The Stardust of Dawn (Heir of Darkness #2)

Prologue

To whoever finds this,

History, we have learned, can be the most deceptive of liars. Not all that is written is fact, and not all fact is written.

In my time as copyist for the immortal children, and the primordials before them, I’ve made it my life’s promise to hold the truth close. Unlike my colleagues, it is of the utmost importance to present to you the truth of what ensued before the Great War.

Proceed with caution, as you may find those of darkness may really be of light. And those of light…well, I’ll let you make your own judgments.

Signed,

Euda, Copyist of the Immortal Children

and the Primordial Keepers Before Them

Excerpt from: The Theogony, officially transcribed by

Venian Archival Copyists

In the time before the immortal children, there was dawn, day, dusk, and night—the four Primordial Keepers. Astraeus, Keeper of Dusk; Phosphora, Keeper of Day; Eos, Keeper of Dawn; and Obscuros, Keeper of Night.

Godless mortals, poisoned by nightmares and malignancies, looked to the heavens for their divine creators.

These beings, concentrating their power into four divine relics, tamed the chaos into order and sculpted the realm as we know it.

With his golden blade, Astraeus split the realm into two and banished this malice into the other.

Eos, with her opalescent orb, illuminated the shadows that’d spread like vines along the barren earth.

Phosphora, with her prism key, sealed the gates between these newly separated realms, and finally Obscuros with his ember of life restored vitality to the mortal people.

In the aftermath of their great battle for peace, the lovers—Eos and Astraeus— succumbed to the calamity, never to tread the earth in which they sacrificed their physical forms to create.

Now only Obscuros and Phosphora, even with her broken mind, remain. A king and his queen, perfectly balanced and entwined with one another. She was the strength in his weaknesses and he was the peace amidst her turmoil.

Every blade of nursery grass or snowflake fallen from a frosted winter sky came from their infinite partnership.

From them came the immortal children: Polaris, Patron of Night; Altair, Patron of Day; Procyon, Patron of Dusk; and Tethys, Patron of Dawn.

The youngest, Tethys, was born, red faced and screaming from her mother’s womb. Her mother labored long and tirelessly until finally the beautiful babe entered this world, harboring the seeds that sprout anew and the buds that bloom bright.

She is the topaz sun as it brightens the early morning heavens. The blooming bulbs that rupture the soil, and in the midst of darkness, she is the dawn’s approaching light.

But even the most beautiful flowers have petals that rot.