The battle between Eldarion and Katyr was titanic. A new sea has arisen in the ancient territory of Elrintreal. We must ask the priests to intervene. If they continue like this there will be nothing left to protect. Even humans must understand this.

Note found at the bottom of an old Eldar ruin.

When Mat woke up the day after he arrived in this old Eldar ruin, the wounds of the previous days were still painful. But unlike the day before, they had the sensation of pain that came with healing.

Not having fallen ill after drinking, he took the opportunity to quench his thirst in small sips from his private fountain. With a dry throat and empty stomach as he had it, he preferred not to rush into drinking too much. Even if it was an effort to resist the coolness of the water.

Checking his wounds again and seeing that they were healing well, he took inventory of what he had on him before checking his armour. He was sorry to see the claw marks on his leather armour but overall it had held up well. Having saved the most important for the last Mat checked his weapon, before frowning in displeasure, wounded and frazzled as he was the day before, he hadn't realised that he had sheathed his sword without wiping it clean of the blood of the monsters he had killed.

Taking the time to clean his blade and scabbard of the remaining monster blood with his canteen and the water from the fountain, Mat hoped that he would not run the risk of his blade rusting. While he wanted to trust the quality of his sword, especially after meeting that merchant in Tuanon, he preferred to take precautions when it came to what would surely keep him alive.

Mat finished his morning preparations, normally he would have taken the time to stretch a bit, then do some exercises to improve his fighting skills but hunger was starting to get the better of him, and Mat needed all the energy he would need for the day. Returning to the room of stone tablets and scrolls he only took a glance at them before heading out.

The previous day he had decided to use the sap from the large trees for food, but if he could find something a little more substantial it would be better. Unfortunately, Mat was not much of a hunter, and he did not know the trapper's traps. He could go back to the river, to try to catch some fish with a makeshift fishing rod, but notwithstanding, the direction of the river and the time to reach it he didn't know, there was the risk of coming face to face with those rotten fish faces again.

Of course, he did intend to visit them at some point, but only when he was ready and fit.

Crossing the barrier as if he'd done it a hundred times before, he just wished he could take one of those lights trapped in the walls with him. He could not destroy the mortar or stone they were encased in.

When he emerged from his lair Mat found that the forest was still dark, almost as if it was still night, but his internal clock assured him that it was still morning. And he trusted his instincts.

Looking up with a frown Mat thought that the giant spider webs above him should not be thick enough to block out the sunlight in addition to the thick canopy.

Abandoning this mystery for the moment Mat navigated between the large roots before approaching one of the tall trees. In his mind retrieving the life fluid from the trees was an acceptable idea, but faced with this idea, he wondered how long he would have to dig into the bark before he reached what he was looking for?

Perhaps he should tackle the giant roots that were all around him instead?

Sighing Mat set to work, taking out his dagger he dug into the bark, it being particularly tough he had to use far more strength than he cared to expend. Nearly thirty minutes of scratching later Mat thought that perhaps it was a terrible idea he had had. After an hour, even though he knew it was useless, Mat continued out of sheer stubbornness. He would dig until he reached the other side of the tree if he had to!

Something threw itself at him, and Mat instinctively threw himself to the side. In the almost perpetual darkness in which he was immersed, he had difficulty in seeing his assailant, but the sound of many paws hurling themselves at him, brought him confirmation of what he suspected.

Not having the time, nor the amplitude to draw his main weapon Mat used his dagger to attack the spider, he succeeded in cutting the leg of the monster. It screamed, could a spider even scream? Mat remembered that it couldn't, but then there was nothing natural about it. Avoiding the angry beast's attack again Mat threw himself to the side, before weaving to accelerate his speed and pounce on the spider before it could recover from missing its target again.

Mat stabbed the monster right in its ugly head. It wasn't enough, the creature screamed again in pain. Mat clutched his dagger with all his might, trying to drive it deeper, he used his body to crush the spider. After a few minutes of the spider almost breaking his grip, the monster stopped. In doubt, Mat withdrew his dagger before thrusting it repeatedly into the spider's head. Only then did he stand up with a sigh.

Checking his surroundings in case more monsters were coming he was glad to find that he was alone, although it was true that it was difficult to see very far around him, only the top, near the foliage, was easily visible, and he saw no movement on the large spider webs hanging between the trees.

Finally observing his prey Mat noticed that it was different from what he thought, usually, animals living in the dark were white or greyish, the spider in front of him that came to his size was as black as night.

Glancing sharply at the hole he was digging in the bark of the tree, Mat turned his appraising eyes to the dead spider. He wondered what the spider flesh tasted like.

Shrugging his shoulders Mat picked up the carcass, it was lighter than he thought, he the help of a weaving augmentation to navigate with ease between the roots. Before reaching his lair Mat found a quiet corner between two roots where he began to cut the spider into pieces, trying to recover as much meat as possible. When he had finished, he threw the remains in a heap on the ground, hoping to attract scavengers who could provide him with his next meal. It may not have been very healthy but Mat had no choice, he just hoped he wouldn't catch the various parasites that this kind of animal was usually well endowed with. He would have to cook his meat well.

Once his spider meat was enough, he headed back to his lair, finally arriving in the corridor protected by the barrier, deciding that he would cook away from the two deeper rooms in the structure he dropped his load just behind the barrier, before heading back into the forest in search of wood.

Fortunately, on this site, it wasn't too difficult. Quickly, with his arms full of wood, leaves and bark, Mat returned behind the barrier where he started to light a campfire. He had to struggle a bit to create a fire, the wood being a bit damp, but once done he could enjoy the warmth of the fire in this colder environment than the rest of the forest.

Taking one last look at the remains of the spider Mat cooked them on the fire. Once heated enough for any parasites that might have existed on this kind of beast to be properly roasted he ate.

It was disgusting, and not just because Mat had left the spider meat on long enough for it to turn coal black. The very smell of the roasted spider was foul, yet Mat did not complain, chewing, he ate the meat even though he could not help but wince in disgust at times.

Satisfied, with a full belly, Mat let the fire go out by itself, he noticed that even though the air was cooler on this side of the barrier, the smoke from the fire still passed through it. So there was no risk of him smoking out, or dying from lack of oxygen. Was the barrier somehow filtering out what it was letting in? Mat wondered how it worked. Unfortunately, he wasn't particularly good at weaving, he was decent at increasing of course, even above the average of what the skilled Eldar could do. Knowing already that they were not all capable of Weaving, far from it. But compared to the rest of his human companions he was rather on the low curve in terms of mastering this skill.

Returning to the stones tables room, Mat decided that he was in for some secrets, a slight smile of enthusiasm forming on his face, and Mat let him stay.

Deciding to start at the left corner of the room Mat looked down at the writing with hope. Hope quickly lost, even though the subjects they were talking about could be interesting, they were of no interest to Mat. They were mostly battle reports, troop movements, scouting reports and battle plans. He must have been in the remains of a command centre.

From what he read Mat finally understood that the enemy the Eldar were fighting was the humans. Sitting down against one of the tables, Mat thought that it must have been the human invasion that created the deep-seated hatred among many of the Eldar he had met.

If this was going to be interesting for a historian Mat was a bit disappointed, the reports and battle plans referred to areas of battle that were unknown to him, and that probably due to their final defeat must have changed names many times since they had been conquered by humans.

He was able to glean some information that might be useful once he was in the human domain, but he had his doubts.

Already from what he had learned the humans were far from united they were more a collection of tribes very different from each other. Some reports were very explicit about the appearance of the invaders and they were very different from each other. There were no dates or signs to indicate time in the reports, so they could be reports that existed only over a short period of time. Mat knew that what the Eldar called human invasions had spanned centuries of fighting. The Eldars weren't too explicit about the reasons for their defeat, but Mat assumed it was just a matter of the ever-increasing numbers of humans and their ever-increasing mastery of magic.

There were references to much bigger conflicts on some of the letters, directly related to gods, human or Eldar, as well as an old enemy of the Eldar who was never mentioned but who had decided to help the humans, against all the treaties ever signed between the Eldar and them.

On these issues, there was nothing explicitly marked. What was annoying was that the information on these issues had been deliberately purged.

While Mat suspected that the gods on this world were probably something a little more concrete he had never really believed in them. At best he thought they were Weavers or particularly powerful magic users who had managed to make their mark on history, as they had on Earth with mythology and the kings of the past. But to have almost a confirmation that it was more than just embellished stories was worrying.

The balance of power was perhaps more complex than the already complex balance of mortal power. Mat had been searching for relevant information around him for several hours, he had already read everything he could in three-quarters of the stones tables room, leaving only one corner of the room and the stone table in the centre that he had saved for last. He hoped that the most interesting information would be there.

The day was already well underway, although it was hard to tell, underground like this. Mat did not stop.

On the last part of the stone room, he found in addition to the same information as before reports on prisoners, and here it was much more interesting, even if still not useful to Mat more than the knowledge itself. It was this old enemy who had taught the humans magic, and while the Eldar despised magic, that which hadn't changed centuries later, there were even reports of even more terrible magics and powers. Some of which were explained in part. Mat smiled.

The information was not complete enough to be directly usable, but it gave Mat ideas and above all, it gave him an insight into powers other than Weaving. Devouring the information present, they also revealed how the Eldar treated their prisoners, in that respect, he should be happy to be living in his time, because the Eldar of the past were much less polite than those he had met today.

It was the first time that Mat had to re-evaluate upwards what he thought of these kidnappers. He had to admit that he had even begun to like some of them, could it be Stockholm syndrome? And it wasn't about his obsession with the princess, no, on the whole Mat realised that he liked the way the Eldar did things. They were polite, cold, distant but knew when to let off steam as he had seen at the party in that village, all things Mat appreciated in others. Admittedly, this mainly concerned the common Eldar, and Mat wasn't blind enough not to have seen all the intrigues and knife-work that existed in the Eldar nobility. But on the whole, he didn't have the same impression as the sanitized society he was used to backing on Earth.

He had already accepted when he arrived in this world that it would be an adventure as he had always wanted. An adventure free from the shackles of a polite society, where everything had been discovered and everything was controlled in one way or another. But in addition, there were other societies in this world to discover, intelligent species of interest, but above all powers to acquire for oneself. A powerful fire had been awakened when he arrived in Sa, and it had only grown since.

He had wavered slightly when confronted with the demons of his past, but it was time to put that behind him. It belonged to his past, to another world. He had always told himself that if he had lived in a time when everything was not so guarded as it was on earth he would have become a vagabond, an adventurer, a bandit perhaps. Not for ease, but because he was thirsty for adventure, for conquest, for conflict. He wanted to be able to fight, to feel death approaching and to defeat it. How much of that was the consequence of the way he was raised, and how much of it was the real him? Again Mat didn't know, but that's who he was today and that was enough for him.

Mat knew he was probably a sociopath, he hoped he wasn't a psychopath, he had never enjoyed the suffering of others, but he accepted that part of him liked to see others suffer hardship and triumph over their pain. Every time he saw others overcome their weakness and inadequacy it reminded him of a part of him that he wanted to be. That's why he liked Jonah, that's why he admired Leila, that's why he despised Marie. If victory over chaos was to be praised, then surrender to it must be despised, forgotten.

His eyes tired from having spent much of the day and part of the evening reading by the light of those strange globes of light Mat walked over to his extinguished fire, struggling a little to relight it but fortunately, there were still some burning coals which reignited his fire. Calmly he grilled another piece of spider, before frowning slightly, the meat had turned slightly green. The rot had quickly set in even in this place which was better protected than the outside.

Hesitating to eat what he had on hand he ventured anyway to eat it, thinking he had burnt it enough that he wouldn't be too sick if it happened. But tomorrow he would have to throw away the leftover spider meat, could we even really call it meat? Anyway, Mat was going to have to find another beast to defeat tomorrow, if he wanted to eat.

He hoped to catch something else, but given where he was, chances were he would only be able to hunt spiders. Mat had a strong desire to go and see what was hiding up near the canopy. It may have been foolish, even suicidal, but he had made a new resolution today and if he was to die in the future, he wanted it to be in the face of a challenge of his choosing.

However, he had to be prepared before throwing himself stupidly into the clutches of death for no other reason than adventure. He may have been slightly crazy but he still had enough spirit to take every chance that was offered to him.

Besides, he hadn't checked that last table yet, and he hoped there would be more information about the magic the Eldar had pointed out that some of the prisoners they had tortured were using. If there were only more battle reports he would be disappointed, but his instincts told him that the most interesting things were in the centre of the stone room, just as his instincts told him that the second most interesting things were in this last corner room he had checked. And so far his instinct had rarely failed him.