A Kind of Magic

One

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.