He felt the elemental's approach; the earth of the trail rose before him and coalesced into the head and shoulders of a man. "Welcome brother," he said and bowed. "My name is Gon Dhur Rafiit. We have not had the pleasure of meeting before."
The entity sighed. "We are Seven Deep Rumbles. A favor was granted, so we are here." Gon furrowed his brow. "Nothing remains at Thesoling. Pieces of the Other came. The light was quenched and your brothers are dust." Its message delivered the elemental began to sink back into the earth.
"Please wait!" Gon begged. The entity stopped sinking but only its head remained. "Is that it? Who are you doing the favor for? How do you know this?"
"I know because I witnessed it. And the deal was struck with one of your brothers. Who else could call us?" The head merged once more into the earth and Gon felt the elemental depart. He turned about and walked back towards the ranger station -- the survey of the dam would have to wait. The hike gave him time to deliberate the next course of action.
#
"And you believe this wild elemental, Gon?" the Father of House Dhur questioned.
Travel weary and a little overwhelmed the ranger simply nodded. It'd taken a two day hike reach the nearest settlement. He planned on dropping the problem in the lap of the local guard, but the Major had other ideas. After quick correspondence with Avis Abeh, the two had ridden hard for the closest settlement with a train and then continued on to the capital.
"Makin, let our brother go rest. He was at the right place at the right time, nothing more." The Father frowned, but acquiesced with a nod. Gon stood, bowed to the two seniors of his house, and quickly left the room.
"How about you Imad, do you think we should believe the elemental?" Makin asked once they were alone.
The senior priest shrugged. "Does it matter? Its trouble either way. We have the Other in one hand and scheming elementals in the other."
Makin growled: "Even the elementals we deal with here are capricious and selfish, but at least we have an understanding. Out there, they're all wild cards. Every freehold is a gamble."
Imad smiled. "If you haven't noticed we're as stubborn and determined as the elementals are fickle." Makin chuckled at this. "And while they are capricious, they rarely lie."
The Father of the Dhur drummed his fingers on the table. "Thsoling belonged to the Shafaq didn't it?"
"Are you really considering claiming the cavern?"
"And why not? This is an amazing opportunity; Thsoling is a prime cavern. Dhur is small. We'd never be able to acquire anything similar regularly."
Imad's eyebrows shot up "Why not? Well for one, its ghoulish. And secondly, I doubt House Shafaq will be pleased when they find out."
"I don't care if it is macabre. And the dead certainly don't care either -- they've now joined with the Light. We need this, Imad." Makin looked into the senior priest's eyes, but his friend wasn't convinced. "Well, are their any legal reasons we can't claim Thsoling?"
"No," Imad replied with a sigh. "If the freehold is deserted, Shafaq's claim is invalid. An empty cavern is free game."
Makin smiled. "Thats why we need to send a caravan as soon as possible."
