Elvi

Parchment and Knives

As the weeks went by, the King was spotted daily sitting outside the dome on a log. Staring for hours into the farming fields that were the glamour charms. Only leaving when a member of his clan came to fetch him late into the night. Food and water were successfully being obtained by the teleporters, however, it was becoming more difficult. There were rumours from surrounding villages of the King hunting witches in the area. The villages weren’t to be condemned, they needed to keep themselves safe. On the nineteenth day since the attack, all hell broke loose, as Haydeon was cornered by a group of wolves and taken to the King. The King’s eyes widened as he was thrown at his feet. Sitting forward he appraised the man getting to his knees.

“You were with her,” Rowan stated quietly.

“With who?” Haydeon answered, feigning ignorance.

“ELVI,” bellowed the King. “You are the one who took her from me.”

Haydeon laughed. Sitting back on the grass, he stretched his legs out, making himself comfortable. The King raised his eyebrows.

“Where is she?” Rowan growled.

“You really think I am going to tell you, of all people, where my witch sister is,” Haydeon answered coolly.

This answer earned him a swift punch in the mouth from one of the wolves standing close to him. The King raised his hand and shook his head.

“She is studying harder than I have ever seen her, just so next time, she isn’t caught so defenceless.” The King openly starred. “Yeah, she nearly has thought magick mastered now. You seem to have broken whatever block she had on herself. It is pretty impressive to watch actually” Haydeon finished conversationally.

“She thinks I will harm her?” Rowan asked in a small voice, quite unlike his own.

“Oh no. Just everyone she cares about to get to her” he answered, pointedly wiping away blood from his mouth.

“Where is she?” Rowan asked again. “I need to speak with her.” Haydeon smirked.

“She is safe and will stay that way. Safe away from you.” The King scowled. “Also, you do know that now there aren’t four of them weighing me down, I can teleport right?”

Haydeon laughed as he landed into his bedroom. He walked to the bathroom, checking the damage to his face in the mirror. He washed the cut in his lip with herb water, ignoring the burn and swiped his hand over his lip. It would appear like normal to anyone else with that glamour charm.

“Hey sis,” he said as he found Elvi in the kitchen. “Guess who I just ran into?”

“Who?” she asked, putting away the final freshly cleaned plate.

“The King.” He had left the answer until her hands were free, rightfully so in his opinion, as she dropped the towel in her hands. “He was looking for you and found me instead.”

Elvi crossed the room quickly and started checking him over, lifting his shirt to check for bruising, lifting his arms and grabbing his chin, turning his face this way and that. She knew he couldn’t be trusted with this illusion of being unharmed.

“Remove the glamour.”

Elvi stared at her brother unblinkingly until he faltered. He wiped his hand down his face to release the glamour. Her eyes widened as she took into his cracked lip and the slowly spreading bruise.

“I’m fine” he answered her silent question. “This isn’t his handy work. I think there would be a lot more of it if it was. He wants to see you, talked about you, and only you. I think he has a real thing for you, Elv. You’ve got quite that admirer,” he joked.

“They know that we are definitely still here now,” Elvi stated. Her body started to collapse. Quickly grabbing onto her, Haydeon pulled her into a hug.

“Hey. This isn’t your fault.”

“Of course it is. As much as everyone is pretending it isn’t.”

“We will sort it out,” Haydeon said, wiping away her tears.

*

Elvi quietly closed the door, pulling her cloak closer to her, to fend off the chilly morning air. She hurried through the village, not stopping to say ‘hello’ to the other early morning risers. Once on the edge of the dome she watched for a short while, there appeared to be no one standing guard so she walked to, what was now referred to as, ‘the King’s tree,’ and stuck her letter into the trunk with a kitchen knife. She would try to dispel him from this area and her life if she could. She recognised what Sága was saying, but she was not willing to give her entire life and everything she had ever known, to go live with someone, and be mate to someone, who up until a month prior, would have killed her without hesitation. Elvi slipped back through the dome shield, feeling the tingling warmth as she did so, and made her way back to her house and warmth of her bed.

*

Rowan found his normal sitting place barred by a note and a knife. Pulling the blade from the tree he picked up the letter. Unfolding the heavy parchment he noticed that the handwriting was definitely female. His heart leapt at the prospect of it being from Elvi. His eyes raced to the bottom of the page to find her name transcribed there, in elegant script. Sitting down hurriedly in his normal place, he read:

Rowan,

For one moon cycle you have terrorised my Coven by stationing yourself outside of our border. Food and other supplies are becoming harder to obtain and normal life has ceased. After many meetings with my Coven’s council, I have convinced them that it is time for us to move on. To find somewhere safe, that we can live in peace and freedom.

One week hence you will find this place empty, and hopefully free from your tyranny forever. For obvious reasons, I shall not tell you where we will be going. The treatment of my brother whilst in your short custody has proven to me that any promise given by you towards my kind, cannot and should not, be trusted.

Upon our meeting I told you that I would not accept you, and each day that you keep us captive in this dome strengthens my resolve on this point. As you are the ‘Witch Slayer King’, I am not entirely certain why you are pushing the sentiment of me being your mate so vigorously, but I am of no doubt that there are many of your own species who would give their lives to be called the mate of the King.

Not for a single moment have I felt a pull to you as I am told a mate should. Nothing could induce me to accept a genocidal maniac. I am assuming, of one important point you are entirely ignorant of, and that is that I am already in a relationship. I have not and will not give that up for the likes of a person who would see my entire kind wiped out; and has actively tried to create the world where that exists. My relationship will endure.

I am very thankful to be a member of the Coven that I am. Even with the loss of members, and injuries sustained by you and your kind one month ago, they would still not see me sent away. They have, and will continue to protect me from you.

I suggest therefore, My Lord, that you retreat from this place, and henceforth never return. My brother made me aware of your knowledge of my magickal growth in this moon cycle, and so, I would like to thank you, Sir, for being the inspiration I needed to find the power within myself. If it wasn’t for your invasion of my Coven, I fear I would still be acting lazy and not studying as much as I should be, my craft.

Elvi