The sun was approaching dusk on Cainyorf. Birds are chirping, rabbits are scuttling, running back to their homes. Inside the town, there is a solemn atmosphere. The Plaza is full of people walking aimlessly around looking if their loved one had been one of their victims. The attack of these foes had left visible scars inside the town and the walls of Cainyorf.

Walking around where guards distribute bread and water while the cooks from the merchants are preparing soups for all the people from the influx of the Awakening Ritual. You hear people still sobbing or crying or continue crying for their dead family members. The feeling of despair was worse for those whose family was missing. Those whose families had been kidnapped by the assailants. Despair and horror grew large inside their hearts. The lone thought at what the future will hold for their missing family push them to even great sadness. From simple slavery to downright the worst humanity has to offer. Many of those who had been kidnapped immediately wanted to ride out. Chase after their loved ones while some are still frozen in shock.

The reason all Awakening visitors are still inside the town plaza is that Darius called for a lockdown of the plaza. The guards continue to scour the town and the surrounding area for any stragglers or ambushers. Another reason is to give them the safety and comfort of a town. This is the first time anything on this scale happened to Cainyorf. Desperate people sometimes try to abduct talented children, sometimes a freshly awoken one hurt someone on accident but that happens a few days after and only a handful of incidents at most.

A massive coordinated attack like this wasn't feasible for a simple organization from the perspective of Cainyorf. Lastly why people aren't allowed to leave is that the Cainyorf council is in reeling. Meanwhile, the guards are still assessing the total damage and reporting the damage to Darius.

Darius is furious with himself. He feels responsible for this disaster. The walk from the wall to the plaza had been heart-wrenching. 81 elven warriors dead. Over 100 visitors too and countless hurt or maimed by the attackers. He knows the council will be an ugly affair. He knows it and feels it. Some of the councilor's children and grandchildren are dead, hurt, or missing. When things become personal they become ugly.

Darius stands in front of the town hall or what would be the equivalent of it. A solid stone building built with solid foundations mostly out of rock and as few wooden parts as possible in case of a fire. Darius takes a deep breath as he is ascending the stairs. Standing in front of the council chamber he sees various elves already talking with each other. A bad sign.

Normally council members wouldn't talk and wait when everyone has arrived as a courtesy of respect for the council itself. While Cainyorf is an elven town and not even a large one. Courtly manners are expected even if none present are inheritors of any important bloodlines.

Darius strides inside the chamber purposefully ringing his armored boots with each step. As if he was marching. Signaling that the Voice has arrived. When he reached his seat at the O-formed table he turned to all of them.

"This day has been an unpleasant one for all of us. Let us try to at least keep up manners for this council." Darius spoke not as himself but as the Voice of the Kings. The representative in their place.

The council members after a brief pause all sat down one by one. A younger elf spoke "Is there a reason the Voice is sitting clad with steel at this council table?" he asked as innocently as possible. Darius knew that such a question would come and many more to follow.

"Yes, honorary council member. I was patrolling and receiving the last reports of this day. Our current situation didn't allow me to change into more suitable attire. Excuse my tardiness." Darius bowed his head slightly just enough to show his respect but not enough to be perceived as subservient. Because Kings do not bow, their voices do neither.

An older elf with a long goat beard spoke to the table. Darius recognizes his voice immediately. This haughty voice belongs to Trian Whetfire. 'An unfortunate surname' remarked. As it can be easily spoken like 'Wetfire'. Fart jokes behind the back of Trian were guaranteed. But Trian himself was no laughing matter. He is one of the better diplomats when dealing with the lords of our home kingdoms or with Lords of the other races.

"I am curious Voice." Trian's raspy voice said. " What do you have to report? I only heard rumors." Trian said with a neutral look but beneath that mask anger was brewing.

'As if he heard only rumors' Darius thought. Most of the council already know what happened or know the rough details. The older elf is one of those to have their own contact network.

"Yes. Thank you honored elder Trian." Trian the goat bearded elf showed no reaction but a single-eye twitch which he masked as a wink. Darius knows that Trian is sensitive about his age. This is one of the various ways Darius gets back at Trian while being purely respectful.

Darius rose from his seat. The small plates of his armor clanging with his movement. "Dear council members. We suffered as you all know a massive attack today." Darius paused for a moment to recollect every important fact for this meeting. "Roughly 2000 raiders with a monstrous humanoid ogre attack our fair town. Simultaneously a group of 200 assaulted the main plaza at the same time." A hand rose from Trian. "Questions in just a moment," Darius said.

"Why they were here we can not say for sure. But seeing as they have kidnapped a large part of the participating children at our Ritual of the Awakening. I think this was an attack by some neighboring realm or organization that needed our talents or a lot of elven blood." Darius's face turned sour before turning sad.

"We lost 81 brave warriors. 200 of the visitors of the Awakening ritual are dead too. Of those 50 were elven. Around 100 people were abducted with the majority being children." A long moment of silence followed. Darius sat down.

Trian sat up. "I have one question." Trian swung his arm around as if pointing at everyone for a short moment. "How in the gods blessing and all that is holy did this happen?" Trian took a deep breath before pointing straight at Darius. "Voice. You are responsible for the defense of Cainyorf. You were to protect everyone behind our walls." Trian paused. "You failed. You failed as our guardian. You failed as our neighbor. You failed as our friend. You let the invader reach our most inner plaza. That was bad enough but you also let them kidnap. Our talents. Our blood. Our sons and daughters were obducted on a day that should have been their celebration." The few allies Darius had in the council recoiled in anger. Most had been there when the battle was fought. Be it at the plaza or the wall. One officer member shot up shouting. With that, the council devolved into a straight shouting match between the members.

A few members let their talents flare-up in form of sparks forming near their arms or holy yellow energy in their hands. Darius after silently waiting spoke. "Is this how we are?" He spoke. The members slowly became silent. "We could continue pointing blame at each other. I could throw blame at this very council for downsizing our force when I requested we keep it up." Darius looked around seeing those few faces who blocked his request redden in shame. "I thought when I was chosen as the Voice that my expertise in warfare would be enough to be respected." Darius paused. "I thought my relatively young age compared to you honored members would not matter. As long as I made wise decisions. Instead, I was met with ridicule. Called my request for a powerplay." Darius scoffed.

"As if I the Voice didn't have any power, to begin with. That I was unsatisfied with my position." Darius's eyebrows formed a stern visage. "I am a parent like most of you at the table. They attacked my children!" Darius smashed the wooden table his part of the table was now cracked in two. "They would have kidnapped both. They were close to killing my children too. I am as much struck by this attack as any of you." His features soften. "I can count myself lucky that a Druid. My son's teacher saved both of them in the nick of time."

Darius turned to all at the table. "We can lament our losses and shout all we want. I know it hurts. I didn't live as long as most of us here at the table. Some saw Vesta ruin the world but let us put down our petty squabbles for now." Darius's features turned serious. "This entire attack was orchestrated either by an enemy kingdom or large organization. Maybe both."

"What makes you say that?" Trian asked the question that came up in most council members.

"One. The attackers that assaulted our walls. Were surprised by the departure of their 'allies' on the inside. So much that most groups called a retreat."

"That retreat was unorganized. Groups also had no real uniformity. Their fighting tactics and style varied heavily. From bandits to honest to gods pirates."

"Pirates?"

"Yes, Pirates."

"The attackers from the plaza were a different beast altogether. As you all heard or saw they used wind gliders. Landed in our plaza and overwhelmed the present guard and slaughtered their way into the cave. They had people on the inside, too. Multiple people started donning slitted masks attacking our guard on the inside. After obducting, they retreated to the skies with their gliders with the help of what we think were wind burst bombs."

A hand rose to ask a question.

"We are still searching for how they hid such gliders but I guess they must have used the caves further higher on the mountains." The hand went down.

"Why were those not checked on patrols?" Another asked.

"Not enough manpower for the outriders. I had to decide between securing our routes to the villages and the main path to Derviu. Still, present bandit attacks forced me to choose the first option. Sending enough riders up the mountain to search the caves became a secondary target."

"But not all is bad news. If those assailants were any sloppy. We can track them through the forest but it will take time and resources. If we even the chance and this wasn't a prelude to war. Interrogation from the few we captured from the plaza takes time."

A member who is a master wood craftsman spoke up.

"They wore masks correct? And assuming they were separate from the wall attackers. Can we try asking around out of what material it was made from? To equip so many people with masks. That's gotta be bought in bulk?"

"This! We can also ask other cities if they had problems with these slit-masked bastards." One of Darius's officers nearly sat up as he spoke. "The member will speak respectfully." Trian scolded.

"Excuse me. I meant invaders. Maybe they reuse those masks for attacks instead of buying a new one for each city, town, or village they attack?"

"That is a good idea." Another member said.

"We will organize it." Trian spoke as a matter of fact.

"I must remind you all," Darius said. "All this will take time. A lot of it.When we are lucky it will be months. If not years. When we catch them and rescue our people. Most will have endured terrible suffering and I don't mean just the body. We elves value our mental health because it is our strongest asset and our biggest weakness. We must prepare for that. Prepare that our loved ones will not be the same. When we rescue them."

"That may be but we have time on our side. If we can not rescue them. We will certainly take our vengeance." Trian said his wrath was barely contained. "Voice," Trian added.

Darius turned to Trian.

"The elven kings must be informed of what has transpired here. Send a party but none of the talented may go. In the case of war, we need every single advantage we need."

"Who would declare war on us? I know that we aren't very much liked by Derviu but would that declare war on us?" A young elf asked.

"We have many enemies but not through any fault of our own," Trian said.

"First Derviu may hate our guts but we are too deeply rooted with them. Our trade and our craftsmanship are needed. Not to speak of the blood relations some of us have. Some of Derviu Lords will be as furious about this attack as we are. They are our neighbor to our west." Trian said.

"The east is the problem in my opinion." Darius said.

"Yes, the east. Nosbara, the 'Wild kingdom'. Derviu is a saint state compared to them. Founded at the time after Vesta. Barbarians all of them." Trian spat.

"Nosbara was founded by a notorious warlord. He blamed elves for Vesta and saw to purging inside his kingdom. The skirmishes with them are always... feverish." Darius said. "But recently they started easing up on their racial hate. They even invited a few into the city from what we heard. They are looking to intermingle with elves. If rumors are to be believed." Darius added.

"Thank the god none of our brothers or sister were foolish enough to take that invitation," Trian said. "To much orc blood in their vein for that to work. Any sane elf would run from those barely human beasts." Trian added.

"What about the north? Reldonis are a danger to us even more so than Nosbara. We don't have a mountain between them and us."

Trian coughed. "You mean those who were hit even worse than us by the feral orc? They wouldn't have the means to lunch even a raid! The trade deal we snubbed from their noses also had weakened them."

"Arent they desperate? Having a few high talents would bolster their forces significantly."

"Only in a few years."

"Or earlier if they threatened to harm friends and family, or magical means but that would be expensive and not too effective in the long run."

"So, that leaves our Lenios to our south," Darius says with slight hesitation.

"That... is very unlikely." An older council member said.

"Is it?" Trian shot. "We never thought we could be attacked and breached in a single day- no not even a day, a few hours is what they needed." Trian shook with anger.

"You think that the Knightly Orders of Lenios would do that? Isn't their whole spiel to be strong and non-reliant on talents?"

"Things can change someone's focus. Most often they change faster for... those races not as gifted as us."

"Let us assume that they need talents because of Nosbara or Derviu."

"That reason?"

"War?"

"A ritual?"

"Maybe someone with a divine talent has become dark and turned people against each other?"

"No sense in wild speculations. We need to make our task clear for the next weeks." Trian finished.

The council chamber was quiet for a few moments. The conversation developed into who does what for the next weeks.

"Come what may. Be it war or deception. We only have our kind in our society to trust." with that this meeting was adjourned by Trian.