Eirlathion was looking at something that should be impossible. Right now, he was in the house that was acknowledged as belonging to him. It was among the first to be planted in this Lakira grove. A seedling he had personally brought over from the home of the master who had trained him in magic.

After the ceremony for the dead from the previous night he had come home with Kiiria, the woman he had taken as an apprentice. This was when they encountered this situation.

When he went in, he saw her. Sitting on a chair. A small child. A toddler really. She looked like a human 2 year old, and wore a simple and crude white dress. This was unusual. Normally children of such a young age did not require clothing at all. It was considered a waste to make it for them as they would quickly outgrow it.

He only knew of four children in this entire village who were of that age and had been given clothing. But, somehow he felt this was strange. Something was making his mind refuse to recognize this child as one of those four.

There were no other elven children this young though. That would mean this girl is human. Then, how…

“Hey now… how did you get in here?” He asked. Even as he asked the question, he almost felt sick. Something in the information before him simply did not add up. But, perhaps one of the children from the village had let this human girl in here? That might be the case.

The child approached him and the apprentice he had taken.

“Eirlathion, come here.” The child said. Her words were somewhat clumsy, but they were far better than a child that age should be capable of.

But more importantly, these words should be considered very rude. For some reason though, he felt there was just something appropriate about the girl talking to him like this. There was something familiar, but it still did not feel right. The child took him by the hand and pulled him into the very house that belonged to him.

“You too, come on.” The child motioned to Kiiria. Suddenly, the child frowned. That face looked far too complicated and mature for such a small child.

Kiiria gave him a questioning look. He still could not tell what was going on, but he motioned for her to follow none the less.

The child placed a hand on the wall and the entrance they had come through closed up. She had just used the green word, a magic which all elves were born with. He looked at the ears of the child. Why had he thought she was human before? Those are clearly the ears of an elf. Even more strangeness. All of the information in front of him was adding up to only one answer, but for some reason the thoughts in the head of Eirlathion would not accept it.

“I am using a special magic.” The child said. “I tested it earlier, it keeps people from recognizing me. It can also completely hide me from >Nymph<, so the spirit of… this house tree probably does not know I am here either.”

That… it all added up in the head of Eirlathion at that moment. Special magic. Stops recognition. Most importantly though, she had used a certain word. >Nymph<. There were only 4 people in the village allowed to refer to the spirit of the nursery tree by that name. They were the exact 4 toddler children who lived there. The exact 4 who had received clothing despite the young age as well, based upon the demands from the nymph.

(Note: uses the word “Sikitii,” the elven word for nymph. Previous was the English word.)

So, this really was… this was the exact girl he had discounted her being earlier. It was really Asaren.

Eirlathion glanced back over at Kiiria in concern. This was the very woman who gave birth to the child leading him by the hand at this moment. She was also the very woman who abandoned the twin girls she had given birth to the very same day.

Twins were never born among the elves. This was something only ever seen among humans. The village had been overjoyed at the event. However, Eirlathion quickly realized the reason. Two cycles of the seasons before these girls were born, the village Kiiria had lived in was attacked by dark elves.

Dark elves were known for killing any women not of the dark races they used for pleasure. They feared the birth of such a union due to the danger it posed to them. Kiiria would have met the same fate were it not for the event that happened soon after the dark deed was finished. A column of unbelievable energy fell from the heavens and dug deep into the ground. The village that Kiiria lived in was near to the site of that disaster. The force of wind from simply being close to it flung away the villagers and the dark elves assaulting it alike.

In the end, Kiiria was the only survivor. Eirlathion was quickly beginning to believe the reason for her survival may in fact have been the children who were conceived from that dark act. He had since come to know that Asaren and Tiaren were not the only children born a period of time after the event now called the Heaven Fall that would suggest they were conceived on that day. In all the cases he knew of, the children always had a phenomenal amount of spirit energy.

The energy that the body of Kiiria had been bathed in had kept her just barely alive until Eirlathion and a group from this village came to investigate.

Kiiria would have several reasons to want to abandon children conceived in such a way. Aside from the painful memories associated with the existence of those children, there is also the fact that dark elves were also known for completely wiping out any village that had a grey elf child in it. This had lead to a policy of killing all grey elf children before such a thing could happen.

Perhaps the fact Kiiria had never said anything of the father of these girls aside from the fact he had died in the Heaven Fall was the most motherly act she could give to the children she had born. It was for this reason they had lived long enough for Eirlathion to take an interest in and protect them. But still… he considered the child and the mother. There was no way in which this conversation would not be strained.

After getting a short way into the room, the child who Eirlathion could still not fully recognize as Asaren turned and looked at them.

“I have to talk about something.” She said. “It is why I came here. I need you two to sit down here. I do not know if my magic can shield you too, but the spirit of this house will talk to >Nymph<. We have to try, I will need to get close, so I will sit…” The child stopped speaking and made a difficult face. “I will have to sit touching both of you.” She finished.

So, it seemed somehow she knew who Kiiria was to her. This was difficult for her after all. Eirlathion knew this child had retained some memories from the previous life she lived. She had also mentioned she had a power related to information. Discovering which elven woman in this village was the mother of her and Tiaren would likely be an easy matter. She would also naturally wonder about why she had been abandoned. She may know a lot, but she did not know everything.

It was likely that she did not understand the complexities around the status of grey elves like her. In fact, most of the discussion they had last night when this was all revealed pertained to that exact issue. She needed information about the villagers and about how they regarded her and her sister as grey elves.

***

I looked between Eirlathion and my mother as I tried to explain I had to sit in their laps. This is something I hated about the Elven language. It seemed to have no concept of second or third person possessive pronouns. This made it very difficult to communicate some ideas. It sort of had a first person possessive pronoun, but not really. It was considered grammatically correct to use their word for “me” to be used the same way as English would use the word “my.”

I could tell Eirlathion was making some other assumptions about the moment of hesitation as I was trying to figure out how to say this. Well, it was something that would be expected of a child meeting the mother who had abandoned her for the first time, so I decided not to correct him. Sure, it made things awkward, but I was on a mission right now. I could not afford to let issues like that get in my way.

The primary objective, obtain information about viable options for leaving this village. Secondary objective, prevent Nymph from finding out. With those objectives, this was the very definition of a true ninja mission. Ninjutsu was the art of espionage after all. It is quite fortunate I was very well trained in the skills necessary for this. Life or death was literally on the line right now, and it was more than just the lives of myself and Tia. With Nymph acting the way she was, it might not be an exaggeration to think this entire village is at risk.

Eirlathion awkwardly looks at my estranged mother as he takes a seat on the floor. [Come on.] I say insistently in Elven. Meanwhile, I also grab her hand and pull as I climb into Eirlathion’s lap. He seems surprised at the level of contact. Perhaps he was expecting me to just sit between the two of them? Well, that’s not an option. I honestly have no idea if the void element can hide other people at all, but in order to give it the best chance possible the physical contact between all three of us will have to be quite high and the physical space that the three of us combined covered had to be as small as possible. Sitting in their laps was the only thing that made sense in these conditions.

[Sit with your legs right next to the legs of Eirlathion.] I ordered her. As soon as she was sitting, I turned myself around in Eirlathion’s lap and sat myself on my mother’s thigh. The reason for this was so I could look Eirlathion in the face more easily. But, I was not exactly complaining about the fact this meant I could sit in my mother’s lap.

I focused my intent on hiding Eirlathion and my mother from the spirit of this tree. The tree spirits all reported back to Nymph, so I had to at least try to keep it from noticing what we are talking about if I had a method.

I had learned that tree spirits had the intelligence and maturity of children. Nymph was very child-like herself, but apparently she was actually very mature in behavior for a tree spirit. The rest of them merely reported back to Nymph when she asked them. With any luck, the spirit of Eirlathion’s house might not think anything is worth mention even if this fails. Leaving things to chance like that was not a good way to operate, but at least my concerns do not have to be too high.

The price of failure in this mission is the already high-strung Nymph getting agitated. She needed my mana in order to do any real harm so there’s not much immediate danger of someone dying if I fail, but I really do not need Nymph working against me right now. It is best that what I am about to talk about stays completely secret from her.

[Eirlathion, now I need to talk about something very important.]

Jemini

Here we go. 2nd arc of the series.

Now Asaren can officially consider herself a ninja. She refused the title before because she'd never performed any actual espionage work. Now she has.