Darkness….

Darkness….

The only thing stretched out before Arjana is nothing but darkness…

“Papa! Papa!

She calls out, but no one answers…

“I’ve been waiting for you, new queen”

A feminine voice says in the dark. Arjana looks around quickly to find its source, but nothing. Suddenly, piercing red eyes cut through the dark and glare right at her, menacingly. Arjana screams as a pair of sharp white teeth flash before her and blind her.

—--

Arjana awakes with a start, covered in sweat and panting heavily. Birger, who was asleep in a chair next to her, jolts awake and quickly rushes to her side.

“Youngin’ you okay?!” he asks as he dabs a wet rag over her head. “You fainted yesterday… and bumped your head. Tell me, do you remember anything?”, he continues to ask as he gets up to grab her medicine. Arjana is too stunned about her nightmare to even speak. She slumps back in the bed, as tears start to fall. I fainted…I’ll never get better…I’ll never get home… She thinks to herself as she begins to silently weep. Birger stops rummaging through the workbench and notices her whimpers. Setting aside his tools, he walks over and sits by her bed.

“When I passed out, you…said something…Kyunda I believe..”

“Oh, yes well, that’s the god I prayed to, I was…in shock.” he replies before noticing her slump back in bed. She stares at the ceiling before huffing as tears welled in her eyes.

“Arjana, what’s wrong?”

“I’ll never get better…I keep getting sicker and sicker! I want to go home! I want my father!” she cries.

Birger grabs a cloth and wipes her tears away. “You’ll get better, young one, I promise you.” he says. As she sobs, Birger ponders on what he could do to cheer her up, then he gets an idea.

“Youngin. Would you like to hear a story?”

“....How…would a story help…?”, she sniffles

“As a physician, bedside manners are a way to help patients get better,” he explains. “I must admit, I haven’t been doing my best to make you feel comfortable. You must be tired of the usual routine, aren’t you?”, he adds before grabbing a book from his bag. Arjana nods in agreement before looking at the old book he picked up. It was covered in an old ivy pattern, and it had a strange large tree in the center of it. Birger opens the book and begins scrolling through the pages. 

“So, Arjana, have you ever heard the story of Tir Na Nog?”

“Tir Na Nog?”

“It’s a place where elves are said to live.”

“Elves? What’s an elf?

“You… don’t know what an elf is?”he asks, almost completely bewildered. “No, are they real?”she asks, intrigued. Birger goes quiet as if he’s having a bit of a time processing the girl’s confusion. His silence makes Arjana slightly annoyed before she tugs on his sleeve to get his attention.

“Tell me, what is an elf?”

“Oh yes, well an elf is a creature that is born either of the light or of the dark.”

“What do they look like?”

“Well, most elves have horns and pointed ears, others have wings or tails and some have tusks. Elves come in many different variations, but one thing remains the same about them is their allegiance to the balance of nature.”, Birger explains as best as he could.

Arjana was confused yet curious at the same time. She had never seen an elf, but they sound rather interesting.

“Have you seen an elf, Mister Birger?”

He gets quiet, pausing to reflect on a long lost memory. “Yes, in fact….I married an elf.”

Arjana gets a bit too excited and begins to sit up and bombard him with questions.

“Did she have pointed ears? Was she pretty? What was she like?”

He gives a slight nervous chuckle while setting her back down. He takes a deep sigh before he gives a warm smile. “She was amazing…. I’ll leave it at that..”. It got quiet, for a moment as Arjana processed Birger’s reaction. Judging by the absence of his wife, Arjana assumes that maybe she is no longer with him. She wants to ask what happened to her, but did not want to be rude, so she leaves it alone for now. Birger coughs slightly to change the subject.

“Now, lets get on with the story. This story is going to be about elves.”

“What kind of elves?

“Well, this story is going to be about a forbidden clan of elves, called the Umbran elves.”

“Umbran?”

“Yes, these elves serve the darkness.”

“Are they evil…?”, she asks nervously.

“Well, that’s for you to decide. Let's get into the story.”

“Hold on.” she interrupts before she gets up to grab Izzimar’s letter off the workbench before sitting back down. “Okay, you can start.”

“Okay, This story is called the Fall of the Two Clans. Years ago, a human man was outside looking for herbs. He wanted to make medicine for his sick wife. He tried everything, leeches, maggots, bloodletting, but nothing would work. She only got sicker and sicker, and soon, she was unable to even utter a sound near the final stages of her illness. One day, while he was taking a break from gathering herbs, an Umbran elf approached him for help. He was injured and in need of blood. The elf had been shot accidentally in his wing with an arrow. He needed blood so that he wouldn't lose his wing, and be stranded in the human plane. The man knew that helping an elf would grant certain gifts pertaining to the elf.”

“What does that mean?”, Arjana interrupts

“Hmm…”, hes giving her question alot of thought when the answer pops into his head. “Ah! Picture this, if a human helps a water elf, the elf would grant them rainfall for their crops. Or if a wind elf is saved by a human, there will be calm weather all year. It really depends on the elf species.”

Arjana’s eyes lit up in wonder at Birger’s explanation of the elves. She never knew that there could be such creatures outside of her kingdom. They seemed very powerful and almost godlike in her head.

“Shall I continue?”, he asks jokingly.

“Oh yes! Sorry!”, she replies, sitting up straight with attention.

“Back to the story, so the man, desperate for a blessing, decided to give his blood to the elf. And sure enough, the elf healed. When the elf healed, he revealed himself to be the king of the Umbran elves, King Dinet’o. Beside himself, the man begged and pleaded with King Dinet’o to save his wife and cure her. The king pondered and hesitated before asking, ”Are you sure you want the aid of an Umbran elf?" . The man pleaded, ”Yes, if you save my wife, I promise that I shall give my life to you!”.”

Arjana was engrossed into the story, clutching her letter a bit tight. Birger notices this, and stops.

“Something wrong?”

“Oh no! Since…I don’t have my doll, I like holding onto Izzimar’s letter, if that’s okay?”, she replies. Birger chuckles before continuing.

“So a promise was made, and the man swore his allegiance to King Dinet’o. The man took the elven king to his home and showed him the condition his wife was in. The king saw the wife, and asked the husband,”What is it that you want me to do?”. The man then requested, “I don't want her to be in pain anymore, I want her to be cured.” And with a wave of his hand, the king conjured a small statue of a goddess.The king placed the goddess’ statue on the table beside the wife’s bed. He turned to the man and said, “Keep this statue by her at all costs, she won't be in any pain anymore as long as she is near it.” So, King Dinet’o returned to Tir Na Nog, and the man remained by his wife’s side. In the coming days, the wife would get better and she would even be well enough to speak to her husband. The man was grateful, and decided to build more of the goddess’ statue around the home.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Well, you see dear child, the husband knew that it was the goddess statue keeping his wife well. He wanted his wife to be able to get up and walk around the house, but he was worried that without the statue, she would get sick again. So he carved more statues around the home to give his wife more freedom and protect her from the illness.”

Arjana tries to get a look at the book, but Birger hides it from her. “Little one, the point of a story is to imagine it in your head.” He explains. Arjana knew that, but she couldn't help but be a bit confused. "I can’t quite seem to picture everything in my head… I just want to read along" ,she thinks. Her thoughts, however, are abruptly interrupted when Birger continues.

“For a while, it worked, and it had been four whole months since the encounter with the king. Things were looking bright for the couple, but one day without warning, the wife fell to the floor dead.”

Arjana gasped at the abrupt turn of events in the story, as Birger continues.

“The man was in anguish, he had thought his wife was cured, but that wasn't the case. An autopsy had revealed that she was still sick when she had passed but showed no symptoms. Wanting answers, he scoured the forest until he found King Dinet’o again. The man raged at the king, saying that he deceived him, that he killed his wife, but the king had an explanation. “ The blessing she received was a painless death, that was all my magic could do.”, he said to the ailing man. “ I asked you to cure her! You lied to me!”, the man yelled as he raised his fists to the king. The king, exasperated attempted to waive off the man's complaints, but that all changed when the man had attacked the king. In the fight, the king was killed, and the man had destroyed the King’s amulet of the goddess cursing him with the powers of chaos.”

Arjana winces as he continues.

“Upon doing this, he would use his cursed powers to go to Tir Na Nog and suppress the Umbran elves. He forced them to destroy all the statues of the goddess and pray to a new deity, Ataxi.”

“Who…is Ataxi?”, she whimpers.

“Ataxi is a god of chaos, a harbinger of the end." He explains.

"When the Umbran elves started praying to Ataxi, the balance in Tir Na Nog was broken, and all of the elves within the realm became cursed. The man was getting his power from the land, and with the aid of the Umbran elves, he nearly subjugated all the elves and attempted to kill the king of the realm, King Oberon. When all seemed lost, a feral group of elves, the Lumen elves, opposed him and fought back, casting the man and his elven followers out of Tir Na Nog. The Lumen elves were victorious, but the victory was short-lived. The elves were still cursed, and now they waited for their remaining elven brothers and sisters to return. But that day has yet to come. Until then, elves have sought out a new home, The Promised Land, in order to survive.”

Arjana sits in silence, processing the story. She has heard stories without happy endings before, but this one just left her empty. To calm herself, she sniffs the letter she was still holding, as Birger closes the book.

“Any thoughts or questions? I hope it wasn't too much for you.”

“I have…questions..”

“Go ahead.”

“I thought the king helped the man, why would the wife still die?”

“Umbran elves have their own version of mercy and blessings. Maybe if he had saved an earth faerie, he would've had better luck getting the cure. But Umbran elves are a bleak group, they view death as a mercy since their goddess bestows it to those who are suffering.”

Arjana thinks, trying to make sense of the goddess and her rules. She didn't like death, but with the way the wife’s illness was described, maybe she was suffering. However, she still blames the king for not being transparent with the man about his methods. Still, she had more questions to ask.

“What is the Promised Land?"

"Elves believe that there will be a kingdom ran by humans who will allow them in so they don't starve to death. The curse prevents elves from providing for themselves without the aid of humans, that includes hunting and cultivating crops. Many Kingdoms don't trust the elves and either enslave them or kill them on sight.  So, elves are looking for the Promise Land to live along side humans peacefully."

“...What could the husband have done differently?”

Birger stops to think for a minute, he gives it a lot of thought before giving his answer, .“.....If it were me…I would have accepted her death.”.

“What? That doesn’t seem like you Birger, you’re a doctor.”

“Well, this is if I was in the man’s shoes, I wouldn't have any medicine expertise if that was the case.”

“But it seems like…the King tricked the man.”

“He helped him the only way he knew how.”

 But this answer just wasn't good enough for Arjana, and so she kept pushing.“Why? Why would you accept your wife dying? Don’t you love her!?” she cried out, slightly upset. Birger slams the book on the counter, before he takes a deep breath trying to calm himself. He tries to gather himself, but it is too much.

“I would rather my wife had dropped dead, than die the agonizing death that she got!” 

Arjana,realizing her mistake, goes silent. Birger calms down a bit before continuing.

“I’m sorry, but…my wife…she died during childbirth..after I told her that our little one was a still born…She died knowing…that our little one didn't make it. It hurt her heart to hear the news, she died…with a lot of sadness and pain…just moments after.”

Arjana sits in silence, listening to his tragic loss. She can’t remember much of her mother, but she did know that when she disappeared, her father was a mess. She can't possibly imagine what Birger is going through, given that he had lost his wife and his child. He continues,

“It was my fault, I was the one delivering our child…”

Upon hearing this, Arjana’s heart drops into her stomach. ”You see, after our child was pronounced dead, she had lost a lot of blood. I was trying everything to save her… Even though we lost our child, I was under the hope that we could try again… She…begged me to let her die…at that moment….I couldn’t.. ”

 There is a deafening silence, the type of silence, that you can hear a pin drop. Arjana was deeply saddened for judging him, she had no way of knowing. Birger then puts a hand on her shoulder and looks her in the eyes.

“Youngin’, promise me this…You won't tell anyone what I told you..”, he requests sadly. She opens her mouth in slight protest but he stops her. “Please, it’s the least you could do for me. I haven't told anyone this…you’re the only one who knows.”

Arjana doesn’t know what to say, but she nods in agreement, promising to keep his secret. Not sure of what to do, or how to make things better, Arjana reaches over and gives Birger a hug. He sighs before gently moving her away, “Youngin’ I’ll be fine… I should be comforting you. Instead I told you a bit of a sad story.” He says before getting up to leave, but before he does, Birger asks,

“Arjana, have you truly never seen an elf? They’ve been around for ages.”

“No, my kingdom is closed off by plateau’s, we are surrounded by the sun and jungles. We’ve never seen elves.” she explains.

“Well, what do you think of them, do you hate them?”

“No…well, I can’t really say…I’ve never met an elf. But still…I’d like to be friends if we could.”

He smiles before leaving and closing the door behind him. It's still early, so Arjana decides to get up to prepare for the day. Still, she can't help but wonder if the day will ever come where she'll finally meet an elf.