Unlocking Potential

Two weeks pass quickly, and I stand with Luke in front of five Elves, including Elau for their first lesson. For some reason Luke and I were elected to teach the class and although I strongly dislike speaking to a crowd, even a small one, I graciously accepted the position. I smile at my bug eyed students. “Thank you for coming, I am Niccola and this is Luke and we will be guiding you through these three human culture lessons.” I introduce both of us to the group.

“We will be starting with basic human pleasantries.” Luke adds, “You may know some of this already but bear with us and we will move on to more interesting topics.” He flips open his notes.

“I am going to cover formal and informal introductions, how to greet Royalty, and Rules to follow when dining with the Royal Family, and then we will break for lunch.” I explain

“After lunch we will move on to common behaviors of humans, the appropriate uses of please, thank you, and sorry, and do a brief introduction on the impoverished class.” Luke says, exactly as we practiced and I smile to myself. This isn’t so bad. The day passes quickly and by dinner time the Elvish Ambassadors look overwhelmed with information.

“Now don’t worry about remembering everything, we will be doing a quick recap during the next class.” I assure them. “Why don’t we stop here and head to dinner?” I suggest and am answered with nodding heads. I roll up my notes and throw them in my satchel. When I look up, Luke and all of the Elfish Ambassadors are already scrambling down the hallway to the dining hall, and Elau is left waiting on me. He winks at me and I smile looking away.

“What a very interesting lesson!” Elau says walking up to me, “Everything you said sounded so familiar for some reason.” He joked, holding his arm out to me. “Shall we head to dinner, Ambassador?” I grab a hold of his arm

“Was it good? I didn’t ramble too much, did I? I was so nervous. I thought I would sound like an idiot.” I huff, out of breath

“It was great. You looked and sounded very professional. I think you could easily be a professor, and work in Dellum.” He smiles, “I would like that, if you lived in Dellum.” He blushes

“Well you have me for four and a half more months and then we will see how things go afterwards.” I poke him in the side, teasing him. “Plus you will see me a couple times a week in our grove, like normal.”

“Right.” He says as we get up to the dining hall entrance, “Speaking of which, let’s go there after dinner. Work on some magic?”

“Okay.” I grin at him and let go of his arm, as I do so I see Maeve staring at us from inside. “Thank you for escorting me, Prince Elauthin.” I say formally and loud, glance in Maeve's direction. We don’t need anyone to be suspicious of our relationship. Elau follows my eyes and sees Maeve as well.

“Of course, Ambassador Niccola. Thank you again for a lovely class.” He responds and walks into the dining hall, joining the rest of the Elvish Ambassadors. Dinner comes to an end and I look over at Elau chatting up another Ambassador. I stand, I’ll get there first so it doesn’t look suspicious leaving together. I begin walking out of the dining hall and down the hallway heading for outside.

“Nic!” I hear someone call after me, and before I can turn to look a petite arm is locked with mine and I am greeted by Maeve’s smiling face. “Where are you headed?” She asks walking with me

“Just taking a walk, getting some air.” I answer exiting the castle but averting the direction from the grove to the woods on the opposite side.

“I shall join you then.” She giggles and stays attached to my arm. “I heard the class went great. I knew it would, you and Luke are just so smart.”

“Thank you, you helped a lot too, Maeve.” I tell her patting her hand

“So it looks like you and Elauthin are becoming friends.” She stares at me with eyes full of curiosity..

“Professionally, sure.” I lie looking away from her.

“Oh, that’s great.” She responds but sounds annoyed. “Well this is enough walking for me, I forgot I have an appointment with the Queen.” She releases me and turns sharply away

“Good-bye, Princess.” I mumble, what an odd interaction. I’ve never heard her sound like that before. She is usually bubbly and chipper all of the time. I look around to make sure no one is watching and turn in the direction of the grove. I reach the grove and slide in almost slamming into the back of Elau’s head.

“You left before me, how did I beat you here?” He takes a couple steps into the grove and away from me, giving me room to enter.

“I got stopped by the Princess. She seems a little obsessed with you, Prince Elau.” I say and almost immediately regret. Elau looks away embarrassed and almost… Nervous?

“Yeah, let’s talk about something else.” He responds and walks over to our usually sitting place on the fallen oak tree. “ Here I got you something.” He pulls a book out of his bag. I take it from him reading the title aloud.

“Realm of Tartarean: Classic Spells and Incantations.” I look at him quizzically, “Dark magic? But I am from Girandole.”

“Well we don’t know that. Just give it a try.” He encourages me, “I put a marker on the spell I think might be easiest.” I flip open to the bookmark and read the spell.

“Shadow casting?” I look at him

“Hey you can pull a large shadow arm from your back. You should be able to cast a shadow over a specific area.” He explains his thinking.

“Okay.” I mumble reading the incantation. “Afrea opaque.” I say holding my hand out in front of me. Suddenly it was like someone had hit a lightswitch and turned off the sun. “Oh my god.” I utter.

“It worked.” Elau shouted and grabbed my hand. “ Here, stand up.” He pulls me up and we stand on top of the oak tree. “ It should have a specific range, and if you can get high enough.” He grabs my waist and hoists me up onto his shoulder.

“Wait, Elau…” I say but before I can protest I emerge out of the darkness. I look around and below me is like a black cloud which looks as though it is floating, but remains in the same spot. “Wow, I did that?” He places me back down onto the tree but keeps me pressed against him. So close I can almost see him through the darkness.

“See Nic, you are a lot more powerful than you think.”