Page 52 of Crown of Flame
That’s when his eyes snap towards me. He smiles, but there’s something empty in his eyes whenever he looks at me. Hatred, contempt, apathy. At that point, I know that he doesn’t see me as a living being. He only sees me as a nuisance.
A human who ruined all of his plans.
“We found a strong connection here between this plane and the primordial plane of fire - a leyline running between our worlds, deep underground - so we wanted to channel that energy, and use it to aid our efforts,” he says. “But your stupid amulet...”
He pauses.
“I’m sorry. It’s quite useful. It just has a nasty habit of getting in the way. Where did you get it?”
I say nothing in response, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. He pauses, before clearly expressing disappointment.
He really wants me to humor him in spite of everything he’s done. Do his men not soothe his swelling ego enough?
“Anyway… we sent sacrifices over there to die, in the name of creating a portal. We could reach the elemental plane by moving deep underground, across the leyline. But that’s deeply inconvenient and not all reliable.”
He smacks his lips, pausing to ruminate.
“But imagine our surprise when instead of summoning heat through the sacrifice of your dear friends’ souls, we bring your elemental friend instead?”
Aldris runs a hand along his chin.
“I suppose it’s our fault, to an extent. We should have done more research into the nature of the portal. We should have predicted that your amulet might interfere. But that’s neither here nor there.”
He shakes his head.
“Your friend won’t be interfering anymore,” he says. “Next time, you’ll find we’re much more prepared.”
“What do you mean?” I can hear my heart in my ears. What has he done to Cinis? “Where is he now? Have you spoken to him?”
Now, it’s Aldris’s turn to narrow his eyes on me. He smirks, tilting his head slightly.
“You two were living together, weren’t you? In that stone building. Did you build that together?”
My fists clench, and I momentarily stop rubbing my wrists together. “What have you done to Cinis?”
“I must admit, you two surprised me. I never would have guessed that a monstrous creature and a human woman would find anything to bond over. I suppose desperation pushes us to extreme lengths.” Aldris laughs to himself. “Arcanis would have loved to learn more about this odd relationship between you and Cinis.”
“Where is he?”
“Don’t worry about that,” he says swiftly. “Cinis is an afterthought to me. He showed his true nature when he butchered Arcanis and all of his students. He’s useless. A monster throwing a tantrum. It’s a shame things turned out this way, but my ambitions will not go unrealized.”
His ambitions. Right.
His desire to dominate and enslave all of the humans on this continent. We have done our best to escape the clutches of the dark elves, but still, they’ve decided to follow us all the way here. How is that fair?
When will they leave us alone?
Before long, Aldris becomes too enthralled by his own plans. I start tuning him out on purpose, not really paying him much attention. My true focus is on releasing myself from these binds before any serious danger comes my way.
I’m sure Aldris has some sinister intentions with me once he’s done talking. I won’t make things easy for him.
He likes to think that humans are easy targets. That we will bend over and submit to the will of the dark elves. Not here. Not on Prazh.
We’re finally starting to find some semblance of normalcy on this continent. The likes of Arcanis and Aldris want to stop us, but it’s not going to happen.
And once I find and reunite with Cinis, I’ll make sure that neither he nor any other dark elf threatens us again.
“Are you listening to me, human?” Aldris says, stepping my way. I stiffen. “Cinis mentioned that your name is Serena. Is that true?”