Chapter 214: The Elven Elders
Evan and Shuang appeared inside the World Tree's warded perimeter without the slightest warning — as though they'd simply always been standing there. The elves charged with guarding the World Tree froze in shock for a moment, then snapped out of it and closed in at once. Nothing like this had ever happened in the whole of their history.
Every kind of magic failed within the World Tree's grounds, teleportation and blinking least of all — no one could simply appear within the inner ring, let alone the outer one. And yet here it was, happening right in front of them, leaving the elves half convinced they were dreaming.
"Hands up. Don't move." Sylph already had her bow drawn, an Anti-Magic Arrow gleaming cold as she leveled it at Evan. She had no idea how the man had gotten there.
Evan couldn't help himself. The World Tree's spirit could have at least dropped them somewhere a bit further off. Watching the glinting arrowhead trained on him, he found himself relaxing instead, and couldn't resist a bit of teasing. "So which is it — hands up, or don't move?"
"You — you glib-tongued piece of work! Hands up!" Sylph settled on hands up, once and for all. She was the captain of this guard, an exceptional archer whose skill, on the knight ranking scale, matched that of a Grand Knight — and magic being unreliable this close to the sacred tree, her bow made her formidable on its own besides. She was on duty today, and had never in her life expected anything like this to happen.
Evan raised his hands. Shuang, perched on his shoulder, took one look at him like that and burst out laughing.
"You too — hands up, flower fairy!" Sylph barked. Evan grinned, and Shuang muttered something under her breath before raising her hands as well.
"Our hands are up. What now?" Evan asked, smiling, as he faced down the eight elves surrounding him — three women, five men.
"How did you get here?" Sylph asked.
"How do you think? That big tree of yours invited us. Rotten luck, though — we'd barely arrived before you lot spotted us," Evan said, unbothered.
"What? You're saying our sacred tree invited you?" Sylph and the other elves exchanged glances. She barked out, "Nonsense. Why would the sacred tree invite you? Tell us the truth — what magic did you use to get in here?"
"You won't believe the truth either way. Fine, listen closely. I'm Professor Evan Wang of Hollingburton," Evan said. A mischievous impulse rose in him, and he added, "A necromancer!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the elves surrounding him took a step back as one. "You're a necromancer?"
Elves despised necromancers above all else. In their minds, a necromancer spent his days in the company of skeletons and corpses, forever wrapped in gloom, lurking in the dark with eyes glowing green, plotting some harm or another at every waking moment.
"That's right, I'm a necromancer. Quite the surprise, isn't it? We're not so bad, really," Evan said, grinning shamelessly.
"Sister Sylph, what should we do?" Susan, standing beside her, asked.
"You keep watch here. I'll go report this to the Queen and see what she has to say," Sylph said. Susan and the others nodded, gripping their rapiers and bows a little tighter. Evan lowered his hands.
"Hands up! Stay still!" Susan shouted.
"Easy there, little one. I'm not running, and I'm not resisting — I'd say that's about as still as it gets. You should treat your prisoners a bit better, you know. Crack a smile — that face is much too stiff for someone so lovely," Evan said, in a teasing tone. Hearing this, Shuang lowered her own raised hands as well.
Susan flushed red with anger, but with no better move to make, all she could do was snap, "Behave. You're our prisoner."
Watching her chest heave with indignation, Evan couldn't help but smile again. "I've been plenty well-behaved. It's that Shailen fellow you should worry about — always sneaking about with his bugs, spying on you all. Someone ought to give him a good talking-to. At the very least, make him hand over whatever spell he uses to control those insects."
His shamelessness left the elves around him utterly speechless, a chill running through them. They couldn't help but think of Shailen's reputation and wonder, uneasily, whether they themselves had ever been spied on by him. They stared at Evan, unable to find the words to describe him.
Shuang, still perched on Evan's shoulder, shot him a sidelong glare, then took in the elves' stunned expressions with unmistakable delight. Serves you right for tangling with a lich, she thought — now you'll see what he's capable of, forcing sweet little Shuang here to raise her hands in surrender. She very nearly clapped in satisfaction.
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Then Elf Queen Ladriel arrived, a small entourage in tow — Heathermere and Roland among them. The three of them had been in the middle of a discussion when word reached them that Evan had appeared within the World Tree's inner ring. Ladriel knew perfectly well that no magic could function near the World Tree without its express permission — it was, in its own way, a singular and intelligent being, one she had communed with many times before.
That Evan had appeared within the World Tree's grounds meant, to her mind, exactly one thing: the World Tree itself had recognized him. There was no other way anyone could ever have stood there. No one in this world had ever managed it before.
The moment she heard, she came at once, and since Heathermere and Roland from Hollingburton had been in conversation with her when the news broke, neither of them could afford to take the matter lightly either — one of Hollingburton's own, appearing within the World Tree's grounds.
When Ladriel arrived, the elves surrounding Evan — Susan especially, who looked nearly ready to cry — dropped to their knees the instant they saw her.
Ladriel waved a hand, letting them rise, and only then did she look closely at Evan. The moment she did, a single phrase escaped her. "It's you?"
Evan had only glimpsed her from a distance before. Up close now, he took in the natural grace that seemed woven into her very being, her beauty beyond compare, and a pressure about her that felt almost like she stood in opposition to nature itself. He smiled and stepped forward with a bow. "Esteemed Sovereign of the Elves. I'd long heard that the elven kingdom lives in perfect harmony with nature, and seeing it today, the reputation is well earned. And yet here I find myself treated rather unfairly — hardly in keeping with your kingdom's good name."
At this, Susan and the others felt certain Evan meant to turn the accusation around on them before they could speak, and broke into a nervous sweat.
Ladriel couldn't quite place his aura — something like a lich's, and yet not quite. She recalled, for a moment, the strange sensation she'd felt the instant she'd first laid eyes on him from atop Sky City, then smiled faintly. "You're a necromancer. The elven kingdom has never welcomed necromancers. That you've been allowed into our kingdom at all is already an act of extraordinary generosity on our part. How, exactly, have you been treated unfairly?"
Her voice was soft, gentle even — and yet there was steel hidden within the velvet. It was no wonder she was Queen of the elves; a few words, and she'd already turned Evan's complaint neatly back on itself.
"All life is equal. For a people who revere nature as deeply as elves do, that should run to the very marrow of your bones. Why, then, this prejudice against necromancers?" Evan said, smiling as well. He had no interest in arguing over the kingdom's existing laws — he went straight for the very principle the elves held most sacred, cutting past every branch to strike at the root.
"Because elves cherish life, and cherish peace. And what necromancers do is, more often than not, wicked." Ladriel looked at him with faint surprise. She had no wish to debate the point — honestly, it was simply a matter of attitude, and attitude rarely had much to do with what was correct, being tied instead to feeling. But when it came to necromancers, that instinctive opposition ran so deep that in two thousand years, not a single necromancer had ever set foot in elven lands.
Evan sensed this too. The elves' detachment from worldly affairs was, from an individual's point of view, a kind of happiness — but from the perspective of the whole people, things were shifting all the same. The dark elves had split off from them long ago; individual elves kept drifting off to blend into human society; the times kept moving forward, and it seemed the elves grew more and more disconnected from it all with every passing year. Even within their own ranks, there were people like Shailen.
"I stand corrected," Evan said. A sudden weariness settled over him, and he found he had no wish to keep arguing the point. The thought caught him off guard for a moment — some faint understanding stirring in him. He could go on debating this forever, and say a great deal in the process, but would any of it actually accomplish anything?
Ladriel noticed the shift in his mood too. Shuang, meanwhile, looked utterly baffled — she'd been enjoying the argument immensely, hoping for nothing more than a good bit of chaos to unfold. She let out a small "hm" and whispered to Evan, "What's the matter with you? Why'd you stop? Keep going — imagine that, prejudice, right here in the elven kingdom."
Her voice was quiet, but not quiet enough — everyone heard it. Ladriel's face flushed faintly pink. Heathermere stared at Shuang in astonishment, while Roland's eyes lit up with real interest — this little flower fairy seemed to carry a soul that thrived on stirring up trouble, and his curiosity about her only grew.
Evan shook his head. "Never mind, forget I said anything. I got carried away — everyone lives their own life, and elves are no exception. What matters is knowing yourself. In any case, Your Majesty, I was at Shailen's when I was suddenly summoned by the grace of the sacred tree and found myself here. The tree asked me to pass along a message — when Shailen and the others wish to leave, let them go."
The moment the words left his mouth, the whole gathering fell silent. One of the elven elders, Indria, flared up at once. "Nonsense! Why would the sacred tree entrust a message to you, of all people — one meant to tear our people apart?"
Another elder, Reed, spoke up instead. "He appeared inside grounds the sacred tree forbids to outsiders. How is that any less impossible? And besides — didn't the dark elves leave on their own, once upon a time?"
"The dark elves were different. They were traitors. When they left, it very nearly brought disaster down on all of us," Indria shot back.
Ladriel's expression turned cold. "Enough. The sacred tree's will isn't ours to guess at. I'll commune with it myself tonight regarding what he's said. It's not impossible that the tree has had this in mind for some time."
Shuang, meanwhile, pulled out her new wand and called out, "The elves' sacred tree gave me this wand itself! Anyone who doubts that, watch me teach them a lesson with it!"
The instant she raised the wand, everyone went still, every eye fixed on it. It radiated a pure, unmistakable aura of nature — striking even among a crowd of elves already steeped in that same aura from head to toe.
Evan watched Shuang striking her little pose, unable to keep a smile off his face — and then, one by one, the elves' expressions turned solemn, and they bowed toward her. "Greetings, Honored Elder!"
Shuang froze on the spot. And it wasn't only Shuang — Evan froze right along with her. He'd had no idea Shuang had somehow become an elder of the forest elves.