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."

"Well that just proves how much you know." Dahlia snorted, her whole body rigid now that Ruthann's arms were around her.

Abalas was glad the human had finally fallen asleep. He didn't think she would cope well with the journey anyway. His whole entourage travelled in stony silence back across the border and into the forest the elves called home.

Rothain breathed a little easier when he saw the ornate castle rising up over the horizon. He was glad to be home. At least here he could be comfortable, despite his future. "Aren't you glad to be back amongst your people?"

Iris opened her eyes as they crested the hill to the castle. "It's lovely." She breathed, glancing up at Abalas to try and read his expression.

"Glad to be back where my step mother can make my every moment a living hell? Oh yes, ecstatic." Dahlia retorted dryly. 

Abalas seemed to have no expression. Like his daughter, even he sometimes felt this place more of a prison than a home. It was his escape from the palace that had allowed him to cross paths with the girl's mother.

The woman in question was standing on the steps, a dark smile on her lips. "Hello, my darling." She purred, ignoring the human. "What have you brought me?"

"Your mother isn't that bad." Rothain said, making a face at the cruel woman.

Abalas dismounted his horse and passed the reins to one of the waiting men as he reached up to help Iris down to the ground. "Eirwen, could you have someone call one of the clerics, we need to prepare a burial." The king told his Queen softly.

"She is not my mother." Dahlia corrected hatefully. "Now are you going o unbind me, or am I to spend the rest of my days upon this horse?"

Eirwen fixed Iris with a hateful glare. She was extremely jealous when it came to her king, even if she didn't want him for herself. "Whatever for, my darling?" She asked in their native tongue.

Rothain pulled her down though he didn't untie her. "It's going to be awhile before you are trusted again, princess." He reminded her.

"She has been through much, all because of our daughter." Abalas replied thinly, though he spoke so Iris could understand. "Are you refusing an order from your king?"

"Then perhaps I should be executed now, and save you all the trouble I cause." Dahlia sneered.

"Your daughter." Eirwen corrected. "I will prepare it as you command and then passage home. We will burn your dead, human. Be grateful."

Rothain snorted. "You'll learn. We have all learned. Stop dreaming and be an elf. It is what we are." He muttered, waiting for his king to give him further orders.

"Iris is a guest of your king, she leaves when I say." Abalas warned his wife firmly. It was no secret that the king and Queen were less warm towards one another. The queen had her obvious reasons, the king... not so much.

"And what if I don't feel like an elf? What if I don't want to be an elf?" Dahlia asked. "Am I to be punished because of something your king did all those years ago? He should have left me to die with my mother!"

"I see. Another mistress.  Why am I not surprised?" Eirwen hissed, sweeping the train of her dark aND sparkling gown away from Iris. 

"Don't you think that there are tones I wish he would have too." Rothain muttered, shaking his head.

"One of us should feel something, your highness." Abalas sneered darkly as his wife sweat away.

"Then why did you ask him to give me to you?" Dahlia asked quietly as she looked up at Rothain. The youngest member of the royal house had always been much smaller than the other elves, seeming dainty and even more light-footed than they were.

"I'm so sorry." Iris whispered. She hadn't understood the last exchange the royal couple had had. "I shouldn't have come here. It was rude of me to invite myself..."

"I wasn't given a choice." Rothain told her. "The king told me I was to marry you and I obey. We have been through this."

"That is not how it happened." Abalas corrected firmly. "You are a guest if the king, and will be treated as such!"

"Then why were you so angry when Saul told you I was marrying him? Wasn't that a way to get rid of me at last?" Dahlia breathed.

"A funeral will be set in place tonight, my lord." A tall dark haired elf bowed before his king and then Iris. "We offer of condolences on your loss." He told Iris, daring to take her hand. The princess nodded slowly, feeling rather uncomfortable in the way the other man was looking at her. 

"He is human for one thing. For another he was threatening to take away the king's gift to me." Rothain told her simply, motioning to where he saw her elder sister watching everything from the balcony above. "She will be pleased with the man your father chose for her. You'll see."

"Is there any special arrangements we should be making?" abayas asked Iris quietly, his lips close to her ear. "I'm am afraid we have never said goodbye to human remains before."

"The only thing she is pleased with, is her own reflection." Dahlia snorted as she looked up at where he elder sister stood. It was no secret the elder siblings had little love for their baby sister.

Iris shook her head. The king's breath on her ear was cool and unexpected. "I'm not sure." She whispered after a moment. "You've done so much already..."

"She is like her mother in that respect." Rothain agreed. "I wonder what she thinks of your father's new toy."

"No parent should have to bur their child, I only wish to make this easier on you." Abalas insisted.

"She will hate her, just like you hate Saul simply for being human." Dahlia replied quietly.

"Thank you, your grace." Iris whispered, glancing up at the window where she felt a pair of icy eyes glaring at her. She managed a gentle smile, not sure why the young woman there seemed so angry with her. "Is there a place where I can get cleaned up? I feel...I shouldn't have come..." She admitted, finally turning her eyes back to him. 

Rothain nodded at this. All at once he smiled. "This is going to be fun. I'm glad he brought her here. It will take the heat off of you for a while. Your step mother will eat that princess for breakfast and we will get to watch. Your sister will help. Spirits knows your brother might even help. Entertaining to say the least." He chuckled.

"You would rather stay in your brother's castle?" Abalas questioned with an arched brow. "Surrounded by all the things that remind you of death?"

Dahlia snorted and shook her head. "I seriously doubt they will pass up the chance to revel in the fact I was dragged back here bound like a slave." She retorted.

Iris bright green eyes swept over the elven king's face and finally she smiled. "You just wanted me here to make that sunflower wine." She teased. "I knew you liked it. Even with that expression you made when you sipped it." She couldn't help herself. She was grasping for a moment to see that teasing smile of his again. Even if it meant a jab at her expense. 

Rothain sighed softly, taking her biding and beginning to cut them loose. "You are fairly good at ignoring them, aren't you? If nothing else hit your sister in the nose. Your father will intervene and it will start a fight with your mother. Entertainment. Right?"

"Yes, I often make that face when I taste something so... disturbingly cheerful." Abalas mused, smiling like he hadn't in many years.

"And then she will have me dragged out by my hair, after which I will simply run away again." Dahlia shrugged.

"Careful, sire. Your face will crack if you keep that up." Iris said softly, unable to help but laugh at the sight of him. The sound startled several of the guards standing around them and they turned their heads to stare at the young woman. Laughter was not something they often heard anywhere near their king. "I know an excellent mud concoction for that. Perhaps I could show it to you sometime." 

"And I will be forced to chase you. As the game requires." Rothain sighed. He too heard the laughter and frowned at it. "He'll tire of her soon and we'll be sending her back. Perhaps you can stow away and steal a glimpse of your worthless king at that time." He muttered, giving her a shove in her father's direction.

"I would like that very much." Abalas agreed, taking Iris' arm and slipping it through his own. "Now, didn't you say something about getting cleaned up?"

"Perhaps, as he knew how to show an elf a good time." Dahlia purred, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief. "And he tasted like those lazy summer evenings I would swim naked in the river." she added, simply wanting to embarrass her father's rather uptight guard.

Eirwen was watching the whole scene from behind her daughter in the upper window of their castle. "It's disgusting how he acts about humans." She spat. "Yet another that he will bed. I wonder how long this seduction will take." She shook her head. "I wonder if I should not run her off before that. I will burn her child's body. No sense in feeling bad for it. Not when she will be on her back before the night is through." 

"Who does that?" Rothain snorted. "That's a blaspheme to the water spirits. You should apologize." He poked out his tongue at her. "That's such a human thing to do. You sound more like your father every day."

Gwen rolled her crystal coloured eyes and shook her head. "Mother, why did you let him bring the brat back here?" She demanded as she watched Dahlia and Rothain exchange words. "Look at her... The little princess flaunts father's rules and she is still the apple of his eye!" The elder princess seemed deaf to her mother's woes so long as Rothain was not her own.

"If they had a problem with it, they could stop me." Dahlia shrugged. "I think you're the one with the problem... Don't think I didn't know you were watching me. Thinking about all the naughty things you would do to me when I was forced into marriage at knifepoint."

"What am I supposed to do? Tell your father no?" Eirween snorted, waving a hand at the very idea. "Have you ever tried to tell him no? He is a god in his own right. There is no telling him anything he doesn't want to hear. Get dressed for dinner. He's going to be angry enough when he discovers what I've done." 

"I've told you before I will never touch you in that way." Rothain said, thinking no one saw him when he cast a glance back at the castle windows. "You have enough of a bite without having to lose important parts of my body. I  may not be a smart elf, but I am not completely stupid."

"Oh mother, what did you do?" Gwen asked, her azure eyes suddenly dancing. The younger woman was already waving a hand and silently instructing one of the servants to come unlace her dress.

Those words, whether intended or not, finally silenced Dahlia. It seemed to suddenly dawn on her that she would be forever married to someone who would never touch her... never kiss her. The dark haired woman longed for one last simple glance from that silly human king. Did he think about her at all?

"I had the servants burn the little human's body. There will be no funeral or whatever he called it. I refuse to allow a human anywhere near our people." Eirwen said coldly. "They have been instructed to tell him they simply lost it on the journey." She smiled ever so slightly. 

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about the dwarf. But orders are orders." Rothain said as he guided her into the castle hall. "You know how your father feels about them. When he found out you were hanging out with one. You don't have to guess what that did to his mood."

Gwen clapped her hands together and shrieked with laughter. "Too bad you didn't tell them to do the same to dearest Dahlia!"

Dahlia still didn't reply. She knew Rothain wasn't truly sorry. Inside the castle hall she could hear the hushed whispers that accompanied her return. Barely stifled giggles at the sight of the king's favourite child in a dirty human dress.

Mother's laughter was as wicked as daughter's. "Indeed. But I am not that brave." She finished, her mood again going sour. "You know how well he watches her. He has his best guardsman on it." She added, shaking her head. "And soon he will be her husband. That will make matters worse." 

Rothain was pulled to a stop by a lower guard, telling him what had become of the child. He sighed heavily when the other man left, knowing it was his place to then tell the king. "Your human friends have the worst luck. I swear it." He muttered, shaking his head.