Sorceress of the Second Sphere

9. A Journey With Death - Loldirr

A huff escaped Loldirr's lips, "You understand, do you?" she asked, more rhetorically than anything. "How would you understand when the two of you have each other? It is easy to sell me off as some cattle while you have your love."

The brief silence in the room was deafening, and the smile on Erdudvyl's face was disconcerting as her eyes did not share that same smile. "You think that is what is happening?"

"Erdudvyl," Ethelston attempted to calm her down, yet he knew it was in vane as the little elf stood to her feet.

"You think that we are selling you off while we have our love," Erdudvyl's voice became harsher with each word, "the love which is scorned at by the knights of Ravenscourt. They snigger behind our back, while Lord Renfry has the decency to scold us to our faces. However, I tire of how he keeps informing us about how inappropriate it is?"

Ethelston tried to calm her temper, yet the anger in her eyes was enough to see even Loldirr flinch.

"Perhaps, then," Erdudvyl continued, "we could take our love to my people, oh yes, if it wasn't for my exile and the shame that I have brought to my people. Perhaps I can compound that shame by sleeping with an inferior race?"

"Erdudvyl," Ethelston commented, eager to restrain Erdudvyl's flowing anger.

"Oh, and let's not forget that in no more than sixty winters, Ethelston will have passed, and I will get to spend the next several hundred contemplating on our love and what it all meant. So, Loldirr," Erdudvyl continued, her voice full of spite and venom, "perhaps I would trade my love for your betrothal in an instant just to avoid the emotional turmoil that it causes my every sleepless night. I bid you both farewell!"

Before either Ethelston or Loldirr could interject, the little elf had turned around and briskly headed for the exit. Despite her flowing anger, she still managed to gracefully exit the room leaving the humans to their steam and their thoughts.

Loldirr took to looking at Ethelston, regret clinging to her heart. "I'm sorry, I hadn't thought."

Ethelston rubbed his trimmed beard, "It's ok. It has been a trying time for us both. Love is not a concept that either of us would have thought to be possible, that was until ours started flowing. Now we are both blessed and cursed by it."

Loldirr stood to her feet, "I should go and apologise."

Ethelston raised his hand, encouraging the fiery huntress to take her seat once more. "I would recommend against that action. Erdudvyl is full of grace and poise, yet when her anger flows, I would prefer to stand in the sea of sorrows to fight the Manticore once more than to endure her wrath."

Ethelston took another gulp from his goblet, savouring the taste of the ruby red wine that slooshed within it. "We do not take this decision lightly, Loldirr, and if we felt there was a better way, I can assure you, we would embrace it. An alliance with Ruvia is essential to retake Lionmane. Ruvia can never win this war, nor can Ravenscourt, but together, we may stand a chance. Then there's what happens after, Isovine and Ruvia standing together could encourage the other realms to stand beside us against this army of the dead. I'm sorry Loldirr, but this has to be done."

Loldirr slumped into her chair. Was she angry because of the need to marry a man she never met, or was it because she knew that it was her only option? During her life in Greenhaven, she resented every day because of how restrictive it was and how it provided little to no adventure. The thought that she was destined for greater things excited and scared her somewhat and now she could potentially become one of the most powerful women in the twelve realms of men. Yet the more she understood her destiny, the more she realised it was as equally restrictive as her dull existence in the quaint little village of Greenhaven.