Chương 25: She Had Never Seen The Beauty Of Land
After her brief visit to the palace, Leeora returned to Ronan.
Upon entering the city of elves, the High Elder first instructed one of her clan members to deliver a message towards Honeyharbor, the land of witches on the other side of the forest.
The territory of the witches bordered the Forest of Elves, starting from the edge of the forest towards the grassy fields where a handful of witch towns could be found. Unlike the elves that have one city per clan, the witches only have a single city within their territory—the City of Honeyharbor.
With that, all she would need was to wait for the response of the Head Witch. Leeora decided to head back home.
'I wonder how that human girl is faring.'
When she checked the tree house beside hers, Leeora could not help but shake her head. As expected, the girl chose to stay inside her house. She had told her she could go out and roam around the city, hoping that it would let her feel a sense of belonging especially if she made some friends among the young elves, but the girl seemed to prefer being alone.
Leeora knocked on the door of the human girl's house.
"It's me, Leeora. May I come in?"
After knocking once more, she decided to enter the house and found the human girl sitting by the window, looking outside quietly. She looked lonely, lost as if she had nothing left in life to do and was wasting her time away. It brought a sigh to the elf's lips.
"How have you been, child?" Leeora asked.
Hearing her, the human girl simply turned to look at her, but that was all. Leeora smiled and went towards where she's sitting.
She saw what this human girl was looking at. From her window, she could see the view of a beautiful and grand palace made entirely of white stone that seemed to glisten under the sun. It was the one and only magnificent structure in the middle of the mountains full of greenery, standing magnificently beside a river and a forest.
The Royal Palace of Agartha, residence of the Devil King Draven Aramis.
Aside from the palace, there were no other huge stone constructions in this kingdom as all races living under his protection preferred to live in either quaint communities or in their natural habitats, like the forest or the lakes.
"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Leeora said. "That is the palace where you have stayed till now. Do you miss it?"
The human girl did not react, but she thought that this kind elf lady must be having some sort of misunderstanding. That terrifying red-eyed man lived there. She was relieved that she no longer had to face him. Why would she miss that place?
'But still, I never knew the world could be this beautiful.'
Everything she was seeing now were things she never imagined she would get to see. The luxurious palace, the lush garden, the lively forest, the city of elves—they were all sights so magnificent she could not even see them in her dreams.
Gaia, the one who raised her, did not allow her to be seen by people and warned her to never ever step foot outside the mountain, otherwise, her life would be in danger. The things she knew of the outside world all came from the stories Gaia told her.
She was raised in isolation, and from her very first memory, it had always been the sight of the dark cave and gloomy forest. In a place covered in a fog all year round, where the sun barely shines, the only colours she could see were the poisonous mushrooms that survive on the rocky ground of the mountain. The only animals she could interact with were crows and vultures and other animals that scavenged to live, feasting on the lives of the poor humans who lost their way inside the dead forest.
She grew up in a land of death…and now, she's seeing a land of life.
Inside her new home, this window had the best view of everything beautiful the outside world has to offer—the mountains, rivers, the forest, and not to forget that magnificent palace.
She felt overwhelmed with happy emotions just staring at these beautiful sights.
Leeora, of course, didn't know this. "I left some of the loaves of bread I made on the table. Eat it when you're hungry. Later, I will take you outside to show your way around the city." Leeora left after a while.
The human girl remained looking at the palace. All of a sudden, she found something flash away from the direction of the palace. Something moving at the speed of lightning.
'A bird? No…it looks like some kind of energy?'
It startled her, but she thought it must be her imagination.
'I must be hungry.'
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Chương 26: Draven's Past Memories
Meanwhile, Draven decided to go out on a journey and wander around the continent.
Other than just updating his own map of the human kingdoms, he thought of visiting a particular place that held a special meaning to his existence.
In a blink of an eye, the tall figure of Draven Aramis disappeared from his study.
His regal body reappeared on the banks of a river that cut through the center of a dense forest. It was an ancient forest generally untouched by humans as it was on the other side of a mountain range flocked by dangerous wild animals.
'Decades have passed since my last visit yet nothing has changed.'
Several centuries ago, Draven Aramis found himself waking up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by these exact same trees…without his memories.
Draven looked at a particularly rocky place at the mouth of the river. It was as if he could see the blurry images of that time when he found himself in this forest for the first time.
Centuries back, on this same place, he woke up with a deep gasp as if he had been suffocating for a long time. There was immense pain on the left side of his chest. He had no strength in his body and somehow dragged himself towards the river to drink water and quench his thirst.
Drinking water was something his body's instinct drove him to do, but his mind had been a mess back then. Confusion was the dominant thing in his mind.
"Where am I?"
"What happened?"
"What can't I recall anything?"
Only the question "Who am I?" had an answer.
Draven Aramis.
An empty name, and the most important clue he had of his identity.
When he tried to sit up, he found his body trembling at the sharp pain he felt in his chest. His palm touching his chest was bright red.
"I'm bleeding…?"
He discovered that he was wearing chest armour and it had a gaping hole on the left side. He removed that hard outer cover and found the white shirt he was wearing inside drenched in blood, also bearing the same gaping hole as the armour. It looked like someone had stabbed him in the chest.
'But there is no wound.'
He removed the torn top and checked his chest. Although he felt pain, his chest looked fine. There was not a single wound on his skin, nothing except a tattoo of a black dragon.
"What is this tattoo?"
Having that black dragon mark felt weird, as if his intuition was telling him he never had it before.
However, no one else was there with him to answer his questions. He was alone, without a memory, and thus he wandered the land for years all by himself, with only the name Draven Aramis as his clue.
Without any recollection of his identity, he walked out of this forest and entered a human kingdom, not knowing what to expect. It was not a good start. He had so many questions about his own life, yet he was met with encounters that made him protect the people who had come to rely on his strength. The fighting had gone on for a long time, and it made him unable to return to this place to investigate during those warring times.
But then there were those recurring dreams.
He felt that those dreams were fragments of the memories he lost. He thought returning to this forest would make him trigger those dreams. However, even though he came to visit, the dreams didn't change and only showed her that woman again and again. Having the same dreams caused him to be stuck in his search for the truth and he thought there was no need to return to this place.
Now this mysterious emerald green-eyed girl appeared, he felt that he was given an invisible push to resume his attempts of recovering his memories.
From the small kingdom that bordered the forest, towards the three Great Kingdoms, and then the Empire, he had walked the continent in search of his identity. Along the way, he came across many instances where the supernaturals were discriminated against and hunted as if they were criminals simply for existing.
As someone who witnessed their persecution, the disgust he felt for humankind only grew. He didn't know why he felt pity for those supernaturals, but he decided to protect them. He never expected back then that his single kind intention would worsen the situation and put the entire continent in a state of war.
'Devil.'
It was then that he earned such a fearsome name for the countless slaughter he committed in order to protect those races who only want to live in harmony with nature. The empire fell and many kingdoms perished after losing to him and were later on swallowed by other kingdoms. A new empire was born, and kingdoms rose and fell, yet human greed never disappeared.
Slowly, the supernatural beings of the continent accepted Draven as their protector and their leader. Many races and clans migrated to a hidden sanctuary away from the human world where they created their own peaceful world—Agartha.
Draven sighed as he remembered those times of chaos. It took bloody centuries for Agartha to enjoy the peace it was experiencing now.
From there, he took one step forward, retracing the steps he took when he first woke up without a memory.
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