Ravenstar: Chapter One

[eaivalefay]

Chapter 1: Elvenborn

Nalian shoved the musty old book away from him. This never-ending study was getting boring. He’d been at it for nearly two months now and neither Geno nor Farra were letting up. Maybe if he subtly told them they were agreeing with each other they’d... He filed the idea away for later as Geno came back into the room. Nalian was never sure whether Geno could actually read minds or not.

"You aren’t reading." Was all the blond Dark Elf said to Nalian as he walked past, reading some papers.

"The book is dry, like the last 314 you’ve had me read." Nalian snapped.

"If it is like the last 314 you’ve read you should have accustomed yourself to it by now. Continue reading." Geno replied.

"I can’t imagine Darian agrees with you working me to death." He said.

"My lord agrees entirely. The project has only begun, Nalian. Do remember that you’re the one who wanted to be involved in the first place. You must finish what you’ve started." Geno reprimanded him. "We are too far along with the project to find a replacement with all the proper qualities and catch him up on all you’ve learned."

"I did not suspect that I would be stuck with dry book work for months on end!" Nalian’s temper rose. "I’m willing to work, to read endlessly, if the books are not so completely dull. You should know this after fifteen years of tutoring me."

"I suggested that you not join this project. I warned you that it would not be to your taste."

"And Darian said that there would be many discoveries and experimentation. I was told this was an important project."

"It is important, Nalian," was Geno’s exasperated response. "It does not need to be dangerous to be of significance. Discoveries may come of dry books and you are yet too untrained to experiment." When Geno gained no response he told his charge, "you may go. You must leave for your other training in two hours time anyway. I expect a report of the entire book when you return."

Nalian quickly gathered his belongings and left. He knew Geno was right and didn’t want to admit it; not to Geno, at least. Then, Geno did just give him two days to complete the blasted book instead of half a day, though he would also have whatever work Farra assigned him. And Farra was just as demanding as Geno was!

"Nal, my lord wishes to speak with you before you leave." Caran informed him. "I was just coming to get you; shouldn’t you have an hour with Geno yet?"

"He let me out early. I must have annoyed him too much, again." Nalian grinned unrepentantly.

Caran shook his head, trying to hide a smile. "You know the work you do with him is important. For you and for our people."

Nalian rolled his eyes, "especially now, with such an important experiment. I know, Car. What is life without a little fun though? Despite what you and Geno both think, I do take my work seriously."

"We know you do." Caran sighed. "There is a lot being placed on your young shoulders, Nal. I only hope you can handle it." He slipped away, off to carry out some other duty he had.

Nalian frowned. What did Caran mean, "there is a lot being placed on your young shoulders"? Nalian had been put in worse situations in the past than doing important research. And he was hardly young; perhaps not as old as those he was surrounded by (The oldest elf to ever live was 5,362 years old.), but he wasn’t an infant!

Nalian entered the office of his mentor. The room was empty. "My lord Darian?"

"Nalian." The ruler of the dark elves called from the adjoining room he used as a personal library. "Come sit with me."

Nalian entered one of his favorite rooms in the entire palace. The room was two stories tall, with a spiraling staircase in one corner. There were three medium sized tables with six chairs each placed around the room. Globes of light hovered in areas where they’d let off the most light. The room’s walls and ceiling were all completely covered with bookcases filled with books. The first time Nalian had been allowed into this room, when he was seven, he had been utterly fascinated with the ceiling; obviously enchanted. He had asked endless questions about how the ceiling could hold books and bookshelves without anything falling. And how did anyone get books from up there? The key was that there were many complicated enchantments that, when explained to Nalian, he hadn’t been able to understand. He still found it fascinating, even if he couldn’t understand how it managed to work.

If you walked to the top of the stairway you would end up on the ‘floor’ of the ceiling, where you could browse the ceiling’s selection of books all you wanted, without getting vertigo. Nalian loved most of all to watch the few people who had access to this room walk up near the ceiling. It was always interesting, because the person up there looked like they were upside down, and it was rather amusing and disorienting to watch them walk around pulling books out and glancing over them.

Darian wasn’t on the ceiling though, the black-haired elf was calmly reading a book at one of the tables. He set the book down when Nalian entered. "It has come to my attention that there are certain books and artifacts in the human world that we may, we will, need."

Nalian gave Darian a surprised look. "In the human world? How many artifacts?"

Darian sighed, "a lot. You know in the past a few elves, Light and Dark, settled in the human world. They had belongings, books, heirlooms. They made things. Then there was the very rare occasion where we brought a human to the elven realms, where they learned and were gifted with many things. When they left, they took their knowledge and gifts with them." Darian ran a hand though his hair. "It is doubtful a wizard today would recognize an elven object for what it is. Unfortunately some of those books and objects are what we need."

"What do you wish me to do?" For that was surely what Darian wanted to talk about, Nalian knew. Otherwise why would Darian ask specifically to speak with him about it? Then there was the fact that Nalian was the best chosen for what he suspected Darian was asking of him. Who better to retrieve elven things from the human realm than a human raised as an elf? Albeit, Nalian didn’t look completely human anymore; being raised by, and learning the magic of, elves naturally called to the part of him that was elven, therefore his body took on more the appearance of an elf than a human, with sensitive, pointed ears, lithe build, and eyes that contained many more shades of green than they did when he was first born. The thing that still remained frustratingly human was his height. Nalian seemed doomed to remain at a human’s height (A short human’s height!) of 5’6", while the elves around him were always at least six feet tall.

"Your day trip to Farra’s will be your last for awhile." Darian told him after several minutes silence, blue eyes watching him carefully. "I’m sending you to the wizarding world. I’ve looked into the matter and arranged everything. You will be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a seventh year student, and school starts on September first. You know more than enough human magic to be a seventh year student. After you return from Farra’s we will alter your appearance and go over your story and everything you need to know. Then we will go buy your wizarding things."

Nalian stared at him. He had suspected that this would be what Darian wanted him to do, but it was one thing to think it and another to hear it. "I’m leaving." He said finally.

"Not forever." Darian replied sharply. "One human school year. Ten months. And you will have a vacation or two where you can return here for a couple of weeks."

"I’ll be leaving soon." Nalian hated how childish his voice sounded.

"Yes." Darian hesitated, "this was the only way I could think of safely acquiring what we need. Elves for the most part have been forgotten in their world, yet there are a few who know how to detect us, and those few would be in positions of power. You can hide your- your elven-ness, while we cannot. I will not force you to go."

This was a false statement, they both knew. Even if Nalian was adamant that he wasn’t going, Darian would find some way, discreet or obvious, to get him to go. Usually it was easy; Nalian hated being thought of as too weak-willed or weak-minded to do something and if he thought someone was implying he couldn’t do it, he would jump into the mess without a second thought. His teachers seemed to think this was a bad trait to carry, especially for a person so closely associated with a king with many enemies. Nalian agreed and often cursed his ego for getting him into messes he didn’t wish to be in.

He sighed. "You know I’ll go. What choice do I have? I can’t turn my back on my people."

Darian smiled. "Good. Now go or you’ll be late to Lady Farra’s."

Nalian grimaced. Explaining that he would be gone for nearly a human’s year to Farra would be nothing less than agonizing.

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