Chapter 11 : Late Morning

“What?” questioned Anton “What did you do?”

“We ran away!” repeated Kianna as she tightened her arms around her torso.

“Kianna!” cried Fiona as she angrily nudged her sister’s shoulder “What are you doing!?”

Anton let go of Kianna’s face and leaned back a bit as he looked from her to Fiona and back.

“What are you talking about Kianna?” asked Anton as he met her eyes “What happened?”

“Nothing!” declared Fiona as she pressed herself against her sister “We don’t want to talk about it!”

Kianna’s face showed her misery clearly as she stared at her sister and kept her ears laid back submissively. Fiona’s ears were pointed straight back behind her head as she gave her sister an exasperated glare and bared her clenched teeth.

“Right!?” growled Fiona through her teeth.

Kianna said nothing as she let her eyes fall to the water.

Anton stayed silent as he assessed the two dark elves. After several moments of stillness he settled back into his chair and dropped his aura.

For some time all three sat in silence.

Although nothing was said between them, and neither was actually even looking at the other by this point, the tension between the two dark elves never lessened.

Deciding to let them end their silent stand off on their own, Anton went to look away from them and go back to his book when he stopped short. Kianna had been lightly shivering for some time now and Anton had assumed that this was due to her emotions rather than the temperature around her. But as he went to look away from them he noticed that Fiona now had a very slight shiver to her as well. Taking his right hand, he reached out to feel the bathwater.

Fiona flinched and cringed away as her eyes darted first to his hand and then to his face. Mistrust was still clear in her large eyes as she stared at him.

Roused by the movement taking place around her, Kianna looked up at her sister before shifting her attention to Anton. Unlike her sister, this dark elf had no apprehension in her eyes and merely blinked in curiosity as she watched him.

Slowing his movements, Anton continued to reach forward until he was able to feel the bathwater.

“ ... Why didn’t either of you tell me that the water was starting to get cold?” he asked as he gently shook the water from his hand.

The sisters said nothing as they both tightened their arms against their sides.

With both of the dark elves still watching intently, Anton ran his fingertip in a circle at the waters surface to assess it’s temperature. Mumbling quietly to himself about cold baths, he lightly tapped at the water with just the very tip of his middle finger.

The dark elves cringed back in surprise as a ripple of energy washed across the surface of the water and instantly heated it back to a comfortable warmth.

“Whoa! ... That was magic!” cried Kianna as she frantically looked around herself “How did you do that?”

“Very, very carefully” said Anton as he watched Fiona feel her chest where the energy had washed through her “Too much mana and I could have boiled you both alive”

The dark elves both froze before looking up at him in unison.

“Yes, I am being serious” said Anton with a grin “If I wanted to I could incinerate you both, bones and all, into nothing but little piles of dust”

With their eyes going wide and their ears pointing themselves straight upwards in panic, the unease was clear on their faces as the dark elves turned to each other and then looked back up at Anton.

“And that’s not even close to the worse thing I could do to you” teased Anton as his grin spread into a thin smile “That would actually be a pretty quick and merciful death”

Fiona swallowed a lump in her throat and leaned herself back as Kianna flattened her ears back submissively and hunched down.

“You two never stood a chance” said Anton as he looked from one to the other “And had you been raised right you would have known that”

“ ... What do you mean?” questioned Kianna as she raised her ears back up a bit “How would we have known that?”

“Because I made myself and my abilities clear the moment we met” explained Anton as he shifted his gaze to Fiona “You just thought it was the A/C kicking on”

“ ... That was you!?” exclaimed Fiona “Back at the bar!?”

“Mm hm” nodded Anton “That was my aura. And as dark elves you two should have not only been able to recognize that immediately, but have been able to resist it as well”

“Just because we’re dark elves?” questioned Kianna as she raised her ears back up completely.

“That’s right. Not every species has the ability to manipulate auras, or even feel them at all. Auramancy is a specialty of the dark elves though. It’s how they influence emotions, creating fear and despair or making everything seem calm and safe” explained Anton “Almost all of the dark elves major abilities utilize their auras in some way or another. This is one of the reasons that dark elves are considered so powerful and potentially dangerous. You see, unlike a mana pool, an aura can’t be easily cut off or bound. There are ways to do it but it isn’t an easy thing to do and most of the world doesn’t even know it can be done. This is again why dark elves are considered so frightening. Because even if you were to place a manabinder on a dark elf, that dark elf could still use a big chunk of it’s abilities. This means that they can’t be stopped or controlled very easily, if at all”

“ ... So that’s how Sierra made people be afraid of her!” exclaimed Kianna “She was using her aura!”

“That’s right” nodded Anton “She used her aura to influence other people’s emotions and created a sense of fear in them. This can be crippling to anyone who doesn’t have any way to resist her influence. And why the dark elves can so easily stand up against and take down multiple people at one time. Or people that have tens times their physical strength”

“What do you mean!?” asked Fiona “How does making fear make them stronger than other people!?”

“It doesn’t actually make them stronger. In fact it doesn’t even make their opponents any weaker. But it doesn’t need to either” explained Anton “You could have all the strength in the world. But how is it going to do you any good if you’re too afraid to even move?”

Fiona made a small sound as she looked downwards in thought.

“Auramancy is actually the reason I went to Tantarra in the first place” said Anton as he settled back into his chair “I wanted to learn more about it and how it works. So I figured I’d go to the experts. It took me a little while to fit in but I finally found a few dark elves that were willing to teach me, and after I learned the basics they even taught me a few useful abilities that blend both mana and auramancy. So it was time well spent. Learning more about the dark elves themselves was a bonus that also turned out to be surprisingly interesting”

“Wait!” cried Fiona as her head snapped back up “You know how to use dark elf abilities!?”

Anton leaned over and put his palms down on the edge of the tub as he loomed above the sitting dark elves. In the span of a second all of the lights in the room seemed to dim down to almost nothing as if they were cringing away from him. Both of the dark elves felt an unnatural chill creep up their spines as the world around them became cold and foreboding. Despite the still warm water they both began to shiver uncontrollably and without thinking they instinctively huddled together and wrapped their arms around each other. Looking upwards their eyes went wide in shock as Anton’s whole form went pitch black and featureless, save for his eyes which stood out so brightly against the darkness of his face that they seemed to glow as they became piercing and soulless.

“Yes!” whispered the room itself.

In a single blink of an eye, the blackness around Anton faded away as if it were a cloud of thin smoke and everything immediately returned to normal.

The dark elves were still quivering as they continued to hold onto each other. They laid their ears back submissively and cringed away from Anton as he lowered himself down and folded his arms on the edge of the tub.

“Like I said before!” he said as he grinned at them “You two never stood a chance!”

Fiona narrowed her eyes into a glare as her ears rose back up and pointed themselves straight back.

“S-so you know some cute lighting tricks!” she croaked as she shook the nervousness from her shoulders and eased away from her sister “Big deal! You’re still just a human! Even if you do know a few dark elf abilities! You’ll still never be able to beat a real dark elf!”

Anton chuckled and closed one eye as he aimed his pointed finger at the glaring dark elf. A thin chain made of orange glowing light shot out from his fingertip and sped towards her. The chain crossed the distance that separated them almost instantly and before Fiona could even react, the end of the chain wrapped itself around her neck and became a shackle-like collar.

Crying out in a panic, Fiona immediately grabbed the chain with both hands and tried to pull the collar away from her neck. Her panic set in deeper as the links at the other end of the chain began to disappear back into Anton’s fingertip, and started pulling her forward as they did.

Kianna sat motionless and mesmerized as she watched her sister get dragged across the tub by the pencil-thin glowing chain.

Fiona planted her palms against the side of the tub and tried in vain to brace herself as the chain pulled her in to just below Anton.

“Oh look! It looks like I’ve caught myself a “real” dark elf!” teased Anton as he flexed the fingers on his free hand and then balled them into a fist “Maybe I should see how badly I can beat her!”

Fiona laid her ears back submissively and shook her head as her eyes became locked onto Anton’s fist.

“Mouthy little dark elf!” mumbled Anton as the chain and collar disappeared.

Fiona fell backwards with a splash and immediately scrambled away from him the second the chain vanished. She kept moving backwards until she could press her back against the wall at the other end of the tub and once there she frantically felt her neck where the collar had just been. Clearly cowed she sat staring at nothing as if she was unsure of what to do or how to react.

Kianna continued to stare wide eyed at her sister for a moment before slowly looking back at Anton with obvious excitement in her eyes.

“That was amazing!” she cried excitedly as she sidled up to the edge of the tub “Is that a dark elf ability!?”

Anton gave her a perplexed look as he tilted his head.

“ ... Yes, it is” he said as his face softened “You’ve never seen it before? Your Mother or Sierra never used it?”

“No!” cried Kianna as she shook her head “I’ve never seen them do anything like that!”

“Really? Hm, this is a pretty standard ability for dark elves ... so that’s kind of surprising?” said Anton as his face became thoughtful “It doesn’t make any sense why your Mother would never use it? Sierra on the other hand was still a child though ... and she probably didn’t have a large enough mana pool to create anything that was that strong. So rather than risk the embarrassment of having something break on her, she just never used it...”

“More mana will make the chain stronger?” asked Kianna as she stared at Anton’s finger.

“Mm hm, the amount of mana you apply will effect the integrity of whatever you create” explained Anton “With enough mana you could create something that was almost unbreakable”

“That’s so cool!” breathed Kianna as she continued to stare at Anton’s hand.

“It really is, the dark elves have some amazing abilities” agreed Anton as he balled his hands into fists “It’s just ridiculous that your Mother didn’t even get you started with at least the basics! I really would like to know why she didn’t teach you anything ... But I understand if it’s something you’d still rather not talk about...”

Kianna was silent for a moment as her face became solemn. With a conflicted look in her eyes she looked up at Anton before looking away at nothing.

“ ... If, I tell you what happened” she whispered “ ... Can you promise that you won’t get mad?”

“No” said Anton as he shook his head “I won’t make a promise unless I know for sure I can keep it”

Kianna looked back up at him and they both stared silently at each other for several moments before the dark elf broke away and looked back down into the bathwater.

“ ... I don’t know for sure” began Kianna as she kept her eyes lowered “But me and Fiona think that she tested us ... And we think that, we failed...”

“She tested you?” questioned Anton “How did she test you?”

“ ... It was 2 summers after Nanny Ma died” started Kianna in a hushed tone “We weren’t planning to come home ... but she called, and said she wanted us to...”

“Kianna!” cried Fiona in a panic as she stared at her sister from her place on the other side of the tub “What the Hell are you doing!? Why are you telling him this!?”

“We didn’t do anything wrong Fiona!” exclaimed Kianna as she turned to her and stared her down “She, she was the one who did it!”

Fiona was wide eyed in uncertainty as she looked from her sister to Anton and back while shaking her head.

Kianna stared at her for another moment before turning away and looking at nothing.

“ ... What did she do?” asked Anton as he shifted his gaze from Kianna to Fiona and back “ ... Did she hurt you?”

“Huh!? No!” exclaimed Kianna as she looked back up at Anton and shook her head “No she... ! She didn’t hurt us...”

Both of the dark elves had expressions of unease on their faces as Kianna turned and looked back at her sister.

“ ... She took us to a beach” said Kianna as she continued to stare at Fiona.

“ ... A beach?” questioned Anton when the silence began to drag.

“ ... It was at night. There were rocks everywhere, and like, cliffs, all around it...” explained Kianna as her eyes went distant in memory “It was really warm ... And there was a house there, a big house with big windows, and curtains, so you couldn’t see inside ... But you could tell the lights were on...”

“We don’t know where it is!” exclaimed Fiona “We got there through a portal!”

Anton nodded to her before turning back to Kianna.

“ ... You only went there once?” he asked in an effort to prompt the dark elf to continue.

“Yes...” nodded Kianna “Only the one time...”

“ ... What did you do there?” asked Anton.

“We didn’t do anything!” whimpered Kianna “She was the one who did it! We didn’t do anything!”

“What did she do Kianna?” asked Anton as he spread his aura outwards and filled the area with a calming essence.

Kianna shifted her shoulders and began to chew on her lower lip as Anton’s aura surrounded her. She laid her ears back submissively as she looked up at him.

“She told us to watch! She said we don’t have to do anything, or say anything!” said Kianna as she swallowed a lump in her throat “But if we wanted to, we could...”

Anton remained silent as he waited for her to continue. When she didn’t, Fiona began to speak from her place on the other side of the tub.

“ ... There were people inside the house” said Fiona in a hushed tone “3 of em ... all human men ... I think...”

“They weren’t okay!” cried Kianna as her eyes tightened in anguish “They were tied up to chairs! And they were hurt! Really badly!”

“They were all bleeding, and, missing pieces...” explained Fiona as her eyes tightened as well “ ... None of them, had hands...”

“I don’t remember what Mom was saying...” said Kianna as she stared forward at the empty air in front of her “But she started talking to them ... And she was really loud! And she was laughing and pointing at us ... They were all staring at us ... And they were scared! Really, really scared...”

“ ... Mom went behind them, and then she wrapped a chain around the middle one’s neck” said Fiona as she stared down into the bathwater “She pulled on it, just a little bit ... And he started screaming...”