Chapter 12: Into the Breach
"How much further?" The question was quiet and solemnly put but as straightforward as he could possible bare, without breaking down in to a blubbering mess of tears and snot. Zeren Amari sat on the back of vice captain Merian's lion-dog holding onto her as the group of golden knight rode towards the Breach. "Not much further", Captain Olvolvia replied tersely, "you'll be back with other humans soon". As soon as those words reach him, Zeren choked back a sob, that sounded like a combination of a cough and a sneeze. Sensing the boy's distress but without turning around, she placed her hand on his hands around her waist, and gently squeezed. "Remember Otar, Geencha, Juri and Eris. Don't forsake their love and their teachings".
Zeren simply held onto Merian, partly for balance whilst riding a lion-dog but also as a means of conveying his thanks for her sympathy and kindness. Eventually, with the ever continuing riding Zeren fell asleep, his face resting against the small of Merian's back to her embarrassment, and the closer the group got to the Breach the more conflicted she became about whether or not expelling a human who had no human family was the right thing to do. And ever so slightly her conviction and belief in the dragons judgements began to slip.
Turning her head ever so slightly, Merian couldn't help but run her eyes over the boy's face. He was quite attractive for a human, yet as soon as that thought entered her brain she shook her head dislodging that train before it could continue foe the tracks. A wild blush was spread across her cheeks, and she silently pleaded that her other golden knights hadn't noticed, human and elf couples were soo deeply frowned upon and soo taboo; it was practically an automatic banishment for anyone who broke that rule. She had always tried to live the life of a dutiful girl in service to Lux Aurea, and as a golden knight uphold her honour as the sky wing elf to be inducted into the elite forces of the Sunfire elves.
Zeren didn't remember when he had fallen asleep but when he awoke, the group having arrived at the gorge with its lava falls and lava river, he was instantly flustered and embarrassed at using vice captain Merian as a pillow; and from the flustered look on her own face Zeren knew she was embarrassed as well. "Hey, get to your feet", the stern faced captain spoke, scowling in his direction, and then sending a withering glare at Merian as well. As he walked he heard the captain quietly reprimand her deputy, "your fat too familiar with him. It's unbecoming in a golden knight. Especially, the youngest sister of royalty". He wanted to defend the vice captain and he was about to open his mouth to do so, when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. Looking up he saw another sunfire elf shake her head in a very definite don't to him, so he held his tongue for proprieties sake and to protect Merian from appearing defiant.
Suddenly feeling a renewed sense of loneliness and depression hitting him, Zeren moved his hand to the moonstone pendant and the silver and crystal necklace from his mother and sister, trying to reign in his fear and grief. "Okay", a voice spoke, "lets go". Dismounting the lion-dog, he followed Merian, and Olvolvia down the cliff path along the gorge avoiding the lava falls and unstable surfaces. "The humans have a border outpost here in the Breach", the captain spoke, "we will take you there, wherein you will be 'saved' by those within". It was then that Merian turned and spoke to him, "once you're inside the garrison, the humans will no doubt ask you how you came to be in Xadia..."
Holding back tears, Zeren managed to respond, "I will say I was travelling on a ship with my parents from Evenere to Katolis when a storm struck. And as a result I washed up in Xadia, where I was taken prisoner and then marched back to the border".
The vice captain nodded her head in acceptance of the statement, where else captain Olvolvia clenched he fists and growled, under her breath, something that sounded like 'inferior pest'. Suddenly, an arrow shot forwards and missed the captain, who drew her sun-forged blade slicing it in two. "It's an attack!" The cries of human soldiers from further on down the winding cliff trial, "for the good of the Pentarchy, protect the border!" Before Zeren could even try and quell any further escalations of violence, Captain Olvolvia had climbed back on to her lion-dog and was ordering a charge of the soldiers, "their actions prove their hatred of us. Defend yourselves if need be, but we will not kill". Merian pulled Zeren back on to her own lion-dog and followed her captain and the other golden knights, "hold on. We will take you to the humans directly".
The human guards upon realising that elves were in the vicinity fled back to their fortress outpost, sealing the doors behind them, and then arming themselves on the barricades above. Whilst at the same time sending out riders back to the nearest kingdom, Katolis, about the attack on the Breach.
General Tamil hailed from the kingdom of Katolis, and subscribed to the belief, like his childhood friend King Svengauld of Katolis, that the elves of Xadia were a persistent threat to the Pentarchy and that they needed to be either subjugated or destroyed. However, since jealousy had been behind the destruction of the Amari family, and the pentarchy had amalgamated all three factions supporting that family into working in coordination with them, the Pentarchy had quickly realised that they didn't possess any power that could do either of those two ideas.
Leading some people to publicly decry that the murders of the Amari family had been by elves as a way of ridding primal magic from humans, and unifying the five kingdoms against Xadia.
Yet the real reason for spreading such lies was simply to absolve and shield the five royal families of any semblance of guilt from the backlash that might occur if the truth was ever discovered. As no matter how hard any of them had tried to permanently destroy the reputations and legacy of the Amari family, the ordinary citizens still utterly adored the human primal mages, and believed that they were saints. And so the kings manipulated that adoration to best grant them continued loyalty from the peasant, workers, merchants and lower nobles. And so as result of deception and mass produced propaganda, the majority of citizens came round to the belief that the elves were responsible for the Amari's deaths.
As the Golden Knights charged at the fortress, on the gatehouse tower one of the lookouts shouted out, "General! They've got a human prisoner with them". Before General Tamil could respond, they all heard a voice form outside their fortress, the voice of a sunfire elf holding a sun-forged blade in her left hand. "Send out your general, I wish to transfer over a prisoner. After which we will leave peacefully. Unless you start anything, like those arrows you fired at us". Trying to hold his nerve, but simultaneously holding his sword tightly in his hand, General Tamil narrowed his eyes as he responded. "If I come and meet you, unarmed... you hand over your prisoner, and I will let you return to Xadia unharmed". Tamil did not mistake the slight scowl on the elf captains face when he said 'unharmed' but he knew that the main thing right now was to assure the child's safety, and away from the bloodthirsty elves.
As he walked down the steps of the battlements to the gatehouse, Tamil nodded his head to some soldiers who followed him outside. The prisoner it seemed was older than he had thought but not by much, maybe sixteen or seventeen, but age wasn't what Tamil saw. All he saw was another potential death at the hands of the elves, one that he refused to allow. Drawing his sword, and noticing the narrowed eyes suddenly alert and mistrustful, the commanding officer threw his sword down to the ground and walked forwards. "I'm here, now free the boy", he announced, coming to a stop in front of the sun fire elf captain.
Captain Olvolvia felt a burning rage surge through her body, and a desire to bifurcate this human, so hot her rage was she had to bite her to dig her nails into her palms to centre herself. But her words remained sharp and bitter. "Don't tell me what to do!" The human general narrowed his eyes and was about to respond, when Merian interrupted walking forwards with the boy following her; a sorrowful expression on his face, that almost made her rethink his plight and her duty to remove him from Xadia. "General, this is Zeren. That is all he told us when we found him washed ashore. I hope he grows up well and happy back in his homeland", Merian exclaimed noting the flinch on Zeren's face at the mention of the word 'homeland'.
Moving slowly forwards, Zeren tried desperately to not shed any tears, although he did sneak one final look back at Xadia, when he was at the generals side. Memories of home and family, forever burned into his brain; Otar, Geencha, Juri and Eris. Also the quirky, If not strangely comforting nature of the oracle Mother Aughra. "Come on Zeren, you're safe now", the general said, before nodding his head towards a man on the battlements, who gave the order to stand down. "Thank you", general Tamil stated, bowing slightly as per the arrangement of prisoner swaps with Xadia and the Pentarchy. "Return home in peace", he spoke to the elves placing a hand on the boys shoulder and directing him inside the Breach Fortress. "Out there", vice captain Merian muttered to herself, "are good people. You'll find friends".