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."

"Despite what she has done, I can see why she may be angry." Abalas replied. "For all her flaws, the girls loves you, Rothain. You a man in the middle of two sisters."

"You turned from me every time you found yourself a new master!" Darla replied, her voice betraying her hurt.
Dahlia was looking around the room uncertainly, thinking maybe she hadn't actually woken up. "Who... are you yelling at? I am no mans wife, my step mother saw to that!"

Rothain laughed at this. "Dahlia never cared for me. She hated me because you chose me for her. And Gwen...I once cared for her, that much is true...but she allowed the darkness and beauty to overtake her. I couldn't tell her that it made her ugly. I feel nothing for her now." 

"I had no choice!" Marid screamed, watching the mist that was once his wife fade into the darkness of the corner. "Shut up." He snapped at the dark haired girl who sat on the far side of the room. "And don't touch anything. Your wound is open and bleeding again and I don't want you getting blood on my jewels."

"So... You don't want Gwen, and can't let yourself believe that you simply misunderstood Dahlia?" Abalas asked softly. "Bodies do not just disappear... I guarantee you that that djinni has her, he disappeared when she did."

Dahlia held Marid's gaze as she slid her fingers into her blood and purposefully wiped them on the nearest valuable she could find.

"That was my thought as well. I'm planning to summon him." Rothain said, wincing the moment the words left his mouth. He knew full well his king would never allow it. Everyone knew what the djinni did to their masters. 

"If I had not made a promise to her...." Marid bared his teeth, snarling like a rabid beast. "You're lucky I did not let you die that day. And do not for a moment think that I do not consider it when you are sleeping!" He shouted, appearing before her and beginning to shove the treasures back into the pile and away from her. All expect the ruined valuable. He left that where it laid.

"Have you lost your mind?" Abalas asked in a hushed whisper as he tried to steer Rothain away from anyone who might over hear. "That is a death sentence!"

"Who are you talking about?! You tried to kill my father! I hate everything about you, creature!" Dahlia hissed.

"It isn't the first time I have faced that, sire." Rothain said softly. "Not to mention I know how badly you want her back. I have said before I live to ensure my king is happy." He didn't mention that he was not doing it mainly for the king but for himself. One more kiss from Dahlia. It would be enough to die with. 

Marid appeared before her again, grabbing her around the throat and lifting her off the floor. "Your father tried to kill you, girl. Wrap your tiny elven brain around that one!" He roared.

"And what if your happiness is what would make your king happy?" Abalas challenged. 

"My father... would... never!" Dahlia choked out, her slender fingers curling around Marid's wrists.

"It has never been that way before, your highness." Rothain whispered, not daring to look at the elder man. Abalas had never asked his right hand man what he wanted. He had simply ordered him to marry his youngest child. He had spent his entire servitude ordering the young man to do one thing or the other, never asking him if he'd like to or not. 

Marid's eyes all but flamed as power shot through him. He allowed her to see what he had seen that night. The sword thrusting through her midsection, the woodelf catching her and begging her not to leave him. "He would...what?" The djinni hissed through his teeth, giving her a little shake.

"Then must it stay that way?" Abalas asked with a shrug. "Do you not want change? You would be king, one day, boy." He added. "Does that not make you happy?"

"Liar!" Dahlia practically sobbed, though she stopped fighting. "That never happened! I... I would remember!"

"You are immortal, Abalas." Rothain admonished the elder man. For the first time in the many years they'd been together he used the elder man's name. "You are never going to stop being king. And I...I am a simple wood elf. Can you imagine me running a kitchen? Much less an entire kingdom? The ramparts would be burning in less than an hour." He chuckled. 

"You were in pain. It's no wonder you don't remember." Marid muttered, dropping her back onto the bed roll. "You were close to death. If I had not brought you here and used my magicks to keep you alive, you would be dead. That stupid wood elf would be sobbing over your grave instead of those worthless flowers!"

"Immortal, yes, but king forever, no." Abalas replied with a chuckle. "I am tired, Rothain. I don't know much more I can take."

"He would not... Gwen would find a way to sink her claws back into him." Dahlia replied hoarsely as she rubbed her throat.

Rothain couldn't help but smile when he saw Abalas' gaze turn to Iris again. "You lie to me, sire. You just want to spend more time in bed with your new wife." He chuckled. "Do not try to fool me. Come let's talk to Gwen so you can get back to her as soon as you can." 

"Not my problem." Marid said, returning to hoarding his treasures. "I do not care about elves. They have very little power and most of it is very elemental. You should hunt for a better mate. Maybe that human king would best for you. Worthless."

Abalas said little on the way to the tower. He couldn't trust whether she had betrayed him because of the djinni, or it had been of her own free will.

"Oh yes, a human who would only help my father if I whored myself to him, the perfect man?" Dahlia spat.

"Good afternoon, Gwen." Rothain said as the guards unlocked her cell and let him in. He held out a box for her, knowing she'd turn up her nose at it. "I had the cook make your favorite cakes and tea. Considering how cold it is in here. I was hoping it would help." 

Marid frowned at this. "Perhaps not. But then again, he did not demand payment before. Most other men would have. He has his advisers looking up ways to summon me. Maybe he plans to look for you?" He picked up the statue that again appeared in the middle of nowhere. He scowled at it and held it up, showing her the frowning human king Saul.

Gwen did indeed turn her pert little nose up. "You disgust me!" She spat.
"You must truly wish to have your head separated from those pretty little shoulders." Abalas told his eldest daughter thinly.

Dahlia turned her face away when she saw what the statue looked like now. "Any kind of man would not demand something like that of someone promised to another." She sniffed. "If anyone wished to look for me, they would have found me by now."

"She's right." Rothain said, setting down the box. "It's nothing but bread and water. You are lucky to have that, Gwen. After what you tried to do to your king..." he shook his head at her, his lips set in a thin line. She'd watched as her brother sent soldier after soldier to try and kill him. She'd sat on the dias steps and said nothing at all. Her true feelings couldn't have been more clear. "Did your mother wish for anything for you?" He asked after a moment. "Because if not, your hand in all this was for nothing."

"Oh your fiancee has been trying." Marid chuckled to himself. "But my magics are far reaching. He becomes exhausted rather quickly and cannot leave the palace grounds." again the statue changed to show the weary Rothain. "it's acruelly a trick your mother taught me. The exhaustion spell is locked in the scent of the roses. He smells them and thinks of you and then its all he can do to drag himself to bed. His act of kindness is his undoing and he doesn't even know it."

"Didn't you hear what the djinni said?" Gwen snorted. "He can't make people love you." She finished, looking pointedly at Rothain. "You never gave the little brat a second glance, then all of a sudden you claim you love her? I call bullshit! You were mine, and she stole you!"

Dahlia looked truly broken to hear this. The young woman's violet eyes stared down at her feet, beginning to think she simply caused everyone too much misery. "He deserves better than that. You should make him forget me."

Rothain sighed softly, shaking his head. "I have never once claimed love. Not that you ever seemed to notice. You have seen nothing but yourself for a while now. Your blindness tells me all I need to know about you."

"Oh don't worry. I'm doing just that. Every time he smells those flowers I am draining him. He'll forget you because he will be dead." Marid chuckled.

"Then you don't love her?" Gwen asked hopefully. 
Abalas was watching Rothain closely for his answer, nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

"Why must you punish him? What did I ever do to you?" Dahlia whispered rather tearfully.

Rothain rubbed at his forehead, exhaustion hitting him so quickly he could barely stay on his feet. "I have loved Dahlia since she was young." He said soflty, leaning on the wall. "you used me, Gwen. And I let you because I could not have her. There. We are...even." 

"You don't want him. I heard you say so once. And besides, a djinni needs to feed as much as anyone else. Why not a worthless wood elf?" Marid shrugged.

"And you..." Gwen turned her gaze on her father now. "You knew this? That was why you made the decision to marry her off to him?"
Abalas's face was rather neutral, giving nothing away to his eldest daughter. "Gwen, you crept around behind my back, dallying with Rothain when you should have been keeping up with you duties as princess. You never even tried to be the young woman Dahlia already was."
"Already was?!" Gwen screeched. "She ran around the forest like some pathetic wood nymph! Tell me, how is that the thing for a princess to do?" Suddenly the blonde elf's full lips turned into an ugly sneer. "Then again, what can you expect from the bastard of a king and his whore?"

"I was wrong!" Dahlia shouted, on her feet again even as her stitches continued to weep blood. "Rothain is not worthless! He is worthy of more than... than whatever I am!"

Rothain hated himself for being so cruel. He'd never believed it would turn out this way. He'd never believed he was more than a passing fancy for Gwen. He still wasn't sure that had changed. "The djinni..." he asked after a moment of heavy silence. "How did your mother summon it?"

"Better than a Fae?" Marid asked her, his voice barely above a whisper now.

Gwen turned her face away, her arms folded defiantly across her chest. "I have nothing to say to you, other than... I hope she was worth it. Dahlia brings nothing but misery."

"The Fae are myth." Dahlia snorted quietly. "Even if they ever existed... that was a long long time ago. Even Ro would never have been old enough to have met one."

"It must be a family trait." Rothain muttered, suddenly too tired to keep talking. Every time he mentioned that creature his energy left him. Already it seemed he was going to have to ask the king for the day to rest. "Goodbye, Gwen. Pray that your father is kinder than you have been to him." 

Marid was smiling wolfishly at her words. "The Fae weren't always a myth, girl. Their numbers were as large as those of the elves. But they were a selfish and vain people and for that they paid dearly." He told her, his voice and eyes turning dark.

Gwen simply rolled her green eyes. "My mother and brother are dead. I have no family left."
Though he remained passive, those words wounded the king.

"And I should be believing your little fairytale because..." Dahlia asked thinly.

"Then you will die as they did. Alone." Rothain said. Once they were out in the hall, he slid to the floor, groaning softly. "Sire...I didn't sleep well last night. Might I ask for the day off? Perhaps to catch up on sleep?" 

Marid shrugged. "What else do you have to do? It's not like I'm letting you leave this place." He snorted, losing interest in her and returning to his treasures. "Perhaps if you were nicer to me I would show you the room where your mother kept her things."

Abalas crouched down beside his friend and seemed to be checking him over for injury. "This is more than fatigue, Ro." He breathed. "I'm calling for a healer."

"Nicer? How nice have you been?" Darla breathed against Marid's ear. "She reminds me a lot of you..."
Dahlia had shook her head and grunted something that sounded like she was calling her captor a liar.

"No. I'm alright. I've just been spending my nights searching for answers. I think it's catching up with me." Rothain whispered.
"Your majesty!" Sadly Rothain's plans to rest were to be dashed. A young elven soldier came running up the stairs, looking wide eyed and panicked. "Dwarves are here! There's quite a few of them. They are armed to the teeth and shouting for you!" 

"Nonsense." Marid muttered, shaking his head. "Your elf lover has the same surely manner. I have seen it written all over his face."

Abalas closed his eyes and exhaled heavily before turning his attention to the soldier. "Then let them in. Perhaps we will all be lucky and they can finish off what my dead wife started." He growled. "That joy was certainly short lived." The king muttered.

"Oh yes, I can certainly see him wiping his blood on cherished items simply to annoy someone." Darla mused.

"What the hell would dwarves want here?" Rothain muttered, shoving to his feet. His body protested the effort but he forced it to keep going. "Ancestors, I swear I will have to die to be able to rest." He groaned. 

"I have never done something like that." Marid snapped. "That would be a waste of a good valuable." He made a grab for the statue as it tried to pass him, once again running for Dahlia. "I swear I'm going to melt that thing back into gold. Why you made it is beyond me."