I entered into a welcoming glow, enrapturing me in warmth that made it impossible to feel afraid, yet entirely artificial since I could find no source for it. not a candle, firepit or sun, everything was so whitewashed under its brilliance, that it took away the character in the building. no air stirred and if I squinted enough, I could make out some form of belongings and furniture.

Then it was I heard a humming, a sweet delicate voice, singing a tune I recognised as if from a dream. I followed it aimlessly, searching for a while in circles when on the next turn, I found a woman resting in a rocking chair which matched in rhythm to the song. She was faced away from me, but I could tell immediately she was elven by her silver hair that almost blended in with this ghastly light. I didn't want to disturb her and approached with caution, yet even if I tried my footsteps would not have made a sound.

I was no more than a ghost to haunt this place, disconnected from the land of the living, where I predicted she resided since she was unbothered by anything out of the ordinary which made me think it was only I who perceived our surroundings in the manner I did. The closer I gained on her however, the more detail I could pick out.

She wore an updo, a thick lustrous bun loosely applied to the nape of her neck so it wasn't so severe, with braids twirling around it, dotted with tiny pearls that matched her necklace, overlaying a knitted lace shawl, which covered an even simpler silk dress, giving me the sense she was in the comfort of her own home and didn't feel need for decoration. Although, she didn't need it. her bone structure was exquisite, like she had been carefully carved by the gods with a careful eye, with hers large and catlike under a delicate brow. I watched her lips coo, thick and plump, which she then planted a kiss upon a sleeping babe, lingering with tenderness as she stroked their wispy head. I felt calm with her, safe, with a longing too nestle into her skirts to hear the same song again so I might sleep as deeply as the child, but then another figure joined her to inspect the baby too.

This was a male, too tall to remain standing as he cast a large shadow and he knelt, perching his cheek against his fist on the arm of the rocking chair, marvelling at the sight of the woman and infant. It was so strange as he reminded me so much of Corvin with those sharp features and the ponytail he kept long and lustorus. Even his gestures were elegant like he had complete control of his body that he would never stumble on his feet, but he was no warrior as my brother was. Like the woman, he was dressed humbly in a linen waistcoat and breeches, though he had a brooch clasped to his jabot to indicate some form of wealth and station.

What I was mesmerised by the most was the endearment the two shared, in the way they looked at one another and marvelled at the thing they had created together, a being that was a representation of their love. Their smiles were brilliant and filled with pure joy that it was inspiring to think two people could live so harmoniously, desiring nothing but what they had.

'I've decided on a name,' the woman declared, 'Nimue, her name is Nimue.'

I froze instantly as the realisation sunk in that the two elves I gawked at were the parents I never knew, and all this was my memory that time and infancy had suppressed. I had never even seen a portrait to grasp their likeness and I savoured them both equally and picking out features I had inherited from them.

Father smirked fondly, 'a fine name, indeed. And what will she make of the name? is she to be a fighter like Corvin, a lady of the court, or philosopher. Maybe she may choose to linger in the forest, looking no further than the beauty of the trees and living simply, freely…'

The beauty in his words was that my father didn't care what I did, only that I was happy and I ached in the absence of his influence in my life and how different it might have turned out to be if he and my mother were there to raise me.

She took her husband's hand and reached into the bundle of blankets for the child's chest, there she waited for a moment then beamed proudly, 'do you not feel it? her heart is such a size, she is destined for a love like ours and love comes with hardship, which she must be strong enough to overcome if it is to last. A heart like hers, I think she will feel things deeply and if so, that will include sorrow. You can't escape what is natural in the world, though I might want to protect her from it.'

Father's eyes softened in contemplation over the destiny his wife wrote out for me, fixated on one key feature as he asked teasingly,'and who will this suitor be?'

She giggled and nuzzled her nose along his, 'whoever her spirit calls to and it will do so knowing there is purpose to save that person and make them better than they would be without her, as they will do the same for our Nimue.'

He tucked a strand of hair behind her shell-like ears,'as you did with me?'

She nodded,'and the favour returned.'

I'd never witnessed no truer form of love than theirs, stuff of fantasy, but what I knew now that they didn't was that the Same love they bore one another, would be their end.

The room grew dark and I heard a commotion behind me. if this was our manor then I was being led to the front door into the courtyard and through the gap, mother and father were again but not in the same state as I found them initially.

Father had his sword drawn waving it manically, indicating that this was the night they died, when he and my mother were slain by humans, their deaths marking the beginning of war but as I approached, it seemed mother was clutching a terrified girl who was screaming with terror.

It couldn't be me, as I was still just a babe and if history was right, currently hidden somewhere in the house for Corvin to find. In fact, this child had hair as black as night and flushed skin, freckled and marred by dirt. It was a human and mother had her clutched behind her back before father whose attention was directed at them.

I gasped to see bodies littering the floor around him, more humans whose blood wet the soil.

'you cannot kill an innocent!' mother screeched, 'not another! What harm did they do you?'

Her voice was cracked from wheeping and disbelief for what her husband had just done.

'they are dangerous! Trespassing on my land they would have struck first if I did not and that runt will grow to do the same. Now hand her over!'

He swiped the blade, cutting the air to make it ring menacingly. The man was a stranger compared to the one in the sitting room who had been so gentle and this was not the story i had been brought up with at all.

Father drew the first blood, his fear of those different to him causing him to act Irrationally and he had pushed the matter too far. Now mother was defending the orphaned child whose family had been butchered, while he wanted to silence her forever, as a witness to what he had done.

I watched as she unsheathed her weapons, the very same as mine, and blocked one of his blows, 'stop this madness, this isn't you!'

the pressure made their blades screech in protest, waiting for the first to break away, 'it's too late, how do I explain what I have done…'

I couldn't believe what I was seeing; that my father started this war, perhaps with the intention to protect his family from what he feared and could not understand, but all the same centuries of suffering laid at his feet.

He was so cowardly and frightening at the same time, like a madman driven the further mother retaliated and since they were so far out of reach from civilisation there was no one to tear them apart and she had tried everything to make him see sense.

Her own heartbreak plain to see and she saw the family of the little girl murdered around her and realised her husband did not know such pain and his injustice to think he had a right to deal death, like he was a god.

The story was almost familiar and although she couldn't speak the same language, mother winked in reassurance to the child, then with another lunge, father thought he found an opening while mother was so apparently distracted.

But instead, she received the blow, sacrificing herself for the child and to be the lesson father needed taught…

They gasped, the impact through their bond the same as if he had stabbed himself and he quickly caught my mother before she fell and wailed loudly for what he had done, earning pain he thought to be in the right to deal out.

Blood spluttered in the corner of her mouth as father held her, but she reached up and touched his face, repeating the last conversation I had heard regarding their bond, '… knowing there is purpose to save that person and make them better than they would be without...'

My mother sacrificed herself for the child, but to rectify what he had done, so that he would know the pain of a loved one taken from him and there was no cause but his own foolishness in assuming the worse and becoming the monster himself in the process as if it would come without cost.

She was the light to his darkness and I started to know why the angel of death chose me, why I was destined to be with Nuada…

The scene began to fade, I only faintly managing to see as my father raised his sword once more to join mother in death, until I awoke in the same spot I had fallen.