Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

Elowen writhed in pain as his head felt like it would split apart at any moment. The day had started like any other. He returned from his night patrol around Sunglow, rested for a few hours, and then headed to Leliana's farmhouse.

He didn't really want to. Elowen understood the importance of remembering the past—the whole of Sunglow could be wiped out if he didn't remember what happened here. But the flashes of memories he got when next to Leliana were so much more painful than the ones that Melina had caused.

Perhaps it was because memories with Leliana happened during a time when the realms were already split apart. Just thinking of both worlds slowly withering and dying without any way to stop it was painful enough. But there was definitely more to it than that, although he couldn't remember what.

Nonetheless, he persevered and continued helping the human girl with her fruit-growing experiments. They had made steady progress with feyfruit and scorchvine peppers, but zephyr root and sapmelon were largely a mystery. Leliana guessed that they each required some nutrient that the current soil was missing.

Elowen had again explained where sapmelons grew—in monster dens littered with corpses. This sparked the woman with the idea of burying ground bones in the soil surrounding the seeds, or perhaps some meat scraps. He suggested that it might have been blood, at which point Leliana shuddered, her face scrunching up in this taste.

For some reason, this expression on her face triggered something within Elowen. His head throbbed in pain, and memories suddenly flashed before his eyes.

"Elowen, are you alright?" Leliana asked nervously, her expression filled with worry. That was the nail on Elowen's metaphorical coffin.

The dam holding back memories relating to Leliana burst open, crushing his head with pain so powerful that he fell unconscious. He couldn't register what happened to him afterwards. His body might have lifted and moved somewhere, but painful memories that forced him out of unconsciousness didn't allow him to make sense of his surroundings.

He remembered himself fighting on the battlefield—his brethren fighting alongside him. The air smelled of blood, iron, and decay while the sound of clashing swords rang far and wide. His sword collided with another—a human warrior.

"Die, elvish scum!" The human roared, plunging the sword into Elowen's abdomen.

He screamed in pain and retaliated, stabbing the human through the armor, straight through his heart. The human's eyes glazed over, and he fell into mud beneath Elowen's feet. Blood pooled around his boots. It stretched across the plains like a red sea of death.

He couldn't understand the point of it. Elves and humans were dying left and right, and for what? There were no victors here. Both sides would perish. He clutched his side, which was seeping blood, and screamed. Then he lost consciousness.

The first thing he saw when he came to was bright red, not like the red of blood, but rather like the red of blazing fire. It came from a human woman who had been hunched over him. Pain radiated through him as she pressed something against his injury.

"Don't get up or you'll open it," she said sternly as she wrapped fresh bandages around his wound.

"W-Why are you helping me?" He asked in a hoarse voice. Humans and elves were enemies fighting over the last scraps of resources.

"Because I'm tired of seeing death everywhere. If there is a life I can save, be it human or elf, then I'm going to save it," she said through gritted teeth.

Looking around himself, Elowen saw that the room he was in contained many injured people, human and elf alike. Other women, both elf and human, ran around, tending to anyone they could, regardless of race.

Many more memories flashed through Elowen's mind as he remembered his time together with Leliana. After she nursed him back to health, he, along with others, created a new movement where elves and humans worked together to make it through the dying world.

They saved those whom they could, pushed for racial cooperation, and tried to quell the hate between humans and elves. But no matter how hard Leliana and Elowen struggled, it always seemed to lead to more bloodshed. Food was growing more sparse for the day. Disease spread through the land.

Even their group, which initially united like-minded people and elves, slowly fell apart as they cheated each other, lied, and betrayed each other to other groups for mere scraps of food. In the end, only Elowen and Leliana remained. The only human and only elf still trying to stitch together a broken world.

[Your skill has ranked up. is now Rank B.]

Elowen felt something cold press against his lips, but he reflexively pushed his mouth closed. Something then grabbed his nose painfully, forcing him to open his mouth to breathe.

"Drink!" A demanding female voice said, and he realized it was Melina.

He numbly drank the nasty liquid pouring down his throat, barely containing his gag reflex. The pain in his head subsided enough for him to open his eyes and sputter from the nasty liquid.

"Oh, thank the System," Leliana exclaimed in relief.

Looking around, Elowen realized that he was inside her house. The redhead was sitting right next to him, while Melina and Sinclair hovered some distance away. Melina looked a little concerned, while her partner looked mildly annoyed. Leliana's two little sisters were also nearby, peeking at him from behind the couch.

"What happened?" He asked, slowly getting up to a sitting position.

"That's what we would like to know," Melina said, shaking her head. He noticed that she was dressed in her apron, and there was flour on her clothes and face.

"You collapsed out of nowhere. I panicked, so I went to call Melina and Lord Sinclair for help since the bakery is close by," Leliana explained, her expression creased with worry.

He hated that expression on her. It's the one she constantly wore in their memories. One that reminded him of all the pain and suffering they went through.

"I'm sorry. It appears I might have been pushing myself too far lately," he said to calm her.

"Obviously! If you're so tired after your patrols, then you don't have to come here to help me. You should get proper rest," the redhead reprimanded, and her little sisters nodded in agreement behind the couch. "I fear thinking about what would happen if Melina didn't have medicine on hand."

Elowen shot the baker an inquisitive look, and she just silently mouthed, "I'll explain later".

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"Yip-yip-yip!"

Elowen was startled by the sudden noise but then noticed a little fox-like creature in Sinclair's hand, its fur light blue with a white underbelly.

"What is that?" He asked.

"Oh, that's Mango. She hatched from the egg I bought at the market. Isn't she the most adorable little thing?" Melina cooed at the fox.

"She certainly is!" Leliana added, looking at the fox admiringly. "I can't believe you were hiding this cutie from me."

"She hatched just two days ago and has been quite a handful. I would have told you eventually," Melina said.

"I'll forgive you if you let me babysit her later."

"Deal!" Melina said with a victorious smile.

Elowen got a distinct feeling that the little fox was more troublesome than it appeared to be.

"It seems that Elowen is fine now, so we'll escort him back to the Guild," Sinclair said as he tried to contain the squirming fox in his arms.

"I'd really appreciate it," Leliana responded. "I wouldn't want him collapsing in the middle of the street."

"My apologies for causing you such distress. I'll be sure to be more careful in the future," Elowen inclined his head towards Leliana, then slowly got up.

He didn't want to linger around in case her presence triggered even more of his memories. Any more and his head might actually explode. Even after that concoction Melina gave him, his head still throbbed ever so slightly.

"Take care," Leliana said.

Melina took the little fox while Sinclair offered a shoulder for Elowen to lean on. He declined. He wasn't so weak that he couldn't walk on his own.

Once they had politely excused themselves from Leliana's home, Elowen asked Melina. "What did you make me drink?"

"Just a quick concoction where I combined some sapmelon caramel for a healing effect, feyfruit juice to lessen headache, and zephyr root bits to rejuvenate you. I used to strengthen the brew, but it's not an actual potion, and I haven't tested it, so there might be some side effects," she shrugged.

"Side effects?" Elowen exclaimed.

"A mild stomachache in the worst-case scenario."

Elowen growled, but didn't say anything more. The impromptu potion had worked, and he supposed he could handle a stomachache if it meant that his head wouldn't feel like splitting open.

"What actually happened to you?" Sinclair asked.

"Memories. An overwhelming amount of them," he said, and began explaining exactly what he remembered as they walked.

Melina and Sinclair both listened without interrupting, their faces growing increasingly darker as the story went on. When Elowen was done, he felt like a bit of his headache had returned.

"To think that Leliana would be one of the last humans advocating for peace among elves and humans. I don't think I'll be able to look at her the same way again," Melina admitted thoughtfully.

"It certainly is surprising. She always seemed rather forward with her actions, but to think that she'd have enough strength to try to foster peace once the realms were split apart," Sinclair noted. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

There was a moment of heavy silence between them before Melina spoke up again. "Did you remember something about what happened to Sunglow?"

"I'm afraid not. I remember the large events that I witnessed with my own eyes, but finer details still escape me. I suspect I still need to remember more about Leliana," Elowen said, then winced. "But I'd like to have some time to recuperate. I don't think I can survive another storm of memories like that."

"Of course. I just hope that we have the luxury of time…" Melina said nervously.

That was something Elowen was worried about, too. Did they even have the time?

Melina exhaled a deep sigh. Never did she think that Elowen's memories would overwhelm him to the point that he would faint. She suspected it was partially because he was an elf—they weren't able to deal with a massive amount of information as quickly and effectively as humans.

On the other hand, elves had a much better long-term memory. If humans could forget and move on from their trauma after a few years, then it was much harder for elves. Melina suspected that the memories of the human-elf war would weigh heavily on him for quite a while. And they still didn't know what happened to Sunglow last time.

It could be that the town disappeared after the passageway went berserk, in which case they had nothing to worry about. Melina had already stabilized it. But what if it was something else? She couldn't help but feel that there was more to the problem than that.

"It'll be alright," Alistair consoled her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We're slowly getting more and more information."

"Yeah, I suppose. But I wish we knew something to concentrate on. I keep trying through my own memories, trying to recall something, anything, about Sunglow…"

"Yes, I tried that too, but whenever I think of Sunglow in the previous timeline, all I remember is…" Alistair trailed off, throwing a glance at Sienna.

"Yeah…" Melina trailed off, remembering the horrible scar he had had before. But at the same time, this thought gave her hope. "But it didn't happen. It proves that we can change things. They're not bound to repeat events."

"You're right. Who knows? Maybe you stabilizing that passageway means that you've already prevented the tragedy."

"That would surely be nice, but it's too early to relax. We need to be vigilant," Melina said.

"Of course," Alistair said, then leaned over to kiss her forehead. "I have to head to my patrol now. Wait here until Guildmaster finds someone to guard you."

Melina nodded and watched him head to the second floor of the Guild. She sighed when he was out of sight and slumped on the couch. So much for the day to be spent exclusively on making new pastries.

She was glad that Elowen was one step closer to remembering what happened in the previous timeline, but at the same time, her experiments with cakes were set back.

I suppose it could have been worse. At least I learned how to make pound cake. Maybe I can at least manage to learn how to make filling and icing in the evening. The cakes should have cooled down by now.

As Melina contemplated the day's events and what kind of filling she could make for the cake, Remi approached her with a bright smile.

"Melina, hi! I'm your guard for today!" She said, her eyes glued to Mango. "Is this the adorable critter that was hiding in your icy monster egg?"

"Yeah, her name is Mango!" Melina said, but the little fox buried itself deeper in her embrace. She was very shy around strangers, hiding from most of them. Except Elowen, but she suspected that she got curious because his hair was of a similar color to her fur.

"Mango! Her eyes certainly remind me of mangoes. Hello, little Mango!" Remi said, leaning in closer.

Mango looked at her curiously, but remained where she was.

"A bit shy? It's okay. I'm sure we'll be fast friends in no time," Remi chuckled. "So what's on the agenda today?"

"We're making cake," Melina said.

"Cake! Yes! I want some! I remember eating it once, and it was absolutely amazing! But cakes are so hard to get in Sunglow. As you know, nobody makes them here, and the ones that are brought by merchants get sold out in a matter of minutes. Not that they can bring many—it's apparently really hard to transport cakes," Remi sighed.

"Don't worry. If all goes well, then cakes will be available in Sunglow every day," Melina said.

"Yes! Melina, you're my absolute favorite human," Remi cheered. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go eat cake!"

Melina laughed at Remi's enthusiasm, and the two women set off at a brisk pace back to the bakery. Mango started whining for food about halfway there, so they decided to eat dinner first together with Remi. Gilbert had prepared some soup for them all while they were gone.

"So what kind of cake are you making, Melina?" Remi asked over dinner.

"I'm not sure. This will be the first cake I've ever made. I was hoping to practice imbuing effects on it. Maybe make something useful for adventurers," Melina replied thoughtfully.

"You should make a super power boost, resistance, healing cake! And make it extra huge. The Guild could buy it, and everyone could have a slice before heading out on a mission. You know—like an energy boost before a battle," Remi said enthusiastically.

"You just want to pig out on cake," Gilbert shook his head.

Melina chuckled, but then began wondering—maybe she really made a cake enhanced with as many boosts as possible? It certainly would be nice, but then again, would a cake be enough to salvage this situation? She was beginning to doubt whether she was taking this whole situation too lightly.