Precedent scene: Louise (https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/louise/2968418/) First scene of the story-arc: Chaos and Death (https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/chaos-and-death/2889324/?p&ca) ________________________________________ Flim-Flam the magician, arrived to Húsjaðriáin (Husyathriaïn), the day before. The village was a little more than 200 kilometers north from Flóilogn, were he traveled from and was built next to the Lysande áin, the Luminous River, the same great river that was joining the Sea of Hope, next to Flóilogn. Flim-Flam was the name that Edgard the scammer chose to introduce himself to those he encountered. He did not know the kind of name magicians had, but he supposed that an eccentric name like this was the kind of appellation used by them. He was not a magician, of course and he had even never met one. He was a Tyrnaelvan man, pretty average in appearence, except the purple robe and the red hat he chose to wear and the staff he built for his magician role. He left the continent of Tyrnaelva for Hvittland a little more than two months ago, because his affairs had turned bad in his birth land. Thus he decided to go North, hoping to be forgotten during his absence and hoping to make easy money on the credulity of the primitive Men of the North. He chose to interprete a wizard because, like him, most of people had never seen a magician and, knowing few tricks, he thought it would be easy to fool people. Although, people of Flóilogn had happened to more difficult to trick than he thought. Thus he decided to go even further north, from town to town, hoping that those from the more savage lands would be more naive. It worked, more or less, but he learned to his own expense that trying to scamme people from town to town, during the cold and harsh Hvittlandih winter was a very bad idea and he was now ardently hoping to find a place to settle for the rest of the season. Húsjaðriáin was not that place, he first thought. The town had a sinister and depressing atmosphere. According to the number of houses, there should have been almost a hundred inhabitants in the village, but it looked almost empty. He did not see a single child and hardly any women or elderly. Most he could see was men and they all seemed to have despair in their eyes. He'll stay probably one day or two, proposing his services to "heal" people, in exchange of food, shelter and money, of course, then he'll leave. Some towns and villages where still findable further to the north, before the moutains, land of the little Dwarf Kingdom of Herrmiolk and he thought he could find a way to set in one of them. But while seeking a person ready to accept him in its house, the sound of a magician being in town came to the wife of the chief of the village. Louise she was called. She came to him with great enthousiasm and proposed to welcome him in her own house. She talked a long moment with Flim-Flam, explaining to him the situation of the place and how her husband had been wounded. He remembered having heard stories of what happened, when he was traveling. While listening distractly to Louise, he started to think that maybe this town wouldn't be that bad to spend the winter. After all, he couldn't hope for a better place than to be sheltered in the house of a chief. It was modest, sure, but it was the best house of the village. And Louise had Tyrnaelvan origins, like him, and she seemed happy to have somebody to talk with in her native language and Edgard was sure she would be very considerate with him during his stay. And, not to spoil anything, even if she was not from prime youth anymore, she was still a beautiful woman and some of her feature were very appealing to him. As for her husband, Bjorn he was called, if he died while he was here, he'll simply say it was because the magic that wounded him was too powerful for him to heal it. Edgard did not see Bjorn, during his first day in town. When Louise welcomed him, it was already late and she preferred to let her husband rest, except if Edgard, alias Flim-Flam, thought it was a good thing to try to heal him right away. He said it was not and pretexted he was too tired to try anyway. When the time came, Louise served him a nice meal and good hydromel. Then, when time to sleep arrived, Louise led him in a comfortable looking room with two beds. It was the room of her daughters, said Louise, from the time when they were still living here. The bed he chose was not a king's bed, but it was a nice one nevertheless and Flim-Flam had a good night of sleep. The next morning, Louise had prepared a very good breakfast for him. After the breakfast, comfortably sit next to the fire, he was thinking it would be really the right place to spend the winter, when Louise offered to him to meet her husband. Flim-Flam was now at the side of the bed of the chief of the village, pretending to heal him, since at least a half hour and he was not comfortable at all. They were both alone, Louise having left them, because she had to find some wood in the forest. She asked for Flim-Flam to start treating Bjorn, while she was absent. He tried to delay the thing, being afraid to stay alone with him, but she insisted a lot and Bjorn was looking at him with such intense eyes that he finally complied. Although bedridden and supposedly weakened, Bjorn was the most imposing man he had ever seen. Not only his eyes were striking (well his left eye, because his right one was dead and crossed with a big scar, but maybe it was actually adding to the strikingness of his eyes), but also his arms, who were almost has big as Edgard's head. If this man was dying, it was not visible at all. Before leaving, Louise told him that if he needed anything Laeva would be there soon. Edgard asked who was Laeva. His host responded she talked of her the day before, Laeva being the one coming every day to take care of Bjorn. Flim-Flam pretended to remember, but it was false. She had probably talked of her while he was not listening. He should had. He was burning some sage to purify the room and his patient, a thing learned from his grandmother, while chanting random words that he thought sounded like a magic spell, when somebody entered the room. Edgard stopped and looked at the woman standing at the door, looking at him, and guessed it was Laeva. She was tall, with a white and blue dress, a strange necklace and long dark hair. Her face was long and angular but beautiful and her eyes were shining like two sapphires. The strengh coming from her hited him even more than the one coming from Bjorn. A thing he would have known if he had listenned Louise the day before, was that Laeva was the apprentice of Seidr, the shaman. He could have guessed she was a magic user from this part of the world, if he had knew a minimum the traditions of the continent, because the strange necklace she sported was specific to her caste. He saluted her and introduced himself. She didn't respond. Maybe she was not speaking the common language. She continued to look at him. A time that looked an eternity for Flim-Flam, her blue eyes seeming to pierce his soul. Finally she moved to sit near Bjorn and while contining to fixate Flim-Flam, she said something to the huge man in her native language. They exchanged few phrases, then Bjorn turned his head toward Flim-Flam. " So, Magician." The way Bjorn said the last word was eerie. " I have always wondered how it was to be a Tyrnaelvan Magician. Can I ask you some questions? - We... Well, maybe later. stammered Edgard. I need to stay focus on my spell right now." he was feeling that something was wrong. " I'm sure it's all right. I really want you to respond to my questions." He put his hand on one of Edgard's wrist and he felt that this powerful hand could break it like a twig. Then Bjorn added, "I insist." Edgard started to sweat heavily. Meanwhile in the south of Húsjaðriáin, Louise, her daughters and their friends entered the village. Delphine was talking with Louise. " So you say there is another magician here ? asked Delphine. - Yes, he is trying to heal my husband at the moment we speak. Seidr, our shaman, tried to do it, of course, but it was beyond her capacities. All she has been able to do is to maintain him alive, with the help of her apprentice." - Seidr has an apprentice? asked Marina, surprised. - Oh that's true, you were already gone when she took her as a disciple. Her name is Laeva. She is the daughter of Harald Jötunarmorðingi. - I think I have met her during some banquets. responded Marina after thinking a second. She was nice. - She is. Despite her noble lineage, she is really a warm and caring woman with everybody. She'll do a great shaman when Seidr will be gone. Anyway to come back to Flim-Flam, if he can't heal him, I'm sure that with your help, young Delphine, you will be able to do it. Delphine smiled politely but responded nothing. She was impatient to meet this "Flim-Flam". During their travel, they heard of him, some people were claiming he was great healer, some others said he was a fraude. For what she heard, Delphine already had an opinion on this so called magician, but she wanted to meet him before saying anything more. Suddenly they heard a strong voice yelling. "YOU IMPOSTOR! YOU WILL LEAVE MY HOUSE AND MY TOWN OR I PUT MY AXE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR SKULL!" "It's the voice of your father!" said Louise, alarmed. Wondering what was going on, they ran to the house. They arrived just to see a man in a purple mage dress flying on several meters in front of their eyes, before landing hard on the ground. They looked at the scene for a moment, agape. For Delphine and Minalva the scene was not the only thing letting them speachless, but also the stunningly strong physique of Bjorn. The woman next to him (which they later discovered to be Laeva) was probably as tall as Minalva, but she looked little compared to him. Even Romatzo was impressed. Looking at Flim-Flam, then to her husband, Louise asked: " What is happening here? - This charlatan was pretending to be magician to extort food, shelter and money from people! But when Laeva arrived, she saw through his game right away." Louise was confused and a little ashamed to have been fooled. " I should rip his arms of..." started to say Bjorn, before stopping suddenly. In his rage he had not seen that his wife was accompanied, at first. But now, realising that, he recognised two of the persons accompanying her. " Dætur mínar." My daughters, he said in his own langage. Marina and Sigrid went to him and, after a moment of silence, he took them both in his arms. Then, to their surprise, he raised them in the air. He did it like if these two tall and strong women were weighting nothing. Romatzo, Delphine and Minalva wondered if this man was really dying? Although, when he put Marina and Sigrid down, his face twitched and he flinched. Louise ran to sustain him, but, Marina and Sigrid being next to him had already done it. " You shouldn't do efforts, said Louise, or your wounds will reopen. - My wounds are never close, anyway. responded Bjorn with bitterness in his voice. - Let's go inside. My darlings, help your father to return to his bed. Edgard was still on the ground, he hadn't dared to move, yet. But happy to have been apparently forgotten, he began to take support to get up, when Delphine stood in front of him. Delphine pointed her staff at the false magician's face, who had froze again and she looked at him with disdain. " People like you are giving bad reputation to my caste. You are lucky that Bjorn returned, because I will not harm you, not this time. But if I cross your path once again and see you continue to pretend to be a magician, I'll burn you to ashes." The gem at the end of Delphine staff began to glow and a strong heat emited from it. The face of the impostor became all white. " NOW GO!" she yelled. Edgard didn't asked for more and flee like the wind through the south gate, leaving the town without even trying to ask for his belongings still in the house. Things would be probably okay for him. The closest village was only at few hours walking from here. " Waouh! exclamed an impressed Romatzo to Delphine. I have never seen this facet of you. You were really scary." Delphine blushed a little. " Was it too much? This kind of men really gives us bad reputation and I wanted to be sure he will stop pretending to be a magician. - I'm sure he learned the lesson, laughed the dwarf. He is not ready to start to scheme this way again." Laeva, who have stayed at the doorstep, had observed the scene, then smilling at what she saw, she entered in the house. Delphine looked at the staff of Flim-Flam on the ground and touched it with the tip of her shoes. It was a simple stick with a gem attached on it. The gem might have been precious, but it was not a magical stone. Then she looked at the other thing that Flim-Flam have left on the ground, his hat. She took it in her hands and raised it at her eye level. She observed it a moment, then she smiled. _____________________________________ New storyline picture and this time I have been much more quicker to write the text than with the last one. ^^ It might be weird to have the picture called "Bjorn" when he is barely in the story, which is mostly from the point of view of Flim-Flam. But it is still his true introduction (he was visible in the picture "Chaos and Death"). As for the text, I thought it would be interesting and different to write this part of the story from the perspective of somebody who have no real role to play in it. Bjorn's scar on his face was made using "SmidA - Scarface", bySmida460 (https://www.deviantart.com/smida460/art/SmidA-Scarface-767981202) I will need to update my wold map, because I came up with a lot of names for areas of Hvittland. I have also to move Húsjaðriáin more to the south to be less close to the mountains. To talk a little of the "Lysande áin", the "Luminous River", sometime symply called "The Lysande" (so, "The Luminous"), that flows next to Húsjaðriáin. It has this is name because of the magical stones you can naturally found in its botton. And in some periods, the stones are are glowing, illuminating it, thus its name. The Mountains Dwarves simply calls it the "Merkvarsh vro Hadza", the "Magical stone River". Next storyline picture, we will take a little detour to see what Amon is doing during his own adventure. ;)