Unknown Title

Prologue

Prologue

The Town of Kalera, Elsia

The Elsian wind blew slowly and steadily, constantly pushing my hair into my eyes. In Elsia, the winter days were often cold, snowy, and windy. I enjoyed the summers and springs much more than winter.

“Come along Kara, we have places to be,” my mother called to me.

We were visiting the market for some fruit. It felt like it had been nearly an hour by the time we had finished our shopping and payed for all of our groceries. My mother was very picky about her fruit today especially.

“Kara, go ahead on home with the fruit, I need to run some errands,” she ordered.

So I walked towards my home, stopping a few times to play with younger children in the street. I was a girl of twelve and yet, I had the spirit of a child much younger than myself.

When I reached Town Square, I was met by a large crowd of children as well as their parents. The children were dancing around while their parents sat back, watching them play. They were playing in the fountains near the festival set up grounds. In a week, we would be celebrating Winter Festival, a celebration so amazing it deserves a day off from work and school. Luckily, it was early winter so the children were not soaked to the bone and freezing. I passed by, skipping, dancing, and celebrating along with the children, but still moving towards home.

An important-looking man in a festive outfit stepped forward to speak to the crowd in Town Square. He began to talk about the plans for the Winter Festival and so on. After several minutes of his speech, I recognized him as the head of the town’s council, Marco Attens. As everyone was listening to his speech, I was standing there, trying to absorb and understand every word to no avail.

No one seemed to notice the woman, not even I had seen her. She lingered on the set of stairs above Attens. She wore a black and red hooded cloak that shadowed her face. The crowd was all wearing cloaks and robes to keep warm and festive, so she blended as well as anyone else. It wasn’t until a few other people began to move through the crowd, all in black and red cloaks, that the crowd took some notice. People began to murmur and back away slightly while others stood their ground, watching suspiciously, unsure of their thoughts.

As soon as the crowd started moving away, the mysterious cloaked people signaled each other almost undetectably. This subtlety made them seem a dangerous group. How I picked up on their signal, I couldn't be sure, but I honed in on it at lighting speeds. I had to hold the urge back to follow their order. Attens hadn’t seemed to notice the crowd’s suspicion; he droned on for about a minute more. I had retreated into the background with the crowd as the events in front of me unfolded.

The cloaked people continued forward until they were just in front of the short stage Attens stood on. He had finally seemed to notice a change, but he hesitantly continued his speech, ignoring them. The woman from the stairs had jumped from her former position onto the stage and the cloaked people in the crowd joined her, surrounding him and sealing his fate. He attempted to look fierce and push his attackers off the stage, but his eyes gave way to his actual emotions. He was scared and knew he was cornered. This was simply an act of desperation.

Everything began to move in slow motion. Two of the cloaked accomplices grabbed Attens as everyone began to scream and run for safety. I stood perfectly still, watching. Waiting for something to happen. The other two accomplices flipped off the stage, an action only performable by someone of  great acrobatic ability. They ran towards the guards, dressed in bright blue armor and equipped with long, military grade swords, that were now reaching the scene and shoving through the crowd with great might. The second they reached them, they slit their throats and pulled out large daggers to fight off the other guards. No one was getting in their way. I watched in a state of bewilderment, panic, and awe. The woman grabbed Attens and quickly slit his throat. Attens seemed to move in a spastic frenzy for a moment. I realized the blade must have been poisoned. The woman leaned down and whispered in the man’s ear. He flashed a look of sorrow just before he drifted off.