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[Knightfall]

Jeddar walked careful along the narrow road leading along the shore of Lake Silverleaf. The wilderness around him was, in fact, a carefully cultivated garden of nature. To a human it would have appeared to be nothing more than clear-cut stone path through a wild vale of silver and gold. To a forest elf visiting the Kingdom of the Silver Leaves it would feel overtly tame.

Jeddar would miss the tranquil beauty of his homeland, its groves of janbrook trees and the calm waters of Lake Silverleaf. He’d miss his father but was torn about his feelings towards the Queen Consort, Anithiia. She was considered his mother in the Silver Court, but the woman had nothing but contempt for the young man.

He was the adopted son of Menkhar Silversun, High One of the Kingdom of the Silver Leaves and was barely accepted in silver elf society and then only by those not of noble birth. The nobles of the Silver Court resented his human blood but none more then his own mother. She hated him; Jeddar was sure of it. She showed him nothing but coldness and spite.

Menkhar had found Jeddar as a babe crying and alone in the wilderness. The elven monarch had saved him and brought Jeddar into his own house. Many had argued against it. Anithiia had thrown a fit, a rare tantrum for an elf. Menkhar had refused to budge, and Jeddar had grown up under the watchful eye of his mother’s nursemaid, Corinesa.

Jeddar stopped to sit on one of the stone benches near the shore of Lake Silverleaf. The sun made the waters sparkle in a cascade of blue, green, and silver. A tear inched its way down his cheek at the thought of the elven woman who’d been more like a mother to him than Anithiia ever had been.

Corinesa had been born barren and even with the help of magic hadn’t been able to bare children. She had been a noble woman, but her inability to have children had meant she’d grown old before her time. No elf man would have her, and she was reduced to becoming the handmaiden and nursemaid of the Queen Consort.

Jeddar picked up a flat stone skipping it into the water of the lake. He had been raised as a Silversun, but he felt like the son of a handmaiden. Corinesa was why he hoped for the future. She had been devastated when he told her he was leaving to join the Bardic College of Thallin. Yet, she had understood more than anyone his passion for music, and his need to learn more than just elven music.

“You will be the greatest bard in the world,” she had said to him.

“I will make you proud, Corin.” Jeddar had spoken the words then and now. “I promise.”

Jeddar pulled his gaze away from the lake and back onto the road to the Elven City of Silverdawn; there, he would petition the druids of the Silver Gate to allow him passage to the East.

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