It was a momentous occasion at the black fortress. For the first time in two centuries, all eight Lords of Darkness were brought together.
They were: Kallingar, Lord of the Orcs and their host. There was also Roth, the Lord of the Nazgul; Hellspawn, Lord of the Balrogs; Foreth, Lord of the Dragons; Dron, Lord of the Trolls; Sorros, Lord of the Werewolves; Zamon, Lord of the Water-Watchers; and Cadis Etrama Di Raizel, Lord of the Dark Elves.
The important matters had been taken care of a few minutes ago, and now the eight of them were eating. At least, there was food at the table. Most of them stood about the room, exchanging news and information about their realms.
Lord Kallingar was talking with Lord Sorros when Dron called over to him. "Kallingar? Since when have you had Creatures of Light in the Black Woods?"
"What?" The Orc Lord walked over to the window to see what the other Lords of Darkness were looking at.
What he saw was indeed an unusual sight. The meeting room was in one of the more secure parts of the keep, and the windows were enchanted so as not to be visible from the outside. This particular window looked down into one of the courtyards by the guard-barracks. The guards were not aware that they were being watched. Perhaps this was a bit ill-mannered on their part, to have such a window. But, to be fair, the guards did not usually do anything worth watching.
It was meal-time, so many of the soldiers were outside, eating; this was not unusual. What was strange were the six children who were eating with them: two of them were Elves and four of them were Humans, but all of them looked more or less at ease. The Orc Lord frowned. "Hargov," he asked his aide, "Do the reports say anything about this?"
Warriors of the light were not welcome in the lands of darkness, as the vast majority of them were hot-heads who went around solving their problems with the proverbial chainsaw.
The assistant paged through the papers he'd received during the meeting. "Ah, yes," he said. "Commander Lorgal came across some travelers while on his rounds, and he offered them a place to stay for the night at the price of ten silver pieces; they accepted."
"Who are they?" asked the Lord.
"The report doesn't say," Hargov said.
"I know who they are," said another voice. Everyone turned to the Dark Elf Lord. Even among creatures of darkness, Cadis Etrama Di Raizel was strange; it was rare to hear him say anything.
"You've met them?" asked Kallinger. Why did it have to be Raizel?
Raizel nodded. "The Elves are Regis K. Landegre and Seira J. Loyard. The Humans are Han Shinwoo, Im Suyi, Suh Yuna, and Woo Ikhan. They're a party of warriors and they're likely traveling on business."
Kallinger was weirded out. "How do you know this, Cadis?" he asked.
One of his entourage, a Werewolf, smiled. "Rai knows everything," he informed the Orc.
Kallingar was suspicious. "Hargov, would you ask someone to send commander Lorgal up here?"
"Certainly, Lord."
Several minutes later, the Orc commander stood before them. With him was one of his soldiers. They both bowed before the assembled Lords.
"Well, commander, it appears we've got some house-guests staying with us tonight."
"Yes, Lord."
"Tell me, Lorgal, what do you know about our young guests?"
"Not much, Lord, so I've taken the liberty of bringing M-24 along. He's met the Humans of the party before."
"Tell us then, M-24, just who are they?"
"Well, the Elves I've not met before, but they seem to be decent enough kids. The short one is Regis, and he's out here on his 'coming-of-age' ceremony. His cousin, Seira, is accompanying him as his guardian."
"And the Humans?"
"Them I know quite a bit better. The Paladins are Suyi and Shinwoo. The archer is Yuna. The magic-user is Ikhan. When I first saw them, I was out on a scouting trip.
"They were eight years old, the oldest of them, and trying to take on a rogue Werewolf by themselves. Now, I know Werewolves. One of my comrades is a wolf," he nodded at M-21. "They're tough, but, honestly those kids might have fought her off: they were a scary group of children. But the fight was a close one, so I decided to lend a hand. I knew it would scare them, but scared children were probably preferable to dead children.
"Well, the wolf split once I joined the fight, and I was left with four kids who'd never seen an Orc before." M-24 shook his head. "I don't know who was responsible for raising those kids, but someone somewhere screwed up. They were afraid of me, but they were also curious enough to stay and pester me with questions.
"The small magic-user wanted to know who I was and why I helped them. The other three wanted to know whether my claws were poison and whether I would fight them and where I lived," he chuckled.
"Well, since they weren't very afraid of me, I had them explain some of the landmarks on the map I was using: all I'd been able to find was a Human-made map, and I didn't have the patience to sort through their strange cartography. They seemed surprised that I'd marked off all the areas where Creatures of the Light dwell as 'enemy territory' but they did help me figure things out.
"After that, I sparred a bit with Shinwoo and Suyi, and answered their questions before moving on. I didn't see them them again until today."
The Lords were not sure what to think of that, but they did realize that M-24 and Lorgal were done talking, so the two of them were dismissed.
Kallingar looked then to the Dark Elf. "You really have met them, then, Cadis? Where on middle-earth did you run into human children?"
Raizel inclined his head. "You know that I only recently reacquired this?" he gestured to his earring.
"Yes."
"When the seal on my power was stolen one year ago, it was thrown into the lake outside my home, and the lake was enchanted so that none of the Creatures of Darkness could enter it. Neither could Frankenstein, though he is Human, because he is part of my household. Instead, we needed to find some creatures of light to do the task for us.
"This was much harder than it should have been, as none of the light ones wanted anything to do with us. Those who did accept the task were unable to accomplish it. It was a month and a half ago when we came across the young party down there. We offered them a modest price for doing the job, and they took it for the challenge. We were hopeful about their odds of success and, indeed, they accomplished in three days what more experienced mages and warriors had tried to do for months."
"They helped a Dark Elf?"
"They didn't recognize me. They probably assumed I was a Human, like Frankenstein. They didn't recognize M-21 as a Werewolf, either, but Tao and Takeo were hanging around the entire time, so they must have suspected something."
"Creatures of the Light with courage? That's not something one sees often."
"No," agreed Rai. "It is not."
That night, Seira and Regis were up later than the other members of the party. Seira was hanging around the courtyard by herself, and Regis had come to see what was bothering her. The two of them sat together in the moonlight.
"It's just," she was saying. "I like the others. And that's the whole problem."
"Why?" Regis wanted to know.
She sighed. "The only way I was able to make it through my own coming-of-age ceremony was by telling myself that the Humans who tormented me weren't sentient, and that it didn't matter if they insulted me, because they'd be dead soon enough anyway.
"It almost seemed like poetic justice: inferior lifespan for the inferior people. Why should we care about them? They treated me like dirt, but it's not like they were real people..." Her eyes were glassy with tears. "But they're not like that. If I'd met the four of them on a dark night, I wouldn't have been able to tell they weren't Elven: they're kind and loyal and courageous," she sniffed. "And they're going to die, just like all the other Humans out there." She looked up at her cousin. "Do you know the Human lifespan, Regis?"
He thought about it. "A hundred and fifty years?"
She shook her head. "No, that's the oldest Human who ever lived. Most don't make it past seventy."
Regis stiffened in shock. "Yuna said she was fifteen..." he trailed off.
Seira nodded. "Fifty-five more years. Perhaps a few more, if she's lucky."
Regis didn't speak.
"And that's if nothing kills them. They heal so much more slowly than we do, have you noticed? They're more vulnerable to injury, disease, and every other kind of evil out there. They're exactly the same as we are, why are they given so little? They could die tomorrow, or on the next mission..." a couple of tears tricked down her face.
"When I was fifteen, I wasn't anywhere near that mature," Regis mused sadly. "Ikhan knows more magic than I do, and he has better control over his abilities; they all do. The only reason we can even compete is because we have so much raw power." Most of Regis' efforts were going towards maintaining control. So it was a few minutes before he could speak again.
He did, however, eventually think of something to say.
"Even if it's horrifying," he said, "The truth is the truth, and the pride of a noble means facing what's real, and accepting it."
Seira nodded. "No one should live with closed eyes."
Saying those things didn't make them feel any better, though.