Prologue

My first memory was murder. Of the death of my parents at the hands of the Heir's Mercy. I was too young to know better then, but the vision was burned into my mind and as I grew up, I understood and it scared me. I remember waking up during the night, screaming, pleading to the invisible Araceli to spare my parents, that it was not their fault. But alas...my pleas never changed a thing. My nightmares were soothed only by one of my mothers, most of the time it was the one who was like me, a quemak who had been born of a falcon and cobra union. She never knew what I had went through, but yet I felt she could guess from her own bitter experiences. I was nine when I started to explore Ecl. I went there willingly and explored the illusions of the void. It awed me with what could be found there and slowly my nightmares ceased. Ecl was not my lover, but my friend...no, she was another mother. A mother who truly went deeper to soothe my pain. Almost instantly after my parents' execution I was taken from Ahnmik. One of the Empress's mercy Lillian smuggled me, with the help of the falcon Darien, off the island and brought me to Wyvern's Court. There I was adopted by the unique pair bond of Lily and Hai and raised. We are not criminals...or at least Hai is not. Lillian is excused of her crime by the Empress, had she still been in Araceli's service...I cannot begin to imagine what would had happened to us. My own concerns are my magic. Quemaks tend to have difficulties controlling their magic, my mother was a true example of that as her magic once struck her while dancing, making her fall. Her wings broke and her magic overwhelmed her and drove her to Ecl. I was scared of my mix blood, scared that one day my mother's experience may happen to me. I could not begin to imagine that. To not have the sky, to have my beautiful wings crumpled and useless. But most of all...I did not want to go to Ecl that way, driven to her darkness just because of pain. Ever since I was old enough I have taken to the void, exploring her darkness and illusions. I have came back always and without neither of my mothers knowing. But lately...lately I been noticing that when I draw away from Ecl, that I am slightly reluctant to leave. I am always able to leave, but sometimes...there are times when I don't want to come back to this world. Neither of my mothers are aware, though sometimes I sense that she knows. One of Ecl's former lovers could sense when Ecl might be playing in this world. Lately my dreams have been confused. I had seen somebody in Ecl, another girl...that girl. Her blood is just as tainted, if not more, as my own. She is the child of the wyvern Oliza and the royal falcon Nicias, the later was my mother's former lover. For some reason she walks Ecl and...I sense something about her. But the what I cannot say.

She'ka'hena.

We are not.

O'she'ka'hena-a'she'ka'hena

We never were; we never shall be. We return to the void we never left, for Mehay is the center of all, and is the center of nothing.