The Raven Lord | Book I

XVI. The Beginning

Sixteen Years Ago: the Border Town of Ithaca

Smoke and blood tinged the air as cannon fire rained upon The Lost City.

Most women and children had been evacuated mere hours before, and what men remained now took up arms against their undeniable fates: death by shadow.

A young man, wed only for three short years and newly made a father, charged across the debris as fast as his aching legs could take him. He should have known. Should have known to get his child and wife far away from this city the minute the ash came pouring from the heavens. He leapt up the dilapidated steps to their one-room lodging and loosed a breath of relief upon seeing his small family unharmed.

"We leave. Now," he commanded. His wife, clutching the sea-green eyed baby girl in her arms, nodded and made for him. The man ran his large hand through the hair of the child; soft and silken, already the deep brown hue of his own. She was barely three years young, and already witness to the cruelties of war. Cursing the world and the Shadow People, he grabbed his wife's hand, and ran.

Buildings that had stood for centuries in their place, collapsed under the weight of shadow and ash. Shrieks that were both human and not rang through the clouded air. The young man hurried his wife into a covered wagon on the edge of town, kissed his daughter who he had cherished so much, and looked at his wife one last time. He knew that this was the end. There was no escape. Tears poured down his family's cheeks, but the child did not make a sound.

The man caressed the child's cheek, wiping a stray tear from her dirtied face. "Kaira," he whispered, "My Moonfire. Be strong for your mother, okay? Be strong for me." He kissed her warm forehead, his lips trembling. The girl straightened her back in what could only have been determination. He squeezed his wife's hand and nodded, before he stepped away and let the carriage jolt forward.

Only then did the child give a strangled shout as she watched her father and her burning city fade from view.

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Kaira: Present Day

"I never saw my father again. Nor did I see Ithaca, my home."

Lex cursed and the sound echoed in the domed room. "You were there the day they turned it to ash," he noted, more in revelation than in question.

I nodded. "On the road, my mother fell ill. She said it was the common flu, but I knew it was heartbreak." I took a deep breath, my lungs and eyes stinging with the faint memory of it all. "She loved my father more than life itself. Which is why when the town completely caved under a cloud of shadow and fire... the last tether my mother had to this world was shattered."

Lex scanned my face, a look not of sympathy but of understanding shining in his golden eyes. "He did a brave thing, your father. He stayed behind to give you a chance, even if it meant he wouldn't have one himself."

I padded over to the sweeping stairs at the left flank of the room, and took up a seat. Moments later, Lex was beside me. "She died two days later. It was only me and a few other refugees," I sucked in a breath before continuing, "The wagon took us to Marwol, the Mortal King's stronghold city. There, Gaius found me in the marketplace and took me to the Midori's Sanctem."

Lex raised a groomed brow.

"The Midori's Sanctem was a place where orphaned children were trained... honed like blades. Educated on ancient ways."

Lex swore again. "That's how you became a Midori's Huntress?"

"In a way, yes. But being a Huntress isn't something you choose. It just, chooses you."