Fog framed the trees of the Valhallan Skogr Forest, the cold winter haze filling the gaps between the ancient trees as rain poured down over the mountainous forest. The waters from the summer-long rains over the past several hundred thousand years had filled the mountain range with waters so deep that the range had come to be known by another name: Lake Skogr. The trees in the range had gradually grown taller to keep their greenery out of the water, and many now reached higher than the icy mountain peaks surrounding the forest and holding in the lake which poured out between the freezing passes, keeping the freshwater lake from rising any higher.
The wildlife in the area was entirely arboreal or aquatic.There were even some amphibious creatures that had adapted to climb down the trees into the deeper parts of the water to hunt and retreat to the branches of the forest to eat their prey. The dark of the forest was so immense that most of the wildlife in it was blind or almost blind, eyes being useless except for about three centidays every day, when Linthia peeked beneath the canopy but above the lake’s outlets, which were the only areas that sunlight reached through the thick umbrella of the forest.
Now, the trees in the forest had mostly been carved hollow and the forest had been converted into the Capital city of the Ginnung, the main force of resistance and rebellion against the Monarchy. The unique nature of Lake Skogr was crucial in its role as a secret city.
Over the millennia, the bases of the trees had grown together into a single piece, and the roots had turned upward into the lake itself. That meant the Ginnung were able in the beginning of the rebellion to build a secret city, utilizing the pre-Ragn’Rouk tunnels under the mountains to dig up and into the trees, utilizing orbital imagery and positioning equipment, the Ginnung had been able to hollow out the trees from the bottom, leaving only sparse entrances and exits on the surface of the water to give the appearance of an exiled and rural society.
Inside the trees, the city was a vast and urban society, though all of its buildings were single, solid wood structures carved out of the trees in which they laid, which meant that regular maintenance on the city required the wood to be scraped away as it grew back. The waste was then used to produce all the city’s paper products and furnishings. All food for the city was supplied by the Skogr’s flora and fauna. Those that lived on the surface hunted and farmed for the city. All crops were grown on the edge of the lake, where the soil was rich and moist.
The Capital of the Ginnung Domain was officially on Nivlahim, but the Ginnung had long expected the Armada to find some way to raid the capital, so they had secretly carved Skogr City out of the forest. They had been right to do so, too. By the time Nivlahim had been raided by the Valkyries, the government was entirely local, the Ginnung leadership holing up on Valhalla in Skogr City. Valhalla had quickly surrendered to Armadian occupation with no resistance to mask the presence of Skogr City.
The ploy had worked. When Armadian forces had moved past Valhalla, a minimal force had been left behind to police the Valhallan Capital, Fjor’Qzcir. After only a few years, even that force had been pulled out, Valhalla intentionally presenting good behavior to hide the fact that Ginnung leadership was hidden under Thorlinthia’s largest body of freshwater.
Despite all the secrecy, though, most Ginnung agents knew about Skogr City and had even been there more than once. For Gril’Die, this meant he had only needed to break one of his many prisoners to find out what he needed to know to find them. Now, his footsteps echoed through the large stone tunnel that ran underneath the Skogr Forest. He marveled at the architectural engineering involved in such a structure as this one. Even after the Ragn’Rouk, the tunnel had managed to maintain most of its functionality, and it had been one of Valhalla’s greatest keys to readvancement after the Age of the Black, when electrical systems couldn’t operate due to the massive amounts of electromagnetic interference that had been caused by the Ragn’Rouk.
He looked down at his feet, where he could see faint displays still visible beneath the ages of dust that had accumulated in the tunnel. He stopped for a moment and crouched down, digging down to the displays with his hands. By the time he reached the display beneath him, he was reminded how much he had grown accustomed to the dim light in the tunnel when the bright light shone through the flesh of his hand, even going so far as to warm his skin slightly.
He smiled at the red light that now filled the area of the tunnel surrounding him. It was still a mystery how the ancient Linthians had managed to create displays that projected colored light instead of shining white light through a colored filter. It gave a vibrance that was unseen anywhere but in Linthian structures, where their displays still projected their light as strongly as the day they were built. Most of those locations were now considered sacred, though, so no one had been allowed to take apart most Linthian technologies.
Gril’Die stood again, walking back out into the dark of the tunnel. He remembered the description of the entrance to Skogr City that his informant had given him, and he walked confidently toward the place now, his armor clearly visible as that of the Mi’Olnr. He was hoping that his status so high in the Armada and as a personal counsel to the Monarch might give the Ginnung some hesitance before killing him, which he imagined he probably would if someone other than Ginnung entered the city unannounced.
He softened his eyes as he walked along, listening to the scrape of the dirt beneath his boots as they hit the ground. As the dark became deeper, he started once again to fear slightly for his life. Silently, he gave one more quick praise to the Great One before stepping up to a part of the tunnel wall and holding his hands out against the surface. As he had hoped, one of his hands passed through the wall before he withdrew his hands back to his sides. Sidestepping to adjust for his miscalculation in the location of the entrance, he deactivated his helmet and put his hands up against the top of his head as he walked through the dark hologram, another Linthian secret that had been stumbled upon in this tunnel long ago.
As he stepped into the brightly lit hallway, he looked to the end with his eyes slightly scrunched in reaction to the sudden increase in light. There were two guards looking directly at him with repeaters calmly trained on him. “Who are you, how did you find this place, and what are you doing here?” The guard on the right had spoken, the interrogation coming out with a cool fluidity that convinced Gril’Die this was standard procedure and not a moment of panic.
“My name is Gril’Die Khuda’Mundi,” he said. “I am the Mi’Olnr of Thorlinthia, I learned of this place from a prisoner of war I freed long ago, and I’m here to sign up. Any more questions?”
The guard leaned his side to the side slightly, a common reflex when people spoke into their helmet wireless. The ears wanted to get closer to the speakers, so the head tended to tilt in the direction with poorer hearing slightly. After a few moments, both guards lifted their repeaters, and the guard on the left spoke this time. “Come with me, sir.”
As he spoke, the door they were guarding opened, and another guard walked out to replace Gril’Die’s escort before Gril’Die had even reached the door. Gril’Die lowered his hands and stepped into the lift. “Thanks for not shooting me.” The guard just looked forward as Gril’Die stepped next to him, and the door closed.