Ding dong bell

Vanessa 1976

Derek brought me to the park like he said he would, and I felt more at ease. At least as much as you can when you're with a member of the secret police who just threatened to arrest you for treason. The area sang to me, and I could feel all the trees reaching out in my head. They felt young and eagerly chatted, telling me about their lives here. It was hard to ignore them or not smile when I passed one who wanted my attention. It reminded me how much I missed our trees in Atlanta, and suddenly I felt homesick.

"Would you like to get something to eat after?" Derek paused at a cluster of trees and set his hand on them, doing the same thing I was. "There's a diner not far from here that sells excellent burgers."

"Wait, you eat meat?" that was honestly surprised to hear. Most western elves were vegetarians.

All elves have a solid connection to life, but some feel it in a way that makes it difficult to do things that come more naturally to humans. For example, I know some elven folk who don't wear anything made from animals and get sick from the smell of cooked meat. However, my father's people don't have that issue, and it would be hard for me not to eat meat with my dragon and vampiric heritage.

"I do." Derek seems amused by my reaction. "Believe it or not, my lady, not all of us follow the doctrine of nature like a catholic monk."

"I never thought that." with a frown, I start walking in the grass again. My shoes were still under my arm, but I enjoyed the softness of the ground here. "I thought your people had an intolerance because of your connection."

"That's true to a degree. But like many things about the fair folk, there's more to it than that." Letting go of the tree, Derek joined me, leading me to another cluster already trying to get our attention. "If you grow up in a community where something is wrong, you learn to live that way without questioning it until you're old enough to make choices for yourself. I'm afraid a lot of our weakness is in the mind."

"You consider your attachment a weakness?" In all my life, I'd never heard an elf put it that way, Not even my father.

"No, just a condition of birth we have to live with." He gives me a serene smile before moving on. "Not all of us grew up with such forward-thinking parents."

"Is that meant as a compliment or an insult?" I was used to hearing comments about my family, about how my parents were disrespecting the sacred blessings of the mate bonds. The fact my siblings and I were biologically from three parents, and how my dade always fought for the rights of other Entit'a who he felt were treated poorly.

"Neither, my lady." He winces, realizing that he might have insulted me before chuckling. "I only mean it as a statement. You've grown up without the burden of the community at your back, giving you an… enlightened perspective of the world. Others like us, well, we have to learn that the hard way."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I eat meat because I learned to reinterpret the teachings of our people. Life is precious. There is no denying that, but if I'm willing to kill someone in the name of the law and sleep well that night. Why can't I eat the flesh of an animal that's given its life to provide me sustenance?"

"That doesn't make you popular, does it?"

"No, it does not." He laughed again, looking up at the sky. "Enough to have me disowned by my tribe. But that's personal history, and I doubt you're interested in that. After all, I brought you here to discuss something far more important."

"Romulus…" Even saying his name makes me feel cold, and I wish I had a warmer coat. "You said he was a traitor."

"I'm afraid he did." Taking a seat on the roots, Derek stared at the ground. A look of disappointment in his eyes. "It's difficult to accept, but it's the truth."

"You mean he betrayed the royals?" I couldn't think badly of him if Romulus did something to anger the courts. After all, I was guilty of the same thing, and all of my family too.

"No, not the royals." The darkness in the elf's eyes made you afraid to know the answers, but I wanted to know them. "If it were something simple like that, the subject would've been closed when he died. But, no, what Romulus is guilty of is far worse than betraying the government."

"What could be worse in our world?" That was the answer you gave to those who believed in the system. It was safer than questioning the hows and whys of a regime based on putting one race over the others.

"Romulus betrayed his people." I don't understand."

"Lady Valkyrae, you might think the royal court is arbitrary or bureaucrats who dangle prosperity from races that aren't considered important. I assure you that's not what we do."

If he expected me to say anything about it, he was wrong. I still didn't believe the courts were anything but that, and it made me nervous that he pegged me so quickly. I hadn't spoken out against the royals, even if I'd wanted to when I was younger. It would cause problems with my father that I wasn't willing to bring. So how had he known how I felt about it? 

"I've done my job for a long time. I know a rebel when I see one." Derek continued staring at me with a quirk of a smile. "Besides, I couldn't imagine the daughter of Kiro Milla being anything but opinionated about what we do."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm nothing like that."

"I beg to differ. You might not cause trouble like others, but you have no love for the system."

"Why does that make you smile?"

"Because it's people like you who should be in that system. As I said, the courts aren't out to destroy the supernatural world. We're here to protect it from itself. To prevent mistakes from being repeated that could quite literally end us all."

"And your saying Romulus turned his back on that?" I couldn't believe that Romulus would do anything that would jeopardize the safety of all Entit'a. He could be reckless, but he thought we deserved to live.

"I don't think he saw it like that." So what was he getting at? I felt like he was toying with me, but I was afraid to ask yet without knowing what he wanted from me. "I think he wanted something more… for you, for the future."

"You're not making sense." It sounded like he was blaming me for whatever Romulus did. "If you think he told me anything, you're wrong. Romulus never spoke of work with me."

"I sincerely doubt that, my lady." With a scoff, Derek got up and touched the tree closest to us. "He loved you; love has a nasty way of making a fool out of a heart."

"What do you want from me?" Getting up, I move a few steps back, leaving my shoes on the ground. The trees had been listening carefully to our discussion, and they were whispering to me. Then, finally, they told me that Derek couldn't speak to them or hear their thoughts, which saddened them. "What do I have to do with any of this?"

"Possibly nothing, maybe everything." Derek moves toward me, his placid face still asking whatever he feels. "What I know is that the stone in your purse doesn't belong to Romulus."

"What makes you think I have a stone in my purse?" there was no way he could've known that!

"Lady Valkyrae, let me explain one small detail about me and why I was banished from my tribe." He rolled his neck, and I heard the pops and cracks as he loosened himself up. "I learned something about the world that few truly understand. Trees aren't the only living thing an elf can hear in the world. I was never good at it, and it was frustrating. Until one day, I heard a voice talking to me from the ground. Do you know what that voice was, my lady? It was a rock in the river. You hear the trees like I listen to the stones and the earth. That obsidian in your bag screams to me like a human who doesn't want to die."

"And you want me to give it to you?" I swallow, wishing more than anything to be away from this elf. The trees murmured anxiously, telling me he was dangerous, and they feared what he'd do to them. "Or you'll take it from me?"

"No," He smiles, holding his hands out in a sign of supplication. "If the stone was left to you, then it's yours. I would never dream of stealing it from you. Besides, it wants to remain in your care. No, Lady Vanessa. I want you to help your people, do your duty as a dragon noble, and serve the people who cannot help themselves."

"You want my help?" Why did I not believe him?

"That stone is part of something that Romulus shouldn't have gotten involved in, but he hid more pieces, and only you can find them. So I am asking, as a fellow citizen of the dragon empire, for you to do what you know is right."