The Tears of Kas̆dael

From the street, Erin had been impressed by the size of the elven manor. It was at least as big as the football stadium back home, and that was before counting in the handful of stately pale towers that clustered around it like a forest of dead trees.

There was something about the architecture that reminded him of the almost scifiesque appearance of the As̆rukkat in S̆addānu - a focus on clean lines, generous curves, and an almost spartan aesthetic - but the fact that the building appeared to be crafted from wood, even if it was a pale, ivory colored wood he’d never seen before, ruined that vibe. There was simply nothing sci-fi about wood, after all.

But Erin was quickly forced to reevaluate his opinion after following Tsia inside. After an hour of tediously working through the cramped tunnel of horrors, as he had dubbed the trapped secret passage, Tsia had bolted through the manor so quickly he had struggled to keep up, and what he saw only whetted his curiosity.

Many of the rooms they passed through preserved the same spartan aesthetic as the facade. These enormous chambers, with ivory walls and floors paved with the whitest marble he’d ever seen, were decorated with nothing save for a few sparse pieces of furniture and towering windows whose opaque glass filtered the sunlight into giant pillars of light. There was an austere beauty to them that he appreciated but, personally, he’d much prefer a cozy couch and a big-screen TV.

More elaborate chambers, however, were interspersed between the spartan ones. Their walls were decorated with vibrant frescoes and the trim gilt with pure gold and silver. They were only a shadow of their former glory, though, for their furnishings and contents had been mostly packed up and carted off when the elves departed.

But what truly sparked Erin’s sense of wonder was the slow trickle of realization that the building was far too large compared to what he’d seen on the street. That trickle of realization became a flood when Tsia led him out of one of the spartan chambers into the outdoors. There was no sign of the city of Gis̆-Izum.

Instead, an overgrown meadow, the tall graze bobbing in an unseen breeze, stretched at least the length of a football field before tapering down to meet the waters of a deep blue lake. A delicate walkway, supported by hourglass-shaped pillars, snaked across the lake, connecting one side of the enclave to the other, but he was unable to tell if the far shore of the lake was also enclosed by the manor or lay open.

“No way.” Erin jerked to a stop and whipped his head back and forth between the chamber they'd just exited from, and the grassy prairie before them. “The house seemed too big inside, but there is no way they fit all of this,” he waved his hands dramatically at the scene in front of him, “in that. And where’s the city? What is this - some kind of Tardis?”

Tsia paused with an exasperated sigh and spun around. “No, this is not a ‘tardess,” whatever that is. And, of course, you can’t see the city.” She pointed to her left where a few mountain peaks tipped their head above the manor’s wall. “Do those look like the same mountains?”

Erin automatically turned to follow her gaze but was reminded immediately it was pointless. “I don’t know. One mountain looks pretty similar to the next,” he replied drily.

The princess rolled her eyes. “They are not the same mountains. We’re not in Gis̆-Izum any longer.”

“So we teleported?” He asked skeptically.

“More or less,” she agreed with a shrug. “My mother and her kin aren’t powerful enough to craft a true shard like the Sanctum, so they did the next best thing. The entrance to the manor is a portal that connects to wherever the enclave actually is.”

His eyes swept over the meadow again, drinking in the stunning views of the azure lake. “So if we’re not in Gis̆-Izum, where are we?”

“Not sure,” she replied diffidently as she turned around and began walking again. “Mother took me hunting outside the walls a few times, but I never saw any other settlements.”

Erin jogged to catch up with her and slowed down as he reached her side. “So we’re just in the middle of nowhere?”

“Probably,” she agreed. For a moment, silence fell between the two, but Erin wasn’t too fond of silence. Feeling the need to fill the void, he asked the question that had been bugging him from the beginning. “So why exactly are we here? It looks like most of your mum’s stuff has been cleared out, and it doesn’t seem like anyone lives here any longer.”

“Did Jasper ever tell you about my mother,” she abruptly asked.

“Nah,” the scout replied with a shake of the head. “Jasper’s nice and all, but we aren’t really…close, ya know?”

She shot him an amused look. “I had noticed you seem to avoid him.”

“I’m not avoiding him,” he quickly protested. “I just-”

“You don’t feel comfortable around nobility and you have an aversion to killing,” Tsia said calmly. “Jasper doesn’t talk much about his life before coming here, but I’ve heard enough to make a few guesses. Your world doesn’t have nobility like ours and killing is viewed much more negatively.”

“Well,” Erin scratched his head, “Jasper has a more cavalier attitude than killing than I do, but I’m slowly getting used to the idea that it’s a necessity here. I'm not happy about it but it is what it is. It’s not the killing, it's the difference in rank between us that makes everything awkward. Somehow, even though we both came from the good old US of A, he’s some sort of royalty here and I’m just a lowly pleb. Besides,” he added, narrowing his eyes, “what does this have to do with your mother?”

Tsia offered him a crooked grin. “And here I thought you’d forgotten that question.”

“Can’t distract me that easily,” he shot back.

“I didn’t come here very often, but when I did, my mother always had something special waiting for me. Right before she was banished, I had finally reached adulthood and my father had finally agreed to let me move in with her permanently, until…” Her voice grew husky, and she quickly dabbed at her eyes.

“Father hid her letter from me until she was too far away for me to join her, knowing I’d chase after her, so I’ve never even got to say goodbye. But I thought…maybe there’d be something waiting for me here. I don’t know,” she finished with a shrug, “maybe there'll be nothing, but since we were already in the city, I figured there’s no harm in looking.”

“No offense, Tsia, but your dad seems like a dick,” Erin said with a frown. “Pretty cruel to keep you from saying goodbye.”

“He was trying to protect me,” she defended him, albeit with a grimace. “He thinks mother is going to get herself killed in the West and,” she hesitated a second before admitting, “it's my worst fear too. The last time any elves willing crossed the River was during the Desolyton, and then they were accompanied by the largest army the Empire has ever mustered. There's a reason they don't wander in the West, but…” Tsia forced a quick smile, “My mother’s always had a touch of foresight. She made a mistake in Als̆arratu, but she’s led her people well otherwise. If she thinks there’s a safe place across the River, then she’s probably right.”

What’s so bad about the West? Curiosity gnawed at him, but Erin knew it wasn’t the right time to ask. Instead, he flashed her what he hoped was a comforting smile, and tried to change the subject. “So you think she left something here? Do we have to search the whole compound or-“

“No,” she said with a laugh. “We don’t have time for that. We-”

Tsia froze midstep, and he bumped into her. Despite being significantly smaller than him, the girl’s body didn’t even shudder, and it was he who was sent tumbling toward the ground. And as he fell, she leaped forward, a blade of wind springing to life between her nimble fingers.

For a brief, stupid second, Erin thought she was attacking him, and then the object of her ire appeared. A blur of fur exploded out of the tall, coarse grass that filled the meadow, set on a collision path straight for him.

The blade of wind intercepted the creature, sending it flying to the side, but with the agileness of a cat, it landed deftly on its paws and roared its defiance.

Winds howled in a frenzy around her as Tsia spun to face their attacker, firing off two more blades in rapid succession as Erin clambered to his feet. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the great beast. The creature, which appeared to be more or less related to a cat, was large enough to make a lion look puny. Its shoulders alone must have been nearly fifteen feet off the ground, and its head was the size of a small car. Thick, shaggy fur covered its body, a nearly auburn color that reminded him of an orangutang, but it was the set of double fangs protruding from both its upper and lower jaws that truly caught his attention.

Barely perturbed by Tsia’s attack, the cat exploded toward them again. Not having time to form a more structured spell, she struck back with a massive, but completely uncontrolled column of wind. For a fraction of a second, it lifted the creature in the air, tearing away large chunks of its shaggy hair, and then with a shudder, the wind collapsed, allowing the cat to fall back into the grass unharmed, save for a rough new haircut.

The cat roared again and flattened itself against the ground, but there was no sign the wind had damaged it. In the patches where it had lost its hair, the skin below was smooth and unbroken and - if Erin’s eyes were to be believed - looked more like a carapace than something squishy.

Tsia’s hand wrapped around his, and Erin’s arm nearly popped out of his shoulder, as she shot up into the air. The cat leaped toward them, and Erin feared he was about to become a chew toy, but its leap fell short. Dirt went flying as it landed in the meadow and charged after them.

On the best of days, Tsia was not a skilled flier, and with the scout clinging on to her arm and unbalancing her, it was a futile task. They made it fifty feet before the winds failed to buoy them up, and they dropped back into the meadow.

She rolled to her feet immediately, a bolt of lightning crackling between her fingers, and flung it toward the creature. This time, the spell did hurt it, but it wasn't enough to stop its charge. She desperately tried to conjure a follow-up, but she failed to cast it before the creature was on top of her. Bolstered by the wind, she leapt above its head and landed ungracefully behind it. A burst of wind intercepted its downward strike as it spun toward her.

Erin’s hands shook as he drew his bow and took careful aim. The creature’s attention was solely focused on Tsia by now and didn’t even see the arrow coming its way and, yet, by pure chance, lurched to the side in the nick of time.

But the second arrow proved the attempt pointless. It bounced off the cat’s carapace with no visible signs of damage and got tangled up in the thick hair. Tossing the bow aside, Erin reached for his dagger and started sprinting toward the creature, before the absurdity of what he was doing hit him. If the arrow can’t hurt it, I doubt this dagger’s going to do anything.

He paused momentarily, helpless to do anything but watch as Tsia danced between the creature’s strikes. She was too fast for the creature to hit her, but her attacks weren’t strong enough to do much damage. Only her lightning seemed to hurt it, but it was still little more than chip damage. If only I had wood.

And that was when Erin realized he was an idiot. The whole damn compound is made of wood.

He reached out with his essence toward the building and met with immediate resistance. The building understood him, but it didn’t want to comply. He focused his attention on the little half-elf dodging the monster’s blows, but the building still refused to listen.

Screw it. Erin had reached his breaking point. With every shred of essence he possessed, he reached out and tore. With a crack like thunder, one of the pillars erupted from its base and rocketed toward the dancing foes.

Tsia saw it and soared into the air a fraction of a second before the column reached her. The cat, on the other hand, failed to react in time.

With a sound as loud as a trainwreck, the cat and the pillar flew across through the meadow. They landed in a spray of dirt, tearing a deep gouge in the soft loam, and did not come to a halt until they slammed into one of the enclave walls, sending a crack up the side of the building

Time seemed to slow as Erin watched the wreckage, praying the beast was dead. His head was already throbbing from the onset of essence deprivation, and he was all he could do to keep standing. Please, please, please be dead.

The pillar began to wobble, then rolled to the side as a battered paw rose into view. Crap.