Prologue

Family Descent

Book One �" Divergence

Prologue

 

Many volumes have I written throughout my life; recording events that have taken place while I have walked the world. In these records of my time, few have had the worldwide import and personal involvement of the tale I recount now.

While this narrative comes, for the most part, from my own observations, no small part comes from the accounts of others who took part in affairs herein related. I will forewarn, however, that some of the details I have derived from assumption and others through the means of divination. My name is Shalhanna del Maverina and this tale is of a family bound by love but torn apart by darkness and how this family tragedy changed our world forever.

I shall begin by providing a short telling of the events leading up to this specific tale. It is short because the details are dealt with in depth in previous volumes of my history.

I met Korbin Imiriss in the year 1634 of the second era in the city of Orlon which was his home and not far from my home in the Elven city of Chevranta in the Baltic Wood. I already knew his name. Two years earlier Korbin had defeated the archmage Tarsaris and ended the Edast Novas �" The Time of Darkness as it is known in the common tongue of Ilitha. In doing so, Korbin was mortally wounded and close to death. His friend and companion at the time, Elerond Cannis, the last High Auric of Luganis saved Korbin’s life at the cost of his own.

Shortly after, Korbin began showing severe symptoms of Rhadham Syndrome. The troubling disease only manifests itself in spell-casters and is believed to result from interaction with the aethêr. As is typical, the syndrome caused frequent debilitating headaches and terrible mood swings. Korbin had lived forty-five years at the time. He returned to his home and his family �" his wife Sharon, who was the niece of the Duke of Oruz and their two children. Unfortunately, the strain of dealing with Korbin’s illness was more than the marriage could bear and they ended the union a year later.

I met Korbin shortly after the marriage ended. He had taken up rooms in the guild house of the Commercial Casters’ Guild in Orlon. I was staying there between jobs. At the time I was hiring myself out to mercenary bands and lending my magical ability to their arms.

Korbin and I fell into an easy camaraderie and we began taking jobs together. We managed to locate an alchemist who was able to concoct an elixir which eased the symptoms of Korbin’s Rhadham Syndrome. Over several years we collected around ourselves a small band of stalwart companions and had many adventures together. For a time Korbin and I were lovers but the passion faded almost as quickly as it had flamed and we fell into a deep and abiding friendship.

As an elf I do not normally form deep bonds with those of the mortal races but Korbin was different. He had elven blood in his ancestry and even though he was approaching his fiftieth year he looked no more than twenty-five. However there was more to it than that; something had happened when Elerond had restored him. To this day no sage has been able to discover what happened but he seems to not age a day. Perhaps the powerful, divine power evoked by the High Auric had awakened a portion of Korbin’s Elven blood.

In 1639 we returned to Orlon from our travels. Korbin had a desire to see his children and I to visit Chevranta. While in Orlon we learned that a thief had taken over the ruins of Castle Myst Hall on the flanks of Mt. Xagyg above Orlon and was using the old castle as a base of operations. No force sent by the city or the Duke of Oruz was able to breach the former castle of the rulers of Orlon. Korbin and I and our companions took it upon ourselves to oust the rogue and put and end to his looting of Orlon. We infiltrated the castle and found the gold dragon Marya in the complex of tunnels and cellars beneath the ancient edifice. The thief leader had bound Marya by means of a magical potion and she guarded the castle fiercely. We managed to bring the thief to justice and to release Marya from the enchantment.

The Duke of Oruz, grateful for our service, bestowed ownership of Myst Hall Castle to us. We settled into the least ruined portions of the castle. Korbin spent increasing amounts of time in Marya’s company. After a time Marya began to accompany us on our journeys. She had taken to almost exclusively wearing a human form. Supple, strong with stunning golden-hued eyes and hair that flowed down her back like a wave of liquid gold. I had seen Korbin look at me the same way he then looked at Marya and recognized my own expression in hers when she looked at him. I knew before any other that had fallen in love. It is beyond the experience of even this elf who has lived long enough to witness generations fall in love to understand fully what transpired between them. She forsook her dragon form almost entirely, only occasionally taking it and they were married during the Yule celebrations of 1639.

During that year we had spent no small amount of our amassed treasures on restoring the castle and grounds. Marya parted with an equal share of her own vast wealth to aid in the restoration. In the late autumn of 1642 Marya gave birth to twins - a boy and girl. The son was named Korbin after his father, following a tradition several generations old. The daughter was named Iyara. Korbin chose to give up his adventuring in order to remain with his family. I continued for some time to travel with our old friends but one by one they all slipped away. I returned to Myst Hall from my last adventure three years later and Korbin, Marya and I decided to turn the old castle in a Mage school. We named the school the SilverStar Academy after the silver star emblem Korbin had taken years earlier.

After the school started I divided my time between the academy and my home in Chevranta where I dwelt between terms. In 1645 another set of twins was born the Imirisses �" Tholin and Miranda. Five years after that came the third set, Travis and Janev. To me, they were as nieces and nephews and, I believe, to them I was a favorite aunt.

The Imirisses children were all gifted with high intellects. They each bore various indications of their mixed heritage �" human, gold dragonic, and elven. Unfortunately, they also seemed to have inherited Rhadham Syndrome from their father in various degrees of severity. The worst afflicted was also the most gifted, first born Korbin �" who we came to call Korrie for clarity’s sake. Korrie had eyes that were a dark gold color which, in anything but the brightest light looked black, but when in the sunlight shown like fire. His hair was like that of his mother, liquid gold. Often as he was growing up he was confined to his rooms with such painful headaches that we feared for his very life. He was much loved by us all. He was my liatanu, my bright star. He excelled at his studies despite his illness and soon outpaced students many times his senior.

Korrie had never displayed any serious evidence of the mood swings that affected his father until he began entering manhood. As his body began to change the symptoms of the syndrome began to worsen. The headaches became blinding and nothing could be done. The elixir that his father used seemed to have no effect on the son. Priestesses from the temple of Ilmatar came and their healing efforts were for naught. Nevertheless in the year 1657, when they were fifteen, the time came for Korrie and Iyara to graduate from the academy. I had agonized many long hours with their parents as to how we could best help Korrie. After much discussion, we arranged for him to apprentice with an archmage in Chevranta. It was hoped that time spent among the elves in the quiet restful city would ease his trouble mind which seemed, to us, to be straining against itself to burst free in some fury. However all of our plans began to crumble to dust just weeks before his graduation and that is where this tale truly begins.

 

--Shalhanna del Maverina - Headmistress of the SilverStar Academy

Reviews

[AJJordan]

Bloody awesome read. Thrilling as hell. The things hinted at in the prologue could be a story unto themselves! I will definitely be moving on to the following chapters.

Just a couple of things;

You'll notice that when you copy and paste your writing onto this site, for some reason it transforms a hyphen ( - ) into double quotation marks ( " ) It's very annoying...:(

"I knew before any other that had fallen in love." I think you forgot the THEY or THE TWO OF THEM

"...in anything but the brightest light looked black, but when in the sunlight shown like fire." In this sentence, the SHOWN feels a bit odd.

Apart from that, was perfect in every way (although fully justified paragraphs would have been nice...lol)

[Derek Cummings]

I've just started with this read. I like your prologue. I the words you used to show the setting was really good. This sounds like it's going to be an interesting story. I anticipate reading through the chapters.

[Mark Lighton]

Thanks Derek, I appreciate the comment. I'm currently internet-less, except for when I make a trip to the library and my time is limited which is why I'm delayed in my reply. I look forward to reading your poems. As yet I haven't seen a way to read off-line, so will try to make time soon.