TGC 22 In which an elf tells a story

We ate a feast that night. Entering the room, we were greeted by a plate full of warm strangely-shaped pastries filled with crushed mushrooms - richer than anything I’d ever eaten before. Next, the elf served us a parsnip and potato soup that warmed my toes, my fingers and my soul. And last but not least, we ate an apple pie so delicious that I lost count of how many portions Handeln ate.

As he finished one of his many helpings, my mother addressed the elf. “Thank you, most sincerely for your incredible kindness, but may I ask you a question.”

The elf nodded evenly.

“Why are you doing this?”

“May I suggest,” the elf spoke slowly, “that it may be easier for me to tell you a story and then I give you my word. I will answer any questions you may have – that are mine to answer.”

It was my mother’s turn to slowly nod.

“Long ago, before I was – separate. I was sent by the council of the high elves. There was concern - regarding the rumours coming out of Ruraux. Rumours of dark sciences that could split the sky and split the earth. Naturally, like many elves, I couldn’t believe that Goblins could wield a power like that and dismissed it as little more than rumour - but as the dutiful being that I was, I travelled there.” The elf fixed its eyes on me. “I saw you there, crawling over your father in a park. I was amazed. I’d never seen somewhere so beautiful. It’s something we elves could never have built. I don’t know whether you’ve seen an elven city. White marble – all white marble. All the same. All uniform. There’s no grit in an elven city, no character. So imagine how impressed I was by your Ruraux. Built on stones thousands and thousands of stones. And cobbled roads,” The elf smiled for a moment, pausing before continuing, “what a dream they were. The idea that a road doesn’t have to be perfectly level. How magical that was. I must confess that the thought crossed my mind many times to simply live there in Ruraux amongst the goblins – but I was still aware that I was there for a reason.

“I found Lehre easily enough and followed him. I followed him to the park with both of you. I followed him to the inn. I followed him back from the inn and watched him throw you into the night air.” The elf smiled again, “but I could never see what he was doing. In the end, I waited until he was in the inn one night. I enchanted all of the clientele and bought him drink after drink. He was proud in the end of what he’d built. ‘It’s going to change the world.’ He said. ‘Us goblins will be free to choose our own paths.’

“’Fantastic,’ I said to him somewhat sincerely. Don’t forget that at this point I was quite the admirer of Ruraux. ‘How will you do it?’ I asked him.” Here our host paused, breathed deeply and closed her eyes. “And your Lehre, your father offered to show me. We left the tavern and walked away. I won’t say where to, that knowledge is still too dangerous, but I followed him and he showed me and he was quite right. He certainly would have changed the world. Goblins would have been free to choose their own paths. The world would have been free to choose its path – but one path of destruction is much like any other. And Ruraux would have been at the centre point of an empty world if I hadn’t stopped him.”

“You stopped him?” I cried in surprise. “How? What did you do?”

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