Aliel

Chapter 23

"Alright," he said, looking at me expectantly, his hands at my waist. I took one of his hands and placed it over my stomach.

"Lorien, something wonderful has happened. I... I'm with child." I watched as my words sunk in, then his eyes looked at my stomach, then at me face, then back at my stomach.

"You're..." I nodded, the biggest smile ever on my face. "WHAT!?!?!" he almost shouted. "But... a-are you sure!?!" I nodded again. "But that's incredible! And so soon, I mean, what are the odds!" I was confused again.

"What do you mean?"

"Well normally female elves can only have children every two decades or so. And even then, it's only about a... three week window. It's amazing!"

"But Lorien, I'm not an elf. I have a four day window every month." His jaw dropped.

"So you're telling me we could have a baby every month? But wait, that doesn't make any sense, I've been gone for longer than that..."

"No, no, it takes nine months after that for the baby to be born. And then I hope I'll have a little time after that... before the next one..." His face showed utter and complete astonishment.

"This is amazing! An elf would be greatly blessed to have one child, unbelievably lucky to have two. But we... we could have dozens!"

"Whoa, slow down, Lorien. How about we focus on this one first, alright?"

"Yes, yes of course, you're right. Oh, I'm acting like an idiot. I haven't even asked how you are. Do you feel alright? Do you need to sit down? I think I need to sit down..." We went into the dining room, and I was ecstatic to see that Varen had also returned, although she still had all her hair. She was told the wonderful news as well, and was just as astonished as Lorien, until it was explained just how often a female human can conceive.

"Congratulations to the both of you," she said, smiling wider than I'd ever seen. Renai was also in the dining room, bustling about and getting refreshments for the elves, and Adeem was sitting at the table fixing a few whisks that had broken that week.

"Thank you, Varen," I said, grasping her hand. "So tell me, have all of the elves returned?"

"No, there are still battles to be fought. We only came because Lorien was injured, and it was deemed too foolhardy to risk our Vale-heir in such a way."

"Was it bad?" I asked, turning to Lorien. He sighed.

"Yes. It took me a month to recover fully. And then when I did and I was ready to fight again, Chataya told me I wasn't to fight, that it was too dangerous." A note of bitterness had crept into his voice. But then he sighed again, and relaxed visibly. "But I understand why. I must be kept whole so that I may take over as Vale-zrah when the time comes. My people cannot be left without a leader."

"Which is why we will now continue on to our lands, where Lorien will be safe from further harm. You must come too, Claresa. You and your child must be protected as well."

"Of course I will come. I've been looking forward to seeing your home." But I had hoped that it have been under better circumstances.

"Oh, Claresa, I'm going to miss you," Renai said, coming to give me a big hug.

"I'm not gone yet!" I said to her, laughing. "But I will miss you too. And you, Adeem." He smiled at me while he glued a whisk back together.

"We plan to leave for Valenass within the week, if you are agreeable," Varen said.

"Yes, that should be fine. So, besides Lorien being injured, what else has happened? We've received no news about anything that's been going on." Lorien and Varen exchanged looks.

"We have been cautioned to keep this under the strictest of confidences," Lorien began slowly, looking between me, Renai, and Adeem. We all promised not to breathe a word of it to anyone. "There has been a strange development. At first, we were only fighting Feveral soldiers, which were easy enough to defeat and either capture or run off. But as we continued north, we came across more and more villages that had been completely destroyed by fire. We couldn't quite place what was wrong at first, but eventually we realized that it was magical fire that had burned down those villages. In this age, only an elf would have been able to summon that kind of fire. But there was so much of it, it was impossible for only one elf to be the cause of all of it. It would have killed them, using so much magic in such a short amount of time. So, we began working under the assumption that the elves of the north had allied themselves with Feveral. But we didn't understand why they would do such a thing. The North Elven Clan has never approved of warfare, they are the most peaceful of the four elven clans. They focused more on pursuing knowledge and acquiring wisdom. But part of that was magical knowledge, which was why we thought that they must be responsible for the summoning of the magical fire. We knew that they were capable of this destruction, but did not think it probable.

"But then we found out exactly who was responsible. It was a northern elf, but it was also a Feveral man. They had been fused, somehow, with magic, into one being. The elven part had a great knowledge of magic, and the human part was immune to the effects of magic, meaning that it would not feel the fatigue that comes with so much usage of the magic. That being... it is the most powerful being I have ever encountered." Varen continued with the narrative.

"We fought as best we could, but we were sorely outmatched by this being. Many were injured, including Lorien, and we had to retreat many times. I fear our forces will continue to retreat, until a way to defeat it is found."

"But... can't you call for more elves to join the fight? What about the other clans?"

"They have no part in this war. Perhaps the northern elves, but it seems that they have put their magic to the use of the Feveral armies. And we couldn't get a messenger past their lines anyway, even if we wanted to contact them."

It became apparent that we were in real trouble. Sure, the war had gone on for more than two decades, with losses on both sides, but we were only fighting men before. Now we had a new enemy, this elf-human hybrid. And if our elven allies could not defeat it, then what hope had we of winning this war? Next to none, it seemed. My thoughts must have shown on my face, because Varen spoke to me again.

"You needn't worry, Claresa. You will be perfectly safe once we reach elven land."

"But what about everyone else?" I said, gesturing to Renai and Adeem, who were also seated at the table. "My people, my home?"

"Our Alliance still stands. Reinforcements have already been called, and we will perform our duty to the best of our ability."

"Of course, I'm sorry. It's just a bit... frightening, hearing all of this."

"Let us talk of other things, then," Lorien said, squeezing my hand.

The rest of the day we did our best to avoid speaking about the horrible news they had relayed. We actually had quite a pleasant time.