Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: The Sorceress' Knights Tournament

Chapter 25

Elincia woke up in a bed. Again. It was happening far too often for her liking, but she supposed she should have just been grateful that she was still alive. After what happened this time, the pain of feeling like she was being burnt from the inside, she was lucky to have even woken up.

"I see that you have finally come to," Erica said. Elincia turned her head toward the voice. The raven-haired sorceress was sitting on a chair by her bedside. Sitting on Erica's lap, Tiffania had curled up into something resembling a ball and was snoring away.

"Lady Erica..."

Elincia tried to sit up, but her body felt like it was made of lead. She could barely lift her arms, much less push herself into a sitting position. Erica pushing her back onto the bed further hampered her ability to sit up.

"Now, now. Don't try to get up. You were injured quite badly this time."

"W-what happened?"

Even though Elincia remembered what had happened, she didn't know how it happened or why. What had caused her to feel such indescribable pain?

"I can't say what happened for sure, but I assume that the reason your attempt at Spiritual Evocation backfired is because of those ears of yours," Erica said simply.

"My ears?"

Elincia stared at Erica for several seconds. Then a jolt of lightning traveled through her body. Reaching up, she felt for her ears. They were long and pointy. Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned her head and looked at her own reflection in the window, at her ears, which jutted from her hair and ended in a pair of points. She turned back to Erica, her mind in a panic.

"I-I can explain!"

"Oh, there's no need to explain, dear. I already know that you're an elf. Really, there isn't a need to explain that," Erica said with a vicious smile. Elincia trembled as she lay helplessly in bed. "What I really want to know is how you, an elf, could have become a sorceress, especially since it appears you can't even use Spiritual Evocation."

Elincia didn't know what to do, but one thing had been made clear. Her secret was out. There was nothing left to do but fess up and tell Erica everything.

Lady Sylvia is going to be disappointed in me.

"I... I come from Fas Sheras," Elincia started.

"The high kingdom of the elves," Erica said, surprise showing in her widening eyes. "If memory serves me, that's currently the most powerful elven kingdom in the world."

Fas Sheras was an elven kingdom to the north east. Situated between Helheim and Moksha, it lay hidden deep with the frozen forest, Everest Falls, so named after the many waterfalls located within it.

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Elincia admitted with a shrug. "All I know is that Fas Sheras was embroiled in a civil war when I was five. I was rescued by one of my bodyguards during that time, but he was killed while trying to protect me. I only escaped thanks to him."

Elincia clutched at her blanket as she remembered what happened, of the fires that had ravaged her home that fateful day.

"Oto no nai mahiro, kaze wa tada akarui."

Elincia sang as she danced through her mother's garden. Brightly lit flowers shone with an otherworldly iridescence. A plethora of color surrounded her as the glowing flowers responded to her song, as if they were singing with her. She smiled joyously as she danced, moving through the steps that her mother had shown her with clumsy enthusiasm.