Ashinji Sakehera sat down opposite Magnes and held out a wooden bowl and cup. “Cold rations, I am afraid. No one in my company likes to cook,” he explained, smiling ruefully. Magnes took the proffered food with a word of thanks. The bowl contained a round cake of some kind and a hunk of pale yellow cheese. He sipped cautiously at the brimming liquid in the cup and discovered it to be beer, and quite good. He took a bite of the cake and smiled in pleasant surprise. It was delicious, and he eagerly crammed another large bite into his mouth. He looked up to see the young elf lord laughing.
“ What is this? It’s wonderful,” he said, chewing enthusiastically.
“ It is journeycake. There are many ways to make it, but this particular batch is made of oats, dried venison, elderberries, and sweetened with a little honey. My mother’s recipe. I am glad you like it. We have more, if you want.”
Magnes washed down the cake with a swig of the excellent beer. As he ate, he surreptitiously studied the face of his host. These were the first full-blooded elves he had ever seen, and he found himself completely fascinated by them. He had always heard that they were extraordinarily beautiful, and now he saw with his own eyes that that particular rumor, at least, was true. Being no astute judge of male attractiveness, nevertheless, even Magnes could see that the elves’ young leader stood out, even among so comely a group.
Magnes estimated Ashinji’s age to be somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years although he couldn’t be sure; he knew that elves had a much longer life span than did humans. The elf lord moved with the fluid grace of a forest cat and his hair, worn in a long queue down his back, shone like gold in the firelight. Magnes couldn’t help but admire the graceful lines of the other man’s ears-like Jelena’s, except sharper at their tips. A strange, uncomfortable rush of emotion caused Magnes to lower his eyes, worried that the elf would witness his confusion. He took a deep breath to slow his racing heart and drained his cup in one gulp.
Through sheer force of will, he made himself look at Lord Ashinji’s face again. The other man seemed unaware of Magnes’s inner turmoil. He, too, sipped at a mug of beer and chewed a mouthful journeycake, but his eyes were on Jelena, and Magnes was startled at the intensity of his gaze.
Magnes cleared his throat, and the other man looked up inquiringly. “Your knowledge of Soldaran is excellent, Lord Ashinji,” he commented, and silently gave thanks to the gods for keeping his voice steady.
“ Does that surprise you?” the elf asked, one eyebrow arching upwards in amusement.
“ There will be many things about your people that are going to surprise me, I think,” Magnes answered.
“ Most people here in the borderlands know a little Soldaran, but I am a bit of an amateur scholar in my free time,” Ashinji explained. “I am fluent in your language so that I may study your great mathematicians.”
Magnes nodded, impressed.
Just then, the much older man, whom Magnes surmised to be Lord Ashinji’s second-in-command, walked up and spoke to his lord. He carried a helmet in his hands.
Ashinji, smiling, reached up and took the helmet from the other man. He spoke a few words and waved his hand in dismissal. “Gendan found my helmet, finally. I was afraid I would have to go searching for it first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, switching back into Soldaran. He laid the helmet down beside him and fixed his brilliant green eyes upon Magnes. “Now, Magnes Preseren. Tell me who you really are, and what you and your cousin are doing out here so far from Amsara Castle.” The look on his face told Magnes that he would brook no more evasion.
“ I didn’t lie to you, Lord Ashinji. I just… failed to tell you the entire truth, but I felt justified in holding back until I could figure out what your intentions were. You must admit that our meeting was not exactly under ideal circumstances. Your people attacked my cousin and me. How was I to know that you weren’t going to kill us later on?”
“ Point taken. Go on.”
“ My name really is Magnes Preseren, but I’m not one of the duke’s retainers. I’m his son… his Heir, in fact. My cousin Jelena is the daughter of my father’s dead sister.”
Ashinji’s eyes widened slightly at this revelation, and he glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping form of Jelena. “Why would two noble-born humans disguise themselves as servants and flee their home? Why did you come here, rather than go somewhere else in the Empire? Did you lose your way and wander this close to the border by accident?” The elf lord seemed genuinely puzzled, yet, there was a probing quality to his questions, as if he were seeking information of the utmost importance.
“ It’s a long and complex story,” Magnes sighed. “It could hardly have escaped your notice that my cousin is a half-elf. Her mother had a liaison with one of your people and suffered mightily for it. The family disowned her, and she died giving birth to Jelena. My father refused to accept his sister’s bastard as a member of his house and so allowed my cousin to be raised in the servants’ hall. She’s lived her whole life as an outsider, despised and abused by most everyone at Amsara.”
“ Everyone, except you,” Ashinji interjected.
“ Yes, and Claudia, the woman who raised her. The two of us have always been Jelena’s protectors.”
“ Are all bastard children treated with such contempt among humans?” Ashinji asked.
“ No, they are not. Jelena was singled out because of her sire.” Magnes paused briefly before continuing. “It shames me to tell you this, but from early childhood, when we Soldarans learn about our religion from the priests and our parents, we are taught that your people-the elves-are the spawn of demons. Elves have no souls and are therefore accursed, doomed never to know the love and light of the gods. Any human who would willingly consort with a demon is despoiled, and the offspring of that union is itself a soulless, accursed creature.” He chuckled humorlessly. “This, Lord Ashinji, is the world my beautiful, kind, loving cousin has lived in.”
“ Please, you may call me Ashinji, for we are both of the same rank, it seems,” the elf insisted. “Why is it that you believe differently, Magnes Preseren? You, who are the son and Heir of a duke?”
Magnes shrugged. “I’ve always been different. I could never accept that the girl I grew up with, played with, loved as a sister, was anything less than a complete being, with a warm, loving soul. It was all just ignorance and superstition, and it always infuriated me.”
“ We elves are not without prejudice,” Ashinji admitted. “Take my captain, Gendan Miri, as an example. He is typical in his attitude toward humans. Oh, he acknowledges that you humans are intelligent and good at many things, but he believes that elves are more evolved… superior, in fact. In Alasiri, we have people of mixed blood- hikui we call them-who live among us… not many, but a significant number. I am sorry to say that they suffer legal discrimination, in many aspects of life, but they are not generally despised or abused. If Jelena had been born in my country, she would have had a much better life.” He poked at the fire with a long stick, sending a cloud of bright sparks whirling up into the night sky. “Out here on the frontier, things are looser, more tolerant,” he continued. “There are a lot of people living out here with a human or two in their family trees.”
“ How do you feel about humans and… hikui? ” Magnes asked slowly.
Ashinji regarded him thoughtfully for several moments, as if trying to decide just exactly how to frame his response. Magnes found himself growing uncomfortably warm under that brilliant, green gaze. “I have never spoken to a human before I met you. I, too, grew up with certain ideas about your people that I have never really questioned until now. I am revising my opinion even as we speak. As for how I feel about those of mixed race, I have always felt that they should have the same rights under the law as any okui , our word for pureblood.”