Teclis opened the window in his cabin and inhaled the salty sea. He breathed and relaxed as he slumbered down once again to continue with his meditation. He adjusted his ithilmar chestplate and removed it. A large thunk can be heard as it fell, and he removed his chainmail. Ithilmar may be lighter than steel and magicless but it’s still heavy.

He meditated again. Desperately, searching for the answer to the mysterious change in magic. It may be subtle, but he could feel it. The more he tried to sense it, the more it became unknown. Hours upon hours he has spent feeling the winds of magic coursing through his vein to scry the unknown. He didn’t know if it was Chaos or normal magic. Perhaps, this is due to the Great Vortex waning in its strength. Alarmed and terrified, he tried to concentrate once more. He once again felt the entire world climbing his shoulders. He tried to think the consequence of this weird magic. His mind closed in on history. History that has occurred nearly seven thousand years ago, back when the daemons of Chaos invaded the world with their foul magics. He hyperventilated and collapsed into his bed. He could only pray to Asuryan that this new magic would be benevolent in nature and not like Chaos.

A knock on his door brought him back into reality. He was relieved at that and bid the one who’s knocking to enter.

“High Loremaster, you’ve been cooping yourself inside your cabin for weeks. The crew are worried about your health and you still haven’t broken your fast.”

“Ah, it’s relief to see you Lord Athelmar. I’ve been haunted by this mysterious magic for days.” Teclis swept his armour away from his bed and laid down whilst stretching.

“Not just days, Loremaster. It seemed that you’ve been meditating once we’ve left the Straits of Lothern. Maybe before that too.” Athelmar said with a tint of concern.

“You’ve noticed?” He snorted in a way unfit for royalty. “In fact, that’s what forced me to organise this expedition. That anomaly may have been the direct consequences of the Great Vortex waning in its strength. More excess magic may be spilling on our world because of it.”

Athelmar started to sweat and pant at that, “So, the forces of Chaos are being strengthened?” He hurriedly asked.

“I’m not sure. It doesn’t feel like Chaos. I can only hypothesise that this may be new magic coming into our world. Similar to when the daemons invaded our world and unleashed their unholy magic. It may be logical to think that this new magic maybe related to Chaos, but it is likely different. For better or worse.” Teclis drawled the last thing he said.

“It’s not Chaos then…”

“No, it isn’t.”

Athelmar realised his mentor wasn’t exactly pleased when he responded and so questioned him further. “You don’t seem to be pleased with that fact, Loremaster.” He internally winced when he said that. He could tell he wasn’t going to like his mentor’s answer.

“Your right. I don’t. At least we know what Chaos is like. We could prepare for them and prepare the necessary contingencies. But this… This enigma. It’s baffling. The only thing I suggest is to pray that it’s somewhat benevolent in nature.” Teclis was fed up with all this and wanted nothing but to sleep. But his stomach growled angrily and was forced to follow his student to the ship’s eatery.

As he continued to eat, he wondered why he was doing all this. Why he was risking the lives of several thousands of Asurian lives. Was it too seek way fragments to fix the Great Vortex? Or to endlessly grasp the unknown? He was a Loremaster, devoted to the ways of magic. Studying it and exploring ways for it to be expanded. To study the unknown magic was a dream come true but unfortunately, he has to prioritise. He promised to his brother, to his prince, Tyrion, that he would help him gather the way fragments. Ulthuan and the World cannot afford for him to dally around and satiate his curiosity. He must continue collecting it first and foremost.

Teclis remembered when he scried the entire world at the vast White Tower of Hoeth. Numerous colours flooded out and filled the entire room and maybe the entire tower. The multitude of colourful arrays pointed at several locations. Most were in Lustria. Home of the cold-blooded lizards. A race just as old as them and the dwarves. Prideful too. I hope their pride won’t blind them to our common cause. The cause to never ever let Chaos flood our world again.

He stopped eating and quickly went to his cabin, leaving behind Lord Athelmar. He opened his chest and picked up a map and displayed it on his table. Most of the way fragments could be here. That exhaustive scrying spell indicated that it’s here. He rubbed his blood shot eyes and pointed at the map, west of Lustria. ‘The Turtle Isles’ those drunk sailors called it. It’s a long way from here but hopefully we could stock up our supplies on this colony. I hope that its way better than the cities along the Settler’s Coast. He looked out of his window and saw a faint line indicating land. We should be there soon.

He put his ithilmar chestplate and chainmail and put on his cape. He quickly tidied himself in front of a silver mirror and went out.

“Captain Isil. How long can we expect to arrive? I’ve started to see the land ahead.”

“Hail Loremaster, we should be arriving within half an hour.” Isil then sneered. “Another human colony. These humans seem to breed like skaven. Just as ambitious and greedy too.”

A few centuries ago, he would’ve agreed with the captain. In many of ways humans are greedy and ambitious but not in the way that Isil implied. Teclis knew by his past and personal experiences that his fellow Asur could suffer the sin of vanity. Just as bad as the flaws of humanity.

His people do have good reasons to be arrogant and prideful. The High Elves are one the oldest races in the world and one of the races that fought against the scourge of Chaos during the Great Catastrophe. But he knew their numbers were dwindling. As centuries passed, he realised that the number of elves dying outnumbered those of elves being born. Teclis realised this many years ago and yet his people scoffed and ridiculed him for it, to his dismay. He couldn’t care less about people talking behind his back. He only cared about his people no matter how much insults they hurl at him.

Teclis’ mind drifted to his long-departed friend. Magnus the Pious. A person that united the once divided Empire and point its swords, not against itself, but against Chaos. He rallied the armies of the Empire and defeated the Everchosen Asavar Kul. He smiled as he remembered him looking towards him with suspicion when Teclis recommended to build a college of magic. He spent days and weeks trying to convince him, but he eventually relented. Magnus gave him unbelievable amount of power to set up the Colleges of Magic in Altdorf. Ever since that day, humans were now equipped with the winds of magic.

Though it’s shame that they could only use one of the many winds of magic. Nevertheless, humans will play a great role against the forces of Chaos. They will be great allies standing side by side with his fellow people. The High Loremaster looked around the ship and noticed many sneers and looks of disgust. I just hope that the humans would be patient to endure our endless arrogance. He couldn’t help himself shaking his head.

“I want to get on land once again. I don’t care if it’s a stinking hovel.”

“Let’s just hope that they have some nice taverns. I’m getting a bit tired sleeping in a hammock.”

“I just want to use my bow again. Hunt some wild game. Eating fresh meat instead of those salty jerkies.”

Captain Isil heard his crew’s complaints and wasn’t pleased. “Stop your complaining and carry on doing your task!”

Lord Athelmar stood beside Teclis and remained quiet. He knew Teclis’ odd admiration towards humans and didn’t want to do anything that would annoy him. So, he stood dutifully by his side and slightly behind to defer to Teclis’ higher rank.

As they waited, they slowly had a glimpse of the Empire’s colony. Several buildings were built out of yellow-coloured stone and stood several stories high. Some buildings had the Empire’s signature skull engraved in its surface. A busy harbour containing several dozens of ships and the seas surrounding it was littered with fishing and merchant ships. Hundreds of cranes were haphazardly spread out across the piers and docks. Teclis looked up towards the slight hill and noticed a fortress of some kind. Must be the Governor’s palace. Those imperial nobles just love turning their mansions into fortresses.

The Elves expected a disgusting hovel. With a shoddy harbour built by rotten ships. Its streets nothing but mud and the wastes of thousands littering about. They did not expect this.

“Pretty impressive for humans.” Lord Athelmar reluctantly said. “But not as beautiful as the shiny white buildings of Lothern. With gold lining its sides.” He quickly said.

“Of course, it’s not. According to recent information this colony, ‘New Altdorf’, was just settled just over a year ago. Whereas Lothern has existed for thousands of years. The humans can be industrious and productive when they want to be. I’m guessing most colonists that built this city were the poor and starving of Altdorf.”

“How does that make them more productive?” The Captain asked and hid a smirk.

“They’re building their own house. Most likely they didn’t even have a house back in the Old World.” He stared at the bustling harbour. “It’s very impressive isn’t it? Much better than those cities back in the Settler’s coast. They must’ve stopped and resupplied in those hell’s pits and vowed not to build their city like that.” Teclis chuckled and scanned around for other reactions from his fellow elves. Seeing their looks of awe made Teclis feel vindicated. Perhaps this will humble them. It’ll be useful to encourage them to build a settlement in the Turtle Isles. Use their arrogance against them.

“They’ve stolen the stone from the abandoned ruins and temples. That’s why they managed to build this quickly.” Athelmar huffed and rolled his eyes.

“Looks like there’s a delegation prepared for us. They must’ve spotted us earlier. Now let us meet these brave colonists.” Teclis urged Athelmar with him and waited for the ship to dock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hervig couldn’t stop staring towards the Elven ships. All of the four dozen ships displayed a golden eagle as their figureheads on the bow of the ships. All of the sails showed the blue star and, in the background, a golden phoenix spreading its wings. After seeing the procession of ships, he felt excited but a bit nervous to deal with the High Elves again. Remember, they like being called ‘Asure’ and you must suck up to them and ignore their snide remarks. He remembered his dealings with them and thanked Admiral Hofstein for giving him notice of their arrival.

He spotted a large ship coloured entirely in white with a tiny castle as its aftcastle. It had three masts that soared through the sky. He did a cursory glance again and noticed that this ship was the biggest and was approaching their largest pier.

Someone must be very important in that ship and it wants to see us. He urged his welcoming party towards the pier and prepared a standard ceremony for welcoming a diplomat. A diplomat representing one of the most powerful nations in the world. I can’t afford to screw this up. Lord Klaus put faith in me to deal with these stuck up elves. I’ll have to put in twice the effort to be nice to them, but I’ll put the effort regardless.

He looked back where Emma was and smiled as he saw her carrying Reinhard. His son then gave him a clumsy wave. Our baby is growing up! He’s now one year old and could stand up and walk! It’s a shame that his first word wasn’t ‘pappa’. He remembered Emma gloating about this, and he couldn’t believe it. He said ‘mamma’ first! What did she do to my baby!? His internal ramblings made him not notice the large ship docking.

“Lord Hanoschaft, please focus. The Asurian delegates are now coming down the ramparts.” Ernst chided him and politely pointed towards the elves.

Hervig immediately straightened up and adjusted his cravat and his black imperial bonnet. He approached the elves and did his rictus smile.

“Hail Asur of Ulthuan. My name is Hervig Hanoschaft and a councillor in service to Lord Klaus von Stanhelm. To what pleasure do you visit us?” He craned his neck forward and bowed forward.

The group of elves seem to be satisfied by his display as evident by their stare and their huff in approval. He trained his eye upon the individual with a purple cape and long shining pauldrons on his shoulders. He noticed that there was a person’s face sculpted into the elf’s chestplate and how he carried a staff inlaid with gold and shaped into a phoenix. Instantly, Hervig recognised him as the leader of this fleet and some kind of mage.

The Elven mage approached him and, oddly, gave him a polite greeting. “Hark, Lord Hanoschaft. It’s a pleasure meeting you. My name is Teclis, High Loremaster of Hoeth and Warden of the White Tower. We have come to visit your beautiful city and to stock up our supplies. Supplies that would feed nearly fifteen thousand people.”

Fifteen thousand? Are they planning to colonise the New World as well? Wait… Teclis… Teclis! That legendary elf that helped Magnus the Pious against Asavar Kul and the one who founded the Colleges of Magic? Why is he here? He faintly shook his head and remained focus.

“That seems to be a lot of people Lord Teclis. We number slightly more than that and it will be difficult to gather those supplies in short notice without making our people starve.”

“Listen, human, we know that you have enough food to feed your people and much more than that. Most of the non-perishables we’ve brought from the Settler’s Coast came from here! So, don’t lie in front of Prince Tyrion’s brother!” A wider and broad-shouldered elf shouted in dismay and looked ready to unsheathe his sword. “I know humans can be greedy but not this greedy to allow thousands to starve.” Several of the elven retinues listened and nodded in approval.

“That’s enough Lord Athelmar. I’m sure Lord Hanoschaft has good reasons to why they don’t have enough provisions.” Teclis was quick to raise his hand towards his subordinate and bid him to calm down.

Hervig was careful not to wipe his sweat from his forehead and tried to relax his breathing. He looked to Lord Athelmar and placatingly smiled towards him. “You have my apologies Lord Athelmar, but Lord Teclis is right. There has been some raiding along the Scorpion’s Coast and Lord Stanhelm, the Governor of this colony, has set off to subdue them. He has told me to represent him and to apologise on his behalf that he’s not able to attend to you.”

Athelmar snorted and puffed his chest out. Fortunately, he let go of his sheathed sword. “Are you being disrespectful? Are we going to negotiate in this pier and not give your guests some shelter? We’re a bit tired from spending couple of months in the sea.”

“It’s not my intent to be disrespectful Lord Athelmar. Please come and follow us. Rooms have been prepared for you to use at your leisure up in the Governor’s palace.”

Hervig led them to Mannan’s Street where several carriages were waiting for them. He saw his aide following closely behind him and noticed that he was fidgeting. “What’s the matter Ernst? Already afraid of High Elves?” He jokingly teased the young man.

“Umm… Sort of Lord Hervig. They looked ready to pounce and kill us.”

“I have to admit, I did start sweating more when I saw him touching his sword. Elves typically do this to intimidate especially when negotiations are about to start. Looks like they rehearsed it well.” Hervig then noticed Lord Teclis coming towards them along Athelmar and invited them to enter his carriage.

“I rather ride a horse. I don’t trust anything that’s made by human hands.”

“Lord Athelmar please respect your host and sit beside me. I assure you; it’ll be for the best. After being out in the sea for months, you’ll find it hard to balance on a horse.” Teclis then sharpened his gaze and his subordinate then acquiesced and entered the carriage.

Several minutes of awkward silence fell inside the carriage and Hervig couldn’t handle any of it and started a conversation. “Lord Teclis, may I ask a question. Just for my curiosity that’s all.”

Teclis sincerely smiled towards him and gave a nod.

“You’re the one that guided Emperor Magnus towards victory, right?” Hervig said with boyish enthusiasm which also sparked some interest from Ernst.

“Please, you give me far too much credit. He led himself to victory. He united a fractured Empire and made it great again. I simply aided him against Chaos’ foul magics.”

He did not expect a humble answer and nearly opened his mouth in surprise. He gulped down and actually smiled. “Your humility is truly astounding Lord Teclis. You have far too much in your name and equipped the Empire with powerful magics.” Hervig casted a snide glance towards Athelmar and was thankful he was looking out towards the window. “What was Magnus the Pious really like?” He said with no thought and he mentally screamed.

Teclis hummed in thought and quirked his eyebrows. “Why do you want to know?”

Hervig smiled but gritted his teeth inside. “I-I was just curious. When you study history from books you often overlook the personalities of people written in history. I’m curious what he was like from a personal perspective and not just from books.”

“You have an inquisitive mind and I respect that. Very well, I’ll tell you and I’ll start by saying that most of the things in those books say about him are right. He was brave, cunning and pious. He knew how to inspire his men and knew the ways of war as if it’s second nature to him. But I know you didn’t want to know that, so I’ll say that he was a bit of a lecher.” Teclis paused and was amused by the imperials look of shock. “He would often touch the backsides of ladies he found beautiful. Of course, that particular bad habit thankfully waned as he grew old. But he never had a wife because he knew he would be unfaithful towards her.”

Teclis continued his story about his friend as if he were alive until they arrived in the Governor’s Palace.

Skulls were engraved in the walls of the gatehouse and it waved the red imperial flag displaying two griffons staring at each other with a warhammer between them.

They stepped out of the carriage and Hervig introduced them to the steward. “This is Herr Rondel, and he should be responsible for your comfortable stay in the palace. Please if you need anything, contact him first.”

Teclis introduced himself but his other retinue simply stood and stared. This is not how you should be behaving especially towards the people that you’re going to beg food from! Hervig suppressed his anger and stared at the Loremaster. At least your leader is polite. If he wasn’t Teclis then we’ll drive you off with our handguns!

“We’ll discuss your need of supplies tomorrow. You must be tired so please rest.” Hervig gave them a polite nod and walked towards his new office in the palace.

“Wait, Lord Hanoschaft. Do we have permission to let our people into your lovely city? Some of them are agitated by being on the sea for so long.” Teclis pleaded which caused a few silent scoffs from his retinue.

“As long as they behave themselves and follow our laws then we’ll see no problem Lord Teclis.” Hervig swallowed and tried to clear a phantom lump in his throat. I really hope that they behave. Suddenly, he thought of something. Yes, that’s it! “Perhaps, some of them can volunteer and assist with suppressing the reavers.” It will be good if you helped us kill your evil cousins.

“You need our help human?” Athelmar sneered.

“We can perfectly solve this problem by ourselves. But the sooner they’re repulsed, the sooner we can harvest the food that may feed your people.” There’s no point trying to appear strong towards the eyes of the Asur. No matter what humans do, they’ll always look at us like were savage barbarians. This may hopefully cause the troublesome and bloodthirsty elves off the city, and they can go off and kill their ‘dark’ cousins. A win-win situation for us! Unfortunately, it would mean we would sell them our supplies at a cheaper cost but that doesn’t matter when you have Dark Elves reaving across the countryside!

“I’m sure some of us will volunteer my lord. They have my blessings to do so. I’ll also assist. I admit to being a bit bored whilst on the sea and I want to unleash some magics to vent off.” The other elves nodded at that and grinned.

Is it good that they’re so enthusiastic?