We approached Amethseryne for two days, though it felt longer. The day before we arrived, Mellie pointed out the highest treetops in the distance. It was hard to gauge just how big the city would have to be to see it from this far off. All day we walked towards it and it felt like it wasn’t getting any closer. That night, we went off the road a ways and camped for what we hoped was the last time. After our stay in the inn, we hadn’t slept in a real bed, and I was starting to miss it. I clearly wasn’t the only one. The advantage, of course, was that the odds of someone spotting us was quite low. Apparently Amestheryne was mostly avoided by the army. The surrounding landscape was too wet, too marshy, for an army to march through, and the city itself was unsettling to humans because of its height.
The next day we saw how much closer we’d gotten to the city; the sheer size of some of the larger trees was staggering, and I figured it wasn’t much smaller than some cities back home. I wondered how the capital compared, but not for long as the trees of Amethseryne slowly became more defined as we walked. Some time in the mid-morning we came upon a checkpoint. I first thought it was a small village, which seemed strange so close to the city, and it was much too small for any kind of population. Guards approached us when we got close. That we walked openly on the road instead of hiding in the shadows hopefully helped us appear as ordinary travellers.
“Winds guide you far,” one of the guards said to Mellie. Something about her must have tipped him off to the fact that she was of Elf descent. He was tall, almost seven feet, and slim. He towered over all of us except Erza, who he kept a suspicious eye on.
“Rivers carry you home,” Mellie responded mechanically. She held her hand flat in front of her chest, and the guard did the same. Elf custom was definitely interesting. She’d told us about it the day before. It was considered a little taboo for non-elves to say the traditional greetings. A simple “thank you” was considered polite enough of a response. There were some intricacies regarding bloodlines but, Mellie had assured us, nothing we should be too concerned with.
“Anything to declare?” the man asked.
“We’re tired,” Mellie laughed, and the man seemed to relax a little bit. “We are just looking for some shelter. We’ve traveled long to get away from the war, and we’ve long to go still.”
He nodded. “There’s a storm on the horizon,” he said, a little more serious than perhaps he should be. I got the feeling he’d been practicing this speech for a while. “But Amestheryne is as much a ship as it is a port for its children.” There hung a question in the air. Mellie seemed to pick up on it.
“I’ve drifted far, but the mother’s roots run through me too. My family lives in me, now.” There was more implied than what she said, but this was more of the ‘please don’t ask’ family history of Mellie’s. Nevertheless, she played the part of the child-come-home quite well. “No crest or crown, but our roots are deep and old,” she said.
The man nodded. “And the rest of your…” He looked at us, and was probably trying to find a more polite way to phrase it than ‘ragtag group of misfits’.
“My partner and employees,” she said. He raised an eyebrow. “We’ll only be staying in my home for a day, perhaps two, and then we’ll be on our way. I’ve family near the capital, and we mustn’t tarry.” He nodded again. Mellie had told us that Amestheryne might have something of a human population, and while technically non-Elf were welcome, outsiders were frowned upon. I’d asked her if the city was considered to be a holy site. “Yes and no,” she’d said, and that had been it.
“Very well. Carry on, sister,” he said.
Mellie bowed her head. “Thank you, brother. Warm winds.”
He stepped aside. “Calm rivers,” he said, and went back to the guardhouse.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Mellie released the loudest, most heartfelt “Ughhhh” I’d ever heard. “Do you see how exhausting these people are?”
I couldn’t help but smile. They behaved a lot like Elves did in popular fiction back home, speaking in riddles and vagaries. “Was that a… what’s the polite term? Pure-blooded Elf?” I asked.
She shook her head. “There is no real distinction, honestly. The idea of ‘pure-blood’ versus ‘half-blood’ has been diluted so much it’s mostly a spectrum nowadays. But sometimes a child is born without the prominent eyebrows, without the tall ears, and those are referred to as half-Elf.”
“Is that why he was so tall?”
“Yes,” she said. “Elf are made for the water, made to swim. Not me, obviously, but the lanky ones, like him. That’s why the lake by Amestheryne is so fiercely protected. Swimming is part of daily life.” She sighed. “I hate swimming. It messes my hair up.” I looked at it. With how voluminous and curly it was, I wasn’t surprised. “But don’t let their appearance fool you. With how tall he is, he looks thin, but all of the tall ones spend half their days in the water. They could probably lift you with one hand.”
“You, maybe,” Erza said with a smirk. She could probably break the Elf over her knee. Mellie giggled.
We soon got to the city, and it was so, so much bigger than I’d imagined. The road we walked on curved to round a part of the lake, which was already larger than I thought it was going to be. The road was paved here, and it was a good thing too, because everything else was marsh. Mangrove trees were everywhere, and they grew bigger as we walked on. There was a small land-bridge, and there, just off the edge of the lake, was Amethseryne.
It was big, almost too big to really wrap my head around. It was easily the size of a modern-day city, miles wide. But what got to me was its height. Towering over the surrounding landscape, the trees were massive. It was a literal forest of skyscrapers, all browns and green and greys. Up high, I saw vines hang between the trees, until it dawned on me that those weren’t single vines but bridges, impossibly high up.
As we finally entered the city, the scene around us was one I wasn’t used to. ‘Streets’, though the word barely applied, were platforms built around trunks and over roots, flowing organically through the arbor city. I noticed many buildings that hung suspended between trees, or wrapped around them, connecting to others through bridges made of rope, vine or wood. The outer bark of the bigger trees, trees that were easily the size of an apartment building, had been hollowed out, and inside of them were spiralling staircases leading up and, in some cases, down. Elf coming up from below, from between the roots, were dripping with water, but seemed in no hurry to dry themselves as they went about their business. It was difficult not to stare. It was easy to think of Elves in fiction as “perfect,” because classical fiction portrayed them that way, but these were ordinary people. They just all happened to be built to swim, and most did. That made their physique impressive, and since the ones that came out of the water wore swimwear, it was hard not to notice.
Mellie led the way through the trees, slowly meandering up and down, and then a whole lot more up, until we walked across chasms that were hundreds of feet high on suspended bridges made of vines so old they’d almost fossilized. I wondered how many stairs some of these trees had, how tall the tallest of the trees were. It was an awesome sight, and it was weird to see Mellie respond to all of it with a kind of resigned annoyance. She’d grown up here, for sure, but it didn’t seem to do anything for her at all. I then realized that the others would probably respond the same way if they walked down the street where I came from, where the concrete forest had been an everyday sight for me.
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Still, it was a feast for my eyes, and clearly for the others as well. I was trying to keep my mouth closed, but the place was quite literally jaw-dropping. I tried to imagine a place like this floating at sea, and the image of it was simply too much. I looked at Sally, who was just as in awe of the place as I was. Her head was on a swivel, and she had a look of childlike wonder on her face. It was only because I was looking at her in admiration, enjoying her smile, that I saw that she misstepped. Her foot missed the next platform and suddenly she went over the edge. I reacted instinctively and shot forward, my hand grabbing hers. She hung there, suspended only by my hand on her wrist, completely in shock.
I quickly put her back on the platform as the others stared, and several Elf around us had taken notice. I hoped it hadn’t been too obvious that a small servant girl had just caught, lifted and moved another woman with one hand. I didn’t spend too much time worrying, though, because Sally was wrapped around me. Her heart was beating a million beats per minute, and her breathing was shallow. She was making sounds like she was trying to say something, but I just patted her on the back.
“It was nothing,” I said, but she just squeezed me harder.
“We’re almost there,” Mellie said. She hadn’t seen what had happened, but she clearly had some idea. “Let’s get out of sight.” We moved, but Sally was a lot more careful with where she walked, and hung close to me. The others also walked a little closer to each other, everyone a little scared and a little more protective.
We arrived at what I assumed was Mellie’s ancestral home. It was a hollowed-out tree, which would have been massive back home, but was in the lower tiers for this city. As we entered, I saw that the core of the tree was still intact, and that not the entire interior was used. I had to assume the tree was still alive, somehow, which was why it hadn’t collapsed. The house was beautiful and furnished, but it was clear nobody had lived here in years. Mellie showed us the bedrooms, which were up a flight of stairs. Apparently there were four floors to the house. I wondered about Mellie’s family, but I didn’t want to pry. She’d already told me a lot, and I was a little worried she might have shared more than she’d been comfortable with.
So we took off our packs and stretched, making ourselves comfortable. There were chairs and tables, but also a room that was mostly pillows and low tables, which Mellie explained to us was the dining and living room. Most families would spend their time together in rooms like that. Wood furniture was considered tacky. What most people did have was carved out of dead branches, but only the bare necessities.
Mellie went to buy groceries and soon after cooked food with the help of Sally and myself. We were both excited to learn more about the way the Elf prepared food. Tilly helped by enthusiastically chopping vegetables. It seemed that Elf society was primarily pescetarian, but the fish they did eat were massive, and she’d gotten three of them. I was also briefly surprised to learn that they ate the fish raw. It was treated thoroughly, as well as seasoning it with a variety of spices and checking for parasites, but it was to be served raw nonetheless. I was of course familiar with sushi, but the presentation was very different. I didn’t have a frame of reference for the slabs of fish she was preparing. It would be served with vegetables and a variety of fungi and fruit.
We all sat down to eat the meal, which was, for most of us, completely different. We’d shared many meals on the way here, of course, but it was very nice to be sitting on pillows in a cozy room, around a table instead of a campfire in the forest. Tilly giggled at a joke of Mellie’s, and I saw Sally and Lillian both laugh in amusement. Erza smiled. I couldn’t help but look around the table and enjoy their company. Sabine leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, and then Kazumi did the same to her. It was a wonderfully domestic sight, too soon interrupted by a woman falling down from the ceiling, seemingly coming out of nowhere. She must’ve been hidden between the network of wooden veins above us, though I didn’t understand how she’d gotten up there in the first place.
It took me a moment to recognize Morgana. Everyone else had drawn their weapons, had jumped up in a combat pose. Sabine’s arms glowed with arcane energy next to me, and even Erza had raised her longsword.
“Morgana, I didn’t recognize you,” Kazumi said, the first to recover. “Glad you could join us.”
Everyone relaxed a bit. This was the woman we were here to see, everyone knew. Morgana smiled. “I’m here to do the Queen’s bidding, as commanded. Anastasia has been deposed, locked in her room, powerless. Already the council is fighting amongst themselves in a pitiful grab for power.” She seemed more than a little unhinged. “Now is the time to strike and bring down Wydonia once and for all.”
Oh no. Kazumi had filled me in on Morgana’s history, of course, but I didn’t know she was this, well, zealous. She seemed fanatic.
“I… No, that’s not…” I began, but shut up when she looked at me with a look full of cold anger.
“Quiet, child. I am the Queen’s chosen assassin, do not question me,” she said.
“Liz…” Sabine said. She raised her hand towards me, but I didn’t want to let Morgana continue to talk about destroying the peace we’d worked so hard to forge.
“Soon the rivers will be free once again, and run red with the blood of the tyrants. We will kill the false queen and destroy Wydonia from within.” Morgana grinned for effect. It was a terrifying sight. “As the true Queen wills it.”
That wasn’t what I wanted!
“No, I don’t want… Look, I get it…” I began, trying to both calm her down and empathize.
“Quiet your tongue or I will do it for you,” she said with so much disdain I nearly began to sob, and it was only my indignation that kept me standing.
I could feel my throat and my eyes begin to burn, but I stood my ground. The way she spoke to me was bad enough, but the idea that she spoke to me like this because she thought I was a servant was worse. Did she treat all those ‘lower’ than her like this?
“We are not going to kill Anastasia! I get the whole… the river thing, but…”
She got closer, and I saw a flash of silver in her hand. I really, really hoped it wasn’t a holy artifact, though if she was really undead, the odds were low. “You challenge me, child?”
“Oh boy,” Sally said, and looked between me and Morgana. I couldn’t tell if she was smiling or grimacing.
“I… I do… we… we’ll find another way!” I said, and I meant it. Morgana’s grievances were real, they were valid, but to murder Anastasia wouldn’t solve things; the hydra had too many heads to chop off, despite how eager Morgana seemed to start cleaving.
“You’re just an impudent child,” Morgana said softly. “You came from nothing, had your chance at something, and now you ruined it, and you’ll die as nothing.”
She gently raised her knife. I felt myself freeze again, and fought against it. She was threatening not my life, but that of an innocent servant girl, I tried to tell myself. She thought I was nobody and that gave her the right to treat me like nobody. That was… infuriating.
“Do… don’t…” I began, finding my voice.
“Don’t what?” Morgana said and put the knife to my throat. For some reason, the touch of cold steel against my skin was the last thing I needed. I felt my wings grow as they tore through the back of my clothes, felt my fangs sharpen and grow. The colours of the world became more vivid, and I stretched to my full height, not as just the Demon Queen but the Dragon, too.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I said through gritted teeth, and for the first time in my life I felt like the Demon Dragon Queen.
Morgana dropped to one knee instantly. “My Queen… I… I had no idea… You were testing me.”
I was still furious at the way she’d treated me when she thought I was just a handmaiden. It was hard to think, almost, and it was hard to focus through the rage. My eyes burned and I clenched and unclenched my fists.
“Liz?” I heard someone say. It might have been Kazumi. Or Sabine. I looked at them and saw reflected on their faces nothing but fear, and it broke whatever spell had kept me on the edge of fury. I’d lost control. I didn’t want to lose control, not like that, not in front of the people I loved.
Not again.
I broke down crying and sank to my knees. Morgana stood up, bewildered. It was to their credit, a proof of their love, of their undying goodness, that Sabine and Kazumi barely, just barely hesitated before rushing over.
“What in the Dead Hells is going on?” Morgana demanded. I looked up at her with a tear-streaked face. The only words that came to me were apologies. This show of strength was a threat of violence I never, would never, could never enact.
But she’d been so truly awful to someone who could just as easily have been an innocent. If it hadn’t been me, what would she have done to some poor servant?
“Who are you?” she whispered, her voice as low as ever.
I looked at her, my eyes still burning, my face streaked with tears. “I am Queen Liz, and you will not speak to me or anyone else like that again.”
She crossed her arms. She’d clearly lost all respect for me as the Demon Queen. She’d peeked behind the proverbial curtain.
“Or what?”
I gritted my teeth.
“I’ll stop you.”
Something about the way I said it, maybe it was the rage or the pain or the fear, but something, caused my voice to growl like something much, much larger was in the room when I said those words, and it took her aback. Kazumi and Sabine were both still by my side but both weren’t moving much. I couldn’t blame them, I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t frozen solid myself.
“Who are you?” she asked again, this time seemingly genuinely curious.
I was trying to formulate a response, trying to say something that would calm her down, calm myself down, find a way to diffuse the situation, when a jolt of green lightning struck Morgana. It looked like cheap special effects, dancing over her. I thought Sabine had attacked her when she saw an opening but when I looked to her she, too, was incapacitated by the same lightning. A cadre of Elf, some heavily armed, some unarmed but with energy crackling over their bodies, stormed into the room.
“Queen Eliza, Serpent of the North,” one of them said, “you are under arrest.”