I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. I expected him to flip me, or try to rip my arm off, he had seen me in my other form after all. I knew what I looked like, even if my current surprise had probably caused the features to mute a bit. Again he surprised me, he just turned his head slightly just enough to see me out of the corner of his eye. "Selfish reasons really, it is the form you were in when I bonded to you. Though I don't think you had known you had changed at the time." That hadn't been the reason I had meant. It was such a surprising answer it took my mind a second to process what the prince had really said. I shook my head a little to make sure that is what I heard.
"Not why-" It was an answer that explained many more whys in my life. Elves don't start training at the same age as Islee. The islee started training much younger than the elves. The elves train only with their own kind until they are past puberty. Their royalty often don't go to the academy at all, they go straight out onto the battlefields if they joined the army at all. They never had to fight in joint operations with non elves after all, and they had access to the best masters, for what they specialize in anyway. Everyone had wondered what the prince had been thinking, not just any elven royalty but the crowned prince, the only heir to the line, chose to join my class on his 21st birthday. The academy wasn't about to turn him away. They tried to convince him that he would do better in the class ahead of mine but he had made up an excuse about not wanting to risk having missed something. At the time I had thought he just wanted to show off. His training was probably more complete than any islee or human in the academy with his access anyway, right?
He stood there patiently while large parts of my lonely life flashed before my eyes. My knowledge on elves was as limited, maybe even more limited, then any of the other Islee. His eyes softened, he wasn't angry, it did seem like, he was sad. "The bond isn't a two way street when it forms with someone who isn't an elf. I know better than to try and force someone to feel something they don't." He seemed to be more talking to himself than to me as he turned around and looked at me. "We should get back, the elders probably think you finally killed me."
I didn't let go of his shoulder, I still hadn't worked out my feelings as my mind reviewed large parts of my life. He didn't pull away, he just waited watching me as I thought.
"Islee, let go of him." Islee sounded like a curse, the prince looked up from me. He moved between me and the elven woman standing on a tree branch with a bow drawn. I felt the prince growl at the woman and saw her blink in surprise. The monster that I thought I had learned some things about surprised me. It growled the same sound I was now hearing coming from the prince. Maybe it was something with their bond that made us sound so much alike when threatened?
The woman immediately lowered the bow taking the arrow off the string and raising it in one hand the bow in the other. So we could see she wasn't drawing on us again. She switched to elven but unlike other Islee's I didn't have a hard time understanding. I never had a hard time understanding any spoken language. Which had always been very convenient as a scout. "Brother oldest, I am sorry. She is yours." His growl grew deeper as others of his unit entered the small clearing.
I pulled the reins of my body from the hands of the monster, and looked at the prince's back. He was bleeding in multiple places, it looked like one arm might be broken. The oath only prevented me from intentionally killing something that I thought was alive. Beating it to a bloody pulp was still an option, and I had done a good job trying to do that to the prince before he won our match.
I slid around him to stand facing him again. The other elves didn't register as a threat to me right now. They saw an Islee, right this second anyway, they must have missed the fight before. The prince's bright green eyes were watching them anyway. Looking at the prince was the first time I ever felt anything but the draw to fight and bleed from my own monster. So I let out of its cage to see what it would do this time.
I heard weapons leaving scabbards as I pulled the prince's head down. I felt my wings that I normally kept tucked in so close they looked like back skin, flapped open and encircled the prince as he returned my kiss. I realized that though he had been trying to hide it my non reaction when he had kissed me had hurt him a little. Well that seems a little unfair considering the shock he gave me. Then again if I wasn't so busy avoiding people maybe I would have noticed him more. Yet again, he was a spoiled pampered prince, he was always trying to be better than me. Of course would I have noticed him at all otherwise. Fine I still don't know how I feel. I almost think two people are laughing at me as I think about how I want to react to the prince's disappointment. My mind wasn't on the same page as the prince's so the bond didn't complete. I wasn't sure what the bond was but I could feel something skittering around the edge of my awareness.
I pulled my mind in to focus on the prince, I gave him a picture of a place that was just outside the borders of the crystal city. I knew he knew the place. My wings spread back behind me. I was carefully not listening to the words his unit were saying, they didn't matter, well not to me really, anyway. I already knew none of them had crystal weapons and nothing else can get through my hide. I jumped into the air and the wind filled my leather wings. The monster had told me many many many times that I didn't need the wings out to fly. I ignored it this time as well.
My unit would probably already be on the way home. They weren't going to wait for me anymore. They would still expect me to join their victory celebration when I did turn up, but they weren't going to wait. I landed well outside the visual range of the sentinels that guarded the border of the Crystal city.
The magic sentinels weren't going to bother me even if I flew into the city. I had a key, attuned to me after all. All the warriors in the army of light had one. We receive it when the elders recognize us as warriors and we take our oath. Not only is the key attuned to us as individuals so that it turns into just a pretty trinket if anyone else gets their hands on it, it is also bound to our oath. If you break your oath, which you can still do with enough will power, the key breaks as well.
So the magical sentinels are not why I always landed and walked up to the invisible city that seemed in the middle of nowhere. If the army of the light had trusted their borders only to the shield and the sentinels, I would never have to walk anywhere. Of course they didn't, magic had the tendency to have weakness and flaws just like the people who wielded it. So it was safer to put living eyes on the border as well. Those living eyes would never wait on confirmation from the shield, sentinels or elders before trying to knock me out of the air if I tried something like that.
I felt the jewel around my neck warm slightly as I stepped through the barrier shield. I was home, and I took a relieved breath the same as the first time I came back from a battle. The shield was to keep out the forces of the dark. I still wasn't 100% convinced that wasn't me, no matter what choices I made.
I looked up at one of the giant crystal golems that stood just inside the barrier. Somehow it didn't matter where I entered the city at, I always wound up standing in front of one of the crystal giants. The things never moved I am sure of that, and the city let other people in anywhere along the border, but for me somehow, even when I am with my unit, I end up entering right at the feet of one of these things. When I am with my unit the whole unit ends up here so I am not sure if the shield really is directing me to these things or if it just works out that I always enter in front of one of them.
I didn't have a very good way to test what could be causing it. I had no friends, and I didn't want to explain to anyone in my unit why I thought the barrier might act strange just for me. I put it out of my mind, I knew at least that I wasn't a threat to the city. After 30 years, I was as sure as I could be that I had the monster under control. I nodded to the giant like I always have and then continued between its feet. I don't know why I always did that, the things weren't alive. If they activated they were powered by magic. They had stood for so long, I wasn't even sure magic would be able to get the things to move. Past the statue were the fields that fed the city. I couldn't help but stop and watch as a breeze moved through the wheat.
This time I stopped and leaned against the leg of the giant, he didn't seem to mind. The sun was high, it was a little past afternoon here and it was a cloudless day. I was at peace as my eyes followed the wind toward the Islee side of the city. The plains that grew the city's food turned into open desert in the middle of the sand stood a village of tents. The Islee elders lived in those tents, the warriors spent their years of training living in the tents around the elders. You never had a family if you live in the tents. Families are for people at peace and that is not a warrior. Remembering my own days living in that village brought a smile to my face. Even if I hadn't been exactly welcome there by the elders who knew what I was. The others didn't and that was the closest thing I had to family since being born. While I hadn't made any friends I hadn't felt as much like an outsider while training with the Islee
My eyes wandered back the other way, until I was looking at the crystal city. That was where the families lived. The seasoned warriors also had houses in the city. More Islee lived there then elves but mostly the few humans that had found the army lived there. Enemy or not they could not leave if they did manage to wonder in. The elders kept to themselves why that was, the elders keep a lot to themselves. I couldn't see my house from this side of the city, it wasn't very big anyway.
My eyes kept moving until I was looking at the forest that sat opposite the desert. The elves lived there. The Islee believed that the elves lived a cushy life up in the unnaturally thick branches of that forest. Since I had never seen it, I really had no idea. I was sure the Islee and the elves fought fiercely over everything. No one ever broke the oath as far as I knew but that was probably the only thing that kept the death toll to zero within the city.
I sensed them long before I saw them. My extra sense got me in trouble for cheating on many survival tests. I never suppressed it just for a test; what was the point? I was supposed to use everything I had right? The elders did not like that argument. They also didn't like that it wasn't magic, well not actively magic, so I wasn't breaking the law.
I didn't feel like hiding that I hadn't actually seen them, as I looked at the spot in the field where the wheat was no longer moving quite right. Since I knew where to look I could see the Islee armor the man had on. He was big even for an Islee. He didn't have a spark of magic but that hadn't stopped him from earning a raven blade spear that was strapped to his back.
"There you are. One of these days you are going to have to tell me how you get back here so fast without a wizard."
"I have enough magic to teleport." It was true, I had more magic than any wizard I have ever met. That hadn't helped me make friends either, I really didn't like the tower.
"Don't let a wizard hear you say that they might actually think you are doing magic without training, Des." The wizards had a monopoly on magic within the city. They insisted anyone with enough raw talent at least get enough training to not be a danger to themselves or others. I had been taking off my damaged armor before he walked up. I now had the scarred breastplate in my hands. "Those wraith got a little bit more-" he stopped and tried to snatch the plate out of my hands. I was faster then him, but he had already noticed the mark. "A crystal blade did that, what happened?"
His face hardened, since I had pulled away he was smart enough to know my own weapons hadn't made that mark. "That elf made that mark?" It was a pretty good guess he was the only other crystal wielder in our class. There are five masters for any weapon worth the name. Islee and elves lived almost ten times longer then the humans even when they didn't have a spark of magic and most didn't even earn one crystal weapon. I had mastered 15. There was a rank above crystal called dragon crystal, there was only one of those for each weapon class. No one held even one. You have to prove you are consistently better then the other four crystal wielders to earn a dragon crystal. There are legends that say the brothers had wielded the dragon crystal blades. It didn't seem like as much of an accomplishment when there was no one in your league anyway, right. I had always been careful to keep that opinion to myself when I was around the historians. They could get a little protective of the army's heros.
"I could say he didn't do it." The Islee's eyes narrowed. The phrasing might have been able to get by a human but not someone who was raised in crystal city.
"Sure you could if he hadn't done it. What the hell is that guy's problem, doesn't he have enough snivelling elves looking after him? Pissed that you dissipated three more of those black clouds, no doubt."
"Two. He got the third."
The islee frowned at me. My response wasn't what he had expected or wanted from me. "It wasn't a challenge, Des.Those can only be issued within the barrier you know that. We should bring this to the attention of the council. They need to do something to reign in that SOB." Not for the first time I noticed he wouldn't curse in front of me. I had saved his life at least seven times. I never really kept track, when I fought from within my cage and with my unit. I end up saving them all over and over. It had taken me four years to get the point that I would let them fight on their own. Not that it had stopped me from fighting without them, it had just been a bit trickier to make sure they were out of the fight.
I had been teamed with the rejects from the academy. The elders of the Islee claimed to have done it to create balanced units. I didn't believe them for a moment, they thought I would turn on them the moment I had the chance and they didn't want me to take anyone of value with me. Oddly my unit had the least number of casualties among the islee, just the one commander. I was pretty sure the prince didn't have to put up with a handicap because he could keep step with me. "You will do no such thing."
The fighter from my unit put his hand on his Raven marked blade like he was going to draw on me, "What! No way am I letting-" I dropped and knocked his knees out from under him. He cut off with an uff as the ground unexpectedly knocked the wind out of him. I had always been crazy careful not to let anyone know about what I am. The monster didn't need my permission to kill and it fought against me every waking moment of my life. I was very sure it killed my mother. It was about to hurt a member of my unit for bad mouthing an elf. I stuffed the thing back in it's cage by the throat. "I said no." I started walking towards the crystal city.
I sensed more than saw the Islee stand back up, rubbing his back and shoulders from the unexpected force of the landing. He was smart enough not to follow me. I had little doubt that he would be angry enough with me to drop what he had seen and go back to the others. Hopefully he found some ale and started celebrating today's victory with them.
I found my way to the house I was born in. It was small for all the honors I had won. It was still big for how much I actually got. I looked around the two bedroom house. That was all there was to the house, there wasn't a great amount of extra in the city. Right now there was a bedroll in one room and my weapons all hanging in their places in the other room. It was nice never having to worry about them finding their way home or having them clutter up if I didn't have time to put them away for one reason or another.
I sighed, it was also nice that they at least never had to be maintained. The only work they needed was for me to keep my skills with them to the point of being a master. The same was not true of my armor. I would need to find an open forge to fix the damage the prince had done. At least I was sure I had done way more damage to his armor but he would be able to fix it before the sun set most likely. He didn't have to compete for forge time or even have to make it himself. Not that I didn't enjoy making my own armor, but I had never been lucky enough not to need to make my own. I sat down on the bedroll. I wasn't tired but I dare not go outside again for at least five hours. People started to notice when I wasn't getting enough sleep.
They joked about it, but I had been able to see the worry in the elder's eyes since I was five. My mother had died giving birth to me. I had no idea who, or what my father was, no way to know if he was still alive. I wasn't sure if I wanted him to be alive so I could destroy him, or for him to have gone with the curse that seemed to follow me when it came to family. My mother managed to remarry before giving birth to me. She had made her husband promise to take care of me, or so I had heard from my step-mother, I don't really remember the man he died when I was four. That was actually the average length of time any of my step parents lived after that, and yet they kept getting remarried. It is very hard to form attachments when the adults in your life despise you the moment their partner tells them what you are and that they could not share the information with any of their friends unless they were friends with an elder. By the time I was ten three more people had died, there was a rumor that I was cursed or that I was actually killing them. I believed I was cursed. How else could so many people die of natural causes around me?
I had been allowed to keep the little two room house I had been born in. My step parents always acted like it was thiers. Finally on my thirteenth birthday when I had just got accepted into the academy one of my new parents pissed me off royally. I got up the nerve to kick the strangers out of my house. The elders actually sided with me in whatever the dispute had been, I couldn't even remember now, and I got my emancipation, and the house. It was much too big for a student but the elders had another reason to grant me a house.
It gave me a place to run away if I started to lose control of the monster. Even if I was to live in the tents while I trained, or in the tower while they made sure I had control over my magic. There was always some down time that I could go into the city. I had only a vague sense of the beast in me at this time. When I turned 18 this place had been invaluable. This was the only place within the barrier that I dared to let the monster roam. I had a place to hunt outside the barrier. The elders had done a pretty good job at hiding the monster from me, I still wasn't sure how they got the animal blood into my diet before I started at the academy. The academy was easier; everyone had their own lunch cup they had just filled mine with blood instead of wine. They never slipped up; they were masters after all. Once I found out what I was I stopped taking what they gave me. My elder instructors had become hyper vigilant after that and I let them worry about it.
Most people don't take the oath until they are at least 21. I was very far ahead of average by the time I was 18. My instructors that were not elders were starting to get upset with the elders for not advancing me. The elders refused to even offer me a chance to take the oath. I was very sure that frustration was what triggered the first lapse in my ability to control the monster. The monster had been getting stronger as I got stronger though so it had probably just been a matter of time anyway. The day the monster slipped it's cage for the first time, was the first day I earned a crystal weapon. I beat all five of the staff masters in back to back duels and I did it with no weapon at all at first. Also they weren't duels, the staffmasters are the only group until then that were all elders and I beat them in a group. The elders weren't able to hide the fact after that match. They did manage to cover up the destruction my monster did but that was only because I had managed to keep enough control to prevent it from actually killing anyone. Actually I wasn't sure how they hadn't kept a lid on me beating them but they hadn't.
No one who isn't a sworn warrior had ever earned a crystal weapon and it could be argued that I had really earned the dragon crystal but I didn't care. I was much more worried about what the hell I am. I took the oath when it was offered the next day. They still didn't move me up a class, instead the elders declared the whole class ready and moved everyone else up with me within the month. The instructors had been terribly confused by the orders but they obeyed.