Once upon an ankh

Prologue: Beyond the gap.

Prologue

The cobblestones groaned under the weight of giant feet. Memories long dead but never asleep. Soldiers ran the length of the inner courtyard, clanking in their amour and brandishing swords but they fought against a wraith, it danced and spun, always a step ahead. One moment here, the next gone as a sword slashed at the location, then the soldier would fall holding his neck and bleeding to the cold hungry cobblestones.

The wind blew furiously into a gale, picking up dust and debris, impeding the soldiers' vision. South of the vale and world's end, the last elven fortress. Impenetrable for a thousand years. The land stood surrounded by the grey sea, unpassable and only connected to the northern mainland by the winding path, a narrow jut that was almost always submerged except in the middle seasons when the grey receded.

The elven soldiers, graceful in their jet black sleek armor molded from their arts and strong as metal stood against the black wraith, falling by the dozen but defending the throne. Death cries filled the turbulent afternoon air as the wraith decimated the army.

Behind the lines a clutch of elves stood and watched. They wore light grey robes over their lean elven frame. Their faces were hooded and their eyes the deep blue of a gem. They hummed a melody deep and sonorous, it was the song of the land, the song of time. it came from the center of all things, the beginning of life, the end of time.

The elves hummed to nature, an appeal for help, a cure to the unnatural weather, an unmasking of the wraith. They hummed for rightness. Their eyes glowed even more brightly as this cadence of this humming increased and a deep groaning in the ground answered, the wind began to lose speed and dissipate and the wraith moved slower, allowing a soldier to score a cut that cut off something like an arm.

It fell slowly to the ground and time slowed against the humming of the elves, they hummed louder but it paid them no mind. The wraith arm spun on the ground and grew to another wraith and the wind picked up again. Time returned, freed from its burden of birthing. The second wraith slipped unseen through the army, headed for the humming elves.

The elf in the fore saw it coming, his eyes widened and he saw his fate and the end of the elven race. He lifted shaky fingers to his neck and took off a bright blue ankh that hummed with power.

"Quick Hadev, find the Queen, she must flee. Pass this to her. The one spirit must be preserved".

The elf named Hadev took the ankh and turned immediately to his task, the humming picked up behind him but he knew there would be no hope. He hummed a lower note, some kindred note to the stone and it opened for him into a wide staircase lit on both sides by spitting flame circles.

The staircase showcased the opulence of the elven race, the large blocks of stone were black quartz and in them, carved in exquisite details were scenes of elven history inlaid in gold. Hadev stretched out his hands to the flame, humming to it and it answered his call. It was a measure of his strain that he couldn't call it without stretching out his hands.

He took the wide marble steps two at a time until he came to the first floor lobby with the four great hanging tapestries and golden statues of the four elven races. He looked around, unable to pass simply, the great elven peoples had been brought to this, thrown on their knees by a power they could never hope to face.

The statues stared at him uncaring, massive and grand. Twice as tall as an elf with hard faces from a time where the elves were the absolute power. Silver tears spilled from Hadev's eyes. He looked at the concentric patterns on the ground remembering a time when elves didn't need that, a time when they could fly, a time when they could simply call on the one spirit without humming. All the glory of the elves was lost now; they were a scattered race.

The Ankh hummed in his hands reminding him of his task. He cleaned his eyes with the back of his hand and hummed once again. The concentric patterns on the floor answered, loosening, changing, becoming a lift, taking him higher and higher, past several floors. past the great library at world's end, the center of elven learning. Past the circle where the councilmen sat and where the world was ruled from, once in a while. Beyond that was the royal quarters. There, Hadev found the queen and her infant son. The last links to the one spirit, the remnants of the royal family.

The Queen sat on the spirit throne, its blue fire felt the presence of the ankh and called to it. The ankh burned in Hadev's hands. He cried out and dropped it. Kneeling and averting his face from the Queen. The throne room was a great circle and the center of the castle, the patterns on the floor were three times as complicated as that on the first floor lobby, with the throne at its center, the patterns burned with the same blue fire of the throne. They went up the transparent walls, looking as if they hung in the air and the ceiling, bright blue and menacing. Strange symbols danced around the concentric patterns and threaded up the throne. They concentrated the power on the throne and the spiritual leader of the elven race.

"My Queen", Hadev bowed. Cringing from the raw power he felt, the throne room and the royal family always awed him and on other occasions replenished his fate.

"All is lost, isn't it? " she replied in a quiet musical voice filled with the one spirit.

"Yes my Queen", he answered.

"And the council? The learned ones?"

"All dead or dying before the wraith", he sobbed.

"All is truly lost then. Why do you come to me now Hadev, what more can the ankh do for us? " she asked again, in the same calm musical voice.

Hadev lifted his head a fraction.

"My Queen, Master Hadence bade me come. He wishes for you and the Prince to escape so the race might not die out today"

The Queen stared hard at him, her deep blue eyes forcing him to drop his head again.

"I will not run Hadev, I will not leave my home and be a vagabond on the earth. If the elven race ends, it ends here, give me the ankh". She hummed a deep sound and a stone crib bearing the young prince floated to the throne.  Hadev gave the ankh to her, wincing but hanging on tight till he gave it to her. She put the ankh on the neck of the prince humming an incantation to time that Hadev had never heard.

Before he could ask, the floor broke open and the wraiths bounded into the room, the black power that came off them in waves dimmed the blue fire of the throne.

"One preserve us" Hadev whispered as the wraiths bounded for them, ending the elven race.

Hey guys, Joshua here, author by day, also author by night, can I get a hell yeah!!!! I hope you enjoyed that and had as much fun reading it as I did. I can't wait for this story to develop beneath my thumbs I tell you, arggggh. I wanna know what you think tho? Where do you think the story shod go and what vibe does this one give you?
In three days we moveeee. Much love.