Niviene Larethian

Second Chances

Niviene peered down from her office window, watching as the young woman who’d just left her office stepped out onto the back lawn of the academy.

She was a beautiful creature, quite exotic in appearance. Her hair seemed to glow with the iridescence of a raven’s wing, dark and ever changing, from deep forest green to dark, ocean blue. She was an elf, void elf is what they were called. And though she was taller than Niviene the priestess couldn’t help but attribute the word petite to the woman.

She watched the woman approach Banny and Korissa as they played in the garden, waiting to see how the children would respond to the strange woman. The boy seemed a bit hesitant but the little girl turned a bright smile on the woman and greeted her like an old friend. Within minutes the three of them were playing a boisterous game of tag, weaving their way through the flowerbeds and hedges.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to let a stranger get so close to your kids? You don’t know anything about her. She’s different, how do you know you can trust her?” Jacy Devlin stood at Niviene’s side, her own eyes following the movements of the void elf, her hand resting lightly on the sword on her hip.

Niviene nodded, “She is different and I don’t know if I can trust her. But I trust you. And I trust my own ability to protect my children.” she glanced up at hr friend and shrugged, “The king has welcomed her kind into the Alliance, he’s asked that we do the same. I’ve been in her shoes. I’ve been the one everyone looked on with mistrust, Noctifer looked passed their intolerance and gave me a chance, gave me a job teaching. It took a while but the town folk began to decide that if the Evas trusted me I couldn’t be all bad. Now look at me. I control the education of their children and deliver their babies.”

She grew silent for a moment, once more her thoughts had turned to her late husband. It had happened more in the past few days then it had in the past year. She wrapped her arms around her body, trying to stave off a shiver that tickled along her spine as she leaned forward and pressed her forehead against the glass.

“Niv? You okay?” the paladin asked.

“Yeah, fine. I’m fine.” the priestess replied, her voice thick with resignation before she straightened, dropping her hands to her sides. “The best way to get the folks to accept the void elves in this town is to show that we accept them, that we aren’t afraid of them. What better way than to let one of them play with our children?”

She leaned over, opening the window wide enough that she could hear the laughter drifting up from the garden below. “I questioned her thoroughly. She shows no signs of using magic of any kind. When i asked her she said she was an herbalist.”

“She went willingly into the void.” Jacy stated flatly.

Niviene leveled a sky blue gaze on her friend, “Not everyone who delves in shadow is bad.” she shrugged, “Besides, I asked about that too. She followed her sister who’d followed a man. She was there for her sister when she needed her, seeking the void for its own purposes was not her goal.”

Jacy grunted her skepticism and Niviene laughed softly, “I believe her. And you should really meet her, talk to her, before you judge her too harshly. After all, she’s an herbalist, how bad can she be?”