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9th of Aran, Y126 E.O.T.

Knightly Letter: Ileas 9

by Alistan De la Roost

Ileas,
 
Today I may have had the most pleasant interaction with a hag that I'll ever get in my life.
 
Since last I wrote we spent time building up our keep. Gardens were planted, libraries and studies were stocked. Gael and Dadroz dipped their toes into the art of trading as they were recovering from a resurrection. And together with Gael, we recruited the first guards to patrol and guard Wolf's Rest. My retainers, Carnwen and Krysander, took up some of the first positions in my squad. Hopefully their training in the past few months and years with me pays off, and they can grow into their own as leaders and maybe even knights. My other retainer, Petra, took up work in one of Liliana's garden. Besides them a divere group of people joined the guards and my smithy: they seem mostly outsiders who are happy to be outside the busy center of Keralon (and some judging eyes) and I'm more than happy to give them work and safety here.
 
On top of that, most of us started investigating the strange items they have come across, so it wasn't out of the ordinary to see Liliana drink an iced tea while studying the blade Vivienne gave her, or see Gael and Hayley purposefully staring at their respective weapons to gather a clue of what powers they were still hiding. Dadroz was delving into the history of his. This mostly left official Wolf's Rest business with Luke and I, meaning while Luke got things started on a festival to christen Wolf's Rest's new beginning I spent some time talking to the inhabitants to know who exactly we're now supposed to protect and help. My brother's shield could wait a bit longer.
 
So by the time Gael and Dadroz fully recovered from their resurrection we had a keep full of life, people moving around the building left and right and a stack of new information on what to do now about Aunt Patty. Luke and Hayley had learned that Aunt Patty was the lowest ranked member of her coven and had never taken a daughter (a nice way of saying, she never forced a parent to give up their baby and then ate the baby to turn them into a hag). Luke had learned that it's strange that the hag came into a city district, as they're usually not allowed or could be denied access except for the day of Haggyn. We had a long discussion and realized that we should talk to one of the other hags in Patty's coven, we knew there was a cabin north of Keralon, close to the Lorewood that was always inhabited by one of the other hags. The life of the Dresner baby was important enough to at least see if Patty wasn't stepping out of bounds with her recent actions, as we also learned from Tommel that the deal was ambiguous enough that stopping Patty from saving Niara was probably not enough.
 
There was also debate on if we should investigate this coven more, especially Gael was convinced we could learn more about this coven. But in the end, we learned about as much as we could expect and wasting another week was not really finding enthusing us. So we took our horses and traveled to the cabin, though not before visiting the Dresner farm to tell Niara that she doesn't need to visit for cleaning, seeing as the vision Hayley saw put her encounter with the frog in our kitchen.
 
When we arrived at the cabin an hour or two later, we saw it was well made and almost inviting home yet with no one was to be seen around us. Knocking on the door just made it open ominously, showing a hearth crackling and a feast's worth of food on the table, and when we stepped inside we immediately felt the cold penetrating through our skin. Hayley deduced the cold might point to a Bheur hag, which in this coven would be Mother Alma Marblehook.
 
Deciding the spring air is more comfortable than the cold inside we decided to wait outside while Luke and Hayley prepared some magic to see if anything was hidden. Lil was adamant on trying to conquer the cold but I managed to drag her out, as she was slowly freezing.
 
In the end, the cold came to us anyway. As a few moments later an illusion of snow and cold came over us, trying to trick us into thinking it was colder than it was and two ice trolls wandered out of the trees. Before Gael could greet them they charged and attacked Liliana, and we had a fight on our hands.
 
We at first suspected they were guardians and wanted to knock them out, but their healing factor made it impossible for them to stay down longer than a few seconds. So we had to resort to lethal force, yet as the last trol fell down the illusion of snow vanished and the hag Alma Marblehook appeared, not distressed about us killing her trolls but inviting us in for food.
 
Inside Gael explained to her our interaction with Patty and that we wanted the input of the coven on what we're allowed to do. She clarified we can deny her access but if there's no guards they can just walk in, there has to be someone to tell them they're not welcome. And when talking about the Dresner baby she apparently became visibly annoyed (according to Gael and Hayley, who are a bit more insightful) and proposed she could talk to Patty about leaving Wolf's Rest alone. But in exchange she wanted us to stay for dinner. After clarifying there was no immediate trick to the food we agreed and dug in.
 
And here the hag pulled the rug under us as she progressively made it colder and colder as the meal progressed. And while the others could weather it quite well, me and my sister took the brunt of it. And after finishing the food and getting the hag's word she would talk to Patty we barely got on our horses and dragged ourselves to bed.
 
The next few days will likely be slow, but there's plenty of work to be done.
 
Hope to write you again soon,
Alistan

Continue reading...

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  31. Knightly Letter: Ileas 9
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  38. Knightly Letters: Ileas 16
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  39. Knightly Letters: Ileas 17
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  40. Knightly Letter: Ileas 17 pt 2
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  51. Knightly Letters: Ileas 23
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  53. Knightly Letters: Ileas 25
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  56. Knightly Letters: Ileas 26 part 3
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  57. Knightly Letter: Ileas 26 pt 4
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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2024 [] | Anvil Time: 21:05, May 24 2025