*Chapter 123 – The Bons

Chapter 123 – The Bons

The stat and level gains were ridiculously long, and he brushed them out of his mind without a second thought.  He’d certainly have to look over the new level ups soon, but now wasn’t the time for that.

The lullaby had faded away as Trey looked down at the broken pieces of Vorganoth beneath him.  The wreckage of what used to be a forest was immense and the city nearby was almost completely aflame.  His friends and minions, Sithis and Napoleon, were still hunting down what remained of the undead horde.

“My minions…” Trey said - reaching out through the master-minion link and simultaneously knowing full well that the vision was still active and that his two friends could see and hear him from the city.  “Their leader has been killed.  Slaughter the rest…”

A resultant explosion echoed throughout the city with Ezdeath’s laugh, and a number of body parts were sent skywards while lit aflame with chaos magic.

The infernal summoner looked back down to the broken blade and then over to the bone lord’s upper half.  Trey sneered in contempt at the body of the thing that had put his cousin through so much suffering over the past couple of hours.  His tail shot out and extended a far ways away to wrap around the bone lord’s neck.  Snapping off the head from the corpse, his tail then wrapped around the eye sockets and brought it back over to him.  He lifted up the priz and grinned deviously.  A large gash where his godsword had pierced the brute’s skull was still leaking dark fluid from the inside and it dripped to the scorched earth beneath him.

With a thought - he dropped the head and sent a blaze of hellfire out his mouth and into the remnants of Conner’s skull.  He continued to pour forth hellfire until all flesh was burnt away and all that remained was the charred, boney, outer plating.

He picked up the skull to look at it once more.  “I’m going to keep this to decorate my desk at our future guild hall.  What do you think Talshy?”

Guild hall?  He almost laughed at himself.  Now even he was talking about it.

The demonic greatsword hissed in approval.  “Bring… the broken blade as well… To see Vorganoth dead makes me… beyond happy… but first we must obtain the core…”

Trey raised an eyebrow as his suit began to mold to work as a set of pants again.  He truly hated wearing shirts.  “Yeah I’ll bring the pieces of Vorganoth too.  What do you mean by core though?”

The three crimson, crescent runes along his godsword’s blade increased in brightness momentarily before dying down again, and a second later a series of dark yellow lights began to illuminate along the broken Vorganoth next to him.  Over time the tiny yellow lights converged onto one another to form a small glowing yellow sphere in the dirt between the two pieces of weapon.  Trey bent down and picked it up to examine it.  It was the size of a golf ball, perfectly smooth, and warm to the touch.

Vorganoth’s Core

Item Tier: (17) World

Bonuses: Innate Necromancy Perks

Requirements: None

Durability: 950,000/950,000

Special: Use to forge a new living weapon.

“Oh wow… I get to create a new weapon with this?” Trey exclaimed before he turned the core into shadowform for storage.  “That’ll definitely come in handy later, maybe even for one of our other party members… I mean, does the creator get to choose who it’s assigned to?  Talshy, do you know?  Or will it choose its own master like you chose me?

Talsh’Noc’Un hummed.  “It will depend… upon the nature… of your creation…  The core may also be… used… to make things that are… not living swords…  as well…”

Trey raised an eyebrow and tapped his foot before sighing.  “I guess I’ll figure it out as I go.”

The vatosis inferna took up the pieces of Vorganoth, turning them to shadowform too to keep as a trophy, and began to walk back to the burning city of Boikai.  He wanted to run back to his cousin as fast as he could, but he was still out of breath, mana, and stamina from the fight with Conner not more than a couple minutes ago.  The storm clouds that Vorganoth’s army had summoned dispersed after Conner’s death to show the last rays of sunlight from the sunset on the western horizon.

“Atharost, put out the fires.” commanded Trey through the vision Vorganoth had set up.  The Ifrit was quick to oblige as a living figure of orange-red flames soared up into the sky, uttered a few incantations, and began to drain all of the flames from the city.  It took no more than five minutes to do it as the city’s fires rose into the air in pillars of flame to enter into the ifrit’s body, and by the time Trey had reached the walls of the city it was a cold, charred and barren wasteland of destruction and death.

A large corpse of an undead abomination three times the size of Trey slammed into the ground across the street from where he was walking and splattered organs all about - some of them landing directly onto Trey’s forehead.  With a disgusted look Trey wiped off the piece of intestine and flung it to the ground before glaring up at Sithis who flew overhead to land beside him with an amused grunt.

“You looked better like that anyways.” stated the infant devil with an even wider grin than usual.

“Shut it.” replied Trey.  “Have y’all dealt with the undead yet?”

“Some of the ghouls have scattered master, but the larger creatures and spellcasters have all been dealt with.” replied the archdemon with a low bow upon one knee.  “The abominations, zombies, and monstrosities have all been annihilated in the name of your glory.”

Trey rolled his eyes and gave his bowing compatriot a slap on the shoulder.  “Thanks bro.”

They continued to walk through the streets until they came to the spot where Trey had left Carol.  From far away, Trey could tell she was mourning over the dead.  She had found a makeshift outfit from the corpses around her and was staring down at a body of someone who Trey assumed to be a friend.  Sad but determined Trey made his way forward.

Atharost’s flaming frame, alongside his small fire-serpent familiar, zoomed by to circle the devil and summoner before landing on the opposite side of Trey from where Sithis stood.  He began walking in stride with the other two.  “I was watching you fight with Vorganoth’s wielder.  You just went super saiyan on that bitch.”

Trey stopped, turned, and put his hands on his hips with a dropped jaw.  “Where the hell did you hear that phrase from?”

“Jason said it to me once after a fight in Ornthas,” replied the Ifrit with a noncommittal shrug.  “Did I not say it correctly?”

“Huh.  You said it right, it’s just funny to hear it from you - that’s all.” replied Trey as they neared the grieving woman who had yet to look up from her slumped over position.

From the desolation and destruction around them, through the smoke and over the multitude of corpses, came a number of his other minions.  Napoleon, the imp, was cackling loudly and jumping up and down on Rivia’s shoulder as the culn priestess flicked a piece of necrotic tissue off of her glowing, red halo.  Juila and Ezdeath were excitedly talking to one another about their fight and how they’d somehow combo’d one of the larger creatures that’d faced them, and Piggy was doing her usual thing - playing pet on all fours, oinking, and scurrying over to Trey to rub her bloody, tattooed face against his leg.

He blatantly ignored Piggy, in part because he knew that in some sick and twisted way - she’d like it more if he did ignore her, but he gave the others a solid grin.  “Good job everyone.”

“No problem boss!” Juila exclaimed with a wide grin and folded arms - her red, muscular body flexing and absorbing droplets of blood from all over the city as her aura empowered her even now.

“You have become significantly stronger, even since Xil’s games,” noted Sithis casually, all four arms folded together as the huge demon spread its bat-like wings out to either side.  “Quite an impressive display.”

“That woman is your cousin?” mused Rivia curiously.  “She shares your blood line?”

Napoleon pointed a tiny clawed hand and squealed, the large ears of the primal imp flaring out as his sharp, toothy mouth loudly laughed.  “Ugly cousin bad bad!  Almost ugly as Trey Trey!”

“To answer your question, Rivia, yes she is my cousin…” replied Trey softly, giving Napoleon a stern look.  He didn’t know what the hell that imp was on, but the little shit was cracked out on something.  He was wayyyy to excited for his own good right now and wasn’t making much sense with the gibberish coming out of his mouth.  “She and I grew up together, along with my brothers.  We lived in the same neighborhood and she was basically like a sister to me.  Unbelievable that she’s here too…”

“She is supposed to be Agnude’s mouthpiece, in case you didn’t catch that.” remarked Atharost with a sideways glance as the flames along his body began to die down to reveal his normal sleek black skin.  “How are you going to approach this?”

Agnude… He’d heard that name before.

Oh yeah.  Agnude was supposed to be another Numen in direct conflict with Maltetious, the other numen that Trey had a pseudo-alliance with after brief introductions via Taen.  He didn’t know much about Agnude, but from what he’d seen of Taen and Taen’s friends - he was relatively certain that they were good people.  Far better people than Trey was anyways, and he respected the power Taen had as well.  Taen was even in the process of teaching Trey necromancy, and if they were the enemies of Agnude while Carol was aligned with Agnude - this could get complicated.

“There’s nothing to approach, she’s my cousin that’s that.” replied Trey firmly.  “She’ll tell her side of the story and I’ll tell her mine, and no matter what happens I’m sure we’ll still be ok.

“Your family must be very close…” Ezdeath mused playfully, sliding off her helm to show the world her stunning beauty as bands of white hair trailed out behind her extending wings.  “I am glad to hear it… I wonder what kind of father you’ll be.”

Trey immediately flushed, and Rivia giggled at the reaction.

“Pussy.” Juila joked, wrapping a muscular red arm around her master and pulling him in to whisper in his ear.  “But I’m seriously interested in that as well.”

Ugh.  Now was not the time for this kind of flirting.  Trey brushed Juila’s arm off to scowl at the overly eager women, wondering how they’d gone from pseudo-sex-slaves into… whatever the hell this was.

The ifrit and devil exchanged glances and each smiled quietly before looking forward expectantly towards the human woman kneeling on the ground a little ways off.

Carol had no more tears left to cry.  Instead she sat there with her lips trembling as she stroked a dead woman’s long silver hair and had placed her dead friend’s head in her lap to grieve.  It was a silver-haired elf with a long, deep gash along her forehead that likely had been the cause of death, and the way Carol looked at her - Trey was certain that she had been close to this girl.

Carol Bon briefly looked up to Trey Bon, and then over to the other set of demons before looking back down at her dead friend.  “Thank you for coming for me, Trey.  I would have died if you hadn’t.  You saved many others in the keep of this city too.  I’m sure they’re all grateful to you.”

There was a long silence after Trey didn’t immediately reply, but he remained staring down at the elf before questioning his cousin about her.  “Who’s she?”

Carol muffled a weak sob to try and regain her composure, brushing back her long dirty-blonde hair and briefly covering her mouth with one hand.  Sheh laid the elf’s limp head on her lap, and sniffled.  “Her name was Silvara.  She was my best friend.”

Looking over the thousands of scattered bodies, she did a sweeping motion of her hand before saying: “Other close friends of mine are somewhere out there too.  None of them deserved this.  They were all good people.”

“She must have really been quite the character, you don’t make friends easily if I recall right.” Trey said half-teasingly.  In reality, Carol had been a real bitch to people she didn’t know.  He loved her to death and was beyond relieved to see her again, but she wasn’t loved by many others outside the family circle - that was for damn sure, given her usually straight-forward and aggressive personality.

Though looking at her now, he wasn’t sure that person was the same person he now spoke to.  She seemed… abnormally human, exposed, and helpless.

Carol shot him a menacing glare as her anger spiked.  “This is NOT the time to be making jokes Trey.”

“I was actually being serious.” replied Trey defensively while raising up his hands to either side, his red eyes silently sparking with amusement despite the situation they were in.  “But you’re right, now isn’t the time to be making jokes, especially when we have work to do.  I can’t do it for everyone because of the enormous cooldowns, but it’s been a while and the miracle was reset.  If she’s your best friend like you said I’ll make the exception.”

Carol’s brows furrowed and she watched closely as Trey snapped his fingers at the purple-skinned culn beauty.  The priestess stepped forward, bowed her head, and listened intently as he whispered something in her ear.

Immediately after that he motioned towards the imp, who shot off the culn woman’s shoulder and bolted down the street with a speed that outright startled Carol - given the small size of the creature she hadn’t expected such a movement to even be possible.

“One moment.” Trey said casually as the priestess began to remove her clothes, setting them aside and then palming a wicked-looking dagger in her right hand.

They waited in silence for only a solid minute, letting Carol grieve over her dead friends until all heads turned when the sounds of yelps and scuffling reached their ears.  Around the bend and through a pillar of smoke that still fumed despite the rain and Atharost’s recent absorption of flames - came Napoleon.  The imp was dragging along half a man - a wounded ghoul to be exact.  One eye was already gone, and the body below the rib cage was utterly shredded and crushed.

Trey didn’t know if Napoleon had done it or if the undead man had been trapped underneath a fallen building before being dragged out by his demon, but he didn’t care either.  “Thanks Napoleon.  Good job.”

The imp cackled, throwing the gurgling, severely injured ghoul at Rivia’s feet before she knelt.  “May I begin?”

Trey nodded, and Rivia smiled obediently.  She thrust her sacrificial dagger ou tin front of her naked body and above the soon-to-be corpse, malevolently glaring at the undead creature with a glee that reminded Trey of the day he’d captured and enslaved Rivia.  Back then, the culn had been utterly brutal in their treatment of their human captives - and many of them had those same looks when eating the prisoners on the plane of Oblivion.

The metal of the dagger burst into green flames a moment later, and the priestess bowed her head.

An Exchange of Life (Alkir’s Miracle)

*Mark a target.  When that target is killed, you may instantaneously

resurrect one friendly of your choice as long as their soul is still near their

body.  1 week Cooldown.

Muttering a prayer under her breath amidst the drizzling of rain around her, Rivia held out her left hand over the silver-haired elf’s corpse.  The muttering continued as she switched targets and held her hand in the direction of the weakly struggling ghoul.  Then the ghoul’s body began to glow a faint green - as did the Silvara’s corpse.

Rivia finished the prayer and brough the dagger up above her head.  “An Exchange of Life.”

The culn priestess slammed the dagger home, right into the remaining eye of the undead monster, before twisting cruely.  The ghoul immediately spasmed, and the green flames of the dagger began to spread into it like tinder.

The ceremony was over a second later, and the green flames ceased to exist all at once - vanishing as if they’d never been there, when Carol gasped… and Silvara’s eyes slowly opened.

Carol was utterly awestruck.  She frantically began to slap the elf repeatedly in the face as if to try and wake up her friend, as if it was helping, and began to sob even harder.  “SILVARA!  SILVARA GET UP!!!”

“Silvara Mueniel?” Juila curiously sked upon stopping to examine the armored female elf warrior.  “Mueniel… Isn’t that the name of the royal house in one of those elf countries down south?”

Carol was still trying to take everything in.  “Yes, Silvara Mueniel, but… I don’t know about any royal houses.  I’m pretty new to this world after all.”

Trey gave an exaggerated funny look to his cousin, and then to Juila, before shrugging it off and watching the elf take in her first breath of life after rebirth.  Gently he placed a hand on Rivia’s shoulder, and smiled.  “Thank you, Rivia.”

The priestess merely beamed with happiness at the display of gratitude, but said nothing as she stood up and began to dress herself again.

Silvara’s pupils contracted, the last of her head wound disappearing entirely, and with a gasp she spasmed.  She then sat up incredibly fast to begin panting as she felt the oxygen once again filled her lungs, and clutched at her chest with a gauntleted hand.

“SILVARA!” exclaimed Carol as she wrapped her arms around the pretty elf’s torso with a huge squeeze of a hug.  “OH MY GOD TREY!  OH MY GOD!”

The elf was in a haze and trying to understand what had happened as she looked around at the carnage and destruction.  She then saw the numerous demons in front of her and panicked, scrambling for a nearby sword and standing up to prepare herself.

“SILVARA STOP!” Carol exclaimed as she took the sword from her friend’s hands.  “I can’t believe it!  Trey actually brought you back!”

Trey cleared his throat loudly.  “You’re both welcome?”

Silvara took a moment before looking back at Carol - both sets of blue eyes locking onto one another in a silent understanding.  She too began to tear up and slowly went to hug her friend.  Stifling a sob, she asked:  “Did I die?”

Carol nodded without saying another word as the two women embraced.

“The last thing I remember… I tried to attack Vorganoth’s wielder from behind.  Then it all went black.”  Silvara trembled slightly before she realized that she could see herself, along with much of the rest of the city, in the vision portrayed originally by Vorganoth.  Looking with the vision as a guide she swept over the city and beheld the armies of the dead destroyed, and a cheering, weeping crowd from within the keep to the north as they celebrated their salvation or mourned the loss of loved ones.

She then turned to Trey and the minions he had with him.  “Who are they?”

Napoleon was munching loudly on a human arm and Trey gave him a glare with his own arms crossed unapprovingly.  The imp caught his glare and stopped munching, caught like a deer in the headlights, to quickly throw the arm to the side and fold his hands in front of him pleasantly while swallowing what was in his mouth.

“This is my cousin ,Trey!” replied Carol as she again wiped away her tears.  “You’re not going to believe everything that just happened.  Sit down, I have a lot to tell you.”

***

Name: Ford Bon

Level 1

Name: Michelle Bon

Level 1

Name: Vick Bon

Level 1

Name: Andrew Bon

Level 1

Name: Alex Hunts

Level 1

As the final blow was struck and Vorganoth screamed as it broke into two, the eyes of all nations of the world beheld Trey’s victory and mass hysteria ensued.  For some it had been an entertaining show to watch, and others were relieved that the girl had been saved from the hands of monsters, but most knew the significance of Vorganoth’s death.  Unfortunately for Trey’s family: none of them were on Nagochus, and they never did see this vision.

“[Human Dialect] It looks amazing,” stated Vick as he wondered at the front gate of the city where guards were checking people in and out.  The walls were quite high and surrounded the entire perimeter of the city.  Green flags bearing a white bird with its wings spread out to either side decorated the multiple gates and towers along the walls.  “Looks like it’s straight out of a fantasy novel!”

“[Human Dialect] Probably because of all the dwarves, high elves, dark elves and gnomes running about,” noted Vick’s father - Ford - with an expression of wonder on his features too.

Five hours ago they had turned a bend in the mountain passes to see a city.  The quite-large city was situated at the base of one of the mountains right before a sprawling set of valleys and forests.  There were three walled sections to the settlement and it was circular in nature with a tall but far-off palace at the very center.  Upon coming down the pass - a group of dwarves had trudged on by, and they had stopped to talk to get a good idea of what was going on - acquiring the language ‘Human’ upon talking with the dwarves as autofilled knowledge immediately upon hearing them speak.  Apparently this was the capital city of a kingdom named Katya.  The kingdom was run by the high elves but apparently there was quite a bit of dwarf nobility as well.  Upon hearing that they were from Earth, the dwarves all laughed and said they were the third group to appear in the last two weeks here at the capital - and that the king, who lived in this city, had specifically set up programs throughout the kingdom for practical skills and knowledge to be shared with any more potential earthborn.  Other Earthborn groups had come in too within other parts of the country and all settlements about the country had been instructed to accept them with open arms.

And it was apparent that the Bon family, along with the loner, teenage brunette girl Alex, did not belong as they stood in line to speak with the medieval-styled guards.  They were completely out of place in terms of how they were dressed.  They all wore jeans with tennis shoes, while Alex wore a hoodie, Andrew and Vick wore polo shirts and their parents wore battered suits of all things.  They didn’t have any luggage on them either.  Everyone else around them were carrying things either in bags, strapped to horses, or had belongings placed on horses or carts - and they all wore a variety of clothing that you’d expect out of the medieval fairy tale novels.

A pair of female gnomes, each the size of a human child, turned back from their group to step up to Ford.  Their group had been eyeing the Earthborn curiously and it was the one at the forefront to speak first.  “Those be funny clothes you wear.  Where are you from?”

Ford and his family followed in the gnomes’ footsteps as the line moved forward again with the guards allowing the front of the line entry into the city.  He then looked down at the much smaller adult gnome and replied, “I believe you all call us earthborn.  We’re not from around here…”

The first gnome, a redheaded woman turned to her friend slyly and the friend sighed to hand her money in a bet obviously lost.  The friend then returned to the gnome group in front and the redhead continued to chat.  “There be a lot of your kind comin in the past months.  Earthborn used to be rare, and ya still are rare, but much more common than in the past.  How ya travel from the fourteenth realm to Adenine?”

Adenine.  Ford remembered that name from when AI Nora had given them a rundown of what like was to be like.  Apparently Adenine was one of the thirteen worlds.  He knelt down so the gnome wouldn’t have to cock her head up so high and remained at eye level for the duration of their talk.  “We were forced here, war back on Earth led to the destruction of human society.  So we were transported somehow by the machines that won the war.”

Upon his movement and seeing how he had lowered himself the gnome brightened up with a smile.  “So polite!  Most ya humans are rude to us gnomes.  Think ya better.  So do the high elves.  And dark elves.  And dwarves.  I appreciate ya politeness, and I’m sorry bout ya war that ya lost.  Musta been hard.”

Ford chuckled.  It’d been a while since he’d been called ‘polite.’  If anything, he was a hardened killer - but had almost lost his family, and that had given him new perspective.  He was actively beginning to embrace this new life with the idea that maybe things could change.  Maybe he didn’t need to go down that road of violence and crime again.

Maybe.  TIme would tell.

Andrew joined in on the conversation as he too squatted down to speak with the gnome woman.  He brushed his fingers through his dirty-blonde hair, adjusted his glasses, and smiled.  “My name’s Andrew.  This is my dad Ford, my mom Michelle, my brother Vick and another Earthborn named Alex who’s along for the ride with us.  Nice to meet you!”

Andrew extended a warm hand of friendship, and from behind them a group of humans audibly scoffed and spat in disapproval.  One of the men even called out:  “Gnomes ‘re dirty, if y’all really be earthborn the first thing ya should know is don’t touch em.  You’ll get disease and bad luck.”

The gnome woman immediately turned away, looking downcast at the statement, but Andrew ignored the man and continued to hold out his hand.  Ford did the same and Vick laughed to join his father and Brother.  Alex and Andrew’s mother Michelle merely smiled and watched.  Horses drawing a carriage and an armed escort passed by out the city and down the dirt road to be followed by other peddlers along the way, and even the escort noted with distaste how the gnomes were being interacted with by members of the human caste.

After eyeing the three earthborn men and seeing that they weren’t heeding the words of the other human, the small gnome woman smiled sadly in gratitude and shook each of their hands despite the looks she was getting.  Meanwhile the other gnomes from her group ahead watched at a short distance.  “We aren’t diseased, nor do we give bad luck.  I don’t know who came callin bout that sorta stuff but it ain't true.”

“We figured,” laughed Vick as he adjusted his polo.

“My name is Renata Tiw.  The other gnomes up ahead are my family and friends.  We be travelin from tradin and we did good!  Other races in the city won’t buy from us at a fair price so we gotta travel lots to sell to other gnomes out in the country if things get bad.”  The redheaded Reneta pondered something for a moment before the line moved forward again.  “Did y’all just get here I presumes?”

“Couple days ago.” said Ford as he stood up to stretch again before sitting back down on the dirt road.  He was a huge, muscular man - and he had a mean look to him that definitely gave off the vibe of ‘don’t fuck with me.’  It was just natural now, a part of his being, and Renata kept a particularly wary eye on him because of it.

But Ford continued on with his speech as if not noticing it at all.  “We met a couple dwarves in the mountain passes and learned the language instantly.  Was very weird.  But they told us that the guards could point us in the right direction, apparently the high elf king here has set up some programs for earthborn because we’ve had an influx of our kind recently.  That true?”

Reneta nodded thoughtfully, sparing a glance at the scowling peasant men behind Andrew’s group.  “Ye that be true.  King Jina Amariah is a very kind and thoughtful king.  He took in the gnomes after our own country fell in the invasion a hundred years ago.  We were displaced and he gave us home here.  Doesn’t surprise me that he tryin ta help the Earthborn too.”

“Wait, he’s over a hundred years old?” asked Andrew curiously as he adjusted his glasses again.

Reneta laughed and put her hands on her hips after putting down her backpack.  “Yup!  I forgot ya from the fourteenth realm.  They don’t live long there do they?  Here on Adenine people live long times.  High Elf people live longest and can be hundreds of years old.  Some even thousands but that be rare.”

“Wow,” mused Ford.  “That’s impressive.”

“But I gots a proposition for ya earthborn,” stated the gnome as she folded her arms with a gleam in her eye.  “Ya gona need jobs.  Ain’t ya?”

The three men glanced at one another before nodding to the woman.

“Well the guards gona take you to see a city official, and the official gona help ya with finding jobs and learning things bout the city.  If you can’t find a job, you come to the gnome district and find me!  We run a shop there and havin humans help run it could increase our business from others that ain’t gnomes!”

Another disgusted scoff came from behind as one of the men, seemingly a hunter, shook his head.  It was all Michelle could do to stop Ford in his tracks from going back there and strangling the obnoxious humans further down the line - and knowing her husband, Ford would definitely do it.

“We’ll definitely keep that in mind.  Thank you so much for the offer!” exclaimed Andrew with a smile and standing to his full height of 6 foot 4.  The line moved up again and it was the gnomish party in front of them that were addressed by the guards this time.

“Business in the city…?” murmured the guard captain as he and the other four city guards looked down at the group of gnomes in repugnance.  The captain had a feather sticking up out of his helmet and an insignia of some strange design upon his helmet.  All five city guards wore green tunics over a thin chainmail, with longswords and shields strapped to their backs.  A symbol of a bird in flight was portrayed upon the green tunics.  Two of the men were human, while three were high elves - and the captain had locks of fine blonde hair coming out from under his decorative, winged, steel helmet.

“We come hur all the time!  You know we own a shop in the gnome district!” insisted one of the male gnomes angrily.

“Alright, well we have to search your bags to make sure you’re not carrying anything illegal.  You know the rules.” retorted the guard as he and the other guards held out their hands expectantly.  The gnomes grudgingly gave them their bags and waited as the guards rummaged around recklessly in their belongings, throwing much of it to the ground for the gnomes to pick up again.  One guard even dumped out an entire sack onto the dirt road and laughed as vegetables hit the dirt.

“Looks like you’re good, move along.” stated the captain with a board yawn.  Reneta and the gnomes finished picking up their belongings as the high elf and his compatriots watched in contempt.

“Come see us even if ya find jobs!  It was nice a meetin ya!” yelled Reneta with a friendly, hopeful wave of her tiny hand.

The guard looked back and forth twice between the gnome and the Earthborn before his eyes settled on the clothes the five humans were wearing.  He raised an eyebrow.  “Another set of Earthborn, I presume?”

Ford hadn’t liked the way these guards had treated the gnomes one bit, and if not for his family telling him to shut up he would have said something.  So it was instead Andrew who replied: “Yes sir.  How’d you know?  Did you overhear us?”

The captain sighed and shook his head while he signaled for another guard to come forward.  The other guard started rummaging around in a satchel before pulling out a series of small dark crystal orbs.  “No.  The other earthborn that’ve come through here in the past couple weeks were also dressed like you lot and you have no baggage on you otherwise which is abnormal for travelers.  Would each of you mind holding these for a moment?”

Each of them was handed one of the orbs to cup in their hands as instructed by the guard captain, and a few seconds later they were taken from the earthborn and placed in the open palm of the captain.  The captain then took his other hand and one by one touched the orbs as he activated them, and one by one they lit up to blind those about them.  The captain nodded and deactivated the orbs before putting them back in the other guard’s satchel.

“The king has decreed that any earthborn making it to the city will be allowed the option of coming to the citadel.  There you may be instructed on daily life of the city and be educated on our customs and social norms.  We don’t want a repeat of what happened with the first group a while back…”  The captain pulled out a parchment and began to scribble something down.  Finishing the letter he turned and handed it to the guard with the satchel.  “You’ll also have help findings jobs in the city.  There are many different options to choose from, and earthborn specifically have a very high acceptance rate into the schools of magic on scholarship.  There are three schools to choose from in this city, but you’ll need to pay your way through whatever the scholarship doesn’t cover if you want to attend.  Temporary housing payments up to a month may be given to you until you find a way to pay for it your own, but squatters will not be tolerated.  You are expected to contribute to society here and not dawdle on the king’s generosity like so many of the gnomes do.  Be thankful our kingdom is rich and that we can afford such measures, in other places you’d not even get half the welcome.  This man here will escort you to where the city official offices are kept.  Please, follow him.”