-1 Arrival Preface Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 (1/2)

Preface Part 1- Manwen

August, 1051 B.C.

I opened my eyes from my pondering as I heard explosions from the front lines, startled out of my reverie. I was resting, having been up for days going over strategies and battle movements for my army. I was tired. I was tired of the war. I was tired of the fighting. My people were a peaceful people, and here we were, being massacred.

The enemy was just outside of my castle, now, making their way past our defenses and tearing down our city. I knew that I didn't have much time left. I sat on my throne, thinking deeply on the troublesome war now waging outside of my halls.

I had been pressured to stay inside of the castle; my mate was in labor, of all things, at this most inopportune time. I glanced over to the stained-glass window closest to me. I stood, making my way over to it, looking outside. The flashes were nearly blinding to my sensitive eyes, as our battle mages used spell bombs to try to fortify the castle courtyard while the army of our enemies pushed their way through.

How had it come to this? Where had I gone so...so wrong? How had it come to war? Life had been so tranquil, with few problems in the world. We'd had all the time in the world to enjoy that blissful peace.

And now, we had no time.

I felt as if I were to blame. Perhaps, my trying to pressure my people into creation and playing at being a god, had landed me and my people into this situation. It was a hard reality that I had to face, yet I faced it with much shame. We, the Skyelves, had been the first of the elven races. We were the product of angels and humans. And I, in my quest for knowledge and purpose and favor, had discovered the ability to cast off certain physical and spiritual traits and abilities into clay models to create new races of elves. But not all of my people had agreed with this, and thus, he had undergone a sickly, disgusting and vile transformation and had vowed to destroy me for my perversion of science.

Why was I still here, in my castle? I needed to be on the battlefield, on the warfront with my people. I was their King. What kind of king could even call himself a king, if not willing to fight and die alongside of his soldiers on the field of battle?

A bright flash blinded me for a moment, and then I was no longer looking out of the large, stained-glass window of my palace onto the gory battlefield.

Instead, I was now seeing a fierce battle in another time and place. I watched in awe as a young female warrior charged at an unseen adversary, sword raised. She had glowing blue eyes and the royal blue, crown shaped marking of a Wraith clan on her face, the royal clan marking....and she had silver wings. Her silvery hair whipped about her in the wind. It was a sick perversion, and yet, as a scientist….it was all simply too fascinating and awe-inspiring to me to watch.

I felt as if I had been here before, as if it were instantly clear what I needed to do. I knew that everything would turn out alright. I could barely comprehend what I was seeing, but somehow, I knew that with this girl's arrival, the world would turn into a new age. One where there were people willing to stand and make it change and had the power to do so.

The vision changed, and I saw the same girl standing before my people, kneeling then to receive my crown, before she sat upon my throne. My people erupted into thunderous applause. She would be the hero of my people. It was odd, seeing what was obviously a Wraith, but a Skyelf as well, sitting on my throne. However, looking at the scene, I knew that this was the way to bring the world back into balance. I knew that this was the direction the future needed to take. And that would mean that I could no longer be the king when that time came. I would have to be removed, so that she could ascend to her place and rule.

Once more my vision changed, but now I had returned to my place at the window in my palace, observing the battle below.

I had made my decision. I turned around, and rushed off to do what I knew I must to save my people. I went to the war room and suited myself in my War Armor, and I placed my crown upon my head. My large, soft silver wings lifted me up and carried me swiftly out of my castle and to the battlefield. My light, sky blue aura shimmered about me with my determination.

My people were shocked and unhappy about my arrival to the battlefield.

My best friend and most trusted advisor and War General, Castiel, appeared at my side. His aura shined about him, radiant in his urgency and stressed state, a vivid yellow. I met his eyes, waiting for him to speak.

”My lord! You're not supposed to be here! Queen Poicelle is in labor, sire, you need to be by her side!”

”You're wrong, Castiel. I need to be here, fighting with my people. Poicelle has attendants to care for her. My people need me to lead them. I can no longer sit idly by and watch while they are slaughtered like lambs for a king that isn't even fighting to defend them!”

”But your highness, please reconsider!”

”No, Castiel. It is time for us to surrender.”

Castiel was shocked. ”Sire, please! Let us continue to fight! If we rally the remainder of our armies, we can defeat the dark ones!”

I shook my head. I dodged an arrow as it flew by my face. ”I cannot allow this to continue, Castiel. Look around you! All of this hatred, this death...where will it end? I have already chosen my course of action.”

He jolted in understanding. ”No! You can't, my lord! You're my best friend, our king! Manwen, please-”

I silenced him with a hard look. ”I must end this. Now.”

”But your majesty, we can defeat them!” Castiel protested.

”Even if we can, we would still lose far too many lives to achieve that goal. I am the one that he really wants. If I give myself up to him, that should end this war.”

He sighed sadly. ”And what of the queen, sire?”

”Take her and our people deep into the mountains, into hiding. I want for you to be a father to the child, as I will not be able. Raise them strong, and keep Poicelle safe.” I dodged another arrow. ”You should hurry.”

”Who shall we look to for leadership, my lord?”

I closed my eyes. ”I will send a new ruler one day, many years from now. She will be a magnificent warrior of great power and silver wings. She will be unlike anything this world will ever see until her arrival. I want you to hand over the rule of our people when she comes. She will be the hero of the Skyelves.” I handed him my crown. ”Until that time comes, I will entrust the care of our people to you, Castiel.”

He bowed. ”It has been my honor to serve under your rule, my friend.”

I patted his shoulder. ”Lead them on, Castiel. Lead them to safety, quickly. We shall meet again, whether it be in this life or the next. Always be ready for the girl's arrival. Protect her with your life when she comes. Promise me.”

”I...I promise. Goodbye, Manwen.”

As Castiel began rallying our forces together, evacuating them from the battlefield, I went to the enemy with my hands up in surrender. My people watched as I was tied and bound in chains, led away beyond the borders of my precious city, out of their sight. I felt a sharp jab in the base of my neck, and everything went black around me. The next time I would wake, I would be on my stomach on the floor, at the feet of the Darkelf King, and his stanching black aura that shimmered with vile blobs of darkness and tendrils stroking his skin. I would not know freedom for many centuries to come... And so, a new age began.

*

***Preface Part 2- Dragon***

November, 990 A.D.

My father ran with me in the forest, and I could feel his light green aura shimmering with his fun as we ran. He enjoyed being out in the forest, he enjoyed the hunting and the nature. His aura wasn't very bright, but all of our kind had aura that you could see vaguely. It was said that humans saw it brighter than the elven kind, because our race was more holy than their own. But my focus returned to the present.

I was ten autumns of age, now. He was teaching me to hunt.

My name is Dragon. A fierce name for the son of a fierce man, a man who hunted and tamed dragons. He was the Dragon Hunter of our world. As such, his son was expected to be brave and fierce like him. And like him, I had gotten green aura, though mine was much darker. My mother's aura was a deep forest green, and mine was more of an olive color. But I focused back on the task at hand.

It was in my blood to hunt. I was Dragon of the Huntsmen clan of Havengrove city, the Woodelf city.

But I was a peaceful person, even as a boy. I knew that I didn't want to face the carnage and bloodshed of the path that my father intended for me to follow, after his footsteps. I didn't want to be expected to face it, either. I wanted to have my own life, I wanted to learn my own path. I wanted to create my own way. I didn't want to follow the path that other people might lay at my feet to go down.

He was teaching me all that he knew, and in truth...

In truth, I wanted to heal people. I didn't want to be a fighter. I wanted to go to the mages' school, learn magic and how to control my abilities and use them to heal people. The mages' school was only for the higher-ranking clans of the city, anyway. Why not take advantage of my rank and status, and go to the mages' school? Despite my father's dislike of it.

Even as a boy, though, I knew that I had to learn to fight. In this day and age, war was often upon us and we had to know how to defend ourselves. It was important to know how to battle, so I indulged my father and didn't complain about our many hours of fighting and hunting lessons. It was important to know how to hunt down your food, in any case, and if I was to marry a lady someday and start a family, I would need to know how to do these things. I saw the usefulness of the skill, of course I did.

But I didn't want to go on to succeed my father in hunting down the very creatures that I was named for. We'd, many centuries ago, bred dragons in their humanoid forms, to help aid them in their war against other drake species, such as wyverns. Somewhere along the way, the dragon blood infused with our own, and since then, we had begun to not only help the dragons in their quest for dominance among their kind, but...we had begun to hunt them all. Now, our clan was one of the top most powerful in the lands, holding the power to summon, tame, and kill these ancient creatures.

It was a dangerous power, and a dangerous life as one with this power. In an effort to protect it, a spell was placed upon the members of the clan, so that only the head of the clan possessed the ability, and so that as soon as the head of the clan produced a male heir, the power would go to him, and leave the father. Only the males in the clan got the power. And all of the first born males in our clan had the signature lavender eye coloring of our dragon ancestors. It was also tradition that the head of the clan's be named after ”Dragon”, in any given language.

For example, my name is Dragon. My father is Drakul, his father before him was Drakon, his father before him was Drach'n, and so on. The very first head of the clan, however, who mated with a dragon in human form and became the first to mix the blood was named Ddraig by his drake bride. Their child, the very first of Dragon Blood, was named Katash wei' vorki by his mother, who was a flame type dragon, and a sorceress. He was hailed as a holy child, able to not only breathe fire, but change into a dragon himself. He was the one and only to master that ability, and even those legends are shrouded in mystery and doubt, since he was long since deceased and there was no proof.

But the possibility of another of my clan rising up to take the mantle and side with the dragons again, rather than hunting them...that caused a lot of fear in this world.

My father was often targeted by assassins and was widely feared in this world because of his status and rank, and that made me a target, for which I did not desire. Despite my proud lineage and bloodline and history, I was not overly fond of war and battle, as I've mentioned.

I wanted a peaceful life of healing others.

My father would rather die than to see me become a physician of any sort, however, and as long as I lived under his roof, I was not to utter that nonsense in his presence.

My mother was more receptive to the idea, but my father, the prideful Drakul the Dragon hunter, clan leader of the Huntsmen clan....

He would never accept such a pitiful life for his only son.

I felt something in my bones, down to my core. I felt that I would become an important chess piece in this life, one day.

I knew that I just had to await my true purpose.

*

December, 1006 A.D.

A pain and rage unlike anything that I had ever felt flooded through my body as her head fell to the ground, severed from her body. Her blonde hair seemingly lost its bright shimmer as it rolled with the head to a stop a few feet away from her headless corpse. Her aura, a beautiful yellowish-mint green color, faded from her body as her soul left her.

Kassiel. My beloved, who had just been publicly beheaded in the town square for fornication. I watched as her glassy eyes stared emptily into space, her body slipping from the block.

This was wrong. It was the creed of our people, but it was wrong.

We faced the consequences of our actions. We had done the forbidden, having intimate relations before marriage. And she had been executed for it.

I felt myself slipping. I felt my eyes burning, my breath leaving my body rapidly as her death sunk into the depths of my soul. Our people...our people had just murdered their most important and knowledgeable healer, for the sake of justice.

It made me sick.

My body jumped into action before I could stop myself. I ran and threw my body down over hers, bringing her headless corpse into my chest as I grasped onto her, feeling as if I couldn't let her go.

The crowd whispered viciously around me. I was a nobleman. This woman had been my fiancé, and we'd been set to marry in just a few short days.

For such a high ranking noble to prostrate themselves on the ground, clutching a corpse after what she had just been made into such for....

It wasn't exactly the greatest impression.

”Dragon of the Huntsmen clan,” The king addressed me. His aura was a deep, deep green, almost black in its shade. It was intimidating. My body tensed, my absolute hatred for this man and for our own people flooding my body and blinding me to the consequences of what I was doing. ”Remove yourself at once.”

”I refuse.”

He looked at me expectantly. ”As your king, I demand you to obey my order. You will remove yourself or you will face my wrath. You were spared her fate. I suggest you not push my generosity.”

”I would rather die.”

He raised an eyebrow at that. ”You are the one who indulged her...sinfulness.”, he hissed the word. ”You are the one who allowed this to happen to your beloved. You will live with this guilt for the remainder of your days. Now move.”

”No.”

He snapped his fingers, and a couple of guards came and forced my stiff, unwilling body to let go of Kassiel and drug me to be on my knees before the king. My parents watched in horror as I, their only son at the age of twenty-four, faced the fury of the Woodelf King.

”You are testing my patience.”

”I don't care,” I spat. ”I hate you; I hate this blasted city and its rules and regulations! You can all burn!” I shouted and spat on the king's feet.

I heard my mother sob in the distance. I may as well have just signed my death warrant.

The king stepped before me, the back of his hand connecting with my face. I didn't even feel the blow, I was so caught up in my rage. I shouted out a raged growl at him, not caring that I sounded like some desolate animal.

”Know to whom you speak, boy. You will obey your king!”

”I would sooner be executed than to follow your rule,” I said with spite, my tone filled with as much venom as I could muster. I hated this culture, where women were punished more for crimes than men were, where complete purity was absolutely enforced, where anything impure was driven out and punished.

”Strip him,” The king commanded.

Surprised, I felt the guards ripping my tunic from my torso, and my breath came quickly in and out of my mouth as I heaved in anticipation. I had not expected this reaction.

I wasn't going to be executed.

I was going to be publicly beaten.

As my body was tied to the same post that Kassiel's corpse had just occupied, I felt my heart racing as the king came before me, a whip in his hand.

”You have directly disobeyed your king, even after the generosity that was bestowed upon you to live through this ordeal. Kassiel was executed, but because of your rank and your importance in this city, you were spared. Yet you show no gratitude.”

”I want to die!” I shouted. I would rather have died in that moment than to be publicly beaten. ”Kill me!”

He shook his head. ”Now that our most prized healer is gone, we need someone to fill that place in our city. You were under her tutelage for years. She taught you all that she knew. You will become this city's healer and you will obey the laws of this city.”

”I would sooner hang myself than to heal anyone in this disgusting city!”

”And now, the people of this 'disgusting city' are going to learn what happens when even a Lord goes against the King.”

He pulled back the whip-and I cried out a shocked shout as it struck the naked flesh of my back. I whirled angry, fear filled eyes back to see him pull back once again, and I looked to the snow instead, preferring to just take the blows and not see them coming. Somehow, the pain was almost soothing.

The snow around my body began to tinge red with the stain of my blood as I was beaten in the square, my fellow citizens watching and my parents comforting one another in the crowd.

*

August, 1082 A.D.

After my public beating, I had been imprisoned for a year in the city's dungeon with one meal a week, and one glass of water a day, until I became more complacent with the king's demands.

I was released under the condition that I take over Kassiel's medical clinic, and began to work as the city's lead healer. I was given a cabin near the medical clinic, and during the day I was usually monitored by the city guard to ensure that I was complying with orders.

With hatred and vengeance in my soul, I reluctantly accepted my fate. Kassiel would not have wanted me to waste my life away over her death. She would have wanted for me to help people, even these people that I hated with every fiber of my existence.

They had watched her be executed, and couldn't even award me the same fate so that I could go and be by her side in the afterlife.

All that I could muster in my heart was numb acceptance and disgusted outrage. I had not felt any other emotion in many years. And I didn't want to. I wanted to honor Kassiel, but I also wanted to wallow in my own anger and bitterness. I wanted to mourn. I wanted to destroy.

Many years passed as I remained in this condition.

Whenever I looked in the mirror at myself, my eyes were no longer the bright, warm lavender of my clan. They were dark, more of a violent purple rather than the comforting shade they had once been.

I had moved from my large manor inside the royal sector of the city to a medium-sized cabin along the farthest outskirts of the middle ring of the city, determined to be as far away from these people as possible, but the king would not sell me a property farther than the edge of the middle ring.

A rapid knock came on my door one night in the middle of August, and I was summoned for a mission by my father to hunt down a dear friend of our family. She and her husband and child had made a trip out to go to a neighboring city to visit, but upon sending out a letter to check on them as their visit was only supposed to have lasted a couple of weeks, we got the reply from Garin that his wife and son were not with him and hadn't been the entire nine months that they had been gone.

The only thing that made me care was that she was one of my mother's closest friends and a distant relative of Kassiel.

I rushed to get dressed in my gear, and I took off out of the door. I shook from the unnatural cold temperature for the middle of August, a frightening storm raging, making the hairs on my arms stand underneath my sleeve. Something wasn't quite right.

I used all of my skill to pick up her scent, follow the trail that should have dissipated by now, but hadn't. She wasn't far away from the area, yet I had to wonder why on earth she hadn't returned home if she were still in the area.

As I got closer and closer upon her location, I saw that we were by a cave that led into some mountains, located by a river. It was a nice location, and I was surprised that she had survived all of this time with her son without help. She was more resourceful than I had given her credit for. But I was just over one hundred years old, and she was only in her twenties. I didn't have much stock in the younger generation simply because of how my own and the previous ones had turned out.

I rushed inside the cave and out of the horrid storm that rampaged outside, and I saw her son crying quietly beside of her, as she lay on a heap of messy blankets, naked from the hips down, her stomach large and protruding and her bottom lying in a puddle of bloody fluids. Her teal aura was faded, strained, not consistently glowing about her. She was breathing hard, struggling to gasp for air.

She was in labor...?

She heard me enter, and looked over to see me, and sobbed with relief. ”Please, Dragon. You have to get the baby here safely! I've been in labor for days and the baby isn't coming!” She cried.

I could hear the panic in her tone, and I knew that she had basic knowledge of healing magic so she must be aware of just how much danger she and the baby were truly in.

”Don't worry, Darah. I will deliver this child and both of you will be alright. This will be very painful, but I need for you to try to bear with it, for the child's sake.” I thought for a moment as I went through my pack.

Luckily, I had prepared for a medical emergency situation and packed my physician's tools.

I turned my attention back to her. ”Where have you been? What happened? You and Garin left months ago, but when we sent a letter to your destination in search of you to make sure that you all had made it, Garin said that you weren't with him, nor was your son. What is going on?” I looked over at her son. ”You need to get away from here. Go step to the edge of the cave. You don't need to see what I'm going to have to do.”

After her son had stepped away, she answered my question. ”I... a pack of Wraiths found us on the borderline, and Garin deserted us,” she sobbed. ”The leader found me desirable, so I... we...in exchange for our lives, I let him lie with me.”

I startled, but I said nothing about it. I didn't know what I could say. So, I did the only thing that I could do, and I gave her assurance as I used my knowledge and skill to deliver the child.

I had wanted children.

I had wanted a family with Kassiel.

I shook myself, throwing the thoughts out of my mind as I tried to focus on the task at hand. I had a baby to deliver.

Finally, I pulled the baby out of the womb and wrapped it in a swaddling cloth before I rushed to sew up the cut that I had made into the abdomen of my mother's friend.

And I rushed to inspect the child and be sure that it was healthy.

And I stopped short when I saw the baby's face.

She was a Wraithling. Though, unlike her kind, who normally had black hair, she had fine silver hair on her head and pointed elven ears...but she had pale skin, and the dark, royal blue marking of an upside-down crown on her tiny face, both of which were Wraith traits. Nothing like this had ever happened in our history.

A Hybrid of the Realms. It simply made no sense. Wraiths were all about the purity of their bloodlines, anyway. It made no sense for one to be with her at all, let alone allow her to live afterward and allow the possibility of such a child to come into existence. It was wrong in every sense of the situation. Not to mention the reason behind the mating. It was an abomination to our people.

On top of everything else, she was a bastard. While humans often allowed bastards to live in their society--albeit letting them be treated like unwanted strays--elven society was not so kind. Bastards were very rarely tolerated to continue existence in our culture.

She was the lowest of the low, the most deplorable according to our kind.... And yet...

I felt an immediate bond to the child. There had been many children that I had delivered...but this one...She...there was no aura about her, and...

She wasn't breathing.

As Darah cried, I took the child and flipped her over my knee, and attempted to knock the fluid out of her lungs, but to no avail. She still didn't cry.

I cradled her against me. ”Darah, I... I'm sorry. Despite my hatred for our people, I did not have any bad feelings toward your child. I'm sorry that I could not save her.”

Darah sobbed and cried, hiding her body away from me as I looked at the girl. What could I do?

It was then, in that instant, that I remembered something from years and years ago, that I had seen Kassiel do in a similar situation. I didn't know whether I could actually do this or not, I had never attempted it.

Elves had a gift; they had the gift of Voice. Only the most spiritual of our race had this gift, the Chosen of the elves, the most in tune with nature and energy from the earth and its Creator. It was something that the Creator had gifted us with from the Angels, the power of The Voice. It was highly dangerous to use, and could put your spirit in peril if not used correctly.

But I had to do everything in my capability to save the child, didn't I? Just because I held contempt for life since Kassiel had been executed didn't mean that I could simply allow an innocent infant to die without doing my best to revive her. I knew that Kassiel would want for me to save her.

I pulled every fiber of my spirit to gather up healing energy, and I directed the energy up from my belly, up to my heart, and then up to my throat and to my vocal cords. I pulled open the child's tiny mouth, and held her forehead to my own as I used my spiritual healing energy and The Voice to breathe life into her as Kassiel had done before. The sound came out as a deep, tribal, trancelike vocalization.

This was a unique and powerful ability for our kind, but it also came as an extreme risk. If something went wrong, if it didn't work, it could cause myself serious health problems, something that may even possibly be fatal. Kassiel had warned me to not use it unless the situation was dire and it was in extreme need.

It came out of my mouth as smoky wisps of lavender and green and, nauseated as I felt, I watched it as it floated for a moment, and flowed into her mouth and down her throat.

After a moment, her body spasmed, startled, and she began to wail. A vibrant, silvery blue aura poured out from her body, bright with the newly renewed life. I was surprised, considering that she was Wraithling, to see that she had aura at all. Their kind did not possess that. It seemed that she had an even balance of her two parents' races.

Darah's face whipped around to see what I had done, and as I cradled the child back in the crook of my arm again, her eyes looked up at me and I felt myself bond to her, my darkened eyes locking with her silver ones.

This girl connected to my soul in a way that I had never experienced. I wondered if that was because I had just used my own spirit to breathe life into her, and she was attached to me on a physical level.

And for the first time in almost one hundred years, I had no hatred. I had no sorrow, no anger, no pity.

I felt light.

I felt peace.

My eyes burned, and I felt tears well up in them. I knew that this girl was the key to returning me to the land of the living, not the walking, violently angry, living corpse I may as well have been since Kassiel's death.

And I felt that this girl had a very important role to play in the future of this world, and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be a part of her journey, and the inexplicable need to be by this child's side rushed through the depths of my core and sent shudders rushing up my spine.

”Congratulations, Darah. You have a daughter,” I told the young woman that had been so brave through this procedure, and I handed her the baby.

*

***Preface Part 3- Darah***

November, 1081 A.D.

Life had been so peaceful. I had grown up in a middle-ranking Woodelf house, my father not being a highborn Lord, but still a member of the court.

My mother and father were both able to read. My father owned the bakery shops in the city, his blue green aura vivid with life as he was a hard worker. My mother's lavender aura was comforting, soft and kind.

We had a good life; we never went hungry and we had everything that we needed and most of what we had wanted growing up. I'd had many brothers and sisters.

Thankfully, because of my father's position on the court, we'd had the opportunity to not only excel at normal school, but to be accepted into the Mages' school, learning basics in healing magics and I was also able to improve my inborn magical abilities for growing plants.

All elves had an inborn magic for something, whether it be to make plants grow, control water, healing magics, elemental magics...Our blacksmith, Vintice, even had the ability to refine and purify earth and turn it into metal. Which is exactly why he was a blacksmith in the first place, for this very reasoning.

The Huntsmen clan had magics that helped them to hunt the drakes, making them a top ranked clan among our people. I was good friends with the wife of the head of the clan.

I had auburn hair, and hazel eyes. I was a shapely young lady, and I'd found a suitor rather quickly, a young man from the Ash clan. He had a dark, almost sinister hazel aura but he was a handsome man. I was of the Cedar clan, originally, but the Ash clan was excited about my interest.

My parents were friends with members of his clan, and he and I were placed into an arranged marriage. We married when I was sixteen and legitimized our union through consummation. I was a woman now, and I had a hard-headed yet hard-working husband who was hard to understand sometimes, but he had a good heart. He was strong willed, and didn't like to be wrong. He was not a gentle man, but he tried to do his best in everyday things.

It was a peaceful, easy life. I was a nurse at the medical center in the city of Havengrove, and I became great friends with one of my husband's relatives from the Ash clan, Kassiel. She was a beauty, and a wonderful woman. Sadly, she had been engaged to wed another dear friend of mine's son, Dragon...and she was executed for committing crimes against the sacred laws of our people. I'd been heartbroken, and Dragon hadn't been the same since then.

Soon enough I had given my husband an heir to his house, we'd had a young son, only at the tender age of four now. He had his father's dark hair, but he had my hazel eyes with little flecks of blue in them. He had, unfortunately, inherited his father's attitude, but I tried to look at it as a good thing. His energy was a hazel-tinted teal, so it wasn't as sinister as his father's, thankfully.

We had a nice cottage by the river, and things were quiet most of the time. We had good family friends and we were well respected in the city.

Everything was peaceful...until one fateful day, when we were travelling back to Havengrove city from a neighboring human village. It was dusk, and we had just set up camp for the night. It was unsafe to travel at nighttime, due to the Wraiths. Their borders lay just outside of Havengrove city.

We were eating when we heard the bushes around us rustle, and my husband shook, afraid. He sensed something.... some evil presence. My husband was no warrior, and so he didn't know how to fight. He was simply a woodworker. He didn't know the sword.

Out of the bushes, a horde of Wraiths appeared. The Wraiths were a race of blood-sucking, flesh eating monsters who could not walk in the daylight. They hunted at night, and we were in their territory.

My husband was tackled to the ground, and as our son cried, his eyes looked at us before he somehow, miraculously, managed to escape the creature, running off into the forest.

”Garin!” I called, as our son called out for his papa.

I shielded my son as best as I could, and the Wraiths around us chuckled and as they paced around us, another Wraith stepped out of the bushes.

He had a crown on his head, and the markings of their race were in the shape of an upside-down crown on his face.

This was the Wraith in charge, obviously, by how the others reacted to his presence when he stepped out, if the crown wasn't enough of a clue. His long black hair was pulled up into a pony tail that fell in two thick braids down his back.

But what captured me were his eyes. His eyes were a piercing blue, but there was an eerie golden light to them, and the pupils were unnaturally black, much blacker than normal. I could feel the hairs on my arms stand up, his aura clashing with mine. I could feel the ominous darkness of his hunger.

”Your coward of a mate has abandoned you, Woodelf woman. We have been hunting all night, and you are the most appetizing meal we have found, by far. But it would be a shame for such a beauty, and such a young life, a child, to come to an end. I will give you only one chance; what can you offer me in exchange for your lives?”

Shocked murmurs from the others came after he asked the question, and I too was surprised as I thought quickly. Wraiths were not known for their generosity. They were dark, hauntingly fair looking creatures that were deceptively attractive considering what they were. To see one was to fall in love for most women. Everything about them was supposed to appeal to their victim-their appearance, their smell, everything. But I could feel the rawness of his power on top of that appeal.

And then one word that he had said stuck out to me. I thought of what I could say, what I could do. And after a moment, it occurred to me. I had no money, no food for them, nothing else that I could offer, except...

”You think I am beautiful, Wraith lord?”

”Why yes, I do. But I am still waiting for an offer...”

”Would you give up an appetizing meal in exchange for a chance to be with a beautiful Woodelf woman?”

His eyes widened. ”You have nothing else to offer...?” I shook my head at his question, and he grinned maliciously. ”Yes, I would give up a meal in exchange for that opportunity.” He motioned to his followers. ”Leave us. I will catch up with you when I am finished here.”

As they left, they gave me glances that were sinister and promising of dark things, and I shivered. But the Wraith lord took my hand. ”You may wish to have your child go into the tent for the night. My servants will not return to this place. He will be safe in the tent alone while we...negotiate.”

I hurriedly got my son to bed, and he asked me what was happening. I simply told him that I would protect us both, and not to worry. He was only four years of age. He didn't understand these matters, and I didn't intend to teach him at that moment. I sang him a song, one that always comforted him. He went to sleep minutes later, and I left the tent and returned to the Wraith lord, apologizing for the delay. He waved it off, not bothered.

”What is your name?” He asked me.

”Darah,” I answered.

”I am Moserre, Crowned Prince of the Wraiths. Come to me, Darah.”

...And so...I did.

I experienced things that I had never been through with Garin. For Garin had been an arranged marriage, and in that moment, I almost wished that I had been able to have this experience sooner, but then felt guilty for even having that thought.

I had always been the good girl. I had been pure all my life, as was expected of my kind. The Woodelves were a pure race, and it was the forefront of our lifestyle.

But in this moment of impurity, I couldn't help but be amazed by how...peaceful I felt, knowing that even in the midst of such a disgusting deed, I was saving the life of not only myself, but of my child, and not only that, but this Wraith Prince made sure that it was just as enjoyable for me as it was for him.

When it had come to an end at last, he gave me the pendant from around his neck, a beautiful onyx stone with the same markings that were on his face engraved into the rock. It was smooth and shiny, on a black chain, the onyx stone embedded into a sapphire broach casing.

”Under normal circumstances, I would kill you. But I will not do that this time, no. You were more than generous, and I want to reward you for your courage. I have something for you. Take this,” he said. ”If you should ever be stopped by another Wraith pack...simply show them this pendant. It will protect you. Not only with Wraiths, but also with other Dark Realm creatures.”

I smiled softly. ”Thank you.”

He leaned in and placed a kiss on my cheek. ”I will never forget you, your beauty...or your courage. You, truly, are one pure of heart.”

Just as I went to respond, he was gone before my eyes could detect his departure, and I looked around the forest, dazed.

I thought that I may have just fallen in love for the first time.

*

August, 1082 A.D.

I screamed as I pushed, but I pushed in vain. The babe wasn't coming. I heaved out a deep breath as I forced myself to stay calm. My basic healing magic knowledge let me to know that I was in quite a predicament, and if I couldn't get the baby out soon, we would both die.

I closed my eyes, feeling hopeless, and I cried as more labor pains hit me. My body was hot, I felt aflame, and the cool onyx stone that dangled around my neck-a gift from Moserre after we'd finished our business-felt blissful against the heat of my skin.

After what had happened, I took my son and we moved into a cave just outside of the city of Havengrove, our homeland, and we had stayed there throughout the duration of my pregnancy. If I had went to the medical unit inside of the city and they had discovered the baby's true identity, both I and the child would be executed.

When I had discovered the pregnancy, I had been terrified. My race was so absolute about its laws, so absolute about the pureness of our race and our bloodlines, our ways, that there was no way that they would allow such a horrid transgression. Not only was the child a bastard, but a hybrid at that. No one could ever know. They had to think that she was Garin's, or else....

Suddenly, I heard footsteps enter the cave and I looked up, fear spearing through me...but then my burden eased a bit when the son of my best friend, Dragon came in.

”Please, Dragon. You have to get the baby here safely! I've been in labor for days and the baby isn't coming!”

He was a world-renowned healer, and I relaxed as he came over to me, seeing the situation, and a warm, lavender glow emanated from his hands as they hovered over my abdomen. I began gaining energy as the pain faded.

He kept me talking as he started to work on me.

He took a knife and began cutting into the flesh of my lower abdomen, slicing deeply, through the muscle, and I screamed. He cut into my womb, and began pulling the babe out of my womb. I sobbed as it felt as if my entire soul were being pulled out of my body through that incision. Then it was over, and he set the baby aside for a moment to tend to me. He began using a needle and thread to sew my muscles and skin back together, healing it as best he could.

He then inspected the babe, and cleaned it, swaddling it in blankets...but something was wrong. The child wasn't crying.

I began to cry. The child wasn't breathing.

He flipped the child over his knee and popped it on the bottom, trying to knock the fluid from its lung's. But the child still didn't cry.

With a solemn look on his gentle face, he declared to me that he was sorry that he couldn't save her.

I sobbed and cried as I turned away, letting myself mourn over the loss.

But then, I heard a strange wispy sound, along with a deep breath and a song that had all of the hairs on my arms and neck standing at attention, gooseflesh covering my flesh, the sound unlike anything that I had heard...before a piercing squeal filled the dank air of the cave. I whirled around to see him cradling my child, pulling his forehead away from the child's, and handing the child to me. I wondered what on earth he had done as he tried to catch his breath, looking pale and drained.

”Congratulations, Darah. You have a daughter.” And I took her from him. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and turned to look at us when he got a moment. ”What will you name her?”

I thought for a moment, inspecting her face. I was sad, when I saw the sign of her heritage clearly stamped on her face. She had the upside down, crown shaped Wraith marking of her father, the Wraith Prince. I had known, of course, that the Wraith was her father...but I had hoped that the marking would not be there. Hopefully, her diet would not follow her race's same appetite.... or else I would be in for a long, tiring future of hardships.

”Kysael,” I answered finally.

”'Skies of Light'. That is a beautiful name. I pray that she will be a force for the Light Realm. And the name reminds me of a certain someone.” I knew to whom he was referring. A very dear friend to the both of us, part of the reason why I had given Kysael her name; named partly for Kassiel, of the Ash clan.

Dragon smiled sadly in remembrance, before his smile fell. I could sense a change in him. As long as I had known him, he had been angry. He had been cold and detached, unfeeling and uncaring. He showed little emotion, and often went without eating or sleeping. His eyes weren't the light lavender shade like that of his father and clansmen, but a dark, violent hue of violet that was frightening. He hated many things and cared for little.

But as he looked at my daughter, his eyes lightened back to a brilliant shade of lavender, rich and warm, and the air around us changed. He looked at peace, and I felt pride and shock that my daughter, out of hundreds of babies that he had delivered, only my daughter had been able to get this reaction from him. It was astounding to say the least.

He looked at my child. He stared at her. ”Darah, you know what will happen to her if anyone sees her face, don't you?” He asked. ”They will kill her. Baby or not, mixing of the races is forbidden, let alone mixing of the Realms. Elves are of the Light realm; Wraiths are of the Dark Realm. The king will be forced to have her executed, or the city would riot. She is also a bastard, another thing forbidden to our people. And even if no one discovered the truth, how do you intend to feed that child? If she's dominantly Wraith enough to show her markings, then surely her diet will follow as well.”

I thought for a moment. ”Perhaps it is hopeless. But she's my daughter. They would have to kill me to get to her.”

”That's already a very valid possibility, Darah.” He wondered for a moment. ”Isn't there anything we can do to protect the child?” Dragon wondered aloud. ”I... I can't explain it, I just...I feel as if something big is in her future, something important. I feel like she is destined for great things. We have to find a way to protect her, don't we? She's only a baby.”

We both thought for a long moment. ”I can teach her to only hunt animals, survive off of that.”

He nodded. ”My mother has been working on a new product, a type of creamy clay that goes on your skin to hide blemishes. Concealant, I believe she has deemed it. That might help.”

”Concealant?” I asked. ”That might work,” I smiled.

”Yes, perhaps that could,” He agreed. ”But you would have to never go out of the house without concealant covering that mark, Darah. If anyone were to discover her true identity, both of you would die. The laws of our race are absolute.”

”I will do whatever it takes to protect my daughter, no matter what race or realm she is. She is my child.”

”Darah, I pledge this to both you and to Kysael, that I will protect Kysael with all of my ability henceforth. I will take her under my wing, and watch over her. I will strive with all of my might to provide her with protection. I truly cannot explain why I feel this way, but I feel as if it is something that I must do. She is destined for big things, I know it. I will do whatever I can to protect her. You have my word.” Dragon got on his knees beside the bed, kneeling to me, to my baby. I glanced at him. For my child to have subdued this man into protecting her...she was truly something.

Even I knew that Dragon had felt less than nothing for anyone in a very, very long time.

She was very charming, and it was all we could do to not stare at her.

”Can I come in, now?” My son asked as he poked his face in the door.

”Oh, yes, son. Come in now, and see your baby sister.”