Present time. The chiefs of Eyrotia were gathered around the child who was wrapped in a light brown shawl and placed in a woven carrier. Her eyes were open and bright. Her eyes were as fiery red as her hair and they twinkled brightly against the lamp-lit palace interior. Every chief and nobleman present was quiet as they awaited the arrival of the seer who was to come and tell them the meaning of the birth of a child who was so different from both her father and her mother. In the birthing room, Queen Herentik was in tears as she rested on the bundles of clothes the midwives bunched around her to hold her up during birth. Her tears were born of hopelessness for she knew that the prophecy of the seer must come true. A year before she conceived the seer had visited her in the early hours of the morning to tell her about the prophecy sent to him by the gods. In the prophecy was the birth of a child that would bring her sorrow so profound that age would w

A week after Phoenix’s 10th birthday the princess Jumi turned 7 and a feast was thrown to celebrate the anniversary of her birth with Phoenix in attendance as her personal maid. It was a wonderful, evening with the setting sun casting a golden glow on the kingdom. The palace was a buzz of activities with the servants, cooks and guards moving about to ensure that all was ready before the arrival of the guests who were mainly chiefs and nobles. Phoenix walked through the ever-bustling street of King’s road. The King’s road was so-called because it was a direct passage to the king’s castle. She was on a mission to collect Jumi’s robe, a special present from Queen Merea, from the royal weaver. Her cloak was around her shoulders as she hurried on, she was supposed to have collected the cloth since the early hours of the morning but the head servant had tasked her with the duty of cleaning the kitchen storage room and peeling the ingredients required to prepare the meal for the fe

It was late morning and the sun was already hot against the back of her neck as she scrubbed the kitchen floor. The servants had just finished serving breakfast and they were waiting for the arrival of the royal family in the hall. The head servant had called Phoenix from Jumi’s room where she had been laying the princess’s dress for breakfast. Phoenix had tried to explain that she was barely done with preparing Jumi for breakfast when the queen entered and in a very uncharacteristic manner told her not to worry about taking care of Jumi since she, the queen, wanted to dress Jumi herself. Phoenix had bowed and left the room with the head servant in the kitchen where a bucket and rags awaited her. Without any question, she dropped to her knees and began to scrub away the scraps of food and soot from the floor. Another servant stood by the washbowl cleaning the tools which had been used for the preparation of the meal while another polished the utensils that would be used by the king,

“Take this.” Phoenix stretched out her hand to collect the bowl. She was laying on her stomach on a thin pallet because her back was hurting. The seer had rubbed some oil into the welts on her back and was now making some concoction for her to drink to ease the pain. She put the bowl to her lips at gagged at the smell of the liquid. It was greenish and had a very sharp and pungent smell. She started to push it away from her face when the rough hands of the seer held it in place against her mouth. “Drink it, child, if you want the pain to subside quickly you have to drink it.” His voice was hoarse as a result of the thick smoke that always covered the interior of his home. “My powers can heal the wounds faster.” “But you do not have your full powers yet.” It was true. Though she had a little bit of control over her powers she could not utilize them fully. The seer had identified a seal on her neck as a child that kept her from having any contro

There was a great buzz in the kingdom of Eyrotia. Every 2 years they celebrated one of their many festivals. This year they were celebrating the festival of Fists, a festival where many of the strongest men in the kingdom came together to compete in a show of strength. The winner of the competition at the end of the 2 days festival was added to the king’s army and the members of his household were given honorary titles in their towns, titles which were lower than that of the nobles but those titles were respected. The celebration of the festival of Fists was divided into two; the first day was for merry and welcoming of the guests both gods and foreign, the second day was when the real event happened. Every two years young men all over the kingdom would gather at the King’s Seat, a large arena built by one of Eyrotia’s past kings. The legend surrounding the King’s Seat was that it was carved from rock by the hands of the king in honor of the gods. There were multiple seats of stone