The dwarves seated themselves at various tables around the room, while Momon and Nabe followed after Tula, her whimsical smile graced her face and barely revealed the fangs that marked her true nature. "It's a bit absurd, don't you think, they oppressed thousands for over a century, then cry out for justice when, not even their living, simply their dead, are put to labor use."

"Insects are insects, living or dead." Nabe shrugged indifferently and kept her face coldly neutral as her eyes swept the room.

Tula nodded in enthusiastic agreement, "Precisely. The humans who once ruled this place, bought almost all their iron from our various mines. Fespis higher, lower, east, and west, they never had a clue who my father really was." A sweet smile aglow with pride in her parent, she led them to a table of stone and gestured with her left hand for them to be seated. "He told me stories about the way the slaves were treated there. He used to visit it to remind himself of his goal. Vile beings." Her lip curled briefly in disgust.

"But weren't you human before?" Momon asked as he glanced over her to be sure, her ears were clearly human enough.

Tula didn't nod, but she did speak, "Yes, as distasteful as that is. But don't misunderstand, father didn't teach me to hate humanity, but I didn't need prompting to hold them in contempt. Faithless, short sighted, and cruel, most of them. We act in good faith, but the survivors of Aalon's wrath? They don't."

"What do you mean, have you forgotten that I and my partner are humans?" Momon inquired, and Pandora's Actor removed his helmet, setting it in his lap to allow the face his father chose, to be seen.

Tula shook her head, "You are no ordinary human, and you are a servant of the divine liberator, you're different. Heroes transcend humanity. I transcended my humanity by my vampirism. You… chose a more impressive route. That being said, the outcast humans have started to prey on travelers."

Momon and Nabe traded a disturbed look. "Has this been reported to the Sorcerer King? Or Governor Enri? Or the heads of Reconciliation and Outreach?"

Tula shook her head, "No, we haven't. The Faithless haven't killed anybody yet, so we've been dealing with it locally. They waylay travelers and beat them, but they don't even steal. You want the truth that makes it awkward, it's like they're daring us to escalate the situation, so…?" She shrugged, "We make arrests, punish, and kick them out again. But there are a lot of places to hide around here."

Momon looked over his shoulder when the appreciative noises began among the dwarves. Human and elven servants in formal outfits began to appear in numbers, wheeling out large quantities of food, beer, and wine. Their carts were of burnished silver with ornate dark wooden handles polished smooth and varnished to a shine.

Pandora's Actor watched with approval at the perfect synchronization of the servants, but as he did so, he noticed something else. 'The dwarves aren't seeing that. They're not seeing the gracefulness, the flow, the obvious training in every step and gesture… they have eyes only for what is on the trays and in the bottles.' He suppressed a sigh, 'Am I truly so rare, in my appreciation for the perfection of motion and presentation?'

Tula's expression changed then as she glanced at the entrance, Momon followed her eyes to an elven woman at the door wearing a white shirt and pants with a bright red insignia on it that he recognized as part of the healing corps.

"Excuse me, I'd better go see what's happened." Tula said and gave a hasty apologetic bow before she rushed across the floor in long quick steps to speak in hushed whispers to the unexpected arrival.

He turned his face away and looked to his blank faced partner. "What do you see, Nabe?"

"Nothing of note." She said with a scowl as her glare swept the room.

Momon refrained from rolling his eyes, "Not here, in what she said."

Nabe narrowed her eyes at him.

"Have you forgotten the point?" He stared at her with his arms folded in front of him.

"Oh." She said and let her eyes fall briefly.

"Right. We face our opponents in the tournament, but what if we bring them together more fully by drawing them together as a unit, a single joint operation to bring down this insurrection before it becomes a bigger problem?" Momon proposed this with an excited clap of his hands together

The rest of the meal was spent watching the servants move amongst the dwarven elites with smooth professionalism as the dwarves proved their reputation as professional grade drinkers to be very accurate.

It went on until the dwarves themselves could manage little more than to rise and stumble from their tables, praising the generosity of their hosts, and they were one by one assisted by the talented servants, out of the great hall, so drunkenly that they did not think to even ask where they were going.

"A hearty people." Pandora's Actor remarked in a sort of neutral way as he tried to ignore Naberal's cold glare, they left together at the end, and all he could do was whisper, "Just remember the plan."

"Of course." She grumbled under her breath as they made their way back to their quarters in Aalon's private residence.

His home was a simple series of rooms cut into the stone high up on the mountain, with ornate circular steps carved out of wood and secured by tight fitting alone into a great stone pillar that had seemingly been raised out of the mountain itself. There a series of holes had been cut in rectangular shapes going in an upward spiral, and into those holes, tight fitting wooden beams had been forced.

A rail of thin metal spikes and a series of winding interconnected wooden segments laid atop them and served for security. They went up the steps until coming to a stone landing, and found no door in place, only an open cavern that had been polished smooth, it ran within for a number of yards, and and on either side there were openings that had been modified by the guiding hands of artisans or laborers or both. Though the cave at first appeared dark, as soon as they walked within, various glowing rocks began to cast a faint blue hue that created an almost mystical aura over the entire area.

"Come, this way!" Aalon shouted from within a room a dozen yards within. Momon followed the voice, and saw a faint hint of outside light appear on the floor when he heard the sound of a curtain being snapped open.

Inside the room, he saw Aalon with his back to the door, standing at a small open outcropping that had been concealed by a curtain. "Take a look at this." He said without looking back.

Pandora's Actor and Nabe traded uncertain looks, and approached. Aalon's hand went up and he pointed down, "See that, there's Feron."

"I see it. How far is it from here?" Momon asked glibly.

"As the rock falls?" Aalon asked, and reached over to a small vase, he drew out a stone, and threw it as hard as he could. It had a long, slow arc, and finally hit the distant wall. "Not that far. Though I've never exactly measured, I used to stand here sometimes, and in the dark I'd just throw rocks at those walls. I knew one day I'd take that city, destroy its people. I knew one day, my Nua would be avenged, the slaves would be freed, and I would destroy the country I was born in." He folded his hands behind his back and stared out at the place.

"Insects." Nabe remarked in agreement.

"Nabe…" Momon said gently.

Aalon raised his hand to touch Momon's armored forearm, "No, she's right. Or as I see it, she is, I've grown a general distaste for humans now, and though I'm glad the war is over, the Theocracy is dead, well?" he rubbed his forehead in frustration, "There are still so many alive, the surviving humans, the ones who live there and the ones who live in hiding outside of it, I have to govern them. It's difficult, you know, after this long." He swallowed and went quiet.

"What is?" Momon inquired.

"Ruling over what I despise." Aalon admitted.

"Humans enslaved my Nua, humans beat my Nua, humans raped my Nua, humans… wanted to 'eat' my Nua. And a human, sold Nua while she was pregnant with his baby, leaving her to be ground down on a farm and have that ripped from her and thrown into a hole to rot. Why? Because his wife didn't like her. That last one is the worst, because he was me. I'm glad I'm not human anymore, not that 'weak monster'. However… Now I have to go down there almost every day and see humans walking the streets as if the war never happened. I'd prefer to kill them all." Aalon spat in the direction of the city and turned away from it. "I'm sorry, I know you're humans, and not all humans are like that but…"

"It's fine, no man can bear all things." Momon replied and clapped a hand on Aalon's shoulder.

"It would be… easier, perhaps, to kill them all, all the broken ones, all the living whose souls lie dead despite their hearts still beating, fallen on now silent battlefields. But you know better, despite your hatred… you know what such an act would mean." Momon said as he looked down at the red eyed vampire whose fingers twitched still.

"Yes, an act like that, I would break faith with His Majesty's peace, I would break faith with those who truly did surrender, and are only trying to live their lives." Aalon looked up admiringly at Momon, a fang filled smile on his face, "Warrior, you are not humanity's champion for nothing. Not to worry, I will not break faith. If it is to be done, let it be done by someone else, I'd rather break the cycle that destroyed Nua's life, my life, and took away our child, than break faith and start it all over again."

'Is this what it means to be a champion, to truly be the Sword of God or is he something more than even that? If the pope is his scourge and wrath, am I looking on the beating heart of divinity's conscience…?' Aalon blinked his eyes and threw back his head and laughed at the stone ceiling, it echoed briefly before his laughter carried out beyond the mountain, "Come, let me show you to your quarters, this way."

He said, and led them out two more doors down, a simple room with two beds and ample space, along with a marvelous view of the space beyond the mountain. "We didn't know whether you needed ah, one bed or two, so we got two and a single room, you know, rumors and all…" Aalon rubbed the back of his head and shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"Two." Momon and Nabe said abruptly and in unison, startling Aalon into briefly blinking and then letting out a hint of nervous laughter.

"Right, lucky guess then, sleep well, we'll see you at the fight tomorrow." Aalon said hastily and made his exit, shutting the door behind him.

...House of Law…Fespis East…

"Welcome to my home." Judge Aman Raelos said with a polite bow, only to find that the dwarf guest to whom he was bowing, had fallen asleep standing up.

He scratched his head, "Ah… what happened?" Judge Raelos considered himself to be among the most unflappable of elven judges in the entire mining community range. But as he saw the dwarf just snoring on his feet, held up chiefly by the arm of the maidservant, he wasn't sure what to say.

"The beer was much to their liking." She smiled weakly, brushing her blonde hair back beyond her long elven ears. Her white teeth bit back a snort of laughter at his consternation, biting her lower lip instead of parting to let the amusement show.

"I will… take him to his room, My Lord, and ah, just show off our skills in the morning over breakfast." She proposed as if he himself had made the suggestion, and Aman scratched his head in thought.

"I'd heard they liked their drink, but…" He chuckled, "No, there are worse things, and this is something of a vacation for them, let them have their fun, time enough for talk tomorrow. Yes, go ahead, take him to his quarters."

"Yes M'Lord." She said with a chuckle as she half walked and mostly dragged one of the high dwarven judges, deeper into the stone 'estate'.

"Oh…" Aman said without looking back as she passed him by. "One more question?"

"Oofah, yes sir?" She asked, stopping and looking over her shoulder with a bit of minor struggle.

"Was he the only one to pass out like this?" Aman asked, keeping his raised brow hidden from her by not looking behind him still.

"Ah, no, no we had to help all of them away from their tables." She replied, unable to keep back a half amused and half exasperated laugh.

"Oh my, well… it can't be helped, see to it then, I suppose I'll turn in as well, leave a handbell to summon you, but otherwise get your rest." Aman added in an even voice as he walked away from the entryway and back towards his own private room.