“Let us begin the meeting now that everybody is here. General Rotris, please tell us what you found out.” the king's ancient voice sounded out.

A green beard elf in dark green armor rose, saluting with one fist to over his heart. “As you request, your majesty.” He turned to us. “A few days ago, we spotted traces of demons at our borders. Even though we were quick to eradicate them, the numbers have reached a level to indicate another demon invasion. Reports have flooded in from the human lands of them having many more sightings.”

“Are you saying that the humans are the ones summoning the demons?” Duke Ravamoira asked, his eyebrows relaxing from the scrunch up worry he held before.

General Rotris shook his head. “Not the humans in general, but yes. Some humans might have been enticed by the offers as it was in the past. Ignoring the humans on our border to the west, the dark elves are and have always had a very close relationship with the demons. I have reports that they have been sighted more than once in human cities stirring up trouble.”

Another General stood up. “On top of that, they have been increasing their war equipment. My naval troops have encountered an increase in dark elves' galleys and briggs. I think at this point it is safe to say, they are intending to mount a war after the demons are repelled.”

Back and forth talk about such reports when on for another hour to half hour. It was very unappealing.

Princess Elora stood up and everybody hushed down. “The best option as of now is to close down our borders. Start recruiting troops and monitoring all routes to our cities. If we have to, destroy some roads or build a fort at those positions.”

This started a heated conversation. The idea was kind of naive. The dark elves could attack from the sea route. There was a long stretch of land they could land on and it would spread out the elves who hadn’t recuperated after the last demon invasion, ten thousand years ago. With them only being able to give birth on average once every century or less. It wasn’t surprising they lacked the means to pursue war.

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The king grew bored and called the meeting to an end. He stood up with assistants and beckoned me over. I was kind of not wanting to have to bother with this. But if I went off to handle my own situation and neglect these guys, I figured the Goddess would seek me out. She already showed she was capable of taking my soul out of my body and placing it wherever she felt like.

I didn’t want to see what a pissed off goddess was capable of.

We walked down a long hallway, and opened to a beautiful garden. The king looked as if he was going to pass away at any second. Or at least to my eyes, who were seeing his dying wisp of life-force. I could probably boost it with plant life. They had plenty of vitality to give him easily another thousand years of lifespan without destroying the life in the garden itself.

“What do you think of Elora becoming Queen of the Elves?” he asked after a while.

I decided to boost him up a bit. He seemed more like a capable leader than Elora plus it would allow me to pursue my goals without much interference. So I began gathering the vitality of the plants around us. Siphon off just enough to add up but not enough to endanger them.

“Pretty but useless. It would be better to just allow one of your warmongering sons to take over. At least, the worst he can do is make war plans that will never be carried out. That isn't a bad way to keep those pesky greedy bastards on their feet and thinking of benefits rather than trying to assassinate a Queen who thinks too much.” I finished gathering the life force and began injecting into his body.

He stopped and closed his eyes, breathing in deep. He was enjoying the feeling too much but it was shocking and interesting to watch the wrinkles on his face disappear as he gained vigor. While he didn’t revert back to a completely young and handsome him, he was more impressive to look at. Not like he would trip and croak right there. His green eyes seemed to have the most impact, they opened to stare at me with such intensity that I felt my soul trembling.

However, I almost overlooked the powerful feeling he was enamanting. I once thought we were on the same level but that was his dying self. His not so dying self eclipsed me by a few football fields. Sitting area included.

He clenched his fist and released it, patting me on the shoulder. “New magic theory you have been practicing?”

I smiled but didn’t reply.

How could I tell him that old Vale knew this magic for about fifty years but was utterly happy with letting the old elf die. As a mystic anything evolving life was his domain. We might not be able to recreate it from scratch but altering it isn’t so hard.