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Brougoth
The valley leading to the capital city of the Gemlats was flanked by the high mountains of Thari Cees. The path through the valley was the only passage way known to man. The steepness of the mountains was astounding, and their true height could only be guessed. A party of three travellers was heading towards the mighty gates of Brougoth on the otherwise deserted road. Not too many travellers were on the streets these days with the raiding hoards of the Beakil Khum scouring the lands for booties and troop recruits, putting the unwilling to slavery if they were spared the butchery. Nerronh, the High Imperator of Beakil Khum had sent his High Knights out to gather provisions and increase their conscription armies for they ware at the edge of war with the invading hordes of the Yakhath.
Few of the Beakil Khum High Knights were quite sensible and established good relations with the villagers of the Lapragth, taking goods in quantities the people could well afford, recruiting volunteers exclusively and offered protection in return while most were violent, taking whatever they could carry away, slaughtering, enslaving and pillaging, leaving a bloody trail of death, despair and destruction. The Gemlats did their best to protect the Henveds, but they too had to prepare for the upcoming confrontations so many villages in the Lapragth fell victim to the Beakil Khum.
Long negotiations between the Gemlats council of High Archmages and Nerronh unfortunately hadn’t produced a satisfactory outcome as he continually refused to trust in the Henveds loyalty and unsolicited support. Not surprisingly his advisors had convinced him that his gains were much higher by using force rather than seeking cooperation, as they were all power-greedy warriors and had no touch for diplomacy. Nerronh respected the potency of the Gemlats however and dreaded an open confrontation. He was no fool after all and knew that he could not afford a two-front war.
Aware of the circumstances, the three travellers were watchful but not troubled because they knew of their relative safeness in the vicinity of Brougoth. It was a strange party with an old man in the lead, riding on a black stallion, followed by two children who shared one horse, a third horse in trail carrying their provisions. When they arrived at the mighty gates of Brougoth, the old man dismounted, but motioned the others to stay in the saddle. He produced something from within his robes, attached it to the ring he was wearing on his right index finger and suddenly the entire group was bathed in a green shimmering aura.
“THEALDI TO!”, the old man shouted. The next moment, an alleyway opened at the right side of the gates. What the ordinary eye would have taken to be a straight solid wall, turned out to contain a second gate in addition to the prominent main entrance.
When two heavily armoured guards appeared at the entrance, the old man detached the item from his ring and the sphere vanished.
“Greetings, Thealdi To requests admittance for himself and his two companions.”
He smiled at the guards, apparently they knew each other.
“Master To!”, replied one of the guards, obviously pleased at the sight of the old man.
“Glad you returned safely and as it appears, your mission was a success.” Inquiringly he looked at the two children.
“Indeed, my dear friend. I will tell the tale in the Great Hall shortly, after we have had a little rest - I hope this agrees with you?” He smiled his smile at the guard.
“Certainly, Master To”, replied the guard, bowed and stepped aside to let the travellers pass, clearly ashamed at his behaviour.
“What was this?” inquired the boy. The girl remained silent, apparently too scatterbrained by all these happenings, disallowing her mind to focus and form a similar question.
“This, Lendear, is how one gains access to the city. Without a gem there simply isn’t a way in. The main gates”, he added,
“are only used for troops moving in and out of the city. Admittance to the regular traveller is granted here.” He pointed at the alleyway. “Of course there are additional precautions, one you have just witnessed in the form of the two guards, but there are further provisions that will guarantee that only those will pass who have the proper accreditation. Now, let’s get the horses to the stables and pay a short visit to the kitchen.”
They headed towards the stables and left their horses with the stable boy. Lendear had never been to a city of such a size. All he knew were a few villages in the Lapragth, housing no more than five hundred people. This city appeared so huge, he wasn’t able to even guess how many inhabitants it might had. Massive stone buildings everywhere, many stories high. In the distance he made out a particular huge building, mighty pillars erected at the front, bronze statues, at least ten times the height of a man in-between, the gates wide open. He assumed it to be the Great Hall and asked Thealdi for confirmation who nodded at the boy smiling.
“Yes, my dear friend, this is indeed the Great Hall. There will be an assembly tonight and I daresay it has to do with our presence.”
He blinked at the children and marched on, heading towards what appeared to be his house. On their way they made a brief stop at one of the many public kitchens to grab a bite.
Thealdis house was huge and without doubt could accommodate at least ten families. Lendear was excited at the prospect to meet his master’s family and was quite surprised when he learned that Thealdi lived alone.
“How come you have such a big house, when you are just on your own?” inquired the boy.
“Oh, there have been times when this house thrived with activity and many people used to call it their home. But these times are long gone. Another story I shall tell you in due time. For now I suggest that we take a little nap. We will be needing our energies soon.”
He assigned each child a room and headed to the master bedroom. The old man felt quite tired, the journey had taken its toll, but there were still tasks at hand he had attend to.
For the first time since they had found and taken her with them, Lillyveen was alone. The first hours after she had been rescued were lost to her as Thealdi had put her to an artificial sleep in order to speed up the healing process of the wound she had received by the blow of a sword when the hordes of Beakil Khum had invaded her hometown, slaughtering each and everyone. Miraculously she had survived, but the loss of anyone she had known, the destruction of her home and the uncertainty of her destination didn’t help to value this fact. Often in the previous days she had wished her wound to be mortal and even though the old man and the boy did their best to cheer her up, she could barely endure her distress.
She was about to lay down as Thealdi had requested when she heard a knock at the door. Reluctantly she invited whomever was outside to step in and when the door opened, a woman appeared with a tray, a warm smile on her face.
“Hello Lillyveen. Master To asked me to provide some tea. I am Myrtha from Largham and if you don’t mind I would like to keep you some company.”
Realization hit the little girl for the tale of Largham was well known throughout the villages of the Lapragth. Few had survived the attack of the Beakil Khum army albeit they bravely fought a months long battle. The warriors of Largham stood their ground at the first wave, and successfully fended off the second, paying with many lives, but still intent to stand their ground. Eventually the Beakil Khum army was reinforced by another group, ten times the size of the original invading troops, led by an particular reckless High Knight and in the end, the village of Lapragth was wiped off the map.
When it had become clear that the village could not be held, the surviving citizens destroyed everything they were not able to put to safety and evacuated their homes to set out to Brougoth where they intended to plea for sanctuary. They left many traps for the invading armies and the troops of the Beakil Khum suffered high losses in a seemingly empty town deprived of anything valuable. A handful of exceptionally brave Largham warriors had been left behind to set fire to the buildings once the invading troops were inside the perimeters of the city wall, and many more fell victim to the all-consuming flames for the fires were laid out after a cunning plan that would trap the enemy inside with no route to escape.
The High Knight, furious beyond description set out to take revenge at the people from Largham. More than two hundred men, women and children were caught, brought back to the grounds where once the city of Largham had stood and for weeks the torturers had their go until eventually all victims were redeemed by death. The broken bodies then were hung from the city walls, the ghastly display a public warning to anyone.

Lillyveen felt much sympathy for the woman and her own suffering seemed a little less heavy when she thought about what Myrtha must have gone through. The presence of someone who really understood her pain felt good and she opened herself to the woman. For the first time after the events of Toodsted she talked about the happenings. How the army of the Beakil Khum had invaded her home, the slaughtering, raping and pillaging she had to witness and the eventual blow of the sword taking her momentarily out of her misery after she had to watch the killing of her parents. Myrtha had listened to the girls tale without interruption and when Lillyveen was finally done she took her in her arms, rocked her gently, drying the tears, holding back her own. Having lost her own daughter to the torturers of the Beakil Khum, she had lost all happiness and ever since had experienced regular longings of ending her life to abscond her suffering. But the girl had changed something deep inside her, the pains of her own wounded soul no longer predominant, sensing that together they could find a path back to happiness. She felt grateful for the call from Thealdi, the man who had taken her in when she had arrived with the little group of survivors. She had spent many months in the house of Master To before she felt she had the strength to start a new life and move to a house of her own. It was a lot of Thealdis doing that she, after a long time of mere functioning, eventually found some quality in her life, making it possible to continue at all. When he had knocked on her door an hour ago and requested her aid, she had followed him without alacrity, the trust she had in the old mans actions absolute and the expectation of finally being able to give something back had filled her with joy. No longer able to hold back her own, but realizing they were tears of gratification she wept together with the girl.
This was how the rooms of Master To’s house began to fill again with inhabitants after many years of vacancy.