King Edward , Book IV Summary . This book is part of a twelve - part series on King Edward , as follows : Content . Chapter 4 : Stories Edward faced his mother defiantly . " I ' m not sick and I ' m not a baby . I can stay here by myself . I don ' t need Mith . " There was a dangerous glint in Moraelyn ' s eyes . Aliera ' s lips thinned . " You will mind him , Edward . " " Yes , madam , " Edward said sulkily . " Come on , wife . Mith knows how to deal with princes who don ' t want his company . " The three adults laughed a bit in their irritating way at a joke he didn ' t understand . The weather was drizzly and Edward had the sniffles . His mother had decided that he shouldn ' t go out , even though they were only going visiting . Moraelyn had taken his side , but threw out his hands and raised his brows at Edward in a helpless gesture when Aliera insisted that he stay behind . Mith , whom Edward liked the least of the Companions , had volunteered to stay with him . Even Ssa ' ass would have been better . Mith was scruffy looking . Like a stableboy . And cheeky , even for a Companion . Edward sulked silently for awhile longer . Mith had fetched a broom and was sweeping the house out , brushing dirt from the room above into the room Edward was in . What on earth was the use of staying in when there wasn ' t really any ' in ' to stay in ? Edward got tired of sulking , fetched a broom and went up to help sweep . " Mith " , Edward said . " have you ever been to the Crystal Tower ? " " I have . It ' s an unchancy place at first , but you ' ll grow used to it . " Mith was applying his broom with energy and whistling . " Sweeping was kind of fun there . There weren ' t any sides to the platforms so all you had to do was brush the dirt and leaves over the side . You started at the top and worked your way down . " " You ' re quick with the broom , Mith . I haven ' t half finished my side yet . Will there be others there like me ? " " Oh , some children , I ' d think . Most ' ll be somewhat older . I should be quick with a broom . My father had me sweeping out the king ' s stables when I was your age . I used to dream and talk too much like you ; he beat me for it . So I learned to be quick . " Edward swept faster , stirring up dust . " Not like that , boy . Watch me . Anyway , there ' s no hurry ; it ' s just habit with me . Moraelyn ' d serve me my head on a platter if I touched you . My father , heh , he was always . . . well , he was a hard man to please . He was a Nord . " " Your father ? " Edward stared at Mith , but Mith looked much like the other Dark Elves he ' d seen . Not many . Dark elves didn ' t come to Daggerfall ; Gerald had banned them . But he ' d seen some on his rare trips to other courts . And there were some in Firsthold besides Moraelyn and Mith . " Did he have red hair ? " Mith ' s hair was a dark red . Gerald had red hair . " He tended the stables for Moraelyn ? " No wonder Mith looked like a stableboy . But Edward kept his tone polite . Mith had a sharp tongue . . . and Edward knew that neither of his parents would be sympathetic if he complained that Mith had been impertinent . " He did have red hair . Maybe I got mine from him . . . but mostly mixed elf and human children come out dark elf . No , Moraelyn wasn ' t a king then or expecting to be . . . ' sides this was in Blacklight , where I was born . Moraelyn ' s brother was king in Ebonheart in those days . He came up to visit our King and brought Moraelyn along . To keep him out of trouble , he said . " Mith grinned . " I grinned when I heard him say that , and I saw the boy looking at me out of the tail of his eye , but he wouldn ' t take notice . Like I was the dirt or something worse . His brother tossed him a pouch and told him to go into town and get his knife mended . Jerked his thumb at me and told me to show him the way . " " Moraelyn said he didn ' t need an escort to find a store and stalked off like princes do . " Mith grinned knowingly at Edward . But the grin wasn ' t unfriendly . Edward smiled back a bit , and Mith went on . " Our king eyeballed me , so I took off after him . Moraelyn didn ' t spare me so much as a glance . Went four blocks out of his way , down by the wharfs , and when I tried to tell him where the store was he shoved me right off the pier . I could Levitate , of course , but he caught me by surprise and I went in with a big splash , and everyone laughing like jackasses . I got myself out and went straight to the store and waited for him - but not so he could see me - and when he finally showed up , I lifted the pouch right off him . He didn ' t even know it was gone . So in he goes and tosses the knife on the counter and tells the smith to fix it right off . Which he does . Only then Moraelyn can ' t pay him , tells the smith he ' s the King of Ebonheart ' s brother , the smith just laughs and says , ' And I ' m the Archmagister . ' Then the smith calls the guard and three of them show up . Well , Moraelyn wasn ' t what he is now - three guards wouldn ' t even warm him up nowadays - but he was even faster then . He was out of there so fast he nearly knocked me over at the door . He lost the guards pretty quick ; all that armor slows ' em down . I found him crouching in one of those hedge mazes in the park . He was doubled over out of breath but still I stood a good ways off while I asked him real nasty if he needed an escort back to the Palace . Not that I was planning to go back ! I was gonna take the money and run and never look back , I tell you ! But I had to have the last word . I wasn ' t born high but I was born proud . " " He glared at me for a minute or so , catching his breath , then he just rolled over and started to laugh that laugh of his . Prince or no , I started to like him then . When we ' d finished laughing , more or less , we started talking . I told him I didn ' t want to go back . Nor dared to . ' Princes don ' t get blamed , Prince , ' I said , ' Stableboys do . ' He said that wasn ' t entirely the case , but he saw my point . Then he said that as I was his escort then he must obey his brother and come with me . And that his name was Moraelyn , not Prince . We ' ve been together ever since . . . more or less . " Edward smiled politely . He could see why Mith had run away , but not why Moraelyn had gone with him . Unless he was afraid to face his brother about the stolen money . Edward tried to imagine Moraelyn being afraid to face anyone and failed . " I wish I was brave . Like you and Moraelyn . " " Why , you are brave . And your courage will grow with the rest of you . " " Are there only High Elf boys at the Tower ? " " There ' ll be other sorts , too , most likely . A few Dark Elves , for sure . D ' ye miss your own kind ? " Edward shook his head . " Human boys don ' t like me much anyway . Nor High Elf boys . . . " His eyes filled suddenly and he turned his head away . But Mith ' s voice was unexpectedly gentle . " I thought you wanted to go to the Tower . " " I do . But . . . " " You ' ll be lonely . " Edward nodded . " That ' s a hard thing to face . " " Did you go there alone , Mith ? " " No . Moraelyn did , but he was older than you , by a good bit . A grown man , in fact . They didn ' t take any but High Elf students in those days , you know . But Moraelyn heard of them and said he wanted to go there . We were together already , the seven of us , save for Aliera , and a handy bunch in a fight . Moraelyn had already gotten that Dragon ' s Blade he wears , and the Dragon ' s Tooth to go with it - remind me to tell you about that sometime - and he was a famous fighter already . And the rest of us aren ' t slackers . But he thought we could be better at the spellcasting and the Tower was the place to learn that . Well , no one goes near the Tower without an invitation . No one ! No one would even tell you where it was . But they ' d tell you where NOT to go . So he went there . Alone . One morning he was gone and there a note saying for us to wait for him . So we did , here in Firsthold . He was gone two weeks , then he came back one night , rowing across with the tide . He just said they ' d accepted him , but he couldn ' t say anything more about it . But he asked me to come back with him . " " ' They want me ? ' ' Well , they ' ve accepted one Dark Elf , ' he said . ' One more shouldn ' t bother them too much . ' So we go there , and bless me if the Archmagister himself didn ' t meet us at the door and demand to know the meaning of this . I wanted to turn myself into a rock ! I was wishing hard that I was stable dung ! And figured I was like to get my wish soon . But Moraelyn speaks up real polite that this is the friend he ' d mentioned and the Archmagister had expressed an interest in his abilities , and naturally he ' d want to see for himself . " " But the Archmagister was real interested . See , they don ' t wear armor or carry anything but a staff and a dagger . They think it interferes with their spellcasting , all that metal . But Moraelyn could cast pretty well even with chain and with any one - hand weapon at all . And I could cast wearing leather and as much as a saber , though it ' s an unwieldy weapon ; I like my short sword better . Truth , they didn ' t think that much of me , but Moraelyn . . . he ' d camped outside their door . And when they tried to move him he just sat there ! They threw all the spells they had at him , the troll guards , everything . Nothing . He laid the trolls out flat and left ' em to regenerate . If they tried to beat him with their staffs he ' d ward them off with his blade and the spells didn ' t turn him a hair . " Edward ' s mouth gaped open . " How ' d he do that ! ? ! " He said . " Well , it was a trick , in a way . He ' d picked up something that came natural to Willow . See , Willow is different . " " I didn ' t know Willow could cast ! " " Well , she doesn ' t have any mana , ordinarily . . . but she can absorb it if you cast a spell at her , see . O ' course it wasn ' t much use to her , since she ' d never been able to learn what t ' do with it once she got it . Couldn ' t get it back once it was gone , so she couldn ' t practice . Until Morelyn got hold of her and trained her . Well , Moraelyn had figured out pretty much how Willow did what she did . . . though it cost Moraelyn mana to do what came natural to Willow . So Moraelyn sat there absorbing everything they threw at him and burning it off into a big shield . Drove ' em wild . " " He said the Archmagister could best him , though . " Edward suspected that Mith was making up the whole story . " Well , so he did , when he finally came . But all the rest of ' em together couldn ' t do it . And all Moraelyn wanted was to study with them . We were a sight , the two of us dark elves in our battle gear among all that white and gold . I felt like a fish out of water , but Moraelyn was interested in what they had to say . . . and you can bet they hung on every word he said . Not too many words at first . After a fortnight or so , he told me one night to tell the Archmagister that he ' d be back in a couple of days . And he shows up with Silk ! ' Course he ' d been telling ' em about the Khajiits . . . and they ' d been asking questions . " " The Archmagister ' s no fool . He just stared at Silk , and she purred real loud and rubbed up against him and asked ' How ya doin ' , Archmagister , baby ? ' The Archmagister kinda pushes Silk away and says in a whisper , ' How many more ? ' " " ' Just two , sir . ' " " ' What are they ? ' " " ' Wood elves , sir . ' " " ' Just wood elves . Plain ordinary wood elves . No horns , hooves or tails . ' " " ' Yes sir . Ah , one of them has an extraordinary Absorb ability with some very unusual features . The other ' s just a Bard . ' " " ' Very well . You may bring the one with the Absorb . We don ' t want a Bard ! They are not true mages . ' " " ' Well , that ' s most generous of you , sir , but the Bard ' s her brother , sir and I swore to their parents that I wouldn ' t separate them . So it ' ll just be the three of us . ' " " ' Her brother . ' " " ' Aye , a pair of twins . ' " " ' You may bring them both . ' " " So three days later he ' s back with the twins AND Ssa ' ass AND Slave . The Archmagister looks at them and sort of bobs up and down , but he speaks real quiet . ' Dark Elf , by pair of twins , did you mean TWO SETS of twins ? Are you going to tell me that these . . . these are twins ? ? ? ' Well , I could see that Moraelyn was kinda sorry he hadn ' t thought of trying that , but he said , ' No sir , the twins are Beech and Willow . The Argonian and the Nord are not prospective initiates . They are specimens . For your collection . You don ' t have any like them so I thought . . . ' " " ' You thought . I do not have a dragon either ! Are you going to think to bring me that next ? ' " " ' Oh , aye , I could . Would you like one ? ' " " ' Tell me you are not serious . ' " " ' Well , I couldn ' t promise . And it would take quite a long time , a year maybe , but . . . ' " " The Archmagister ' s eyes rolled up toward heaven . ' Thank you , All - Mother , I have at least a year to prepare . ' he whispered . " " I don ' t think Mats and Ssa ' ass should have been made specimens . They ' re people . Even if they aren ' t elves . " " Oh , they made Ssa ' ass an initiate when they found out that he had some interesting Heal spells . " " But Mats ? " " Mats never minds anything . He hasn ' t a bit of magic ; he couldn ' t be an initiate . Anyway he ' d have hated it . He spent his time gaming with the guards . When he wasn ' t being studied . Seems he has some interesting magic resistances . Anyway , since then , the initiates aren ' t just High Elves . And they don ' t all follow the Mage way . " " I shall . I shall be just like the Archmagister . " " Oh , aye , exactly , " Moraelyn ' s voice sounded lightly behind him . " I ' ll cut the ears off a donkey for thee and dye thy skin with saffron . Bleach thy hair white and stretch thee a foot " Moraelyn swung him high . " Art well , son ? I told thee so , Aliera . He ' s not ill at all . Good , because the Archmagister ' s returned . We go to the Tower tomorrow . " ' We ' was just Moraelyn and Edward . Aliera had caught Edward ' s cold and they took some pleasure in insisting she remain in bed . Moraelyn rowed them across the river in a small boat and they walked for most of the day , resting a little at midday . It was evening when they reached the tower and the setting sun was glinting off it . Even the sea far below looked red . There was a hush over the countryside . " It ' s tall , isn ' t it ? " Edward paused to look . " Towers generally are . " " Did you really . . . " Edward broke off . Questions starting in that fashion did not draw satisfactory answers from the elf . " Has Mith been telling thee tales ? He ' s had ten years to polish that one . I doubt not it glistens like the Tower . " " He told me how you met , too . " " I thought he would . " " I didn ' t understand why you went off with him ? He was a thief and a stableboy and you were a prince . " " You have just named three excellent reasons , Prince . " " You never give me serious answers . " " A serious charge . Very well , then . I saw myself through Mith ' s eyes and misliked what I saw : a callous bully and a coward , fit to be neither boy nor man nor prince . Why did you run off , Prince ? " Edward hung his head mutely . " Nay , I do not require answers . Come , it grows late . " Moraelyn reached his hand for Edward ' s , but Edward shook him off . If Moraelyn was a coward what did that make Edward ? He looked at the Tower door where Moraelyn had demanded and won entrance , though all would shut him out . Edward could never do anything like that , but at least he could walk in on his own as an invited guest .