Not Giving Into Fate

27- The break- in

The night of the opening of the doors, I didn't go home. There was a mistake that had occurred and I stayed to fix the problem. It wasn't a big problem, but seeing as I was already there after the children had gone to bed, I called for Prince Adrian.

We had spent the entire night going over the classes he will be teaching. He had shown me some texts he had come across from the North. They were published by a recent graduate within the past 10 years. He had some insightful research about his studies. Adrian showed me his text that highlighted important new information I hadn't seen before and discussed it at great length.

We amicably spent the night lazily going over his classes, talking of the new development set by this mage and slowly getting drunk of wine. Our conversations are intelligent and I can see that he truly studied Ancient Magic. Whenever I tried to stump him on some obscure story, he managed to finish it for me. Ancient Magic is truly just storytelling, and that is what I love most about it.

"All right," I chuckle, leaning back on the seat. I am leaning against one side of the armchair and my feet are propped over the other, tapping to the tune of some music I had enchanted to play. "The curse of the elven goblet. I'll give you a hint, it's carved with Chrysanthemums. What is it?"

"Hmm, I don't think I've heard of it." Adrian says after moments of silent before sipping his wine. He sits on the floor, head rolled back to the couch and his legs are spread out wide. He looks up at me with wide eyes.

"It's a sad story." I sigh and turn over to look at him. "There was an Elven prince. He wasn't guaranteed the throne because he was 5th in line. He didn't engage in politics but rather spent his life traveling the world, sailing the seas and breathing all the spices from the different cultures the world had to offer."

"Sounds heavenly."

I smile and nod. "Yes, he lived a great life. He has treasures from all over, but on one of his voyages he met a nymph and fell in love."

"Nymphs?" Adrian muses at the fact. Nymphs aren't real, at least not anymore. I smile and nod my head.

"Yes, she was a beautiful woodland tree nymph. She was a Sequoia tree, one of the strongest and resilient trees there were. Because of that, amongst the population, she was the strongest of her kind, but she gave up everything to be with him. The elf had to return home and asked her to join him."

"Aren't they bound to their trees?"

I nod my head. "Yes, so they dug up her tree and transferred her around. Before, he had told her stories of the world, and now he was giving it to her. The other nymphs were mad at the elf, but they let her go because she promised to return. And so, they traveled the world back to his kingdom where he introduced her to his family. The elves were not happy, especially since he was royal. They showed their dissent of their relationship, but seeing as the elven prince grew popular with foreign ministers, diplomats and merchants... they tried to let it go because they needed him."

"What happened?"

"One night, he was showing his treasures to his beloved nymph. He had not known that one of his beloved treasures, a goblet engraved with Chrysanthemums, was poisoned by one of his brothers. He let her drink from it. She slowly died. Her hair of brilliant red and green had turned brown. Her strong legs had grown weak and she couldn't live. Even when in her tree, the tree showed signs of poison. The doctors couldn't treat her because she wasn't like them and so she died an agonizing, painful death in the arms of her lover."

"That's it? That's the curse?"

"No," I shake my head. "He was angered and when he found out it was one of his brothers who had poisoned his beloved, he.... he was scary. You see, everyone treasured what he had discovered. Expensive jewelry, artifacts, works of art and much more... was envied by everyone at court. He spent an absurd amount of money buying more, but specifically elven items. They blamed his money loss on grief but he had a horrible plan. One night, he had killed himself, no one knew how. But, the people were quick to steal his items. As they took more, they had realized they were cursed. They say that he killed himself by cursing all the treasures he adored to get back at those who stole the treasure he loved the most. That is the story of curses told by the elves."