My Arasha

10 years ago, the clans led an Exalted March against human tyranny. Before then, we were kept as slaves, pets, beautiful creatures who were dexterous, deadly, and unobtainable. We would dazzle young and old alike with displays of elemental magic during parties, like trained animals. I was but a child when the war broke out, but I was kept safe in my Master’s care. Unlike most humans, my Master was a kind, elderly woman with a wrinkled face, wise eyes the color of the Riviand Sea, and hair like spun moonlight. She took a shine to me, the slim, cherubic elven child who was the son to her most beloved attendant. I am Lirien, a name that means “A Song of the Stars” in my native tongue. My whole life, I’ve strived to be as my name describes me, and thus far, I see the resemblance. I am tall, slim, with hair like the stars that glow in the velvet sky and with eyes the shade of the fresh budding leaves of the forest. As part of my heritage, I am quick, nimble, and increasingly light on my feet (which was good for sneaking treats as a boy). But, I digress. When I was nearly nine years old, the Exhaulted March began in our capital of Onrensera. The elves of every clan rose up and marched in unity against the treatment that had been bestowed upon us by the humans. We wanted freedom. We wanted our history back. Instead, we were granted bloodshed. Thousands of my brothers and sisters fell to the warriors and mages of the human lands. My Master hid all of her elven help in the safety of her home to prevent harm befalling us from the closed minded zealots who believed all my kind should be cast away. My mother and I hid away from the entire world until the human King of Wraesgate, and the elven Keepers came to an agreement and the war was a draw. It was writ that the elven would no longer be indentured servants in human households, and we would be free to roam as we once had. But, the humans did not want us to rebuild our cities, or schools, out of fear of being overthrown. Our old magic was now all but forbidden in any human cities at all. So much of who we were was lost in the name of peace. Tearfully, my mother and I were taken from our Master’s home and care by the Keeper of clan Caixisys, the clan where my father, rest peacefully his spirit, had come from. We were returned to the forests and rivers where we came from to attempt to rejoin our own culture, but I still had this feeling that there was something out there beyond the clan borders that was calling to me. Some whisper that the gods had a plan for me that was far greater than the clan could ever provide. I just needed to wait for a sign.