Parallels: A Dragon Raja Story

Prologue

Prologue

---

Sunshine peered through the window blinds of a small room; The dewy morning was greeted with petrichor as the world began to wake up from its evening slumber on its circadian rhythms—however that did not stop all from going against it. Within the room, an alarm clock blared its obnoxious clamor. Blankets enveloped a half-asleep boy, attempting to drown the noise to no avail.

"In Norse mythology, what price did Odin pay for drinking from the fountain of wisdom?" A female voice chimed. By his bedside was a blue lady formed of photon lights scattered by small bots by the name of Adams.

He mumbled something under his breath before digging himself further into his pillow. The alarm continued to blare its noise.

"Alnoire, I advise that you answer this question as it is good practice for your upcoming academic endeavors. Should you not answer within the next minute, a reduction of 10 gold coins per second will be issued from your allowance."

A deep sigh ensued. "An eye. Odin paid his eye."

"Excellent. You are correct!" She did a gleeful spin in rejoice. "Now, based on the estimated time of arrival, the latest you can leave your dormitory is in the next 30 minutes. In order to make sure you catch your vocal practices, with each second you remain in bed is a reduc—"

"I'm up, I'm up! Why do we have to go through this every morning?"

"Alnoire, you know better than anyone how difficult it is to get you up. This has been a tested and proven method of keeping schedule."

He couldn't argue with that. Alnoire completed his morning routine, dressed up in his Cassell College uniform with a few vocal exercises to warm up his chords. Out the door and on a hoverboard, he glided to the music studio with five minutes to spare. He poured himself a cup of tea at the beverage station and swiped a bagel sandwich. As he enjoyed his breakfast, Alnoire flipped through several music and lyric sheets to memorize, nodding his head to the beats and practicing his expressions.

The morning was a full two hours of practicing and recording an album track. Afterwards, he'd go for a jog, freshen up, and meet the camera crew to shoot the scenes for an upcoming drama. Finally, he'd go attend the combat classes for that day and take the evening to finish up on the essay about Lionheart's major advances in history. The rest of the night would be to himself, whether it be a few rounds in Starcraft, strumming the guitar to find a new tune, or catching up on self-care. Ever since he debuted, his schedule had been jammed pack to ensure his presence in this competitive industry. Simply thinking of today's schedule was exhausting.

All across campus he'd see regular faces of fellow schoolmates for advertisements, magazines, videos, and much more. Their mailboxes would be overflowing with gifts of bouquets and fan letters, cheers of success as they headed off to class. While it sounded glamorous at first, his aim lay elsewhere—a global presence. He wanted to perform at large venues livestreamed to the world. He wanted shows he starred in to be aired on multiple platforms and his face on billboards across the country. Most importantly, he wanted his brother to see him—Le. How long had it been?

"HEY"

Alnoire bounced back to reality. A hand waved over his face. "I've said good morning to you five times already." Honey eyes glazed over his dazed expression.

"Ah sorry, good morning Jas."

"Hmph." Jasmine filled up a mocha coffee mug, customized with cat paw prints. "Are you free in the afternoon? A new café opened up downtown and I've been begging the manager to let me go." He could see the plead in her eyes and puppy expression but that wasn't going to work for the twentieth time.