The Nicodemus Path

In the elven world, it's not unheard of that the Chosen One may also be the villain. Vykollo men yedeva, they call it: Nemesis.

It's been two hundred years since humans got tired of sharing the world with their elven neighbors, beings longer-lived and magical in ways they weren't. They waged war - and lost - and now live in nameless towns built up around the walls of the great elven cities. Within the walls, traumatized elves who lived through the war and remember it vividly go about their lives with what serenity they can cling to. Trying very hard to pretend the humans who are now their subjects don't exist.

Isador is a member of an order of sin-eating priests; it's his job to share the will of their god with his people, with advice or with his sword as necessary. What is very much not one of his duties is to challenge the god by standing in the path of someone's destiny. Two elves were born, though, eighty years ago, bearing the mark of the god's chosen instrument. He finds this worrying: there has never been more than one before. His concern mounts as they grow up and he sees the people they're becoming.

When one of them falls in love with a human, it's not clear that this romance will steady him or prove his trigger. And their people are especially vulnerable. Mysterious creatures from Elsewhere are testing their borders, beings which do not bleed when cut or decompose when killed. They have not so far been willing to explain themselves. Determined to save these sullen young Chosen Ones from a fate he deems unfair, Isador squares off against his god. There has to be a better way, and all he wants to do is persuade the god to look for it. Take him instead, for example.

He's forgotten something he ought to know about his patron: the god is tricksy and loves to lay traps.