[b][i]The Prologue: Part 1[/b][/i]

17/2/2519

Dear Alina,

When I was a little boy, I had a strange fascination with the darkness and the night. While the other children were afraid of the dark and used to shy away from it, I would relish it. My father was quite vexed with my behaviour. He was worried that I might fall prey to the dangers that the darkness hid behind her veil. He pulled me into his lap and said [b][i]"Nothing good ever comes out after sunset. Our human ancestors used to retire to their caves at sunset to protect themselves from the dangers that lurk behind the cloak of darkness"[/b][/i]. 

How right he was.

I remember him so well. He was stern and did not tolerate incompetence or indiscipline. But he was kind and considerate as well and did not believe in the rod's way. No, he was a man of few words and believed that words without action are hollow. My mother was very talkative and full of life, your typical everyday Aviator. She was a comfort as only a mother can be and was the polar opposite of my father.

Mother had the most annoying habit of singing love serenades. She used to sing these songs in the evening when my father would come home from work and whenever she felt like it. The song lyrics may have been nice but my mother's tuneless singing and crazy dancing would ruin those beautiful lyrics. My mother's crazy antics would put a smile on my father's face. I think I turned out more like my father, I often wonder whether he would be proud of me.

Those were the good days, the days before the nightmares began.

I cannot recall when the nightmares and fits started. It feels like they were always there, a dark cloud shadowing my sunny childhood. They were irregular and erratic, had no pattern, and continued from where I had left off. I dreamt about the monsters beyond the walls. I dreamt about them killing and ravaging everything in their path. The dreams felt real, I could smell the blood and gore, feel the heat and pain. It would feel like I was there amid it all, watching. Nothing and nobody paid any attention to me, I was the invisible audience and yet I could feel the pain and the fear. 

I would wake up, drenched in cold sweat, tears running down my cheeks,  throat sore from screaming and a fever that wouldn't let down for days to come. They were quite frequent when I was younger and became less frequent as I got older.

My mother was worried sick and refused to eat or sleep until my father finally agreed to have me checked. The report by the Doctor said that I was a nervous child who was the victim of an overactive imagination. That it was just a phase I would grow out of. 

My mother and father tried their best to comfort me. They told me  we were safe behind these walls and I believed them……

*page_break "Until One Night.."

I dreamt that the walls Venotaria and Haldirye had been breached. The creatures came swarming in, killing and slaughtering everything in their path, a pack of wolves in a barn. 

2 months later, the walls were breached just like my nightmare. The military was activated, a national emergency was declared, and my parents were called away to fight the war. 

They had 10 more days with me before they left for war. I still remember that last goodbye not because it was the last time that I saw my parents alive. But because before leaving my father hugged me tight, kissed my forehead and whispered into my ear "I love you". It felt like it was a secret between the both us. He had never said those words to me before.

A week after the departure of my parents, I had another nightmare. 

It haunts me to this day.

I saw my parents being torn apart limb by limb. My mother's screams of agony and my father whose powerful hands, the hands that taught me how to rein in my horse, tie my laces........melt like candle wax in a puddle of acid. I woke up and emptied my stomach on my bed and bedroom floor. My Nanny burst into the room and spent the next 2 hours trying to calm me down. 

I fainted in her arms that night. For the next 10 days I did not talk to anyone, did not eat nor did I sleep. 

I was waiting for the news of their death to come and come it did along with my parents' last possessions. As time went by grief became numbness, and when the numbness faded in its place grew anger and a thirst for revenge. I vowed to take revenge, to make sure that no child would ever have to go through the pain and grief I did.

The next day, my Uncle came and had me admitted into the military academy at Attoli. I trained and worked hard for the next 10 years. 

I was determined to become a divryn killing machine. The nightmares and flashes that had been the bane of my childhood had now become my greatest weapon against these beasts.

I was determined, focused, and adamant about keeping my distance from people. Afraid to let anybody get close to me, lest I dream about their deaths next. 

But all these years, I felt like I had been holding my breath in fear of drowning and then I saw you.

It felt like I had finally broken the surface and could exhale. Everything changed, the coat of numbness that I had kept my heart cloaked in, had now been blown away and I could feel again. I wish I could tell you Alina how you make me feel, that I fell in love with you the day I set my eyes on you. I still remember that day.


*page_break " I still remember you……."

*goto_scene chapter1