1 Foreword

Year 1239, Summer of the Fallen Cross

Dearest Reader whom hath set there'st eyes over this'ere tome,

I have spent the last sixteen seasons of my life pouring over St Wilheim Abbey's records, interviewing elvish folk - and others who's names will remain undisclosed - that hath lived through the period the particular retelling describes, and reviewing firsthand accounts and writings such as diaries and letters to produce the most accurate word for word, sentence for sentence, retelling of the most historic events that have settled over Severea since the early times. All whom are fortune enough to set there'st eyes over this'ere reading, read deep, and read well, for it is as true and just as can be.

Now, I sit here starting to write this tome in the hot afternoon sun in the gatehouse study of St Wilheim Abbey on a late summers day. I expect this tome to be completed by the first bloom of next spring. Many a year hath passed since the days that this account describes. The days are getting shorter, and I am getting no younger. Let this, my finest writing yet, wash away your winter blues.

Enjoy this account of the events of the Rainbow-Stone Chronicles which hath left marks upon all marks of Severean life.

Bon voyage, as an old friend once said.

Brother Marc

Recorder of Wilheim Abbey