NationStates Jolt Archive

Be it hereby known that on this day, in the name of Sathala and by the will of Her Voice in the Mortal World, the Lord and Ruler Da’teril, the Shakhtal formally enter the service of Empress Gehenna of Tartarus and of her direct heirs for the duration of one hundred years.

By this treaty, the Shakhtal bind themselves to serve the Empress of Tartarus and her heirs loyally and valiantly, at war and at peace, to obey the wills of the Empress as long as they do not contradict the ancestral traditions of the Shakhtal.

Let it be known that the Shakhtal will heed the call to arms issued by the Empress should the Empire require aid and will stop the fight upon the orders of the Empress.

Let it be known that all enemies of the Empress shall suffer a grim fate should they cross the path of the Shakhtal and that all friends of the Empress will be respected and will live to see the dawn.

Let it be known that by this treaty the Empress binds herself to represent the interests of the Shakhtal people in the eyes of foreigners, that the Empress binds herself to protect the Shakhtal against foreigners and aid her servants in dire need.

Let it be known that the Empress binds herself to aid the Shakhtal in non-military fields should her servants request such aid.

Let it be hereby known that only by the will of the Empress or of that of her direct heirs may this treaty be voided.

Let it be known that should the Shakhtal unlawfully break this treaty, they will dishonour the name of Sathala and be condemned to the hardest of all punishments.

Let it be known that upon the expiry of the treaty, it may be extended upon consensus between the Empress and the Shakhtal.

In the name of Sathala and in the name of my people, I, Lord and Ruler Da’teril, hereby pledge my allegiance and that of my people to the Empress.

Having read it over again, the man took a black feather, plunged it into a small pot containing ink. The aforementioned pot was located on a small table, the other ‘landmark’ of its surface being a parchment with the very text the man read. His cold blue eyes of his dark young face fixed for a moment on the parchment, his left hand brushing his long black hair behind his back, so that it didn’t fall on the paper. Instead, the hair fell on the robes of deep black, with red decorations, illuminated by the dim light of the torches. The man did not need light to see. In fact, he preferred the dark, as did an overwhelming majority of his kin. But the Empress was a surface dweller, not quite used to the darkness of the Shakhtal citadels, and so torches were lit. Of course, they could have brought lamps over, after all, they were quite versed in the ways of technology, but the torches added something special to the whole thing, as simple as that.

Da’teril grinned as he sealed the treaty with his signature, laying the feather next to the parchment and looking up at the young woman standing opposite of him.

“Will Her Highness seal this document?”

Gehenna watched the proceedings carefully, her eyes never moving from Lord Da’teril as he made the treaty final with a swish of the quill before lying it down beside the parchment. Taking the writing implement into her own hand, she read through the agreement, even though she had been informed of its contents before.

Placing the nib to the paper, Gehenna wrote: ‘In the name of the Empire, I, Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Gehenna of Tartarus, do hereby accept the Shakhtals as my servants, and agree to the terms written above.’

With another flourish, she signed her name under the declaration, sealing the agreement, before lowering the feather to the table and smiling at the man before her. “I hope this is the beginning of a long and trouble free existence between our two nations. And I promise that my family and I will uphold the agreement to the letter.” She presented her hand to Da’teril.

Da'teril took the hand of the Empress into his own and shook it. He heard that that's how they sealed pacts sometimes, up in the world of above. All the formalities finished, the parchment was wrapped and put into a cylinder, which was sealed and handed to the Empress by Da'teril himself.

"For you are our Supreme Lord and Ruler now, you will guard this document, unless you choose otherwise."

The young drow pondered for a moment and then smiled.

"Does Her Highness wish to view her new lands and subjects at this moment?"

Taking the offered document, Gehenna smiled and handed it to one of her party, before returning her gaze and attention to Da’teril. “I would be honoured to accept a tour. Seeing a nation at first hand is much preferable to reading about it.” This was her first time in the nation, most of the dealings had been dealt with by her staff, with the odd official contact by herself, and all of her side had been dealt with in Tartarus.

As she spoke her party began to move into various groups, those that would accompany her on the tour and those that would remain where they were dealing with any little details that were left to be ironed out. Emma Sarie, the foreign minister and Chris Denton, her head personnel bodyguard remained in their positions near the Empress.

“Whenever you are ready, Lord Da’teril.” Gehenna gave him her most dazzling smile, as her hand smoothed over her pale blue suit. “I am most interested in seeing Shakhtal. Coming from a land above ground, my experience of subterranean dwellers is, I must admit, limited.”

Da’teril only grinned as he walked besides the Empress, showing the way.

“Well, Your Highness, the Shakhtal is how you would call our people. We do not really have a name as in ‘nation’. Just names for our citadels and settlements. But I guess you surface dwellers are used to the territorial and administrative divisions, so I guess you could apply our ethnic name to the ‘territory’ we occupy.”

The two rulers and their respective escorts made it out on a balcony circling the floor of the tower they were on. Deep below, lost in the dark, was the city the Citadel watched over. The city was located in what appeared to be a gigantic cave, with rays of light falling somewhere from above, reflected by mirrors, illuminating shyly the surroundings. The Citadel itself was a giant tower built in the center of the city, going from the very floor of it and touching the ceiling, acting as a central pillar of sorts.

“We are now in the Citadel of Tal-Lar. It acts as my siege and defacto capital of our little… nation. There are, all in all, five Citadels, each of them watching over a city with the same name. Usually the cities were built inside of giant cavities formerly filled with water. The Citadel of Kshas-Athun was actually built in a cave that was drained from the water by our engineers. The cities themselves were in the past confined to the cave itself, with the walls serving as natural protection from the outside world…”

He looked at the Empress for a moment.

“I know that ten million souls is not a problem for surface dwellers, but we, however, have some hardship with it. Fortunately, the advances of technology” – he frowned as he said that last word - “have enabled us to carve our selves new domains quicker than we could in the past by using more… should I say… traditional means. Then again, we didn’t have such problems in the past so we did not need to resolve to traditional means anyway. So the cities have been expanding lately, forming labyrinths within solid rock and soil. Now, the five citadels are interconnected by special portals… as you understand, we still resolve to ‘traditional means’ in many aspects of our daily life.”

The party has now reached the entry of a great hall, to which Da’teril led his guests. The hall was, as was a bit everything in the citadels, plunged into darkness, with only a timid light finding its way through the shadows. In different spots of the room, namely by two great doors in the far end of it, figures clad into black armor could be seen. Da’teril led the party towards the aforementioned doors, that were guarded by two men clad into armor. The armor seemed quite ancient in style, but nevertheless had something… ‘modern’ about it. The two men saluted their Lord and Ruler and Supreme Lord and Ruler as the former led the party through the doors into quite a large hall, stylized as a hexagon, with an other set of doors opposite of the ones the party came through and some sort of gates by the four other walls.

“We are now in one of the ‘special’ portal halls. Used by the highest dignitaries of ours for various purposes. I believe you call such people VIP up there where the sun finds it way around?”

Da’teril grinned as he looked around at the gates, pondering where to take the Empress. And whether to take anywhere at all. After all, he guessed she would be interested to see the Black Guards during ‘exercises to keep fit’, and Tal-Lar had the highest amount of those warriors within its ‘walls’, with around fifteen thousands out of fifty guarding the ‘capital’.

“Uhm. Does Her Highness wish to explore the other Citadels? I could also take her to see her new warriors within this Citadel.”

Slowly becoming used to the darkness that surrounded her on her tour of the citadels, Gehenna could make out the odd feature here and there. She was sure that a good deal of the wonder of the underground cities was lost through the lighting, which she knew was more than the citizens of Shakhtal were used to.

She listened intently as Da’teril explained the history behind the creation of the citadels, and was more than a little impressed with the idea of draining one of the huge caverns. She had visited caves before, but they paled with insignificance at the cavernous city before her. As she looked at her companions, she could see their interest detailed on their faces, and knew they must be sharing similar thoughts to her.

“Perhaps we should visit the warriors. There is a lot to learn about a nation by how it trains its fighters.” She smiled again, knowing that everyone liked to give a performance of its military, whether it be in the form of the personnel or the weapons they used, and she had heard good things about the forces of Shakhtal, it had been one of the reasons she had been keen to ally herself with them.

“We can resume the tour later, it’s not like I’m intending to rush off back to Tartarus.” She glanced up at the gates then swung her gaze around the room before them. “I hope that I will also get to meet some of the dignitaries you spoke of.” She turned back to her guide with a questioning look. “It would be beneficial to see who’s hands the general day-to-day running of Shakhtal is in.”

Da’teril only nodded quickly as he said: “It will feel bizarre at first, but it will be over before you remark…”

And just as he said that, the room plunged into darkness, the guests clearly feeling something like a current wash through their entire system and then darkness was yet again replaced by shadows as the party now stood in a rather long corridor. Da’teril grinned to the Empress.

“Sorry, had to use traditional means, otherwise we would have had to go down by foot a good equivalent of five hundred and fifty yards of yours or so. Or we could have taken the elevators, but they are quite… uhm… slower than traditional means. This way please.”

He led the Empress and her escort towards two doors, unguarded this time and leading to a long balcony overlooking a great hall several meters below. Inside of the hall, various figures could be seen fighting in melee or hand to hand, bodies flying from corner to corner from time to time and yells of pain resonating through the hall. Da’teril motioned at the events below.

“The Black Guard is what you call a professional… or was it career? Well, in any case volountary military. However, they only take the best of the best from the best, if I may put it so. Some of our proceedings may shock, of course, but the weak have nothing to do among the strong. As such, look above.”

As the party looked above, Da’teril yelled something out in his native language and immediately the ceiling of the hall appeared to come to life, something clearly swarming up there. He raised his arm and something detached itself from the ceiling, slowly coming down, gathering shape as it exited the shadows to finally become a… quite an imposing spider, nearly as long as a human being and half of it in height, black thick fur covering its body and legs. It was a wonder how did a thin white filament support such a thing, but it did, the filament being so thin that it was barely visible. Da’teril stretched his hand and patted the creature on its head.

“When we came here, these were much smaller and were joyfully running around hunting various vermin. We have made them slightly bigger.”

His face with a wicked smile on it and fire burning in his icy ice, turned towards Gehenna.

“But this one is small by comparison with others we have. Quite useful these critters are. I believe you would wonder why are they here? Well, you see, I have said that the Black Guard is no place for the weak or cowards. However, we never kill our recruits! Oh no! Instead, they are given a second chance… oh, but you will assist such a scene right now! Look over there!”

As the guests followed the direction Da’teril was indicating, the big spider crawled back up to the ceiling. And below, a man was lying on his back, covering his face with his hand and saying something in his language, something that resembled… pleas for mercy. The man that was standing next to him, clearly his instructor, shook his head and reached for his back, taking his sword out and tossing it on the ground next to the lying man. With that, he distanced himself a good dozen meters, the other people around also creating an empty space around the… victim. For at that precise moment, two silhouettes dropped from above, crashing on the ground in a loud thump and charging the man, who instead of picking up the blade and fighting chose to attempt to run, screaming in fear. Needless to say that the webs caught him quickly, one of the spiders, around twice as bigger as the one that entertained Da’teril and Gehenna, wrapping the victim up in a cocoon and crawling away, followed by a second, smaller spider. The rest of those present in the hall waited for the creatures to make their way and resumed their activities, as if nothing happened. Da’teril only shook his head as he yet again addressed his Supreme Lord and Ruler.

“Needless to say that both weak and cowards do not really have a place in our society. Does Her Highness wish to entertain herself with a duel? I could arrange for two Black Guards to fight. To death or till the first drop of blood, Your Highness decides. Or, if Her Highness wishes to entertain herself in any other way, she can name it and I will arrange everything.”

Gehenna and her companions watched as events played out before them. Her eyes were fixed on the sights, she did not flinch as the warrior was killed and removed by the giant spider. She turned to Da’teril and smiled, her eyes showed no emotion relating to what she had seen. Behind her she could hear a low whisper from Emma, and the sound of metal against leather, as Chris settled his partially drawn gun back into position.

“A most impressive addition to the nation.” Her voice was calm, and displayed a hint of interest. “I believe a couple of them could come in very useful at the Palace.” She laughed lightly as she thought of a few people she would like to see wrapped and shipped out permanently. “I imagine they are good for promoting a more positive and strong mind.

She looked at the other fighters who had resumed their tasks as if nothing had happened. “I would be honoured to witness the skill of the Black Guard.” She looked at Emma and Chris, before running her gaze back over the assembled warriors, watching them as she spoke. “But let us not sacrifice any more today, a fight to first blood is more than sufficient for a demonstration.”

“Then perhaps after,” She continued, turning her gaze back to Da’teril. “We might pay a visit to the Magisterium or the Seat of Council.” Her eyes spoke of her interest, as they remained fixed to his.

Da’teril bowed to the Empress and then walked up to the handrail and yelled something in his native language, his arm motioning at two persons beneath. Immediately, a circular space was cleared with in its center two men. They were wearing light garments, a shirt and a pant, no armor, their rather short hair barely covering their neck. The both yelled something out to the people around and one was presented with a spear and the second one with two blades.

The distanced each other and then charged. The spear was parried by a blow of the sword as the swordsman whirled around to strike at his foe, his sword slashing through emptiness as the spearman dodged the blow by jumping backwards. He whirled his spear in the process, trying to hit his opponent to yet again see his opponent parrying the blow. And so they went, whirling and jumping, their weapons blinking in the shadows. The fight took some time, none of the fighters clearly wanting to lose, and Da’teril’s brows could already be seen going closer to the tip of his nose. But at this moment, one of the swords flew through the air and landed on the floor and the spear pierced the left shoulder of the swordsman, blood flowing out of the open wound. The two men nodded to each other, the swordsman bringing his right hand to cover the wound. When he yet again revealed the spot where the wound was, the flow of blood ceased. The two warriors turned around and bowed to the Empress as Da’teril nodded in approval.

“Oh my, I thought they would take an eternity. Personal note for the future – chose warriors of different skill.” He grinned as he motioned to a person behind him. The said person, dressed into a short obsidian black tunic and pants, with a short black and silver cloak over his right shoulder, made a step forward, bowing to the Empress. The face of the man was decorated with a scar going horizontally through his face, right beneath the eyes. It was also clear that this man had seen not only action, but also time, as his face appeared older than that of Da’teril.

“May I present you Commander Kshaherat Lioth, the head of the Black Guard for quite some time now. Actually, he has been leading our warriors long before I was born.” Da’teril grinned. “Commander Lioth was at the citadel of Kshas-Athun for some administrative business and has finished his activities there a few moments ago. Should the Empire need the Black Guard, the Commander, his rank in my language would be too hard for you to pronounce, will be the first person you will see. He will accompany us for our tour and should you have any questions on the Black Guard, he will be at your disposal.”

With that, the man nodded and stood back, while Da’teril looked at the Empress. “It will yet again feel weird…” And it did yet again feel weird, this time the party finding themselves out in the middle of a circular hall. On one side of it was a giant window, with a giant statue of a woman in armor, wielding a blade and a spear in front of it. The woman was pointing her sword to the center of the room, while the spear hanged above. Opposite the statue were two giant doors, clearly the entrance of the chamber. In between, by each side, were various lounges one atop the other, varying in size and decorations. Da’teril marched forward to the center of room on a floor decorated with writing in ancient runes, forming circles that were getting narrower towards the center, to finally end in the image of a giant eye right in the center of the room, in the point to which the statue was pointing with its blade. Stopping, Da’teril turned around and addressed his Empress.

“This is the seat of our Council, which is composed by representatives of the five Citadels and outlying territories. Each Citadel has a limit of representatives proportional to its population. Moveover, the representatives of each Citadel are subdivided into the Guild representatives. Indeed, it is not the population of a Citadel that appoints its representatives, but the Guilds. There are the artisans, the mages, the builders and engineers, the scientists, et cetera. Within the limit granted to a Citadel, the seats are proportionally divided between the Guilds depending on the number of members they have in that Citadel. As such, for example, Tal-Lar, having four million souls, has the greatest amount of Councilors. However, the Mage Guild of Tal-Lar is not the greatest one in size and has only a meager amount of representatives, for the Citadel of Amanthir is the traditional capital of the mages and is also host to the Great Magisterium, as such the representatives of the mages among the Amanthiri delegation are many. The Guilds from different Citadels might be united into one or divided, with a Guild per each Citadel or more, the options are many. The Guild of Mages is whole, but there are around a hundred Guilds of Artisans and only two Guilds of Scientists. And so on.”

He smiled as he looked around the room. “This proceeding is, of course, rather confusing. However, I am always the last one to make the decision and my voice out powers even the entire Council. For I am Her Voice in this Mortal World.” He turned around and looked up at the statue of the woman. “Sathala, our Great Goddess, Lady of War and Death. And by her will I lord and rule over my people.” With that, he turned around looking at the guests.

As the warriors fought, Gehenna watched thoughtfully, impressed by their ability. She had received training with a sword herself, but her ability was eclipsed by the two men before her. Once they had finished, and Da’teril had introduced her to Commander Lioth, she smiled in greeting and offered a few words before they were led away from the room.

Walking along, listening to her guide and offering the odd remark or ascent, the Empress allowed her eyes to wander around the area, taking in her surroundings. Entering the room, Gehenna found her gaze drawn to the huge figure before them, and although she continued to hear Da’teril’s description of the political system, she was more interested in the statue.

“A goddess?” She smiled, as she turned to her guide, her eyes sparkling. “In Tartarus we have no such monuments to religious icons.” Moving a little closer, she gave the statue a more detailed inspection. “War and Death. I can understand why your people have chosen such a goddess to look over your nation.” Her eyes travelled up the body and down the arm that ended with the sword. “Certainly someone not to cross.”

Returning her gaze to the other member’s of the party, she looked around the room. “I do not want to interrupt the general running of Shakhtal, I will be relying on you to keep everything functioning as it is.” She smiled brightly. “From what I have witnessed everything seems to work very well, and I am sure most of that is down to your good ruling.”

She paused for a moment. “Nevertheless, I would like someone to work closely with you, a member of my own staff, who will attain a knowledge of Shakhtal from living here.” She looked over at Emma, who made a little note in her palmtop. “They will report back to Tartarus and be a liaison between our two nations until we both have a full understanding of each other.” She flicked her eyes back to Da’teril. “It will be purely for observation purposes only.”

Da’teril bowed slightly to the Empress. “Of course, Your Highness, it shall be as you wish.” He grinned slightly as he looked the Empress over. Clearly, she was very wise for a ruler and leaving the running of things untouched was a very clever thing to do, for Da’teril doubted any surface dweller would understand anything in Shakhtal politics as well as intrigues. “Your people are always welcome in our dwellings, Your Highness, for our dwellings are your own now.”

Just as he was saying that, the light dimmed slightly in the room, a shadow concentrating in a spot of the hall, getting smaller and thicker to finally vanish, revealing five figures. Four were clad into obsidian black armor, masked helmets covering their heads, short cloaks falling down from their shoulders. The fifth one was dressed into a light leather armor, a hood covering his head and plunging his face into the shadows. Da’teril nodded to them as he addressed Gehenna.

“Since you have expressed the desire to visit the Magisterium, I will take you there. However, the domains of the Mages are quite dangerous for outsiders, as such, I have readied an escort.” He motioned slightly to the group that now melted into the little party of guests and Shakhtal dignitaries. Da’teril grinned and yet again everything faded into darkness, the party finding themselves out in a yet an other hall. The hall was rather small and appeared to be an antechamber of something bigger. Da’teril pushed the doors at one end of it and led the party into a large corridor, with doors of various sizes by its side. The corridor split into several, crossed with other corridors, forming a giant maze. And through this maze traveled figures clad into black robes with silver ornations of various size and density. The mages bowed slightly as the passed the party, giving a curious look at the surface dwellers. From time to time, small spiders (merely the size of a human head) crawled on the walls and the ceiling, darting left and right and paying no attention to the guests. A couple bats flew through the corridors, right over the heads of the guests. Apart from that, nothing of great interest happened.

Da’teril pushed open one of the doors and stepped inside of an auditorium, which was occupied by a small group of students and a professor. The professor was explaining something to the students, the giant blackboard behind his back filling itself with text all by itself. Da’teril smiled to the students, who were wakened up by the sudden appearance of the Lord and Ruler, which clearly provoked a negative reaction from the professor, that gave the party an angry look from under his hood. Da’teril grinned again and led the party out, addressing Gehenna. “Lesson on the theory, principles and laws of magic. I remember when I was a student, it was the branch that I hated the most. Quite boring it is. But let us see some thrilling stuff… ah, this way!”

With that, the man led the party through the corridors, opening some doors and passing through halls, crossing a great variety of other mages as they walked by. Suddenly the Shakhtals from the party, including Da’teril looked worryingly to the left. In a matter of second, Gehenna found herself flanked by warriors in black armor, one by each side and two in front. And it was just in the right moment, too, for the wall to the left collapsed suddenly as a giant beast erupted into the corridor. In fact, the beast was in many ways similar to a human being, only that it was four meters high, very wide and was made of metal. And it had no face, either. The golem charged the party silently, as if it was unable to produce any noise other than the one created by it slamming on the floor and into the walls. Several mages appeared on its way and attempted to stop it but were swept out of the way by mighty blows, sending some into the walls and one even flew over the party, crushing somewhere far behind.

Two of the Black Guards immediately charged the golem with their blades drawn, the hooded warrior following them from behind. In fact, it would have appeared that the hooded one was a mage himself. The remaining two warriors stood shoulder to shoulder in front of Gehenna, creating a barrier between her and the beast. Da’teril grinned as he saw the golem attempt to crush the Black Guards and failing, the sharp blades cutting through metal and leaving generous holes in the structure. The Lord and Ruler addressed the Empress. “I see they have been trying to create a golem. And it would seem as they have failed. Or maybe succeeded, depending on the aims of the project. I will be quite interested in hearing out the leader of the project after this business has been settled.” He winked to the Empress, his calm attitude clearly not fitting into the scene of destruction before him. But then again, this was not the surface world.

With that, he faced the golem and simply grinned wickedly, as the thing suddenly turned into dust and collapsed on the floor. The Guards put away their weapons, looking around, making sure no danger remained. Da’teril sighed and looked down on the Empress. “Unfortunately, this little scene is a routine business around here. Does Her Highness wish to continue the tour or does she want to see what other secrets this place may reserve?”

Watching open eyed, Gehenna stood stock still, years of training teaching her that panicking was never the way to deal with problems, and that keeping a clear head was the way to survive. It also helped if you trusted the people around you to do their job, and even though she had no real knowledge of the guards standing around her, other than Chris, who was standing close during the incident, she never once felt in any serious danger. She had heard of the skill of the warriors of Shakhtal, and had witnessed first hand an example of their prowess.

She blinked as the golem eventually stopped and turned to dust before her eyes, more to keep the particles from hitting her eyes, as well with the tiny amount of visible relief. Beside her, she could hear Chris letting out a sigh as the danger passed. If she had looked at him, she would have seen the total look of anger and disbelief that his charge had been led to a place that contained danger.

“That was certainly…different.” Gehenna looked at Da’teril, a small frown marring her features. “I must remember to avoid golems from now on, just in case another one turns rampant.” She then broke into a smiled as her eyes swept over the Black Guard. “I am pleased that I had such an exceptional group surrounding me.” She looked at Chris and her eyes conveying to him that he need not worry about the situation.

For a moment she turned to Commander Lioth and smiled. “I am most grateful for the skill and training of your Guards. They are indeed a credit to you.” She flashed him her most pleasant smile. “I would be honoured to have a team join my security forces. They would be a worthy addition.”

Now that the excitement had passed, she allowed herself a moment to take in her surroundings as her thoughts returned to the class they had entered. “The citizens of Shakhtal, they all take lessons in magic or is it just the gifted few?” She seemed intrigued by this turn of events, coming from a nation that had magic only in the form of illusions. She knew only one real user of magic in her life. “I would like to hear more of the type of education you give.”

Commander Lioth bowed slightly to the Empress upon hearing her wishes. “Of course, Your Highness, I will assign my best men to your service.” Da’teril only grinned as he witnessed the scene. Faced with questions to his own self, Da’teril plunged into deep reflections for a second and then addressed the Empress.

“Well, Your Highness, I will spare you the theory of magic and will just say that in a way, the Shakhtal are quite gifted in this area. Well, compared to certain other… uhm… how do you call them… races? Species? That does not mean that every single one of us can blow the planet up by raising a finger into the air and sneezing. Study of magic is a very, very hard discipline that is initiated in our equivalent of primary and secondary educational institutions. Little children are taught the basics, some are talented, others not, everybody is different, after all.

“From there on, the children finish our equivalent of secondary education and go in for higher education. The studies at the Magisterium in some cases are, thus, equivalent to the university studies of the surface dwellers. Of course, the local Magisterium is not the only equivalent of university there is, there is quite a number of educational institutions of such type around that constantly compete with each other in various fields. Moreover, there are actually schools inside of the Magisterium for small children…

“As of the education in general… it is quite a complicated system. Well, Your Highness, we teach our children what they should know when they are little and leave them with the choice what to do next when they have grown up. A special attention is granted to martial arts and melee fighting, bow and firearms wielding, physical condition, et cetera. But then again, there is quite a variety of equivalent of schools around with their own systems. You see, I and the Council do not really meddle into the educational system. We give the general outlines to follow, a National Curriculum, if you prefer, and we leave the local authorities decide what is best.”

He raised his eyebrows and pondered a second, yet again, addressing the Empress after a moment of silence. “I am afraid, Your Highness, I have only made the picture even more confusing than it was before. I believe it would be best for your representatives to study the matter for themselves once they arrive here and give a detailed report to Your Highness.”

Smiling at Commander Lioth, Gehenna turned to see Emma making some more notes, as she brought her attention back to Da’teril as he spoke. She listened intently as he detailed the education system, running briefly over the finer points of the nation’s Magisterium.

As Da’teril finished, Gehenna flashed him her most charming smile. “I do not feel more confused, I believe I grasp the basics.” She indicated Emma, who was still tapping information into her palmtop. “Ms Sarie will ensure that whoever is appointed to work with you will be briefed on what we have heard so far, and then they can continue from there, and gain a better understanding than I have.”

She looked about her, and moved slightly away from the group as she looked around her, before turning back to Da’teril. “Perhaps it would be possible to see some of the students in action.” A smile grew on her lips, as she looked expectantly at their guide. “I find myself very interested in the creators of the Gollum that greeted us so dramatically earlier. If that is no trouble, of course?” Her expression revealed that she was not about to take no for an answer.

“Also, I would like to see some of the tutors or instructors. You can learn a lot about the education and knowledge of a nation from those that impart it to the young.” She flicked her eyes between the people present, stopping them on Da’teril. “Perhaps we can sit in on a class for a few minutes.”

Da’teril nodded thoughtfully as he looked around the corridor and finally led the party towards one of the doors behind which they found a rather intriguing ‘classroom’. The room was quite long, with the entrance situated by one of the sides. The length of the wall were rows of chairs, randomly occupied by students in black robes that did not really spare a lot of their attention to the ‘newcomers’. There was a dozen meters between the wall and a row of pillars that separated the room in two, with the much larger part being empty of anything. Far to the left could be spotted a person in black robes standing perpendicularly to the ‘public’ and far to the right could be seen a set of various gates.

Da’teril invited the Empress and the party to take a seat and explained. “This here, Your Highness, is what you would call a … shooting range? Firing line? Well, yes, that type of installation.” He raised his gaze on one of the figures that were already in the room when he and the Empress entered and yelled something out in his language. “Uitu va hakh ketrek thet?” The man, who was clearly the professor of the class, answered: “Kha jukhe kshakhenul kheret.” “Kshakhenul? Uite?” “Kshesret Kshas-Khul…” Da’teril grinned and yet again concentrated his attention on Gehenna, motioning briefly towards the student standing lonely in the end of the room.

“This fellow there is passing a…trial… euh… ah, yes, exam! This here be a class of uhm… elimination… no… annihilation… euh…” He blinked for a second as he tried to remember the word in the language that was foreign and, well, gibberish for him and then shrugged. “Well, Your Highness, you will simply have to see.”

At that very moment some sort of a field materialized between the pillars, creating a barrier between the audience and the shooting range. Waves of dark purple light ran from pillar to pillar on periodic basis. “This is a barrier, Your Highness, that prevents anything to go from one side to the other. To avoid any… incidents.” He grinned as he sat back to admire the show. And show there was, for one of the gates blast open and a rather impressive creature dashed into the room, accompanied by excited whistles and cheers from the students. The beast resembled an ant in many ways, only that it lacked antennae and eyes, had gigantic mandibles that poured poisoned saliva on the floor and was ‘just a tiny bit’ bigger than an ant. In fact, it was a good three meters tall, it was obsidian black and it was not at all friendly. It pushed out a loud squeal and charged the student. Da’teril smiled as he addressed the Empress: “This critter here be one of our Great Crawlers. They are blind but compensate by an extensive variety of various… euh… detectors… reflectors… euh… by various means of ‘feeling’ what is around them. One of these can spot a victim hundreds of meters around which is, in closed underground cave conditions, extremely efficient.”

He yet again directed his gaze at the student that was unleashing various spells at the creature. Flashes of bright light were accompanied by a complete darkness befalling on the room as the student warped from one part of the room to the other to avoid getting cut into pieces by the massive critter that was wounded, enraged, but still combat capable. The fight lasted for quite a time until the crawler finally collapsed in a pool of his own blood pushing one last deafening squeal that resonated through the room. The student, now in rags and injured himself, collapsed on the floor as the professor dissipated the barrier and directed himself to the wounded. Da’teril grinned as he yet again spoke to Gehenna. “This here be just one branch of the magical crafts we learn to master. So, may I ask the Empress what does she think of the little… uhm… presentation? Show?”

Having made herself comfortable, Gehenna sat back and watched the display between the student and the ‘test’ subject. She listened intently as Da’teril explained what was happening. Her eyes were fixed to the scene playing out in front of her, as the student slowly and, looking at his state when he was finished, quite painfully took the creature to its death.

Turning to her guide, as the barrier dispersed, Gehenna smiled. “A very impressive display. I assume that all the students have to pass such a test?” She stood up from the chair and brushed down her outfit. Behind her, Emma and Chris rose in unison, the former still taking down as many notes as she could. “May we?” She indicated her desire to walk over to the student and his victim. “If it is permitted, I have not seen anything like that before.”

She heard the sigh coming from her security officer. The creature might be dead, but he was not happy about her getting so close to something that moments earlier had been fighting for its life and could have so easily won, especially from the look of its killer. He really did not like her being in such a place where the threats were far from standard, and certainly were not dealt with in protection officer training.

Gehenna shot Chris a look, one that spoke of her faith in Da’teril to keep the party safe, despite the close call with the Golem, before returning her attention to her guide. “If you think it will be safe, of course, Lord Da’teril.”

Da’teril only shrugged as he invited the Empress to follow him. “You are the supreme authority here, Your Highness. If you decide to see such a scene, I am not the one who will advise the contrary.” One of the Black Guards accompanying them moved out in front of the group to check if the creature was undeniably and irrevocably dead, nodding approvingly to Da’teril as the guests approached the corpse and the wounded and then kneeled besides the wounded student.

The young man was clearly not the best of all sights to see. His ragged robes were wet with blood and saliva, his skin and wounds were slowly burning under the effect of acids contained in the aforementioned saliva. The professor and the warrior were busy applying some sort of medicine on the wounds as the young man agonized. Da’teril sighed and shook his head as he directed his gaze from the student and onto the Empress. “Such an exam is, Your Highness, for those of the mages who wish to join the Black Guard.” He motioned at the hooded figure in black leather armor standing besides them. “Although the Black Guard consists mainly of warriors, the mages increase the combat efficiency of the unit significantly. As such, the Magisterium has special lessons for those wishing to join the Guard.”

Following Da’teril to the scene of the battle, Gehenna moved slowly around the body of the fallen creature, her eyes flicking over its form. She circled it, recalling the fight that it had put up only moments ago. As she approached the student, seeing the state that he was in. From over the other side of the room, he certainly did not appear to be as badly injured; his tattered clothes had been the most obvious casualty.

“Will he survive?” She looked over the man, watching as the two people tended his wounds. It was not that she had been spared seeing people killed or dying, but it was certainly a surprise during an official visit, these were normally the scenes that remained hidden behind closed doors.

Da'teril grinned as he nodded approvingly. "Yes. In fact, as terrible as these wounds seem, we have mastered the arts of healing them over the years. So he will survive." He said something to the student, who hissed something back in responce, Da'teril erupting into a laughter. "Yes, he will survive allright. Well, Your Highness, our methods might seem barbaric to those of your kind, but... well... we always abide by the idea that our foes will not show us any mercy during real combat and, as such, we have to be prepared since our very first breath."

Gehenna laughed lightly. “Lord Da’teril, I get the feeling that you believe surface dwellers to be anything but barbaric. I can assure you that during its history, Tartarus has had more than its share of cruel tortures and way of bringing the populace into order.” She smiled, as she looked her guide in the eye. “Although your nation uses different techniques, and perhaps more frequently than some, I do not see the Shakhtal in a worse light than a countless number of other nations.”

She then turned her attention to the student and the man tending to his wounds, watching silently for a moment as the man worked. She looked back at Da’teril. “It is always a worthwhile practice to remember to give your enemies respect in their will to win. So many people are under the impression that their foes are less capable than themselves.” She shook her head sadly. “Underestimation of one’s enemies is the surest way of getting beaten.” The smile once more grew on her lips. “I am pleased to see that you do not fall into that category.”

Da'teril nodded thoughtfully as he listened to his Empress. "Well, Your Highness, my kin has already underestimated an enemy once." He sighed as he watched the professor help the student to his feet. The young man nodded slightly to the two leaders as he was led away. "And we will not repeat the same mistake again."

He grinned as he saw two giant spiders make their way into the hall, one of them mounted with a rider in black robes. The critters envelloped the fallen crawler into a web and dragged the corpse away, followed by Da'teril's gaze. "I believe that you surface dwellers have something called... euh... dust eaters? Dirt swallowers?" The man blinked as he tried to remember the exact wording and failing, shrugging and looking back at Gehenna.

"Does Her Highness wish to see anything else?"

Gehenna’s eyes briefly fixed on the huge spiders that came down and collected the body of the fallen beast, feeling like she was in some kind of fantasy dream, where everything seemed larger and stranger than the normal world, a place where nature had taken a common element and turned it against the norm. Watching as the creatures disappeared out of sight, she turned to the man beside her.

“I think I have seen everything I need to see.” She turned to Emma, who shook her head briefly informing the Empress that they had covered all that she needed for her report. “Then, unless you have something more you wish to show us, Lord Da’teril, I would say that we have seen all that we need to see.” Casting her guide a charming smile, she fixed her gaze onto his face. “Thank you for the tour of your wondrous city; it was very certainly an eye opener.”

Da’teril nodded and exchanged several words with Commander Lioth, who responded briefly, the Shakhtal leader smiling with satisfaction as he addressed his Empress again. “It has been an honour to us to have you amongst us, Your Highness. And I hope this will not be your last visit in your own… eeh… grounds? Soil? Territory!” He frowned a little as he mentally noted to study the ‘gibberish’, as he called it, a bit more thoroughly later on.

“Well, let us not lose time.” He said as the shadows yet again filled the room, everything fading to black and the light returning only to illuminate the interior of a rather spacious cavern. Here and there could be seen Black Guards on duty, wielding weaponry that resembled very much such things as ‘assault rifles’ and ‘machine guns’, their faces covered with something one could take for night vision goggles (in fact, these were day vision goggles that enabled Shakhtal warriors to see in daylight). Outside of the cave was a flat platform, transformed into a helipad for the Imperial convoy.

Five men dressed into black pants and shirts (crafted in a particular style with silver embroidering) came towards the rulers and their escort and saluted the Empress and the Lord and Ruler in turn. Commander Lioth stepped forward, said something in his language to the soldiers, who only nodded understandingly, the officer turning to face the Empress. “As per your wish, Your Highness, I have assigned five of my best men to your service, three warriors and two mages. All of them are perfectly accustomed to day light and surface living conditions and are thus the perfect candidates for the task. Their equipment has been transferred to your… ehhh…” The Commander blinked suddenly, Da’teril erupting into laughter and shaking his head. Lioth gave a glance towards the cave exit thoughtfully and continued, finding a way out of the delicate situation. “To the means of transportation you have used to reach this location, Your Highness. Should any of them ever disappoint you, they will suffer the most exemplary of all punishments.” He said as he gave a terrifying and menacing look at all five Guards, making the skilled and seasoned soldiers feel uneasy.

“Well, Commander, if you are thinking about what I think you are thinking, I very sincerely doubt they will ever cause any problems to Her Highness.” Da’teril said as he grinned and bowed to the Empress. “I am sorry I cannot accompany you to the… eeh… the means of transportation you have used to reach this location…” Lioth shook his head and facepalmed. “… for my eyes are rather sensitive to day light. So I bid you farewell and will stand ready to obey any of your orders. Your loyal servants will always heed your call.”

Gehenna presented her hand to Da’teril and shook his warmly, a smile brightening her face. “It has been a pleasure to see the Shakhtal and your country for myself. I find reports do not always to a nation or its people much justice.” She waved her hand to encompass the scene around her. “And I know that I would not have imagined this from anyone’s description. It is a wondrous place, one that has to be experienced to be appreciated.”

Turning slightly, she looked at Commander Lioth. “I have the utmost confidence in your soldiers, and do not envisage having to send a poor report of them to you.” She cast him a genuine smile. “And thank you for seeing me safely through your nation.”

She returned her gave to Da’teril. “As previously discussed, Miss Sarie will arrange for an observer to spend some time here, not only to learn more about the Shakhtal, but to give you information about the Empire of Tartarus.” With a quick look towards Emma to ensure she had not missed anything, Gehenna gave her full attention to her guide. “I too hope that I get to the opportunity to visit here again, and if you ever get the chance, I would be honoured for you to pay us a visit in Tartarus.”

As the meeting came to an end, and the pleasantries were passed between the group, Gehenna and her entourage, accompanied by her five new guards walked to the entrance. She blinked several times, trying to adjust to the light before having to step back into the sunlight. Leaving the underground city, she felt the heat of the sun against her skin, as her eyes adjusted.

Moments later she climbed aboard her helicopter, and settled in for the ride to the airport, and then back to Tartarus. As they flew over the mouth leading to the home of the Shakhtal, she smiled.