"Mae," Auric said, testing the name. It was so foreign to him. It had spice, nothing like the names he knew. It was so straight forward, to the point.

  "You seem confused male," Mae said, her eyes flashing with amusement.

  "Your name is alien to me," He paused, looking for the right words. When they didn't come, he asked her "Where are you from?"

  "I think you are really asking when I am from, not where, male," She said, turning away from him. She lifted her hand, pointing towards a door in the side of the keep. "Come, I will show you this place, and perhaps it will answer your questions."

  Entering, the first thing Auric noticed was the beautiful tapestries on the wall. They were vibrant and full of life, even with the holes eaten into them by moths and other insects over the years. The rugs that were lain shod much more wear, and were threadbare. The torches helped illuminate this in a eerie manner, flickering menacingly over the old rugs, accentuating the wild threads like the limbs of a long dead spider. Turning a corner and walking down an almost identical hall they entered a room with a throne on a raised platform. The throne was a tall backed piece of masterful work. The cushion was a velvet dyed a cranberry red, so dark it was almost purple. The gold inlay on the back ran up the sides of the chair to a the focal point that would sit above the head of anyone, except maybe a Giant. That is where the gold turned into the shape of a golden eye. It was unnerving to look directly into the eye, and when Auric stared for longer than a few seconds, he felt like he was being judged.

  "This is the throne for the one the All-Mother calls her champion. The prophecy has foretold that a champion would arrive in this kingdom to save the All-Mother's children. I believe she means this to be you, Paladin." Mae graciously bowed to Auric. "I've waited nearly one thousand years for you to come, chosen, preparing to aide you however I can."

  A thousand years? By the All-Mother if that was true, she'd be an Elder Vampire. He would have stood no chance against her, holy power or no. He stood here, alive at her good graces alone. He felt sweat drip down the back of his neck as his nerves spiked once more.

Walking over to the tapestry hanging on the wall, Mae pointed to small pieces of artwork on them. One depicted a scene of a massacre, with bodies showing multiple arrows protruding from them, and a man in silver armor walking through the scene. The next, it showed him holding a small brown bundle, running into a forest. The scenes to follow showed the everything that had occurred right up until this very moment. Following after those was the man standing over the corpse of a man in rich clothing, sword dripping blood, then sitting on a throne, with people and monsters in various states of worship. The last panel showed the man, resting with his sword on his chest, and the people and monsters mourning his loss. He forgot his nerves and stumbled towards the art.

  Auric stammered as he touched the tapestry. He couldn't make himself speak. He was dumbfounded. A prophecy, about him? He was a half-elf, a child that was looked down upon, a half-blood. He'd done a good dead in saving the child, but to be a king? Or at least play the part of a king, that was unthinkable to him.

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  Observing him, Mae cracked a small smile. "Let me show you something else," She ushered him to a room behind the throne. Inside was a small bedroom, with a lush 4 post bed and a bassinet. Realizing that he hadn't slept since entering the woods, Auric's exhaustion returned with a vengeance. His exhausted brain pulled him to the bed, but realizing her was still holding the infant, he placed the boy in the bassinet, and barely got his armor off before collapsing into the bed. Mae, perpetually amused it seemed, gave him a little wave as his eyes closed heavily.

Auric awoke, amazingly refreshed, as if he'd slept a whole week. Sitting up, he noticed that the baby wasn't in his bassinet. Panic setting in Auric threw off his blankets, giving no heed that he was nearly nude, and rushed into the throne room. There he found Mae holding the baby, with a glass bottle of white fluid, cooing at the baby. She turned to look at him as he scrambled into the room, eyebrows lifting at his nakedness.

  "Good morning, male," She said sardonically.

  "Good morning, Mae," Auric said, attempting to regain some of his dignity in front of the beautiful, terrifying woman. Seeing that the baby was fine, Auric's tense muscles relaxed, and he coughed, looking abashed. "Excuse me, I seem to have forgotten my clothing."

  "Indeed you have," This woman seemed to have no end to the amusement she got from watching him flounder. Surprisingly, he found himself feeling excited at the thought that he might be in her position some day, making slightly snide remarks and mocking her for her mistakes. Some king he would make. Tyrants did things like that.

  A few moments later, Auric returned, clothed. He watched Mae finish feeding the child, burp him, and walk him back to the bassinet to sleep. His green eyelids were drooping heavily when she laid him down, and he was out immediately.

  "You have a way with him," Auric stated as neutrally as he could. He'd always liked seeing women take care of small children. It made him think that he'd like his own someday, and he would inevitably as was the Goddess's decree. The All-Mother preached that all virile men must breed, and to be a Paladin was to be of the most virile stock. It was his solemn duty to assist in the growth of the population, as male fertility had been on the decline since the Great Breaking. Unfortunately for Auric, half-breeds were in low demand, thus no children for him.

  "He is small yet, and seeks the warmth of a mother," she said softly, stepping back from the child. "I'm not a good replacement, but I'll have to do for now, until you can bring the tribes together perhaps."

  "Bring the tribes together?" Auric asked.

  "Yes, I felt the All-Mother touch you last night. I know that you were given the task. This puzzles you for some reason?"

  "I am a half-breed," Auric cringed, hating saying it aloud. "I'll not uniting anyone, no one will follow me."

  Mae's laughter trickled past his ear. She wasn't full belly laughing like last night, but it felt even more hollow. "They will follow, male," She said, eye's flashing dangerously. "You and I will make them follow."