TBATE: Blessed by Mana (Dropped)

12. Building Trust

Licht's POV

Few Months ago

"Grandma, did you call for me?" Poking my head inside the dainty hut where Grandma Rinia resides, keeping herself secluded from everyone else. 

"Yes. Come inside." She responded finishing the tea and keeping down the cup on the table.

Appearance-wise Grandma Rinia was a hunched elderly lady with grey hair that seemed like it was struck by lightning and wrinkled eyes that were a mixture of multiple colors, all blending together. She was dressed in her usual simple brown robe which I was accustomed to seeing.

Closing the door of the hut behind, I went inside and enveloped her in a brief hug as she patted my head. Then we both took our seats, with me sitting opposite to her.

"I heard that you were going to become an Adventurer and both Virion and Alduin agreed to it." She didn't beat around the bush. I had half-expected her to say something on that topic after she heard about it from grandpa. Her expressions showed that she had seen that coming and it didn't surprise her one bit. 

Perks of being a Diviner I guess. 

"Yeah whatever you heard is true." I admitted, leaning back on my seat. "Did you call me for that Grandma?"

"Yes and no. Even if I show my disagreement on this, I won't be able to stop you from going can I?" She responded with a half-hearted smile. "Where even your mother failed, how can I succeed."

"Do you also have the same worries as mother does? About humans making use of me once they find out my identity as an Elf or maybe that I am someone from the Royal Family?" I could see the parallels once again.

The strained relationship of humans and elves. They can't coexist with each other due to their own insecurities that exist within their minds and with the inter-racial war between humans and elves that ended decades ago, the animosity between elves and humans still exists. Dwarves who had been neutral in the last war have neutral relations with both the species, taking part in trades of goods, but their relationship with humans seemed more close. 

"It is not like I can trust humans after what they did in the last war." Grandma Rinia replied with a scowl on her face that quickly dissipated. "Do you know how your grandmother died?"

I shook my head in denial. I wasn't told anything about my grandmother at all. Though I did come to know that  my father had an elder brother who was supposed to be crowned the King but died in the war. I assumed that my grandmother had died unable to take the shock and grief of losing her son forever. No parent likes seeing their children die before them. 

Then why did Grandma Rinia raise the topic of my grandmother? Does her death have something to do with humans? 

"It seems you weren't. Makes sense too as this isn't anything that is to be told to an eight-year old." Grandma Rinia shook her head. "Then again normal eight-year olds don't think of going for an adventuring, do they. Let me tell you about the major scar that the last war left on your beloved grandfather and father."

I gulped. Just what could have happened in the last war? How is my grandmother related to all this? For one I understood the reason why Grandma Rinia is telling me all this. She too like every elf in the kingdom, doesn't trust humans one bit and thinks that they are all the same everywhere. 

But grandpa Virion and grandma Rinia are open-minded than the other elves and I am sure one day they can start trusting humans. I also one thought we cannot live with humans but that changed after I met Lumiere and I hoped they could also meet someone like him.