Layla.
Is that her? I push my way through the crowd, squinting across the pier. My heart lurches in my chest. It is her. It can’t be. She should be dead, according to her paperwork!
But my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me. It really is Layla. My heart soars at the sight of her. She looks so beautiful, and healthy!
I can’t stop staring. I drink in the sight, realizing with a smile that she hasn’t changed much. Maybe a little leaner, a little tanner than the last time I saw her but she looks mostly the same.
I’m so focused on her that I don’t even notice anything else around us until I see her bend down and scoop something up into her arms.
My heart freezes when she stands up again. I can’t hear what she’s saying but she’s got a child in her arms and it seems like she’s scolding him for running off. She’s got him on her hip now.
What?
A child?
Is it hers?
It has to be. The way she holds him, the way he looks at her…that’s her child. I stare, taking them in. It’s a boy. He’s got tan skin—dark, just like Layla but his features are sharper than the average human. His hair is dark and his ears are clearly pointed.
He turns a little and I catch a glimpse of his eyes—violet.
Like mine.
My heart is hammering so hard in my chest I fear it may just burst out. Is that my child? My son? I can’t speak. My throat feels closed off. I can’t even breathe.
His eyes look just like mine. Did she know about him before she left? Is that why she left? A thousand emotions are all competing inside me for attention. Fear, excitement, anger, disbelief, worry, anxiety, hope…just to name a few.
He looks just like her. But he looks a lot like me too. I can’t stop staring at them, at the sight of the small child in her arms. He’s no more than a toddler, just a baby, really. He’s chatting her ear off now, telling her some story and pointing at the ship.
She looks up and our eyes lock. The two of us are frozen, staring at each other. I don’t know what to do, or what to say. I can’t get a single word out right now. Before I can come up with something though, Layla spurs into action, grabbing the child tightly in her arms before all but sprinting off the pier, disappearing into the sea of people around the docks.
I have to go after her. I can’t let her get away. I have so many questions. I have to know if that’s my son.
Just as I’m about to follow, the overseer grabs my attention, interrupting my thoughts.
“Sir!” he says and I turn to look at him. My expression must still seem shocked because he stands up straighter and grins, self-importance radiating off him. “You should really let me guide you. The islands can be quite confusing for a newcomer, Lieutenant.”
I hear the parts he’s left out.And I want to steer you away from the embarrassing humans.
The title makes me snap back to attention. If I shirk my duties, it will draw suspicion. And the last thing I need is for anyone to question my abilities when I’ve finally achieved the station I’ve been working so hard for. So I let Iheru lead me off the pier and down the docks, towards the dark elf officer quarters.
I have work to do. I know that once I’m done, I can track down Layla and find out what’s going on but until then, I have to get to work.
The overseer takes me straight to my quarters to start. I look around, examining the spacious bungalow. It’s nice, much nicer than the cabins in the mining camps. Probably because there are so few dark elves that live here, they’re able to pour more resources into where they live.
I settle in, promising Iheru that I would arrange for a meeting between us later. For now though, I need to unpack and write a letter to my guard leader back at camp to let him know I’ve arrived. I’m on a semi-vacation but a working one. I’m here to “gain experience” working with Iheru, as it were, and I suggested to some of the higher-ups that it might behoove us to take a page from Zerva’s books.
The island is a kind of haven for the lost, so to speak. They have fewer dark elves but produce good numbers here, which means they must be doing something right. I want to bring back what I’ve learned here on Zerva and make more changes to the camps, to encourage better dark elf-human relations.
So even though all I want to do is rush after Layla and demand answers, I have a job to do. Once I’ve finished unpacking and I’ve written my letter, I head down to the overseer’s office.
“So,” I tell Iheru once I’m inside his office. “I want to see more of the island first. Can you give me a tour?”
“Right away!” he says, puffing up his chest. He clearly thinks highly of himself and I’m sure giving the new Lieutenant a tour is going to be his main topic of conversation for the next few days.
“So those are the human homes,” he says, taking me past the officer quarters. “Just that way. The rest of the dark elf workforce lives on the opposite side. There is a large port city just down the road. I can take you there. We have many merchants and traders that come through this way on their way to other places. They stop here to do business with us.”
It’s a pretty place. If I had to pick somewhere to live, this might be on the top of my list. For not the first time, I berate myself for cowarding out on signing up for a transfer back when I had the chance. I could have been working on this island. Maybe I would have even been here when Layla arrived.
Maybe we could have come together.
I have to shake her from my thoughts. Not yet. I’ll have plenty of time to track her down later but I need to focus. Iheru keeps talking, explaining more about how life works on Zerva. There are other islands in the Yarcarres but this is the most populated one, the one where the main trade happens.
All the business and work takes place here. There are two smaller islands that more humans live on as well. Some choose to live further out but work on Zerva. The smallest islands are home to some orc refugees and a few naga explorers who settled here. It’s actually fascinating, seeing so much more of the world than I’d ever seen before.
“And here is the city center,” Iheru takes me along the cobblestone path, through a copse of trees and it leads us straight into the heart of the city. There are merchant stalls that line the streets, shops, restaurants, and more. I see the large administrative building at the top of the hill.
“Rumors tell of a sea hag that lives deep inside the island too,” Iheru whispers. I’m not sure why he’s whispering but I play along.
“Does she ever come out?” I whisper back.
“Not many have actually seen her, there’s a lot of rumors about her though. I haven’t seen her myself but some of the humans have legends about her.”
This place is quite something. It’s so different from Tlouz. There’s a relaxed atmosphere here that we don’t have in the mining camps. People come and go freely and there are hardly any dark elf guards around.
We head back to the officer quarters, bypassing the village once again. I scan the crowds in the village to see if I can spot Layla but there’s no sign of her.
Now that I’m here, I can spend my time looking for her. She won’t be able to hide from me forever. The island is only so big and I’m a very determined man.
And she has a lot to answer for.
