From Under Mountains

By Claire Gibson

The art is going to be the showrunner, for sure, since the pages have the quality of paintings. An older lady looks outside her hut, and speaks with the young lady returning from a cave where a ritual was being done, the old lady not believing the power they were attempting to summon should ever be used. By the end of it though, the lady had bound the spirit to her shadow, she cleaning a burn on her wrist. Meanwhile, a royal young man replies to another royal, young lady of how he'd be returning from his journey, and when the old royal man gives him the lesson of making his every move count, since he'd had 2 horses ready in case the man royal disapproved of the horse he'd chosen, which happened, but in his choosing to waste the horsemaster's time not being the best decision were it to have been an emergency.

When their pop leaves the room, the girl royal asks what type of tourney he was attending, and whilst the young man shared he wasn't competing in the sword competition this year to their pop, he planned to come home with a win. The royal young man's sis tells of not having asked to get permission for her own plans, yet for the common answer being to deny her, so her bro offers to help when he gets back. Tova is on a roof viewing the city when she's asked to pay for her drink, she insulting its quality, which amuses the girl delivering the message. When Harlin, the merchant asks about her debts around the city, she confides they were mostly cleared, now and the last 1 would be done after she finished her next job.

Harlin states if her plan was to b&e the keep, she was out of her gourd. Back with the old royal man who is discussing with an advisor regarding their relationship with Akhara, which was in jeopardy of being lost due to they not having goblin back up, and when he notices his daughter waiting behind him, finishes his orders and as expected, shuts down Elena's wish to travel to Menkha because she's female. Her pop brings up how her ma would've been responsible for making her understand what her purpose was, if she weren't dead, and this purpose being quite important, since she was 20 and still unmarried, so she'd get to travel when she left home for good. Tova is climbing a tall stone wall, just in time to witness Elena's bro seeing the spirit, and getting gutted by a sword by it.

He repeated asks for aid, and she takes out the sword, watching him die, and she biffing off with it. In Akhara, Tomas is found and brought to the councillor to be told of a job for him. 2 wks after, Elena's at Marcellus, her bro's funeral, and 2 officers are discussing her popularity as an important marriage match, esp. now her bro was dead, chat continuing about Lord Crowe being in mourning harder than when his wife passed, the 1 acknowledging how this time was murder. Meanwhile, Tova is still running, and Elena is taking over with general orders, since her pop is incapable of concentrating on such duties right now.

A spirit is summoned on a mtn, and then a couple weeks in to the past is shown in Akhar. Thomas is speaking with a councillor and the man wonders how he doesn't have a statue erected in his image, yet for his bravery. This devolves due to Thomas' drug addiction and how he could turn around his bad behavior. Back with Elena, she's speaking with her aunt in the garden, admitting how her aunt noticing her resemblance to her ma hasn't helped her grieving pop.

Her aunt agrees whilst she must marry, even though she hadn't being a bit of a bitch, it shouldn't stop Elena from learning about the keep, since this knowledge will eventually be useful to her. She also hints whilst Elena must follow the rules, it mostly only must look like this, she possibly able to have more freedom than seen. Meanwhile, Tova travels to a secluded village to be read by a psychic, she telling what the blade had done, and the woman guessing the name of the deceased. She advises of the people looking for her due to cash was more pressing than any possible danger posed by the spirit, she then making a protective talisman for her.

Elena confides to her pop of wishing he'd help her, he speaking of Marcellus and being his murderer. Mardin is being briefed about when he meets up with the goblins and how they'd resorted to bribing the group with gold. Elena is formally introed to him, then orders notes from the meeting, which are delivered by Mardin. He then has his chance to speak candidly of the usual conduct between the goblins and their community.

He asks Elena if her pop'd be willing to join him next day, since he didn't have as known an ancestry as Lord Crowe, Elena denying his ability currently, but requests to take her father's place. Tova watches the witch's apprentice empower the talisman coin and speak of Avisleth, the witch, she knowing Marcellus' spirit had become the creepy spirit. She gives Tova the protective talisman, and Tova confesses her plan to share what she'd seen with Lord Crowe, hoping of returning to the secluded town after. Tova meets Lord Crowe and admits to recognizing the spirit, he admitting he'd killed Avisleth's child.

Soon, his men are keeping Tova as prisoner, a smoke thickening the air. Lord Crowe is seen fighting the witch's son honorably, until he gets mad, and stabs him after the fight had already been called. Crowe sees Avisleth shrouded in shadow and asking what her son's last words had been, which he couldn't make out. Avisleth then supplies the last words Crowe's son had begged, also confessing how since her son's death, her magic was tinged with grief.

She throws him a curveball when he admits to being ready to die with her, and she reminds him of still having a living child. Meanwhile, the man who had taken Tova, writes of how Crowe had gone missing a few days ago with his armor being left behind with bloody signs of witchery, and Tova would be questioned to whoever he was writing, he also detailing of Elena's journey to Nonarok of maybe helping them with the Mausgol. Mardin is now being accused of encouraging Elena's rebeling, and this guy now being appointed as Lord of Karsgate, Eudon. A written conclusion comes next which details The Long War between Vol and Akhara.

Vol could easily overtake the coastal city, but they wanted control of the Karvale Passage. This pass is reopened after 300 years and aids Akhara to meet Vol halfway deep in the pass, the goblins not participating, but waiting to see who came out victorious. The End??? really? It's so beautifully drawn, lacking a bit on dialogue til the full page written conclusion, ofc, but it certainly doesn't feel concluded. I hope more eventually comes out, since so far, we only hear of goblins. Great to check out though, if only for the art. The story remains mysterious, since I'm esp. bad with drawn faces, and half the time they aren't referring to each other by name, and the characters index at the end are of the gods not even shown in the comic! Still, it's fascinating.