A young high elven boy ran into the building and knelt before the old man.
                          
"Grandpa?" He breathed as he gently shook his arm.
                          
The cleric patted the child on the back: "Your grandfather is resting, my child. He should awaken soon."
                          
He nodded, "Do you mind if I stay with him? I-I want to be here when he wakes up."
                          
The woman smiled warmly, "Of course you can stay."
                          
She stood up after Luna and I got to our feet, and we strode away from the child to give him some privacy.
                          
"You didn't have to do that." The cleric began softly when we were away from the child.
                          
Luna answered for me: "We weren't going to let that poor old man die."
                          
"You don't even know his name."
                          
"So that means I should just let him die if I don't know his name?" Luna retorted with an iron barb to her voice.
                          
The cleric flinched, "No, that's not what I meant at all."
                          
"Don't worry about it." I chimed in, "Even if we don't know who the man we saved is, I still want to give him a chance to live. Considering the fact he has a wee lad to take care of, he shouldn't have his life ripped away from him." I looked at Luna: "I know I won't be alone in this endeavor, but I'll do everything in my power to save those who are in danger."
                          
"You can't save everyone." She murmured, a haunted look in her eyes telling the story of past patients that have slipped from her grasp.
                          
I sighed heavily, "I know. We must be on our way. Do take care."
                          
The cleric nodded, and we left the building.
                          
Corym looked at us in awe as we rejoined our group.
                          
"You both healed the old man in that house, didn't you?"
                          
"Yes we did." Luna breathed.
                          
He didn't reply, but I could tell his opinion of me and my team had improved greatly.
                          
"Come on," He finally said, "I'll take you and your team to Delsaran-."
                          
"No need to do that." Someone interjected, "I'm right here."
                          
A middle-aged blood elf walked toward my group. His blood red hair was cut short, and his equally-blood red eyes regarded us curiously. Two high elven guards followed closely behind him with their weapons at the ready. 
                          
I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining this: "Have I gone mad?"
                          
Delsaran chuckled, "I assure you, you haven't gone mad. My high elven guards are throwing you off, aren't they?"
                          
"Yeah, they are." I murmured as I stared at their worn but well-cared for weaponry: "I thought high elves despised blood elves..."
                          
"That's a fucking lie." Analise hissed, quiet hatred dripping like acid from her voice.
                          
I looked at her in surprise, "It is?"
                          
She merely shook her head and looked away, a distant expression clouding her features.
                          
Delsaran looked at Ana curiously before he focused his attention back on me: "Well, at any rate, I've received some interesting news today. First, an unknown carriage rolls through the city gates without so much as a sniffle from the guards and goes straight to Irwin's keep. Then I hear that someone ran a knife through the earl's forearm and seemingly..." He paused to find the correct thing to say: "...Vanished from the earl's private study. And finally, my commander brings a group of intriguing individuals to me. Tell me, do you know who had the audacity to stab the earl of Freim?"
                          
I bowed gracefully before the blood elf: "Guilty as charged. I do have a question for you though, if you don't mind."
                          
"Go on."
                          
"Why exactly are you here in Freim?"
                          
"Well, I can't be in Ilfhannin." He replied, "I've been exiled from the country for serving the high elven king during the Dread Decades. His royal cabinet thought it necessary to cast me out of the country so I wouldn't tarnish the king's good name."
                          
Analise looked sharply at Delsaran, and I almost thought a sob was going to escape her mouth.
                          
The blood elf continued to speak; his crimson eyes displaying the weariness of a man who's seen too much action in one lifetime: "I was one of the only blood elves Tholin trusted. Those who were fortunate enough to survive the massacres were imprisoned in the last blood elven settlement left in Ilfhannin."
                          
Whatever integrity Ana had been desperately fighting to maintain shattered the instant he said those words.
                          
"Wait, wait." She began breathlessly, "There are still blood elves left in Ilfhannin?"
                          
Delsaran nodded slowly, a contemplative expression on his face.
                          
"I-Is Prince Haydn still alive? Please tell me he's still alive..." She asked him in a small voice.
                          
He nodded again, a light of remembrance flaring in his eyes: "Yes...he is still alive, but Tholin has his people backed into a corner."
                          
Ana's legs buckled, and she slumped against a building. Erron stood beside her at the ready to catch her should she fall. Dorrian had also hurried over to Ana's side, and he exchanged a nervous glance with the stoic dragon priest. The poor ranger looked like he was about to break down.
                          
"I was born here in Alysia, so I never had to deal with the high elven king. What exactly happened to you while you lived in Ilfhannin, Ana?" Erron asked her.
                          
Before she could reply, Delsaran knelt before Analise.
                          
"My apologies, princess. Haydn told me before I was exiled that you were killed when a mob of high elves raided your family's house. Thankfully, he was wrong."