Antimahara

The Light Priestess

Anelia has improved, but not much. She is still deep in depression. Here is a girl that was assigned to personally find and protect a celestial. She failed. As she told him, she was punished for it, marked with branding, a small ring shape, somewhere on her body. Now here she is, come to find the Celestial she was supposed to protect is alive after being, captured, tortured and left in a tower, chained to a floor, alone for eons. And she desires death, but instead is, without much choice, tasked with defending him to her dying breath.

If she fails once more, he may not be able to spare her life again. They sit in his room, he sits on the floor, the bed feels strange to him. Uncomfortable, it's too soft.

Well, he sits, she stands, ready to preform whatever thing he tasks to her. 'How old are you?' He asks,

'Three thousand and thirty five your highness.'

So she is older than him. He hates that she calls him 'your highness' or 'my lord'. But it's the one thing she insists upon. The only thing. So he allows it. He mourns for her, he can imagine the depression she feels, the uselessness. Rather, the desire for death, he can tell she still wishes for it.

'Anelia? Why did the Celestials stop coming?' Kiran asks,

She thinks for a moment before her body somehow seems to droop more. But instead of signing, she opens her mouth.

"We...we all failed you. And your people. We tried to help as many as we could. Light Elves used to have a very, very grand nation. But then people desired the properties of Celestials for themselves. They were hunted, the world seemed to turn against us and reduced us to our small country. You were killed trying to protect us, and we were killed trying to protect you, but we don't know how your people died your highness. Then the Celestials stopped arriving and coming to our world. I am so very sorry your highness. Light Elves are an abomination before you, me especially."

Kiran's heart sinks. Hunted, killed? Probably the same poison that permanently scarred him all those years ago.

'I am only thankful you found me, my lady.'

Her eyebrows shoot up, eyes wide and she looks at him, stunned. "Please my lord...don't...don't call me that. I am not deserving of any respect. Let alone that much."

Kiran rises to his feet, 'I will not call you rat or slave knowing that is what you would prefer.'

She groans to herself, 'Then perhaps just Anelia? Though I do not deserve such respect.'

He nods, 'Anelia it is. How did your people come into this land? How long have your people been here?'

She straightens slightly, slightly. 'Well this is where we started. Light Elves first settled here when they came to this continent. This was our first home.'

Kiran smiles, a tinge of relief washing over him, there is pride in her words, and for a moment, she forgets her depressive state, even if only a little.

'Where did you learn to speak Unspoken?'

'Many languages are taught in our kingdom. We must learn at least 4. I can speak Common, Draconic, Unspoken, Elvish and Dwarfish. In this kingdom you, of course, grow up with Elvish. But Dwarfish because despite them being mindless brutes, we want to understand them, Draconic is a more common tongue as well, such as dragonborns and actual dragons. Unspoken because hardly anyone knows it in the kingdom.'

'Perhaps I could hear some from the different languages?'

She frowns for a moment but nods, 'Of course your highness. What would you like to hear first?'

She takes turns, exploring the languages, each one captures his interest. Draconic is surprisingly more...pretty? than he thought it would be, like a mix of orcish, a harsh language, and Elvish, a beautiful, flowing language.