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Nomura and the others watched as the group of trolls walked along the path from the Gyre towards the Heartstone. She noted that they were definetly different from other's in Trollmarket, but recognized a few off-hand. One troll was from the Quagawump swamp; their new queen, and there was a couple of the trolls from Argentina; Gatto's attendants. In their hand was a tray with a pile of stones. Next was a troll that gave Nomura pause. She looked remarkably like her troll form, and she wondered if she was leader of the tribe she was originally from? Lastly in the pseudo parade was a regal looking troll, a Krubera, flesh dark blue with iridescent blue runes. She was adorned by heartstone fragments, and she was attended by two other Krubera. It was interesting to say the least, how different they were to ARRRGGHH. She frowned as she watched as they all entered the center of the Heartstone, followed lastly by Vendel.
"So what now?" She asked out loud, to no one in particular.
"Now we wait to see what their decision is." Blinky said softly. Under normal circumstances he would be there with Vendel, but for some reason he had told Blinky to stay with the trollhunter.
The group entered his library, Draal leaning against the doorway, arms crossed his scowl ever present on his face. Nomura looked around, feeling on edge. What exactly were this tribunal going to decide? It's not like she could just hand over the amulet to the next willing troll! She shook her head to clear the muddled thoughts, eyes landing on the table in the center. Though the words were long since faded, there were still burn marks on the top. Suddenly one of the lines from that riddle rung in her head.
'Caverns deep'... there were no deeper caverns on earth than the Krubera caverns.
"Blinky, do you think that the Krubera have the eye stone?" She faced the six-eyed troll.
Blinky shook his head. "I had already thought of that, when the tribunal started to gather. According to Queen Usurna, the eye stone was lost in a raid. The very same raid that AAARRGGHH was stolen from in fact."
"BUSHIGAL!" Nomura shouted, much louder than she had intended. She swallowed as all eyes were on her. She cleared her throat. "Sorry. But there was never any raid on the Krubera caverns."
Blinky blinked. "I'm sorry, Master Nomura, but you are not making any sense. If there was never any raid, then how did AAARRGGHH end up with the gumm-gumms?"
Nomura realized her mistake. And there was no coming back from this one. She wondered if shifting into her troll form would be an odd thing to do, because this was a secret she really had not planned on sharing, but now she had to. She paced around the room before answering his question, arms crossed tightly.
"Before I answer that, let me ask something." She looked over at her green friend. "AAARRGGHH, have you ever been to the Krubera caverns?"
He shook his head.
"We tried to go once, after the great migration, we had figured that it would have been a good idea to let Queen Usurna know that AAARRGGHH had come back from being under Gunmar's control, but there was no gyre path to the caverns. We had to go the long way." Blinky told her, looking at both his dear friend and her simultaneously. It always threw her off when he did that, but she ignored it.
"So what happened when you got there?"
"Unfortunately, we never actually made it to the caverns themselves." He frowned, crossing two of his arms.
"Blinky fell asleep." AAARRGGH grumbled.
"You felt weakened from being cut off from the heartstone, didn't you?" She walked over to the table.
"How did you know?"
"Because, only the krubera have the tolerance to be that deep into the earth, that far from the heartstone. I wager you made it only a quarter of the way down before giving up?" She looked over at the two, the bigger troll nodding.
"What does this have to do with your statement of there not being a raid?" Draal grumbled from his position in the doorway, light reflecting off his amber eyes; she swallowed the lump forming in her throat.
"Because no normal troll or even changeling could have made it down that cavern path. They would have experienced the same issue that Blinky did. Even if they were under the full control of the Decimar blade, a troll's body would have fallen. Weakened from the lack of heartstone, lack of energy, lack of anything. Those caverns are deep. What I am getting at is that, Usurna would have personally sent another Krubera to deliver a gift to Gunmar. A gift of a litter of Krubera welps."
"'WELP'S'?" Everyone looked at her. She nodded.
"Let me tell you a sad story. I was there, although very young. My familiar had just been born, so it would be soon that I would be swapped. But I was there when it all happened."
....
She wouldn't go into full detail. The process for making a changeling was some heavy dark magic, originating from enchantments from Morgana herself, and while it wasn't always successful, the success rate was usually a lot higher than what happened that day. She remembered them bringing in a litter of five Krubera welps, all recently birthed. She in another area of the cave within the Darklands, and was away from these proceedings, but remembered bits. Some she wished she didn't remember at all. She felt a pit in her stomach in telling the others this, wondering if she would feel remotely better in her troll form. She clearly remembered yelling and fighting between two other changelings, whose names and faces she didn't remember in the slightest. She DID remember dodging the stone remains of a petrified troll infant as it slammed into the nearby wall. In actuality it was her first experience with death, which for a two-hundred year old troll was lucky. The voices yelling in the other part of the cavern rang, echoing off of the cold black stones.
"Every one. a failure!"
"Not every one, we still have one last brat to try!"
"Why are they reacting this way?"
"Who knows. But if we fail at bringing Gunmar a changeling of this strength he will have all our hides!"
The sound of a whimpering infant interrupted the arguing pair. Nomura remembered trying to spy a look at the dark blue youngling, but her view was blocked.
"If we kill them all he certainly will. But we still have this one. Let's forget trying to convert it, just raise it as a soldier. He will still be a strong tool for our lord."
The other changeling went quiet contemplating their partner's words. "Yes, you have a point. He may over look our failures with this if we give him one strong soldier, the strongest of his armies. Send it to the nurseries. Begin it's training immediately! Send message to Usurna of our decision."
.....
Nomura couldn't bring herself to look at her friends. She felt sick at the memory, but it was something she had to share.
"I... I had no idea..." Blinky said, cutting through the silence; she could hear his voice choke.
She looked over at the large pacifistic troll. He had a contemplative look on his face.
"Queen Usurna... bad troll." He grunted, with a frown.
"I'm sorry AARRRGGHH." She didn't know what else to say. He grunted at her.
No one said anything, but she registered a movement, and out of the corner of her eyes she saw Draal had moved next to her.
"As upsetting as this revelation is, I am uncertain there is anything we can do with this information." Blinky said after a moment of quiet. He had a point. Usurna was the leader of the Krubera, and right now, given what was going on in the center of the Heartstone about her, she doubted that anything that a changeling could say would mean anything. Vendel MIGHT listen to her, but then what?
As if to answer her question, Vendel entered the library, followed by Usurna and her guards.
"Vendel? To what do we hold the pleasure for?" Blinky said, mustering a tepid smile.
"We are here to announce our decision about the Trollhunter." He said, voice grave.
"And that is?" Nomura asked, keeping a level face at the Krubera queen.
"The changeling is to stand trial for stealing the Trollhunter amulet." Usurna's voice was cold. The other's looked at each other. Nomura had no idea what a trial was like for the trollkind, but felt that it wouldn't go well for her.