Prologue

‘Tis an oft repeated tale, how Dianthe, the last of the Truye-Seers, on the day she gave birth to her only child, a daughter, had held her to the breaking dawn and laughed.

All who saw her at the parapet swore she was going to throw her child to the waiting garanthes below and then follow her into the abyss. What no one saw was how the laughter changed to sobs of soul-deep sorrow for her people. Dianthe knew, had seen with her daughter’s birth, that the Elvendale Gifts had been stripped from the people.

Standing in the pale pink dawn, she cradled her daughter, Mearhain, to her breast, she whispered her love and sorrow. As Dianthe replaced her tiny child back into her cradle and caressed the soft, innocent cheek, she saw even more.

“Ah GODS! There is hope!” Dianthe laughed and collapsed on her straw mat. As she lay there, the return of the Gifts was foretold. The Prophecy she saw was repeated for generations, with little belief and even less hope that it would come to pass.

“When the Two shall come, the Gifts will return in full. The One shall have great strength and carry the Truye-Forge hammer. There will be a great following of the One, the next Truye-Seer, the protector of the people of Elvendale. The Other will join the One. The Other will have the Gift of Truye-Speech, Truye-Hearing. They will return the people to the ways of the Ancients, to the ways of Truye-Bonding. When you see the green and red, the blue and black, you will know. The Gifts will return in full!”

What few remembered was that there had been a warning as well – should the Two fail to find their Truye-Bond, or somehow be disallowed their Truye-Bond, the Gifts would be lost beyond recall. As the years passed with no sign of the Two, hope faded for the people. The only ones that knew the deeper meanings of the prophecy, and still had hope, were those of Dianthe’s line.