When Destiny Burns, Ep. 2 A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover [Discontinued]

Chapter 20.1 Proper views pt. 2

"I have resumed contact with one of my spies, near Helgrind. He says he is ready is ready to resume his activities now that everything has calmed down around there."

"You have a spy, Raia? Why?"

"Information is a weapon, Nasuada. You should know that."

"Very well. And?"

"I've heard some pretty interesting things about the Ra'zac. Apparently, they have found something of great importance in the Hadarac desert, a few weeks ago. The king himself holds great interest in it."

"I see. Did he mention what it was?"

"No."

Conversation between Raia and Nasuada, 2 days before Blood-oath Celebration

The madness of the elves was no true madness, Maine soon learned. While they seemed to have left every single part of their stoic appearance and supposed courteous attitude behind them, it did not inhibit their capacity to think rationally. It just changed their way of thinking rational. The constant music and magical presence in the air seemed to make them susceptible to the things that they had first seemed to have lacked. They danced, they sang, and they had fun like any human had. It was just stupid that they had to wait a hundred years to actually do so. If they had shown signs of their current behavior before, Maine might have not felt so frustrated. But they had always focused on making controlled and polite appearances and that sudden change was a disaster for his nerves.

And it didn't make any sense either. The shift between their stoic, gracious attitude and...this...was just too sudden. It was an assault on all of his senses and it didn't stop at the normal five. The never-ending music, the constant display of visible magic and the sheer presence of the entire thing were pressing down on him like a thick carpet and if he didn't watch out, it would suffocate him.

The Spartan was sitting against a tree near the edge of the forest, watching the entire thing unravel. The elves were doing the strangest things and it wasn't just their deeds that made them weird. Oromis had told him that some elves were extremely vain, wanting to look precisely how they wanted to look. The majority of the elves accepted how they looked, but there was also a group of those pointy-eared weirdoes that took a different view on life. They used magic to alter their appearance into something that they seemed to like better. It was ridiculous; there were elves that had made only small changes, like the color of their eyes or the properties of their hair, but there were also those who took it more extreme. Those elves had made changes to their entire body, replacing nails with claws or growing feathers along the arm. It only served to irritate him and every time he would see one, he would look away.

Aeraleth had the time of her life though; because he did not want to have anything to do with virtually everyone who came to meet them, she had their full attention. The visiting elves were overjoyed that there wasn't one, but two dragons in the forest. Whether they were happy because the future of the dragons looked less bleak or because they could kill the king for them, Maine did not know. And neither did he care. He longed to be back with his armor, fighting on the front lines. But there was no more fighting, as the Covenant had fallen apart, and the Elites were at peace with humanity...

'What ails you, little soldier?' Aeraleth asked him, having just returned greetings to a pair of elves.

'This place is giving me a headache,' he replied.

The dragon sounded surprised. 'Why? Does the music not satisfy you?'

It wasn't that the music wasn't satisfactory; it was the effect that it had on his mind. He had enjoyed himself for a while, even trying some food when he had gotten hungry, but that had changed throughout the hours. His head was starting to hurt again and he had had moments where he was feeling a certain pining in his body, which had nothing to do with a physical itch. It could only be relieved –temporarily so- by moving around. The music itself...it was making him feel strange. He couldn't describe what it did exactly to him, but it could not be positive.