Chapter 14: Elendil

Driving their horses hard, the carriage finally arrived at Elendil, 200 miles away from Cemeteria, and and second largest city in Erandelucia. 

They were not due to arrive there till several days later, but due to the incident at Cemetaria, they decided not to stay the night there and went directly to Elendil instead.

Elandil was a city at the border of the human kingdom Erandalusia and Elven kingdom of Elanil. The city was thriving from the trade between  the races, and was popular because the people mixed freely. There is a large community of half-elves living here, where they do not face prejudice nor were subject to pointing fingers and weird looks.

They stopped at a large inn, where the teachers of StarRock arranged for accommodation for everyone and the guards took all the horses to the stables to rest. Once they knew their sleeping arrangements, Cyril and Kyra decided to go explore the city.

They've never left their small town of Westhaven, let alone been to a large city. Although it was late at night, they wondered the city and decided to look for the nearest Mercantile Trading Branch in the city. After asking for directions they headed towards an exclusive section of the city.

They were stopped at the entrance, but after Kyra showed the guards her family ring, they immediately bowed and escorted them in. 

An old wise looking man welcomed them, and even greeted them by name, surprising both Cyril and Kyra. He introduced himself as Mandrake Mercantile, the patriarch of the Mercantile family in the city. 

Noticing their discomfort, he explained that the Mercantile family not only dealt with magical weapons and rare items, they also dealt with information.

While not completely comfortable, Cyril nodded and asked him if he could identify the magic dagger he retrieved from Cemeteria. Seeing the dagger, Mandrake's face turned dark. "I can't identify the dagger but it is teeming with dark magics" replied Mandrake. The lights in the room started flickering, and the floors and walls started shaking.

Cyril shook his head and dropped the dagger back into the bag of frozen time, as he is now calling it. Mandrake looked at the bag of holding with great interest. An interspacial ring was already extremely rare. A interspacial bag is practically unheard of. 

Cyril then asked if he has heard of Asgard or any of the Norse Gods. Mandrake looked confused and shook his head. He has never heard of any of the people or places Cyril mentioned.

Cyril sighed and looked around. "Perhaps there are books or items here that might interest you?" asked the old man. Cyril and Kyra's face brightened and nodded. So they were given the guided tour of all their most rarest items. As he regarded Kyra as family, he was happy to show off even the most precious items.

There were numerous elemental items and weapons, and Cyril had a quick but thorough glance of all of them. He began to understand how the elemental items and weapons were enhanced, and if given the right materials, he could reproduce them at will. It also gave him deeper insight to how the elements worked in items and weapons, and in fact how to improve on them. 

Cyril picked up a staff of healing. "The law of life" exclaimed Cyril as he absorbed knowledge from the staff. This is a good staff, he thought as he passed it to Kyra. She picked it up and twirled it around and smiled. 

Cyril continued looking around. Suddenly he was attracted to something behind a counter. He moved towards it and took out a bent metallic spear. It was obviously ruined but looked like it was once a weapon to be feared. As he touched it, he felt a huge divine power within the bent spear. "This spear might maybe once be even a match for Odin's mighty spear Gungnir" thought Cyril. "What is this?" Cyril asked looking at Mandrake. 

"This spear was delivered to us to investigate, but we are unable to identify it. Its indestructible to our forges' hammers and anvils, we cannot even fix it." he replied.

"Can I buy it? I'll purchase this and that staff of healing" asked Cyril. Mandrake was startled. The staff of healing was of a high quality and could be used without any time limitations, unlike regular staffs of healing. Furthermore, the bent spear was something of a mystery, made of an unknown indestructible material. 

As family, Mandrake intended to give them some minor magical items as a sign of goodwill, but these were extremely expensive items.

Cyril took out one of his spare bags of holding and gave it to Mandrake. This bag is one of his original experiments, and is not linked to the bags Cyril and Kyra had. "I believe this is sufficient in exchange?" stated Cyril. 

Mandrake was startled for a while, then smiled and nodded. "Thank you. This is more than sufficient. In fact, please take another high quality item, otherwise I would feel like I am cheating you" he replied.

Cyril raised one eyebrow in surprise. He gestured to Kyra to choose anything, since he is already satisfied with his spear and kept it in his bag of holding. Kyra wondered into the jewelry area and picked out a simple but beautiful pendant.

"Ah, we named that the Pendant of Protection, a good choice" Mandrake stated with a smile. "It can create a field of force around the wearer protecting her from all harm. We are not entirely sure how it works, or where it came from, but its a very high quality item". Cyril went up to Kyra and looked at the pendant. "The law of force? Amazing" he noted to himself.

"You young ones really know how to pick the best items in the shop" said Mandrake. "Actually that pendant and the other two items are worth together more than your interspacial bag. However, I am pleased to make this exchange as a token of friendship and in recognition of our family ties." continued Mandrake. 

He was making an investment in making friends with these two youths, who have more than succeeded his expectations when choosing their items. They clearly were not normal kids and were destined for greatness.

Cyril and Kyra thanked Mandrake and after a brief chat, excused themselves and headed back to the inn. 

It was already after midnight as they left, and the streets were dark. As they retraced their way back to their inn, they passed through a dark street. Cyril sensed they were followed and stayed alert. Suddenly 12 or so robbers came out of the shadows surrounding them.

"You came out of the Mercantile shop. You must have bought or sold something. Remove all your belongings and pass them over here" smiled one of the robbers. "Yeah, remove your clothing" laughed another robber licking his lips looking at Kyra.

"Cover your ears" whispered Cyril to Kyra. He wanted to test out one of his tricks. Kyra instantly covered her ears as Cyril took out his whistle. 

He willed his ears to close themselves as he blew his whistle. There was no noise coming out, but an ultrasonic sound went out and hit everyone in earshot. 

Suddenly all the robbers bent over in unbearable pain. Diarrhea shot out from all their asses in an uncontrollable spray as they all simultaneously cried out in pain. 

Cyril kept his whistle and pulled Kyra along and made their way back to their inn, leaving the robbers behind. Their last sight of the robbers is them lying on the ground shitting puddles of diarrhea. 

They eventually found their inn and entered their individual rooms for the night.