Take Action.

I took off running towards the sound of my fellow elves.

"Akira, wait!" Master chased after me. Akira, what're you doing?!"

I dropped to the ground and stuck my hands to the trampled, bloodstained grass.

I was bathed in the last of the moonlight, and my runes began to shimmer as I whispered a spell, tracing a rune in the dust.

Master swallowed, seeing what I was doing, and stepped back anxiously.

I took a deep breath and let out a piercing battle cry.

The roar of the elves died down as they slowed to a halt thirty yards in front of us.

They looked at the two of us, confused.

"Err...Akira?" one of the front warriors asked.

"Ranti?" I asked back. A sun elf, we had been training mates when we were little.

Ranti immediately grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into their ranks, pointing an enchanted spear at Master as me moved to grab me as well. "Back off, she's not yours!" she exclaimed in slurred, accented English.

"She's free to do whatever she wants," Master replied calmly in Elvish. "I'm Prince Rowan. I believe Black Magic is evil and needs to be stopped, and now the army here at the front lines believe that too. We're not here to fight."

"And the humans don't need to be annihilated," I insisted, also in Elvish, stepping back from their ranks and to Master's side. "Their King had convinced them that elves were evil, and that black magic was good. Now they know the truth, and they'll stop practicing it, and we can attempt purifcation rituals."

Ranti swallowed. "Captain?"

A few rows back, a tall elf who wore an officer's runes pushed through. "I'll retrieve the General. You five--- don't let these two cross our border." He gave two yips and a howl, and everybody began to retreat except for a few elves on the border.

"Akira, what happened to the mission?" Ranti asked me.

"They cloaked the moon, had fifty guards with a strong **** spell, and a fatal black magic gas. He spared me for ransom, then gave me to the Prince, hoping I'd kill him."

"How many magic souls did he sacrifice just to make that spell?" Ranti breathed.

"Possibly hundreds just for the fifty."

"So the King's trying to kill this son too?"

"Yes."

"But...you want us to let the humans live?"

"Yes. We'll explain everything once the general gets here."

.

~ ~ ~

.

The General, adorned in a forest green cloak, and gems pinned over it with titles and awards inscribed, he stopped several yards away from the Prince and I, giving me a very hard look, and then the same to Master.

I got on one knee and bowed deeply.

Master sighed and gave a slight, but respectful, bow.

The General, suspicious, returned it with a curt nod.

"General Liati, we come in peace," I said in Elvish, rising to stand. "I am Princess Ak--"

"I know who you are. Skip the formalities," he interrupted.

I shut my mouth instantly, stunned. I'd hoped my country would welcome me with much more respect.

"We should call a truce, dethrone the human King, and live in peace," Master said flatly.

"Why?"

"The King of the South has tricked the humans into using black magic and thinking elves are demons, just so he can further the war. It keeps the South united under his rule, and he captures mass amounts of black magic, which he uses in an attempt to attain immortality."

"We know the issues of the Southern Tyrant. He has poisoned his entire country."

"These humans here, having learned the truth, have resigned the practice of black magic."

"They still reek of it. As do you. I can see it sizzling off you like a smoke that sucks away at the light. You, and every other human, are abominations. And Akira, seeing as that you have engaged in black magic rituals, are exiled."

"I did no such thing," I insisted.

"She was poisoned by the King," Master said. "Her practice in black magic was involuntary, just as the rest of the humans' participation in it was ignorant."

"That is no excuse."

"I ask only that if we dethrone the Southern Tyrant, as you call him, can we cease this war?" Master asked earnestly. "I am next in line for the crown, and I promise you I am much more agreeable than my father."

"We cannot trust you."

"You don't need to. Our countries will keep to themselves. Perhaps in future generations, our kind will be considered pure enough by your standards for a different agreement to be reached."

"Impossible."

"The fact you came out here, General Liati, indicates that you don't enjoy this war. You hate the humans, but you hate losing good warriors and citizens even more. Here at our front lines, we have human soldiers who have called a truce. So either call a temporary ceasefire for a meeting of our councils, or bulldoze right over the only chance our countries have had in a century to end this bloodbath."

General Liati took a long, slow, unreadable breath, and looked to me. "Akira, former Princess of the North, do you vouch for this human, who has kept you as a ****?"