7-An Old Friend"

I was walking again through the wilderness of the Mordjar, like some days before with Jeren Osten… like some years before, when my search began. This time, for the first time in centuries, I felt I was close. With the help of Mr. Osten and the ancient scrolls he provided to me for analysis, now I had the key to unlock the cloaking spell protecting the “artifact”, as I called it for so long. In addition, I was able to… acquire… a magical map that is no doubt the key to the vault where the most important thing in the whole world has been hidden. According to my interpretation of the magical runes, changing shape with the closeness to the sanctuary, I was close…



“So, you finally made it here. I missed you..” said a sensual female voice behind me. “Happy you did, my dear Delystra. It’s good to see you again, after all these years. Thanks for your help in hiding my presence from Havelock and his minions, it would not have been easy without your power in addition to mine.”



“Oh, it’s been my pleasure  Arctorios. Anything for you” replied the woman. She was more beautiful than ever, her deep black eyes brighter, her long, light green hair falling well below her waist, her attractive silhouette… morbid curves… the ageless face of a “Dark One”, as we are now called. “So… did you find it?”

“Yes, I believe so. It should be hidden here in Mordjar, under my nose for so long and yet impossible to find without the tools I recently retrieved. The only thing I have to do now, beside reaching it, is to defeat the Guardian and take it. It’s Rebirth in the Year of the Dragons, we must hurry. It can happen anytime now…”

“Indeed we must” replied Delystra, her pensive smile so typical of her, making her even more attractive. “Arctorios… what do you think will happen next? I mean… there are so few of us left… the Order grows stronger and stronger, they take us down by sheer number. And then there is Havelock… do you really think finding this “artifact” can change all this? Give us a fighting chance?”

“Time will tell, my dear. First things first. In any case, once we will have it, all the Elven people will join us, not only the few who remember the Great Invasion and how we helped them. Any news of the others?”



“Kamirog and Berala have been killed. They were surprised in their mountain halls by a whole army of the Order, almost two seasons ago it seems. They fought bravely, and killed some hundreds of them, but in the end they have been overwhelmed…”

“I’m sorry Delystra, I know you and Berala were very close. Their death is a huge loss for our cause. What about Voriath? I doubt he’s as easy to find…”

“Last time I heard of him, I was scrying the Capital and I overheard a conversation among townsfolk… it seems our younger friend has become a Master Thief, famous all over the Kingdom. The passion for gold and valuables, so typical of our race, is particularly strong in him” laughed she.

So, he became a thief, how amusing… well, at least he was alive, and following an optimal strategy, even: hiding in plain sight. I hoped with all my heart he stayed safe, at least until time would come to go out in the open and reclaim what was ours by birthright.



“You still did not ask about Vysanya, old friend” the pensive smile on her lips becoming a sad one “Do you still love her?”

“Is she well?” I tried to keep my tone neutral… tried not to think to her, to her hair red like flame and her eyes bright as the sun of Late Rebirth…

“Oh, she is most probably … I would know otherwise. But you know her Arctorios, and you know where her heart lies.”



Yes, I did. Vysania has always been weird according to our race standards. Where our kind is normally calm, insightful and reflexive, she was impulsive, rash and headlong… we normally are conservative, and we love wealth. She disregards any possession and she cares little for our tradition and our rights. And there lies the trouble. While the others were united in our purpose, she openly declared her neutrality and her disregard for the coming war. According to her, our time is over, our age past, and we are fools if we hope to rebuild our influence, our bright empire anew. Truth be told, after the Great Invasion that scorched the world, the demons left nothing of our glory, but we few that survived still believe… but not her.  After that speech, I’ve never seen her again, and every time I hear her name I cannot help but remember… remember what we were…and remember  what we can be no more, after that day.



“Yes, I know. I will not stop just because she disagrees with us, but I confide she will do the right thing and join her kind, in the end.”

“Ahh, Arctorios, my dear… you have always been an idealist and an optimist… a very dangerous combination, if you ask me!” there was no joy in her laughter. It is hard to love someone whose heart belongs to another woman. I felt sad for Delystra … I felt she deserved so much more… but it was something I could not give to her. Yet, I could perfectly understand the feeling of void inside, of loss. I experienced just the same, and I was likely to experience it for all my immortality. It’s hard for us to change our minds.

Maybe it is our only weak point, the only problem with long lived creatures. We resist change. We are absolutely unable to adapt. Ages go by, and we are still the same. We suffer… we fight… we experience… the whole world around us changes, and yet we do not, all in all we are always the same. The elves have that problem too, I noticed, though their immortality has its limitations, unlike our.

After some centuries of reflection and observation, I came to believe that mortality is what brought the Age of Man upon us. Their knowledge that their life is going to end, and so soon even, like a spark of light in the darkest night, drives them to achievements difficult to foresee in the beginning. They strive for improvement, every next generation building on the basis left from the ancestors… a mechanism we do not need, and yet that has proven so effective for them…They are fascinating creatures, I almost feel sorry we will have to crush all who oppose us. Sorry that they will be caught between us and Havelock… Humans would say “between anvil and hammer”. I like these words, there’s wisdom in them.

But enough reflections, I had to prepare for the Guardian. “Time is our enemy, my dear. Let’s go”. And without an explanation for my long silence, I headed where the map suggested me, with Delystra right behind me. The time freezing spell affecting the “artifact” was about to end, and I had to be there at that moment.