World Seed 74 Chapter 74

The meeting dragged on for some time as the elves planned how to repair the wall and other damaged buildings within Setrhyn. After it had finished Aerwyn ordered his undead to begin scavenging the dead while he got some rest in Tylin's guest room. He made sure to specify that he wanted the plate armor of the two true orcs that fell in battle along with any scale armor that they could find. The rest of his picks would be from the human corpses as lesser orcs wore armor more akin to pelts than actual armor.

The following morning eight hundred sets of equipment along with several sacks of mana cores were piled up outside of Tylin's home. Transporting it all through the dense forest was going to be a pain but at least he wouldn't need any more steel for a while. The next problem would be repairing the damaged armor or reforging it entirely and for that he needed a blacksmith in Ardin.

As Aerwyn ate breakfast, he began thinking about how he could convince the antisocial Semmy to move to Ardin and work for him. After he finished eating he called for Nyris and the merchant brothers Kers and Inik. Nyris arrived first and he was already looking much better than the day prior.

"The blacksmith Semmy, Master Ynir told me his daughter was one of those taken by Earl Abery's men many months ago."

"That's correct, her name is Meyana." Nyris reply came just as the two tanned merchants arrived.

"Perfect timing. Do you two remember selling a Fae'Laran girl by the name of Meyana?" Aerwyn asked.

"Among the four that were sold three were female. Perhaps my lord could be a bit more specific?" Kers hesitantly asked.

"Nyris describe her." Aerwyn ordered.

"Ah, yes. She was fifteen and had black hair with amber colored eyes."

"I believe she was the one we brothers sold to Bessos Derii." Inik chimed in as he looked to his brother for confirmation.

"How much would it cost to buy her back?" Aerwyn asked.

"M-my lord..." Kers hesitated and displayed a helpless expression.

"Speak."

"Derii is a bessos, it's a t.i.tle akin to Durani n.o.bility but different. They are more like kings of their own lands and only answer to the sulimon during times of war. They are extraordinarily wealthy and are often a slave to their own whims. Without something to allure him even more than the dark elf child, i'm afraid that if he's taken a liking to her, buying her back would be rather difficult. If he hasn't, perhaps two thousand Durani nekkar's would buy the girls freedom."

"I don't know the exchange rate of Durani currency, tell me how much in mana cores."

"Nearly five hundred A Grade cores my lord."

"...That's all for now. Nyris have the undead begin packing up the equipment, we'll be heading to the s.h.i.+ps soon."

The price nearly stopped Aerwyn's heart. No wonder Earl Abery was capturing elves as slaves, that price would tempt any man. In fact, he was surprised slavers weren't more of a problem for the elves to begin with. If he wanted to evolve his undead he couldn't afford to buy the girl back just yet but perhaps simply the promise of buying her would be enough to sway Semmy to move to Ardin for the moment.

As they merchant brothers and Nyris left him, he decided on stopping by Marik's shop. It had been nearly a month since he put in his order and now was as good a time as any to pick up the spears. Aerwyn called over some zin beetles to carry them and made his way over to the shop. Marik was hard at work when Aerwyn arrived, no doubt making the tools necessary to begin repairing the village.

"I'm here to pickup my order." Aerwyn said with a friendly smile.

"Ai lad, i still owe ya ten spears, i had only finished a hundred before the attack. There in the back, help yourself. The other ten will take me a while considering the circ.u.mstances of the village." Marik didn't bother to stop pounding his hammer as he spoke.

"That's no problem, i already have more weapons than undead at the moment. I wanted to ask you about crafting two revarium daggers for Erit."
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"Oi didn't ya hear me lad? I ain't got any time to make your spears let alone work on revarium for your little lady friend." Marik jeered, only stopping his work to give Aerwyn an annoyed look.

"I heard ya, don't bite my head off. I said i wanted to ask about it, not that i wanted you to make it right away."

"I'm busy, make it quick. What'd ya want to know?"

"How long does it take to craft... say a sword? I imagine the metal is more difficult to work with than steel considering it's strength."

"You're right, the metal is stubborn. It's resistant to heat and without the help of a mage that can cast flame spells, the forging of the blade alone can take weeks of continuous hammering."

"That long? What about if you had a fire mage to help?"

"Depends on the blacksmith but i'd say a week, maybe two if they're slow. Now if you're done leave this poor blacksmith to his misery. Oh and Weyn should be arriving in two days so if you plan to catch him stick around Setrhyn."

"Ah, i forgot about that. I don't have anything with me... I'll have to catch him next time unless he wants to travel out to Ardin."

"And how would he get his carriages there without any roads lad?" Marik spoke in a mocking tone.

"...Next time it is then! I'll see you later Marik."

Marik raised a valid point, if he planned to trade any tangible amount of goods with them in the future perhaps clearing a small path through the forest might be wise. That plan would have to wait however, there was much to do and he still had too few undead to enact all his plans at once. Aerwyn packed up the spears onto the zin beetles backs and headed back to Tylin's.

His undead were ready to leave when he returned and Aerwyn wasted no time before heading off to the s.h.i.+ps with all his loot. The elves of Lyr that had joined him in battle, joined him once again for the trip back to the s.h.i.+ps. Tylin was there as well to pa.s.s along Setrhyn's decision and to work out the details amongst the remaining elves of Lyr once they arrived back in Ardin. The elves would probably end up staying at Ardin for a few days before splitting up with some returning to Lyr, some to Setrhyn, and some remaining in Ardin to begin building homes.

Along the way Aerwyn checked in with his jakku making sure the s.h.i.+ps were safe before checking in on the three that followed the orcs back to their village. The orc village was smaller than he imagined since according to Master Ferlin, it had a population similar to Setrhyn. The walls and buildings were mostly built with wood while a few larger stone structures appeared near the northern wall.

The village was fairly quiet and Aerwyn didn't see any signs of the orcs preparing to attack again so he left the jakku with an order to notify him if there was any change in the orcs behavior. Despite what he saw, he decided to call over one of the true orcs that was riding a brolla nearby.

"What is your name?" Aerwyn asked.

"Gromok Grel." The orc spoke through his helmet which only made his voice sound more menacing.

"Is there any risk of Setrhyn being attacked again any time soon?"

"Ungor was impatient and foolish, he sent message of the humans arrival to Gral'Thrak Or but didn't wait for the reinforcements. When he heard news from the scouts that the humans were routed and the necromancer that won the battle had given chase, he decided to take advantage of the weakened elves. He feared that the reinforcements would avoid battle since it would anger the elves if such a large force attacked-"

"Why would the orcs be wary of such a thing?" Aerwyn couldn't help but interrupt when he heard those words.

"The orcs have been at war with the dragonkin since they arrived on this world. Their numbers are endless and they try to push into orc lands incessantly. The orcs do not want another war but If Ungor had waited for the reinforcements and destroyed the village then the elves beyond the mountain would come out."

Gromok's words were interesting as it appeared the orcs were under the a.s.sumption that the elves in the capital would retaliate if they took things too far. From everything Aerwyn's been told about the Fae'Laran villages, it appeared that the truth was far different than what the orcs believed. Sera had told him that the Fae'Laran beyond Tyres gate cared little about the villages outside of it's protection and offered zero support, so he found it hard to believe that they would retaliate if one or two were destroyed.