Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
It had taken days of convincing, or more accurately, arguing with the chief, but Alvara finally stood at Erun’s door. It was really the chief’s home, but Erun lived there along with the rest of Chief Frigar’s close and extended family.
Despite the rapid thrumming of her pulse in her ears, her magic stayed dormant, subdued by a dose of the red powder that would hopefully pave part of their path to victory in the coming battle.
“I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with your discovery of the barrier plant,” Boden grumbled next to her. He had come at Alvara’s request, a chosen representative for the elves, and had also been required to nullify his powers for this meeting.
“Oh, shut it, you big baby.” Alvara bumped shoulders with him, but she felt none of the lightness of her words, not when Sten stood at their backs, the representative for the humans, along with four other human guards, all armed to the teeth.
The chief no doubt waited inside to ensure his brother’s safety.
If this went wrong…it was better not to think about what would happen.
Alvara rubbed her sweaty palms down her pants before rapping on the door.
It swung open to the tense figure of Chief Frigar, who looked past her to Sten.
Whatever signal Sten gave in response was enough to satisfy the chief that Alvara and Boden had inhaled the red powder under the guard’s watchful eye, also doubling as a test of its effectiveness in an elf’s lungs rather than their stomach.
Judging by her own silent magic and Boden’s face that looked grumpier than a morning without tea, breathing in the powder worked just as well.
The chief moved aside, and Alvara swallowed. Erun sat next to his son on a wooden bench along the far wall, his shoulders shaking with laughter and his body bearing no remnants of the violence he had endured because of her.
It would have been easier to convince herself this didn’t need to be done, that the man had killed her only living family member, and Alvara had rightfully retaliated, though unintentionally…but none of that was true.
King Einar forced Erun to choose between his family or hers.
If Alvara had been in his shoes, she knew she would have made the same choice.
And though her loss of control of her magic was mostly accidental, there had still been too large of a part of her that wanted to cause Erun pain.
The only way out of the guilt and regret was through.
“Erun?”
He looked up, and too many emotions crossed his face all at once for her to even begin to guess what he was feeling.
It was the first time they had seen each other since his almost fading, saved only by the healing of the few Elan demi-elves in Gosibik with their newly discovered powers.
Chief Frigar had refused the help of any of the newcomers, not that Alvara could blame him.
She stepped inside, Boden close behind. He reached for her hand, the mere touch of his skin on hers enough to slow her panicked breaths.
“I can’t even begin to explain how sorry I am, Erun.
” Her voice shook with the memories of that day, the day she almost lost everything that mattered.
“You could have gone your entire life without caring enough to tell me the truth about my father, but you didn’t.
I convinced myself you were to blame for his fading, when I knew it wasn’t true. ”
Erun’s face twisted. “Alvara—”
She continued, not willing to be kicked out yet.
“King Einar killed my family. He killed my sister because she wasn’t willing to stand by and watch him persecute humans and demi-elves, he killed my mother through grief, and he killed my father because of his relation to Eloisa and to me.
” Boden squeezed her hand, tugging her close enough for their legs to brush.
He steadied her, as he always had. “He took them from me, Erun, not you. You were only the weapon he chose to do it. You had no choice, and I’m so sorry. ”
Erun stood now, swatting away the chief’s hands when he tried to help. “You are wrong, Alvara.”
Her muscles tightened, her body frozen in place.
“There is always a choice.”
Alvara’s legs threatened to buckle, but Boden kept her upright with an arm around her waist. Noma. The exact words Alvara had said to her, the words that had convinced the woman to help. “How…”
“Noma had much to say to everyone in the palace that day, including the king, before she—” His lips quivered. “You lit a fire in her that day, Alvara. And a few of the others. It was glorious to see for the few moments it lasted, before the king smothered it.”
Her eyes burned with tears. “But—”
Erun held up a hand. “No. I had a choice, Alvara. To be better than the king who held me captive. To be a broken link in a chain of violence, freeing those after me from the hate that bound me. My brother”—he elbowed the chief in the ribs, who punched Erun in the arm—“acted out of his love for me and my family when he refused to work with any of the elves after what happened. He is the older brother, unable to help himself when it comes to protecting me. But he was not thinking of the good of his people, his town.”
The chief grumbled something in the human tongue, and Erun pointed to the bench, where Chief Frigar sat himself down, arms crossed and face sullen.
“As I was saying,” Erun said, “I accept your apology and forgive you, Alvara, but you committed no worse crime than my brother or I did. What matters now is putting our differences aside and proving to King Einar that we will not be beaten.” He stared down at his feet, his voice fragile.
“Your father loved you very much, Alvara. In those moments I hesitated…he wanted you to know.”
The heaviness in Alvara’s chest lifted. For the first time, the cracks in her heart where her family lived didn’t hurt.
They didn’t disappear, because they never would, but instead repaired themselves, filling the aching emptiness with all of the love she held for them.
The pain, the sorrow, the memories both good and bad—they transformed the broken parts into something beautiful to be proud of.
To share, not to hide. Broken parts for the world to see, never to be forgotten.
She didn’t wipe away the tears that fell, not this time. Alvara faced Erun and Chief Frigar, the warmth of Boden’s hand a reminder of everyone who would care for her, support her no matter what fate might bring.
“Tell your brother I’m sorry for breaking his trust and hurting one of his own.” Alvara thought of her family, of Noma, of Boden’s father. Everyone the king had stolen from them. “Most of all, tell the chief that we will all watch King Einar fall. Together.”