The Dread Knight's Rage-Chapter 135: Eir’Vael’s Sowed Seeds
Giselle Elaria de Sylvarre was next in line for the Elven throne once.
As the eldest daughter of the former Queen, Giselle had been raised in a rather stringent manner for as long as she could remember. There was very little time for play.
This was a fine life for her when she was younger. She enjoyed the responsibility. She liked that adults thought of her as capable.
But as she got older, and the time for her to assume the crown drew nearer and nearer, she began to feel a bit constricted.
Giselle craved a break from being the next monarch.
This was how she began sneaking off into the human realm.
When visiting Komen, she usually kept quite low to the ground. Very few individuals knew where she was going or what she was doing.
It was on one of these excursions that she first met Lioreth. It turned out the fae queen was also looking for something to brighten her rather dull life.
The two formed a fast friendship. They set up regular meeting times where they would go out into Komen in disguise, searching for any kind of innocent, memorable fun.
While horseback riding through the woods, Eir’Vael appeared in front of them.
It was only for a brief moment, but both women were so enchanted by them that they might as well have been placed under a spell for a hundred years.
He claimed he didn’t have much time to speak. But if the girls wanted to speak to him again, they had to return to that very same spot in two months’ time.
The girls did not even wait for the sun to go down before they were at the rendezvous point.
Upon meeting Eir’Vael for the first time, the being felt more like a ghost and less of a mortal. But on the second time, his body was practically real.
They talked for a short time. But it was the most impactful thirty minutes of the girls’ entire lives.
Eir’Vael told them what he was. He also told them some of the things that they usually kept to themselves.
The girls began to see him as some sort of soul mate.
In two-week intervals, the group would come together to chat and share stories. Naturally, the two girls fell in love with Eir’Vael. His exotic existence, soft-spoken voice, and unwavering kindness were all traits to die for.
But then, Eir’Vael told the girls he would not be able to see them again for four entire months.
The time went by at a snail’s pace for them. It was excruciating.
But on the day when they were scheduled to meet, they abandoned all of their duties and fled to Komen without waiting to hear someone say they were upset.
On that day, when they arrived at their spot and spoke with Eir’Vael, he began telling them the most outlandish story imaginable.
One about how he had sent the mind of a little boy back in time, and using that stored power, he had endeavored to change their fate as well as that of the world.
He was only able to go back to around seven months before the child was born. In that time, he prepared all that he possibly could have.
Under the pale moonlight, the moon’s shadow gave the women three gifts.
Making his body as close to real as possible, he lay with Lioraeth as a man and a woman.
When his strength was nearly gone, he gave Giselle two things. Purls of blue energy.
One of them he told her to swallow without waiting. The other he told her to take to the great elven tree, Muria.
He claimed that if she pressed it against the wood at the same time that she pressed her hand, a child would be born from the two of them.
Even after all she knew about her home, Gisselle still didn’t believe Eir’Vael right up until the moment it happened.
The ancient tree gifted her a very beautiful baby girl. And from the minute Giselle saw her, she loved her unconditionally.
And yet... she still knew what was to come.
The night that her brother staged the coup, she did as she’d been told. She fought, but not overwhelmingly so. Just enough to look convincing.
When she was stabbed and seemingly ’killed’, her body healed almost an hour later. She awoke in a pit atop other dead bodies. The second orb she had swallowed had not been to impregnate her. It was a way for Eir’Vael to share his life force.
His powers and ability to use will may have been restricted, but Eir’Vael was still an undying being. Just that small bit of his essence was able to heal Giselle’s wounds and keep her in picture-perfect health for fifteen years before the effects subsided.
Though she fled Ilim soon after reviving, she did not do so without a bit of hesitation.
Try as she might’ve, there was no way for her to get back into the palace after everything had happened. Her brother had the place locked down tightly, with at least three guards at every door.
Eir’Vael had promised her that their plan would result in Nila and Yari not only being safe, but getting out of that hellish place together.
So as much as it pained her, Giselle fled Ilim alone.
She secretly took refuge in Belistra, living in the home of the fae queen herself.
Lioraeth was having some difficulties of her own.
After being impregnated, Eir’Vael told her that she had to give the baby up for adoption.
Initially, she cried and screamed in denial and threatened to exorcise what was left of him right then and there.
But Eir’Vael was being intentional with all of his plans. Seeing the timeline for a second time meant that he knew what would work and what wouldn’t.
Everett needed more than what Lioraeth could give him.
He knew the boy would have a talent for swordsmanship. But in the first timeline, he began trying to hone it far too late and died soon after the fifth rift was opened.
Everett needed to go to a family that would push him towards excellence. A family that would want to make him strong.
Eir’Vael’s first instinct was to send him to one of the seven martial families. But in the end, he decided against it.
The Natural-Born knew of a woman. A prostitute who was suddenly elevated from street merchandise to the Lady of a noble house. All due to the infatuation of an older man.
But activities like prostitution leave scars that go beyond the flesh.
The woman could not conceive a child with the Marquis. After five years of marriage and no announcement of heir, the Marquis began receiving outside pressure to take new wives.
To quiet the constant noise and pestering in his ear, the marquis took three. Though he did not intend to love them, or lie with them.
Nevertheless, the first lady was crushed by his decision.
Broken-hearted, the lady ran away from the Marquss under the cover of a stormy night.
It wasn’t until nine months later that she returned, carrying a baby in a basket.
Some initially questioned the legitimacy of this birth.
First-generation titan-bloods, that is, titan-bloods born from a human and a fae, will always have some sort of unnatural characteristic or quirk around their appearance.
It is extremely rare for a child born of two titan-bloods to manifest any sort of inhuman traits. Though, as evidenced by the emperor of Eirbane, it is not fully impossible, and is largely believed to be up to the virility of the man.
Initially, the Marquis doubted his lost love. Her running away had hurt him deeply, and he had come to resent her as he leaned on his other women. They were now pregnant as well.
However, before he could have the guards dismiss her, the Marquis took one look inside the basket.
When he saw those crystal clear, sky-blue eyes that were the very same as his own, all of his doubts were chased away.
The lady was welcomed back into the house, though her status was considerably lower than before. And the child, whom the Marquis named Everett, was named heir to the family.
The Marquis awoke one day and decided to put everything he had into his oldest child. It was his belief that his winged son, with piercing sky-blue eyes and heavenly white wings, would elevate the family status to heights never before dreamed of.
Everett would be the one to get his family out from underneath the thumb of the Ostego crown. So, as his father, the Marquis, took it upon himself to do all that he could to support his son.
The child would have the best trainers. He would eat only the most nutritious foods.
He would wear the most splendid armor and own the sharpest sword money could buy.
And when he was old enough, they would scrounge up the money to send him to the best Academy...
While Everett was raised to be a proper swordsman from the moment he could walk, Nila was also being instructed thanks to the kind efforts of a young academy student who spent lots of time around her aunt.
With two of the children taken care of and on course to cross paths, half of Eir’Vael’s plan was already completed.
He was also assured that, due to their relationship in the first timeline, Raizel would no doubt seek out Solomon as soon as he was able.
And when Raizel inevitably went to the academy to prevent the portal from being opened, there was an extremely high chance that his sworn enemy turned closest friend would be the only person he trusted to take with him.
With three out of the four taken care of, Lioraeth and Giselle got to work, thinking only of when they would see their families again.
At Eir’Vael’s behest, Lioraeth put out word that she was looking for talented enchanters, master artisans, and those who were skilled in the art of metalworking.
A team of fifty mages and fifty blacksmiths worked for ten entire years to create the horsemen’s armor.
They were paid an unbelievably exorbitant sum, and forced into signing secrecy contracts.
When construction was completed, Lioraeth had every one of them killed in their beds so as not to risk any kind of information leak.
Perhaps it was cruel. But the fae Queen did not think so.
She had missed years of her son’s life. She was bound to miss even more still.
The one thing she could do was ensure that he and his siblings would be protected. So that the evils of this world would never find them before they were ready.
And Giselle... as she wrestled with feelings of guilt and heartache, the woman trained like mad in the hopes of becoming more powerful.
All so that she could one day cut off the head of her brother, who had somehow become a silver core without her even realizing it...
