Machinist of Mana

Southern Elazia

Nicon- Palace of the People

High Leader Scoran

I laid back as the girl dyed my hair, one at a time, careful, painfully so. There could be no room for any mistakes, it had to be perfect, look perfect. It was well known how fast an ancient's hair changed from the normal color to white, not that one of those had been born in centuries, but it was important people at least thought I was perfectly pure.

It was almost true that I had no human blood, but only almost. Generations could be counted back, generations where no human had marred my line with their filth, where only the best had been added to the family. Still though age crept upon us, slow, like the rocks approaching, but it came. Now only a handful of true pure elves lived, and Atal had more than half. My poor nation had none, hadn't for so long, the foolishness of our ancestors ruining our chances at real power.

“How go the breeding programs?” I asked one of my aides as he entered the salon.

“Well Leader, we're keeping the taint of mortality pushed back bit by bit.”

“And the research on the solution?”

He sighed. “Less well I'm afraid. Though our greatest minds and strongest healers try, they're just not able to push out all of the human from a person. They claim there's something missing, some part of the puzzle they don't yet understand.”

“No progress at all?” I asked, slightly disgusted at their failures.

“Some, in the poorest subjects we've managed to increase their purity by around five percent. The doctors tell me that they've even managed to purify one enough that she could in theory reenter society.”

He handed the papers to me. The girl had been only a tenth elf when they picked her up, but after their alterations to her she was now fifteen percent, pathetic, but enough for her to have a place. However her health had deteriorated dramatically, and though the tests were now showing her blood to be cleaner it seemed she might die in a year or less. Poor thin-blooded thing had no chance.

“Hmm, no I don't think she can. Look here, she wasn't one of the volunteers, but rather some rebel. Tell them to keep working though, see if this one can be of some use to society. How about the other part of our works?”

“Going well Leader.”

If only the results had worked on the actual volunteers then perhaps it would be enough. I myself was sitting at ninety-five percent, so close, as close as they'd improved her, but I knew it would be fruitless. Most of the better subjects died, though they'd known they might, it was simply the chance at true immortality that had spurred them to try. A few of the volunteers did manage a percent or two, even if it seemed to cause horrible side-effects. I had hundreds of years until my age showed though, so there was no rush.

“Good, once our nation is restored, once we are ourselves again then we'll have the time to grow our power. We'll rise and show the world what our kind once were, what we could be again. The mistakes of the past will be wiped away as we achieve our destiny my friends.”

The dye was done so I rose, smiling at them, it felt almost like one of my speeches. The stylist beamed, my aide nodded. Then the man saw me looking at the other file in his hand and frowned.

“What news?” I asked after sending the stylist out.

“We anticipate failure, with some of our operatives still being caught. I recommend we pull the rest out.”

“She hasn't been seen in months though, are we sure she's alive?”

“No Leader, though this wouldn't be the first time she's disappeared on us.”

I spat, the gall of that human, stealing the secret of gate travel from elvenkind and hoarding it. How much of our heritage had she absconded with? Even her life was too long for one of her kind, stretching years and years longer than any of the mortals had any right to. At first I'd thought she might be one of ours, as it was known her kin had elven blood, but no, it was some magic. Some of the fools in the western lands had even taken to calling her the 'immortal archmage' a blatant insult to the true immortals of this world.

“Failures, all of them. Shame we couldn't stir one of the ancient ones to our cause, they could have put the fool in her place.”

“Indeed sir, even those who don't like the humans are loath to move though. You know as I that they sadly move slower and slower as they gain in years.”

“Perspective my friend, when you've been around for so long things must seem to be able to wait. That is the one thing The Great Ancestor never failed at. We should be more like him, always working, always improving, for all of our people.”

“There's one more thing Leader,” he said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“Some creatures were found, the reports are sparse, but it looks like they're mixing with the humans.”

One more file, barely a page described these green creatures, it even had their name and the island they'd come from. As I read down the page I saw more and more about them, and the memories in my mind tickled, showing me pages.

“With me, at once!” My memory was almost perfect, but for something like this I had to be sure.

We moved down the halls of the palace and into the room of records. I sped through the aisles, knowing exactly where I was going. Here, deep down in the archives there was a book, ancient stories from The Great Ancestor, stories I'd long thought spoke of lost beasts or tales of creatures he'd heard of.

“Yes, yes, I knew it was here. Look, the words here tell of these monstrosities, warn of them. Goblins, small green creatures, much like men known for their fast breeding and rapine ways. An enemy of all decent creatures that should be destroyed. Even a reference in the margin here, of a hero known for slaying them.” The little drawing showed a warrior who it appeared had once had decorations on the side of his helm that had been broken off, but oddly didn't show his face at all, instead his helmet remained on his head.

“And they've made it into the human lands? Should we do something?”

“Yes, send a fleet to purge that island with fire and death. We'll also not be retracting our assets in their lands, but reassigning them, they're to find and destroy these beasts wherever they might be.”

“Yes sir.”