Chapter 1

New York, U.S.A., Fall 2008

The gears were already turning. The spinning wheel was now impossible to stop. Prince Nuada sunk his blade through the chest of his father, all the rage of millennia thundering through his veins. His duty to recover the surface of the Earth for his people drove him to murder his own father, with a steady hand, and no remorse. However, the image of his corpse turned to stone broke his heart. The Prince caressed the former King's frozen face, his last expression of horror immortalized as a statue.

The lump in his throat made it hard to breathe. He let out a choked sigh and whispered his eternal love for him. Then he uprooted the crown piece embedded on his father's long stone coat before the terrified screams of the royal council. The sand exploded and, in the place where his father had, for thousands of years, kept his crown piece, he left a deep hole, desecrating his statue.

The Prince joined it with the crown piece he had rescued from the human auction house, and the pieces attracted and fit to each other like puzzle pieces. He turned around and glanced over the degraded amphitheater where his father had, until that night, held court. The floor of the abandoned factory was carpeted by the bodies of soldiers he had just slaughtered. The elves of the court, his own people, watched him, horror stark on their faces, still paralyzed. Desperately, the Prince searched for his sister, Princess Nuala, yet he couldn't find her. Furious, he ordered Wink to search for her, the guardian of the last crown piece, and the key to finally awaken the Golden Army.

After recovering his sword and silver lance from the claws of a shocked and horrified Chamberlain, the Prince retired to his shelter and focused on the construction of the container of goblin technology. It was golden and egg-shaped. Concentrated on its core, the Prince brought the tiny gear closer, holding it by pliers, and turning the container on its base to study where it needed extra adjustments. It had to be sufficiently resilient to protect the valuable seed of an Elemental, a forest god, giver and destroyer of all life; yet at the same time it had to open and close on its own.

A few minutes later, a Bogart arrived at his side, one of the many minor creatures living underground with the elves, and all the other magical creatures rejected by the surface. It tried to speak, but stumbled over its words, unable to make sense. The Prince noticed from the corner of his eyes, the creature bowing repeatedly, and begging with its tiny hands held to its chest. He took a deep breath and gathered his patience. With his most serene tone of voice he asked what did the Bogart want to communicate. The small being babbled that his dear Troll friend, Wink, had just been murdered by a red demon in the Troll market. The Prince felt choked with rage, grief and pain boiling through his veins. Swiftly, he placed the seed in the container, rechecked its functioning, and then put it in his pocket, and went to hunt.

He arrived at the entrance of the Troll market, placed at the street level of an abandoned warehouse, before the bare eyes of the human metropolis only meters away. Night had already fallen, yet the city lights emanating from lampposts, advertisements and storefronts reflected on the last of the puddles of rain, giving off a cold and artificial halo to the already horrible mass of concrete.

When he spotted his friend's killer, he couldn't believe what his amber eyes saw. The red demon wasn't alone. A blueish fish humanoid and a man with a crystal and smoke for a head accompanied him. And Nuala. She belonged at his side, not next to the strangers who had just killed his best friend.

The Prince faced them. He caught the attention of the red demon and swore he would make him pay. The demon grumbled a laugh, made a rude remark and prepared his oversized gun. He aimed it at the Prince's head. The Prince remained unfazed. He produced the golden container out of his pocket, flicked it open, and took out the seed of the Elemental.

"Kill him," he whispered and threw it to the pavement. For seconds, the group didn't know how to react. Only Nuala begged him, screaming not to do it. She knew the power of destruction contained by the being within the green seed.

It jumped their way, until it slipped through the cracks of the drainage system, with the fish humanoid trying in vain to catch it. The Prince breathed victorious. He left them alone, for they were to have enough distraction in the upcoming hours, and slipped away into the shadows of the night to reach one of the highest terraces of a nearby building.

The impact resounded on the surface, emanating from the sewers, and echoed all over the city. Then, a bang, like the first shock of a cataclysm. Traffic froze. And, silence. The Prince watched it all unfold from his view, knowing well what was coming.

In a matter of seconds the Elemental broke through the thick concrete street and crashed its way to the surface. Dozens of motorized vehicles in the area flew like stones through the air, and fell, crashing onto the road. Terrified humans ran in all directions, screams and cries for help filled the air.

The Elemental screamed back, a guttural, ancestral howl that would give any human a heart attack. The Prince admired it with devotion, as the forest god extended its arms, ivy tentacles destroying vehicles, streetlights and buildings.

Chunks of concrete fell, crushing passersby and machinery alike. The red demon went into action. Equipped with his massive gun, with the power of six cannons, he searched higher ground and climbed an enormous lit sign hanging vertically from a building.

He shot twice at the shoulders of the Elemental. Its green ichor splashed and covered the surfaces it landed upon with natural life, like drops of life falling from the sky.

The Prince felt the impact of the bullets, as if they hit his own flesh. The Elemental screamed in pain and collapsed against a building. It wailed. The Prince crept closer to the red demon from the ledge of his building. He saw in his stone hand a human infant. The Prince called the demon's attention. At street level, one of his own shouted the order to take the last shot. The demon couldn't stop observing the Elemental still holding his exaggerated gun in his hand and unable to fulfill the order.

"Demon. What are you waiting for? This is what you wanted, isn't it? Look at it, the last of its kind. Like you and I. If you kill it, the world will never see its like again. You have more in common with us than with them. You could be a king! If you cannot command, then you must obey."

The words left doubt spread across his harsh features, yet they did not dissuade him from obeying the humans. A single shot in the head finished the Elemental off, making it collapse. The Prince looked away and swallowed through the tight knot in his throat. Its ichor poured out of its motionless body and filled the city of concrete with nature. The Prince couldn't bear to witness it. His own twin sister decided to stay with them, rather than running to his side. When had his own blood betrayed him like this before?

Wink and the Elemental. Two dear friends, murdered by the same demon in the same night. The emptiness in his chest made it hard to breathe.

There would be time to put Nuala in her place. Finding her wouldn't be a problem, for he only had to connect with her telepathically, and find her location. He slipped away in between the people, evaded the guards in the area, and arrived at the Brooklyn bridge. He went down into the sewers, and to his private chambers. There, embedded in one of the rock walls, and behind the massive golden wardrobe where he kept his clothing, was his safe of the mechanical goblin.

The Prince activated the triggers by its sides, and on the base in the right order, and turned the gears to enter the password. The tiny door opened. In its interior he placed the two united crown pieces. To carry them with him was too risky, with the agents on his heels ready to hunt him down. He closed it and placed the safe in its nook behind his wardrobe.

Then, he went back to the surface, the bitterness of defeat burning his palate. The motionless countenance of his father turned statue appeared in his memory. Wink had fallen, protecting him, and following his orders. Nuala had made her loyalty clear by turning her back to him. The millenarian Elemental opened its spores for the last time, filling the concrete cemetery this depressing human metropolis was with life.

There was now only one place to go in this pavement jail plagued with humans. Only one place where to find some peace and partially heal the wound of treason and loss. The attic of New York's Grand Theater.