The Homecoming 75.

Room...

They're in a small inn towards the eastern outskirts of the city of Pasemár.
In the common room, the conversations of the customers is occupied by one thing, and one thing only.
The crash of an airship nearby earlier in the evening. A vessel that was apparently unsecured, pulling away from the dock it was moored to. And drifted over the eastern part of the city before crashing across the square at the end of one of the market streets.
Tarong the troll as he finishes his meal, keeps his head down. Trying not to listen to the speculations of the other customers in the common room.
The troll who is a former mill worker, who until recently lived and worked in a small forest town in the Almaeré fief in northwest Druvic.
Downs the last of the ale in his flagon. Then he looks across the table and nods.
Lord Farque gets up and turns, Tarong who was sitting on a low, thick wooden bench, specifically made for someone like him. Gets up too, and follows the lord and ruler of the lands Farque.
There's a brief pause in the many conversations in the common room as the customers look at them. After all it's not that often you see someone in a suit of full, heavy plate armour, followed by a ten and half foot tall troll in this part of the city.
Though the pause in the locals conversation is only brief, as people quickly get back to talking about the downed airship, and how it could of happened.
The undead warlord leads the troll down a hallway off the common room. At the end of it, there's a door to the back room of the inn. The heavily armoured deathlord opens the door, and slightly ducks to enter the room beyond.
Behind him, the troll Tarong bends down so that he can get through the door and enter the room. The former forester and mill worker closes the door behind him.
In the room, Mira Reinholt the mage sits upon the bed, with his back against a wall, reading a book by the light provided by the bedside lamp.
Lying on the floor next to the bed, is a dark druid who is unconscious. Tarong wonders over to a corner in the room and sits down. Since the two chairs in here aren't strong enough to hold his weight.
The lord of the death realm nudges the unconscious spellcaster with one of his steel boots, and gets no response. The undead warlord who is also known by the name of Draugadrottin by the people of his lands, steps back and leans back against the wall, opposite the bed that the mage Reinholt is on.
Lord Farque folds his arms, then tells the once powerful mage "Wake him".
Mira Reinholt reads to the end of the sentence he's on, then he closes the book, and sets it aside. The spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster then wakes up the unconscious dark druid by way of a spell.
They wait as the dark druid they captured from the warship in the city docks starts to wake up.
He doesn't know where he is, or what's happened. All he knows as he wakes, is that he's got a splitting headache. And as he rises up out of unconsciousness, he groans at how rotten he feels.
He blinks a few times as he wakes and open his eyes, he finds he's on his side on a floor, facing what he assumes is the base of a bed.
He groans as he rolls onto his back, closing his eyes. He opens them again, and turns his head to the left.
He blinks in surprise as he sees standing there, a large, heavily armoured figure looking at him.
He's still for a moment, then he says "Where am". He's interrupted by a voice behind him, saying "Don't even think about casting" followed by "If you do, you'll die".
He immediately drops the spell he was about to cast, then frowning he sits up, slightly groaning as he does so.
He's in for another surprise, for when he sits up he spots a massive figure sitting in the corner of the room he's in. It's a troll, who is frowning as it watches him.
He then turns his head, and looks at the person who he assumes is on the bed. There he finds a man in a black hooded cloak, hood up on the head, watching him.
He turns his head to look at the one in the full suit of dark heavy plate armour, who says "Like he said, if you cast you die".
He senses the one in the dark hooded cloak on the bed. And doesn't find him to be a spellcaster.
Then he feels a hand on his left shoulder. And he gasps in surprise and shock. Then he hisses under his breath in anger.
He's just been violated, he's just been drained of some of his magical power.
Though it's something you might do willingly for close friends and colleagues who are spellcasters. You never do it without prior consent, and a willingness on the part of both to do so.
To drain power from another spellcaster without their consent is the worst kind of violation one practitioner of magic can do to another. The only thing worse is death by spellcraft.
He glares at the man in the black hooded cloak, who he sees is wryly smiling. Then he goes still as the spellcaster sitting on the bed says to him "It's far less than what you and your friends were going to do to those children" there's a pause from the black cloak wearing spellcaster, who then continues on with "Your friends, who by the way are all dead".
He's silent for a few moments, then he says "Look i don't know what you're going".
He's interrupted by the one sitting on the bed, who says "You can stop lying, I've already read your mind and know what you and the others were going to do". He falls silent again, and wonders how he's going to get out of this. Not knowing, he's not going to get out of this at all.
"So you and the rest of your druid friends" says the mage Reinholt, who briefly pauses before adding "Excuse me, i mean dark druids" he continues on with "Were going to take that ship load of children back to the east of the kingdom, for some grand sacrifice i take it?".
"Are you asking me?" says the captured dark druid "Do you see me asking anyone else?" says the once powerful mage.
The follower of the old ways, briefly grimaces, then says "Something like that".
"Something like that" dryly says the spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster "The death of near thirty young children, and all you can say is something like that" adds the exiled Vexilian mage in disgust, who then glances over at lord Farque, and says in elven "You better do the talking. If not, I'll probably kill him if i have to speak to him again".
The lord and ruler of the lands Farque nods his full helmed head, then says in common to the prisoner "And the purpose of the multiple sacrifices of these children?".
The dark druid doesn't answer until the mage Reinholt nudges him with a boot "To get all the old sites in the east of the kingdom up and running again" says the prisoner, who then adds "The druid's circles".
Both the lord of the death realm, and the exiled Vexilian mage sourly smile at the mention of druid's circles. As they've had a run in with one in the east of Druvic just a week ago.
"And do you know the dark druid who is the advisor of the baron Harkonin in the east of the kingdom?" asks Des'tier as he's known as, to an older generation of elves "Palvarc?" says the prisoner, who then adds "I know of him, but i don't know him".
The heavily armoured deathlord looks at the once powerful mage, who in elven tells him "He's telling the truth, he's never met him" the spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster continues with "A couple of the others personally knew that Palvarc" Mira Reinholt briefly pauses, before saying in a slightly dry tone "Unfortunately you killed all of them".
"Can't be helped" says the deathlord of Farque with a shrug of his broad, heavily armoured shoulders, then the undead warlord says in common to the prisoner sitting on the floor next to the bed "So how did you lot get yourselves a warship, and it's crew, from the fleet of the kingdom's aircorp?".
Lord Farque, Mira Reinholt the mage along with Tarong the troll listen to the dark druid as he explains how he and his druid cohorts were able to use one of the airships in the Druvician aircorp, and have it at their disposal.
Apparently someone of importance in the king's court is friends with Palvarc the dark druid, the adviser of baron Harkonin. Also friends with a couple of the other dark druids who were on the airship that did a slow crash into the streets of Pasemár earlier this evening.
"And this someone of importance at court?" asks Draugadrottin, knowing that the mage Reinholt was unable to find out who, when he read the mind of the prisoner when he was unconscious.
"I'm not sure" is the reply of the dark druid, who continues with "My best guess is that it might be the Lord High Constable himself" he briefly pauses before adding "Or maybe the Provo Marshal".
The lord and ruler of the lands Farque glances at the once powerful mage, who says to him in the elven language "He's telling the truth" followed by "That's who he thinks it is" the mage Reinholt momentarily pauses before adding in a slightly dry tone "Seems these dark druids keep their closest secrets to themselves".
The undead warlord slightly nods his full helmed head, then he quietly says in elven "Could be someone else then". The large heavily armoured  deathlord looks back at the prisoner sitting on the floor, and in the common tongue asks him "Any other schemes and plans you lot up to?".
Seeing the dark druid slightly hesitate, the lord of the death realm snaps at him with "Fucking out with it druid" followed by "Or you'll end up fucking dead like the rest of your friends". Which is what's going to happen to the dark druid anyway, just that he doesn't know it yet.
The prisoner stammers what he knows. From petty rivalries between lesser nobles in the east of the kingdom, who the dark druids have influenced over the years. To an impending all out war between the fiefs Harkonin and Lé Dic. Which isn't much of a surprise. As those two fiefs have been enemies going back for centuries.
"A war that our war engineer is most likely in the middle of" quietly says Mira Reinholt in elven to the deathlord of Farque after the dark druid tells them everything that he knows about what he and his fellow dark druids of eastern Druvic are conspiring in.
"Which isn't surprising" quietly replies Des'tier in the language of the elves, then switching to common, he says to the spellcaster from the east of the kingdom "Do you know this Palvarc's specific plans in the upcoming war with the Lé Dic fief?".
"No" is the answer from the prisoner who continues with "Just that i know it'll be big" he then adds "That was the rumour some of the others heard from the Harkonin fief when they traveled through there during the winter".
The undead being glances at the once powerful mage, who nods his hooded head to signify the prisoner is telling the truth, the highly skilled swordmaster then says in the elven language "That's about all we're going to get out of him".
The lord and ruler of the lands Farque nods in agreement, and as he's just about to step forward and end the life of the dark druid, he thinks of something.
Draugadrottin turns and looks at Tarong, and says to him in trollish "What do you think of this druid?" the heavily armoured deathlord continues with "You saw what he and those other dark druids we're going to do on that ship" the undead warlord asks the troll "What do you think should be done with him?".
Tarong must admit the two he's in the company of, are a brutal pair to be sure. And that's putting it mildly. But everything they've done so far while he's been traveling with them. Has made perfect sense once he's had time to think about it.
From earlier tonight when they boarded that airship, killing those dark druids, and setting those children free. To when they were traveling on a forest road in the Almaeré fief, and they caught the roadside killer, and they let him take the credit, not to mention the reward for that killer's capture.
Nor can he forget that the two of them saved his life in the mill town he was living and working in. When the local constable was going to kill him, for the murders on the forest road. Something he had absolutely nothing to do with.
For all that they've done, no matter how brutal and violent it's been. Not to mention, completely unbelievable some of the things they've done. Things that Tarong can't explain.
He can't fault them for being right in the decisions they've made. He thinks more of the local nobles and authorities should act like them.
But in the troll's experience, very few of the nobility he's encountered here in Druvic, have acted in a manner similar to the spellcaster named Mira, and the lord named Farque.
"Well?" asks the lord and ruler of the lands Farque after the troll contemplates things. "I think" says Tarong the troll in his native tongue, who pauses before he adds "He should pay for what he's done". The former mill worker is pretty certain the the dark druid, and those others on the airship with him. Have killed children in the past for their magical rites.
"Death?" asks the lord of the realm between the living world, and the afterlife. Tarong answers with a nod of his head.
And as the prisoner frowns as he looks between the heavily armoured figure, and the troll who are talking in what he assumes is trollish. Lord Farque takes a step forward and kicks the dark druid in the head.
He doesn't kick all that hard, but it's enough to shatter the prisoner's face, and snap his neck. He hits the floor with a thud, even though he's just sitting there when he gets kicked.
"Dispose of the body" says the undead warlord to Mira Reinholt. The once powerful mage nods, then scoots forward on the bed, and looks at the dead dark druid on the floor.
The exiled Vexilian mage concentrates as he goes to cast. And a moment or two later, the body of the prisoner is enveloped with a flash of bright white light that gives off heat.
The next moment the light is gone, and so is the body of the dark druid they captured. There's a slight film of what looks like fine, gray, powdery ashes, which disappears as well after a few more moments.
The mage Reinholt nods in satisfaction, then murmurs "Didn't burn anything else". Which he's quite proud of since that much heat usually sets something on fire when he casts such a spell.
The spellcaster who is also a highly skilled swordmaster gathers the book he was reading, and gets up off the bed. While Tarong stands up from the corner of the room he's been sitting in when lord Farque says to the two of them "Let's get going".
The lord of the death realm continues with "Might as well spend the night onboard the cargo ship since it's leaving early in the morning" the lord and ruler of the lands Farque steps towards the door saying "Then it"s onto the capital Leeabra" and switching to elven, he says to Mira Reinholt "There's some things going on there we need to find out about" . . . . . .