Music. Highly recommended.
http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=jkpg887gIXQ#Big_Screen_Music-_Open_Your_Eyes_(Feat._Tori_Beaumont)_2015_Epic_Female_Vocals)
The day is over, the sun has set. From the Silver City walks a single Elf, alone and melancholy. Donning his armour and wearing his blades, relics of a long gone time, he marches from his home to a final destination. He leaves but a box with his resignation and a final memoir while he goes.
Asul'athri is gone.
There is more than one way to die.
Asul'athri has suffered all but one.
In the twilight years of the Elven life, the Elven mind shall fold and crumble.
This is the law of Order.
This is the Way.
Asul'athri, warrior among scholar, looks behind his back. He takes one last look at an empty city, dying, corrupt, and weak.
There is a ray of light there. Among all of Silver's weaknesses, he sees strength in Orsino Acal'elor.
He sees strength in friends and heroes unrecognized by its people.
Alas, his has failed him.
* * *
He looks down to the campfire, burning hot and bright in the middle of the forest. He polishes his blades - something he has not done in decades, something he never needed to do, not since he put down his blade out of shame and fear.
A fire which burns twice as bright burns twice as short.
His life is the fire, the flame which burnt too hot, too quick...
Too small.
There will be no one to remember him, he supposes.
Ah, well. He did his part, though no one else could recognize it.
He sits back against the makeshift wooden seat he has made for himself, and closes his eyes.
* * *
The creatures run to him from every direction, and the Elven-Raevir arming sword which once served him well so long ago slices and swerves through their ranks.
Asul'athri is untouchable, it seems.
A zombie pushes through his guard and manages to smack a bit at his armour, but Asul simply steps away and swings the glowing blade down at it's side. It's rotten flesh gives easily, filling the clearing with the smell of death and decay.
He holds up the blade, a golden, glowing beacon to the creatures before him, both repelling and drawing them.
Yes, he has fallen.
He was always fallen.
But he fights anyways.
* * *
The sun rises, and Asul peeks open a single eye, from his resting place in the seat.
In silence, he gathers the ashes of the creatures which fled before him, scattering their dust to the wind.
He packs up, and carries on.
* * *
The Bronze were right.
Silver grows weak. They forget the second Curse.
They could be strong again.
But the Elf was always stronger on his own - after all, wasn't that what they were made for?
To sit in empty halls?
To be alone, and slow their lives?
Insanity comes to all in the twilight years.
For those whom live their lives quickly, it shall come when younger.
Only 337 years old, and already he feels the onset.
He contents himself with the fact that he left while still sane.
Though he is doomed, he left them the one gift he still could.
The maintenance of their Purity.
* * *
The high elf continues marching forward, through the rainy day. He pulls his old cloak tighter around him. It is heavy, not particularly light - after all, it is woven with chainmail rings to protect him. It is almost more than his strength can bear, but then again, he has trained marching in such conditions before.
He is a soldier.
He will always be a soldier.
The hood and the old mask are fitted upon his face. Passerby look at him nervously, for this elf wears the very garment of impurity.
He must, he mused, look very shady to these passerby.
Ah, well. It matters not now, when he leaves his life behind.
So he keeps on marching.
* * *
This elf stands upon the bridge between new and old life.
Not of Death.
Simply the end to the old, and the start of a new.
He looks down at himself. Does he really want to do this?
He thinks of friends and people he has begun to know as family.
Seth Calith.
Avern'dionne.
Abigail Massey.
Most of all, Braxus Ni'leya.
Is this how exile feels like?
He feels lost.
Somehow, though, he feels renewed. As though freed from his shackles, able to do anything.
Is this the end?
Or simply a new beginning?
It's time to find out.
* * *
The elf sheds his cloak, his armour, his mask. He is safe here.
This is where it all began. Where it all ends.
And where he begins again.
The elf looks up into a mirror, and smiles sadly.
Van'ayla, thilln.
Karin'ayla, thull.
The elf stands up, his hair meticulously dyed brown, and spectacles cast carelessly aside.
"Who are you?" a passing monk asks.
"I am Jonathan Smythe," he responds, smiling, and shaking the monk's hand.
Jonathan Smythe...
A fitting identity for a new elf.
A false elf.
Or, perhaps, a new perspective.
This is it.
The descent into insanity.
Time to open his eyes.
* * *
Elsewhere, a new one washes up on shore.
This one is unknown.
Confused.
An amnesiac.
He or she knows nothing about him or herself.
He or she looks about, blinking, crying.
Who is this mysterious, new stranger?
It's time to open their eyes.
* * *