His expression soured, but he couldn't go against me. I was stronger then him, and my mastery over the time element meant he simply wasn't capable of beating me. It didn't take me long to get my wife packed up after that. Whoever this bright star was was in trouble. If he had any strength to speak of then I needed to be here.
Potential, and actual strength were two different things, but I could trust that my wife had never been wrong. If she said someone would grow strong then they would. The only question was how fast they would get that strength. The queen wouldn't allow me to leave right now with someone that had to potential to be stronger then her approaching the city. I was nervous as I watched my nearly blind wife mount her wyvern.
The wyvern was considered weak. She was albino. She had pure white scales, and red eyes. Her scales were more brittle then her siblings, and she would have died long ago if my wife hadn't taken her in. She strapped herself in as I loaded up the bags she needed.
I'd never seen her like this before. Staring into a light so bright it blocked out her vision. If I didn't get her out of here soon she might hurt herself while she was walking around blind. The mountain stronghold was by far the most desolate place I could send her, and quite frankly she needed to be away from people whenever she had the chance. By the time I was done reassuring, and packing for my wife the queen was calling to me.
I sent her off with her personal guards before heading back to the main audience hall. To the outside it was known as the throne room, but in truth the throne room was deeper inside the castle. The only people outside of royalty that had seen the throne room were the capital, and royal guards. I changed from my casual wear to my royal armor, and went to the audience hall. I refused to be caught lacking.
By the time I got there the hall had already been completely filled. I was among the last to make my way here. I was in no mood to deal with anything they planned to do without sending my wife to safety first. The two people that were brought into the hall nearly an hour later weren't all that impressive, but they were familiar. If one had enough potential to blind my wife there was no way that the alpha female wouldn't come down to see him.
The queen looked them both over. Observing the slave collar with some concern, and the low elf on his knees before her. She scanned through them both with her mana, and the look on her face told me that neither one was what they appeared to be. She rushed forward to strike the slave first. She intended on questioning the elf.
He was in the master role so it was safe to assume that he was the one in charge. Then something odd happened. The slave didn't die. Now I'd seen the queen strike plenty of people in the past, but they almost always died. Humans weren't built as tough as elves so it was natural for them to die when we hit them with our full force.
The queen was one of the strongest elves on this planet so it was surprising that he lived through that strike. It was even more surprising when he survived her second strike. Although he didn't get back up after the second strike. It was clear he couldn't see straight, but there were two things about this man that bothered me. The first was the fire that ignited in his eyes after he'd been struck.
The second was that no matter how long or hard I stared at him I couldn't see his future. His future was nothing but a blur. I couldn't even see him clearly when I activated my precognition ability. I questioned what kind of creature he was silently. Taking the eldest prince's strike was something we considered possible.
He was the weakest of the royals. A human surviving his strike was well within the realm of possibility. The fact that he survived the queen's strike disturbed me greatly. I rarely saw elves that could withstand her strike.
"Dispose of that one," she pointed to the slave.
I opened my mouth to argue, but stopped since it would be a bad idea for me to question her orders right now while she was this irritated. She started questioning the half elf right after his subordinate was yanked out of the room. To my surprise he answered, and he answered honestly. That bothered me even more then his friend. Especially since he started talking as if he was working under someone.
Who could be powerful enough to make both of these people submit enough that they would willingly walk right into death? Then again there was something about that human that disturbed me more then I was willing to say. He had fire in his eyes, and mana flowed through him yet when I ran my senses through him I sensed nothing. It was almost as if there was nothing at all beneath his skin. Skin that was hard enough to bloody the queens knuckles.
She'd covered her bleeding knuckles, and sent the nobles out of the room, but I wasn't observing her face like the others. I made it a point to take in her body as a whole whenever I could. Which was why I rarely missed any clues her body gave off as to how she was feeling. Right now she was frightened so she sent the source of her fear away. I thought that was a mistake, but again I didn't say anything because I was unwilling to face her wrath.
If only I'd known just how much of mistake that was, and what that creature would bring down on us.