within three days.”
The meal was thus ended, and the court departed from the table. Remliel followed, going back behind the throne and up the stairs. She collapsed onto her bed and promptly fell asleep, her body tired from her night's journey and the hearty meal she'd eaten. She closed her eyes, and almost immediately, she was awakened by a knock on the door.
She rose from her bed, her dress wrapped unflatteringly around her body, and opened the door. “I hope you had a good rest,” the servant girl Kaif said, scurrying into the room. “You slept soundly all night.”
“It's morning?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Kaif began to make the bed, and Remliel looked out the window to see a beautiful blue sky. The servant then got the Archangel's attention, and asked her if she'd like a bath. Remliel nodded. Kaif left the room and returned with a large metal tub. Three other servant girls followed with buckets of steaming hot water, which they then dumped into the tub. Remliel stripped and entered the bath.
She summoned her wings, and the girls took a few steps back. They began whispering to each other as the Archangel massaged the muscles and plucked out dead feathers. “I shouldn't have slept with them hidden,” she mumbled to herself, watching the bathwater slowly turn brown. Golden feathers floated on the surface of the water, and the Archangel finally began to wash her body. When she finished, she got out of the bath, and put on her traveling clothes she'd gotten from the Elves.
She walked down the stairs, satchel around her shoulder and trumpet tied to her belt, and she emerged behind the throne, where the King was sitting. “Thank you for hosting me,” she said, bowing respectfully. “Your dinner feast was delightful.”
“I'm glad you enjoyed it,” he answered, leaning forward a little bit to simulate a bow. “There is a steed waiting for you outside; one of our best. I hope she aides you in your travels.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” the Archangel responded. She quickly exited the palace and saw the white horse outside of the palace doors. The drawbridge was down, and she could see the townspeople shopping in the marketplace. She quickly hid her wings, unaware that they were still visible, and mounted the steed.
A stable boy, who was holding the reins of the horse, looked up at the Archangel in awe. “H-her name is Cade,” he stammered. After a slight pause, he commented, “Your wings were beautiful… why do you hide them?"
“I don't want to frighten people.”
“I can understand that… but they were beautiful.”
The Archangel rode off without answering; she felt as though there was nothing that she could say, for the boy knew and felt all he needed to know and feel.
She rode her way slowly through the crowd, who still did not part for her. This was another difference between Elves and Men; Men seemed to be more rude than the reverent Elves.
The sun was in the middle of the sky, and Remliel rode West toward the Eastern River. The river flowed from the Eastern River Delta and curved South toward the fork where Remliel had landed upon her arrival to Akkolon.
She reached the river by nightfall, since it wasn't far from the gates of Iqocan. She made rest on the bank of the river for the night, creating a small wooden post with her powers to tie her steed up to. She didn't want him to run away in the night.
She pulled out her map and studied it through the night. She looked up at the sky, seeing the moon slowly descending to the East, watching the stars sparkle up in the protective dome of the world. She sighed to herself, both out of happiness and sadness. She was proud of the world her mother, the One, had created, but she longed for her company and missed living with her and her brother in the Emptiness.
When the sun rose from the North, Remliel stood, untied the horse from the post, and waved her hand, making the piece of wood disappear. She then mounted the steed and rode over the Eastern River. She saw the Forsaken Hills were close, so she rode to them.
The mountain range was the smallest of the three on Akkolon, and there lived the Southwestern clan of Dwarves. Dwarves were the most stubborn race, and they liked to hide away amongst their riches, shutting out the rest of the world's problems. The only thing the Dwarves had to worry about was trading and Dragons, but with the abominable creatures all the way in the North upon the Dead Peaks, Remliel doubted that the Southwestern clan even knew about them. After all, almost all of Tetrasiel's creatures were dwelling near him, ready to serve his darkness at a moment's notice.
Remliel rode up to the Forsaken Hills, seeing the enormous mountain peaks stretch into the sky the closer she got. Upon reaching them, she saw a small gravel walkway to the middle of the mountain range. There was a door engraved into the stone, but all Remliel could see was the outline of the doorway: there was no handle, no hinges, nothing to allow entry into the mountain.
She knocked three times on the stone, hoping the Dwarves inside would hear her. She looked at the Dwarvish language engraved onto the doorway and read it aloud to herself: “If ye be a kindly folk, or if ye be full of hate; we welcome you unless you cloak, your intentions coming through our gate.”
The stone began to move, the doorway protruding from the mountainside and allowing entry into the Dwarf kingdom. Remliel walked her horse inside with her, feeling the door close behind her. She was immediately plunged into darkness. The steed stayed rather calm, much to the surprise of the Archangel, but she tightened her grip on the reins nevertheless.
She stretched out her other hand, allowing her power to flow through her and create a beam of light for her to see with. There wasn't much to see under the mountain, so she called out for the Dwarves.
After her voice echoed through the cavern for a moment, torches along the walls began to light themselves. Remliel put away her own light and followed the dim glow of the fire. She saw that she was in a long hallway with a high, domed ceiling. Everything around her was made of stone. The hall went forward for a while until it branched off into four different directions. Each branch had a large arch of stone with Dwarvish embedded into it. There were torches down each of the four hallways, all of them lit, and a hot, bright light coming from the bottom of the leftmost hall.
Remliel called out once again when she got to the fork, hoping she would see at least one Dwarf today. Luckily for her, a group of miners were coming up the leftmost hall toward the fork, and she got their attention. “Excuse me, do you mind showing me to your ruler?" she asked.
They stopped and stared at her for a moment. “You know Dwarvish?” one asked. “Only Dwarves know Dwarvish.”
“I know all tongues,” Remliel answered. “I am not from this world."
“Where are you from then?”
“The Emptiness, the vast Universe. I come from the One.”
“I'm not sure I understand."
“I will explain all on our way to your King.”
The group of Dwarves approached Remliel, guiding her down the rightmost hall. She told them everything about the One, her brother and his evil deeds, and her arrival on Akkolon. The only thing she didn't know, however, was all the languages of the people on Akkolon. “Everyone speaks a different language, so how do you trade and fight alongside one another?”
“There is one common language among all creatures,” one of the Dwarves said. “We call
