THE CASTLE OF THE 7 SEATS, ELWYRM…
The 7 Houses of the Imperium sat in fellowship on the roundtable. The roundtable was in the center of the great hall of the palace where the meeting of the Imperium held. It was surrounded by seven golden stools which was said to have been cast from the melted throne of the last king. The council sat regularly to discuss matters of state as well as political matters. On the roundtable around which sat 7 nobles from the 7 Great Houses of the Imperium, there was a giant map of the realm of Seppora carved into the solid mahogany wood and painted showing the different towns, cities, lakes, rivers, forests and mountain ranges of Seppora.
The 7 house of the Imperium are: the Castors, a family of warriors headed by Lord Bjorn Castor, The Lyrons, artisans and craftsmen headed by Lord Eric Lyron; The Freyons, an elven family who intermingled with humans and settled and lived among the people of Seppora and fought alongside some noble families during the Great War. It's headed by Lord Boriç Freyon. There are also the Skaldis, a noble family of priests and healers, headed by Lady Tiana Skaldi. The Eribors are a family of powerful mages touted to be the most powerful mages in the whole Seppora. They are the custodians of magecraft and are headed by Lord Soren Eribor. The Ryzens also known as the wealthiest family in Seppora have their estates on several thousand kilometers of gold mines that run deep as two wells and hence control the mining and distribution of gold in Seppora. It is headed by the shrewd Lady Kikio Ryzen. The 7th Great house of Seppora, also a family that prided themselves in being warriors are the Lagues, they are headed by the brilliant Lord Fryren Lague. Each lord had one vote on all decrees and rulings of the realm and the majority's decision was upheld.
As these 7 most important individuals in the most powerful realm in Tempora sat to deliberate on matters of the realm, the "Master of Records" came in with 7 stacks of parchments containing the records of recent happenings I the realm and handed it to each Lord and Lady present. They all contained the same information on matters that were to be deliberated on. As Lord Lague received his stack, he thanked the Master of Records and dismissed him.
"My fellow lords and ladies…" began Lord Castor of House Castor, "…the past few weeks have been quite eventful and as we know there is tension building over at the northern borderlands as we've it states in the documents that we've all just received that some Elves over at Elfrebor are agitating for that arable piece of land which is irrigated by the lake of boundary". "I say we build a wall to prevent an incursion" cut in Lord Eric Lyron, "…if enough resources are channeled there the wall should be up in about three months". "Yeah? The way enough resources were channeled to you and your house to build a harbour on the eastern coast for ships to dock and trade?" Lady Kikio retorted, "…how is that project coming up?". "Oh ho, I will not sit here and listen to you insult me when you know nothing about engineering and craftsmanship…" Lord Eric said sniggering, "…the only thing you're good at is eating and drinking…" continued Lord Eric "…after all your estates sit on the largest deposit of gold in Seppora, so why wouldn't you be so opinionated?".
This was usually the order of the day as the Lyrons and Ryzens didn't see eye to eye on anything. "Well I say we double the guards over at the north as a show of force…" Lord Lague suggested but Lord Freyon countered it saying "Do you think the kingdom of Elfrebor do not also have an army? Or don't you think that would increase the tension and any mistake by the guards there stationed could be seen as an act of war?". "Forget your sentiments elf, you with all your wisdom should know that Elfrebor do not have the resources to fund a war effort and slight skirmish here and there should keep an incursion at bay" Lord Lague said.
The matter was discussed back and forth between the nobles and Lord Boriç Freyon volunteered to meet with the king of the elves first before any further decision is taken. Unbeknownst to them, he intended to incite a war between Elfrebor and Seppora as he'd gain from selling elven warriors of house Freyon to both sides thereby making a ton of money. The Nobles discussed about other matters on the agenda and the matter of Smith Sarsson came up. "So the deserter hasn't been found…" Lord Castor said. "…The man is a traitor to our realm and he should be publicly executed" he continued. "How could a man murder his own unit and desert the Guard? He should be executed!!!", Lord Castor said. "He is a dangerous man and the Spymaster reports that he is still at large and was last seen in Tartum where he incited a riot…" Lord Lague said, "…but I'm sure the Guard there will take care of him, he shouldn't be a bother to us". "Now onto received Taxes…" said Lord Castor, "We have received proceeds from 12 towns and 16 estates totaling 450,000 pieces of gold…", "It would be shared equally to the 7 Houses and any remainder will be put into this castle's maintenance…". Lord Eribor responded, "I say we each take 10,000 pieces and use the rest to pave some roads in the Belanoan region as they gave us the most taxes in this batch". "Belanoan peasants have no horses, what do they need paved roads for?" replied Lady Kikio. "I agree…" Lady Tiana Skaldi said, "The peasants do not need new roads, their mud paths are just fine for them, besides, the money the Skaldi family will receive will go to building a new temple to Solaris so he may continue to shine his benevolent light and bless our realm", "…surely", she continued, "…that is more important than some peasant road". Eventually, the nobles settled on the original plan of sharing the money between themselves rather than building a "peasant road".
Meanwhile in Tartum…
An elven girl is running through the dimly lit streets and alleyways of Tartum, she is being chased by 3 assailants, one a dwarf along with his two cohorts. She runs for a distance as the footsteps of her pursuers echo in the night silence. Since the death of Balo Fer, tensions have risen in Tartum and Lord Kerhan Dane, the Lord of Tartum had taken back control of his town. The town was bustling again and all seemed well. But in the shadows away from the busy markets, fairs and bustling squares, the group of assassins had caught up to the elven girl who's name was Eliya of Windeslun. They had a mission to kill the girl and the mission came from nobody but Lord Kerhan Dane himself. Eliya worked as an independent sleuth, one who helped investigate happenings and crimes as well as catch cheating spouses, thieving workers and the likes. She was quite good at it too.
Eliya however had never meddled with highborns before and when a highborn family gave her a contract to help track their missing daughter, she didn't know the kind of conundrum she was about to get herself entangled with. She however took the job and started investigating. After a couple of months the truth came out and Eliya discovered that Lord Dane the Lord of Tartum had been kidnapping girls and selling to slavers but Eliya failed to save the girl before she could be sold into slavery. Eliya knew his secret and he wanted her dead by all means for of it were a lowborn girl whom Eliya had rescued from his trafficking ring, he would have let go of it knowing that her family wouldn't be able to do anything to him in return. But if the girls family found out that he was responsible for the kidnap of their daughter, he would be disgraced, stripped of his holdings, and likely executed.
He found out that Eliya was on his case so he immediately sent assassins to kill her. An that was how she found herself in this dead end in a dark alley cornered by three assassins with orders to slice open her guts and rip them out…