Saviour
Chapter One: The Elf's Return
"It is almost complete. Alas, I will cleanse Erinn and bring forth our long awaited paradise, the land of Tir Na Nog."
With a wave of her hand, a flash of light envelops the space filled with piles of empty corpse-shaped shells. One by one, the corpses strain to move towards the goddess. They slowly crawl across the floor, the sounds of shattering porcelain echoing through the undefined space as each corpse fends for itself. The goddess gazes at the battling shells with the flames of determination in her eyes.
"I will return for you, my child." She seals the portal to this space. "You will be the chosen one."
"Xar! XAR. Come quick! You've got to see this!" a voice calls from outside.
"Mhh…" Xariel pushes off the sheets that lightly covered her body and rolls out of bed. "Coming…"
"Faster!" her friend bursts in the door and grabs her hand. "You've got to see this!"
She is dragged out to the town square, where another elf stands, loading a small ball-shaped object onto a contraption strapped around his wrist.
He looks around at the crowd. "Are you all ready?" After a cheer from the elven audience, he raises his hand into the air, haze shooting out of the gun-like contraption.
The crowd gasps at the newly formed cloud and in that instant, rain begins to fall from the sky. "Rain!" they all exclaim.
The desert town of Filia was notorious for its lack of rain, and even better known for the sandstorms that plagued not only Filia, but the rest of Connous. Seeing rain fall from the sky was a rare sight; so rare, that Memory Tower only had five prior instances recorded, each one being several years away from each other. But now that this new invention had arrived, no longer would they have to wait years for rainfall.
The man was swarmed by an overjoyed elven community. "You're our saviour!" "Thank you so much!" "Do it again!"
"What is all this commotion about?"
The audience suddenly stops and sways aside, bowing on their knees to their leader, Castanea, followed by several elven guards.
"A fellow elf, I see? Why do you seek the attention of our village?" she says in her dark, airy voice.
"Your highness," the elf bows. "I have come with powers from the foreign lands. Witness for yourself, what I have shown our town today." He loads his contraption once again with the same ball-shaped object and raises his hand to the sky. Once again, clouds spew from the mechanism, causing it to rain.
Castanea lifts her hand to touch the drops. "Rain …" she whispers. "What is your name, sir?"
"Ryzhel, your majesty" he states. "I have returned from the human land of Uladh. They have invented many brand new techniques that open so many new possibilities! Simple rain like this is nothing compared to the countless discoveries they have found using alchemy!"
"The human land? You ventured beyond our borders?"
"I did, your highness, but don't get me wrong. I have no intention of betraying our country. I only wished to seek a way to better our elven lifestyle."
"Ryzhel, you will need to come with me. I would like to hear your stories of … alchemy, you called it?"
"It would be my pleasure, your highness." He bows once more as Castanea motions him to follow her into the Filian palace.
Xariel looks back at her friend, Inai. "How do you think he did such a thing?" she asks, but Inai couldn't yield an answer.
"What really matters," Inai says, "is that we can finally grow more crops. There will be more food for all of us! More to share! More we can make! Our boundaries our so much less limited now!"
"Yes, but don't you think it's strange? Goddess Irinid starves us of rain that we so desperately need. Yet this man … Ryzhel … he does it so effortlessly! Could he possibly be …"
"I doubt it. No god is coming to this small town anytime soon. It doesn't matter how many sacrifices we make, or how many times we pray. This guy is here for a reason." Irai looks at Xariel intently. "Let's go to the Memory Tower and record these memories for Filia to see. It's the last we'll see of them before they fade away."