What Has Gone Before… #6
Touching his hand to the stone in the centre of the circle, the Sword of the Altvar began to glow, the blade blazing bright.
As its light invaded his eyes, Felnir was granted a vision of his brother’s face.
Demanding to know Guthnyr’s whereabouts, Felnir’s mind was carried far away to the north, across seas and mountains until it reached the village of Tahrim Kyrn.
As the vision faded, Felnir staggered under a terrible realisation: “Guthnyr is alive!”
Meanwhile, Ruhlin made his way back to Tahrim Kyrn after surviving his trial in the Vikra-sah.
With no elder daring to contest his status as Telchak, the Morvek had agreed to rouse themselves for war.
In addition to Tirohk, he was accompanied by Velkar and her wolves.
The Teyrak elder wished to know more of the Telchak, although Ruhlin could tell her suspicion lingered.
Returning to a warm welcome in the mountains, he set his companions to work crafting yet more weapons, for they would be needed in the coming struggle with the Nihlvarians.
Within weeks, however, Tirohk sent a messenger warning that a large Nihlvarian force was making for a mountain pass known as the Scar, or Sahlrak in the Morvek tongue.
Gathering together all the weapons they had forged, Ruhlin started for the pass in company with Guthnyr, Velkar, and her wolves.
There they found Tirohk fortifying the Sahlrak against assault.
Venturing forth with Guthnyr, Felnir espied the approaching Nihlvarian force and found it smaller than expected.
It was also led by a figure he recognised: Deyna, one of the Tuhlvyrs he had met when still a slave.
At Guthnyr’s urging, the Morvek laid a trap for the Nihlvarians, waiting for them to make camp then launching an assault in the dead of night.
Ruhlin attacked first, surrendering himself to the monster and rampaging through the enemy camp leaving bloody ruin in his wake.
When the Morvek joined the fray, the contest was soon settled and Deyna lay within Ruhlin’s grasp.
Keen to learn what she knew of the Vortigurn’s intentions, Ruhlin spared her life and started on the return journey to Tahrim Kyrn.
His questioning of Deyna revealed that she had been sent into the mountains as punishment for failing to deliver Ruhlin to the Vortigurn.
Recognising her as a fellow fugitive, Ruhlin cut her bonds and invited her to flee.
Deyna, ruthless but never stupid, decided to stay.
Their trek was soon interrupted by the arrival of Olchar.
The Vulksa elder informed Ruhlin that discord lingered among the Morvek clans and some were still undecided as to the wisdom of making war upon the Nihlvarians.
To win them over, it was necessary for Ruhlin to visit a place called the Ochra-mah, the Hot Pools.
Only at this most sacred place, where the spirits of plain, mountain, wind, and river came together, could the Telchak’s crusade receive the ultimate sign of favour.
Sending Guthnyr and the others on ahead to Tahrim Kyrn, Ruhlin went with the old man, taking only Tuhlan and Julette as guards.
Upon reaching the Ochra-mah, a hot spring located near the coast of the Morvek dominion, they espied a cloaked figure standing amid the billowing steam.
Advised by Olchar that only the Telchak could approach, Ruhlin proceeded alone.
However, as he drew closer, the figure drew back his hood to reveal the face of a Nihlvarian.
Before Ruhlin could react, the Nihlvarian fixed his gaze upon the stagna still embedded in Ruhlin’s skin.
The freezing, agonising immobility seized him and Ruhlin collapsed, the monster unable to escape its cage.
He could only watch helplessly as his friends were cut down by archers concealed in the surrounding reeds.
Olchar, however, was left unmolested. “Ensuring the peace of centuries. That is my charge,” the treacherous elder told Ruhlin before being dismissed by the Nihlvarian.
“On your way, you Morvek wretch. He belongs to the Vortigurn now.”
Drugged into insensibility, Ruhlin awoke on a ship days later.
His captor named himself as Silvahk, a Ventra, or most trusted servant of the Vortigurn.
Since it was evident this man had command of the stagna, Ruhlin had no choice but to comply when he was taken from the ship and conveyed through the darkened streets of a great city to the Vortigurn’s vast hall.
There, Ruhlin met first a bent-backed, wizened wretch he couldn’t credit as the King of Nihlvar.
And so it proved when the creature disappeared into the shadows at the sound of another voice.
The figure that strode from the gloomy recesses of the hall was considerably more impressive, tall with a noble aspect, he studied Ruhlin closely before asking his name and, upon hearing it, mentioned that he once bore a name he had since discarded, for to recall it caused him pain.
“In the darker hours, I hear their voices echoing through the ages, from those days when they called me Velgard.”
Archivist’s note – Sealed under order of the Dowager Princess. Disclosure only permissible under Royal Warrant.