Zephyr stared at the man. She knew of the war. One thousand years in the past, this land was occupied by the dark elves who loved coastal regions. They loved to bathe in the sun and get tanned.
In the past, a cult of high elves tried to burn the world tree and failed. The tree punished them with a curse, abandoning them and taking her grace away. The cult members burned with holy flames and flew deep underground, their skin as black as charcoal. They were the first dark elves.
But after milleniums, a hero named Cain Lisworth came and managed to mend the bad blood between them and the world tree, and they once again were graced, turned back into high elves with pale skin. It was the birth of the first moon elves.
Those elves split into two groups one that lived as high elves and lived as moon elves. But since they were shunned in the dark for thousands of years, they yearned for the sun. For decades after the grace, you can see the elves lying in the sun on beaches, bathing in the glory of sunlight.
Those elves got sunburns, badly to the point their skin turned into a dark tane. And humans began to call them dark elves again, or tanned elves.
Yes, dark elves are tanned high elves. And that stuck through the generations as a right and a tradition.
This land belonged to them, but the humans invaded one thousand years ago and drove them out. The holy order of the three gods probably wants to apologize to the dark elf goddess but has no way of contacting her.
Zephyr sighed as the information flooded across her mind. She smiled, “If your head pope wants to apologize for the invasion, he’s out of luck. We have none associated with Elis enough to contact her.”
The man’s eyes opened wide, “The wisdom of the fae, you could guess it,” He gasped.
“Guess it?” Zephyr stared at him, poking her ear like he did before. “I was alive when it happened, kid. Don’t compare me to you,”
The man backed away, staring at her, “You lived at that time? How old are you?”
“Don’t ask a lady about her age,” Zephyr growled. “The storm jungle? The howling queen? Ring a bell?”
“I read about it,” The man nodded, “A spirit that lived in the wild mountains and set a tool on both armies. The leader of the elves and humans had to go together to her domain and beg her not to trample the armies.” He stared at Zephyr with a drop of sweat trailing across his face. “They said the meeting was less than pleasant, but the spirit didn’t interfere after that.”
Zephyr reached into her pocket, pulling a tiny object with a smile on her face. The object grew in size and was revealed to be a scroll. “A contract between me and the first pope, a copy of it at least. I’m keeping the original sealed.” She threw it to the man.
The man sat at his hands, shaking.
“I expect the pope tomorrow, and he’s better be ready to beg and apologize. Annoying me is a valid reason for me to turn hostile again,” She smiled.
The man opened the scroll and gave it a read. It all boils down to one thing. Zephyr owned all the forest land and had been letting the dark elves live there since they gave her offerings. The first pope and the dark elves leader didn’t negotiate with the spirit. They begged it not to destroy their armies.
The negotiation didn’t last a day but a whole week, and those two spent it begging and pleading to the spirit.
The spirit, Zephyr agreed to stay out of their fight as long as they didn’t annoy her. And if they did, she’s free to kick them both out.
“Go!” Zephyr glared at the man, “If I don’t get an explanation, I will throw this city and your whole army into the death sea.”
The man stared into Zephyr’s eyes. Her words were no mere boast
She meant them and has the power to do it.
“The great wind spirit?” He gasped. .𝘤𝑜𝑚
“Yep, that’s me,” She stared at him, “Get moving! Out of my sight, and don’t you ever dare come knocking on my door. Call to me on the wind and I shall come if I feel like it.” Zephyr snapped her fingers, and a strong gust of wind dragged the man away across the castle halls, throwing him outside.
He stood and ran as fast as he could to the central church.
Zephyr stared into the hallways and then shrunk herself, going through the keyhole and back to Aella. “I dealt with him, only a messenger of the church.”
“What?” Aella gasped.
“Don’t worry. They won’t cause trouble for Arad as long as they know who am I,” Zephyr smiled, “Even though I decided not to bring that up again,” She sighed.
“Bring up what?” Aella stared at her. She was listening to their talk outside, but still couldn’t completely understand it.
“It’s a long story, too long to tell in detail.” Zephyr sat on Aella’s head, “Simply state, I owned the land beside the elvish kingdom in the past. It’s what you call now the kingdom of Alseria.” Zephyr flew to the floor and tapped her foot on it. “This land is mine, the whole kingdom. I only let dark elves live since they gave me a lot of gifts and money and they almost treated me like a goddess. But when the humans tried to invade, they were too proud to ask for my help and fought alone.”
Aella could guess the rest, “The war started destroying the land, so you got angry,”
“Yes, the two leaders came to ask me to stop throwing their soldiers into the sea, but I was really angry at the time.” Zephyr sighed, “I wasn’t taking any of their offers, and they ended up dancing and singing, trying to appease me.”
“Then they started begging since you didn’t stop killing their soldier,” Aella mumbled.
“I didn’t stop my storm. After four days they gave up all the tricks and started licking my feet and begging me not to kill more of their soldiers, and I ended up giving up and not interfering any further.” Zephyr sighed.
“They kept begging you like that for three more days?” Aella gasped.
“I was young and hardheaded,” Zephyr smiled.
“You don’t become a patron without power,” Aella stared at Zephyr, “You don’t seem that much to be honest.”
“Of course I have power,” Zephyr stared at Aella, “Me and Doma are beings people should antagonize. It’s a miracle that your party has us both,”