair was put in a ponytail. She was looking at us with her piercing blue eyes.
“Who are you?”, I asked.
“You can call me Elnora. Would you join me in my carriage? So we can talk in private.”
The great thing about being powerful is you can follow suspicious people without too much concern. I looked at Lucy and she nodded.
“Sure, lead the way.”
The carriage looked well made, the driver was human. When we entered I noticed certain runes on the inside. I was able to identify them as a privacy spell. Lucy and I were sitting on a bench next to each other. We were both facing Elnora. She pulled out a fist sized black sphere with golden engravings.
“This is a divine artefact from Sylphania, the goddess of nature. It reveals the true shape of any being. Would you be willing to touch it?”
I considered it for a moment. I had no way of knowing if she told the truth. But with my defences I doubted that touching this orb could seriously harm me. I laid my hand on it and nothing happened. Elnora did not look surprised. She offered it to Lucy as well with the same result.
Satisfied Elnora put the orb away again and started to talk: “Thank you for your cooperation. I am working for the intelligence division of the Dominion. Both of you have caused me quite the headache in recent days. See, none of our special agents are supposed to be here Amaya. And you Lucy… we simply have no fox kin of your power in our employ. One theory was that you would be some powerful beings in disguise, that is why I brought the orb. It was considered unlikely but I had to check.
Which brings us to the next theory, you might be working for a different nation. We can safely rule out the Empire. Iron Rock would not have the resources to keep someone of your power hidden. Beravis would take credit and parade you around, they try to look as powerful as possible to deter an invasion. The dwarves would have no reason to hide their involvement. If you were from a different continent you would not be interested in Iron Rock.”
I had a feeling she really liked to hear herself talk. But I was intrigued where she was going with this.
Elnora continued: “So next I looked into your name. The house of Delphinium stopped existing about 500 years ago. It was a small but loyal house that fell to a monster incursion. Their main residence was attacked during a family gathering. There were no survivors. It sounds rather suspicious to me but after 500 years our records of the event are not very thorough.”
She paused and stared at me. I could tell her that I simply made up the name and just picked a nice plant. Somehow I doubted that she would believe the truth though.
“Look, have you considered that we might have just randomly stumbled into this mess? That we simply kept a low profile before?” I tried to explain.
Elnora looked irritated. “Don’t insult my intelligence! Lucy infiltrated the imperial embassy! You don’t do that accidentally. Clearly this was a long and carefully planned operation. And you took down a demon lord! That should not be possible for only two people. There must have been a lot of preparation and powerful artefacts involved.
I also looked at the spidersilk you gave to the tailor. The quality clearly indicates it’s from the black forest. It should be impossible to get that much without the night elf queen’s approval.”
“And what did the queen say to your theory? Did you ask her?”
“Queen Loriel denies any knowledge of you. So I think you were working for her mother. She was in charge when your house fell. Considering your power you must be very old. Clearly you were alive back then. I have sent my theory to the high queen but there has been no answer yet.”
“So what is the point of our little chat here?”, I wondered.
“Well… I was ordered to check if you were actually an elf and invite you to a meeting with queen Loriel. You have been rather helpful to the Dominion, I think she wants to recruit you. But there are way too many unanswered questions! I was hoping you would be more forthcoming about your past.”
“Ah, I see. You distrust us but you were overruled by the queen. So you sent everything to the high queen who ignored you. Have you considered that there is no conspiracy?”
Elnora glared at me. “I am watching you. I will find the truth!”
“You do that. Meanwhile, we will be happy to meet the queen.”, I said smiling.
“She is going to represent the Dominion at the summit. The queen will arrive in 10 days.”
“The summit?”, Lucy said. “You know the dwarves wanted to work with us considering security. I think they want a closer relationship with the Dominion.”
“Although the queen will be delighted to hear that you improved our diplomatic relationships, I have to ask you to stop impersonating the Dominion.” Elnora replied stiffly.
“But we are getting a job offer, right? That means we will be working with you soon anyway.”, Lucy teased.
“This was fun but I think it’s time to go. Thanks for the chat.”, I said. Then I just opened the door and left the carriage. Lucy waved goodbye to Elnora and followed.