He led the way into the room. It was larger than ours and made from white stone. This must be an even more upper-class kind of inn than the one we picked.
There was another person in there, a little man with bare and hairy feet.
These were the ones we saw riding through the streets yesterday!
The little man, barely more than chest high tall, jumped off the chair he was sitting on, "Gandalf, who's this?"
The wizard nodded and walked over to look us over, "This is Atregos and Ren. If I'm not mistaken, they are travelers… from quite far."
I looked over at him, "You know who we are?"
He smiled a bit, "Not completely. You are more than what you appear, but what exactly you are, I could not say."
I nodded, "We are not what we appear, but we mean no harm," I said.
"I'm Peregin Took," he said in turn with a slightly guarded look before glancing over to Gandalf, "What do you mean, not what they appear?"
"I'm not too certain."
Oh, for crying out loud. Just stop beating about the bush.
I sighed, "I'm a Planeswalker. Ren is traveling with me as I move between worlds."
Gandalf hmmed, "That I know. But that's not what you are… but it matters less than why you are here?"
Nodding, I sat down by the table, "True enough. We have no hostile intentions, we seek knowledge. Magic, mechanical, metallurgical. Anything anyone would be willing to trade for."
He nodded and pulled out a pipe starting to stuff it with something, "I see. I'm afraid you picked a bad time to visit. Darkness is rising to the east, the forces of Mordor are on the march. They are coming, the clouds cover their approach."
"War?"
"War," he sighed, "Minas Tirith is the last bastion of man."
Ren looked at me, "So that's why the clouds glow with magic. They use them to shield them from the sun?"
Gandalf nodded in agreement.
"How long?" Ren asked with a frown.
"Difficult to say. Days at most."
Getting up I walked out on the balcony, looking into the distance. Nothing so far. Casting a quick scrying spell, I sent the viewpoint higher and increased the magnification.
There. An army of beings marching towards the city, tens of thousands of them. Beings clad in dark armour.
What are those?
Never seen anything like those.
I zoomed in further but there is only so much you could see through the shimmer of atmosphere and I couldn't reach that far with a scrying spell, not without an anchor.
"What are those?" I asked and dropped the scrying spell to look to the side where Gandalf had walked up next to me, puffing his pipe.
"Orcs."
"Those are no orcs. Not any sort I ever seen."
He grunted slightly, "I see."
Crossing my arms, I looked out into the distance, "Last bastion of man?"
"The elves are leaving these shores. The dwarfs are defending their keeps so far but is likely to fall in time."
"As a rule, we don't get involved in the wars of mortals," I told him, "We represent an organization, the Azure Consortium. As I said before, we trade for knowledge, but we also trade knowledge… including artefacts."
Gandalf shook his head, "I'm not sure learning new things would help in this case, even if it is something I enjoy."
"Oh, I don't know about that," Ren said with a smile from the city, "We also trade artefacts."
I nodded, "Expensive of course, would need to be custom work. But I could make something that would protect the city. Well, from siege damage at least, the so-called Orcs would be more difficult."
The little man rushed up next to me, "You could save the city!?"
"No," I said and shook my head, "You could save the city. Assuming you have something to pay for it?"
He stared at me in horror, "You would let the city be destroyed when you could save it!?"
"As I said, we don't get involved in the wars of mortals," I told him, "What you do, is all up to you. Or should we police every world in existence? Rule all?"
Of course, that was just as excuse. The real one was that I didn't want to get involved in every bullshit war that existed. There wasn't enough time in the world even if I didn't age. Of course, I also wasn't as much of an arsehole as the super friends of Ravnica…
"May I see your pin?" I then asked the little man and pointed at the one on his cloak, "It's interesting."
He scowled at me but pulled it from his cloak and handed it over. I turned it over in my hands. It wasn't silver, some kind of other metal. Felt strong, highly magically conductive. Fine craftswork too, at least for somebody that don't mold the metal directly.
I slowly nodded and put it in my satchel, "Payment received in full. I'm going to need your weight in silver to work with and five gems, as large as you can get them. Clear ones if possible."
Took looked at me in surprise and I winked at him,
"Never said I we didn't give discounts depending on the situation. Don't spread it around."
Ren just sighed with a small smile, shaking her head.
AN// Many thanks to Itsune for betaing this part. Posted early due to early morning tomorrow.
