“I told you, I fucking told you to not let him join us,” Ish said, pointing a ramrod finger straight at Kore. “But you just had to feel sorry for him and conveniently forget his betrayal, didn’t you?”

The satyr’s giggles dried up at the accusation, and he stared at Ish with a worn-out expression, his face ageing and lining in a matter of heartbeats. However, his mouth remained closed as the seconds passed until finally the ryfin exploded into a fit of fury.

He smashed his hands onto the office table and caused the stationery on its surface to shake. Underneath his mask, Ish was seething. “The piece of shit deceived us all for years, Kore, years! And as punishment, Tyr crushed his mind into fine grain - do you understand what it means when Tyr himself punishes someone? He should have died when we threw him out, but he didn’t, and he somehow survived long enough to come through the Apocalypse. But you know what, when he rocked up outside Lyfort, you should have carried on the punishment and told him to fuck off, that or killed him - I urged you to!”

Kore gulped, his eyes growing wet. “That you did, but I thought Tyr brought him to us for a reason. Why else would he allow Grum to survive for so long, only then to hand him to us and have him killed? If that was Tyr’s intention, he would have finished the job long before.”

“Your place is not to question but to follow,” Ish said.

“And I believed I was following his will then - I did not know what it was, but I at least knew it required Grum to remain alive for a while longer.”

“Bloody Them, you’re joking, right?” Ish asked, incredulous. On seeing Kore’s sombre expression, the ryfin wanted to rip his hair out, one by one. “Tyr already had a plan for him when he was Foltrus, but that piece of shit betrayed Tyr for Themir and ruined himself - there is no greater offence he could have committed. What don’t you understand, you damned fool?”

Realising the futility of this discussion that they had repeated so many times already, Kore exhaled deeply and let his body loosen as he resigned himself to fate’s whims. “Perhaps you’re right and the Avatars are coming here to behead Grum, maybe me too, but either way there’s nothing we can do now.”

Internally, they both knew a death penalty was unlikely since the Avatars had been aware of Grum’s presence for several weeks now: the fact they were only coming now meant that they had something else in mind. It was also this which had fed Ish’s fury since it was one thing when Grum was kept underground with no chance of destroying anything more in his life, but it was another when the betrayer had a chance of turning his fortunes around.

Ish’s voice softened into a hoarse whisper. “Let me see the scumbag then - I’ll finish what you should have done weeks ago.”

For a second, Kore froze, shocked senseless. However, he simply shook his head on regaining his bearings. “The Avatars have ordered me to protect him until they come to take him off our hands. I’ve placed him in a secure position to await their arrival.” He spotted the ryfin edging his hands towards his blowgun, and it brought a smile to the satyr’s face. “You can kill me and anyone else you like, but no one will tell you where Grum is.”

Ish roared in frustration, clenching his hands for a tense moment before stalking off, smashing the doors open and disappearing into the hallway.

The satyr was as still as a statue while this occurred, watching the outburst with eyes filled with sorrow. The truth was that Grum had been hidden away in a fortified cell not for his own safety, but rather the safety of those who would try to attack him. No matter how retarded Grumtor Blackmind was, he had still been the legendary Krumtor Godhand in the past. And there was no doubt that Ish knew this in his heart of hearts, only that his judgement had been momentarily obscured by thunderous clouds.

Kore swivelled his chair around to the windows again and watched the suns rise, his eyes focusing on Tyr, the red sun. He got down onto his knees, dipped his head, and prayed with all his might that his bet would work out: although Kore had acted calm in front of Ish, he was unnerved all the same by the slim chance that the Avatars were simply coming over to murder Grum since it meant he was next on the block, and the truth was he was rather fond of his head. He could only hope that Tyr’s staunchest servants too saw the wisdom in his decisions.

****

The morning in Riverside was hectic, to say the least. The entirety of the Order’s quarters had been deserted. Everyone who had spotted this exodus in its happening repeated the same thing: the Order troops had run off by their own volition, knocking out anyone who crossed their paths before stealing away into the night.

Immediately, Elise thought it had been a subterfuge mission: the Order’s members had only come here to achieve some objective, and now that it was complete, they had escaped with haste. As such, Dom led the constabulary in a township-wide investigation to find out what was missing and what could have been a target. However, as the hours passed, it quickly became evident to Riverside’s leadership that the Order had taken nothing before their exit: they had simply just left. This only made the situation all the more confusing, creating more questions than it answered.

Checking the citizens list, Elise saw that their envoys to Lyfort were still alive, so it didn’t appear that the Order intended to clash with them just yet. Furthermore, if that had been their purpose, it didn’t make sense why they hadn’t used the day of their escape to sow chaos into Riverside to weaken them, as the members had instead lived it like any other day. For these reasons, an immediate military response was ill-advised, especially considering how devastating a war it would lead to given their equally matched forces.

While this was occurring, a significant portion of the spotlight also shifted to Silas since he was the one who had constructed the alliance in the first place. Could it be he had agreed to a hidden term that they had unwittingly broken or something of the sort? However, when Silas was called upon to share his experience before the council - the large majority of whom looked on him favourably - he spoke honestly and in detail but, regardless, left every question unanswered.

After this, the council summoned Princess Amara to share her experiences with the Order, after all, it was suspicious that the Order had left Riverside the same week the shaerd had arrived here. However, Amara admitted very little contact between the two factions - the Order were as foreign to the shaerd as the humans, since the Order were from Caen and the shaerd from Xiivet.

With a diplomatic crisis dawning on her, Elise finally made the decision to purchase something she had held off for a while because of its cringe-inducing cost: a communication monument. It was a sculpture of a gnome shouting across a meadow to another gnome, and it allowed anyone associated with the village to speak to one other as long as they were in a hundred-mile radius of the sculpture. With this bought and set up, she immediately sent a message to their envoys in Lyfort, praying dearly that it would all turn out fine.

She didn’t have to wait long for a response, or better put, several hectic, rushed messages from frightened individuals stranded in a hostile land. The envoys conveyed over everything they knew: they were under house arrest until told otherwise. That was it. They had been given nothing else, and the Order enforced this directive by stationing sentries outside their houses, keeping watchful eyes on them.

The council was called together once more, along with certain individuals with considerable influence such as Silas. Much discussion later, they concluded that they should learn as much information as possible before acting, and as such Elise messaged the envoys to ask about the reasons behind their house arrest. Although the poor envoys were horrified by this idea, especially after how their last few attempts had gone, Elise told them this time to reveal their use of long-distance communication and to claim that Riverside’s forces would march on Lyfort at once if answers weren’t provided.

This method had more success as one loose-lipped ogre heard their ultimatum and answered honestly in fear of their threat, admitting that Foltrus had been murdered by a human, a certain Dahlia Howe, and that Lyfort had locked down its borders and called back its citizens to await the coming of the remaining two Avatars. Before the ogre said anything more, her officer arrived and cuffed her on the back of her bald head.

Hearing the new information and threats from the envoys, the officer told them to return to their houses while he relayed the information to Kore. Although they initially resisted this order, bolstered by their newfound confidence, they rushed back indoors when the officer casually took out his weapon and waved it in their faces.

A suffocating silence washed over Riverside while they waited for updates on the situation: although the council had initially tried to keep all information regarding the topic under wraps - in fear of causing mass panic - it had wriggled out anyway since the envoys had used the communication monument to send teary goodbyes to their loved ones, and from there it had spread infectiously.

Either way, it was near noon when the envoys received an answer from Kore. It came in the form of burly soldiers ramming their doors down and knocking each of them out, before transporting them to the underground prison. Only one of them was kept conscious, and only then to be taken to Kore, who told her to relay over to Riverside that they had made a grave mistake in taking the first strike. They had destroyed all potential future of peaceful co-operation by killing Foltrus. He ended the message by saying they were free to send an army whenever since Lyfort was ready to crush them. With this relayed, the last envoy too was taken to the underground cells. Some minutes later, all the envoys’ names disappeared from the citizens list.

Riverside held their breath, and the council turned to one another with some dread but also newfound determination. One of the reasons Silas had initially drafted up a treaty with New Derby was so that they had allies to back them up in case Lyfort turned on them - a real concern, even back then. They were no longer weaning babes to cower at the prospect of war: they had crushed horde after horde and a sprinkling of ratkin with that. It was a pity, but it appeared the Order of Tyr was the next one on their list.

____

Grumtor Blackmind, formerly Krumtor Godhand, is a retarded being of ryfin, satyr, and nymph heritage. After his exile, he endlessly wandered Caen with no discernible goal in mind, however, after the Apocalypse he exited the tutorial directly beside Lyfort. Its mayor, Kore Brightmind, ushered him in, believing Tyr intended a greater purpose for the wasted retard, and allowed him to work in the underground prisons, where he was away from sight and slight. He has shown zero ambition past this position and appears largely content with his dreary life, something we can reliably attribute to his low intelligence.

Having passed the normal tutorial and picked the common Brawler class, he is a hollow shell of his former self with lacking levels as well. However, it is safe to assume he still possesses prodigious combat prowess and the ability to use Themir’s magic. For this reason, I believe Kore has done a great service by shackling Grumtor to such a lowly position, making him easily trackable and consistently low-levelled. If Grumtor is to leave his job and begin exploration of Idroa, take maximum caution as he is expected to level up at a ridiculous pace.

If in combat with Grumtor, abuse his low intelligence by drawing him into simple but effective traps and wear him down. Do not enter close range but instead shoot him down from afar. If you are forced into his reach, simply pray that Tyr will save your hide. Should Grumtor use void magic, retreat at once and wait for him to drain his mana before killing him.

Although he is rated at the highest danger level, both Karaes and I believe he may have application in the future, and so we have ordered him to be kept alive but restrained until such a moment arrives.

Dimas - Reports on Figures of Interest to the Order of Tyr