Chapter 20 - Alone

The next day came, and the funeral was elaborate. With many tear-stained Elven faces playing various woodland instruments as a coffin is carried through a crowd of mourning elves. Hundreds of guards protected the area and the pathway where the coffin was to be carried.

Behind the entourage of elves holding the coffin high was me, Grace, and Elowyn. Neither of us knew the King well. But Elowyn looked distraught, lost. She said not a word the whole day we spent with her.

When we weren’t accompanying her on official meetings to discuss succession, she was locked up in her room and refused to come out for anyone. Hell, we were more or less begged by the Guards to stand by her so she didn’t shut down mid-funeral.

Finally, we made it down to an elevator in the middle of the city square. It was a good ten minutes down until we made it to the bottom. A lineup of graves could be seen for a good while. Most of them were recently.

Finally, we made it to the place where Elowyn’s father would be laid to rest. A large hole had been dug in the ground. A priest of the life goddess would say his prayers for the deceased, before finally. 

Elowyn walked up to the grave and put a hand on it.

“Father, I wanted to get that life crystal to help you.” She began. “Yet I failed, I couldn’t even do that. I had several tries and I failed.”

“I wasn’t good enough.” She looked ready to break down once more.

“Elowyn,” I said, a little disheartened. “Don’t say that. There was nothing anybody could have done.”

“My whole reason for getting that stupid crystal.” She muttered. “Is about to be buried. For hundreds of years, we tried and kept failing to kill her.”

“What is one more test of strength going to do at this point?” She walked up to me and tapped a button on the collar, it fell off of me and onto the ground with a soft thud.

I crouched down to pick it up. “Snap out of it, Elowyn!” I shook her a little. “Your father entrusted you with this because he believed that we would eventually win against the Goddess!” She was giving up, and I couldn’t have that.

“Listen, I know you suffered a big loss, and it’s ok to feel sad and to mourn that loss! But you can’t let that empty void within you get bigger and bigger, or it will only consume you whole.” I calmed down just a little more, hoping to get to her.

I placed the collar back around my neck. I got this far, and I refuse to quit now.

However, Elowyn simply looked at me straight in the eyes before slapping me.

It was audible, a loud crack as her palm connected to the side of my face. I turned my face to the side with the force of her strike. I slowly rubbed where I got slapped.

“He’s been my father for thousands of years!” Elowyn shouted back at me. “This loss is greater to me than a human with such a short life span could ever possibly imagine!”

The Guards all flinched.

“Just leave me alone! Go get Bud to finish your training if you’re this worried!” With that, she stormed off, after watching the grave get lowered, of course.

I felt a little sorry for her; I knew she probably didn’t mean what she said, and maybe I could have afforded to be more patient as well.

“Ah, Lady Elowyn, Lady Elowyn!” Bud waddled after her before stopping. She didn’t stop, not even for him. “I suppose Lady Elowyn just wishes to be alone.” His body drooped just a bit. “I suppose you will have to take your final trial…follow me.”

We wandered through the woods some more, still in funeral gear. Bud would extend his arms to tap my collar, putting me at triple the drain in energy. Finally, we made it to the base of a really large tree.

There was a tiny staircase this time, leading all the way to the very top.

“The goal is pretty self-explanatory.” Bud looked at me. “Are you sure?”

I looked at him, and I didn’t even feel that tired despite everything. “I’m sure, I’ll do it so I can be strong. For everyone's sake.” I knew that feeling. The desire to run away from it all, I’d be a hypocrite if I said I didn’t.

I went up the first set of stairs. Grace was about to follow when Bud wagged his finger ‘no’. “This is a trial he must overcome alone.”

I had no idea how long going up these stairs would take, but after a while. I could just see the ground get further and further away, Grace and Bud moving away from the base of the tree seemed like tiny dots on the forest backdrop.

Still, I continued to trek until even I couldn’t see them anymore, and I doubted they could see me in turn. They were both probably back at the castle trying to console Elowyn. But I couldn’t back down.

Still, this trial felt a little redundant, and I even felt quite strong at this point. I could probably even make it up within a few days of this.

After a bit more walking, I found myself at a platform. There seemed to be plenty of fruits and even some other food and water sitting around. Likely to keep trial goers from dying midway through the hellish climb.

I decided to sit down and eat when it got dark. I figured I could probably sleep here and maybe grab a few fruits with me when I leave tomorrow.

I noticed a few seeds sitting around. They certainly didn’t come from my food, I checked, and I always keep track of the seeds.

It was probably a bird, the place is protected by a magic barrier, or it could have also been a previous trialgoer. Some people or elves can be messy after all. Either way, it didn’t hurt to sleep with one eye open.

From the perspective of Grace

I sat outside the shut bedroom door of Elowyn Arclaneia. I wondered how far up Razan was, a little worried he would pass out on the stairs and fall. However, I was worried just as much for Elowyn as the morning rays began to peek over the horizon. Her door has yet to open, and the sounds of movement are rare.

Yet I could still tell she was alive from the infrequent ‘Go aways’ to me and the servants.

I didn’t talk, but she knew I was there. Sometimes, when I leaned against the door, I could hear a noise of someone shifting against the door as well.

After another day of waiting, I delivered her food. I tried to strike conversation.

“Elowyn?” I asked for her.

I would be greeted by silence and then.

“What?” Her voice sounded snappy, irritated.

“Do you want to talk?” I remained soft, yet firm.

There would be silence once more. I could hear Elowyn slowly taking deep breaths; her state of mind must be dire.

“Fine. We’ll talk.” Elowyn’s voice sounded a lot more resigned this time. “But what will we talk about?” I could tell she was quite new to this.

“Whatever you want to talk about,” I told her. Hopefully, she was taking the hint I was giving her to talk about how she felt about her father's death.

“I don’t feel anything other than this big empty void in my chest. Every time I think about him. I feel like it gets worse and worse.” Elowyn described her feelings, and I couldn’t help but relate. I lost many friends when my hometown got torched.

“That’s normal to experience. You know?” I pointed out. “Everyone does when they lose someone close to them. You've never lost anyone before, have you?” I asked her.

Elowyn stayed silent for a bit more, as if she were contemplating centuries, if not millennia, worth of information. Finally, she spoke again.

“None, nobody. I guess I could say, you and Razan. Even Ryu, too. But I know they come back, it’s nothing like losing someone so close after knowing them for hundreds, if not thousands of years.”

“Speaking of Razan…where is he? I feel bad for lashing out at him like that.” Elowyn admitted.

I decided to be honest. “He’s doing the final trial now; he was pretty determined to help you still.”

“He really is doing all that? But what’s the point? None of it matters; I failed to save my father.”

“I’m alone.”

Those words depicted something more serious in my mind. A cry for help, longing. For anybody who could help.

“But you’re not, you have us. Even Brent and Collette, back in Astora, would likely be willing to hear you out as well.” Even if Brent would do it in his own cocky way. With Collette chastising him from a few feet away. I think Elowyn had the same image I did because she chuckled a little.

“But the problem is, elves live for a long time. Without immortality, we live for a maximum of ten thousand years.” Elowyn explained. “Human lives are so fleeting.”

She did have a point. “So cherish us then, you don’t have forever, so enjoy us while we’re still here.”

The way she gasped at the revelation, as if it were something foreign. She was used to everyone being around her; the thought of loneliness was something that did not exist in her world.

Yet now, she was forced to confront it.

“I need to think about this. Can we talk again later?” Elowyn asked, her voice a little hopeful this time.

“Sure thing,” I assured her.

With that, I heard her move away. I figured my work here was done for now. So I began to doze off by myself.

From the perspective of Razan

I continued up the stairs some more as the days went by, and eventually I found myself at another empty platform. Some more food, however, there seemed to be more seeds as well, and there were even a few half-eaten fruits. Some of it was certainly new.

If it wasn’t obvious before, it was now.

I felt the familiar sting on my cheek. A feeling I never felt since Oren. A competitor, and they were close.

I should have realized it sooner. I was being watched this whole time.

To be continued.