Old Grudges

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"You, elf." A gruff sounding human man was seated in a tavern in the human village of Earlestown. It had once been a bustling market place, a meeting place for merchants and scholars. But now... It was lucky if a handful of hunters passed through on their way elsewhere. The people here lived close to the neighbouring kingdom that boasted that is was the seat of all civilisation, Elven, of course. The exact border was somewhat of a foggy issue, meaning battles often broke out over ownership of land. Elves passed through, most of them simply wishing to look down upon what they considered the uncivilised and rather boring humans, before returning to their own cities of silver.
"Elf?" The dark haired female asked, spitting that one word back at the man who had called it to her as she walked past his table. "You do not address the other women here as 'human', so not call me by my race either." She added rather haughtily.
"Well la-di-da! Ain't you just lady of the manor!" The man sneered, banging his glass down on the creaking wooden table. "Your kind aren't welcome here! You never will be! Get your knife ears back to your own side of the border!" 
The elven woman sighed heavily and with silent and sudden movements, she was in front of the human, her ornate elven dagger slammed into the chair all too close to his privates. "Do not test me, human. I have no humour for your kind this evening."

Dahlia finally looked at her father. "You could help the child." She told him thinly. "You knew ou could from the moment she touched you."
Abalas calmly lifted his wine glass to his lips and took a drink. "It is not my place to meddle in human affairs."

Saul pushed to his feet, choosing to ignore the conversation between father and daughter. 
"Come with me, Dahlia." He said softly. "Iris would be pleased to have you there with us through this." He added, not sure why he'd spoken his sister's name. "Enjoy the rest of your evening, your majesty." He went on, turning his head to the king. "My servants will tend to your needs and I eagerly await your answer about the wedding." He finished,  tucking Dahlia's hand in his arm and sweeping to the doors.

Dahlia felt like she was in some sort of dream and unable to speak. Everything was happening and she was simply being swept along with it. "Thank you, for what it's worth. She breathed once they were out of the dining hall. "You didn't have to lie to him about marrying me, I appreciate it."

"The hatred between your father and my family seems to run very deep. It wasn't so hard to lie to him." Saul chuckled. "Especially after he tried to hurt Molly. He's lucky my sister isn't feeling well either. She'd have eaten him for breakfast for even touching the girl on any other day." He added, smiling sadly. "I was serious when I said I would go to war for you, Dahlia. If you don't want to go back, I will rearrange the stars to make sure you don't have to. Besides, that Ro whatever he is called, is a real ass. A drunken horse wouldn't marry him."

"I just..." Dahlia let out a quiet sigh. "It seems I just don't understand human behaviour. Why would you do so much for someone who is a stranger to you?" She asked. "It doesn't matter. I don't think my father will actually stay anyway, so you won't have to go through with the wedding."

"I'm counting on it." Saul said with a nod. "However, if he should surprise us...I have a cousin that has quite a flare for the theatrics. He'll play a priest, my people will think they are taking part in a grand play, and your father will be none the wiser." The human king added with a smile that never reached his eyes. "But tonight...I must face a hardship that has no easy solution. I wouldn't blame you for bowing out of it. This has nothing to do with you." He went on, his voice catching ever so slightly. He stood tall, however, his broad shoulders straight and proud.

Dahlia felt somewhat torn. On the one hand she certainly owed Saul, and he didn't hide his despair very well. But... She needed to see Isla. "Forgive me, but I would like to see Isla. I'm here playing make believe while she rots in your dungeon. She is rather talented in apothecary, it would seem, perhaps she can offer your niece some assistance?"

Saul nodded, not sure what else to say about the whole thing. Neither of them had any idea that things were about to get a whole lot worse. 
He should have known the moment he was able to open the dungeon doors that something wasn't right. It didn't occur to him however until he saw the door to the cell he'd left the dwarven woman in wide open and the body lying on the ground. Blood had been there at one time but someone had attempted to wipe it up...or gather it. The only evidence was an ornate knife that could only have belonged to an elf.

Dahlia didn't move. She found her chest was tight, for some reason the body on the floor looked like that of her mother. Before she knew it she had gripped Saul's hand tightly, and then the vision, or the memory, had passed.

"Are you all right?" Saul asked, frowning down at her. He turned her to face him, his fingers tucking her hair behind her ears. "What did you see? Could your magicks tell who did this?"

Dahlia's violet gaze was still glancing past Saul, her eyes filled with tears she fighting hard to keep from shedding. She couldn't stop staring at that blade. She remembered the pattern on it. It was an ornate design she couldn't ever forget. "That's the same blade that killed my mother." She whispered at last as her lower lip began to tremble.

"And I'll bet I know who it belongs to." Saul snarled, grabbing it off the floor. He stomped back to the dinning hall with it in hand, slamming it down into the table in front of Abalas. "Lose something, your majesty?" He asked, his dark tone sending the elves around them to their feet.

Abalas looked down at the dagger, then back at Saul with the ghost of a smile on his lips. "Why your majesty, I haven't left this room." He purred.

"Of course not." Saul said darkly, shaking his head. "But why not just kill the little girl yourself? Why exhaust all our resources? Are you really as cruel as my father claimed you to be? I suppose so. Even your own daughter says it is so."

Abalas glanced past the human monarch to where his dark haired daughter stood behind him. The younger elf's eyes were red rimmed, a silent sigh of how hard she was trying to act cool and brave like her father would expect of her. "Your father was no more than a smear upon your history. As significant as a gnat to an immortal such as myself. Why would I even remember who he was?"

Saul's upper lip twitched. It was clear that he too was trying to keep his cool. He had loved his father dearly. The man had been far too trusting and kind and it had been his down fall. He'd been curious about all species and fought to treat them all as equals. He'd even gone so far as bringing in elves to live alongside the commoners in the human lands. It hadn't worked out well in the end. 
The resulting war had been bloody and filled with many casualties from both sides. 
"It is good I am not a man to spread nasty rumors. The war that the dwarves would start because of this would end your people." Saul hissed finally, yanking the blade from the table. "Goodnight, your highness."

"Ah yes, war with those drunken hard heads. I wouldn't even call it war... Extermination is a little more apt." Abalas countered, still barely raising his voice. "You mortals... Always so concerned with only what affects that current, singular moment."

Saul allowed the doors to slam behind him, wishing he had the nerve to order his men to kill everyone in the room. It would feel so good to know that whatever family he did leave behind would never have to deal with this man. "Too bad he cannot choke on a chicken bone." He muttered to Dahlia, tucking the blade in his belt.

Dahlia continued to stare at the blade, wondering if her mothers blood still lingers deep within its metal. "He wasn't always like that." She breathed quietly. "When he first started acting this way, that was when he all but sold me to his man, Ro. I should have just stayed there... If I had just accepted his commend, Isla would still be alive and you wouldn't have this incident on your hands!"

"I'm not worried about the incident. Your father will work to keep it quiet too." Saul said as he came to a stop outside a door with tiny pink fingerprints all over it. "Despite everything he says he doesn't want a war with the dwarves any more than I do. His men are probably down there cleaning it up now. He'll do it to keep me from kicking up a fuss. I found it before they did and that ruined everything." He paused when he heard the ragged coughs coming from the other side of the door. "I have to see her. I will deal with everything else when...it is over..."

Dahlia nodded, though she lingered a few feet from the door. "I shouldn't go in there." She insisted quietly. "This is a family matter."

Saul sighed softly, wishing he didn't feel so very alone in that moment. His entire world was falling apart and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't even stuff his pride and beg his enemy for help. Even though Dahlia's words kept playing over and over in his mind. He'd even considered offering his sister to the man in trade for Molly's life. But...that wouldn't be fair. And that certainly wouldn't solve anything. Especially when Abalas hated humans of any kind anyway. 
"You are...welcome to stay." He whispered finally, not sure of another way to ask the dark haired elf not to leave him. Finally he didn't wait to see if she came or went and simply pushed open the door to see his sister and her dying child.

Dahlia didn't leave, but neither did she join Saul. The young elf lingered in the doorway, watching the three members of Saul's bloodline sit in silence. Illness like this was something Dahlia, as an elf, didn't truly understand. Curiosity had her edging a little closer until she was sat at the bedside next to the king. "What ails the child?" She asked quietly, afraid a raised voice may somehow make things worse.

Iris looked up at Dahlia and smiled ever so slightly, her eyes filled with grief and weariness. "She has been sick since birth. The doctors call it...cancer..." She said softly, bowing her head. She reached for a rag and rested it across the little girl's head, her fingers shaking. "Molly has always had trouble breathing. We tried everything. Leeches, blood worms, herbs of every kind. Nothing makes it better or takes the pain away. She has lived longer than they said. But now...I think I am begging the Maker for peace more than to..." 
"Don't." Saul hissed, shaking his golden head. "Don't say that."

Dahlia glanced between both human adults with a confused expression. She didn't understand what it was Iris had been about to say. "You cannot heal her yourself?" she asked, recalling the memories she had of her mother simply touching her wounds and making everything better. The young woman wasn't to know that that hadn't been an elvish trait.

"Elves can heal themselves?" Iris asked, feeling even more of a failure than she had before. She'd spent many nights cursing the Maker and asking him why she hadn't been born something better. Being a princess wasn't enough. She turned her face away from Dahlia and her brother. There was nothing left. No hero, no savoir. No way to save her child a horrible death. She had nothing left.

Dahlia too glanced away, feeling Iris was beginning to hate her. "My mother was not allowed within the walls of my father's city... it was by command of his queen." She breathed before reaching out to lightly touch Molly's hand.

The little girl was cold to the touch. It wouldn't be long. "Were people mad at your momma?" Molly whispered, opening glassy eyes. "What about your daddy? Don't people lIke him? I like him. He's nice..."

"My father... did something he shouldn't have, and it appeared my mother was punished for it." Dahlia breathed, squeezing Molly's fingers gently. "Don't worry though, you don't have to worry about anything." As she was speaking, Dahlia's fingers seemed impossibly warm and had s light glow to them.

"You said your father could help." Saul said after a long moment. "What did you mean? I understand the price would be high but...what could he do for her?"