"Knife-ears, Knife-ears!" The children ran around the street shouting the name over and over again, laughing amongst themselves as Allisa walked past them, her armour clanking with every step. Allisa scowled at the little humans but she didn't dare do anything else.
Were this Severterzem, her home, even the youngest of children would bow their heads when a noble such as Allisa walked by. Proper respect was ingrained within the dark elf culture, but clearly humans lacked the same values.
She continued through the human city of Elswick, head held high, moving from the lowly inn that the Bishop had housed her in (an insult, for sure) toward the Bishop's keep.
The human children soon got bored of their game and disappeared, but the older humans didn't disguise their looks. For the women, their gazes were disgusted, as humans and elves had no love for each other. For the men, some were disgusted, of course, but others had different expressions. Allisa felt their eyes roaming her body, moving across her ebony skin and along her ample cleavage, which the metal plates of her armour didn't quite cover.
She gritted her teeth and stalked past them, trying her best to avoid the humiliating experience. The Bishop's tower was near the center of town, and she was forced to wait on the guards at the gate, who refused her entry until she could produce her credentials.
When the Alliance formed a peace treaty with the dark elves, or drow, after a slaughter that left one out of every three elves dead in the caves of their underground home, some drow were sent as envoys to human cities to broker trade deals. Allisa hated every minute of it, but her duty to her people demanded it, and so she was forced to endure humiliation after humiliation. She would have presented her terms of when she arrived yesterday, had the Bishop agreed to meet her, but apparently the woman was too busy.
The guards finally granted her access to the Bishop's tower, and once inside the servants directed her to the top floor. There they knocked respectfully on the door and when they heard the female voice call "enter" they bowed and left Allisa to the task.
She opened the door and stepped inside a large study, feet finding cushy carpet, and stopped for a moment, confused. Elswick was to be her second human city to deliver terms to, and the first Bishop's office had been quite familiar to her. Lord Jaston was a no-nonsense man who kept his office as he kept his house: clean, functional, and without adornment, like the elves did. There wasn't even a single piece of religious adornment on the walls; the title of "Bishop" was more functional than anything, a kind of human town leader.
This Bishop, though, was something else altogether: instead of empty walls or plain tables and chairs, the room was filled with beautiful flowers and green plants. The carpet was adorned with golden designs of diamonds, the walls were covered with tapestries of human battles, and an enormous desk dominated the room, built of a dark, rich mahogany that was inlaid with gold leaf. Behind it sat a woman, staring at her.
"Allisa Norfina?" The woman asked. Allisa narrowed her eyes. The human woman was brown-skinned, the shade of a southerner, which was, to her eyes, more acceptable than the pale-skinned ones. However, to Allisa, the creature was woefully lacking. To elves, the pointed tips of the ears were considered extremely beautiful, as was a large bust, which Allisa had in spades. This human, however, displayed her rounded tips proudly with her hairstyle which had her long hair brushed back, and had a chest so small you could use it as a washboard. She couldn't have been more than twenty-six or twenty-seven, no more than a child in drow years.
"Bishop," Allisa said stiffly.
"Call me Sera," the woman said, smiling. "Please, sit."
Allisa approached the desk, drew a piece of paper from the folds of her armour, placed it on the desk and sat down in the chair. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the Bishop—Sera—until the woman picked up the paper.
"Ah, yes, the terms," Sera said, reading the paper. For a few minutes she scanned the thing thoroughly, tapping one finger against the wood of the desk. Then she put the paper down and looked up again.
"I'm sorry. I can't agree to these."
"What?" Allisa sat forward. She snatched the paper and stared accusingly at the woman. "What parts of the terms do you disagree with? Lord Jaston was more than willing to accept everything."
"It's just... well, do you know much of the study of herbology?"
Allisa narrowed her eyes. "What do plants have to do with this?"
"I learned some of it from my grandmother when I was a child. In the document you have presented me, one of the demands for trade from the elves is the regular supply of Wenscat mushrooms."
"So?"
"Wenscat is a local name for "white bane", a mushroom that is used to create drow paralysis poison. Surely you know this."
Allisa gritted her teeth. She knew, of course: every mature drow could craft the poison, which they used on their crossbows to great effect during combat. She even knew the local names. No doubt the drow nobles believed the lords that signed the terms of the agreements would not know the connection and sought to exploit the weakness in typical drow form.
"If you cannot accept the terms of the trade then I have to return to our homelands," Allisa grunted, not pleased with the prospect of returning home only to embark once more through human lands.
"Such a shame. What's more, should I choose to notify King Mathias, then I cannot bring myself to imagine what would occur as a result." Sera grinned and relaxed back in her chair as Allisa stared wide-eyed in shock. "To think that the elves would try to deceive the humans immediately after the peace treaty, well... I would not be surprised if the King tore up the treaty altogether. Clearly you can't be trusted."
"Don't be ridiculous," Allisa snapped. "It must have been an oversight! I will make sure it is corrected. I will speak to the nobles myself and explain to them..."
"It doesn't matter that it is corrected, what matters is it happened."
Allisa's blood froze at the self-satisfied smile that was presented to her. The humans bred too fast for any kind of war. Conflict would mean the end of her species.
"What can I do?" Allisa asked desperately.
"Leave. Goodbye. I will do my duty and inform the necessary parties. What happens from here on is down to how Mathias would see this, let's call it as it is, backstabbing."
