The Legacy of Hours — Prologue

Prologue

I had thought that I was the only one until I discovered The Order.

Before The Awakening, or to be more accurate, My Awakening, life was… to put it more simply… boring. I was the seventh son of the seventh king of the Draconian line, and when you’re seventh in line for anything, you would think that life would be more … magical.

But it wasn’t. The days bled into each other with mundanity and ennui. I spent my time reading and taking lessons and sparring with my brothers and attending fancy balls and meeting foreign princesses that were in all the same sort of mediocrity: in beauty, in wit, and in character. 

My brothers might have cared about the shallow, beautiful women of our court. But I declined to engage in the same sort of antics that my brothers did on a regular basis: teasing, baiting, chasing, seducing, and lusting after women. I preferred to dabble in the intellectual side of life, poring over books that had more depth and infinitely more meaning than women. Books were more to me than stacks of parchment and leather. They contained knowledge and wisdom far beyond what I could have discovered in my existence in this world. There were many, infinitely many worlds within these tomes, and I longed to consume them, to live in them, to breathe in the magic of centuries past.

Here, within, lies God.

The Draconian line began centuries ago, when King Edward defeated the Fire Dragon and resurrected the Kingdom of Glacies. The Fire and Ice Dragons were enemies since the Beginning, when dragons reigned long before humans were born. I wish I had seen the Beginning with my own eyes, but only books spoke of it, and I can only get a glimpse of the ancient times vicariously through my dreams.

The Chosen One will come soon…

When, sister?

When the beginning is the end, when the end is the beginning…

Then will we know?

Yes, sister… Then the world will know the truth.

The truth,

The echoes of the mysterious sisters reverberated within my mind, as I awoke from slumber, once again.

-

It was my birthday today. The last day of the Fourth Wheel, and then the Wheel would spin again.

It was supposed to be a grand affair, the coming of my age as the seventh prince of Glacies. My older brothers were excited. There were tournaments planned, and a ball, for a princess to be announced as my future wife.

Have I no word in this? I asked Glen, my closest brother.

Ric of Glacies, you must have realized by now that we do not control our lives. Only our Triune Lord has a say in who we marry.

I groaned, shaking my head in displeasure.

And Father and Mother, who are really the ones who are deciding who I must marry.

Glen shrugged, mounting his steed.

What else are parents for?

Maybe I didn’t care to marry. Maybe, I thought there was more to Life than spending my days doting on my wife and children.

I was but sixteen, but already I knew that I did not want to spend my days serving my Kingdom as a prince.

And then, at Vespers, I was taken by the Brotherhood.