The following hours passed by in a frenzied blur. While I was cleared of any suspicion after the dwarfs found my ring, it was not the case with Ariawyn or Camilla. Still, the main issue was undoubtedly with the older elf, who was so wise in her over six hundred years of life experience, that she practically threatened the dwarfs at a moment’s notice after our arrival.

Thanks to that, I had to go to some lengths to try to clear her name of any suspicion of potential collaboration with the dark elves. Not that being a wood elf made things that much better, at least not in the current political situation. I was trying to force the point that she was a victim of the dark elves as well. One that helped me escape, and it seemed to smooth things over to a degree. Of course, I did not mention her initial reaction to finding out my connection to any dwarven clan.

That would have been unwise.

The dwarfs eventually accepted her presence as a victim seeking asylum, even if it was done with a lot of reluctance and with the non-negotiable terms of relinquishing her weapons immediately.

She wasn’t amused by that demand.

That led to the current situation, where I was literally pleading to the stubborn woman to act sensibly before the dwarfs decide to kick us out of their camp. Yes, by pleading, I meant that I was throwing a tantrum at her, while being on the verge of ripping my hair out, all because of her ridiculous stubbornness.

Gods in heaven, I was too exhausted for this stupid argument after all the mental and physical strain I went through in this last few hours.

I was seriously about to give up when she finally seemed to come to her senses and shoved her sheeted weapons against my chest. In my surprise, I struggled to get a hold on them. When I finally managed to hold them in an awkward manner, she was already halfway towards our tent.

A deep sigh of relief broke out of my throat while I gazed after her stomping silhouette.

Suddenly, she stopped for a second and threw a nasty look in my direction. One that promised serious consequences if anything would go awry.

I gulped silently, watching as she entered our tent while being followed by the curious looks of the surrounding dwarfs who were undoubtedly witnessing the entire argument.

We were not alone in this military camp after all.

The dwarfs, seeing our ragged state not long after our initial encounter, decided to set up their camp and discuss what to do with us. A decision made out of necessity, no doubt. There was no way for me and Camilla to walk much longer in our tired state.

We were still in the deep roads and that means they couldn’t just direct us to the nearest town, nor could they drop their mission and escort us to one. They had their own obligations, after all. While on the surface, we could have been pointed into the right direction and would have a reasonable likelihood of getting there alive on our own. The dwarfs couldn’t simply leave us here, as it would mean certain death, especially in our current state. Even Aria have acknowledged that much.

I slouched my shoulders slightly as I released a tight-knit sigh.

I tightened my hold around the blades that were rudely dropped into my arms and turned towards the largest tent in sight.

I talked with the leader of this dwarven strike force, which was meant to eliminate or at least chase away the dark elfs’ in this section. The dwarf leader’s name was Tharnil Frostgrip. He was the one who told me that their group was essentially sent here to confront the very same dark elves who kidnapped us. Apparently, the dark elves sneaked past their patrols and traveled through this region while killing and raiding anyone who was unfortunate enough to cross their path.

I shivered from the thought.

Now that things had some time to settle down. I had to accept an uncomfortable truth. Apparently, I was traumatized from the entire incident. Now, I… I have this fear… Which I wouldn’t call unreasonable by all means, a fear of dark elves. Even the mention of them sets me on high alert. The thought that the dwarfs were here to hunt them down was ringing various warning bells in my mind. I was already unconsciously looking for ways to get the hell out of here if they tried to bring me along on a dark elf hunt, or whatever they called these excursions.

Goblins were bad enough, but there was no fricking way that I will go after dark elves, especially not after my recent terrifying experiences.

Then again… it’s not like I had a lot of choices here.

I mean, aside from blindly running into the deep roads, which was probably suicidal, but in my humble opinion, still less of a risk than facing a bunch of murdering-raping maniacs.

My skin run cold with sweat while I was thinking about my shitty options. I shook my head and tried to chase away those dire thoughts, if only for a brief respite.

Anyway… I was probably overreacting to begin with. This much even I could sense based on my wildly jumping thoughts and fluttering heart-rate.

Here I thought that I was starting to get used to life underground, but now I couldn’t stand the sight of these tight corridors and low ceilings. They felt suffocating, making my skin crawl. My tired mind seemed to constantly find new ways to conjure maliciously glinting eyes leering at me from every shadow, stripping me naked with their hungry gaze. Reminding me of the disgusting words that dark elf told me, one of those utter maniacs… I shivered again… My body twitching with the urge to fight or flight, ready to spring to action, even if there was no real cause for that, at least not at the moment.

My stomach flipped as my legs became weak under me. The fear and tiredness combining into a numbing sensation. I bit the inside of my cheek, desperately trying to focus my thoughts.

It was a pity that I couldn’t so easily escape from my own haunted mind.

“Fucking hell…” — I whispered to myself. My otherwise gentle feminine voice felt strained and raspy as I was trying to rein in my slowly raising panic.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

First there were those dreams of being chased by goblins and now this… I was starting to realize that my sleeping schedule was about to go haywire for a while again.

I sighed… passing by the tent in which Camilla and Ariawyn were already resting. The dwarfs offered it to us as a place of momentary respite. I wanted to go and sleep, to just forget about everything for a while… Then I looked down at the scabbards of swords that I was still tightly clutching in my arms.

I reluctantly accepted that it was not the time to rest yet. Not even mentioning that after our argument, it was likely unwise to run into Aria immediately. I circled the tent and continued my way towards my initial goal.

After a few more minutes of walking, I arrived to my destination.

Ahead of me was the largest tent in the camp. Two armed guards were standing by its entrance. I nodded to the guards. They nodded back, acknowledging my presence, while pulling aside the tent’s layers to let me in, seeing that my hands were already full.

The moment I stepped into the tent, the somewhat familiar voice of the captain reached my ears. It was an overly smug voice that annoyed me to no end.

“Ah, the Dimhollow’s elfmaid have returned. I see that you have succeeded in your task and did so without getting permanently maimed to boot! Quite a wonder, truly.”

I stared at the annoying man, who I now knew to be the same bastard who intended to put us through with a sword, not even allowing us the chance to clear our name. Then when he saw us surrender, he immediately suggested beating us up for attempting to trick them. I was pretty sure that if I didn’t have Emrum’s ring on me, we would be in a very different situation right now. One I didn’t want to envision.

What was this idiot talking about now? He only sent me to take Ariawyn’s weapons and bring them to him. It was a tiresome task, but I wouldn’t call it dangerous. I didn’t know Aria for long, but I couldn’t imagine the woman to seriously hurt me, at least not intentionally. Then again… the same probably wasn’t true for the dwarfs, so that’s what he meant.

In the meantime, said dwarf seemed to sense my confusion and decided to elaborate without prompting.

“No sane man or woman would so brazenly confront a member of the House of Virdithas, demanding to relinquish their weapons in enemy territory. They consider it quite an insult. That means… you are either incredibly brave or an ignorant fool. Based on that expression of yours, I suspect the latter.”

I blinked at the man, my expression turning paler with every second as I recalled Aria’s unusually ferocious protest against my request. Captain Tharnil, in the meantime, continued his explanation with an easygoing smile, slowly curling up at the edges of his lips.

“Their spear dancers are amongst the most infamous warriors of the wood realm. They are considered being at par with our Gold Regiment, the finest of all dwarven armies. Well, aside from the Royal guards.”

“If you knew that it was considered such an insult, why would you send me to do it!?” — I demanded, my tiredness pushed back momentarily by a sudden spike of anger.

The brown bearded man blinked, then a bellyful of laughter burst out of him.

“It worked, isn’t it?” — He added with a snort after seeing my sour expression.

Just great… Now I have to apologize from Aria once I get back to the tent.

I decided that I didn’t really care anymore about who or what they were arguing or laughing about, at least not now, maybe after I had my fair share of rest. I walked up to the still chuckling captain’s desk and put down the confiscated weapons on top of the table.

I found it strange that there was a large table inside the tent. Do they disassemble, then reassemble it every time they break camp? I wondered for a second, but in the end I didn’t ask about it.

Instead, I turned around and started to walk towards the exit. Ignoring the still laughing dwarf.

I was about halfway to it when I heard his cracked voice call after me.

“Before you leave, I thought that you might ought to know that our scouts have made contact with a rag-tag team of dwarfs and human mercenaries wandering the nearby caverns. Apparently, they belong to the Bronze Company. I thought that they might have been part of the group which you and your human companion traveled with. I sent a word to them describing your features, and they already sent an answer. They are coming to pick you up. They will arrive to our camp somewhere in the middle of the night and they will escort you to the capital tomorrow morning as it was originally intended. Good riddance, I say, as we can’t exactly babysit you. We have our own duty.”

I froze in my steps, listening carefully to every word that the rude dwarf stated, my heart beating heavily against my ribs.

I desperately hoped that Emrum will be alright. All of this happened just when we were starting to get to know each other. I know that this might sound stupid, but I was genuinely worried for the man. He was the first actual person that I met in this realm, and he was the first one who accepted me and treated me with kindness and levity.

I felt closer to him, then I felt to a lot of people, who I knew for years or decades in my previous life. Because of the way you were forced to depend on each other in this chaotic world made that connection to be so much powerful. Seriously, in these few weeks, more things have happened to me than half of my previous lifetime. I don’t even know how I didn’t go completely crazy by now… It’s a marvel of human, no, elven adaptability.

I whirled around, feeling a burst of energy upon hearing the news.

“Tell me, are they alright? Is Emrum fine? Is he alive, injured? When will they arrive, exactly?”

The man focused his dark gaze on me, scrutinizing my reaction for a while. Then, as if pleased with what he saw, some of the tension slowly lifted from his tight expression.

“Yes… your father is alive. He was heavily injured however, but from what the report said, his life is not in danger. Predictively, he will spend a lot of time away from the front lines, recovering.”

The man with a well-practiced hand gesture straightened the tip of his long beard. Meanwhile, I stared at the tent’s grey textile wall, the momentarily forgotten sense of dread doubling in intensity as my mind processed the dire news.

As the silence stretched in the large, but mostly empty tent, Captain Tharnil stated with an almost gentle voice. His unlikely change of tone jolted me from my thoughts.

“I had my doubts about you…” — He started with a long look. — “What sort of elfmaid would treat dwarfs as her family?”

“And yet, I saw no falsehood in your worry. Based on that reaction of yours, the two of you must be pretty close, huh? Still, an elfmaid in a dwarven house is such an exotic thing… You can’t blame me for being suspicious about it.” — He stated calmly, most of his previous hostility disappearing.

I looked at the man in a new light as well. It seems that he was still suspecting us of being agents of the dark ones. I wondered what sort of tricks did the dark elves used for the dwarfs to be this careful around us.

I lifted my arm that had the bloodline ring around one of its fingers, and raised a questioning eyebrow at the man.

It was enough to get my meaning across.

He waved with one of his hands and said in a frustrated voice.

“While bloodline rings might be hard to temper with, hard doesn’t mean that it is impossible. There had been times when our enemies used this well-known safety measure against us.” — He stated coldly. — “We have long since devised a different way of recognizing their agents. One that you just passed. Because no servant of the dark ones have ever shown genuine worry or empathy towards their enemy.”

“A critical weakness born from a life of cruelty and selfishness. Still, there is a poetic justice in using what they consider their greatest strength against them in such fashion.”

I took a deep breath and released it slowly, feeling my lips tremble in the process out of pure frustration. — “If you are done with your tests… I would like to excuse myself. I wish to have some rest while I can.”

The man chuckled, waving me off nonchalantly. — “Do as you will, Miss Selora Dimhollow. It’s not like I enjoy keeping you from your well-deserved rest. If you wish, we will notify you when your companions arrive.”

“Please do so.” — I said, while walking out of the door and heading towards our tent.