by Logan Byrne
“Why would they do that?” I asked.
“Love is powerful, Lexa, that much has always been known,” Mirian said, before pulling out some parchment and a quill.
He wrote furiously, as if his life were on the line, before blowing on the parchment, the ink quickly drying. Mirian folded the letter into thirds, dripping some wax from a purple candle and embossing it with his seal. He pulled out his wand, mumbling a little, though I couldn’t make out the spell, and the letter vanished, disappearing into thin air.
He nodded. “There, the letter is sent. I know this is a lot, but I want you to accompany me if they accept our request,” Mirian said.
“Me?” I asked. “I thought they hated outsiders.”
“They will want to meet you, given the crystal wand. I believe if you go with me and speak with them, showing them your powers and what you’re capable of, they will ally with us to defeat Kiren. We need them, Lexa. It’s imperative for our survival,” Mirian said. I could feel the conviction in his gaze. He truly believed this war might not be won without the help of the high elves, and I instantly knew it was my duty to do whatever I had to so that Kiren would fall.
“I’ll go. Let me know,” I said, before getting up and walking out of the tent.
I knew of two people who would have a clue about the high elves, and their names were Faus and Britta. I scoured the camp, looking for my friends, before walking past the mess tent and seeing them all sitting around a table. “Lexa,” Blake said, standing up, before giving me a kiss.
“What’s wrong?” Britta asked.
“What do you know about the high elves?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
“What makes you ask about them?” Faus asked, as Rosie held onto his arm.
“I’m not sure I should say anything, but we might be going to meet with them, Mirian and me,” I whispered. “Keep it to yourselves.”
“That would be quite the feat. I wasn’t even aware they would let outsiders inside their kingdom’s walls. It’s been, man, probably at least twenty years since anybody has entered,” Faus said.
“How come I’ve never heard much about them?” I asked.
“They don’t want you to,” Britta said. “They don’t worry about the problems of the realm. They only focus on themselves.”
“They’re a very advanced race, likely more so than the rest of us. Their kingdom, Alornia, is set deep within the mountains. They used to be a fairly bloodthirsty race, even more so than orcs or giants, but they’ve calmed down over the last few centuries. I’m guessing if we’re trying to get them on board, then things must be dire,” Faus said.
“So what happens if they say no?” Blake asked.
“Hard to say, really. If Mirian and Pote, as well as the other council members think we need them, then we must be in a really bad situation. It’s possible they might help, or at least send some forces, if they believe that Kiren will threaten their kingdom and people. They usually only do things for their betterment,” Faus said.
“It would be an honor to go there, Lexa. Maybe you can sway them,” Britta said.
“It’s just pressure after pressure, that’s for damn sure. I don’t quite understand them or their ways, given that we’re all in this together. You’d think they would help just because others will be slaughtered and a crazy man is trying to take over both realms. That should be enough,” I said passionately.
“I know one thing for certain,” Faus said. “If you get them on board, Kiren’s forces won’t stand a chance. Do us proud.”
16
“You called me?” I asked the next morning, as I walked into Pote’s tent. Mirian, Pote, and four council members were all standing around her center table.
“Rafael has accepted the invitation for talks,” Pote said bluntly.
“That’s amazing,” I said, smiling. But Pote didn’t smile back.
“The first step is done, but now there is something much greater on the line. While he has agreed to talk with us, that doesn’t mean he’s going to help in any way. We need to convince him of the threat at hand,” Mirian said.
“More than that, we need to convince him why it affects him and his people greatly. As you likely know, high elves only care about themselves and their people, Lexa. Talking solely about other creatures or people who are in peril won’t do much to sway him. If you talk about the threat to his culture and people, though, things will go more smoothly,” Pote said.
“Okay, yeah, I can do that. I know some threat will come to them,” I said.
“When we go inside their kingdom, you might have to do things you don’t want to,” Pote warned.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You might have to lie,” Mirian said, looking at me with a serious expression.
“Why?” I asked, surprised.
“If we tell him the truth and it isn’t enough, more needs to be said. He might not see the truth as enough reason to meddle with this affair. He might believe that Kiren’s threat won’t affect him or his kingdom. We need to do whatever it takes to get him on board,” Pote said.
“Lexa, we’re not sure at this point that we can defeat Kiren without them. They’ve recruited more creatures than we knew of, and things aren’t looking good for us,” Mirian said.
“I—I don’t know what to say,” I said, in shock. I knew things were tough, and that the fight wouldn’t be easy, but they’d never given any real indication that things were this bad. I guess I always just assumed that I would do my part, get the wand, train, and things would sort themselves out. Sure, I knew the fight would be difficult, and it wasn’t going to be me just busting into his office and defeating him, but this never seemed in the cards as a possibility.
“The three of us will be going today,” Pote said, pointing to herself, Mirian, and me. “We leave in thirty minutes.”
“What do I need to bring?” I asked.
“The crystal wand. They will need to see it to believe it,” Pote said.
“Duly noted. I’ll be ready,” I said, before leaving their tent.
“How’d it go?” Blake asked, waiting outside, as we walked towards my tent.
“We’re leaving in half an hour, I guess. I’m terrified,” I said, starting to feel the nerves set in.
“Mirian and Pote have some kind of relationship with these people, so I wouldn’t be worried. They won’t attack you or anything,” Blake said.
“I never even worried about that as a possibility. I’m more worried about what happens to all of us if they say no,” I said, shaking my head.
I didn’t want to tell Blake or anybody else what Pote and Mirian had said to me. I highly doubted they would want me to tell anybody, in any case. I was guessing they told me that fact about our demise in private. I knew that if word got around to the camp about us placing all our hope in the high elves allying with us, mass panic would break out.
I looked around at the people smiling and working, not one of them aware that it could all be over soon. Kiren wouldn’t let these people live—they’d defied him—unless he made some of them into slaves. I had a responsibility to them, to all of them, to keep them safe and fulfill the promise I made to them when I accepted my responsibilities.
I swore to keep them safe, and to make sure Kiren paid the price for his egregious actions against us all. If I didn’t fulfill that, then they would all perish. I was never going to let that happen. Rafael was going to agree, and we were going to save the realms. There was no other option.
“Going to be okay?” Blake asked, rubbing my back.
“Yeah. I should only be gone for the day. I’ll see you later tonight,” I said, standing on my tippy toes and giving him a kiss.
It was time to kick some elvish butt.
17
“Are we ready?” Mirian asked, pulling out his wand, as the three of us stood together.
“As ready as we can be. This is going to be quite the journey,” Pote said.
Light began to pulse aroun
d us in a cone before the three of us were sucked up into Mirian’s portal. We were spun around, traveling far across the realm, further than I’d been in quite some time, before landing outside the gates of the high elves’ kingdom.
I stared up at the massive door, possibly a hundred feet tall, that stood in front of me. The gate was golden, covered with inscriptions and carvings, and the entire wall of the kingdom shimmered gold in the sunlight. We stood on a gargantuan white stone walkway carved between the mountains as rolling plains of green canvassed the landscape behind us.
I could tell why they hadn’t been invaded and also why nobody had ever tried to do so. The walls were daunting just at first glance, let alone if you had to try to come up with the logistics of getting inside. The jagged mountains provided a natural barrier, an extra line of defense, for the citizens inside. The walls were pristine, not a single speck of dirt on them, as if the elves took a stringent approach to cleanliness. This was a far cry from their forest elf relatives, who were disgusting and usually stewed in their own filth. This was very different indeed.
“Who dares try to enter the Kingdom of Alornia?” a guard asked, as ten of them walked out. They wore metallic helmets, pointed at the top, with their long ears pointing out the sides, and red and gold armor, with brightly shining pikes in their hands.
“We are here to see King Rafael. My name is Mirian, he is expecting us,” Mirian said firmly.
Guards came up to us, their pikes around us, as the guard who asked our names now went back towards the door, speaking quietly with another elf as they looked at us. There was a part of me, albeit small, that wondered if I could take all of them right now as I looked at them gripping the wooden poles of their pikes and staring at us intently. Some of them didn’t look older than eighteen.
“We have received word from King Rafael to escort you at once to meet with the high council. Please, follow me,” the guard said, before turning around. He smacked his pike three times on the stone before the gates cracked open, a small gust of wind puffing out and gently blowing my hair back.
My eyes opened wide as an entire city, a kingdom, came into view. I was in awe as we walked inside the gates. The streets were spotless and the buildings beautiful. Everything about the place was regal, from the walls to the shops that lined the pale cobblestone streets. Most of the roofs on the buildings were red cones, the light stone walls providing a perfect contrast. Gold trim was painted around the windows and doors. The kingdom was vast, the small glimpse I could see like a sea of red and gold. It looked almost as big as the area around my old precinct.
The elves watched us, whispering softly, as we walked through their streets. We might have been the first outsiders they’d ever seen, and they were definitely some of the first high elves I’d ever met. They were all the same, in a basic sense— fair skin and light hair. Their eyes were light blue, like a turquoise ocean, and their ears were long and pointed back. Most of them wore simple clothes, with drawstrings in front of their tan shirts and loosely-fitting brown pants.
I could tell they hadn’t been exposed to our style of living, or the mortals. They appeared to be something out of a fairy tale. I looked forward as we approached a grand staircase with so many stairs it looked more like an abstract painting than reality. The stairs led to a castle at the top, the alluring focal point of the entire kingdom.
As we came to the bottom of the strenuous climb, the guard motioned for us to exit the staircase. “No, over here,” he said. We walked onto a platform surrounded by railings and when he flipped a switch, the entire square moved up the side of the staircase as we flew up into the sky and left the commoners behind as they watched us ascend.
“We’re here,” Mirian whispered.
We stood in front of the castle, the golden roof shimmering in the sun as I looked up, stumbling a little, before shaking my head and wondering why I wasn’t born here. The doors opened, displaying a mosaic of stained glass windows with high elves painted across them adorning the entry. The castle felt angelic, more like a sanctuary than the house of a monarch.
Guards were lined up, spaced evenly apart every ten feet, standing stoically as they didn’t budge an inch, even a little, to look at who was approaching. There was a certain formality and hierarchy here that I hadn’t witnessed anywhere else. It was like these people were in their own little world, an alternate dimension, and it made me wonder if we were the weird ones. After all, we did sludge around in a muddy camp instead of living like royalty.
“We are about to enter the sacred chambers of the high council. Please respect and bow as you enter, as is customary,” the guard said, before opening the twelve-foot doors.
About ten high elves were talking inside, but they quickly stopped speaking and focused on us. We all bowed deeply, showing our respect, before walking inside. The room was surrounded by windows that looked over almost the entire kingdom, and a massive circular table sat in the center.
“Mirian,” a man said, before walking over.
“Rafael,” Mirian replied, and they embraced. They kissed cheeks, locking arms as they both smiled. This was already looking good.
“Chancellor Pote, it is nice to see you,” Rafael said, before doing the same with Pote.
“Always a pleasure, Rafael. I trust you have been healthy and well,” Pote said.
“One cannot complain living this life, Heta. It is most healthy for both the spirit and mind,” Rafael said.
“Rafael, this is Lexa Blackmoon, the girl I wrote to you about in my letter,” Mirian said, putting his hand on my back, as all attention was drawn to me.
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, King Rafael,” I said, bowing a little, before looking up to see him smiling.
“You may call me Rafael, young one. I insist,” he said, before embracing me like he had the others. “I am very eager to see what you have brought.”
“Before we get into that, we must talk about the situation at hand,” Mirian said.
“Our people are not your puppets, Mirian,” a woman said from the table. She looked angry, as if she couldn’t believe that she had to sit here through this and that her king was even contemplating helping us.
“Let’s keep calm, everybody. Mirian and Heta would never attempt to use our people in that way,” Rafael said.
“We seek for you to fight beside us in battle, not to fight for us,” Mirian said.
“Kiren Nightstorm is growing his army and powers exponentially. He has already mounted attacks on the pixies, the Minotaurs, and the merpeople. He is recruiting others whom he considers fit to help him,” Pote said.
“That has nothing to do with us here in Alornia,” the woman retorted.
“It has everything to do with you. Kiren seeks to enslave all magical creatures before turning his attention on the mortals. Do you not think he will come for you, especially with everything you possess within your walls?” Mirian asked.
“He will never penetrate our walls,” Rafael said confidently. “Nobody ever has.”
“Just because nobody ever has doesn’t mean nobody ever will, Rafael. You know this to be true. What will you do if he does invade? We have an opportunity now to stop him, especially with Lexa by our side,” Pote said.
“Lexa, what do you think we should do?” Rafael asked, with a smile.
“You’re asking the girl?” a man said from the table, sounding shocked.
“She is only a child, she has no authority over us!” another man shouted.
“I will have silence!” Rafael roared, his eyes turning orange. The council members bowed and receded. Rafael had more than just power—I could feel the respect they had for him.
“Kiren is ruthless and cold. His goal is simple: to control and enslave every creature on Earth, whether they have magical blood or not. If he gains this power, he will purge every impure being in the realm, and your people will be no exception. He is crass, bold, and has a penchant for suffering and misery. I think you would be daft not to take him as
a serious threat. If you want your people to survive another year, you need to fight beside us,” I said.
“Interesting,” Rafael said, putting his fingers to his chin as he stroked it slowly.
“Lexa should be able to defeat him in single combat, but the rest of it is too much, even for her powers. His forces rival those we have seen even in the darkest times, and we need to subdue them before it’s too late,” Mirian said.
“Our people haven’t been to war in centuries. We have lived a peaceful life within these walls. You’re asking me to open my gates, allowing my citizens to die, their blood spilled on the battlefield,” Rafael said, walking over to the windows and peering out at his kingdom.
“Some might die, yes. I will not lie to you, Rafael. What happens if he wins, though? All of your citizens’ blood will be spilled,” Pote said.
“Come with me,” Rafael said, turning abruptly and walking towards me. “No, not you, just the girl.”
“But sir—” a man said.
“My word is final. Lexa, please come with me,” Rafael said.
Shrugging to Mirian and Pote, I followed him, as we walked out of the high council’s chambers and down a long hallway. A long red rug stretched as far as the eye could see, the walls tall and pointed inwards in a gothic style. Rafael didn’t say a word, instead guiding me along, until we walked up a long spiral staircase and stopped outside a small door, just big enough for us to walk through.
He put his hand flat on front of the old wooden door, the iron latch coming undone, and we walked inside. The room was beautiful, adorned with stained glass and jewels affixed everywhere. Bright light shone through the glass, the room taking on a golden hue. An altar sat in the middle, atop a red rug with golden trim.
“This room is for the current ruling king or queen of Alornia. It’s here for us to seek guidance and support, praying to the heavens as we wait for word from those who came before us,” he explained.
