Acantha, a cup of tea in hand, stood in the smithy with Black and Decker who were working, shirtless and sweaty. The workshop was its own building, separate from the house, so that the metal hammering would not disturb the other craftlords. It was hot in the room, which was only partially because of the blazing forge that took up ample space in the room. The walls were lined with tools, some of which Acantha had no idea what they could be used for. One of them she recognized from when Morn had retrieved it back when Decker had been captured by the Weemen. Black was using a thong and hammer to shape a piece of metal, Decker carried a bucket of water towards him. After Acantha had asked for a vehicle, Black had told her about the problem they were currently facing.
“Our trade routes are cut off. We need materials for our project and if you want a vehicle, well, we will need materials for that too.”
“Do you have any idea why?”
“We do not,” said Black, “We trade with the Sone, who live in the desert south from here. I think I have it marked on one of my maps. Decker?”
Black set his tools down to take the bucket from Decker and put it to his mouth. While Black drank, Acantha had a clear view of the glowing heart that shone through his chest like a hot coal. The few droplets that spilled down his beard on his skin desperately tried to flee the scene by transforming into steam. Acantha diverted her gaze to Decker, who had gone to the other side of the room to grab a map and fold it out on a large workbench.
“The Sone live here,” he pointed out when Acantha joined him, “And this is their trading route. The Albed live here, you should pay them a visit on your way back.”
“Alright, we will take care of it. ”
“Great, then we will start working on the hovercraft, make sure you check in with the Albed so we can have the new hovercraft working in a few days,” said Black.
“Thank you for your help, Acantha,” said Decker, folding up the map.
“Yeah, no problem.”
Acantha met with Jade and Morn in the kitchen and told them what had to be done.
“So we have no idea what we are looking for,” Jade scowled, which brought out the lines on her forhead, “We only know that whatever it is, is probably somewhere along this trading route.”
“Whatever is cutting off the Sone, we will take care of it.” said Morn.
“It won’t take long,” said Acantha cheerfully, “Just a few days to walk down the route to investigate. It will probably only be a minor hindrance.”
They travelled south through the mountains. The desert was nowhere in sight. They did see a small group of short, bearded elves coming up the road towards them. As the two groups grew closer, Acanta spoke up:
“Good afternoon.”
“What’s that?” shouted back one of the dwarves with a voice that was so hoarse, it sounded like it had been trampled over by a herd of plough-pulling oxen.
“GOOD AFTERNOON!” shouted Acantha.
“AH, YES, YOU TOO, LASSIE,” the dwarf said, “PERMISSION TO SPEAK IN YOUR HEAD.”
“WHAT?”
“Permission granted,” sung Jade using the elven language.
“Ah, thanque yuu, I much prefer talquing without uzing mwah voice,” the elf sang back.
“I can understand why,” said Jade, grinning at the sudden change of voice and volume. Morn and Acantha were mute in the language of the elves, but they were able to hear and understand it perfectly well.
“Mwah name iz Larissa of zhe Albed, I ‘ave nevurr seen yuu ‘ere befurr.”
“Indeed, we are Acantha, Morn and Jade from the True- eh, Morn and I are from Truepath. We are investigating the missing Sone carriers. Do you happen to know anything about it?”
“Ah yes, zhere iz undead at zhe gravéyarde, yuu might mean zhem?”
“Eh, it sounds like that could very well be what we are looking for. Do you know where the graveyard is?”
Acantha, having listened in on the conversation, folded out the map. Larissa took a look and pointed out a place that crossed with the trading route.
“I am not guud wizh le maps, but I zhink it iz zhere.”
“Great, thank you.” Jade said with a polite smile.
“Yuu are very velcome. Good luck on your quest. Please, if yuu ‘ave some time, drop by for sum eks-eks-eks.” Still pointing at the map the dwarf added: “Our domain iz from ‘ere to ‘ere”
After they went their seperate ways Acantha said:
“Well, that was unpleasant. At least we got some useful information out of him. Let’s hope it is, anyway.”
It took them a day to reach the place Larissa had marked for them. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, untill suddenly they stood in the middle of a graveyard. The fields were filled with lines of gravestones all the way up to the horizon.
“Huh?” said Jade, “This must be an illusion.”
“Over there,” said Morn and they pointed a bit further on where three pillars towered high above the rest of the gravestones. The three walked towards the obelisks made out of black stone.
“Yes, this is definitely the center of the energy, right here.” said Acantha, “Do you feel it?”
“I don’t, but I believe you,” said Jade and she put her hand on one of the obelisks.
“Careful!” yelped Acantha.
Morn readied their axe and thrust it at the obelisk, creating the tiniest little dent.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna work.” said Jade unimpressed.
Morn swung their axe again, chipping away at the obelisk.
STOP, echoed a voice through the air, Please come back at night.
“What the-” Jade caught herself.
“That’s strange,” Acantha closed her eyes and let her soul connect to the fabric that connected all souls together. She tugged at the fabric and looked underneath, but saw nothing of interest, she had to go with her best guess: “I think, someone owns these pillars.”
“I mean, it asked politely,” said Jade, “Maybe we should wait until twilight.”
“Are you crazy? Did you forget that daemons come at night?”
Jade shrugged: “Let them come.”
“Morn! Say something.”
“Jade is right, let us wait and face this voice when it can fight back.”
“Who are you people?”
Jade grinned and sat herself down on a gravestone, she drew her blade from the scabbard in the small of her back and examined it. Morn started doing some push-ups. Acantha considered setting up her tent, but decided not to, in case they had to run from whatever would come out at night.
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