Chapter 1240: Mercy of the Void: Feud in Elves, An Origin Elf!

{Oh?} More of the Blood Elf’s memories opened, and the interest behind those fathomless white eyes sharpened into something almost delighted.

The voice changed with it.

It was still coming from Phei, yet it no longer felt quite like the presence that had marked the two women moments earlier. Something deeper had leaned closer, its words carrying a weight that made even the Blood Elf instinctively still.

{Well, this is interesting. There are five more of your kind enslaved here. The little fairy was right, though she was nowhere near this informative.}

The Blood Elf lowered her gaze.

That tiny movement answered more honestly than anything she could have said.

The white eyes searched the memories responsible for that reaction and found the five Elves. Their faces appeared clearly now, along with the restraints that had kept them beneath the Heavenchilds and Maxtons, their weakened bodies and the Eternal Prison Gates to which they had been bound. The presence lingered there for a moment before its amusement deepened.

{Now this is surprising. You actually care about them.}

The Blood Elf’s jaw tightened.

A quiet chuckle moved through the darkness.

{I wouldn’t have expected that. Blood Elves, Dark Elves, Void Elves, Demon Elves, Poison Elves, Halflings and those troublesome Chaos Elves have never been particularly eager to share a table with the Primordial, Origin, Celestial, Space, Time, Divine, Flower, Spirit, Frost, Moon, Forest, High and World Tree Elves.}

The white eyes brightened slightly.

{And yet here you are, worrying about five of them. How sweet~}

Her head lowered another fraction.

The shame came from beliefs she had been taught so young that, for a long time, she had never thought to question them. Certain Elven races were beneath others and certain were impure was taught to other elves and certain races of their race were supposed to be hated simply because of what they had been born as.

She had believed some of it once.

Perhaps more than she wanted those white eyes to see.

Yet somewhere along the way, five Elves she should have regarded with distance had become people she cared whether lived or died.

Her memories betrayed that pride completely.

{A pure-blooded Blood Elf worrying about a Flower Elf, a Moon Elf and... goodness. An Origin Elf? One of the purest elves still breathing?}

The Blood Elf said nothing.

{How scandalously wholesome.}

The Vampire Lady glanced toward the Blood Elf.

Mockery would probably have been easier for the Elf to endure than the unmistakable approval inside that voice.

{You Elves really are surprisingly decent beneath all that arrogance about which elf is purer than which. Blood, Moon, Forest, Void, whatever name someone attached to you, apparently some of you eventually remember you’re still looking at another Elf.}

A quiet laugh moved through the darkness.

{How touching. Almost disgustingly so...}

The Blood Elf’s jaw tightened, and before she could decide whether she had just been praised or insulted, the presence turned its attention elsewhere.

The Coffer appeared within the Void.

Its dark-golden form emerged from the surrounding blackness together with the countless seals covering its surface. Even reduced from its true size, several World Transcendents had been needed to move it through Anactica.

Here, that enormous weight seemed to mean very little.

The Void gathered around the Coffer and it began shrinking.

Its walls drew inward while the seals across them contracted without breaking, every part of the treasury becoming smaller until the immense structure could finally rest upon a single outstretched hand.

The Blood Elf stared at it as it was handed it to her.

{Take it.}

She hesitated for only a moment before reaching out with both hands.

The Coffer was small enough to hold now, although the power resting inside it had not diminished with its size. A heavy pressure sank through her arms the instant she received it, and several of the seals stirred beneath her fingers as though objecting to the unfamiliar touch.

She ignored them.

The Vampire Lady watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, clearly wondering why something so valuable had suddenly been placed in their hands.

The answer came before either woman asked.

{I’ll save them.}

The Blood Elf looked up.

The amusement in the voice had faded.

{The Origin Elf and the other four. The ones still chained beneath those families. I’ll get them out.}

Something appeared behind the Blood Elf’s crimson eyes before she could hide it.

Hope.

The white gaze caught it immediately.

{Consider it your first reward for already giving me something useful. I’m generous like that.}

The lighter tone returned just as quickly.

{Take the Coffer to my troublesome Chaos in Japan. She’ll know what to do with it. After that, both of you stay with her. Don’t wander off, don’t pick fights, and don’t make me regret keeping you alive.}

The Vampire Lady’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The voice had changed again.

This one carried none of the unsettling depth of the first presence or the heavier feeling of the one that had searched through their memories. It sounded younger, lighter, almost playfully careless despite everything it had just ordered them to do.

She glanced toward those impossible white eyes.

There had been too many different things speaking through this body for her to be certain anymore, but if she had to guess...

This one had to be the young mortal himself.

The thought somehow made the situation even stranger.

The Blood Elf tightened her hands around the miniature Coffer.

Beside her, the Vampire Lady finally spoke. "And if we refuse?"

The darkness became strangely quiet; the white eyes turned toward her.

{Refuse?}

The newly engraved Mark pulsed once inside the Vampire Lady.

The reaction began in her soul.

Something impossibly deep tightened around her soul, so suddenly that her entire existence seemed to seize from the inside. Her thoughts remained clear, yet the instant she tried to turn intention into resistance, the Mark closed around that impulse before it could travel any farther.

It felt as though invisible claws had sunk into the very center of her soul and calmly reminded it who now stood above every command she tried to give herself.

Her body went rigid.

The blood flowing through her veins stopped answering her, the strength gathered across her cultivation sank into silence, every current she tried to summon fading the moment her soul reached for it. Even the smallest movement became impossible because the command to move never escaped the place where it was born.

Her soul strained once against it.

The Mark tightened.

Pain did not explode through her; that would almost have been easier, instead, a profound helplessness spread through her as the connection pressed deeper, touching memory, will and instinct with enough certainty that even her World Transcendent soul could feel the difference between being restrained and being completely denied.

Then it released her.

Blood surged through her veins again. Cultivation returned. Her fingers moved. Breath entered her lungs as though nothing had happened.

Scarcely a heartbeat had passed.

The Vampire Lady remained perfectly still anyway.

The Vampire Lady remained standing exactly where she had been.

The voice chuckled.

{You Vampires really are rather cute when you forget what it means to belong to someone completely. And before you start thinking this makes you especially weak, let me spare your pride a little. Even the progenitor of your race is one of my slaves. You’ll meet the bastard eventually.}

The Vampire Lady’s expression hardened at that, surprise flashing through her eyes before she managed to bury it. Of everything the presence had said so far, that seemed to strike somewhere particularly unpleasant. Still, after what the Mark had just done to her soul, she possessed considerably less enthusiasm for testing whether the claim was another joke.

She lowered her gaze.

Beside her, the Blood Elf wisely decided that silence had suddenly become an excellent personality trait.

{Now go.}

The Void closed around both women and the both were gone, carried away so completely that the darkness where they had stood became empty again.

The white gaze shifted once more.

Seraphine felt it settle upon her.

She had remained silent through everything that happened to the others, watching the Blood Elf, the Vampire Lady and the endless darkness around them with the restraint of someone who understood that speaking without purpose was rarely wise.

Now that attention belonged entirely to her.

For several breaths, nothing happened.

Then the voice spoke.

{And you.} Seraphine’s crimson eyes narrowed slightly.

The darkness around her stirred.

Something entered her soul before she could prepare for it, Seraphine reacted immediately, gathering every scrap of will she possessed and forcing it against the intrusion.

The white eyes watched without concern.

{Tiamat Slave Mark.}

A Dragon symbol appeared upon Seraphine’s forehead.

Her soul convulsed.

The Mark sank inward, passing through every resistance she raised until it reached the deepest place from which her will answered her. Seraphine pushed against it again, harder this time, and felt the Mark tighten around that resistance with enough certainty to make her understand immediately that brute force would accomplish nothing here.

Seraphine remained completely herself.

That was precisely why she could feel the boundary so clearly.

Her anger remained hers... her choices remained hers and her hatred, desires and judgment had not been stolen from her.

But betrayal now had a wall.

A wall buried inside her own soul.

The Mark settled.

Seraphine’s body relaxed again; the voice sounded amused.

{Good. I prefer people who can still think for themselves. Mindless servants are terribly boring.}

Seraphine lifted her eyes toward the fathomless white gaze.

{You may keep your pride. Keep your temper too, if you’re particularly attached to it. Just remember where the line is. Keep quite Eira, Cassiopeia is such a sweetheart than you’re!}

It argued with itself.

The white eyes remained there for a moment before turning toward the final Chained presence after Seraphine disappeared.

The Undead Queen felt that gaze reach her.

The dead gathered around her reacted before she did and drew closer to their Queen, restless beneath the attention now passing over them, while the cold stillness surrounding her throne-like presence seemed to deepen.

The white eyes studied her for several breaths:

{Now you...}