Lovely Dark Things

THIRTEEN (ISELEN POV)

"Sorry to interrupt, I just happen to know what's going on..." Both elves get up abruptly and Aethis leans his hand on the handle of his sword with a threatening attitude. I raise my hands to show him I'm not carrying weapons and stay still very close to the bush behind which Ruby's still hidden. "All those beasts that are attacking your forest and changing the balance of nature, I know you can feel it..." I explain looking right at the Priestess and fear gives way to cautiousness and curiosity in her eyes. "I know the reason why all those things are happening..."

"Why would a mere human have information about what's going on in Avelorn?" Aethis asks mockingly and I raise an eyebrow, angrily.

"Maybe because I'm not a mere human... Sometimes, gods choose the most unexpected people as they puppets. Believe me, I know it well," I answer bitterly. Alarielle sits down on the bench again and holds her lover's hand, pulling to force him to flop down next to her.

"You're right, young human. I'll listen to what you want to tell me and I hope, for your own sake, that it makes sense."

"All right," I whisper sighing a bit tired of this condescending attitude. Everybody despises humans in this kingdom, maybe I should let the chaos engulf them and the gods will start from scratch creating new more open-minded creatures. But that would mean that I'd lose Ruby too and I'm not ready to let her go. "I'm going to tell my friend to join this meeting, please, tell your boy to calm down..." The assassin gets up slowly and moves closer to me while the two love birds stare at her bewildered but not particularly nervous. They haven't run away scared as I was expecting... probably because my girl doesn't look like a dark elf due to her gorgeous eyes.

"Since when elves and humans are friends?" Aethis asks mockingly and Ruby chuckles, nodding.

"Yes, well, our association is very peculiar," she admits proudly.

"Can we focus on solving our problem? The chaos is getting close and it'll be the end of this world if we don't do anything right now." I complain angrily and the High Priestess holds her breath suddenly, looking at me with her mouth wide open.

"So that's it... A cycle officially ends and the gods want to start a new one, unless we fight with dignity and show them that this world's races haven't lost their values, strength and self-respect. If we prove them that our souls still shine brightly and our spirits aren't drained, they'll have mercy on us, maybe."

"Yes, you're right," I answer frowning confused. "How do you know that? I mean, most people have never heard about these patterns of cyclical renovation, even those elves that have lived for centuries..."

"They're inside my head," Alarielle points at her temple and smiles sadly, slumping her shoulders. "The spirit of every priestess that has lived in this world joined me when they anointed me and now their knowledge is mine, they talk to me..."

"All of them at the same time?" I ask surprised. "Don't they drive you crazy? It must feel terrible, like having a psychotic episode you can't get rid of..." Aethis looks at me offended but his lover smiles sadly and nods.

"Yes, sometimes it's something hard to deal with. I don't know what we're going to do now..."

"We'll work together to go to war united the same way the Great King did, he managed to succeed once, after all. His plan was great, I don't see why we can't copy it," I answer shrugging. "And when I say we should work together, I mean all of us," I point at my girl and they look at me, perplexed. "Let me introduce you to Ruby Rose, from the House of Kouran Darkhand, Captain of the Black Guard, and I'm the advisor of the Queen of the Dark Elves."

"You must be joking," the Lord of Caledor laughs out loud while the assassin gets tensed next to me and moves her hand to touch the knife hanging from her belt instinctively; if he keeps behaving like an idiot, my girl is going to teach him a lesson about why making fun of dark elves is a very bad idea.