Forest of Kings

by Jack Knight

  They city did not stop its surprises there. All around the wood and leaves were flowers of every shape, size, and color, covering the city and creating scents that drifted all the way down to the ground where Xion and the others stood. As if that did not lend enough wonder to the city, there were also strange crystals growing out of every tree trunk. They were pointed shapes, grouped together and extending several feet from their bases, glowing with their own soft green light. In the dim glow of the forest, the city above was lit up in every corner by the crystals, as if it had its own personal green sun.

  Larzan walked over to Xion and pointed to one of the structures of woven leaves, directly above the center of the clearing, which seemed to be supported by the rope walkways lacing together all around it.

  “That,” Larzan said, “is the palace. The kings are there and would probably appreciate an audience with the chosen one.” He moved his finger over to a tree just outside the ring of the city. There was only one rope walkway leading to it, Xion did not get the feeling that it was by accident. “That one is Kronos’ place. Not sure he’ll appreciate the company, but you came here, so might as well try.”

  “Great,” Xion muttered to himself. He was going to feel like a complete failure if he brought his friends all the way across the continent, got in a fight that resulted in Sarin’s death, and got them captured by a group of assassins, all to be turned away at the door of the person that he was sure would tutor him.

  “Quick question,” Warren said, “How do we get up there?”

  Larzan laughed and gestured toward the other archers. Each of them was scrambling up the trees on the edge of the clearing. All of them moved so quickly, Xion imagined they must have cast Warren’s spell from before on themselves.

  “I’m not an elf, so… I don’t know how you expect me to do that,” Laira told Larzan.

  “It’s easy, don’t worry,” Larzan replied, dismissively. “I’ll see you guys around, if you stay.” With that, Larzan turned around and walked back the way they had come.

  Most of the archers disappeared right after Larzan, crawling up trees, or following him out of the clearing. Soon, Xion and his friends were alone, underneath the sparkling city.

  “Well, we made it!” Warren cheered.

  “Seriously, I don’t know if I can climb that high,” Laira said, not to be distracted. She was staring up at the trees that the archers had just ascended. Xion did not know if it was the light from the crystals above them, or if Laira was going to be sick, but she had a distinct green color to her face.

  “Don’t be stupid,” Ava replied, “Come on, I’ll be right behind you.” She pushed Laira toward one of the nearest trees. Laira clearly did not want to go, she turned to look at Xion pleadingly, and then Ava pushed her forward again.

  “Oh, wait! God of good ideas, coming through,” Warren said, as he jogged to catch up with Laira. Sapphire looked a Xion with a smirk. Xion chuckled, but did not say anything.

  Ava let Laira stop walking as Warren approached her. Warren said a spell and pointed his palm at Laira.

  A few seconds later, Warren patted Laira’s shoulder. “There, now you can’t fall.” Warren’s smile was weary, he had not fully recovered from the spell he had used not long before, and Xion worried that he was over taxing himself.

  “What? How?” Laira demanded as if her life depended on it.

  Warren laughed weakly. “Just go, trust me.”

  Laira approached the tree, not looking the least bit reassured, and tentatively grabbed onto the tree. She lifted herself up easily and looked back at Warren in surprise.

  Warren grinned. “Spider’s Touch,” he said brightly.

  “Um?” Laira did not seem to have any more idea as to what Warren meant than Xion did.

  “Anyone?” Warren asked, looking at each of them in turn with a mask of disappointment. “Come on! Doesn’t anyone listen when I read the spell books?”

  “No,” Ava answered.

  “That’s not friendship.” Warren looked back at Laira and explained, “For the next half hour or so, your body becomes weightless when you climb, and your hands and feet will stick to anything you want them to, for as long as you want them to.”

  “We really need to start paying attention to those spell books,” Xion mused as he laughed in surprise.

  Laira slowly started ascending the tree. She was tentative at first, but after the first few feet, she seemed to realize she was not going to fall. After that, she scaled the trunk just as quickly as any of the archers had, with no hesitation or fear.

  “Okay, tell me how to do that spell,” Xion said eagerly.

  Warren relayed to the others how the spell worked. Xion cast it first on Warren, worried that any more magic would leave him completely drained, while the others began casting the spell on themselves. The four of them climbed the tree in a line, and they quickly reached the rope bridges and doorways of the crystal lit city.

  It was strange, not having to worry about falling when climbing up so high. Xion started out trying to grip the tree, but realized after the first few feet that Warren had been right. His hands adhered to the bark as if they had become fused together, and when he was ready to pull it off to reach higher, it detached with ease. Xion started to really regret that he had only paid attention to spells that could be used in combat and decided that he was going to have to look over the spells in Warren’s books more thoroughly.

  Once they reached the city, Xion did not hesitate. He peeled his hands off the tree and started across the rope walkway toward the door that Larzan had pointed out. They had come so far, and he was so close to the person that he knew he had to convince to teach him. He did not want to waste any more time.

  Xion had expected the walkways to sway or bend with every step. He was surprised when he started across the first one to find that the ropes were pulled taut, and not even the five of them walking across them at once made them move in the slightest.

  They all marveled at the flowers and gems that surrounded them once they were inside the city. The floral, fruity scent that permeated the entire forest was much more potent inside Evergreen, like the scent started there and spread. Up close, Xion had to agree with Sapphire, the city was beautiful. All of the color, and the soft green light that covered everything, Xion could see why the elves would want to live there.

  “Alright, I have to ask,” Warren said after they had reached the end of one bridge and started across another toward Kronos’ door. “Why do the elves here have grey skin?”

  “You’ve never seen a High Elf before?” Sapphire asked.

  “I mean, there was your temple lady,” Warren said uncertainly.

  “Sister Azeral,” Sapphire corrected.

  “Right, but besides her, nope,” Warren said.

  “Evergreen is the first elf city that existed, outside of the human realm. All the elf races are here in some number,” Ava explained.

  “Wait, ‘all’?” Xion asked. “How many are there?”

  “Well, we’re Wood Elves,” Sapphire answered, counting on her fingers, “then the High Elves, Snow Elves, and Desert Elves. So, four.”

  “You’re forgetting one,” Ava pointed out grimly.

  “Oh, right,” Sapphire’s face fell, like she had remembered something unpleasant. “There’s one more, but… we don’t like to talk about them.”

  “Do they live here, too?” Xion asked.

  “Absolutely not,” Ava scoffed. “They’re exiled from every city, human kingdoms kill them on sight, if they can.”

  “What?” Laira asked, appalled. “That doesn’t seem right.”

  “It’s better that way,” Ava argued. “They’re called Unseem. They’re the result of humans and Unseelie fey.”

  Xion was once again surprised by his utter lack of knowledge. Everyone seemed to know so many things that he had never even heard of, he wondered if he would ever catch up.

  “What are Unseelie?” he asked.

  “Dark fey,” Warren answ
ered. “I didn’t know they had their own elves.”

  “They do,” Sapphire said, her voice filled with discomfort. “But, we try to separate ourselves from them as much as possible.”

  “Are they that bad?” Xion asked.

  “Fey are naturally mischievous. They like to pull pranks, trick people, and sometimes it doesn’t work out for their target. The fey don’t usually mean to do harm, unless someone particularly offends them, but it happens. The fey we always talk about are Seelie fey. Unseelie are different: the kelpies, the boggarts, the banshees. They actively try to hurt people, usually humans. Killing for them is almost like a need, like eating and sleeping. They’re the dark side of the magic of nature.” Ava explained it all with a cold, callus tone that sent shivers down Xion’s spine.

  “Okay, evil fey, got it, so why are the Unseem bad?” Warren asked.

  “Imagine someone born who is half human, with the rage, need for power, and inclination toward destruction that the worst humans have, and half fey, with the magic and power of fey in their blood, but with an added need to kill and hurt people,” Ava told him.

  “Okay,” Warren said, he chuckled, but his voice quivered with discomfort, “bad news, stay away from evil elves, got it.”

  “And, it would be best if you avoid using their name around elves,” Sapphire added. “We usually call them the Dark Ones, if we have to mention them at all.”

  “Great, thanks for freaking me out,” Laira called to them, she started walking a lot closer to Ava. Ava looked at her like she was about to shove Laira away, and then decided to ignore her.

  With those happy thoughts in mind, Xion finally reached the door that Larzan had pointed out. There was only an oval shape in the wood, slightly depressed against the rest of the tree, and a round doorknob. Xion nervously rapped his knuckles against the depression and then stood back and waited.

  Only a few seconds later, the door opened to reveal a woman, about Xion’s height. She had black hair that just reached her shoulders and framed her perfectly. Her skin was almost as dark as Warren’s, and one of her eyes was just as dark brown. Her right eyes shone a sparkling green, almost the same color as the crystals that lit Evergreen. She was bigger than any elf Xion had ever seen, almost like she was a human, but her face was too perfect. Immediately, Xion thought of Paarathax and Draxis in his human form.

  “Hey,” the woman said, looking at Xion with confusion. Xion realized he had been staring at the woman for much too long without saying anything.

  “Um, hey. Are you…? You’re not…?” Xion could not get the words out. He could not bring himself to ask out loud “are you a dragon?”

  “I’m Xara,” the woman said, holding out a hand.

  Xion reached out awkwardly to take it, and the second he did, he leapt back. They were not visible, but the second that Xion touched her he felt them. There were scales under the skin on the back of her hand, just like his.

  The woman laughed nervously. “Yeah, the scales, right?” she asked, rubbing the back of her head uncomfortably. “People don’t like those.”

  “You have scales, too?” Ava asked in surprise.

  “Yup, that’s what I get for being born part…”

  Xara was interrupted when a man stepped into the doorway. He was pale skinned, and shorter than the woman beside him by a few inches. His pointed ears broke through his white hair, and his purple eyes stared at Xion appraisingly. The man was obviously an elf. A Wood Elf, Xion corrected himself in his head.

  “What do you want?” the man asked. The words were unkind, but his tone was calm and gentle, as if he were not trying to be rude, he just did not know how to be polite.

  Xion remembered himself then. “I’m looking for Kronos. Sarin said that he would help me. Is he here?”

  “He might be. I was under the impression Sarin was coming,” the man replied.

  Xion shifted uncomfortably. “She tried. There was… We ran into a dragon at the edge of the forest,” Xion tried to explain. He could not bring himself to say those words out loud, either.

  The man seemed to understand. He nodded grimly, “That’s disappointing. That would make you Xion?” he asked.

  “Xion Dragonslayer, now,” Warren corrected. Ava elbowed him in the stomach.

  The man looked around at the others, seeming to notice them for the first time. “Yeah, fine, come in then.”

  The woman beside him laughed as she stepped back so that they could all enter. “I think he means, ‘nice to meet you, I’m Kronos.’”

  Xion blinked in surprise, but did not say anything. He had imagined a powerful sorcerer, maybe proper like Sarin, or wild and free. Someone who would leave Aur’in to practice chaos magic on his own. This man just seemed grumpy and unfriendly.

  He stepped inside as Kronos stepped out of the way to let them in. The house was almost completely bare. There was a table in the main room that they entered, and several wooden rocking chairs around the room. There were two windows in the curved wall of the tree, and two doors off of the main room. Everything else, the rest of the room, the walls, all empty space.

  Kronos walked over to one of the chairs and sat down as everyone filed in and Xara closed the door behind them.

  “I suppose you want me to train the lot of you, too,” Kronos sighed.

  “Too?” Sapphire asked.

  “Yeah,” he gestured to Xara, “that one showed up a few days ago, asking for the same.”

  “That’s why I came,” Xion answered.

  “Not the rest of you?” Kronos asked, a small smile touched his lips. “Elves afraid of nature magic?”

  “I’m a wizard, I can’t use chaos magic. And, she can’t use magic at all,” Warren pointed to Laira.

  “Hey,” Laira sounded offended. “I mean, no I can’t,” she told Kronos before rounding on Warren, “but you don’t have to say it like that!”

  “I’ll learn,” Ava interrupted with a shrug.

  “If you would be willing to teach us,” Sapphire added, “I guess I could try.”

  Kronos grunted. “Well, that’s what I get for agreeing to help Sarin. Fine. I don’t have a place for all of you, so if you can find a place to stay, I’ll start with you in the morning.”

  Xion sighed in relief. He had not expected it to be that easy. He felt elated to have finally gotten something accomplished. After everything that he had been through since he left Fairen, he was beginning to think that his life was just going to be one trial after another. So, he was completely unprepared when Xara spoke again.

  “Wait, hang on, I think I just realized something,” Xara said, staring intently at Xion.

  Xion looked at her with confusion as she asked, “You said Xion, right?” He nodded. “Born in Fairen?”

  Xion’s eyes went wide. “Yeah? How did you know?” He was waiting for something about ‘the chosen one’, but nobody had ever known where he had been born before.

  “Your mother was Xana?” Xara continued.

  Everyone in the room looked at him expectantly. He never talked about his mother to anyone. The only person he had ever heard say the name besides Jorham had been Azeral, and he had expected it then. It was a complete shock to hear it come from a stranger.

  “Yes, why?” Xion asked, with a mounting sense of discomfort.

  “Xana was my mother, too!” Xara said happily. “It’s so exciting to finally meet my little brother!”

  Chapter 9: Familiar

  Xion and Warren were sharing a room again. Evergreen did not really have an inn, it did have a place for travelers to stay at no cost. The place that Kronos had told them to go was larger than anything Xion could imagine would fit inside a single tree. It had stairs that led up to the very top, and down so far Xion was not sure it even stopped at the ground.

  The elf working in the main room already knew about Xion the second he and the others walked in. He excitedly directed them three floors up, and set them up in a room large enough for all of them to share. It was equipped with six beds
, and they were told they could stay as long as they liked.

  Once they were alone, Xion sat on one of the beds and pretended to be preoccupied taking inventory of the things that were left in his pack. He knew the others were watching him, but he had no intention of speaking to anyone, he wanted to think over what had just happened.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Sapphire asked him after a few minutes.

  “No,” Xion said simply. His voice came out harsher than he had meant it to, but he wanted to be left alone.

  “Don’t be rude,” Ava scolded him. He gave her a sarcastic smile and she rolled her eyes.

  Warren laughed. “When Ava tells you to be polite, you know you’ve gone too far.”

  “Shut up,” Ava snapped. “So what?” she said to Xion, “you have a sister. What’s the big deal?”

  “I don’t know,” Xion answered. It was mostly true. He knew that having a sister should not have upset him as much as it did, but he was not exactly sure how to put into words what the problem was.

  “Well, we’re going to be training with her from now on, so get over it,” Ava told him with finality. She dropped herself onto her bed and crossed her arms.

  Xion wanted to snap back at her, but he could not think of anything to say. She was right, he needed to train with Kronos, and since he could not make Xara stop training, he was going to have to deal with her being there. Instead, he just dropped his bag off his bed and laid down. He grabbed the blanket at the foot of the bed and pulled it over him, he rolled sideways to face away from the others.

  “We should get some rest,” Sapphire said before she laid down as well.

  Soon, the room was quiet, and Xion was sure that he was asleep, but he kept drifting in and out of awareness. For a while he would have strange dreams that he could not remember moments later, but left him feeling alone and abandoned.