Author's Note: The prologue is exactly the same as it was before, so those of you who already read it before I took this story down for revisions, there's no changes. The summary, however, has changed.

Summary: AU takes place after "The Dark World," in which Loki and Thor both return from Svartalfheim. A rift was open in another realm, and in an effort to save his cursed daughter, a wood elf defied the king's orders and cast her into the rift to sending her where she would never be found. 25 years later, the threat of war has been foreseen. Two realms are about to become aware of each other, and two kingdoms are about to meet, one in need of a king, the other a home to a king blinded by the desire to keep his people isolated. A deadly weapon that's remained hidden for the past 25 years is about to awaken, and the fate of those two kingdoms will be threatened.
Warnings: Sex, Violence, Language

Prologue

"They are coming!"

The fussing bundle in Thinor's arms grew louder as he attempted to calm it while throwing a few things together into a basket. "The midwife told King Thranduil about her eyes. He's ordered her immediate execution. You'll need to make haste," he said over the newborn's screams. "Once the rift is open, you'll only have a moment to get through."

"I cannot run. I'll never reach it in time," Hannel replied from where she sat, the exhaustion and pain from giving birth barely an hour ago overwhelming her. "You will have to take her."

"I will not leave you here!"

"It's her only chance!" she urged. In the distance, voices and footfalls could be heard, and Hannel looked to her husband with a firm expression. "Do not worry about me. Take her now or it will be too late!"

Thinor hesitated, but he knew she was right. If he didn't move fast, his daughter would surely die. Kissing Hannel farewell, he took off into the night, clutching the basket containing the crying newborn tightly.

Within moments of his passing, soldiers barged into Hannel's chambers, finding her sitting alone in her bed, grinning in her bittersweet victory. The guards stepped aside, allowing King Thranduil access to her, and once he saw the child was gone looked down at her, asking in an almost bored tone, "Where is the monster?"

"Somewhere you will never find her," Hannel answered, smiling. "And I will never tell."

Sighing, Thranduil turned to his guard, uttering two simple words. "Kill her." As he stepped out, he heard the sound of the soldier's sword slowly being drawn from it's sheath, and he turned to the ones that remained. "Find them."

It was not long before Thinor heard the hoof falls of horses, but whatever Hannel had done to buy him time, it was sufficient enough, for he was there. Reaching into his shirt, he drew out a glowing white crystal and began to speak the incantation as fast as he could.

The soldiers were drawing closer, but he focused on his words, pouring all his energy into them, and before long a white stream shown down, tearing open and revealing a portal.

"Stop them!" one of the soldiers cried. Bows twanged loudly as Thinor stepped through, and in a blink the portal was gone.

The soldiers stopped, staring at the space where the elf and his child had been standing mere seconds ago, and exchanged glances. "We must report back to King Thranduil!" the captain shouted, and they obeyed, turning their horses around and retreating back into the forest.

"Dead?" Thranduil asked from atop his throne. "Are you quite certain?"

"Yes, my lord," the captain replied, kneeling before him.

"And yet I see no corpse nor infant before me. Am I to simply take you at your word?" He got to his feet, swiftly standing before him and bending over so their eyes met.

"I shot him as he stepped through the rift," the captain explained, removing an arrow from his quiver and holding it up for Thranduil to inspect. Thranduil removed the arrow from his hand and looked it over, sniffing the tip before his eyes darted back down to the captain.

"Poison?" he asked.

"Aye," replied the captain. "I saw an arrow go into Thinor before he stepped through. He'll be dead before he reaches the other side, and his squalling infant will not stand a chance."

Thranduil looked over the arrow again, pondering the captain's information, before finally casting it aside dismissively. "It is no matter then," he replied, returning to his throne.

"My lord... what of the rift Thinor opened? Should we not find how he managed that?"

"If he is truly dead as you claim, then I see no need," he answered, crossing one leg atop the other. "As it stands, he was the only one who knew how to open it in the first place. The monster will not know, even if it were to survive."

"But my lord-"

"It is already done, Captain," Thranduil stated impatiently. "As long as that thing can never return, I care not where it now resides." The captain nodded, knowing better than to argue with his king.

"Aye," he said, and Thranduil dismissed him.

A startling sight was waiting for Bill Langden when he returned home from work that night. Laying a few feet from his door, was the body of a fully grown man, dressed like nothing he'd ever seen before, and laying in a handwoven wicker basket at his fingertips, was a crying infant with a glowing white crystal around her neck.

But what confused him most of all was a note of caution that had been tucked away in the basket:

"Never let her sing."