The Intari Chronicles: Twisted Sovereign

Prologue - The World That Was

– PROLOGUE –

The World That Was

 

Mirafell

1914 Earth Time

Danger lurked as darkness collapsed over Mirafell.

A scream ruptured the silence and panic spread like wildfire, shifting through the forest trees and the rugged hills like the rippling wind. Orbs of burning orange blitzed through the night, toppling over lumber and crashing into buildings, setting them ablaze.

People began to frantically scramble from the shadows of their homes, silhouettes in the flame-lit night. They were merely the innocent victims of an unfair war and their fates had been determined by the Eminence: cooperate or die. After years of rivalry and threats thrown back and forth between the Resistance and Eminence governments, the future of the Intari kind depended upon this very night.

Over the mountains, a young woman with silver hair was frantically stowing a range of books, jars, jewellery and clothing into a woven, hessian sack. She lifted the lid of a small desk, as the ground erupted beneath her feet, and unrolled a piece of parchment. With a shaking hand, she dipped her quill into a pot of black ink.

“Evangeline, we must leave,” a soft voice quivered from behind her.

She turned around to see her younger sister, Elnora, standing in the doorway. Her face was ghostly white against her scarlet lips and the charcoal locks that swept elegantly, brushing her cheek.

She'd always carried such beauty and, despite her twenty years of age, emanated the gentle innocence of childhood. Elnora always found a way to comfort and encourage those around her. She always wanted to give and to help.

Tonight, however, Evangeline noticed her sister was very different. Fear spilled from the ivy greens of her eyes, cloaking her body and plucking at her nerves.

“Will our kind survive?” Elnora asked desperately.

“We’ll live on within the pages of our diaries, Elnora. We’ll live on through Ella.” She replied, although the truth behind her words faltered.

In all honesty, Evangeline had no idea what lay ahead for the Intari kind, she could only hope that her plans for an escape route to Earth would succeed. The echoing blast of an explosion flooded the house as a fire broke out a few streets away, making Elnora jump in fright. Her heightened senses could detect every flicker of flame, every lingering, slither of smoke and every terrified dribble of sweat slipping down the faces of those she’d known her whole life.

“But what about the others?” she gasped, facing Evangeline once more. “Those innocent people don’t deserve to die!”

A spark of vengeance flickered across her eyes and Evangeline knew she would stop at nothing to put an end to the Eminence, despite her fears. But they were too strong and too full of malice to heed mercy on anyone, whether they were innocent or not.

“Some will survive, but not all.” Evangeline answered as her sister began shaking her head in refusal, blinking back tears.

She placed a hand on her shoulder. “We knew this from the start, Elnora. We’ve taken everything into consideration and this is the only option we have. We are too few in number and strength and we cannot fight, we wouldn’t succeed.”

Elnora nodded. After months of planning and trying to be overly-cautious with planning an escape route, the moment had finally arrived to throw everything into action. She was more frightened than she’d ever been before.