13 Mother (1/2)

Mercia's thoughts wavered thinking back to the dark room, after her defeat being thrown out towards a swarm of goblins. They all grabbed at her and then fought over who got to keep her and Emily, A dark skinned goblin was the one that captured her. She was brought back to their nest and into the dark room filled with filth she was raped by that dark goblin, If not for the comforting sense the world tree gave her and boosted her spirit she would be crying a lot worse. But she steeled herself, the worst feeling was that Emily was left behind, and....

She thought back to when she was saved and brought home.

After waking up from stasis that she did not think she would wake up from. She saw Penelope kneeling down over her, casting a few spells on her.

”[Clean], [Mana Transfer], [Mana Transfer]” (Penelope)

Penelope.. Her younger sister that had died 5 years ago. Was sitting next to her bed, her body still that of a young girl but now covered in bark like armor, the bark was slowly fading away along with the vines there were covering her skin, being replaced by gentle looking leaves and thinner vines.

How she ended up like this began those 5 years ago, she was living out on the edge of the forest, being trained in the elven city of Gerrensita as a priestess. It was then that the world trees protection suddenly shrank back several thousands of meters. All the outer areas of their domain was suddenly wide open - No longer did the tree protect all the inhabitants within from being detected.

Any unwelcome being that entered into the denser aura of the world tree, would find itself hopelessly lost - and inside the range of the magicians of the capital that could utilize all their powers with in its entire domain. The forest of the elves covered a vast area. And suddenly they lost huge areas of land, with villages and cities on the outer edge exposed to the world.

Someone was waiting for the protection to shrink back like it had. Just outside of the forest in hiding were several demonic wizards, they instantly sensed where the cities and villages were located and rushed into the vicinity and placed down portals leading back to their main camps. The elven forest was assaulted on many locations all at once.

It was a hopeless cause of course to assault the forest and win - the elves were extremely powerful and had both strong warriors and even stronger magic users. But the surprise assault gave enough time for the invaders to kill and destroy, before enough elven reinforcements could appear through their own portals from the central cities around the world tree to drive the invaders back. The invaders threw them selves in suicide attacks to kill as many elves as possible.

The academy was assaulted and almost all the students were killed, including Penelope. But she was part of the royal family, she was brought home to the world tree and entombed within the tree itself performing a ritual to create a [Leaf of the tree]. This was custom that when a royal would fall - their body would be turned to the tree and become a new living being and servant and guardian of the tree.

She knew it was no longer Penelope, her innocent personality and kindness was not there. Instead her small body was a powerful tool of the world tree, used to carry out the will of the elven nation and join the ranks of all the other Leafs.

”I will get a cancellation sphere to treat your status”, Penelope stated out and left Mercia lying on the bed still paralysed and mana locked.

But she had given her some mana and her mind felt a lot clearer now. The goblin child was not in her grasp, she knew during her stasis that their contact was suddenly broken.

Thinking back to her time in the cave. After having given birth to the goblin which took all her strength away. After she had thrown the goblin away, the strange goblin had come closer with gentle looking eyes, as if trying to calm her. She was unable to keep herself proper focused.

All she thought why was this goblin so odd. Progenitor. It was called the goblin progenitor, she threw it away as she felt it trying to touch her hoping it would have been killed. But it survived and then completely shocking her it seemed to become sad, and she noticed something about it.

Its eyes was purple.

The trait of the elven noble line, she had never heard of goblins with any other color than red and yellow eyes, even the worst of the goblins sometimes had completely black eyes.

But this one, a goblin spawned from her had her families trademark eyes. She was unable to keep up by then but the goblin came over and carefully tried to comfort her.. Why would it do that after she tried to kill it. She could not understand, but someone wanted to give her comfort and she accepted it gladly, finally having proper release from all the horrors she had experience in this cave and not a single kindness shown, but suddenly this tiny creature with her families eyes was trying to comfort her.

It put her hands on hers and she closed her hand on it. The goblin would then lie down on her hand and she would cry for a while from the sudden kindness shown when she noticed something. She could feel a elven soul within this goblin. Once more she could feel her soul having a connection to the mana of the world. Taking that away from her was just another horror she had to endure.

Elves were intensely magical creatures and without mana they would become listless and lose vigor fast. But now she could feel mana trickle back into her soul. Something all elven magic users had learned was to tap into other elves mana and share it - it was not the same as a spell that was specifically designed to transfer mana in effectiveness, but now she saw hope for herself and Emily.

She slowly managed to scoop the goblin child up in her arms and hold it on her chest. It had fallen asleep, completely feeling safe with her. She needed to make sure that their connection would not break, and also... make sure goblin would be taken with her back home. At first she wanted to do it because of the potential danger a special goblin would represent.