The elf with silvery skin and vibrant purple eyes looked either mocking or menacing when he smiled; perhaps both. His white hair was combed back and held in place by an unseen mechanism, such that it resembled the plume on a soldier’s helmet, turned sideways.

  Behind the elf a great window, the size of a fortress wall, peered out into a black sky dotted with brilliant stars. Among the stars but much closer, a great frozen rock bathed in white firelight traversed the heavens, all the while seemingly suspended in what appeared to be a cloud of glittery dust.

  A tail of the same glittery, flashing sparkles stretched out far behind this luminous chunk of a cosmic mountainside. Offset and slightly behind the comet twinkled another light; red and yellow, then green and red again – continuously.

  In front of the elf stood an assembly of many other, younger elves. Silver elves wearing pearl-colored robes and waiting attentively for their instructor with the vibrant purple eyes to speak.

  He smiled wider, and looked even more sinister in the process. Finally he spoke:

  “The Herald, servant of the messenger god Kepplan begins its journey across the night sky on or around the two-hundred seventy-fifth day of the old ten-month calendar. It is the messenger of the messenger that reaches forward and backwards through time to the prophets of before, now, and hereafter.”

  “This time of its coming is the ninth month of the twelve-month calendar; the month of harvests and fulfillment named Velmura. Ever brighter the Herald grows into the passing of the next month, called Chronai for the heavenly lord of time, cycles, and death.”

  “This day is reckoned by many to be the fourth day of the ninth month of year 1,824 in the Second age of Kings – a date that numerologically equals 30, which of course reduces to 3 – a number significant to Thrombas, the planet or deity ruling Chronai and lord of time, cycles, death, and the afterlife among other things.”

  “The Herald you see out the window behind me is now visible to those in the realms below. In the northern realms particularly, this coming happens when our dear mother moon has just awoken from her new phase – the start of a new cycle - and the daughter moon is new, or dark in the sky – a cycle at the nexus of its end and beginning.”

  “With the Herald at this time comes also another body, called variously the Prince, the Prisoner, or the Priest, whose role is to announce with the Herald the passing of another cycle – one-thousand years since the second object was last seen in the sky with the Herald.”

  “The omen of this companion of the messenger is to those who count ages in the old manner simply a marker that another era has passed and a new one begins. To others it is the Prince with no inheritance who wanders the heavens in search of his fortune.”

  “To those with understanding this Prince is none other than K’straeyukus from that epic tale of treachery and tragedy, leaving his father’s palace as a signal to the armies of the king’s enemies, camped just beyond the near ridge but unbeknownst to all but the Prince. K’straeyukus had not reached the first village from the castle before runners bearing news of the king’s fall passed him on the road into that village.”

  “Some take this to mean the celestial Prince with the Herald ushers the end of fall and the onset of winter. Strange how wisdom becomes quaint and useless through the dilution of time and ignorance.”

  “Like K’straeyukus our Prince in the sky is the signal to the metaphorical armies of darkness – which can often enough become manifest in the bones and steel of actual armies. It is the catalyst that causes the shapeless horror to fall into a deep slumber. When the faceless evil sleeps it dreams darkness, which seeps into all the realms to manifest as evil and misfortune. Its nightmares are as the hosts of a wicked force bent on mayhem and chaos.”

  “This darkness will last three-hundred and thirty-six rotations. That number also reduces to three using standard numerology; 3+3+6=.12 and 1+2=3.”

  “Again the number of the lord of cycles and death.”

  “Of further numerological interest, is the number of the present month and the number of days in the daughter moon’s cycle, which are each nine. Add these together and reduce: 9+9=18, 1+8=9 - and you have nine yet again; the number of cycles completing and of many other spiritual profundities.”

  “Remembering the date and the length of the dark age coming to both be three when reduced using numerology, let us consider also the cycle of the mother moon, thirty days or 3+0=3. Hence we have a trio of threes, which of course added together become nine yet again.

  “Adding this nine to the other two nines from the daughter’s cycle and the current date continues to produce nine; 9+9+9=27, 2+7=9.”

  “Adding this final nine to the three we get from today’s date gives us twelve – itself a profound number of causality, fate, and divine order, but also reducing to three; 12 = 1+2=3. This of course returns us to the number of Thrombas the ruler over time, cycles, very ancient things, death and the spirit realm. “

  “I expect you all understand the metaphysics I have laid out.” said the teacher.

  “Guilamish.” he called one student in particular down. “What is the significance of what has been said?”

  The elf Guilamish cleared his throat. “The cycle of darkness begins with the coming of the Herald’s companion, duly influenced by the astrological influences of the signs in the heavens – through the lens of their sacred months – and the current phases of the moons?”

  “Are you answering a question or asking one?” the teacher challenged.

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  “I am answering.” the student straightened his back slightly.

  “Good. In addition to this we have the season, fall nearing its last phase and winter coming.” the teacher added. “A rather poetic addition to the framework already laid can we not agree?”

  “Yes, Keeper.” the younger elves said in unison.

  “It is my obligation to teach you of such things to aid in your observations and the chronicling of what you see.” the Keeper continued. “However, I warn you – be cautious and do not look directly into the dark currents for very long. At no time are you to seek the source of these emanations.”

  “Yes, Keeper.” the students replied.

  “Who can tell me why?” asked the Keeper. “Serul.”

  The female Serul, startled to hear he name called, composed herself and said: “It is because of the psychic sensitivity of our kind. Too much exposure to such evil can harm or corrupt us.”

  “Very good.” the teacher nodded. “Understand this is no cautionary fable for children. Who looks or lingers too long on such darkness brings the same foulness here, into our city, to threaten us all. Such carelessness would be met with the severest repercussions.”

  The elf with the purple eyes smiled, then chuckled under his breath.

  “What have I not mentioned about this particular cycle of the Prince?” The Keeper folded his hands behind his back. “Diamanstisus.”

  The elf named Diamanstisus was visibly shaken. He stammered “The…I mean…”

  The young elf stopped, cleared his throat, and began once more. “You did not mention the Crown of Heaven.”

  “Excellent.” The teacher smiled. “Tell us about that.”

  Diamanstisus’s eyes widened. He looked to his left, then right, perhaps hoping to be rescued by one of his peers.

  The other elves remained silent, their eyes fixed forward.

  “The Crown of Heaven.” began the flustered student. “Is a cluster of stars or other celestial lights very far away, perhaps very ancient. Once every thirty-six-thousand years our sun aligns perfectly with this… place… at the time of the Herald’s passing.”

  “What is the significance of thirty-six-thousand?” the Keeper pressed.

  “It corresponds to the three-hundred-sixty days of the year, somewhat.” the student replied nervously. “It reduces to nine as well.”

  “Again we have the nine of cycles and completion.” the Keeper pointed out. “It’s all rather beautifully laid out. Combining all four occurrences of the number nine from this analysis generates thirty-six, which is of course nine again. Consider the three, or numerological sum of today’s date, added to the sum of four nines and we have the three of Thrombas – 36+3=39 or 3+9=12 so 1+2=3.”

  “However we approach the situation we find the signature of Thrombas in the three or the nine which means we find affirmation of a cycle native to the fabric of reality that is influenced by the same force governing time, death, and decay.”

  “This is well understood. What may be missed by those less astute in esoteric lore is the relevance of the fourth nine. This fourth occurrence of the number nine is the direct result of the thirty-six-thousand year cycle of the Crown of Heaven aligning with the sun – that luminary who is at the heart of timekeeping as it dictates the year and its seasons.”

  The teacher looked his students over from the left of the room to the right before continuing.

  “Nine emanates the spirit of cycles.”

  “Two nines tells of a cycle repeating in both the material realm and the world of spirit.”

  “Thrice nine is cosmological movement and permutation, the epitome expression of cyclic grandeur.” the teacher paused. “Who can tell us what the fourth nine signifies? Braeldin.”

  The elf Braeldin did not falter, for she had hoped to be chosen. “The fourth nine indicates something beyond a usual re-beginning of a cycle. It foretells of unpredictable or repetitive cyclic motion, since four is a multiple of the eight, the lesser number of fulfillment not linked to cyclic movement per se.”

  “Outstanding!” the teacher commended his young pupil. “Also the reason I chose you last my diligent pupil, for this is the most pertinent of the information to be considered with regards to the cycle now at hand.”

  The teacher stood, hands outstretched towards the students gathered, his smile gone. Then he said:

  “The manuals left to us by the Watchers, on which we rely for knowledge and understanding of many profound mysteries, speak of these alignments of the sun and the Crown of Heaven and the Herald with the Prince. It is a wondrous time for many worlds, who have no monstrous dreamer; a time when the laws and bounds of time are not so fixed and sorrow from the past might be mended by those with the knowledge.”

  “The alignment means something else for the realms over which we keep watch, whereupon we know there is a monster who dreams and whose dreams become the darkness of nearly four centuries. Here the unpredictable deviation of the force that is time can mean chaos, terror re-visited, or ill fortune one cannot escape or evade.”

  “Time is a fundamental part of the structure of reality, which you and I experience as marching forever forward, unstoppable, endlessly moving the multiverse and all who dwell within it towards a future that is eternally just beyond grasp. This constancy, it turns out, is not so inexorable after all.”

  “During the time when the Herald and Prince are visible in the night sky, when the cycle brings about the great alignment previously mentioned, time may be subject to alteration and – of greater concern – may spontaneously or at least for reasons neither we nor the Watchers before us may comprehend alter itself and its nature.”

  “However unlikely, during this period time may loop and repeat. It may reverse or stand still or the timeline may be broken, to the extent that individuals or groups may find themselves living in past or future moments. In fact this may already be happening without our knowledge.”

  The students shifted uncomfortably at this. “What can be done?” asked Diamanstisus.

  The teacher shrugged. “Perhaps nothing. Or possibly magic can be used to safeguard our small enclave. It may not matter, for it is most likely such events will not come to pass. I only mention the possibility to be thorough and to suggest we all remain watchful and diligent.”

  The students shifted uncomfortably at this. “What can be done?” asked Diamanstisus.

  The teacher shrugged, then smiled very broadly. “Only time will tell.”