It was cool inside their chambers. There were two giant beds in the bedroom, a bathroom, a lounge room, and beautiful sunlight filtered through the huge windows.
It felt strangely untouched, and Sonder stood and took it all in for a moment. It was so spacious that it didn't feel like a room, but—she didn't know how to put it.
Vell jumped on the bed and rolled on it for a moment.
Then he stood up and sank into a lavish armchair.
"What do you know about elves, Sonder?" he asked.
Sonder sat in her own armchair. "Not much. There are many stories, but the most people talk about is their beauty and grace, but also their strangeness."
"Beautiful and strange," Vell said. "That's elves for you."
"I've also heard a lot about their arrogance, that they think they're better than everyone."
Vell gave a thoughtful shrug. "A lot of the stereotypes are true, sure. They can be arrogant, aloof, and painfully slow to change. But you would be too if centuries passed like seasons. When time doesn't threaten you, you stop treating it as something that matters."
He raised a finger, "But the queen wasn't that way. That's what made her different. She valued time. And she used it. She knew mortals lived on short clocks." He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. "Like you, most elves suffer from the long-life sickness. Eventually, they forget how fast time moves for everyone else. They blink, and someone's grown up, or grown old, or died. It doesn't even register. They have it the worst. Why'd you think they needed ten years to tell anyone that the queen had died?"
Sonder was quiet.
"And it's not like they don't care," Vell added, seeing that his speech depressed Sonder. "Not always. It just slips past them. They live forever, Sonder. Or close enough. So they don't feel the need to rush anything, ever. They don't act until something matters deeply. That's why their cities take centuries to build. Why their wars last hundreds of years. Why their peace lasts even longer. That's why it thought it was so annoying when the servant said that the council will be ready when the council will be ready. It could take hours, or days, or weeks. We could be here for a while."
Vell almost melted into his chair. "So, we'll just relax until they tell us otherwise."
"But you like elves?" Sonder asked.
Vell smiled faintly. "Because they don't need everything to happen now. Not everything has to be urgent or loud. It's peace. It's patience. Even immortals get tired. And sometimes they burn out."