The Carnival at Moonbright

Standing up, Leaf made his way over to the door. He turned around at a loud sound as he saw Ramona on the ground, with her bag spilled out in front of her. Rhokhishi bent down to help her up and gathered her things.

“Silly old me. All the stress and worry of the day has made me weak. Thank you, Rhokhishi. I am always flattered by your generosity to help when in need.” Ramona said, taking her arm and standing back up.

“Of course, Ms. Moontremble. Always here to help.” Rhokhishi replied.

“Since you always do so well, keep this coin for yourself as a reminder that generosity pays for itself.” She said, placing a single gold coin in the half-orc’s hand.

“Thank you, Ms. Moontremble. I appreciate the kindness.”

Leaf turned, and the group followed the guards up the stairway. Leaf was excited to be here. While he knew that Orin spent a decent amount of time in Haron’s Castle, apprentices weren’t usually allowed until they mastered their craft. There was a ping of sadness, realizing that he still had work to do, copying his spell theories from his old book to the new one, but maybe one day he would achieve something significant with his ideas.

Up the staircase, the group walked down the long hallway. While there were many other doors and halls to turn down, they kept walking forward, getting deeper and deeper inside the castle, until they made it to a set of doors. Guards lined the doors, six on each side, with lances out in front of them and swords sheathed at their sides. While most of the guards Leaf had seen today were tired, ragged, and unkept, these guards were the exact opposite. As if statues with clothes on them, they were clean and precisely placed apart from each other.

The two guards nearest the doors turned and opened them, revealing a cavernous chamber inside. Closest to the doors was a large table, set sideways, with chairs lining the outer section. Elysium, Orin, Shaynth, and Humboldt sat in the middle. The party, Ramona, and Markus sat at the table and waited. Above them, multiple chandeliers with orbs of light, almost too bright to look at, floated in the air in a lazy circular rotation roughly ten feet up, which was only halfway to the ceiling. Across the way, with walls lined with unlit torches, and reached to the back wall, where a set of five fifteen-foot-tall, stained glass windows took up most of the wall. In front of them was a group of stairs that moved about five feet up and flattened out to a platform, on which three guards surrounded a younger elven woman. Her blond hair was braided, with gems of different colors placed in the braiding. Though Leaf could not see them from a distance, he knew from paintings that she had hazel eyes that pierced her olive complexion. She stood, and Leaf could guess her to be roughly six-foot-tall. She held a silver staff in her left hand, and as she walked forward and down the platform, it hit the floor and echoed through the silence as they waited for her to speak. This was Queen Sylona, Matriarch of seventy years now and the daughter of Nemia of Dionysia. She spoke, and her voice, sounding closer to a whisper, met each of them as if she were standing right before them.

“It seems that a great many things took place today, but good prevailed as it always should. We were attacked at Haron’s Castle, the Athenaeum, and a bakery owned by citizens here in Moonbright just today, and the Arcana Emporium was attacked just two nights ago. I have received information about all the other attacks but would like to hear about the Athenaeum.”

Leaf stood up, not changing much in height, but still trying to be respectful, and spoke.

“We were instructed to come together by Archmage Orin and Master Elysium to find any information we could on what we were referring to as Shades. We found some information that could be very useful in furthering research regarding the Shades as a court of fey that has been long gone for centuries. These Shades, the Darklings, seem to follow an older fey and might be under their willpower. They use possessions as a right of passage, cocooning themselves inside the host body and turning into what they call an Elder Darkling. As we were going to leave, we were attacked by an elf of the fey and its compatriots.”

Leaf held out the book on fey creatures he had grabbed at the Athenaeum. Holding it up, he addressed them further.

“We have started investigating what they are but do not yet know their intentions.”

“It has been a troubling day indeed.” the Queen thought aloud. “I will put a curfew out for the next few weeks as we investigate this further and focus our extra troops on doubling their watch day and night. I am unsure why this is happening, but I will do what I can to keep my citizens out of harm.”

“Your Highness, I ask that I keep this group under my watch tonight in the Archmage’s Tower. I have the memory orb, which is beneficial for such things, and considering they have helped in multiple attacks so far, I would like to keep them safe in case something is after one of them in particular. “ Orin stood and requested while gesturing to the party.

“That very well may be the best option. My only other choice was to take them to the dungeons with guards, but they have done no wrong.” She looked over to the party, taking them all in individually. “While I do not believe any of you have caused these tragedies to occur, and I do have proof that you were involved in doing just the opposite, I would like you all to not consider yourselves prisoners in this situation but as wards to Archmage Orin. If anything else does happen, you will be safe there, and I will be near, with my troops at quick disposal. If further questions are needed, I will summon my men to escort you from the Tower to me.”

Queen Sylona turned and walked to the left side of the chamber. Guards immediately escorted her and had already driven forward to open the doors nearest her. She left, with the echoing sound of her staff hitting the floor and getting quieter by the second.