Wit�ch War

Book 3 of the Banned and the Banished

-James Clemens



FOREWORD TO WITCH WAR

(NOTE: The following is an open letter from Professor J. P. Clemens, the translator of The Banned
and the Banished series)

Dear Students,

As the historian of this textbook, I welcome you back to this series of translated texts and beg a moment of
your time to comment on my work and some of the rumors surrounding it.

As is well known, the original scrolls were lost to antiquity, and only crumbling handwritten copies
discovered over five centuries ago in caves on the Isle of Kell yet remain of this most ancient tale. Because
this language has been dead for over a millennium, hundreds of historians and linguistic experts have
attempted to tackle the reconstruction and translation of these Kelvish Scrolls. Yet under my supervision at
the University of Da� Borau, a team of distinguished colleagues finally accomplished the impossible: the
complete and truest translation of the tale of Elena Morin�stal.

In your hands is my life�s work. And I wanted to state that I believe my translations should stand on their
own merits.

Yet, over my objections, my fellow scholar, Jir�rob Sordun, had been assigned to write forewords to the first
two books, to warn readers about the devious nature of the scrolls� original author.

Now were these doleful warnings truly necessary? As much as I respect Professor Sordun, I believe these


ancient histories of Alasea�s �black age� do not need embellishments or extravagant introductions. Though
this ancient age of our land is cloaked in mystery and muddled by conflicting accounts, any person of sound
mind will know the tales herein are just the twisted fictions of some ancient madman. Do we really need
Sordun to point this out to us? Let�s look to the facts.

What do we truly know of this �black age�? We know Elena was a true historical figure�there are too
many contemporary references to deny this�but her role during the uprising against the Gul�gotha is
obviously a whimsical tale. She was not a wit�ch. She did not have a fist stained with blood magicks. I
wager that some charlatans had painted her hand crimson and propped her up as some anointed savior,
milking the simple village folk of their hard-earned coppers. Among this troupe of tricksters was obviously a
writer of some modest skill who created these wild stories to bolster their fake leader. I imagine he regaled
the farmers with these fabrications, which he passed off as real events�and so the myth of the wit�ch was
forged.

I can picture the gap-toothed farmers staring slack jawed as the story teller related tales of highland og�res,
woodland nymphs, mountain nomads, and silver-haired elv�in. I can imagine their gasps as Elena wielded
her magick of fire and ice. But surely in today�s enlightened Alasean society, there is no need to warn
readers so vocally that such things are fictions.

So with that said, I must make one confession. As I translated these series of scrolls, I began to believe
them just a bit. Who wouldn�t want to believe that a young girl from some remote apple orchard could end
up changing the world? And what she accomplished at the end�what the author claimed occurred�who
wouldn�t want to believe that to be true?

Of course, being a scholar, I know better. Nature is nature, and what the author proposes at the very end of
the scrolls is obviously a falsehood that can only weaken our society. For this reason, I have also come to
accept that my translations should be banned and kept only for the few enlightened, for those who won�t be
duped by its final message.

However, even with these tight restrictions, I�ve begun to hear absurd rumors surrounding the required
fingerprint that binds each text to its reader. It is whispered in certain circles that some readers� those
who have marked each of the five textbooks with their finger-

prints and bound the compiled series in silk ribbon, or so the story goes�have found themselves beguiled by
ancient magicks that have reached out from my translated words. I believe the fault for this ridiculous
notion lies with the university press that produces this series. The requirement to mark each of the five
volumes with the print from a different finger of the right hand only fosters such foolishness. For a publisher
to require such a thing, especially when the story in these books suggests that powerful magick can be