The two figures huddled around the crystal ball which glittered and pulsated with an eerie, purple light, were the only people present in the vast, round room encompassed by grey stone walls, looking almost black in the murky darkness pierced at intervals by shafts of misty, silvery moonlight penetrating the night which had spilled within through the multitude of slender, arched windows.
They sat motionless, shrouded in ghost-like silence, lost to the world as they stared into the purple shine encased by the pellucid ball as if they were compelled to watch, as if they were drawn to the story evolving within the crystal by a magic spell, until one of them passed a hand over the orb, extinguishing its light, liberating their eyes and minds.
"Light!" the other called immediately.
He looked towards an almost invisible door hidden in the shadows impenetrable to the wan moonlight cast by an ornate, gold throne set on a tall, gold-plated dais, both reduced by the creeping night to silhouettes looming above the two men who crouched on the floor in front of them. The door opened following his command, allowing a handful of servants who carried burning torches, which whispered and sputtered as their vivid flames started to consume the darkness to surge inside and spill around the chamber. They made their way around the perimeter of the room, the torches creating at first a tremulous, slithering serpent, then a solid ring of lively light as they slipped them into the iron loops fixed in the wall. Some of them left the room immediately, their feet trained to silence making no sound as they touched the stone floor, while others gathered in the moving shadows behind the dais to wait for further orders.
"So we finally found my heir," the younger-looking of the two men, the same who had asked for light, mentioned.
Shaking his head as if to disperse the images that had been transmitted and impressed into his mind by the pulsating sphere, he sprang to his feet and walked towards the throne, letting himself drop onto the regal seat even before the other, ancient-looking man pulled himself off the hard, cold floor and gathered the crystal orb, now dead and lightless, under his arm, the wide sleeve of his wizard gown the same colour of the orb's magical light rendering it invisible.
"It took us a long time," the wizard said, his nearly floor-length beard brushing the pointed tips of his shoes, which peeked from beneath the hem of his robes as he approached the throne. "Why, decades must have passed in the world of humans where she is living. You had always been... adventurous, and a little reckless, Your Majesty, more so when you were a princeling with a lot of free time and no responsibilities, but I have never suspected you of venturing into the World Beyond The Stones and siring a child with an ordinary human..."
"Enough, Emrys. I'm not proud of that period of my life, I'm surprised that you could only find one child... But I'm happy that you found her, I would hate having to take a wife now, only to produce an heir."
The wizard nodded; the king's love of his husband was well known and respected. However, it was becoming a little worrisome as the years passed for his majesty's loyal subjects, who were afraid of remaining without a ruler descending from the beloved royal family. Thank goodness the king had had his wild years before he substituted his father on the throne.
"Now we only have to get her here. Have you summoned Leodhais and Gilderoy?" King Alaric asked, smiling.
He truly liked young Leodhais and if it wasn't for the nuisance of having to keep the crown in the hands of the current royal family, the last scions of the almost forgotten gods, according to the legends at least, he would happily choose him as his heir. But making an elf a king would probably cause upheaval and maybe war among the creatures living together in centuries-long peace, a war that would be most likely won by the dragon shifters whom everyone feared... If they finally stopped hunting each other down and stood united, like the other creatures inhabiting Silmarea. He sighed, schooling his rambling thoughts into obedience as Emrys spoke again.
"Yes, they should be here any moment now. And I sent one of my owls for Peregrine too, just as you wished."
Observing the wizard's eyebrows meeting in a pensive frown, Alaric nodded. Sending a dragon shifter on such an important quest would look risky to most people, but he trusted Peregrine. The man was less wild than the other dragons he had met, and one loyal Peregrine was worth a ten strong guard. Also, including a dragon in everything that the crown did was a wise political decision in his book, a choice that kept all the most influential ethnic groups of the kingdom satisfied.
"Leodhais the Elf and Gilderoy the Dwarf!" one of the two silentious guards standing by the massive door situated across the room announced. He stepped to the side following a flourish of the king's hand, permitting two figures to enter-- one tall and graciously slim, dressed in flowing robes of white and silver, the other short and stocky, wearing colours of soil and fallen leaves.
"Here you are, my friends," Alaric welcomed them, letting his smiling eyes drop from the tall elf to the short dwarf. He always admired their friendship; since they were children, they did everything as one, despite their countless dissimilarities.
"Is anything amiss?" Leodhais asked, his voice laced with worry.
"Oh no," Alaric assured him, motioning for him, his friend and the old wizard to sit on the stools that a servant set out for them in front of the high throne. "Emrys finally found my heir!"
"That's... wonderful news... Your Majesty," Gilderoy said, panting with effort as he climbed upon the cushioned stool as tall as himself unceremoniously with his friend's help.
"It's a she..." Alaric added, his ocean-blue eyes shining with a suggestion of tears boring into Leodhais' suggestively, "and from the bottom of my heart, I'm giving you my consent to court her." He couldn't make Leodhais his heir directly, but he could do so through marriage.
Leodhais nodded eagerly, setting his blond, shoulder-length hair into a flutter around his fair, regal face. "Thank you, Your Majesty, I greatly appreciate that," he said, his moss-green orbs clouding over with dreams of the future. He would be the first elf to become the King of Silmarea...
The more practically minded Gilderoy scattered his fantasies by his question. "Where is she?"
The king sighed deeply. "In the other world. As a young, curious prince, I visited the human world often enough, and she is, well, the result of my expeditions."
"How can we be sure that the girl is your heir, your one and only heir?" Leodhais asked.
"If there were more than one, Emrys would have found them by now. And as for how I'm certain that she's my child-- she's wearing my ring. We couldn't see it in the sphere, we couldn't see many details actually, but Emrys could feel it. The girl has the ring which I gave to her mother... Goodness, I really liked that woman once..."
"And you are sending us on a quest to bring your daughter home?" Leodhais disturbed his reverie.
"That's right," the king said, smiling at him contentedly. "You'll find her, make sure that her ring is the real one and bring her over. And then you may marry her, Leodhais." The years he had spent ruling the kingdom suddenly felt too long, he wouldn't mind retiring and enjoying more quality time with the man he loved.
"As you wish, Your Majesty," Leodhais agreed easily even as they all jumped upon hearing a loud thud from above their heads.
"That will be Peregrine," Emrys said, eyes glued to the ceiling; the age-old stones seemingly oscillating with the unexpected weight that had landed upon them.
"No..." the elf and the dwarf muttered in unison.
"Yes," Alaric replied, looking at them strictly. "You'll need him as your, and her guard, and also as a guide. I know that you both studied the human world in books, but Peregrine is one of the very few of us who actually visited it."
"To kill the strays of his own kind," Leodhais said sullenly, the few muttered words brimming with disapproval.
"That's beside the point. What's happening among the dragons is not our concern, as long as Peregrine is loyal to us," Alaric whispered as the door opened again even before the guard could announce the new arrival.
"Peregrine the Dragon!" The guard's voice trailed after the agile figure striding towards the throne.
More than a head taller than Leodhais and three times as muscular, the black-clad man stopped in front of the throne and bowed to the king, the floor-length cloak billowing around his legs filling the room with the scent of burning wood and ashes.
"I received your wizard's summons, Your Majesty," he said, his silvery-grey eyes observing Alaric quizzically.
"I require your service, Sir Peregrine. I need you to accompany my friends into the world of humans and retrieve my heir." The king couldn't help but smile; the wonderful news still sounded incredible. "I ask you to accept to become her personal guard and keep her from harm during the journey here, and beyond, for as long as you'll feel inclined to provide the service." Alaric beamed at the serious giant, who nodded slowly in return.
With one look at the dashing blond elf and his inseparable dwarf, of whom he had heard so much but had never gotten a chance to speak to before, Peregrine was able to assess that they needed his knowledge of and experience with the World Beyond The Stones. They would never find the king's heir without him. And he owed Alaric more than one favour.
"I accept," Peregrine said, ignoring their disappointed sighs. "How do we do this?"