The Trade: Elswyth

The man said nothing, he didn't even move, he just held her shoulder and said nothing.

"He will not choose another," Lilith announced. "He said last night he would have her alone and use his powers to attain her."

"His powers? What powers? Did he cheat?" Bray demanded of the Keeper.

"He did not. He followed our rules to the letter. We set you all at the same beginning and told you the first to make it back would win. You all followed the path in front of you to get here. He... appeared here seconds after the obstacle race started. He did not break the rules, we should have been more... clear about what we required but we were unaware he could translocate. No rule was broken, he has chosen. You must now choose."

"If you were unaware, then there should be another contest! A different contest!" Bray said angrily.

"It is done. Choose or you will be passed over."

Bray huffed, then chose Apollonia who looked horrified.

Wren gave Elswyth a pleading and forlorn look, then sighed and looked around. His face lit up then and he chose Brooke.

That heartened Elswyth to see him save the girl and the girl looked so incredibly grateful as tears spilled down her cheeks and she hugged him.

Apollo was next and he looked both livid and not entirely upset that Brooke was gone. Like he was putting on a show, but he was pleased. Elswyth wondered if he had lost the race on purpose in the hopes someone would take her. He chose Charra, which surprised everyone, especially Charra who was not wholly displeased.

Beacon, Gale and Ranger came in neck and neck, one right after the other, really racing to get there. Hyperion and Anil were close behind them. They all also looked shocked at who was left on the dais.

Ranger looked at Elswyth and grimaced. "I am sorry, little one," he called.

Her tears began anew as the man's hand tightened on her shoulder.

She was pleased to see Ranger pick Bronwyn.

Florian, Ford and Jack came in almost together, then there was a very long wait for Erebus and Kieren to come strolling in.

They stared at the dais in confusion and Elswyth knew they were expecting Charra and Zillah to be there and not the beautiful Lilith and buxom Holly.

"Everyone stand for the bonding ceremony, then you may return to your homes with your new husbands," A Keeper announced.

The man stood, pulling Elswyth up with him and he towered over her as he led her back to the dais.

Wren stopped him. "Trade with me? You have no true care for her, you can't! Her and I spoke and we want each other."

The man said nothing, only moved around Wren. Elswyths gut wrenched and she lost her composure completely, breaking down right there on the dais in front of everyone. She couldn't stop crying.

Ranger moved close to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Elly! Don't cry, please? You..."

"Remove your hand," the man hissed.

"Can't you see she's upset? The least you could do is comfort her! Tell her she doesn't have to be afraid of you?"

Lilith laughed out loud, a mocking laugh. "Azazel? She should fear him. He is the fuel for many a young maidens nightmares. And you were all wondering who the virgin was. Now you know. Azazel always knows."

Elswyth's legs buckled and she dropped to the floor.

"Enough! He can't take her with him, she is terrified and he has no intention of being a husband to her! Release her!" Ranger yelled.

"Intent matters not," the Keeper said sadly. "Else we would have disallowed Fire to touch Water centuries ago. No one spoke for Water, not once, not even Water. Now you speak for Forest? Why is Forest different? Better? You know not what is planned for her. Attend to your own."

"Trade with me," Wren pleaded again. "She and I are in love! I felt her dreaming of me as I dreamed of her all night! She cannot live among your kind, you will suck the life from her!"

Azazel was unmoving as stone, watching the Keeper, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Lilith chuckled darkly and hung seductively on Erebus's arm. "You will not sway him. She is the only innocent here and the only one he will settle for. It's a... thing for him. He hates the smell of used women, all he can smell is the men she has been with. Can you imagine? Trying to get close to a girl, but only smelling and imagining all of the men she has ever been with? It is an awful thing to live with. A gift to be born with that is no gift at all, for every girl but the most pure to smell of rotten, putrid meat. He was not sure his ability would help him in winning, but he was determined to win however he could when she arrived. Not just pure, but beautiful and so... feisty," she giggled.

"That is enough. Stand for the bonding!"

It was Lilith who went to Elswyth and helped her stand, then stood next to her and held her up as Azazal held her arm without looking at her. She turned to the taller woman for comfort and was surprised when the woman held her and stroked her hair.

When it was over, Lilith leaned down to kiss her cheek. "Take care of him, sister," she said with a wicked smile, but Elswyth could see in her eyes that she meant it, she cared for her brother. Lilith leaned closer to whispered in her ear as she pretended to kiss her cheek. "He is not cruel, I was only making the others squirm a bit over their loss. He is a sweet boy. Treat him well."

"You may stay for the bonding feast or you may return to your homes," the Keeper called tiredly.

Elswyth was numb as she stood in his iron and unmoving grip. "Zay, are you staying?" Lilith asked Azazel. "Stay a little while? With me and my new husband?"

Azazel turned his head to look at Lilith, no expression on his face, then followed her to the table. Elswyth wondered what was wrong with him. Why he was so emotionless and void of... life. Lilith was Death Elf as well, but she had a huge personality. From what she was seeing, Azazel had none.

She was still numb as she sat there, ignoring the food in front of her.

"Elly?"

She looked up at Ranger across from her and he looked worried. Bronwen was on his arm and she looked terrified of Azazel who was staring straight ahead, not eating or moving, just holding Elswyths arm like a doll.

"Are you going to be ok? I will form..."

"No! No, don't say it," she answered quickly. "Whatever happens to me, it doesn't matter. Take Wen home and have a dozen babies and make the line strong again. Don't worry about me or..." she glanced at the emotionless and unblinking Azazel and shuddered, "anyone." After a few more minutes, she turned to Lilith. "What's wrong with him?" she asked in a whisper.

Lilith looked at her brother and smiled. "Don't worry, he'll be fine after he gets you home. His power... the amount he used today and not being in our realm. He is on... reserves so to speak. His body is functioning, his will exerted, but his mind is resting. That is not his... personality," she smirked. "He intends to have you home and in his bed tonight, but this is why I asked him to stay. He needed a bit more rest before he translocated with you, even if it is to our realm."

"Thank you," Elswyth whispered to her. She turned and looked at Ranger who was hugging Bronwen to his chest and stroking her shoulder but was watching Elswyth worriedly. "Do you remember when Keeper Allorn visited?" she asked him.

He looked confused. "Yes?"

"Do you remember what you said to me? What you did to me? How scared I was after all you told me?"

"Yes, I'm sorry Elly, truly, I was a child and..."

"Hush. Listen to me. It's like that."

Ranger looked at Elswyth a moment, then at Azazel in confusion, then at Lilith who was ignoring him and talking to Erebus. Ranger gave Elswyth a small nod. "Are you saying that to..."

"No. It's true."

"You're certain?"

"She has no reason to lie to me," Elswyth lied with a shrug. Lilith had every reason to lie to her. To keep her from breaking down again or causing a scene before Azazel got her out of here. Or even to make her complacent before Azazel woke up and began torturing her. She had no idea if Lilith was being honest and nice, or she was playing some game with her and being wicked, she couldn't get a read on her at all.

The least she could do was put Rangers mind at ease, though. After him telling her how horrible and wicked and evil Keeper Allorn was, she had eventually found out he had only said it to scare her and Allorn was one of the nicest people she had ever met. She'd actually been truly upset that she was so terrified of her for the first two weeks of her visit that she had missed out on time with her and only had a few days when she could have had three whole weeks.

Elswyth smiled sadly, remembering, then looked across the table at Ranger. "Still not sure I forgive you for that."

He gave her a sad smile in return. "I'd never seen you cry like that before. In anger, sure, but never in loss like that. You were so heartbroken, I vowed to never do it again. You know I only picked on you because I wanted you to pay attention to me? If I had known that old woman and you were going to bond that way... but I didn't know who she was. I had no idea and didn't know it would hurt you that much. I learned about unintended consequences that day, when she left. You hunted me down and chased me with that switch for a mile," he laughed. "I should have been so much faster, but you were so mad! Your little legs were moving! If you'd had control of your wings then, I wouldn't have lived through it. Dad asked how I got all those welts and I had to lie. How could I tell him a girl your size had striped me with a switch?"

"Why didn't you take it away from her?" Erebus asked in confusion.

Ranger grinned. "Nah. It was one of the only times she ever chased me and not the other way around. Plus, it was my one rule with her. I would tease her and say things, but not put hands on her. Her magic is tree speak, mine is very different."

"What is it?" Bronwen asked, wide eyed.

"He is who they call when they need something big removed," Elswyth told her. "He breaks things. Turns boulders to rubble, huge tree stumps to splinters. I always wondered why you never hurt me when you obviously hated me so much, I didn't know it was because you were afraid of breaking me. I thought your control was perfect. You always claimed it was."

"It was. It is. I have never had a single mishap, but what if? What if the single time I tossed a rock at you or pulled your hair, it slipped? I don't think you understand me at all, Elly," he said sadly.

"I don't think I do either," she admitted with a sigh.

"Always you though, never seeing past your trees and your duties. Trees were more complex than we were, you saw me and I was the annoying boy you hated growing up. That never changed for you. I didn't understand that until it was too late. I grew out of it, you never noticed, I was the same boy to you, no matter how much time passed. If we..."

Azazel stood suddenly and looked down at his sister. "We are leaving, Lil," he told her, the first emotion or life Elswyth had seen from him as he pulled her to stand.

Lilith stood up and hugged him, smiling up at him as she did. "I am happy for you, Zay," she whispered gently.

"May I say goodbye?" Elswyth asked almost fearfully.

"Say it," he told her, nodding his head but not letting her go.

"Can I hug..."

"No. No touching!"

"Zay! Elly, it's a thing for him, remember? He's not angry," Lilith whispered.

"Goodbye Wen!" Elswyth called breathlessly, a little terrified now. "Bye Ranger, I wish I had known you better."

"Me too," he smiled sadly. 'I love you' he mouthed to her.

Azazel pulled her away to where their things were stacked and she started to ask what was going to happen as he bent and started touching things. She watched as one at a time it all disappeared and then tried to tug away from him as he stood and looked down at her.

She jerked and seemed to spin, her world distorting and turning upside down and she screamed as darkness engulfed her.

Worse than the darkness... she felt empty and alone, there were no trees where she was now. None.

She screamed again and she could hear herself this time. She was in a real place, a real room. A lamp bloomed to life, the fire in it illuminating Azazel's confused and concerned expression as he looked her over. He looked her over from top to bottom, the first time he had really looked at her at all since he had chosen her out.

"Please!" she cried, almost hysterical. "Take me out of here! There's no trees! No sky! No sun! Nothing! Take me out! I can't feel my trees!" she wailed, hysteria taking over.

He pulled her out of the dark room to a dark hall and led her to a larger, open room. He led her to a huge wooden door with iron hinges and pulled it open, then pushed her in gently and shut the door on her. She heard the lock slide home after he closed her in and she pounded on it in the darkness, screaming again. She begged him to open the door and let her out, but if he heard he gave no sign. She sat there against the door, sobbing and afraid of what was in the room with her. Her cries gave way to shivering as she hugged herself and huddled against the door, her teeth chattering with cold. Hours passed as she curled there miserably on the cold stone floor against wood so old and dead it was almost stone itself. It had forgotten it had ever been alive once.

She had shivered and whimpered herself into exhaustion and sleep took her finally. There was no concept of time in the darkness, no concept of anything but her loneliness and emptiness in this alien place.

She woke to a hasp being drawn on the door and it opening outward. She fell out with it and tried to roll to her knees as she looked up and shielded her eyes from the bright flame of the lamp.

It wasn't bright, not really, but it had been dark so long the light hurt her eyes.

Azazel stood there, looking down at her in stunned shock. He looked past her to the room, then back down to her, his mouth open. She managed to stumble to her feet and brace herself on the wall as she turned and looked into the room.

It was a bedroom. A large bedroom with a bed full of soft, heavy quilts and pillows. Her bag and chest were at the foot of the bed and there was a small table and a bowl full of fruit. A chest of drawers and a mirror with a brush. She looked back up at him and he still looked confused.

"I... it was dark! I didn't know where I was!"

"Can you not see?"

"In the dark? No!"

"Your kind truly cannot?"

"No!" she cried, embarrassed as well as upset now.

"You are still... full of emotion," he told her, stepping back away from her. "Despair. I gave you time for grief, but it is not gone."

Elswyth looked up at him in confusion. "Because I was terrified the whole time! I thought you locked me away in a cell to rot and die! I had no way to know better! And my grief will never leave so long as I am trapped here! Can't you understand that I need trees and sunlight and fresh air to live?"

He cocked his head slightly. "Yet here you are and you live still. You will learn, I wish it to be so. Come. My family wishes to lay eyes on you. Bathe your face and comb your hair, I will wait," he promised, moving into the room to light the lamps around the room. "See here?" he asked as he turned a small knob. "You need only turn it inwards and it will turn on, the fire come to life. It can be bright or dim as you choose. All of them. See?"

"I see," she answered, sniffling as she watched him move around her room. "But those two are too high. I can only reach the one next to the bed."

"I will have them lowered to adjust to your... stature."

"Is this to be my room? We won't... share a room?"

He turned away from her, hiding his face as he pretended to adjust the lamp. "Hurry, they wait for us."

Elswyth dried her face and turned to him, looking him over. From a distance, she had thought him tall and slender, but it had to be his clothes. He was still tall, but his arms were large too. He wasn't slender at all, his muscles looked carved from white marble. She looked at his profile as she stepped closer and he turned slightly to look down at her. His shock of white hair crested and fell over one eye, the other regarded her from heavy black soot around his eye like make-up. It was meant to make him look angry, and harden his soft features she was sure.

"Your hair does not tame more than this?" he asked, touching one of her curls.

"No... not unless I get it wet. Wash it."

"I will see a bathing basin brought to your room," he nodded, then led her out to the larger room outside of the bedroom. "That is mine," he told her, pointing to a door across from hers, then leading her down a long hall.

"Do you not like my hair?" she asked him softly as she tried to strangle it down into a semblance of order.

"I do," he answered without looking at her.

"Then why the basin?"

"For you to bathe? You said you bathed, yes? Wash your hair? Some do not use a basin of water. Fire, they use moist heat in a closed space to sweat, then scrape themselves clean. Sky scrubs in the sands. All are different. You bathe in water, so I will provide you a basin."

"I see," she answered faintly. "How do you know so much about the others?"

He shrugged a shoulder, then led her into a larger, more open room with several halls splitting off from it. It was packed full of people, all like him and Lilith. Many stood to look at her, some sat and stared, but Elswyth felt overwhelmed. So many people in such a closed in space! She took a step back before Azazel caught her arm. He lifted her up, his hands on her hips and stood her on a small table near the hall they had come out of.

"This is Elswyth Redwood, heir to the throne of the Forest Clan. Elswyth Darkhaven now, my wife. I will not introduce all, but those who wish to speak to you will say their names to you first so you will not be overwhelmed with names. You will learn in time."

"Zay! She is so tiny! Are all forest clan as small?" A man asked.

"No. Her brethren was only a half head shorter than I. She was the smallest among all to come, I think it is exclusive to her and not the forest clan."

"How old is she? She is so tiny!"

"I am twenty two!" Elswyth scowled at the woman who had spoken.

"Careful of her temper," Azazel said, a ghost of a smile on his lips.

"Can she fly?"

"I can," she growled, crossing her arms. "Were I to have a place to fly in! Not this..."

Azazel put a calming hand on her arm and she felt her anger diminish, embarrassment replacing it.

"She's cute, little brother," a woman laughed, sounding so much like Lilith that Elswyth had to look twice."

"What happened to taking the Water clan girl if you won?" someone called out.

"Well that is obvious," the woman laughed, moving closer.

Another man also stepped closer. He was older than Azazel, but not quite as tall. "I did not think a girl would be deemed worthy, little brother," the man sneered.

"Or if she were, she would be a creature of a thing," another man joked.

"Tell us, did the Water clan smell of fish?" another called, laughing.

"All of you be seated!" an older man called. "Speak civilly in front of your new sister. Zay, sit with your wife over here by your mother and I," the man called.

Azazel lifted Elswyth down and led her across the room to sit with the two older people in the room. Elswyth was wide eyed as she looked around at all the smiling and smirking faces, most of them more than a little malicious.

"I am Bela," the woman told Elswyth with a serene smile on her perfect face. "This is my husband Damon. You are Elswyth of the forest clan?"

"You may call me El," Elswyth answered, feeling small as she looked up at the stunning woman. She glanced at Azazel, then around the room to all of the young people watching. "Are... are they all close kin to you?" she asked him.