The Storm We Start || Book One

Extra: Ordephus and Lioda

When Lioda was finally allowed to travel by herself as an adult elf, she encountered a strange man with a friendly smile but dangerous aura in the woods. Torr, he said his name was. He warned her of Unseelie in the area and recommended she stay in a nearby town until the area was safe, but she didn't heed his words.

Later that night, she ran straight into an Unseelie and quickly found out she was completely unprepared to face one. The stranger came to her rescue, however, and escorted her to safety that night, back in the town he mentioned before. He led her out of the area the next day, bidding her farewell before turning back to his work.

That was the night she learned her lesson: Do not travel at night when there are Unseelie around. She may not have a kind yet ominous stranger to save her next time. Her life moved on after that, and they never crossed paths again.

Years would pass until she met another stranger, one who struck her as vaguely familiar even though she had never seen him before. He paid for her meal at a tavern before wandering into the night with a bounty in hand. She didn't get a name, but the name 'Torr' would come back to her a few days later.

It was the third encounter when she was sure this was the same person as before. They all were different faces, but one thing was constant: They all wielded a spellbook and had an air around them that oozed power.

For the third man, Arasmuth (Ara for short), she managed to travel with and observe him for a few months until he disappeared one night. He left behind a note that said something urgent had come up and that he enjoyed her company, but Lioda couldn't help but smirk at that. The night before he left, she had asked him a very pointed question about the Unseelie situation in a nearby region a few decades ago. Instead of laughing and saying something about him not being born yet, Ara only gave her a thoughtful look and changed the subject. To her, this was a sure sign that this was a man she encountered three separate times.

Another few decades had passed before she met him for the fourth time. This time, she actively searched for the man she dubbed the Stranger and was equipped with a powerful spell of truth. After following a trail of good deeds the Stranger always left in his wake, she found him on a rural path in the woods. She cast the spell of truth, trying to catch the man off guard, but the Stranger proved to be vigilant and easily blocked it with a counterspell.

A fight broke out between them, an elven spellcaster against a spellbook wielder until the Stranger managed to catch her from behind and nullify her magic. Despite having the Stranger's firm grip at the back of her neck and still holding his spellbook, she didn't feel threatened in the slightest.

"You were following me?" he asked.

"I know you're not a simple man like you say you are, Stranger."

"I have a name. That's how you've been tracking me, right?"

She scoffed. "We both know it's not your real name."

The Stranger only laughed. "Then I suppose you'll just have to try harder next time."

"Next time?"

She only caught a glimpse of his smirk from the corner of her eye before a bright flash erupted. The Stranger was no longer there.

There would be a few more brief encounters from that, always ending with the Stranger somehow slipping away. Not only that, they were different every time and not just simple disappearing tricks. By this point, it was a game of cat and mouse that had gone on for a century, but both parties never grew tired of it. If anything, Lioda found herself looking forward to these encounters. Not for the challenge, but for a chance to see the Stranger's gentle smile once again.

Their final encounter, however, would be a near-fatal one. The city she was staying in suddenly had a large realm barrier rip overnight, and a harbinger was set on a rampage. Caught by surprise and unprepared, Lioda was cornered and severely injured with the harbinger before her. Before it consumed her soul, however, the Stranger stepped between her and the harbinger. He let out foul-feeling energy, causing the harbinger to writhe and scream. Even in her delirious mind, she knew this had to be the power the Stranger kept hidden and the source of his dangerous aura.

She was struggling to keep her eyes open, falling in and out of consciousness, by the time the Stranger had taken care of the harbinger, but she could still see his eyes. They were blue with red bleeding into the center. And that was all she needed to know who she had been chasing for over a century.

The Stranger, who she now knew was Ordephus, stayed by her side all throughout her recovery, but it was only at the end when she confronted him with it. She explained that she knew what he had done to her people in the Fae-Blood Wars and beyond, and she held onto his wrist when it looked as if he would run. She told him she didn't care about his past and that she knew—she saw he had changed since then.

She told him she loved him.

It took more time for Ordephus to truly open up about his past and his side of the story, but Lioda didn't mind the wait. And he never left her after that. By the time she figured out Ordephus' identity, she had gained the reputation amongst the High Elves as a "human chaser." But that didn't matter to her in the end. Not as she convinced Ordephus to stay with her in Ichorwood, not as she was seen as a pariah and shunned, and not as she held their daughter, Tarkana, in her arms for the first time.

Her only regret would be how their time was cut short when she fell severely ill. She never truly recovered from the harbinger attack, and no matter how much Ordephus begged and pleaded for the Elves to help her, they only turned a blind eye. Why would they listen to a human? And even Tarkana, a juvenile at the time, knew what would happen if Ordephus revealed himself to the world.

Days before her death, Lioda spoke to Ordephus alone, telling him to focus on raising their daughter instead of seeking revenge. While she knew Ordephus was far from the man he once was, she knew rage still plagued his heart for all the things done to him by all races alike. He willingly agreed to honor her wish, but she couldn't blame him for wishing to never help the High Elves in return.

After a century of chasing and another as family, she passed away quietly one evening. Both Ordephus and Tarkana were there when she died.