Chapter 212: Shailen
Morissa broke into a smile. "That Shailen is a disgrace to our whole city. His full name is Leonard Shailen. Every other elf here is stunningly good-looking, but he had to go and turn out hideous. And being ugly would be one thing on its own, but he spends all day keeping company with bugs, living alone down on the ground. They say when he was young he wasn't exactly handsome, but he wasn't ugly either — then he got his hands on some kind of insect scripture, took up with bugs, and just kept getting uglier from there. Everyone in the city despises him. He uses those bugs of his to spy on us too. He's an embarrassment to elves everywhere."
"Your people never tried to run him off?" Evan asked.
"Of course we thought about it. But strange as it is, ugly and old as he's gotten — most elves don't age like that at all — the World Tree still accepts him. Even the Elf Queen can't do a thing about him." Morissa said, then added, "Sir, your little flower fairy is adorable, by the way."
Evan smiled and asked, "Where exactly does he live?"
"Right there, under that tree." Morissa pointed toward a large tree not far off. "The elves living in the trees nearby all moved out."
Evan followed her finger and saw a stone house standing beneath the tree. Next to the other elves' houses, which seemed to breathe with a life of their own, his stone house looked crude by comparison — though it wasn't unsightly, exactly, and it even had a small yard.
Evan didn't rush off to find him right away. He lingered a while longer in the coffee shop, chatted with Morissa a bit more, and only then stood, paid, and took his leave, Shuang flying back up to settle on his left shoulder.
He wandered the city on his own, apart from the rest of the delegation — the visit wasn't really his business to begin with, given what he was, and out of consideration for the elves' feelings, he'd simply kept himself scarce. That suited him fine. A handful of others from Sky City were also wandering the streets, shopkeepers from the magic bazaar who'd talked their way into the trip, likely so they'd have something to boast about once they got home.
Ordinary humans could never set foot in an elven city under normal circumstances, and most of them were making the most of the rare chance to look around. But Evan's purpose was different from theirs — he wanted to see the World Tree. Unfortunately, the World Tree could only be viewed from a distance; getting anywhere near it wasn't allowed. If that had been all there was to it, it wouldn't have troubled Evan much.
But he discovered that the closer he got to the World Tree, the harder his magic became to use — like walking into a natural domain, one that put even a Legend mage's man-made domain to shame in its sheer power. A domain was the manifestation of a rule made real. A Legend mage's domain rarely extended past ten cubits, and usually stayed under five; within that space, the difference in governing rules made it hard for an ordinary mage to bring his own strength to bear, though not impossible to fight back at all.
Shuang tried it too and found it just as troublesome — the effect touched her as well. It seemed that without the World Tree's own recognition, no one could get close to it at all.
Since approaching the World Tree directly was out of the question, and small insects kept fluttering past him wherever he went, Evan decided to pay Shailen a visit.
Shailen already knew Evan was coming — his insects had been tracking him the whole way there. The moment Evan reached the door, it swung open on its own. He stepped inside, every nerve in his body wound tight as a loaded spring, ready to erupt at the first sign of trouble. He doubted the man would try anything so blatant within the elven city itself, but caution cost him nothing.
The instant he stepped into the yard, the scene before him shifted. Evan's black mist flared out on instinct, though only a thin layer of it — his body seemed suddenly beyond his own control, and Shuang had vanished from sight. What surrounded him now was an ocean of insects. His first thought was that he'd been drawn into the man's domain.
He hadn't touched the rules governing this place and had no way to contend with them directly. Even a Legend mage's grasp of the rules tended to be shallow, barely worth mentioning aloud — but what stood before him now was clearly a rule made manifest. Still, he didn't panic. He drew his black mist in close, pressing it flat against his own skin. Powerful as the rule was, a Legend mage's understanding of it remained crude enough that the death-mist his lich nature produced couldn't expand here, but it could still hold.
"This is how you welcome a guest? Weren't you the one who wanted to meet me?" Evan said, perfectly calm.
In an instant, everything vanished, and the yard reappeared exactly as it had been before — as though the whole thing had been nothing but a dream. Shuang hovered in the air above, light flickering across her body, a second pair of wings having sprouted from her back alongside the first. As the surroundings shifted back, one pair of wings vanished at once. Evan recognized that pair for what it was — something formed of divine power.
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An old elf stood some six cubits away, his skin sagging, his ears drooping, his face grimy, dressed in a black mage's robe. At first glance he looked nothing like an elf at all, his eyes flat and lifeless as a dead fish's, fixed on Evan.
"Fascinating. Are you a lich or aren't you?" Shailen's first words came out laced with doubt.
"I'm not about to tell you the truth of what I am. Why don't you take a guess?" Evan said. Shuang, clearly displeased by now, cut in with an edge in her voice. "Old man, you invited us here, and we came — and this is how you welcome us, with these disgusting bugs? What exactly is your problem?"
"I wanted to test your capabilities. See whether Hollingburton's reputation is deserved," Shailen said.
"If you wanted to test someone, you shouldn't have picked me for it. Master Heathermere and Master Roland are both right here — you could have tested them instead," Evan said flatly. "Now that we're here, are you going to make us stand around all day?"
"Please, inside." Only then did Shailen crack a smile.
The two of them went in and sat down, though no tea was offered, and Evan didn't push the matter — a man who made a study of controlling insects, and a Legend mage besides, wasn't someone whose tea Evan felt much confidence drinking. Not being served suited him just fine.
Evan glanced around the room. Slovenly as Shailen looked, he was still an elf at heart — the house itself was kept reasonably clean, everything arranged with a certain orderliness.
"Why did you invite us here, really?" Evan asked.
"You're a necromancer, and yet you keep a flower fairy as a pet. I find that curious — a flower fairy willing to sign a contract with you. Though that's your own business, and I won't pry into it. What I want to ask is this: are you interested in the World Tree?" Shailen asked. He wasn't certain whether Evan was actually a lich, so he simply called him a necromancer instead — it worked either way.
A flicker crossed Evan's eyes. "I am interested in the World Tree. Show me a mage who isn't interested in the elves' sacred tree. But what good does that do? Outsiders can't get anywhere near it."
"And if I could get you close to it?" Shailen said.
"What?" Evan stared at him. For a moment he even wondered whether Shailen bore some grudge against his own people — an ugly elf harboring some twisted resentment would hardly be unusual. But according to Morissa, the World Tree itself accepted him. In that instant, several possibilities crossed Evan's mind at once, including the thought that perhaps the World Tree wasn't as intelligent as outsiders believed, and simply recognized people by bloodline alone.
Perhaps sensing Evan's surprise and doubt, Shailen smiled. "It's not what you're imagining. I have no intention of betraying my own people, not in the slightest. You may not believe this, but I'm the Elf Queen Ladriel's brother-in-law. My wife, unfortunately, gave her life for our people."
Given how exalted his standing turned out to be, Evan was even more at a loss — and it was clear Shailen had no wish to say more about the past.
Shuang spoke up. "How would we get close to the World Tree?"
"The World Tree accepts me. All you'd need to do is stay near me," Shailen said.
"That's all?" Evan sounded doubtful.
"As long as you bear it no ill will, that's all it takes. Especially you, little fairy — you'd need to be a friend to the World Tree," Shailen said.
"Why help me at all?" Evan felt certain this couldn't be as simple as it sounded. He barely knew the man — he certainly didn't believe he had some kind of overwhelming personal charisma that made strangers bow at his feet on sight.
"Want to know why? Our branch of the forest elves left Goling two thousand years ago and settled here in the Elven Forest ever since. Elves live long lives, but even so, an ordinary elf sees maybe three hundred years — I've lived more than five hundred myself. In two thousand years, my people have barely changed at all. We live gracefully, reproduce at an abysmally low rate, and under the World Tree's protection, we look, on the surface, blissfully content. Meanwhile the dark elves who split off from us — the ones who eat meat and live however they please, the ones the rest of the world calls wicked — they have no World Tree to shelter them, and they've grown stronger step by step, becoming a force to be reckoned with. They started with barely a hundred people. Now they number over a hundred thousand, still growing under their king Ailsara's leadership. And we remain exactly where we've always been, trapped in this one corner of the world," Shailen said.
"You want to destroy the World Tree. That's insane — I want no part of this," Evan said without a moment's hesitation. Setting aside whether the World Tree could even be destroyed, doing such a thing was unthinkable regardless — it would make him an instant mortal enemy of every elf alive, and of Hollingburton besides.
"The elves' World Tree can't be destroyed. That's not where our problem lies. A flower raised in a greenhouse can never grow into a towering tree. You understand — among elves, women have always ruled over men. I've studied human history. Among humans, men are generally the ones who rule as king, and that's exactly why your kind keeps growing stronger," Shailen said.
"You're wrong about that. It has nothing to do with who sits on the throne. The dark elves are ruled by women too, and look how they've grown. This is simply a matter of how a people chooses to live. If humanity found itself in the same circumstances my people are in, it would end up exactly the same way," Evan said, shaking his head.
"Whether I'm wrong hardly matters at this point. I begged the World Tree once — asked it to withdraw its protection from this valley, just for a while, to send some hardship down and wake these people up from their stupor of comfort. The World Tree refused me. So now I intend to send a flower fairy flying into the World Tree's very core. There's a Moon Spring at its heart. I want her to carry a poison I've distilled myself and taint the water with it. No one expects it, but the World Tree will grow angry over it, and the whole environment here will change because of it." Shailen's tone had turned feverish.
Evan stared at him, stunned. The whole plan was absurd beyond belief. Was the man even in his right mind?
Evan shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't agree to that. Come on, Shuang, we're leaving."
"How about I tell everyone what you really are — a lich?" Shailen threatened.
"Say I'm a lich — who'd believe you? Am I a lich? A lich can't cast anything but necromantic spells." Evan reached out casually, and lightning crackled through the air around his hand. "Are you so sure I'm a lich?"