Secrets of the Feather People

Ruther, a young history student in a seafaring town, is thrown into world events by a visit from a strange female herbalist known as a Healer. His father falls into a coma and Ruther discovers that his father was involved with fighting the dark lord thirty years before. After being gone for millennia, the dark lord found a way to appear for brief times to terrorize people. Could his father have been involved with the sudden disappearance of the enemy then? Why did Father leave the East thirty years earlier to come to the quiet haven where Ruther grew up? How can Ruther grow into a leader as he seeks help? Or deal with the shock of discovering that an Elfin leader faces other people with the same coma. Or that a number of Dwarf and Elfin warriors also disappeared thirty years ago? Can he act when he discovers a war is going on inside his father? That those missing warriors have become smaller to fight the dark lord who reigns inside Father? Ruther has to find answers within that society inside Father - from White knights, Red Dwarfs, and missing Female Healers. Yet the secrets of the ancient Feather people gave tales of how a special person could use ways to work with those factions and defeat the enemy. Was Ruther that person?