Chapter 4

"Fifty two fatal victims, forty-six injured and counting. Not to mention the costs in road and real-estate loss..." Tom Manning exhaled in frustration and rubbed the corners of his eyes. "The elf cannot continue releasing giant mutants in the city. We must stop him at any cost."

The director of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, B.P.R.D., said with his gaze fixed on the report of all the damages caused the previous night. Agent Krauss had ordered to collect samples of the moss, which magically grew where the giant had touched. After having raided the entire area and every little nook that could lead to the sewers, the agents could not track the steps of Prince Nuada. He had vanished from the place.

"And over seventy guests to the auction of Blackwood's who became dinner for the toothfairies His Assness, the Prince, left behind," Red mumbled as he lit Cohiba Robusto.

"Your Highness," Abe spoke and turned towards Princess Nuala, "you know your brother better than anybody. What is the next step? Tell us what to do and we'll do it."

Red and Liz exchanged puzzled looks at Abe's solemn and dutiful tone of voice, while Krauss and Manning ignored him. The B.P.R.D. would not manage this crisis all by itself. The mere fact of sheltering Princess Nuala in their headquarters violated the agency policies. The Princess touched her long blue gown from its exquisite golden detail and produced a diamond-shaped piece of shiny gold and symmetric carved details. She presented it before everyone's confused eyes.

"This is the last piece of the crown of Bethmoora. My brother needs it to awaken the Golden Army and wage his war against humans."

She spoke calmly and with pain in her voice, as if she had already resigned to the situation. Abe observed her and studied every move she made. The beautiful Elven Princess had just lost her father at the hands of her own brother. Any other person would be destroyed, yet there she was among strangers about to plot a trap against her own flesh and blood. Next, she took out a dark middle-sized cylinder out of her coat with similar decoration as the golden piece.

"This is the map with the location of the Golden Army." The Princess lowered her head and held the artifact against her body. She raised her amber gaze, filled with grief. "My brother cannot have any of them. My father died honoring the truce with humans. I shall do the same if that becomes necessary."

"The Golden Army! The harbingers of death! The unstoppable tide!" Krauss noted, fascinated as he studied the cylinder. "The Golden Army can't and shouldn't be awakened. While we have Your Highness's crown piece and the map..."

"My brother will come for both of them. He will find me, he always does," the Princess interrupted. Her voice sounded soft and high-pitched, yet strong. "We're twins, since birth we have a connection beyond geographical and time distances."

"So Her Highness knows where the Prince is at this moment, isn't it so?" Krauss interrogated. "With Your Highness's help we can find him and restrain him."

The Princess lowered her head and turned around to face the massive shelves with endless rows of books surrounding the room.

"Nuada has allowed his hatred to poison his heart, closing it to me. He can feel wherever I may be for I have never stopped loving him yet I to him...," she turned to the group with watery eyes. "For a long time I had a brother with whom I grew up, we were one soul divided into two bodies, however after the Great War when he left us... His parting was not only physical. Nuada erased me and our father from his heart."

Silence overwhelmed the room. Abe ventured to approach the Princess as Red and Liz exchanged looks with no good idea to add. Krauss released steam through his mechanical gills and shook his head. Manning scratched his hair and checked the damage report again. Suddenly, an agent wearing a black suit and a tie rushed into the room bringing a binder which in front read "CONFIDENTIAL" in red letters. Manning accepted it and hastened to open it. His jaw dropped at the content. Krauss neared and studied the photographs. Red and Liz joined them. After seconds of checking them, they went to Abe and the Princess and showed them.

"We found Nuada's weak spot," the agent said triumphantly. "A witness saw him climbing up one of the back corners of the Grand Theater around 9 pm last night, one hour after the incident with the green giant. He arrived at the top and entered through one of the attic's small windows. Afterwards he was seen among the crowd of fans of the singer Loreto Clair who had just given a concert at the place."

Red laughed skeptically and grabbed the bunch of photos from Manning's hands. He checked them again, one by one. Liz and Abe were glued to him at each side. There couldn't be a mistake. How many psychopath elves pushing two meters of height, long-bleached hairs and marbled face were wandering around the city? His outfit left no room for doubts. That golden shield at the center of his clothing around his stomach was the royal seal of Bethmoora. The photographs were not only of the previous night. Others showed the Prince in similar situations, either climbing or descending from theaters or cathedrals, yet they showed a lower quality than those taken the previous night. He wore varied outfits in each picture, however time leaves no mark of its advance in the physiognomy of a five thousand-years-old elf.

"So His Assness likes Loreto Clair and went to her concert just after introducing us to his friend, steroids-induced ivy," Red concluded bitterly and gave a deep puff to his Cohiba.

Liz took away the pictures from Red's hands and scanned them.

"They don't seem fake although we could run an authenticity test. Who took these older ones?"

"We did," the agent said.

Everyone gasped in shock. Manning complained nobody ever informed him about such protocol and sought support in the special agents without getting reactions other than astonished faces. The agent coughed in his fist and adjusted his black tie.

"We've been following Prince Nuada's steps for decades. We do it since we learned of the existence of the Troll market and the kingdom and clan of the Bethmoora right below our feet in New York. The troublesome past of the Prince activated our alarms," he nervously faced the Princess, "my apologies, Your Highness," he whispered and bowed with the head. She didn't react. "What we weren't expecting was the Prince to take the time to attend a concert as he usually does in the middle of his quest to awaken the Golden Army."

"Your Highness," Abe faced the Princess, "did you know about this?" he dared to inquire.

She softly shook her head and lowered her gaze.

"It has been ages of separation. Who my brother was when we still lived together is no longer who he is today. I know not of his likes, routines, schedules. He's a stranger to me."

Her voice broke. She took a deep breath and raised her delicate chin with dignity, losing her sad amber gaze in a random spot in the nothingness.

"If Prince Nuada has a liking for Miss Clair's music, then she is our safest bet to get to him and pinpoint his location," Krauss concluded and walked towards the exit.

Everyone looked at him, puzzled. The German turned around.

"You are not coming?"

Liz exchanged looks with Manning and they understood each other without needing words. She took a step forward and grabbed Krauss by the shoulder.

"If we want Loreto Clair to cooperate, let's try not to scare her by bringing a fleshless and boneless German medium, a red demon and a walking fish, all right?" she turned to the agents. "Sorry, boys."

Abe and Red shrank their shoulders and agreed.

Liz walked to the exit and as she passed by Manning, she said:

"Sir, allow me to do the talking because you'll get nervous before a beautiful and famous woman such as Loreto Clair."