The Night was long, and her mother was exhausted.  The rain fell down in pelts over the sodden would-be queen.  A kingdom in wait, and an heir to be born, but only a child waiting her first breath watched over the lonely woman that night. 

Or was it?  From the shadows stepped a man with pale features, and eyes that burned into the soul.  Dark hair whipped around his face as he wordlessly scooped up the weary lady and took her to his home. 

That was the beginnings.  From the moment that M’Hailerva Rose drew breath, her life had been bifurcated along the paths of light and darkness.  The father of her body, Sebastion Argragen, or Shadowheart as he was called, had left her mother without word, without knowledge.  The father of her spirit, Mabon Darkfall began to love her the moment she was born in his own Manour.  He became the father of her soul.  Light from her mother, the princess of light.  Shadow from her father, the heart of shadow. And Darkness from the father who raised her, the Master of Darkfall.  A princess she was, and each of the three offered her their best attributes. 

Life had been tumultuous from an outsider’s point of view, surely.  She had been tossed and split, moving first to Rose Manor and then to Darkfall and back again more times than she could count.  Her parents loved her desperately, and in time, a brother was added to her family.  If one was to be honest, it was a second brother, but her first, so removed in his childhood and so unknown in the capture of his youth and subsequent illness, she hardly counted him at all.  Taliesin was another matter entirely. 

They played together and they hid things.  They dug and ran and celebrated the holidays with their parents.  She did not understand the changes going on around her.  It was only when she played with Tali, that everything seemed simple.  So they played. 

“Come Tali, look!  There is something sticking out of this stone.” 

“Let’s see if we can dig it out.”  He replied, already anxious to join the game. The worked for several minutes to little avail.  At long last their stomach’s got the better of them, and they had to return home.  The years passed marked by the nicks on the stone.  Each time they rounded the corner to Rose Willow, the again attempted to dig out the long needle looking object embedded in the center of the shale. 

“Maybe if you use your power.”  Tali had tempted.  Haile was just discovering that though less than her mother’s, her dominion over light had proved to come in useful at times.  She extended her finger and from it came a blue yellow glow.  The stone seemed to heat and then a huge crack startled them both. 

Before they could touch the coveted treasure, the entire side of the hill began to tremble.  They had to run furiously tripping over falling stones and debris, simply to save their own lives. . .