Nox really just wanted to sleep, like, actually sleep for a change, but he was wide awake now, thinking, trying to figure things out.
’What the hell was that shit I felt? And those looks she gave ? I do not understand, and there’s that warm feeling again in my chest.’
He pushed the thoughts away. Thinking about his feelings, yeah, that was a waste of ti. It was just a distraction. He needed to be better, stronger, so this never happened again, so the next ti so bitch with blades cos at him, she’ll just run away.
"Say," he blurted out, words just spilling out of his mouth before he really even thought about them.
Serian lifted her head a bit. Her ears tilted, catching the sound. "Hm?" she asked, eyes studying him now, like she was trying to read sothing on his face.
He didn’t look at her, his gaze focused on the ss of logs and embers. "How old are you?"
Her eyebrows went up a little, face showing suprise. That was not the question she had expected. "Why do you ask?" she asked with a slight smile.
He shrugged, ssing with his sword. "Just wondering."
She was silent for a mont. Finally, she answered, voice calm, steady. "I am twenty-one of your years."
’Twenty-one,’ he thought, that piece of info going into his ntal file with everything else he’d learned about her in the last few days. It didn’t really an anything, not really, he still did not understand what this warm, sweet feeling was about.
He’d lived most of his life not knowing anyone’s age, or really anything about them, not even his classmates.
"Huh," he said quietly, looking at the embers, but not really seeing them.
She studied his face. "Is that significant?" she asked. "Does it change sothing?"
He shook his head, finally eting her gaze. "I don’t know," he admitted, and that was the simple truth. He didn’t know what any of this ant, this warmth, her gentle smile, her thanks. He just didn’t get it.
"But," he continued, a small frown forming on his forehead, "you asked why I wanted to know, right?"
She nodded, her expression patient.
"Well," he paused, searching for the right words, "I guess... I don’t know anything about you. Not really. You’re just... this elf, you know? Who can use magic, and fight, and you’re... nice, I guess." He scowled a little, like that last part was hard to admit.
Her smile softened. "And you wish to know more?" she asked, tilting her head. "About , the elf?"
He shrugged again, ssing with his sword. It was in his hands now, the familiar weight grounding him a little. "Yeah, I guess so. I know, like, where you’re from," he gestured vaguely, "but not... you, you know? Like, what do you even do in your world? What do elves do?"
She smiled, a genuine smile that reached her eyes this ti. "That is a very large question, Nox," she said softly. "Elves do many things." She glanced around the small room, then back at him. "Perhaps," she said, "I could begin with Lifewoods. It is where I grew up, you may learn sothing of through its description."
He looked at her, really looked at her. Her face was serious, but her eyes were warm, and there was that small smile again, tugging at the corners of her mouth. She was actually offering to share sothing real with him, sothing from her life. It was a weird feeling.
"Lifewoods," he repeated, testing the sound of the word. It sounded soft, gentle. Nothing like the harsh, broken city he knew. "Okay," he said, his voice low. "Tell about it." He leaned back against the wall, letting the quiet settle around them.
"Lifewoods was the forest, right?" he asked "What are you, so kind of princess there? You ntioned the betrayal, did Gorok live there?" It was a genuine question, the first real interest he’d shown in soone else’s life, and he was surprised at how much he actually wanted to know.
Her smile deepened at his questions, her eyes sparkling a little. "It is a vast forest, yes," she said, her voice softer now, almost dreamy. "Stretching for leagues, canopied by trees so old their roots rember the dawn of ti. My family ruled that area for generation. It would be too grand to simply say I was a princess, I was the last heir to my ho" She paused and took a deep breath.
"Gorok did not live in Lifewoods itself, he lives in a Shadow Wastes far away, But he is the one that put my family to rest."
He listened, filing the information away. It gave him sothing solid to hold onto, a few facts in the swirling mist of her strangeness. But more than that, it was just... interesting, sothing to focus on outside of what level he was, outside of what new skill the System would give him.
He glanced at her again, at the silver in her hair, the sharp lines of her ears. It was hard to imagine a place so different from this little stone room, from the broken city he used to know.
"So, like, what’s it... made of?" he asked, his brow furrowed a little. "What’s the main tree or sothing?"
"Oh, Nox," she said, her voice full of a gentle warmth, "Lifewoods is more than trees, but if I had to choose, it is made by more than one. We call The Great Tree the ’Eldest’ its trunk is wider than this house, its canopy so dense that the forest floor is cast in perpetual twilight." She paused, her gaze drifting away, her expression far away, as if she could see it in her minds eye.
"The Great Roots drink from hidden springs, and their sap runs with ancient magic. My people revere it as a living god."
"A living god?" he repeated, and this is where he started to zone in, a real quest, a goal. Now he could relate, a worthy foe, power to be taken. Not just levels and quests to walk to the north. This was soone’s god, and they lost.
"So your people had so kind of god-tree but it still got destroyed," he said, his voice flat. "What was the point if it couldn’t protect you?"
Her expression darkened a little. The warmth faded from her eyes, replaced by a shadow of pain. He saw her hands clench slightly in her lap.
"The Great Tree was not a weapon, Nox," she said, her voice dropping. "It was a heart. It gave life, not death. Gorok corrupted it. We had many defense, but the tree itself had been tainted, turned against us. The treachery of the humans who guided his hand made us weak." She looked away, her gaze far and sad.
He felt a flash of sothing, a sharp stab of... was it regret? He’d pushed too hard, touched a raw nerve.
He hadn’t ant to make her hurt, just to understand. What it was like for her, if she was so powerful, to lose, but now, sothing stirred more, those responsible for the fall of this god, for the hurt in her eyes.
He forced the feeling down, that was not the way to live. Not to worry what other people were living. It is a waste of energy. He could fix it by being the best, all by himself. He could take that tree, that god of hers, back.
"Alright," he mumbled, looking away. "What else then? What other cool stuff was in your forest? Any monsters? Dungeons? Or just a bunch of elves walking around hugging trees?"
She tilted her head, her brow furrowed. She seed to be studying him, trying to see sothing on his face. The pain had faded from her eyes, but sothing else was there now, a kind of quiet curiosity.
"You see only the threats, the challenges," she said softly. "You view the world as a battlefield to be conquered, and you look at the tree as a weapon. What of beauty, of kinship, of simply living in harmony with the wood?" Her voice held a subtle warmth, a longing that wasn’t tinged with any sweetness.
It was steel.
He shrugged, his gaze fixed on his hands. ’Why bother? Better to be strong. There would be no betrayals then, right?’
"I don’t know anything about that crap," he mumbled. "I just wanna know what I might have to fight, what kind of level those monsters were, the tree thing, what level was that?" It was the only language he knew, the only way he knew how to understand a threat.
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