The Palace

I opened my eyes to see a familiar face staring hard down at me. I was lying on a comfortable bed, with soft pillows and a warm duvet covering me. The face above me looked at me with suspicion but a glint of relief crossed the face for a moment. It was the man from before that I had saved.

I used mana to look at my body to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong with me.

The wound where the arrow had pierced my flesh had been patched up however there was still poison in my bloodstream, I was lucky I had used that spell before I fainted otherwise I would be very much dead. Circulating my mana through my bloodstream I separated the poison from my blood and pushed it out of my wound, which of course began to bleed again. After the poison was out I began to heal the wound. The man stood over me noticed that I was doing something and immediately turned me over to inspect my wound.

I flinched at the pain that shot through my body. The arrow had hit a very bad spot, it could have killed me easily if it had been left any longer.

"Ow! Careful!" I lowered my eyebrows at him giving him the side eye.

He ignored me and jerked the bandage upwards to reveal the wound. He stood staring at it for a while, before touching it and running his finger over nothing more than pale skin now. He turned me back over onto my back leaning over me and grabbed my throat.

"How did you do that? Only the most skilled elven magicians can do things like that!" I stared at him directly in the eyes.

"I saved your life." I said unsmiling. "Let go. Or do you wish to see how?" He let go and glared at me.

I sat up and rubbed my throat. I turned to face him, he had now gone and sat over by the desk and begun to write something down on papers. I looked around the room a little, something clicked into place in my mind and I laughed. The man looked up, an eyebrow raised in annoyance or confusion.

"Well your majesty! I assume you found the letter in my belongings?" I smirked.

"Yes." he said glowering. No wonder I had recognised his face, I had seen him at one of his parades a few years ago.

"To answer your question earlier..." I pointed at my ears, then my eyes. He looked at me confused. I rolled my eyes. "... Golden elf!" His eyes widened.

He stood up from his seat and strode back towards me. Grabbing my chin in his hand he inspected my face.

"How about your incredible agility? Golden elves don't have that much speed and strength, especially with the little muscle you seem to have." I sighed his eyes were full of suspicion. I pointed to my hair. He narrowed his eyes.

"The Fire Dragon clan." I said. He seemed to be inspecting my expression to see if I was lying. He was so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek and I found myself inspecting his face in return.

He had bright blue eyes like diamonds, and hair black as night when the moon was a new moon and the stars were covered by clouds. His skin was pale and unblemished.

I was testing him by telling him of my origins. I knew I was stronger than him so even if he tried to lock me away or something, I could prevent him from doing so.

As far as I knew he was just four years older than me, he had taken the throne just two years before after his father had stepped down as emperor. I didn't trust this man one bit, why would the previous emperor let an eighteen year old take the throne?

"Your name?"

"Than. Please let go." I glowered at him. He was still clasping my jaw in his hand.

He let go of me and began to pace the room. He seemed to be considering something, and was weighing his options. He sighed.

"I need your help." I was shocked. "My father did not step down from his position, he was assassinated." I furrowed my brows, why was he telling me this.

"Nineteen years ago when I was just two. I was eating with my father in the great hall. The food unbeknown to us had been poisoned. The poison caused us to loose our magic and nobody was able to fix that. Half a year later as a last resort my father called for a golden elf magician to help."

He stopped pacing and looked at me with furrowed brows. I wasn't sure what kind of expression he was making, but thought he was being cautious and paranoid as I hadn't said anything yet. He began to pace the room again.

"The elf that came was a woman who was the best magician they had. When she arrived she was badly injured as she had been ambushed on the road, so she was given food and rest before she attended to us as our lives were not in danger. Her food turned out to be poisoned too so she lost her magic. After that no other elf magicians came for some unknown reason and because of the lack of magic in her body the elf began to slowly die. Whilst she stayed at the palace she fell in love with a bodyguard there. They married after six months. Soon she fell pregnant with a child. She knew she would not survive the birth because of her weak body and after receiving news that her clan had almost been wiped out a few months before she and her husband fled from the city to go into hiding. We never herd from them after that."

He looked at me again. I had been listening intently but had not spoken a word. He furrowed his eyebrows again. I stared back at him, and he continued still pacing.

"That was until eight and a half years ago the husband came back to the capital in search of our help. The village where he had left his wife, had burnt down to the ground whilst there was a grave for his wife and all other village members there was no trace of his child anywhere." I froze a little at this, something stirred inside of me. The emperor noticed and turned to look at me before turning back to pace the room again.

"The man requested for my fathers help, after everything they had done for them all those years ago. However as the man had no idea what his child looked like and was unsure of the child's gender, it turned out to be impossible. The only thing he knew of the child was the name he had chosen. He then disappeared again leaving us with a message, if ever we were to find the child, to protect them and help them. I have never seen him since. The child's father was from the Fire Dragon clan, and the child's name was Than or Thana. I am assuming you are that child." He looked at me. I stared at him blankly. I wasn't sure what to say.

"Well are you?" He asked his voice sounded urgent and a little angry for some reason.

"I don't know!" I shouted. I hadn't meant to shout. Actually I wasn't sure why I had. "What were their names?" I said calmly turning my face away from the emperor.

"Thana, and Forthrane" I turned back to him before averting my eyes again. He was looking out of the window.

"Then yes." I said quietly. I was in shock and there was a burning sensation in my chest as rain fell outside of the window.

The room had gone silent, only the sound of the rain echoed around the open space. The emperor strode back to the desk and continued to work. I laid back on the bed and mulled things over. What a dramatic and unusual way to find out about my past I thought.

"I didn't know either of them y'know." I heard the emperor stop writing for a second before starting again. "Its weird to think that you knew them." he continued writing. "Did you know it was me when you sent the letter?" he paused.

"I assumed it was after Marquess Fathomfield told me about you." He started writing again. The atmosphere was a little awkward.

"I see." The rain and scratching of the pen filled the room.

"Y'know its nine years to the day of the village burning down." he didn't stop writing this time. "All those graves you talked about, I dug them myself. And I was the one who killed the attackers. I was eight. An eight year old killing twenty four people without a scratch on himself other than a stupid burn mark that was his own fault because he fell asleep on a burning log." I laughed sourly. The emperor had stopped writing this time. "I decided to never heal that burn until my revenge was done."

"Y'know when I first saw you, I felt drawn to you. It was the same feeling I felt when the Marquess told me about you. Like I had to know you. You made me smile even without talking." there was a softer tone to his voice now.

"Tch! That wasn't a smile. That was definitely a smirk." I clicked my tongue and scowled at the memory.

"Yes. It was." there was a definite smirk in his voice.

"Shut up." I growled.

The room went silent again and there was a long pause of conversation. I yawned and stretched out on the bed before curling into a ball beneath the blankets.

"I should probably cut my hair." I muttered.