Luke Swan and the Laistrynians: The Flood

Prologue

~Prologue~

The Fortress was silent.

 On the still, warm evening, a clammy breeze stirred the flames that flickered in brackets. The great, grey sea churned and crashed against the cliffs below, without storm or moon to push it on. No, it was the terrible evil that lurked in the great, black fortress that stirred the ocean and urged it to bring everything in its path to meet their fate.

The King sat on his gilded throne on a black dais, his dark eyes surveying what lay before him. No one dared speak as he gestured to his soldiers to open the great, ebony doors that separated them from the world below. The gargantuan doors opened without a sound, and more soldiers came walking in, dragging a prisoner behind them.

In the dark palace, she glowed with a radiant, silver aura. Blue strands of silk were braided with her long, silver hair. Her face seemed almost timeless: she could have been thirty, or as young as thirteen. Shackled at her ankles and wrists were chains that seemed to be made of pure darkness. A tattered and torn blue tunic covered her lithe frame, and her face and arms were badly bruised and cut. Her bright, blue eyes shone with confidence, even though what awaited her was certain death at the hands of The King.

"How foolish of you, Selenos, to think you can defeat us this easily," the prisoner whispered, just audible enough for her captor to hear.

"On the contrary: I feel that the Halo will immediately claim me if I get rid of you now, the person that was so wrongly claimed eons ago when I was cheated out of the growth and prosperity your kingdom has now, Zyra," The King boomed back. The prisoner just shook her head and smiled sadly.

"That is where you are wrong. The Halo was entrusted to my people, not me, by any means. If you take my life, it will just remain in the same place it has always been."

"And where is that?"

"If I told you, it would no longer be a secret location, would it? I wish for it to remain that way."

"You play a foolish game, considering your life is hanging by a thread, Zyra," The King said, rising from his throne.

"But is it, really? Are you certain that you can achieve and gain all you had hoped to tonight? How are you sure that something will not go wrong?" The prisoner said, and when she lifted her head slightly, The King couldn't help but notice the glint in her eye.

"What are you implying, Zyra?" he asked, uncertainty creeping into his voice.

"Well, first of all that you are a cruel tyrant that should never see the glow of the Halo," the prisoner began, "and second of all, this: you should have thought long and hard about where you were going to kill me. You really should have done your homework: I'm a living manifestation of the sky, and you seem to have chosen the highest tower on the highest cliff in your realm for my destruction. Have you added it--" 

"You wouldn't dare!" the King spat. "Tonight can't end this way!"

"Unfortunately for you, my time here has elapsed," the prisoner said, rising slowly. "Good luck with taking over my world."

"Seize her!" The King shouted.

The prisoner whistled twice, and two whirlwinds blew in from the balcony. The larger, denser one encased a glowing, white orb the size of an apple in its centre. One charged the soldiers, whilst the other swirled towards the prisoner. When it encased her, the glowing orb dissolved her bonds.

"Thank you," the prisoner whispered to the whirlwind.

Now free, the prisoner summoned a great wind that swept the occupants of the room off their feet. All but the prisoner: whilst they were distracted, she casually walked towards the balcony on the other end of the room. She stopped to look over her shoulder at The King.

"NO!" he bellowed. "Guards, seize her!"

With on final, triumphant smile at her captor, the prisoner climbed onto the railings and fell backwards with her arms outstretched.

As The King's anger seemed to shake the fortress above her, the prisoner sailed downwards towards her sister's domain, the mighty ocean. When she hit the surface, the currents dragged her down, down to the depths where the darkness soon turned into light as she entered another realm. Leaving the darkness behind her, she returned home to her kingdom.