A heavily scratched up and mud drenched Iskra let out an animalistic groan as she plummeted down onto the disheveled bedroll. "Ow," The young girl let out with an exhausted moan as she slowly dragged her limbs along the ground. Iskra struggled to roll over onto her side but eventually gave up once she realized the futility in forcing her tired body to do as what her burned-out mind wanted. "Why does my body hurt so much?" She whined as she slowly turned her head towards an unconcerned Velicion whose sole interest lay with the dusty and misshapen rock that the elven sorceress held within her hand.
Velicion let out a quizzical hum after she had realized that the human teenager had been staring at her for the last several minutes. "I'm sorry," The sorceress said with a sympathetic tone in her voice as she looked down at the ruined mess of a girl. "Your what hurts?"
"My body!" To bring emphasis to her point, Iskra made a sincere attempt at forcing her arms to rise into the air. Her slender and mud-covered arms shook violently as her elbows struggled to move an inch above the ground. With a heavy breath, the young girl dropped her arms and looked back towards the elven woman with absolute misery in her eyes.
"I see. Well," Velicion tapped a finger against the bottom of her chin as she continued to look down at the mess of a girl that had managed to sprawl herself out in an unladylike pose. The current state of the young girl was worlds apart from when the sorceress had first met the raven-haired teenager. "I've heard that if you are to push your body past its physical limits, then your muscles will begin to break down. After a while, your body would have rebuilt itself with stronger muscles. The pain you're feeling now is a sign that your body is on the first step of the long road in getting a stronger and muscular body." To emphasize what she had meant, Velicion flexed out her left arm and slapped an open palm over her nearly nonexistent biceps. The sorceress knew that she wasn't the perfect example to use in her explanation, but the intent in her message was as clear as day regardless of that fact.
Disgusted by what the older woman had implied, Iskra scrunched up her face and let out a nauseated grunt. "That's disgusting, Velicion. I'm not a man."
The sorceress silently nodded her head as she gave Iskra a false smile, pretending to sympathize with what the raven-haired girl had said. Velicion had found herself to have grown accustomed to the teenaged human's complaints by now, as the two women were now roommates in the otherwise tightly packed tent.
It wasn't by the sorceress's choice either, but when Iskra had barged into her personal tent and complained to the older woman that the encampments leader had confiscated the young girl's very own tent in the name of the King. Velicion had little choice but to offer the teenager a place to stay. Especially once Iskra had balked at the sorceress's suggestion of bunking with one of the handful of female camp followers that had followed the expedition into Voldigrov.
The argument as to whether or not the young girl should stay with someone of her own race had continued for several more days after that, but it had reached a boiling point once the sorceress had reached her wits-end when Iskra had suggested that she should stay with the blond-haired prince. Alarm bells had rung in the back of the conservative-minded concubines head once Velicion had realized that the young girl was serious, and the sorceress quickly relented and allowed Iskra to stay with her for however long she wished to remain.
The mere thought of having two young teenagers share a tent with one another in the prime of their lives was enough to throw herself at the girls' mercy and beg her to stay.
For Velicion, her fears weren't directed at any immoral or harmful actions from Prince Aurelius as she knew that the boy was unable to go a single conversation without awkwardly stuttering at even the homeliest of female servants. Instead, her fears were towards the unknowable and potentially dangerous desires of the headstrong teenaged human girl. Velicion was of the mindset that if Iskra were to be along with the poor boy for a lengthy period, then the teenaged girl would be able to strongarm the young prince into situations that would spell disaster for their marriage prospects.
The last thing that the sorceress needed to worry about was two sexually active teenagers in the middle of a besieged encampment.
"What's more," Iskra said as she let out an exhausted, pain-filled groan as she finally managed to push her body onto its side. Flakes of dried mud and rotted twigs plummeted off of her bountiful curves as she ran a tired arm over her face to clear out the beads of sweat that had fallen into her eyes. Her actions appeared to have had the opposite effect of what the young girl wished for as the pitiful looking teenager let out an undignified whine of pain. "I need to clean off this filth."
Velicion let out a wordless sound of agreement as she returned her attention towards the dusty rock that lay before her coiled up legs. There was much work still left to be done to the fist-sized rock, and the sorceress was dissatisfied with how the magical runes had turned out. If she wished to show off her work to the expedition's leader and represent her case to the grey-haired human, then Velicion needed to ensure that her work was of the highest quality she could muster. Perfection wasn't required, but it was still good to be as near perfect as imaginable.
"Velicion, are you listening?" Iskra scratched at her lower legs as she watched the elven woman continue forward with her work. When the sorceress said nothing and continued to chip away at the dust-covered rock, the short-haired girl began to pout and lazily move her arms around in a vain hope of grabbing the older woman's attention.
At first, the sorceress was successful in her attempts to ignore the teenagers' cries for attention, but as time went on the girl's voice grew more and more hoarse and the experienced mother's patience was fractured when the teenager had somehow managed to find the energy to make her way towards the sorceress' side.
"By the Gods, Iskra." Velicion sighed as she set down her current project for the second time since the teenager's return. "Sometimes I wonder about you."
Iskra said nothing as she looked to the sorceress with a curious gaze, which only forced the elven woman to lower her shoulders in defeat and look to the girl with remorse.
"Just tell me what you want." The elf said as she rubbed at the sides of her face.
"Can you conjure up some of that magic water we use?" Iskra begged as she clasped her hands in front of her face. The young girl was eager to cleanse her body of the annoyingly scratchy filth that had managed to cake itself around a large portion of her body.
Velicion raised an eyebrow at the girl's request. Ever since the events at the nearby lake, water had become a vital commodity and was under a strict regime of rationing. Throughout her stay within Ruined Home, Iskra had grown accustomed to daily bathes with fresh water that had been fetched from the nearby lake, but ever since that battle's end, the camp's inhabitants had grown weary of the water's purity. Most refused to drink from the once-reliable source of a freshwater, and many even refused to use the water as a way to keep clean. Iskra had been one such individual and refused to even look towards the lake.
At first, Velicion was content with allowing the girl to go on with her life, even if the teenager was a constant annoyance in her complaints towards her faltering hygiene, but that all came to a crashing end when the buxom human girl had begun to stink up their shared tent.
Seeing as she had no other option, the sorceress marched towards Prince Aurelius' tent and forced the young boy to grab two pails of water from the lake. Once the blonde-haired teenager had returned from his assigned task, Velicion returned to Iskra and persuaded the smelly girl that she had conjured up two buckets of magical water that would cure her current predicament.
Ever since then, the two women had washed one another in their tent without the worry of onlookers or stray missile fire from the enemy's catapults.
"I don't know," Velicion said after her mind returned to the present. "It's late, and I don't have the energy to do much of anything at the moment. Plus it's dark, and I need sunlight to be able to cast the required rituals."
The sorceress placed her hopes on the idea that Iskra would be willing to forgo just a single night of bathing, something that the teenager had made it her mission to do at least once on a daily basis. The genuine possibility that such an idea wouldn't come to pass was a heavy presence in the back of Velicion's mind, however.
Velicion held her breath as she watched the girl's emerald green eyes flicker around the tent as the mud-caked teenager wracked her brain with what she should do. Eventually, Iskra pursed her lips before letting out a heavy sigh of defeat.
"Fine," Both women lowered their shoulders as Iskra gave her answer. Velicion was relieved to hear the young girls' words, whereas the teenager had resigned herself to a nights slumber drenched in sweat and caked in mud. Something that she believed a woman of her social status must never allow to happen. "But can you at least tell me more about these potions?"
Iskra turned her head towards an unopened crate that had been marked with the symbol of a horse's head drinking from a pool of water. The crate in question was something that the young girl was all too familiar with as Iskra had somehow managed to stumble and trip over the wooden container when the raven-haired girl had first barged into the sorceress's tent upon her heated exchange with the expeditions' leader.
The young girl had received a nasty bruise from her fall, and Velicion had felt upset that she was to blame for the girl's injury. As well as the fact that she hadn't been wise enough to place the crate in an area of her tent where someone wouldn't notice it in the first place.
She had been careless, and for that, the sorceress had no one to blame but herself.
"You said that you had them delivered, right? How did you do that?" Iskra returned her attention to the elven woman who tried her best to remain calm under the curious gaze of the young girl.
"Well," Velicion paused as she struggled on how to best explain how she came into possession of the crate. "I asked a friend of mine to send over an assortment of spare potions he had lying around his laboratory. So we conducted a teleportation ritual, and he sent over that crate there."
"Are they magic potions? How do you make them? What did you have to do to get them here?" The young girl shot out her questions in rapid succession at the mention of magic, something that she had never seen before until her arrival into Voldigrov.
"Yes, they're magical potions." Velicion let out a disgruntled sigh as she looked down at her side as the young girl's eyes lit up with childish delight. The sorceress realized that she should've been much more careful in her earlier explanation as she was now doomed to answer questions that even the smallest of children should've been well aware of.
"I'm not exactly sure on the finer points of how they're made, but you need to have a combination of mundane ingredients mixed in with magical components in order to create a potion." The sorceress went on to explain as she returned her attention towards the dust-covered rock that lay near her folded legs. "Potions aren't my specialty, and I don't find the process in which they are created to be very exciting. So I'm not someone who would be able to give you a fair answer. Now, as to the teleportation aspect, that's something that I can do."
The sorceress forced herself to pause and look towards Iskra, who stared at the elven woman with someone of pure, child-like glee. The young girl was fascinated by the magic that Velicion wielded, and she was eager to learn more about it. The only issue there was, was the question as to whether or not the teenaged girl would be willing to sit through an entire lecture on the finer points of the countless arcane leylines scattered throughout the world as well as the ancient and mystical language used to wield the sorcerous powers that could be derived from it.
"Would you even be interested in what I have to say about it?" Velicion asked as she referred back towards the teleportation ritual. "It's a long and complicated explanation, and I've been told that I tend to bore people with the minute details in how things work."
"Maybe," Iskra said reluctantly as she let out a powerful yawn. "I don't think I would be able to hear the whole thing."
Velicion nodded her head as she believed that the girl had a fair point. After a brief moment of quiet, the two women separated themselves from one another.
Iskra returned to her bedroll and became a victim of her body's desires as she plummeted to the ground in an unceremonious fashion. It only took the young girl a matter of seconds before she fell into a deep slumber.
Velicion waited for a few more moments before she returned her undivided attention towards the unfinished work that lay before her.
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"And once you've held a finger over this symbol for a few seconds," Velicion held her thumb over the inert activation rune, allowing the human expedition's leader to take in both her words and actions. The grey-haired human let out a grunt in acknowledgment as he carefully nodded his head once the elven woman's delicate thumb slowly began to reveal the magical rune for a second time before she continued her explanation of how to work the magical weapon. "The rune will glow, and then you'll only have ten seconds before it explodes. Make sure that you give it a decent enough toss, or you'll end up being caught in the blast."
Captain Boris leaned back in his chair as he folded his arms over his chest. The makeshift piece of furniture creaked as the scraggily human continued to look down at the dust-covered rock with a curious stare. While the sorceress had made it blatantly clear that the stone held within her hand was what she had described as a "Training Dummy," the life-long military man was still uneasy as to whether or not the device would go off.
It was the first time in his life that Captain Boris had seen a weapon of such design, and it looked nothing at all like the ones that had been described to him by his compatriots who served to keep Ranislava's shores safe from pirates and similar ilk.
"It's not at all like the ones that I've been told about," Captain Boris finally said after a short moment of quiet thought. "Do you mind if I hold it for a while?"
Velicion quietly nodded as she leaned forward to place the device in the man's much larger hand. The sorceress's eyes remained locked on the man as she leaned back into her seat and adjusted her legs into a more comfortable position. A pleased smile formed over her lips as she watched the uneasy military captain flex his hands around the rocks' misshapen form.
Dust coated the tips of Captain Boris' fingers as he ran them along the rough edges of the apple-sized rock. The grizzled veteran let out a low hum as he twisted and turned the grime-covered rock. From an initial glance, the rock couldn't have been altered all that much as he found it difficult to find many telltale signs of a tool being used, but of the ones that he did manage to find meant that the sorceress was unfamiliar with working stone.
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"How many of these have you managed to make?" The man bounced the inert object in his hand as his eyes flicked towards two small wooden buckets that remained behind the sorceress's feet. Dirt and paint particles flaked off onto his open palm as he squeezed the training dummy in a tight grip.
"Not a whole lot, I'm afraid." Velicion brought her hands together with a knowing smile as she watched the man's eyes cast themselves towards the direction of the two buckets. "These things take time to make, and unfortunately, I'm not in the sort of career field where this would be my everyday task."
"I see. I'm not sure if you're the one I should be asking but," Captain Boris turned his attention back towards the elven woman before he continued his inquiry. "Are there other means of producing these devices. Grenades, as you call them."
"Through non-magical means, you mean?" Velicion asked to clarify even though she was confident that was what the man had meant to imply. Once the grey-haired human nodded his head, the sorceress continued with her answer. "There are mundane versions of these types of weapons. Anyone can make them really, so long as you hold the technical know-how and the right materials. Since it's quite rare for armies to field the arcane variants of these grenades, the more mundane and earthly versions are an extremely common sight among the world's many battlefields."
"And who would be the sort of field the magical ones," Captain Boris asked with genuine curiosity as his eyes flicked back towards the two buckets and their contents hidden behind the woman's slender legs. "I would imagine that your people are the types to do it."
"Quite the opposite, in fact," Velicion chuckled. She was always amused at the stereotypes of her people whenever she was in the company of other races. A rare occasion as that was, however. "I'm not sure if you'll believe me or not, but it's cheaper and less time consuming to craft these weapons with natural ingredients instead of relying on the mystical arts of the arcane. Both versions of these devices are at a point where most armies would rather field the more cost-effective variant of a grenade. It just so happens that the mundane version is much cheaper to be able to field it in larger quantities."
The sorceress leaned down to pick up one of the buckets and move it towards his feet, and Captain Boris watched as the elven woman let out an exasperated breath before shaking her head as she slowly put it back onto the ground. To the human, it looked as if the elven woman had misjudged the combined weight of the bucket and its contents.
Captain Boris moved to assist the elven woman but was quickly waved away by the sorceress. "It's a lot heavier than I initially thought," Velicion said with a huff. "I'll leave it here for you to deal with at a later time then. I guess I'm a bit more out of shape then I thought I was."
"You don't look like you are," The man scanned up and down the woman's body and saw a trace amount of muscles throughout her body, but struggled to find any hints of fat among the sorceress's slender frame. Captain Boris silently wondered if the woman was playing with him.
"Regardless of the state of my physical fitness," Velicion pushed the subject of her body out of the limelight and towards a different matter entirely. "Is there anything else you wished to discuss before I turn in for the night? I need to make sure that our shared headache is doing what a young lady should at this time of night and not plotting more of her asinine schemes."
Captain Boris let out a sympathetic grunt as he turned his attention inwards, his mind crafting a potential future. A future after the end of the expedition.
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With a heavy breath, Captain Boris placed his hands behind his head. The expeditionary leader leaned back into his chair as he looked down at the sorceress with an uncertain, peculiar gaze.
For the sorceress, it was obvious that the man was unsure of how she would react to what he was about to say.
"I've seen that face plenty of times before," Velicion spoke up as her impatience towards the man's unwillingness to speak eventually proved to be too much. "Speak your mind or forever hold your tongue."
"Very well then," Captain Boris nodded his head as he still showed signs of unease towards the approaching matter. He just hoped that his bluntness towards the issue wouldn't cause too much trouble for the sorceress. "I want to ask you what you think might happen after this is all over. With the potential of the siege being lifted and the day having been won, I mean."
With her arms sitting patiently over her lap, Velicion continued to sit in silence as the man continued to speak his mind. The man hadn't even begun to explain his thoughts in greater detail, but the sorceress was well aware of what the man wanted to ask of her. The only real issue for her would be to find a way to decline his offer in a manner that was polite enough to cause no ill will to one another.
"I'll be honest and say that I don't know the exact situation surrounding you or the group of boys that are currently under your care," Captain Boris did his best in how he wished to explain his thought process, but all he got for it was a polite nod of the woman's head. "But I wanted to extend a hand of friendship and ask if any of your group would wish to come south and settle in Ranislava. Once all is said and done with."
"That's quite the interesting offer you've made." Velicion said after a momentary pause, trying her best to sound as polite as possible. Unfortunately for the human, Velicion was more than happy with the life she had at home, and she wasn't the least bit interested in what the human had to offer. That didn't mean that she wished to hear more of what the man had to say, however. "Let's say that I'm interested in hearing more about your offer. What would happen to those who accept it in good faith?"
Captain Boris placed a hand over his chin as he quickly thought of what next to say. He just hoped that he had the capabilities of crafting his words in a manner that would be able to appeal to the, so far, disinterested elven woman. "It's tough to say," His words brought a note of displeasure from the sorceress who folded her arms over her slender chest, discontent with the man's current explanation. "But I would imagine that someone of your caliber would be brought forth to our King and given a title and a plot of land. I wouldn't be surprised if he wishes for you to pick a select number of noble children and teach them in the ways of your sorcerous powers."
"So I'm to be a glorified instructor to a questionable number of apprentices? One's that might not be able to wield the arcane powers of our world?" Velicion raised an eyebrow as she prodded the man to speak further on his visions of the future. "No attempts to seek out a suitor for me, a mysterious woman with mystical powers never seen before in the realm?"
Captain Boris shifted uncomfortably in his seat before he moved to answer the elf's concerns. "As I understand it, you're a married woman. Are you not?" Captain Boris waited in silence for the elven woman to nod her head before continuing with his response. "Our current King is a fair and just one. His family has reigned over the lands with righteous hearts well before the unification of our people, and I can assure you that he would be made well aware of your marriage before anything else was to occur. The various houses are another matter entirely, but they are quick to obey the commands of our King. A few of them might try and push their luck, but I can assure you that their actions would be dealt with in a swift enough manner by the households who the King holds in high regard."
"I see," Velicion looked down at her fingernails and poked at their ends for a brief moment before finally turning towards the other half of the conversation. The children that she had managed to keep alive and healthy ever since they had first set out. "What about the children? What would be their fates?"
"That's tough to say," Captain Boris fell silent as he struggled to come up with a reasonable situation in which the teenaged elves would be treated as anything other than highly sought after marriage tokens. It was his understanding that ever since their arrival to the encampment, the teenaged elves were constantly under the sorceress's hawk-like gaze. It quickly became apparent that the elven woman had made it her mission to quell any unruliness from the group of boys. Even the abrasive young Iskra had been placed under the sorceress's watchful eyes. Something that Captain Boris had been somewhat surprised to learn when the elves had first settled into Ruined Home. "Those who would wish to stay will most likely be swamped in requests for marriage. I'll be honest and say that I don't really know how old the boys are under your care, but they all appear to be similar in age to Iskra. If any of them are at the age of sixteen years or older, then they're free to pick and choose a suitable wife. I would even go so far as to say that a few families might be willing to allow them to take on their daughters as lovers, so long as children are produced for the respective families to take in and tutor."
Disgusted by the prospect of the young men's futures, Velicion rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. 'Mere breeding stock for foreign nobility.' The sorceress venomously thought to herself as she crossed her legs over one another. The elven mother balked at the idea of condemning the lives of those placed under her care to be nothing more than cattle for a foreign realms upper society to collect and show off. As if they were but mere trophies to be gathered and placed within a treasure room.
"I'm sure that a few of the boys would be eager to have such an easy life waiting for them," The sorceress said as she looked towards the expedition's commander with a hard stare. "But I'm also positive that their families will be more than displeased as to the true nature of their sons' fates. While a few might be unconcerned with their overall fate at your people's whims, one would have to wonder just how many would balk at the prospect of one of their own being treated as nothing more than mere cattle."
"Cattle might be a bit-" The human commander's words were interrupted by the stern tone of the sorceress who continued to spin her cautionary tale.
Velicion would be hard-pressed to find herself interrupted by the human's attempts to quell the sorceress's harsh words.
"There's nothing scarier than facing down against a Dar'Nari warhost that is being led a unified front of our people's nobility. Especially when such an army is led by the Arch-Mistress of the great and rightful King of the elves." Velicion paused as she allowed the meaning of her words to take effect. Satisfied that she had the undivided attention of the human, the sorceress continued. "I know you mean no ill will towards the children, but allow me to give you a word of advice. Over the years, the Arch-Mistress has had misfortune befall several of her sons, and ever since Prince Aurelius' birth; she has been very protective of the boy. If word were to reach her that her most cherished child has been reduced to nothing more than mere cattle to the likes of a human kingdom then-"
"Yes. Thank you, I understand with what you're trying to say." Captain Boris let out in a sigh as he held out an open hand, forcing the elven woman to pause midsentence as the grizzled human was eventually able to interrupt her dire warning. "I won't bring up this topic again. To you or anyone else."
Velicion nodded her head as she let out a grateful sigh, satisfied that the expeditionary leader had been scared off in approaching the subject for a second time.
An awkward silence soon followed as the two individuals remained seated, unwilling to be the first to be the one to next speak up.
Eventually, it was Velicion who broke the silence as she leaned forward and planted an elbow over her leg as an open palm cupped itself underneath her chin.
"What of the girl," The sorceress asked about Iskra as she looked to the man with a quick glance. "The one who probably started this whole ordeal in the first place."
That's," Captain Boris shifted uncomfortably in his seat as a grimace appeared over his face. "Another touchy subject. While it's true that she was an abrasive child, her last stunt within Ranislava has left her with too many enemies to count."
Velicion let out a disgruntled sigh as her eyes followed the man's movements. "Something about a murder, correct?"
"Attempted murder, actually." Captain Boris ran a finger over the right side of his face. "The scar that Iskra left on her victim refuses to heal, and the scarred child has since refused to remove the veil that covers her face ever since. There are rumors that the blade she used was cursed by the gods, but despite such talk, the peasantry has fallen in love with the Crown Prince's new betrothed."
Velicion gave the man a curious eye at the mention of a cursed weapon. "I was under the impression that your people have no magicians. If the rumors are true and the weapon is cursed, then where in the world did she get it from?"
Captain Boris shook his head as he threw up his hands into the air and shrugged his shoulders. "The girl says that she prayed for an answer to her dilemma and that she found it somewhere in her room one morning. The rest is history."
"So she's claiming that her attempt at the murder was at the beckoning of some divine entity?"
"I wouldn't go that far but," Captain Boris shook his head as he continued to explain the young girl's situation. "The servants who took care of the girl have backed up her claim and have since confirmed that she was praying for an answer. I don't know if Duke Vesely has taken it into consideration that he needs to investigate the possibility of one of his family's servants planting the weapon or not.”
"Interesting." For Velicion, that single statement had been a genuine and heartfelt one. The very idea that a weapon a potentially magical origin had somehow come into the possession of a young girl who lived within a land with no known users of the arcane had peaked a rare inquisitive desire within the back of sorceress's mind.
The matter of investigating the plethora of theories that were now forming in the sorceress's head would have to wait until after the issue of the siege had been dealt with, and everything had returned to a relative state of calm.
"Her criminal history aside," Velicion was quick to return to the matter at hand. The sorceress was curious to find out what would become of the buxom teenager were she to return south. "What would happen to Iskra if she were to return?"
"Officially, her conviction would be overturned, but her status would remain as it is now." Captain Boris began to explain as he thought back to the conversations with his liege. "However, I doubt that those upset over her actions would remain silent for long. Especially if it comes to light that the girl has returned to her family without some form of additional punishment."
"Punishment in the form of bodily harm, I take it?" Velicion suggested as she grew uncomfortable with the potential of an uncertain future for the teenaged human.
"I don’t doubt that some would make a case for it. Some might even go so far as to pressure the King and demand an execution, lest they plot to kidnap the girl and do it themselves." Captain Boris's dark words were filled with a grim dissatisfaction towards such a possible future.
If the lesser nobility were to attempt such a thing, then he had no doubts that Duke Vesely and his allies would begin to arm themselves and tear the kingdom asunder.
"How common is it for your nobility to attempt something like that?" Velicion asked as she tried in vain to hold back the anger in her voice.
"Plots against other households of a similarly brutal fashion have been unheard of for a long, long time. That being said, I'm sure that the victim's family would be desperate to seek out further vengeance against the girl. As for whether or not they'll go so far and plot to kill a daughter of the kingdom's third most powerful family that remains to be seen."
"And of Iskra's family? What will they do?" Velicion asked as the of the teenager's family came about. The young girl's family was a mystery to her, and she wished to know more about them if the sorcerous was to settle on a decision as to what she should do with the raven-haired teenager.
"Marry her off, most likely." Captain Boris offered a wave of his hand as he gave the best answer he could think of. "It's more than likely that the girl's mother would want to keep her safe, so I wouldn't be surprised if House Vesely would try and cement another alliance with a similarly powerful, but foreign, family with the young girl's hand in marriage."
"Typical, I guess." The sorceress said at the mention of her family having the young girl shipped off to a foreign land.
As a mother, Velicion had grown used to having her children find themselves married to powerful elven households in distant holdings, but that never meant that the sorceress was the sort to like it one bit. She would have preferred that her children remained close at hand so that she didn't need to travel vast distances just to see her children and grandchildren. While magic made such journey's a trivial matter, the point of her misgivings was still very much alive and well.
The lithe sorceress was curious as to what kind of woman the girl's mother was, and she wondered if there was a possibility for the two of them to meet. At the end of the day, Velicion wanted to slap the human mother's face as a way to show her displeasure in not properly disciplining the upstart teenaged girl.
"If worse comes to worst," Velicion began to say as her mind returned to the plethora of fates that awaited the raven-haired girl. "I can take Iskra out of your people's hands. While I'm sure your King and the girl's family will be able to manage anything that happens, I'd rather see the girl in an environment that has the potential to be much safer."
Captain Boris let out a grunt as he crossed his arms. The man was deep in thought over what the sorceress had said, which forced the man to remain quiet as the sorceress gave him an eerily pleasant smile.
Captain Boris let out a grunt as he crossed his arms. The man was deep in thought over what the sorceress had said, which forced the man to remain quiet as the sorceress gave him an eerily pleasant smile.
While it was true that Velicion wished for the girl to remain safe and live in an environment that would give her a better future than the one that she currently faced, the sorceress couldn't deny the fact that she wanted to see what would happen if the curvaceous teenager were to remain at Prince Aurelius' side. She had serious doubts as to whether or not anything would come out of the girl's one-sided love for the blonde prince, and she knew that the boy's mother would be vehemently against the idea of having her most cherished child keep a human as a lover.
Despite her reserved nature, Velicion loved nothing more than to tease and prod an emotional response out of the Arch-Mistress, the first wife to the Witch King of Dar'Nari and the rightful heir to all of elven kind. The two women were, after all was said and done, rivals in love and positions of power.
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