About Time (3)

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The air seemed to shudder around us as Allen prepared to unleash his blade.

“Not yet Allen.” I called out pre-emptively

His teeth gnashed hard enough to crush his molars but eventually, he relented. The frantic clatter of his blade sounded in my ears as the weapon rattled about in its sheath.

“Do we really need to wait around any longer? This guy clearly doesn’t have any plans of quitting here.” Flynn protested; looks like Allen wasn’t the only one struggling to hold himself back from lunging at them right this instant.

There was some truth to his words, but before we did anything reckless, I needed to disable this spell formation. If we weren’t careful, he could activate this thing literally right underneath our noses.

I wasn’t exactly sure about what it was going to do, but it definitely wouldn’t be anything good.

“Julia, it’s been a while.” The elf spoke for the first time tonight, lacing each of his words with a dangerous calm that sent a chill through the air. His voice, smooth as silk yet heavy with unspoken tension, carried the weight of years unaddressed. “You really did run off with this human, how disappointing.” He said, dropping to the ground with a dull impact.

“Now isn’t this interesting? What exactly are you planning, Demir?” Vidar quipped from atop his elevated position, elation brimming through his voice.

The elven adversary casually sauntered over towards us, a tempered confidence flowing from every pore on his body. Though his strides were fierce, he wasn’t looking at any of us—not me, not Allen, not Flynn and not anyone else here.

The only thing in his sights was the short woman who had just broken our formation to take a stand at my side.

His steely eyes twitched for a second, but quickly returned to normal.

Right before he came within arm's length of us, a quake erupted from behind Demir. The pile of freshly collapsed rubble suddenly exploded into a barrage of splintering fragments as if they’d just been spontaneously repelled by some overbearing force — which in fact wasn’t very far from the truth.

The dust quickly cleared to reveal a giant, stone faced man standing at the site of a small crater. To my surprise there wasn’t a scratch to be seen anywhere on his body even after all the gusto Flynn had put into that last attack.

Yet for some reason, he didn’t seem quite as imposing as before.

A few startled reactions came from all around me, though the most notable one was the tongue click that I'm certain came from Flynn after witnessing this ‘trolls’ triumphant return.

“Sorry, I let my guard down.” He said somewhat sheepishly.

Vidar cackled on from high above, but Demir on the other hand, seemed to completely ignore his ally’s rather flamboyant arrival, instead choosing to continue his steady march towards Julia as if she were the only one standing here.

She took a step forward — which was a rather reckless thing for a healer to do— but I decided to hold my tongue. This was a matter between her and this high-strung elf, two literal nonhumans. I didn’t see any need to interfere yet since this was a conversation that needed to happen but should things go south, I had no qualms about adding Demir to our growing list of potential victims.

His life was a small price to pay if it came to that, and I had already made my peace with the idea.

There was only so much patience I could muster, and while diplomacy was one of her strengths, mine lay in ensuring we all lived to see another day—by any means necessary.

“Demir, are you really not going back to Heston?” she asked in a weary tone.

The elf slowly shook his head, taking the time to allow each one of those head swaying motions to strengthen his point.

“I’ve already cut ties with everyone I left behind in Sylvan, with the way things are now, there’s no point in me returning. If only my brethren were a little bit more innovative, then our bloodline could finally move away from those failing traditions.”

“That’s not true.” Julia rebuked sharply, “What you were doing wasn’t for the good of your blood, it was for your own selfish benefit. If you acknowledge your mistakes, then I'm sure your father would-”

A sharp sound rang out, it came from the cracking of the stone pavement beneath Demir’s feet. A tense, palpable pressure was now wafting from his body like a dark perfume, all because of a single mention of his father.

“He would what?” Demir intoned coldly through gritted teeth.

“Forgive me? Is that it? After stripping me of my name and my birthright!? That’s all the fool could ever hope to do! He has no plans of changing his stubborn ways.”

Wrath itself seemed to be bleeding out into the space around him, intensifying with every passing second. Their conversation hadn’t lasted for a full minute, yet even I could tell that this was going nowhere.

“Julia, there’s no reasoning with him. No matter how long you’ve known each other you won’t change his mind.” I paused briefly before pulling her back. Her desperate expression was making this a lot harder than it should be.

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The moment I spoke up, Demir’s baleful gaze seemed to sharpen like a blade honed on the whetstone of his fury. Judging by the malicious, hateful, and quite possibly murderous look in his eyes I figured it was safe to assume that he still wasn’t very fond of me even after all these years.

He chuckled bitterly through a manic expression, almost like he was coughing up old grudges.

“I wasn’t expecting to see the both of you so soon but this is actually perfect, truly, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to kill time.” His rage seemed to tame the moment he locked eyes with me, finally acknowledging my presence.

Unlike before when the target of his malice wasn’t here for him to lash out at, all of that killing intent was being focused solely on me.

We were face to face, and the man clearly wasn’t very pleased about me standing in his way. His eyes burned with a rage that felt almost suffocating.

“It’s been a while, human. After what you did, after what I lost because of you and that old fool you deserve to die a thousand deaths.”

“I’m flattered you still think so highly of me even after all this time. Losing to a no-name human must have left quite a sour mark on your pride, wouldn’t you agree, your highness?”” I answered his threat sarcastically, putting emphasis on his former title.

That seemed to be the last straw, the instant I mentioned his former status a wicked tempest suddenly began swirling around his body, the currents of wind quickly spiraling up his arms to coat them in violent swirls of death.

“Enough.” Demir spat haughtily, his emerald eyes narrowing to show nothing but contempt.

“You’ve stepped on my honor for the last time human, you’re about to regret that.” His gaze shifted slightly with the subtle turn of his neck. After taking a few seconds to scan our party he returned his sights to Julia.

"I've made up my mind, Julia. Let's continue where we left off back then. I'm going to eliminate these humans and bring you back to my side—it's where you truly belong. Someone of your bloodline shouldn't have been wasting time with trash like them in the first place. I have a plan. Soon, I'll claim the throne and rebuild the Sylvan from the ground up. Then we can—"

“That’s not possible Vidar.” She cut him off, her gentle voice seeming to overpower the blaring sounds of Vidar’s tempest.

“I’m married now—to Oliver— we have a son.”

“..............”

Confusion, disbelief, rage, delusion and acceptance.

All of those emotions seemed to surface on the man’s face at once.

“The truth is, I’ve been meaning to see you too. You were exiled before I got the chance to say it but....” She took a step forward, and with a subtle bow that almost seemed too graceful for the news it was meant to deliver; Julia dipped her head apologetically to her slack jawed acquaintance.

“As the eldest daughter of the Lyndell family, born of Mavis and Erwin Lyndell I am officially annulling the engagement our families agreed upon twenty years ago. I’m sorry it took so long for me to say this, but things have changed.”

The tempests previously coiling around Vidar’s arms like vipers suddenly dissipated as the entire courtyard seemed to stall in anticipation, waiting for his reply.

“You mean to tell me...that your bloodline... the signum... has fallen into human hands? Impossible there’s no way that Erwin will accept that.."

With bulging eyes and quaking jaws, the dejected elf let loose a startled slew of words as he struggled to accept the revelation.

Then, after a few seconds, Demir’s head promptly sank as if it had just been struck by an anvil.

Despite the current circumstances, I did feel a tinge of pity for him but we didn’t have any time to share his sentiments.

“So, what will it be?” I muttered softly, questioning his motives.

It was insensitive, but someone had to do it.

I could sort of imagine what he was feeling now though.

Arranged marriages were often lifetime commitments in their cultures, both elves and druids —races that could easily live beyond a hundred years, they were practically made for each other.

Losing that lifetime opportunity to a human of all things would certainly be hard for him to accept.

Demir’s head slowly craned back, peeking up at the stars as if he was waiting for some kind of sign.

His golden bangs were blocking his expression but the deep sigh that escaped him told me exactly what I had predicted before — the fact that he wasn’t too thrilled about the news.

If by some miracle, I was wrong and he didn’t hate me before, he definitely hated me now.

“What will I do...you say? Heh...heh..heh” His laughter spilled out in sinister, jagged bursts as if his sanity had begun to crack.

From beside me, Julia watched on somberly, lowering her head in what seemed like an admission of guilt. They had known each other long before she met me but that didn’t mean she had anything to feel guilty about.

“This had to happen.” I assured her, my voice jolting her back to reality.

“Eh? Oh, I know." Startled by my voice, she replied in a sheepish tone before straightening her posture. “I just wish I got around to doing it sooner, that’s all.”

Her tone conveyed satisfaction, but not the kind one would normally feel after a victory. It was more like a quiet resignation, as if the act had been necessary, but not without its own bitter weight.

“I hate to interrupt you two but -” Flynn drew our attention before pointing at something directly ahead of us. “....I think that guy’s about to lose it.”

Demir’s monotone laughter had finally ceased, and surrounding him now was a palpable pressure akin to a storm about to break.

The space around him seemed to swirl again, nighttime air rushing to do his bidding.

“VIDAR!!” He shouted, his voice breaking through the stillness like a thunderclap.

“What is it? Do you need help taking that rejection in stride?” His comrade asked, snickering from atop the fort.

“Let’s get started. I’m taking her by force, but only after I kill the others.”

Above our heads, the smile on his comrade’s face widened ecstatically.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

All semblances of restraint I had immediately evaporated, the same went for Flynn and Allen too.

Nobody announced it, but the time for words had obviously passed. Now, it was nothing more than a fight to the death—a heated one, at that.

This was going to get messy.