Book 1: On the Making of Heroes and Villains
Prologue: ...Thank you, thank you, lads and ladies, you are too kind. this magnificent hall has acoustics like the music houses of Csara, and I am honored to be permitted to play my humble harp here. But I digress...you have made merry all the night long, have laughed and cried at my verse, you have done all the things that befit such a grand festival. I, however! I have been remiss! For on this day, the festival of Camina, it is my solemn duty to sing not only to entertain and to move, but to enlighten, to remember. Now, at this late hour, I beg of you: stay but a while longer. You are well kept with food and wine; you are friends now, one and all; you have warmed to the sounds of my simple harp and song; could there be a better state in which to receive the Epic Saga of Daenerys? Utter but a word, and I will stay my hand, for such great tales deserve better playing than ever I could muster. No? You wish me to continue? Then, for honor of this day, fall silent, gentles, and follow my song back to the last days of the first age, when Amora was young and fresh, full of wonder and free of war; follow it back to that famed island, Caminus; follow it back to Daenerys, then but a girl, a girl at the center of the turning of the ages...
Chapter 1: Death of a Priestess:
It is the first year of the 99th generation, seen as highly auspicious because the number nine is seen as particularly lucky. Yet the year has gotten off to a bad start: it is only spring, and one of the priestesses (NOT the high priestess, Daenerys, but one of the six "lower" priestesses) of the forge has fallen ill with the Crimson Fever, an aggressive illness that is highly contagious, and died. As such, the high attendant, chief of the charcoal-burners, has decreed the temple closed and isolated, lest the illness spread to the populace. No one goes in, and no one comes out, until the danger has passed. As yet, no other cases have been found on the island.
