Chapter One

  She had always spoken to me.

  Not in so many words, or really not in any. It was always there, like a soft whisper in the back of my mind. I never spoke of it to anyone, I just knew not to. Eventually I come to understand what I was being told, fragments of a sentence becoming clearer as the years passed. On the eve of my 23rd birthday, still a baby in the terms of an immortal race, I knew finally what she wanted. A book. Not just any book I knew; hidden deep within the heart of the Citadel, a floating city at the centre of our city, and what the humans might call a “castle,” and home of the ruling classes.
  I was from the house of BoudiNoir, one of the families. The head of each of the ruling families served on The Council, the ruling body of the Nekroyd race. One day that would be me.

  I learned many things from the voice of no words.
  I learned that my people weren’t as peaceful as they seemed, but once were.
  I learned the gods weren’t always a legend, a myth. I learned they walked among us as friends.
  I learned my own family, and the eleven others who made up The Council, imprisoned and bled the gods dry to power this floating citadel.
  I learned the races below us were oppressed and forced to serve us with magyck. Magyck that wasn’t rightfully ours.
  I learned much. I learned of the horror that I must now undo, and I knew what it would mean for my people. Exile, imprisonment, or even death.

  I learned that, at the heart of the citadel, there was a long forgotten room. I even knew how I’d there – behind the bookcase in my father’s study. I made my plans for after midnight that night when both moons were high in the sky. Somehow I knew that meant something.

  I watched from my window as the moons rose, meeting at the highest point in the dark night, softly illuminating my room. I knew it was time.

Impressum

Texte: Ben Cronly
Lektorat: Ben Cronly
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.01.2016

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