Chapter One

The race of Man is threatened."

The elf looked around the council gathered before him.

"Men will not survive this encounter if they are not freed." He paused listening to the breathing of every being, then continued in a soft voice. "If Men should be enslaved for much longer, those who control them will take o'er these worlds and nothing will be left free or alive that would not be broken."

"We are not to meddle in the affairs of Men." A young elf spoke up courageously, and their leader watched him serenely. "What should we care if their will should be bent for others, or their hearts broken and their strength debilitated?"

"Hold your tongue!"

The elf shrank back and the leader pierced his eyes into a locking stare.

"You do not possess the wisdom only time can give. You know nothing about how the Realms will fall if balance is not restored."

The elf looked into his father's eyes, absorbing the intensity that sparked like a flame that kindled the purpose inside.

"The sorcerers," their leader went on, finally moving his eyes away from his son's face, "know little of what they have done. Since they have occupied the New World, the world now intended for the growth of men, they have disrupted the course of the other realms. As you all know the Old Lands and the New World are the parents of the other nine realms. What events take place here appear, too, in the other realms.

"We are the Guardians of the Realms." The Elder went on. "Appointed by the Creator, Himself. It is our duty to put an end to the corruption the sorcerers have inflicted on our intertwined Worlds. And so it is our duty to-"

"My Lord!"

The elder stopped and an elf surrounded by several bright specks of light, ran forward with a bundle in his arms.

"This is a private council."

"Please, my Lord! There's been an attack!"

The lights grew bright and the faeri(s) appeared, veiled in their pulsing light.

"Our magic," the one cloaked in purple lowered her hood, "has plunged into ruin, my Lord Elf. The sorcerers have overwhelmed us."

The council members rustled about in surprise and whispered to each other, disquieted by this news. Many elves leaned forward in shock. Their lord held up his hand for silence. He listened intently for all voices to be hushed, then waved the faeri to continue.

"Their greed grows rapidly. Now that they have taken over Men, they have enough power to conquer other magical races. Too many were killed defending our forest, and I fear any survivors were kidnapped. We-" she pointed at the seven faeri(s) behind her "-are all that are free. However, with our numbers depleted, our magic will fade and be nonexistent if we don't act soon. Please help us, Lord of the Elves."

"How dare the sorcerers attack those whose magic is above their own!"

"Elzar," the Lord said, and his son held back his anger. "We all knew their power was gaining strength. And this terror is just one example of what their greed will do the Realms. The races, no matter how strong," his son shifted in the background, "will fall. We have one choice."

A cooing sound, soft as a gentle yawn, broke the silence in the room.

The Lord stopped.

It had appeared he was the only one that heard it. He listened for it again. The sound came again, like a dove. The elf stood up and walked about the room. The elves parted as he walked between them.

"My Lord?" His son followed behind him, and his father waved his hand to dismiss the question.

The wizened elf stood and listened for the soft call again and again until it lead him to the watch elf who still held a bundle in his arms. The Lord Elf slowly stepped up to the elf, took hold of the blanket, and lifted the fabric. He stared at the source of the cooing with an unreadable expression.

"Your Majesty," the purple faeri said softly, taking the child from the elf. "Forgive me. I have brought danger to your front steps."

"A Son of Adam." The Lord breathed.

The council seemed not to breathe, and watched the elf intensively.

"Did the sorcerers know you have the child?"

The faeri shook her head.

"We have a new choice."

Their Lord took hold of the faeri's arm and gently led her back to his seat. After she'd been set down with the child, the Lord swept away with a new energy.

"There is new hope." He said. "One free man child."

"What hope," his son sneered at the child in the faeri's arms, "is an infant?"

The Lord Elf gave his son a withering look. He held out his arms to the faeri, and she placed the child in his arms.

"This child is the last of Men still free from the sorcerers' power. There is still hope for the Race of Men."

"He is of noble birth, my Lord." The faeri spoke.

The elf cracked the smallest of smiles on his face.

"The Prophecy." He held up the child for all to see. "'The King of the Twelfth shall banish the darkness to the Underworld, and he will bring together the kingdoms and lead them to peace. That there remained a Son of Adam, to one day bring back the days of the eternal, and shall take up magic in his own hand and throw evil back to the dark labyrinth whence it came.'"

"Father."

The Lord of the Elves' smile drooped, and he lowered the child back into the crook of his elbow. He turned to his son.

"Two races have nearly ended." He told him. "The Prophecy is as the Creator tells us. He never lies."

"Then the Creator can save us as he promised."

"That time has not yet come!" A deep furrow became etched into the Lord's forehead between his eyes. "You have not listened to our teachings. 'Only when all hope is diminished, will the Creator come down to us, save those who repent and do His will, that He will smite evil, and all races will be free under his careful protection.' There is still hope for us all!"

"Not one sorcerer would dare fight us!"

"Go pray, Elzar." His father told him calmly.

Elzar turned on his heel and marched away from his father.

"You still have much to learn. You will understand." He breathed as he looked after Elzar's retreating back.

"Now," the Lord Elf said coming back to the council, "we must endeavor to keep the Son of Adam safe."

"The pools." The purple faeri said.

"The portals? Between the Realms?" The Lord said.

"Yes." She said. "Send the Son of Adam to a different Realm. One where he will be safe."

"We shall, but we must invoke a powerful protection on him also: The Promise of Tombs, perhaps."

The council gasped and broke out at once in loud babble. They stared at him and he heard voices call out "You do not mean it!" "Surely, not!" "You know what will happen with such powerful magic! If the Promise is broken!"

"This child needs the protection!" Lord Elf bellowed above their chatter, and they fell silent. "The Promise with so many participants will be stronger than any other spell one of us alone can conjure!"

"The risks, my Lord!" someone called out.

"The Promise of Tombs is an ancient magical force. If I did not believe it necessary, I would not ask you all to join me in conjuring it." He looked around at them with hard eyes. "If the risks frighten you, then it is more assurance to me that this child will survive.

"Now, please," he said in a softer tone, "join me."

He turned to face the North Wall, and they all stepped forward to observe the names engraved there.

"Our Fathers!" Lord Elf cried out in a loud voice. "We have kept you close to us in the hope that your memory will guide us true! Now today, we call upon you to strengthen us where we are weak at heart! We invoke the Promise of Tombs, and pray we have the strength to hold our tongues!"

They knelt down before the tombs, and began to pray aloud, each voice encouraged by the sound of the next, and they chanted in their own tongue the spell to bind their shared secret.

In the years to come, this moment is remembered to this day. Their vow was translated, and read in the Common Tongue:

"'Our Fathers! Hear our prayer! Make our faith as strong as your faith. Make our will your iron will. Hear our prayer! Keep our tongues still to keep silent our secret. Hear our prayers, and for ever and ever!'"

The elves of the council quaked with fear at what they had spoken. Such an event as this that would've surely been talked of for ages to come was now silenced forever. Only Lord Elf was his own self, as he stood on his feet.

He waved to the faeries.

All he could say was, "Come!"

They left abruptly, and on horseback they traveled to the Temple of Pools, as the faeries called them. To the elves, the clear waters were Fountain Portals.

"Where?" The purple faeri asked.

The Lord Elf looked around at the pools.

The pools were arranged in a circle of nine with two in the middle, representing the Realms.

They walked between the pools glimpsing into the clear waters.

"One where magic has no place in the Realm. There, he would be safest." The elf stopped, gazing into the pool in front of him as the breeze pulled at his robes. "Here."

The faeri came closer.

"I will go with him."

"No." The elf said. "You must replenish your race and increase your numbers. A land without the light of the faeries would be a sad, dark place, indeed."

"But my magic is almost gone." She argued. "Here, where magic has no place, it will survive."

"If the faeries magic fades here," he said, "you won't have the magic to go to this Realm, or anywhere."

She bowed her head.

"I will take him there."

"But someone must stay with him."

"I will stay in this world until his is of age. But first," the elf bent and pick up a fallen stick, "I need a storage for my magic."

"You're parting with your magic? How will you return?"

"The pools are in every Realm, I will manage." He kept his eyes on the staff, and waved his hand over it.

The stick formed into a cane and a clear blue-ish gem was embedded on the top. Intricate carved designs traced their own path down the cane. A black-wood cane, with gold embellished indentations of leaves accenting rim around the gem.

He muttered an incantation under his breath, and he became flushed with concentration. He tumbled forward. The faeri caught him before he could fall in any pools. He recovered quickly, and held the staff gingerly.

He took the child from one of her fellow faeries, and put a hand on the purple faeri's shoulder.

"Watch over my son, Elzar, will you?"

The faeri nodded, and she watch as the elf stepped into the pool. Its depths should have taken him down, but the elf stood with little water over his boots.

He held up the staff, and cried out in a loud voice the incantation.

On the last syllable, the elf brought down the staff and struck the water in the pool with a loud noise as if the staff made impact with metal. There was a bright light, and the elf and infant disappeared in a sudden fog around the pool.

When the fog cleared they were gone.