"I need to post an emergency mission." Nathan urgently said to the clerk at the Mercenaries Association.
It was the day after Sylvia was supposed to return, and there was still no sign of them. He'd already sent out a group of ten men to start searching, now he was posting a mission to compliment their numbers.
"What is the mission you need to post." The clerk said, not bothered by Nathan's agitated mood.
"A search party to find Lady Bishore, she was supposed to return yesterday from the forest, but never did." Nathan was practically shouting.
"And the reward?"
"Five silver for every participant, two gold for the ones to find her, or any clues to her location." Nathan said, he was prepared to pay more to get the maximum number of people possible.
The clerk nodded his head, writing everything on a notice in big red letters. An emergency mission posting had a fee that needed to be paid before it could be posted, but it would be the biggest posting on the board and written in bold, bright letters, to grab the most attention.
"Alright, the fee will be ten silver coins." The clerk said.
Nathan was already prepared, handing over the money immediately.
"I'll post this right away then."
The clerk rushed over to the mission board and tacked up the notice. It took up half the board, covering many of the other notices. Nathan was relieved to see that the group of mercenaries the clerk pushed through were already interested in it. It would take a few hours to gather enough people, but the more he could employ, the better the chance to find her.
While he waited for the mission to attract maximum attention, Nathan would pay a visit to Lord Lear's manor. It was a slim chance, but he was hoping that he could spare some of his guards, and maybe the city guards, to assist in the search. No matter if they found any clues or not, at the end of the day he would still need to contact Lord Bishore, he was not looking forward to that.
............….
Sylvia was having a fantastic dream, she was wearing a gorgeous wedding dress. It had a simple design, no long trains or exaggerated skirt. It was pure white, even making her fair skin look tan, and was slim fitting, flaring out slightly at the bottom. She had her hair done up in a simple braid, with wildflowers in her hair.
Her father and mother were in the front row of the audience, with happy smiles on their faces. Elves were also in attendance, wearing their fine, flowing robes. The man standing across from her was also wearing white. His rough, strong hands holding hers while he was repeating his vows. Just him standing there made her feel safe, like nothing in the world could harm her.
Every time he said her name, her heart would feel a warmth grow inside of it.
"Sylvia."
Her smile would get bigger.
"Sylvia!"
And bigger.
"SYLVIA!"
She opened her eyes, across from her was the man from her dream, her smile got even wider.
Marcus looked down at Sylvia, he was just trying to rouse her from her slumber, but for some reason she was smiling like a lunatic. The look he was getting from her made him feel a little awkward, but pushed it off as just coming out of sleep.
"It's time to get up, it's almost noon." Marcus told the smiling Sylvia.
"Mmmm, already?" She asked, stretching her body.
"Yeah, they let us sleep in. We don't really have anything to do for the next two weeks, did you have anything in mind?" He asked her, standing up to go get a cup of tea.
The maid had brought in some tea and a small breakfast a little earlier. It consisted of some type of pastry with vegetables in it and cheese. Marcus had to say that the pastries had a very unique, but delicious flavor. The tea was exceptional as well, although he preferred coffee, the tea the elves brewed surpassed all his expectations.
Marcus brought Sylvia over a cup of tea as well, she took it with both hands and started to sip it.
"This is good." She complimented.
"I thought so too, it's earthy, but sweet at the same time, very unique." Marcus said seriously.
"Look at you, a connoisseur. Ha!" Sylvia giggled, teasing him.
"Whatever." He said, waving his hand.
"So I'll ask again, what do you want to do today?"
"Let's go exploring the city! There's so much I want to look at." She said, a wave of excitement washing over her.
"Alright, I had the same idea. I'll wait for you outside then, when you're ready, come find me."
Marcus and Sylvia left the medium sized manor, and into the refreshing air of the elven city. Rays of light shone through the gaps in the trees, pillars of light flickering along with the breeze. Aldywen's manor was built into the oldest tree of the village, the tree itself was some three-hundred feet tall, with the trunk fifty feet in diameter. Although it was built in the tree, it looked as if they allowed the tree to grow around it, they didn't carve into it.
Although the elves coexisted with nature, that didn't mean there was no industrialization. Marcus could see smoke from forges, and some places where they cleared some trees to allow for pastures and farm space. The farms were just much smaller than what a human city would maintain, he figured that anything grown on a farm here would be considered a luxury, not a regular staple.
The atmosphere of the city was also a stark contrast to the human cities he was used to, even from the ones on earth. There was no hustle and bustle, the elves weren't rushing around to buy goods, or to sell them. That's not to say there weren't any shops or stalls, it was just that the elves would quietly wait their turn if there was a line, not bothered in the slightest to wait. There was only one word to describe the city, peaceful.
News had already spread about the humans that have visited their city. Many elves would look at them with gazes of curiosity, but would do no more than that. Marcus and Sylvia were left alone, none of the elves bothered them or tried to approach them. The only thing that bothered their walk around the city was the two 'escorts' that were keeping an eye on them.
Sylvia was wrapped around Marcus's arm with a smile on her face. They'd been walking for an hour now, but had only seen about a third of the city. Sylvia had wanted to make the trip to the Frontier to observe nature, not just because it was her hobby, but she was hoping to discover something new, something that would make her name go down in history. Looking at the magical scenery around her, she could most definitely say that she had. She just couldn't tell anyone about it, but she wasn't thinking about that small issue.
While Sylvia daydreamed on his arm, Marcus was looking around for anything of interest. He spotted a large shop that was covered in vines as thick as his arm. Smoke was coming from the back, it wasn't thick, black smoke, but thin wisps of blue smoke. A sign was hanging over the front door, but it was in elvish, so he had no idea what it said, but the fact that it had a sword and helmet carved below the words gave him an idea of what it was.
"Let's go and look in there." Marcus drug Sylvia out of her own little world with his words.
"Sure." She simply replied, keeping her head leaned against his arm.
Marcus's expectations were justified, as they walked into the shop he could see the arms and armor. There were swords, axes, shields, and full plate armor, all lining the walls and placed on mannequins. The only difference from a human store was that every single piece of equipment here was akin to a work of art. If Marcus had to guess, each piece would have taken countless hours to forge and engrave.
"Welcome!" A loud voice came from behind the shelves.
Soon, an elf came from around the tall shelves walking towards them. Once the elf saw who had entered his shop, he paused. The look on his face faltered for only a second, before he put the smile back on his face and greeted them once more.
"Welcome to our shop, it is a pleasure to meet the visitors from the human world. How can I help you?" The store clerk said in one breath.
"We're just exploring your city and saw your store." Marcus said with a pleasant tone.
The middle aged looking elven clerk looked at Marcus with a questioning gaze, then pointed to his ear and shook his head.
"Sylvia, let me borrow your earpiece." Marcus asked, holding out his hand.
Taking the enchanted item from her, he then handed it to the clerk. After putting the item in his ear, Marcus tried again.
"We were just exploring the city and saw your store. I hope you don't mind us paying you a visit." Marcus said.
The clerk nodded his head. "Of course not, feel free to look around all you please."
He then looked over to the two escorting elves, they had weapons on them and looked quite bored.
"If you decide to purchase anything, I'm sure we can negotiate a price."
Marcus had a look of realization come over his face. "What do you use as currency? I didn't even think about that."
"We have our own coinage, but we do except gold, so your gold coins wouldn't be completely useless here." The clerk reassured him.
"I'll leave you to it then, if you need any assistance, just let me know." With a smile, the clerk returned to what he was doing before.
It was hard for Marcus to hide his excitement, he was like a kid in a candy store. Back on earth, he was never really much into guns, or knives, or anything like that. Once he came to this world though, it changed. In this world, what kind of weapon you wielded affected your image and was a sign of your wealth. So naturally anyone would gravitate to the best, most aesthetically pleasing weapon they could afford. And in this store, there was no shortage of choices.
Marcus and Sylvia split up, each had their own personal escort, keeping a particularly close eye on them in the store. There were no warhammers that he could see, he doubted that any elf fought the way he did. Most of the weapons were swords with fantastical etchings, each different, but all of them were painstakingly made with care.
The hammer that Marcus was forced to leave behind was well made, and he had no issues with the engraving, but there was no comparing it to any of these. He picked up a long sword, the base metal was silver in color. It had what looked like vines down the spine of the sword, etched into the metal with gold. When he turned the sword over in his hand, the silver metal reflected iridescent light back to him. He'd never seen anything like it before.
Continuing to window shop, he walked up to a mannequin that had a full set of plate armor attached to it. It had the same base metal as the sword, silver, until the light hit the right spot, then it would be a spectacular iridescent glow. The helmet was closed, leaving only slits that the user could look out of. Horns spiraled off of the sides where your ears would be, most likely to make the helmet more comfortable to wear. It was very showy armor, Marcus didn't know how well it would work in actual battle though.
After browsing for a little while longer, he met back up with Sylvia. She was looking at the expertly crafted daggers closest to the counter.
"You ready to go?" He asked.
"Yeah, but do you want to buy anything?" She asked, looking at his empty hands.
"We have plenty of time to come back, there's no need to today." He waved her off.
She just shrugged her shoulders and happily followed Marcus to the clerk. After retrieving the enchanted earpiece back from him, and saying their goodbyes, they made their way back into the city.
As they were walking, enjoying the beautiful, peaceful surroundings, they noticed several elves looking up and pointing into the sky. They didn't seem panicked, but an air of excitement was surrounding them. Marcus and Sylvia, along with their escorts were naturally curious about what they were all looking at. Once they made it to a clearing, they gazed up towards the heavens as well.
Flying high in the sky, but not so high as to be hidden, a golden snake-like creature was flying in long, slow arcs. Its wings would cast a shadow that would trace its path in the sky. The golden scales were like a mirror, reflecting sunlight in all directions. Marcus looked longingly at Sif, he missed her dearly, but knew there was no use in trying to get her attention. If Sif couldn't see the city below her, then him shouting wouldn't draw her attention either, but that didn't stop Sylvia from trying.
"SIF! DOWN HERE SIF!!" Sylvia shouted at the top of her lungs, while jumping up and down, waving her arms.
Marcus clamped his hand on her shoulder, telling her to stop. Her sudden outburst drew strange looks from the previously excited elves.
"She can't hear you Sylvie, remember the concealing magic around the city." Marcus said, dashing her hopes.
"Oh, I forgot." She said, still looking up at Sif, who didn't change her course at all.
After another five minutes, Sif finally gave up on that area. She started to move further and further away, still in large circles. Marcus let out a sigh, he knew that they would start looking for them, but unfortunately, other than their devastated campsite, they wouldn't find any clues.
Putting his arm around her shoulder, Marcus gave Sylvia a squeeze. "Come on, let's head back, we have plenty of time to explore later."
"Alright….. Do you think my father knows yet?" She asked, looking up at Marcus while they walked.
"Probably not yet, but he will soon. They have communication crystals that they use for emergencies, I'm sure they'll use one." He said.
"I don't think my father will be able to handle it. When mother died, he was devastated, I was the only thing he lived for." Sylvia said, remorse and sadness in her voice.
Marcus thought of what to say for a moment, but couldn't find anything in the end. He just rubbed her shoulder with his hand, and held her closer.
............
After searching for most of the day, Nathan was getting frustrated. It only took them a few hours to find the carriage, it was well hidden, but not to people looking for it. He knew the general area they planned to stay in, so it was no surprise to find it. The actual campsite on the other hand was a different issue. The forest was dense with vegetation, and was hard to navigate once you went off the road, it would take time.
He'd gathered over three hundred men, mostly mercenaries, but there were still over one-hundred city guards as well. Nathan split them up into groups of five, fanning out in all directions, looking for any clues. A magic flair suddenly shot up into the sky, it was the signal for if any group found anything, and it wasn't far.
Nathan rushed with his group to where the flair was seen. There he found a group of mercenaries standing around a tree. A branch had broken off the tree, maybe seven feet off the ground. And around the broken branch were bones, and blood.
"What did you find?" Nathan said, running up to the group around the tree.
"Human remains." Said a gruff looking mercenary, as he stood up, holding a femur.
"From the tracks, it looks like a herd of fanged deer. Unlucky son of a bitch must have climbed the tree, but the branch couldn't hold his weight."
Nathan looked around, worried. He already had ulcers from the stress, now with a confirmed death, it only got worse.
"Any other remains?" Nathan asked, not wanting to know the answer.
"N….."
Before the mercenary could reply, another flair shot into the sky. This one was a few miles away, deeper into the forest. Nathan didn't wait for the man to finish, he took off into the forest, his stomach in knots.
Running into a clearing, sweat was dripping off Nathan's face. A large group had gathered, maybe fifteen of the men assigned to search. Tents were set up in a circle, but they had been abandoned some time ago. The fabric was torn, animals had clearly broken in to investigate. He walked up to the group of men, walking through the clearing. His boot struck something in the knee high grass. He bent over to see what it was, it was Marcus's warhammer.
Nathan suddenly felt lightheaded, he hefted the large hammer out of the grass, there was blood on it. It was only on the head of the hammer, but that was enough to cause Nathan to confirm the worst had happened.
"Fan out! Search everywhere!" Nathan screamed at the loitering group of rescuers.
"Nobody returns to the city until we find the bodies!"
Nathan then tore the scroll, sending up a bright orange flair. This was the signal to tell all the people searching that they had found the campsite. They would all converge on this area, then begin searching again, for survivors, or remains. Nathan knew that they wouldn't find any survivors, he was a realist. He could only hope to be able to find Sylvia's remains, so that her father had something to bury.
He took a deep breath, holding it in, then releasing it. He pulled out a communication crystal, he was given this treasure just in case an emergency happened. He was hoping to never have to use it, but now had no choice. He looked at the fist sized crystal, his unkempt reflection staring back at him, he hadn't slept much in the last three days. He activated the crystal, then waited for a response.
A sharp, older man could be seen in the crystal, replacing his tired reflection. Lord Bishore was an expert at hiding his emotions, but seeing the man on the other side of the crystal, he couldn't help but show worry.
"What happened?" Lord Bishore sternly asked.