Prolog

Location: Somewhere

Time: In the far future

„Hmm, and who are you?”

“………………”

“Of course you are, and why is it that you are here?”

“…………..!”

“Really? Did I indeed say I would tell you a story?”

“……………………..”

“If you say so child, then it must be the truth. But what story did I say I would tell?”

“……………………”

“Ah, yes I remember. The story of how our Imperium came to be. But where to start, a hard choice indeed”

“…………………?!”

“Hahaha, of course, we start at the beginning, the question my small friend is, which is the right one to start our story?”

“……………………?”

“Yes, every story has more than just the one beginning. Let`s take for instance yourself. When did your story begin? At your birth? Or even further in the past, with the meeting of your parents? When you took your first steps? Or maybe your story truly begins when you will one day take your things and wander out into the world to find your place in it? But let me tell you this, there are no wrong answers in that regard.

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Because you know, the question is always, what kind of story is it you want to tell, what is the overall narrative? Who is it that is listening to your recounts of things past? What might be interesting for children might not be so for grown adults.

For our story, the one I’m going to tell you today, we have to go back into the far past. Our story does not begin with the birth of someone, for the birth of our protagonist was special only in the way all births are. For the wider world, her birth at that point in time was of no consequence. She would have lived there at the end of the world and probably would have died there as well. Not knowing about the world and the world not knowing about her. But that is not how it came to be, because something happened, something that changed her course, her direction, and brought her onto a path that was long and terrible indeed. Who knows what would have become of her if that day had not happened? If that man had not come into their village and did what he did, the world would look quite different indeed, because without the girl the Imperium would never have been born.”

“……………?”

“What he did? What did he do indeed, a good question!

There are different opinions on what he did because you see, this story is old, and over time stories change, take a living of their own if you will. Different versions of a story are born every time something is taken or added and so out of one story become a many.

But what most say about what he did, is that he used his gift to force the girl’s mother to carve out her own daughter’s eyes, then to kill herself knowing that she herself deemed her daughter to a life in darkness. He did not know what he would set into motion with his cruel act. Not at all, for if he had he would have killed the girl as well I gather. But he did not and so the girl took her first steps on a path filled with danger, terrible tragedies, and great all consuming wars. But all of that will happen later on, in our story …………….”

“………….!?”

“Yes, yes, I will start now. By the thirds fall, no patience do young people have these days.

As I was saying, most of those things will happen far into our story,

start I will just about a day before the man arrived. It is important so that you will know that the girl was not always as she would become, as she is today.

Our story begins with a girl, a girl of ten moons of age, lost in thought she was as she sat there staring into the darkness of the great rift.”