Page 51 of Crown of Flame

Why is that? What did they do?

“You truly are a silly human.”

My eyes narrow at the dark elf that emerges from the shadows. I suppose he was waiting for me to wake up. He pushes himself off the door that keeps me away from the rest of the world and approaches me with loud footsteps.

I swallow hard. “Where am I? Is this a shack?”

“How observant.”

Besides the chair I’m tied to, there’s nothing much in this small space except for a few other wooden chairs lining the walls. If this is where I’m going to die, it’s a pretty lackluster location. There is nothing distinctive or notable about it.

“Are you thinking about that monster of yours?”

“Cinis,” I spit, annoyed at his callous tone. “He’s not a monster. You’re far more brutal and monstrous than anything he could ever be.”

“You flatter me far too much,” he replies bluntly, rolling his eyes. “But you’re deluding yourself. He was nothing more than a failure.”

“You’re wrong.”

As I take in more of his appearance, I notice my mother’s amulet resting on his chest.

“And who are you, anyway?”

“I would think you might have heard of me,” he says. “After all, you seemed plenty familiar with Arcanis Hightower, who was under my employ when your pet killed him.”

I shake my head.

“I’m Aldris Elruca,” he says. “I’m the one calling the shots. Others thought to come here and take your kind back, but I was the only one who showed the initiative. There’s much we can do with your kind in the name of science.”

My stomach turns at the memory of seeing my friends’ bodies destroyed by the dark elves during their ritual. Their mangled corpses rest strong on my mind, my loneliness only amplifying the pain I thought I was successfully burying.

I can still remember digging their graves.

“Were you disappointed when we killed him,” I ask, rubbing my wrists together. If I keep doing this, perhaps I’ll wear down the material wrapped around them. I start giving it a try, thankful that my body conceals what I’m doing. “Were you friends?”

He chuckles a bit before brandishing his hand and slapping me across the face.

“Arcanis was a disappointment,” Aldris says. “You might have thought you accomplished a great deal, retaking our towers like that, but we can create more in seconds.”

I feel the soreness radiating across my cheek. Despite the pain, I smile slightly.

“Why don’t you behave, and maybe I’ll treat you a little better,” Arcanis suggests. “After all, you’re going to be here quite a while.”

I clench my jaw, not wanting to retort in fear he might do something to me. Instead, I indirectly focus on my wrists moving together. The friction starts to cause me some pain, but I keep going in the hopes that my plan might work.

“But yes, to answer your question, I knew Arcanis,” he says. “We hail from Tlouz. Arcanis, being the inquisitive mind that he was, wanted to find a way to make this continent a better place for dark elves. We had both heard of your unnatural colonization here, and we wanted to bring it to an end. A human’s most vital purpose is creating more dark elves. It’s unnatural that you defy that.”

It takes everything within me to hold back my grimace. Of course, he would think that. The dark elves don’t have any respect for us. Any semblance of freedom we get, they swoop in to snatch away from us.

“So that’s why Arcanis came here. To study. To observe.” He punctuates each word firmly. “He captured some humans and documented everything he learned about them. Then, he sent the information back to me. But something curious started to happen. The humans started dying inexplicably at first.”

I scoff. “They were being put in horrible conditions. Why is that so surprising?”

“No, no, this was different,” Aldris presses. “Their skin would turn red at first, before turning black and hard. This was especially prevalent along their fingers and toes. The longer we kept them alive, the worse it got. Obviously, this was not a good thing. We needed the human subjects to be alive for an acceptable period of time. We don’t have an unlimited supply. To have them die prematurely was a shame.”

Aldris cracks his neck by rolling his head around in a circular motion. I flinch at the loud crunch. He doesn’t glance my way. He continues talking after a brief pause.

“Some of our own were being affected by the cold, so Arcanis needed a way to keep everyone warm.”

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