Saga of a New World - (Audiobook Available)

10. A Mage's Mind: Confederate Unrest

With Fohr at her side, Novi walks into a large, medieval city gate. They're not wearing their armor and are instead dressed in simple garments. Novi is wearing her brown dress with a coat and Fohr an equally bland gray tunic and cloak. His long hair is now cut almost to the scalp, while Novi wears hers in a braid. The only weapons they are carrying are cheap wooden bows.

Neither of them is even a half-decent archer, but bows are the self-defense weapons of choice for poor travelers. And for now, that is what they are. Poor travelers with few things to trade and even less gold. Novi tries to walk with her shoulders slouched. The others told her it makes you look weaker.

The air around them is cold but the frigid temperature doesn't bother the elves. The boredom and freezing cold make Novi hungry. She eyes the dead hare the man in front of her is carrying. She has already eaten twice today, but there's always space for a small snack. The young elf restrains herself though. They shouldn't make a scene.

Finally, it's their turn.

"Come here," the female human guard says. Novi stands more than two heads taller than her.

The human beckons her to lean down. Reluctantly, Novi complies. With unnecessary force, the woman forces Novi's eyelids open and looks into her eyes. Then she tells Novi to open her mouth, which she does. Then she tells Novi to breathe at her, which, again, she does.

Novi can't stop herself from asking, "What was that?"

"Health check. Elf Blood and Mortis have been doing the rounds lately. If you spot anyone with blue fingers, blood coming out of their eyes, or any other suspicious symptoms, report them to the nearest guard."

Novi blinks a few times. "Aren't we elves immune to... all of that?"

The guard scowls at her. "Yeah, yeah. I know how it works. You elves are immune to everything, blah, blah. That is, until you don't get your freaking three feasts a day and then blood starts coming out of your eyes, mouth, and ears. And you two don't look rich enough to eat one meal a day. But you look clean, so I have to let you through. Next!" And with that, the guard waves her away.

"That was easy," Novi whispers to Fohr once they're out of earshot of the guards.

"You expected it to be harder?"

"I just figured these guards would at least ask us what we're doing here."

Fohr snorts. "These people's biggest problems are diseases, unemployment, and hunger. Not free elves that occasionally come out of the mountains to burn down a settlement or two in the wilds..." Fohr sighs. "Our kind has really fallen from grace. To think we once had an empire that spanned these lands..."

Novi glances at Fohr. "You're starting to sound like my mother."

Her eyes wander around the busy street. She feels a bit like a wolf among sheep. Further north, where her old house usually performed its raids, Confederate Legionnaires are guarding every caravan. They sometimes even place random lookouts in the forests, though those usually don't last very long, as the soldiers stationed there are quickly taken care of by mortisors, bandits, vampires or an elven raiding party out for blood. That is if they don't desert before something has the chance to kill them.

Novi hates these cities. Her mother always told her that these were once theirs. Lost during the slave rebellions led by the Destroyer and waiting to be reclaimed. She can't imagine living in one of them though. At least not as a peasant, but from what her mother told her, her grandfather was the son of the younger brother of the Patriarch of Dexia. Novi always likes to imagine what she would be, had the rebellion been crushed. Her mother told her that back in the old days men defended the land, and when they got too old to fight, ruled on matters of state and law. Women defended the home, raised the children and policed the peasants living under them. Novi likes to imagine she would be the house's master of life, charged with extending the all-too-short lives of her kin.