Seven years ago.
I was invited to Aramis's 100th birthday party at her house. Aramis was the youngest daughter of the village chief in my district. At that time the chief was Mr. Dyfahzad.
The large party took place in the chief's house on the highest branch. They invited Aramis's friends, village chiefs from other districts, wealthy elves, and me, her boyfriend, an orphan from a lower elf family.
I saved money for almost a year to buy her a beautiful bracelet with luxurious blue and red gems.
My relationship with Aramis began when we were still in school. We both shared the same interest in health and medicine. Aramis had a lot of money, so she continued her education to become a modern doctor. I could only study until I became an apothecary.
Even so, our love never became weaker, even though our social status was very different.
Dyfahzad was a fair leader. He gave me a chance to prove that I was worthy of becoming his son in law. Even so, some elves accused me of approaching Aramis only as a shortcut to enter the world of the rich. One of them was Ziek, Dyfahzad's first son.
After graduation I became a well known apothecary. I was invited to many districts and cities across planet Ox. Many of my clients were satisfied with the medicines I made. Aramis also succeeded. She became a modern doctor. She was intelligent and kind.
During the party, in front of all the guests, Dyfahzad announced the future of my relationship with Aramis. He gave me one final condition before I could marry his daughter. I had to win the Juthobu tournament, the biggest and most prestigious archery competition on planet Ox.
Dyfahzad wanted me to replace Ziek in the competition because Ziek had a serious arm injury at that time. He knew that Ziek and I trained at the same archery academy and that both of our skills were above average.
I looked at Ziek, he did not seem happy with his father's decision. I did not want to make him hate me even more. But I had to do anything if I wanted to marry Aramis. In the end, I agreed to the condition.
From the beginning Ziek never liked me. He believed my archery skills were better than his and the fact that I was dating his sister. That made him hate me even more.
Dyfahzad spent a lot of money to help me prepare as best as possible to win Juthobu that year.
At the beginning of the tournament everything went well. I earned high marks and entered the top ten, my points continued to rise little by little.
Then an incident happened in the final round.
The organizers gave the contestants almond juice to keep our energy up. Right after I drank the juice, I suddenly lost consciousness and fell into a coma for one week.
I was the only participant who lost consciousness.
When I woke up, the tournament was already over. I was not the winner. Aramis looked worried and slightly disappointed, but she tried to hide it.
Our marriage was canceled.
One day the truth was revealed. Dyfahzad came to me and said that Ziek was the one who poisoned me. He put cyanide poison into my almond juice. Cyanide has an aroma similar to almonds, so I hadn't suspicion at all. Ziek did it because he did not want me to win the competition.
I was relieved because the truth finally came out. I still had hope to marry Aramis.
But one day, after returning from another district, Dyfahzad suddenly caught smallpox and died. His sudden death made many people close to him very sad.
Seven days after Dyfahzad died, Ziek replaced his father as the village chief of District 3.
Not long after Ziek became chief, Aramis told me something. she had found a used syringe containing the smallpox virus under Ziek's desk. We realized then that Ziek had murdered their father.
We feared for our lives if we stayed near that monster. So I made a decision. I asked Aramis to leave District 3 with me, to run away together, to elope and live in another country. Luckily Aramis agreed with my plan.
But somehow our plan leaked to Ziek. On the night we were supposed to leave, Ziek's henchmen caught us and they burned the belongings we planned to bring with us.
Ziek separated me from Aramis. Before taking her away, he told me to forget about her. He said he had already arranged her marriage with a wealthy elf from a distant district. Ziek took her away and left me with his men. They beat me until I was almost dead.
The last thing I remember was Aramis's beautiful face, wet with tears.
Our marriage was canceled once again.