Chương 76: Bound by Love

In the vast reaches of the elven kingdom, deep within the Forest of Truth, stood a tree of golden leaves, with golden apples hanging heavy from its boughs. It was said that whoever ate the apples would come to know the truth of the world. Some even said it would grant them a much longer lifespan. The tree had stood for centuries, and it was among the dearest treasures of the goddess Verdelia.

She had chosen that land to be her garden, and there she coaxed forth fruits and flowers of every kind; but her most prized possession, above all the rest, was that single tree. The elves called it Thíron Verdelia, or Verdelia's Shade, in the old elven tongue. When Verdelia first arrived into this world, she clothed the whole of the continent in green; vast, lush, and living. But she was a proud goddess, and pride demanded something that would leave all who beheld it in awe.

Forests alone, however beautiful, were not enough. So, she made Thíron Verdelia, the one and only tree of gold in all the world, and she gave it apples for its fruit, for the apple was her favorite. Yet a forest with no creatures to fill it was a forest without meaning. It was too quiet. In such stillness, a goddess could not truly make her presence felt. Verdelia, proud as she was, longed to be worshipped.

So she set about seeking creatures to inhabit her woods, appreciate the bountiful resources, and sing praises for her. The beasts were easy enough to gather, but worship required something more: minds of higher intellect, tongues capable of praise and prayer. And humans, of all the world's creatures, suited that purpose best. Verdelia harbored her doubts about them. She had heard grim things about humankind, that they were fond of war, greedy, cruel and barbaric.

Still, she resolved to watch them a while before passing judgment. And so she took on a disguise: a young human girl of astonishing beauty, and went to walk among them. She wandered from town to town, and everywhere she went, people fell helplessly for her. Merchants pressed their fortunes into her hands, begging only for a smile in return. Young men dueled one another in the streets for the mere chance to walk at her side, some drawing blood, a few never rising again.

Lords opened their gates to her and lavished her with silk and jewels and the finest rooms in their keeps, and then, one by one, revealed the truth beneath the courtesy: that their generosity was hunger dressed up as devotion, their worship nothing more than lust, and they would even abandon all their dignity to get something they so desperately wanted. Humans were unsightly. So Verdelia returned to her forest, and resolved that she would make worshippers of her own; creatures finer than humankind in every way.

More beautiful, cleverer, stronger, and, above all, ones who would love the green world as deeply as she did. From that resolve, the first elves were born. They lived in prosperity, blessed with long lives, and every single day they lifted their voices in praise of Verdelia. And for a long while, all was well. In time, the elven lands were given a name, Silvanis. The kingdom flourished.

Their numbers were never great, but the elves' skill alongside the forest's abundance of resources, soon raised them among the foremost kingdoms of the world. Most were content to remain within their borders. A few, however, chose to venture beyond them. But things did not stay smooth forever.

"Hurry up! We're almost there!" An elven girl with a blonde ponytail darted through the forest, pulling a boy along by the wrist. The boy was human, and his face was caught somewhere between excitement and worry.

"Farryn, are you sure this is all right? I mean, are humans even allowed in Silvanis?"

"There's no written rule against it, so I'm sure it's fine!" She flashed him a grin over her shoulder.

"And even if there is, a bit of pleading and an apology should smooth it over with the elder. It's not as though you're here to steal anything." Her grip on his wrist tightened.

"Besides, I want my boyfriend to see where I come from." She turned and smiled at him, bright and unguarded. He smiled back. When they reached a clearing, the girl told the boy to shut his eyes, and closed her own. Then she chanted.

"Suila ann'im, i men en Quelanor. Edro~" The boy felt the world shift beneath him, and then he felt the rest of it. The cooler air. The scent of the forest, deep and clean, threaded through with something faintly sweet. The steady warmth of the girl's hand, still wrapped around his wrist through all of it. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"You can open your eyes now," she said. He did, and found himself in a different forest entirely. The girl tugged him onward, and as they broke free of the treeline, he saw it. Sunlight poured down over a city of clean white stone, its towers and walls threaded through with living vines, the buildings rising gracefully among the trees as though they'd grown there rather than been built. It was simple, and it was grand, and it was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"Welcome to Silvanis, Adlon." Despite the occasional glance thrown their way, no one paid the human boy much mind, and so the two of them wandered freely through the public quarters of Silvanis, Farryn leading, eager to show Adlon every wonder her home had to offer. She pulled him to a food stall, where a vendor was folding some translucent batter over a filling that shimmered faintly gold. Farryn bought one and pressed it into his hands, watching his face with anticipation.

Adlon took a bite, and his eyes went wide. It was sweet, and Farryn laughed at his expression. She immediately bought a second before he'd even finished the first. They drifted past stalls strung with charms and carvings, little trinkets of polished wood and pretty stones. Farryn stopped at one hung with small woven tokens and plucked one free; a delicate thing, two loops of silver thread bound together at the center.

"A love charm," she said, tying it to his wrist before he could protest.

"So you don't forget me the moment you're home."

"As if I could," Adlon murmured, and she pretended not to hear, though the color rose in her cheeks, and he could see it. They walked a bit more, and Adlon stopped at a certain stall; a jeweler's. At the jeweler's table sat a ring; nothing grand, one with a single small pale green stone. By elven standards it was cheap, but Adlon knew, without asking, what a thing like that would cost him. It would probably cost more than he was likely to have for a long while.

He looked at it a moment too long before catching himself and moving to walk on. Farryn had noticed it. She followed his gaze to the ring, then to his face, and something in her softened. She stepped in close, slid her fingers between his, and laced their hands together.

"I don't need any of it." She squeezed his hand.

"I've got you. That's all I've ever needed." Adlon looked at her, and for a moment couldn't find anything to say at all. The couple eventually settled beneath a white canopy in one of the parks, though to Adlon, the whole of Silvanis looked like one continuous park. He still had the love charm knotted around his wrist, and he caught himself touching it, again and again. Farryn, being so deeply in love, noticed.

"Do you know what that symbol is?" she asked.

"The charm?" Adlon lifted his wrist.

"Come on, I'm not that hopeless, Farryn. It's an infinity symbol."

"Well... no."

"What? It's clearly an infinity symbol. It's a sideways eight."

"Infinity symbols have two loops of a different size." She traced it with a fingertip.

"This one…see? They're both the same size" Adlon frowned at it, squinting.

"Really? Infinity has different sized loops?" Farryn nodded, then took his hand, turning it gently so the charm caught the light.

"We call this the Heartbound. A twofold knot. Two lives, bound to one another, but never consumed by one another. Separate, and yet together."

"O-oh." Adlon's throat worked.

"That's—""Beautiful, isn't it?" She smiled.

"It's like us! An elf and a human. Different, treated by most of the world as though we could never belong to each other. And yet here we are. Together." Adlon's eyes went bright and glassy.

"Oh no, is crybaby Adlon tearing up?"

"Wha— no!" He scrubbed at his face.

"I just... appreciate what you've done. For me." He swallowed.

"I swear it, Farryn. I'll give you the life you deserve." Farryn's smile turned soft.

"You're already more than I deserve, Adlon." And she leaned her head against his shoulder. For a while, neither of them spoke. There was a quiet between them, and a contentment in it. But underneath, as there had been from the very first day, was an unspoken fear. Not the difference in their races. Not the whispers, the disapproval, the ordinary obstacles set in their path. Something they could not defeat, no matter what they did. Time. It was the reason there had been almost no elf-human couples.

An elf might live for thousands of years. A human, a hundred at the very most. No one could bear the heartbreak waiting at the end of such a thing, and the humans, more often than not, were the ones to end it, thinking it too cruel to leave their elven partner behind for centuries of grief. That fear had been gnawing at Farryn and Adlon for years now. They'd tried to reason it away, to lay it to rest. Farryn had sworn she would never take another after Adlon was gone, but that only deepened Adlon's guilt.

The thought of chaining the girl he loved to his memory, of stealing centuries of her long life in the name of loyalty. Farryn, for her part, simply did not want Adlon to die. Part of the reason she'd brought him here at all was that she wanted him to see her true home before it was too late. She hadn't needed to. She could have simply married him and made a life somewhere beyond Silvanis, far from the elders and their rules. But there was another reason.

One that might, just might, let them beat the thing they couldn't beat. A legend, and if the legend was wrong, then at least she'd have tried.

"Hey... Adlon?" Farryn said, her head still resting on his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever heard of the Golden Apple?"