I found it quite cruel that death left me with my awareness only to admire the still constant omnipresent blanket of darkness. I felt like I was floating but I couldn't feel the water. I couldn't see, or hear, or really feel anything but I somehow knew the darkness around me stretched on forever. I felt infinitely small and worthless floating in that darkness.

However I felt perfectly content. I had done it. A simple conversation to some but I had finally managed to connect with someone and that meant everything. Not only that but I had managed in my last moments to understand magic and read the last page of the grimoire that had eluded me. The world truly was a beautiful place and I was glad to have lived in it.

I drifted away smiling internally as I thought about the end of my life. I didn't even realize I was fading away until I was almost gone but I never began to fight. I was ready to fade. It was like I was made of dust and I slowly began to fly away with a nonexistent wind. It was nice.

Then my senses suddenly returned and I was grasped by an icy hand that sent stabbing pain and shivers throughout my nonexistent body before being violently ripped away. I felt like I was hurtling through the empty space around me when suddenly I lost consciousness. It was not a gentle or gradual fall into unconsciousness but like a flip had been switched and suddenly I knew no more.

…

When I next became aware I was still shrouded in the darkness but I knew something had changed. I was still floating but now I could feel a warm liquid although my body, now that I had one, felt off. It was hard to put the feelings into words but I felt small… and it was more than that. My body felt wrong but I didn't know how to describe it.

I tried to move and found myself lacking that capability. My body didn't feel restrained but instead weak like I couldn't find any strength. Even that struggle to find strength left me feeling lethargic and the draw of the unconsciousness began to pull at my mind. I only had the time to question how the pull of unconsciousness felt different then I ever knew as a Neirik before I blacked out.

…

I fell in and out of consciousness as time seemed to progress. My body felt different each time I awoke. More right but it was still wrong in some ways. I had started to pick up some sounds but they felt distant and muffled beyond comprehension, although what I could hear sounded unlike the language I knew.

My vision had remained clouded in darkness but I found semi transparent colors had slowly grown in my vision in many hues I had never seen before. They fascinated me when they first appeared and many times again as I floated in and out of consciousness. At one point I awoke with more power in my body then before with a new capability to kick my legs and swing my arms. It was also at this point that as I stared into the colors swirling around me I heard a faint familiar whisper.

If I was capable in that moment I would have smiled as I embraced the familiar feeling of magic. It was not quite how I remembered the feeling in the book; there was an overlapping cacophony of multiple different sources all whispering cryptic words to me at once. I could pick out quite clearly the familiar whispers from the book that had returned again but the rest blended together to be almost indiscernible. Together they were a demanding mass of voices quietly stealing my focus. Almost like I was surrounded by people all desperate to talk to me.

They were beautiful to hear.

…

I couldn't wake up. Somehow I was still unconscious but aware at the same time and I knew that I couldn't be allowed to wake up. I was left staring at the colors swirling around in constant patterns whispering their sweet words. It frustrated me that I couldn't see more and somehow that frustration only grew. I knew there was more somehow but I couldn't see it. Then something clicked.

Suddenly the darkness I had come to be so familiar with pulled away and a brightly light room stood before me. I was looking down on the room seemingly from the ceiling and watched as creatures I had never seen before frantically busied themselves around one figure on a bed who was screaming like she was being murdered.

The creatures were tall pale figures with a lithe build and graceful movements. As I focused on the one screaming on the bed I noticed other details. The creature's feet were large with six toes with sharp talons and the leg up to the knee was seemingly made of wood. Curiously the creature's hands seemed normal enough, like the more soft hand of a dwarf. Looking further up the creature is covered in golden images of spiraling vines. They seem to originate from their chest and spiral out to wrap around their limbs. The most shocking features were on their faces. Their ears were sharp and pointed with golden glowing tips. Their hair was brown with seemingly every few hair glowing a bright silver. Their eyes were golden where I expected the whites to be and they framed a beautiful blue gem that seemed to swirl in place.

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There was also one more noticeable detail that was hard to overlook. They were currently giving birth, and somehow I felt connected to the slimy black ball slowly making its presence known. I was horrified to see what happened next that I almost regretted being able to see for the first time. I could feel the moment I was born because I felt like I could wake up now when I chose. I wasn't being forced to wake up so I continued to watch as other creatures cleaned and wrapped my new body in cloth.

I found it strange that while all the other creatures in the room had similar features and colorings I was born with dark gray skin and the tips of my ears were pitch black with red lines glowing through. It seemed the others did as well because I could feel a sense of tension filling the room.

Suddenly the doors of the room were thrown open and in walked a large figure with the same characteristics as the others except for a few key details. They were taller than the others and broader as well with a more bulky figure. Their hair was a bright orange color with golden strands mixed in. They had the same golden orbs with a dark reddish-orange iris but the most noticeable detail was the pure white horns growing from their forehead. The horns only went straight for an inch or two before curving back and coming to a point..

The next most noticeable detail was the look of glee he had on his face as he came into the room and rushed to embrace the figure on the bed. He seemed to be bouncing in place as he held them and in his arms and asked a rapid steam of questions. The atmosphere only grew more awkward as he asked his questions and his face grew confused. Then as they brought him my still sleeping body his face began to grow angry.

…

“That is not my child” he roared

I don't know what’s going on, King Rolion Dechard thought. The day started off wonderfully before being filled with an excited panic after the queen's water broke. I had been pacing the halls outside the nurses chamber listening to the sounds of my love scream in pain when I finally heard the sounds cease. I burst through the doors and instantly locked eyes with my love but the atmosphere felt off. The reason was soon revealed to me.

“A dark elf?! You cheated on me with a Dark elf”

The room suddenly went silent as the nurses froze and Daliah, my love, flinched. She took a deep breath before raising her head to look me in the eyes. I regretted my word in that moment before she ever even opened her mouth. Her eyes, and the mana I was so familiar with swirling within, clearly telegraphed her sense of betrayal and heavy disappointment almost like she wasn't surprised.

“I would never be with another man” She said sadly as she reached out to grab the child. She slowly raised herself to a sitting position and turned away from me.

“... sigh. Everyone out.” I said after a moment of regret. The nurses slowly let themselves out except for one older elf who met my eyes as I looked at her.

“Sir, her highness just gave birth. There is more to be done but I will be enough, "she said as she drew herself up and stood straight. She then lowered herself into a bow before quickly going to my wife's side before I could respond.

“That's fine.” I sighed only to get ignored as she began to seemingly massage my wifes abdomen. I simply chose to ignore her as I pulled a chair up beside the bed. I sat there for a moment.

“I'm sorry” I said and then waited. After a while of nothing I continued. “I believe you. I know you would never cheat on me and I love you. I… I just don't know. Why? What went wrong?... Is it really our child?”

I hated how defeated I sounded and the silence that stretched on afterwards as I wallowed in my discomfort. Just as I was about to speak up she finally said something.

“HE” she paused. “Is my child. I have never, and will never, sleep with another man. You may decide where you stand but I will stay with my child.” she said without ever turning back to look at me.

What was I doing? I fell in love with my wife because of her passionate and stubborn loyalty to those she loves. She was beautiful internally and externally and I was blessed to have her. And now I was making her turn against me? She felt the need to protect our child from me?

I rose from my chair only to take a knee beside the bed as I leaned my body towards my wife. “I'm sorry my love” I said as I kissed her hands holding our child. I lean in further “and I'm sorry my son” I say as I kiss the young child on the forehead. I only then truly took in the appearance of my child.

His skin was a dark gray like the last light of twilight before true night sets in. His feet showed a peculiar mana root that made his feet appear to be made of dark obsidian that seemed to move and swirl from afar but were completely solid. His ear had pitch black tips that seemed to suck in the surrounding light and feed it to red lines flowing through them. When I focused on his eyes they took my breath away. One eye was what I expected from dark elves with black where most eyes were white and a shining bronze colored iris like a medallion floating in a pitch black pond. His other eye however was like a mirror. The dark reddish-orange iris floating on molten gold. He had my eyes, or eye.

“Welcome to the world my child.” I said as a tear rolled down one side of my face. “Alfnero Dechard, crown prince of the Pomdalia kingdom.” With that I wrapped my wife and child in a hug and my wife finally turned towards me while making space beside her on the bed. In the end today was a good day. Tomorrow… will be difficult.