Arrival

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 ma.s.sacred.

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-gla.s.s 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 G.o.d, 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-gla.s.s 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 a.s.sa.s.sins 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.

Ka.s.siel. My beloved, who had just been publicly beheaded in the town square for fornication. I watched as her gla.s.sy eyes stared emptily into s.p.a.ce, 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 n.o.bleman. This woman had been my fiancé, and we"d been set to marry in just a few short days.

For such a high ranking n.o.ble 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 Ka.s.siel 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 antic.i.p.ation. 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 Ka.s.siel"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. Ka.s.siel was executed, but because of your rank and your importance in this city, you were spared. Yet you show no grat.i.tude."

"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 gla.s.s of water a day, until I became more complacent with the king"s demands.

I was released under the condition that I take over Ka.s.siel"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. Ka.s.siel 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 Ka.s.siel, but I also wanted to wallow in my own anger and bitterness. I wanted to mourn. I wanted to destroy.

Many years pa.s.sed 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 Ka.s.siel.

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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 a.s.surance as I used my knowledge and skill to deliver the child.

I had wanted children.

I had wanted a family with Ka.s.siel.

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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d. While humans often allowed b.a.s.t.a.r.ds to live in their society--albeit letting them be treated like unwanted strays--elven society was not so kind. b.a.s.t.a.r.ds 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 Ka.s.siel 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 Ka.s.siel 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 Ka.s.siel 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 Ka.s.siel 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. Ka.s.siel 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 Ka.s.siel"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, Ka.s.siel. 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 att.i.tude, 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 circ.u.mstances, 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. .h.i.t 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 ident.i.ty, 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d, 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 appet.i.te.... 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 Ka.s.siel, 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d, 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 ident.i.ty, 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."

"Aw, it"s a sister?" He whined, but he came over to see her anyway. "I was hoping for a brother, but I guess sisters are alright, too," he pouted.

"This is Kysael. A royal Wraith, born to a Woodelf maiden. What a mess," I whispered and laughed softly, before I fell into a peaceful slumber.

If only I knew how much of a mess this truly would be.

*

Going back to the city with a child was a challenge. I had to get her cleared by the guards, and then again by the King.

"Is that why you were gone for so long?" Eranton asked. I nodded, silently answering him. "Garin must be quite proud."

"Garin has deserted me.... He did not wish for a daughter."

"Oh...well, how very shameful of him," he told me. "She must be quite beautiful if you are her mother."

"Yes, Dragon is watching her for me."

"I am glad to see that he has been brought back to life."

I nodded. "Yes, I watched him deliver her, and his reaction to her was one that I certainly did not expect."

"I will be by this evening to see her, just to clear her and give you her certificate of citizenship into this city, since she was born elsewhere. You may go."

I bowed, and quickly took my leave. I needed to get back to Dragon at my small home, and we would need to go to his mother to get the concealant.

When I arrived, Dragon was reluctant to hand me Kysael, but did so momentarily. "What did he say?"

"He is coming by in a few hours to give me her certification of citizenship and to see her himself. We need to talk to your mother right away."

He nodded. "I will go and fetch her. It"s too dangerous to have Kysael be seen before we get the concealant."

I watched as he rushed out, and I took the time to continue gazing at the girl. She was mesmerizing. It was odd, she was very charming.

It wasn"t very long before Dragon returned, as his mother didn"t live very far from me, and I saw that Drakul was with her...

I tried to prepare myself for the reaction. I knew that this wasn"t going to go over well, especially not with my friend. Her parents had been eaten alive by Wraiths, and she had barely escaped with her own life. She wouldn"t be able to accept this easily.

"Darah?" She asked as she entered. "What on earth has happened? You"ve had a child, Dragon says! What happened to being best friends? You never mentioned that you and Garin were expecting!" She asked, mocking sadness. And then she looked at the child in my arms. "Good Heavens!" She shouted, backing up quickly, her hands up in surrender.

"A Wraithling!" Drakul practically growled as he stepped in and saw what had scared his mate. "Darah! This is the child you bore?"

I sighed. "Yes. We were travelling last autumn when a group of them crossed our path. They....the...the leader thought that I was beautiful, and in exchange for our lives...I let him lay with me."

"Oh, Darah," Drakul said. "You may not be a warrior, but I can only imagine the bravery that took on your part. To face down such creatures....and to allow one to be...intimate with you," he shivered as if some insect had gotten into his tunic and wormed its way down his spine. He gazed at my daughter. "Have you named her?"

"Kysael."

"I see," my friend said, coming down from her shock. "You intend to keep her?"

"Of course. Her paternity isn"t her fault, nor is it really my own. I intend to keep her and raise her as I would any other child."

They nodded, but there was hesitation. "Darah, I am....still working on the concept of the concealant. It isn"t finished yet."

I startled. "But...But the king will be here any moment!"

Tears ran down her face. "I"m so sorry!" She pulled out a little bowl of creamy clay, and tried blending it into my baby"s face. It helped, but even with quite a bit, it did not completely cover her markings, and all of the rubbing and blending caused her to start screaming as her face began to grow red with irritation.

Despair ran through me. There was no way that the king would forgive this. He would not accept it. Our king was one of the very eldest living of our race, the Woodelves. He was strong, and full of pride for our nation. He was arrogant and did all things with the purity of our kind in mind. He would likely kill her when he arrived, without thought. Our king was simply that way. All I could do was pray to the Creator that he would be enraptured by her charm and beauty, as we were, and be lenient.

Dragon"s face was displeased. "Mother, we have to do something."

"The only thing that we can do is try to get the king to agree to a lesser sentence than execution," Drakul said sadly. "And even that is unlikely. Honestly....execution may be the least cruel thing, in the end. What kind of life would you expect for this child? Surely, with her parentage and the fact that she is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, she will face many hardships."

"Darah, for that matter, what were you going to do when the girl is older and it was time for her to be sent off to school? Or going out into public? She has almost no aura, and it is quite dim. You can tell that she is not a full-blooded Woodelf just simply by looking at her. Not to mention, what about when she is a teenager and its time to marry her off?" My friend asked. "That won"t bode well. She would be extremely blessed to be able to find anyone to marry her at all, let alone someone who wouldn"t abuse her for her breed. The law would not spare her, either. She would be forced into an arranged marriage either way, and forced to reproduce. What on earth had you thought was going to happen?"

I had not even considered this. When an elf-maiden reaches the age of sixteen, she is placed into an arrangement to be married to one of the eligible men in the city, preferably from a similar-ranking clan. The men could be anywhere from sixteen to twenty, but the women had to be sixteen.

The latest that a woman could wait was until she was eighteen, and even that was frowned upon. That was the tradition. And they had to be married when she was eighteen. The courting could last for two years or she could wait to find someone until she was eighteen, and if both of them agreed to not marry, she could be arranged to someone else. But my daughter....

How could she possibly hide her ident.i.ty? How could she hide who she was? What she was? If she were to be placed in an arrangement to marry, that could ruin everything.

"I will do it."

I startled and looked to our salvation, the man who had delivered her when I could not, the one who had given the solution to hiding her heritage in our judgmental city, the one who had given us a way to live.

"What?" I whispered in my shock.

"The king has allowed me to bypa.s.s the marriage laws because of what happened with Ka.s.siel. Healers and n.o.bleman get special treatment, after all. When she reaches the marrying age...I will do it. The king is about to discover her ident.i.ty, and you, unfortunately, will more than likely not make it out of this alive. But she is only an infant. She may or may not be spared. If she is spared, she will be able to reach maturity. And she would never be able to reveal herself to another man, lest he turn against her. I already know what she is, what she will become. I will protect her. Besides," he said thoughtfully. "There is no one else in this city that is worthy of me."

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. But I simply nodded, accepting his vow. "It is a promise, then," I said softly.

His parents glanced at one another, wary expressions on their concerned faces, but they nodded. "It is agreed between the four of us, then," Drakul said softly. "If she is spared and allowed to live, and allowed to mate.... then when the time comes, Dragon will marry her."

I had to wonder what kind of life my daughter would lead, with all of it already planned out for her. It would be unlike any other in the history of our race.

The king arrived a short time later, and our lives were all turned upside down...forever.

He opened the door, leaving his guards outside, and stepped inside.

And then he quickly drew his sword, swearing and cursing. "What on earth is that.... that thing doing here?" He demanded.

I stepped forward. "Your grace.... this is my child. This is not Garin"s daughter, you see. We were happened upon by a group of Wraiths in the forest, and as Garin deserted us, I offered my body to the leader of the group in exchange for our lives. I have been hiding in the forest for the entirety of this pregnancy, fearing the worst...and I was right. But when I felt her kicking inside of me, I simply couldn"t bring myself to kill her or leave her alone in the forest to die."

The king slowly put his sword away, glaring at me. "You knew the consequences of this, and you brought her anyway. Why? What could you hope for, bringing that atrocity here to my city? You could have gone anywhere. Lived on the run and in hiding, maybe, but lived all the same. You knew what would happen if you came here. But you, knowing the fate you faced, returned here. Why?"

"The best that I can ask for now, your grace, is to ask for mercy. Dragon gave me hope, you see....I ask you to allow my daughter to live, allow my friend here to take her and raise her in his own home, raise her to feed on normal food and on animals only if it should come to that. I ask you not to end her life just because of the circ.u.mstances."

"And how could I possibly allow that? She"s not only a b.a.s.t.a.r.d child born out of wedlock, while you are married to another, but she is a Wraithling. She is neither Light Realm nor Dark Realm, but a disgusting and sickening combination of the two. She is not even of the Gray Realm, which puts humans as being above her. She is very clearly not a full-blooded elven child, even. A mixing of the races I could tolerate, mixing with a Mountain elf or something, but this.... this travesty, no. The people would revolt against me for allowing her existence the moment that they saw her face."

"I am working on something, sire," my best friend spoke up. "It is a concealant, once it is ready, she will be able to cover her face with it and go out into the city and not be discovered. It is to be able to hold up in water, as well. I am making it so that only a special cleaner can take it off," she insisted.

He stroked his beard for a moment.

"I would raise her, and all of us here would swear to never utter her true ident.i.ty to anyone outside of this place," Dragon said softly.

The king seemed to mull over the notion, looking around the room as he contemplated it before he met my eyes again with his own. "I will allow this, then, and only because I hold all of you in such high regard as high ranking citizens of this city. But the moment it comes unraveled, its all of your heads that will be on spikes in this city," he said. He looked at me. "You have until dawn to say your farewells, make your preparations, and get everything ready. Then, the guards will escort you to the dungeon, where you will wait for your execution."

"What?" My best friend cried out. "But sire-"

"NO!" His voice boomed. "I have been merciful enough to spare the child. But she is quite obviously, markings or no markings, not related to Garin. She looks nothing like either him, nor does she even look like her mother. Not to mention that Garin has fled. What other reason but that the child isn"t his own? Then I would be facing riots over allowing an adulteress and her b.a.s.t.a.r.d in our midst." He shook his head. "It is an unfortunate truth, but this child was born out of wedlock. The other things could be hidden, but not this fact. There are consequences for this action, willing or not." He looked at me with a tired expression. "Be thankful that I am not having you taken away now, and am giving you time to prepare and to say your farewells..."

Fear struck through me, and I knew then that these were my last hours in this world. He walked out the door, leaving the silence in the air deafening...all but the thundering of my roaring heartbeat in my eardrums, and the sound of my struggle to breathe around the lump that had formed in my throat.

*

***Preface Part 4- Kysael***

August, 1086 A.D.

I ran and danced, singing a happy elven tune as I played in the summer heat of the forest. I was now four summers old.

I didn"t know my birth parents. I had once thought that Dragon was my father. Dragon is the n.o.ble Lord who took care of me, but he had set me straight rather quickly and told me that he was not my birth father. He was only my caretaker. He had told me that he had promised my mother that he would take care of me before she had died.

I was not only born out of wedlock, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d...but I also had no parents living. Maybe that was because I was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

Not that Dragon ever told me that b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were bad. I had heard it enough in our society already to know, b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were unforgivable. That is why the Woodelves chose life partners so early. To ensure there were no b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Woodelves took purity very seriously. Purity of the race, purity of the clans, purity of the races, purity of the Realm.

But Dragon had told me the truth, that my father was not a Woodelf, nor was he my mother"s husband for that matter.

My father.... he had been of a different race, and I guessed he didn"t want me. b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were supposed to be extremely unwelcomed, as it were. And mix-breeds were just as unwelcomed. Since I wasn"t a full Woodelf, that made my situation even more dangerous. I was absolutely forbidden to ever tell anyone what I knew of my parentage. Lord Dragon had always stressed that to me. That was a secret, and if I told anyone, he and I would both be in danger.

As it happened, not many people in the city knew that I was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Only the royal council knew, and I was not welcomed by them. Everyone else seemed to be unaware, and I was treated as a normal Woodelf girl in our grand forest city.

My mother died right after I was born. From health problems or because I was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Dragon had not ever told me the details of it. He said that I was too young to know yet. But that answer told me enough in itself. I may be young, but I learned very quickly and I knew that if I was told that I was too young to know, it wasn"t a pleasant answer.

I had an older brother, but he had gone to live with an uncle, and I didn"t see him very often. When I did see him, he was distant from me, and he left my care in the hands of Lord Dragon.

Dragon was in charge of watching me. He had raised me, and he taught me how to do things and how to read and write, how to speak. He taught me everything. He was good to me. He made sure I had clothes. He had taught me how to dress myself. He made sure I could brush my hair, and he would braid it for me often. He made sure I stayed bathed and in fresh clothes. He made sure that I stayed fed. He helped me with homework from my primary school, and even helped me practice a spell for the Mages" school. He told me I could go there, and be whatever I wanted to be.

He taught me to be kind to people, to go around the town with him as he ran errands and did ch.o.r.es for people. As a member of a high-ranking clan, it was our solemn duty to help those less fortunate than us, to be good to the people so that we would have their respect, Lord Dragon always said.

He had me help him chase down people"s lost pets, or help weed their gardens. He had me help plant flowers for older ladies and help shop keepers" stock their shelves. It was important to learn to help others. Lord Dragon was very kind.

He was, at that moment, at home. He was preparing my meal for me, while I played out in the forest, as long as I didn"t wander too far off from home alone. I felt more peaceful when he was around me.

He was a hard person, and he was hateful a lot of the time to other people. He was always angry at the world. I think he was trying hard not to be that way, but he told me that something had happened a long time ago, something that had hurt him really bad. He pushed himself to be good to people though, even if he hated people sometimes. But he had been always so nice to me. And he was always there whenever I needed him. He told me that things had happened in his life to make him a harsh person, but I didn"t see him as a harsh person. I just saw him as someone I care about a whole lot.

Life was peaceful. Things were bright in our world. We saw things differently. There were constantly deep, soulful songs sung in the elven language of our people throughout the city. There were peaceful families with their children, learning and enjoying the fruits that our forests provided. The Hunters of our nation provided meat to the restaurants and shop keepers, and things were calm. The streets stayed lit with lamps, the candles flickering beautifully in the fountains and springs around.

Dragon always rubbed this gunky stuff on my face before we could go into the beauty of the city, but that was alright. My markings preferred to breathe, but I enjoyed going with Dragon into the city. He insisted that only the king knew who I was, and that I had to keep my markings covered or bad things would happen. At my young tender age, I simply did not understand why. But I knew I would find out soon enough.

"Kysael," Dragon said, coming into the little clearing in the forest where I was. "I have your meal ready for you," he said with a smile.

"Lord Dragon?" I asked. "Can I ask you something?" I asked, and he came to kneel in front of me, taking my shoulders in his big, strong hands.

My heart fluttered. He had been there for me since I could remember. He was the one who helped mother give birth to me. He was incredibly important to me.

Despite being four, I somehow knew that he"d be by my side forever. And there was nowhere else I would rather him be than by my side.

"Hm?"

"How come I don"t eat what you eat?" I asked.

He smirked gently at me; his eyes warmer than usual. His eyes were very pretty, a bright, light purple color.

Lavender, he had called it. It was special to his clan, and showed that he was from that family of hunters for Havengrove. His father was a big shot hunter, even famous around the world.

But Dragon was not a hunter. He was a healer, the opposite of a hunter. "You are very special, Kysael. You have to eat special food."

"Is that why I can"t spend the night with friends from cla.s.s?" I asked.

"Oh, Kysael," his eyes looked sad. I didn"t like to see his eyes sad. It made me sad. "You are so young," he told me. "Once you can hunt for yourself, and you can keep it secret from your friends, then you can spend the night with them in their own homes. But for now, it is not safe."

"Why?"

He looked away. "If someone knew about your diet, they might get scared."

"But why?"

He chuckled. "Oh, it"s nothing you need to worry your little head over right now, little one." He ruffled my hair, and my cheeks felt hot. "You will know some day, I promise."

"Lord Dragon?"

"What is it?"

"Will you always be with me?"

His eyes widened, but his smirk stayed in place. "Of course, I will. I have always promised you that I would, haven"t I?" My stomach suddenly growled, and he laughed. "Now, come along, little girl. You need to eat."

"One more question?" I asked, and he stopped himself from standing and nodded to me. "How do you always know where I am?"

He actually smiled. "I have been given the honor of making sure that you are safe, Kysael. And while it may seem odd, I am extremely protective over you. I have my ways of keeping an eye on you."

"Do you always watch me?"

He sighed. "That was more than one question," he said, careful to not answer. "Come on, now. It"s time to eat. Let"s go," he took my hand and led me into the house.

*

December, 1091 A.D.

The snow was coming down hard. Dragon had just been called into the inner city to take care of a patient going into labor. It was evening, getting dark.

I was left alone. Dragon was the one who took care of me, raised me. But with him gone, and being hungry, I didn"t know what to do.

I"d never been left completely alone before. I had been born nine years ago, and it felt strange to be by myself.

I put on my boots and gloves, and stepped outside. It was quite cold, but I was getting hungry, and no one was around. And Dragon had needed to leave in such a rush, that he didn"t have time to find someone to watch me. I took a deep breath, and I continued onward, away from my house.

I began wandering around the forest, deciding to take the matter into my own hands. I would have to learn to hunt sooner or later, wouldn"t I? I thought that I may as well try to hunt something now. It couldn"t be that difficult. I wouldn"t always be able to depend on others to hunt my food for me. Lord Dragon had coddled me for too long.

Of course, I couldn"t always expect Lord Dragon to come running every single time I was hungry. He was a n.o.bleman, and a member of the royal War Council for the city. He was a member of the City council board. He was an important healer. He had many important jobs to do, too.

We lived in a decent sized cottage out in the middle ring of the city, and there weren"t lamps posted about out this far, and it was getting darker. The sky wasn"t bright. I began to feel afraid. But I couldn"t find my way back to the house. I"d already lost my tracks in the snow.

After a while, my arms and legs began to feel cold, and it began to get harder and harder to move around. The snow was blowing past me hard, and it hit my skin like knives. The wind picked up, and I could barely hear myself think over the roaring of the winds as snow and ice blurred my vision, and all I could see was white.

I had been outside for a couple hours, and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I was unbearably hungry, and now, I was caught in a blizzard. I suddenly wished that I had remembered a coat. I started running with my urgency.

I climbed a tree to try to get a lay of the land, to see where I was and if I could see any signs of home. But once I had gotten about halfway up, my foot slipped on a branch, and my fingers were too numb to stop my hand from slipping off of the branch that I was holding myself up with.

My body plummeted to the snow-covered ground underneath me and I quickly flipped my body to try to land on all fours but I was unsuccessful, and I felt my head collide with the icy ground. Warmth quickly began leaving me through my head...and I vaguely, somewhere in my frantic mind, knew what that meant. I was bleeding out from my head.

"Ouch!" I cried out. I couldn"t make my body move anymore. I was getting so tired....my vision wavered, and I felt strange...."Lord Dragon...!" My voice was pitiful, quiet. My body felt weak. I could feel myself slipping. And suddenly, I couldn"t see anymore. I felt warm liquid rushing down my forehead, over my cheek. I rested my face on the ground, and I began to feel completely numb all over.

"Kysael!" I heard a voice cry out sharply, full of panic and fear, and I suddenly felt warm as a thick coat was wrapped around me, still warm from his body heat, and I was lifted into a strong pair of arms. I could vaguely feel us moving. I was afraid, wondering who had me...? Where were we going...?

But if it was anywhere so that I wouldn"t freeze to death and bleed out in the snow, I almost didn"t even care....

But my eyes wouldn"t open. All I could see was the blackness behind my own eyelids.

"Stay with me! You are safe now," I heard his warm voice say, and my heart filled with grateful relief.

Lord Dragon had come to save me.

I felt my body moving with each step that he ran, and it took what seemed like a long time to get back home. I numbly wondered just how far I had managed to make it away from home.

I finally felt him set my body down by the fireplace, and put a pillow under my head.

"Kysael? Are you still with me?" His voice was tired but anxious, and I could feel his hand on my head, warm with his healing powers. My head began to feel less heavy, and I was able to breath a bit easier.

I slowly, ever so slowly opened my eyes to see him.

He was wearing a thick tunic, with no coat, and I realized that he"d taken off his coat and wrapped me in it.

My favorite coat, at that. The outside was a nice cotton material. It was a dark, forest green color with dark, evergreen leaves embroidered all over the collar to intertwine down the shoulders and the outer part of the sleeves, and it had dark evergreen leaf b.u.t.tons.

It was lined on the inside with wool, and it was especially warm and comforting with its ever-present smell of Dragon, his musky scent of trees and rain, a smell I"d come to know and be comforted by.

"Lord Dragon," I whispered, and he pulled me up into a hug.

"Thank heavens," he said softly. "I"m sorry that I didn"t get here sooner. I was running some errands for my father after the labor because I needed to get some more things done, so I was gone a little longer than antic.i.p.ate, and then when I came here, I saw that you weren"t here. And the door had been left open, so I knew that you must have went into the forest. I am just so thankful that I found you in time!"

"You saved me..."

He smirked at me. "Of course, I did. I promised you that I wouldn"t let anything happen to you as long as I could help you. I promised you that I would always come for you. I have always been, and will always be, there for you, on your side. I promise you."

I gave him a small smile. "I"m sorry.... I don"t mean to be trouble," I grumbled. "Please don"t be mad," I pleaded, and he nodded at me.

He gave me a small kiss on my forehead. "You"re not trouble for me, Kysael. I chose this path. And I am not mad at you," he said with a sly grin. The grin that always made my heart flipflop in my chest. "But I am going to start teaching you how to hunt and fend for yourself. I will help you."

*

The next morning, Lord Dragon took me to the training fields. There, the field keepers held a number of different preys to practice hunting for the young ones to learn with, and I was no exception.

Dragon had told the keeper that he wanted to rent out the field for the day without giving him a reason, and so the keeper just accepted the money and agreed without pressing the issue.

Everyone in this city knew better than to press things with my ever-quick-tempered Lord Dragon. He"d never had much tolerance for the people in this city.

Although I didn"t understand why he would need to rent out the field for the day, I did understand that women weren"t supposed to be warriors or hunters in our culture, and I figured that must be the reason as to why he would keep it a secret.

"Alright, Kysael," he told me when we got onto the field. "There are many different types of animals out in these fields for you to hunt and practice your hunting habits. You will need to learn to find and catch these animals, and to feed from them without needing to have someone to do it for you."

I nodded. I was afraid, but I was ready. "I have to kill them?"

He smiled sadly. "That is what we do when we gather your meals for you. I will teach you how to perform this task for yourself. You will need the skill in the future if you are to survive."

"Does everyone hunt like this?"

"The men in the city do, yes. Women are not supposed to do this, but you are not a normal girl. I can"t always be able to get to you in time, as we saw yesterday. This is why you need to know how to do this."

I smiled. "If you say that I need to learn it, then I will learn it."

He nodded. "Good. Now," he gave me a small knife. "Let"s get started."

He started by hunting something himself, showing me the technique, how to pick up scents and look for tracks in the snow.

At first, I had some difficulty, but I felt something click in my head after a the first few tries, and I vastly improved. It somehow felt second nature to hunt like this, and I felt powerful and strong.

My very first catch was a young hare, and when I had caught it, Dragon didn"t need to say anything.

It had been my first instinct to rip into its body with my teeth, and I felt my incisors burning.

"Your hunting teeth have grown," I heard him whisper. But I was eating and didn"t press the matter. "It seems as if you already knew what you needed to do. I never had to skin it or de-bone it for you."

I finally finished, and threw the bare bones to the snowy ground at my feet.

"Oh," I said lamely. "I wasn"t thinking about anything...I was just hungry. I"m sorry."

"No, that"s quite alright. I just didn"t expect you to be such a natural right away, but I suppose that I should have," he said, his tone holding more insight than what he was letting on. He knew something that he wasn"t telling me.

"Is it not natural to be such a natural?"

He laughed as he saw through my intentions. "I"ll tell you that when you"re a bit older."

*

It had been shortly after the incident in the snow when I had been nine and Dragon had found me almost dead, that he had taught me how to hunt for myself, and to mark where I had been to keep track of my path.

He taught me how to climb trees using rope tied around myself, rather than just with my bare hands. We never wanted an incident like that to happen again.

When I had turned ten, my normal cla.s.ses at the school in town took a turn-the teacher began to teach us about courting, and about the marriage laws that took affect once an elf turned sixteen.

A girl was supposed to be married by the age of eighteen, while a boy was supposed to be married by twenty, at the latest. They began to teach us proper etiquette, manners and the like.

Teaching us wild, free spirited young elves to be ladies and gentlemen was not an easy task, I was sure.

Dragon would help me with further instruction at home, because I was particularly bad with these things like dancing, proper use of eating utensils, proper speaking habits and so on. He said that I was particularly wild, and often joked that he didn"t know if I would ever learn how to be lady.

But he pushed and pushed the issue, and he told me that I would be placed into a marriage with a lord someday. That I needed to know how to behave like a lady.

He always gave me these strange glances, watching me with solemn eyes. I would catch him, and watch his eyes skitter away as if he was avoiding me or something. I always wondered why. Sometimes, he would look...almost ill.

I was normally a natural at things...but it seemed that being a lady elf would not come naturally to me.

But there was something that I was still a complete natural at; hunting.

I was hunting one day while Dragon was off at work, and it was after school. I was almost eleven, now.

I dropped from the branch that I"d been sitting on to land gracefully beside of my prey, and retrieved my spear from it before I sunk my teeth into my catch, a young wild boar. Its blood was warm on my tongue.

I drank and drank, and ate the raw flesh straight off of its carca.s.s. After only a half hour, all that was left were the bones.

I stood, feeling refreshed and satisfied. In giddy spirits from my profound skill on this hunt, I closed my eyes and danced, twirling as I sang a merry Elven tune. I skipped to the small pond nearby, dropping softly to my knees, peering at my reflection on the surface of the water. I stroked my long, beautiful hair that was held back by a leather band that let the rest of my hair fall out from under it like a waterfall.

I saw the strange tattoos on my face, that I didn"t know the meaning of. I had never understood why I had them, what they were for. All I knew, was that when I left the house, I had to have the marks covered.

Dragon had always stressed to me, that I must never leave the house with my marks uncovered. But a trip out into the forest to hunt didn"t count, right?

I heard a gasp, and there was a sudden sharp pain in my arm. I cried out, looking down at my arm to find an arrow sticking out, and my eyes whirled behind me to find a city guard, his bow and another arrow pointed at me, his body quivering.

"You! Your kind isn"t supposed to be here! According to our peace treaty, Wraiths are not to trespa.s.s on our lands!" He shouted. "You will leave our city at once or you will be taken to the king to be dealt with!"

"What?" I asked. Clearly, the man was confused. I took a step toward him, and he shot another arrow at me, its mark my thigh. I shouted, my leg caving, causing me to topple to the ground. "What is the meaning of this? I live in this city!"

He took a good, long look at me. Then, he pointed at me, his voice and face looking as if he was now in hysterics, and he certainly seemed hysteric, leaving me even more confused and startled. "Oh, creator of all that is Light! You"re Dragon"s charge! Which means that you are Darah"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d daughter! She mated with one of the d.a.m.ned and gave birth to an abomination! Finally, it makes sense why she died. So, she didn"t die in just because you were a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, she was executed for her transgressions!" He pulled out a horn from his back-pack, sounding it loudly. In the distance, frantic horns began blowing, and I startled.

What was happening? I just didn"t understand. Then he pointed his weapon back at my face.

Fear rushing through my heart, questions rushing through my mind, I couldn"t understand what was happening.

Why was he going to attack me? I held my hands up, stuttering out pleas. I knew that I was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but surely execution was an extreme after I had been allowed to live in this city all of my life, right?

Dragon came running out of the forest, interceding between me and the guard, quickly pushing the guard"s arm up and bringing the weapon away from me. I sighed a breath of relief.

"Lord Dragon, why are you stopping me? Don"t you know what that thing is? That creature could kill us all!"

"What?" I gasped. "I"ve never hurt anyone! What are you talking about? I"m a Woodelf, one of your people! I know that I"m a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but the king knows that and allowed me to live! So you need to take up your problem with him."

"Stand down," Dragon said, authority in his town. "She is able to sit in the sun light, Nisset. Think. She is not a pure-blooded Wraith. She has no idea about that way of life. Please, she isn"t any of your concern. Don"t do this."

"You can"t protect her from this, Lord Dragon. I"m sorry, but I am telling the king!" He said as he rushed off.

Dragon looked at me, then, an angry glint in his stare. "You should have listened to me, Kysael. You weren"t supposed to leave the house without the concealant! And now look what you"ve done!"

"What have I done?" I asked. "I don"t even understand! What am I? What is a "Wraith", Dragon? I truly don"t understand! What is happening? Is that worse than being a b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"

He gripped his hair in his hands, exasperated, before the life-altering truth blindly tumbled free of his lips. "Wraiths are blood drinking, flesh eating creatures of the Dark Realm. We may have a peace treaty with them, but it is very fragile. They hunt anything and everything, including our own kind outside of our boarders, and the treaty was only signed a few years ago. The treaty simply states that they are not allowed within our borders or we will declare war. They are feared creatures. And your mother.... she mated with one. And thus, not only are you a sp.a.w.n of the enemy, but you are a mix of the races and realms. The king is aware that you are a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, yes. And he knows what you really are, but n.o.body else knew that information, and the king stressed to never let anyone find out. And now, he just might decide to have you executed!"

Shocked, outraged fear ran through my heart and soul. I couldn"t believe this...it was too much for me. I barely understood, but this....it was almost too much for me to bear.

I might be executed, simply for someone finding out what I was? I had never harmed anyone. I had never been anything but kind and respectful, a good Woodelf child...and these people were going to turn on me like wolves, simply for something that I had no control over? But everything finally made sense. Why I couldn"t stay over at friend"s houses, why I ate different than he did, why his father was wary of me, why the King never made eye contact with me whenever I was in his presence....it all clicked in my mind like a puzzle that had finally been finished.

As the guards came and tackled me to the ground, binding my arms and dragging me away, I looked at my protector with a mixture of hurt and fury.

"Aren"t you supposed to protect me!?" I shouted, not really meaning what I was saying because I was afraid and angry. But my accusation caused his body to flinch, and shake. His head hung.

Somewhere, deep in my heart, it felt good to know that he would be this upset in the event of my death.

*

I was drug out of my cell the next morning, and pulled to the throne room of the King of Havengrove. The walls were made of jade, the floor made of white marble stone. The throne was large, interlocking limbs woven to make a grand seat with jades nestled into little nooks notched into the limbs.

The king sat there. His long, tan colored hair falling past his shoulders, his skin light brown, a goatee on his chin and his eyes were green. He looked like the personification of the forest. I looked around.

There weren"t many people in the room.

Dragon and his family were there.

Dragon"s expression was one that I wasn"t used to seeing often.

He looked as if he were ready to rip someone apart.

The king looked down at me from his throne. "Kysael..." He shook his head, and looked at Dragon. "Dragon, you were supposed to keep this quiet, and now the entire city is buzzing, questioning my authority for allowing her to live. A b.a.s.t.a.r.d and a hybrid, in our very city under all of their noses and I hid it from them. Now, they are enraged. I"ve slaughtered countless people, infants, for less. They are threatening riots. All because you begged and pleaded for me to spare her, this disgusting creature. How could you have allowed this?"

"King Eranton, please," Dragon pleaded. "Kysael is innocent. She has been raised to feed on animals, as you instructed, and she has never brought any harm to anyone. I have done as I was supposed to, and raised her up like a normal Woodelf girl. You"ve already taken the woman I love and an innocent child"s mother from the two of us. I implore you, don"t take her life for this."

"You know that I have always valued your opinion, Dragon. You are held to very high standards in this city, as is your clan. You came back from the brink of darkness after that incident many years ago, and you have earned your stature in this city. Then, you changed again after Darah"s execution, and you have been angry and dark since that day. Yet you have still followed my orders, and raised the girl as you were instructed to. You vowed to raise her, and I vowed that I would leave her alone as long as her true nature, her conception, was not discovered.

But can you promise me now, that she will never cause harm to any of my people? Can you truly look me in the eye and a.s.sure me that she will never turn? She"s a Wraithling. And now, people are wanting to revolt. The guards are bringing me word of conspiracy and rioting from the city! What if someone saw her out in the city and chose to strike out against her? Would she simply take it? No. No, Dragon. You cannot make me any promises that could change my mind."

"I can promise you that she wouldn"t turn! I swear it. I am willing to stake my life on it." Dragon came to stand between the king and myself, kneeling to the king. My heart jumped into my throat at the act. "Take my life instead, if you must kill someone today. I haven"t protected her well enough. I have failed, already, and she is only this age. I offer my life in her place."

The king rubbed his goatee. "Dragon, I truly cannot understand why you have pledged your protection to such a creature. Just the nature of her conception is...she is an abomination!"

"But your highness, it wasn"t Darah"s fault!" Dragon"s mother cried. "She was taken against her will! It wasn"t her fault nor her decision! Please, spare Kysael. It is what Darah would have wanted!"

Hurt tugged at my heart. I was only a mistake, just a token to my mother of someone who had taken her against her will. And then she had been executed because of my birth. I had never even gotten to meet her.

Pain radiated through my heart. I was only a reminder of her being forced into something that she hadn"t wanted...and she had still wanted me, still wanted me to have a safe life.

"But it was her decision to keep it a secret from me, and the city. To lie to everyone, making them believe that Kysael was one of us. That is why she was executed. And it was Dragon who swore to keep her ident.i.ty hidden to avoid a rebellion, and that has failed. This girl can never be one of our people."

"The la.s.sie is one of us, King Eranton," Drakul, Dragon"s father, spoke up. "The girl has proven that she isn"t a danger to anyone."

"The citizens are already outraged that I have allowed the girl to live in the city as long as I have. I understand that you all hold emotional attachment to the child, but she is no normal elf child. She is a Wraithling. Riots are forming in the streets. Word of overthrowing me is making its way to my ears. Despite the respect and the rank that you all hold in this city; I am afraid that life can no longer continue to go on the way that it has up until this point. I will not execute her, no. But she is to be removed from my city."

"No!" Dragon shouted. "You cannot do this! How is she supposed to survive on her own? She"s a child!"

"That is not my concern. I will allow her to live just inside of the outer wall, if that would make you feel better. But she is not allowed to come any further into the city limits. If I find that she has, she will be banished. Under the condition that she not come out of her designated s.p.a.ce, and she wait for food supplies if she so needs it, and she stay under surveillance of the city guard, I will allow her to live. You should be thankful she isn"t being sent to execution in the square."

"Please, your highness. Please do not do this."

"You truly care for this creature, Dragon. I pity you. Your devotion to her is admirable, but no less foolish. Your dedication to her protection is leading you down a path of death."

"I swore it, the day I delivered her from her mother"s womb, that I would always protect her. No matter the cost. I have foreseen greatness in her future. I know that she will be our salvation."

The king continued to stroke his goatee. Then, he stood, and pulled out his sword. He pointed it at Dragon"s throat. Dragon stayed relaxed, even though my heart raced and sweat dropped down my burning skin, my breath hitching. Dragon glanced up over his shoulder at me, before turning his attention back to the king.

"I, King Eranton, hold you, Dragon of the Huntsmen clan, fully responsible for this creature from this day forward. If she turns, if she harms anyone in this city, it will be your head on the display block in the square after watching yet another woman you care for die. Is that understood?"

Dragon bowed even lower to the ground. "Yes, King Eranton."

"And you will no longer be allowed to live with her. Your sickly attachment to her grows increasingly concerning to me. You may, however, visit her to train her because from this moment on, I hereby decree that this creature will be bound to live in the very outskirts of this city, and she will be my very own, personal weapon."

Everyone startled. "What?" Dragon asked, horrified.

"She will be instructed in the ways of the hunters and the warriors, and she will help us defeat our enemies that have risen up in the west. The Wolf-clans have been attacking our travelers and convoys, and they are teaming up with the Orks and the Dwarves. She is a creature of both the Dark Realm and the Light Realm, and her.... capabilities and dark talents could come to be quite useful. She will be my weapon henceforth. She will be in your charge, and she is to be trained and given to the army. If she proves to be worthwhile, I may perhaps… give her a better situation."

"King Eran-" Dragon started, but the king interrupted.

"This creature is currently of no other use in this city. She will not become a normal Woodelf maiden, but a woman of battle. The very first female warrior that we"ve ever had. That is the only means in which she could possibly be of use to me at this point in time. She will be my warrior and my warrior only. And if she proves successful and worthy, perhaps we can see what further uses she can serve for us. If I decide that her abilities are useful.... then I will allow her to marry and reproduce to further our society with more weapons. Now....Take this girl out of my sight, and to her place in the outer ring of the city. I will be there shortly with a designated plot of land for her."

Dragon"s face was outraged, fearful. But he sighed, stood, and turned away from the king. I was....to be a tool for the city, a weapon. I would never become a lady. I would only be a weapon. I would never marry, or have a family?

I would never....

I could hardly keep up, and I didn"t fully understand what was happening. Did this mean that I"d never have a family?

I would always be alone?

Dragon took me by the hand, and he led me out of the room, taking me into the forest, back to our home.

I said nothing as I watched him pack some bags for me, but he held an expression on his face that, truly, I hoped to never again see on his face.

I had never seen such unadulterated rage on his face before.