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[h2]Chapter One: One Night in Ealdormuda[/h2]

It was one of those summer days that seemed to stretch on forever. The air was heavy with the scent of the sea and the faint sweetness of things growing too fast. Though as evening fell the call of the gulls and the merry chirping of the sparrows and finches faded as they found their roosts for the night, leaving only the steady, rhythmic crash of the sea waves.

In a particular inn, close to the harbour, a group was gathering: a strange group by most people's reckoning.  There was the Sylpharim woman with the amber hair and the striking gray-blue eyes, slight, and unimposing were it not for the huge black wings behind her back.  Then, there was the Firindorian woman, taller than most men, with leaf-shaped pointy ears and a youthful face that belied her advanced years.  Then there were the two men, both foreigners, one of whom spoke none of the local language. 

"I'm sure it's Turakindi," the Sylpharim woman assured the others, "I stepped across the threshold before being ambushed by troglodytes.  The scale of the building was quite unmistakable... plus I had the opportunity before the troglodytes showed up to take a look at some of the statues and inscriptions.  I can't read Turakindi, but I do know what it looks like."

"I trust what you are saying, Aderynel," the Firindorian woman assured her, "What I'm most interested in is why you believe it hasn't been entered before you?"

One of the men, the taller one with the dark hair gave a chuckle, "At the end of the day, she doesn't... but who cares?  It's not on any map, so that means it hasn't been properly explored.  It goes deep underground.  There are troglodytes and other dangers.  Who knows what lie in the deep places no person has gone since the Turakindi sealed the place up?  I, for one, am excited to find out."

"The place is well hidden in the mountains," Aderynel explained, ignoring his outburst to address the Firindorian's question, "If there is a path to it, it was lost to nature millennia ago.  From what I could see the entrance was covered by rockfall aeons ago.  Further rockfall revealed it and, in the process, brought one of the massive doors down, which allowed me to enter.  I can't say with certainty, but I think I was the first person over that threshold since the Turakindi left."

"Good enough for me!" the tall man announced with a grin.

The Firindorian woman took a moment to consider this, leaning back in her chair, "From what I know of the time, and I have spoken to some of the ancient wood elves who lived through that time, the Turakindi did not imagine the cycle war would devastate them in the way that it did.  They built vaults to safeguard things for later, not imagining that their people would slowly fade from the world with the passage of time.  It is a sad but inevitable truth that all things pass and fade away.  The Sidfir were the first people and they, for the most part, have passed through the Vale of Mists, never to return to these lands again.  The Turakindi have faded into history with the same, sad inevitability... which is all to say that I can imagine them creating a vault with the thought they would return to it, only to never return," she nodded, "Like Hagen, I am excited to know what lies behind those doors."

She turned to the shorter man, "Quintus?" she prompted.

He was a tanned figure with a mop of dark hair that marked him as a Southerner, though, unusually, he had blue eyes.  He gave a small shrug to her question, "I'm sworn to you, M'Lady -"

"Tárwen," she corrected.

"I'm sworn to you, Tárwen," he said, with a slight smile and nod to concede she preferred to be referred to by her given name, "I go wherever you go."

"Yes, yes," Tárwen waved that away, "But do you want to go?"

Quintus gave a small shrug, before replying, "An ancient ruin infested by the Host of Darkness?  I was, and remain in spirit, a soldier of the Regnum.  It is our duty to cleanse such places."

"I'm not sure how much cleansing we'll be doing as the four of us!" Hagen declared, "Let us hope some others have been intrigued by young Aderynel's call to arms!"