Author's note: Tried to add a little bit of humor into this one, partly to show that the current POV is colored by the main characters bias. I'll probably have a chapter 2,5 tomorrow or the day after, not sure about how long chapter 3 will take.
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I was about three weeks old when things took a weird turn.
My father was working as usual, and I had heard him tell mother that he would be working through the night. It was also a very quiet day for , because my sisters were out of the house for the first ti since my birth. More specifically, my grandparents had taken them overnight off my mothers hands, so that she could finally get a quiet night to recover her strength. Theyd have taken along too, but mother was unwilling to part with , which I suppose is normal with a mother and a newborn. She also did ntion to grandmother, that I was a quiet and calm baby, so I would not bother her too much. So a day of peace and quiet, punctuated with frequent bouts of mommy-newborn stuff like snuggling, baby talk, and the mandatory work that cos with being a baby unable to take care of my own needs. She spent most of the ti resting though, so I could in return spend most of my ti in ditation refining my mana, still unable to use it. The lengthy refining process left very tired though. ditating can be hard work for such a young body, and I hadnt had an opportunity like this since being born. So at night I slept like a very small log.
That would probably be why it took so long to wake up, to the feeling of being carried by soone running on uneven terrain, and to the sound of quiet female mutters.
should get a nice price for a highborn elven girl. The slave traders will cream themselves for a change to sell a young girl with an obvious greater blessing of Aphrodite to so degenerate noble in the human or demon lands. Hah, maybe even the beastn will want to buy her. With her being so young, they can train her any way they like. The voice let out a quiet but clearly sinister chuckle.
Not sure I like the sound of that. Seems Im being abducted and sold off to slave traders.
I tried to very slowly turn my head to get a view of my captor. I was a little shocked to see one of the maids working at our manor. Id seen her around a few tis, mostly doing cleaning, and actually thought her a bit cute if a bit on the short side. Not like I could currently judge her on that though. It was her bright green hair that had drawn my attention. Her na was Alyndra I think.
Maybe this will show that bastard Elluin what happens when you start ignoring , after having . I thought we loved each other. But no! He went and got that whore Asheara pregnant again, and now look what theyve got! He was supposed to leave her, but now theyve got another beautiful daughter together. Well your beautiful daughter will grow up as a sex slave! The girl was clearly ranting.
Oh father. This is why you dont boff the help. They can make your life so easy and smooth if you treat them as you should, but if you get them mad, they can make your life hell with thousand tiny problems. This is also why you dont stick your dick in crazy. I was at the sa ti disappointed at my fathers infidelity, and sowhat horrified at my situation. The poor girl was clearly unhinged, and wasnt really thinking straight. She was obviously running away from the mansion with , through what looked like so fairly dense woods. With surprisingly little undergrowth, my mind noted idly. She seed to know where she was going though, so she had a specific goal in mind.
I wonder if she has even considered the possibility, that instead of getting paid, I might not be the only one ending up as a slave. The way shes ranting though, she might be ok with that as long as she can hurt my parents. It wasnt really the prospect of being a sex slave that worried . I was pretty sure I would be able to kill my would-be owner and escape long before I was any use for any sexual purposes. I didnt want to be separated from my new family for a long period of ti though. And it would most likely take years before I could find my way ho, if I really was sold off to so faraway place.
Also I was wondering about this before, but how can a baby be beautiful? I an parents always think their child is the most beautiful thing ever, but Ive been hearing about this from everyone now, even a crazy maid who clearly hates my existence. Ive always thought babies look pretty much the sa, with the exception of certain beastn babies, puppies and kittens. Those can be adorable as all heck. But even those arent beautiful. Alas, that was a topic of thought for another ti, as that line of though wasnt helping.
There were a couple of things I could do to change my current situation. Despite having almost zero combat ability aside from my Touki, and no access to my mana, I did in fact have two cards I could play here. Both ca with problems though. My first option was to use the Song of Khali that I had talked about with the Head Judge of the Jade palace. The Song of Khali was a soul attack that, despite the na, didnt actually require any singing but just to have your voice heard. That said though, the other tis I had used this ability, the recipient was unable to do anything to make stop. This ti the crazed elf would most likely try to chuck against the ground or so hard object like a tree, just to make stop. And my body was too fragile for that. In addition, although magical power and the ability to sing were not required, the effect would be greatly lessened without these, and Id have very little control over the ability. Thus I wasnt even sure how effective it would be.
The other option was the power that had made exceptional in my previous life in the first place. I could still feel that accursed ability inside , so it wasnt gone. I could kill the girl with that ability, but the ability ca with a price that I wasnt willing to pay. There was also another problem. Even if I used either of those abilities successfully; Id still be left stranded in the middle of a forest with no ability to move around. Also I had no knowledge whether there were dangerous animals, not to ntion monsters in the forest. I most certainly wasnt willing to pay the price for the second ability more than once to keep possible monsters at bay, and the Song of Khali only worked against those that actually had a proper imagination, in another words those with at least a certain level of intelligence. This was because the Song actually turned the targets mind against themselves. I also wasnt willing to brave death by starvation, in the hope that soone found in ti. I had actually no idea how far we were from our ho, and how big the surrounding forest was.
The girl was still ranting, and I was still trying to co up with ways to get out of the situation, when suddenly I heard a whooshing sound and a solid thump. To be precise, it sounded much like an arrow in flight and then hitting a tree.
Halt right there Alyndra, and put the girl down! I heard a stern male voice yell.
Alyndra slowly turned towards the voice, and I could see that there was indeed an arrow stuck in a tree right next to us. Elves in general arent exactly known for not hitting what they aim at, so I assu it was ant as a warning shot. I could only hope that the man was here to retrieve , and not working for the slavers.
Captain Gloridas. To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure? (Alyndra)
She was being surprisingly calm. She must have so plan to get out of this. ()
You know why Im here. Did you really think kidnapping the daughter of House Khalidor was going to be that easy? (Captain Gloridas)
Well I got this far with little to no interference. So yes, I kind of did think that. (Alyndra)
She has a point. I was sowhat surprised myself. ()
Put her down, and you may yet live through this. (Captain Gloridas)
I dont think so! Alyndra yelled and threw into the air.
It was a rather fun experience, but I was hoping I was thrown in the general direction of the good Captain, and that he had the brains to take a soft catch of the vulnerable baby . Well close enough at least. I thought when I experienced the softest catch Ive ever seen. The gold haired man was holding in his hands, and looking towards the fleeing back of Alyndra. She had apparently taken the chance to bolt, while the Captain was otherwise engaged.
Dammit! I cant chase her with a baby in my hands. And I certainly dont want to run into a battle where I cant use both of my hands. The Captain had a fairly good assessnt of the situation. Well at least we got you back. Hopefully well find her another day. I should get you ho. He looked at my smiling face.
You actually enjoyed being tossed, didnt you?
Busted.
I suppose better that, than you being traumatized by all this. Though you wont rember any of this later on, I think.
Not quite. Ill rember this alright, and dear old dad will hear about his little dalliance with the maid from as soon as I find it convenient to start speaking. Ill make damn sure mother hears about it too.
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It was evening by the ti we got ho. The trip ho had been rather boring on the whole. Captain Gloridas was focused on his surroundings, and I was quite bored. We seed to have traveled quite a long way, assuming we went even in a semblance of a straight line. Its a bit hard to tell when youre forced to stare at the Captains face and armor the whole way. He was a moderately good looking man, his face and eyes showing the years spent as a warrior. He wasnt all that old though, so he hadnt gotten that jaded look that old warriors tend to get when theyve seen too much. His clothing and armor was very practical, with a mostly leather armor with greens and browns being the main colors. Fit the forest the quite well.
Everyone was frantic by the ti we arrived. Mother seed like a nervous wreck, and she had definitely been crying. Still was actually, but this ti from relief. She ran out from the door as soon as she saw us approach, snatched from the Captains hands and hugged against her face with a quite a bit more force than was comfortable. I did feel the sa though, and I was glad to see her.
The Captain was explaining things to my father in the anti, and over my mothers shoulder I saw that my sisters were back, and were now running towards us too. Mother knelt down to allow for a group hug with her and my sisters. From their words, it seed quite obvious they were glad I was safe. I was too, and I was touched by their feelings, seeing as that was a new experience for .
While we were slowly making out way back inside the house, I gave my father a look filled with enough disappointnt, that he might have realized I had understood sothing from what had happened. His confused face was gratifying to see.
Mother still kept holding when we went to the eting room, which I assud was ant for receiving quests. While we sat down my father spoke to the captain.
So you are certain that it was Alyndra that took our daughter? Do you know if she had help?
I am certain, since she was the one carrying her away and I followed her tracks all the way from here at the mansion. I cant say with certainty, if she had other help inside the house, since I wasnt able to capture and question her. I prioritized bringing the child ho safely. She was running towards a cove that is suspected to be frequented by slavers, as a location to buy their wares in these lands. Im confident in assuming that it was her intent to sell your daughter off to those slavers. (Captain Gloridas)
How horrible! Why would she do sothing like this? I told you before to send her away, because she was trying too hard to get close to you honey, but you wouldnt listen and just dismissed it as a girl that was too lively. (Mother)
Yeah I wonder how that happened I thought with heavy sarcasm.
Whats done is done. Captain, double the guards at the house for the next while, and put out a word that Alyndra is wanted for questioning, with her description included. You saved our daughter Captain, how can we ever thank you for your service? (Dirtbag *cough* I an Father)
I only did what was expected of . Although The captain said while having a thoughtful expression.
Speak your mind. We are in your debt. (Mother)
Well, you have yet to na the child right? The captain said after a pause eliciting a nod from my parents.
My little sister died of a disease two months ago. She was the light of my life, and I would be honored if at least a part of her, her na Neleh were to live on. (Captain Sis-con)
Sweet, if a little morbid. I could live with that na. The na I was given in my previous life was an unpronounceable abomination of letters, which I dont think anyone used after it was given. Afterwards I had always been called either by a nickna, a rank or a curse word, as was sotis the case. Neleh. I could make due with that.
How about that sweetie? My mother baby talked to . Do you feel like being nad Neleh?
I approved, so I laughed and smiled at her. Thus it was settled. My new na was Neleh of House Khalidor. Kind of a mouthful, but I assu people would not use the na of my house that often outside official trappings. I still didnt know if my family frequented official and social gatherings, but I suppose I would find out later.
There were certain consequences to the whole kidnapping event. The house was more closely guarded, and for years my sisters were always accompanied by an escort while they went outside. My father threw himself to his work, and beca a bit withdrawn. If I were to speculate, I think he made himself think that the disapproval that he had seen in my eyes had been just his own conscience co knocking, and decided not to renew his dalliances. At least for now.
My sisters were spooked. Or at least Delia and Selene that had so understanding of what happened were. They were mostly afraid of losing their baby sister, and as a result started spending more ti with . Just staying in the sa room, doing whatever they would have usually done, just now in my presence. Occasionally reaching out to touch . The physical contact reinforcing in their mind that I was still there. I think they might have beco slightly dependent on my presence, only feeling safe when they could see at a glance or touch . I tried to reassure them with my smiles and laughter, but I dont think it really helped beyond the mont, even if they smiled happily back at . As a baby, my options to help were limited. I think sowhere in their minds they felt bad for not being here when it happened. Selvaria and Elsaria were pretty much normal, although they sowhat mimicked their bigger sisters, not really understanding why they were doing it.
My mother might have been the worst off though. It seems her world had collapsed when I was taken. Unsurprisingly she blad herself, since she was the only one of our family at ho when it happened. She felt it had been her duty to protect , but she had been resting. No one blad her of course, and deep down she probably also understood that it was not really her fault, but she couldnt quite get there yet. Hopefully with a little ti though. In the anti though, while Delia and Selene might have been slightly dependent on my presence, mother definitely was. Its not like she wasnt happy and she laughed and had fun just like before, but she carried everywhere and didnt let down for anything. She even took to sleeping with in her bed, so she had within arms reach the whole ti. Add to that both Delia and Selene who also wanted to stay in the sa room and Selvaria and Elsaria who followed their big sisters around, just having fun. More nights than not, we ended in an adorable puppy pile on mothers bed. Father was either banished from the room, or he hadnt been sleeping there before anyway. I wasnt really sure, and it wasnt talked about.
Mothers constant presence prevented from ditating, but I didnt really mind. I had co a bit too close to losing my family and I appreciated their presence. A month after the event, I finally found out what fathers profession was, while listening to his talk with mother. He was apparently so sort of Eldarinwe master smith. From what I understood, his work wasnt just the traditional smithing, but that our family and two other families were so kind of specialty master crafters. One family per elven clan passed down the secrets of the elven master crafting along their family line.
Apparently the work was part smithing, part jewel crafting and part enchanting. The only reason I even knew this much, was because father talked about a project he was doing for the lord of the area we were living in. The works of the three families were in high demand. I still didnt understand why he was so insistent on having a son though. As I ntioned before, I had seen several female master smiths of various races in my old life. I was also at least sowhat familiar with the thods of the elven smiths on other worlds, and there was nothing in them that specifically required a man. In fact the greatest elven smith Id known was a woman. It couldnt be just patriarchal tradition, could it?
We got into an interesting situation when I was about five months old. My two oldest sisters were supposed to resu their lessons with a pair of teachers, but they still hadnt gotten over the dependence they had on my presence and neither had my mother. So we all attended these lessons. I was a little afraid mother would get bored with these lessons, but she seed happy just being in the presence of her children. She also wound up helping with the lessons on occasion. I was quite happy to attend the lessons myself. Finally I had a thod of finding out more about this new world I was on, and in a fairly structured manner no less. The information was also more reliable, than the random hearsay that I got from listening to the maids and cooks talk. The best part was that I was effectively attending two lessons at the sa ti with one teaching the very basics to Selene and the other teaching a bit more in-depth stuff for Delia.
The lessons on reading, writing and math were rather dull. I already knew perfectly how to read, though it took a few days to learn the letters used by the elves, and I probably knew more about math than the teacher would ever learn. Also, they didnt exactly hand a pen so I could try my hand at writing. I think it was about at about this point that mother started to have suspicions that I understood more of their talk than I was letting on. This was when I zoned out the reading and writing lessons, and started to pay more attention to the other teacher. Mother wasnt stupid, and after spending every waking hour with for months, she could already tell perfectly well where my attention was. And in retrospect I think it might have been a bit odd for a baby my age to pay rapt attention to a teacher that was doing nothing but talking. And he wasnt even dressed in bright colors or anything. At this point she started paying more attention to , and every ti she helped with a lesson, it was like she was also trying to see if I was learning the material too.
I would have liked lessons on magic, but apparently that wasnt on the curriculum for my sisters yet either. History and geography were the lessons that were most useful to . From these I learned that there existed eight major races in this world, several minor races and a whole cornucopia of various monster races. The major races were defined as such, because they all had their own protector god. Or conversely I should say that each of the major gods had chosen one of the races as their favorite, and that race thus beca known as one of the major races and flourished in this world.
Of the major races Elves, Fairies, Beastn, Humans and Demons lived mainly on their own rather sizeable continents. Dragons were the by far the most powerful race, and they were scattered in small groups or in their loneso on the various continents. The Naga mostly lived in their cities under the ocean, but maintained a couple cities on each continent for diplomatic and trade reasons. The last of the major races, the Celestials inhabited a couple of floating islands that moved between the continents, and they mostly acted as a go-between when the other races got into an argunt or even a war with each other. They also sotis intervened if a disaster got out of hand, or if one of the races was getting superiority over the others. Apparently this had happened a couple of tis in the past, with almost every other race being guilty.
I personally wasnt too keen on the presence of Celestials on this world. Id had a few run-ins with the Celestial Host, from the Heaven Realm, and while I had so friends among them, I also had angered quite a few among them, naly the leader of the celestial host among them. I thought Gabriel was rather unfair in her anger, but there was little I could do about it now. I just hoped the Celestials of this world had no connection to them
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