Rune Bearer

#8. Quest for Cirdanoth legion

    

"What is the case then?"

"I want to do something. Unless I sound foolish to him I'm supposed to be out there fighting the darkness that has surged but some crazy limitation hoards me. It's irritating."

"Never heard an elf could care less about others. My theory says they're selfish and I have seen them."

"Of course they're selfish. Especially the council playing blind to what it's blue. Come to think of it—" she breaks and readjusted her tone as Elrond chuckled at her.

"You're different. Not even the Elven merchants I have met in Charevibe would be so expressive. Yes, you're right—not to be judgemental of your kind but I mean you are too peevish to lavish such wealth on yourself, the whole of Cirdanoth alone." 

"Charevibe is that false north?" She piqued interest.

"Offensively, there is only one true north, the whole of the north, my lady."

"You're not as distasteful as I thought. You bear the rune. Humans as far as I know can't bear an Elderwood rune except. That is only a myth, forgive me for thinking too far." She tapped her scuff.

"If you would let me, can I have a glance at what they said? I'm anxious I might die anytime."

"The library, perhaps there may be something there."

"What do you keep recordings of, you mean?"

"Anything, including how your kind betrayed us to Darius."

"Who is Darius?" 

"From the song of the sea and the sun, Darius shouldn't be strange. But I want to know which being you get to kill the wolf."

"Why did it interest the princess, heard you were getting married."

"Oh yes to the most awful of Elves, Cain the Aurthur I suppose you have met him. From a single encounter, you can identify he is rude and obscene. And I can't imagine myself pushing out babies and adorned without a legacy of my own. I want that, everyone wants that."

Elrond's mind flashes back to his encounter in the hallway, Cain was not a pleasant man not only to the humans but to his kind too and let out loud laughter. "Come let's go." She tossed a hoodie at him. "I'm highly annoyed I might use some company to ward away the blackness that poms out my head."

"Why do you hate humans? I see how they look at me like a walking corpse. Was I terrifying? I doubt even." She pulled the hood over her head and snuck out of the room using the tunnel that led to the town. Elrond trailed after her.

    

    

    Elrond walked through the tunnel that connects the princess room to the outside wall of the palace.

    

    "Your kind had conspired with the dark lord and sold us off after we trusted them to help."

    

    Elrond's eyes lit up his hand trailing along the brick of the wall feeling its roughness. His jaw tightened, and his hand reached for his knife but couldn't feel it. "Guess that Is a whole lot of work, so this is about betrayal"

    

    "Betrayal that doesn't give a warning before it strikes. Your kind is too self-centred. And that is affecting the magic, making it act that way."

    

    The lesser you know the better, the princess Aurora rubbed a hand through her hair, the colour elected from the street and dragged their hoodies on. They walked and arrived at the small pub, the least beautiful place in the whole of Cirdanoth.

    

    Human men that had dirt in their fingers prowled shifting to one side their eyes on the two newcomers that had hoods on their heads. Elrond scoffed, more like clearing his throat to alert Aurora. One of the heirs of the six high lords, soon to own two of her alliance persists.

    

    "Are you sure we're supposed to be here right now, princess?" He whispered.

    

    "Sure, you should do your best not to get into them with anything, they're brutal if that is what you seek to know." Elrond sighed looking skyward before he studied the aura, more like her wearily.

    

    She stepped up to the barricade. "A drink for the comers. One for the lad and one for me."

    

    The voice echoed from behind the counter to the other room as the bartender cocked his head peeping into the other room where one is stored.

    Aurora rolled her eyes and turned in the other direction rolled her eyes so that he couldn't see. "Don't react. No matter what you see. Don't look just stare."

    "What is with that?"

    "You don't want to know." She fell silent and dismissed.

    Aurora slightly gulped and gave a pointed cough giving the man a better view. "I would use an extra glass."

    

    "Yes of course Princess." The man whispered in a calm silent voice and rolled his eyes looking at her escort.

    

    "What are you doing human boy? With an Elf." He questioned in an elven tongue.

    "He is my friend, I get you to have a problem with that," Aurora replied in the same tongue.

    "The wine first and the boy shouldn't be a bother to you." Aurora flexed her finger at the man's and glared as if trying to claw him.

    

    Aurora peeped around without spotting any Elven soldier, Her elbow now rested on the counter and she pulled her hood over her head. 

    

    Elrond was captivated by her fierce display, the man was defenceless as a babe compared to the natural-born warriors like the Elves, who don't need weapons to hunt.

    

    "Thank you." He waves at the bartender.

    

    "You shouldn't be here all you do is keep us here in the filth yet your kind thinks of exploiting our best brewing of wine."

    "The worm, they use your desire to lure you into their spread. They eat us slowly as they stick to our skin burrowing into the layers, slowly, like a leaper if lucky your dead body will be found." Elrond shivered and didn't bother to hide it, Gross.

   "Men stand down, this is no time to start a war." The bartender yells at them as he grabs Aurora by the collar. "Cirdanoth had weakened the ward that keeps them off, boy." A long pause like the word was choked out of him.

    "It's them, these pointy ears use us and throw us down the sewer." Aurora looked down, she felt the crackling sound in the man's voice.

    "It's a she and unless you want to keep your head on your shoulder you shouldn't create a scene." Elrond's hand intertwined with the man and jerked it away from Aurora. 

    

    Their eyes lit up as the hood fell from Elrond's head, his ear was the perfect structure, with no spike, nothing, his scuff was carved out greatly—Human.

    

    "Human boy beside an Elf?" The voice soared from the man's mouth thudding his table. His spit hit the floor like rain. "Protecting her where you should be protecting your kind? How unbelievable!"

    

    "Back off now, or you won't like what you will see."

    

    "How about this, your face is new that doesn't mean you would be treated any better, their eyes will wash down on you, and you will surely end up in the mine. Have you seen what they've turned us into? Have you heard of the worms, our skulls are in the cave there."

    

    "Blame it on your ancestors," Elrond replied flatly and pulled his hoodie over his head. Aurora was surprised, her tongue as it seems to have been changed with a metallic taste.

    

    "What you did back there wasn't right, I shouldn't have brought you to their pub." 

    

    Elrond sighed giving a dull, empty answer. "It's a favour and you should be grateful I was there to defend you." 

    

   "Aurora by the way. You didn't care if I had a name." Aurora pulled out a map from her pant. "I don't want to get married, don't you think marrying to push out babies is wrong when there is no emotion, no affection." She pulled out a map and glanced down at the map in her hand.

    

   "If you don't want to, you can simply say NO for an answer," Elrond suggests.

    

    "And what will become of me? An object of ridicule, postponing her engagement over and over because she is infallible of herself."

    

    "Maybe a princess that long to see what is out there living her best life of freedom."

    

    She quietly stared into the lamplight that had filled the whole light wall of Cirdanoth brightly.

    

    "You know what they say about the Elven light?"  He sighed as if knowing what Aurora had in mind.

    

    They chatted throughout the night until the bell started tolling and the walls of the place were almost clumped out by Elven soldiers and citizens.

    Elrond snatched the map and walked away. "I think I should stiff my surrounding."

    

    Elrond lifted his head to look at Aurora. Her eyes trailed the whole place looking for him. She saw the commander coming towards her, and she paused on her leg, coughing herself out of her reverie.

    

    "Princess your father demands you should be in your Austen's right now." He whispered into her ears.

    

    "Why would he want me?"

    

    Elrond heard whispers, he couldn't feel that the rune was not on him and when he does he is now walking along the most obsolete path of the road. 

    

   " The soul inside of him is great, I will have to prove it to all of you tonight, should we have a home here to trick you."

    

    "There is no need, the commotion within us is well soared."

    

    Elrond reached a huge bark, the size as huge as that of an oak tree, the whispering continued as if someone was speaking to him.

    

    "What are you doing there human!" The voice snapped him out of his revenue back into reality.

    

    "Just nothing I was walking along the trace and decide to stop by." His anxiety rises, and he looks at the man before him.

    

    His chest rising and falling, his face the frown of the cloud has a hand armed with a sword.

    

    "Human! You should be in line with your kind." He tossed Elrond's white eyes on him with the point of his scabbard.

    

    "Or I won't mind driving the pleasure in killing you and feeding you to the worms."

    

    "Enough soldier, he is with me." Commander Nikolai stepped forward. Should Elrond be excited or not? He wasn't sure what to do but the presence of the colder made him heave a hefty deep breath.

    

    "Commander." The soldier stepped backwards tearing Elrond to shreds with his penetrating unfriendly face.

    

    "The druid was not stupid to pick from among the human." Commander Nikolai's sword flung in the air, cutting through, Elrond closed his eyes. A cut with the Elven knife was sure to cut deep and leave a scar.

    

    "This is why you're here. Soon the Elves will perish and there will be no more of our legacy." He sighed deeply.

    

    Elrond was smoother but not overwhelmed by his words.

    

    "We will be forced to perish. And to think if our saviour as a human would have been blight. I wonder what you're doing here."

    

    "So why tell me all this if you know I'm human?"

    

    "To warn you that you don't do anything stupid or try to trick us with your false claim. And the princess—"

    

    "What of her?" Elrond stared at the leaves that were decomposing to ashes as he stepped on them. "What about her that I have a great commander at my feet."

    

    "You know. Or knew." He kept the balance. " you knew what you're into and you knew the price yet you want to pay for it." Said commander Nikolai.