The group followed the Royal Wood Elf's eyes and spotted the auburn-haired teen in the distance.

  "Yes, Your Highness. Eine seems to be striking up a conversation with Lydia. She's a natural," Yuliana replied with a smile.

  Leandra frowned when seeing this girl talking with her daughter. It wasn't that she hated her daughter or anything. She just didn't know the story behind this girl. All her husband's spies could find out about her was that she was hiding in one of the orphanages inside the city and it turned out that she was an elf. Other than that, there was nothing. Not even a st name to go by, which made her husband uneasy. Leandra just thought that this failure of a Royal Elf was homesick or crazy to adopt not only this new girl but the Dark Elf as well. It gave Rya an aire of nobility that she didn't deserve.

  "So, what's so special about adopting a peasant? Were you tired of not being among your people and desperately wish to save a kingdom that you failed to protect?" Leandra asked, her face twisted into a cruel smirk. Even Leandra's allies grimaced at that low blow, while Rianna's friends especially the ever stoic Ysandra Fairchild wished to sp the duchess. But to the groups surprise both Rianna and Yuliana seemed unfazed by Leandra's jab.

  'Well!... It looks like this Elf has thicker skin than I thought. Maybe she needs more encouragement,' Leandra thought as she kept her smug smile. "What?... I only speak the truth. You adopting this elf has no merit at all. So tell me, Princess Yuliana, why should we care about her?" She stated triumphantly.

  Yuliana put on a pleasant smile before responding, "Because my Eine is a Half-Elf, Duchess. She doesn't look deformed to me? She's only been my daughter for less than a week and she seems like a natural noble. Do you think?" The wood elf asked while looking at her youngest daughter, who was currently chatting with the younger nobles.

  Everyone looked at Eine in awe and surprise, and Leandra couldn't hide her shock. Sure, it was more common for Wood Elves to have green hair, but there was records about some of them having brown hair, so Leandra thought nothing of it when the youngest elf entered the party. However, now taking a second look at Eine was when the duchess noticed how much shorter the Half-Elf's ears were compared to the other three elves. 'That little brat is half-human?... How?... When?!... No!... What I mean is how is that possible? The old tomes mention something about how hideous a Half-Human was. I need to come up with a new fear! But what!?' The duchess thought frantically as she her the women around her chatting with themselves.

  "I see it! I thought it was because she was still so young. But her ears are a little more than half the size of a normal elf," Viscountess Cassandra Bckwood stated to her friend, Lady Lucinda Montcir, which caused everyone else to compare the three elves and found that it was true.

  "Well, that's a interesting surprise. So, it is possible for human elves offspring. But are there any other differences besides the ears, Princess Yuliana?" Lady Bethany von Maus asked out loud, while looking at the Royal Wood Elf.

  "Hm?... I haven't come across any other Half-Elf besides my adopted daughter. But the old rumors about Half-Elves say that they only live as half as long as a full blooded elf," Yuliana answered.

  "Really?... So, she'll live to be around five thousand years?" Baroness Elizabeth Dule inquired with curiosity.

  "Give or take. If there is something else about the Half-Elves, then we will experience it first hand. Anyway, Eine is proof that elves can reproduce with humans, and we can co-exist together. And if our two races can find peace, then we should do whatever we can to maintain that peace. And one way to do that is to allow my daughter to marry the Crown—"

  "Was she born from a human mother or an elf mother?" Leandra interrupted the wood elf. The duchess was desperate for anything to throw a wrench into Rya's pns.

  "That's a rude question to ask, Duchess Leandra. I wonder how many people would consider you a 'friend' if you weren't a noble. It's bad enough that your son is an ungrateful spoiled brat, but it appears that he wasn't the only rotten apple," Rianna interjected calmly.

  "What did you say about my son?!"

  "Nothing that wasn't true."

  Leandra realized what her sister-in-w was doing and stopped herself. She straight up her posture before grabbing a gss of ambrosia from a servant walking by.

  "My concern, dear sister-in-w, is if it is only possible to give birth to a Half-Elf from a human female is all. We can't bank on the future of the Kingdom if the next Queen can't produce an heir, no? Frankly, I don't know why we are risking it when, Princess Hilda Stoneworthh is such a better candidate to marry the Crown Prince," the duchess said before taking a sip. "We can't have no barren woman being the next Queen." The Duchess gnced at Rianna, who wanted nothing better than to drop the fact that she knows Leandra poisoned her with Sterilith Bloom, causing her to miscarriage multiple of her unborn children.

  But Rianna kept her composure. This was her biggest trump card and she needed to save it if Leandra had a trump card of her own. She needed to be patient and lull the duchess into a false sense of security.

  "Was that a jab at me, Leandra?" the Queen said calmly.

  "Hm? Oh, I almost forgot that you miscarried several times before giving birth to that son of yours. I wonder why the goddess cursed you with a barren womb, hm? Probably because you're an isnder."

  Rianna's expression changed slightly and her voice dropped to a dangerous level.

  "And yet the same goddess who 'cursed' me has blessed my son with a mana vein stronger than anyone else and gave him a gift no other human has. If you are going to talk about the goddess 'cursing' someone, then I don't know how you weren't equally as 'cursed' when giving birth to six children. You only were able to give birth to one son, unless you actually care for your daughters," Rianna countered.

  There was an audible gasp from the other dies in the room, as the tension between the two was palpable.

  "Now, now, Rianna. We shouldn't let things get personal, "Yuliana said with a calm and collected voice. She knew what the duchess was trying to do and she wouldn't give the old crow the satisfaction. "Duchess... If you are wondering who my daughter's birth parents are is a mystery. But regardless of that, it is very possible for a female elf to carry a human's child. It is very rare, but not impossible."

  "And why is it so rare? Why isn't there Half-Elves all over the pce? Why are their old elven texts about Half-Elves being disfigured or malformed at birth and it is considered taboo to have an elf bear a child with a human?" the duchess retorted.

  Yuliana recalled the time she visited the Lumen Fae continent after she got married to her husband, Lord Valdas Velnax. It was to meet her in-ws at the time, as it was a High Elven tradition for a new bride to meet her new family.

  During that visit to the Kingdom of Tintagel, she came across an ancient text that was written the second deity wars against the Demons, which sted for thousands of years before a ceasefire was called.

  The book talked about how the humans from the Neso Continent fought side-by-side with the High Elves of the Lumen Fae continent. And during that period of time the first Half-Elves were born. These Half-Elves seemed to be one of the biggest reasons why the war turned into a stalemate, and pushed the Demon Armies out of the Neso Continent. It seemed after that there was a few major amphibious assaults from both sides that failed to hold ground on either side, this came the ceasefire after the High Elves wiped out most of the Demon aligned human nobles in the Agon Continent. But the stage thing was none of these Half-Elves seemed to exist. There was enough of them to create a realm of their own, however, they all died out somehow and Yuliana couldn't find anything else on this subject. She was still curious about it and asked her in-ws who seemed to know nothing about the subject. But it was possible that her father might know something about this since he was alive when his great grandfather found the location for pnting the Elder Seed on Agon.

  The wood elves weren't native to the Agon Continent and were ordered by the Kingdoms of Virtue to be the arbiters of the formally demon-aligned Human Kingdoms. They sent twenty wood elf nobles to pnt a new Elder Tree and her family was the only ones to successful grow their tree. The other half of the noble elves died trying while the st surviving members made their way to the Agon Elder Tree as loyal subjects to her family. Her Great Great Grandfather must have been around during the time when Half-Elves were a common sight on Neso and maybe he told her father something that might expin what happened.

  After returning to Agon, she asked her father about it and he looked panicked.

  "What did the Archon say?" her father asked.

  Yuliana was puzzled at this, but she said, "Archon Dythos Velnax said he didn't know... Maybe he—"

  "Listen carefully, my precious leaf. It is one of those mysteries that no one should know about. Not even you or your brother. You two have enough on your pte already. Besides, I wish to become a grandfather in the next hundred years of so," her father said as he chuckled.

  Yuliana was embarrassed by this, and she huffed and said, "You're impossible! Valdas and I will have children when we feel the time is right!"

  And the young elf left her father's room and his smile faded to a frown.

  ***

  That happened almost five hundred years ago and Yuliana didn't realize it until Leandra brought up the old rumors and looking at Eine once more. What happened to the Half-Elves of old, and why did the High Elves say that Half-Elves were born deformed, when the old texts said how long they lived. The war with the Demons sted for over ten-thousand years and Half-Elves that lived a full life around four to six thousand years. Something didn't add up and the memory of her father's panicked face didn't seem important at the time. Now that she has time to think, she's coming up with some disturbing possibilities.

  What happened to the Half-Elves, and what are the High Elves hiding?

  'I can't let the High Elves know about Eine's existence or they might do something that would put her life in danger,' Yuliana thought as she gnced at her adopted daughter. She then turned to Leandra and she smiled at the woman, "Those old tomes you've read came from the High Elves, Duchess. They see anything that isn't..." She paused as it hit her. 'They see Half-Elves as abominations!"

  "What was that? I didn't hear you," Leandra huffed.

  "It's nothing, Duchess. I just thought the flowers in your garden were divine," Yuliana chuckled as she lied, but then her smile vanished. "Where was I? Ah yes. The High Elves see everything that isn't a elf as a lesser being. They see Half-Elves as ugly because they are stuck up snobs and think everyone is beneath them."

  Leandra thought for a moment and took a sip of her wine. 'Cures! She's right! Those long eared freaks are just as bad as the Holy Alliance of the Divine Three, except that they a cunning. I even fell for their lies and it was obvious! I need a different pn to win the Court...'

  While Leandra was thinking about her next move, Yuliana gnced at the ceiling of the grand ballroom. 'The High Elves aren't what we've thought. What did they do?'