Slave To Savage

Chapter Five

It had been weeks since Silas returned. Everything had gone back to normal, except that she was now living in the more luxurious part of the palace, well, officially. Each morning, they woke up together, and trained, then Silas went about his day as usual, doing deeds for the king, every now and again he would leave for a while to take care of business in town. Alphea would help Martha with the chores, and in the afternoon she would train until the evening, clean up and go back to the room she shared with the commander.

Today was no different, Alphea woke up that morning along with Silas and got ready for their training. She put on a pair of pants, an undershirt, a vest and boots, the usual. She strapped on her belt and attached her sword. The pair left, but Silas had pulled her into a different direction. "Wait, we're not training in the garden today?" she asked as she followed the man.

"We're doing a different kind of training today. I'll explain on our way there." He didn't look in her direction as he spoke. "Where are we going?"
"A village just outside of town, someone is waiting there for us." He led her outside the palace to the stables, where they were greeted by a large dark grey dappled horse, he seemed bigger than the other horses in the stable, quite suited for a commander's horse.

He greeted the horse in a soft tone and gentle head rubs. She had never seen the man act this way, it was quite a refreshing sight, but strange nonetheless. A tall and intimidating man being so sweet and tender. She felt ridiculous for being envious of a horse.

"You seem to really love your horse, mister Silas." she commented as she leaned against a beam, observing the scene in front of her. "Yeah, Bjorn has been with me for years. I guess you could say he's my best friend." he said with a shyness that Alphea has never seen before. She huffed and made her way to the man. "Aw and here I thought I had filled that spot." she pouted and crossed her arms.
"Roommate, student, disciple and slave, now you want to take my horse's position too? I'd say that's a bit greedy."

"I can't help but be greedy when it comes to you. Besides, you're my best friend." The man put a saddle on the horse and led it out of the stable, Alphea following obediently.
"After I make you my best friend, what's next? Lover? I can't fill every position, neither can you, you silly girl." Alphea remained silent, feeling like she had been caught red handed by him. She wanted to ask "would that be so ridiculous? To be your lover?" but she bit her tongue and swallowed the unspoken words.

Silas got on his horse and held out his hand. She took it hesitantly and he pulled her up, placing her behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist as they took off. She had never been on a horse, and she was starting to understand why people liked it so much.

"We're going to meet with someone, there are things I cannot teach you that she can. I doubt you know what these things are, but you will soon find out." Silas explained vaguely, leaving the young girl even more perplexed.

Once they arrived, they got off and walked up to a cottage, the stone walls were full of moss and the door looked as if it would fall off at any second. Silas carefully knocked, a woman yelled from inside.
"I'll be right there! Hold' ya horses!" A short moment afterwards, the door flung open, revealing a young woman. Long black curly hair hung down her shoulders, some strands were braided. Behind a pair of big spectacles hid round eyes, a pretty pinkish color.

"Ah, Silas, you're early. I'm assuming this is Alphea?" Her gaze turned to the small elf girl. Big green eyes stared back up at her. "Hi, dear. I'm Khala. I've heard a lot about you. Come, let's go, we can't do it here..." the last part she whispered as she closed the door and led the two away from town. Alphea didn't hear it at first, but it sounded like Khala had an English accent, it made her sound so sophisticated and elegant.

"What do you mean by 'do it'? I still have no idea why we're here." Alphea said as they walked through the forest just north of the village. It was incredibly green and mossy, the air was cool and crisp, almost as if this air was fresher than any other air, which it was technically. "Really? Silas, why didn't you tell her? So you just drag the poor girl around without even telling her why? You really are an arrogant bastard."

The woman's words took Alphea by surprise, she had never heard anyone talk to the commander in such a manner, but it was a pleasant sight to behold. At the palace, everyone is always walking on eggshells around him, but this woman didn't have any fear in her for the man.

I think I just found my mentor, I want to be that fearless too! Who is this woman, and why does she speak so freely around him?

As they trudged through the mossy forest, the strange woman and Silas kept jabbing at each other, insult after insult. Alphea nearly burst a vein trying to hold in her laughter as she followed behind them.

The trio came to a halt when they reached a clearing, sun shone from above, illuminating the area. It was a beautiful sight, almost as if it was out of a fairytale. Alphea observed the place, some trees were burnt at the base, but it still stood tall. Outside the circle of bright light, beyond the thick layer of trees, there were more burn marks, all of these marks seemed to be old, some grass was already spreading over the crispy and flaky ones.

"Alright, it's about time Alphea knew why we came here." Khala announced, causing Alphea to turn around and make her way to the strange woman. She gestured for the elf to come closer.
"Judging by your reactions, you most likely are unaware of it... Alphea, most creatures of this world possess magic, we all have it, except humans. There are cores inside of us, these cores are the source of our magic, they are constantly generating what is known as 'mana'." she explained, a serious expression on her face.

Alphea's brows furrowed in confusion, shock painted on her face. "I know about magic, but... I didn't know elves had it too." The woman smiled at the young girl.
"They do, it's mostly healing magic, but there have been exceptions. Didn't you learn this at your village? I was so confused when Silas told me you weren't aware of it."

Alphea gulped, feeling the bile in her throat swell and rise up. "Uh..." she cleared her throat and continued. "I... I was raised in a different village." It wasn't a lie, that was all they had to know, the rest of the story was unimportant to the situation. Khala nodded as she turned to the commander. "It's a good thing you brought her here." The woman made her way to Alphea and stared her dead in the eye.

She placed her hand on the young girl's chest, not breaking eye contact.
"I'm going to take a look at your core, it might feel a bit strange, but please endure it a little." Alphea nodded understandingly.

She pressed harder, her hand glowing a dark maroon color. The area where she was touching started lighting up too, except it was a color between bronze and gold, it was hard to tell because it was very faint. The sensation felt... Odd. It felt like the woman's hand was going through her body, fumbling around in her chest, searching for something. After a few moments of complete silence, the woman pulled back.

"That's quite the core you've got there. I had to dig a bit to find it, it's small and dull right now, but with my help it will grow stronger, and so will you. This is going to be fun project, I'm already getting excited!" Khala clapped her hands and smiled devilishly as she alternated her gaze between Silas and Alphea.

"Wait a minute..."
Silas and Khala looked at Alphea, who had a confused expression. "I thought... Humans didn't have magic. Why do you...?" The strange woman sneaked a look at the commander, to which he nodded.

"Well... That's because I'm not human."

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