Chapter 0

Lua was free, he was free to do whatever he wanted now, and all he wanted to do was sleep, eat, and cry all at the same time. He shouldn’t be crying but he was so mentaly exhausted it had been a rough year for him. His heart ached at the memories of better times, but it hurt even more that he was homeless and he’d probably never see him again. He punched the pillow in frustration in thought that he should have stayed away from Henri he should have known better. He played the game, he knew the outcomes, but he had still fought to be with him without violence, or name calling like she claimed he did. The truth was he had loved Henri with all of his heart and so he buried his face into his pillow and finally let himself cry it out. At least he was alive, at least he could move on, he had places he could go like the Elvin capital. He’d be an adventurer. He was an Omega but there were no laws against it, besides he had plenty of training.

Lua was sixteen going to be seventeen in a few months and was what was referred to as a Dark elf, not to be confused with a Drow. Drow were the Evil cursed race with black skin and red eyes who followed the Evil Spider Queen and lived in the underdark. Dark Elves were a mixed race between the Drow and Elves. Dark Elves stood as tall as Elves but they had mixed features depending on their lineage between the two races and were referred to as Dark elves for the dark brown colors of their skin. Lua was short for a Dark Elf, standing 5’3” with, now, short silvery green hair, a green eye and a violet eye, with skin the color of a hazelnut, and was very clearly an Omega. He was petite but sturdy mostly from his swordsmanship, he was after all a magic swordsman, basically he could use both magic and swords and he could use magic in his swords. This was something that surprised new adventurers when they saw him for the first time taking out enemies. He usually dual wielded with two short swords. 

Cleaning himself up the next day he made up his mind, he got himself some new clothes and he was going to take the portal to the Elvin capital. He could blend in there better, they had become accepting to Dark elves since the war a hundred and forty nine years ago. Paying the fee at the gate he tucked his little familiar into the pouch of the hoodie so they wouldn’t get separated. Stepping through the portal was the weirdest sensation like walking into liquid and falling in a circle that you still felt upright but disoriented, a kind elf on the otherside caught his arm to help him keep balance. 

“You okay there? Is this your first time using the gate?” He asked as he pulled him along to get out of the way of the possible incoming traffic of people.

“Yeah, sorry wow, I wasn’t expecting that.” he said with a small smile. 

“Welcome to the Elven Capital City of Ashmoon.” He said letting his arm go.

“Thank you, do I need to do anything?” he asked, feeling like this was an airport from his past life.

“Just follow me we’re just going to make sure that there’s nothing wrong and check your ID then you are free to go.” He said leading him to a guard checkpoint, it was like walking into any town. He showed his adventurers ID and put his hand on the stone that confirmed he wasn’t wanted. Usually the stone glowed with a soft purple, now it glowed a soft gold, most commoner’s it glowed with a soft green so that confused him a little. The person behind the desk was a little surprised but gave him his ID back and gave a little bow. “You are all good Lua’aZaer, I hope you have a good time in the Capital.” He told him.

“Thank you, can you tell me where the adventurer’s guild is?” He asked as he put his ID away.

“Yes, when you walk out, turn right and you’ll see it at the Y intersection.” They told him.

“Thank you again.” He told him and then walked out and into the surprising early morning light where he’d left the Empire in the evening. 

There was a little squeak from his pocket and out came the fairy rabbit that looked like a mouse mixed with a rabbit but it had these tiny transparent wings that buzzed as she flew up and then sat on his shoulder. He looked around in awe as the city was large but there was a great part of it that was just trees with bridges that ran to and from, the castle was in the distance and was part of a massive tree. It was beautiful, even the man made buildings were organic and beautiful. He shouldn’t have been surprised by it but his previous home had been nothing like this, the town was more human built or stone structure there was no elegance like there was here. He looked at his familiar and smiled, this felt like home. She gave a squeak of approval and rested on his shoulder as he made his way to the adventurers guild.

An hour later, after checking in with the guild and getting information, he took to wandering the streets looking for the suggested Inn and eating some sort of fruit that had been grilled and sprinkled with sugar. It was a bitter fruit but the sugar brought out its natural sweetness. Even his familiar liked it and she was obsessed with overly sweet things. At some point he noticed he was being followed, he didn’t know who would want to stalk him here, unless it was some alpha but he wasn’t even in heat. He saw the inn that the guild recommended just a little further down the road and he was thankful it was an Omega only establishment and it wasn’t that far and the roads were busy so whoever was following him had no chance of grabbing him or following him inside. He was a bit upset he’d probably lose the rest of the day hunkering down in the inn but right now he would rather be safe than sorry. Upon walking in, the person at the desk looked up at him and took note of his collar and appearance but they were still clearly wairy until he came up with his ID that marked him as an Omega. He got a room for the night and took a nice long hot bath, did some reading in his room and when he came down for dinner he found people were giving him odd looks.

“Uhhhh I hate to ask this but am I odd looking?” He asked his waitress. 

“Well, no it’s not that you are odd looking it’s just, you look like the King.” She told him.

“I’m clearly a Dark Elf though, isn’t the King a high elf?” He asked.

“Yeah, but you still kinda look like him, it’s kinda eerie.” She told him.

“Well I’m a sixteen year old commoner and an Omega.” He said with a shrug. 

“It’s probably just a coincidence, but it’s rare to have violet eyes, it’s a rare trait we’ve not seen outside of the royal family.” She told him. “And we’d all know if the King ever cheated, because then we’d only have a Queen.” She said hinting that the Queen would kill him and honestly the people would be fine with it since they already had 4 children already with the Crowned Princess ready to take over.

“I see, well I don’t know my real parents so I can’t say, and as far as I can recall this is my first time in this beautiful country.” He said with a smile. 

“Well then, welcome to the Ashmoon Kingdom, I hope you are enjoying it besides the random stairs here and there.” She said with a smile. “Do you know what you want for dinner?”

“Surprise me, I’m not picky.” He told her.

“Alright, I’ll be back with your drink and meal.”

He enjoyed his dinner alone, people were still giving him second looks as they passed, he thought of using magic to cover his eye but it was probably too late. After he went to his room and made sure the window was shut and then he would go to sleep. He passed out shortly after changing into his sleep clothes and then he dreamt of her again, the woman he thought was his real mother. The dream he always had when he felt low but it felt more like a memory than a dream, he could see bit’s of himself in her nose, her hair color, and her ear shapes now that he was older. He dreamt of her holding him and he could always feel her love and that gave him comfort and strength, but it always ended with them being separated and her being turned into a Drider in front of him. He sat up suddenly in the middle of the night as in the dream she changed, he got up and filled a glass with warm water, drank it down, and then tried to go back to sleep. This time his dreams were plagued with Henri, he was crying and begging him to come back to him. A red string tied their hearts together and he wanted to run back to him but then he saw Marissa behind him laughing as she cut the string. This time he woke to find it was morning. 

“Fuck my heart.” He muttered to himself as he felt the tears rolling down his face. He rubbed them away with the heel of his palms, then got up and washed his face to cool his head. He changed and then went down for breakfast. He wasn’t sure he was going to stay in the capitol, not with all these elves looking at him like they were and with the word stalkers. Walking out of the inn he almost walked right into a rather large carriage that was flanked by eight royal knights.

“Oh Good, we didn’t have to send someone in to get you.” A Voice said from his right. He turned to see a tall lithe Alpha Elf with blond hair and red brown eyes walk up to him. He wore what Lua would assume were noble elven clothes, nice black pants with a wine colored shirt with a black half cape scarf trimmed with silver and gold fabric clasped together with a large violet mana stone at his right shoulder.

“Uhhh umm what’s going on?” He asked, confused as he opened the carriage door.

“We’re going to go have a bit of a chat.” He said lifting him as if he was nothing and tossing him inside. “Let’s head back to the Castle now.” He told the driver as he stepped inside.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” He said looking at him, backing into one of the seats confused. 

“Well, we’ll see Mr Lua’aZaer.” He said taking a seat opposite of him. “Please sit on the seat and not on the floor.” He told him. “Now I want you to tell me who your parents are.” He said, looking at him.

“First of all, who are you and why does it matter?” He asked as he moved to the seat. They were very cushy, better than the ones he was used to, he could barely even feel the bumpy road as they drove over it.

“Oh, I’m Aithlin Trisfina Ashmoon, the local Guild leader, the head of spies, and the Prince Consort of the Crowned Princess. So tell me who your parents are Lua’aZaer.” He said, looking at him seriously.

 Lua swallowed hard, he knew that name and knew it to be true what he said yet he’d never physically seen him before. He then answered as truthfully as he could. “I don’t know exactly who they are. I've only a fuzzy memory of the woman I think is my mother. I was raised by the Del Moniques and they insisted I was theirs till they recently disowned me.” 

“What does your mother look like?” He asked.

“She’s a Drow, she has short silvery green hair like I do, her eyes are green, her nose is a lot like mine and so are her ears… Uhhh I think she’s an Alpha ummm she felt warm. Oh and she used to wear this earring that I have somewhere…” He said, pulling out the small jewelry box from his item box. The one he’d mostly ignored now because even though there were only a few things in it, most of the things had come from Henri. He brushed the small moonstone ring and then ignored it as he sought out the earring he was looking for. He found it quickly. “This, I feel she gave it to me to remember her by.” He said, showing him the violet and green rose earring. The Elf looked at it and then took it and for a moment he thought he was going to throw it out the window. “NO!” He said panicked, that was his one treasure from his mother, if he lost it he felt he would lose the only piece of his mother he had left.

“Sorry, I wasn’t going to really throw it.” He told him. “I didn’t want to make you cry, I just wanted to test you to see how important this was to you.” He said handing it back. 

“I just told you that this is the only thing my mother gave to me to remember me by and you want to test me over it? That is an asshole move.” He said taking it back quickly.

“Well I could have taken that or this and thrown it out the window.” He said holding up the ring, the one that Henri had given him as a promise ring. A promise he broke to him. “This looks like it holds quite a bit of sentimental value, why don’t you wear it any more?” 

“Cause he ended things with me, but I guess I still hold onto it.” He said wanting to snatch it back, but he also wanted to see it thrown out of the carriage.

“Well if he broke up with you he’s an idiot.” He said putting it back. “According to the guild receptionist in the Capital of the Empire you’re a sweet nice guy who knows his limits and does the job right.” He said, reading a letter he pulled from his pocket. 

“Errr cause I know people can die and I had a reason for not wanting to die at the time, and well honestly who wants to die?” He told him.

“Yeah well many adventurers go for glory and fortune and most of them aren’t level 113 especially in the Eastern Empire, you’re probably the youngest to reach level 100 there, most die by eighty cause they think themselves invincible.” He told him.

“How would you know all of this?”

“I’m the guild leader here, it’s the best way to get information and find talented people.”

“Right you said so earlier. So why am I here again?”

“To meet the King and Queen.”

“Why?”

“Have you never looked into a mirror?”

“You mean the fact I have one violet eye?”

“There’s that too.”

“I am new here you know, I’ve never seen what the king and queen look like except in textbooks but those pictures are old, not that they’ve changed much but...” He shrugged.

“That is true, but still it’s unnerving that though you have no family name currently, the stone glowed gold, you have that earring, and your appearance.”

“I noticed that too, it used to glow violet till I got disowned.”

“Red is for criminals, Green is for commoners, black is for the undead, violet is for nobles, and gold is for royalty, it’s how we find missing heirs.” He told him. “Except till now we didn’t think we were missing any.”