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She covered her ears the sound was deafening, she would have closed her eyes, but the need to know kept them open. Lin had found herself closer to Sir Valdemar, and tiny compared to everything that was going on. Between the winter coldness that nipped at her skin and the feeling like it was hard to breath, one could swear it was like... drowning.

Lin wanted to say something but found she couldn't, and even she could, she doubt she could be heard at this point.

Suddenly the pages fell still and the noise stopped abruptly, leaving the room in an eerie calm.

Sir Valdemar looked over at Lin.

"Are you all right?" he murmured, holding out one arm to her. "Come ... sit with me ..."

He would give her what comfort he could. She would need it. The worst, after all, was far from over.



"And off we go," the king smiled warmly at Lore and Elnara. "Tell me, what have your other children been doing lately? Serenity you say has adopted, Idhril has married and adopted ... and the others? Is Shiro still hoping to travel?"

It was hard to believe that it stopped as suddenly as it began and it was so quiet that she was pretty sure something was going to jump out at her. Lin didn't need to be told twice as she took Sir Valdemar's arm and sat close, very close, as close as possible to him. At her size it wasn't that hard, but it kind of made her wish she was smaller, it would have made things a lot easier.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to get calm, or at least in some coherent state to say something constructive.

Sir Valdemar put his arm around Lin's shoulders and held her close, trying to warm her up and hold her protectively at the same time.

"Brace yourself," he whispered, lowering one finger to the page. Then, gathering his strength, he began to read aloud in a strong voice.

But instead of words being read, the room around them seemed to shimmer and change: the scene was once more the enormous, powerful trees of the beginning of the world, the same two trees giving off the pale glows for the light that was constant, both day and night. But in the east a darkness arose, swallowing up what light there was in a silence so complete that it almost wasn't noticed ... until, with a loud crack the two tree-giving lights shattered into thousands of pieces and were scattered to the wind.

Plunged into complete darkness, the world was suddenly filled with screams and groans of pain and despair - but then a new sound arose, the screams of violence, and of those who took delight in violence ...

A pale light appeared at the horizon ... the first sunrise ... and when the world was visible once again, it was nothing as it had been. The beautiful trees that had once housed the elves and protected them were gone, replaced with chars and splinters. The ground was blackened as though a great fire had blazed through, though there had been none. Yet in the light of the day, not as bright as it was in the present, the world was black. Screams continued, cries of despair, of pain, of anguish - but there was not a living soul in sight.

Soon there were more changes: the earth shook beneath them and opened up, swallowing the trees whole, and out spewed liquid rock, magma, that splashed and engulfed the land around them in flames and searing heat. Out of the fissure black forms began to stir: creatures of the darkness, created of pure evil and with only evil within them. Wisterons, giant spider-like creatures that knocked over everything within reach, dripping toxins from their abdomens and poisoning the ground they walked over. Reapers, tall figures cloaked in darkness, carrying their scythes of death. Changelings, changing from one grotesque form to another in the blink of an eye, tearing apart everything within reach. Orcs, goblins, trolls, gnomes, hordes of them, thousands of them, none of them reacting to the molten rock that poured over them, all of them screaming their own hunting cries. Some of them fought with each other, tearing each other to pieces, and those nearby joined in for their share of the meat; but for the most part they simply trod forward in search of things and people to destroy.



Reave smiled, relaxed for what could have been the first time in a long time. "Then at least you can be certain that Shiro is at least eating well," he chuckled.

At Lore's news of Silvrendir's traveling, he looked curious. "That seems a bit sudden," he couldn't help but comment. "Did something come up to bring that about? He doesn't seem the traveling type ..."

Especially not alone.

Lin in some ways recongized some of the creatures, but they were nothing like the large gentle trolls or the pesky gnomes from her mother's stories. The reapers were nothing like the shinigamis that her elder brother would speak about in a low voice, and the rest... many she didn't recongize, but it didn't matter they were all disgusting, terrifying, and yet one could not tear their eyes away from them.

What was probably most terrifying to her was that mixture of something familiar and yet not familiar at all. It was no wonder why the word demon to her had conjured images of bat winged people who sometimes were mischeivous instead here conjured creatures that went bump in the night. The sounds was worse though, and she gripped onto Sir Valdemar's robe tightly.

Without hesitation, Sir Valdemar pulled Lin onto his lap and held her tightly, as if she were his own child, though he didn't falter in his reading.

Thousands upon thousands of creatures poured from the fissure in the earth, but suddenly their departure was blurred by a dark shadow, followed by a second, and a third, and a fourth ... until the shadows were too many to be counted, and too thick to see through or around. The air around them was filled with the shadowy creatures, little more than wisps, nearly invisible except that there were so many of them ....

And here Sir Valdemar stopped reading, his hand trembling too much for him to keep his place. The images around them vanished and the cold returned, and he hugged Lin tightly, needing the comfort just as much as she did.

"The Shadowen," he murmured, his voice nearly spent. "They were the worst ... for they used the elves as hosts and possessed them, making them do the most abominable of things ... until they destroyed the body and moved on to another ..."

He took a deep breath. "At least ... we thought they were the worst ... for a long time, these creatures continued to appear ... until the day that Melkor himself appeared, their creator ..."

He wiped at his brow. "The changeling, the creature that was the most blood-thirsty, that continually changed its form," he said quietly, "... that is what many believed Princess Serenity to be ... what they feared that Princess Elnara would be as well ... and that is the reason they were feared and hunted by their own people, for only the changeling could change its form ... until Princess Serenity, only a child and still in the early stages of her growth, killed one and became infected with its blood ... though the blood of her ancestors, the elves, was pure enough to save her from the contamination of its evil, she did gain its shape changing abilities ..."




Reave smiled reassuringly at his granddaughter and grandson-in-law. "Silvrendir is indeed a level-headed boy," he said warmly. "I am certain that he is all right."

He led them up the tower stairs. "What of the others?" he asked curiously. "Storm and Starr and Skye and Jair? Celebor and his family?"

Even though Lin still thought it was silly that anyone would think of that of Serenity or Elnara, she understood now a bit where the fear had come from. Even though the changelings seemed to have less of an ability to think coherently than others.

She tried to extract herself from Sir Valdemar but it didn't seem to be working. In fact it seemed like she had a bit of trouble letting go, so for the moment she gave up, her fingers were not cooperating with her.

"So... is what Elros was referring to one of those?" she decided to try a different tactic with herself and get back on topic.

Then maybe she could think of letting go, honestly her fingers were starting to ache.