Ellder

Ellder loses five soldiers in the defense against the tarkin that reaches Treow, even though the Guardian kills the creature.

A large bariwolf pack enters Ellder through the open gates while the Voster High Priest is entertaining children in the courtyard. A week later, the fortress is mourning thirty-one dead, including five children; the gates have stayed closed for most of the week, residents avoid leaving their homes, and surviving rampart soldiers are distraught over their perceived responsibility for the deaths.

King Ramsey Wolfe reaches Ellder with an overwhelming army, and Zavier admits him because the fortress cannot fight the king’s forces. The confrontation among Ramsey, Ransom, Luella, Odessa, and their allies is interrupted when crux wings begin beating overhead.

The crux attack begins when a female crux lands in Ellder’s open-gated courtyard, crushes soldiers, kills civilians, and tears into the settlement. Arrows from the ramparts have little effect, the large crossbows cannot yet fire heavy crux bolts, and a burning barrel sets the stables on fire, leaving the fortress’s defenses incomplete against a creature of that size.

The attack spreads through Ellder’s streets, where fires burn, bodies and blood fill the route between the town and barracks, buildings are damaged, and the crux tears through roofs and carries Brielle away. Banner is killed, Zavier is mortally wounded, and Odessa escapes with Evangeline and Faze through the dungeons and hidden tunnel while the attack is still underway.

After the crux dies, Ellder’s courtyard holds rows of bodies, some buildings have burned to cinders, the walls still stand, and the gates lean as if near collapse. Luella is dead, Halston and Zavier are critically wounded, Ramsey and his surviving soldiers escape while Ransom is unconscious, and the settlement’s final consequences remain unresolved.

The crux attack leaves an unexplained secret behind: after Ransom kills the female crux from Ellder, its body shifts into a woman’s body. Ransom orders the humanlike body burned, and the witnesses are expected to keep the discovery quiet.

Ellder stands in Turah against the mountains, using the natural barrier as part of its protection. The fortress-city lies beneath jagged, snow-capped mountains beside what appears to be a river valley.

Enormous smooth log walls enclose the settlement, and the timber wall is fitted tightly against the gray mountain cliffs without an apparent gap. Heavy wooden gates are watched by soldiers and are the only obvious route in or out.

Ellder has a little-known emergency escape tunnel connected to its migration cellar rather than to a shelter. The route begins behind a false wall in the farthest dungeon cell and leads through a concealed hatch into the forest beyond the fortress.

Luella identifies Ellder as the fortress farthest from Allesaria.

A guarded rear gate near the barracks and stables is large enough for people and horses to pass through. Ransom and Odessa can use it to leave the fortress quietly for the surrounding forest.

Inside the walls, Ellder is an orderly fortress settlement with a main road, homes, a large house covering nearly a block, a bakery, a café, a central market, barracks, gardens, and working residents such as merchants, teachers, nurses, and staff. Its streets are prepared for the crux migration with deep holes meant to hold buried wooden spikes, and some roofs carry metal spikes as added defenses.

A concealed cave near the mountain and wall leads to damp, lantern-lit dungeon cells that are open and unlocked rather than used for ordinary prisoners. Luella uses these abandoned cells to hide books, scrolls, religious figurines, medallions, and other objects, while ordinary criminals are held at a jail near the side gate.

Ellder contains a formal training center with dirt sparring rings, weapon racks, water stations, and targets for archery and crossbow practice.

The training arena is a large, heavily occupied military space where soldiers and warriors spar across nearly every square, including a central square favored by Ransom.

Quiet perimeter streets, vacant homes, community gardens, livestock pens, and the fortress wall form part of Ellder away from the busier public spaces.

Ellder includes shops, streets, barracks, windows, front and side gates, and hidden spaces that can be searched from within the settlement.

Treow’s mercantile can request needed supplies from Ellder when Ashmore’s merchants cannot provide them.

Ellder functions as a guarded fortress prepared for monster and crux threats. Soldiers patrol the streets, rotate wall shifts three times daily, control the gates, and reinforce the roads and rooftops with spikes before the migration.

Ellder’s architecture is adapted to the crux threat, especially through its fortress walls and metal-spiked roofs.

Ellder also serves as a refuge for people displaced by monster violence, including the Hays after Ramsey destroys their Ravalli home.

The hidden route from the migration cellar is an emergency exit, not a migration shelter, and few people know where it is.

Ellder is not only a military post; it includes families, merchants, teachers, nurses, staff, gardens, shops, and soldiers. Odessa can initially move through the fortress without most residents recognizing her as Princess Odessa Wolfe, the Sparrow, or Zavier’s wife.

Ransom brings Evangeline, Luella, Brielle, and Jocelyn back to Ellder, treating it as the safer fortress while Odessa remains in Treow with Faze.

Ellder’s barracks are full while Ramsey is training or assembling soldiers, and both Zavier and the Guardian appear to regard the fortress as home.

By the time Odessa is living openly in the fortress, Ellder is home or shelter to Ransom beneath her suite, Evangeline at her lessons, Samuel and Jonas after Ravalli, and the Voster High Priest while he treats Ransom and entertains local children. Odessa’s identity is widely known there by then, with residents bowing or curtsying and children calling her the princess.

Luella has lived in Ellder with Ransom and Evangeline while remaining hidden from Ramsey. The fortress also supports Odessa’s recovery, Cathlin’s lessons with Evangeline, hidden books and journals, healers, and the public deception that Odessa is married to Zavier while Ransom stays privately in her suite.

Ramsey’s legion surrounds and partially occupies Ellder after he enters through the main gate and additional soldiers enter through the side gate. Ransom’s warriors form a blockade despite being badly outnumbered, while Ellder’s own soldiers cannot simply be commanded against their oath-bound king.

Samuel Hay, Jonas, Geezala, Cathlin, and the severely injured Zavier travel from Ellder to Quentis after the attack, confirming that part of the group connected to the fortress survives and reaches the Quentis royal castle.