Daughter to Dragons-Chapter Three

Valfrea and Rune arrive in an imperial outpost town on the edge of the Drakonian Empire. They meet with one of Hakkon's elven friends and contacts who was asked to keep an eye out for any suspcious elves. He tells the pair that an elven woman came by a few days after Hakkon and Rune passed by and parted. They come to believe that she is a member of the elven cult and she was tracking Hakkon.

Summary
A few days later, Valfrea and Rune arrive at the imperial outpost, where some soldiers who remember Rune greet him. They ask if he found the ruins he was searching for. He says that he did and thanks them for their help. Rune introduces Valfrea as his colleague, Frea. The disguised Valfrea uses her favored alias, Frea Alald n'Da, an adventurer and scholar, and Rune is her teacher. The soldiers say they've never seen her before and ask how she got here. She tells them that she never came through the outpost. She and Rune separated a few months ago to move in opposite directions of a circle and meet here before they continued back to the Imperial University in the capital. She offers to show them her travel papers, which are genuine because she's not lying entirely. They accept this and mark the papers with a seal and date before letting them go.

After they've left, she asks Rune how hospitable this town has been to elves. He admits there has been some unintentional mistrust, but there is an elf who has been living here for a few years now who has relatively desensitized the populace, who is the person they are heading to meet. When they arrive at the elf's workshop, Rune introduces him as Halevethural, or Veth for humans, and her as Valfrea Dragonheart, daughter of Hakkon Dragonheart. This introduction visibly startles him and Valfrea assumes it's because he's shocked that a Divine Descendant is standing in front of him. Rune adds that he is actually an informant for her father. Veth bows his head in respect, a human custom he has obviously adopted to make humans more comfortable around him. Elven gestures are traditionally very subtle and precise. Veth asks where Hakkon is. They both look down and frown, Valfrea says that she believe the elven cult got to him. She found a battlefield a few days ago that was already a few days old. She has reason to believe that her father was attacked. She doesn't know whether he was captured or killed, but she's trying to find him which is why she has come here. Rune says that he and Hakkon were here not that long ago and wanted to know if Hakkon said anything that could give them any indication on why he wanted to meet with Valfrea so suddenly. Though elven emotions are subtle and difficult to detect, Valrea's keen senses pick up on Veth's unease. He admitted that Hakkon did not share much with him, but he believed the elven cult was preparing for something big and they were coming after him. He didn't elaborate further but he asked Veth to keep an eye out for any suspicious elves. He elaborates saying that sure enough a few days after Hakkon and Rune had passed through, a single elf came by and spoke to a few people before leaving immediately after. When he asked the people what that elf had wanted, they she was lost, trying to find a town they'd never heard before. Valfrea asks if he can remember the name of the town. He says that the humans said it was something like Morns Hall or something like that. Both Valfrea and Rune gasp before she says that they meant Mornings Hall, one of her secret familial strongholds. With this information, Valfrea knew that elf wanted to be found. The cult was here and they wanted her and her father to know that they were close.

Appearing Characters

 * Valfrea Dragonheart
 * Rune
 * Halevethural (Veth)

Characters Mentioned

 * Hakkon Dragonheart
 * Loselenphoria