Chapter IV

Selene was already exhausted by the race that she had to escape from her captors. She understood that they wanted to abuse of her since they begun to follow her a few minutes earlier, at the east end of the Brooklyn Bridge, an area normally frequented by homeless people and creatures she knew quite well. At nightfall, the subway was almost completely isolated, could not ask anyone for help. The few people who seen her, in fact, not the least aid lent by merely looking at her, or worse, turning their face. Once arrived at the station, hesitating for a moment, she had committed the folly of crossing the tracks, running with the heart in throat in fear for several hundred meters, hoping that the three offenders desisted from hurt her. But it was useless, they followed her inside the cave. She had tried in vain to defend herself, but they had tied up. After being slammed against the pillar, her sight was blurred. She realized she was losing her senses, her body was giving in to terror and the intensity of the blow that weakened. She collapsed to the ground, the last things she could remember were shouts and noises of swords. For a moment she opened her eyes, unable to distinguish that her assailants fell to the ground like bowling pins. She closed her eyes, did not hear anything except the slow steps. She tried to open them again, and saw only a pair of amber eyes that stared. No longer able to keep them open, she closed them again. Then silence.

Half an hour later, the girl managed to wake up. She was completely stunned, in a state of drowsiness. She opened her eyes, not having the faintest idea where she was. She remembered almost immediately what had happened before, and was assailed by deep anxiety. Perhaps the men were able to abuse her! She trembled at the thought. Her head was still a little sore. She rose it for a moment, and noticed that she was lying on the cushions. On her body there were no signs of violence, and that gave her an infinite relief. She looked below her, and she realized that being in a bed made of ... corn. She found that rather unusual place. She gave a look around the other things: she was in a tunnel that led to the cave in which she attempted to flee. Pushed aside the curtain separating the tunnel from the cave and walked out, taking care not to fall to the ground, seeing that little "bed" was raised over the huge open space of the gallery. To her left she noticed that there were three steps. Once down, she noticed several objects scattered on the wall. Next to the tunnel in fact, there is a small arch that served as a fireplace, there were also some strange plants preserved in sealed bottles and jars. She also noticed the gear to work and shape metal. There was no doubt that the cave was inhabited. But by whom? She shifted her gaze to the right, enjoying a beautiful high-relief sculpture depicting two figures, facing each other, whose eyes were turned towards a huge tree that stood between them. Immediately she recognized the sacred representation.

"Aiglim!" She spoke aloud.

"I see you know our Father Tree!" Echoed a voice behind her.

Selene turned sharply. A pale figure emerged from the darkness, from somatic traits she understood immediately that this was an elf: the signs on his face, amber eyes, that sort of circle at the time and the scars that crossed his nose was unmistakable. She hesitated a moment, then bent down, "Yes, your highness."

Nuada was surprised by the reaction of the girl: centuries had passed since the last time a human being recognized him.

He approached her with extreme suspicion, "Who are you? How do you know who I am?"

"My name is Selene. I come from here, and…I have recognized you by the royal seal, sire." Selene said, directing her gaze towards the warrior symbol Nuada what he wore the waist, then immediately lowered her eyes, remaining bowed.

"I know your name. Now get up." He ordered.

Selene rose, keeping her head bowed, however. Nuada turned around her, studying her. Then he added: " I have to understand that you studied our culture!"

"Yes, your highness. I was educated enough about your people."

"Who taught you?"

"Her name was Barbara Wood. She was my mother," said Selene.

"The name seems human."

"She was, in fact."

"And you? What are you?"

"I wish I knew myself, my lord. For some time I try to find out ..."

Nuada gave her a wry smile: "Try to find out by getting in trouble?".

Selene was limited to blush. The provocation of that elf reminded her the danger in which she was before. She turned her gaze to the floor where she had been lying just a few hours earlier, under the blows of his would-be rapists. There was no trace of them. She wondered where they went.

Reading the curiosity in her eyes, Nuada said, "They are dead. There is no danger that they return here to hurt you. I asked a couple of trolls to get rid of bodies."

Selene was not the sort who loved the violence, but at that moment she was in no mood to moralize to the point of not being able to be grateful to those who had saved her.

"Thanks for saving me highness ...".

"Where is the royal crown of Beethmora?" The prince asked her after a moment of silence.

"Here its two pieces," she said, handing him.

"Give me the third!"

" It's in a safe place. I have returned the two pieces that are yours, as your father had established, King Balor, during the truce. "

A flash of anger was kindled in the eyes of the prince. He grabbed his spear pointed straight at the throat of Selene.

"The truce is over, human. Tell me where the piece, and perhaps you will be spared. The spell you used on me will not save you from death if you continue to provoke me!"

"Please, sir ..." she whispered in a fit of terror, while she tried to remove the knife from her with her hands. She felt suffocated by the cold metal pressing against her throat, to the point of it releasing a trickle of blood.

"Tell me why I should not kill you and your kind!" Cried Nuada. His gaze was fixed while the increasingly grim.

Selene, most oppressed from his gaze than from his weapon, whispered:

"There is ... ... a Cure."

"A cure?"

"Yes, for humans ..." She continued, while Nuada was beginning to ease the pressure of his spear.

"I do not follow you, woman. Explain. What should it care?" Told the prince again, while he lowered the weapon at all.

"The void that carry in their hearts. Highness, is known among the magical creatures that humans have forgotten the covenant, to destroy forests and force the children of the earth to hide. ... Well I have to give up this wrong! There are human who have not given up you, who kept alive the memory in all this time, and that over the centuries have fought to protect you, and prevent the end of your species, even at the cost of their lives ... like ... like Dr. Wood ... "

"Your mother?"

" Yes... She was one of many researchers and scholars of the occult, who have tried for centuries to find a way to redeem man, to save him from his greed. For a long time have tried with little successes.

But one day, Dr. Wood, combining her scientific knowledge with some practical magic, managed to discover a serum that can reverse human greed, until it vanished altogether. "

"If it is true what you say, Why the doctor never informed the people on this magical discovery ?" Nuada asked.

"Because she hadn' t time ..." the eyes of Selene were growing melancholy.

Then she continued: "Many human beings, keeping alive the memory of what happened at the dawn of time have tried to find solution, like my mother... ... Others have exploited the knowledge of you to give up the chase and destroy your kind. In recent years they have captured many magical creatures ... "

She remained silent for a moment, then began again: "... If someone become their prisoner, at best, die. ... In the worst instead become a lab rat ..."

When she said it, she covered her right wrist with her left hand. Nuada grabbed her arm, slightly moving her hand, and discovered an inscription branded: PROPERTY OF HDC.

"HDC ...?" asked..

"Human Defense Corporation. It's a secret organization, whose members are behind the highest levels of human, political and social systems ... plotting for years against the magical creatures, atrocious conduct experiments on them ... They want to preserve the human race and eliminate the others, that they argue, are inferior. When my mother discovered the cure, the HDC did not stop for one day to chase her. She knew that if she would ask for help to the magic people, she would certainly have led them straight to you ... so we lived as outcasts, turning from one place to another, under false names. "

"But you ... what are you?" He asked Nuada.

"... I have a sort of freak of nature. I'm half elf, half human. My mother was able to combine the human genetic code with that elf. It 's so that I was born. She brought me up, I was protected from those who have considered my existence dangerous. She defended me to the point of losing her own life ... ".

"How did they find you?" Told the prince again, turning his gaze still on the right wrist.

"I do not know ... I only know that five years ago they killed my mother and I was captured ... I managed to escape two years ago. Since then I flee the world, protecting the care, that I have with me always." Saying this, she drew from her torn shoulder purse a vial with a strange orange liquid.

"Why did you steal the crown?"

"I was afraid that the golden army was destroyed by those people who have followed in Ireland. E ... With all due respect, height, I don't support your choice to exterminate mankind. The enemy is different: it is much larger, and subtle, of what you believe. "

Nuada was shaken by the story of the girl. It got an eerie silence between the two. The prince frowned, trying to think about the consequences of a possible collaboration with her.

"Give me your hand, girl!" he ordered.

She shyly raised her right hand. He touched it with her, and read into her. He discovered that she was telling the truth. He also found that there wasn't the insatiable empty that humans had in his heart. Probably she was also immortal, like elves. She had only the appearance of human.

He lowered his hand, and she did the same.

Nuada asked Selene: "You expect, then, that I accept your proposal to disclose this kind of therapy among humans?"

"In all honesty, yes, your highness."

"Granted the albeit remote possibility that I submit to this madness, how do I know that everything will work?" Nuada said.

"Very little, your majesty. But you can at least try an alternative solution to the genocide. Furthermore, if we fail, you always have the golden army ready to protect you." Selene replied.

"Are you telling me you give me the crown if something goes wrong?"

"Exactly, sire."