A woman slept in a bed, a crib rocking back and forth gently nearby. In the crib was a child, no more than two years old. The baby girl stirred in her sleep, disrupted by the sound of her father working in the other room.
The mother suddenly sat straight upright, a scream escaping her lips before she clapped a hand over her mouth.
"What is it?" the man shouted, bolting into the room as the baby girl woke and started to cry. Seeing the woman, he sat on the bed and shook his head. "Ashryn, I thought you told me the nightmares had stopped!"
"They had," Ashryn replied. "But they're back. Oh, Orist, what do we do? They'll kill us! They'll kill her! Why did you ever let your brother defy them?"
"We have to fight," Orist said, determined. He took the woman's hands and looked into her eyes. "Ashryn, I know this is hard for you; it's hard for me too. But we are going to keep each other safe, and we are going to keep our daughter safe." He gestured towards the crib. "But in order to do that, we need to fight. We need to fight the Neverseen."
A man dressed all in black burst into the room, a ball of fire in his hand. He sneered, aiming for the couple sitting on the bed as Orist stood and tried to shield his wife from the man.
"Miss me?" Fintan asked.
As the screams of the two elves filled the room, the girl in the crib continued to cry - flailing her limbs and shaking her fists.
Once Fintan had finished with the adults, he made his way over to the crib.
"There there, darling," he whispered. "What's your name, baby girl?"
He picked her up gently, rocking her back and forth to quiet her. Her eyes filled with tears, but she stopped wailing and bit her thumb.
"Alea," she mumbled, staring into Fintan's eyes.
"Ah, of course. I've heard rumors of the Palors having a child, but I didn't think they were true. Now, then, we can't have you remembering this night, can we? That's alright, I know an excellent Washer."
Without another word, the man swept back through the doorway, lighting up the house with his fire and leaping away as it went up in flames.
Alea Palor bolted upright, startled to consciousness by her surprisingly vivid dream.
She knew it had to have been a dream, because she had never known her parents - they had abandoned her in the woods seventeen years ago, and Fintan had found her and brought her in, raising her in the Neverseen. It was all she had ever known, other than the fact that her one job was to destroy the Black Swan. Piece by piece, she would tear down their organization, seeking revenge for their murder of her parents.
When she was about eight years old, Fintan had pulled her aside and showed her an article from when she had been two. It had only said that Ashryn and Orist Palor had been found murdered in their home, but Fintan explained that only one group of people would be malicious enough to do that. Now, though, she was beginning to doubt that.
This was the sixth night she had woken up from the same dream, but the first time it had gotten that far. The first night, it had been only the scene of the three people in the two rooms. It had slowly progressed, until the night before it had ended with the man walking over to the crib.
"If that was me," she whispered to herself. "And the man was Fintan, then…"
She shook her head, trying futilely to clear the thoughts from her head as she stared into the mirror.
As the adopted daughter of the new leader of the Neverseen, Alea had been given one of the best rooms in the place. She was stationed at {wherever Keefe and Sophie went at the end of Neverseen}, and had been there for most of her life. Recently, the atmosphere around the hideout had been tense, ever since Lady Gisela had… stepped down. Alea, naturally, had been curious, so she spied on a meeting of the more important members (read: Fintan, Brant, and Alvar), and discovered a most interesting piece of news.
A new recruit had, apparently, recently set the date for when he would be joining. Thinking for a moment, Alea realized that this was the day. She dressed quickly, pulling her long blonde hair up into a high ponytail and draping her Neverseen cloak around her shoulders.
Alea swept out of the room, the door closing quietly behind her. With her tall black boots and extraordinary skills at sneaking, she was virtually unnoticeable and silent. She snuck into the main room, blinking in and out of sight with every step. She had the option, as a Vanisher, of being actually invisible, but she preferred to increase her skills instead. Standing in the shadows next to the door, Alea sank down the wall and set herself up to wait.
Hello! Sorry about the wait for this first chapter, but here it is! I apologize in advance for the inevitable wait inbetween each chapter, but you can thank the oh-so-kind Guest who has reviewed a couple times for that. Anyway, hope you enjoy this rewrite!
~FFG
Update: When I posted the second chapter (on 2/20/19), I noticed this one was really weird, so I went back in and changed it. Sorry if it was confusing at first!