The crowds grew as Sada ran through the people milling about. Tsomis tried to keep close, but Sada had a way of turning her body sideways that gave her the ability to slip through two people who seemingly were standing so close that nothing could fit between them. Tsomis could see Sada in the distance and could see that she was heading in the general direction of the elven caves.

It had grown darker as night approached as the lantern bearers would walking the street and putting fire to the tall lanterns that lined the more popular parts of the valley. The crowds remained thick as they waited for more information on what happened. It had been pretty much settled by the crowd that the queen and her prophet had been killed sometime early evening. There was no discussion of what or where or who did this. At the mention of the death of the prophet, Sada had taken over through the crowd toward the elven caves. Tsomis was running after her. He lost sight of her in the crowds and was now heading in the general direction of the caves.

No human was allowed into the caves. There were two elven guards outside the cave at all times. They were not armed, but sat on a table reading books. They read books in the rain or sunshine, in the morning or evening. It did not matter. They did not seem so much interested in guarding the front entrance to the caves as in deciphering whatever book they were currently reading.

There was a large stream of people heading to the area around the castle in the middle of the valley. The castle sat on a raised platform with an ornamental moat surrounding it. The walls were high but it appeared approachable, as if it medieval look was merely for show, and any person in the valley could walk up to the door and knock and gain admission. For the most part, that had always been the case. Over the last ten years, however, that had changed. It was not terribly surprising to hear the news of the death of the queen. The death of the prophet was another thing that did not make as much sense.

For all of Tsomis’s problem with the monarchy, he did not understand why the blame should be lain on the prophet. He had done his job in selecting the queen. While the prophet stayed on after selecting the king or queen to advise them, their word was no greater than that of any other advisor, be them human or elf. It did not make sense that they would murder the prophet along with the queen. Who did they expect to choose the next ruler? And then it hit upon Tsomis. They expected the next ruler not to be chosen. This was the revolution that he had heard rumors in school about. There would not be a next ruler. The days of the elves and the humans working together were drawing to a close. He now understood why Sada had run for the caves. It was clear that the elves were not safe anywhere anymore.

The weather turned a bit cold as Tsomis made his way through the narrow streets that led to the elven caves. This part of town was older than the rest of the valley, and less capital improvement had been invested in this area. The roads were narrow and the sidewalks even more narrow. Two horses could barely fit at the same down some of the smaller streets. The streets themselves were empty in this part of the town. There were few lights on in the street and even fewer in the windows. Most of the people must have been outside near the castle trying to find out what was going on.

Tsomis arrived at the entrance to the cave and found it deserted. He had walked Sada to this entrance a number of times, and each time had found two elven guards around to guard the entrance. To find it empty trouble Tsomis. The entrance itself did not have a door. It was a low rounded entry that led into the caves underneath the mountains. The mountains that the caves winded under were still many miles off. The cave structure had been built under ground in this area leading to the mountains. There were said to be caves that led all the way to the mountains, some miles off, and even underneath the mountains to the far side of the valley. Tsomis was not sure if this was true, and Sada had only smiled when he asked. There were some secrets that the elves ,no matter how good you thought your friendship with them were, would not answer. It was for elven security, Sada had told him.

“You never do know where you will end up,” Sada had said on that occasion. “For all we know, you may be the next ruler or council member. We may not always be as friendly as we are today.”

Tsomis had laughed at the thought of him on the council. He knew that law was the way he was going to make his mark on society, but he did not hold any thoughts of running for the council. He was not sure he had the right personality to meet and greet, push hands on hands, and made the necessary contacts and choices that would lead him to such a position.

“Hello, is anyone there?” Tsomis asked softly in the dark cave entrance. He waited a moment and did not hear a response. He took a tentative step into the cave and had to duck his head to avoid hitting the top lip of the entrance.

The cave was darker than the outside and it took him a few moments for his eyes to adjust enough to be able to make out the entrance area.

“Hello?” he repeated a bit louder. His voice echoed off the walls of the cave and reverberated back to him. He stood listening to the echoes until they died away.

He continued to walk into the cave. His eyes had adjusted enough to be able to see the cave walls. They were polished and smooth, slightly rounded. There was a bit of light coming from the walls themselves, as if they glowed. He had not seen that when he first entered, likely because of the adjustment of his eyes.

There was a slight orange glow to walls. He smelled a slightly cinnamon smell and realized that it was orange dust. There was a small collection of it along the ground, more than in any place in the valley. He ran his hands along the walls and they came away orange. It was the dust that was glowing. There was a stiff breeze moving through the caves. The breeze was blowing in from the valley and heading into the cave. He followed the breeze and continued his way in. The cave made many branches, but he kept to the main hallways, which was much wider than the side hallways. The wind waned and strengthened as he walked, the wind direction always blowing in from the valley. As he went further, more orange dust built up on the walls and floor. The air grew thicker with it, and Tsomis found it was a bit more difficult to breathe with the dust weighing heavily in the air.

Tsomis made his way through the cave and was amazed that there was nobody around. Everything seemed quiet. There was little in the way of pictures or furniture. The walls and the floor were smoothed rock. He figured that further into the cave was where the rooms were and where they kept their furniture and other stuff.

After walking for about fifteen minutes he heard the first sound besides his own noises. It sounded like a gong of sorts. It was struck three time in slow procession allowing the sound to reverberate through the cave for a while before the next gong was struck. After the three strikes, the echoes were allowed to die down and there was silence for thirty seconds before the next three gongs began, the second and third gong sound sounding before the echoes fully died out of the previous one. It was strangely beautiful.

Tsomis began anticipating the sound and he continued to walk through the cave toward the sound. It felt like the gongs were leading him somewhere. There was no evidence of life inside the caves outside of the gongs.

He passed a particularly wide Y-branch and realized that the gong sound was coming from the smaller of the branches. He stopped and considered going in that direction. The cave was warmer than he expected, and he wanted to see find where the sound was coming from. He was also growing a bit nervous about not finding any elves in the cave, and hoped that the gong would bring him somewhere. He wanted to find Sada and find out where she had headed and why she had run off.

He followed the branched path and the gong sound grew in volume, and the echoes became more voluminous. He turned the corner. The path continued to wind through the inside of the cave. There was a bright light up ahead and he slowly made his way to it. He was now more self-conscious about being in the cave. He worked up the conversation he would have with the first elves he found and became nervous at the thought that they would see him as an enemy or someone trying to do harm to the elves. There must have been a reason why humans were never allowed in the cave, and his second thoughts were haunting him with the blurred speed of the elves.

He continued to walk as only a gentleman could. He found courage in the way that he had to deal with people around him. There was no backing down. He would run right into the face of battle and not hide behind anyone. There was a way of acting that his father had taught him, and he would never bring bad memories on his father’s memories.

He straightened his back and walked toward the light. The cave widened and he entered a brightly lit rounded room. It was now obvious why there were no elves in the caves. There were hundreds of elves crowded into the room. There looked to be more elves in this room than he had seen in one place at one time. There was a small bier in the middle of the room with what he supposed could only be the prophet’s body laid out.

Standing in a small circle around the body were elves wearing thick, heavy orange robes. The room was filled with a white smoke that mixed with the orange dust that seemed more prevalent than near the entrance. The light illuminated the orange dust, and he saw that he must have been walking through thicker dust than he realized in the low light of the cave.

Nobody seemed to be paying attention to his arrival. He realized that he was not yet within the brightly lit part of the caves. It was likely that nobody saw him in the dark yet. He would be seen as a lurker, and that was not acceptable.

Besides the eleven robed elves, there was an elf sitting on the ground with his legs surrounding a large bell. He was running a mallet against the bell in the three gong movement, playing the music that he had heard earlier in the caves.

It was then that he caught sight of Sada. She was the only elf wearing the white robe that she wore on the outside. Unlike when in the valley, the white robe’s hem was now a dark orange color, and the white had been stained by the same orange dust that seemed to permeate every part of the cave system.

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