Where Loyalties Lie (boyxboy)

Chapter Ten

Arroe sat next to his bed watching as Aldrian slept. After the horrors of the dungeon that really seemed to be all he was doing. That and eating. Every time the boy awoke Arroe was there watching over him. The times of consciousness came few and far between the first day and a half.

By the end of the second day the youngling had gained enough magic back to start using his glamour again and Arroe watched with barely contained curiosity as the magicked disguise flickered back into place.

A couple of hours later the boy woke up. Aldrian looked around. He was in a large ornate room, laying in the softest bed he'd felt in ages. There was a presence near to him and he turned his head to the right to see Arroe dozing lightly in a chair sat next to the bed.

"Arroe," Aldrian tried softly not sure if he really wanted to wake the man, but at the same time really needing him awake. The man woke with a jerk.

"Aldrian, you're awake!" the man said excitedly as he eyed the very awake youngling.

Aldrian just nodded, he was aware he was awake, but it was still nice of Arroe to point that out. He'd hate to think this all a dream where he'd wake up back in that dungeon.

Arroe took in the sight of the youngling. He really did look so much better than he had two days ago. And, "You really do look like the Oath-breaker," Arroe thought out loud. He hadn't really seen it at first but, now that he had seen the kid without his glamour on, he had to admit the similarities were endless.

"Who's the Oath-breaker?" Aldrian asked. He remembered Firen asking about that person while interrogating him.

Arroe sighed, of course Aldrian wouldn't know who the oath-breaker was. He had grown up exclusively in the human world. He was probably the only elf that didn't know of Nri'Alda. This was going to take a lot of careful explaining.

"It's a rather long story, are you sure you're up for it?" Arroe warned slightly trying to talk Aldrian out of wanting to hear it.

"I've got time," Aldrian sat up against the headboard and waited for Arroe to explain.

"Well, I'm sure you've realize by now that I'm not exactly human. That no one around here is human."

"You know, I have noticed that," the youngling exclaimed his tone slightly mocking. He was acting all cool-as-a-cucumber on the outside but on the inside Aldrian was freaking out. It was one thing for him to joke about the man being something other than human but it was another thing entirely to hear it from the man's mouth.

He wasn't sure how he felt about it. And he didn't know whether to believe what Arrow was telling him.

"We're elves," Arroe explained unaware of the inner turmoil Aldrian was battling.

To Aldrian, this explanation made sense. Elves made sense. And he wanted to believe what Arroe was saying. There had been too many truths lately that he had spoken that people hadn't believed. He didn't want to be that kind of skeptic to Arroe.

So he decided he'd listen to the man's tale as if everything was the truth. "Alright," Aldrian agreed when he realized Arroe was waiting for him to say something after that last announcement.

"'Alright'?" Arroe questioned. "I just tell you I'm an elf and all you say is 'alright'?"

"Would you rather I freak out?"

The elf cringed, "No, 'alright' will do."

Arroe rearranged himself in his chair, getting into a more comfortable position before launching into the heart of the explanation. "Well, in elf-culture there are certain practices and traditions that aren't followed in other cultures."