At the end of each chapter there will be a glossary that will explain terms of nicknames which you all are probably unfamiliar with! So if you're confused about anything, the glossary will probably explain it ^^

anyways enjoy the prologue :D

The sound of the tip of a pen scratching against a surface echoed throughout the dark quiet room with small rays of sunlight peering through the cracks of dark curtains. Despite it being quite early in the morning, outside people were seen rushing around. Preparing for another day of work.

In the dark room, a lonely man sat at his desk, writing away on a piece of document before placing it on a stack of papers beside him. He had dark circles formed under his blue eyes that used to be bright. He stared lifelessly as he continued on with finishing the stack of remaining papers.
Most days were always the same, filled with the exact same bleakness, silence and loneliness.

To the king of Dawn this was routine.

Working. Working. Working. And maybe a small nap, only if he wasn't plagued with nightmares as he regularly was. For more than three hundred years[¹] it remained the exact same. Well, for the most part everything remained the same but it also constantly changed over the years. The room he practically wallowed away in changed every month or two at least. He would be forced out of the room by his beloved sister who would get the servants to rearrange the room and sometimes completely change the room entirely. It was the only change that he liked in his life.

Anything else was unwelcome.

“Your Majesty…” A silent knock echoed from behind the door, snapping the king out of his robotic life movements. Responding with a simple ‘come in’, the door was opened and the head butler waltzed in, almost completely trained for the routine that would follow. The elderly man opened up all the curtains with one smooth movement and beckoned the other maids to start cleaning the room.

“You should go get ready, your majesty. Lady Morgan waits for you in the gardens.” The butler bowed, the dark haired king sighed, standing up from the desk, almost annoyed that he would need to go outside. Yet he didn't complain, he needed this every now and then.

Three hundred years of working to keep Dawn the idyllic kingdom it was made to be, was difficult. Especially with so few trustworthy people to work under him, and it was also difficult having to replace the few trustworthy people every so fifty years due to the fact that people still age.

Unlike him.

And his sister. And the mage. And… two others.

He's seen so much during these decades of years, also adding to the fact that he has the memories of one of his dearest friends engraved into his soul and mind. He's seen far too much for a normal human but at the same time, he doesn't hate that.

Anything that reminded him of them was welcome.

Avery ran a hand through his messy hair, staring at himself through the mirror. He looked terrible, his eyes had lost most of its blue colour and the eye bags under his eyes weren't doing him wonders.

He couldn't help but wonder what Persia[²] would say if she had seen him in his current state. He let out a snort, clearly not interested in entertaining the thought further, his eyes wandered over to the window sill where a black cat[³] sat perched. Watching the king with its big yellow eyes, who gave the cat small head scratches.

Avery cast one last gaze at the ruby encased in glass on the nightstand by his bed before leaving his room, slowly making his way to the gardens.

︵✰

“Oh… you've certainly seen better days, Avery…” A woman with silky black hair pulled back into a low ponytail awkwardly commented as the king took a seat across her. She was dressed in a formal uniform of Dawn and had the faintest of eye bags under her dark red eyes. They looked as if they were tired, probably from all the travelling they've done.

Morgan, the princess of Dawn and sister of the king. Instead of remaining in Dawn, she chose to leave and travel the world, using the knowledge passed down to her as a guide on where to go in the world of Aegis. During their travels, they've helped children all around which made Morgan the happiest they've ever really been since the war.

At times, she felt ready. To give up, but reminded herself that there was someone who wanted her to continue helping children. They knew how much that meant to Morgan and a part of her misses them whenever she's on the road.

But despite mostly travelling to help children around Aegis, she has also gathered intel on different kingdoms and sent that intel regularly to the king of Dawn. It was how Dawn functioned now, they've changed from the kingdom that led other kingdoms, instead Dawn currently focuses on keeping strong relations with neighbouring kingdoms.

Avery learned that Dawn can still be powerful even if they're not the strongest military wise. Not to mention that Dawn is the only kingdom that functions on magick.

“So where were you before coming home?” Avery questioned, pouring a cup of tea for both him and Morgan. Taking in the refreshing scent of hibiscus and the flowers that surrounded them. “I visited Feyfield[⁴] for a little while. To… discuss our relationship with them…” Morgan mumbled, fiddling with their gloves as they stared at the deep copper coloured tea.

“Well?”

“It's happening, I suppose,” the black haired woman stopped, opening the bag that hung from her chair and took out a small white envelope before handing it over to the king. A small intricate design stamped on the red wax that kept the envelope sealed, “they invited us to the annual ball… as a way of showing the entire world that Dawn and Feyfield are now past the war and on to close relations.”

The king held the envelope in his calloused hands, fiddling with the red wax as he contemplated whether or not he should just get rid of the envelope. He rolled his eyes and ripped the envelope open and took its contents out, revealing an invitation to the kingdom Feyfield's annual ball to celebrate their kingdom's founding.

“They certainly planned it out. Wanna place bets on who helped the king decide to do this?” Avery sarcastically grumbled, beckoning a maid over. His sister sighed, messaging her forehead before answering. “Traitorous bastard…”

“Language.”

“Yeah yeah.”

The king chuckled as he handed the invitation over to the maid, “Hand that over to Atlas. Tell him he'll be attending with me, Morgan and Raphael[⁵]. He can bring along his apprentices if he wishes.” The king said, the maid bowed before leaving in the direction of the Clock Tower.

“Avery,” The black haired woman hesitated, her brother urging her on as he took a sip of his tea, “ after I visited Feyfield, I went to the Holy Kingdom…”

“Are they still struggling with their saintess?”

Morgan went silent, tapping her foot against the cobblestone floor, earning a confused look from the dark haired man. “I only went there to see if she really had clairvoyance as the priests stated… but when I saw her, she looked lifeless—”

“—like a doll… I didn't feel any holy power coming from her, no less clairvoyance.”

Morgan stated, watching as the king of Dawn slowly thought about what they had just told him. “So they're lying.”

“Of course they are! They never liked the fact that most of the kingdoms adopted Dawn’s deities, so they decided to make their own…”

“As long as they don't openly spread hate about what our kingdoms believe, I don't see them as enemies…”

The princess remained silent for a few moments before abruptly rising from her seat. “I'm going for a walk!”

With that she walked off, seemingly a little annoyed but despite that Avery was happy seeing his sister again. It made him think of the old days. That made him feel emotional.

︵✰

“Your Holiness, we've retrieved the artefacts successfully from the tombs. Just as you predicted, they form an object of some sorts…”

A man stated, watching the woman that stood cloaked on a hill, staring at the kingdom of Dawn below. The woman looked almost lifeless as she turned around, giving the man a smile.

“Good, we'll leave for now.”

And hopefully we'll never step foot in this place again.

「💕」𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠… 𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 ¡!

001. “…three hundred years…”
             — more than three hundred years have passed since the war against the Rise and Dawn. The death of the Witches is but a story now, yet many people still strongly believe in the Deities.

002. “... Persia…”
             — a nickname that Avery uses for Echo.

003. “... black cat…”
             — Avery has kept many black cats as pets over the decades since at first Echo liked them but now he's become a cat person.

004. “... Feyfield…”
             — Was once known as the Rise, after successfully getting their independence and establishing themselves as a kingdom, they renamed it to the Kingdom of Feyfield.

005. “... Raphael…”
             — A genius young man that works as Avery's right hand man, basically the person who replaced Sage.

♡¸.•* 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐌 ˖◛⁺

HELLO EVERYONE!!! OMG OMG OMG FIRST CHAPTER RAHHHHHHHH—

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

So clearly things are different, many secrets!

This is your reminder to finish opinions :DDD