A deafening crash filled the air as the massive trunks of the bridge fell, hitting the rotten tree with such force that the ground beneath Kadar shook. Splinters flew through the air, the branches of the cursed tree broken, crushed, torn.
The massive logs of the bridge buried the rotten black tree under their weight, and for a moment there was silence.
Kadar's breathing was heavy, his fingers still aching from the effort of drawing the crossbow. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, but a faint, relieved smile flickered across his lips.
"I... I did it!" he whispered, almost in disbelief.
For a moment he thought it was over. But then something jerked beneath the fallen trunks. A groan filled the air as the branches of the tree moved like broken limbs.
"No..."
Kadar's eyes widened. It was not defeated. Just immobilized. For now.
He ran to the mother and child. The two were pressed against the wall of a house, their eyes full of shock as they stared at the chaos before them. The child was still crying, her small hands clinging to her mother's clothes.
"Are you hurt?" Kadar shouted as he approached.
The mother turned to him in confusion, her eyes still filled with panic. But as she looked at him, her expression changed to one of sheer incomprehension. Then she turned her eyes back to the tree, which was still twitching beneath the trunks, and looked down at her child again.
"No... thank the mother... and thank you," she said haltingly, her voice shaking.
"You have-"
But suddenly she stopped. Her eyes widened as she truly looked at him. His hood had slipped, and what she saw froze her.
"A human!" Her voice was a broken gasp that turned into a scream.
She pulled the child behind her, her hands seeking both protection and distance as she stared at him in disbelieving horror. The screaming girl fell silent, her big innocent eyes looking up at him in confusion.
"Stay away!" the mother cried hysterically.
"How did you get here? You monster! You damned monster!"
Kadar stood frozen. Her words cut deep, deeper than he wanted to admit. He had saved her, after all. But it didn't matter. Not to her.
His hands trembled, and for a moment all he saw was the pain in her eyes. It hurt. More than it should.
The elf took her child and ran, as if the real threat had always been Kadar.
"Help me! A human! A human!"
Not even the living corpse of the Archdruid had caused such a reaction.
Kadar himself remained frozen.
But before he could move or say anything, the tree twitched again. A creaking, unnatural sound startled Kadar and made him forget his thoughts.
This thing was not dead yet.
He had to go. Immediately. But he had lost too much time.
Then he heard it - a whistling sound in the air, accompanied by a shadow falling across the square. Kadar looked up. Something was coming down from the sky, faster than he could react.
It crashed into the black tree with a deafening thud. The earth shook from the force of the blow, and the creature was shattered, the rotten trunk disintegrating into a chaotic mess of splinters and smoke.
Kadar staggered back, holding his head with one hand as the ground shook beneath him. The dust took a long time to settle, and when he looked up cautiously, he felt his throat tighten.
"A human saving an elf's life? You're making me feel all young again."
Radoslav's voice was different, as was his appearance. Before, only the words out of his mouth had been terrible, but his tone had been pleasant and charming. Now everything about him was terrifying.
Blood dripped from the vampire's eyes, a lot of blood. It ran down his pale cheeks, dripped from his bald chin onto his black coat. His fingers had become cruel claws and the dark pupils had become slits.
Kadar's blood froze in his veins. He almost trembled as he reached for the bowstring of the crossbow, but he had no arrows left to shoot. It was a miracle that he had hit something at all with a broken arrow.
Then he heard footsteps. And voices. Elven voices.
"Surround him!"
It took less than ten seconds before he was surrounded by warriors in white armor. They held elven longbows, cocked and aimed at Kadar as if he were a wild animal.
'In their eyes, I am,' he realized once again.
"Hold, you idiots! He must not die!" Radoslav suddenly shouted.
Some of the elf warriors took aim at the vampire.
"Who are you?"
Another shouted at Kadar.
"Drop your weapon, human!"
He spat out the last word with pure hatred. Kadar only gripped the crossbow tighter. He didn't want to let go of it under any circumstances.
"Elves!"
Radoslav's voice was indignant as his form began to change again. He looked deeply shaken, and then only the vampire's cheeky grin remained. In a calm voice he said:
"You'll get us all killed if the human dies."
"Kadar! Boy!"
His father's voice made him turn around. The old elf pushed his way through the crowd of astonished warriors and fell into the center of the circle. When he saw his son, he turned pale.
"Oh no..." he whispered and staggered towards Kadar.
There was only confusion in Kadar's voice. And pain.
"Father... what is happening?"
Elanor took him in his arms and hugged him.
"It's all right. I'll take care of it," he said.
"Then do it, Elanor," a new voice suddenly sounded behind them.
His father broke the embrace and Kadar could make out the shape of the demoness Ra. The elven warriors around them looked at her in surprise, and some took aim at her. Others didn't know who to aim at anymore.
"This has nothing to do with you, Ra! Just like it's none of your concern, you filthy vampire!"
He had never seen his father so angry. It wasn't just anger, it was remorse and pain at the same time.
Radoslav laughed.
"None of our business? Don't be a fool, Elanor! Remember last time you tried your luck with humans? Because I do."
An uneasy, tense silence followed. Kadar could still hear screams from the central square, crashing and thundering, but it was diminishing.
He only hoped that Mayiawiel was all right.
But Elanor was standing between Kadar and Radoslav. More and more of the elf warriors whispered in confusion. What was their former Seer doing with a human child?
Radoslav's grin slowly faded. He turned to Kadar.
"Ah, I don't care anymore. Let's ask him ourselves. Human, do you want to fight an enemy who'd crush even the Queen of Dragons herself?"
Kadar stared into the red eyes. Another shiver ran down his spine. His father nudged him.
"No," he finally managed to say, and as he did so, some of the elf warriors became visibly nervous, as if they only now truly realized what he was.
Elanor nodded in agreement, but Radoslav sighed.
"I say, if the human is too cowardly, let's just give him to the matriarch. Then she can... subjugate him and all will be well."
"I'll rip your disgusting tongue out, vampire!" Elanor hissed.
Radoslav's eyes sparkled and he smiled devilishly.
"Then come at me, elf!"
"Stop it!"
The voice cut through the crowd like a knife. Or like a melody in the silence of the forest.
Kadar turned. The elf warriors fell to the side, making room for someone. The elf was taller than most, which was huge to Kadar. His hair was golden brown and his eyes were yellow.
The warriors bowed as he passed. The elf stepped forward and stood in front of his kind. He looked at Kadar with narrowed eyes, then at Elanor as the corners of his mouth twitched.
"What is the meaning of this, Elanor?"
Kadar's father glared at the elf. But the nervousness was gone. He seemed almost... sad. As if he knew how this was going to end.
"Your Majesty. He..."
He looked at Kadar. His shoulders slumped.
"...is my son."
The words were filled with sadness. And they hit Kadar harder than anything else on this terrible day.
Was his father ashamed of him? Did he regret ever having taken him in?
He had already been worried when he had seen that cursed play of the human king, when he had experienced for himself how much the elves hated the humans. But he had never been part of that humanity, and Mayiawiel had been with him.
He had endured it.
When the Mothertree had let him into the secret world of elven song, into that beautiful, harmonious world, only to banish him from it forever moments later, seemingly just because of his blood, he had been hurt.
But he had endured it.
When he had risked his life to save the innocent mother and child, bleeding for them and fighting the nightmarish monster, only to be seen as the worse monster, he could say no more.
Still... he had endured it.
But he couldn't bear to disappoint his father like that. He couldn't bear that even he didn't want him in this world.
That... was too cruel.
The elf - the King of the Rattle, Mayiawiel's father, as Kadar finally realized - listened calmly to the words.
He sighed.
"I have often wondered why you chose to live alone in the forest after your return, without us knowing where. But you were never alone. You... even changed the song of the Mothertree to hide the human from us, didn't you?"
The king of the Rattle fell back and stared at the sky.
"Elanor... you old bloody fool."
His voice was not angry or frightened like the other elves'. It was as sad as Elanor's. It was the sound of sorrow. Regret.
An elf warrior ran up and turned to the king.
"Your Majesty! Your daughter and the prince have defeated Ivnel."
Mayiawiel's father looked relieved.
So did Kadar.
"Good." the king said, then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and fixed Elanor with a stern look.
"But now we have another problem."
Elanor spoke.
"I assure you, this is not a problem..."
"Silence! Please, old friend... just be quiet."
No one said a word. The elf warriors still stood nervously around Elanor and Kadar, Ra watched silently, and Radoslav smiled.
For a long time, the elf king looked at Elanor in silence. Then at Kadar, and after a while he frowned.
"Is he..."
"He is my son," Elanor cut the King off.
For Kadar the whole world fell apart. He wished he could finally wake up again under the oak of his home, spend the morning playing the flute in vain, and then meet Mayiawiel outside in the clearing, only to secretly read the Book of Humans from his father in the evening.
But reality was cruel.
"Elanor Caelith, former Seer of the House of Elves," the king began in a cold voice.
"You are accused of two of the worst crimes of your people. You have hidden a human, and you have altered the song of the Mothertree, harming it in the process. You will be arrested, interrogated, and then judged. Your... son... he will also be judged."
"Kill him!" someone suddenly shouted.
"Before he kills us!"
"The humans are back!"
"Mother, help us!"
"Kill him!"
"He's a monster!"
...that was the voice of the mother who Kadar had saved earlier.
"Silence!" the king interrupted the tumult.
At his command, everything fell silent. Kadar heard his father's teeth grinding.
"You know, there will be no hearing for him. This is an execution!"
"That is not for you to decide!" the King of the Rattle spat back.
An eerie silence fell over the square. Everything seemed to stand still, even the trembling leaves of the surrounding trees. Kadar's heart beat hard in his chest, but the feeling of numbness overwhelmed his thoughts. The words of the elf king, the screams of the crowd, the threatening bows - it was too much. Too much pain, too much anger, too much injustice.
He didn't want to believe that this was really happening.
"I'm sorry," Kadar finally whispered, his voice breaking under the weight of his emotions.
He stared at the ground, unable to bear his father's gaze.
"For leaving."
Elanor remained silent, then he stepped toward his son. His green robe rustled softly in the wind, the bag he had carried around all day clutched tightly in his trembling hand. When Kadar finally looked up, he did not see the anger, disappointment, or regret as he had expected.
Instead, he saw something completely different: pure, unwavering love.
"Do not apologize, my son," Elanor said softly, his body shaking but his voice not trembling, not even a little.
And in that moment, Kadar understood. His father was not sad because he was human. He was not sad that he had raised Kadar or that he had loved him. He was not even sorry that Kadar had to see all this.
No. Elanor was sad because he knew this was their goodbye. The sadness was not regret - it was the pain of a father who knew he would soon have to leave his son.
"You owe this world nothing."
His words were both soft and heavy.
Then, before Kadar could even find an answer, his father raised his arms and began to sing.
The sound of Elanor's voice made everything around him fade away. It was not a simple melody, not a spontaneous gesture, not a hum as he always did - this was a song full of power, full of meaning. Elanor sang with the beauty of the Mothertree itself, and the sound penetrated deep into Kadar's soul. It soothed him, embraced him, took away his pain.
The elves around them froze. The warriors with drawn bows stopped. No one dared to interrupt the sound. Even Kadar, who had stood in the midst of chaos and hatred, felt drawn into this gentle world of his father's.
But then, the song changed.
The melody became faster, stronger, more urgent. What had sounded like a lullaby turned into something Kadar could not recognize but felt: power, determination, a tremor that filled the very air.
The elven king's eyes opened wide.
"A War hymn!" he cried, his voice full of panic.
"Stop him-"
But his words were swallowed by a raging wind.
Leaves tossed about, branches snapped, and the trees themselves seemed to awaken as Elanor's song called to the forest itself. A whirlwind of raging air and tumbling leaves rose around them, enclosing, protecting. Kadar looked around as Elanor continued to sing, his voice now a surging tide of unruly power.
"Father!" Kadar shouted against the storm, but Elanor did not seem to hear him.
The elf warriors shouted orders, but their voices were lost in the howling wind. One warrior raised an arrow, but a branch from the raging whirlpool snatched the weapon from his hand.
Kadar felt the power of the song envelop him. It was as if nature itself was protecting him and his father. The whirlwind grew denser, the leaves forming a protective wall.
"Stay with me, my son," Kadar heard Elanor's voice through the wind.
The world outside faded, and all that remained was the song - Elanor's song and the raging power of nature surrounding them like an insurmountable barrier.
And then there was only light and storm.