Anselm, lord Liam's precious heir, was still a young child when his father died.
Later they spoke of a hidden sickness, bad food or maybe just something getting stuck in the lord's throat. Anselm had no idea which of these were true, he just remembered the look of shock and agony in his father's face, the way he gasped for breath and the way all life went out of his eyes. The boy had tried to scream for help, but it was as if he was unable to breathe as well and no words would leave his mouth no matter how hard he tried.
He could only stand there, too shocked and terrified to even sob, when a dark hooded figure appeared above his father's body.

It wasn't until the funeral that he found his tears.
It seemed to the boy that his family was just a lot of cold grey gravestones. Both of his parents were gone now, leaving only his slightly older sister Ennelie and his aunt, a beautiful lady who had always been rather cold to the children. Now this lady was to be his guardian, standing behind him at the funeral, like she would until he became of age.

Anselm couldn't really imagine being a lord. He knew it had something to do with the taxes and the courts and the people in the village, but he had no idea how he was supposed to do it, either now or later.
Somehow he was sure he wouldn't be good enough.

Unlike Anselm, Ellara had no problem with being a de facto ruler of the village, even if only for a few years. She even considered herself lucky, not having expected much power for most of her life.
And as a further proof that life really was turning bright for her, she was getting married.
She had met Adrian Kallas during one of her brief visits to the capital, a young knight with golden hair and a shining smile. Adrian could ride, he could hunt, he could dance with such elegance that Ellara had seen only rarely, but at charm and flattery he was skilled even more than all of these three put together, at least in Ellara's opinion. They had fallen in love so fast Ellara nearly didn't have time to even catch her breath before the wedding.
Not that she needed to, anyway. She was sure that if needed, Adrian would do the breathing for her.

Alvin, meanwhile, was studying the stars. He had become curious when Alysanne had first told him about the stone circle and the way stars reflected in the central one, but recently they had been on his mind even more. It probably had something to do with fate, and faith, and the order of things.
Sometimes he wondered if the order was really right, really ordered, of whether it could be changed.

Then then, one night when he was looking at the charts detailing the different constellations and movements of stars, a strange light shone on him.
Alvin looked up, shielding his eyes against the glow, but he couldn't really see anything up there.

And then he was being lifted by some unseen force directly up, towards the source of the light. Whatever it was. Suddenly, Alvin didn't want to find out anymore.
He managed to get hold of the edge of the thatch roof, but the pull continued, growing ever stronger, and his fingers were slipping.
With a gasp, he lost his hold and flew upwards, too stunned to scream.

He didn't remember anything after that.
When he woke up, it was still night. He was lying on the cold hard ground, his head feeling light and his body incredibly heavy.

He slowly got up, trying to gather his uncooperative thoughts. He remembered the charts and... had he fallen asleep?
Then he looked above and froze in shock. There was something bright up there, shining with cold blue light but way brighter than the moon should be. It was beautiful, it was scary... it was unnatural. And suddenly he remembered being drawn upward, voices in the darkness...
He shook his head to stop the flood of memories. Suddenly he didn't want to know.

Most of that night stayed veiled in comfortable darkness and Alvin was grateful for that. He had heard legends about elves - the True Fae, not the pointy-eared people usually called by that word. He had heard about their beauty and their strange ways. And, most of all, he had heard that meeting them could change people forever.
He desperately prayed to the Watcher that this not be the case with him. He prayed for it even more whenever he thought of the knowledge and powers he had brought back with him, knowledge and powers he never asked for and had no recollection of ever getting.