History

"Hey Roko!"

 Roko looked up as Helena sat down across from him one morning, "Yes?"

 "Wanna help me do some research?"

 "Research? On what?"

 "On my dissertation."

 "About elven culture?"

 "No, I changed it. Now I'm trying to figure out why elves turn into dark elves."

 Roko munched some chicken kebab as he thought about this, "Isn't this incredibly personal to both elves and dark elves? You think they'd be willing to share information on this?"

 "Neither race really knows why it happens though. There may be something we can figure out if we combine both races' resources which is something only we can do right now."

 Roko gave it another moment of thought, "...Alright."

 "Yes!"

 "Though why me?"

 "Are you kidding? You've done more studying than every one of us combined."

 "That feels like an exaggeration."

 "If it is, it's barely one."

 "And where's Roland, pray tell?"

 "He's doing a bit of self reflection after the bit of a lecture you gave him."

 "Should I apologize?"

 "I thought you weren't going to apologize."

 "I'm not, I just want to know if you want one."

 "Nah. He could do with some soul searching."

 "Well, let's pray he finds something. So what's our first stop?"

 "The origin of elven transformation into dark elves?" Polaris said, "That's a pretty substantial topic to write a dissertation about."

 "Do you have any information on that topic?" Helena asked.

 "Well, we certainly do have a few records you could look through here in the council hall." Cinder said as she walked up to them, "But it's not nearly as robust as the library in Granreveria. We may have some old, specific records but I'm not sure you'll find much on Ebonization."

 "Ebonization?"

 "That's the scientific term for the transformation." Polaris explained, "There are other...less savory names. Blacken, Betrayal, Darken, et cetera. I've gone through some of these records myself in my quest to reverse what I did to Brook but I wasn't very successful in finding a cure."

 "Do you mind if we look through them?" Helena asked.

 "I don't see why not." Cinder nodded, "Polaris has already gone through them so what's the harm in letting a few humans have a peek?"

 "I say you'd have better luck with the elves but it's your time being wasted." Glacier snorted.

 "Glacier, stop being a grump." Cinder chuckled, "Come children. I'll show you to our records."

 "Thanks ma'am!"

 "One thing before we go though." Roko spoke up as he turned to Polaris, "You said you also studied this subject?"

 "Indeed I did."

 "Do you mind telling us what you discovered then?"

 Polaris smiled, "There's an interesting truth at the core of this mystery I certainly can tell you but let me see where your research leads you first."

 "Well, can you at least give me a hint?"

 "Hmmmm...Look for the Interminable War."

 "Interminable War?" Roko frowned.

 "Come on Roko!" Helena called, "Let's go!"

 "Why are you so excited to read books?" Roko frowned as he turned to follow Helena.

 "Aw, reading's not so bad. Just gotta get enough exercise in between some books. I'm going to teach you how to do research in a healthy way."

 "What do you mean,'healthy'? There's no adverse side effects to doing research."

 "There is the way you do it."

 "There's nothing wrong with the way I do research."

 "Yeah sure, next time let's ask Corissa what she thinks."

 This was the first time Roko ever had someone tagging along on a research project. First time he had something that could've been described as a study session. And it certainly felt more...active than Roko was used to. Helena would interrupt his reading with random facts and suggestions. Some were helpful,

 "Roko, I found this list of wars the elves have participated in. This Interminable War isn't listed on it. This is a pretty recent book too, only about a 100 years old. We might need to look into older records."

 Some were not,

 "Hey Roko, look! This elf almost died in a war but was healed by something called a Reviver Leaf. Think we can use that next time you get into a fight?"

 But even Helena's exhaustive extrovertism quietly died down as the two became deeply immersed in their research. Roko was more experienced at this and was able to get through more books than Helena but Helena seemed to be reading the books more intently and traditionally, the two making good headway through the collection of records in the dark elves' council room. And they found nothing. There were a few interesting points that raised some suggestions on how the ebonization process worked but nothing concrete enough to consider as factual. And before long it became time for a late lunch.

 "Ahh, my eyes hurt." Helena yawned as she stood up and stretched, "Roko, time for lunch."

 "Uh huh." Roko replied as he continued to flip through a book, "You go on ahead."

 "Oh yeah? Sure, I'll see you later. LIKE HELL I'D BE OKAY WITH THAT! What would Corissa say if I just left you here like this?! For once you have someone with you when you go on your stupid lone ventures so we're not gonna let things go your way again! Come on!"

 "Whoa!" Roko yelped as Helena hooked her arm underneath Roko's arm and pulled him up and drag him off. "Ow ow ow, alright, alright, I'll go!"

 "And here we are." Helena grinned as she finished relaying her report to Momo and company, "With nothing to report."

 "I was wondering where Roko went this time." Momo chuckled as they all ate some ramen together, "Well, at least he has you there to keep things under control this time."

 "No fighting this time either." Kaguya said, "I think we can avoid the hospital this time."

 "I don't end up in the hospital all the time." Roko grumbled.

 "You still end up there more than the normal person." Helena said.

 "That's not my fault!" Roko protested.

 "Yeah yeah you're not going to the hospital if I can help it." Helena smirked, "Although, not much risk in this little 'adventure'. Don't really see us fighting anything besides our eyes. We haven't really made any good progress."

 "You haven't found anything?" Kaguya asked.

 "No. There's a few theories here and there but then there are cases that directly or indirectly contradict it. It's hard to pin down a specific criteria for the transformation. Though if it was that easy to figure out, it'd be well known already. I can only assume this information is lost, maybe even being suppressed. If it's the former, we might not be able to find the answer here with its resources. If it's the latter..."

 "I don't think we have to worry about that." Roko replied, "Polaris, or Gareth, was able to learn about the process with only information on this side and the dark elves seem to know that he knows so the subject isn't really forbidden or anything or else an outsider like him wouldn't have obtained it or be allowed to stay here."

 "That's true..." Helena nodded, "But then what did he find that we haven't? I haven't seen a single mention of this Interminable War he mentioned. Maybe it's under a different name somewhere?"

 "I have an idea." Roko replied, "The problem is that we only have the dark elves' resources to go on. We've seen a lot of history for the dark elves but we're investigating the process of change from elf to dark elf aren't we? That means this process starts with the elves. If we want to go back to the inception point of this phenomenon, we should start with the elves."

 "That's right." Momo nodded, "But that means going back to the elves' territory doesn't it?"

 "Not necessarily." Roko replied, "Elves may have some records of this war but if they do it's probably a forbidden topic given their history. Dark elves are treated like disgraced elves. They probably wouldn't have records on ebonization or if they do, it's highly prejudicial."

 "Then what do we do?" Helena asked, "Where do we look?"

 "There are two points: 

 1. What Polaris knows, he learned here. That means we need to look here as well.

 2. Elves seem to exist before dark elves. That means we need to look for elven records in the dark elf's library."

 "Okay..." The three princesses nodded, anticipation building for Roko's revelation.

 "We've been looking through dark elf records on dark elves. What we need to do is look for dark elf records on elves. And where can we find records like that?"

 "Dark elf records on elves..." Helena mused, "Wait...I think I get it!"

 "Do you?" Momo and Kaguya looked towards Helena.

 Helena quickly gobbled up her noodles, even gulping down the broth in seconds before slamming the empty bowl on the table, "Come on Roko, we need to go!"

 "Alright." Roko said as he stood up.

 "Wait, you're leaving already?!" Corissa cried as she arrived with her own bowl of ramen, "I just finished cleaning the kitchen! I wanted to eat with you guys too!"

 "Sorry, Corissa." Roko said, "We've just had a breakthrough on our search. Anything I can do to make it up to you?"

 "Well..." Corissa placed her bowl down on another table, "Can I get a hug?"

 "A hug?"

 "Yep!" Corissa opened up her arms.

 Roko stood there awkwardly for a moment before stiffly moving forward to hug the young girl.

 "Don't overwork yourselves alright?" Corissa said as she patted Roko in the back, "And be back by dinner, okay?"

 "Alright..."

 "Okay then." Corissa said as the two finally pulled away from each other, "Have fun at work, then!"

 "T-Thanks..."

 "Ooo, a wife wishing her husband off to work!" Momo grinned, "A classic scene!"

 "Well, isn't that cute." Kaguya smiled.

 "It's not like that!" Roko cried as Corissa blushed, "Anyway, I have to go now. Come on Helena."

 "You're not going to give your wife a kiss?"

 "Watch yourself, princess."

 Corissa waved good bye as the two ran off with a gentle smile.

 "By the way, Roko didn't finish his lunch."

 "What?! Oh, darn that Roko!"

 "Oh?" Glacier sneered as Roko and Helena walked up to him, "Didn't expect to see you two approach me for anything. What do you want?"

 "We've been having trouble looking for any conclusive information on ebonization in the dark elves' archive." Helena explained, "So we figured we're looking in the wrong place."

 "Are you now? Then what do you expect from me?"

 "To put it bluntly, we need elven slander." Roko said, "The older the better. If the first dark elves were transformed from elves, we need records of dark elf relations at that time. And considering the two have a rough history with each other, we're not going to find it in objective records. Slander from dark elves on elves or dark elf propaganda. To get to the core of this change, we need to learn about the response to this change which can't possibly be not emotionally and politically charged."

 "And considering Polaris' goals, he probably would've tried to hide or suppress such prejudicial opinions." Helena continued, "Much of the village has already come around to coexistence and don't get me wrong, that's great. But if we want to learn about this phenomenon we need to go back to it's inception. And the only one we can think of who'd have such prejudicial records...is you."

 Glacier looked at the two humans, his face still as a motionless pond. Then he burst out into laughter, "Hahahaha! You humans are something else! I didn't expect you to figure it out in less than a day!"

 "Wait!" Helena grinned, "So..."

 "Come with me." Glacier nodded and turned to walk off down a different hall in the council room.

 Following the old curmudgeonly dark elf, he guided them to a room near the end of the hall, opening its door to what seemed like his personal room. Nothing really stood out to them as remarkable, it just seemed like a normal, slightly unkempt room. Glacier opened a drawer from a desk and rummaged around in it before pulling out an old, weathered journal.

 "This is what you're looking for."

 "What is it?" Helena asked as she took the book from Glacier.

 "An old heirloom you can say." Glacier scoffed, "A journal from one of my ancestors. Nearly...700,000 years back now?"

 "Whoa." Helena's grip on the book became much more gentle, "I don't think I've ever even read about anything this old. Fictional or otherwise."

 "I assume this is where we'll find the Interminable War?" Roko asked.

 "You'll find the middle of it." Glacier replied, "But I don't think you'll find much details on the war here. The war seems to have been a thing since my ancestor, Floe, was born according to the book. Not much details about the war itself. It's not even particularly complete, it seems my ancestor became too preoccupied to finish writing at some point. Or maybe they simply fell out of writing it at some point. Point is, this has the only real information we have on the ebonization phenomenon."

 "So what Polaris learned is in this book?" Roko asked.

 "Yep. I've bookmarked the page and everything. Go ahead and take a look."

 Helena and Roko gulped as they opened the book to it's marked passage.

 Sylvan Moon, 7th Bloom

 The king is in a rare mood today. Perhaps it's because we've finally returned home to Dawnglory. Seeing the little bit of elves living their young lives here has been a great mood lifter. Hyacinth in particular has taken to taking care of these younglings in the short time we have here. Were she not so good in battle, I could see her living an entirely blissful life attending these kids. I do have to wonder if she would have the heart to see those she cared for over the years being shipped off to the frontlines. We elves have been the foundation of the Interminable War's defense for years, scarce few of us have ever seen peace. And at the center of this turmoil is the king, yet he carries himself well. His stoic and charismatic demeanor has inspired many a victories and his wise guidance has made elvenkind essential to this war but also damned our race to a violent fate. I feel this matter weighs heavily on my liege's mind, especially seeing our home once again.

 Canicule Moon, 1st Seed

 These days of relative peace has been so intoxicating. The roars and explosion of the battlefield has largely disappeared from my ears. I've never heard the world be so quiet before and frankly it's a bit unnerving. Everyone else seems to have absorbed this peace without a second thought. Watching them, the caretaking elves and the children, that war I had been fighting all my life suddenly feels like a distant memory. I asked everyone if they felt the same uneasiness I felt and while most of them agreed, some of them were clearly more concerned than others. My king though has remained ever steadfast and stoic. It seems like there is some great project under work regarding the Tree Cradle. It seems to quite a big and important improvement that the king himself is working on all alone. Whatever happens, I'm sure the legacy of the elves will be well secured.

 Autumn Moon, 3rd Stem

 It was all a mistake. The king has gone insane. The war must have finally taken its toll on his mind. This....what he's done is too cruel. Heartless. He's consigned our entire race to endless war. The elves have begun changing. Their skin darkening. No one knows what is going on or what to do next. There's been a cry to dethrone the king but what good would that solve? There's still a war we have to fight and now there's civil unrest. I don't know where my loyalties lie but I know the king must be stopped. It may not be too late to reverse this curse that he's place upon our entire race.