One month later.
The elves and humans who lived on the street on which the headquarters of the "Voice of Eldinor" was located had been having almost no sleep since the last 7 days.
Loud noises could be heard multiple times in the night, waking them up from their slumber and frustrating them to no end because they couldn't find out just where it was coming from.
Unable to take it any more, they had collectively decided to complain to the City Guard.
Strangely, the night after this decision was made, the sounds ceased completely.
Unbeknownst to everyone who passed the dilapidated office which had once been known as the "News Hub of Eldinor", secret trinkets which acted as intruder alert mechanisms had been set up all around the building.
If one entered inside, they would be shocked to see that the dusty tables and broken chairs were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they had been replaced by neat, empty rooms which seemed to have been emptied recently.
The source of the sounds which had plagued the surrounding people was actually a hidden trap door that had been installed in the floor of the main office.
The man who had come bearing the magical source of all the information in Angaria had also funded the Voice of Eldinor's expansion underground. Because the elections were close by, they had chosen to do so secretly because approvals took a long time and also raised questions regarding the source of funding which did not need to be answered.
Although great care had been taken to stay as silent as possible, some sounds still escaped the excavation which had troubled the neighborhood. If an official inquiry was launched, it would result in them being found out.
Luckily, the work was completed just before this point.
Under the trapdoor was a single large room in which around 500 parchments were stacked in one corner.
The other corner held a strange, black box half the size of a man that seemed to be slightly vibrating with a unique rhythm.
2 men stood in the center of the room, talking to a woman in the panel that had just been set up.
"The Network of Angaria looks forward to working with the Voice of Eldinor. We have done everything agreed upon, and we look forward to the results."
As the connection cut off, the original owner of the Voice who had been wallowing in self-pity only a few weeks back jumped up from his chair with joy and tried to hug the man standing beside him.
As a sleeper agent, Olfax had already taken multiple roles and names in his stay in Elfaven. Right now, he had taken the identity of a rich merchant who loved to invest his money in endeavors which he felt would bring great returns.
As a democratic nation, the importance of having forums where the views and happenings in the world could be discussed was well known.
Although many new news establishments rose and fell, three had withstood the test of time to stand on top of the competitive landscape in Eldinor.
The Voice of Eldinor was an establishment which had once stood amongst them. Its specialty had been its penchant in pursuing news that would make people gossip.
When Daneel had sent the orders to find an establishment which could be exploited, Olfax had considered targeting one of the three. With the resources at hand, he was quite confident that he would be able to infiltrate and carry out his orders if he were given enough time.
Sadly, he did not have that luxury of time.
Thus, he had chosen the next best option: a gossip news outlet which was currently down due to a scandal that had taken place decades ago.
Ironically, the same news which was the reason behind the Voice's meteoric rise had been the cause of its downfall: "Queen Eldara has a daughter. But is she of her blood?"
This juicy piece of information had come at a perfect time: the elections had been due in a few weeks, and Queen Eldara who had ruled the Kingdom until then had been about to lose.
Thinking that this could be the nail in the coffin which would slingshot the Voice up to unimaginable heights, the founder and manager of the organization, Bondeer, had chosen to print it even though the source hadn't been verified.
What followed had been a series of events which still shook Bondeer to this day: Queen Eldara had taken the stage along with her young daughter, Eldra to prove that she was indeed of her own blood. Apparently, the process had been a very humiliating one which had said to have scarred the little elf. Even though she knew this, Queen Eldara had carried on saying that she couldn't bear someone sullying her and her daughter.
After this, evidence had surfaced which showed that her main competitor in the election who had been slated to win was the one who had passed the information to the Voice of Eldinor.
Both the competitor and the Voice had been denounced by the people, while Eldara had easily taken the throne riding a wave of sympathy which resulted in her winning the election.
Although Bondeer had many suspicions, the truth of the matter was that he had chosen to print the news without making an effort to verify it. Thus, he blamed himself and spent most of his time drinking and regretting the past in the office he had bought in the time of prosperity between the two events of printing the news and the public demonstration.
Yet, that had all changed when the man in front of him whom he had just tried to hug awkwardly had come to his office to give him the rope of salvation which pulled him out of his misery.
For any news organization, the biggest challenge was obtaining news to report. As they were just privately run organizations, they had limited funds and thus could not deploy spies like Daneel to find the happenings in each Kingdom.
Also, there was an official rule that the government couldn't invest in any organization which engaged in such activities. Thus, the main basis of failure for all the budding organizations was a lack of funds which resulted in them not obtaining news properly.
Now, with an abundant source and funding, Bondeer knew that the sky was the limit.
Besides, he was also intrigued by these parchments which were being touted as a revolution in news delivery.
Thus, the NOA and the Voice of Eldinor had entered into a mutual agreement where the former would provide the latter with all the news in the world. As for the Voice, all they had to do was give a certain… preference to the NOA in the matter of choosing the news they would print. Also, the Voice would advertise the NOA's "radio trinkets".
After standing stiff and waiting for Bondeer to retract his arms, Olfax, who was currently going by the name of Emmanuel, grinned widely before saying, "Bondeer, I told you they would deliver. Now, it's all up to you. I want to see my money doubled. No, make that tripled. Do you think you can do that?"
With a manic smile on his face, Bondeer replied, "Any problem if it's multiplied by 10 times? Soon, all of Eldinor will be listening to the Voice again! Haha, I can't wait to laugh at those haughty idiots who foolishly chased me away!"
Seeing Bondeer's face morph into one of gleeful expectation, Olfax rejoiced inwardly knowing that he had chosen the perfect candidate.
"A perfect spy should be able to manipulate anyone regardless of their intelligence."
Although this statement told by Luther during his training was true, Olfax had also learned that it was easiest and safest to target those like Bondeer who had clear motivations and goals.
Bondeer was someone who was motivated by the urge to become famous and lord over the three big news organizations which had rejected him previously. As evidenced by his decision to print news without verification, he was ready to do anything to achieve his goal.
Thus, he was someone who could be pulled or pushed in any direction that Olfax wanted.
Walking out of the office, he headed back to the sewers after changing his face to resume his operation.
Little did he know that the conversation he would record today would change the fate of Eldinor permanently.