Prologue
The charge of high treason bound all citizens whom spoke of the one calling herself, Princess Metalia of Incarnadine in a public place or at any gathering where witnesses could bring a charge to the governing council of Gaea’s court. Seldom did the majority of the people break this high law, but as with any, large population there are always decenters; the punishment for uttering her name, death.
Atlantari: Pre-Silver Millennium
A dark silhouette emerged from shadow, tall and elegant, girlish and yet, holding her head high in the manner befitting a queen she glided across the flagstone courtyard like a cat.
Almost to term, at nineteen years she was ready to bear her first child. Yet this was no joyous event despite the connection between mother and infant.
Lord Hades had disguised himself having taken her during the season of fertility celebrated between Orpheus and Terra, twin worlds that crossed paths in opposing directions every solar rotation. Lilith had no idea who the father was of her unborn son, the baby soon to be left beneath the statue of Sule after its mother’s premature death to grow into the nemesis of the Terrans and the new Silver Alliance to come, his name, Chaos.
The young princess approached the shrine.
I watched her, knowing she was the product of a controversy on Terra and the Orpheusean court and that Sule, now one of the Great Ones had long since abandoned the girl and her brother to the fates due to the nature of their conception.
It is amongst our highest laws not to chastise a Great 1, or one of what the Terrans call, a God or Goddess, therefore Sule was free to leave and no protest would bind her to any petitioner, nor would any admonishment or council be binding.
I am Cerciana of Incarnadine, a princess given guardianship of the Sulean Legacy and her children to come. I must cradle the Ginzuishou, the seed of Cosmos and the child of the Crystal Nexus, and assist her on her journey of gestation from seed to Oberisku no Shoujo and her descendants, no easy task I assure you.
I assumed the form of undifferentiated mist; the girl could not see me. Soft moonlight bathed the scrying pond, behind it the ceremonial pool drank in the moonlight into its inky depths.
Princess Lilith caught her reflection in waves of silvery-blue light, trapping her image along with the starry night sky upon the surface of the water.
She stood at the well of dreams staring into its fathomless depths in wonder, blinking as she drew a breath and clutched the white roses to her chest.
She then whispered her incantation. The flowers looking more glorious against her glossy tumble of hip-length black hair that fell in a curtain over her midnight blue shift helping her pregnant bulge blend in with her inky-black surroundings, the only illumination that of the silver moon.
She smiled as a few bats flew from the nearby clump of conifers and gasped in awe. Lilith watched these winged guardians of the night scoot across the sky against the silvery Moon.
The girl then caught sight of the luminous security orbs flying about the streets of the capital; biosynthetic drones checking for dark signatures or lesser threats to the sleeping population. She was spellbound as she watched them whooshing past buildings, threading their way through colonnades, public squares, the palace grounds pulsing intermittently scanning an object of interest before continuing on their way. Leaning upon the squat wall in front of the shrine to the Goddess, she continued to follow their progress.
I moved closer to the girl who was able to sense my presence, but she didn’t feel at all threatened by it.
She sat on the edge of the fountain wall, brushed her hair while humming a nursery rhyme. She stopped; the air around her alive with energy, I was only a few feet from her now.
I had followed her to her chambers and hid myself on the veranda outside her rooms to keep an eye on her.
---
She had gone into labor, her water breaking. Making her way to a comfortable position on the divan the princess called for her attendant, Acacia.
She went into a twilight-like state, pushing as the child issued forth, then at last it was over, she sighed with relief. The attendant rushed to bathe the child and handed it back to its mother.
Lilith cried out in fear as bright red eyes flashed at her with hatred and dark power.
She screamed, pushing the child into the confused wet nurse’s arms.
“No, take it away!”
Catching her breath, WIPING AWAY THE TEARS, Lilith looked once more upon her first-born, the eyes were a soft green, and no monster glowered at her with a terrifying scowl. Now, a beautiful face of a baby boy, her little miracle was looking at his mother with love a normal child, but I knew different.
The young woman fell back against a pile of pillows before losing consciousness.
TBC
