Hopefully, I’d be able to learn more about elven magic during my visit. The book didn’t explain for instance, how the prince could shield, if their magic was focused on the forest. Obviously, it was more than that, or could be. I also didn’t believe they had to teach every single tree and bush, it was more like a group mind, a stupid slow group mind, but still beyond awesome.
The history was a bit rough, and didn’t go into too much detail. The broad strokes told the story of the humans and elves allying themselves about six hundred years ago, after they’d already been in this forest, and were peaceful, if guarded neighbors, for thousands of years.
At the time, Trelin and Jendas were still one kingdom as well.
For the most part, the elves and humans got along for about eighty years, and freely traded at a border town, but they didn’t really mix. Elves are very much worried about racial purity, the humans on the other hand were said to be fascinated and very attracted to the elves. I didn’t see it myself, but I had to admit my relationship with Gerard, and the way the prince acted, could have been coloring that opinion.
To put it delicately, a human noble took liberties with an elven maiden without her permission. A lot of the humans were incensed by it, rape was definitely frowned upon, but the elves reacted a little more strongly. Possibly because the noble used his rank to get away unpunished.
Things kind of spiraled out of control after that.
The elves cut off contact and disappeared from the border town, melting into their forest. The king at the time was unhappy about that, because the taxes and tariffs on elven goods were lining his pockets and were quite popular. He immediately sent a delegation to the elven forest, which was promptly slaughtered for trespassing several miles inside the elven border, only one man escaped with word to stay the hell out. The elves were basically peaceful, and isolationist, but they wouldn’t abide an uninvited foray into their territory.
The king was incensed, because his third son was in the delegation, and promptly raised an army to invade. The fighting between the two kingdoms was fierce for a couple of months killing hundreds of humans and elves in skirmishes among the trees. The humans learned quickly to burn a path through the forest to avoid the attacks of the trees and roots.
That made me feel a little sick as I’d read it. I felt the trees around me and they were crude but very much alive. It would be like kicking a puppy for goddess sake.
Then, luckily perhaps, the second great goblin invasion took place, which pulled all the paladins, and the human army down south toward Chilik. Peace was reached, but by an unofficial ceasefire, not by agreement. The elves never left their forest, and the humans never went back. Not for over two hundred years.
Four hundred years ago, was around when the human kingdom split, and Trelin and Jendas became two separate nations.
It was also when the elves sent a delegation to try and reestablish relations. Apparently, elves held grudges for two hundred years. It was really poor timing all around. The elves went to Magehaven, and the author of the history wasn’t sure, but it was believed the commander of a Jendas troop saw the elven delegation, and believed they were going to make an alliance against Jendas with Trelin.
So, he ambushed them, killed the men, and once again, an elven maiden was sullied by a human man’s attention without her approval. This time three of them, three maidens I mean. Then the three elven ladies were let go with a warning for their people to stay out of human business. The commander didn’t bother explaining his beliefs, or any specifics, he didn’t think he had to. So started the three way war, where the elves attacked both sides until they’d felt blood debt had been satisfied, and once again melted into their forest, not to be seen again for three hundred and twenty five years.
Just seventy-five years ago, another elven delegation was sent. Obviously, it had taken over three hundred years to get over what the humans had done last time. That last time, there was not a single female in the elven delegation.
There was also no war, not even one death. But the king at the time in Trelin, King Alexander’s grandfather, wasn’t able to come to an agreement. The elves wanted strong laws to protect their purity, and demanded a law in common that lying with a member of the opposite race was a death penalty offense.
The king wouldn’t sign off on it. He agreed to post adequate guards, and paladins, to keep his people in line, and assured the elves he was horrified by what had been done to their ladies in the past. But the death penalty? For rape, yes. But not if it was two consenting adults.
They argued for weeks, but finally the elves gave up and withdrew back to their forest. Never to be seen again until the prince had ridden into the city four days ago.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to make of it all. Was it all true? I was surprised that for a human author, the humans took most of the blame in what happened. I suspected for that reason alone it was probably accurate enough. The whole racial purity thing bothered me too, although that didn’t automatically make it prejudice. We were two different races in truth, not just humans with different colored skin, or with powers and without.
I wasn’t sure what to think, but at least I had a clue what I’d be facing, and why the prince was so hateful. Yet, it still didn’t fit. His anger and contempt of humans was too immediate. Four hundred years ago was the last time anything really bad happened between the kingdoms of elves and humans, and although I knew the elves lived up to a thousand years, I knew the prince couldn’t have been much older than a century, or two at the most. He looked barely older than I did.
Maybe something did happen recently, that wasn’t in this book, to account for his anger?
I just hoped when we got there tomorrow night I’d be pleasantly surprised. Somehow, I doubted it. At least I was done with my homework for now, I still had Chilik, the dwarves, Jendas, and even Trelin’s basic history to read, but they could wait for later…
I woke up feeling very well rested and enjoyed my breakfast, the forest was extremely soothing now that I was used to the constant influx of its puppyish emotions. I broke down the tent, and cleaned up after breakfast, my mind now automatically filtering out the poisonous emotions of the prince whenever he noticed me.
I really wanted a bath, it’d been a couple of days now, but there was no creek nearby, and in any case the prince looked impatient. I settled for using aqua and micro-kinesis in the saddle as we rode down the trail, the former to clean my skin, literally forming water, heating it, and running it around my body, the latter to clean out the sweat, dust, and stains out of my riding outfit and my hair.
It wasn’t perfect without soap, but it was better than nothing, and I felt a lot fresher.
I wondered how Gerard was, and if he’d made it to Greycliff yet. I imagined he must be just a day from Southwater as well. I knew he was tough, and expected we’d both handle our missions just fine and be back together, but I still worried a little. I’d so much rather be with him.
Goddess I was being so whiny, I pushed it all down again, missing Gerard, my parents, being stuck with an asshole elf, and my postponed wedding. I needed to be focused, I wasn’t even sure what the problem was for the elves yet, outside of the fact it threatened the forest, their magic, and themselves. It wasn’t exactly helpful information in the least, except it reminded me of exactly why I was here. Why I’d gone in a different direction than Gerard. It was important, and possibly once more only something I could do.
I tried to pray for a bit, and meditated as I held my holy symbol. It actually helped, more than I thought it would, Arella was with me. Then I focused on Stormy, and the forest around me. I also quested out in front of us with my mental powers, it was something to do even if we should be safe. I could also feel the forest getting stronger, the further we moved toward the heart of it.
The forest was alive with emotions, scents, animals, and probably magic too, although I couldn’t sense that last one directly. Once again it seemed like I could mimic a small piece of another typ
e of magic. I could connect to the forest, and even communicate rudimentarily with it on a different level than the elven magic used, but without the elven magic to begin with, I could never change a forest like this.
I wondered if the trees would listen to a request, but suppressed the desire to find out. I was sure it would piss off the prince if I got one of the trees to wave at me. Still, I’d find out when none of the elves were around.
We rode steadily throughout the day, and it was very late in the afternoon when a telepathic sweep returned indications of intelligent minds. I tried not to get too excited, just in case they barely tolerated my presence, but I couldn’t help but hope for a welcome…
Chapter Eight
The gamer geeks would have been disappointed, the elves neither lived up in the trees, or inside the trees like some stories from my world would have people believe.
I wasn’t disappointed at all though.
The wall around the elven city was made of live oaks, grown very close to each other with their branches intertwined from tree to tree. The branches were almost all the way to the ground, unlike a normal mature oak, and for a moment I wondered how we’d get through.
The gate in the wall of course, was the branches moving out of our way. I was speechless, which I supposed was good because I had no one to talk to. When we moved past them, I could see the city. It was made of stone like a human city, except there were trees, bushes, flowers, and other flora growing throughout the city. Buildings were decorated by vines of roses and other flowers, and I didn’t see any including the large building in the center that were more than one level high. Every building and house had a garden in the back of it, which made the city much bigger.
The next surprise was that it didn’t stink like a human city. It smelled like the forest, not a sewer. Then I gaped at the large wooden barrels that sat on top of all the buildings. Elves had plumbing, and running water!
I was way too excited about the plumbing.
As far as I could tell, there were no separate districts. Everyone grew their own food in the back yard, or on vines against the house in some cases. There were some stores, but they seemed to be random, instead of bunched in one spot. I spotted a tailor, and then the next store was much further down, past several homes, and was a fletcher.
I garnered several looks, some were distrustful, some even had the prince’s level of suspicion and arrogance, but more than a few looked curious and gawked with open expressions. I felt waves of every kind of emotion as I passed, and I have to say I relaxed a whole bunch. This wouldn’t have been easy if they’d all hated humans.
I also had to admit some of the men were extremely attractive to me, not that I’d act on it or be unfaithful to Gerard, but I started to wonder if my initial thought on it was flawed because of the way the prince acted. I could also see what would attract human men, the elven ladies were exotically beautifully, and I absolutely loved the dresses. They were much more revealing and body conforming than what the human women wore. None of the women were voluptuous, but they were obviously women. Both the men and women were tall, willowy, and graceful. No stocky elves at all. They all consistently had light blonde hair, though of varying subtle shading. The eyes were common too, they were all a greenish blue of varying shades from emerald green like the prince, to the dark blue of a twilight sky.
Honestly, the dresses made me want to turn around and stop at the tailor’s shop, but I’d never get away with wearing one of those dresses in Trelin, so what was the point? I considered that elves seemed very close to nature, from how they lived, to their magic. I’d guess their bodies were just another part of nature to respect and admire, which explained the very revealing dresses.
Or, it could be something totally different. As far as I knew, I was the first human ever to enter this city, even in the past they’d met at the border, and started a trade town there. The city was stunning, as were the elves themselves. Except, I reminded myself there was danger here, and elves had all the same ugly emotions that humans did, including arrogance and a superiority complex, the prince was all the proof I needed of that, but my empathy told me it was a lot more of them than just the one.
Luckily though, not the majority.
It wasn’t until we were close to the center of the city, that I realized just how big the central building was, which I assumed was where we were going. It was at least five hundred feet long, and was if not as tall, at least as wide and long as a stadium back home. Of course, they had to fit a whole castle worth’s of people in one floor, so it wasn’t that big a shock.
There was a large stable next to it, and we stopped there and dismounted. As usual, I took care of Stormy myself, and got her settled into a stall, brushed down, and gave her lots of affection. I really loved my horse, even if she wasn’t the most comfortable of conveyances. Super metabolism though, my ass and thighs hardly hurt at all by the time I was done and ready to leave her.
Thank the goddess I only ever had to ride to places once though, if I ever came here again I’d be teleporting. I’d still enjoy riding, but only as a hobby and for fun, once I learned all the different places.
When I got out of the stall, I looked around and didn’t see the prince anywhere. Why wasn’t I at all surprised that he’d abandoned me?
A young elven woman smiled at me, and bowed her head, but it didn’t reach her light green eyes. All I felt from her was a cool curiosity, but I could work with that and it wasn’t a bad start all things considered.
She said, “Katrina, welcome to Gwienidd. My name is Saida Morwarin, and I’ll be your liaison and maid for your visit. Just call me Saida. If you have any questions I’ll try and answer them, and make sure you get where you need to go, but right now we’ll have to hurry to get you settled and freshened up in time to dine with the queen and her family.”
I smiled, and meant it. It was amazing how much better I felt without the prince’s toxic personality around me. It had affected me more than I’d realized, which was a common thing with empaths and telepaths. Normally, I’d have just shielded to prevent it, but that would have been stupid on the trail where I needed to watch for trouble around me.
“Thanks Saida, lead the way. I’ll try not to ask any questions until we have some time.”
I followed her across the courtyard and into the very large building. I was careful to concentrate and track where we were going, this building was huge and would be easy to get lost in. She led me through several halls, which had a simple elegance to them. The walls were polished stone, but there were planters and pots all over the place, with flowers, plants, and even small trees. They seemed happy enough to see me at least, which probably sounds a bit crazy, but it was true.
She took me into a simple but spacious room, with a large bed, a very large window into a garden, and miracle of miracles, a tub with what looked like a crude faucet with one lever. As if to prove I wasn’t dreaming, Saida walked over and started the water running. I dropped the saddle bags and smiled at the filling tub. I reached out with my mind, and the water was even warm. There was a shelf next to it with various soaps and oils, along with a large towel and a wash cloth.
Saida said, “I know humans are different, would you like me to wait outside?”
I wasn’t like most of the humans here, and would be very comfortable in Saida’s skimpy artful dress, but I wasn’t that different.
“I would appreciate privacy when bathing, thanks Saida.”
She nodded, and I felt curiosity from her as she walked out.
I stripped down, and sent the clothes to the dirty bin back at my temple bedroom, the sword to the rack, and after a moment’s thought I dropped the coin purse in my saddle bags and sent that too. I could always re-summon the coin purse if I got down to some stores, and I wouldn’t need my saddle bags or even a riding outfit for the return trip since I planned to teleport back.
I pictured the blue dress in my mind, that hung in my wardrobe, and summoned it onto the bed, and then got into
the bath as I cleaned my boots with micro-kinesis.
I sighed in pleasure, as I checked the scents of the soaps and oils. I added one of the oils, and turned off the water, and then picked up a floral soap that had a subtle freesia scent, and started to get clean. Nothing felt better than a hot bath after a two and a half day trip by horse. I didn’t soak like I wanted to though, I was under a time constraint. When I finished, I washed my hair as quickly as possible, and then used aqua-kinesis as I got out, leaving all the water behind. As an afterthought, I pulled the plug at the bottom of the tub with telekinesis, and the water started to drain.
There was something so wrong with me, a girl should not be as excited as I was about plumbing.
My dry hair looked okay, but I still ran the brush through it a few times, and then slipped into my blue dress, and my boots. Then I slid the knife into my boot sheath and sighed. I felt a million times better now that I was truly clean.
I got up and walked over to the door, when I opened it Saida looked at me a little wide eyed. I wondered if it was a mistake to wear a dress since I was here on paladin business, should I have put on my other riding outfit instead and kept the sword? In my defense, dress wasn’t a part of the manual.
Saida blushed after a moment, “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting a dress, you look very nice. Ready?”
I returned the smile, “I’m a paladin, but I fight more like a mage than a swordswoman would. Should I be wearing riding clothes and a sword?”
Saida shrugged, “No one here will mind either way, I was just surprised. Wear what you want.”
I waved her on and wondered if I was getting too girly as I followed, I liked my dresses now. For one, they were far more comfortable than the riding clothes. That wouldn’t have been true for a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt, but those didn’t exist here. Dresses weren’t as hot, or confining. Two… I really liked the way Gerard looked at me when I wore a dress. Which I supposed didn’t count right now, since he wasn’t here. The only real downside was I couldn’t fly, and I loved to fly.
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