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 i don't want it, and I damn well don't want those vultures to have it either!" Abalas hissed, fighting off several more guards. 

"I am not running away from Ro!" Dahlia hissed, jerking Saul to a halt and glaring up at him. "We each do what must be done."

"You are the only one who can lead us right now." Rothain said, shaking his head to keep his vision clear. Above them the djinni was using Andaer's voice to laugh wickedly. "Things will return to normal, sire. You'll...see..." The wood elf ground out, stepping in front of a blow that would have torn the elder man in half. The blade caught in his side and Ro did his best not to cry out when his assailant yanked out the broadsword. Almost over. All he had to do was get his king to the throne...

"So you do care about him." Saul frowned at this, not liking the jealousy that tore through him. "If that's the case you did a stupid thing by leaving him alone to go and get me."

Several guards assaulted Abalas at once and the king disappeared under a mass of thrusting swords and angry roars.

"Rothain can handle anything." Dahlia insisted. "I left because there was no one else I thought I could trust." She added, still unaware that Saul planned to double cross her anyway, once he had what he wanted from her.

Rothain jumped into their midst to try and fight them off but in the end it was the djinni that came to his aid. The creature lifted the last of the solider's off and tossed them across the room, before grabbing Abalas around the throat and lifting him from the floor. "Your pain is not complete until you are feeling it inside and out." Though it was Ro's voice he was using, the elf king would have no doubt who was speaking to him. "Look. Your gift has arrived." 
The mud elf stepped into the hall as if on cue, holding the gunny sack in his arms. "Your majesty! I have what you asked for! I have killed for you! Now give me back my family!" He shouted. 

"That's not going to bite you in the ass at all." Saul rolled his eyes at her, turning her toward the open doors of the main hall. "We lost the stupid mud elf. Great."

Even Abalas wasn't strong enough to fight of the djinni. All he could do was turn his gaze to the sound of the voice he had heard only hours earlier. He didn't need to ask, the blood on the sack said it all.

Dahlia rolled her eyes and shoved past Saul, trying not to be troubled by the words that had slipped past his lips. "He had a gift for the queen, now where do you suppose a queen would be?" She snorted, heading for the throne room.

"Sire...I..." Rothain dropped to his knees beside the djinni, too weak to even stand. "That man is not my father...I don't know how I missed it...Forgive me..." 
"No forgiveness for fools." Another elf spoke up, looking down at Ro. "This is all your fault. The human is dead. Your family is dead and so is this innocent man's." 
"No!" The mud elf howled as he turned toward the soldier, golden curls again spilling from the sack he held. "No! Her majesty promised they'd live if I did this! They are alive!" 

"In bed." Saul muttered, following her. He noted the blood that stained the floor and how the pools of it got bigger as they neared the throne room. "Where I should have stayed." He added as they heard the mud elf's screams from the other side of the door.

Dahlia had her bow readied the moment the doors opened and she saw her father being held by the djinni. With quick reflexes she had drawn the string back and sent an arrow flying through the creatures arm. She had another arrow for the elf who had been looking down at her future husband. "I'm sorry, it looks like my invite must have been misplaced." She called across the throne room, her violet eyes locking with those of the Queen.

"That's because you weren't invited." Eirwen hissed, baring her teeth at Dahlia. "It's too bad you're still alive, girl. I still have one more wish." 
"I stepped in elf blood. That ruins the boots." Saul said, making a face as he stepped up to stand beside Dahlia. "You're going to pay for new ones, Abalas." He added, his own broad sword readied as Andaer rose to his feet. 
"The spirits are kind, majesty..." Rothain whispered, crawling toward where his king had been dropped. He checked the man over, his long fingers shaking. "Your daughter has returned and brought her human..."

Dahlia swung her bow back onto her back and pulled out her own blades. "Well, your highness, you had better get wishing she purred before diving into the middle of the other elves to try and reach Rothain.

A single elf and a human should not have been able to do what Dahlia and Saul were doing. The duo moved through the crowd as if it were nothing more than a training exercise. The entire display was impressive enough that when they reached the king and Rothain, very few soldiers remained.
Saul knelt beside Abalas and helped the elven king to his feet. "There must be a better way to prove to me how worthless elves are." He said gently, handing the king his sword back.
Rothain had again been on his feet, fighting off those that would try to hurt his king. When Dahlia reached him he smiled wearily. "My warrior." He breathed, raggedly. "I've been wondering what became of you. You are always late to your father's parties."
The dijinni allowed the reunion, watching it from his place on the throne. He had brought Iris with him. Andaer was now positioning her to sitting position and tying her to the king's throne.

Dahlia's alabaster skin was spattered with blood, and showed signs that some of it was even her own, but she didn't notice. The young woman smile up at Rothain and gently wiped his own blood smeared cheek. "I like to make an entrance, we can't all be good puppies like you." She breathed, her violet betraying her worry for the man he father had simply told her she was to marry.
Abalas could barely breathe, the djinni had squeezed his throat that tightly. Despite this, he offered Saul an appreciative nod. "I owe you much for bringing my daughter back to me." He wheezed, though quickly his attention was torn from the human in front of him, to the bloodied one being tied to his throne.

"You looked like yourself out there, princess." Rothain breathed. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten her." He was so very tired. Now that Dahlia was here, perhaps he could rest. 
"I didn't get to enjoy your last mistress myself, but perhaps I will this one." Andaer hissed at his father, his fingers sliding through Iris' hair. The little blonde opened her eyes and began to fight against her bindings. "Interesting. Mother said she was calm like a cow." Abalas' son purred.

"She was waiting for someone to find her." Dahlia whispered, daring to reach up on her tiptoes to kiss Rothain, blood smeared or not.
Dahlia's elder sister saw the touching display, causing her to bark orders at the djinni that he do something about it.
"Keep her safe." Abalas told Saul before forcing himself to make a beeline for the throne. "You are still just a boy, you have no idea what to do with a woman!" He growled when he came upon his son.

Rothain returned the kiss, his fingers sliding through her hair as he pulled her close to him. He knew that this was more than he deserved and he was resigned to die a happy man with this on his mind. He couldn't force himself to go on anymore, no matter how much he wanted to. 
The djinni ignored the screeching girl, watching the touching scene. He cocked his head to the side and frowned deeply, not sure what it was he was seeing. He would have said something had he not been distracted by the sight of the king now stepping onto the dias. 
Eirwen was quick enough to get between father and son, crossing her arms as the elven king reached her. "I still have a wish left. I could make you love me. I can do whatever I want. You need to think about that before you say anything at all, your highness."

There seemed to be a faint purple glow surrounding the both of them that faded the moment Dahlia pulled her soft lips from Rothain's. "Get out of here. Let me finish what you started." She breathed, her hands pressed lightly to his chest. The young princess had no idea the djinni saw anything at all.
The king seemed oddly quiet for a moment, his gaze flicking between Iris and his former queen. "And what is stopping you?" He asked at last. He would have her do this to him, trap him with her wish if it meant Iris being free and Dahlia surviving this massacre.

"And let you have all the fun?" Rothain whispered, wondering why he suddenly felt able to stand on steady feet. "My king would never forgive me if I didn't stand at his daughter's side. Even if it means standing next to that...human." He added darkly, surprised at how much stronger his voice sounded. 
"You don't know much about djinni's do you?" Saul asked as he too stepped to the dias. His actions weren't his own and it was clear in the way he was struggling inside his own body. "All these years I've been at your beck and call and you still still can't remember my rules. I cannot control love. I cannot make him want you." 
"Then make him my slave!" Eirwen screamed at the beast above the king's throne. "Make him mine in any way you can!" 
"No!" Iris was fighting her bindings now, her wrists bleeding profusely. "He is not yours to toy with! You will gain nothing from a puppet!"

Dahlia seemed saddened by Rothain's reply. "Always think about what would make him happy." she breathed before turning away to look for Saul. 
"I'll do it." Abalas told Eirwen firmly. "I'll be your slave, my love, if you send the girl back to her human kingdom."

"You would never allow me to please you." Rothain whispered, knowing he hadn't spoken loud enough to be heard. He turned to the throne, now listening to what the king was saying to the former queen. He winced. This was not something he could help the elder man with. 
"Why should she be sent back among the humans?" Saul asked, still struggling with himself. "For a king, you really are very blind. You don't even remember having met the girl as a fat little child. Or sending her to your kitchens to be roasted like a suckling pig." The djinni was smiling widely, his cold red eyes resting on Iris. The little blonde had gone very still. "But she remembers it very well. Don't you, my dear?"

Dahlia watched the exchange happening between her father and Saul, her gaze narrowing when she saw the djinni again, those eyes seemed a little too familiar. She didn't have to think about it for long before she fired an arrow into the wall beside the creatures head. If he looked, he would find her simply staring up at him in silent challenge.
"Is this true?" Abalas asked Iris, his voice cracking slightly with the words. His world seemed shrouded in fog in that moment. All he remembered was the joy Darla had brought him, then her death had brought misery and upheaval. Where had a fat human child come into it? Everything had been bleak until the chance meeting with Iris.

The djinni smiled, glancing at the arrow. All at once Saul dropped to his knees, shaking his head. "It was the only time humans had ever been invited to your kingdom. The old king and his two children. The bashful boy you called Lion hair and the fat little girl you called pig." Rothain spike this time, moving wooden to the stage. "pig kept crawling in your lap. So your ordered her to be roasted like the pig she was. Where do you think she got the scars? If not for her brother who pulled her out of the flames, she would gave been the next meal." 
Iris was nodding as the wood elf spoke, large tears spilling down her cheeks. "I was never angry...I deserved it..." she whispered. "But you were so beautiful...I couldn't help myself. I was in love with you even then... "

Dahlia was staring at her father with wide violet eyes. She remembered none of this, which meant this had happened when her mother had been alive. She and her other had lived in a small cottage in the forest, until the elder woman had been murdered and Dahlia was moved to the palace.
Abalas could feel more than just his soul crushing when the djinni revealed all this. "You knew... All this time?" He breathed, looking at Iris now. The once proud king fell to his knees by his wife's feet and simply shook his head. "Make the damn wish!" He growled.

"Abalas...please..." Iris was sobbing, again struggling with her bindings. "I was never going to...I don't care...please dont." 
"You will regret it." Rothain purred, his bloody frame circling the king. "as her slave you will do anything she asks. To anyone. Even if it means killing."

"Just let Iris go, and you can do what you want!" Abalas insisted, cutting an extremely pathetic figure.
"Stoppit!" Dahlia shouted. "These are just twisted lies to hurt you! You would never do such a thing, to anyone!"

The djinni shifted on his perch, laughing through his teeth. "Nothing hurts worse than the truth." Rothain's voice told her. "The pain is delicous, isn't it?"
"Give him to me, creature!" eirwen screamed. "I wish for you to make him my slave!" 
"Mother, no..." oddly it was Andaer who spoke up, stepping between his mother and father. "That's enough."

Dahlia was surprised to hear her brother intervene like this. She was still holding her bow tightly, ready to take whatever action was needed to keep her father and Rothain safe.
"No, boy... Let her do it. If it brings her peace... let her take my soul." Abalas whispered, seeming like he could not get over the realisation of what he had done to Iris.

"Oh you keep your soul." Rothain told him. he was struggling with every single breath. " you will know and remember everything you do for her. That's what makes this wish so enjoyable. Touch his shoulder, Eirwen. He is yours the moment your fingers touch him.
saul's sword swung to the ground hard between the elves. "No one is making slaves. You get near him and I'll remove your hands from the rest of your body, bitch."

"Saul?" Dahlia took a step forward, surprised that he had intervened so fiercely. In all honesty, she had thought he wouldn't try very hard to keep her father alive, not now the truth was laid bare for all.

Saul turned his head ever so slight to acknowledge her
 They had a bargain. He would keep his end. "Letting someone else hurt your father won't be as satisfying. I'll make sure he stays alive, Dahlia."

Dahlia nodded, knowing Rothain probably wouldn't understand what agreement she and the human king had come to. "Keep it that way... I'll deal with the djinni." she vowed, her gaze shifted upwards again to meet those red eyes.

Rothain turned to her, holding out his hands. "You cannot have them both, princess. Not unless you wished for it." The creature smiled, it's chains jingling as it settled itself above the throne?