Elven clans and the Empire of Elf as a whole had several hundred Sword-Saints. Most of them were women, with only a dozen or so of them being males. Elven society in general was matriarchal, meaning it was run by their women. Women were the rulers and they produced everything their society needed. Elven women took on guard duty and made up the majority of their army.

Elven women considered their men useless wastrels and treated them as such. Male children were only desired by rich families. Commoner families without a daughter were destined to have their surname die out. The only use men had was to sire children.

Men that were considered productive spent their days in the forests hunting game, or foraging for mushrooms and edible plants. Men that were not considered useful were the ones that fled from society. They spent their days in the wilds, watching the sky, trees or streams, completely captivated by such mundane sights.

Majority of elven men preferred living alone, avoiding contact with others. The main problem of the elven race was that their men lacked any drive in life and enjoyed life’s simple pleasures. They lived in forests, did what they wanted and were content with that. The worst fate for them was to be used as a pawn in a political marriage after which they would be confined to elven cities. A merciful and wealthy wife would allow them to live their lives in a mansion somewhere deep in the forest, assuming the man fulfilled his husbandly duty often enough. The rest weren't that fortunate.

These unlucky individuals tended to die within a century of getting married after siring half a dozen or more descendants. However, there is a type of male elf that is an exception to this rule. An elf with ambition. All elven noble ladies and old matrons tried to raise a man of ambition. One that had the drive to advance, to become strong. They spend countless resources, incomparably more than they do on their daughter-heirs, just to end up with another common male wastrel that could at best be used as a political chip and produce several more male candidates.

Such was the fate of average elven men. However, every once in a while, a clan would get lucky. A boy they raised would show a spark of desire for greatness or a spark of some other obsession that could be channeled into desire to grow stronger. This spark would then be used to fan the flame of ambition which could lead a man to aspire towards greatness. A boy like that was successfully created once every couple of years in a civilization that numbered in the tens of billions.

These elves were known as the Lonely Ones. The Lonely Ones weren’t lonely at all in the social sense. In fact elven women flocked around them. Other elven men treated them the same way they treated everyone else, with little to no interest.

Lonely Ones were called that because elven kind wished for more of them. Each and every one of them felt as the sole hope for their race’s advance, their prosperity. Women that became Lonely ones were rarer than diamonds and happened once in several hundred years. Because of this trend ages ago elven noblewomen took upon themselves the role of supporting and raising their boys into Lonely Ones, while paying little heed for the needs of their daughters.

When Lonely Ones grew up they would become Sword-Saints, True-Namers or at least Archdruids. They could control the winds of the political climate in the Empire of Elf with but a few words. Most of them weren’t powerful enough to really do whatever they wanted. But they were very close and always inched closer to reaching their obsession and fulfilling whatever goals they had. At some point, if a Lonely One advanced enough they would be acclaimed as a World Power by the other nine races.

World Powers were extremely rare. A race that had a living World Power was destined to rise to prominence as long as the World Power was alive. On the other hand they were also destined to have various empires and races come knocking to settle their debts once they are left without the backing of their World Power. The number of these individuals could be counted on one hand in any era and there were often ages without a single World Power alive.

Archibald knew of two living World Powers - the Human Emperor and the Lonely Eagle.

The current Human Emperor rose to prominence several years after Archibald went into his voluntary exile. Despite the fact that Archibald hid in the most remote corner of the country, in a hamlet that not even the regional maps would bother to show, he still managed to catch a couple of rumors about this great human. He was a master of saber arts from the western barbarian plains. Back when Archibald was in his late hundreds he had heard of youth that managed to slay a Flame Hydra while he was still an adolescent.

On the other hand Lonely Eagle was an old monster that loomed in the elven domain for over a millennium. Humans jokingly called him the Lonely Dragon on account of his lustful and capricious nature. It was said that he had hundreds of descendants and that his lovers numbered in the tens of thousands, never sleeping with the same woman twice. Giving rise to rumors that his obsession was lust and dominance over women.

There were stories going around that he had tried to conquer the previous Empress of the Empire of Elf while her current husband was still alive. This caused a huge stir in the Empire of Elf and was the alleged reason for the downfall of the Wolf clan. Archibald was one of the few people that knew for a fact that this rumor was true. Lonely Eagle really did try to woo Sky, but ultimately failed. The woman never said a word, but called the man a bastard more than once while muttering about how he had tried to ruin her.

If one looked at the ten empires of man, they would understand that most of the recent history was influenced by this man wielding a slender mithril long-sword. A long-sword that looked just like the one Wolf now held in his hands...

“Did you get that sword in there?” Archibald’s voice was cold and stiff. His face turned stern and a deep frown appeared on his face.

Wolf could see that something was wrong, but he didn’t know what the problem was. After a moment he nodded in response. There was no point trying to hide it.

“Did you accept that man as your teacher and master?” Archibald’s face became even uglier when he asked this. He dearly hoped such a thing hadn’t come to pass.

Wolf shook his head. “No. I told you everything that happened inside.”

Archibald eased up a bit and curtly nodded.

“Good. That man is a mortal enemy of our family. Make sure to remember that.”

Enemy? I was an enemy of my family in my past life?

Wolf was really confused. “Dad, can you explain this to me?”

Archibald looked at his son with a torn look before shaking his head. “You are too young.”

But, he couldn’t leave it at that. With some hesitation he produced two letters and a package from his Ring of Holding.

“This letter was written for you by your mother back when you were one year old. That was before she got ill and had to sleep a lot. I don’t know what she had written there. Regardless of everything I respected her and you should too.”

“If you can’t think of any other reason to respect her, it’s enough for you to know that she is the one that brought you into this world. She did it at a considerable risk for herself and that is a debt that can never be repaid. This second letter is something I wrote down while waiting for you here. I did it in case we got separated. I want you to know some things once you grow up. If your master had taken you away from me today, I would’ve given these to you. I might as well give them to you now, in case we ever get separated at a later date.”

What’s a later date?

Archibald solemnly handed the letters to his somewhat confused son. Sky’s letter was sealed with a seal made from green wax. An image of a snarling wolf was stamped into it. The letter from his father was sealed with a seal of blood red wax. The only thing on that stamp was a lone man standing on a hill or the top of a mountain. These were the coats of arms of Wolf and Hillman families respectfully.

Archibald hesitated for a moment before handing over the box. After pausing for a moment he gave a deep sigh.

“This box… I don’t know what’s inside, but I can dare to take a guess. I don’t approve of her actions one bit. You probably should only open it after you’re done reading your mother’s letter.”

“Since you already have a couple of them now, I suggest keeping these letters in your Ring of Holding. You should read them only once you’ve become an Archmage and are able to cast spells of the tenth Order. At that point you should be mature enough to know how to act.” By Archibald’s calculations this would be in at least twenty years. Twenty-five was adult enough for what was written in those letters. Probably.

Unlike most other times when Archibald’s held his monologs, Wolf listened wholeheartedly. He had no stray thoughts. His hands trembled when receiving those letters and the carefully wrapped cube-shaped package. These were items prepared for him by his mother before she had died. These were the first true treasures Wolf came to possess in this lifetime.

Once he was finished with this solemn duty Archibald felt as if a huge rock that was weighing down on his shoulders had finally disappeared. Now, even if he wanted to, he could no longer burn Sky’s letter, nor throw away the damn package. He could only hope that she wasn’t too blunt. That the words she had left behind won’t hurt his boy too much.

The two of them stood in silence for a while, each thinking his own thoughts. Finally, Archibald spoke first.

“We should head back now. We are in hostile lands and I won’t feel safe until we get back to our homeland.”

“About that dad…” Wolf started sheepishly. “There’s one more place we should visit. The younger I am the better. At least that’s what I was told. Here’s the map.” As Wolf said those words, he passed along the scroll with a map as well as the description on how to find the other land of inheritance.

Archibald frowned and then was struck dumb when he saw the map. They were supposed to walk through the entire Empire of Elf and then head out into the Beast-lands? Based on the map they would even pass through two danger zones within the Empire of Elf, which were so dangerous even he had heard of them.

This is pure madness! Archibald thought, but still continued reading the text that accompanied the map.

As he read this, Archibald’s eyes went wide. Once he was done examining the notes he visibly relaxed.

If it’s like this then it’s possible. But we’ll have to test it in a safer environment. The big man thought as he furled the scroll and handed it back to Wolf.

“We can do it. If what this scroll says is true, going there shouldn’t be a problem, but we will have to prepare really well for the return trip. Do you really think this is worth the risk?” He looked his only son straight in the eye. He kind of felt strange, asking a boy that hadn’t even turned five about whether or not they should risk their lives. But he could tell that there was something extraordinary about Wolf and the little man needed to learn to make difficult choices, gods know that life was full of those.

Wolf met his father’s gaze and firmly nodded without saying a word. He knew this was a serious matter.

I think so too dammit! But a part of me is screaming that we’re idiots for even thinking of doing this! We are just a boy and a cripple for gods’ sake!

Archibald inwardly cursed and screamed, but on the outside he spoke in a calm voice. “In that case we leave at dawn. Prepare spells for travel. Based on what those notes said, we won’t be facing any danger for a long while.”

Archibald's lessons:

When it comes to esteemed professions in the Empire of Human, those are Alchemists, Artificers, Priests and Spell Formation Masters and many more. People at the peak of these professions are very influential and at the same time terrifying enemies if provoked.