Chapter 5: The oldenmessers

"Why didn't anyone tell me about the plan?! Why did I get a false prophecy?!" Rzalu Ksogol did not stop, "Almost one hundred and twenty thousand years of deception!"

Once upon a time, she visited a huge library located in the ancient treasury of knowledge of the snunorfs, in the city of Jöhnstromken, which was filled with many volumes of false information, distorted or completely incorrect prophecies, legends and historical descriptions. The ancient elves, the oldenmessers who lived for millions of years, absorbing the knowledge of generations of different races, absorbing the wisdom of millennia, can be deceived. It turns out that there were those who manipulated information and others who were mistaken in their rightness.

The five oldenmessers were now in the Larmar Islands, in the almost intact castle of the Tossed family, the castle where Nulara had once lived... The dragons flew outside the castle, and they did not interfere in the disputes of the ancient elves.

The bony Rzalu was quite young, but the oldenmessers grew old relatively quickly, their childhood lasted about two hundred years, and from four thousand years they already looked like very old seniors from the Earth. Rzalu was about one hundred and twenty thousand years old. Venolenuan, her mentor, who was thought to be the oldest oldenmesser, was in fact not. He was about two million years old, but the three oldenmessers from the Belt of Twilight were older. Taewan Rosat, truly the oldest oldenmesser, looked at Rzalu without any expression of regret.

"You played your part, and so did Venolenuan, and so did all of us. Someone was honoured to learn more of the truth, someone less fortunate. We all serve them, " Taewan said, pointing toward the dragons.

"So what is the ultimate goal?" Venolenuan intervened. "The story with the elixir of Mindartis, that I drank several times without feeling the Malleresel's energy is also a lie, or, nevertheless, thanks to our efforts with Rzalu, the first dragon awoke, Gaal..."

"The one that destroyed our second star, for the Sirridwyn's mother sake!" Rzalu interrupted him. "You are talking about this dragon, master, right?" The old woman was very annoyed.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, your role with Venolenuan was different. You have done well bringing the snunorf to the arqilun elf." Taewan replied.

"Why it was so important? It was a false prophecy, isn't it?" Rzalu asked.

"Everything has its time, friends. We have plans for his daughter," Tola Dalzol said, a significantly older woman than Rzalu.

"We can say no more," Taewan said with sadness in his voice.

"But why did the dragons burn the cities and villages of Eileenelia, because the arqilunians are our distant relatives, and they had a very strong cult of dragons?" Venolenuan asked.

"Not only the arqilunians are our distant relatives, but also the snunorfs," said Sephron Ultrakt, remain silent for a long time."It was not in vain that the dragon Ulzardaldalor told the half-elf some truth, including our names, brothers and sisters. Everything is going according to plan, and Ermir, scorched by fire everywhere, looks more natural than if we had left Eileenelia untouched. Other races would suspect the arqilunians of a conspiracy... It would completely change the course of our plan and could lead to unpredictable consequences. And we need…"

"Trust, brothers and sisters," Taewan continued for him, turning to Rzalu and Venolenuan, "even though we started with many thousand years of lies, but now I ask you to trust us again."

"Tssh," Sephron said. "Listen."

The castle was large, and the skuld stone trees grew right inside the castle, and their leafless stone branches made them look bizarre. The oldenmessers stood around a huge table with maps. Rzalu carefully approached one of the skuld trees, and then with a sharp lunge, reaching out for the trunk of a tree, grabbed someone by the hair and dragged to the table.

She forcefully threw the slender girl in front of the ancient elves.

"Who are you?" Taewan asked.

The girl looked around, examined every one.

"I'm a servant, my name is Salma Larass," Uldra lied.

But Taewan walked up to her and looked at her carefully, a girl about twenty years old, neat beautiful narrow nose, big hazel eyes, brown hair, not puffy lips. He grabbed her chin.

"You're from Farniss family, aren't you?" Taewan asked with a smile.

The girl was taken aback, her eyes began to run around in search of something…

"We're not going to kill a noble lady, are we?" Venolenuan asked suddenly.

"Of course not," Taewan agreed, and looking intently at Uldra he asked again, "what's your name, child?"

"My name is Uldra Farniss, " Uldra decided to tell the truth.

"Yes, it is," Taewan agreed. "As I known, the main prison for inmates located in the neighbouring castle?"

"Yes, it was there... But your dragons," Uldra awkwardly said, "they destroyed it."

"Only partially," Sephron put in, "after all, melting stone, skulds and metal is quite hard work, there are few reliable dungeon prisons left in the second castle, I checked."

"Venolenuan, so you take her there since you are so concerned about the well-being of the larmarians."

Venolenuan bowed maliciously and taking Uldra gently by the shoulder, said to her, "Come on, child," and he led the Uldra to the exit.