Mariel groaned, squinting from the sudden flood of sunlight into her eyes. Her body felt cold, and somehow, she was not lying down. Her head was throbbing, and she had frozen streams of blood on her face. Regaining her bearings, she realized she was on her knees, tied to a wooden pole behind her. Around her tied to similar poles were the remaining soldiers. She was in some temporary camp. There were few defenses, and all the tents were camouflaged white. A few masked guards kept vigil, carrying large spears. All traces of the bad weather had cleared up. Some of the captives were still unconscious, others had woken up and a few were desperately begging for mercy. Near the edge of the camp, she could see masked people busy stripping corpses. All useable weapons and armour were piled on a blanket in the snow for further inspection. Stripped bodies were piled up, and soon the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

“Alright, off the prisoners and prepare to break camp!” A voice shouted, and a guard drew his sword and without a hint of hesitation, slit the throat of the first prisoner; the man drowning in his own blood as it poured out, staining the snow.

Before she could react, her arms were suddenly untied, and she was hauled to her feet by two soldiers. While held firmly in their grip, they dragged her away from the executions and over towards a large, snow-covered tent. The inside was surprisingly warm, the heavy tent flaps and a small stove keeping the precious heat inside. Apart from a strategy table and a few footstools there was not much in terms of furniture.

“I apologize for it taking so long to find you. Rest assured, that the one who failed to report your finding has been suitably punished.” To her surprise, the person next to Siravin, turned out to be the child from the town, very much alive and now dressed to look like a child soldier. No hint remained of the heartbroken, scarred child she had met. Instead she was looking at a soldier, with untold stains of blood upon her small hands. Siravin himself had gone back to his real appearance, which somehow calmed her down.

“Leave us.” The guards let go of her, saluted and left the tent with some longing grumbles, likely for the warmth.

“Who are you?” She asked. “Or what?”

“My name is Evlisyn, I am you could say, an observer.”

“A spy Mariel… An elven spy.”

“I’ve watched over the human lands from positions of power for a few centuries now… I hear from your friend that my kin have taken to civil war… But before I forget it…” The little elf came over and placed her hand on her abdomen. A moment later, she was looking at her real self in disbelief. “Oh, I see… Quite fair among your kin. Your crystal is dormant, highly unusual… Your kin always charges it if they can… Interesting…”

“I don’t need the disguise anymore?”

“We won’t Mariel… These are all our kin… Except the elf.”

“So, what happens now?”

“I need you for a small job…I want to assassinate the Emperor…” At the news, Siravin’s utterly dumbfounded expression, mirrored her own as she tried to imagine the scale of the proposal.

“What good would that possibly do.”

“If we can assassinate the Emperor… All major imperial houses will recall their troops from the expedition to assert their claim to the throne… With them gone, the demons… Your kin will be able to decisively defeat the humans, but due to the massive losses suffered early on, will not launch a counterattack, and diplomacy will take over… Hopefully.”

“And if not?”

“Then we’re looking at a -very- long war, which will be decided in favour of whomever supports the winning side in the elven civil war…” A long time ago… Our wise council ruled that maintaining the balance should be our sacred duty… After all, your kind and the humans both were still rather savage…”

“And how exactly did you manage to screw that up?” Siravin drew a sarcastic grin.

“Irrelevant.”

“No really, do tell me.”

“No. Anyway, will you help us out or not? I suggest you agree… There will be no witnesses to this plan…”

“What choice do we have? We’ll help you…” She sighed.

“Sir… We’re ready to leave” A soldier entered the tent, seemingly surprised to find two other kin already there, but continued his report. “We interrogated all surviving senior officers, but none gave up any useful information. We summarily executed them afterwards.”

“A shame… No matter, unload the captured sleds of anything useless, and prepare to move out.”

“Go see the quartermaster, he will set you up with some additional winter clothing… I bet those getups of yours are rather useless in the cold.”