Chapter 11: truth and lies

1,009 year ago

A lone armoured figure of Hainn looked over the edge of a cliff, he had spent almost a year in this strange new world, and he had to admit, he was enjoying himself, he had always seen these people as lesser, as inferior as savages compared to the Alder folk. But the fallen elves of Xadia and the villagers of the nearby village actually were just alike.

He began thinking of the elder folk and spitting in their name for what they were doing, acting higher, creating delusions, he saw the dragons of this land as like the Elder folk, arrogant, greedy, and trying to keep the humans at the bottom of the food chain. Behind him his friend for the past year walked, "what is on your mind?" the starbound elf said, "things need to change" Hainan said, "yes they do" said the elf sadly, "infact i'm here to talk about that to ask you something important?", "then say it old friend no need to hold your words" Hainan reassured.

From behind him, a human man stepped forward, "this is Ziard" said the elf, "he is a friend of mine who is trying to help us fallen elves make a better future for humans", Hainan looked at the man who extended his hand smiling, Hainan shook the hand warmly, "it is an honour to meet you Hainn" said Ziard.

"Pleasure to meet you as well so speak your part" Hainan told the man, "well before you arrived here we were hoping to look into another plane of existence and find a seventh source to call our own" Ziard explained, "we went through hoping to find something across worlds".

Hainn looked at the man, "it is true i come from another world but in truth i travelled from another part of this world to here after i was Ambushed while on a hunt" Hainan said, "yes i was told of the story you told and i want to ask does the land far away from Xadia have magic?" asked Ziard.

Hainan nodded, "yes it is called Chaos. It is a powerful human channel, but I do not feel any flow of chaos on this side of the world but I can see where this is going", "you can?" Ziard asked surprised, "Yes I can, and I will help you create your own human magic?" Hainn said reassuringly "so what do i need to do?", "head back to your land, bring us books on your magic, and we'll pull in as much research on elven magic as we can and maybe we can combine the two" said the starbind elf.

Hainn nodded before whistling, from the sky overhead, a horse, Hainn's demonic horse named Azazel rode down and stopped on the cliff edge next to Hainn, the red rider hopped on and his horse cantered back up into the sky and across the ocean bellow off to nilfgaard or perhaps cintra, or maybe even kaedwen.

Wherever he can find information on chaos magic for his friends, they had taken him in when he was lost and injured when he was supposed to take their kind as slaves, when the Alder folk would think of them so lowly, he would repay them and make sure Xadia changed.


Katalis castle

"Good morning" Gren said as Viren walked down the stairs holding the bottle of the djinn in hand, "actually i don't know what time of day it is.", "it's early morning" Viren said, "well then good morning…again" Green said as Viren entered the room, Dravaan had been moved next to Gren so to not see what secrets the mirror might have and he only started singing song. Starting quiet and building up as Viren closed the door, "I've spent a long time travelling on roads that lead to nowhere" he sang, "with hopes and dreams that always…"

Viren then closed the door muffling the song a little but could still be heard, he then looked at the mirror placing the bottle, "todays the day mirror today's the day i unlock your secrets" he said to it, with an evil smile, "GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU WHORESON CAUSE YOU THREW FUCKING WITH ME!" Dravaan sang in a crescendo that made Viren wince and Gren cringe at the bad language


The nexus next morning

"Hey Kaja wake up" Ezran said, shaking Kaja awake from her bed, "Ezran?" Kaja asked, sitting up, before bending down and giving the younger prince a hug "oh it's good to see you" Ezran said, hugging her back. "How does my hair look?" Callum asked. "Trying to impress Claudia again?" Rigran asked, sharpening one of his short swords, "wha-what?! Trying to impress-no" Callum laughed nervously, "sure" Kaja laughed seeing Callum make a fool of himself again.

Meanwhile in the room of Snake, Claudia and Soren, they were having a little conversation of their own, "i figured out what's going on" Sofren said pacing the room they were all sharing, "i figured out why the Princes and Witcher have gotten all chummy with an elf", Claudia groaned, she had not slept well and had woken up in a bad mood and her brothers ramblin wasn't helping.

"Don't talk to me until i have had my hot brown morning potion" she snapped and took a sip and instantly felt better and more awake, more importantly less grumpy, "okay go on" she said to soren, "she's bitten them and they are now suffering from moonshadow madness" Soren revealed, Snake facepalmed, "elves and vampires are two different things" he said to Soren slightly crossly, "really?" Soren asked, "You're asking a witcher what do you think?" Snake snapped.

"Okay look we need to do something! Dad gave us a mission.", "to bring the princes and Rigran home I know and I'm working on it?" Claudia said, "Well I already have a plan" , Soren said and brought a bag, "stuff them in a bag?" Snake asked deadpan, why was he not surprised?'' Soren nodded.

Claudia looked at him horrified, "Soren their our friends?" she exclaimed, then took a deep breath to calm down, "we should try talking to them first, use our words. Not our muscles" she told him sternly, "so butter them up?" Soren smirked, Claudia grinned tapping her nose, "exactly".

Snake tapped his own nose experimentally, then shrugged, "I'm just going to make sure the elf doesn't get any say in the matter" he said, "uh but she's their friend as well" Claudia said, "So?" Snake asked in a way to make it sound like he was suspicious. "Well i mean i don't want to hurt my friends even if she is an elf" Claudia said, "oh really i thought she was just a bloodthirsty elf?" Snake said teeth gritted and looked as though he was barely keeping in his anger.

His clenched teeth shook enough to be noticed, the siblings looked at each other as Snake walked out the door.


Later

"PANCAKES!" Claudia exclaimed, walking over to the table with a plate full of stacked pancakes, she began setting the plates down on the table, Rayla, now fully healed thanks to Kaja's new fire magic, cuts her nervously, sniffed it and took a small bite out of it, she had to admit it was good, Claudia made good pancakes, "Impossibly fluffy right?" Claudia smiled.

"How do you get it so light?" Eliss inquired between inhaling bites of her breakfast, "the secret is to separate the eggs, beating the wires into a stiff meringue, and then just adding a small, very small hint of dark magic" she said winking at her brother, Callum, Rayla and Ezran comically froze between various stages of bites, glancing at each other Ezran and Rayla dropped their knives while Callum stuffed the food into his knife, swallowed it in one go and pushed his plate away.

Rigran sighed and just continued eating normally, Kaja just placed her Fork onto the place calmly but not liking dark magic at all, "well now that we know you're not kidnapped you guys should come back home Claudia said, "with the egg of course."

"Eggs? Eggs would be great to go with pancakes. Soren grinned as his sister facepalmed, "is he always this slow?" Snake asked Rigran as a fellow Witcher, "no but most of the time" Rigran whispered back, "Actually there is no egg" Callum said, "what happened to it?!" Claudia asked leaping to her feet as a shot of fear and rage went through her.

"Oh I think I know, thought I spotted some egg shells down the road," Snake said with a knowing smirk, "YOU BROKE IT?!" Claudia exclaimed, "no" Exran said as he ran off and came back holing up the baby dragon, "Meet Zym"

Claudia screamed in a very girly manner making everyone wince, "it's so cute! It's a baby dragon!" she said in a cutesy voice.

Ralya stepped between the Hatchling, "what happened to the 'it's not an egg it's a powerful weapon' Deal?" She asked, "Oh it still can be but at the moment it's just so wild", "good because we are taking it back to Xadia to return it to his mother" Rayla said, swatting the disappointed dark mage away.

Kaja bent down and presented her hand for Zym to sniff, "hey little guy" she said softly, she was then pounced on by Zym who licked her affectionately, "i think he likes you" Ezran said laughing, "jealous?" Snake asked upon seeing Claudia's face.

"Rayla's right the mission is too important" Callum said standing up, "best way of bringing peace" Rigran added, "you all do need to come home" Soren said, "because the king, your dad really misses you" Soren said, Ezran and Callum smiled at each other, Kaja looked at him almost disgustedly, Rigran glowered at him as did Rayla and Claudia, Snake just gave him an odd look while Eliss just continued eating.

"Did you catch how intense the look I got from the elf? I think she's into me" Soren smirking as Claudia closed the door to their dorm behind them and Snake gave soren a right hook across the face, "ow" Soren protested but Snake help up a finger to shut him up, he then stepped to the side of the room to let Soren and Claudia speak "she's not into you, she's onto you!" Claudia snapped, "if Snake hadn't already punched you I might have done it myself".

"You squash innocent creatures to make magic pancakes!" Soren protested, "Soren, their dad is dead and you just outright lied to them", Soren sighed, "look we tried talking maybe we should try punching their way", "me doing it your way and i might accidentally slit their throats'' Snake pointed out, "Snake!" Claudia exclaimed horrified, Snake held up his hands defensively, "okay we do it my way and he just sits back and watches' ' Soren corrected making sure he was specific so that his way doesn't end up having Snake kill the princes.

"Look, just give me one more day to convince Callum," Claudia begged, "I am going to rely on something stronger than muscles", "Magic muscles?" Soren asked, remembering the spell she had put on Rayla not two nights ago, "no their trust" Claudia said.


"We can't trust them" Rayla said, crossing her arms with finality, "look you don't like Claudia they don't like you i get it, there was a misunderstanding" Callum said patiently, "it's not just that! I know they're lying" Rayla said as she sat next to the Prince. Kaja was sitting reading a book on the bed while Rigran made arrowheads. Luckily the window was open so any bad smelling elixir didn't make everyone gag.

"There's something about that Witcher I don't like," Kaja said looking up from her book, "but he's a Witcher like Rigran?" Callum pointed out, "no she's right that Witcher was from the school of the viper" Rigran said "they study assassinations they are mostly rogue Witchers who do what they want, i mean how did he even get into Katalos?", "maybe the same way Dravaan did?" Callum suggested sceptical shrugging.

From not to far away they could here the sound of Walter singing a son to the young prince and Zym, he was singing a song that he thought Zym might like and Zym was indeed loving it, "the strange man fell swiftly off a cliff and to his death, we sadly mourned the loss thought we witness his last breath…" Walter swang, "but then he breathed some fire on the goon that came his way, 'cause he was a golden dragon not a man with temples grey, oh".

"Golden dragon, old man what's he singing about?" Rayla asked as Walter continued to sing the rest of the song "ask him or my master their the ones with the story behind them" Rigran said, "but back on topic that Witcher is not good news". "No he isn't" Rayla agreed as a shiver went up her spin, "he was ready to commit murder in cold blood. I was completely outmatched. And the way he spoke…" Rayla shivered once again.

"Viren would hire a viper considering what he tried back home" Kaja pointed out, missing a couple of details and waiting for Rayla to say it, Rigran had told her not to tell the Prince about what happened to the king and let Rayla say as it was her burden.

"And it's not just him but also what Soren said" Rayla added, "he's lying. I know cause…cause well-", a knock at a door interrupted this conversation, "hey Callum you got a minute" Claudia asked, "sure" Callum said jogging off, after they were gone Rayla let out a sigh of disappointment, she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Kaja.

"You'll get your chance" she reassured.

"Glad those two are getting along" Rigran thought to himself, rather relieved actually, he had been worried it might end up in a brawl, a little later they were all doing their own thing, Rigran spent most of the time Training.

but Kaja went to Lujanna to talk about her magic, "well i know it's part fire magic through your primal stone" Lujanna said thoughtfully, "that's all i have for now, but no fire elf mage has your kind of magic", "why do i feel like the next thing your going to say is that it's unnatural?" Kaja asked, "because it's not or rather it's not supposed to be natural even though it sounds like it" Lujanna said.

"Maybe i can help with that" said Snake who appeared in the Library out of nowhere, he then looked down to see Callum and Claudia talk about dark magic, "humans weren't born with magic" Claudia was saying, "we were born with nothing, but we still found a way to do amazing things, that's what dark magic is really about".

"And then you have Chaos magic" Snake said loud enough to make everyone in the room hear him, "chaos is all around, it is the controlling of fire, water, earth and air, those are the sources from which chaos can be drawn from, all the way from the magic plane, a…friend of mine puts it that way anyway."

Snake now had the attention of the whole room "you have to develop a way of drawing from the sources of chaos, but Chaos mages, 'human mage'" he added emphasis on the human mages part while looking a little bit darkly at Lujanna.

"Can access the chaos flow from the magical planes and channel it, but it is not that simple as just taking magic,", "so you're saying that humans can be born with the ability to access chaos powers from another world?" Claudia asked confused, "yes" Snake said then gestured to

"Kaja, my guess is, you are drawing from the fire planes through her firestone using your awakened magic", "and how dangerous is this might I ask?" Kaja asked, "yes there are dangers and fire is usually the most dangerous" Snake said, "but you seem to have a good hold on it, maybe the Firestone makes it easier on you"

Claudia scoffed, "So you're saying that Kaja is now a full on mage?" She asked a little miffed about this information, "no she only has some of the basic spells down, shielding and fireballs but it could take her years so don't worry your still on top for now" Snake said.

"This Is all very fascinating" Callum spoke up, "but I want to learn primal magic", "keep practising and then maybe you'll get there" Snake said, patting the younger prince's shoulder reassuringly.


Meanwhile Rayla dropped in on Soren who was letting Ezran play on a zipline with Zym, "Whatcha thinking about?" she asked, Soren jumped at her appearance, "Nothing! What are you thinking about?".

"I'm thinking after you" Rayla replied gesturing to the zipline, "unless you don't think it's safe?", Soren crossed his arms, "no" he scoffed, "it's perfectly safe, let me just double-check this peg" he scampered and hammered the peg into the tree a little bit more, till he was certain it wouldn't give way.

"Ah yeah safe so safe" repeated as he used his sword scabbard to zipline across, the rope jolted up and down a little due to Rayla tugging it a little, after he had landed Rayla studied the peg, "so much for that plan" Soren muttered as he watched Rayla study it from across the ravine.


A little later, that night, Rayla found Rigran at the training course, he noticed Snake in another section of the course, he was stepping from pole-top to pole-top with perfect balance and no falter in his movements as he swung his sickles. Rayla told Rigran about it and about the little conversation she had had with Callum, "he's right you know we have known them for years, and though some of us disapprove of their methods they are still friends' ' Rigran said.

"But something is off, i do not have the advice maybe Lujanna would have some", "well where is she?" Rayla asked, "she's with Kaja in the library, i think Walters there was well practising his music" Rigran replied.


Rayla walked up the mountain towards the temple. Stepping inside they closed the door behind them and approached the mediating woman. Walter was indeed there but he had fallen asleep in his chair plucking his lute strings as he slept.

Kaja was also there reading some fire based magic books that Lujanna had given her. She stopped reading and watched Rayla "Lujanne, I need your help," Rayla spoke up.

"If wisdom is what you seek, I shall do my best to fake it," the woman replied, turning around. "It's an old illusionist joke."

"Right, I need my friend to trust me, but he doesn't," she started, "and I think it's my fault. I've been keeping a secret from him hiding the truth."

"Rayla, look at the moon," Lujanne motioned up, "Light only falls on half its face right now, but that doesn't mean the other half isn't there. And it is the same with you, there are parts that you keep hidden."

"If I want him to trust me, don't I have to stop hiding the truth?" Rayla explained "Real trust is about accepting even the dark parts we will never know," Lujanne replied.

"It's not necessarily that it's just well the king, their father was killed by…well" Kaja said not wanting to hurt Rayla's feelings, but she gestured to Rayla to get the idea across.

"Some other moonshadow elf assassins I was with" Rayla finished guiltily, "and I've been hiding it the whole time and I don't want it to be the end of this team. strong relationships need honesty, the full truth," Rayla nodded, giving Kaja a small smile who smiled back understandingly.

"Now you two sound like my first three husbands," Lujanne laughed. Walter who was actually awake and eavesdropping raised an eyebrow, "three? well thank god I don't plan on getting engaged to anyone just ask any other bard who has slept with too many woman" he thought.

"I don't want to hurt him, but I owe him the truth. I can't leave Callum in the dark any longer," Rayla said. "Well then he's at the ruins with Claudia. Maybe you can tell him then" said Kaja.

"Thanks Kaja you're a helpful friend" Rayla said grateful, "you are not" she then said with a scowl to Lujanna who remained with a smile on her face.

"Was I? Or was what I said just differently true?" Lujanna said, both Kaja and Rayla took a double take, before Rayla sighed and shook her head and went to find Callum.

Kaja was not amused, "you couldn't have just gone with a straight answer?" She demanded, "she has to get to the conclusion herself, I just baited her into getting there" Lujanna replied raising her hand defensible.

Kaja sighed and went back to her reading.


Castle of Katalis

Viren uncorked a bottle, "djinn for my first and last wish" he said to it, "I wish for this mirror to reveal its secrets to me", in the candle light the shadow of the djinn floated around the room, it cackled loudly as its shadow studied the mirror and looked thoughtful.

Then it grabbed Virens head two hands on either side, Viren began to breathe heavily as he tried to figure out what by then he felt something press into his eye, it was beast fingers he had dove them into his eye.

Viren recoiled in pain and clutched his eyes which had begun to smoke and became black, Viren calmed down to find his spectrum of vision had changed he looked at the mirror once again.

It was the same, at first but then the ruins on either side changed, they have been translated into the human tongue into a sentence

"In darkness?" Viren read aloud, "Gaze upon a fallen star" the mirror began to glow.