Chapter 1244: Life Roots & The Dying Elves... Ultimate Sacrifice!

For the first time that night, genuine shock broke through her exhaustion.

He knew; Maxtons had never known and Heavenchilds had never understood either; there were indeed several rare Elven races, yet none had recognized precisely what she was.

This stranger had needed one single glance.

Phei rose and turned toward the High Elf, offering a respectful inclination of his head and a greeting befitting ancient Elven nobility, though without the reverence he had shown their leader. The Moon Elf received a similarly courteous acknowledgement, followed by the Forest Elf, whose dying wooden crown earned a longer look from Phei than he appeared comfortable with.

Then he reached the Flower Elf and Phei knelt again on one knee.

The young woman watched him uncertainly as his fingers moved toward the silver flowers woven through her dark-green hair... he touched one dead blossom gently.

Life rushed through it and the flower shivered beneath his fingertip.

Its blackened stem turned green, color raced through the curled petals and silver brilliance returned until the little blossom opened fully within her hair, more vibrant than it had been before captivity. Life travelled outward, touching the other flowers one after another before spreading into the Elf herself.

Her dull hair regained some of its rich color, and the Flower Elf released a tiny, involuntary smile when the fragrance of living blossoms returned around her.

Phei smiled back.

Then he looked at the chains... his expression cooled and the celestial grade restraints snapped.

Every chain in the cavern had broke that same instant and what had been forged to restrain World Transcendents cracked around wrists, throats and ankles beneath the weight of his gaze alone, falling to the stone in pieces before the five Elves had enough time to realize they were no longer bound.

The Origin Elf stared at her bare wrists.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Freedom had arrived so abruptly that their bodies seemed unsure what to do with it.

Phei returned to the Flower Elf and rested a hand upon her shoulder.

Healing Touch flowed in her but then vanished.

His eyes narrowed.

He tried again, sending a richer current of healing essence through her body. The power entered, spread toward the depths of her vitality and was immediately swallowed by something damaged far beneath flesh and meridians.

The Flower Elf weakened instead of recovering.

Phei withdrew his hand. His expression became murderous.

{The bastards. What did they do to you?}

He turned toward the others and examined them more carefully. The same wound existed inside every one.

Their Life Roots were dying.

The Origin Elf slowly pushed herself to her feet, needing the wall for support before pride made her straighten anyway.

"We are children of living and the most purest realms," she said weakly. Her voice possessed a natural clarity even now, soft but carrying the old dignity. "Our purity is bound deeply to the life of our home realm but distance alone far from home does not kill us, but after prolonged separation to the core of our realms, repeated suppression and the draining of our essence..."

Her woodland-blue eyes moved toward the broken chains.

"They used us to open the Void." The High Elf’s jaw tightened. "The summoning consumed what remained of our Life Roots."

The Origin Elf nodded. "Each time they drew upon our essence and made us connected to the creatures of the Void and summoning them Eternal Prison Gates still fed upon our Life Roots as the consequences of our action. The Eternal Prison are unforgiving. We were already too far from home to replenish what was taken."

"We are dying," the Origin Elf said.

Phei’s gaze hardened.

She continued before he could answer. "Even if you free us, there may no longer be enough left to save. Healing us is useless if the root from which that life grows has already..."

(I can help.)

Phei’s eyes shifted; the High Elf had not moved his lips but his voice had entered Phei’s mind alone.

Phei looked at him.

The High Elf held his gaze, and beneath the exhaustion there was an unsettling calm.

(Her Ladyship will never agree if I say it openly. My Life Root still carries enough purity to rebuild hers. Once hers has been restored, your healing should be able to nourish her again, but she will resist me. You will have to restrain her.)

Phei’s expression did not change.

(I know what I am asking of you. I know you may consider such a method dishonorable, but I cannot watch her die merely so my conscience remains clean in my inevitable death...)

Phei’s answer entered in his mind immediately.

{Don’t worry. I’m nowhere near as righteous as you apparently think I am.}

The High Elf blinked.

Phei’s invisible smile reached his thoughts: {Do it.}

The exchange had consumed perhaps two seconds before the Origin Elf suddenly froze.

Her woodland-blue eyes widened as every part of her body ceased answering her.

"What..." The High Elf was already moving and placed one palm over the center of her back.

She understood immediately: "NO!"

Golden essence erupted from him.

It was beautiful.

The High Elf’s fading body brightened from within as something far deeper Phei’s healing essence began leaving him. Golden threads emerged through his palm, delicate at first before becoming a broad stream of luminous life force so pure that entered the Origin Elf’s body and descended directly toward her withered Life Root.

Her eyes flew wide.

"NO! STOP!"

Phei sighed and silenced her mouth with a thought.

The Origin Elf glared at him with such fury that under less tragic circumstances he might have found it impressive.

{Sorry, Your Ladyship.}

The High Elf’s face had already begun paling.

"My Lady," he whispered, keeping his palm against her while golden essence continued leaving him, "forgive me."

Tears gathered immediately in the Origin Elf’s woodland-blue eyes.

The High Elf smiled.

"I knew you would refuse. You have spent too long placing yourself behind us whenever danger came, as though being our leader means you must always be the first to bleed. Perhaps that is noble. Perhaps it is merely another form of arrogance."

Her eyes burned at him... his smile became gentler.

"My soul would never rest if I died in this prison knowing I allowed you to die with me simply because you were too stubborn to accept the life willingly offered to you."

The golden current thickened.

Something within the Origin Elf changed.

Her Life Root, shriveled and began healing, fine golden pure essence wrapped around the deadened Root.

The High Elf swayed.. his companions understood.

The Flower Elf made a strangled sound but Moon Elf moved first.

His stepped toward the High Elf but then stopped; his body was locked in place.

Phei had seen the intention in his eyes; the Flower Elf tried next, gathering the little strength she possessed as though preparing to throw herself between the two but s he froze beside the Moon Elf.

Their lips were sealed before either could protest.

The Origin Elf could only watch.

Three pairs of furious, tear-filled eyes turned toward Phei.

He exhaled softly.

{You righteous Elves can be exhausting sometimes you know? What exactly would be accomplished by all five of you dying beautifully together? Is that some sacred Elven tradition I haven’t been informed about?}

The resistance in their eyes sharpened.

{Someone can save you, yet you’d rather throw yourselves after the first person willing to sacrifice himself for you just so you could all die together? That’s not nobility. That’s suicide with better manners.}

The Forest Elf laughed weakly and everyone looked toward him.

He had pushed himself from the wall.

The final green leaf upon his wooden crown trembled as he walked toward the Moon Elf and Flower Elf.

"My Lady," he said to the Origin Elf, "forgive me as well."

Her eyes widened further.

The Forest Elf placed one hand upon the Moon Elf’s shoulder and the other upon the Flower Elf.

His dying crown brightened and green-gold light spread through its blackened branches, giving them one final imitation of spring before the same light began flowing down his arms and entering the two women.

His Life Root was already ruined.

Phei could see that clearly now.

The Forest Elf had never possessed a realistic path to survival. Whatever the summoning had taken from him had gone too far, leaving only fragments of his root feeding a body already beginning to die.

He knew it too.

"I was finished before he arrived," the Forest Elf said quietly. "Perhaps I could survive days. Perhaps weeks if someone continuously fed me treasures. What would be the point?"

His gaze moved between the woman and the Moon Efl he was touching: "This is better."

The Flower Elf shook her head violently despite being unable to move anything else.

The Moon Elf’s tears fell silently.

The Forest Elf smiled at them: "Don’t look at me that way. It makes dying unnecessarily awkward."

For a moment, even the Origin Elf’s grief cracked beneath that familiar old humor.

The High Elf removed his hand from her.

The golden flow ended, he stumbled backward.

Phei caught him before he fell.

The Origin Elf’s Life Root was whole enough now but not healed.

Although whole enough to be healed by Phei.

The High Elf looked toward the Forest Elf and immediately understood the remaining problem.

One dying Life Root could not restore two others alone.

He gently pulled away from Phei.

"You’ve already given enough," the Origin Elf tried to say, but her lips remained sealed.

The High Elf could read it in her eyes anyway.

He smiled and walked toward his old companion.

The Forest Elf looked at him and gave the faintest shake of his head.

"You could still..."

"No." The High Elf placed his hands upon the Flower Elf and Moon Elf beside the Forest Elf’s.

The last of his golden life joined the green-gold stream; together, the two males poured what remained of themselves into the younger roots.