“Won’t they be tired from that?” Tommie asked from where he had been watching everything.
“No, they’ve got boatloads of Mana. They practically live off the stuff instead of food. Though they do like food, they don’t really need it. Guess they’re closer to elemen- tals as they get older,” Anthony said.
“Have you ever met an elemental? Are they all like the one in the square?”
“I have, but I think they all look different. Pretty much if you go, ‘that looks strange; nature isn’t supposed to do that’ and have an innate fear looking at it, probably an el- emental,” Anthony said.
“That’s not very helpful,” Aila muttered.
“Well, it’s not useful.” Anthony headed out of the house. “I’m going to play with Ramona and her kids!”
***
“From Queen Wranoris of the dark elven tribe to the north. The signs have started to appear. Greater chaos has been sown across the lands. The Mana density of Dena has increased and there are greater anomalies, like those that were seen before the last grand war.
“At the time of this letter, the sands of chaos have started to flow again.” Elder Vulmar lost his voice for a few sec- onds before he cleared his throat.
“I predict that the divide between our lands and the chaotic realm will break in no more than a year.”
Vulmar lowered the letter and passed it to the elder be- side him.
All thirty elders were assembled. They had tight expres- sions as they passed the letter around, confirming the in- formation personally.
It came back to Vulmar when one elder raised his hand.
Vulmar, who had called the session and was its leader, in- dicated for them to speak.
“I call for the elves to prepare for battle,” he said.
A number of the elders agreed. The younger ones looked shocked; one of them raising their hands.
“Prepare for battle? This is only a letter from the dark elves. Maybe they’re trying to create panic?”
“You are saying my sister wants to create panic?” An op- pressive force fell over everyone as they looked at the elf lady walking into the room.
She was like her own force of nature, the world bending to her will.
“Watcher.” The elders bowed to the woman who had ar- rived.
“What has happened in this clan that a Guardian was disobeyed and our family members are denigrated based on the color of their skin!” she demanded. Her voice rolled through the hall.
The older elders all bowed their heads, though it was hard to hide the excitement in their eyes.
“Mother.” The grand elder stood and bowed to the watcher and vacated her seat.
The watcher’s expression softened some as she moved to the seat, sitting as the grand elder stood behind her. With their elven genes, they looked like sisters instead of mother and daughter.
“Send word to our alliances; send word to the leaders of the different races. It’s time the humans and beast men stopped having a pissing contest over land.”
“How, Grand Elder?” one asked.
“Well, we have a Guardian—we send him out to be a Guardian. I knew that they didn’t all die, but just which one is it?”
“Anthony,” Elder Vulmar said.
“ANTHONY?!” She lurched to her feet as her voice broke.
“Anthony, the Guardian legion commander, the tree knight! The demon-fiend? Roseatham’s lover?” The last came out in a growl.
“He wears armor and calls himself Anthony. He con- trolled a familiar of shadow called Solomon and a drag- on named Dave, Watcher Cecilia,” Vulmar said.
“Solomon!” Cecilia said in a dark whisper as the shad- ows around them all started to turn and move.
“You!” She reached out a hand as a scared-looking de- monic face was plucked from the shadows, still trying to escape before it fell into her hand. “You better not be telling your owner anything about this meeting!”
He shook his head.
Cecilia’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t capable of speech?” The shadow moved its head in the negative again.
She injected Mana into the shadow. The face turned into a man, wearing a black suit and looking devilishly hand- some. Even the elves would have to admit he was an irre- sistible man.
“Oh, that form is so simple. Thank you, dearest Cecilia, for freeing me,” Solomon said with a sweeping bow.
“Speak up, Solomon. What is going on?”
“Master has lost most of his memories and his power. He died in the last battle. I don’t know what happened, but his body was preserved and us along with him. Dave told me that the rest of the legion lays asleep right now. It wouldn’t be good to say they’re dead, as much as dor- mant—without having any more flesh.”
“Skeletons!” an elder muttered in a dark voice.
“Oh, he would be a good one.” Solomon’s head turned around to face the man while his body faced Cecilia.
“You are not pranking any of my elders,” Cecilia said. “Oh, but it keeps them on their toes,” Solomon said. “Remember Okra?”
“Ah, well, I can always pick new targets. You have be- come exceedingly beautiful over the years. I am sure that my master would trip over his own feet seeing you,” Solomon said.
Watcher Cecilia blushed and let out a cough.
“Ah, I remember the time that you first saw him. Didn’t you do something similar?”
Her cough turned into choking as she gripped Solomon tighter, squeezing his small body as he winced and smiled at the same time.
Is Watcher Cecilia interested in this Anthony? The thought appeared in Vulmar’s mind. He turned pale, trying to think of something, anything else that might rid him of this thought as if she might be able to read his mind and see what he had been thinking.
“What happened, Solomon?”
“I’m not sure. After he was dying, we stopped using our higher abilities to preserve his life. Then Aila Wranoris, being chased by devil hunters, used necromantic magic on Anthony. It seemed to wake him up. He has a lich’s heart in his body. I do not know who it is from.
“As he is awake longer, he has been gaining access to more power. So far, only Dave and I have woken up. The others are all asleep, needing more power to be awak- ened.”
“Have you seen the signs as well?” Cecilia asked.
“No, though I do not command the power that I did before. My information gathering skills are—lacking,” Solomon said, displeased with his failures.
“The other Guardians?”
“I have not seen any of them. The ones that I know of are waiting to be called upon for the battle to come,” Solomon said.
“Don’t tell Anthony anything about this, or allow this information to slip in anyway that will get to him,” Ce- cilia said.
Solomon sighed. “I can only go so far, if he asks me di- rectly.”
“It would be best that he gets back his memories. Then I will send you to see her.” Cecilia spat out the word. “She should be able to bring his last remaining memories back. The beast lands and the islands need to be calmed and order restored. Anthony can’t resist himself and al- ways finds himself in trouble. Selenus and Radal is a mess, but we will be able to gather enough information and influence the fighting to give Anthony a chance to balance the scales. That way, we can bring everyone to
the table and prepare for what’s supposed to come,” Ce- cilia said.
Solomon nodded.
“Look after him.” Cecilia withdrew her Mana.
Solomon turned from a suited man back into a terrify- ing mask. He nodded to Cecilia and disappeared into the shadows.
“Wake the other watchers. Prepare for the coming war,” Cecilia said.
The orders were passed as Vulmar looked at Watcher Ce- cilia.
“Watcher Cecilia, just what is the grand war?”
“The Mana on Dena gets incredibly rich in cycles. It is called a period of unparalleled strength as legends will arise in these times. It also draws the attent
ion of the creatures from the shadow plane. They hunger after Mana—crave it, crave chaos. They love to manipulate, deceive and destroy.
“In the last great war, they made it into many cities, coming through their doomsday doors. They infiltrated cities and caused chaos in them, getting people to fight one another before they ever brought their armies through.
“They rely on illusions and soul arts to beguile and draw people over to them. In normal fights, they have massive
numbers. They’re smart and sneaky, as well as adaptive, and they can work together or apart freely.
“Their weakness is that they’re all the same. Our advan- tage comes from being people of Dena. There are many races and we all have our own strengths, so together we can all bring something that the other groups don’t have. When the Mana reaches its peak, the power of the world becomes visible. The shadowlings want to con- sume this power and take it back to their realm. They live off Mana, but they’ve consumed what remains in their world.
“The Guardians were formed before the shadowlings ap- peared, their goal to seek peace for all people of Dena. When the war erupted, they fought on the frontlines and mediated conflicts across Dena. There were none more powerful than the Guardians, who stabilized the war.
“Many Guardians fell, until the battle over the last doomsday door. The shadowlings went all out, and the Guardians destroyed themselves to break the door and to give Dena another chance.
“The Guardians vowed that they would come again to assist in the next fight, that we must prepare for it. For a time, we trained and prepared. Generations went by and then fighting started to break out here and there as peo- ple were groomed to be strong but restrained from using it.
“Finally, it came to a head when the beast kin and the humans, who had been ready for war all this time, start- ed to fight one another.”
“What happened to the Guardians? Where are they?”
“It is believed that they are on the islands, growing their strength and their numbers. In all of the chaos, the land of Ilsal has continued to train and prepare,” Cecilia said. “The shadowlings that were left in Dena struck out at the Guardians, killed them where they could. People from Dena killed others, thinking that they would bring shadowlings, or because they wanted the power of the Guardians, a lie created by the shadowlings that if one killed a Guardian, they would get their strength. The Guardians faded away into obscurity and no one knows where they are, or if they are all dead. Other than An- thony, that is.
“The apostles are the elven answer to this issue. Our in- fighting will come to an end today. Send out the apos- tles to search out chaos and remove it and bring those to judgement who have erred. With the battle that is com- ing, we need to be ready. They do not have the power of Guardians, but they can help to guide our people for- ward,” Cecilia said.
The elders all looked at one another. It started to sink in, that the stories they had been told as children were true, that they would need to fill the responsibilities that came with being elders.
There was skepticism in their eyes, but there was also fear and anxiety, preparing themselves for the path ahead.
Vulmar saw them and saw Watcher Cecilia—pride in the elves and pride in his people steeling his heart against the tough days ahead.
***
“Anthony—is he the one?” Allynna asked her mother as they sat on one of the balconies of the main tree, looking out over Thelsedorei.
She looked much more like a commoner trying to find a juicy bit of gossip, instead of the grand elder of the high elves.
“Yes, he is the one who I lost to that other woman.” Ce- cilia sighed.
“So what will you do? Will you try to get him back?” Al- lynna asked.
Cecilia smiled, seeing a forgotten past behind her eyes. “That time is long gone.” Cecilia laughed, thinking of the plots she had made for the other woman. But she had been able to get past them effortlessly while Antho- ny was oblivious to it all. It was only later that Cecilia found out that she had thought that the other woman was trying to get Anthony’s attention. In fact, she didn’t think much of the young Guardian, but Cecilia’s actions had accidentally brought the two of them together.
“And I got to meet your father because of that. We might argue a lot, but your father and I had a great few hundred years, much longer than most elves stay togeth- er for and we’ve had plenty of children!”
“No need to flaunt it! Do you think it’s easy for others to look at you like a woman when you’re a grand elder?” Al- lynna grumbled, looking into her tea like a surly teenag- er.
“I learned something from the two of them. It doesn’t matter one’s position, their age, or their knowl- edge—well, maybe the knowledge. People can be dumb. It is nice to have a conversation and not want to smack someone in the head with a book and hope that some of the knowledge will make it into their skull.” Cecilia cleared her throat, realizing she had missed what she was going to say. “The point is, all of those things don’t matter. A person’s personality, their goals, what they get enjoyment from, those core things—find someone like you. For other things you wish you were more adventur- ous in, find someone who is. Same core ideas, but dif- ferent people. Two who are wildly different—I’m not saying that it won’t work; I’m just saying that it will be much harder for them to stay together.”
The two of them sat in silence for some time.
“So what should I say to them tomorrow?” Allynna asked.
Cecilia looked up at the sky. The cool breeze carried the water mist up from below as she looked up at the stars.
“Tell them that we need to take this message to a group of elves who can be found on Ilsal. We will organize a guide to take them to the edge of the Deepwood, to the city Enni that borders on the Radal lands.” Her eyes fell to Allynna.
“Is there anyone there?”
“Yes, there are a group of elves there looking for rem- nants of the Guardians and possibly someone who will need to see that information and will need to see all of them before they act,” Cecilia said. “Remember, do not lie in front of a Guardian.”
“I won’t, Mother,” Allynna said. “When I was younger, I thought that you were just saying that to scare me.”
“Well, it did help me bringing you up. But the scariest threats are the ones that also have a bit of truth in them.”
***
Thelsedorei had a completely different atmosphere from what they had fallen asleep to.
There were people with grim faces, and others were talk- ing in dark voices. There were more people in armor and others were reporting in to different armories across the city.
“What is going on?” Aila asked.
“It seems that they listened to us.” Anthony checked his sword and walked out of the residence, following the guide who had been assigned to them.
Tommie yawned and stretched, following them.
“I hope that there is a buffet. Would kill for some break- fast—oh, and some green tea,” Tommie said.
“Why are you so tired?” Aila asked.
“I was up all night working,” Tommie said. “Working?”
“Well, a gnome has to have hobbies. I was working on my masterpiece, if you must know,” Tommie said.
“Does your masterpiece consist of that ton of metal and bits you’re hauling around?” Anthony asked.
“Yeah, it’s hard to assemble it, but I heard that there were a few things that I could use in Thelsedorei that helped improve the design!”
“What is it?”
“I call it the Gnome-inator!” Aila cringed at the name.
“Pretty original coming from the gnomes,” Anthony as- sured her.
They looked around Thelsedorei. It was a place rarely seen by people other than the high elves. Some kings and queens were never afforded this view.
They reached the main hall and walked past the large fountain that drained into the sinkhole below, the rum- bling of the water was calming instead of terrifyi
ng.
Elder Vulmar was waiting for them. “You will be meet- ing with Grand Elder Allynna,” Vulmar said after they exchanged greetings.
“The grand elder?” Aila was a dark elf, but they had learned about the government of the high elves in great detail. Education and understanding was one of the core pillars of the dark elves’ society.
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