A/N: After starting a new session of DnD with some friends, I sketched the kiddos as DnD-inspired characters and got dragged into AU hell again. I'll be sporadically writing short chapters for this AU just for fun, so I hope y'all enjoy this silly little series as much as I enjoyed conceptualizing it. Let's see how far I get in writing this.

Chapter 1: A Faintly Glowing Candle

Jeremie sat quietly in the great Kadic library, poring over scrolls and bound books that slowly piled around him. The light began growing dimmer and dimmer as the book pile grew, and finally began to splutter as the fire in his lantern reached the end of its lifeline. With a soft, almost vindictive hiss, the fire touched the liquid in the shallow dip of the wax and disappeared. Jeremie scowled at the candle. Sighing, he murmured a few words under his breath, and an orb of harsh white light floated from his fingers to several inches above his table.

"Why don't you ever just do that instead of bothering with candles?"

Jeremie jumped at the sudden sound and turned around in his chair. A young man approached him, carrying a lantern whose light bounced up and down as he walked, throwing shadows in dizzying patterns against the wooden shelves. As he neared Jeremie's desk, he squinted against the bright magical light, and suffocated the fire his little lamp. Patience run short already by the dying candle and the seemingly futileness of his current studies, Jeremie snapped back.

"I don't know, Ulrich," Jeremie retorted. "Why don't you Speed your way everywhere you go instead of bothering with walking like the rest of us?"

The young man raised his hands in acquiensance. "Geez, Jeremie. Did I hit a nerve or something? What's wrong?"

Jeremie sighed again. "Sorry, Ulrich. I'm just… trying to figure out how to write this request to the Headmaster. If I could just get permission to go on this quest, it could be big for all of us. The earthquakes, the dried up streams, all of it."

"Is it about that old legend you haven't shut up about for weeks?" Ulrich asked, tone flat. Jeremie grimaced; he could hear the incredulity in his voice.

"It's not just a legend," he protested. "Look." Leaning over to one of the neat stacks of books on the floor, Jeremie grabbed a thick volume from the top of the pile.

Ulrich sat in one of the heavy wooden chairs beside him. He sneezed as musty air from the rapidly turning pages drifted towards his face.

"Aha! Here we are," Jeremie said. "Earth's Paladins. When the disasters started happening in our childhood, scholars had added a section to the original historical account to make connections between the story and the current events."

"There is a legend from ages lost, of a noble elven family blessed by the Earth. They held great power, able to call up great mountains or vast oceans with a single song, and withheld the peace of their nation for many generations. One day, however, this family vanished from the pages of history. For a time, there were no repercussions from their disappearance, as if they merely hid from the world. But only at the time this passage was written did the tremors begin. Shuddering sighs from deep within the Earth, rivers running dry and seasons changing faster or slower every year since. This could only mean that something terrible has happened to the current members of this family that the world has been thrown out of balance."

"So," Jeremie added, "it's highly likely when the family was first reported missing, they actually went into hiding since there was no effect on the Earth. But something must have happened for real within recent history, because all these changes aren't natural. Not if they still exist."

"Or existed at all," Ulrich replied. "I don't mean to undermine you or anything, Jer, but magic so powerful it can stop earthquakes? Like, for centuries? If anyone was capable of doing such a thing, it was whenever this world was created. Not now."

"This is important, Ulrich!" Jeremie snapped. He got up from his seat and began pacing the library floor. Taking his round spectacles off his nose, he rubbed at the lense with the corner of his tunic "There's something going on. All these disasters- homes falling into sinkholes, fish drying up with their streams, tremors shaking bricks out of buildings- they've never happened before! And they shouldn't!"

Ulrich threw his hands up again. "Alright, alright! Sit down already, you're making me dizzy."

With a huff, Jeremie sank back down in his chair.

"Then the only way you're going on this crazy quest is if I go with you."

"What? Ulrich, you barely believe in this stuff! And your family's in this city, I can't make you join me-"

"Jeremie. Do you really think Delmas is going to let you go by yourself? You'll get killed in like, three days, tops."

Jeremie rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Besides," Ulrich muttered, looking away towards the shadows of the bookshelves, "I don't think my family would miss me much if I left." Jeremie had no response for that.

"Well maybe I'll have a better chance at approval if I request a top warrior student to accompany me on this journey." Jeremie placed a gentle hand on the young man's shoulder. "Ulrich, if we succeed, if we find out what's happened to the royal elves and rescue them, somehow… We'll have fixed all the disasters, I'll be able to graduate early, and even your father will have your respect."

At that, Ulrich looked up, his eyes bright. He cracked a small smile. "Guess that's all sorted out then, isn't it."