Tricked

Our heads peeked from dusty window as we noticed that army of elves marched trough the city, looking for something or someone. Their hard armor shined on bright moon who gave us enough of light to be able to see entire thing. Marching of soldiers stopped and there stood around of forty of elves all equipped in full war gear and armor, stopped and stood there silently. 

Armor made of steel and blue robes beneath it for comfort, steel spiky gauntlets which offered protection against daggers and small weapon as such. Each elven soldier wore spiky helmet with only opening for eyes, their pointy ears hanged outside making their appearance scarier. In the middle of this i forgot one important detail i missed before during my second confrontation with Ferdal, even if i report him right away with transmission crystal that doesn't make any difference since i can do the same when i get back on the ship, and Ferdal refused to give us the crystal before we all returned back.

Ferdal knows that we can report him once we get back so his previous outburst proved frightening fact that he most likely plans to ditch all of us to die, reporting to everyone else that we died in combat and that he somehow got away. Seeing this i looked at his calm face who looked trough window and then he stood up leaving everyone else panicking for a moment, even if they couldn't yet see us, standing up in situation like this is one way ticket to death or worse. 

Before any of us could grab him, Ferdal opened doors which left us all in shock, everyone else tensed up and adrenaline rushed in their bodies as death was on our doors awaiting. He left the house and our shocked faces peeked once more from dusty window who now gave as view of elven soldier and Ferdal standing in front of each other, with calm expressions on their faces. I unsheathed my sword and prepared for upcoming battle, act like this only signalized that Ferdal planned this all along and set all of us to be caught by Elven military. With that both Ferdal and tall elven man inside his armor began to talk, elven man who held his helmet in his left hand had blonde hair and green eyes typical to elf, his face was cunning even more cunning than Ferdal's and he had sadistic smile expressed on his face.

"Good job human."

Cold voice spoke out loudly as elven man who most likely was officer in the elven army looked coldly at unmoving Ferdal who too had sadistic smile on his face. 

"Come out boys, you have a company!"

He mockingly yelled for us to leave a house and surrender ourselves, knowing that elves aren't forgiving nor merciful we all held our weapons tightly in our hands and then Captain Miller casted wind barrier magic on each one of us. Feeling fresh sensation around me i looked once more upon my steel sword who had emblem of academy, before i could turn my head up Captain Miller spoke.

"Let's find out what they want exactly."

As he finished the sentence he went outside and called us to leave too, everyone except me and healer Brandy. Both of us sneaked up to other collapsed rooms who had opening to their cellar which led to outside, me and Brandy managed to climb fast to the celling as it wasn't much difficult to do so and we jumped down the roof onto hard ground. 

Next seconds only sounds of yelling and pleading could be heard before each of pleading voice stopped, sounds of gushing blood and piercing of flesh made us disgusted and scared for possible fate that gloomed behind us. Even if they were my comrades i don't feel any sympathy for Captain Miller since he was a coward who submitted to murderer, others had it coming as well since no one except Brandy offered me a help during incident inside forest.

"Is this alright?"

I questioned my lack of empathy at my fallen aviators, i asked myself until loud explosion and blast of fire pushed me and Brandy five meters front. 

"BOOM!!!"

Loud explosion hit us from behind as one of elves casted fireball towards the house, thinking that me and Brandy are still inside elves blasted the house away using their powerful magic. My face was covered in dirt and debris as i lifted myself from the ground and looked at Brandy who had wooden plank impaled trough his skull, leaving blood pound to appear around him.

Feeling deep sense of sadness and shock i rushed to Brandy and checked up if he's still alive, quickly looking around i grabbed his tiny leather backpack in search of any healing potions or any medicine. Inside backpack there was couple of healing potions and one mana potion, i grabbed healing potions and tried to pour them inside Ferdal but only to see that he's long dead.

Having survival instincts kicked in i rushed inside couple of bushes not too far away from Brandy's body, smell of fresh blood surrounding the air around me. From the bush i could've heard that elven officer using most likely transmission crystal to call his ships, deciding it would be best to hide here until danger passes i closed my eyes and felt tired similar to that time when i fell asleep in the library.

Slowly opening my eyes i found myself in familiar place, open blue sky with fluffy white clouds above me and floor that seemed reflection of the sky above, below me. This time however i noticed that there's weird path leading straight, long path which seemed to be endless placed in front of me caused my body to feel warm and in total peace just like before.

Taking deep breath i looked around and saw unknown man standing ten meters from my left side, staring at me with neutral expression. Man wore clean white robes which reminded me of similar looking mage robes, shin gold like outline and symbols covered his clothes making him appear holy for some reason. A bunch of unknown symbols were placed on his chest area and pointy hood covered most of his face, even if i could see his expression i couldn't take proper look at his face which seemed more weird by the time i looked at him. 

The more i looked the more i couldn't process his face as only down area where mouth is remained same, it looked like the man blocked my brain from processing his whole face. Since my last visit to here i now knew that this place is called Etheric Realm and that i have some unknown ability to access it, feeling calm despite unknown man being near me i waved to him and yelled.

"Hello there!"

Simple greeting made the man smile and he waved back, closing his distance with me as he walked slowly, each step made echoing sound like walking inside big cave. 

"Welcome young one, may i ask how did you find your way here?"

White robed man politely asked and gently smiled at me, i could not sense any malicious aura from him, only calmness and warm waves emitting from him as he spoke. Since i had better understanding of this place i was calmer than previous time, i wanted answers to my questions so only thing for me to do now is to ask as much as possible before time runs out.

"I don't know but i don't want to waste my time here, i want you to ask some questions and if you could please answer me them."

Man smiled once again and confirmed nodding his head, getting positive answer my heart pumped faster of excitement but in the same time calming aura of this place calmed it enough for me to be able to speak properly.

"What are you, if you mind me asking?"

I tried to sound polite but no matter question like this sounded rude but the man didn't seem to mind it as he gently smiled and answered. 

"I am what you mortals call Angel but not in the way you think."

My eyes widen as stories of Angels and Demons always sparked my imagination during childhood when grandpa told me stories where angels used to hunt evil demons. Looking at one right in front of me, his appearance isn't much different to those stories from fairy tales.

"You see Sparrow, we demons and angels aren't exactly like you mortals see us, we aren't exactly the ultimate good. Both Demons and us have hierarchy and law to follow and both of us can be cunning or merciful, depends on each angel and demon and how mortal treats them."

His explanation made my desire for knowledge even bigger as i listened to each word he spoke, without blinking or having any thought breaking my focus. I sat down which seemed to confuse the man in the start but second after it he smiled and sat down along with me, now both of us being two meters from each other.