The Mountains Blade

Chapter Fifty Three

Chapter Fifty Three: Untold Truths

Elwyn went to the one place that always offered her comfort. She tore out the door and through the back of the castle. She was faster with her heritage now flowing through her veins. Her Nephilim powers and endurance. Although her healing still seemed lax compared to others. The sky had begun to darken and irritation filled Elwyn as she realized whose doing it was. It was not long into her run that the ground grew wet and mud splashed her boots.

She stopped at the cave portal in her woods and heaved a breath. She listened to the rain pour down, down and down.
A hand laid on her shoulder and instead of tensing Elwyn turned. Evander's shirt was soaked through, the dark fabric hugging every muscle and crevice of his chiseled body. His dark eyes searched hers and then just as suddenly she turned back from him.

She didn't enter the portal but only stared at it before she finally slid in.

Elwyn could feel Evander following her but she didn't care. She didn't care at all as she crawled out of the opening into the human world. It was daytime but there was no sun. Here it rained and Elwyn felt relief that it was not her doing.
She walked through the mud covered forest that she had once been so used to and stopped at the edge. A few meters away beyond the protection of the forests leaves, was 7th street. Luminal's glowed within the misty rain, the lights on and a young couple clad in sweaters walked out. 

The store was open again, the lights repaired, boarded windows gone. No blood stains or decaying smell. Elwyn grasped ahold of the tree nearest to herself and her vision blurred with tears.

She felt so incredibly lost and alone. Her hands trembled as she remembered the first man she killed or- thing. She could still see Maxwells dead eyes. Elwyn slid to her knees with a thud, wet, cold mud stuck to her pants.  Evander sat across from her, his back against a tree. "We were supposed to  have dinner that night. Instead he died in my arms." Elwyn whispered, slowly turning her head to Evander. His face was empathetic but he remained silent. "Aldric took me away from here not even a day later."

Evanders face betrayed his rage, the muscles in his defined jaw clenching. "We will find the ones who have caused all your pain, all the pain to those who were undeserving and make them understand what it feels like to suffer."

Elwyns heart squeezed in a nauseating way and she neither agreed nor disagreed. She turned her attention back to 7th street and watched as people meandered about as if not just a month or so ago someone had died. Elwyn watched until the sun shone golden on both their faces and the air smelled like it did after a storm.

As they both walked back to the portal, the sun set and sky now pink; Elwyns shoulders sagged. Exhaustion spread through her like a quick fighting virus.
"Did you really torture and kill children."

Evander stopped short and looked at her with a look that may have been hurt. "No."
Elwyn studied his tense posture, doubt shadowing his answer.
Evander clenched his fist and closed his eyes for a moment. Elwyn watched him take a sharp intake of breath before he opened his eyes. "300 years ago my father gave me the throne." Elwyn tried not to think of the age he was as he continued. "He was a ruthless man who fathered myself, and Aldric. Marlowe was my mother's child from when she remarried. My father was a cruel man, who delighted in the harm of others. He killed women and children alike, when I came into power, the connotation of what he was stayed."
"Why not dispute it?" Elwyn asked, thinking of the happy children playing in The Obsidian kingdom.
"It keeps them safe, people seeing me as my father was."

In Goldmoon the sun sat on the horizon painting the city in golden hues. Avelina stood atop the balcony of the throne room outside and stared at what would be her kingdom. The cities were quiet, trash and filth littered the streets. There were boarded up buildings and homes, roads blocked off that had burned storefronts and carts of bodies were being rolled through the streets to the mass graves in the fields beyond the city.
Avelina closed her eyes as tears brimmed them. "It's not your fault." Her father said as he emerged from the stairs. Avelina looked at her father with gleaming eyes. "How is it not? I am your daughter, the would be queen and the kingdom is in shambles."
Ashered nodded at his daughter. "I know."
"It's your fault." She whispered. "Yours and moms. How could you let the kingdom fall like this?" Avelina choked on the words as tears slid down her cheeks.
Ashereds eye blazed angrily before his expression cooled. "Not everything is so straight forward, Avelina."
Avelina scoffed, throwing her hands up in dismay as she gestured roughly to the landscape below. "This is what happened when I was gone!"
"Exactly you were gone, Avelina." Ashered exclaimed.
Avelina clenched her fist angrily. "I was gone because I wasn't going to leave Elwyn to be tormented and murdered."
"We didn't leave your sister without reason." Ashered snapped.
"Then what was the reason?"
"Your mother was-is- she's dying Avelina."
Ashereds anger dissipated into a sad croak. "She's dying." He whispered.
Avelina blinked, taking a step back to examine her father's disheveled features.
"We had to travel to the human world, it was her or the kingdom and I chose her." He said bracing his hands on the railing.
"No, that's not true." Avelina whispered, tears streaming over her jaw.
A sob and dry laugh escaped her father as he placed his face in his hands. He looked at his daughter and heir nodding with tears in his eyes. "Yes, and we couldn't go after either of you. Even though your mother tried. It's what made her so weak."
Ashered scrubbed his face, tired eyes bright against the suns departure.
"Your mother and I can't travel past Goldmoon. When Elwyn was born we made a deal to keep her power a secret and that was the cost. Never being able to leave Goldmoon for the rest of the continent."

Avelina turned to the throne room behind her, noticing her mother's absence immediately. "Where is she?" She asked, eyes wide with fear. "She's resting."
Avelinas heart pounded in her chest like a galloping horse.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" She asked.
Ashereds mouth formed a grim line. "You were already gone, Lina."