Chapter 12 - Breaking barriers

It was another beautiful day, the birds were singing, the drangools were sleeping soundly, and the Prism Butterflies were getting ready for mating season. The world is at peace with itself and nothing can interrupt this peaceful tranquility. Until something does, and that something is Alduin. It is around six in the morning and he's putting himself through rigorous training. Alduin just finished doing his two thousand sit-ups. Alduin lazily looks up and catches Lacey staring at him. Lacey realizes she is caught being a peeping tom and she slips out of view behind her blinds. Alduin disregards her gaze and starts his two thousand push-ups without a second thought. Upstairs, Lacey sits in her room, balled up in the corner, her face hot with embarrassment. She can't believe she was so sloppy and allowed herself to get caught. "I am the queen's top spy, I can't be caught, and yet those glistening muscles had drawn me in and put me in a trance." she began to daydream about Alduin's body thinking to herself, "Those delicious abs, perfect pectorals, sculpted arms, and chiseled jawline. It's almost like he was sculpted by god out of marble!" Lacey smacks herself to shake these thoughts out of her head. Lately, Lacey had been daydreaming about Alduins' body in a less than professional manner and it was taking its toll on her head. She found herself staring at him more and more, and Lacey hated it. Lacey stands up and goes into the bathroom after seeing the effect Alduin had on her pajama pants. As she sits in the bathtub, she thinks about the past week with Alduin. He seemed to be a cool person but she still knew the truth about how he felt and it put her on edge. One of her deadliest enemies was living inside her home and exercising in her backyard. He was honing his body in her presence, and there was nothing she could do about it. "He's a monster, but god, he's so attractive, I can see why the queen warned me." Lacey says while trying to relax. After about twenty minutes of freshening up, Lacey exits the bathroom and goes downstairs to get a proper meal in her stomach. She opens up the refrigerator and pulls out some eggs and Drake bacon. She grabs two skillets from the lower cabinet and begins to cook breakfast for herself and Alduin. Outside, Alduin continues working out but stops at one thousand push-ups to give his body some time to rest before he finishes working out for the day. He looks back at the past week living with Lacey and realizes She was the complete opposite of everything that he had grown to know about demons. She wasn't deceitful, or cruel, and didn't give off any murderous intent. She was kind to him, even with his past of demon massacres. Maybe he was wrong about demons, or at the very least, her. Alduin looks up at the sky and thinks about Sylvia and Hikari. His heart yearns to know their fate after escaping from Akal. Did they make it to the capital, was his family still alive? Alduin shakes his head a little to push the negative thoughts away from his mind, gets back into a push-up position, and continues his workout. Thirty minutes pass as they don't come into contact or bother each other, both trying to keep their minds focused on a certain task, Alduin's workout, and Lacey's meal. After Alduin finishes his push-ups, he enters the house, passes by Lacey without a second glance, and heads upstairs to shower himself. Lacey picks up her head and sniffs the air. She takes her index finger, swipes it through the air, and tastes it. Her eyes widen in shock and she almost wets her out of sheer terror. She slowly turns her head upward at where the bathroom would be and backs away slowly. She grabs her dagger and cloak from the living room and runs outside. Her breath starts to become more fast-paced, her heartbeat almost erratic, and her mind was racing so fast that she couldn't do the most basic teleportation spell dark elves had. So she decided on a speed buffing spell and ran as fast as she could to the palace. The world around her seemed to curve around her slightly as she ran. She stayed on the roofs running and jumping from house to house. The citizens right below her can only see a blur as she moves if they managed to look up in time. (For the readers who want to know how fast she is running and like to power scale, this newest development with Alduin had scared her so bad she reached the palace in two minutes, from one-hundred and twenty-five miles away. This means she was moving around Mach 4). The guard in front of the door was rubbing his eyes, it was around 6:50 and he was 10 minutes early for his shift. He yawns loudly and blinks his eyes, the moment he opens them Lacey is standing right in front of him. The young guard instinctively jumps back hitting his horns on the gate frame. The boy yelps in fear and pain but calms down when he notices it's Lacey. Lacey tells the guard to open the gates. "I have very important news for the queen, and this news is only for her ears." The guard quickly puts his hand on the gate while rubbing his horns and it faintly glows red before disappearing into thin air. Lacey steps past where the gate was and it reappears behind her. Wasting no time, Lacey races to the throne room to speak to Queen Akal. Lacey stands in front of the throne room and opens the doors. Queen Akal sits on her throne and notices the worry and panic in Lacey's eyes. Akal stands up and makes her way to Lacey as Lacey does the same. When they finally face to face, Lacey says, "My queen, I have some terrible news, and if what I say is true, it could mean that we have a huge problem on our hands." Akal grabs Lacey's shoulders and asks, "What's wrong Lacey? We can't solve the problem if you don't tell me what it is.". Lacey takes a moment to compose herself before saying, "I think Alduin may be unlocking the seals you put on his mana and eye. Today I could taste his mana." Akal's grip on Lacey's shoulder's loosened as her eyes began to widen and Akal shakes her head. "Come with me Lacey, we can't talk about this here." Akal whispers while dragging her away to a secret tunnel behind the throne. They enter silently and close the entrance behind them. It's pitch black but Akal holds a small fire in her hand as a lamp as they walk down the many steps until they reached a wooden door. Akal puts her hand on the door and it glows red before disappearing. They enter the room and the lights cut on immediately, Lacey has to cover her eyes to give them time to adjust to the new lighting. When she can finally see properly she notices the roundtable in the center of the room that Akal begins sitting at as she invites Lacey to do the same. After both of them sit down, Akal breaks the silence and asks a question. "Lacey are you sure you tasted his mana in the air?" Lacey says, "I'm sure of it, it was the same taste as the day I first encountered Alduin five years ago on the battlefield, it had a very strong and distinct taste. I could even taste a bit of sun magic.". Akal swears under her breath and props up her head with her hand. You can see the irritation creep onto her face as she groans. The room heats up, but not like last time. The change is slight and she raises her head back up. "Lacey, it looks like we're going to need to move on to phase two." Lacey raises an eyebrow before asking, "Phase two? What phase two? Is there something I missed when you dropped Alduin off?". Akal gets up from her seat, walks behind Lacey, and says, "We need to turn Alduin into an ally," Akal bends down, touches Lacey's shoulders, and whispers, "And to do that we need him to see that the dark elves are the same as his people, we need him to stop hating Dark Elves." Lacey looks at Akal with bewilderment. On one hand, this could work extremely well in their favor and lead to peace with the humans. On the other hand, this could backfire horribly and a lot of people could die now. The lives of her citizens were at stake, and the lives of children were at stake. "Well, what do I do now? It's only a matter before he comes back to full power, and at that point, I'll be useless to stop anything he tries to do." Lacey says sorely. Akal walks over to the dresser in the corner and pulls out a necklace. The chain is gold and it has a sapphire at the end of it that glows faintly in the dimly lit area close to the dresser. Akal walks over to Lacey and puts the necklace in her hands. "This necklace has a very powerful enchantment on it that makes the user look like a dark elf. I had it crafted when Alduin first arrived, and it was just finished yesterday so the enchantment is still strong." Lacey looks at the necklace and can feel the mana radiating off of this golden trinket. "Wait, do you want me to take him into the public even though he still hasn't opened up to me?" Lacey exclaims. "With Alduin regaining his power much faster than anticipated we need him to be exposed to normal dark elf behavior to curve his hatred." Akal says bluntly. Akal puts her hand on Lacey's shoulder, and in the blink of an eye, they are both back in the throne room. Akal sits on her throne as one of the generals walks in to discuss battle tactics in the war. Lacey walks right by him but feels as if he was watching her the entire time she moved, she turns around and catches him sneaking a peek at her. This gives her a few shivers at the thought of being watched, even if it is General Hernandez. She exits the palace and teleported back to her house only to find Alduin cooking in her place. That's when she remembered she forgot to turn off the stove. Alduin greets her from the kitchen and goes outside to meditate. The rest of the morning is quiet with no disturbances, and both of them stay to themselves. Around two o'clock p.m. is when Lacey springs Akal's plan into action. Lacey walks into her backyard and stands in front of Alduin quietly. Alduin opens one eye and sighs before saying, "Can I help you?". Lacey extends her hand forward for him to take it and alduin reluctantly takes it. Alduin was expecting her to struggle to help him up but is a little surprised when she pulls him up like it's nothing. He brushes off his pants and puts his shirt back on while saying, "You wanted something right, well, what is it?" Lacey takes out the necklace the queen gave her and goes to put it on Alduin's neck. Before she can even get her hands close enough to put them on his neck he swats her hand away as if she was a small child. "What the hell is that thing, I can feel the mana practically rolling off of it!" Alduin exclaims. Lacey rolls her eyes saying, "It's just a necklace of illusion. The enchantment will make you look like one of us, and the enchantment is powerful enough for people to feel the horns." Lacey smiles at him and Alduin reluctantly lets her put the chain around his neck. Lacey takes a step back to look at Alduin and is surprised by what she sees. The only thing about Alduin that changes are his skin tone, and eye color, and he gains horns. Usually, the changes are drastic. A slimmer face, taller body, changed eye color, the whole works. Lacey shrugs this off as a mere coincidence and brings Alduin inside. Lacey waves her hands around and produces a mirror, she holds it in front of Alduin's face as Alduin examines his face. Alduin rubs his chin gently, turning his face side to side to see every delicate detail of the illusion. After looking at himself very carefully for a minute he smirks, and for a second Lacey sees the real Alduin, the Alduin known by humans. "I've got to admit, this is a fine piece of equipment, even though now I look like a demon, but-" Lacey cuts him off saying, "That needs to stop. We aren't demons, we are dark elves. Got it memorized?" Lacey slightly tilts her head and taps her temple while bending forward. Alduin looks at her slightly annoyed but shrugs off that weird thing she did. "Fine, I look like a dark elf but, damn I look fine." Lacey scoffs at Alduin and notices something. She doesn't see the fake wall of happiness and thinks to herself. Is this the side of him humans see? Alduin stops checking himself out in the mirror and finally asks, "So why did you give me this necklace in the first place?" Lacey takes in a slow deep breath, preparing herself for whatever reaction she may receive from Alduin. "Today I'm going to be taking you outside to socialize with other dark elves." Lacey says quickly. This causes Alduin's face to scrunch up and his right eye to flicker between sky blue and very faint orange, but he manages to keep his cool. Alduin turns away from Lacey, takes one deep breath, and slowly says, "If I have to do this then so be it." and starts to walk to the door. Lacey follows him out of the front door and guides him to the beach a few blocks away from her house. The beach was crowded with young and old dark elves of every age between one and eight hundred years old, to Lacey it was like a normal day, but Alduin wasn't doing so hot. He was closer to his enemies than ever before and walked very stiffly. Alduin had to control a slight urge to attack the dark elf next to him because, incidentally, he recognized him from a battle five years ago. The elf still had a shallow scar on his eye, which is why Alduin recognized him after these five years. Lacey turns back only to see him frozen in place not knowing the things racing through his mind, it was obvious he felt awkward around so many dark elves not trying to kill him, and other dark elves were starting to stare at him. Lacey jogs back over to Alduin and takes his hand and drags him out of the crowd to the open water. "I'm guessing you're pretty surprised that we are a lot like humans right?" before Alduin can answer, she slings Alduin into the open water. She runs out to where she threw him only to see him not very pleased. She laughs at him and swims out further into the water. Lacey beckons Alduin to come to swim with her, but Alduin starts to head back to the land, to Lacey's surprise. When Alduin gets back to the sand he holds his arms while complaining about how wet he was, saying, "Ugh, I'm sopping wet Lacey. You even left bruises on my arm woman." Lacey looks confused until she remembers that right now, she's much stronger than Alduin and apologizes. Alduin takes off his shirt again bringing a lot of attention to him from the many ladies. Alduin sits down on a bench to dry off. Lacey sees one of her friends by the wall and goes to speak to him but makes sure to keep a close eye on Alduin and how he interacts with others. Alduin walks over to the bench and closes his eyes to meditate. He meditates for a few hours but gets interrupted by a light tap on the shoulder. Alduin's arm reacts on its own to decapitate the boy but stops short a millimeter when he sees his appearance, he's a scrawny dark elf that looks to be about fourteen years old and has two short horns. The boy falls over backward, looking back at his friends laughing at him. Alduin gets up and helps the boy up easily. The boy slightly bows saying, "Hello, my name is Sora. My friends and I saw your physique and thought it would be a good idea for me to ask for you to train me." Alduin is weirded out by the sudden request and gets ready to turn the boy down until he looks behind Sora he sees his "friends" laugh silently at him and whisper sly remarks. Alduin can read lips and understands every disrespectful thing they say about Sora behind his back. This upsets Alduin to the point where he breaks the third seal on his mana by accident, getting the attention of Lacey, and she refocuses on him. As a child, Alduin was bullied for being poor and weak, so watching this dark elf boy go through the same thing infuriates him to another level, even though Sora is a dark elf, Alduin can connect to him. Alduin walks over to the boys and lets some of his mana out to intimidate the kids. He cracks his neck and gives the boy his death stare. "Is there something funny you little shits?" Alduin asks, Lacey senses Alduins mana skyrocket and puts her hand on her dagger as she watches Alduin very closely. The boys back up against the wall and stay quiet out of fear, but this reaction doesn't faze Alduin. "I said is there something funny you little shits!" Alduin shouts, catching the attention of nearby beachgoers. The boys shout, "Nothing is funny sir!" and one of the boys pees his swimming trunks causing a few chuckles from the crowd. They all laugh because they can't see the look on his face, it's a face of pure rage and murder, and only Lacey can see it. She begins to walk forward to Alduin as he bends down and whispers low enough to where they are the only ones who can hear him say, "If you want to live, never pick on that boy again. Now run." Alduin stands up and the boys run away from the beach crying for their mommy. Alduin lets the boys run away and Lacey stops approaching Alduin. The look on Alduin's face melts away and by the time he faces the crowd, he's smiling brightly at Sora, who is crying tears of joy. He runs up to Alduin and hugs him tightly around his waist, and for the first time, his heart melts for this little dark elf boy. Alduin gives a genuine smile to Sora and says to him, "Do you really want to get stronger, Sora?" Sora lifts his head and nods his head to the question. Alduin gives his cocky smile and pats the boy on his sea-green hair. "If you really want to get stronger then I'll train you for as long as you want, just call me Mr. Delta." Sora turns to go run off but Alduin catches his shoulder. " Also make sure you get your parent's permission first, and I live on Festermoth Street." with that said he lets the boy run off to enjoy the beach. Alduin grabs his damp shirt and signals for Lacey. As they leave the beach Lacey says, "That was the nicest, and scariest, I've ever seen you act Alduin, but it was nice to see you connect to one of my kind." Alduin shrugs while saying, "I hate bullies more than anything else in the world. It's a personal thing that I don't want to talk about." Lacey hops in front of Alduin stopping them both all to ask, "I thought you hated dark elves more than anything else. Alduin looks away from Lacey embarrassed and rubs the back of his head before saying, "I wouldn't say I despise dark elves with my entire being, but I still don't like being around a lot of them. I still don't like your lot." Lacey smiles brightly and turns to lead Alduin back to her place to rest. The first step to Alduin becoming less hateful was a success. Not to mention this Sora boy was the perfect way to speed up the process, and just in the nick of time. The three seals being broken would've been a problem if the bullying situation hadn't happened. By the time they get home, the sun is setting and dinner must be prepared. Alduin gets some clean clothes and hops in the shower. Today started a good day and ended a good day. In more than one way, barriers had been broken.