Mythos

Chapter 1: Paradise

Far, far away from darkness and divine might, gently touched by a day firsts ray of sunlight, is the verdant and aquamarine planet known as Mythos.

Gaudy and affluent in its architecture and brimming over with wealth and abundance. Vast esoteric forests and fertile plains, inertly swaying in the early breeze and the morning dew sparkling like precious jewels. Sapphire oceans and cresting mountains. The birds singing with relish towards the sky to greet the morning sun and welcome another prosperous day.

Truly, a paradise in its entirety.

In one of those glorious acmes of myth civilization, a marble city imbedded in great walls, stands tall and sublime the palace of Iustitia.

It appeared to be entirely out of gems and similar preciosities and its six skyscraping towers glimmered in all the shades of the rising sun. This noble construct was enlaced by gorgeous gardens and parks with tidy little trails, colorful vegetation and fountains. Even in this paradise the palace and its surroundings seemed out of this world.

And as this world is in truth extraordinary, it is inhabited by none other than the extraordinary myth people. Since the beginning of time they have lived relatively peaceful and prolific on this planet. Of course, every society has its flaws and iffy history, but the important diegesis surely commenced on this particular morning.

Since dawn Anette had worked through the endless notes and records taken in the past weeks and the wooden shelves in her humble office in the south-western tower of the castle had gotten more and more crammed by the hour. Now she finally put down one of the heavy folders and used the opportunity to stretch her tired body. Her fingers were cramping and she eyed them, lost in thought, seriously considering once more whether she should just finally surrender and buy a computer. Lord Kalt had just offered her one the other day, a thin new model that could transcribe her every word into written form. She had kindly declined. She did not like his mocking tone upon seeing her calendars and journals, and she was way too old to get used to all of these new shenanigans anyway. With one exception. A gentle vibration from the device behind her left ear evoked an irritated sigh and she started rifling through the piles of paper to find the small illuminated display. As expected it lit up brightly with the daily reminder to eat breakfast, accompanied by recommendations and nutrition statistics. Anette shoved it aside and sat back down on her brittle chair to continue her work. It might have been pretty antiquated of her, but she preferred to eat when her body told her to. Old habits like that were hard to dispose of, although even she had to admit the Al was a quite useful device. As she scratched her neck, uncomfortably feeling the small chip underneath her skin, she read through the notes she had just taken the other day.

The allowance for the noble family had not changed one bit and although it seemed almost ridiculously high, neither the princess nor the queen seemed to be willing to finally invest into proper security for the castle. The few guards entrusted with the protection of the monarchs were a courtesy of Lord Bonmark. Of course, Anette wasn't exactly comfortable with the thought to have this ancient sacred construction beset with alarms and monitoring equipment, but she did value the safety of her staff and the monarchs more than her sense of tradition. She'd begged at least a dozen of their predecessors for the same favor, but one was more stubborn and careless than the other.

Both the queen and her sister had furthermore taken off the other day while Anette remained dutifully in the palace with the few guards and palace staff. She had long stopped asking or even wondering where the royal family was going. The queen Helen had probably gone to Heisei for another one of her training sessions, neglecting her duties here, in Iustitia, and escaping the despised bustle of the capital. The princesses whereabouts were considerably harder to guess. She was either up north for military training or getting drunk in some suburb out of town with another mistress. Either way, Anette would find out in the news sooner or later. Those two were such a burden to the throne. One worse than the other, she thought.