PROLOGUE
Vestera
Before the Island was ruled by the representatives,
It was ruled by the spirits.
Land, Sky, and Sea.
Naedra, Caelestis, and Nerine.
They breathed themselves into existence.
Personified in mortal bodies to guide Elemyr’s people.
Harmony between the realms is tenuous.
Nature is a destructive force.
Understanding that the future depended on their cooperation,
The spirits joined themselves together.
A union of the elements
Solidifying their reign and their prosperity.
When their mortal bodies tired,
They passed their rule onto humanity.
Keep our treaty, secure the bounty of the earth.
Choose contention? Summon chaos.
This is the story of our people.
This is the story of Elemyr.
CHAPTER ONE
Vonetta
My eyes snap open at the faint touch to my cheek. I struggle to focus on the cloaked figure above me. A messenger? Am I being summoned to the Lady before dawn? I wipe my eyes to clear the sleep from my vision. The figure hands me a small piece of rolled parchment, nods her farewell, and spirits out of the novitiate dwelling where I am the overseer this night. I wait for my eyes to come awake, rubbing them gently with the back of my hand.
I stretch my long limbs from their stillness and sit upright on my cot. It’s not unusual for the Lady to require a sister in the night, butwhy not whoever was assigned to her dwelling?I think to myself, still sleep-addled. I imagine it must be of some importance, of course. The lady does not act without reason. Perhaps she’s had a vision and requires a witness. My own pride says, perhaps she misses me?
I plait my hair quickly and don my cloak over my night shift before quietly slipping my boots on near the door. I take great efforts not to wake the novices that I am in charge of. The youngest girls often wake in the night from passing storms or the crying out of other girls. I pray to Naedra they do not, this night. The younger sisters shift in their sleep but don’t stir when I close the door behind me. I unroll the small note and see the Lady’s own hand.
Netta, Naedra speaks to me. I require you at the mirror. —Vestera
It is cold tonight,at the precipice between spring and early summer. I set off northbound, toward the mirror pool. The mirror is a spring-fed pond on the west side of the Isle of Women. The sky is dark and navy, the stars faintly visible. The Isle is quiet but for the sounds of the forest, small animals chitter, and insects play their constant song. I find the melody of the nocturnal life more soothing than sinister.
My steady breaths create a faint mist in front of me, and it takes great restraint not to curl my arms around my body for warmth. I resolve instead to hold my hood close to my chin and continue onward. I take the forest side, knowing the Lady will be closer to the trees than the meadow.
My mind wanders again to the change of the season as my footfalls land softly on the cool, wet grass beneath them. I imagine the Isle is also slow to wake, coming to consciousness with the warming of the sea air that surrounds her. I think of the note crushed in my grasp, and I slip it into my pocket. The Isle is indeed awakening if Naedra, spirit of the land, has sent a vision.
The stars are still faintly visible, and I have warmed considerably from my walk over as I approach the kneeling figure at the edge of the spring-fed pool. Her woad-blue gown flows around her resting knees. Her long, dark tresses of hair obscure her features, but I know with certainty that I approach the Lady of the Isle here.
