Robert Charrette - Never trust an elf

Harry's spread hands made it clear that he expected an answer this time. Neko replied promptly. "It appears to be nature, sir."

"Yeah, and no one's ever accused nature of being fair." Harry laughed bitterly. "Look at elves. They're children of this new age of magic, just like orks. But they're slim and pretty, like in the fairy tales. Tell me, kid. You ever seen an old elf?"

"No, Harry-saw. "

"I don't think you ever will."

Kham thought about Dodger. Kham had aged, yet the elf still looked just as he had when they had first met five years ago. Even Sally had aged, for all that she was still a beautiful norm. There were new lines around her eyes, harbingers of what was to come. But the elf, the elf looked like a teenager. Kham thought about what the raider leader had said, the one Dodger had called Zip. That old man had known Dodger. Zip had claimed that, as a kid himself, he had run the streets with an elf kid named Dodger. And the guy had recognized Dodger's face.

"It just ain't fair," Harry said.

"Perhaps elves age differently," Neko suggested. "You have told me that orks do, and I have known dwarfs who look much older than their chronological age."

"Sure, the halfers get looking old fast. Got beards down to their belly buttons by the time they're twenty, but they don't change after that. Like the damned elves, they stay the same."

"I meant to suggest that once those metatypes reach physical maturity, perhaps they simply stay physically the same until old age sets in. I read about something like that once. A case where senescence set in and a person showed all the signs of age in only a brief time and died shortly thereafter."

"Fantasy stuff," Harry snorted.

"Are you suggesting that elves are immortal?"

Harry was slow to answer and, when he did, his voice didn't carry its usual conviction. "Me? Naw. I ain't no scientist, but I know nothing natural can live forever.''

"Then you suggest that they have access to some magical way of prolonging life? Perhaps Scatter knows something of that possibility."

Uncharacteristically, the rat shaman had been staying out of the conversation. Now, even with attention focused on her, she kept her head bowed. "I have nothing to say on the subject."

Harry went on, unperturbed by his shaman's reticence. "Don't know about magic. Maybe the elves have got some special magic, maybe not. I don't know. Maybe it's just the way they are."

Kham thought about Zip's remarks and about what he had seen of Laverty. The elf had healed unnaturally fast. Was that a side-effect of life-prolonging magic? If so, it didn't belong to all elves, at least not to that degree. He'd seen Dodger wounded, and knew that the decker didn't heal magically as Laverty had. Maybe this immortality had to be… arranged. Like with magic crystals dug out of the ground in the Salish-Shidhe forest.

"Harry," Kham said, "if ya was an elf and ya had a magic way ta live forever, ya wouldn't want anybody else knowing, would ya?"

" 'Course not."

"And ya wouldn't want anybody knowing how ya did it."

"Makes sense. Leastways, it would to an elf. Those fraggers are too stuck up to be useful to people."

"And if ya lived forever, it would give ya kinda different perspective on life, wouldn't it?"

"I expect it would," Harry said thoughtfully.

"And on death too. Ya could afford ta wait fer things, let time wipe away any ting ya didn't like."

"Makes sense."

"But if ya was a young pup, and ya hadn't gotten yer dose of dis fancy magic stuff, ya might still be impatient, kinda anxious about tings."

"What's your point, Kham?"

Kham cleared his throat. He wasn't exactly sure what his point was, the thoughts were coming fast and he was having trouble sorting them out. "We been done over by an elf, an anxious one, and warned by anodder who said dat he didn't want ta see us killed. Dis odder elf never did say why he was warning us. Maybe he didn't like killing, like he said, but maybe dat meant sumpin' else. Maybe he meant he didn't like killing, but he didn't mind watching folks die naturally. Maybe dis odder elf was willing ta wait and let time take care of his problems, especially since we didn't really know any ting about what we'd gotten inta anyway. Don't take a whiz kid ta know dat killing people always makes waves, starts odder people asking questions. Questions could make more trouble fer dese elves. But dis elf dat came after us, he's a young guy, impatient, like he was too worried ta let time do his work fer him." Harry said, "You wouldn't know any impatient folk, would you, Kham?"

Kham started to snap a reply and stifled it. He didn't want to open old arguments, so he just said, "Maybe dat's how I know one of dem elves was young."

"Takes one to know one," Harry said, still goading.

"Yeah, like dat," Kham agreed. The possibilities of what was going on made the old contentions seem unimportant. "Dat crystal we dug out fer da elves might be da way dey do it. Dere immortality, I mean. If we had it, we might be able ta use it. We can get magicians ta figure it out."

Scatter perked up. She stared avidly at Kham, but didn't offer any suggestions.

"Just what are you thinking about, Kham?" Harry asked.

Kham looked at Sarah and said nothing.

Harry saw where Kham was looking and shook his head. "She's already old, Kham. Even if the crystal can do what you think, I doubt it has the power to reverse aging."

"But Lissa wouldn't end up like her," Kham said softly.

"You're dreaming, Kham." Harry took a sip from his cup. "Think about what you're suggesting. To get that thing, you'd have to go up against some powerful magicians."

"Fought magicians before."

"With magical help," Harry pointed out.

"I'll get help," Kham said defiantly.

"Where?"

"I got friends."

"Who think you're dead."

"I'll tell 'em different."

"Kham, this ain't a battle for orks. It's magic stuff; you don't have the resources. Besides you don't got any proof this idea of yours is right."

"But it might be," Scatter said.

It might. If Kham could win the secret of the elf's apparent immortality, Lissa would never have to get old. His kids could grow strong and stay strong. They wouldn't have to die at an age when norms were just hitting their prime. And it wouldn't be just for them. He wasn't a greedy pig like those elves. He'd share it. Yeah, he wasn't being selfish. He'd be doing this for all orks, making every ork's world better.

Yeah, sure.

Maybe he was just fooling himself, chasing after a pipe dream, and looking for a way to go out in glory and never have to worry about anything ever again. Fighting somebody with the resources of those elves was suicidal. Maybe he was running away. Again.

"Maybe I just gotta fight dis one, win or lose."

Harry looked into his cup and said, "It's your decision, but if you do decide to fight, you need to know who you're fighting."

Harry's words cut straight to Kham's fears.

"I don't think you ought to get involved in this," Harry said. "But if you're gonna, be smart about it. A shrewd general learns everything he can about his opponent. He discovers the enemy's weaknesses and takes advantage of them. He plans to take advantage of them."

Kham knew all that. "And if he ain't got any weaknesses? ''

"Then you've picked the wrong enemy. You can't win if you don't survive the battle."

A valid point. Some orks said the only way to die was fighting, but they were young and stupid. Weren't they?

"That depends on what you are fighting for," Neko said, breaking into the conversation.

Harry stared at the catboy in annoyance, then his expression relaxed and he rubbed absentmindedly at his tusk. "Doesn't seem like much of a win if you can't celebrate."

"Perhaps," Neko said. "It certainly isn't 'a win' if your body survives, but your spirit is lost in the battle."