I hate my mother. She goes out of her way to ruin my life. It was bad enough that I had to live with her in Dewa among all the filthy races. I could have lived with my father at the capital among elves, but no I had to stay with her. Now it's even worse. Mom's taking me to the Woods of Pakona. They should be named the backwoods of Pakona because they're so far away from any culture or society. At least only elves live there. I swear I'll scream if I have to put up with any more humans, but the Pakona elves are the dullest in the entire kingdom. All they do is study, study, study and never put their arts to any use until they've read every book on the subject ever written. Even the most mundane of tasks like sweeping floors or picking flowers, has tome upon tome written about it. They study them and then practice them to the point that they can do whatever task it is with unearthly grace and precision. Then, once they've done task, it gets even worse. They go and discuss their work for hours. They'll drone on and on about the right way to dig a hole and how close they were to achieving perfection while I sit there bored to tears.
So I dreaded every step of the journey between our house in Dewa and the Ebony Keep in Pakona. With her condition, Mom sat in the wagon the whole way. I walked the entire journey with her retinue. My feet were sore, but at least I was away from her. She didn't take the hint and still tried to have a nice mother-daughter chat every evening over dinner; as if we were a real family. I hated every single moment of that. I came to dread the evenings as much as I dreaded arriving at Pakona. I was miserable the whole way and all because of mom.
After several days journey we came to the Ebony Keep. It's called that because all the exterior walls are made out of lacquered ebony wood. Like everything else in Pakona it's perfect. The walls are so finely crafted that you can't see a seam or crack anywhere, and they polish it every single day so it gleams in the sun. The elves there will go outside to watch the sunset play upon its walls and towers. They even write poems about it. I can't think of anything more boring than that. The keep is gorgeous, but Corellon Larethian do these elves take things too far.
When we arrived at the keep mom immediately abandoned me to talk to the lord of the keep. I was sent to play with the little elflings. That annoys me to no end and she always does it. It's like being sat at the elfling table at feasts. I'm not an elfling, I'm nearly 120 years old. I should be presented to the lord like an adult. Instead I was marched off to see Princess Violet. I'd met her before a few times when I was an elfling. She was about my age and every bit as dull as the rest of the elves here. I wasn't at all surprised to find her reading a book when I entered her chamber. She put it down quickly when she heard me come in and I didn't get a chance to see the title, but it was probably about the perfect technique for blinking. She stood up from her window seat and bowed with the perfect degree of respect due to my age and station then said "Welcome, young Lady Mystal to the Ebony Keep."
"Thank you most generously, Princess Violet," I responded automatically as I bowed. Well, what can I say? All elves strive for perfect manners. I didn't take it as far as she did, which is why I was surprised when she stared at me. She knew better than that. She saw me notice, blushed a little and said. "Forgive me for staring but I could not help but wonder if you are entirely elvish."
I rolled my eyes. As always mom's reputation preceded her and I was the one who suffered. Ever since I was little I heard the servants whisper that mom would jump on any human male she saw. Women she knew snickered behind her back and gossiped furiously when they thought I was out of ear-shot. All my age-mates called her a "Human loving slut." Even here in this backwoods everyone had heard of her perversions.
"Yes, I'm all elf," I replied in a curt tone. I made no secret that I was peeved by such a question.
"Oh," she replied. To my surprise she sounded disappointed. "I was hoping that you'd be, well..." she stammered. We've known each other for almost a century; she had to know that I wasn't at all human. I was trying not to get mad as she continued on in her flustered speech, "I mean you look elvish and all but it's just that human's have such passion and I was hoping..."
"That's one way to put it," I replied. She probably never saw a human if she'd say something like that. Humans are awkward, ugly and forever drooling over elvish women. That was their passion.
"I meant no offense. In the past few years I have found myself becoming tired of elves. Everything we do is extraordinary, but everything we do is safe. Our works are perfect, but they lack genius."
"You sound just like my mom," I replied.
"Is that a bad thing?" Violet asked. "After all she is your mother."
"Mother or not she's put me through the depths of Baator. All the children in Dewa would say I was half-human. They used to sing little songs about it to me."
"I am sorry Siara, I did not know. I did not mean to insinuate anything."
She really did look ashamed. Maybe I had over done it, but once I get to talking about my mom it's hard for me to stop. "And all the women of our house treat her coldly," I continued. Not that mom cared. If she did she wouldn't sleep around with humans. At least for the sake of house Mystal I would hope she had some decency, but I might as well hope for wings.
"Yet she looks content. I saw her walk through the court from here," Violet pointed at her window seat. "I do not think I've ever seen an elf woman look so happy. Elfling girls have that sort of infectious glee, but not grown women."
"That's because mom has no shame. Every century she takes a new human lover. This one knocks her up and she's all but singing with joy. I'm going to have an ugly half-breed sibling and she couldn't care less about that. She's even leaving the elf lands to go to his family's estates. Well good riddance, I say. At least I'll be away from her. I'll bet your mother doesn't behave that way."
"No, mother never speaks to humans at all. She never speaks to male elves either; not even to father."
"See she's perfectly respectable," I said with a definite nod.
"She is, but mother is often cranky, like many elf woman." She paused and looked at me strangely then asked, "Do you have someone special?"
That came out of the blue. "No," I replied without even thinking. Maybe I should have kept some mystery about my love life, but I'd never even had a boy who was interested in me. "Most of the boys my age are more interested in each other."