The light of a nearby candle illuminated the small cave. The walls were smooth and blackened from the large fires that once burned in here before its current occupant made his stay in Helstor. A couple of tomes laid scattered on a table in the middle of the room. Two figures were standing around the table. One pleased, the other not pleased. "Are you even aware of what you brought before me?" Asked the older man while looking up at the tall Eorling. "You tasked us with recovering dusty old books and look before you! Old and dusty books." The tall man responded smugly, giving a fiendish snarl afterwards. The elder took one of the tomes in his hand and walked to the back wall of the cave. Several loot boxes had been recovered in the last few weeks, more than the brigands would normally collect in a whole year. The old man took a gander at the cover of the book for a moment before speaking: "When I give but the simplest task of recovering ledgers from a single room to you and your bunch of cutthroating freemen, I do not expect from you to return to me with nothing but personal journals and the accounts of wolf sightings!" Before those words were uttered the book flew through the dimly lit cavern, hitting the head of the snarky Eorling.
Folcwerth almost lost his footing when the blunt object made impact with his head. His hand quickly went towards his sword around his belt before he realized his action and quickly returned his arms to behind his back. Not a moment too soon as his superior stood before him in an instance. "I am sorry ser but...how would we have known the difference? None of us could make any sence of them. Why do we even concern us with those useless things when the rest of rhe ruins are still right for picking? " The Eorling's response was quick and the the elder seemed to be calm again. "You are right, Folcwerth. As a matter of fact, your next task will be indeed to recover riches from the ruins. The last door in the third hallway leading from the dining room. Take your brothers with you and return to me in a week at most." The Eorling seemed to be rejoiced at this command and bowed before heading out of the cave, his pace quicker than normal.
A third figure that had been sitting on a bed at the far corner of the room stepped on her bare feet and slowly walked over towards the old man, giving him a kiss in the back of his neck. "Didn't you told me earlier that every door in the third hallway will never open from the inside?" She quietly whispered in his ear. Tidhelm grinned for a moment, speaking just as quietly: "I have not searched every ruin of forgotten days around Rohan in the past few years, to make such an amateurish mistake. To even suggest that I am sending Folcwerth and those failures that he calls his kin to their demise, is an insult to me." The old man turned around to look at the maiden in front of him and her pretty young face before whispering in her ear. "Yet Ost Celebrant is a labyrinth of hallways and he just said it himself. How does he know the difference?" The girl looked at Tidhelm with her small eyes and snarly laugh. "We better find someone who can do a better job in the morning." The girl tried to pull Tidhelm closer to the bed but Tidhelm only smiled at her and give her a kiss in her neck. The girl shivered when his lips touched her.
"Do you think that I am so low, that I degrade myself to the likes of you like a famished hound in the near presence of prey?!" Hilde could only hear her master's words faintly in the distance, her hands covering the red outprints of a hand that were made on her left cheek. Tidhelm walked over to a chair in the other side of the room, taking his seat and pouring wine in a tankard from a nearby pitcher. "Remove yourself. I will call if I have a need for you." Tidhelm said calmly. Hilde slowly stood up, her face covered with tears. She did not saw the grey cloaked figure that stood near the threshold in her sadness and fear.
The grey figure walked into the cavern. His voice was heard before even Tidhelm could notice him. "Was such an act of brutality needed, from such a noble being as yourself?" His voice was as clear as the dawn and as soothing as the tune of a harp stroke. "Of all beings known to walk the soil of Rohan, you must know the use of lowlife like her and their unfortunate yet rightful place in your plans." Before the grey cloaked figure could respond, Tidhelm had already poured in a goblet with wine and presented it before his guest before speaking: "I expected you later, if I may say so." The cloaked figure removed his hood, his white hair looked like freshly fallen snow on the fields yet his gaze was more piercing than any blade. "A wizard's doings is beyond your comprehension yet of all man that I call a servant, you come closer than any." Tidhelm genuinely smiled at this comment and raised his goblet to the figure before him.
Save for Tidhelm and an empty goblet once filled with wine, the cave was empty.
