Chapter 2

Joyless beginnings

The journey was long. So long, in fact it took more than a week to get to the port in Reaper's Coast. Suddenly, Elane found herself in places she has never seen before. The only knowledge she had of those lands was from geography lessons she took. During this long, tedious ride she had a lot of time to think. Unsure what the future holds she reminisced about the past. Laying shackled on the cart bench, as uncomfortable as possible, she travelled back into the past, to the elven forest where she fought so ferociously to survive. To the faint glimpses of her real mother. To the world vicious and cruel…

The earliest memory I have is a never ending run from monsters dressed in leaves and bark. I was very young, in fact I hadn't even learned how to speak. My mother was always by my side as we made our way through the dense and dangerous forest. We were hunted, hunted by the kin. I never learned why they wanted us dead so dearly. Mother always said that we could find shelter in a city among humans and other races. That we would live a better life there. "City" was the first word I learned. There was no time for the others. Despite her best efforts, one day, the forest demons got us. Shot my mother first through the calf, then in the spine. She pushed me forward as she fell screaming, "Run,child! Run!". And so, terrified, I ran. It didn't take three leaps when I felt an arrow piercing my chest. I collapsed, grasping the arrow tight, groaning in pain. The demons were approaching. They spoke but I couldn't understand a word. Blood was seeping from the wound. I gathered what strength I had left to stand up and ran again. They followed. I ran until I felt a sharp pain piercing my skull. Then gust of wind and nothingness. I awoke near a pond where a great willow grew. Two arrows laying nearby, not a drop of blood on them, not a jolt of pain in me. I got to my feet and picked up the arrows. I continued forward…

"Halt!" a sharp, masculine voice woke Elane up from her slumber. Air had the familiar scent of salt and the screech of countless seagulls reached her ears. Below she could see a port and a ship that undoubtedly awaited her. She could see shackled Sourceres being rounded up and boarding the ship. Before she could join this merry company she was taken to Magister's barracks, stripped of her clothes and given prisoner's garb. Eventually, they asked her to give away her most cherished possessions, hairpin and decorative comb she always kept neatly tucked in her bun.

She refused, explained that it was just a family memento. After a few miserable looks and pleas they let her keep it and she joined the rest. At this point she ultimately gave up. It was futile to resist, to curse, to try and run away. All that was left in her was a grim acceptance of reality that was not disturbed even as the sedative entered her lungs causing tiredness and nausea.

A female voice woke her, saying something about reporting upstairs. Then, the metal rims restraining her body opened suddenly causing her to slide clumsily to her feet. Her head felt dizzy and her vision blurred.

"Now, isn't it a wonderful way to start a day?" a male voice asked, somewhere to the right.

Elane shook her head, closing her eyes for a second then glanced in that direction.

A figure that could belong to a human leaned against the table that held them captive a few minutes ago. He too looked dazzled, yet with a few shakes of his head he managed to straighten himself and walk a few paces. Elane had a much worse time getting her senses to work. She couldn't recall where she was and why she was. Taking a step forward led to her collapsing.

"So it wasn't a dream after all..." she said, trying to pull herself back up.

"Whoa!" the same voice warned, "Easy there..." She felt someone pulling her up, allowing her to lean on the blurry figure.

"T-thanks," she muttered, her tongue feeling swollen and numb.

"Vermil." the figure said.

Elane, confused, could only hum a quiet "Huh?"

"The name, my name, it's Vermil."

She shook her head violently, trying to clear the clouds from her vision "Elane, Elane Ravenloft, pleasure to meet-" here she sneezed, very unladylikely, "-chu!"

Hearing a stifled laugh she fought to open the eyes again to see to whom the voice belonged. The fight, although taking a while, was successful. A man of an average height, with black, slick hair and a fancy moustache appeared from the blur. The elf managed to straighten herself and whisper a few apologies but the man paid little attention to her, as he was scouting the surroundings. She, too, glanced at the strange devices in the room.

"I don't even remember them strapping me down," she murmured to herself, taking a quick look around just to recognize the surroundings. Everything was made out of wood, the walls being of a strange, curved shape.

"A ship," she thought.

"The only way out is up, it seems," the man proclaimed.

"So up we go," Elane answered.

The main hold was a big chamber filled with chatter, dim light and hot, stale air. No one did even bat an eye when they entered. Elane instantly felt overwhelmed while Vermil seemed more than happy to jump into conversation with a red-headed woman who was surrounded by an entourage of kids. The elf clung to the opposite wall and started making her way through the hold, passing another elven woman rolling dice in a dark corner. Something stirred inside of her at the sight. She couldn't explain why but she wanted to be as far from this person as possible, and quick. The scene of a murder she had seen on her way to the hold came to her mind. Elane wondered whether she was looking at the culprit.

Still, she had no intention of helping neither side. All she wanted was a nook to sit down and sulk for the rest of the journey. This desire led her to explore the other side of the chamber. In a corner not far from the door leading to the magister's quarters, she saw yet another elf. He was reading a book and muttering to himself. A strange sight, really. Elves she knew rarely wanted to learn common speech properly, let alone to read it! She had a general dislike for the elves who refused to assimilate, who kept their weird manner of speech and thought that leaves and flowers were far superior in terms of clothing than cotton, wool and leather. She often had to deal with those delinquents, who wanted to settle in the town. Indeed, recent years brought a great migration of elves. Elane heard that their homelands were destroyed in war but she didn't really care. Law was law and she used to be the one to enforce it. However, elves seemed to disregard anything that has been written down with ink and on paper, as they preferred blood and flesh and ,despite her heritage, Elane wasn't a keen flesheater.

She strolled past that strange elf lost in thought when she felt a tug on her left then right ear. Then, a tap on her nose and a stroke on her chin.

"Fascinating," the previously reading elf muttered before returning to his book.

Elane was befuddled. Did he just touch her? Why? She had witnessed strange behavior of her kin before but this was something entirely new. Only now she's noticed that he is reading Cranley Huwbert's famous encyclopaedia flicking through the pages and ignoring her like nothing has happened. For a second she started to doubt her own senses but then a sudden rage took over. She straightened her back, looking at him tall, proud and agitated.

"What do you think you're doing?" her voice rang steel-sharp.

Unbothered if somehow annoyed, the elf's gaze stayed fixated on the book.

"I am reading...Is it not evident? My book is in my hands, my face turned away from you..Perhaps my eyes not on the page? Damnable things…" As he put the book down for a moment, Elane used the occasion to slam her hand on the nearby table and lean close to this pointy-eared idiot.

"Why did you touch me like that?" she growled, her black eyes sparkling with unsettling flickers.

The expression of the assaulted elf changed from pure confusion to a sudden realization.

"Oh…?Oh! I see! I crossed a cultural taboo. How..difficult."

Elane's stern gaze softened suddenly "Cultural taboo"? "Difficult"?

"You have my apologies, fellow elf."

"Fellow elf?" she thought, "This fellow seems as clueless...as ,well, I am when it comes to acting like an elf. Dysfunctional, even".

She moved away, a faint smirk on her lips caused by the thought. Crossing her arms on her chest she continued listening to the elf's tirade.

"Perhaps I should demand the same from those red-cloaked humans. They laid their hands on me more than once.."

"And who, pray tell, had the pleasure of laying his hands on me?" she asked, more amused than mad.

"Ah yes, the 'niceties'. My name is Fane, I am a scholar from-...well, I am a seeker of knowledge. That is enough. It is pleasurable to meet you". An awkward bow of his head followed the introduction.

"You do seem lost for a scholar. Have you found much knowledge in there?" she pointed to the book he was holding.

"Hardly. I have been reading this book for several minutes and I have yet to find a single insight into the mysteries of the universe. It is simultaneously too detailed and insufficient. I know the beginning of this tale and the end, but I'm rather missing the middle."

Elane shook her head a few times in understanding as the scholar continued.

"Tell me, what do you know of your-" he quickly corrected himself, "-Our world's history?"

"Aren't you holding it in your hand already?" one of her brows sprang up."I won't tell you more than this but I've got a feeling you don't want to listen about wars and treaties anyway."

"No, " he nodded, "I want to know about the celestial. I want to know about your Gods. This text tells me they created all creatures, but nothing of what came before. Where did these Gods come from? Who are their people? Where are the others of their kind?"

With her brow furrowed, she pondered the question carefully before answering. " I might not be very religious myself but I've never thought about it like you. Most people consider Gods a force of nature," she paused, soon breaking the silence with a whisper. " I wonder what led you to these questions?"

The elf's face froze for just a second before he waved his hand dismissively.

"Oh it is just one of my idle curiosities. We mortals do like to consider these things, do we not?

Elane breathed in to answer but a call stopped her before she could say anything.

"Ravenloft, Elane! It's your turn to register!" a magister near the door shouted. She looked back at the elf and he was already glued to his book. She nodded and made her way to the door. It opened with a creak and all hell was set loose.