8 "The mission"

Tarnorie's face gleamed in the firelight. In the air we smelled the scent of burned wood. My stomach growled, but those people in charge of getting us food had not yet arrived. I hoped that the elf ranger and the kender had a good hunting. I was hungry enough to eat an entire horse.

"You are fortunate to join us in our sacred mission," the blonde priestess elf began to explain to me in the tone priests use when they give mass in the temple for their faithful, "when the believers of the Prophet are still few ..."

I should have imagined it. A crusade… The worst madmen always are religious lunatics. Why am I not surprised that this priestess is one of them?

".. soon the elves will abandon their absurd cult of nature and their apathetic attitude towards the usurping races ..."

The legends of the elves said that they were the original inhabitants of this continent by the grace of Vela, Goddess of Prophecies, and that the other humanoid races had come later to conquer their territory. Because of that belief, in antiquity, the elves fought great wars against the so-called minor races, especially humans and dwarves.

At first they achieved great victories thanks to their magic and superior technology. They carried out a bloody massacre and took the survivors as slaves. But as time passed, both dwarves and humans managed to turn the situation around. The elves began to lose more and more territory. The number of deaths increased.

Finally, a great warrior and priest named Umbarto led a revolt against the former king and succeeded in expelling the "nostalen mara", the Vela priests who preached speciesism.

From that time on, most of the elves abandoned the cult of Vela and chose to worship Olwaquea, the Goddess of Nature and Maranwe, God of Balance. But not all elves had done it. Some still adored Vela.

"... the visions of the Shalafi will show us the way and soon everything will be as it was before the coming of dwarves and humans ..."

It took to the priestess like a good fifteen minutes of shallow preaching before beginning to focus on what was supposed to be the central topic of conversation.

"We look for the sorcerer's crown, a powerful magical relic of the elves, that my father needs."

The words of the priestess Tarnorie echoed in the darkness of the night, while the magician Belerus used his magic of void element to show me the illusory image of the magical relic of the elves.

It looked like a tiara made of forged mithril. There were rubies, diamonds and pearls set in the metal on the outside and a series of elven runes etched from the inside. But the illusion was not complete and I could not decipher what they meant.

"With this artifact, our Shalafi will be able to recover our lands from the usurping species and guide the elven people to a new era of peace and prosperity. We can be great again! "

The words of the priestess made my skin crawl, but this was not the right time to question her beliefs.

"Where is the artifact? Near here?" I asked, trying to change the subject to something more productive.

The illusion changed and it showed me a cavern in a wooded mountains. I recognized the mountains. We were not far. Two more days of travel, maybe just one if we did not find obstacles on the way and we made only one stop in the middle.

"According to the Shalafi message, the crown is hidden in the deepest part of the cavern, in a dark dungeon populated by goblins, orcs and undead. We must dodge the traps, snatch the crown from their guardians and quickly retreat. "

"Sounds like fun." I commented with a smirk but the joke did not have the intended effect.

"We are not there to have fun. Limit yourself to do your work without causing problems. " she scolded me.

"Understood."

I did not want to fight with them now. There was a risk of ruining the dinner. There was an awkward silence while we waited for the rest of the adventurers to return.

The barbarian Belit was the first to return to the camp. She brought several wineskins full of water taken from a nearby stream. The priestess purified the water with magic to make sure we did not get sick. We could have boiled the water in some vessel but in this way it was faster.

Then Bob and the red-haired ranger came back. They had hunted a couple of deers and a mountain cat so we had leftover meat. Bob was in charge of peeling the pieces, seasoning them and preparing them for cooking on the campfire.

Meanwhile the red-haired ranger sat next to me.

"I'm Atannar," he said, reaching out to me with his hand.

I returned his greeting and answered with my own name. I was not sure how to feel about this guy. I had been wrong with him.

"I was trying to warn you before but ..."

"I know."

The wizard Belerus must have put him through a hell of pain for the ranger to make those angry faces on when he tried to approach me before. And I confused those with a grimace of jealousy.

What a fool I had been!

This guy was the only one in the group who had tried to warn me about what was happening. And surely he had been punished for it.

I looked at the magician, who knew exactly what we were talking about and he a cruel smile directed to Atannar and to me.

"It is useless to resist. The Geas cannot be broken. You will save suffering by being obedient. I would hate for a talented magician like you to suffer the same as this stupid ranger. "

"We will obey. There is no need for further punishment. "

"The food is ready," the kender interrupted, laying out some wooden plates where he had placed the meat.

Bob seemed anxious that we finish that conversation. He was probably afraid that one of us would provoke the magician and cause him to punish us all.

But I did not care, because roast meat smelled really good. The scent of the roasted venison made my mouth water.

We ate in silence, which allowed me to enjoy the food. Then, we went to sleep. The barbarian took the first guard.

I decided to take advantage of these valuable hours of rest. At the next morning we would leave early towards our destination. But the priestess had other plans for me.