Chapter 21: The Skirmish

Elf. Smooth unblemished, tall, slender, quick, nimble with striking eyes and an equally stunning body. That's what Elsa is. It satisfied my previous suspicions about her; she wasn't just any beautiful woman; she was more a lot more.

Except not really. Here in the Kingdom of whatever, and likely across this fractured continent as well, Elves were third-class citizens. In some places they were nothing more than another commodity on the shelves.

I find it strange. Elves. Powerful, nimble ageless elves with a boot on their necks. Unable or unwilling to strike back. With the way Elsa told it, I'd wager unable.

"What about magic?" I'd asked. "I sensed it within you the first time I looked in your eyes. Although I didn't know it then."

"Our most identifiable trait," she caressed her ears a bit. I noticed they were flat where they were usually pointed and long. "They're cut off at birth with a magic, our access to mana is sealed this way. We may have vast pools of the thing but it's no use if we can't reach it."

Powerless. Like a feline declawed. I didn't bother asking how things had ended up this way. It would undoubtedly be a long history lesson starting with and ending with a war. Instead I paid more attention to the answer of the question I'd actually asked. What's up with all the dishonour?

"We aren't the only elves in the village." This I knew. The woman who'd given me an apple the day I arrived here was an elf as well. The vibe Elsa gave off was eerily similar. "Of course, the others are less unfortunate. Some of us are really lucky, we catch the eyes of a human and we're lifted from the squalor. I was lucky once."

"Your husband was human."

She nods sadly, her eyes drifting as she retells her story, "We grew up together really. He was repeatedly chided by his parents when he was found around me. Helping me, pitying me. That pity, his sympathy for me, for my kind led him to his own undoing. He ran away, he took me with him. His smile was so bright and his eyes held such optimism for a future, a bright one for the two of us, it'd be difficult for anyone to say no to that."

He breath falters, shuddering as she recalled the horror. "We came here. It was all I hoped for and more. We had Sem and we were contributing to the village, our fair share. All that changed when Lord Garland was declared unfit to rule the village. It was a shock for everyone, worst of all the elves. The new Mayor would be an outsider, one with no sympathy whatsoever for our kind, that much was sure."

"He started with the basics. A boot on the necks of anyone who dared to defy him, of course, there wasn't much to defy. The most change he brought was to the ruling structure. He rules alone now, no advisory body from the villagers themselves. That's fine. No cares, so long as we're fed and safe, if that's what he needed to get things done, that's fine."

"Then he started oppressing the elves. Targeting us really. Most of the servants are elves with no other work, he is brutal to us, the ones he fancies have it the worst. So far, you've seen me on my good days. I didn't used to be that way though, at least, not until he took my Husband away from me."

"We're on the outskirts. Monsters regularly attack us, it's expected. That's why a mage is always meant to be the ruler of such places. The Mayor, on one of these attacks, was pushed back. Unable to fend them off by his lonesome like he should have-"

"Should have?" I couldn't help but ask. She nods, caressing her head, likely feeling an ache come on.

"He is meant to be a C-rank magic user. The monsters that attacked were mere D-rank, dangerous, but nothing compared to a C-rank magic user."

I nod. There was a ranking system in place for the skill of a magic user it seems. "Continue."

"Well. We didn't have an actual guard then, not like we do now with the patrols at night. So, the Mayor was really our only line of defence. He fled and to keep the monsters away he…he ordered." Her voice cracked and trembled a bit. I placed my hand on hers. She wiped a single tear and took a breath. "He ordered that the elves be thrown out. To distract the monsters while he recovers his mana."

"My husband took my place. They came knocking on our door, urgently pulling on any adult elf in the village. They didn't tell us anything, just that all elves were required. My husband seemed to know what this was, what was going to happen. He took my place. The Mayor knew about it apparently. But there was no time, no time to correct a single human walking into the ranks of monster bait. When it was all over, he corrected that. Kept me silent by his side at the Hall, had his way with me and pushed Sem and I out of our old house. Called my husband's death dishonourable."

***

Honestly, when I set my sights on Perlman for the first time, he looked nothing like the type of man Elsa spoke of then. But we're human, we live to subvert worst and best expectations. Perlman had done so magnificently.

I look out an open window, or rather a glorified hole in the wall. Outside there's people gathered. Not the way they were gathered last time, calmly camping out the house, waiting for my serene presence to come out. Instead now they stand as a wall. Two walls parallel and opposed to each other.

"You've got fans." Anselm idly comments. I'd summoned him for the sake of company when Elsa went to bed. I doubt she's sleeping though.

I'm not sure which side he's calling fans really. The real fans or the fans.

"Garland's people are out there. If they try anything there'll be a loud enough ruckus to alert us." After Perlman and the Diviner's obvious disapproval of my existence, people within the village began taking sides. Still, I held the larger number of people. With my summoning of Garland the First, I brought on a lot of hardliners from the side-lines of things and onto my side.

"As it is, there'll be a ruckus soon. Things weren't supposed to be this complicated, I thought you just wanted money, not justice."

"You heard Elsa same as I. In fact, you probably knew about her before she told me." The dead were great history teachers, with how nosy he his, it's unlikely he didn't get any answers. "Would you have us do nothing, stand onto the side and watch how this Perlman brat gets away with…that?"

He shifts uncomfortably in his suit of armour, its meaning and implications weighing on him, "What's it to you anyway? You're a mage. An elf is your worst enemy."

"Why? Because they are naturally attuned to magic and humans can't take the competition? I say learn a thing or two from the competition. But since it's come to suppressing them, fine, but the least I could do, the least any mage could do is not be a monster."

"A monster?"

"Do you really see kicking an opponent while their down anything less than monstrous?"

"Only if the fights fair." He grunts

"You think it's not?"

"What's fair about mere elven children holding mastery over powerful elemental magic whereas humans use up their entire live spans studying for the same level of mastery?"

"Everything. That's the natural advantage gifted by your Goddess Anera isn't it? Why complain when that's the way she ordained it to be or are human's that afraid of being the weaker race?"

"Anera didn't create the elves."

I raise an eyebrow at this but don't falter in my assault, "So you say, but you know more than anyone that the true workings of deities are not for mortals to comprehend. She may have created the elves alone even and some other god created humans in mimicry of her beautiful creation."

He groans, frustrated, "You know nothing but your third leg it seems." He waves my argument off and floats off through the roof, effectively running away.

I shake my head and eat an apple. There's an abundance of food now, Sem and Elsa were particularly ecstatic about it. Anselm is an aborigine of this world, messed up as his thinking is, there's an entire history of conditioning to it. It would take more than a logical argument to convince him that this was a lot more than just…justice.