~Prologue~

INCANTEVOLE

    This is how all things began for our heros, heroines, villains, and beasts.  Before any of what has happened, happened there was a time of happiness and prosperity.  Long ago in the land of Incantevole there was once a good king named Adan.  Whom ruled fairly, and all of the people of every nation loved him.  He ruled Aragathia with his wife Queen Riana.    She was as kind as she was beautiful, her long dark hair, green eyes, and fair skin made her breathtakingly beautiful.  Being an Elf she was known for her astounding beauty; never to be found among their race for another 10,000 years.  She would go to heal the peasants and learn more healing methods from the fairies often.
    But though an Elf she was dying of an incurable disease.  The king consulted all the best physicians in Incantevole, but all of them told him the same answer.  Nothing could save her life, but there was an island that the Ceridwens told him of.  Far across the Western Sea of Lost Memories is the Island of Nestad.  The journey across the sea was dangerous itself, but just before the island was a dense mist.  All things imagined both terrible and wonderful come to life inside.  The worst news for Adan was, all whom journey so far across the Sea never return.
    Time was short, and the queen wasn't getting better.  With a heavy heart he prepared a ship, and maned it with 100 sailors that was to return when Riana left the ship through the mists.  Her most trusted servant was to go with her to the island and help her.  After a week of preparation the ship was ready to sail.  The King and Queen parted with such sad goodbyes that all Incantevole wept on their behalf.
    "I'll be waiting for you my love." were Riana's final words before she was taken below deck.
    Adan mourned for his beloved queen whom he wouldn't see until the end of his days.  He lay in bed always until he mourned himself sick, and before he could die of heartbreak, was sent across the sea to Riana.  His son who was only 4 years old at the time had to have a Regent to rule him.  The Regent's was named Felix.  He rejoiced when his brother the king fell ill, and Riana was sent away.  He had wanted the throne so badly for so long that his heart and mind where poisoned with envy, and he was willing to kill the little Prince for it.  His advisor, Lady Andromeda, thought of another plan.  They would poison him slowly, and get him sick like his father and mother.
    The nurse of the prince was outside the chamber when this was said, and hurried back to the nursery.  The Prince was so young that the nurse was already like a mother to him.  It would be easy to say that she was.  But they would have to run far, far away where no one could ever find them.  She packed most of his clothes and when they went for their daily carriage ride they escaped into the Tawarthion Forest.  Deeper and deeper they traveled into the forest until they stopped and found an abandoned shack.  They called it home from then on.
    Meanwhile back in Aragathia Felix and Andromeda were furious.  They sent out search parties to try and find them, but none would ever travel as far as the nurse did into the Forest.  Now there was a ransom for her to be found alive.  Brave knights and solders tried and failed, some were even killed in the attempt.
    As the years went past the people forgot about the Prince and the nurse.  Felix was appointed King 5 years after the prince's disappearance.  His advisor became his sorceress; some believed even his lover. The kingdom grew apart.  The Fairies disappeared to their tree, most of the Elves escaped Felix in Varonwë, some of the Dragons served him but most threatened him, the Merpeople vanished totally without a trace, and the few other creatures hid in fear of Felix's wrath.
    The Prince was growing up fast and when he was 22 left his "mother" to find a wife.  He was so changed after his eighteen years in Tawarthion that he wasn't recognized by anyone.  He joined the King's guard and served him faithfully never knowing his true past.  He married, and had a son named Xander Bolivar.  He wanted his son to be just like him, but Xadner's mother was one of the very few left in Incantevole who remembered the past days, and taught him of Elves, Fairies, and the time before.
    "It is said" starts Xander's mother, "that one day a King from the line of Adan will rise from the ashes of what is left and rule again."
    These were the words she told him 2 months before she died, and after Xander joined King Felix's ranks his father was killed in the line of duty.  He earned Felix's trust and rose through the ranks until he was a Captain. Though all this happened he never forgot what his mother told him all those years ago.