“Who are you?” Dillan asked.
“I am Alaric, leader of the elophim,” Alaric responded.
“I know that, but who are you?” he said motioning to all of the elophim.
“Ah, I see. Do you know what seraph are?” he asked. The three nodded. “Elophim were a special group of ten seraph, hand selected by the Father, to remain in the Middle Realm following the last Realm War. We were tasked with many things—to watch over the Middle Realm, protect it from the forces of darkness, and help guide humanity along a path of peace and prosperity. Uriel, the most powerful of us all, guards the gate to the Realm of Darkness. Metatron lives at Dracengard on the Island of Avalon.”
“So, what of the other eight? What are all of you doing here?” asked Willem.
“The rest of us, known as the Watchers, live here in the Great Forest,” Alaric replied. “We were very close to the humans. We even took human wives. We bedded them and produced offspring.”
“Nephilim,” Terrwyn whispered.
Alaric smiled at her. “Yes, the nephilim were our offspring.”
“So, the legends are true,” Terrwyn said. “We truly are descended from seraph.”
“Yes,” said Alaric. “To be more specific, Terrwyn, you are descended from me.”
Terrwyn’s eyes widened. This was a lot to take in. This man sitting on the bench looked to be in his twenties, yet, he was her grandfather some fifty generations removed.
“So what happened?” asked Willem. “Why did you leave us to hide here?”
Alaric looked at the fire. “The Father was not pleased that we had mingled the blood of seraph with that of humans. He considered our children to be an abomination. To save them from his wrath, we agreed to accept whatever punishment he would render. He took our wings—burnt them off of us. He exiled us from Auraehalis—what we call the Realm of Light—and left us here in the Great Forest. He bound us to the forest and told us that should we ever leave, we would become mortal and die. That is why we are here.”
No one spoke for a while. Everyone simply stared into the fire. “Tell us of the outside world,” Alaric finally said. “Why were the drakmere hunting you?”
Terrwyn looked at Willem, then Dillan before speaking. “The Middle Realm is being conquered by an evil wizard and his army of drakmere.”
“All three of our Kingdoms have fallen to him,” Willem added.
“A wizard you say?” Alaric asked.
“Yes,” Terrwyn replied.
“What is the source of his magic?” The three shook their heads, none knowing the answer. “Tell me about him.”
“There isn’t much to tell,” said Dillan. “None of us has ever even seen him.”
“But he claims to be a wizard?”
“Yes,” all three said.
“But I have seen his Black Knight,” Dillan said.
“Black Knight?”
“Yes. He dresses completely in black and moves at incredible speed. Like your warriors did when they killed the draks tonight.”
Alaric looked at his companions. “Shedom,” he said and the others nodded.
“Shedom?” asked Dillan. “As in rulers of the Realm of Darkness?” Alaric nodded. “Dung,” Dillan swore.
“But I thought all of the shedom were killed or sent back to the Realm of Darkness after the last Realm War,” Willem said.
“One can never be sure. The shedom were born out of the darkness just as seraph were born out of the light and humans emerged from the dust. Wherever darkness exists it is possible for shedom to exist.” Terrwyn looked over her shoulder at the darkness engulfing them. A chill ran up her spine and she shivered. Alaric noticed this and smiled. “Do not fear, my child. You are quite safe here.”
“It has been a rough few days,” she said. “Avonvale was conquered by the Wizard, my father likely killed, I am not sure exactly where my sister is, and my brother…” She began to weep.
“The shedom captured him,” Dillan said.
“Where is he?” asked Alaric.
“I suspect he is being kept in Avonvale,” Dillan replied.
“Can you rescue him?” Terrwyn asked looking up at Alaric hopefully, while wiping the tears from her eyes. Alaric shook his head.
“As I said, I cannot leave the forest.” Terrwyn nodded. “What are your plans?” Alaric asked.
“We are going to Dracengard,” Willem said.
“Do you have the Dracenstones?”
“More or less,” Terrwyn said. Alaric thought to ask what she meant, but decided against it.
“There is a ferry down the river from here,” Willem said.
“Yes. We can take you to it in the morning,” Alaric said. Terrwyn yawned. “But it is late and you need your sleep.” Alaric stood. “Terrwyn, you may sleep in my quarters. Dillan, you may sleep in Vidar’s quarters and Willem in Xylon’s.”
Dillan stood. “I don’t think I am comfortable with Terrwyn being separated from Willem and I.”
Terrwyn shot a sharp look toward him. “I’ll feel more comfortable here than on a strange pirate’s ship,” she said and walked away.
Vidar stepped up to Dillan. “Right this way,” he said. Dillan smiled and nodded.
“Thank you for letting me stay with you,” Dillan remarked.
“Think nothing of it, Dillan. After all, you are my grandson,” he said with a small smile.
Alaric led Terrwyn to a large tree and she could see a house built on its branches. He slid his arm around her waist. “Hold on,” he said and she wrapped her arms around his neck and he bounded up the trunk of the tree to the front stoop of the house. It all happened so fast that Terrwyn could barely catch her breath. Alaric opened the door and let her in. Terrwyn looked around the tree house. It was nice, though rather small and sparse. There was a small bed in the corner and a chair sat at a desk. Everything was made of wood.
“Please make yourself at home,” he said. “I will be right outside the door if you need me.” He began to close the door but she stopped him.
“Wait,” Terrwyn said. “Where are you going to sleep?”
Alaric chuckled. “We do not actually sleep. Nor do we eat. We survive off of the light.”
“Then why do you have a bed?”
“Sometimes, if it is dark for a long time I get weak and like to lie down. But more often I use it because I became accustomed to lying in bed at night when I lived with your grandmother, Ehren.”
Terrwyn was still having trouble coming to grips with Alaric being her ancestor. He looked to be only slightly older than she. He was very handsome and she could see why Ehren liked him. “Would you tell me about her?”
“Terrwyn, you really do need to get some sleep,” Alaric said.
“We are leaving in the morning. I may never see you again. Please.”
Alaric relented and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Terrwyn sat on the bed and Alaric sat in the wooden chair by the desk. “What would you like to know?”
“First, how old are you?”
“We do not measure time like you do. There are no sunrises or sunsets in my realm and thus no days or years. I know that I was not there at the beginning, but I could not quantify in terms you would comprehend. I can tell you that the first time I ever visited this realm, was over three thousand of your years ago.”
Terrwyn’s mouth hung open. That was hard for her to fathom. Three thousand years ago humanity would have been hunter gatherers living in caves. “Tell me about Ehren,” she said.
“She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. You look so much like her it is uncanny. That is why I was staring at you before,” Alaric said smiling.
“How did you meet?”
Alaric’s smile disappeared and he looked away. “That is not a pleasant story,” he said. “And you really do need to get some sleep.” She nodded as he stood. He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
Alaric’s mind wandered back to the day he first saw Ehren a thousand years ago. The Watchers had
divided the Middle Realm up into eight wards and each Watcher acted as warden for one of the wards. Alaric was warden of the ward that would later become Avonvale. Ehren lived in that ward in a little village in the valley along the river that would later bear her name. The villagers lived in small huts with thatched roofs, farmed small plots, caught fish in the river, and hunted deer and other game. It was a simple, but not unpleasant, life.
In those days, bands of se’irim that had survived the Realm War still roamed the countryside. Se’irim were demonic creatures from the Realm of Darkness with hairy humanoid bodies and horns like a ram, sharp teeth, and pointy tails. They were primarily used as foot soldiers by the shedom. They hid from the light during the day, but would appear after dark and raid villages. The elophim sought to eliminate all se’irim from the realm. Drakmere were also a problem, killing people for food. But to Alaric, the most horrifying threat to humanity came neither from the Realm of Darkness nor the bogs and swamps of the Middle Realm, but from humanity itself. Humans could be just as twisted and evil as any demon or monster. The elophim sought to protect humans, even from themselves.
One day, a band of brigands came to rape and plunder the village where Ehren lived. The brigands carried long wooden spears with stone tips and large wooden shields. Humans, at that time, had not yet learned to extract metals from the earth. Ehren and her sister, Esther, were down by the river filling clay jars with water and toting them back to the village. The brigands sneaked up on the villagers by skulking through a nearby grove of trees. When they attacked, it came as a complete surprise. The village warriors were mostly unarmed and, as a result, were slaughtered with ease.
When Ehren and Esther returned to the village, they found the huts burning and the men dead. The women, those left alive, were being raped. Some of the women had escaped with many of the children and hid in the woods. Ehren and Esther foolishly ran into the village to find, and hopefully save, their parents and brother. They did not find their family before they were caught by brigands. Ehren and Esther were very pretty girls and the brigands took them along with them when they left the village.
Alaric was at Caerwynspire, where the elophim lived, when he had a vision of the massacre. He quickly flew to the village, but was too late to save it. He took to the skies again to search for the brigands that had committed the evil deed. He caught up with them at their encampment just a few miles south along the river. He found them drunk from wine and gathered around a campfire taking turns raping Esther. Ehren was tied to a tree waiting for them to come for her.
Alaric landed just a few feet away and the brigands leapt back in surprise. Alaric drew his sword, which had been forged out of light, and killed them all before any of them even had a chance to react. He rescued the girls and whisked them back to Caerwynspire with him.
As Alaric stood on the stoop of his house remembering the day he first met Ehren, he began to weep. It was emotionally shocking to look at Terrwyn, as he felt like he was looking at his long lost love, nearly a thousand years dead. He knew he had to help Terrwyn and the others if he could—and he only knew of one that might help him do so.
Chapter 8
The sun shone bright through the windows of the tree house and Terrwyn rubbed her eyes. She sat upright with a start when she saw unfamiliar surroundings, but then she remembered where she was and relaxed. She could hear voices outside and tossed off the covers swinging her feet from the small wooden bed down to the floor. She found her stockings and boots and pulled them on. She stood and used both hands to straighten her skirt. As there was no mirror, she felt her hair and it seemed to her touch to have remained mostly in place in her braid through the night.
Terrwyn walked over to the door, opened it, and stepped outside into the fresh morning air. Glancing about she saw Dillan and Willem sitting in the shade of a large tree eating breakfast. She looked straight down at the ground, but saw no way to climb down from the tree. She looked back over to Dillan and Willem. “Might I have some assistance?” she called. Both men looked up and saw her, quickly stood and were about to walk over to the tree when Alaric suddenly appeared beside her as if by magic. It startled her somewhat and she took a step back against the door with a gasp.
“I apologize,” Alaric said. “I did not mean to startle you.”
“It is quite alright,” Terrwyn responded as she caught her breath and laughed at her own skittishness.
“Let me help you,” Alaric said as he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he leapt out of the tree landing softly on the ground.
“Thank you,” Terrwyn said as she released him.
“You are quite welcome. Would you like some breakfast?”
“Yes, I would.”
Alaric led her to the fire that all had sat around the night before. As they were walking she glanced over at Willem, smiled, and waved to him. Willem waved back. Then Terrwyn looked at Dillan who also waved, but Terrwyn did not return the wave. Her eyes sharpened before she looked away.
“Wow, she sure is angry with you,” Willem said.
“I know,” Dillan replied.
“What happened?”
“I did not tell her who I was when I first took her aboard my ship. She did not find out until you told her.”
“Oh. Sorry about that.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Why didn’t you tell her who you were?”
Dillan paused for a moment before answering. “I suppose I was afraid she would ask me what I was doing in Lattingham so close to our wedding day,” he said and then looked down into his bowl, pulled out another berry, and popped it into his mouth.
Alaric motioned for Terrwyn to sit down on a bench as he handed her a wooden bowl full of blackberries. She sat as he took the lid off of an iron pan that sat atop hot embers in the fire pit and pulled out a piece of warm bread. Next he poured her a cup of water from a pitcher and handed the cup to her as he sat down beside her.
“I am sending Vidar and Xylon to guide the three of you to the ferry dock this morning.”
“You are not coming?” Terrwyn asked before taking a sip from the wooden cup. Alaric shook his head.
“I am afraid I cannot,” he said. “I have something very important to attend to this morning.”
“Oh,” she said and looked away.
“I am sorry Terrwyn, but this really cannot wait.”
She turned to face him smiling brightly. “I understand,” she said.
“You will be safe with Vidar and Xylon, I assure you.”
“Of course,” she said.
Alaric placed his hand on her cheek. “I am so glad I was able to meet you, though I am sorry it is under such troubling circumstances.”
“I am glad I got to meet you, too.”
Alaric removed his hand from her face and stood. “Farewell Terrwyn,” he said and turned to leave. Terrwyn watched him walk a few steps and then leapt to her feet.
“I will not ever see you again, will I?”
“Probably not,” he said with a sad smile. She returned the smile.
“Farewell Alaric,” she said as he turned and walked away.
As Terrwyn watched him go, Willem and Dillan walked up behind her.
“Are you ready?” Willem asked.
Terrwyn turned, startled. “Oh, yes. Yes, I am,” she said. She finished the water in her cup, then set the cup and bowl down on the bench and followed Dillan and Willem to the edge of the clearing where Vidar and Xylon waited for them.
Alaric left the elophim village and made his way through the forest alone. What he was going to do was forbidden, but necessary. Seeing Terrwyn and the other nephilim had reminded Alaric and the other elophim of the world they had built before their tribulation. The great houses they had founded still ruled the Middle Realm a thousand years later. But everything they built was in danger of being destroyed by a so-called wizard and his shedom.
Following the attack on Ehren a
nd her sister Esther, Alaric had called a meeting of the Watchers. They met at the White Fortress, known to the seraph as Caerwyn. The purpose of the meeting was to determine how best to help and guide humanity.
The elophim had been divided on this topic before. Some of them wanted to simply watch from afar and attempt to guide the humans indirectly. Others wished to rule over the humans as winged gods setting forth strict laws and severe punishments.
All eight gathered in the Great Hall, the same room in which Ashleen’s induction ceremony would be held over one thousand years later. The elophim all stood in a circle, the white polished room filled with such light that a human would barely be able to see. They stared at each other in silence until Alaric spoke.
“Watchers,” he said. “I summoned you to this meeting to discuss the future of this realm and our role in it. I know we have discussed this many times and I have previously been in favor of acting more as a guiding hand, but a recent event has made me rethink my convictions.”
Everyone listened intently. Alaric was one of the oldest, wisest, and most respected among them. “As you know, the humans face dangers from se’irim, drakmere, and possibly residual shedom in the form of shades and draugs. However, the most pressing threat facing humanity is humanity itself.” Many of the elophim nodded their heads in agreement.
“Yesterday, a small village in my ward was attacked. The men were slaughtered and the women raped before they were killed. Even the children were murdered. The buildings were burnt to the ground. Two young women were kept alive by the brigands to be kept as sex slaves to torment.” All of the Watchers shook their heads in horror at what the humans would do to their own kind.
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