After that, we finished eating our meals in relative silence. I didn’t eat half as much as yesterday, and still felt satisfied. We put away the remaining food to an easily spottable place in case there was someone else who came later for lunch.

I looked at Emrum, unsure if there was something expected of me while staying at the outpost. I was thinking about how to ask that when he turned towards me. He clearly noticed my hesitance, glancing at me questioningly.

“Out with it.” — He demanded in the most charming dwarven way.

“I am wondering if there is something I should help with while staying here. It doesn’t feel right to eat your food while not helping out at all.”

Emrum regarded me with a knowing look. A hint of pride hidden in his gaze.

“Have you rested enough?”

“Yes. More than enough.” — I answered confidently. To which he nodded curtly.

“Fine, what can you do?”

Came the somewhat unexpected question.

“Well… I can cook pretty good, but I have a hunch that I am unfamiliar with most of the ingredients used here… Aside from that, well… I am not sure what is considered useful around this place, could you describe a few common tasks here?”

He nodded again. A ghost of a smile gracing his features.

“Of course, cooking is one of them, as you expected. There are a few similar tasks around the outpost. Cleaning the halls and washing clothes, for example. They always need more hands in those as nobody likes to do them. Unfortunately, I believe that even these good for nothings wouldn’t allow a young girl, especially an elf, to do their laundry. They would never live down the shame.”

I nodded, not that I would volunteer myself to such tasks if I had a choice. Cooking was one thing, since that was an old hobby of mine back on Earth. Cleaning the halls was also acceptable, if boring.

Emrum continued his explanation carefully, watching my solemn look.

“Standing guard at the gates or going out on patrols in large groups is the main part of our job here. We are tasked with finding new locations for building outposts. We need at least two more active strongholds to have enough presence to gain control over this section of the lost roads.”

He looked at me and stated confidently.

“However, you don’t have to waste your time worrying about cooking and such matters. I am quite surprised you didn’t think about it already. Your help would be greatly appreciated as a healer. Having a witch’s help would ease our burden immensely. It’s no doubt part of the reason the commander allowed you to stay here so easily.”

I looked at him, my mouth opening slightly, eyes widening for a second.

“So when you asked what I could do, you meant spells…?”

The man chuckled. Shaking his head in amazement. I was beginning to suspect that state of his going to become a constant around me.

“I see that we are on the same page now. Yes, that was what I meant. I was thinking you were trying to mess with me while you genuinely misunderstood.” — He chuckled again. — “You are one of a kind, Selora… I would have never dared to suggest a witch, especially not one who saved my life to do our cooking. Such mundane tasks should be given to those with lesser abilities and status. Magic was a rare and miraculous skill, after all.”

I was barely embarrassed by this. I think I am getting used to being roasted, not sure if that is a good thing to be happy about. Still, I pondered over his question.

“I knew quite a few spells in theory. Healing is only one of them.”

Emrum seemed very surprised by this.

“Quite a few? Can you give me a rough estimation in numbers?” — He asked curiously.

“Around thirty, I would say… maybe even more if I consider spell combinations. However, I would need to practice those before using them in actual scenarios.” — I spoke thoughtfully, stroking my chin slowly with my thumb and pointing fingers as an old habit of mine came to the surface.

Emrum, in the meantime, completely froze, staring at me with eyes like saucers. He looked quite comical, to be honest. I had to restrain myself not to laugh him in the face.

Then he sighed. A long soul draining sigh left him as his right hand reached up to his face, grabbing the bridge of his nose between his now closed eyes. A strained expression sitting on his features.

“You are telling me… that you know more than thirty spells at your age… Please stop lying Selora… It’s not funny anymore.” — As he said that, he looked up at me, seeing my confused and slightly angry expression. He froze again. This time his mouth was the one that dropped open.

“You are not lying?” — He said, more of a statement than a question. Which somewhat eased my frustration with him calling me a lier for no reason.

I straightened my body, gaining one more centimeter on him, and said in a clear voice.

“Of course I am not. I wouldn’t lie about something that important… “

He wheezed, grabbing me by my right wrist and began to pull me along in a random direction. I felt startled by his unusual reaction, but followed him none the less.

Walking out of the dining room and into a side corridor, eventually ending up standing in front of a metal door. Emrum knocked on it with his fist, then walked in, pulling me along when a deep but slightly familiar voice said enter.

Inside the room, I saw a large stone table and a few bookshelves along the side of the wall. The shelves were made of metal. They were filled with rolled up scrolls and a few books here and there. The table was entirely covered in a giant map, which contained a half finished draft of what I assumed to be the cave system surrounding us.

It was nothing short of a labyrinth. The thought of wandering it all alone suddenly seemed like a terrible idea.

Behind the map sat a familiar face, which I now could connect to the voice I heard earlier. It was the commander, of course. His face turned solemn seeing us enter, especially when he noticed that I was practically dragged along by my wrist.

He gave us a cursory glance, then spoke.

“I see that our new friend has awakened. It is good to see you getting accustomed to our outpost. It is the only one in a few days of travel.” — He said to me directly. I nodded with a polite smile and he continued.

“I was intending to find you in an hour or so to finish our conversation in more private circumstances. Since you are here, we might as well get done with it, but first. What do I owe your sudden visit?” — This question was pointed at both me and Emrum. Who finally jerked out of his strange trance, let go of my wrist and said, pointing into my face.

“She says she knows more than thirty different spells!”

I stepped to the side, feeling uncomfortable with his finger flailing in front of my face. Is he still on that? I thought with a new spark of annoyance.

Annoyance that seeped out of me as the icy glare of the commander turned to me.

“Is what he says true?” — The man demanded with a strict expression that carried the seriousness of the situation.

I straightened myself once again and said with a firm voice.

“Yes, but as I said to Emrum. I need to practice them to avoid getting over-exhausted by accident.” — I had a feeling from the tone of this conversation that it wouldn’t be wise to state at this point that I actually never cast those spells. They would ask how I knew them then, and that was a question I wasn’t ready to answer yet.

The commander looked at me, searching my expression for any sign of deceit. When he didn’t find what he was looking for, he sighed.

“Tell me, Miss Selora, how did you end up in this cave? I warn you, don’t even bother with that lousy story of being lost…” — I was surprised by the change of topic, but thinking back to the way I got here, I could only say one thing without telling too much or speaking against my visible inexperience with dwarven caves. And so I braced myself to tell the best half lie I could make up on the spot.

My ears drooped slightly as my nervousness rose under the dangerously furrowing eyebrows of the commander.

“Well… I-I… messed up a teleportation spell… sir… It was nothing but an accident!” — This lie was made with the knowledge from my recent overlook of my spells… There was actually a teleportation spell among them, but it was only effective on short range. That, however, they wouldn’t have to know.

The commander and Emrum looked at one another with a worried expression.

Emrum’s eyes widened with new realization. He spoke silently, his voice shaking with excitement.

“Then those sounds of thunder were caused by your spell?!”

I looked at him, confused, then remembered the echoes of thunder lingering in the cave when I first arrived here. And nodded slowly.

“I-I guess so… I recall noticing a similar echo when I appeared in the cave at first…”

This time, it was the commander who spoke up.

“Echo, you say? Hah! The entire cave was shaking with the earsplitting tremors of continuous thunder strikes. Half of our men thought that it was the world’s ending… and now you say you caused it by… by accident!”

I winced, feeling the sheer frustration radiating from the commander, as I shrank under his heavy glare.

“I didn’t mean to… I, ugh… sorry…” — I looked at the carpet covered floor, trying to will myself to disappear from sight. It was a pity that invisibility was not among the spells I received from Lord Axis.

The commander sighed again, letting out some of his pent-up frustration, mustering up his courage to ask another question, which he predictably didn’t want to hear the answer to.

“So… what kind of elf are you? Based on my luck, you are going to be some lost princess of the wood realm kingdom. I swear if this ends up causing further misunderstandings, thanks to your accident, I am going to pull out all your hair! One by one!”

I shivered from the mental image of such cruel punishment… and quickly shook my head.

“No! I am not! I am definitely not from the wood realm, nor am I a princess, I mean it, just look at me!” — I denied both accusations vehemently.

The commander looked me dead in the eye for a few seconds, but seeing that my determination did not waver, he nodded, then asked in a calmer voice.

“So you are not a wood elf, eh? Figures. You weren’t arrogant at all. Then what are you!? Not a dark elf for sure, since then we wouldn’t have this conversation to begin with, then a high elf maybe? Those pricks have the most talented spellcasters. You could be one of their apprentices? Hmm?”

I shook my head exasperatedly.

“I am not affiliated with them either… I am a white elf… sir.” — I said, wishing to close this discourse as fast as possible.

“… A what?” — Both men demanded at the same time.

A strained silence filled the room as I suddenly recalled Lord Axis saying something about white elfs being extinct or something along that line… My blood ran cold at the thought of accidentally digging myself into a deeper hole.

Damn it, I can’t help it! When you die only to travel through the universe and hover in the middle of space while conversing with a god, you naturally become quite distracted… So what if I wasn’t paying attention to the details?

None the less, that lack of attention was still biting me in the ass. Standing silently in front of two intimidating dwarfs wasn’t good for my nerves, either. Before I knew it, I was stupidly fiddling with my fingers, making it even more obvious to my onlookers of how nervous I was.

Emrum was the one who eventually broke the silence with a dry cough.

“Lass… I hate to break it to you, but I never heard of white elves before… What about you, Commander Balgrun?”

Oh, so that was his name. I made a quick mental note, trying to not forget it this time.

The black-bearded and scarred faced commander glared at me suspiciously, with a darkening expression. That was creeping me out.

“No… I can’t say that I have…” — He intoned the words, while staring at me. Then out of nowhere, he hit his fist against the stone table and I could swear that I heard it crack… Yes, I meant the table… Even if there were no signs of visible rupturing.

I stepped back instinctively as a pair of furious eyes stared at me.

“Girl, you must take me for a fool to come at me with such an obvious lie! White elves? Really… You might as well be queen of the earth wyrms then. Just because you are a witch, don’t think I will believe every ridiculous tale you pull out of your sleeves! I won’t ask again. Are you a wood elf attempting to deceive me?”

My chin dropped, my mouth hanging loosely in the air.

“I just said that I am not!” — I said, feeling confused by the exchange.

The man's glare sharpened as he demanded.

“Prove it.”

I glared back at the bald fool, completely baffled by this outcome.

“I would if I know how? And what is your deal with wood elfs, what if I am one? Would you treat me differently?” — I asked, feeling a growing sense of fear and uncertainty.

The dwarf boss clearly didn’t expect this question. But he nodded stubbornly anyway.

“I personally might not treat you differently since you have saved my friend here, but that couldn’t be said about most of my men. If you haven’t noticed, they are already keeping their distance. Above that, I might have to take you into custody. An elf child, especially one with magical knowledge, has a great value in leveraging your kind. But, that is not because of what I personally want, but because of my duty towards the Kingdom demands it.” — He gritted out the words. — "That is, if you are a wood elf." — He added.

I blinked, unsure what to say to that.

“If you haven’t noticed.” — The man began seeing my confused expression. — “There is a recent conflict among our people that caused more than a few skirmishes on the surface. About a hundred or so of our people have died in those small scale battles. Tensions are running wild, and many of our people hold a grudge against wood elves, some going as far to dislike elven kind all together. Of course, these minor battles are not the only reason for those feelings. Wood elves and dwarfs had a strained relationship for a long time now.”

He sighed, tapping on the table with his fingers.

I looked at him, my eyes widening as understanding dawned on me.

No wonder the dwarfs treated me so superficially. At least most of them did. There were a few who were less biased and showed me a toothy smile or even said a few encouraging words. The situation was much more complicated than I initially anticipated. With this new knowledge, I felt even more gratitude towards them.

Feeling quite solemn thanks to this new revelation, I attempted to share my genuine feelings.

“I am truly sorry for the suffering your people went through. I have no idea what caused this unfortunate conflict, but I am really not a wood elf. You must believe me. I don’t think that using me as a leverage would have any effect either. They do not know me, and I don’t think they have a reason to trust you having an elf whose name they are not familiar with in your custody.”

The man looked at me, then nodded.

“Ay, you might be onto something there… Fine, I have decided to trust your words for now. I will tell my men that you are a white elf. Since some of them are getting anxious about your true affiliations.”

I blinked, then nodded towards him.

“Sir Balgrun, can you tell me how this conflict you mentioned started?” — He gave me a measuring gaze, waiting for a few seconds before agreeing with a silent nod.

“Since you seem to truly not know this... Yes, I will tell you what I know. We made a deal with the forest king. We were requested to transport a large convoy of precious metals to the heart of the elven forest, and we did.”

“However, we never heard of the convoy again, nor did the elves received the metals. What our investigators found was a clearing filled with signs of a battle and an enormous bunch of orc arrows. This led us to believe that the orcs ambushed them inside the wood realm’s borders.”

I was getting more and more confused by the situation. I couldn’t help but interrupt Lord Balgrun’s words to question him.

“But… if that is the case, why are you fighting the elves instead of chasing down the orcs together?”

He snorted at that.

“Hah, I am starting to like you, girl. But why, indeed…” — Balgrun wondered aloud.

Emrum chuckled seeing the antics of his commander and friend. Taking over the conversation.

“That was the first thing we have suggested after the investigation was finished. Unfortunately, the forest king disagreed.”

Balgrun nodded with a sour expression.

“King Glynmaer Teidraxa, that ancient and conceited idiot, says that there is absolutely no way that orcs sneaked into his forest without his notice. Because he payed foreward for the metal supply. Now he had the face to accuse us of acting out an ambush inside his borders just to deny him his rightful metals for no reason, aside from old spite. Whatever message we send to him, he does not seem to listen to reason.”

I nodded slowly, unsure how to react to this news. While similarly feeling a sense of accomplishment.

I managed to clear my name after all, and my hair was safe from being plucked out.