The first thing I heard after a moment of stunned silence was the sound of a sword being drawn. Looking to the sound I saw Mister scarface elf with one of his swords drawn and standing in front of Elestia. With a serious look on his face he motions for the two guards at the door to me.

“Restrain it.” Scarface points his sword at me while speaking.

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I haven’t done anything.” I drop the crystal's I was holding. I’m already bed ridden how much more restrained can I be.

“What are you planning demon? Why are you here?” The guards pass Princess Elestia and scarface heading to the bed I’m lying on. This isn’t good.

“STOP!” the guards stop as Elestia yells. “This man is my guest. He has asked for help and I will see to it that he gets it.” Elestia has an angry look in her eyes as she stairs down scarface.

“Princess, demons are not allowed on palace grounds, allow us to cleanse it.” Fuck that does not sound good.

“I’m not a demon.” I hope to hell not, even though I suspected it when I first arrived. I can’t be one?

“You will do no such thing. If he was truly a demon he would have been revealed by now as such.”

“Princess the crystal said he was a demon.” Mister scarface waved in my direction while looking at princess Elestia.

“No! Having some demon blood is not the same as being a demon himself. You should know this.” Scarface grimaced and lowered his eyes; there must be a story there. Elestia looked at Halidashin. “Halidashin also knows this.” The mentioned elf was still on his knees staring at me slack jawed. “Halidashin Cis’Gorn?” Halidashin twitched then blinked twice and looked at the princess with a dazed look.

“What?”

“Is he a demon or not?” Elestia raised her left arm and pointed to me.

“No… he isn’t.” Halidashin stood back up closed his eyes and composed himself. “In fact he has celestial blood as well as demon. Both of which will counter each other from over influencing his behavior, yet that does not mean he does not have a psychopathic or benevolent personality.” He brushes his legs off and straitens up. “Besides if he was a demon I would not have been able to treat him the way I did, not to mention he would have been burned by the wards placed in the palace.”

Scarface sighs and sheaths his sword then motions the guards back to the door. I watch the two guards in armor go back to their place at the door. I’m glad and relieved that didn’t go the way it looked like it was. Picking the crystals back up I motion Halidashin to take them back, which he does. Scarface looks back to me.

“Speaking of wards how did you get through the barriers guarding the palace gardens?” Barriers? I don’t remember any. Maybe that arch with the runes that lit up is what he is referring to.

“I don’t know. If you are referring to the arch on the path that leads to the river, well I just walked through it. The arch lit up but nothing happened. I don’t think I felt anything, well not in the state I was in.”

“That’s impossible no one can just walk through a barrier as if it is nothing.” It looks like scarface is getting angry. That’s not good for me he’s probably pretty high up in there security around here. “Tell me how…”

“Commander.” Elestia interrupts him. “I asked you to treat him like a guest.” She speaks to him sternly and narrows her eyes at him.

“But princess he’s trespassed on palace grounds and all we found by retracing his tracks is a broken ward and a small crater reeking of arcane magic. We need to know more about him.”

“Excuse me captain but I can surmise how he just walked through the wards like nothing.” Scarface, I mean the captain looked at Halidashin.

“Well spit it out and get strait to the point with none of your tangents.” Halidashin snorted

“Rude as always it seems. Very well.” He straitens up and puts the pompous air back up. “I practically explained it earlier and with the new revelations it is explained further. First was the staggering amount of mana I had to siphon off of him just to keep him alive. Just the amount of mana he has is enough to just walk in as you said. Second are the results of the test which explains his looks and his absurd amount of mana in his body. Greater dragons, High Host celestials and greater demons have the capability to negate some barriers with innate traits.” He turns and looks at me with mild curiosity in his eyes. “With Vedrin, demon and dragon in his blood it would explain the shape and size of his horns. The celestial blood would explain the slight glow in his green eyes.” Wait! What? My eyes glow? “The Demon and celestial blood could explain his muscle tone and height. The dragon blood could explain his skins toughness and his weight.”

“Well he looks handsome.” I quickly look to Princess Elestia. She has a bit of redness in her cheeks and was looking away from me. Did she just call me handsome?

“Thanks I guess” captain scarface gives me a dirty look. Damn man calm down I’m just thanking her for the compliment.

“That’s probably explained by his celestial and elfin heritage, as his ears are just like ours. I have even herd that some demons have exceptional beauty and or handsome features.” Captain scarface looks back to the Healer.

“I said no tangents.”

“Fine I have done all I can here, for he is in good health. I suggest you find him a teacher quickly now that he can access his magic.” I can do that now? Wasn’t I casting magic with the time slow thing earlier? “Preferably before he blows something up with his absurd mana pool.” I think he just twitched slightly. I think he’s jealous. “I will suggest a sorcerer, or a wizard if one can’t be found soon. A mage would be out of the question with the amount of aggregate magic he has.” Ha he is jealous for he keeps twitching every time he mentions my magic. Speaking of which, I wonder how much I have. Judging by everything Halidashin said it must be a lot.

“Thank you Halidashin Cis’Gorn you have done well.” Elestia nods to Halidashin.

“Princess.” He puts his right palm on his heart and the other behind him and bows with his head down. Halidashin turns and heads out of the room as the guards open the door for him. Princess Elestia turns and looks back to me and smiles. I return her smile with one of my own. Captian scarface’s eyes squint at me again.

“Princess I still have a few questions for your guest may I?” great what is he going ask now?

“You may captain and please remain civil.” He grimaces.

“I will your highness if he will as well.”

“You have my Word captain. Please don’t hold it against me if I don’t get up as I’m rather bed ridden at this moment.” With a Grunt the captain nods at me.

“I am Captain Little Len’til.” He stopped talking and looked at me like he was daring me to say something. If memory serves me Lentils are small beans from Europe or was it the middle-east? So his name is little bean that’s funny, but with his face like that and his hand on his sword I best not joke about it.

“Greetings Captain Len’til how may I help you.” I hope it was safe to leave out the ‘Little’ part of his name. Captain Len’til visibly relaxes and takes his hand away from his sword.

“I have just a few. We found a corps of a Merskit wile backtracking your trail.” Damn that’s some tracking skills these guys have I’m impressed. “Did you kill it?”

“Yes, I assume it wasn’t a sacred beast or something…right?”

“No, it was a menace and had eaten several people from the village just north of here. In fact there was a fifty gold reward for its death. Considering you had crude Merskit leather as clothes I will believe you, yet how did you kill it considering you have no weapons on you other than Merskit claws.”

“I had a stick I was using as a walking stick that I used to bash its head in.” Hope they buy that and not that I kicked it to death, for I don’t think he would believe that I killed it in only two hits. He looks at me for a moment and has a look in his eye's that tells me he didn’t buy it completely.

“I guess that could be true, a broken branch was found near that had some of its flesh on it. We found a crater from some magical blast that was still radiating mana when it was found. It is where your trail ended do you remember anything about it or before it?” Ok play it safe and go with my earlier attempt at memory loss.

“No. I only remember waking up in the middle of the crater with no idea how I got there or were I was.” That is mostly true, for I do not know how I got there or were I was. “As for before.” I wave my right arm. “All I have is my name Richard Von Coldfire.” Princess looks at me with worry in her eyes. I’m glad it’s not pity, and Captain Len’til just grunts again.

“Very well, as the healer mentioned your supposed memory loss can be a symptom of what afflicted you, and as you are the princess’s guest I shall believe you for now. Don’t make the mistake that I trust you. I will be watching you.” he turns to Elestia. “Princess I have heard that Shalinith Len’til has arrived in Erivenyeth. I will see if she is willing to take an apprentice.” It is going to be a pain to remember all these elvish names. Captain Len’til repeats Halidashins salute.

“That is a very good idea Captain. Tell her it’s a favor for me and I’m sure she would jump at It.” with a smile she looks at the captain who returns the smile.

“I’m sure she would drop everything and rush up here.” He salutes Elestia and bows again. “Good day princess.”

“Good day Captain Len’til.” Elestia places her right palm over the center of her chest. Captain Len’til nods and exits the room. Elestia turns to me and smiles. “How are you feeling Richard?” I meet her eyes and I’m captivated by their silver sheen.

“I’m feeling much better. Thank you for helping me.”

“I am glad to hear that Richard. You looked like you were in so much pain and I couldn’t leave you like that. I don’t know why but when I saw you I could not stand you being in pain. It was like I’ve known you before. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?” She steps closer with a look in her eyes that makes my heart pound in my chest. Why am I feeling this way I don’t know her.

“I don’t know. All I know is that your singing and beauty momentarily made me forget my pain.” That is nothing but the truth, maybe the song had some magic to it, and boy did it come back with a vengeance when she stopped singing. She has a wry smile on her face as she takes the final step next to my bed.

“Did it now?” I look up to her and swallow as my stomach nots.

“Yes, I don’t think I would of made it to you if not for your song.” Her smile and enchanting eyes are captivating. I lift up my arm and reach for her hand. “Thank you for helping me.” She smiles at me and my heart pounds in my chest like it’s about to burst. Elestia reaches for my hand as time seems to slow down. Her hand slowly touches mine. As I look into her eyes I see an electrical arc from my hand to hers as they touch. My vision goes dark.

I feel fear, hate, and anger? All I see is smoke and the ground covered in coals as part of the ground looks so hot it’s liquefied. I’m running through this burnt landscape my breathing heavy. I see a black figure in the smoke to my left magic radiating from it. Anger rages in my mind as I lift up my left arm towards it.

“Burn!” I yell as blue fire erupts from my hand blasting the figure. The smoke is blasted away with the intensity of the flames speed. The figure screams out and teleports away. I feel my hart drop in fear and despair as I see two chard figures holding a woman.

“Efenia NOO!!” I scream as I try to teleport her away. All that happens is her body starts to flicker as I keep trying to teleport her away.

“You will suffer for what you did. Know your place.” A booming guttural voice speaks to me. Efenia looks to me with tears in her eyes. One of the burnt figures lifts a glowing sword and swings it down the center of the woman from her head down. A white line shines from the cut, and she screams a gut wrenching scream of pain that grates on my spine.

“NOOOOO...” I fall to my knees as Efenia explodes into light particles. My vision turns red as I scream out in sorrow and rage. Energy explodes out from me in all directions disintegrating the two beings before me as well as the ground beneath me. My vision turns redder and redder until I see nothing but black as the energy wave expands.

“Noooo!” I jerk up to a sitting position panting heavily the feelings of sorrow and rage fading. All I see is the stone ceiling as my vision returns blurry, as I feel tears on my face.

“Unhand her” my left hand is twisted and I’m shoved against the wall hard. I barely feel it. I look at who shoved me and I see one of the guards with his hand pressing me against the wall and his sword to my throat.

“What happened?” I blink and look to my left and see Elestia on her knees with tears streaming down her face. I know this woman. “Efenia?” I look at her confused as she looks up to me.

“Moric?” she blinks a couple of times as she meets my eyes.

“Your Highness are you ok? What did he do? Do you want us to silence him?” the guard holding a sword to my throat says angrily while the other helps Elestia up. She closes her eyes as she stands and takes a deep breath.

“Unhand him and go back to your post. I am fine.” the guard holding me against the wall twitches.

“But your highness there was a surge of magic. He did something to you.”

“I said UNHAND HIM.” Elestia yells at the guard holding me with anger in her voice. “Richard did nothing to me it was ylesviam.” What? That did not auto translate what is it? I look back to Elestia and meet her eyes. Her face and eyes are identical to the woman in the vision I just saw.

“What?” the guards hand pressure on my chest loosens and he removes his sword from my throat and looks at her in confusion. Is it just me or is the room suddenly very cold. I can see my breath and everyone else’s. I think I can feel and or almost see something radiating from Elestia.

“Did… you not…just hear me…Let HIM GO.” She lifts her hand toward the guard on the bed with me and a blue white mist rapidly bursts out towards the guard knocking him off the bed. I think I just witnessed my first use of magic. The nocked down guard quickly gets up off the floor and kowtows to Elestia. There is a layer of frost on his armor.

“Fa-fa-forgive me Pr-pr-princess I di-did not kn-know, n-no one ca-ca-could of known.” Damn how cold is he? I think the temperature in the room is below freezing judging how frost seems to be rapidly covering everything in it now. Strange! I dont feel the cold.

“Elestia I think you can forgive him.”

“What?” Elestia looks at me.

“I don’t think he new about ylesviam. Hell I don’t even know about it.” She just looks at me and blinks a few times. “I think I would have done the same thing if I was in his shoes. He was only doing his job.” She drops her arm, yet the strange energy I feel and see is still radiating from her.

“Sorry, you are right. I don’t know what came over me.”

“No need to apologize to me I wasn’t the one who got sprayed with ice.” She turns her head and looks back over to the guard on the floor.

“I’m sorry I over reacted, for the revelation of ylesviam overcame me.”

“I am am sa-sa-sorry pr-pr-princess I sh-sh-should a-of m-m-moved right away.” The guard is shivering. I glance at the other guard at Elestia’s side and he too is shivering.

“You are forgiven. You two may go back to your post.” The guard next to Elestia helped the other one up and they both walked back to their posts at either side of the door.

“Umm Elestia… is it ok that I call you by name.”

“Yes you can call me that.”

“Well I see that you are handling the cold just fine as you created it and I don’t seem to feel it at all.” Yeah that’s strange but reminds me that I didn’t feel the burning coals either. “But I don’t think the guards can handle this cold.” Elestias eyes got wide

“OH my, you are right. Give me a moment and I will correct it.” she closes her eyes and I see the energy radiating from her die down. Elestia lifts her arms with her hands before her as if she’s holding a bowl. “I’m not very good with fire magic but this should heat up the place.” I see some kind of energy form between her hands. “Candle light heat this place.”

Ok that was different that was not translated at all, for it was pure English. Are chanted spells in English, defiantly something to look up? A flame appears between her hands, and a light pulses out from it. The room visibly heats up as all the frost evaporates and the guards stop shaking. When she spoke the words it sounded like there was a slight echo to each word as she spoke them. This is weird it’s like magic vibrates with each word as they are spoken.

“Cancel.” The flame between her hands goes out and the energy I see dissipates. That word she just used was in English as well and was not auto translated. “There much better.” She looks about the room. Elestia points to the chair by the single desk in the room. “Levitate.” The chair lifts into the air and floats to her and she grabs it and puts it down next to the bed and sits on it. She looks at me then blushes and terns her head as her cheeks turn a bit red. “Ah your blanket is slipping.”

“what?” I look down and see that the blanket was slightly below my waist. “Shit sorry.” I quickly pull it back up and lay back down from my sitting position. I completely forgot I’m butt ass naked under this blanket. I’m just glad it was not revealed. Elestia giggles a little while holding her mouth. Damn that’s cute. “So what is ylesviam. Whatever is auto translating elvish for me is not translating that word.” She looks at me confused.

“Auto-translate?”

“Yes that’s what’s happening when I speak its coming out in elvish and I’m hearing English when you speak even though I know and can tell you’re not speaking English.” She still is looking at me confused.

“English?”

“Yes that’s what I’m speaking not elvish.”

“OH.” Her eyes go wide as she seems to understand. “You are right. Now that you said it and I was looking for it I can tell that you are not speaking high elvish but some other language, yet I can onely hear the words in high elvish.” She lifts her hand to her face and puts a finger on her lower lip in a thinking pose. “You never changed language? You spoke the same one to every one?”

“Correct. Did you hear a different language when I spoke to the others?” This is interesting.

“Yes, when you spoke to me and Hiladashin you spoke high elvish, but when you spoke to the captain it was in common elvish.” She cocks her head and blinks. “hmm… I can’t sense any enchantments on you nor were there any recently casted on you.” She smiled a bright smile. “It must be your celestial blood, for they have always been able to talk to all races no matter what language they used and be understood.”

“Well that’s sure convenient.” Unless I want to fake being a speaker of some language while trying to hide from someone. It would be a pain to learn another language if everything is auto translated. “I wonder if it extends to written languages as well.”

“That’s a good idea we should test it.” Elestia jumps up off the chair and rushes to the lonely desk in the room and picks up some parchment from it. Bringing the parchment over, she sits back down smiles and holds it out to me. “Here see if you can read this.” With a smile of my own I take the parchment from her and sit up slightly. Looking at the paper the letters where unrecognizable to me for just a second until they blurred. Blinking then squinting I watch the blurry letters blur further then English letters become super imposed over the blurry letters.

“Yes I can read it, yet it was not instantaneous. The letters blurred then writing I’m familiar with showed up over the blurriness.” I read what’s on the parchment. The parchment was about my treatment and the resources that it cost. “The cost of the crystals that were used to treat me was 108 gold echat? Is that a lot?” she smirks and shakes her head.

“Yes and no. It is a lot of gold because only two gold for a peasant family in this kingdom of Elhiam is the earnings for a year. Each of the crystals used in your treatment cost 90 copper echat empty, and 2 gold and 50 silver echat while full of magic.” She laughed a little and pointed her thumb over her left shoulder. “Halidashin Cis’Gorn has made a hefty profit off your treatment. Healers don’t charge for treatment for magin syndrome.”

“So is Halidashin always so uptight and full of himself?” Elestia burst into a fit of laughter and tried to cover her mouth to stifle it. I smiled at her and felt good that I made her laugh. She took a large breath and composed herself and returned my smile. Feeling my heart melt at her smile I waited for her response.

“Yes he is and unfortunately nearly all elf nobles are to a degree lesser or more. Most elves even the common ones feel they are better than the other races because almost all of us can use some magic of some kind. But you don’t have to worry about that, at least with me.” So… most elves are elitist and or racist. Well atleast that goes with most elf fables in literature.

“Why’s that?” Her face terns red and she bites her lower lip and looks away from me.

“We are ylesviam.” She looks at me then looks away again as her cheeks and ears redden further. That’s a cute way to blush. “It… it’s complicated. How shall I describe it? The best way is that we are soul mates and our souls are destined to be together. It means our souls are tied together by the gods for eternity.” Elestia looks at me and our eyes meet. I feel an instant pull on my chest as I feel blood rush to my head. Elestia face turns beat red and she looks away again.

“What how do you know that?” A pained look entered her face. Shit was my tone wrong? “I mean there is nothing wrong with that.” I lift my arms in a defensive posture. “I just would like to know how to tell?” she gives me another bright smile and reaches out and touches my arm. I feel a pleasant tingle on my arm and in my chest that calmed me.

“First thing is when we touched for the first time we saw a vision of the most emotional moment of our past together.“ I grimaced remembering the disaster and hell I saw. She tilted her head and gave me a confused look. “And once we come out of it we knew the true name of each other’s soul. This is how you knew mine is Efenia and I knew yours is Moric.” That makes sense if you think about it, for as soon as I heard the name Moric I felt like it was my own.

“Yes that was a bit odd for me I don’t know what happened there. It felt like I was almost on auto-pilot and just spoke a random name. Well maybe it wasn’t random for I did say that name from the vision even if it was unpleasant.”

“Unpleasant what do you mean? It should not have been?”

“All I saw was smoke and fire and death. I saw a woman with your face.” I paused and closed my eyes. “I called her Efenia right before she was killed. The grief and rage was overwhelming.” I can feel the grief and rage building back up as my eyes start to water. I grimace and bring a hand to my face in an attempt to calm down. Why am I feeling this way? What was that that I saw? A past life I lived?

“Ssh… calm it was just the past, another life. We are alive today that is all that matters.” I felt her place a hand on my shoulder instantly calming my as the grief and rage rapidly recede.

“Sorry about that.” I wipe the tears away “I’m not usually this emotional, for I usually have a good grip on them.”

“It’s ok. Its un- owch.” What did she hurt herself? I open my eyes and look at her just in time to see a small cut on her cheek close up and disappear. Her bracelet on her right wrist was glowing.

“What Happened?”

“Don’t mind it I’m just dealing with a random curse.”

“Random curse, what do you mean?” This is odd and would suck if curses are real in this world. Her bracelet stopped glowing “What’s with the glowing wrist accessory?

“Oh that. My bracelet has an auto healing enchantment on it. I ware it all the time to prevent any possible injuries from killing me because of the curse.”

“I’m starting to sound like a broken record but what do you mean?”

“Broken record?”

“Sorry I meant I feel like I’m repeating myself constantly with the same question for different reasons.”

“Oh ok.” She gave me a light smile. “I have had a curse since I was born that no one has been able to cure or find the origin. I suffer random injuries without cause, for even when I’m not moving and laying down I could suffer a broken leg suddenly. I have even suffered several stab wounds over the years without being stabbed.” Her bracelet started to glow again as she grimaced again.

“Do you feel all these injuries?”

“Yes, for when this lights up its actively healing me.” She lifts her right arm with the glowing bracelet. “Right now I just felt a large blow to my gut.”

“That’s awful, and you say nothing can be done?”

“Nothing has been discovered in all seventeen winters of my life. But don’t worry for the past seven years the injuries have been more limited to a specific times in a day. Speaking of which, it is the time for it. I would like to stay and talk more with you but I have to go before it gets worse.”

“Ok it was good talking to you Elestia, and thank you for helping me. I don’t know what would have happened if not for your help.”

“I could not ignore your plea for help. Now I know why I could not.” She gave me a smile. “Be well and rest. I will see you tomorrow.” Elestia stood up then winced and quickly raised a hand to her stomach. “If you’ll excuse me but I must go.”

“Of course, I’ll see you later and be well Elestia.” She gave me a quick smile and a nod, and turned around then left as the guards opened the door for her. The guards left and closed the door behind them. I heard the door handle rustle and heard a click. Well damn they locked me in. looking around the bland room I contemplate what’s going on. Thinking back on my conversation with Elestia I realized I may of used terms that may have given hints that I did indeed remember my past. I have to be more careful as to what I say if I want to maintain the farce, yet I find it very difficult to lie to her.

“Moric?” That name sounded very natural to me. This is strange, for I never believed in soul mates before, yet it feels so natural looking at Elestia. Her being a princess and me being some random stranger to her and well everyone else here I doubt I would be able to associate with her. One thing at a time: First, if anything that the pompous Halidashin said was true then I need to learn as much magic as I can. Second find a stable place to live and source of income. Third I need to gain political power so I can indeed associate with the princess. Fourth get a noble title of some kind.

Good goals I guess, for I don’t think I’ll ever make it back home, well better to act like it is impossible. Captain Lin'tel mentioned he was getting a sorceress to apprentice me. I guess there is nothing to do right now but to rest. Closing my eyes, let’s see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully they will have something for me to wear when I wake up.

“Wake up. Wake up or I will wake you up.”

“I’m awake.” Damn that person is loud. Opening my eyes I see the captain from yesterday standing next to the bed. “Good morning captain.” He snorts.

“Get up you are leaving today by order of the king.” I look at him. Well that was quick getting kicked out so soon. Well I guess I have been here for a month so to them it is not so soon. There is just one problem.

“Sorry unless you expect me to walk around buck ass naked I need some clothes. My previous crude clothes were mentioned to have been burned captain.” He scowls at me then turns his head.

“Torvil you had him measured to make him some clothes right.”

“Yes captain the princess commanded me to make him some travel clothes.”

“Well?” I turned and saw a new elf I never saw before. He must have measured me while I was being treated. He was slightly taller than captain Lintel with short blond hair, and a neatly tailored vest and pants, his clothes almost looked like I’d assume a butlers would.

“They are on the table there; two sets of traveling clothes, leather shoes, a cloak, and one traveling blanket. It is everything that was ordered. Will there be anything else?”

“No you may leave.” Len’til looked back to me as the other elf left. “There you go, get dressed.” Sitting up I swung my legs off the bed. I felt good, that rest did me good. I guess Halidashin was correct one nights rest was all I needed. Standing up in all my naked glory I walked to the indicated clothes. I hear Len’til grunt. “You’re a strong one with that body of yours. You must have been a warrior of some kind before you lost your memory.”

“I guess I do seem to be pretty toned.” Ha I look like a professional athlete. Grabbing some of the clothes and figured out how to put them on. Good thing the clothes are strait forward, and don’t have any weird clasps, and any unknown nick knacks to confuse how to put them together. Both pants and shirt fit comfortably. The boots fit perfectly as well which was good, I was afraid they would not have any of my size. Both shirt and pants were dark green.

After tucking in the shirt and pants legs into the boots I take the black cloak off the table. Putting on the cloak I close the clasps around my neck securing it comfortably around my shoulders. Looking back to the desk there remained only a backpack with a rolled up blanket tied to it. I’m going to assume this is for me. I pick it up by its single strap and throw it over my head and onto my back. Hmm there seems to be more than just a pair of clothes in it.

“Good follow me.” Waving me to follow Len’til leaves the room. Catching up to him I follow him down a stone hallway and up some stairs. At the top of the stairs was a door that he knocked on. The door was opened inwards to us by another similarly armored and armed guard that I saw yesterday. Stepping threw the door I was momentarily blinded by the bright light of the sun.

“Damn that’s bright. I have been down there too long.” Rubbing my eyes I blink to adjust to the sunlight.

“Hurry up Richard Coldfire, for Shalinith Len’til is waiting for us at the gates.” From the name I must be meeting someone from his family.

“Who and why are we meeting them at the gates and not here?” I jog a little to catch up with Captain Len’til. Looking around I see that we are in a large courtyard. Spires jut into the sky with arches between them, as well as a large white structure between two of them. Looks like pristine marble and is that? Yes there are gold and silver looking decorations and carvings everywhere. Wow someone went art happy making this place. Everything looks quite expensive. I wonder how they all keep it clean. Magic most likely.

“Shalinith Len’til is my niece and she is a great sorceress of the realm and will be your teacher before you hurt yourself or someone else. We are meeting her at the gates because she is not allowed on palace grounds”

“Why is that?” we kept walking toward a double door archway in the opposite direction to the palace looking structure I saw. Guess he will not answer that question. Let’s try another question. “Will princess Elestia see me off?”

“No.” we kept walking. Well that’s odd and disappointing after all she said yesterday.

“May I ask why?”

“The king forbid her too, and has her overseeing some noble squabble at the moment.”

“Why?” we stop at the double door we were headed to. Captain Len’til knocks on the door and looks at me with an angry look.

“I’ll make this simple for you.” He points at me and jabs his finger in the middle of my chest. “You are a commoner, a stranger, and an abomination. You are unworthy of her.” Well that’s rude as hell not to mention racist. I better not say anything tell I learn more about this world. Typical racist bigoted stuck up medieval nobles how well they fit the stereotype. I’m beginning to not like these elvish nobles. Captain Len’til walks through the door as it opens and I follow him in. We traveled through a couple more doors as the halls get bigger until we reached a large double door with a small door in it.

Going through the small door we enter a small stone courtyard and continue to a large doorway with a portcullis raised up. Passing all the guards and crossing a drawbridge over a moat and onto a stone causeway I look around. The moat is quite large and deep looking. I can see what looks like a garden to the left. That must have been where I met the princess. Looking at the end of the causeway there were a couple of buildings. One looked like it had a stable with some fenced in horses, and the other is a two storied building and probably is a inn of some kind.

Walking into the inn looking building I find myself in a room that resembled what I think a saloon looked like in all those old wild-west films minus the swinging entrance. Captain Len’til waves me to a bench besides the door. “Wait there while I talk to Shalinith.” Taking a seat on the bench and ignoring the disdainful looks by some of the other patrons. This place must be a stopover for people trying to see the elven king. The captain walks to the center of the room and looks around then walks left into a shaded area of the tavern like room.

He walks to a table with a single occupant and starts talking to it. After a moment or two he looks back to me and waves me to him. Getting up I walk over.

“This lad is the reason we sent for you.” He gestured at me while looking away from me.

“I have a name.” I look at the one Captain Len’til was talking to. She was an elfin woman who looked to be in her late twenties possibly early thirties, but probably far older. The woman was wearing black knee high leather boots with buckles all the way up it, tight dark leather pants with a belt. Her belt had a dagger in a sheath and at least 5 different small bags attached to it. She wore a fancy black leather blouse that cover her arms and neck with no skin showing. The woman also wore a black cloak that had a hood over her head. She had a black eye patch with a leaf etched into it over right eye. Taking her hood off and reviling black hair tied into a ponytail she looks me in the eyes.

“And what is this name.”

“Ma’am my name is Richard Coldfire and I’m pleased to meet you Miss Shalinith Len’til.”

“Oh you know my name?”

“Captain Len’til told me I was to meet Shalinith Len’til his niece a distinguished sorceress of the realm, and I assumed it was you.” I put my left hand behind me and right on my chest above my hart and bowed imitating what I saw yesterday.

“A polite one, Good to know. Lad you don’t need to bow to me I’m no noble, as for distinguished, most so called nobles of the realm would debate that.”

“Thank you I will remember that. I erred on the side of caution. Better safe than sorry.”

“Good philosophy. So uncle how may I help the princess?” Captain Len’til takes a chair and sits, I do the same.

“Richard Coldfire has just recently recovered from magin syndrome and needs someone to teach him to control his magic before he hurts himself and others.”

“Magin syndrome? Really? At his age? That’s rare.”

“Yes. He should be trained soon and at his capacity Halidashin Cis’Gorn recommends a sorcerer or a wizard to train him.” Shalinith grimaces at the mention of Halidashin.

“Ok that’s reasonable. Let me take a look at him.” Shalinith reaches up and opens her eye patch revealing a green colored eye like her left, yet it is slitted like a cat’s with a slight red glow coming from the pupil. What the hell. She closes her weird eye and some kind of glowing aura comes over it, and she opens it again. “Ach.” Shalinith jerks her head to the left quickly reaching for her eye. And starts to yell and curse. “Gods damn what the hell, shit that hurt like hell. Bright as shalutes butthole. Damn it Uncle you could have warned me.”

“Sorry Shali I should of warned you that he has an unusual sized mana capacity.

“Unusual sized? That’s an understatement it’s so big its leaking out of him like a gods damn flood. I think my eye is going to be blind for a week. Damn that hurt.”

“Um sorry I’m new to magic and did not know I was leaking, and didn’t know It could blind someone.” She was looking at me fine before. I wonder what she did with her eye that made her jerk away so fast. “I hope you are alright.” Shalinith rubbed her watering eyes and put the eye patch back on.

“Don’t worry about it.” she waved me off. “It will heal with time. I can see why a wizard or a sorcerer was recommended.” I looked around and noticed that no one seemed to have noticed her outburst. Odd?

“Strange no one seemed to pay attention to your yelling.”

“That’s because I have a sound barrier in place.”

“Oh. That’s convenient.” Captain Len’til grunts.

“Shali I need you to take Richard out of the country as you train him.”

“I see.” Shalinith leans back into her chair.

“What why?” Captain looks back to me.

“Kings orders. You are to leave the country.” What the fuck did I do to him to warrant him kicking me out?

“Uncle that seems a little sudden, even for the king?”

“Yes, but I can’t tell you why, for I have been forbidden to speak of it.”

“Ok I will take him out, but I hope you don’t expect me to walk the whole way?”

“That has been covered. This is from the princess.” The captain pulls two small bags out of a pocket in his cloak. One was obviously looked like it held coins the other smaller bag held what looked like one single flat oval object. Shalinith opens the coin pouch and whistles. “That should be more then enough to cover your traveling expenses.”

“Quite generous the Princess is. That’s why I love to work for her.” She opens the smaller pouch. Looking in she raises an eyebrow and looks back to her uncle. “What’s this for? I already have one.”

“Not for you. It’s for him when he has control of his magic.”

“What? How? this is not just given out. Is it legal?”

“Yes the princess… convinced her father to authorize it for him. It is now on record just needs to be activated.” Shalinith looks away from her uncle in deep thought for a moment then looks back to me.

“You are a lucky man to have this.” She closes the small pouch with the object and tosses it to me. I Catch it and start to open it.

“Don’t do that. Put it away in a deep pocket and not on your belt, for you cannot lose this no matter what.” well that’s dramatic I wonder what it is.

“What is it?”

“Later I won’t speak of it here. Don’t ask me until we leave the city.”

“What city?” there is no city here just a big castle and two buildings. Shalinith looks at me with a strange look.

“How do you know? Never mind we will talk about that later as well. Uncle is there a time frame I have to leave by?”

“Unfortunately yes. You need to leave Erivenyeth by noon tomorrow.”

“That’s not much time. Please give my apologies to my mother for being unable to visit her. I only arrived in Erivenyeth two days ago and have yet to see her.” Captain Len’til stood up.

“I’m sorry about that. I will see my sister and send her your love.” We all stand up and walk out of the inn. We stop in the middle of the road and Captain Len’til and Shalinith hugged. The road looked like a stone paved road roman style. It was about twenty feet across. “Be safe.” They let go of each other and turn to me. “If anything happens to my niece while you are with her I will hunt you down and kill you. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, I will do my best to keep harm from her.” I say this and the captain grunts and Shalinith raises an eyebrow then shakes her head.

“You better.” He then walks away and heads back to the palace.

“Well?” I look at Shalinith. “What now?”

“Now we procure two horses go shopping for enough supplies to get us on our way, and then leave in the morning.”

“Ok. Lead on Ma’am and I will follow.”

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Damn writing this took longer then it should of. sorry about that, to much procrastination and distractions >__It would be cool if any one in the replays to this chapter let me know what they like what wasnt working for them and what is.