Prologue

King Marlon Enndosius of the Seven Cities of Patharis is having a restless night when he is visited by the court mage Abareth, who bears bad news...

King Marlon Enndosius of the Seven Cities of Patharis was already awake when he heard the gentle knock at the door. He had lain awake all night, a feeling of unease preventing him from slipping into sleep’s warm embrace. His discomfort had arisen some weeks ago, and as it built the hours of sleep he got had significantly dropped in number. There were no clues as to what was causing this peculiar sensation; no illness or financial difficulties or any other problem with his Kingdom was troubling him, everything was normal in the cities. Yet he could not banish the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

“Enter,” Marlon said, shifting in his bed so that he was sitting upright to greet his guest.

The door opened, and a heavily-armoured guard entered. It was customary to have at least one guard posted outside the King’s bedchamber, but Marlon had always thought there was no need for it - his people loved him and he had served them well over the last thirty years of his reign. Besides, there were plenty of other ways to assassinate a King and he doubted sneaking into a busy castle in the middle of the night was the easiest.

  Because of this, Marlon had a tendency to simply give whichever guard was on duty the night off, but had decided against doing so over the last few weeks since the trepidation had started bothering him. Judging from the look on this young guard’s face, it was safe to assume he had made the right decision. There was trouble afoot.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, your Majesty, but Abareth wishes to speak with you, he says it’s urgent,” said the guard.

  A cold chill ran down Marlon’s spine. If Abareth required his attention, it meant only one thing. It had to be the Core. He looked down to see that his hands were trembling at his side, and he gripped them into fists to calm himself. It wouldn’t do to show his fear in front of this guard; it suggested weakness, which was never a welcome trait in a King.

“Very well, let him in,” said Marlon, climbing out of bed to retrieve his robe hanging from a hook at the end of his bed.

  The guard bowed in compliance and left to retrieve Abareth as Marlon shrugged on the soft robe and tied a knot with the cord around his middle. As he smoothed out the fabric Abareth walked in towards him, his dark green robes rustling faintly as he moved.

  Abareth had been court mage for as long as Marlon could remember, yet he hadn’t aged a day, a quality most mages possessed. He had no idea how old Abareth truly was but he looked around his early forties; black hair flecked with grey and his eyes a dark brown, so dark they were almost black which Marlon had always found oddly disconcerting. His face was in a permanent frown though what he was frowning about Marlon could only guess. It had enhanced some of the wrinkles into deep cracks, stretching across his forehead.

“Your Majesty,” greeted Abareth, dipping his head in a polite yet slight bow.

Marlon sighed. He had no idea if it was Abareth’s age or his power as a mage, but he never seemed to respect Marlon as much as he should. That poor excuse for a bow was the closest he ever came to showing that he so much as cared that Marlon was the King and he a mere subject. But Marlon tried not to take it to heart " some people just had too high an opinion of themselves, and Abareth was most certainly one of those people.

“Abareth,” said Marlon in response.

“I am sorry to bother you so late, but the matter is rather pressing.”

“It’s quite all right Abareth, I was already awake when you arrived. Would you care to sit?” asked Marlon, gesturing to one of the chairs across the room.

“Thank you, but I’d prefer to stand,” said Abareth.

Marlon shrugged and walked towards the chairs.

“As you please. I am an old man however, and would prefer to save my knees,” said Marlon, sinking into one of the comfortable chairs with a sigh of relief, “Now, what is this 'pressing matter' you mentioned?”

“Come, come Marlon, I daresay you already have guessed why I am here, let's not pretend any differently,” said Abareth.

“The Core?” suggested Marlon, praying to the Four Gods that he was wrong.

“Yes. I am sorry, but we knew this was going to happen eventually.”

“It doesn’t make it any easier though does it,” sighed Marlon, running his hand through his tousled white hair, “How long do we have?”

“A year roughly, but it is difficult to calculate the exact timeframe. What we know for certain is that Casren and Baelir must leave at once, there must be nothing to delay them if there is to be any hope for the rest of us,” said Abareth firmly.

“Indeed, I just wish I didn’t have to subject them to this the same way my father did to me.”

“It is a difficult time for every young Prince, but it may be even more so for their father. How are you coping?”

“I have long known that as the Core fails, so shall I. Yet now that the moment is here I feel--”

“Frightened?” suggested Abareth.

“At first. My hands were shaking before you arrived at the very possibility of it all, but now that I know for certain I feel…content. It is better to die rather than live in the false hope that the end of my life would be any different from that of my father’s. It was foolish to believe that this process would be any different for me.”

“I see. I have to say I am impressed. Every King I have given this news to, and believe me there have been many, have dealt with it in varying ways. Very few have such composure when knowing they are going to meet the Makers soon. Your demeanor is very refreshing,” Abareth smiled sadly, breaking his face out of its usual frowned mould, “Now if you don’t mind, there are matters I must see to.”

“Yes of course and I must try to at least manage a few hours of sleep,” Marlon said, pushing himself out of the chair as his bones creaked in objection.

“Shall I tell your sons tonight or leave it until the morning?” asked Abareth.

“They deserve to have at least one more peaceful night. Arrange for them to meet us at the Collisphere in the morning,” instructed Marlon.

“As you wish your Majesty,” said Abareth, bowing slightly before leaving the room, closing the door softly behind him.

  Marlon sighed and removed his robe, casting it absently to the floor before climbing back into bed. He lay there, staring at the ceiling of his four-poster bed, his exhausted mind struggling to properly process what had just occurred. He understood it all too well, but it somehow felt unreal, like it hadn’t really happened, and that the coming year was just going to be the same as every other year.

  His eyelids sealed shut, the effort requiring keeping them open now simply unbearable. Marlon shifted into a more comfortable position before plummeting into a deep sleep.

Author's Note

This is just the first attempt at the prologue, I'm thinking of making it more separate to the plot than it currently is. Please, please, PLEASE leave a review - this is my most treasured piece of writing and I would love to know what you all think :)

Reviews

[Sarah Coll]

Wow! I love it. It's so well written and I especially like how I can totally imagine the characters without there being too much description (there's a perfect balance for this length of piece, if that makes sense). You know I already think you are a really talented writer and this just sets it in stone. Don't ever give up on this!

[Gaelan_Hamilton]

Thank you my friend :D Charge of Gods is like, my baby project, never mind any of the other stuff that we've been doing at college. I'll be putting up the other two chapters that I have finished soon too :D

[Liani]

I wish I had read the Prologue before, but its so good it doesn't matter! I really liked it, its a good opening and you are super talented.

[N.A. Deakins]

I didn't find anything wrong. I liked it, and usually I'm quite critical. It was interesting, you described the king well, made it suspenseful. I liked the character of the king, good impression so far.

[Saddam]

your story is so lovely dear. nice, loveya.

[Anthony Gerrard]

I love this. I am so desperate to read on and find out what happens. There are so many questions and they are the right sort, what is the Core, what is happening? Who's a goodie, who's a baddie?
There's a couple of places where some commas would help the flow of the sentences but, when you read it back, you will spot where.
Over all an excellent piece of work. Looking forward to reading the next chapter.

[Gaelan_Hamilton]

Wow thank you so much!! I wrote this a year and a half ago before I started my writing course, so some of my grammar is sloppy in places but I'll be sure to edit in the future!

I'll probably upload the next chapter in a week or so. Don't want to run out of content to post too quickly as I can't work on Charge of Gods further until my college novella Venom'd Stang is complete :(

[carynolivia]

Sounds really interesting, Gaelan! Love me a bit of fantasy; cannae go a miss! I think you've alluded to this fantasy world you've created quite well - you've given just about enough information away to hook the reader without overloading them with all of these different names and places and ideas. My only critique, if you could call it such, is I think you could have exhibited Abareth's dismissal of Marlon's kingship a little more - perhaps he could have refrained from bowing on his way out? Other than that, I really liked and am looking forward to reading more!

[Gaelan_Hamilton]

Glad you like!!

Oh trust me, you'll have plenty of Abareth dismissal in Chapter 1! Didn't want to overdo it because of the corporal punishment that exists in Patharis - it is pretty brutal and Abareth cares too much about his own skin to risk being TOO negative to Marlon and risk ending up in trouble!

It'll all make sense later, believe me :)

[A. Amos]

I have started but you have to wait if really want my brutally honest review, see the reason we are friends because to be honest with each other and guide each other with a mind of reader. I want your success so just chill for a while.