Discovery of a Lifetime - Part 2

The Blue Tower was on the inside much like it was on the outside when it came down to the materials, colour and magic that had been used. Unlike how the Blue Tower looked like to the outside world, the interior design inside the tower was something completely different however. The tower itself had been raised from bedrock when Synn had managed to clear a proper sized area of land before the construction of the tower had begun properly. If it could be even called that, seeing as how Synn had used the ancient songs of her kind through which even the manipulation of stone had been possible. Speaking of Synn's kind, Vergal wondered if some of her kind still lived upon the mountains way up high in the north. Then again the massacre Synn had caused on purpose had been thorough without a doubt. All those frozen, shattered, and at times smouldering villages they had passed and the smile upon her face had been more than enough proof of the fact that if there were any other survivors, there certainly were not many of them. After Synn had sung the bulk of the tower from the stone itself, she had started to combine other elements into her singing, elements that reminded her of a more serene time before her clan had turned against her and thus sparked her disdain towards most of the elves living on the continent. But as much as she hated what her kind had done to her and what they had then driven her to do, she still had a soft spot in her heart for the ice and snow of her old homeland. The beauty of crystallised water forming unique snowflakes and streams of water that ran down the sides of the mountains before freezing over, creating an untouched, mirror like surface that at times could reflect even the distant stars and the aurora that danced above the mountains and more northern locations of the continent as well. She had included ice to her singing, creating entire rooms and furniture inside the tower and smaller towers on the outside that pushed forth from the primary tower of hers. Much in the same manner the arms of a snowflake pushed forth from the centre, all of them made from magically reinforced ice that could withstand even a direct impact from a rolling boulder beast without shattering. Vergal and Atrej had both been slightly jealous of this method Synn had used, but any feelings of jealousy he personally might have harboured in the past had disappeared when he had completed his own tower. Yet he still could not shake the feeling of astonishment each time he visited her tower, most likely due to the rooms like the one he now found himself in. A circular, transparent room made entirely from ice, in the middle of which there were two fragile looking central pillars that shifted and formed steps made from ice as well that looked more like as if they were made from liquid water instead. As minions walked up and down between the floors located beneath and above Vergal, he could notice how their feet seemed to be leaving behind actual footsteps that then disappeared as soon as they formed. He was in one of the spiralling staircase shafts that the Blue Tower was famous for. He also knew from personal experience that the said staircase shafts could actually move at times, which was another prime example of what Synn's magic could also do. Vergal took a look around in order to determine just how far up or down the transparent floors reached and if there was any solid stone keeping the shaft together. He could see more firmer looking ground here and there, made from the same stone that the tower had been sung and created from, yet it did not look out of place. Instead, each block of stone that he could see was in perfect harmony with the ice that surrounded it. Just like the frozen surface of a lake during a clear winters day, he thought to himself before turning back towards Tide who was trying to get his attention by coughing slightly.
"Shall we? She is waiting after all." The blue minion said with a smile, clearly happy to be within the walls of the tower that embraced the blue hive as well. Vergal offered a nod, glancing up towards the ceiling then as few pairs of feet that belonged to a couple of brown minions dressed in warm animal hides, and to a few blue minions that seemed to be having a lot easier time walkinh along the floor of ice than the browns they were following, walked right over his head in the floor above him.
"I will never get accustomed to this, you know." Vergal said as he turned back towards the four blues that were leading the way.
"It's not that different to looking down from or up to a balcony, you know." Tide replied, offering a grin.
Vergal shook his head, sneering.
"Speak for yourself."
As Vergal followed the minions through the corridors, offering nods of acknowledgement to the blue and brown minions that noticed his presence and either threw themselves down upon their feet in reverence of the Red Lord or just saluted him and, in the case of the brown minions, almost slipped if there was ice directly beneath their clawed feet. He noticed that the rooms that had been made entirely out of ice started to disappear slowly in favour of a more solid ground. If it was due to the fact that according to Tide the corridor they were currently walking in was located close to the rooms designed for those that dared to spend the night in the Blue Tower, or as Vergal suspected, the ice had just shifted to a different location of the tower and replaced itself with stone, he could not say for certain. In any case, he was glad for the sudden support that the stone floor offered for his boots that had started to slip and slide across the ice at times. Something that he had, however, managed to keep a secret from the four minions leading the way. As the air grew warmer as well in comparison to the segments of the tower they had walked through just now, a thought occurred to him. He had not seen any red or green minions present, which was somewhat alarming seeing as all of the three towers did have members from all of the four minion tribes present at all time, although not in equal amount.
"Tide." Vergal said, making the minion in question to stop and turn around. Drizzle, Rain and Drop continued to walk ahead, Drizzle being too busy with explaining something to the two mute minions.
"Yes, Sire?" The blue with the scar asked.
"I recall I sent a group of twenty red minions here just few days ago, as per the agreement, but I haven't seen any of them here. Nor have I seen or smelled Atrej's greens. I know they can withstand the temperatures inside this tower just fine, so is there anything I should be aware about?" The Red Lord asked, lifting his eyebrows slightly while crossing his arms. Tide looked confused for a short moment before starting to chuckle while grinning broadly.
"My apologies, Lord Garghan. You are more than correct, as usually. The red and green minions have no trouble, except for slight discomfort, walking through the upper floors of our Lady's tower. Mistress Synn however, thought that it would be better for them to not have to visit the colder reaches of her tower and instead created two entire floors for them to use beneath the first floor."
"And this took place when?" Vergal asked, his posture relaxing.
Tide scratched one of the fins that stuck out from under the chin of the blue minion before nodding.
"About a week ago. Mistress Synn did not think it was necessary to inform you however, seeing as all of the members from the red tribe that you ordered here are doing well. She was also occupied by the discovery she made."
Vergal lifted his eyebrows again. If these minions who had been sent to bring him to her were kept in the dark in terms of the discovery, then it had to be something unique. Keeping a standard messenger in the dark as to the details of something important was common practice among the three of them, but usually when they had something to say face to face, the messengers belonging to the hive under their supervision would be sent along with precise information about the need to meet. Said messengers would then whisper the reason for the urgency of the meeting to the ear of whoever it was who should visit one of the other towers, after which the minion in question would forget about the reason due to a complex spell. Why Synn had not told the reason, or even used the spell that allowed for minions to completely forgot what they had seen or heard, was beyond Vergal. It did however pique his interest even more.
"Fair enough." He said then, continuing his walk. Tide started to walk with him as they continued down the corridor. Vergal turned to look left and right now and then when windows made from the same ice that he had seen the staircase forming from earlier, appeared out of nowhere to decorate the sides of the corridor to reveal him vistas of other rooms and corridors deeper in the Blue Tower. The way these particular levels had been arranged reminded him of the peculiar ways in which ants and other such beings created their burrows. He could not marvel at the way Synn had decided to build this particular area of the tower for long however, as he and Tide finally reached the other three minions who had stopped in front of a pair of stone doors that had been decorated in a way that reminded the style that elves from Greenvale used with their own creations. Where other visitors to the Blue Tower might have thought that the Lady of the Blue Tower had taken a liking to that particular style, Vergal knew better. The particular style had actually been stolen from the mountain elves in the past and then modified to better suit the needs of the elves of Greenvale, which had given Synn the perfect reason to try and claim Greenvale for herself. Atrej had at that point interfered and laid down a series of reasons that had made more than enough sense to make Synn relinquish her demands for that area. Vergal hated to admit it, but those very same reasons had been enough to also make him think twice about just burning down the forests of Greenvale and be done with the elves living there.
"Why are we stopping?" The Red Lord asked, turning quickly around when he heard a sound of something scratching against stone, or perhaps it was the stone scratching against something instead. The blue minions standing at the door seemed amused before the three of them suddenly took a seat on the ground. Drizzle grinned while looking at Vergal, patting the floor next to Rain and Drop. Tide took a seat as well before speaking.
"I suggest you take a seat, Sire."
"Why in the name of the Unholy Lord himself would I do that? Stand up, all of you." Vergal said while raising his voice. Had he been lead into a trap? No, no that could not have been the case. Even so, he did not like where this was going and how the minions suddenly behaved.
Tide let out a sigh as if the minion had just offered advice to a child, a gesture that the white haired Darklord caught and that clearly agitated him. Before the Red Lord could do anything, the blue minion gestured towards where the screeching had sounded from.
"To answer both of your questions, Sire. The room is changing, just like it was intended to do."
"Mark my words Tide, if this is a trap then I will fry you and your three friends here-" Vergal growled before being cut off by the screeching once more. He turned around, his eyes suddenly wide as he saw what was happening. The entire corridor behind them was suddenly shaking as if one of the earthquakes caused by Atrej's use of earth based magic had just struck the entire tower. Instead of crumbling down into the abyss he presumed was surrounding the corridor, judging by what he had seen from the small windows of ice that had formed and disappeared as they had been walking just moments earlier, the stones embedded into the ice started to roll towards them. Some of the said ice the stones had been embedded in also started to flow like water, creating a sphere of ice and stone that resembled him of the boulder beasts that lived in the Golden Mountains. Before the thought of being crushed under the sphere could fill his mind, the sphere halted and seemed to split in half. What could be described as the front of the sphere flowed like water, the stones screeching surprisingly silently as they traced their way above and under what could now be considered as a room the five of them were in instead of being a corridor it had used to be, while the back of the sphere had suddenly sealed the way they had arrived from, effectively creating a new wall for the room. For a moment, all that could be heard was the heavy breathing of Vergal whose mind was still occupied with processing the idea of what had just happened. Then the room was suddenly filled with the laughter of the two blue minions who could speak while Vergal felt something resembling the emotion of amusement washing over him, no doubt originating from the two minions who had been born without tongues. As he turned around, all four blues were rolling around, some of them wiggling their webbed feet while holding their stomachs in a fit of laughter while the others were banging their fists against the wall.
Vergal felt infuriated, hurt even. He had been toyed with, the minions had been keeping this little surprise a secret from him even though they clearly knew what they were walking into, and now they were laughing at him. His fingers twitched as the rage inside him that so often fuelled the destructive magic he knew so well, was gushing through him.
The feeling suddenly subsided. He felt like an utter fool. The minions kept on laughing and at this point, he could do nothing else but laugh with them. His laughter, that at times could be compared to that of a dwarf, flowed freely in this room that had turned from a hallway into a closet like space almost, mixing with the giggling and snorting of the two blue minions.
It took a while for him to recollect himself, at which point the minions had already gotten back up and had taken a seat once more.
"You knew this was going to happen." Vergal said as he took a seat on the floor as well, crossing his arms as if his pride had taken a dent and he would have been pouting. This was almost enough to make Drizzle burst into laughter again, as the blue minion Gnarl had clearly taken a fancy to snorted loudly. Tide offered a nod that was accompanied by a grin.
"We did. Forgive us, Sire. We meant no harm."
"I would offer an apology from my own side as well for that threat I aimed towards you, but I have a certain status to hold after all." Vergal said, answering the grin of the blue minion with one of his own grins that was said to be both charming and devious at the same time. Much like the grin of a child who knows he has been naughty but instead of being scolded receives praise from the town elders.
Tide answered the grin and offered a brief nod.
"Naturally, Sire."
"So what now? I don't recall the audience chamber being located this high up in the tower, unless she has somehow managed to move the entire room somehow." Vergal said.
"Correct again, Lord Vergal. And now? Now we slide." Tide replied with a giddy smile.
"Slide?" Vergal asked while his mind was busy conjuring images of the floor shattering under them or splitting open, revealing a rather unpleasant drop to the lower levels of the tower. A drop that for all he knew, might have been designed in a similar way to the circular chutes that he had a habit of using in order to get rid of the more pesky visitors that sought an audience with him in his own throne room. Watching a pesky elf or a peasant fall down the chute was one thing, an amusing one at that. Experiencing a drop like that himself was something he was keen on not experiencing any time soon. Despite his mind trying to scare him, the floor did not split open as he feared. Instead, the entire room started moving like a sled he had ridden in his youth or like the sand sleighs the Ruborians had been more than excited to show off when he had last visited that land of sand. As the room suddenly started to move downwards in an angle and started gaining slightly speed, Vergal could feel how the air present in the tower begun to gush past him and made his long, snow white hairs move freely as if he was riding a horse all of a sudden.
"So why is there no seating present in this room?!" Vergal said, yelling over the intensifying gushing of air in order to be heard. Drizzle also made it more difficult for Vergal to make his voice heard, as the blue minion had raised its arms up and was giggling and screaming loudly from joy.
"Please don't tell her that I told you this, Sire, but Mistress Synn is having some trouble conjuring up and attaching seating to moving objects! She also explained to me something along the lines that this gives her an advantage over those that seek an audience with her! Leaves them just about startled enough when they think the room is about to fall down!"
"Wait just a moment, are you telling me that you are her advisor?!" Vergal asked, suddenly feeling stupid for not realizing this earlier on. The way Tide talked in comparison to Drizzle and other blue minions that Vergal had seen, been in direct command over and talked to, should have been more than enough to tip him off. Then again, the way these levels of the Blue Tower that he had not visited before differed from the audience room along with the throne room and other areas of the tower that he had actually been to, along with the present he was carrying in the silk pouch that dangled from his belt, had been keeping his mind more than enough occupied to even think about the possibility that Synn would send her own advisor to fetch him.
Tide let out a hearty chuckle, grinning then while trying to perform a nod of some description, which seemed to be immensely difficult seeing as how the room was in constant motion. Vergal could not blame the blue minion at all and the fact that Tide did not slide against Drizzle or the two mute minions while performing the nod was impressive enough in its own way.
"That is one way to put it, though Synn quite detests the idea! Especially after what Smey tried to do when he was, hmm, 'Uplifted'!" Tide replied, reminding Vergal of what the green advisor of Atrej had indeed tried to do some years ago. Smey had been ruthless and cunning, even by the green standards. The green minion in question had risen through the ranks of the green tribe faster than any other minion and had managed to replace the original leader of the green horde by manipulating the other greens in a way that had almost made even the Darklords themselves jealous. However the way the green minion, apparently a male judging by what Tide had just said, had organised the massive slaughter of the previous green horde leader had been a bit too much for Synn to take in, especially when the slaughter had been performed in front of all the Darklords. Vergal had been taken back as well by the sight of over one hundred greens piling up against a single horde leader, leaving behind only blood, scales, and a shimmering green orb of life-force that Smey had then taken personally to Atrej as a sign of devotion. Things had only taken a turn for the worse when Smey had been uplifted by Taegan in the same way that Vergal's own advisor had been uplifted a bit later. The green advisor of Atrej had actually tried to make his Master the only ruling Darklord in the land and had managed to turn the entire green tribe against Synn and Vergal. What had seemed like a great idea from Smey, a display of total and utter loyalty to Atrej, had quickly been put to an end when Atrej himself had forced Smey to calm down and relinquish the control of the green minions back to him. Atrej had then done slight adjustments to the psyche of Smey with the help of a special crystal embedded with potent evil energy, in order to make the green a bit less hostile towards the Red Lord and the Blue Lady. A crystal that he had received from the Three-Headed Dragon himself after Taegan had also realized what had gone wrong during the uplifting.
"In other words, she was afraid that you would try to do the same?!" Vergal yelled against the wind.
Tide offered a nod, smiling then.
"I would be careful with using that word in her presence, Sire! I shouldn't even need to remind you, seeing as how you have known her for the longest!" Tide said with a grin, the fins that decorated the face of the blue advisor flapping in the wind.
"That is exactly why I used that word!" Vergal replied while laughing. The blue minion shook its head, his head Vergal corrected himself, for he was now more than certain that the minions did have a concept of gender, perhaps sexuality even and identified themselves as males. Perhaps some of them even identified themselves as females for all he knew, but each time Vergal had tried to talk about the concept of gender and sexuality with the minions, they had either acted in a way that made them look even more stupid than what they seemed to be, avoided the subject entirely or told him that perhaps they did have a gender but that it did not matter for the hives now gave birth to each new minion.
"But yes, that was the case! Unfortunately I think it still is, for she... Doesn't seem to trust me as much as I would like!" Tide continued then, turning towards the ornamented doors that had been encased from the other side, torn and separated from where ever they actually lead to, and attached to this new room by the sphere which also, Vergal presumed, was now carrying the entire room in question towards the lower levels where Synn was waiting. He was right to think so, as the torrent of air that had surrounded the room and seeped into it while it was sliding down had suddenly disappeared without him noticing it. Tide lowered his voice, turning back towards Vergal.
"Grab into whatever you can and try not to squish us against the doors, Sire."
With that, the room suddenly collided against something and Vergal barely managed to stay still while the pain in his neck made itself known again as his head lurched forwards and then backwards again due to the speed the room had been travelling with. As he placed a hand to his neck and hissed, he noticed that Drizzle had been the only one who had collided against the door, still giggling though. The young blue minion seemed to have had the time of its life.
"We have arrived." Tide said as the blue advisor got up from the floor and, with the help of Rain and Drop, which one was which Vergal still could not quite say, pulled open the ornamented doors. On the other side of them a much larger room spread out, this time decorated with proper furniture that Synn had either ordered her minions to manufacture or that her minions had pillaged and brought to the tower. On the other end of what Vergal presumed to be a waiting room of sorts, a pair of larger doors waited. In front of them, two brown minions dressed in the tower guard uniforms with blue being the primary colour visible in their armour that had most likely been crafted from durium, were standing on the both sides of the doors while wielding heavy duty halberds that could cut easily through steel, flesh and bone. Not to mention the leather armour that was more of an outfit really than a proper armour designed to shield Vergal from physical harm. For what harm could possibly befall upon him on their own territory while so many minions were present everywhere?
"I will handle the introduction, after which you are free to talk with Mistress Synn in any way you desire once you enter the audience chamber." Tide said, gesturing for Drizzle and the two minions who were able to communicate mentally with one another to follow him as the advisor of Synn made his way to the two brown minions. Vergal walked slightly behind them while making sure the crown of sorts which was embedded with three gemstones, one red, one green, and one blue with the red one being in the middle, was keeping his long white hairs in check. He also placed a hand to his belt that had been ornamented with purple gemstones in turn to make sure that the pouch that was made from silk and that had then been dyed black was still there, and more importantly, the gift inside the pouch. He lifted his head as he heard Tide speaking to the two brown minions.
"Guts. Skulls. Is the Mistress present?"
"Yes, Tide!" Both of the brown minion said while keeping their eyes locked on Vergal. The blue minion offered a pleased nod, more to himself than to the brown minions he had just called with names relating to parts of a human body. Vergal wondered if the brown minions got their names directly after they were born from the hive, or if the name would come to them later after they had performed a feat of some description in battle. Then again, he was more than certain that Tide had not actually managed to summon a tide. He might never understand completely how the minions knew what to call themselves, but perhaps that was a mystery worth leaving alone. He could not help but to grin at the thought that these two brown minions were surely more than capable of living up to their names however.
"Is she busy?" Tide continued his questioning.
The brown minions shook their heads before replying in unison again. "No, Tide." One of them replied, continuing then. "Mistress Synn gave direct orders to let Lord Vergal enter. Ins you all go!" The brown minion said, moving to left while the other brown minion moved to right, pulling with them their halberds that had formed a cross of sorts which, in turn, was meant to bar access from anyone trying to get past them.
Tide turned around and took a deep bow, moving his hands in a fluid motion and pointed towards the doors with both of them. He then lifted his left hand, holding the palm of it towards Vergal as a sign for him to wait for a while.
"I shall go first, then you may follow. Protocol and all that, I am sure you understand."
"Indeed I do." Vergal replied while crossing his hands over his chest. Tide offered a nod and turned around again, clapping his webbed hands together once. The brown minions on either side of the door lifted their halberds and let them fall to the ground a few times, creating a satisfying series of thuds that echoed through the room. The doors themselves seemed to be answering to these sounds as they began to part open on their own. Bright, almost blinding light flooded to the waiting room and Vergal had to raise one his arms to block out the light, much like mere farmers did when they were trying to figure out the time from the sun without looking directly at it. He heard rather than saw the four blue minions entering the light, after which he heard Tide speaking much louder than he thought was possible for the minion.
"His Lordship, Vergal Garghan, Master of the Red Tower, He who has been blessed with the Red Heart of our Unholy Lord, The Purple Lord himself, The Red Maw of Destruction-"
Vergal cursed to himself silently. He would have to start destroying something sooner or later in order to keep true to that title. Trouble was that there had not been that many dilemmas lately that could have been solved through a destructive way rather than through the sensible way.
"-The Red Lord of Fire and Mayhem, known also with many other such titles-"
This time Vergal chuckled. He could not blame the blue minion for cutting the list short, for even he had trouble remembering the variety of titles that he had received through his actions.
"- has arrived as per the request of Lady Synn, but also on his own behalf."
"Enter." A feminine voice belonging to none other than Synn herself, came from the other side of the doors yet sounded as if the Darklord of the Blue Tower would have been standing right next to Vergal.
A shiver ran down his spine as if it were. A tingling sensation, as if one of his servant girls would have been pulling a feather across his back. He could not help himself, for the rumours that those who left the Blue Tower alive told when they got home were more than true. Not only was the general, albeit questionable fact when it came to the populace who lived in fear of the Darklords, that Synn was much more beautiful than any elven woman anyone had ever set their eyes upon, one whose beauty was often compared to that of the effigies of Mother Goddess herself, but her voice also had a haunting beauty to it. Those that Synn spoke to, especially if they were male, seemed to fall under a spell as it were. When they had first met, her beauty and the tone in which she had spoken to him had almost been enough for him to abandon his quest entirely. Back then he had had another elven woman waiting for him however, who had kept him from falling for Synn. Now when it seemed like he would never return back to from where Taegan had summoned him all those years ago, nor did he want to return to where he had arrived from, Vergal felt a sting of remorse for not having done just so.
He shook his head and let out a sigh, banishing that trail of thought from his mind as he straightened the purple cloak that was hanging from his shoulders, giving the black pouch one last glance before walking towards the doors. The brown minions fell on their knees as he passed them, miraculously managing to hold on to their halberds as they did so.
Then he stepped into the light.

***

Synn turned to look towards the waiting room that was located right from her throne which, while most certainly was decorated and built in such a way that it created feelings of both awe and fear in those that came to seek her audience, was much less impressive than the one in her actual throne room. There were other waiting rooms that lead to the audience room as well, but Synn had ordered the transportation sphere to deliver Vergal, her advisor, and the three other blue minions to the one nearest to her. She was not wearing a helmet herself and she was pleased to notice that Vergal was not wearing one either when the Red Lord entered the great hall. While Vergal was busy taking in the changes she had made to the audience chamber, something that the ruler of the Red Tower was busy admiring and seemed to be envious of to a certain degree as well, Synn had the perfect opportunity to take in and secretly admire the man standing before her. The contrast between the shape Vergal was in, had always been in since the two of them had met, and the long alabaster strands of hair that seemed to be in perfect condition each time they met, was something that still managed to astonish Synn. The ivory hairs would have looked more fitting on the heads of an old elf or a human grandfather telling stories, but Vergal somehow managed to pull the look off perfectly. The face of the man had a certain element of cheekiness to it that mixed with the sternness present as well, but the most striking features had to be the ever so slightly pointed chin that in combination with the nose of the man created an utterly perplexing, almost symmetrical face. An illusion that was broken when she paid attention to the bridge of the nose that curved ever so slightly to the left, a sign of a fracture in the nose that had been caused about a year ago when Vergal had been unlucky enough to get hit in the face by a replica of Atrej's war hammer when the three of them had been sparring in preparation for a bigger skirmish. Even when it had been a replica that had been designed purely for sparring, instead of causing actual damage. Even then, one would have to know where to look in order to realize that the face of the Purple Lord was not as pristine and perfect as it seemed to be from a distance. Synn let her eyes slide down from Vergal's face, taking in the leather armour that had been either designed in purpose by the minions in such a way that it brought forth Vergal's muscles as if the black armour was his actual skin, or then Vergal had ordered the armour to be made in such a way himself. The legs, arms, and the more private parts as Synn was embarrassed to find herself wondering, had been hidden under other garments made from the same black leather. The purple cloak that was of Ruborian making and that had been made from the extremely rare silk like material that could be extracted from the hives of bomber beetles that roamed the Ruborian caves and cliff sides, created yet another illusion of sorts. As if there was a black, gaping abyss in the purple cloak itself. The Blue Lady let her glowing green eyes wander for a moment more while Vergal was still busy admiring the audience chamber, her gaze stopping short as she noticed the small dark bag that Vergal was carrying with him.
How curious.
After she was satisfied and noticed that Vergal was not carrying with him any weaponry, even though she knew that if Vergal so desired, then his favoured blade would be with him in mere minutes, she offered a polite cough which was enough to make Vergal pay attention to her. The Red Lord smiled at her, the purple eyes staring directly at her before Vergal finally begun to talk.
"Must we go through this charade each and every time?"

***

As Vergal entered the audience chamber, he had to blink a few times in order to get his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness in comparison to the dimly lit waiting room and the hallways before that. When he could see again, he let out a silent gasp in awe which he tried to hide as best as he could. Unlike him and Atrej, Synn had wanted to reserve her throne room for actually important guests and request instead of having to deal with the muddy shoes of farmers trampling all over her carpet. Atrej for one did not have to deal with that problem, for the throne room of the Green Lord served both as an arena and as a place where people could present their claims and troubles, to which Atrej had the perfect view from his own throne. Said arena was usually filled with fine sand instead of any actual textiles that could get stained, due to the fact that not only did the minions spar in it to amuse their master but Atrej also hosted fantastic fights between magical creatures. Vergal recalled quite vividly one of the times he had been visiting the Green Tower, enjoying one of the fights that the Lord of Stones had organised in which a single rock giant had managed to rip the arms off of two of its own kind that it had then used to pummel their heads to fist sized rocks.
After getting frustrated with having to deal with anything between the occasional cattle disappearing in the north to having to settle disputes such as what elf owned which tree or where the fence between two cottages should be built, Synn had decided to built an entirely different hall where she could handle masses at a time while having much more private discussions with more important delegates and guests in her throne room. She never seemed to be quite satisfied with how the audience chamber looked like, and it had changed once more from the last time Vergal had been there. Last time there had been an impressive metallic tree in the middle of the room, along the sides of which stairs had lead down that had connected the first and second floor of the audience chamber to one another. What made Vergal gasp this time around were the four gigantic statues that each resembled a different minion from the four tribes that were holding the roof of the audience chamber upon their hands and shoulders, their grinning faces looming over him. Vergal thought to himself that there was not a single thing in the world that he would not be willing to give in exchange for minions the size of giants. As to the rest of the audience chamber, not much else noteworthy could be said about it. The throne upon which Synn was seated, which was by no means as elegant or magnificent as the one in the actual throne room, was located in the far end of the room. There were a pair of doors opposite to from where he had arrived, along with another, much larger pair of doors located between these two sets of doors. The previous time Vergal had been here, he had arrived from those very same doors. He would try to do so next time as well for even when the idea of spheres transporting entire rooms was a genius one, Vergal quite preferred to travel by foot. On the ridged backs of the minion statues that seemed to the holding the weight of the entire tower above then, what Vergal at first thought to be miniature scales turned out to be staircases instead that connected the floor he was on to the circular balcony above him. A balcony that circled the hall in such a way that not only did it leave a circular space in the middle of the room, but it also seemed as if one of the famous water serpents themselves had been turned to stone and used to make the balcony. The balcony also left the throne visible for anyone to see. Vergal was more than certain that there were at least another set of three, perhaps even four pairs of doors located upon the balcony. His pondering got cut short when he heard a cough from the throne that lured his attention towards Synn. He smiled at her, his eyes looking straight into the glowing green eyes of the Blue Lady that had to be if not the most remarkable feature of Synn, then certainly one of the most beautiful ones.
"Must we go through this charade each and every time?"