Quiet Grace 1st Draft (ON HIATUS)

Preface

For Thia. May my humble expression of words live up to the dreams we once shared. Thank you for who you helped me be.

Deep within the Ruins of Bylis lies a prophecy telling of the return of magic and the Gods to the lands of Sundast:

When blood of the Old lines arises

And a medium shall become a Great

The love of All Gods will shine down again

And the balance shall be righted.

Darkness shall lose to Light like never before

An unlikely ruler will be thrice tried and failed

Yet in the end shall choose right

A son of Movek shall guide the way

And bring Sundast home.

The Queen shall be realized,

What was thought will be falsehoods,

Magic shall be the guiding light,

And ultimately find its home once more.

Excerpt from "A Recent History of Sundast, The Gods War"

Magic was once the pride of Sundast. It was Her heart and lifeblood and with it She grew into a mighty and powerful nation, rival of any to the East. But in a bloody coup the house of ruling queens, the ancient line of Sureen, was overthrown and a new brutal line of kings was installed, the Adessas. Along with this new line of Kings came a dark and powerful new religion that ousted the old Gods to the outskirts of their kingdom and brought about a sinister new dark age. The Adessas ruled for almost 200 hundred years with fist and sword. Anything that had previously been associated with the old Gods was forcefully eradicated, including magic. The arcane arts became the most treasonous of acts under the new Crown, punishable by multitudes of horrible tortures. Each one particularly tailored to the sorcerer at its end. Mages were burned at the stake; their crisped remains hung at harbor mouths as gruesome reminders. Elementals, those that were caught anyways, had their hearts torn out and sacrificed to Sundast's new Goddess, the One. Mediums received the worst of all. Isolation was their demise. Without escape for their mental talents it bottled up, driving them mad. A fate shared by the last queen of Sundast.

The sorcerers of the realm retreated, resigned to fight their battles at the fringes of their former empire. But they held onto a single hope. A prophecy left behind by the Gods before they parted this world for Their Divine realm. In it They promised a return of the ancient Sureens, hidden within a single noble bloodline. It became the Rebellion's utmost priority to protect this last line of their queens, in the hopes that one-day the prophesized Medium would be born into it. That day came when Cienn lun'Orater escaped the harsh capitol of Loris and joined the Rebellion. A medium of no-compare, the boy was a prodigy in more ways than one. With him at their head, alongside Commander Kourokain Admontan and the Elemental Council, they were able to discover the true intent of the Gods in their prophecy. Cienn's sister was to sit atop the ancient throne, and return the Gods to Theirs' in Sundast. After the Crown's defeat at the ruins of Bylis the Rebellion retreated their forces to their last stronghold, the hidden temple city of Rodari.

There Cienn and his friends prepared through the winter for his return to Loris. It was to be a difficult feat, accomplishable only with the full strength of both Cienn's and Charna of Idaine's might. As Kain and the water Elemental Imagehi Quontin prepared the rebel forces for the upcoming overthrow of their tyrannical government, Cienn and Charna wove a spell with both their unique magics and discretely laid it across the capital city. Woven into its words was the collective lie that Cienn's magical outbreak that forced his escape had not been the young medium but instead was the result of the magical resistance, attempting to weaken the strength of the Adessa Crown. It took them many months and the collective work of dozens of the rebellions best spy mages and informants within the city to lay the necessary groundwork. Fortunately Bitepu the Goddess of Seasons had frozen the entire seaboard in blizzard after blizzard off the Inner Sea. In addition to weakening the royal forces all along the coast it provided the necessary cover for the rebellions work.

Trapped in the city Cerenae, Cienn's sister, and their family continued to deal with the remnants of their once peaceful life. After the death of Cerenae's stepfather and unborn brother, the family struggled to recover. Meanwhile the Crown began instituting newer, harsher curfews and more searches for hidden sorcerers. Unbeknownst to the populace the Crown's actions were a blatant retaliation for their defeat at the rebel hands in Bylis. The hunts even extended into the noble's High Court District, something that had never happened in the recent history of Sundast. Cerenae was particularly vulnerable with her barely controlled emerging talents, forcing the rebellion to work double within the city walls protecting their future queen and laying the groundwork for Cienn and Charna's massive spell. Through it all however the family survived, and in a dream Cerenae received word of Cienn's imminent return.

With the first call of birdsong heralding the return of spring Cienn and Charna completed their work. As the first green shoots broke ground from the thaw the Rebellion began to set in motion their final assault against the Crown and it's dark religious overlords, the Council of Jays...