Grelka The Seer

The forest seemed to change, it grew colder and darker. The trees leaned in, the branches creating a sinister blanket, snuffing out any hope of light penetrating through. The world grew silent. Looking around Garrok realized he was no longer outside Zarcum but rather back at Dark Lake. He hadn't been back since fleeing the Gnashers in the Deep Swamp. He felt a chill as those yellow eyes focused on him.

An old gravelly woman's voice reached his ears, "Garrok Blackrend." It cackled and faded away.

Garrok knew that voice, it was Grelka the Seer. He remembered her from his childhood. He called out to her, "Why have you brought me here?" Her response came from a hidden location.

"To talk." She cackled again. "And to thank you."

"Then come out of the shadows so we can talk face to face." It was still daytime but the thick canopy of the Dark Lake forest blocked out nearly all light, creating an eerie interior. The lake, off to the right, was smooth, its black surface created by the murky waters and the dark stones that coat the bottom. The woman he had released from the slavers emerged seeming as if the shadows themselves had released her.

"Told you I would see you soon..." Her form slowly changed into that of the hunched figure of Grelka. He should have known, he felt stupid for not seeing it earlier.

She stood nearly as tall as Garrok, even with her hunch. Her cat-like eyes constantly gaze into the hearts of those she confronts. Those same eyes began searching his soul. Grelka was infamous for her prophecies among the orcs, many of which have come true. She tended to work alone floating between clans but mainly staying near the Gnashers. She owed Holgash her life. Long ago he saved her from another orc that sought vengeance against her.

"Garrok, I sense a great conflict within you...you seek revenge for your father and repentance for your troubled past. Those you travel with will not help you on this path even if they call themselves your friends." Grelka said as she began to read his future, her eyes closed.

"I have turned away from that path," he said.

"You can always turn back for it is the path I see you on."

"What do you mean my friends?" He asked ignoring her other statement.

"The Silver Sect, they don't care about you, they only care about themselves."

"It's not true, they care about me," Garrok replied.

"If this is true then why have they gone against your wishes. They have stolen, have pushed you to work with a known criminal and even now one of them conspires with murderers. You claim to be better than your orc half, that you want to be...good."

"I do want that."

She opened her eyes, "Why!? You were born with this, with this strength in your veins. Don't fear it - accept it. Good and evil are just a concept, derived by those in power You have the power to be what you want, to be a champion. All you have to do is take it, take the opportunity when it comes to you. If you do, no one will be able to stop you. Then you can decide what is right and what is wrong."

"How will I know when that is?" He pondered her words, they were starting to make sense, he felt them tugging at his mind.

"You will know." She cackled and faded away. He watched as the Dark Lake forest faded from his vision and he was back in the forest outside Zarcum, hearing his friends call out for him.

"Garrok!" Alissa yelled.

He let them call for a while longer while he contemplated what Grelka had said.

"I'm here!" He eventually said.

Alissa pushed through the bush to find him standing in a small clearing. "Where did you go?"

"Nowhere, I just thought I saw something so I went to check it out. I guess I was just seeing things," he lied.

She glared at him and for a second he thought she saw through his lie but she just shrugged her shoulders. "Well next time tell us, we were worried about you, silly." She walked away. He could hear her call back to Rothox.

What had Grelka meant, 'It will ask.' 'What will ask, Is someone going to offer him power.' What she had told him disturbed him. She made it seem like his attempt to be a kinder being was futile, she had gotten in his head. 'But maybe she was right,' he thought, 'Maybe all that mattered was power, and right and wrong were only how each individual perceived it.' These thoughts clouded his mind for the rest of the day. If his friends knew something was bothering him they didn't show it as they went back to the estate to let Erigos rest.

The moon reached its pinnacle as Rothox vaulted from the roof of the western wing of the estate onto the wall between the districts. Running along the large wall he looked for a close enough roof to jump to. He found one a few hundred feet from Trixia's. He quieted his impact as he landed on the uneven roof. Using the roofs of the nearby homes to minimize the distance back to the ground. On the second wall, he had to climb a tree before gaining access to a high enough point to make the leap to the top of it. Quickly he traversed the city's rings to reach the market in a third of the time. Sal was there when he arrived.

"No friends tonight?" He asked inquisitively. It was a fair question they had not gone anywhere alone since Realt.

"No not tonight."

"Long day?"

"Something like that."

"I'm sure it was, I'm sure they are." Whether Sal bought it, he didn't seem to care either way.

The tavern was busy. He looked for any other demonbloods. He saw humans, elves, gnomes, and dwarves among a few other races but no demonbloods. The giant minotaur was in his usual spot. Rothox noticed that the bartender was busy behind the bar. He recognized him from previous visits.

"Hey," he got the bartender's attention.

"What can I do for you?" The man asked while pouring a pint for another patron.

"Looking for…" he trailed off while subtlely removing his hood.

"Gotcha." the bartender nodded in an upwards direction behind Rothox. He continued to pour beers for the bar moving on.

Rothox looked up at the second-floor mezzanine. A red-skinned demonblood leaned against a pillar, half in the shadows. His horns curled up with a twist. Rothox slowly pushed his way back through the other patrons, a few drunkenly stumbled into him. He resisted the urge to shove them off. The larger demonblood eyed him top to bottom as he approached.

'Name?" he asked in a deep voice.

"Rothox."

He stepped over to a curtain of one of the side rooms and pulled it aside. Rothox heard his name asked in a muffled question. A moment later the guard turned back to him, "Enter."

Rothox ducked inside. At first, he saw three other demonbloods in the room. One was thick, much larger than the others, and didn't acknowledge his entrance. Another, skinny clothed in a brown robe eyed him skeptically. A fourth stood in the corner, in a shadowy part of the room. The only one he recognized was the demonblood who had invited him.

He was the one to speak. "Welcome brother, you can sit here," he gestured to an open cushion.

"Is this everyone?" a different purple-skinned demonblood asked while watching Rothox take his seat.

"Patience Zelfid, we are waiting on one more," replied the demonblood that had invited Rothox. The other two still hadn't said anything, the one that sat beside Rothox and the other standing in the corner of the room, his face still blocked by the shades cast by the single source of firelight in the opposite corner. After a couple of minutes the last arrived, she apologized before taking a seat across from Rothox. She gave him a sheepish look before realizing she didn't know him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Umm," he looked at the guy he knew, suddenly realizing he still didn't know his name. He shook his head not to say. Rothox looked back at her. "Doesn't matter as long as we want the same thing."

"Whatever you say, 'Hornless'." She replied giving him a nickname. Rothox had been called that before but never by his own kind. He still wasn't sure how he felt about it.

The large man beside him chuckled.

"So what's the plan here, do we know why he summoned us?" She lowered her voice and looked at the demonblood in the shadows.

"Not sure, he hasn't said anything since we all got here," Zelfid spoke loud enough for the apparent leader to hear.

After a few more minutes of waiting they were getting impatient. Rothox could tell Zeflid was getting annoyed.

Finally, he spoke, "This weekend, we kill the Emperor."