The Truth-Teller Of Estrella

PROLOGUE

Years ago.

The Great Civil War has come to a screeching and dark end. The Crimson Sorceress has been toppled, her short reign ending with her imprisonment and the Siege of the Star Kingdom, Estrella. The Empress threatens to end the life of the sorceress' unborn child, weaponizing her power. She is forced into the carbon-steel mines on a regular basis, impacting both her abilities and her health.

Darkness creeps through the room like a panther on the prowl — hushed and lethal. Soot rises from the ground, its aroma rich and spicy. The cries of a woman dash through the empty halls. Her screams are wild, feral, and filled with towering rage.

"She will die at my hands!" The woman cries as she pushes. The chains at her ankles tremble. It's carbon-steel, the very chains the newly crowned Empress had forced her to forge and spell. It leaves her stained skin blistered and bleeding. Her powers are stifled.

"She is also in labor," a voice replies.

"Let her relish in the birth of her new heir," the woman screams. "Let them shower her with riches and royal privilege while I am wielded for my power and sent to the pyre."

She reaches out, seizing the hand of the woman at her side. The sorceress pushes one last time, coincidentally in sync with the birth of the other child in the palace — one with a very different welcome into the world.

The two women relinquish their grip, enough to take hold of the newly born child. They cherish her in the candle light. Her face is golden and her hair shimmers like the night.

"It's a girl." Says the woman as she hands the mother her child.

The mother smiles — a weary simper as she brings her child in close, checking for any marks or indications. Erebus, the dark god of death hovers in the corner.

"Our girls will run this entire Kingdom to the ground." She announces, her eyes are faded, no longer bright with power and freedom. "Our girls will restore magic to the lands and give birth to The Return." Beyond the walls the sky rumbles as shadows creep in. "They have no idea what they have coming — but quick, mark my words and send them to the library."

"The resistance will make sure it is delivered." Answers the woman as she reaches for a book concealed in the fireplace.

"Thank you, my darling friend." The Babe cries in her arms.

"Anything for you, our Crimson Sorceress."

But the woman never lives to see her child grow, nor does she survive to see her captor's death. She dies, minutes later, the blood staining the very words she demanded to be marked.

The world moves on, the city of Saypool crumbles. The stars cry, blurring themselves across the vast sky before dimming. They vanish, as if hiding from the cruelty, never to be seen again. Years go by with one child — Drika, hell-bent on fulfilling her mother's wishes. Only hers are not the divination made in the cell, but the wishes of a mother who vows to see all magic squashed and imprisoned.