Desséer is another city of the Triarchy, they are completely dependent on their sister cities for food and are responsible for mining the hills around the city and the forging of weapons and armor used in the Triarchy. They are also one of the few places that can compeat with dwarven craftmenship in the weapons and armors that they make.

Lysan

Sister doesn’t end up waking me and I don’t wake up until well after dawn even though she should have after only a few hours. I look over to sister to find that she is asleep against a tree.

She must have tried to stay up the whole rest of the night on her own. She always does try to do too much. I stand up to look around though the clearing is not that different from what I was able to see under what little moonlight there was last night. I stand up and look around but find nothing out of place.

The leave of the trees rustle in the breeze, the sun shines through the canopy of the forest. Everything seems right in these quiet woods, not even the birds are chirping. . .

Wait, the animals are not making noise. If they are silent something bad is going to happen relatively soon. The voices of two individuals approach on the breeze but I cannot understand the words nor have I heard this tongue before but it is neither Elvish or Althaen.

Two oddly dressed individuals walk into the clearing and stop as they look at sister and me. A tall man with dark hair that has a blueish glint where the sun lands on him and eyes that are a mix of blue and violet with flecks of gold in them. The black clothes he wears has some sort of strange writing on it but both it and the pants are of a design and cut that I have never seen before. The woman, like the man, is tall but her shoulder length hair is silver, almost the same color as the moon is in the night sky, while her eyes shine a brilliant gold.

The woman frowns at me as the man seems surprised as he looks at both me and my sister. He seems to be thinking for a moment before he opens his mouth and begins speaking in elvish fluently.

Lykou

Two weeks have passed since I got my K back and I love waking up with her in my arms. Our schedule of sparing in the morning and learning magic in the afternoon, has been a lot of fun. On this day of the new moon however when we arrive at the small clearing we use for sparing there are already two people there. Two elves, in near identical armor and clothing.

Their red hair so similar to the two that I had seen in the memories from another time. I still don’t remember their names but I find myself smiling and a warmth in my chest similar to the one I have for my K as I look at them. The tips of their ears peak out of their scarlet red hair and my eyes rove downwards as I compare the curves of the elf who is awake to those of the elf twins in my memories.

She looks just like one of them, could the two of them be who I think they are?

“Why are there elves here” K asks as if I would know.

I shrug and open my mouth to ask the elf girl who is awake and am surprised when the words of another tongue pass through my lips. “Why are you here?”

The elven girl seems surprised for a moment before she answers, “are the two of you part of Bloodclaw Pack?”

“Yes, but who are you and why are you here?”

“I am Lysan Alanthíer, and this is my twin sister Talia Alanthíer. There’s something I need to ask of your people.”

“Which is?”

“Sister and me need help getting back home, our escort was killed by a small army from the Holy Empire in these woods yesterday.”

I just stand still for a moment. This is both terrible and too good to be true. There were certainly friends and others that they care about are now dead but this is also extremely convenient for me. Not only does this give me the opportunity to leave and gets me in contact with two of those that I had loved. At least I think the two of them are the two elves that I can remember. Could this be one of the things that the strange me-but-not-me girl set up? It makes no sense for these two specific girls to show up out of nowhere but at the same time I can’t think of how she could have set it up.

But there is another detail something called the Holy Empire. It doesn’t remind me of anything nor is it anything that I have heard of that place in my time here.

“Kythia, what is the Holy Empire?” I ask K.

“You don’t know? How can you not know?”

“Amnesiac from another world, remember.”

“Oh, right. I forgot. They are the Althaen nation who claims ownership of this forest.”

I frown at the word Althaen, for some reason I just hate whoever that group is. Why?

“Well, these two elves ran into their army and they lost their guards. They also want. . .”

“When?” K asks interrupting.

“When did you run into this group of Althaen?”

“Yesterday afternoon.”

When I repeat her answer to K, she frowns and begins to think. I can only assume it is about why this Holy Empire would be here and I just don’t have the information I would need to make a decision on my own about this.

A moment later, K says “the pack is probably going to be attacked. We should get back to the village and let the alphas know.”

“Do you think Ragnor will even do anything about it? He will probably ignore it just because I am involved.”

She pauses for a second before responding, “you might be right on that but what can we do about that?”

“Tell Kylana first and let her deal with it so he doesn’t know that I’m involved and won’t take his hate for me out for them.”

She frowns for a moment before nodding and I turn to Lysan and say, “follow us we’ll bring you to Kylana. She’ll want to hear what you told us.”

“Now?” Lysan asks.

“Preferably.”

“Alright just give me a moment to wake my sister.”

I nod, before turning back to K as Lysan gently wakes her sister.

“Why did you look at her like that?” K asks.

“Jealous?” I tease.

“I’m your mate, your only mate and you shouldn’t look at others.”

I pull K into a hug and smile as she only put a small token of resistance before just leaning into my embrace as she normally does. She is still angry and will take it out on me during our next spar but for now she is content to just let me hold her. Gods, how I love how she gets all submissive when I show her physical affection.

I blow on the back of her ear before I whisper “don’t worry, my eyes may wander but you’ll always be on my heart. Besides, if I have more women that just means that I’m a stronger mate.”

She grins at that, she loves the idea of me being strong and powerful.

Just after she does so I continue to whisper in her ear, “just think of it. Your strong powerful mate having his way with you and his other girls, while you lead them as the dominant female of the den.”

Her grin grows, as I say just the right things. But both my thoughts and actions are stopped as a coughing sound comes from behind us. I turn around, I forgot that they were there for a moment. I got a bit too caught up in talking K into the idea of me having more than just her.

“Right, let’s bring them to Kylana” I say as K and me separate.

“Shall we?” I ask the elven twins as the lot of us begin to walk towards the village.

It takes roughly half an hour for us to get to the village. Unlike all of the previous times that I have entered the village those that keep guard of the village itself do move to block us. I do not know the name of either person in the pair but K speaks up to greet the two of them.

“Nalina, Kalna, it is good to see you. These elves need to speak to Kylana and Ragnor.”

“Ragnor is out hunting, but Kylana is at the shrine house” the woman on the left says.

“Thank you” I say before they begin to escort the two elves along with us to the shrines of the Architect and the Black Wolf.

Have I even been here since my arrival in the village? No, but I never really felt any need to visit the shrines for any worshiping. As I walk into the building I look around to see who else is currently here in the mostly empty shrine while the sun’s light shines through the holes in the roof onto the small statues atop the piled stones.

I frown at Holia but aside from her and Samuel who probably are always here, Kylana is the only other person in here. She seems to be praying at the statue of the Black Wolf but she no doubt heard us approach. Just after she turns around she says, “Lysan, Thalia it is good to see you again but you do not look like you are not here for a social visit.”

K looks at her mother confused, as one of the elves answers the implied question.

“No, we ran into a small army from the Holy Empire and our escort was all killed” she, Talia, says in genuine sadness.

“Where?” Kylana asks quickly, concerned.

“At the edge of the forest next to the Darkwall Mountains. I didn’t get a good look when we were ambushed but it seemed more like a camp than an ambush that we had walked into.”

Kylana just stands for a moment thinking while we all just stand still for a moment before K leans over and asks me, “what’s going on?”

“She is telling Kylana the same information that her sister already gave us” I answer.

“Where is Ragnor?” Kylana asks the two women that followed us as we brought the elves here.

“Hunting, he left early this morning and hasn’t come back” one of them answers.

“He should have been back by now, it has only ever taken him a few hours to come back with food.”

“Can you give us any assistance in getting home?” Lysan asks quietly.

“That would be a question that you would have to ask my mate Ragnor, but even if he does refuse your request for aid you have safe harbor here” Kylana answers.

“What? But aren’t you in charge?” the same elf who has done all the talking so far asks.

“I am but I am not in charge of everything.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. How can you be in charge over some things but not others?”

“Division of power” I answer.

Kylana looks at me slightly confused, and I continue “by splitting power between your leader you make your society more resistant to corruption.”

“What?” Lysan asks.

“You know what, never mind. Just consider it to be tradition then” I say, not wanting to do into the subject of societal structure.

“Where did Ragnor go hunting?” Kylana asks the two women who were acting as guards.

One of the two run off as the other says, “he didn’t say anything to us when he let but one of the other guards.”

“We can just wait here while she goes and finds Ragnor.”

The two elf girls nod before the one who had not talked yet asks, “would you mind if I borrow a corner to pray?”

“Which god?” Holia interrupts with implied disapproval.

Is this going to devolve into a religious fight?

“Rúloaña” Lysan answers.

“We don’t follow any of the elven gods, you’ll have to find somewhere else to pray” Holia says with an ever so slight distain.

That name does not seem to fit the same scheme that the other gods I’ve heard of, a different pantheon?

“Then she can use my hut if she requires seclusion” I say both out of my petty spite for Holia and that she seems so similar to the elves in my memories.