A/N: This entire story probably makes more sense if you have read Heir of Calenor first. This Prologue is taken almost directly from the Epilogue of that story.
Prologue
Ilayilia watched as the strange beings passed her. They were Elves, but not like the ones she knew. All of her days Ilayilia had resided beside the forests of the Wood-Elves, who were dark of hair and bright of smile. They were not wise, but they were a joyful race.
These Elves had light hair that framed severe faces. Like their woodland kindred, they had grey eyes, but these lacked the sparkle of the the Wood-Elves.
Ilayilia's eyes met those of the Elves' leader, a golden-haired man who was fairer than any being she had laid eyes on. The Elf shone with the brightness of the stars, but a sadness tainted his being.
The woman watched the strange, silent party leave the yard of her home before she ran to where Alenor, her father, sat on the porch. The old man had a crumpled, weathered look, a testimony to his life spent on the road.
"Father?" she asked, putting her arms gently around Alenor's frail body. "Who were those men?"
"Anduin... your brother..." Ilayilia gave a small start of surprise; her father had never mentioned his youngest child's name since he had cast the boy out of his presence. Ilayilia missed her only sibling dearly, as she missed being able to say his name without her father's face growing dark. She also missed (though she could never admit this to Alenor) spending summer evenings with the Wood-Elves under the stars. "He is dead."
"Dead?" Ilayilia cried softly. "How did this happen?" She looked after the Elves' retreating figures, wanting to run after them and ask about Anduin.
"Ilayilia, a darkness has come over me." Alenor's words stopped the woman and banished her desire to follow the Elves. She smoothed his grey, once pitch black, hair from his face. Alenor had once been a great man, a strong man. He had led the life of a drover, taking Ilayilia and her brother on drives along with their mother, Ilia, before she had died. Before he had banished Anduin.
"The blindness?" she asked. Alenor had been struck blind a few years ago while he was tending her house. Ilayilia had always felt somewhat responsible for that, though her father never would speak of what had happened. "Is it returning?"
Alenor shook his head and seized her hand roughly in his own, pressing something into her palm. Ilayilia opened her hand and saw two rings there. One was the golden seal of Calenor, given to Anduin by their father when he was a boy. The other ring, a silver band inset with a ruby gemstone, was a mystery to Ilayilia.
"Give these to your son," Alenor gasped, his eyes glazing over with a mist. "But do not leave until I am sleeping!" he added desperately. Ilayilia placed the rings in her pocket and cradled her father gently. As the hour passed, Alenor's breath rattled in his throat.
"I am sorry..." her father said, closing his eyes. "I couldn't see him... one last time." And then he sighed and the life left him.
