23 AELFHEIM, 5050 AAC (AFTER AELFRIC’S CORONATION)
Plans seldom go to plan. At its extremes, the unexpected can be divine or diabolical: usually, it is somewhere between the two. On the day of the battle, the cavalry of the Dark Elves did not gallop into the mire as planned, but their general held them back. Instead, like columns of black ants their infantry swarmed forward into the bog. Liffi had gone to war unwilling to kill. The conflict began when Aelfric’s Chief Mage sent a firebolt to create a crater where hundreds of the Døkkálfar had been struggling to extricate themselves from the mud. Prompted by the malignity on the ugly faces of the evil elves, she raised her alicorn and hurled a bolt of her own that had a similar effect. At the same time, the king gave the order for the arche
