Slipped through a loop, the elven sisters hit the ground at the sa ti as each other. Lying side by side, they opened their eyes and tried to look through the darkness with their night vision. While Aria’s gaze was as dull as the darkness around her, l’s eyes were bright as a wild cat in the dark who’s hunting its prey.
Leaning against each other’s backs, they drew their weapons and started looking around to soak in their surroundings. Nothing but darkness and a semi-translucent film of so strange liquid from within, which they’d fallen onto solid ground.
"What is this place?"
"That bitch’s trickery would be a sound bet." Taking a deep breath, Aria narrowed her eyebrows and looked up again. "How do we get out of here?"
"Let try sothing." Closing her eyes, l pressed her fist to her chest and tried to draw the powers of nature. Natura’s strength enveloped her for a brief second; however, right as she was about to summon a sprout to carry them skyward, their surroundings changed, and the sudden light nearly blinded them. "What in the hells..."
Opening her eyes, licia Phrodite found herself seated in a rocking chair on the porch of a farmhouse. Her body was rocking back and forth while she looked at the very farm that once belonged to Rose. Green, lush wilds had taken over most of her farm, and only a few acres of cornfields remained.
"Where am I–"
Looking down at herself, she was startled by the swell of her chest and the faintest hints of wrinkles on her hands. Bringing her fingers closer to her face, she pinched at her skin and pulled away. The mark remained and wouldn’t go away–a sure sign of age, but...
’How old am I?’ Touching her face, her skin felt a little loose, and her cheekbones were protruding more than they ever had. Concerned, the elf tried to get off the chair, yet the ache in her knees kept her from standing all the way up.
"Aghh..F-fuck, what the–" Swallowing her words, l settled right back.
Her back, her joints, and everything were hurting. And although she knew this was an illusion, the pain felt real.
’What is this goddess planning? Trying to break my spirit like this? As if I didn’t know that I would get old.’ Questioning the goddess’s thods, licia sat cursing her na for a while. However, as soon as she had gathered more strength, her body lifted, and she decided to walk.
Checking the house first, countless portraits of her youth alongside her friends and family were hung on the walls. So of them she didn’t recognize, and others, she felt a strange ache in her heart as she looked at them. Inside her room–a scattered ss–there were clothes of children and adults spread alike. So belonged to girls, others to boys.
’Are these...’ A frad portrait on her bedside table drew the elf’s attention. Walking over to it, she gripped it firmly in her hand and wiped the dust from its surface. ’My children?’
A pair of little girls was dangling by the arms of a much taller and masculine Raven, as for the boys, they sat by their mother, all prim and proper with a cute smile and their faces pressed against l’s.
’Well, wouldn’t that be nice...’ Smiling at the portrait, l moved her hand off the fra and noticed a few words written on the edge where her thumb had been. ’What’s this?’
The words read, ’Why didn’t you take with you?’ It took l a mont to decipher what it ant, and as realization hit her, she was reminded of a conversation with the entire group under a starry night.
’They were half-elves and Raven...’ Exhaling sharply, the smile on l’s face quickly disappeared. Half-elves were notorious for inheriting the worst and the best aspects of both parents. And if such were their case with her and Raven, then... ’They died before . They will all die before , Raven, and my children.’
Though it was but a re mirror to her future, an illusion, tears pricked at the edge of l’s eyes. Being young and full of vigor, she hadn’t put much thought into the matter, but at so point, she had to bury her children, her husband, her friends, including Aria, and still live long enough to see countless more generations rise and fall before her eyes.
"An elf," a distant voice suddenly bled into licia’s ears. "I have seen many like you before. They think they can love whoever, but you are delicate creatures. The dark elves’ prey, the fascination of other races, but they fall in love with anyone outside their own, and heartbreak follows. You are not ant to love whoever, licia. He will die, and so will your children. But I can fix it all, give you the gift of a shorter life or extend that of those you love."
Wiping her tears, the elf glanced up at the sky, but the only thing looking at her was the wooden ceiling. Even so, she smirked and then laughed. For a mont, she was uncertain about a deal, but then she was reminded...
"And you think death will separate from my love, my children?" Laughing so more, licia felt the strength in her body slowly return. "They will be my children, stubborn as nails and as resilient as their father, who has already defied death again and again!"
"UGHHH!!" The floorboard underneath licia began to quake out of nowhere. Giving the quake so room, she watched as Aria crawled out of the dirt with her body recovering from what appeared to be death and rot. "She gets a glimpse into the future, and I get a nap in the dirt, tsk. How unfair."
"Dark elves don’t live as long as the fair ones, sister," l teased, having recovered from the goddess’s pitiful attempt at manipulation.
"Fuck you, l." Hitting l in the arm, Aria glanced up high and curled her fingers around her lips to scream. "Even horrors give better nightmares than this, you goddess of disappointnts! YOU HEAR !"
"Ughh," feeling a shiver at the mory of her being turned into a piece of wood, l scratched her arm and tried not to think about it. "Whatever. We need to find a way to get out of here."
Closing her eyes once again, l concentrated on Natura’s powers and on blooming a sprout, tearing through the seam between the present and the future. Standing on top of it, it was only a matter of ti before the elves made their exit; however, even then, there were still others stuck in their nightmares. And to escape them, all they had was themselves.
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