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The lands of the elves.
Not far from Glenger lay the evergreen and beautiful forests of the elves. By a twist of fate, Albin's path led exactly to those lands—specifically to the Grove where he was heading and which Hilael ruled. For many centuries, the elves had treated the forest with great care. They cherish every leaf of every tree, every bee pollinating the flowers.
Everything that grows from the earth is sacred to the elves. Even the most withered trees, often found in the lifeless and stunted lands of the Necromancers, can be brought back to life by the elves. For Silanna, nothing is impossible for her loyal servants of the forest. Silanna is capable of reviving any dead tree, any flower, and even a bee. But the elves are obliged to carefully preserve the forest and all its inhabitants so as not to anger Mother Earth. Yet the elves could never merge with the forest in a single harmony and exist as one whole. The cause of everything was war. War had settled seriously and for a long time in these lands. Despite the fact that in ancient times the demon lord was defeated and his ring shattered, the elves could not feel completely safe. There were constant conflicts with other races. Everyone needs timber, but the elves will never allow the forest to be cut down. Because of this, the peace-loving and friendly inhabitants of the forest had endless conflicts, and sometimes armed clashes, with other representatives of the races. It was under such difficult conditions that the elves created schools of the combat sword dance. The need for this arose when it became absolutely clear that while elven archers, famous for their unsurpassed accuracy and suddenness of shot, attack from a distance, someone must fight directly in close combat; otherwise, there was a huge risk of destroying an already small army of archers. Of course, the forces of the elves have ents and unicorns at their disposal, but these are inhabitants of the forest, children of Silanna, whom the wood elves swore to protect until the last drop of blood. And therefore they resort to their help very rarely, only when mortal danger threatens the forest. And if their dark brethren were ruled by seductive and cruel Shadow Witches, the inhabitants of the forest preferred to rely on the wise Druids, tempered in battles with the enemies of the forest. These are just and devoted servants of Silanna—the Goddess Mother Earth.
But recently, a battle with the undead took place in the Grove. The fight was short but extremely brutal and bloody. What happened affected everyone and knocked the peaceful life of the wood elves out of its usual rut. And while High Druid Hilael secluded himself in his council chamber, discussions about the event did not subside among the other elves. Elves—from the very young to experienced men and women—helped the wounded, buried the dead, restored the mutilated nature of their forests and, of course, discussed what had happened, putting forward various versions of the attack...
A young elf named Silbern, practically a graduate and the pride of the combat dance school, also took part in clearing up after the battle. Attentive and taciturn, he silently listened to the conversations of others and sadly collected the weapons of fallen elven warriors,
to take them to the armories.
Silbern was an extraordinary student. From his first year of training, he was distinguished by persistence and tenacity in studying the complex and graceful technique of the combat dance. Standing about 6 feet tall, slender and strong, some might have considered him a handsome youth. His long white hair, according to the custom of war dancers, was braided into a plait. A fringe fell over his young and daring face, which hungered for adventure. To a lock of hair above his left eye, a string with a silver leaf was tied. A small emerald, like a drop of dew on a flower, adorned this leaf. This was the only thing that reminded Silbern of his parents who died prematurely when pirates-orcs attacked their ship. The young elf himself was at home then under the care of his grandfather. His grandfather had once been a glorious archer and therefore taught his grandson to be proficient with flexible elven bows. But Silbern preferred the mastery of the beautiful elven sword dance over simply being skilled with a bow.
Now, however, Silbern was as shocked by what happened as everyone else. The battle took place right under Hilael's palace, which was located in the very depths of the Grove. From this, it can be concluded that the enemy had advanced very far. Losses were enormous. About 30 archers died, slightly more than 2 dozen sword dancers, and some 2 dozen fairies and dryads. Furthermore, an ent who stood in the way of the undead was destroyed. 2 Abominations and a dozen and a half zombies hacked him to pieces. In addition, something happened that drove all the elves into a frenzy—one of the unicorns was killed. Elves revere unicorns as sacred animals. They are certain that the elven race will exist as long as at least 1 unicorn lives, and therefore
the killing of a unicorn is considered by the elves to be the most terrible crime against their people and their goddess Silanna. Additionally, 2 druids and 1 elder of the druids perished, which made the entire forest folk think seriously. The losses of the undead were nearly three times greater, but they are dead and can be raised from the fallen living; moreover, the very fact of their invasion was baffling. Their goals and intentions were completely incomprehensible.
On the evening of the same day, after such sorrowful work as burying the fallen and delivering the wounded to the infirmary, Silbern decided to walk through the Grove. He wanted to rest from today's worries: listen to the chirping of crickets, observe the night moths, sit by a clear spring. Walking through the Grove, he could not get today's attack out of his head. It fit into no logic whatsoever.
—Stop! Don't move!— suddenly reached him from nowhere, —What are you doing here?
He guessed that this was one of the camouflaged guard posts.
—I am Silbern the elf. I'm just walking and wandered here by accident. I'm leaving,— the young elf rightly decided that since there were guards here, it was unsafe to stay; moreover, no one had the right to distract a sentry. The guard usually consisted of camouflaged archers who had orders to destroy anyone attempting to cross the forest border.
Our hero wandered further. Descending the slope to a small stream, he drank clean spring water and looked at the gold fish swimming fearlessly in the transparent water. He had almost stopped thinking about today's battle when he suddenly heard a strange rustle. At first, Silbern thought it was the enemies again, but remembered that no one could sneak into the Grove past the posts unnoticed. He immediately decided it was someone from the elves who, like him, had decided to walk to the spring. Being by nature not a very cheerful or bored elf, for some reason he felt a strong urge to hide and jokingly scare whoever had come. Fortunately, there were thickets of bushes slightly higher up the slope. Our hero climbed up to them and lay in wait. This time fortune helped Silbern, whispering to him that he should hide. Two vampires appeared in the clearing...
Silbern could not be mistaken. It was definitely them. Warriors resembling these had attacked the elves only today. Of course, all vampires have different faces, but they have something in common—they are all a deathly blue color. With empty eyes that contain not a drop of life. Eyes are the mirror of the soul. Their eyes did not reflect a soul because there was none.
Both were the same height as Silbern. One of them held a bloody sword in his hand, upon which strange, jagged letters were inscribed. Silbern did not know this language. The dead prefer this font. But most of all, the young elf was shocked by the blood on the sword. This meant that several sentries would not be able to rejoice in the rising sun. The hair of the vampire with the sword was tied in a ponytail. A wicked smirk snaked across his face. He loved to kill, and if he saw our hero now, he would kill him too. Like his partner, he wore absolutely no armor. It seemed they had come to kill someone and disappear quickly. Silbern thought this because for reconnaissance, the dead usually use lower-rank warriors. Silbern was taught this knowledge in the combat dance school; he could not only fight but also understand something about battle theory and much more. And armor is just an extra burden that would be a hindrance in this case. Both wore long black cloaks that would help their dead masters vanish into the night. The second one's blade was in its scabbard, and the scabbard was slung across his back so that only the hilt protruded from behind his left shoulder. In his right hand, he held a strange curved dagger whose hilt was adorned with a skull with eye sockets glowing red. The index finger of his left hand wore a ring with a green stone inside which some shadows flickered. Silbern was ready to rush at the vampires and avenge the murder of his brethren, but he understood too well how dangerous this was. He might not even have time to make a single swing of his blades before the vampire's cursed sword pierced his heart. That is how swift vampires were in battle. During the day in the Grove, he had already seen what these strangers were capable of. Moreover, by all appearances, these two were clear professionals who had trained to fight and kill for more than one century. Silbern knew that vampires exist for a very long time. Only druids—the faithful priests of Silanna—could fight vampires fearlessly. Others had to be on guard every second when struggling against these dead warriors.
The two arrivals headed deep into the forest with a quick step. Silbern noted with surprise how silently they moved. Perhaps in a past life they themselves were elves and some skills remained. After some time, they all reached Hilael's palace. Both vampires noticed the archer guard posts. They bypassed these posts very skillfully and, to Silbern's great surprise, began to deftly climb up a tree. They didn't even break a single branch so as not to create unnecessary noise! Our young elf also began to climb up the tree, but from another side. He was terrified, for it seemed these two had decided to finish off Hilael! Silbern was sure that the magic protecting Hilael's palace would destroy the uninvited guests as soon as they touched it, but this did not happen. And then it dawned on Silbern: the magical ring on the finger of one of the vampires blocked the tree's magic. And the vampires stubbornly climbed up to his palace. Silbern didn't manage to crawl up before the vampires... When he jumped onto the platform, a battle was already in full swing. Our hero, without thinking, rushed into the fight...
The entrance was guarded by four archers; one of them was a bow master—that is, someone who after long trials and faithful service to Silanna receives a new, more durable bow and special enchanted arrows. The others were not newcomers, but had not yet served up to the higher rank held by their commander. Both vampires leaped onto the platform like two swift shadows. One of the archers hesitated for a moment, and the dead man's sword immediately found his heart. The commander of the archers reacted instantly, performing a side roll and firing two arrows at the uninvited guest. The vampire staggered and fell to one knee. Two other archers fired their arrows at the second vampire; as Silbern noticed, one of them shot sluggishly, as if wanting to miss. The second vampire dodged the arrows and, closing the distance, slashed with his sword. Fortunately, one of the archers managed to jump back, and the sword merely cut his bow into two pieces. The second archer received a glancing blow from the sword to the knee and fell—fortunately not down from the height, but simply onto the edge of the platform. The vampire made another swing, but the sword did not reach its target. Silbern parried the attack with one blade and made a thrust into the opponent's left side with the second. Meanwhile, the second vampire somehow managed to get up and, with his last strength, rushed at the bow master; the latter didn't have time to fire, and the dead warrior slashed him in the liver area. The commander of the archers realized he would bleed out and decided to perform one last service for Silanna. He drew his dagger and plunged it hilt-deep into the vampire's dead body and, gripping it tightly, plummeted down together with him. The second one became quite infuriated that he could not reach his intended goal because of some blade dancer. He leaped back sharply, grabbed the archer whose bow he had broken, and began to drink his blood. Having restored his strength, he knocked Silbern off his feet with a sharp blow from the hilt of the sword. Below, having already heard the thud of falling bodies, alarmed elves were gradually gathering, realizing that some strangers had decided to break into Hilael's palace through the back entrance. Some began to climb up rapidly to help their ruler. The remaining vampire realized he could not linger and rushed toward the door. With a swing of his blade, Silbern pinned the stranger's cloak to the platform.
Zeratul
