Chapter 22
One hour after we finished lunch, the elf council met in the park to discuss the banishment they had issued against Gladrielle. It was the same group of people that met in the gazebo the first time I was there. Three men and three women. All looking around thirty years old. All tall and thin and attractive, with blue hair, blue eyes, pointed ears, and flawless skin.
The woman that did most of the talking the last time I met the council, green track suit, pointed at me as soon as she saw me. “This is all your fault.”
She was wearing an outfit similar to what Gladrielle had on, sneakers, shorts, and a tank top. The only difference was, hers were green. Her color of choice.
Elrod, Gladrielle, and I joined the others in the gazebo. Green track suit continued to point at me. “If you hadn’t come here, we wouldn’t have voted to help you, and Claire wouldn’t have gone with you and turned into a dark elf, forcing us to issue a banishment.”
“You’re right,” I conceded. “And if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t come here, nor would I ask for your help. I made a mistake, which is why I’m here now. I’m trying to fix it.”
Admitting that she was right and I was wrong seemed to take some of the air out of green track suit’s sails. She didn’t seem to know how to respond to my admission, which gave Elrod a chance to take control of the meeting.
“Whether Low should’ve come here or not is irrelevant,” Elrod said. “Whether we should’ve agreed to help her or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that we issued a banishment against Claire. And since it’s pretty obvious that we issued that banishment under false information, I think we need to lift it.”
“The banishment was issued under information you provided,” green track suit said. “You’re the one that told us that Claire had crossed over and become a dark elf.”
“I thought she had,” Elrod said. “Turns out it isn’t that simple.”
Green track suit focused on Gladrielle. “Did you or did you not cross over and become a dark elf?”
“She didn’t,” I said, answering before Gladrielle could.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” green track suit said.
“It’s easier if I answer,” I said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m the one that figured out the truth.”
“And what’s the truth?” one of the three men said.
“There’s no such thing as a dark elf.”
Green track suit laughed, a cynical laugh that made it pretty clear that she didn’t believe me. “How old are you?”
“Thirty.”
“Each of us has been around for thousands of years, while you’ve only been around for thirty, yet you claim to know more about what happens to us than we do?”
“In the human world, doctors don’t diagnose themselves and lawyers don’t defend themselves. Do you know why?”
“A better question would be, do I care why? And the answer to that is no.”
I ignored her snide comment and continued. “The reason is because they’re too emotionally involved to render an objective opinion.”
“You’re saying we’re too emotionally involved to render an objective opinion about what happens to one of us when we cross over,” the man that had spoken said.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, what’s more, you don’t actually cross over and turn into dark elves. There’s no such thing as a dark elf.”
Green track suit stepped back, acting like I had just slapped her. “Blasphemy.”
“It’s an interesting theory,” the man said. “Problem is, we’ve all seen friends turn. We know for a fact that dark elves do exist.”
“They exist,” I said. “But only in their heads.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” green track suit said.
“Actually it does. When you guys do something you regret, you become so full of guilt that you convince yourselves that you’ve crossed over, that you’ve become evil, that you’ve become a dark elf. That belief is so strong that you end up glamoring yourselves.”
“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Is it?” I shot back. “Think about it. You’re not shape shifters. You shouldn’t be able to change your hair color, or your eyes, or anything else. Unless you aren’t actually changing, unless you’re using your glamor, your ability to hide your true appearance, on yourselves.”
“I have a different theory,” green track suit said. Why was I not surprised. “My theory is that Claire is still a dark elf and that you’ve mesmerized her into believing that she’s not evil.”
I laughed. “You think I mesmerized a dark elf into thinking she’s not a dark elf.”
“Isn’t it true that mermaids possess the power to mesmerize others with their eyes?”
“Well, yeah, but only male gnomes and drunken humans. Even then, they have to stare into our eyes while we tell them what to do. And the humans have to be really really drunk. We can’t compel people to do things the way vampires can.”
“If she could, do any of you think that she’d admit it,” green track suit said to the others.
“I know I’m not suppose to talk,” Gladrielle said. “Having been banished and all, but I can tell you, Low hasn’t mesmerized me, let alone compelled me to do anything. All she did was refuse to give up on me, refuse to abandon me.”
“You took the life of a sentient being,” green track suit said. “How do we know you won’t do it again? How do we know you won’t do it to one of us?”
“She was trying to protect someone she cared about, someone she felt responsible for,” I said. “That doesn’t make her evil. Not to mention it was an accident. She never intended to kill him.”
“Says the walking abomination.” Green track suit looked at the other council members. “I vote that we keep the banishment in place.”
She turned and headed off, jogging away, just like she did at our last meeting.
“I taught her too well,” Gladrielle said to no one in particular.
I looked at Gladrielle. “You were her school teacher?”
“Her mother.”
If someone had a feather, they could’ve knocked me over with it, because I never saw that one coming. Although in retrospect, I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
They wouldn’t have been the first mother and daughter to butt heads. Then again, considering how long Gladrielle had been around, they just might have been the first mother and daughter to butt heads.
“Look,” I said, turning to the other council members. “I didn’t mesmerize Claire, I don’t think I could even if I wanted to, all I did was give her time to come to grips with what she had done. I can tell you that she’s not evil. I’ve worked as both a cop and a private detective. I know what evil looks like, I know what it sounds like, I know what it feels like. Trust me, Claire is not evil. She never was.”
The remaining five council members looked at each other and nodded. Whatever they were agreeing to, it was unanimous. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but we were about to find out.
“I’m sorry,” the man that had spoken earlier said. “But if what you say is true, then everything our parents taught us, everything we’ve taught our children about dark elves, must be called into question. I’m not sure if anyone in this village is prepared to do that. At least not today. The banishment remains in place.”
The five council members turned and left, leaving Elrod, Gladrielle, and myself alone in the gazebo.
Gladrielle looked at Elrod. “I’d like to get some of my things from the bed and breakfast, if that’s all right.”
Elrod nodded. “Take all the time you need.”
He turned and walked away, leaving Gladrielle and I alone.
“That’s it?” I said. “You’re just giving up?”
“I never really expected them to lift the ban,” Gladrielle said. “It was a long shot.”
“Even though they could see for themselves that you haven’t cha
nged.”
“We were taught that when an elf crosses over to the dark side, there’s no coming back. It’s going to take time to change that way of thinking, a lot of time.”
“So nothing we say or do will make a difference.”
Gladrielle shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”
“So what now?”
“I collect my belongings and start a new life elsewhere.”
“You could just stay here.”
“And be ignored?”
“For awhile. Eventually, they’d figure out you’re not evil and start talking to you again.”
“Perhaps,” Gladrielle said. “But I’d be making a lot of people uncomfortable. I’m not sure I’m prepared to do that.”
“Fine,” I said. “Then you can stay with me.”
“What about the cops, not to mention the siren?”
They’re looking for a black haired, black eyed, fireball throwing elf, not a blond haired, blue eyed human.”
Gladrielle’s hair changed from dark blue to blond. She left her blue eyes alone, but her pointed ears disappeared, becoming as round as mine. I’m not sure how elf glamor worked. I only knew that it was some kind of magic that made you see what they wanted you to see.
We climbed in the Del Sol and headed to the edge of town, to the bed and breakfast that Gladrielle called home.
“Your daughter wasn’t very sympathetic,” I said as we drove across town.
“Not all that uncommon in elf society,” Gladrielle said. “I think it has something to do with having a mother that never grows old.”
“They grow up and see you as a competitor rather than a mother.”
“Something like that.”
“So what happens to this place?” I said as we rolled to a stop in front of the big white house with the small bed and breakfast sign in the yard.
“All the buildings in town are community property,” Gladrielle said. “Someone else will move in, take over the garden.”
“The county requires a registered owner. Who’s that?”
“The buildings are registered to a corporation, Woodlawn Real Estate, or something like that.”
Gladrielle was putting on a good front, but I could tell that she was struggling, struggling with the fact that she was no longer welcome among her friends and family, struggling with the idea that she was an elf that was no longer welcome among her own kind.
It was too bad she couldn’t start a new, what did a group of elves call themselves? A tribe of elves? A clan of elves? A gathering of elves?
Then again, why couldn’t she start a new tribe? Or clan? Or gathering? Or whatever they called it. She wasn’t the first elf to be banished from her tribe for crossing over to the dark side. There were others out there, once the shock of what they had done wore off, some of them must’ve realized they hadn’t actually turned into the evil creatures they thought they had.
“So what does a group of elves call themselves?” I asked Gladrielle as we headed up the bed and breakfast’s walkway.
“We refer to ourselves as a family.”
“A family of elves?”
“Yes.”
“Looks like you’re going to have to start a new family.”
“How do you propose I do that?” She opened the bed and breakfast’s front door and headed inside.
“You’re not the first elf to be banished from her family for crossing over to the dark side.”
“No.”
“Once the shock of what they had done wore off, some of the others must’ve realized that they were still the same elves they always were. That they weren’t evil.”
Gladrielle stopped in the doorway and looked back at me. “You’re saying I should find these elves, see if they’re interested in starting a new family?”
“It would give you something to focus on, and right now, I think that’s a good thing.”
Gladrielle perked up, the dark cloud that had been hovering over her since we arrived in town seemed to lift, but only for a few seconds, then it settled back into place.
“Even if I did manage to find other banished elves, we wouldn’t have any money, not enough to buy some property and start a real community.”
“You don’t have anything tucked away?”
“Any income we make goes into what we call the community chest.”
“Like in Monopoly.” Gladrielle wrinkled her brow, apparently elves didn’t play Monopoly. “It’s a game, invented by humans.”
Gladrielle nodded, said, “Basically, I’m broke.”
“Tell you what,” I said. “If you can find the elves, I’ll buy the property.”
“You can afford that?”
“One of the reasons the siren is mad at me is because I’ve been snatching some sunken treasures from underneath her nose. The shiny treasures I put in my treasure room, so I can enjoy them. The not so shiny ones, like money, I stick in a safety deposit box in a bank. Everything else I sell.”
“Just how much do you have in that safety deposit box?”
“Depends upon which box you're talking about, one has fifty thousand, another has one hundred thousand, a third has a couple hundred thousand.”
“Just how many boxes do you have?”
“Twelve. No. Thirteen. They’re not all at the same bank, so sometimes I lose count.”
Gladrielle laughed, which was nice to see. “You’re like a squirrel that buries so many nuts he forgets where they all are.”
“I’m not sure I’m there yet,” I said. “But maybe some day. With a little luck.”
“How am I supposed to find these elves? I wouldn’t know where to begin to look.”
“You have heard of the Internet haven’t you?”
Gladrielle stared at me with a blank face. Of course she hadn’t heard of the Internet. She hadn’t even heard of Monopoly.
“Okay,” I said. “To put it simply. The humans have created something called the Internet. It basically connects everybody with a computer to everybody else with a computer. Anyone that’s spent any amount of time in the human world uses it. You can use the Internet to find these other elves, see if they’re interested in starting a new family.”
“This is kind of exciting. Reaching out to other disenfranchised elves, bringing them together to start a completely new family.”
It was nice to see Gladrielle smile, perhaps because it made me feel less guilty about her banishment, a banishment that wouldn't have happened if I hadn’t shown up looking for help.