Ch33. Ylven'tsar Dreth Illvasse

Warning: There is mention of rape in this chapter.

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Ylven'tsar Dreth Illvasse wearily watched as yet another catastrophe weighed on the shoulders of her people. Today... was not a good day. Yet another young dark elf succumbed to the curse of the Evil Cursed Tree, reducing their numbers even further.

Ylven could only watch how the parents of the poor girl cried above her corpse, unable to even bury her as the Evil Cursed Tree demanded a sacrifice. Ylven hated it but... it took her incredible effort to negotiate, or rather, beg the tree enough that it relented and decided it would not kill all of them in exchange for the body of every dead elf.

Usually, the dark elves burned their deceased on a pyre, sending their spirit back to nature, yet, even that was taken from them now. It was a small price for not being slaughtered, however. Ylven knew that. She was different than the brethren she led. She was a survivor, willing to do anything to live. Unlike the dark elves of her village, she wasn't enslaved but was born a slave. The only elven thing about her was her name.

Ylven didn't think like an elf and that was why the dark elves under her leadership survived so long in the Great Forest of Tob. That's why she managed to negotiate with the Evil Cursed Tree. That's why she managed to escape every time she was enslaved to yet another master. She was cunning and patient. Used to abuse and hardship.

Her people? Not so much.

It was a hundred years since she became their leader and nothing much changed. Elves... didn't like change and that made her life so much harder.

Hundred years ago, Ylven was yet again caught by slavers. At first, she thought it was no big deal. She experienced that far too many times to be afraid. There were ways how to survive under a cruel master and how to thrive under a kind master. There were perks to being a sex slave as there were ways to make sure she kept her life under someone who liked to beat his possessions. That time, however, was different.

Ylven found herself in a caravan heading straight to Slane Theocracy and that flared every alarm in Ylven's mind. She would rather abusive master with a nasty fetish than being a slave in Slane Theocracy. Thankfully, the slavers made use of the girls they captured and Ylven found her chance for escape soon.

After a night of pleasing her captors, Ylven pretended to faint from exertion. Happy and satisfied, her captors didn't have the presence of mind to make some poor lad carry her body back to her cage. Unfortunately for them, that meant she was able to slit their throat in their sleep without much effort. Nobody in the camp noticed the sudden danger.

That night, Ylven used the veil of the night to kill most of the slavers without raising the alarm and freed the dark elves that were transported alongside her. Surprisingly, there were no wood elves as the slavers that caught her specialized in dark elves.

The problem was... they were already quite deep within Slane Theocracy's borders and Ylven had no delusion they could run away without being noticed. Even if she was by herself, her dark skin tone would give her away at some point. It was better and safer to stay with the other dark elves. Unfortunately, the only place that could potentially give her and the group of dark elves that decided to follow her a chance was the Great Forest of Tob, a place teeming with danger to the brim.

In the end, it was better than being caught.

By some unexplainable stroke of luck, Ylven managed to lead the group into the forest. They even got past the territories of the most dangerous beasts without being noticed or losing someone and found a place where no beast lived. At first, neither Ylven nor the elves knew why was that. It was a forest near a clearing with a big black tree and no beast dared to approach the place.

The elves rejoiced. They finally found a place where they could live in peace. There was no way they could get back into a country ruled by Dark Elves. These were too far away and the path to them led through several human countries. Countries that still viewed elves as slaves. No... the second they decided to enter the Great Forest of Tob, it was clear they were not leaving it anytime soon.

From there, Ylven took the mantle of Chief as she with her brethren decided to build a village in the forest near the black tree. She didn't want to be the leader but there was nobody else who could do it. The dark elves in her care were far too harrowed by their momentary enslavement. They were just some elves from a village on the edge of some dark elven kingdom and their experience with slavery was just six months of being shipped to Slane Theocracy. In Ylven's opinion, it was nothing much and she was surprised how little her brethren could take.

Being sexually and physically abused for six months? That was their limit? Ylven could only shake her head in disbelief, knowing they would never survive their enslavement if that was the extent of their endurance and mental fortitude. She was born a slave. She knew better.

As years passed, Ylven found many things playing against them. At first, she thought it would be easy to repopulate the village. There were eighty dark elves and if they made effort, they could double their numbers in the next fifty years, bringing an end to their shortage of manpower.

Ylven was wrong. Not only was it hard for dark elves to get pregnant but the people under her didn't want to have children. Some because of their situation while others because they were still too jaded by their experiences under the humans who enslaved them. She could not force them despite knowing it meant future problems.

It took five years for the first child to be born and even now, after a century, there were only fifteen new additions to their population. Of which, six were already dead if she counted the poor girl who succumbed to the curse.

That girl was the eleventh casualty in the last five years since the Evil Cursed Tree awakened. Ylven could only grit her teeth and bear with it. Despite agreeing to let them live under its protection in exchange for the corpses of their dead brethren, the tree just had to poison the surrounding plants with its cursed magic. Ylven and her brethren had a hard time finding food even before the tree awakened but now they also had to be wary of every single bite these days as if they ate something with too much cursed magic in it, they would end up like the poor girl.

Life before was hard but now it became really miserable in these last five years.

"Say your last goodbye." Ylven sadly spoke in a firm voice, "We have to deliver her body to the Evil Cursed Tree." She noticed how the girl's mother's hold on her corpse tightened and sighed. "I am sorry. I can't do anything." She whispered in defeat and hung her head.