Kora walked through the forest with the elves for a few hours, before arriving at the border of a city.
She didn't like the way the elves looked at her during the journey, as if she was some kind of dangerous beast, ready to swallow them whole.
But since Ruun didn't show any hostility to them, she decided to go with the flow, and just follow them to where Ruun had ordered her to go.
She had to give them one thing, though.
They were amazingly good builders.
And the way they just didn't destroy nature around them, and just made their homes 'along' with where nature existed, coexisting with it.
It was a lot for Kora to take in, so she breathed deep, and decided to take a little bit of everything, one step at a time.
Sinahim, upon the arrival at the city's gate, whistled sharply, which was followed by another whistle of the same kind.
After that, the great gate in front of them opened, giving entrance to the city itself.
They walked in, and three elves came towards Kora, halting her down.
"I'm sorry, miss, but we will be needing your weapons." One said, extending his hand towards her.
Kora raised a brow and opened her arms.
"I don't carry any, wanna check?"
She grinned, and the elf immediately took a step backwards.
The other two drew their daggers and posed for combat.
"Easy now, Tharuin, she's accompanying the Ruler of Mortals."
At the mention of Ruun's title, the elf guard, Tharuin, immediately had his hands shaking, but he ordered his fellows to withdraw his weapons.
"She's here to see Therion." Sinahim announced, to the guards' wide eyes. "And she's not to be harassed by any means."
Tharuin looked at Sinahim, nodding, and let them through.
After some more walk, and some more slack jaws from Kora, they finally arrived at the king and queen's home.
Kora thought of home as the word to describe it, because it wasn't anything like a palace or a castle to begin with.
Even though it was very comfortable, spacious and very well built and furnished, it was just a big house, with a few servants, and two thrones in the middle of the main hall.
The king was sitting at his throne, but the queen was absent.
"Kor'Ra Na'Lyr, daughter of Yi'Ssar. I saw many things about you." The king looked at her, but not at her, exactly.
It was more like he was looking 'through' her.
Kora looked around, but the guards were gone, and she was taken by an overwhelming feeling that she had been stripped.
But not of her clothes.
Of her 'everything'.
The king's eyes seemed to be looking not just through her.
Kora had the feeling that he could see everything about her.
Of her past, present, and future.
"Come forth, constellation's child." The king ordered, and Kora stepped forwards, towards him. "I see that you walked a rough path to get where you are now. And that the Ruler of Mortals is taking fair care of you, after finding you in the depths."
"How... How do you know all that?"
"Come closer, child." The king gestured for Kora to approach more. "You don't know us elves, do you?"
Kora got closer, and to her surprise, she saw the king's eyes.
They were milky, blind.
Strangely, they matched the features of the king.
His white, long hair, the slight wrinkles on his white, silky skin.
The king was old.
"I became blind after a battle between the armies of Aluria and Osysa. It was a fierce battle, but the Ruler of Mortals saved me." The king told Kora. "He gave me vision far better than the mortal realm can perceive, and here we are. And I can see many things now, child."
Kora nodded, still a bit perplexed.
"But, why am I here, after all?"
The king smiled kindly, and gently grabbed Kora's chin.
"You're here, because you need to be here. Your master doesn't know how fate works, but he knows that the strings of fate makes us take strange turns in life's path."
The king rose from the throne, and offered Kora his hand.
"Come, walk with me, child. There's a story you have to listen to, and I don't lie telling stories sitting in my throne."
***
The cloaked man walked through the graveyard, towards a huge mausoleum.
"My lord won't disappoint me, he is powerful and he is glorious! And the item he told me about, will be right there, I can feel it."
He arrived at the mausoleum's gate, and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the gate turned to ash, giving entrance to him.
He walked towards the structure, and as soon as he set foot close to the main door, the graves around him began shaking.
Soon, decayed and bony hands started digging the dirt upwards, wanting to leave their graves.
"Oh, I imagined that there would be resistance, but there's an old saying about it. How was it, though? Ah... 'It's FUTILE'!" He said, taking off his hood, and revealing his own decayed face.
He raised his hands and waited for all zombies to rise from their rest, and then, he clasped his hands so hard, that the sound echoed through the whole graveyard.
All the zombies, just seconds ago, ready to eat the trespasser to death, now stood there, like statues, frozen in place.
"Good boys, now wait for me until I return."
He turned the mausoleum's door to ash, and walked inside.
The enormous house that held the mortal remains of some ancient Alurian family, was nothing but a facade, revealing a never-ending stone staircase to the underground.
After he got to the bottom of the staircase, there was an altar in the center of a small crypt, holding a tiny, shiny piece of jewelry.
The man approached it, and took the piece, a small ring, made of translucent and colorful crystal.
He looked at the ring, as he wore it in his index, gray finger.
"It does look like it took a constellation to forge this tiny thing... Just wait a few more moments, my master. Soon, Aluria will fall, and then, the world will be yours to take!"