The Children

By Anni Re

Chapter One: Council

In the sanctum of Arrith Moira the Heirarchy sat in their silver hall sitting, thinking. Not a sound came from their pale, thin lips, their colorless pupils looking out through the many glassless windows onto the realm of The Shadowlands.

"Talia," said a woman sitting in a high chair on the northwestern side of the room. Her pale face still faced forward, non-indicating to whom she was speaking as she continued to speak with her expressionless, bell-like voice, "the immortals of the world are becoming restless. The vampires have upset the scale and now the lycans contest their power." Smoothly she turned her head towards whom she was speaking.

Talia sat in the most northern part of the circular room. His almost transparent, blonde hair falling in wisps over his colorless eyes, now closed. His long, spiderlike fingers were lace together upon which his chin was rested. "Thank you, Sharine, for that observation. I too have sensed the Moon Children's turmoil, and the oppressiveness of the ones who hold them…these Elders." He opened his eyes and the light in the room emphasized the glass like color of his eyes. "Constance," he said unblinkingly staring ahead, "your gaze intrigues me."

"I see the shadows of those who cross to this land." said a smaller, fragile looking woman, the only one on the room standing, staring out a window at, to everyone else, an empty plain. "More will come, and quickly."

"We must intervene! We cannot stand idly by whilst our children massacre themselves and shackle themselves to this place. We must force a balance!"

"Urios, do you know what you are saying?" said another man rising from his seat. "No world can play with the power of another. Ours is to foreign to theirs. We could inadvertently destroy all of them, or unlink the chain of time."

"A time, Darrius, if left unaltered will result in their utter destruction!" said Urios his voice rising as well as his body from his chair.

Darrius was about to speak again. "Peace, brothers," said Sharine her eyes closed, her forehead drawn into a grimace. There was silence amongst the five for a moment before Sharine opened her eyes and turned towards Talia whose eyes were again closed, in the same position save for the tension in the unseen lines on his face.

"We will intervene," he said quietly, "Urios is right. We cannot abandon the world which we were once a part of, nor our family which is now fractured and fighting." He paused, stretched his fingers and returned them to the same position. "But…Darrius is also right. Our power is not fabricated for our former world, just like their strengths cannot survive in ours." He opened his eyes and looked for a moment at each of the four people with him in the room. "We must intervene…but not one of us, from us rather." He moved leaning back in his chair, the elbow of his slender arm resting on the pale, alabaster, chair arm, his chin resting in the crook between his thumb and forefinger.

"What do you have in mind?" asked Constance, tearing her expressionless gaze away from the window.

"An unborn perhaps," Talia mused his face turned away from the circle. Then his colorless eyes widened and a look of pleasant surprise crossed his face. "Or two," he said, sounding suddenly pleased with himself. His face settled back to its passive state but his eyes still had a light to them, as if he had a rush of thought. Suddenly his eyes flickered to the center of the room. "Children."

Sharine, Constance, Urios, and Darrius whipped their heads towards the center of the room where two people had materialized while they were focused on Talia.

The pair in the center were alarmingly different from the five that surrounded them. Their hair was dark and thick, there skin, though pale, was still much darker than the counterparts' translucent skin, and most importantly their eyes held color, a sign of the other world. "Hierarchy," the pair answered, reverently bowing their heads.

Talia rose for the first time in the council and walked smoothly, almost as if her were floating towards the pair. "We have a proposition for you…"

Don't write me off just yet, you'll see familiar faces in the next chapter :)