Tearia!” Ashaedia yelled once more. She embraced the Shadow Elf girl. Tearia smiled and laughed heartily. She patted Ashaedia’s back.
“You’re lucky that the librarian isn’t here yet. He would have ushered you out.” Tearia said.
“Heh, whatever. I’m just glad to see you again!” Ashaedia said. She let go of Tearia.
“Oh, have you tried the tea that this thing dispenses? It’s the best!” Ashaedia said. She led Tearia towards the tea dispenser and handed her a mug.
“Put the mug under the facet and press the green button.” Ashaedia said. Tearia placed the mug underneath the facet and pressed the green button. The tea came out smoothly and the tea bag dropped out of the facet. Tearia lifted the mug to her lips and drank. Ashaedia noticed that Tearia’s face was unusually pale, but when she sipped the tea her face gained some color. Marikai touched her cheek.
“Tearia, you’re as cold as clay! What happened to you?” Marikai asked, beckoning Tearia to sit down. Tearia sat down at gulped down some tea.
“I’m . . . so sorry, Prince Marikai . . .”Tearia said quietly.
“Why are you apologizing to me, Tearia?” Marikai asked.
“I have failed . . . I’m so sorry . . . I was captured –”
“WHAT?! YOU WERE CAPTURED BY THE MILITARY?!” Marikai shrieked. Tearia wept.
“Prince Marikai! Please, don’t shout . . . allow Tearia to speak . . .” Ashaedia said, actually addressing him as “Prince”. Marikai slowed his quickened gasps of shock and closed his eyes.
“I am so sorry Tearia . . . I shouldn’t have yelled at you . . .” Marikai said. Mydia crawled onto Tearia’s lap and sang her sweet dragonsong. Maylor gave Tearia a tissue. Tearia said thank you to him and blew her nose into the tissue.
“No, you have all the rights right now to punish me, Prince Marikai . . .” Tearia said.
“No I don’t Tearia. It’s not my job to punish people. But I don’t want to punish you.” Marikai said softly. Tearia wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Thank you, Prince Marikai.” Tearia said, and smiled.
“Tearia, what have the military done to you?” Sethos asked her. Tearia sat back on the couch.
“Well, I was captured by the military when I was on a peaceful walk. When they captured me, they took me straight to the General. From afar, he looked like a kind man, but when you’re up close to him, you can see the evil swirl around in his brown eyes. In his eyes was a tint of red. I called him the Devil’s Servant and stomped on his foot. He yelped out in pain and bounced on one leg, rubbing his foot.
“That sinister man laughed and told me that I would be suitable to join his army. I said I would never betray my own kind. He laughed again and this time it was a laugh I have never even heard in my entire life. It was a deep, distorted laugh. The laugh basically chilled me to the bones. He ordered his soldiers to take me to a room with nothing in it but a table and two chairs. After I was imprisoned in that cell, they interrogated me. Fredrick ask me questions like, ‘Where’s the Phoenix King’, and ‘Where’s the Dragon King’. A lot of the questions were ‘where’ questions, but I refused to answer him.
“But they didn’t let me leave that dark depressing building unscathed. That dastardly general had one of his soldiers do this to me! I guess he didn’t want to do it himself because he’s afraid to see blood.” Tearia said, and rolled up her sleeve. Eva almost puked. On Tearia’s arm was long bloody cut. Ashaedia gasped.
“I’ve tried to heal it, but I’m not that powerful enough yet to heal minor injuries like this. His soldier used a survival knife on me. I was suspicious with him when he first asked me the question, ‘Where’s the Phoenix and Dragon King’. I was wondering how he knew what a Phoenix King and Dragon King was. He’s does have an . . . eerie and mysterious aura about him,” Tearia said. “Oh, and he wanted me to pass on a message to King Malikinth.”
“What is the message, Lady Tearia?”
Everyone nearly jumped and turned around. Malikinth was standing in the doorway, white-faced and (if possible) very pale.
“Oh! Hello, Your Majesty!” Tearia said. Malikinth walked towards them and Tearia bowed. He gave Tearia permission to stand. Malikinth held Tearia’s injured arm and touched her scar. Purple flames snaked around Tearia’s cut, weaving in and out of her skin. The flames perished and Tearia’s arm was healed.
“Thank you, King Malikinth.” Tearia said. Malikinth sat down in one of the cozy armchairs.
“Tearia . . . what did the General want us to know?” Malikinth asked. Ashaedia heard worry in his voice.
“He wanted me to tell you – Queen Nalia? You’re here too?” Tearia said. Nalia had walked into the library, followed by King Cailehis, King Tivarion, Queen Wynne, the three white-winged Sareneth Nobles, a tall bald man with a dark green mustache, a woman with long emerald green hair, a young girl with semi-long purple hair, and a woman with long dark green hair.
“We all need to speak to Ashaedia, but I heard that that dreaded General guy has a message for us?” The woman with the long dark green hair said. She wore a long dark blue dress with a black under dress that had a turtle neck. A long black veil with a beautiful gold design on the sides hung off her shoulders. She had soft red eyes and on the right side of her forehead was a red mark that looked kind of like a sharp but rounded lightning bolt. The woman walked over to Ashnero and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.
“Hi, honey.” The woman said sweetly, but quietly.
“Hello, Amidia. Have you met Ashaedia?” Ashnero asked the woman.
“Oh, I suppose I haven’t yet. That’s her right?” Amidia said, pointing towards Ashaedia.
“Yes, that’s her. Ashaedia, I would like you to meet my wife, Amidia.” Ashnero said. Queen Amidia held out her hand.
“Hello, Ashaedia. It’s very nice . . . to meet you.” Amidia said.
“And it’s nice to meet you too, Queen Amidia.” Ashaedia said, and shook her hand. Tivarion and Wynne sat in the last two vacant chairs. Amidia walked behind a large bookcase and came back with a chair. She put it next to Ashnero. Amidia sat in it and crossed her arms.
“Okay, this is what the General wants to tell you all,” Tearia said, walking to the middle of the circle of people. “But it’s more of a threat though.” And Tearia cleared her throat.
“He wanted all of the rulers of Tellios to know that if they don’t return Ashaedia to her home in San Clemente, the General will issue an attack on Faein.” Ashnero and Amidia gasped.
“But why would he attack Faein first?” Amidia asked.
“I’ll get to that in a moment, but allow me to finish the message.” Tearia said, and Amidia kept quiet.
“Now, the General will attack us if we don’t return Ashaedia to San Clemente. He also said that if we don’t give him the Shadow Blade of Khaine, he will place a bomb on Tellios and blow our continent to pieces. I don’t understand! That General seems to know everything about us! The Dragon King . . . the Phoenix King . . . the Shadow Blade of Khaine . . . how does he know all of this?!” Tearia said, throwing her hands up in despair. “I want him to die a slow and painful death! I hope he will live a terrible afterlife in the pits of the underworld!”
“Tearia, you might not want to say that just yet.”
Everyone turned around to see a man with long blonde hair standing in the doorway.
He had brown eyes and pointed ears like Marikai, Sethos, Tearia, and Malikinth. The man wore an emerald cape with a hood, an emerald long undershirt (it went down to his ankles), a light blue and gold over shirt (it went right underneath his knees), golden shoulder blades, a blue and gold belt with a red ruby in the middle, a brown pouch was latched onto his belt, two plates of blue and gold armor rested on his sides, black and white boots, and gold and blue wrist guards. Malikinth swore quietly.
“Oh, hello, Malikinth,” The man said. “It’s nice seeing you . . . again.”
“Firoh, we must work together now. Even though we are enemies, we must work together to protect our Elven families and species.” Malikinth said. The man narrowed his gaze.
“Well Malikinth, King of the Shadow Elves and ‘Son’ of Aenarion, you seem to have a larger heart than most of your kind.” Firoh said. Sethos quickly stood up, pushing back his chair. His eyes were filled with rage, and he lunged forward but Malikinth wrapped his arms around his waist and yanked him back.
“Don’t you dare – insult us –” Sethos gasped angrily. Firoh stepped back.
“This proves that our kin cannot be united!” Firoh said, shaking his head. “You are too violent and we are too kind –”
“King Firoh, will you please sit down and listen to the message?” Marikai said, very annoyed. Firoh pulled a chair up and sat in it next to Cailehis. Malikinth let go of Sethos and Sethos sat back down in his own chair.
“Anyway . . . the General said that if we don’t give him the Shadow Blade of Khaine, he will destroy Tellios and its people. But I think we shouldn’t give it to him, whether he destroys us or not. And it’s our job to protect Ashaedia from him.” Tearia said.
“But why would I need protecting from him?” Ashaedia asked.
“According to his criminal records, the General of the U.S was accused for crossing into the world of Tellios illegally without a proper escort from a knight of Tellios and he attempted to assassinate the Emperor of Ralkero, Emperor Kero Franos. The General attended his coronation when he attempted to murder the great Emperor Kero Franos. He killed one of the royal knights and wore their armor in order to get close to Emperor Kero Franos. The General attempted to push Kero off the balcony, but when one of guards notice the General getting ready to shove the emperor off the balcony, he seized him and threw the General down onto the floor.
“The guard removed the General’s helmet and gasps filled the palace, followed by a scream. One of the maids had found the body of the dead knight and they sentenced the General to death. But the General escaped Tellios and, unfortunately, passed information about Tellios to the army. He said that Tellios was a land filled with bloodthirsty savages that has a hunger for war, and the whole continent of America believed him.
“The General led a team of scientists’ into Tellios and had them take samples of rare flowers and trees to see what type of environment we ‘savages’ lived in. Their tests showed that our environment was healthy and untainted. The scientists’ were confused. If we ‘savages’ lived on Tellios, Tellios would have been a barren wasteland with no sign of intelligent life. It would just be a land of cave-dwellers.
“But after the scientists’ found the Light Elven kingdom Sapherial, they declared that intelligent life did exist on Tellios. But the General told the president that the scientists were lying and they wanted to protect us. The president, of course, believed him and made him the General of the American Army. The General has been leading his armies into Tellios to attempt to destroy us. Oh, and to answer Queen Amidia’s question, the General wants to strike Faein first because we have dragons.” Tearia said. Ashnero was pale with disgust and anger.
“How do you know all of this?” Cailehis asked.
“Oh, a Shadow Elf spy is keeping watch over that general for me. I’ll say he’s quite resourceful.” Tearia said.
“Has the military discovered that an Elf is spying on their general?” Ashnero asked.
“Nope. He blends in perfectly with the soldiers.” Tearia said.
“Amazing! I can’t believe that we have a spy watching that military! How long has he been there, Tearia?” Malikinth asked.
“He’s been there for about ten weeks. He’s been sending me letters to me with reports of the General’s activities.” Tearia said. Firoh raised an eyebrow.
“Hmph, he sounds like a very sneaky boy, isn’t he? Hiding in the shadows by day and moves with the darkness at night?” Firoh said.
“Those words define him well.” Tearia said.
“If you don’t mind me asking . . . what’s his name, Tearia?” Marikai asked.
“His name is Ultheron, but in the other military he goes by Joseph. He’s an assassin apprentice in the Shadow Elven Army. Ultheron was assigned to spy on the military.” Tearia said.
“Well, I hope Ultheron is alright, being there all alone.” Ashaedia said.
“You can say that again. He has no one that’s an Elf to talk to. The soldiers there call him ‘Silent Joe.’” Tearia said.
“Yeah, and it must be terribly hot there too. Being on the west coast is exciting and all, but when the temperature is almost one hundred and ten degrees and the sun is beating hard on the face, we Elves tend to pass out because of the extreme heat.” Sethos said.
But it wasn’t blazing hot out or a perfectly sunny day.
It was a stormy day on the west coast of California.