Luisa was breathing heavily as she sat on the floor, her head was spinning and exhaustion was slowly creeping it’s way so she would collapse at any moment. That last scene was still playing inside her head, she had been battling the Mage Klara singlehandedly for the past 10 or so minutes and they were evenly matched, neither one being able to break through the others defences and then it started to happen.

First was Adeline, who was beaten and knocked unconscious by that one women and when she and Hanna clashed and it seemed like Hanna would kill her, a sword was rammed through her. Luisa had seen the knight approaching and had tried to warn Hanna, but her shouts were left unheard and in return she was hit with a strong explosion of magic, sending her flying.

When she stumbled back up, it was already to late and Hanna was falling to the floor, a massive stab wound in her chest. Luisa, in her desperation, teleported away using the shadows, but she couldn’t go far and her exhaustion was catching up to her and she was forced to hide away in the thick underbrush of the woods. She had known. SHE HAD KNOWN. That going into a village was an bad idea!

But now it was far to late to be angry about that and Luisa still wasn’t quite out of the works yet, as knights were still searching for her and she had to pray no one found her, or otherwise it would be a sure death sentence.

Agonising minutes passed as multiple knights passed her hiding spot, but seemingly didn’t find her until finally a loud voice rang out.

"All men return to me, we will look for the missing one at a later date, the safety of Lady Kathrin is of far greater importance then one single on the loose criminal!!"

Normally Luisa would be rather offended at being called a lowly Criminal, but right now? She was far to anxious and exhausted to care, all that mattered was that she would survive, that is all that has ever mattered. That is why she joined Hanna in the first place!

Luisa was on a first class ticket on a ride to death if it hadn’t been for the Dark Margenko, she had never actually liked her, how was anyone supposed to like this insane sadist without being insane themselves? Luisa only followed her because she would be the only one that would accept her, as a doomed child she was ousted by all eleven communities and basically every human one and the only two realms close enough to be worth travelling to, that being the Beast-men to the north and Demons to the east, both hated elves on principle. Hanna was her only shot, her only safety net and it was now in tatters.

After an additional two minutes of waiting and listening for any noise which might indicate the knights haven’t left, Luisa decided to finally peek out from her hiding spot and she was met with a charred black forest field while all around it an inferno raged and in the middle laid a single, unmoving body.

Luisa moved towards the body and looked down on it.

Hanna laid on her stomach in a small puddle of her own black blood, her hands hidden from view under her body, probably gripping onto some kind of wound, Luisa couldn’t tell, but what she could see was the stab wound on Hanna‘s back, it was not wide, the blade must have been thinner then normal blades, not that Luisa knew how normal swords really looked like.

Luisa didn’t know how she was supposed to feel, this wasn’t the first time she had seen someone she considered close to her die, but unlike last time, she didn’t feel any anger towards the ones who killed, but rather she felt anger towards the dead. It was strange, she knew she was supposed to feel pity or sadness, but there was nothing, only anger at the incredible stupidity of Hanna.

Luisa clenched her fists and glared at the unmoving body, just why was her life such a mess? What did she ever do to deserve any of this? 
Maybe the question was unnecessary, after all she had murdered multiple people in her time in Querum. But considering nothing of this would have happened if it weren’t for these zealous idiots of her home. She still felt betrayed by the world at large.

As if the world could feel her emotional duress, raindrops started to fall from the sky and soon after, it evolved into a small storm of raindrops, putting out the fire that still threatened to burn all of the forest to ashes. Normally, Luisa hated the rain and she would have searched for shelter immediately, but she was to engulfed in her own thoughts to care. She thought about the scorn she had to endure during her time in her home, how she was looked at like she was less then the dung they used to fertilis their fields and for what?

Because she was born with a different affinity for magic then the rest? Because of an oracle‘s words almost 200 years ago?

The more she was left with her own thoughts, the more her anger consumed her, against her own family, race and the world they were all the same to her. If the world wanted to see a monster where she stood, fine she would become that monster! But…

Without Hanna this would get exceedingly more difficult, Luisa herself wasn’t strong enough to survive if the royal army started to hunt her down. And she knew, sooner or later they will come, her name was known after all, so the only solution was to get out of the kingdom, a long journey without much guarantee that it would even work.

Luisa was frustrated, stressed and angry and with a glare she whispered to Hanna‘s body.

" Why did you have to make this so difficult? Why did you have to die?"

"She isn’t dead. Not yet at least."

Luisa jumped in fright and confusion at the sudden voice, which turned out to be an elderly woman wearing a dark blue cloak and holding a torch, lighting up the her face to reveal wrinkles and a gentle smile, as well as sharp, pointy ears, something Luisa had herself, the woman in front of her, was an Elf.

"I don’t know how that youngling managed to survive such a wound but she did, she is just unconscious, although she will soon die if she isn’t healed soon. Luckily for her, this old lady knows her healing magic, hehehehe." With a small giggle the woman held out her hand and a ball of water formed in her palm, from which a stream of blue light hit Hanna’s wound.

Luisa eyed the elf with hatred and contempt, she had never met this woman, she might not even be from her old home and had never wronged her in her entire life, in fact the very first thing this unknown woman did was to help her and yet Luisa knew the moment the woman found out that she was a doomed child, Luisa would be attacked. Judging from her healing prowess she was a skilled Mage or priest and in her current exhausted condition, Luisa wouldn’t stand a single ounce of chance against her.

So as much as she hated it, she would have to hide her hostility until later, once she had regained her breath however, she would indulge in her urges to snap that woman’s neck backwards. And even if this woman was exceedingly powerful, she wouldn’t stand a chance if Hanna would get in on the action.

Luisa grew a slight smirk at the thought, this old lady didn’t even know she was basically helping the two biggest enemies of the kingdom and all those who dwell in it.

"So dear, this might take a while so why not tell me about yourself and your partner here? I have to say you‘re quite lucky I found you, she had 3 more minutes tops before she would have died due to blood loss."

Luisa didn’t want to answer, but she also knew not answering might be a mistake, so she quickly came up with a somewhat believable story, about they were ambushed by a group of bandits and one of them snuck up behind them and stabbed Hanna through the chest. Luisa finished the story by claiming that she used a powerful fire spell, which caused the bandits to be burned into ash and caused the fire which the rain put out only a few minutes ago.

"Well we can’t have the entire forest burn down after all, so no problem for that. But if it’s no problem would you tell me just how you two met? She has all the signs of being a normal Demi yet she posses black blood, something only royal families of beast-men posses anymore."

"What did you just say?" Luisa was horrified by the words the elderly woman just spoke. SHE caused that rainstorm on purpose!? It became incredibly clear to Luisa now that there was no way in hell she could beat her, even then fully recovered! She needed Hanna for this.

The old woman didn’t seem to notice Luisa‘s distress or horror and she seemed to misinterpret the question, since the answer didn’t fit with Luisa’s thoughts at all.

"Well you see, Demis are half human, half beast and as you probably know, beasts posses black blood instead of red and at first the Demis also had black blood, but over time that trait disappeared as the beast side of their ancestry became weaker over the years of interbreeding with one another. Only the royal families are know to still possess black blood, it’s their pride. So I‘m curious how you came across that girl, since all signs point to her being a member of a royal family. Unless she is just a beast?"

For a moment fear grabbed Luisa‘s heart. Was she on to them? But it quickly disappeared as the old lady let out a hearty laugh.

"Ohohoh, you should see the look on your face! Don’t you know that beast are completely incapable of speech? Considering you have been together for a long time, I assume she talked with you no?"

Luisa shook the last remnants of fear away before answering, that was to close for her liking.

"Oh, no we have talked before. So you wanted to know how we met right?" Luisa was surprised at how willing she sounded, in her mind she was constantly cursing the elf and thinking of multiple ways of torturing her until nothing but a bloody puddle remained. It was probably her survival instincts telling her to switch topic before the woman could catch on.

"It was quite a while ago, I met her near the capital one day by accident, I had been captured and my captors ran into her by chance, she saved me from those religious fanatics and we have been together ever since, hunters and wanderers." Luisa eyed The woman for any reaction with how she described her captors, she didn’t lie, only left out some details, so the woman couldn’t come to the conclusion that she had been a doomed child. Luckily the woman only sighed a long sigh.

"I‘m sorry to hear that, it’s sad to see so many religions Fall to such matters, although I probably shouldn’t complain, I have no right, after all I did the same not to long ago…" Luisa’s hand twitched at that but she kept her cool.

"What do you mean?" She asked instead of blowing up in the woman’s face, though she did have to suppress her urge to spit the words, if all points currently point to the woman being an Elven clergy woman after all and it’s them Luisa had a very large distaste towards after all.

With a tired sigh The elven woman looked at Luisa, her eyes full of regret.

"In the elven religion there is a practice known as 'Proving faith' and it is expected of all elfs to follow this tradition. Around 200 years ago, our oracle of gods, an oracle believed to have met the gods personally, told of an prophecy that one day an unnatural, elven child will be born and if it isn’t handled correctly it would bring the end to all elven lives it would encounter. Ever since then the practice was in effect to kill all unnatural elven children after they have reached elven maturity. If we kill them the prophecy can’t become real they said."

Luisa was trembling at this point, her anger slowly consuming her, so just because of a stupid prophecy over 200 years ago she had no rights? Just because some delusional idiot said something and everyone believed them she had no right to live her life?

"And as I was a member of the clergy myself I did just that, I probably killed hundreds and oversaw the deaths of thousands…" The woman’s voice was small and she sounded tired, she was clearly racked with guilt and regret, but Luisa didn’t seem to notice.

"At one point at an execution I heard the voice of a man asking when this would stop, when will we know we handled the prophecy and can stop robbing innocent people of their lives. It had stuck deep in my souls those words, like my eyes were closed the entire time and they finally have been opened, I spoke to other clergyman but the always turned me away, they said we have to make sure and to make sure we have to continue, I was disgusted and so I went into exile."

The woman looked into the sky and Luisa could see tears at the edge of her eyes and her hands were trembling.

"I just want to turn back time and save all those people I had killed in my blindness to reality and I just hope that all of them forgive me and that their souls are now at a better place with all the evils of the world behind them."

Luisa suddenly placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder, the woman looked back but saw nothing in the darkness of Luisa’s hood.

"What is your name?" She asked, her voice was devoid of emotions, but her breathing was heavy and fast.

The Woman looked back into the stars above, with a sad smile, her tears finally falling from her eyes and onto the ground.

"Therissa." She said.

"Do You believe you deserve to be forgiven? Do you believe you just admitting to your crimes magically makes up for all the lives you ruined in the name of your belief? Do you think they forget the torture they went through just because you say 'I‘m sorry?!!"

With each word Luisa got louder and her voice was laced with anger. Her fingernails were pushed into Therissa‘s shoulder with enough force to draw blood. Therissa remained completely still.

"No, I don’t. And I know you think so too And I‘m sure many would think so, but sadly more then saying sorry I can not do. I wish I could do more, I truly do, but I just can’t." She turned to look at Luisa, she had already figured out what Luisa was by now and so with a sad smile and tears she simply looked at the trembling Luisa.

"I‘m sorry." She whispered. "I can’t imagine the pain you went through, but more then saying sorry I won’t be able to do. I know you will be disgusted by all elven kin out there, but they just don’t know any better. Don’t take out your despair on others. They don’t deserve it."

"They don’t deserve?" Luisa asked.

"No, they don’t, if anyone deserves it, it would be the clergy for enforcing such unnecessary traditions, all people have their own stories and reasons and we should strive to come to compromise and understand one another, instead of forcing others to think like we do. In my eyes there is no person in the world who’s evil for the sake of being evil."

The following silence was deafening for Therissa and one could cut the tension in the air with a knife. She simply looked at Luisa’s silent, yet trembling form, before the silence was suddenly broken by mad laughter.

"No one can be evil for the sake of being evil she says!!! Well allow me to prove you wrong then."

Hanna had woken up.