Becoming Legend - Chapter 385: Elf: Prince Aesril

Prince Aesril held the Mask of Caree in his hand. He sat on a wooden stool fixed against the floor.

Gelethorn sat on the bed opposite of him holding the same mask they wore to hide against the humans. He looked pale, and cold to the touch, but the veins of the blackish nightmare wore off.

“No more hiding,” Gelethorn said, folding the mask and hiding it under his shirt. Gelethorn was a wood-elf. One of the three purest elves. One of which was the most distinguishable, brown hair, brown eyes, but never broad as Gelethorn. Wide shoulder and square jaw. He looked like he could crush anything between his hands.

“No more hiding,” Prince Aesril repeated. Golden hair messed up the smooth of his face. Golden eyes flickering as he stared at the mask in his hand, unable to look Gelethorn to the eyes.

“You did what you had to do,” Gelethorn said. He then flicked his hand to conjure a vine rooting out the wooden wall around them. A thin vine softly pulled Prince Aesril’s messy hair and tied them in a pony. Not the best knot out there, but Prince Aesril nodded softly to Gelethorn. Eyes still unable to look at him. “I just wished I did it, not you.”

Prince Aesril did not respond and so Gelethorn remained the same.

After a moment of awkward silence, Gelethorn stood, walked towards Prince Aesril, knelt on one knee, and held the Prince’s hands. “I am very sorry, my Prince,” he said. “I was careless.”

Prince Aesril shook his head. “No,” he said, now looking at his elfhood friend. “I sent you there. Alone. It is my fault, Gele.”

“It is my duty, my Prince,” Gelethorn said, firmly holding the Prince’s hand. “If it was you there. I…” He trailed off. Tears leaked both his eyes. Shoulders stuttering. “I won’t forgive myself. So please, my Prince. It should be me and you did what you have to do and I owe you my life. Again.”

Prince Aesril smiled, bent closer to Gelethorn, and touched his forehead with his. Gelethorn closed his eyes and smiled the same.

“Thank you, my friend,” Prince Aesril said, after pulling himself away from Gelethorn. He folded the Mask of Caree and tucked them inside his belt, crumpled. “But I needed time. I needed to th—”

Behind them, as the creaking of the ship stopped, a knock echoed behind a wooden door.

Gelethorn stood. Wedged open the door and glared at the person before him.

It was Edok, silver necklace on his neck, dark eyes, and short ashen hair he wore unkempt Makers only knew for how long. Weeks; days, Gelethorn wasn’t sure how long he had been sleeping.

“What is it?” Gelethorn said, holding the edge of the door, gripping. His eyes glared like a tiger, found its prey, to the human. Not now, he assumed. Now that his elfhood friend did what he was ought to do. It should be him, not the Prince.

Gelethorn shook his head, nearly apologizing to the human he loathed the most. All humans, he loathed. His glare made Edok take a step backward involuntarily. Gelethorn looked over his shoulder and back to the human and said: “What is it?” In a much softer voice.

Edok swallowed a lump of saliva, air most likely. His lips dry.; eyes were red. “We are here,” he said and ran, leaving Gelethorn to shut the door.

“My Prince,” Gelethorn said as soon as he reached the Prince. “We have arrived.”

***

A mixture of black on the horizon beneath raging red and orange of fire in the night had begun to peek out as soon as Prince Aesril made it to the upper deck of the merchant ship Dacota.

Gelethorn stood beside Prince Aesril in a thin cloth, his body made a wide shadow that almost devoured the humans behind them.

Edok stood behind Captain Creft. The captain stood tall, yet very reserved looking at Prince Aesril’s back. He’s got the stoutness of a warrior, now insignificant opposite of the elves.

Beside Captain Creft was Jack. A scar ran down from his forehead under his right jaw. Gray hair seemed to freeze as he cowed at the elves across him. A quick question gave Prince Aesril all he wanted. Everyone on the ship was a part of him that he brought back somewhere in a city far away from the Kingdom of Griffith. Making sure no one would be interested in him. Making a lot of detours led Jack to meet Prince Aesril and Gelethorn, posting as humans on their magical Mask of Caree in the city of Dirin.

Everyone on the ship was a part of him. Everyone. Especially the S’tor, as Elder Calanye had called it during his studies of the chemical. S’tor the Burner. Mysterious red dust that pushes the magical limit of anyone who uses it. Once depleted of mana, they break. But a quick borrowing of the power made the humans addicted to it. Too much of the Burner made them insane and unable to control their powers. They went berserk and possible death, if not comatose.

But not to the elves. Burner in red dust, although not as strong or potent in its liquid form, will attack the elves directly. Disrupting their mana flow while breaking them from the inside. Severing the connections, and their life. Exactly what had happened to Gelethorn.

Once inside the secret room the merchants and Jack had been guarding relentlessly, Gelethorn, with him restricting his mana (per Prince Aesril ‘s advice), has been made instantly. Fought hard enough, and accidentally burned the red dust with one of the merchant’s fire spells.

Even with Gelethorn decrepitated of the red dust, it took the entire crew to slow him down. His rampage took him unconscious which made Prince Aesril snap.

The upper deck was feasted of blood. Walls under the lower deck scorched. Its mast braided with tendrils of vines, collapsing the tower, and destroying the captain’s cabin. The ship has no use anymore.

Prince Aesril was the only son of the King of Elves, the only successor for the high elves. He was a member of the Upper Seeds. He knew their plans, he knew the future the elves will take. He knew that by now, Elder Calanye had finished raising the portal from the tree of Pin’Tu to O’rriadt island.

For once, for a very long time, Gelethorn saw his Prince’s smile.

The Prince’s smile, however, turned stale, eyeing the remaining humans. He gestured to Gelethorn and Gelethorn waved to the humans to sail the ship closer to the shore. Closer.

As the ship sailed closer, Prince Aesril and Gelethorn instantly felt the mana’s sudden change in the air. As though they were boulders pressing down on them. Prince Aesril gritted his teeth as Gelethorn held the wooden railings of the ship.

Invisible waves of mana explode away from the pair of elves and they struggle to control the blight entering their bodies.

The humans felt nothing as though the blight was accustomed to them. Yet did nothing to the elves but whimper away from them, confused.

Dacota was nearing a forested shore, boulders at both ends of the wide beach. Smoke scattered deeper in the forest.

Prince Aesril came to his senses minutes before Gelethorn.

“The taint in the mana here is too strong.” Gelethorn wiped the sweat condensing on his forehead.

“We must be closer to the Gate,” Prince Aesril said.

The three humans behind them stood apprehensively. They did nothing since the magic from Prince Aesril was enough to push the ship even without someone manning it. Their hands shook as they got closer to the shore. Aside from Captain Creft who seemed to half-compose himself, the rest were standing like a pole in the middle of the ship. They must have wished to stay on the ship, perhaps they thought that once the ship docked, the elves would end their lives. Dock? How come? And where to?

The three of them ran to the nearest wall or the remaining wall that could hold them together with the ship went sailing the shore without stopping.

Dacota, the merchant ship, roared the air around it before slamming to the boulder.

Prince Aesril and Gelethorn jumped before the impact. Letting the three humans survive by themselves.

They survived after a hill of planks and splintered woods burst out. Captain Creft stood in the middle of the two, bruises and wounds on his forehead and arms. He then jumped off the ship and came marching towards the elves.

“Why let us live?” Captain Creft said, gripping the collar of the Prince’s robe.

Gelethorn lunged forward at the captain but Prince Aesril slightly raised a hand to stop him.

But why indeed? After killing the humans of the ship except for the three, why let them live? He could have ended them easily on the ship. Gelethorn remained quiet.

Captain Creft gritted his teeth, mustering his remaining will to face the elf that burnt his crew alive. Pebbles of tears ended at the end of his eyes. He was ready to die. Right on the shore. His ship was destroyed. What’s the point? His adventure had ended the moment he took the pair of elves.

“Well,” Prince Aesril said, looking behind the captain after the two humans came rushing. “Killing you won’t be enough for absolution. How about a little touch of torment before you all die?” His words were an echo to the humans. An echo of the remainder of their lives.

Gelethorn gripped the Captain’s hand. Then shove him to the two deadly pale humans.

“What do you mean, my Prince?” Gelethorn whispered. “What did you do?”

The Prince of Elves thinned his lips and looked at Gelethorn that even his elfhood friend did not understand the brewing darkness in his golden eyes. He raised his hand, then produced a ball of light, gradients turning from gold then green. Ribbons of white light swirling the orb.

Gelethorn gasped for air as he stared at the orb. “What did you do!” He demanded.

“Nothing much,” Prince Aesril replied nonchalantly. “I just gave them some of my life force.”