In short slow spurts, Jim Farley took the dwarves flying around the tiny clearing near the Surf Shack.
They weren't exactly surfing the blast since they were going too slowly to take advantage of the natural wind blasts but for a first day, they were at least moving in a surf-like motion.
The night air was warm and smelled like a hot beer, but Daran and Ziggy were getting drunk off the thrill of blasting the surf. For that brief moment in time, nothing mattered but the thrill of windsurfing.
It was a challenge to maintain their elevation and at the same time blast enough energy in the appropriate directions to move in a trajectory that would not upset the board and throw them off.
It took every bit of concentration they had.
It also required mastery in several magikal fields of study, namely levikinesis, aeromancy, and thaumaturgy---not to mention transmutation in order to transmute the small wedges into hoverboards.
How in the world could kids as young as ten surf the blast with such ease and skill? How did they master enough of all of these high level magik arts to be able to do this?
And don't even get started on all that yodeling and hooting they did in mid-air. That was a surfer's language that the dwarves would never be able to get a hang of no matter how long they surfed.
After an hour of very slowly hovering around at ten feet off the ground, Jim Farley called it a night and sent them on their way. Since they knew where he worked, he promised them more lessons if they dropped by the Levikinesis building at Topaz Academy.
By the time the dwarves departed from Topaz, the grist of the happenings had been gathered. The other groups had reconvened shortly before then.
The tree house that Gerald Pomfrey had led them to turned out to be a single living mansion in what was essentially a forest full of living structures of every size and shape, all connected together by Shari's single large root.
In a large clearing between the tree dwellings, the group were seated around a large circular table on stumps that were leveled to chair height. Around them were glowing mushrooms that grew out of the trees and the forest floor, looking like lanterns that had been lit for a lantern party.
There were large bell shaped yellow ones and skinny tall purple ones. The ones that glowed in blue and green were more rounded and spherical, and the pink ones looked like upturned flowers.
"Daran! Ziggy! Come join us." Mira called out to them.
Beside her, a caledonian serving maid poured an amber liquid out of a long skinny decanter into small crystal cups and began passing them around the table.
Daren and Ziggy's eyes lit up.
A midnight drinking party! What dwarf could possibly pass up such a jocular event!
The drink turned out to be mead in all its effervescent glory.
As they tasted the fermented nectar, the group shared information that they had been able to gather that night.
Ziggy quickly recounted what they had heard from the professors at the windsurf bar. Although the professors did not know what was happening in and around the city, it was clear that the meeting of the Council of Mage the previous day had ended in a disastrous defeat for the Mage Elites.
Janna nodded and added her own version of what she had heard from Katrina. At the point that Jana was talking about the Mage Elites' targeted interest in the Primate Overlords, Theo interrupted her from behind.
"It's not just interest. They kidnapped a group of primate workers."
"What?" Erick jumped up from his chair.
"Theo!" Jana ran up and grabbed his arm. "Where did you go? I was worried about you!"
Theo gave her a conspiratorial wink. "Just doing my job, woman."
He followed her back to the table. "Since I could not just mingle in with anyone to find out anything, I followed my nose and sneaked around the edges of Topaz to see what I could find."
"What did you find?" Jana handed him her crystal glass of mead.
Theo's eyes were sharp amber points of frightening intensity. "The Mage Elites have rounded up at least a thousand primates and have taken them away."
Alfric pounded the table. "How is that possible when the primates have Overlords watching over them?"
Theo glanced at the old dwarf and threw his head back, tossing the mead down in one gulp.
"The Mage Elites must have planted new Overlords into the old group. These new Overlords are under their control. It's most likely that it was these new Overlords who rounded up the primate group and kidnapped them."
"Where did you get this information?" Alfric cast a suspicious glance at Theo.
"I told you. I followed my nose and found it myself." Theo grimaced. "You can't exactly hide a thousand great apes in one location without causing a stench."
Daran shook his head. "They are very well-trained to take care of their personal effects in order to live and work among people. They would not stink."
Theo shook his head. "They are not normally filthy, but they have been crammed into unsanitary conditions and chain-ganged together for the length of a day with no way to relieve themselves."
Erick held up a hand. "You saw them? Where?"
"I saw them daisy-chained and force-marched into the base of Topaz Mountain through a large metal warehouse. It looks like there is some sort of transport system within the mountain, but I don't know enough about dwarven railroad systems to know if there is a station there or not."
"There is." Alfric confirmed. "Several hundred years ago, the dwarven train builders dug tunnels through various cities to try and unite the far-flung kingdoms together."
His brows knitted. "We were trying to facilitate ease of commerce and humanitarian aid should there be a crisis which might affect the entirety of Ashrya. One of the stations built for that purpose was the Topazian Station."
"Unfortunately, the Topazian Kingdom took the train station we built and used their magik to connect it to Azure." He looked deeply troubled.
"Azure?" Jana asked.
"Azure is what we call it. The natives living there call their world Earth." Alfric explained. "Since Ashrya had a ban in place restricting movements through the borders between Ashrya and Azure, we had orders from the heads of states to dismantle the railroad station in Topaz."
"And?" Erick prompted when Alfric stopped talking.
Alfric shrugged. "That's all I know about it. Whether it got dismantled or not was something that did or did not happen several hundred years ago."
Erick's eyes glittered with frustration. "Get some people to explore that area. See if the station still exists. And while you're there, find out where they're taking the primates."
"Yes, Your Royal Highness."
After that bombshell from Theo, there came another from Jana's scouting information.
They were able to gather all events that led up to the hostile takeover of two major Houses in Topaz, namely House Imara and House Monteceto.
"Since Zander was taken to House Imara, and removed a week ago, do you think he may be relocated to House Monteceto?" Mira pondered.
"It's possible." Gerald Pomfrey replied. "I sent out another group of fireflies but they have not resulted in anything more tangible as yet. It does take time to gather firefly information though so do not count them out yet."
"There is also something that I overheard which might be of interest," Alfric spoke up.
"Where we in the northern realm could get away without needing a grid work of electricity due to the close proximity to the dolmian mines, the southern lands cannot not count on the steady supply of dolmia."
He paused for a moment and took a sip of the mead. "The way they were able to light their homes and power their city is through energy distribution via their pyramid. This pyramid provides them with a steady stream of electricity."
Erick caught on immediately. "In a war, this would be one of the most vulnerable spots."
"Yes, Your Highness. House Jaynami and House Monteceto are the two houses responsible for maintaining the Royal Guards for Topaz. They have deployed a large number of warriors to secure the pyramid, but if Jana is correct and they have lost House Monteceto, they will be severely underpowered."
His eyes were troubled. "It would be House Jaynami fighting against their own House Monteceto along with the entire Mage Elite fighting force."
Erick nodded. "Since we know Zander was held in a facility that had been taken over by the Mage Elites, it's safe to say we need to fight alongside the Council of Mages against the Mage Elites in order to rescue Zander out of their clutches. He could be held by the Montecetos at this time."
Alfric waved a hand of protest. "Do you think, perhaps King Zander has been taken hostage in order to lure you out, Prince Erick?"
"I'm saying maybe the royal that they really want is you. Zander could just be the worm on the hook to get you to bite. You know Alastaire Rashak---or Mocchus---or whatever he happens to call himself at this time, has been going after you for the last two years."
Erick pounded on the table with a frustrated fist. "Nevertheless, I still have to go and find him. I'm a warrior wizard. I can't just sit in a safe zone and have my men go into danger without me there to assist them."
"In that case, I will make arrangements to assist the Council of Mages in this fight. We will send in enough troops to extract King Zander since we have had definitive proof that he was here in Topaz within the last seven days."
"What of my aunt and her husband?" Erick looked at him.
"Of the former King and Queen, we have not seen a shadow."
Erick heaved a harsh sigh. He could not rule out foul play when it came to the old king and queen.
"Keep looking."
"Yes, Your Royal Highness."