Diamond Elf - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chelindra and Aeryc looked around. Aeryc had never really been to the human world before, the only two times had been while guarding his King, and both times they were inside Chelindra’s tent. This was the first time any elf – other than his wife – had been allowed out of the Realm since before his birth, and he was frankly curious about this place. Humans had always been his secret obsession.

“Damn! We’re nowhere near the Imperial Palace!” Chelindra growled.

“Do you know where we are?” Aeryc asked.

“… Yes…” Chelindra stared at a field covered in ash and debris. It was the remains of the men she had murdered. The field was probably going to grow abundantly next year, but for now, it looked desolate and appalling.

“This way,” Chelindra pointed in the direction of the Imperial Palace, choosing a path that was parallel to the trail the army left.

Aeryc noticed that Chelindra still glowed hazy red, but she no longer looked like she was on fire. He hoped this was a good sign, and that perhaps her temper had cooled a bit. His hand still ached a bit from when he touched her, and his skin felt slightly sunburnt from stepping through her portal.

“May I ask what happened?”

Chelindra sighed, and described the night she had found the enemy army here.

“And your lover?” He prompted, as that was what he really wanted to know.

Chelindra closed her eyes and the red haze brightened. “I thought he left me, and I decided to let him go only to find out much too late that he had been captured by the enemy, and tortured to near death. Had I only gone after him right away… but I was fighting a battle…” Chelindra didn’t know what to say. There was no excuse.

“I see…” Aeryc remained quiet with his thoughts for a while as he followed her. Before she had known he was her intended husband, he had seen her show feelings for her human lover. He had stood in shock with his partner as they watched her smile at the human, show him tenderness, and take him by the hand into the Elven Realm.

After that, she had done her duty by marrying him, and she hadn’t given any indication that she was in love with her human companion, so he thought maybe they were just good friends, until he saw the expression on the human’s face.

After she returned, the need to know if they really were lovers drove him to spy on them through the scrying basin. He felt torn between relief that they never actually made love, and – oddly, he felt the urge to cheer them on. Seeing how they felt, and then seeing them do everything but make love had been frustrating for him to watch.

She never made him feel like he was less important to her though. She honored him as her husband, and was a good wife when she had the time to be with him, these were the only things required in an Elven marriage. Technically, he could request that she not have a lover, but that would do him no good.

Judging by the look on her face, and the aura of rage around her, asking her to forego her lover may have proven deadly, he thought.

Any other elf probably would have left her alone once the heir had been conceived, but ever since he had first been informed that he was the most likely candidate to be her husband, he had watched her. She fascinated him. She made his heart beat faster. He was entirely grateful that he hadn’t had the gall to spy on her in her tent earlier. Had he seen her with her lover before the night of their marriage, he may have grown to hate her.

When he paused a moment to wonder why he was helping her rescue her lover, the answer was simple; he loved her enough to do anything for her. He wanted to make her happy, even if it was in the arms of another… for now. He was lucky in that he was only 150. Unless he died during his stay in the human world, he would outlive this human lover, and then she would still be his wife.

Chelindra paused, and sniffed the air. Aeryc decided to do the same, and picked up a strange sent. It was foul, like something rotting. He was all for avoiding whatever it was, but followed as she headed straight for it.

She gasped, and her hazy red aura vanished abruptly. “Candace!”

Aeryc felt he should be sickened by the sight, but couldn’t stop himself from staring in fascination. There were scattered arm and leg bones, some with bits of flesh hanging off them. The torso of the body was all in one piece, except that animals had eaten the internal organs, and it was now crawling with maggots. The skull had been crushed by an animal with jaws powerful enough to crack it open to get to the goodies inside.

“I think I am going to be sick!” Chelindra announced. She clutched her stomach, and breathed purposefully for a few moments.

“What happened to her?” Aeryc asked.

“She was captured when Gabriel was… I need to do something. I can’t just leave her like this!”

“You have the power of fire at your command, why not use it to give her a funereal pyre?” Aeryc suggested.

“Can I do that?” Chelindra wondered.

“Why not? You were positively aglow with it not too long ago,” Aeryc pointed out.

“No… using my magic has almost always been disastrous,” Chelindra rummaged through her pockets for anything that would help her start a fire.

“If you don’t start sometime, you’ll never learn to control it. It’s only disastrous if you can’t control it properly.” Aeryc felt a bit silly giving such common knowledge advice to an elf more than twice his age.

Chelindra stared at the remains, and thought about what her husband had said. With no one to teach her to use her human magic, she had no idea how to even summon it. She supposed that the very first thing she would have to do is focus on it, the same as she would her Elven magic. She closed her eyes, and gave the Elven blessing for the deceased as she pictured what she wanted.

In her mind, she pictured the body intact and undefiled; then, she pictured it burning in a beautiful pyre. The fire was just the right size for a pyre, not too high and not too low, and there was no risk of it spreading to the surrounding environment. Just as she willed her magic to comply with her focused intent, she wondered what the mass pyre looked like, and a picture of thousands of bodies on fire flashed through her mind.

The area where Candace lay rotting burst into flames that covered a much larger area than necessary, and soared high into the sky. Aeryc jumped back to avoid getting burned in the fire, and marveled at how the flames went straight up. Must be at least a hundred feet high!

The wind suddenly soared, and Chelindra had to fight to keep it from carrying her fire to the nearby forest. The problem was that both the fire and the wind were fueled by her magic, and controlling one of them was hard enough without having to keep a rein on the other. Finally, both elements agreed to behave for her, and after that, it was relatively easy to make them stop.

All that was left was the charred remnants of a large fire. Chelindra, the half elf who had stood strong and emotionless for over three centuries, who had surprised even herself with her strong emotional reaction to Gabriel’s abduction, fell to her knees, and wept. This woman’s suffering prior to her death was in no way her fault, but Chelindra felt crushed under the burden of it. Could I have made better choices? Could I have prevented this soldier’s death?

Rain began to fall, lightly at first, but with increasing intensity. Chelindra felt that it mirrored her perfectly. Her cries turned to sobs, and she didn’t know how to make them stop.

Aeryc was baffled at first. Elves never cried. If they ever felt an emotion such as sorrow as deeply as she was now, they simply meditated until the cause of the emotion was dealt with, and the healing process was well on its way. Then, he remembered some advice from a human text he had once read.

“I am the only human I know living with the Elves, and most of the time I love it. Then there are days like today. My husband is an Elf, and he doesn’t understand that there are some days I just need to cry. I yelled at him for not being there for me when I needed him to be, and he asked me what he should do. I told him that all he needed to do was simply hold me until I am done. That’s all I need.”

Aeryc thought that the advice might apply to this situation, and so he knelt next to his wife, and gathered her into his arms. She let him, and cried on his chest. He very carefully stroked her hair and back, and just held her tight.

Her tears kept hardening into diamonds, and slid down his shirt into a pile in his lap. He realized that there was already a pile where she had first started crying, and he wondered what they should do with them when she was done. They would not be good for the land, and might choke animals or insects if ingested since they smelled – and probably tasted – like salt.

Chelindra finally calmed down, and the rain subsided. She was numb, and tired. Her original plan was to push herself until she marched into the Imperial Palace and demanded her lover back, but right now… she doubted she could move.

Aeryc decided that now was a good time to find them a place to rest for the night, and he scooped her up so that he could carry her. He grunted with the effort, not realizing how heavy she was, but managed to carry her far enough away from the area that she couldn’t see it. He found a sheltered spot, and tucked her in as best he could.

Next, he gathered up all of her tears, and put them in a magic Elven bag that could contain however much he put into it, and still be small enough to wear at his waist. He said a prayer for the dead woman he had never known, and blessed the land so that it would recover and grow abundantly in practically no time.

Finally, he placed a protective ward around the spot he had chosen, cuddled up to his wife to keep her warm, and held her close as he fell asleep. She was already asleep, and snuggled into him, moaning, “Gabriel…” He wanted to cry himself for a moment, but then remembered that she knew her lover had suffered horrible things. He would be very lucky if she didn’t have nightmares about him all night long.

*******

Chelindra woke first, and felt surprisingly light. She had gone through so many emotions recently, she seriously wondered how humans could have them every day! She instinctively wanted to savor the light feeling before her emotions returned.

Eventually, she opened her eyes, and discovered that the warmth she felt was provided by her husband. He was holding her in a way that made her feel safe, another feeling she was unaccustomed to since she had always been able to protect herself. She snuggled into him, shifting her weight off of his arm slightly.

Her movement woke him, and he opened his eyes to find her gray ones staring at him. He returned her stare, and smiled faintly. She smiled faintly in return, and then he watched her eyes cloud over, and he knew she remembered what they needed to do. He didn’t make her ask him to let her go, he simply loosened his embrace, and waited for her to move away.

Her husband surprised Chelindra. He had no reason to help her, no reason to care about Gabriel in the slightest, but here he was. She shuddered to think what might have happened to her if he hadn’t been here to care for her when she lost it. She hesitated to leave his embrace; wondering how she could ever thank him.

Absolutely nothing seemed like it would be enough. Mere words felt cold, and he had no need of possessions. She realized that though it would not be enough to truly convey her gratitude, there was only one thing she could give him. She leaned in and kissed him.

“Thank you so much for being here for me. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Aeryc tightened his hold once more, but let her go when he felt her pull away. Once she was completely out of his arms, he stood, and helped her to her feet. “My Lady, it would be my pleasure to follow your lead.”

Romance? From an Elf? Chelindra wondered, but realized that plenty of elves uttered romantic prose. It was nothing to them since words did not require actual emotion, and yet, she could tell that he meant what he said.

Free from the enraged haze that had heavily influenced her yesterday, Chelindra was able to plan out their journey much better. She decided to give Aeryc’s advice a try, and took him by the hand.

“Since we are refreshed, I think we should run. I know that our endurance will eventually run out, but we should be able to cover a great distance before that,” she informed him.

“Running sounds good to me,” Aeryc agreed. As an elf, he was light on his feet, and blessed with speed and endurance. He figured that Chelindra must be the same, but wasn’t certain. That it was her suggestion made him think he was right.

He glanced at her hand in his, and smiled secretly. He had no idea why she had taken his hand, but he liked it. Please don’t ever let it go.

“Good, hang on to me no matter what!” Chelindra insisted, and took off running. At first, he was able to keep up, but she kept getting faster and faster, and he realized that her eyes mirrored a nonexistent fire again. The wind blew, pushing against their backs, and propelling them even faster.

I have to run, I have to run, I have to run, Chelindra mentally chanted, using it as a focus. Then she chose an affirmation. Fast as the wind, fast as the wind, I am the wind roaring as it races by!

        They nearly flew as they rushed to their destination, and Aeryc was having the time of his life! This was something he could never have imagined since Elven magic dealt mainly in healing, protection, and visions. He watched their surroundings blur by for hours before a thought occurred to him.

        “Why did you never find a human to teach you to use your magic?” He asked his wife.

        “I looked, but I couldn’t find one. Human magic seems to have died out in the 321 years since my mother came to the Elven Realm.”

        “That’s strange,” Aeryc remarked.

        “I thought so too,” Chelindra agreed. She slowed them down as they approached the Imperial City. “Interesting.”

        “What?” Aeryc wondered.

        “We’ve just traveled several days’ journey in a matter of hours,” Chelindra informed him.

        “Now what?” Aeryc inquired.

        Chelindra looked at the sun. It was lunchtime, and she was absolutely ravenous. Plus, she looked dreadful, and call her vain, but she wanted to look strong and powerful for the Emperor so that he would quake with fear when she confronted him. She chose the first food vendor she saw, and ordered a mound of food.

        “You want anything?” She asked her husband.

        He actually laughed! “Do you always eat this much?”

        “No, but I’ve never felt this hungry before.”

        Aeryc ordered some food for himself, and pulled a single diamond tear from his bag to pay for their meals. It was worth WAY more than their food was, but he didn’t think allowing Chelindra to pay with currency from the enemy kingdom would be prudent.

        “I was going to pay with a red diamond, but thank you… seeing as they’re all technically mine, but no matter, it worked out,” Chelindra made no sense since she was busying thinking about eating the food they’d just ordered.

        “Red diamond?” Aeryc wondered.

        “Yes, if my tears form white diamonds, then naturally my blood forms red diamonds,” Chelindra explained.

        “But I thought nothing penetrated your skin,” Aeryc protested in confusion.

        “It doesn’t, but I am a woman… I do bleed.”

        Aeryc blushed. “Oh. I see.”

        They inhaled their food, Aeryc realizing that his magic had fueled their run as well. She must have tapped into it without realizing, and doing so had made him hungry.

        After they were done, Chelindra located a bathhouse, and they washed up a bit. She had one of her favorite entirely onyx-colored uniforms on, and was grateful that it had survived the rainstorm relatively unfilthy. All she needed was to style her hair, and she was ready to go. Too bad she didn’t have her concealing powder with her, but in this one instance, looking like a shimmering Goddess of Vengeance might work in her favor.

        “Ready to go storm the Imperial Palace?” Chelindra asked, but it wasn’t really a question, and Aeryc merely nodded.

        “Good.”

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