Inside the magic tower housed somewhere I needed to go, Riva’s lab. Having the time to just wander around I made excuses so I could meet with Riva whilst she worked. Riva’s lab looked exactly how I imagined it would for someone of Pthulminth and Norniran descent.

Circular contraptions filled to the brim with strange-hued liquids that I should not have my hand inside or even nearby. Mostly acidic liquids sat in vials lined across a large mahogany shelf mounted beneath a wall with carved runes. Being impressed by the amount of equipment before I couldn't help but take everything in slowly, in my past as artura I was ignorant of this calling it witch’s magic aside from a few things. A microscope was placed alone on a dark oak carved table in the very centre of this opulent violet room.

Unlike the small, thatched cottage and most of the magic tower, Riva’s room was a chaotic mess. She had equipment just sprawled out on tables and across shelves, liquids-drenched fabrics torn across the cracked stone floor. Even Riva herself looked like a chaotic mess, with unkempt hair and her skin covered in black marks from charcoal. Through the mess of her room and hair constantly covering her face, she could tell where everything was from the small twelve-inch ruler to the large wrench covered by alchemical vials.

Riva just being herself carrying on with her work not that I could tell what she is was doing. All I could see was that she examined a large skull of perhaps a Lycan or wolven beast. Not wanting to interrupt so suddenly I sat somewhat far from her and closed my eyes to take a small nap as Riva would be… a while.

A small tap of fabric shook my eyes to wake. I glanced up at Riva who had her mask removed peering down at me. She seemed to be pleased by me coming to see her albeit seeming also nervous, I wasn’t sure if it was her appearance or the mess of her room that made the nervousness heighten.

“So, what can I do for you? Your maj—sorry Rias.” She eyed me waiting for an answer, still staying seated, bracing myself to take a while I explained why I was here. Using mana, I plunged my soul hand into my chest. Slowly pulling and tearing the soul from my body, that stung more than I let show. It took some force, but I was able to free Ciaran’s soul from my body, Riva in turn, began to direct me.

Following this silent instruction, I placed Ciaran’s soul in a rather large basin like those in cathedrals of faith or blood sacrificial totems. After I had placed the soul in the bowl footsteps were heard behind us both on instinct Riva and I pulled our weapons beside us. For Riva, it was a crooked staff with etched runes frantically carved into the bark of an eldritch shaft, and a small red lantern hung from the curved top, which was shaped like a raven’s claw, its iron frame jangled every second movement of the lantern.

Red death materialized in my left hand with my odachi appearing on my back even my queen’s guard longsword I hoped to abandon soon appeared upon my back hung from my left shoulder.

‘The downside to remembering Marin’s life, various things set me off like I now have PTSD. Which makes sense after everything I saw and can currently remember.’ When I finally noticed it was just Talia my weapons quickly disappeared responding to my thoughts. This instinct felt so natural as being around Talia made me feel as if she was the only one, I want to be vulnerable around. Seeing as I didn’t mean to raise my weapons, Talia came over to see whatever Riva and I were talking about.

“I would like to know how the hell did you get your hands on a soul like this?” Riva asked drawing a rather crude silhouette of a person.

“Nightmare… in a nightmare perhaps a reality far removed from here. I met the original person to whom this soul belongs. Before I got into a very one-sided fight with something that took my arm. It made me beg for death or that was my mind I can’t quite tell anymore.” I responded with a bit of hesitation. Riva listened all the while as I recounted my story with Talia close by. When I eventually recounted the part where I met the knight, I had trouble remembering his appearance.

“I do remember seeing a glimpse of a symbol on their armour though. Three skulls resting on a bone fire.” I spoke up, picking up a piece of paper and charcoal to draw said symbol. Riva shuffled forming a magical circle with her left hand which was pulled into an open dimensional storage space. She pulled out a rather large book plain as it was. Flicking through page after page she started from the index and then down to the chapter until she reached a double page spread a few hundred in. Tapping thrice onto a figure all in black followed by hundreds of small demonic beings, I nodded motioning to the figure that looked familiar to the one in the white city.

“They call him Ognar in tramonic but in eldritch we call-.”

“Ozymandias.” I spoke speaking above Riva.

“Yes, he who cannot be forgotten in works of history or the minds of humans. God of armies and death. I wonder why he appeared in your nightmare. If we can call it that. He should be dead… I killed him in the war of heaven.” Riva responded looking down at the book. Flicking through a few more chapters, she came to another double page spread titled The Maiden Saint.

“Akron has told me and me alone. Who you-- Marin Kalos goddess of queens and war maidens. History has pretty much forgotten your ancient godhood of trillion years passed… time however has been messed with and twisted as if someone has messed with it. Past lives are out of order, we need a way to fix it… if you want to help to figure out who you were, you’ll need the elves.” Riva paused turning the book pages towards me. Showing what I looked like back then, the same as right now.

A few white and red hairs against the black fading to gold the single golden eye and its purple opposite. A few things I did notice were that my markings and tattoos were the same even the dragon tattoo down my entire left leg. It wasn’t clear but I also had elven ears.

“Marin has given all of herself to you, but it seems your core is rejecting a part of your past self so I’m giving you a mission which Tyr himself has allowed well Akron did as well after some begging.” She laughed. “In two days, time you and Talia will venture to the elven lands, to the court of the silver elves.” I wanted to protest this decision that I wasn’t fully healed and still getting used to my arm, but I knew better than anyone that arguing with the most stubborn eldritch god was a bad idea.

‘The elves. This is going to be interesting.’ My thoughts wandered. ‘From what I can remember and currently know the elves are a bit arrogant like the primordial races’.

“Talia like I have told you before you’ve chosen to stay with Rias so you can’t protest as such. I want to help the rebellion but we eldritch cannot involve ourselves like Orin did.” Returning from my thoughts I felt Riva and Talia begin to argue.

“What did he do?” Talia asked in return. This made Riva freeze after she got off her chair and walked over to the soul just beside us.

“What did he do… a lot let’s just say that from mass genocide of the humans, he started an all-out war of domination as Pthulminth emperor then caused the most brutal war since Talos which resulted in the creator’s death all of heaven or almost all of it. That war caused my closest friend si-sif who I thought of as a sister to die. Because of all that, the primordial queen deemed that all eldritch who contact humans outside their own realm will be killed by her messenger wolves.” She paused turning to face the both of us.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“That was before she disappeared. The primordial queen Hela has disappeared for a while now after she visited the elven lands…” she paused changing the subject “Talia you are tasked with the mission of finding an artifact that will help your wraith blood and you Rias. Are to find the silver elf queen… I repeat find her not contact with her got it?!” Riva exclaimed looking at me with a face of worry.

I nodded. After she resumed work on the drawing that was beginning to look like a body. Before we left for the elven realm, she explained that this body would be host to the soul of Ciaran, a nine-foot-tall slender female body that would no doubt be covered in Ciaran’s moon paladin armour which she wore with the golden moonlight blade. On this, it gave me a wild thought that I would have to keep to myself, I could rebuild the sororitias with people I meet in different lands.

The first person I would want to find her artoria, then Jasmine and Monarch as I had an inkling, they were the only living members of the roundtable left. before that, I had to find the queen of the silver elves. This alone would not be an easy task as whoever has the queen definitely isn’t stupid enough to hide her in plain sight and if the elves couldn’t find her it might not be an easy task for me either.

Thinking on this while Riva drew more of that body, I tried my best to remember the queen of the silver elves, her personality and looks mostly. She has pearl white hair, which was even rare in silver elves, recalling a little more she had heterochromia. Her right eye was black and just the inner section had lines of white whereas the left was the other way round. Recalling a little bit more she also had an adoptive daughter born from her sister, the adoptive daughter was called Cirilla she is maybe five or six years old. One person who could of took the silver elf queen came to mind.

“Kyte. Im coming for you.”

…

For the next two days, I sparred a few times with Tyr. After Riva gave us our missions, however, we were eventually left alone in this realm with Akron and Riva. It bothered me more than I wanted to let on, but trying to control my fire without the help of either Morrigan or Tyr was a bit of a challenge still trying to get used to my reawakened emotions allowed this feeling of being bothered to show.

Walking through the streets of the elven city they called Nora, I found myself taking in the sights a lot more than I thought I would. No matter where you were in Nora the elven citadel loomed overheard just below the gleaming light of the sun. The elves prided themselves on how much they could create which also made them extremely arrogant to the others. As a consequence, the elves began to be hated and even prosecuted outside of their continent, there were a few exceptions to this rule like the knights of Lithran, Elinore, and her husband Lithran.

When we met up with our elf guide, he gave me a look of displeasure no doubt because of the appearance I had taken on. Well, it is not like I could use my actual appearance as I was technically fucking dead. The knight did not speak just motioned for us to follow him into this winding pathway towards the citadel. The displeasure leaked from him that worried me thinking it would slowly start to turn to killing intent. In a moment of panic from Talia, he drew his blade but not quick enough as my blade was unsheathed from my back and placed firmly against the back of his neck.

“It seems your dumbass thought it was a good idea to follow an elf.” The knight snarled as my blade moved slowly. The knight of lithran seemed to be an arrogant prick in more than one regard.

“Trust me with this young one. Your death would come swifter if you dropped that blade, so stop stalling and take us to the council NOW!” I responded letting fire start to flicker across my blade sparks flying onto the stone walls. The elf seeing that he wasn’t in the greatest position relented and continued to move toward the citadel, Following him I removed my hood so he could see my elven face slightly better than before, my green eyes gleaming in the candle lights of the pathway. From where we met the elf to the citadel was just a short brisk walk.

Upon entering the citadel, a large variety of elves looked towards us, well to me and Talia. Eyes that followed Talia were of displeasure and mine seemed to be that of shock when some noticed the red and white sword on my back. Hiding Red Death was a lot harder than I thought, but knowing how elves live forever they would know that the sword was Excalibur reformed. Not wanting to linger I got the knight to move us towards the grand chamber where the queen should normally be.

The knight following a few others took us to the grand chamber which was in the dead centre of the citadel. Through the traveling, I hadn’t gotten a good look at the citadel itself and the first thing I lay my eyes upon was a large twelve-foot by six-foot painting of me well that of me living my past life of Marin. ‘I was hotter than that.’ I groaned, sighing aloud looking at the painting.

“I thought they would have made you hotter.” Talia teased quietly taking one look at the painting before moving on with the knight. I admitted to myself that the elves were the most experienced at painting and still sometimes could change things from their perspective to preserve history. Their ingenious way of preserving history through nature along with life itself left me wondering how humans couldn’t do such was it because they didn’t live as long?

The average lifespan of a human was sixty, tramonic and sentinels were double or even triple that of a human. An elf similar to witches lived for thousands of years. The high witch Daniella was a prime example of this, and so was the high silver elf queen Elinore. Two beings ancient to their own peoples. Daniella was six thousand years old, and Elinore was double. These two beings were not as old as another race that lived longer.

Even these ages meant nothing to pthulminthian folk who lived for thirty thousand years. Nornir of themis narmora live double that if they aren’t so successful in life. This aggravated many races adding to the elves' superiority complex. This made me angry when I lived as Artura, as elves mainly the wood elves would regularly annoy me using their history well that was until I burnt the wood elf kingdom into hiding using Aethna.

“You seem to be in thought child. Knights you can leave us… I'll be fine because this girl could give me more protection than any of you. Artura it's been a while, or should I call you Rias now?” The king of the silver elves asked looking into my eyes while assuring the guards he would be fine without them. They didn’t protest quickly leaving the slender elf. The slender elf peered into my eyes searching my soul or searching for something else. His gunmetal grey hair swayed, and his green eyes shook In response to the answer I gave him, a humble greeting by placing my hand against the top of my cleavage and bowing my head.

“I greet the king of the elves. Lithran.” I spoke in elvish not so fluent as I was as artura but good enough to make conversation, with lower high elves which Lithran was to his dismay. I had known Lithran in my former life as Artura back then he was a street urchin born from the interaction of a high elf and common elf. I had died before he became king, so this was a bit of a surprise to him in such a place.

“No need for that artura. I should be greeting you… it feels wrong to always rely on my teacher to help me. Elinore has gone missing as you know I am sure, no one has come to help. They all tell us to help ourselves. I’m ashamed of how elves have treated the other races.” I placed my hand on Lithran’s shoulder hearing his every word.

“No Lith. You should not feel ashamed as it's your ancestor’s fault for not helping the races when they needed it. I'll help you in any way I can even if it condemns me to the hells for eternity not like that will happen anyway.” I laughed. Lithran smiled and slammed his large staff onto the ground opening the door beside us. ‘I forgot he was a prodigy in elven magic not to mention a controller of nature.’ Watching Lithran control nature was amazing to see after so many years if I had to be honest just like watching Hera show the First Wraith dance.

“Between me and you, I think your wraith girlfriend could be Hera.” Lithran whispered into my ear as the doors to the main chamber opened giving us a full view to all the nobles. Not wanting to seem too ignorant of these fools I removed my disguise and used my actual appearance which was currently harder to deal with around people probably because of the metal arm. ‘how did Lithran see through my elven form plus this metal makes me feel nervous’.

“Are you okay? Is it because of the arm don’t worry it'll be fine.” Talia in a soothing voice assured me that it would be okay while holding my mechanical hand but, in my head, this was more difficult than I wanted it to be. Lithran noticing something about me being off didn’t press into it but got down to business telling all the nobles to leave apart from his aide and adoptive daughter. Lithran sat on the throne beside the one that Elinore would sit on.

I began to notice how the throne for the queen was larger than that of the king's throne. In terms of status and hierarchy, this did make some sense as Lithran was a lower high elf than Elinore who was born into one of the top three families when it came to the elves. In the Silver Elf society, the female queens held more power than their husbands as long as they were present.

Lithran went through many proceedings such as what we were allowed to do and what we weren’t, such as don’t start bar fights and small things like that, the bigger things were like don’t cause mass panic. I could not guarantee that as I was tasked with finding his wife alive. Some things we were allowed to do was travel around Nora freely and do things such as shop. Talia would enjoy Nora more than I would as she loved to shop, to experience the place in more than one way. The next thing Lithran went on to talk about was the Archstones.

“You can go look at them, but I must say try not to touch them, especially yours. Meaning do not touch Artura’s maybe Hera’s or Vetra’s even Marin’s Archstone.” The Archstones were statues of the elves' most trusted allies and their two goddesses. A different artisan carved each aside from Marin’s statue. Her Archstone was carved by Elinore. ‘At least she carved me better than I was painted.’

At this moment of silence, I explained that there was something I needed his help with. Entry to the vault and a renowned blacksmith who could melt down my queen’s guard sword and reforge them into two blades that I could have on my side. Lithran thankfully agreed to the second but the first would not be so easy as the only people who can gain entrance into the vault are Cirilla and Elinore.

We agreed that if Elinore was saved and alive, Lithran would try to help Talia but didn’t ask why she nor I needed to enter the vault. ‘I can’t tell him the reason because it's not mine to tell.’ I knew little but knew some reasons as to why Talia needed to enter the vault as truthfully there were a few things she needed that belonged to her family, a few things that belonged to her ancestors.