We weren’t exactly roughing it.

We stayed to the roads, stopping at inns nightly along the way. We mostly visited smaller towns, some with massive walls and some without. I was under the impression that we were avoiding larger cities. Every time we stayed in one of these places, Raella had a quiet talk with the innkeeper, during which there was an exchange of letters or a bag of coins, and then we had the inn to ourselves the entire night. Even the inns that had bars and served food turned their normal paying customers away.

“Is it to keep us a secret?” Lexie asked quietly on the third night, as we sat together at a table in a barren common room. The barkeep eyed us curiously as she wiped the counter again. Our presence had made for a slow night, but the innkeeper hadn’t dismissed her for the evening. She had cooked a meal for our entire party and now occupied herself with cleaning and tending the bar in case we had any other needs.

Peyton sipped her ale as she leaned back comfortably, one arm over the back of the chair, watching the hushed conversation at the door where another patron was turned away. “This draws too much attention to be a secret,” she said. I glanced up from where I was nursing my own drink, hunched over at the table. I suspected Peyton thought the same thing I did – she was too observant not to.  

We weren’t the secret. The secret was being kept from us.

Not wanting to stare too obviously, I shifted my gaze to the fireplace, watching the low fire that crackled in the hearth.

Lexie stared between the two of us, attempting to read our expressions. Finally with a sigh she decided to change the conversation. “What do you think the dwarves are like?”

“Raella said they don’t live underground,” I said, trying not to sound too mopey.

Peyton chuckled as Lexie nodded sympathetically at my statement. “They’re miners still, at least.”

I hmm’ed in response, taking a drink from my tankard. Then I stood and stretched. “Think I’m gonna turn in.”

“It’s too early,” Lexie griped as Peyton downed the remainder of her drink and stood up as well. She carried her cup to the bar, and I followed suit. The woman smiled at us appreciatively and thanked us with a nod. We then proceeded up the stairs to our rooms for the evening.

This inn had enough rooms available that Lexie, Peyton and I each had our privacy for the night. Raella and Chase also had their own rooms, and only Zolambi and Greyjon had to share. The previous nights we had stayed in inns so small that most of us were sharing rooms, so this was my first night to myself. As soon as I entered the room, I walked over to the window and opened it, and leaned my head out to look around.

The window opened onto the roof of the first floor’s kitchens, which gave me a generous edge to crawl out onto. From there, it was a short drop into an alleyway. I slipped out a bit awkwardly, not really having the teenage experience of sneaking out of a house before, and sat near the edge of the roof, staring down at the drop. I couldn’t see a way back up, and that caused me to hesitate.

“I was wondering what you were up to,” I heard a familiar voice say right at my side. I hadn’t heard anyone approach, and I almost slipped down the shingles in surprise, and felt a hand grab my shoulder to steady me. Turning, I saw that Peyton had exited her own room, which was right next to mine. Her window was wide open, the curtains billowing in a slight breeze.

“Damn, you’re quiet,” I grumbled, returning to looking into the alley below, still trying to find some way to climb back up. The familiar nervousness of being so close to someone ridiculously beautiful and famous returned.

She pulled her knees close to her body and wrapped her arms around them as she watched me, a slight frown creasing her brow between her eyes. “You’re not going to run away from all of this and leave Lexie and me behind, are you?”

I shook my head. “I just wanted to see how closely watched we are. If it would be easy to sneak out and go for a stroll, or if they’d spot us and bring us back immediately.” I sighed and sat back from the ledge. “See if it’d be easy or hard to escape in the future if we need to.” There was no way back up that I could see. Peyton moved beside me, slipping over the edge of the roof and dropping down quietly. “What are you doing?” I hissed at her.

“Going for a walk,” she said, her voice a loud whisper.

“There’s no way back up here!” She shrugged, not concerned in the slightest, and started to make her way down to the alley entrance.

Annoyed, I slipped over the edge of the roof, carefully dropping to the ground. I hurried to catch up to her.

---

Whenever we rode with Raella in the wagon, we were given long lectures on the history of the Empire, starting with Lexie’s first ride immediately after leaving the University campus. Afterwards, Lexie made more of an effort at riding her horse.

Raella had a very no-nonsense and straightforward way of speaking, her voice an almost monotone as she relayed the details of their world. Antiquity was hard to pin down – over the course of thousands of years, so many documents and structures and items had deteriorated and no longer existed. The stories that did exist were as much myth as history. Because of the Primordial language, Raella and many other scholars had deduced that Elves had once been the sole inhabitants of the world before the gods arrived. Their stories say that when the gods came, they saw a beautiful and lush world with a thriving magical civilization, but decided to introduce their own creations anyway. The gods also brought the gift of divine magic – any person they favored, elf or otherwise, was given immensely powerful and rare magic as a sign of that favor and were called the Chosen. The gods also had personal Champions to represent them, individuals that were physically enhanced and had some degree of divine magic and protection, if not the same raw energy that a Chosen one had. Collectively, to be favored by a god was to be one of the Graces.

“So clerics and paladins,” I heard Peyton say at one point when she was riding near Raella’s side of the wagon. Raella gave her a curious look, obviously not understanding the reference, but said nothing to the statement. “Though… do the gods grant their powers to very many?”

“No. It was always a very rare thing, to be a Chosen or Champion of a god. Usually, the Graced were called in times of divine need.”

One of those instances of divine need rose many years ago, when an elven man had pushed his mortal magic to its very limits, and managed to raise himself to something very like divinity. The gods were offended by this, and several gave their favorites a mission: to destroy this individual. Unfortunately, he had become too strong, so all they could manage was sealing him away.

“And we’re here to reseal him?” I interrupted when I was hearing this lecture.

“Yes,” Raella answered simply.

“What was he like?” I asked.

She was silent for a long moment. “That was nearly 5000 years ago. No one really knows for sure. But from our understanding, he was a particularly vain and cruel individual. We suspect that he intended to challenge the gods themselves with his newfound power, to carve out his own domain amongst them.”

“Has anyone ever tried to free him instead of resealing him?”

Raella gave me a very sharp look. “Has he been speaking to you?” I shook my head. “Good. He will make promises to get you to release him. Do not trust them.” Then she continued with her lecture without answering my question.

Shortly after the threat was sealed, the gods stepped away from the world and no longer had a direct influence on it. Their favorites dwindled and disappeared until divine magic became a rarity. Their temples fell into disrepair as people realized the gods had abandoned them, and worship decreased until barely anyone could remember the names or domains of the divine.

Shortly after that time, the Elven empire began its conquest. First, they spread into the southern continent, the region where the dwarves lived, because of the vast mineral wealth of that area.

“Do the dwarves live in underground cities?” I had asked absently when Raella first mentioned them.

She had paused, glancing back at me from where she sat up next to Chase. “Lexie asked the very same thing. Where does that silly idea come from?”

“So they don’t,” I said. Strangely, I felt a little sad. The second I had heard about dwarves, I had immediately pictured massive underground structures hewn from the very Earth itself.

Raella shook her head. “No. They have expansive mining organizations, but they live above ground like everyone else. The only things that live underground… well. You won’t want to meet them.”

The Elves then spread across the western continent, where the humans lived in various tribes or smaller warring kingdoms. The entire conquest took nearly a thousand years to complete, the obsessive quest of a single family line intent on completing what the first Emperor had set out to do. The Empire was relatively peaceful for the next 2000 years, facing only the occasional rebellion or quelling the raids of remaining barbarian tribes that had resisted rule.

But then the first cracks of the Fracture had started. It began with individuals that had been cast out from the mainland Empire for their questionable magic practices and studies. Many were heavily judged for the ethics of their experiments, and moved out to the fringes of the Empire to continue their studies in peace. And since humans and dwarves were second class citizens in the Empire, they were targeted and used inhumanely in these experiments. “There was one mage that had turned an entire human village into a ravenous horde of undead. Another, not many years later, that specifically kidnapped human children. When the authorities finally listened to the appeals of their parents, they found that the children had been twisted into amorphous, acid spitting monsters. Other similar horrors were visited upon humans and dwarves alike, because the authorities were slow to take the concerns of those citizens seriously.”

The line of Emperors and Empresses had also become increasingly erratic over time. Some were obsessed with the building of great monuments, monuments that went unfinished whenever the Emperor that had started it died. Others were obsessed with further conquest, sometimes personally leading armadas across the sea, never to return. Some were bent on impossible missions, or were unreasonably cruel, or invested in the strange ethically questionable experiments of the fringe mages. A lot of them were assassinated or deposed, replaced with the next in line for succession.

The last Elven Emperor had been relatively harmless. He left the running of the Empire in more capable hands and spent his days wiving, whoring, and enjoying his wealth and influence. As a result, by the time of his death, he had several true born heirs and many bastards besides. When he died, there was a war of succession as his children each attempted to lay claim to the throne. And not just his children – other magistrates and nobles also made claims, if not for the entire Empire then for one small piece of it. “And that’s the Fracture,” I stated, remembering what I had heard about it before.

“Yes. It was a tumultuous time, and the Empire never truly reformed. The larger cities govern themselves, and offer protection to smaller villages or towns. We still present a unified front toward outside lands, and have collectively agreed to maintain isolation. However, in recent years, some trade and deliberation has been opened with the dwarves.” She paused for a moment, seeming to consider how much to explain, before elaborating. “It will be necessary to pass through dwarven mines to reach the seal. We knew, as the time neared, that it would be important to gain access at some point. Either through peaceful negotiation or war. Luckily, Master Zern and the ruler of Glyss, the city closest to that border, managed to push for peace.”

“So the seal is buried deep underground?” I asked.

“Yes,” Raella answered.

Great. Why did everyone always want to bury shit like this away?

---

The street wasn’t empty. There were individuals walking along it and a small group loitering in front of our inn, a little upset at having their business turned away. Peyton took a cautious glance around, then stepped out and started walking toward the center of town. I followed, ducking my head nervously. She glanced at me, an amused look on her face. “Lucas, just act like you belong. You’ll be fine.”

“Easy for the actor to say,” I grumbled, but attempted to straighten my posture and act like this was an everyday occurrence for me. Peyton grinned. “What if they notice we don’t have pointed ears?”

“Are you in the habit of staring at other peoples’ ears?”

“When they don’t look normal, yeah.” She shrugged, brushing off my concern.

The center of town was busier. It looked like a street market had recently cleared out, with a few stalls standing empty already, and a cart being loaded up with supplies as another stall owner prepared to shut down. There were two other stalls that appeared to be open though – both selling food. There were people settled on the rim of a circular fountain at the center of the square, and others closing up shops that lined some of the nearby streets. People called farewells and greetings to each other when they recognized someone.

“I wonder what kind of food they sell,” Peyton said.

I shrugged. “I didn’t bring any money. I was just going for a walk.”

She stepped over to the one with the shorter line. I frowned as I watched her. It wasn’t just that I hadn’t brought money – I also hadn’t been given any money. Still, she produced some coins from a pocket and brought back three paper packets. She handed one to me. “No one gave me any money,” I said.

She grinned at me. “No one gave me any money either.” She continued to walk, choosing a street seemingly at random to head down. I followed her slowly, investigating what she had handed me. It was some kind of fried bread, and when I bit into it there was a sweet cream and fruity jam filling it. It was delicious. I ate slowly as I trailed behind her.

When Peyton finished eating, she folded the paper carefully and slipped it into a pocket. She appeared to be saving the third packet for later, and I wondered if she planned to give it to Lexie. She slowed her pace so that we were walking next to each other. When she glanced up at me, I looked away. “Why do you always avoid me?” she asked finally.

I shrugged, and she raised an eyebrow at the noncommittal response. With a sigh, I finally said, “I guess you make me nervous.”

She smiled. “Yes, I’ve been told I have that effect on men.” I smirked, but said nothing. We continued walking in silence.

I had mostly let her choose the path, and I was starting to wonder if we had wandered too far when I saw that we were approaching the inn from a different direction. “So how are we going to get back in?” I asked. We returned to the alley where we had left, and I began to study the roof ledge and the surrounding area. I was thinking that I could boost her up to the ledge when Peyton walked straight up to the back door where the kitchen was at and tried the knob. It was locked. I leveled an ‘I told you so’ look at her when she shocked me by knocking.

After a moment, the barkeep opened the door a sliver, looking at us in surprise. Recognizing us, she opened the door to let us in. Peyton grabbed my hand suddenly and raised a finger to her lips, smiling in a charmingly sheepish fashion. She said, “Please don’t tell anyone we snuck out. We wanted to be alone.” And then she presented the third packet to the woman. The barkeep accepted the packet gratefully and nodded, smiling conspiratorially. As I passed her, she gave me an appraising look, and I felt my face begin to burn in embarrassment. We walked back into the common room, which was blessedly empty. Lexie must have gone to her room.

Peyton still held my hand, pulling me along after her up the stairs. At the top, she glanced around. Seeing no one nearby, she finally dropped my hand. “I guess now it’s just a waiting game to see if anyone noticed our little stroll.”

I nodded. “Yeah.” There was an awkward silence as my brain tried to think of something to say. “Thanks for the snack,” I finally managed, and without looking back, I went straight to my room. I flexed the hand that she had grabbed, frowning to myself as I stepped over to shut the window.