Ciana Pandora

PROLOGUE

A/N: Thanks to LibrasWriter for the amazing cover .

[OHR]

       Hidden from daylight, within a mist of aquamarine murk, where the land kissed the foot of the sky and then ascended up as cerulean dust, stood a gigantic glyph block. A sapphire sat on the bosom of the glyph and shone far and beyond like thousand rays of the sun, and that was Ohr’s only source of light. On the sacred glyph was a symbol of The Gibbous moon which was the predominant deity of the people of Ohr. Ohr is a powerful kingdom that was unified by the ancestors in eons past when the Gibbous clan subdued The Penumbra clan and forced them into an unlikely alliance. Due to the pre-eminence of the Gibbous moon over darkness, The Gibbous holds the monarchy of Ohr.

      The glyph, which contained several ancient words of enigmatic meaning from the ancestors, stood in Lord Magnar’s palace where a ruckus transpired. In its courtroom was a long aisle that stretched at a length of more than 35 feet. All the members of both The Penumbra tribe (worshipers of the solar eclipse) and The Gibbous tribe (worshipers of the moon) surrounded the perimeter of the aisle; but despite the width of the aisle they could hear one another without having to shout.

     Lord Magnar Gibbous sat at the far end of the table, on the highest chair, seething at the scene his people were making. Lady Dionne rubs his knee to calm him down, but the heat seeping through it due to his rage scalds her hand. She withdraws her hand deftly. Magnar bangs the footstool and flames escape from his cape and burn the curtains on the wall. Even the sacred glyph shakes. Everyone goes silent.

       “Enough of the kerfuffle! You will all listen to me. I will not sit here and have you all devise cruel plans on how to find my daughter. No one under my power and tutelage would lay a wicked finger on her. Did you hear me, Jedrek?” Magnar roars.

      “Yes, my Lord.” Jedrek says. He has   brown hair, hypnotizing cerulean eyes and a dubious personality like his mother Lady Dionne. In the whole of Ohr, Jedrek was considered a god next to his half- father Lord Magnar, not because he was part of the monarchical lineage, but because of his unusual good looks. He had all it took to be king; eloquence, masculinity and wisdom. But he was not a biological son of Magnar and not an heir. Therefore the first thing Dionne wanted for him was killing his half-sister Ciana Pandora and make him become king.

        “I’ll make sure I find Ciana with safe hands and only she would become queen of Ohr after I die.” Magnar insisted.

“But Lord,” Dionne chimes in softly.
“Ciana is a nuance and she will bring doom to Ohr. She has the heart of The Penumbra and darkness can’t rule light. She is too… powerful. Too much power can destroy us.”

“Well, you brought this upon yourself, Dionne. However, my daughter cannot have more power than me. I will find her, remove the black heart and restore it with the sapphire. She would be a full member of the tribe of Gibbous.” Magnar declares.

“But…”

“Silence, woman! Do not infuriate me. If you hadn’t bore a nuance into the royal household as my daughter, we won’t be going through all this. I am sure that Ciana Pandora is not my daughter. She has another father somewhere among The Penumbras. I am not a Penumbra and I cannot have a Penumbran child.” Lord Magnar bellows.

“Sit down, son.” Ramona, Magnar's mother interjects with a fearless voice. Lord Magnar listens only to her. “The Penumbras are yet to find her to remove the black heart.”

“How? We don’t even know where she is.” Dionne grouses.

“Lord, Lady Dionne is right. After my consultations, it was proven that Ciana Pandora is outside Ohr and beyond reach. Perhaps her peculiar powers enabled her to go beyond here.” Moros, the high priest says.

“No power in the entire universe exceeds mine. I am the Lord of Ohr. Ciana cannot go where I cannot go. I am the Lord of both light and darkness, even with their forces combined. I am Lord Magnar Gibbous and if The Penumbras cannot step out of darkness to find Ciana, then I would step out of my royalty to do so. I give you five eons. The meeting is adjourned.” Magnar stands up; the maidens spill gold dust on the floor to carpet Magnar’s walkway. The people disperse, leaving Ramona, Dionne and Jedrek alone at the table. Lady Dionne stands to face her love son.

“Before Magnar finds Ciana, you must find her.” She points her ring-adorned finger at Jedrek.

“Let The Penumbra do their job.”

“You must be deranged, Jedrek. Ciana ran away before her marriage. No one knows where she went, not even the most powerful diviners. If Magnar does find her and removes that Penumbran black heart, you won’t become king.” Lady Dionne retorts.

“What if Ciana Pandora is already dead?” Jedrek rises up angrily at his mother.

“Ciana is not dead. I can feel it. She came from my own womb. The only way to get rid of her is to kill her and only you have the power to do that.”

“I? How ridiculous! I can’t even become king. I am not Magnar’s son. I can’t even touch the sapphire. We should stop trying.” Jedrek says.
Dionne grabs his biceps fiercely, causing him to pay attention.

“When you were born, the palmist perceived that you would be the most powerful member of the Gibbous tribe. You have the greatest power than Magnar can ever imagine.”

“But Ciana Pandora is the most powerful of all the tribes of Ohr put together because of her heart.” Jedrek points out.

“That’s why we will crash both her and her heart. The Penumbras are not superior to the Gibbous. She has a black heart doesn’t mean she is more powerful than Prince Jedrek Gibbous. When you become king, the whole of Ohr will know.” Dionne coaxes. Jedrek smirks at the eulogy from his mother.

Old Ramona snickers as she exits the courtroom. “Only the sapphire on this sacred glyph can tell.”