Asher the Insane

63 - Rike and his Journey to the Crown

"I have not come here to talk about myself. I'd rather have it that you tell me more about your life, if that isn't too much of a hassle for you," Asher stated.

After he'd agreed to listen to an old man's stories, Rike told him about his own life.

"I am old, very old in fact. As I told you, high-elves usually don't count their years, though I did, which is usually for any long-lived elf. In a few months, I will turn twenty-thousand-and-ninety-four. I believe I am one of the oldest elves that is still alive and conscious. Yet, because I am a high-elf, nothing, not even a wound or illness, can kill me. Stab me, poison me, even rip of my head from my neck, nothing would end me.
When I was younger, I frequently heard about the marvels of the world but never experienced them for myself.
High elves are known of, not seen. So the idea of travelling was heavily discouraged.

So I stayed. I had a family like everyone else. I received high-elf education, which has the highest standard in this world at least.

I chose a familiar when I was twelve years old, which is hardly a thinking being for elves. A type of spirit that I established an unbreakable link with and extended my life to, who will be my companion for the rest of my days.

Rike was engulfed in a serpentine pattern of smoke as it surged up from within him.

"If a high-elf really wants to die, they kill their familiar, but frequently, we prefer to sleep instead of choosing the ultimate end," he said, embracing the smoke snake. "Even my own children are asleep, as is the majority of my family."

Wystus was dismissed, and the smoke dissipated.

"If you stay an elf, you need to learn a bit about 'our' culture," Rike answered the question Asher had on his mind, 'Why is he telling me this?'"

He sat down again, "I grew up, worked as a councilor for the high court for eight hundred years. I married and had children, but even my family also believed that life would become quite uninteresting after another fifteen thousand.

I am the last of all of my family, the Teherendarels, who is still awake.

After serving as a mentor to younger elves for a while, a thought buried itself into my mind, 'What do immortal, reclusive creatures need my guidance for?'

I left.

Even so, I wasn't actually "traveling" in the traditional meaning of the word. Indeed, I went from place to place, but I didn't really experience any of the locations I visited.

My nature merely demanded that I... avoid.

Avoid all which seemed foreign to me, but over the years I began to have the strength to feel and embrace the different wonders of the world which I had missed out on for so long.

Over three hundred years ago, I arrived in Chauk, a little area devoid of any genuine authority or significance.

I believed I could rule as king, but how could I persuade the populace to elect me as their leader? I was an outsider, completely devoid of connection to the land.

I made an effort to transform Chauk into something more than adequate.

First, I built the citadel as my headquarters and as the center of my coming kingdom.

Then I surrounded it with high-quality, though, vacant cities surrounded by fertile farmlands and highways that connected it all throughout the entire nation; giving it all to the people at no cost.

I powered the technologies, which were mostly unfamiliar to anyone who wasn't entrenched in high elf society, with mana pools which served as foundations to the cities.

I believed at first that I should try to recreate antiquated technologies from our world. But you have previously seen some of my futile attempts at this. In turn, I abandoned the idea.

Nothing we had couldn't be replicated in this world with magic, but better.

From the moment I had made my choice, everything has improved in quality, including living standards, life expectancy, and education.

No country or any other political power had attacked us or tried to take us over forcefully since I had become the figurehead of Chauk.

And now I try everything to avoid the topic of politics, because I found it tiring.

The only thing I wanted is to uplift and protect the people of this nation.

I still am trying to.

Transportation will also be much better in the future.

You saw the disk we rode upon? I will try to install a few of them across the country on major holds and other places of importance."