Born in the Light

Lady Fhenok steps in to the seven rings of Radiants, her children. She is clad in a sheer white gown that flows around her body. She cradles her Elder stone, a gem glowing like a mini sun. She steps onto the central dais as her bronze-skinned Elderkin start to sing the Song of New Dawn. The Radiant to her right on the closest ring starts the song and passes the haunted melody to the next one as their golden wings and hair start glowing. The song continues being passed from Radiant until each of them sings and glows and at the crescendo Fhenok, the Elder Lady of Air and Light holds up her stone that starts to resonate with the multi-layered song of her children. 

The light they produce dances over them, mingled becomes one and swirl around Lady Fhenok and is drawn into her stone. The stone explodes into a rainbow aurora with the rainbow light drawing together to form a ball. The ball floats down into Fhenok’s arms solidifying as it does. The newborn Radiant unwraps its wings and looks up into Fhenok’s beautiful brown face, her white gold hair flowing from head. 

“Welcome to existence, Largen, welcome to the Realm of Air and Light.” The gathered Radiants let out a cheer as they welcome their brother to their ranks.

***

Largen soars through his great lady’s realm. His white and gold ranger uniform tight but conformable. He loves how the wind feel flowing over his gold wings and that his great lady trust him with the responsibility to guard this outer sector of her realm. Largen scans the endless sky and the various floating landmasses of his sector hovering within it. Each of them float freely but some are drawn together and orbit each other water from one cascading down into another before moving below it to receive a waterfall to refill its basin. Each of the larger landmasses has a distinct environment, flora, and fauna. 

Largen heard a screech mixed with a clap of thunder behind him and turn around to see a majestic sight. Flying by in the distance is an enormous white and blue-feathered thunderhawk, it is Airdon, the Sky King, Lady Fhenok’s favorite pet. The shadow of the beast dwarfs the small island it soars over. Largen is awe as the Sky King banks to fly in the opposite direction of Largen. 

The distortion wave washes over him and Largen spins around, searching, searching, searching. There. Largen uses his Great Lady’s blessing to shift the light around him to vanish from sight. He angled himself toward the distortion and flew toward it. 

***

Largen glides silently, unseen to roost on a large branch of a Century Tree on the air island of Summer Glendoor. He watches as a group of three human magic users wearing dark red robes appears to be searching for something, based on their movements. He seen this behavior before. The question is are these mere lookie-loos that will be satisfied with unimportant trinkets or are the raider come to plunder the realm? A fourth person emerges from the green portal, it's the product of crude human magic at odds with the sublime beauty of the Elder Magic that birthed this dominion. Crystals start to form at the border of the portal as they always do, a reaction to the conflicting energies.

Largen directs his attention to the fourth human, who is clad in sigil-etched dark red armor. One of the local fauna, a graceful, golden-furred, spring hopper, moves into the clearing and freezes a site of these invaders. The armored figures draws out something from behind him. 

A short spear! Between one step to the next, the spear strikes the spring hopper in the side and the beast's essence rips free of its body and is absorbed into the sigil on the human’s armor. Then the armored human looks directly at him and smiles. Largen checks to verify that his bent light sheath is still around him. It is. The human points towards him and the three robed figures and their eyes start to glow red. 

“You have defiled the realm of Lady Fhenok, Elder of Air and Light. Leave now or suffer the consequences.” Largen switches bent light to a suit of glowing armor of light. He closes his fist on a ball of light causing a floating blade to hover from one side and a hilt from the other side. He points the blade of light toward the invaders.

“Figment of an Elder’s imagination, I hoped one of you’d arrive. Otherwise this incursion would have been a failure. Kill him.” Green fire snaps into existence between hands of his acolytes that launch at him. Largen dodges and counters the clumsy attacks letting one fireball sail past him and slicing through the other two. But the distraction almost works as the armored human’s short spear nearly impales him bursting through the dissipating flames. The blade glance off his armor and doesn’t slam into his chest only because he dodges. But even that glance knocks him off his perch. Turning his fall into a swoop, Larsen, whips over the ground by inches. His strike cleaves through the first of the acolytes, before he kicks the corpse into nearby acolyte, a female. With a might sweep of his Largen vaults backwards into the air to get clear of the attackers. He reorients himself, scanning below him and is horrified to see the last of the dead acolyte flows into the armored human. 

“Transform!” The armored human’s sigil flare and the two remaining acolytes start screaming. Bones break, skin rips and the robes shred. The monsters leap into the on wings made of their own flesh. They roar from mouths now filled with sharp teeth.  Largen drops to swoop away from the monsters. 

“Is this how you serve your master figment?” He hears the armored human yell. Largen knows the taunt is supposed to prick his pride, to goad him, but he’s been a ranger for over a century of the human year. He allows armor to glow brighter making him a ball of light as he dives over the edge of the landmass followed closely by the transformed humans. 

Largen watches as the monsters fly under him. He ducked into small patch of shadows among the rocky stalactites. His armor is gone, as is his blade. He again bends light around him to help the shadows to their work. He hears the monsters screeching and flapping near him, searching for him. Good. They are behaving like predators instead of reasoned beings, he can work with that. The threat is the armored human. He’s a life stealer, a twister and claimed to be waiting for one of his kind to appear. That could be a bluff, but if it isn’t… 

Largen silently drops from roost still cloaked from normal sight. His wings are tight against him making him an invisible javelin points away from the landmass. He continues to build up speed until seconds later he banks and then uses this increased speed to suddenly climb spiraling high in the sky over Summer Glendoor. He locks onto the invaders far below. He unveils fully armored in light as he dives towards the armored human. He flares like a star as he swoops. 

“So the figment finally shows spine. Come embrace your death.” The armored Largen tries strike only to blindside by the flying monsters. They knock him down and pin him to the ground. The armored Largen struggles in vain as the armored human stride up to him.

“Too easy, Figment. Your false life energy will be put to good use.” The glowing short spear is driven down to pierce the Largen’s armor. Largen’s armor shatters and flying monsters’ heads fall from their necks, their blood sprays into the armored human’s face.

“What?” The lives of the monsters start flow into the armored human’s sigils when the end of the short spear slams through the armored human’s neck from behind. Largen shimmers into existence as his bent light sheath falls. His essence is dim as his desperate gambit concludes. Creating and sustaining his light armor, piloting it remotely while bending light around himself so he could swoop down, retrieve the short spear used to kill the spring hopper, get to position to kill the flying monsters while his empty light armor kept the invaders' attention and finally get behind the armored human to strike. The armored human slumps down dead as Largen falls to his knees, his wings limp his breathing shallow.

“Rise my child. Your light shall not be eclipsed this day.“ Largen feels a growing warmth of his great lady’s presence. Fhenok gently lifts his face and kisses him on the forehead. He feels the exhaustion wash away and feels his essence restored.

“How?”

“My child you used my blessing to best these…humans. That alerted me to situation. I felt your light dimming. Now, rise my child. Return to the Palace of the First Light, enjoy fellowship and song with your brothers and sisters, another can handle you ranging for now.”

“Thank you, mother. I'd like that.” Lady Fhenok, Elder of Air and Light wraps her wings around him and they vanish in a pillar of rainbow flames while the bodies of invaders are burnt to ash that blows away on the breeze.