There was once a common truth held among the elves in the First Age. A common truth which soon lost color and faded into the dusty books Keva surrounded herself by within her library. What had come to replace this truth was a belief many elves would come to accept as common truth – that elves are the purest of creatures. Elves were gifted Chaos and trained it – yes – but that did not give the belief any truth. Keva had known the crowd she had to please for ages, for she pushed the belief that elves were the purest form of the supernatural, yet Keva had done a disservice to those she led. In preaching the purity of elves, she had come to believe in those words herself.

The silver-haired elf looked out upon the ocean stretched out before her, the waves crashing against the stones of the palace grounds. The dark blue waves violently crashed up against the walls, ocean water spraying the face of the elf. As the waves pulled back, rigid boulders were evident below the stone walls, waves sweeping against the boulders as they also swept away the remains of Keva's latest victim.

She watched the work of her kin, hearing the blades scrape against one another, the cries of both werewolf and elf, yet the scent Keva picked up was not that of metallic blood, but the flowers which surrounded her. The aroma surrounding the elf allowed her body to relax, to focus on the moment and not stress over the lives being ended just past the hedges.

No one protected the elf within a close proximity. It was as she liked it. The isolation allowed for her to process the events and focus on what needed to be done next. Yet in the silence surrounding her, it did nothing to aid in ignoring the sight before her – the palace she had helped build up only burning and crumbling before her eyes. The glass windows which had exploded out shimmered like diamonds as they caught light in the fire. The white stones which fell from such high distances buried themselves in the ground below.

A new home would soon be built – that is what Keva believed when this battle was to be over with. Another new home built after another massacre of her race. The woods behind the last palace was a place Keva had wished was still home...yet it was unacceptable to return back to those woods. The woods scattered with the bones of her kin which could never be forgotten. This palace had become the perfect location in her eyes, for the seclusion it offered to become strong was something the elves had needed – yet once more it was now scattered with the remains of her kin.

River was a hopeful prop Keva had relied on to take her far. Far before she would banish him or watch his life become stripped from him. Yet River turned out to strip much of Keva's life from him. The lavender-eyed elf had not expected mages to appear within her palace walls and pull the rug out from under her feet. Yet River was not the one to have made that move, for it was Leala.

Just like her human mother, Keva thought, recalling both the naivety and chaotic mindset of Lily Maxwell. Nixon Maxwell may have been ruthless and calculated, but Lily was haywire. In her brokenness, she sought after the palace of Zion with a rage fueled by revenge for her deceased husband. Leala combined both of her parents demons, using them to arrive here and pull the rug out from under Keva.

It caused the elf to wonder if she had picked the wrong child to raise and pull the strings of. River was a rightful king in some twisted sense, but he would never have gained the support Leala managed. It was because she stood for a symbol – a symbol of a new kingdom. If others had learned of River's past, he would be nothing more than a signal of dark magic and an old kingdom.

Yet Keva had to play her cards right. Keva knew she never could have done to Leala what she had done to River – the opportunity would never have presented itself.

She wondered who would come for her first – warriors bloodhungry, her own elves all beaten and blooded, or perhaps Leala or River. A smile tugged at her lips as she wondered what it would be like to watch River walk through the garden to her. Asger had been given the task of finishing what remained of River. To have two old friends battle to the death seemed poetic. It would be a battle fueled with rage. It would have been a battle with no truly good outcome, for Keva knew Asger would perish somehow. Keva understood River would either finish Asger or that the two would not make it out alive. The mental games it would play with River to have murdered his lifelong friend until the end.

Yes, Keva was calculated and ready to embrace what could happen. Yes, it seemed like she had planned for almost every scenario and was still confident she would come out on top. Yet it is those who feel immortal who underestimate the willpower of their enemy. Keva had never known of a united mindset like those the werewolves had. Her entire life, Keva had only known the struggle to survive and carry on her kin through another king's reign. Her mind had become tainted perhaps with a false sense of security.

Voices could be heard faint in the background, a scent of blood becoming more prominent as Keva perked up and turned away from the ocean. Lavender eyes scouted the garden and hedges.

She elf understood what would happen now. She had hoped it would be one of them to have a lasting conversation with, a fight, and to close out this story of agony.

It was the child of Nixon and Lily Maxwell who emerged from the hedges, a limp prominent as every step felt like a fire shot through her heel all the way up to her skull. Leala tried to isolate the movements of her torso, her body weakened by the loss of blood. A gash over her shoulder made it hard to grasp the dagger in her hands. Yet Leala understood the importance of remaining strong. With Inie by her side, it was hard for Leala to judge just how successful this outcome would become, but she knew to keep up hope.

Those eyes just like her mother locked onto Keva, the figure of the elf standing tall without a scratch only caused Leala to wonder just how prepared she was for this. Taking in a deep breath, Leala stepped before Inie, following the cobblestone path up to where Keva stood and wielded no weapon in her hands. Rather than prepare to project a spell, Keva walks from the edge of the wall which overlooked the ocean, taking a seat at that familiar table where Leala and Keva once had conversations.

"Please, Alpha Maxwell, let us have a chat." Keva's voice was as soft and eternal as the day Leala had come to hear it. Perhaps Keva's voice was more like a whisper, one which met a harmony.

Leala had wondered if Keva would do such – to have a conversation before the two would be at each other's throats. Nodding to Inie, Leala motioned for him to stay where he was.

The young alpha walked up to the table, taking a seat across from the very elf she was wishing to end. Resting the dagger in her lap, Leala tried to sit up straight without causing any pain. "You look tired," Keva commented, sitting up straight as those lavender eyes traced the wounds of Leala. "Having worked so hard to come all this way."

"We have both made many sacrifices to come this far, not just from today," Leala replied, her voice breaking as she maintained a locked gaze with Keva. "How many of your own kin did you lose over this plan? This plan you've had detailed for decades?"

"Sacrifices must always be made. This is war, Leala, not a child's game. Death comes from both sides and many times; it is not equal."

"Are you proud of what has been accomplished?"

A smile tugged at the corner of the elf's lips. "Are you trying to imply I have accomplished all I will? That this is the end of the line? You are very optimistic that this is all over." Keva glanced over to Inie, seeing the warrior tensed and gripping his sword tight. "What will you achieve before you fall, Leala? Let me ask you that."

"I will achieve a great deal more," Leala replied, her voice confident as she tried to ignore the pain shooting into her side.

"Perhaps you will, but new kingdoms and reigns are always so hard to build. River's grandfathers were never able to truly build a strong foundation."

"Their kingdom fell. There are lessons to be learned from what they did...both right and wrong."

"And you think you will be so different? Just because royalty holds less influence? Kingdoms will always face troubles," Keva insisted.

Leala recognized that what Keva was saying was true, for she did not expect a smooth transition. Leala understood her own children would still be shaping the kingdom for what it would become. "The main difference will be that you hold no influence. That the elves will have no tie to the kingdom."

"What are you planning then? To drive us to extinction?"

"No race deserves to be driven into extinction. I do not hold the same beliefs which you do."

Keva raised her head, holding her chin high as her lavender eyes focused on the wounds of Leala. Keva knew she could simply project a deadly spell and watch the young alpha perish. Keva understood she could also handle a fight with her own fists, for the alpha was badly injured. Leala's head would bob a bit, telling Keva that the hopeful queen was growing weak.

"And you think River will be the correct choice to have by your side?" Keva questioned. "If he ever makes it off this island alive."

"You once wished to pair the two of us together. You once encouraged me to accept his proposal should it happen again." Leala understood what Keva had planned from the beginning. Yet Leala ventured and made her own path – though she understood the influence Keva still had in shaping that path.

"You believe your prince charming to still be alive and breathing?"

"I do," Leala responded with confidence in her voice. Leala understood the chances of River making it out alive, but she also held a strong belief that River was indeed alive – no matter how much she questioned it.

Keva offered Leala a lopsided smile, rolling her shoulders back. "Two fucked up alphas wishing to construct and rule a kingdom together. Tale as old as time."

"So why not get rid of one of the alphas? You have sat me here to have a chat, just to entertain yourself and continue your messy games," Leala nipped, understanding just how easily Keva could cast a spell of Chaos. "You wish to continue these games, to feel like you still maintain some form of control. Look around you, Keva! Do you not see the palace you built up as your eternal haven crumbling before you!?"

"I still maintain control," Keva jeered, her eyebrows furrowing together as anger began to build up.

"The evidence I see surrounding us makes me think you have lost control. That you are desperate to catch hold of the strings you once pulled."

"I could end you with the snap of my fingers," Keva proclaimed, rising to her feet.

"Yet you enjoy these games. You will not just cast a spell because that will feel too simple for you. You wish to fight your way to victory," Leala snapped, gripping the hilt of the dagger in her lap.

Just as Keva grasped a hidden blade tucked into her layered jacket, her lavender eyes caught the movement of Inie readying a throwing knife. Rather than let him get any further, Keva stretched out her arm and shouted a spell. A flashing violet light surrounded the three, only for the orb of light to shoot through Inie's chest, burning a hole as the orb buried itself inside the warrior. His skin turned black as he crumbled to the ground below, falling like a sack of rocks.

Leala yelled out, witnessing the man who helped her through the entire palace just fall to the ground limp. As Leala jumped to her feet, Keva was already prepared with her sword readied. Throwing herself onto the table, Leala held her blade extended, wondering just who would make the first move.

It was Keva, for the elf swung her weapon at the alpha's feet, only for Leala to leap over the blade and bring herself forward to the ground, Keva backing up as the two were on the same ground level. Leala understood her disadvantage, for Keva had been wielding a sword longer than Leala could come to fathom. As Leala put her foot forward and swung her blade around, the point of her blade barely grazed the side of Keva's face before she stretched out her other hand and tried to disarm the elf. Leala knew she needed to disarm Keva before she could shift into her wolf.

Keva took a step to the side, Leala's hand unable to get a grip on her. With a brisk movement, Keva landed the tip of her sword in Leala's back, a long and shallow cut making it up Leala's shoulder blade. The alpha let out a cry, spinning around on her heel as she threw herself into Keva's side.

The elf stumbled to the side, her hip hitting the wall which overlooked the raging ocean. Just as Keva felt the pain in her side, she witnessed Leala take down her blade towards Keva's hand. Before Keva could process the defeat she just suffered, pain shot through her hand as her sword fell to the ground. Blood tricked down her hand as Leala had managed to slice off the tips of three fingers.

Rather than focus on the pain, Keva shot to her feet and shoved the alpha back. Leala stumbled back a few feet, letting out a gasp as the pain in her torso presented itself even stronger now. Keva picked up her fallen weapon in her other hand and as she was ready to begin the fight once more, those lavender eyes met a pair of golden eyes from the background.

The moment River had emerged from the hedges, his face covered in smoke and dried blood, he watched as the woman he wished to pledge himself to brought her blade down on the fingers of Keva. Yet as he witnessed Leala be pushed back and Keva arm herself within a split second, River understood he had to help. Leala stumbled and was able to regain her ground, but she was weak. As River began to chase after Leala, to protect her, Keva had noticed him and recognized what had to be done.

Leala extended her blade, but Keva easily knocked it from her gasp. Unable to process such a fast movement, Leala found herself against the edge of the stone railing, a gasp escaping her mouth as she felt the pain pinching and setting her upper back on fire. Keva's fingers were locked in Leala's hair, pushing Leala's head over the side of the wall while Keva's other hand pulled the blade out from Leala's back.

A cry was heard from the distance, informing Leala that River was just moments away. Looking over her shoulder, Leala witnessed River charging at Keva, only for Keva's attention to be focused on Leala. The moment Keva raised her arm again, Leala shifted into her wolf and locked her canines into Keva's hand. Leala's wolf locked its jaw around the elf's hand, Keva screaming out in pain.

Keva threw herself forward to try and slip from Leala's grasp, but Leala repositioned her paws.

Yet both women were unaware of the position which they had put themselves in. The moment River was inches away from grabbing hold of the elf, his eyes witnessed as both women fell over the side of the stone wall.

River reached out his hand, unaware just who he would grab onto. A blood set of fingers locked with his, grabbing on for dear life. Crying out in pain, River tried to pull the body of whoever it could be up. Leala had been in her wolf form before the two women had gone over the edge.

Barely able to muster the strength, River pulled himself to gaze over the edge and see just who he had saved. River readied himself to catch sight of Leala's wolf having met a terrible doom, yet he tried to remain hopeful.

The moment those golden eyes met a set of not lavender, but eyes which reminded him of the day they had bumped into one another, both happiness and a sorrow filled the broken alpha. Leala had shifted back to human form, her bare body pressed against the cold stone, covered in blood as her eyes locked with River's. A smile spread across her face as she noticed the man holding her from a steep plummet. Yet River gazed to the rocks below, the broken body of Keva spread in an unnatural manner. Blood surrounded her final position, Keva's lavender eyes no longer shining as her head had smacked the rocks below.

A powerful wave moved in, the mist of the water spraying River's face as he watched the body of the woman who raised him become carried off to sea.

Yet the squeeze from the hand around his brought River back to the reality of the moment. River winced in pain as he pulled the body of the woman he loved from a plummet, immediately throwing his jacket over her naked and bloody body. Leala stumbled, the view around her fuzzy as she only knew one thing – River had been the one to save her.

As Leala's feet were swept from under her and she found herself cradled in River's embrace, she heard the cries of the man she loved. Cries of joy and sadness as they resounded in the air.

Yet both River and Leala, no matter how broken they were in this moment, both understood that Keva was no more and that this war was on the verge of ending. That what they had fought so hard for had finally reached the end of the tunnel where light shined through. Just like that, within the blink of an eye and gravity having taken hold, Keva had become nothing but a name of the past. River's eyes unleashed a stream of tears as he not just wept for those who had lost their lives today, but for those he had been raised with and watch die.

Sorrow and anger flooded River's soul as he thought to Asger, to the fellow elves he once trained beside, and to Keva – the woman who raised him. Though River understood the poison Keva and Asger had injected within his own life, he still mourned their loss, for no one else would mourn for them. Those golden eyes looked away from the waves crashing against the walls, their focus back on the woman in his hands.

Leala's eyes were dimmed yet alert, scanning River's face for the expressions he possessed. A weak hand reached up to the bloody face of the man she loved, caressing the side of his cheek as voices could be heard in the distance. "It is time to rebuild what was lost," Leala whispered, her voice trailing off as River's embrace tightened, knowing she needed to remain awake – that they both needed to remain awake until help was beside them.

The daughter of Nixon and the son of Zion lay together on the cold stone ground, bodies weak and bloodied, and both accepting one another as their future.