Chapter 3
Zhuerelm awoke with a start as the wailing began! Someone had opened one of the magically sealed windows! If it was that stupid guard again he would have his house wizard turn him into a pig or something! So he climbed out of his bed and went to the door of his bedroom, opening the door he entered the hallway just as the mage Vitros was rounding the corner.
“What is going on Vitros!” Zhuerelm shouted at the wizard.
“I don’t know yet my Lord, but I intend to find out!” Vitros replied back to the merchant.
So off both of them went down the stairway to the lower part of the manor. Soon they were met by a couple of the house guards who looked rather pale. They explained that they had found the dead guard outside the library where he was posted to guard and that they had spotted a blonde elven girl leaving through the window.
Zhuerelm was beside himself with rage, he shook his fists at the two guards there and pushed past them towards the library room. He stormed into the room and saw the dead guard on the floor, lying in a pool of blood. Then he glanced up and saw the open window. Following him in was the mage Vitros, who gasped when he saw the dead guard, then turned his attention to the items in the room. He gasped again when he saw the missing jewelry boxes and the missing ebony statue.
“What’s missing?’ Zhuerelm asked the mage as he too started glancing around the room in bewilderment.
“My Lord, there are some jewelry boxes missing, but the most important item that I don’t see is the dwarven artifact that was here on the table.” He said as he pointed towards where the statue had been at.
“Artifact? What artifact are you talking about wizard?” the merchant turned to look at his house mage with a look of puzzlement on his face.
“Well it was something that I just recently discovered my Lord, I was going to tell you about it, soon.” Was all the mage said in reply with a smile on his face as he turned towards Zhuerelm.
“What exactly have you discovered?’ the merchant said as he studied the face of the wizard.
“Well that we had in our possession a very powerful artifact that the dark dwarves would love to have back, something that they were willing to pay a lot of money for.” Vitros said in reply folding in front of him as he spoke.
“So this is something you have already made contact with the Dhag’arii about?” Zhuerelm asked the mage.
“Yes Lord, I have and they were willing to pay a high price for this piece, and now they will not be happy that it is gone.” Vitros said and spread his hands out before him
“Well I suggest then good mage that you make it your mission in life to find this thief and get the artifact back!” Zhuerelm nearly shouted to him, his face turning red as he spoke!
“Of course my Lord.” The mage said simply and made a small bow.
So with that the mage and the merchant made their way out of the room, they both made their way to speak with the guard who had spotted the thief and gave chase. They asked question after question, attempting to find out any detail about the thief and what she looked like. Soon they felt like they had all the information thy needed and made there way back to the library. The mage took out a bag of powder and began sprinkling it around the room, he then asked the merchant to step back out of the room and he turned and spoke a word and waved his hand at the center of the room, up from the floor sprang to life an image of Lizzy! The image went through the very motions that Lizzy made while she was in the room, the mage and the merchant watched closely as the ghostly image of Lizzy went to the table and began placing the jewelry boxes in her bag, and then took the black statue that had been on the table.
“Behold your thief!” Vitros said turning towards the merchant who had been standing in the doorway watching the image of Lizzy.
“So the question remains wizard, can you find her and get the artifact back?’ Zhuelerm asked the wizard Vitros.
“That is what I intend to do my Lord.” the wizard said then added, “I will find out where this thief is at and send an assassin to kill her and bring us the artifact back.”
So with that the merchant went back upstairs to his room and closed the door, he sighed deeply and went back to his bed, lying back down he soon drifted off to sleep. Back down stairs the wizard began casting another spell, a spell that would help him track down Lizzy and with that information he would then contact an assassin and send him to kill the impertinent thief and retrieve the missing artifact.
“This would be fun…” the wizard thought to himself.