Rise of The Immortal Wraith - 14 Let The Games Begin

Inside the smithy, Salem stood over an anvil staring at the heated metal taking up the small hammer in his hand, he had a knight with knowledge of smithing holding the red hot metal with a large pair of tongs, he hammered upon the metal sparks and flecks of metal shearing off at the blow.

Over and over until the blade could slight be made out, with the added swiftness and strength of the elves it would only take him an hour to hammer the outline of a sword. After the blade was forged and doused in water that was kept at ninety-eight degrees and filled with a mixture of herbs and minerals and his own blood, he inspected the blade.

Noticing small fractures on the blade, he cast it into a pile with similar damage, some of the blades had even cracked in half, “Again, I will get this right, what number was that one? “he turned to the knight, ” Two hundred and ninety-four master! Don’t worry, you are making incredible progress, I can tell it is your first time with the hammer,Master who taught you? and would you allow me to learn from you?” The knight asked with an innocent demeanor, even though he knew exactly, that this girl was far from innocent.

When he had sought her loyalty she had been naked faster than a sword leaving a sheath, she had been able to hop on his lap and swear she would be loyal for all eternity. Shaking his head of the thought he spoke trying not to look at her sweat soaked body, ” My father taught me, just before he died, and yes I will teach you after you have been reborn as an elf, the teachings will not leave my clan even though you are an outer member now, you will have to earn it.”

Looking back at the anvil he felt closer to his creator through this work, and it made him smile when he looked up at his assistant she had removed her clothes and bent over a cold anvil facing away from him giving a full view of her back, her voice echoed over, ” Can I start earning it now, Master?”

The sounds of hammering and banging came from the smithy every day for two weeks until the first wagon arrived to drop off the orphans along with any children who had been abandoned and collect the first shipment of swords to the city lords faction. Walking out of the mansion doors for the first time in weeks, he took a breath of fresh air, feeling the serenity of basking in the suns rays he stood there for a moment before collecting himself.

Walking with Jenna and two other knights flanking them, they watched as servants broughtinfants and toddlers with the oldest being ten down from the wagon, twenty-five children of various ages, in another month he should be able to awaken the bloodline of the high elves fully, allowing him to help these small humans ascend to a new life.

The children would be staying in the extra rooms of his mansion until the clans’ territory and the estate was finished being built. He knew there were many many more orphans and lost children that were being gathered and being given the name Belegast. Children would be able to enter the main clan easily, those who were in the outer clan would be given the last name Gast until they had earned their place among the main clan.

Walking forward he looked into the children’s eyes that were able to stand on their own, some holding the hands of siblings, “Hello little ones, I am Salem Belegast, I have asked the city lord if I can adopt each of you among many other children that are on their way here. I cannot take the place of your parents, but I can let you be a part of my family so you don’t have to be hungry or cold, you don’t need to be scared. This is your home now, and these older sisters will keep you safe go with them and get cleaned up for lunch. He smiled as a few knights walked out of the mansion to lead the group of children to the baths.

Watching the children follow his knights inside, he felt the need for power to protect these soon to be members of his family, he motioned the servants at the house to bring the swords wrapped in animal hide. After loading the weapons onto the wagons he said to the guards while moving onto the wagon, “Let’s take this shipment to the city lord directly, I also have an obelisk ready and it should be planted sooner than later.”

The guards nodded and drove the wagon towards the northern gate, back to the hell they had just left, they thought to themselves.

Jumping down from the wagon Salem watched as wounded were taken into tents, soldiers taking off armor to hammer out dents and repairing any damage they can find, a large soldier walked over and introduced himself as the quartermaster, “Take me to the center of camp, I will plant the obelisk to give the men here quite a surprise.” Only knowing the city lord had left word to accept the elfs commands did the quartermaster hesitatingly lead them to the center of camp, “The city lord has ventured into the city to search for any survivors during the daylight when those undead monsters are at their weakest, at night no one would venture beyond the wall even if the city lord asked,” grumbled the quartermaster.

Ignoring the soldier, he stepped into the center of the small fort, he took out from his sleave what looked like a small silver tree. Placing the small tree down the small roots of the tree grabbed onto the ground, taking a knife he cut his palm open covering the small tree in dark blue blood, he whispered an incantation to activate the runes and magic within this tiny thing.

After finishing the activation he swiftly backed away the tiny tree stood in the center of camp a few soldiers had stopped and watched Salem do his work wondering what the elf was doing. After a few breaths they thought maybe it was just a tiny strange tree he had wanted to plant, in a weird place, but the elfs weren’t exactly normal or human so it was to be expected they wouldn’t know what the elf had been thinking.

As they were losing interest, there was the sound of stone being crushed, turning back they saw the small tree start to grow at a visible rate, and it just kept growing, the ground cracked and broke apart, anyone to close scrambled out of the way. The tree didn’t stop growing till it was thirty feet tall, no leaves were on the tree but it slightly swayed in the breeze, after the growth spurt the tree emitted a flash of green light forming the barrier around the fort.

“That’s one down just a few more to go. Now, let us go have some fun with the undead, we need to tell the city lord it was a success!” Salem smiled and Jenna and the two knights that were with him, it was time he got to test his own weapons and abilities, not to mention the weeks of practice he had with his knights.