EVABELLE

A natural elegance would be one way to describe the throne room of the High King of the Elven Isles. It was a vast room with the crystal tree, or whatever it was taking up a lot of the architecture like the rest of the palace.  Evabelle's eyes roved over it all taking in the pureness that it gave off along with enjoying the sweet smells of salty sea and sweet honey.  Clusters of pastel flowers blossomed in various areas of the room, creating a peaceful gardenesque feeling as well.  She absolutely loved it.

Finally Evabelle's eyes did land on the King sitting in his throne that stood on a few small steps made of glass just like the rest of the flooring.  This man, unlike his son, had evidently aged since that portrait had been done.  Sunshine hair had gone white which ironically did match with Kai's now, but the wrinkles and the dark bags under the eyes were the real indicators.  He was thinner and looked overall frailer.  In fact, the King wasn't looking terribly well at all.  He was practically as pale as Kai and his eyes seemed a little glazed.  His breathing seemed a bit shallow and the way we was leaning back in his chair suggested exhaustion.  However, when the four of them approached and Kai stepped forward to introduce them, he sat forward his eyes glowing as they landed on his son.

"Father, allow me to introduce Delaney and Lucis Mendax."  Kai knelt on one knee before the King and extended his hand to the twins who followed Kai's example and bowed.  "And this is the Anahalian princess, Princess Evabelle."  The vampire went on, gesturing Evabelle step forward, who did a little tentatively.

The king's eyes that were a few shades lighter than his daughter's sea blue shone as they fell on her.  "It is an honor to meet you all."  He said, hoarsely, a broad smile on his face.  "The Oracle and the princess of the Anahalians.  This is a most special occasion."

Evabelle did a side glance at the two brothers.  Lucis didn't seem upset over the fact that the King had not given him a special recognition, but she thought she saw Del's jaw tighten just a little.  But the fairer brother lifted his head and spoke to the King himself.  "If you may permit me Majesty, may I speak?"

The elf king gave smiled and motioned that Lucis should step forward.  "You don't need to tell me why you're here.  I am well aware, now."

Lucis nodded and did as the King gestured.  "Yes Sir, then you know what we want to know."

"The suspected activities of my people.  I sent a few messengers hoping to find you and your brother to let you know of the darkened Anahalians as well as the suspicious actions of some of my elves.  Many were not particularly happy about divulging the information, but I had a feeling it might be connected to what you were searching for."

Lucis nodded again.  "Yes, Your Majesty.  We are most grateful for that information.  If I may ask, what do you know about what we are doing here on Earth?"

The King leaned back again in his throne and reached up and tugged at the high collar of the deep gray robe he wore, and almost indiscernibly, winced.  Beside Evabelle, Kai stiffened.  She glanced at him, but his face lacked any perceivable expression.

"Allow me to get a table and chairs for all of you."  The King said finally.  "If you'll just move for a moment."  They all stepped aside as the King pushed himself to his feet, a little unsteadily, making Kai lean forward as if to run to the man, but his father straightened and raised his arms, tossing pale yellow, glittery dust into the air.  The moment it settled onto the glossy floor the glass split with a loud crack, making Evabelle jump and stare as those crystally vines wriggled up through the fissure and began to form into the shape of a very fancily styled table with a strangely smooth surface along with a set of matching chairs.  "Please sit, so that we may discuss."  The King stepped down from his throne and sat at the head of his new piece of furniture that had decided to spring up from his floor.

Evabelle stared a little numbly for a moment.  How in the world am I not used to things like this?  But while she thought that, she was kind of glad that this world was still a wonder to her.

After they had all seated around the beautiful smooth furnishing, the King leaned forward, still looking rather sickly and pressed his fingers in front of him and began.  "I am aware of the threat of the fallen Anahalian, Averno.  He disappeared when he was sentenced to death back in Jovis.  I know he escaped here back to Earth and had been keeping fairly quiet until far more recently.  A disease that has been turning Anahalians into his demonic slaves had leaked into Jovis from Earth and several of those beings left Jovis and are now on Earth as well, which is what we are seeing flock around highly human populated areas."  King Lir took several deep breaths before continuing.  "Averno had caused some small disturbances with other angel borns before, but we know he is primarily against his own kind.  However, threatening of humans does seem to suggest his goals span a little wider.  I am aware that you are looking for Averno and what he has that has been changing the Anahalians.  I hate to admit that my own kind would ever work with him, but as of late, suspicious activity suggests they are working with the vampire king and that was something I never believed would happen."

Lucis took a deep breaths himself.  "Yes, you know the main purpose, but I think we should let you know of the bigger threat against you, Your Majesty.  You stated that he has been mainly focused on bringing down the Anahalians which is what we believed also, but we've received some recent information confirming that he's going bigger scale.  As you said what's happening seems to span a little larger than his past actions.  Averno does not just want the destruction of the Anahalians, but of all creatures with angel blood."

If possible, the King paled even more.  His light oceanic eyes widened.  "So it is true," he murmured.  Shaking his head, his eyes sharpened again.  "That would make sense, putting all the pieces together.  He's creating an army, and it would make sense that he would still be building one with demon borns.  I will not hide that it terrifies me that Ravana might be working for him."

Lucis cleared his throat.  "We are aware that Ravana is seen as the vampire king, but we do not know much beyond that.  What could you say about him if we end up crossing paths with him?"

King Lir shook his head.  "I would highly suggest avoiding him at all costs.  He is perhaps the most demonic vampire still alive.  You are aware that he a pureblood, but he is far more powerful than any other pureblood out there and that's including his brother, Kruor.  I will not deny, though, that we have been very fortunate that he has been fairly cooperative in matters of the law established by the Temporal Armistice Union.  He's been keeping hundreds of vampires from breaking loose and going on bloody rampages because even they're terrified of him.  He remains that way as long as we follow his demands in certain circumstances.  He makes deals that can be most disagreeable, but he knows how desperate we are to keep as many vampire under law as possible."  The King's hands tightened on the arms of his chair.  "If he truly has turned on us it would be disastrous."

"We are aware that elves are not traditionally trained in combat or for any kind of war."  Lucis began.

The King shook his head.  "That is mostly true.  We are not trained at such a young age like the Anahalians, but recently there has been a movement of volunteer training.  We have a very small army that has slowly began to grow.  My new Commander had been a part of that movement."

Lucis nodded.  "That is good to hear, but as much as it pains me to make elves fight, it might be better to push that movement a little more."

The King gave a nod.  "Yes."

"Now, Your Majesty," Lucis started again.  "My companions and I have come here to learn of those elves that have been acting in a way that had brought these suspicions."

King Lir sighed.  "It's not that we have a specific group of elves that we know are doing this.  A burned piece of a note written in the vamporic tongue was turned in.  The most apparent thing on it was the seal that quite obviously belonged to Ravana.  Bits of ash have also been given to us that have remnants of this as well.  Of the small fragments of full words very little had been translated.  Demon languages are far more difficult to decode, but as I said, the seal is something that any elf would recognize."

Del rocked forward in his crystal tree chair, eyeing the King through his narrowed eyes.  "When you say 'turned in' do you mean it was anonymous?"

King Lir blinked at Del a few times.  "Yes," he said slowly.  "Are you aware of something that we are not, Delaney?"  He asked curiously.  "As the Oracle we would be most honored by your knowledge."

Del's mouth twitched.  "That's not what I meant, Your Majesty."  He said, his voice calm, but Evabelle could hear the faint coolness in it.  "I met a dark personage in your woods and they seem to be working a bit on their own, still for the sake of the elves but with their own rules in mind."

Kai, who was sitting next to Evabelle tensed again.  Giving him another look revealed a perfectly passive face.  It was rather too passive.  His jaw was tight and his hands were clenched on his lap.  However it was those gray eyes that revealed the most.  They were swirling with emotions that were too much for Evabelle to read.

The King, on the other hand, relaxed.  "Yes, the people have come to call it The Shadow.  It is suspected that they are the ones turning in the evidence which is why we are cautious to accept is as truth.  In the past we have not been so fond of this elf, but I'm beginning to believe that we might just need them to help with what is to come."

"So you have no suspects about who is receiving these messages?"  Lucis asked.

King Lir shook his head.  "No specific elf, but we believe we have a general location for where these potential traitors might meet.  There was a location for where all the ash samples and note fragments were found.  They were all on the Fourth Isle near the Ciennal Caverns.  I have sent groups of scouts searching there every day and night, but they haven't found anyone or anything beyond what's already been found."

Lucis nodded.  "Perhaps, you could allow us to take a look ourselves?"

The King pursed his lips.  "Anahalians doing an investigation on elf soil will not go over well."

"Perhaps if you had a few elves come with us, we could be assisting."  Lucis tried.

King Lir shook his head.  "I have an idea.  Now that my son has returned his coronation may go on."

"What?"  Kai leapt to his feet, staring at his father in shock.

The King looked at him evenly.  "You heard me."

Kai narrowed his eyes and he looked almost angry, which Evabelle had never seen before.  But the vampire did a sweep of the table and quickly relaxed again and sat down.  "I'm not so sure that that would be the best thing."  He said calmly.

"I am the King," King Lir said.  "We may discuss this afterward if you wish, but for now, allow me to present my plan."

Kai bowed his head.

"Now," the King went on.  "I would plan for the coronation to take place tomorrow on the full moon following tradition, after which there will be a reception.  It is a huge party where thousands of elves attend for the heir.  It would be a good chance for the traitors to meet without threat of scouting parties searching for them.  And you along with a few of my elves to guide you through, could sneak away and see if you can find them."  The King leaned back again.  "I know it's not much, but I believe it could work and it would also give me the chance to see my daughter again."

Kai closed his eyes and Evabelle's heart sank.  Kai might have told his father that Gem was alive, but from the looks of it, he hadn't mentioned what had happened to her or why.

Lucis nodded.  "That's not a bad plan."  He agreed.  "And of course, you deserve to see Gem again.  Do you have a portal?"

King Lir stroked his chin.  "In a way, yes.  We had some previous workings with mages in the past and they built one for us, but it has been many years and the portal hasn't been kept up.  I'm not sure it will work."

"We can talk to the mage we've been staying with to see if it will work and perhaps get Gem here."  Lucis crossed his arms.  "You do have Com Mirrors, of course."

The King opened his mouth, but Evabelle suddenly blurted, "If we do find a way and it works, could we invite a few more people?"

Faces turned to her, and she felt her face grow hot.  "I mean this is to celebrate Kai, and he's made several friends back at the Sanctuary, and..."

King Lir chuckled softly.  "My dear princess," he laughed.  "I do forget that you were not raised under the royal code."

Evabelle suddenly realized that she had interrupted the King and felt even worse.  "I'm so sorry, Your Majesty."  She bowed her head.

The elf king shook his head.  "It is alright, my dear.  And if it works, then yes.  If we can get it to work then we may invite friends that have been good to my son."

Evabelle smiled gratefully.  "Thank you, Your Majesty."  She saw Lucis glancing at her, but quickly turn back to the King.

"For now this plan has promise, so we will follow through with it unless something changes."  The blonde man said.

The King stood and the rest of them rose as well.  "Excellent," he replied.  "I know you have been travelling for long hours and are no doubt exhausted.  Perhaps, after you have talked with the mage for the preparations and sort out the portal you could get some rest."

Both Lucis and Del bowed, and Evabelle quickly scrambled to follow their example.  The King gave his nod and dismissal and the three of them began to walk toward the door.

"I'll show you to the Com Mirrors and the rooms in just a moment."  Kai called after them.  Then he turned to his father and began to murmur softly with him.

Evabelle desperately wanted to know what they were talking about, but it was in a different language that she had never heard.

The door swung shut on them and Del leaned back against it, his hands shoved into his pockets.  "Great, a party."  He grumbled.

"I think it could be nice after all this craziness."  Lucis sat down on the top stair.

Evabelle glanced back and forth, standing awkwardly between the boys.  She chewed on her tongue for a moment, debating about what to say.  "Kai doesn't seem very happy about it either."  She decided.

Del gave a scoff.  "Well, that makes sense actually.  He's a vampire and his father still wants to make him the heir.  That's immensely stupid."

Lucis glanced back at his brother and gave him a look.  "You're talking about a King."

"Kings aren't perfect either."  Del retorted.  "I can't imagine the elves taking to this news.  A vampire ruling them.  That would cause an uproar and some serious protests.  The King should realize that his son forfeited his right to the throne when he ran off to take on a whole clan of vampires by himself."

The words were harsh and it made Evabelle want to defend Kai, but she had seen the way Elatus had viewed Kai, and if the rest of the elves saw vampires the way he did then Del might just have a point.

Lucis, who didn't look particularly happy either, shook his head.  "Well, either way I think it could be good in some ways for us and even them.  Kai is a good person and if he could change the views of his people, that could do some good, I think."  He rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, staring down the stairs at the great room below them.

Del rolled his eyes at his brother's back.  But then that cold stare suddenly landed on Evabelle.  "And do you honestly plan on bringing Blondey to this thing?"

Evabelle stood her ground.  "Yes.  I felt really bad about leaving her behind and when we started talking about a party, I just had to.  Parties are her thing and that it would be pure cruelty not to include her."

Del rolled his eyes again.  "Perfect."

A brief silence allowed Evabelle the opportunity to ask a few questions.  "Um, could I ask, what exactly is the Temporal Armistice Union?  The King mentioned it and I've never heard of it before."  Evabelle had done her research on all the creatures of demons and angels in the Day and Night book.  She had also taken a look at several other books about specific species and different cultural variances, but that particular term had never come up.

Lucis turned his head to her again.  "The Temporal Armistice Union, more commonly known as the TAU, is an earthbound council that deals with the issues of constant war between the angelic and demonic races.  If they were to have full out physical battles, the humans would get involved and they don't want that.  So they've created a sort of peace union to try to form a balance.  It was founded by angel borns, and always includes the leaders of the race, so King Lir is probably a high member of it.  He might even be the leader of that as well, considering he's the elf king.  They are the second born to the angels after the Anahalians.  Anyway the TAU do their best to include the demon borns, but they can be hard to negotiate with.  Most didn't want to get involved, but they were able to snag a few powerful demon leaders, such as Ravana that can help keep the demon population from getting completely out of hand."

"What sort of things do they do?"  Evabelle asked.  "What sort of compromises do they make with the demon borns?"  She couldn't imagine how they could even make deals with the demons.  They didn't seem the type to follow through with their side of things.

"Well, they don't necessarily want a full out war either.  Demons themselves might like that, but their children are their own people now.  Not all are completely faithful, besides perhaps witches because that's how they get their power, but otherwise they're not entirely loyal to them anymore.  That doesn't mean they're good though.  They more just do what they want for their own selfish reasons which can often still coincide with demonic desires.  Those that work on the council or agree to a few of the terms have conditions that the angel borns don't always agree with, but they don't always have a lot of choices.  If they don't agree they'll break away and—"

"Go on bloody rampages as the King put so eloquently."  Del grunted.

Lucis nodded.  "Yeah, that's one way of putting it.  Some of the deals they've made is for vampires to drink human blood of prisoners or even from prisoners of traitors of their own kind.  *Those under the death penalty will not necessarily be taken down with a serum or whatever.  Some go straight to vampire clans to do as they wish with them."

Evabelle swallowed, feeling a little nauseous.  From the tone of his voice, Lucis was implying that they didn't just drink all their blood, but perhaps toyed with them beforehand.  "That's...so..."

"That's one of the hard decisions made by the Union."  Lucis sighed.  "They don't like the idea of the suffering that the vampires would inflict to their victims, but it was better than putting it upon innocent people.  They don't always kill, though.  That's part of the deal, it's only those on death row for that, but other prisoners or felons they'll take some of the blood, but make sure they don't remember it when their sent back.  They have similar deals made with a few manageable werewolf packs too, I think."

Del clicked his tongue.  "Exactly when did you become an expert on the TAU?" 

Evabelle glanced at him.  "Didn't you learn about them in school or something?"  She asked.

The dark winged man shrugged.  "Yeah, it came up, but not all that stuff.  We didn't get into it because Anahalians have never been involved in it."

"Why?"

"Because," Lucis responded.  "We're not on Earth.  I do believe your father did his best to participate and contribute, but not everyone on the Union board is as kind as King Lir.  I assume the elf king wouldn't have minded.  He might have defended him, but I'm sure that most of the others were against the idea."

Evabelle sighed.  It was pretty annoying how much persecution the Anahalians faced by the angel borns when they were one of them themselves. 

The large door that was not the one Del was leaning against was pushed open to reveal the slim pallid figure of the prince of elves.

Lucis stood, and Del pushed off of the door.

Kai didn't look particularly happy and Evabelle could sort of understand it, but he was back home.  His father accepted him.  She would have thought he might be a bit cheerier about that, at least.  He gave a little nod to them all.  "I'll show you the rooms and the Com Mirrors." 

They all traversed the dark halls in silence.  All the windows were covered, blocking out the sun, which was good, but it did make Evabelle a bit more anxious.  The palace was probably a pleasant, bright, warm place to be most of the time, but with the pained silence between all of them and strange lack of other people around brought the mood down.

They reached door that resided under one of the many staircases.  "The Com Mirrors are in that room."  Kai gestured, his voice distant and rather flat sounding.  "You can let Calandra know of the situation and invite the others if you wish."

Lucis glanced at Kai, quickly.  "So, I take it the plans remain unchanged?"

Kai gave a stiff nod.  "You'll find simple suites just up these stairs."  Then he turned and began to ascend said stairs, and Del and Evabelle followed. 

Evabelle glanced back at Lucis, who gave her a small reassuring smile before turning and heading into the room.

"I hope you find these room accommodating and to your liking."  Kai pointed to the doors, similar to the ones at the Sanctuary, but they luckily didn't involve the shocking keys that were required to open and get a room there as revealed when Del pushed open one of the door and was about to step inside.  "The ceremony will start at precisely noon tomorrow.  Beforehand, you will be fitted with the proper clothing to attend, as well as separate attire for the reception."

Del gave a groan.  "Brilliant."  Then he slid the rest of his way into the room and shut it behind him.

Evabelle put her hand on her own knob, but stopped and glanced back at Kai, who had turned to leave.  "Kai?"  She said softly

The prince did not return her look and Evabelle was reminded of the time she had been afraid of Kai when she had first discovered he was a vampire and he couldn't look at her then either.  "Yes, Evabelle,"

Evabelle licked her lips.  "You really don't want to be the heir, do you?"

Kai closed his eyes for a moment.  "There was a time I didn't want to be heir because I was selfish.  I wanted to run away and explore the world with my friends.  I wanted to be free, but my father showed me that was not the best choice."  The fallen elf opened his eyes slowly.  "This time, I don't want the position for an entirely different reason.  This one is not selfish.  This time I'm thinking of the people just as he would.  This time it's him who's being the self—" He coughed lightly into his hand and cleared his throat.  Then those washed out gray eyes, lighter and more faded than Evabelle's best friend's, turned on her, staring with surprising intensity.  "I just don't think making me the heir now is the best choice."