Page 16 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

He smiled hesitantly. “Kolfinna. I, um, hope you’re doing well this morning.”

“I’m all right.” She wasn’t sure if she should keep talking to him or practice something. Maybe she could carve the stones into a statue like the ice elemental soldier to her left was doing.

“Uh. So, uh, Lieutenant General Bernsten wants to see you. It’s about—” He looked at the soldiers in the distance who were fighting each other, and his voice became smaller and somethingakin to fear reflected off his fae eyes. “It’s about your rank assessment.”

It must’ve been hard for him to be in a fortress full of humans who probably wouldn’t have liked him if they knew who he really was, but Kolfinna didn’t have any sympathy for him. Not when she was living his fear.

Still, they were comrades here. Even if the others didn’t know it.

“Right now?”

He nodded.

Well, she might as well get this over with too.

5

Joran ledKolfinna inside the fort to a wing opposite the barracks. They went deep in the center of the building and then down multiple flights of stairs. Their final destination, it seemed, was an open basement a quarter of the size of the courtyard she had just left. The room was made entirely of grayish-beige stone. It was smoothed over, but there were dents and chinks missing from the ceiling and the walls, revealing either a fight or someone who had practiced with stone magic.

Kolfinna spared a glance at Joran, but his attention was on Sijur, who sat in the back of the room, munching on a plate of biscuits. When he saw Kolfinna, he rose from his chair of disjointed rocks and brushed the crumbs off his hands.

Sijur waved them forward and then gestured to the room. “Impressive, isn’t it? I had this built a few years back when I first found Joran. I just knew that we needed to have a facility where fae can train. What do you think?”

Kolfinna could feel the stones all around the room; there were at least twelve feet of stones beneath the floor, above the ceiling, and beyond the walls. However, it made her stomach clench to think about training here and accidentally having theentire ceiling collapse on them. Or breaking a hole that was too big on the wall and having earth and soil flood the room.

But her uneasiness might’ve been unfounded fears because surely Sijur had built this room to last? And surely, she was only afraid because she didn’t like the idea of being trapped in a room so far underground.

Instead of showing her apprehension, she tapped the solid floor with the toes of her boots. “Itisimpressive. I just hope it’s not connected to the foundation of the fort?”

“No, it isn’t,” Joran said. “This was built separately.”

Sijur chuckled. “Yes, yes. And besides, this is a basement level training room, so whatever happens here shouldn’t affect what happens”—he pointed to the ceiling—“up there. Other than tremors, shakes, or the like.”

“It’s perfect for training with stone magic,” Kolfinna trailed. He must’ve been planning this for a while, she realized. Building a room perfect for fae to practice in? It also made her wonder what exactly his plans were for her, and if he planned on having more fae in his army.

“Earthmagic.” Sijur smiled. “You fae use earth magic.”

“Earth magic?” She arched a brow.

“Yes, it’s what you fae use. You call it stone magic, but earth magic is the correct word.”

She wanted to roll her eyes. Give it to a human to tell a fae what their magic was called. But she didn’t call him out for that or give him a snarky reply like she wanted to.

Her footsteps echoed and bounced across the wide room. “It’s perfect for training withearthmagic, but not with nature-based magic.”

Sijur eased back into his chair and balanced the plate of biscuits on his lap. “Yes, that’s true, but I would argue it’s better for the fae to train with earth magic and rune magic since that’s more reliable than nature.”

“Nature is everywhere?—”

“Yes, it’s everywhere,” he said impatiently, “but can you use it during winter?”

That shut her up.

Kolfinna had been practicing with trying to feel the thread of dormant life in plant matter during the winter, in order to manipulate nature, but she had thus far been unsuccessful. She could occasionally grasp the threads, but they had always slipped through her fingers just as quickly.

Joran fiddled with the cuff of his sleeve at the sudden tenseness in the room. “Historically, the enemies of the fae would attack during the winter since our powers are weakest during that time. King Harald won the last battle in the Last Fae War during the winter. If it hadn’t been winter, some say the outcome could’ve been different.”

“Yes, but the fae and the humans were fighting for a long time, so if not that winter, it would’ve just dragged on to another point. The humans would inevitably win because the fae, after centuries of dominance, grew too arrogant.” Sijur shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal—but to Kolfinna, it was a big deal. There was so little she knew about the actual history between the fae and the humans. So much of it had been erased or changed.

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