“Mother?” I said, turning to confront her directly. “Are you a Dark Elf?”

That made the most sense. Her skin tones had more shades of purple than Father, and while I admitted I had no idea that the difference in skin tones might suggest a different breed of Elves, those purple highlights had been completely missing on every other Elf I had encountered.

I should have realized that something was going on when Mother spent so much time creating beauty creams that lightened skin tone. Elves didn’t need remedies to smooth discolorations in the skin or acne. Elves were preternaturally beautiful. Even those impoverished Elves maintained, even Lord Chon, for all his deprivations and the ravages that had overwhelmed his body, retained enough of a connection to the grace and beauty that every Elf was gifted with.

“Can we have this conversation in private?” My father asked.

“Everyone here is sworn to House Myche,” I reminded him, “but if it would make you more comfortable.”

I nodded my head to Na to leave and sent a message through the astral thread for Toi to check on the garden in the inner world. I checked to ensure that Geon and Syha slept, their bodies adjusting to the newly formed Spirit root. Once, I was confident that we were alone after Na had bowed and excused herself, shutting the door firmly behind her.

I took the time to cycle water, air, fog and lightning-aspected Qi to create a barrier around the room that would block any attempts to overhear our conversation. When I saw the release of tension in my Mother’s shoulders once the barrier snapped into place, I was glad I had thought to create the barrier to ensure our privacy.

“My Father was a Dark Elf,” Mother began. “Few people know of their existence, but my Mother’s people were part of a Duchy that bordered the mountain range the Dark Elves claimed as theirs.

“They met one day when a group of Clan members was harvesting spirit plants that only grew near caves on those mountains. Mother said they were connected from the moment they first saw each other.

“Nothing so pedestrian as love at first sight, theirs was a connection of [Dao]. Each was the perfect [Dao Companion] to the other. They were each close to the perfected tier of the Qi Gathering Realm. Father was gifted with an earth affinity and Mother with wood. Even their affinities complemented each other.

“Mother’s Clan, Clan Aspen, had been failing, slowly falling from a mid-level Clan to low. The Clan Head quickly agreed to allow the Dark Elf to form a [Dao Partnership] on the condition that the Dark Elf House, which Father was part of, entered into a trade agreement.

“The agreement that was quickly reached required the Father’s House, House Mytle, to sell ores that House Mytle controlled as part of their heritage. Things worked well enough and for long enough that my parents had time to give birth to me and my older brother. My brother was to be raised a scion of House Mytle.

“But not long after my birth, House Mytle discovered that the mine they had been working was connected to a seam of spirit stones. High-quality spirit stones.

“It is hard to say where the trouble started after that, but greed from both sides began to spiral out of control. The other Dark Elf Clans and Houses demanded that House Mytle stop cooperating with Clan Aspen. House Mytle insisted that the spirit stones should be part of the trade agreement already in place.

“House Mytle refused to go against the negotiated agreement that had gained them a new Dark Elf son. The House was fertile enough, but they almost inevitably bore daughters. As the scion of House Mytle, my brother was a rare blessing, and the House was unwilling to forswear itself. It had existed for centuries of shared prosperity, and that prosperity was forged by words and deeds that spoke of honor and commitment. To break the trade agreement went against everything the House had been built on.

“Things came to a head when the other Dark Elf Clans attacked, annihilating House Mytle. Father escaped with my brother, urged by Mother to seek asylum with Clan Aspen.

“Mother argued passionately with her family, but the Clan refused; Mother’s House was a minor offshoot. They agreed to save the son, but Father would have to find his own way to survive. Mother refused to accept the Clan’s decision, and she gathered my brother and me together to leave, to follow Father and renounce her Clan and House affiliation.

“I can remember those first years, as we traveled from place to place, never finding a home or safety. I remember the deep caverns of other Dark Elf conclaves, places that had never heard of House Mytle or Clan Aspen. And I remember the prejudice and bigotry Mother was forced to endure in those conclaves, or Father was forced to endure in Elven towns and cities.”

I watched as the tears flowed silently down my Mother’s face as she remembered the hardships and hatred that had greeted them at every new settlement they had approached. My heart broke to know that the bright, beautiful, and loving woman that I had always known had been forced to endure such darkness.

“What happened to them?” I forced myself to ask. “Are they still living?”

“Oh, Jai,” my Mother sighed, her pain from the memories of that time overwhelming her. “They would have loved you. You would have loved them too, I think. You have your Grandfather’s eyes. They would have been proud of the woman you have become.

“But no, they are no longer among the living. Cultists attacked them as we were making our way to a new town, a new place to start over. Garion, my brother, and I were able to escape, to run for our lives and reach that next town, only because Father and Mother were strong enough to hold the Cultists at bay long enough for us to escape.

“They sacrificed their lives so that we might live. And the worse thing about their death, the thing that haunts me even now, is that we were better off with them dead. Garion and I could pass for the Wood Elves that made up the Empire.

“Without Father, the people of that next town were welcoming. They allowed us to grieve after they heard our story of Cultists attacking and killing our parents. And they accepted us.

“Garion and I decided that we would never speak of Father, never reveal to anyone that we could trace our lineage to House Mytle and the Dark Elves. It was the final betrayal of Father. To renounce who he was, to turn our backs on our heritage and the gifts that came with being a Dark Elf, was our greatest sin.

“One so heartbreaking that Garion was quick to leave and move on, to abandon me to fend for myself once that evil decision had been made.”

“I can still see his face, tormented and full of remorse, as he shouldered a backpack. He never looked back; he refused to see. To see me standing behind him, so lost, so filled with hope that he would stay. His abandonment might have destroyed me. Instead, it forged me into the person I would become. One final shattering before tempering me into a person that would rely on her own talents to survive.”