Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 59

"I cannot believe the nerve of that man!"

Several hours had passed since they had been introduced to Dranor, since he had denied them when they requested him to take them to Fas Sheras, and Erica was using that time to rant.

They had carved out a section of the cliff using Spiritual Evocation. Thanks to Sylvia's precise usage of her spirits, the floor was flat, and the ceiling and walls were sturdy so they wouldn't collapse on them. A large bonfire sat in the center of this makeshift room. Caspian, Elincia, Erica, and everyone else were hovering around the bonfire to try and keep themselves warm in this cold environment.

"I could understand him not wanting to help. I mean, we did kill his wife." Erica grimaced as she mentioned this, but Caspian was the one who felt a lance shoot through his heart. He was, after all, the one who had killed Vanya. "However, even if he doesn't want to help us, he didn't have to be so rude about it."

"Is he a bad man?" asked Tiffania.

"He's a very bad man," Erica responded.

"Tiffa doesn't like bad men!" Tiffania's cheeks swelled like a chipmunk with too many acorns in its mouth.

"I'm still shocked you guys were acquainted with him before me," Maddison said. She tilted her head and added, "And that he tried to kill you. The guy doesn't seem motivated to do much of anything, but I guess that's because his wife is dead."

"I'm honestly surprised he is still alive," Caspian murmured as he drew his knees up to his chest. Everyone turned to him, but he was staring into the fire and recalling the past.

"What do you mean?" asked Erica.

Elincia answered for him. "When an elf couple gets married, they are bound through a ritual that ties their lives together. They can hear each other's thoughts, feel the other's emotions. Their very lives are forever entwined. This bond is so strong that even death cannot keep them apart. If one of them dies, the other should not follow that far behind."

The others stared silently at Elincia as she explained this to them, even Sylvia, though she didn't look as surprised as the others.

"So... how did Dranor survive?" asked Maddison.

Biting her lip as she thought about that question, Elincia finally answered, "I think... Vanya must have cut the connection between them just as she was about to die. I've never heard of anyone doing such a thing, but it isn't impossible to do."

"Hey, Ele. Don't ever cut the bond between us, okay? My life is completely meaningless without you."

"Caspian..."

While Caspian and Elincia were having their own short, private conversation, the others were discussing the bond and its implications.

"That's some pretty deep stuff," Maddison admitted with a sigh.

"It sounds sort of familiar... this bond, I mean." Erica mused over her own words, and then turned to Sylvia. "While the bond between sorceress and knight doesn't become that deep, it certainly sounds similar to this elven marriage ritual, doesn't it, Sylvia?"

Sighing as Erica called her out, Sylvia glanced at all of them as she spoke with slow, meaningful words. "The elven marriage ritual and the sorceress' knighting ceremony are one and the same. After the end of the great war, one of my concessions when signing the non-aggression treaty was they give me that ritual. I realized even back then that we sorceresses were at a disadvantage unless we had a knight who could never betray us and could locate us if we ever got separated." She shrugged. "The bond between sorceress and knight isn't as powerful because we are humans, but it's still better than nothing."