<--FIC: Prophecy's Twilight (0)-->

["Cilia" <cilia@xxxxx>]

A shadow has fallen across the continent as the Shadow Armies get ready to
pour into the Land of Elves. Yet new arrivals might herald a flicker of hope
for the Alliance, but a power struggle looms on the horizon as Master Mage
Willow seeks to retake what is rightfully hers.
While the armies mass outside the Human city of Larken the new Elfin
Champion Litni Speed aided by her guardian spirit Angel, has to fight her
way through Shirl, the Dark Capital of the Shadow's, in order to retrieve
the Heart of Darkness and to face the man who betrayed her. Thus begins the
third book of the Two Worlds saga and Prophecy's Twilight is upon us.

Book Two of Two Worlds II
PROPHECY'S TWILIGHT
CILIA

Prologue

You can never fully see the future and no matter how hard you try, or how
sure you are, the gods will always do something to disrupt your carefully
laid plans.
- From the History of Sun


Angelica Sun, daughter of Al'x Sun and Joyce Summers, the Lord and Lady Sun
rulers of the Free Land of Sun and General Elisabeth Anne Rosenberg-Summers
stared with apprehension at each other. Willow watched with amusement as the
sisters sized each other up, Angelica's eyes shone with intelligence
uncustomary of a child of seven years.
"Mommy said you wished to speak to me," the girl said from where she
stood at the foot of their bed and Willow tried hard to contain her
laughter. The girl had somehow made her way into their room and when she'd
set off Elisabeth's senses, well the Slayers scream had taken care of waking
her up.
"Yes, but preferably clothed and not so early in the morning,"
Elisabeth said as she covered herself with a sheet.
"It is well past sunrise," the girl stated and Willow had to bury
her head in the pillows.
"And what are you laughing at?" her wife asked as Willow looked up
from the pillows.
"Nothing, it's that." she trailed off into laughter.
"Would you like something to drink?" Elisabeth said as she swung her
feet out of the bed, choosing to ignore her wife's personal joke.
"I have already put the kettle on," the girl answered and the kettle
whistled.
"Lead the way," Elisabeth said as she wrapped a robe around her and
followed her sister towards the room's hearth. After taking her seat and
watching her sister pour the amber tea into their cups, she watched as the
child jumped up into the chair next to her.
"So you are my sister," she said, not being able to think of
anything better to say.
"Guess so," Angelica said as she sipped her tea.
"Are you sure you're not a dwarf or something, cause I could swear."
"I'm six and a half years old," Angelica said with a smile. "But
Theris and Angel were my nannies," she added.
"Figures," Elisabeth muttered into her cup.
"Do you have a baby back home?" Angelica asked.
"Yes how did you know?" Elisabeth asked a little surprised.
"Mommy and Daddy sometimes talk about home," the girl explained.
"What's her name?" she asked before Elisabeth got a chance to answer and she
smiled at her sister's curiosity.
"Her name is June, she's a year and a half now," she answered.
"But who's the daddy if you sleep with Aunt Willow?" Angelica asked
and Elisabeth couldn't help put to blush slightly and the frankness of the
question. She'd had a lot of experience in covering up the fact that there
was no father, but decided against using the tried white lies.
"There was no daddy, it was magic," she answered with a secretive
smile and Angelica's mouth formed into an O.
"So she's a magic baby then?" she exclaimed and another fit of
laughter could be heard from the bed.
"Oh would you stop it already," Elisabeth called in the general
direction of the bed before turning back to her sister. "Yeah I guess you
could call her that."
"June the magic baby, June the magic baby," Willow sing sang from
the bed.
"Excuse me for a moment Angie," Elisabeth said as she placed her cup
on the table between them and stalked over to the bed. Angelica listened to
the action.
"Now you asked for it," her sister exclaimed and she could hear the
distinct sound of one being hit by a pillow and a few more whacks and
giggles later.
"Do you surrender?" her sister asked.
"Never!" Willow exclaimed and she heard the creak of the bed as
Willow dove forwards. "Prepare to be tickled," Willow exclaimed.
"Angie help!" Elisabeth shouted and Angelica shrugged her shoulders
and jumped down from the chair to join the fray.
Ten minutes and two destroyed feather pillows later, the trio sat in on a
pile of feathers and what used to be a bed.
"You didn't have to go all Slayery," Angelica exclaimed with a pout
as she studied the smashed canopy pole and an exhausted Willow.
"You won't tell mom will you?" Elisabeth asked with a deer in the
headlight look before realizing how utterly stupid her question had sounded.
"Nah I like you too much for that," Angelica said with a smile as
Elisabeth ruffled her sister hair.
But that was then...

*~*~*~*

And this is now...
Elisabeth looked back up from her latest kill and the dark tower that housed
the Heart of Darkness was growing smaller in the distance as she covered the
retreat of her soldiers with Cordelia and Joyce flanking her. Both Elisabeth
and her mother wore the black armor that had come to symbolize their powers
and abilities, but once shining black and gleaming they were now scratched
and stained with blood. Cordelia appeared unscathed and only the splattered
bloodstains on her flowing white cloak announced the fact that she had just
taken part in the vicious engagement they were now retreating from.
Between them they had the power to move mountains but all felt very
powerless at this moment in time. A regiment of Shadows went up in flames,
literally, as the avatar of fire swept her hand across the air, but then she
started to shake and twin streams of red blood started to flow from her
nose.
"Mom!" Elisabeth shouted as her eyes pulsed golden and a part of the
column that was giving chase disappeared from existence, this caused the
remaining chasers to reconsider and their commander wisely called a tactical
fallback.
"Mom can you muster up the power for a punch," Elisabeth asked as
she reached her mother who was still racked over in pain. Her mother looked
up and gave her bloodstained smile.
"Thought so," Elisabeth said with a smirk and a hint of pride. "On
three," she said and raised her fist and pointed it towards the dark ground.
"One," she said as her mother raised a leather gloved fist.
"Two," Joyce said as she unclenched and clenched her fist.
"Three," both mother and daughter shouted. Their fists hit the
ground at the same moment only an inch apart and the effect of this was
quickly realized. For when they hit the hard rock on which they stood the
effect was much like throwing a pebble into a pond and the earth rippled
outwards in all direction sending their now retreating chasers stumbling to
the ground and when they got up their resolve to run was that much stronger.
Standing up and dusting themselves off they came face to face with
Cordelia as she lowered herself back to the ground.
"I will tell you one last time Elisabeth, calm down," she said firmly as
her eyes flashed golden in a very real threat. "You are already drawing in
more energy than you should."
"Why won't you shut up, we got away didn't we," Elisabeth exclaimed.
"The rest of the Guardians won't be as understanding as me and
Theris," Cordelia said firmly. "And after what happened to Willow you have
become a liability," she added. Elisabeth started going for her sword, but
stopped took a few deep breaths and started to feel the power drain from her
being as she gathered her thoughts and a million little thinks fell into
place.
"You knew all along didn't you?" she asked calmly and Cordelia
didn't answer. "You knew that Poet would betray us. You knew that Litni
would be captured and that we would never succeed in capturing the Heart.
You knew that Tark would go after Litni only to get wounded and that Tare
would follow him into that hell. You knew that Willow would almost die and
you didn't do anything to prevent it," she said her voices rising with each
statement along with the glow returning to her eyes.
"But Willow didn't die," Cordelia said calmly as she took a step
towards Elisabeth,"and Litni will be fine, she has Angel with her," she took
another step while making smooth delicate gestures with her hands, "also it
is really time for you to calm down and stop thinking about pounding me into
a bloody pulp 'cause you've already lost this fight and before you realize
that this sentence is far too long you will have lost consciousness," she
said and before Elisabeth could respond she slumped to the ground.
"You aren't going to give me trouble are you Joyce?" Cordelia asked
calmly as she bent down to check on the now unconscious general. Joyce gave
a small smile as Cordelia picked the fully armored general up as if she was
a mere child.
"I know better than to go up against a fully trained Ranger Knight,"
Joyce said as she looked back at the tower.
"Our parts in this little drama are almost over you know," Cordelia
said as they started walking towards the south and their friends and family.
"Time for us to exit stage left," Joyce nodded.
"Are you going to be okay, with leaving I mean?" Cordelia asked.
"Cordelia I'm pushing on sixty now. I may not look it but I feel old
and worn. I've been fighting with Al'x and the rest for almost ten years now
and many of us aren't getting any younger you know, sure Ziel was only a
child when all this started and Gymli is a dwarf, but me and Al'x we are
after all only human," she said. "And I just did a Willow didn't I?" she
asked.
"Yep sure did," Cordelia said with a chuckle that quickly died when
she thought about Willow. "Lets hurry up we need to catch up with the rest."
she didn't finish the sentence as a portal opened up in front of them.
"Crap not again," she exclaimed as she held Elisabeth with one hand
and drew her sword with the other.
"Lower your sword Cordelia," a voice, that she couldn't place, but
found hauntingly familiar spoke out as two figures stepped out of the
portal.
"Oh my god." Joyce and Cordelia muttered in unison as they got a
clear view of the two arrivals. One was a tall, sharp featured, man with
graying hair and icy blue eyes that this moment displayed the humor he felt
at the situation. The other was a woman of maybe twenty odd years, with
cherry blond hair that flowed down her back, her soft features bore a
serious look, but what struck most about the woman were her eyes. Big round
eyes, that were strangely mismatched and while the left one was deep blue
the right one was pale green. Both wore black clothing styled in the fashion
of the Realm but with a distinct otherworldly look to them.
"Hello mum," the man said to Joyce in a thickly accented voice.
"William," Joyce whispered, but it was more of question than a
greeting for the man she saw was very different from the 'young' man she'd
known as Spike. While the Avatar of Fire looked a bit unsteady on her feet,
Cordelia however was on top of things.
"This is very unusual you know," she said to the arrivals as she
again picked Elisabeth up into her arms again.
"You know, I knew you'd say that," the woman said as she stepped up
to the Ranger and placed her hand on Elisabeth's forehead and whispered:
"It's alright mom, I've come back just like you told me to," and then looked
up at Cordelia. "I'm June Xare Summers by the way," she greeted them and
that caused Joyce to faint only to be caught by William.

To Be Continued...

Next in Prophecy's Twilight, Chapter 1: Darker with the Day
As Elisabeth thinks back at the disaster that was the battle for the
Heart of Darkness, she must come to terms with the arrival of a young woman
who claims to be her daugther and the fate that has befallen Willow, also
we'll be seeing the departure of some old friends from the scene of history.
Be there!

Cilia's notes read'em they explain a lot, but beware here be spoilers,
Now what the hell happened you might ask. Now this might not come as a big
surprise, but I felt that Two Worlds II wasn't going anywhere so I started
to replot the story and ended up reorganizing it. So "Two Worlds II"
(chapters 1 to 15) is now, called "Reunion" and is Book one of Two Worlds
II. This was done cause I felt that a fresh start might help break the
standstill I found the story in.
I now consider the B/W angst solved and they will be together from now on,
happy or not I won't say. This means that Litni and Poet will be taking
center stage in the romantic aspects of the story with some of the other's
providing some extra warm and fuzzy scenes from time to time. There will be
some focus on the Summers family after the arrival of June Summers and her
arrival has been in the plot since the beginning by the way. I think that's
enough hints for now, I'm looking forward to get writing again and I have
some interesting things planned.
Yours faithful, but sometimes erratic bard,
Cilia