What Has Gone Before… #5
In accordance with the Tielwald’s predictions, the Nihlvarian fleet arrived in full strength only a day after the harbour wall’s completion.
At first, Lore sought to parley, sending Vellihr Ilvar with an offer of clemency in return for Elvine’s surrender.
She responded by addressing the people rather than Lore’s herald: “If it is your will, I give myself into the hands of our enemies, then so be it…” The rest of her words were drowned out by cries of “We stand with the Spear Maiden!”, before Ilvar was chased off by a cascade of arrows.
The next few days saw repeated assaults upon the city.
All were repulsed with grievous loss to the Nihlvarians, and Elvine was not compelled to bloody the Spear of the Altvar.
Yet, on the evening of the third day, she was called to the Elderman’s House where Gruinskard had taken up residence.
Coelnyr had uncovered a Volkrath agent and, in accordance with the agreement between Tielwald and Spear Maiden, the decision over his fate fell to her.
Relieved to discover that she did not know the spy, a locksmith of supposedly fierce devotion to the Altvar, Elvine was informed by the spirit in the spear that the man fervently wished to die rather than reveal any secrets.
He’s skilled at building walls around his mind.
Simply plucking it from him won’t work. I need to touch him.
As Elvine touched the spearhead to the man’s skin, his thoughts were revealed.
To her horror, Elvine learned that the Nihlvarian attacks launched so far had been a mere diversion.
Tuhlvyr Vahlak was sending his main attack via the mountain guarding Olversahl’s northern flank.
Yet, instead of forcing a path through the tunnels beneath the mountain, Vahlak would first be coming over it to attack the defenders from within.
Rushing to the scene, Elvine found battle already raging at the entrance to the tunnels.
Using the spear’s gift, she threaded her way through the fighting and into the bowels of the mountain.
There she found Vahlak and his personal menda attempting to break down the great door sealing the tunnels off from the northern approaches.
From beyond the barrier, she could hear the clamour of the Nihlvarian host.
Calling upon the power of the spear, Elvine killed Vahlak’s warriors before throwing it through the back of the warrior attempting to break the lock on the door.
Defenceless before Vahlak, she expected death, but the Tuhlvyr spared her.
“He said I would,” Vahlak said. “To claim the glory that is my due… But I can’t, Elvine.
” His next words were forever lost when Colvyn arrived to skewer the Nihlvarian commander through the head.
Despite her efforts, it was evident the door to the tunnels would soon be breached.
Ordering Elvine to leave, Gruinskard had his warriors tip barrels of oil into the bowels of the mountain.
Withdrawing above ground, he ordered the oil set alight and the mountain blazed, consuming the Nihlvarian host within.
The following day, Elvine had Vahlak’s body laid in a boat which was carried from the harbour to the Nihlvarian fleet on the morning tide.
A tactic intended to inflame his sister’s fury, it worked too well, compelling Lore to send all her remaining strength against the wall.
Using fire ships to create breaches in the wall, Lore’s forces succeeded in gaining a foothold and the day may have gone against the defenders but for the arrival of Thera’s fleet.
Using a newly crafted crossbow-like engine, Thera inflicted damage on the Nihlvarian great ship lashed to the wall, fighting her way aboard and across her decks to the wharf.
There she witnessed her great-grandfather in the thick of the fighting.
Overmatched by numerous foes, Gruinskard was brought down, losing a hand in the melee.
He would surely have died if Elvine had not intervened, Thera finding herself amazed at the maiden’s skill with a spear.
Hurrying through the smoke, Thera exchanged greetings with Elvine and confirmed the salvation of the city.
Overcome with a strange exhaustion she suspected arose from use of the spear, Elvine managed to ask the Queen of the Isles if she had killed Lore.
“You see, if you do it, I won’t have to.
And I don’t want to hate this much…” Whereupon the Spear Maiden of Olversahl fell into a dead faint.
In the distant realm of Vorunvahl, battle also raged as Felnir’s host, having marched into the Craggens, met the full strength of the Ahrkun.
Warned of the cultists’ approach by the thrumming string of the Bow of the Altvar, Felnir roused his encamped menda to meet the two-headed charge.
Possessed of a deranged fanaticism, the Sindra’s followers threw themselves at Felnir’s shield walls, dying by the hundreds.
When their ranks had thinned enough for his liking, Felnir unleashed a counter charge and, in the rout that followed, the land was forever cleansed of the Ahrkun Krayl.
Their warriors were slaughtered down to the last and the Sindra fled.
Come the dawn, Felnir’s scouts discovered the cult leader’s banner flying atop one of the plateaus that characterised this region.
Upon arriving at the scene, Felnir heard the Sindra calling from above, demanding that he speak with Diretongue.
Climbing the slope to the crest of the plateau, Felnir and Wohtin were confronted by the maddened figure of the Sindra.
In his ranting, the cult leader revealed himself as Halgard, nephew to the vanished King Velgard.
He also revealed that it was under Wohtin’s guidance that he began the cult of the Ahrkun Krayl in an attempt to unify the warring remnants of Velgard’s subjects.
Yet, when Wohtin succumbed to a bout of madness and disappeared from Vorunvahl, the Ahrkun had gradually degenerated into murderous fanaticism.
As the Sindra raged on, Felnir realised his mind has been unseated by some arcane machination of Wohtin’s.
“Be careful he doesn’t do the same to you, puppet.
The things you’ll see. The roads not yet travelled.
The threats that might or might not come. ”
Before Felnir could learn more, the Sindra launched himself at Wohtin, forcing Felnir to cut him down.
The deed done, Felnir gifted the cult leader’s head to Baldyr in settlement of their agreement.
Before taking his menda home, the Gyrwald warned Felnir that his days of battle were far from over.
In this land there resided others who would resist his kingship, and they would not be so easy to vanquish.
Demanding that Wohtin keep his promise to unlock the power of the Sword of the Altvar, Felnir and the old man journeyed alone to a stone circle on the northern coast. This was another place where the veil between worlds was thin.
Here had Wohtin taken Velgard’s nephew centuries before in the hope it would win the Altvar’s blessing and make of him the great man he needed to be.
Instead, it had driven him insane. Looking closer at the stones, Felnir once again recognised the spiral symbol and forced Wohtin to confess the truth: this land had not been empty when the survivors of Velgard’s fallen kingdom fled to its shores.
The people who had once dwelt here had been slaughtered at Ascarlian hands.
Shamed, Wohtin pleaded with Felnir to abandon his course.
“Come. Let us depart this place. If you’ll allow me, I’ll counsel you as best I can in the days ahead. ”
Laughing in scorn, Felnir stepped into the circle. “You think I came all this way to turn my back on greatness?”