Darius woke up and yawned his sleep away. Raiga was already awake in his head. Took you long enough. I was starting to get bored up here. "Strange hearing that from the king of beauty sleep." Raiga grumbled a response. "So are you planning on staying in my head the entire time we're here?" You expecting people to be fine with a dragon casually wondering around their home? "Good point." He got up, stretched, and went down stairs to see what the plan was for today. He saw Montagor eating his breakfast and noticed the twins weren't there.
"Ah Darius. Was beginning to wonder if you had died up there. The boys are already gone. I've set out some other clothes for you. The ones I gave you yesterday seemed a tad bit snug." Darius silently breathed a sigh of relief. His new outfit consisted of a much larger white cotton shirt with black pants and boots to accompany them. They obviously weren't Montagor's clothes, but seeing as they fit much better he didn't question it. "Breakfast is here for you. We can leave whenever you're ready." He looked at all the remaining food on the table. "Gimme ten minutes."
***********
Fenris and his brother had made their way into the market place and were headed towards the council's oak. It was the largest tree in the city, and was specially grown using secret Elven magic that allowed them almost full control of the forest plant life. "I'm not looking forward to this." Faelar spoke solemnly. Fenris knew that even though his brother said he stopped caring about their people's opinions, deep down he wished to belong and be accepted. As his brother, it was Fenris's job to be there for him at times like these. "Everything will be fine. We'll be in and out. Just breathe and relax." Faelar began breathing rapidly until he made himself lighted headed. "Not that fast you idiot! Slow breaths." Fenris demonstrated and Faelar followed his example.
By the time they reached the council's oak, Faelar had steeled himself. "You ready little brother?" "Yeah let's get this over with. Wait a minute little?" His argument was cut short as they walked into the council's waiting area. The elf sitting at the desk gave them a look of disgust. "Back so soon? And alive at that." Fenris spoke in an emotionless tone looking the rude elf in his eyes. "We're here to see the council." "Hm. So it would seem." The elf closed his eyes for a minute and seem to concentrate. When he opened them he spoke again. "Up the stairs. They'll see you now."
They made their way up a long flight of winding stairs that led to a massive room lit by floating orbs of light, and the massive window that circled the entire upper wall. At a high table sat five elves all dressed in the long, white, gold inlaid tunics that showed that they were members of the council. On top of their tunics they each wore a different colored silk overcoat. They were all masters class sages, but their overcoat's color represented their speciality. The one dressed in red, who sat in the middle, had the normal flawless features of the elves except for a scar that ran the length of his left cheek to his lip. He was the head of the council despite being the youngest. He was a 8th level arcane pyromancer that had proven himself greatly in the demon wars. His name was Naertho, and despite his youthful looks, he was well over two thousand years old. And despite his rather warm demeanor, he hated the twins. The scar on his face was a memory of his time in battle centuries ago. It reminded him of the atrocities the demons were capable of, but it also reminded him that the twins had that same foul blood flowing in their veins.
His hate for them was only overshadowed by his hate for their mother. She who had forgone his offer of betrothal and had instead bore the seed of a member of the demon race. As much as he hated them he couldn't openly express it as the council had to remain impartial to all of their people. Thus he tweaked their trials instead. Normally an elf who wanted to become a warrior would undergo a simple hunt: bring back the carcass of a wild boar, slay a giant spider, kill and bring the pelt of a dire wolf, etc.
Their trial was different. He had assigned them to slay a bark beast instead of an animal. Worse, was that he had assigned them to do it unarmed, which was unheard of in elven history. Bark beasts were monsters that usually required the upper echelon of their warriors to bring down. Not only that, but it was the trial undertaken by the adolescents of the savage Black Tusk Orc tribe that lived in the western part of the Telvanni Forest. He saw the twins as abominations, much like the orcs themselves, so he treated them as such.
Fenris had no intention of making excuses for failing the ridiculous trial they were given. He simply came to tell them the result and leave. They approached the table and were met with the contempt filled stairs of the council. As the head of the council, Naertho took the lead. "Fenris Lorarel and Faelar Lorarel, you were sent to hunt and take the head of a bark beast in the southern portion of our great Telvanni Forest. We expected great results from you two, yet I don't see the fruits of your labor."
Faelar turned to calm Fenris on instinct, but Fenris kept his cool. His anger didn't even make its way into his voice. "We failed sir. We were unable to take the head of one of the bark beasts." Naertho of course had expected them to fail. He had given them an impossible task after all, but what he hadn't expected was the calm with which Fenris delivered their report. In the past Fenris hadn't possessed the capacity to restrain himself, but something seemed to have changed. He pressed on almost disappointedly.
"That's unfortunate. You may resume your trial at a later date then. On to another report I received yesterday. I was told you brought a human back with you, and that together you ambushed and attacked Gael. Is this true?" Fenris had expected Gael to twist what happened. Though what he said wasn't completely wrong, excluding Darius, they did attempt to kill Gael. The only thing they could do is tell the truth.
He explained what actually happened and a chorus of anger rippled through the council. A council member, who's brown coat marked him as a geomancer, spoke above the rest. "This is a confession of the attempted murder of one of our own! They should be executed for their crimes! I put forth a vote of the council." Several of the orbs of light came down and coalesced into one massive orb. The white light dissipated from the middle until the orb resembled a giant bubble. "All those in favor, cast your vote now."
Three of them immediately pointed their hands, palms out, and shot beams of light that corresponded to their coats. Beams colored brown, blue, and dark green all shot into the orb at the same time. The beams began swimming around the interior of the orb as if trying to find a way to escape. Two council members hadn't moved. Naertho and the oldest looking elf in the room, who's coat was solid black, both sat unmoving. A short period of silence passed before Naertho spoke. "I believe that I speak for the both of us when I say death is too severe of a punishment when we only have two sides of the story." The other elves erupted in protest. Naertho tried to calm them down, while the black coated elf simply sat and watched the twins. His bright green eyes held nothing in them, but it almost seemed as if he were studying them. His demeanor, combine with his fair skin and long white hair, made him seem almost vampiric.
As Naertho finally got the others under control he spoke again. "I agree, that they should be punished if what we heard is true, but if their words are also true, they aren't the only ones at fault." The blue coated elf seemed to almost spit his response to Naertho's words. "As much as I respect Vaeril and you, they are abominations. They are the spawn of one our own and evil incarnate. You really expect them not to come up with some fake story to make their actions seem reasonable?" Naertho spoke to him in a calming tone. "I see your point, but we only have the words of three of the involved. I think I speak for myself and Vaeril when I say I vote that the Lorarels be imprisoned until the human is brought here to verify the story." More silence, later followed by the nods of the three angry council members. Naertho and the others looked at the black coated elf, who had remained silent through the whole ordeal, and he nodded his approval. With that, the twins were escorted by four guards through a side door that had been revealed through the use of magic. They were taken to the dungeons and thrown into a cell to await their fate.
The meeting had adjourned, and the council was dispersing. Naertho looked to find Vaeril then cursed when he saw that he was no where to be found. As much as Naertho had wanted to agree with the others and condemn the twins to death, he wanted the respect of the eldest elf in the village more. Having his approval would cement his position for centuries, and he had intended on speaking to him after the meeting to see how well he had done. His plan, which had came to him during the meeting, had been to use his position to acquire the human that Montagor was keeping from him and gain the approval of Vaeril in the process.
All he had to do was withhold his vote. Everyone on the council got one vote except for the head, himself, who got two. To make a decision the majority must be clear. He figured Vaeril would withhold his vote, so if he had withheld his own as well that would have split the vote three to three. Afterward he would make his counter proposal and seek the guidance of his elder. He had only accomplished two of those goals, but he wasn't going to give up on the second so easily. He ordered an armed guard to be sent to find and retrieve the human, and then set out to find Vaeril.
***********
Hours later, Fenris and Faelar both sat in silence before Fenris spoke up. "Well this didn't exactly go as planned." Faelar remained quiet. "Hey. Fae. Say something. Don't let me sit here and talk to myself." Faelar only said one word. "Why?" Fenris, who didn't understand his question, immediately responded with, "Why? Because we're in a rather unpleasant predicament right now, and I'd rather chat then sit and sulk in silence." "No. Why did Naertho help us, or the other one for that matter? Naertho hates our guts, and we've never even met the other elder." "He has to be working on some type of convoluted plan. There's no way he'd help us without serious gain for himself."
At his words the floor in front of their cell began to rumble. The dungeons were empty so they didn't know what was going on. They both simply backed away several feet to the wall behind them. The floor spasmed and molded itself into a smooth flat bench. They both stared in confusion. Immediately afterwards the door, which was just a wall of the tree that was raised and lowered at will, began to lower. They couldn't see who was coming, they only heard their foot steps as they came down the stairs to their cell. They tensed but ultimately could do nothing but wait in their cell. They weren't bound or anything, but fighting in such a confined space with no weapons would be nearly impossible.
The owner of the footsteps finally came around the corner to reveal the elf in the black coat that hadn't spoken during their meeting. He walked into the room and sat down on the bench. He stared at them with what seemed to be sorrow in his eyes then he spoke. "I'm terribly sorry for your predicament. I never wished this upon you, and you've done nothing but suffer your entire lives because of it. Today I'll start to right those wrongs."
Fenris and Faelar, who were previously tensed, were now confused again. This elf, who even Naertho seemed to respect, had actually genuinely apologized to them. "Um I think we're both a little confused as to what's going on here. "Ah. That's my fault. I'm sure you probably don't know who I am. My name is Vaeril. I regret to have to say this, but it was I who put those seals on your backs." As he spoke he bowed his head in apology. Fenris and Faelar were both stunned. "I understand you probably have questions, but there is no time. Here."
He slid two black glass bottles through their cell bars. "As it stands now, I am the only one capable of breaking your seals. These potions will weaken your seals enough so that Montagor may break them when he comes to set you free." He began to get up and leave, before being stopped by Faelar. "Set us free? How do you know he's coming to set us free? How does he even know where we are?" The old elf turned to him and grinned. "Because I told him of course. Just know you have more friends here than you think. Ah yes I almost forgot. Before I go, Fenris I want you to know that I approve." With that, he walked back up the stairs and disappeared.