Chapter 30

Part 4

“Our children were killed to strike at us?!!” Alilia screeched as she stood, clenched and shaking in rage.

“But… I mean in a way, that makes some of what’s happened understandable, but in some ways, things are only more confusing!” Nemia sobbed in grieved bewilderment. “Why would anyone do such a thing? Yazadril, neither you nor Alilia even had any living children one hundred and twenty years ago!”

“It is all too completely understandable, since our enemy is obviously one who takes the long view to his goals.” Alilia stated bitterly. “The patience of it is chilling. We did eventually have children, and the curse struck at the first opportunity, subtly altering reality just enough to accomplish its evil end. If we had never had children, our enemy would have wasted little in the effort. And knowing that it quite likely may have been a wasted effort, our unknown enemy no doubt has other schemes afoot to accomplish the same ends. I doubt that his purpose was to hurt us personally, to break our hearts by killing our children. We know for certain that the only ones who had reason to personally hate us that much are long dead, centuries before the curse was cast. And to hurt us, one would curse our children to die young, horribly perhaps, but not to slay one another! Nor to do so by such a relatively quick and painless method! To fulfill its requirements, the curse had to wait an extra twenty-nine years, when it could have simply slain them as babes!

“No. This curse; that our children would slay one another, was cast to cause enmity between Yazadril and I. To break our friendship. To break the alliance between our peoples. To cause war between The High People and The People of Life!

“And look how close it came to accomplishing that! I was a hair’s breadth away from killing Talia and Nemia, and then Yazadril would have killed me! When my people learned that my son and I had both been killed here by Yazadril and his family, they would have declared war, and their greater numbers clashing against the defences of The Nine Valleys would have meant annihilation for all!”

“You think Father could have killed you?” Talia asked in astonishment.

“Don’t be naïve! Of course he would have!” Alilia snapped impatiently. “I have hundreds of times his power, but I am not too proud to realize that he is still twice the wizard I will ever be! If he wanted to match me power for power, all he would need to do is to tap the power of the nearest thousand elves, and he is very good at doing that very quickly under battle conditions! He could tap the nearest hundred thousand and overwhelm me completely, but that is not his way! He would have some tiny spell with less force than a falling pebble that would pass unnoticed through my defences and block the veins in my brain, or something else of similar style!

“Do not be fooled by his humbleness or his lack of raw power, child, for your father is the greatest wizard alive! His strength may only be average for one of The High People, but that is nothing to disregard, for The High People are mightiest in magic as individuals! With his knowledge and skill, that is enough to make him invincible! And between us, we will find the worm spawn who have killed our children and threatened our nations, and we will make them burn in hell forever!!!”

Alilia was almost screaming in rage when she finished, and she took a moment to try to control her emotions.

“Great source!” Theramin breathed. “To think that only Yazadril’s appeal to your long friendship saved our peoples from war!”

“It did not.” Alilia spat, somewhat calmer. “For I was going to kill Talia anyway, and cared not of the consequences. A horrible truth, but there it is.”

She pointed to Mark. “He saved us from war. His presence was the wild card, the random factor our hidden enemy could not have foreseen. I had not thought of the ordeal of Yzandra in five hundred years, and if I had not just been discussing Mark, I would still not have thought of it! And even if I had thought of it, I would not have cursed Talia with it if he had not been handy to be the instrument of my vengeance!

“But he was there, and so at the very last instant, rather than blasting Talia to dust with a blow as I had planned, I thought of the ordeal of Yzandra, and I cursed Talia with it. At least thousands more will not die in a needless war!”

Talia spoke, and there was unexpected steel in her voice. “When you find those who did this, and the time comes to deal with them, I will claim my right to take part in the retribution.”

Then her hard determination faded, to be replaced by weariness from so much pain. “But today is my wedding day! Tomorrow will be soon enough to begin hunting them! Please, if I have to deal with even one more unhappy thought, I’m sure I will break down completely!”

Nemia wiped away her tears, and bravely pasted a smile on her face. “She’s right, we have a wedding to prepare for, and only about two hours remain before we should leave for Laylas Valley! There is much to do, so while I prepare Mark and Talia and myself, the rest of you can divide and delegate the rest that needs to be done.”

“As I said, the invitations are sent, and the feast arranged for.” Alilia said, glad for this distraction from her ire. “With your permission Talia, Mark, I will extend invitations to another fifteen. With ten thousand and more already, I’m sure we can fit them in somewhere.”

“I don’t see why not. May I ask who they are?” Talia inquired in puzzlement.

“They are the leaders of our peoples, the Princes and Princesses of all the elven nations of the world, for I intend to call them to High Council immediately after your wedding, to warn them that someone may be seeking to cause war among the elves. This cannot wait until tomorrow, for if our enemy has a way of monitoring events here, he already knows that his curse has acted successfully, yet failed to cause war, or even to break my friendship with Yazadril. Thus he may even now be setting new schemes in motion.”

“Certainly! I would love to have the royalty of the elven world attend my wedding!” Talia laughed, deliberately ignoring the unpleasant aspects of what Alilia had said.

“Good. Then I am off to my embassy. I will meet you at the chapel.” Alilia stated brusquely, and with that, she was simply gone.

“I’m glad she arranged for the feast.” Theramin grinned. “Her people have the kitchen capacity to produce one for ten thousand on short notice, while ours do not. Still, there are many other preparations to be made at the chapel, and that falls to me and my staff.

“Nemia, if you will tell me what you wish in the way of lighting and decoration, I will see to it. I know you would rather give that your personal attention, but as you say, time is pressing.”

“Thank you Theramin.” Nemia smiled. She produced a scroll from thin air and handed it to him. “Shall I hurry you there?”

“Please.” Theramin nodded, and waved to the rest. “I will see you there!” he called.

Nemia closed her eyes and hummed a beautiful liquid trill, and Theramin disappeared, leaving a slight swirl of air too minor to make a sound.

“Damn, that is so spooky!” Mark breathed. “It makes me doubt the reality around me!”

“Courage, my big, beautiful male. You’ll get used to us.” Talia chuckled. “You can get used to anything, after a while.”

“Nemia, Talia asked you to find the eleven most powerful guests of each gender to be bridesmaids and groomsmen.” Dilimon reminded her. “Yet that was before an additional eight thousand guests were considered. With your permission, the off-duty sentries and I will attend to this task. It is certain that all the attendees will be present in the chapel at least thirty minutes before the ceremony begins. At that point, the scouts and I will be able to survey the crowd and pick out the most powerful, using detuned Detect Power spells. We will invite them to join the wedding party as bridesmaids and groomsmen, and it is certain that few would refuse, if for no other reason than the close view of the proceedings that the opportunity affords! It should be easy to have them in place before the podium at least fifteen minutes before the ceremony commences.”

“Thank you Dilimon, that is most kind!”