Betrayal's Love

Story By StormDancer

Prologue

Aaron lay awake in his tent, listening to the breathing of his tent mates, barely audible over the roar of the storm outside. He thought over the day, as was his wont, and sighed. He had hoped that he would have been able to win over Isha on this trip, away from the pressures of school, but she was not complying.

For a freshman trip, all of the ninth graders at his school had gone to Pathfinder Island for a bonding experience. The kids were not so optimistic. After driving through a storm to get there and then finding it already raining, most kids just wanted to get home to their computers and TV.

Aaron was not one of them. He loved nature, the underlying power. The raging fire and the burning sun, he was attracted to the magic and majesty of it all. He thought Isha felt the same. He had watched her walk through the woods with barely a sound, blue brown hair blending into the shadows of the forest. Watching her swim was like watching a dolphin, grace and power combining into one glorious being.

Aaron had pointed this out to Tom earlier. Tom had smiled condescendingly at him.

“I think that’s just you. You’re so obsessed with her that you think everything she does is magical,” Tom had pointed out. Aaron had had to agree, with the second part at least. Her cat grace made her every movement a wonder.

As he mused, Aaron slowly realized that the breathing in his tent had decreased by one body. Looking up, he saw that Tom had gone, probably to the bathroom. Aaron sighed. Why couldn’t it have turned out Tom had actually gone to an elven meeting in a faerie circle? Aaron thirsted for a hint of the mystical in the monotony of his everyday life.

A piercing voice cut through his dream. The beauty of the voice, blending in and around the storm, woke Aaron from his half sleep. It twined through his mind, awing him with its beauty. As a musician, Aaron appreciated the song. As a boy looking for an escape from normalcy, he yearned for it with every fiber in his being. It seemed to express all the magic in the world.

Aaron threw off his sleeping bag and stood. He needed to see who (or what) was singing. He looked at the other boys in his tent, but they were all fast asleep, except Tom, who still had not returned. Aaron pulled a sweatshirt over the t-shirt and sweats he had been sleeping in and slipped quietly out of the tent, his bare feet moving noiselessly over the dirt floor.

As Aaron walked into the forest, two cloaked figures, one tall and muscular the other hunched and gnarled, looked after him. “He went,” said the taller one.

“Good,” replied the hunched one, “now let us see if all goes according to plan.” They disappeared into the gloom.

Aaron followed the voice blindly, moving through the woods with the ease, not knowing where he was going except for a sixth sense, which warned him of trees and such that were in his way. Finally, he stopped. He had come to the source of the voice.

Aaron looked up. He was on the shore of the lake. But he was not alone. Three beings danced in the lightning’s glare, dancing to the song which went on and on. One figure was in the air, dodging lightning bolts in the way of birds, flitting this way and that. One was on the land, a solid, slow dance, powerful but subtle. The third being was underwater, changing from a slow, steady dance to one with a wild abandon and back in moments.

When Aaron stepped out from the shadow of the trees, all three stopped. They considered him for a moment, and then all three moved to the land in front of him; walking, flying, or rising out of the water. Now that Aaron could see them clearly, they all looked humanoid, but their faces were shadowed. The three considered the one, and then spoke.

“How did you get pass the wards?” The beauty of the water being’s voice smote Aaron to the heart.

“Wards? W-W-What wards?” Aaron managed to stammer out, awed by the magic in the air.

“You don’t know?” asked the one from the air.

“He’s mortal,” said the one from land in amazement.

The first being held up a hand to stop the other two. She grabbed Aaron’s chin and looked him in the eye. Aaron managed to meet the sea green eyes, but barely. There was power in those eyes, the age old power of Venus and the power of pure magic.

She let go suddenly, and backed away a few steps, then bowed, the bow of an equal. “Welcome, Arzonei.”

Aaron looked at her in blank confusion.

“You don’t know? How can you not know?” She asked, amazed.

The earth boy smiled “You didn’t know once too. Remember?”

“Shut up,” the water girl replied, moving to hit him mockingly. The boy dodged.

Aaron finally found his voice. “Who are you?” He asked. They reminded him of someone, but he did not know who.

All three of the mysterious beings looked at each other, than at him. “Do you really want to know?” asked the air being.

“Yes”

The air boy gestured, and a white light appeared next to them, throwing the being’s faces into high relief. They revealed faces that Aaron did not expect.

“Isha? Tom? Rick? What are you guys doing,” He was suddenly suspicious, “Is this some elaborate joke?”

“No such luck,” said the air boy, Tom, “We’re real.”

“Than what are you?” Aaron managed to say, nearly pleading. This was magic in his life with a vengeance.

Isha looked at him seriously, “We go by many names. We are the faerie, the nymphs, the Wild Folk, the hill folk. We are the Elves, and you are one of us.”

Aaron stared at her in astonishment, “I’m not an elf. I can’t do magic.”

Tom laughed then threw something at him, a bolt of white fire. Unconsciously, Aaron blocked, shielding himself. The bolt dissipated on the red orange shield. “You can’t do magic. Right”

“But Tom, How can I deal with this? Tell my parents?”

Tom stopped his rant by hitting him on the side of the head. Aaron hit him back. Tom stuck out his tongue, and then replied, “First of all, I’m not Tom. My real name is Tamton, but you can call me Tam.” He gestured to Rick, “He is Ricorus, call him Cor. And she is Ishfael, but still call her Isha. Those are our true names, just as yours is Arzonei,” He paused in thought, “We’ll call you Arzo. And you aren’t going to tell anybody. We have to keep who we are secret.”

“Why?”

Cor responded to Aaron’s inquiry, ‘Everybody would want magic solutions. And that would make the blood mages come out of hiding, and that would be horrible.

“What are blood mages?”

“They draw their magic from the spilling of unwilling blood. They use torture and death to escalate their powers, and kill for the sheer joy of it. They are evil. They corrupt all who think to touch them. They draw innocents in and seduce them to blood magic,” For the first time, Aaron saw Isha angry. It was terrible.

Tam grinned, “Oh, what price power? You have to be handsome, live for millennia and get to kick evil’s butt. It’s horrible.”

Aaron laughed with rest, but suddenly what Tam had said hit him. “I’ll live for millennia. That means all my friends will die, and I’ll have to see.”

Isha smiled at him, “Not all. We will always be here. Watching the mortals live and die.” She gave him a quick hug. “You’ll get used to it.”

With that she jumped into the air, flying back toward the girl’s tent. Cor and Tam started to run back to the boy’s tents, shouting challenges. Aaron stayed behind, staring into the storm. “Arzonei,” He said out loud, testing the sound of it on his lips, “I like it.”

After the newly found elf had turned to run back to his tent, the cloaked figures watched him from outside the wards. “He has accepted power. Soon he will crave more” said the tall one

“The first step of the game has been played. The next move is ours.” With that, the two figures vanished. The storm raged on, eternal, immortal, and implacable.