Preface - Manwen

August, 1051 B.C.

I opened my eyes from my pondering as I heard explosions from the front lines, startled out of my reverie. I was resting, having been up for days going over strategies and battle movements for my army. I was tired. I was tired of the war. I was tired of the fighting. My people were a peaceful people, and here we were, being massacred.

The enemy was just outside of my castle, now, making their way past our defenses and tearing down our city. I knew that I didn't have much time left. I sat on my throne, thinking deeply on the troublesome war now waging outside of my halls.

I had been pressured to stay inside of the castle; my mate was in labor, of all things, at this most inopportune time. I glanced over to the stained-glass window closest to me. I stood, making my way over to it, looking outside. The flashes were nearly blinding to my sensitive eyes, as our battle mages used spell bombs to try to fortify the castle courtyard while the army of our enemies pushed their way through.

How had it come to this? Where had I gone so...so wrong? How had it come to war? Life had been so tranquil, with few problems in the world. We'd had all the time in the world to enjoy that blissful peace.

Now, we had no time.

I felt as if I were to blame. Perhaps, my trying to pressure my people into creation and playing at being a god, had landed me and my people into this situation. It was a hard reality that I had to face, yet I faced it with much shame. We, the Skyelves, had been the first of the elven races. We were the product of angels and humans.

I, in my quest for knowledge, and purpose, and favor, had discovered the ability to cast off certain physical and spiritual traits and abilities into clay models to create new races of elves.

However, not all of my people had agreed with this, and thus, he had undergone a sickly, disgusting and vile transformation and had vowed to destroy me for my perversion of science.

Why was I still here, in my castle?

I needed to be on the battlefield. I needed to be out on the warfront, with my people. I was their King. What kind of king, could even call himself a king, if not willing to fight, to die alongside of his soldiers on the field of battle?

A bright flash blinded me for a moment, and then I was no longer looking out of the large, stained-glass window of my palace onto the gory battlefield.

Instead, I was now in the midst of what took me a moment to understand. I was seeing the future. I looked around, before I realized what was happening in this sight of what was to come.

I was seeing a fierce battle in another time and place. I watched in awe as a young female warrior charged at an unseen adversary, sword raised. She had glowing, stormy gray blue eyes and the royal blue, upside-down crown shaped marking of the Royal Wraith clan on her face...and she had silver wings. Her striking silvery-white hair whipped about her in the wind.

I realized that according to the laws of the world, this wasn't right. There had never been a Wraith with wings. There had never been a Wraith with any hair color other than black, and even her flesh was warmer and peachier than the sickly-looking pale flesh of most of the Wraiths.

She was obviously a hybrid, a transgression to not just one, but both of the species she had been bred from.

It was an abomination, and it was a sick perversion...yet, as a scientist....it was all simply too fascinating and awe-inspiring to me to watch. I couldn't look away.

I felt as if I had been here before, as if it were instantly clear what I needed to do. I recognized her to my very core, knew her very soul...because it was a piece of my own.

Suddenly and all at once, I knew what needed to happen. I knew the truth that I was seeing, and I knew that everything would turn out alright. I could barely comprehend what I was seeing, but somehow, I knew that with this girl's arrival, the world would turn into a new age. One where there were people willing to stand and make it change and had the power to do so.

The vision changed, and I saw the same girl standing before my people, kneeling before my chief advisor to receive my crown, before she sat upon my throne.

My people erupted into thunderous applause.

She would be the hero of my people. It was odd, seeing what was obviously a Wraith, but a Skyelf as well, sitting on my throne. However, looking at the scene, I knew that this was the way to bring the world back into balance. I knew that this was the direction the future needed to take.

That would mean that I could no longer be the king when that time came. I would have to be removed, so that she could ascend to her place and rule.

Once more my vision changed, but now I had returned to my place at the window in my palace, observing the battle below.

I had made my decision. An awareness and knowledge settled inside of me. I would have to give up my position, and give up my very soul, in order to see that future come to fruition. For the good of my people and for the very world we lived on, I would make that sacrifice.

I turned around, and rushed off to do what I knew I must to save my people. I went to the war room and suited myself in my War Armor, and I placed my crown upon my head. My large, soft silver wings lifted me up and carried me swiftly out of my castle and to the battlefield. My light, sky blue aura shimmered about me with my determination.

My people were shocked and unhappy about my arrival to the battlefield.

My best friend and most trusted advisor and War General, Castiel, appeared at my side. His aura shined about him, radiant in his urgency and stressed state, a vivid yellow. I met his eyes, waiting for him to speak.

"My lord! You're not supposed to be here! Queen Poicelle is in labor, sire, you need to be by her side!"

"You're wrong, Castiel. I need to be here, fighting with my people. Poicelle has attendants to care for her. My people need me to lead them. I can no longer sit idly by and watch while they are slaughtered like lambs for a king that isn't even fighting to defend them!"

"But your highness, please reconsider!"

"No, Castiel. It is time for us to surrender."

Castiel was shocked. "Sire, please! Let us continue to fight! If we rally the remainder of our armies, we can defeat the dark ones!"

I shook my head. I dodged an arrow as it flew by my face. "I cannot allow this to continue, Castiel. Look around you! All of this hatred, this death...where will it end? I have already chosen my course of action."

He jolted in understanding. "No! You can't, my lord! You're my best friend, our king! Manwen, please-"

I silenced him with a hard look. "I must end this. Now."

"But your majesty, we can defeat them!" Castiel protested.

"Even if we can, we would still lose far too many lives to achieve that goal. I am the one that he really wants. If I give myself up to him, that should end this war."

He sighed sadly. "And what of the queen, sire?"

"Take her and our people deep into the mountains, into hiding. I want for you to be a father to the child, as I will not be able. Raise them strong, and keep Poicelle safe." I dodged another arrow. "You should hurry."

"Who shall we look to for leadership, my lord?"

I closed my eyes, feeling the glow of them even before I looked at him again. He gasped and knelt down, waiting for my prophecy. He knew that as the king of our kind, the oldest of us all, I received divine messages and gave oracles but even more than that, I held prophecy in my hand. Whenever I gave a prophecy, it always happened. "I will send a new ruler one day, many years from now. She will be a magnificent warrior of great power, and will hold a piece of my own soul. She will be cut from my existence, and be the first of her kind. She will be unlike anything this world will ever see until her arrival. I want you to hand over the rule of our people when she comes. She will be the hero of this world. She will hold a power none can comprehend." I handed him my crown. "Until that time comes, I will entrust the care of our people to you, Castiel."

He bowed low to the ground. "I will look for your new coming in this new vessel, my liege. It has been my honor to serve under your rule, my closest friend."

I patted his shoulder. "Lead them on, Castiel. Lead them to safety, quickly. We shall meet again, whether it be in this life or the next. Always be ready for the girl's arrival. Protect her with your life when she comes. Promise me."

"I promise. Goodbye, Manwen."

As Castiel began rallying our forces together, evacuating them from the battlefield, I went to the enemy with my arms spread wide, my very core burning with my raw power.

"Sanctus Spiritus," I cried, letting my aura eat up my body. "Translatio animus meus, da spiritum meum ad novum va, mae vera filia!" I shouted in Latin. Power and wind spun around me lifting my aura, and I felt my soul's true power leave my body and leave my body as an animation as the spirit shot into the sky like a beam of white light before dissipating into nothing. I collapsed, my power and body spent without my true dormant power.

My people watched as I was tied and bound in chains, led away beyond the borders of my precious city, out of their sight. I felt a sharp jab in the base of my neck, and everything went black around me.

The next time I would wake, I would be on my stomach on the floor, at the feet of the Darkelf King, and his stanching black aura that shimmered with vile blobs of darkness and tendrils stroking his skin. I would not know freedom for many centuries to come...

So, a new age began.