Chapter 45 - The High Elf Desdant

  Katherine Evenhart:

  “Cyl!” I called out to my almost-daughter who was hiding from me in the ke room.

  Cyl and I had grown very close over the past few years, as we shared the task of keeping an eye on a certain little someone who always mao get hurt. Nathan loved to practice with swords, which meaen showed up with a new injury.

  He only causes me trouble... Why 't he just stay quietly in his room?

  Sifu told us that Nathan was very skilled in fighting and had great potential. Margie and I would sometimes watch their training sessions, and it was true that Nathan stood out with his fighting abilities. But I wished he would dedicate less time to that and just be my sweet little boy.

  Soon, he’ll be trained for assassination...

  Nathan loved to train every day, even when Sifu advised him to rest. My son told me he wao bee strong to protect me. I was happy to hear that... but also worried. It’s my duty to take care of him, not the other way around.

  Something happened retly that shocked me, something I had to deal with. It was hat caught me by surprise, and I didn’t know how to react. I wasn’t prepared to hear it, and I don’t think anyone would be. My first thought was to protect my son... but I didn’t even uand what it could mean for both of us.

  I tinued walking through the ke room and sighed.

  I am a terrible mother, first the e, and now this.

  I leaned against a tree, trying to push those thoughts aside, but I couldn’t.

  "Aaagh!" Cyl jumped out of the bushes, trying to scare me.

  She ran towards me and y at my feet. I sat beside her to rest a bit.

  “So you were really hiding from me?” I said, petting her.

  Our little phoenix was growing, and she looked entirely different from when I first met her. She had four small legs and a body that resembled an animal. She looked like a red ellian cub with wings and a phoenix’s face.

  As I petted my partner in keeping an eye on my troublemaker son, I sighed again, remembering what had happened.

  I looked at her, notig something odd about her appearance.

  “Is it just me, or is your beak ging shape too? It’s being less sharp and more like a jaw…”

  Cyl shrugged and then ran off to py.

  “Not today, Cyl. Today, I o rest. I have too muformation to process.”

  These were things that even I, as an adult, wasn’t prepared for. I couldn’t imagine how they would affect a child.

  I finally met the High Elf I had heard so much about, who introduced the basiagic to the Evenhart family. Adrihna was a famous elf who had bee a friend of the family in the past and would visit whenever she was in the area. She had introduathan’s father and uo magic.

  When she saw me, she rushed over to ask me a series of questions about my family. I was a rare human with the Pnt element, which meant I had a close High Elf aor, as she expined. Not even the normal elves had such a direct dest, as they had all desded from on elves for millennia.

  Lady Adrihna was an important figure in the Kingdom of Nemesia, the daughter of a Duke. She tried to ask about everything in my family tree. I told her I didn’t know much, as I came from a poor peasant family, but my mother always said that even though we were oners, there had been talented mages in our past.

  She tialking to me, saying she had been waiting for me to tact her when Nathan awakeo magid I found those words strange.

  Adrihna expined what she had to reveal in a practical mahe High Elf took a stone and ducted a geic test using a drop of my blood, and I was astonished by the identity of the person my blood matched.

  What did Adrihna mean by that… how could Nathan and I be reted to the Elven King?

  In the Kingdom of Nemesia, on Elves rule, but there are also High Elves. High Elves are a race that lives for 300 years and maintains their purity to prevent their species from dying out. The a High Elf king married the daughter of the Founder Emperor, and the royal family of the Elves today are on Elves, resulting from this millennia-old union of humans and High Elves. However, the High Elf king’s brother tio marry High Elves to preserve their species. The royal family has their High Elf retives, known as Archdukes, who hold a prestigious position in that kingdom, living even lohan the royal family.

  I found out that the elven royal family has two branches because of this. The branch of on elves and the branch of the High Elf family. There was only one High Elf left, the st of his lihis High Elf was the Archduke of the elven kingdom, but he died, taking the family lih him.

  Adrihna is the daughter of a Duke who served uhe former Archduke from the High Elf king’s brother’s lineage, who married the Founder Emperor’s daughter millennia ago. When they learned of our existence, she was tasked with finding us.

  High Elves don’t feel maions nor the o reproduce, which is why they are being increasingly fewer in number, but they respect tradition above all else. The Archduke died without leaving any children. When cheg his possessions, they had to examine his entire family tree to follow the burial tradition and discovered that this Archduke’s uncle had fled after falling in love with a human. Most likely, the royal family covered up the sdal of a High Elf royal truly falling in love, especially with a human from the Kingdom of Teresia.

  Since he was from a race that lives 300 years and was the uncle of the old Archduke who died, this must have happened around 400 or 300 years ago. All we know is that this High Elf, who abdicated being an Archduke, had a small family that split into two branches. One branch stayed in Teresia, and the other went to Renesia, the demi-human kingdom.

  Adrihna tracked down the only heirs of this Archduke… Me, Nathan, and Kinue.

  I just got out of a dispute over a Duchy, and now another one appears?

  I let out a ugh at the irony of fate.

  “At least it’s only about the right to be treated as members of the Elven royal family and not a territory to be cimed,” I sighed in relief.

  “How am I going to tell Nathan? Another secret to keep from my son…”

  I already feel guilty for hiding the e, and now this.

  Cyl flew over to me and y by my side as if somehow uanding my dilemma.

  Adrihna told us not to tell anyone. She said she would keep an eye on us and promised that if we needed any help, we would have the support of the Elven royal family.

  When the royal family learned of our existehey said they wao see us and even offered whatever we needed, whether here in the human kingdom or in the elven kingdom. Adrihna even told us they offered people to provide security for us.

  That made me very nervous, and I didn’t know how to react.

  The High Elf calmed me down and said she would give me time to uand what it all meant, but that I o uand that Nathan and I were not just ordinary people and that it would be imprudent for them to leave us without support.

  “In the end, Margie and I were so shocked we couldn’t even talk properly…” I murmured.