Arrow fire hissed around the archery field as several Ljósálfr practiced their aim. One of the archers was becoming frustrated with her bow however, for none of her arrows were landing a worthwhile shot. After missing yet another shot, Kiri Halisdottir lowered her bow and wished that it wasn't required that she practice archery.
As a general rule, Ljósálfr like Kiri were some of the best shots in the realms. It was because of that natural affinity that the Silver Arrows, a faction of archers in their military, had been created. Kiri was an Immortal Guard however, and would stick to her saber first and her bow never.
While Kiri scowled at the target, one of the Silver Arrows came walking along the field towards her and called out. "Be pleased you inherited your mother's skill with a saber, Lieutenant."
Kiri glanced dubiously over her shoulder at the voice, and recognized Kharis, a Silver Arrow Lieutenant. He wasn't wrong about her mother though. Sella, her mother, had been the Commander of the Immortal Guard and her father Halis had led the Silver Arrows. Although her mother was dead and Myrin now led the Guard, Halis still commanded the Arrows.
"I do not believe I can even hold a saber correctly and I am sure that I could not fight wearing that armor." Karis continued talking and tapped his metal-studded leather armor, pointing out that it was lighter than the plate metal an Immortal Guard like Kiri had to wear.
"You Arrows never get close enough to the real battle to have need of armor." Kiri shot back at him as she walked onto the field to retrieve her arrows manually.
"At least I can hit the target." Kharis muttered smugly.
Kiri rolled her eyes inwardly. Banter like this between the Arrows and the Guard was natural, and it did relieve Kiri that some things would never change. Although it had only been about a week since Daris and Rane's betrayal, life on Alfheim had recovered. She had been promoted from Sublieutenant, a rank one step above a cadet, to Lieutenant.
Even though her rank had increased, the Immortal Guard has still lost a lot of favor and power from so many of them turning out to be Daris's spies. Now the Silver Arrows made up the backbone of the Ljósálfr army and the Immortal Guard were secondary. Most were happy with this since they saw no reason for their army to stoop to a level of an Æsir by swinging a sword and shield in combat. Kiri thought that stung a little and she knew Rane would agree with her.
She shook the thoughts of Rane from her mind as she knelt and picked up one of her arrows. Rane was a traitor of the highest degree and he had tried to kill Prince Eragon twice. How she had ever loved him was beyond her and if he ever escaped from his cell on Alfheim then she would kill him. It was as simple as that.
All things considered, it was lucky that Rane had managed to be stopped twice. The first time was thanks to the halfbreed Tilaria, but the second time it had been from a night hair interloper who had destroyed Rane's sight in his right eye with a well-aimed throw and a throwing shard. There was a sound from her right as Micha Arlenson, the orphan who had bene the one to destroy one of Rane's eyes and capture him, was standing with his legs spread and a bow raised.
The arrow he had just released flew through the air and landed a bullseye. After Micha's aim with the throwing shard, Prince Eragon had thought that he might make a good shot with a bow and so stolen a spare one two days ago Her prince's instincts had been accurate, and it had been discovered that Micha had natural skill with a bow.
Although Kiri ignored the night hair as she picked up a few more of her arrows, Kharis nodded approval. Kharis was one of the few being who could stand to be near a Night Hair, so Micha had been put under Kharis's temporary custody. Micha had been getting along without a parent for so long though that he didn't really need a guardian so Kharis simply helped perfect the child's combat abilities.
There was a light wind that rustled the mottled grey-green cloak that the Silver Arrows wore. The dull colors blended in with the forest underbrush, and it allowed the Silver Arrows to act not just like archers but assassins or rouges to sneak close to the enemy and take them out.
His cloak was clasped at his throat by a dull metal clasp that would not reflect sunlight and accidently give his location away. It was the Silver Arrows symbol, fives arrows arrayed like a fan with the arrowheads pointing up. There was a star in the place where the shafts of the arrows overlapped.
"Lieutenant," someone called out.
"Yes?" Kiri and Kharis answered at the same time.
They looked at each other curiously while Micha relaxed his pull on the bowstring and glanced at them with a snicker, his dark amethyst eyes lightened to orchid purple in his amusement. Both Lieutenants turned to look at him, and the It was a perfect shot that landed right in the middle of the target.
"Lieutenant Kiri," The elf who had called out clarified himself with a pointed look of dismissal at Kharis.
Kharis took the hint and walked away from Kiri to Micha. Kiri picked up her last arrow she had fired and walked over to the elf curiously, dreading what he was going to say.
"He has requested your presence again." The elf relayed to her once she had returned the arrows to a quiver and stood before him.
Kiri sighed softly and looked away. By he, Kiri knew the messenger meant Rane. This was the third time he had asked to see her.
"I want nothing to do with him." Kiri growled, relaying the same answer she had given the first two times.
The messenger nodded slightly. "I am aware of that ser, but Hallien wishes you see him and listen to what he has to say. He will not speak to anyone and he may know something about Daris's current location or plan."
The traitor who escaped, Kiri thought tartly. "Is that an order?"
The elf nodded again, and Kiri sighed in acceptance.
"Very well," she told him and he left.
She turned over her archery equipment to Kharis so he could put it up and started to walk to the palace. Speaking to Rane at least would halt her practice with the arrows, and she supposed that was a good thing. Things were quiet as she walked through the trees back to the palace. Animal and plant life had returned to normal by now, and the Ljósálfr along with it. The fact that Daris was a traitor was stunning, but his father Anar had also been a traitor so it was understandable that he would follow in his father's steps.
Rane's treason was less expected, but when his quarters had been thoroughly searched they had found hair dye among his things. It seemed he had been a black-haired night hair, and those with black hair had the darker colored locks from Dökkálfr blood in his ancestry heritage. Dökkálfr were traitors, and his treason made more sense after knowing that. Many of the other Immortal Guard who had defected to Daris or civilians who had gone missing had also been found using dye to hide their black hair.
Kiri's walk to the giant tree that housed the palace inside was stopped when a Ljósálfr boy about nine years in human time with white-blonde hair and eyes like blue garnet approached her. He was wearing plain civilian clothes instead of a prince's outfit and was fiddling with something green and silver clipped onto his right arm's bracer rather then look where he was walking. The boy suddenly seemed aware he was walking towards Kiri, so he looked up and smiled when he saw her.
"Hello Sublieutenant," Prince Eragon greeted her and stopped what he was doing. "Or Lieutenant Kiri now."
"Yes," Kiri agreed and her eyes widened when she saw what was mounted on his right bracer. "Is that your wristbow?"
Eragon looked down at it and then back up at her. "Yes, father's been repairing it and he just finished this morning. I wanted to go test it out."
"Wasn't it shattered by Daris?" Kiri asked curiously. "This looks just like the one that was destroyed."
"It was destroyed," Eragon smiled sadly, "but father made this new one look identical to the old one. Do you want to see me try it out?"
"I would," Kiri agreed, "but I'm afraid I have a matter that must be taken care of."
As ever, Eragon did not take offense but nodded in understanding. "All right, goodbye."
Kiri bowed to him, and Eragon cheerfully walked past her with his recreated wristbow. In the direction he was going he'd soon see Micha, and Kiri knew Eragon would be eager to show his friend his wristbow.
Put in a better mood by seeing Eragon, Kiri took the shortcut to the dungeons that did not involve entering the palace. It was underground, so the only light inside came from the vines that twined across the entire ceiling. Small crystal bellflowers hung from the vine, giving off a soft yet bright aura of golden-green light that illuminated the passage.
The guards there already knew of Kiri's summons so she walked unchallenged. Her destination was a cell about nine feet by nine feet and seven feet high. Its stone floors and roof were perfectly smooth with right corners, and the only break from the dark tan stone was the green energy barrier that covered the fourth wall.
The vines stopped outside the cell, so the green wall provided light for the single inmate inside. This energy barrier was different than the others, and rather than swirling green dust it had a honeycomb design that rippled like waves in a pond. Because of this advanced design the prisoner would not have to touch the barrier to be burned by it.
Within the cell was Rane himself. He had been stripped of his old uniform, and although he was not muzzled he wore a pair of restrainer cuffs. There were bandages around his right eye that Micha had destroyed, leaving just one of his blue eyes able to see Kiri approach.
"Hello lover," Rane purred to her tauntingly. "I missed you."
"If you do not have any information to give then I am leaving," Kiri warned, and turned around.
"Wait," Rane said softly.
Kiri turned back around to face Rane. "What? Are you going to tell me what Daris is planning next or where he is?"
"I will never betray Daris," Rane smiled softly at her accusation, "you don't understand what he's done for me. I will ask you though to release me."
"Release?" Kiri recoiled at her suggestion, "You are a traitor who poisoned Eragon with Dayturn Toxin!"
"Technically that was Myrin," Rane pointed out, "and you should let me out."
"Why?" Kiri asked dubiously and shook her head.
Rane shook his head. "If you do not let me out you will wish you had."
"Is that a threat?" Kiri asked darkly.
"A fact," Rane tilted his head to one side.
Kiri rolled her eyes, "you are a liar desperate to get out of your cell and back to Daris."
"Truth," Rane smiled and chuckled, "but I don't always lie."
Kiri sensed more than saw someone's presence behind her, and she drew her saber as she whipped around only to get knocked off of her feet by a bolt of alien blue magic. She crashed into the energy barrier on Rane's cell, and felt it burn her before she fell to the ground with blurred vision. The person who had attacked her walked up to her, and let a little more of the wraith like blue energy flicker around their fingers.
"Wait," Rane called out to his ally before they could kill Kiri.
The elf paused and then consented to simply render Kiri unconscious with a grumble towards Rane of, "weakling."
"Hardly," Rane told his ally. "I simply don't see the fun of letting you kill her."
"You never change," the elf sighed and with a wave of their hand deactivated the energy barrier trapping Rane inside.
Rane stepped out and stretched, "I've never known you to be so bloodthirsty either Kharis."
Kharis shrugged, and tapped Rane's restrainer cuffs. They deactivated and fell to the floor.
"Is there any particular reason why you left me stranded in here for a week?" Rane challenged Kharis as he knelt by Kiri and snapped his restrainer cuffs onto her wrists.
"I had to wait for our friend on Asgard to make their move," Kharis defended in a not defensive tone. "Right now Heimdall is unconscious like everyone else there, so there's no chance of my cover being compromised. I am the only Silver Arrow loyal to Daris right now, so I can't be known until I recruit some more Eladrin got his ranks."
"I suppose that makes sense," Rane admitted.
He dragged Kiri into the cell and reactivated the forceshield around it.
"Daris activated almost all of his sleeper agents here on Alfheim," Kharis reminded Rane. "I'm one of the few who is not. Someone needs to feed him information, and I still need to sabotage Alfheim's air defense network once he gives the signal."
"So they really got it working," Rane smiled. "I was a little unsure of the plan."
"I do not know the details," Kharis admitted, "but the Dökkálfr warship is functional and flight worthy. I think they'll be taking off shortly. It won't take them long to fly here to Alfheim and raze it."
"But they can only do that if you shut down the air defenses," Rane chuckled. "Say, was that blue energy you used on Kiri really…"
"Yep," Kharis smiled. "It was from the scepter. I still do not know who Daris got it from, but I do like it. Our friend on Asgard is the one who actually has it, but I can still remotely draw off its power."
"Its energy blasts pack quite a punch," Rane chuckled and glanced at Kiri, unconscious.
"Come," Kharis tilted his head down the hall. "With the starship about to take off, Daris has need of his second in command."
The two elves walked down the hall to the portal Kharis had opened. They had to step over the bodies of the Immortal Guard who had challenged Kharis to get to it, and once they did Kharis remained behind while Rane walked through it. There was no alarm of a prison break as Rane left Alfheim and set foot on Svartalfheim.
The bridge of the Dark Elf warship Daris and his followers had been rebuilding over the past century was busy with activity. A shade was also on the bridge with Tilaria as its prisoner, the girl still unconscious. Rane smiled when he saw that his friend on Asgard with the scepter had completed at least one of the three objectives. Two Light Elves dressed in Dark Elf uniforms they had found onboard dragged her away to the dungeon.
All the realms thought because the Dark Elves were extinct that there was no longer any threat from the technology left behind. How surprised they were soon going to be.
I just realized that there are a lot of traitors among the Light Elves. This sort of reminds me of Captain America: Winter Soldier only instead of HYDRA this time it's Daris's followers, and a Dark Elfin warship instead of Helicarriers. Instead of SHIELD being in the line of fire this time though it's all the realms, especially Asgard as you'll see later.
If you get Star Trek then you will get the reference: The Light Elves can best be described as this: They are like Vulcans in the fact that they suppress their emotions and can logically ration out any solution to any problem no matter how unethical it may be. They are however, as treacherous as Romulans.