Lana Lynne greets you coldly. (Patreon)

I shall be reading His Majesty's manuscript until next week when he returns from a situation which I know SEVERAL of you ingrates had a hand in.  He is your rightful king, your lord and master, you are not worthy to sniff his regal musk, yet he takes time out of his busy schedule every week to entertain you with his story.  How do you repay his kindness?  By betraying him to the elves' most ancient and implacable enemy.

I was, alas, not at the "Feast" where His Majesty let his guard down.  To be honest, I left in disgust after watching my liege "go  native," which means, unfortunately, I won't have any leads on who did what until he gets back.  Had I remained by his side, I can assure you that the whole debacle would have gone down quite differently.

Before anyone asks, I am still wearing the antler because His Majesty magicked it to stay on after it kept falling off.  I won't be able to remove it until he gets back.

It would be tedious and distasteful to lock the doors and start interrogating people, so until His Majesty returns and gives me a list of names, I'm just going to pretend that I'm not sitting in a room full of back-stabbing traitors and pick up where he left off in the story.  But mark my words, if anyone  makes a wrong move or acts suspiciously, I will be making a note of it.

Anyway *ahem*

Pellia Venatrix said (oh is this the part where he met them for the first time?)  She said, "This must be the fabled Albric Tor!  It's real!  This is positively an earth shattering discovery!"

Roger Barkingthwaite said, "Is it really?  These stones were discovered long ago by Percy le Gobelet.  It's all written quite plainly in his book.  To take credit for this find would be tantamount to intellectual theft."

Pellia responded, "You know what I mean!  We have confirmation now of the existence of a site which most scholars had dismissed as a myth or an outright fabrication!  It's not theft!  We can start our own research where le Gobelet left off.  I have so many questions about the White Elf entity that kept popping up in his work.  If half of the old bird's stories about the White Elf are true, why, the monograph I'll write will make the Royal Society sit up and take notice!"

Roger said, "Lord Randal."

Pellia replied, "What?"

Roger elaborated, "The few research papers published by Percy's grandson clearly stated that the White Elf was named 'Lord Randal,' and they do not paint him in a flattering light.  Le Gobelet's exact words, as you recall, were 'Lord Randal, Ye Numptie.'"

Pellia objected, "Those papers showed clear signs of shoddy research and were very vague.  A magical elf lord could never be a numpty; it's simply not possible.  Those papers were obvious fictions which Percy the Younger wrote to profit from his grandfather's reputation.  An army of trees attacking an entire city, preposterous!  Such an event, if it happened, would be well documented in every archive in Eire, yet there's no outside corroboration.  Le Gobelet is the only chronicler who mentions it."

Roger chuckled, "Preposterous?  Really, my dear?  Whatever happened to achieving enlightenment through faith?"

Pellia snapped, "Oh you IMPOSSIBLE mel!  Did you accompany me all the way out here just to be a killjoy naysayer the entire time?"

Roger stated, "I'm just being a realist."

Pellia scoffed, "A realist? In what way is an army of trees besieging a town realistic?!"

Roger nodded, "Precisely.  It's all ridiculous.  The only real part of Percy's fairytale writings so far has been this stone circle, and quite frankly I'm astonished to find even this much of it supported by evidence."

Pellia exclaimed, "That's why we are here!  If Percy was right about this, what else was he right about?  We must discover if there's any truth to it!  The pursuit of folklore to prove or disprove it is a legitimate form of scholarly study."

Roger scoffed, "Scholarly study indeed.  Chasing fancies.  Shall we look for dragons next?"

Pellia hissed, "How DARE you, sir!!!"

The conversation was getting tense, so the future lord of all the elves decided to magnanimously step in and deescalate things.

He leaned out of the dolmen and shouted cheerfully, "GREETS OF DAY LORD RANDALL!"

You have to keep in mind, he had not spoken to anyone other than a tree in a long time.

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