The ruins of the once great city of Mutus; charred remains of the fallen corrupted lay scattered among the debris of the burnt buildings. Golden rays from the sun breakthrough the parting clouds casting the city in a new light. The metallic sheen of the walkways peak through the rubble, showing the once beautiful streets hidden underneath.

Walking towards the royal palace along a pathway free of obstructions was Empress Vedasto. She wore a dark blue sundress as she walked past the rows upon rows of relief tents and first aid shelter’s. She cast a gentle smile towards the faeries tormented from grief the past few days. No doubt assuring them that everything would be alright despite their conditions at the moment. In fact throughout this sea of turmoil she has been the populaces rescue raft, a staple of hope.

She walked up to the iron gates that led into the palace courtyard.

“Empress!”

The two demon guards that stood at attention still wore their full battle armor.

“At ease.” She said, the gentle smile she wore before vanished. Her calm and hopeful aura replaced by a commanding one.

“Notify the troops that I will be in a meeting, should anything dire come up do not hesitate to notify us. Understood?”

“Yes Empress!” They both said in unison.

She didn’t wait for them to open the gates as she vanished in a flash of violet smoke only to reappear on the other side. Walking up the grand steps towards the entrance of the palace she couldn’t wait to cast aside her multiple facades and relax. Perhaps even tease Ria a little, she wondered how far she could push her this time. Once she entered the palace she navigated the corridors passing various soldiers and representatives of all races present, all the while thinking of different ways to ‘torment’ Ria.

However all of those thoughts flew out the window as she stepped into the royal throne room. Sitting at a round table was King Vena, Lord Magnus and Quinn, all of which showed no attempt to hide the solemn look on their faces.

“Tsk!”

As she kissed her teeth all those who were present cast a glance her way.

“If I wanted to see grief stricken faces I could just take a step back outside.” She said in a rather passive aggressive tone.

“Good since everyone is present let us go over what we know.” King Vena said as he stood up completely ignoring her statement.

King Vena, Lord Magnus and Ria all wore their royal garments while Quinn and Empress Vedasto wore casual clothes.

Empress Vedasto took her seat as King Vena continued his speech shortly after taking his own shortly after.

“Let us go over what we know of Mirza’s motives.”

“Then should we not go over his actions over the past 50 years?” Empress Vedasto suggested, throwing on a facade fit for a ruler.

“Well…” Lord Magnus thought. “He secluded himself shortly after a supposed meeting with Rahim, a few years later he started to cut ties with various races.”

“Right, so Rahim explain one more time why you and Mirza had such a disagreement.” Empress Vedasto mediated.

King Vena thought for a moment.

“Well, put simply he wanted to lift the sanctions placed on the human’s and start to integrate the races together, thereby nullifying all countries and making each ruling system obsolete.”

“An Idea of which we can all agree is not so bad.” Empress Vedasto mumbled.

“True, however all of us know that it is far too soon to even attempt to implement such a plan. The magnanimity and persecution of the races runs to deep in this generation. Especially considering not five hundred years have past. Although this is dozens of generations for the humans and 'younger' races, it is at most two or worst not even a generation for our races.” Lord Magnus proclaimed.

“That’s precisely why I refused his plan, however what perplexed me and still does to this day is why he even brought it up. I was certain from our meeting months prior that the four of us were in agreement on this matter.” Refuted King Vena.

“So you believe between the meeting we had and Mirza coming to consult you that ‘something’ influenced him.” Said the Empress.

“Well we can rule out the races present, however that still leaves six other potential suspects. Despite our alliance spanning over all of the races only us three.... no our four races have 'close' ties.”

A momentary silence came and went as the magnitude of the situation was brought to light by Lord Magnus.

“So Mirza’s change in character took place within that time frame and immediately afterward he started to seclude himself; missing meetings and not leaving his kingdom until finally cutting ties with all races but the Demons.” Lord Magnus said in a serious tone.

“Oh cast that suspicious glare somewhere else you half wit! My country’s main export is specialized items pertaining to the void rune. Besides because of the alliance each race exports what the others can not obtain. Last time I checked I don’t have the food supply to support an additional nation.” The Empress then took a deep breath, calming down a little.

“Banu herself fought with Mirza to keep our countries in contact. I regularly saw her throughout the years and can vow that she didn’t know what was happening within the country. So we can assume ‘another’ party helped carry the burden placed on Tenebris. They most likely had a hand in causing Mirza to fall.”

“I assume Banu herself had been left in the dark until the very end…” Said King Vena.

“Ria, you said and you’re sisters witnessed Banu with her eyes blackened as she held her newborn correct?”

Ria simply nodded from her position behind her king.

“Then we can assume she had fallen within the year, hence her absence from our regular get-togethers.”

“What troubles me is that they reported that she was crying. Had she fallen would the darkness in her heart not immediately eat at her sanity?” Said Lord Magnus

“Hmm… it could be delayed due to her pregnancy or-”

“Could she have fallen and retained her sanity?” King Vena said cutting in.

“We’ll only now when Tabor get’s back.” Said Lord Magnus.

“Could the child Faerie Queen Cyrus bore be tied into this? I mean we don’t know the fate of a child born of two fallen.” Said Quinn finally drawing into the conversation.

“We should find out in at most a month. Tabor went into the portal after her before it closed, seeing as he’s not back I doubt he apprehended her, though do to their friendship in the past I assume he has found somethings out.”

*

The continent of Yawron, surrounded on all sides by water is home to the humans. Boasting this world's wildest weather extremes, Yawron is a large land mass at over ten-million square kilometers. Not the smallest continent, but also no where near the largest.

There is only one that rules this continent, the Zavaria Dynasty. A royal bloodline chosen to rule by the Alliance of the races after the war. Though they rule the continent, due to it’s sheer mass it’s divided into 10 provinces. These provinces mimic the ten ancient runes; Water, Earth, Fire, Wind, Light, Darkness, Void, Stasis, Nature and Decay.

Each province then has a ‘house’ that manages the land and they govern over the land. The people of each province are tied to the houses though they are loyal to the royal family.

Walking down the busy street of Rolige, the capital of the Kramn province, was a hulking figure that stood at least a head taller than everyone else. He had pale skin with a rare tan to it. The hair on his head was a light brown, his eyes a jade green and a strong jaw supported his masculine facial features. This man would normally be rushing about his way, parting the crowd of people before him like a receding tide, however today he walked rather slowly and lightly. This caused the busy street to congest, though no one wanted to push or berate him with insults because of his build and his status. The reason he walked slow was the little bundle tightly wrapped in his arms was his newborn baby girl.

*POV Emily*

On the night we got Bella I stayed awake the whole night watching over as she slept, thinking to myself that she’d disappear if I took my eyes off her. I closed my eyes for a brief minute only to find that it was mourning and Bella wasn’t in my arms. After abruptly falling out of bed I hobbled to the kitchen where I found Jorgen making breakfast with our daughter in his arms. Of course I yelled at him for not waking me up and instead taking her from me. He then sat me down while he soothed a crying Bella in his arm’s.

“Em, you’re not in this alone, you know I’m good with kids, that’s especially the case with Izzy.”

“...her nicknames Bella.” I said under my breath.

“Hehe, that might be your nickname for her, but she likes it when I call her Izzy. Don’t you Izzy?”

Bella immediately stopped her crying as he soothed her, causing me to bit my lip in jealousy.

“Look Em, you have nothing to be jealous about nor do you have anything to prove. This is our daughter, you're her mother and I’m her father. So let me help.”

Damn… he see’s right through me.

“Now go get some rest, I’ll call you again when breakfast is ready.”

As I sat there in silence he then shooed me towards the bedroom in order to get some rest.

Like that almost a week past as we got used to our routines. I would watch Bella during the day and once Jorgen got home from his work he would then look after her. I will admit at first I had wanted to prove to his family, to the world that I wasn’t destined to not to have a family. And now that I do have one I’ll be the best mother I could be. Though thanks to my aloft and observant husband he proved to me that I don’t have anything to prove or worry about. He threw in his opinion of screw them for keeping that outdated scripture in practice, and screw them for making me feel that I was any less of a women.

As such I’ve been a little less overbearing as well as understanding of Jorgen and his attempts to get me out of the house. While I don’t think I have anything to prove it’s too early for me to go out into the world. Afterall we have yet to make it known that we do have a healthy baby girl and not another stillborn... I’m just to scared, what if they shun us or worse, what if they shun Bella.

In an attempt to get me to go outside the ‘charmer’ my husband was told me to clean myself up and after which we’d make it known that we do have a daughter.

As I was washing my body, my hair and everything in between I realized how filthy I was. Quite literally too, not bathing for almost a week is something not too rare on long journey’s though when you’re home the whole time it can be quite worrying. As I washed myself I began to think that It would be a positive thing making it known that we have a daughter. Looking on the bright side I stepped out of the tub after having washed up feeling quiet refreshed. I even thought today might be the day I finally venture out of the house.

At least that was my thinking until after I clothed myself, made my way to the kitchen to meet my husband, and found out that he wasn’t there. What was in his place was a small piece of paper with some writing on it that read:

Just to make sure you got yourself out of the house today and that we reveal our lovely daughter to the world, I took it upon myself to go ahead of you. Our first stop is the garrison at the manor.

-Love your amazing husband, Jorgen

The paper in my hands immediately went up in flames as for the first time since I knew I was pregnant I, used my magic.

*POV Jorgen*

I had a foreboding feeling as I made my way through the crowded streets. Had I gone too far, with my little attempt to get Emily out of the house? I mean I’m almost certain she’d hold herself up in the house forever if she didn’t have a certain push. This just so happened to be the one I thought up… Oh well, I’ll think about that when I come across it, she couldn’t possibly get that mad.

I put the thought out of my head as I a strolled through the streets on my way towards the garrison, the first people I wanted to find out were of course my brothers in arms. Some of them had been with me since I was young and we’d been through thick and thin together. I was still close to the others as well as I trained some of them when I had free time.

As I got closer I heard the sounds of swords clashing with shields and other swords alike. I’d better have them stop practice for a moment while Izzy’s here, wouldn’t want to scare her.

Though upon going into the garrison no one was present. I then made my way to the center of the field before I realized my mistake.

"CHARGE!!"

"TASTE DEFEAT JORGEN!!"

From every corner of the field soldiers I’d trained and my brothers in arms ran at me, full speed attempting to land a hit on me. This was the first time my motto of 'give it one hundred percent backfired on me', after all usually they’d do some drastic act to try to best me. Today just so happened to be a poorly executed ambush and the day I forgot.

Oh well I’m sure they’ll notice the baby in my arms right?

"......"

'Hey,hey,hey you guys are getting a little close, don’t you see who I have in my hands?' I screamed in my head for fear of waking Izzy.

‘Fine!’ I concluded with myself as I got ready to use my prided stasis magic.

*Whoosh*

That was until my beautiful wife appeared right before in a flash of bright light, she was red as a tomato from anger. No doubt at my stupidity.

“Ahem…” I cleared my throat. “Hey hun….”

She shot me a furious glare and then stared out at the running gang of armor clad idiots coming towards us.

Well crap…...