The Traitor's Heir

Chapter One

"In those days people thought that the way they lived was all that would ever be. Oh surely, they thought, we will continue forward, but they never imagined that they could be plunged backwards into the darkness that came before. For the stories tell that there had been darkness before, just as there is darkness now."

"I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have been born in those days. To wake up as a child and eat breakfast at a sturdy kitchen table, to put on my shoes and run outside to play. The war took all of that away, of course, for every last person on this planet, if the stories are to be believed and if we dare imagine that a world where men and women and children peacefully lived out their days was ever anything more than just a fairy story."

Elder Deaconberry pushed his spectacles higher up from the place where they'd come to rest after sliding slowly down his nose during his impassioned speech. His grey hair stood almost on end, and Quara imagined that it was alive with energy as he paced back and forth across the front of the room.

"But if that was how life once was, why can't it be that way again? Has the world changed so much that it can't change back?" The small voice that broke through the pause in the midst of the Elder's monologue came from the space just beside Quara's shoulder and internally she groaned, while externally she was careful not to let any emotions play out across her fair features.

"Be that way again?" The Elder's voice rose dramatically as he half shouted the question. "Be that way again?" He tossed his head back and looked up into the darkness above his head, as if he were searching for a glimpse of the ceiling. His voice echoed in the emptiness. "Why child you can't very well unring a bell that has been rung! You can't unsing a song once it's been sung. And once so much blood has been spilled, so many lives unmade, you can't simply remake them. The world is fractured child, and it is being pushed further apart every moment. If there were a man who could undertake the task of taking us back to the old days, why, surely he would be named king of all the world. Sadly, I don't think that we should count on such a man existing."

The Elder's attention turned to the roughly made podium for a moment as he recollected his thoughts and Quara gave her sister a sharp look. The small girl next to her rested her chin on the palm of her hand and twirled her quill between her finger tips while pointedly ignoring her sister's gaze. She didn't have to turn to know that her sister's expression was one of disapproval.

That morning they'd walked down to the water hole to collect their family's water ration for the day and Quara had carefully explained the rules for the coming morning. School time was not to be taken lightly. They could not be late. They did not speak or ask questions during lectures. If Lina had a question she could direct it to her older sister on their walk home. And they especially did not speak to Elder Deaconberry, unless he asked them a question directly, in which case the answer was a quick and crisp "yes sir" or "no sir" depending on what he had asked.

Lina had walked slowly as she carried her bucket home, scuffing the bottoms of her shoes loudly on the ground until her older sister sighed and asked her if she'd been paying attention to the rules for the upcoming day. "They're important Lina. You'll be expected to know them. You need to know them, really. Doing lessons at school isn't like doing lessons with Mom. You can't just shout out every question that comes into your head and expect an answer."

The younger girl's brow had furrowed at these words, and the corners of her plump, perfect mouth had turned down ever so slightly, but she'd continued to walk without making any effort to break the silence that had fallen between them after Quara had stopped speaking.

"Now where was I?" Quara relaxed slightly at these words.

It seemed that the Elder was going to overlook the interruption and go on with his lecture. "Ah yes. A fairy story. Some find it hard to believe that a world where a large number of people lived in relative peace has ever been anything other than a fairy story. After all, how could anyone have ever thrown those peaceful, abundant times away for what we have now?"