I am the last of my kind. For an eternity I have wandered in this darkness, alone. Time coils around me, shaping the future into multicoloured funnels that merge into each other and pull apart from one another. I see everything that might be and thus I help choose what will be.

Sometimes, other beings find their way into my reality, through dreams. It is not an easy journey, no matter how many times it is made. So many lose themselves in nightmares, crushed by the darkness of their own minds.

My destiny is to help them find theirs. I can only help those who come to me; if I leave this place, my magick is weakened.

Time does not travel in a straight line; it curls around itself. People get caught up in its coils, their destinies are pulled together and this is how stories form.

My story began when the moon came to walk the earth.

When the world was young, Nature had many children. Some possessed innocence, such as the Satyrs and Fauns. Some possessed wisdom, such as the Dwarves and Giants. My race was the wisest of Nature’s children and we used our powers to advise her.

However, the ability to see all possible futures did not make us omnipotent. Sometimes the future can be manipulated with a nudge in the right direction, but a nudge is not always enough. Sometimes one future is stronger than others. Sometimes all possible futures are undesirable.

Sometimes our attempt to prevent a disastrous future is the event which causes that future to become reality.

For millions of years, all of Nature’s children lived in peace and harmony. The visions of evil started when an alien came to earth. We saw how the world would change if we did not do something to stop it. The concept of evil was unfamiliar to us, but we could see that it was undesirable.

It seemed that the creation of this thing called evil lay in the alien who had recently arrived on earth. It called itself Moon. The shape it assumed was similar to some of Nature’s children – two legs, two arms and a head, but it lacked the ability to use Nature’s magick and seemed to possess neither innocence nor wisdom. In the futures that we saw, beings that looked like Moon introduced concepts such as Violence and Destruction to Nature’s paradise.

We advised Nature to banish this thing from the earth before what we had seen could become a reality.

The alien did as Nature asked and left the earth to watch from the sky, leaving behind a gift to all of Nature’s children - the ability to dream. The sight of it comforted the innocent at night, but we did not like the way it reminded us of what we had envisioned. We were suspicious of the gift that it had left behind; we, who were used to seeing the truth, or possible truths, did not like the way that our minds lied to us during our sleep. It confused us and weakened our power until we were unable to distinguish between dreams, visions and reality. This is why we did not realise what was happening until it was too late.

When the moon gave all beings the power to dream, Nature’s children began to recreate the past in their dreams. They remembered the form that the moon had first taken when it walked among them.

No one realised that the dreams were infused with the moon’s own magick. As soon as they were dreamed of, they appeared on the surface of the world. Just one or two at first, but more were dreamed up, and soon they were forming tribes and hierarchies and waging war on each other. Innocent beings were caught up in the fighting, and the nightmares of those who survived brought more of these demons into being.

It was just as we had foreseen. Humans had turned our peaceful world into hell.

If we had never advised Nature to banish the moon, would it have happened? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It is too late to change the past. I realised long ago that the only way to keep evil from consuming the world is to change the future.

These humans had dreams of their own. Unlike Nature’s children, humans have the power of imagination. This power allows them to see the future to some extent – they can guess what will happen based on past experiences. It also allowed them to dream about things that did not previously exist.

They dreamed about Dragons, Ogres, Demons, Trolls and Drow. These were beings of magick, like Nature’s children, but they used the magick for evil.

Humans did not only dream creatures of evil into being. They also invented slavery and suffering. The innocent races were enslaved for pleasure. Dwarves and Giants were hunted almost to extinction; the few that remain in this world are in hiding. My race was enslaved for our knowledge of the future. The leaders of every human tribe wanted an advantage over the others. If they could have warning of the future before it happened, they could adapt their battle plans and kill more people from the enemy tribes.

Soon I was the last free Elf on Nature’s earth. I hid from the warring humans, using my limited powers to predict when I was in danger of being found. By this time I could only see the future in dreams, and the visions I saw had to be interpreted. Several times, a human hunting party almost found me, and if I had not heard them coming, I would not have escaped in time.

For a while, I had no plan other than to keep hiding. For a thousand years I fled from place to place until I was almost forgotten by humankind. They were busy using nature’s resources to build civilisations.

I believed humans to be evil beings; incapable of good, like the evil creatures they had called into existence trough their dreams. I should not have judged an entire race in this way, I should have realised that I hadn’t come into contact with them since their primitive days. A race of beings that only live for a few decades can change a lot in a thousand years. It took an innocent to teach me, the wisest of beings, this simple truth.

My visions did not warn me that she was coming. Or maybe I did not interpret her arrival from the symbolism of my dreams. She walked right into the crypt in which I was hiding, completely unafraid.

“Are you a vampire?”

I had no idea what to say to her. She looked just like a Nymph or a Faun. It had never occurred to me that human children were innocents. I had always thought of them as empty vessels for evil to be poured into.

I decided to treat her as I would a child of Nature.

“The Vampyr have abnormally large canines. My teeth are the same as yours.”

Her reaction to this astounded me. She laughed.

“Why are you hidin’ in this big old crypt then?”

I did not tell her the truth. Innocent beings are sometimes confused when you tell them everything. Instead, I told her that some bad people were out there and if they found me they would use me for their evil. She seemed to understand this. The next day she came back with food and water. I have no need for either, but I thanked her for her offerings. She asked me for a story. I told her about the world when it was young and about the beings that lived there before humans came.

Over the next few days, it became apparent to me that human children could be taught to be good rather than evil. For the first time I had an idea of how to stop the spread of evil on earth.

I tested my theory on Elizabeth, the girl who brought about this revelation. She visited me every day of her life and I watched her grow into a beautiful, caring young woman. Without my powers at full strength, I could not tell whether my guidance had changed her destiny or whether she was destined to be good before I met her. I counted her as a success, regardless. It had been proved to me that humans could be good.

I was there when Elizabeth died. She had caught a deadly illness from the sick people she looked after. As I am immune from disease, I was able to sit by her side as her body failed. She died a hero.

When she was gone, I gathered all of the magick I that could. It was enough to create this place, a corridor outside of time and space, untainted by evil. My visions of the future are as strong as they once were.

Every door leads somewhere different in space and time. Each one is somebody’s destiny. Many people never find their way here and so their door remains closed. When someone comes, seeking my help, I am able to show them which door to take. This small diversion in the path of their destiny can change it for the good, if they are wise or innocent enough.

The corridor stretches back to the very first days, when the moon walked the earth. Distance is relative here. A single step can take you as far as you want, if you keep an open mind. The very first door leads to my own destiny. I stepped through this door only once, in order to ask the moon a favour.

“I understand that you are not to blame for anything. You did not understand what would happen when Nature’s children were able to dream. You did not realise that your humans could bring about such ruin.

“But your actions have had consequences. You cannot ignore all that has happened as a result of your gift. I do not want revenge for the suffering of my people, or the destruction of Nature’s paradise. All that I ask is that you give hope to those who deserve it.

“You must be lonely, a solitary being in the vast darkness. Will you share it with all those who die as heroes?”

Throughout time, stars appeared in the sky. For a few seconds, humans were astonished, but they soon forgot that anything had ever been different.

I am known as the cloaked stranger. A hood covers my head and hides my face. My story is told throughout time. It is the oldest story in existence. Like all stories, it is entirely true.

Sometimes I leave my domain to sit and watch the stars. It is my goal to change enough destinies to fill the sky with heroes. Countless times I have lain underneath many different skies, wondering which twinkling light of pure energy is what remains of Elizabeth.