Tgfhi huffed. “Yes! It’s about time we focus on what really matters.”
***
Rhen and Tgfhi stood next to each other by the base of the Fire Elf temple steps. Erfce and Latsoh’s wedding ceremony had been beautiful. Their Cardinal had given a touching sermon on the power of love and how it could conquer the differences between people. Rhen had been a little surprised by the sermon, since he’d heard that the priests were still against elves marrying out.
"Ventarian plumb doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?” Tgfhi said, his chin lifting towards their right.
Rhen had been thinking about the music that Latsoh had chosen for her ceremony. It had been more modern than he would have expected. “What?”
Tgfhi’s eyes swiveled towards Erfce, who was standing beside his parents talking to some of the Thestran Council Delegates. “Erfce looks and acts just like his dad.”
Erfce and his father were both wearing teal military dress jackets with black pants. Their large eyes were squinting from the light of the temple as their skin glowed. Rhen watched as the Delegate next to Erfce’s dad made a comment then laughed and poked him in the chest. “Quiet and reserved,” Rhen said, when Erfce’s dad casually took a step away from the man, rather than confront him.
“Exactly,” Tgfhi said as Erfce took a step back as well. “That guy’s an ass. They should blow him off.”
“Who’s an ass?” Jet appeared beside them with refreshments. He gave them their drinks then nodded in agreement as Tgfhi told him who they’d been talking about. They chatted for a while about Reed’s last jetbike race then switched to the topic of which teacher they’d like to see jump off of death rock, the highest peak on the school’s lake.
“Definitely Mr. Orisco,” Rhen said.
Jet lowered his drink. “Who’s that?”
Tgfhi laughed. “That’s right. You came after they did away with the mandatory music program. He was the music teacher. What a total jerk. He loved giving detentions. He and Rhen kept bumping heads. It was nerve-wracking when they were in the same room together.”
“Nerve-wracking?” Rhen asked, with a smile.
“It was! Whenever you two were together something bad always happened, you know?”
“It wasn’t that– ” Rhen was interrupted by Naci, who had taken the microphone from the musicians so he could invite everyone into his castle for dinner.
“That was a quick reception,” Tgfhi mumbled. He knew why Naci had cut it short. They all did. Naci wanted Rhen in his castle, and he couldn’t wait any longer. They were all excited to see what changes Themrock would bring to the Fire Elves’ castle. If it was anything like what he had done for the Water Elves’ castle, they would be in for a treat.
Rhen craned his neck as he searched for Ceceta. He didn’t want to leave the reception without her.
Meanwhile, the rest of the guests were waiting for him. They wanted Rhen to enter the castle first so they could watch the changes as they occurred.
Jet realized he had a situation on his hands when the last of the band members finished putting their instruments away and left the stage. No one had entered the castle because Rhen was still standing by the temple waiting for Ceceta. “Come on,” he said, nodding towards the bar area. “Let’s see if we can find them.”
Rhen downed the rest of his drink then followed Jet and Tgfhi into the crowd. Jet worked diligently at keeping the guests away from Rhen as they wandered towards the bar. They picked up Lilly and proceeded on towards the stage.
“There they are,” Tgfhi called out. He glanced back at Rhen to find him politely disengaging his tunic from the clutches of a female elf, while Jet kept several other guests away from him. Tgfhi shook his head. He remembered what a pain it had been being Rhen. He had worn Rhen’s body for one night and that had been enough for a lifetime. When a beautiful elfin woman reached past him to touch Rhen, he barked, “Hands off or you’ll answer to Ceceta!” Startled, she stepped back.
Rhen laughed. “Thanks, Tgfhi. I should have thought of that myself.” He lifted his arms up and flexed his hands. “Back away, people, or I’ll sic Ceceta on you.”
Ceceta and Crystam had been talking with Reed and Bosternd about what to do next. Since Rhen already knew what the Fire Elf castle looked like from the outside, Bosternd was concerned that he might regain his memories and become Themrock when he saw the changes that occurred as he entered the castle. They needed to get Rhen into the castle without him seeing the changes his presence brought about. As Rhen approached them, they were just finalizing their plan. “What’s up?” Tgfhi asked Crystam.
“Nothing.” She turned away from him to check the flow of the crowd. Everyone was still waiting in the flowered paths between the temple and castle. No one had started up the steps to enter the castle yet. She rolled her eyes at Bosternd to indicate the problem and he excused himself to take care of it.
Ceceta wrapped her hands around Rhen’s arm. “Love, Crystam and I were just discussing this article she read in one of her women’s magazines on marital bliss. I want you to take the test they have in the article.
“Don’t do it,” Tgfhi warned.
Rhen ignored Tgfhi. “Sure, but I think Naci wants us inside.” He pointed behind Ceceta. Bosternd had worked quickly. The wedding guests were already beginning to disappear inside the castle. “Perhaps we should do it later?”
“No,” Ceceta said. “Let’s do it now.” Rhen couldn’t understand why she’d want to do some test in the middle of Latsoh’s wedding, but he didn’t feel like arguing.
“You too, lover boy,” Crystam told Tgfhi. She turned him around so his back was to the Fire Elf castle as Ceceta guided Rhen to stand next to him. Their plan was to walk Rhen into the castle backwards, that way he wouldn’t see the changes that occurred due to his presence.
“Okay,” Crystam began. “The first test is all about trust. You have to walk backwards, without looking behind you until we get to the castle. Ceceta and I will guide you the whole way with our words. When we get to the castle’s steps, we’re going to ask you questions from the article about marital bliss. If you get the question right, you go up a step. If you get it wrong, you go down a step. At the end of the test, the results will show us if we have marital bliss.”
“But, honey,” Tgfhi whined. He was tired of these women’s magazine articles that always required him to answer ridiculous questions and usually ended up making Crystam mad at him. “We already have marital bliss. We don’t need some magazine to determine if we do or not.”
“Step back five steps and stop,” Crystam snapped. Tgfhi sighed and stepped backwards. Rhen laughed at him until Ceceta told him to do the same.
The wedding guests watched from inside the castle as the two men walked backwards, across the stone pathways, towards the Fire Elf castle steps.
Tgfhi couldn’t help himself. He kept glancing behind him, which infuriated Crystam, because every time he did, they had to return to the spot where they had been before. Rhen and Ceceta, on the other hand, progressed at a rapid rate. Rhen even teased Ceceta, asking her if she wanted him to jog. When they arrived at the bottom of the first step, she reached out to pat Rhen on the shoulder. “Nice job.”
“Thanks. Can I turn around now?”
“No, not until you answer the questions.” Ceceta pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and studied it. “I’ve already noted the answers that I think you will give. If I guessed correctly, you can go up a step, if I guessed incorrectly, we go down a step. Ready?” She glanced up at Rhen in time to see him change his frown into a smile. He clearly didn’t want to play this game. Without waiting for an answer, she asked, “What’s your favorite food?”
Rhen wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “Food?” Ceceta nodded. “Meat?” Rhen said questioningly, since he wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted for an answer.
“Correct,” Ceceta cried out.
Rhen stepped backwards onto the first step of the Fire Elf castle. The castle
shook and Rhen swayed, catching himself before falling. “The elves have a lot of quakes, don’t they?”
“Uh, huh,” Ceceta grunted, while staring behind Rhen at the ten, large, black circular disks that were rising into the air on both sides of the stairs. The disks started to rotate, sending the flowers the elves had placed on them for the wedding flying, before bursting into flames.
“Next?” Rhen asked. He wanted Ceceta to hurry up. Tgfhi and Crystam were starting to catch up.
Ceceta lifted up her list to read the next question. “What’s your favorite animal?”
Rhen hesitated. “Do I guess what I think you wrote or just tell you my favorite?”
“Tell me your favorite.”
“Dragons.” Ceceta smiled and Rhen took another step backwards.
“We’re doing great,” Ceceta told him while watching the fire that was on the disks leap in great arches from disk to disk, forming a beautiful pattern in the air on either side of the main steps that led into the castle.
“Okay, what do you prefer to sleep in?”
Rhen leaned forward and whispered, “Nothing.”
“Right.”
Rhen took another step backwards, feeling rather smug. He was doing much better than Tgfhi. As he watched Tgfhi’s progress, the railings that lined the stairs began to smoke before bursting into fire.
“Wow,” Ceceta said, stepping backwards. The heat from the railings was intense.
“Nice,” Rhen agreed. “Did Naci just turn that on? It wasn’t there before.”
“I guess so,” Ceceta said.
“Maybe we should hurry up,” Rhen urged. There were only a handful of guests left in the courtyard, almost everyone else had gone inside.
“Don’t worry. We have time. Latsoh said they’d be taking some family photos now.” She glanced at her list. “What do you prefer to do with your wife: have a nice quiet evening at home or go out on the town partying?”
Rhen huffed. “That’s not a question, is it? Because what I’d prefer to do with my wife isn’t either of those things.”
Ceceta rolled her eyes. “It is a question. You can’t give me a third answer; you have to choose from one of the ones they gave us.”
“The quiet evening,” Rhen said with a shrug.
Ceceta waved at the steps. “Take another step back.”
Crystam and Tgfhi had made it to the stairs. Unfortunately for them, Tgfhi had answered his first question wrong. He was now taking a step away from the castle. Ceceta laughed at them as Crystam shook her fist in response.
When Ceceta turned back to Rhen, she noticed that flames were rising up the walls of the castle. They climbed all the way to the top peaks then erupted, exploded high into the sky, lighting everything around them with a deep golden glow.
“Next question?” Rhen prompted.
“Oh, yes.” She looked down at her list.
Naci’s chest lifted with pride as he watched the video stream that was coming from the cameras outside the temple. There were now flames dancing along the exterior walls of his castle. This was what a Fire Elf castle should look like. He couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
“Did you fall in love at first sight?” Ceceta asked.
Rhen hesitated. He glanced down at the steps and then up into the air before saying, “Yes.”
Ceceta frowned. “Are you lying? You always told me you fell in love with me when you first saw me. Why did it take you so long to answer that question?”
Rhen couldn’t understand why she was upset. “I was just remembering when I first saw you. That’s all.”
Ceceta pointed her finger at him. “You know when you first saw me. How can you not remember that? When did you really fall in love with me, Rhen?”
Rhen groaned. “Now I know why Tgfhi doesn’t like these tests.”
“See!” Tgfhi yelled. He was two feet away from the castle’s steps and Crystam was livid.
“Don’t change the subject,” Ceceta snapped. “When did you fall in love with me?”
“When I first saw you,” Rhen repeated with his hands out.
Ceceta’s eyes narrowed. “Then why did it take you so long to answer that question?”
Rhen threw his head back before saying, “Because I was just remembering when I first saw you.”
Ceceta was furious. Rhen was lying to her. She was about to yell at him, when she spotted Latsoh watching them from one of the windows. She didn’t want to ruin Latsoh’s wedding, so she decided to move on. “Take a step up,” she barked.
“Hell,” Rhen whispered, stepping backwards. He would probably be on the couch tonight. “Tgfhi,” he called out. “Cancel your wife’s magazine subscriptions, please.” Tgfhi snickered as Crystam swatted him with the magazine she was holding.
Ceceta hesitated. Lava had now begun to flow out of the fountains on either side of the stairs to the front entrance of the castle. She had never seen a lava fountain before. The glowing, molten rock oozed out of the hands of the two elfin statues in the middle of the fountain on her left and right, then collected in the basin at the bottom of the fountain before disappearing through cracks that were shaped like flames. Ceceta had seen blue lava once before on the Planet of Crithnians, but this lava wasn’t anything like that. This lava had no odor. It simply provided heat. She wondered what the fountain itself was made out of and why it didn’t disintegrate from the heat of the lava.
Rhen tapped his foot with annoyance so Ceceta lifted up her paper. “What do you prefer to read: Fiction or Non-Fiction?”
“Neither, but if I had to pick… non-fiction?”
“Correct. Take a step back.” Ceceta would have told him he was right no matter what his answer, since she didn’t want to embarrass him by mentioning his illiteracy in front of their friends. As Rhen stepped backwards, lava began to fill the troughs around the base of the castle. It was similar to the Water Elves’ castle. Ceceta wondered if lava would soon begin pouring down the outside of the Fire Elves’ home. She heard Rhen’s feet shift and glanced back down at her paper. “How similar are our parents?”
Rhen shook his head. “Not at all similar.”
Ceceta dropped the paper she was holding to her side. “What are you talking about? They were very similar.”
“No, they weren’t anything alike,” Rhen insisted.
“Yes, they were,” Ceceta huffed. “Kate and Henry were just like my parents.” She couldn’t believe he’d forgotten what her parents were like. “Take a step towards me.”
Rhen stepped down one step towards Ceceta mumbling, “They aren’t my parents.”
Ceceta cocked her head. “What?”
“Kate and Henry are not my parents,” Rhen told her with a tight grin.
Ceceta put a hand to her mouth. She’d made a mistake. “Sorry, I thought it meant your biological parents.”
Now it was Rhen’s turn to be angry. “Well, you didn’t say that, did you?”
Ceceta realized she’d better move on. “Next question: Where do you prefer to live?”
“That’s an easy one. Surpen.” He wished he was home right now.
Ceceta waved her list at him. “You can take a step back up again.” As Rhen stepped backwards, she read the next question, “Name one thing that you do that annoys me?”
“I spring you into space unexpectedly,” Rhen offered hopefully.
“I don’t mind when you do that,” Ceceta snapped.
Rhen was surprised. “Yes you do. You always yell at me when I do that to you.”
“I yell at you because you always pick the wrong time to zip us into outer space,” Ceceta grumbled. She gestured to the step in front of her. “Come back down.”
Rhen stepped forward as Tgfhi took a step backwards, putting them on the same step. “Ha!” Tgfhi shouted. “I caught up to you.”
Leaning towards him, Rhen whispered, “At this rate, you’re going to pass me.”
“Name one thing that I do that annoys you?” Ceceta asked.
Tgfhi p
unched Rhen’s arm. “I got that one right,” he announced sounding smug.
Rhen didn’t have to think about it. “You ask these annoying questions.”
Tgfhi and Crystam laughed. When Rhen looked at them, Crystam said, “That was the same thing Tgfhi said for that question.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not what I thought he would say,” Ceceta told them. “Step down again, Rhen.” Ceceta searched her list for the next question. “When things are bad in bed, do you tell me?” She giggled and peeked up at Rhen over her sheet of paper. Rhen laughed. Before he could respond, Ceceta threw out, “Oh, that’s a stupid question. Just take a step back.” Rhen stepped back one step, while Tgfhi stepped down beside him.
“Looks like we’re both stuck,” Tgfhi said.
Rhen nodded as Ceceta asked, “Do you want to have children?”
Rhen hesitated, his eyes on Ceceta. They’d been trying to have children for a while now. Surpens were known for their large families but for some reason they couldn’t seem to have kids. “Are you alright, love?” he asked, when he saw Ceceta’s eyes tearing up. “Would you like to stop this game?”
Ceceta fanned her eyes with her hand. “No.” She pointed behind Rhen. “You can go back up a step.” There was no need for him to answer. She knew he wanted children as much as she did. Unfortunately, Genisters couldn’t have children with mortals.
Ceceta cleared her throat and read, “What’s my favorite thing to do when I’m not at school?” Rhen leaned over and whispered his response in her ear. “Right,” Ceceta said, as Rhen stepped backwards.
“Show off,” Tgfhi grumbled. He and Crystam had finished their questionnaire and he had ended up two steps below Rhen.
“What’s your favorite thing to do?” Ceceta asked.
“The same,” Rhen told her.
“Correct again,” Ceceta said with a blush as Rhen stepped backwards.
Rhen glanced to his left, curious to see how many more steps were behind him. He noticed carved iron lanterns shaped like bells about two hands wide in width, running around the castle. Squinting at them, he was surprised to see that the light within them was fire. “Ceceta, look at the lanterns. How great is that? Have you ever seen fire burning downward before? We should definitely get some of those lanterns for home. How do you think they get the fire to burn down like that? It’s totally against the laws of nature. I wonder if Naci will give us his secret.”
The Surpen King - Part 2 - Rise of the Elves Page 34