Chapter 46
“A New Alliance.” Part 2
Kalysto’s stomach churned as a slight dizziness seized her, and bile rose in her throat. Frightened to be in such a vulnerable state in front of her kidnapper, she immediately forced herself to concentrate and the characteristic coldness of the Mental Defense skill enveloped her.
“Let go of me!” She growled as she tried to break free from her captor, but unable to do so, she kicked him in his crotch causing him to let out a pitiful moan and she took advantage of his distraction to put away the home stone and take out one of the goblin knives from her inventory and tried to bury it viciously in the arm with which the unknown elf was holding her prisoner. But he disappeared just before the tip of the knife touched his skin and reappeared a few meters to her right.
“Are you out of your mind?” he growled in a shrill voice, as he took a pain potion. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What, you’re kidnapping someone and you’re mad because they’re trying to defend themselves?” She defended herself, noticing out of the corner of her eye that they were not alone and that hundreds of elves sitting on the dirty floor surrounded them, their pale gazes full of fear and confusion. And some of them began to stand up as they watched them silently, “did you kidnap them too? Is this some kind of prison?” She asked, trying to make time while looking for an exit with her eyes, but she only saw a wide and extensive corridor surrounded by stone walls with little illumination. At the end, she thought she saw the arch of a doorless frame, but before she could run there with all her might, the wizard appeared in front of her, blocking her way.
“Don’t even try to escape!” he shouted.
At that moment, Kalysto pulled out his bow and an arrow with penetration stats again. Let’s see how fast it can disappear. Surely his mana must be about to run out. She thought, remembering that he had just taken a red-colored potion, which meant she had ten minutes before he could take a mana potion. So she summoned ‘dispel’ and ‘purification’ on her arrow and prepared to attack.
“Who ordered you to kidnap me?” she growled, taking him by surprise.
“What? ”I think there’s been a little misunderstanding Saintess, I didn’t mean to kidnap you.
“What’s going on here?” An authoritative voice echoed down the wide corridor as a tall elf, with straight blond hair the same shade as her kidnapper’s, with a pale complexion but gray eyes, entered through the same doorless frame through which she had planned to escape. With a silver crown adorning his head. Interrupting them, just as she was about to release her arrow.
“That’s exactly what I want to know. Is it you who ordered him to kidnap me?” She growled, tightening the string and still aiming at the wizard’s head, noticing the small army of armed guards that entered the corridor behind the king’s figure.
“Caranthir? Would you be so kind as to explain to me why there is a woman I don’t know wanting to use you as a target practice dummy?”
“It’s just a misunderstanding, brother,” he replied, and Kalysto scoffed.
“Is this the way elves treat their guests, mistreating them and forcibly taking them to an unknown and poorly lit place without any explanation?” she rebutted, her voice laden with annoyance.
“Mistreated?” asked the wizard in confusion and looked her up and down. “You’re a Saintess, you can heal yourself!” He played it down, and his words only annoyed her even more. But before she could refute, the king seemed to notice the golden glow that now shone not only on her arrow, but also on her bow.
“I apologize, Saintess, for any misunderstanding my foolish brother may have caused,” he said quickly as he strode purposefully toward her. The tense guards behind him followed without drawing their swords, but the tension in their bodies did not go unnoticed by Kalysto. “I am King Ettokalr, son of Arandh, and I thank you for coming to help my people. I am very sorry for the way you were received. I will personally see to correct that. But as you will see, we are under attack.”
“I thank you for your welcome, Ettokalr, son of Arandh. I am Kalysto, champion of the fairies,” she saluted, hoping she had not done too badly as she lowered her bow and arrow, but did not put them away. “But it would have been better if you had warned us of your situation before I set out on my journey here. I was almost crushed by a tree as soon as I arrived, and your brother almost broke my wrist by bringing me here by force and without explanation," she complained.
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“I am very sorry to hear that and I apologize again on behalf of my brother for the harm done,” he said cautiously as he watched her hesitate while he continued to cast distrustful glances at his older brother, the king wanted to be able to find something that could ensure that she did not leave, so he added, “If there is anything I can do to appease your discomfort, please let me know.”
And the king knew that at that moment he got her full attention.
Kalysto put away her bow and arrow, and with her left hand she combed a lock of hair back behind her ear, allowing the king to see not only the golden mark of her boss, which connected her to the fairies, but also the reddish mark of the wizard’s mistreatment of her. As she thought about the best way to get around the unexpected situation.
It’s not as if his ills were to blame for what that idiot did.
“I’m afraid a simple apology won’t be enough, though I doubt I could receive it from the actual perpetrator, however, the sick people I had agreed to come and heal are not to blame for the kidnapping attempts and the little respect shown by...” then she gave the wizard a sidelong glance letting him see all her displeasure. Then Kalysto looked at the king again, neutralizing her expression. “So I will accept your token of sincerity in the form of high quality mana potions. Pitifully, though I have all the willingness and ability to heal those with the plague, my mana capacity is not up to such an arduous task.”
“If it is potions that the Saintess needs, we can easily give them to her,” the king commented. “Caranthir will personally give them to you as an apology. He is our best potionist.”
“And can I trust your potionist not to poison me after today? After all, I wasn’t sent here to be attacked or shaken like a baby would with a cloth doll," she remarked, exaggerating her indignation a bit.
“Again I apologize for my brother’s behavior," Ettokalr’s cheeks flushed red at her words. And he scowled at his brother unable to believe that he had been so careless to do something that could make the fairies his enemies.
“If I can get his promise that I will never be mistreated by him again, I would feel safer.”
“Of course," the king assured her, giving an angry look to his brother, who rolled his eyes before bowing his head to her, placing a hand on his manly chest and mumbling.
“I swear on my honor that the young Saintess Kalysto will receive no harm that comes from me as long as I live.”
And although Kalysto’s system gave her no notification, she figured this was the best she could get out of this crazy situation. So she just nodded her head.
The king, seeing that she still looked uneasy, called one of his most trusted guards.
“Saintess, this is Jaesia. She is one of my best warriors. From now on she will accompany you during the time you stay with us and will protect you in case of danger,“ the elf with long brown hair put her closed fist against her chest and bowed her head in respect.
“I thank you for your consideration, king of Elenium," she said bowing her head to him, and seeing that the elf responded to her gesture, she greeted the warrior elf, and added, “Now, Jaesia, would you be so kind as to guide me to the place where you have the patients?”
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Ettokalr son of Arandh paced back and forth in the room where he would be staying temporarily while he found a solution to the delicate situation in which his kingdom found itself and argued with his older brother, the same brother he had always loved, respected and admired. The same one whom as a young man he had wanted to emulate and for whom he was willing to give his life and his crown without hesitation. The same one, whom right now he wished to smash his fist into his face.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Ettokalr roared, suddenly deciding that exploding was as good an option as any other. “We are surrounded by enemies and the cuoekqle are knocking at our door! Our people are dying from the plague while the miasma devours our forests! We can’t afford for you to start fighting that little girl right now! Not when even you, our best warrior, can’t kill a cuoekqle because they are immune to elemental magic! Were you even using your head, Caranthir?”
His older brother ruffled his hair and looked back at him, looking far more shaken and stricken than he had ever seen him.
“Do you think I don’t know how dangerous our situation is?” he growled back. “Besides, don’t you find it suspicious that she arrived just as we were being attacked?”
“I doubt they would have had anything to do with it, otherwise they wouldn’t even have sent her to us in the first place! They only sent her here because I made a deal with them! And don’t you dare even hint at that in front of other elves!” He was alarmed. “Do you plan to make the fairies our enemies? Do you know what their queen would do to us if we laid a single hand on that girl? What do you really have against her?” But instead of answering, Caranthir avoided his gaze and clenched his fists.
“... I don’t know why I reacted that way with her... it’s just that... there’s something about her that’s not normal... I couldn’t even get into her mind.”
Ettokalr scoffed.
“Of course that she’s not normal! If she were normal, do you think the fairies would have chosen her as their champion in the first place?”
"And it was recent," he added, stroking his chin.
“What?” That stopped his nervous pacing and made him turn to look at his calm older brother sitting in a comfortable chair.
“If you pay attention to what Kalysto said earlier, I’m pretty sure she woke up the system recently.”
“What? They sent us a Saintess who’s still green behind the ears? What the hell are those fairies thinking?”