He came once more to his home, that great King of Shadows. To the land which once held his court, the beloved kingdom of Luminare Tenebris. At his side came a flickering blue flame, a fire sprite known as Aithne. Together they traveled beneath an endlessly dark sky devoid of sun, moon, or stars. They saw the barren wastes which had once been thick forests with glowing lights and wild life, they saw the burned city of tents, they saw so much and heard only the sound of the crying winds.
“How do you know it’s true?” asked Aithne. “What they say? That this Hero is destined to save Faerie?”
The King looked at her with his golden eyes. “He is not destined to save anything, my friend.”
“Then why-” Aithne started to say but the King of Shadows was not finished.
“He can save Faerie because he is willing to make those choices, willing to reach out a hand to those who need his help, willing to suffer so that they do not. The world will always try to weave fates and destinies grand to suit its own desires, but in the end it is our choices which matter more than any prophecy.”
“But he can’t do it alone!” she protested. “No matter how powerful he might become he’s still only a child. One person can’t save the whole world.”
Sadly the King nodded. “You are right, one person cannot save the whole of the world. But he is not alone.”
At last they stood at the center of the place which had once been the Court of Shadows, and the King looked to the dark sky and gave out a great howl, a frightening sound that tore from his maw as his lips curled back to show his wickedly sharp fangs. When he was done there was only silence once more, silence and the wind in the dark.
They waited... In time there was a light in the far distance. Then another light, and another. Little twinkles of light, like lanterns in the night. Shadows flickered in the light, Folk dancing here and there as they came at the call of their King. Many bore the lights, not in lanterns but flowers or fruit that glowed in the night, large seeds that sparkled with veins of glowing purple and gold, stones that flashed as if with a core of fire and heat, and so many other lights they had saved. The forest had burned, but it could be reborn.
Soon all had gathered in a great circle around the King and Aithne, thousands of shadows and beasts, each come from the most distant corners of Faerie, from hidden holes and the hidden shadows away from the light of sun.
“You have come,” said the King softly. Though he did not raise his voice above a whisper, all could hear him as they made no sound at all. “I was afraid you wouldn’t after all this time. But here you are, as if not a day has gone by in all the time I have been away.”
Moving among them the King looked at them. Bird and beast, creeper and crawler. He looked to the flickering shadows and those with lights, he looked to fur and claw and beak. He spoke to those who stood alone and those who had kin gathered around them. At last he returned to the center and spoke once more.
“Our forest was burned. Razed to the ground because of the things we stand for, the truths that hide in shadows and the light that can be found even within the greatest darkness. It cannot be regrown in a day, though perhaps in a thousand years or more it might be as if it had never burned. Yet there is still danger. That wickedness that destroyed our home intends to bring the same Dark Fire and set it to all of Faerie. I call upon you now, for it is you who know what it is to be lost, to have your home taken away, to help defend others, to beat back the forces which would take from them what was taken from us. Will you come? Will you risk the light of sun and moon and star? Will you follow me?”
And from the gathered shadows of the court went up a great roar of assent. The very ground shook with the force of it.
The King was pleased. When silence fell again he spoke a final time. “Then we shall wait for the one who will lead us. That one bears the Crown of Shadow, and I feel that they will not be long in coming. So before they arrive we must begin to replant our home, set the seeds for a future day when we may live in freedom from fear.”
