Betrothal's Price

Chapter 9: New News

“Why did we all start hating each other?” Leo found himself curious as he walked through the palace halls with Lady Isla.

Isla sighed. “I guess I have some time to tell you before I need to prepare for mine and Lia- that is, Prince Liam’s ride to the Sahran Kingdom. I don’t know everythin’ but Uncle Levi made sure I knew enough.”

“Exactly my point, he is not nice.” Leo cut in to further his point.

“Eh.” Isla shrugged weakly; She felt no pull to protest, Uncle Levi really wasn’t that nice. “Well, Silvestrians and humans used to live peacefully, only slightly aware of the other’s existence.”

“Slightly?”

“Mm-hmm. We used to live everywhere, even in the places that, later on, became human kingdoms. Eventually, some of us ventured from our homes and discovered a human settlement at the time: Littus. We mingled but didn’t expose ourselves fully.”

“Littus? You mean that old kingdom that’s pretty much abandoned now? Did you guys, like, kill everyone there or something?” Leo cut in again, causing Isla’s expression to fall flat.

She shook her head. “No, we got along quite well with the humans there. We were welcomed with open arms and even trusted us with the aid of establishin’ the first kingdom. They befriended us, even offering to let us freely live among them as long as we wished. With that kind of welcome, we offered the same, and for years we all lived peacefully. In fact in some kingdoms you can still see works of the Forest elves in the Littus Kingdom.”

Leo raised a brow, “Then what happened?”

“The problem was that not every human settlement felt the same respect. Others discovered our existence in the settlement and uncovered the magic we held from hindsight. The new settlements of the, later on, kingdoms began trying to run us out. So we stuck to ourselves. We hid behind the EverGreen Forest in which Forest elves created after the instance. Unfortunately, years after more kingdoms were established, Early Petrans discovered us through their curious journeys through the EverGreen Forest. They began capturin’ Silvestrian creatures as pets for the rich folk and Silvetsrian nations for exotic slaves for entertainment and torture techniques.”

“Yeesh! So you guys killed them, right?” Leo seemed almost excited to hear the end as if a child anticipating the end of a bedtime story.

“More or less. Shortly after we went into deeper hiding for several years, before King Eewan and Queen Zara, the Griffin king and queen, began to stick up for the Silvestrians. They banded many of us together and waged war on all humans which started the Great Vindictan War. After the unsuccessful war on both ends ended, we appointed them our rulers for their protection. But the Littus kingdom was destroyed in the war.” Isla wrapped up.

“Wow! No wonder you guys hated us so bad.” Leo’s eyes sparkled with shock and excitement.

Isla shrugged again. “Maybe, but we’d just retaliated through violence. We didn’t take slaves but we attacked all humans, forgettin’ everythin’ the Littusians did for us. The kingdom fell, because we attacked through that kingdom.” It didn’t feel like they made the “perfect” choice, but she couldn’t go back to the past. And even if she could, who would listen to her? They were filled with provoked hatred.

“Hmm, so, now, we just decided one day to make peace with you guys. Any hard feelings about it?”

“Not really. The past is past and everyone does stupid stuff, granted not to that degree, but I- we believe, change is inevitable. We’ve been spendin’ years establishin’ peace with each of the kingdoms since betrothal. So we don’t think that’s the case for many of us. As long as everyone plays their cards correctly, and communicates with everyone, we should all thrive. All relationships, including political ones, require proper communication.” Isla laid out what relative opinions came to mind.