NoGift

"Not just similar.  He looks like the younger version of Uncle Jax!  Well, aside from the white blond hair and long pointy ears," Aurum said.  "Imagine my surprise when I saw that.  Good thing my acting ability is great or else the shock I felt would definitely show on my face.  What do you think this mean, Brother?"

"It could mean a lot of things.  One answer is that the elf and Uncle Jax share a common ancestor.  Elves are known to be pure creatures.  I read once that long before Mythos Continent closed off, elves had a tradition of letting their newly matured young elves to go outside and travel the world.  Because most of those young elves were gullible and easy to be tricked, a lot of humans were able to force them into a s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p.  Sad thing was, they didn"t even understand they"re being fooled.  Due to that, there"s a gradual increase in the population of halflings.   

"But before things turned into a truly serious problem, both for the elves and the humans, the newly crowned Elven Queen at that time rectify that.  She no longer approved of young elves going out of their sacred forest without being educated about the dark side of humans.  They also had to change their appearance and disguised themselves as ordinary humans.  But some things had already happened.  And those elves who gave birth to halflings became the ancestors of some of the humans living in the world today." 

Was there still such a thing?  Her brother always read some weird books so Aurum never doubted if what Argent was saying was true of not.  For her, her brother was always right.  "Then you think that the McAllisters have elven blood in them?"

"Not necessarily.  But in my opinion, probably not."

"Why?"

"I read a study before made by a famous historian.  According to that book, people with elven blood are often born with Gifts related to nature.  That historian made a conclusion that it was because elves were the darling of nature.  So most of the people who have even a tiny drop of elven blood in them tend to have nature related Gifts.  Of course that was not always the case.  Especially if there were other strong bloodline mixed in, like the blood of a dragon or a beastkin for example.  I don"t think that"s the case with the McAllisters."

The McAllisters were just a normal business family.  They only rose to power hundreds of years later after Mythos Continent closed off.  So having intersection with more than one of the three mythical races was almost improbable.  So the reason why Jaxon, as well as Finn and Ruby didn"t have Gifts that were nature centered was not because they have two or three powerful blood in them but because they didn"t have a drop of elven blood at all.  

"So, what"s the other possibility?" Aurum asked, her curiosity was almost at its limit.

Argent looked at her sister.  "The elf is Uncle Jax" son."

Aurum felt like she just had an auditory hallucination.  "Brother, can you repeat that again?  I don"t think I heard you properly."

"That elf, I think he"s Uncle Jax" son," her brother repeated.

She almost stood up in shock.  "How could that be?"

"How could it not be?" Argent countered.  "How old does this elf boy seem like?"

"About seven or eight?"

"Young elves who haven"t reached maturity yet age three times slower than normal.  They completely stop aging once they reached that mature age.  So if that elf boy seems like he was six or seven, then he"s real age is probably between 21 to 24.  But if he"s a halfling, that would make his aging a bit faster than normal elves.  Then he"s real age is probably between 14 to 16.  If we a.s.sume that, then somewhere 15 to 17 years ago, Uncle Jax met a pureblooded elf.  In between that time, he was still travelling with our currenlty missing father.  He might have met her that time."

After her brother said that, Aurum really saw the possibility of that elf being Uncle Jax" son.  "Then should we tell Uncle Jax about this?  If we ask him now if he somehow had an affair with an elf years ago, we"ll immediately know if that elf really is his son."

"I don"t think that"s a good idea.  If I"m right and that"s really his son, then Uncle Jax would surely come here.  Trying to rescue that elf himself.  That would only complicate our plan.  We couldn"t afford to add too many factors in the equation."

"Then what should we do?"

"We"ll just have to rescue that elf ourselves.  And since we already agreed to help Clay in rescuing that elf, it wouldn"t really cause too much change in our plan.  So, did you see in the Archbishop"s mind where they were keeping the elf?"

Aurum shook her head.  "He only saw him one time, when the elf was given to that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Pope.  The Archbishop wants him to be the finale for the Midnight Auction, but the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Pope didn"t agree.  That"s why the Archbishop was so salty about it."

So the Pope was keeping the elf?  Even if the elf was a halfling, he still should have a considerable amount of Mana.  Huge enough to get himself out of this city.  So why hadn"t he?  

Argent didn"t even think of the possibility that the elf might not be a halfling but someone who had just a quarter of elven blood.  Having those long pointy ears was evidence enough that his elven blood was in high quant.i.ty.  He could only be a pure or a halfling.  So the only reason he"s not escaping was because he couldn"t.  

There"s a possibility that his situation was the same as her mother, unconcious and being bombarded by nightmares.  It"s also possible that the Pope had his handle so he couldn"t allow himself to fight back.  Or Lucern Faust, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, was just too strong that he could easily overpowered him.  Personally, she thought it"s the last one.

"Attending the auction is probably useless if the elf wouldn"t even be there," Aurum added.

"Not exactly," Argent said, a plan already unfolding in her purple gaze.

"What do you mean, Brother?"

"We just have to convince the Archbishop that he needed to take that elf to the auction at all cost," she said, a playful smile crossed her lips.

Aurum immediately understood what her brother was trying to say and also smiled.  "Is "convince" really the right word?"

""Convince", "exploit", "manipulate", it"s all the same," Argent shrugged.  "Can you do it?"

Aurum smiled confidently.  "Of course.  When will we start?"

"Tomorrow would be good."