Chapter 591: Proposals (2/2)

“Sure you’ll find it with just that?” Ilea asked, watching the four Elves prepare to leave.

“Yes,” Asay said with confidence.

“Alright,” Ilea mused. “Do make sure they don’t die,” she whispered to him.

He grinned, showing his sharp teeth. “I shall do my utmost, Guardian of Cerith.”

Ilea rolled her eyes at his knightly play and joined her own group. “I have to visit a nearby city before we go. You two better stay here.”

“What, why?” Feyrair said with a grin, his hair changing from a deep red to a yellowish color. “Are you perhaps embarrassed about us?”

Neiphato hissed, looking at him with his blue eyes. “We understand of course.”

Ilea looked at him and crossed her arms in thought. Feyrair was, well he was Feyrair. But if nothing else he wasn’t particularly intimidating. If nobody saw his magic that was. Neiphato on the other hand was downright disarming. He didn’t share some of the rougher features of most male Elves she had met, nor the wild disposition and lack of tact. He would fit into a ball for nobility with far greater ease than she ever could.

“Maybe… maybe you’re right, Fey,” Ilea said.

Feyrair immediately hissed. “You’re not actually considering bringing us into a human city, are you? As much as I like the idea, if we are revealed, the consequences would be on you. And your reputation.”

“Yeah, but I doubt you’d be found out. Not with me there. Just keep your heads covered in armor. I do have an inkling that Claire wouldn’t mind too much. And at some point I’ll have to reveal my Elven allies. Why not now?” Ilea said. As long as Sulivhaan or other Shadows don’t see them.

“I advise against this,” Neiphato said.

“Noted. And dismissed. Come on, fighting monsters shouldn’t be the only risks we should take. Plus I can show you Ravenhall. It’s a delightful place,” Ilea said with a broad grin.

“She really does have Elven blood in her ancestry,” Fey said to the other elf.

“Or perhaps a monster of a kind,” Neiphato confirmed.

Ilea rolled her eyes, the two Elves getting up as helmets formed on their heads, made of scales and wood respectively.

She went to Elfie, his group prepared now too. Isalthar and Seithir had already left earlier.

“Make sure you don’t die out there,” Ilea said, grasping the elf’s hand.

Elfie smiled, the mist in his dark gray eyes mesmerizing as ever. “I shall not die, forgotten and exiled. Nor will you,” he said, squeezing her hand with his. “We shall make note of all Executioners, waiting for your coming.”

Ilea grinned. “Do that. We’ll gladly take care of them.”

“Farewell, Ilea, Feyrair, Neiphato,” Niivalyr said and bowed to them. “May you find the strength you seek.”

“Fortune to us all,” Asay commented with a smirk.

Farthorn hissed. “May you succeed. Know that I hold no personal grudge, after all, you have saved my life. I just try to be a cynical voice of reason with this bunch of hopeless fools.”

Ilea raised her eyebrows before she imitated an affirmative hiss. “Cynical asshole, more like. Work on your magic, I’ll be looking forward to some void resistance training.”

He hissed back, either amused or annoyed at her try. Both perhaps.

“I’ll give my best to protect them,” Ben said. “Though it saddens me that I won’t be getting a tour of your city.”

“Not exactly my city. But who knows, if you survive, maybe sometime in the future,” Ilea said.

He smiled. “I shall look forward to it.”

The Elves too said their farewells before the four vanished out of her home, flying southwards along the coast. Hopefully to find Izta in the desert and not a death of dehydration.

“We shall be off too,” Ilea said to her group and blinked out.

“I’ve been wondering. You are aware of the monsters living in that cave over there,” Feyrair said.

She smiled. “Ah yes, I hope they’re eating alright. Probably not easy to hunt around here.”

“Animals, not monsters,” Neiphato said.

“What’s the difference?” Feyrair offered.

“One fights without thought, the other knows to hide when danger is nearby,” Neiphato explained.

Feyrair took a deep breath in and hissed. “I see. I usually kill them before I observe their behaviors.”

“That kind of makes you one of the monsters,” Ilea suggested.

He grinned. “Yes. Yes it does.”

“I don’t remember you being able to fly?” Ilea said, looking at Neiphato. “Evolution?”

He smiled and blushed a little, the wooden helmet covering his face again. “Yes. A lot has changed since reaching three hundred. I’d think you understand.”

“I do. I hope it’s the same at five hundred,” Ilea said.

Feyrair laughed. “Oh I hope that too. Long have I waited.”

“Same,” Ilea sighed, flying up along the cliff side.

“Literal centuries,” Feyrair mused.

Ilea nodded. “Right? Feels even longer to me.”

The group flew through the southern mountain range and its valleys with a moderate speed, the position of the suns suggesting noon by now. The skies were mostly clear, snow only clinging to the higher mountains, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls supplying the lower altitudes with their life. Much of the lands had grown green again, occasional movements showing deer or wolves, bears and squirrels.

Little remained hidden to Ilea’s enhanced eyes, flying in the skies like an ashen hawk. “Lower now, we don’t want to get interviewed by a squad of guards.”

“Why not? Would be interesting to see their reaction to our power,” Feyrair said.

“Because I don’t want to terrify the shit out of them. We can do that in areas where I don’t care about the inhabitants,” she said.

Feyrair hissed joyously. “They exist? Oh Monarch of the human domain?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve probably killed more humans than you killed Elves,” she said.

“Oh, Ilea. I don’t doubt your capability for killing, just your age,” he answered. “Though you do seem to care a great deal about humanity.”

“She is human after all,” Neiphato said.

“I care about weak people being trampled on. That’s all. I don’t care if they’re human, elf, or bog worms. As long as they’re sapient,” she offered.

“Ah, Monarch of all then, not just humanity,” Feyrair teased.

Ilea just rolled her eyes. “Remind me, who talked about changing the domains? Stopping their Monarchs?”

“Let me have my fun,” Feyrair said. “How are you going to bring us into the city?”

They stood in the forest beyond the lake near Ravenhall. The street leading up to the gates had broadened, paved now with magical lights set within poles every twenty meters or so. Ilea watched the guards atop the walls, not finding an obvious gap in their attention.