Dawn of Dusk
Chapter 15: Arborlea

Vistyral couldn’t help but think that there was a serious problem among the Elves. He had been allowed to move about as he desired and found himself where he had been held when he first arrived. When he first arrived, he thought that it was an Elf in the cell next to his, but now, as he looked in, he realized that it was something else. It was something evil something twisted and wrong. When he spoke to the prisoner, it would not speak back; it would just glare at him through hateful eyes.

“It is a Morderel, at least what you men call them.” Vistyral jumped as the words came from behind him. Landif was standing there looking noticeably older and shaking his head.

“I have been watching you for some time now, and you know something is not right about it. No sense hiding it, the world will know soon enough. We Elves are the reason that another evil may about be loosed upon the earth. I only hope we caught it quickly enough.”

Vistyral looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

“That is all right I’ll explain it to you on the way to the palace. I am glad that it is you who came this time because it is expedient that I complete our treaty today. I will concede to whatever terms you feel are fair. Your brother would be inclined to take advantage of me in some way. I know that you won’t do that.”

On the way to the palace, Landif told his new cousin Meadowlea about the problems that the Elves had to face and what his plan was to solve them. When they arrived, Vistyral (Meadowlea) looked older as well.

Meadowlea recognized most of the High Council but there were numerous others in the room that he didn’t recognize. Landif introduced Prince Rockledge, his wife Briancha, Arborlea and Graslina, and Meadowline and Brooker to Meadowlea and Meadowin and explained to those assembled how their names were changed by the Elves.

Most of the Elves were pleased, but Glade came up to Landif and said, “Maybe I should reinstate my objection to your elevation, your Majesty. Turning Men into Elves, next you will be elevating Dwarves as well.”

Landif took a deep breath. “You can’t reinstate your objection, you have already rescinded it.”

Meadowlea turned to Glade and jokingly said, “I would be most happy to offer you a place in the royal house of Karron, maybe I could find a place to make you a Baron in Cryarlac, maybe east of the Mangoso Divide.”

He smiled and patted Glade on the back but Glade shrugged off his hand and said, “You have no right to be here! This is Elven business. If we wanted Men sticking their noses into Elven Affairs, we would have asked that someone of importance come, not some insignificant Duke from a minor kingdom.”

“Glade, you have insulted my guest and the representative of the King of Karrondor,” Landif said indignantly. “You of all people should know better.”

“You are wrong my Kingling, I spoke to no one here except my cousins, after all we shared a great grandmother. You introduced this, this, person as brother to your cousin Valedif. I would speak to family as I wish.”

He turned and without another word from anyone stalked away. Meadowlea laughed quietly while Landif signaled for him to stop.

“Why should I stop? He is making a royal fool of himself. Maybe if he sees how pompous and arrogant he is he will develop some humility. He should have sustained you four years ago when all the other council members did. He only held back ratification so he could hold some influence over you. Now he realizes that he has made a big mistake giving that up. Besides he is probably thinking that you are going to want some retribution for having held up your coronation for four years.”

“You know, I hadn’t even thought about that. I will have to put some thought to slighting him in a way that if he takes offense, it would make him look bad. Since he just claimed a familial relationship, maybe I should have him sit with the family instead of his position as a member of the High Council. Yes, I think that would work just fine, I’ll even seat him in a position of honor in the family booth.

Have you given any thought to the terms of our trade agreement?”

“Yes, I have. I would like to enter into trade with no import fees or tariffs on either side. We will provide fresh vegetables, Grain, Dwarven Steel, Gems and Cloth including the silk and other fine cloths. You provide us with Elven Chain Mail, Trained wood, Forest Lore, and for myself, let Meadowin stay to study warfare with your best officers.”

“Looking to the future are you? - I’m sorry that wasn’t fair, it wasn’t even nice.”

“Don’t worry about it, the truth of the matter is, that I am looking to the future, and to the possible need to move if it becomes necessary. To not leave myself as many options as possible, would be foolish on my part. If I ever need to move, I must be ready then, not in six months or two years, I still pray to the Gods that they will help my brother to change so I can live a quiet life as a Duke in a far part of the Kingdom.”

“I know that you have no desire to be king. But you will be, and for more of the world than you can imagine right now. When I was born, a prophesy was made about a prince of Men becoming my brother (brother is a symbolic term for close companion, or maybe even an adopted cousin) that I would help him become the king of Men and that he would help me become a great king among the Elves. It talked about a lot of things, but I’m not sure that everything should be shared just right now. Let it suffice to say that when you agreed to share your Words of Truth with us, I knew that you were the Man prophesied.”

“Tell me more about this Elven disease Felkarditis. Can it be diagnosed before someone starts hurting people?”

“When we had the similar problem a thousand generations ago, they waited until a woman was abused and then killed the man guilty of the crime and the child if it was a male. It seems to be a barbaric way of doing things at mostly women’s expense.”

“Have you studied Brancil to see if there is anything different about him physically? He doesn’t exactly look like an Elf. Maybe there is something different about Felkards that we could see.”

“When they are in the advanced stages, you can see the difference. In the early stages, a Felkard is basically an Elf with no inhibitions. If it sees something it wants to possess, it takes it. In the beginning the creature is slipping in and out of this condition. As time progresses, more and more time is spent in the (we call it the Barbaric stage) condition where they have no inhibitions. When they finally make the crossover, they look different. I know that this doesn’t make a lot of sense, but, we cannot wait until we can see a difference.”

“I understand what you are saying. What do you plan to do?”

“That is the Mothertree question, isn’t it? I don’t know what to do. I could give broad powers to imprison anyone suspected of being affected with Felkarditis but, we Elves are proud of our civil liberties. I would be throwing individual rights out of the tree, and leaving plenty of room for abuses. Not just by me, but by others as well.”

“A good ruler does what he must for the good for his people. You can’t wait quietly by, waiting for someone to perpetuate some heinous act so you can punish them for it.”

“I know that it has got to be difficult. In many ways the Elves are an example to us all on what it means to be civilized. To have that level of sophistication and self control, and then have it suddenly stripped from you, must be harrowing for those with the disease as well as those who are victimized. Before they start making outward manifestations of corruption they probably struggle with it in their minds, not knowing what is happening to them.”

“That is it! Meadowlea, you are a genius. If we have each Elf share their thoughts with monitors who have basically shown little interest in magic, we should be able to identify those afflicted before they become a menace to the rest of Elven Society.”

“You should be able to use women as monitors as well since they seem to be immune to the disease your majesty.”

“That wouldn’t be bad if we can be sure that there are no attacks on the monitors. I don’t want a repeat of what happened with Brancil.”

“The initial studies could be done on those males that have had little to do with magic (like you). Those males, who will become monitors, should be checked on a regular basis, maybe daily, to make sure that we don’t have the wolves guarding the deer. These monitors could do an initial screening on the rest of the male Elves and categorize them into two or three levels of risk. Those we categorize as no risk, we will allow women to check them on a weekly basis and the trained monitors to check them monthly. Those we judge to be a minimal risk, maybe some anomalies but nothing radically wrong we could have them monitored by the males weekly. Those that show a high degree of risk could be incarcerated and evaluated daily. They would be in an environment that would protect them and those around them, if it turns out that there is nothing wrong with them, they could be released and reintegrated into normal Elven life.”

“It will be difficult to do, but, you are right of course, I can see no other way. You have again proven yourself to be wise and resourceful.

“Your father is a fool to place his kingdom in your brother’s hands instead of you. Surely he knows that your brother is a cruel, vindictive, and egotistical man. Since he is such a good leader of men; he could not help but see the differences between the two of you.”

“As to my brother, I can make no comment. Father knows what he is doing, and I am sure that Borrial will do the right thing (when the time comes).”

“If you had said that with any less conviction, you would have had to put a sign on your face that says ‘I’m Lying.’ We are family now, but I understand if you feel that you must keep certain things from me about your kingdom. I would do the same given similar circumstances.”

“Well, the time will come when we all may curse my father for his choice, but for now, since it has been made, I will support it.”

“True, now is not the time to act, but if it ever becomes necessary, I am your family, and I will surely come to your aid.”

Meadowlea felt good that Landif had come to him for advice, and he understood that with questions about some of the members of the High Council, Landif had few other choices for advice. In another crisis, he might have called upon Prince Rockledge for advice. With his kingdom teetering on the brink of barbarism, it would be a hard thing to have to ask for help from his newly found cousins who seemingly were flourishing in another part of the world.

He thought back on the trade agreement he had been sent here to negotiate. It was seemingly simple. He had gotten everything he wanted and at a fair price. Elven Chain Mail and Trained Wood were the items his father wanted him to negotiate for. He had also wanted permission for Chertal to be able to study forest lore and the battle tactics of the Elves. The temptation to take advantage of the situation the Elves were in had never even crossed his mind. That was one of the reasons that he was a successful negotiator.

The desire for trained wood was great among Men. The wood reacted to what went on it and adjusted itself to match the contours of the object. If a man lay down on a trained wooden bed, the bed would reshape itself to the exact shape that was lying on it there so that the weight was evenly distributed along the entire body. No mattresses were necessary on a trained wooden bed because the wood had a slight give to it, leaving it the feel of firm softness. The wood also raised itself to the body temperature of the person sitting on it in the cold weather, and in the heat lowered its temperature to cool the person using it.

Trained wooden chairs adjusted to the size and contour of the user. A three year old boy could sit on a chair and his feet would rest on the floor. Ten minutes later a person seven foot three, weighing four hundred-fifty pounds would be equally comfortable in the same chair.

Most thrones were made of trained wood, the gems and other ornate items were held into place by the wood. This enabled rulers to change the ornamentation of their thrones to their need. If a ruler was trying to show how wealthy his kingdom was, he could lavish it with inlaid gold and gemstones. If a ruler was expecting to have to pay tribute to a stronger neighbor, then the throne would be fairly bare with only ornate “carvings” in the wood. The carvings would come from an artisan carving in stone or some other substance the pattern wanted in the trained wood, and the person owning the wood would say key words to the wood while holding the pattern to the wood. The pattern would be reproduced by the wood and would remain in the wood until the key words were given again.

All Elven furniture was made of trained wood and there was a tremendous demand for it in the world of Men as well. Elves never put a cutting instrument of any kind to their trees. They had learned over the centuries to communicate with the trees, to befriend the trees. The trees would give up their inner wood to the Elves and the Elves would nurture the trees and protect them from harm.

Vistyral had just made a deal with the Elves that would almost give him a total monopoly on Elven wood and on Elven chain mail for the kingdoms of the Men. Few countries would risk being cut off from these supplies that could only come from one source, so no country would risk any aggressive action against the kingdom of Karrondor. Vistyral hoped that Karrondor would be equally indisposed to be aggressive.

*****

That afternoon Landif presented the program for monitoring the male Elves. All Magic researchers were considered prime risks and were put on special daily watch status. Landif also had special cells developed where the person monitoring the individual had the ability to talk through the window and even touch them if necessary, but, where the monitors were protected from harm.

The High Council unanimously approved the plan and it was implemented the same day. Even sour Glade was enthusiastic about the program that Meadowlea and Landif had come up with. The trade agreement was also ratified and set into place.

On the first day of testing five other men were found to be suffering from the disease, and precise guidelines were being followed in testing for others. In subsequent tests three other cases were confirmed and isolated.

Landif was then posed with another potential problem. He had never had to deal with prisoners before. He thought about executing them. He knew is what should be done, but his sense of right would not let him do that to any but Brancil. Brancil had almost escaped by pulling his door halfway off of the hinges, but one of the guards had caught him and knocked Brancil unconscious before he had completely removed the door. Landif personally beheaded him.

The other prisoners were a problem. None had done anything wrong except fail a test that was supposed to determine susceptibility to the dread disease. Landif determined that they would be kept under observation in warded cells so they couldn’t use any magic to aid themselves in any way. Once the disease had progressed to a point where it was obvious to all that they were afflicted, the sentence would passed by the king, ratified by the High Council, and carried out. Every man affected was a Drachlomancer and Landif was sure that they had the disease.

Screening continued but no further cases were found. The spells that had been learned by the Drachlomancers were put on a scroll and placed in the royal vault inside the Mothertree there they would harm no one and would be available if they were ever needed. Chertal (Meadowin) began his instruction in military tactics and became quite proficient at traveling through the forest undetected. As time went on it was joked by the Elves that he really was born an Elf, and had been abducted shortly after birth by some wandering Men and raised by them after having surgically changed his ears.

Meadowlea was interested in Prince Rockledge’s interest in the joke about Meadowin’s birth. One day Prince Rockledge had come up to him and began to question him about Meadowin’s birth, where he grew up and his magical abilities. He even went so far as to ask Meadowin to try to perform a simple Elven magical spell. No one was surprised to find that it failed except the Prince and he seemed more disappointed than surprised.

Meadowin left the group and headed out into the forest. It was not unusual for he was constantly working on his skills that he was learning from the elves. He made sure that he was not being followed, and ducked into an opening in a large tree. As soon as he was inside the opening in the tree the opening closed behind him. He was in a private room which had been fashioned by a master wood trainer. Inside was a beautiful Elven woman, Flor, daughter of Glade.

Glade hated humans. He was convinced that Elves were the only humans that deserved to live and that the races of Dwarves, Gnomes. Giants, Goblins and Trolls were an abomination. Men were to be tolerated because the Elves mutated from them into a higher life form. The tree vibrated, this was because Flor had closed the portal but another master was trying to open the portal. The tree would obey the first command, but the vibration was to give the first master knowledge that someone else was trying to enter.

Both Flor and Meadowin knew who the master likely was; Glade. Since there was only one way out, Flor winced and opened the portal. Glade stepped in, looked at Flor, then at Meadowin.

“What are you doing here with my daughter?”

“I’ll have your life for this you… man.”

“Father you cannot, he is as blood to the king!”

Glade looked as though he was going to cast a curse; then regaining some control over self, he turned to his daughter, “You are of age, and it is time I entrust you to a seeker.”

“No Father, I love Meadowin, I…”

“That will be enough. You are to return to our home. There you are to prepare for a visit with the king. I am sure that he will see me immediately. You Man, are to accompany me to the palace now.”

Meadowin realizing that he may have caused Meadowlea some political problems submissively said, “As you wish.”

When they arrived at the court, Glade asked for admission to the king. As expected he was granted almost immediate access. He shoved Meadowin forward and followed him into the throne room.

Meadowlea was there which Glade was unhappy about. This little king was consorting with the worst possible people. He walked forward and bowed before the king.

“How may I be of assistance to you Glade?” the king asked.

“It has occurred to me that my daughter is old enough for a seeker. Within two or three years a suitable spouse should be identified.”

“Do you have a seeker to whom you wish to entrust your daughter?”

“Yes, my king.”

“Who is this seeker?”

“I choose Meadowin, the companion to Meadowlea.”

As they were leaving a session of the High Council one afternoon, Meadowlea stopped Prince Rockledge to discuss it with him.

“Excuse me Prince Rockledge; may I speak with you for a minute?”

“Certainly Meadowlea, Briancha, I will meet you back at our room.”

Briancha nodded and started to leave, but Meadowlea said, “She may stay if you like; I just wanted to ask you a few questions.”

Rockledge nodded to Briancha and she stayed.

How can I be of service to you Meadowlea?” He asked.

“I am curious about your interest in Meadowin. When the Elves started joking that he was really an Elf in disguise, you took it seriously. You seem to have satisfied yourself that he is not the person that you thought he might be, but unless I have made a big mistake in judgment, you thought he might be someone.”

Reluctantly Rockledge answered, “Yes, I thought he might be someone else.”

“I do not mean to interject myself into business that is not mine, but may I be of help to you in any way?”

“No, thank-you, it is nothing, but thanks for your offer.”

Rockledge turned and started to walk away but Briancha grabbed his arm and said, “This man is more than the cousin to the Elven King. He is also an important man in the world of men. He, like you is the son of a king. He may be able to help you. Landif has been so absorbed in his problems, and rightly so, that he has not had time to do anything to help you. Share your story with him and maybe he will be able to help you.”

Rockledge looked angrily at his wife, and then his expression softened, you are right again, my love. My pride could keep me from finding that which we have come to find.” Then to Meadowlea he said, one of the reasons that my wife and I came on this trip was to try and find two individuals that should be between eighteen to twenty-two years old.

“I suppose I should start from the beginning, lets go to our quarters so we can get some refreshment as I tell you our tale, it is a rather long story.”

Meadowin nodded and they began to walk as Rockledge told his story.

“You see, Briancha was married before to my older brother. He accidentally killed himself in a magical experiment. He was trying to use magic to make Elves able to have children more often. He had read the history of our people and how the scourge of the Felkards affected us. He was interested in knowing why the Elven women conceived a child almost every time they were attacked by Felkards and why it happened so seldom in married life.

It appeared that there were three possibilities. One was that the act of violence helped the woman conceive in some way. Two was that the Felkards knew somehow which women were ready to conceive and chose their victims based on that readiness. Three was that the magic that turned Elves into Felkards, also made them better able to procreate in some way.

My brother, felt that it had to be the third reason and went about trying to make a change upon him without changing himself into a Felkard. He failed. All he managed to do was to suffer magical burnout. Magical burnout is sending so much magic through your body that your body’s ability to work with magic is lost. To an Elf this is an excruciatingly painful death.

My brother was heir to the throne and husband to Briancha for two years when he burned out. It took him another fourteen months to die after the accident.

I was made heir since Briancha had not had a child with him. After Briancha’s ten years of mourning, we began to see good things in each other.

Briancha and I were married and almost immediately she was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. I guess I don’t have to tell you that this is unusual for Elves.”

“No,” Meadowlea said, “That is very unusual indeed.”

They arrived in Rockledge’s room and had a seat on trained wood chairs. Briancha got them some fruit and something to drink and sat down beside her husband. It was obvious that they loved each other.

“Well we had the children and they were taken from among us when they were a few days old. The nurse was killed and the children were taken in the night. We assume they were taken to the western kingdoms.”

“We thought they might have been taken to your kingdom, sir.” Briancha said. We were hoping that they might have turned up there.”

“Are there any identifying marks or other items on them like tattoos, birthmarks, or anything?” Meadowlea asked.

“Unfortunately, no; they were very gifted in magic though. From the testing they received and their post-partum training, both of them should have been reading, writing, and doing magic by their first birthday.”

“Right, as Briancha said, they were very talented, most Elven children don’t start reading spells until they are about two years old. Oh and one other thing, while their features were definitely Elven, their ears were like Men’s, rounded on top. This is unusual but not unheard of as Elves evolved from humans before the destruction of the world.”

“So what you are telling me is, that most likely these children, if still alive, are in the world of Men.”

“They probably are among men; they certainly aren’t here.”

“Why would someone take them? It doesn’t make sense; you didn’t know we existed, before you came here...”

“That isn’t exactly true. We have known where you are for centuries; we just didn’t want to expose ourselves. We didn’t even want our Elven cousins to know where we were. Now that you do know where we are, we will do our part in world politics again.

Oh and yes, we will sign the trade agreement you have drawn up with King Landif if you would like us to. It appears to be more than fair, under the circumstances and I believe your Dukedom, Duchy whatever you call those things, is closest to us. We know a few passageways in and out of the wastelands that are fairly easy to travel when you know where they are as duke of the easternmost part of the kingdom, you may want to start expanding toward the east we would share our knowledge of the wastelands with you. Technically the land where we settled belongs to men, but I am sure we can work out that part of things in our trade agreement.

“To answer your question as to why someone would take them; when they were born the Council of Twelve foretold of a great battle in which the children would take on an important role for good. It is my belief that those who serve the Dark Ones would try to keep the prophesy from coming true by hiding them from their true identity. They could be growing up somewhere as a farmer or a circus performer now instead of the prince and princess of the Elves of the East.”

“The Elves of the East, is that what you call yourselves?” S~ᴇaʀᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Yes, it is presumptuous of us to give ourselves this grand title, but, in a prophesy it talks of the Elves of the East in concert with the Guardian of the East would bring back the reign of the righteous. We assumed that we were the Elves but we didn’t know who the guardian of the east was.”

“Where did you get this prophesy and when?”

“Why do you ask, do you know who the Guardian of the East is?”

“Maybe, Where did you get the prophesy?”

“When Hillsofar and Pondelilly went east, they took with them a sorcerer of Men named Hectak. Hectak had also been a priest of the Gods of Karron earlier in his life and had given up the calling to study magic. Hectak married their daughter and most of the eastern Elves came from their marriage. Hecktak gave the prophecy hundreds of years ago.”

“So the Eastern Elves are really only half-Elves.”

“In a manner of speaking, yes, in another way, we are both Elves and Men and can do many of the specialized attributes of each. Some Eastern Elves can perform magic of Men, some can perform the magic of Elves, and some can do no magic at all. We have always hoped that someone would be able to master both magics but so far it has never happened.

Anyway, Hectak prophesied that the Eastern Elves would someday come forth back into the world of men and that they along with the Guardian of the East would fight to save the world from the powers of the Dark One. He never said we would succeed, only that we would join the fight.”

“You wouldn’t have the exact words of the prophesy with you would you?”

“As a matter of fact, I think we do, let me get it. Why the sudden interest in this prophesy, if I may ask?”

“The interest is in any new prophesied that might shed more light on what is coming in the near future.”

“Ah, here it is, now let me see, here, starting in verse nine, listen:

’9. And the Elves of the East shall prosper and grow strong, yea even stronger than the Elves in the Lands of our Fathers. And behold in the days of Gilep the mountains will be made low, and the desert will blossom like a spring garden. Water, yea even great fountains of water will spring forth, and the beauty of the lands east will exceed all other lands.

10. And behold in the days of Gilep a darkness shall cover the land; not a darkness of light but darkness of blood, and of the sword. And behold, when the darkness has almost covered the earth, the Guardian of the East shall ride forth, and behold his numbers will be few.

11. And the Guardian of the east will contend against the darkness of Gilep and great will be the contention thereof. And the Elves of the East will rush forth to the side of the Guardian of the East and the Elves from the Lands of our Fathers will come forth with their weapons of war; yea their bows, and their arrows, and their slings, and their swords. The Elves of the East, and the Elves of the Lands of our Fathers will contend against the forces of Gilep and behold the armies of Gilep will be as numerous as the sands of the sea, yea as numerous as the stars of the heavens. And the Guardian of the East will raise his hand against the hand of Gilep and the armies of the Guardian of the East and the armies of Gilep shall watch them do battle in the in the lands of Ghonn.

12. The servant of Gilep shall reach forth with his power to smite the Guardian of the East, and the children of the son of the king of the Elves of the East, yea, the children born on the same day, male and female, brother and sister, right hand and left hand, shall combine their lives and their powers to protect and support the Guardian of the East. And on that day great destruction shall take place, yea, even greater destruction than has been known by humankind since the time of the destruction of the world.’”

“It doesn’t say whether or not the Guardian of the East and the Elves will win. How about further on?”

“No, it doesn’t say; just great destruction.”

“How do you know that your children are those that are supposed to defend the Guardian of the East?”

Briancha spoke now for the first time. It had been obvious to Vistyral that she had been suffering while they had discussed her missing children.

“It speaks of them as the children of the son of the King who would be born on the same day, male and female, brother and sister, right hand and left hand. Our children were the first twins born to the Elves of the East; ever and none have been born since! The boy, Airamist, the older of the two, was right handed; his sister Windmor, is left handed.”

“What does it mean where it says, that they ‘...shall combine their lives and their powers?’” Vistyral asked.

“We don’t know. A husband and a wife can join together in magic, in what is known as the wholeness. The wholeness strengthens each partner many times greater than what he or she could achieve on his or her own. Brothers and sisters have tried to do it for as long as we can remember, but they have never succeeded.”

“You are assuming that they had to be twins because they were born the same day... Is it possible that the prophesy was talking about not literally the same day, but the same day of the year, like: fourth month-twentieth day of different years.”

“That has been considered,” Rockledge said, “but, that has never happened either.”

“It appears that our children are the only children that fit the prophesy,” Briancha said, “and someone has believed it enough to take them from us. The prophesy told us that we had to wait until the Elves of the Lands of our Fathers came looking for us, and then we must prepare for the great battle, which will surely come. That is why we are looking for them now. For almost twenty years, we have lived with the loss, the hurt, and the fear that through our negligence, all may be lost. If they no longer live, who will protect the Guardian of the East from the servant of the Gilep?”

Rockledge turned to Meadowlea. “I could tell from your reaction that you might know who the Guardian of the East is. Do you?”

“I might, but if I do, I cannot share it with you.”

“Why?”

“Because it says in the prophesy that--let’s see where is it? Here, it says:

’And behold, when the darkness has almost covered the earth, the Guardian of the East shall ride forth, and behold his numbers will be few.

11. And the Guardian of the east will contend against the darkness of Gilep and great will be the contention thereof. And the Elves of the East will rush forth to the side of the Guardian of the East’.

“It appears from this that you must decide at the time of the battle, who the Guardian of the East is. Knowing before hand might make the decision on the day of battle different. Maybe the rushing of Elves into an already pitched battle will turn the tide. If the Elves are there from the beginning, all might be lost. So I will keep my thoughts to myself for now on whom the Guardian of the East might be.”

“Wow, I had never thought of that in that way. Maybe you are right. We still should try and find the children though, it doesn’t say if the children come with the Guardian or if they come with the Elves.”

“Or even if they come with Gilep and decide to switch allegiance during the battle.” Briancha said thoughtfully, “If Gilep knew of the prophesy, stole them, and raised them to protect him, instead of the Guardian of the East, maybe in the battle they will change their minds and choose the side of light rather than darkness.”

Vistyral felt sorry for this couple. They had children years ago, and lost them. They had not had any since and were still hoping against all odds that their children were still out there and would hear the battle call when it came and fulfill the prophesy from the long dead priest and sorcerer, Hectak.

“So you know who the Guardian of the East is?” Briancha asked. “Is this person a good person, someone that the Elves would honor with their lives?”

“Briancha, the Guardian of the East that I know, may not even be the same in person in the prophesy, but I know this person to be an honorable and forthright man who tries to do the right thing.”

“I have known you but a few days, yet, I feel I can trust you. I will accept what you have said for now and will not make an effort to find out who Gilep or the Guardian of the East is. I will however ask you to try and find our children who will now be adults. They will be able to do Elven Magic, quite powerfully compared to most of the Eastern Elves, and from what I have seen here, most Elves overall.”

“Will they know that they can do Elven Magic?”

“That is a good question, probably not. If I kidnapped two children, I would not want them to know anything about themselves. I would have a spell of forgetfulness put upon them.”

“But that will only work as long as they never try to use it.”

“That may be true, but would you even attempt to do an Elven Magical spell? If I tell you know what to do and say, would you try it?”

“It would be a waste of time, the spell would fail.”

“Would any one of the Men who has not been trained in the arts of magic even think to try a spell? If he did, where would he learn one? Sure the first time he or she would try to perform Elven Magic, all knowledge of spells would come back as clear as the day that they were abducted, but that is a pretty safe spell under the circumstances. They could be placed with a family that are farmers and pay someone else to protect their crops for them.”

“I see your point. Unless there was a reason for them to attempt to try Elven magic they would get it all back, but where would they get the opportunity?”

“That is exactly my point!”

“Well, I’ll watch for them, but chances are slim that they could ever be found at this point. I don’t want to be cruel, but the odds against it are staggering.”

“We know,” Rockledge said, “But we have got to try.”

“I will contact Thorak, my father’s sorcerer; maybe he can help us somehow. I should be able to reach him tonight.”

“We thank-you for all of the efforts you make on our behalf. With a friend like you, we again feel hope for the first time in almost twenty years.”

Tears ran down her cheeks and Vistyral felt his heart tear for her. He determined to do all he could to help this poor couple.

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