A single mutter of prayer left Caelu, her pleas to Tesa seemingly unheard since her captors continued their trek without interruption. One of her captors, the short man with hair that looked like a dulled, sagging flame, nudged her forward and kept a close eye on her.
The rest continued to move forward, urged to advance by the metal beasts with four round… legs if she could even call them legs. They were closer to the round stone tablets she had seen in the elders' hovel.
Her courage faltered with each step, but she slapped her cheeks together and thought of her brother, who her captors had wounded. He had been whisked away, and she refused to shy away until she reunited with him.
All the strangers around her wore some form of strange clothing that looked to be a peculiar blend of green and brown and metal decorations on their eyes. They all carried packs and wore heavy boots, clearly indicating that they were on a journey somewhere. She had seen humans, twice or thrice from a distance, in her twenty-two rotations of life. Yet, none of them dressed like the humans in front of her.
Her elders had always cautioned her against humans: barbaric savages who whisked elves away and enslaved them for their cruel entertainment. From what she had seen so far, other than the loud sticks of theirs, they had been somewhat… friendly with her. Which she hoped was a good sign.
She had never been taught about situations like this. The only time the elders mentioned outsiders was to tell her tribe members to avoid them at all costs.
"Where are you taking me? What happened to my brother and Roke?" the elf asked once more, her sharp ears prickling in annoyance.
The female captor, whose red eyes glowed just like hers, turned to her. "ϱnuᒑʞuວ ɒmɘmiᒑɒ⑁."
Caelu scoffed again, but continued to walk with the group in silence. The red-eyed woman's speech was crude, an older and archaic version of her people's language. Yet, she understood it to some degree, especially due to the emotions she felt from the words conveyed: reassurance and peace.
Words that Caelu doubted, primarily due to the nature of the heavy black sticks these strangers carried. Yet, even she knew that she couldn't take all of them on, especially without her trusty knife, which they had seized before beginning their trek. And even if she won, she would never be able to find her brother, who was taken up to the domain of Tesa's greatest rival.
How these strangers could whisk her brother into the sky… she didn't know. Yet, the thought of her captors being able to fly made her ears bristle again. Were they envoys of Bie? If so, that spelled trouble for her tribe.
By the time the night cycle reached its peak, they had arrived at the clearing that her tribe had wanted to use for the upcoming winter. Instead of a tranquil and empty field, the place was now occupied by dozens of strange machines, with even more strangers carrying tools and sticks. Her eyes bulged when she saw the swarm of flying metal beasts in the sky, their strange wings and limbs unmoving as they landed in greater numbers. Bright lights flashed through the clearing, providing miniature suns as sources of light for the humans.
Several giant metal monsters were assembling what seemed to be surface dwellings, which her tribe built on occasion. Those monsters almost looked humanoid, with arms and legs and a giant torso akin to a troll she had heard of in legends. Each monster also contained a vessel, a human vessel, in its center.
Were they sacrifices for these machines to move and lift giant amounts of weight with ease? Were these envoys of Bie necromancers?
She shuddered visibly against her will and fiddled with her empty holster, earning a grunt from the male captor behind her. The thought of the forbidden arts, magic that doomed its victims to eternal damnation, enslaving sent her mind into a frenzy.
Was that her fate? Was there still time to escape this madness?
One of the beasts lumbered past her, and she could see the vessel within more closely. Instead of a dying or screaming human, he looked ordinary, excitement rolling off his skin despite a tired pang in his emotions. The beast was clearly made of metal, with various lights and pipes that groaned every time it moved. She could sense the raw power emitted from the beast and recognized that they were… tools rather than living things.
"ɘϱiວ ɿɘbnɘmɒɿɒƧ ɘϱɘƨmi⑁ nɘnɘbnɒm .ɘϱiϱ," the red-eyed woman said.
She didn't understand what "ɘϱiວ" meant, but she could discern parts of the statement. Something about strength? Perhaps they were tools that made a person stronger? Like drawing from the spirit of the earth?
Various thoughts whirled around in her head before she spotted the man who had approached her before, the friendly one who disarmed himself and spoke calmly to her. She assumed he was the leader, as she had seen him bark orders at the others, and all of them deferred to him. Yet, a new mustached man appeared before him, and the supposed leader snapped his hand toward his forehead and talked to the new man politely. The leader looked visibly distressed, and Caelu could feel frustration and confusion leaking into his words.
The other man pressed down on his mustache and responded calmly. He muttered a few things to the leader that was incomprehensible to her, before walking away.
A bead of sweat trickled down her neck as the leader of the group trotted up to her. Her mind weighed the choices she had at hand. She took a breath and calmed her frayed nerves; they had treated her with… some respect and hadn't harmed her. That calmed her down some, though she prayed to Tesa again for her and her brother's safety.
The leader spoke with the red-eyed woman for a few moments before giving her a reassuring smile and talking to the rest of his group. The rest of the group broke formation and moved away from her, though her female captor remained and motioned widely with her hands. "ɒwɒɿɒɟT."
Caleu followed the woman, and though there were no more black sticks aimed at her, she felt a rush of power behind the woman's words. Now that she focused on her words more carefully… Caelu felt a distinct lack of soul when listening to her captor's voice. There was emotion but a lack of spirit.
She decided to sideline this observation and followed her 'guide' to a strange hovel with metal walls. While every sight she saw made her twitch, she was far from her tribe and was surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds, of warriors with big sticks.
"I'm not leaving without him," Caleu muttered.
The woman opened the door and ushered her in, bringing her into a room that was far too clean to be natural.
The room was bright, lit up by a round flameless torch on the ceiling. There was a layer of a polished material that reflected her figure on the wall opposite of the door. Glancing at herself on the water-like surface, she frowned at her messy appearance and combed her shoulder-length untamed green hair with her dirty fingers.
Her captor circled around the table in the center of the room and sat down in the seat facing the door. She motioned for Caelu to sit in the other chair facing the polished wall. Caelu glared at her captor but slid into the uncomfortable metal chair and drummed her fingers on the strange metal table.
She pulled something from her pack, and her eyes reflected the light from the clear square in front of her. The strange transparent square portrayed drawings, some of them moving and all of them looking lifelike. The woman pressed down on one of the drawings, and it pulled up a moving drawing of a man nodding.
"ɒϱƎ ?ɒγom," her captor asked, her unnerving red eyes flickering like flames. The statement's intent was clear: a question, what that moving drawing was.
"Where is my brother?" she demanded again.
"... .ɟɘoວ uɘᒑnuM .ɒϱɘɘ."
Soon was the intent that she received.
She looked up at the water-like wall and sensed a few sparks of emotion behind them. It seemed this was a test of some sort or perhaps some form of interrogation.
Caelu decided to humor them before things turned for the worse. Her brother's safety came first.
"That is… nodding? Yes?"
The woman stiffly nodded and pulled out another drawing. This time, it was a man shaking his head.
"ɒϱƎ ?ɒγom."
"... Shaking his head. No."
This puzzling game continued with brief pauses. Caelu was asked to name hundreds more objects, including a few foreign ones that looked vaguely familiar yet starkly different from the ones she was familiar with.
There was a fruit that looked similar to the tesfruit, though more spherical and red instead of blue. A metal that had a similar sheen to that of rusetal, which was what her knife was made up of, though the metal she was shown was much smoother and polished. Some were completely foreign, and she shook her head to notify that she had no words for them.
After what seemed like several night cycles, the woman stared off towards the wall with the polished surface. She walked over to the corner of the room, and a small hole appeared, depositing a small metal trinket onto the woman's hand. Caelu watched closely as her captor slid the trinket into an opening in her wrist and blinked several times in rapid succession. The elf stared as the human woman's wrist snapped shut like a trapdoor.
Was this woman a golem?
The woman shook her head before clearing her throat and turning back to her. "I am… Elize. You… understand?"
Her accent was garbled and rough, yet… Caelu understood her. It was her language. "You can speak my language?"
"No… yes. Difficult. Learning."
It was a broken jumble of words, yet the meaning was clear. "How?"
"... ʞɒw⑁ϱnoວ. No word in… your language."
"Magic?" Caelu asked.
"No… opposite."
"Opposite of magic?" Caelu blinked, unable to comprehend what the woman was suggesting.
"... Knowledge. Change."
That sparked a torch within Caelu's head. Knowledge and change… Perhaps her captors also had elders who shared knowledge, which led to changes. The elders she knew from her tribe were stubborn yet wise and accumulated new knowledge quickly, especially the occasional spark of ingenuity granted by Tesa's blessing upon her people.
"Where did you take my brother?"
"Healing. Brother is hurt. Off to… sky."
"Why the sky? Are you envoys of Bie?"
"What is Bie?"
Caelu frowned. Perhaps they were not envoys of Bie and unfamiliar with the Lady of the Sky? "She rules the Skies. You entered her domain."
"No… no Bie. We are… from far. Healing beyond the sky."
That statement was true, from what Caelu could discern. Yet, she remained on her guard. Nothing around her was familiar, and she had a sinking feeling that these people were from very far away. However, that still didn't answer her question: why did they bring her brother into the sky?
Were they not aware that her people were connected to Tesa and the sky was restricted for her people?
And what was beyond the sky? Wasn't that where Eden, the Hall of Gods, resided?
Before Caelu could ask another question, her captor crossed her hands and asked her a question. "You, Den Elf?"
"What in Tesa's name is a Den Elf? I am just an elf," Caelu responded. She hesitated before continuing. "Do you swear on the gods that no harm will befall me, my brother, and my people?"
The woman looked at her intently and nodded. "I swear."
She sighed in relief; swearing upon the gods was binding, no matter where they were from. "My name is Caelu. I am from the Dangj Tribe, blessed by Tesa himself. We live here, in the Forest of Tesa, which was blessed by his holy spirit three hundred rotations ago. We are the tenders of this part of the earth, and I recommend you do not disturb this place."
"... I see. Leaving… difficult. Our… elders, discussing. No resolution… yet."
"Then inform them they need to leave this place. Bringing attention to this place will cause great harm to my people, and Tesa will not be pleased if this forest is turned into a battleground. I have seen the weapons your people hold, and they are clearly weapons of war."
'Elize' tapped the transparent square with vigor, prompting a curious glance from Caelu. "I will inform. We come… peacefully. Did not know… your people here."
"It does not matter what your intentions are. Unless Tesa himself approves, your presence here is unwelcome. This forest, this slice of Tesa, is our refuge."
Suddenly, a man wearing clothing colored like foliage entered the room by opening a section of the polished wall. He walked over to Elize, who held her hand before her forehead like Caelu had seen before, and spoke candidly to Elize. She responded with an even tone and turned her attention back to the elf when the man left. "Caelu… Your brother, safe. Healed."
Caelu stumbled out of her chair and instantly rose to her feet. "Can I see him?"
"... Some time. Need rest. For now, you stay. More questions. Need help from you."
Despite protests rising from her throat, she bit her lips and answered. "I can not promise I will answer everything.."
"That is fine. You and your people will be safe, we promise."
"May Tesa hold you to your words," Caelu answered. Elize's sentences were much more fluid and coherent than just minutes prior. She was even beginning to sound like a member of her tribe. "What did you want to ask?"
"We want to know more about your people and this forest…"