Isildilia.(Book 1 of the White Lily trilogy)

chapter 9- identity revealed

"And that was putting it bluntly?" mocked Dakelo.

"Naturally human?" she asked. "What does that mean?"

"All right, we aren't human at all."

"Then...I...you...look human? This isn't funny, not at all," she stammered.

Valin sighed heavily as he tried to find the words.

"As you may have known, there was a great war between the humans and beasts of this world - "they both nodded " - Well, fighting still happens to this day. It never stopped. It's just not on a large scale, or big enough to call it another war. At this moment, we suspect the humans' king is building an army, which he will use to eradicate all of us if he could.

"Now we are sick and tired of the fighting, humans had numbers, we had strength. It was a continuous no-win situation and we wanted it to stop. We tried to offer peace with the humans but, the problem is, we have no idea on how to communicate with them effectively. We do not know their customs. On certain occasions we've insulted them by our ways and things became much worse off. We had become so....out-of-tuned with humans that we forgot the most basics forms of their strict interactions."

"So what do I have to do with this?"

He continued on like he hadn't heard the question.

"Our kingdom is divided into four groups, five if you include the Royal Court. Each group is based on his or her element type; fire, earth, wind or water. Rare individuals will be trained within these groups, others just left to their own natural business. However, some of us are born with magical properties. These beasts are usually the ones who reside in the royal courts as protectors, for it has become a rare occurrence, normally sticking to bloodlines."

"Wait a moment," said Dakelo. "How do you know someone's element type?"

"I was just coming to that. There are those who reside in the court have the ability to determine nature type. Some, if not most creatures do not require this, as it is clear what their type is. For example; a fish who spends its entire life in water is not very likely to have a fire nature. Testing is rare; only those who are believed to be different, or possess any magical quality would be tested." He picked up and sipped a little bit of drink. "Each of the element groups is ruled by a Lord, who possesses more capabilities than others. I am in fact the Lord of Earth, so I'm a Lord in both the beasts' and humans' world. Above the four Lords are the King and Queen of beasts, who just happen to be your parents." Dakelo, who was drinking at the time, started to choke on his drink. Isildilia felt the blood drain from her face. For a moment, she forgot to breathe.

It's not possible, she told herself. She gripped her drink so hard her knuckles went white, and her hands shook so hard she was close to spilling it onto her lap.

She thought back to her family's discussion about telling her a secret they had kept from her. Was it this? Did they know of her heritage?

"Your human parents knew nothing of this," Valin said, answering her thoughts.

"They didn't?" Her voice came out as a small squeak.

"No, they merely found you where you were left."

"I was left?" she exclaimed.

Dakelo made a slight noise of disgust. Valin sighed deeply, 'I'm not getting anywhere here. This is why I said we struggle to communicate properly with humans. Right, I'll try to simplify it. When you were born, you were tested for your element type, since you were born into a high magic bloodline. But uniquely, you did not belong."