Part One: What They've Sown

Stella Scintilla

Manu blinked in surprise, but drew his sword out of habit. Things had just gotten incomprehensibly weird. "I do not want to harm you," he told the strange elf. He could not remember seeing another elf before, as he barely had any memories that remained before his adoption by the Amin queens. He only recognized another elf because of the horns and pointed ears.

The figure raised a hand and pointed at Manu's thin blade. "You humans are so quick to draw your weapons." She said, her finger beginning to glow. Manu recognized it as magic, and as she began to trace a triangular glyph in the air, he knew he only had a few moments.

"Effigia!" He whispered hurriedly. Out from his body sprang duplicate images of him, and they sprinted through the clearing to surround the strange elf before she could finish casting her spell.

The elf tilted her head, processing this new occurrence. "A human mage with an arcanum." She said, voice level. "How quaint." She kept her finger suspended in the air, her bright glyph unfinished. "What is your name, mage?" She asked.

The real Manu spoke, but each of the illusions echoed his voice. "I am Manu, of the royal House of Amin, Court Magister of the Kingdom of Duren."

The elf raised an eyebrow. "Your usage of moon magic is very skilled, Manu of House Amin. It is a shame that I will have to kill you before I see any more."

She moved her glowing finger an inch, and then drew an arch over the triangle to complete the glyph. "Stella scintilla!" She commanded.

Purple sparks crackled into existence and burst out from her in every direction. Manu, the real one, managed to tuck and roll away in time before one could hit him, but the other illusions did not fare as well. The sparks pierced through them, and they faded into nothingness.

Manu recognized that he was outmatched in terms of magical prowess. He had no idea what other tricks the elf had in store, but he knew that there were more ways than one to win a fight. "Wait!" He cried. "I do not want to harm you." Proving his point, he dropped his sword to the ground and raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

The elf looked at him for a moment, keeping her finger raised and pointed at him. "No tricks, human, and I will ensure that your death remains a painless and swift one."

Manu bit his cheek, and then, for the first time since his adopted mothers left for their fateful mission to Xadia, he released the illusion he wore as a disguise and let another living being see him as he truly was. He felt his fake body drop from him like a silken veil, and he stood there in the moonlight not as a man, but as an elf. "I think we got off on the wrong foot." He said.

The elf looked stunned. Her glowing eyes widened, and her finger faltered. "You're an… elf?" She asked, voice wavering. "How can this be?"

Manu swallowed, knowing that he was still not yet safe. "I was adopted," he told her. "My parents were part of a raid into the Kingdom of Duren. They took me with them, but I was the only survivor."

The elf lowered her finger more. "So you were taken prisoner by the humans!" She exclaimed. "How could they do such a thing to a child?"

Manu shook his head, realizing for the first time that it was not only humans who had a skewed understanding of their ancient enemies. Ignorance and judgment was quick on both sides. "No, no." He countered. "I was taken in and treated fairly. Loved, even."

The elf looked at Manu for a few moments, and then raised her finger again, pointing it at him. "How do I know this is not some human trick?" She asked.

Manu resisted the urge to throw his hands up in the air in frustration. Elves could clearly be as stubborn as humans. "I've not tried to kill you, have I?" He reasoned, playing on the elf's clear distrust of humanity to hopefully convince her he meant no harm. "What is your name?" He asked, trying to make conversation to diminish the tension.

The elf blinked. "I am Miraya of the Startouch elves." She said cautiously, clearly not completely decided as to whether or not this was a trick. "I see from your markings and your horns that you are a Moonshadow elf?" She asked.

Manu nodded, keeping his surprise from his face. Startouch elves, from what he had read, were the rarest of all the elves. They drew their power from the cosmos, and not much else was known about them. The moon clearly meant for for him to be here, tonight. "I am." He said, feeling uneasy referring to himself as an elf when he was more comfortable in human culture. "I use moon magic to conceal my identity from the people of Duren, so that I can live a normal life among them."

"Are there more of you?" Miraya asked.

Manu shrugged. "How would I know?"

The Startouch elf looked at him for a moment, clearly confused at his attempt at humor. She finally lowered her finger. "I am sorry, Manu." She apologized. "I would not have challenged you had I known you were a fellow elf." She seemed genuinely regretful, and she frowned. "An elf in disguise as a man was the last thing I expected to see when I arrived in Duren."

Manu looked up at the stars. "So you meant to come here?" He asked. He did not know whether Startouch elves lived among the stars or whether they lived on the land in Xadia. After what he had seen tonight, either could be just as likely. His inquisitive nature yearned for him to ask Miraya all the questions imaginable.

Miraya nodded, her pale eyes closing for a moment and then opening to again reveal their faint glow. "I did." Her voice was soft, and Manu was pleased to see that elven body language was not too different than human body language; he noted how her weight shifted and her four fingered hands fumbled with the strange fabric of her clothing before she spoke next. He knew that whatever she said next would not be the truth. "I left Xadia to be able to see the rest of the world. Luckily for me," She smiled kindly. "I arrived next to a friend instead of a foe."

Manu smiled politely back, making up his mind to not trust this strange Startouch elf who had fallen from the sky. Something was off about her. He was comfortable with being lied to, because everyone deserved their secrets. However, the whole thing seemed off somehow. Still, he knew that others had likely seen her arrival into Duren, and he also knew that mankind were a curious lot and would likely come to investigate. He knelt and picked up his sword, and looked up at the elf. "Luckily for you." He repeated back. "Now we need to get you out of the open," he said. "And someplace where we can talk further."

Miraya's pale eyebrows raised for a moment, surprised. She knelt down too and picked up a dark bag that he had not noticed earlier. Then, she looked at him, and nodded. "Lead the way, Manu of the Moonshadow Elves." She then paused for a second, her thin lips turning towards. "Are there men up here who could find me?" She asked, concerned.

Manu shook his head. No one came up here, not even to hunt. However, after Miraya's magical entrance, he suspected more than a few curious people might come to investigate. "Just in case," He started, raising a hand and drawing the moon glyph in the air. "Evanesco!"

With a wave of his hand, the glyph burst into a glowing dust that fell onto Miraya, and he watched her fade away before his eyes. The last thing he saw was her pale eyes looking at him strangely, as though she had yet to make up her mind how to feel about him. He summoned his human form, and led the way back to his villa through the moonlit mountain woods.

As they walked, they did not speak. Manu was more focused on processing this turn of events, and he assumed that Miraya was concerned that making any noise would give her away to anyone watching them. Of all the places to come, why Duren? He knew that elves had many secret ways in and out of Xadia and into the human kingdoms, but he had never heard of a Startouch Elf falling from the sky like a comet. It had to be one of the most obvious methods of transportation he could imagine, which meant that the elf was either overly confident in herself or she was concerned about something else more than she was concerned about being seen. If it were the latter, he hoped that whatever she was running from would not reach the Kingdom of Duren.

It took longer than he liked, but they eventually reached the edge of the clearing where the small mountain spring gurgled and flowed peacefully into his small pond by the villa. The moon shone brightly into the water, almost begging Manu to jump in to it's beautiful light. He shook his head, weary of any more lunar thoughts into his head, especially tonight. When he opened his eyes, he saw a dark horse waiting outside his house, and his door was open.

He felt the space above his right shoulder grow warm. "Is something wrong?" Miraya whispered.

Manu's stomach churned. "No, no." He lied. "Everything is fine." He starting walking slowly towards his villa. "Just stay here and everything will be alright."

Miraya did not respond, and Manu assumed she understood. He looked at the saddle of the horse as he approached, and recognized the golden flower seal. He walked up the stairs and looked into the darkness of his kitchen. The shades to the balcony were pulled open, and he could see a shadow law across the blue light of the night. Gritting his teeth, he went inside and paused when he got into the kitchen, looking at the figure standing on the balcony facing away from him.

"Your Majesty," He said, putting as much formality into his voice as he could. "Had I known you were coming, I would have prepared refreshments."

The figure turned around, and the Queen looked at up at him with cold eyes. "Is that how distant we've become?" She asked him, her voice wavering with either anger or grief. "Am I only 'Your Majesty' to you now?"

Manu had no immediate response. He stood silent for a few moments, meeting the Queen's eyes. "I have to do what you refuse to do," He said finally. "If you won't take care of House Amin, then I have to."

The Queen made her tiny hands into fists, and then pointed at Manu with her right hand. "You never even asked for my help!" She shouted. "How dare you accuse me of refusing to take care of our House when you never even asked me to!" She was furious now, Manu could tell. It was a childlike tantrum. How dare he make accusations? How dare she say such things to him after she had gotten upset that he put their family before her petty concerns about a political marriage. As the Queen, her future was decided for her, because her future must be whatever was best for the Kingdom.

"Perhaps if you spent more time thinking about the good of the Kingdom," Manu started. He was getting worked up now, too. He felt his cheeks flush. "And less time thinking about how to avoid your responsibility to it, then you would see the painfully obvious decisions in front of your nose!"

"This is fun and all," a voice said behind Manu. "But I'm here with a job to do, and it just got a lot easier."

Manu spun around to see nothing behind him, but his stomach burst into hellfire as he felt something pierce his skin. He roared with pain, and he looked down to see a tear in his clothing and his skin through which blood was starting to spurt from around something that he could not see. As his vision began to swim, he could barely focus as a long, golden dagger shimmered into existence as his magical illusion faded, and he looked up into the pale, cold eyes of the Startouch Elf Miraya. He heard a scream from behind him.

"It's nothing personal, my elven friend." She said, pulling the dagger out of him and causing him to fall to a knee. "It's the girl I'm after, not you."

Miraya walked past Manu as he struggled to keep himself upright. The world was swimming around him, and his vision was starting to fade, but he refused to give in. He put a hand on his stomach in a feeble attempt to hold his insides in, and he felt his hand turn sickly wet and warm in the raging inferno that was his wound. With his other hand, he began to draw a clumsy glyph. He had no idea what he was doing, but he knew that if he did not do something, Aanya would die too.

"Surgete…" He mumbled with failing breath. "Timoris."

As the pale glyph vanished into the night air, the last things Manu heard before the darkness took him were two high pitched screams that followed him down into the void.