Chapter 88 - Approach

Selera looked back down the strangely silent street, the wide thoroughfare that ran from the heart of the docks, directly up the low rise to the Enclave’s defensive outer walls. A strangely well preserved fortification made of steel and hard-wearing stone, built to repel foes before the destruction of the world. Beyond it was the compound, once a mighty fortress of war, it also untouched by the cataclysm that ravaged the landscape. It was believed that it had been abandoned before the fall, its warriors never filling the corridors or needing to defend its walls.

The founders of the Enclave, those exiled human souls who found their way here through the deserts, claimed it as their own many thousands of years earlier. Since then it grew into one of the many havens for the human species, no longer trusted among the elder races. A distrust that was earnt by the heart of greed and the human’s pursuit to dominate all others at the cost of the world, plunging it into a war of sci and tech.

She turned, hearing a door hurridly being closed across the way, her eyes searching momentarily before turning back to the looming and impressive wall infront of them. Selera heard a dark chuckle come from the powerful woman walking beside her.

“The way they’re acting, you would think they’re scared of us.” said Wrenna, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

“They are Wrenna, though they needn’t be.” Selera said in response, her black hair shifting, a few strands sliding across her face.

“The whole city believed you lot were blown to pieces, to see the Wolf in dock and the manner it returned in.” Wrenna lowered her voice, “They have the right to be in fear, the way the Enclave runs things. They hammer it into the young’uns, make sure they understand that magic is the work of the ‘devil’, whatever that is. Magic is heresy and against the law unless they decide it otherwise. They even made their own cult-like religion here, where only the artifacts of the old world have worth.”

“I never saw it that way, this past year.” said Selera.

“You had it easy coming here, they installed you directly to replace your parents, gave you their private rooms, kept you busy. Assigned you an assistant to watch your movements, to keep an eye on you. Have you ever been into the darker parts of the city, the slums, maybe? They warn you to not perform your skills among the people?” Wrenna asked, looking at her.

Selera nodded, “They kept me on task, if that’s what you are meaning. I noticed that I was always tailed, three, sometimes four… Gods, Mother and Father, they would have…”

“Yes, they managed to give their escorts the slip many a time, I still am not sure what your parents were up to, but it was something not to do with the demands of the Chancellor. I still have the feeling that their passing was no coincidence. That bastard wanted them dead, just like he sent the fools after the Wolf.” Wrenna spat.

“What are you saying, Wrenna?”

“I am saying that in the four years I have been in this city, taking stock and watching the goings on, elven and dwarven experts have entered, lured by good pay. Only to die strange deaths when their use was at an end.” she walked closer to Selera, their shoulders touching, “Some would leave, finishing their time with a smile on their face. And one of my people would find them dead, half eaten by the sand beasts in a shallow grave less than a day’s travel from the gates. Other’s were like your parents, die on the job in unexplainable accidents.”

Selera kept on walking, her steps light, “I suspected as such.”

“Ho? You could see it, yet you remained! Did you hope to try and work it out yourself? I’ll bet they won’t even tell you where they were when they died. Just some dig in the desert, mustn’t have been far that they could leave the children in the care of a minder.” Wrenna said, nudging Selera with a shoulder, the fortress wall looming over them.

“It is one thing to make a person or two disappear. But they are remarkably dense, thinking that they could take the Wolf and crew in the open water under full sail.” Wrenna fell quiet for a moment, “A question, that red-cloaked something, what was your impression?”

“He was laughing with mirth as I destroyed the enemy.” Selera frowned, “Not at me, but as if he was proven correct.”

Wrenna raised an eyebrow, “He was laughing? Then that is a good sign. Maybe the Chancellor has lost his dog.”

Selera glanced about curiously, there were no guards rushing out to stop them and the usual gatekeepers barely noted their approach, just nodding to them in recognition.

Wrenna glanced at her, laughing, “You expecting them to jump out and grab us? They wouldn’t dare, the Chancellor likes to work from the shadows, blame it on an accident. Believe me when I say, they will deny that anything even happened before dawn. If enough people question, they will say it was a sudden mist or they activated a marvel of the old world, the sewage had a blockage, a defense mechanism of the fortress, anything but admit to it being magic or sorcery.”

Wrenna looked about, waiting until they passed through the tunnel and out to other side of the wall, “They are cowards, but they are intelligent cowards. Don’t expect to gain an audience with the Chancellor either. I know you have your head set on it.”

Selera shot Wrenna a sharp glance, “I will try.”

Wrenna shrugged, a smile on her lips. They walked across the courtyard and entered the main building. A few people greeting the women as they walked.

“Who is that girl, Lili?” Selera said, breaking the silence.

“The one Illias has been sweet on? That girl is older than you, though your thread makes things a little different. I found her wandering the streets not long after I arrived here. She’s the daughter of the one I was sent to investigate the disappearance of.”

Selera looked across at Wrenna questioningly, “But hasn’t Illias been?”

“Having the run of the whorehouses? No, he just talks, drinks, talks some more. He’s always been that way, the calmest I have ever seen him is with Lili, or passed out. He spends his time with her, just talking quietly with her in her room, or holding her hand. Or, on the rooftop. I don’t think he has even kissed her yet.”

Selera’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “But he is always trying to make his way with the women. The other night even, he was untoward…”

“Have you ever seen him actually with one? He is all bark, no bite. He’s a self destructive asshole, but there is a true heart in there. Before your time, I have watched him destroy a small fleet of pirates while tottering on his feet, barely standing, then falling overboard passed out, still clutching a bottle. Since you and the fyrelf boarded, he has had nothing to do, and those children, your sister in particular have had an effect on him.”

“Did you know?” asked Selera, passing into the shade of the building, the heat of the day already growing.

Wrenna shook her head, “Illias? I found out this morning when he arrived. I have known them both for centuries before I even,” she gestured to her missing eye, “I knew they were keeping quiet about something, but to find out they are the surviving remnants of the old order of Aldaliss?”

She paused for a moment, shaking her head, “The order was destroyed, Selera; physically destroyed, ground into the dust. Wiped off the battlefield, a disastrous routing of some of the best.”

“I can understand his pain. To lose his betrothed, to regret living after…” said Selera.

“Is that what he told you? No, not betrothed; Lord Septye sees Illias as his late daughter’s husband.”

Selera rubbed the side of her face, wincing, sharing a glance with Wrenna. They stopped just inside the atrium of the fortress.

“What of my husband, Alletair? He was there too.”

Wrenna smiled, taking Selera by the arm and guiding her to the inner garden and sitting on a bench.

“He was there, I have a suspicion. I knew of the war when I was a child, we were taught about the folly. A lesson to all. I am sure when he is ready he will tell you what causes him to cry in the night. And maybe, if I am lucky, I will find out the truth of him before I meet my end.”

Selera smiled, frowning, facing Wrenna, “We have been talking like old friends, yet I only met you just after dawn. Why did you leave him, Wrenna?”

“I was waiting for this question, after you refused me jumping on him earlier.”

“Did you,” Selera asked, catching Wrenna’s glance and bittersweet smile.

“Yes, you got me there. I made it my choice.” she said, brushing her thick, tawny, grey streaked hair back over her shoulder.

“I did not want too much of a good thing, else it went sour. He carries the thread, it was inevitable. He will live longer, your time with him will lengthen his span, keep him younger, even for an elf.” Wrenna chuckled, the skin around her eye leaving crow’s feet.

“You see, young one, I am awfully close to nearing three quarters of a millennia.” she met Selera’s eyes with a warm smile, “Thanks to my elven blood. But I don’t have much left. I have started aging, Selera, and fast. I still have my body, but my edge is blunt. I can hold my own in a brawl, but I have to take more hits than I should. In all truth, I would count myself lucky to see eight centuries.”

“It is the curse of the elder races, to watch others wither and die, I had a very memorable couple of decades at his side and in his embrace. I wanted to end it on my terms, not have him taken away from me when I least expected it by destiny or my old age. I will take that special time to my grave.”

Selera smiled, her eyes clouding slightly, “You still care for him.”

Wrenna chuckled, “Like that isn’t half obvious, why wouldn’t I? I love him, maybe it’s my dwarven blood speaking, but I can’t lay claim to what isn’t mine to begin with. I can only enjoy it for a while.”

She smiled, gesturing to her face and then the rest of herself, “I mean, he saw past this! He saw me for who I am. I think it helps that we came from the same place.”

Selera looked at her curiously and Wrenna laughed “No, it is not my place to divulge his secrets. You being his wife or not, my time was my time, if you get my meaning.” Wrenna said while patting Selera’s leg, her eye flickering over the elf’s shoulder momentarily, catching movement.

“I can honestly say; I am happy that he now has you. Keep him safe, Selera.”

Selera nodded, looking over her shoulder to the warrior figure of a woman who stood at a respectable distance. Selera nodded, looking back to Wrenna.

“There is someone that needs a word with me, I will wait here, when you have gathered your things, meet with me and we will take anything else you need and return to the ship.”

“I have nothing of importance that will not fit in a single bag.” said Selera.

Wrenna smiled, “Then that makes it easier.”

Shadow of the Eclipse: Chapter Timeline

(Click to enlarge in new tab)