“Contessa Rantha, why have you come before the Elvar?” his sharp voice, heavy with ancient power, rang out, for all that he spoke softly. I could feel the influence upon his voice, trying to weigh down upon me... and vanishing against my Null.

“Elder Iaeldium,” I replied, and saw just a flash of consternation cross his eyes, and even saw Sunhawk flinch at the casual title. I should have been compelled to address him as “Most Sagacious” or “Enlightened” or “Revered Master” or something, no doubt. My Elvarin was spot-on, however. “Should I be asking the famous Reader of the Weft and Ways what I aim to be speaking of?” Just the right amount of cheekiness to make the Sunhawk smirk even deeper.

Naturally the Reader was above and beyond such minor trivialities. “A great matter for you to bring in the Ruk, Contessa,” he replied neutrally, glancing only slightly at the Avatar representing all the Ruk watching... and making so many Elvar uneasy.

“Such it is, Elder.” Again, the lack of extra honorifics. “As with all good things, there is a tale attached. Would the Reader care... to listen?”

Even his eyes flickered at that humor. He made a gesture, and sat back down, ignoring the disquieted looks of the native Oracles who had not responded in time... but nobody chided him telepathically for some reason.

I hit my Band, and thousands of chimes lit up all around, startling all the Elvar as the supporting illustrations, holos, and data of what was coming began to feed into their local techweb, having no problems whatsoever interfacing with their software.

“Thousands of years ago, the drow of the Underweb captured human slaves and began to experiment upon them in various ways.” Cue the very real images of the slave pens and enslaved of Gloomheart... and their own demented cousins. “One of those experiments unearthed a genome that had been excised from the human Life Spiral millennia before, the Hyn genome.” The relevant genetic information rose up on their stations, displaying the changes to the human genome and locations, and the fact it actually had to be added back in.

“The Hyn are a subspecies of baseline humanity, removed from the genome as unneeded.” Images of hyn, relative sizes, baseline Stats, and dozens of appearances paraded past the suddenly curious Elvar, who found themselves amused despite themselves at the child-like appearance of these undersized aliens.

“Some of the hyn escaped into the wilds of the Gloom over time, survived in the shadows, and in time, they escaped to the Prime through a forgotten Portal to a world back in the Prime.” I displayed images of several Portals, none of them the correct ones, and at least two of which they should be able to look up quickly, just to show them I knew what I was talking about.

“We made contact with these hyn about a generation ago. Most interestingly, these hyn had found themselves upon an Elvar Hearthworld when they came out of Gloom, unsurprising considering the source of the Portals.” I even included the faces and attire of many of the Elvar, and although there was wariness in the faces of many Elvar at this news, my tone indicated no ill feelings.

“Perhaps due to their size differences, the two peoples had no hostility, and cooperation began between them. The world had plenty of space, was not fully settled by the Elvar, and hyn, ah, do not take up so much space.”

Flurries at the humor. I continued on.

“We established contact about a human generation ago. It was quite a surprise to the Empire when we announced it, as the hyn have been extinct for a very long time. The native Elvar were naturally quite suspicious of us, but the Corunsuns are not genocidal, and we were there mostly to work with the hyn, not them.

“However, we noticed a most remarkable thing among those Elvar.”

I stopped and slowly turned around, looking over every single Elvar there, slowly, and they could feel it, my gaze sweeping over them, measuring, counting...

Every single one of them!

My hand flickered, and the holos lit up with the breakdown of their degradation. They hissed to see it presented before them, their blood rising for an alien daring to show this to them, and judge them!

“The Empire naturally closely watches the Elvar it deals with and their inevitable declines. The Elvar are difficult to deal with at the best of times, and as their colors fall, they only get worse.”

“This is the color chart of those Elvar on the world we call the Shire.”

It wasn’t a hard chart to show, because there was no degradation at all.

The elves who knew what this meant surged to their feet in shock.

“Here is the breakdown for those Elvar on the Shire who did not have dealings with the hyn.”

Another chart flowed into existence... and it didn’t look all that much better than their own.

The background data was all there, including genecode verifications that had to come from related groups. Indeed, they’d probably be able to track down the world and lineage from it, but there was nothing to question.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We found the latter because we went looking for the cause of the lack of degradation among the Elvar local to the hyn settlements. It went without saying that knowledge of something that could arrest or halt the degradation of the Elvar would be very important knowledge, indeed.”

I had the entire Court by their pointy ears now.

“We could find no materials, field effects, or disciplines extant that affected the Elvar populations outside those that had dealings with the hyn. Standard Elvar hostility to other species was in place, and data collection was hampered by pointy bits, but we made all efforts not to kill any of them, much to their irritation.”

The reactionists didn’t know whether to get outraged or snicker. They opted to shut up.

“This is the aural breakdown of the hyn dealing with the Elvar.”

Again, datapoints and faces, and interesting expressions on many of the Elvar reviewing the data. No doubt they would think such things unnaturally pure, and perhaps deluded, as nobody in their right mind could live like that in this universe, what with all the horrors and wars and demands for harsh means and survival...

But there they had...

An older Elvar woman rose from among the Oracles of Lishiree, staring at me with emerald eyes that were trying to read things that they simply could not. The Elvar placed a premium on learning divinatory arts, of the belief that being able to see through the vagaries of time allowed for the greatest power to overcome a foe, and so they played timesight games with Mythos creatures and the Warp Gods, and probably the Emperor.

Unfortunately for her, I was both a Null and Beyond Law and Chaos. Fate and Chance and her wonderful timesight couldn’t see a damn thing about me. I existed in the Now, and the past about me was fixed. Nulls were sometimes called Pillars of Reality, as we literally defined a probability line. Trying to alter a timeline about us was impossible, it would simply revert back to normal once the intruding exotemporal influence was expunged, in effect just creating a private pocket timeline for that intruder that would end as soon as they left, affecting nothing in ‘reality’.

They were attempting to choose the best road, and they couldn’t even see the road I was standing on. When they realized that, no doubt they were greatly unnerved.

“You are saying that exposing Elvar to souls of the Light is sufficient to undo the Greying, Contessa Rantha?” the Oracle asked me aloofly, as if such a thing was unthinkable. “Shall we then start spending all our time with innocent children?” she queried me, and her barb sliced through the chamber like arrows of color.

“No, because you would then be bathing your children in the Grey, which would completely undo what you are attempting.” The riposte surged back in amusement at the point, and she looked displeased. “You have not made the obvious deduction, Oracle Semmilae.” Her eyes flickered when I named her. “They must be non-Elvar souls of the Light.”

The well of disbelief rose, carried, and raged about the chamber immediately at such an impossible claim. I sat there as their arrogance, condemnation, pride, and disdain blew this way and that, ignoring everything, smiling more and more widely... which both infuriated them, and discomfited them even more.

One of the warriors had surged to his feet, and had a Spear in his hand and pointing at me in symbolic defiance. “You believe this chance encounter with a minor tribe on a lost world in contact with a slave race of a Fallen constitutes justification for such a foolish recommendation?” he demanded of me, not bothering to give me a name.

“Actually I verified it with the Ruk histories before I came here.” The snarling contempt on the guy armored in fancy carapace armor faltered as he glanced at the Ruk King and Avatar sitting there, watching, and the whole chamber faded into quiet again. “You probably don’t keep very good records of your people from before the Apotheosis, but that is not true for the Ruk. While they have lost much in territory and population, they keep excellent records.

“The Greying of the Elvar is not a new phenomenon. It exists in Ruk records of your people for over one million years.” Their faces all twitched at the news, but they could hardly refute it with a Ruk King standing right there. “The Ruk were naturally aware of the implications of it through the power of their priests, but the effects were quite minor... until the Warp and the creatures of Mythos began acting upon the galaxy.

“The Ruk’s records of contact and dealings with the Elvar over many millennia noted that Clans who avoided contact with them were generally among those showing the greatest degree of degradation. The Ruk and the Elvar had regular and frequent dealings, and the Elvar often served as middlemen and diplomats between other races and the Ruk. In the entire galaxy, your races were the two that influenced one another the most.

“When the Schism of the Ruk occurred, the Warp came upon them, and the races of Mythos assaulted them. The Ruk were attacked from all sides, and there was precious little help coming from any of the races that had thrived beneath them. Even the Elvar were basically restricted to taking up the spear against goblin-kind, and could not help with the Ruk Schism, or their war with the things of Mythos.

“But... that was far, far more than any other race could do. As the Ruk withdrew, the Elvar had no peers of the Light left, and indeed, it could be said that you were instead defined by the Dark and the Grey of those you had contact with...”

I let that trail off as they dwelled uncomfortably upon my words, while I stared down that proud warrior.

“You are an enormously gifted race, once in magic, now in psionics. You are extremely sensitive to the natures of those you deal with. In the wake of the Apotheosis, those dealings always start forth on a platform of xenophobia, distrust, disdain, contempt, and they generally get worse from there. Where once the Elvar were the peacemakers and diplomats of the galaxy, you are now just another faction fighting to survive among the other races, having no place but a terrible history that you cannot move past, because the creator of that history is making all attempts to ensure that you cannot.”

“This is mere conjecture and supposition!” that warrior spoke up again, but his words lacked a certain heart.

I flicked up my mindclaw, and held it over my chest. “This is the color of my soul, Elvar. Will you show me yours?”

I could see it on his skin, the blue and green at the edges, the browning seeping in.

And there was my mindclaw; harsh, unrepentant, delusional gold.

“Together, the Ruk and the Elvar defined what was good and right across the entire galaxy. The withdrawal of the Ruk could be said to be the catalyst for the Fall of the Elvar.”

Strange looks were being sent the way of King Rargyle. Because they could not stay the course that the Ruk could, they had Fallen?

“It is my desire to bring the Inspiration that was the hallmark and province of the Elvar back to the galaxy. I have spoken with the Ruk, and they agreed that the Elvar were once one of the great things that made the galaxy bright in the past... but they do not know the Elvar of today, for you are not the Elvar of the past.”