Everyone knew the story of the betrayer. Once, there were seven families ruling the federation: the Illumis family of light, the Delmere family of water, the Rockwell family of earth, the Galecrest family of wind, the Glenwood family of nature, the Firesworn family of flame, and the Ravenheart family of darkness.
After fighting a long war of unification, the seven families emerged victorious. But the head of the Ravenheart family, Nox Ravenheart, eventually turned mad and betrayed his allies. His treachery ignited a war that shook the federation, leading to the deaths of countless elves.
Nox was eventually defeated, but not before annihilating the Firesworn family and dealing crippling damage to the other five. At the moment of his death, he laid a curse on the federation, vowing to return by possessing those of darkness and leading them against the federation.
And he delivered on his curse. Decades after the civil war, the vengeful spirit of Nox appeared, possessing countless individuals bearing the element of darkness, causing tragedies in the weakened federation.
Ever since, those born with darkness as an element were eliminated, lest they get possessed by Nox and ignite further catastrophes.
Orion stood there, his face growing paler by the second. Shocked, confused, and afraid, he stared at his hand. Even after he pulled it close to his chest, faint wisps of darkness and lightning lingered. His thoughts raced: What is happening? Why me? Why can’t I have something good happen to me for once? Are they going to imprison me? Kill me? Exile me? His ears turned back in fright.
The examiner looked at him with cold eyes, his gaze piercing and paralyzing Orion. He lifted his arm, placed it on Orion's head, sending pulses of magic, and casting a spell that put him in a state of unconsciousness. At the same time, he lifted his other arm, casting another spell. Countless wisps spread from his palm, darting toward the foreheads of all who witnessed the scene, altering their memories and erasing the boy from the events of today.
The crowd needn’t know when elves of the cursed bloodline are discovered, or else social unrest would spread, as it had plenty of times throughout the nation's history.
Gesturing to one of his assistants, the examiner said, “You there, take him to the cells.” The assistant followed the order, as he had a few times that day. It was neither the first nor the last time an incident like this would occur.
“Next,” yelled the examiner, calling for the next examinee.
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Orion woke up, his head hitting the cold steel floor. He tried to stand, but his legs buckled, his vision spun, and his head ached. Disoriented and confused, he didn’t recall how he ended up there. Soon, he fell back into unconsciousness.
He woke up some time later, laying on the cold stone floor. His head throbbed, and his throat was dry. He moved his hands, trying to feel his surroundings, but felt nothing but the cold air. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was in an empty cell, the bars illuminated by a crystal light in the distance.
“Hello… is anyone there?” His voice was coarse and faint, hurting his throat. No one answered him, and after a few moments of silence, he tried again. “Is ther—”
“Hush, keep quiet, or you’ll alert the guards,” said a voice from the cage next to his. It was a boy his age, his features hidden by the darkness of the room.
“Who are you?” Orion whispered, crawling closer to the cage where the other boy was.
“You can call me Azar. I was dragged here when the examiners found out I was cursed. What about you?”
“Call me Orion… all I remember is the examiner placing a hand on my head after finding out I had a high affinity to darkness, then it all went dark.”
Orion thought about the strangeness of it all. The stories sung by the elves told of Nox possessing the bodies of his descendants after the first war, causing havoc and killing thousands before being put down by the clans. That is why anyone who has the darkness element gets eliminated on the spot.
But why was he here, and why was Azar in the same predicament? As far as he could tell, only the two of them were imprisoned here for the time being.
The silence continued for many long minutes until something broke it. The sound of chains rattled loudly on the floor. Then a guard, clad in black armor from head to toe, entered the dimly lit room, dragging behind him a couple of kids—a boy and a girl.
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Orion stared at the guard from the furthest side of his cage, trying to appear as small as possible, not wanting to draw any attention. But all his effort, as minuscule as it was, didn’t matter.
The guard turned his head in his direction. “Finally woken up, lazy head.”
The look Orion received sent a shiver down his spine; the guard's tone was filled with ridicule and contempt.
“That makes things easier. I won't need to dirty my hands with more filth,” he whispered, kicking the two newcomers into the cage next to Orion's.
“You should count yourselves lucky. Demons like you would have been executed on the spot, and your existence erased from all records. But the council has found use in your lives.”
The new boy asked, “What about our parents, what happened to the—” But before he could finish, the guard punched him in the gut, knocking him unconscious. The girl with him, presumably his sister, shouted, “THEO—” but lowered her voice to whimpers when the guard gave her a dark look. “Much better. Now, any more questions?”
He waited for a few seconds before turning back and exiting the room, the doors shutting behind him. Runes lit up across the edges and the walls of the room, giving it much-needed illumination.
Orion looked at the door for a couple more minutes, making sure the guard was truly gone. Then he looked at Azar, who looked back with the same scared gaze. Azar was larger and slightly taller, with short crimson hair and dark violet eyes. His features were rough for an elf, and by the size of his forearms, he looked like he practiced a labor-intensive job.
The siblings, most likely twins by their light green hair and eyes and near-identical faces, were trying to wake Theo, the boy, slightly shaking his back. The girl couldn’t stop crying from fear.
No one said anything for a long while, not daring after what they had witnessed. It was obvious the guard didn’t like cursed elves like them. But what nefarious purpose did the council have for them?
His thoughts raced but were interrupted by Azar.
“Hey there, newcomer, what's your name? My name is Azar, and this guy over here is Orion.”
The girl was surprised and whispered quietly, “My name is Thea, and my brother here is Theo. N-nice to meet you.”
Orion quickly glanced at Azar with a questioning look, then at Thea, and said, “There seems to be only four of us here, but there must be a reason they didn’t kill us on the spot. We can start by comparing our elements. I’ll go first: Apart from an intermediate darkness affinity, I have a high lightning and intermediate space affinity.”
Azar whistled. “I’ll go next. I have an intermediate darkness like you, a greater fire affinity, and a minor metal one. Pity, I wanted to follow in Grandpa’s footsteps and inherit his forge. Your turn, greenheads.”
“I-I have a higher water affinity, and my brother has a higher wind one. Both of us have an intermediate darkness affinity.”
Orion took note of what they all had in common: a higher affinity and an intermediate darkness one. If that was the criteria for their imprisonment, it explained why there were only four of them. Those with a higher affinity were one in a million, and only a quarter of them boasted a second affinity.
He was getting more confused. He didn’t know what ‘greater purpose’ the council had for them. Were they being sold to one of the human kingdoms to the east, or were they going to be sacrificed to cast a dark spell? He didn’t know, nor was his imagination helping the situation.
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None of the four prisoners were able to sleep or rest that night, and none of them were in the mood to talk. At some point during the night, a guard brought them food and water. This guard, unlike the first, wasn’t as cruel, but he didn’t regard them as people either.
By that time, Theo had woken up. Despite what he experienced, the boy didn’t show an ounce of fear. “Hey, can you tell me why we are hated? Are the stories about us cursed true?”
The guard looked at him with a hint of intrigue, stayed silent for a few minutes, and then said, “Sure, why not. I have some time to spare today.” He chuckled faintly. "For the most part, the stories are true," the soldier said, his voice rough and somber. "Every few centuries, Nox the betrayer finds a host and possesses it—elves that evade detection, or those who come from outside the federation to reconnect with their heritage, and so on. Eventually, the betrayer grows in strength and corrupts most of those who possess a fraction of his bloodline, turning them mad. The last time he appeared was 600 years ago, or so the records tell. His cult was eliminated with minimal casualties, avoiding a catastrophe.”
“So why keep us alive?” asked Azar.
“I don't know,” the guard stood up. “I am but a soldier who follows orders, and orders came saying to spare your kind, so we spare your kind.”
The guard looked at them in amusement and left the room, not sparing them any more attention. “Oh, and one more thing: prepare yourselves. We leave in an hour.”
An hour passed, and Orion, Azar, Theo, and Thea were dragged through a dark tunnel. They were placed in cuffs and collars made of black metal, linked with chains. Only the sound of footsteps and rattling chains could be heard. They walked and walked, passing by many turns and cross-sections, and many more rooms before eventually exiting through a door that led outside the city walls.
Awaiting them outside was a caravan of twenty or so carriages, each filled with a few dozen kids. Pulling them were reptaurs, scaled beasts as large as bulls, with three horns adorning their heads—two right behind their pair of brown eyes and one protruding from their forehead. Their tails dragged lazily behind them.
The four kids were loaded onto a carriage near the front. It was claustrophobic, with hardly any space to sit without feeling suffocated. Most of those in chains were sobbing quietly.
After the guards completed their supply inspections, the caravan quickly departed. Under the cover of night, the carriages moved one after the other, slowly gaining distance from the capital.