Visions of Love and Heroes

Chapter 14

We moved on. We had maybe two more days of travel on foot before we would be free of the valley. It couldn't help but miss the mare I had been riding, even with its insatiable appetite.

Now that we were deeper in the valley, I could see some of the tension leaving Theo's body. Still, he urged us on, not stopping until it was nearly full dark. He chose a point near the valley's perimeter where a small clearing sat next to a narrow creek that trickled through the lush greenery. Even in the darkness, the valley glowed with life.

Theo went up the base of one of the trees, working the aether to build another house within its base. This time he took great pains to make it indistinguishable from the outside, making a door thick with moss and vines that would close behind us, hiding our temporary shelter from view. 

We drank from the creek, and Theo used one of the knives he'd had strapped to his thigh to cut off a strange bulbous flower with small spikey green petals. He cut it open, revealing an orange fleshy center. We both ate it, and I enjoyed the sweet and sour flavour. He cut several more, and we feasted on them until we'd had our fill.

Later as we sat before a small fire, I finally worked up the nerve to ask about the Watchers.

"What are they?"

Theo glanced up from the fire, looking me in the eye for the first time in what felt like hours. He sighed. "I'm surprised you don't already know."

I shook my head. "Most of Alfhaven is unknown to me. There has been little exchange of information over the years, most of Elf Territory closed off from us. Everything in my university texts are outdated and missing key points of information."

Theo leaned forward. "So you have not heard of the Dark Elves of Nethermore?"

I tilted my head. "Dark elves? No. Nethermore? Most definitely. He was the Elf King that started the wars between our people."

"He was more than that. He wasn't just any king, but one that had been changed. Warped by too much aether. They say he would feed directly from the source, his body constantly aglow from it near the end."

I shifted, thinking of my vision and what I had seen. How Theo eventually saved the world. "Is that...bad?"

I had never heard of any mortal being that would feed on the aether. But elves were different than most, and not quite mortal like mages and dragon riders. Elves had life spans that often lasted hundreds of years. It made sense that they may have tested the aether in ways we hadn't.

Theo nodded. "I don't know about mages, but elves can only draw so much of it into ourselves or it corrupts us, in a way. Like an appetite that can never be quenched. We have strict rules around using aether and how much we can take. It's tempting, to seek more, especially for those weaker in skill. But for Nethermore... He took too much. He nearly ruined his kind because of it."

"So, if an elf draws in too much aether, they become a dark elf?"

Theo shook his head. "No, Nethermore was not a dark elf, just one warped by the possibility of endless power, and in a way much more dangerous. Dark elves come directly from the aether. Mirrors of our kind, but twisted and less inclined to our morals and beliefs."

I furrowed my brow. There had been no mention of any such creatures crossing over to our world from the aetherworld. Though some eastern mages were said to summon mysterious beasts, even that had been mostly proven to be myth. Though I knew many believed the Aetherworld was a mirror of our own, only changed by intense amounts of aether, no one had been able to prove it. And certainly no living thing could cross through and live.

"But, that's...impossible? Right?"

"So, we thought. But we were wrong. I have learned many things from the aether, and one of them is that you never know what to expect when messing with it. It's best left alone." He stared off into the trees for a moment, caught in a memory I couldn't see. He looked up at me. "Which means what we intend to do is very risky."

I considered what Theo was telling me, a chill settling on my skin. "So you are saying the Watchers in the trees are dark elves? That doesn't make sense. Nethermore has been gone several centuries. Even elves don't have lifespans that long."

"Dark elves aren't like us. They look the same as any other elf, unless you know what to look for, which is probably why mages don't know of them despite having fought them in the war. They walk and can even talk the same as us, but that's where the similarities end. It is said unless you cut their head clean from their body, they don't die. So yes, its quite possible they still live. More than possible. They watch us, even now."

I gazed back up toward the mountain, crossing my arms around myself. "Yet they don't attack."

Theo was silent in response, following my line of sight.

"Why are they here? If they are as terrible as you say, couldn't they rain terror down upon your cities?"

Theo's voice softened as he gazed into our small fire. "They did. For years, plunged Alfhaven into two wars, the one on the outside and one within. Eventually, as you likely already know, Nethermore was caught and killed, and his followers were banished."

I nodded, realization dawning. "To here. A place uninhabited because it's so close to the dragons."

"Precisely. That is until we came here. It's best we move quickly."

I considered this information, filing it away. "Why don't they attack, if they are as fearsome as you say?"

A line formed on Theo's brow. He paused a long time before answering. "I don't know."

For some reason that was more unsettling than if he'd had an answer.