As a Cursed elf, one born with no magic, Edwyr has been forced to live among humans for over ten years. He doesn't mind his job of defending the town that he now lives in from beast attacks, and he gets along with most of the humans well enough, but...
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Edwyr realized that Lanna had little idea of how elven society worked—mostly because he'd never truly told her or Arbane about it—but telling him to act nice to Feyrith was just absurd. Every time he even looked at the other elf, he grew angry and resentful, and he didn't feel like trying to keep it inside of himself. He owed Feyrith absolutely nothing.
Of course, this kind of thinking would have made Edwyr wonder why he'd come over here in the first place, but after meeting that woman in Everward, he was more than a little curious about this ruin itself, rather than simply helping Feyrith.
Edwyr didn't believe Feyrith when he'd said that he knew nothing about it, but there was little Edwyr could do to force him to answer. He supposed he would just have to wait and see, though he wished his reaction to being around Feyrith wasn't quite so strong. He wasn't even entirely sure why, but every time he even thought about Feyrith, he got immediately much more furious than was reasonable. He still couldn't believe that an elf like this had been so easily defeated by some humans. It was so ridiculous it almost made him want to laugh.
But he'd already told Feyrith exactly what he thought about it, so Edwyr would try to contain himself. His friends had been giving him strange looks since they'd left Everward, particularly Lanna, and Edwyr didn't need to draw more attention to himself.
"We're not going to make it to the next town today," Arbane said from behind Edwyr, bringing him out of his thoughts. He frowned up at the dark blue sky, the last few rays of sunlight still present barely visible over the trees in the distance. When had it gotten so dark? He'd completely missed that.
Edwyr hadn't exactly memorized the route or the villages and towns they would pass on it, but he was sure Arbane was right. If it was already this late, it was still a better idea to stay out here with minimal cover than to try to make it. At night, a lot of nocturnal predators went hunting, and they were much more likely to come across some while moving, especially since they would have to have torches so as not to lose sight of the road.
"Guess we'll have to camp out here," Lanna replied, sighing. "You can protect us, right, Fey?"
"Fey?"
Edwyr wouldn't deny that he enjoyed hearing the very subtle but definitely offended tone the elf had used, even though he fully related to it. Arbane had tried calling Edwyr Ed when they'd first met, and even now the idea made Edwyr annoyed. He was well aware that humans had an obsession with nicknames, but he didn't mind them too much as long as they sounded good. Ed certainly did not.
"Yes, of course I can protect you," Feyrith said, clearly trying to ignore the nickname, much like he'd ignored Edwyr's taunts earlier. Edwyr felt a little guilty about that. After all, the reason he was treating Feyrith this way wasn't because he hated Feyrith specifically, but because he hated the Council. But Edwyr didn't feel like taking it back either.
"Great, then let's find a place to set up camp."
Edwyr let Arbane and Lanna take the lead, following them off the road and toward the bottom of the cliff they had been riding along for a very long time now. It still took a while to even get to it, as it was farther than he'd originally thought due to how dark it was getting.
