I charged at the woman, running up the stairs. She immediately ‘fired’ the ball of ice in her hand at me, which flew passed my head. She also swiped her hand in front of her and chanted, ice formed on the stairs which made me slip and slide back down. A spear flew at the woman, which I guessed was thrown by Palie. She just barely ducked out of the way, which seemed to distract her long enough for the ice to stop forming. I took the opportunity to move around it and climbed up some stairs to the far right.

I tried to run towards her from the right and I could see Zephy running from the left.

The Elven woman seemed to spot me first as she swiped her hand again and chanted quickly. I felt something suddenly rip right through my leg which sent a flare of pain up my spine. I tripped forward and looked back to see some icicle spike emerging from the ground with some of my blood on it. I looked forward to see Zephy swing her axe at the Elven woman, she just dodged in time with grave and pulled out a blade and swing it down to cut Zephy’s arm.

She groaned as she stepped back, holding her arm. I held my leg as I forced myself to stand up.

“I! KEERLA OF THE ICE WILL NOT BEND TO HUMANS!!!” She screeched, forming more ice in her hands and ‘firing’ it at both me and Zephy. I felt the wind knocked out of me as I slid to the far wall.

Coughing, I tried to stand again. My legs with trembling as I finally hand my feet under me. I looked at the Elven woman, Keerla, as she was battling Sarya, who twirled her staff at her.

“YOU DARE PROTECT THEM! YOU BETRAY ALL THE SACRIFCES THE ELF’S HAD MADE!!!”

Keerla was now swinging with all the rage that she possessed. I staggered towards them, trying to muster as much strength as I could, but I could already feel my legs giving out. Zephy rushed in to help Sarya and the both of them continued to assault Keerla.

“I protect what I value most! Just like you!” Sarya yelled back as she stepped back for a moment and reached into her pouch to pull out some dirt and form it into a few needles, which shot at Keerla’s arm. She was surprised by the magic and didn’t seem to think to dodge it as the needles embedded into her arm, making her hiss in pain.

 She quickly chanted and an ice wall formed, cutting Sarya and Zephy off for a brief moment, however the side had been left open. Cinda and Zephy each took a side.

Cinda used her duel swords in a flurry and seemed to surprise Keerla. Zephy was about to swing her ax down on Keerla but her grace allowed her to spin out of the way and kick her, sending her to the floor.

Now with Zephy out, Sarya and Cinda were against her.

While they continued to fight her, I stumbled over to Zephy and sat her up.

“Zephy? Are you alright?”

She groaned. “Yeah… damn… she’s fast and stronger… were Elves always like this?”

I stood up and made my way to the fighting.

Sarya was knocked away by Keerla and I took her place just in time for Keerla to knock away one of Cinda’s swords. Left with only one, Cinda and I were left to fight against her.

“You…. You would go so far as to kill me… destroy the last… of my people…” She was breathing hard as she gritted out her words with venom.

“If… that’s what it would take to free my daughter…. Then I would do a lot worse….”

I poked my sword at her and they fray started again. Cinda took two jabs and a slash; I swung my sword down at her legs. She proved her grace, even as she was tired, by dodging everything.

The pain from the cut on my leg was throbbing and causing a huge distraction, I was also really tired from not sleeping.

With one final push, me and Cinda tried to push through to her again.

Suddenly, a spear emerged out of her stomach.

Keerla mouth hanged open in disbelief as she looked down at the spear head. I looked pass her and was shocked to see that the spear belonged to Palie. Keerla seemed to try and say something but instead she coughed up blood.

I stepped back as she fell onto her knees. She was clearly trying to stay standing but eventually, she was left to fall on her hands and knees. Spitting more blood on the floor, she eyed me with hatred.

Slowly, she lost conscious and collapsed on the floor.

Sarya rushed past me and held her head, placing her ear close to Keerla’s mouth.

“She’s… still breathing.”

Sarya reached into her pouches and pulled out some rags and started to press it on her stomach. I stumbled over to her and sat down on my knees. The entire fight had been hell on my leg.

“Why… are you helping her?” I asked.

She glanced back at me for a moment before continuing to go about helping the woman.

“Because I feel like she doesn’t have much left, and she hasn’t received much kindness.”

She sighed before continued to tell her story as well as apply bandages.

“There is some truth that the Elves had been separate, but she didn’t say that they were actually forced out. I could only guess that this castle was erected because of that one reason; to build a home.”

“But that gave her the right to do the things that she did to the people of the village?”

She shook her head.

“No. But I guess she felt threatened so she did what she felt was right.”

“LOOK!” Palie called out.

I slowly turned my head to see that some of the ice statues started to melt away. It started to some water slowly running down the sides and soon some steam rose from the top as more ice melted and even broke away.

I could feel new vigor pump through my body as I shot up and moved to Elora.

The ice that incased her broke away and I helped the process by using my hands to pull away the ice pieces.

Ice broke away from her head and most of the ice melted away from her body.

I shrugged my jacket off as Elora slowly blinked her eyes and begun to shiver.

“Elora? Are you ok? Sweetheart?”

I wrapped the jacket around her as she looked up at me. Her eyes started to tear up and she shoved her face in my chest and wailed. I held her tight as she sobbed.

Stolen novel; please report.

“It’s ok, Mommy is here…” I slowly rocked her as she cried.

Glancing back to the other ice statues, they were all unfrozen and started to moved and look around. Some were embracing others and some were sitting down as if to collect their thoughts.

Palie was holding one of the women; who I assumed was her mother, while crying.

I looked back down at Elora and rubbed her back. She seemed to have calmed down slightly.

“That Elf! She was the one who started all of this! Why are you helping her!?”

I looked back at the people and seen one of them, a man who had a ponytail and goatee, was glaring at Sarya. I could see that the others were also gathering behind him, or at least the ones who could walk. I picked up Elora and started to walk up near Sarya. I had a bad feeling that this could get out of hand.

“Because she is someone who needs help in more ways than one.”

I looked at Sarya, who had said such a thing without stopping her bandaging. I suppose that was just who she was, always wanting to help someone who needed it. That’s what I fell in love with, and that’s why I agreed to her going out and assisting people.

“You can worry about revenge later… right now; we need to get you guys home. There are some people who want you to head back to the village.”

I was trying to prolong this; I also didn’t want this entire situation to get out of hand. Hopefully they would see some reason and forget all of this.

It seemed like some of them were in agreement, muttering things about going home. However, the man with the ponytail, wasn’t.

“Like hell! If we leave her to live then she would continue to attack the village.”

‘Great… this asshole is really itching for a fight….’

“Come on Conex, I want to go home already.”

I could see Palie tugging his sleeve as she asked him. He seemed like he was ready to ignore her so I decided to add something.

“We came all this way and helped you people, I wanted to help both you and my daughter. Do you really think that after all this; we would see the job half done?”

That seemed enough to take some of the anger out of him. Sighing, he moved back to the other people and started to see if they needed help. I sighed in relief and knelt down by Sarya.

“How is she doing?” I asked, not sure as to why I was caring about a person who kidnapped my daughter.

“Well… I don’t think I can help her without healing magic. She could very well-“

Sarya was cut off as Keerla’s hair started to turn black, her skin started to lose its glow and color. We all watched as her skin started to solidify and soon, her entire body turned to stone.

I swallowed hard before asking a question that I already knew the answer to.

“Did she… pass on?”

Sarya nodded and covered her face with a small rag.

Suddenly, we could hear cracks and crunches. Looking around the room, we could see that the ice that covered the walls were breaking apart, melting away as well. Eventually, all of the ice was gone, leaving the room slightly humid.

I looked back at Sarya and was about to tell her that we should go before her hand glided over the woman’s necklace.

“This… couldn’t be…!”

She reached around Keerla’s neck and unhooked the necklace.

“Sarya…?” I scowled at her actions.

She examined the necklace, which had a strange design. It had many twigs that were be entwined around a small gem.

“I’ve never seen anything like that…” Cinda muttered.

“It’s a Vale Tear.”

I frowned at the name so she explained.

“It was something that the elves used before the Age of Clarity. Manipulation magic can only affect things that are within ear shot, this Tear can amplify the user’s voice. The last time it one was used, at least to my understanding, was to build the World Tree. The Vales Tear was capable of creating large scale things: forests, deserts and so on.”

I looked around the room.

“…Or a castle covered in ice?”

She nodded.

“Why was such a thing made? I mean, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if someone crazy got their hands on such a thing…”

“I’m not too sure, this was well before I was born. Remember, we were a more violent race.”

She looked back at the bookcases. “The answer could be in there…”

“Hey, look over there.” Cinda caught our attention by looking near the throne. We could see that a set of stairs that lead up passed the throne. Sarya wanted to go, as she still wanted to know more about this place so I followed her. Cinda and Zephy stayed behind. Hugging Elora closely, I followed her up the stairs and we found a hallway leading towards a single door but perhaps the things that was most unnerving was that there were statues on each side, so fifty total. They all had simlair tattoos on their face, like the ones Keerla had.

“Sarya… are these…?”

“Yes, they are more Elves whom passed on.”

As we were walking down the hall, Elora hugged me tightly. I couldn’t help but feel like, even though they were dead, it felt like they were still watching us.

As we reached the end of the hallway, Sarya pushed the doors open and on the other side was only a small bedroom. It was very messy, with many scrolls and books lying on the table and floor. Sarya picked up a book that was open on the table and her eyes scanned the page.

“Can you read it?” I asked.

She nodded. “It’s an old dialect but I can still read most of it… it seems like the person, Keerla, was reading on how…. To revive someone who had passed on.”

My lips parted. “That’s… possible?”

She immediately shook her head. “It has been attempted many times before but it couldn’t be achieved. Instead, when our people had tried… it only brought horrific results.”

“Horrific…?” Suddenly, my eyes widen as if suddenly became clear as to what she meant.

“Those Spectres…?”

She bit her lip and looked up at me. “We were a lot worse before the Age of Clarity. Those monsters were a result of our tampering with life itself. Just as Cinda had merged with that stone, Magic is dangerous if tampered with. We… that’s not who we are now… it’s…”

I put Elora down and embraced Sarya.

“I know…”

Sarya only wanted what was best for everyone.

“You being here now, is more than enough proof.”

I now regretted my words, when I said that I don’t care about their war. I could only guess that from what we found was that Keerla was trying to find a way to revive her people so she could keep their legacy, but instead, made them into monsters. She could have done that to all of them but she didn’t. She only wanted to see them alive again but couldn’t and had to live with that knowledge. If Sarya had died and I found that there was a small possibility of reviving her, then I would have likely tried the same thing in desperation.

I looked down to see Elora hugging Sarya’s leg.

“Auntie Sarya isn’t bad! Auntie Sarya is nice!”

I gave a small laugh at Elora’s words.

Sarya chucked as well and leaned down to hug Elora. “Thank you sweetheart.”

Standing back up, she opened her hand and looked at the Vale’s Tear.

“What will you do with it?” I asked.

She looked at it for a few moments before moving to the fireplace nearby and started to put a few books inside.

“Are you sure you want to burn it?”

She sighed. “Yes, this Tear has been used for great evil and I really don’t want to bring it to anyone or let it go. I think it’ll be best if we destroyed it right now.”

I didn’t protest, I only started to put some books in the fire place myself. Even Elora helped. After it was set, I light the fire and we all watched the Tear slowly burned in the fire. The twigs burnt quickly, but the Tear stayed strong, as if holding onto a slim hope that it could stay alive through the fire. Eventually, the Tear popped, sending shards up and being burnt as well.

“Well… I guess it’s over.”

Sarya sighed and nodded.

“Yes… finally.”

I looked at her. “How was such a thing able to keep the storm up? I mean, the user would still need to chant the words… and the people at the village said that the storm was up for well over a month so the person would need to be continually chanting the words right?”

She turned her head slowly to me with eyes of regret.

“Do you… really want to know?”

I immediately thought of those elves we saw in the hall as we came here and lowered my head.

“No… I guess not…”

We headed back, Zephy had asked us what we did but I avoided the question. I told her that we destroyed the Tear. I asked her to help me pick up Keerla. We had lifted her and put her with the other statues.

With everything finished. We all headed back.

………………….

The trip back wasn’t as bad as the trip coming here, probably because the storm was now over. As we finally entered the village once again, the villagers came out of their homes and started to embrace the others. Many of them thanked us for helping them and even offered us to stay for the night. We agreed and were treated to a grand fest.

With many people cheering and celebrating, I sat in the back watching it all.

Zephy soon sat next to me.

“Well…. I won’t ask what happened back there… but I just thought I should say that whatever happened, happened. You may have regrets but, Elora and in fact, everyone has survived because of our decision. I just hope that you remember that you still have all of us.”

“But what about Keerla? Who did she have?” I asked.

Zephy was quiet for a moment before she answered with a question herself.

“Are you perhaps comparing yourself to her? Wondering what would have happened if you were thrown into a similar situation? Well you don’t need to worry about that, because if there were one thing different between you two, it was Pride.”

I frowned. “Pride?”

“She could have very well accepted that she needed to change and go to the Elves for help. But instead she couldn’t let her old ways go and doomed her people. I doubt you would ever do that to anyone. So please don’t think of yourself as the same as her. You’re better than that.”

Without another word, she stood up and walked off.

As I thought about it, I realized she was right. Even more then she realized herself. The fact that the Elves at the World Tree let go of their old ways and prospered, where Keerla didn’t and doomed herself. Pride had a strange effect on people, and it usually wasn’t a good one.

I sighed as I sat back and thought that I at least had things worth fighting for, and things that were worth fighting for. And I suppose that was something worth celebrating for.