Kadar studied the scene with curiosity. Even the incident at the Mothertree was forgotten for a moment as he watched his father and the two strangers.
Elanor looked sweaty, as if he had just run a long way. Across his back was a long object wrapped in thick cloth. In his hand was a bag. He was panting, but his eyes were serious as he spoke to them.
'A vampire. And a demon!'
Kadar could hardly believe it. He had never seen anything other than elves. Of course, he knew of the existence of the other houses, but to see them in the flesh was something else entirely.
Normally no one came this far into the Fay'Run Forest, the elves made sure of that. So these two visitors must be something special.
The vampire was a man. His hair was white and his skin seemed pale. He resembled Elanor in his features, in fact he resembled all elves in some ways, except for the pointed ears. When he spoke, Kadar could see fearsome fangs shimmering white in the darkness.
This was a true, blood-sucking vampire. Maybe even a full-blooded one, the vampire of vampires.
Those red eyes sent a shiver down Kadar's spine. If they had looked at him now, he would probably have jumped up and run - or frozen.
And the demon... well, the demoness made the same impression, but in a different way.
She was small, smaller even than Kadar. Although he didn't know if he was tall or short for a human, so it wasn't really a good comparison. But she was smaller than him. Her skin had a strange, shiny purple hue, mixed with darker and lighter patches.
The eyes were two pools of liquid night. Like a mirror in which you could see your deepest fears.
But the most striking feature were the two horns. They rose above her forehead and twisted in their wine-red color until they ended a little further forward than her face. The demoness looked old, almost older than Elanor, but that didn't have to mean anything, since Elanor aged much less quickly than she did.
The vampire looked mature as well, but not old. Judging by his appearance, he would have been forty years old - human years - but as a vampire, he could have been thousands of years old.
The two visitors from the other houses were talking to Elanor. The demoness seemed serious and tense, but the vampire almost seemed to smile.
Kadar couldn't stand it any longer. He just had to listen. His father would forgive him for adding another misdeed to the others,
But in truth, Kadar just wanted to distract himself from his remaining dark thoughts. He picked up the backpack he had thrown on the grass earlier and crept along the walls of the alley. He made sure to walk in the wind so that the rustling of the grass and leaves would hide him.
Slowly he heard voices. It was his father's voice that he recognized first.
"...almost twenty years. Still a hundred short, if you ask me," his father said dryly.
The voice that followed was elegant, Kadar would even have called it charming. It clearly belonged to the vampire.
"Oh, how delightful. How did you fare in the dungeon? Starving, I bet."
"Stop it, Radoslav," the third, female voice said suddenly. The demoness. Her voice was surprisingly strong for an older woman.
A chuckle followed.
"Pardon my manners. It seems my new policy is even hurting me."
"Elanor," the demoness said, "we need to talk."
Kadar's heart beat faster and he forced it to slow down so he could continue to eavesdrop on the conversation.
His father remained silent.
"Elanor!"
The demoness' voice had grown loud and angry out of nowhere, almost making Kadar jump.
"I am no longer the Seer of my house, Ra," Elanor replied as calmly as ever, as if the outburst had not been directed at him at all.
'Ra?'
Was that the demoness' name? Or an abbreviation?
Ra's voice was calm and soft again for the next blow. Almost melancholy.
"Please, Elanor. You know you must help us."
Radoslav grinned and said loudly:
"Before I have to deal with this brat who calls himself the new Seer of your house, I'll probably have to knock out my teeth. Otherwise he might end up with your ancestors again."
"You're threatening my people?"
"No, I'm making a joke about an idiot. You young people just don't have any humor left."
Now his voice was suddenly more serious.
"But Ra is right. We need to talk. Now."
A long moment of silence. Kadar hid back behind the corner, scared they might see him. Then he heard footsteps. The three of them were leaving. He looked carefully around the corner. No one was there.
Kadar jumped after them when a hand grabbed his shoulder. He had already jumped out, then fell backwards into the grass as the hand pulled him backwards with an unexpected force.
The next thing he knew, the air was sucked out of his lungs as a slender but incredibly powerful body landed on top of him.
"Please don't hate me!" Mayiawiel screamed.
Kadar regained his composure and looked confused at his friend, who hugged him and pinned him to the ground.
"Mayia, let me..."
He stopped. She was crying.
"It wasn't me! Please believe me! Those weren't my feelings!"
She clung to him, digging her fingers into his robe so he could feel them on his back. For a few seconds he didn't even know what she was talking about. Tears streamed from her yellow eyes.
Suddenly, the feeling of wanting to cry overcame him as well.
"It wasn't..."
"Shh." He interrupted her gently.
Then he put his hand on her hair and began to stroke it gently, as his father always did when he thought he was asleep. Mayiawiel sobbed.
"I know, Mayia. I know."
The tears subsided, but she still held on to him. Her grip didn't loosen at all. Her head sank into his chest.
He had to swallow a rising sadness. He didn't want to deal with it right now. Even if Mayiawiel was here in tears. So he simply said what he knew she wanted to hear.
"I could never hate you, Mayia. And it's okay. I accepted a long time ago that I'm not a true child of the forest."
A truth and a lie. But the last sentence came so unexpectedly easy that he almost believed it himself.
Slowly, Mayiawiel raised her face.
"Really?" she stammered.
He stroked her golden-brown hair.
"Really."
She looked at him for a few seconds. Then she sobbed. The next moment, her copper-colored cheeks suddenly turned red. Slowly but surely, she let go and stood up.
Kadar took the hand she held out to him and stood up as well. He smiled at her as she looked away.
"When you left, I thought you were angry with me. Or worse... I felt that you were afraid. I thought you were afraid of me. That... I couldn't bear."
Her voice was weak. And looking at her, Kadar became weak as well.
He had made her cry. He was the worst.
Taking a deep breath, he took a step towards her and took her in his arms.
Mayiawiel had always been with him. They had known each other for ten years, and except for the surprise at their first meeting, she had never shown any dislike for him.
No, she had even shown more affection than he could sometimes return.
The embrace lasted a long time. But then Kadar released her and looked at his friend seriously.
"Mayia, believe me when I say that you mean too much to me to just hate you. But now you have to let me go for a moment..." his voice trailed off.
Then he smiled.
"...or you can come with me."
"I'll come with you."
Kadar was a little surprised.
"I haven't even said-"
"No matter where you go, I'll go with you."
There was no sign of hesitation in Mayiawiel's still moist eyes. Kadar grinned.
"Come. Now it's my turn to show you something."
After Kadar roughly described the situation to Mayiawiel, she briefly protested that it was disrespectful and inappropriate, but then relented, and the two of them found each other a few alleys away, in a place where the festival had left no trace. His father and the others stood there in the dark.
Kadar told Mayiawiel to be quiet and listen. From their position, they could see what was happening - but that also meant that Elanor and the others could see them. Kadar breathed softly through his open mouth.
His father looked around as if waiting for something.
"Have you been promoted to a messenger?" Radoslav asked suddenly, pointing to the object and bag Elanor was holding. He checked it briefly, then looked up seriously.
"Where is Sadam?" he asked the demon and the vampire, ignoring the comment.
There was a moment of silence.
"Sadam is dead," the demon named Ra replied dryly.
Kadar could see that his father was tense.
"Dead? What happened?"
Now the demoness was silent. Even the vampire Radoslav looked a little uncomfortable. Then he caught Elanor's gaze and grinned weakly.
"She killed herself."
Silence.
Elanor sighed.
"Because of the vision?"
The other two nodded slowly.
'Vision?'
Kadar had a thought. His father had been a former Seer. Were these two as well? Seers of their respective houses?
"Then you saw them too," Ra said.
Elanor nodded slowly.
"That night."
The vampire laughed.
"You are late. Old age seems to be catching up with you."
"We had the vision two weeks ago," Ra said.
"There was a summit nine days ago. The first since the madman."
"You didn't show up," the vampire added calmly, "and neither did the current Seer of the Elves. So we thought we'd pay our old friend a personal visit."
The word 'friend' made Elanor grimace for a moment. The others didn't seem to notice, but Kadar was sensitive enough to his father's expressions.
He grimaced himself. The three of them couldn't beat around the bush any longer.
Suddenly, Mayiawiel nudged him lightly from the side.
"We are not supposed to see that," she whispered nervously.
But Kadar shook his head.
"Please, just a moment more," he whispered back, turning his attention back to the mysterious trio.
"If we really all saw the same thing, then... it must be serious. Not even the actions of the Mad King himself appeared to all of us."
"I... I saw a hand of dead flesh strangling me," the demoness said as seriously as Elanor.
"Your Mirrordeath?" he asked.
The demoness shook her head.
The vampire raised an eyebrow and grinned nervously.
"The whole land in ruins?"
Elanor nodded and added,
"A being I can only describe as death itself."
Radoslav clapped his hands.
"Wonderful. Then we're all of the same opinion. We are all dead."
Ra hissed.
"You have been dead for a long time, vampire. You know very well that what awaits all of us is worse than death."
Again Elanor sighed.
"May the Mothertree help us. I was hoping it was only a bad dream."
Radoslav scoffed.
"Your Mothertree will not save us. Neither will the heartbeat of the First or your glass disk."
The last sentence was directed at the demoness. But she did not seem upset.
"No. Not alone," she said.
"But... it's not lost yet."
"Oh no? Are you sure?" Radoslav's voice was full of sadistic sarcasm.
"I think we've all seen the same end. An army of vampires, elves, djinn, demons and dragons fighting against the end itself. A greater force than the Northshard has ever seen - greater than the Alliance against the humans, even the winged cowards dared to come out of their nests. And they all died like flies."
Radoslav spat on the ground and received an angry look from Elanor. But he remained silent.
"Then that too is a sign," he said instead.
"One mighty force alone will not be enough... the six sources of magic themselves must be mastered. That is the only thing I can think of that is more powerful. Only if all six houses, all six magics are united, can it be stopped."
Ra nodded.
"We have come to the same conclusion. All signs point to it. The sources must be united. But... we had hoped you would have a different interpretation."
Elanor frowned.
"Why?"
"Oh, why?" the vampire howled dramatically.
"Well, perhaps because there are only five magics left in this world! Have you forgotten? The humans are gone!"
Radoslav looked almost angry - if it weren't for the devilish grin on his face, showing his fangs in all their glory.
Kadar's heart suddenly jumped. Mayiawiel tugged harder and harder at his robe.
Elanor looked down. Kadar's eyes were fixed on his father...
"Yes," he said after a long pause, "the Human House is gone. We must find another way."
But as soon as he said those words, the demoness' eyelids twitched. Ra stared at Elanor and tilted her head.
"Elanor... your color is nervous."
'Nervous? His color?'
Even to Kadar, his father looked as calm as ever.
Elanor met the demon's gaze with iron composure.
"The end of the world is coming. Nothing more," he replied.
But the demoness didn't let up.
"No... that's not it. There is also the color of fear... you are afraid, but not because of the visions. You fear for something... for someone?"
Now Elanor was clearly nervous. Kadar could see his hand moving slowly behind his back under his robe. Kadar's heart began to beat wildly. Slowly, he gave in to Mayiawiel's constant tugging and moved back with quiet, careful steps.
"What are you hiding?" the demoness continued to push.
"I already said it's nothing," Elanor snapped back.
The vampire lifted his head. His red eyes lit up.
"Now that you mention it..."
His eyes swept slowly around him.
"I smell something. Something strange. A blood I haven't smelled in many years... ah, what a wonderful smell. This long-lost fragrance."
He stopped suddenly. And laughed. So diabolically and charmingly at the same time that Kadar couldn't believe his ears.
"Ohohoh, my dear Elanor, you poor, poor thing. Your kind soul has always been your greatest weakness."
The vampire's head shot around unnaturally fast - and fixed Kadar directly with his red eyes.
He grinned.
"Would you look at that. That's what I call a miracle in a time of need."
Then he bared his teeth. And Kadar ran, breaking into a sweat.