I remember when I ruled these lands, it wasn’t that long ago. A few centuries maybe but we Elves have always lived long lives. I was never unseated, somehow I just woke up one morning and things had changed. My throne was gone and my children had grown, as if I had slept a long, long time. And yet when I would try to speak to them they simply ignored me. Everyone ignored me. My kingdom had becoming something that I wouldn’t have expected, a multi-cultural, multi-racial seat of a great empire. This Empire however was not run by a great emperor as mine had been, no it was run by a council of mages, including my Daughter, Venastra. She had grown strong and beautiful and led this council so masterfully. I remember back to the day when I awoke. I had felt sick to my stomach seeing so many humans and dwarves wandering the city, I couldn’t understand why this great elven city had lowered itself to such a degree. I remember seething with frustration, shouting at my Daughter as she ran the Council. But none there noticed. It wasn’t until I was forced to watch my Daughter fall in love with a Human that I finally started to realize I had truly been lost and forgotten. I watched with anger and fury as he courted her with a strange ritual, one that she found perfectly fascinating. I remember how I longed to strangle him in his sleep. But it wasn’t until the day Their child was born that I started to see how perfectly in love they were. The perfection of this child, somehow a half breed and yet greater than its parents. So beautiful. My Daughter looked into the child’s eyes and it stared back, only to look past her, to me, and it smiled. I cried that day, I hadn’t been noticed in so long, but somehow this child could see me. Venastra spoke softly “There you are, my little Elondis.” I was shocked to find the name she had given him was my own, shocked and moved. What was it about this child that had softened my cold and angry heart. As young Elondis grew he learned to speak, and could even hear me, of course his mother and father thought me little more than an imaginary friend much to little Elondis’ frustration. His mother taught him the ways of magic, and his father the way of the smith. But all too soon he told me. “Grandfather I see you fading from my sight, I fear as I get older I will be unable to see you.” I placed my ethereal hand on his shoulder as best I could and spoke firmly “You do not need me my boy, you have made me so happy, I am glad I lingered here long enough to see you grow to this age but now I think its time for me to move on.” The boy tried to hug me but of course passed through, he shouted up at me, “ I will never forget you!” I nodded and chose this moment to fade into whatever lay beyond. It was my time to rest now that my anger and prejudice has been sapped by this boy and I am finally ready to move on
