Prologue
Something awakened. A dormant energy shuddered through the night sky, shifting fate. The earth replied in low grumbles, adjusting to the power surging through molten roots, fighting to seep out to the surface. An echoing roar came through a crack in the ground, two massive landmasses splitting from their ages-old union. A wind howled through the night sky, bending trees as it flew swiftly across the forests, bellowing against the mountains. The music of change fell on deaf ears. These lands lay dormant, long forgotten by the likes of man or fae.
With a whisper, the earth called for a shift. Her energies rumbled down to the towns on this forgotten land’s edge—her quakes hoping to awaken an adventurous spirit, her abandoned groves waiting for connection, waiting for someone to hear her call and return it.
The oceans began to churn, waves nearly a hundred feet high towered over the ship, battering her sides in a war to bring her barreling down to the depths. A strange sight, the captain noted as he shouted orders from the quarter deck, the skies were pristine – shimmering starts in a sea of deep blues and purples. He’d only seen waves like this in terrible storms, never on a clear night like tonight, something’s amiss. “Run under bare poles and batten the hatches! Tie up any loose ends! If the sea wants a dance, we shall dance!”
The crew below stepped to, hurrying to complete their duties as the captain tried to steer them away from the worst of the swells. “Captain!” the shout came from the crow’s nest and he turned his head as he saw a wall of water, larger than he’d ever seen, rising above their ship. “Brace yourselves lads and lassies! Tie yerselves to whatever ye can!”
Once the captain saw his crew was safely bound to their ship, praying to the gods it would not be their tomb, he steadied his mind on the water beneath his vessel. The ebbs and flows of the current beneath, creating the behemoth wave behind them, became one with his breath, his pulse. He felt the slightest sway in his body as he opened his eyes and put all of his mental focus on guiding his crew out of the rough waters. He strapped himself to the wheel and held her straight as the mist from the wave began to fall around his face. He took one last look at his love – the deep ocean surrounding him in a rage – “Shall we?” and the wave crashed.
The screams of mothers trying to save their children from the fires echoed through the trees. I could see their blurry outlines above me, my head throbbing into the ground beneath me. As I blinked to regain my focus, I noticed the night sky and quickly panicked. Mother would be worried; I should beback by now. I rolled to my side, and my head barked back with pain. I touched the back of my head and found a wet, sticky spot, and when I brought my fingers to my eyes, blood. The wailing voices from the village started dying out one by one. I had to get back to the town to try to help. I took a deep breath and pushed myself up on my hands and knees, immediately cradling my head and steadying myself with a few deep breaths.
“Compartmentalize,” Aeden would say to me, pushing the pain back. I took another deep breath and tried to clear the pain from my mind. Balancing on a nearby tree, I found my feet and began moving as fast as my aching head would allow back to the village.
As I approached the tree line, all I saw were flames. They engulfed everything. I stepped out of the trees, taking in the sight of burned bodies scattering the ground. I heard a cry in the distance and moved south towards the sound, doing my best to dodge the debris falling around me. “Mother!” I shout in vain as I pick up my pace and pray I find someone to tell me what’s happened. I hear the cry again, closer this time, but more to the east. I turn left and head down the path between burning buildings and houses, shouting for my mother and any survivors.
A man steps out of an alley. He doesn’t look familiar, but my heart skips a beat. With the harvest festival, many visitors tended to stop in. “Sir!” I shout, “Have you found anyone? My mother, I need to find my mother, and I heard someone crying.” My eyes catch a glimpse of a torch in his hand and a menacing look in his eye. I turned to run, but he caught up to me in three strides.
