When he'd discovered her destiny as it was written by the stars, the First King, High King Laoch, had begged for mercy from the Sisters. Begged for the Lightbringer to be spared, begged that they take anything in exchange for the last of his name.
Miro wanted the Eagla wolves returned to the Wilt. Those massive, timeless wolves that howled on the wind and followed High King Laoch Dorcha into battle. Laoch begged she spare one, Crinitus, the wolf that had followed him in life. In exchange for the return of her wolves, Miro let Laoch keep Crinitus until the king died. The final Eagla wolf turned on his brothers in the name of saving the eventual Lightbringer from her fate, and would ultimately walk silently in the Eagla forest until the Lightbringer herself came to reclaim the wolves for her name. And he would follow her fate, as he had wanted for his king, and finally returned to the Wilt to rejoin his brothers and sisters among Miro's men of rot and stone.
The High King that had harnessed magic for himself, and
Molerin demanded it to light the fires of her Underworld. She wanted
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the fire in his veins, the storms in his blood. He gave them willingly, under the promise that they may one day be returned in some way to the Lightbringer to stave off her own end.
Maven demanded the lifelong love of the High King. After all, despite his might, he was nothing more than human. Knowing he would never be guiltless if he gave away his queen, he bargained that her lifeforce be turned into the Eternal Flame, forever to blaze bright and hot, and to be kept burning inside his palace--in the city that would one day be called Lasair, so that he and his descendants would always feel the warmth of what had been sacrificed as they waited for their Lightbringer to come.
Laoch had not known what he was begging for. All he'd ever wanted was to save his future children and grandchildren from the burden of magic and war and misery--burdens he himself had bore his entire life.
If only he'd known what he'd been protecting. Perhaps he would've made a different decision. Maybe he would've chosen a different heir, or would've left his bloodline to its own devices.
The pride of the undefeated is not so easily swayed.