Elwen the Conquered

“So, how much longer do you think it’ll be?” Evelyn asked, moving her piece into one of the corner squares. She was getting close to winning now, or at least Elwen thought.

“I’d bet another day or two,” Skye responded, moving her pieces into the center square. They were playing a ‘simple’ game with a bunch of little rocks and debris. Elwen still couldn’t figure out what the rules were, even after watching several dozen games. She had tried playing some of the easier ones but never had too much success. It was a lot easier to play once the guards came back and untied her on the second day. She had asked Skye to help her get them off earlier, but she said she couldn’t. The guards apparently didn’t like it when they did stuff like that. Elwen understood, but still, it was uncomfortable.

“Come on, that’s no fair! You can’t bet on more than one day!” Evelyn complained. It had been almost a week since they left the port. The journey had been relatively calm; they had only encountered one storm the entire time. It had terrified Elwen – she thought the ship was going to sink the entire time – but everyone else was pretty relaxed. Sure, they sat up, not wanting to get rolled around as the ship tilted, but other than that they were calm.

When they weren’t sleeping, they were usually playing games, like this weird checkers-like one, or chatting. Skye was always the one to bring up new games. She traveled a lot, so she had to learn a bunch of easy-to-play games to stave off the boredom. Lydia loved to talk, a trait that annoyed many of the other groups when it came to night. She was really good at bringing up new and exciting topics. She was constantly trying to socialize with the other groups too, usually to great success. Even Yusha joined in, when she wasn’t grumbling. Evelyn was constantly trying to make bets, even if someone rarely took them. The result: they started playing social games. Of course, Evelyn was insistent on being the one to set the stakes, while Skye made the rules, and Lydia always set the topic. It was great fun. The time flew by, day after day passed by.

The guards always looked surprised or confused when they came to bring them food. She had no idea why. All they were doing was chatting and playing some games. What else were they supposed to do? And it's not like they ever told them to stop or anything, so it wasn’t like they were doing anything wrong. All they did was shake their heads before setting the food down and slowly leaving, usually restarting the steady rhythm of shaking as they did so. She did notice that it was always a different person who came, though. Maybe they were taking turns?

Just as Evelyn placed her last piece and Skye collapsed in pretend agony, there was some sort of commotion above deck. They could only tell because of the massive increase in the ever-present footsteps they could hear through the creaky deck above them. And then they heard a light ringing of a bell.

“Hah! Guess I win, twice!” Evelyn declared, puffing out her chest and holding up two fingers in front of her.

“How could you possibly have won? You didn’t even bet it would be today!” Skye complained, sitting up.

“Well you lost, which means I won!” Evelyn stated.

“By that logic I won, too. And If I won, that means you lost.” Yusha said in a sleepy voice, finally getting up from her nap.

It seemed that the commotion from above quickly spread amongst the people in the cage, as they slowly got up from their naps. Some started stretching their legs, others started huddling up in their groups. At least, more so than they were before. You can’t really get all that far apart when you’re all chained together.

Sure enough, after about half an hour, a whole group of men in black uniforms appeared before the cage, carrying a bunch of big bags. They dropped them all off by the door as they entered, making a neat line against the metal bars. Then, they all spread out, each one heading to a different group.

“Get up!” The one that arrived at Elwen’s group commanded. They complied, each one reacting differently. Skye was obviously happy to finally be getting out of the cage. Linda gave a more subdued smile, sharing Skye’s happiness at leaving, but not quite her excitement. Evelyn looked a little annoyed at being commanded, but still did as she was told. Elwen could barely hear her grumble something under her breath, but she couldn’t hear what it was. Yusha looked annoyed too, but it was more about not being able to sleep in more. Her expression was neatly washed away as she stifled a yawn. Elwen nearly fell over as soon as she stood up, her legs feeling tingling. She sighed, regretting that she didn’t stretch them while she had the chance.

As soon as they were all up, the man grabbed the loose end loose end of Yusha’s chain and started pulling her forward. Lydia quickly followed her, with Skye just behind her, pulling Evelyn along next, and Elwen in the back. The guard had them stand in a line pointing in the direction of the door. Then, he went around shackling their hands together with manacles, the same ones as the crazy girl on the wagon had on. Thankfully, they had a little more room to move them around, as the chain between them was longer, with five links between the cuffs, and they were in front. It was much more comfortable this way than the way the crazy girl had them on, at least in Elwen’s imagination. They were a bit cold, but they would warm up from their body heat, eventually.

After all of the groups were ready, the guards marched them out, one group at a time, above deck and off the ship. Elwen was relieved to finally be on dry land again, especially as that meant the floor would finally stop moving. That actually gave her a little bit of trouble her first couple of steps on the ground, as she expected the ground to move a little, but she quickly recovered.

On the outside, a set of wagons were waiting for them. These ones were a little different. Instead of being a large wooden carriage, like the last ones, they were instead a giant cage on wheels. There was still a wooden roof and floor, from what she could tell, but the walls were replaced with metal bars, not unlike those on the ship. There were also four horses at the front, rather than the previous two. Elwen didn’t have time to really take in all the differences, though, as they were quickly led inside from a door on the back. After making sure both Yusha and Elwen’s chains were locked to metal rings on the ground, the guard locked the door and left.

“Man, these guys are really efficient at moving people around, aren’t they?” Skye commented at their fast transition and the man’s swift exit.

“Be quiet!” A man clad in armor demanded as he trashed a metal baton across the bars.

“Ok, ok! I guess not allowed to talk. Geez.” Skye responded, raising her hands in surrender.

“Don’t make me come in there!” The man threatened as he banged his baton in a harder motion against one of the bars. Elwen covered her ears, the ringing getting a little too loud for her. Luckily, Skye decided that she didn’t want to antagonize the man any further, so he went back to whatever he was doing before.

It only took a few more minutes before everyone was off the boat and into their new cage—carriages. Still, it took a while before they left, the sailors offloading all of their other cargo into wagons. Boxes tended not to walk themselves to where they were supposed to be. Thankfully, they didn’t need to wait for all of the cargo to be unloaded, as their wagons began rolling forward after only another two carriages were loaded up. Elwen assumed that the big group of wagons that they passed as they left was there to pick up the rest.

The wagon ride was actually pretty short, at least compared to the boat ride. After only an hour or two— she couldn’t really tell because she fell asleep about twenty minutes into the ride, the ship ride messed up her sleep schedule—they arrived in front of a big castle in the middle of, well, nowhere. A large wooden palisade ran right through the castle, making the castle the only way in or out of the area contained within.

The gate opened and they were driven inside, down a short tunnel, and into a large room. Once all of the wagons were in the room, a pair of large wooden doors were shut behind them. Then, a large group of men, at least thirty, descended upon them. They were very efficient about getting all of them up into neat little lines outside of the wagons.

A man in a black leather uniform entered the room, stepping through another massive door across from the one that they had entered through. He walked up a small wooden platform, large enough for his two bodyguards to stand on the platform with him, standing ominously off to the sides.

“Greetings!” He yelled, “Welcome to Fortress Blackmarch, maggots! This will be your new home! I am Overseer Sarkir, but you may call me Sir, Master, or Overseer! My word here is law! You may take it to be the words of your King or God, whichever you prefer! I will not tolerate any disobedience, and neither will any of my many hands! Disobey them at your own peril! I will know, and all those involved will be punished! Do as you are told, and we will make something worthwhile out of you!” Then he stepped down, slowly walking back through the door he came from. He had a sort of intimidating aura around him, even when he wasn’t facing them.

“Alright, let’s go!” A man at the front of the line, grabbing onto Yusha’s chain, said, pulling her forward. Their line followed him through the big door the Overseer went through, then turned down a small hallway. They left the castle, passed through a small courtyard surrounded by stone walls, and entered a wooden building. Then, one by one, they were separated and lightly pushed through doors on either side of the hallway.

The room Elwen was pushed into was small. There was a sink against the wall, embedded into a long countertop, with sets of cabinets above and below. She assumed they were locked, seeing the locks at the handles, but didn’t bother checking. There was a short bed against the wall across from the countertop, which she sat on, waiting for whatever would happen next. The bed was hard and uncomfortable, she hoped that she wouldn’t be staying in her through the night. Though it was probably better than the wooden floor of the ship, it wasn’t by much. There was a small window above the bed, covered in bars.

From there, she saw an open square, framed by a few stone buildings. It was nearly empty, a passing group of men in black uniforms being the only thing to fill the blank space. It was rather boring, so she took to cloud watching instead.

Varian looked up at the sky, seeing puffs of dark grey.

‘Is that coming this way?’ he asked himself, wanting to avoid getting drenched, if possible. It wouldn’t be great if it became muddy, either. He was already having difficulty traversing the mountainside, if it got any worse, he would have to stop. He wouldn’t turn back, though.

He spotted the ruins a day ago and was determined to get to them. He had to follow the mountains back quite a bit before he found a spot where he could climb up. He had to leave his horse behind though, there was no way it could make it up the mountain. And he was pretty sure it wouldn’t survive a night alone, considering he was still occasionally attacked by scorpions. They weren’t much of a problem for him, but they would likely be deadly for the horse. So, he took his saddlebags off it and let it go. He hoped it would survive, but that was up to it now.

Ever since he began his trek up the mountain, it had been quiet. Eerily quiet. It was suspicious, so he was constantly on guard. It made the night difficult, but he still got a little bit of sleep. Although, it took him nearly two hours to set up the traps beforehand, and even then, he had trouble falling asleep.

Luckily, he should be arriving at the ruins tomorrow. He could push it and make it there today but decided that it would be better to approach it when he was rested and energized. No sense in taking unnecessary risks with the totally-not-a-trap ominous fortress in the middle of nowhere.

He made it to the top of a little hill on the mountainside, with a nice, but distant overlook of the ruins. He couldn’t see anything of note from here, only the half-collapsed walls surrounding the castle, a few piles of rubble and rotten buildings, and the castle itself, which was nearly intact. He decided to spend the night here, studying the ruins from a distance. If there was anything inside, he wanted to know before approaching.

He sighed, rummaging through his backpack. It would be a bad idea to have a campfire while trying to remain hidden, so he would have to settle for rations for dinner. At least he still had some water left, so he didn’t have to eat it dry…