The story of Ruslan

This story happened 24 years after the Horiathon Battle. It overlaps the story of The Elven Gold, in the same places: Tyron, the main city of the country of Kondo, a Human country of the Nyidiath, generally more accepting the Elves.This is why we find many of them here, living in the open.

The old district of Tyron, around the Aymar square, with its cob houses and cheap rentals, attracts all sorts of poor people, youngsters, students, and even some Elves. But it also is an ideal breeding ground for conspirationists, crooks, adventurers, dropouts, semi-tramps, false Hippies pretending to be evolved, and real «far left» militants (Note) dreaming of taking the power.

Of course, those «far left militants» are not marxists or communists as on Earth, and the labels «right» or «left» are just to give you an idea of the kind of discourses or actions the various politicians can do. In the story, they are one of the dreadful ideologies of the Revolution, which still have some adepts despite the historical debunking everywhere. And, just like as our far left on Earth, they had developed an arrogant mindset of thinking to be the sole ones honest, seeing only shenanigans, repression and injustice everywhere else. And they are very quick to do so, and the proverb says: take two random far left militants and put them together on a desert island, and they start a class struggle against each other the very first day.

As long as they do nothing bad, they are left free. Yet the government keeps an eye on them, in case some agent of the Scythian Popular Republic sneaks in this propitious milieu to foment trouble. But most of the time, after some demonstrations, these militants realize that the cop’s bludgeon hurts, and they specialize in the art of finding class enemies among themselves.

Another deterrent is the Tyron jails. The town had inherited of horrible Middle Age gaols, dark, damp, all in cold stone, brown colors, dirty toilet pits, awful smells, tramps, clanging black iron grids, all really disgusting and depressing. But the government had realized that the tramps and far left militants are feeling in their element in such a filthy place, so that it is for them a rest period, to be ready to restart trouble with a renewed stamina as soon as they get out. So the government had build an ultra-modern jail all in white walls, soundproof cells, electronic latches, cameras, hyper-hygiene, face masks, hospital-like white clothes, education program, relaxation sessions, vegan food, cosmic music, etc. This makes of this modern jail an absolute nightmare for all these dirty dropouts and tramps. But the old gaols are still used, for people of the «respectable society» caught dirty handed. So that in both cases the jail style is a worse deterrent than the jail itself. (A rumor says that the idea of the clean jail was an Elf suggestion. But the government of Kondo loathes admitting that they accepted advice from outside. So the Elves do not confirm. But they do not deny either, making of the «Elven jails» a topic of jokes.)

The Tyron far left milieu is thinking to be some enlightened minority, fighting against the rich bourgeois who are monopolizing the wealth and power. It is easy to debunk this view, as this concentration of power can happen only with the consenting work of the manipulable majority, entangled in their mess of opinions, prejudices and addiction to alcohol and television. But it is always easier to point at a scapegoat than to work on our own personality defects. This is how those far left are, finally, living fossils of a bygone era.

The recent legislation on tobacco did some sorting, though. The first idea was to forbid smoking in all the pubs. But most pub owners boycotted this law, ostentatiously coming to smoke themselves in their places. So that the government had to back down. The result was that, if the majority of taverns are still smoking heavily, some non-smoking pubs appeared, more propitious to people really wanting a nicer life, and really bettering the overall mood in the old Tyron. But you bet, the far left are still attending the smoking pubs. Tobacco is the drug of binary thinking, right?

This is where we meet Ruslan. He is a pleasant young man, serious and rather idealistic. But his attraction to social justice drove him to neglect yet promising studies, and instead attend far left discussions and demonstrations. This is a trap where many honest youngsters are caught, unfortunately, and waste more or less time in. In more, these militants have the art of creating a sense of urgency, justifying «to drop everything», since according to them «the Revolution» is imminent. So this is not going well for Ruslan, who lives from petty jobs, hoping instead to find some community of good people to fit in.

And of course a woman companion, he is keen for that!

In those discussions, Ruslan heard of several far left farms and cooperatives, where he could help and live in. But when he visited them, he discovered mere facades, by people pretending to offer a better society, but unable of the even most basic way of living together without disputing heavily. The desert island proverb is more than right...

In more, those militants have very underhand ways to be especially obnoxious. They quickly spotted Ruslan's desire to meet a lady. So they labelled him «phallocrat», and this label stuck, despite all his efforts to approach ladies in an honest and respectful way.

It is hard to fathom, from outside, how toxic these kind of milieus can be, especially for sincere and idealistic people like Ruslan, who approach them with all his defences lowered. There are all kinds of sociopathic blokes and sexist women, trampling the ones on the others, in order to each keep a high vision of themselves. But the straight and honest Ruslan does not understand this duplicity, and he tried and insisted again and again. He spent late evenings in smoky pubs, he attended tumultuous political meetings, to no avail. This resulted in a severe lack of self-confidence, and feeling that he is bad. This finished the ugly job of his abusive parents who were scolding and spanking him all the time. Yet he is still grasping at his hope for a better society, because in this world nothing else makes sense.

Ruslan had tried a lot of things in this nasty environment: drug (once, he got sick and he never tried again), debriefings of demonstrations in the disgusting cells of the old city gaols, plus lice, scabies and all these cultural diseases that these people carefully maintain. His only love experience had turned into a debacle, when he discovered how dirty this woman was. Eventually, fifteen of these blokes had squatted his room, preventing him from sleeping, soiling all his belongings and stealing the rent money to buy dope. The landlady, tired of the neighbors' complaints, had kicked everybody out, and Ruslan is now depressed, homeless without a penny, with only his backpack. In these conditions, it is understandable that he is finally fed up with this cruel environment.

Well, he is a decent guy, not a bum or a tramp. But he had to make his experience. And now that he had seen, he is starting to get unhooked.

Good point.

The problem however is that Ruslan sees no alternative. And he is now needing one urgently.

Suddenly, he sees Elves in the street. Beautiful, clean, nicely dressed, looking happy and friendly, rainbows of color and cheerfulness in the dirty browns of the old town and the scowls of the passers-by. In short, representing his true ideal, of which the far left milieu and dropouts had frustrated him. It is not uncommon to see Elves in the old district of Tyron, taking advantage of the low rents, exotic food shops, and of course the new non-smoking pubs. One even had rebranded itself «Elath» which can be translated as «Place of the Elves». Although most customers are Humans, just the kind who is not afraid of sitting besides an Elf.

In an apparent paradox, but in fact very logically, the real far left and fake Hippies of Tyron are hostile to the Elves, whom they consider as rich bourgeois, or as «mystical weirdos». Of course this is just plain jealousy, presented as a political analysis. The real reason for this hate is that the personal and social successes of the Elves are sending these lamentable people back to their complete failure to do anything useful, not even to get along peacefully together.

Fascinated, Ruslan follows them for a while, and finally it clicked: all the bad things he had heard about the Elves came from his hypocritical far left and dropouts buddies! Well, the TV is critical of them too, but that is not a credible source either. ((Note of the author: when I created this story, the audience laughed here))

He soon loses sight of the Elves, in the maze of small streets of the old district. But he suddenly feels a strong desire to get out of this rotten world! Instinctively he walks, walks, towards the countryside, despite the rain. He is picked up by a truck (The driver puts him in the dumpster, which makes him realize that he might not be very clean). Then the man drops him off at the foot of the Shamal mountains, where he heard there is an Elf community. Ruslan walks all night, to get to the top, with a plastic sheet protecting his backpack from the rain.

In the morning, he sees the cow farms. Not very Elvish!

He asks a farmer where the Elves are. Bad idea: he gets yelled at like rotten fish, without the guy giving him any information. But while grumbling, he stares at the road leading to the northeast, making hostile hand gestures in this direction. We remember that the Shamal is a plateau cut into «petals» by deep valleys. So it is important to start in the right petal, otherwise we would need to turn back after a useless day of walk.

So Ruslan follows this road.

He walks and walks…

He has plenty of time to admire the landscape. Of course he ignores how beautiful the Shamal of the Sylvan Elves was before the cow farms, but he still feels the soothing vibe of green grass and trees under the still wet and gray sky. He has plenty of time to enjoy them, and how clean nature looks, compared to the dirty brown old town. Well, he hopes to find at least some shelter, as he would be unable to spend another night walking under the rain without sleep. But the farms look so hostile, behind their barbed wire fences, and the rare passer-by look angrily at him.

Finally he spots some Elven horses in a meadow with a wooden fence, and he realizes that this is it. He follows a dirt road with Elven horses on one side and cows on the other.

He knows instinctively how to talk to the horses, and he reaches out to them. They first snub him, but after a while they come to him. They «chat» for a while like that, and even they follow him, along the wooden fence and the path.

Until the entrance of the Elven farm.

Well, at first glance, it looks bad.

Remote controlled gate. Cameras.

Nice gate, wrought iron with rinceaux, leaves and Elven patterns, painted white with pastel acorns. But good, solid, and well closed.

And that is only the first line of defense. Behind it are the killer snakes, jumping brambles, radar, infrared goggles, and a lot of other stuff he had been told.

Before continuing, it is good to know what this elf farm is, and what it represents.

Of course the Elves in Kondo dream of recovering their lands in the Shamal Humak plateau, where the Sylvan Elves lived in ancient times, before the Exodus. But it is presently occupied by about fifty cow farms (which brought considerable ecological damage to the Shamal). And, in this democratic but capitalist Nyidiath, the only practical way to recover the land is to buy all the farms one per one. This proved easier than anticipated, since nobody really wants these farms: they are not profitable, with the cold climate and poor soil on the plateau. But the worse issue is the hostility of the cow farmers, infuriated by this very idea. More the Kondo government which has a policy of «protecting meat farming» on the plateau, in order to «keep the mountain alive». So that the only way to buy a farm is to keep it as an animal farm.

So that the Elves managed to buy a first farm some years ago (That we heard about in The Elven Gold). The one Ruslan is now trying to enter in. To comply with the government exigences, the Elves brought some of their Elven horses, the ones who lived here in ancient times, and who were salvaged to the Dauriath before the Exodus. Not many, because the farm is only ten hectares wide. But the real purpose of this farm is to make an Elven center, for training Humans wanting to become Elves.

The first problem was that horses do not like fences.

Especially Elven horses.

They have a way of tearing them down with a stampede.

Even electric fences. Those darn nags had noticed that electricity doesn't go through their hooves. So Blamm the electric fences.

Blamm

Blam Blammm

Blam Blam Blammm

Well that was a heck of a problem living that way with the other farmers.

The Elven horses were escaping, and they were fooling around in the surrounding farms, tearing down the fences of the cows, so that the later wandered everywhere, including on the road. Something had to be done, before the administration closed the Elf center.

The Elves «talked» to their horses.

This is stuff that only Elves can do, and which is hard to describe in human language. But they finally got the horses to stay in the Elven farm. The Elves had to pay quite a bit of damage, but it all settled down, and they were left with fourteen Elven horses, all of them under contraception.

Of course the Elves tore down all the ugly barbed wire fences within their domain. But for the horses they had to keep wooden fences all around, and low walls or hedges for their gardens. Ten hectares is very narrow for fourteen horses.

Well, those horses were only a pretext. Their official purpose is, together with the ecologists of the Tyron University, to rebuild the Shamal ecosystem. Although they prefer to say to restore its beauty and magic.

Indeed, six centuries of cows had totally changed the composition of the grass itself. In short, the meadows were composed of... weeds. Which is pretty bad for a meadow. The Elves had to literally plow, and reseed the good herbs. Fortunately, these good grasses tended to outweigh the bad ones. But they still had to plow everything at least once. Yes, the Elven herbs supplant the muggle weeds, ha ha ha!

The real purpose of the farm is to train advanced Elf candidates. Several Dauriath Elves are permanently living here, more about twenty candidates in short or long stays. Many small but comfortable cells were installed in a former barn, and news ones are to be built. There are many serious candidates around in Kondo, so that when one leaves his cell, another takes it within hours. The admission criteria of the Elf managers are unknown, but they are likely related to how this experience is useful for the candidates. All this makes that, when Ruslan arrives, this farm is a wonderful community where life is pleasant and very educative. Everybody considers it is a great luck to be allowed here!

Needless to say, the cow farmers do not like the Elves, non-violent, hairy, vegans. What do you expect from people busy killing animals, and even subsidized to do that (Their meat and milk being eventually destroyed, because of overproduction and too low prices by other farmers also subsidized. There is something illogical. But when you put illogical people in a government, they do illogical things, that's logical).

Add to that the snakes. The terrible snakes of the Shamal Humak, which seem to multiply the more the farmers slaughter them. The snakes avoid the Elves, but at night they would infiltrate the houses of the ill-advised farmers. And when they find one, you can hear him screaming a kilometer away.

Fortunately the scientists had found a serum. So there are now survivors. But those survivors allowed to know why the victims scream in such a terror: the neurotoxic venom manipulates the brain, creating a massive horror feeling, with awful hallucinations and an excruciating pain. Later, the survivors get a severe depression for several months. To the point that the standard medical procedure is now one month of artificial coma, the time to flush the toxins out of the synapses, followed by a stay in a psychiatric hospital to reconstruct oneself. We understand that, after such an ordeal, the victims do not want to stay on the Shamal any more.

This is how one of the farmers finally threw the towel, and put his farm up for sale. And snap, the Elves bought it. Well, nobody else wants to take Shamal farms anyway: poor, lonely, cold, non-profitable, dangerous.

A second farm followed unexpectedly, that the Elves also bought. Well, not officially Elves, that would raise the prices, that the snakes had wisely lowered.

The second farm is officially an agronomy center, in charge of studying which plants could be cultivated up there. But everybody knows that with the climate change, the place is now too cold. Only Elven Jerusalem artichokes and meilo trees are still growing, but the government does not care about those. So this farm cultivates Jerusalem artichokes and several other veggies which grow fast enough for the short summers. There are some remaining meilo trees, and they are actively planting more. But they must be at least 30 years old to start a sizeable production.

This second farm also has a secret purpose: a temple hosting the hoxar, the control point of their defensive egregore, where the Elves meditate to regain control on it. There also are spiritual retreatants, that nobody notices since they never go out.

In ancient times, this defensive egregore had been created against strong raids of bandits and slavers, throwing stones at them, pushing them in abysses, sending them snakes, trampling horses, furious boars, etc. But in the modern Nyidiath, this is no longer part of the legit methods: if you want to promote peace and respect of persons, start by behaving accordingly yourself. This is why the Elves put so much effort in taming their protective egregore. They have some results, but totally reverting 6000 years of work will take time, perhaps centuries.

One of the most salient feats of this new non-violent defensive egregore happened when one of the farmers, preparing a legal action against the Elves, threw into the fire a box with all his documents, that he had confused and exchanged with a box containing waste papers. When he realized his mistake, he screamed «**** Elves!», clearly aware that they were responsible for this mistake, by some trick! And he complained to everybody, making the reputation of the Elven magic, instead of denying it.

Soon there was a third Elven center, before people noticed the second one.

But in the third farm, they did something totally unexpected: miscanthus. This is used to make carbon neutral E85 gasoline. Well, they did not call it E85, but chemistry being the same everywhere, there also is 85% ethanol. The Elves call it Shelenaë Gasoline, or SheGas, ha ha ha! The reason is that miscanthus grows with rhizomes, like Jerusalem artichokes, the symbol plant of Shelenaë, and the first plant She managed to cultivate when She lived in the Blue Mountains.

But the miscanthus grows like crazy on the Shamal, one of the rare cultivation to be content with the poor soil here. So when they bought the third farm, the Elves grew miscanthus there directly. They had removed all the fences, not even looking for symbolic animals as an alibi. The retrograde administration objected, but no one else wanted to take over this farm, so they had to deal with it.

Seeing this, another of the cow farmers also converted to miscanthus, understanding that it was the future!

So four places were freed, out of about fifty farms. Seeing this silent reconquest, the administration started pre-empting farms which owners died or quit. But everybody knows that the farms are not profitable, so that nobody wants to pay in more a rent for a non-profitable land. In more, the Elves dully made known that they received none of the subsidies they were entitled for their horses, despite making valid applications. So that these two state owned farms are slowly reverting to the wild state of the former Shamal, without the Elves pay a single buck for them. Bravo the Elves! Probably the administration will not pull this stunt again. But what, then? The situation is blocked for them, and they may end up with the Elves becoming the de facto masters of the whole plateau, without spending any more money!

Of course nobody mentions that this situation might be the effect of the new Shamal egregore, as arranged by the Elves. The later deny anyway, saying that «we cannot pilot an egregore like a machine or a car». Thus we have to admit that it is the administration who put itself alone into trouble.

You have to see a miscanthus field. It can reach three meters high, and it grows with rhizomes, so there is no need to plow or seed every year. Just harvest every autumn, with a special harvester. Since bulk transportation is inconvenient, they are studying a machine which directly compresses the crop into a dense, dry material. This is how the former cow farmer found himself designing the said machine with Elves, not knowing they were Elves. Well, he quickly found out, but he understood that he had to make do with that. And that the Elves are persons, just like him.

The main purpose of the first Elf group, though, is not farming. Indeed, they have several much more productive farms elsewhere in Kondo. Their main purpose is that more and more Humans are becoming Elves, and this arises a problem: many are in intermediate states, where they are vulnerable to crooks, cults, and other spiritual mistakes like ego inflation or grasping at the results. And crooks and cults are many, playing the Elves and pretending to be the only true ones, or hoping to bend them in their ways. More, nasty politicians spreading lies in the media and now in the Internet. For this reason, two ancient High Elves of the Shamal, Iraën and Amaleen, had joined the local Tyron Elf community, organizing conferences and meditation sessions to guide the candidates.

And they have a lot of work, guiding, counseling, explaining, dissipating lies, and kindling the energies. They are very efficient at this, allowing the local Elves to move from a collection of small disparate groups wary of each other, to a strong, trusting and organized network with several public or private places. They also efficiently sorted the bad apples. And now, anybody wanting to become an Elf knows where to go and how to do.

Dissipating lies was also an excellent service to Kondo, because ill guided aspirants can become anti-social in several ways. On the other hand, the Elven Path can mend even delinquents or political extremists, as soon as they accept the transformation. As to prove this, several former delinquents had joined the movement and become worthy and reliable members. Yet few recognize this work, and many politicians instead criticize the Elves pretending they are «immigrants» dangerous for Kondo. Although the actual immigrants are only a dozen. «But very active» say the detractors.

It is in this complex world that Ruslan is now trying to enter, starting by the top notch community for experienced candidates!

Before ringing the bell, he thinks at how to present himself. Worn clothes, not combed, dirty, a plastic bag over his shoulders, he really looks like a bum. Not ideal to enter in this world of beauty, cleanliness and sweet perfumes. He removes the plastic, and combs his hair with his fingers. It take him twenty minutes, because it had turned into felt. Yes, it does that, when you have not combed for long.

There is a kind of bus shelter, next to the gate.

It has a big sign on it that says «Listal bearers, please read first».

He had often heard of listals: a man wearing a listal asks for the love of an Elve, and he gets it within hours or days.

Too simple, he thought.

There has to be a catch.

The story of the listal is now well known in Kondo, and there are a lot of amateurs, superficial or porn people, who imagine they can lay an Elve, simply by wearing a white cloth.

Just that...

The Elves have 3000 years of experience of this thing. And there are terrible stories, which soon turned out to be true: whoever abuses an Elf or an Elve, by force or by deception, never has the chance to do it again.

Well, for the simple naive flirtation, the punishment is not so serious. But the smart ones soon learned not to play with the listals, and those who insisted on doing so ended up with a taste of the old medicine. Better not to tell what.

So Ruslan, standing in front of the gate, intimidated as if he had to declare himself to a woman, does not know what to think. He is especially afraid of being misunderstood, from his appearance. But how to do, he has no home to wash, and no money to buy clothes. Even hunger is becoming a problem, his last meal was a sandwich yesterday noon.

Looking at the bus shelter, Ruslan finds traces of tags and other vandalism. He realizes that he is not the first one, and that the previous ones had not left a good impression. Worse, everybody is under the shock of an armed car robbery which occurred just some days ago. After such a thing, everybody on the plateau must be the finger on the trigger, he thinks. (This is told in the story «The Elven Gold»). After the law of Kondo, the trial of the culprits has to be in three months maximum.

Well, he sits down, and begins to read the instructions for the listal, not without glancing at the camera.

«The Listal is an ancient and authentic Elven custom. Its purpose is for an Human to tell his or her desire to become an Elf or an Elve».

Well, he always heard that it was to ask for sex, ha ha ha!

«However, there is a lot of disinformation about this custom.»

You bet.

«To begin with, many people still think that wearing a listal guarantees that they will lay an Elve that evening. Nothing could be further from the truth, and any attempt to do so could get the perpetrator into serious trouble. While the cruel punishments of the past are no longer practiced, attempting to abuse an Elve can still have painful consequences. Not to mention what any woman, Elve or Human, can do when she realizes that her life is about to be destroyed.»

Well, Ruslan thinks, this is not encouraging. But more logical, basically, than these stories of sex in self-service.

Worse, his desire to meet a woman companion will not be fulfilled at once. He even fears that the Elves would be some sort of bigots despising love.

«The Listal is used to indicate that the bearers desires to become an Elf by the fast process, that is, by attracting the love of an Elven companion. But this is not the only process, nor the easiest. The slow process will instead allow you to build an original Elven personality.

«Second problem, this custom used to work well when few humans wanted to become Elves. But today we have over 2000 serious candidates in Kondo, for a few visitors from the Dauriath every three months. So your chances of success by this method are very slim, and the slow process may end to be faster.

«This is why we hold courses and meditations for anyone who wants to become an Elf by the slow process.

«We had to add other rules, the main one being that a listal bearer must not make love proposals himself. Otherwise each of our residents would be getting ten a day. They know perfectly well what you are looking for, anyway, and if they are interested, they will not be shy to let you know.»

Ruslan stands there for a moment, in front of the closed gate, not sure of what to do. But one of the Elven horses is watching him, making friendly snorts. Ruslan reaches out his hand, to stroke his muzzle through the gate.

When suddenly...

The gate opens!

From all the warning he got, he expected someone was trying to get out, not to invite him in!

One of the Elven horses seems to appreciate his presence (those marvelous white horses, lightly dappled with pearl gray or beige, with long blond, ocher or light gray manes).

Finally Ruslan see an Elve approaching.

«Hello, she says, what owes us the pleasure of your visit?»

He has no idea, but she is none other than Daureen Amaleen, priestess of Shelenaë, and one of the High Elves of the Kondo Elf community. We already met her in the story of Iraën in modern times, and we saw how she could manage to sort out the «bad apples», that is insincere candidates, or people falsely pretending to be Elves. Before the Horiathon battle, there were so many false hippies and true wackos pretending to be Elves, that the real ones were shy, not trusting each other, hiding, living alone or in small groups. Iraën and Amaleen succeeded into eliminating these crooks, allowing the real Elves to build a reliable and successful network of communities and groups, capable of investing in large activities. Since they do not need guidance any more, Amaleen and her husband Iraën are now guiding the candidate Elves, through the various traps and obstacles of obtaining Elvenhood.

And Amaleen instantly knows more about Ruslan than he knows himself. This is a great opportunity, because, given his tramp appearance, almost all the other Elves would have rejected him completely.

At first glance, she does not really looks like an Elve either: denim dungarees, boots, straw peasant hat, undetermined age. But unlike the peasants with their sideways looks, she is staring straight into his eyes.

«I've come to uh... discover the Elves...»

She has a smile that he thought was mocking (The far left circles are so toxic, that he does not even dare to talk to this woman, guilt-ridden as he is by years of false accusations of phallocracy, which made him feel totally inept with women)

She finally helps him:

«We have a small room available. You can help with the community, and get to know each other.»

So, against all odds, he is accepted!

While thousands had been unceremoniously turned away at that very same gate! And hundreds were waiting their turn for a small room! But he had no idea of that, so he just ignored how lucky he was.

He later learned that, following a television program, more than three hundred white cloth bearers had shown up at that gate on the same day, imagining they would have easy sex, or worse. They had lined up for hundreds meters along the dirt road, under the mocking laughter of the cow farmers, who were watching them from the other side of their own fence. The later finally had to call the police, when fights broke out in the queue.

So it is understandable that the Elves are suspicious. Worse, all sorts of dropouts, tramps and sickos also use to show up, thinking that the Elves would tolerate their mental decay, which they are denied everywhere else.

But the most dangerous are those who claim to be spiritual or evolved, imagining themselves commanding to the Elves and bending them to their ideologies. Of course, they have no hold on the confirmed Elves, so that they target the ignorant and easily manipulated aspirants. Some had even formed groups of «real Elves», deceiving sincere candidates, or speaking in the television in the name of the Elves.

Amaleen shows Ruslan the bedroom, small, with raw plaster walls and sparsely decorated, but a palace for him, after those years of wandering. As soon as he poses his bag, she shows him the bathroom, making him understand with a smile and a gentle nudge on the shoulder that he has to start there. Despite his shyness and guilt, he is not hurt by this frankness: Amaleen has a way of presenting things without awaking bad feeling (plus some special powers to silence negative emotions before they disturb the person. But she does not use them often, and only to save situations, as with Ruslan).

In fact he is so intimidated to be in an Elves' house, that he does not even dare to undress! Even with the door latched. Amaleen has to come back, asking if he is well. But from that moment on, his shyness dissolves, «as if by magic» he thinks! She passes him some clean clothes, common in style, but quite pretty in color, which made him feel a bit an Elf already, ha ha ha ha!

This spares him the shame of showing with his dirty clothes, to a whole group who had arrived in the meanwhile. There are Elves and Humans, probably candidates. From their expressions, he knows that they would not have allowed him in. But Amaleen introduces him as a «good candidate, who passed through quite an ordeal», which draws their sympathy.

Amaleen shows quite motherly for three days. Then she stops, to speak as equal to equal. What few know is that one of Amaleen's own children, Anglar, had lived in the caves just behind the farm. His moving writings had been found some days earlier (See the story of The Elven Gold), along with a set of musical instruments and other invaluable personal objects. Ruslan also understands that she has something more than the other Elves, by the way they accepted her statement without questions.

In fact, from that moment on, Ruslan feels different, free from his former bad company. He sorts out his clothes, washing the salvageable ones and throwing the bad ones into the fire.

Of course, he is totally dependent on the group, sheltered and fed for free. But this was never reproached to him. It must be said that, after a few days of needed rest and feeding, he wholeheartedly took on all the useful tasks of the small community, and there are a lot.

He also discovers that there are numerous other Elven communities, spread in the countryside in Kondo, or in the Tyron suburbs. Most are inhabited by candidates, often with a real Elf or Elve to set the mood. These communities often meet together, making feasts and music. But most of the time they work at various productions: repairing houses, gardening, farming, or around a workshop.

Some even work in companies, or they created their own. Indeed, contrarily to the far left who pretended to be «pure» (which led them to do nothing useful), the Elf network is intricated with the human economy in Tyron. Of course this needs numerous compromises, but this is much more efficient for spreading the vision of the egalitarian True Economy.

One of the activities of the Elf network is the making of clothes. Those wonderful Elven tunics so beautiful and comfortable, but that nobody else wants to sew. But also more classic cuts, for work. Some Elves want to be completely inconspicuous, but for that they just have to buy ordinary clothes. So nobody suspects that they are Elves (save the sociopaths, who spot them instantly as their targets. These apparently supernatural powers of the sociopaths makes them akin to demons)

Since they cannot find suitable clothes in the regular shops, the Elves used to buy white clothes and to dye them. As this requires some facilities and know-how, they had created an informal workshop, which also is a place to meet, celebrate and fraternize.

The repression came down hard: within a few weeks, it was impossible to find white clothes anywhere in the whole Kondo. Of course, no one was openly claiming this action, the shopkeepers just saying that «fashion had changed» or that «they sell what people ask for», or «you should not be paranoid», this last answer being equivalent to a confession.

So that the Elves organized differently: buying fabric and sewing their own clothes. It was much more difficult to ban white fabric! At worst, they could order it directly from the producers, in other countries if needed. For instance Rhondo, to the north, with usually friendly relations, and not hostile to the Elves. Their increasing needs allowed them for large orders.

The result is a rather pretty and colorful «Elf style», which contrasts with the grays and browns of the ordinary crowd. Not that the Elves are trying to be different, they just want to be themselves, and to live their lives unimpeded. The television accuse them of «claiming an Elven identity» and some politicians talk about banning «conspicuous signs of ethnicity», even going so far as to propose a list of colors to be banned. However, an unexpected thing happened: many people liked the «Elven style», which spread in the streets! As a result, many sewing machines were sold, an acquisition that nobody ever regrets.

For two years Ruslan works to help the community, gradually making a place for himself, and befriending with other residents.

Without any accusation of phallocracy.

But without any touch either.

Indeed, there are only about twenty Elves, all married.

If he shows more mastery of his desire, it is still here, and often at night he dreams of a wonderful Elve coming for him. When this idea haunts him at day, he does the meditations on patience and accepting the situation. Indeed, he has learned in his lessons that craving and desire for control are the worst enemies of happiness and of the fulfillment of our desires.

But sometimes; despite this training, he is sad. He understand that this world is going through an entirely novel situation: the awakening of consciousness, with still a majority of empty individuals interested in nothing. Things are going as fast as they can, but for a lone individual the days and nights passed alone are painfully long.

Well, not really alone: the people in the Shamal Elf farm are very friendly and easy to live with! Which greatly compensates for the lack of a companion. He makes several friends that he will continue later to communicate with.

And he learns a lot, and trains to become an Elf in the slow process.

Sometimes, in feasts or ceremonies, he wears a listal, or when new Dauriath Elves arrive. He is never blamed for this. But at this rate, as he was warned, he would complete the slow process before meeting a mate! He ends up accepting this idea: only a fair and high vibe male can make an Elve happy. Trying to bypass the intermediate stages would make her unhappy, or could even turn the relationship to a catastrophe. He got a positive point however: he has several occasions to check that they are not bigots!

Until one day unexpectedly, Weena arrives from another Elven place in the Shartan. She is a beautiful blonde with nice shapes, soft speech and sweet manners, and the energy passes well between her and Ruslan.

Weena is quite an extraordinary person. Just some days before leaving the Dauriath, she had never seen a car or even a tractor, living in a fairy-tale forest of the New Terallion. Three months after her arrival, she gets her driver's license and uses the Internet as if she had always done so. She is a real Elve, not a klutz!

Moreover, coming from the Undar (the «fantazy» part of the Dauriath without technology), she has real magical powers. Not to levitate or anything like that, but in her presence, things always work out spontaneously, diseases heal faster, flowers choke brambles, and the atmosphere always turns fairy-like. All the Elves do this to some extent, but Weena is particularly good at that. The strangest is that she is not «doing» anything, just that her mere presence is making things better.

This does not match the traditional image of a magician wielding magic and instantaneously bending things to his will. The reason is that magic can happen only when the ego is unplugged, precisely. So that the mere though of «I want this to happen» blocks the magic, as surely as pulling the power plug blocks your computer. This is why magic is so rare! In reality, magic happens spontaneously in non-ego and non-action. And Weena is not «doing» anything, just she is herself, she is in the energy of the situation, in the energy of the group, not obstructing with opinions or expectations, not trying to direct or control anything. Even on Earth when a group is in the energy, we can see magical events happening. But this stops abruptly as soon as an ego notices it, blocking any further manifestation. On Earth, even scientists favorable to parapsychological phenomena, forbid them to happen in their experiments, by their mere way of thinking. And they conclude that this does not exist. This is very funny, because if these scientists wanted to demonstrate the statement «sunshine makes people merry» with such a mindset of control and hostility, then the test subjects would just be annoyed, even if submitted to a scorching Sahara sun. While the real thing happens spontaneously for nearby all people.

Well, our scientists are not dumb, and they spotted this counter-effect happening, calling it psi-missing: an experiment gives a statistically significant result, but opposite of what is expected. Just they do not yet have a theory behind. Buddhism and most spiritual paths advise «not to seek powers», because wanting them with the ego blocks them, precisely. This is why spirituality seeks the destruction of the ego first. Then, the spiritual powers happen spontaneously, without we try to provoke them.

I started publishing such a theory of consciousness in 2003, under the name of «logical Self-Generation theory», which also leads to the known physics. We shall see this in further stories, like The Estrellar, how the Elf scientists in the Arlit managed to understand this too.

So, Weena is not wielding magic as Gandalf does in the movie. Actually, she would be as much unable as you and me to do like that! What she is good at, is in mind emptiness: in the absence of opinions, grasping, frustration, expectations, judgment or control, she is just feeling the energy, in the flow of the situations. This is how the Transcendence, the real and only source of magic, can express unimpeded through her.

And through anybody doing so.

Even through you, if you do like her.

In those two years, Ruslan also got to know Amaleen, and he learned that she is a priestess of Shelenaë, in charge of the Elf candidates in more than twenty centers around Tyron.

She had requested him, among other tasks, to serve as her secretary in her lectures on Elven life. This is important, because among the aspirants there are little known things, and many prejudices which need to be dispelled. Especially, the Elven love is quite disconcerting for men who discover it without preparation. Thanks to this work, and «as by random», Ruslan is now knowing everything he needs to enter into an informed love relationship.

But he does not know yet that the priestesses of Shelenaë also are love counsels. So when he saw her talking at low voice with Weena, he thought it was about their business, without imagining that it was about him at all.

That evening, after the meal, he retired in the garden to meditate. The Shamal sunset is so beautiful, with the hazy rock castles making strange silhouettes all in golden and mauve hues. One of the summits of the mysterious Arounal is visible from here, enticing into daydreaming. If he has not given up his project of a companion, he had managed to control the attachment to this idea, and to accept the exercises of the slow way, to which he is diligently meditating. The present exercise is to be in the strong energy of the sunset on the Shamal, instead on being into plans and reflections.

Suddenly he senses Weena approaching him. She does not do that usually, and the moment seems magical.

«Are you still wearing the listal?» is her entrance in conversation.

He is speechless with surprise. At least she is direct! Ah, he thought he knew the Elves!

Of course she would make an excellent companion, and he has a strong attraction to her, who is so kind, and in the same time morally strong, a real woman.

She is looking at him and laughing!

With that sweet Elf laugh which does not make you feel uncomfortable.

«Gunma Amaleen understood from the beginning that you are a serious candidate. Even the horses had noticed, ha ha ha!»

We suspect that their evening was beautiful...

And that Ruslan finally became an Elf by the fast way.

The next morning, when Ruslan wakes up, she was already up for long, as confirmed Elves need less sleep. For a minute or two he wonders if it had just been a dream, too beautiful to be true. Then he finds her delicate embroidery, that she had left on the pillow, all impregnated with her delicious scent. Her way of saying that she is still with him. So that it is not a dream, what had happened was real!

Ruslan realizes how extraordinary it had been. First of all, the listal works, it is not a story. But most of all, Weena really is an exceptional person, both from her pleasant temperament and the powerful magic force which emanates from her. Suddenly he feels the impostor syndrome: what if she was wrong? What if he did not deserved such a fantastic companion? What if he was unable to become a real Elf? And if he betrayed them from some awkward mistake or shortcoming?

These questions bothered him... until he get up, and arrives in the common room. There, Weena embraces him in front of everybody, triggering a wave of applause! Perhaps for the first time in his life, Ruslan is proud of himself! All the faces, Elves and candidates, are turned towards him, expressing joy and congratulations!

Of course, the support of such a pure love, and such a flawless social recognition, has a powerful and immediate effect on Ruslan, who had never felt so full of energy. But above all, it takes him only some days to realize that he is rapidly transforming, and that all the bad in him, physically or morally, is dissipating, by the magic of the Elves, by Weena's smile, without him having to make any particular effort or action. No, he is not betraying them, he is becoming a real Elf himself!

Better yet, what had started this incredible transformation had been, years before, his own decision to go for a better life, at a time when, as a child, he heard the television blathering against the Elves and lamenting the lost Horiathon Battle and the Treaty of Surrender and Contrition. And he held fast on his choice, despite the constant scolding and denigration from his parents, despite all the hazing and bad marks at school, despite all the accusations and guilt during his far left period. Indeed, beyond all the methods, ultimately it is our only choice which guides our evolution. A good choice can transcend all the obstacle, while a bad choice leads us nowhere even with the best methods and conditions.

Only three weeks after their informal marriage, Weena’s visa for Kondo is about to expire. She can apply for a renewal, but this comes in the middle of a huge media fuss about «immigration», which had allowed two far right ministers and declared enemies of the Elves, to push a measure banning «foreigners» from staying in Kondo for more than five years. A welcome hubbub to distract from serious economic hardship caused by their austerity policies, or to blame the Elves for it.

As Amaleen and her husband Iraën are almost the only ones in this situation, this law was clearly aimed at them personally. Them who had silently served the Kondo Elven community for over ten years, never meddling in Kondo politics, not even responding to the countless attacks aimed at them.

In facts, Kondo’s law being not retroactive, it cannot apply to them. But so many people know nothing about it, and the politicians and the media had blown the whole thing ridiculously out of proportion, talking about it every evening in the television, organizing «debates», with much gesticulations, boasting, accusations of «identity claims», etc.

In theory, the magic of the Elves could easily shut down all these idiots (a minority anyway). But they have to face the terrible manipulative power of television: millions of people thinking at the same thing in the same moment create a huge negative force, as a grand satanic ritual with invocation of the major demons of binary thinking and fear of others. The noise of televisions, cars, blather and vibration-less music are stronger than the magic of the Elves, smothering the vibrations and killing the magic. The only defense of the Elves is to operate discreetly, even secretly. But with the paparazzi now watching the surroundings of the Elf’s farm, even this is compromised.

So Iraen and Amaleen have no choice than to comply. But it is only a tactical retreat! Other High Elves and priests are quite capable of taking over now, even with the five-year limitation. In any case, they know very well that this measure would be canceled by the next government. Or that they would be asked to return even before, for their positive role in society. Indeed, not just candidate Elves were attending their meditation lessons, and their positive effect was sensible in the whole society.

Amaleen therefore announce that «their time of service to Kondo» is coming to an end, and they would leave «by plane», «in some weeks». Without indicating any precise date, so as not to give rise to speculation.

This departure is nevertheless a great sorrow for the entire community of the aspirants, who fear an interruption of their training. Amaleen reassure them: they would stay in contact with her through their Internet forums and virtual worlds, and in any case other as capable High Elves are already here. Not to mention that in these twelve years, they had clarified many things and created a real Elven culture, protected from the most common lies. The new Elven community can now be autonomous.

Iraen even goes as far as making a farewell speech, warmly thanking all of Kondo, and its fantastic inhabitants who had welcomed them so well and helped them so much. Thus, in a sort of spiritual judo, he sends all the hostile energies back to their aggressors. But the latter do not see anything, continuing their gesticulations under the amused gaze of the majority. This is how Elven magic makes its way even among more powerful forces, like a judoka who overthrows enemies much stronger than him.

The revenge of the Elves came much faster than anyone had expected: Nellie Eolidas, «marshi» of the Cedars clinic and a high level surgeon, had also exceeded the famous limit for several years. She allowed herself to comment, a condescending smile on her lips: «if I receive an injunction, I will leave. But then, more than two hundred patients per year will be deprived of unique vital care. Think before». Nobody commented.

Not to mention that now, with all her free time, Amaleen could also «fix» things, in order to make the activity of these crooked politicians more difficult. They found themselves with minor, but very annoying health problems, which quickly got them expelled from the government.

The paparazzi also learned not to encroach on the cow farmers' lands. The later do not either appreciated these bizarre strangers brandishing cameras like weapons, entering everywhere with an incredible shamelessness, and even cutting fences (the worse sin for cow farmers). And these meat producers do not care for non-violence. Several of the invaders were molested and their cameras «requisitioned». The farmers also brought a vicious bull in the meadow in front of the Elve’s entrance, thus confining the paparazzi on the narrow path!

The joke merchants, for their part, rub their hands: never had so many fake snakes been sold. Shamal model of course, with even mini electric motors to animate them!

On the day they had decided, Amaleen and Iraen left the Shamal discreetly, with Weena, using the old MakTar circumambulation path to avoid the paparazzi. From there, they left the plateau by the northern footpath, the very same they had taken during the exodus eight centuries earlier. An ordinary van was waiting for them in a small parking lot, next to a memorial sign of the Exodus (This place had served as an administrative registration center for the deportees). From there, they avoided the airport of Tyron (also infested with paparazzi) and they slipped away by the road through the northern border of Kondo, towards the Principality of Rhondo, where their pursuers had not thought to wait for them. Their escape was not discovered until two days later.

The laws of Rhondo allowed them to stay three months. Indeed, the country is less favorable to the Elves, so that it is better not to stay too long, and not to show themselves too openly as Elves in the main town of Skylan. The border police told them that, «given the controversy», they should refrain from any public declaration. To which they replied that they had no plans to do so, intending only to visit the Tonnar mountains in full privacy. Which they did indeed, but not as simple tourists!

These events also impacted Ruslan, through his new union with Weena. Worse, he too had a serious reason to flee discretely: his family, who had rejected him for a long time already, but who continued to have him watched, while sending him hostile letters from time to time. By some means they had learned of his union, which made them furious, with thinly veiled death threats. Ruslan was still scared of them, from his childhood of bullying and violence, so that he took those threats seriously.

For this reason, Ruslan did not left with Weena, not even through the airport. He went off in a car towards Tyron, without attracting the attention of the paparazzi who checked the faces through the car windows (despite the risk of receiving self-defence spray, it happened several times. And the former far left Ruslan did not hide his joy of sprinkling several at blank point, to the point of making them scream). He spent a night with discreet Elves (dressing as Humans), and continued his journey in another car, to also cross the northern border of Kondo, towards the Rhondo. From there he joined Weena, Amaleen and Iraen in a discreet Elven meditation center, for the three months they planned to stay in this country. Since he was not yet officially an Elf, he could enter the Rhondo unhindered, and stay as long as he wanted, without even being asked for a motive.

He wondered if he really had to declare anyway, since Elves should have the same rights as Humans. Indeed, all the discrimination against the Elves are based on bogus criteria, like the clothing or the hair, so that none is valid in law. Yet many were falsely «accused» of being Elves, on the basis of such arbitrary criteria. But Ruslan still had his human face, as the transformation takes years.

They spent three wonderful months in the extraordinary landscapes of the Tonnar Range, where several well-organized Elven communities exist, which they visited. Accommodation was not a problem, there were rooms everywhere, combining Elven beauty and modern comfort.

For Ruslan especially, being so close from high Elves was a fantastic experience, where he discovered the Elven magic, and even started to feel his own.

The coastal plain of Rhondo is very similar to the one of Kondo, continuing it towards the north, with several industrial hubs dotting a farming landscape. But the mountainous part is larger and more varied, with higher peaks: the Tonnar Mountains range. It has a variety of breathtaking landscapes populated quite diversely, by farmers, ecologists, people living from tourism, and Elves of course, fond of those fantastic landscapes. It is also well known for several lovely narrow gauge mountain trains, that they could use at times.

The Tonnar range is north of the Arounal Humak, from where they make a fantastic landscape. The Honsho is also visible from the east side of the Shamal Humak, while the Barabundar and the Stendek are hidden by the Arounal.

In fact each valley has its own style, and the Elves had reused or rebuilt magnificent traditional wooden houses with pillars, galleries and hanging planters full of red and white flowers. These homes were large enough for several families to live in. Thus, they pleased the government of Rhondo, who had enacted strict architectural standards to preserve this invaluable cultural heritage. But also they enriched this heritage for itself, to the point that a kind of friendly competition had been established between Humans and Elves, to make the most beautiful houses in this style. One of Elf’s addition was curved and sculptured knee braces supporting the balconies.

The three most important peaks of the Tonnar Range are the Barabundar, the Stendek and the Honsho.

The Barabundar is actually a limestone massif, with colored marbles, peaks, caves, and a whole network of hiking refuges, for anybody exploring this fantastic and diverse landscape, full of strange rocks, squat scented trees, or lovely grass glens adorned with rare altitude flowers. But no stupid tourism is allowed up there, you have to walk or to ride. Guides herd the blathering vibration killer tourists on a small set of beaten paths, and show the real thing only to those who respect them.

Of course, there is a fight going on, against a group of blokes wanting to destroy the vibe with an electric power line. They say that it does not matter, since the place is «desert».

The strangest place of the Tonnar, though, is the Stendek, an isolated mountain, triangular and pointed. It is forbidden to go there, nobody knows exactly why. The most curious thing is that several important political changes did not modified this situation. Before the Revolution, it was the priests, already without a clear motive. But during the Revolution, very curiously the People's Army continued this religious taboo, while wanting to eradicate all the others. After the Revolution, it was considered a nature sanctuary, and today this statute had been legalized as a wildlife reserve, together with some hidden valleys in the Tonnar Range. It is possible that the Arunal Humak and its mysterious inner valleys will join this statute, making its gigantic caves and impossible ruins forever unexplored. So that all these places would become gers, that is places of nature with access forbidden or strictly controlled.

So it is a bit as on Earth with Mount Shasta, or Mount Kailash. And actually, no one has ever set foot on the Stendek, and those who tried had problems and had to get down quickly, or even it is said that they disappeared. ((A curious trivia is that «Stendec» was the last word received from the «Star Dust» Avro Lancaster flight CS-59, when it disappeared in the Andes mountains on August 2, 1947. For long this cryptic message fed a lot of speculations on strange mysteries, like UFO encounter, until the plane’s wreck was found in 1998. But the word «Stendec» was never explained with certainty))

The third peak is Honsho (usually without article), also called the Black Mountain. It is covered with a pine forest up to a fairly high altitude, which makes it appear black from afar, by contrast with the snow patches. On foehn days, you can smell the pines all the way east to the coastal plain. Their resin is considered the best for violins, and also for electronic soldering. Funny, huh?

In ancient times, people who went up there witnessed strange things, orbs of light, sounds floating in the air without a clear source, sensations of presence, and lots of weird stuff (not photographic artifact orbs, but real balls of light illuminating the trees around). But «rational» people were seeing nothing, leading them to pretend that the whole affair was «irrational belief» or «hysteria».

One of the first field trips of our four Elves is Honsho. Unfortunately the apparitions had stopped after the installation of a ski resort, which had scarred the mountain with a huge white Z visible from very far away. People call it the Zorglub Sign, so much it is out of place in this majestic landscape. But our friends could feel that the cause of these apparitions is still there, waiting for its time. Weena especially was very sensitive to invisible presences, and she was nearby able to communicate! But the only result was that time had not yet come. The tourist ski resorts has to give way first.

Well, the ski resort does not work great, there always are problems, unexpected costs, lack of profitability, strikes, and so on. But it receives subsidies, to «keep the mountain alive». Funny how it is always the anti-life stuff which gets the government’s subsidies to «keep them alive», never the real life things.

Since they could not stay more that three months in Rhondo. Iraen and Amaleen left for another Sylvan Elves country further north in the mountains beyond Rhondo, where their experience and skills are more than welcome.

Ruslan and Weena took the plane to Tellutaar, the ancient Marshizath of Tellutaar, where another great story took place, from the time when the Elves still had strong magic, before the Exodus.

They flew over the Blue Mountains, the birthplace of the Elves, and saw a flash of gold: the Anar Shantar Marjun, the ancient great temple of the Elves, one of the few large Elven building which escaped the destructions of the Exodus. This make it over 1000 years old, not bad for a wooden structure. Well, covered in gold, it protects well. But today access is strictly forbidden, because of the risk of fire with all this hyper-dry wood. Accumulated wood dust may even make the building explode! There is a plan to put the inside under nitrogen, which would re-allow some visits, at the cost of... wearing a scuba breathing apparatus!

They stayed some months in Tellutaar, where there is a large, well-organized and thriving Elven community, which just had made a representative elected on the municipal council.

NewTel is the modern name, but people ask for Tellutaar again, the illustrious old Marshizath of Tellutaar, probably the most prestigious in all of Shartan, and the only one which survived until the Revolution. A Marshizath is a human kingdom ruled by Elves. Unfortunately, humans had finally taken power there, and the only remaining elvish things were the brocades. Still the Marshis had a duty of illustrating a «divine life», what they did by building an incredibly luxurious palace, still visible today with most of its content intact. A fantastic and probably unique dive in a past of Elven grandeur!

Tellutaar had experienced a huge industrial expansion when falling sea levels had uncovered coal mines.

Tellutaar had experienced a severe recession when the coal mines were exhausted. Nobody have foreseen that this had to happen.

Since, the town had diversified, with many advanced technologies, several universities, large factories, etc.

The ancient temples destroyed during the Revolution are being rebuilt. Of course Weena wanted to see that! The only one which had not been destroyed was the huge dome of the Shelenaë temple, making it over 1500 years old. Well, all the precious materials had been stolen from inside. The leader of the revolution, the self proclaimed «General» Zampan, had put all this in his personal vaults (All the tyrants do that, everywhere and each time, lol). But when he died, his heirs decided to relinquish all the priceless works of art, for the good of everybody, rather than living egoistically from the theft. This is how the giant statue of Shelenaë could be rebuilt, with relatively few hypotheses. Yes, the one with eyes of giant beryls. She is now complete, with fresh paint, spot lights making the green beryl eyes to shine again, and a solid fence around with surveillance cameras and alarms against trespassers. Our friends were deeply moved with this sight, memory of the ancient splendor of Tellutaar. In fact, the original statue was not elvish, it was built by Humans, who were also worshiping Shelenaë as the goddess of farming.

Yet the statue is still hollow, though, with discussions about whether to put the precious stones of Her Chakras back into their places, or either to expose them in a museum. In any case only the Elves know in which order to put them back in place. Indeed, among humans the priesthood of Shelenaë had died out with the Revolution, or in the following years when the surviving priests died of old age without being able to train successors. So only the Elves are still detaining this knowledge now. Just that the intellectuals are not listening at them, instead debating loudly on the «symbolism» of each stone. But they are not here for symbolism, they are here for their vibes. Hence the vanity of any intellectual discussion.

The Marshis palace had not been destroyed by the Revolution, ha ha, the leader had taken it for himself! It is now a kind of museum, open to visitors, with occasional ceremonies for the government. It is a very interesting visit, with many authentic Elven sculptures and works, some very old, 2000 years or more. Ruslan and Weena went there twice, and Weena was moved to tears from seeing such ancient items, so rich with the vibrations of the past splendor of the Elven kingdoms. Indeed those items were exchanged from far away places, and many are authentic Elven works of the highest art.

There also is a large Elven community in Tellutaar, very organized, with cooperatives, activities, teachings. It extends in the surrounding countryside, with Elven houses. They do not say «Elven communities» because the right wing government confuses them with far left communes. Instead the Elves call these places «big families», an authentic Elven tradition, where several couples live in a large house, to raise children together while avoiding single children. For the government and the media, they well insist that «each couple has his own bedroom»

In fact, most of these big families do not have children at all, the Nyidiath being already overpopulated. But living together is still nicer than each one in his own corner! The Elves can do this, since they do not have all these psychological problems which always mess things up.

Finally Ruslan and Weena flew to the Dauriath.

In a beautiful Elven plane, white with a rainbow, the interior all panelled in marquetry. Incorrigible Elves, what they do always has to be beautiful, even if it is a cyclotron.

In the Dauriath, Ruslan saw the true magic of the Elves. He eventually came to live there, with Weena.

They first visited the Arlit, the modern side of the Dauriath, which scientific achievements fascinated Ruslan. After visiting the Arlit, they went to Weena's native village, in an enchanted forest in New Terallion. Ruslan really needed twenty to thirty years of love and nature, to repair what his bullied childhood had broken, and to fully develop his Elven personality. But we do not know much more of the story, as they just tucked together in Weena's house in an enchanted village of the New Terallion, not making fuss outside.

Spoiler! Why and how to talk about Elven love.

The way Elves start love in my stories may lead to the wrong understanding that they would be libertines, or worse. This risk is the reason why classical authors like Tolkien totally avoided the topic, while others like Pierre Benoît proceeded with allusion. But this discretion may also induce the opposite false idea that the Elves would be prudish, while leaving to bad video games the monopoly on defining Elven love. Worse, so many people are projecting their own ideas on what they read, that I have to address some things explicitly. My purpose of fostering a better world is another reason to explains Elven love and how it operates.

To start with, for the Elves, the heart and the bed are inseparable. This is the reason why they usually start with the heart. And it is a wonderful thing, in ancient Elven communities, when youngsters come in age, and chaste childhood love turns into full adult love! But if you want to start with the bed, well, this is possible too, and many do so. The Elven society is a free society, and unexpected encounters happen, suddenly illuminating an ordinary day. But the heart part will inescapably befall on you as soon as you get up the next morning: you realize that you now miss your new love. (This also is how things work for normally sensible and sensitive Humans)

Second, like everything the Elves do, love is a search for beauty and high vibrations. This makes of porn, prudishness, sexism, sexual vagrancy or objectification of partners, all serious faults, totally incompatible with the Elven life. On the contrary, magic allows the Elves to go further than humans in this area, towards an angelic purity, while us Humans on Earth have to deal with our biological inconveniences.

Above all, Elf love is what on Earth we call Tantric love, and this is what gives it its magic… and makes it so different from anything we imagine about it. Well, about tantric love, forget everything you heard from cults, wikipedia, television and so. You will be welcome to go and learn in your favorite Buddhist, Taoist, Jainist or Hindu temple. But people will not answer you right away on this topic, you will have to learn many other important things before you can really understand. It is like driving a car: you have to get your driving license, and even before you need to have your legs long enough to reach the pedals.

Happily for the Elves, they are natively wired with tantric love, while Humans need years of training.

That Elves have no formal marriage also is a source of misunderstanding. The real reason is that what matters to them is the energy exchange between the two lovers. This is enough for them to define a couple, even if they are chaste (what we call platonic love) and even not married. And the other Elves feel this energy bond, and quite well, because they do not interpret what they see after fake «social conventions». They are interested in the real thing, not in appearances. This is why they can know that a couple is married without being told, simply because they exchange energy.

Or well, you go to bed celibate, you get up married. A single night is enough to reshape the systems of the two partners, so that they operate together, for superior results and happiness.

Often Elves do a marriage ceremony, but it is a celebration of happiness, not the commitment: the commitment is taken when they create the energy bond. With the celebration, they start to enrich the common egregore of the couple, attract spiritual benedictions, and other reasons. In short, it is to make the couple stronger, not to change its rights or statute.

Usually, Elves are monogamic and heterosexual. But exceptions happen too. They are considered unadvisable. But the Elven society is a free society, so that those unions are respected in exactly the same way as any others.

And they are energy exchanges as well.

As to love between a Human and an Elf, it is only possible with the protocol associated with the Listal. Although the white cloth is only a declaration of intent, and it often happens that the protocol is triggered without the Listal, or even without the human partner knowing it, as it with Lilian. What makes the match always univocal and infallible is that it is decided in the Mithlon, the inter-personal space, or inter-personal consciousness, where we also find the spirits of places, the egregores and the Planetary Logos. Humans usually do not have access to the inter-personal consciousness, as they are too often stuck to their individual brain by their ego grasping. Although, even in Humans, sometimes collective enthusiasm results in bursts of such a form of communication.

Why is it so difficult to become an Elf?

That love with an Elf can converts a Human to an Elf is not so mysterious. Indeed, becoming an Elf is not difficult in itself, nor does it require special qualities (even animals do it). However, in the modern Nyidiath, a century of materialistic capitalist dictatorship erected as a system of morality, had glorified the hardening of the ego, while allowing for all sorts of opinions and neurosis presented as «our real persona». The main difficulty for aspirants is then the opinions they formed about the process, and especially their frantic desire to control it. A form of spiritual arrogance which often blocks them completely. Other more subtle spiritual obstacles set by a powerful ego are attachment to the result, tense attention, and ultimately the ego mimicking the achievements. In short, it had become much more difficult to become an Elf today! Hence the need for theories, training and detailed explanations, for something which once happened naturally, without the need to analyze or control it.

Some of these opinions even had grew into organized movements, like the ridiculous belief that not eating gluten would make you become an Elf. Or that computers would be incompatible with Elves, and therefore that the Elves of the Arlit would be false Elves! (The far left add: «exploiting the Elves of the Undar»). Others, much more dangerous, were growing silently, like advocating drugs to become an Elf (failure warranted in all cases, it can even make Elvenhood forever impossible to obtain). Or worse, «explaining» the Elf state by a «firework of neurotransmitters», making believe that the Elves are permanently under drug. Such a vicious and desperate idea is nevertheless supported by some real scientists.

At the time of this story, the ancient Elves rather discourage the young Elves of the Dauriath to volunteer to help a human by the love path (the fast path). This is why so few visited the Community where Ruslan lived. Indeed, these volunteers take a huge risk, serious suffering, and even death, as we saw with Ludmila, if their human blocks the process. Which could happen from one day to the next, with still unstable aspirants submitted to their opinions. Here again, this risk did not existed in much simpler times, without all the today mess of political ideologies and false philosophies.

All this explains why the High Elves of the Dauriath have devoted most of their efforts to explaining the Elven state, Elven love, and how the transition works. And that they discouraged the candidates to expect a quick transition by marriage. If it was so easy, they just had to bring thousands of young Elfs and Elves from the Dauriath. Instead, they preferred to explain the slow path, through patient exercises and meditations.

Although there are exceptions, as with Ruslan. As he found himself, his constant strife against adverse odds created him the karma for the fast path, by meeting Weena. And Amaleen could not miss to see from the very start that he was more ready than most. In more his ordeal with the far left had cleansed any arrogance or illusions.

THE END

Scenario, graphics, sounds, colours, realization: Richard Trigaux (Unless indicated otherwise).

The Elves of the Dauriath