Conrad’s mouth was curt. “Well. At least we have the Orrkin in this war. Come then, Hector. The chieftains wish to speak with you.”

Hector felt himself rise from the ground, and he said, “I thought flight was forbidden here.”

Celdan smiled wryly. “I never said for leaving, now did I? They have judged us, and judged us worthy enough to join in this war.”

They levitated overhead the ambling Orrkin.

“The Second Reunification,” Hector murmured. “Will it end with this war, or will there be a Third?”

“In the centuries I have spent in this forest I did not stay with idle hands. I prepared Hector. Conrad will guide you should I meet my inevitable end.”

“And what if we both die in this war?”

“Then, the chieftains will know what action to take. And the course of history will be decided by the victor,” Celdan answered with somber finality. “We fight for the survival of humanity. We have regressed by so much. Lost so much. If we repeat the same mistakes as Earth… you saw its ending. We have become a broken people, without purpose, without meaning. Sometimes we must break an improperly healed bone for it to heal back in its rightful place.”

“Look,” Hector pointed to the once men that had once seemed rooted to the ground in their stillness, now staggering alongside the Orrkin. Ancient weapons and armor dredged with tired orange rust shuffled and swayed as many bladed branches to the deathly clattering winds of war.

“So it begins,” Celdan murmured. The wall of trees had unfurled in an opening even wider than before to let out the tide of creatures. They descended down to Shael and Daelith who watched the columns that shambled past.

“We have no time to waste,” Celdan said. “We must meet at the Center Tree to convene with the Tribunal. I can only carry two others. Daelith, take the Odigwe back to the arboreal.”

Daelith nodded and loped out of sight. Hector and the others were lifted skyward by the force of Celdan’s Gift until they were above even the forest’s canopy, hundreds of feet high. They were then whisked away at a startling speed, just as Hector’s first flight. Yet he did not feel the wind rush upon his face nor whip his eyes, as if they were standing in an unseen all encompassing barrier.

They headed towards a tree rising above the rest, its branches furling out as petals of a flower, open at its center. There were nests for the Odigwe twined round its exposed roof that lead to spiral stairs cascading down to the hollow, larger than any Hector had seen.

Already there were sylven sitting around a gnarled and circled table sprouting from the floor. The table, Hector realized, was a living map for the Realm of the Empire, complete with the Elder Forest uncharted to mankind. An Elder Seer, stark in his white silk robes and shaven head, bowed at their approach.

The chieftains, of which he saw Naal and four others, remained seated in their wooden thrones. One sylvan stood behind each chieftain, imperious in their stillness, their spears resting ceremoniously upon the ground. Shael walked over to stand behind her Tribe’s chieftain Naal and do the same.

“So this is the boy of which you have rested all your hopes onto, Celdan,” spoke a vanni even older than Naal, voice deep as the rumble of earth, hair completely silvered, skin dark as soil. His amber eyes glinted with shrewd judgement, just as the other chieftains.

“The Orrkin have deemed him worthy for them to join the war,” Celdan replied. “They are making their way even now to the Long Wall.”

The chieftains murmured their surprise, and a grey sylf of wild black hair raised her voice, shrill and demanding, “Then it is settled! We must join Serendrial’s Firstborn to war.”

“We must follow what we had all agreed upon, Chieftain Quani,” chieftain Naal reminded her. “Our hosts must gather in wait for the Orrkin to pass us before we march to the humans’ borders. My scouting party have reported that man’s machines of war have long been abandoned. We must bide our time until the Orrkin reach their borders.”

"On that we can agree upon," Quani squinted at Hector. "So we are to trust this human, that he will barter a peace between us all?"

"I have prepared long for such an event as this," Celdan spoke up. "He is of my line, and he is the catalyst that will-"

"I did not vote to spare your life, Eilraz," Quani did not take her eyes off of Hector. "You may act like one of us, but you never will be one of us."

"Perhaps then, we may be closer than what you would like to think," Celdan quipped in dry reply.

"We have already spoken of this Quani," the chieftain with the earthen voice rumbled. "Old hatreds bar us from the way."

"They are not a part of the way, are they Erul?" Quani snarled. "The only reason we have not slain Eilraz is because of his continued betrayal to his own kind."

"Are you finished, chieftain Quani?" Celdan asked mildly. "Every word you utter is another moment lost in how we can enact all the centuries of planning into these few remaining moments."

"Elder Celdan is right," said a sylf darker green in tone than Shael with nutmeg hair knotted in a thick braid draped over one shoulder. “Let the human speak. What will you do, Hector of Celdan’s kindred? Are you willing to war with your own kind, and fulfill your end of your father’s treaty?”

Hector stepped forward beside Celdan.

“I will,” was all Hector could muster. He gathered himself then and looked back at the heavy scrutiny of the chieftains. “I must ask however. You will march with the Orrkin. You will attack Raul, the closest Kingdom. From the limited military education I have been given, even I know to assault the Bloody Kingdom would be hardfought. We will gather heavy losses, and it will no doubt be a prolonged siege. I, we-” Hector glanced at Celdan. “-have given this much thought. And when you attack Raul, it will only unite the other Kingdoms against you. I will be fighting my own kind. Should the other Monarchs know I am still alive they may yield to my rule. We must act in peace. Should I reach the capital, I will be able to-”

“We will not march upon Raul,” Celdan said in calm interruption.

“You won’t?” Hector asked, yet another statement from his forefather that left him puzzled. He brought his hands out in frustration. “So I’m just your figurehead, no doubt you all have already planned the next course of action then. Well?”

Celdan gave the slightest shake of his head. “We will not march to Raul. The sylvan host will go further, to Lyonia. But that is not where you will go Hector. We will travel by hummingeagle to the Range of the Romul, the dwarves. There I will call upon the debt owed by their King to aid us in taking Lyonia. This war goes beyond you, Hector. It is beyond me. To reach lasting peace we must tear away the misbegotten hatreds of humanity by force. Say you do reach the capital. What will you do?”

“I will-”

The slap that Celdan lashed out was so abrupt and jarring Hector stepped back stunned, his words failing him. His vision blurred at the suddenness of the attack.

“What are you-”

Celdan casually stepped forward and Hector leaned his head back to avoid the next blow but could not match the older man’s faster backhanded strike. He saw Shael step towards them but Naal raised a hand for her stillness.

“Go on,” Celdan spoke coolly. “What will you say?”

“Stop-”

Hector covered the side of his head with one elbow to block the incoming strike and shoved Celdan back with his other arm.

“How will you speak when a sword will be thrust down your gullet? Hmm?” Celdan’s tone was harder now, a hint of steel barbed in his seeming nonchalant manner. “That is the way of our world Hector. It will only cost many lives in the face of your idealism, and in the end your own death should you try and negotiate. Sometimes, to put down the sword, one must have the strength to wield it.”

The old man clasped his hands behind him. “We only have one chance to take the Kingdoms by surprise before they can unite their armies. By taking away your Steward’s only ally he will be forced to march his legions to the capital. There we will siege Hearth, and it shall be returned under your rule.”

“At the cost of how many?” Hector grimaced, wiping away the sharp tang of blood that had leaked forth from his now healed lip with the back of one hand.

“Many, but not all. You see, the sylven have thought long and hard on how to coexist with our race. And humanity is on a path of eternal war, natives or without. Us, we, the humans, will go on to unite for several decades to wipe out the native races that yet live. Once the last Orrkin and sylvan life is extinguished,” Celdan’s eyes flicked to Shael. “Humanity will turn upon itself. Without the guidance of the Ancestors such as Conrad, we will not be able to stop the growing bloodshed until we share the same fate as the Old World. We have planned for centuries, never idle, always pondering how we could return to the balance of this world. This is how we fulfill it.”

“What of Ith?” Hector turned to the chieftains. “Would you have wanted the first Elder to war with all the other tribes who had not been shown the way, so that he may have perhaps lived with the tribes’ aid that had been freed? Or would you follow in his selflessness and value every life as he did, as I have come to see within your people?”

“Ith was indeed selfless,” chieftain Erul agreed. “But this is not about the way. Your kind’s way is to either conquer or massacre. Your kind have done so since your arrival. In a sense, we are not so different. And we are not so alike either. Your kind’s appetite for bloodshed has not yet been tamed, and there is no stopping a weapon without stopping its wielder. We are past words. Your own kind have even tried to kill you. Trust in your forefather’s judgement, for he can help you to impart a measure of our way to your people, and end this eternal war.”

“So you need my position to reform humanity,” Hector spoke with flat bluntness, knowing he had no choice in the matter. “How can you be sure, even if we do reunify the Empire, that it will be enough then?”

“We don’t,” Celdan said. “None of us know if what we do will be enough to change humanity for the better. To preserve the balance however, is what we must do for this world. For all of us. No matter the cost.”