Heir to the Empire

52. The Secret Passage - Erdudvyl

Ravenscourt's crypts were filled with the bones of the previous lords and ladies of house Darke that had presided over the city for the last two thousand winters. Their rooms were damp and dark, but the rows of illustrious monuments created an eerie yet magnificent aura deep underneath the city's keep.

Erdudvyl rubbed away the dust off a monument. It was initially difficult to tell that a woman lay here due to the stone's corrosion. Still, as the candle flickered sporadically, the name Lady Jasmine Grey Darke could be briefly visible.

There was no way to tell of the life of this woman, except for the two roses in her hand. As Erdudvyl examined it closely, she imagined the woman experiencing grand tales of love and loss; however, notions of this fantasy were quickly broken away when recalling the immediate task at hand.

Hearing voices further down in the crypt, Erdudvyl let her fingers brush against the cold, harsh surface of the monument, leaving a brief tingling fear that one day her memory would end like this. Cold hard stone, with little to no recollection of what feats she had performed in life.

Following the voices, Erdudvyl slalomed her way through the other monuments, contemplating whether people would remember her as a heroine or a traitor. As the faint glimmer of candles could be seen in the distance, as the voices grew louder, she straightened her gown and prepared her smile. History, she thought to herself, is created by the victors.

"What are you doing here, elf?" Aryya responded bluntly as she watched Erdudvyl come into view.

A small frown flickered across Erdudvyl's face before she forced herself to smile once more. "I've come to assist with the closing of the tunnel."

A chuckle came from behind Aryya as two men watched the small elf in her flowing gown standing in an eerie crypt.

"Is this a joke?" Aryya replied the flickering of the candle didn't hide her displeasure at the statement.

Erdudvyl looked towards the two men who stood behind Aryya. It was difficult to tell in the low-level light, but the first man appeared slightly tanned with a well-trimmed beard and slicked back black hair tied in a ponytail. His build seemed to be nimble and the scimitar curved sword strapped to his side created a tone of mysteriousness about him.  His confident posture suggested that he was familiar with the use of the weapon.

The second man was the complete opposite. As he stood tall, he was head and shoulders above the tall Amazonian, Aryya. To Erdudvyl, therefore, he was like a giant. As he reached for his gigantic two-handed hammer, his muscular chiselled frame flexed angrily towards the tiny woman.

He may have been an ally, but he was daunting nonetheless.

Forcing a gulp down her throat, Erdudvyl replied, "This is no joke; I believe I can offer you help."

Aryya laugh sounded more malicious as it echoed ferociously in the confines of the crypt. "Mute, Saffron, do we need any help?"

The tanned man responded negatively, while the huge muscular man just grunted. Erdudvyl assumed he must be 'Mute'.

Aryya continued, "We need to collapse the tunnel; I'm not sure how you can help."

As the other men laughed with her, Erdudvyl's smile quickly switched to a frown. She was not prepared to be laughed at. "You can't just collapse a tunnel without fear of it falling on top of you; I'm offering up my intelligence to assist with collapsing it in the safest way possible."

Aryya's face scrunched up into anger, "You believe yourself to be of superior intelligence? Mute doesn't speak, but even he knows that is absurd!"

Mute grunted.