The Royals of Glacia

Prologue

"You have one purpose in your life, boy," the father growled as he buckled his son into the carriage. "You bring that girl back here before she can take the throne. If you fail, it gives Glacia the advantage of confidence; we will lose. You either bring her back before she turns twenty or you never return at all." He grabbed the five-year-old's squishy cheeks and forced eye contact. "Should you fail this mission that we have raised you for, then you will no longer be my son." The boy cried out in pain as nails scraped across his cheek.

The father unwrapped the gauze around the boy's arm to reveal a brilliant burn. "Let this scar remind you of who you are. Don't let anyone change your mind," he hissed at him and then scampered away from the carriage.

***

Across the mountains, a young orphan was moving in with her uncle.

"I'll get your things," he slurred, tossing her bags into the back of the carriage. "My house is a few blocks from here."

She sat in silence, afraid that saying anything would make this real. She lost her parents at the age of two and with them went many precious moments that other children would be cherishing. Her reality hurt, and she wanted a way to get around it.

They rolled down the cobble streets and passed into the richer district, where the roads were paved with smooth metal. Her uncle pulled into a driveway and led Astrid inside. She took the room on the end of the hallway. They had to shove through piles of broken bottles and discarded books to get there.

One afternoon when she was four years old, she was alone in the house and very curious. She stepped into the hallway and picked up a book. No one had taught her to read, but she was desperate to escaped, and this seemed like a way she could do just that.

She waited for her uncle to get home and ran up to him. "Uncle? Could you teach me?" She held it up for him. He stared down at her for a long time.

He seriously contemplated telling her no. Leave. Go away and find something better to do than trying to convince an old drunk. Why would he teach her something like that when she'll just be going off to school and learning it a couple of years later? He had a duty to his late siblings, though. This child would need to be prepared when the time came, so he sat down and showed her how to read.

When they got through the books in the hallway, they moved into the next room.